Monday, August 31, 2020

Sri Aurobindo is pivotal to history

Right understanding of the past is essential for possessing a sound perspective for the future. History of ideas has been a fertile field since May 1968. Attemts like The Human Condition can be accused of a tilt... So, exerercising utmost caution while... https://t.co/fWYJ4YspBX

TV and Internet teach in a variety of ways apart from general and professional education plus job experience. Still, the situation of any individual is precarious and lopsided. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo invite to examine what is missing. They tell about the hidden forces of life.

Inferiority complex is so rampant in India that no one dares to occupy the top position but Savitri Era Party has no competition today in terms of ideology and future vision. But the copy-paste brigade unfortunately fail to realise this opportunity and are content with servility.

The best way to look at the galaxy of great men involved in the struggle for independence is that they are all different characters in a gigantic play. That way the scene becomes interesting instead of blaming them for the part they played. This in fact is the spiritual approach.

The right way to know about Sri Aurobindo is to understand in what respects he differs from his contemporaries like Vivekananda, Tilak, Tagore, Gandhi, or Brajendra Nath Seal. They were all influenced by the West yet in highly differing ways. Current discourse should take lessons.

This is the first honest portrayal of Sri Aurobindo as a Theory hand as Neelakandan has been very reluctant and constipated in the past. Still the full throated acclaim is awaited but he has been able to show who the real boss is. Now all books need to be recalibrated or rejected.

It's heartening to see more and more people learning about and developing appreciation for Sri Aurobindo. But it's not an easy task as it takes at least a decade. Working for Savitri Era Party OTOH can impart the right orientation and sense of achievement and no school or college.

Amusing to notice tweets quoting Sri Aurobindo validating gods and goddesses as if it's his main work. People are so bonded to the past that they even use The Mother & Sri Aurobindo for this. Strange that devotees don't accept them fully and put their legs in two different boats.

My request is to incorporate the arguments on Karma presented by Sri Aurobindo (in both prose and poetry)... It’s good that Lele is pragmatically arriving there without reading Sri Aurobindo... Lele will find a very good authority for his “cherry picking.” https://t.co/lDRhCw9D6t

For many years it was mainstream and everyone believed in the same paradigm. So much so that even Girilal Jain had to wait for his retirement. Now also most seem to have succumbed to a similar kind of smugness but Savitri Era Party keeps on reminding them about lack of legitimacy.

Disinformation campaigns have multiplied and institutional initiative needed to unearth truth. But a basic challenge is to accept the new interpretation of the Veda by Sri Aurobindo so that falsehoods can be dismantled. Research on root sounds will open many pathways to meaning.

Misc. References:

1. Mr. Chandranath Basu used world Hindutva for the first time in the modern history of India, he penned down a book with a title ‘Hindutva’ as back as in 1892 unfortunately the narration by him about Hindutva is least known in public domain. https://t.co/09seOULLMd
https://twitter.com/sunandavashisht/status/1299204749523333120?s=19

2. History may or may not repeat but it definitely rhymes and it rhymes with clarion amplification when political conditions in country spin out with same issues. The urge in the people to revive history gathers momentum once they are settled with a belief that for considerable period their rights are thrown to wind by not hitting at the root cause of problems which they are grappling with. Hindutva is one of such topics which have long hermeneutical history, right wing ideologues hold Hindutva in high regard at epistemological level and for left leaning intellectuals, Hindutva is force of devastation which inherently foments divisiveness in the society.
Forgotten Voices of Hindutva Aug 27, 2020 Shrijeet Phadke
Rishi Rajnarayan Basu is also one of the chapters of history of forgotten Hindutva voices. He was not only a maternal grandfather of Yogi Aurobindo but a vocal supporter of Hindutva...
A thought of ‘Swadeshi’ therefore could be sensed in his ideological set up and it would not be wrong to brand him as a pioneer of Swadeshi ideology. 

