Monday, August 22, 2011

How to make India's Anti-corruption movement succeed?

What are the deeper psychological forces at work behind the ongoing anti-corruption movement in India vs. the anti-establishment movement in Egypt and the middle east? What is their difference? What will be the consequence in each case? Which is a better approach?

To help understand such issues, here is an article by Sri Aurobindo that explained similar forces at work during India's independence movement.

The Aryan Ideal and the Three Gunas

Here are some excerpts. First, the example of the French revolution:
Rajas cannot endure long if it goes along its own path without any control; ennui follows, Tamas appears, as the sky instead of becoming clear is overcast and becomes devoid of the movement of air after a storm.
This was the fate of France after the revolution. There was in that revolution a frightful manifestation of Rajas and at the end of it a resurgence of Tamas to some extent, then another revolution, followed by tiredness, loss of force and more degradation - this is the history of France during the last century. Whenever there arose in the heart of France a sattwic inspiration born of the ideal of liberty, equality and fraternity, Rajas tried to fulfil its own tendencies after gradually becoming predominant and turning itself into a demoniac mode opposed to Sattwa. Consequently, as a result of a reappearance of Tamas, France, having lost its former force, is in a sad and desparate but uncertain state...."
In contrast, see what happened in India straddling the 19th and 20th centuries during its Independence movement:

The only means of avoiding such a result is to engage powerful Rajas in the service of Sattwa. If the sattwic temperament is roused and becomes the guide of Rajas, then there will be no danger of re-emergence of Tamas, and uncontrolled force, being disciplined and controlled, can do the country and the world a great deal of good according to high ideals. The means to rouse Sattwa is the spiritual temperament - to renounce selfish interests and deploy all one's energies for the good of others - to make the whole of life a great and pure sacrifice by surrendering oneself to the Divine.
It is said in the Gita that Sattwa and Rajas together suppress Tamas; Sattwa alone cannot conquer Tamas. This is the reason why God has in modern times spread the force of Rajas all over the [Indian] land after rousing the religious spirit and the Sattwa inherent in us. Great souls and religious leaders like Ramamohan Roy have ushered in a new age by reawakening Sattwa. In the nineteenth century there was not the same awakening in politics and society as in religion. The reason was that the field was not ready. That is why there was no harvest though plenty of seeds were sown. In this also can be seen how kind to and pleased with India God had been. An awakening caused only by Rajas cannot be enduring or completely beneficial. It is necessary to rouse the spiritual force to some extent in the mind and heart of the nation. It is because of this that the current of Rajas was arrested so long. The manifestation of the force of Rajas since 1905 is full of Sattwic disposition.
...
We can only nourish that Sattwic temperament by spreading the religious spirit.
And here is Sri Aurobindo's perspective on what we should focus on, going forward:
The ease with which brotherliness, self-knowledge and love of God possess the Indian mind and express themselves in action is not possible in the case of any other nation. What is necessary is the renunciation of Tamas, the control of Rajas and the manifestation of Sattwa. This is what is being prepared for India in accordance with God's secret purpose.








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