October 22, 2010

Feeling of superiority is simply a statement of facts

George Nakashima was inspired by Shaker furniture By Anonymous 1:10 AM Friday 22 October 2010
There is always lots to be learned from anyone leading a pursuit of perfection.
Indians and devotees of various ashrams here, (incl. Sri Aurobindo Ashram/Auroville), have something to learn from them. Leaving alone for a moment the claim that our God and knowledge is greater than everybody's, and we have all the answers to save and change the world (give these glorious and ancient benefits of ours a rest for sometime to enable to rejuvenate themselves), and learn something else even if it is funny. Funnily these communities do not proclaim anything or superiority and work quietly, which is what is best.
[Some people never learn anything because they understand everything too soon.   - Alexander Pope]

Posted by Gopal on August 22, 2008 at 8:30 pm ... Superiority Complex of "some" of devotees of Sri Aurobindo....
Dear All, Thanks a lot for Guiding me through the T & A, post. Barin dada drew our attention towards the self-righteousness, a sense of social dignity, and ego-consciousness, which is a shadow of the individual aspect of the Supreme. here i guess i need to discuss something which i have been observing with many of my fellow devotees of The Mother and The Master. there are some people among us who feel very superior over the others because they are the followers of Sri Aurobindo, or for practicising Integral Yoga. They even go to an extent that they will announce the rest of the teachings, or philosophies are myth. some even tend to propagate the Masters vision like missionaries, though i have come across some words of The Master and The Mother to not to do so. they even like to overpower others beliefs...
the other one is a sort of egoistic statement. i am a follower of Sri Aurobindo, and i am following a philosophy which is beyond all the philosophies so far....on the surface it may not seem like an egoistic statement, but in the core what lurks is...i am superior than the rest...is this a right attitude? what The Mother and Master have said about such an attitude? — 3 Comments (Add

 Comment by Barindranath Chaki
Dear Gopal, it is a good question. The ideas in this regard which are in your mind definitely need a solution. But before answering this question, I may be questioning myself, as to whether I am committing the same mistake when I am answering you. Because, I am certain that what i am going to present here is perfectly true and correct, but when I am presenting them before you, one may have the impression that I am stating and emphasizing my statements in an egoistic way, or in a missionary way [two are different things].
In all that you have told, there are several things. I am touching them one by one.

The Teaching of Sri Aurobindo, if we analyze rationally and philosophically, is a TURNING POINT in the history of all human endeavours. All philosophies are surpassed by Him, especially, because it is a great Synthesis. All previous thoughts and realizations of true value and worth are synthetized by Sri Aurobindo. None of the previous Realizations are left by Him. He opposes nothing. Nobody opposes Him, philosophically. But each of the previous teachings and discoveries [spiritual or philosophical] form a part in His Synthesis. So, naturally, when you find what Sri Aurobindo has taught us is the most unique and most universal Realization, you have the idea that He has surpassed all other things, all other teachings, and therefore all religions!
And when I will say that, one may have the Idea that I am having a feeling of superiority. But no! That is simply a statement of facts. What Sri Aurobindo has said to us is a New Truth — the truth about a New and Higher plane of Consciousness, the Supramental Consciousness, which will solve all the human problems. But that will be done only when we are ready for that. If we, the followers, think that His Teaching is just one of many Teachings, His discovery is one of the many discoveries, then we are mistakes! His truth is the final truth, at this moment. It has to be accepted and followed. Or else, we will meet ABYSS.
The Mother has told us: Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.
When They [The Mother and sri Aurobindo] have brought the Truth and the New Consciousness and Force on earth, They have also chosen some persons as Their instruments, bigger or smaller. And Their forces are active though those instruements! And Some of the instruments feel their Work to be a Mission. So thay are often forced to take a missionary spirit. That is different from Ego. Ego or egoistic attitude is definitely bad, as it will lead nowhere. And our task is to go ahead. Hence, we shall have a clear understanding, a clear vision and a straight march ahead! Barin Chaki 22-08-08 11-14 PM. 8:57 AM, 9:34 AM 

October 19, 2010

It's the tea which drinks the man

"Kelly's central thesis is this: technology has its own internal logics and rhythms that are distinct from (and sometimes adverse to) the desires of the humans that create it. Technology creates itself, using humans to do its bidding, and our normal view of inventors creating technology is a kind of romantic fairy tale that ignores the fact that nearly every great invention is invented nearly simultaneously by many people at the same time, all over the world."

