Vivekananda’s doctored picture of Ramakrishna

Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo Spiritual Events Info ... Spiritual Event on Speaking Tree By: Ramesh Bijlani on Jan 13, 2013

A talk highlighting the landmark role Swami Vivekananda played in creating a receptivity for ancient Indian wisdom in the West, and how other spiritual masters have continued the work. Ramesh Bijlani Date: Jan 13, 2013 Time:10:00 am to 11:30 am Venue: Meditation Hall, SRI AUROBINDO ASHRAM -- DELHI BRANCH, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi 110 016. Entry through Gate No. 6. Phone: 011-2656-7863, E-mail: aurobindo@vsnl.com

Harisharan Walia 09:02 am Swami Vivekanada believed in vedantic philosophy of Brahma satyam jagat mithya, where as Shri Aurbindo saw the gross Sagun changing world and the subtle unchangig Nirguna Brahma as two layers/aspects of God. Both believed in service of the universe. Please elaborate what are their views on Gyan, Karma and Bhakti, Karma-Akarma- Vikarma.

Pondicherry: A corner of India that is forever France - The Independent

Auroville is an experimental city, located a few miles out of town, that grew out of the Sri Aurobindo ashram that dominates social and educational life in Pondi.

Swami Vivekananda's connection to Puducherry The Hindu KAVITA KISHORE PUDUCHERRY, January 12, 2013 With the 150th birth anniversary of the philosopher providing a fitting backdrop, Kavita Kishore explores the threads that link him to Puducherry

When Swami Vivekananda travelled from Kanyakumari to Chennai, it is said that he stopped in Puducherry for a few days. According to popular belief, he is said to have stayed in the house on Vysial Street that Sri Aurobindo and Subramania Bharathiyar occupied when they first came to the town…

According to Aurobindonian Scholar, Prema Nandakumar, since Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo were born only nine years apart, they were almost contemporaries. Swami Vivekananda was the inspiration for the Vande Mataram movement that a young Sri Aurobindo and several of his contemporaries participated in. When Sri Aurobindo was imprisoned in Alipore Jail from 1908 to 1909 in the Alipur Bomb Case, he read the Bhagavat Gita and other spiritual books to gain higher consciousness. It was then that Swami Vivekananda played a role in his achievement of spirituality, she said… Vivekananda’s influence was felt all over India at the time, especially in Bengal. So, it is not surprising that he played a role in Sri Aurobindo’s rise to spirituality as well…

Although the route that Swami Vivekananda’s spirituality took was different from that of Sri Aurobindo, there are some similarities between their philosophies, including the importance given to Indian culture, the dedication to social service and education and tolerance of all religions, said Ms. Nandakumar.

Jyotirmaya Sharma busts many myths around Swami Vivekananda From: Outlook Magazine, 21 January 2013 Interview ‘His Inclusiveness Is A Powerful Myth’ Vivekananda comes across as a Hindu supremacist, and not so much a social reformist - Satish Padmanabhan Interviews Jyotirmaya Sharma
In his third book in the quartet on Hindu identity and self-images, academic-author Jyotirmaya Sharma busts many myths around Swami Vivekananda. He comes across as a Hindu supremacist, and not so much a social reformist. Excerpts from an interview with Satish Padmanabhan: …

This book, like the previous two (Hindutva: Exploring the Idea of Hindu Nationalism and Terrifying Vision: M.S. Golwalkar, the RSS and India), is an attempt to delineate a genealogy of Hindu identity. In this context, Vivekananda provides the most influential restatement of Hinduism. His religious nationalism is the decisive influence behind Hindu nationalism. Also, unlike many writers, I do not distinguish between Hinduism and Hindutva. For me, Hindutva is merely the politically dominant face of Hinduism today…

This idea of his inclusiveness and liberality is a powerful shared myth in our country but entirely based on a limited, partial reading of his works. Forget Islam and Christianity, Vivekananda wasn't particularly generous towards many sects and schools of thought within Hinduism.

