Tweets in original by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956), Director, Savitri Era Learning Forum (2005), Founder, Savitri Era Religion (2006), and President, Savitri Era Party (2007)
Savitri Era: Indians need to internalise the cosmology of Sri Aurobindo
savitriera.blogspot.com/2023/05/indian
Tweets in original by Tusar Nath Mohapatra, Founder, Savitri Era Religion (2006) and President, Savitri Era Party (2007).
Savitri Era of those who adore,
Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.
As is well known, the three Gunas correspond broadly to the four Varnas as well which represent graded shifts of consciousness. It happens within the span of a day and also through different stages of life. Yoga amounts to willed acceleration for gaining momentum in upward march
Knowing and understanding one's own planes and parts of the being is an important element in the teachings of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. They also formulate the concept of Integral education to cater to different psychological dimensions. All life is Yoga and there is no method.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo refuse to entertain any division and focus on universality. Hatred can be eschewed by dwelling in a higher consciousness. Writes Sri Aurobindo, “The significance of the lotus is not to be found by analysing the secrets of the mud from which it grows...”
Democracy in India is evolving and media is spreading awareness but there is a lack of public discussion on various modalities. The conduct of the Prime Minister, for instance, should follow which template? Or whether the Great man phenomenon is proper to chase for our democracy?
Following Sri Aurobindo makes things simple. No mythology; so, your memory system has less burden. No rituals or code of daily practices. So, one is free for creative activity. No particular book or intermediary. Thus, one enjoys one's own autonomy. No group pressure or coercion.
All of Sri Aurobindo's actions or writings can't be put in the same tumbler. People make the same mistake for Marx as well as Heidegger. The crucial aspect is what's relevant for the future. We are all victims of finitude and whatever little we know or enjoy can get really better.
Victimhood is a dominant emotion in our country. The present generation is suffering from needless mental agony due to past atrocities and injustices. This gives rise to the vendetta mentality. The so-called hallowed idea of nationalism provides justification for bigotry & hatred.
India has a large population and hence obsession over just one person is a bit anomalous. No traditional wisdom sanctions that and nothing can travel very far with such travestied ethics. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have left behind a rich paradigm of how life should be organised.
Professor Biswanath Roy passes away| প্রয়াত ঋষি অরবিন্দের মতাদর্শ প্রচারক অধ্যাপক বিশ্বনাথ রায় ... #SriAurobindo
kolkatatv.org/west-bengal/sr
Must-read books
The Rebel (1951) by Albert Camus
Intellectuals (1988) by Paul Johnson
Examined Lives (2011) by James Miller
Mother (1906) by Maxim Gorky
The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka
Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970) by Richard Bach
Life A User's Manual (1978) by Georges Perec
In The Secret of the Veda, Sri Aurobindo provides symbolic interpretation of the deities. These highlight different ethical dimensions found in all ancient cultures whether codified or not. Significantly, Nietzsche was aware of Oriental books of wisdom.
Brahmins are derided but for understanding what the topmost Varna represents one has to read the explanation of Varuna given by Sri Aurobindo in The Secret of the Veda. He has also delineated the theme in the Mother book as the characteristic of Maheshwari. Both are unprecedented.
Now that the real estate and construction based campaign is likely to dominate in 2024, it's instructive to understand that the religious rituals are themselves a symbolic one. Sri Aurobindo points out that the inner significance of forms has been forgotten or rendered distorted.
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Elected ruler instead of hereditary is the basic premise of democracy. Imputing other expectations are corollary and not mandatory.
For the devotees of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo, the highest ideal is enshrined in Savitri. The path is long and requires elaborate purification of consciousness. Even then, the real deciding factor is Grace. Current events have scant relation to those ideals. Yet, aspire we must!
Right now, we witness the peak of human civilisation but it would be an error to look at it as a cumulative result of merely human efforts. Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean Baudrillard point to the limits of human speculation and imagination but Sri Aurobindo restores justification.
It's good that the Centre has started apprehending the States as different cultures by recognising some uniqueness and importance. This may be geared towards garnering a few chunks of electoral advantage, but applies plaster to the edifice of nationhood being built in each State.
The Confessions of Saint Augustine, The Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Confession by Leo Tolstoy, The Grand Inquisitor Monologue in The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Monologue at the end of Ulysses by James Joyce signify various facets of human predicament.
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There should be a Rs.75 note as it can solve the problem of paying Rs.5 and its multiples through exchange. Rs.65 would still be better.
The appeal of everything changes over time and hence anticipating the future is important. Political parties pander to the emotions of young adults but guiding them towards mature thought should be a priority. Management and technical education too orients in the wrong direction.
