Good Express, Bad Express

Indian Express has done a commendable job in exposing the bankruptcy of thinking within the Anna bandwagon. Those who are easily overwhelmed by a crowd and a carnival should remember that the wisdom of the crowd is best appreciated from the stories of a clay idol vanishing and no milk in the pond. Democracy, contrary to popular notion, is not a rule by the majority, but by a small minority duly authorized. Presently, it is a tough time to talk to anyone on this point, as all seem to be sold to the pro-Anna campaign by the TV news channels.

Another such moment was during the anti-Mandal Commission agitation. V. P. Singh was demonized to such an extent that to speak in his favour was really risky. Even Indian Express let us down at that point. Alas! [TNM]  

Merit in caste system

[Stamp out khap panchayats: court The Hindu - ‎While deprecating the caste system in the country, the Supreme Court has declared illegal 'khap panchayats' which often decree or encourage honour killings or other institutionalised atrocities against boys and girls of different castes and religions ]

Social intercourse demands multiple yardsticks for assessing others in order to overcome Caveat emptor eventualities. Like language, religion, and nationality, caste, too, provides a safety net for several filtering purposes. Even the Constitution of India recognizes the castes for certain identification. Unfortunately, the system is derided without going deep into its genealogy and overlooking how intimately is it imbricated with the social consciousness. Wishful thinking by a few city-dwellers, obviously, can't serve as the bedrock of a stable future of the nation. [TNM]

Primacy of ontology

The current discourse over corruption and civil society is, appreciatively, provoking more and more minds. The issue is no longer a straightforward schism between anarchy and democracy. Rather, matters ontological have started percolating into more thoughtful articulations. All questions of politics, ultimately, are better probed through philosophical methods and, therefore, judging the dynamics of civil society against a larger canvas can surely supply more dependable answers.

The life divine, as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo, can be said to be the most perfect paradigm of a civil society. A republic or a democracy etc. are all various steps in that glorious direction. Such an evolutionary arrow, however, is comfortable with a non-linear trajectory – a disclosure which somewhat disappoints. But playing back and forth as in hermeneutics is perhaps a necessary means for pushing the envelope.

Fed on free mother’s milk, it takes a long span of time for man to distinguish corruption. Some prefer to play blind and consider everything as their own, thus transcending subtle ethical demarcations. They love to presume that others perpetrate corruption, just as accidents are meant for others. The Guna canons and Varna distinctions also somehow condone such personal foibles by assigning causal or genealogical imperatives. Overlooking such fundamental insights would imperil the outcome of the present impatience. [TNM] 

The Lives vs. Life and Times

A million kudos to Manoj Das and his "dedicated researcher friends" for the new biography that has blossomed in the Mother India of this month. May it spread ample cheers after three years of dismal emission generated by Heehs' hostile book. [TNM] 

Compare and contrast

[Moily rules out ban on Lelyveld's book on Mahatma Gandhi Economic Times

NAGPUR: Union Law minister Veerappa Moily has ruled out Centre imposing a ban on the controversial book on Mahatma Gandhi by Joseph Lelyveld stating that the American author himself has denied writing anything adverse about the leader.]

[The Trial and the Verdict -- by Alok Pandey

...Perhaps the phrase ‘a stitch in time saves a nine’ applies here aptly. When early warnings are ignored, then we are only waiting for the volcano to erupt and its lava and ashes to scorch the earth and cloud the skies. Was this avoidable? We can never know with certainty, but one thing is sure. The responsibility of the storm that has been raised... from A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs]

Compare and contrast! [TNM]

Gandhi, Ambedkar, Deendayal, & Lohia

“Common man in the economic ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Ambedkar & Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya”: that was the theme of a Seminar organized by India Development Foundation on September 25, 2010 at the Constitution club. None of the speakers, unfortunately, could do justice to such a wide-ranging subject and Dr. Mahesh Chandra Sharma observed that the three great men were rather philosophers and not economists.

DU is hosting a three-day Conference on “Social philosophy & Socialist politics after Lohia : Chasms & Bridges” during March 28-30, 2011. Major political parties in India today are indebted to these four leaders. But it is often forgotten that they were products of their times and their socio-economic thinking, therefore, should not be treated as frozen. It is easy to rouse popular passion by criticizing the rich and their enterprises. But earning such political dividends corrodes the economic well being of the nation and its people.

