November 22, 2012

Happy harmony of Vedic vision and Evolution

Hitch your wagon to evolution by Tusar N. Mohapatra
Periodical elections keep the engines of news industry moving which provides a form of entertainment as well as a sense of participation to large sections of people. So much so that local issues are often overshadowed by ideological dichotomies operating at the national level. Anna Hazare and Kejriwal are apt examples of how Jantar Mantar can turn someone a national figure within a short span of time. But the sorry spectacle of splintering of the erstwhile Team Anna is due to lack of a coherent intention or direction.
Against this backdrop, the work of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo in repackaging the civilizational perspective of India for a wider global application procures prominence. Although many of their pet themes such as popularization of Sanskrit and inculcating poetic sensibility are patently impractical at present, some key ideas like the East-West integration or Free-Progress system of education, nevertheless, are doable propositions. Further, their endeavor of embedding all pursuit of excellence within the overall trajectory of evolution echoing the Vedic quest for light and immortality imparts meaning and profundity to ordinary human wants and action.   
This is where spirituality supersedes morality. Morality is surely a force and a chief ingredient of our social capital but has uncertain effectiveness and a high rate of mortality. The spiritual path of hitching the wagon to evolution, on the contrary, is a more dependable and enduring method of ensuring honesty and creating a largely ethical environment. The Science of Living enunciated by The Mother is a potent formulation involving depth psychology that awakens the spiritual dimension in our day to day lives. This shows why and how right pedagogy should find adequate space within the realm of power struggle and politics. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 9:32 AM Tuesday, November 06, 2012 Labels: Anna HazareEvolutionKejriwalSri AurobindoThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Fighting colonialism as well as resisting revivalism was twin challenges before Sri Aurobindo as a writer a century ago. Conscious of his task of fashioning a synthesis, he handled his wide ranging subjects with utmost sympathy. In his commentaries on ancient Indian texts, his fidelity is matched by the profundity he furnishes. Not averse towards modern science and philosophy, he accomplishes a happy harmony of Vedic vision and Evolution.
The Mother & Sri Aurobindo stand for universality. The present political situation in India – howsoever fragmented it may be – can’t afford to evince as provincial or parochial. Neither the Nehruvian nor the Hindutva worldview can be counted as appropriate for India at the moment. Rather, the 1947 Five-Dreams broadcast should be considered as the right saviour. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 4:11 PM Wednesday, November 14, 2012 Labels: HindutvaManushiNehruThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Tweets 30m - Savitri Era Party @SavitriEraParty The followers of Sri Aurobindo can grow a critical mass to influence the politics of the country provided they forego intellectual hedonism. 58m Che or Hu, a firm commitment to an ideology is the key. 1947 Five Dreams Manifesto provides a futuristic road-map for India and the World. 1h Right moment to get rid of the dynasty and other nasty personality cults. Neither Anna nor Kejriwal, adopting an honest ideology is the way. 1h Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo imparts the right intellectual muscle to judge complex political and economic currents circulating in the world. 1h Sri Aurobindo's teaching constitutes an essential feature today for enduring power and nation building. No other ideological glue is safer. 1h Congress accommodated Leftist scholarship to look respectable but RSS banished Sri Aurobindo's illuminating vision from its curriculum.
4h - Savitri Era Party @SavitriEraParty - @alok_bhatt @rsyashasvi In commentaries on ancient Indian texts, his fidelity is matched by the profundity he furnishes  View conversation 4h Fighting colonialism as well as resisting revivalism was twin challenges before Sri Aurobindo as a writer a century ago. 4h Neither the Nehruvian nor the Hindutva worldview can be counted as appropriate for India at the moment. 5 Nov Rely on Sri Aurobindo, and not on Naipaul, for "rediscovering and questioning every received wisdom" about Indian history and culture. 4 Nov Sri Aurobindo was a rebel & stayed so till he breathed his last. Savitri Erans are envoys of Unity, Mutuality & Harmony. Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 10:21 PM  Wednesday, November 14, 2012 Labels: AurovilleChanakyaCheHindutvaManushiNaipaulNehruSriAurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Tweets 1h - Savitri Era Party @SavitriEraParty The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have inaugurated a new epoch to break free from the shackles of the past and its prohibitions. #SiddhiDay Victory 1h Freedom of thought & intelligence not only fosters Democracy & Markets but also fights superstition & propels emancipatory social practices. 1h The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have a vision for India that embodies Knowledge, Power, Harmony, and Perfection and is worthy of true Leadership. 1h Tailor made careers & doctored aptitude profiles are civilisational hazards the repercussions of which are toxic for the nation. #SiddhiDay 2h Apart from self-management insights, The Mother & Sri Aurobindo infuse a thought revolution in consonance with evolution of consciousness. 2h The Mother & Sri Aurobindo offer the best opportunity to confront our ignorant views and anomalous theoretical undergirdings that we harbour. 2h The Mother & Sri Aurobindo unveil an integral perspective transcending narrow parochial barriers and naive nationalism. Darshan Day on 24th. 2h Calling upon Engineers to allow The Mother & Sri Aurobindo to re-engineer their lives' priorities so that their full potential blossoms. 3h Darshan Day on 24th. May young Indians mobilise motivation to discover The Mother & Sri Aurobindo for transforming their lives and the world. 20 Nov Kejriwal's new party too runs the risk of becoming 'another Hindu Mahasabha or another Congress.' Only Sri Aurobindo gives a new direction. 20 Nov Kasab brings to mind how the Congress ignored Sri Aurobindo's fervent appeal for accepting the Cripps' Proposal in 1942 leading to Partition. 20 Nov On November 24, 1926 Sri Aurobindo had attained Siddhi of realising Overmind truth. Thousands of letters written thereafter is worth reading. 20 Nov It's Sri Aurobindo who uncovers Indian wisdom in its purity and heralds it's world-conquering mission as part of evolution of consciousness. 20 Nov Sir Stafford Cripps immediately replied by a telegram. Sri Aurobindo also appealed to C. Rajgopalachari to “save India” 20 Nov Battle the forces of casteism, illiberalism, and injustice. 18 Nov Sri Aurobindo is still a marginal figure in academia. Sri Aurobindo is neglected as literary critic. 17 Nov McTaggart, Nussbaum, Adorno, Levinas, Laruelle, Heidegger, Wilber, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. 16 Nov - @iac007 @MovementIAC Time to bring Sri Aurobindo to the front & be guided by his 1947 Five-Dreams broadcast. Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 9:11 PM Thursday, November 22, 2012 Labels: CongressHindu MahasabhaKejriwalThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sociological interrogation of the legacy of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is definitely an urgency. 1914, 1926, 1956, and 1968 have engendered a plethora of prescriptions with conflicting and confusing signals that are surely burdensome for any individual. Further, surviving institutions are certainly not in the shape that the Masters would have liked them to be for piloting a predominantly collective yoga. And hence, any lifestyle paradigm receiving tacit endorsement may be suspect. One safe guiding principle, however, is that the past and its methods can never be the final touchstone for the pathways of the future. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 10:13 AM Saturday, November 17, 2012 Labels: McTaggartThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

