Integral Conflict Resolution

Abstract

AbstractAfter briefly examining the discipline of conflict resolution, the chapter raises the question: if Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga is an enabling concept with real potency, how does it help resolve conflicts at the individual, community, state, and international levels? Though Sri Aurobindo did not envisage the discipline of conflict resolution as it is established today, his writings are certainly instructive for the discipline. For him, conflict is a fundamental discord, not confined exclusively to material, cultural, or psychological dimensions. His scheme of conflict resolution can be compared to concepts such as conflict transformation or transcendence, but it will be much more. It can be called integral conflict resolution. For Sri Aurobindo, enduring conflict resolution is essentially a spiritual evolution, a fundamental change in the very human nature. The chapter elaborates on various dimensions of the integral conflict resolution that emerges from Sri Aurobindo’s yoga-philosophy and examines India’s freedom struggle and select international developments in that light.KeywordsIntegral conflict resolutionConflict transformationIndian freedom struggle