Sunday, December 10, 2017

Feminism is a proper academic subject

Swarajya-12-Nov-2017
It is an India that fired the imagination of Bankim Chandra, Bipin Pal, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel, and continues to inspire the present generation of nationalists. It is the India that was conceived and made manifest by the very inhabitants of this ancient land ...

NYOOOZ-14-Nov-2017
Summary: In 1988, the Centre passed the Auroville Foundation Act to safeguard the development of the International Township of Auroville according to its Charter. Under the shaping influence of the Mother's and Sri Aurobindo's dual philosophies, Auroville presents a unique, multi-cultural confluence where matter, spirit, ...

The Hindu-23-Nov-2017
Inaugurating the event and participating in a panel discussion on the “Journey of Auroville City for Humanity”, Rajya Sabha Member and Chairman of the Auroville Foundation Karan Singh said the event is of significance as many in Delhi hold Sri Aurobindo in high regard but do not know much about Auroville. “The way ...

Deccan Chronicle-03-Dec-2017
... substantially a Kolkata-centric Bengal Renaissance had produced such dazzling array of figures from social reformers like Raja Ramohun Roy, the universalistic and austerely cosmopolitan Brahmo Samaj he had inspired, Ishwara Chandra Vidyasagar, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, ...

The Hindu-02-Dec-2017
Aurobindo repeatedly asserted that his decision to leave was motivated from within. Indeed, when examining the sensational course of his life's trajectory through the hurly-burly of nationalist politics, one cannot but be struck by a sense of inevitability. The writer's book, Sri Aurobindo and the Revolution of India, was ...

Daily Pioneer-26-Nov-2017
I remember my father gifting me a book in the year 2005 by Sri Aurobindo, 'Savitri' and hoping I would imbibe some of the wisdom in this poetic discourse. The story of Savitri as we all know uplifts the soul to those heights wherein a woman with her devotion to Satyavan bring back her dead husband to life from Yama.

The Statesman-14-Nov-2017
This is the inherent lacuna in projecting India as a civilisational area which leads to a restrictive view of Indian nationalism as reflected in Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, one that he resurrects. This incompleteness is the result of Deen Dayal not beginning with the universal premise of Erasmus with whom humanism begins.

Times of India (blog)-07-Dec-2017
Sri Aurobindo said that the understanding of the initial distinction and eventual union between prakriti and purusha is the defining question of the human condition. Thereby, we recognise and create boundaries and borders, thresholds and mandalas, in many different ways, for many reasons. Every border ultimately is the ...

Livemint-07-Dec-2017
“We need a kind of education to master the problems of the near future,” says Ute, paraphrasing educationists like Steiner, Sri Aurobindo and J. Krishnamurti. “Education needs to develop the whole human being, not just the intellect. The Waldorf curriculum focuses on multiple intelligences. Primary schoolchildren create ...

The Asian Age-07-Dec-2017
From the beginning, Sri Aurobindo entrusted the Mother with full material and spiritual charge of the ashram. Everything in the ashram is her creation; every initiative draws inspiration from her and moves towards her vision. Interestingly, the Mother was well acquainted with the Baha'i Faith, having met 'Abdu'l-Baha (son of ...

Ignore the Idiots: Why religion should matter in Politics https://t.co/3T9OyvMdZL

As we discuss #Ayodhya, do recount this 2004 piece by Farrukh Dhondy. If you haven't already.
Does Willy Get It Wilfully Wrong? https://t.co/gxG3ailgfX @ARanganathan72 @Iyervval @chitraSD @TheJaggi

Jerry Rao on Rajaji: A true renaissance man of India.

#ThisDayInHistory birth of revolutionary from Bengal- Prafulla Chaki~of Jugantar. Be was Khudiram's partner in attempted assassination of unpopular Magistrate Kingsford. He took own life when cornered by british #neverforget #Bengali #Salute

This is the kingdom of Kalinga (5th century-7th century CE). No, this kingdom is not in Orissa. This is in Java. It is named after ancient Kalinga of India. 
The Javans wanted to emulate the Indian Kalingans who were famed for their truthfulness  and honesty https://t.co/CnWTcZMk2d

Feel unhappy as Bengali is prisoned in an alien script. Madhumalati written in the rounded Odia script would look so majestic and bountiful.

The trouble we all face today is that many think feminism is a subject everybody understand. No. It is a proper academic subject, not coffee table discourse, so everybody don't get nuances. #GenderedLanguage is a thing, try to learn about it instead of arguing
As a result we have two kinds of feminists in the world 
1/ One who actually went to a universities and studied feminism / read up theories
2/ One who is passionate about women issues but unaware about theories.
Often we have clashes between these two. @AnooBhu @Vidyut
And typically this conflict ends like this: A denial of being feminist. A complete denial of over 200 years of women movement that produced feminist epistemology and scholarship. A stubborn arrogance and closed mind, which is not ready to learn something new. The End. https://t.co/R80xVVVEGD
Whenever I meet these other type of feminists, women who are passionate about women rights but reject feminism I feel I have to start a YouTube channel with tutorials on gender studies and feminist studies.
...

