The Yoga and its Objects and Record of Yoga

Re: What Jugal told me about Record of Yoga by RY Deshpande on Sun 18 Mar 2012 07:33 AM IST |  Profile |  Permanent Link

In the context of Record of Yoga we must recognize a couple of things. These records were for personal “use” in the sense that, in this way, what was experienced became realized, concrete, got fixed, writing them down gave firmness to all these. What bearing that personal “use” has for others is another matter. These experiences belong primarily to the first ten-fifteen years of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga-tapasya, and it has that historical relevance, that bearing.

After 1920 things started moving altogether in a different manner. Naturally, Sri Aurobindo himself felt that the earlier formulations had kind of become ‘dated’. That is what he means in his letter dated 28 October 1934 that what was described in the 1921 The Yoga and its Objects belongs to the earlier period of his yogic pursuit and formulation. The same of course applies to Record of Yoga, and we should not make a fetish of things… This “historical perspective” must be borne in mind when we are talking about the Yoga-related writings of Sri Aurobindo. 

Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by debbanerji from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by debbanerji

How does one know what he has abandoned? SA used different terminologies and different formulations in different texts, this doesn’t necessarily mean he abandoned one for the other.

Only a few of the terms of the Sapta C turn up in Part IV of the Synthesis, though it is clear he is discussing the same material. The personal gods Krishna and Kali don’t turn up at all in the Synthesis or any of his later public writings, the book The Mother is the only place outside of the Record where he mentions the 4 Mahashaktis but says nothing of their Ishwaras, and certain things related to the sharira chatusthaya of the Record are not discussed by him anywhere before his last writings (The Supramental Manifestation). In the LD or the Synthesis, he says nothing about the avatar and in the LD there is no mention of the guru. In Savitri he mentions Overmind only once and Supermind and psychic being never.

In the commentary on the Kena Upanishads and in Part IV of the Synthesis, he mentions the 4 forms of Knowledge – vijnana, prajnana, samjnana and aajnana, but nowhere else. The point I’m making is that none of this is a proof that he discarded or abandoned something.

Finally, the siddhis and anandas spoken of in the Record are not addressed anywhere else but can clearly be seen in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s own functioning. Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by debbanerji from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by debbanerji 

"Sri Aurobindo on Hinduism" by Peter Heehs -- reviewed by Raman Reddy 12 Aug 2010 

The following paragraph is from a booklet by Peter Heehs entitled Sri Aurobindo on Hinduism and published by the Sri Aurobindo Society, ... 7:57 AM 

Driwancybermuseum's Blog

This kind of treatment of a female character persuaded Sri Aurobindo to comment that Nala-Damayanti is the creation of a young Vyasa when he was still under ... 

Indian Philosophy in English: From Renaissance to Independence - Page 624 - Nalini Bhushan, Jay L. Garfield - 2011 - 644 pages - Preview

We cannot therefore agree with the view of Sri Aurobindo that “identity necessarily involves difference and the higher the identity the richer the content and the more complex its organization” (Indra Sen). This makes the conception of ... 

Contemporary Indian philosophy - Page 218 - Basant Kumar Lal - 2010 - 346 pages - Preview

Sri Aurobindo, somehow or other, believes in some such concept of Yoga, but he makes it consistent with the general nature of his philosophy. Even a casual look at the main aspects of his thought will make it clear that there are ... 

Spiritual Humanism & Economic Wisdom - Page 174 - Hendrik Opdebeeck, László Zsolnai - 2011 - 205 pages - Preview

He stressed that 'All this is the Brahman' (Sri Aurobindo 1939: 28 The Life Divine). 'There is only one Reality. 'An omnipresent reality is the Brahman, not an omnipresent cause of persistent illusions' (Sri Aurobindo 1939: 35 The Life ... 

Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion - Page 99 - Purushottama Bilimoria, Andrew B. Irvine - 2010 - 347 pages - Preview

Ashis Nandy, for example, absolves Sri Aurobindo's pre-modernism with these questions: “Did Sri Aurobindo symbolise the larger suffering of his society under the colonial rule? Did his attempt to speak in a new language parallel his ... 

The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism - Page 59 - Andrew Harvey - 2009 - 227 pages - Preview

In his wonderful book Return to the Center, Father Bede compared the goals of Sri Aurobindo's vision with that of authentic Christian mysticism: “In the integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo matter and life and consciousness are seen to be ... 

Humanity, truth, and freedom: essays in modern Indian Philosophy - Page 8 - Raghunath Ghosh - 2008 - 164 pages - Preview

Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath and KC Bhattacharya have forwarded a view about a man's transcendence. ... Both Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath have accepted a man's transcendence to the Super Man and Universal Man or 'Matter manuscC ... 

Science and the Indian tradition: when Einstein met Tagore - Page 23 - David L. Gosling - 2007 - 186 pages - Preview

Aurobindo Ghose Unlike most of the personalities who have so far been discussed, Sri Aurobindo was never the leader of an organized reform group, but his influence was quite extensive. He can conveniently be classified together with the ... 

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Indian freedom struggle: Volume 2 - Page 41 - Ratna Ghosh - 2006 - 600 pages - Preview

Comparing Vivekananda's views on the Yogas with threat of Sri Aurobindo's conception of Yoga, Subhas Chandra wrote: "Vivekananda had no doubt spoken of the need of Jnana (knowledge), Bhakti (devotion and love) and Karma (selfless ...

