Sri Aurobindo’s Five Dreams

Karan Singh: The first dream of the unity of the subcontinent I think is totally unrealistic. The only way that it could be achieved would be if SAARC develops on the lines of the European Union. In the second dream, Sri Aurobindo felt that Asia had to play a major role in human history, and that she is beginning to do.

While the third dream of a world union is a lovely idea, what is happening in fact is a reversal. Nationalism has turned out to be much more resistant and much more powerful than we had thought. There are lots of international movements, like the environmental movement and the interfaith movement with which I am involved, but the idea that nationalisms will be finally overcome is still a long way away. I think the best we can do is to try and strengthen these global movements to counteract the reverse of very aggressive nationalisms around the world.

The fourth dream [the spiritual gift of India to the world eds.] is absolutely correct. It has happened.

Of the last dream [a further step in evolution to a higher and larger consciousness eds.] Sri Aurobindo himself said it would be very, very difficult to achieve. It remained his personal hope, and we must strive for the best even though it may be very difficult to reach.

Mark Tully: In rereading the five dreams, what struck me most was the emphasis upon the importance of unity. He emphasised the essential importance of bringing Hindus and Muslims together and said India will not be a complete union until that is done. I think this is still something we need to work on.

Regarding the third dream of the unification of the human world which he thought was underway, the two glaring examples of the lack of world union now, and the need for it, are COVID and climate change.

Shashi Tharoor: I would agree with Mark that the key question is the question of unity. Sri Aurobindo showed great prescience concerning how the seeds sown by Partition would continue to impede India’s growth and development, both in terms of external relations with countries like Pakistan and others, and internally in the relations between the communities. I believe this is a very important dream that has not been fulfilled.

Regarding the second dream, the resurgence and liberation of the peoples of Asia and her return to her great role in the progress of human civilization, I would argue that this happened. Asia has done remarkably well, better than anybody in 1947 could have dared predict.

The third dream of world union, however, was predicated on the assumption that nationalism would have fulfilled itself and lost its militancy. Well, if there was briefly hope that that was happening, it has been snuffed out in recent years, and what we seen for the last decade has been a rapid increase in nationalist sentiments in a number of countries, including America, Britain, Turkey, and India.

In some ways it’s interesting to look at the Auroville experiment in this context because here the cooperation of people across various ethnicities, nationalities and religions in the larger pursuit of humanistic cooperation seems to me, in some ways, fulfilling on a very small scale the kind of ideal he would have had for a global unity of purpose and cooperation.

On the fourth dream of the spiritual gift of India to the world, I think he wasn’t far off. 20-25 years after he spoke those words, that was precisely what was happening, with Indian spiritual teachers achieving worldwide renown.

When it comes to the final dream, a step in evolution leading to a higher and larger consciousness, I believe that was idealistic even when he said it. Two years after the savagery of a World War, of the horrors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima, how could one have seriously stated that human beings are capable of a higher and larger consciousness? I think he was deliberately setting the bar high. In this sense, the dreams are important lodestars, but I would argue there is a great distance to go.

Ameeta Meera: I have no doubt the reality staring at us today is rather bleak, and it is extremely difficult to see how things are going to change. However, evolution doesn’t always go in a straight line; it is a spiral, and every time we want to go up, we have to go down. I feel that some of the things Mr Tharoor mentioned, like the rise of nationalistic feelings in countries, are manifestations that have to rise up to be cleansed, and if we are to take the next step we need to be able to see them to be able to deal with them.

In fact, there are many movements, often disastrous, dark and bleak, that are pushing us towards a particular movement of oneness of the globe. COVID, climate change, do we have a choice today? Are we not being pushed into taking action?

In the fifth dream, he talks about the growth of the spirit, the growth of the inner consciousness, and this is perhaps the way towards the realisation of all the dreams. Because a growth of consciousness that sees mankind as one, a realization of mutuality, harmony and unity, will help us take the next step in evolution.

Aster Patel: I went to the Sorbonne in Paris to read the work of Sri Aurobindo in the context of European culture. That’s when the five dreams came into a very clear focus for me. India had achieved its freedom, which was the first dream of Sri Aurobindo, and the second dream of a world union was beginning to take shape in the form of the European Union.

The late 1960s saw a tremendous shakeup in the civilisation of Europe and America. In July 1970, Mother sent me to the United Nations to join an assembly of young university people from all over the world who were asked to give their ideas about the future. They all said they wanted to work together, to collaborate, in creating that future. These were the seeds which have only begun to sprout now.

I felt then that the first three dreams of Sri Aurobindo were already on the ground, but not yet in their fullness. But in the last two decades, the last two dreams have become very important. For now all the foremost thinkers, as well as the youth, are saying that the old civilization is finished, it has hit a wall, and a new civilisation has to arise if we are to survive. This is the next level of conscious being which will come through the pressure of the Supermind. In this context I’m very aware of the 50 years of the Auroville experience. Here is a collectivity of many generations, drawn from many countries, making a dedicated attempt to discover the spiritual being. The fact that Auroville exists is a hope that a different future is not an impossibility.

Anu: Given the huge challenges facing the world today, what could be a major turning point?

Karan Singh: If we look at the Athavara Veda, there are 72 verses which contain the most holistic and integral approach to the environment that you can find anywhere. In our culture we have this great Vedic vision of the Earth as the Mother, a living organism, whom we worship. So I think that this concept of the divinity of the earth, along with environmental movements, technology, and the interfaith movement, together can become countervailing factors to the negative situation we see today. I think that each one of us has got to strive, in our own way, to save the world from catastrophe.

Mark Tully: I think a crucial turning point could be climate change, because with climate change will surely come an awareness of the fact that the way we have been living our lives is barren and materialistic, and does not lead to the fundamental understanding of the unity of man and nature. Many of our problems spring from the fact that we have misinterpreted the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. We think that God has given us charge of the world to do what we want with it. The realisation that that is not so is perhaps going to be a major turning point.

I think this fundamental understanding of the unity of humanity and nature is absolutely essential to tackling the problems of COVID and climate change.

Ameeta Meera: If you look at the whole body of Sri Aurobindo’s work, all of it is saying the same thing, touching the same harmonic note, and that is that evolution is not over; that as our consciousness grows, we will grow towards a oneness, a unity, a harmony and a sense of mutuality.

The Earth is the mother, the goddess, and it is the earth that is calling us now through the agony of climate change. I believe the spirit of oneness is already taking hold: the whole world is coming together through things like technology. But I think we still have a long way to go on the road towards its full realisation