Our soft power is unmatchable in utility and value

A carnival or any celebration is about a crowd. The more the merrier. Nation, army, politics, religion, culture etc. are also about numbers. The more the number, the greater the standing. Number overshadows all blemishes and assigns legitimacy to even disagreeable propositions.

Quantity, thus, may be paramount, but quality, too, matters. Quality, in most cases, makes up for lack of quantity. Nourishing quality, therefore, is far more desirable than chasing quantity all the while. Quantity-based ventures face the risk of collapsing for the want of quality critical mass. At the moment, as Savitri Erans we lack the numbers. But quality wise we are far ahead.

This core competence needs to be harnessed for an efficient brand building exercise with an eye to seek quantity. The soft power we are in possession of is unmatchable in utility and value. A vast section of the Indian population suddenly waking up to its worth is very much on the anvil. Sharpening our wit and eloquence within ourselves must continue; but the real emphasis is better directed at the public outside. [TNM]      

Elections for a new board of trustees

[100 years after Gokhale, Jinnah

from M.J. Akbar - Author and Veteran Journalist

As anniversaries go, this does not quite compete with the birth of demigods or emperors, but it does demand something more than indifference. 2010 has a legitimate claim to being the 100th anniversary of Indian democracy. In January 1910, following the Minto-Morley reforms, 27 members, elected on the basis of limited franchise and separate electorates, took their seats in the 60-member Imperial Legislative Council, housed in Calcutta. The elective principle had to be reformed and refined periodically but was never, in India, abandoned.]

Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust should celebrate this other centenary by holding elections for a new board of trustees. [TNM]

Music from the Black Piano

“My remarks or observations against some individuals might appear unsavoury, or might even hurt certain feelings; but the intention will be to be truthful,” promises RYD. We are already salivating at the prospect of a ring side view of such fireworks and hope that his memoir stretchs to cover the entire Ashram life rather than being confined merely to Savitri editing. [TNM] 

Take full responsibility for what you write in public

from Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to aurosatya vrata satyavrata54@gmail.com date 14 April 2010 14:39 subject Re: Reg. ongoing discussion on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

Dear S,

If you expect open and democratic arguments on this issue, or any other issue, for that matter, then you are mistaken. Each individual toes the party line according to what suits to his self-interest. There is no reason why he would act otherwise. After all survival, security and sustenance of his embodied existence is his foremost responsibility and submitting to a herd largely ensures that. You, too, are doing just that.

You should take full responsibility for what you write in public. Please disclose your postal address, profession, contact no. etc. to earn credibility. [TNM]  

Life Divine upon earth is a political objective

From Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to August Timmermans augusttimmermans@yahoo.com date 13 April 2010 09:07 subject Re: conflict madness

Dear AT,

To say that a human collective is diverse is to say nothing—or at very least, to say nothing new. Sri Aurobindo often refers to Unity, Mutuality, & Harmony. Instead of diversity we can use the word mutuality that leads to unity. This gives diversity a teleological target instead of celebrating diversity for its own sake.

Democracy is a participative means of managing collective affairs that keeps on repairing itself. Fundamentalism is for safeguarding and giving voice to specific interests. Democratically elected Ashram functionaries will certainly be more sensitive towards the sentiments of its residents.  Ashram, itself, can then be an effective actor within the larger democracy (Nation, World Union).

Yoga is religious experience (James), and collective yoga is politics. Life Divine upon earth is a political objective. Integral Yoga is yoked to remembering The Mother & Sri Aurobindo and hence fundamentalist, as no other option is available.  [TNM]  

Common sense has no ontological commitment to any divinity

From Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to August Timmermans augusttimmermans@yahoo.com date 12 April 2010 21:12 subject Re: conflict madness

Dear AT,

Thanks for your appreciative words, but I am a bit puzzled whether to take your phrase “open-minded” as a compliment. For, in the past I have maintained that I am a fundamentalist engaged in the propaganda of religion and politics. Being “open-minded,” I am aware, is politically correct, but that runs contrary to my present profession and devotion.

Your other expression, “complex diversity,” similarly, is a darling of the Leftists. If pursued in the real world, you end up with nothing but skepticism, cynicism, and nihilism.

