Value of sources beyond text

[History and Material Culture Edited by Karen Harvey
Sources are the raw material of history, but whereas the written word has traditionally been seen as the principal source, today historians are increasingly recognizing the value of sources beyond text. In History and Material Culture, Karen Harvey embarks upon a discussion about material culture – considering objects, often those found surrounding us in day to day life, as sources, which can help historians develop new interpretations and new knowledge about the past.
Across ten chapters, different historians look at a variety of material sources from around the globe and across centuries to assess how such sources can be used to study history. Published March 12 2009 by Routledge.]

This work might break fresh ground when considered in the backdrop of Heehs' reductionist method. [TNM]

Only the first few decision makers gain

[From Wikipedia, The Wisdom of Crowds - Failures of crowd intelligence:
Too homogeneous
Too centralized
Too divided
Too imitative
Too emotional]

A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs at Mirror of Tomorrow, Saaba, SCIY, & Aspiration was marred by the aforesaid defects. [TNM]

Diffusion of powers and participative decision-making

[But I am a bit of a radical when it comes to corporate reform. I happen to think there is a fundamental problem with the modern corporation: excessive concentration of powers in the CEO. The world over, democracy has gained ground at the level of nations.
But the corporate world remains the last bastion of dictatorship. Greater diffusion of powers and more participative decision-making are what companies lack - and which is why they are prone to disaster. Serious reform is making these things happen.
Corporate reforms from The Big Picture by T T Ram Mohan 5:03 PM]

[Returning to free associations, we have to say that this method is the golden rule of the psychoanalytic therapy. Let us see how it works.
Lying on a couch (a position imposing a certain state of relaxation), the patient speaks freely of anything that may cross his/her mind, without searching for some specific subject or topic. The flow of his/her thoughts is free, and followed with no voluntary intervention. The important thing is that the critical mind does not intervene to censor spontaneous thoughts. We truly have the drive to censure the products of our thinking, starting from various criteria: moral, ethic, narcissistic, cultural, spiritual. The method of free associations demands us to temporarily give up intellectual censorship and freely speak about any thought.
What is the result of this involuntary talk? Later analysis of thoughts produced by means of the above-mentioned method reveals certain repetitive topics indicative of psychic complexes of emotional charge. These complexes are unconscious. They are autonomously activated by chance verbal associations, and influence conscious psychic life in a frequently dramatic manner. The task of psychoanalysis is to bring such complexes to the surface of conscious mind, and integrate them into the patient's life.
Psychoanalysis > Techniques: Free Associations By Jean Chiriac]

The major distinction between dictatorship and democracy is perhaps that the consequences of “repetitive” tendency of one individual are moderated by the group dynamics as The Wisdom of Crowds suggests. [TNM]

Invisible thumb

[Now is the time for a less selfish capitalism By Richard Layard FT Home > Comment > Opinion: March 11 2009
Increasingly, we treat private interest as the only motivation on which we can rely and competition between individuals as the way to get the most out of them. 4:42 PM 4:50 PM]

[Smith wanted institutional diversity and motivational variety, not monolithic markets and singular dominance of the profit motive... Even though Smith and Pigou have the reputation of being rather conservative economists, many of the deep insights about the importance of nonmarket institutions and nonprofit values came from them, rather than from Keynes and his followers... The present economic crises do not, I would argue, call for a "new capitalism," but they do demand a new understanding of older ideas, such as those of Smith and, nearer our time, of Pigou, many of which have been sadly neglected. What is also needed is a clearheaded perception of how different institutions actually work, and of how a variety of organizations—from the market to the institutions of the state—can go beyond short-term solutions and contribute to producing a more decent economic world. —February 25, 2009
Amarya Sen's Two Brilliant Essays on the Relevance of Adam Smith Today from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy. Amartya Sen writes two great articles of current relevance on Adam Smith. The shorter one is in the Financial Times HERE (March 10 2009) and the longer one is in the New York Review of Books HERE (Volume 56, Number 5 · March 26, 2009). I recommend them both to you 11:32 AM]

[The mood of corporates, governments and households depends a lot on expectations. Keynes emphasised the critical role played by the animal spirits of entrepreneurs, who take risks, innovate and so accelerate growth. When the economy swings up, animal spirits bubble fiercely. But in a downswing, animal spirits droop. Risk taking is replaced by risk aversion, adventure by caution, and innovation by safety-first tactics. What's wrong with 6% GDP growth? 11 Mar 2009, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, ET Bureau]

[Let me put in a plug here for the godfather of behavioral economics, John Maynard Keynes. His 1936 "General Theory" is often interpreted simplistically as a call for fixing recessions by boosting demand with government spending. But at a deeper level, Keynes was analyzing the role of psychological factors, such as greed and fear, in economic decisions. He understood that markets freeze when people panic and start hoarding cash. ("Extreme liquidity preference," he called it.) Conversely, economies start to roar when investors feel a surge of what Keynes called "animal spirits." 'The Death of 'Rational Man'
By David Ignatius > washingtonpost.com > Columns > Sunday, February 8, 2009]

