Friday, November 11, 2022

Both Sri Aurobindo and Gandhi shared a deep ambivalence regarding religion

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956), Director, SELF (2005), Founder, Savitri Era Religion, and President, Savitri Era Party

by A Mukherjee2021 — GANDHI AND SRI AUROBINDO. Reconstruction and Reformation of Philosophical. Traditions. Asha Mukherjee. In this chapter, I draw upon some points of ...

This brings me to the next point of comparison. Both Sri Aurobindo and Gandhi shared, as it would appear, a deep ambivalence regarding religion and the religious consciousness. On the one hand, they were only too aware of social and political problems embedded in the free pursuit and propagation of religion, especially in a complex plural society like India. This, as they were quick to realize, bred dogmatism, intolerance and bitter sectarian rivalry, often resulting in violence between religious communities and the loss of life and property. On the other hand, as I have briefly discussed above, a deep and abiding religiosity characterized their lives and works. It might be argued that for these men, even patriotism was ultimately a spiritual virtue. In modern India, there could not have been a man more committed to combating sectarianism and inter-faith hostility than Gandhi. Also, he could not have been unaware of the fact that communal sentiments, as distinguished from the purely religious, represented an overt and tendentious politicization of the religious. 

The point then is that regardless of the dangers implicit in such associations, Gandhi consistently maintained that political self-expressions could not be separated from the religious. It occurs to me, therefore, that the biggest paradox in the lives of Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo lies in the fact that they treated religion to be an integral and eternal part of Indian life and values even as they were only too well aware of the problems inherent in the persistence with religion and religious life. I suspect that the problem lay in their failure to acknowledge the fact that few indeed could meaningfully separate the spiritual from the religious...

Gandhi’s spirituality is rooted at the grassroots level, in each person’s pain, in each living being’s care, in not hurting anyone, etc. Using G.E. Moore’s proof for the hand “This is my hand” is the most real, day-to-day experience of every human being for Gandhi. His Vaisnav-Vedanta is spiritual for each individual. But for Sri Aurobindo, the spiritual as worked out in his Lila Vedanta (as presented here) is rooted in transcendence, though it begins with human experience and existence.

Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo Edited By Ananta Kumar Giri (2021) taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10. [This book presents the first systematic critical exploration of the philosophical and political thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo, both pioneers of modern Indian thought.]
Because Thou Art: Sri Aurobindo has turned the Veda universal becausethouart.blogspot.com/2022/11/sri-au Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956), Director, SELF (2005), Founder, Savitri Era Religion, and President, Savitri Era Party. Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.
The Mother's reading of 'Savitri' Listen to The Mother's reading of selected verses from 'Savitri' with music composed by Sunil. Playlist comprises of 47 tracks across Books 1 to 11 from Savitri.. motherandsriaurobindo.in/The-Mother/aud

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