tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14160875.post5702742027841058202..comments2024-03-18T14:55:43.910+05:30Comments on Savitri Era Learning Forum: Devotionalism is not the only possible approach to Sri AurobindoTusar Nath Mohapatrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12067509498066370100noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14160875.post-83421045674028992012009-11-17T07:52:35.398+05:302009-11-17T07:52:35.398+05:30from Paulette (paulette@auroville.org.in)
date 17 ...from Paulette (paulette@auroville.org.in)<br />date 17 November 2009 07:42<br />Please post my reply:<br /> <br />Tusar,<br /> this is exactly what I mean, where is disagreement? I know very well what dogma is, having been brought up in a country, Italy, where you were excommunicated and went to hell if you didn’t endorse unconditionally all the dogmas set by the Catholic Church.<br /> The mystery of the avatar is so unfathomable that only through consciousness it can be apprehended – not through indoctrination and threats. No matter how long it takes, it is for one’s psychic being to find out the truth. Nobody else can do the job, there are no other ways.<br /> PauletteTusar Nath Mohapatrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067509498066370100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14160875.post-70046526399508798872009-11-17T07:25:02.676+05:302009-11-17T07:25:02.676+05:30Personally, I have disagreements with the last lin...Personally, I have disagreements with the last line. Dogma or not, it is for the individual to choose; why should it be denigrated and who do we turn to for a certificate? [TNM]Tusar Nath Mohapatrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067509498066370100noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14160875.post-21629096439018031842009-11-17T07:11:34.265+05:302009-11-17T07:11:34.265+05:30from Paulette (paulette@auroville.org.in)
date 16 ...from Paulette (paulette@auroville.org.in)<br />date 16 November 2009 14:08 Please post this comment:<br /><br />In “The Synthesis of Yoga” Sri Aurobindo takes the trouble to analyze major yogic paths such as bhaktiyoga, jnanayoga, karmayoga, rajayoga, tantrayoga, hathayoga etc. Integral Yoga is a synthesis of the essence of all these paths, as a starting point. However, it is a fact that one’s nature and predisposition (adhikara) intervene, orienting the disciples prevalently towards this or that path, as a natural help on the way. There is nothing wrong with this, we do have to begin from somewhere. What’s wrong is to impose upon others one’s preferred way – be this bhakti, jnana, karmayoga or any other yogic path – at the exclusion of all others. Where is the “synthesis”, then?<br />There is a tendency, in India, but also spreading abroad, to consider an avatar every guru, big or small. Sri Aurobindo, who never paid attention to external formulations, stated: <br /> “Let me make it clear that in all I wrote I was not writing to prove that I am an Avatar! You are busy in your reasonings with the personal question, I am busy more with the general one. I am seeking to manifest something of the Divine that I am conscious of and feel — I care a damn whether that constitutes me an Avatar or something else. That is not a question which concerns me. By manifestation, of course, I mean the bringing out and spreading of that Consciousness so that others also may feel and enter into it and live in it.”<br />On Himself, 8.3.1935, 150 <br />He had already clarified: <br /> “I don't know about Avatars. Practically what I know is that I had not all the powers necessary when I started, I had to develop them by Yoga, at least many of them which were not in existence in me when I began, and those which were I had to train to a higher degree. My own idea of the matter is that the Avatar's life and actions are not miracles. If they were, his existence would be perfectly useless, a mere superfluous freak of Nature. He accepts the terrestrial conditions, he uses means, he shows the way to humanity as well as helps it. Otherwise what is the use of him and why is he here?<br /> I was not always in the Overmind, if you please. I had to climb there from the mental and vital level.”<br />On Himself, 13.2.1935, 149<br />When I first came to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, in 1973, none of the old Indian sadhaks to whom I related enforced on me anything, whether a particular yogic approach, or the concept of Avatar, Divine Mother etc.: I was let free to grow at my own pace and rhythm. One day, years later, I suddenly realized that Sri Aurobindo is an Avatar – and the Mother, the Divine Mother: my consciousness had widened enough to introject these truths. <br />It is certainly not straitjacketing people that we can force them to share our beliefs. What’s needed is expansion of consciousness – not dogmas. <br /> PauletteTusar Nath Mohapatrahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12067509498066370100noreply@blogger.com