Date: August 23, 2025
Venue: Matriniketan
As part of the residential programme organized by Uditam: Institute for Integral Healing, Sri Aurobindo Society, Dr. Beloo Mehra, Director, BhāratShakti, was invited to facilitate a group discussion on Saturday, August 23, 2025. All the participants were working at Auro Schools. Considering that we just celebrated Sri Aurobindo’s birthday and India’s Independence Day, Dr. Mehra decided to focus on the topic of Sri Aurobindo, the Yogi Revolutionary, with an aim to bring out the point that all revolutionary work that Sri Aurobindo engaged in during India’s Freedom Struggle was rooted in his inner Yogic life.
It was pointed that Sri Aurobindo was the first political leader to openly put forward the idea of complete independence, Purna Swaraj, for India. He was also the first revolutionary to advocate an economic, national, educational, judicial and an administrative boycott as a tactic to fight the imperialists. He laid down clear and specific guidelines for setting up Swadeshi, a national education system, national arbitration courts, national organisation for self-government.
Dr. Mehra added that one of the major ways in which Sri Aurobindo awakened the people was through the might of his pen as a writer whose words could stir up deep emotions of patriotic fervour and zeal among his contemporaries. She added that Sri Aurobindo’s political writings continue to stir the soul of all Indians who love their motherland. Examples from Bhawani Mandir and Sri Aurobindo’s famous letter to his wife Mrinalini Devi were pointed out from this period.
Dr. Mehra summarised and highlighted a few key points from the great contribution of Sri Aurobindo to India’s freedom movement. She began by sharing that in Sri Aurobindo’s vision India’s rise to greatness, power and prosperity – not only material but in all ways – intellectual, cultural and most importantly spiritual – is for a larger role that she must fulfil for the world and humanity. It is this vision of India in which, she said, we must understand Sri Aurobindo’s significant role in India’s freedom movement. If India had to be the world’s spiritual guru, the first and most essential work was to make India free.
She reminded the participants that it was the yogi in Sri Aurobindo which made his revolutionary work visionary and highly forceful. It was his yogic strength, the absolute purity, sincerity and selflessness of his intention and work, the deepest truth of his yogic vision which saw India as a Mother, a Shakti, a power and a godhead, that made him “the most dangerous man” the British colonial government ever had to contend with. She briefly narrated some of the specific spiritual realisations Sri Aurobindo had prior to the major transformative experiences and realisations at Alipore prison.
Sri Aurobindo’s Uttarpara Speech and message of August 15, 1947 were also briefly discussed to bring out the deeper significance of India’s political independence and the work India must do for the humanity. Dr. Mehra also introduced the concept of Spiritual Nationalism and said that there is a need to understand this deeply if we wish to truly grasp the significance of Sri Aurobindo’s work as a yogi-revolutionary.
Shri Pradeep Narang, Chairman, Sri Aurobindo Society was also present at the session, and he added that Indian youth must be made aware of highly significant work Sri Aurobindo did for India’s freedom. And that teachers must learn more about it and share it with the students.
For more sessions conducted by BhāratShakti for Uditam programme, see HERE.