The nuclear quagmire in Japan has sent shock waves over the future of the present model of development that leans so heavily on science and technology. But to propose that there is an alternative route is sheer chicanery. Risks of technology will have to be combated with more technology and not by hurtling back to the dark ages. There is nothing wrong in paying homage to these great patriots our country produced, but following the economic policies they espoused would be a mistake. [TNM]

The Mother at exam time

[How I discovered Sri Aurobindo and the Mother POSTED BY DR. RAMESH BIJLANI AT 1:55 AM 

I joined AIIMS as an MBBS student in 1965, and spent 40 years there, almost without a break. Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Delhi Branch is less than 4 km from AIIMS, but it took me 27 years to discover this oasis of peace. And, it is not that I was blind to matters religious or spiritual. Before I went to the ashram, I had done a decent amount of study on these subjects, and had tried to construct mentally an ethical code by which I had tried to live my life. But being a rationalist, I had generally kept away from places of worship as well as any rituals or ceremonies. Anyway, I went to Sri Aurobindo Ashram for the first time in 1992 on a Sunday morning at 10 am for a satsang. The discourse was good, but what impressed me more was the cleanliness, order, punctuality, and the intense spiritual energy of the place. Moreover, there seemed to be no obvious or mandatory rituals, customs or dress code. In short, the emphasis was on what is within you, rather than on the surface. ]

There are several medical practitioners among the top erangelists and Dr. Bijlani is one. But having come to The Mother so late in life, he can't really be said to have lived Integral Yoga. Textual presentation of prescriptions with clinical precision is one thing, but the tale of relying upon The Mother during each ordeal and examination in life is quite another. [TNM] 

Savitri Era Party is against anti-market rhetoric

[Baba Ramdev; Yogi or Commissar from Communalism Watch by Ram Puniyani

Baba Ramdev has been probably most successful of God men of recent times...

The current times have been the one where the politics has been wearing the clothes of religious identity. Baba is going one step ahead. He is trying to ride on two horses, the one of spirituality-religion and the other of entrepreneur-politician, at the same time. His association with those who have done politics by abusing religious identity, the communalists, is very clear. That may be the reason as to why he is creating hysteria around corruption by one political party rather than against corruption as a phenomenon related to our socio-political structure. POSTED BY RAM PUNIYANI AT FRIDAY, MARCH 25, 2011]

Rajiv Dikshit claims that the manifesto of  Bharat Svabhiman is a reaffirmation of the nationalist exhortations of Sri Aurobindo published in the Bande Mataram. However, Savitri Era Party is against the hawkish anti-market rhetoric parroted by Dikshit. [TNM]

Paid-news is steering political events

Paid-news phenomenon constitutes a watershed in the evolution of democracy in India. It is an obvious extension of the TV news channels churning out back-to-back breaking news while frantically chasing TRPs. The media is no longer a mere intermediary, but an active agent and a powerful player. The infotainment industry is not just peripheral as earlier. Rather, it has acquired substantial muscle in steering political events.

The Constitution of India was crafted in relatively innocent times. That the proceedings of Lok Sabha would be telecast live was simply unthinkable. Adapting to technological changes, therefore, is a challenge now for the Indian democracy. Panel discussions over at TV studios are effective alternatives of Parliamentary debates. The more they are institutionalized and internalized the better.

Political parties running captive TV channels is an accepted practice now in many States. This being replicated at the national level is only a matter of time. Such transparency needs to be welcomed in the interest of integrity and fair-play. Citizens skilled in deciphering slants in reporting and bias in paid-news would then be the right antidote. [TNM]

Fathoming Foucault and Derrida

[Thinking the Impossible: French Philosophy Since 1960 by Gary Gutting – review The Guardian - Gary Gutting The theories of Derrida and Foucault are revisited in this fair-minded history of French deconstructionism, and guess what? It wasn't all bunkum… But was there anything inside the texts of Derrida and his fellow deconstructionists? Gutting is scrupulously fair-minded on this point. On the one hand, he says (in an argument that gives him his title), post-structuralist thought has been no less than an attempt to "think the impossible".

