Tweets in original by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956), Director, SELF (2005), Founder, Savitri Era Religion (2006), and President, Savitri Era Party (2007)
Savitri Era: Team spirituality to fraternity
savitriera.blogspot.com/2022/11/team-s
Tweets in original by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956), Director, SELF, Founder, Savitri Era Religion (2006), and President, Savitri Era Party (2007).
Savitri Era of those who adore,
Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.
Audio and video have caught the fancy of the modern generation but Sri Aurobindo's writings themselves are no less picturesque. Furthermore, text itself has its own visual appeal and the arrangement distinguishes prose from poetry. Page-long paragraphs in The Life Divine impress.
It's really surprising why people don't read The Secret of the Veda by Sri Aurobindo before passing erroneous comments about its content. This is one book which can teach the most about Sanatan Dharma but the so called trads are against it. Sri Aurobindo has turned Veda universal.
An alert reader can notice the influence of various tenets of Gita in different works of Sri Aurobindo which he considered as a synthesis with much later interpolations. But The Life Divine doesn't have any concept of Avatar although it talks about the descent of the Supramental.
Secular festivals like Raja and Khudurukuni were popular in Odisha in our childhood. There was no worship of Ram. It was easy to turn towards The Mother & Sri Aurobindo in a liberal atmosphere. It's no wonder that the largest number of Mother's devotees are to be found in Odisha.
All life is yoga and hence the name Integral. As a continuous learning arena, life is riddled with imperfections. There's no ready-made remedy. Yet, it's within this life that perfection and immortality has to be sought. Thus, each moment or event is an opportunity for harmony.
The intellectual environment around evolution got resolved through Sri Aurobindo's intervention. But this falls in the realm of belief and The Mother's declaration of Supramental consciousness acting since 1956 forms the foundation of a new religion. Give rationalism a wide berth.
Congress line of thought was in force for half a century after which Hindutva has been on the ascendency. Thus it's not unusual for people to get swayed by dominant political ideology. Sri Aurobindo provides a clear alternative without being dependent on either side of the aisle.
Any news on Auroville or the Ashram provokes certain comments on Sri Aurobindo or The Mother. It's wrong to believe that these are places of perfection. Further, Sri Aurobindo is a philosophy not bound by any particular location. The Ashram is not representative of his teachings.
While all those invoking the name of Sri Aurobindo or The Mother are welcome, it's not a free-for-all situation. It's not for nothing that I'm the President of Savitri Era Party since 2007. Academic discussion on Sri Aurobindo is good but don't accuse other readers to be ignorant.
Many write on Sri Aurobindo with finality by appending a quotation. This is a faulty method and amounts to misrepresentation. Sri Aurobindo has written different things in different periods and literal sense of his observations after 72 years of his death may not be appropriate.
Sri Aurobindo was writing a dozen books simultaneously but The Life Divine is a model of how he kept it free from unnecessary references. He refused to tether it to any particular tradition or culture. Nor he acknowledged the supremacy of any single religion. Hence, magnum opus.
A few among Sri Aurobindo's followers are enjoying official position and power and hence their views on Sri Aurobindo are likely to be slanted. So we warn the general public to be guided accordingly. The official faction in Auroville too is not trustworthy. Non-devotees should go.
During the last sixty years, we have seen both Socialism and Capitalism thriving side by side. Different systems of knowledge and medicine, similarly, survive. That's perhaps part of the ontology and it's okay for Sri Aurobindo. Any reductionist insistence therefore is artificial.
Hindutva waited for far too many years for coming to power at the Centre but clarity in ideology is absent. No one has the knowledge or authority to become a credible voice. No robust intellectual substratum could be built as referring to mythology pokes a hole in their arguments.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo taught surrender to the Divine but the kind of sycophancy and servility found in some of their followers is abominable. No doubt everyone is guided by self-interest but right ideological antenna can instill courage and self-respect to fight against past.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo worked with maximum optimism for evolution of consciousness but after their departure, their followers should not insist upon fulfilment of some of their predictions with same kind of optimism. Things change as future has to negotiate through ignorance.