Sri Aurobindo's hint of a new South Asian Realignment

Savitri Era Learning Forum (SELF - since 2005): Neo-Vedantic Knowledge project of Sri Aurobindo #SriAurobindo #FiveDreams https://t.co/FViD1YKfvh

Savitri Era Open Forum (SEOF - since 2005): With the Mother, Sri Aurobindo ushered in modern Hinduism @madversity @viryavaan @redLotus1_ @NathTusar #SriAurobindo #FiveDreams https://t.co/PyHxE0LcGk

Savitri Era (since 2005): Sri Aurobindo is opposed to all dominant narratives #SriAurobindo #FiveDreams https://t.co/mahELGNO41

NDPR Review: Hegel's Elements of the Philosophy of Right: A Critical Guide
Ed. David James, @CambridgePhilos: UP, 2017, By William Desmond, https://t.co/1VSHdZsTdH

[Weekend Reading] 2.   The Iliad and the Odyssey of Homer – Introduction-- https://t.co/MzWeL7m7TJ

Theme of Nature in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri: an Overview.

TK Panda - International Journal of Innovative Knowledge …, 2017 - ijikc.co.in
Abstract Spiritualism and its interpretation through Nature in Sri Aurobindo's Savitri has become an attraction for all. Man through spiritual Sadhana can be a superhuman only by regulating his nature. Savitri could achieve the power by which she could conquer death that

Original Minds: Sri Aurobindo–Integral Scientist

W Stinson - Cadmus, 2017 - search.proquest.com
Abstract [...] even a cursory look at science from Pythagoras through Galileo reveals a completely different set of ethical rules for the conduct of scientific investigation that exist today. New principles of accomplishment that emerge from this" radical" shift in perspective

Intrinsic Journey into the Epic, Savitri: A Symbolic Exploration.

S Basak - International Journal on Multicultural Literature, 2017 - search.ebscohost.com
… This integrity of self with the Greater Self has been addressed in Sri Aurobindo's proposition of 'Integral Advaitism' which is all-embracing from Matter to the Supreme … In this world of moral vacuum Sri Aurobindo's concept of transformation of …

[PDF] Building an Intuitive Mentality: The Neo-Vedantic Knowledge Project of Sri Aurobindo

D Banerji - 2017 - psychopathology.imedpub.com
Abstract Post-Enlightenment philosophy, which is largely creative of and dominates the modern consciousness, has defined humanism in terms of rationality and its control over the irrational. This has led to our technological age but has also spawned counter philosophies

Academic Freedom and the Future of Anthropology in India

T Ganguly - American Anthropologist, 2017 - Wiley Online Library
… Many of them are members of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, a hermitage founded on the spiritual and philosophical tenets of Sri Aurobindo Ghose, an Indian nationalist turned guru, and his “spiritual collaborator,” the French woman Mirra Alfassa …

Some Thoughts Regarding an Integral Ecology

J Ryan - 2017 - digitalcommons.ciis.edu
… In this talk, Professor Ryan will offer some reflections on how non-dual thought, as seen from the lens of Sri Aurobindo, Mother and other non-dualist philosophies like Hindu Tantrism, can offer a way to heal the rift between humans and the "others" on this planet and help us …

Hinduism and its basic texts

R Dalal - Reading the Sacred Scriptures: From Oral Tradition to …, 2017 - books.google.com
… The results of actions could even manifest themselves in the next life. There are, however, other views such as that of Sri Aurobindo, that suggest that karma is not about reward and punishment, and that whatever happens in life provides an opportunity for spiritual progress …

Tuesday, May 02, 2017

Sri Aurobindo anticipated present day human rights discourse

Debating Vivekananda: A Reader ed. by A. Raghuramaraju
DT McGetchin - Philosophy East and West, 2017
Reviewed by
Debating Vivekananda: A Reader. Edited by A. Raghuramaraju. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014
The first debate is about the extent and limits of Vivekananda's impact. There are his classmates and political figures such as Nehru who argue for his importance. The strikingly contrarian voice in this otherwise flattering section is that of Delhi University historian Prabha Dixit, who challenges time-honored beliefs such as that Vivekananda's travels in the West were groundbreaking (p. 22); she points out that well over a century before Vivekananda visited them, Westerners such as Hastings and Jones and generations of German Indologists were interested in India and studied it extensively, and not just from a closet in England, as James Mill advocated in his History of British India (1817). She rather argues that Vivekananda had only passing interest as an exotic new personality, a plaything of the rich. This question of extent of interest is always hard to measure. Perhaps it is best to be conservative and assume low numbers and influence unless one has non-anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Religious and missionary interests can be notoriously unreliable as they may be promoting their agenda.
Another issue Dixit confronts is a subtheme throughout the volume, the notion that Vivekananda was working behind the scenes for Indian independence, secretly inspiring revolutionaries. Rather, Dixit argues, Vivekananda sat on the sidelines, refusing to get involved in politics, which was his official position, and apparently not just a clever dodge to avoid imperial entanglements with the authorities. Likewise, his disciples followed his lead and, Dixit argues, did largely nothing during the decades of struggle through independence, which is not unprecedented if one considers the turn that Sri Aurobindo Ghose made toward introspection after his 1908 trial. If Vivekananda was conservative, supporting the status quo and providing a foundation for Hindu nationalism, cultivating division rather than brotherhood, despite some of his rhetoric (p. 39), what was the relation between religion and activism? The degree to which Vivekananda did help develop an India lobby and networks that helped Indians like the Ghadar (revolt) movement during the First World War is certainly worthy of further study.

