Sri Aurobindo and philosophy

AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY , Philosophy East and West, 10:3/4 (1960:Oct.-1961:Jan.) p.135 GER Pra N à Ÿ MW VISHWANATH PRASAD VARMA Sri Aurobindo and Greek Philosophy SRI AUROBINDO (1872-1950) was a unique personality in modern India. For fourteen years he studied European literature and history in England. He was a professor of English literature at Baroda. He became a dedicated prophet of an extremist nationalism during the days of the agitation over the partition of Bengal (1905-1910). Then he turned to yoga and supramental mysticism and spiritual poetry. He was a powerful force in the moral and intellectual awakening of modern India. His The Life Divine is regarded by many as a monumental achievement in the history of human thought. He was equally at home in the ancient Indian and the Greek classics. His thought represents a solid synthesis of the ideas of the Eastern and Western sages and philosophers. Being thoroughly conversant with Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, French, English, Bengali, etc., he was well qualified to make pronouncements upon comparative thought. Aurobindo made a deep study of Greek literature and philosophy in the original, Furthermore, as we shall show in the course of this paper, he tried to incorporate some elements of Plato’s thought in the erection of his own intellectual-spiritual structure. He gave a new and vital rendering of the ancient Perseus-Andromeda myth of Greece.’ To Aurobindo, this legend serves as a symbol of the defeat of the unregenerate barbaric forces and the tiumph of intellectual evolution. This interpretation shows Aurobindo’s penetrating insight into ancient myths and legends. A similar work of reinterpretation was done by him with reference to the legend of Savitr as found in the Mahabharata, _ Aurobindo notes some significant distinctions between Indian thought and Greek thought. Ancient Indian thought as represented in the Vedic and Vedäntic texts is spiritually motivated to a superlative degree. It touches the inmost psychic and subliminal depths as well as the transcendent heights. It presents the vision of a transfigured human destiny and carries with it the convincing authenticity of the voice of the realized spirit, which has attained a 1Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems and Plays, 2 vols. (Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1942), Vol. I, pp. 171-306.

VARMA Sri Aurobindo and Greek Philosophy SRI AUROBINDO (1872-1950) was a unique personality in modern India. For fourteen years he studied European liter ature and history in England. He was a prof essor of English literature at Baro da. He became a dedicated prophet of an extremist nationalism during the days of the agitation over the partition of Bengal (1905-1910). The n he turned to yoga and supramental mysticis m and Spiritual poetry. He was a powerful force in the moral and intellectu al awakening of modern India. His The Life Divine is regarded by many as a monumental achievement in the history of human thought. He was equally at home in the ancient Indian and the Greek classics. His thought represen ts a solid synthesis of the ideas of the Eastern and Western sages and philosophers. Being thoroughly conversant with Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, French, English, Bengali, etc., he was well qualified to make pronouncemen ts upon comparative thought. Aurobindo made a deep study of Greek literature and philosophy in the original. Furthermore, as we shall show to incorporate some elements of in the course of this paper, he tried Plato’s thought in the erection of his own intellectual-spiritual structure. He gave a new and vital renderin g of the ancient Perseus-Andromeda myt h of Greece.’ To Aurobindo, this legend serves as a symbol of the defe at of the unregenerate barbaric forces and the triumph of intellectual evolutio n. This interpretation shows Aurobindo’s Penetrating insight into ancient myths and legends. A similar work of reinterpretation was done by him with reference to the legend of Savitr as found in the Mahabharata, _ Aurobindo notes some significan t distinctions between Indian thou ght and Greek thought. Ancient Indian thought as represented in the Vedi c and Vedäntic texts is Spiritually motivate d to a superlative degree. It touc hes the inmost psychic and subliminal dept hs as well as the transcendent heights, It presents the vision of a transfigured convincing authenticity of the voic human destiny and carries with it e of the realized spirit, which has the attained a * Sri Aurobindo, Collected Poems and Plays, 2 vols. ( Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 1942), Val. I, pp. 171-306.

