New post in the series Satyam Shivam Sundaram
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This Diwali, I will light a special diya for my country too. With a prayer that my country wakes up to her true mission. With a prayer that I and my fellow Indians open more and more to the truth of the spirit that is the Mother India. With a prayer that more and more of my fellow Indians shun the darkness of the untruths we have been told for centuries about our dharma, about ourselves, our past, our present and our future.
With a prayer that my India walks toward the light that is in her soul, in her Eternal Dharma: Dharma that is Integral -- affirming and uplifting all aspects of life and living; Dharma that is Harmonious -- accepting and integrating all ways and dharmas; Dharma that is Universal -- respecting and transcending the diversity of all creation.
The task we set before ourselves is not mechanical but moral and spiritual. We aim not at the alteration of a form of government but at the building up of a nation. Of that task politics is a part, but only a part. We shall devote ourselves not to politics alone, nor to social questions alone, nor to theology or philosophy or literature or science by themselves, but we include all these in one entity which we believe to be all-important, the dharma, the national religion which we also believe to be universal. There is a mighty law of life, a great principle of human evolution, a body of spiritual knowledge and experience of which India has always been destined to be guardian, exemplar and missionary. This is the sanatana dharma, the eternal religion. Under the stress of alien impacts she has largely lost hold not of the structure of that dharma, but of its living reality. For the religion of India is nothing if it is not lived. It has to be applied not only to life, but to the whole of life; its spirit has to enter into and mould our society, our politics, our literature, our science, our individual character, affections and aspirations. To understand the heart of this dharma, to experience it as a truth, to feel the high emotions to which it rises and to express and execute it in life is what we understand by Karmayoga. We believe that it is to make the yoga the ideal of human life that India rises today; by the yoga she will get the strength to realise her freedom, unity and greatness, by the yoga she will keep the strength to preserve it. It is a spiritual revolution we foresee and the material is only its shadow and reflex.
(Sri Aurobindo, The Ideal of the Karmayogin, CWSA, Vol. 8, p. 24)
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This quotation on Diwali by Sri Aurobindo is not found in his collected works,"Diwali, the day we invoke and worship the Mother, some as Ma Lakshmi, others as Ma Kali. Diwali, the day we remind ourselves, once again, to turn toward the Light, to remove the darkness and dullness within. Diwali, the day, we recall and rekindle, once again, our inmost aspiration to open to the Divine Light. Light of Truth, Right, Good. Light of Love and Harmony." Where did you get this quotation? Please answer.
ReplyDeleteThe first part is not his quotation. Only the last bit from Karmayogin is Sri Aurobindo's quote. The difference in formatting is a standard academic practice to distinguish the author's own words and the long quotation being highlighted. It should have been clear.
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