Hinduism - 22.

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22. Sri Aurobindo

 

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, one of the latest exponents and interpreters of

Hinduism, has described ancient Indian philosophy as follows: 'an

ingrained and dominant spirituality, an inexhaustible vital creativeness

and gusto of life, and, mediating between them, a powerful, penetrating

and scrupulous intelligence, combined with the rational ethical and

aesthetic mind at a high intensity of action, created the harmony of the

ancient Indian culture.' Sri Aurobindo gave new interpretations of the

Vedas and the Vedanta, and in his Essay on the Gita he expounded what he

called the integral view of life.' His great work, The Life Divine, is a

summing up of his philosophy of the Descent of the Divine into Matter.'

The importance of Sri Aurobindo's mission lies not only in his

restatements of old ideals but also in his attempt to explain the true

methods of Yoga as apart from mere asceticism and illusionism.

 

Mahatma Gandhi

 

In the popularization of ancient Hindu ideals, Ravindranath Tagore and

Mahatma Gandhi have played significant parts. Tagore has made a

suggestive interpretation of the Vedic religion and the substance of the

Upanishads. The teachings of Mahatma Gandhi have led to vast social

changes and to the uplift of the backward and depressed classes. He has

stated that his whole religion is based on surrender to the will of God,

the spirit of renunciation as embodied in the Isa Upanishad, the Gita

and the ideals of practical service. He has given a new interpretation

to the doctrine of non-violence which is as old as Hinduism, and tried

to adapt it by means of Satyagraha to political and moral issues.

 

Mahatma Gandhi worked for the uplift of the depressed and backward

classes and for the creation of national entity. Speaking in Travancore

on the Temple Entry Proclamation enacted there in 1936, he said: 'These

temples are the visible symbols of Gods power and authority. They are,

therefore, truly called the houses of God, the houses of prayer. We go

there in a prayerful mood and perform, first thing in the morning after

ablution, the act of dedication and surrender. Scoffers and sceptics may

say that all these are figments of the imagination, that we are

imagining God in the images we see. I will say to these scoffers that it

is so. I am not ashamed of confessing that imagination is a powerful

factor in life. Now you can easily understand that, in the presence of

God, the Ruler of the Universe, who pervades everything, even those whom

we have called the lowest of the low, all are equal.' A recent example

of transcendental spiritual experience manifested in life is Shri Ramana

Maharishi, who passed away in 1950. A man of powerful personality, he

taught as much by his silence as by his sermons. He had a directness of

approach and a universality of outlook, which were products of true

enlightenment.

 

The spirit of tolerance

 

It may be noted that the comprehensive tolerance of Hinduism is

exemplified remarkably in such instances as the following. In the temple

of Dharmasthala in Karnataka, in Dakshina Kannada District the chief

personage is a Jain - he is regarded as a hereditary oracle whose

arbitration is sought by members of all Hindu and even Muslim

communities. The temple itself has the Sivalinga as well as the

Salagrama, or symbol of Vishnu, the officiating priest being a

Vaishnavite. In the shrine at Udipi the worship of Siva and Vishnu alike

is offered and the heads of the Udipi Math, although staunch

Vaishnavites, are under the obligation to attend to two Siva shrines, in

addition to officiating as the chief priests of the Krishna temple. It

is believed that a person belonging to the Harijan community received

special divine favour and attained union with God in the temple

precincts. The tradition of Chidambaram is similar- the Paraya saint,

Nandan, who was refused admission by the Brahmin priests, became the

object of divine favour and attained communion with God. In the temple

of Jagannath at Puri, caste distinctions have been discarded. In

Travancore there is a forest temple dedicated to Ayyappa or

Hariharaputra - here, too, no caste distinctions are observed. Hindus,

and even Muslims and Christians, perform vows in this shrine with belief

in the efficacy of the God's protective help. It may be noted in

this context that the usual invocation of Ayyappa, namely, Saranam

Ayyappa, is reminiscent of the Buddhist prayer.

 

The Spirit of Indian philosophy has been described in these words: 'Its

chief mark consists in concentration on the spiritual aspect, belief in

the intimate relationship of philosophy and life, the inseparability of

theory and practice and the insistence on intuition coexisting with the

acceptance of authority.' Finally, it is the synthetic vision of Indian

philosophy which has made possible the intellectual and religious

tolerance so pronounced in Indian thought throughout the ages. Recent

squabbles between religious communities, born of political factionalism,

are alien to the basic Indian mind and are indeed antagonistic to its

unique genius for adaptability and tolerance.