state of spiritual poise and equa nimity. If spiritual depth and profundity are characteristic of Indian thought, Greece is famous for its rational , dialectical quest of the nature of reality. The especially of Heraclitus, Dem intellectual achievements of the Greeks, e, represent priceless ocritus, Plato, and Aristotl and unique legacies of ancient Occidental civilization. The difference in the characte r of the philosophic though t of the two peoples is only an illustration of their different attitudes toward life. To ancient Indians, the fundamental goal of life mundane existence. They was emancipation from the evil s of sought salvation, and, in ques t of spiritual redemption, they cultivated the transcen dent with a passionate ardor and vigor. They sought not only the immane nce of the divine spirit but also its transcend. ence. Hen ce, religion and spiritual the ancient Indians. The Gree philosophy were the sup reme concern of ks, on the other hand, wer e more mundane ook and orientation.” They cultivated the refine. and terrestrial in their outl ments of sense and intellec t. They liked to create a system of metaphysics based on pure concepts, and wer e not concerned primarily or espe cially with the question of liberation and emancipation. The -seers of ancient India sought the supernal delight of the spirit, which was regarded as perfect gnosis and absolute bliss. The Greeks, on the other hand, could recognize only the elements of pleasure and aesthetic beauty, which are but lower formulations of the divine blis s (ánanda) 2 The spiritual engrossments of the ancient Indians made them tolerant, kind , and compassionate. In bot h the Vedäntic and the Budd mulations, we find ancient Indi histic foran thought to be preoccupied with the good of all living beings. Ancient Indian thought enjoined the cultivation of sentiments of identity-conscio usness with the totality of exis tence, and this necessarily resulted in an emphasis on the growth of feelings of sameness and equality toward all living creatures. Thus, ancient Indian thought is universalistic in its orientation. On the other hand, according to Aur obindo, pity and compassion were never stro ng among the Mediterranean peop les.” We coul d substantiate Aurobindo’s stat ements. Aristotle definitely and explicitly states that animals have been created for the use of man tric attitude would not find supp Aurobindo tries to distinguish three epochs in the evolution of both dian and Greek thought. The first and Egypt there was a stage of ? Hegel, Philosophy of History, J. p- 239, refers to “Beautiful Indiv This anthropocenort in ancient Indian literature. was the mystic epoch. In India, mystical discipline in ancient time s. The Sibree, trans. (New York: Willey Book Co., 1944) , iduality” as constituting the cente r of the Greek character. $ Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus (Calcutta: Arya Publishing House, 1947), p. 60. 4 Ibid., p. 49. 5 Aristotle, Politics 1254b 10-25 , Book I, chap. 5. Copyright (c) 2002 ProQuest Information and Learning Company Greece,

EK PHILOSOPHY tion by the supreme div ine being. The mystics in India and Greece and Egypt believ ed that there were special techniques of moral, phys ical, and mental purification which alone could lead to the vis ion of the supernal being. Hence, they insisted on plines. In the language of initiation into the secrets the Upanisads, this con and was not to be convey ed except to one’s son or mystics insisted on a neu tralization of the consci of their esoteric discistituted a supreme secr et to a faithful disciple. The ousness of the ego and the body, and stressed the acqu isition of a cosmic consci ousness, The riddle of conveyed in the predicati ve terms of logical catethe universe could not be gories and dialectical ratiocination, and hence the mystics evolved an aphoristic, epigrammatic, and cryptic language to transm it the solution of the secret of existence. Hen ce, according to Aurobi ndo, we shall be doing an injustice to the mystic s if we apply the canons of a later syllogistic organon in an effort to unr avel their thought. Tow ard the end of this firs t epoch of human though t, the mystics evolved a set of symbols to con vey their teachings. These sym bols appeared enigmatic to a later intellectual generation. They were att empts to portray throug h physical images the real ity of the unseen invisible being. Generally, historians of Greek such as Zeller, Burnet, Ueb erweg, and Erdmann, trac e the - thought, beginnings of Greek philosophy to the cosmological speculations of the Milesians. But Aur obindo would stress the imm ense significance of the cos lations of the Orphics. The pristine fathers, and it is mystics, in the language a great disservice to ign ore their contributions to the advance of human tho ught. Thus we find that Aurobi ndo’ raises a question of from the standpoint of the met sciousness, Some profound significance hodology of intellectual evol vance of the evolutionary epochs of humanity were mogonic specuof the Veda, are the theory has strengthened the ution. The adnotion that the early characterized by crude and inex anthropologists and plicit mental consociologists, for example, € For references to Orphism, Lévy- Plato, Republic II. 364; Laws II. 669. For Greek Mysterie see R. L. Nettleship, Lect s, ures on Plato's Republic (Ne pp. 62-64. w York: The Macmilla n Co., 1951), "In Presenting some of the aspects of human evolution, Aurobindo himself characte the ancient epoch as infra-rati rized onal, marked by the dominanc e of instinct, guesswork, and tion of a vital type. intui-

