The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have always remained very much open regarding technology

Copernicus has left a new comment on your post "If one Peter Heehs is pardoned today, a thousand w...": "They would just have smiled at what Mr Peter Heehs has said."

I see. And you would know that. Controlled and thoughtful reactions and counter-reactions are perfectly legitimate. Why should it be considered fanacism. You are just confused and vague in what you say and are seeking a Gandhi style solution.

How do you know that Mother and Sri A dont want a reaction. When Sri A was asked why he needed a doctor to look at his ailment and didn't use yogic force instead to cure himslef, he shot back and asked the person why the doctor couldnt be a force for the divine and be used by the divine accordingly. Posted by Copernicus to Aurora Mirabilis at 2:43 AM, October 19, 2009

prakash has left a new comment on your post "Sri Aurobindo Ashram ought to expel Peter Heehs":

After seeing all these drama, Why Ashram Trustees are not taking any action??? This is quite difficult to undestand ..... Wake up please??? Posted by prakash to Savitri Era Open Forum at 10:38 PM, November 03, 2009

Robert E. Wilkinson has left a new comment on your post "Trustees chose to ignore this issue and the reason...": Stop Scapegoating Peter Heehs

Alok Pandey’s thoughtful article about the Heehs imbroglio brought up a number of important points but his burning questions about HOW and WHY this dispute occurred in the first place remain unanswered. To understand the HOW and WHY behind the Heehs’ controversy, one must be willing to stop the scapegoating and go deeper into the origins of the ignorance and confusion from which this literary heresy came into being.

Since the Mother’s departure in 1973 both Auroville and the Ashram have suffered and continue to experience the eroding effect of incompetent leadership. Instead of forming around a common Soul and a Supramental knowledge, which was the Mother’s avowed intention, Auroville and the Ashram have formed around a Collective Ego. Instead of a true spiritual community guided by Realized Beings, the seat of Sri Aurobindo’s work was taken over by the Indian government and is now run by Philosophers and Politicians who, the Mother warned us, would be the very last to be transformed.

This is the polluted soil from which Heehs' book emerged and the noxious influence that nursed his iconoclastic attitude. The most important causal factor behind the Heehs’ controversy, completely absent from these discussions, and apparently quite unknown to Alok and others, is the existence of and the occult effect of a true collective Center or Soul. In the parlance of the Integral Yoga it is called the ‘Psychic Being’. It is the ordering and unifying principle of any collectivity and if it were truly present in the Auroville and Ashram community, the bitter controversies, legal disputes and polarization of devotees upon racial and other lines would have been a virtual impossibility.

The community of devotees would know this if they had bothered to acquire a direct lived experience of the Yoga and the Vedic ‘Skambha’ instead of the lifeless mental orthodoxy that has been offered in its place. Indeed, one need only look at the ongoing disharmony and chaos in Auroville and the Ashram to know TO A CERTAINTY that there is NO CENTER. William Butler Yeats, himself a realized being, eloquently describes this occult phenomenon in the first lines of his poem ‘The Second Coming’.

‘…Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.’

You could not find a better description of how Alok Pandey and others have experienced Peter Heehs’ destructive influence but what they fail to realize is that Heehs is not the CAUSE of this ongoing controversy but merely one of the SYMPTOMS of the CENTERLESS condition that exists today in Auroville and the Ashram. To someone who SEES, the situation and its errors have an almost formulaic precision to it producing a mathematical result when something essential is left out of the mix.

It may be compared to G.W.H. Hegel’s famous three part dialectical formula known as Hegel’s law. If you apply the principles of Thesis and Antithesis but reject the Third principle of Synthesis, the formula is fractured, true unity cannot be achieved and an integral understanding becomes impossible… The complete article may be found at: http://the-mountaintop.blogspot.com/2009/11/stop-scapegoating-peter-heehs.html Posted by Robert E. Wilkinson to Savitri Era Open Forum at 7:42 PM, November 02, 2009

from koantum ujmvjm@gmail.com to tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com date 19 January 2009 08:05 subject Savitri Era : Life Divine sans community
koantum has sent you a link to a blog:

Lack of discrimination, Sir. Excommunication from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram (a well-defined existing community), not from the (ill-defined and therefore hardly existent) IY community.

from Tusar N. Mohapatra tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com to koantum ujmvjm@gmail.com date 19 January 2009 15:35 subject Re: Savitri Era : Life Divine sans community

The reductive doctrine that you have introduced implies that the concept of a community is redundant, and hence undesirable, which questions all existing as well as future formations. [TNM]

Sunday, November 08, 2009 Green hot air Update:

The above post has been unilaterally and arbitrarily deleted by R.Y. Deshpande from mirror of tomorrow which I protest. Such fascist instincts are really frightening. [TNM] Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 8:46 AM savitri era

BHANUPRATAP has left a new comment on your post "Babaji Maharaj Sri Ramakrishna Das visited Dharamg...": Mr. Mohapatra,

We are verry much gratefull to you for your effort to highlight our centre in PLAIN AND SIMPLE heading. This is the second time our centre has came in PLAIN AND SIMPLE. With all best wishes for your. Managing Trustee, Sri Aurobindo Kendra. Posted by BHANUPRATAP to Plain & Simple at 9:25 PM, November 09, 2009

Tusar N Mohapatra has left a new comment on your post "Babaji Maharaj Sri Ramakrishna Das visited Dharamg...":

You may file short reports on present activities in and around the Kendra. Thanks. [TNM] Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra to Plain & Simple at 7:26 AM, November 10, 2009

Srikant has left a new comment on your post "Man's meddling with nature is a dangerous game": Dear Rakesh-ji,

Mother and Sri Aurobindo have always remained very much open regarding technology. while one student was migrating to U.S. in '60, she said, 'yes learn about plastic technology, my food materials are smelling awfully.' At the same time Parichand-da - the Ashram gardener says She was very particular that the garden should be beautiful at the samed time natural as at the entrance! The whole problem is with man, - till he changes these aberrations will keep on cropping up. Posted by Srikant to Savitri Era Learning Forum at 12:05 AM, November 04, 2009

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Roy Bhaskar’s A Realist Philosophy of Science is a...":

I much prefer the Trickster vision communicated in the work of Timothy Leary, Zippy the Pinhead, and the always weird and wonderful R Crumb. Posted by Anonymous to Feel Philosophy at 4:37 PM, November 11, 2009

from Sarojini Sahoo sarojalin@gmail.com date 26 October 2009 14:24
subject Fallacies in a Hindu mind regarding Manu Samhita

Hi, exploit these fallacies for their political gain. I have posted an article on Manuvad in my blog SENSE & SENSUALITY. Please access. Your comments at the blog site may help to create a meaningful discussion forum. Take care Regards Sarojini

Why should we take this inevitability as a harmful stigma?

Re: Reflections on THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY By Debashish Banerji Science, Culture and Integral Yoga
by Rod on Fri 27 Oct 2006 05:56 AM PDT Permanent Link In Sri Aurobindo’s view, the evolution of consciousness is towards larger and more inclusive unities, and a sense of self that is universal. In his view evolution in its large aims works through groups rather than individuals to achieve large ideal potentials, like justice, knowledge, harmony, power.

Fukuyama also argues, as does Habermas, that such values as human dignity and freedom are rooted in a natural condition of equality before the genetic dice throw. (A new slant on “thrownness.”) If we choose to predetermine improvements of intelligence, health, strength, competitiveness, etc., in our species through genetic engineering, then we violate the principle of the luck of the draw and the randomness of opportunity which ground our choices and our sense of identity and dignity. We are who we are by virtue of random selection mitigated by parental breeding preferences and social conditioning. We should be free to change the latter but not the former, or else the balance of natural ethics and human rights will be altered forever.

This point of view is very close to the Judeo-Christian idea of the natural state of fall in which good and evil become known so that we may strive for the good, reject the evil, and be saved; also closely related to the Platonic/Aristotelian idea of the final cause being the good form of each thing, toward which it moves in its development from a state of ignorance, imperfection, smallness, matter toward the fulfillment of its purpose, by becoming capable of rational choice. According to these basics of “natural philosophy” what drives the human being toward its potential is the soul, what Fukuyama calls Factor X, the essence of the human when all the conditioning is stripped away, the principle of “nous” or reason. Faced with the choice to genetically alter and so improve some members of the species, to remain in a natural state of imperfection on a flat playing field and strive for an ethically progressive world order, or to renounce mentality, reason, preferential judgment altogether and allow a new principle of truth consciousness and force to manifest, why would one choose one or the other, on what grounds?

Sri Aurobindo’s leap forward consists in the recognition that the natural and ideal drives toward harmony, truth, justice are the embryonic movements of a Will in life-mind-matter to realize a higher form of existence, consciousness, bliss. But he also brings down the force that makes his solution a tangible, perceptible possibility, for those who make the choice to open to it. And so we may be back to the Augustinian/Pelagian paradox, with a slight twist. Both individual choice and divine grace are necessary if this evolutionary change is to happen. And it must be for the good of everyone – not just the elect. It’s a species, and not a communal or national or individual level process. But because of the dual necessity: choice and grace, it will have to be done first by individuals. Collective change will presumably follow (linearly and chaotically).

At this point in Auroville there is almost no sign of anything happening on the collective level that indicates a change of consciousness, but the supramental force can be accessed by the individual and at times it seems to encompass a group awareness, but still carries little impact in the arrangement of social structure. At the Ashram level, little effort is apparently even made on the outer collective structure. It’s all arranged for maintaining an inner openness, for worship and meditation. If this evolution (of supramental consciousness) depends in any way on social structure, on ethical choice, on economics, technology, or biogenetic engineering, then from what I can tell it’s doomed from the start. It’s strictly a matter of inner choice and grace, which presumes the presence of a soul, divine will, or psychic being in things. RH

by Rod on Sun 29 Oct 2006 01:54 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
This is a kind of reasoning, supported by revelation and text, ie. spiritual authority. As such it requires faith and practice on the part of those who choose to be heroic. Whether such a teaching was meant to become the basis of a new religion, or not, or whether such religion is desirable or not, does not disqualify it as a religious teaching. Sri Aurobindo said his purpose in writing the Arya was to lay down the metaphysical and religious basis for a new movement in humanity to exceed itself. That basis (foundation) is a categorical belief in the immanence of the supermind in evolution and the innate ability of humans to know it because of the presence in them of the soul. The philosophical pertinence of this idea today when everyone is questioning the origin of consciousness happens to make this teaching current and relevant. But, What's wrong with admitting both that this teaching requires existential experience to be meaningful and also that it is very natural, even inevitable, for it to take on all the characteristics of a religion, which in fact it has already done? Why should we take this inevitability as a harmful stigma? Do we think postmodernism should have the last word? Reply

by Rod on Sun 29 Oct 2006 02:36 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
I would like to make an important concession to the techniques of postmodernist criticism and to the importance of an understanding of being-toward-the-future in the context of Sri Aurobindo’s work, as mentioned above.

A meaningful intermediate step might be allotted to phenomenology and deconstruction as a preparation for an actual step of being-toward-the-future as well as a true grasp of Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy, similar to Derrida’s treatment of Heidegger. That would be to accord Sri Aurobindo’s philosophemes their due position within the history of metaphysics and religion, both Eastern and Western, and then to transcend our own embeddedness in that doxological framework by considering that position under erasure. Because the position of Sri Aurobindo is only really meaningful in relation to an ever-present future of consciousness to be realized through transformation and the transcendence of intellectual concepts, his metaphysical and religious structures must be erased in order for that transformation to be present and in order for the future represented by his writings to be understood.

