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Shree Aurbindo
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Message:- I TAKE the opportunity of the publication of this issue of the “Bulletin d’ Education Physique” of the Ashram to give my blessings to the Journal & the Association—J.S. A. S. A.(Jeunesse Sportive de I’ Ashram de Sri Aurobindo). In doing so I would like to dwell for a while on the deeper raison d’ etre of such Associations & especially the need & utility for the nation of a widespread organization of them & such sports or physical exercises as are practiced here. In their more superficial aspect they merely as games & amusements which people take up for entertainment or as a field for the outlet of the body’s energy & instinct of activity or for a means of the development & maintenance of the health & strength of the body; but they are or can much more than that: they are also fields for the development of habits, capacities & qualities which are greatly needed & of the utmost service to a people in war or in peace, & in its political & social activities, in most indeed of the provinces of a combined human endeavour. It is to this which we may call the national aspect of the subject that I would wish to give especial prominence. In our own time these sports games & athletics have assumed a place & command a general interest such as was seen only in earlier times in countries like Greece, Greece where all sides of human activity were equally developed & the gymnasium, chariot-racing & other sports & athletics had the same importance on the physical side as on the mental side the Arts & poetry & the drama, & were especially stimulated & attended to by the civic authorities of the City State. It was Greece that made an institution of the Olympiad & the recent re-establishment of the Olympiad as an international institution is a significant sign of the revival of the ancient spirit. This kind of interest has spread to a certain extent to our own country & India has begun to take a place in international contests such as the Olympiad. The newly founded State in liberated India is also beginning to be interested in developing all sides of the life of the nation & is likely to take an active part & a habit of direction in fields which were formerly left to private initiative. It is taking up, for instance, the question of the foundation & preservation of health & physical fitness in the nation & in the spreading of a general recognition of its importance. It is in this connection that the encouragement of sports & associations for athletics & all activities of this kind would be an incalculable assistance. A generalization of the habit of taking part in such exercises in childhood & youth & early manhood would help greatly towards the creation of physically fit & energetic people. Perfection of the Body:- THE perfection of the Body, as great a perfection as we can bring about by the means at disposl, must be the ultimate aim of culture. Perfection is the true aim of all culture, the spiritual & psychic, the mental, the vital & it must be the aim of our physical culture also. If you seeking is for a total perfection of the being, the physical part of it cannot be left aside; for the body is the material basis, the body is the instrument which we have to use. Sariram khalu dharma-sadhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, -- the body is the means of fulfillment of dharma, & dharma, means every ideal which we can propose to ourselves & the law of its working out & its action. A total perfection is the ultimate aim which we set before us, for our ideal is the Divine Life which we wish to create here, the life of the Spirit fulfilled on earth, life accomplishing its own spiritual transformation even here on earth in the conditions of the material universe. That cannot be unless the body too undergoes a transformation, unless its action & functioning attain to a supreme capacity & the perfection which is possible to it or which can made possible.
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It may therefore be useful in approaching an ancient Scripture, such as the Veda, Upanishads or Gita, to indicate precisely the spirit in which we approach it & what exactly we think we may der-ive from it that is of value to humanity & its future. First of all, there is undoubtedly a Truth one & eternal which we are seeking, from which all other truth derives, by the libht of which all other tr-uth finds its right place, explanation & relation to the scheme of knowledge. But precisely for that reason it cannot be shut up in a single trenchant formula, it is not likely to be found in its entirety or in all its bearings in any sinhle philosophy or Scripture or uttered altogether & for ever by any one teacher, thinker, prophet or Avatar.
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This book comprises three works on social & political philosophy. The Human cycle deals with the evolution of human society. The Ideal of Human Uuity examines the possible unification of the human race. War & Self-Determination covers the problem of war & the self-determination of nation of nations. “The individuals who will most help the future of humanity in the new age will be those who will recognise a spiritual evolution as the destiny & therefore need of the human being… They will especially not make the mistake of thinking that this [spiritual] change can be effected by machinery & outward institutions; they will know & never forget that it has to be lived out by man inwardly or it can be made a reality for the kind. They will adopt in its heart of meaning the inward view of the East which bids man seek the destiny & salvation within; but also they will accept, though with a different turn given to it, the importance which the West rightly attaches to life & to the making the best we know & can attain the general rule of all life.”
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The Human Aspiration She followr to the goal of that are passing on beyond, she is the first in the eternal succession of the dawns that are coming, --Usha widens bringing out that which lives. Awakening someone who was dead….What is her scope when she harmonuses with the dawns that shone out before & those that now must shine? She desires the ancient mornings & fulfis their light; projecting forwards her illumination she enters into commu-nion with the rest that aer to come…………………………(Kutsa Angirasa—Rig Veda.) Threefold are those supreme births of this divine force that is in the world are true, they are desirable; he moves there wideovert within the Infinite & shines pure, Iuminous & fulfilling… that which is immortal in mortals & possessed of the truth, is a god & established inwardly as an energy working out our divine powers… Became high-uplifted, O Strength, pierce all veils manifestb in au the things of the Godhead…………Vamadeva—Rig Veda ************* The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts &, as it seems, his inevitable & ultimate preoccupation,—for it survives the longest periods of scepticism & returns after every banishment,—is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divi- nation of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth & unmixed bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient da- wns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspi-ration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of Wisdom promises to be its last,—God, Light, Freedom, Lmmortality. *********************
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