Sri Aurobindo's Copernican revolution in Vedic hermeneutics

The philosophy of integralism, or, The metaphysical synthesis ... - Page 81 - Haridas Chaudhuri - 1954 - Russell says that the notion of the universe is traceable to an anthropocentric outlook generated by the geocentricism of pre-Copernican astronomy. But he conveniently turns a blind eye to the fact that the advocates of one all-embracing ...

On Samuel Hugo Bergman's Philosophy - Page 39 Abraham Zvie Bar-On - 1986 - Preview - More editions ... a revolution in modern philosophy, which in Bergman's view was not less important than his "Copernican Revolution". ... To express his admiration Bergman quoted the words of the renowned Hindu thinker Sri Aurobindo: Man must be ...

Sri Aurobindo circle - Issue 32 - Page 91 - Aurobindo Ghose, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Sri Aurobindo Society - 1976 - and more in the evolving ... The New Copernican Revolution, as it is called, proposes a profounder change in the scientific picture and paradigm itself. And as Kuhn puts it, when ...

Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta: The Yoga of Sri Aurobindo - Page 137 - Nolini Kanta Gupta - 1972 - ... and link up mind and intellect with that reality. This is the Copernican revolution that Science brought about in the modern outlook. Philosophers like Kant or Berkeley may say another thing and even science itself just nowadays may appear.

Annual - Page 78 - Sri Aurobindo mandir, Calcutta - 1982 - the rise of a Fuehrer or a Dictator seems to have been a ... That is not the Copernican revolution that is needed in the social body today. Money was always a power and those who had money were always ...

The Advent - Volumes 27-28 - Page 25 - Sri Aurobindo Ashram - 1970 - SCIENCE AND ... It was this world-picture, accommodated to the practical needs of science and supported by theological orthodoxy, which became the target of the so-called "Copernican Revolution". We must notice ...

Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of evolution - Page 34 - V. Madhusudan Reddy - 1966 - ... yet confirmed, *In the words of the physicist Niels Bohr, " We are both spectators and actors in the great drama of existence." was regarded as the centre of the universe. The Copernican 

Sri Aurobindo: a biography and a history - Volume 2 - Page 1223 - K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar - 1972 - Writing of the essential character of the poem, Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1947: Savitri is the record of a seeing, of an experience which is not of the common kind and is often. " ibid., p. 864. 66 ibid., p. 829. In terms of Copernican astronomy, of s ...

Bharata manisha quarterly - Volume 4 - Page 19 - 1978 - Sri Aurobindo's is such a Copernican revolution as his method of symbolic interpretation of the Veda provides the secret key to unravel the spiritual ... Herein lies the significance of Sri Aurobindo's Copernican revolution in Vedic hermeneutics.

The Theosophist - Volume 92 - Page 111 - Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, Annie Wood Besant - 1970 - The matter is excellently summed up as usual by Aurobindo, who is acutely conscious of the need to make humanly ... as was the Copernican recovery of helio-centricity to the preceding ignorance in regard to the operation of our Solar system.

The Hindu quest for the perfection of man - Page 165 - Troy Wilson Organ - 1970 - ... the Copernican, the Darwinian, the Marxian, and the Freudian to challenge the fundamental assumptions upon which ... In Hinduism the Westerner can look in upon Aurobindo, "The Indian Conception of Life," The Indian Philosophical ...

Prabuddha bharata: or awakened India - Volume 91 - Page 283 - Vivekananda (Swami), Advaita Ashrama - 1986 - Often the revolutions of the modern centuries (Copernican. Industrial. French, Darwinian and the ... Aurobindo as a modern Jnani and Gandhi as a modern Karma-yogi have paved the path to moksha. Professional academic philosophers like ...

Nivedita commemoration volume - Page 247 - Sister Nivedita, Amiya Kumar Mazumdar - 1968 - SRI AUROBINDO'S CONCEPT OF MAN A NEO-KANTIAN REVIEW D. P. CHATTOPADHYAYA If philosophy is defined in ... Since the days of Kant and primarily because of his (anthropocentric) Copernican Revolution this view has become ...

Philosophical consciousness and scientific knowledge: conceptual ... - Page 107 - Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya, Ashoke Kumar Sen Gupta, Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture. Sub Project: Consciousness, Science, Society, Value, and Yoga - 2004 -  ... in the Interuniversal Essence while experiencing an unfolding of the nested hierarchy of Being (Sri Aurobindo). ... universe we inhabit almost the same way Copernican Revolution demolished the unique position of the Earth in the cosmos.

