Sri Aurobindo's Treatment of Hindu Myth (An Old and Rare Book)

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The text of the present essay formed the basis of a lecture delivered at the 'Sri Aurobindo Bhavan', Shakespeare Sarani, Calcutta, on 7th December, 1980. The essay is now being published by Firma KLM Private Limited, Calcutta, with kind permission of Sri Manik Mitra, secretary of the Bhavan and editor of Srinvantu.

To speak of myth with respect to Sri Aurobindo may seem preposterous. A variety of facets have been highlighted in that versatile personality, but that of mythographer? Sri Aurobindo has been hailed as a charismatic leader of the Nationalist Movement at the turn of the century. He has been acclaimed as a leading author in the field of Indo-Anglian literature. Others would extol him as a great philosopher, but Sri Aurobindo himself disowns this title. Above all his career was that of a yogi, and certainly this is how he saw himself when at last he found his true self: the yogi par excellence.

If that is so, then what use could Sri Aurobindo have for myth? The above list omits one aspect, one perhaps not so readily recognised. Sri Aurobindo was and consciously so- a modern reinterpreter of the entire range of traditional Hindu culture. Not only did he produce the Foundations of Indian Culture in which he proposed his own original interpretation of the nation's heritage, but also wrote extensive commentaries on the whole vast mass of Sanskrit literature: the Vedic Hymns, the Upanishadic treatises, the 'Great Epic' and the Bhagavad Gita.

Thus it was inevitable that Sri Aurobindo should deal with myth. For, an essential component of the culture which he professed to revitalise was precisely Hindu myth. One is reminded of Swami Dayananda Sarasvati. But whereas the latter ruthlessly excised all post-Vedic mythology as so much superstition, Sri Aurobindo salvaged Hindu myth in its entirety, even though he shared the Swami's preference for its earlier Vedic form.

Nor can Sri Aurobindo's explicit concern with myth be detached from his other, seemingly more prominent interests. In the course of our investigation we were led to touch upon every phase and aspect of his varied literary career. Be it as journalist or pamphleteer, as dramatist, playwright or epic poet, as theorist of Indian culture, as epistler advising fledgling sadhakas, or as author of voluminous yogic shastras; in all of these literary genres did Sri Aurobindo deal with myth. A little unexpectedly perhaps, but nonetheless quite clearly, Sri Aurobindo thus manifests yet another facet he made himself an interpreter of Hindu myth. But and this could be expected his was a creative reinterpretation. For such was Sri Aurobindo's treatment of Hindu myth: he instilled it with new life a revitalisation.