3. THE ENIGMA OF HEROES: Revolutionary nationalists as guiding spirits. I write for #TheFreedomIssue2020 of @Openthemag https://t.co/gRPplPwTC0 https://t.co/pglOHYXorh
COVER STORY | FREEDOM ISSUE 2020: PAST IS PROLOGUE
The Enigma of Heroes
Revolutionary nationalists as guiding spirits
Sudeep Paul | 13 Aug, 2020 In Memories of My Life and Times (1932), Bipin Chandra Pal, tracing a significant departure in Giuseppe Mazzini’s career, wrote: ‘Secret assassinations, Mazzini discovered, paid a premium to moral cowardice…The policy and methods of the Carbonari could not possibly find an effective remedy to this moral disease. Mazzini, therefore, left the Carbonari and boldly faced the persecutions of the Austrian government.’ 
Mazzini, in India, is forgotten but he served at one time as shorthand for all Western influences on Indian nationalism, including the French Revolution, Russian anarchists, and revolutionaries across Europe. 

4. @arvindneela on the unexplored connection between Sri Aurobindo, Sayajirao Gaekwad, and Babasaheb Ambedkar:

5. Those familiar with Holland’s oeuvre will already be acquainted with his extraordinary talent for fusing gripping story telling with historical narrative ...
Superbly written in his distinctive punchy style, one senses an almost hymnal rhythm to the prose, punctuated by occasional ribaldry and with a soupcon of dry English wit. Holland’s rich mélange of humour, solemnity, horror and poignancy is served with an elegance few writers could hope to emulate. 
of all my blog posts over the years I really do recommend you read this one.] https://t.co/24lzETkuKY
https://evergreenessays.blogspot.com/2020/08/an-almost-hymnal-rhythm-to-prose.html?m=1

Sunday, August 30, 2020

Promoting Sanskrit is ill advised

I keep on revising my Twitter bio and here are the latest:

Director, Savitri Era Learning Forum; President, @SavitriEraParty & Founder, #SavitriEra Religion. Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother

Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother. @NathTusar Tusar Nath Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com #FiveDreams #WorldUnion Ph-96500-65636

The magnitude of issues Twitter shuffles is too onerous for any person and added to it fake and sponsered content. Each one is dispensing or disbursing something. So, the concept of discourse is missing. Still, it's reach and utility is incomparable.
Those who are drawn towards the vortex of Sanskrit texts in their youthful enthusiasm are inviting trouble for all their life. One text will lead to another and then multiple commentaries etc. would rob many pleasures and cause vertigo. Sri Aurobindo's English translations safer.
Promoting Sanskrit means bondage with the past. Absurd mythology, politically incorrect glorifications, and archaic grammar rules etc. Modern Indian languages have successfully negotiated present challenges and are infinitely better to be given priority. So, no Sanskrit in school.
Anything written in Sanskrit seems to be self-evident truth. This impression is wrong; even the Vedas and Upanishads are at best theories, a certain perspective since nothing has been finally proved. Thus, English and local language are the best tools. A new two-language formula.
https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1166760797726375936?s=19
August 28, 2019

Misc. References:

1. Urdu film industry Bollywood, Savior of Kothe ki zubaan in India  
https://t.co/gri3qaG1ur
https://twitter.com/Aranyake/status/1143797969889529859?s=19

2. I am a massive advocate for Sanskrit. But I am also neutral in how scientific terms are created. For example, German doesn’t use Latin (like English) but builds up the words from native roots. Let all languages choose what they want. Even better, let them create alternatives.
https://twitter.com/vakibs/status/1299742658651451396?s=19
I am thinking more and more these days that Sanskrit and Hindi need not be seen as two different languages, but as two different registers of a single language continuum.
Other Indian languages can also be seen similarly, with Sanskrit register being an inherent part of language.
https://twitter.com/vakibs/status/1298722907351179265?s=19
The power of Sanskrit: fecund word formation, technical precision, copious vocabulary etc. can all be borrowed within Hindi (or Telugu, Bengali, Marāthi, Malayalam etc), while the basic grammar for tense and case modalities can remain with Hindi. Is that really a problem?
Of course, Sanskrit can be treated as an independent language in it’s own right. And people can study that separately. But memorizing thousands of tense and case endings just to speak a sentence will be hard for novices. Why should we insist on making this hard journey for all?

