Ever widening noose

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[Broadcasters: True quality has been drowned out in this cacophony of voices
The Sony radio awards last week acquired a new category - for 'broadcasters' broadcaster'. But, says Robert Hanks, the shortlist says much about the medium's diminishing sense of history
Home > News > Media Monday, 2 April 2007 ©independent.co.uk]

Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. May the whisper of The Mother’s Lasso not be drowned out in the crowd and the cacophony! [TNM]

Their Enron, our Satyam

[Satyam saga exposes India Inc's shortfalls Analysts say the saga exposes serious shortfalls in corporate India that mu... Indian Express - 31 Dec 2008 Related Stories
Post-Satyam, corp governance issues come to life at IIM-A Economic Times, India - 25 Dec 2008 Apart from the lessons learnt, Satyam’s dubious transaction seems to have also left some disillusioned about the corporate honchos. “Our heroes have fallen. ... There is a widespread angst on the campus, too. Many didn’t mince words and even went ahead in calling it a mini-Enron of sorts. BOM:500376 And students seem all set to question and debate ethics and corporate governance in classrooms, showing a rising interest in the community to learn about their roles in similar crisis scenarios.
Promoter deception Indian Express, India - 24 Dec 2008 It’s time Indian promoters discarded their assumption of quasi-immunity from not only shareholders’ scrutiny but also the law. Satyam has raised a lot of ...]

Satyam failed to stick to truth. At the end of the day, it is the question of governance; be it the country, the corporate or an Ashram. [TNM]

Vinoba, JP, & V.P. Singh are a rare trinity

Vinoba, JP, & V.P. Singh are a rare trinity in the firmament of post-Independence India. Savitri Era Party remembers their revolutionary contributions steeped in sagacity and compassion. [TNM] 3:52 PM

Bottom up

[See '09 as terrific year for investing: Raamdeo Agrawal
Raamdeo Agrawal of Motilal Oswal Securities feels 2009 will be a terrific year for investing. "The market may see better days in the second half of 2009-10." According to him, companies with cheap valuations should be bought...
Mkt to bottom in '09; H2'09 may be better: Jaipuria
Jyotivardhan Jaipuria, Head-Research, DSP ML, feels the bottom for the markets have not yet been put in place. “We will get to 15-20% lower on the market,” he said. Manishi Raychaudhuri, MD and Head-Research, BNP Paribas, said...]

Along with the stock valuations, civility in our discourse too plumbed new lows during this year. This should coerce us to go for a reality check and institute crucial safeguards. May all Savitri Erans unite in a new spirit of solidarity forgetting all past hatred and rancor! [TNM]

Grit, determination and constant innovation

[Reliance Inds, NTPC, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, MMTC Ltd, SBI, ITC Ltd, Bharat Heavy Ele, NMDC Ltd, Infosys Techno, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Indian Oil Corp, ICICI Bank, Tata Consultancy, DLF Ltd, RelianceCommu. Ltd, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Power Grid Corpo, Wipro Ltd, Markets Home]

In times of an economic slowdown, it is perhaps appropriate to congratulate and celebrate the success of the Top 20 Indian Companies in terms of Market Capitalization. It is useful to remember that no organization can be a frontrunner without grit, determination and constant innovation. [TNM]

Shabash Saaba

Shabash Saaba for being instrumental in multiplying the mythology surrounding the practitioners of Integral Yoga. [TNM]

Heraclitus’s notion of divine conflict

SSRC Home SSRC Blogs Blog Home Responses to “Heraclitean spirituality: ephemeral selves”
Tusar N. Mohapatra: December 22nd, 2008 at 7:47 am

May I draw the attention of the readers to a short and perceptive treatise on Heraclitus authored by Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]

V.P. Singh vindicated

[Sen’s sensibility on justice Express Buzz - CHENNAI: Economist Amartya Sen spoke in favour of reservation, adding that any issue has to be looked at in the perspective of ‘justice. IITs should address illiteracy and poverty: Amartya Sen Hindu Amartya Sen backs quotas, wants IIT-ians to do more for society Times of India]

V.P. Singh must be smiling in his grave. [TNM]

Sri Aurobindo secures the leadership in philosophy for India

[India will be world's knowledge park: PM Sify - Chennai: India is on its way to becoming a knowledge park of the world and IITians are contributing to realizing this dream in a big way, said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Friday.]