OOK] Hindu Images and their Worship with special reference to Vaisnavism: A philosophical-theological inquiry

JJ Lipner - 2017 - books.google.com
Hinduism comprises perhaps the major cluster of religio-cultural traditions of India, and it can play a valuable role in helping us understand the nature of religion and human responses to life. Hindu image-worship lies at the core of what counts for Hinduism–up-front

The Royal Nation and Global Intellectual History: Monarchic Routes to Conceptualizing National Unity
M Banerjee - Transnational Histories of the'Royal Nation', 2017
... The politician Aurobindo Ghose (1872–1950) is representative of this irony, as (in a dramatic sketch authored around 1910) he subordinated the national monarch to the will of the people-nation: ... 56. Aurobindo Ghose (2003), The Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo, vol. ...

Editorial 
It does seem quite idle and meaningless to say or write anything that adds little value to the subject in mind; and as the Mother has said so pertinently, when you do not have anything worthwhile to speak or write remain silent. The best homage we can pay to Sri  Aurobindo in our onward journey towards a higher and higher level of consciousness is to read carefully and with attention all that he has written and said.  We shall find answers to all we need to know. Let us concentrate all our energies and consecrate all of ourselves, in each and every part of our being, to the  Mother’s second and final coming, which can be termed as ‘the tangible sign of the sure  Victory over the adverse forces’  (KR Srinivasa Iyengar:  On the Mother, 4th  rev ed, 1994,p.857 )
Arup Basu

Contents Sincerity Rig  Veda - Gayatri Mandala Apree  Sukta  -  Apree Devata Upanishads – II Sri  Aurobindo:  The Ideal  Teacher The Emergent Spiritual Evolution The Ideal of Human Unity: Some Reflections Sri  Aurobindo:  The Prophet of Nationalism — (II) Roots of  Violence — Negating the Individual’s Self-Determination in Education: Alternative Insights from Sri  Aurobindo Towards Integral Prosperity: A Yogic Paradigm A Commentary on Sri Aurobindo’s Theory of Poetics Notes On  Authors Mother Srimat Anirvan Debashish Banerji Prema Nandakumar Alok Pandey Aparna Banerjee Anurag Banerjee Anirban Ganguly M.S. Srinivasan Rudrashis Datta Cover : Painting  by  Giles Herdman

Aparna Banerjee “The perfection of the individual in a perfected society or eventually in a perfected humanity understanding perfection always in a relative and progressive sense — is the inevitable aim of Nature.” — Sri Aurobindo The Ideal of Human Unity  does not offer the vision of a future human society that will be based on a shared oneness in which differences between individual human beings and groups will get erased. Sri Aurobindo with his deep knowledge of history was aware how it is very natural for us to get involved in strife based on group differences and claim for separateness of groups on that basis. Living in society with a moderate amount of tolerance towards others is necessary that man cannot avoid. But  as long as it is a small group, the sharing of similar ideas, customs and ideals as well as language and way of life, makes for a better harmony between individuals and collectivities. As we aim to form larger communities, this becomes more and more difficult. Writing at the beginning of the twentieth century, Sri  Aurobindo already notes correctly that the material advancement due largely to scientific discoveries “…have made our earth so small that its vastest kingdoms seem now no more than the provinces of a single country.”1  Today the processes of globalisation are fast changing the world; this is something everyone has to deal with consciously or unconsciously. In some sense the globe is definitely shrinking. The widespread availability of satellite television, the internet with the virtual ‘social network’ services, have narrowed down national and cultural distances, making interpersonal communication across countries and cultures move to a level of global nearness.  At a different level, there is an increasing demand and consumption of global, cultural goods — food, dress, cosmetics as well as more options for immigration to the developed countries. Pursuing education and earning better pay in a foreign land are common options now. S´raddha-   April 2017 [...]

