A Nobel Effort For Sri Aurobindo

SRI AUROBINDO AND THE NOBEL PRIZE

The name of Sri Aurobindo was proposed for the award of Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950 by Madame Gabriela Mistral, the Nobel Laureate of Chile and seconded by Miss Pearl S.Buck, the Nobel Laureate from America. A statement supporting Sri Aurobindo’s nomination was signed by 36 leading citizens and intellectuals of India out of whom 16 held the post of either a Chancellor or a Vice-Chancellor of one of the reputed Universities in India. The nomination letter reads as under:

The President
Svenska Akademien
Stockholm, Sweden 1949


Dear Sir,

Sri Aurobindo is held in deep reverence in India and other parts of the world. We, his countrymen and admirers, look up to him as one who shares the vision of the Great Ones of all ages and who belongs to the galaxy of ‘just men made perfect”. With his divine, cosmic vision and a life breathing forth the fragrance of holiness, Sri Aurobindo has given us a glimpse unparalleled for its profundity and sublimity, of the occult significance of the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad-Gita. Through his writings he has revealed to us once again the pathway of experiencing the Real and the Eternal. This pathway is the Integral Yoga, the simultaneous divinization of consciousness and matter in various dimensions of the human personality. The story of the grand strategy of Evolution through which the Supreme Being fulfils Himself in the multifarious forms of manifestation constitutes the core of this universal drama of the Becoming. Poetry has become, in Aurobindo’s hands, an instrument for articulating the celestial music, the ecstasy of the Infinite and the whole system of Sri Aurobimdo’s thought is a superb edifice , a majestic summation of the Laws of the inner and the outer worlds in which the Eternal continues to exert pressure on all orders and aggregates of Life to ascend heavenward in an orchestration of a unified, cooperative movement, thus helping man to divest himself of the separative, egoistic, communalistic and nationalistic tendencies and to regain a living faith in the ideal of unity of all life.

Sri Aurobindo’s profound and penetrating analysis of the fundamentals of Indian Culture and his vision of India’s glorious destiny of being the meeting place of the best of the East and West have awakened us to the opulent spiritual heritage that belongs to us and the part that India has to play in the destiny of mankind. We look up to Sri Aurobindo as belonging to the family of the Seers and Sages of the world whose line has never ended and whose majesty of the soul will continue to shed luster on all parts of the world and at all times.
It is, therefore, a source of great pleasure to us to bring to your attention his contribution and to commend to your favourable consideration the proposal to award the Nobel Prize for Literature to Sri Aurobindo.
Yours faithfully,
1. Hon.Sri N. Gopalaswamy Ayyangar, Minister for Transport, Government of India
2. Hon. Sri.N.V.Gadgil, Minister for Works, Housing and Power
3. Hon. Sri Jairamdas Daulatram, Minister for Food and Agriculture.
4. Hon. Dr. Shyamaprasad Mukherji. Minister for Industry and Supply.
5. Hon. K.C.Neogy, Minister for Commerce
6. His Excellency Sri M.S.Aney, Governor of Bihar and Chancellor, Patna University.
7. Hon. Dr.S.K.Sinha , Premier, Bihar Government
8. His Excellency Sri Chandulal Trivedi, Governor of East Punjab and Chancellor, East Punjab University
9. Hon. Sri Bhimasen Sachar, Premier, East Punjab Government
10. His Excellency Sri Mangaldas Pakvasa, Governor of Central Provinces and Chancellor of Nagpur University
11. Hon. Sri Harikrishna Mehtab, Premier, Orissa Government.
12. Hon. Sri Govinda Vallabh Pant, Premier, United Provinces Government
13. His Highness the Maharaja of Gwalior, Rajapramukh of Madhyabharat Union
14. His Highness the Maharaja of Patiala, Rajapramukh of East Punjab Union
15. His Highness the Maharaja of Rewa, Rajapramukh of Vindhya Pradesh Union
16. Dr. Asthana, Vice-Chancellor, Agra University
17. Dr.D.R. Bhattacharya, Vice-Chancellor, Allahabad University
18. Dr.C.R.Reddy, Vice-Chancellor, Andhra University
19. Dr.Manavala Ramanujam, Vice-Chancellor, Annamalai University
20. Dr.P.Parija, Vice-Chancellor, Benares Hindu University
21. Dr.P.N.Banerjee, Vice-Chancellor, Calcutta University
22. Mahamahopadhyaya Dr.P.V.Kane, Vice-Chancellor, Bombay University
23. Sri. Kasturiraj Chetty, Vice-Chancellor. Mysore University
24. Dr. M.B.S.Neogy, former Vice-Chancellor, Nagpur University.
25. Sri Ali Yar Jung, Vice-Chancellor, Osmania University
26. Sri C.P.N. Singh, Vice-Chancellor, Patna University
27. Sir Teja Singh, Vice-Chancellor, East Punjab University
28. Sri C.N.Acharya, Vice-Chancellor, Utkal University
29. Sri A.S.Bharatan, General Manager, Press Trust of India
30. Sri James Cousins, Poet, Dramatist , Art Critic
31. Sri Tushar Kanthi Ghosh, Editor, Amrita Bazar Patrika, Calcutta
32. Acharya J.B.Kriplani, Ex-President, Indian National Congress
33. Sri Clara Motwani, Principal, Buddhist Women’s College, Colombo
34. Dr. K.Motwani, Visiting Professor to Far Eastern Universities
35. Sri Jamshed Nusserwanjee, Former Mayor, Karachi Municipality
36. Dr. D.N. Wadia, Geological Adviser, Government of India.

B.M.N.Murty

MIDWEEK SPECIAL ARTICLE NO. 416--Sri Aurobindo and the Nobel Prize
Created: Wednesday, November 7, 2007 8:31 AM