... divisions. But still the necessity was there and the nation form after many failures and false successes got into being, and the psychological motive of patriotism, a sign of the growth of a conscious national ego, arose in the form as the expression of its soul and the guarantee of its durability. For without such a soul, such a psychological force and presence within the frame, there can be no guarantee... ly formed out of incoherent elements actually brought together by the necessity of a subconscient idea, though apparently it was done only by physical force and the force of circumstances. As a national ego formed which identified itself with the geographical body of the nation and developed in it the psychological instinct of national unity and the need of its satisfaction, so a collective human ego... To prevent the organism from decaying and dying there must be such a psychological reality within as will persist and survive all changes of its body. Nations have that in a sort of collective national ego which persists through all vital changes. But this ego is not by any means self-existent and immortal; it supports itself on certain things with which it is identified. First, there is the geographical ...
... interest to the larger national interest which is the condition of humanity's fulfilment in the nation and to die for its welfare or safety is the supreme act of self-consummation in the larger national ego. There is a yet higher fulfilment for which only a few individuals have shown themselves ready, the enlargement of the self to include all humanity. A step forward has been taken in this direction... the step which has been omitted. The advance of humanity is a steady progress and there is no great gain in rushing positions far ahead, while important points in the rear are uncaptured. The national ego may easily mean nothing more than collective selfishness. I may be ready to sacrifice money and ease for the country in order to secure my wealth, fame or position and property which depend upon ...
... fragmented past, than “völkisch ego” or, for the sake of convenience, “national ego”, in its numerous variants from “self-awareness” up to “feeling of superiority”. From the time of the Renaissance onward the Germans developed a chronically inflated or inflamed ego, which would in the end blind them to reality. This national ego was the main cause of the Hitler phenomenon and the disasters following ...
... changed. That's all? Mother, here Sri Aurobindo has spoken of "the formation of ego-individuality". Ego-individuality means...? There are individual egos and collective egos. For example, the national ego is a collective ego. A group may have a collective ego. The human race has a collective ego. It is bigger or smaller. The individual ego is the ego of a particular person; it is the smallest kind... family and if one goes far back to the ancestors, one sees that there is a similarity all down the line. Well, it is the family ego, which is much more lasting than the individual ego; and there is a national ego. And the families which are not much intermixed, you see, which have remained without intermixing very much, as for example, in the time of the aristocrats, the aristocracy did not mix much, they ...
... , whose whole life and education must be turned towards a satisfaction of these propensities under the government of a trained mind and reason and for the best advantage of the personal and the national ego. It has not been either the turn of her mind to regard man pre-eminently as a reasoning animal, or let us say, widening the familiar definition, a thinking, feeling and willing natural existence... And similarly India has not understood by the nation or people an organised State or an armed and efficient community well prepared for the struggle of life and putting all at the service of the national ego,—that is only the disguise of iron armour which masks and encumbers the national Purusha,—but a great communal soul and life that has appeared in the whole and has manifested a nature of its own ...
... education must be turned towards a satisfaction of these propensities under the government of a trained mind and reason and for the best advantage of the personal Page 14 and the national ego. It has not been either the turn of her mind to regard man preeminently as a reasoning animal, or let us say, widening the familiar definition, a thinking, feeling and willing natural existence... And similarly India has not understood by the nation or people an organised State or an armed and eicient community well prepared for the struggle of life and putting all at the service of the national ego, — that is only the disguise of iron armour which masks and encumbers the national Purusha, — but a great communal soul and life that has appeared in the whole Page 15 and has manifested ...
... whose whole life and education must be turned towards a satisfaction of these propensities under the government of a trained mind and reason and for the best advantage of the personal and the national ego. It has not been either the turn of her mind to regard man pre-eminently as a reasoning animal, or let us say, widening the familiar definition, a thinking, feeling and willing natural existence... And similarly India has not understood by the nation or people any organised State or an armed and efficient community well prepared for the struggle of life and putting all at the service of the national ego,— that is only the disguise of iron armour which masks and encumbers the national Purusha,—but a great communal soul and life that has appeared in the whole and has manifested a nature of its own ...
