However, Winston Churchill once said: “If Independence is granted to India, power will go to the hands of rascals, rogues, freebooters; all Indian leaders will be of low calibre and men of straw. They will have sweet tongues and silly hearts. They will fight amongst themselves for power and India will be lost in political squabbles. A day would come when even air and water would be taxed in India.”
Well, he was not entirely wrong. We are seeing some of this happen in real time. But how does Sri Aurobindo’s quest for India’s independence reconcile with his considering a man like Churchill a vital instrument of the Divine, while someone like Hitler—who came from harsh circumstances, fought for Germany in World War I, and later rose to power by taking up arms against countries such as France and the UK, which had imposed harsh conditions on Germany after the war—was regarded as an Asuric force?
Churchill, meanwhile, did not experience the kind of harsh childhood that Hitler did; he came from an aristocratic British family.
This seems more like Allied propaganda to me.
To justify one’s actions because of your background is what I term as the Karna syndrome. Both Karna and Arjuna had difficult, harsh childhoods. But one ended up becoming an instrument of the Asura, while the other an instrument of the Divine. You know why? It is what we call today as the victim card. Instead of rising above the challenges of life, turning your difficulties into inner strength, becoming compassionate because of one’s difficult upbringing, one becomes obsessed with the idea of being wronged and ends up seeking justice by committing worse evils.
Churchill did not assess the situation wrongly. But he ended up writing off India. Sri Aurobindo also foresaw this when asked by Nirod Da in 1931 as to what he foresaw about India’s independence. Sri Aurobindo startled him by saying that the issue of freedom is already settled. But what may follow is ominous, – Bolshevism, Goondaraj; things look ominous. The difference is that Churchill wrote of India; Sri Aurobindo worked towards rewriting India’s destiny. See once again the difference between him and Hitler. Hitler tried writing the destiny typically as the Asura does, by trampling down other nations, by external control and cruel means such as gas chambers and mass graves. Can anyone sensible find anything good or great in all this? Sri Aurobindo, on the other hand, started rewriting India’s destiny by awakening her soul, by inner mastery (Arya) and spiritual awakening. This is the way of the godlike and the Divine.
Hope this clarifies.
Love
Alok Da