[Transfer of the leadership in philosophy from the West to India
Much before the independence of India, Prof. Sisir Kumar Maitra in an inspired tone wrote in 1942, “Thanks to Sri Aurobindo, the leadership in philosophy, which India had enjoyed in the past and which she lost for some centuries, has come back to her.” That is the India we must be proud of. Savitri Erans will have to work together to see this prophecy into fruition. - TNM 11:21 AM 1:16 PM]

Knowledge must be adored in its integrality and the present lopsidedness remedied. [TNM]

Arm’s-length at Ashram

[The fact is that the relationships each of us has with our fellow citizens overwhelmingly are of the arm’s-length, impersonal variety. They are market relationships, governed chiefly by self-interest on both sides of each exchange. They are not the sorts of personal relationships that guide decisions made within households. They are, indeed, precisely the sorts of relationships that each of us has with strangers from foreign countries. The Nation Is Not a House from Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux]

[When the Stranger says: "What is the meaning of this city ?
Do you huddle close together because you love each other?"
What will you answer? "We all dwell together
To make money from each other"? or "This is a community"?
Choruses from The Rock
Work-Life Insights from T.S. Eliot]

[In his New Year message of peace, Pope Benedict XVI says: “If economic activities require a favourable context in order to develop, this must not distract attention from the need to generate revenue. While it has been rightly emphasized that increasing per capita income cannot be the ultimate goal of political and economic activity, it is still an important means of attaining the objective of the fight against hunger and absolute poverty. Hence, the illusion that a policy of mere redistribution of existing wealth can definitively resolve the problem must be set aside. In a modern economy, the value of assets is utterly dependent on the capacity to generate revenue in the present and the future. Wealth creation therefore becomes an inescapable duty, which must be kept in mind if the fight against material poverty is to be effective in the long term.” The Pope... And The Rukawat
from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik]

[Who's a true Aurovillian? PEOPLE LIKE US Kishore Singh, Business-Standard :: New Delhi December 20, 2008 7:55 AM]

[Re: Goodbye To All That: Nature and the Future Body in Sri Aurobindo
by jaydev on Thu 18 Dec 2008 07:53 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
Sir, This is a brilliant thought and one which is about to explode into the vast array of human waking consciousness as we continue to witness the extent of corruption, greed, fraud, deceit, being exposed in the arenas of public trust vested in a few indviduals all accross the world-earth.]

What would be the tenor of relationships amongst the inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram? Someone should venture to pick up the lens so that an appraisal is possible of what is intended and what obtains. [TNM]

India will continue to be an antidote to the pessimistic scenario

On December 15, 2008 at 11:10 pm Tusar N. Mohapatra Said:

Rarely did I read such a post by you. India will continue to be an antidote to the pessimistic scenario that you paint. [TNM]

Savitri Erans should devise suitable structural alignments

Inclusion of chronology of world events in the summary section of the Mother’s Agenda gives the impression that the conversations reflect a global perspective and The Mother, as it were, had a hand in major political happenings. Today, on the contrary, we see a complete shrinking away from discussing socio-political matters or current affairs.

Difference of opinion is a normal feature of any community and we are no exception. The fear of triggering conflicts, therefore, should not force us into silence. Enormous challenges are at hand, and special skills need to be honed to tackle them. We need a grid of proficient personnel in order to grapple with various eventualities.

Savitri Erans will have to set up a world organization of their own and deploy competent Senators across geographical divides. If the Universe runs in accordance with certain patterns and coherences, then there is no reason why we should shy away from devising suitable structural alignments. [TNM] 9:39 AM 10:05 AM 11:01 AM

Language will ever seduce and stave off fossilizing

[Thus, for example, the affects of a bat consist, on the one hand, in its capacity to encounter the world in terms of sonar, but also in its ability to fly, grasp, tear with its teeth, etc. Likewise, my fingers pounding away on this keyboard constitute an affect or capacity of my body. Or rather, my body here enters into an assemblage of affects produced through the conjunction– the “and” –of my hands and the key board, the two acting upon one another and being acted upon by one another. Through this conjugation of affects the power of bodies, according to Spinoza, is either enhanced or diminished, checked or assisted. Networked Emotions
from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects Dec 5, 2008]

