Sri Aurobindo is neglected as a literary critic

Sri Aurobindo Ashram - E-Library - Works Of Sri Aurobindo - CWSA - 28 Letters On Yoga-I Page – 272 … it is not our hope to transform suddenly the whole human race. Your object is precisely to lead a higher life away from the ordinary world, only it is not solitary; there is a collective side to it and a side, not only of meditation, but of work, action and creation. There is nothing in this that is impossible.

Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx: integral sociology and dialectical ... - Page xx - -Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya - 1988 - Here the student of the history of sociology can hardly fail to note that the Marx-Aurobindo controversy is a creative extension of a very old and interesting intellectual battle which has been going on for centuries and drawing into its arena distinguished thinkers like Hobbes, Rousseau, Vico, Hegel, Comte, Mill, and Morgan. 6:46 PM

Aurobindo, the first Indian English critic of poetry – Dr. Sandipan Vitthal Wanve, Maharashtra

Sri Aurobindo is neglected as a literary critic. Because people considered him as a saint, a yogi and even a philosopher but not as a literary critic and poet of eminence. But actually he was a man with a keen sense of critical perception…

Aurobindo has an encyclopaedic range. Not only English authors but European writers all come under the critical purview of Aurobindo. Ancient Indian works like Vedas and Upanishads are also studied by him. Aurobindo has used Eliot’s observation ‘Comparison and Analysis’ in his criticism. He has studied Milton beside Dante, Homer beside Valmiki and so on. His theory of translation of poetry is very fascinating. He think that there are two ways of rendering a poem from one language into another- one is to keep strictly to the manner and turn of the original, the other to take its spirit, sense and imagery and reproduce them freely so as to suit the new language.

Aurobindo’s observations about the poet and poetry create special place in Indian criticism. He is the first Indian English critic of poetry with a theory of his own. His assessment of English authors remains as a gift for the readers.

Sri Aurobindo - the vocal opponent of socialism - Sanjeev Sabhlok's revolutionary blog sabhlokcity.com

Most people think of Sri Aurobindo as a great spiritual and literary master. Few realise that he was, in line with Vivekananda and most Indian philosophers, a great proponent of liberty and – in Sri Aurobindo's case – a direct opponent of socialism… The more I think about it, it becomes clear that I am speaking from the ANCIENT INDIAN TRADITION. It is an instinctive expression of critical thinking, tolerance, and liberty that ancient India so deeply understood… a deep instinctive tolerance and insistence on liberty. It was an instinctive expression of Indian-ness, the true Hindutva… It is time to reclaim Hindu Capitalism (also known as Hindu Dharma) and bring tolerance and liberty back to India. This includes economic freedom and incentive-based governance outlined in Arthashastra.

A Philosopher Defends Favoritism BY CARL L. BANKSTON III Steven T. Asma has an interesting article on fairness versus favoritism...

I have consistently found that the actions of parents undermine programs aimed at redistributing resources and opportunities to achieve uniform “fairness” in American schools. Even when parents sincerely believe that every student should have exactly the same benefits and opportunities, they do everything they can to maximize the opportunities of their own children. Since some families are better able to realize their goals than others, families promote inequality of opportunity. They are, Asma might say, devoted to favoritism. This, I think, is as it should be. Parents who do don’t want to promote the best interests of their own children over goals of abstract equality are, to put it bluntly, bad parents.

The Soul, Karma and the Evolutionary Progression « Sri Aurobindo Studies

The law of karma as part of a process of soul evolution and development can only have meaning if it is continuous and follows the line of development.

Message on Mother's Mahasamadhi 17th Nov Sri Aurobindo Center of Los Angeles.

Devotees throng Aurobindo ashram Webindia123 - Thousands of devotees from all over the country and abroad thronged the Sri Aurobindo Ashram here today to pay tributes to the Mother, a leading disciple of Sri...

Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch. Saturday 17 November 2012 The Mother’s Mahasamadhi Day will be observed in the Ashram as a day of SILENCE

6.45 p.m. - Offering of Lights of Aspiration

7.00 p.m. - Silent Meditation

On 17th November 1973, the Mother left her body. She was ninety-five. Many among her children were deeply shaken for the time being. But they realise now that she is always present amidst them.

