Role of aesthetics in Renaissance philosophy and vision of a coming Golden age

The Hindu : NATIONAL TAMIL NADU : MADURAI TODAY

Sri Aurobindo Society: Meeting on 'The yoga of Savitri reading,' 3 Lajapathi Roy Road, Chinna Chokkikulam, 4 p.m..

Event: Discovering the Soul of America, a Step in Human Unity

The AUM (All USA Meeting) is the annual gathering of the Integral Yoga community in the United States. AUM 2013, June 20 to 23 in Ashland, OR, brings participants an opportunity to discover the true soul-being of the USA as a part of their personal and collective practice. Activities include presentations, interactive exercises, guided meditations, artistic expression, group sharing, a Native solstice ceremony, and musical performances. 

Over the centuries lone visionaries have inspired humankind with predictions of  a New Creation, a New Age, or a radically new consciousness for humanity in the not too distant future. Sri Aurobindo, born in India in 1872 and schooled in England, richly described this golden evolutionary transformation and the steps needed  to actualize it on Earth. After his return to India, he began developing a practical approach to it through an “integral yoga,” a union with the Divine essence on every level of one's being: spiritual, psychic, mental, vital—even physical. 

Mirra Alfassa, born in France in 1878, likewise had this vision of a coming golden age. In 1914, she met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry,  India. Sri Aurobindo recognized Mirra as an incarnation of the Divine Mother. Those who gathered around them called her simply “The Mother.” The two forged a lifelong collaboration for discovering within and without the realizations needed to enter this new consciousness and bring it even into the body. The Sri Aurobindo Ashram and later the international community of Auroville are first steps of a concentrated collective aspiration and effort to make real this radical next stage of Earth evolution. There are now many groups around the world aspiring for a new age, each with their own unique views and approaches.

The Ashram Trust’s reply of 22 July, 2010 to Kittu Reddy, Sumita Kandpal & Ranganath Raghavan from Critique of The Lives by General Editor

This is the last letter that the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram wrote to the group of three senior Ashramites – Kittu Reddy, Sumita Kandpal & Ranganath Raghavan. If there is one characteristic that defines the letter of the Trustees, it is “arrogance” – the arrogance of being unquestioned and unquestionable Trustees in “a Providentially ordained game”.  The very tone and tenor of the letter, the constant denial mode and the counter accusations leveled at the three senior Ashramites, who dared for the first time to question their authority, leave hardly any room for a healthy debate. The correspondence thus abruptly ended here with the Trustees rattling their legal sabres, “Our lawyer will respond” though we are not under any “legal obligation to reply”, and finally, “The futility of continued correspondence is thus obvious.” As there was no scope for further discussion, Kittu Reddy’s group did not reply to the letter. Sumita Kandpal remarked that she had never received such a rude letter during the entire period of her service as a Collector. The Trust thus lost one more golden opportunity to put its house in order and settle matters internally. The attached endnotes contain a few responses by the editor to some of the issues raised by the Ashram Trust…

Though granting “freedom of speech” has been the public explanation of the Trustees, the truth is that they always have been hand in glove with Peter Heehs… According to people who worked at the Archives with Peter Heehs, his hostility towards the Mother was open and well-known. In fact, the whole tenor of his book is anti-devotional and anti-hagiographic, and there is no question of loyalty to neither Sri Aurobindo and the Mother nor the Ashram as an institution, which has given him shelter and material support for the last forty years. Even this would not have been objectionable to the Ashramites had he not claimed himself to be the founder of the Archives, which (in the absence of any clarification of the Ashram Trust) would have led to an unquestioning acceptance of the distortions and misrepresentations of Sri Aurobindo’s life and works in his book. What is incredible is that this is perhaps the first case in the spiritual traditions of the world where the Trustees of an Ashram have openly supported the denigration of their own Guru for the sake of supporting “multiple viewpoints” from the Guru’s disciples. (Even the members of a criminal gang, I think, have a greater sense of loyalty to their group than the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram!) As for justifying this position of disloyalty to the Guru in the most devious ways possible, Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee, scores over them all, and should be nominated for the Nobel Prize in the Art of Deception…

Moreover, when Peter Heehs criticises Sri Aurobindo left, right and centre, it is not merely one of the multiple viewpoints which can be legitimately expressed within the Ashram. His hostile viewpoint not only destroys collective harmony but is incompatible with his stay in the Ashram. He is of course free to express his hostile opinions against Sri Aurobindo outside the Ashram, to which very few Ashramites would have objected. Also, the view of those who have criticised him cannot be considered as one of the multiple viewpoints which can be tolerated within the Ashram along with his hostile viewpoint of Sri Aurobindo. The former has attacked Sri Aurobindo in his own Ashram, which is certainly not good for the collectivity. The latter have criticised Peter Heehs because he attacked Sri Aurobindo in his own Ashram; later they went on to criticise the Trustees for having allowed such an attack and not doing anything about it! The argument of multiple viewpoints is merely an excuse for irresponsibility and inaction or a cover-up of a secret deal with Peter Heehs!