Animism, Frankenstein and the Biblical injunction against creating life led to the dawn of robotic warfare
Here's social scientist Naho Kitano in Animism, Rinri, Modernizationp; the Base of Japanese Robotics (pdf)
The sun, the moon, mountains and trees each have their own spirits, or gods. Each god is given a name, has characteristics, and is believed to have control over natural and human phenomena. This thought has continued to be believed and influences the Japanese relationship with nature and spiritual existence. This belief later expanded to include artificial objects, so that spirits are thought to exist in all the articles and utensils of daily use, and it is believed that these sprits of daily-use tools are in harmony with human beings.
In the West, in contrast, creating life inevitably leads to destruction of the creator -- a notion that is hardly original to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as author Rui Umezawa points out.
In order to understand fully religion's influence on the West's attitude toward robotics, we also must remember that Judeo-Christian monotheism also adheres to the doctrine that only God can give life, a popular interpretation of Genesis in which there is only God in the beginning and all living things are His creations. Exodus also decrees that idolatry is a sin. Thus, any human who breathes life into an inanimate object is assuming the role of God and thereby becoming a false idol. Such a blasphemer deserves punishment, and in the conventions of science fiction, this usually comes in the form of betrayal by the robots. From the 1920 work R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Czech playwright Karel Čapek - who is credited with coining the term "robot" -- through The Terminator movies to Battlestar Galactica, such human vanity is constantly met by rebellion by its creation.
In a feedback loop initiated by these preconceptions, culture influences not only the perception of robots, but also the design of robots created by Japanese and American engineers. 

Crystal. Such a state, while static and outside of time, nevertheless changes, and here we will employ the term used by Whitehead, ‘advance’, for this sort of development which occurs in states which seem to be outside of standard forms of time. Quantum potentials advance because the size of the spacetime area in which a particle may actualize increases over time. In this sense, the smeared area of spacetime, or the smearing of the particle as potential in spacetime, increases over time as percieved outside the potential in question. As a spacetime potential expands as it advances, each new added area, and the time associated with it, recalibrates the entire set of probabilities within the quantum potential, both forwards and backwards in time, and if we think of separate paths off the most direct ones as sideways, then we can say in many directions in spacetime at once.
This is why some researchers have referred to this sort of time as spatial, while others have put forth a fractal model to describe such phenomenon, and both describe aspect of what is at work in quantum potentials. We will describe this sort of spacetime, following Gilles Deleuze, as crystalline. For like a crystal, a quantum potential grows from a germ, namely, a quantum event which emits a potential. The potential then grows, in all spacetime directions, in a manner which is both determined by that germ and the medium, or context, within which that germ finds itself, as well as some degree of randomness. As exponents of the fractal metaphor have argued, it seems that quantum potentials exhibit fractal properties at multiple levels of scale, similar to the manner in which cells of a crystal repeat at multiple levels of scale. As with crystals, as quantum potentials advance, they increase in spacetime area in a manner in which each new increment is mediated by the shape of the crystal as a whole, and this is due to the fractal iterative structure  at work in both part and whole. As with holographs, the whole is represented, if in mediated form, within each of the parts, in a manner similar to the iterative nature of crystals. And just as light is refracted when it enters a crystal according to the manner in which the whole is enfolded in its parts, so it is that the whole of a quantum potential is enfolded in all the parts (otherwise it could not advance at its edges), if differently and more intensely at some points than others, thereby leading to the refraction of probability states in a manner analogous to that of light. It is in this manner that quantum potentials advance in a crystalline manner, even if they do so in a manner which exceeds traditional definitions of space and time.

October 18, 2010

One aspect of Sri Aurobindo's doctrine is Providential

Like every other philosopher, Sri Aurobindo develops his own conceptual language. Getting used it takes time and attention. I had to finish almost first hundred pages before I could start appreciating the literary beauty of his genius. ...
I have, in the past, described one aspect of Aurobindo Ghose's doctrine as Providential. Here is a passage in Aurobindo's brilliant epic Savitri that shows just what I am pointing at (book one, canto four): ...
We work to provide assistance to scholars and researchers who are interested in the lives and works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and accordingly we ...
5 weeks down.. - Auroville - Auroville, India - Living Routes
I can't believe we've already been here for 5 weeks! It feels like I just got here, but it feels like I've been here forever as well. ...
Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra: Birthday Reflections By Debidatta Aurobinda Mahapatra
I like to mention here that since childhood, I am avid follower of Sri Aurobindo. In fact I learnt about him from my mother, who is also his follower. I read a lot about his philosophy and ideals, and I sincerely try to emulate them. ...
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Why would you edit anybody’s work?": To Sunil:
You ask: “Why would you edit anybody’s work?”

