India cannot perish, our race cannot become extinct, because among all the divisions of mankind it is to India that is reserved the highest and the most splendid destiny, the most essential to the future of the human race. It is she who must send forth from herself the future religion of the entire world, the Eternal religion which is to harmonise all religion, science and philosophies and make mankind one soul. In the sphere of morality, likewise, it is her mission to purge barbarism (mlecchahood) out of humanity and to aryanise the world. In order to do this, she must first re-aryanise herself….
Strength then and again strength and yet more strength is the need of our race. But if it is strength we desire, how shall we gain it if we do not adore the Mother of strength? She demands worship not for Her own sake, but in order that She may help us and give Herself to us. This is no fantastic idea, no superstition but the ordinary law of the universe. The gods cannot, if they would, give themselves unasked. Even the Eternal comes not unaware upon man. Every devotee knows by experience that we must turn to Him and desire and adore Him before the Divine Spirit pours in its ineffable beauty and ecstasy upon the soul. What is true of the Eternal, is true also of Her who goes forth from Him. [Bande Mataram, CWSA 06:84-85]
For each epoch of this most ancient persisting civilization that we call as India there was a name that represented its aspiration and the way of life, in a way its soul. In the beginning it was called as Jambudweep or sometimes Sudarshandweep meaning thereby an island that is the inmost layer of concentric circles, the juice or sap that nourishes the soul. It indicates the core mission of Bharat, to connect the world with its Soul. Next it was called Bharat, that which is engaged in Wisdom, carrier of Wisdom and Fire in its core. With the development of an ideal human type whose goal was self-perfection, the name given to the land after its people striving to be the noblest was Aryavarta. Next came the wave of invasions that recognised this land by its geographical location on the other side of Sindhu or Indus rivers, India. What then should be the name of Bharat or India as it rises to shine on the eastern horizon and shed its light to the world? The name should link her past to the future and resonate with the deepest truth of her soul and the role she has to assume in the future. We believe it should be Bhavani Bharati or simply Bharati, respectfully Maa Bharati. To change the name to Bharati will also be symbolic of the coming Age where the balance between the masculine and feminine elements is being reset with the feminine energies coming to the forefront.
Bhawani is another name for the Divine Shakti of whom Durga, the guardian deity of Bharat is one of the main manifestations. Bharati is a Vedic goddess also known as Saraswati who is the Power that works out the details of a Divine Perfection upon earth that has been the underlying aspiration we see embodied in the Sanatan Dharma. Saraswati is the river along whose banks the great civilization now known as the Indus valley civilization developed. The river disappeared leading to much speculation until recently thorough modern studies including satellite images, she has been discovered running underground from the Himalayas to the Arabian sea between the Sindhu (Indus) and the Ganga. Confined to a region she is Saraswati but when impelled by Ganga she flows all over Bharat she becomes Bharati, the Shakti of Bharat. It is she whom Sri Aurobindo invoked to rejuvenate the land of India. Though later he mentioned her as Durga but it is the same Bhawani whom he asked us to worship in the days of Freedom struggle. And it is the same goddess who will lead us to victory in last battle of the future destroying the Titan forces that still hold the earth because men are in love with them. But the battle this time is not just for the freedom of Bharat but the freedom of the world, for the freedom from ignorance and bondage and slavery to darkness and Unconsciousness and falsehood and evil for good. India is the first and the last battleground for the higher and diviner way of life to be established. It is destined to show the way and lead from the front. But first we must recover our lost strength and the lost strength does not come by changing the name alone. It comes by changing the character and the change of character itself comes not by any outer means but by engaging in a national Yoga. But of this national Yoga we shall speak later. Let us close with an invocation of Bhawani Bharati in the words of Sri Aurobindo:
When, therefore, you ask who is Bhawani the mother, She herself answers you, “I am the Infinite Energy which streams forth from the Eternal in the world and Eternal in yourselves. I am the Mother of the Universe, the Mother of the Worlds, and for you who are children of the Sacred land, aryabhumi, made of her clay and reared by her sun and winds, I am Bhawani Bharati, Mother of India.”….
Come then, hearken to the call of the Mother. She is already in our hearts waiting to manifest Herself, waiting to be worshipped,— inactive because the God in us is concealed by tamas, troubled by Her inactivity, sorrowful because Her children will not call on Her to help them. You who feel Her stirring within you, fling off the black veil of self, break down the imprisoning walls of indolence, help Her each as you feel impelled, with your bodies or with your intellect or with your speech or with your wealth or with your prayers and worship, each man according to his capacity. Draw not back, for against those who were called and heard Her not, She may well be wroth in the day of Her coming; but to those who help Her advent even a little, how radiant with beauty and kindness will be the face of their Mother! [Bande Mataram, CWSA 06:89]
About Savitri | B1C1-11 A Sacred Yearning (p.5)