3. Not too constructive, but let's say it again. The NEP shows a hopeless RSS-BJP desire to push Hindi instead of Engl. Rajendra Prasad 1949 rendered India an enormous disservice by giving his deciding vote to Hindi, not Skt. In replacing Eng, Skt would have had a fighting chance.
https://twitter.com/Koenraad_Elst/status/1298720693148741636?s=19

4. If you believe in doing Sādhana over multiple lives, it is fine. 😀 Besides, the beauty of Sanskrit is the effect on the mind. It cools it down through the vibrations of the inner voice when we read the texts.
https://twitter.com/vakibs/status/1166768223695593472?s=19
August 28, 2019

5. A whiff of the #sanskrit verb vṛt/vart (to turn, revolve) can be caught around “vertigo”, “vortex” and (the Indian email favorite) “revert.”
https://twitter.com/nitshark/status/641110846358335488?s=19

Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Who is Bharati?

To understand the symbolism behind four goddesses, one needs to read Sri Aurobindo's The Secret of the Veda. https://t.co/RVKL6hPfj9
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1298387795791065088?s=19

Human nature can't be compared with anything else; they are just indicators. Sri Aurobindo stresses on Fraternity - the third formula - on the Vedic Mitra-Varuna principle. We are moving towards that.
https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1286695728966860804?s=19
The last sentence is flawed. Of the four Varnas, the last one is especially geared to work with the service motive. Mahasaraswati in The Mother book represents that faculty. https://t.co/gEPjHIaqEu

Misc. References:

1. Why does Draupadi marry the five Pandava brothers? What causes Indra and Sachi to reincarnate as the Pandavas and Draupadi? Read the secret of the origin of Pandavas and Panchali. #mahabharata #Pandavas #Draupadi @IndicAcademy
https://t.co/sMc8C5MMUM
https://twitter.com/indictoday/status/1298372077045645312?s=19
[As per Narada Puran, and Vayu Purana, Draupadi is a composite Avatar of Goddesses Shyamala (wife of Dharma), Bharati (Wife of Vayu), Sachi (wife of Indra), and Usha (wife of Ashwins) and hence marries their earthly counterparts in Pandavas.] https://t.co/XstgJiWeEN

2. Hm! Maharshi Agastya & Vasiṣṭa are the shared sons of Mitra-Varuna through Urvashi. Vasista is favored towards Maharshi Parashara, & in Slavic, it's derived as Perun (Verun/Varenya, Varuna) w/Axe! Through India, the common Indo-Iran & Indo-European universal are relatable! etc.
https://twitter.com/svmke1/status/1123175443006414848?s=19

3. This thread tempts me to see something analogous to the "Mitra-Varuṇa duality" in the Bhāgavatam episode where an undersea Viṣṇu makes and defines categories(eg. nectar vs poison) and an overhead Śiva breaks and defies them(making a jewel of poison).https://t.co/5xIrrX3Lkc 1/2
https://twitter.com/longhandnotes/status/1114521378042990592?s=19

Nature or Prakṛiti in which the Divine works in a goal-directed way

K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar (1908–1999) also wrote biographies of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. His daughter Prema Nandakumar too has written extensively on literature and culture. Her thesis on SAVITRI is a masterpiece. Younger generation must partake of this wide intellectual horizon. https://t.co/poLppXXuoe
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1286248632795070464?s=19

It’s really disconcerting to find so much of disagreement after so much of explanations and clarifications. That of course is in the nature of philosophy.

My request is to incorporate the arguments on Karma presented by Sri Aurobindo (in both prose and poetry); Lele seems be very near to it without realising. It’s good that he is pragmatically arriving there without reading Sri Aurobindo.

And, if I’m correct, then it will be a big breakthrough for Indian philosophy; Lele will find a very good authority for his “cherry picking.”