Both at home and abroad, the devotees see the Mother in their dreams. They feel her presence, listen to her message and get inspiration and instruction in their work. They firmly believe that the Mother will return in a new form. Meanwhile her mission is getting quietly fulfilled more and more. When Sri Aurobindo left his body the Mother said, "Nothing has changed. All that Sri Aurobindo has said is true, time will prove it." On the Mother's withdrawal, her children are carrying on her work repeating the same dictum "Nothing has changed."

It is upon you, the young, that her hope rests.

Home > Sri Aurobindo> Memorial Plaques In Calcutta

"Sri Aurobindo and Calcutta Memorial Committee" identified places in Calcutta where Sri Aurobindo had stayed at or worked from. In co-operation with the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, Memorial Plaques were erected at these identified sites - a consummation of Joya di's long and laborious endeavour.

Guidance for the seeker

This message is generated randomly from a collection of short written statements taken from the notes, letters, and messages of The Mother. The process of generating the guidance is the electronic equivalent of randomly looking up a book to receive an indication or answer.

Sri Aurobindo's work is untouchable in terms of comprehensiveness

New book Awareness-in-Action: A Critical Integralism for the Challenges of Our Time March 2012 Click Here to Download Awareness-in-Action

Should you choose to read, discuss, and share this work, it will help to remember that its primary purpose is to seed derivative applications in such real-world fields of human action as economics, business, politics, governance, sociology, journalism, and activism. While I have already been doing so in economics and business, there is no shortage of opportunities for critical integral reconstruction of established theories and practices within, between, and beyond disciplinary and institutional boundaries. If you would like to apply Awareness-in-Action in your particular field, please let me know. I would be glad to help in any way I can. Daniel J. O'Connor, Bainbridge Island, Washington Popular articles Sustainable Growth: What is Right? Who Decides? - A Crisis of Vision: Toward a More Integral Economics

But what about the prospect of an integral theory that bridges and unites the essence of both evolution and creationism? What if the pattern that we observe as evolution was the explicit unfolding of an implicit pattern of latent potentials previously involved in the human and natural world? What if we and our world are simultaneously involved or enfolded Spirit and evolved or unfolded Matter, Life, Mind, etc.? This hypothesis was beautifully articulated nearly 100 years ago by Sri Aurobindo in The Life Divine.  3:44 AM Posted by Daniel O'Connor

Integral Yoga is the path to enlightenment put to paper by Sri Aurobindo, an Indian activist, guru and philosopher… My general comments on the philosophy of Aurobindo are exceedingly positive. He makes every attempt to be comprehensive and exhaustive in his explorations, the extent to which has not been improved upon since only about 20 years ago with the advent of Ken Wilber's work. For 30 years, Aurobindo's work was untouchable in terms of comprehensiveness. He commands an incredible breadth of knowledge with respect to not only all spiritual enlightenment paths, but psychology, sociology and politics. He beautifully blends the masculine (Divine) and feminine (The Mother) aspects of spirituality providing a balanced and comprehensive insight into the nature of God. There is only one major point which I think is a bit weak, which is the somewhat overreliance on a deus maquina for areas of transformation which cannot yet be clearly articulated logically. However, if you want to get a comprehensive and systematic formula for the purpose and meaning of life, specifically with regard to human evolution going forward, Aurobindo remains untouchable.  Brandon Peele 8:38 AM

Joy of being: The Integral Yoga The Hindu R. DINESH MADURAI, November 15, 2012

The Integral Yoga is all about how one pulls in all the faculties inward. This will be possible only when the Body, Vital (Prana) and the Mind all agree on one single pointed or overarching goal. This has to be permanent Happiness or Bliss. Once that choice is made, then the search for that is not outside or in circumstances or words of others. It will be a pure and simple identification with the One who is inside or the same One in any form externally. Then all other Desires, even if they exist will be sacrificed to That One. All Knowledge would be used only to deepen one’s experience of That One and He becomes one’s constant companion. All the weaknesses either of the Body, feelings or Mind all fall away to be replaced by a quiet enjoyment of the vagaries of Life. Then one does not feel pressure or feel Life is futile and try to change external circumstances but instead one becomes deeper and deeper inward. As this progresses, the right effort would be made to change external circumstances if required to enable one progress faster on this path.

Some Links by Don Boudreaux Nov 15, 2012 I, Pencil

The full six-plus-minute-long video will be officially released tomorrow: It’s a truly inspiring account of voluntary, globe-spanning human cooperation.