Supramental truth-force is a direct seeing, through a transformed consciousness, that may or may not be mediated by an inspired text or a direct spiritual influence, such as those which Sri Aurobindo, the writer-yogi created. It is known and valid only through an opening to a unifying consciousness of the oneness and difference of all perceptions that yields a strong sense of their unity, a sense of a divine wholeness and rightness (ritam), “a smooth and even infinity everywhere.” In this experience, the Mother’s insistence that even a superhuman effort to attain a true knowledge and to uplift humanity pales and disappears before the realization of what in fact already is the truth of everything. Reply

by Debashish on Sun 29 Oct 2006 08:39 PM PST Profile Permanent Link
Very well put and true. In fact, to this I would stick my neck out and agree that this is exactly the necessary method (call it postmodern or not) that Sri Aurobindo demands for a legitimate understanding and practice of his teaching. DB Reply [ 3:15 PM 4:23 PM]

▼ 2006 (854) ► December (57) ▼ November (52)
In direct connection with supraphysical
A secret communication and commerce
Resistance, obstruction and limitation
The Life Divine does not mention avatar or the sac...
On magical powers called siddhis
The secret of the Veda
The supremacy of Sri Aurobindo
Impersonality
Romanticism, Colonialism, Hegemony
Existentialism and Vedanta
The Indian tradition is truly "postmodern"
The book has been a revelation
Transcendental to the Transcendental
Universal economy
Transcendental-Universal-Individual
The circle opens in truth closes in beauty
Metaphorical or figurative reading
On this day of the Mother's Mahasamadhi
Unconditional love at the heart of Derrida
A fundamental lack in Buddhism
The ordinary mind vs. Psychic being
Words as gateways for the Soul
Vedas as spiritual allegory
Have you mused on the incredible things described ...
The “integral” tent
The original Integral tradition
The holocaust of the Supreme
Science itself is no integral thought
Supramental Transformation of the world
We are our fate through our action
Danger of literalism and religious dogmatism
Counteract the virus of narrowminded blindness
A reflection of the Absolute in the relative
This is the process proclaimed by Savitri
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are so revolutionary
Diversity and unity in a divine way
Sri Aurobindo and the 20th Century
Nothing can be taught
The psychic being is the key to evolution
Hegel, Heidegger, Sri Aurobindo, Gebser
An actual step of being-toward-the-future
Sri Aurobindo has claimed divine sanction
Self-stimulating irrelevance
A foundationalism based in experience
Victorian-sounding Overmental prose
"Religion" is not a stigma on the teaching
Hwa Yen, Sri Aurobindo and A.H. Almaas
Kazlev disagrees with Ken's description
A universal grammar of metaphysics
Teilhard de Chardin and Sri Auro­bindo
The Self-Aware Universe
Consciousness Studies and Indian Psychology

Every negative remark in this book conceals a wealth of positive information

Re: The Lives of Sri Aurobindo—a Controversial Biography by Peter Heehs by Tusar N. Mohapatra on Thu 01 Jan 2009 09:09 AM IST Profile Permanent Link [Re: In Defence of the “Extracts ... by auroman on Wed 31 Dec 2008 07:02 AM IST It is precisely because of such emotional arguments that Western supporters of this book have concluded that all this controversy is superficial.]

Nothing psychic about it. You too are off your guard here and commit the same mistake. Reply

A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo—by Auroman
by RY Deshpande on Fri 09 Jan 2009 07:14 PM IST Mirror of Tomorrow The quandary with the latest biography of Sri Aurobindo by his own follower Peter Heehs
A Chapter from The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs Mirror of Tomorrow

Re: A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by vikram on Tue 01 Sep 2009 09:15 PM IST Profile Permanent Link
Remember the rule of thumb : Every negative remark in this book conceals a wealth of positive information. [...] This crude remark is most unrefined. Marriage in that era was regarded as a sacred act and a knot of a lifetime. The whole page suggests that Sri Aurobindo got married because he wanted sex, then lost interest in sex and so deliberately neglected his wife.

by vikram on Thu 29 Oct 2009 09:12 PM IST Profile Permanent Link
Page 212: Partition and the bloodletting that accompanied it were the movement's principal failings, and Aurobindo and his colleagues have to take their share of the blame.

Well, lets see what we have regarding this in the Evening Talks.

Sri Aurobindo : I told C. R. Das (in 1923) that this Hindu-Muslim question must be solved before the Britishers go, otherwise there was a danger of civil war. He also agreed and wanted to solve it. Sri Aurobindo was involved in the freedom struggle for a mere four years.

The above remark shows he was prescient in his analysis. And yet he must take his share of the blame! As I said before, every negative statement in this book conceals a wealth of positive information. Reply

A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo
by RY Deshpande on Sun 14 Dec 2008 06:10 AM IST Permanent Link Cosmos I’ve made, en passant, a number of comments about the highly controversial biography The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. Links to some of them are listed in the following. These contextual observations however must be seen in the totality of the respective articles, the context particularly pertaining to the divine work, divyam karma.
An Entry from Record of Yoga http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/11/29/3999434.html
The Path: by Sri Aurobindo http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/11/27/3997815.html
Passing through the Portals of the Birth that is a Death: Part B http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/12/1/4002901.html
Physical Transformation—the Early Beginnings http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/12/3/4005379.html
The Avataric Work: Towards the Intermediate Race http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/12/2/4004239.html
Ascent to Supermind http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/11/26/3996217.html

A Key Statement about the Integral Yoga http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/11/30/4000477.html

Re: A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo—by Auroman by Raman Reddy on Fri 09 Jan 2009 09:57 PM IST Profile Permanent Link Dear Auroman, Excellent analysis once again of “The Fallacies of Heehs”, we could even give this title in imitation of Kishor Gandhi’s “The Fallacy of Marx”. It is a pity that Heehs has incubated for so long his resentment for all that is accepted as normal in the Ashram –- the Mother’s primary role in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, the disciples’ bhakti for their Gurus, respect for the group of the first generation of sadhaks who came with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, enthusiasm for the institutions they have created and the vast numbers of people who have been influenced, etc, etc. This is what happens when you try to be over smart and write something very different just for the sake of being different from other authors who have written on the same subject, and not because you have original ideas of your own. Raman Reddy Reply

Two Book Reviews of Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography by Peter Heehs
by RY Deshpande on Mon 19 Jan 2009 05:23 PM IST It will be worthwhile to see these reviews again

A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs
committed to objective, academic, respectful and honest discussions
Oct 30, 2009 Introduction to this Site
Welcome! This site is dedicated to a critique of the book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs.
This book is promoted as an academic study of Sri Aurbindo's life, but is in fact full of errors, distortions and misrepresentations which can easily mislead readers not familiar with the larger body of documentation of Sri Aurobindo's life and writings. The contributions on this site are intended to identify and expose to the public at large the numerous distortions in this book and to set the record straight in academic discourse.

As a first time visitor, you can begin by reading the Background note on this book and its sponsors followed by the Frequently Asked Questions. Then you can either sequentially explore the entries on the main menu at the top of the page, or plunge into specific themes of discussion through the Categories list below the main menu. You can also navigate from the master List of Categories which defines each category of posts. The latest posts are listed datewise on the main page.
Every post is followed by a discussion blog that allows you to participate in the discussion. Please respect the objectives of this site and assist in maintaining a high standard of academic discourse. We value your free participation in all the discussions, but we request you to respect others and their freedom also. Posts containing abuses or personal attacks will be deleted. For suggestions and feedback please write to rtlosa@gmail.com. General Editor ...full text... Recents Posts ▼ 2009 (49) ▼ October (7) Introduction to this Site
The Book and its Background -- by Alok Pandey
Alok Pandey's second letter to Peter Heehs
Alok Pandey's Letter of Clarification to the Trust...
Alok Pandey's first letter to Peter Heehs
This book is the cause of all my dismay -- a sonne...
Govind Rajesh: The “intensity” of bhakti yoga, acc...
► September (1)
The Hardinge Controversy - by Raman Reddy
► August (3)
A Relevant Quote from the Mother's Agenda
Savitri is "Fictional Creation", says Heehs! -- ...
Hindu-Muslim Unity in Sri Aurobindo's Light by Dr....
► July (4)
Dr Sachidananda Mohanty's letter to the Trustees
Comments on the Preface -- by Varuna Mitra
On Misinterpreting the Adesh -- by Raman Reddy
Trojan Horses—a Warning from the Owl
► June (7)
Is this Imbroglio or Falsification?
Regarding Paulette’s False Claim
The Birth Place of Sri Aurobindo -- by Nirmal Sing...
Note of Clarification (from Alok and Sraddhalu)
Are We Religious Fundamentalists? -- by Raman Red...
The Shadow and After -- by Alok Pandey
An Elucidation of the JK-PH Nexus—by Varuna Mitra
► May (13)
Amal Kiran on Sri Aurobindo's Adesh
R Y Deshpande's analysis: Ascent to Supermind (Pp ...
Archetypal Images and Symbols—by Paulette
Anonymous Posting on Savitri Era Open Forum
Sraddhalu's Open Letter to Auroville and Centres
About Gitanjali JB's Lawyer
The Appeal by Julian Lines for Harmony and Peace
Ranganath’s Reply to the Accusation of Religious F...
Two Sides of Two Different Coins
Raja Marathe’s Letter to Peter Heehs
Jugal Kishore Mukherji’s Second Letter to the Trus...
Jugal Kishore Mukherji's First Letter to the Trust...
Selected Letters -- Jasmin's experience
► April (7)
Two Poems — by RY Deshpande
Objective History in Four Lessons by Prithwindra M...
Alok Pandey's Reply To Angiras
The Theme of Evolution in Sri Aurobindo’s Writings...
About Immersed Attention and Revelatory Speech
Sri Aurobindo's Sevenfold Prose Style
Sri Aurobindo was unable to restructure his articl...
► March (6)
A Review by Raman Reddy of The Lives of Sri Aurobi...
Alok Pandey's comment on Heehs (27.03.2009)
In Defence of the Extracts
Hail to "Angiras"!
Ranganath's reply to Angiras
Orissa Govt tells High Court to ban Heehs' book
► February (1)
Defamation of Sri Aurobindo's character and Heehs'...
► 2008 (27) ► December (2)
Frequently Asked Questions ► November (12) ► October (11) ► September (2)
Recent Comments
A tour de force. Each line reads like a ray of lig... - Oct 14
"This may not be so much an intentional fabricatio... - Oct 10
Dear Sir, If I may add a few points. Even the s... - Jul 24
All devotees should be grateful to Manasi Pahwa fo... - Jul 12
Thanks to Raman Reddy for setting matters right. T... - Jul 12
I checked out this reference. The paragraph does n... - Jul 02
On the subject of the "lives" Vikas writes: “…the ... - Jun 30
A relevant comment posted on the Mirror of Tomorro... - Jun 29

Media and News Reports
March 5, 2009: State imposes book ban
Dec 31, 2008: High court calls to author
Dec 12, 2008: Petition holds up release of book
Dec 11, 2008: Book on Sri Aurobindo irks devotess
Nov 6, 2008: Orissa High Court stays release of book on Sri Aurobindo

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Trustees chose to ignore this issue and the reason for this silence is beyond our comprehension

The Book and its Background -- by Alok Pandey
from A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs by Raman Reddy

The Man and his Motives: These motives were never really hidden from Ashram inmates. Right from the beginning, this man has courted controversies, the aim of which has been to raise doubts about Sri Aurobindo’s statements on his own life, his English, his works, his yoga, on the Mother and so on and so forth. All these controversies have landed the Ashram into bitter debates and even legal disputes; they have always been a force of division that have led to a polarisation of opinion along racial and other lines. This of course is due to his ingrained strong bias against India, Indian tradition and culture, and his favouring the Western views of life as superior to any other. This colonial bias is reflected everywhere in his book and raises once again the unanswered but pertinent question, –

• why is he here in India that he is so critical of?
• Is it some kind of compulsion?
• As was rumoured earlier, was he a drug addict?
• Or was he part of a more sinister design of certain groups whose sole purpose is to denounce and debunk, denigrate and belittle Indian culture and its heroes under the guise of admiration for it?

These adverse theories of Indian culture have been advanced with very strong arguments from Macaulay and Max Muller to even some present day scholars who have come to India and gone back to start their own independent schools without acknowledging the source of their inspiration. We need not go into the details of this U–turn theory. For our present purpose, it is enough to turn our attention on this single person and question his real motives. [...]

All this is directly connected with his intent and cunning nature, the degree of his insensitivity to everything that is around him – the ethos in which he lives and breathes, the country whose culture has accepted him as one of its own, the very soul and spirit of the Ashram that feeds him, whose services he enjoys and whose atmosphere nourishes and nurtures him. This insensitivity is not due to any ignorance, but due to his arrogance and utter disregard and disrespect for everyone else, whom he treats as his inferiors, like some outdated colonialist. His colleagues describe him as vain and arrogant, someone who takes great glee in looking down upon India and its glorious traditions, not by the way of any higher enlightenment but out of superior pride that exults in its self-adulatory and inflated self-esteem.

On more than one occasion, several of his colleagues have approached the Trustees after finding his activities suspicious and feeling that such a person would be unfit to work at the Archives. Not only the average devotee but a disciple of unquestionable integrity (Jugal-da) and the closest aide of the Mother (Pranab-da) voiced their concern to the Trustees about the nature of this man. Several others raised the alarm in a similar vein, among them the well-known exponents of Sri Aurobindo’s teachings and yoga such as Amal Kiran, Nirodbaran, Chotte Narayan Sharma and R Y Deshpande (a few of these articles and letters have been published on this site). Of course, it is strange that the normally alert Trustees somehow chose to ignore this issue and did not pay much attention to it. The reason for this silence is beyond our comprehension, but it only shows the extent of the menace that Peter Heehs is and the degree of control he exercises over the will of others. [...]

