TWENTIETH CENTURY WESTERN FAITHLESSNESS VS SRI AUROBINDO’S FAITH

Abstract

The advent of the Twentieth Century witnessed drastic changes in all walks of life and particularly in religion. The old order of beliefs and values gave its place to the new ideas. It was a period when religious and moral values were pushed to the background. The focus shifted from God being the centre of the universe to a desperate pursuit of materialistic and worldly concerns which sublimated man’s spiritual and religious values. Aurobindo, a great visionary and philosopher, saw the tragedy behind the physical and material landscape. He sets out to explore the human destiny by creating a spiritual consciousness in man. What he tries to propagate through his poetry is that man is not a mere speck in the universe; not a product of chance. He is part of a cosmic plan. His existence on this earth has a potential and a potent meaning. Aurobindo tries to cultivate the spiritual wasteland of man through faith in God. In the present paper, ‘faith’ is taken in context of the first half of the Twentieth Century; the period when doubt dominated faith and Aurobindo through his poetry tries to work back to man’s faith in God.