Resurgence of India to her place in the world has not been easy and is stil in the making. According to the compiled statistics India contributed 27% to the world GDP in 1700 AD. Even though India was ruled by the Moghuls, the economic condition was prospering. After the tussles between the European powers and the establishment of the British rule, Indian GDP took a nose dive coming to a paltry 3% of the world GDP at the time her independence in 1947. While the economic exploitation was large, the intellectual exploitation was atrocious. With greed in their eyes, the British lords tried to wipe off the Indian culture by modifying the educational syllabus for the children. Children had to know of British history and English language than their own history and their own language. All were orchestrated through the employment opportunities. India has not recovered from this shock. Much of new youth in India hardly know the details of the glorious past of their history. Some of the western linguists had gotten interested in Sanskrit in the eighteenth century and did discover the rich literature available through palm leaf manuscripts. It was a disbelief to the civil service turned scholars to imagine that India was capable of producing the material they were witnessing. Various theories circulated as to the people from the west might have come several thousand years ago and settled in the country displacing the natives. Such is a history in the US but it has no evidence in India. Books were written to show why the Europeans must be superior and why Indians must emulate Europe in her nature and nurture. The core Indian scholars hardly knew English to understand the trick. People who knew English were not analytic about India's hidden heritage. A new India was being created that was against the old cultural traditions except through a superficial resemblance in religion. The religion itself was under attack with the free rolling missionaries busy in converting people. The Islamists had done enough disruption earlier. The person who is credited to have observed the lethargy of the suppressed Indians was a young scholar from Calcutta who turned himself to be a Hindu monk. The eloquent and youthful Swami Vivekananda tried to educate the west about the fallacies being promoted in the name of religion. He championed the messages from the Indian scriptures calling for respect for all faiths and religions. He brought inspiration to his countrymen to free themselves from the shackles of superstitions and prepare to reconstruct the great nation. He called for a world that respects all and serves the weak. It was a bold call.
A second person, ten years younger to Swami Vivekananda, was encouraged to study English by his father in order to be an officer under the British rule. He rebelled and returned to India eventually joining the freedom movement. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was imprisoned a few times and was finally charged with "sedition" with a possible punishment of deportation to solitary confinement in Andaman islands. He slipped out of Calcutta in a mail boat to the French enclave of Pondicherry and escaped the British. This was 1910. Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) lived in Pondicherry (now called Puducherry) for the rest of his life as an ascetic and mostly in seclusion. With the help of Mirra Richard, a French lady, whom he called as his spiritual partner, he helped create an international spiritual center (Ashrama) attracting seekers all around the world. He named his discovery as "Integral Yoga" and became a prolific author in English language. He was nominated for a Nobel prize in literature. Mirra Richard, later known as the "Mother", managed and directed the efforts at the Ashrama. Sri Aurobindo's "Integral Yoga" was an extension of the Indian Vedanta theory with the postulate that human beings are capable of operating in the state of "super mind" through personal efforts of transcending beyond the mind. One would be eligible to invoke an environment of truth where all experiences could be joyous and peaceful. His was an experiment and he expected his Ashramites be "sadhak"s in this grand journey. Many joined him to live in the Ashrama and many elsewhere became the followers. Sri Aurobindo has a worldwide presence.
Many of my father's friends were attracted to Sri Aurobindo's writings and did choose to live in the solitude of the Ashrama environment. Sri Manoj Das became a pre-eminent author and won many awards. Sri N K Panda taught music to the Ashramites. Several others lived and participated in the Ashrama activities. I have been to Puducherry a few times to visit and to meet my father's friends. The new India with her deep economic distress lacked the initiative needed to restore her scholarship and tradition. Independent centers like Sri Aurobindo's in Puducherry proceeded in a rediscovery mode and created educational framework to prepare children to operate in the new world with the base on Indian thinking. "Mother" also established a research and education institute called Sri Aurobindo Society to promote various aspects of human endeavor in order to "Be perfect" as she called. My friend Dr. Sampadananda Mishra directs the activities related to Sanskrit at Sri Aurobindo Society. A committed follower, he travels around the world to participate in meetings and conferences. He is an innovative educator. He develops new technique to reach out the young children in order to teach Sanskrit. He is an expert of the prosody renderings in Indian scriptures and has written books on the topic. I have known Dr Sampadananda for a few years through his visits to the US. He is associated with a project I am coordinating called "Story of Sanskrit" that is designed to bring the depth of the Sanskrit language and literature to the world audience through the public channels of television. I met him again in Bangkok and he has invited me to give a talk on the project to the Ashrama audience. The taxi was going through a well paved road. Occasional townships and market areas appeared. Some village lights were also seen in distance. It is said that the transport infrastructure in Tamil Nadu is better than most other areas in the country. Dr Sampad called at about 9 PM to let me know he left some supper in my room that I would stay overnight. I reached the International Guest House of the Sri Aurobindo Society around 9:30 PM and tried to register myself as a guest there.