Supreme authority rested in the hands of The Mother

The Mother Mirra Alfassa as a Guru Posted on August 18, 2011 - Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo & The Mother: My name is Sandeep. 

The Mother Mirra Alfassa was a much misunderstood Guru outside the  confines of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.  Some derided her as authoritarian presumably because she supervised parades in the Ashram (these were intended to instill the discipline required for yogic transformation).  Others, after reading of her intimate involvement in the day-to-day decisions of the disciples, concluded that she had turned the Ashram into a cult.  Men especially had difficulty accepting an European (not to mention French) woman as a Guru.   Many hasty, as well as nasty, misconceptions arise because we superficially evaluate her external behaviour based on our own preconceptions and prejudices. 

A proper appraisal of her functioning as a Guru requires some patience along with a nascent psychic sensitivity to perceive the luminous consciousness behind her frontal personality. Sandeep says: September 28, 2011 at 2:23 pm Apropos the first paragraph of this article, here is a case of a man who found it difficult to accept the Mother. The person’s name was Garde and he visited the Ashram in Nov 1928. The story also illustrates the ability of both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to read a person’s thoughts and peer deep into his or her soul. Sandeep says: February 18, 2012 at 9:24 pm Another critic of the Mother was Michael Murphy, co-founder of Esalen, who spent more than a year in the Ashram around 1956. A New Yorker profile of Michael Murphy published on Jan 5, 1976 states:

Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by debbanerji from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by debbanerji

I may add that in my opinion, in the physical absence of the Mother, the danger of distortion by the vital emotional being that Sri Aurobindo wrote about in the chapter on the Intuitive Mind is very much increased, so that the demand for the shuddhi of the prana and the importance of the emergence of the mental pursha as a purifying agent, is greater today. Without these, we are seeing the repeated and insistent mouthing of the need for psychic emergence accompanied by fanatical narrowness and disturbed emotionalism.

Ranganath Raghavan's Response to "A Declaration of Solidarity" from A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs  The trust deed was made purely for legal reasons. It was drafted in a hurry and the result was not really satisfactory. There is no spiritual sanctity to it and we know that legal matters did not interest the Mother. We have some statements from her clearly expressing this view. It is also known that the Mother was not at all happy with the draft. This was known to several of the old sadhaks and specially Mr. Counouma, who had spoken about it to some people. So to claim that it is a sacred document and fully approved by the Mother is not the fact at all. Besides, nothing in this transient world is a rigid truth for ever. Changing times and circumstances always necessitate adjustments and alterations to suit the new conditions that crop up.                                                            

Mirror of Tomorrow :: Integral Leadership by Anurag Banerjee 14 Jul 2011 – A question might arise: which style of leadership did Sri Aurobindo and the Mother follow? The answer would be that the Coaching Style was followed by Sri Aurobindo while the Mother followed the Authoritative Style. In the Coaching Style, the leader enables his subordinates to identify their strengths and weaknesses, helps them in their aspiration and encourages them to work for the accomplishment of their developmental aims. Sri Aurobindo’s view was: “All life is yoga”, so his followers were free to choose their own mediums of doing the integral yoga. Some adopted music as a part of their sadhana, some took up painting, some took up literary activities; those who found physical work attractive worked in the Press, laundry, gardens, bakery. So we find that every individual was given the freedom to pursue his aspiration in his own way. One may argue that since the inmates were given the freedom to select their own mediums of doing the yoga, the leadership style adopted by Sri Aurobindo could have been that of Laissez-faire. One must understand that Laissez-faire is a group-oriented leadership in which the members train themselves up and provide their own motivation and don't depend on their leader for motivation or increasing morale. But that was not the case with Sri Aurobindo. The inmates always looked upon Sri Aurobindo for motivation and encouragement. Moreover, in the Laissez-faire style, we know that delegation of authority is done at the fullest level. But neither Sri Aurobindo nor the Mother delegated absolute authority to any of the department-heads. The leaders following the “Coaching Style” provide regular feedback and encourage interaction between him and the employees; he conveys to them what he expects from them. And that is what Sri Aurobindo did. He always gave directions and advice whereas the leader following ‘laissez-faire’ would not do so. 

The Mother, as mentioned earlier, followed the Authoritative Style. As a visionary, she knew what she was doing and her followers/disciples also knew what and why they were doing and how their tasks would fit into the organizational goal. To ensure that the performance of the followers were in accordance with the vision of Ashram the Mother had defined the standard around the vision and provided feedback wherever and whenever necessary. But after determining the goal, she would leave the means of achieving them to her followers with the freedom to bring in innovation. In the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the supreme authority rested in the hands of the Mother. Though all the assets were purchased in the name of Sri Aurobindo, it was the Mother who managed everything. It was she who took all the major decisions; it was she who saw to it that her instructions were implemented. She assigned work to the inmates and also set standards for the assigned work. No deviation or alteration in the plans of action could be incorporated without her approval. All the department-heads or managers had to report to her informing her of the progress made or difficulties faced and also for her advices regarding the concerned matter. Every detail of all the service-departments was presented to the Mother for her scrutiny and approval and the department-heads executed her orders. In certain important departments like the Atelier, even for the most trivial task an expressed approval of her was required. It was she who would decide what should be done and in which order. She believed in centralization and practised it accordingly. 

