August 15th is the birthday of Sri
Aurobindo and of India. Therefore, for this month, we have chosen
the above interesting question.
Question: Sri Aurobindo envisages a great future for India and the
world. But the present circumstances in the world, and specially
in India, appear to be completely contrary to Sri Aurobindo's vision
of the future.
How do we understand this? What can we do and how can we hold on
to our faith?
The Present Darkness and the
New World
This question is of special interest
to all those who have come into contact with Sri Aurobindo, who
have been drawn by his vision and his yoga and who aspire to work
for a transformation of man and the world. We must first realise
that what is happening is not something unexpected. In fact, Sri
Aurobindo knew very well how bad the things were going to be, much
worse than we could have ever imagined. He has written about them
very graphically in his letters and also shown the right attitude
to be taken.
We can, therefore, do nothing better than to quote from Sri Aurobindo's
own letters, on this topic.
"You have expressed in one of
your letters your sense of the present darkness in the world round
us and this must have been one of the things that contributed
to your being so badly upset...For myself, the dark conditions
do not discourage me or convince me of the vanity of my will to
"help the world", for I knew they had to come; they
were there in the world-nature and had to rise up so that they
might be exhausted or expelled and a better world freed from them
might be there. After all, something has been done in the outer
field and that may help or prepare for getting something done
in the inner field also. For instance, India is free and her freedom
was necessary if the Divine Work was to be done. The difficulties
that surround her now and may increase for a time, especially
with regard to the Pakistan imbroglio, were also things that had
to come and to be cleared out... Here too there is sure to be
a full clearance, though unfortunately, a considerable amount
of human suffering in the process is inevitable. Afterwards the
work for the Divine will become more possible and it may well
be that the dream, if it is a dream, of leading the world towards
the spiritual light, may even become a reality. So I am not disposed
even now, in these dark conditions, to consider my will to help
the world as condemned to failure."
*
Darkness before Dawn
"I am afraid I can hold out
but cold comfort - for the present at least - to those of your
correspondents who are lamenting the present state of things.
Things are bad, are growing worse and may at any time grow worst
or worse than worst if that is possible - and anything however
paradoxical seems possible in the present perturbed world. The
best thing for them is to realise that all this was necessary
because certain possibilities had to emerge and be got rid of,
if a new and better world was at all to come into being; it would
not have done to postpone them for a later time. It is, as in
Yoga, where things active or latent in the being have to be put
into action in the light so that they may be grappled with and
thrown out or to emerge from latency in the depths for the same
purificatory purpose. Also they can remember the adage that night
is darkest before dawn and that the coming of dawn is inevitable.
But they must remember too that the new world whose coming we
envisage is not to be made of the same texture as the old and
different only in pattern, and that it must come by other means
- from within and not from without; so the best way is not to
be too much preoccupied with the lamentable things that are happening
outside, but themselves to grow within so that they may be ready
for the new world, whatever form it may take."
*
"The extreme acuteness of your
difficulties is due to the Yoga having come down against the bed-rock
of Inconscience which is the fundamental basis of all resistance
in the individual and in the world to the victory of the Spirit
and the Divine Work that is leading toward that victory. The difficulties
themselves are general in the Ashram as well as in the outside
world. Doubt, discouragement, diminution or loss of faith, waning
of the vital enthusiasm for the ideal, perplexity and a baffling
of the hope for the future are the common features of the difficulty.
In the world outside there are much worse symptoms such as the
general increase of cynicism, a refusal to believe in anything
at all, a decrease of honesty, an immense corruption, a preoccupation
with food, money, comfort, pleasure, to the exclusion of higher
things, and a general expectation of worse and worse things awaiting
the world. All that, however acute, is a temporary phenomenon
for which those who know anything about the workings of the world-energy
and the workings of the Spirit were prepared. I myself foresaw
that this worst would come, the darkness of night before the dawn;
therefore I am not discouraged. I know what is preparing behind
the darkness and can see and feel the first signs of its coming.
Those who seek for the Divine have to stand firm and persist in
their seeking; after a time, the darkness will fade and begin
to disappear and the Light will come."
*
The Certitude of Victory
"I know that this is a time
of trouble for you and everybody. It is so for the whole world.
Confusion, trouble, disorder and upset everywhere is the general
state of things. The better things that are to come are preparing
or growing under a veil and the worse are prominent everywhere.
The one thing is to hold on and hold out till the hour of light
has come."
*
"I have already spoken about
the had conditions of the world; the usual idea of the occultists
about it is that the worse they are, the more is probable the
coming of an intervention or a new revelation from above. The
ordinary mind cannot know - it has either to believe or disbelieve
or wait and see.
As to whether the Divine seriously
means something to happen, I believe it is intended. I know with
absoluve certitude that the supramental is a truth and that its
advent is in the very nature of things inevitable. The question
is as to the when and the how. That also is decided and predestined
from somewhere above; but it is here being fought out amid a rather
grim clash of conflicting forces. For in the terrestrial world
the predetermined result is hidden and what we see is a whirl
of possibilities and forces attempting to achieve something with
the destiny of it all concealed from human eyes. This is, however,
certain that a number of souls have been sent to see that it shall
be now. That is the situation. My faith and will are for the now.
I am speaking of course on the level of the human intelligence
- mystically-rationally, as one might put it. To say more would
be going beyond that line. You don't want me to start prophesying,
I suppose? As a rationalist, you can't."
- Sri Aurobindo
There cannot be a more beautiful and
inspiring expression of not only the hope but the certitude of the
Divine Victory over all opposing forces. It is for each one of us
to decide whether and how we would like to participate in the advent
of this victory, through our inner sadhana and our outer work.
