Imagination unlimited

If one of the most evolved and erudite Savitri Erans is facing proprietorial censure and censor over the net, it is highly unfortunate [1:42 PM]. He needs no lessons on whether to follow the Indian wisdom or Western decadence. However, one is sure that a brave heart like him would never kowtow before such intimidatory diktats. [TNM]

Trojan horse in Matrimandir

"The individual demands from religion a door of opening into spiritual experience or a means of turning towards it, a communion with God..."The Life Divine Volume-19 [4:41 PM]. To call it "religious fanaticism" [6:30 AM] smacks of superiority and "lack of rootedness" [6:09 AM]. All Great Ideas [3:53 PM, 5:44 AM] find their consummation in the Savitri Era and "one day will come when the most blind, the most unconscious, even the most unwilling shall be obliged to recognize it"[the Mother]. [TNM]

The Life Divine is for ever

Most of the Savitri Erans dread it; bring in many alibis to avoid it. Though it is the most lovable book on earth, The Life Divine.

Among the many works of Sri Aurobindo, it has the distinction of being thoroughly revised by him. It is complete and comprehensive in its contents, not bereft of a few loose ends though.

Sri Aurobindo wrote brief summaries [CWSA.13] to certain chapters of The Life Divine but did not continue with them. The Mother took up the book in her “Wednesday Classes” for explication but after two chapters the classes stopped.

J.N. Mohanty records in his autobiography:

“I was persuaded by my dear friend Manik Mitra (who then ran the Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir) to lecture regularly on The Life divine. For almost five years, I lectured systematically on that great work from cover to cover – once a month…

I am told that very few have done what I did over the years, but this also gave me a comprehensive grasp of Sri Aurobindo’s thought, although I have been able to write very little on his philosophy. This is one of the things I still hope to be able to do."

Now, we can "listen to recordings of

Life Divine classes via Skype, by Debashish Banerji, Ph.D. on SCIY." [TNM]

[Re: Life Divine classes via Skype, by Debashish Banerji
by Debashish on Wed 18 Apr 2007 02:18 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
I wouldn't exactly call these classes but studies and explorations. Thanks to Ron for providing a link to the recordings. And welcome to all sciy readers who may wish to join the Skype Life Divine studies live. They are held every Thursday evening from 7:30 - 9:00 (and sometimes 9:30) pm US Pacific Standard Time (8 - 9:30 am in India and 10:30 pm - 12:00 am US-EST). If interested, please send your Skype ID to debbanerji@yahoo.com DB]

Hitler is here

The terror unleashed by Hitler can also be compared with the intellectual tyranny of Ken Wilber. Hitler was a terrible resistance to the evolutionary revolution carried forward by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Similarly, Ken and his cult, today, pose a formidable challenge to the propagation of Savitri Era religion. By packaging his message in an alluring fashion, he has been successful in seducing a great many, but the sad reality is that it is all sophisticated sham.

People find it hard to come out of the confusion of his miasmatic metaphysics of “post-metaphysical.” It provides them a false sense of intellectual satisfaction and confidence. But the virus he spreads leaves many maimed and in a wreck. And it is painful to see such well meaning persons treating the genuine teachings of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo with disdain. [TNM]

Inspiring and invigorating teachings

[Buddhism is national religion, Thai monks say 2007/4/18 BANGKOK, Thailand, AP
Hundreds of monks rallied in Thailand on Tuesday for Buddhism to be enshrined in the constitution as the country's national religion, amid a worsening Islamic insurgency in the Muslim south. china post

Constitution contains no state religion
As a Buddhist, Constitution Drafting Committee (CDC) chairman Prasong Soonsiri said he wants Buddhism to flourish, but it was not important to include such a declaration in the constitution. Sqn-Ldr Prasong has shrugged off the call for Buddhism to be declared the official national religion in the new charter. bangkok post By Penchan Charoensuthipan]

Savitri Era as the new global religion is in operation for more than half a century. More and more people in all the continents are discovering this new thought and light and making it their own. Inspiring and invigorating teachings make the Savitri Era religion the right option for the modern world. [TNM]

Prejudice and philosophy

By Tusar N Mohapatra 5:37 PM Here your objection is against deconstructionsm's 'sole' claims to "questioning assumptions." 'Deconstruction: A Reader' by M. Mcquillan contains essays among others by Freud, Marx, and Heidegger.

F.R. Leavis, Saussure, Barthes, Paul de Man, et al are said to have done work allied to Derrida's. So, is it fair to campaign "don't bother with Foucault, Derrida, nor Lacan" and thus prejudice the students of philosophy who have not read them? 4:12 AM

Extreme diversity of intended meanings

By Tusar N Mohapatra 6:39 AM You maintain that "the extreme diversity of intended meanings of the term render it effectively meaningless." That means your objection is only against the term and not against the various notions people attribute to it. You perhaps say that these notions are real but perennial. And there is nothing new to them to be denoted as a separate genre under this generic term. Do I get you right?

