Confounding the tourists for worshipers

[not just the reception room but the entire courtyard of the Ashram is used for public worship from early in the morning till late at night... Sri Aurobindo and Hinduism (a speech by Peter Heehs: Hyderabad 2006) Sat 22 Mar 2008 11:40 AM PDT Permanent Link]

To confound the tourists for worshipers is like missing the woods for the trees. Welcome to the website of The Mother's work in Orissa and the Relics Centers including Complete list of Sri Aurobindo Relics Centers in Orissa (in Tabular format). 10676 Centres of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in Odisha - August, 2008 [11:06 AM] [TNM]

The Lives Divine

[Hyppolite's 1952 Logique et existence, a book Foucault regarded as "one of the great books of our time" was also a book on Hegel, centered on the question of a logic of the concept. It opened by rewriting Hegel's Phenomenology as a logic of silence, a logic of the ineffable. The Cambridge Companion to Foucault: Michel Foucault: Google Books by Gary Gutting - 1994]

[The idea of rewriting Hegel's Phenomenology became a passion but also one of those dreams every thinker has, knowing fully well that he cannot fulfil it. But such a 'regulative Idea' gives meaning to your being as a thinker... Aboni Ghose introduced me to the writings of Sri Aurobindo...He made me read Sri Aurobindo’s magnum opus, The Life Divine. I read perhaps the first six chapters, which impressed me a great deal by their profundity and large scope. I even made plans to write a book on metaphysics myself, with chapters on ‘matter’, ‘life’, ‘mind’, and so forth. -- J.N. Mohanty - Between Two Worlds, East and West: An Autobiography, Oxford, 2002 10:24 AM]

Puducherry, August 15, 2014

A world famous "questioning" disciple of Sri Aurobindo has accomplished a superhuman feat by rewriting the Master's magnum opus as "The Lives Divine" - a pentalogy. Due for release on August 15 coinciding with the Centenary of the original "The Life Divine" it marks the metamorphosis of the historian author to a full-fledged philosopher. "I was never ever a philosopher," the author quips in his blog post, echoing the famous words of Sri Aurobindo.

The author also plans to publish his first anthology of poems in spring next year which would be another "life" for him. After a couple of further somersaults that are up his sleeve, he might embark upon penning his intellectual autobiography that will evidently be titled as "My Lives."

The attractively bound five-volume set of "The Lives Divine" is eagerly awaited, but the high price is likely to dampen the spirits. Puducherry, being a free port and hub of South Asian trade, has been opted for the release of the book as the US economy is yet to come out of the prolonged recession. The Indian devotees of Sri Aurobindo, as customary, have deplored the publication while the westerners have greeted it, thus securing their complimentary copies. [TNM]

War and strife themselves have been schools of heroism

[This creation is inspired by the divine delight, the eternal Ananda; it is full of the joy of its own truth and power, it creates in bliss, creates out of bliss, creates that which is blissful. Therefore the world of the gnosis, the supramental world is the true and the happy creation, ŗtam, bhadram , since all in it shares in the perfect joy that made it. A divine radiance of undeviating knowledge, a divine power of unfaltering will and a divine ease of unstumbling bliss are the nature or Prakriti of the soul in supermind, in vijñāna. The stuff of the gnostic or supramental plane is made of the perfect absolutes of all that is here imperfect and relative and its movement of the reconciled interlockings and happy fusions of all that here are opposites. For behind the appearance of these opposites are their truths and the truths of the Eternal are not in conflict with each other; our mind's and life's opposites transformed in the supermind into their own true spirit link together and are seen as tones and colourings of an eternal Reality and everlasting Ananda. Works Of Sri Aurobindo > English > Synthesis Of Yoga Volume-20 > Vijnana Or Gnosis ]

[Again, the sign of the divine worker is that which is central to the divine consciousness itself, a perfect inner joy and peace which depends upon nothing in the world for its source or its continuance; it is innate, it is the very stuff of the soul's consciousness, it is the very nature of divine being. The ordinary man depends upon outward things for his happiness; therefore he has desire; therefore he has anger and passion, pleasure and pain, joy and grief; therefore he measures all things in the balance of good fortune and evil fortune. None of these things can affect the divine soul; it is ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, nityatrpto nirāśrayah; for its delight, its divine ease, its happiness, its glad light are eternal within, ingrained in itself, ātmaratih, antahsukho' ntarārāmas tathāntarjyotir eva yah Page 174 Works Of Sri Aurobindo > Essays On The Gita-Volume-13 > The Divine Worker ]

