Restore the prestige of the Master and the Mother

Jadunandan Samal June 7, 2012 11:17 AM

The Ashram Trust Board has lost its stability and become very weak to uphold the ideal of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Besides they are becoming violent and adopting falsehood to hide the truth. The disrespectful attitude and behaviour shown to Dr. Patra ex-MP and other 68 Members of Parliament through him is shameful. As per The Mother's word: unless one is weak one can not become violent. They are prohibiting the sale of Peter's book in Ashram Departments, on the other hand supporting Peter outside. It proves their double-dealing and lack of courage to face the truth. More amazing matter is that about 160 cases have been lodged by the inmates against Ashram Trust and huge public money is being spent on it unnecessarily by delaying solutions. They are controlling other sadhaks and sadhikas-inmates by taking vindictive action against them but can not control themselves. The Trustees of world's most adored spiritual institution should realise this and eliminate unnecessary egoistic confrontation, otherwise quit for a better tomorrow. J N Samal Bhubaneswar, Odisha 07 June 2012.

Jadunandan Samal June 11, 2012 11:55 AM

It is revealed that on 23.09.2010 Manoj Dasgupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry has clarified the view of the Board of Trustees on the controversial book' The Lives of Sri Aurobindo' written by Peter Heehs as under:
"Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust does not approve and has nothing to do with the book entitled "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" written by Peter Heehs and Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust is not any way responsible for the contents or the interpretations of the material contained therein."
"Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust is fully aware of its responsibilities and its actions are determined keeping in view the vision and values it is meant to uphold."
If it is true, certain points come forward to be answered by the Managing Trustee to the followers and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
1. If they do not approve the book and its contents, then at the initial stage who permitted Peter Heehs to publish the book?
2. once Dr. Dillip Dutta, one of the Trustees has favoured the book as good one referring views of two persons. Is it not contradictory to the present view of M.T.?
3. Drastic actions are being taken against the ashramites who speak against this book and Peter Heehs. But as a ashramite why action is not taken against Peter accordingly and why he is favoured by recommending to extend his visa?
It proves that The ashram Trust is playing the double game which is not at all acceptable. J N Samal.

Jadunandan Samal June 12, 2012 11:02 AM

Another 2 points I am to add with the demands of our Gujrat brothers and sisters that
1. the authorisation given to Peter Heehs by the Ashram Trust for publication of the said book in the Columbia University Press should be withdrawn by the Ashram Trust forthwith.
2. the recommendation of Ashram Trust to Home Department, Govt. of India to extend the visa of Peter Heehs on which the Home Dept. has extended his visa foe another one year should be immediately withdrawn by the Ashram Trust.
A well-planned attack on soul of Mother India and Indian Spirituality has been made by Peter Heehs and his supporters. The disciples, devotees and lovers of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as well as true children of Mother India should therefore contemplate deeply on it and act accordingly to restore the prestige of the Master and the Mother. J N SamalKkk

The Indian Genius Talk by Sri Sraddhalu Ranade

In 1984 when Sri Rajiv Gandhi stood for elections overwhelmingly the country voted for him. Why? We trusted him. He was fresh, he was new and he was unpolluted. What you have to do to vote him to power, you can’t vote for him in the parliamentary model. You vote for his party’s representative, the same old crook who has been there for last 20 years. You know he is a crook but you have to vote for him because you want this honest man to come in. All the crooks get to parliament and still you have no guarantee that they will choose the man you want for Prime Minister. That’s how the corruption starts because of the indirect election system of the parliamentary model.

Let’s take a practical example, if it was governance based on the need of ‘Indian type’, for the Indian mind, the presidential model.  Suppose Abdul Kalam stood, with no parties, he stands alone; he will win hands down, because we trust him. And a man whom we trust he will be free to build his own team. And because we trust him, we know that his team will also live up. And then imagine the kind of governance we might have – as efficient, as effective as the defense program that he oversaw. Yes, this is possible. But for that we must say enough of the false imitations; we need to question ourselves, go back to our fundamentals and recast, rebuild our life. Swami Vivekananda said, ‘India is destined to be guru of the world’; that is the destiny waiting, pressing upon us, but we are still chasing illusions and false hopes. And when the destiny presses while we ignore it, there is a crushing, break up; that is what we are seeing today in our national life; and the break-up of the forms which are false. The transition will have to be revolution. I often put it in this way, the freedom movement was left incomplete; we won our political freedom but we didn’t recast the whole system, in terms of governance we replaced the British by the same mindset.

The first Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru was not elected by people. You are aware of that?  At the very first step of democracy, democracy was crashed. It was Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel who was elected by the party; and at that time Mahatma Gandhi stepped in and asked him to step down because he had promised Nehru’s father that he will make Nehru the Prime Minister. He wasselected by passing the will of the electoral process. The same principle continues to this day where the Prime Minister is not chosen by you and I, he is selected by an extra constitutional authority. Worst still, in that very first step many more things happened – ‘the mindset which came in’. Jawaharlal Nehru shared with the then American ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, ‘you know I am the last Englishman to rule India’. You see there are two perversions here: he didn’t see himself as Indian he saw himself as an Englishman – you see the same mindset continuing! And second, he saw his role as Prime Minister not to serve India but to rule India! You have the same mindset continuing; everybody who gets elected to parliament starts ruling people rather than serving people. What we need today is the completion of the freedom movement where the entire governance structure needs to be recast; the economic development model needs to be recast. And the cultural framework, we are still strapped by alien influences dominating in the name of freedom of the press or freedom of society or freedom of television, whatever forms it takes.

 We don’t have a chance to express freely what is innate to us. And most important, the need for the freedom of the Indian mind. The educational system today drives into you the falsehood starting with informational rote learning, doesn’t promote creativity, doesn’t promote individuality, and doesn’t promote your own innate svabhava [innermost nature]. All of these need to undergo a massive change. It is only as a result of these that India will move closer to her destined place as ‘the guru of the world’.  But at the foundation of all these changes is the fundamental shift in consciousness in our sense of identity, purpose and inspiration; to realign ourselves with the spiritual inspiration at the foundation of our civilization. You cannot make the social, economic, educational and governance changes if you do not make this internal change. That is why the revolution will start within us by internal awakening within, which will energize the mind, energize our energies, energize our actions, inspire for the new creation. And let’s not avoid facing this fact. The entire national life needs to be rebuilt. We cannot say anymore ‘things are fine as they are’, nothing is fine as it is. But to build that we must have the inner foundations. I won’t [say we should focus on the] first, I will say we have to work both simultaneously. You can’t wait and say when in next 50 years I will attain self-realization then I will have the true knowledge and then I will make the effort, but my body won’t support it.  It has to be simultaneous. At each step we make an effort and action align it to your deepest accessible awareness and aspiration. There is the famous phrase in Sanskrit, ‘Chitte vāchi kriyāyām cha sādhūnām ekarūpata’ In thought, in speech, in action, there is a continuity of alignment in a good person.

That alignment then points to your deepest aspiration. And let’s face it. As I said earlier the deep foundations of Indian spirituality are in our genes. If we become quiet for a moment we will feel deep in our heart the thing which inspires us.

Tweets 2h Savitri Era Party ‏@SavitriEraParty @m_vijayakumar SEP favours Manoj Das, writer and philosopher as President. View location - 13h Savitri Era Party ‏@SavitriEraParty Three more names for President: 1. Manoj Das, 2. Dr. Karan Singh, and 3. Kireet Joshi. [TNM55] 18 Apr @kiranshaw Congress is short of numbers. Internationally famed writer and philosopher Shri Manoj Das is our candidate as the next President.  In reply to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw 6:22 PM