Friday, December 8, 2017

With the Mother, Sri Aurobindo ushered in modern Hinduism

Assorted tweets:

MN
Sri Aurobindo had a strong non-denominational spirituality. He was not parochial. He did not confuse culture with spirituality. With the Mother, he ushered in modern Hinduism. Beyond the Vedas,  with his own meditative insights https://t.co/sCN0VEh2Lx

MN
Something gleaned beyond the books to develop and evolve and where necessary, reject the body of knowledge (from the Vedas).

GN
What has Sri Aurobindo ‘rejected’ from the Vedas? And if it indeed knowledge then it must be an expression of some truth. How do you reject ‘knowledge’ then if it stands on its own & needs no acceptance or rejection to exist?

MN
Knowledge is not permanent. Some Vedic practices are outdated.  Sri Aurobindo's thoughts focused not on rituals.  I had only used the term "beyond" that includes implicit rejection of some rituals. See this for sample of the outmoded kind. 

GN
So really Sri Aurobindo has not rejected anything from the vedas. He has in fact elucidated their inner occult meaning. To see this as a rejection of vedic sacrifices, which the mantra-drashtras of the Vedas themselves engaged in, is a projection of the modern westernized mindset

MN
Evolution involves leaving outmoded things behind. Whether we call it rejection or not is just a matter of semantics

GN
Just because humans evolved would u say that all the other millions of forms of life are outmoded? Perhaps we are advanced in some very important ways but surely evolution of something new does not necessarily imply outright rejection or negation of what preceded it.

MN
Absolutely, but my understanding is of Sri Aurobindo involves an evolution that is "supramental' in which some other forms are laggards, and in that sense, outmoded. The idea is to locate nobler thoughts and go with them.

GN
But let us at least first grapple with the mental before venturing towards the supramental. The very Vedic truths & forms we want to reject are declared by Sri Aurobindo himself to have been revealed from higher than mental standpoint. Y to reject them from our mental standpoint?

MN
I do believe "consciousness" is key. Rest falls in place. "Ordered intution" of the kind Sri Aurobindo spoke of may show the way. "Rejection" is not blind but based on an inner sense of clarity. Or should be. Have a nice day!

WL
But he as clear that all His new findings were following the Leonine spirit of the Gita n RG Veda which was left unfinished in the past by rishis then and said more will come in future thus making s.dharma an infinite strong treasure of God
so Sri Aurobindo reaffirmed hinduism was actually most the LIFE TRANSFORMING as opposed to life weakening mayavada budhistic jainism that had gripped it's ppl. So He was not beyond the Vedas so as to divorce Him from sanatana dharma.
In fact that Sri Aurobindo found the root of His Savitri in the RgVeda and spoke contrary to trad Hindus extolling Upanishads as 'refined n essence of veda'. Rgveda alone, he said  speaks of heavenly waters drenching the earth as divinisation of matter flash/earth.

TNM
Sri Aurobindo has been excluded from the Hindu list and it seems to be quite appropriate. His integral approach has that subversive element which no past religion or ideology would accommodate. Even, his eulogy of English poets contains severe strictures. https://t.co/42CC6pHKSK - https://t.co/lJyaWRNeSG
Like it or not, Sri Aurobindo is opposed to all dominant narratives, - what postmodernism ushered in much later - so much so, all his philosophical expositions fail to construct any fixed Ontology. Evolution, and not some specific culture or tradition, is the crux of his teaching.
Castigating Congress or the Marxist historians might be valid on many counts but religious sentiments are not the right ingredient for erecting an ethical bulwark for justifying the demolition of a medieval monument that deserved preservation by a modern and democratic nation.
Local and social problems abound India and ceding them to political parties for solving hardly succeeds. Formal social organisations needed with statutory backing for taking up issues facilitating negotiation and conflict resolution.
Looking beyond ordinary circumstances is the first lesson from Sri Aurobindo. Aspiring for a better state of affairs is the second. That present imperfections can be remedied through Evolution is the next. And the last is collaborating with that process by being a humble student.
Reading "The Secret of the Veda" by Sri Aurobindo transforms your worldview in the sense that common terms and names unveil fresh meanings. For instance, [the word ghrta is constantly used in connection with the thought or the mind, that heaven in the Veda is symbol of the mind.]