[All the economic development of life itself takes on at its end the appearance of an attempt to get rid of the animal squalor and bareness which is what obligatory poverty really means, and to give to man the divine ease and leisure of the gods. It is pursued in a wrong way, no doubt, and with many ugly circumstances, but still the ideal is darkly there. Politics itself, that apparent game of strife and deceit and charlatanism, can be a large field of absolute idealisms. What of patriotism, - never mind the often ugly instincts from which it starts and which it still obstinately preserves, - but in its aspects of worship, self-giving, discipline, self-sacrifice? The great political ideals of man, monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, apart from the selfishnesses they serve and the rational and practical justifications with which they arm themselves, have had for their soul an ideal, some half-seen truth of the absolute and have carried with them a worship, a loyalty, a loss of self in the idea which have made men ready to suffer and die for them. War and strife themselves have been schools of heroism; they have preserved the heroic in man, they have created the ksatriyiilJ, tyaktajivitiilJ, of the Sanskrit epic phrase, the men of power and courage who have abandoned their bodily life for a cause; for without heroism man cannot grow into the Godhead. Courage, energy and strength are among the very first principles of the divine nature in action. All this great vital, political, economic life of man with its two powers of competition and co- operation is stumbling blindly forward towards some realisation of power and unity, - in two divine directions, therefore. For the Divine in life is Power possessed of self-mastery, but also of mastery of His world, and man and mankind too move towards conquest of their world, their environment. And again in the Divine fulfilment there is and must be oneness, and the ideal of human unity however dim and far-off is coming slowly into sight. The competitive nation-units are feeling, at times, however feebly as yet, the call to cast themselves into a greater unified co- operative life of the human race. Page-155 Works Of Sri Aurobindo > Social And Political Thought Volume-15 > The Suprarational Ultimate Of Life]

[And as Bastiat, a Continental scholar who was a great admirer of the Anglo-Saxons, said: “Any social arrangement that is not based on Truth and Justice will fail.” So go ahead. Reject the Anglo-Saxon economists from Bentham to Ricardo to Keynes. Study the Austrians – from Menger to Mises to Hayek to Hoppe. And study the great Continental scholars, from Bastiat to the great Bruno Leoni. -- On The Rise and Fall of the Anglo-Saxons from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik]

If the aim of "economic development" is "to give to man the divine ease and leisure of the gods," and "Politics itself...can be a large field of absolute idealisms," nothing evidently prevents them from being means of Yoga. [TNM] 9:16 AM 9:58 AM 10:19 AM 7:46 AM

Third class devotees

While dwelling evocatively on Towards the Rebirth of India at sulekha.com [Sep 24 2008 10:22 AM], Aju Mukhopadhyay has drawn the attention of the readers, inter alia, towards the plight of the transsexuals. Incidentally, like the third gendered represent an intermediate state, there is a certain section of persons who are neither devotees of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, nor non-devotees. They are a curious lot who feel it is their right to be at liberty to pledge their allegiance to The Mother and Sri Aurobindo at will or whim, and take it back at the next breath. They are in a transitional state, no doubt, and we should sympathize with them, but they constitute a nuisance at any rate. [TNM]

Dismal situation, inmates helpless, devotees feel that the Ashram is sacred

Tusar N Mohapatra said... 7:16 AM, September 24, 2008

Thanks Nandhi for the quick report. It is certainly a dismal situation, and more so because the large number of inmates find themselves as helpless in the matter. On the other hand, most of the devotees feel that the Ashram is sacred, and they should not poke their noses in its affair. I understand the Trust rules are too stiff to expel someone. It will be nice if you can shed light on the whole affair in little bit more detail.

Will Somnath Chatterjee be the new JP now?