Bruhl, would go even to the extent of characterizing the primitive mentality as exemplifying the pre-logical stage of thought." But, whereas, according to the modern historical and evolutionary theory, the ancient mentality was primitive with the implication of being undeveloped, according to Aurobindo, the ancients had a deeper and profounder sense of the uni of existence.” They might not have expressed their thought and feelings in the framework of logical categories, but that does not detract from the value of their literary remains. Ancient humanity world than we have. While we tend to had a more artistic vision of the dissect and analyze, the ancient seers tried to sense the spirit of the whole as if by some poetic effusion or extension of aesthetic apperception. Hence, we find in the oldest classics of the human race an exalted sense of inspiratio n which we miss in the mote scienti fic, sophisticated, and learned treatises, whic h may appeal more to our logical to Nature, and they felt a sense of comsense. The ancient seers were nearer prehensive unity with the world around Pression to some noble thoughts and them, and as a result they gave ex. sentiments. Aurobindo has written a book entitled Hymns to the Mystic Fire, wherein he interp rets the hymns of the Rg Veda addressed to the god Agni as signifying spiritual and esoteric truth. In his book Heraclitus he not only stresses the legacy of the ancient mystics but also tries to interpret Herac litus as partly a mystic. He thus agrees with Pfleiderer’s view of Herac litus as a mystic.” According to Aurobindo, Pythagoras also Pythagoras was a man of noble spiritual belongs in the mystic tradition. character, and his work in mathematics indicates his great intellectu al insight." Aurobindo refers not so to the researches of Pythagoras and his and astronomy as to his mysticism and his theory of rebirth. He thinks that at the end of the mystic epoch there were the school of Pythagoras and the much school in the fields of mathematics two currents of thought in Greece: school of Heraclitus. Pythagoras made some attempt to introduce new symbo ls and to present a philosophic restatement of the old mystic lore, but no powerful mystic renaissanc e could take place. Greece followed the lead, not of Pythagorean mysticism, but of the rationalism of Heraclitus. Pythagoras uphel d the doctrine of reincarna8 Lucian Lévy-Bruhl: Primitive Mentality, Lilian A. Clare, trans. (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1923); How Natives Think 1927); Primitives and the Supernatural, 1935). (New York, London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, Lilian A. Clare, trans. (New York: E. P. Dutton & Co, ® Hegel, op. cit., pp. 247-248, has a low opinio n of the philosophical achievements of the Greek Mysteries. 10 Heraclitus was the chief priest of the Ephesi an branch of the Eleusinian Myster ies, but he resigned his position in favor of his brother ; see W. T. Stace, A Critical History of Greek Philosophy (New York: The Macmillan Co., 1946), p. 72. 11 Aristotle, Metaphysics 986a, 986b (Book I, chap. 5); 1087b (Book XIV, chap. 1).

SRI AUROBINDO AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY tion, and it has been held that that once in the barking of 139 he was inspired by Indian tho a dog he intuitively realized ught.” It is said the voice of a forlorn dead friend. Like the Bud dha of old and Vivekananda of modern times, Pythagoras claimed to rem ember his Previous lieve in the doctrine of supernor one who attains yogic vision lives. Those who bemal powers developed by a yogi n hold that remembers his previous exis tences, as Krsna claims to do in the Bhagavad Gita tainty about such things, and mocking attitude. Aurobindo sages, but his assertion that . However, one can never spea k with cerit is always open to the skeptic to assume a Says: “Pythagoras was one of the he fought at Troy under the greatest of name of the Antenorid and was slain by the you nger son of Atreus is an asse rtion only and his identification of the Tro jan shield will convince no one who is not already convinced.”* Aurobindo makes a distinction between the Pythagorean theory of transmigration and his own conception of rebi rth. In Aurobindo’s philosophy, the stress is on the constant evolutionary prog ression of the human soul , and rebirth is an essentia l mechanism in the realizat ion of this spiritual teleology. Therefore he says, “If, indeed, the soul is not such a constructed personality evolved by a terrestrial life and body as Life, but a persistent unevol vin g reality with its necessary field, the theo ry of rebirth in the sense of Pythagorean transmig ration would have to be admi a persistent evolving entity capable of passing beyond then the Indian idea of a pass age to other worlds and a birth would become possible and highly probable.” The second epoch of Philosophic was of metaphysical philosophy. some of its fundamental idea tted. But if it is the terrestrial Stage, return to terrestrial development in both Greece and India It was indebted partly to the myst s but was intellectual in its The later Upanisads and possibly the Sarnkhya belong to this age. epoch in the stream of philosop hic ism. The Buddha in India and The third evolution was the period of rati onalthe Sophists and Socrates in Gre ece typify os, There is this logical approach to the prob an important difference, howe ics for method and aim. lems of existence and the cosm ver, in the character of inte llectual inquiries carried on in India and in Greece. When systematic phil osophizing of a more rational character develope d in India in the post-Bud dhist peri od, it tended to become formal, rigid, and abstract. In its later developm ents, 1? Richard Garbe and E. W. Hopk ins accepted Indian influ ence on Pythagoras. For a diffe view, see A. B. Keith, The Religion rent and Philosophy of the Vedas and the Upanishads (Cambridge: Harvard University Press , 1925), pp. 605-606. “Sri Aurobindo, 1952), p. 8. The Problem of Rebirth ( Pondicherry: *4Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divin Vol. II, p. 558. Sri Aurobindo Ashram, e, 2 vols. (Calcutta: The Arya Publishing House,