Book Excerpt: Cosmic Love and Human Empathy: Swami Vivekananda's Restatement of Religion (Jyotirmaya Sharma) from Communalism Watch by c-info

Vivekananda, more than anyone else, helped construct the elements that constituted this carefully edited, censored and wilfully misleading version of his master’s ‘catholicity’. He used it to mean what he thought was Ramakrishna’s tolerance, generosity and inclusiveness in relation to other faiths while carefully glossing over the sources and influences that produced this ‘catholicity’. The continued use of the term has had a longevity independent of Vivekananda’s remoulding of Ramakrishna from a “religious ecstatic to a religious eclectic”, and continues to be used even to this day by perceptive and critical readers of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda story…

Vivekananda’s interpretation of Ramakrishna is a simultaneous act of fidelity and distortion… In 1896, Vivekananda gave two lectures in America and England on Ramakrishna. At the outset, he confesses that he speaks on behalf of his Master, but the errors in interpreting the message are entirely his own. The bare bones of Ramakrishna’s message are all there, beginning with renunciation, devotion, love, and ending with Ramakrishna’s love of all sects and religions. But the moment one unravels the details, a very carefully doctored picture emerges.  

Tweets 16h - Prasanna Viswanathan ‏@prasannavishy To be fair to Jyotirmaya Sharma, he has always held that Rishi Aurobindo & Swami Vivekananda as spiritual progenitors of Hindutva project

23h - Pritish Nandy ‏@PritishNandy Nice to see Swami Vivekananda back in the news. Time to rediscover Sri Aurobindo.

21h - Anil Kumar Gupta ‏@anilguptarsd @PritishNandy Sri Aurobindo's 150th birth anniversary will fall in 2022. Enough time to make grand preparations for rediscover him. Start now.

23h - Pacifist ‏@iHindu - @PritishNandy sir, request you to share your thoughts on Sri Aurobindo. Please.  View conversation

23h - jagdish sharma ‏@ivorysharma - @PritishNandy You are a master communicator. Please start with yourself writing about the philosophy and thoughts of Sri Aurobindo & Sri Ma

11 Jan - Gautam Chikermane ‏@gchikermane And Peter Heehs on 'Roots, trunk, branches & seeds: Similarities and differences in SV's and Sri Aurobindo's approach to Vedanta and Yoga.'

‘The Mother: The Birth and Growth of a Flame’: A Review by Surendra Singh Chouhan from Overman Foundation

Having penned all this appreciative remarks, one has to admit and point out the presence of  a just  few  flaws  in the book. We feel as if we are reading just a recorded history—the evocative fire of aspirational afflatus is missing at some points. The author seems to get lost in the quagmire of facts and figures in his enthusiasm to offer information and more informations. However,  dedication and devotion of the author overrule all these  minor errors and  we have the privilege and joy to read through the book—The Book of The Divine Mother. 

Comment on Predictions of Sri Aurobindo by nizken More cents from me then…. Start in this order: 1. The Mother 2. Synthesis of Yoga 3. Letters on Yoga (vol. 2) 4. The Agenda

You don’t have to finish everything in them nor does it have to be in a linear cover-to-cover fashion. Just my recommendations although many other books like Essays on Gita are also quite fascinating.

Comment on Predictions of Sri Aurobindo by Sandeep

“Jason: a book that tells most about the particular changes he and the Mother aimed at inaugurating in the mind and body of humanity?”

Are you referring to the supramental consciousness ? If not, then Nizken’s recommendations are fine. Otherwise, check out the Life Divine and the Mother’s Agenda.

Sri Aurobindo added 12 new chapters to the Life Divine in the 1940s and these represent his final detailed notes on the subject. A discussion of the changes he made can be read at the end of the book in the section entitled “Note on the Text” (CWSA vol 21-22, pages 1109-1117). The last two chapters “Gnostic Being” and “Divine Life” are especially relevant. On page 1004, he says power of intuition will increase in the immediate future : “A freer play of intuition and sympathy and understanding would enter into human life, a clearer sense of the truth of self and things and a more enlightened dealing with the opportunities and difficulties of existence”.

