Thanks Kepler for drawing our attention to Sri Aurobindo's words. But let me put things in a slightly different way. Call them national attitudes, call them different baggages, but we all carry them, things which cannot be simply dismissed or discarded. These are our sanskaras and we have perhaps ‘chosen’ them for a purpose, born with them. However, when given to spiritual life they have no great determinative character in any fundamental way. The discovery of the Self, realization of the Cosmic Consciousness, finding of one’s psychic being and one’s soul, opening of the faculties of vision, and the vision of three times, climbing the ascending slopes of Knowledge, the power of expression of the verities of the Spirit in Life, manifestation of beauty, love, joy—they all belong to the aspects of Yoga. If we are on the path of the Yoga, these are the things which matter the most. Does it then count if I’m an Indian or a Pakistani or a Westerner, of whatever brand it be? In the least. The first thing is, for the spiritual life, go by its principles and urges and stipulations of spiritual life, without mixing them with national or religious or rational issues, go for it if there is a genuine call in the absence of which all will be just futile talk, a waste of effort. On a religious-social level Vivekananda never saw somebody belonging to this caste or that nation, to this economic group or political party. He had universal love for everybody, because of the Adwaitin’s oneness everywhere. Sri Aurobindo speaks of the spiritual or psychic relationship which is indeed the true basis of universal harmony. Rishi Agastya was engaged in a long and arduous tapasya; but it looked to him that nothing was happening, that he was only there where he had begun with. The guiding spirit asked him to get up from the seat of meditation, the grass seat. Agastya at once saw intense bright flames arising from it. Yes, he was told, all these years of tapasya were to burn the past, the sanskaras. But we don’t have patience enough for that, on fast food as we live. And yet the sanskaras are there. They are the aspects of universal as well as individual forces working in time, and it is the soul who has to take care of them. In the case of a disciple all these sanskaras are dissolved the moment he surrenders to the Preceptor. But then arises another responsibility on him—that he should not create or accrue new sanskaras which are more difficult to wipe out. The onus lies on him and the Guru is there to guide him, to protect him. It is this Guru-Disciple relationship which becomes a sacred bond, a precious relationship for which gratitude must be expressed to the remover of the sanskaras. if it is not there, then it only means that there is nothing spiritual or psychic over there, and hence it entirely goes outside the purview of the life of aspiration. Sri Aurobindo’s triple mantra is: Aspiration-Rejection-Surrender. If we follow it then we are on the path of the Integral Yoga, and not otherwise. We have to ask this question to ourselves and we have to get the answer for ourselves. Does anything else count in it? Nothing, indeed nothing. We should not mix up spiritual life with social or collective issues. The solution has to be found in a different way, I suppose. ~ RYD