Misc. References:

1. The leading defender was K.D. Sethna.He was supported by V.K. Gokak, Karan Singh, Sisirkumar Ghose n K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar. But the new poets formed a large army against Sri Aurobindo, the poet. Obviously they had to remove the giant from the limelight to establish themselves!
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal2/status/1137052999585374209?s=19
K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar's biography of Sri Aurobindo is till date the best one. It is not "hagiography" at all. It is subtly critical n balanced. When d subject's name is Sri Aurobindo one has to be extremely careful. Criticise we must but on bended knees!
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal2/status/1135945497674313728?s=19
The more I think of K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar the more surprises strike me! What language, what insights, what dedicated focus on Sri Aurobindo! Both in quality n quantity he is amazing! Gift apart, I wonder who were his teachers in the 1920s n 1930s!
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal2/status/1157540398035693568?s=19
" Almost fifty years a-growing, Savitri was shaped and reshaped in the fires of successive inspirations till it achieved at last an adequate splendour of revelation."
 K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Indian Writing in English, p.191
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal3/status/1224764337601953792?s=19

2. Dante and Sri Aurobindo: A Comparative Study of The Divine Comedy and Savitri. By Prema Nandakumar. Affiliated East-West Press. 1980. Prema didi is the daughter of K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar.
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal2/status/1164540094729953280?s=19

3. Darshan of Sri Aurobindo by Dr. K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar. Beautifully written, one almost relives the experience http://t.co/eo7Wwr3nSM
https://twitter.com/kalisbrood/status/502295307859009536?s=19

4. Evan Thompson
on 11 August 2020 at 4:36 pm said:
I find Sri Aurobindo’s views very interesting. I grew up as a teenager in NY in a community with people who were his followers and who had spent periods of time at Auroville. My father visited Auroville and met The Mother in the 1970s. However, Lele’s views are inconsistent with Aurobindo, because Lele is a naturalist who rejects reincarnation. I expect Lele would also reject Aurobindo’s view of Nature (as Prakṛiti, in which the Divine works in a goal-directed way). So, Lele is really very far away from Aurobindo.

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

The Mother is the President of World Union

August 20 is the World Union Day about which Sri Aurobindo theorised elaborately in The Ideal of Human Unity. He reiterated it as his Third Dream three decades later. The Mother is the President of #WorldUnion and let's pray that her unfailing guidance and blessings are with us.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1296158670351343618?s=19

Sri Aurobindo is the only top leader active in the Bande Mataram (Partition of Bengal) movement in 1905 to have seen Independence in 1947 and Constitution in 1950. In between he also navigated through two World Wars. He also saw assassination of Gandhi but historians neglect him.
Born on August 15, 1872, Sri Aurobindo started writing on political matters in 1893. But his open confrontation with Congress came when it split at Surat in 1907. He also had blessings for formation of Swaraj Party in 1923 by
Chittaranjan Das, Motilal Nehru, and Vithalbhai patel.
In the wake of rising spectre of Hitler, Sri Aurobindo threw his weight behind British initiatives. His 
four epochal interventions are:
~ 1940: War Funds
~ 1942: Cripps Proposal
~ 1945: Wavell Plan
~ 1946: Cabinet Mission Proposals
https://t.co/wtQeOYXTU8
https://t.co/eGfyE7pHvu
Sri Aurobindo's broadcast on August 14, 1947 outlining his #FiveDreams is the most profound Manifesto for the future humanity. He advocated formation of #WorldUnion for establishing genuine Human Unity and Harmony. The time has come https://t.co/k7WHqOHChV
https://t.co/l7p6y2e8Bq
We are all co-learners and co-workers. Nucleus of #WorldUnion. https://t.co/tJgOCeCc1v
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1296512468563267584?s=19

The Mother returned back in 1920 and seeds of a formal Ashram was sown. She was enthusiastic in 1972 that Sri Aurobindo's teaching should reach every home. Auroville conflict unfortunately was a dampener but their vision hasn't lost an iota of relevance. Indians need to recognise.

Vital is a vital category in Sri Aurobindo's teaching. It's crucial for our existence but needs to be under the control of a strong mind. Higher vital helps but lower vital has the habit of dragging downwards. And, mere control is not enough; Sri Aurobindo aims at transformation.

