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 In addition to research and publication, the Foundation holds seminars and workshops. In 1996 they held a workshop on Education for Tomorrow, looking at the educational system in India. In early 1998 Kosha arranged a presentation of Savitri by the Auroville Dance Company. Kosha attended AUM 97, where she developed a number of close ties to disciples around the world. Since then she has been an active contributor to the email lists, engaging in spirited discussion about science, a gnostic society, psychology, and political change. Below is an editorial written by Kosha for Ritagni, October 1997. HOW RESPONSIBLE IS TODAY'S THINKING INDIVIDUAL Today, it is more or less the State which regulates and plans the life of an individual depending on the path it has decided to follow for the betterment of the society and the individual, frequently subordinating the needs of one over the other. It has become a gigantic machinery run by politicians who do not necessarily represent the soul of a people or its aspiration. This leaves the burden of the progress of society on the shoulders of individuals who are concerned about cial change but who may be a minority. And it is when this minority - often a class of thinkers - shirks their responsibility that lies with them, that a gulf is created between them and the rest of society which causes decline and degeneration of that society eventually. For, always, it is the individual who progresses and compels the collectivity to progress. On its own, the collectivity is inclined to stand still in its established order. At present, the task of social reconstruction is so vast that we do not even know where to begin. This has led to pessimism. Critical analysis without solutions which are viable has generated widespread cynicism. The answer does not lie in creating a more efficient machinery for the State but to have a more conscious and plastic structure adaptable to the required change at every stage. We need to search for a higher ideal and to chart out the path step by step. In our search for quick fix solutions, we are not allowing a long term solutions, we are not allowing a long term solution to take shape which would be wide enough to co-relate all issues that face us today. Therefore, we see organisations and individuals devoted to a single cause who do not take into account the repercussions of other forces that would be working simultaneously of the solutions proposed and the wider implications on society. At every step, it would be wiser to review the goals in the light of a higher vision and only then move on. Thus can an organisation or an individual remain relevant to its times and, more so, to the future. In our desire to see instant results, we hasten to act, often sacrificing the prior thought needed which would give the necessary depth to the actions. Intellectualism and activism will not be divorced from each other if we have patience. Such a vision would go beyond the realm of ethics, morality and religion which base themselves on pre constructed formulae. But Truth demands a greater freedom which carries with it a greater responsibility. It is in spirituality alone that we can find a greater harmony. "Spirituality respects the freedom of the human soul because it is itself fulfilled by freedom; and the deepest meaning of freedom is the power to expand and grow towards perfection by the law of one's own nature, dharma. This liberty it will give to all fundamental parts of the being. It will give that freedom to philosophy and science which ancient Indian religion gave, - freedom even to deny the spirit, if they will,-as a result of which philosophy and science never felt in ancient India any necessity of divorcing themselves from religion but grew rather into it and under its light. It will give the same freedom to man's seeking for political and social perfection and to all his other powers and aspirations. Only it will be vigilant to illuminate them so that they may grow into the light and law of the spirit, not by suppression and restriction, but by a self-searching self-controlled expansion and a many-sided finding of their greatest, highest and deepest potentialities. For all these are potentialities of the spirit." Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle Now it is up to these thinkers and activists to attempt to give shape
to the future of each society in a higher light instead of letting them
stumble forward. How long will it be before we become desperate to
find the Truth and follow it?
Those interested in the work of the Sri Aurobindo Research Foundation can contact Kosha directly. email: sarf@ad1.vsnl.net.in Kosha Shah
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