Before I can answer that question, my question to you is, have you ever been involved in the work, process or business of editing? I sincerely doubt it, because you demonstrate very scant knowledge in the domain of editing literary material. But before that, do you even know the meaning of editing?
In case you don’t, here is the definition of the word Edit from the Merriam-Webster dictionary:
- to prepare (as literary material) for publication or public presentation.
- to alter, adapt, or refine especially to bring about conformity to a standard or to suit a particular purpose.

If you are capable of understanding the above definition, you may also understand that none of Sri Aurobindo’s (or for that matter any author’s) works could have been published if they were not edited by someone. And whenever new information or material related to an author’s literary material is found, a new and different edition of that author’s literary work is the inevitable outcome.

So there is absolutely nothing surprising, scandalous, sacrilegious, wrong or evil if two editions of Sri Aurobindo’s works are not exactly identical, and it is even better when those changes represent Sri Aurobindo’s original writings even more faithfully.

Now, if you want us to believe that some people are deliberately “tampering” with Sri Aurobindo’s works because they have an Evil or Diabolical plan led by some Jeffrey Kripal and that they are doing so with the full connivance of the Ashram’s authorities, and that you think that you are one of those enlightened, pure and devoted souls that knows more and is more sincere than all those who are involved in the editing of Sri Aurobindo’s works, then any sane person would advise you to go to Dr. Alok Pandey (the shrink) and join his army of Light and Truth. You would be in perfect company. And I don’t think that the reason for which many people believe that you are hallucinating needs any explanation.

As for myself, given that people like yourself, Dr. Alok Pandey, and a few others have monopolized all that is Divine and True, all one can do is to wish all of you a quick recovery. All the best! A.A.D. Posted by Anonymous to Savitri Era Open Forum at 3:30 PM, October 18, 2010

October 08, 2010

Sri Aurobindo stands out distinctly among the Hindu Renaissance leaders for his unique Western upbringing