How far can the "animal spirits" are kept under leash by normative homilies without allusion to the invisible thumb hid in every heart, is the point to ponder. [TNM]

Feelings of futility in speculative philosophy

[Mar 12, 2009 (title unknown) from enowning
"In a Sorry State" from Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
After one month of frenetic reading I come to the conclusion, with immense relief, that phenomenology is a fraud. In the same way that cathedrals have always aroused in me the sensation of extreme light-headedness one often feels in the presence of man-made tributes to the glory of something that does not exist, phenomenology has tested to the extreme my ability to believe that so much intelligence could have gone to serve so futile an undertaking... When you set out to deal with phenomenology, you have to be aware of the fact that it boils down to two questions: What is the nature of human consciousness? What do we know of the world? Let's start with the first question. For millennia now, by way of "know thyself" to "I think therefore I am," mankind has been rambling on about the ridiculous human prerogative that is our consciousness of our own existence and above all the ability of this consciousness to make itself its own object... All of phenomenology is founded on this certainty: our reflective consciousness, the sign of our ontological dignity, is the only entity we have that is worth studying, for it saves us from biological determinism. No one seems aware of the fact that, since we are animals subject to the cold determinism of physical things, all of the foregoing is null and void. Pp. 58-9]

[“African ethics is like North American communitarianism in its emphasis on community, although (as we shall see later) there are important differences between the two in the process by which norms are established. The concern that motivates communitarianism in its critique of the ‘unfettered self’ or of ‘atomism’ against liberalism is entirely in keeping with African ethics, which rejects the idea that being a human person and acting with responsibility is merely the result of having assented to rational principles, or arguing and thinking rationally. For Black Africa, it is not the Cartesian cogito ergo sum (”I think, therefore I am”) but an existential cognatus [cognitus] sum, ergo sumus (”I am known [relationally related], therefore we are”) that is decisive” (Bénézet Bujo, Foundations of an African Ethic: Beyond the Universal Claims of Western Morality, p. 4).
N.b. The translation "I am known," for cognatus sum seems problematic, as cognatus means something in the neighborhood of "I am related," or "I am connected (in a familial sense)." The Latin equivalent of "I am known," is cognitus sum. Even so, both potential meanings are suggestive. African Ethics: Cognatus/cognitus sum, ergo sumus
from Per Caritatem by Cynthia R. Nielsen]

Thanks to the writings of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo, Savitri Erans are saved from this sort of feelings of futility that descends in the course of undertaking speculative philosophy. [TNM]

The Mother's proposal

[A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs Tags which define the nature of the distortion exposed
Defective Scholarship: This tags examples of flawed or non-existent scholarship.
Speculation: This marks passages which try to pass off speculation in the guise of an informed opinion or a scholarly view.
Inconsistency: Tags the text exposing the numerous statements that are inconsistent or self-contradictory across the book.
Distortion of Context: Tags use of quotations or references out of context.
Distortion of Quotation: Tags distortion of quotation or quote marks used when there is no actual quotation that is referred to.
Suppression of Facts: Tags deliberate suppression of facts which would disprove the thesis.
Perverse Intent: Discussion exposing perverse intent of the author of the book. Posted by General Editor at 12/12/2008 09:27:00 AM Labels: Administrative]

[Re: This Author must have been from Cambridge--About Style
by RY Deshpande on Tue 10 Mar 2009 10:07 PM IST Profile Permanent Link
Apropos of Sri Aurobindo’s prose writings we’ve an instructive post at Lying With Style [from Robin Hanson, 5 March 2009] which could be profitably read to appreciate the aspects of clarity and truthfulness that are so important in a subject of the kind the Yogi-Author is presenting. ~ RYD]

[[March 05, 2009 Lying With Style - Clear and Simple as the Truth, the best book I've read in years, explains the virtues and lies of a very popular writing style... I admit it: by writing in this style I implicitly tell flattering lies about myself and my readers. But this classic style seems so very convenient for so many purposes; how can I lie less while retaining its virtues? A very vigorous hat tip to Alexis Gallagher. Posted by Robin Hanson at 06:00 AM in Media Permalink 10:47 AM]

[So here's my proposal; we put surrender first, at the top of the list, that is, we accept what Sri Aurobindo has said - that to do the integral yoga one must first resolve to surrender entirely to the Divine, there is no other way, this is the way. But after that one must have the five psychological virtues, five psychological perfections, and we say that these perfections are:
1. Sincerity or Transparency
2. Faith or Trust (Trust in the Divine, naturally)
3. Devotion or Gratitude
4. Courage or Aspiration
5. Endurance or Perseverance
One form of endurance is faithfulness, faithfulness to one's resolution - being faithful.
One has taken a resolution, one is faithful to one's resolution. This is endurance.
There you are. If one persists, there comes a time when one is victorious.
Victory is to the persistent. THE MOTHER]

[The Twelve Powers Explained by The Mother]

Delinking artfulness from art may not be practicable, but the goal of Sincerity or Transparency needs always to be borne in mind. [TNM]

Savitri Era Party congratulates RARS

[Arya Samaj floats party for clean minds
Prabhu Razdan, Hindustan Times Email Author Faridabad, March 11, 2009
Aiming to cleanse politics, the Arya Samaj, the Hindu revivalist sect, has decided to jump into the political arena. This is only the second time in its 134-year history that it is doing so.
Founded by Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati in 1875, the sect is set to field candidates in Haryana under the banner of the Rashtriya Arya Rajya Sabha (RARS). Home]

Savitri Era Party congratulates RARS.

