“Pain is a terrible disillusioner and the pangs which had come upon us were those of approaching dissolution. It was at the last moment, when further delay would have meant death” awoke the country reclaiming its lost breath and its life. A gold-and-bright fire had come from heaven and kindled the soul of India, kindled it again in the glory of its heavenly meaning and purport, in its lustrous goldenness and brightness. Had not such a soul been there since the days of the Vedic Rishis and through the spiritual movements of all time, marching from age to age in the newer possibilities of the creative-expressive spirit of the country? If the eternal values of the spirit, the Sanatan Dharma, have been sustaining it all through, if that is the true meaning of Nationalism as given to us by Sri Aurobindo, then there cannot be anything more ridiculous than saying that Nationalism came to India from Europe. The new birth of India has already occurred in it, and there is no doubt about it; but the task is now to make it dynamic in thousandfold activity of ours. For that we have to do another kind of national tapasya and kindle the heavenly fire again in it, invoke that gold-and-bright fire in our heart and mind and will, in our soul and in our spirit to do its work in us.

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Exactly two years ago there was an article entitled Sri Aurobindo's Vision for a United India on a website which is pretty damaging to our ideas of spirituality forming the basis of socio-political organisation. It does not seem to be there anymore, but we are concerned with the points it is trying to make and its presence or absence should not matter for us. The author of that article was extremely critical about Sri Aurobindo taking his stand on the fact of united India, the sage and yogi in him disregarding the present-day geo-political factors. According to our critic this was a case for claiming “lost land” by Sri Aurobindo, making him vulnerable to the charge of fundamentalism. He is thus viewed as one harbouring pernicious intentions which will stand in the way of the growth of harmonious relationship between nations.

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