28-12-2014
Leadership
Leadership is a psychological organisation of power that is dynamic as well as magnetic. Confining the scope to the individual, it can be seen from all the nine points (Nos. 1 to 9) of view. It can, if necessary, be extended to any level. Leadership is a centralized organisation that leads the rest of the society to the goal society has chosen and the leading individual has endorsed. Even மண்ணாங்கட்டி of the 9th level of substance can serve as a leader of a tribe of individual மண்ணாங்கட்டி. Leadership, as every other endowment, exists at all levels. It is a self-evident principle. Leadership is primarily a power, though the dimensions of knowledge, emotion, sensation are always implicit. Leadership’s one attractive quality is strength. One who exercises the Strength with the fullness of the flavour of knowledge brightens the followers. Should he possess also emotion, like Nehru, not based on his own belief but his own obedience to another leader, then the multitude that follows feels itself ‘self-luminous’, feeling it as a glow of sparkling emotions. Leadership exists in all levels, in all institutions, in all actions, and beliefs. Physical domination is the best and most intense expression of leadership. It is capable of greater creativity. For instance, imitation carries a semblance of leadership. One who attends the speech of a leader is unaware of following the thought as well as beliefs of that leader. After some time, he will find his own home and work organised as the leader’s home and work. Everyone desires not only to follow the leader but excel him. This being the urge of incapacity, it acts in the reverse. Ideal leaders have few followers. Unideal leaders have the whole population of the nation as followers. The ideal is difficult to follow and is not to one’s taste. The unideal is readily there for one to follow and is capable of yielding intense enjoyment. Soldiers love to loot, not love to die at the front. One of Napoleon’s strategies was to offer his men the greatest incentive to loot. One cardinal evolutionary fact that reveals the inbuilt organisation is many are capable of leading a loot. Successful looting results in a more stable society. Great families of high reputation are the distant descendants of organised looters. It is Marx who announced this fact to the world when he said that all accumulation of capital is by expropriation. Hence he advocated violence. In “The Valley of Fear”, the gang of Scowers are merciless, obedient, unthinking, enjoying acts of cruelty for its own sake. Douglas is idealistic, patriotic, Romantic in the extreme, fearless, full of ready wit that is the resourcefulness of his vital mind. Baldwin moved away from him as a rival sanctioning the purity and strength of his love for Ettie. She could be successfully moved to Chicago and her life enjoyed. Still “love” at all levels has its rules. It is Baldwin’s love that killed her in fever. It is Teddy Baldwin who pursued him and died more for the love of Ettie than to revenge his betrayal. To fully appreciate the strength of leadership, one must see its play in the follower. Following requires strength of belief, admiration, adoration. Leadership is really seen in the followers’ adhesion to leadership.
Shankara was outstanding, was a vibhuti, in persuading all India in a short period of 20 years. His thought reached the places he had visited earlier. The population waited for him to arrive and approve. Military conquest is physical. Shankara’s conquest being mental, travelled fast and travelled ahead. Buddha and Shankara had greater conquests faster, as they both were of Mind, though one was vital mind and the other physical mind. Chastity is intensity turned inward. Enjoyment is intensity developing in expansion. One is great, the other is magnificent. Of course, the scope of the criminal is vaster than that of the citizen. Hence his resourcefulness has a greater scope. The criminal is after a material object. The Harlot gives, gives enjoyment primarily. The feminine principle continues in its existence even in the Supreme. Both masculine and feminine are parts. They have to merge to let the whole emerge.
Man has a way of discovering leadership in his ordinary walks of life. Clients looking up to lawyers, sometimes even doctors as the leaders of their life is largely seen. The political leader playing the role of family leader is ubiquitous. Man longs for leadership and is fulfilled in it. It is at this point Mother asks us not to worship Her but to become Divine ourselves. Leadership is intense human relationship that is somewhat a process of self-absorption. One extra dimension of leadership is the leader desires to be led. There comes the principle of surrender which can be followed only by a consummate leader. Spirituality is a field of secrets. Sri Aravindam is more so. The secret seems to be profoundly simple. It possesses the greatest secret as one of public awareness. The only example that can carry any conviction is Truth is simple, but difficult to be followed as a principle of life. We are of the plane of Mind. Mind expresses unity through division and that process is completed in the body. The body that evolves along with the evolution of the inner Spirit completes that process in the universe, acquiring immortality in the subtle plane, absorbing the universal experience in the substance. Spiritually, leadership lies in the Supreme expressing in three dimensions in the Individual. To be able to observe that Individual at the point Mind becomes Mind of Light is at its very best. We can see that leadership at all levels of existence. Obviously it can be seen by one who has an element of it in himself. One can know of leadership only to the extent he has acquired it himself. Leadership in skill is primary, capacity is at a higher level. Imagine leadership in manners, behaviour, character, personality, individuality. Each of these is endowed with an organisation, structure. It is interesting to see the varying energy in these aspects. The whole world invests their savings in America, knowing how vulnerable that structure is. It is leadership of confidence. Banks multiply Money by winning public confidence. Strength is physical, confidence is psychological. Both are traits of leadership. Incidentally, imagine the husband, not a meek one, who enjoys submitting to his wife’s capacity to evoke his confidence. It is a loving confidence whose value is incalculable for him.
Leadership is often conferred on one by a post even when he is bereft of any endowment that qualifies him for leadership. People accept that leadership, as in the case of religious Mutts, like Vatican. Such a situation offers superstition a legal right to rule. Only a Luther can break it. Sri Aurobindo says this world is built in darkness, cruelty, and hatred so that they might grow. Hence, if we abolish it, their opposites too will be abolished. The only way out is transformation. The Spirit of transformation catches the power of evolution into the processes of involution. Power becomes process. Process admits of expression of Power. Of the several great principles that lie behind creation, Freedom stands out. To Him, it is the final law and last consummation. The Freedom of the Unknowable best expresses when it responds to the human call. Having responded, it formulates itself to the human aspiration and withdraws. Human freedom is either freedom to suffer or freedom to evolve. And that evolution is transformation which is a reversal. Creation is the objective status of Brahman that remains in Subjectivity. To preserve in its objective status what it is in its subjectivity is then the Process of creation. Leadership endows its following with what it desires and withdraws to observe how it expresses. It is in Freedom Leadership is best understood. Knowledge, if there is ANY, is that which understands all the other secrets in its own secret. Leadership is then that which dispenses with the need of the human guru as well as the inner guru and waits for eternity holding all the energy that is needed to accomplish at the same MOMENT. ‘Moment’, says HE, is creative, while ‘instant’ is flat. Sri Aurobindo showed Mother thus while She was translating Savitri.
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