Thursday, October 13, 2016

Bodin, Hoffer, Orwell, and M.N. Roy

Despite Internet facilitating availability and distribution of knowledge resources, it is hard to find people who are genuinely open to rational arguments. Self-interest drives most to support a set of opinions and intellect faces defeat. Dynamics of Democracy with its imperative of party loyalty reinforces such a discrepancy. This is an irony being Enlightenment's progeny. Intellectuals falling victim to such a syndrome is one of the greatest failures of human civilisation.

Apart from the political divide between the Left and the Right, the geographical chasm obtaining between the East and the West is a disturbing phenomenon. Thousands of books churned out by Western academia simply don't refer to anything that is connected to India or Indonesia. Such a degree of selective amnesia never helps in producing sound theoretical analysis or strengthening the author's credibility. So, remedying this widespread malady should be a priority for all those who empathise with global unity.

India is under a time warp and people are unable to come out of the collective memory of the Colonial period. Instead of engaging with Sri Aurobindo who has written extensively on the possibilities of future, many keep on juggling with Gandhi, Nehru, Amedkar, Savarkar et al. This amounts to a colossal waste of energy and resources. Though aware that ours is a lone voice in the wilderness, it makes us all the more determined to keep on repeating it because of the weight of its significances. [TNM55]

Misc. References:

Was Gandhi a racist as alleged? via @swarajyamag https://t.co/K6gwYd0zUf

#Aurobindo: The spiritual revolutionary who severed the thread of the global power structure https://t.co/0aCHPXYXCO

@uelmendrado Hoffer does project the two extremes of society - the elite and the extreme "low" as ideally placed to join mass-movements.
@dikgaj Hoffer (and his contemporary Orwell) definitely nailed that point, the necessity of demonization and permanent revolution.

@ArunKrishnan_ @maidros78 here @ScorpiusMaximus writes about less known freedom fighters https://t.co/WFQVfnODAq
@a_r_j_u_n MN Roy post 1917 became a Communist, so things change from there. But pre-1917, he was inspired by Aurobindo.
@Krishnam_2016 N-no. Not exactly. You need to read MN Roy yourself. It's very hard to explain in 140 chars abt post 1917 MN Roy @a_r_j_u_n
@Krishnam_2016 MN Roy was a patriot till mid 30s even after he became Communist. After his prison sentence, he was broken fully. @a_r_j_u_n

Daily News & Analysis-7 hours ago
"So long as war does not become psychologically impossible, it will remain or, if banished for a while, return," wrote Sri Aurobindo in an April 1916 essay, The ...

The Hindu-11-Oct-2016
... Tree', 'Image and Culture: The Dynamics of Literary, Aesthetic and Cultural Representation' and 'Sri Aurobindo's Aesthetics and Poetics: New Directions'. × ...

Spiritual Pragmatism: New Pathways of Transformation for the Posthuman AK Giri - Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures, 2016 Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures
... This can include dialogues with thinkers such as Sri Aurobindo and Heidegger who can help us realize the spiritual dimension of pragmatism. ... New York: Cotinuum. Coward, H. (1989). Language in Sri Aurobindo. Journal of South Asian Literature, 24(1), 141–153. ...

Humans Have Always Been Posthuman: A Spiritual Genealogy of Posthumanism F Ferrando - Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures, 2016 Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures
... Agamben, G. (1995) (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign power and bare life (D. Heller-Roazen, Trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press. Aurobindo, S. (1939–1940) (1990). The life divine. Sri Aurobindo. Pondicherry, India: Ashram Press. Aurobindo, S. (1963) (1974). ...

Nietzsche's Snowden: Tightrope Walking the Posthuman Dispositif RJ Carlson - Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures, 2016 Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures
... Auber. Simondon, G. (1995). L'individu et sa genese physic-biologique. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France (1964, Editions Jerome Mullion). Sri Aurobindo. (1972). The synthesis of yoga and the life divine. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press. Stiegler, B. (2003). ...

Leap of Perception: The Transforming Power of Your Attention
P Peirce - 2016 ... Sri Aurobindo On to the Next Thing: Attention and Perception! Sometimes, I see and hear certain words; they stand out in books and conversations as though highlighted in bright yellow. For the past few years I've been noticing the words “attention” and “perception” everywhere. ...

https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn...
Ramashray Roy, ‎Ravi Ranjan - 2016 - ‎Preview - ‎More editionsA Gandhian Perspective Ramashray Roy, Ravi Ranjan. in this corrupt and corrupting ... This is not what the Veda teaches. It must be emphasized that this is ... This world is the arena of our karma, which can both liberate and bind, depending on what attitude we have towards our role in this world. Since the world cannot be ...

https://books.google.co.in/books?id...
Ramashray Roy - 2002 - ‎Snippet view - ‎More editions Study on the relationship between Vedic tradition and political order of India... Bodin when he argued that ... (a) good men are not good citizens since they tend to run away from the responsibilities of the world, and (b) ...

