Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Sri Aurobindo's Integralism also places quite a high value on overall development, and work

Irene Lancaster, a leading Jewish commentator who recently made aliyah from Manchester to Israel, said: “This ignores both Israel and India. This is a bit surprising, because the Protestant work ethic is supposed to have derived from the Protestant attitude to the so-called ’Old Testament’, taken literally and strictly adhered to. India is a predominantly Hindu country, with a huge and very important population.”
Ramesh Kallidai of the Hindu Forum of Britain said: “I believe that the Protestant religion must have had some positive impact through its emphasis on the work culture and the position of women in employment. But it is a bit too simplistic to think that these countries have a higher employment rate mainly because of the Protestant religion. In particular, to say that Catholicism, Islam, Buddhism and other religions do not emphasise a culture of work shows a degree of ignorance about other world religions. In the Hindu tradition for instance, we say that work is worship.
"We must not forget that many countries like India started off with very high levels of economic development, but after years of colonial rule by foreign countries, their economic might was stripped. Interestingly, many of the colonial powers in the world also seem to be protestant. But it would be wrong to conclude from this fact that Protestants believe in occupying other countries.” Ruth Gledhill Religion Correspondent of The Times From Times Online October 1, 2007
Now, however, Aurobindo's Integralism also places quite a high value on overall development, and work. I remember being in a graduate and a member of the class, who had spent time at Auroville, spoke about how discouraged she was by "how hard" it could be, being devoted to the practices of Aurobindo.

No comments:

Post a Comment