[Political spats affecting Hindustan Times, India - 6 hours ago Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has spoken his mind, again. Known to air his opinions frankly, Chatterjee minced no words in saying that development of ... Political will key to growth: Somnath Financial Express
Somnath for ‘right to recall’ MLAs and MPs Indian Express, India - 21 Sep 2008 CHANDIGARH, SEPT 21 Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee advocated the introduction of “right to recall” system to deal with elected representatives who ...Somnath against new terror law Calcutta Telegraph Be role models, Somnath urges legislators Chandigarh Newsline Somnath for right to recall Chandigarh TribuneHindu - Thaindian.comall 51 news articles » Somnath Calls For “Right To Recall” Top News, India - 8 hours ago Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today took a strong stand in support of the electorate’s “right to recall elected representatives who ignore the ... Centre, states urged to enact effective laws Chandigarh Tribune all 2 news articles »]

Will Somnath Chatterjee be the new JP now? [TNM]

Reading Sri Aurobindo is like reading an updated Kant

Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: September 23rd, 2008 at 1:09 am [8:48 AM 9:26 AM]

[I suppose that, genealogically, all this is Kant’s secular-Enlightenment updating of the old Christian virtue of hope. But it locates what is hoped for in this life, this world, rather than in an afterlife, or in some sort of post-apocalyptic recovery]

The same emphasis of “in this life, this world” can also be found in the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo, even though his thought comes under the rubric, spiritual. Reading Sri Aurobindo is like reading an updated Kant.

Some might preserve a greater natural influence

[The ultimate result must be the formation of a World-State and the most desirable form of it would be a federation of free nationalities in which all subjection or forced inequality and subordination of one to another would have disappeared and, though some might preserve a greater natural influence, all would have an equal status. -- Sri Aurobindo (A Postscript Chapter,1950) in "Social and Political Thought" - "The Ideal of Human Unity" SABCL Volume 15 published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Puducherry]

[Absolute equality is surely neither intended nor possible, just as absolute uniformity is both impossible and utterly undesirable; but a fundamental equality which will render the play of true superiority and difference inoffensive, is essential to any conceivable perfectibility of the human race. Page-270 Document: Home > E-Library > Works Of Sri Aurobindo > English > Social And Political Thought Volume-15 > The Imperfection Of Past Aggregates]

[But it is also possible that our progress has not been a development in a straight line, but in cycles, and that in those cycles there have been periods of at least partial realisation in which men did become able to live according to the high dream of philosophic Anarchism, associated by the inner law of love and light and right being, right thinking, right action and not coerced to unity by kings and parliaments, laws and policings and punishments with all that tyrant unease, petty or great oppression and repression and ugly train of selfishness and corruption which attend the forced government of man by man. It is even possible that our original state was an instinctive animal spontaneity of free and fluid association and that our final ideal state will be an enlightened, intuitive spontaneity of free and fluid association. Our destiny may be the conversion of an original animal association into a community of the gods. Our progress may be a devious round leading from the easy and spontaneous uniformity and harmony which reflects Nature to the self-possessed unity which reflects the Divine. Page-274 Location: Home > E-Library > Works Of Sri Aurobindo > English > Social And Political Thought Volume-15 > The Group And The Individual]

[This is a solution to which it may be objected that it puts off the consummation of a better human society to a far-off date in the future evolution of the race. For it means that no machinery invented by the reason can perfect either the individual or the collective man; an inner change is needed in human nature, hinge too difficult to be ever effected except by the few. This is not certain; but in any case, if this is not the solution, then there is no solution; if this is not the way, then there is no way for the human kind. Then the terrestrial evolution must pass beyond man as it has passed beyond the animal and a greater race must come that will be capable of the spiritual change, a form of life must be born that is nearer to the divine. After all there is no logical necessity for the conclusion that the change cannot begin at all because its perfection is not immediately possible. A decisive turn of mankind to the spiritual ideal, the beginning of a constant ascent and guidance towards the heights may not be altogether impossible, even if the summits are attainable at first only by the pioneer few and far-off to the tread of the race. And that beginning .may mean the descent of an influence that will alter at once the whole life of mankind in its orientation and enlarge for ever, as did the development of his reason and more than any development of the reason, its potentialities land all its structure. Page – 207 Home Document: Home > E-Library > Works Of Sri Aurobindo > English > Social And Political Thought Volume-15 > The End Of The Curve Of Reason]