When it comes to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga, one feels like Condoleezza Rice remarking “The fact of the matter is I've been black all my life. Nobody needs to tell me how to be black.[125]” Like Socrates’ "examined life,” The Mother’s stress on avoiding the misery of an “aimless life” is perhaps the most basic rule for an aspirant. For a major stretch in life, however, many mistake earning livelihood for the aim although the profession provides the opportunity for flowering of talent, nurturing creativity, and moulding of subjectivity. The resultant individuality, identity, and social mobility, however, do exert a mesmerizing effect whereby the chance of coming face to face with choosing an aim or confronting one’s own real self head on is always deferred. Drawing satisfaction from some substitute as compensation is, of course, forced by subsistence compulsions.
Traditional canons of conduct conveniently contain predominantly direct correspondence between ethical life and action and liberation. But non-linear Integral Yoga Ontology and its spiral evolution paradigm is more prone to post-modernist rapprochement with tentativeness, contingency, and uncertainty of interpretation. This is no logic to condone misconduct (for, the elephant is Brahman and so is the mahut) but the paramountcy of context is never emphasized more elsewhere. The tenet, All life is Yoga, therefore, assumes unprecedented significance against this backdrop. Like the Shatadala or a Sahasra-bahu (called Saas-bahu erroneously in colloquial fashion) temple, the interdependence, interconnection, and economy within a collectivity is thrown into sharp relief. Integral Yoga, thus, is no uniform potion; but rather an arena for experimenting with life along the known tracks and with notions yet unpracticed. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 6:56 PM Sunday, November 18, 2012 Labels: Condoleezza RiceIntegral YogaSri AurobindoThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