Feel Philosophy: Their concerns are complimentary, and a dialog between these thinkers is urgently required - At the ends of man: Sri Aurobindo and Michel Foucault by Rich

GN
But wud Einstein be excluded from the tradition or lists of the knowledge tradition of physics just because his revelations were ‘subversive’ of the prior Newtonian model? Hinduism sets no bar on new truths at different times or varying truths in different places at the same time
https://twitter.com/viryavaan/status/939145358504087554
That is why the most primitive animism co-exists along with the most sophisticated philosophies within Hinduism. If subversiveness were a bar to inclusion then the first thing that must be thrown out is the most popular & universally revered Hindu scripture, Sri Krishna’s Gita.

D
Thank you! People don't need to read Vedas, Upanishads or even Hindu history to know Hinduism if they read the writings and works of these three alone. Everything that one will ever need to know about the religion and the culture is in these writings.
https://twitter.com/desibrah/status/938219594791002112

S
Sorry, I don't agree there. People should independently read the Upanishads & Vedas to form their own opinions. The opinions of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Savarkar & Vivekananda are, however, highly valuable to any Hindu & particularly, those reading Vedas & Upanishads.
https://twitter.com/maidros78/status/938224116527611904
Very true. Savarkar, Dayananda Saraswati, Vivekananda, even the Brahmo reformists are very very useful & motivators for learning more. But it is still their opinion of the Vedas/Upanishads, not the Vedas/Upanishads themselves.

HG
My views on Hindutva are more nuanced now. The state-society distinction remains material, and so is the terminology. But having studied history, philosophy and religion further- I believe that India should be declared a Dharma Rashtra. My piece (Jan 2012) https://t.co/TP3qwq2VHz
https://twitter.com/harshmadhusudan/status/938858465434288128

M
Indian constitution treats citizens based on their religion. Why are people then demanding that religion and politics not be mixed?  https://t.co/3T9OyvuCBb
https://twitter.com/myindmakers/status/938991684179836934

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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

We are not interested in reading Sri Aurobindo

Bhakti Madhava Puri
Dear Panchan Pramanik,
My response:

No philosopher in his right mind would deny the existence of the material world, although there are some misguided ones who would try to convince others that it is all an illusion. We are certainly not denying the existence of the material world. And the scriptures do not deny its existence either.

If you have a material conception of reality, you can see only matter. Then what about those who have a spiritual conception of reality? What do they see? Just as the materialist sees matter, the spiritually awakened soul sees God. There is no difficulty for the devotee to see his Lord everywhere. As it is described in the scriptures:  “atmavan manyate jagat” - as you are, so you see the world. As the supreme Lord Krishna states in the Gita, “bhaktya mam abhijananti” – “I can be known by devotion.” Thus there is no problem in seeing God for one who is properly qualified and purified of the material conception of life.

Aurobindo and Vivekananda may not be Unicorns, but they are certainly Monists – reducing everything to one, like the single horn of the unicorn. We reject the monist viewpoint of reality as abstractly one-sided. Rather, we find the teachings of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu to be more rational. He taught the principle of “achintya bedha bedha tattva” - difference and non-difference together. Monist philosophers are under a misconception, for they cannot explain how differentiated personalities and varieties come from non-differentiated impersonal substance.

We are not interested in reading Aurobindo and Vivekananda. If you want to present a particular viewpoint of theirs we are interested in arguing their ideas. In fact, we find their message to be fundamentally lacking in proper understanding and substance. Since this list is dedicated to discussion of the relation of science to religion, unless you have a specific point in reference to a philosopher or rishi, general prosylitizing of sectarian preferences will not be posted here to avoid divergence from our main topic of concern. I have already mentioned in this post, that if the aforementioned gentlemen accept the theory of evolution then we are showing that they, along with materialistic scientists, are misguided in their understanding of scientific evidence, scriptural conclusions and ontological reality.

Finally, your claim that "religion was always against science" shows a complete lack of any understanding of what has transpired in this list, and a complete lack of knowledge of the history of science, or of the Vedas. If this is what you have to show for your enlightenment by Aurobindo and Vivekananda, then you show them to be extremely poor teachers. 