Not satisfied with his onslaught on Sri Aurobindo, the writer goes on to attack Indian thought and civilisation as something outdated and lacking in originality, the Ashram community as a bunch of poor imitators who are hardly engaged in sadhana, the failed Indian revolutionary movement and so on. At many places, he attempts to clearly rewrite history by supporting the British as in the case of the partition of Bengal, or taking the side of William Archer – the most biased anti-Indian colonial writer in whose refutation Sri Aurobindo wrote a whole book. [...]

It is this constant deception that underlies his work. He is trying to be someone which he is not, masquerading now as an expert in literary criticism, now as an exponent of yoga, now as an authority in psychology, but all the time his eye is on the one single goal, –to distort and misrepresent, belittle and denigrate Sri Aurobindo, his life and his yoga, Indian culture in general and re-establish once again another form of imperialism – the intellectual supremacy of the West, and prove it not on its own merits but by a selective misuse of documents. It is the relic of a colonial mind at its mischievous best, – to sow seeds of doubt within the Indian mind about its innate abilities and strength, to vulgarise and trivialise the sacred and the great, and to create confusion and division between the Hindu and the Muslim, the East and the West, the devotee and the philosopher.

In fact Peter has hijacked the Sri Aurobindonian platform to project himself as some sort of an authority, a myth that got perpetuated due to his total and unrestricted access to archival sources, thanks to the complacency of the Ashram authorities. He, on his side, not only misused his office to the fullest by theft of intellectual property and academic fraud, but also changed Sri Aurobindo’s own words under the pretext of rectifying certain errors. It is strange that this man, who so vociferously promoted the changes in Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri and even engaged the Ashram in a bitter legal battle dividing the devotees over the issue, [...] Alok Pandey November 2008

Multi-poised Unity that has infinite room in it for the diversity of our approaches

Science, Culture and Integral Yoga Re: Rationalism and the yogic life

by Debashish on Mon 29 Sep 2008 10:23 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Re. the present flurry of attacks against the book and its author, at the risk of over-simplification, I may add what seems obvious - that differences in cultural psychology between modern western and Indian habitus lies at the foundation of the matter. But with this as basis, certain collective formations have grown up.

On the Indians' side, this has taken the form of an unconscious religiosity whose bane is the self-righteous orthodoxy of worship and the aggressive policing of largely self-created and interpreted myths and whose detrimental effect is that the growth of consciousness is obscured and the non-religious see only a stereotypical structure of hyperbole which they reject even before having a chance to see the solutions which have been offered.

On the westerners' side it is an insistence on "fact" and an analysis of objective facts on the basis of reason and an infants' psychology. This is what has been happening on a large scale in western scholarship of late and it is largely to this audience that Peter's book has been addressed. In doing so, he has naturally offended the Indian sentiments and in anticipating and answering the western analytical framework, has sometimes acknowledged these approaches, which has raised eyebrows.

The problem is that though neither side is sufficiently illuminated, the religious attitude ends up building an impenetrable wall (unless one knows the right passwords for the gatekeepers, such as "avatar", "divine", "surrender", "psychic" and "falsehood of reason") and thus excludes a wider reach of the yoga.

Sri Aurobindo's yoga is for the transformation of the world and unless all the different mentalities and vitalities can see what he has to offer, it cannot achieve its ends. And for this, all these mentalities and vitalities must be spoken to in their own languages. The bridges must be built. If even the attempt is stifled because of pedantic injunctions and through inquisitions and witch-hunts, what future can we expect? DB Reply

Re: Rationalism and the yogic life by koantum on Mon 29 Sep 2008 06:05 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Debashish, You summed up the underlying differences very well.
The sectarian spirit, which has declared jihad on Peter, is a far greater threat to Sri Aurobindo's "image" than Peter's biography, which is no threat at all but a welcome corrective to those childish hagiographies. These jihadis prove to the world that Sri Aurobindo is at the head of a sectarian religious movement. This a disaster.

Re: Rationalism and the yogic life by koantum on Mon 29 Sep 2008 10:14 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Someone objected to my labeling the hagiographies as "childish." That person is right and I apologize. I can only speak of my personal reactions when I read some of those hagiographies many years ago. In comparison to Sri Aurobindo's own luminous writings, I found them painfully limited in their vision and comprehension. I have no such reaction to Peter's book because he deliberately limits himself to the documented externalities of Sri Aurobindo life. Reply

Re: cultural (in)sensitivities Kripal vs. Heehs
by Rich on Wed 01 Oct 2008 08:47 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Regards the matter of cultural sensitivities. This controversy has raised the issues of other works, which the Heehs book is being identified with has been brought up by some, particularly the work of Jeff Kripal on Ramakrishna, which is a Freudian psychoanalytic deconstruction of its subject.

I will admit to only reading synopsis of this book and issues surrounding its controversy so will limit my thoughts to the approach that the author took to his subject. And I find Kripal's approach of reducing the traditions of one culture boarders on intellectual imperialism. e.g. Hindu India, to the criteria set forth by another, in this case the Judeo-Germanic that backgrounded Freud

In this example the voice of the Western psycho-analytic tradition assumes a dominate perspective by imposing foreign interpretations on the subaltern voice that in the process denies its integrity

The great historian of Religions Huston Smith wrote in the Harvard Divinity School Bulletin that, "I doubt that any other book — not even those of early, polemical, poorly informed, and bigoted missionaries — has offended Hindu sensibilities so grossly. And understandably, despite Kripal's protestations to the contrary in Secret Talk: The Politics of Scholarship in Hindu Tantrism, Kali's Child is colonialism updated." (Wiki) ^ a b Smith, Huston (Spring 2001). "Letters to the Editor". Harvard Divinity Bulletin 30/1: Letters.

In Fact on p27 in his book Indian Religions Heehs accuses Kripal of dogmatic Freudian interpretations

Although sexuality is discussed in the Heehs book it seemed to me that the author goes out of his way to remind us that it played a negligible role of Sri Aurobindo's life, and the matter held little interest for him. Moreover, although the book is a Western academic style it does seem to be culturally sensitive to the subcontinental traditions and context in which the story unfolds. Reply

Re: Corrections to textual excerpts of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs
by Vladimir on Sun 05 Oct 2008 09:07 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Many of our misunderstandings are based on these cultural differences. To go beyond them we should rise to a higher level of consciousness, says the Mother, from where we could see things as they are, in a state of perfect disinterestedness.

Re: Corrections to textual excerpts of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs
by Rick on Sun 12 Oct 2008 07:03 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
As I understand it, in responding to an intellectual position taken by another, an approach practiced and favored by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother begins with this premise:

Not only all forms and forces, but all thoughts, chains of ideas and works of reason, have behind them, are ultimately based on some truth. This truth has real existence, in the Absolute and in the Saccidananda and, however changed, diminished, distorted it may have grown from the original, any idea of any coherence derives from some basis in truth. What Sri Aurobindo will often do, in his writings, is express clearly a thought, idea, and chain of reasoning and demonstrate what truth is trying, through such ideas, to be expressed.

There is, for example, some truth in Materialism that is aspiring to be realized in life. Sri Aurobindo will then go to express another truth, which may be at apparent odds with the first (There is a truth in Spirituality that presses to materialize), showing clearly how both truths—may be even multiple truths—are striving for living expression, and he will proceed to suggest a more comprehensive truth that assimilates the principal elements in each, reaching in this way some expanded synthesis only partially contained in the various elements of seemingly contradictory truths. He will do this using perfectly well the outward form of mental reasoning, but applying from behind it a wider view based on a more comprehensive or intuitive mode of perceptive understanding.

What he will NOT do is what we human beings always seem to want to do. We always find ourselves saying: This is wrong! I don't agree, I don't like its expression, it's simply not true; maybe it's a deliberate lie, on the basis of some hostile agenda, but it is most certainly false, pernicious even. I don't accept it and I in fact question the very motives of the person who puts forth this pernicious form of expression.

The Mother said more than once that when we disagree with another person's position, a healthy exercise is to identify with that exponent and their position sufficiently so that we can express their side of the issue. This can be a means to broaden our viewpoint, help us not only relate to the other person but strengthen our mental faculties, our understanding, and if we have enough aspiration, reach a greater truth than ours or the other's alone. [...]

We all have to realize that there are real and still-potent forces that WANT us to clash just as we've been doing, fall into an ambush, so to speak. If we have the aspiration, if we can summon it back, there are greater more conscious forces that are leading, even as we speak, to a multi-poised Unity that has infinite room in it for the diversity of our approaches. Rick Lipschutz Reply

Hyperbolic rant popularized by Tusar Mohapatra that Sri Aurobindo is beyond all concept, system and order

Instead of sticking to facts, Chaki goes spinning off into the same kind of hyperbolic rant popularized by Tusar Mohapatra, that Sri Aurobindo is beyond all concept, system and order. He is beyond the Gods, beyond the Veda and beyond even his own Avatarhood. What we are left with are Chaki’s fanciful and romanticized notions about the actions of the Supermind and his proffer of the Mother’s speculative comments on Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth which even she cautions not to take as the final word.

Chaki’s specious claims about Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth might be compared to a pompous student arguing points with a professor of Calculus, when the student himself has never even bothered to master the principles of elementary Mathematics. The result in both cases is a pretentious and dogmatic assertion of one’s ignorant and uninformed opinion in the face of incontrovertible fact. [...]

It is time to agree with Sri Aurobindo that an INTEGRAL KNOWLEDGE IS THE PATH OF OUR YOGA, not the fanciful speculations of naysayers like Chaki, not the hyperbolic rhetoric of inflated and immature followers that cannot offer real and verifiable facts in support of their claims, only Veda - KNOWLEDGE will suffice. Posted by Robert E. Wilkinson at 7:11 AM Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Commentaries on THE FUTURE REALIZATION

Vishnu, Sri Aurobindo & the Force of a Secret Unity from Circumsolatious by Lori Tompkins

The very next day, on August 8th, Tusar N. Mohapatra (editor of Savitri Era Open Forum) wrote an article titled ‘Sri Aurobindo and the Mother already accomplished the metaphysical victory’:

‘The divine manifestation of The Mother & Sri Aurobindo is an unprecedented phenomenon which can't be explained by past mythological instances or received metaphysical formulations. Parameters of perennial philosophy or speculative prophecies like eternal recurrence fall flat here. All talk of the Messiah, the Tirthankar or the Avatar is idle intellectual approximations.’

Mr. Mohapatra is in agreement with others who feel that ‘Sri Aurobindo need not be in the series of Ten Avatars’ and that Thea’s yoga and yogic knowledge are not valid extensions of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s great yoga. [...]

Then a week or so later, on Sri Aurobindo’s birthday, I created and published an image of how Vishnu can be ‘seen’ in the Mother’s Symbol. This image was considered to be blasphemous by Mr. Mohapatra. [See 'Lori Deplored ...']

Dr. Nadkarni worked in this field and we need to continue to do so

Science, Culture and Integral Yoga

Re: The Core Problem by Angiras on Wed 14 Jan 2009 01:09 AM PST Permanent Link
see www.iyfundamentalism.info

by Rick on Thu 19 Mar 2009 02:24 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Whether firing up the aspiration, or working in the mental field upon the mind of academia, is more important, is not for us to decide. Perhaps both are very important, but their importances resonate differently among us. What seems important to me is this: Thoughts are things. Sri Aurobindo and Mother did a lot of conscious work in various fields, including the field of ideas, thoughts, perceptions; the mental field, the mass mind. Rishabhchand discusses how Sri Aurobindo so changed the substance of the subliminal that our psychic beings now may find it easier to pass unclouded or less clouded into a more integral approach; to fulfill the natural aspiration of the soul to divinize life. He also opened up the way beyond the thought mind to regions that are more spiritual though still mental regions.

Before Sri Aurobindo, as Rishabhchand points out, when the soul or psychic being was realized, the general tendency was almost exclusively devotional—to live in the divine presence, but rather statically, and not so much to engage with life or transform the mind, vital, and body; more quietistic. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother actively engaged with many other fields of the forces in which we live and that act upon us, clearing away a great deal of subliminal and subconscient debris—also, they linked subplane to subplane, building bridges with the aim eventually of a connected whole spanning all.

It seems to me that these fields are of great importance in conditioning our responses, our thoughts, even our inner inspirations. And none of the fields are completely shut up in themselves. Academics deal not only with other academics and the need to publish and pursue an academic career—rather, they affect all the students who pass their way. Let’s remember the great effect of Frederic Spiegelberg at Stanford; many took his courses and came out with a whole new approach, aspirations they didn’t know they had, changed life-courses; minds and hearts freed up to seek beyond the reductive.

I see SCIY as an active part of this effort. I don’t see, either, a tremendous dichotomy, between bhakti and jnana, as they complement and nourish each other. I see some connection between SCIY and the some of the open-ended work of Nolini who engaged with the world-mind, the world of science and academics and books modern to his time; but who also was a great devotee, whose devotion grew greatly the longer he lived.