The mistake lies in the fact that when policies are approved as advantageous to all members of a cultural group that has, so far, been marginalised, they actually end up favouring some members over others.in fact, minority groups can oppress their own internal minorities like the poor, women etc. 
Secondly, cultural toleration of minority groups should not be unconditional; for it may hamper the development of a feeling of common identity as against a group identity based upon difference.  
Thirdly, multiculturalism often manifests the tendency to view people from other cultures as more different than they actually are. It is true that today we live within the same country while accepting at the same time, sharp differences among groups within it. These are hybrid cultures that apparently seem to overcome to some extent the rigidity of cultural boundaries. But, in so far as there are other cultures that are perceived as different and normatively judged to be wrong, the conflict between them will continue. 
Fourthly, multicultural studies have a tendency to emphasise the internal homogeneity of cultural groups, overlooking the possibility of disagreement among members about accepting prevalent normative principles in the face of emerging new ideas. 
Fifthly, the ideal of equality of all cultural groups is not an easy and uniform idea that is acceptable to all. There remains always the scope for conflicting interpretations. Thus, access to education for all may be an ideal of equality; but, if we ask whether higher education should be open to all, there is the possibility of endless debates (especially in a country like India where castebased reservation policy for facilitating access of human resources to all, is operative). [...]

Sri Aurobindo, despite the possibility of being described as an idle dreamer, is very much aware of the difficulties that stand in the way of his ideal of human unity. His erudition in history — both national and international, cannot be doubted; he knows that we are still not ready to embrace a unity that accommodates both unity and difference. Any system can work only if it corresponds with people’s sentiments. But there are many forces working against this of which national and international egoism are the foremost. A religion of humanty finds its answer in a deeper brotherhood which has its clue in a ‘yet unfounded law of love’. But until this latent driving force becomes manifest in men, we have to keep looking for free human unity intellectually. References 1. Sri  Auroindo, The Human cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity War and Self-Determination [...]

Roots of  Violence — Negating the Individual’s Self-Determination in Education:  Alternative Insights from Sri  Aurobindo Anirban Ganguly 
Some Initial Thoughts  —  Prologue: Writing ‘A  Preface on National Education’  in his philosophical monthly Arya  nearly nine decades ago Sri Aurobindo formulated a definition of what he perceived to be a ‘true and living education’. Such an education according to him had to definitely take into consideration and work out certain fundamental perspectives; it had to take into account ‘the individual in his commonness and in his uniqueness, the nation or people and universal humanity’1. He further continued defining a ‘true and living education’ by stating that such an education must ensure a full scope of the inherent potential in the individual to develop and at the same time it ought to help the individual enter into a ‘right relation with the life, mind and soul of the people to which he belongs and [also] with that great total life, mind and soul of humanity of which he himself is a unit and his people or nation a living, a separate and yet inseparable member.’2 A dual aspect emerges from these observations, one, that the individual ought to be treated as what he is i.e. as ‘an individual’, Sri  Aurobindo opposes here the concept of an industrial-education mindset which merely looks at the pupil as a uniform entity and encourages him to undergo the rigours of a uniform syllabus, following a routine method, to achieve a routine objective neglecting the individual’s propensities, inclinations and needs – treating him as a product to be tailor-made to market requirements and brands – overlooking what has been termed as the individual’s  svadharma  – ‘truth of one’s inner movement’. This approach therefore obstructs the right working out of one’s own law of action –  svadharma su-anusthitah3  providing little space for variations and S´raddha-   April 2017

Similar to the ‘spiritual embryo’  Sri  Aurobindo’s metaphysical presupposition regarding the individual refuses to see man as simply a mechanical element or commodity but instead as ‘a portion of the Divinity enwrapped in mind and body, a conscious manifestation in Nature of the universal self and spirit [and] at the summit of his ascent man is bound to rise to something greater than his physical, vital and mental personalities, to his spiritual being. And therein lies the supreme manifestation of the soul of man…’ his ultimate  raison d’être ‘his real  paramartha and highest  purusartha’ [Jugal Kishore Mukherjee,  Principles and Goals of Integral Education, 2005, p.10.] Education, Sri  Aurobindo contends, must give the individual that scope of self-fulfilment. He was also in a sense anticipating the present day human rights discourse albeit from a different perspective and stressing the aspect of a cooperative-fulfilment as opposed to a competitive one. 
It would be appropriate to point out here that eight decades after Sri  Aurobindo had written this the Earth Charter-2000 while placing as one of the principal demands the need to ‘promote a culture of tolerance, non-violence and peace’ emphasised that it was necessary to ‘Recognise that peace is the wholeness created by right relationships with oneself, other persons, other cultures, other life, Earth, and the larger whole of which all are a part.’(16.f) This then is to be the initiating vision for developing a culture of peace through education and of an education that recognise the intrinsic worth of the individual. [Source: http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/2000/10/the_earth_charter.html]

