Nothing is ever to be considered inanimate

from: Atala Damodar damodar.atala@gmail.com date: 22 February 2012 16:45 subject: Reg. 'Lives' the letter to Vijay Bhai from 'students'

1. 'INANIMATE'

If We read Mother and Sri Aurobindo carefully, nothing is ever to be considered inanimate! Especially a book is the body and mind of the author who writes it. It's not on interpretations or our understanding that a book's objectivity has to be judged. A compilation of anecdotes or presentation of facts without personal, mental(='intellectual/scholarly') comments and arranging them without personal choices and neither suppressing any fact nor highlighting any details; all these without any personal bias may satisfy the terms of objectivity. But 'Lives of Sri Aurobindo' has personal explanation, 'intellectual(?)analysis', biased omissions, preferred highlights...!

2. As to "We believe that except for Sri Aurobindo, none of us will know who is right and who is wrong and that this matter should be left to him alone, especially in the absence of a clear-cut consensus.": What an absurd logic! A consensus can never be an indicator, evidence, or proof of veracity! Just like in democracy an elected  or non contested candidate is not the people's real representative.

Had it been written by Sri Aurobindo, it could have been left to 'Him' alone. In this case if any one takes the position of 'leaving to him alone'  to belittle, mar, distort, denigrate Sri Aurobindo and His words; then logically he should also leave others (including Vijay Bhai, Shradhalu, Niranjan,  R Y Deshpande et al) to expose his work and put their genuine feelings and 'Intellectual/scholarly analyses' on record.

So Freedom of Speech for ALL or for only those so called western scholars who DO NOT BELIEVE in Sri Aurobindo as an Avatar but take him as a mere 'psycho' individual with not only split personality but multiple 'Lives' to be dissected with freudian /Jungian psycho analytical scalpel under 'western mindset-microscope'?

from: Jitendra Sharma aurofrance@gmail.com date: 22 February 2012 21:15 subject: Comment on "Nothing is ever to be considered inanimate"

A book is a printed or written literary work, consisting of words. Sri Aurobindo says:
“The Word has power - even the ordinary written word has a power. If it is an inspired word it has still more power. What kind of power or power for what depends on the nature of the inspiration and the theme and the part of the being it touches. If it is the Word itself, - as in certain utterances of the great Scriptures, Veda, Upanishads, Gita, it may well have a power to awaken a spiritual uplifting impulse, even certain kinds of realization.”

“a book is an inanimate object”. (Whoever wrote this should be given the Nobel prize for literature and science combined.) The Nexus Between Some Ex-Students and Matriprasad

BEYOND LOKPAL: TOWARDS A LASTING REMEDY FOR CORRUPTION Messages in this topic [sbicitizen] M.S. SRINIVASAN

The debate on Lokpal seemed to have died down and its implementation is at a stalemate. However it provides an opportunity to revive and raise the debate at a higher level, beyond Lokpal. Outer remedies for corruption like LokPal are necessary but not enough.

The lasting remedy to corruption lies in eliminating or transforming the corrupting element in us and strengthening our purer and nobler self which is the source of virtues, values and character. Without this inner transformation, if we keep the corrupting darkness within us unchanged and untouched, it will seep through every human institution, including those created to eliminate corruption. So the long-term remedy to corruption lies not in creating more and more external institution for policing corruption, but in building inner character in people and in our leaders. In other words, what we need today is a character building education.

But what do we mean by "character." or to be more precise, a good, noble or integral character? Popular conceptions associate characters with outward nobility in behaviour like for example, freedom from smoking, drinking or sexual indulgence. But the foundation of character is inward. A well-known modern seer once told bluntly a conservative audience something like this: most of you sitting here are full of negative thoughts and feelings like envy, jealousy, greed but outwardly presenting a socially respectable appearance. But when someone indulges in sex you look down upon him as immoral. With all the immoral feelings within you, in what way you are better? There is a valid truth in this observation. This doesn't mean right outer behaviour or action is not important. But our outer behaviour will be authentic, sincere and effective only when it is a spontaneous expression of a corresponding inner condition.

So, building character has to be a process which has to begin from within, by sowing seeds of character in the consciousness of the individual. What are these seeds of character? Clarity and sincerity in the mind; kindness, generosity and compassion in the heart; strength, firmness and self-mastery in the will; courage, energy and endurance in the vitality; aspiration for higher values like truth, beauty and goodness in the soul and the will to manifest them in the outer life: these are the qualities which constitute what we call as "strength of character". In a spiritual perspective, freedom from ego, desire and selfishness in thought, feelings, will and action are the foundation of character.

How to build such a balanced character? Not by moral sermons and lectures but by an inner and outer discipline put into practice in our daily life, with a sustained persistence. (1) (M.S. Srinivasan is a Research Associate at Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry, India. Email: srinivasan@aurosociety.org) Notes: (1) For a more detailed discussion on this discipline and the subject as a whole, reader may see the February issue of the e-magazine in management: The Fourth Dimension Inc: http://fdi.sriaurobindosociety.org.in/cms/index.php 

A Tale of Love and Heartbreak from The Examined Life by Ravikiran Rao

I suppose the lesson has always stayed with me. It accounts for my cynicism over the Lok Pal and the concept of “Persons of unimpeachable integrity”… In general, I am sceptical of any solution that relies on people’s character rather than structures and incentives. 10:39 AM