Between Jerusalem and Benares: Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism

12 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Sri Aurobindo: Towards a Comparison

12 Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and Sri Aurobindo: Towards a Comparison Margaret Chatterjee There is a passage in Rabbi Kook's Lights of Holiness1 which provides some encouragement for the exploration ventured in the following pages. Kook writes: "The doctrine of evolution that is presently gaining acceptance in the world has a greater affinity with the secret teachings of the Cabbalah than all other philosophies.... Existence is destined to reach a point when the whole will assimilate the good in all its constituted particulars ... towards this objective one needs to be sensitized spiritually to seek God on a higher plane." Kook was a kabbalist of modern times (1865-1935) who was born in Latvia and later became Rabbi of Jaffa and then Chief Rabbi in Jerusalem. He was influenced by Lurianic Kabbalah and Hasidism and also by modern thought. Evidence of the latter can be found in his analysis of the changed consciousness of modern man: a sense of the larger human society which extends beyond frontiers, the impact of scientific knowledge, and the idea of evolution as a concept not only applicable to the biological realm but to culture as a whole. He was familiar with Bergson's thought but disagreed with the notion of an undirected elan vital, believing as he did that the main thrust of the evolutionary impulse was man's yearning for God. From 1885 to 1895, he was Rabbi in the town of Zoimel and spent nights studying with Solomon Eliashov 243 244 Margaret Chatterjee of Shavli, who was learned in the doctrine of emanation and through whom he became familiar with the views of Rabbi Elijah Gaon of Vilna. Another probable influence is that of the Hasidic mystic Shneur Zalman of Liadi, who founded the Lubavitch/Chabad tradition.2 Rabbi Shneur Zalman presented Kabbalah in Hasidic dress. Most notably, he elucidated the concept of the beinoni, the average man, who although falling short of the heights attained by the ~addik could yet resist evil through enlisting his spiritual powers, and so rise to higher and higher degrees of perfection. In the Lithuanian Yeshivot of Kook's day, the musar culture of the Mitnaggedim still prevailed. Kook's thinking shares with this culture its moral fervor and its concern with discovering a form of education that would be in tune with both tradition and the needs of the times. He was able to put some of this into practice after he settled in Jerusalem, where he set up a Yeshivah known as Merkaz ha-Rav. Here he experimented with an integrated program of education in which mystic insight and practical activities were both encouraged. What was especially remarkable was the way in which he was able to combine a strong identification with the Zionist movement with a commitment to a universalistic horizon of human society, finding in nationality a necessary stage in the progress of man towards that horizon, but never losing sight of the ultimate goal. Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) was Kook's contemporary. Born in Calcutta, he had a brilliant career as a classics scholar at Cambridge. On his return to India, he took up Sanskrit studies in earnest and became proficient in them. It is worth noting that whereas Rabbi Kook had Hebrew as his mother tongue, indeed it was the very lifeblood of his thought, Aurobindo started to acquire Sanskrit only in his twenties, and always preferred to write in English. In 1902 he became engaged in extensive political work, including political writing. He became the principal of Bengal National College as soon as it opened. He met Bal Gangadhar Tilak but found his own sympathies were with the extremists and not with the moderates. The years 1907 and 1908 were critical for him. Arrested on the charge of sedition in 1907, he was acquitted only to be arrested again the following year. He had already succeeded in splitting the Congress Party by a speech he made at the Surat Session . On his release Sri Aurobindo moved to Pondicherry, then a French colony, and spent the rest of his life in the ashram he founded there, devoting his time to education, meditation, and a wide range of writings. These are but the barest outlines of a life which successively combined scholarship, political activism, educational experimentation, and a rigorous spiritual ascesis. Sri Aurobindo could have echoed the fol- Abraham Isaac Kook and Sri Aurobindo 245 lowing remark by Kook...