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September 25, 2021

Sri Aurobindo’s life-affirming philosophy for our current ecological crisis

Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra (b. 1956)

Indian Philosophy and Religion

R Prakash'Babloo - 2021
… Among the exceptions are philosophies represented by famous advocates
of ancient Indian spiritual views, such as mystic philosopher Sri Aurobindo
Ghose—a nationalist revolutionary who opposed British rule of India in the …

Artificial intelligence calls for inner alignment (AI for IA)

K Köster, AU Kreppel - … of Responsible Management Education (PRME) in the …, 2021
… The following measures are appropriate to give space for informa- tion
exchange with the body-system: • Sports with rhythmical contemplative
movements (such as long-distance jogging); • Abdominal breathing (eg …

Is knowledge alone enough for socially responsible investing? A moderation of religiosity and serial mediation analysis

P Mehta, M Singh, M Mittal, H Singla - Qualitative Research in Financial Markets, 2021

[PDF] Being someone

SS Gilani - 2021
… bliss, though the neo-Ved¯antin philosopher and spiritual teacher Sri Aurobindo … 4The
spiritual path and worldview associated with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (the other
spiritual teacher in this tradition) is known as 'Integral Yoga'. 9 Page 20 …

[HTML] Pan-Asian

GEACP Sphere, A Council, F Hayashi, S Okawa…
… Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905). This created interest from Indian poets
Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo and Chinese politician Sun Yat-sen.
Japanese Pan-Asian writer Shūmei Ōkawa. The growing official interest …

[PDF] Bits of Wisdom

RR Maxwell - Comparative Civilizations Review, 2021
… longer true. “In the shift from civilization to planetization it is the mystic who has
become the unacknowledged legislator of the world: a Sri Aurobindo or a Teilhard
de Chardin, and not a Norman Mailer or an Andy Warhol. The …

Mahatma Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo

AK Giri - 2021

[PDF] Ascetics and Revolutionaries: The “Political Sannyasi” in Indian Nationalistic Discourse

KKR Areevidu
… 2011). Peter Heehs, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo: A Biography, (New York: Columbia
UP, 2008). Robert A. McDermott, “The Experiential Basis of Sri Aurobindo's Integral
Yoga.” Philosophy East and West, 22:1 (Jan., 1972), pp. 15-23 …

Tribal Livelihood Issues, challenges & Perspective

J Choudhury, S Goswami, A Mahato - 2021
As per 2011 census there were 8.43 cror3e STs in India and it is 8.6 percent of the
total population. India has got the second largest concentration after that of Africa
Continent. Anational level seminar on Tribal livelihood challenges and Opportunities …

Rethinking Global Modernism: Architectural Historiography and the Postcolonial

V Prakash, M Casciato, DE Coslett - 2021

[HTML] Globalization and the Politics of Identities in India

D Guis
… This vicious cycle is exemplified by the crises experienced almost
simultaneously in the northeast state of Assam and the northwestern state
of Punjab, a separatist movement in the border region of Kashmir and the …

[HTML] II: Diaspora, homeland, and development

PS Bose
… One of the myriad entities that comprise the Sangh Parivar, or “family” of organizations
that collectively espouse the ideology of Hindutva — an aggressive form ot right-wing
Hindu nationalism — is the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Council) …

[PDF] Drawing Parallels: Modi and the Machiavellian Prince

M Tariq - Johns Hopkins University, 2021
… Modi employs religion as tool to consolidate his power, offering to Indian masses Hindutva
with right dilution. He presented a narrative that … 2019 election was explicitly based on
Hindu nationalism and majoritarianism to an extent that Hindutva can …

[PDF] The Political Economy of Violence: Gender, Sexuality and SDGs

S Thapar-Björkert, R Ranwa - GENDER EQUALITY
… 120 Page 140. (Katju 2015);“anti-Romeo” squads (Sharma 2017) and
“Love Jihad”(Punwani 2014) signals the unholy alliance between cultural
ideologies and patriarchal forces, supported through a nexus of control …

Religious Freedom, Legal Activism, and Muslim Personal Law in Contemporary India: A Sociological Exploration of Secularism

