Court Grants Injunction On Not Disturbing Radhikaranjan’s
Classes ─ Sridharan from Critique of The Lives
The Puducherry
Court Ashram School Ashram School
Auroleaks Carel June
15, 2012 at 9:49 am | #7
Dear Parvati, First of all, thank you for your appreciation of Auroville Today.
Then on the Peter Heehs controversy. As you are
aware, after our review of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo and the interview with
Peter, we have only once given an extensive overview of the ongoing
difficulties when the court case against the Ashram trustees was started. We
have not touched the issue since, though we follow it closely. Like you, we are
very happy that Peter’s residential permit has been extended – but we are sad
that it is for only a year.
You criticize Auroville Today for not having
informed its readers about this. We would like to explain the position.
Auroville Today is not like an Indian newspaper
which is at liberty to challenge or criticise the government, as was done in
the Peter Heehs issue. Our objective is to give information on Auroville issues,
which of course include those about Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. It was from
this perspective that we published the review, the interview and the article on
the court case against the trustees.
For the Indian press, the issue is the freedom of
individuals to express their views, even if those views are criticised by small
but powerful lobby groups. The Peter Heehs issue closely followed the Salman
Rushdie affair, who was ‘advised’ not to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival
and whose speech through video link from London was cancelled after Indian
Muslim activists threatened to use any amount of violence in order to stop
Rushdie’s voice being heard. It followed the ban in Gujarat of Joseph
Lelyveld’s book on Gandhi; the removal of A.K. Ramanujan’s study of the
Ramayana from the syllabus of the Delhi university; and the death in exile of
artist M.F. Husain who had been attacked by Hindu fundamentalists with a rash
of lawsuits and attacks on him and his work. There are other cases too where
the Indian government has not protected the writers and artists.
Now consider Auroville Today. The power of the
Government of India to evict a foreigner from India India
We are happy that Peter’s visa has been extended,
but are sad that it is only for a year. This means that the entire issue may
come up again in another year. We hope that during this year, an appeal verdict
will cancel the court order against Peter’s book, for then there are no grounds
for the Government of India not to grant him a normal visa extension. Moreover,
such a verdict would also clear the case against the Ashram. With kind regards,
for Auroville Today - Carel
Letter
to Home Minister of India, Honorable Sri Chidambaram ... 2
Apr 2012 by debbanerji sciy.org - Posthuman Destinies
This book is a wonderful proponent of meticulous
research and intellectual honesty that will go a long way in establishing a
tradition of holistic understanding of Sri Aurobindo as spiritual seeker,
a revolutionary leader, a poet and a visionary. To expel Heehs from this
country would be nothing short ... their understanding of Sri
Aurobindo and his yoga. 6. Several debates have already taken place in
many internet forums where the book has been discussed threadbare.
Well-wishers
of Sri Aurobindo Ashram - May 25, 2012 We are well-wishers of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and
believe that those who: […]
Inspired by several of the blogs that have recently
been created to expose those who are doing all of the above, we too have
created this blog to share the views, opinions and information that comes our
way. Well-wishers of Sri Aurobindo Ashram 6 Jun 2012
There are several well-wishers of Sri
Aurobindo Ashram who have been exposing the flaws in the positions and
arguments of those who have been the most vociferous critics of the Ashram and
of its administration. ... Some of the SR's [Sraddhalu Ranade's] pack
members who had free access to SAICE Alumni [a
closed internet discussion forum for SAICE alumni] in the recent past
(and still have), beat a very hasty retreat when their blinkered views were challenged ...
About Peter Heehs My name is Peter Heehs and
I am a historian based in Pondicherry ,
India
For five or six years this site was hosted by
Microsoft Office Live Small Business, a free service that allowed me, a writer
with no knowledge of website creation, to put up some basic information about
myself and my publications. Office Live Small Business gave up the ghost in May
2012, so I moved to a new host and rebuilt the site on the WordPress platform.
Many thanks to Alec Heehs of Watermark
Studio for helping with this transition.
Groups
in the Integral Yoga - A sociology of Integral Yoga - David Hutchinson
1998.
Distributed Communitarians: This group is both very
similar and very dissimilar to the ashram-ites. They are connected to the
Internet, and have imbibed something of its ethic of open information flow and
absolute equality of authority. The notion of one teacher is less
important; rather, they see each person as contributing some special wisdom and
insight. Their notion of the flow of spiritual influence is somewhat like
that of distributed computing, where authority and knowledge are *not*
centralized, but rather distributed around the globe. Home
page - Spiritual
Contents
The Internet Era has facilitated the dissemination
of information. However, this phenomenon has also facilitated the spreading of
inaccurate and even deliberately misleading information.
