His followers consider Savitri more than the Vedas

savitri Junior MemberJoined: 09 Jan 2007Posts: 73Location: Mumbai N Melbourne Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 8:33 am Post subject: Aurobindo's Savitri
Savitri by Sri Aurobindo is a monumental literay epic on a classical theme relevant to future of earth as a heaven for superbeings. It is a legend and a symbol where literary heights have reached zenith. All people are future immortal Satyavans. Love is god & god is love.

ShishyaAdministratorJoined: 20 Feb 2006Posts: 1921Location: Europe Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:05 am Post subject:
Namaste Savitri, How familiar are you personally with the philosophy of Archibald Ghose a.k.a. Aurobindo? Namaste, Shishya

savitriJunior MemberJoined: 09 Jan 2007Posts: 73Location: Mumbai N Melbourne Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:34 am Post subject:
Namaste Shishya, Sri Aurobindo's two essays on Swamiji were most illuminating. As per Sri Aurobindo, Consciousness is involved in Matter & so Matter evolves to become Consciousness in terms of aeons. Stages of evolution in ascending order are physical, vital, psychic, mental, supramental, bliss, consciousness and finally Awareness. He invented integral yoga which is amalgamation of Matter and Spirit. He strove for balance between Purush & Prakritti. He was for evolution & not for revolution. His most important work other than Savitri is 'Life Divine'. Love is god & god is love.

bhaveshNewbieJoined: 26 Feb 2007Posts: 5Location: Narmadanagar-Bharuch (Gujarat-India) Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 11:59 am Post subject:
I have tried to understand Aurobindo's views. It is true that he praised Dayananda in his famous essays written in 1915-16. However, later on (he died in 1950) he had never quoted Dayananda as an authority in the matters related to interpretation of Vedas. He has written on the Vedas, but it appears that in his opinion the Vedas are creation of Rishis. He did not believe in Dayananda's philosophy of Ishwar-Jiva-Prakriti (= traitvaad). He was not against idol worship, incarnation etc. I have read his Life Divine very carefully. In my humble opinion, his philosophical views are different than Dayananda. His followers consider Savitri more than the Vedas ! It is a hard fact that his believers worship him (as well as Mataji) just like God ! = Bhavesh

ShishyaAdministratorJoined: 20 Feb 2006Posts: 1921Location: Europe Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:43 pm Post subject:
Namaste Savitri and Bhavesh, I, too, am familiar with the works of Mr. Archibald Ghose, also known as Aurobindo. Years ago I spent some time carefully studying 'The Life Divine', 'The Synthesis of Yoga' as well as 'The Secret of the Veda' and have also read 'Savitri', 'The Ideal of Human Unity', 'The Foundations of Indian Culture', 'On Himself', 'The Riddle of This World', 'Lights on Yoga', his essays 'War and Self-Determination' and 'Heraclitus' and his translation of the Bhagavad Gita. I have, therefore, read nearly everything he published sparing one or two minor works.

It has to be admitted that he was a great thinker and a prolific writer. He went about solving old philosophical problems in a relatively new and interesting fashion. His position as one of the major philosophers to emerge from India in the last century - though rarely recognized outside of a few circles - is well-established through his voluminous and carefully contructed works. I can say with confidence that his philosophical views differ greatly with those of Swami Dayanand and traditional Vedic Philosophy. His interpretation of the Vedas, though mostly original and highly interesting, is disappointingly narrow in scope. The 'psychological method' he used is intricately tied up with his basic philosophical conception, i.e. that the evolution of the material world is to be seen as a process of Divine Manifestion. Though relatively new for India, this is a well-known concept in the West, and was perhaps most famously propogated by the German philosopher Hegel (1770-1831). In its fundaments, the philosophy is comprehensive and reasonable. It is only when he begins drawing the necessary conclusions from his premise that the major flaws in the system become apparent.

The intellectual climax of the 'Life Divine' is that man (or perhaps some other being, provided man fails) is destined to evolve into a race of divine beings, 'gods on earth', so to speak, endowed with numerous 'siddhis' or occult powers and blessed with immortality. Thus the title, 'Life Divine'. His 'Synthesis of Yoga' is meant to represent the practical component of the system. If this had remained a purely rational conception, one could perhaps forgive Aurobindo. But as his life progressed and he gained followers, statements of his being the incarnation of the One God became more and more commonplace. By the time he had written the bulk of 'On Himself', a kind of autobiography, this notion was in full bloom. Nearly every page is littered with proclamations of his 'divine mission' as the embodiment of the Supreme Intelligence. This was very probably fueled by his intimate relationship with the French-born Jewish occultist Mirra Alfassa (her parents were immagrants from the Ottoman Empire), whom Aurobindo re-named 'The Mother' and demanded that all the members of his ashram refer to her as such. The epithet was meant to signify that, just as he was the incarnation of the 'Divine Consciousness', Mirra was the incarnation of the 'Divine Shakti'.

Thus, the stage for personality worship had been set. In the last years of his life, 'The Mother' played an increasingly dominant role in the affairs of the Ashram, and continued to run it long after Aurobindo's death. I suppose the best example for the kind of blind acceptance and personality worship in his cult is the belief held among his followers - penned and propagated by 'The Mother' herself - that Aurobindo attained physical immortality before dying, and is now 'simply resting' in his tomb. This 'rest', is it said, will come to an end only when there is a sufficient number of disciples who have also gained access to the 'Supramental Consciousness' - and with it immortality - and can help him carry on his work of elightening and reforming the world according to the Divine Plan. At that time he will awaken and emerge from the grave looking just as he did the day he 'passed into slumber'. On the whole, I would say that Aurobindo was gifted with a sharp intellect and a healthy dose of will-power. However, he, like so many others, eventually succumbed to the temptation of letting himself be worshipped, thus thwarting all the good that could have possibly come from his actual teaching. Namaste, Shishya

bhaveshNewbieJoined: 26 Feb 2007Posts: 6Location: Narmadanagar-Bharuch (Gujarat-India) Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 3:27 am Post subject:

Shishyaji, You have expressed Aurobindo's philosophy very clearly & boldly. Last year as well as in 2003, I published a few articles in Hindi on Aurobindo in 'Ved-prakash', 'Paropkari', 'Aryajagat' & 'Aryasamaj-Prahari'. It was appreciated by many learned persons and criticised by some Aurobindo's followers. = Bhavesh