Re: Reality: Is it Personal or Impersonal or both?
Dear Panchan Pramanik, You sent this list an interesting challenge to some of the points in my post on the above mentioned topic in the subject line.
07/02/2010 by Bhakti Madhava Puri - 2 posts - 1 authors

You agree with Dr Shanta that cells are conscious.
[By the way I have heard that Shri Aurobindo and Mother did a lot of work on the consciousness of cells. This was way before the present discussions started. I wonder why their work is not mentioned so far. Shri Aurobindo was a also  'PRAKHAR' Vedanti.]
I wonder if you also agree with Dr Shanta when he says with great confidence that the knowledge of Biology accumulated over the last hundred or more years should be thrown into the dust bin?
I wonder if the discovery of the structure of DNA and its replication, followed by the formulation of 'CENTRAL DOGMA' move Biology forward or backward. 
I wonder if the limitations of CENTRAL DOGMA itself could have been meaningfully discovered without the help of that DOGMA?
 
I have no difficulty in thinking that cells are conscious.
I am curious to know how this 'fact' affects the way Biology research is or will be or should be carried out. As far as i am aware, experimental procedures that suggest that cells behave as if they are conscious are no different from the ones that are done to determine their other properties.
In physics, the arrivals of RELATIVITY and even QUANTUM MECHANICS have not led any one to suggest that NEWTON should be thrown into dust bin.
I was puzzled by your last comment that seemed to say that you as a chemist, do not think that QM is necessary for understanding protein chemistry! I must have missed something because, as you must know, QM seems to pervade chemistry more intimately than consciousness.
I have no expertise in any field under discussion. 
The questions I am asking arise from reading the interesting mails 
regards,
kumar bhatt 

Digest of emails received between June 1 to June 8, 2016.
Dear Friends, A digest of emails received between June 1 to June 8, 2016 is being appended herewith. Thanking you, Bhaktivijnana Muni ...
09/06/2016 by Bhakti Vijnana Muni, PhD - 1 posts - 1 authors

RE: [Sadhu Sanga] Paper Refuting Darwinism Published in Journal ' Communicative & Integrative Biology'
Dear Colleagues,I quite agree with Prof. Hanin and also others view that Darwinism does,nt have any scientific basis.It is based only on hypothetical ...
23/10/2015 by krishnamisra - 144 posts - 50 authors

Don Salmon
I just looked up Rosen's book. The first reviewer almost has it: "Physics has little to say about life.'

More accurate: "physics has nothing to say about life"  in fact, physics has nothing to say about matter - it only can measure an abstraction from our sensory experience (eddington knew this quite well - all they have are "pointer readings" - Whitehead said it more poetically, "Apart from experience there is nothingness, bare nothingness"

Quantum coherence is hardly more than a conclusion based on measurements about processes of something of which modern scientists from physicists to those in my field, psychology, have absolutely no knowledge.  None. Zero. 

That is, as scientists (of the quantitative kind) they have no knowledge.  If the scientists' knowledge were all we had of the universe, the universe would not exist.

As sentient beings, of course they have Knowledge. The big problem is they don't know it. 

On Mon, Oct 19, 2015 at 7:59 PM, Don Salmon <donsa...@gmail.com> wrote:
quantum coherence?  = life?  I don't think so!

If you take away the material universe, you still have Life, but no matter, and I wouldn't imagine that the subtle planes worry much about physicists' quantum imaginings!

But we can meet tonight in a lucid dream and check it out. 

Re: [Sadhu Sanga]
Srinavasa,. What you say seems plausible. Knowing one's limitations is the key. In the history of philosophy we see this emphasized by Socrates, Plato ...
24 May by pjetli - 15 posts - 9 authors

pjetli
Srinavasa,

What you say seems plausible. Knowing one's limitations is the key. In the history of philosophy we see this emphasized by Socrates, Plato and Kant among others. However, most of the discussion in this forum is about going beyond the limit of human knowledge and big claims are made about the existence of God and consciousness and their causal role. This is what Kant would call dielectic illusion, that is claims to knowledge of something that is beyond the abilities of humans to know. To justify such knowledge the only recourse is to appeal to some sort of divine interference. And it always amuses me how we know that God made humans superior so that only they can know this, yet every life form is necessary for the survival of the planet. In any case I see a paradox that even you might have to face. If you are going to claim that there is a God and this God is the final cause of everything or that there is a universal consciousness and it is supervenient over the physical, then how do we acquire knowledge of this since it is beyond the capacity of humans to know this as we hear repeatedly. 

