New comment on "This book has the impudence of luridly speaking ab...": Posted
by Seth Farber, PhD to Savitri
Era Open Forum at 6:41 pm, February 05, 2013
Dr Deshpande's denigration of romantic love,
and his proposition that it is inevitably profane is completely muddled and
contradicted by the poem Savitri--by the narrative and by the ideas it embodies
as well as by Savitri's ringing affirmation--with Sri Aurobindo's words of
course--of the innocence and divinity of romantic love… One might agree with
Deshpande that Heehs has projected a lurid element into Sri Aurobindo and Mira's
relationship, that he fails to convey the mysterious and awesome nature of
their bond--which Aurobindo conveys so well in Savitri. But Deshpande's
interpretation is even worse.
“Nature, driven out through the door, will come back through
the window”: A Reply by Joshua Ramey to Rocco Gangle’s “A Shield, a Scepter,
and a Crown: Enlarging the Circle of the Natural.” from An und für sich by joshua ramey
One recalls, of course, Boethius, and the
consolations of philosophy, and his vision of a virginal, elusive, yet
condescending and complicit source of truth. Even for my heretical brother
Bruno, the absolute was named mater materia, even if he did, in a
fascinating way, ascribe a kind of fecundity and virility to her that is
generally coded in terms of male power and prestige. At this point, in 2013,
the least I can say is that the complex feminine figure of nature continues to
haunt philosophy, that this complex is unresolved, and will remain unresolved
even if philosophy itself reaches some kind of numerical homeostasis as between
the many genders possible at a given juncture of human existence.
Peter Heehs - Yesterday 5:46 PM - New
Book
Writing the Self, a history of the idea of the self told mainly with reference to
diaries, memoirs, and other first person writings. Just released by Bloomsbury and available on Amazon. Bloomsbury - Writing the Self » The self has a
history. In the West, the idea of the soul entered Christianity with the Church
Fathers, notably Augustine. During the Renaissance the idea of …
Prison and Freedom
1909-1910
Thanks to my experience of these twelve
months I have been able to return to the world of action with tenfold hope,
with a fixed notion about Indian superiority, with redoubled respect for human
character, the future progress and well-being of the motherland and the human
race. This is not due to my inherent optimism or excessive
trust. Srijut Bepinchandra Pal had felt the same way in
the Buxar Jail, in the Alipore Jail Dr. Daly, who had served here earlier,
supported this view…
After six months of imprisonment in the
Buxar jail Srijut Bepinchandra Pal had seen God among the thieves and robbers,
which he had openly confessed in an Uttarpara meeting. In
the Alipore Jail itself I too could realise this fundamental truth of Hinduism
for the first time among the thieves, robbers and killers, in the human body I
could realise the divine Presence.
Sri Aurobindo Birth Century Library: Set in 30 Sri
Aurobindo Karmayogin: A Weekly Review Saturday 17th July 1909 —
No.4 Facts and Opinions The Scientific Position
Still, there is the
question, how does He manifest Himself? There is a
school which holds that He has once for all manifested Himself in certain
eternal and universal laws and has no other connection with the universe. This was the attitude definitely taken by the Indian
Social Reformer when it ridiculed Sj. Aurobindo Ghose's Uttarpara
speech. God does not speak to men through their inner selves
in Yoga or otherwise, there is no way of communion between Him and humanity,
there is no special action of His power or grace anywhere.
Karmayogin: A Weekly Review Saturday 26th February
1910 — No.34 Passing Thoughts Revelation in Jail
Revelation is a thing Religion powerfully
asserts, Science as powerfully denies. According to our ideas in this
country, man has a faculty, latent in him but easily developed through the
various means grouped under the expression Sadhana, by which he is able to see
spiritually and get the revelation of things not discernible by the reason. Srijut
Krishna Kumar Mitra in relating his spiritual experiences in Agra jail dwelt on the revelation of the
omnipresent and merciful God which was continually with him in his
imprisonment. He had what we call the pratyaksa darśan. This is a thing the possibility of which our wise men trained in
European enlightenment think it a very intellectual thing to deny.
