On the occasion of 77th Independence Day, we revisit and reflect upon Śrī Aurobindo’s vision of “Bhavani Bharati” which inspires us at Bhrat.
Śrī Aurobindo, a seer who saw with sublime clarity the role for India in forging a brilliant future for humanity. Inspiration that flows from his pen holds his work, which is a living throb and can guide us in our journey of self-fulfillment, as an individual and as a nation.
In 1905 Sri Aurobindo was in search of ways to anchor his revolutionary activities in spiritual sādhanā. By then he had few spiritual experiences. In his own words he recollects the experience at Kālī temple:
“With my Europeanized mind I had no faith in image-worship. I hardly believed in the presence of God. When I looked at Her image I saw the living presence there. For the first time, I believed in the presence of God – the World-Mother.”
Śrī Aurobindo’s experience in the Kālī temple rekindled a sacred relationship. The 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.
It is an 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 Śrī 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 Sanatana Dharma its only Swaraj.”
“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 Shakti, composed of the Shakti’s of all the millions of units that make up the nation.”
“Just as Bhavani Mahisha Mardini sprang into being from the Shaktis of the millions of gods assembled in one mass of force and welded into unity. The Shakti we call India, Bhavani Bharati, is the living unity of the Shaktis of millions of people.”
Śrī Aurobindo reconceptualized the abstract notion called Nation into an embodiment called Nation Soul. A tremendous contribution from him, this identity-forming process is a pivotal vision to re-imagine our nation as a civilizational being, which is re-awakening.
Reawakening as a journey implies unburdening of severe conditioning that we have been subject to. Our slave mentality has to be dropped. Attitude of undue servitude needs to be thrown off.
But this process of decolonization is only half the story. For there needs to be a positive aspiration such as ‘to be ourselves’, to grasp the depths and vastness of character of our Nation Soul.
In recent times we are witness to notable enthusiasm in finding our roots & defining our future on the grounds of our civilizational dharma. This phase has arrived after continued subjugation to a colonial mindset despite several decades of our political independence.
We need to pray to the Divine Mother, Bhavāni Bhāratī, to not let this resolve go back into the darkness of ignorant sleep. We have to pray to her to guide this fire for defining our civilizational goals.
This is to be done while enduring the attacks from corrupted ideologies that prevail in the domains of culture & politics. This resolve needs strength, Śakti, which is possible to attain at the feet of the Divine Mother.
This then is Śrī Aurobindo’s road map for civilizational rejuvenation, as penned by our spiritual preceptor Śrī Roddam Ram.
(This article has been compiled from the tweet thread posted by @brhat_in on August 15, 2023, with minor edits to improve readability and conform to HinduPost style guide)