There are also some conversations with disciples, where he cautioned against over-interpreting the consequences of the supramental change. Cats and dogs won’t change, for instance… Georges van Vrekhem, who passed away recently, has aggregated a lot of this material in his books. See his website http://www.beyondman.org

Comment on Predictions of Sri Aurobindo by mike

l think satprems books cover it a lot, especially ‘On The Way To Suparmanhood’ which is meantioned in the Agenda, l believe a Power was given to this book by the Mother and SA [as said in Agenda] and SA seemed to be writing it through Satprem.

Comment on Predictions of Sri Aurobindo by nizken

Science advances and works within a “paradigm” as written by Thomas Kuhn. The materialistic clockwork mechanistic paradigm that Don Salmon talks about has been overthrown by the work in quantum mechanics by Einstein/de Broglie etc but yes it does persist to a large degree in the public mind. I think Thomas Kuhn’s book (The Structure of Scientific Revolutions) would be the best way to visualize and understand these scientific paradigms and how they are overthrown by scientific ‘revolutions.’ Another great book which I found very helpful and short was What is this thing called Science written by A.F. Chalmers. Thomas Kuhn after Karl Popper probably gave us the basic framework in which to understand the history and progress of science of past 300 years.

The Individual and the Universal from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

Sri Aurobindo’s view of rebirth takes issue with the near-exclusive concentration laid upon the concept in the traditional viewpoint. This traditional viewpoint looks upon life on the earth as some kind of short-term interlude, with the goal being to return to the original source and therein to dissolve ourselves. The entire focus then revolves around individual salvation. It is, however, impossible to understand the larger significance of the manifestation and evolution of the world and all the other beings in the world from a viewpoint that starts with this level of fragmentation. This has led many to consider the world to be an illusion. Sri Aurobindo integrates the evolutionary development of the individual with the universal manifestation.

Hymns to the Mystic Fire_Volume-11 - Sri Aurobindo Ashram Home E-Library  Works Of Sri Aurobindo English Sabcl 

The integral Advaitism of Sri Aurobindo - Page 342 Ram Shankar Misra - 1957 - It is true that Sri Aurobindo's integral view of Reality cannot be said to be perfectly original. The transcendence and immanence of the Absolute or Brahman has been advocated in the Upanisads and the different systems of the Vedanta.

Political Thinkers of Modern India: Sri Aurobindo Ghose - Volume 11 - Page 336 - Verinder Grover - 1993 - Preview Unlike Christianity, Hinduism did not find it difficult to assimilate Darwinian ideas, because from the beginning Vedanta viewed God as both transcendent and immanent in nature. Aurobindo could easily spiritualise the concept of evolution and ...

Adam Smith, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, and Sri Aurobindo

More Dire Nonsense from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy

People left “to pursue their own self-interests” will choose a variety of policies that tend to be mutually contradictory and some of them work against “free markets”. 

The Thatcher Parallel from Centre Right India by Amar Jan 8, 2013 

But there also exist a few handpicked men and women whom fortune places in such circumstances from the vantage of which these rare personalities enjoy a clear view of the socio-political trends of the era. These are leaders who by virtue of their position and awareness are able to significantly advance or reverse the ideas that shape the lives of massive chunks of humanity. These politicians defy the stereotypical self-effacing humility and vacuousness that passes off for leadership in our modern age. Leaders of this hue embrace the idea of power. Their unapologetic pursuit and application of political power is wholly inconsistent with rhetorical conventions of populist politics.

Ashis Nandy says Bhagwat is right Tehelka 

These are typical characteristic of anonymous cities. Highly individualized, personally thin cultures and it is so not only in India, I repeat, but perhaps all over the world from which we have data. In anonymous societies kinship dies and community ties weaken and become superficial. 