Show me someone who can provide details of experiences

Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by R from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by R

Kep: Surely fanatical narrowness and disturbed emotion is no characteristic of psychic emergence as ever articulated by Sri Aurobindo or the Mother. Rather they are characteristics of an undeveloped and ego-dominated vital-emotional nature sorely in need of just such psychic purification.<

It also signals a wrong turn on the path of Bhakti Yoga- the dangers of which both SA/M warned about when taken to fanatical extremes – and Bhakti Yoga is often mapped on to the path of the psychic being. Therefore, I can see why SA was cautious about psychic in the Synthesis and privileged opening to sources above the mind.

Deb: The Mother’s presence and power acted strongly to bring forward the psychic being and her action effected the purification. Sri Aurobindo wrote that the Mother by her look put one in contact with the soul and by her touch connected the psychic to the surface consciousness.<

Whatever the truth of the above statement, I would also argue it is the insertion of Bhakti Yoga in relationship to the physical presence of the Mother that helped cultivate an atmosphere that over time has facilitated the development of fanatical extremism in certain followers.

Comment posted by Govind Re: What Jugal told me about Record of Yoga - Mirror of Tomorrow

It is the very abstruse nature of the notebooks that allow others to misuse them as the proverbial pandora's box. PH has liberally misused the account in his book (e.g. mistranslating ahaituka maithunananda as spontaneous erotic bliss), quickly followed (actually preceded in terms of sequence of publication) by Kripal in his delusional deciphering of some sort of pseudo-trantric eroticism from these...

More broadly speaking the less yogically inclined in the community are playing up these notebooks and siddhis contained in them almost as some kind of an alternative TO Yoga, by which I mean union with the Divine vs. mere acquisition of this or that power separate or divorced from that union. Michael Murphy is on record (no pun intended) saying that it was when he came to know of these siddhis that his interest in Sri Aurobindo was rekindled and that it was the "Aurobindo of the record", or something of the sort, that really appealed to him. If these worthies were content to just live in their own little worlds then it would be OK. But as PH has demonstrated they want to recast the whole life of Sri Aurobindo in their own image. And their primary method of attack is to use Mother Sri Aurobindo's words selectively to project their own distorted shadows on Them.

Comment posted by Sandeep Re: What Jugal told me about Record of Yoga - Mirror of Tomorrow

One would have to be "born for Yoga" (be given the Sankalpa - Divine mission) in order to relive the experiences written in the Record of Yoga. The vast majority struggle all their life with basic problems - what meditation practice to use, how to keep the mind silent for more than a few minutes, how to awaken the psychic, how to control food intake, etc.  There are a few who delude themselves in imagining that they are having supramental experiences, but that is to be expected.

Andy Smith Says: December 29th, 2006 at 2:51 am Tusar, I hope your previous post was not intended to be an example of Aurobindo’s description of spiritual states. It may be very nice poetry, but it’s not very original, there are countless writers before him who have said much the same thing: boundless, infinite, rapture, drunkenness, etc. And not just mystics, there have been many writers/poets who were not enlightened, who did not submit themselves to a long and arduous discipline, who were capable of saying things like that.

In addition, these passages, like so many other descriptions I come across, are about a final state, they say nothing about what one experiences on the way, which is where virtually every seeker spends virtually all of his or her life. The day to day reality of the seeker is not much about rapture and bliss, it’s more about suffering, conflict, confusion and despair, about learning the consequences of our actions, the relationships between what we do and what we experience, the preciousness of energy, and so much more that I rarely find gurus writing about. You will forgive me for believing the reason they don’t write about such things is because they haven’t lived through them. 6:51 PM

Andy Smith Says: December 29th, 2006 at 5:04 pm Tusar, Ken Wilber was never my hero, I am not now and never have experienced grief because of his recent rants. I am not “willing and eager” to believe that others have not lived through what I consider universal experiences, I came to this belief only after many, many years of great resistance. Eventually, one has to believe what one sees, not what others claim.

I have read some Aurobindo, perhaps I will read more, but what I have seen so far I just don’t find that compelling. To me, these are the words more of a thinker, a philosopher, a systematizer, rather than a mystic. As I said before, I respect him as a great man, probably one of India’s greatest, and I particularly think his time in jail greatly enriched his spiritual drive. I have no problem if others find he speaks best to them, different teachers for different people. But when you and Alan claim that he was the greatest realizer of all time, that he solved philosophical questions that had eluded others, I think you are going overboard, and need to be called on it. And when you cite poetic descriptions of the kind that others have expressed from time immemorial as evidence of realizing higher states, then many people not even considered mystics would also have to be recognized as great realizers.

Personally, I feel Gurdjieff is the most original teacher I have encountered, but I don’t feel the need to start a thread on him, or to convince others that he was the most realized man of all time. I would point out that he was teaching his students in Moscow about holarchy years before the term was even coined, about different brains half a century before Paul MacLean developed the idea of the triune brain, that his system specifically addresses questions of physiological events that occur during meditation, that he was virtually alone in suggesting that there is a limit to how many people on earth can realize higher consciousness, and so on and so on. I know he didn’t invent these and other ideas out of whole cloth, that he had his sources, but nevertheless I have never found ideas like these in the writings of others. I have personally confirmed some of his most important ideas, but like all great teachers, he encouraged his followers to be critical of him, and I am. I think this is a healthier attitude than what seems like total belief on your part that Aurobindo was infallible. [Andrew P. Smith, who has a background in molecular biology, neuroscience and pharmacology, is author of e-books Worlds within Worlds and the novel Noosphere II, which are both available online. His website SCIENCE VS. SPIRIT is devoted to the question: "how to integrate experiences of higher states of consciousness with the established body of scientific knowledge."] 7:37 AM 

Andy Smith Says: December 27th, 2006 at 8:30 pm The problem is, anyone can claim experiences that are not found in second hand sources, but just because they aren’t, there is no way of validating the experiences. I have had many experiences that I am quite sure are authentic, but I don’t ask anyone to believe me just because I say so. One difference between mine and Aurobindo’s is that I can give very specific descriptions of experiences that occur on the way to realization. I don’t see a lot of this in Aurobindo’s writings. Most of his writings seem to be couched in very broad and abstract generalizations. As I have said before, the devil is in the details. Show me someone who can provide details of experiences, no matter how much limited by language, and I will listen. But even then, most such descriptions have been recorded by individuals in extreme isolation, who didn’t seem to understand that awakening is an external as well as internal process.