Rangabati || Endless Journey Of A Song || Official Full Length ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1t52q0_0es
5 days ago - Uploaded by EnewsOdia
Jitendra Haripal, The Creator of Famous song - RANGABATI Edited by KAUSHIK NATH in the year 2007 ...

Sagu khia pati pana - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2c37NBOHo4
23 hours ago - Uploaded by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
Old Odia folk number (Voice: Tusar Nath Mohapatra)


Bayasara Krushnachuda ranga - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2PZC2B6ulA
23 hours ago - Uploaded by Tusar Nath Mohapatra
Old Odia number by Akshaya Mohanty (Voice: Tusar Nath Mohapatra)

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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

Aligning human endeavour to the forces of Evolution

Echoing Humans need not apply, Abhijit Bhaduri sees future in relationship workers. An excerpt:

[Problems are getting too complex to be done by one individual. The days of the lone genius working alone in a lab are over. Problems have to be seen through a multidisciplinary lens. No longer can someone from one discipline solve problems all alone... Working in transdisciplinary teams will mean that knowing how to manage people and coordinate with others will be skills that will be valuable in the job market. Routine problems will get solved by algorithms. Human beings who can solve complex problems will be valuable... The future belongs to people who are more emotionally intelligent. This may be the era of the “relationship worker” – someone who can handle complex human relationships.]
Last year I presented a paper captioned Reimagining and Refashioning Integral Management available at: https://t.co/YGoEhdLyp7

An extract:

Everything can be managed: that is perhaps the most ambitious objective of Management and hence the concept of Zero defects, etc. But the Integral approach doesn’t subscribe to such optimism. Sri Aurobindo has outlined three principles of Education, the first of which is ‘nothing can be taught’. In the same vein, it can be asserted that nothing can be managed. However, this is not pessimistic, but rather surrendering or aligning the human endeavour to the forces of Evolution in constructive spirit. [TNM55]

Misc. References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Aug 13, 2014 - Uploaded by CGP GreyCGPGrey.com/ https://twitter.com/cgpgrey ## Robots, Etc... 

www.forbes.com/.../if-humans-need-not-apply-will-all-our-jobs-disappea...
Aug 18, 2014 - I just watched Humans Need Not Apply, the latest video from CGP Grey, the semi-anonymous creator with dozens of explanatory videos to his ...

www.huffingtonpost.com/.../humans-need-not-apply_b_5693808.html
Aug 20, 2014 - Many of these concerns are captured in the extremely well-produced video, “Humans Need Not Apply,” just released by C.G.P. Grey. Grey has ...

- In the LRB, Malcolm Bull reviews Ponderings II-VI. [T]he truly shocking question posed by the Black Notebooks is not: was Heidegger a Nazi? Or: was Heideg... 

Simulatio entis - “The true life is absent.” But we are in a simulation. Everything about our universe, rightly understood, cries out: I was created! Finitude, imperfection,... 

The Unity and Harmony of Individual Being With Universal Being - The apparent opposition and conflict we experience as the ego confronts an apparently indifferent or hostile Nature, is part of the method of Nature to dev... 

ADAM SMITH DID NOT APPLY NEWTONIAN GRAVITY TO ECONOMICS -*Philip Ball*, the author of:” Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen” and many books on science and art, posts HERE “*It might seem unlikely, even i... 

The song of Narad, pp 416-418 (SH 215) - Narada, the demigod and a bhakta of the Lord, is ever engaged in the good of all creatures. His work, if he has any since he lives in freedom, is to sing... 

Nīti and the two ways of “using” texts - On Sunday I was reading Sundarapāṇḍya’s Nītidviṣaṣṭika, an interesting collection of āryā verses on the subject of nīti (something like: how to act in the ... 

Kierkegaard, Berdyaev, Bosanquet, and Sri Aurobindo - Conversations and Transformations: Toward a New Ethics of Self and ... https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=0739103229 Ananta Kumar Giri - 2002 - ‎Preview -... 

Love affair with Western thought continues - The love affair with Western thought continues. Just read about how Kierkegaard wanted his philosophical writings to be read without being concerned about ... 