"In his Perpetual Peace (1795), Kant advocated a world federation of free states." Before we expect the fruition of "a federation of free nationalities" at the international level, such a mechanism needs to be attempted for the States constituting India. Reminds Sri Aurobindo, "if this is not the solution, then there is no solution; if this is not the way, then there is no way for the human kind." [TNM]

Liberal falsehoods

[We are a multilingual, multi-religious, multicultural society. Communalism can split the country in the middle... Communalism is an ideology. It means a Hindu's socio-politico-cultural interests are different from a Muslim's because he is a Hindu and vice versa. Q&A: 'Communalism can grow without communal riots' TOI 1 Sep 2008, Historian Bipan Chandra]

[In a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-religious country like India... a better and more effective answer to rising tides of fundamentalism of any shade would be to try and enlarge the space of secular and liberal ideologies and by speaking up against all forms of communalism and sectarian and ethnic or region based violence – whether it affects one’s particular community or language group or not this time round. Apathy, Activism and the Line in Between
from Around and About by shantanu dutta ]

[India — Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.1% (2001 census) According to www.cia.gov/library/]

Just like a schoolgirl parrots that Water is a colorless, odorless, and tasteless liquid, we are so used to hearing the assertion that India is a multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural country. But this statement hardly reflects the reality as far as religions are concerned. Why the "socio-politico-cultural interests" of 80.5% of over 1 b. people cannot be looked after differently baffles logic. [TNM]

Savitri Era Party proceeds by The Three Madnesses & The Five Dreams of Sri Aurobindo

Savitri Era Party proceeds by the broad objectives set in The Three Madnesses & The Five Dreams of Sri Aurobindo. Savitri Erans are requested to read and re-read these mantric utterances and re-jig their priorities accordingly. [TNM 4:37 AM]

Action has become imperative and inaction will prove very costly

Thursday, September 11, 2008 Coup in the Ashram
from Tusar N. Mohapatra <tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com> date 11 September 2008 18:37 subject Re: EXPEL PETER

From the trail of letters, it is not clear who wrote to whom and what. You can make a short description of this sequence incorporating gist of their letters, if not their original words. Then there will be no difficulty in publishing it. At least others will be able to know what is happening; that there is a coup in the Ashram. This is urgent.

[Sri Aurobindo, Once wrote, while discouraging someone from writing his biography, that he did not want to be murdered in cold print by his disciples. That is exactly what has happened, under the lofty banner of Objectivity? and Realism??]
Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 6:38 PM

Fighting a war for the words of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo

[Op-Ed Columnist Surprise Me Most By DAVID BROOKS NYT: September 8, 2008
From voters, the demand is: Surprise Me Most. For candidates, the lesson is: Weirdness Wins. Last winter, Barack Obama succeeded by running a weird campaign...
But over the course of the spring, Obama’s campaign got less weird...
But by campaigning in this traditional way, Obama ceded the weirdness edge to McCain...
But remember: Weirdness wins. Surprise me most.]

[Op-Ed Columnist: A Glimpse of the New By DAVID BROOKS NYT: September 4, 2008 ST. PAUL
Political parties usually reform in the wilderness. They suffer some crushing defeat, the old guard is discredited and the pain compels turnover and change. John McCain is trying to reform the Republican Party before a presidential defeat, with the old guard still around, and with a party base that still hasn’t accepted the need to transform...
Through it all, he communicated his burning indignation at the way Washington has operated over the last 12 years. He communicated his intense passion to lift government to a plane the country deserves. He did note that he has fought to change the Republican Party during its period of decay. And he diagnosed that decay Thursday night (to the tepid applause of the faithful).And this passion for change, combined with his proven and evident integrity, led to the crescendo of raw energy that marked this convention’s conclusion. His policies are still not quite there yet, but McCain has the heart of an insurgent.]

[Op-Ed Columnist The Education of McCain By DAVID BROOKS NYT: August 19, 2008 McCain’s long-running rebellion against the stupidity of modern partisanship...
The man who hopes to inspire a new generation of Americans now attacks Obama daily. It is the only way he can get the networks to pay attention...
And the inescapable fact is: It is working.]