So many topics of human concern are being debated at the Supreme Court level and split verdicts are not uncommon. Interpreting current affairs in the light of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy is necessary, instead of the copy-paste culture, like aspiring for a reservation-less society.
Comparing Sri Aurobindo with other great men may have historical significance but he along with The Mother are the one Supreme Divine who shape the future evolutionary course. Belief in them and surrender to their plan is expected of all, irrespective of nationality and religion.
Hindutva adherents are perpetually peeved about the West, China, and the Islamic world but have no clue as to how to break their hegemony. Sri Aurobindo is the single plank by supporting which India can come to the top. So it needs to be understood that Hindutva drags India back.
The ontology propounded by The Mother & Sri Aurobindo binds everything to the Divine's will and demands our surrender to it. The rationalist approach on the other hand supposes the individual as the source of all action and variety. This superficial understanding must be dropped.
Those who are grappling with traditional injunctions can do it to their heart's content but no one has any authority to enforce or amend. The solution is to accept Sri Aurobindo lock, stock, and barrel. The modern synthesis he has achieved is unparalleled and can't be bypassed.
In view of Congress opposition to Sri Aurobindo, it may seem normal that those in power today are his supporters and are in charge of promoting him. This is a wrong notion. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are the one Supreme Divine and only those who believe in it are their devotees.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have done their work meticulously. Anyone can read their books, know about them, and start following them on his or her own without any external help. There is no particular method of practice either. Visiting the Ashram in Puducherry is not mandatory.
The academic and historical appreciation of Sri Aurobindo has its relevance. But the onus on the devotees is to aspire for the manifestation of Supramental consciousness. Faith, sincerity, and surrender are essential for this. Approaching through the Hindutva lens is a hindrance.
It's amusing to find some Hindutva warriors sounding heroic against trads but they forget to mention Sri Aurobindo who did the same a century back. The difference is Sri Aurobindo didn't put his faith in any religion and set forth a universal spiritual adventure as Integral yoga.
A student of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo should be curious enough to seek clarifications whenever he spots some different perceptions than his. But to hold on to own ignorance and rigidity and then rebuking others for low intelligence can't be accepted as some desirable behaviour.
Modern values popularised by Western philosophy and literature cease to be truly modern when it comes to religion or race. The business and technological environment betray similar ethos. Sri Aurobindo's stress on human unity on a different template therefore is the key to future.
Sri Aurobindo wrote mostly when India was under colonial rule. Yet he had that kind of universal vision and emancipatory message. The present technological age may not have been clearly anticipated but the evolutionary adventure of consciousness can have many unforeseen outcomes.
The Life Divine & The Secret of the Veda are two outstanding contributions of Sri Aurobindo. They denote a break with the past and herald a universal paradigm for the whole mankind. No particular nation or religion is given any superior status. None had attempted such a synthesis.
The Life Divine has many previous drafts based on a new interpretation of the Isha Upanishad but the final published one has many other streams woven into it like the Veda and the Cosmic Movement of Max Théon. Many trace its inspiration to Plotinus, Theosophy and Kashmir Shaivism.
Why The Life Divine is acknowledged as the world's greatest book? Because it surpasses the limits of both science and philosophy. It comes out of the yogic vision of Sri Aurobindo with an all-encompassing theory of creation. Never before was such a philosophical feat accomplished.
Apart from its famed ontological framework integrating epistemological questions The Life Divine climbs to the height of social and political philosophy by prophesying a divine life on earth. By employing the simple example of monkey Sri Aurobindo holds Supramental as inevitable.
The Mother had received occult training from Max Théon and his philosophy of Cosmic Movement bacame an element of the Integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo. Understanding this genealogy is important for the devotees. Also the story of four divine emanations turning adverse forces.
Contradictions in Indian society has increased manifold during the last two hundred years but the diagnosis performed by The Mother & Sri Aurobindo remains accurate. Descent of the Supramental consciousness is the solution. So believing in The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is essential.
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