{"id":1090,"date":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=1090"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:32:29","slug":"36-the-past-and-future-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/02-karmayogin-volume-02\/36-the-past-and-future-vol-02-karmayogin-volume-02","title":{"rendered":"-36_The Past and Future.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

The Past and
\nthe Future<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n               
\n<\/b><\/font>O<\/font>UR
\n<\/font><\/span><\/b>contemporary, the
\nStatesman<\/i>, notices in an unusually self-restrained article the recent
\nbrochure republished by Dr. A. K. Coomaraswamy from the Modern Review <\/i>
\nunder the title, "The Message of the East". We have not the work before us but,
\nfrom our memory of the articles and our knowledge of our distinguished
\ncountryman’s views, we do not think the Statesman<\/i> has quite caught the
\nspirit of the writer. Dr. Coomaraswamy is above all a lover of art and beauty
\nand the ancient thought and greatness of India, but he is also, and as a result
\nof this deep love and appreciation, an ardent Nationalist. Writing as an artist,
\nhe calls attention to the debased aesthetic ideas and tastes which the ugly and
\nsordid
\ncommercialism of the West has introduced into the mind of a nation once
\ndistinguished for its superior beauty and grandeur of conception and for the
\nextent to which it suffused the whole of life with the forces of the intellect
\nand the spirit. He laments the persistence of a servile imitation of English
\nideas, English methods, English machinery and production even in the new
\nNationalism. And he reminds his readers that nations cannot be made by politics
\nand economics alone, but that art also has a great and still unrecognised claim.
\nThe main drift of his writing is to censure the low imitative un-Indian and
\nbourgeois ideals of our national activity in the nineteenth century and to
\nrecall our minds to the cardinal fact that, if India is to arise and be great as
\na nation, it is not by imitating the methods and institutions of English
\npolitics and commerce, but by carrying her own civilisation, purified of the
\nweaknesses that have overtaken it, to a much higher and mightier fulfilment than
\nany that it has reached in the past. Our mission is to outdistance, lead and
\ninstruct Europe, not merely to imitate and learn from her. Dr. Coomaraswamy
\nspeaks of art, but it is certain that a man of his wide culture would not
\nexclude, and we know he does not exclude, thought, literature and religion from
\nthe forces that must uplift<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 209<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nour nation and are necessary to its
\nfuture. To recover Indian thought, Indian character, Indian perceptions, Indian
\nenergy, Indian greatness, and to solve the problems that perplex the world in an
\nIndian spirit and from the Indian standpoint, this, in our view, is the mission
\nof Nationalism. We agree with Dr. Coomaraswamy that an exclusive preoccupation
\nwith politics and economics is likely to dwarf our growth and prevent the
\nflowering of originality and energy. We have to return to the fountainheads of
\nour ancient religion, philosophy, art and literature and pour the revivifying
\ninfluences of our immemorial Aryan spirit and ideals into our political and
\neconomic development. This is the ideal the Karmayogin<\/i> holds before it,
\nand our outlook and Dr. Coomaraswamy’s do not substantially differ. But in
\njudging our present activities we cannot look, as he does, from a purely
\nartistic and idealistic standpoint, but must act and write in the spirit of a
\npractical idealism.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nThe debasement of our mind, character and
\ntastes by a grossly commercial, materialistic and insufficient European
\neducation is a fact on which the young Nationalism has always insisted. The
\npractical destruction of our artistic perceptions and the plastic skill and
\nfineness of eye and hand which once gave our productions pre-eminence,
\ndistinction and mastery of the European markets, is also a thing accomplished.