A Chakrabarti - Religious Freedom: Social-Scientific Approaches, 2021
Jump to Content Jump to Main Navigation. English; 中文; Deutsch. Access via: Google
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Publications. Subjects. African Studies American Studies Ancient …

[PDF] Politics of Theatre for Human Rights: An Overview of Pedagogy and Good Practices of

AAR Khan, H Akter
… Page 8. 94 Harvest, Vol. 35, 2020 2015) on the rise of Hindutva right-wing
politics and leadership in recent times. They produce up to 3 new plays
a year on different current burning issues and perform more than two …

[PDF] Civilizational Colonialism and the Ongoing New Great Game in the Sensitive Areas of

V Sharma
… catalyst in leading to the imposition of the politically influenced Fundamentalist Hindutva
in the Indian parts and the politically influenced Fundamentalist … motivated agendas of
Hindutva and Islamism leading to added chaos between the …

[PDF] The Ideal Indian Woman: Defined by Hindu Nationalism and Culture

S Singh
… operas, which show that “women can have it all” (Munshi 1998; Rajan 1993). The
Hindutva movement aligns with these demands of consumerist individualism. It
incorporates women into the public sphere through a new kind of …

Moving from Consumer-Subjectivity toward Reproductive Justice: Locating Neo-Liberal Millennial Capitalist New Religious Movements in Indian Sexual and …

KN Francoeur - 2021
… An ethos of “millennial capitalism” (Comaroff and Comaroff 2001), in
conjunction with increasingly prominent right-wing Hindutva nationalism,
has spurred notable shifts in values … reproduction; the symbiosis of Hindutva …

[PDF] Religion (REL)

T Berzon - Bowdoin College Catalogue and Academic Handbook …
… While migration has been integral to the development of many religious
traditions, this course considers the role of colonialism, transnational … highlight
debates about the relation of religion to gender, ethnicity, and nationality …

[HTML] 2. Later life

J MacLeod
… of some of its monks in terrorist activities like involvement with the Anushilan
Samity during the Partition of Bengal before they renounced the world,
and also because Swami Vivekanandas fiery speeches and ideals inspired …

Cutting the Knot of the World Problem: Sri Aurobindo's Experiential and Philosophical Critique of Advaita Vedānta

S Medhananda - Religions, 2021
This article proposes to examine in detail Aurobindo's searching—and often quite
original—criticisms of Advaita Vedānta, which have not yet received the sustained
scholarly attention they deserve. After discussing his early spiritual experiences and … From a philosophical standpoint, Aurobindo questions the logical tenability of key Advaitic doctrines, including māyā, the exclusively impersonal nature of Brahman, and the metaphysics of an illusory bondage and liberation. Finally, from a scriptural standpoint, Aurobindo argues that the ancient Vedic hymns, the Upaniṣads, and the Bhagavad-Gītā, propound an all-encompassing Advaita philosophy rather than the world-denying Advaita philosophy Śaṅkara claims to find in them. This article focuses on Aurobindo’s experiential and philosophical critiques of Advaita Vedānta, as I have already discussed his new interpretations of the Vedāntic scriptures in detail elsewhere. The article’s final section explores the implications of Aurobindo’s life-affirming Advaitic philosophy for our current ecological crisis. View Full-Text

[PDF] Swami Vivekananda: Messages and Communication to the World with special contexts of Humanism, Oneness and Nationalism

S Bhatt - Vietnam Journal for Indian and Asian Studies. Vol, 2021
… Ramkrishna Mission Institute of Culture, p. 68. 5. Lalitha S. (2018).
Philosophy of Swami Vivekanandaa and Sri Aurobindo- A Critical Analysis.
American Journal of Educational Research and Reviews, p. 3-4. 6. Law …

