Friday, April 20, 2012

The Mother enshrined Sri Aurobindo's Relics

Sad to see so much confrontation around Aurobindo and the Mother. They were very clear about not wishing to create, or continue religions. There will always be power-play, but one of the things the in spirants of Aurobindo and the Mother could do is to create a polyphony of views, a shared and divergent ecology of communities who are each working together towards social transformation, despite their disagreements. We are all part of this spiritual and metaphysical transformation together. How silly it is to argue and bicker over authority. Let the writings speak for themselves. Let the scholars share their voice among many.
I think part of the response we can give to the religious communities around Sri Aurobindo is to consider them part of that ecology. I find Gebser's work helpful here, because he too felt that we can't necessarily eliminate old consciousness structures, but see them as co-constituents in the integral world. Within the Integral Yoga community, maybe, this can also happen?
Great point about focusing on the writings alone. Made me think about the legalistic view, which I hadn't considered before when saying "let their works speak for themselves." It still leaves tension, however, between the original work and the subsequent adaptations. Some things can get lost in this process. So how to acknowledge the "practice?" I guess the answer isn't academic. Maybe, simply, creating another "practice" which aligns more with our own take on Aurobindo and the Mother. Or any philosophy/school for that matter! :)
Very interesting that the Mother enshrined Aurobindo's relics. Well, that does complicate the reality, doesn't it? As far as Gebser and the Supramental Manifestation, I don't think we can say, either way, what he envisioned or inspired his work. In the second publication of EPO, Gebser made a point to say he and Aurobindo were doing work in parallel and that he was pleased with this.

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