How do morals change? - [PDF] from yale.edu P Bloom - Nature, 2010 - nature.com
Satprem's book "Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness" (1996-2003, translated from 1970 French by Michel Danino) is relevant here in its connection between levels of human consciousness called the vital, the psyche and so on, as gleaned from spiritual ...
Introduction: Exploring Possibilities for a New Paradigm 
SS Nandram, ME Borden - Spirituality and Business, 2010 - Springer
One of the dominant Eastern perspectives that is useful for understanding spirituality hails from Sri Aurobindo. Insights ... Sri Aurobindo describes many steps in the transformation process of which there are two main levels. The ... 
Applying an integral perspective to business strategy: A case study ME Borden - Spirituality and Business, 2010 - Springer
What is Integral Philosophy? Integral Philosophy stems from the teachings of the sage and visionary, Sri Aurobindo and his female counterpart, The Mother. ... Sri Aurobindo uses the term Inner Being to describe this innermost divine aspect or Essence. ...
An other view of integral futures: De/reconstructing the IF brand - 
[PDF] from rmit.edu.au JM Gidley - Futures, 2010 - Elsevier
integral futures approach. I discussed my research drawing on Rudolf Steiner, Jean Gebser and Sri Aurobindo as well as Wilber, including disseminating to them a final draft of a paper which was later published [16]. Given this ...
DHARMA: THE OVERRIDING PRINCIPLE OF INDIAN LIFE AND THOUGHT 
SR Bhatt - Applied Ethics and Human Rights: Conceptual …, 2010 - books.google.com
In its constitutive facet it is the 'Law of being', the 'deepest law of our nature', to use Sri Aurobindo's expressions.(Sri Aurobindo, 1959: 2 and 104) It constitutes the nature of a thing (svabhava) and its disposition (gun. a) and determines its karma. ...
The Complete Yoga 
J Ryan - Integral Education: New Directions for Higher Learning, 2010 - books.google.com
meaning of the word Integral as it is inflected in the Integral Philosophy and Integral Yoga of Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, who drew his central insights from the Indian sage Sri Aurobindo and from the ideas of Sri Aurobindo's spiritual partner Mirra Alfassa (referred to as The Mother. ... 
whom he had been searching for twenty five years. Her parents allowed Venkat to look after Kamala Reddy, her family name, at Sri Aurobindo's ashram in Pondicherry (Goodman 1998). She was there for four years until, due to ...
The Emergence and Characteristics of Integral Education - 
[PDF] from sunypress.eduS Esbjörn-Hargens, J Reams, O … - Integral Education: New …, 2010 - books.google.com
that find expression in contemporary schools, including those informed by the metaphysical perspectives of philosopher-sages like Rudolph Steiner (1965, 1967, 1983, 1997), Alfred North Whitehead (1929), Jiddu Krishnamurti (1912, 1953, 1974, 1975), and Sri Aurobindo. ...
Affective Communities: Anticolonial Thought, Fin-de-Siecle Radicalism, and the Politics of Friendship (review) 
P Roy - Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 2010 - muse.jhu.edu
and colonial engagement. Indeed, some of the same cast of characters -- CF Andrews, MK Gandhi, Oscar Wilde, George Orwell, Sri Aurobindo, Mirra Alfassa Richard--feature prominently in both works. Gandhi's text showcases ...
Impact of adoption of yoga way of life on the emotional intelligence of managers H Adhia, HR Nagendra, B Mahadevan - IIMB Management Review, 2010 - Elsevier
According to Sri Aurobindo (in Chakraborty & Chakraborty, 2008), 'The more complete the calm, the mightier the yogic power, the greater the force in action' (p 201). ... According to Sri Aurobindo, yoga and knowledge are the two wings of the soul's ascent. ...
Contemporary perspectives on spirituality and mental health - 
 from ijpm.infoP Sharma, R Charak, V Sharma - Indian Journal of Psychological …, 2010 - ijpm.info
reconcile men to the cruelty of fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for sufferings and privations which a civilized life in common had imposed on them." In a similar vein, leading spiritualist of the twentieth century, Sri Aurobindo [10] warned ...
Elements of the underacknowledged history of integral education 
M Molz, GP Hampson - Integral Education: New Directions for …, 2010 - books.google.com
Aurobindean Integral Education Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950), The Mother (1873–1973), Indra Sen (1903–1994), Haridas Chaudhuri (1913–1975) A further still-contemporary interpretation of integral education is that stemming from Aurobindo Ghose (Sri Aurobindo). ...
Postcolonial Translations - 
[PDF] from ufsc.br S Bassnett - 2010 - Wiley Online Library
Approaching from another angle in The Foundations of Indian Culture, which consists of four essays published between 1918 and 1921, the Indian scholar, nationalist, and sage, Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950), proposed a radical rethinking of the status of European writing in the ...
Integral Transformational Coaching 
WAJ Keizer, SS Nandram - Spirituality and Business, 2010 - Springer
Several philosophers such as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother state the importance of attention. Mindfulness is taught in coaching because of its enormous 130 WAJ Keizer and SS Nandram Page 3. ... This thinking hails from the work of Sri Aurobindo (1970). ...
New Self, New World: Recovering Our Senses in the Twenty-First Century 