Kosambi's uplifting idea Of India by Dileep Padgaonkar 08 February 2013, TOI

Few, if any, thinkers in modern India have matched Damodar Dharmanand Kosambi's range and depth of scholarly interests. He mastered several classical and modern languages — Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Prakrit, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Marathi, Konkani and Urdu. This enabled him to explore disciplines as varied as mathematics and statistics, numismatics and archaeology, Sanskrit literature (especially two widely-hailed works on Bhartrihari's poetry), anthropology and ancient Indian history from many cultural perspectives. His exertions seldom failed to yield seminal insights, not least because he tested his knowledge, derived from his critical analysis of texts, against whatever he learnt during his fieldwork. 

Writing the Self: Diaries, Memoirs, and the History of the Self by Peter Heehs

First-person genres such as diaries and memoirs have provided an outlet for self-expression. Protestant diaries replaced the Catholic confessional, but secular diaries such as Pepys's may reveal yet more about the self. After Richardson, novels competed with diaries and memoirs as vehicles of self-expression, though memoirs survived and continue to thrive, while the diary has found a new incarnation in the personal blog. Writing the Self narrates the intertwined histories of the self and of self-expression through first-person literature.

Of Cruelty and Vulnerability: A Response to Dan Whistler’s “The Hermetic Critique of Deleuze” from An und für sich by joshua ramey

The book began, in germinal and liminal form, in the PhD thesis I wrote under John Carvalho’s direction at Villanova University.  John’s generosity and intelligence toward his graduate students, and at the helm of the department, are equally legendary, and I owe him more than gratitude that I am even here, today.  The thesis I wrote for John, who is an aesthetician, critical theorist, and expert in Ancient Greek Philosophy, was called “Gilles Deleuze and the Powers of Art.”  I was already guessing that there was some parallel between the role of aesthetics in Renaissance philosophy and the role of art in Deleuze’s semiotics and ontologies, but I did not have the time or space to push that research into a book on Deleuze’s esotericism.  The book that became The Hermetic Deleuze took a very long time to write and to research, because of how much I was teaching, looking for academic jobs, raising a young son, and going through many other ordeals personal and professional.

Ideas and Trends in World Anthropology - Page 6 - Charles Frantz - 1981 - Preview - More editions ... in terms of non-violence and talked of establishing a sort of spiritual humanism, Sri Aurobindo discussed at length the ... Roy, Dada Dharmadhikari, Ram Manohar Lohia, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Benoy Sarkar, ...

Comparative History of India and Indonesia - Page 94 - Peter James Marshall - 1987 - Preview The chief protagonists of the revolutionary ideology included Aurobindo Ghosh, a Cambridge trained classicist, ... (Calcutta 1953-1969); Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Samajik pravandha (Essay on Society) included in his collected works (Calcutta ...

The Uncolonised Heart - Page 55 - Lou Ratté - 1995 - Preview - More editions ... by the young revolutionary theorist Aurobindo Ghose and treated as a political tract, with Bankim himself hailed as the ... Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, for instance, the author of essays which expounded on the virtues of traditional domestic life, ...

Making India: Colonialism, National Culture, and the Afterlife of ... - Page 90 - Makarand R. Paranjape - 2012 - Preview - More editions Sri Aurobindo's eulogy, written in the heady days of his revolutionary activism, is not exaggerated. ... history,” after Bhudev Mukhopadhyay's famous phrase “Swapnalabdha Bharatvarser Itihas” (A Dream derived History of India), the title ...

Literary India: Comparative Studies in Aesthetics, Colonialism, ... - Page 271 - Patrick Colm Hogan, Lalita Pandit - 1995 - Preview - More editions ... suggests that Bhudev Mukhopadhyaya (1827-1894), a lesser-known contemporary of Bankimchandra, was the first to ... Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) in his revolutionary years, when he was under the influence of Mazzini, was a good...

World Perspectives On Swami Dayananda Saraswati - Page 36 - Gaṅgā Rām Garg - 1984 - Preview - More editions He met Rajnarayan Bose, the maternal grandfather of Yogi Aurobindo, who was leading a newly-emerging movement of ... Rajnikant Gupta, and the educator and journalist Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, all imbued with the spirit of Hindu revival.