owards Integral Prosperity: A Yogic Paradigm 
M.S. Srinivasan 
Abstract: We are as a species in a stage of crucial evolutionary transition towards a new cycle of evolution in the non-material, moral and spiritual dimension. Economics, business and management cannot escape from this evolutionary imperative.  We need a new paradigm of economics and management based on the inner growth of human beings.  Here comes the importance of the Indian science of yoga, which can perhaps provide the path that will lead to the higher evolution of the economic, commercial and industrial life of humanity. The main objective of this article is to arrive at a new vision of management based on the principles of yoga. The article provides a conceptual and strategic framework for this higher evolution of business and economics based on the concept of integral prosperity. Key Perspectives:  science of accelerated evolution; evolving corporate; yogic paradigm; vision of integral prosperity; strategic path. 
Introduction: In our modern age, we have achieved tremendous growth in our external life, mainly in the material, economic and technological dimensions. In this curve of progress, we have perhaps reached the saturation point.  Any further growth in this direction is ecologically and psychologically unsustainable. Future growth has to be in the non-material, internal, psychological and spiritual dimensions, which lead to inner fulfilment of human beings. This inner change, transformation and fulfilment are likely to be the paradigm of the future. So, in order to survive and prosper in this future world, individuals, groups and institutions, including Business and Management, have to think out how to prepare and adapt themselves to this future change. What is the new paradigm which will help us as individuals and groups to steer ourselves successfully into the future world? [...]

So in the integral view, yoga means neither the physical asanas of hathayoga nor an exclusively spiritual approach based on a world-denying or life-rejecting contemplation. In this approach the path of yoga is defined as a process or a science by which we can raise our consciousness from the ego-centric mind with reason as the highest faculty to an egoless and universal consciousness of our own highest spiritual self, beyond mind, with higher faculties beyond reason. Yoga is the process by which this ascent to the higher consciousness can be realised through a path of conscious and accelerated inner evolution. This inner evolution proceeds through a rapid awakening of the ethical, aesthetic and spiritual faculties in the human being and a progressive elevation of the motives of action from the physical-vital to mental-moral and further on to the spiritual levels. The yogic approach means an approach based on the principles of this broader evolutionary vision of yoga. The aim of this yogic approach is to create a management culture, which leads to this higher evolution of the individual and the collectivity in the psychological and spiritual dimension and a harmonious self-expression of the fruits of this inner evolution in the outer life, enriching the quality of the corporate life as a whole. S´raddha-   April 2017 

The New Indian Express-30-Apr-2017
... of Christ, the exile of Krishna in Brindavan and the colloquy with Arjuna on the field of Kuruksetra,” scribbled Sri Aurobindo in a notebook way back in 1913.

1 day ago - BlockedUnblock FollowFollowing. Founder @goldenlatitude. I love Sanskrit in as much as I love English Poetry and Prose. Found my calling in Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. May 1 ...

Sunday, April 30, 2017

Vivekananda evangelising Hinduism; Radhakrishnan Christianizing Hinduism

To Be, or Not to Be, Bengali: https://t.co/XdEcea4zx6 via @thewire_in
modernity also instills newer forms of prejudice among people. History brings in fresher reasons and instances of prejudice. Partition, for instance, managed to inflict a range of prejudices on the Indian side of Bengal. How many Bengalis on the Indian side remember the exiled nawab from Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah’s contribution to the style of the Kolkata biryani and the Bengali kurta? How many would acknowledge and appreciate the mix of Sufi Islam, Vaishnavism and Buddhism in the Baul tradition, in Lalon Fokir’s scathing Kabir-esque critique of the caste system? How many would question Vivekananda, like Ashis Nandy did, for transforming his guru, Ramakrishna’s heterogeneous mysticism into a missionary movement, thus evangelising Hinduism?? The denial of history, or uncritical eulogy of cultural figures, prompted by religious and national pride, can only mean a rather hollow way to be Bengali.
Why @sagarikaghose mentions Rammohan Roy, Vivekananda, Tagore, Chaitanya, and Ramakrishna but forgets Sri Aurobindo? https://t.co/ht7FhjFmCH

The way @sagarikaghose paints a playful image of religion has echoes in what Sri Aurobindo had jotted down playfully https://t.co/3NJMhNLHtI

Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee teaches poetry at Ambedkar University, New Delhi. 

Unfortunately, a person I admired a lot, and met a few times when I was a child, Radhakrishnan, is partially responsible for the Christianizing of Hinduism and of Indian philosophy. Advaita is not the paradigm of either Hinduism or Indian philosophy as it came much later, at the fag end of when the activity of Indian philosophy with vicious debates among schools and within schools came to an end and since then Indian philosophy has become stagnant as your dogmatic statements clearly indicate.

Priyedarshi
Apr 30, 2017


[What was it that Lacan did if not repeat Freud, making Freud very different even as... rigorous fidelity to Freud?] https://t.co/HGeceJ93vO

[philosophy doesn’t teach you one specific skill–it teaches you how to learn, think critically, choose and flourish] https://t.co/Y76XoqiKvr

Subjective impulses, feelings, or experiences can't be put before others for verification. So scientific/philosophical investigation valid.

