Auroville represents the international aspiration for Human Unity

Friday, January 06, 2006

Another hero: The choice is crystal clear

From: "Tusar N. Mohapatra" tusarnmohapatra@mail.com

To: editet@timesgroup.com Date: Wed, 04 Jan 2006 03:05:03 -0500

Sri Aurobindo's genius and vision is unparalleled in our times.

• The Life Divine synthesizes all theories and philosophies. The present Evolution vs. Intelligent Design debate raging in the US is already settled there.
• Savitri, perhaps the longest poem in the English language and the most profound, is the gospel of the New Age.
• His dream for the World Union is the most relevant and most universal thought movement.
• The Mother's labour of love, Auroville truely represents the international aspiration for Human Unity.
• Sri Aurobindo visualises the fulfilment of life in all compartments like, music, art, poetry, politics and education.

Thanking you. Marketime

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Sri Aurobindo, The Teacher of the Nation

Sri Aurobindo was born on the 15th of August, 1872 and perhaps on that day it was decreed that India would be free exactly 75 years later. Even, as early as 1907, Sri Aurobindo had made public his vision that India is free.

Over a radio broadcast, on the eve of the 15th of August, 1947, Sri Aurobindo spoke of his famous Five Dreams drawing the future roadmap for India to take the centrestage among the Global community.

As a poet and a philosopher, his every word breathes universality. As a compassionate thinker, his vision provides the much-needed synthesis to the present fragmented world. His integralism should be savoured by the younger generation and he must be adored as The Teacher of the Nation.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Sri Aurobindo, the deliverer

Yoga- from pshycho-physical exercises

Veda- from religious rituals and rigidities

Karma- from the reward and punishment syndrome

Science- from the logic of the finite

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Money or Harmony?

Ananda- Bhaga (Enjoyment, Share)- Shudra: Service, Surrender- Marx's Labour
Ananda/Chit- Mitra (Harmony, Love)- Vaishya: Desire, Libidinal Economy- Freud, Lyotard
Chit/Tapas- Aryama (Force)- Kshatriya: Power, Leadership- Nietzsche, Adler, Foucault
Sat- Varuna (Purity)- Brahmana: Knowledge, Nobility- Kant's Sublime, Habermas' Dialogue
Friday, October 28, 2005 ¶ 5:44 PM

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Seekers of the world, unite!

Holi, the boisterous carnival of colours, brings to the mind the catchline, United colors of Benetton. How harmonizing is the imagery! The whole world seems to be wallowing in seamless love and brotherhood. But alas! The real world presents a different picture.

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother bring us the assurance that a new configuration is round the corner. All that we need to do is to collaborate, which entails receptivity, plasticity, and humility on our part. And then all here shall be home to Harmony.

Friday, March 17, 2006

One becomes a Brahmana

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo keep harping on the notion that a higher, wider, and deeper mode of perception is native to our nature. Our whole business is to discover that.

• The urge to break-free from the shackles of restricted awareness and the endeavour to bridge the epistemological disconnect is Yoga.
• To be reborn into such an Integral Consciousness is being Dwija, i.e., attaining the state of Brahmana.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

An Integral roadmap

Tusar N Mohapatra said... Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have formulated an Integral roadmap for the future of humanity by synthesizing the best elements from all cultures and religions. They have written extensively in English and French the philosophical background of their vision as well as the practical means to achieve that.

Their works need to be read patiently and over a long period. The next evolution that Sri Aurobindo has heralded is an inevitability but waits for our receptivity.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

We belong to the noons of the future

Tusar N Mohapatra said... So much of cacophony over a minor metaphysical riddle which Sri Aurobindo solved almost a century ago. He makes a clear distiction between the Soul and the Psychic Being. He also talks about the Desire Soul. This philosophical feat became posssibe only after the Darwinian revolution, leaving Sankhya's Purusha, Shankara's Atman or Leibniz's Monad outdated. 8:55 PM

Tusar N Mohapatra said... No student of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo would ever concede defeat before any ontological argument, whether received or contrived. We belong to the noons of the future as no one in the human history has offered a more coherent philosophy or theology. A robust metaphysical system steeped in religious fervour and spiritual possibility. 1:18 AM

Friday, December 23, 2005

Wisest man, Worst poet, any takers?

• The swadeshi movement was, from a Moderate point of view, a negation of the entire Congress project. As a partisan of the Moderates it gives me great satisfaction that Bengal’s greatest poet, Tagore, got it exactly right and her worst, Aurobindo Ghose, got it perfectly wrong.

Mukul Kesavan The Telegraph Sunday, May 29, 2005

• We move on to Aurobindo, who, again, at times propagated ideas uncannily similar to Islam, as in the wish to return to a Golden Age where all was truth and righteousness. Then we come to Vivekananda, to this writer the most ambivalent, and hence most appealing, of the four.

Ramachandra Guha The Telegraph Saturday, April 17, 2004

These are unreasonable remarks from fairly reasonable people. And, similar impressions have gained wide currency over the years through such supposed expert comments. By ticking off the versatile legacy of Sri Aurobindo in just one sentence is certainly cruel to his memory. It appears that he is still standing before the bar of the High Court of History.

Everybody is eminently entitled to her views but what is questionable is the methodology. It has become a fashion, or almost a compulsion of sorts, to mention the name of Sri Aurobindo as an appendage to others. But, why bring in his name at all, if only to show him in bad light?

For the fact is that, the very project of comparision in this manner, is arbitrary. Sri Aurobindo’s work in the political sphere begins when Swami Vivekananda is no longer there. Tagore is almost a spectator in the sidelines and Gandhi is yet to enter into the picture. And again, the tenor of their work, so dissimilar.

Each of the great men like these has contributed to areas of specific significance which come to form our national mosaic. But in manufacturing the synthetic metaphysics of The Life Divine and composing the epic, Savitri, Sri Aurobindo’s genius is unparalleled, not only in India but also in the whole world.

All writers may not be competent to perceive the nuances of poetry or philosophy. But then, they are expected to be honest enough not to beat someone with the wrong stick. It is only rarely that we read any independent assessment of Sri Aurobindo in the media. But his role is indispensable for the national regeneration everyone is hoping for.