Geography, demography, and culture and tradition are different in each State. Political history and mythological connections too are unique. Denying Sovereignty is an uttar injustice. Let's hope that the new building doesn't function for long and power gets transferred to States.
Group activities are often mistaken as spirituality but the real challenge is as individual. Each person has his or her unique situation and psychological framework. Tackling them successfully requires acquiring new skills and developing fresh capabilities. Yoga links with Grace.
Religious festivals and fairs serve diverse purposes and impart powerful impressions on one's memory system. The function of education is to arm one with critical faculties for examining the worth of acquired experiences. Sri Aurobindo provides a very effective template for this.
Many from the Hindutva camp come down heavily on those who criticise religious matters. But instead of blaming the person, they should find fault with their education or ideology. Sri Aurobindo has laid great emphasis on right education but unfortunately, Universities banish him.
Although they are regarded as the one Supreme Divine, Sri Aurobindo remains in the background while The Mother receives all affections, accusations, and complaints of the devotees. In that capacity, she is quite unique among the world's religions. Her evolutionary role is vital.
Westerners avoid India in their sociopolitical studies. Their philosophy is still more protected. City dwellers in India, similarly, keep the rural population and their deprivation outside their mental horizon. Twitter debates are good examples of it. Return to real issues needed
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But, unfortunately, he didn't follow Sri Aurobindo's path of Integral Yoga.
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There are many books and video channels. You can find fine introductory material by google search.
motherandsriaurobindo.in
The Secret of the Veda by Sri Aurobindo makes it clear why we should suspect the tradition. The evolutionary spiritual aspiration is far more crucial than religious rituals and physical symbols. He also states that the theory of Supramental descent was not clear even in the Veda.
Democracy means electing the ruler which entails working out different formulas for securing a majority. Understandably, the urge for employing new strategies is always there. "Appeal to emotion is characterized by the manipulation of the people's emotions in order to win" votes.
Dynamics of democracy are bound to weaken the citizen. The ruler would like to treat people as herds. Most will fall in that trap. Difficult to walk with one's conscience intact but that is the challenge. Right education and ethical orientation come to the rescue, at this point.
Sri Aurobindo declared his #FiveDreams in his radio broadcast on August 14, 1947. Granting Sovereignty to the States and creating a loose Federation can foster the creation of a #WorldUnion, his third dream. This will facilitate other neighboring nations to join in, voluntarily.
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It [Sycophancy] stems from self-interest, the basic instinct for survival.
Nehru was in the wrong and Modi is equally confused now. Sri Aurobindo wrote his major works between 1914 and 1921 but his famous contemporaries like Nehru, Gandhi, Tagore, M.N. Roy, Patel, Rajaji, Radhakrishan, Periyar, Ambedkar, Savarkar, J.P., Lohia, et al chose to ignore him.
The Secret of the Veda by Sri Aurobindo makes it clear why we should suspect the tradition. The evolutionary spiritual aspiration is far more crucial than religious rituals and physical symbols. He also states that the theory of Supramental descent was not clear even in the Veda.
Savitri Era Party has been cautioning against the prevailing ideologies on the strength of Sri Aurobindo's Vedic cosmology & Evolutionary vision. Not many in our country are trained adequately in this Integral worldview as most have an axe to grind. Nanyah pantha vidyate ayanaya.
By dropping excessive reverence for Vivekananda, Tagore, Subhas, Gandhi, Ambedkar, and Savarkar and discovering the real worth of Sri Aurobindo that Indians can have an intellectual new birth. Clinging to the ancient systems of wisdom also will undergo a radical transformation.
Hindutva followers were happy with Tulsi and Mira. Now they have been asked to do a lot of homework on various factions of Tamil Shaiva traditions. Reading books is a difficult proposition in the RSS culture. Many are cursing Modi for imposing this sort of Baudhik load on the sly
There can't be any scientific validation of whether the religious rituals bear fruit. So, they remain in the realm of faith. But by reading the books of Sri Aurobindo, one can be privy to an alternative viewpoint. Once the mind gets stimulated, re-evaluation of everything starts.
I write against tradition and rituals but the fact that so many people derive self-esteem out of that deserves respect. Glorifying the past too is a corollary of the same motive. Hindutva ecosystem performing this agenda is understandable but elevating Savarkar is an uphill task.
Expecting modern and democratic values from the rulers before Independence is misplaced. Expecting that the West will facilitate progress of India in different fields is foolishness. Expecting that the Universities will include Sri Aurobindo in the philosophy syllabus is futile.
