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THE FIFTEENTH OF AUGUST 1947
(A message written by Sri Aurobindo
for broadcast over All India Radio)
August 15th is the birthday of free India. It marks
for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But it has a significance
not only for us, but for Asia and the whole world; for it signifies the entry
into the comity of nations of a new power with untold potentialities which has
a great part to play in determining the political, social, cultural and spiritual
future of humanity. To me personally it must naturally be gratifying that this
date which was notable only for me because it was my own birthday celebrated
annually by those who have accepted my gospel of life, should have acquired
this vast significance. As a mystic, I take this identification, not as a coincidence
or fortuitous accident, but as a sanction and seal of the Divine Power which
guides my steps on the work with which I began life. Indeed almost all the world
movements which I hoped to see fulfilled in my lifetime, though at that time
they looked like impossible dreams, I can observe on this day either approaching
fruition or initiated and on the way to their achievement.
I have been asked for a message
on this great occasion, but I am perhaps hardly in a position to give one. All
I can do is to make a personal declaration of the aims and ideals conceived
in childhood and youth and now watched in their beginning of fulfillment,
because they are relevant to the freedom of India, since they are a part of
what I believe to be India's future work, something in which she cannot but
take a leading position. For I have always held and said that India was arising, not
to serve her own material interests only, to achieve expansion, greatness, power
and prosperity, — though these too she must not neglect —, and certainly not
like others to acquire domination of other peoples, but to live also for God
and the world as a helper and leader of the whole human race. Those aims and
ideals were in their natural order these: a revolution which would achieve India's
freedom and her unity; the resurgence and liberation of Asia and her return
to the great role which she had played in the progress of human civilisation;
the rise of a new, a greater, brighter and nobler -life for mankind which for
its entire realisation would rest outwardly on an international unification
of the separate existence of the peoples, preserving and securing their national
life but drawing them together into an overriding and consummating oneness;
the gift by India of her spiritual knowledge and her means for the spiritualisation
of life to the whole race; finally, a new step in the evolution which, by uplifting
the consciousness to a higher level, would begin the solution of the many problems
of existence which have perplexed and vexed humanity, since men began to think
and to dream of individual perfection and a perfect society.
India is free but she has not
achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom. At one time it almost seemed
as if she might relapse into the chaos of separate States which preceded the
British conquest. Fortunately there has now developed a strong possibility that
this disastrous relapse will be avoided. The wisely drastic policy of the Constituent
Assembly makes it possible that the problem of the depressed classes will be
solved without schism or fissure. But the old communal division into Hindu and
Muslim seems to have hardened into the figure of a permanent political division
of the country. It is to be hoped that the Congress and the nation will not
accept the settled fact as for ever settled or as anything more than a temporary
expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened, even crippled:
civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign
conquest. The partition of the country must go, —it is to be hoped by a slackening
of tension, by a progressive understanding of the need of peace and concord,
by the constant necessity of common and concerted action, even of an instrument
of union for that purpose. In this way unity may come about under whatever form
— the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a fundamental importance. But
by whatever means, the division must and will go. For without it the destiny
of India might be seriously impaired and even frustrated. But that must not
be.
Asia has arisen and large parts
of it have been liberated or are at this moment being liberated; its other still
subject parts are moving through whatever struggles towards freedom. Only a
little has to be done and that will be done today or tomorrow. There India has
her part to play and has begun to play it with an energy and ability which already
indicate the measure of her possibilities and the place she can take in the
council of the nations.
The unification of mankind
is under way, though only in an imperfect initiative, organised but struggling
against tremendous difficulties. But the momentum is there and, if the experience
of history can be taken as a guide, it must inevitably increase until it conquers.
Here too India has begun to play a prominent part 3rd, if she can develop that
larger statesmanship which is not "tinted by the present facts and immediate
possibilities but looks into the future and brings it nearer, her presence may
make all the difference between a slow and timid and a bold and swift development.
A catastrophe may intervene and interrupt or destroy what is being done, but
even then the final result is sure. For in any case the unification is a necessity
in the course of Nature, an inevitable movement and its achievement can be safely
foretold. Its necessity for the nations also is clear, for without it the freedom
of the small peoples can never be safe hereafter and even large and powerful
nations cannot really be secure. India, if she remains divided, will not herself
be sure of her safety. It is therefore to the interest of all that union should
take place. Only human imbecility and stupid selfishness could prevent it. Against
that, it has been said, even the gods strive in vain; but it cannot stand for
ever against the necessity of Nature and the Divine Will. Nationalism will then
have fulfilled itself; an international spirit and outlook must grow up and
international forms and institutions; even it may be such developments as dual
or multilateral citizenship and a voluntary fusion of cultures may appear in
the process of the change and the spirit of nationalism losing its militancy
may find these things perfectly compatible with the integrity of its own outlook.
A new spirit of oneness will take hold of the human race.
The spiritual gift of India
to the world has already begun. India's spirituality is entering Europe and
America in an ever increasing measure. That movement will grow; amid the disasters
of the time more and more eyes are turning towards her with hope and there is
even an increasing resort not only to her teachings, but to her psychic and
spiritual practice.
The rest is still a personal
hope and an idea and ideal which has begun to take hold both in India and in
the West on forward looking minds. The difficulties in the way are more formidable
than in any other field of endeavour, but difficulties were made to be overcome
and if the Supreme Will is there, they will be overcome. Here too, if this evolution
is to take place, since it must come through a growth of the spirit and the
inner consciousness, the initiative can come from India and although the scope
must be universal, the central movement may be hers. Such is the content which
I put into this date of India's liberation; whether or how far or how soon this
connection will be fulfilled, depends upon this new and free India.
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