I am personally interested in the problem: How do we build a bridge between a more open, less reductive viewpoint, and the materialist view with its exclusive faith in reason—and that being mostly the reason of the physical mind. There seems to be some gap, some lack of linkage, that we haven’t got to, some bridges we need to build or, at least, add to a portion of the spans that already exist. It’s not a matter of proselytizing towards some religion, but of opening a way so that the human mind, really the whole human being, can link up, and more effectively connect, with a more conscious way of knowing and experiencing.

Dr. Nadkarni worked in this field and we need to continue to do so. AntiMatters journal, the SCIY website, and the publication of works attempting to engage with the academic mind, for example, are a step in that direction. So many blocks stand in the way; to remove those blocks is an authentic need. Reply Rick Lipschutz Previous: Larger Issues of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" Controversy Next: The Strange Case of Dr. M and Mr. S

Practicality is part of the spiritual program and discipline

Re: India’s Independence and the Spiritual Destiny: Part Y Mirror of Tomorrow
by narendra on Wed 14 Oct 2009 03:09 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

From Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's writings we can identify following three significant lines of progress which Nature will pursue for India: 1. Schooling in Practicality. 2. Unification of Indian sub continent. 3. Freedom from falsehood of asceticism and rise of true spirituality.

Whether one movement will be independent and completely precede the other or they would mutually collaborate would depend on the precedent conditions necessary for these movements to reach their logical fulfillment. Logically it is practical for Indian sub continent to stop infighting and establish a loose confederation so maybe to that extent it is incumbent for States to become practical. In case States don't consciously choose such a line then maybe circumstances will force confederation by such political and regional instability and insecurity that the countries are forced to form a confederation as the only option for survival. Indians are unlikely to make a conscious effort to train themselves in practicality unless either forced by circumstances or they are seized by some spiritual movement like Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's where practicality is part of the spiritual program and discipline. Reply

by narendra on Wed 14 Oct 2009 03:45 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

The IT and the dot com revolution in India may not have much value for Indian cutting edge excellence directly but has an immense value to its service in empowerment of the middle class of India and for wealth accumulation. The huge capital accumulation which IT has achieved and the business opportunities that internet and IT provide without the stifling controls of government have fired the entrepreneurial spark among Indians. I am very hopeful that this spirit of enterprise is going to drive India into realms of innovation and excellence if it stays free of government controls. It would be absolutely fantastic if this spirit of enterprise enters into rural areas and helps towards micro level empowerment.

Unless our national self-determination does not translate on the micro level to individual dignity of life, full opportunities for freely determining one's future's possibilities and freedom of self-expression and responsible citizenship the Nation will not progress. India's progress since independence has been slow on this account. Under the conditions of democratic political setup and Indian complexity of demography a decisive resolve and achievement of micro level empowerment by the government does not appear to be probable. Instead non-government initiative appears to be more likely to drive this movement. There are some shining individual examples of such work in water harvesting, education, small-scale enterprises and agriculture. There are some great possibilities in some government schemes like NREGA which can build village assets by using village labour to empower at the village level and if this can move out of its current road-fixation into water reservoirs, community assets and services etc it will be a big boost to India. There are some signs of enlargement of scope of Panchayats also which is very desirable. Up until now Panchayats were being used only for executing last mile of development work in the villages but now there is limited participation in the planning phase of development works. Hopefully villages can become long-term viable and self-supporting communities. Andhra Pradesh has made tremendous progress in this direction.

In general there are many obstacles to rural progress like the soical-complexes, lack of dignity of labour, irresponsibility towards community assets, illiteracy, poverty, lack of innovative and informed approach towards agriculture, depleting water resources, tamasic dependence on government and lack of self-application to their problems. Reply

by narendra on Thu 15 Oct 2009 02:22 AM IST Profile Permanent Link
India's loss of contact with its psychic happened by the systematic "cut off from the roots" policy of British as is suggested by Mother in the below quote. [...] Reply

We really have to come out of the falsehood of Gandhi's example

Re: India’s Independence and the Spiritual Destiny: Part Y Mirror of Tomorrow by narendra on Tue 13 Oct 2009 09:03 PM IST Profile Permanent Link

1. One of the greatest falsehoods afflicting India is the mistaking of Gandhi's asceticism with India's spirituality. This falsehood not only resides in the western perception of India but afflicts most Indians as well. A direct progeny of Gandhi's brand of asceticism was the idea of appeasement of Muslims. Partition of India is the living symbol of this falsehood. So we really have to come out of the falsehood of Gandhi's example to be that of spiritual accomplishment from which to draw inspiration.

The Mother in her conversations has identified the partition of India as the biggest obstacle in its fulfilment of its spiritual destiny and agreed absolutely that hypocrisy of "Gandhi's India" has to go. [...]

2. [...] This recognition by Indian Government of India's spiritual genius and mission "as a leader in the ways of the spirit and a friend and helper of all the peoples" within the very fabric of our constitution is critical and most essential so that Indian government can plan all their action, focus, education, institutions, structures and policy accordingly. This official conversion will go a long way in reorienting India back on its path of the sphere of activity that it derives its deepest delight, its highest rapture and fire this nation to its original vitality. (Maybe an essay on Indian Constitution specially focussing on Preamble could be taken up here.) [...]

3. India should really start a sincere and thorough reflection on its last 60 years to evaluate itself as to how it measures up to the opportunity it had and the reasons which hindered its true and optimal progress. This process of audit of national life is essential to come to the point where we can really reorient ourselves. [...]

4. India's spiritual effort failed to consummate in supramental realisation and the alternative solution of Nirvana became the only option. Consequently the life of this nation was sucked dry of dynamic delight by the ascetic conditions of spiritual life. India was weakened to a point to suffer conquests and then cultural exile inflicted by the evil genius of Thomas Babington Macaulay who institutionalised "cutting India from its roots" as a state policy. Finally India suffered the Falsehood of asceticism and freely chose after Independence to indirectly continue the policy of "cutting India from its roots".

So here we are rootless people trying to find roots in America! Incidentally Mother had seriously wondered the possibility of American occupation of India as one of the lines whereby the world can move towards its spiritual destiny with the lesson of 'practicality' for India to be learnt but then she thought it to be too painful for India and too time consuming. So maybe the kind of cultural colonisation by America of India that we see today could be a means of accomplishing the lessons that are supposed to be learnt without the side effects! [...]

5. The issue regarding the lack of Indian accomplishments in Science, Sports, Academics etc. through Indianness is very telling about our loss of roots. And we cannot just will those achievements. Indian soul has a certain uniqueness and it supports by provisioning a certain unique rasa of life, a special joy in activities. This apparently is sought in giving expression to spiritual realities.

• But how can a true body and mind of Indian scientist find its very deep joy in a science which has no mention of spirit?
• A sportsman any delight in mastering body without the conscious spiritual impulse?
• A poet brood find delight in spiritless externalities where his mind and body are limited in its possibilities of pure sensual rasas but crave for spiritual touch?
• Without this essential element of training in Indian-soul-environment how can any perfection be achieved in an Indian way by an Indian?

I am inclined to believe that for such achievements to come through regularly on a national level the conditions of an Indian soul environment are necessary. The fields of expression have really opened up with so many new platforms- for example where earlier there were just paintings now we have in addition cartoons, comics (where Word is also part of the picture), motion-comics, movies etc- and it is only expanding. With internet whole new possibilities of expression and training have opened up. Maybe we will see mini Indian ecology systems coming up where Indian training is possible for different fields but for that lot of pioneers have to do a lot of work. [...] Reply

Vested interests of those who refuse the Vedic Line of Avatars

How is Rejecting Sri Aurobindo as an Avatar of Vishnu
in the Best Interest of the Integral Yoga Community?

On 27 June 2008 Barindrinath Chaki wrote an article titled ‘Sri Aurobindo and Avatar-hood’. It was republished on Savitri Era Open Forum by Tusar N. Mohapatra with the title ‘Sri Aurobindo need not be in the series of Ten Avatars’. The gist of the article is as follows:

‘A few persons have said that Sri Aurobindo was the ninth Avatar of Vishnu. And it is also further claimed by them that He has again been reborn in the year 1963 and is the Tenth Avatar of Vishnu. These claims are not true…. Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have never and nowhere stated that He was an Avatar of Vishnu. As The Mother has stated, Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme. Vishnu is an aspect of the Supreme, according to the Indian mythology.… Sri Aurobindo need not be in the series of the Ten Avatars.’ – Barindrinath Chaki

Mr. Chaki posts a handful of quotes of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to ‘prove’ his assertion (stated as fact) that Sri Aurobindo could not have been the 9^th Avatar of Vishnu, nor could he be reborn as Kalki, the 10^th avatar of Vishnu.

This absolute assertion and the evidence used to support it is pale and unconvincing in light of Sri Aurobindo’s unparalleled role as the seed or catalyst for a global evolutionary shift towards the full Supramental Manifestation. It is also pale and unconvincing in light of the several volumes written by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet on the matter. Chapter 9 of her latest book Secrets of the Earth – Questions and Answers on the Line of Ten Avatars of the Vedic Tradition, actually addresses Mr. Chaki’s emphatic rejection of Sri Aurobindo’s avatarhood as well as Peter Heehs’ statement that no one alive today could prove the matter conclusively. The entire book is relevant towards developing an understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s avatarhood and rebirth, but it is the 9^th and final chapter which addresses the vested interests of those who refuse to consider that the Vedic Line of Avatars is an evolutionary reality – an eternal dharma that has been brought out of the realm of myth and restored in our own age through the life and yoga of Sri Aurobindo.

On this matter Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet has recently written:

‘Why is it that certain people, while pretending to be devotees of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo should protest so loudly that Sri Aurobindo is NOT an avatar – without even having studied the proof? I have given extensive proof. I have explained in detail Vishnu's method of avataric descent in multiple texts. I have explained in detail the mechanics of the supramental evolution and its irrefutable cosmic formulas, given out by Sri Aurobindo himself. What is to be gained by 'devotees' who reject Sri Aurobindo as an avatar of Vishnu? This question demands to be answered. All true lovers of Sri Aurobindo should join and in one voice ask these deniers WHY. Because it is not just an idle doubt expressed on their part. It is an active, relentless campaign, no less strident or vocal for lack of knowledge of the Dasavataras. At least we can see exactly who these deniers really are. Their arguments remain suspiciously hollow.’

It is a really good question.

• When offered such thorough and ample proof, WHY are certain devotees or practitioners of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga so absolutely and obstinately adverse to him being included in Vishnu’s Line of Ten Avatars?
• What is the real basis of the aversion?

From what I have seen the arguments presented in no way portray a curiosity or quest for the truth of the matter. The arguments rather reveal a blanket refusal to consider Sri Aurobindo’s avatarhood. Why would any sincere student of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother refuse to consider and research this possibility, especially given that Sri Aurobindo’s Siddhi Day in 1926 consisted of Krishna or Krishna consciousness descending into his body. Krishna of course is the 8^th Avatar of Vishnu.

• Why do Mr. Chaki and others who toe the same line believe it is in the Integral Yoga community’s best interest to disassociate Sri Aurobindo from the Hindu tradition of Vishnu’s Dasavataras?

Lately I have been studying Sri Aurobindo’s symbol with its ascending and descending triangles bound together by a square which houses a lotus resting on seven waves. The Mother clearly describes this 9 petal lotus as ‘the Avatar of the Supreme'. It is the center of the ‘perfect manifestation’ which is presumably the Supramental Manifestation which Sri Aurobindo incarnated to establish. What I do not understand is how Mr. Chaki and others can miss this very prominent indication of Sri Aurobindo’s true position. Mr. Chaki writes that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother ‘never and nowhere stated that He was an Avatar of Vishnu.’ Well who in the world is indicated in his own symbol as ‘the Avatar of the Supreme – the lotus’ if not Sri Aurobindo, whose very name happens to mean ‘lotus’ (aravindha) in the Sanskrit language? How is it missed that ‘the Avatar of the Supreme’ is one and the same as the Avatar of Vishnu, whose names include parameshvarah – the Supreme Lord, as well as aravindaksha – Lotus-Eyed One.

Is it believable that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother did not understand the lotus as a well recognized symbol of Vishnu the Supreme Lord, and that they did not actually mean to convey via the symbol that Sri Aurobindo was actually ‘the Avatar of the Supreme’? A 9 petal lotus would certainly be an ingenious symbol for the 9^th Avatar of Vishnu, the Supreme Lotus-Eyed Lord of the Cosmos, especially if his parents happened to have named him ‘lotus’. I for one do not imagine that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother were ignorant of these profound subtleties and correspondences . There is ample proof that the Mother knew exactly what Sri Aurobindo had accomplished, not only during his life as the 9th Avatar, but after his departure and return as the 10th. It is all 'written' methodically in the plan she gave of the Inner Chamber (see Chronicles of the Inner Chamber).