Vacuous Media Sleazeballs Moralize Against Mohan Bhagwat from The Rediscovery of India by Sandeep B.

It is this goodwill that has made the RSS the largest network of its kind in the world. Name just one other voluntary organization in the world which has this awe-inspiring network of people dedicated only to serve a nation…

The media fears the RSS. Here’s a vast organization made entirely of voluntary workers intent only on serving the country that has stood its ground amidst severe adversities and which takes the most strident criticism in its stride. Here’s an organization which has sustained for more than seven decades and despite best efforts, hasn’t budged or accepted defeat much less been broken. Courts have consistently taken its side. Every effort to tarnish its reputation has failed. All these are eminently plausible reasons for someone to fear its moral strength…

Whatever be the ideological or intellectual failures of the RSS, they are patriots of the highest order and their record of national service is both unparalleled and unbeatable anywhere in the world. And I say this as an outsider.

View - The Global Journals INDIAN JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH Volume: 3 Issue: 1 January 2013 Remembering the Ancient Master of Education: Twentieth First Century Reception of Sri Aurobindo - Dr. Birbal Saha, Associate Professor in Education, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, W.B. India & Mr. Sambhunath Maji, Assistant Professor in English, Sidho-Kanho-Birsha University, Purulia, W.B. India

In his life span of 78 years Sri Aurobindo dedicated his major part of his life in elevating the tradition of experimentation for the best education and educating methods. This research article will conceptualize Sri Aurobindo’s concept of ideal education. This paper will also concentrate Aurobindo’s idea of just educational methods. Finally, this will be our endeavour to locate Aurobindo in the 21st century and understand his relevance in the ultra modern civilization… Sri Aurobindo was almost parent like figure for all the people of the world…

In the educating method the teacher will be an icon figure in terms of virtue and quality. The teacher will not be task master or instructor. A good teacher should be a good helper. Sri Aurobindo rightly commented: “one must be a saint and a hero to be a good teacher. One must become a great ‘yogi’ to be a good teacher.” A successful teacher will not intervene the learning of the learners. Teacher will encourage and stimulate. He will not shape the mind of the learners. He justly remarked, “Teacher is a man helping his brothers, a child leading children, a light kindling other lights, and awakened soul awaking other souls, at the highest a power of presence of the divine calling to him other powers of the divine.” …

Sri Aurobindo viewed that a child is a part of the Greater Existence. It is duty of the child to look for this Greater Existence. The true religion of education is communication. A group of Western dramatists like Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter came with the belief that after the Second World War the world is terribly cut off from God. God has locked his grace for mankind. Mankind is treated as fallen. Our existence is deprived existence. When mankind is awfully cut off from the grace of God, how can we communicate with this Greater Existence? ... But Sri Aurobindo has thought one such education system where the teacher will say: vos es amo mihi, vos es meus amicus (“You are like me, you are my friend”).

The Individual and the Universal Are Aspects of One Eternal Being from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

Due to the habitual action of mind to divide and fragment, we tend to look at things as “either/or” options and to then set up clear demarcations between one thing and another. This action has been extremely useful when it comes to analyzing and breaking down a complex set of processes into distinct steps and thereby gain the ability to act in the material world. However, it has a tendency to overlook the factors that unify and integrate into a larger whole, a “gestalt”, the “big picture”, and it is just this integrated viewpoint which Sri Aurobindo takes pains to enunciate while at the same time not undervaluing the analytical mind’s contribution… Today scientists are beginning to explore the question of Consciousness and advancing concepts of universal creation that bring us to the frontiers of spirituality with a unified field and complex manifestation of multiple universes contained within one all-embracing consciousness.

Battle the forces of casteism, illiberalism, and injustice

Caste Wars in Tamil Nadu: a Sanghathan Perspective from Centre Right India by Aravindan Neelakandan

Thus Hindutva has both ideological as well as institutional capacity to battle the forces of casteism which have been unleashed by the Smrithi-based psyche that centuries of social stagnation has produced. In Tamil Nadu context, this psyche has been reinforced by perverted racism of Dravidian politics which has only added anti-Brahminical hatred to the Dalit hatred in the name of social reform movement. To reach out to the Dalits who have been singled out by Dravidian casteists and who have been denied justice for centuries by Hindu society, Hindu Sanghathanists can take a cue from that film of 1980s.