S wrote, “I believe that common sense, a good sense of discernment and a sincere an unbiased approach, among other things, will help to rest one's doubts and suspicions.” This is also an enticing proposition, but a secularist trap too. Because “common sense” has no ontological commitment to any divinity, while I am burdened with one (rather, two-in one). [TNM]

Forcibly removing Tilak and Sri Aurobindo

Radha Rajan has not exactly covered herself with glory by twisting history that “The British manoeuvred Gandhi into India as leader of the INC after forcibly removing Tilak and Aurobindo from public life.” Academicians, however, have the license to compress the events spanning a couple of decades into just a single slanted sentence. And the hapless reader has to equip himself with several lenses in order to filter down the essence.

Seva, Sangathanas and Gurus: Service and the Making of the Hindu Nation by Sujata Patel in Religion, Community and Development: Changing Contours of Politics and Policy in India (Eds. Gurpreet Mahajan and Surinder S. Jodhka, Routledge India, 2010)  brings out some interesting comparative facets of Patit Pawan Sanghathana (PPS) and Sadhu Vaswani Mission (SVM). None of the 15 authors featured in the book has found it worthwhile to remember Sri Aurobindo though.

Discussions on Akshardham Cultural Complex (ACC) by Christiane Brosius in India’s New Middle Class: Urban Forms of Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity (Cities and the Urban Imperative, Routledge India, 2010) and on Amar Chitra Katha by Deepa Sreenivas in SCULPTING A MIDDLE CLASS: History, Masculinity and the Amar Chitra Katha in India (Routledge India: 2010) are two other pertinent reads. [TNM] 3:19 PM, 8:39 PM

Keep quackery at bay

The word spiritual is now more associated with spa and similar somatic services. New Age literature abound which easily displace the writings of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. The foremost challenge, therefore, is how to attract attention space without compromising on quality and authenticity. Simultaneously, utmost vigilance needs be exercised for not to be seen as peddling quackery.  

The elaborate cosmological system that The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have built in course of their extensive writings is not easy to grasp on the part of the youth. Similarly, the sophisticated psychological framework that they lay bare might appear too perplexing for many. May be the charisma helps here and more and more people are turning to their immortal message.

A positivist approach in sending out the impression that the higher planes of spiritual light and power as delineated by The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are speculative probabilities would deter many from harboring romanticized allurement. Mutation of the cells and leaping forth to the next species, likewise, should not be tom-tomed as our USP. [TNM]

Heehs is too emotionally involved with the 1993 edition

When five different preferences for Savitri were expressed, it was easy on the part of Angiras’ siblings to pick up the lack of unanimity and play it up. Obviously, the campaign against the 1993 edition poses a greater challenge to Heehs’ standing than what happened due to The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. Further, Heehs is too emotionally involved with the 1993 edition having been completely satisfied to see Savitri the way he intended after long years of strenuous negotiations. Apart from endorsement from Amal Kiran and Nirodbaran as well as the Ashram Trust, the edition had also secured judicial sanction.

It is certainly hard for him, therefore, to endure the sight of all those seals of authority melting in the heat of the blogosphere. Used as he is being at the top of the ladder, he can’t stomach the hoi polloi languorously discussing linguistic intricacies and raring to dotting the i's and crossing the t's.  'No one can equal Amal Kiran and Nirodbaran,' is his refrain, let alone surpassing them. Honour and nostalgia torment him and he cringes at the thought of disrobing of Savitri.

The tides of time, however, have more surprises in store. The see-saw game will not let one at the top forever. [TNM]

Exchanging compromise formulas and negotiating them online

Angiras’ siblings have put up a formidable defence of Amal Kiran and Norodbaran with admirable meticulousness and precision. But the issue of 1993 revised edition has now been so entangled with the ire against The Lives of Sri Aurobindo and hostility towards the present Ashram management that it is difficult to expect any reasoned outcome. Court cases, further, make the matter worse. The chance of any climb down from either side seems to be next to remote.