The moon of Hoa Binh: a novel - Volume 2 - Page 588 - Nha Trang Công Huyè̂n Tôn Nữ, William L. Pensinger - 1994 - "He [Steiner] credits Goethe with a discovery of a Copernican scale: the Beautiful is not, as 'Platonic' art theory asserts, ... himself in agreement with Webern (not to mention with the objectives Aurobindo had in mind for the practice of yoga).

No other name?: a critical survey of Christian attitudes toward ... - Page 149 - Paul F. Knitter - 1985 - He appeals to Sri Aurobindo's "logic of the Infinite": all we can say about the ultimate reality is much more a matter of ... A New Christology Hick does not evade the implications of his Copernican revolution: "This paradigm shift involves a ...

Newsletter - Volume 9, Issues 1-14 - Page 9 - Institute of Noetic Sciences - 1981 - ... as diverse as Aldous Huxley, Teilhard de Chardin, Sri Aurobindo, Joseph Campbell, Michael Polanyi, and Carl jung. ... as the Industrial Revolution, and simultaneously a conceptual revolution as shaking as the Copernican Revolution.

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 ...

Finding a genuinely encompassing compassionate truth

Oldtimer • 16 days ago There are more secularisms in India than religions, so you better disclose right upfront which secularism you belong to… European secularism is not secular (don't ask me according to which definition of secular). It is a Christian concept. 

jasonbourne • 16 days ago People like Ambedkar make this wrong assumption that Hindus have to follow Manu Smriti which never was the case. Manu like Kamasutra became famous because of the British. So we should stop obsessing over Manu smriti which was never meant to be infallible in the first place.

Vijay Kumar • 14 days ago • parent Hinduism is brought into the discussion because Hindutva is offering a resistance to move towards secular/liberal position (which would be in line with the first amendment, as supported by Mr. Harsh Gupta).

Susheel Mehta • 16 days ago Dear Harsha, Thanks for a wonderful write-up. As always your arguments are marvels of clarity. But I would like to register specific issues of disagreement: 1. You confuse Dharma with Dharmashastras. That is akin to confusing Physics the subject with Physics the book written by Aristotle. While the former is more of a meta-framework, the latter a seminal and important contribution, but not the last word…

7. I may be wrong about my contentions. But the point is that social theorists have not examined with clarity the strength and challenges of our society and its internal dynamics. Rather the idea is always to look it through western experience.

Live: Kejriwal party launch looks a bit like a cultural show Firstpost

Nizken September 24, 2012 at 12:38 am Sandeep, just curious…..where and how do you find the time to post all this information from?

Sandeep September 24, 2012 at 1:35 pm The pedestrian explanation is that it is the work of several years. The modern yogi has to know western philosophy, other religions, linguistics, physics, biology, psychology, neuroscience, sociology because they are all investigating, albeit partially, the same realm of consciousness. The spiritual explanation is that other burdens are decreased with progress on the spiritual path… Sandeep December 29, 2011 at 11:35 am Some people might call us loony as well for believing in the existence of occult spirits

Karl Popper, the enemy of certainty, part 4: Lakatos, Kuhn and Feyerabend The Guardian (blog) - ‎Oct 1, 2012‎ Liz Williams This diverse trio drove the philosophy of science forwards with their responses to Popper's theory of falsification

Lakatos's views form a halfway house between Kuhn and Popper (he was a student of the latter), and his approach is often considered to be a more nuanced form of falsificationism.

A more anarchic approach – literally – is offered by Feyerabend. Auxiliary hypotheses are critical, he argues, but may be irrational. In fact, it's impossible to develop any set of methodological rules by which scientists work: ad hoc, rule-breaking postulates are the order of the day. We seem to be heading at full speed towards epistemological relativism here, and indeed, according to Feyerabend, this is the case: not only does science fail to proceed according to fixed principles, but it doesn't deserve its epistemic privileges, either. Far out! So if your preference is for Feyerabend over Popper, astrologers might be on to something, after all.

Occam’s Razor and the Theory of Rebirth from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

Occam’s razor, which essentially is the concept that when all other things are equal, the simplest explanation will tend to be the best, is a useful conceptual tool in many fields of life, and helps us avoid bogging down in needless complexity,–thereby helping us sort out theories that have “too many moving parts” to sustain serious scrutiny. This is especially helpful when it comes to practical matters in the material world, but it is not always the answer! Sri Aurobindo uses the example of the simple explanation of the “theory of the spheres” as an explanation of astronomical events. Today we have a much more detailed and complex understanding, as well as the ability to observe many more facts that need to be covered by any solution.