P Shepherd - 2010 - books.google.com
and grace; it aligns us with the design of the divine intelligence of evolution itself, a design that has been made available to us, with majestic passion and preci- sion, in the divinely inspired works of great modern evolutionary mys- tics such as Sri Aurobindo, Jean Gebser ...
Dr. SR Ranganathan page: Dr. SR Ranganathan and Sri Aurobindo Ghose SR Ranganathan, SA Ghose - Information Studies, 2010 - indianjournals.com
SRR was of the view that the manager / administrator of a library should be aware and taking care of the little details of the library, but in taking decisions he/she should have a holistic total view of the library – goals and objectives, users, functions, staff, resources, techniques ...
ride the lower power, lower plane or lower source of vital and material fate of which the stars are indicators. (Sri Aurobindo, 1970, p.468) Page 3. Spring 2010 31 ... Piaget, J. (1976). The Child and Reality. New York: Penguin Books. Sri Aurobindo. (1970). Letters on Yoga. ...
[CITATION] Integral Theory in Action: Applied, Theoretical, and Constructive Perspectives on the Aqal Model 
S Esbjörn-Hargens - 2010 - State Univ of New York Pr
Leadership wholeness: a human resource development model T Thakadipuram - Human Resource Development International, 2010 - informaworld.com
Aurobindo, GS 1992. Letters on yoga. Pondicherry, India: Sri Aurobindo Society. Barrett, R. 1998. Liberating the corporate soul: Building a visionary organization. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann. Blankestein, AM, RW Cole, and PD Houston. 2007. ...
Theses On Michael Murphy And Esalen 
J Ogilvy - ReVision, 2010 - Revision Publishing
But that department was dominated by positivists like Patrick Suppes, who vowed “to bury the metaphysicians.” So in order to pursue his studies of the past, in preparation for a new future, Murphy traveled to India to study in an ashram founded by Sri Aurobindo. ... 
Rural Development Programmes: An Overview M Jain - Journal of Research: BEDE ATHENÆUM, 2010 - indianjournals.com
Sri Aurobindo said, "the villages are the cells of a human body. When every cell is healthy, the
body is healthy." Villages are the soul of India. A look at the trend ofpopulation figures since 1921 shows that India continues to be rural, even in the twenty first century. ...
Machiavellian Hindutva Untamed 
N Mohkamsing - Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, 2010 - informaworld.com
Part I is entitled 'Varieties of Nationalism' and has chapters on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's appropriation of Swami Vivekananda, spiritual universalism and cultural nationalism
in the work of Sri Aurobindo, the relationship between religious reform and Hindu ...
"The structure we find (in Sanskrit) is one of extraordinary initial simplicity and also of extraordinary scientific regularity of formation," writes Sri Aurobindo. [1] The arrangement of Sanskrit alphabets is called Varnmaalaa or the garland of phonemes. ... 1. Sri Aurobindo. ...
Leadership Among Spiritual Teachers 
CA Jones, W Mason - ReVision, 2010 - Revision Publishing
Sri Aurobindo describes the integration of the two processes quite eloquently. Mason: In the West, there is the idea that there is a goal to be achieved, a cut off point, for example, self-actualization. Our philos ...
Psychology & Developing - 
[PDF] from indianpsychology.org AK Dalal, G Misra - Psychology and Developing Societies, 2010 - indianpsychology.org
This wonder of existence is portrayed in the hymns of the Vedas, which attribute divinity to the striking aspects of nature (Radhakrishnan, 1953) and the human mind (Sri Aurobindo, 1939/2006). In the Vedic texts it was held that the universe has evolved out of One. ...
Invitation to Participate in Two Global Events with the Remedies Harmony and Samata 
S Lindemann, M Litchi-Grassi - Homoeopathic Links, 2010 - thieme-connect.com
KG. Invitation to Participate in Two Global Events with the Remedies Harmony and Samata. Sigrid Lindemann, Maggi Litchi-Grassi India. The first global event will take place on August 15th, the birthday of Sri Aurobindo. Those ...
Globally Scanning for 
JM Gidley - Futures, 2010 - Elsevier
examples of the features of the new consciousness based on almost two decades of transdisciplinary research provide a significant academic footnote to the extensive research on the evolution of consciousness undertaken by Rudolf Steiner xi and Sri Aurobindo some decades ...
Ayurveda education: A student's perspective - 
from nih.govNY Pathak - International Journal of Ayurveda Research, 2010 - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
An integral education, which could, with some variations be adapted to all the nations of the world, must bring back the legitimate authority of the spirit over a matter. Yet, knowledge of the matter must also be fully developed and utilized …" (The Mother at Sri Aurobindo Ashram). ...
Anita Roddick's Word Stretching: Conflating Philanthropy with Green Marketing 
J Takhar - Revue internationale de Psychosociologie, 2010 - cairn.info
which reinforces her enlightened inclusion of the Other, making her green consumer choices more internationalist, more meaningful in terms of what might be called “spiritual self-realisation” or “higher consciousness”[27] Sri Aurobindo calls this “supramentalism” in “The...  
The Indian Supreme Court and the quest for a 'rational'Hinduism R Sen - South Asian History and Culture, 2010 - informaworld.com

