Sri Aurobindo Ashram never does philanthropy on its own or help devotees in their philanthropic acts

nandivarman.rediffiland.com/ Friday 8 August, 2008 Write to Nandhi Varman Forward this link YOGA FAILS SCIENCE SUCCEEDS
SELFLESS SCIENTIST RAY KURZWELL AND SELFISH ASHRAM

The workers of Aurobindo Ashram Hand Made Paper unit wanted to take out a procession to press for their demands including the minimum wages, but the police which had permitted numerous processions since independence, where slogans will be raised, insisted no slogan should be raised. To show to the world that freedom of ex-pression is curtailed, I led the procession with covering my mouth with black flag. Thereafter in every given opportunity I had questioned the rationale of giving income tax exemptions to Aurobindo Ashram Trust, which runs numerous sub trusts, which are commercial in nature but where minimum wages prescribed in law is not paid. They enjoy concessions by never give due concessions to working class.

In 1996 when the current phase of internal strife started, I supported the Aurobindo Ashram Inmates Association, which broke into two resulting in creation of Aurobindo Ashram Beneficiaries Association. Then some well wishers of Aurobindo Ashram approached me with requests not to hit at Ashram and wanted to know what my grievances are. To them I told that “the ashram is availing income tax exemption on the pretext of doing medical research but till date ashram had not constructed a medical hospital with update technology to cater to the people of Pondicherry. Let them start constructing a hospital, I will shelve other issues and observe silence. Ashram was not willing to build a hospital at that time. Later when SUN TV interviewed for a 30 minutes programme against Ashram, there too I stressed that all people of Pondicherry are going to Chennai Apollo or Vijaya hospital, and Ashram should build ultra modern hospital for people of Pondicherry.

In the same interview I revealed that the devotees of Aurobindo Ghosh, from Madurai were looking for a suitable place within the city to construct the Eye Hospital, and they approached Ashram, which had taken government land for 99 years lease in many places of the city, to provide them land at concession price. They were told to cough up market rate, so the current Aurobindo Eye Hospital is situated 12 kms away in a village called Thavalakuppam. There I said Ashram never does philanthropy on its own or help Aurobindo devotees in their philanthropic acts. In my interviews in media I had compared the yeoman service rendered by Mother Theresa and all mutts in India, and had attacked Ashram to be the only one that never does philanthropy. This selfishness of Ashram in not being of anyway helpful to people only invites public ire whenever any issue crops up in public against Ashram. Thereafter I started questioning that yoga is mere mental exercise like physical exercise and it is not a matter of medical research, and all exemptions given on that pretext are withdrawn. Physical Education Department headed by Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya exists, but there is no Spiritual Education Department, if at all their goal is towards that. It is widely reported struggle of flower vendors, Tamil women, who were first prevented from selling flowers to make a living because Ashram Trust wanted to sell flowers from their gardens, and their ultimate partial victory, is another example of the immature minds that rule the ashram currently.

To re-open the debate on exemptions, I would like to bring to public notice that the Director General of The Indian Council of Medical Research in its letter dated 27th December 1976, Ref: No: 18/1/74-AA [II] had raised valid objection for the continuance of exemption given to Aurobindo Ashram under section 35[1] [ii] of the Income Tax Act 1961. To that letter P.Counama, then Managing Trustee replied on 2nd March 1977. Let me quote in verbatim selected passages, where Mr.P.Counama argues for continuance of exemptions.

P.Counama states “Aurobindo Ashram was organized to realize the distinctive aim of Aurobindo’s yoga which is radically different from the aims pursued by the traditional yogic system. Stated very briefly, the difference consists in fact that Aurobindo does not consider the spirit as something separate and antithetic to life in world, but as its source and sustaining principle, as an omni-present reality which, though now hidden behind a veil of ignorance, is yet pressing for its progressive evolutionary manifestation in life itself. The aim of Aurobindo’s yoga is to completely remove this veil and seek the fullest manifestation of the spirit in life and in matter so that earthly life, instead of remaining dark and dolorous as it has been till now, turns into a perfect image of spirit by its own spiritual transfiguration. The traditional yogas, on the contrary consider life, to be an illusion or a vanity, see no connection between the life and spirit admit no possibility of life shedding its age old burden on suffering and evil, offer no hope of a divinely perfect life on earth “

Dravida Peravai Questions:

1. They had sought exemption to do medical research, which aims at proving Aurobindo’s yoga, is radically different from traditional yoga. The letter of Counama is dated 1977 and we are in 2008, so far 31 years had passed. What research the Ashram had done to prove all other Yogic systems in this country, while its yoga alone is scientifically proven to be the best? Have the debated with other ashrams or have they published scientific literature to prove other yogis are wrong or have they done any research at all?