Some Thoughts on Naturalism from Larval Subjects - Oct 29, 2012

The paper and pencil that we use is not just an unnecessary prop that we use for the sake of convenience and that we could dispense with as representationalists would have it.  Rather, paper and pencil actually extend our minds and allow us to engage in forms of reasoning that we would not otherwise be capable of doing.  The paper remembers on our behalf.  As I prove a geometrical theorem, I write down each step on a piece of paper.  The paper preserves the earlier steps, allowing us to focus on the step we’re currently working on.  Because the paper preserves the earlier steps, we can return to them when we need them for a new stage in the proof.  More importantly, the paper reduces the work-load of the brain insofar as we don’t have to engage in the calorically costly activity of keeping all these steps in our mind, and increases the speed at which we’re able to solve the problem.  Clark’s theory is anti-representationalist in the sense that he claims that cognition involves the use of physical entities outside the brain, rather than claiming that all cognition is the manipulation of symbols in the brain.  For Clark, the paper and pencil are literally a part of the cognitive apparatus.  This is not an idealist thesis as he’s not suggesting that mind makes these physical entities, but is rather the thesis that the tools we use are a part of our cognitive system.  He could be mistaken– I happen to think he’s right –but the important point is that he’s able to arrive at this thesis by taking our biology seriously, by taking seriously limitations of our brains, memory, etc., and by taking seriously the fact that like all other critters we need to get around in the world, respond to events in the world in real time, etc.

Notice just how much Clark’s naturalism differs from that of E.O. Wilson’s.  Clark is not making the claim that everything we do is really about biological survival and reproduction.  In fact, Clark’s extended mind hypothesis seeks to explain how, through our use of various media, we go beyond our biology.  The media that we use render us capable of things that at the level of simple biology we would not be capable of.  For Clark the first prosthesis or mental extension we develop is language.  Language, according to Clark, extends our mind dramatically, allowing us, for example, to think of entities in terms of general classes and in their absence in a way that would not be possible for perceptual systems alone.  In many respects, though a naturalism, Clark’s hypothesis is diametrically opposed to Wilson’s.  Humans become something different with each new medium they invent.  We don’t simply endlessly repeat the same biological imperatives of reproduction and survival.

Sri Aurobindo, Adorno, Levinas, and Laruelle

The Indian Condition from Centre Right India by Jaideep Prabhu: A version of this post was published on Niti Central on November 05, 2012.

It is remarkable how entrenched statism – and to a slightly lesser extent, socialism – are in the Indian psyche… Call it fate, or blame the vagaries of history, but around the time of the Enlightenment and the subsequent Industrious and Industrial revolutions, India underwent significant de-industrialisation and was ultimately colonised… The cost of missing an intellectual upheaval has been incalculable… There is no liberal tradition, based on individualism and liberty, in India… The institutional breakdown initiated by Indira Gandhi has taken a severe toll on the Indian political landscape. So what is the solution? I do not have one. 

हम हैं Anonymous! from Centre Right India by Jaideep Prabhu

Personally, I am deeply suspicious of anonymity, but personal dislike is not strong enough a reason to mandate disclosure. If dislikes were the yardstick, I’d also do away with poverty, socialism, war, and bigots. Sadly, it is not so. For all the “principled” opposition to anonymity, let it be noted – there is no such principle.

The Preferential Moment from philosophy autobiography by Jeff Meyerhoff

If the preference for an idea, the liking or disliking, strikes first, and the reasoning that justifies it follows, then learning more about the ingredients and mechanics of preference tells us about belief… This focus on the preferential moment, our liking or disliking, our desires, is unusual. It runs contrary to the main thrust of post-Enlightenment reason and science. But its role in believing the ideas we adopt as our own is, I’m arguing, necessary. If necessary we should know more about it. 

levinas book in the works from plastic bodies 

I’m working on a brief book on Levinas’s aesthetics that will also include some examination of his contributions to speculative metaphysics, philosophical ecology, race theory, and philosophy of art. The book will present what I’m calling the “darker side” of Levinas and is aimed at readers who would like an approach to Levinas that largely avoids redundant discussion of the face, the Other, and all the usual catchphrases… He’s a rich and, I think, dark thinker who deserves a more complex and diverse body of scholarship. At the end of the day I just think that there’s a lot more that can be done with him.