But, similar to the persistent campaign to dislodge Sri Aurobindo from his position in the Line of Ten Avatars, the ruling camp at Auroville destroyed (or have attempted to destroy) all the means the Mother gave to recognize and affirm his avatarhood by that plan. Those who protest the loudest against Sri Aurobindo’s avatarhood, like those who support the distorted dimensions of the Mother’s Temple in Auroville, have (for whatever reasons) taken up the onerous life purpose to deny the terms of the Supramental Manifestation as it has actually presented itself, as it has actually unfolded. If they understood the methods the new creation utilizes for its self _expression, this denial would be impossible.

Readers who wish to learn about, rather than simply reject, how Sri Aurobindo fits into the evolutionary scheme of avatarhood and how his rebirth is known should read Secrets of the Earth, The New Way Volumes 1, 2 & 3, Chronicles of the Inner Chamber, and The Hidden Manna, all by Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet. Thereafter an intelligent exchange would be possible.

Related Links & Blog Posts:
The Mother’s description of the significance of Sri Aurobindo’s symbol from the Sri Aurobindo Society website
‘Shed emotional bonding with past religious icons’ by Tusar N. Mohapatra
‘We read the exact year and month of Sri Aurobindo’s return to this earth’ by Robert E. Wilkinson
‘Sri Aurobindo and the Lotus’ by Lori Tompkins
‘Waving the Flag of Cosmic Ignorance in the Face of Sri Aurobindo and the Vedic Tradition of Avatars’ by Lori Tompkins

from Lori Tompkins to "Tusar N. Mohapatra" tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com date11 October 2009 21:29 subject a submission for SEOF - Circumsolatious Sunday, October 11, 2009 Sri Aurobindo - the Lotus and the Avatar Posted by Lori Tompkins at 9:12 AM Labels: avatar, lotus, sri aurobindo, sri aurobindo symbol, the mother, vishnu

Whether the whole exercise was simply self-projection and self-promotion

The main topic of the August 2009 issue of Auroville Today deals with how to introduce Sri Aurobindo to those with no background in the yoga or spirituality. Some people suggest that the attempt should not be made, arguing that if an individual is ready he or she will discover Sri Aurobindo for themselves. Others believe it is valid to create some kind of bridge to Sri Aurobindo's work for those who might otherwise not come upon it or not want to read it.

Four people offered their reflections: Georges van Vrekhem; Sachidananda Mohanty; David Hutchinson; and Manoj Das. They all have a deep knowledge of Sri Aurobindo's works and have been involved, at some time or another, in writing books or editing magazines which introduce him to a wider world. Home > Journals & Media > Journals > Auroville Today > Current issue August 2009

***

Oct 10, 2009 This book is the cause of all my dismay -- a sonnet by R.Y. Deshpande
The present sonnet by Deshpande was prompted by the four interviews that have appeared in the August 2009 issue of Auroville Today. These interviews, preceded with a brief introductory note by the Editor, are related with the highly controversial Lives of Sri Aurobindo published more than a year ago. The intention behind the drill was to build bridges between the opposing camps. While there is a general façade of balance and fair-play in these presentations by the authors, the essence of yogic and spiritual attainments of Sri Aurobindo never comes out with any degree of convincingness.

Instead, everything is more or less reduced to human level, and one wonders whether the whole exercise was simply an aspect of self-projection and self-promotion. Nowhere any strict academic discussion about the claims and failings or inadequacies of the biography are examined. That it calls Savitri as a “fictional creation” has been strangely—or was that purposely?—overlooked by these experts. That makes the entire business somewhat one-sided, if not suspect. The sonnet has in its own way given vent to these aspects, but it is professionally necessary to go into the details. ...full text... Posted by Raman Reddy at 10/10/2009 09:55:00 AM

Sri Aurobindo wrote about restoration of Vedic truths and ancient architectural forms

Robert has left a new comment on your post "Sri Aurobindo is more than his works, prose or poetry":

Mr. Deshpande is a scientist by profession no doubt acutely trained in the art of empirical observation and reductionist logic. But when this kind of scientific logic is applied to what may or may not be implied in Sri Aurobindo’s major works it falls flat. Let me simply remind Mr. Deshpande of what Sri Aurobindo DID include in his works vis-à-vis Science and the limitations of its method:

"Science has missed something essential; it has seen and scrutinised what has happened and in a way how it has happened, but it has shut its eyes to something that made this impossible possible, something it is there to express. There is no fundamental significance in things if you miss the Divine Reality; for you remain embedded in a huge surface crust of manageable and utilisable appearance. It is the magic of the Magician you are trying to analyze but only when you enter into the consciousness of the Magician himself can you begin to experience the true organisation, significance and circles of the Lila." The Valley of the False Glimmer

This describes to perfection the limitations of Deshpande’s view and why he is unable to rise above a surface crust of appearances in Sri Aurobindo’s work. It also explains why he chooses to hide behind a wall of impenetrable dogma refusing to discuss the deeper issues that are indispensible to and provide access to the Supramental revelation. Orthodoxy, whether scientific or metaphysical is a dead thing. It cannot EXPLAIN and it cannot APPLY. It can only ASSERT and make arrogant unsupported declarations the likes of which we find in the postings of Despande and his colleague Paulette. When, for example, a point was made in one of my recent postings about the sacred architecture of the Mother’s temple plan, there was no willingness to entertain even the slightest discussion. Deshpande’s response was:

“If by “the sacred architecture of the Mother’s original temple design” you mean Matrimandir at Auroville, then it looks you are bringing your pet issues by a sleight of hand and the Mirror will not entertain them. Any further comment related with the matter will be deleted." RYD

Having read Mr. Deshpande’s blog I find that he is a knowledgeable man. I would expect that he may even be aware of Stella Kramrisch's classic study on the Hindu Temple and the Shastras on Sacred Architecture that have preserved the Vedic knowledge even through the darkest periods of India’s history. What he condescendingly refers to as my ‘pet issue’ is simply an insistence that we respect that tradition and what Sri Aurobindo wrote about the restoration of the Vedic truths and the ancient architectural forms that contained them. But instead of discussing this important knowledge with the openness and good will that the Mother demanded of anyone who would rightly call themselves a true devotee of Sri Aurobindo, we see an arrogant and dogmatic dismissal. He is simply above accountability and clearly agrees with one of his supporters who wrote, ‘how dare you design a ‘test’ for the scholarship of RYD!’

What can one say to this kind of righteous indignation but remind you of Sri Aurobindo’s warning about the keeping of scholars:

“…As the Veda had passed from the sage to the priest, so now it began to pass from the hands of the priest into the hands of the scholar. And in that keeping it suffered the last mutilation of its sense and the last diminution of its true sense and dignity.”

In response to what Mr. Deshpande wrote about imposing one’s view on another, it is most certainly NOT a question of different perceptions for different contexts and individuals. This is simply more of the nonsensical relativism of the old religious consciousness that Sri Aurobindo came to correct. The Supramental Realization is free from doubt, self-evident and absolute. It is a ‘Future Realization’ based on a knowledge and precision which can be verified through an act of seeing otherwise what would be the point? Posted by Robert to Savitri Era Learning Forum at 12:46 AM, October 11, 2009

The Hindu: Engagements: In Bangalore Today
Veda and Upanishads in the Light of Sri Aurobindo: Discourse by R.L. Kashyap, Sri Aurobindo Complex, Sri Aurobindo Marg, J.P. Nagar I Phase, 6 p.m.

I am surprised by your audacity to design a 'test' for the scholarship of RYD

Savitri: the Light of the Supreme A comment has been posted in reference to an article titled: A strange comparison
Comment posted by: Robert E. Wilkinson
date 4 October 2009 22:20 Comment permalink: Deshpande writes:
…There cannot be anything more preposterous, laughable than such an unsubstantiated observation when it comes from one who claims himself to be a researcher. Can there be anything more ridiculous than that?

I wouldn’t be too quick to ridicule Peter Heehs. When one observes your writings from a particular height it is clear that you are just as clueless as he is. You obviously have no understanding of the occult process that Savitri represents and failing that most of your considerable analysis of Sri Aurobindo’s deeper meaning falls into the category of mental speculation. To be fair I have not read all of your postings but my reading of some of the more important subjects like the mechanism of an India’s renaissance leave a great deal to be desired. But let us stick to the subject at hand, Savitri. Indeed, as you say, there is something goldenly housed in the myth expressing things which are extremely recondite but these sublime Vedic realities may only be understood through a process of yoga as Sri Aurobindo explains:

“The perfect truth of the Veda, where it is now hidden, can only be recovered by the same means by which it was originally possessed. Revelation and experience are the doors of the Spirit. It cannot be attained either by logical reasoning or by scholastic investigation… [Sanskrit text]…‘Not by explanation of texts nor by much learning’, ‘not by logic is this realisation attainable.’ Logical reasoning and scholastic research can only be aids useful for confirming to the intellect what has already been acquired by revelation and spiritual experience. This limitation, this necessity are the inexorable results of the very nature of Veda.” Sri Aurobindo – The Life Divine

Given your pretentions of authority I think it only fair to ask if you have acquired a direct experience of the Truth-consciousness? And if so, what can you tell us about the Vedic sacrificial year as Sri Aurobindo describes below in his “Secret of the Veda”?

“…In other words, it is when the nine-months’ sacrifice is prolonged through the tenth, it is when the Navagwas become the ten Dashagwas by the seven-headed thought of Ayasya, the tenth Rishi, that the Sun is found… but what is meant by the figure of the months? For it now becomes clear that it is a figure, a parable; the year is symbolic, the months are symbolic. It is in the revolution of the year that the recovery of the lost Sun and the lost cows is effected, for we have the explicit statement in X.62-2… “by the truth, in the revolution of the year, they broke Vala”…’

‘The expression in the hymns, daso maso ataran, indicates that there was some difficulty in getting through the full period of ten months. It is during this period apparently that the sons of darkness had the power to assail the sacrifice; for it is indicated that it is only by the confirming of the thought which conquers Swar, the solar world, that the Rishis are able to get through the ten months…’

‘I hold for you in the waters the thought that wins possession of heaven by which the Navagwas [nine] passed through the ten months…’ (V.45-11)

‘This victory is won in twelve periods of the upward journey, represented by the revolution of the twelve months of the sacrificial year, the periods corresponding to the successive dawns of a wider and wider truth, until the tenth month secures the victory…What may be the precise significance of the nine rays and the ten is a more difficult question which we are not yet in a position to solve.” Sri Aurobindo, The Secret of the Veda

• I am compelled to ask if you have ever considered the twelve chapters of Savitri as describing these twelve periods of the ‘upward journey’?
• Do you appreciate, for example, that the Rig Vedic Myth which Sri Aurobindo is describing is the same story of the evolution of human consciousness as that contained in the Zodiac?
• When you read Book Eight of Savitri, the Book of Death, does it ever occur to you that its deeper symbolism might parallel the 8th sign of the zodiac - Scorpio, known from antiquity as the sign of Death?
• Do you have the slightest understanding of the 10th Month/Sign Capricorn, in which Sri Aurobindo tells us, ‘the Victory is secured’?
• Do you know for instance that Capricorn is India’s ruling sign, that its ancient hieroglyph known as ‘the name of God’ overlies exactly the body of Akhand Bharat?
• Are you even aware that the entrance into the sign Capricorn known as the Makar Sankranti was prescribed by the Rishi as the most auspicious time in the year when the collective energies of the entire Hindu Samaj could find access to that ‘Victory’?

If you cannot answer these questions, I would suggest that you might exercise a little humility before holding someone else up to ridicule. Robert Wilkinson

A comment has been posted in reference to an article titled: A strange comparison Comment posted by: narendra
date 5 October 2009 00:35 Comment permalink:

As a matter of fact it is you who is too quick to ridicule RYD. And that too unwarranted.

RYD's conclusions have been derived through a comprehensive analysis and intellectual honesty of highest standards.

His logic is that the proposition of PH of Savitri being a “fictional creation” is false as PH has fraudently misrepresented Sri Aurobindo by quoting him out of context and also there is a direct mass of evidence in the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother that Savitri is NOT a fictional creation. So either you are advised to please go through the material to satisfy yourself of the basis of the conclusion or avoid attacking a person who has gained respect through his works and intellectual honesty and not through his claims to that effect.

Regarding PH I myself am greatly pained by the anguish of the devotee. And I am sure RYD to be similarly anguished but it is the measure of his restraint and intellectual honesty that it has only expressed itself in rigorous intellectual dissertation.

I am surprised by your audacity to design a 'test' for the scholarship of RYD on Savitri inspite of all his fruitful and helpful production of original material. Nevertheless I am tempted to comment on it. You are making certain assumptions which are inbuilt in your question which may not be necessarily true. It appears that you are looking at evolution to be set and fated in a more or less mechanical way and as if Savitri is obliged to follow its lead. The Lordship of the Divine and the Divine's consent seems to be compromised. The Supreme Being seems to be bound by Time and his astronomical framework. There may be hints of thematic similarity between structure of Savitri and the astrological framework owing to common spiritual basis but there is no rigid tie. The astrological configurations are only indicative of ripeness of circumstances for realization of certain possibilities but are not determinative of them.