When will our Maxists grow up?

Sitaram Yechury's (HT: April 12, 2007) advocacy for "syncretic evolution" stops short at the sayings of Swami Vivekananda. But what about the "evolution of consciusness" as propounded by Sri Aurobindo? When will our Maxists allow themselves to grow up? [TNM]

Parliament House has turned into a Buddhist place of worship

The Government of India, in a full-page advertisement today, has "cordially invited" the "devotees" of Baba-Saheb Ambedkar for offering floral tributes at his statue in the Parliament House lawn on April 14, 2007. One fails to understand since when the Parliament House has turned into a Buddhist place of worship. [TNM]

The hand that kneaded Homer and Hegel together

[Hence in our own differing ways, both Matthew and I are advocating the unending conversation...posted by CJ Smith @ 3:41 PM 11:03 AM

I hope that sufficiently clarifies I am not against MD's (nor the Great Ideas/Classical Ed.) approach altogether. Just the point at which it won't recognize its own terminus. When it does not admit its own boundaries then it makes (to my mind) specious claims like that postmodernism is too vague to mean anything. posted by CJ Smith @ 3:42 PM 11:22 AM see comments section here 11:36 AM]

So the Arnoldian model that Sri Aurobindo advocated is still a darling of the 21_21 generation. How reassuring! The hand that kneaded Homer and Hegel together, and harmonized the Veda with evolution is over us leading us in the right direction. [TNM] 1:32 PM

Revelation at Uttarpara

[HM declares suspension of work at Uttarpara plant. Kolkata, April. 11 (PTI): After 29 days of labour unrest, the management of C K Birla group's Hindustan Motors (HM) today declared the suspension of work at its Uttarpara plant in West Bengal. the hinduBusiness]

Uttarpara, a name sacred to the Savitri Erans, is in the news today. The famous Uttarpara Speech delivered by Sri Aurobindo almost a century ago is still a manifesto for the whole of mankind, when read along with his message for August 15, 1947. The prophetic words proclaiming his revelation testify to his divinity. [TNM]

Let us not let down the most integral of the humans

Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: April 11th, 2007 at 10:22 pm Matthew Dallman offers the easy solution to “trace back the intellectual roots of the Great Idea of Opinion.” But his world too ends at the border of the Western hemisphere. No one is willing to look at India, at Sri Aurobindo. So much of bias, so much of resistance.

Within India also Sri Aurobindo faces stiff opposition. Because he ventured to dredge out centuries old sedimentations piled over meanings and methods. In the process he has created a comprehensive knowledge system suitable for a unified world. But Westerners continue to see him with suspicion.

Philosophical problems can’t be resolved overnight. But many of them arise basically from the Christian/Buddhist worldview which is so well entrenched in your thinking process. On the contrary, the Indian/Vedic ontology is so steeped in the notion of intersubjectivity that such questions never arise in our mind. Sri Aurobindo has attempted to harmonize and integrate many of these themes so that both parties can be happy without anyone feeling alienated.

His philosophy, his aesthetics, his political ideas, and his thoughts on education are worth perusing and pursuing. His poetry and yoga are definitively emancipatory. Let us not let down the most integral of the humans. 3:04 AM

Hegemony of Harmony

[Gramsci counseled his side to begin a "long march through the institutions," by which he meant the capture of the cinema, theater, schools, universities, seminaries, newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and courts...It was he who first alerted fellow revolutionaries to the possibility that they would be able to complete the seizure of political power only after having achieved "cultural hegemony," or control of society's intellectual life by cultural means alone. -- Culture War By Lee Congdon, Ph.D. September 2005 · No. 2005-5 4:18 AM 5:14 AM]

While Gramsci's children are busy in their fanatical mission, Savitri Erans will make an all out effort to sow the seeds of Harmony by broadcasting the words from The Life Divine and Savitri. [TNM]

Why not accept it and accommodate it somehow

By Tusar N Mohapatra 12:26 AM Meanwhile, I am mulling over an issue, which, I think, has not been addressed.

Fully sympathetic to your version of classicism and aesthetics, a suspicion haunts me that having once infected with the postmodernist worldview and enjoyed it for quite some time, I perhaps can't escape back and regain my innocence without a constant effort and vigilance.

So why not accept it and accommodate it somehow, instead of fighting it out all the while?