Underpants Gnomes: A Critique of the Academic Left from Larval Subjects 

How exactly is Adorno to produce an effect in the world if only PhD’s in the humanities can understand him?  Who are these things for?  We seem to always ignore these things and then look down our noses with disdain at the Naomi Kleins and David Graebers of the world.  To make matters worse, we publish our work in expensive academic journals that only universities can afford, with presses that don’t have a wide distribution, and give our talks at expensive hotels at academic conferences attended only by other academics.  Again, who are these things for?  Is it an accident that so many activists look away from these things with contempt, thinking their more about an academic industry and tenure, than producing change in the world? …

Our most serious shortcomings are to be found at phase 2.  We almost never make concrete proposals for how things ought to be restructured, for what new material infrastructures and semiotic fields need to be produced, and when we do, our critique-intoxicated cynics and skeptics immediately jump in with an analysis of all the ways in which these things contain dirty secrets, ugly motives, and are doomed to fail.  How, I wonder, are we to do anything at all when we have no concrete proposals?  We live on a planet of 6 billion people.  These 6 billion people are dependent on a certain network of production and distribution to meet the needs of their consumption.  That network of production and distribution does involve the extraction of resources, the production of food, the maintenance of paths of transit and communication, the disposal of waste, the building of shelters, the distribution of medicines, etc., etc., etc.

What are your proposals?  How will you meet these problems?  How will you navigate the existing mediations or semiotic and material features of infrastructure?  Marx and Lenin had proposals.  Do you?  Have you even explored the cartography of the problem?  Today we are so intellectually bankrupt on these points that we even have theorists speaking of events and acts and talking about a return to the old socialist party systems, ignoring the horror they generated, their failures, and not even proposing ways of avoiding the repetition of these horrors in a new system of organization.  Who among our critical theorists is thinking seriously about how to build a distribution and production system that is responsive to the needs of global consumption, avoiding the problems of planned economy, ie., who is doing this in a way that gets notice in our circles?  Who is addressing the problems of micro-fascism that arise with party systems (there’s a reason that it was the Negri & Hardt contingent, not the Badiou contingent that has been the heart of the occupy movement).   At least the ecologists are thinking about these things in these terms because, well, they think ecologically.  Sadly we need something more, a melding of the ecologists, the Marxists, and the anarchists.  We’re not getting it yet though, as far as I can tell.  Indeed, folks seem attracted to yet another critical paradigm, Laruelle.

Networks from Larval Subjects 

A centralized network is what we now critique as “transcendent”.  It was always a network, never a genuine transcendence (as in the case of Plato or theism), and never fully successful.  These networks were the medieval “great chains of being”, the Oedipus, patriarchy, and more recently systems of party politics or the Stalinist state-form.  They were machines that required all other nodes in an assemble to pass through one point:  God, the king, the father, the dictator, the president, or the party.  They were always a network.  At the other end of the spectrum we see anarchy or what communism should be.  Communism and anarchy are synonyms.  Sadly neither has ever been realized except at small scales.  This is the dream of all genuine politics:  a network without hubs…

A politics either aims to reinforce the power of a hub (reaction, authoritarianism, traditionalism), to demolish or produce new hubs (revolution), or to abolish hubs altogether in the name of forming a distributed network (anarcho-communism).  There’s really not much more to be said.  

A Tale of Two Scholarly Debates on Adam Smith from Adam Smith's Lost Legacy by Gavin Kennedy - A Response to Claude Hillinger’s “Adam Smith’s Argument For the Existence of An ‘Invisible hand’” Gavin Kennedy (Emeritus Professor, Edinburgh Business School, Edinburgh)

Smith’s assertion was confined to a modest quantitative arithmetical change in “annual revenue and employment”.  It concludes with comments on Claude Hillinger’s interesting, though ultimately flawed, version of Adam Smith’s supposed argument for the existence of an “invisible hand”.

Of transcendence from Love of All Wisdom by Amod Lele

Last time I discussed the relationship between the concepts of Ascent and of transcendence… A key feature of any kind of transcendence, it seems to me, is dissatisfaction: something appears wrong with that which one is trying to transcend. In Nussbaum’s transcendence-by-descent, one is dissatisfied with one’s own weaknesses and flaws. In an Ascent, one is in some sense dissatisfied with the whole world. But what if one is dissatisfied with the whole world in a way that motivates one not to step outside the world, but to changeit?