It is Divine Will which is determinative. Savitri is the story of the yogic effort and the consequent Boon and the Supreme Consummation. There is nothing automatic about this: because Scorpio is past and Sagittarius is obliged to follow would mean that Death is obliged to die? On the contrary there is a decisive conclusion of an extreme effort towards realization of this result and Savitri is the actual biographical account of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother towards realization of that possibility.

Please show some respect to this Temple of Savitri and its respectable Priest.

We read the exact year and month of Sri Aurobindo's return to this earth

A comment has been posted in reference to an article titled: The birth of the Avatar
Comment posted by: Robert E. Wilkinson
date 7 October 2009 20:20 Comment permalink:

Of course there are signs as well as a large body of objective evidence which allows the Avatar to have his mission confirmed not by the sentimental, emotional and subjective experiences of his devotees, but rather the Cosmos becomes his credentials. God supports His supreme Realizer by the cosmic harmonies of His universal manifestation, the script written in his very body. Indeed if this is veritably the Supramental Manifestation, which is the ultimate reconciliation of Spirit and Matter, that ‘spirit’ must unveil itself unquestionably in the workings of the material kingdom which is the extension of its own truth-essence. This Vedic Divine Measure was the very essence of the Mother’s original plan for her Temple and its sacred dimensions contained the entire story of these sacred incarnations written in the language of Supramental Time. For those with eyes to see, one may observe all of the significant dates of the Supramental Creation recorded for all time in the Globe and Pedestal.

At the top of the Pedestal, which is to bear Sri Aurobindo's symbol, we find the date: 1950, the very year which Sri Aurobindo left his body. The exact center of the Pedestal and the "Power Point" of the entire Matrimandir, which happens to also coincide with the center of the lotus of his symbol when constructed properly... is 1956, the year of the Supramental manifestation. At the base of the Pedestal, the center of the room where horizontal diameter meets verticle axis in the center of the Mother's symbol carved in stone, we read the exact year and month of Sri Aurobindo's return to this earth. Every single dimension of this miracle of sacred architecture has been described in irrefutable detail by Thea - Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet in her numerous books and articles. But these as we know have been systematically rejected by the powers that rule in Auroville and the Ashram and banned from the official list of titles.

So one would have to say no, it is not the modern mind, the modern age which draws a thick veil over the intuitive faculty of ours prevents seeing such signs. It is the mental ego of the instrument that refuses to see even when shown preferring instead to arrogantly assert its own authority on matters far beyond its abilities. And what is the result? Men who talk and sleep. For how can one possibly present a true interpretation of Savitri when one has missed its central theme… the rebirth of Sri Aurobindo exactly as he predicted.

A comment has been posted in reference to an article titled: The birth of the Avatar Comment posted by: Vikas
date 7 October 2009 21:00 Comment permalink: "....but rather the Cosmos becomes his credentials. God supports His supreme Realizer by the cosmic harmonies of His universal manifestation, the script written in his very body.".

Interesting thought and nicely expressed....

Tusar has put himself in a position of leadership in matters of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother

www.kheper.net/topics/gurus/Patrizia_Norelli-Bachelet.html Update - August 2009

To get an example of the modus operandi of Thea's followers, look at how they all leap to attack Tusar N. Mohapatr on his Savitri Era blog, dated Saturday, August 08, 2009. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have already accomplished the metaphysical victory. Two and a half weeks after the original blog post, and and a half weeks after Tusar's last comment, messages were still appearing, as PNB devotees thunder accusations at Tusar, which seem to be incraesingly unrelated to anything he actually wrote. What seems particularily strange is that Tusar is one of the few if perhaps the only person to give the PNBers blogspace. He has a number of times published articles or emails by Robert Wilkinsion and Lori Tompkins. e.g. Carter Phipps' warm embrace of Peter Heehs' book by Robert Wilkinson - (3 May 2009) - about Peter Heehs Lives of Sri Aurobindo, submitted to Tusar after Wilkinson wasn't allowed to post it on Carter Phipps' (editor - EnlightenNext) May 2nd blog article, or more recently The Deportation Case Against Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet - by Lori Tompkins, dated just four days earlier (4 August, 2009). Why are these people attacking someone who helps them; god knows they have so few frinds with their antagonistic attitude!

It may be that this sort of self-destructive biting the hand that feeds you behavior is common in this group; certainly they have always adopted a very hostile attitude to Auroconf. In any case, the degree of shadow projection and alienation of possible friends and allies indicates that the PNBers are caught in a self-destructive spiral of which can surely only harm them. It would be interesting to compare this with other similar antagonistic guru groups.

Reply, email from Lori Tompkins:

Alan, I have read your latest impressions/spin on the Tusar discussion as published on Kepler. Tusar has put himself in a position of leadership in matters of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Does that mean he is above critique? Of course not. Does the fact that Tusar has posted articles by me in the past mean I should not critique his stance if I find it deeply flawed? Of course not. What is the use of an Open Forum if people cannot present and discuss their differences? If you read the three articles/responses I wrote, inspired by Tusar's August 8th post and to his August 15th post 'Lori Deplored', you will see that there is real content, real information to be read and considered ... i.e. a real critique with real substance. Tusar brought up a topic worthy of discussion, critique and flushing out and so it went. It wasn't really about him, though he is the one who attracted the critique. My responses address what he announced himself oblivious to. Due to lack of space, these articles were published only in part on Savitri Era Open Forum. I hope you will post this letter and the following links by your 'Update August 2009' so your readers can perhaps consider the actual content of what I have written before joining you in judging, psychologizing, belittling and dramatizing my critique of Tusar's line of thought. Lori Tompkins
http://circumsolatious.blogspot.com/2009/08/waving-flag-of-cosmic-ignorance-in-face_15.html
http://circumsolatious.blogspot.com/2009/08/lori-deplored-hypocrisy-adored-in.html
http://circumsolatious.blogspot.com/2009/08/considering-dynamism-of-mothers-symbol_20.html

To reply and clarify my position: my concern was not with the content of the material, with what Tusar thinks or says or what the PNB people say or think. It is that in this case four people would gang up on one, especially on someone who had previously posted their material when no one else would. contact me
page by M.Alan Kazlev The above page is based on my original wikipedia write-up, plus additional material (note - Wikipedia page deleted, so this link no longer works) page uploaded 5 November 2006, last modified 25th September 2009

I dont think that we should get agitated and upset at the remarks of Peter Heehs

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "If one Peter Heehs is pardoned today, a thousand w...":

Whether people call him an Avatar, a Guru, a Prophet, a revolutionary, a philosopher or an enlightened human being, people look at Sri Aurobindo from the level of their own consciousness. To know what he really is, we have to be on the same level as Sri Aurobindo. But only The Mother is on his level and no one else.

But I dont think that we should get agitated and upset at the remarks of Peter Heehs. He has his own opinion. Imagine how Sri Aurobindo or the Mother would have reacted to such a comment. They would just have smiled at what Mr Peter Heehs has said.

What makes the Integral yoga unique is that, its followers are not fanatics like the followers of separatist religions. As fanaticism itself is a dark force, a falsehood, which has to be conquered, both within us and in the outside world.

As Mother has said that, it's the human law which says that people have to be punished for their wrong doings, but the divine law is of compassion and mercy. So I think we should let go of these scepticisms, which are bound to be there until the hour when the Supramental sun fully rises over our Earth consciousness. Until then there may be many dark lanes in our cities and even within us, where these sort of thoughts and beings try to hide themselves, but this will remain only for a short period, as we are already in a stage of transition. Posted by Anonymous to Aurora Mirabilis at 1:36 PM, September 20, 2009

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "A certain exposure to the clash and competition of...":

Mute Magazine is giving away a free copy of Born Again Ideology with a sub (about £20 if you're in the UK)- it's actually 2 books in one binding - the other half is Left Behind: Religion, Technology and the Flight from the Flesh http://www.metamute.org/en/mute_magazine_subscription_individual Posted by Anonymous to Savitri Era Learning Forum at 8:33 PM, September 17, 2009

patricewilliam has left a new comment on your post "Sri Aurobindo has linked our individual psychology...": An insightfull post. Will definitely help.
Thanks,
Karim - Creating Power Posted by patricewilliam to Savitri Era at 10:59 AM, September 23, 2009

New comment on your post #255 "Nirmal Singh Nahar on Satprem and Sujata"
Author : Deepak (IP: 12.32.232.44 , 12.32.232.44) E-mail : bhattacharya.deepak@gmail.com
Comment:
Saintly persons live a life of simplicity and shower so much words of wisdom to us. Hope the important messages of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is accepted by the world to free the world from strife, falsehood, fanaticism, war and misery. OM

praveen has left a new comment on your post "School of Perfect Eyesight":
the above given phone number is not working. Please give me the correct contact number.
i need it urgently. Please help me out. Posted by praveen to the Orchid and the rOse at September 17, 2009 12:22 AM

New comment on your post #98 "Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet (Thea)"
Author : Loup Kibiloki (IP: 67.71.182.198 , bas4-montrealak-1128773318.dsl.bell.ca)
E-mail : loupkibiloki@gmail.com URL : http://electrodes.wordpress.com Comment:
With due respect, simply to remind something that The Mother once told about Sri Aurobindo and his action in the world (not verbatim): that wherever there is cruelty, it's not of him, it has nothing to do with him. Cruelty is asuric - and so is mensonge (lying) and falsity (remember the name of the last Asoura: "L'Asoura du Mensonge"?)... You can see all comments on this post here: http://selfskylight.wordpress.com/patrizia-norelli-bachelet-thea/#comments

Who decides which person is legetimate?

tor-gw.wkwtor.vivi2.kapper.net (Kapper Network-communications Gmbh) Austria, Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "With his many cross-linked parasitic blogs, this c...":

oh my god, the thought police are now after you. why do these people think sri aurobindo needs to be protected or defended? who decides which person is legetimate? everyone is free to approach the guru as they want. mother never stopped anybody from doing anything.

its amazing to see that you are also being jugded based on one simple quote without any context. they need to go throughout the entire web site. this site is filled with contradectory ideas but overall quite balanced. this website is like the heehs book 'lives of aurobindo'.

so ask them to read the entire site not just one quote picked from soemwhere Posted by Anonymous to Savitri Era Open Forum at 5:09 AM, September 14, 2009

***

Heehs Biography Controversy - my friend Tusar N. Mohapatra is anti-Heehs, here he has collected a series of links and documents -M. Alan Kazlev 11 August 2009: My thoughts on the controversy surrounding Peter Heehs' book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo Kheper Home

Their teachings and personalities have become a religion

M.Alan Kazlev 11 August 2009: My thoughts on the controversy surrounding Peter Heehs' book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo Kheper Home Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Home Sri Aurobindo and the Mother Books Topics Index Divinisation New Search The Lives of Sri Aurobindo: Peter Heehs

The Lives of Sri Aurobindo (Columbia University Press (2008) 528 pages) is the first ever scholarly non-hagiographic study of Sri Aurobindo. Heehs is a scholar who managed the ashram archives for some 30 years; he wrote a very informative academic-style biography of Sri Aurobindo. I found it both facsinating and inspiring. Sri Aurobindo the unreachable perfect god, I have no interest in such a conception at all. Sri Aurobindo the imperfect and fallible human who at the same time was an avatar of Supramental transformation, that he went from being an ordinary person to such a great Realizer, now that is what I find inspiring!.

Rather than write a simple overview of what the book is about (which I find tedious to do anyway), I'll quote from the publicity blurb on Amazon com.

Since his death in 1950, Sri Aurobindo Ghose has been known primarily as a yogi and a philosopher of spiritual evolution who was nominated for the Nobel Prize in peace and literature. But the years Aurobindo spent in yogic retirement were preceded by nearly four decades of rich public and intellectual work. Biographers usually focus solely on Aurobindo's life as a politician or sage, but he was also a scholar, a revolutionary, a poet, a philosopher, a social and cultural theorist, and the inspiration for an experiment in communal living.Peter Heehs, one of the founders of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives, is the first to relate all the aspects of Aurobindo's life in its entirety. Consulting rare primary sources, Heehs describes the leader's role in the freedom movement and in the framing of modern Indian spirituality. He examines the thinker's literary, cultural, and sociological writings and the Sanskrit, Bengali, English, and French literature that influenced them, and he finds the foundations of Aurobindo's yoga practice in his diaries and unpublished letters. Heehs's biography is a sensitive, honest portrait of a life that also provides surprising insights into twentieth-century Indian history.

