Had
Sri Aurobindo lived, Nehru's plans of socialism would have been still-born and India might
have escaped from its (ongoing) misery of the past 65 years.
The
more I think about it, it becomes clear that I am speaking from the ANCIENT
INDIAN TRADITION. It is an instinctive expression of critical thinking, tolerance,
and liberty that ancient India
so deeply understood.
Till
Nehru came in and confused everybody, including Team Anna/ Arvind Kejriwal and
even Baba Ramdev. And of course, RSS/BJP are DIRECT godchildren of Nehru. There
is no distinction I can make between BJP and Congress. (Btw, Modi is the same.)
NONE of
these people are attuned to what Gandhi, Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and Tagore
were attuned to: a deep instinctive tolerance and insistence on liberty. It was
an instinctive expression of Indian-ness, the true Hindutva.
But Nehru the Westerner came in with half-baked
German (Hegelian) ideas and destroyed India. It is time to reclaim Hindu Capitalism (also known
as Hindu Dharma) and bring tolerance and liberty back to India. This
includes economic freedom and incentive-based governance outlined in Arthashastra.
It’s not just Arvind Kejriwal whose spirit is ablaze
with the need to change it all. There are many Kejriwals working quietly for a
change in the political infrastructure of this country. Most of them admire him
— though they may differ with him on policy issues.
Jai Prakash Narayan started the Lok Satta party with
the same intent, much before Kejriwal arrived on the scene. He has managed to
win one seat in the Andhra Assembly elections so far. Others have followed his footsteps. There is the
Jago Party, which was launched in 2007 and is active in Rajasthan…
Sanjeev Sabhlok, a former Indian Administrative
Services officer, was fed up with the “system”, too. He says the system is like
a cesspool feeding endless disease-carrying mosquitoes (or corrupt officials
and politicians). He quit the services in 2001 to start a liberal party like
Rajaji’s Swatantra Party. He has written a book, Breaking Free of Nehru: Lets
Unleash India,
and has been working with Bhagawat’s FTI.
FTI functions more like a club for anyone to join
and take a plunge into politics with the intent of changing it for the better.
It has 150 members at present. Sabhlok operates from Australia, and advises the
government on public policy. He is gearing up to return to India the
moment the field is ready for a new political party.
Both Sabhlok and Bhagawat admire Kejriwal, of course
with plenty of reservations. They don’t approve of the economic policies that
Kejriwal has spoken of so far. Sabhlok says he has met Kejriwal and tried to
show him his idea of reform, “but he has not been responsive”. “I’ve not given
up. I continue to try to reach out to him.”
But Kejriwal’s admirers have a word of caution for
him. “Many of his ideas, such as fixing prices for essential commodities, are
deeply socialist, and will take India
further down the path of ruin. We need serious policy thinkers to come forward,
not economics illiterates,” says Sabhlok.
The
inaugural session From September 14–21, The Auroville Festival – Auroville,
City for Transformation, was held at the India International Centre in
New Delhi.
AVToday
October 2012.
Smt.
Ambika Soni, Minister of Information and
Broadcasting, was the
guest speaker. She recalled one of her most cherished
memories and experiences, of having darshan of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother as
a child, which, she said, has marked her relationship with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
and Auroville ever since. “When I went to Auroville a few years ago, it was
such a beautiful experience. If India today has a message for the world, it is
its basic mantra of inclusiveness, synthesizing the various religions,
languages and cultural traditions, creating a global dialogue, creating
understanding and compassion, avoiding the so-called clash of civilizations.
And that is what you are doing in Auroville as well. We should not look at the
individual colours, at the blue, the yellow and the red, but weave them
together to get the colour white, the colour of love. This would be the
greatest message of Auroville to the rest of the world.”
She expressed the
hope that the Auroville
Festival in Delhi
will be the first
of many interactive processes “of
all of you from Auroville with the rest of us who are deprived of living in
such experiments”.
Shri Soli
Sorabji, eminent jurist
and Chairman of the India International Centre, first became involved
with Auroville in
the 1980s, “when a
case came up
at the Supreme
Court regarding Auroville – was
it a religion or
not? And then the Supreme Court held that Auroville was not representing
a religion. That was my first contact with the work of Sri Aurobindo and Auroville.
Eight years later I visited Auroville and it was an unforgettable experience,
meeting so many people of different nationalities. It was a place of
dedication; the whole atmosphere was alleviating or rather transforming. Then, much later, I was asked for a legal
opinion on the question if Auroville was a government organization or an
autonomous institution and I gave the opinion that Auroville is an independent
juristic entity, not a government body. I will soon go again to Auroville to
replenish my batteries.”
He
then proceeded with an assessment of the human condition today. “One of the
most tragic paradoxes of our times is that an age that is witness to
tremendous progress and
technological developments has at
the same time also seen a tremendous
decline of moral
and spiritual values.
Today, human beings
are measured in terms of mass and molecules, forgetting
that there is a spiritual spark in every human being and that the divine is in
the heart of everyone. Greed has taken enormous steps. And there is also a
sharp the decline in the standards of politicians. Here I would like to read
something by Sri Aurobindo which is still quite relevant today.
Peter Heehs @peterheehs - now Attack on Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry by stone-throwing crowd chanting slogans from 12.10 p.m. today. Situation still unclear.