Such a formulation immediately calls to mind Karl Marx, whose gravestone reads “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point, however, is to change it.” Such a view is at the heart of radicalism; it is directly opposed to any form of literal conservatism, where the point is to keep the world more or less as it is. But Marx is hardly alone in holding such radicalism. Modernism itself is radical: the celebration of the modern is a celebration of change, a break with the past.

But what I’ve repeatedly been noticing lately is the similarity between a Marxian radicalism or modernism, on one hand, and Ascent traditions on the other. Both aim for a transcendence of the world – because both hate the real world as it happens to be.

Comparison of Rebirth With Other Theories of Existence from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

To the mind limited by the scope of our daily existence and understanding, rebirth is one among any number of theories, but not something settled. Sri Aurobindo points out that even from the viewpoint of the mental perspective, which weighs possibilities and probabilities, but cannot come to any certain conclusions, the theory of rebirth explains the facts of our existence at least as well as the other theories being entertained… The crux of the issue is whether the human being is a static creation fixed forever in its place, or an evolutionary being with dynamic potential to develop beyond the level of consciousness we currently are able to manifest. Rebirth provides a mechanism for dynamic development, which is not required in a static universe. 

Modern woman is Public enemy

Ujjwala K: Indian Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo's Criticism - Muse India

The origin of Indian culture and philosophy marks the beginning of literary criticism in India. Indian poetic theory bears evidence to the impact of rich, cultural, philosophical and religious heritage on Sanskrit literature. The theory of beauty is not only confined to literary forms of Poetry, Literature and Drama but is also applicable to other arts like music, dance, painting, and sculpture. The Hindus first developed the science of music from the beginning of Vedic Hymns. The Samaveda was especially meant for music. And the scale with seven notes and three octaves was known in India centuries before Greeks had it…

The new aesthetics that began with the impact of western thought culminates in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of art. Sri Aurobindo bases his philosophy on ancient Indian thought and experience revivified, regenerated and reshaped in his own being. He is one of the most significant outstanding thinkers who helped in recovering the lost tradition in aesthetics. The western concept of Art’s for Art’s sake is true only up to a certain point in Indian aesthetics. Aesthesis is not merely confined to reception of poetry and art but it extends to everything in the world. In Sri Aurobindo’s aesthetics all the dualities of ugliness, pain and pleasure are within the sphere of aesthetics. It encompasses heaven as well as earth, evil as well as good, spirit as well as matter. There can be an aesthetic response in truth also – a joy in the beauty, a love created by its charm, a rapture in the finding an aesthetic joy in its expression.

Implications of the Tantric Viewpoint on Rebirth from Sri Aurobindo Studies

Tantra focuses on the energy of creation, the Divine Shakti, and its manifestation through the world of forms. Tantra provides a first basis for a serious potential significance to life and rebirth. Sri Aurobindo describes the tantric perspective: “The Tantric solution shows us a supreme superconscient Energy which casts itself out here into teeming worlds and multitudinous beings and in its order the soul rises from birth to birth and follows its million forms, till in a last human series it opens to the consciousness and powers of its own divinity and returns through them by a rapid illumination to the eternal superconscience.”

We can see here the essence of the idea of an evolution of forms, and a progressive embodiment of ever higher levels of consciousness in these successively developed forms. We see here a real potential value and meaning to the life and struggle we experience in the universe. The tantric proposition thus approaches a solution that can answer all the questions and concerns.

Where the tantric approach is still incomplete is that it still posits as the eventual goal the abandonment of life into a supreme superconscience, so that eventually the significance it attributes to life is ephemeral and temporary in nature. Sri Aurobindo points out that “We find at last the commencement of a satisfying synthesis, some justification of existence, a meaningful consequence in rebirth, a use and a sufficient though only temporary significance for the great motion of the cosmos.”

The difficulty remaining is essentially that there is obviously so much consciousness, energy, effort and organization involved in the manifestation of the universe that we still cannot find it sufficient as a rationale for all of this, that the goal remains one of “escape”. As Sri Aurobindo points out: “…the supreme Energy constructs too long and stupendous a preparation for so brief and so insufficient a flowering.”