Your very use of “intermediate zone gurus” suggests to me that you are a priori buying into Aurobindo’s scheme, and then using it to invalidate anyone whom, according to that scheme, is not enlightened. I could always claim that I have found a scheme in which the highest state described by Aurobindo is just another intermediate way station. As I said before, this strikes me as a game of “my highest state is higher than your highest state”. Adi Da, of course, loved to play this game. Non-duality seems to offer a way out of this bind, but that of course is hardly original with Aurobindo.

Any alleged guru has people who have known him/her who are prepared to praise him/her to the skies... The distinction you are missing here is necessary vs. sufficient. Lots of authorities don’t abuse their position. The Pope doesn’t. Does that make him enlightened? Aurobindo’s disciple Chaudhuri didn’t. Did that make him enlightened? Is someone a great President or great leader because he doesn’t abuse his position? I would say that is a necessary basic quality, hardly evidence by itself of great leadership or knowledge. Tendency to abuse is largely a personal trait. Many people are relatively free of it, that doesn’t mean they have some special knowledge. Some people have to struggle with it, and I will grant you, with great spiritual powers come great temptations. Being able to master these temptations I think is valid evidence of some kind of knowledge, but if you don’t know how much power the person has, you aren’t in a position to gauge how great are the temptations he/she must deal with.

Don’t get me wrong, I have great respect for Aurobindo. I certainly have no problem with discussion of his ideas on the forum, and if they are inspiring to you and others, more power to all of you. But in this area, I think anyone can and should be criticized. As Joe says, “If it were possible to define “perfect,” then I think it’s safe to say there’s never been a fully perfect human being in every sense, horizontal and vertical, every stage/state/line, etc. For me, it only makes sense to talk about gradations of human development and persons on paths, not enlightened beings.” And: “I would NEVER ever trust a guru whose human flaws weren’t evident, because that would surely be a sign that they are psychologically disassociated beings, not enlightened.” Ken, of course, has made this point many times. Tusar N. Mohapatra Says: December 27th, 2006 at 11:05 pm Sri Aurobindo’s details of experiences are available in his two volumes of “Record of Yoga.” 11:12 AM 

Postmodern spirituality, A dialogue in five parts Part III: The Postmodern Mind – And Its Future Roland Benedikter II: THE RESULT: THE EMERGING OF THE TWO “I”'s Question: Yes, exactly that is the question of the postmodern, “fragmented” subject.

You should always remember: Yes, the “two I's” are increasingly produced by postmodern culture, but still not consciously. It's a little bit like the famous advertising sentence of Nike: Postmodernists (and their academic paedagogics) “just do it”; but they don't know exactly what they are doing. They do it out of a strong impulse of equality and liberation, and they generally just wanna see what will be the outcome. That is what most postmodernists would call “a proceeding that is not speculative, but empirical”. 12:52 AM

Emergence of mental purusha as a purifying agent

Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by debbanerji from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by debbanerji

The Mother’s presence and power acted strongly to bring forward the psychic being and her action effected the purification. Sri Aurobindo wrote that the Mother by her look put one in contact with the soul and by her touch connected the psychic to the surface consciousness. The yoga that developed under these circumstances pivileged the emergence of the pychic being through surrender to the Mother… Today, the physical power of the Mother’s action is no longer present to have the same effect on the emergence of the psychic being.

Comment on The Seven Quartets of Becoming by Debashish Banerji by debbanerji from Comments for Posthuman Destinies by debbanerji

I may add that in my opinion, in the physical absence of the Mother, the danger of distortion by the vital emotional being that Sri Aurobindo wrote about in the chapter on the Intuitive Mind is very much increased, so that the demand for the shuddhi of the prana and the importance of the emergence of the mental purusha as a purifying agent, is greater today. Without these, we are seeing the repeated and insistent mouthing of the need for psychic emergence accompanied by fanatical narrowness and disturbed emotionalism.

SA used different terminologies and different formulations in different texts, this doesn’t necessarily mean he abandoned one for the other. debbanerji Posted March 14, 2012 Permalink

Alethetics from Larval Subjects . by larvalsubjects

Wittgenstein says “attend to language games”, Lacan says “attend to the signifier and the real”, Descartes says “attend to the cogito and the ideas found within the cogito“, Hume says “attend to impressions and how mind relates them”, Marx says “attend to labor and production”, Husserl says “attend to lived experience”, Bergson says “attend to duration”. Every great philosopher proposes a frame, a new window through which to encounter the world. And every frame generates its own problems that haunt the thinker for the remainder of her adventure…

The question posed to a philosophy should not be “is it true?”, but rather “what does it allow me to do?”, “can it do any work?”, etc. Just as we don’t ask whether or not a lawn mower is true or false, but rather “what does it do?”, we shouldn’t ask “is the philosophy true or false?”, but rather: what does this frame allow us to do? how does it allow us to remake ourselves? how does it allow us to remake the world in which we find ourselves? how does it allow us to relate to each other differently, etc?