and quoting extensively from Aurobindo's writings as well as secondary sources, Justice RB Misra, writing for the majority, ruled 'there is no room for doubt that neither the Society nor Auroville constitutes a religious denomination and the teachings of Sri Aurobindo only his ... 
TRADITIONAL HINDU VIEWS AND ATTITUDES TOWARD CHRISTIANITY -  from globalmissiology.org AY Aghamkar - Global Missiology English, 2010 - ojs.globalmissiology.org
... Respect for the people of other faiths in journeying toward the Truth is encouraged. Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950). Aurobindo stands out distinctly among the Hindu Renaissance leaders for his unique Western upbringing. ...

Sri Aurobindo is like a mighty river

Sri Aurobindo and Freedom Movement Savita Ahuja, Lecturer in English, PMN College, Rajpura, India
Research paper presented in partial fulfilment of condition for submission of Doctoral thesis to Singhania University. International Journal of Educational Administration. ISSN 0976-5883 Volume 2, Number 2, (2010), pp. 191-193 © Research India Publications http://www.ripublication.com/ijea.htm
Sri Aurobindo is like a mighty river. His vision and genius have left indelible imprint on millions of Indians ... Sri Aurobindo moved in and out of Baroda frequently to organize political activities and resistance movement against the British. ...

From World Religions, Vol. 2 The Avatar: Hinduism's Christ By Dr. Young Oon Kim Those who criticize Hinduism for being other-worldly, life- negating and blind to the need for social reconstruction probably have never read the books of Aurobindo, one of modern India's two most celebrated philosophers of religion. …
Aurobindo sees man approaching a third stage of his evolutionary development. We have moved beyond the instinctive to the rational, but must now step higher to the "supermental." Man is at present ready to develop a spiritual, supra-intellectual, intuitive outlook - "a gnostic consciousness." He must exceed himself, divinize his whole being, become a superman.
Only a spiritualised society can bring about the crucial harmony between individual and communal happiness. Using familiar Christian language, Aurobindo calls for "a new kind of theoc- racy, the kingdom of God upon earth, a theocracy which shall be the government of mankind by the Divine in the hearts and minds of men. For such a new age the superman must live in the free light of the intellect, and breathe the fresh air of higher ideals. The age to come requires wide intellectual curiosity, a cultivated aesthetic taste and an enlightened will. Aurobindo carefully distinguished between what he hoped for and the ordinary Christian hope for the coming kingdom.

Sri Aurobindo describes the flow of conscious awareness and the role of memory as follows: “There is then in me this flowing stream of the world-sea, and anger or grief or any other inner movement can occur as a long-continued wave of ...

In 1914, she met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry and recognized him as the guide she had seen in her visions ten years ago. She was already an advanced spiritual practitioner at the time and naturally assumed that she would stay in ...

October 06, 2010

Infallibility of the seer-vision of the Avatar of the Supramental

(in two volumes) edited by: Matthijs Cornelissen, Girishwar Misra, & Suneet Varma, published by: Longman, Pearson Education, New Delhi. Volume I is available now; Volume II is scheduled to come out by the end of October.
Volume 1: Concepts and Theories
Karan Singh   Preface
Editors           Introduction
Aster Patel    The psychological perspectives of our times... Three shifts of a rhythm. For the contents, click here.
Indian Psychology: New Arrival : Foundations of Indian Psychology by देशराज सिरसवाल
On the Vedic symbolism in the light of Sri Aurobindo 5. Kundan Singh Beyond mind: The future of psychology as a science 6. John Pickering Indian psychological thought in the age of globalization. Section 2: Self and personality ...
It is Sethna’s characteristic that even in this most intellectual pursuit, the dissection of the vexed questions concerning the Harappa Culture, his inspiration is drawn from Sri Aurobindo. Repeatedly he returns to this fountain-head for sustaining his arguments, building firmly on his faith in the infallibility of the seer-vision of the Avatar of the Supramental. An implacable honesty is what places Sethna head-and-shoulders above scholars setting out to prove a preconceived thesis.
Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust does not Approve The Lives of Sri Aurobindo · Poetry Time: 25 September 2010—To be, or not to be ...
Tabla prodigy regaled with stories mins before show Times of India
Gopika, who settled down in Auroville with French companion Nadaka, asserts that Keshav has all the qualities required to become a successful artiste. ...
Gnostic Return in Modernity by Cyril O'Regan  - Jul 2001

October 05, 2010

Conflict resolution and creating a better world

Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and MD of Mahindra and Mahindra, has offered his alma mater, Harvard University, a $10- million endowment for its humanities centre. Mahindra, who graduated from the university with a degree in visual and environmental studies in 1977 and later from the Harvard Business School, told HT that in India, too, the focus of his philanthropy will to bolster the study of liberal arts.
Why did you decide on this endowment for Harvard? And why now? 