Savitri online

MD said... Tusar, I'm not familiar with any of Sri Aurobindo's poetry. So if you have any good examples, feel free to share. md 11:06 AM

Tusar N Mohapatra said... Savitri can be read as well as heard online at www.savitribysriaurobindo.com/ and at www.sciy.org/blog/ 7:54 PM

Savitri Era religion is the most sensible alternative

[LET RELIGION BE SPIRITUAL FORCE: DR. KALAM

Mysore, Apr. 10 (BRS)- Transform religion into a spiritual force, notwith-standing the difficulty of achieving the task, for the society to progress, opined Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. He was delivering the inaugural address at the national seminar on "Religion, Spirituality and Education in the challenging globalised world" held on Sunday at St. Philomena's College here to mark the diamond jubilee celebrations of the college. April 10, 2007 star of mysore.com]

One can understand the dilemma of Dr. Kalam, the President of a secular country. Citizens have the right to adhere to their respective religions and any attempt to wean them away from their paths is against the democratic ethos. Interestingly, Leftists in our country are supportive of a fundamentalist stance like this. Thus, the two views clash. Savitri Era religion, therefore, is the most sensible alternative. [TNM]

Hegel, Heine, and Nietzsche

[Coming across in a hymn of Martin Luther what Hegel described as the cruel words, the harsh utterance, namely, God is dead, the latter was perhaps the first great philosopher to develop the theme of God’s death according to whom, to one form of experience God is dead. Commenting on Kant’s first Critique, Heinrich Heine spoke of a dying God. Heine influenced Nietzsche. Since Heine and Nietzsche the phrase Death of God became popular. (K Satchidananda Murty, The Realm of Between, IIAS,1973) [God is dead, From Wikipedia] Tusar N. Mohapatra said this on April 9th, 2007 at 7:46 am ] Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 1:23 PM 0 comments Links

Cuttack Conference of Sri Aurobindo Study Circles

Saturday, April 07, 2007 Harmony at any cost

The 4-day State-level Conference of Sri Aurobindo Study Circles being held at Matrubhaban in Cuttack (Kataka), Orissa comes to a close today. The theme of this Annual Conference – 2007 was ‘Harmony at any cost.’ [TNM] Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 5:41 PM 10:59 PM

The false image is not of something quite non-existent

Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: April 9th, 2007 at 10:13 pm Proprietorial rights certainly permits to cite any number of broken arguments, but when it comes to Sri Aurobindo, it is expected that one should react after reading his The Life Divine, else allow him the benefit of doubt, for fairness’ sake. savitrieralearningforum

There is no such thing as absolute void

Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: April 8th, 2007 at 11:57 pm Sri Aurobindo comes in precisely to resolve this riddle. He reformulates the questions and the paradoxes blow out. “There is no such thing as absolute void,” he wrote in The Life Divine and the cobwebs collected over a millennium were swept away with just one phrase. 9:42 PM

Fall in love with The Mother

While we welcome new windows and new vistas in most other departments of life, we somehow go by the impression that the Jurassic is right as far as religion is concerned. Why such listlessness and inertia? Why do we compromise? Savitri Era religion is here with its freshness and all encompassing appeal. It is for the new generation to fall in love with The Mother. [TNM]

Marx, Nietzsche, and Sri Aurobindo

[m alan kazlev said... Sure it is a very whoelsome and Earth-nurturing religion, but I want to go beyond all religions. 4:24 PM

Perhaps the single most fundamental thing I’ve come to appreciate in my academic tenure is that top-down heirarchical systems (administration to faculty) generally lead to really bad results. Working with administrations really leads one to appreciate Marx’s desire to bring about the withering away of the “state”... larvalsubjects said this on February 9th, 2007 at 4:08 am 9:13 AM]

Surpassing the State or Religions are noble Nietzschean desires bordering upon adolescent romanticism. Even within a near-perfect dispensation it is difficult to get rid of hierarchy and the only welcome circumstance is to moderate our reactions towards it. [TNM]

His consciousness is a babe upon her knees

The Divine manifestation of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo and the advent of Supramental Consciousness is a unique and unprecedented event in the history of the earth. No amount of hermeneutical analysis can unravel the mystery of these happenings as all rules and ratios stand altered. All previous visions and logical speculations, too, are liable to be warped in this scenario.

Consequently, insisting on a suitable metaphysic unstained by older mythologies for understanding their collaborative action upon the earth seems obvious. Sri Aurobindo has left copious hints concerning this in the Canto, The Secret Knowledge of Savitri. How we accord autonomy to this enunciation in preference to other well-established claims is entirely upon us. [TNM]

Berkeley as precursor of Sri Aurobindo's ideas

While Anderson speaks of the influence of Arnold upon Sri Aurobindo, H.R. Justa mentions Berkeley being "precursor of Sri Aurobindo's idea of planes of consciousness." [TNM] 5:07 AM