2. The belief in this country, not by us but by theists, is that on death spirit departs from body, and reincarnation or rebirth will follow, for spirit ceases to evaporate with death of body .Have the ashram trust in this 31 years done any medical research availing income tax exemptions to life this veil of ignorance and to illuminate the minds of people that spirit and matter are inseparable, and with body laid to rest spirit also is laid to rest?

3. By what kind of medical research under which scientist’s guidance did Aurobindo Ashram Trust in 31 years made life shed its age old burden on suffering and evil? Have they brought divinely perfect earth into a reality by their researches, if any?

4. The life on earth is dark and dolorous, so Aurobindo Ashram was exempted from tax to carry out medical or other researches. Have they illuminated Pondicherry during power cuts? Have they found out a spiritual power that can replace nuclear power to produce electricity for our country? There would be no necessity to India to go after nuclear deals, if only Aurobindo Ashram Trust had obtained a spiritual deal to drive darkness on India, if not on Earth.

RAY KURZWELL: FANTASTIC VOYAGE: LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO LIVE FOREVER

Ray Kurzwell, the recipient of the $ 500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize, which is billed as a sort of Academy Awards for Inventors, is a 65 year old scientist, who wrote the book “ Fantastic Voyage :Live Long Enough to Live Forever ” He sees “ human intelligence not only conquering its biological limits, including death but completely mastering the natural world. In my view, we are not another animal subject to nature’s whim, he said. This inventor and computer scientist in his book is serious about seeing humanity attain immortality, a seismic development; he predicts is no more than 20 years away. His predictions, Kurzwell said, are based on carefully constructed scientific models that have proven accurate. In 1990 he wrote a book “The Age of Intelligent Machines “, wherein he predicted the development of world wide computer network and of a computer that could beat a chess champion.

Kurzwell writes of millions of blood cell-sized robots which he calls nanabots that will keep us forever young by swarming through the body, repairing bones, muscles, arteries and brain cells. Improvement of our genetic coding could be downloaded from internet. We won’t even need a heart, so goes his theory.

Dravida Peravai comments: Aurobindo Ghosh dreamt but did not scientifically prove in controlling human cells by integral yoga. He and his companion wanted to defy nature, control the mind in cells and arrest aging to live forever. Both failed. Their followers who got tax exemptions must have done scientific researches to prove their dreams turning them into realities acceptable and beneficial to society. The Aurobindo Ashram Trust or its brainchild Auroville, so far had created numerous trusts only to avail tax exemptions. Most of the objectives of these trusts have no relevance to the dreams and goals of their Masters. Just like any other non-governmental organization they thrive here, with no connectivity with either the philosophy or the goals of their Masters. Hence we can only advice them to accept Ray Kurzwell as their Guru, since he had at least attempted to prove scientifically a goal beneficial to humanity. The remarkable difference in Ray Kurzwell’s approach is his noble mind to make his research downloadable by internet and to benefit whole humanity. This nobility stands in contrast with the selfishness of the super humans with super mind who live in Ashram or Auroville only to keep all fruits for themselves without openly sharing with humanity, if not at least with Tamils who live in their nearest vicinity.
N. Nandhivarman General Secretary Dravida Peravai Category: Science Permalink

The object of Vico's "new science" is to disclose the "ideal of eternal history"