Priyedarshi
Don Salmon
Dr. Rao:  You may wish to look at Christof Koch's ideas on panpsychism (consciousness as universal, pervading the universe).  Whether or not you agree, at least now, with one of the world's leading scientists on board, one cannot dismiss outright the possibility of consciousness being, as Sri Aurobindo wrote, "the fundamental thing in the universe."


On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 7:46 AM, Srinivasa Rao Kankipati <ksra...@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Mr Vasavada, I went through your reply to Mr Bob and find it very fresh and interesting. I like your bottom-up approach rather than the top-down one. But I would like to hear your own interpretation of what "consciousness' is. Then we can settle whether it is so universal as you hypothesise. According to our ordinary understanding of consciousness, matter is abundant in the universe, life is not so abundant but still plenty, and consciousness is a faculty available in living beings in a minuscule percentage and seems to be somewhat developed in humans. Matter is a necessary condition for life but not sufficient, and life is a necessary condition for consciousness  but not sufficient. For Vedantists to talk of universality of consciousness is a big flight of their own consciousness, but not true, I think.
- Dr K Srinivasa Rao, Hyderabad, camp Cupertino. 

Re: [Sadhu Sanga] Platonic Idea of the Good.
Bruno, Again, thanks for your detailed response. I agree with you on truth. I think the truth condition should actually be dropped and could be replaced ...
27 Apr by pjetli - 24 posts - 8 authors

RE: [Sadhu Sanga] back to Thomas Nagel, "Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False" (2012)
" Hegel put himself outside this tradition." A recent book, "Hegel's India" brings into focus his tryst with Indian philosophy giving rise to the speculation ...
16 Apr by me - 392 posts - 54 authors
Re: [Sadhu Sanga] Response to your question on Bohm's theory.
Thanks Bruno for appreciation and positive assessment. You have raised enough anticipation in this forum about your theory which, let's hope, will be ...
29 May by me - 57 posts - 19 authors
Re: [Sadhu Sanga] What is Hawking's Mind of God?
An apposite connection to Whitehead, Tusar. In fact, the central content of the essay you link, along with the quote from Wittgenstein, has been ...
15 Jun by chris - 78 posts - 20 authors
RE: Sadhu Sanga forum.
Dear Tushar,. Thanks for your e-mail. I have very high respect but very limited knowledge about Sri Aurobindo. Last year on our trip to south India we ...
29 May by vasavada - 8 posts - 6 authors
Re: [Sadhu Sanga] Advaita, Consciousness and Quantum Physics.
Dear Tusar, On 07 Jun 2017, at 18:33, Tusar Nath Mohapatra wrote: Thanks for your considered reply. It appears that what I am asking for coincides ...
9 Jun by marchal - 47 posts - 14 authors
Tushar and others RE: [Sadhu Sanga] cosmic mind.
I agree. There is no scientific definition of cosmic mind, Tao or Brahman. In fact Rishis describe Brahman as “Neti Neti' ( Not this, Not this)!
13 Jun by vasavada - 6 posts - 5 authors
Re: [Sadhu Sanga] Re: Consciousness and matter.
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — the nature of reality Dr. Soumitra Basu [In Chapter V of The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo introduces a ...
25 Apr by me - 46 posts - 14 authors
Events and announcements.
Seven Day ICPR Workshop on Studies in Consciousness in the Light of Sri Aurobindo's Philosophy (With special Emphasis on the Upanishads) 19th ...
9 Jun by me - 3 posts - 2 authors
Re: [Sadhu Sanga] Physics and qualiap.
Dear Jo,. Today, I read some pages from your book via Google Books and found it quite interesting. The fact that you have been able to formulate such ...
16 Jun by me - 1 posts - 1 authors


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Sunday, May 21, 2017

My twelve years with social media

You didn't quote Vedic verses to support your view as I asked. Believing without understanding is your problem. It's not personal attack.
Not predicting anything, expressing my views. Believing in something because its written by someone without understanding is your problem.
Please keep Vedas out of politics & politics out of Sanatana Dharma. Best way to destroy HINDUISM is to mix it with politics, it's TOXIC.
If you are not accountable to what you say then your words are hollow and you are just disgracing great souls like Sri Aurobindo
In Aurobindo's philosophies, critical thinking is must for thriving society. But if it irritates you so much, may be you are a faker
My twelve years with social media has revolved around a single theme and it's Sri Aurobindo. My belief/views are free as I'm not accountable
I said, I will not write catering to your demand but I'm certainly accountable to what I tweet or write at my blog. https://t.co/XEx44QYmDc
Seems so, but I'm typing out this tweet on my Micromax tablet while I used to doodle on a similar looking chalkboard slate, sixty years back
@SangeetaRG Do you know @SavitriEraParty  ? Since both of you love Sri Aurobindo, I asked.
Through social networks only :)
https://twitter.com/SangeetaRG/status/864158433792016384

