Many who have read Sri Aurobindo have never read Nietzsche

Debashish Banerji, by far the most erudite among the Sri Aurobindian scholars today, wrote a very perceptive essay on Nietzsche that was published in the March 2004 number of Mother India. With the typical Western politeness he had sternly reminded that,

“Sri Aurobindo’s texts need to be read in a cross-cultural context. They have contexts which are equally eastern and western.”

“Many who have read Sri Aurobindo have never read Nietzsche and acquire some preconceptions of what the Nietzschean Superman is all about. I’d encourage them to divest themselves of these ideas.”

“Nietzsche’s call is going out to the will of man. It is not a simple call to the ego – it is not a call to titanism as has been popularly supposed, it is a call to sacrifice, to vastness, it is a call to the formation of gods within us.”

Eminently edifying, the essay should be available online. [TNM] [Life Divine Colloquia via Skype by Debashish Banerji] [ 1:21 AM ] [http://www.sciy.org/blog/_archives/2008/11/23/3991905.html]