Early Novels In India - Page 146 - Meenakshi Mukherjee - 2002 - Preview - More editions Kaviraj calls this discourse of Bankim's "imaginary history," after the title of Bhudev Mukhopadhyay's fictional narrative ... Mukherjee, in addition, cites Sri Aurobindo, Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Sisir Kumar Das, and Jogesh Chandra Bagal in support ...

The View from Below: Indigenous Society, Temples, and the Early ... - Page 8 - Kanakalatha Mukund - 2005 - Preview The only extensive study of Indian attitudes to Europe in this period is Tapan Raychaudhuri's exploration of three Bengali intellectuals — Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Swami Vivekananda. A strong sub- theme...

Aspects of India's International Relations, 1700 to 2000: South ... - Page 560 - Jayanta Kumar Ray - 2007 - Preview Rakhahari Chatterjee: With Swami Vivekananda, we take a huge step forward from Bankimchandra on ideas regarding national consolidation and restoration of India's pride. His was not a tortuous path like Bankim's. Whatever inner conflicts he had— and he had ... Page 557 Rammohun, Akshoy Kumar Datta, Derozio and the Derozians, Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, Bankimchandra ...  Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Bankimchandra Chatterjee and Swami Vivekananda about the confident and universalizing Europe.

The Empire Project: The Rise and Fall of the British World-System, ... - Page 195 - John Darwin - 2009 - Preview - More editions Bhudev Mukerji, Bankim Chandra Chatterji (the first modern Bengali novelist) and Swami Vivekananda showed how foreign ideas could be scrutinised, annexed or rejected in the creation of an up-to-date literary and religious tradition. The ...

Contending with marginality: Christians and the public sphere in ... - Page 11 - Chandra Mallampalli - 2000 - Christians and the public sphere in colonial South India Chandra Mallampalli ...Tapan Raichaudhuri's study of three Bengali nationalists, Bankimchandra Chatterji, Bhudev Mukhopadyay and Swami Vivekananda offers an excellent analysis of ...

Hindutva, Ideology, and Politics - Page 3 - A. A. Parvathy - 2003 - Preview - More editions ... traditionalist intellectuals, each assessing the civilisation of Europe in his own distinctive way. Such books on Indian perception of the West are very few. He takes up Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Bankim Chandra and Swami Vivekananda ...

The new Hindu movement, 1886-1911 - Page 216 - Rakhal Chandra Nath - 1982 - VIVEKANANDA AND THE SWADESHI MOVEMENT  Rakhal Chandra Nath. Bankim never gave a full-length blue-print of his Dharmarajya. ... If Bhudev's picture was that of a Utopia, Bankim's was that of the landmarks that separated the Utopia from the reality of India under British rule. ... Vivekananda's contribution to the Swadeshi Movement was in the direction of (i) emphasizing the idea of restoration ...

Proceedings - Volume 7 - Page 10 1973 - Rajnarain Bose and Bhudev Mukherjee had strong pro-Indian views on vernacular education. Bankim Chandra Chatter ji urged the necessity of undertaking the education of the masses directly. The future India, according to Vivekananda, ...

First fruits of English education, 1817-1857 - Page 113 - Bhagaban Prasad Majumdar - 1973 - It would be no exaggeration to say that the group of illustrious persons who received English education prepared the ground for Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Swami Vivekananda, the Theosophists and Dr. Atmaram Pandurang. As English ...

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We sing, cry, laugh, and love in Hindi, Urdu, and Bhojpuri

The Hindu : Arts Books : Tamil scholars feted K. RAJU January 24, 2013

The Thamizh Thendral Thiru. Vi. Ka. Award was conferred on Dr. Prema Nandakumar, noted Sri Aurobindo scholar, in recognition of her excellent contribution to Tamil literature and for her literary and creative works. This award was given to her and other Tamil scholars as part of Thiruvalluvar Day celebrations by Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa at a function organised at Lower Camp in Theni district recently. The award carries Rs 1 lakh, a gold medal and a certificate.

Dr. Prema, a native of Srirangam in Tiruchi, was born in 1939. She is a regular contributor to several journals, including The Hindu, and has authored many books, including her pioneer research on Sri Aurobindo, and translated works of poet Bharathi and novels of Akilan. Her first study on Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri encouraged many scholars to take up Savitri-related subjects for academic dissertations. She has been a member of several academic councils. Dr. Prema has addressed many international conferences on Tamil, Nationalism and Buddhism. She has done extensive research in Indian philosophy, history, Indian culture. Her collection of short stories, ‘Amduha Thuli Piranthathu,’ has won a State Government award.