especially in medieval India, it tended to ossify into scholastic pedantry , as is shown, for example, in the Nyaya philosophy. On the other hand, intellectual inquiry was characterized by fluidity and Greek flexibility. The Greek Sophists, under the leadership of Protagoras, had introdu ced and heralded this “fluid clarity of the reasoning mind.” From this periodi zing scheme it appears that Aurobindo would probably place the Milesia ns and the Eleatics in the second epoch. Heraclitus does not belong to the develop rationalism, but he certainly marks the transition to the rational ed period of epoch, Aurobindo correctly points out that the most momentous problem of philosophy, in both India and Greece, was the question of the relation of the one and the many. The ancients thought that the real essence was one and was the source of the origination and procession of the manifold plurality and becoming. In both India and Greece, cosmogonists traced the source of the multiplicity to some one basic and primal substance. Anaximander wanted to trace the ultimate beginning of the cosmic becomi ng to an illimitable infinite, Apeiron. Anaximenes in Greece and Sayugv a Raikva, a seer whose views are recorded in the Chandogya Upanisad, regarde d air as the source of the things and objects of the world. Aurobindo the dialectics of Love and Hate in Empedocles; instead, does not refer to he says that, according to Empedocles, the All is eternally one and many: all is one which becomes many and then again goes back to oneness . “Anaximander who like our Mayavadins denied true reality to the many” and “Empedocles who thought the All to be alternately one and many, believed unity plicity to be both of them real and existent.”” But there and multiis one fundamental difference between the Indian and the Greek cosmogonists. Both the author of the famous Nasadiya Hymn in the Rg Veda and Thales believe water to have been the arche of the universe. But, while to the Greek thinker connoted a physical substance, the Vedic seer regarded water waters as the symbol of primeval indeterminate inconscience.'* According to Aurobindo, there are several references in the Rg Veda where waters are used in this sense of cosmic creative forces.” Heraclitus championed the concept of becoming and mutati on as against the notion of being advocated by Xenophanes, Parmenides, and Zeno. He regarded fire as the source of becoming. But fire itself is a ceasele ssly changing stuff. Heraclitus used the imagery of the waters of a river to indicate the perpetual mobility of the events, phenomena, and facts of the cosmos. He has been subjected to diverse interpretations. Pfleiderer regarded him as 15 Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus, p. 2. 16 Ibid., p. 11. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid., p. 14. 19 Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita (New York: Sri Aurobindo Library, 1950), p. 181n.

