{"id":467,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:11","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=467"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:11","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:11","slug":"58-arya-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/58-arya-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-58_Arya.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n
\n


\nXI<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nNOTES FROM THE "ARYA"<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n"<\/font>Ary<\/span>a"<\/font><\/span><\/b>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/b>What is the significance of the name, "Arya" <\/span>?.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>
\n                  
\n<\/font> <\/span>
\n
\n  <\/span>
\n<\/font> <\/span>
\nT<\/span><\/font>HE <\/font><\/b>question has been put from more than one
\npoint of view. To most European readers the name\u00b9 figuring on our cover is
\nlikely to be a hieroglyph which attracts or repels according to the
\ntemperament. Indians know the word, but it has lost for them the significance
\nwhich it bore to their forefathers. Western Philology has converted it into a
\nracial term, an unknown ethnological quantity on which different speculations
\nfix different values. Now, even among the philologists, some are beginning to recognise that the word in its original use expressed not a difference of race,
\nbut a difference of culture. For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who
\nhad accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice,
\nof ideality, of aspiration. The Aryan gods were the supraphysical<\/span>
\npowers who assisted the mortal in his struggle towards the nature of the
\ngodhead. All the highest aspirations of the, early human race, its noblest
\nreligious temper, its most idealistic velleities of thought are summed up in
\nthis single vocable<\/span>.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>In later times, the word Arya
\nexpressed a particular ethical and social ideal, an ideal of well-governed
\nlife, candour<\/span>, courtesy, nobility, straight dealing,
\ncourage, gentleness, purity, humanity, compassion, protection of the weak,
\nliberality, observance of social duty, eagerness for knowledge, respect for the
\nwise and learned, the social accomplishments. It was the combined ideal of the Brahmana<\/span> and the Kshatriya. Everything that departed from
\nthis ideal, everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude,
\ncruel<\/span> or false, was termed un-Aryan. There<\/span>
\nis no<\/span> word in human speech that\u00a0 <\/span>has a nobler history.
\n<\/span>    In the early days of comparative
\nPhilology, when the scholars sought in the history of words for<\/span>
\nthe prehistoric history of peoples, it was supposed that the word Arya came
\nfrom the root<\/p>\n

\u00b9 Referring to the Word "Aryan written in Devanagari<\/span>
\ncharacters on the cover of the philosophical monthly Arya
\n\u2014 आर्य.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage -393<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\nat, to plough, and that the Vedic Aryans were so called when they separated
\nfrom their kin in the north-west who despised the pursuits of agriculture and
\nremained shepherds and hunters. This ingenious speculation has little or
\nnothing to support it. But in a sense we may accept the derivation. Whoever
\ncultivates the field that the Supreme Spirit has made for him, his earth
\nof\u00a0 <\/span>plenty within and without, does not
\nleave it barren or allow it to run to seed, but labours<\/span>
\nto exact from it its full yield, is by that effort an Aryan.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>If Arya were a purely racial
\nterm, a more probable derivation<\/span>
\nwould be at, meaning strength or valour<\/span>, from ar<\/span> to fight, whence we have the name of the Greek war-god
\nAres, areios<\/span>, brave or warlike, perhaps even aret\u00ea<\/span>, virtue, signifying, like the Latin virtus<\/span>, first, physical strength and courage and then moral
\nforce and elevation. This sense of the word also we may accept. "We fight
\nto win sublime Wisdom, therefore men call us warriors." For Wisdom implies
\nthe choice as well as the knowledge of that which is best, noblest, most
\nluminous, most divine. Certainly, it means also the knowledge of all things and
\ncharity and reverence for all things, even the most apparently mean, ugly or
\ndark, for the sake of the universal Deity who chooses to dwell equally in all.
\nBut, also, the law of right action is a choice, the preference of that which
\nexpresses the godhead to that which conceals it. And the choice entails a
\nbattle, a struggle. It is not easily made, it is not easily enforced.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Whoever makes that choice,
\nwhoever seeks to climb from level to level up the hill of the divine, fearing
\nnothing, deterred by no retardation or defeat, shrinking from no vastness
\nbecause it is too vast for his intelligence, no height because it is too high
\nfor his spirit, no greatness because it is too great for his force and courage,
\nhe is the Aryan, the divine fighter and victor, the noble man, aristos<\/span>, best, the srestha<\/span> of the
\nGita.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Intrinsically, in its most
\nfundamental sense, Arya means an effort or an uprising and overcoming. The
\nAryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that
\nstands opposed to the human advance. Self-conquest is the first law of his
\nnature. He overcomes earth and the body and does not con- sent like ordinary
\nmen to their dullness, inertia, dead routine and<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-394<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\ntamasic limitations. He overcomes life and its energies and refuses to be
\ndominated by their hungers and cravings or enslaved
\nby their rajasic passions. He overcomes the mind and its habits, he does not
\nlive in a shell of ignorance, inherited prejudices, customary ideas, pleasant
\nopinions, but knows how to seek and choose, to be large and flexible in
\nintelligence even as he is firm and strong in his will. For in everything he
\nseeks truth, in every thing right, in everything height and freedom.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Self-perfection is the aim of
\nhis self-conquest. Therefore what he conquers he does not destroy, but ennobles
\nand fulfils. He knows that the body, life and mind are given him in order to
\nattain to something higher than they; therefore they must be transcended and
\novercome, their limitations denied, the absorption<\/span> of
\ntheir gratifications rejected. But he knows also that the Highest is something
\nwhich is no nullity in the world, but increasingly<\/span> expresses itself here, – a divine Will,
\nConsciousness, Love, Beatitude which pours itself out, when found, through the
\nterms of the lower life on the finder and on all in his environment that is
\ncapable of receiving it. Of that he is the servant, lover and seeker. When it
\nis attained, he pours it forth in work, love, joy . and knowledge upon mankind.
\nFor always the Aryan is a worker and warrior. He spares himself no labour of
\nmind or body whether<\/span> to
\nseek the Highest or to serve it. He avoids no difficulty, he accepts no
\ncessation from fatigue. Always he fights for the coming of that kingdom within
\nhimself and in the world.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Aryan perfected is the Arhat<\/span>. There is a transcendent Consciousness which
\nsurpasses the universe and of which all these worlds are only a side-issue and
\na by-play. To that consciousness he aspires and attains. There is a
\nConsciousness which, being transcendent, is yet the universe and all that the
\nuniverse contains. Into that consciousness he enlarges his limited ego; he
\nbecomes one with all beings and all inanimate objects in a single
\nself-awareness, love, delight, all-embracing energy. There is a consciousness
\nwhich, being both transcendental and universal, yet accepts the apparent
\nlimitations of individuality for work, for various standpoints of knowledge,
\nfor the play of the Lord with His creations; for the ego is there that it may
\nfinally convert itself into a free centre of the divine work and the divine
\n <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage -395<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n<\/div>\n

\n
\nplay. That consciousness too he has sufficient love, joy and knowledge to
\naccept; he is puissant enough to effect that con- version. To embrace individuality
\nafter transcending it is the last and divine sacrifice. The perfect Arhat<\/span> is he who is able to live simultaneously in all these
\nthree apparent states of existence, elevate the lower into the higher, receive
\nthe higher into the lower, so that he may represent perfectly in the symbols of
\nthe world that with which he is identified in all parts of his being, – the
\ntriple and triune Brahman.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage -396<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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