Faith in an unseen divinity and feeling loyal to it by a large number of people is religion. It grows by a gradual process, and over a period of time acquires one or more cultural distinctiveness. By offering an umbrella for identity, it also develops into a strong political conglomerate.
Apart from the teaching, the name, the picture, the life-story, and the place also evoke strong emotional feelings. And then, the words and their various interpretations hold no importance. People in general long for safety, security and unburdening. The aesthetic or intellectual satisfaction is aspired for by a select.
If one is possessed by a feeling that his path has great benefits and others should also follow it; and then he goes about to find various ways and means to propagate it, it is religion. Recommending a book or a blog is not all that harmlessly rational. Rather, a scheming mind operates at the behest of the faith, cult or religion.
And what’s wrong with it? A good Product or a great Brand needs to be endorsed. Of course, the conviction level of the person is important; there must be intellectual honesty, one would demand. But conviction, itself, is irrational, recall Barthes: The Pleasure of the Text.
One is largely driven by the past baggages and is tormented too. A theory of everything is absolutely useless for any particular individual, and hence, is useless for all. The individual needs a theory for oneself depending upon his age, stage, affection and affinity. That found, there is no dearth of pastimes and distractions.
Bertrand Russell in his History of Western Philosophy compares Marxism with Judaism/Christianity under 7 parameters to decree that the former is also a faith. And I think, Savitri Era more than fulfils all the seven. Sri Aurobindo and his Followers
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Web search engines are wholly dependent on correct spelling, and hence it is important to standardize certain expressions:
- Sri Aurobindo: to take care to always use Sri (as in his signature)
- The Mother: and not the Mother
- The Mother and Sri Aurobindo: in that order (as in the photograph) as far as possible, instead of Sri Aurobindo and the The Mother.
- Mira: as Sri Aurobindo has re-christened her in the mantra, Om Sri Aurobindo Mira , and nor Mirra.
- Aurobindian: Although Amal Kiran has much defended his introducing of the term, Aurobindonian, it does not cut ice. The last O in Sri Aurobindo is not necessary for pronunciation of the name, and hence a simple, Aurobindian is good for all seasons. Aurobindean, is also another dispensable expression.
[In time, a whole set of beliefs and rituals began to be built up around Sri Aurobindo and more so, around The Mother. The death of each of them caused dismay and disappointment among large sections of the faithful. Many had grown to believe that some miraculous transformation of the physical bodies of their Gurus and through them of the disciples themselves was in the offing. Naturally these devotees were disheartened when this did not happen in the manner they had come to expect.
ReplyDeleteBesides, a whole theology began to be developed, especially because of the extensive records of what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother had said…This theology not only asserts the Avatarhood or Divine Incarnation of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, but builds around them a special cult of worship and devotion…
Like the early Christians whose lives were lived in hope and anticipation of the Second Coming and the Day of Judgement, the disciples of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother also believed that the promised fulfillment of all their hopes and aspirations was imminent. A series of pronouncements by both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother…certainly contributed to the sense of constant awe and expectation in the ashram community…
It needs to be acknowledged that though both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother repeatedly warned against the creation of a cult around them, they themselves encouraged it in several ways. Sri Aurobindo himself deified The Mother and vice versa.
http://selforum.blogspot.in/2006/08/sri-aurobindo-and-his-followers.html
From The Introduction, The Penguin Sri Aurobindo Reader, 1999 Edited by Makarand Paranjape, a critical insider.]