On the other hand, impossible thinking makes for impossible writing, and he boldly admits that "for almost all of us (even those of us who spend a good amount of time on recent French philosophy), [it] cannot be understood through a close, line-by-line reading". Far better, he concludes, to treat this stuff like poetry – as essentially unparaphrasable and never fully explicable.]

Venturing through this poetry of the last half century can be hugely rewarding even for Savitri Erans who wear poetry as second skin. [TNM]

The confusion that is India

Major languages in India are powerful anchors of sub-nationalism. No meaningful co-operation between various States has occurred due to this basic difference. Religion, geography, and caste are other contributing factors subverting the national identity. The tension between tradition and modernity remains a perplexing affair for people of all ages. Increasing secularization of life and society robs the cushion of mythological beliefs and metaphysical assurances. Exposure to overseas customs and practices triggers drastic lifestyle overhauls. The flux is accentuated through easy communication channels and sundry gadgets. Travel and trans-national jobs are also transforming the text-book definitions of nationalism and patriotism.

India in such a scenario is perhaps the most confused nation. On the top of it, the political power wrests with a foreign-born woman. English language and Western manners carry a premium and the cream of society across the country firmly follow the colonial legacy. Paradoxically, this influential elite that dominate the media and the academy claim to be the close friends of the marginalized. Motivated sociological doctrines coupled with highly distorted history books have taken their toll. To sum up, people of India are yet to understand their own nation. [TNM]

Indian exceptionalism is suspect

[Sri Aurobindo'S Theory of Nationalism Sri Aurobindo was looked upon as a prophet of the Indian nationalism. In association with Bankimchandra, Tilak and Dayanand, he contributed to the t.]

It is impossible today to see India in isolation. And hence the difficulty of formulating any precise notion about it. From Dalits to Diaspora, the diversity is vast and complex. From Software to Soft Power, its influence pervades everywhere. The way the media and entertainment industry is reinventing itself and integrating with Global trends, the distinctive elements of culture are likely to be extinct. This technology-enabled phenomenon can hardly be thwarted.

Thus, increasingly, the assumptions sorrounding India are turning nebulous. As a nation now alert to occupiy its rightful place, the trajectory seems normal. But as an ancient civilization that must leverage its tryst with modernity to be the harbinger of a harmonious life upon the planet, the promise is not secure enough. That is a tall order and why should it at all be saddled with such an onerous responsibility is  a valid objection.

Indians share the same physiological existence with the rest of the species and are not entitled to any anatomical advantage. Neither geography offers any particular edge over the others. Besides India can't boast of any superior social, political, economic, or educational system. Thus, the claim of Indian exceptionalism sounds hollow and becomes suspect. [TNM]

Collective transformation

[Change, Identity, and the Fundamental Transformation of America Patriot Post - Jack Kerwick - ‎Mar 14, 2011‎

While on his campaign trail for the presidency, Barack Obama talked to no end about the "change" that would visit upon America, a change so profound, so sweeping, that it would "fundamentally transform" ...]

Transformation is a watchword within the teaching of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. It entails a constant aspiration for embracing change and mustering courage to replace the existing dispensation. Not only in personal longings but also in matters collective or political. [TNM] 

Carlson's complain

[Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s failure to follow through on their teachings Comment on Indian Nationalism, Pluralism and Sri Aurobindo by Richard Carlson by rc via Comments for Posthuman Destinies by rc on 4/03/11]

An amusing quip as Carlson fails to notice the contradiction. The Divine, obviously, is not compelled by a particular recipe of political correctness. [TNM]

Savitri Erans must unite under a single banner

[Political Islamism: dividing, dying Indian Express I was eager to talk to him because he had used my 1991 book, La Revanche de Dieu (“The Revenge of God”), in his famous article and subsequent volume,...]

Savitri Erans must unite under a single banner in order to present a credible face of the alternative that The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have so laboriously fabricated. [TNM]

The Mother’s hand

[“How Do You Like Baroda City?” by doctorzamalek January 26, 2011

That was the question a young boy asked me at the wedding. My answer three days later is still the same: I like it very well.