[Not only am I not allowed by this sort of policy to disseminate my own words, I am also not allowed to remix the words of others.
I can get more readers for anything I post on this blog than for an article published under such circumstances; so what’s the point?... There obviously needs to be some sort of open access policy for scholarship in the humanities, as there already is to a great extent in the sciences. Copyright, again from The Pinocchio Theory by Steven Shaviro 10:38 AM]

[(HERE) I am always happy for fully-credited extracts from Lost Legacy. It helps spread Adam Smith's authentic ideas, without fear or favour. Market Time is published in India where Lost Legacy has a fair number of regular readers.
Lost Legacy Quoted from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy 3:53 PM]

[As a blogger, I know full well how technology has empowered me. The Planner's Evil Eye
from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik]

[As history too often has demonstrated, soon after the words accompanying the originating darshan or imaginative vision are spoken, the Future becomes imprisoned by the disciplinary regime of language and fossilizes into the structures of representation that become the liturgy of the faithful. The resultant future is merely the projection or programming of the past. In excavating the past within the future Derrida contrast L'Avenir the unpredictable future. Re: The Evolution of Discourse and The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by Rich on Sun 07 Dec 2008 08:48 PM PST Science, Culture and Integral Yoga Profile Permanent Link]

As long as fingers pound away on keyboards, language will ever seduce and stave off fossilizing. [TNM]

Switch over to electing the Chief Executive directly

[Rajasthan CM race turns ugly; supporters clash Times of India - 11 Dec 2008, 1530 hrs IST, PTI JAIPUR: The race for chief ministership in Rajasthan turned ugly on Thursday with supporters of Ashok Gehlot and Jat leader Sis Ram Ola clashing ahead of the Congress Legislature Party meeting here to decide the new ...]

It is time we switch over to electing the Chief Executive directly and dump the present tortuous system. [TNM]

Banerji's eagerness to eradicate the disease of the religion of Aurobindonianity

[Re: The Evolution of Discourse and The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by Debashish on Sat 06 Dec 2008 02:38 AM PST Profile Permanent Link The arduous and disciplined thinking of a Heidegger, Foucault or Derrida walks perpetually at the edges of human possibility, testing the limits of language... a discipline of deconstruction (the social equivalent of "rejection" in the triple formula of the yoga)... by Debashish on Fri 05 Dec 2008 01:22 PM PST Profile Permanent Link its dynamic rejection of all and every stereotype and sastric injunction (sarva dharman parityajya) and its surrender to the Nameless Unborn Impossible of infinite distance who is yet very near and intimate to us as our very Self. by Debashish on Sun 07 Dec 2008 04:07 PM PST Profile Permanent Link]

It is heartening to note Debashish Banerji put on his thinking cap again by shedding the horns that he had developed during the last couple of months. But it is puzzling to see his eagerness to eradicate “the disease of the religion of Aurobindonianity” although The Mother and Sri Aurobindo never visualized such a scenario in the short run. Defending denial and doubt is as paramount as their other extreme in the dialectic. [TNM]

Complex and chaotic

[His voluminous, complex, and sometimes chaotic literary output includes philosophical pondering, poetry, plays, and other works. Among his works are The Life Divine (1940), The Human Cycle (1949), The Ideal of Human Unity (1949), On the Veda (1956), Collected Poems and Plays (1942), Essays on the Gita (1928), The Synthesis of Yoga (1948), and Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol (1950). Sri Aurobindo -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia]

Thank heavens for the chaos. [TNM]

How a more enticing style can be devised

Re: The Avataric Work: Towards the Intermediate Race
by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Fri 05 Dec 2008 12:09 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

This brilliant summing up, as against the instances of skeptical west referred to, is an indisputable agenda. But the question is whether any trace of this imperative enters into the list of priorities of say, the crowd that gathered on Wednesday in Mumbai. If not, then we should consider it as a communication failure on our part may be owing to certain discursive lacunae. Whether this can be remedied, and how a more enticing style can be devised are issues that need serious engagement. [TNM] Reply

Precaution against the misuse of the word “spiritual”

Re: Physical Transformation—the Early Beginnings
by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Thu 04 Dec 2008 02:27 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

As a precaution against the misuse of the word “spiritual” perhaps it would be better to say “discursive insights concerning matters spiritual” instead of “spiritual insights” here. I recall having objected once in a letter to Jayantilal Parekh to an analogous incongruity in the title “Essays Divine and Human.” [TNM] Reply