Music of Bollywood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bollywood music has drawn its inspiration from numerous traditional sources such as Ramleela, nautanki, tamasha and Parsi theatre, as well as from the West, and other Indic musical subcultures.^[5] Hindi film songs form a predominant component of Indian pop music, and derives its inspiration from both classical and modern sources.^[1] The language of Hindi movie songs, generally termed Hindi, can be complex. Some songs are saturated with Urdu and Persian terms and it is not uncommon to hear use of English words in songs from modern Hindi movies. Several other Indian languages have also been used including Braj, Bhojpuri, Punjabi and Rajasthani. Occasionally a few lines in other Indian languages are used as well.^[6] Film songs have been described as eclectic both in instrumentation and style.^[7] They often employ foreign instruments and rework existing songs, showing remarkable inventiveness in the reinvention of melodies and instrumental techniques.^[8] In a film, music, both in itself and accompanied with dance, has been used to for many purposes including "heightening a situation, accentuating a mood commenting on theme and action, providing relief and serving as interior monologue."^[5]

Hindi film songs are now firmly embedded in North India's popular culture and routinely encountered in North India in marketplaces, shops, during bus and train journeys and numerous other situations.^[2] For over five decades, these songs formed the staple of popular music in South Asia and along with Hindi films, was an important cultural export to most countries around Asia and wherever the Indian diaspora had spread.  Indian cinema, with its characteristic film music, has not only spread all over Indian society, but also been on the forefront of the spread of India's culture around the world.^[1] The Hindi film song now began to make its presence felt as a predominating characteristic in the culture of the nation and began to assume roles beyond the limited purview of cinema. In multi-cultural India, as per film historian Partha Chatterjee, "the Hindi film song cut through all the language barriers in India, to engage in lively communication with the nation where more than twenty languages are spoken and ... scores of dialects exist".^[4] Celebrated Hindi film musician Anil Biswas credited with introducing orchestra music to cinema in India died May 31, 2003. 

It's Bombay, My Jaan - Chandan Mitra - Outlook Jun 26, 2006 – From classical strains in the heyday of the talkies, the music industry now encompasses all song genres

Music is what distinguishes Indian cinema from the rest of the world. In fact, music is the defining characteristic of Indian, particularly Hindi, cinema. Music was probably integral to Indian cinema because of the strong folk theatre linkage. It was, however, the launch of RK Films in 1948 that heralded a musical revolution. With Barsaat and Awara, Hindi film music was revolutionised. RK Films changed the grammar of film music decisively and forever. Shankar-Jaikishen were the pioneers of Hindi cinema's musical makeover. They set an example before countless aspiring composers that you had to dare to win. They proved that India's first post-Independence generation was waiting to break free of traditional, strictly classical-based compositions. Naushad, with superhits like Baiju Bawra under his belt, emerged as the first choice of Raj Kapoor's ratings rival, Dilip Kumar. Naushad's contemporary, Roshan, was not exactly in the same mould. In fact, he was quite an experimentalist, although his experiments did not break the parameters of classicism.

Compared to Naushad and Roshan, Madan Mohan was a later entry and not quite a hardline puritan, … Among the experimentalists, C. Ramachandra should take pride of place for his immortal hip-swingers… But no one had a bigger impact on film music's evolution in the '60s than Omkar Prakash Nayyar, … The narrative of the '60s would be incomplete without reference to the extraordinarily talented Salil Choudhury who hit big time with Bimal Roy's Madhumati. The '60s were probably Hindi film music's finest decade. Even as Shankar-Jaikishen ruled, challengers had begun to dent their supremacy. The one who outlasted all others was S.D. Burman with son Rahul Dev in tow. Meanwhile, Kalyanji-Anandji emerged as the poor man's Shankar-Jaikishen after they composed music for Raj Kapoor's Chhalia (Dum-dum diga diga). Kalyanji-Anandji blended folk, classical and Western in catchy ways to produce vigorous, earthy numbers, especially for Manoj Kumar's films… Since the '90s, popular music has gradually shifted out of the sole orbit of cinema and now revolves in several trajectories such as remixes, bhangra-pop, Indipop and also ghazals, though the high noon of the last genre has now waned.

A paean to India's melody queen from M.J. Akbar - Author and Veteran Journalist by M J Akbar Appeared in Times of India - October 4, 2009

Her usual is so much better than the best around her. She lifted ordinary into memorable, and was superb when the musical score was minimalist. She excelled with Naushad, who distilled the purity of a raga with an aesthete's light touch, never better than 'Khuda meherbaan ho tumhara, dharakte dil ka payaam le lo / Tumhari duniya se jaa rahen hain, utho hamara salaam le lo'. The second line is not there to remind you of lyrics but to recall the music. Compare Shankar-Jaikishan when Lata sang for them, and when they were with anyone else. They made fools of themselves when they fought with Lata and switched to Sharda, and were soon piling violins into the background to ameliorate the foreground. Suman Kalyanpur, the would-be alter ego, could hold a note, but was simply not in the same class.

