“We believe that it is to make the yoga the ideal of human life that India rises today; by the yoga she will get the strength to realise her freedom, unity and greatness, by the yoga she will keep the strength to preserve it.” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 8, p. 24)
The present issue for June 2019 is an attempt to express this ideal given to us by Sri Aurobindo.
In our lead Essay feature, we continue the ongoing series by A.V. Sastri on ‘Psychology of Indian Nationalism’, this time the focus being on the inner dimension of the idea of nation as given by our ancient seers and sages. We take a look at how our Rishis envisioned a polity that is expressive of the deeper spirit and ideals of Indian culture.
We come to the present state of Indian society and polity as we take a closer look at a recent book titled “Indian Culture: A Decline or Revival?” by Prof. Bharat Gupt. Through this ‘Book of the Month’, we receive some hints to the question – what kind of national yoga is required if India has to experience a true renaissance.
The yoga of Indian nation necessitates we Indians rise beyond the narrow and the mundane, and deepen our knowledge and awareness of the ideals and the essence that make India truly a Shakti. This is the message we hear again and again from Aravindan Neelakandan, the popular author on a variety of topics related to Indian society, culture, history and science, whom we have interviewed for our feature Insightful Conversations for this present issue.
June 21 is International Yoga Day. Yoga, as we all know, is a whole lot more than asana. So we remind ourselves and our readers as we highlight a few gems on the inner and deeper meaning of Yoga from the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in our Guiding Light section.
As seekers on the path of self-finding we receive valuable guidance when we go through the Master’s letters sent to the seekers who wrote to him for advice. For this issue, we have selected two such letters written by Pavitra on behalf of Sri Aurobindo. These are part of our new series ‘Sunlit Path’ which will be featured in selected issues. Like our lead essay by A.V. Sastri, these letters were also first published in Sri Aurobindo Circle.
Through this unique collection of articles and posts we invoke and pay tribute to the Master’s words – “In the right view both of life and of Yoga all life is either consciously or subconsciously a Yoga.”
We hope our readers will enjoy going through this month’s features as much as we enjoyed working on these.
As always, we offer this work at the feet of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
In gratitude,
Beloo Mehra (for Renaissance Editorial Team)
~ Design: Beloo Mehra