Re: Physical Transformation—the Early Beginnings
by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Fri 05 Dec 2008 08:55 AM IST Profile Permanent Link

I meant, how can the Essays themselves be Divine, when they simply pertain to discussions on the Divine? [TNM] Reply

It’s basically a cobbler’s job and no rocket science

Despite admirable candidness, David Hutchinson fails to articulate the ills with any clarity, partially because of his reluctance to diagnose honestly. He prefers to rely upon borrowed notions, clichéd binaries, and truncated givens. The fact is that there are

1. certain institutions,
2. certain individuals; and
3. certain books

While individuals relish their freedom and autonomy, institutions fail to function in accord to their legal mandate at times and need mending. It’s basically a cobbler’s job and no rocket science. [TNM]

Brace up for reforms now and avoid false arguments

[Again you are dwelling on the superficial aspects of the Ashram. The Ashram has unfathomable depths and if one tries to scale even a bit of it, one would leave such persons alone. They are the losers are they not - those who try and seek Power or Money from the Ashram when they could get a lot more. As a westerner you respect freedom of the individual - so let people alone. And do not judge anything without having been there, without having been in the field braving it. The Ashram is full of different types of forces and it can be very challenging to survive there and emerge intact. Believe me, I have braved it for several years now. Only a direct and respectful relationship with the Ashram will allow the true spiritual potentials to emerge. Above all, one can find things to critize if one is not above the very thing that one seeks to criticize. If one realizes this one would look for the transcendent outside oneself in the Ashram and suddenly discover it within oneself too. It is this I wish for every single person who knows about the Ashram. Treat the Ashram and the Ashramites as things different in themselves and you will emerge wiser.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "I have realized how difficult it is to be an Ashra...": Savitri Era Open Forum at 9:25 AM, December 04, 2008]

[The irony in the jihadi recoil in the Ashram is that in this case they are not confronted by any force sympathetic to McWorld. Even the critiques posted on that utmost fringe of the IY community (aka SCIY) on multi-national globalization, false consciousness, consumerism, cultural imperialism etc are savage regards these vulgar forms of economic barbarism. Unfortunately, the fundamentalist perspective has problems seeing anything other than black and white. How these folks claim any allegiance to an organizing principle or practice that defines itself as "integral" is a intellectual contortion that goes way beyond my capacity of comprehension. Re: Re: Jihad vs. McWorld by Benjamin R. Barber Rich]

[Then there is the inability of most people (educated or not, east or west) to recognize rhetorical devices, false argument, circular chains of thought, appeals to emotion couched in the voice of reason. It takes real intelligence and work to see a manipulative argument. Re: reconciliation, expectation, outcome David Hutchinson]

Whether the "let people alone" formula has served us well is apparent now. Brace up for reforms now and avoid "false arguments." [TNM]

Let's agree to follow Sri Aurobindo

[www.abillionhands.com ..., a neutral platform for change, are holding a "Billion hands" concert 0n Dec 5th in Mumbai. from Network18 cnbcbw@moneycontrol.com date 3 Dec 2008 22:26 subject A Billion Hands]

[Jethro Tull-Anoushka Shankar A Billion Hands Concert
On 5th Dec 2008 From 7 30 PM onwards.. At Shanmukananda Hall, Kings\' Circle In an age of continuous terror threat, we stand united, both in condemning this mindless violence and in demonstrating the faith and dignity of humanity by ... Events from Kyakare.com]

May their "debate" understand the significance of the great day and agree to follow Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]

Fourfold soul-forces, four stages of life

Re: The Spiritual Aim in Society
by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Tue 02 Dec 2008 06:55 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

Although "the fourfold soul-forces, the four universal swabhāvas" have been considerably explicated, their linkage, if any, to the four stages of life have not been dealt with adequately. Spirituality, obviously, is not the preserve of any particular age, and hence, how do persons of different ages apprehend it needs amplification. [TNM] Reply

Democracy

[Re: reconciliation, expectation, outcome
by Debashish on Mon 01 Dec 2008 04:08 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
The question we are debating is who gets to authorize what constitutes this force-field, once the founders of the organization have left the body?]

[by koantum on Mon 01 Dec 2008 06:55 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
I just want to add something to Debashish's comment: Who the heck knows anything about this "Force-field"?]