The presidential election campaign in USA is entering its last leg, and the kind of issues and intrigues that are at play in this most mature democracy is worth observing and analyzing. It offers us ample insight as to what precisely needs to be done at present if we are fighting a war for the words of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Neither innocence nor eccentricity is of much help. Instead, a poised and persistent “surprising” a la an “insurgent” will perhaps enable us to reach a breakthrough. [TNM]

World-existence is the ecstatic dance of Shiva; its sole absolute object is the joy of the dancing

[The Department of Atomic Energy gifted a two-metre bronze statue of the Nataraja to CERN on June 18, 2004 to celebrate the centre’s India connection... Author Fritjof Capra first drew a parallel between Shiva’s dance of creation and destruction and the dance of subatomic particles in The Tao of Physics.
A plaque next to the statue quotes Capra: “Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter. For modern physicists... Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter.” Shiva the destroyer presides over Big Bang mock-up - Hindustan Times 10 Sep 2008 ... Satyen Mohapatra, New Delhi]

It is unpardonable when veteran journalists like Satyen Mohapatra happen to misinform the younger generation. He should also have mentioned the scintillating words that flowed from the pen of Sri Aurobindo in The Life Divine regarding “the ecstatic dance of Shiva” much earlier than Capra. The Life Divine is the "Tau" of Physics as against Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics. [TNM]

[We have therefore two fundamental facts of pure existence and of world-existence, a fact of Being, a fact of Becoming. To deny one or the other is easy; to recognise the facts of consciousness and find out their relation is the true and fruitful wisdom.
Stability and movement, we must remember, are only our psychological representations of the Absolute, even as are oneness and multitude. The Absolute is beyond stability and movement as it is beyond unity and multiplicity. But it takes its eternal poise in the one and the stable and whirls round itself infinitely, inconceivably, securely in the moving and multitudinous. World-existence is the ecstatic dance of Shiva which multiplies the body of the God numberlessly to the view: it leaves that white existence precisely where and what it was, ever is and ever will be; its sole absolute object is the joy of the dancing.
But as we cannot describe or think out the Absolute in itself, beyond stability and movement, beyond unity and multitude,—nor is that at all our business,—we must accept the double fact, admit both Shiva and Kali and seek to know what is this measureless Movement in Time and Space with regard to that timeless and spaceless pure Existence, one and stable, to which measure and measurelessness are inapplicable. We have seen what pure Reason, intuition and experience have to say about pure Existence, about Sat; what have they to say about Force, about Movement, about Shakti?
And the first thing we have to ask ourselves is whether that Force is simply force, simply an unintelligent energy of movement or whether the consciousness which seems to emerge out of it in this material world we live in, is not merely one of its phenomenal results but rather its own true and secret nature. In Vedantic terms, is Force simply Prakriti, only a movement of action and process, or is Prakriti really power of Chit, in its nature force of creative self-conscience? On this essential problem all the rest hinges. Page-79 Home > E-Library > Works Of Sri Aurobindo > English > The Life Divine Volume-18 > The Pure Existent]

History, for Sri Aurobindo, is a foundry for casting a secure future

Very few posses the kind of credentials that Sri Aurobindo displays to write on civilizational interface between the East and the West. Not only he wrote while passing through extraordinary circumstances and living in unusual conditions, but also with an authority that borders on prophecy while never losing sight of the events of the past.

History, thus for Sri Aurobindo, is a foundry for casting the future. He gallops over continents and centuries, moulds mythology and harnesses poetry, the sole objective being hitching on to a secure avenue for the mankind. Theories and principles he alludes to and falls upon, but only as far as they help; and then sheds them at once and goes over to 'fabricating' fresh philosophies.