Savitri faces the giant head of Life: A Talk by RY Deshpande at Savitri.in on 6 November 2012 from Savitri

Even as the hungry wolves and hounds in the dangerous vital world are attacking Savitri, she is alert enough to recall the savior Name. At once peace comes to her. A similar situation was encountered by Aswapathy when he entered into the depths of Night. He dared into Hell’s kingdom with a prayer upon his lips and the great Name. Savitri with that savior name immediately enters into nameless peace. However, there is yet a greater danger, of the terrible Life-Force in the depths of darkness. Here could exist Falsehood and Error leading to dangerous situations.

Early Women's Writings in Orissa, 1898-1950: A Lost Tradition - Sachidanandan Mohanty (Author) Publication Date: January 6, 2005 

Focusing on the early literary experiences of women in the east Indian state of Orissa, this volume offers valuable insights into the conditions for these women at a time when the region witnessed the advent of Brahmo Samaj, the campaign for widow remarriage, the legal movement for the abolition of untouchability, the rise of women's education and trade union movements, and the struggle for national independence.

Trapped in a sieve The verbal attacks on women by self-appointed guardians of Indian culture show it is open season on ‘modern’ women in a tradition-entranced society. Sagarika Ghose writes. HT November 08, 2012

A fashionable cultural conservatism dominates a land in the throes of the seismic shocks of liberalisation and westernisation. Elaborately dressed ladies lined up on karva chauth to view their husbands through sieves and fast for their eternal health… Tradition has returned with a bang and asking questions about patriarchal festivals or the glorification of wifehood is seen as anti-national, anti-tradition, in short a spoilsport in the return-to-roots party. No wonder increasingly the modern woman is Public Enemy No. 1 and assertive women in public are vilified as creatures who deserve a public stoning… Modern women or the idea of the modern woman who is different from the stereotypical bharatiya nari is on a collision course with an already patriarchal society like India in the throes of rediscovering its traditions. While a colourful fiesta of annual rituals are happy and positive features, yet when they go hand-in-hand with upholding backward values, they start to become deeply dangerous. Sagarika Ghose is deputy editor, CNN-IBN.

Rewrite the Purusa-sukta Sagarika Ghose: IE Apr 15, 2003

Dalit historian Kancha Ilaiah has a suggestion. Just as the Vatican meets periodically to modernise catholicism, he says, the shankaracharyas should meet in conclave to modernise Hinduism. They should not only re-write the Purusa-sukta, but they should also decree that everyone, every woman, every tribal, every dalit, has the right to be priest of God and God is not the exclusive preserve of the brahmin. The event will have tremendous symbolic value, provide a turbine charge to India’s quest for modernity and Bhim Rao will at last be vindicated. The event will have tremendous symbolic value, provide a turbine charge to India's quest for modernity and Bhim Rao will at last be vindicated…

Perhaps for the renewal of Indian society, to create a spiritual awakening and to revitalize our culture, indeed to become a social democracy even as we are a political democracy, we need, as a conscientious public, to re-write the purusa sukta. Imagine what a thrill such an exercise will send out through our land. Imagine the amazing symbolic power of such a revision. Imagine the massive cultural and social renaissance it will create if the shankaracharyas or the heads of mathas or the mahamandaleswars at Varanasi all decided that for the sake of a massive spiritual and democratic symbol, they will rewrite this ancient yet fundamentally unjust hymn. Imagine the power of change. Sagarika Ghose's Blog: Re-write the Purusa-Sukta 9 Feb 2006 – There is a wonderful work on the Indian caste system called Homo Hierarchicus by Louis Dumont.

Talking to God in the Mother Tongue Manushi Home About us Indic Studies

A festival of music and dance to celebrate the lives and poetic compositions of women bhaktas and sufis (6th to 18th Century AD) 6, 7, 8, 9 November 2012. Daily 6 p.m to 9 pm ICCR audotorium, Azad Bhavan IP Estate, Behind ITO, New Delhi. Program 9th Nov 2012:

13. M.S. Sheela (South Indian classical music)
14. Revathi Ramachandran (Bharatnatyam)
15. Saswati Sen. (Kathak)

16. Anjalee Kaul (Kashmir sufi music) 

Promote a spirit of genuine intellectual enquiry

Indic Studies About ISP

An important fallout of this neglect is that in India people’s ignorance about their past heritage makes it easy for unscrupulous politicians to manipulate religious sentiments. Just as India’s Partition on religious lines was the handiwork of secular politicians like Jinnah and not of religious leaders, so also issues such as the Babri Masjid Ram Mandir came to be raised by politicians of the Sangh Parivar for electoral purposes rather than by religious leaders. Ignorance about the history of Indic religions and cultures is widespread even among the so-called educated elite. Politicians and bureaucrats run most important Hindu temples and Sikh gurudwaras. Imams have been reduced to the status of government employees. And yet these statist political encroachments on religious institutions are not the subject of study or discussion in India, even among those who believe in the separation of religion from State.