My great regret is that Lata and Rafi did not sing together for three years because of royalty disputes. Individually they were masters; together they were magical. Witness the eternal song from Kaali Topi Laal Roomal: 'Laagi chute na ab to sanam, chahe jaaye jiya teri kasam'. Rafi deserved a Bharat Ratna too, even if he died at 55 and denied us decades of thrall. Hemant Kumar, of Hemantada to Kolkatawallahs, was absolutely right to refuse a Padma Shri. That genius could never be an also-ran. The silken bonds of the Lata-Hemant number from House No 44, 'Neend na mujhko aaye, dil mera ghabraaye' could capture you forever.

As for the big question: preference cannot be locked into the straitjacket of mathematical formula. Since the personal is creeping into public space through this column, there will be those who sniff and others who snigger. But, as any politician says on the eve of an election, ''Please saar listen please, with folded hands.''

The finest Lata solo, on my admittedly prejudiced list, is that sublime harmony of voice, word and music so delicate that you can hear it only through Lata's vocals, 'Ja ja re jaa baalamwa, Sautan ke sangh raat bitaayi kahe karat ab jhooti batiyaan'. See what heights Shankar-Jaikishan ascended when they got themselves out of the way. The verse, lifted by near-absence of instruments, is an exquisite blend of mischief hovering above pain and captures, with love, the ethos of an age. Sentiment steps outside boring adoration, and smiles at its own excess. A lover's complaint that never descends into the self-abasement of a moan. English cannot hope to convey the meaning of 'sautan', so we shall merely describe her as a woman's competitor for her lover's affections. He has just returned after spending nights with the other, and Lata's hurt voice keeps pushing him away, but never pushing him too far, for he belongs to her.

There are a hundred ways in which to rebuke a man for telling lies. Have you ever heard anything quite like 'Kaisa harjai, daiya!'? Hindi flowers in the spring of dialect. We might run our governments in English and write our balance sheets in Roman, but we sing, cry, laugh and love in Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Kashmiri, Tamil or any of the innumerable mother tongues with which our nation is blessed. The tongue of a mother could never write a proper balance sheet for it is too heavily overloaded with assets. How in heavens to do you translate 'daiya!'? Note, incidentally, the dexterity with which the short line is worked into seamless melody.

Lata sang the largest number of film songs for the first of the moderns, Laxmikant-Pyarelal. The partnership provided unforgettable music to eminently forgettable films like Inteqaam (the difficult 'Aaaa jaane jaan'). The Lata who could mesmerize you in Vyjanthimala's Madhumati ('Main to kab se khadi is paar...'), hypnotize you in Sadhana's Woh Kaun Thi ('Naina barsey rim jhim rim jhim') and perhaps tranquilize you in Bina Rai's Anarkali ('Yeh zindagi usiki hai, jo kisi ka ho gaya') could also energize you with Gen Next Mumtaz in 'Bindiya chamkegi, churi chamkegi...' This, too, is the song of a new epoch, as much of a breakthrough as 'Aayega aayega, aayega aanewala' in Madhubala's Mahal. 9:32 am

Archive Of Indian Music from Outlook Blogs To our old listing of some of the best resources for Hindustani classical music, viz.

• Rajan Parrikar's Vijaya Parrikar Library
• Sarangi.info, inspired by Rajan Parrikar
• ITC Sangeet Research Academy
• Patrick Moutal's Hindustani Rag Sangeet  Online
• Music India's Classical Hindustani section

we can now add Vikram Sampath's "proposed Archive of Indian Music that would act as a repository for all kinds of vintage recordings of India--Hindustani and Carnatic music, folk, theatre, early cinema and voices of great leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Tagore etc and also of common Indians. These are largely 78 RPM shellacs  that have been digitized and restored..." The first phase of the project is over and a pilot website is now up and running here, already featuring about 180 artists of yore and close to 600 clips. The entire listing of artists is available here.

Sri Aurobindo is treading the domain of the superhuman

Memory played an important part in Locke’s philosophy of money. Keith Hart

Money in the making of world society 2  - 20 October 2007 9:04 am

For him a person, by performing labour on the things given to us in common by nature, made them his own. But, to sustain a claim on his property through time, that person has to remain the same; and personal identity depends on consciousness. Property must endure in order to be property and that depends on memory. Money thus expands the capacity of individuals to stabilize their own personal identity by holding something durable that embodies the desires and wealth of all the other members of society. Money is a ‘memory bank’, a store allowing individuals to keep track of those exchanges they wish to calculate and, beyond that, a source of economic memory for the community. One of money’s chief functions is remembering.