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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

Love affair with Western thought continues

The love affair with Western thought continues. Just read about how Kierkegaard wanted his philosophical writings to be read without being concerned about the author, which means he anticipated Barthes.

A. Aumann (‎2011) observes:

[Berthold portrays Hegel and Kierkegaard as anticipating the concerns of postmodern thinkers from Roland Barthes and Jacques Derrida to Michel Foucault and Jacques Lacan (EA 134).]

Hegel and Kierkegaard concurring on this is further interesting. So, there is no escape from Hegel. The second book co-edited by Rimina on Hegel is in press and Silika's dissertation on OOO is receiving final touches, as I turn 61 today. [TNM55]

Misc. References:

American Philosophy A Love Story by John Kaag
Kaag had written his dissertation about Peirce, whom he calls "arguably the most original philosopher of the 19th century." ... Although less all-encompassing than Carlin Romano's dauntingly brilliant America the Philosophical, this is the most enthralling book of intellectual history I've read since David Edmonds' and John Eidinow's Wittgenstein's Poker, published in 2001. HELLER MCALPIN

A new “Christianist” secularism in Europe - [image: Image via Flickr user Quinn Dombrowski]Throughout much of the world, religion manifestly—and sometimes markedly—informs everyday understandings, cu...

Purification, liberation, perfection, and delight - #Aurobindo: The spiritual revolutionary who severed the thread of the global power structure https://t.co/0aCHPXYXCO #spirituality Contemporary challenges...

MV Nadkarni - 2016 - books.google.com
What is the Bhagavad-Gita? Is it just a religious text? When was it composed? How relevantis it to the modern world? This book answers these foundational questions and goesbeyond. It critically examines the Bhagavad-Gita in terms of its liberal, humanist and ...

S Dhaliwal - 2016 - books.google.com
Shveta Dhaliwal teaches at the Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, Patiala, India. Her areas of specialisation are geopolitics, regional human rights systems, comparative political thought and international relations. She has published more than 40 ... Tagore ... Aurobindo and Vivekananda

https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn...
Vasanthi Srinivasan - 2014 - ‎Preview - ‎More editions This is the dictate of Indian philosophy. This oneness is the rationale of all ethics and spirituality.'1 Since then , many Indian thinkers have celebrated spiritual oneness and clarified how it can be applied to economic and political life. Examining S. Radhakrishnan and Vinoba Bhave, I have argued that this longing for oneness ...






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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Scholarly activity is an important element of Integral Yoga

All life is Yoga may or may not be the reality but all life is reading for followers of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo. Their writings including the commentaries by disciples are essential for proper understanding of various nuances. Besides, reasonable acquaintance with Western philosophy and poetry is also desirable. One may not be interested in all kinds of subjects but limiting Sri Aurobindo within education or Indian culture alone is a defective method. Further, searching quotations for justifying one's own viewpoint or a pet ideology is also a form of misrepresentation. So, in all these aspects, one must exercise utmost caution.

Another common practice is to denounce intellectual culture by admonishing for lack of experience or spiritual contact. They are imposters for whom parroting The Mother & Sri Aurobindo's words is used for terrorising others. If they really possess the yogic power, they should enjoy their bliss instead of wallowing in theoretical controversy. Scholarly activity is an important element of Integral Yoga and those young must not neglect this aspect under any pretext. Social media provides a very convenient platform for trying one's hand in writing and writing demands further reading leading to additional learning.

Uniqueness of the philosophy of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is well known but its significance is yet to gain desreved recognition and popularity. Adequate number of people are not there who have read their works thoroughly and understand them threadbare. Many from the above category are not conversant with Western philosophy. Many don't have the flair for writing. Still many don't have that activist spirit and prefer the path of silent yoga. All these difficulties lead to their eclipsing from public consciousness and must be reversed. [TNM55]

Misc. References:

The subject as knower and doer in Yāmuna’s Ātmasiddhi - Opponents coming from the Advaita field figure often in Yāmuna’s Ātmasiddhi, which shows that even before Rāmānuja Vaiṣṇava authors were taking seriously t...

Trump’s Theater of Cruelty - It has often been remarked that Trump has brought a “reality TV” feel to this election cycle. What is less noted is that he is on both sides of the reality...

Indian perspective burnished by Sri Aurobindo's prophecies -Irreducible Mind and its sequel Beyond Physicalism made waves when they were published but I have not read them. So, when known scholars on Sri Aurobindo l...