Aurobindo & Mother never started or encouraged any religion.If this guy wants to start a religion let him do so based on his original work. https://t.co/Ecc25FoaEG
Another "Dukandar" of religion. Its just a business for these brainless dimwits.
@VHPsampark @RSSorg @BJP4India @Swamy39 
So all hindus are following meaningless rituals!!! 
Ban such organizations,they are spreading venom https://t.co/YifqPodKGg
@AshuSengh this is what i was telling you. That's the agenda funded by west and many NGO's. U asked 4 reading material, here it is.

*uncle ki jali*😂😂😂 https://t.co/CTTvF62HjD
*ye beed humka de de thakur* https://t.co/6TdcVPakSi
Old fart seems to be failed naxalbari product of 1960's still living out his fantasies of revolution even as he is approaching senility

i hv read sri aurobindo in original, not all of his works, but one or two of them, like synthesis of yoga. i hv deepest regards for him also. https://t.co/egrVRP90f8
even i am not arguing with u in any way whatsoever,i guess both of us are grown up enough to discuss and differ without arguments. https://t.co/fns1vnUshl

you are stretching the argument too far. Templ = abode of Gods. Mosque= where namaz is offered. It is not a place where God resides. Simple.
I am on that path. No need for a suggestion from you. Who has entrusted you the job to suggest or guide me?

One nutcase here presumes to know the future through his spiritual travels,advises people to ignore history and go by his crazy predictions
This happens when you are into drugs like liberalism. It makes you believe you are the messiah of the world and have the right to tell... ...the world how it should live.
At least this person is honest & openly asks for dissolution of India. Unlike some who hide behind hyperbole of imaginary grievances.
why right now @SavitriEraParty  here IMPOSING it as 'inmost feelings of EVERY Indian', suppressing our thoughts of respectful coexistance?
Well he lives in some cult type fantasy.
World forum & such hypothetical nonsense. 
Ignores ground realities.

Sane advice, save for one tiny detail. The luxury of not bothering about others does not exist in this world. They're bothered about us...
There is NO such thing as a world forum that's going to decide matters. Just some fuddy-duddy liberal nonsense.
A naive pipe dream, nothing more. The UN is nothing but a playground of the rich and powerful. No one cares for the squabbling. Even the...  ...underwritten by some other bigger power, or has to live under the shadow of one.
World union is a kid dream. And so is 50 Indias or 100 Indias or whatever.
Nothing but the pipe dream of the naive. Will never happen, rest assured. Liberals can keep dreaming, though. Ain't no law against that.

This Tusar Sir who calls himself Disciple of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother BUT calling for India's Balkanization is actually INSULTING them.
Sir, its Unfortunate U call urself Sri Aurobindo's disciple & want "Balkanization" of India! what was The Mother's view on India's partition?
The point is India may be a nation state for last 70 years, but it has been a nation for many millennia. Todays boundaries are artificial.
tyranny !! tyranny is where there is no multiplicity. multiple govts into a union but no to dual, twin, is from slavery to individualism.
OK Sir. Can you share some research paper or Books to back up these claims of benefits due to dissolution of India.

You mean Art 370 should be applied throughout India.
Well that is a revolutionary idea! It will solve many problems.
This, sir, is a huge mental block most Indians will have to overcome in order to understand our argument. https://t.co/udSY54yhUd
Abolishing the central govt. is a plank that I would wholeheartedly support... regardless of my aversion towards democracy. 
Thread inside... https://t.co/xuZQ0GlSSk

Entire thread is too intellectual. Have read a little, all that was brought to purview while in Yoga...
Sri Aurobindo's life gave me inspiration. I had seen politics closely. Now or in near future we donot find ethics in politics b. of corruption
In Indian society caste, religion and corruption plays important role. As long as we have reservations we do not see ethics in the society
Not the fault of Savarkar et al when confused followers cant choose between Dharmic and political battles. But I am optimistic. https://t.co/IyRIhfm3ge

