Sri Aurobindo is a Jeffersonian (Liberty), a Marxist (Equality), and a Gandhian (Fraternity)

Richard Carlson

At the outset of his article, Of Syntheses and Surprises: Toward a Critical Integral Theory Anderson quotes W.I. Thompson’s book “Passages About Earth” in which he states: “there is a unique contribution to the New Age that America not India can make and that contribution is politics, namely the politics of Washington and Jefferson”. Anderson claims that Thompson’s statement gets at the spirit of a critical integral theory itself.

If one reads more deeply into “Passages About Earth”, they will find that W.I. Thompson identifies an Indian, namely Sri Aurobindo as that rare guru who comprehends and embraces Jeffersonian democracy. In fact, Sri Aurobindo not only championed Jeffersonian democracy but the humanist proclamations of the French Revolution namely, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. If one engages with Sri Aurobindo’s social treatises “The Ideal of Human Unity” and “The Human Cycle” one gathers that Aurobindo is a Jeffersonian in matters of Liberty, a Marxist in matters of Equality, and a Gandhian in matters of Fraternity. by Rich on Sun 10 Dec 2006 07:59 PM PST Permanent Link