In order to fill this vacuum, the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, in collaboration with Manushi, has initiated the Indic Studies Project. Our endeavour is to encourage rigorous, study of diverse cultures and religious traditions in India and their associated: Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Bahaii, Jainism, Buddhism, Neo-Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, including their various sects and branches. Our aim is to promote and encourage study of vital but neglected issues, which have a profound bearing on the well being of our society. We believe it is imperative to situate the study of Indic religions at the interface of politics and culture.

The Indic Studies Project has so far organised two International Conferences on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilisation. This is the beginning of an important new process, which has far reaching implications for the political, cultural and intellectual future of India.

The most important contribution of this Project is that it brings together on one platform a diverse range of views and perspectives from otherwise often hostile camps. Those who are familiar with the academic scene in India recognise that in practically all disciplines a sharp divide has come to exist between those who see themselves as leftists and all those who are dubbed as rightists. They seldom meet for dialogue on a common platform and tend to attack each other either through newspapers or in their respective enclaves where the ‘other’ is critiqued in absentia. This division of academics into two permanently hostile camps has proved very harmful for academic institutions in India; it even affects recruitment choices. In order to get a job, scholars are forced to belong to one group or the other, promoting a herd mentality. Each group is aligned, openly or covertly, to either a national party or a regional party. The consequent battle for control over academic institutions through patronised appointments has played an important role in destroying the academic health of our educational institutions. Even academic issues are debated on party lines rather than on intellectual merit.

This polarised situation must change if we are to promote a spirit of genuine intellectual enquiry. Our ability to deal with complex issues and find meaningful solutions to many contentious problems will remain impaired if we do not learn to engage with issues and academic pursuits in a non-partisan manner… These tasks can be performed effectively only if a wide community of scholars and students participates actively in formulating and guiding its agenda and course of action.
We welcome your feedback and suggestions. Those interested in joining the Indic Studies Network (Is New) may contact us at madhupurnima@indicstudies.org 

India: Memorial to a Genocide - Insist on justice 7 November, 2012 by Romila Thapar

Does this have to do with religion or with the way religion is mobilised politically with religious organisations becoming the agencies of political ideologies? Are Hindus by nature more given to killing, despite all the hype about belonging to a non-violent and tolerant culture? Or, why is it that the agencies of law and order — the police and administration — seem not to protect those attacked when they are members of a religious minority, or Dalits or women? Are they so infiltrated by religious extremist influence — Hindus in the main — that they do not bother to defend those attacked?

Or, does nationalism define ‘Indian’ now to mean ‘Hindu’, and therefore the Hindu has primacy as citizen? Does this make non-Hindus dispensable? One wonders what has happened to the earlier concept of being Indian, a category inclusive of all communities; a concept that my generation of Indians stood by? If the violence is spontaneous, and in the name of a religion, then it is a blot on the religion of the community that perpetrates the violence, be it Hindu, Muslim or Sikh… The assault on women is particularly vicious. Women are the most devastated victims because the attack on them cuts both ways.

Implications of the Vaishnava Viewpoint on Rebirth from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

The Vaishnava path of Hinduism provides the first glimmer of a positive sense to existence, by proposing that life is a divine play of the divine Being and the goal is to manifest and experience that divine Bliss. Sri Aurobindo finds this positive affirmation to be both powerful and insightful. At the same time, he indicates that it has not gone quite far enough: “There is more here in the world than a play of secret delight; there is knowledge, there is power, there is a will and a mighty labour. Rebirth so looked at becomes too much of a divine caprice with no object but its playing, and ours is too great and strenuous a world to be so accounted for.”