Home · Your account · Current issue · Archives · Subscriptions · Calendar · Classifieds · Newsletters · Gallery · NYR Books Volume 41, Number 18 · November 3, 1994
Vico for Now By Stuart Hampshire
G.B. Vico: The Making of an Anti-Modern by Mark Lilla
Harvard University Press, 255 pp., $39.95
Once established, monotheism surely has a lot to answer for. Disorder and unregulated variety were no longer acceptable, either in morality or in nature. As soon as one sovereign creator was recognized, it became natural, even logical, to suppose that God's intentions both governed the destiny of humanity and determined a unified master plan for the whole natural order. So both Christians and Jews supposed, as they turned their backs on pagan polytheism, which had allowed a plurality of moral adventures. With monotheism came the belief that there should also be a coherent set of natural laws, with no loose ends unaccounted for, no waste or muddle or mere randomness in nature.
In his magisterial system Leibniz explained this necessity more than half a century before the last, and still uncompleted, edition of Giambattista Vico's Scienza Nuova in 1744. Leibniz wrote at a high point during the theodicy that brought Christianity and the new natural science together. There is, in his view, a sufficient reason for all the sequences of things that come to exist in space and time. With our limited minds we cannot always find the reasons, but God certainly wanted his chosen world to be the best of all possible worlds, and nothing could possibly stand in his way. Similarly, the moral order, which ought to direct our passions, comes from a single source, and in the long run there should be no inexplicable variety of moral cultures. There must be one set of moral laws willed by God, as there is correspondingly one set of natural laws.

