Sri Aurobindo’s School of Bhavani Bharati - An Introduction

Sri Aurobindo is akin to a Himālayan peak, whose first glimpse leaves an indelible awe inspiring impression on our mind. A revolutionary, a nationalist leader, a philosopher, a poet, a yogi and a seer. An ordinary mind moves from known to yet another known with a sense of calculable fear. A spiritualized mind establishes an enduring link between the known and the unknown. Whereas, a seer’s mind traverses the realms of the unknown to bridge countless chasms of time. Sri Aurobindo is that seer who saw with sublime clarity the role for India in forging a brilliant future for humanity.

Inspiration that flows from his pen holds the wideness of the mountain range and vastness of the sky. In an act of transformation this inspiration widens the horizons of one’s mind. To achieve this transformation we must approach his works with humility. His work is a living throb and can guide us in our journey of self-fulfillment, as an individual and as a nation.

This essay discusses:

• What were his early inspirations as a nationalist leader ? How did the spiritual path become an enduring basis for all his pursuits?
• Rejuvenating ancient civilization, Bhārata. Road map of self-finding for young nation state, India.
• Envisioning nation building with sanātana dharma as the central idea.
• Blessings of Bhavānī Bhāratī

In 1905 Sri Aurobindo was in search of ways to anchor his revolutionary activities in spiritual sādhanā. By then he had few spiritual experiences. These experiences revealed to him the forces that are beyond the reach of the rational mind of the man. His limited spiritual goal was to attain such strength and put it to liberating India. In this regard he met a few spiritual figures. On one such occasion, he spent some time in a small town in Gujarat called Chandod, with a disciple of a yogi. When he returned from this trip, there was a marked difference in Sri Aurobindo’s attitude. He was now given to worshipping the goddess with great fervour. He changed his routine by reducing his diet to only one meal a day and mostly maintained silence. What transpired during this trip remains a decisive episode. In his own words he recollects the experience at Kālī temple:

With my Europeanized mind I had no faith in image-worship and I hardly believed in the presence of God. I went to Kernali where there are several temples. There is one of Kālī and when I looked at the image I saw the living presence there. For the first time, I believed in the presence of God.…Or you stand before a temple of Kālī beside a sacred river and see what? a sculpture, a gracious piece of architecture, but in a moment mysteriously, unexpectedly there is instead a Presence, a Power, a Face that looks into yours, an inner sight in you has regarded the World-Mother.

The Impetus of this World-Mother transformed into Bhavānī Bhāratī, a Sanskrit poem. He composed it in praise of the Mother of Bhāratas. Opening lines of this sonnet establish the identity of Bhāratīyas:

I am the Mother, O child, of the Bhāratas, the eternal people beloved of the Gods, whom neither hostile Fate nor Time nor Death has a power to destroy.

“Eternal people beloved of the Gods,”- such a potent line! This relationship that we have forged with divine forces, devatās, is irrepressible. From the early dawn of this civilization we have invoked them through yajñas and diverse folk rituals. We sought their blessings in running our society. Their favour was most sought after, for founding institutions, running kingdoms, organizing knowledge. In every endeavor our devatās stood in the centre. Our connection to them remained uncompromising. Sri Aurobindo’s experience in the Kālī temple, rekindled this sacred relationship. Power of this experience was put in service of liberating India. Fierce forms of the Divine Mother were always the leading forces of great kingdoms. Kakaṭiyās in the then Andhra Pradesh and the warrior clans of Kerala worshipped Goddess Bhadrakālī. Inspiration that Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj drew was by worshipping Mā Bhavānī. Mā Durgā is worshiped as the protector Goddess in the east of India. Mā Vaiśṇodevī in Jammu and Kashmir. Mā Camuṇdeśvarī leads the kingdoms in the Kannada region. It is invocation of the same governing, organizing and protecting force, that then synergized into Mā Bhāratī. It is inspiration sown by the Divine Mother that made Sri Aurobindo state to his followers –

Be very careful to follow my instructions in avoiding the old kind of politics. Spirituality is India’s only politics, the fulfillment of the sanātana dharma its only svarāja.