In such a charged atmosphere, personal accusations harden the already hurt feelings. The attempt to delink the revision issue, hence, will hardly succeed. Two years’ acrimony notwithstanding, a rapprochement, I am confident, is still possible. Exchanging compromise formulas and negotiating them online would be a much more desirable venture than expending energy in the present manner. SEOF would be humbly honoured to host such a dialogue. [TNM] 

When the crown turns a mask

Mukut is a new entrant to the Republic of mukhotas, but when the crown turns a mask, it’s a disgrace. Angiras’ siblings are fast proliferating who have successfully erased their personal history. From that vantage position and with a squeaky clean image, they merrily criticize lesser mortals. This is an unfair game, and we demand a level playing field. [TNM]  

Om OOO abracadabra

[Levi responds to Adrian Ivakhiv

from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek

ADRIAN IVAKHIV DEFENDS relations over objects, AND LEVI RESPONDS. Of course I’m with Levi on this one, since we’re both coming from an object-oriented place. (He also gets our differences right. There’s a Deleuzian element to Levi’s OOO that is absent from mine, and in mine you get the occasionalist side of it instead.)

Nothing against relations, and nothing against becoming. I just don’t think reality itself can be consistently modeled as simple flux devoid of individuals. Both quanta and the continuum are legitimate sides of reality, and one cannot be expelled from philosophy by way of arbitrary initial assumption. (Becoming in my position is what happens on the interior of an object.)]

A perfect case of the blind leading the blind. [TNM]

Deceitful use of knowledge and language

Non-state actors and many political organizations spew hatred in order to survive. Enemy is what binds their members together and cements their emotional bonding with like-minded groups. A clear cut we-and-they demarcation is always helpful for creating firm conviction and deep loyalty. Chauvinism, fanaticism, fundamentalism etc. are just different degrees of such a state of mind.

Followers of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo are now vociferously engaged in fanning the fire of hatred, although by definition they are the messengers of love and harmony. As practitioners of spirituality which is supposed to be above religion and morality, they harbor no qualms for their deceitful use of knowledge and language. “One must try to become like a flower: open, frank, equal, generous and kind.” [TNM]

Follow the Nadkarni Manifesto

[Civilisation, not institutions: IE » Friday 2 April '10 MK VENU

Is there an Asiatic mode of capitalism that standard analysis misses?....

Of course, proponents of scientific temper and determinism might pooh-pooh the very idea of a civilisational consciousness as something totally without any empirical basis.

Eminent Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm too has tentatively speculated about the possibility that the Protestant Ethic which drove Western capitalism in the previous centuries could be replaced by the “Confucian Ethic” which might power Asian capitalism. Hobsbawm also suggests that Asian capitalism might follow its own unique trajectory in the way it harnesses resources, both human and material.

The entire debate on how India and China, with their unique growth strategies, could be the real gamechangers in charting a different path of development in the context of the challenges posed by climate change and the optimal use of scarce resources such as water and energy has a deep connection with the brand of Asian capitalism that Hobsbawm talks about. Of course, Asian capitalism should not be seen as some new animal altogether. It could draw a lot from the Western framework but at the same time get imbued with a deeper cultural experience that is uniquely Asian. 

Marxist scholars might baulk at the idea but this is precisely where the cultural consciousness comes to play a critical role. After all, India and China must eventually evolve their own version of modernity which emerges organically from their deep-scripted cultural memory. The writer is Managing Editor, ‘The Financial Express’ mk.venu@expressindia.com]

[Think Tanks In India's Democracy‎ - Times of India, Apr 3, 2010 KANTI BAJPAI

Finally, think tanks can incubate ideas for the future. This is a vital role, one that focuses not on immediate policy concerns but rather has a more distant horizon. It is also perhaps a more theoretical function in the sense that the think tank in this role is concerned with constructing a whole new vocabulary and set of conceptions about various areas of social life with perhaps no immediate relevance or application. 

As a progressive and democratic society, India must invest in more and better think tanks. The public good requires the enlargement of expertise and debate. Along with the media, think tanks must continue to flourish and enrich social life.]

The Mother & Sri Aurobindo and the worldview they have left behind come to occupy an immensely important place in this scenario. To catapult it from the Ashram-centric to the Civilisation-centric position is the challenge that Savitri Erans will have to pursue with rejuvenated eagerness and enthusiasm. The Five Dreams set forth by Sri Aurobindo forms the broad framework while functional aspects have been outlined in the Nadkarni Manifesto.

Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Puducherry 100 rears back and The Mother coming to meet him four years later are momentous events in history. Both of them have created a vast body of integral knowledge as well as ecology for experiential and transformational practices allied to it. An international following of considerable spread has also developed over the years across religions and cultures.

