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Agenda - 22. September 1962 (Deutschland) |
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Die alten Götter können neue Gestalten annehmen.
Die Niederlage Deutschlands genügt nicht, um den Geist zu löschen, der sich
in Deutschland inkarnierte (Sri Aurobindo 1914). |
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Human Cycle - Chapter
IV - The Discovery of the Nation-Soul |
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The great determining force has been the example and the aggression of
Germany; the example, because no other nation has so self-consciously, so
methodically, so intelligently, and from the external point of view so
successfully sought to find, to dynamise, to live itself and make the most of
its own power of being; its aggression, because the very nature and declared
watchwords of the attack have tended to arouse a defensive self-consciousness
in the assailed and forced them to perceive what was the source of this
tremendous strength and to perceive too that they themselves must seek
consciously an answering strength in the same deeper sources. Germany was for
the time the most remarkable present instance of a nation preparing for the
subjective stage because it had, in the first place, a certain kind of vision
— unfortunately intellectual rather than illuminated — and the
courage to follow it — unfortunately again a vital and intellectual
rather than a spiritual hardihood, — and, secondly, being master of its
destinies, was able to order its own life so as to express its self-vision.
We must not be misled by appearances into thinking that the strength of
Germany was created by Bismarck. A people may be highly gifted in the subjective
capacities, and yet if it neglects to cultivate this lower side of our
complex nature, it will fail to build that bridge between the idea and
imagination and the world of facts, between the vision and the force, which
makes realisation possible; its higher powers may become a joy and
inspiration to the world, but it will never take possession of its own world
until it has learned the humbler lesson. In Germany the bridge was there,
though it ran mostly through a dark tunnel with a gulf underneath; for there
was no pure transmission from the subjective mind of the thinkers and singers
to the objective mind of the scholars and organisers. The misapplication by Treitschke of the teaching of Nietzsche to
national and international uses which would have profoundly disgusted the
philosopher himself, is an example of this obscure transmission. But still a
transmission there was. For more than a half-century Germany turned a deep
eye of subjective introspection on herself and things and ideas in search of
the truth of her own being and of the world, and for another half-century a
patient eye of scientific research on the objective means for organising what
she had or thought she had gained. And something was done, something indeed
powerful and enormous, but also in certain directions, not in all, misshapen
and disconcerting. Unfortunately, those directions were precisely the very
central lines on which to go wrong is to miss the goal. |