I have always been looking for a way to give back to the university. When I went as an undergraduate, I was not permitted any foreign exchange by the RBI so Harvard gave me a full scholarship. I have never forgotten that. To me, the undergraduate liberal arts degree was perhaps the most important part of my education. 
My mother passed away last year, and I was looking for some way to respect her memory. She was the quintessential Renaissance woman. I feel everyone needs a grounding in the humanities.

What does the centre plan to do with the grant? 
One way of giving is to be very focused on a specific India-related cause. However, I have intentionally chosen to contribute to a field that is universal, and which all students, regardless of their area of study, will benefit from. I would therefore hope that this gift will help show that India is not just concerned with parochial issues, but can give back, globally.
Why is a liberal arts education important? 
The humanities encompass a spectrum of disciplines. What it does is teach you not a particular skill or technology but to think and question. Conflict resolution and creating a better world do not come from an improved piece of software or a better engine or technology but from people who can break free from their rigid points of view.
Can a developing country like India afford to invest in the liberal arts over, say, vocational or job-oriented courses? 
I don’t think India can afford not to study the liberal arts. My greatest fear is that we will get carried away by India’s economic success and focus on those disciplines that have immediate financial returns. That’s why I’m glad there are benefactors planning to put up liberal arts universities. That is going to be the focus of my personal giving in India in the future: to bolster the study of liberal arts. 

Save Education from Academics 22 Nov 2005 by Dr. Anil Wilson. The Times of India, Saturday, June 15, 2002
That the Indian Brain is among the finest in the world is now an acknowledged fact. Alas the same cannot be said of the Indian Heart. How else can we explain the situation ...

October 01, 2010

Lecture on Ideals of the Republic from Ashoka to Sri Aurobindo by Prof. T. Ramakrishna

Lecture - Ideals of the Republic from Ashoka to Sri Aurobindo ...
Bangalore Events Date: 30 September 2010 From: www.buzzintown.com Venue: Indian Institute of World Culture, B P Wadia Road, Basavanagudi, Bangalore. Description: Prof. N.A. Nikam Memorial Endowment Lecture. Topic: 'Ideals of the Republic from Ashoka to Sri Aurobindo'. Speaker: Prof. T. Ramakrishna, Head, Department of Biotechnology and Bio-informatics. Dravidian University, Kuppam. Contact 26678581
That time belonged to sea-green, incorruptible supermen like V.V.S. Aiyar, Sri Aurobindo, Mohandas Kharamchand Gandhi, and Subramania Bharati. ...
Just for the record, my own personal 'favorites' are Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, and Sri Aurobindo - all of whom represent what we can call 'modern' Hinduism. ...
The work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in the twentieth century furthered our understanding of “the mind of the cells” in a supramental consciousness ...
Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), who had a strong influence on the development of the intellectual as well as practical aspects of yogic spirituality in the twentieth century, regarded envy and jealousy as emotions associated with a typically human, nondivine "way of vital love," which he characterized as a "way of ego and desire." Due to envy and jealousy that naturally accompany this type of love, and to the frustration that results when its demands are not met, the outcome is sorrow, anger, and disorder. For Aurobindo, envy and jealousy are destructive—though natural and typical— features of human nature. Aurobindo shares the classical Hindu yogic perspective that yo-gic discipline enables one to overcome envy and other vices.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Noticing the slant": 
I am not surprised at all. Paulette, inspite of all the flowery and decorative-emotional language on all the senior sadhaks, and Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, will not bat an eyelid when it comes BETRAYING the sadhaks and Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Be it known to all that she supports Peter and his book. Like most Westerners her loyalty is to the West. She is also deluded and caught by this ghost of East-West divide. This is an egoistic identification. And these senior sadhaks that she keeps ranting about, has she bothered to see how they lived and their loyalty to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? Would they ever insinuate an emotional/marital/sexual relationship PUBLICLY in writing between the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Those who support the book are all traitors even though they do not intend to be. Posted by Anonymous to Savitri Era at 10:26 PM, September 30, 2010