Wednesday, August 01, 2007

From mentality to instrumentality

[To say that an area of activity, like sport, the arts, or family life is not part of politics, or is ‘nothing to do with politics’, is to make a particular kind of political point about it, principally that it is not to be discussed on whatever is currently regarded as the political agenda. Keeping matters off the political agenda can, of course, be a very effective way of dealing with them in one's own interests.
The traditional definition of politics, ‘the art and science of government’, offers no constraint on its application since there has never been a consensus on which activities count as government. Is government confined to the state? Does it not also take place in church, guild, estate, and family? — Lincoln Allison, OUP Home > Library > Government > Political Dictionary]
One of the major presents of Sri Aurobindo to the modern generation is that he has released the Veda from the net of texuality and has encapsuled its potency in his three famous pills, Aspiration, Rejection, and Surrender: loosely corresponding to Jnana, Karma, and Bhakti. Spiritual aspiration or the Aryan "climbing" when hampered by hostility entails a fight with Vritra and its minions to force their elimination. This rejection as a political exercise is best honed in the lived, work situation, but the "skill" lies in “pure instrumentation” or surrender. [TNM]

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