Foreign Some of them say the only way you can arrive at a compromise is if you um accept lesser forms of Liberty or equality others say that it is not possible to arrive at any compromise between Liberty and equality we should just accept that Liberty is better and
Live in any live in an unequal world right which is of course not a very satisfactory solution this is where this is again very interesting because SRI aurobindo approaches this problem from a very different perspective he says in talking about Liberty and equality we have forgotten the third fellow why isn’t fraternity
Considered important so fraternity is at best a sentiment or an emotional feeling we are all common human race we are all brothers and sisters etc etc but sherbindo says the change that is required is very fundamental and this is I I want to Now read out something which
Is he says this is from his Bengali writings of course I’m reading a translation um he didn’t write a great deal in Bengali but a few interesting essays are there so in this he says a conflict is going on between these two contradictory truths However the fact is that these two
Truths and feelings are not contradictory here he is referring actually to nationalism and internationalism and he says nationalism is a truth internationalism is also a truth I’m sorry I uh we’ll come back to this a little later I want to go back to Liberty and equality first
So this is from a book called the ideal of human Unity where he speaks about an idea called the religion of humanity religion of humanity the phrase was first coined by a French philosopher called August koth he coined the phrase and he was what what we call today a positivist meaning
He believed in a rational World his idea of religion of humanity was that we should the his religion was basically we should all become rational and and and have no other religion except for for reason and humanity is our God the good of humanity is our God shravindra says
This is an interesting idea it’s an inspiring idea it will definitely push certain things in the Forefront but it is not enough he says what is required is a spiritual religion of humanity what does he mean by that so I will read a passage which is profoundly beautiful which comes towards
The end of the ideal of human Unity he says the Liberty that has been so loudly proclaimed as an essential of modern progress is an outward mechanical and unreal Liberty the equality that has been so much sought after and battled for is equally and outward and mechanical and will turn
Out to be an unreal equality see he he actually writes this when the when the Soviet Union has just been formed so the world is not even gone through the experiment to say that oh this is not working so this is very prophetic right I’ll just read out that last sentence
Again he says the quality that has been so much sought after and battled for is equally and outward and mechanical and will turn out to be an unreal equality fraternity is not even claimed to be a practicable principle of The Ordering of life and what is put forward as its substitute
Is the outward and mechanical principle of equal Association or at best accommodate shape of Labor Freedom equality Brotherhood are three godheads of the Soul they cannot really be achieved through the external Machinery of society or by man so long as he lives only in the individual and the communal ego
A society that pursues Liberty as its ideal is unable to achieve equality a society that aims at equality will be obliged to sacrifice Liberty for the ego to speak of fraternity is for it to speak of something contrary to its nature yet is Brotherhood the real key to the
Triple Gospel of the idea of humanity the union of Liberty and equality can only be achieved by the power of human Brotherhood and it cannot be founded on anything else but Brotherhood exists only in the soul and by the soul it can exist by nothing else for this Brotherhood is not a matter
Either of physical kinship or of vital Association or intellectual agreement when the soul claims Freedom it is the freedom of its self-development the self-development of the Divine in man in all his being when it claims equality what it is claiming is that freedom equally for all and the recognition of
The Same Soul the same godhead in all human beings when it strives for Brotherhood it is the it is founding that equal freedom of self-development on a common aim a common life a Unity of mind and feeling founded upon the recognition of this inner spiritual Unity these three things are in fact the
Nature of the Soul For Freedom equality Unity are the Eternal attributes of the spirit now this is really revolutionary for a number of reasons one note that it takes the political ideals of the French Revolution right Liberty equality and fraternity it combines them with the vedantic experience of the self
Because he’s speaking of unity it combines it with this profound spiritual realization that until we realize that we are fundamentally one in the core of our being you cannot have real Brotherhood until you don’t have real Brotherhood Liberty and equality cannot be reconciled they will always be
Opposed to each other we often say for example that all religions have the same truth or the same goal and there is a truth in that of course but I think it is more important to say that all religions seek for the same essential truth but these approaches are are quite
Different and the wisdom of India lies in the fact that the truths can manifest in manifold ways and it can be reached in manifold paths and so the nationalism of India therefore understood in this sense is profoundly important not just for India but for the world as well
Because that allows it to say that look we can all coexist we can all be ourselves and yet we can feel a sense of living Oneness and unity with others around us
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