{"id":360,"date":"2013-07-13T01:27:32","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=360"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:27:32","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:27:32","slug":"146-spirituality-and-nationalism-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/01-bande-mataram-volume-01\/146-spirituality-and-nationalism-vol-01-bande-mataram-volume-01","title":{"rendered":"-146_Spirituality and Nationalism.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\nSpirituality and Nationalism<\/b><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n
\n               
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>    M<\/font><\/span>ANKIND<\/font><\/b>
\nhave a natural inclination to hero-worship and the great men who have done
\nwonders for human civilisation will always be the inspiration of future ages. We
\nare Hindus and naturally spiritual in our temperament, because the work which
\nwe have to do for humanity is a work which no other nation can accomplish, the
\nspiritualisation of the race; so the men whom we worship are those who have
\nhelped the spiritual progress of mankind. Without being sceptical no spiritual
\nprogress is possible, for blind adoration is only the first stage in the
\nspiritual development of the soul. We are wont to be spiritually sceptical, to
\nhesitate to acknowledge to ourselves anything we have not actually experienced
\nby the process of silent communion with God, so that the great sages of
\nantiquity were as sceptical as any modern rationalist. They did
\naway <\/span>with <\/span>all
\npreconceived notions drawn from the religion of the Vedas, plunged into the void
\nof absolute scepticism and tried to find there the Truth. They doubted
\neverything, the evidence of the senses, the reality of the world, the reality of
\ntheir own existence, and even the reality of God. This scepticism reached its
\nculmination in the teachings of Buddha who would admit nothing, presuppose
\nnothing, declare nothing dogmatically, and insisted only on self-discipline,
\nself-communion, self-realisation as the only way to escape from the entanglement
\nof the intellect and the senses. When scepticism had reached its height, the
\ntime had come for spirituality to assert itself and establish the reality of the
\nworld as a manifestation of the spirit, the secret of the confusion created by
\nthe senses, the magnificent possibilities of man and the ineffable beatitude of
\nGod. This is the work whose consummation Sri Ramakrishna came to begin and all
\nthe development of the previous two thousand years and more since Buddha
\nappeared has been a preparation for the harmonisation of spiritual teaching and
\nexperience by the Avatar of Dakshineshwar.<\/font><\/p>\n


\n           
\n<\/font>
\n<\/span>The long ages of discipline which India underwent are now<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-799<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\ndrawing
\nto an end. A great light is dawning in the East, a light whose first heralding
\nglimpses are already seen on the horizon; a new day is about to break, so
\nglorious that even the last of the avatā<\/font>rs <\/i>cannot be sufficient to
\nexplain it, although without him it would not have come. The perfect expression
\nof Hindu spirituality was the signal for the resurgence of the East. Mankind has
\nlong been experimenting with various kinds of thought, different principles of
\nethics, strange dreams of a perfection to be gained by material means,
\nimpossible millenniums and humanitarian hopes. Nowhere has it succeeded in
\nrealising the ultimate secret of life. Nowhere has it found satisfaction. No
\nscheme of society or politics has helped it to escape from the necessity of
\nsorrow, poverty, strife, dissatisfaction from which it strives for an outlet;
\nfor whoever is trying to find one by material means must inevitably fail. The
\nEast alone has some knowledge of the truth, the East alone can teach the West,
\nthe East alone can save mankind. Through all these ages Asia has been seeking
\nfor a light within, and whenever she has been blessed with a glimpse of what she
\nseeks, a great religion has been born, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Mahomedanism with all their countless sects. But the grand workshop of spiritual
\nexperiment, the laboratory of the soul has been India, where thousands of great
\nspirits have been born in every generation who were content to work quietly in
\ntheir own souls, perfect their knowledge, hand down the results of their
\nexperiments to a few disciples and leave the rest to others to complete. They
\ndid not hasten to proselytise, were in no way eager to proclaim themselves, but
\nmerely added their quota of experience and returned to the source from which
\nthey had come. The immense reservoir of spiritual energy stored up by the
\nself-repression was the condition of this birth of avatā<\/font>ras<\/i>, <\/i>of men so
\nfull of God that they could not be satisfied with silent bliss, but poured it
\nout on the world, not with the idea of proselytising but because they wished to
\ncommunicate their own ecstasy of realisation to others who were fit to receive
\nit either by previous tapasyā<\/font> <\/i>or by the purity of their desires. Of all
\nthese souls Sri Ramakrishna was the last and greatest, for while others felt God
\nin a single or limited aspect, he felt Him in His illimitable unity as the sum
\nof an illimitable variety. In him the<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-<\/font><\/span>800<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nspiritual
\nexperiences of the millions of saints who had gone before were renewed and
\nunited. Sri Ramakrishna gave to India the final message of Hinduism to the
\nworld. A new era dates from his birth, an era in which the peoples of the earth
\nwill be lifted for a while into communion with God and spirituality become the
\ndominant note of human life. What Christianity failed to do, what Mahomedanism
\nstrove to accomplish in times as yet unripe, what Buddhism half-accomplished for
\na brief period and among a limited number of men, Hinduism as summed up in the
\nlife of Sri Ramakrishna has to attempt for all the world. This is the reason of
\nIndia’s resurgence, this is why God has breathed life into her once more, why
\ngreat souls are at work to bring about her salvation, why a sudden change is
\ncoming over the hearts of her sons. The movement of which the first outbreak was
\npolitical, will end in a spiritual consummation.<\/font><\/p>\n


\nBande Mataram<\/i>,
\n<\/i> <\/font> March 28, 1908<\/font><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nPage-801<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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