September 11, 2021

Embedding your identity in a set of abstract beliefs

We are pleased to announce the launch of our webinar series #Vaicariki as part of #SriAurobindo's 150th birth anniversary celebrations. The first webinar will be on the topic ‘Integrality of the New Education Policy’ on 13 Sep. Register here:
Sh. Matthijs Cornelissen, Founder of Indian Psychology Institute and teacher at SAICE Pondicherry, took the class on 'Gradations of Mind' today in the #SriAurobindo Course. Register for the course here: rashtram.org/sri-aurobindo-
Human beings are conditioned. Therefore they are not free. They think they are free because when they choose, they think they are free. Choice is merely the outcome of confusion, not of certainty. When you are certain, clear, there is no choice. Any Comments Idiots
Traditionalism is paradoxically a very modern thing because the moment you start embedding your identity in a set of abstract beliefs independent of your location in society, space and time, in that moment you become irreparably modern.
This happens because the kind of individualism that powers this feat of abstraction is a distinctly modern thing. So the whole exercise which makes 'tradition' a ground for mobilisation itself is distinctly modern.
Put well, but the consequences, regrettably, may not be modern and hence looking at traditionalism in this reductionist and abstract sense might not be a good lens. The best assessment of tradition vis-à-vis evolution has been provided by Sri Aurobindo in his The Human Cycle.
Savitri Erans are either Hindus or are not Hindus. If they are not, then why must they interfere in the affairs of Hindus?
surprising that some ‘I know more than everyone‘ type devotees of d Mother claim that we shouldn’t believe in our Gods once we’re on d path of #SriAurobindo ! It was a different matter that Lord Ganesh too couldn’t fulfill all d demands of TM !!
It's upon each individual; each one has his own pace of progress. So there's no we, no uniformity. [Matthew 6:24 - Bible “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both]
Hindutva agents trying to spread seeds of discord and confusion among the devotees of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is mischievous. There should be constant vigilance against flamboyance of such characters and their overt and covert promoters. Savitri Erans will have to win this war.
Brevity can mislead. Integral yoga may not ask for change of religion but it doesn't bar religious conversion as available under the Constitution. However, there shouldn't be any unreasonable allurement or coercion. Officially unrecognised religions too have their own attraction.
Writing can't but wresting power can. Savitri Era Party seeks to provide an alternative under Sri Aurobindo's inspiration.
Culture amounts to sympathetic appreciation, right evaluation, and avoiding disproportion. Some handles focus on interested themes as a result of which a balanced view of things fails to emerge. This lopsidedness leads to distorted history and unintended selective amnesia. Beware
library.sriaurobindoashram.org/mother/cwm10/c [One who truly follows the path given by #SriAurobindo, as soon as he begins to have the experience of this path, will find it impossible to confine his consciousness to the worship of any god or goddess or even of all of them together.] -Mother on T&A-159
Rainbow & the Other: Bipin Chandra Pal articulated with greater eloquence the idea of Swaraj rainbowther.blogspot.com/2021/09/bipin- [Therefore it's not the case as Pradhan claims of all the Extremist leaders, Aurobindo alone could visualise Swaraj in the form of absolute political independence]
Marketime: It's not the case that Sri Aurobindo alone could visualise Swaraj marketime.blogspot.com/2021/09/its-no Collated by TN Mohapatra Director, SELF (2005), Savitri Era Religion (2006), and Savitri Era Party (2007) Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.
Evergreen Essays: Polar difference between Vivekananda’s idea and Kendra's evergreenessays.blogspot.com/2021/09/polar- [Kendra lays its stress upon Hindu nation. Vivekananda did not want confrontation with other faith or religion. He was a man for tolerance, openness, nonsectarian and a true Hindu.]

To Laugh or Not to Laugh: An Analysis of Humor in Sukumar Ray's Abol Tabol

A Mukherjee - South Asian Review, 2021
… of Language” (an essay I will return to while relating Ray's “whimsy” to Freud's
“play”), Ray explains the especial difficulty of answering questions related
to one's political affiliations such as “Are you a moderate or an extremist?” …

[PDF] What is Leisure?

