Saturday, July 31, 2010

Marx did a hatchet job on Proudhon

Proudhon and Anarchism by L. GamboneRed Lion Press - 1996
  • Marx did a hatchet job on Proudhon and Marxists such as Hal Draper took quotes out of context or dug up embarrassing statements that made Proudhon look authoritarian or proto-fascist.
  • Proudhon's anarchism was rational, non-violent and anti-utopian.
  • In rejecting absolute anarchy and favoring an open-ended process, Proudhon criticized all forms of absolutism and utopianism. 
  • Proudhon was a revolutionary, but his revolution did not mean violent upheaval or civil war, but rather the transformation of society. This transformation was essentially moral in nature and demanded the highest ethics from those who sought change.
  • Proudhon proposed mutualism as an alternative both to capitalism and socialism. Mutualism was not a scheme, but was based upon his observation of existing mutual aid societies and co-operatives as formed by the workers of Lyon
  • Proudhon was in favor of private ownership of small-scale property.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Silent spaceships sent by self-absorbed cultures

Pride Of India? - Edit Page - Opinion - Home - The Times of India GAUTAM BHATIA, Jul 24, 2010 The writer is an architect. 
Sadly, even in today's era of open economic borders, we still remain unconvinced that the Indian mind is capable of producing anything of real value. The new Terminal 3 at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International airport is cited as the eighth-largest in the world, and … that the building belongs to the new century. …
Foreign technology and inventiveness on Indian soil is certainly not new, especially in a country that has had a long history of direct imitation and mimicry. In the 1970s, it was a matter of Punjabi pride that the world's most successful innovations could be copied in Ludhiana. …
While many of the new projects for the Commonwealth Games airports, stadiums and metro stations provide sparkle to the ramshackle grime of the Indian city, they remain foreign implants, silent spaceships sent by self-absorbed cultures. Faced with situations and conditions that are uniquely Indian, none among the new buildings seek Indian resolutions. Designed neither for the unforgiving landscape nor the general misuse of public facilities expected in India, their long-term usefulness is suspect. 
Hard-pressed though we are to find symbols of the new India, the new terminal, with its import of foreign designs, foreign materials and construction technology, does little to promote India and Indian ideas.

Disasters sow seeds of success 28 Jul 2010, Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, ET Bureau. To err is human because risk-averse refusal to stop tinkering with the world as it is alien to human nature.
Disasters will still occur. No innovation or new exploration is ever risk-free. But just as shipwrecks did not stop exploration of the seas, so too economic and technological disasters should not stop economic and technological innovation. Henry Petroski of Duke University has written a book, Success through failure: The paradox of design. Its key lesson is that failures teach us more than successes. Failures lead to radical design changes that are needed but are ignored in times of unbroken success. …
Many greens believe that humans should not tinker with nature, and will be penalised for it. In fact, humans evolved from the hunter-gatherer stage only because exploration and innovation is hardwired into their DNA.
Poet TS Eliot wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to return to where we started, and know the place for the first time.” Greens who fear exploration know very little of the nature they claim to protect, and think that ignorance is bliss. Regardless, we humans must and will explore every facet of nature. Then alone will we know the place for the first time.

They were in 'thralldom to outworn and stale ideas', lacked initiative, energy, enthusiasm, perseverance and a sense of commitment, and had become deeply fearful of anything new. Aurobindo put the point well: ...