This becomes a question because the theory of rebirth and the corollary law of karma actually is a quite good example of “Occam’s razor”. Sri Aurobindo explains: “The theory of rebirth coupled with that of Karma gives us a simple, symmetrical, beautiful explanation of things…”

If we accepted Occam’s razor as a determining factor, we would have to admit that rebirth and karma are the best explanation we have for the facts of our existence. Sri Aurobindo cautions however, that while this may provide us “moral certitude”, it does not yet constitute certainty or absolute proof and thus, much more examination of the question is warranted. Rebirth and Karma, Section I, Chapter 1, Rebirth, pp. 6-7

Précis of “Beyond enacted experiences” from Love of All Wisdom by Amod Lele - Oct 1, 2012

Wilber can take this approach because he claims repeatedly that the “core” or “essentials” of these traditions are constituted by replicable mystical experiences: one follows certain practices, such as prayer or meditation, and will then reliably achieve certain states of consciousness as a result. Wilber’s philosophy is then above all an attempt to integrate the knowledge of science with the knowledge derived from these states of consciousness. The problem with this approach is simple: these replicable mystical experiences simply are not the core of the vast majority of traditions out there…

The point of this criticism is to establish that replicable mystical experience is simply not the “core” or “essentials” of the premodern traditions. The view that it is, is a construct of the 19th-century quest for a “perennial philosophy” with perennial answers to the great questions. But while I have long agreed that there are perennial questions, I do not buy the claim that they have perennial answers, and certainly not that mystical experience supplies those answers universally. The perennial questions are perennially disputed, with answers going in multiple directions. In my view, a synthesis between different views needs to be found dialectically. One cannot put the traditions together by assuming that they are the same at their heart, whether in terms of mystical experience or anything else — for they aren’t. Instead, one must start with their differences as given, and take those differences as a starting point from which a mature and complex synthesis can be worked out. That’s harder, but as far as I can tell, it’s the only way to find a genuinely encompassing truth. And no empiricist method will get you there, not even one that incorporates mystical experiences alongside scientific ones.

Value Experience from The Pinocchio Theory by Steven Shaviro

Following Stengers, I'd like to consider what it might really mean to refrain from defacing value experiences. I take it that this largely applies to the "value experiences" of others than ourselves. And respecting the value experiences of others is not always an easy thing to do. I certainly don't want religious fundamentalists who deny the theory of evolution and claim that the Earth is only 6,000 years old to be teaching my children. But living as an atheist in a common world with religious believers, I also reject defacing the value experience of those believers, in the way that "New Atheists" like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens have done. I also want to work through the implications of Whitehead's claim that such "value experience… is the very essence of the universe." But doing this demands that we pass beyond the human. 

Notes on Muriel Combes’ book on Simondon from The Pinocchio Theory by Steven Shaviro

Both Stiegler and Simondon are problematic from a Marxist point of view. One might criticize Stiegler for turning a particular historical situation (that of alienation under capitalism) into an originary characteristic of the human species in general. While much in Stiegler's critique of capitalism is spot-on, he turns cultural symptoms into to basic existential situations, while omitting to consider capital accumulation & exploitation as the motors of capitalism.

नई शुरुआत फिर से दैनिक जागरण Mon, 01 Oct 2012

महात्मा गांधी और महर्षि अरविन्द के जीवन इसके जीवंत उदाहरण हैं। गांधी जी कोई दक्षिण अफ्रीका में क्रांति करने नहीं गए थे। वे वहां वकालत करने गए थे, लेकिन परिस्थितियों ने उन्हें इसके लिए मजबूर कर दिया कि वे स्वतंत्रता के लिए संघर्ष शुरू करें और दक्षिण अफ्रीका से शुरू हुआ संघर्ष ही उन्हें भारत तक ले आया। ठीक इसी तरह महर्षि अरविंद ने योग-अध्यात्म की दिशा में सोचा भी नहीं था। उन्होंने भारत को अंगे्रजी शासन से स्वतंत्र कराने का स्वप्न देखा था और इसके लिए क्रांति का मार्ग अपनाया। उन्होंने लंबे समय तक संघर्ष भी किया, लेकिन इसके बाद राजनीति या किसी अन्य रास्ते पर जाने के बजाय उन्होंने अध्यात्म का मार्ग चुना। बाद में इन दोनों ही विभूतियों को जिन कारणों से दुनिया भर में जाना गया, वे परिस्थितियों के चलते उनके जीवन में आए बदलाव के परिणाम थे। परिस्थितियों ने ही उनके सामने उनके उद्देश्य को स्पष्ट किया और उन्होंने अपने वास्तविक लक्ष्य की दिशा में प्रयास शुरू किए।

1m - Savitri Era Party ‏@SavitriEraParty One-stop blog for curing all theoretical confusion and muddled thinking just a click away at Savitri Era Learning Forum Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra  Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India