But on the other hand, we should ask “what does this frame conceal, hide, or veil?” A critique of a philosophy shouldn’t be based on whether it’s internally consistent or whether it is veridical, but on whether or not it conceals or veils things that are unacceptable to veil. And here I’m inclined to say that the problems that motivate a philosophy never come from within philosophy… Problems of philosophy always come from elsewhere: love, politics, history, startling scientific discoveries, science, suffering, disease, gregariousness… We no less frame selections of the world than we are seized by selections of the world. 

Cultural models and Rethinking Secularism from The Immanent Frame by Giles Gunn

Rethinking Secularism is the title of a striking new collection of essays, edited by Craig Calhoun, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Jonathan VanAntwerpen that is rich with shrewd, and often detailed and intricate, discussions of the way the political and the social, the public and the personal, are threaded with, and frequently created out of, the interpretive, the symbolic, and the imaginary.

Dr. Gayatri Resigns from the Ashram Nursing Home from A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs by General Editor

Though Dr. Gayatri resigned on the grounds of ill-health, it is obvious why she resigned from the Nursing Home. She had dared to be frank and outspoken on the issue of Peter Heehs and had condemned his book without any fear of retribution from her superior, Dr Dilip Datta, chief of the Ashram medical services and one of the decision-makers in the board of Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Dr Dilip Datta and his daughter Shoma have been of late mired in controversy surrounding their racial remarks on the devotees of Orissa who had come to protest against the Ashram Trust’s blatant support of Peter Heehs’s book. Dr. Gayatri will continue to serve her patients from the Dispensary but the patients in the Nursing Home will miss her dedicated 24 x 7 services rendered by her for more than a decade.

On quitting Goldman Sachs  from The Big Picture by T T Ram Mohan

A senior executive of Goldman Sachs has gone public with his decision to quit the firm by writing an article in the New York Times on the subject:

It might sound surprising to a skeptical public, but culture was always a vital part of Goldman Sachs’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing right by our clients. The culture was the secret sauce that made this place great and allowed us to earn our clients’ trust for 143 years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a firm for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief.

There is no end, it seems, to the public bashing of the investment bank. Wonder how Goldman will respond, if at all. (Thanks to Sidharth Sinha for the pointer)

The right way to make money from Cafe Hayek by Russ Roberts

People are making fun of this piece by Greg Smith where he talks about his disillusionment with the culture at Goldman Sachs. 

Turning point in the relationship between Auroville and Sri Aurobindo Society

Sri Aurobindo Society visits AV by Andrea Monday, 05 March 2012

In almost 30 years, today was the first formal visit of the representatives of the Sri Aurobindo Society to Auroville. Luigi of CIRHU made a presentation to the guests on the future outlook of Auroville, development plans, land-protection issues, green infrastructure and also the need to create better possibilities for the youth to work here in Auroville. Today, says Luigi, was a turning point in the relationship of Auroville with the Sri Aurobindo Society and a new start for the two sides towards promoting development of Auroville.Kkk

Sri Aurobindo Society: Next Steps by Andrea  Monday, 05 March 2012

In this short interview, Luigi of CIRHU shares with Andrea the meaning and purpose of the first official visit of the representatives of the Sri Aurobindo Society to Auroville today. In the context of Supreme Court's judgment of 1982 ruling that Auroville is neither a religious society nor a property of Sri Aurobindo Society, in some ways today's meeting is an attempt towards a new beginning, a positive change in outlook on both sides and hope of more goodwill flowing in.

Finally! Auroville holds Shraddhalu to Account MARCH 2, 2012

Auroville finally takes Shraddhalu to account for his actions. As much as anyone Auroville’s Savitri Bhavan has facilitated Shraddhalu’s moxy for distorting reality by allowing him to continue to speak with authority at their venue even though he has run amok in the rest of the world.  In his fundamentalist crusade he has promulgated all manner of falsehoods in waging  criminal and civil battles against Peter Heehs and the Ashram Trustees but now, the Working Committee in Auroville has finally stepped in. Shraddhalu not only had the audacity to lead a mob that he had bussed in from back roads of Orissa to protest the Ashram under the Darshan balcony itself, but members of his gang attempted to rough up a senior Ashram Trustee.  The Working Committee of Auroville has declared:

“In the light of the events which have taken place on 27th February at the Ashram, the Working Committee on 29th February has requested Savitri Bhavan to discontinue Shraddhalu’s talks.”

Its up to Savitri Bhavan now to comply or continue to cuddle Shraddhalu. This entry was posted in Praxis. Bookmark the permalink. abdul lateef Posted March 7, 2012 at 12:12 pm Permalink Savitri Bhavan has in fact complied with the request to have Shraddhalu take a break from his talks at there. Kudos to them for arriving at a reasoned decision.

debbanerji Posted March 14, 2012 at 1:53 am Permalink SA used different terminologies and different formulations in different texts, this doesn’t necessarily mean he abandoned one for the other. 6:51 PM

Response to the Doctrine of Sameness | Rajiv Malhotra Ken Wilber’s manipulative claims: Ken Wilber uses this thesis to claim that he has superseded whatever dharma offers. This is done in a series of logical steps as follows:

He collapses Sri Aurobindo’s teachings into this worldview or a similar one – even though Sri Aurobindo vehemently criticized all such interpretations of Vedic thought. He then appropriates copiously from various dharmic schools – Sri Aurobindo, Madhyamika Buddhism, Kashmir Shaivism, to name a few – in order to claim that he has moved past the problems that dharma suffers from. I refer to this as intellectual arson – the arsonist is one who first robs the place and then burns it down to hide the evidence. He then claims to have achieved states of consciousness that supersede Sri Aurobindo and all others before him, including Buddha.

openPRcom Press release Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts ... Admission to the diploma in advertising & public relations is open to graduates from any discipline, working professionals and students in their final year of graduation/post graduation in any discipline. Interested applicants must fill the application form and then appear for a written test, group discussion and personal interview. To learn more about the course, please visit the link www.sac.ac.in/advertising-public-relations-course.asp. For more information on admission procedure, go to www.sac.ac.in/important-dates.asp. Application forms are available at www.sac.ac.in/application-form.asp.

Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication (SACAC) is an autonomous non-profit mass communication institute for creative learning in media arts and communication. Started in 2003 as a unit of Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry, SACAC is a multi-disciplinary institute with programmes in Advertising & Public Relations, Creative Photography, Film Production, Journalism and Audio Engineering. Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication Sri Aurobindo Society, New Mehrauli Road, Adchini, New Delhi - 110 017

Ms. Archana S. Nasa Sr. Manager Programmes webmaster@sac.ac.in Phone: 91-11-26561986/ 91-99537 55245 www.sac.ac.in

The Mother distributed her own photograph to disciples

Spirituality, Religion, Fundamentalism -- by Ranganath Raghavan from A critique of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs 

When the outward physical act of worship is performed such as Pranam at the Samadhi or to a photograph of the Mother or to any object representing the Mother, is it religious or spiritual? If the act is mechanical, merely a habit, done with other thoughts in the mind or other feelings in the heart, then it may be termed religious. But if on the contrary it is done with full concentration and intensity as an act of prayer or self-giving, it is certainly spiritual.

Some time ago, when the old Distillery near the Tennis Ground was to be converted into a public park, it was proposed to place a statue of Sri Aurobindo in a prominent place. It was reported that the managing trustee of the Ashram turned down the proposal with the argument that it would amount to religion.

• Did he not completely overlook the fact that the Mother had installed a bust of Sri Aurobindo right in the meditation Hall of the Ashram?
• Is there not a large picture of the Mother in the Meditation Hall?
• And a picture of Sri Aurobindo in the Reception Room of the Ashram?
• And a bust of Sri Aurobindo in the Ashram Library?
• Did not the Mother give specific directions to some of the Ashram Departments to have a symbol of the Mother on the front Gate?
• When Mother distributed her own photograph to disciples or gave them gold rings with her symbol on them, was it Spiritual or Religious?
• When pieces of Mother’s carpet are distributed on the Golden Day, is it spiritual or religious?
• Where do we draw the line between Spirituality and Religion? … 

Peter Heehs is spared, but not  R.Y. Deshpande, Abala and Niranjan Naik who are unceremoniously removed from their place of work. A witness attitude is never selective!!

The arguments given by the trustees for supporting Peter Heehs are obviously without value. The Ashramites may very well suspect other hidden reasons which are not being revealed.

The beneficiaries of the Ashram Trust have the right to know the real causes behind this strange support to the author who denigrates  the Guru  in a book that is being distributed all over the world. Ranganath Raghavan

New content: Attempts to create an “Aurobindonian religion”

In reply to your comment: When you say that they “are free to do so” it includes the freedom to “make up stories” as ... Jothi Mar 10, 1:04 pm

TNM55, Thank you for accepting and confirming that those who say that SA & TM have founded a new religion, are in reality just making up stories and religious mythologies. No incongruities there.

The Hindu : NATIONAL TAMIL NADU : Engagements KARUR March 10, 2012

Annai Women's College, Punnamchatram: College day, A. Pari, DIG of Police and Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Tiruchi, chief guest, Arun Thangam, secretary, Annai Sri Aurobindo Educational Trust and P. Thangaraju, treasurer, speak, A. R. Malaiyappasamy, Chairman, presides, 4 p.m.

Nolini Kant Gupta  ( January 13 1889 - February 7 1983)

Surendranath Jauhar "Faquir", "Chachaji" (1903-1986)

Prapatti (April 30, 1924 - June 28, 1989)

Champaklal (February 2, 1903 - May 9, 1992)

M. P. Pandit ( - 14th March 1993)

Indra Sen (13 May 1903 - 14 March 1994)

Prof. V. Madhusudan Reddy (1925-1996)

Babaji Maharaj Sri Ramakrishna Das (August 14, 1908 - 8th November 8, 1998)

Nirodbaran (November 17, 1903 – July 17, 2006)

Mangesh V. Nadkarni (1933–2007)

Satprem  (30 October 1923 - 9 April 2007)

Sujata Nahar (12 December 1925 – 4 May 2007)

Jugal KishoreMukherjee (1925 - 15 December 2009)

Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya (18 October 1922 - January 8, 2010)

K.D. Sethna Amal Kiran (26 November 1904 – 29 June 2011)
Chhote Narayan Sharma

Shaymsundar – 2011

We are narrative animals

Hindutva propagandist's book reveiwed in Delhi journal Manushi from Communalism Watch by c-info. See review of Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism by Rajiv Malhotra (Reviewed by Prof. Indra Nath Choudhuri, Former Director, Sahitya Academy)

In conclusion, I’d like to say that in the 1970s I first read and was inspired by ‘The Speaking Tree’ by R. Lannoy. Now after a gap of almost 40 years, I’ve had the good fortune to read another seminal book on Hindu dharmic tradition - ‘Being Different’ by Rajiv Malhotra.