One thing about traveling in India is that since reasonably good hotels can be had for reasonable prices, one often holes up in them for weeks at a time (only 9 days this time, but often I’ve done much longer in one hotel). And after a few weeks in a hotel, not only does the room start feeling like home, but at the very least you start forming smile-and-wave relationships with dozens of people who work at or frequent places you frequent yourself. I tend to be a creature of habit with my food and drink orders anywhere, and so I’m not even needing to place orders in Baroda anymore; it’s a quick nod as soon as I enter the door, and they just go ahead and prepare what they know I’m going to want anyway. And the café workers down the street, in particular, are almost my friends at this point. I’ll be sorry to leave all these people behind.

Back to Bombay tomorrow to wind this trip down and head back into a possible political hurricane in Cairo, just as the semester starts (next week) and as we inaugurate our new President (February 7).]

Graham Harman was touring Vadodara when the Egyptian Revolution erupted. There is nothing to remotely suspect The Mother’s hand, but still! [TNM] 

Savitri Era Religion offers a complex and rich environment

[Auromira Yoga: OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SPIRITUALITY By Dr. Ramesh Bijlani FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2010

Among the visitors to spiritual organizations like Sri Aurobindo Ashram are some dead serious, sincere and intense young people who claim to be on the spiritual path but seem to be on the verge of losing their mental balance, if they have not lost it already. The question naturally arises what makes something as laudable as the spiritual path a risky road to walk on. The risk lies in a faulty approach to spirituality. Young people who become miserable as a result of their engagement with spirituality invariably treat spirituality as yet another worldly achievement. They go about searching for techniques that would take them to the peak by the easiest, shortest and fastest route. They treat spirituality like mountaineering… Unless they correct the fatal flaw in their approach to spirituality, they end up on the psychiatrist’s couch.] 

[Journey Of Self-Discovery Leads Man To Realization He Doesn't Care | The Onion - America's Finest News Source FEBRUARY 10, 2011 | ISSUE 47•06

FLAGSTAFF, AZ—Three months after setting off down a long spiritual path to find himself, 38-year-old Corey Larson arrived at the conclusion Tuesday that he does not care. "I spent many long hours meditating, studying the works of great thinkers and spiritual leaders, and delving deep within myself for some kind of answer, and then it hit me: I couldn't care less," Larson said of his soul-searching journey. "Fuck it. Fuck it all." Larson briefly considered writing a self-help book to make the journey easier for others, but decided that he also didn't give two shits about whether other people arrived at the same conclusion he did.]

Fortunately, Savitri Era Religion offers a much more complex and rich environment for fostering life’s thousand longings without pinning the spiritual tag. The so called spiritual journey doesn’t begin midway in life but is a continuous quest from life to life. So, no failures or losers here; each one’s unique trajectory is firmly on course. Charaiveti, charaiveti! [TNM]   

Question of rebirth not irrelevant

[Auromira Yoga: OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE SPIRITUALITY By Dr. Ramesh Bijlani The misplaced curiosity trap

Drifting into spirituality with the relatively simple aims of pursuing something of lasting value, something useful to others, or something better than joining the rat race, some young people get distracted by the futile search for answers to irrelevant questions. They want to know more and more about life after death, rebirth, past life regression, or forecasting the future. They start resolving the apparent discrepancies in the karma theory.] 

In an admirably crafted post Dr. Bijlani spells out negativities and specifically sounds anti-intellectual. Beware! [TNM]

Contract, Honesty & Harmony

[Happy Days Lie Ahead... from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik

Long, long before Christmas, the winter solstice was celebrated as the birth of the pagan god Mithras - the "patron of contracts": the very word means "contract" in Old Persian. And the "Unconquered Sun" lies in that little word:

“Mithras stood for Contract, and therefore for fairness, therefore for Justice, therefore for honesty, therefore for Truth, therefore for light, therefore for The Sun.”