Talking to God in the Mother Tongue Manushi Home About us Indic Studies

A festival of music and dance to celebrate the lives and poetic compositions of women bhaktas and sufis (6th to 18th Century AD) 6, 7, 8, 9 November 2012. Daily 6 p.m to 9 pm ICCR audotorium, Azad Bhavan IP Estate, Behind ITO, New Delhi Program 7th Nov 2012:

5. Arati Ankalikar (North Indian classical music)

6. Manpreet Akhtar (Sufi/Punjabi music)

7. Vanashree Rao (Kuchipudi)

8. Dhananjay Kaul (Kashmir sufi music)

Women mystics

[Wisdom Quotes from Savitri [Kindle Edition] Sri Aurobindo (Author), Savitri Foundation (Editor)

Yet there are on occasions wonderful crimson seeds of exceptional quality and distinction which stand out in their flowering possibilities to give rise to new life and zest and pursuit, of truth and beauty, as much as of power and light and joy… No doubt, in the poem these occur naturally in their substantial richnesses, exist with their vivid textual background and relevance, in their respective fitting contexts; isolating them from it might therefore appear somewhat unusual or atypical if not weird. Yet they do carry in them a firm and forceful universality which is context-free, which is what aphorismós is.

In the present work these have been put in the running sequence as they appear in the main body of the poem. It must also be pointed out that there are quite a number of lines or passages of various lengths which could have been valuably included in any proper representative book of quotations; however, this is generally ruled out because of the indicative pronominal references in them which do not easily lend themselves to form a part of an unbounded set… There are in these stanzas pithy concise statements with their universal implications.]

[The Freedom of the Integral Yoga by August Timmermans from Posthuman Destinies (reprinted from Collaboration summer 2012) 

I never thought that this groundbreaking integral yoga could be an extension of Hinduism or that it would relate to living a religious life that requires traditional worship of the gurus… It not only surpasses the traditional yogas with their sole aim of liberation and the old belief systems that take the afterlife as one’s final destiny – but it bursts out of these confinements and enters into its own space, free from everything previously thought, envisioned and tried…

Uniquely, the integral yoga stands free from history and religion and itself provides the sublime freedom for each sadhak to follow one’s own way to the realization of the divine, and the freedom for the collectivity to live and build a spiritual life that is not prescribed by artificial dogma but inspired by the higher consciousness that ultimately derives from the living supramental plane and that clings to nothing but the essential and abiding truth, – leading to the ultimate goal of the life divine. 

Indian Religions: A Historical Reader of Spiritual Expression and Experience by Peter Heehs (Sep 1, 2002) A really good book, March 22, 2004 By A Customer

Before reading this book I thought I knew a lot about Indian religions… But my favourite part was reading the modern mystics like Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Aurobindo and also others like Swami Ramdas. I think everyone could learn a lot by reading this book even if they think they already know a lot about Indian religion. And if you don't know anything about it, this is the best introduction I have ever seen.

Are you Spending your Life Abusing Others Girish Karnad? from The Rediscovery of India by Sandeep B [Note: This is a translation of Pratap Simha’s piece that appeared in today’s Kannada Prabha.]

Let’s put this same question to Girish Karnad. Naipaul wasn’t born in India and didn’t live here. He tried to understand India by travelling through the land. But Mr. Jnanapith, you who were born here, you who have written in Kannada, an Indian language, in which play have you written about sculpture, a vital aspect of Indian culture?

The history of India is more truly reflected in her sculpture than in any (history) book. Mr. Karnad you question Naipaul over music but where have you written about Indian sculpture in any of your work? How can those who don’t understand Indian sculpture claim to understand India? Additionally, in which work of yours have you written about the Vedas which are so intricately, inseparably woven into Indian culture and ethos? If you think these questions are irrelevant, your claim that Naipaul hasn’t written about Indian music is equally irrelevant. Because he hasn’t written about music, it doesn’t mean Naipaul hasn’t understood it. Is there a rule which says that one needs to write about everything one has understood?

Talking to God in the Mother Tongue

A festival of music and dance to celebrate the lives and poetic compositions of women bhaktas and sufis (6th to 18th Century AD) 6, 7, 8, 9 November 2012. Daily 6 p.m to 9 pm ICCR audotorium, Azad Bhavan IP Estate, Behind ITO, New Delhi Program 6th Nov 2012:

1. Parvathy Baul (Bengali Baul singer)

2. Rani Khanam (Kathak)

3. Lakshmi Vishwanathan (Bharatnatyam)

4. Jhelum Paranjape (Odissi)