Sri Aurobindo was no less patriotic

Paramount cry for a Hindu nation-VII V SUNDARAM newstodaynet.com/2006sud/06jun

Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo declared that the Hindu nation is rooted in Sanatana Dharma. Sanatana Dharma does not mean 'Varnashrama Dharma'. Those who interpret Sanatana Dharma as Varnashrama Dharma are either steeped in Himalayan ignorance about Sanatana Dharma or are interested only in communal vote bank politics for getting into positions of pelf and power in the India of today. The wisdom of inspired Seers and Sages is recorded in various Samhitas, Sutras, Smritis and other fragments. The corpus of all these is 'SANATANA DHARMA', Eternal Order or Dharma. Through millennia, Hindu society has been moulded by it. Though necessarily Indian and Hindu in garb, its principles have a timeless relevance to any society, anywhere, any time.

As Annie Besant and Bhagavan Das, who jointly authored an Advance Text Book of Hindu Religion and Ethics entitled 'Sanatana Dharma' in 1898, rightly observed: 'The religion based on the Vedas, the Sanatana Dharma or Vaidika Dharma, is the oldest of living religions and stands unrivalled in the depth and splendour of its philosophy, while it yields to none in the purity of its ethical teachings, and in the flexibility and varied adaptation of its rites and ceremonies. It is like a river, which has shallows that a child may play in, and depths which the strongest diver cannot fathom. It is thus adapted to every human need, and there is nothing which any religion can add to its rounded perfection. The more it is studied and practiced, the more does it illuminate the intellect and satisfy the heart.' A Hindu nation founded on Sanatana Dharma ought to be the cherished goal of all the Hindus in India today and not a fraudulent nation founded on pseudo-secularism.

All the Roman Catholics have their own nations. All the Protestant Christians have their own nations. All the Muslims have their own nations. The Hindus have been the primordial citizens of Akhand Bharat from the beginning of pre-history and they cannot be denied a spiritual and physical space of their own in their own native land. The saddest part of the story is that the dastardly policy of pseudo-secularism has made all the peace-loving Hindus neglected, sidelined and discarded refugees in their own native land.

In this context, Sri Aurobindo spoke for all the Hindus for all time on April 18, 1923 when he said: 'I am sorry they are making a fetish of this Hindu-Muslim unity. It is no use ignoring facts; some day the Hindus may have to fight the Muslims and they must be prepared for it. Hindu-Muslim unity should not mean the subjection of the Hindus. Every time the mildness of the Hindus has given way. The best solution would be to allow the Hindus to organize themselves and the Hindu-Muslim unity would take care of itself; it would automatically solve the problem. Otherwise, we are lulled into a false sense of satisfaction that we have solved a difficult problem, when in fact we have only shelved it.' In my view Sri Aurobindo was no less patriotic than Sonia Gandhi, Arjun Singh, A.R. Antulay and Dr. Manmohan Singh!!!

To routinely dismiss all Hindus as fundamentalists or fascist as the pseudo-secular politicians in India do today, in my view, is a gross abuse of language. To conclude in the beautiful words of David Frawley (better known as Vamadeva Shastri): 'What Hindus need is to wake up and unite, to recognize their common spiritual heritage and work together to manifest it in the world today, just as modern teachers like Vivekananda and Aurobindo demonstrated through their lives and teachings. Such teachers did not speak of Hindu fundamentalism. They recognized Hindu backwardness, but sought to remedy it by going to the core of Hindu spirituality, the spirit of Unity in recognition of the Divine in all, not by trying to cast a shadow on Hinduism as a whole'. (The writer is a retired IAS officer) e-mail the writer at vsundaram@newstodaynet.com GO TOP / HOME / OTHER SPECIAL STORIES