Can India be reborn?

This is the question that assails our minds in current times. Most often answers we find are demoralizing and instill deep self doubt about our own future. Sri Aurobindo’s writings on Bhavānī Bhāratī deal with this question. Some excerpts are presented here.

Many of us, utterly overcome by tamas, the dark and heavy demon of Inertia, are saying nowadays that it is impossible, that India is decayed, bloodless and lifeless, too weak ever to recover, that our race is doomed to extinction. It is a foolish and idle saying. No man or nation need be weak unless he chooses, no man or nation need perish unless he deliberately chooses extinction.

What is a nation ? Śakti of its millions…

For what is a nation ? What is our Mother-country ? It is not a piece of earth, nor a figure of speech, nor a fiction of the mind. It is a mighty Śakti, composed of the Śakti’s of all the millions of units that make up the nation, just as Bhavānī Mahiṣāsura Mardinī sprang into being from the Śaktis of the millions of gods assembled in one mass of force and welded into unity. The Śakti we call India, Bhavānī Bhāratī, is the living unity of the Śaktis of the three hundred million people, but she is inactive, imprisoned in the magic circle of tamas, the self indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons. To get rid of tamas we have but to wake the Brahman within.

How did a civilization that meditated on myriad facets of Self end up in a state of perpetual Self-doubt?

Sri Aurobindo assessed the spectrum of challenges that confronted India. In his diagnosis he felt that its soul power lies in its spiritual well being. It is the weakness of this spiritual health that is ailing us. He categorically states that it is not lack of knowledge (jñāna) or bhaktiḥ that is the cause of our dire state but the lack of Śakti alone. Such an uncompromising assessment saves us huge time and energy. It is the strength that defines all transactions of the world. When one comes face to face with an adversary, what matters at that moment of truth is strength. Do you have strength to defend yourself ? When the civilization lacks Śakti, this weakness permeates all facets of its life. It fails to develop into an intellectually vibrant society. It results in a society that lacks kṣatra tejas or valour, a society that lacks capacity for hard and purposeful work. Ultimately it turns into a moribund society inflicted by tamas, an indomitable inertia.

A closer look at this assessment about Śakti, brings in a strong sense of familiarity with the words of Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji’s line of assessment was similar. In fact Swamiji’s words might have laid the foundation for Sri Aurobindo’s vision and work. Rebuilding our strength and overcoming our weakness forms the nucleus of the re-birthing process of Bhārata. Sri Aurobindo says,

To get strength we must adore the Mother of Strength.

Strength then and again strength and yet more strength is the need of our race. But if it is strength we desire, how shall we gain it if we do not adore the Mother of Strength? She demands worship not for Her own sake, but in order that she may help us and give herself to us.

This is no fantastic idea, no superstition but the ordinary law of the Universe. The Gods cannot, if they would, give themselves unasked. Even the eternal comes not unawares upon men. Every devotee knows by experience that we must turn to Him and desire and adore Him before the Divine spirit pours in its ineffable beauty and ecstasy upon the soul. What is true of the Eternal is true also of Her who goes forth from Him.

This is the dharma that for the salvation of humanity was cherished in the seclusion of this peninsula from old. It is to give this religion that India is rising. She does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great.”

After this episode Sri Aurobindo started withdrawing from active politics. He dedicated his time more for spiritual pursuit by divine command, adesa. But he held within him an enduring vision of Human Unity forged under the aegis of sanātana dharma. In fact this compelling vision remained an inseparable part of his Integral or Pūrṇa Yoga. His vision about Politics, Culture, Philosophy and Metaphysics, were all now founded on the firmament of Pūrṇa Yoga.

Authored by Ramachandra Roddam. Published by Brhat.