Professor Lilla finds an alternative Christian theodicy in Vico. Among recent commentators on Vico he can claim some originality for starting with Vico's theology and deriving from it not only Vico's theory of knowledge and theory of language but also his famous theory of history and of its cycles. Benedetto Croce and Collingwood concentrated their attention on Vico's glorification of historical knowledge at the expense of the physical sciences, and on his praise of poetry and the imagination as opposed to the clear and distinct ideas of the intellect. I am persuaded that Professor Lilla comes nearer to Vico's true interests than Croce ever did, and that he is right to insist that the Scienza Nuova is a new justification of the ways of God to man, and is designed to replace the theodicies of Descartes and of Leibniz.
Vico thought that to fall into the sin of anachronism, and to interpret the literature and law of the past in peculiarly modern terms, are the worst of vices in a historian or a philosopher. Professor Lilla is sufficiently a Viconian to avoid this trap and to trace the leading ideas of the Scienza Nuova back to Vico's earlier works on Greek and Roman literature and on Roman jurisprudence.
Vico was born and lived and died in Naples, on the periphery of Europe and a long way from Paris. He never acquired, or wanted to acquire, the tone and methods of argument of Fontenelle and Bayle or of any other of the plain and disciplined thinkers of that time. Only Hobbes was a possible model for him. In the Leviathan, as in the Scienza Nuova, prose can still rise above itself and in a flash burst into a sort of poetry with some grim image or digression. The Scienza Nuova is exaggeratedly without evident structure, often inspired in its insights and its imagery, with absurd excursions into etymology and into fanciful ancient history, and lacking the ordinary constraints of evidence and scholarship. The style of the book is what it should be according to its own argument: a poetical prose that breaks the mold of enlightened reasoning.
Philosophers of a severely analytical cast of mind find Vico unreadable because his thought is full of intellectual curios and marvels and sudden flights of fancy. A true admirer will be happy with such observations as "The ancient Roman law was a serious poem and the ancient jurisprudence was a severe kind of poetry." Vico meant this seriously, and the Scienza Nuova itself has its passages of severe poetry: for instance, in its descriptions of the ultimate decadence of tired civilizations and of the anarchy that can return to ruined cities and scattered populations, when citizens regress to primitive violence. But beneath the bric-a-brac of strange learning, there is a clear theme.
Vico's argument, as Professor Lilla reconstructs it, starts from the one God the Creator, the God of the Jews and of the Christian Church, who replaces in human thought the casual polytheism of the dispersed communities of the pagan world. The recognition of one transcendent God and creator entails that a single history for mankind as a whole must also be recognized: this single history Vico calls "the ideal eternal history of the gentile nations." The decisive transhistorical, or ideal, events in God's relation to mankind are, first, the Fall, which leaves only the Jews with the direct access to God through their prophets, and, secondly, the Tower of Babel, which deprives mankind of any single language and culture and hence of any single set of institutions for communicating with God and for reflecting on its history, the history of mankind as a whole.
Mankind is splintered and, in a later phraseology, alienated from itself, in many separate cultures, with their diverse languages and institutions and forms of self-consciousness: each culture experiences its own history in its own style. The Greeks, in Vico's view, thought of their history in terms of the awakening of reason, while the Romans thought of their history as the development of civic authority and of traditions of public virtue.
The language of Greek reasoning and philosophy was for the Greeks the model of all reasoning, and the language of Roman law was for the Romans the origin of all law and of all sound government. The object of Vico's "new science" is to disclose the "ideal of eternal history" which lies behind the separate histories of the gentile nations and to show that it reveals a deep structure which is common to them all. This universal and eternal history, not manifest and immediately legible in day-to-day events, is the story of God's providence, and it is Vico's claim in his new science that, better than Saint Augustine in The City of God, he can discern God's providence at work in history, and particularly in the history of languages and literature and of social rituals and customs.
In ancient history there is the providential transition from the dominance of the Greeks' rational speculation and search for truth to the dominance of Roman law and respect for authority. The Romans provided a perpetual example of the successful search, not for metaphysical truth, but for the authority and certainty that are attainable only through stable institutions and inherited traditions of law and serious citizenship. Civil society requires the certainties and reassurances of well-established customs and habits of thought, and it is only undermined by the restless and arrogant inquiries of philosophers.
Directly contradicting Descartes, Vico argues that the natural sciences can never produce knowledge which is certain and secure, because God made the natural order, and fallen man can never grasp his vast designs. In the natural sciences we can achieve some subjective confidence and general agreement in our representations of natural processes, but we can never claim ultimate truth for them, because they are only the representations of limited and uncreative minds. One can only know, in the full sense and beyond doubt or the possibility of correction, one's own intentions and creations (the principle of verum factum), and for this reason human beings can acquire authentic and intimate knowledge of human creations, of their languages, histories, literatures, and cultures. In their imaginations, they can enter into the human world of Homer's Iliad and into the rituals and myths and symbolisms of pagan societies. They can all be reconstructed because they bear the marks of a common humanity, and not of the divine. As children we have all played with poetic fictions and rituals, and with the symbols of family romance and of war.
Natural languages in Vico's view are supreme among human creations and they are not God's work. They are the contingent products of the imagination of fallen men dispersed in time and place. They are not the ideal "mental language" that "uniformly grasps the substance of things feasible in human social life." The design of natural languages and their histories are open to our reconstruction, and we can trace the concepts they represent back to the primitive imagery from which they are formed.
The study of mankind and its dispositions and powers is properly called philology, and its essentially historical methods are completely different from the methods of the natural sciences, which seek to represent, however imperfectly, an order of objects that is independent of their representation. In the humanities we project ourselves imaginatively into ancient and primitive cultures, and try to reconstruct in our own minds the movements of imagination that were natural to them.
It was this rigid distinction between the humanities and the natural sciences that made Vico seem indispensable to Michelet and to Croce. He was used as a defense against the rising tide of positivist philosophies of knowledge from the early nineteenth century until today.
Professor Lilla's point is that it is a distortion to separate Vico's vindication of the humanities from the theology at its foundation, and specifically from the metaphor or myth of the Fall, which for Vico was the first truth of metaphysics. Lilla recalls that Bacon is accused by Vico of failing to recognize that "all that man is given to know is, like man himself, limited and imperfect." The contrast between the understanding accessible to imperfect, limited, and scattered human beings and divine understanding applies not only to knowledge, but also to language. We have to assume, Vico argued, that lurking beneath the many natural languages that have been formed through the centuries, there is a deep structural language. This language is universally shared, and includes within itself the fundamental metaphors and myths that enter into the constitution of civil societies at all times and everywhere: for example, the myth of thunder in the sky as a sign of divine anger, engendering fear and shame, and of the expulsion from the garden of innocence as the beginnings of morality; and all the images associated with the universal relationships of family life.
Hobbes and Locke failed in their reasoning to understand that the transition from brutishness, the state of nature, to civil society is inconceivable without the mediation of the family. These northern Protestants had turned "the order of ideas and things" and the "ideal eternal history" on their head, Vico believed, and by so doing opened the door to moral skepticism. The family as an institution is intermediate between nature and culture, the indispensable bridge between them. Unmarked and unsheltered by a definite status within the family, individuals become nonentities or madmen, like Lear on the heath. There is no conceivable way of learning to talk, and therefore of learning to think, except through the ritualized interchanges of family life.
Secondly, authority and legitimacy, which hold a nation together, are associated with homely patriarchal emotions, and that is why any stable civil order comes to rest upon them. If the legitimacy of monarchy imagined as paternity is not the basis of the state, then the fraternity of the ideal republic, a memory of Roman virtue, is always apt to be recalled as an image of true citizenship, as later in the French Revolution. Only in a phase of final decadence, toward the end of a civilization's cycle, does a restless probing into the philosophical basis of obedience shake individuals free of their ties. Then we can be sure that a regression to barbarism is not far away, "the barbarism of reflection," in Vico's striking phrase. Benthamism and rational calculations of measured welfare would be for Vico the ideal case of the "barbarism of reflection."