G COŞKUN - KONGRE KURULLARI
… choice and it may be in any context and occur in anywhere, as it is a
dimension of life.'Leisure is in contexts that are integral parts of … there are
20 gyms, 10 hotel SPA centers, 4 sports clubs, 4 art centers, 3 NGOs, 2 event …

[HTML] Clinical Scholars: Making Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Learning an Integral Part of Leadership Development

K Brandert, G Corbie-Smith, R Berthiaume, M Green… - … in the Culture of Health in …, 2021
The plethora of persistent and pervasive health inequities in the United States
is a Wicked Problem which threatens the health and wellbeing of all people.
To dismantle them is no easy task, and requires a health care workforce …

[PDF] Senses and Sensibilities in Sarojini Naidu's Poetry

C Hoene - South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, 2021
… 13 As Bhushan and Garfield argue, the early twentieth century saw a revival
of classical Indian aesthetics, including rasa; 14 notable authors writing about
the politics of aesthetics at the time include Aurobindo Ghosh, M. Hiriyanna …

Care, Community, Compassion and Virtue: Decolonizing Our Moral Landscape

S Motilal, K Maitra, P Prajapati - The Ethics of Governance, 2021
… Catherine Walsh notes how in emphasizing “integral and sustainable
development”, many articles of this Constitution try to include indigenous
perspectives especially … 5 we have noted Gita's notion of karma yoga—the …

Conclusion: Ethics of Governance: Moral Limits of Policy Decisions

S Motilal, K Maitra, P Prajapati - The Ethics of Governance, 2021
… which are akin to what economists call externalities. So cultivating an attitude of
equanimity, an integral aspect of Gandhian karma yoga, would be important for policy
makers. Finally, Buddhist emphasis on mindfulness, a set of …

[PDF] Conserving the 'Container'of Tantric Secrecy: A Discussion with Western Śākta Practitioners

SA Perkins - Religions, 2021
Secrecy has long limited the possibility of gaining emic insight into the spiritual
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semi-structured interviews, the present article examines how a contemporary …

[PDF] ECHO OF MYTHS IN CONTEMPORARY INDIAN FICTION IN ENGLISH

R Josan - 2021
… contribution to its growth and development incorporating different folklores
and myths in his works. During the freedom struggle, Swami Vivekananda,
Sri Aurobindo and Mahatma Gandhi often made references to the ancient …

[PDF] PHILOSOPHICAL PATHWAYS TO HAPPINESS

GN Sharma, MS Rajurkar
… Open Access PHILOSOPHICAL PATHWAYS TO HAPPINESS 1) Dr. GNSharma*, 2)
Ms. Shweta Rajurkar, Prof.(Retd),SBCollege of Science,Aurangabad-431001,India
Director,Auro Yajna, Sri Aurobindo Society,Pondicherry, India …

Hindutva is Hindu modernity

A Prakash Singh - 2021
Description: Hindutva emerged as a response to imperialism, re-imagined the past
and dreamt of a modern democratic State The main intellectual challenge for Hindus
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[HTML] Framings of Religion, Conflict and Peace: Christianity, Conflict and the Pursuit of Just Peace in Asia

JL Fernando - International Journal of Asian Christianity, 2021
Jump to Content Jump to Main Navigation. English; 中文; Deutsch. Access via: Google
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Publications. Subjects. African Studies American Studies Ancient …

[PDF] Representation of Indigeneity in the Select Works of Verrier Elwin

A Bhowmick - 2021
Page 1. Bhowmick 1 Chapter – I Introduction Upto 1940s the tribes of India
remained as a 'forgotten chapter' both in politics and society. It was Elwin
who took the tribals into the fore and tribals appeared as an emerging …

The Rise of Right-Wing Populism, Authoritarianism & Fascism

L Mestres - Socialism and Democracy, 2021
… Or, we are atheists and so we are anti-Hindu? But we want to be
anti-Hindutva which is the right-wing ideology. And regarding the remaking
of a Hindu identity by the right, how does the left take it back and reconstruct …