It’s not without significance that Sri Aurobindo Ashram came into being in 1926 in the wake of Swarajya Party in 1923 and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Communist Party of India in 1925. Despite all disclaimers, establishment of a commune is a palpable political act by which the inmates, not only stay insulated against unwanted ideological propaganda, but also become example of lived values thereby offering an alternative socio-cultural paradigm. But as we observe at the end of 2012, none of the aforesaid four streams inspire confidence so far as the future of humanity is concerned.
Technological breakthrough has brought about quantum leap in integrating thinking all over the globe but opinions remain as opposed as ever. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo, however, have asked for vigilant, constant, and unceasing aspiration for ushering inunity, mutuality, and harmony. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 6:56 PM Monday, November 12, 2012 Labels: CPIRSSSri Aurobindo AshramThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

The Mother’s proclamation of the descent of the Supramental in 1956 almost coincided with the sweeping post-Independence hopes of building a new India. But what we observe 56 years later is not a very encouraging scene on both the fronts. Despite the democratic pretensions, politics, media, education, and leisure are all hostage to a pervasive feudal culture. Instead of the Marxist angst and alienation, a celebratory engrossing with Heideggerian inauthenticity and trivia seems to be the order of the day. Commerce, of course, propels excellence as well as quality of life. Patronage for arts and creativity, too, are hinged to the invisible hand of market dynamics. Management of human affairs has climbed such macro levels that ordinary human beings have become inconsequential.  
Large scale money making through arms, drugs, vaccines, and trafficking etc. also have turned sophisticated avenues that employ cutthroat liaisoning and spying. Both Corporates and Governments are succumbing to such underworld machinations not to speak of non-State terror and arm-twisting. Even, many respectable ecological campaigns hide behind them murky tales of cooked up economics. Bioethical issues are compounding with the march of technology and media. So, coping up compulsions is perhaps driving people to cheap forms of entertainment and arenas of religious dumbing down. To sense something noble and inspiring within this cacophony, therefore, has surely become a self deluding task. But The Mother & Sri Aurobindo stay as the only fount of light and hope midst such oppressive despair. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 8:54 PM Thursday, November 15, 2012 Labels: HeideggerMarxSupramentalThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Heehs has made the word “hagiography” famous through his debut in national TV. So, the general assumption is that what is “non-hagiographic” is true, or at least, rational and credible. And if the writer happens to hail from the West, then he must be the most astute and exact while the rest have “vested interests.”
In four long years, we don’t find even four persons among the civil society to have read the book to judge it independently. Writing a review and committing oneself to a distinct view, of course, requires motivation as well as courage. But even then, many are likely to miss the bone of contention that it’s all about what Heehs has not explicitly written in the book. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 7:09 PM Friday, November 16, 2012 Labels: Peter HeehsThe Lives of Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

The firmness with which Sri Aurobindo refutes Nietzsche’s playful affirmation is a milestone in the history of human thought. For long, philosophy has been hostage to a science fiction style of writing or abstract painting. Happily, fatigue has set in and that epoch is fast coming to a close. Further, defending Marx, which was considered pivotal to theory, is no longer that sacrosanct. These are welcome developments but without Sri Aurobindo a satisfying ontological framework is difficult to put together. [TNM55]  Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 1:54 AM Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Labels: HegelHeinrich HeineKantManushiMartin LutherNietzscheSri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

