Man, Superman and Supraman

A glasshouse must not be a very attractive place to live. Everything inside is clean and beautiful, neatly arranged, proportionate and artificial. Every leaf is plastic, smell of soil non-existent, sunlight filtered, growth calibrated and death sanitized. A man uprooted from his roots and placed in an alien culture is little better than a plant inside a glasshouse. Life today makes such demands on us that almost necessitate a deracination. A life in a foreign culture is likely to create admiration for it and at the same time engender contempt for our own culture. It may also work in the opposite direction however the likelihood of emergence of a harmonious sonata that combines the best of both cultures is rare and precious. Indian and British cultures came together to create a master who gave meaning to both the cultures and also transcended both in giving prototype of a man who will be beyond these and every other cultures. 

Aurobindo Ghosh was born on 15^th August 1872 in Calcutta India however was promptly shifted by his father first to Loreto Convent, Darjeeling and within 2 years to England to prevent him from contracting any strand of Indian culture. His father wanted his sons to grow up in England and prepare themselves to join the elite Indian Civil Service. Aurobindo Ghosh stood 11^th in the prestigious ICS examination though he was getting increasingly convinced that he does not wish to serve the British. He left the shores of England and took up various jobs in Baroda, Gujarat before he plunged into Indian politics and the freedom movement. He also took up deep study of Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, and Indian Scriptures. He believed in aggression and wanted the Indian National Congress to engage into an active confrontation with the British Government. His impassioned speeches, inflammatory articles in various magazines and supposed involvement in Alipore Bomb Case made him spend numerous months in jail. Lord Minto, the then Governor General of India famously remarked, "I can only repeat that he is the most dangerous man we have to reckon with."

Anandamath of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee had a great influence on Aurobindo Ghosh. He idolized the character of the monk who fights the soldiers of East India Company for India’s freedom. He was also guided by Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele. He retired from politics to Pondicherry in 1910 and began his outward spiritual journey. 

Sri Aurobindo as he came to be known later was able to see man as an evolving species. He took off from where Darwin had left. His man was to develop into another man that would be as different and superior to the present man as he is today to an animal. Its physical form would be more luminous, flexible and adaptable and his mind would not need thoughts and experiences to learn but a light would enter his mind and illuminate his being. Sri Aurobindo called it the Supramental Being. The man as a species today will evolve and the limitations of his body and mind will become vestigial as he attains the status of Supramental Being. 

Sri Aurobindo interpreted Indian scriptures in the light of supreme logic and with a touch of sublime beauty. His epic poem Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol in 12 books and 24,000 lines is an enduring contribution to not only philosophy but also to English literature. He critiqued the works of Shakespeare with meter of sound and rhythm of meaning and explained Kalidas with a familiarity that only a supramind can fathom.