Mother's Chronicles - Book Four

7

The Stream

Let us look again at our Lotus, Aurobindo. But that Lotus was not only a flower. He was a fruit. A fruition.

And what mighty Tree bore that Fruit? What seeds pushed forth that mighty Tree? How far-spread were its roots? Again, what soil nourished it, and sent the sap coursing through the Tree's mighty trunk and into its branches?

And in which jungle was that Tree to be found ?

The soil was the land known as India.

The jungle was the Indian society.

Shall we go into the jungle and explore? Who knows what we may stumble across!

*

* *

However, before we step into the jungle, let us be clear about one thing. For unless we are clear about that one thing, much that follows will remain obscure or unintelligible.

Page 54

Yes, I am talking about the Stream of Indian culture. The Stream did not dry up with the Vedic or the Upanishad Rishis. The Avatars still came, revelation still continued.

There was this Sanskrit.

The thread that linked the Indian subcontinent together was Sanskrit. And it was Sanskrit that made the land culturally one.

The language was studied through the length and breadth of the subcontinent. It ran like a forceful river, binding the peoples together, creating in them a sense of oneness, setting them one standard that was "at once universal and particular, the eternal religion." The eternal religion "is the basis, permanent and always inherent in India, of the shifting, mutable and multiform thing we call Hinduism."

But what is Hinduism? Sri Aurobindo replies: "One thing at least is certain about Hinduism, religious or social, that its whole outlook is God ward, its whole search and business is the discovery of God and our fulfilment in God. But God is everywhere and universal. Where did Hinduism seek Him ? Ancient or pre-Buddhistic Hinduism sought Him both in the world and où side it; it took its stand on the strength and beauty and joy of the Veda. ..."

This Hinduism was so deep-rooted in the peoples of the subcontinent that in the 1880s, James Rutledge¹ wrote a long article from which we quote a little: "The Mythology of Greece

1. A correspondent of The Times, and the editor of the Friend of India (The Statesman).

Page 55

and Rome is nowhere. The bloody religious rites of our own forefathers cannot even be traced with any certainty or accuracy. But this faith of India goes back not to a ruder but to a purer period and present truths embodied in poems that humanity in all its future will not allow to perish. . . . Again Hindooism has produced immense charity and kindness, ascetic devotion almost unrivalled, and an endurance for the faith which no conqueror has been able to shake. When the Crusaders and Mussulmans were confronting each other in the name of religion for the possession of the 'Holy land' the faith of India inculcated a severe reprobation of blood-shedding even of the brute creation. . . . The devotion, too, running into every act of life is something that is entitled to the respect of all men." And look how the tide has turned! Those very barbarians now lecture Indians on humanitarianism. Rutledge went on to speak of "the thoughts of master minds to whom reflection was as their daily bread, if not more. We think that their faith has been cruelly calumniated. We revere its charity, its humanity, its gentleness, its endurance, its thoughtfulness, its friendliness, and much more. ... It is something to have such a grand antiquity and such a mighty grasp on the human mind that ages upon ages of disasters have not unloosened the hold. We can admire this. We wish we could follow the threads of its story into dark times, and study so great a marvel of the human mind."

Sri Aurobindo was to follow these 'threads of its story into dark times' and reach the very fount of Hindu 'religion.' "That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal

Page 56

religion, because it is the universal religion which embraces all others." He asserted, "If a religion is not universal, it cannot be eternal." Besides, "It is the Hindu religion only because the Hindu nation has kept it . . . But it is not circumscribed by the confines of a single country, it does not belong peculiarly and for ever to a bounded part of the world." He, however, distinguished the outer social structure of Hinduism from its soul. "There are two Hinduisms: one which takes its stand on the kitchen and seeks its Paradise by cleaning the body; another which seeks God, not through the cooking pot and the social convention, but in the soul." Time and again Sri Aurobindo gave a call to break the present mould of Hinduism. He continued, "The latter is also Hinduism and it is a good deal older and more enduring than the other; it is the Hinduism of Bhishma and Srikrishna, of Shankara and Chaitanya, the Hinduism which exceeds Hindusthan, was from of old and will be for ever, because it grows eternally through the aeons." This was in 1910. Then in a letter some twenty-five years later, he gave his considered view of the present state of Hinduism. "Hindu religion appears to me as a cathedral-temple, half in ruins, noble in the mass, often fantastic in detail but always fantastic with a significance — crumbling or badly outworn in places, but a cathedral-temple in which service is still done to the Unseen and its real presence can be felt by those who enter with the right spirit. The outer social structure which it built for its approach is another matter." Finally, he cast an overall glance. "I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a

Page 57

book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage . . ." As for his own role, Sri Aurobindo said categorically, "I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion, new or old, for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter."

*

* *

Arising out of the womb of time, Sanskrit enabled the Vedic Rishis to reveal the stark Truth for posterity.

Past untold ages flowed the Stream. It saw the rise and fall of empires, it saw the making and breaking of societies, it saw the ebb and flow in the lives of men. And the Stream flowed on.

Down the bed of Time it flowed, ever widening, ever enriched. Of the few epics that have come down to us, two are written in Sanskrit: the Ramayana of Valmiki, and the Mahabharata of Vyasa. In the hands of Kalidasa at a later age, it became a thing of grace. But Sanskrit was not the language of poets only, of philosophers only, it lent itself equally well to the needs of science and mathematics: astronomy, astrology, medicine including surgery, the science of life —each science developed its own terminology in Sanskrit. It is a precise language. And vigorous.

Page 58

Embodying the Truth of a purer age, Sanskrit, the life-source of this ancient land, flowed like an underground river in the Jungle, sustaining it against all onslaughts. And it kept alive the soul of the race.

Verily, Sanskrit is the language of the soul.

Page 59