The 20th Century was the century of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. A new path was shown to the human civilisation. New methods were put in place for philosophy and psychology. Political ideals were remoulded to accommodate Vedic evolutionary inevitability. Human nature made pliable.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are worshipped as the one Supreme Divine in Savitri Era Religion. Their philosophy and vision are deemed as the final truth. No other tradition or modern guru stands comparison. For academic purposes, however, critical scrutiny cannot be overemphasized,
After The Life Divine & other major works were published before 1921, Sri Aurobindo's philosophy took a different turn in the shape of surrender to The Mother. This was never so pronounced earlier. Even it was reflected physically by Sri Aurobindo moving to the background in 1926
Human volition, with its gamut of variations like creativity, ingenuity, spontaneity, or even serendipity, seems to fall in the zone of the mystical. Mere economic or psychological explanations are insufficient. Both Sartre and Heidegger agree to some extent. Surrender validates.
Many ancient Indian texts were rescued from oblivion by the effort of British scholars. But to treat them as mainstream philosophy is misplaced. Life in general, like today, ran on different principles than what was written. So, assuming the nature of culture from texts is wrong.
Science and technology brought the world closer and the Humanities people started thinking on the global scale. The more macro the horizon became, the more prone to errors various propositions turned. Modernity suffers from this malady. Respecting subjectivity is the remedy.
Sri Aurobindo has left behind extensive commentaries on Upanishads, Veda, and Gita. His study of a few other texts also are reflected in his varied writings. Apart from the philosophical aspect, he appreciated the poetic merit culminating in Mantra and revealed a new hermeneutics.
Savitri is the right book to be remembered when death strikes. The immediate cause of death is subsidiary while the real culprit is death itself. This Vedic imperative has been transcribed by Sri Aurobindo in Savitri which is regarded as Mantra of immortality for overcoming death.
Apart from religion, culture, and education, people are swayed by the social media pressure. Most are not sensitised in politically correct sentiments and, hence, fall easy prey to pernicious emotional appeals. Thorough philoophical grounding, therefore, is a sine qua non.
Philosophy, not only builds intellectual muscle, but also supplies food for thought, perpetually. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have boldly foregrounded the spiritual domain, thus rendering the barren realms of philosophy and psychology a fecund field of light, power, and ecstasy.
Most people read the wrong books. They choose books of their own taste that validate their settled belief. Prejudices against Sri Aurobindo and superficial impressions of him prevent people from reading his works. Others consider current affairs too precious to read anything else.
Savitri Era Religion is tailored for the modern world. Science, philosophy, religion, and New Age have lost their sheen. Politics holds no definite promise either. Devotion and surrender to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo, on the other hand, has that futuristic and evolutionary appeal.
The narrative that India has followed broadly since Independence needs to be drastically mended. University syllabi need to be redesigned. The critique Sri Aurobindo provides for popular culture and religion needs to be reinforced among the public. A new orientation should ensue.
Opposition unity is in the news again but what they are going to offer? No new ideology or political vision. Savitri Era Religion is modelled on the lines of Semitic religions and is supposed to replace them gradually. Whoever supports this evolutionary necessity will be winner.
The history of the evolution of Savitri Era Religion has many clues to its Integral nature as well as metaphysical preeminence. But the challenge is the future and how the current geopolitical equations can provide a fertile ground for sowing the seeds of harmony and human unity.
Different religions have faced immense resistance in the past and the course of Savitri Era Religion won't be any different. The grace of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo and the evolutionary pressure, however, will always be there. Those collaborating for its growth will be rewarded.
That civil code matters and other sociological issues are still debated is a failure of modernity. It's a matter of regret that the Constitution of India harbours many regressive tendencies. Savitri Era Religion aims at overhauling of social and political attitudes for harmony.
Though not visible, evolution and transformation are going on, continuously. Not in a mechanical manner but as the unfolding of the Divine grace. There is nothing completely evil, therefore, in Sri Aurobindo's cosmology. Everything is an attempt and a struggle towards perfection.
The desire for keeping the future events tied neatly to different nationalities and cultures is normal but the evolutionary process has a proclivity for overlaps. The Integral ethos of Savitri Era Religion is very much in keeping with this prospect of encompassing the whole world.
India is suffering due to intellectual bankruptcy of Hindutva. Too much reliance on mythology and superstitions is not allowing the younger generation to explore its share of creativity and innovation. The social sector too is unable to get rid of pre-modern customs and rituals.
One possible prospect is the #WorldUnion foreseen by Sri Aurobindo may not be contiguous. Different nations may form a firm alliance in the beginning as the nucleus. This will be on entirely different criteria than at present. Evolutionary thrust will generate higher principles.
All life is Yoga can be understood as Everyday is Yoga. No doubt, we are all bonded to past cultures and habits but still each day provides a new opportunity. Both learning and unlearning are important. The educational psychology of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo offers vast insights.