There are some who might view Malhotra as having taken a slanted position, favoring dharmic traditions rather than playing the role of a critical insider. No doubt, he does not lay bare the detrimental aspects of the dharmic tradition nor offer any proposals on how to change these traditions from within. He does draw great inspiration from Gandhi but does not, as Gandhi did, modify, adapt or reconstruct the tradition that he analyzes. [...]

Roy too felt, as Malhotra alludes in his other writings, that religious supremacy is influenced by a sense of Western racial and cultural superiority. We see everywhere cultural conflicts between the traditional East and the West as well as among the three Abrahmaic traditions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It has become all the more necessary to respond with renewed efforts to replace the clash of civilizations with a dialogue among civilizations.

THE FUTURE OF RELIGION: TOWARDS A NEW PARADIGM OF RELIGION FOR A GLOBALISING WORLD-I M.S. Srinivasan (This article is the first part of a paper presented in an international seminar on "Dynamics of Religious Trajectories" at M.O.P Vaishnava College for Women, Chennai.) Worm in the Rose

So the canker, the worm in the rose, is the cult-ego. And the most pernicious form of this Ego in religion is the dogmatic assertion that my path or prophet is the only way to God or heaven and all others who follow other paths belong to the Devil and are condemned to eternal hell. It is this ignorant assertion which is the source of all fanaticism and fundamentalism in religion and has made religion into an instrument of division and hatred among people. All other aspects of religion like scriptures, mythology, ceremony, rituals, symbols can remain in the future, because they are necessary aids in the progressive spiritual evolution of the soul. But this dogmatic and exclusive assertion is a phantom of the past and has no place in the future. Some orthodox sections of the society may cling to these phantoms and they may raise aggressively to the surface as it is happening at present, in the form of fundamentalist terrorism. But they are allowed to rise in order to be eliminated. This is one of the methods of Nature for getting rid of things of the past which are harmful or no longer helpful to the future evolution of humanity. So we need not be too disturbed by the growing menace of fundamentalism and religious terrorism. They are allowed to rise in order to be thrown out. If the warrior-energies of nations, instead of fighting amongst themselves, join together to fight the menace, then it can be defeated. 

The Inner Remedy

But inflicting a military defeat on the forces of fundamentalism is only a temporary solution to the problem. The permanent solution to the problem lies in an inner moral, psychological and spiritual regeneration of religion. The outer reformation through reason or social renovation is helpful but not enough. There has to be an inner regeneration of the mind and soul of religion.

There are three possible approaches: first is the psychological approach or in other words, application of psychology to the religious and spiritual development of the individual; second is to revive the spiritual core of each religion and reinvent or reshape the other outer dimensions in the light of this recovered spiritual intuition and experience; third is a spiritual religion of humanity. Let us briefly examine these possibilities. (To be continued-) (M.S. Srinivasan is a Research Associate at Sri Aurobindo Society, Puducherry, India.) Mailing Address: M.S. Srinivasan Research Associate Sri Aurobindo Society Beach Office Research Section 11, St. Martin Street Puducherry-605001 Email: srinivasan@aurosociety.org Phone: 0431-2336396-97-98

"Sri Aurobindo on Hinduism" by Peter Heehs -- reviewed by Raman Reddy 12 Aug 2010 – The following paragraph is from a booklet by Peter Heehs entitled Sri Aurobindo on Hinduism and published by the Sri Aurobindo Society, ... 7:57 AM

Preface of TLOSA -- by Alok Pandey - 1:07 PM - The fact is that PH has more often quoted the enemies and critics of Sri Aurobindo and shied away from those who have made positive statements on him. He does not give credence to even Sri Aurobindo’s statements on the events of his own life, though he is quick in highlighting Sri Aurobindo’s negative statements on himself in a highly decontextualised manner. Why this biased choice on implicitly accepting “negative statements” and rejecting outright “positive statements” of Sri Aurobindo or h...

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  

Back to his roots from The Immanent Frame by Matteo Bortolini

When writing about other people, we all should follow Pierre Bourdieu’s advice to not be too fascinated by our human subjects. This is necessary in order to escape the “biographical fallacy,” the temptation to narrate lives as if they were historically continuous and logically consistent wholes. Bourdieu is right. Our lives are a mess of disparate events, novelties and routines, strategic decisions and lapses of reason, chances and regrets, with little, if any, overall meaning. At the same time, as Robert N. Bellah writes at the beginning of his magisterial tour de force, we are narrative animals. We cannot avoid telling stories, and every story has to have a hero, a quest, and a finale. In this brief essay I recount a couple of stories about Religion in Human Evolution, reading through the lines of this fascinating work to find and highlight some of the many threads which connect it to its author’s past.

Readers interested in Bellah’s work obviously remember his 1964 paper on “Religious Evolution” (Jonathan Z. Smith gave us an interesting reading of the differences between the two works), and some may even know that he wrote a first draft of that essay while in Montreal in 1956—that is, 55 years before he published Religion in Human Evolution. Students of Bellah also know that his undergraduate course on the sociology of religion always included a historical section in which two or more world religions were compared to show the development of religious symbols, actions, and organizations within different societal and cultural contexts.

