A
Factual Analysis on the Present Controversy Govardhan Dave December 1, 2012
The existing Religions or specifically the
Institutional Religions in the world had attempted to transform the Truth
revealed to some saints or prophets into an intricate theology or dogma with
concurrent rituals and codes of conduct. Moreover, they had insisted upon the
necessity for the faithful followers to ensure conformity of their behavior
with the prescribed standard or norms and had devised the complex mechanism of
reward and punishment to get things done. These Religions took up these Revelation as the
Absolute Truth, out of the sheer regard for the spiritual personalities, whom
people adored as Prophets. They gave it the status of the Absolute Truth, a
Truth beyond and besides which there is nothing. It was for them the final
message delivered by God to the humankind for its good, which should command
the unequivocal adherence of all humans.
This belief in the finality of the basic concepts
or ideals espoused by Religions encouraged the move for their horizontal
expansion, while inadvertently sidelining the vertical growth. This happened
because they regarded an aspect of Truth as the whole truth, which left no
scope for any other quest or for the quest beyond. This state of affairs
inculcated rigidity of approach, which eventually generated intolerance towards
differing views. It caused conflict between the different sects, which at times
had acquired criminal dimension. The agitating devotees of the Ashram while
exhibiting such intolerance in the present context have exposed fully their religionist
bias.
Eventually, these Religions lost their contact with
the genuine spiritual practice and promoted dichotomy of faith and reason,
which led to the division of the religious life, which belonged to the domain
of faith and the mundane one to the one of the reason. It created a scope for
hypocrisy since the two lives have to unavoidably coexist and interact with
each other. This state of affairs has generated the belief of an unbridgeable
gulf between Principles and Practice.
Moreover, because of the conformism promoted by
these Religions the emphasis on the inner spiritual quest or growth in
consciousness that is raison d’ etre of Spirituality was shifted to the
conformity of behavior with the preconceived standard. This paradigm shift
further instilled in the believers the faith in the efficacy of the prescribed
rituals giving credence to the externalist view and approach to life, which
made spirituality quite redundant. Thus, these Religions succeeded in
preserving the body of the Truth at the cost of its soul. And now we come across a move to corporatize the
Religious Institutions in order to make their working more effective as is done
in the professionally managed corporate establishments, and thus the Religions
are gradually being transformed into Mega-establishments dealing with the
so-called Spiritual Goods.
Thus, one would see that the source of inspiration
of these friends in their effort to reform the Ashram is not the teachings of
the Mother, but the Ideology subscribed by the prevalent Religious, Political
and Business or Industrial Establishments. However, this ideology has lost its
significance as far as further progress of Humanity is concerned, which
necessitates the spiritualization of life as such. This amounts to serving the
mission of the Mother like a legendary trader who would certainly worship his
God but would prefer to keep Him away from his routine life and business. This
approach found its support in the prevailing ideology, which took for granted
the rift between God and mundane life as the final truth of existence and
subscribed to the view that the earth and heaven would never meet.
These friends are thus unknowingly working to
perpetuate the old order of life while resurrecting the old mode of working,
which the Mother was and is attempting to transform. However, the mission she
has undertaken is not an easy task, since the old order, which has established
itself firmly in the life of humanity, would certainly offer its resistance
before it disappears and would make inroads to upset her work. It has made such
inroads in the Ashram through the medium of these devotees.
The prevalent mode of regulatory working with its
prescription of several external sanctions is in tune with the ill-conceived
notion of man as a self-centered mental being whose behavior needs a provision
to control him for his personal and social good. It became necessary because
man is very much prone to a variety of unruly and undesirable vital cravings,
the cravings of the lower vital being. It presumes distrust in the basic human
nature, which if left on its own would operate in the manner detrimental to his
existence and its progress. The present-day society and its Institutions are
subscribing knowingly or unknowingly to this faith while they remain busy in
devising and operating a variety of mechanisms to tame the legendary wild horse
in the interest of civilization and culture.
However, since the man in the very scheme of
things, or as it is said, his being in the process of evolution is required to
outgrow this state of consciousness for a greater destiny, there has arisen a
dire need for its change for which the Mother has been working. Her first step
in this direction was to initiate a new approach to organize and manage the
Ashram with an emphasis on freedom in thought and action in order to facilitate
inner governance with a view to create an opening for the influence of Higher
Consciousness in the actual working. It would not amount by any stretch of
imagination to being lax and chaotic or subscribing to the laissez-faire order
under the guise of freedom. This approach entails the sincerity of the purpose
and clarity of the aim to prepare man for the Divine Life on the earth, in view
of which it has departed from dogmatism and conformism for good. Thus, the
adherence of the trustees of this Ashram to this mode of working does not
amount to promoting or encouraging, much less to protecting and shielding any
libertine behavior as alleged by these friends.
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother
facilitated the process of surrender by adopting a laissez-faire approach
towards their disciples. Instead of pushing the disciples towards certain
goals, they would intervene only after the disciple became aware of ...
As I said, I took it simply as a caress to comfort
a child. But now I realize that the most important thing is not to have any
fixity: nothing should be set, definitive, like the sense of a perfection in
the realization – that means a dead stop in the march forward. The sense of
incapacity (with the meaning I said of mediocrity, of something by no means
exceptional) leaves you in a sort of expectation of something better. So then,
the most important thing is suppleness – suppleness. Suppleness and breadth:
reject nothing as useless or bad or inferior – nothing; set nothing up as
really superior and beautiful – nothing. Remain ever open, ever open.
When we look at the involution of Spirit into
Matter, and the subseequent evolution of Consciousness in successive stages out
of Matter to realize the spiritual ...
Given the intentional inscrutability and deliberate
obfuscation that the Sangh tends to practice in its communication, it will
never go on record admitting… Sangh vanguard, to put it charitably, practices a
bit of sophistry when they claim that they do not meddle in the political
affairs of BJP. I have observed Sangh for long, often with huge admiration at
their exemplary record of social service and purposeful patriotism but also
with consternation at their prejudiced pronouncements and regression in to some
kind of a secretive, Marathi Brahmin brotherhood… Victimhood narrative will
yield diminishing returns with aspirational middle India … Sangh has a unique
opportunity to embrace modernity that it always feared and resented… Sangh has
a historic chance to leave behind embarrassing aspects of its legacy which
included advocating isolationism of mind, fostering fear of modernity and
contempt for politics as an instrument of socio-political change.
Herder,
Schiller, Kant, Fichte The Isaiah
Berlin Virtual
Library THE ASSAULT ON THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT Fichte and
Romantic Self-Assertion
I MUST NOW TURN to a very different figure, namely,
Fichte, who was neither, like Herder, a man of very generous character, nor,
like Kant, a man who was totally dedicated to the truth. Nevertheless, his
influence in some respects was perhaps wider than that of either Kant or
Herder. Schiller’s classification of mankind, at least of the history of
mankind, into three stages is what affected the imagination of his
contemporaries. 11:33 AM Sunday, September 09, 2007
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