Hindutva has no use for Sri Aurobindo's Secret of the Veda - Tweets by @SavitriEraParty Savitri Era: Cling to Sri Aurobindo's Vedic rediscovery - Tusar Nath Mohapatra, Director, Savitri Era Learning Forum https://t.co...
My twelve years with social media - You didn't quote Vedic verses to support your view as I asked. Believing without understanding is your problem. It's not personal attack. https://twitter.co...
Karma and popular imagination of it are universes apart - Dear Jonathan I think the claim that qualia are no different from electromagnetic fields and gravity follows logically from the view that qualia have a cau...
Savitri Era Party has prevented Hindutva from appropriating Sri Aurobindo - Savitri Era Learning Forum Natural world doesn't entirely obey computable physics - Tusar, I am not sure from which authority you are able to say that these...
States must get Sovereignty and UN membership - Tusar Nath Mohapatra · @TusarSir [In our psychological interpretation of the Veda we are met at every turn by the ancient conception of the Truth as the pat...
Babaji, Prapatti and Utsabananda Samantaray - Sri Aurobindo Ashram Pondicherry, 12.02.1950 To, Sj Lalit Mohan Ghose, The purpose of your letter was communicated to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. They gi...
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Sunday, May 7, 2017

Half baked scholars take the cake

Sadhana in Integral Yoga - Speaking Tree

www.speakingtree.in/blog/sadhana-in-integral-yoga

Apr 21, 2017 - Integral yoga is the system of yoga worked out by Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator, the Mother. In any yoga, the seeker (sadhak or sadhika) makes an effort (sadhana) with the ultimate aim of union with the Divine, which is the goal of yoga (yuj, union). The complexity of Sri Aurobindo’s ideas challenges the intellect, and therefore it may be expected that sadhana in his yoga will be equally complex. [...]
Mixing up religion and spirituality
Yoga is a spiritual discipline, not a religious practice. Therefore, yoga sadhana does not have to include any ritualistic prayers or worship. Spirituality is essentially inner work, which gets reflected in outer life. Inner work is not visible. On the other hand, religious rituals, ceremonies and symbols are highly visible. To consider something invisible as the major part of sadhana becomes difficult to accept because of mixing up spirituality and religion.
Closing thoughts
In integral yoga, sadhana is primarily through work. The seeker is free to choose the work for which he is best suited in keeping with his unique strengths, weaknesses, and circumstances. It is the attitude to work that matters, not which work the person does. The result is that each seeker is free to carve out his or her own path. This immense freedom makes sadhana in integral yoga very simple. It is simple but not easy.

First, it is difficult because so much freedom is not easy to use. Secondly, it is difficult because while leading a worldly life, many obligations, responsibilities, social norms and temptations make it difficult to stay on the path. Finally, in integral yoga there is no clear prescription for sadhana. Integral yoga is not a pilgrimage on which many people have already gone, and therefore the routes and modes of transport are all well worked out. Integral yoga is an adventure through uncharted territory. ~by Dr. Ramesh Bijlani 

https://medium.com/journal-of-a-yogin/in-defence-of-the-veda-introduction-40bfcde9ad85
Mythology is not science or history; it is not a narrative of the past but a symbolic representation of the Spirit of those times. All narrative belongs to history and it is bound to be full of glaring assumptions, unscrupulous accretions and methodical prevarications, a sort of inglorious extolling of half-knowledge and academic distinction. Such dubious, Nobel-worthy narratives by the western Indologists have only contributed to the misunderstanding of the esoteric symbolism of the vedic cycle. Indology dwells upon the abracadabra of the external symbol and takes it for the whole truth and therefore, it loses the plot, the significance of the esoteric idea which the symbol represents or rather hides well and instead, supplies its own data to fill in the void; the result is a self-adorning chimera, an awkward masquerade; the Seer of the symbol is replaced by a half-enlightened philistine armed with a pseudo-narrative to maim the spiritual and mystic tradition of the Veda.

Journal of a Yogin

Journal of a Yogin enumerates methods, approaches, paths and different practices of Yoga as found in the ancient Vedic tradition, and in the modern times perfected by the teachings of Sri Aurobindo.

Feb 17, 2017 by Raman Reddy
Even accepting the devotion and adoration with which his disciples approached him is perceived by Peter Heehs as mere adulation which could have been avoided by Sri Aurobindo. I wonder what would remain of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, or for that matter of any Yoga, if the essential means and facilitators of spiritual union with the Divine are taken away from the seekers. [...]