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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

Monday, October 10, 2016

Indian perspective burnished by Sri Aurobindo's prophecies

Irreducible Mind and its sequel Beyond Physicalism made waves when they were published but I have not read them. So, when known scholars on Sri Aurobindo like Debashish Banerji and Makarand R. Paranjape edit a book on the theme of Posthumanism, it certainly can prove to be a milestone in the history of ideas. Hence, the editors and other contributors need to be congratulated for this.

Ever since McLuhan broke free from the orthodox Marxist line of thinking of his Frankfurt School contemporaries like Benjamin, Horkheimer, and Adorno, the world has not been the same. But unfortunately, the geography of Western commentators has not advanced much since the days of Dante. As a result, the Indian situation has never been subjected to an honest theoretical analysis. 

So, against this backdrop, let's hope that Critical Posthumanism would introduce the much needed Indian perspective duly burnished by Sri Aurobindo's prophecies. Further, the modern generation is not comfortable with highfalutin prose or wooly speculations. It demands proof and action. So, whosoever succeeds in providing these basics would be applauded, else will fall by the wayside. [TNM55]

Misc. References:

This volume is a critical exploration of multiple posthuman possibilities in the 21st century and beyond. Due to the global engagement with advanced. Editors: Banerji, Debashish, Paranjape, Makarand R. (Eds.)

Sri Aurobindo. Pondicherry, India: Ashram Press. Aurobindo, S. (1963) (1974). In: P. B. Saint-Hilaire (Ed.) The future evolution of man. The divine life upon earth. Twin Lakes, WI: Lotus Press. Bhagavad ...
Posthumanism is required to develop daily ethics of living based on an integral investment of its post-anthropocentric premises. The notion of spirituality helps us answer these questions, as it dramatically broadens our understanding of the posthuman, allowing us to investigate not only technical technologies (robotics, cybernetics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, among others), but also, technologies of existence.
Critical Posthumanism and Planetary Futures Editors Debashish Banerji (1) California Institute of Integral Studies Makarand R. Paranjape (2) Professor of English, Jawaharlal Nehru University Professor of English Authors 

Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) envisioned the exceeding of human limits in an ... us intoposthuman subjects through an independent destining, beyond our will.

Some of these thinkers were Henri Bergson, the philosopher of creative evolution, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the thinker of the noosphere, and Sri Aurobindo, ...

https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=1317809424
Jyotirmaya Tripathy, ‎Sudarsan Padmanabhan - 2014 - ‎Preview - ‎More editions Upendra Baxi, Human Rights in a Posthuman World, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007; Manoranjan Mohanty, Partha Nath Mukherji and Olle Tornquist ... Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, Pondicherry: Sri AurobindoAshram, 1962. 8.

A POT CALLS THE KETTLE BLACK - *Shawn Otto* posts (9 October) on *Scientific American* HERE https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-plan-to-defend-against-the-war-on-science/ He descr...

Savitri Study Camp 19-06 “The Intermediate Zone” - There are powers and energies hidden in this intermediate zone between gross Matter and the ground of pure Spirit. It is here that the sadhaka can easily...

Why the study of religion shouldn’t be about studying religion - My undergraduate degree was in sociology and geography, with a focus on urban studies. That world often seems far away … Continue reading →

Understanding the Limitations of the Fixed Yet Confused Action of the Lower Nature - As we examine the issues that surround the attempt to exceed and transcend the limitations of the lower nature, we find that the action of body-life-mind i...

Selfless service scenario that Srinivasan anticipates - M.S. Srinivasan (Editor, Fourth Dimensions, Pondichery) has contributed a paper titled, "Business and Society: A Multidimensional Perspective" to SAMSMRITI...

Fate and Fury in The Aeneid - The Aeneid is a book about fate. This is a different kind of fate from what we see in Greek mythology, which is as inexorable as it is meaningless. Here th...

- In the Spectator, a discussion of the scholars who support the Trumpista *Gemeinschaft*. academics who are at the top of their fields, such as the philoso...

Song of the Sun God - Surya, Sun God Surya Savitri, Creator and Increaser - Sri AurobindoSri Aurbindo teaches the significance of Surya Savirti – the Sun God – in his book The S... 





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Selfless service scenario that Srinivasan anticipates

M.S. Srinivasan (Editor, Fourth Dimensions, Pondichery) has contributed a paper titled, "Business and Society: A Multidimensional Perspective" to SAMSMRITI – The SAMS Journal (Vol. 10(2), July – December 2016, Bangalore).

Here are a few extracts:

[But to realize fully the moral and spiritual potential of ideals like ethics, social responsibility or sustainability they have to be pursued for their own sake, as a selfless service for the well being and progress of the larger whole of life. But if we pursue these ideals with an eye on some pragmatic gains it not only diminishes their uplifting, evolutionary potential but also restricts their material results.]