\nMost vital of all, the spiritual and intellectual divorce from the past which
\nthe present schools and universities have effected, has beggared the nation of
\nthe originality, high aspiration and forceful energy which can alone make a
\nnation free and great. To reverse the process and recover what we have lost, is
\nundoubtedly the first object to which we ought to devote ourselves. And as the
\nloss of originality, aspiration and energy was the most vital of all these
\nlosses, so their recovery should be our first and most important objective. The
\nprimary aim of the prophets of Nationalism was to rid the nation of the idea
\nthat the future was limited by the circumstances of the present, that because
\ntemporary causes had brought us low and made us weak, low therefore must be our
\naims and weak our methods. They pointed the mind of the people to a great and
\nsplendid destiny, not in some distant millennium but in the comparatively near
\nfuture, and fired the hearts<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 210<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nof the young men with a burning desire to
\nrealise the apocalyptic vision. As a justification of what might otherwise have
\nseemed a dream and as an inexhaustible source of energy and inspiration, they
\npointed persistently to the great achievements
\nand grandiose civilisation of our forefathers and called on the rising
\ngeneration to recover their lost spiritual and intellectual heritage. It cannot
\nbe denied that this double effort to realise the past and the future has been
\nthe distinguishing temperament and the chief uplifting force in the movement,
\nand it cannot be denied that it is bringing back to our young men originality,
\naspiration and energy. By this force the character, temper and action of the
\nBengali has been altered beyond recognition in a few years. To raise the mind,
\ncharacter and tastes of the people, to recover the ancient nobility of temper,
\nthe strong Aryan character and the high Aryan outlook, the perceptions which
\nmade earthly life beautiful and wonderful, and the magnificent spiritual
\nexperiences, realisations and aspirations which made us the deepest-hearted,
\ndeepest-thoughted and most delicately profound in life of all the peoples of the
\nearth, is the task next in importance and urgency. We had hoped by means of
\nNational Education to effect this great object as well as to restore to our
\nyouth the intellectual heritage of the nation and build up on that basis a yet
\ngreater culture in the future. We must admit that the instrument which we
\ncherished and for which such sacrifices were made, has proved insufficient and
\nthreatens, in unfit hands, to lose its promise of fulfilment and be diverted to
\nlower ends. But the movement is greater than its instruments. We must strive to
\nprevent the destruction of that which we have created and, in the meanwhile,
\nbuild up a centre of culture, freer and more perfect, which will either permeate
\nthe other with itself or replace it if destroyed. Finally, the artistic
\nawakening has been commenced by that young, living and energetic school which
\nhas gathered round the Master and originator, Sj. Abanindranath Tagore. The
\nimpulse which this school is giving, its inspired artistic recovery of the past,
\nits intuitive anticipations of the future, have to be popularised and made a
\nnational possession.<\/font><\/p>\n

\nDr. Coomaraswamy complains of the
\nsurvivals of the past in the preparations for the future. But no movement,
\nhowever<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 211<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nvigorous, can throw off in a few years the
\neffects of a whole century. We must remember also why the degradation and
\ndenationalisation, "the mighty evil in our souls" of which the writer complains,
\ncame into being. A painful but necessary work had to be done, and because the
\nEnglish nation were the fittest instrument for his purpose, God led them all
\nover those thousands of miles of alien Ocean, gave strength to their hearts and
\nsubtlety to their brains, and set them up in India to do His work, which they
\nhave been doing faithfully, if blindly, ever since and are doing at the present
\nmoment. The spirit and ideals of India had come to be confined in a mould which,
\nhowever beautiful, was too narrow and slender to bear the mighty burden of our
\nfuture. When that happens, the mould has to be broken and even the ideal lost
\nfor a while, in order to be recovered free of constraint and limitation. We have
\nto recover the Aryan spirit and ideal and keep it intact but enshrined in new
\nforms and more expansive institutions. We have to treasure jealously everything
\nin our social structure, manners, institutions, which is of permanent value,
\nessential to our spirit or helpful to the future; but we must not cabin the
\nexpanding and aggressive spirit of India in temporary forms which are the
\ncreation of the last few hundred years. That would be a vain and disastrous
\nendeavour. The mould is broken; we must remould in larger outlines and with a
\nricher content. For the work of destruction England was best fitted by her
\nstubborn individuality and by that very commercialism and materialism which made
\nher the anti-type in temper and culture of the race she governed. She was chosen
\ntoo for the unrivalled efficiency and skill with which she has organised an
\nindividualistic and materialistic democracy. We had to come to close quarters
