Monday, January 30, 2017

Futility of various religions and rituals

Tweets by @SavitriEraParty
Savitri Era: Human ingenuity is not an insulation against stupidity https://t.co/GRVYXo8mk6 #SriAurobindo
Adhering to minimum levels of intellectual honesty can help in convergence of understanding in a mechanical manner. Let's cherish that power.
Let not career or comfort compel you to compromise on intellectual front which is our greatest asset. Resolve, rather, to scale newer peaks.
Let not the past devour your present and the future. Literature, Mythology and Fiction conspire to ruin your sentiments laying sedimentation.
Nature is a convenient term for countless invisible actions animating the Universe of which a not inconsiderable share within a human being.
No nation or religion has any qualification to understand the mystery of Nature nor any amount of Mythology or Literature can unravel it.
Reading the works of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is the most effective means to realise the futility of various faiths, religions and rituals.

Misc. References:
[our mind and ego are like the crown and dome of a temple jutting out from the waves while the building is submerged https://t.co/UvzseLwq56
Golgonooza: The Lives of Sri Aurobindo https://t.co/rUrxdKIpxw
“The Ever-Living Presence” Part 09. The Work Before us: Are we Ready?  https://t.co/WShBHArYfh
Friends, here is Part 11 of Nadkarni-ji's "Invitation to Savitri". Namaskar. "... there are the subtle physical... https://t.co/58XDUSBo44


Thursday, January 26, 2017

Human ingenuity is not an insulation against stupidity

Tweets by @SavitriEraParty
Literal reading of Sri Aurobindo can be deceptive. He, rather, helps to juggle with ideas and ontological constructs as a mental gymnastics.
Purpose of education is to make modern generation aware about wrongs of motheaten theologies, scientific theories, and political ideologies.
There is a real problem of communication,
Due to language, various languages, and comprehension;
Not to speak of vagaries of interpretation.
University syllabus is an arbitrary imposition and not anything Divinely ordained. They need to be challenged and reconstituted every year.
Let not the past to dictate the present. Human ingenuity is not an insulation against downright stupidity or sagacity going down the drain.
Prevailing norms binding individuals to society need to be interrogated ruthlessly without any anchorage to past conventions and religions. https://t.co/HrObBjMwV7
Lens of the past is the best way to skew the vision of the future. Designing the centuries ahead can't continue to draw inspiration from it.
Each and every State of India is a nation. They must be granted Sovereignty and set free as Democratic Republics by dissolving Central Govt.
@blog_supplement Each language is a nation very naturally and hence States should be accorded Sovereign status. Religious identity secondary.
Bengali scholars writing books on society, polity, culture & religion by surveying the whole world but omitting Sri Aurobindo is an anomaly.
A brilliant study like "The Idea of Nation and its Future in India" By Shibani Kinkar Chaube (2017) is an example. https://t.co/1Zf9nqhydr
Election and power politics no doubt are crucial but without winning the ideological war through intellectual prowess, no firm gain possible.
RW lacks number and competence but Left leaning authors are guilty of selective amnesia and conspicuous omissions bordering on conspiracy.
@mediacrooks School text books are not the only source of knowledge. Neglecting scholarship will cost Hindutva heavily for 2-3 dacades more.
@kazhugan @hindupost To give the devil his due, some basic facts have been enumerated. How to remedy the situation however remains a mystery.
@kazhugan Gap arising out of interpretation and uneven inferences is normal but here the problem is of deliberate obfuscation or omission.
@kazhugan Deep layers of sedimentation and resulting prejudices keep Indians chained. Respecting elders is often transposed to old knowledge.
@kazhugan Erratic and evasive responses on account of Colonialism and Marxism are a reality in India and can't be glossed over so lightly.
@kazhugan No disputing there. The contributions have been outstanding but glitches equally devastating. For instance https://t.co/40wCsZSLOu
Suspect what is written or what you have been told. Possible, they are layers of lies forming swathes of falsehood peddled across centuries.
Respect the few years you have been on this planet and your first hand experiences. Rejecting meta-narratives is a sound and safer strategy.
Dissect with precision all agenda-driven information. Most books are careful camouflage of inherent methodological error by clever discourse.
Diagnose the causes of conflict and confusion from widest possible data but avoid any wild speculation as solution. https://t.co/8rSoXSYPvX
Consenting to the cause of any nation or religion robs you of freedom and nose for objectivity. Proclivity toward universality is preferable.
For accuracy sake, all proper names should be mentioned sans honorifics or fond references and it shouldn't be considered as lack of respect.
@dubash The Foreign Minister's picture on the doormat perhaps would have been a more realistic portrayal of the situation obtaining at home.
@dm_ghaziabad Sir, I walked from Lalkuan to Ghantaghar but didn't find any sign of any effort/intention for cleaning such an arterial road.