The past seeks to endure and The Mother & Sri Aurobindo urge us to fight it. Savitri Era Religion is the correct template for redesigning our lives and attitudes including economic matters and consumption. All current socioeconomic models are failures and need urgent overhaul.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are the one Supreme Divine and hence mentioning any other name along with them is an act of corruption and degradation. Those who are regularly indulging in this must reassess their own faith and loyalty so that they don't misguide others unnecessarily.
The complete works of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are compiled in over seventy volumes. Besides, there are some indispensable books by their direct disciples. Reading them provides extraordinary illumination. A lot of audiovisual resources are available now.
motherandsriaurobindo.in
Most devotees of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo today come through the family route and belong to the second or third generation. Some are products of educational institutions. Intellectual conviction converts very less number of people although that should be the most important glue.
Sri Aurobindo's commentaries on ancient Indian scriptures are not mere commentaries but are critiques. They contest established schools of thought and unveil new significances. Educing the Integral or universal dimension has been a hallmark of Sri Aurobindo's studies in Sanskrit.
How The Mother & Sri Aurobindo classify different gods and goddesses in consonance with the Vedic taxonomy is an interesting breakthrough in hermeneutics. He also delves into Greek and Roman mythologies to show commonalities. Many flowers named by The Mother have deep resonances.
Most books of Sri Aurobindo were published simultaneously in a monthly magazine over a few years. So, no one book is complete in itself. Characterising his ideology by reading just one or two books is erroneous. Further, his poetic creations like Savitri are of a different order.
No one has explained the wisdom of the Veda and Upanishads better than Sri Aurobindo. His Essays on the Gita is an acclaimed classic. Besides, The Synthesis of Yoga is an ambitious account of reconciling all types of spiritual practices found in different traditions of the world.
Although, The Mother & Sri Aurobindo founded an Ashram for a special purpose, they were firm that spirituality is not monasticism. Their concept of the life divine was sought to be attempted in the dream of Auroville. Savitri Era Religion is a more wider avenue for dissemination.
Worshipping The Mother & Sri Aurobindo as the one Supreme Divine is the primary condition. This supersedes all their writings and conversations laying down various philosophical formulations. This also marks the creation of a new religion, their denial of it notwithstanding.
Many Bengalis write Rishi Aurobindo instead of Sri Aurobindo. This is wrong since he adopted his new name and signed accordingly. Sri is very much part of his name and hence shouldn't be dropped. Adding his surname Ghose is erroneous too. All his books bear the name Sri Aurobindo.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are illimitable and infinite and are not bound by their own books. Their followers don't worship other gods and goddesses and have scant regard for sundry gurus and great men. Soft corner for other religions or celebrating their festivals is not allowed.
The upbringing of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo clearly indicates the outlook they stand for. It may seem as the legacy of modernity but the spiritual dimension they introduce turns the theory of evolution into a fundamental system. The destiny of human society is drawn accordingly.
While it's not possible for all to read the philosophical works of Sri Aurobindo, it's not difficult to grasp his basic contributions. Reinterpreting the Veda for instance is his greatest achievement. Evolution of consciousness integrating science and metaphysics draws from there.
It's a common experience that understanding the books of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo becomes easier as a devotee than a general reader. Further many make the mistake of starting with The Life Divine or Savitri instead of being familiarised by introductory works of direct disciples.
People are fond of making lists and Sri Aurobindo is found among revolutionaries, philosophers, mystic poets, New Age gurus, political thinkers, and many others. The Mother is discussed less often although her contribution is no less considerable. They are the one Supreme Divine.
The future is the focus of Savitri Era Religion when current political borders may not matter much. Technology and commerce have made the world connected and this evolutionary process will grow. The Integral philosophy of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo will be a universal religion.
Being from the RKM background, many Hindutva intellectuals hold high regard for Vivekananda. But over the last five years, the message has spread gradually that Sri Aurobindo is a far more original and authentic thinker. This will grow as more and more people will read his books.
Sri Aurobindo's writings may be difficult to understand but his philosophy can be easily grasped by the masses provided it is communicated by competent persons. There is a need to create that kind of environment instead of repeating traditional systems or following new age gurus.
Translations in at least fifteen different languages are available at
motherandsriaurobindo.in/e-library/
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Academic rigor warrants critical scrutiny of things, dispassionately. It may not be required for devotees like you but there are many others who need accurate guidance. So, debate and discussion should be welcome.
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This platform is meant for expressing personal opinion and I don't think there's any compulsion for citations.
Savitri Era Learning Forum: Sri Aurobindo surpasses them all
selforum.blogspot.com/2023/05/sri-au
Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956), Director, Savitri Era Learning Forum (2005) and Founder, Savitri Era Religion (2006).
Savitri Era of those who adore,
Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.
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