from Paulette paulette@auroville.org.in to "Tusar N. Mohapatra" tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com
date 14 August 2009 02:51 subject Re: Fwd: [Savitri Era] New comment on "The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have already accomplish...": Dear Mohapatra,
Thanks for sending me Wilkinson's comment, and please post my reply. Although I may agree to a certain extent with the content, what strikes in it is the complete absence of bhakti, of surrender, of any élan from the heart and soul, killing on the spot any feeling for the Guru. Cold mental arrogance and self-righteousness lead nowhere – in life, as in Yoga.
There is a terrible text in the Agenda about a fake Sri Aurobindo, initiator of a new religion, cruel and merciless. This being had attacked the Mother, even stopping her heart for a while. The Mother has warned us: this is the age of the Lord of the Nations, the Asura of Falsehood. Whenever the arrogant mind plays around, without the support of the psychic, the Asura lurks. We must be very careful. Similia similibus: the psychic being knows who is who. Then no one can intrude.
I don’t know Wilkinson, but this gentleman has certainly nothing to do with Auroville, which has not to be associated in any way to his mental ruminations. I have not read the rest of his article, “The Unraveling of the Auroville Cult”, but I will inform the Auroville Working Committee. Paulette
***
Robert E. Wilkinson has left a new comment on your post "The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have already accomplish...":
My response to Tusar Mohapatra’s comments is part of a more comprehensive analysis entitled ‘THE UNRAVELLING OF THE AUROVILLE CULT’ which may be read in its entirety at: http://rigvedacos.blogspot.com/
…Those remaining devotees who have also rejected the higher knowledge but who nevertheless revile Peter Heehs and consider his book a betrayal of Sri Aurobindo are left no choice but to embrace a greater religious fervor and a heightened idealization of the guru. When one is dealing with disillusionment in the absence of real knowledge how else can they continue that level of commitment. Their gurus are gone, their teachings are being plagiarized and distorted by outsiders. People they respected and looked to for guidance have betrayed and abandoned them. The only option is to deny the facts and idealize the beloved out of all proportion. Tusar Mohapatra has provided us with an unmistakable example of this view when he writes:
“ 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.The mystery of their physical life, meeting, and work on earth is nothing in comparison to what is yet untold about them and their global action to unfold... Savitri Erans must lift their flags high enough for others to spot and be a sport.” TNM
This is a classic example of someone taking their own unfounded hagiographic inflation to extremes. What is most revealing is Tusar’s desire to get away from all formulation, mythic or otherwise which allows him to believe whatever fantasy he likes without the inconvenience of having to deal with proof of his claims and the facts that support them. He does so by putting them “up there” on the Transcendent heights beyond the reach and explanation of mortal man. This is a perfect example of how devotees with no yogic experience and realization attempt to turn this epochal spiritual work into a Religion. What remains are un-provable pronouncements about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother solely derived from Tusar’s subjective devotional fervor. His hopes are pinned on the ‘years to come’ and any fellow disillusioned Aurobindonians who might rally to his flag.
In a work characterized by objective knowledge and precision, this kind of unqualified ‘new age’ response is simply unacceptable. By placing Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on incomparable, unreachable Transcendent heights, Tusar believes that he is doing them a service but in fact, as we have discussed in this paper, he is contradicting the very purpose they came to achieve. If joining the top of the ladder to the bottom is the whole secret of realization and the work of the Avatar, Tusar has just yanked the ladder out from under them and made their stated evolutionary goal of the divinization of matter a virtual impossibility.
… When Carter Phipps writes, ‘…the offices of EnlightenNext believe that the reason Sri Aurobindo’s work is not more celebrated is because his followers ‘view his work in such mythic and messianic terms’ regarding him as a flawless saint or Avatar.’ According to Phipps, students of Aurobindo and the Mother have a tendency to take this kind of hagiographic inflation to extreme heights. Given his limited understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s work and unfounded devotional hyperbole, Tusar plays right into this characterization. Posted by Robert E. Wilkinson to Savitri Era at 7:01 PM, August 13, 2009
One who has mortgaged his intelligence to an astrologer, Robert E. Wilkinson is not exactly the ideal person to engage with in a debate, but his quasi-academic tone is quite enticing. Wilkinson wants me to go back to 21st Century BCE, but I have no intention to do so. I believe in the future and in every word of the Five Dreams delineated by Sri Aurobindo.