[Globalization is making us aware of the unity, interdependence and connectedness of our economic life. But all these unities are the outer manifestation of a deeper and inner unity of the human and terrestrial life at the psychological and spiritual level of our being. Our bodies are part of the universal physical energies of nature. Our individual bodies are linked together with the bodies of all others, human and non-human, material, biological and animal.]

[We also know that whatever we do or give for the well-being and progress of others or the whole ultimately returns to us manifold enriching our own well-being. Similarly all hurt or violence we inflict on others or the larger whole also returns upon us. Ultimately, all the higher and broader ideals emerging in the corporate world like ethics, social and ecological responsibility or globalization, to realize their highest potential have to be based on the perception of this integral unity of all life. All our actions have to be a movement towards a progressive attainment of our inner being and outer life to this inescapable law of unity.]

Elsewhere, he has been writing on allied themes, regularly:

Corporation as a Community – M.S. Srinivasan - A business organization is undoubtedly a part of the economic life of the community. But it is not exclusively an economic entity; it is also a social org...]

The Roots of Race and Other Prejudices – M.S. Srinivasan - In a country which thinks itself to be the greatest champion of democracy, and quite often pontificates on democracy from a pedestal of superiority to othe...]

Building Corporate Integrity - Moral force cannot be confirmed merely by ideas, it can only be forged and tempered in the workshop of action. –Sri Aurobindo The modern corporate world as...]

The Next Step in Evolution: Superman or a Supermachine – M.S. Srinivasan - “Good bye Humans: Are we creating the engines of our own demise”… this is the title of a special issue of an Information Technology magazine. Such thinking...]

While the "selfless service" scenario that Srinivasan anticipates may seem remote at the moment, we have theoretical justification for it from another wizard of words, Debashish Banerji:

[But one may conceive of an organ of Knowledge in which multiple descriptions of Reality can all be equally true and simultaneous experiences. This is what Sri Aurobindo calls Supermind. (INTEGRAL PSYCHOLOGY – THEORIZING ITS DISCIPLINARY BOUNDARIES: A TALK AT THE CULTURAL INTEGRATION FELLOWSHIP, SAN FRANCISCO, 2008) http://www.sciy.org/?p=1774 in Praxis by debbanerji January 6, 2010]

Thus, we obviate all practical difficulties in the way of achieving a life of harmony upon earth. [TNM55]

Misc. References:

https://voiceofindia.me/.../contemporary-challenges-facing-hindu-society... and beyond, across India. It draws its inspiration from the likes of Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and Chanakya and promises to overturn the long-held accepted…

@Bharata_Bharati Without clearly defining what exactly "Vivekananda, Aurobindo, and Chanakya" represent, Sen seems to rely on empty rhetoric

Habermas, Taylor, Gregory, and Milbank - Many thinkers and authors don't become much famous during their lifetime but their writings become widely known afterwards. The name of Kierkegaard comes t... 

Fate and Fury in The Aeneid - The Aeneid is a book about fate. This is a different kind of fate from what we see in Greek mythology, which is as inexorable as it is meaningless. Here th...

Examswatch-7 hours ago
The proposal made in March this year detailed how VEB would contribute to the Indian education system by providing a blend of human education of Aurobindo, ...

Business Standard-7 hours ago
There are some prominent tourist spots as well to explore, like the Paradise and Auro beaches, the Aurobindo Ashram, and the Boat House. Reaching ...

The Hans India-18 hours ago
Author of the best-selling 'HR Can Win' (Excel Books, New Delhi) and currently Vice-President (HR) at Aurobindo Pharma Ltd in Hyderabad, Dr Kumar's book is ...

Daily Nation-14 hours ago
... poet Rabindranath Tagore and spiritual leader Sri Aurobindo are there, as are the sub-continent's independence fighters, Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohammed ...

«There is still no consensus on whether any of these signs can be treated as reliable “signatures” of consciousness.» http://t.co/XNwLnECRnZ

Are we in the thrall of scientific professionals more than ever before? asks Rakesh Kalshian https://t.co/3DQvGjPanQ #science #blog https://t.co/kH1UBNLmVW

OUPblog (blog) 
some of today’s most eminent atheist philosophers, notably Thomas Nagel, OUP author of Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False (2012). As his subtitle reveals, Nagel’s worry is less about the science and more about its supposed religious-cum-metaphysical implications, namely that Darwin plunges us into a hateful world without value and meaning. This kind of worry is shared by many students of the history of evolutionary theory, and–




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