Misc. References:
[The Imaginary Institution of India - Politics and Ideas by Sudipta Kaviraj] https://t.co/o5SP7uaOvS via @amazonIN
It is being proven that the politics of pure nationalism is a politics of re-infantilising the governed. https://t.co/8cyazU1qep
Bharatiya Thought Is Not Understood In America - https://t.co/02MghYm4gz
[resemblance to M.P. Pandit, a Sri Aurobindo-Mother scholar is intentional though all the incidents are imaginary.] https://t.co/z25oXVhiAK
[philosophers have drawn the boundary, physically & metaphysically,  even more retrograde & rigid than Hegel’s own.] https://t.co/CdbCbYYBCs
[it's Bauman's view that understanding may achieve valid results as an aspect of the ongoing process of social life] https://t.co/Uu3SuQSgb5
[Now everything seems hollow and empty. Damn, I can’t even find perverse satisfaction in being miserable and bitter] https://t.co/RQuhtBOR5l
Reimagining and Refashioning Integral Management - Tusar Nath Mohapatra, Savitri Era Learning Forum (SELF) Ghaziabad https://t.co/YGoEhdLyp7
Savitri Era Learning Forum: There can't be any final explanation https://t.co/h3R07yOIXp #SriAurobindo #WorldUnion
Plain & Simple: The concept of consciousness continues to resist elucidation https://t.co/b8qb6yWB0g #SriAurobindo
[the concept of consciousness continues to resist elucidation. ‘unsolvable’ aspect of the problem that interests me] https://t.co/no3TnLM89o
Savitri Era: There is no unmixed victory https://t.co/mgnhHeh68G #SriAurobindo #DeMonetisation

[God cannot be empirically significant since God cannot both be empirically significant, and be the cause for such empirical significance.] Posted by Nirmalangshu Mukherji - Friday, 6 January 2017
http://primacyofgrammar.blogspot.in/2017/01/yearning-for-consciousness-part-v.html?m=0

[interpretation produces an unobjective corpus that confirms the biases of the dominant culture, which is then treated as the literature everyone has to master] Posted on 29 December 2016 by Shyam Ranganathan
http://indianphilosophyblog.org/2016/12/29/interpretation-vs-explication-ii-choosing-between-a-truth-and-objectivity/

[But can something pleasurable be pointless? I enjoy philosophy when it’s well done--hell, even sometimes when it’s not, for the same reason I sometimes enjoy lousy films.] By John Horgan on January 5, 2017
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/what-is-philosophys-point-part-1-hint-its-not-discovering-truth/

[it is these independent, critical yet constructive voices that can really add value] Read more at:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/56400870.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

[If educators assume philosophy is pointless, it’s fair to say that most academic philosophers (unlike, say, mathematicians, or linguists) are still territorial, or ignorant, about the viability of their subject beyond the cloisters.] Charlotte Blease Monday 9 January 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/philosophy-teach-children-schools-ireland

[All these people understood that they could only grab and retain ordinary citizens' attention with good yarns: powerful, memorable, morally compelling narratives that could prompt the listener to step inside and take a stance. That is the argument Mr Evans makes in a very short, very sharp book, “The Myth Gap”. He observes that all successful movements, including those that overturned slavery and racial discrimination, consisted of a network of small and large communities held together not by common calculations or common acceptance of certain technical facts, but by commonly-proclaimed narratives about the past and the future.] Jan 8th 2017 by ERASMUS
http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2017/01/climate-change-myth-and-religion

[Khanna recommends a combination of democracy and meritocratic rule—“direct technocracy”—which would chasten the demands of an often myopic public with the long-term judgment of the nation’s “best and brightest.” The author’s model for direct democracy is Switzerland’s, while his exemplar of technocratic oversight is Singapore’s, and he ably discusses both.] KIRKUS REVIEW
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/parag-khanna-20743/technocracy-america/


January 18, 2017 8:13 PM
[emotions are directly tied to our actions... Emotions, then, are creative.] https://qz.com/887524/forget-stoicism-a-leading-philosopher-explains-why-we-shouldnt-try-to-control-our-emotions/