It is only by reading his works in original that one can perceive their grandeur and discover the profundity they harbor. Immersing in his insights is an enormously gratifying exercise with the additional satisfaction of participating in and collaborating with the Earth’s evolutionary nisus. “Who will come with me? Who will climb with me?” he inquires whisperingly. [TNM] 4:31 PM

The India of the future will be a bonding of the heart of a Hundred States

[Tusar N Mohapatra said... 27 August 2008 12:09
Instead of a core area and what is suggested, a more appropriate road would be to allow creation of about one hundred states that are substantially autonomous who, in turn, form a EU like structure on purely voluntary basis. Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 12:11 PM]

[Tusar N Mohapatra favours the "creation of about one hundred states that are substantially autonomous who, in turn, form a EU like structure on purely voluntary basis."
In my opinion, it would be better to have free trading and self-governing CITIES and TOWNS – not like the EU of today, which is a Super-State, but like the Hanseatic League of old. The principle of SUBSIDIARITY should be invoked for giving powers to higher levels of government. Responses On Kashmir from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik. In this post I will respond to comments received on my earlier post on Kashmir]

[I am a Punjabi and an Indian, and these two identities often clash, but the way to resolve them is not by secession but through the ‘hard work of democratic politics'... A common mistake is to graft a personal morality onto the state. A ruler must observe the “morality of responsibility” and not the “morality of conscience”, Max Weber teaches us. This prudential ethic is also called the “God of a lesser world”. God of a lesser world TOI 7 Sep 2008, Gurcharan Das]

[Let’s hesitate no further. Let’s truly create diversity in unity. Let a hundred states bloom. And, by doing so, let’s rapidly march on to double digit growth. That’s a lot of economics generated out police check-posts! cerg An Alternative Growth Strategy by Omkar Goswami Published: Business World... cergindia.com]

[Savitri Era: The India of the future will be a voluntary ...Rather, time is ripe for the fruition of Hiranmay Kerlekar’s prediction, “Let Hundred States bloom.” The India of the future will be a voluntary association]

[Marketime: December 2005 Comment: Hiranmay Karlekar wrote an edit-page lead-article in The Indian Express, nearly 20-years back, captioned, Let a Hundred States bloom]

[What India and Bangladesh need are visionary leaders in politics, business and public life. Leaders who refuse to live in the past and are determined enough to script a new future for our children whose grandparents were, after all, once part of the single family of undivided India. In this endeavour to re-integrate our two countries economically and socially, we should learn from the EU. by Saravana Pandian (09486132862) Sept 05, 2008] 10:14 AM

[Main conclusions are: globalisation is irreversible;
the nation state is left behind and can no longer present a setting for ethical behavior;
a transnational europe-like arrangement may be a model for an new framework for ethics, the more so if this ensures a social economical policy of the scandinavian type.
Adriaan Oele. Permalink Does Ethics Have a Chance in a World of Consumers? by Zygmunt Bauman] 12:02 PM

With many new players throwing down the gauntlet, the 2009 Lok Sabha elections will not be a simple affair. Region, religion, language, caste, and other ethnic as well as ideological affiliations will come into sharp focus. All these are bound to exercise enormous strain on the cohesiveness of India as a nation.

Kashmir's secession is already being hotly debated and before long other candidates will come forward with autonomy or such animated demands. In such a scenario, Savitri Era Party needs to follow a neat line of thinking keeping in view the Five Dreams heralded by Sri Aurobindo.

It is instructive to remember that the five stages are not strictly sequential but simultaneous so that each dovetails into the other. While the present form of the EU can be seen as a prototype for the future World Union, the present size of India and its demography does not seem to be ideal as one of its members. It is like the anomalous position of a gigantic UP within the Indian Union.

More than anything else, it is demographics alone which will be responsible for creation of more manageable administrative units. These, eventually, will hold on to the Indian idea on voluntary basis and that will mark the birth of the true Indian spirit. The present shape of India was a historical accident, arising out of a crisis. The India of the future will be a bonding of the heart of a Hundred States. [TNM] [ 12:09 12:11 PM 11:08 AM]

Sri Aurobindo's interpretations of the Veda endorsed by Gayatri Pariwar

The Vedas published by The Gayatri Tapobhumi, Mathura in eight attractive Volumes and edited by Vedmurti Pandit Shriram Sharma Acharya, fortunately contains the interpretations of Sri Aurobindo in the introduction (by Bhagwati Devi Sharma) as well as in the gist provided for individual Mantras, wherever applicable. The sooner such internalization takes place, the better it is for Vedic Studies. [TNM]