In our Aurobindonian collective, we
have benefited largely from the availability of information and
material related to Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, their work, the institutions
that they created like the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville and also by
bringing together the larger Aurobindonian collective.
However, in recent times the internet has been
increasingly used – or misused one may say – to spread inaccurate and even
deliberately misleading information particularly to malign, attack or discredit
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and even sections of the Aurobindonian collective.
But more often than not, these acts are done not so
much as acts of freedom of expression or to create awareness, but they are
clearly designed to promote a certain individual’s or a small group’s
personal opinions, beliefs, motives and agendas.
The recent times have therefore seen an increase in
websites, blogs, internet fora, etc., that have been disseminating and
propagating information that is either blatantly false or deliberately
misleading and inaccurate or that slyly sow the seeds of doubts in
people’s minds. This is done in order to create Myths that over time tend to
establish themselves as beliefs that take the appearance of “Truths”, which
these personally motivated individuals or groups exploit for their limited
ends.
This website therefore wishes to provide
information that is required to weed out and dispel all the myths and
misinformation that have been created over time. This is done with the hope and
intention to help those who are interested to find and create a more balanced,
reasonable and truthful atmosphere within the Aurobindonian collective.
We are not suggesting that the institutions that Sri
Aurobindo and The Mother have established, such as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram or
Auroville, are free of problems or cannot be criticized. Everyone is free to
poke their nose into the internal affairs of these institutions or criticize
them to their heart’s content if it so pleases them.
But we are of the opinion that the manufacturing of
non-existent problems that are born out of myths and falsehoods – more
often than not mischievously planted by individuals or groups that have
personal agendas to execute – and the unjustified and baseless criticism that
is publicly propagated to wrongly influence public opinion is unethical, immoral
and unacceptable.
For instance there is a considerable amount of
confusion that has been generated around the editing of Sri Aurobindo’s
poem Savitri. Because the issues concerning the editing of
the Savitri poem are complex, these issues have provided a
fertile ground for the creation of myths and related controversies that have
been used to the hilt to exploit people’s sentiments.
But more often than not a common sense approach to
understand and evaluate the issues however complex is all that is required.
Therefore, the issues presented here will be analyzed with the use of
supporting information as well as with a good dose of common sense. Because
common sense like a gust of wind can easily bring down the top-heavy edifices
of Myths and Falsehoods which like a house of cards can quickly
come crashing down.
Finally, we are well aware of the fact that “a lie
can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
Lies therefore tend to have a head-start over Truth, and they can travel around
world much faster these days with the help of the internet. But we also know
that when Truth has put on its shoes, it’s only a matter of time before it
catches up, overtakes and outlives the fast but short-lived lies, even if these
have a head start of a few decades.
Truth has now certainly put on its shoes, is well
warmed up and ready to give the mischievous creators of lies and myths a good
run for their money. As is oft repeated “Cling to Truth!” Administrators. Introduction
to Dubious Websites:
As the internet is
becoming increasingly accessible to a larger number of people, a
plethora of websites, blogs, internet discussion groups, etc., related to Sri
Aurobindo, The Mother, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the larger Aurobindonian
collective are also ever-increasingly springing up. As a result of that a large
amount of information on these subjects and related matters is being propagated
through cyberspace.
While many benefit from the availability of such
information, there is however a flip-side to the ease with
which information, especially inaccurate, erroneous and even deliberately
misleading information can be created and diffused on the internet.
Because like in everything else, there are a few
individuals or small groups of like-minded people who are more interested and
keen to promote their personal ideas, views and opinions as well as their
personal agendas and interests, which more often than not go contrary to the
ideology that they claim to espouse. In fact, such individuals land up
using an ideology – to which they may have an affinity or dedication – also as
a prop to promote themselves. While lip-service is given to the ideology, it is
in reality given a back seat as their personal preferences take over, determine
and drive all their actions.
The evident and inevitable outcome of the mixing of
ideologies with personal preferences is: confusion. This is made worse with
the deliberate creation and diffusion of misinformation with
the intent to confuse and muddle issues. Thus unfortunately in recent times,
the names of Sri Aurobindo, The Mother, The Sri Aurobindo Ashram as well as the
Aurobindonian collective have found themselves surrounded by rumours, myths, even
blatant lies all designed to promote an individual’s or a small group’s
personal preferences.
As the internet has provided a convenient platform
for the diffusion of all kinds of information, this blog attempts to verify,
analyze, demystify and critique some of the information, especially
that which is dubious, inaccurate, misleading, biased, etc., that is being
propagated on some of the websites and blogs that associate themselves to Sri
Aurobindo, The Mother, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Aurobindonian
collective.
