HUMANITY AT THE CROSSROADS:
DOES SRI AUROBINDO OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE? *
SHAKUNTALA A. SINGH**
AJAI R. SINGH
I
INTRODUCTION
I.2.Moreover, Sri Aurobindo
has written voluminously, and he has expressed himself on a vast array of topics. That makes him that much more significant
to study, as well as makes him liable to the barbs of critics itching to point out loopholes, of which too there are not a
few around. I mean not loopholes, but the critics with that attitude. Let us also hope most of us do not belong to that category.
I.3.Humanity
today is indeed passing through numerous crises and yet surviving. While we all no doubt wish to continue to evolve through
all this survival (hopefully even reaching the supramental state promised by the great seer of Pondicherry), my concerns here are a little more pedestrian. I propose to look into some of
the problems of contemporary man as an individual, a member of society, a citizen of his country, a component
of this world, and of nature itself. Come to think of it, the concerns are not that pedestrian. So far, so good.
I.4.Some concepts like Science, Nature, Matter, Mental Being,
Nation-ego and Nation-soul, True and False Subjectivism, World-state and World-union, and The Religion of Humanism will be
the focus of this paper. Well, why not the rest, you may ask? Well, why not. Not that the others are not important. But I
believe these deserve our focus here, and today, as humanity finds itself at the crossroads, and gropes around rather gingerly
for some tentative answers, which may hopefully translate into permanent solutions.
*Paper read at National Seminar on Sri Aurobindo
and the Future of Humanity, 17-19 Jan. 2005, New Delhi, India.
**Reader and Head, Dept. of Philosophy,
Joshi-Bedekar College, Thane, India.
Read
further at:
http://www.msmonographs.org/preprintarticle.asp?id=38517
