It is possible to look at Sri Aurobindo in the context
of the future of humanity but that should be primarily done only after recognizing
him as a Master-Yogi; perhaps not so much by calling him as a traditional or
professional Master-Philosopher, one appealing to the rationalist of the
western kind, but as a spiritual giant that we could enter into the spirit of
his contributions in the profound world of thought. It is justifiably said that
Sri Aurobindo gives us a framework of thought, as well as pragmatics of
psychology, that carries us forward in becoming a better acceptable individual
and also a better organised collectivity. At times due credit is no doubt given
to him as a Master-Critic for giving us a creative expression which is
futuristic, uttering the Word of the Spirit, that his writings do mark “a
blueprint for a destiny which he announces as a life divine”. But it is a
formulation not just for the sake of formulation; it is a programme, an agenda
he had set for himself to put into practice, to realize it in our life.
But in order to get to this life divine proposed by him, the life divine in its
authenticity, something else, something radically different from all these
things has to inevitably happen. Sri Aurobindo not only does posit “Supermind
as the ontological foundation of superman”; he “travels furthest from the
western tradition of philosophy as speculative metaphysics and brings to its
disciplinary formulations” the power of the spirit itself. That is perfectly
true, a good recognition of his approach. Yet there is also a tendency to
contextualize his ‘philosophy’ within the history of western formulations. By
doing so is seen his contribution towards the future of humanity unfolding its
secret potential. But perhaps that sounds more a hard-core rationalist’s
imposition on what lies beyond the restricted boundaries of the rationalist. That
is not to say that rationalism has to be discarded; that is only to assert
that, possibly, rationalism has a positive ability to outgrow itself by
receiving higher or superior intimations. It is this aspect we generally tend
to forget. There is a superior mode of logic, a superior mode of rationalism,
intuitive rationalism to begin with, that makes existence meaningful. Indeed,
there is the Logic of the Infinite and it is that which should be incorporated
in our curriculae. If this is accepted, then there is really no need to
justify, à la
Was Sri Aurobindo sent to align himself with the modes of Thought, Occidental
or Oriental, Modern or Ancient, Transient or Perennial? Revelatory or
Ratiocinative? We seem to be quite busy ‘reconciling’ Sri Aurobindo with the stiff
traditionalist notions of ours, traditions belonging to the various schools,
metaphysical or dārshanic, some based on revelations, some even receiving
revelations. It therefore comes as a great surprise, a puzzling surprise indeed
to read something of a different kind in the context of what the Mother
proclaimed categorically in her message dated 14 February 1961: “What Sri
Aurobindo represents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a
revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.” But what is meant
by a direct action from the Supreme? “What was this decisive action and what
does it mean for humanity’s future? This is the question left for us to fathom
in our grappling with the future of humanity.” But how do we answer it?
“Of course, the scope of such a statement as the Mother’s opens the doors on
the invisible occult action of Sri Aurobindo. To acknowledge such an action is
a matter of faith, and perhaps faith is a critical component in orienting
ourselves towards the future, but a more active aspect of such orientation
needs to be an informed understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s contribution towards
the future through his more visible expressions, particularly his writings. So
what does Sri Aurobindo give us in his writings, that help in orienting us
towards the future? Sri Aurobindo provides us with a comprehensive map towards
the future—diverse yet integral—every part of which is pregnant with the
fullness of the whole, in keeping with the perfection of a self-existent and accomplished
consciousness presaging the vision of human fulfillment.”
To see the direct action of the Supreme, we are told here in the pragmatics of
things we understand, to go by Sri Aurobindo’s “more visible expressions,
particularly his writings.” But that begs a question. Does it mean that Sri
Aurobindo came to write those thirty volumes of the Birth Centenary? That would
be an extraordinary way of reading the Mother’s revelation about the birth of
Sri Aurobindo the Yogi par excellence, that his birth is a decisive action
direct from the Supreme. If we are not going to go by the “more visible
expressions”, then we will be dubbed as credulous people who, at the best, go
by faith—and there cannot be reconciliation between faith and reason. If we
push this line of argument further, then we will be told that all those
‘followers’ who adhere to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo are ‘patronized’
by the founders of this Yoga themselves, and that it has become a terribly despicable
religion, abhorrent to the founders themselves. But we must recognize that Sri
Aurobindo’s writings are a byproduct of Sri Aurobindo’s birth, something that
has happened functionally in the sequel of the direct action from the Supreme.
It was certainly not to justify the ways of God to Man—which might come about
incidentally.
But what is the direct action? in what context? It is of course to open “the
doors on the invisible occult”. If we miss this cardinal fact, then we
altogether miss the meaning of Sri Aurobindo’s birth, the process and purpose
of Avatarhood itself. Sri Aurobindo came, and bore wounds difficult to heal,
“attempted all and achieved all”, not perhaps so much for man but more, and in
every respect, for the Divine. Didn’t he say, “My Yoga is for the Divine”? He
came here to do the Yoga of the Supreme himself. If we ignore this central
truth of his birth then we fail to see his writings also, and then any attempt
to juxtapose him with this or with that thinker, or with this or with that
social philosophy, or with this or with that formulation of ours becomes our
happy pastime. And there are more serious things to do, and our task lies in
preparing ourselves to do them. Perhaps we do not need so much of Expositional
Sri Aurobindo, what we most need is Applied Sri Aurobindo. It is this that has
to happen sooner than later.
It is a pity that Peter Heehs’s The Lives of Sri Aurobindo published by the Columbia University
Press is deliberately silent about these matters. There are superficialities
aplenty in it, but not to touch upon the core aspects and principles amounts to
sheer distortion, amounting to deliberate act. It is that which hurts most the
perceptive student of the Vision and Work of Sri Aurobindo. In fact it causes a
deeper harm in putting him off from the possible spiritual help and guidance he
would get from him. But if there is the sincere call for such a life in the
sincere student, a quest for the verities of life, help and guidance are always
there to take him on the upward path.