SRI AUROBINDO AND GREEK PHILOSOP a mystic who expressed his ideas in cryptic senten ces,” Engels has regarded Heraclitus as a champion of the dialectical concep t of motion because he (Heraclitus) was a philosopher of becoming.” Aurobindo emphatically regatds Heraclitus as a child of the mystics and thinks that his aphoristic statements can be rightly understood only in the genera According to Aurobindo, “The idea of the One many and the many which is eternally becom l context of mysticism. which is eternally becoming ing one and of that one therefore not so much as stable substance or essence as active force, a sort of substantial will-to-become, is the foundation of Heraclitus’ philosophy.”” The basic point in Aurobindo’s interpretation of Heraclitus is that he also stresses the concept of being in the thought of this celebr ated prophet of process and change. Fire is both being and becoming, and there is an upward path from becoming to being and a downward path from being to becoming. Hercalitus said: “It is wise to admit that all things are one,” ” and, further, “Hesiod did not know day and night; for it is the One.”** He identif ies Zeus, eternity, and fire.” He is also reported to have said, “One out of all and all out of one.”*” Thus, the one is always becoming many , and this accounts for the constancy of the flux and the processual dynam ism. But the multiplicity is also perpetually rushing to the principle of the oneness symbolized by the sempiternal fire. Hence, behind the processual flux there is also a constant conservation of all energies. So far, histor ians and interpreters had considered Heraclitus only as a champion of the concept of becoming. Aurobindo also emphasized the concept of being as a funda mental element in Heraclitus’ philosophy. Besides stressing the concept of being in Heracl also refers to the concept of conflagration.” itus’ thought, Aurobindo This notion of conflagration is also found in the Indian Puranas. According to posed to have adhered to the doctrine of confla the Stoics, Heraclitus is supgration. Conflagration means the destruction of the world by fire at the end of a cycle of creation or manifestation. Aurobindo compares this notio n of conflagration as found in 20 Otto Pfleiderer, The Philosophy of Religi on, Vol. IV, Allan Menzie s, trans. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1888), p. 160. Pfleide rer says: “In its connection with a material body [according to Heraclitus} into which it entere d from a higher existence, the soul is estran ged from the true divine life which is its origin; only when it lays off this wrapping, which is illsuited to its divine nature, does it return to the purer life of the gods. Hence Heraclitus calls men mortal gods, the gods immortal men, our life the death of the gods, our death their life.” 21 Friedrich Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific, in Karl Marx, Selected Works, 2 vols. (New York: International Publishers, n.d.) Vol. I, p. 156. Ibid., Herr Eugen Dähring’s Revolu lion in Science, Emile Burry, trans. (New York: International Publis 22 Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus, p. 15. hers, 1939), p. 27. 23 Ibid., p. 22. 24 Ibid, 25 Ibid., p. 24. 26 Ibid., p. 26. 27 Ibid., pp. 26-27, 31-32, 38.

Heraclitus with the Vedänt ic theory of the eternal cycl es of manifesta. tion and withdrawal from manifest concept of being and the doctrine ation. Thus, we find that by stressin g of conflagration Aurobindo brin clitus very near the thought of anci ent Vedanta. the gs Hera. Heraclitus is the first thinker to interpret the world in terms of the dynamics of power and force. War , according to him, is the crea tor of all things. Some of his famous apothegms are: “War is the father of all and the king of all”;* “All things becoming according to strife (eris)”.” “To know that strife is justice. ” There is raging an eternal tens ion in the world. War is not an unmitigated evil, although the justice that it dispenses is a violent justice. Heraclitus’ defe nse of war has perhaps given insp to the later German apologists , Treitschke, Nietzsche, and Bernhardi.* Heraclitus is one of the first teac day, good and evil, life and iration of war such as Hegel, Bismarck hers of the law of relativity. Nigh death, are only different aspe cts t and of the same reality. They are not absolutely distinct, but even their contrari ness and opposition are only phenomenal modes of the same ‘reality. But Heraclitus must not be supposed to be a mere the sociological school. He just, but men hold some thin says, super-moralist or an ethical relat ivist “To God all of things are good and gs to be good, others unjust .” He also says, “Fed are all human laws by one, the divine.”* Aurobindo interpre ts these statements to mean that, although human criteria of good and justice are liable to fluctuations in the mun dane stream of relativities, none thel ess, human good and justice pers ist in the stream of becomi ng.” In ancient times, Heraclitus was rega rded as a pessimistic thinker, preaching the vanity of things, but, if his cal element but also symbolizes mutations of the universe can theory of fire not only refers to a conscient Absolute, then the be regarded as manifestations Principle. Consequently the gosp the physichanges and of the Spiritual el of the utter uselessness of thin gs would not be the correct interpretati on to put upon his thought, beca use the absoluteness of the spiritual Principl e would run counter to an ethics of pessimism.” If, in any sense, the exis tence of a spiritual reality is acce pted, then som e hope and consolation are nece ssarily provided to man, and 28 Jbid., p. 37. 30 Ibid. this acts as 29 Ibid. 31 Heraclitus is condemnatory of Homer because the latter prayed for the elimination of war, 32 Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus, p. 42. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid., pp. 43-44. 35 Ibid., pp. 53-54.

