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<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center; line-height:150%;margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><b
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:15.0pt;'>
<font size="4">The Soul of a Nation</font><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div class=Section1>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;line-height:150%;mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><i><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
15.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></i></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style="text-align:justify; mso-pagination:
none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
14.0pt'>A </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>NATION is a living
personality; it has a soul, even like a human individual. The soul of a nation
is also a <i>psychic </i>being, that is to say, a conscious being, a formation
out of the Divine Consciousness and in direct contact with it, a power and
aspect of Mahashakti. A nation is not merely the sum total of the individuals
that compose it, but a collective personality of which the individuals are as
it were cells, like the cells of a living and conscious organism. The psychic
being or soul of a nation is indeed conscious; it knows its <i>raison d'être, </i>its
life purpose, its destiny, the role it has to play in the divine scheme as the
divine instrument. And its will – for it has a will, the expression of its
consciousness, the Divine's impulse in and through it – is inevitable, sooner
or later it will fulfil itself. Even like the soul of a man, the nation's soul
is behind all the movements that form its external life, supporting, building,
guiding its political, economic, social or cultural make-up. The individual can
know of and come in contact with the nation's soul in and through his own soul.
When one becomes conscious of his psychic being then only one is in a condition
to be conscious of the psychic being of the collective person of his nation or
the nation with which he has inner affinity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style="text-align:justify; text-indent:11.5pt; mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>There are periods in the life cycle of a
nation, critical moments, when it is in deadly peril, when its very existence
is threatened, attacked by enemy forces either from within or from without.
Such was the case when, for example, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'> was invaded by the Spanish Armada or when </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'> was being subjugated by </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>England</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>. Those were very anxious times, but in each
instance the soul of the nation came for­ward and inspired the nation to react
and go through the ordeal and survive. Jeanne d'Arc may be considered as the<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style="text-align:center; text-indent:11.5pt; mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:
none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 198<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
class=GramE><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>embodiment of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>France</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>'s national soul, as on a still earlier
occasion that same soul embodied itself in St. Genevieve. But a nation may fall
on much more evil days, namely, when it loses contact with its very soul, goes
astray, its life movement taking a wrong curve. A
nation can deny its soul, even as an individual may and the result is disaster.
<st1:country-region><st1:place>Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region> is a terrible example of such a tragedy in
our own day.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.25pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;tab-stops:11.75pt;mso-layout-grid-align:none;
text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
  10.0pt'>India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt'> is offering a spectacle, of another tragedy. What is happening here is
the attack of a disease that is convulsing the body politic: it seems to be a
cancerous disease, the limbs seeking to grow independently at the expense of
each other. The patient is passing through a very critical period and it is
indeed a question of life and death. But we hope – we <span class=GramE>are <span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:18.0pt'>:</span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
18.0pt'> </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>sure – that the soul of
this ancient nation will assert itself and </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
7.0pt'>I </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>through whatever
vicissitudes re-establish health and har­</span>mony: for that soul's mission is yet to be done.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:22.3pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>Like the individual a nation too dies.
Ancient </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
  10.0pt'>Greece</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt'> and </span><st1:place><st1:City><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>Rome</span></st1:City><span
 style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>, </span><st1:country-region><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>Egypt</span></st1:country-region></st1:place><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'> and </span><st1:City><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>Babylon</span></st1:place></st1:City><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'> and </span><st1:place><span
 style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>Chaldea</span></st1:place><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'> are no more. What </span><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:17.0pt'>I </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt'>has happened to their souls, it may be asked. Well, what </span><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>happens to the soul of the individual when
the body falls away? </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>The soul
returns to the soul-world. Like the individual Psyche </span><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>the collective Psyche too goes and retires
into the womb of </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>peace and light
with all its treasures, its beauty and glory </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:
11.0pt'>gathered in, like a bird that goes to sleep within its <span
class=GramE>folded <span style='mso-bidi-font-size:24.0pt'>: </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>wings.
What the Greek culture and civilisation was still continues to exist in its
quintessential reality in a world to which one has access if one has the
requisite kinship of consciousness and psychic opening. That soul lives in its
own domain, with all the glory of its achievement and realisation at their
purest; and from there it sheds its <span class=SpellE>lustre</span>, exerts
its <span style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>influence, acts as living leaven in the world's cultural heritage and spiritual growth.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:11.0pt;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>When however the soul withdraws, when a
nation in a particular cycle of its soul manifestation has fulfilled its role
and mission, the body of the nation falls gradually into de­cadence. The
elements that composed the organic reality, the living consistency of national
life disintegrate, lose their energy and cohesive capacity; they die out and
are dispersed or persist for a time as a confused mixture of disconnected </span><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt'>and mechanically moving cells. But it may
happen too that<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0">
<span
style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt;'>Page – 199<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>

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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;mso-line-height-alt:11.75pt;
mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>in an apparently dying or dead nation, the
soul that retired comes back' again, not in its old form and mode of life – for
that cannot be – Egypt, if it lives again today cannot repeat the ages of the
Pharaohs and the Pyramids-but in a new personality, with a fresh life purpose,
In such a case what happens is truly a national resurrection – a Lazarus coming
back to life at the touch of the Divine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify;text-indent:.15in;mso-line-height-alt:
11.75pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none; line-height:150%; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0'><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>We do not believe that </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span
  style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>India</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span
style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'> was ever completely dead or hopelessly
moribund: her soul, although not always in front, was ever present as a living
force, presiding over and guiding her destiny. That is why there is a perennial
capacity for renewal in her and the capacity to go through dire ordeals. And to
live up to her genius, she too must know how to march with the time, that is to
say, not to cling to old and past forms – to be faithful to the ancient soul
does not mean </span><span lang=EN-GB style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'>eternising</span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt'>
the external frames and formulas that expressed that soul one time or another.
Indeed the soul becomes alive and vigorous when it finds a new disposition of
the life plan which can embody and translate a fresh creative activity, a new
fulfilment emanating from the depths of the soul.<o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></p>

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<span style='font-size:10.0pt;'>Page – 200<o:p></o:p></span></p>

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