After completing six successful volumes the first issue of the seventh volume of ARYA was published in August 1920. No one knew that it will stop midway and the last issue was January 1921. Sri Aurobindo overturned the wisdom of past six thousand years in these six and half years https://t.co/baEjklM6oK

Most people imbibe psychology lessons from movies since academic opportunities are rare. Nothing wrong but human affairs are so complex that even after sixty years one feels perplexed. Besides the spiritual spectrum is hardly interrogated. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo help in this.
The right way to know about Sri Aurobindo is to understand in what respects he differs from his contemporaries like Vivekananda, Tilak, Tagore, Gandhi, or Brajendra Nath Seal. They were all influenced by the West yet in highly differing ways. Current discourse should take lessons.
Sri Aurobindo's admirers are in millions but somehow they don't come out openly. Response on Twitter yesterday gives the hope that right things will be appreciated and respected, widely. The time has come, it seems; no one can stop his place of being the "Bharata bhagya bidhata."
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo seek transformation of human nature and that can happen anywhere. So, ownership on #SriAurobindo is absurd. Opening to his Vedic ontological formulations and collaborating with Evolutionary forces for materialising the possibilities therein is the task.
Devotion not enough; right understanding is indispensable. Speed is fruitless sans right direction. Make no mistake, admiration for other great men is a barrier for reaching at the teachings of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. Maintain loyalty to work for humanity and not nationality.

This is the first honest portrayal of Sri Aurobindo as a Theory hand as Neelakandan has been very reluctant and constipated in the past. Still the full throated acclaim is awaited but he has been able to show who the real boss is. Now all books need to be recalibrated or rejected
Yes. He has shown a clear connection of Ambedkar deriving clues from Sri Aurobindo. Now, that's only one instance which can open floodgates of PhD topics. And it comes in the wake of hot debates over some fundamental issues raised by the Shankaracharya of Puri. So, interesting!



Misc. References:

1. Thirteen Years in Baroda: Sri Aurobindo’s Discovery of India https://t.co/aFIQfa1eQq

2. Sri Aurobindo on the intellectual religion of humanity https://t.co/2cFME4PEm0
Sri Aurobindo on the intellectual religion of humanity https://t.co/2cFME4PEm0
Sri Aurobindo's perspective on consciousness (in Bengali)
https://t.co/s4CYkboYtO

3. Over two years, SAFIC will be hosting 12 webinars in total, every two months, on diverse topics based on the teachings and principles of Sri Aurobindo.
https://t.co/lHpkY8Z9jC
https://twitter.com/lifestyle_ie/status/1297164116692357120?s=19

4. Online Webinar On Vital Education - Friday 21st August 2020 - Interactive Session by Ameeta Mehra & Anuradha from The Gnostic Centre https://t.co/jtlTbpcJ8h https://t.co/YKb4clVPZ4
https://twitter.com/Gnostic_Centre/status/1295347773156589568?s=19

5. Paolo Tommasi, an Italian architect and artist who played a significant role in designing the Matrimandir at #Auroville and remained associated with Sri Aurobindo Ashram, succumbed to #COVID19 at #JIPMER at the age of 92. @xpresstn  
https://t.co/nG2tOTrToE
https://twitter.com/NewIndianXpress/status/1284179814702878722?s=19

6. Anupama Kundoo,
Shah Houses, India 2016 
Her works depend on local material..The loadbearing walls have been built with rammed earth containing 5% cement, which renders them more resistant while and improving their performance during rainy seasons.
#Architecture #design #material https://t.co/JsGKtE6Eqc
https://twitter.com/itswiamm/status/1272918753169334273?s=19
Wall House
Design: Anupama Kundoo.
Location: Auroville, India.
Photographs: Javier Callejas.
#design #architect #architecture 
#materialsscience Ref.
https://t.co/ifGM2SI7Xg https://t.co/J1nyIuhViN
https://twitter.com/itswiamm/status/1272920444262404096?s=19

7. The story of #Auroville’s famous #WallHouse, and its creator @AnupamaKundoo encompass the ‘India’ episode of #Home on @AppleTVPlus. The architect talks to @divyakbhavani about her home
https://t.co/F8c9XnC1Xq
https://twitter.com/TheHinduWeekend/status/1253896517141790724?s=19

8. To Dr. Ambedkar 'without fraternity, equality and liberty will be no deeper than coats of paint'; To Sri Aurobindo 'without the spirit and habit of fraternity neither liberty nor equality can be maintained for more than a short season.'
https://t.co/JDWmuVOi8K via @swarajyamag
https://twitter.com/arvindneela/status/1294760934246715392?s=19