OSOPHY a neutralizing element of the othe rwise frustrating experiences asso ciated with a pessimistic conception of life. Aurobindo also traces the germs of Everything comes into being by the Logos conception in Heraclitus. strife, but all things also come into bein g according to some reason, at erin (by war), but also kata ton logon (according to reason). Heraclitus was an opponent of idol-worship "He — who prays to an image is chattering to a stone wall.” He condemned animal sacrifice as a fruitless attempt at purification. Aurobindo finds traces of some prof ound spiritual truth in such statements of Heraclitus as “The gods are mortals, men immortals,”TM “Tho u canst not find the limits of the soul,” and “The kingdom is of the child.”” These statements indicate that he (Heraclitus) found solace in Spiritual innocence, which is symbolized by the state of the child. Men are also immortal to the extent that they are representations of an immanent Spiri tual principle. Thus Aurobindo tries to interpret the Heraclitus who is pre-eminentl y tegarded as having foreshadowed in ancient times Nietzsche’s concept of becoming and the will-to-become and the Bergsonian idea of creative evolu - tion, in terms of Vedic and Vedäntic knowledge. It was a great service of Aurobindo to Indian thought that he has tellectual significance of Heraclitus. So made us aware of the immense infar, in India, there has been a general tendency to study only Plato and Arist otle. It is significant that Aurobind o has pointed out the philosophical wort h of Heraclitus. He says, “We see in how many directions the deep divi ning eye of Heraclitus anticipated the largest and profoundest generalisations of science and philosophy and how even his more superficial thoughts indicate later powerful tendencies of the occidental mind, how too some of his ideas influenced such profound and fruitful thinkers as Plato, the Stoics, the neo-Platonists.”* Aurobindo has paid tribute to Heraclit us by writing a monograph on him, but Plato’s personality also had profound Plato with importance for him. He compares the venerable Hindu sage and philosopher Sarnkara.” He speaks of Plato’s Republic and Symp osium in terms of the highest admi ration as among the finest and high est creations of the human min d in the fields of aesthetics, philosophy, and literature.” He tightly accepts the ence of Heraclitus on Plato,* a poin influt also referred to by Aristotle. Plato 36 Ibid., p. 55. 37 Ibid., p. 50. 38 Ibid., p. 58. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid, 41 Ibid. # Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Vol. II, p- 573. % Ibid., Vol. I, p. 6. * Sti Aurobindo, Heraclitus, p. 52.

“thought sought after God, tried to seize the ideal, had its hope of a perfect philosophy is also the rela. human society." The central theme of Plato's tion between the one and the many, and, in discussing the problem of reality and appearance, being and becoming, he takes recourse to “large streams of subtle reasoning and opulent image ry." À study of the sources of The Life Divine indica tes that at several points Aurobindo has been profoundly influenced by Plato. Aurobindo is not in the habit of mentioning those several philosophers whose thoughts he has incorporated into his own or those whose ideas he subjects to criticism. The basic theme in Plato’s metaphysics is the theory of jective; ideas. Ideas are not subthey are primordial, archetypal, and immutable. Things of the world are only pale reflections of the ideas. Referr ing to this point, Aurobindo says, “Plato brought in his eternal, ideal plane of fixed ideas, by which he seems to have meant at once an originating real-idea and an original ideal schema for all things.” Aurobindo interp rets one of the verses in the Ifa Upanisad in this Platonic spirit. Commenting on the words “arthin vyadadhät,” he says, “Consciousness dwells in energy upon produce Idea of itself and form and action inevit its self-being to ably corresponding to the Idea.” Also, in discussing the mechanism of the evolution of the world, Aurobindo brings forward the conception of the Idea. He says, “It comes out as Idea that is a reality, and it is that reality itself, always by its own power and consciousnes of the Idea which evolves s of itself, always self-conscious, always self-developing by the will inhere nt in the Idea... . But the idea is only the light of the reality illumining itself; it is not rr -atal thought nor imagination. It is effective self-awarene ss. It is Real-Idea.”" According to Aurobindo, the multiple ideas are held in order and harmony. by the divine supermind. Hence, he claims to go furthe he regards the creative idea as Real-Idea. But it r in idealism because is possible to say that Plato also upheld that the supreme idea—the idea of ideas, multiple ideas as a sustaining force—is the Idea of that the creative and dynamic conception of the which holds all the the Good. It may be said idea Aurobindo gets from Plato but incorporates it in the framework of his own supra-mental idealism. In both Plato and Aurobindo, we find the philosophico-e volutionary concepts of ascent and descent. According to Plato, the ascent is from the cave, 45 Ibid. 48 Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus, p. 10. 47 Ibid., p. 36. 48 Sri Aurobindo, Isha Upanishad (Calcutta: Arya Publishi ng House, 1941), pp. 5, 62. # Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, Vol. I, p. 156.