How shall I carry the guilt

The dread is tightening its noose. How shall I carry the guilt of another banning act!

Songs slap

Live singing with loud dholak playing of lilting old Bollywood numbers by a squad of transgenders who have invaded to collect levy from a family blessed with a newborn is filling the air this bright spring morning. Move on toilets for transgenders sparks off debate in Chennai (Indian Express - ‎Mar 8, 2009‎) is perhaps another side of the picture.

"Dev. D has shocked and delighted many in its unusually explicit references to sex and sexuality," writes Rachel Dwyer (Love’s labour not lost HT - Tue, 10 Mar 2009). AIDS and allied issues, however, continue to dog the oldest profession. [TNM]

***

[Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Millions of people like me have absolutely no direct interface with Tantra
Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: June 13th, 2007 at 6:12 am I am not sure of the model of ontology that you have in mind by which you harmonize both Preya and Shreya, but in the scheme of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, sex doesn’t gel with Sadhana. Absolutely no elbowroom there. Even the Vaishnavic/Platonic love and emotion is also disallowed.
You are one of the rare Westerners in the blogosphere who have some awareness of and inclination towards the Indian tradition. But the glorified notion of Tantra celebrating sex is a little bit misplaced. Millions of people like me have absolutely no direct interface with Tantra as it operates in the margin in dubious manner. So, the legitimacy that you are proposing linking it with a politically correct/libertarian view of sex doesn’t match with the ground situation obtaining in India.
Further, the idea of sex has already been stretched from “The Pleasure of the Text” to “History of Sexuality.” An astute investigator like Foucault, who embarked upon an ambitious adventure to unravel the mystery of sex (in Vol. I), subsequently backed out and wrote just commentaries on the theme of sex as available in the Classical literature (in Vol. II & III). So, the way you venture to tackle a complex phenomenon like sex across cultures is too hazardous.
May I clarify that I am not objecting on moral grounds; rather my concerns are of method and informed debate so that unbiased scholarship emerges. Open Integral
Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 6:46 PM]

Sri Aurobindo Ashram cannot produce reliable history

[Comprehensive History of India
"Dr. K M Munshi liked my work on ancient Bengal and asked me to work on a comprehensive volume on Indian history. He introduced me to many great scholars. In my seventy years of career that work was to become a great achievement. Dr. Munshi was also a great researcher and historian, and I truly enjoyed working with him. We did have our differences, but he always let me prevail. Since I could not ignore his opinion, I had to include both view points often contradicting each other, in several places. It took 35 years to complete all the volumes! I was happy that it was completed before Munshiji breathed his last."
"Munshi believed that a government sponsored institution can never document history in a honest manner. I realized this truth in the later years. The federal government built an editorial board to document India's freedom struggle with me as the chief editor. I discovered that other fellow historians were so eager to write history glorifying their friends in politics that I had to get out. We should not write corrupted history, however bitter the proceedings may be. Many countries have the tradition of changing history as their leaders change. We should not let India become one of those. History should be written based on sound proof and reasoning and not focused around famous personalities." Interview with R.C. Majumdar
The history may repeat itself but great historians like Dr. R.C. Mazumdar are rarely born again. Just before he passed away in 1980, I met with him at his residence in Calcutta. Excerpts from the interview.
-- Jyotsna Kamat Interview conducted on April 29, 1979 Article First Published: May 1980 in Mallige Monthly This Web Page Last Updated: February 10, 2009]

If "a government sponsored institution can never document history in an honest manner," then it follows that Sri Aurobindo Ashram cannot produce reliable history relating to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]

How to know that one is actually thinking and acting in an authentic manner

[One Response to “Whig Calvinism?” Thaddeus Kozinski: March 6th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Charles Taylor seems to suggest that the key is to recognize our own “spin” on the world and to constantly have the consciousness that we can’t really escape such spinning, and with that consciousness, nevertheless, to engage in dialectical encounters with other spins in order to get closer to the non-spun truth.
Well, I think you may be right about the Whiggish spin in Wolterstorff, but how does one avoid spinning out of control, as it were? For a Catholic, the answer seems simple, full immersion in the non-spun Tradition of the Church and to build culture and society from such immersion. But the problem remains: how to know that one is actually thinking and acting in an authentically Christian manner, even with the assurance of infallible, dogmatic truth and liturgical access to the reality of the living God, and not with some unwitting assimilated liberal spin?]