Foucault: A Postmodern Kantian or Parodic Nietzschean? from Per Caritatem by Cynthia R. Nielsen

Under the pseudonym Maurice Florence, Foucault writes that if it is possible for him to find a “home in the philosophical tradition,” then his at least semi-comfortable dwelling place is “within the critical tradition of Kant, and his undertaking could be called A Critical History of Thought.”[1] […]

For example, in his essay, “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History,” Foucault opposes the genealogist to the metaphysician or at least to the historian whose account depends upon metahistorical criteria. The task of the genealogist it not “an attempt to capture the exact essence of things, their purest possibilities, and their carefully protected identities”;[8] nor does it presuppose the “existence of immobile forms that precede the external world of accident and succession.”[9] Rather, the genealogist attentive to the contours, fissures, fractures, and rugged topography of various historical landscapes must, for the sake of accurate analyses, recoil from placing his “faith in metaphysics.”[10]  If he does so, he will find that not only do the purported static essences “behind things” not exist as assumed, but likewise “their essence was fabricated in a piecemeal fashion from alien forms.”[11] As if these claims are not sufficiently scandalous, Foucault continues,

[e]xamining the history of reason, he [the genealogist] learns that it was born in an altogether “reasonable” fashion—from chance;[12] devotion to truth and the precision of scientific methods arose from the passion of scholars, their reciprocal hatred, their fanatical and unending discussions, and their spirit of competition—the personal conflicts that slowly forged the weapons of reason.[13] Further, genealogical analysis shows that the concept of liberty is an “invention of the ruling classes”[14] and not fundamental to man’s nature or at the root of his attachment to being and truth.[15]

With this passage it appears that not only does reason itself have a history, a narrative of its various emergences and culturally contingent instantiations, but freedom is a ruse and is in no way constitutive of what it is to be a human.  For those who have not condemned metaphysics to the flames, these statements paint a rather bleak and despairing picture.  However, one of the difficulties with this passage and the essay as a whole is discerning precisely where Nietzsche ends and Foucault begins.  In other words, is every conclusion voiced in the text an expression of Foucault’s own position, or is he offering a detailed, sympathetic reading of Nietzsche? If the latter is the case (and I tend to favor this suggestion), then one need not equate every aspect, perspective, and stance articulated therein with Foucault’s own position, much less with his later views on freedom, resistance, and the interrelation between freedom and thought.

Who is a Hindu? The credal definitions – Koenraad Elst « Bharata ... bharatabharati Posted on March 10, 2012 by IS. Who is a Hindu scribd.com 18 Oct 2008 Sri Aurobindo on caste

The difficult relation between caste in Hindu history and modern anti-caste reform was perhaps best articulated by Sri Aurobindo. First of all, he emphasizes the confinement of caste to purely worldly affairs: “Essentially there was, between the devout Brahmin and the devout Sudra, no inequality in the single virât purusha [Cosmic Spirit] of which each was a necessary part. Chokha Mela, the Maratha Pariah, became the Guru of Brahmins proud of their caste purity; the Chandala taught Shankaracharya: for the Brahman was revealed in the body of the Pariah and in the Chandala there was the utter presence of Shiva the Almighty.”[31] This could, of course, be dismissed as a case of “opium of the people”, conceding to them a spiritual equality all the better to justify the worldly inequality.

Secondly, Aurobindo avoids the somewhat contrived attempts to deny the close connection between the specificity of Hindu civilization and the caste system: “Caste therefore was (…) a supreme necessity without which Hindu civilisation could not have developed its distinctive character or worked out its unique mission.”[32] So far, he actually seems to support the line now taken by anti-Hindu authors, viz. that caste is intrinsic to Hinduism, eventhough selectively highlighting cases where low-caste people got a certain recognition in non-social, religious respects.

However, Aurobindo’s third point is that social reform including the abolition of caste is equally true to the fundamental genius of Hindu civilization: “But to recognise this is not to debar ourselves from pointing out its later perversions and desiring its transformation. It is the nature of human institutions to degenerate, to lose their vitality, to decay, and the first sign of decay is the loss of flexibility and oblivion of the essential spirit in which they were conceived. The spirit is permanent, the body changes; and a body which refuses to change must die. (…) There is no doubt that the institution of caste degenerated. It ceased to be determined by spiritual qualifications which, once essential, have now come to be subordinate and even immaterial and is determined by the purely material tests of occupation and birth. By this change it has set itself against the fundamental tendency of Hinduism which is to insist on the spiritual and subordinate the material, and thus lost most of its meaning.”[33]

Chronologically, this position could use some corrections (was the low status of the Chandala who spoke to Shankara not a symptom of an already advanced “degeneration”?), but we get the picture, the caste system may have been right in some past age, but now Hindu society should adapt to the modern age. This evaluation by Aurobindo proved to be trend-setting and is now very common in Hindutva discourse. […]

Hinduism profoundly respects worldly difference and distinctiveness, and while that cannot justify the atrocities which have been committed in the name of caste, it does help to explain why Hindus could maintain the system with a perfectly good conscience for so long. So, in one sense, it is undeniable that caste resonates profoundly with the Hindu world-view; but the point is that Hinduism has more arrows in its quiver.

To put it differently, there is one intrinsic aspect of Hindu culture for which the caste system was an eminently useful (though not strictly necessary) social framework: the fabled Hindu tolerance. It is one thing to say that Hindu society has received the persecuted Jewish, Syrian Christian and Parsi communities well, but another to devise a system that allowed them to retain their identity and yet integrate into Hindu society. Whatever else one may think about the caste system, it is a fact that it facilitated the integration of separate communities.