It is time to create a popular spiritual culture that is based on the Vedantic ideal of Integral Humanism – all humanity is part of the same Divinity. Scriptural barriers become meaningless before the vision of compassion of the Mother. If Hindutva movement can take this message forcefully through all possible media to all sections of the society and liberate caste-Hindus from the shackles of their casteism and Dalit Hindus from the injustice they are suffering from the mindset of the caste Hindus that shall be the day Hindu Sanghathan has arrived in this ancient land of Tamils.

Gurcharan das exposes the illiberalism at the core of India's ruling caste of dynasts and bureaucrats from Shadow Warrior by nizhal yoddha The Economist Modern India: Liberal worries

India desperately needs a fiercer push for liberal capitalism. Mr Das calls his new book “India Grows at Night”, a clarion call for such ideas. He wants a pro-market political party to be founded (like the Swatantra centre-right movement of the 1960s—see article) and for the dysfunctional, “flailing” state to be shrunk and improved. The author is likely to be ignored, even if his case is broadly convincing.

India enjoys a rich liberal heritage. For every story about feudalism, caste repression and the ongoing backwardness of a largely rural country, Mr Das counters with optimism about a bright, fast-rising, urban middle class. Indian society, he says, is by nature strong, free and tolerant…

The book raises some excellent questions. But what is missing, perhaps surprisingly given Mr Das’s connections, is a real insider’s account of why the sort of ideas he is promoting so often fail to get implemented. Relatively few Indians claim to be avowed classic liberals, yet a clutch of powerful people, including the current prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and others in cabinet, would agree with much of Mr Das’s argument.

The Hindu : Book Review : Integration of the sacred and the secular 6 Mar 2007 – PREMA NANDAKUMAR - ANCESTRAL VOICES - Reflections on Vedic, Classical and Bhakti Poetry: Ramesh Chandra Shah

Nearer our times we have Sri Aurobindo writing poetry as part of his `Yoga sadhana'. Ramesh Chandra Shah asks himself: "How exactly is Yoga, that realm of silent wordless inward action related to the same man's unrelenting passion for the order of words?" Relation there must be, a connection with our earliest dawns but which we have lost by limiting our visions to our own "egoistic shells of separativity." These ideas and more are woven with expertise by Shah in a seamless argument. 

Ancestral Voices: Reflections on Vedic, Classical and Bhakti Poetry - Page 32 - Ramesh Chandra Shah - 2006 - According to Sri Aurobindo, 'an itihasa was an ancient historical or legendary ...

Plain & Simple: Sri Aurobindo views the adventure of ...

Yeats and Eliot: perspectives on India Ramesh Chandra Shah - 1983 - 174 pages - This is not entirely unjustified, because Samkaric monism does tend to world-negation in a way that the original Vedanta doesn't. That is why Sri Aurobindo ... 7:48 PM 

A Writer in the Role of a Teacher

What happens to our culture conditioning – our actual cultural boundaries when we come to face the ‘final facts’? Doesn’t it demonstrate conclusively the fact, poetry can sometimes speak across cultures and thus acquiring a universal voice, make its unique contribution towards realisation of what Sri Aurobindo calls ‘the ideal of Human Unity’.