[Devotion and Avatarhood koantum Tue 28 Oct 2008 09:57 PM PDT Theoretically I knew well enough what Sri Aurobindo thinks of our "little earthly mind that loves to subject even the things that are beyond it to its own norms and standards, its narrow reasonings and erring impressions, its bottomless aggressive ignorance and its petty self-confident knowledge" (Sri Aurobindo, The Mother). The recent discussions spawned by Peter's biography have added a new dimension to this insight (and I'm absolutely not excluding myself).]

[Re: Savitra: Reflections of an Evolutionary Activist: The Shadow of Fundamentalism in the Integral Yoga
by Savitra on Sat 07 Mar 2009 11:42 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
I would add that this is not only true of those in the IY Community but describes the silent majority of our human species as well. For while students of Integral Yoga may have a greater intellectual grasp of evolution and its intention than much of our fellow species; and while IY practitioners may be expanding their range of consciousness/sensitivity, deepening the development of their inner life, I believe we still share much more in common with the rest of our species than we might care to admit -- particularly when it comes to outer actions, courage, will, risk-taking, and the backbone to stand up to authority, even when that authority has clearly revealed itself to be untrustworthy if not outright devolutionary. We still prefer to wait for someone else to save us from ourselves.]

The problem remains. [TNM]

Hegel is the trusted transit point

[Hegel has a highly complicated and elaborate conception of essence. Moreover, part of the difficulty in reading Hegel lies in the fact that epistemological issues are always imbricated with ontological issues. When Hegel refers to essence as “shining within itself” he is speaking in the epistemological register rather than the ontological register. That is, Hegel is referring to a new cognitive relation that has emerged with respect to entities. Rather than encounter an entity in its immediacy, we now encounter being as mediated. Thus, when I approach a being in its brute immediacy, I simply focus on its qualities or characteristics and treat it as a brute fact...
Again, Hegel’s move here seems to arise from the manner in which he imbricates the epistemological and the ontological. Hegel might very well be right in claiming that we discover the essence of entities (their ensemble of conditions) only insofar as properties of these entities become actual under determinate conditions. I would have never known that iron rusts or corrodes in response to sea air had not this property manifest itself or become actual. However, the claim that actuality is a condition for discovery or knowledge of an object’s essence and powers– that we cannot discover the powers of entities without “poking” those entities and seeing how they respond –is very different than the claim that ontologically the entity is its actuality. An entity will have the powers it has regardless of whether or not we know it and regardless of whether or not the relevant conditions are fulfilled for these powers to actualize themselves. The question of how we discover the powers of an entity is thus distinct from the question of what an entity is in its own being. A Brief Note on Relations
from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects]

[Reading Hegel: The Introductions by G.W.F. Hegel (edited and introduced by Aakash Singh and Rimina Mohapatra) ►re.press 2008 Download book as PDF (Open Access)
Bringing together for the first time all of G.W.F. Hegel’s major Introductions in one place, this book ambitiously attempts to present readers with Hegel’s systematic thought through his Introductions alone. The Editors articulate to what extent, precisely, Hegel’s Introductions truly reflect his philosophic thought as a whole. Certainly each of Hegel’s Introductions can stand alone, capturing a facet of his overarching idea of truth. But compiled all together, they serve to lay out the intricate tapestry of Hegel’s thought, woven with a dialectic that progresses from one book to another, one philosophical moment to another.
Hegel’s reflections on philosophy, religion, aesthetics, history, and law—all included here—have profoundly influenced many subsequent thinkers, from post-Hegelian idealists or materialists like Karl Marx, to the existentialism of Kierkegaard and Jean-Paul Sartre; from the phenomenological tradition of Edmund Husserl to Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida and other post-moderns, to thinkers farther afield, like Japan’s famous Kyoto School or India’s Sri Aurobindo. This book provides the opportunity to discern how the ideas of these later thinkers may have originally germinated in Hegel’s writings, as well as to penetrate Hegel’s worldview in his own words, his grand architecture of the journey of the Spirit.]

Hegel is the trusted transit point in whichever direction one travels. [TNM]

Savitri Era Party congratulates BJD

[A Patnaik doosra for Advani The Statesman
K Ravi BHUBANESWAR, March 8: Biju Janata Dal president Mr Naveen Patnaik, considered to be one of the must trusted allies of the BJP, bowled what can best be described in cricketing parlance as a Muralidharan 'smiling assassin' doosra to Mr Advani, and politically stumped the seasoned politician.Having kept the BJP guessing till the very last, the BJD leader pulled off a coup yesterday... The collapse of the long standing BJD-BJP alliance is a major blow to Mr LK Advani who had taken on himself the responsibility of negotiating with Mr Patnaik. Rather than dispatching senior leaders for the seat-sharing talks, Mr Advani had deputed a personal emissary, Mr Chandan Mitra, who, as is evident from the turn of events, was easily taken for a ride by Mr Patnaik. Mr Advani had immense faith on Mr Patnaik and he failed to read the situation, said a BJP leader here. The BJD meanwhile insists that it was a clear case of electoral arithmetic. Navin Patnaik's BJD may join Third Front today
NDTV.com - Naveen Patnaik asked to seek confidence vote on March 11 Hindu
Third Front all set to hug Naveen Patnaik Economic Times]

