Sri Aurobindo saw the rise of India linked with the rise of Sanatan Dharma in its original purity and power and not as it became subsequently post Shankara’s Mayavada. Given the high praise that Sri Aurobindo has bestowed on Sri Ram as well as Valmiki’s Ramayana as well as the need of nationalism centered around Sanatan Dharma, the Ram Mandir has to be seen as one such step forward towards the recovery of the national spirit and the soul of India. Of course we do not have to get excited or enter into all the different political and other associated activities. But the message of the event is clear, it is the resurgence of a new India in touch with its soul.
As to the institution of Shankaracharya as the highest authority for rallying the Hindus, it was a historic error whatever its immediate necessity may have been. It is this association of Sanatan Dharma with Shankaracharya’s interpretation as the most authentic authority that led eventually to India’s decline. It is quite natural that with the resurgence of a new India which seeks to move along the lines of Rama and Krishna, the institution of Shankaracharya and the monastic order set by him as the highest ultimate way of life is bound to decline. It is just the beginning. The mind and heart of the new India has rejected this path of other-worldliness and is preparing to embrace the integral view of spiritual life put forth in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
This is my sense of the events as they are unfolding around the installation of Sri Rama in his birthplace in Ayodhya.