Exploring Power Dynamics of Religious Leaders

K Ehsan - and Dialogue
… its Chief Minister. His fiery brand of communal pol- itics and promotion of the most
virulent form of Hindutva reflects a new kind of alliance between Hindu religious
leaders and the state under the BJP govern- ment. Case 5: The …
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Thank you Sumangala.
But the inspiration of scientists is often mystical, coming through the depth of the unconscious and science is rarely just a rational activity. Our emotionally held biases keep creeping in and the 'participant observer' tend to change outcomes. Andris Heks
...
To claim that scientific activity stems from "evidence" as stated by the flyer below by Sripad Bahkta Mahdavah Puri Maharaja is in ignorance and neglect of both the imaginal activity and the semiotic processes as primordial, be that scientist, artist or explorer or still of a human of anywhere and any cognitive background of any kind, which go to discover the evidence that would meet this activity. 
Its further claim for the "rationality" of science stands as the natural reductionism of dualism. It is more of a dialectic process, in which creativity is supported by a supradual ontoepistemology, even when the said humans are unaware of it. When this is not unconscious we operate through abduction, as described as a non-inferential process identified by Charles Peirce as the only way to creativity in his work on the logic of science.
This claim ignores the unconscious activity which supports the eureka events, such as the realization by Hamilton of the quaternions which manifested as a whole in an instant. Two realizations were involved: fourness and non-commutatitivity, the latter the fundamental basis for Quantum Mechanics as today further realized as Quantum Cognition, and the very basis of the torsion geometry of space and of cognition (Rapoport)
Would rationality be the means and support of science, then Organic Chemistry would not exist. We recall Kekule's report of his revelation of the circular structure of benzene while in an hypnagogic state sitting at his desk after luch, falling asleep to "awake" to see two serpents mutually  one the other. Kekule was not a rationalist in the sense of this flyer, but actually a belated alchemist being informed on the archetypal Ouroboros, then turned to benzene. Newton, the alchemist scientist was far more unintegrated than Kekule. 
The only difference in that claim is a recourse to mention that is undefined but by negation of its "mechanical inception", and left unellaborated at that.
Also to claim that "Science is the product of the Rational activity of Scientists" is on the one hand to reduce this rich process of creativity in which semiotic processes such as  metaphorization are crucial (think of the Bohr picture of the atom as a planetary system, for one), and still to ignore that prior to "Rationality" emotics plays a crucial role to spur the cognitive process, and as biological psychology has elicited (Panksepp, Solms, Damasio in the neurosciences. 
Neglect of the aesthetics of the activity as a driving axis is also manifest.
Seems more of an extract of a 19th century positivism manual.
Sincerely, humbly adamantly
Diego Lucio Rapoport
To view this discussion on the web visit

No, science is not a body of knowledge. I know that the Classical Latin word scientia meant "knowledge", but that's not what is meant by "science" today. Science is a _method_ for testing ideas. It consists of empirical falsification and parsimony (and really the former contains a lot of the latter).

> physics and chemistry are subsets of Scientific knowledge
No, physics and chemistry are science as applied to certain subsets of natural phenomena.

> Science is the product of the rational activity of Scientists.
Sure, parsimony is rational, at least to the extent that it can't be outsourced to a computer, and falsification is rational as well in that it requires coming up with rigorous ways of testing a particular idea, often using statistics. But, as others have pointed out, the ideas that science tests need not have any rational origin. They can come from dreams, like Kekulé's idea on benzene that turned out to be pretty much correct; they can come from meditation, LSD trips, religious experiences, it doesn't matter. What matters is whether they're testable.
Ideas that are not testable are not scientific. Subjective experiences are testable if enough people have them that they can be compared. If that is not the case, so that everyone else can only take them on faith, they're useless to science.
The rest of the picture falls with these three statements.
David Marjanovic
...
It reminded me of similar contrasts in Karl Heim's book, Christian Faith and Natural Science.  In it, he uses the term "suprapolar space" to express what may be the same as your concept of absolute space. On page 165 of my 1957 Harper Torchbooks edition, he lets the reader know that he wants to  get beyond the concepts of immanence and transcendence. The next ten pages go into various details about how he wants to do this; in the process he also talks about how the suprapolar space contrasts with the ordinary "polar" space of physics.

His main thesis throughout the book is how we must take consciousness as the starting point for a philosophy that can stand in contrast to materialism. He uses the word "Ego" for what Hinduism calls  Atman, the individual Self, and it is our separate selves that he never loses sight of, and how we are separated frorm each other in a way that only God, whose space is suprapolar, can overcome. 

At the end of this book he says he means to overcome the disharmony between secularism and faith, in a way that is firmly grounded in the physical and biological sciences, "in the remaining parts of this work." I never found out  what these "remaining parts" were, but the Wikipedia entry on Karl Heim leads me to think that it might be The Transformation of the Scientific World-View. 

Peter Nyikos
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics        
University of South Carolina