As Aurobindo’S Magnificent Defence Of Indian Culture Matters

As Aurobindo’s magnificent defence of Indian culture matters very much to us in another, much more important respect also – it is the corner-stone of his criticism of the Western Civilization. It could even be asserted that it is his incomparable mastery of India’s great cultural, philosophical and religious achievements – Vedas, Upanishads, religion, poetry, philosophy, painting, sculpture, Ramayana and Mahabharata, all of which Archer rejects as a repulsive mass of unspeakable barbarism in one wholesale condemnation, that enabled him to see the West for what it is – aggressive, material, utilitarian, predatory, inhumanly selfish and unspiritual. One could not agree more with Peter Heehs when he states, â€Å"this return to the religion of his†¦show more content†¦The very purpose of the book thus inevitably leads him to make a detailed study of the West, its values, its successes and failures, its chosen directions, its ruling passions a nd self-destructive interests and impulses. His thorough study of the West, which involves understanding, mastering and value-judging with high and rigorous standards, makes him question its very foundations – science and reason, the so-called solid foundations. Sri Aurobindo shows how Archer, being a rationalist through and through, identifies civilization with the cult and practice of the materialistic reason because of which he denies India to be civilized, and declares her greatest past achievements – the Upanishads, the Vedanta, Buddhism, Hinduism, ancient Indian art and poetry a mass of barbarism, the vain production of a persistently barbaric mind. He also explains how incomprehension of deeper things, along with distaste for them, is a rule with Archer, but nevertheless takes pains to answer him, because, he finds in him a typical Westerner who, taking advantage of the present material downfall of India and her prostrate condition, tries to persuade the world t hat she had never any strength and virtue in her. Sri Aurobindo’s The Foundations of Indian Culture would be exceedingly rewarding