But what if Hindus are not so dissatisfied with their religion because of its inherent universality and freedom to choose one’s own path? And what if many Hindus have turned to Sri Aurobindo without leaving their traditional paths and integrated his Yoga into their lives without feeling any sense of opposition? And what if traditional Yogas have also evolved and modernised themselves to suit the changing times? (I myself know a few people who are earnest followers of Sri Aurobindo and at the same time ardent devotees of Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupati.) Moreover, at the basic level of consciousness where most of us operate, the difference between traditional Yogas and Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga of transformation is mostly irrelevant in actual practice, though there is scope for considerable scholarly dispute at the intellectual level.

There is often a tendency among the exponents of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga to grandly call for universal spirituality and glibly condemn Hinduism in the same breath without taking into account the ground realities of our present life. For a condemnation of Hinduism without having anything to replace it practically except for The Life Divine or The Synthesis of Yoga of Sri Aurobindo, which you can barely comprehend or spiritually practise, ends up only in creating a spiritual vacuum. A similar kind of facile denunciation of all religions (with Hinduism listed in all caps) has also been in vogue among some of the followers of Sri Aurobindo without realising that this attitude will soon deprive them of the very Gurus they hold in such great esteem. For Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are now themselves considered among the religious figures of Hinduism, despite their own aversion to religion. After all, it is mostly the disciples who create religion for their own convenience than the Gurus who are responsible for it. An anti-Guru tirade is also considered avant garde spirituality even as you fall easy prey to the tech talk and mumbo jumbo of new-age Gurus who look more for commercial success than the honest propagation of spiritual well-being. I would certainly propose the intervention of plenty of common sense in these matters than rely upon the conclusions of half baked scholars of the above kind. [...]

What however can be admitted is that Sri Aurobindo did later go beyond any of the well-known realisations and yogic methods of Hinduism. His Integral Yoga with the ultimate goal of the supramental transformation of man can surely be considered a quantum leap in the spiritual history of the world, and not merely of India. But he still linked his Integral Yoga with the spiritual essence of Hindu traditions without always mentioning the old terms and often creating his own vocabulary to express his yogic concepts. The supramental Yoga disappears into unreachable and inconceivable heights, but the preliminary stages described in his letters to his disciples, such as the discovery of the soul (atma or chaitya purusha in traditional Yogas), or the realisation of the Self (Atman is perhaps the most frequently used term in Indian Yoga), or the concept of the Divine Power (Shakti), or the necessity of sexual transformation (brahmacharya), are all familiar notions to people in India. The fact that Sri Aurobindo does not use the words “Hindu” or “Hinduism” in The Life Divine has been triumphantly produced by Richard Hartz as additional proof of Sri Aurobindo having rejected Hinduism. But there is no dearth of references in the Life Divine to the Veda, Vedanta and the Upanishads. The very fact that every chapter in it is headed by quotations from ancient Hindu scriptures, and the very respect shown to the “Aryan forefathers”, “Vedic Rishis”, and “ancient sages” show that Sri Aurobindo took the general conceptual framework of Hindu philosophy to express his own innovative spiritual world view. [...]

 As we can see, there is a remarkable similarity of his concept of higher unsectarian Hinduism (or thesanātana dharma) with the universal basis of spirituality that he founded his Integral Yoga upon. The only difference is in the connotation of the word religion, which is used in the positive sense of spirituality in the above two passages from the early period, as opposed to the negative sense it acquired later when Sri Aurobindo clearly distinguished it from spirituality. [...]

"One cardinal axiom Raman Reddy would do well to remember always is that no “interpretation is faulty” and hence maintaining an attitude of democratic respect and tolerance towards contrasting and adverse viewpoints is essential for personal growth as well as community well being. By not arrogating to himself the burden of offering the official interpretation, he can save himself from much torment and spare his readers too." [TNM] http://savitriera.blogspot.com/

I think Tusar should play a positive role in this affair instead of constantly arraigning those who are earnestly fighting PH’s views on Sri Aurobindo.

Posted by at  May 4, 2017
Therefore, the question is whether Sri Aurobindo can be presented, - as he is, - without any political slant...  and, I hope, political perplexity doesn't affect the Ashramites. [TNM55]

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