The Present State of Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Baikunth

Coming back to Ashram life, this slow process of deterioration over the last three decades is essentially due to the physical withdrawal of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother along with the gradual disappearance of the first generation of disciples that came to the Ashram leaving everything behind – family, friends, property. The present inmates (especially the ex-students of the Ashram School) do the reverse – they gather family, friends and fortune, and establish themselves firmly as well-settled citizens of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry, with no intention whatsoever to consecrate themselves to Yoga. What can you expect therefore from the collective life of the Ashram? Only a good life of leisure, sports, art, drama, talks and other programmes reminding us of the great teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother without being able to do any justice to them… In the meanwhile, their long-standing policy of deliberate neglect of the problems of Ashram life has brought the community to the brink. 

Overcoming the Reward and Punishment View of the Law of Karma ...

We focus generally on the law of Karma in the light of our nature of desire. We seek pleasure and try to avoid pain. We want to be rewarded and we want to avoid punishment. This is the nature of the desire-soul in man that is based on the vital principles of attraction and repulsion, with an underlying principle of desire. We therefore tend to see the law of Karma as an external representation of this desire-soul’s focus, and thus, overlay our all-too-human tendencies on the universal Spirit.

While it may seem to operate this way for some time in our development, eventually we begin to recognize that the Spirit is beyond the limitations imposed by our vital seekings. The higher aspirations and deeper meaning of our lives can at that point no longer be held hostage to the desire-soul’s limited view.

Savitri and The Yoga of the Cells by Sri Aurobindo, The Mother and RY Deshpande (Jan 20, 2013) $0.99 Kindle Edition

The Mother’s Yoga of Cellular Transformation begins in it. In the present work we have excerpted broadly passages from the revelations made by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother about their attempts and realisations. These accounts roughly corresponds to the period 1940 to 1973 when the Mother withdrew from her physical body—the three decades in which intense yoga-tapasya was done in the physical for the Divine’s physical. We are extremely fortunate that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have left some of these details as a part of their consciousness for us to enter in, grow in it, the new Consciousness the Mother spoke of on 1 January 1969.

Savitri Foundation is glad to bring out this work in two volumes. While Savitri and the Yoga of the Cells forms the first textual presentation, the second will deal with the Overman or Surhomme stage forming a precursor, a bridge between the sentient Man and the Supramental or Gnostic Being, Towards the Intermediate Race.

Rodogune from Auroville Radio by contact@aurovilleradio.org  (Fabienne)

This play in 5 Acts is located in Syria of the playwright’s imagination. Rodogune, the Parthian Princess captured by Syria and made attendant of queen Cleopatra. Antiochus and Timocles, the sons of Cleopatra by her first husband, have been brought up in Egypt. At the death of Cleopatra’s second husband, they return to Syria. The selfish queen mistakes fulsome flattery for real love and rejects Antiochus. He revolts to claim the throne of Syria; and both Rodogune and Antiochus who are mutually attracted by love, join together in this venture. 

Rooting for the revival of a grand tree - The Hindu

The tree is an 82-year-old Peltophorum pterocarpum that stands next to Sri Aurobindo's Samadi, which was named 'Service Tree' by the Mother. Through the ..

Swami Vivekananda: A Hindu Supremacist? from Centre Right India - Jan 22, 2013 by Aravindan Neelakandan - Outlook is at it again. It has unleashed a camapign of calumny against India’s most venerated spirtual icon…

David L Gosling, a Cambridge scholar and author of the seminal work ‘Religion and Ecology in South East Asia’ states that Vivekananda’s interpretation of karma-yoga as the basis for this-worldly action which was central to his teaching paved the way for Gandhian ethics.

Frontline, Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013 Attempts at appropriation PRALAY KANUNGO Swami Vivekananda never entertained violent identity politics. But his “missionary Hinduism” offered potential for the development of a militant Hindu nation, allowing Hindutva to make selective readings and interpretations of his texts and speeches…

Vivekananda’s engagement with Hindu identity has evoked contesting responses. While one view portrays him as a proponent of a strong and virile Hindu nation and interprets his ideas of tolerance and unity of all faiths as fragile, another view contests the “stereotyping” of Vivekananda as a militant Hindu, arguing that Vivekananda’s personal quest for ultimate realisation sets limits to identity politics, thereby making his agenda of national revival not particularly Hindu. Both the versions seem to be partly true. Vivekananda’s views were quite complex and frequently ambiguous. But he surely operated within the paradigm of religious enlightenment: though he stressed the self-assertion of Hindus, he never entertained violent identity politics. However, it is clear that his “missionary Hinduism” offered potential and possibilities for the development of a militant Hindu nation, allowing Hindutva to make selective readings and interpretations of his texts and speeches. Moreover, Vivekananda’s approach to philanthropy and accommodation of the marginalised has also been found handy for Hindutva leaders to construct an inclusive pan-Indian Hindu identity by expanding Hindu ecumeny. Hence, Hindutva’s claim on Vivekananda’s legacy may not be completely misplaced! Pralay Kanungo is Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Remembering Vivekananda

Unlike Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda was not a sadhaka, nor did he possess the philosophical depth or originality of Sri Aurobindo. His most precious ...