Savitri Era Party congratulates BJD for this bold move. [TNM]

The Life Divine: how the world works

[Gandhi, through his glasses, did not “see” this – only because his brain did not connect the sensations conveyed by his eyes with the correct Theory... India is poor because of Bad Theory... How can we understand how the economy operates Without Theory, as Mehta advises us to? The only other way is through History, including Statistics. Yet, neither history nor statistical data can be understood Without Theory. To understand the current financial crisis, we need Austrian Business Cycle Theory. We need to know Political Business Cycle Theory too. To understand the economy and how it works we need Praxeology and Catallactics. Mehta is condemning the world economy to the unprincipled manipulations of ignoramuses when he says that decision makers should be devoid of Theory. He is calling for pragmatism - a bad word in politics. As a Libertarian, I stand for sound Theory. And Politics Based on Principles derived therefrom. For Theory... Against Vikram S Mehta
from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik]

And, for a sound Theory about how the world works, read The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]

It is through action that we must grow

[Re: Larger Issues of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" Controversy
by Tony Clifton on Sat 14 Feb 2009 04:40 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
"Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing." While I hardly think medical science is without its share of problems and I can come up with my own long list of them, but that said I guess the above statement demonstrates why I am reluctant to quote from these aphorisms, because (not unlike some of Nietzsche's) - removed from the particular contextual inspiration in which they were jotted down- sometimes they just defy common sense. And I do agree that common sense is the last thing one should throw away when they begin yoga.]

[Re: Religious Nationalism and Transnationalism in a Global World by Mark Juergensmeyer
by Debashish on Sun 25 Jan 2009 04:17 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
Mr. Sane, Thank you for your comment. If your call is for us to avoid classification of present social contradictions, I would what is your basis for such a prescription. If the basis is a faith derived from what you perceive to be a prediction of the overcoming of all present social contradications in The Human Cycle, I must admit that I cannot share your optimism. Firstly, I do not read The Human Cycle (as any of Sri Aurobindo or the Mother's writings) as determinisms. It is not difficult to point to a number of utterances by both of them which are meant to impress upon the reader the sense of a contemporary crisis in world history and the urgency of human participation in consciousness towards its solution. Many of these utterances are, moreover, more ambiguous about the future of humankind than about the coming of a supramental race. Whether Sri Aurobindo is talking about the "human cycle" or the evolution of consciousness out of the Inconscient, there is no solace for a humanity content with astrologisms. All we can see is "a play of forces" and our part in it, a part we must play by discerning the trajectories of these forces. Of course, I will admit that at any stage we are constrained by our Ignorance and our primary endeavor is to push unceasingly towards the psychological sources of clear sight (dristi). If the basis of your prescription is such a dristi attained to by yourself, I am willing to take it more seriously, or at least give it greater weight of consideration. But if it is based on an unverified belief, then it can apply only to you as a heuristic during the process of coming to true knowledge. It can have no utility outside of that process. DB Reply]

[Re: Savitra: Reflections of an Evolutionary Activist: The Shadow of Fundamentalism in the Integral Yoga Debashish Fri 06 Mar 2009 01:33 AM PST Savitra, Thanks for bringing to attention so powerfully and incisively this major precedent to the present disharmony and the need to integrate these lessons in our personal and collective lives if we are to move ahead in the Integral Yoga. These events make us pause to reflect on the history of Integral Yoga as a collective phenomenon, particularly since the Mother's passing. What brings an element of deep pathos into this is that if these events could be filed away as simple cases of "human rights violations" perpetrated by brutes and criminals it would be easier to forget them, but enacted by those who, along with whatever manifestations of vital ego, may genuinely feel that they are "doing their best" to uphold the truth, it brings an ancient note of human sadness, of the lesson ever repeated and never learned, of human history laid waste by fratricide, civil war in the name of the knowledge of what God wants. The complexity of Sri Aurobindo's comprehensive vision, which does not enjoin any reductionist principle, such for example as non-violence, makes things even more difficult.
It is easy to justify any kind of action on the basis of this vast field of possibilities, while personally encompassing hardly a sliver of that consciousness. And I have no doubt that this is possible while maintaining a relation of deep devotion with the gurus and the divine. The problem is that a relation with the transcendent, however intense, if not extended into universality, turns easily into rabid fanaticism. If we lose sight of the larger dimension of evolving consciousness in the world and in individuals and phenomena all around us, we will have given the lie to that profound teaching which came to put an end to human ignorance and suffering and which graced us with an invitation.]

[Re: Larger Issues of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" Controversy
by Debashish on Fri 20 Feb 2009 12:37 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
1. It is a given that Sri Aurobindo and/or the Mother are the last authority on "what the Integral Yoga demands" at any time and place. If either of them intervened in any case of "free speech," it would be accepted as "the thing to be done" (krtavyam karma). My comments are made in a post-physical-presence-of-the-gurus era. There too, I do not wish to press the "free speech" argument for its own sake, but for the integrality of an evolving experience from the ignorant life to the divine life.]