And it’s not just poetry which has this potential: fictional and other kinds of creative prose too can incarnate and enact a similar force and capability. Only he can be credited with the capacity of real ‘seeing’ who can become everybody, i.e. who can empathise with and embody all sorts of human types and states of being. Now, if you consider this in depth, you come to understand how great novelists and dramatists can produce such more than real-life impact upon you. It is precisely by dint of their personally acquired and superior knowledge by – indwelling, i.e. by their powers of empathy that they are enabled to reproduce the illusion of actual life – situations and actual characters which affect you like real-life events. The competent teacher of literature has to re-enact this capacity of literature experientially and not just through academically ‘correct’ procedures. Correctness after all is a rather tame ideal and there is a yawning gulf between mere correctness and real clarity of understanding. There in lies the challenge, before the real teacher. Professor Ramesh Chandra Shah, Padmashri, is an eminent scholar, thinker, creative writer and critic. Dialogue (A quarterly journal of Astha Bharati) - Astha Bharati

Interview with Ian Bogost - anotherheideggerblog Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Here I find McLuhan's invitation to investigate the properties of specific technologies to be liberating... not to mention a hell of a lot clearer! ... (As a sidenote, McLuhan does take things too far when he insists that the content of media doesn't matter)] 10:42 AM 

Multidimensionality and mischaracterization

Sonnet-like Passages in Savitri [Kindle Edition] RY Deshpande (Author)

By the very definition of an epic we can say that it has a rich abounding multidimensionality representing re-creatively the thousand moods and manners one witnesses in vibrancy of the life of man, its setting having the theme of men and nations or the world or the universe, or the foundational issue of the creation. There are essences of aesthetic delight or rasas, there are evocations and moods and bhāvas, there are echoes and reflections, persuasive sounds and soft winning music, there is the dhwani which only an occult ear can hear, the sound of the roots of the words, unheard melodies, anāhat nād, there are orchestral grandeurs and there are quiet concerts in well-tapestried chambers. It is these individualities that we are trying to see in that greatness, an act which need not reduce the greatness of the great. In an attempt to preserve the epic grandeur of one’s life at times one thinks of one’s qualities in pieces, pieces which shine out, diamond-like, in their distinctive facets. Our affiliation with sonnets could be of that nature.

Savitri with Accents: The Book of Yoga by Sri Aurobindo and Savitri Foundation (Kindle Edition -Oct 25, 2012) - $0.99 Kindle Edition

Savitri with Accents: The Book of the Divine Mother by Sri Aurobindo and Savitri Foundation (Kindle Edition -Oct 27, 2012) - $0.99 Kindle Edition

Savitri with Accents: The Book of Beginnings by Sri Aurobindo and Savitri Foundation (Kindle Edition -Oct 20, 2012) - $0.99 Kindle Edition Auto-delivered wirelessly

We hope that the present attempt of bringing out the text with accent-marks will prove rewarding to the lovers of poetry, and in particular of Savitri in its metrical power, its rhythm and melody, its undertones and overtones, its volume and pitch and timbre, its nāda and laya and chhanda, they carrying the “seed-sounds of the eternal Word”, they moving in the felicity of “rhythmic calm and joy”; possibly it would take us closer to the yogic source from which it originated.
Savitri Foundation is glad to put in this pioneering effort towards metrical presentation of Sri Aurobindo’s epic. It is hoped that this will prove helpful in understanding and reading Savitri possibly in its intended sense and articulation.

Welcome to the South Asia Archive

Launching in 2013, the South Asia Archive is a new, fully searchable digital archive encompassing 5 million pages of valuable research and teaching materials, providing online access to documents ranging from the mid-18th to the mid-20th Century. Featured Video An Interview with Professor Boria Majumdar > About the South Asia Archive

Incorporating 5 million pages of journals, books, reports and other documentation from the mid-18^th  to mid-20^th century across the Humanities & Social Sciences, the South Asia Archive is the single biggest digital repository of South Asian research material in the world. Its launch marks a momentous step towards the advancement of South Asian studies as an area of academic research and inquiry, and we would be delighted if you could join us on this special occasion. Aims and Scope

The South Asia Archive provides an extensive resource for students and scholars across the humanities and social sciences.

Focusing on South Asia, the Archive contains both serial and non-serial materials, including reports, rare books, and journal runs from noteworthy, rare publications. The documents in the Archive are truly interdisciplinary, reflecting the varied range of knowledge production in colonial and early post-colonial India in fields including: culture & society, industry & economy, science, technology & medicine, urban planning & administration, and politics & law.

