| Awaken Bharata |
 |
| Books By David Frawley |
| THE HINDU RENAISSANCE AT A TURNING POINT | |
| Yet
Aurobindo was hardly a caste or tradition bound Hindu. He was not
concerned with reviving Hinduism in the outer sense of mere ritual
and belief but wanted its inner soul to come forth again for a new
creation. He carried forth the tradition and created a futuristic
model for it, encompassing the whole of life. He did not hesitate to
criticize and change the errors and accretions in the Hindu social
system, like the lack of education given to women, and created new
models based upon the original insights of the Rishis. Perhaps his
most important advice was his call for new thinking:
"Our first necessity, if India is to survive and do her appointed work in the world, is that the youth of India should learn to think - to think on all subjects, to think independently, fruitfully, going to the heart of things, not stopped by their surface, free of prejudgments, shearing sophism and prejudice asunder as with a sharp sword, smiting down obscurantism of all kinds as with the mace of Bhima...." "Let us not, either, select at random, make a nameless hotchpotch and then triumphantly call it the assimilation of East and West. We must begin by accepting nothing on trust from any source whatsoever, by questioning everything and forming our own conclusions. We need not fear that we shall by that process cease to be Indians or fall into the danger of abandoning Hinduism. India can never cease to be India or Hinduism to be Hinduism, if we really think for ourselves. It is only if we allow Europe to think for us that India is in danger of becoming an ill-executed and foolish copy of Europe." India's Rebirth, Sri Aurobindo, pp. 83-84. |
|
|
|
