A Martial Spirit

I was reading an article by Koenraad Elst, and though I greatly respect him, I feel that his criticism of the Nouvelle Droit requires a response. The article in question is located at http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/fascism/Nazi5Poewe2.html, and though the criticism of the Nouvelle Droit is a side issue from the main topic, this is what interested me about the article, and warrants a response. More specifically, my response will be to two points that he had about the Nouvelle Droit, because these are important issues.

5) its sympathy for Islam, one element which it does indeed have in common with Hitler and Himmler and the authors discussed by Poewe, and strange for alleged neo-Pagans given that Mohammed’s career consisted in the extermination of Paganism from Arabia; (6) its lack of a credible philosophical or religious backbone, compensated for with restless explorations of Pagan mythologies and frivolous exercises in aimless erudition or contrarious rhetoric (the annual conference in Paris is called Journée de la Pensée Rebelle, “day of rebellious thought”, a sign of prolonged adolescence), which struck me by its contrast with the solid philosophical and religious grounding of modern Hindu thinkers whom I had read, such as Sri Aurobindo, or whom I knew in person, particularly Ram Swarup and Sita Ram Goel;

The sympathy for Islam is not because of Islam per se, but because of two features which are present in Islam to the exclusion of other religions nowadays. Islam has a martial spirit, and it seems that other religions lack this martial spirit. Though Koenraad Elst admires the Vedic Dharma for its sophisticated philosophies, I think that it is equally important to revive the martial spirit of the Vedic Dharma. It is time that verses in the Bhagavad Gita where Krishna tells Arjuna it is his duty to fight gets as much attention as the verses dealing with its advanced metaphysics. It is time that songs are sung about concepts of the warriors engaging in activities like a Rakshasha Vivaha as a privilege of warriors. It is time that the Vedic Dharma is stressed by figures like Bhima with his awesome mace, rather than people singing mantras while throwing flower petals around each other. It is time the martial spirit awakens in the Vedic Dharma. Islam also seems to have a spirit that is moving history at the moment and is opposed to liberal democracy and global capitalism. Though I am opposed to sharia law in any Aryan land, the Muslims have stood up against liberal democracy and global capitalism. There are political and economic ideals that mirror the Aryan Dharma, and these are found in autonomy and economic justice, not the empty notion of negative freedom and economic liberty, which just results in the exploitation and reduction of man. A follower of the Aryan Dharma must have the same spirit to reject liberal democracy and global capitalism for something clearly better as the Muslim does for his sharia law. I also would rather lament the conquest of Zoroastrianism by Islam more than Arabic paganism. Though I sympathize with the past Arabic pagans to have their traditional religion, it is more important that we associate ourselves with an Aryan Dharma more so than a general paganism.

As far as the second point is concerned, I do agree that it is imperative to have a sophisticated metaphysics. This is what I greatly admire about Vedanta. It is also equally important to deal with the cultural aspects of the present world, and show how a traditional Indo-European pagan outlook could help. This I believe is the project of Alain de Benoist. Also, I will reiterate my previous point because it is of grave importance. Though the Vedic Dharma has a metaphysics which is superior to the Christian or Islamic, it needs to reassert its martial spirit.

The warrior's look is like a thunderous rain-cloud's, when, armed with mail, he seeks the lap of battle. Be thou victorious with unwounded body: so let the thickness of thy mail protect thee. With Bow let us win kine, with Bow the battle, with Bow be victors in our hot encounters. The Bow brings grief and sorrow to the foeman: armed with the Bow may we subdue all regions.

Rig Veda Hymns to the Weapons of War 1-2