New Race
A Journal of Integral Studies
From the editor's desk…
Dear Readers,
We all agree that one of the most remarkable aspects of Sri Aurobindo, and of his vision, thought and works is the unique way in which a wide multiplicity and diversity finds its purposeful and inter-connected unity in a deep oneness and integrality. This multifaceted aspect of Sri Aurobindo is what makes him and his thought relevant for all times, for all contexts, for all types of people with diverse spiritual, intellectual and emotional sensibilities.
At SACAR, we have been busy planning a seminar to highlight this multifaceted richness of Sri Aurobindo. So it was a joyful surprise and perhaps nce to find wonderful evidence of this ‘diversity in oneness’ in the submissions we received for the present issue of New Race. We feel that while reading the essays published here our readers will be able to discover for themselves that one can ‘approach’ Sri Aurobindo in many ways, and through many doors. At times we are deeply inspired by his profound philosophical and psychological teachings of Integral Yoga, and at other moments we are intensely moved by the feelings of love, devotion and surrender that well up in our deeper selves through his and her Grace. At times we discover that at their lotus feet only we have found an intellectual and a spiritual direction for our lives, and at other moments we are touched to the core of our being by remembering the labour of Gods that they pursued for the upliftment of all mankind, of all creation. While the insightful socio-philosophical vision of Sri Aurobindo gives us a unique interpretive framework to understand the future of social realities we are presently surrounded with, the literary critic in us finds in Sri Aurobindo’s works an equally inspirational way to approach literature. There are times when we go to Sri Aurobindo to seek inspiration and to re-discover the true meaning of India and Indian-ness, and then there are those moments when we discover a remarkable and unique sense of humour of a political revolutionary and a poet.
In these pages of New Race, we, in our most humble way, offer a taste of the multifaceted genius of Sri Aurobindo and the diversity of ways in which his thought, vision and work continues to stir up something deep in the core of a writer and a reader. To borrow an insight from the Master himself, perhaps the rich diversity of themes in this issue is a means by which the group-soul of New Race writers and readers is being worked out, “for the group-soul rather works out its tendencies by a diversity of opinions, a diversity of wills, a diversity of life, and the vitality of the group-life depends largely upon the working of this diversity, its continuity, its richness” [CWSA, vol. 25 (The Human Cycle), p. 210].
A moment’s contemplation however reveals the deeper truth that underneath, behind, and beyond all these manifold expressions, there is a single consciousness, the Divine Consciousness of Sri Aurobindo that is manifesting itself through all these approaches He has given us to go near Him. All this diversity and multiplicity finds its true meaning only in the light of That invisible thread of a true oneness, a true unity. This issue of New Race is offered to that One, who alone Is.
Till next time… Beloo