Comprising material sourced from collectors and archivists in India by the South Asia Research Foundation, this Archive brings together a wealth of important primary content. In addition to its value in individual research, the Archive offers instructors an outstanding opportunity to include a range of primary archival materials in their syllabi.

VAAD-PRATIVAAD: SECULARISM IS IMPORTANT TO A MODERN INDIA III Posted by Jaideep Prabhu · 1 Comment Welcome to the third and final round of Vaad Prativaad (Round I may be found here and Round II here). FOR THE MOTION: Harsh Gupta

Perhaps a majority of Indian have little or no understand of what constitutional republicanism is either. And this may or may not be “decisive proof” that constitutional republicanism is wholly alien to India, but – even granting that for argument’s sake – since when is it so glaringly obvious that something is not to be adopted only because it was hitherto alien? …

As I tried to show in my second piece, Hinduism while having sublime beauty in its metaphysics has an awful discriminatory on-the-ground history. This is most obvious along the axis of caste, though some could credibly argue something similar on the topic of gender too – (that Hinduism is better than some other religion when it comes to women’s rights or other issues is hardly a consolation prize). These uncomfortable facts give me pause whether a Hindu state would be secular and liberal enough. And now that some people like my opponents are losing patience with such tolerance – is even more reason for a genuinely secular state, not less…

Not a nation where one cannot badmouth the Bhagwad Gita or disparagingly paint Goddess Sita. India does not need a proactive Hindu vanguard in the Abrahamic mould because this will end up making India more divided and Hinduism less universal. Instead we need to take identity completely out of our policies, our schools, our jobs, our tax code, our personal code – and this must include caste identity politics also over time… Looking at the forest instead of the trees, both moral and realpolitik imperatives largely coincide here. Why propose revolutions, when evolutions would do?

History of Indian Science & Technology: Overview of the 20-Volume Series By Rajiv Malhotra and Jay Patel

Outline: This chapter is intended to provide a background to the History of Indian Science and Technology (HIST) project. By describing the rationale and purpose of the HIST series, we hope to awaken the reader to the full implications of the series outside its scholastic usage. This chapter consists of the following sections:

Section I:   Rationale behind Infinity Foundation's Projects

Non-Western Knowledge Systems:

Modern Western technology has produced amazing achievements, but we must analyze the wider implications of such technologies and their notions of progress. These technologies often bring huge negative consequences that seem negligible in the short-term.  We need to dispassionately investigate whether there are alternative technologies that offer more sustainable progress for all, rather than only the privileged…

Section II:  Indian Contributions to Science and Technology

The depth and breadth of Indian science and technology is staggering, and this section gives just a glimpse into the genius of India's scientists and engineers…

Section III: Infinity's Book Series on History of Indian Science & Technology

An exploration free from the phobias against Indian Civilization would show that the West did not come out on top due to any inherent superiority, as claimed by Hegel and others, but, rather, due to their cunning and ruthlessness. This kind of research will establish that non-Western minds not only have the ability to contribute to original technology, but, in fact, have been instrumental in its development. India's own English-educated elite should be made aware of these facts to shed its Macaulayite complexes…

Responding to Critics:

Some critics have claimed that this series is anti-Western. Our response is that it is in everyone's best interest to have a truly global education system in which all cultures' contributions and merits are celebrated. This necessitates demolishing false notions of history promulgated by the colonizers.

Others who are deeply brainwashed in India phobia might find it convenient to dismiss this book series as “Hindutva”, “right-wing fundamentalist”, and so forth. This is completely baseless since Indian science is not about any particular religion. It is the heritage of every Indian, regardless of faith or lack thereof. Just as Newtonian laws are not Christian and Einstein's relativity theory is not a Jewish science, so also the scientific discoveries of Indians are independent of their faiths.