What makes their teaching unique and outstanding is a thoroughgoing framework of philosophy. With rebirth at the core of human evolution and quest for perfection, our individual as well as collective existence needs to be geared to that one aim, they advise. Besides, remaining open to inspirations descending from higher regions and let it influence our mundane actions constitutes an approach to overcome the overtly secular mind set enforced by modernity. [TNM]     

Ashram associates as free lancers

From Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to aurosatya vrata satyavrata54@gmail.com date 1 April 2010 20:11 subject Reg. ongoing discussion on Sri Aurobindo's Savitri

Dear S,

It is difficult to contest the points you have raised and especially Ashram associates behaving like free lancers is a matter of concern. In the absence of any official communication from the Ashram, opinions of the present set of self-appointed spokespersons are likely to be accepted as authentic and trustworthy. This is an anomalous situation. Because when they ridicule outsiders, it’d also be considered as divinely sanctioned. Ashram gets a bad name in the process, and the devotees are left confused.

Just now I read a post by Raman Reddy pontificating, “outside the institution and inside it” without realizing that he himself is flagrantly flouting it. [TNM] 

Chaotic and democratic, creative and therapeutic

from Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to Satheesh S ssatheesh1963@gmail.com date 31 March 2010 19:11 subject Re: Drawing one’s own conclusions and imposing them on others: the case of one Mr. RYD.

Dear Satheesh,

The 1993 edition of Savitri is now part of CWSA and thus bears the unmistakable stamp of authentication. Individual viewpoints, however, reflect diverse sentiments which require to be taken into consideration as and when the next edition is planned.

An advantage of Internet is that discussions on various emendations can be carried out online. This is serious work and such a constructive venture is yet to sprout. The earlier ivory tower approach should make way for this chaotic, but participative, method.

You may be right to take exception to certain pronouncements, but stifling our new found freedom of expression would be cruel and self-defeating. Let’s speak, think, make amends, and overturn our beliefs: that would be more democratic, more human, more creative and therapeutic as well (you don’t suffer from Freud-phobia, I hope). [TNM]

Heehs has enough ammunition to redeem himself.

A telescopic view of the Heehs imbroglio unravels its various segments. It snowballed over a fairly long period of time, and presumably, flexing of muscles by a few upcoming actors accelerated the cascading effect.

Parekh, as Paulette has hinted, had resisted blacking out of certain inconvenient documents and his legacy was carried on by Heehs. Obviously he drew the ire of Mukherjee, Bhattacharya and others from time to time.

The flashpoint was reached in 1993 with publication of the revised edition of Savitri. Protests and court cases followed suit. But Heehs managed to survive unscathed. His other books having contributed to his reputation as an austere scholar.

2008 brought the breaking point. It would be naïve of him to claim that he didn’t anticipate such widespread conflagration over the biography he wrote. The book, on the contrary, can be said to be meant to provoke, create a controversy, trigger a debate, and define the future. All these have taken place to an appreciable measure, but sales didn’t soar, alas!

Two words “retouched” and “hagiography” in the preface of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo speak volumes and constitute a defiant methodological manifesto. The following pages, however, fail to stand up to such exacting standards. He was done in by friends, but Heehs has enough ammunition in his hard disc to redeem himself.  [TNM] 

Banerji's subversive zeal

Banerji tells The Times of India that “The work of scholars like Dipesh Chakrabarty has influenced me a lot.” If a Marxist like him takes pride in proclaiming, “My work is an extension of his ideas of the subaltern subject,” there seems to be nothing amiss. But when such extension reaches the work of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo with a subversive zeal, the devotees need to be extremely vigilant. [TNM]     

Bandwagon and weathercock

Defending the thesis is one questionable skill that the academicians are trained in early on. Philosophies grow out of such one-sided marshalling of arguments. A lawyer’s ability, on the other hand, to plead for either side of a case appears flexible, but paradoxical at the same time. Because spatio-temporal fixity fails to accommodate varying perspectives of the seven blind men admiring an elephant. Rationalizing such a scenario under an overarching postulate of sapta-bhangi-naya too is not free from ambiguity as invoking avyakta or unmanifest is something difficult to grasp.

Logical positivism, in its halcyon days, encountered deadlocks on many fronts and consequently the epistemological rigor had to be abandoned. The same happened with analysis of language in the recent years. The current obsession with SR/OOO is sure to meet a similar fate. But the puerile passion with which it is pursued at present is really astonishing. That a Bourdieuian field is the binding force is however understandable.