Monday, July 19, 2010

'Education by snippets' is a telling expression once used by Sri Aurobindo

Q. Can you please say something about Sri Aurobindo and what his message and life were about?
Sri Sri
Ravi Shankar: You know, when you are asking about Sri Aurobindo, you already know. He wished more and more people would meditate. So the seed he had sown meant greater access to the collective consciousness. It's happening now. Those days it was very dull, although a few French people really caught on to it.
He starts by quoting Sri Aurobindo to tell us how much he has been connected to the Mother, since his childhood: “When you ask who is Bhavani, the Mother, she herself answers you: 'I am the Infinite energy which streams forth from the ...
The successful transformation of Vaishno Devi sets Jagmohan think again: Could Hinduism be also reformed? He again quotes Sri Aurobindo: “Hindu religion appears to me as a cathedral temple, half in ruins, while in the mass, crumbling or badly outworn in places, but a cathedral temple in which service is still done to the Unseen”. After a rather longish, but impeccable definition of Hinduism, Jagmohan spells out the way to do it: a takeover of temples, which are often badly kept and neglected; a renovation of historic sites such as Kurukshetra, which gave to the world the imperishable Gita; and a revival of the core values of Hinduism which see the Divinity in every man and his being part of the Whole: One in All and All in One. 
Spirituality : between morality and immorality « Integral Yoga of ... by Sandeep
My name is Sandeep. This blog discusses the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo (Шри Ауробиндо) & The Mother(mère) Mirra (Мирра) Alfassa, whose pictures are seen above. Copyright. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without ...
Meditation: Searching for the Real You - Page 178 Dada Jyotirupananda - 2009 - 185 pages
Later I met Mr. MP Pandit, a close disciple of the late Sri Aurobindo, a Bengali social revolutionary against the British occupation in India, who later became a renowned ... Mr. Pandit was down to earth, enchanting, practical and wise ...
Sri Aurobindo - A Contemporary Reader Sachidananda Mohanty, Aurobindo Ghose - 2008 - 180 pages
... may come to see that the recognition of national autonomy is a wise and necessary concession to the still vital instinct of nationalism and can be used so as to strengthen instead of weakening their imperial strength and unity. ...
The participatory turn: spirituality, mysticism, religious studies - Page 310 Jorge N. Ferrer, Jorge Noguera Ferrer, Jacob H ... - 2008 - 388 pages
... all equally in the wise and loving grasp of
Krishna. At that time in his development as a great spiritual teacher, it seems likely that Sri Aurobindoentered into a deep and intensely individualized rela- tionship to the Krishna of ...
Spiritual Liberation: Fulfilling Your Soul's Potential - Page 161 Michael Bernard Beckwith - 2008 - 250 pages
As the revered Hindu sage Sri Aurobindo wisely taught, “There can be no real perfection for us except by our inner self.”1 This inner Self is already perfect, regardless of what is happening on the outer side of life. ...
Understanding thoughts of Sri Aurobindo Indrani Sanyal, Krishna Roy, Jadavpur ... - 2007 - 317 pages
It is to be borne in mind and seen subsequently that the concept of education for Sri Aurobindo, connotation-wise is a very wide notion and it is very much linked with some of his basic insights relating to evolution, transformation and ...
Veda as word Śaśiprabhā Kumāra, Indian Council of ... - 2007 - 289 pages
The highest divine word has its seed- sounds, such as AUM, which carry in them the principles of things; it has its forms which stand behind the revelatory and inspired speech that comes to man's supreme faculty. As Sri Aurobindo points ...
The philosophy of Vivekananda Rekha Jhanji, Panjab University. Centre for ... - 2007 - 206 pages
It compares well with studies of Sri Aurobindo on Swabhava and Swadharma in his Essays on Gita, and other works, like wise Tilak Gandhi and his scores of disciples have marvelled on the enduring qualities of Varma-Ashrama. ... [Human condition in the MahabharataAesthetic Meaning: Some Recent TheoriesThe Sensuous in Art: Reflections on Indian AestheticsCommunication and the Arts]
Roadsigns: navigating your path to spiritual happiness - Page 39 Philip Goldberg - 2006 - 275 pages
The 20th-century master Sri Aurobindo summed it up this way: “Mind has to cease to be mind and become brilliant ... The wise ones chuckle at our vain attempts to find realization by gorging on books and ruminating about enlightenment. ...
Adventures in Theosophy - Page 170 G. S. Arundale - 2006 - 264 pages
... and in no wise because of them. And even the greatness that there is is often, more often than not, hard, cold, downwards rather than upwards in its movement. How wonderfully refreshing is a Besant, a Tagore, an Aurobindo Ghose, ...
Meditation: An Outline for Practical Study - Page 268 Mouni Sadhu - 2006 - 363 pages
While they cannot be changed, our attitude can be changed from a foolish to a wise one. 8. theme: After all, what is God? An eternal Child, playing an eternal game in an eternal Garden. . . (Aurobindo Ghose) Development: One may find ...
Climbing the Spiritual Ladder - Page 48 Joan Price - 2006 - 204 pages