Sounds straightforward...sounds good. And I really do feel this is an excellent contribution to the field of Aurobindo studies.
But...
Not since Satprem published the Agenda has the Integral Yoga community been wracked by such a schism.

The Western disciples and Westernised Indians praised the book, and no doubnt were inspired by it for exactly the same reason I was (well, some of them anyway). But the religious and devotional Indians hated it. I myself could find nothing at all objectionable about his book, but the ashramites are up in arms; Heehs has been driven out and there was even a court case brought against him.

The whole thing spilled over to the Aurobindo mail list, auroconf, which I am no longer subscribed to. The reason I unsubscribed is because I found the whole argument (even if it was conducted in the most civil and respectful manner) about the book so absurd, with all that emotionalism. (but i'm very a solitary person and don't fit in groups anyway).
The battle-lines were drawn, several blogs and websites were set up or - if already established - took positions along factional lines.
In this way, the whole affair has been documented in mind-numbing detail by each side, each of course with its own bias.
So, against Heehs' book (devotee websites and blogs) there is:
The Lives of Sri Aurobindo - despite the title, this isn't a site to publicise the book. It's a devotee site set up to criticise it.
Mirror of Tommorrow archives. Mirror of Tommorrow is a devotee blog, this particular page describes some objections in great detail. Again, for me it is this very human, intimate, side of Sri Aurobindo and Mirra's relationship that I am most interested in, not some idea of sterile sanitised detachment
Heehs Biography Controversy - my friend Tusar N. Mohapatra is anti-Heehs, here he has collected a series of links and documents

If you look at the Pro-Heehs camp in the same objective way, you can notice the same "us and them" projection of the shadow, although they do get the facts about the book right! And the critiques by Peter's supporters are for the most part well written and eminently reasonable. The impression I get from those who argue in support of Peter Heehs' work is that they come from a place of secular Modernity, of an enlightened (in the sense of the secular enlightenment) and spiritually sympathetic and rational modernity. Just as those who attack the book seem to my biased perception at least to be coming from an uncritical guru-religious position. And it is noteworthy that Sri Aurobindo himself, and even more so The Mother, spoke out very strontgly against religion. But in the end their teachings and personalities have become a religion, just like what happened with Jesus and all the rest.

Enlighten Next blog post overview by Carter Phipps, chief editor of Enlighten Next, and hence, a devotee of the controversial guru Andrew Cohen, seems to engage in his own shadow project, the way he seems to imply taht teh entire Aurobindo internet community is up in arms against Heehs (not so, not so...). The position of Enlighten Next is essentially that of Cultural Creative modernity, there is no gnosis there. I'm not saying they are no good, only that they are non-gnostic (but sympathetic to those who do have gnosis, even if they don't understand it themselves)

Integral Yoga Fundamentalism - a whole website set up to oppose the critics; the name is bound to antagonise (a friend of mine criticized them over this, and I cannot but agree). But if I ask myself are the anti-Heehs people Aurobindo fundamentalists, I have to honestly say yes, they are. But it is precisely through that religious fundamentalism they access Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's Light. Indeed, I was an Aurobindo fundamentalist for a long time as well, you do get a certain connection through the intense literalism of belief. The ideal is to retain the connection, but without the literalism.

The Integral Yoga Fundamentalism site is organized by the SCIY blog people, who tend (so it seems to me) to adopt a non-religious, postmodernist approach to Sri Aurobindo. It would be arrogant to say that only the religious types can access Sri Aurobindo's Light. Why shouldn't the postmodernists as well? And of course he SCIY blog, being is pro-Heehs and against the religious, has a lot on this, although I can't be bothered sifting through (and I guess that's why they set up the IY Fundamentalism blog. But you can always try a Google search approach

Now, I would love to remain neutral; I don't want to be drawn into another war; what happened with Sai Baba was enough for me! Especially after the google vandalism I got from a rabid Sai Baba devotee. But the fact remains that the most absurd lies have been said about Heehs book (and about Heehs; that he has hatred for Sri Aurobindo, that he's a drug addict, etc), in a manner reminscent of the slanderous devotee phenomenon. When I first encountered this my immediate reaction was: How can this be??? These are devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, not of some abusive guru, and yet there is full-blown shadow projection! I found the whole thing appalling, and decided I wanted nothing to do with the Aurobindo community (apart from a few people on both sides of the fence that I know, like, and respect).

To be fair on Heeh's critics, I can appreciate and respect that they are devotees who have a religious worship of Sri Aurobindo, and would therefore be offended by a non-hagiographic biography, especially by an ashramite who they had always considered one of their own. And certainly there is great value in passion and of faith which is lost in secularism. Also I can understand the ashramites (as Hindus) see it as another attack by a Westerner on their culture and sacred traditions, a culture i myself resonate very powerfully to (because of past life samskaras/vasanas no doubt!). But that doesn't excuse the lies and hysteria that they have spread about Heeh's book; I know their claims are lies because i read (most of) the book, and apart from one or two correct things almost everything they claim is in the book isn't.

The only thing I myself would say that is really critical of the book is that Heehs does not clearly specify that Sri Aurobindo attained the Supramental state early on; just the opposite, he seems to imply that Sri Aurobindo never really attained it, even after thirty years. The reason for this error is easy to see. Heehs is an academic, not a gnostic, and therefore he is not in a position to understand the higher aspects of Sri Aurobindo's life and teachings. In this respect at least his critics are right.

Sri Aurobindo in fact had totally supramentalised his own consciousness and even his body, he had attained supramentalisation very early on, it may have been as early as the 1910s on his own (during the period he was writing Record of Yoga, a cryptic diary of his experiences), or the early 1920 or thereabouts with The Mother. But what he and Mirra struggled and did not fully achieve was the Supramentalisation of the Earth (the Terrestrial Consciousness) as a whole. That is what Heehs got confused about. The individual supramentalization was relatively easy in comparison (although still far beyond ordinary Liberation); and Sri Aurobindo later noted that other yogis had attained Supermind, but in an individual yogic manner, not as a collective transformation.

In this respect, an intelligently written hagiography like Van Vrekhem's Beyond the Human Species is better, because he at least conveys the sense of the occult, esoteric, and transcendent, even if it is in a religious - one could say an esoteric religious - perspective. This is why scholarship itself is not enough. Scholarship is caught up in secularism, so if you don't have gnosis yourself, at least you can get some sense of the transcendent through religious devotionalism. I didn't find Van Vrekhem's book anywhere as interesting as Heehs'. It is just the same old hagiography. But it does contain imporatnt esoteric information that Heehs, by his very nature as an academic, is not allowed to talk about. Therefore Lives of Sri Aurobindo has to be suplemented with hagiographic material if it is to convey a more complete picture.

It's worth considering that the Integral community (Wilber et al) have tried to approach the gnostic without religion. I don't think they succeeded; in my experience the mainstream integral movement - everyone from Wilber down - is still exoteric, non-gnostic, and secular; even if it is at the high end of the exoteric and non-gnostic (and that's no doubt what their contribution is; everything in stages; it is just that I want to make bigger leaps!).

What I find the most troubling is that it is evident that, with very few exceptions, the people attacking Heehs have not even bothered to read his book . They are just reacting to what others (who likewise have not read it) are saying. It is like a mob reaction. One gets stirred up, then another, and everyone's rampaging. With the customer reviews of the Amazon.com link above you will notice that some people (including the same guy - "A Reader", from Boston - voting twice) rated the book one star (Amazon com ratings don't allow zero stars). I bet that none of them have read the book. Those giving it five stars however clearly have. So what does that say? It doesn't put the critics in a good light.

At the end, where do I stand on this? Well, I have no choice but to fully and completely support Heehs and his book. Flawed though it may be in its apologetics to gross materialists and its failure to emphasise Sri Aurobindo's supramental attainments, it is an important, indeed, essential, contribution to Aurobindo Studies. Most importantly from the perspective of modernity, people should be allowed to write books without fear of abuse or attack. Even if most people are not at the level of gnosis, it is important to move beyond literal religion of any sort. According to the Wilberian integralists, society has to evolve through modernity before it can get to higher, integral stages. And I actually agree there, you need a certain emotional calmness and intellectual clarity, and you won't get that through the shadow projection that comes with religionism. Even if most people who support Heehs are only at the level of modernity, I still feel that is more important, and at a higher degree of consciousness, than devotionalist inspired opposition. Then, having attained mental clarity and the historical objectivity that secular modernity provides, you can return to devotionalism, but from a higher turn of the spiral. And that's what it's all about :-)

Finally, if you are concerned about Fundamantalist devotees, or any sort of fundamentalism, you may want to check out this event, which is free, but requires you to be in San Francisco
Fundamentalism and the Future is hosted at the California Institute of Integral Studies. The forum is organised by pro-Heehs students of Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga (including some of the SCIY blog people) Kheper Home contact me
page by M.Alan Kazlev page uploaded 11 Aug 2009

An Aurobindian should have the largest encompassing mind in the world

Auroville Today > Current issue > August 2009 - In conversation with Carel
Writing as a student: Georges van Vrekhem “If I am here, it is because I have been brought here by Them. So I write as a student of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. My study is an endless journey of exploration, going from discovery to discovery... Most of my books are written for people interested in Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, for Aurobindians, although I am amazed that Beyond Man and other books of mine have spread far outside that circle. "

“I have been hurt by the fanatical attitude of a group of Aurovilians who treated me like a leper because they disagreed with a few phrases or sentences in Beyond Man. Likewise, I was hurt because Overman is not for sale in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram as there seem to be objections against the term ‘overman'. I cannot understand how somebody who prides himself or herself on being a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother can become a fanatic and insult or hurt others who see things differently. An Aurobindian should have the largest encompassing mind in the world, while being in his yoga one-pointed and totally surrendered.” [...]

“To me a fact is a fact. And I am grateful for the biographical information which has been gathered about the lives of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. Now Sri Aurobindo would no longer have to write a book to contradict the false rumours about him. But scientists and philosophers also tell you that facts are only understandable in a context. How could I write about the external, physical lives of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, and leave the reality inside and behind out of the question? Does writing about that ‘real reality' make me a ‘hagiographer'? There is a line between mindless adulation and a search for the truth, taking reality into account on its various levels.

“Sri Aurobindo called his own method ‘spiritual realism'. Matter, the vital and the mind, as well as the spiritual levels and the supermind, are realities. If there are people who prefer to remain stuck in the one-dimensionality of matter – Wilber's ‘flatland' – that is their choice. I try to write for intelligent people as an intelligent, dedicated student. My subject is the vision and realization of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. I have experienced certain aspects proving the existence of the spiritual worlds, and I find in Sri Aurobindo and The Mother a coherent philosophy which explains it all to me, and a guidance which allows me to put it into practice to the extent of my limited capacities. People on the same frequency, knowingly or instinctively, may read my writings if they have the time and the inclination. If not, they should read or do something else, in agreement with the need of their soul.”

(Georges van Vrekhem is the author of many books on Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. He was awarded the Sri Aurobinbo Puraskar 2006 for his writings on Sri Aurobindo and The Mother by the Government of West Bengal .) Home > Journals & Media > Journals > Auroville Today > Current issue > August 2009

I don't want to add to Mohapatra's traffic

letter received from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek
I’ve received an email from someone identifying himself as Ulrich Mohrhoff. Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. Pondicherry, India. Managing Editor, AntiMatters.

Mr. Mohrhoff says:
“PLEASE do not refer to any of the blogs maintained by Tusar Mohapatra as ‘the Aurobindo site.’ With his many cross-linked parasitic blogs, this character has achieved an altogether undeserved prominence among Google searches for ‘Aurobindo.’ (It’s the same technique by which porn site bootstrap themselves upward.) Mohapatra’s agenda is political (he’s even founded a party!) and is best characterized by this insufferable quote:
‘The path has been charted out by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo 100 years back. We must follow it, we must tell others to follow it, and we must persuade others to follow it. We have to cajole others to follow it. And if need arises, we must force others to follow it.’
— Tusar N. Mohapatra, President, ‘Savitri Era Party’ ”

Although I don’t know Ulrich Mohrhoff and can’t vouch for this, it does have the ring of truth about it. I’d been wondering why a respectable organization would do nothing on its blog but repost the words of others, endlessly. It looks like they weren’t doing so.

In any case, this seems likely enough that I will change a couple of words in the preceding post. [ADDENDUM: Actually, I will delete the post, since I don't want to add to Mohapatra's traffic, under the --likely-- circumstances.]

With his many cross-linked parasitic blogs, this character has achieved an altogether undeserved prominence

from Ulrich Mohrhoff date 13 Sep 2009 09:40 subject Re: what’s up with the Aurobindo site?