Feel Philosophy: In struggles we can very well come together and aid each other https://t.co/0btnQYiATS

Savitri Era: Savitri Era Party pleads guilty of simplifying Sri Aurobindo https://t.co/q29a3HQbpg #Hindutva #BJP #RSS #Modi #Evolution

Savitri Era Party opposed ban as [does not bode well for a liberal culture: reduce complex arguments to sound bites] https://t.co/gPxmOJk8hz

Pitting Sri Aurobindo against Modi amounts to simplifying though Rejection of complexity is a sign of Fundamentalism https://t.co/8XhGTXPdUC

the Orchid and the rOse: Spirit within is the true guide to health and healing https://t.co/tqFX4Y6rAO #SriAurobindo

The way Sri Aurobindo defines the character and functions of Varuna or even the qualities of a Brahmin, it's sublime https://t.co/pNGpbVz03C

Reimagining and Refashioning Integral Management - Tusar Nath Mohapatra, Director, Savitri Era Learning Forum (SELF), Indirapuram, Ghaziabad - 201014 (UP) https://t.co/YGoEhdLyp7

https://ashokbhatia.wordpress.com › man...
20 hours ago - Sri Aurobindo Center for Advanced Research (SACAR) recently organized a one day seminar on the topic of 'The Element of Wisdom in Management'. The event was a part of a series of seminars organized by ...

End of History?~I

The Statesman-22-Apr-2017
He is, of course, one of our most revered religious philosophers ~ Sri Aurobindo. Before the end of the second decade of the last century this revolutionary ...

Restore Socrates to the classroom

The Statesman-20-Apr-2017
Sri Aurobindo's important proposition in the essay 'A system of National Education' in the first decade of the 20th century that the first principle of all true learning ...

Looking back into history

Millennium Post-20-Apr-2017
Kalyani Das and other women who helped Netaji organise the women's corps, foremost among them was Lotika Ghosh (Sri Aurobindo's niece) interestingly saw ...

The forgotten uprising: Remember April 18 for the anniversary of the ...

Daily Mail-18-Apr-2017
The original founders were Sri Aurobindo and his younger brother, Barindra. Both, along with 47 other accused stood trial for the Alipur bomb blast case or the ...

Special stall by readers of noted writer Manoj Das draws huge ...

Times of India-08-Apr-2017
BHUBANESWAR: Susahityam- a book stall at the ongoing 33rd Bhubaneswar Book fair has showcased the complete collection of works of celebrated author ...

Pop culture is a tool to manufacture consent: Sadanand Menon

India.com-25-Apr-2017
New Delhi, Apr 25 (PTI) While popular culture is considered to be a subversive device to break canons, eminent photographer and arts critic Sadanand Menon ...

Home NRO Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurates Odisha ...

Odisha Diary-11 hours ago
The three day event being organized by Odia Samaj from 29th April to 1st May will bring alive the spectrum of Odisha's history, art, culture, traditions, dance ...

Celebrating Odisha at India Gate

Times of India (blog)-12 hours ago
The three-day Odisha culture festival 'Odisha Parba' began on Saturday at ... Eminent Odisha artists will perform traditional dance forms and music at the event.

Odisha Parba 2017 begins at India Gate in New Delhi

Odisha Television Ltd.-13 hours ago
Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: “Odisha Parba 2017” begun at India Gate Lawns in New Delhi today to showcase the rich heritage and exhibit the vibrant ...

6 hours ago - The 'Odisha Parba 2017 was inaugurated on Saturday at the India Gate Lawns, New Delhi by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley as chief guest in presence of Supreme Court Judge Dipak Misra and.

pragativadi.com › pics-odisha-parba-new...
16 hours ago - Odisha Parba by Odia Samaj in New Delhi began today at India Gate Lawns. It is a treat for all ... Pragativadi News Service. By Pragativadi News Service. Posted on April 29, 2017odisha parba. Share. Tweet. Share.

1 day ago - Odisha Parba 2017: India Gate lawns to turn into mini-Odisha for this cultural fest. To celebrate World Dance Day, Bharatanatyam exponent Geeta Chandran has organised a two-day event, including a ...

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Tagore's shift to universal humanism was subsequent

Swapan Dasgupta
Tapan Raychaudhuri's study of Bengal's responses to the West in the 19th century dealt with three intellectual stalwarts - Bhudeb Mukherjee, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Swami Vivekananda. All three focused on issues that related to Hindus as Hindus. To them, modernity did not mean discarding the Hindu inheritance but reshaping (and in Bhudeb's case rediscovering) the Hindu inheritance.
In the realms of political activism too, the movement against the Partition of Bengal had explicitly Hindu overtones - take Aurobindo Ghose and Bipin Chandra Pal as foremost examples - and this religio-political aspect was embraced by Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore's shift to universal humanism was a subsequent development and his trenchant critique of Mahatma Gandhi's non-cooperation movement did not endear him to most fellow Bengalis. However, his iconic status, particularly after he won the Nobel prize, insulated him from any politically-inspired criticism. Arguably, C.R. Das was an exception but his legacy of communal power-sharing collapsed rapidly after his untimely death. From the late 1920s till Independence, there was often very little to distinguish the Bengal Congress from the Hindu Mahasabha. In spite of the parallel attraction of Marxism, the upper echelons of bhadralok society did not shun explicitly Hindu mobilization. The Hindu Mahasabha boasted of the involvement of intellectual stalwarts such as Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Nirmal Chandra Chatterjee and even Ramananda Chatterjee.