Mimamsa is Harmony

[MIMAMSA (noun) The noun MIMAMSA has 1 sense: (from the Sanskrit word for 'reflection' or 'interpretation') one of six orthodox philosophical systems or viewpoints on ritual traditions rooted in the Vedas and the Brahmanas as opposed to Vedanta which relies mostly on the Upanishads]

[Mīmāṃsā, a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation" (compare Greek ἱστορία)... Mimamsa is essentially ritualist (orthopraxy), placing great weight on the performance of Karma or action as enjoined by the Vedas.]

[Mimamsa is a Sanskrit word meaning "investigation, inquiry, discussion." ... Dharma is a key word in Mimamsa doctrine, being used in the sense of sacred and moral duties. It also means the virtue obtained by following actions in accord with the dharma. Mimamsa claims that the scriptures are the only way of knowing about dharma, and only by following the scriptures can we attain dharma as the good... The texts contain an imperfect and obscure description of the rituals and are interspersed continually with speculations on the mystical meaning of the separate ritual acts and the implements used. It was the function of the Mimamsa school to solve these problems by providing principles from their investigation which would give guidance in the interpretation of Vedic texts for performing the sacrificial rituals.

Mimamsa, in final analysis, is to "resolve" as to arrive at a harmonious state. It can be rated as another equivalent word for Harmony like Rta, or Shri. [TNM]

Meet Dr. Gyanchandra in Delhi Book Fair 2008

ITPO's 14th Delhi Book Fair 2008 is on in Pragati Maidan, and books related to The Mother and Sri Aurobindo from various sources have been displayed at Stall No. 5 of Hall no. 12. Besides, Dr. Gyanchandra, an exponent of Integral Yoga, Comparative Religion, and Vedic studies is also available for consultations on Yoga and Naturo-therapy.

Sri Aravind Chetana Samaj is participating in all the Book Fairs held in Delhi since 1996. [TNM]
[Sri Aravind Chetana Samaj Profile : Propagate and publish books of Sri Aurbindo and The Mother. Address : 6562-9 Chamelian Road, New Delhi 110 006, India Telephone : +(91)-(11)-3556212 Fax : +(91)-(11)-7523200 Contact: Mr. Gyanchandra Send Business Inquiry]

It is the organization that should take the blame and not religion

[Although I find my inspiration in the texts of Sri Aurobindo and have derived inexplicable revelations from them, I do so in honoring the secular tradition I have grown up in -and which Sri Aurobindo endorsed as the best course for contemporary polity - by Rich on Sun 24 Aug 2008 Permanent Link Re: Sri Aurobindo and the Future of Humanity--About Avatarhood]

[If on the one hand faith, sincerity and surrender are equivalent to tapahprabhāva of the ancient formulation, on the other the grace of the Divine Mother is dévaprasāda of it. But while in this formulation the aspect of the tapas-will is stronger, in Sri Aurobindo’s it is the psychic being which is more prominently coming forward. Integral Yoga cannot begin without these two—and one just accepts it or one has nothing to do with it. It is a stipulation which is psychic-born and it cannot be imposed from outside, neither by religion nor by philosophy nor by the argumentative mind not even by the life-force. When it is so much psychic-centred, there’s no question of it becoming a large-scale dogma of the masses, of it turning into a ritualistic or creedal religion, although anything can provide it help in the most unexpected way, including the stiff rationalist’s sincerity and his unswerving commitment to it. ~ by RY Deshpande on Tue 02 Sep 2008 Permanent Link Re: Sri Aurobindo and the Future of Humanity--Can Integral Yoga become a Religion?]