The Integral Yoga
Impostor Definition: one who publicly postures and
professes to be a practitioner of Integral Yoga for the purpose of
self-promotion especially by deception, while contradicting and undermining the
core values of the Integral Yoga.
This website identifies and documents those who have
publicly demonstrated themselves to be Integral Yoga Impostors; i.e. those who
in the name of Sri Aurobindo and his Integral Yoga have publicly, actively and
deliberately gone contrary to the values and principles of the Integral Yoga in
order to pursue, promote or enforce
their personal, exclusive, and limited aims. Background:
During the last decades, several Integral Yoga Impostors gradually
but systematically entrenched themselves in the business of Integral Yoga. They
painstakingly cultured and nurtured a following, expanding their reach or
demarcating their territories, either in the form of Integral Yoga centers, websites,
blogs, or mailing groups.
In spite of their differences, the Integral Yoga
Impostors found it convenient to form a cartel of sorts that would allow
each of them to trade their common merchandise of miracles, myths and fantasies
in order to concoct a new formula of “Integral Yoga” which they could control
and use as their personal commodity.
There were however a few thorns that remained
irritatingly stuck in the fragile sides of these Integral Yoga Impostors.
First and foremost the exclusive approach and pursuit of the Integral Yoga that
they professed was antithetical to the Integral Yoga as laid out by Sri
Aurobindo, the founder of this yogic approach. Secondly, the seats
of Integral Yoga, viz. the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville would not tow the
line of these Integral Yoga Impostors or participate in or endorse their
games of deceit or personal ambition.
Moreover, many of those who
privately practiced the Integral Yoga felt that the increasingly
rigid grip of the Integral Yoga Impostors over the Integral Yoga was
becoming stifling and oppressive. Instead of a vibrant integration of
yogas, the Integral Yoga Impostors were turning the rich spiritual landscape of
Integral Yoga into the dull uniformity of a monotonous and organized devotion,
religion or sect.
While it is acknowledged and accepted that there is
nothing wrong in the use of devotion and religiosity in the practice of
Integral Yoga, the rejection of all other forms of practices or approaches by
the Integral Yoga Impostors was not only antithetical and contrary but also
detrimental to the very basis of Integral Yoga.
That the veil of deceit of the Integarl Yoga
Impostors was bound to be fragile became obvious when just one book
- Peter Heehs’ The Lives of Sri Aurobindo shook and
shattered their deceitful facade as well as expose their entirely un-integral
approach to yoga and spirituality.
This publication firmly rocked the fragile base of
the Integral Yoga Impostors as it deconstructed the merchandise of
myths, fantasies and miracles with which these impostors conducted
their trade. Additionally, the biography meticulously attempted to reconstruct
and strengthen the foundation of the Integral Yoga as chronicled in Sri
Aurobindo’s life.
One by one, but in rapid succession, the true
character of each of the Integral Yoga Impostors got revealed as they
scrambled to protect their trade by launching assaults on Peter Heehs, the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Agitated demands for banning Peter Heehs’ book,
the orchestration of campaigns for misinformation, slander and personal
attacks, the staging of violent protests on the streets, inciting members of
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville to create an environment of hate,
distrust and division, legal actions towards attempts of a hostile take-over of
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville and much more have all been and still
are on offer by the Integral Yoga Impostors.
In so doing, the Integral Yoga Impostors did
not hesitate for a second to contradict and undermine the very
principles of the Integral Yoga that they were pretending to profess all this
while. It soon became obvious that the brand of “Integral Yoga” that was being
peddled by the Integral Yoga Impostors had instead all the worst flavors of
Fundamentalism and Extremism.
But their acts of deceit are now exposed for all
times to come. This website therefore chronicles and documents how
each of these Integral Yoga Impostors took an active part in the abuse of the
principles of Integral Yoga for their own personal gains, while in effect contradicting and undermining
the values that they are posturing to profess. Editors.
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs ... 25 Dec 2008 by General Editor - On the contrary, PH and his supporters are
conducting a vicious campaign on the internet to malign anyone who
criticises the book. They have not, so far, responded to academic criticisms in
honest ...
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs ... 17 Mar 2009 by Raman Reddy - In any case, let me just mention here that Angiras
[Alok Pandey's Angry-on-us] complains elsewhere that he cannot do full justice
to his thoughts because of the limited access of Internet he has been
provided with. What a pity, that a free thinker should be ...
