- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (1)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (7)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (8)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (9)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (10)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (11)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (12)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (13)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (14)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (15)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (16)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (17)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (18)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (19)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (20)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (21)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (22)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (23)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (24)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (25)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (26)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (27)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (28)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (29)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (30)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (31)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (40)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (41)
- The Greatness of India and Its Culture (42)
I. INDIA
What is India
“India is not the earth, rivers and mountains of this land, neither is it a collective name for the inhabitants of this country. India is a living being, as much living as, say, Shiva. India is a goddess as Shiva is a god. If she likes, she can manifest in human form.”1
***
“Mother India is not a piece of earth; she is a Power, a Godhead, for all nations have such a Devi supporting their separate existence and keeping it in being. Such Beings are as real and more permanently real than the men they influence, but they belong to a higher plane, are part of the cosmic consciousness and being and act here on earth by shaping the human consciousness on which they exercise their influence.”2
***
“The Soul of India is one and indivisible. India is conscious of her mission in the world. She is waiting for the exterior means of manifestation.”3
***
“INVOCATION 15 August 1947
O our Mother, O Soul of India, Mother who hast never forsaken thy children even in the days of darkest depression, even when they turned away from thy voice, served other masters and denied thee, now when they have arisen and the light is on thy face in this dawn of thy liberation, in this great hour we salute thee. Guide us so that the horizon of freedom opening before us may be also a horizon of true greatness and of thy true life in the community of the nations. Guide us so that we may be always on the side of great ideals and show to men thy true visage, as a leader in the ways of the spirit and a friend and helper of all the peoples.”4
***
“In the whole creation the earth has a place of distinction, because unlike any other planet it is evolutionary with a psychic entity at its centre. In it, India, in particular, is a divinely chosen country.”5
***
“India is the guru of the nations, the physician of the human soul in its profounder maladies; she is destined once more to new-mould the life of the world and restore the peace of the human spirit.”6
***
“… There is only one country in the world that knows that there is only one Truth to which everything should be turned, and that is India. Other countries have forgotten this, but in India it is ingrained in the people, and one day it will come out. … I know the conditions of the country. Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.”7
***
“India is the country where the psychic law can and must rule and the time has come for that here. Besides, it is the only possible salvation for this country whose consciousness has unfortunately been distorted by the influence and domination of a foreign nation, but which, in spite of everything, possesses a unique spiritual heritage.
Blessings.”8
***
“From the spiritual standpoint, India is the leading country in the world. Her mission is to give the example of spirituality. Sri Aurobindo came on earth to teach this to the world.
This fact is so obvious that a simple, ignorant farmer here is closer to the Divine in his heart than the intellectuals of Europe.
India shall taker her true place in the world only when she will become integrally the messenger of the Divine Life.”9
***
“Of all the proud nations of the West there is an end determined. When their limited special work for mankind is done they must decay and disappear. But the function of India is to supply the world with a perennial source of light and renovation. Whenever the first play of energy is exhausted and earth grows old and weary, full of materialism, racked with problems she cannot solve, the function of India is to restore the youth of mankind and assure it of immortality. She sends forth a light from her bosom which floods the earth and the heavens, and mankind bathes in it like St. George in the well of life and recovers strength, hope and vitality for its long pilgrimage. Such a time is now at hand. The world needs India and needs her free. The work she has to do now is to organize life in the terms of Vedanta,…”10
***
“India has in herself a faith of superhuman virtue to accomplish miracles, to deliver herself out of irrefragable bondage, to bring God down upon earth. She has a secret of will power which no other nation possesses. All she needs to rouse in her that faith, that will, is an ideal which will induce her to make the effort.”11
(To be continued…)
References:
1. Collected Works of the Mother 13, page 380
2. Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo 28, page 482
3. Collected Works of the Mother 13, page 359
4. Collected Works of the Mother 13, page 360
5. Collected Works of the Mother 13, page 376
6. Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo 07, page 906
7. India the Mother, the Mother, Institute for Evolutionary Research, page 184
8. Collected Works of the Mother 13, page 378
9. India the Mother, the Mother, Institute for Evolutionary Research, page 232, 234
10. Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo 07, page 1086
11. Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo 07, page 1017