9. Aurobindo identified three broad phases in the Bengal-Indian Renaissance.The first, epitomised by Derozian Young Bengal movement, received the ‘European contact’ and rejected the ‘old culture’. @sudeeppaul https://t.co/qxmWP7rbYC
The second, as with Bankim Chandra, was the Indian reaction to the European influence. The third, evidenced in Vivekananda, was a ‘new creation’ wherein Indian genius remained supreme but wedded itself to the best of the Occident.
https://twitter.com/ipspratikpatel/status/1295320605214904320?s=19

10. [there's not a single mention of Sri Aurobindo for the first 522 pages, which analyze the Nazi phenomenon from every angle, Only in the last 140 pages or so does the author attempt to tie it all together with Sri Aurobindo's spiritual vision of the cosmos] https://t.co/P3OX8Lsrvn
[Yes, Van Gogh was an artist, but he was also a seer, or perhaps a "visual prophet," just as Beethoven was an "aural prophet," ... Van Vrekhem demonstrates how Hitler's ideology was in many cases a mirror image of #SriAurobindo's evolutionary philosophy.] https://t.co/iaBpKlbiSW
https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1235600912338391040?s=19

11. Unfortunately the wisdom of Aurobindo totally passed by me in the decade plus I spent 6 km north of the Ashram and 6 km south of Auroville. It would be 40+ years for me to rediscover it
https://twitter.com/bennedose/status/1196628181572190208?s=19

12. I have compiled a list of 500 popular old Hindi songs alongwith corresponding YouTube play lists. Those interested may tune in. Also an occasion to remember all those involved in creating such great treasure for all time to come.
https://t.co/MW0KljnjBU
https://t.co/rUKAZnTcxr

13. Memories of living in Sundargarh and Sambalpur for eight years (1977-85) are still fresh. @NathTusar #Nuakhai #NuakhaiJuhar #ନୂଆଖାଇଜୁହାର https://t.co/nTL2fdE9ma

Selecting the right lens

Right understanding of the past is essential for possessing a sound perspective for the future. History of ideas has been a fertile field since May 1968. Attemts like The Human Condition can be accused of a tilt but each book has its own merit. So, exerercising utmost caution while offering any linear narrative is vital.

The Mother & Sri Aurobindo present an altogether different spectrum studded with large doses of speculation. Their view of the past needs to be analysed transcending the threshold of faith and devotion. Let's hope Lele succeeds where Wilber failed.

Misc. References:

1. The opposite of Christianity https://t.co/VmUN3JXKb2

2. A book on how virtue helps us flourish https://t.co/5vbTk9n9pZ

3. The Bliss of the Eternal Permeates the Entire Universe https://t.co/33z73ObmwV

4. The Supramental Influence Will Impact Mind, Life and Body https://t.co/E0wRqrZxl8

5. Enjoyed this essay. Relevant paper linked below offering a Whiteheadian interpolation attempting to move us beyond representationalism and enactivism https://t.co/BYc47r3gyj

6. A student of mine just nailed it: “The genius of Whitehead’s process philosophy is in the replacement of translational motion (vectorally oriented in a linear flow) to transitional motion (wholes to parts to wholes in process) as fundamental.”

7. I write about this issue a little bit in my chapter on Whitehead and theoretical biology https://t.co/GmPmQWSaE0

8. Another teacher of mine, Eric Weiss, died yesterday.
He was an integral philosopher, scholar of A. N. Whitehead and Sri Aurobindo. 
Eric initiated me into the Whitehead mystery school back in my first semester at CIIS in Fall 2008. I was a night owl back then but still dragged myself out of bed at 6am every week to BART over from Oakland for his 8:30am class. The first time he tried to speak Whiteheadese to us, I had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. But it did startle me awake.
Something about internally related drops of experience perishing into objective immortality in the consequent nature of God... Again, no idea what that might mean at the time, but the passion in his voice and the vortexes streaming from his eyes had me convinced it was worth trying to figure out. Bon voyage, Eric
PS - How auspicious that you passed on Aug 15, which is Sri Aurobindo's birthday as well as the date of the Assumption of Mary.

9. Life, for Sri Aurobindo, is the mutual commerce connecting matter & mind in the manifest universe, an “intermediate energizing of conscious being [that] liberates into sensitive action & reaction a form of the creative force of existence which was working subconsciently or