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs ... 19 Mar 2009 by Raman Reddy - The Science, Culture and Integral Yoga Website
(SCIY: sciy.org) has started serialising the letters of those who
first brought to the attention of the Trustees of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram the highly controversial biography of Sri
Aurobindo by Peter Heehs, The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. One writer
and ... And may I know why do you hide behind a pseudonym, as if you
do not have the courage to reveal your identity to your readers on
the Net?” I begin to wonder ...
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo"
by Peter Heehs ... 26 Apr 2009 by Raman Reddy - In The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter
Heehs, singling out blatant instances of such a dishonest manoeuvre that are
directly related to a topic on which I have been working since 1955 –
pre-Gandhian freedom movement in British India (1893-1918) – I bring them to
the notice of interested readers. The book was to be re-printed by Penguin India New York
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs ... 19 May 2009 by S
Ranade - In return we have only received ad hominem abuse and
insult from Heehs' group, IYF, SCIY, and through every
possible internet forums that Heehs' abusive friends have got on to.
The choice of SCIY as their ...
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs ... 28 Aug 2011 by General Editor - Thus, unlike the Trustees of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Trust who relied on this perceived blindness to escape the
Law and were erroneously using sign language and were calling it “dignified
silence”, Peter Heehs has been speaking up aggressively and cutting his losses.
He has ... “I have been in Pondicherry
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo"
by Peter Heehs ... 9 Nov 2011 by General Editor - That Sri Aurobindo's teachings have spread
far and wide and that he is read more on the internet than all the
study circles conducted by us is less known. That Sri Aurobindo today
is a global phenomenon and the Managing ...
A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs ... 29 May 2012 by General Editor - The audience then disperses and the star
entertainers call it a day with the great satisfaction of having won the battle
on the Internet. Surely they have ... Right now, the SAICE forum
is like a closed room where Kindergarten children raise a big ruckus over who
is not on the side of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, because
according to these star-performers, everyone faithful to Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother has to be faithful to “Sri” Manoj Das Gupta! Here
are a few ...
Kamal says: November
12, 2010 at 4:39 pm Well said! It is just a handful of people who have
some personal problem or the other who are creating all this problem in the SA
Ashram. And just because they have a computer at home and an internet
connection they think that they are omnipotent. Many people are fed up with all
their nonsense. It’s high time they stop! at 12:01 PM
The Unravelling of the Auroville Cult 13 Aug 2009 by Robert
E. Wilkinson - What we are seeing today in Auroville and
its internet propaganda machine, 'Savitri Era', are the final throes
of decades of usurpation of Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's work by
an Aurovillian mental elite who, for over thirty ...
Sri Aurobindo's Radical Social Vision: the Possibility of
Telepathic ... 9 Sep 2011 by Tristan Gulliford - Featureteaser: Aurobindo Ghose (also known
as Sri Aurobindo) was a Bengali mystic, poet, political activist, and
social theorist. What would society look like if Aurobindo's views, methods,
and ... One could argue that the Internet, particularly in the
form of recent social networking websites, is already functioning as a crude
pseudo-telepathic superstructure of human thought and information exchange.
José Argüelles discusses this possibility in his book Time and the ...
Should women dress modestly? | Integral Yoga of Sri
Aurobindo ... 14 Oct 2011 by Sandeep
In the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, where men and
women worked and lived side by side, all disciples were enjoined to forgo
sexual intercourse so as to conserve and redirect sexual energies towards
spiritual illumination. However, human nature being what it is,
the .... In everyday life, people frequently engage in
pseudo-interactions with women (e.g., through the phone or the internet)
or anticipate interacting with a woman later on. The goal of the present
research was to ...
Ill-effects of television on Yoga | Integral Yoga of Sri
Aurobindo ... 5 Dec 2009 by Sandeep
In his poem Savitri (all of which was composed
before 1950), Sri Aurobindo seems to have anticipated what the advent
of television would bring to humanity. He wrote in his poem… On the dark
background of a soulless world ... study of its kind in the West by
University of Leeds psychologists…Lead author Dr Catriona Morrison, from the
University of Leeds, said: “The internet now plays a huge part in
modern life, but its benefits are accompanied by a darker side. ” ...
Signs of readiness for the spiritual path | Integral Yoga
of Sri ... 4 Dec 2009 by Sandeep
In the chapter Ladder of Self-transcendence in the
Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindooutlines this gradual evolution from the
barbarian to the philistine and then to the person of culture and intellect.
The final stage of this evolution begins when the joys of phenomenal
life .... 1) Begin by reducing frivolous conversation, controlling
food intake and reducing the indulgence in TV, Internet, movies, etc. 2)
Choose a powerful Mantra to chant. Bhakti (devotional chanting) is ...
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