The need for perceiving that the opposite is also true is considered normal in the Sri Aurobindian landscape. As if this challenge is not high enough, empirical astuteness is further elevated to the genre of knowledge by identity. Academic verification, obviously, is out of question in such instances, but speculative reasoning firmly points in this direction. Thus the choice, clearly, is between a bandwagon and a weathercock.  [TNM]

Rama's mother and lemonade

Watching participants from St. Stephen’s College unable to name Rama's mother in a Doordarshan quiz contest, Anant Pai went on to create Amar Chitra Katha. Deepa Sreenivas weaves a colorful tale and takes the story further in SCULPTING A MIDDLE CLASS: History, Masculinity and the Amar Chitra Katha in India (Routledge: 2010). 

An interesting addition to the genealogy of nationalist sentiment in India discourse. Needless to say that Sri Aurobindo finds no mention in the book. India's Middle Class: New Forms of Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity (Cities and the Urban Imperative) and Ritual Matters: Dynamic Dimensions in Practice  are two related studies by Christiane Brosius. [TNM] 

LSD: Live-in, suicide, & derailment

“Live-in, pre-marital sex no offence,” holds the apex court while “Mulayam links women's bill to eve teasing.” “Maoists blow up rail track,” “derail Rajdhani Express,” and “kill three policemen in Orissa,” whereas “Naxalism founder Sanyal kills self.” One wonders in which century we live in India today. [TNM]

Alphabets do conspire a coup

[(title unknown) from For The Turnstiles by DGA

Right here I summarize the basic argument behind Wilber's answer to the question of why and how things change over time: ultimately, it's because of Providence working through the minds of Great Men. I find this implausible, but it is a useful context for those who want to interpret Wilber's more monomaniacal claims about his own importance: there is an internal logic to such claims, I mean. To wit:

Great ideas make history, and if Wilber's ideas are to change history, then they must be recognized as great and taken seriously by enough people so that some change is actually effected.

Yes, the argument is circular and specious, but it is something more than just malignant narcissism. It fits in with the whole Weltanschauung, it ties the room together...]

Anderson’s continued interest in Wilber signifies that it is not easy to wish away the formidable formulations of the latter. Whether or not Wilber is an instantiation of “Providence working through the minds of Great Men” one thing is certain that new ideas coagulate while writing. Alphabets do conspire a coup and hijack old themes away.  [TNM]

Banerji bars images

[Mulayam, Maya in statue fight

Times of India - Pervez Iqbal Siddiqui - ‎LUCKNOW: Garlands and statues in Uttar Pradesh have an uncanny similarity: they are impressive symbols of political competitiveness.

Ahead of Ambedkar jayanti, Cong, BSP jostle for Dalit mindspace

Times of India - ‎NEW DELHI: Ambedkar united the dalits but his birth anniversary next month will trigger a clash for community votes in Uttar Pradesh, with BSP set to join Congress in playing to the dalit gallery. 'Maya spent Rs 4500 cr on memorials' Indian Express Mayawati spent over Rs.14000 cr on memorials: Congress Sify]

Banerji complains of increased number of photographs of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. He might have graduated to an impersonal zone of sadhana, but he should be sympathetic to the younger devotees who need the images. After all, it is a personal choice, and why Banerji should be issuing permits for how many images to possess and where to keep them. [TNM]

Kazlev votes for Heehs to seal the East-West chasm

Kazlev has cast his vote for Heehs so as to seal the East-West chasm, whereas the coming together of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo on March 29, 1914 stands for the fusion of the twain. Sri Aurobindo, in his series of essays in the Arya, responded to major thinkers like Marx, Darwin, Spencer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Freud, and James. The synthesis he attempted seems to have not made much headway a century later. 

India was under the British rule then, but today it is poised to be a dominant economy. Technology and prosperity have also generated a lot of hubris. Past equilibriums are collapsing causing immense heartburn to those used to privileged treatment. It would be unwise to assume that these have no resonances in an ashram environment. Or, incidents like attacks upon Indians in Australia have no bearing upon the emotions of those residing in an ashram.

The Flat World thesis was offered parading equality and as a consolation, but the meltdown showed its hollowness. Understanding the timing of Heehs’ outpouring, hence, is extremely significant. His targets are many and the repercussions, as per script. Obviously, a 21^st century mini edition of colonialism won’t be tolerated within the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry. [TNM]