Date: July 4, 2024
Today is 4th July, the independence day of the USA. And also the anniversary of the Mahasamadhi of Swami Vivekananda. It was Swami ji who sowed the seeds of Indian spirituality in the “land of the free” showing the “Sisters and brothers of America” the path to a real, truer inner freedom.
His speech in Chicago marked the beginning of a new chapter in bringing the East and West together, on an inner plane where equality, liberty and fraternity exist as qualities of the soul, where what is best and noblest in each civilization harmonises into a greater truth.
On 11 August, 1949 Sri Aurobindo wrote ‘A message to America’ (CWSA, 36: 553) which is worth reflecting especially on this day of celebrating American freedom. In his message, Sri Aurobindo dwells more on the unity and oneness which can and do bring East and West together.
Seen in the light of his Integral Vision, this remarkable piece of writing also reiterates the necessity of Sprit and Matter embracing each other to express their truest whole reality. If Matter has been the chief concern for the West, and pursuit of Spirit for the East, it is time that the two reconcile in a wider and deeper unity for the future progression of human civilization.
“I have been asked to send on this occasion of the fifteenth August a message to the West, but what I have to say might be delivered equally as a message to the East. It has been customary to dwell on the division and difference between these two sections of the human family and even oppose them to each other; but, for myself I would rather be disposed to dwell on oneness and unity than on division and difference.
[…]
“The ascent of the human soul to the supreme Spirit is that soul’s highest aim and necessity, for that is the supreme reality; but there can be too the descent of the Spirit and its powers into the world and that would justify the existence of the material world also, give a meaning, a divine purpose to the creation and solve its riddle. East and West could be reconciled in the pursuit of the highest and largest ideal, Spirit embrace Matter and Matter find its own true reality and the hidden Reality in all things in the Spirit.”
~ Beloo Mehra