Who? Democracy. [TNM]

Jhumri Tilaiya, Hakimpara, and the simple peasant

[A few years ago upon my visit to Puducherry, I realized the truth that the simple peasant there is closer to God than you and I. It was truly a humbling experience. No care for personal comfort and leading simple lives. Re: Taking Stock Dave Mon 27 Oct 2008 11:23 PM PDT 6:08 PM]

[Here are extracts from a letter to the editor of Sri Aurobindo's Action, Pondicherry, written at the beginning of October by a devotee in Hakimpara, West Bengal. Without the benefit of advanced education, the writer accurately assessed the situation by virtue of simple sincerity... Re: Competing Visions of History in Internal Islamic Discourse and Islamic-Western Dialogue - ABDULLAHI A. AN-NA'IM
by Angiras on Sun 16 Nov 2008 11:48 PM PST Profile Permanent Link] 2:31 PM

"A devotee" "of simple sincerity" or "the simple peasant" is as illusive as R. K. Laxman's The Common Man or a telescopic view of Jhumri Tilaiya. [TNM]

There is no methodology by which he can reach it in a step by step manner

[Re: The Path by Sri Aurobindo by RY Deshpande on Fri 28 Nov 2008 06:55 AM IST Profile Permanent Link
"Man cannot by his own effort make himself more than man; the mental being cannot by his own unaided force change himself into a supramental spirit. A descent of the Divine Nature can alone divinise the human receptacle."
Human potential can grow and flourish in the human domain. But if transcendence of the human is dsired, something else has to happen, something more than even the spiritual. The approaches are different. RYD Reply
Re: The Path by Sri Aurobindo by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Sat 29 Nov 2008 06:30 PM IST Profile Permanent Link
This cryptic "something more" begs elaboration. [TNM] Reply
Re: The Path by Sri Aurobindo by RY Deshpande on Sun 30 Nov 2008 10:39 AM IST Profile Permanent Link
It does. But I’ll be brief. The process is of course subtle for the gross sense faculties to cognize its movement, yet silently moving forward even without our being quite aware of it. If we divide the human reserve into four general categories, four qualities of man, the fourfold soul-forces, the four universal swabhāvas of the ancient description, then in different proportions all our potentials and all our possibilities get governed by them. In fact we are made of them with varying measures in us. Thus a man of learning and knowledge can go the extent of “pure” reason, but to go beyond it, into the suprarational, is not known to him—unless there’s something that can open in him. A certain poise can surely prepare him to receive it, for instance intuition, but there is no methodology by which he can reach it in a step by step manner. So too the inspiration of an artist, or the scientist’s understanding of nature. All is “screened, subliminal, mystical” to him and what is needed is an intuitive heart, or the state of a quiet receptive mind. Once in a while “inspiration with her lightning feet, a sudden messenger from the all-seeing tops” has to traverse the corridors of his mind—if we are to use the description of Savitri. Same applies to other types, to man of skill, man of heroic action, man of commerce and give and take, in a deeper sense the representative of universal Harmony. RYD Reply]

Re: The Path by Sri Aurobindo by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Mon 01 Dec 2008 07:01 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

The elaboration rather complicates instead of elucidating. Should one be directed to “Passing through the Portals of the Birth that is a Death” posted on Sun 30 Nov 2008? [TNM] Reply

Fasciysm

[There is a name for the politics that glorifies risk, decision, and will; that yearns for the hero, the master, and the leader; that prefers death and the infinite to democracy and the pragmatic; that finds the only true freedom in the terror of violence. Its name is not communism. Its name is fascism, and in his most recent work Zizek has inarguably revealed himself as some sort of fascist. He admits as much in Violence, where he quotes the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk on the "re-emerging Left-Fascist whispering at the borders of academia"--"where, I guess, I belong." There is no need to guess.
Zizek endorses one after another of the practices and the values of fascism, but he obstinately denies the label. Is "mass choreography displaying disciplined movements of thousands of bodies," of the kind Leni Riefenstahl loved to photograph, fascist? No, Zizek insists, "it was Nazism that stole" such displays "from the workers' movement, their original creator." (He is willfully blind to the old and obvious conclusion that totalitarian form accepts content from the left and the right.) -- by Adam Kirsch The Deadly Jester The New Republic, Post Date Wednesday, December 03, 2008 The Deadly Jester from Continental Philosophy by Farhang Erfani]

Its name is also fasciysm. [TNM]