The above quote is from Paul Kriwaczek's In Search of Zarathustra: The First Prophet and the Ideas that Changed the World - a wonderful history intermingled with travelogue written by a former BBC television programme-maker with special interest in Central and South Asian affairs. Kriwaczek is a Jew from Vienna - who successfully fled the Nazis and was raised and schooled in London…

Mithra is the "Unconquered Sun" - born during the winter solstice because that is when days start getting longer. This time of the year was celebrated 2000 years before Christ.]

The same Vedic Mitra representing Harmony, the domain of Mahalakshmi. [TNM]

Sri Aurobindo saves

[INTELLECTUAL BIFURCATIONS Jeffrey Bell at Aberrant Monism

In Priest’s book in contradiction, which I discussed here in yesterday’s post, he highlights the early modern bifurcation between the continuous and the discrete (a bifurcation that of course predates early modern thought and is not exclusive to the western tradition). Priest signals Leibniz and Hume as emblematic of this bifurcation.]

[Bell on bifurcations from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek

Bell refers to a book talking about the early modern birth of a strife between the continuous and the discrete. Fair enough, but I think that’s pretty clearly already the difference between Aristotle’s Physics and Metaphysics. The Physics is an often Bergson-like defense of continua, while the Metaphysics is of course about a world of individual chunks. It is a tension that Aristotle resolves only by apportioning the two sides of the paradox to different portions of the world.]

[The Life Divine - Google Books Result

Sri Aurobindo - 1985 - Philosophy - 1113 pages
Mind, being an action of the Infinite, depieces as well as aggregates ad infinitum. It cuts up being into wholes, into ever smaller wholes, into atoms and those atoms into primal atoms, until it would, if it could, dissolve the primal atom into nothingness. But it cannot, because behind this dividing action is the saving knowledge of the ... (1.18.180) 12:39 PM]

Sri Aurobindo saves. [TNM]

Deaf to Sri Aurobindo

[Bowl for past, bat for change Calcutta Telegraph - Samhita Chakraborty Lahiri 

One thing you can't accuse Ramachandra Guha of is mincing his words. ... “I found the views of Vivekananda and Aurobindo archaic and stiff,” was the reply to a variation of the question that he is asked the most about his book.]

Fresh from the press, Democratic Culture: Philosophical and Historical Essays edited by Akeel Bilgrami also fights shy of Sri Aurobindo. [TNM]

Savitri Erans should write more

[To Reiterate… by larvalsubjects

Honestly I’m shocked that more of you don’t post and blog. You’re nuts. Yes, I know we’re all assholes and that there are frustrating discussions. Yet through inscription you’re making yourself real in hundreds of brains. Those traces will prove invaluable to you later on so long as you aren’t particularly assholish. You might think that something like blogging is secondary to your academic development, but you’re wrong. It is one of the primary venues through which you make yourself real in this cutthroat world. Don’t be afraid to show others the things you’ve found to be neat.]

[Cyberspace and Postmodern Democracy - Market colonization of the virtual public sphere - XIII International Conference Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda in collaboration with Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Theme: The Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere

15-18 December 2010 Venue: Hotel Parkview, Chandigarh, India]

Savitri Erans too should write more in order to win additional ground in the Public Sphere. [TNM]

Wooing the shoes

Another amazing concession was offering prayers with the ubiquitous Bata slippers on without the punishing stipulation of the head touching the ground. The Mother apparently was empathetic with our being tormented by such tyranny over the youngsters during umpteen religious ceremonies day in and day out.  

Many Centres still shoo away the shoes for reasons of hygiene and decorum and the genuflecting posture is a common sight. But the young ones must be rebelling still. [TNM]

Quit quickly

One of The Mother’s many volcanic ideas that shook us in the school days and hooked us to her lasso is that the flowers decorating her photo need not be thrown away daily. Each flower, we were told, has the right to serve the divine as long as it remains fresh through shuffling and sprinkling of water. That was a radical challenge to the traditional canons of pollution consigning the basiphula to the drains round which lyricists have waxed eloquent down the years. 

Das Gupta’s old age, in this context, is eminently defensible especially when juxtaposed with the example of the Prime Minister. But physical agility alone is no assurance for sound brain functioning. Erasure of large chunks of momory is liable to trigger warped decision making. Instead of holding others to ransom, therefore, better he quit with grace and serve the divine by cultivating Saksi Bhava. [TNM]