LOSOPHY which is the sphere of darkness and shadows, to the objects of the world.” From the worldly objects ther e is the ascent to the obje cts of scientific studies, which are comprehended by the understanding (dianoia), and, finally, there is the ascent to the real of the Good. This is the reality m of ideas, which culminate in comprehended by dialectical the Idea reason (nous). According to Plato, the Phil osopher must not remain abso rbed in meditation and contemplation but shou ld descend to the lower spheres again and should attempt to mold the city in terms of the Principles of the highest gnosis. This is the only way for the is infested with ills, maladies, transformation of the commun and corruption.” Plato stresses cent: there should not be any atte ity which graduated asmpt to jump the intermediate Stage s. Aurobindo also formulates a theo ry of ascent to the regions beyond mind—illumined mind, higher mind, intuition, and overmind. Fina lly, there is the asce nt to the supermind, and even in the highest stag es of divine gnosis there is the ascent to the stag e of the Saccidananda. He also stresses that there should be no attempt to leap over any of the stages. According to him, this attempt at spiritual leaping practiced in ancient India gene rated the sense of the unreality of the phenomenal world and thus led to the philosophy of mayavada.” The Vedi c mystics attempted to reach the state of the sup ermind—perhaps some of the m succeeded. But they did not attempt to descend to the terr estrial consciousness, and hen transfiguration of the world in terms of the Spirit never ce the work of the became a realized actuality. Aurobindo pleads for the necessity of the desc ent of the supramental and spiritual powers for the remaking of the worl d, because mere political, social, and economic forces are utterly inadequate by themselves to solve the problems of man . Thus, in the acceptance of the theories of ascent and descent there is remarkable similarity in the thought-processes of Plato and Aurobindo. But terms of ascent to the highest the difference is that, while Plat with the splendors of the divi o speaks in reason, Aurobindo is througho ut concerned ne supermind.” In the Republic the highest regions as the reg ion of the sun, which is con giver of vitality and the source , Plato regards sidered both as the of light. The sun, in other word symbolic representation of the Idea s, is only a of the Good.” Aurobindo also interprets °° Plato, Republic VII. 514. Plato refers to “steep and rugged ascent” and “descent Republic VII. 516-517. ” in 51 Republic VII. 540. 82 Sri Aurobindo, The Riddle of This passim. World (Pondicherry: Arya Publishing House, 1942), 5 But I am mainly concerned now with indicating the simil arity in the techniques of the thinking of the two. 5 Republic VI. 508.

the Vedic deities, such as Surya, Savitä, Pusan, in an almost Platonic way. He thinks that the Vedic sun is the symbol of knowledge and creative power.” According to Plato, it is essential to obtain the highest education in the sciences and dialectical philosophy to save the political community. Hence, his famous theory of the philosopher-ruler is meant as a radical technique to reform the corrupt City-States.”” Aurobindo also stresses the growth of a spiritualized society governed not by coercive agencies but by an inner theocracy.” Except, again, for the difference that Plato stresses rational dialectic and Aurobindo spiritual gnosis, there is a remarkable similarity between the thought-processes of the two thinkers, because both feel that political problems cannot be solved by merely political techniques. It is essential to use meta-political techniques to transform the political community. In view of these remarkable and fundamental similarities, I venture to hazard the suggestion that Plato deeply influenced Aurobindo. It is also possible that the concepts of absolute beauty and supra-rational beauty as used in Aurobindo’s philosophy” are Platonic legacies. In ancient Hindu thought, existence, gnosis, and delight were conceived as absolute categories, but there had been no attempt at interpreting beauty, too, in absolute terms. In view of the immense praise showered by Aurobindo on the Symposium and the Republic, it is not far-fetched to argue that he was deeply influenced by the Platonic concept of absolute, eternal, and even supra-sensuous beauty. There are two schools of Platonic interpretation. One considers him a great rationalist. The other considers him a mystic. In the Middle Ages he was regarded as a divine figure. Aurobindo regards Plato as a mystic, and in this connection he emphasizes the Platonic concept of “recollection.” (However, he does not sympathize with the censorship of poetry advocated by Plato.”) Heraclitus and Plato are the two writers who are most significant in the analysis of the question of Aurobindo’s relation to Greek philosophy. On Heraclitus, Aurobindo writes a separate monograph. He refers to and discusses Plato in his books, and, as I have tried to indicate, there are also deep influences of Plato on Aurobindo’s thought. The only other Greek school which attracts Aurobindo is Stoicism. The Stoics evolved a powerful psychological discipline and had profound ideas about the potentialities of the 55 Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, p. 180. 56 Republic V. 473. 57 Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle (New York: Sri Aurobindo Library, 1950), p. 258. 58 Ibid., "The Suprarational Beauty,” pp. 150-160. In this chapter Aurobindo says, “God is beauty,” and “To find highest beauty is to find God.” 59 Ibid., p. 107.