The Life Divine commenced on July 18, 1912 and hence it’s the Centenary year, in a way. The book has not been sufficiently combed by competent analysts and commentators as yet as it should have been but the ontological ground it defends against sophisticated harking back to dominant and fashionable strands of philosophy is priceless. To that extent, it’s tantamount to a political testament as well. This splendid isolation explains the allergy of the Hindutva brigade for Sri Aurobindo and matching impatience of the Leftists for him.
The West, too, is envious of his magnum opus and strives to ignore and eclipse it. Academicians feel safe by labeling it under religion out of lethargy. Thinking theologians of all hues are jealous of the coherence of its content but fear its hegemony. But the synthetic cosmology that The Life Divine sets forth is a sure guide for unification of mankind and congealing harmony. [TNM55]     Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 9:43 PM Monday, November 05, 2012 Labels: HindutvaKarnadKen WilberLeftistLevi BryantMartha NussbaumMuslimsNaipaul,NaturalismOOOThe Life Divine Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

Sri Aurobindo’s name underwent many metamorphoses during his lifetime. From stark anonymity to a slew of pseudonyms and acronyms, his experimentation ended with his signing as Sri Aurobindo sans any surname or caste identity. His works, understandably, have been published under that name and, ordinarily, he is referred to as so. But there are certain types of people who are intolerant of his adding Sri to his name and are always eager to geld it. The Sri to them is a canopy of fundamentalism that smacks of unjustified superiority, thus threatening secular sensibilities.
The fact is that no one can help in this matter as Sri Aurobindo is no more and can’t be questioned as to why he wanted to retain his name this way. So, the minimum one can do is not to distort his name by eclipsing Sri. In book indexes too he should appear under the alphabet S and not A or G as Sri is not an honorific here but an integral part of his name. Sri Aurobindo is yet to receive the prestige he deserves as a poet and a thinker and hence the need to resist the snatching away of his Sri. [TNM55]  Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 4:47 PM Tuesday, November 13, 2012 Labels: HinduismSri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India 

The methodological quandary has been a constant companion of man since millennia and no possible remedy for it is in sight. Despite their exhaustive writings, The Mother & Sri Aurobindo – let’s face it – have not left behind some firm opinion on any specific topic. So, one must be extremely circumspect while recommending a slice of their prescriptions or endorsing its splice with some other formulation.
Internet has greatly facilitated availability of texts, but just because something is written, it can’t be taken at its face value. The content, by itself, is no assurance of truth or commensurate performance. Religious texts have existed for thousands of years but what we find in the society at present is sham and scams. Yoga or spirituality, if ineffective to refine the collective life, then will be accused of collusion or escapism. Heehs imbroglio has been instrumental in spreading the fragrance of Sadhana in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry from Columbia to Cambodia. It’s shameful that Dr. Karan Singh remains the Chairman of Auroville Governing Board for next four years. [TNM55] Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 3:03 PM Friday, November 02, 2012 Labels: AmbedkarAurovilleFoucaultHeideggerHusserlThe Mother and Sri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India Home

A great day as the focus is on Sri Aurobindo by influential right wing. We agree with Gaurav’s criteria barring the last point in which he sidetracks web based offerings. As one who has been at the receiving end of many rebuffs for urging people to take the socio-political philosophy of Sri Aurobindo seriously, the web is a great empowering tool with vast potentiality of making minds meet. Street politics may be the flavour of the season, but ultimately it's words and opinions which will matter. Savitri Era Party looks forward to the day of such enlightened politics being ushered in. [TNM55]   Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 6:12 PM No comments: Links Friday, November 02, 2012 Labels: ChanakyaNehruSavitri Era PartySri Aurobindo Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

For a couple of years, Blogs were a rage and hence followed multi-pronged flurry at sabotage. FacebookTwitterLinkedIn, and sundry social media and networking ventures cropped up to compete. Most mainstream publications also renamed their features as Blogs. The individual voice was drowned amid the surfeit of sites mechanically reproducing news and sales props. However, the utility of Blogs will ensure their longevity albeit with dwindled popularity.
Another threat is disproportionate flood of videos and photographs which devalue the reading material. Overemphasizing graphics and designing too seduces the eyes elsewhere. Modified version for mobiles or tablets robs the Blogs of their unique charm and some outreach arms. Country-based URL is a prelude to restricted circulation and diminished distribution. But the lure of freedom and free publishing will continue to draw new entrants to etch their speech for future generations. [TNM55]   Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 9:27 PM Tuesday, November 20, 2012 Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India

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