India - the Mother

April 1952

(From an article written on the occasion of the opening of the Sri Aurobindo International University Centre.)

The conditions in which men live upon earth are the result of their state of consciousness. To want to change the conditions without changing the consciousness is a vain chimera....

The unity of the human race can be accomplished neither through uniformity nor through domination or subjection. A synthetic organization of all nations, each occupying its true place according to its own genius and the role it has to play in the whole, can alone result in a comprehensive and progressive unification that would have some chance of lasting....

Just as each individual has a psychic being which is his true self and governs more or less openly his destiny, so too has each nation a psychic being which is its true being and fashions its destiny from behind the veil. That is the soul of the country, the national genius, the spirit of each people, the centre of national aspiration, the source of all that is beautiful, noble, great and generous in the life of a country. The true patriots feel its presence as a tangible reality. In India, it has become an almost divine entity, and all those who truly love her call her "Mother India," Bharat Mata, and daily address a prayer to her for the safety of the land. It is she who symbolises and embodies the country's true ideal, its true mission in the world....

One would like to see in all countries the same veneration for the soul of the nation, the same aspiration to become instruments fit to manifest her loftiest ideal, the same ardour towards progress and self-improvement enabling each people to identify with its national psychic being and thus find its true nature and true role—what makes each people a living and immortal entity despite all the accidents of history.

On Education: An International University Centre