 The Spiritual Nationalism & Human Unity: approach taken by Sri Aurobindo in Politics
D Banerjee
Abstract: Sri Aurobindo's theory of Politics is quite extraordinary than other contemporary politicians of India. It also has several parts like Swaraj, boycott, resistance, national education as necessary ingredient of Indian political agitation started from 1905. But it has 

Participation and the Mystery: Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion
JN Ferrer - 2017
Page 1. PARTICIPATION AND THE. MYSTERY Transpersonal Essays in Psychology, Education, and Religion |ORGE N. FER RER Page 2. PARTICIPATION AND THE MYSTERY Page 3. Page 4. PARTICIPATION AND THE ...

iasscore.in › upsc-prelims › terrorist-and-...
12 hours ago - The people associated with this samiti were Sri Aurobindo, Deshabandhu Chittaranjan Das, Surendranath Tagore, Jatindranath Banerjee, Bagha Jatin, Bhupendra Natha Datta, Barindra Ghosh etc. Bhupendra ...

Daily Mail-18-Apr-2017
The original founders were Sri Aurobindo and his younger brother, Barindra. Both, along with 47 other accused stood trial for the Alipur bomb blast case or the ...

Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription)-19-Mar-2017
Like a lot of academics, I have long harbored the desire to write a popular book — in my case, something like Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene. But sadly, I ...
MARCH 19, 2017
The future of our species is surely rich material, something many of us have speculated about. Will we have massive brains, dwindling little bodies, and highly functional genitalia? I tend to think so. In fact, with five kids, I rather pride myself on being an advanced specimen. Then again, maybe I’m not. From Darwin on, experts have worried that big brains are not that adaptive. Think of all of the great philosophers — Aquinas, Hume, Kant, Plato, Wittgenstein — who died childless.

Mad In America-13-Mar-2017
Is the suppression of spirituality in the West the reason for our struggle and suffering labeled as mental illness? Are we medicated to numb the pain and ...

On 20 Apr 2017, at 09:12, priyedarshi jetli wrote:

Diego,

I am not promoting logicism. Some logicists believed that you can construct all of mathematics from logic. The Intuitionists don't accept this. Neither do I. My point was a simple general one, logic is mainly about inferences and has no content, therefore free of ontology or epistemology. This is what alternative systems of logic have in common. Further, as far as I know most systems of logic can be translated into each other or shown to be extentions of classical logic. Of course it takes some doing to accomplish this.
...

Logicism has failed. No (reasonably serious) logicians would assume it. We know that elementary arithmetic cannot be deduced from any logic. If fact, we can prove in arithmetic that arithmetic does not follow from logic. Russell and Whitehead claims that 1+1=2 can be proved in their logical system, but they assumed a part of set theory, which assumes much more than arithmetic.

We know also that arithmetic is Turing equivalent. It realizes all computations, and this lead to the problem of recovering physics from a statistics on all computations see from inside (that is: structured by the modal logic of self-references imposed by the Incompleteness Phenomenon).

Bruno
...

My point is more technical: if we are machine, there is no primary physical reality, only a first person locally sharable infinities of number's "dreams". It makes me say that in Occident, we have to backtrack to Pythagoras and Plato (and the neopythagoreans + the neoplatonists) in the field of (scientific/modest) theology. I appreciate the antique greeks mainly because they do not oppose mysticism and rationalism. 
My feeling, coming from my interest in buddhist mahayana is that in India, there has been always a bigger open-mindness about immaterialism, or, to put it in another way, a bigger skepticism toward the material explanations. India, and China for a long time, seem to not have separated rationalism and religion/theology as much as Europa. But of course, all civilisation has its dark period and witches hunts.

Best,

Bruno
...

In today's quantum mechanics, all matter (some of which is perceived directly by senses and called classical) is made up of quantum particles.  A quantum particle is said to be a packet of de Broglie phase waves, each of which is supposed to have a speed greater than that of light in vacuum.  Thus the phase wave is a mathematical abstraction, it is non-material in that you cannot perceive it by senses.  So, one may say all matter is made of ideas.  

Syamala
...