\nwith that democratic organisation, draw it into ourselves and absorb the
\ndemocratic spirit and methods so that we might rise beyond them. Our
\nhalf-aristocratic, half-theocratic feudalism had to be broken, in order that the
\ndemocratic spirit of the Vedanta might be released and, by absorbing all that is
\nneeded of the aristocratic and theocratic culture, create for the Indian race a
\nnew and powerful political and social organisation. We have to learn and use the
\ndemocratic principle and methods of Europe, in order that hereafter we may build
\nup something more suited to our<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 212<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\npast and to the future of humanity. We
\nhave to throw away the individualism and materialism and keep the democracy. We
\nhave to solve for the human race the problem of harmonising and spiritualising
\nits impulses towards liberty, equality and fraternity. In order that we may
\nfulfil our mission we must be masters in our own home. It is out of no hostility
\nto the English people, no race hatred that we seek absolute autonomy, but
\nbecause it is the first condition of our developing our national self and
\nrealising our destiny. It is for this reason that the engrossing political
\npreoccupation came upon us; and we cannot give up or tone down our political
\nmovement until the lesson of democratic self-government is learned and the first
\ncondition of national self-fulfilment realised. For another reason also England
\nwas chosen, because she had organised the competitive system of commerce, with
\nits bitter and murderous struggle for existence, in the most skilful, discrete
\nand successful fashion. We had to feel the full weight of that system and learn
\nthe literal meaning of this industrial realisation of Darwinism. It has been
\nwritten large for us in ghastly  letters of famine, chronic starvation and
\nmisery and a decreasing population. We have risen at last, entered into the
\nbattle and with the boycott for a weapon, are striking at the throat of British
\ncommerce, even as it struck at ours, first by protection and then by free trade.
\nAgain it is not out of hatred that we strike, but out of self-preservation. We
\nmust conquer in that battle if we are to live. We cannot arrest our development
\nof industry and commerce while waiting for a new commercial system to develop or
\nfor beauty and art to reconquer the world. As in politics so in commerce, we
\nmust learn and master the European methods in order that we may eventually rise
\nabove them. The crude commercial Swadeshi, which Dr. Coomaraswamy finds so
\ndistasteful and disappointing, is as integral a part of the national awakening
\nas the movement towards Swaraj or as the new School of Art. If this crude
\nSwadeshi were to collapse and the national movement towards autonomy come to
\nnothing, the artistic renascence he has praised so highly, would wither and sink
\nwith the drying up of the soil in which it was planted. A nation need not be
\nluxuriously wealthy in order to be profoundly
\nartistic, but it must have a certain amount of well-being, a<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 213<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\nnational culture and, above all, hope and
\nardour, if it is to maintain a national art based on a widespread development of
\nartistic perception and faculty. Moreover, aesthetic arts and crafts cannot live
\nagainst the onrush of cheap and vulgar manufactures under the conditions of the
\nmodern social structure. Industry can only become again beautiful if poverty and
\nthe struggle for life are eliminated from society and the co-operative State and
\ncommune organised as the fruit of a great moral and spiritual uplifting of
\nhumanity. We hold such an uplifting and reorganisation as part of India’s
\nmission. But to do her work she must live. Therefore the commercial
\npreoccupation has been added to the political. We perceive the salvation of the
\ncountry not in parting with either of these, but in adding to them a religious
\nand moral preoccupation. On the basis of that religious and moral awakening the
\npreoccupation of art and fine culture will be added and firmly based. There are
\nmany who perceive the necessity of the religious and moral regeneration, who are
\ninclined to turn from the prosaic details of politics and commerce and regret
\nthat any guide and teacher of the nation should stoop to mingle in them. That is
\na grievous error. The men who would lead India must be catholic and many-sided.
\nWhen the Avatar comes, we like to believe that he will be not only the religious
\nguide, but the political leader, the great educationist, the regenerator of
\nsociety, the captain of co-operative industry, with the soul of the poet,
\nscholar and artist. He will be in short the summary and grand type of the future
\nIndian nation which is rising to reshape and lead the world.<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 214<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

\n
\n\tHOME<\/span><\/a><\/font><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Past and the Future                   OUR contemporary, the Statesman, notices in an unusually self-restrained article the recent brochure republished by Dr. A. K….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-02-karmayogin-volume-02","wpcat-23-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}