SRI AUROBINDO AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY human race. Aurobindo even credits the Stoics with having held the idea of some kind of divine supermanhood. He also refers to the concept of spermatikos, the seed Logos, held by the Stoics.” Stoicism has been a powerful current of philosophical and ethical thought, and, as interpreted by Zeno, Cicero, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, and Epictetus, it was a significant school of Graeco-Roman philosophy. Aurobindo is a believer in the moral and spiritual interpretation of history, and says that even in the days of imperialistic license and orgy Stoicism saved Rome.” In his Essays on the Gita Aurobindo elaborately discusses the ethics of Stoicism. He says that the Stoic conception of mental equality or equanimity makes character its pivot and wants to cultivate an austere sense of discipline, self-control, and endurance. The Stoic ideal seizes upon the concepts of self-mastery and self-control and makes them the base and foundation for an entire emancipation of the human soul from subjection to the entanglements and engrossment of a lower unregenerate mentality.” In the words of the Sarnkhya philosophy he calls the Stoic ideal a rajasika, or heroic ideal, because “the Stoic self-discipline calls desire and passion into its embrace of the wrestler and crushes them between its arms.” He believes that the spiritual ideal of equanimity (samata) based on divine realization, as propounded by the G3#ä, is more comprehensive and synthetic than the Stoic ideal because it goes beyond the conception of the heroic equanimity of the school of Zeno, as also beyond the moral ideal of attaining equanimity by resignation and detached indifference.” Aurobindo is not a speculative philosopher indulgi..g in logical flights. He is deeply interested in the upward evolutionary progression of humanity, and hence he wants philosophy to bear a vital message. He thinks that philosophy is needed to correct the dogmatism, the credal fanaticism, and the irrational supernaturalism of religion, but at the same time religion is also needed to enliven and vitalize philosophy. Religion imparts a dynamic, active, and practical orientation to philosophy.” According to him, at the hands of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, the Stoics, and the Epicureans, philosophy had an orientation toward the molding of life. But, as Greek philosophy severed its connection with the ancient mystics and tended to become immensely conceptual and formal, it also lost connection with popular religions. This was a factor in its devitalization. Aurobindo favors a comprehensive 50 Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus, p. 56. 61 Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, p. 108. 62 Sri Aurobindo, Essays on the Gita, p. 174. 63 Ibid., pp. 176, 186. 6 Sri Aurobindo, Heraclitus, pp. 46-47.

synthesis of religion, philosophy, and science for the onward spiritual consummation of human destiny. Aurobindo's interpretations of Greek thought and philosophy have a twofold significance. First, he stresses the importance of mystic disciplines in the evolution of human thought in India, Greece, and Egypt. Second, he pleads for a more careful, sober, and sympathetic handling of ancient thought. There is prevalent a general tendency to dismiss ancient thought as primitive . This is only an indication of an arrogant and sophisticated mentality. It is to the credit of Aurobindo that out of the detached aphorisms of Heraclitus he evolved by the powers of sympathetic construction and imagination a has wellknit intellectual system. He has, in a sense, recarved the rather fragmentary personality of Heraclitus into a living embodiment of profound wisdom. The second significance of Aurobindo's writings regarding Greek thought belongs to the realm of the evolution of a more comprehensive philosophy based on the insights of both the East and the West. He has made a monumen tal attempt requiring the sustained labor of at least forty years to create a spiritual-metaphysical system of thought. In this work of integral synthesis he has incorporated and made his own, not only some of the profound conceptio ns of the ancient Indian and the modern Western thinkers, but also some of the dominant ideas of the Greek teachers and philosophers. Paul Deussen was perhaps the only philosopher-scholar of his time who was equally at home in Greek, Indian, and German philosophy; he had mastered them all in the original sources.” The excellence of Aurobindo does not lie in the field of purely linguistic and accurate historical scholarship. On the basis of the thought of the ancient Indians and the Greeks, as also of modern science and philosophy, he attempts the erection of his own unique philosophical system. His works constitute a landmark, therefore, in the bringing together of Eastern and Western philosophy.” © Paul Deussen, Allgemeine Geschichte der Philosophie, 2 vols. in 6 parts (Leipzig: F. A. Brockhaus, 1894-1920). S8V, P. Varma, The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1960).