ReplyDeleteThanks to The Mother & Sri Aurobindo I feel liberated from all past religions and their tangled mythologies. Yes, I admit, that’s a great convenience. Born in a free country, I have the right to believe in my own beliefs, and no one need be troubled for that. [TNM]
Before you begin with the ad hominem attacks on my occupation and your defensive characterizations of my tone rather than the facts I presented, you might want to review what Sri Aurobindo said on the matter:
ReplyDeleteSri Aurobindo Archives of April 1981, this from an unpublished letter of Sri Aurobindo to his wife, Mrinalini, 2 July 1902:
'...You said you have got a horoscope; send it to me. Jotin Bannerjee is here and I wish to show it to him. I have faith in astrology - ten years' experience confirmed. But also amongst a thousand, nine hundred know nothing about it. Few know but more make mistakes, e.g., non-performance of the coronation ceremony of the English King this year was declared several months ago - causes even. If there be evil consequences then there are means of knowing them beforehand - as they can be cured often. If horoscope cannot be found, exact time of birth will do, but even the very minute must be correct...'
Believe what you like Tusar but have the integrity to respond to the facts I have presented and not deviate the discussion to your unexamined beliefs about astrology or as Paulette has done, try to infer that I am in some way an initiator of a cruel and merciless religion. Dear god, what will you think of next to avoid dealing with the truth. The issues I have put forth in my paper are based on Knowledge - Veda. If you are unable to respond on the basis of that knowledge which Sri Aurobindo extolled as a practical necessity for the future of the human race, you should accept what you cannot understand in total humility and not argue about things of which you have no direct knowledge.
Your sphere of work is somewhat separate from mine and I am not convinced about its value. Moreover, I find no motivation to enter an alien territory nor have the inclination to master all branches of knowledge. [TNM]
ReplyDeleteWhat I find so disturbing about Tusar Mohaptra’s comments is that he holds himself out to all as an authority on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and presumes, like his colleagues in Auroville, to lead devotees toward a greater understanding of their work. But when he is pressed on important matters of Vedic knowledge, he insists that he has become liberated from all past religions and their tangled mythologies. He is free to believe in his own beliefs which, according to Tusar, do not include the Vedic myths or what he calls the idle intellectual approximations of the Avatar. Yes of course he is entitled to his own beliefs, but for someone who has taken on the sacred responsibility of broadcasting Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s message to the world, promoting this kind of dogmatic intransigence to others under the pretext of an Integral Knowledge is simply unacceptable. Sri Aurobindo wrote that the first condition of the Supermind is exactness, clearness and order both in the total and the details and their relations. Those of us capable of honoring that condition have the absolute right and moreover the duty to demand that exactitude and clarity from others like Tusar and Paulette who hold themselves out as the highest authorities on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. But anyone who has read their postings to this discussion will quickly realize that they are incapable of rising to that challenge. What you see instead is an immediate attempt to deviate the discussion with an ad hominem attack on my professional bonafides or, like Paulette, try to associate me with some kind of Asura who attacked the Mother and stopped her heart. This would be laughable if it were not so pathetic. What does it say about the quality of an individual whose first instinct is to attack, distort and defame in order to conceal their own insufficiency. Let us be clear, Tusar and Paulette consider themselves accomplished scholars but this epochal work is not about mere scholarship. It is about Yoga… Realization. Sri Aurobindo said time and again that a Supramental knowledge cannot be attained either by logical reasoning or by scholastic investigation. It may only be acquired through revelation and the lived experience. And while Tusar and Paulette take great pride in flaunting their scholarship, do not forget, it was precisely in the keeping of scholars that Sri Aurobindo said the Vedic knowledge suffered the last mutililation of its sense and the last diminution of its true dignity and sanctity. Today we see a similar mutilation of Sri Aurobindo’s and the Mother’s message by people of little or no realization presuming to tell others what is and is not the Supramental Truth. This has been the status quo in Auroville for almost 36 years; complete Inertia and a pathological rejection of the Light. And it is from this heart of darkness that Tusar suggests we democratically decide if there is to be a ‘Third’ and who that will be. His ludicrous suggestion directly contradicts the Mother’s admonition against a so-called ‘social democracy’, the rule by many of the lowest caliber.
ReplyDeleteThe Mother had a far better idea. She wrote that the leadership of this work would be based on Realization and Knowledge, not a hierarchy of political or money power but a hierarchy of Consciousness with those at the top demonstrating the fruits of a successful effort of personal growth. Furthermore, she insisted that this consciousness manifest itself through ‘Acts not Words’. Where then, we must ask, are the ‘acts’ of the Auroville cult? Who among them has a realization that builds?
The critical issue of Realization may be settled with just two questions:
1.) Is Sri Aurobindo one of the Line of Ten Avatars of Vedic tradition? If so on the basis of what objective knowledge can you confirm his Avataric credentials?
2.) What did the Mother mean when she said that her Temple was a “Symbol of the Future Realization”?
Let Tusar, Paulette or R.Y. Deshpande answer if they can and if they cannot, let them step aside and acknowledge the people who can.