[Re: Orissa court stays release of book on Sri Aurobindo (the next Satanic Verses -thaindian news)
by Debashish on Sun 16 Nov 2008 07:09 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
Yes, there are two ways - the bewildered way and the enlightened way, but Krishna is at no place saying to Arjuna, wait till you become enlightened and then only enter the battle. He is saying make the battle an occasion for your enlightenment. The hundred who welcome dharma-yuddhah to justify their twisted notions of the truth don't need my reinterpretation. They have already misappropriated it and are busy multiplying their numbers through methods of mass propaganda and other persuasive devices. Reply]

[Re: Yoga, religion, and fundamentalism in the Integral Yoga Community by Lynda Lester
by Debashish on Sun 30 Nov 2008 03:42 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
Dear Ned, Let me speak for myself. "Inadequacies and flaws" are a given in what is known as "the human condition" and I cannot claim any other kind of condition for myself. But that said, I am not making any claim to stand for "truth" or against "falsehood." What I am standing for here is simply the right of ignorance to struggle for and discover knowledge. What I am standing against are knowledge-claims which try to force themselves on the world. You may argue that this is what "the avatar" has traditionally done - the restoration of truth mostly by force in a world where truth has become completely obscured. But to arrogate to oneself the authority and power of god without any visible sign of the unity and love of God, does not inspire the confidence to override the simple common-sense of human freedom of growth, which is difficult enough without willful injunctions and collective violences. You may also argue that it is none of one's business to take a stand against those who enact their violences against others, since they are at worst just as ignorant as ourselves (and at best avatars). Indeed, this is a judgment call, and I cannot speak for anyone else, only myself. From my sense of the stakes involved in this case, at this time and place, I feel called upon to take this stand. Our growth from "inadequacies and flaws" are not the better achieved on the mountaintop; it is through action that we must grow.]

[Why Realism? from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects Take, for example, the contemporary debate over evolution. The religious skeptic might concede the correlationist argument, claiming that at the level of phenomena or how things appear for-us, evolution is the only plausible conclusion. Nonetheless– and here I’m indebted to Meillassoux’s analysis in After Finitude –the religious skeptic can still point out that this knowledge is restricted to appearances, and that the level of things-in-themselves the world could be organized in a completely different way, along creationist lines. “Since we cannot know things-in-themselves,” the religious skeptic reasons, “there is no reason to conclude that things are as they appear.” Consequently, the correlationist move still leaves open wiggle room for faith trumping what our experimental investigation of nature tells us. 1:20 PM]

From common sense to things-in-themselves via krtavyam karma might seem confusing but there runs a very definite pathway for the human condition. [TNM]

Telling the community what it doesn’t want to hear

[On not having a church Yet what is the theologian’s task if not to stand as a critical voice holding the church accountable to its mission?
from An und für sich by Adam Kotsko. At no point do I want to make anyone feel disrespected or inferior, though I recognize that they in fact will feel that way in many cases.
Yet the task of the theologian is and must be a critical one. It must be carried out from a position that might even represent a certain degree of alienation from the community on a day-to-day basis insofar as the theologian is telling the community what it doesn’t want to hear. Theologians must of course examine themselves to be sure they’re not motivated by a perfectionistic pride, by a sense of intellectual superiority, etc. — yet it would be a mistake to give too much credence to such accusations, which are pretty standard moves deployed by the wounded pride of authority seeking to shout down critics. To ask the theologian first of all not to be so hard on the community and to make allowances for human weakness and external circumstances is ultimately to ask the theologian to be a propagandist, and that is precisely what the theologian must never become — not because of any extrinsic necessity, but above all because the community that responds faithfully to the gospel message will be one to which the task of the propagandist is irrevocably foreign.]

The IY community too should learn to live with its critical commentators. [TNM]

What Habermas suggests and Sri Aurobindo posited

[At the minimum we need to show that Sri Aurobindo - rightly understood - is part of the solution, not part of the problem. More and more intellectuals are recognizing that rationalism is inadequate to deal with the challenges that confront us. Juergensmeyer himself ends his book on the rise of religious violence with an appeal for an accommodation between rationality and religion that has something in common with Sri Aurobindo's insistence on the need for an alliance between intellect and spirit. Re: Orissa court stays release of book on Sri Aurobindo (the next Satanic Verses -thaindian news)
by Angiras on Mon 17 Nov 2008 11:15 PM PST Profile Permanent Link]

[We need a plurality of voices to address this question, both religious and secular. Personally, I haven’t yet given up hope for the possibility that generous scholars like Stout and Wolterstorff will be able to explore together the terrain opened by such a question. As Habermas demonstrates, however, an absolute allergy to theistic insights on this question will not take us very far. Responses to “The paucity of secularism?”
Ronald A. Kuipers: March 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am Ronald A. Kuipers, PhD (Free University), MPhil (Institute for Christian Studies) is assistant professor of the philosophy of religion. His research and teaching concentrate on the continuing social relevance of religious life patterns in pluralistic Western societies. He pursues that discussion by working with such intellectual traditions as pragmatism and critical theory, among others.]