For instance, we may believe we are wise, courageous, virtuous, and discriminating. But that's our ego, which is only an instrument: ... Aurobindo assures us that our identification with the ego is really ignorance and childishness....
Culture, Society and Leadership - Page 59 Chakraborty S K, Debangshu Chakraborty ... - 2006 - 426 pages
But to the wise Board members these were old-economy products. The house must make forays into the new economy. ... 'Education by snippets' is a telling expression once used by Sri Aurobindo. This is what various management ...
Women in management and development 2006 - 205 pages
Construct wise women "show high tolerance for internal contradiction and ambiguity" (p. ... 8.1 Personality of the Mother as described by Sri Aurobindo in the essay "The Mother" Sri Aurobindo wrote that "Four great Aspects of the Mother ...
Sri Aurobindo's treatment of Hindu myth Jan Feys - 1983 - 59 pages
Yet another reference to
Krishna is occasioned by a dispute as to who is the greater: Sri Krishna or Sri Aurobindo? Aurobindo wisely refrains from deciding the issue: "each is entitled to have his own view or feeling, whether it is ...
Sri Aurobindo, his life unique Rishabhchand - 1981 - 427 pages
Subsequently Sri Aurobindo also "went separately into lodgings until he took up residence at
Cambridge". Sri Aurobindo secured a senior classical scholarship of £. per annum when he joined the King's College, Cambridge. This lessened his hardship to a certain extent. At Cambridge, Sri Aurobindo attracted the attention of Oscar Browning, ...
Bengal: past and present Calcutta Historical Society - 1979
... communalism as an effective weapon against the rising tide of nationalism. These elements were encouraged and even received assistance from certain official quarters. Aurobindo sensed the danger and he urged upon people to take up lathis and bombs for the purpose of self-defence against the 'ruffians' and to safeguard the movement from the attack of the communalists. Aurobindo's articles on the ...
Sri Aurobindo Ghose Verinder Grover - 1992 - 606 pages Raja Subodh Chandra Mallik and his times Amalendu De, National Council of Education, Bengal - 1996 - 237 pages
The quest for political and spiritual liberation: a study in the ... June O'Connor - 1977 - 153 pages
Aurobindo sensed that the mood of the moment was thick with such unwillingness on the part of the Britain; this indicated to him that these ideals expressed both the hope that sustained India and the contradiction that was Europe – a complex of countries that deprived others of the very freedoms and rights they had fought for themselves. ...
The yogi and the mystic: a study in the spirituality of Sri ... Jan Feys - 1977 - 371 pages
In the Essays, remarkably enough, though Sri Krishna is made to speak, he obtains no response from Aurobindo. To Teilhard the Divine Milieu ultimately reveals the face of Christ. A more perceptive Aurobindo sensed right from the first ...
Some eminent Indian contemporaries Sachchidananda Sinha - 1976 - 257 pages
... in the Indian Civil Service competition along with Mr. Beachcroft in which Aurobindo secured the highest marks obtained by any candidate, in his year in Greek and Latin, thus beating his British rivals on their own ground. ...
Mother India: monthly review of culture Sri Aurobindo Ashram - 1974
Sri Aurobindo secured this working when he left his body. Now it is the Supermind that directly guides and governs. The manifestation is just over two and a half months old and yet a new situation — an absolutely new situation — has ...
Towards eternity; Sri Aurobindo birth centenary volume, 15th ... Aurobindo Ghose - 1973 - 526 pages
Sri Aurobindo secured a senior classical scholarship of £.80 per annum when he joined the King's College,
Cambridge. This lessened his hardship to a certain extent. At Cambridge, Sri Aurobindo attracted the attention of Oscar Browning, ...
Sri Aurobindo: an interpretation V. C. Joshi, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library - 1973 - 174 pages
... 
India would be independent. Before leaving England, Aurobindo secured a job in Baroda. The salary of two hundred rupees a month was modest, but Maharaja Sayaji Rao was a progressive, and (as far as discretion allowed) a patriotic ruler. ... The making of a nation: India's road to independence Bal Ram Nanda - 1998 - 362 pages
Sri Aurobindo Prema Nandakumar - 1972 - 48 pages
Sri Aurobindo secured admission in St. Paul's School, and studied there from 1884 to 1889. The Headmaster, Dr. Walker, was impressed by young Aurobindo's talents, especially his lively interest in languages and poetry. ...
Sri Aurobindo K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar - 1945 - 425 pages
Sri Aurobindo's Nationalism is a Nationalism for enriching and extending life, not for diminishing or destroying it. Sri Aurobindo wisely points out that a nation, once it has set its own house in order both politically and spiritually, ...
... during his visit to England; the interview was a success, and Aurobindo secured a promising appointment in the Baroda State Service. He accordingly left England for India in February 1893. IV Aurobindo, like his brother Manmohan, ... Bengal Through the Ages: Pathway to Swaraj and constitution Shri Ram Bakshi, R. L. Pathak - 2008