The importance of this work may be compared to Europe's use of classical Greek thought to raise itself out of the Dark Ages. India should also look to its own rich tradition of knowledge to move forward and complement modern knowledge.

Indian Institute of Scientific Heritage (IISH) was established on the Sravana Pournami day in August 1999 and registered as a charitable trust (328/99/iv) during the last quarter of 1999. Then onwards IISH has been undertaking the mission of learning and teaching the ultra ancient heritage of Bharath(India) using ultra modern scientific and technological tools. The ultimate aim of this mission is to make every Indian proud of his heritage.

Our aim is to inform the world about the glorious scientific, rational and logical heritage of India and also inform the world to practice and adopt these message in their life to lead a happy life in the 21st century. IISH is undertaking this mission of taking the message to 100 million people before the 31st December 2010. Hundreds and thousands of mission oriented workers are taking part in this patriotic mission of spreading the message of our motherland. We learn and teach the past glory, present achievements and future aims of Indian in each and every field, taking the inspiration for the past glory of this nation.We inform the world that this heritage of India is the property of Hindus, Muslims and Christians of India and also belongs to all beloved children of this motherland. Thus IISH spreads the scientific, technological, spiritual, sociological, anthropological, managemental messages to the world, in such a way that these messages can be adopted for the modern world.

Learning and teaching the scientific, technological and cultural heritage of Indiawith a scientific, rational and logical, patriotic and nationalistic vision.

Publishing documents like books, audio-cassettes  films, CDs, VCDS, DVDs, brochures, pamphlets, periodicals, etc for learning and teaching the heritage.

Conducting international/ national/ regional/ local seminars, study classes, academic level competitions, exhibitions, camps, study tours, etc., for fulfilling the missions of the Institute.

Giving a clear understanding of the superstitions through scientific analyses and taking the mission of eradicating the superstition from the minds of uneducated and educated people.

Giving the substantiated scientific proof on the merits of the Indian acharas (customs) and rituals through the medical research reports including psychological- sociological- anthropological- physiological and spiritual understanding .

Imparting a clear understanding on the duracharas/ anaacharas (superstitions) from the scientific acharas and explaining the merits of sadacharas and demerits of duracharas.

Bringing out the contents, facts, truths and the merits of knowing the Indian literature and giving a correct picture on the literature heritage of our nation.

Undertaking as much service oriented work like serving the poor, old aged, sick, blind, and so on through sevanam samarpanam projects. Building curriculum oriented syllabus adoptaptable for all schools world over .

We would also like to Inform the world that everything was NOT present in ancient India, but MANY things connected with science, technology, integrated life management, psychological knowledge and so on existed in ancient India. Almost all these scientific information also withstood the test of time and still survive in the practical and theoretical life/area of Indians and those who are adopting the Indian way of life. 

Reification and sedimentation of Sri Aurobindo's work Re: Reflections on THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY By Debashish Banerji by Rich on Wed 25 Oct 2006 09:24 AM PDT Permanent Link Seems like we are following the usual course of misunderstanding inherent in considering Sri Aurobindo's writing in the same conversation in which other methods of intellectual inquiry are probed…  

1) To identify a manner of discourse which could be fromulated to allow the presentation of Sri Aurobindo's system of integral yoga and transformation, in a language which could be legitimized in academic situ. It was in no means an effort at reducing Sri Aurobindo's message to criterion defined by postmodernist discourse… (To me finding such methods of cross-cultural intersubjective discourse regards the yoga is a raison d'être of SCIY)

2) To address the problem of the reification and sedimentation of Sri Aurobindo's work in current doxa pervading the institutions which are founded on his vision… Hinduvta is one example… And finally there is a need to address the mischaracterizations of leftist (and or/ marxist) who deliberately falsify SA works to set up their straw man thesis of communalism in India. The work of Jyotirmaya Sharma falls into this category (although I do not wish to again appear sanctimonious, in my pronouncements I also see this as a founding vision of SCIY)  rich [8:21 AM Sunday, October 29, 2006]