Special Article

The Influence Of Swami Vivekananda And Sri Aurobindo By Argha Banerjee. How shall I express in language my indebtedness to Sri Ramakrishna and Swami ...

Es - Volumes 27-29 - Page 155 - Universidad de Valladolid. Departamento de Inglés - 2006 - What Sri Aurobindo did was to conceptualise and problematise certain issues with relation to the human being's changing encounters with consciousness and the world. He occurred at a crucial point in the formation of a nationalistic ...

Immortal Sarvoday - Page 30 - N. hazary - 2007 - Preview Gandhiji gave serious thought to the question of Swaraj in 1908 in his book Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule. But the Swaraj of his conception was different from the concept of Swaraj of Tilak and Aurobindo.

Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings - Page xxx - Mohandas Gandhi, Anthony J. Parel - 1997 - Preview - More editions In contrast to the Moderates, no Extremist is mentioned by name in Hind Swaraj - an indication of Gandhi's distance from them. In other words, Tilak and Aurobindo Ghose, their distinguished leaders, are passed over in silence. Gandhi was ... Page xxxi Neither would Aurobindo Ghose's appeal to shakti - power in its creative but violent forms, mythologised by Durga, Bhavani and Kali - have been more reassuring to the Mahatma. While no work by the Extremists is included in the Appendix, ...

Gandhi marg - Volume 21 - Page 314 - Gandhi Peace Foundation (New Delhi, India), Gandhi Smarak Nidhi - 1999 - It was conceptualised by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in his novel Ananda Math. Its practical applications could be found in several persons like Sri Aurobindo, Swami Shraddhananda, and even in Bal Gangadhar Tilak. Gandhi's ...

Social action - Volume 44 - Page 89 - Indian Social Institute, Indian Institute of Social Order - 1994 - Another thinker and a practising nationalist Sri Aurobindo conceptualised the politics, and political action in a similar vein. ... It is not surprising, therefore, that in Aurobindo's opinion, "Nationalism is not a mere political programme, nationalism ...

Secularism and liberation: perspectives and strategies for India today - Page 111 - Rudolf C. Heredia, Edward Mathias, Indian Social Institute - 1995 - Another thinker and a practising nationalist, Sri Aurobindo, conceptualized politics and political action similarly. He considered India as his motherland, which to him symbolised a spiritual as well as a geographical entity. During the British rule, ...

India's Freedom Movement: Legacy of Bipin Chandra Pal - Page 104 - Binay Bhattacharya - 2007 - Preview - More editions ... advocated by Bipin Chandra Pal, Aurobindo Ghose and in the vision of Hindu rashtra viewed by M.S. Golwalker and his followers. Serving ... In post-colonial India it is difficult to conceptualise nation state in terms of religious particularism.

Colonialism, Tradition, and Reform: An Analysis of Gandhi's ... - Page 57 - Bhikhu C. Parekh - 1999 - Preview - More editions Lala Lajpat Rai, Aurobindo, the later Narmada Shankar, Tilak, Motilal Nehru and the early Gandhi, thought that British ... an opportunity to turn the corner. Like their rulers, they too conceptualised the colonial encounter in pedagogical terms.

World Government and Thakur Sen Negi - Page 201 - M. G. Chitkara - 1999 - Preview - More editions old escatology but grouped together under the name of "Integral Humanism" by Sri Aurobindo. ... Nation is conceptualised as having : (a) geographical territory and its inhabitants as its body, (b) the sense of belonging to the nation creates a ...

Evolutionary, Spiritual Conceptions of Life - Sri Aurobindo, ... - Page 36 - Michael Leicht - 2008 - Preview The idea of involution-evolution is something new for the Western setting of the debate. But we must ask, whether the spirit has really reached its zenith in Aurobindo in its process of increased self-awareness? - Aurobindo has conceptualised his ...

Transaction - Indian Institute of World Culture - Issue 97 - Page 17 - Indian Institute of World Culture - 1996 - Through their mystical and transcendental experience, Hindus conceptualized many subtle issues, such as: mind is ... as has been testified by many saints and sages throughout the ages and by Ramakrishna and Aurobindo in recent times.

