Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy And Yoga - Some Aspects

Spiritual Life and Family Alignments

All attachments is a hindrance to spiritual seeking. Family ties constitute one of the greatest, strongest and most persistent attachments of all. Needless to say that whatever be the necessity of such attachment to keep up the stability and solidarity of family life even at the expense of truth, right and justice, the utility of such ties in spiritual life is absolutely nil. So long as there is any" attachment to individuals as members of family— an attachment which flows from particular relationship, such as husband and wife, father and son, brother and sister etc, the prospect of any spiritual liberation and up lift ment of consciousness is a far cry. In spiritual life we have to outgrow all our personal narrowness and limitations and family relationships certainly constitute such narrowness and limitations. They have therefore to be strictly eschewed in spiritual seeking. We cannot remain attached to our natal and marital relations and yet have the same broad universal vision that sees the equal Brahman in all. When Arjuna was overwhelmed with grief and sadness at the prospect of killing his own relatives, near and dear ones without whom life would not be worth living, Sri Krishna rebuked him by saying that the wise ones do not grieve over the passing of any. For the soul is eternal while the forms only are passing. There is no meaning in abstaining from killing involved in Dharma-Yuddha even though the killed were one's own flesh and blood. Pertaining to the forms only, the family ties are relative and passing while the soul is eternal and indestructible

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and to the ties of soul only we should adhere. There is no difference and distinction in soul-substance ; it is one and the same for all while our natural forms differ from objects to objects and from individuals to individuals. But all natural forms that come into existence are not only mutable and perishable but they are reborn again and again under different names and forms in different times and climes. This is the secret of re-birth of which He, Sri Krishna has the knowledge while Arjuna has it not.

The family relations originate in primal selfishness and their tendency is to endure through habits, customs and traditions. Very few people can outgrow the family ties and be fair and just in their dealings with outsiders. Father and son, husband and wife will usually if not invariably join together to fight the third man even if he happens to be in the right ; so will all the other members of the family. They would not stop to weigh the pros and cons or the right and justice involved in case of quarrel with outsiders. All will pool their strengths together to defeat the adversary. That is also the case with national or collective egos. International wars are the natural consequences of such attitudes. All these are the aberrations and failings of the vital or life-being of humanity. This is patent in all human affairs. But the spiritual seeker is a seeker of Truth. He cannot and must not align himself with any kind of falsehood. He has to uphold truth even if it means breaking of family interests and ties. He is above all ties of personal relationship which ties him down to ordinary and lower consciousness. We cannot take up the cudgel on behalf of our father, mother, brother, sister, husband and wife when they are wrong just because we belong

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to some family. Such an attitude will be fatal to spiritual life which insists on Truth and nothing but truth and rejection of falsehood and error, and all hasty and summary judgments.

This was the compelling reason why all spiritual aspirants left their homes and families in order to seek the Spirit. Within the narrow limits of family life, it was found impossible to pursue an existence which was favorable to the efflorescence of spiritual knowledge. Hence withdrawal of flight from family life was the prevailing rule. But under different auspices and special environment created for spiritual aspirants this Bight may not be necessary. What is necessary is a change of consciousness which will place the family relations in proper perspective and see that it in no way interferes with our seeking of the Truth. In a spiritual society there will be no more narrow family ties. The whole society would be one big family favorable to spiritual seeking and fulfilment.

And all that was destroyed must be rebuilt And old experience laboured out once more. All can be done if the God-fought is there.

— Sri Aurobindo

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