Spirit involved and immanent in matter, evolving : The essence of Indian culture

The genius of India: In the words of Sri Aurobindo, 'India’s central conception is that of the Eternal, the spirit here encased in matter, involved and immanent in it and

evolving on the material plane.' ( FOIC page 2 ) This victory over unconscious matter develops its line and the increasing sattwic or spiritual portion of mind enables individual human to gradually identify with pure spiritual beyond. Individual soul ultimately realizes Infinite Eternal immanent as well as transcendent. Everything else in life, in the world is only a vehicle for this great journey and is useful only till is serves this magnanimous destiny. Not just her philosophy and religion but her whole life including art, literature, social systems, economy, polity, is a conscious endeavor to realize this aim. Progress She admits but it must be ultimately, eventually a spiritual progress, Nishreyasa. Not just economic, vital and even intellectual progress or Abhyudaya. All Asia is always spiritual, but India is quintessence of Asiatic way of being. India never used sword to spread her thoughts, her method is to penetrate through ideas. There is inevitable clash of Indian and European culture and in long run, there must be harmony of both, taking positive points of both the sides. But right now, the appreciation of Indian culture is limited to minority of intellectuals and that to at the thought level while the majority is fundamentally material, vital different in their thoughts and some even hostile in their criticism. If swallowing others in the name of unification and global peace is the norm, (earlier by colonization, now may be by economic colonization) then it is fatal to disarm in the midmost of the battle. To allow yourselves to get butchered like a lamb is not spirituality. Thus India’s defense must be aggressive if she wants to progress and fulfill her role. And her destined role is that of Jagatguru, which is essential not just for herself but for the rest of the world. She must reshape her cultural forms keeping the spirit intact, keep her Swadharma uncompromisingly even if it means sacrificing immediate gains at times. For even when the others decided to grow out of the `foolishness’ of spiritual aim of life, India alone with whatever imperfections and shortcomings which cropped in with time, has till now as a nation, refused to give up her ideal. She has till recently stood firm in front of the reigning gods of rationalism, economism, and commercialism. Culture is roughly described as an expression of the consciousness of life which formulates in three aspects: 1. Thoughts, ideas, upward will, 2. Creative self-expression in art and intellectual pursuits 3. Practical and outward formulation. (Sri Aurobindo) Indian culture from the beginning has remained a spiritual, an inward looking, a religio-philosophical culture. Everything else in it has derived from that one central peculiarity or has been dependent on it or subordinate to it. The external life has been subjected to the inward look of the spirit. But we must note that the philosophy in India is not just speculation and guessing, religion not just a dogma. It is experience, analysis, experiment, synthesis and that way it is more scientific than any physical science. Only thing is all these experiences, experiments are on psychological and spiritual level and not just on physical level. Yoga, the science of spirituality is spinal column of India and so the antimony between science and religion which is so common elsewhere was totally missing in India. Today we see an India which shakes one with the doubt of whether the possibility of becoming a brown ape of Europe is becoming a reality. Sri Aurobindo had warned against this lunatic absurdity to build something on the sinking foundations of the west. If India will be rationalized and industrialized completely then she will no longer remain India according to this thought.