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - Volume 16 - Page 105 - Indian Council of Philosophical Research - 1998 - Dharmakirti explains that person's success by saying that his/her conceptualized cognition of the jewel, although erroneous, ... V. Kapali Sastri, Dipti Publications, Sri Aurobindo Does Dharmakirti Embrace a Pragmatic Theory of Truth?

Sri Aurobindo and Karl Marx: Integral Sociology and Dialectical ... - Page 21 - Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya - 1988 - Preview It is a materialistic way of putting what Sri Aurobindo means by saying that it is in the human mind that Nature ... To bring Nature into an organic unity with man it has first to be grasped, then controlled, and finally socialised and humanised.

Indian Wisdom and International Peace: From the Vedas & Lord ... - Page 35 - R N. Vyas, Vyas R N - 1987 - Preview Aurobindo is full of praise for this religion of humanity. This religion has great utility. It has 'humanised society, humanised law and punishment, humanized the outlook of man on man, abolished legalised torture and the cruder forms of ...

Soul And Structure Of Governance In India - Page 307 - Jagmohan - 2005 - Preview - More editions What did Sri Aurobindo mean when he talked of India's destiny and India's religion?... had innate faith in the inherent strength of Indian culture, and interpreted Hinduism as a positive and elevating force for ennobling and humanising society.

Philosophy Of Education - Page 222 - S.S. Chandra, S.S. Chandra & Rajendra Kumar Sharma - 2006 - Preview - More editions This perfectionism is the strength and this again is the weakness of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy of education. In tune with ... In other words this requires divine perfection. 

Sri Aurobindo's treatment of Hindu myth - Page 11 - Jan Feys - 1983 - Sri Aurobindo is conscious of the transposition the myth has thus been subjected to, whether by Kalidasa or by himself matters little, for Aurobindo in any case subscribes to the humanising interpretation. "It is therefore", he says, "one of the...

Contemporary Indian Writing in English: Critical Perceptions - Part 2 - Page 319 - N. D. R. Chandra - 2005 - Full view - More editions ... English and American poetry, and constantly exposing himself also to the humanising influence of Sanskrit classics. He is a ... However by 1961 Lal had tailored his position and stated "Sri Aurobindo happens to be our Milton, and Toru Dutt, ...

Towards eternity; Sri Aurobindo birth centenary volume, 15th ... - Page 73 - Aurobindo Ghose, V. Madhusudan Reddy - 1973 - But to appreciate the revelation, one must keep in mind that Sri Aurobindo is treading the domain of the superhuman, the ultra-natural, and his aim is not to humanise and naturalise them altogether. Indeed poetry of a fine order is possible to a completely humanised and naturalised mysticism as in the lyrics of the ... Sri Aurobindo--the poet - Volume 2, Part 4 - Page 47 - Kaikhushru Dhunjibhoy Sethna – 1999 The poetry of Sri Aurobindo: a journey from ego to self - Page 130 - Kishor Gandhi - 2001

Sri Aurobindo: The foundations on Indian culture and the ... - Page 290 - Aurobindo Ghose - 1970 -  admitted as is sufficient to humanise the appeal and the significance. The poet makes us conscious of the immense forces that are behind our life and sets his action in a magnificent epic scenery, the great imperial city, the ...

Encyclopaedia Eminent Thinkers (vol. : 17 The Political Thought Of ... - Page 46 - Jai Narain Sharma - 2008 - Preview - More editions One speaks of Iqbal and Sri Aurobindo as cures for the contemporary dehumanisation caused by the scientific culture, ... of dehumanised culture might produce some sort of neo-primitivism. which instead of humanising our behaviour makes it ...

A century's salutation to Sri Aurobindo - Page 62 - Nolini Kanta Gupta - 1972 - Thus the Vedic Rishis sought not to humanise the Divine, their purpose was rather to divinise the human. And their allegorical language, although rich in terrestrial figures, does not carry the impress and atmosphere of mere humanity and ...

Dharma of the twenty-first century: theological-ethical paradigm shift - Page 118 - Somen Das - 1996 - Even, Malhotra had noted that Aurobindo denied reality to the world apart from Brahman But according to Malhotra, all the ... Reinterpretation of the Absolute It is significant to note that in modern time there is a concerted effort to humanise the...

Indian journal of social science - Volume 7 - Page 152 Indian Council of Social Science Research - 1994 - But from Sri Aurobindo we learn of the urgent need to spiritualise our humanity as we are beginning our work of humanising our modernity. Ananta Giri Ravi Matthai Centre for Educational Innovation Indian Institute of Management ...