[it is part of human nature to require mental symbols to hold on to their faith. In short, we have a tendency to be religious. Even though I had absolutely no connection with Vedanta or with spirituality before coming to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (I was quite happily agnostic), I too find myself sometimes resorting to behavior that would be seen as "religious" or "devotional". This is not a bad thing, in and of itself, as long as we recognize what all the mental symbols and rituals are: metaphors for the inner transformation. Where things become really problematic is when people start to use their preferred philosophy or spiritual teachers to push what is really a vital-emotional agenda, which they try to pass off as "spirituality". This involves prosyletizing, trying to convert others, preaching at every available opportunity, not being able to resist arguing, etc. etc. None of this is spiritual -- it has no connection with the equality and acceptance of all that one experiences when one comes into contact with the psychic being. It is all vital, and it is the vital in a very immature and crude state... But the point is to recognize these things as vital self-indulgence, and offer them up to the Mother for transformation. In short, inner transformation is a very difficult process. Getting distracted by these vital by-ways that lead us to dream of imposing our preferred grand narratives onto others is very deceptive and treacherous -- it could potentially lead to us getting possessed by vital beings (perhaps even those of an adverse nature) which could use us to pervert the higher Truth of the spiritual teaching (indeed I see this happening with those who are pushing a new "religion" in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's name). by ned on August 10, 2008 at 11:48pm Permalink ]

Many people are averse to institutionalized religion or organized religion, but it is like throwing the baby out with the bath water. It is the organization that should take the blame and not religion. Setting the organization right is a political and legal enterprise which seldom receives the attention it deserves. Writing a good constitution and right-sizing periodically various tiers of the management pyramid needs knowledge, courage, and disinterestedness. But it is not always that the executive does not perceive it as a threat, and as a result, the much needed reforms never happen. [TNM]

Upāsanā implies religion

[In fact the right question is: “Can Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga at all become a Religion?” Can it really lend itself to that possible ineptitude, that strange embarrassment? And the straight answer is, “No, it cannot.” Let us just pick up Sri Aurobindo’s The Mother and look at it from this point of view. It certainly is an upāsanā grantha, a scriptural book to derive spiritual benefits from its constant and dedicated reading, regularly reading it aloud at a fixed hour almost with an enthusiastic fervour, utsāha. This is of course true for Savitri, but the interesting thing is, it can be so even for his The Life Divine.
Re: Sri Aurobindo and the Future of Humanity--Can Integral Yoga become a Religion?
by RY Deshpande on Tue 02 Sep 2008 Permanent Link]

If "regularly reading aloud at a fixed hour" "an upāsanā grantha, a scriptural book to derive spiritual benefits" is not religion, then what is? [TNM]

Sri Aurobindo turns history 'upside down'

[The student of history of sociology can hardly fail to note that the Marx-Sri Aurobindo controversy is a creative extension of a very old and interesting intellectual battle which has been going on for centuries and drawing into its arena distinguished thinkers like Hobbes, Rousseau, Vico, Hegel, Comte, Mill, and Morgan. -- D.P. Chattopadhyaya, Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx: Integral Sociology and Dialectical Sociology, 1987]

Evidently, the tussle persists even today as the elite are unwilling to admit any teleological thesis. [TNM]

People in ‘Rainbows End’ have the attention span of a butterfly where the piece duration is less than a minute

[Wikipedia, Facebook, Second Life, World of Warcraft, iPhones, instant messaging — all these are quaint ancestral technologies now that everyone is connected to everyone and everything.
Thanks to special contact lenses, computers in your clothes and locational sensors scattered everywhere you go, you see a constant stream of text and virtual sights overlaying the real world. As you chat with a distant friend’s quite lifelike image strolling at your side, you can adjust the scenery to your mutual taste — adding, say, medieval turrets to buildings — at the same time you’re each privately communicating with vast networks of humans and computers. Vernor Vinge's View of the Future - Is Technology That Outthinks Us: A Partner or a Master? By JOHN TIERNEY NYT: August 25, 2008 “Rainbows End.”]

Savitri Erans should warm up to the challenges ahead and pool resources in order to make the words of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo available to millions of people. [TNM]

Inauguration meditation at Sri Aurobindo Society, Coimbatore

[Sri Aurobindo Society: Inauguration meditation, Santinikatan, No: 8, Race Course, 6 a.m. Engagements - In Coimbatore Today Religion The Hindu Monday, Sep 01, 2008]

The lady doth protest too much, but our newspapers get it right. They always classify the functions connected with The Mother and Sri Aurobindo under the heading Religion in their Engagements pages. [TNM]