Dear all,

     I would like to suggest something here, so many on this forum are attempting to explain the infinite and infinitesimal complexities of matter and spirit, body, mind, soul, consciousness and the unconscious. And Deepak seems to want to throw all that aside and suggests that nothing of matter subtle or gross actually exists, except for consciousness which according to him is all one non personal oneness of bliss. My own opinion is that neither of these approaches is being realistic, and I'll try to explain why.
     First, Deepak's theories make no sense when put to any test, he postulates that nothing in the world exists, but we are all aware that it does, even if transitory and temporary we know something is there, we are there, the body is there, mind, universe, stars and sun, oceans etc. And we know that we didn't create all of that, something else must be the source. So it's nice to think that all phenomena are our own creation as he states, but obviously something else is there to discover.
     Then the physicists and other scientists are so expert at breaking down the complex functioning of that phenomena which Deepak is claiming does not exist, that is true. But how to actually empirically explain the origins of such phenomena to get to the actual root of it? Obviously this cannot be done through speculation, why? Because our minds and intellect used for speculation are themselves products of the material process itself, and the product cannot fully explain the source, logically. Therefore Deepak's attempt to simplify things. But again that falls short, he's only partly right after all, true that consciousness is more subtle than matter, superior to matter, subjective. But we ourselves as consciousness are not the source of all matter, else we would not be "bamboozled" by it as he likes to say, one cannot be bamboozled by something he has himself created, not possible if he is the source of that.
      That does leave the one logical explanation, and which I believe Bhakti Madhava Puri has been trying to explain further, that we ourselves as limited subjective conscious entities are ourselves objects of a greater unlimited subjective consciousness, infinite absolute consciousness which is the source of both individual consciousness and matter both subtle and gross. That's my conclusion anyway, it makes sense in explaining reality, I welcome any comments on this. I do have admiration for the subtle complexities of all the physicists' and philosophers' explanations on this forum but this is my own contribution, I think it makes sense. In this world we are simply the conscious agent, the minds, bodies, even thoughts, we are not the source of all these, they are under control of and the property of something else, someone else. To accept that idea is to me the key.

Regards, Eric Reyes
...

Proofs apply to mathematical theorems not to things like matter or consciousness. And even in mathematics if something cannot be proven it does not mean that it is not true. Take Fermat's last theorem for example. It took 300 years to prove it. It is like saying that if no one had ever climbed the peak of Mount Everest it did not exist. The metaphoric statement of the type Deepak Chopra makes is meaningless. There is a very old fallacy that is commonly used:  No one has proven that God does not exist. Therefore, God exists. It is an obvious fallacy. In any case the burden of proof lies on the one who accepts the existence of God or a non-material consciousness for that matter and not on those who do not accept them. The fallacy is surely obvious to those who are committing them as well. They are a disguise for covering up the issue. 

The issue is that once stated as alternative hypotheses, idealism, dualism, materialism and perhaps other isms regarding the mind body problem are dogmas. None of these hypotheses can be proven and all attempts to prove them beg the question. But among dogmas we can choose the one that seems most plausible to us. To me the materialist or physicalist dogma is the most plausible. There is no emergent mental (non-physical) world, there is no non-physical or mystical forces that causally act on the physical world. The physical is causally closed. To deny this people often equate 'physics of the day' with 'everything that is physical'. I need not spend  time to dispel this fallacious equivocation. We need only reflect on the statement that "everything is in principle explainable physically."

Priyedarshi

Dear Siegfried,

Thanks for the comments. It seems that you agree that the quantum classical divide is not about spatial dimension in the way often talked about. I agree that the quantum level is the level of the individual quantum of action. So very often the amount of energy involved ins small. However, if we take a Bose mode as an indivisible quantum of action (as contemporary field theory generally does) rather than the notional single photon or phonon or whatever, then there is actually no limit to the energy in a quantum of action. It will be h x frequency x the notional ‘number of particles' quantum number. So a military LASER beam or a seismic mode that informs us of the chemical composition of the centre of the earth may have huge energy. 

I agree that uncertainty is not present in the Schrödinger equation. But that is just a bit of writing on a piece of paper. A wave equation is not a mode or entity. It does not ‘evolve’. As an outsider it seems to me that the term ‘wave function’ encourages the belief that somehow the wave equation is a description of a mode. As I understand it, any given wave equation is a look up table for the probabilities of actualisation of a slew of modes with certain common parameters. A mode appears to have some sort of dynamic field structure with values that relate in spacetime according to complex harmonic math but being an indivisible action I can see no legitimate concept of ‘progression from state to state’. The more I get to know about modern physics and the more I talk to physicists (including Basil Hiley who was kind enough to give me some private tuition) the more it seems to me that the traditional ‘interpretations’ are all metaphysically unsound and counter to the basic concept of a theory of indivisible dynamic units. Douglas Bilodeau wrote a very nice article in 1996 in J Consc Studies to that effect. He also makes some remarks in the article about the conflation of different meanings of ‘quantum’ and ‘classical’. These are probably rather unhelpful terms that lead to misapprehensions. I think Leibniz does better in simply distinguishing descriptions of individual actions and description s of aggregate mechanics.

I am not quite sure why you say that the quantum of action does not determine the quantised mode. My understanding of recent developments in condensed matter physics is that the mode is considered the quantum of action.

As far as I can see uncertainty remains an essential feature of a world constituted by discrete instantiations of symmetric continuous dynamic laws, just for basic logical reasons, as pointed to by Leibniz.

Best wishes

Jo