What Habermas suggests, and Sri Aurobindo posited firmly a century ago, is to have an honest engagement with religion and not run away from it. When will our professors read The Life Divine? [TNM]

Freedom & mutuality

An Urban Voter’s Manifesto
from *DesiPundit* - A Little Wit. A Little Wisdom. Lots of India by Atanu Dey
We are urban Indians and we number around 400 million. Our aspirations are principally related to working hard for a living, caring for our families, educating our children, and being good and responsible citizens. As an urban Indian, I will vote for a party that promotes the values that matter to my country, my family, and me. I address this open letter to the political parties who seek my vote in the upcoming elections. Drop me a line if you can credibly demonstrate that you share the concerns and values that we have. Here are my concerns.
1. Economic freedom.
I want a government which generally leaves us alone. I don’t want a government that interferes in every aspect of our economic lives.
I want a government that does not excessively tax my hard-earned money to fund wasteful expenditures.
By chaining the economy, the government controls it to profit from it at the expense of the citizens. I want the government to liberalize the economy.
2. Personal freedom.
I want a government that respects me as a citizen and not as a member of some religious, caste, linguistic, or vote bank group. I want to be treated equally and not discriminated against for whatever reasons.
I want a government that does not dictate to me how I should live my life... I just want that the government do its job and I will do my bit. But I will not vote for any party that does not share my values and my concerns.]

Savitri Era Party respects a citizen's freedom with leanings towards inculcating mutuality. [TNM]

Savitri Era Party is thankful to Bijan Ghosh

[One may disagree – but there are truth in these words that Advanian hinduism followed by demolition of babri structure – are the re-discovery of that most potential and poisonous serpent which partitioned Bharatbarsha. Time has come for introspection by them who owe allegiance to Advanian hinduism, and pondering by political population, that what the country has achieved till date by destabilising the settled communal harmony of this country by hurting the sentiment of a community – and more so, in this sub-continent, where helpless hindus have been suffering continuously since Dec 1992 in the name of retaliations. -- from bijan ghosh <adv.bijan.ghosh@gmail.com> date 5 March 2009 14:44 subject india New Lawyers Chambers Supreme Court Buildings New Delhi 110 001 1:20 PM]

[And really wonderful, you attempted to explain me on 24th December about the legal history of Alipore Bomb Trial Case and the other significance that how a Lawyer came and saved Sri Aurobindo from that situation and then you expressed hope & suggested that some other Lawyer would be coming to save Sri Aurobindo from the present situation – the motivated dump of abuse and ignominy. While you totally forgotten that you are talking to an Apex Court Lawyer only and who has already arrived , extending all out supports to all of you to bail out over the crisis with dignity, and all for the sake of Sri Aurobindo. from bijan ghosh <solitude24@gmail.com>
date 22 January 2009 07:28 subject choice is imperative - an impersonal letter to a devotee of Sri Aurobindo
to Dipica Mookerjee by BG]

Savitri Era Party is thankful to Bijan Ghosh for his timely and wisely initiative to expose the heinous Advanian hinduism. [TNM]

The consequences of a 15% compound growth rate are stupendous

[Miraculous effects of a rising rupee So, should anybody believe that India is about to take off? I would advise caution. Yet, one thing has changed so dramatically that it could indeed mean take-off. The rupee has started rising, and looks like keeping on strengthening. If that continues, India will indeed become an economic superpower even with no improvement at all in GDP growth... A more revolutionary change may be in the offing. The rupee has strengthened from Rs 49 to Rs 45.30 to the dollar over the last year, and forex reserves have crossed $90 billion. Exports of goods and services are booming, and dollars from both NRIs and foreign investors are cascading in. If GDP rises 5.8 per cent and the rupee appreciates 2 per cent annually, that will represent a growth of 7.8 per cent in dollar terms. What looks like a neo-Hindu growth rate will actually be a miracle-economy rate. Besides, annual population growth has fallen from its historic 2 per cent to 1.6 per cent, and will drop over the next three decades gradually to zero. This factor alone will push up per capita growth by 2 percentage points compared with the 1980s. Thus an economic miracle may emerge from India’s bedrooms, no less than board rooms. Is this realistic? Can India really sustain 5.8 per cent growth with a rising rupee? I am far from sure. But for the first time I will say that it no longer looks implausible.
Miraculous effects of a rising rupee
times of india 2 Nov 2003, 0001 hrs IST, SWAMINOMICS/SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR]

[It's a bull run, not a bubble Yet for those willing to ride the roller-coaster, I would say that the current Sensex level of around 6000 is a reasonable time to buy.... Now, the consequences of a 15% compound growth rate are stupendous. If share prices keep pace with sales and profits, a 15% growth implies that share prices will double every five years. That is, the Sensex could touch 12,000 by the end of 2008, and rise further to 15,000 by 2010. Even if profits and share prices average no more than 10% growth, the Sensex will touch 12,000 by 2010. Those levels looks outrageously high today, and some readers might wonder if I have taken leave of my senses. Let me hasten to say that I am not predicting that the Sensex will in fact hit 12,000 in five years. I am merely saying this is the level implied by annual growth of 15% per year. It's a bull run, not a bubble
If India is good enough to fear, it is good enough to invest in SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR
The Economic Times WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 07, 2004 1:30 PM]