... only an ego which rules over our thoughts, another which directs our sentiments and sensations, and another governing our body; but more subtle and imperious, there is a family ego, a social ego, a national ego, an ego of the times and environment, a political or religious ego. And all these egos which are organized by the actual functioning of the brain must be dissolved and surpassed. There is even a ...
... conviction in the previous chapters, more specifically in the one entitled “Superior People”. Every form of Fascism is a profession of exalted nationalism. In Germany the sense of superiority and of national Ego, imbibed with the mother milk, took on extraordinary proportions. From it resulted all the rest. The backbone of National Socialism was the Führerprinzip , the leadership principle. This did ...
... progress that began from a loose formation in which various elements were gathered together for unification, proceeded through a period of strong concentration and coercion in which the conscious national ego was developed, fortified and provided with a centre and instruments of its organic life, and passed on to a final period of assured separate existence and internal unity as against outside pressure ...
... the international situation and the psychology of national life. The chief feature of this psychology is the predominance and worship of national egoism under the sacred name of patriotism. Every national ego, like every organic life, desires a double self-fulfilment, intensive and extensive or expansive. The deepening and enriching of its culture, political strength and economic well-being within its ...
... itself to the pressure of the forces that are today creating phenomena which are global, world-wide and planetary in character. In this connection, Sri Aurobindo makes a distinction between national ego and national soul, corresponding to the distinction in regard to the individual life where the superficial ego is seen to be distinct from the true individual soul. The mark of egoism, according ...
... has its formations in the collectivity also at all the different degrees and levels of consciousness. We have spoken of the mounting frames of reference, and accordingly there is a family ego, a national ego and even there is a humanity ego. The collective ego is as strong as the individual ego. It is only in the transcendent consciousness, the consciousness of the Divine who is the one true Person ...
... mentioned as the instrument of God”, writes Fischer. “One often reads: we believe in the task our people have to accomplish for the world.” 411 As shown in the previous pages, the acme the German national ego reached in August 1914 was prepared throughout the preceding century, not as a vague sentiment but in clearly articulated thought and formulation. A time bomb had started ticking in the young, ambitious ...
... Sri Aurobindo sees in the nation or the people not merely an organised State or an armed and efficient community well prepared for the struggle of life and putting all at the service of the national ego, but a great collective soul and life that has appeared in the whole and has manifested a nature of its own and a law of that nature, a svabhāva and a svadharma, and has embodied it in its ...
... similarly India has not understood by the nation or people an organised State or an armed and efficient community well prepared for the struggle of life and putting all at the service of the national ego, - that is only the disguise of iron armour which masks and encumbers the national Purusha, - but a great communal soul and life that has appeared in the whole and has manifested a nature of its ...
... strong that they begin to consider the individuals like the cells of the body, bound to think and act alike. No freedom is allowed to them. Or take the Balkans, for example. The racial and national ego in them is so rigid that they could not protect themselves by a federation against Germany. Page 217 ...
... of national identity are geographical unity, a common past and a current motivation towards unity. 44 The point is further amplified in the present work: But we have a mark that this national ego owes its life to the coalescence of the separative instinct and the instinct of unity; for the nation feels itself one as distinguished from other nations .... there is a deeper factor.. a sort ...
... and tribes that resisted had to perish. SRI AUROBINDO: It was the same condition in France before the restoration of monarchy. On one side humanity is locked together; on the other side the national egos remain. The unity has of course to be a living unity, not like that of the Roman Empire in which the same old organisations and institutions remained. PURANI: Now that the Allies and the Belgians ...
... and unnecessary duplications. We need a common organization for production, supply and sea transport. Viviani was impressed by this idea which was very simple but very novel at a time when national egos were still very powerful He sent this unknown young man, whose name was Jean Monnet, to the Minister for war, Millerand, in turn, Page 13 posted him to London, where he stayed till... formed again on the basis of national sovereignty with all that it entails of politics of prestige and economic protection. He felt that the weakened and humiliated France, if she remembered her soul, if she remembered her tradition of universality could and must play a great role in the preservation of peace . Some people would make fun of Monnet's "supra-national theories" (actually Monnet... shall neither solicit nor accept instructions from any government or any other body and we shall refrain from any action incompatible with the supra-national character of our tasks. We have noted the member States' pledge to respect this supra-national character and not try to influence us in our work." The formulation went so much against all the ancient ways of thinking that even 50 years later one ...
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