Whoever wrote this, PLEASE do not refer to any of the blogs maintained by Tusar Mohapatra as "the Aurobindo site". With his many cross-linked parasitic blogs, this character has achieved an altogether undeserved prominence among Google searches for "Aurobindo". (It's the same technique by which porn site bootstrap themselves upward.) Mohapatra's agenda is political (he's even founded a party!) and is best characterized by this insufferable quote:

The path has been charted out by The Mother and Sri Aurobindo 100 years back. We must follow it, we must tell others to follow it, and we must persuade others to follow it. We have to cajole others to follow it. And if need arises, we must force others to follow it. — Tusar N. Mohapatra, President, “Savitri Era Party”

To set this in proper context, here is quote from a letter by Sri Aurobindo to Dilip Kumar Roy (October 2, 1934):

I don't believe in advertisement expect for books and in propaganda except for politics and Patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom — and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on the shores of nowhere — or it means a movement. A movement in the case of a work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some other damned nonsense. It means that hundreds or thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to a pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the "religions" and the reason of their failure. If I tolerate a little writing about myself, it is only to have a sufficient counter-weight in that amorphous chaos, the public mind, to balance the hostility that is always aroused by the presence of a new dynamic Truth in this world of ignorance. But the utility ends there and too much advertisement would defeat that object.

Thank you for your kind attention!

Ulrich Mohrhoff, Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry, India Managing Editor, AntiMatters
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what’s up with the Aurobindo site?
via Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek on 9/12/09

They’ve been reposting my words (and those of other bloggers) for months. It seemed neutral and polite in the past, but now they seem to be taking a different sort of posture. From out of nowhere there was a first-time editorial comment about SR/OOO as replicating the philosophical errors of the past.

NOW, they’ve reposted my remark about visiting the Aurobindo complex while en route to Pondicherry last year. Yet they’ve posted it next to my critical remarks about treatment of visitors at both the Pyramids of Giza and in Agra, India. I can only assume that the Aurobindo site doesn’t care much about the honor of Giza, so presumably they don’t like the remarks about Agra.

Here’s what I’ll say… India is my favorite country to visit in the world. I’ve been three times, and with good luck I hope to return many more times. It’s a uniquely fascinating place, and must be nearly inexhaustible for the traveller.

And speaking of Agra, the Taj Mahal has to be the most stunning edifice I have seen. I also met nice people in Agra (including some adorable kids on the rail station platform), and ate at a fantastic restaurant there. But there should be nothing shocking about my (fairly mainstream) statement that Agra itself is a basically miserable experience for foreign visitors. It is a stream of endless harassment, and yes, even worse so than at the Pyramids here in Egypt (where I always have to accompany visitors to protect them from the numerous convoluted scams that occur).

In my opinion, Agra was an extra degree worse. At least in Giza you only need to get off the Pyramid grounds for the scams to stop. But Agra is the only time in my life that a hotel desk clerk was trying to hawk services through a relative as I checked in. It is also well known that some restaurants and a hospital in Agra were running a joint scam for a number of years where the restaurants would deliberately sicken tourists with contaminated food, then take them to a clinic that would run up insurance charges– a scam finally uncovered by insurance detectives.

So do go to India, soon and often. If you’re near Pondicherry, you can even take an interesting walking tour of the Aurobindo complex. And the Taj Mahal is of staggering beauty, in case you’re in the north central part of India. But you can safely expect some problems in Agra, which is why many people now prefer to go there on organized bus tours from Delhi. (The problem is that you really shouldn’t miss sunrise at the Taj. I’ve had few more amazing experiences than that, and that alone outweighed all the harassment.)

[ADDENDUM: Perhaps they simply didn't like the expression "the Aurobindo complex," which may have struck them as derogatory. I went back to my travel records to look up the real name of the place, and it is AUROVILLE. My apologies if the longer phrase was the issue. I simply couldn't remember the name. The people there were kindly, and I wish them the best.]

I paid a visit to the Aurobindo complex near Pondicherry a year and a half ago

a critique from India from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek
I wasn’t expecting a critique from India this soon, but here it is (just a couple of sentences and some reading advice, not a full critique):

“SR/OOO is poised dangerously to foist yet another fallacy in philosophy. A thorough reading of The Life Divine by Sri Aurobindo can redeem the situation.”

Actually, I paid a visit to the Aurobindo complex near Pondicherry a year and a half ago. (The exact name of the place escapes me at the moment.)

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one other point about the Pyramids area from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek

Egyptians who sell goods and services near the Pyramids... are bad people. They are an all-star team of the most horrible humans that Egypt has to offer. Their only purpose in being in that area is not fair business, but organized cons, traps, and rip-offs.
This starts with the jerks who hang out near the ticket line and pretend to be official guides...

Another of their tricks is to pretend that the price they had quoted in Pounds was in British rather than Egyptian Pounds, which is something like a ninefold increase.
I hate all of those people. Most tourists are plenty generous when visiting this country, and don’t need to be exploited by professional con artists on top of that. These are not Robin Hood figures, but merely the worst face of international capitalism.

However, Agra in India (home of the Taj Mahal) is even worse. I had mobs of taxi and rickshaw drivers hassling me in Agra. Even the hotel desk clerk was hassling me there to hire his cousin.

Wikipedia essay is overly unbalanced towards spiritual philosophy

Looking to improve Sri Aurobindo's biography
Alan, I have interacted with you before on occasions, specifically on articles related to Integral Yoga and Sri Aurobindo. I wish to undertake the project of improving the article on Sri Aurobindo to A-class from its current category of C-class biography. It is I understand not an easy task given what you consider Wikipedia's materialistc bias, and what I consider an Occidental bias. I wish to enlist your support in this endeavor and hope that you would enthusiastically contribute to such improvement. Thanks.Varun (talk) 15:21, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
Alan, Thanks for your reply. You are right about the high quality scholarship that would be needed for the upgrade( Can only wish Peter Heehs was contributing to Wikipedia ). I am currently making efforts to enlist help from other sources also, will keep you updated about it. Thanks for your offer for help and best of luck for your book. -Varun (talk) 10:15, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
From talk page of Sri Aurobindo's article Peter Heehs (2006) 'The uses of Sri Aurobindo: mascot, whipping-boy, or what?', Postcolonial Studies, 9:2, 151 - 164
I have a copy in pdf, and if you want i can email it to you. Regards M Alan Kazlev (talk) 05:22, 31 December 2007 (UTC) . Do you still possess this? If so do you mind sharing this article? Varun (talk) 15:32, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Sri Aurobindo's biography
hi Varun
At the moment unfortunately I am really immersed in writing my own book. So sure I'm happy to help, but it can only be part time, and we need other people as well.
The problem with the wiki page as it is now is that it is presented in a very "devotional" manner. By that I mean it says stuff like "according to Sri Aurobindo (such and such)" but then there are very few references or footnotes at the end of each statement. I added a few a while back, but it needs heaps more. To make it more academic, each paragraph, and often sentences, should be accompanied by page references to The Life Divine and other major works. But i'm not the sort of person who can cite chapter and verse, so we need people who are familar with page by page and chapter by chapter content of Sri Aurobindo's collected works.
There is also a strong need for more references/footnotes in the biography section. I'll add some when i have more time.
Also, the influence of Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, at the end of the page, is in strong need of developing. I'll try to add some more material there as well.
The page also seems to be unbalanced, in that a very large amount of space is devoted to Sri Aurobindo's teachings, and this could be transferred to separate pages on his difefrent major works. I had originally put up these as individual pages but as is typical of Wikipedia - and i totally agree with you, it suffers from an occidental bias as well as a materialistic bias - these had to be merged into a single big page (Collected Works of Sri Aurobindo). I think that we could easily restore them tpo individual pages, but to do that we would need to find third party refernces and citations. And that is where academic scholarship is useful. If you know of good third party references, reviews etc that would be great.
I would certainly like to see several qualified people working on this page. Do you know of anyone else who would be interested in collaborating on this project? M Alan Kazlev (talk) 00:31, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

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This page is supposed to be a biography enough to convey an essence, and not a lengthy discourse on each of his activities. These can be shifted to their own main articles - Varun (talk) 12:18, 26 May 2009 (UTC)
I agree with Varun. There should be a brief summary of Sri Aurobindo's ideas, with each section linking to longer secondary pages on each of these topics. Unfortunately, the Western materialistic consensus paradigm bias of Wikipedia means that such pages would instantly be nominated for deletion, whereas were they about a Western writer or philosopher they wouldn't. Therefore it is important that any new pages be secure M Alan Kazlev (talk) 00:11, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Restructuring the article
Sri Aurobindo achieved notable fame in more than one areas during his life. 1. He was at the forefront of the extermist freedom fighter movement and nationalism, defining its shape for the future. 2. He was later at the forefront of spiritual philosophy completely rewriting or interpreting almost every school of thought in Indian philosophy, and also commentries of importance on some western philosophy. 3. Apart from these two notable achievements he was also a prolific writer who published a large number of poetry and plays. The wikipedia article seems to be biased wholly towards the area of spiritual and philosophy, almost neglecting the other two. Secondly, Even though Sri Aurobindo himself never distinguished these facets as phases or modes different from each other, but for wikipedia readers, this distinction can help to organize his contribution into the existing world-view of compartmentalizing things. Therefore I plan to introduce the other facets of his achievement and restructure this article along the following lines: ...

Need consensus on the restructuring effort that I intend to undertake. The target size of the article would be approximately 50Kb. Any comments, objections, alterations, changes etc. are solicited so better planning can be done. - Varun (talk) 14:41, 27 May 2009 (UTC)
Sounds good Varun! It will be a definite improvement over the current essay, which, I agree, is overly unbalanced towards spiritual philosophy, which, important as it may be, is, as you point out, only one aspect of Sri Aurobindo's life (For that matter, Sri Aurobindo didn't even consider himself a philosopher) M Alan Kazlev (talk) 23:00, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

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Introduction Line
Currently (http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sri_Aurobindo&oldid=292891866) the introduction line reads : Sri Aurobindo was an Indian nationalist and freedom fighter, poet, mystic, evolutionary philosopher, Yogi and spiritual master. To a layperson the difference between the words mystic, Yogi and spiritual master may be too thin to be discernable. Infact it can come across as intimidating to someone who may not have a background in these matters. I suggest that the three words be replaced by a single word representative of Aurobindo's philosophical and spiritual endeavors. I would have suggested the word "Yogi" for this, not sure if everyone would agree though.- Varun (talk) 11:29, 29 May 2009 (UTC)
Good point Varun! I agree, those words do overlap, except for evolutionary philosopher, which can be replaced with just "philosopher". Yogi is pretty much the accepted term, even Peter Heehs, writing for mainstream academia, uses it ("Part 4: Yogi and Philosopher") M Alan Kazlev (talk) 23:46, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

R.K. Selvarajan Chettiyar is not the son or heir of Late R.K. Shanmugam Chettiyar

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "There are more dangerous people within spiritual e...":

I would like to make something clear to the readers about the posted news here. Sri R.K. Selvarajan Chettiyar is not the son or heir of Late Sri R.K. Shanmugam Chettiyar, the first finance minister of free India. They both belong to the same caste and are also relatives. Posted by Anonymous to Savitri Era Open Forum at 10:13 AM, September 08, 2009

eternal child has left a new comment on your post "Savitri Era Party needs 500 honest persons to serv...":

Sri Aurobindo was against going for poltics for His Sadhaks. must concentrate on your Saddhna. Posted by eternal child to Savitri Era at 11:43 PM, August 26, 2009

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Pournaprema, the Mother’s Granddaughter":

happy reading about Purnaprema ji. god bless you to share it in such beautiful way. Posted by Anonymous to Aurora Mirabilis at 6:29 PM, August 16, 2009

Canadian Pragmatist has left a new comment on your post "One of Rorty's central and oft-repeated themes is ...":

I don't really think you believe that when you think about a dilemma and finally arrive at a decision, you really think that you're made the objectively right decision; do you?

I think people might think of their actions in this way, but upon a closer look, that's just how people think they operate. On a more macrosscopic level, people might think that say, going entering into medical school is objectively the best thing I can do with my life and the skills I already possess.

Really going into medicine is only one of many other compelling and compatible career choices. Not all of them are as good as the other, but certainly, it depends on what you want to get out of life and your career, whether medical school is a good choice at all.

Where is the objectivity, and furthermore, what reason do you have to think that you or anyone else needs to believe their decisions are objectively valid, and not "merely" one of many other possibly just as good decisions? Posted by Canadian Pragmatist to Feel Philosophy at 3:05 AM, September 05, 2009

Dsylexic has left a new comment on your post "Education shall be free":

what kind of puerile idea of 'free' education is this?. it is ofcourse not free. it is paid for by forced taxation and sly inflationism. all bogus socialist rights are condemnable and unacceptable lies Posted by Dsylexic to rainbOwther at 12:42 AM, August 27, 2009

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Kechala, District Koraput, Orissa":

How about some recent links on this project... Posted by Anonymous to Plain & Simple at 10:08 PM, August 25, 2009