On a similar occasion the Indian
Social Reformer sneered at the experience, declared that God reveals
Himself only in His laws and, if we remember right, scoffed at the idea of such
a revelation being given in such an inappropriate, disreputable and
uncomfortable place as a jail. It is curious at least
that not one but many should have had this experience recently in precisely
similar circumstances and that the various experiences should have been
expressed in almost exactly the same terms. After all,
an ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory.
Our own belief is that the motions of the
world are travelling towards a signal refutation of the atheistic and agnostic
attitudes and that India
is the place selected for the revelation. It is for
this reason that these experiences are becoming so frequent in men who are
rather men of action than what is generally known as purely religious men, that
is to say, who seek God in life and the service of men and not merely in the
closet and the Ashram. A new religion summing up and
correcting the old, a religion based not on dogma but on direct knowledge and
experience, is the need of the age, and it is only India that can give it to the world.
[Cf. EDITORIAL
COMMENTS (Dharma, 1909-1910) 25, Falguna 9, 1316]
SRI AUROBINDO, “TALES OF PRISON LIFE” Permanent
Link The other day I noticed that the Indian Social Reformer, from Poona , had ironically
commented on one of my simple easy-to-understand statements by remarking:
"We find an excess of Godwardness in the prison!" Alas for the pride
and littleness of men, seeking after renown, men of little learning, proud of
their little virtues! The manifestation of God, should it not be in prison, in
huts, ashrams, in the hearts of the poor, instead of in the temples of luxury
of the rich or the bed of repose of the pleasure-seeking selfish worldly folk? God
does not look for learning, honour, leadership, popular acclaim, outward ease
and sophistication. To the poor He reveals Himself in the form of the
Compassionate Mother. He who sees the Lord in all men, in all nations, in his
own land, in the miserable, the poor, the fallen and the sinner and offers his
life in the service of the Lord, the Lord comes to such hearts. So it is that
in a fallen nation ready to rise, in the solitary prison of the servants of the
nation the nearness of God grows.”
pp.34-6
pp.34-6
Papers like the Bengalee and
the Indian Social Reformer had chosen to ridicule Sri
Aurobindo's Uttarpara speech and the tremendous revelations of his sadhana in
prison. What could the Lord have appeared and spoken - actually spoken - to an
under-trial prisoner? Impossible and altogether improbable! The fourth issue of
the Karmayogin gave a balanced and detailed rejoinder to these
immaculate rationalists of Calcutta and Bombay. Again, when Baikunthanath Sen,
President of the Hooghly Conference (5th and 6th September 1909), described Sri
Aurobindo as an 'impatient idealist', the Karmayogin …
In our ongoing attempt to infuse moral
significance into everything that happens in the world, we frequently imply
that events and forces occurring in the physical world are “God’s retribution”
for some failing on someone’s part. In this view, tornadoes, floods,
earthquakes are a sign of some higher judgment upon us. Victims then cry that
they do not know why “God did this to them”, or why the innocent children
caught in the maelstrom were made to suffer.
Sri Aurobindo makes the point that when we
remove this moral filter from our view, it becomes clear that the physical
energy operates on its own principles and that it is not some kind of concious
retributive machinery of God. “The flood” or “Sodom and Gomorrah” do not
represent God’s judgment on humanity, but results of physical energy carrying
out its natural functions regardless of who or what happens to be in the way.
Tagore’s
Letters to Gandhi on Power, Morality, and Science by Maria Popova
The
Other Tale of Indian Modernity: Savita Singh by Pratilipi Blog
Hindi poet and feminist scholar Savita
Singh's reading of Ashis Nandy's version of Sri Aurobindo's life in his
book Intimate Enemy is a classical, scholarly refutation of Nandy's critique of
modernity and in a way suggests that ...
Message From Sri Maa « Sri Aurobindo Patha Mandir
Trust Working on the field of education, health, small scale industry, and
spiritual growth of the society. (by SAPMT) Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir
Trust–Established on the Date 21-12-2001 Sovarani Acharya Managing Trustee PH. No.
0671-2802217
Under Sri Aurobindo’s guidance there is an
integral education centre in the village, Siddheswarpur, District Cuttack,
Odisha. The aim of this centre is to make spiritual human beings. The Society,
the country and the whole world want such human beings, who can change the
destiny of the future mankind. Sri Aurobindo Patha Mandir is teaching spirituality, Dance, Music, Tabla,
Yogasana and all the subjects of education.