[If I pay by paper notes, I should politely ask the dealer, “Will you accept this debt for 10,000 rupees signed by the governor of the RBI?” If our language is exact, then so is our understanding. When I use this language, I mean that I am NOT paying money: further, that the money is to be paid by the issuer of the paper.We would all understand then that the RBI is not honouring its debts. We would understand that, in our markets, we are just passing meaningless debts around. We would be able to easily identify the criminal: Our The State. When the RBI gives its figures of “money supply,” we would all laugh. And we would laugh at all the “economists” too. The Mystery Of Banking - 5
from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik]

[When growth accelerates and creates opportunities, brain drain ceases to be an issue. Growth may not the complete answer to poverty but it is certainly an answer to brain drain. Return of the prodigal
from The Big Picture by T T Ram Mohan]

While the Sensex can be said to have grown reasonably during the last five years, the sharp fall of rupee fails explanation. [TNM]

Christianity is weaker than it looks

[The other school, to which Reagan belonged, sensed that communism was weaker than it looked and that the cold war would die with it.
Reagan's rebellion
Feb 26th 2009 From The Economist print edition. Book details
The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War By James Mann]

Christianity is weaker than it looks, and so is Islam. With the dawning of the Savitri Era they can come crashing down like a house of cards. [TNM]

Healing in the sunlight

[It’s not for lack of talent that India didn’t produce Slumdog. But questions of vision and courage do arise. Past history and ingrained inhibitions make it hard for Indian artists in any field to be as frank and true to life as they should be. They have yet to seize freedom. Slumdog: Dilemma of a new India
TOI, 1 Mar 2009, 0151 hrs IST, Deepak Chopra. The writer is a bestselling spiritual writer]

If Heehs or Savitra are "frank and true to life" so be it. Why jugupsa? [TNM] 10:02 AM

Weaving a wider ontological framework

[Thursday, March 05, 2009 A scientific temper
Jawaharlal Nehru, for all his numerous follies, strongly believed in two wonderful concepts; freedom of speech, and a concept he had coined, a nation with a “scientific temper”. That term, a “scientific temper” is a wonderfully succinct way to describe a broad concept. By speaking of a nation with a “scientific temper”, he wanted to speak of the people of a nation who would be able to think independently, understand and practice the scientific method in their daily lives, analyse and not take statements at their face value, and avoid simplistic reasoning. Of course, it has been easier said than done to create that atmosphere in a nation where superstition, religion, rumor, myth and innumerable beliefs abound. Interestingly, I was reminded of the concept of a “scientific temper” by an unlikely source. One of the pioneering biochemists, science advocates and science policy advisors of our time, Bruce Alberts talked about this concept in a talk of his recently. Posted by Sunil at 3/05/2009 03:53:00 AM
Labels: culture and society, DesiPundit, education, science and technology]

“Scientific temper” works wonderfully well when woven within a wider ontological framework. [TNM]

Locating the dynamics within a larger ontological framework

[My problem is: how do you operationalise such goals? How do we measure performance in ways other than shareholder value? Drcuker never answered this question. He left the definition and measurement of management performance as an important challenge for corporations. True, shareholder value leads to distortions in managerial actions but at least the market is an impersonal judge. Are we to substitute the market's judgement with that of some independent personalities who will come up with appropriate measures? Well, I hope these personalities are not independent directors! Old wine in old bottle
from The Big Picture by T T Ram Mohan - More thoughts on this in my last ET column, A new paradigm for management? There is talk now, as in previous economic crises, of having to reinvent capitalism. What this generally means is that we need to redefine the
roles of state and market... The goal that Hamel puts at the very top of his list is that management should serve a higher purpose than shareholder wealth maximisation. But managers are not going to focus on “socially significant and noble” goals of their own accord. They will do so only if their performance is measured differently. How do we define and measure performance in today’s world? Drucker himself was dismissive of shareholder value as the sole measure. He wanted performance to be measured on other dimensions such as innovation and market standing. The presumption, of course, is that the capital markets are not all that efficient and that the share price does not capture these dimensions adequately. But if the market’s judgement is not to be trusted, who is to carry out the task of enforcing performance? Drucker himself did not provide an answer to this question. Perhaps the answer is simply one of providing better information on managerial performance to the markets. Maybe boards, investment banks and rating agencies need to do a far better job of this than they have so far. Hamel and his colleagues do not address the central issue of defining and measuring top management performance. Theirs is a largely moralistic exhortation to managers to raise their sights. If such exhortations could change the world, we wouldn’t be having today’s problems in the first place. A new paradigm for management?
19 Feb 2009, 0027 hrs IST, TT Ram Mohan, ET Bureau]

Be it business management or public administration, locating the dynamics within a larger ontological framework can eliminate many mistakes that are committed quite myopically. "For all problems of existence are essentially problems of harmony," said Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]