The state of society needs to be taken as a given

Evaluating socio-political themes vis-à-vis theory and practice of Integral Yoga is rarely attempted. In this context, Shripati Das (Navajyoti – LII-2 – 24 April 2009) daring to deal with man-woman relationship is surely welcome. While the overall spirit of the write-up is prescriptive and seems to be harmless, the whole analysis is wide off the mark as far as social reality is concerned. A comment by him on the attires of women, for instance, is not politically correct.

The Mother & Sri Aurobindo were eminently eligible to criticize social anomalies more or less magisterially, but the same authority doesn’t pass on to their followers automatically. The state of society needs to be taken as a given, and all effort for reform has to begin at the ground level. Similarly, many solutions posited through the utterances of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are long term affairs which when whipped up by the followers appears preposterous. [TNM]