Market, a natural institution based on mutual co-operation (in a competitive setting)

Understanding the Libertarian World-View
from ANTIDOTE by Sauvik

Many well-meaning critics of Libertarianism are appalled at our “everything goes” attitude. The legalization of drugs, prostitution, gambling and other “vices”, which we support, is unacceptable to them, thought not on “economic” grounds. They seek something “higher” in a political creed than mere filthy lucre. They ask: “Will this make the world a better place?” This is a valid question, and it deserves a thorough answer.

Libertarianism places Freedom as its central “value” and therefore subjects its opposite, Coercion, to thorough scrutiny. The ultimate question in politics is the limits to coercion. By valuing Freedom and Voluntary Co-operation in markets, libertarians reduce the scope of coercion to its minimum. In a libertarian order, more and more people are more and more free from government coercion. In such an order, most ordinary people would be able to live their lives without ever seeing the inside of a courtroom or a police station. This is thus a “viable political order” precisely because its foundations do not rest on coercion.

On the contrary. They rest on the firm foundations of the market, a natural institution based on mutual co-operation (in a competitive setting). Thus, there is bound to be more “order” and less “law” in a nation governed under libertarian principles. It will therefore be a “successful” political order – leaving aside the Economics and all the filthy lucre.

Secondly, we do not see Society as a monolith, nor do we accord it any metaphysical status, as the Socialists do. Our focus is the Individual. Our “science” is based on the method of monologic, on the logic of the Individual. As we see ourselves as individuals too, we only seek the most “perfect freedom” for all. Socialists, communists, Keynesians, trade unionists – they all base their “science” on group thinking and group logic.

They look upon Society in anthropomorphic terms; and since their political credo consists entirely of creating anew a “perfect society” out of the horrible bazaar-culture of today, which they do not comprehend, the realization of their political ideals requires:

• firstly, organized coercion by The State; and
• second, the subjugation of all individuals to the great Czar of Planning or some such dictator.

Even if we leave aside the Economics and the filthy lucre (and all the consumer goods it delivers to the “working classes”) this is a political credo that is bound to fail, to be unsuccessful, because it is founded on coercion.

There are limits to coercion outside the seminar rooms of Political Science. South Africa released Mandela. The Iraqis and the Afghanis have not humbly offered their heads to the American yoke. The Manipuris, Kashmiris, Naxals et. al. are at war with The State – despite all the coercion. What can Libertarianism accomplish in such a chaotic situation?

Once again, since our political ideals cannot be met by organized coercion, our only method must be moral and intellectual persuasion. We know for sure that even the most powerful and effective state constabulary cannot beat a people into submission. So we reject that method.

Our only method is “political,” in the classical sense of the word: convincing a populace that Freedom for all Individuals means a better Society as well. This blog is dedicated to that goal.

Vico manages to avoid an easy dualism between science and poetry

Wisdom and Eloquence in the Tacit Dimension: Vico and Polanyi on Knowing and Making
Craig E. Mattson Endnotes

1 Miner summarizes the principle this way: “if cognition attains a verum, and factumis interchangeable with verum, then cognition may also be described as attaining a factum. But a factum is attained only through some process of making. Therefore cognition may be understood as essentially a process of making” (97).
2 As for abstraction, Vico thought it had its place, but that it achieved a lower form of knowledge than that he sought with his new science (Miner 105). Against futurity, or the conviction that “the future becomes a primary orientation for both imagination and activity” (Berger 73), Vico proposed a cyclical view of history Page 9 (New 483-489 1097-1106). Against radical individualism, he emphasized the importance of tradition (Miner 115). Note, too, that Vico refers to a “barbarism of calculation,” a peculiarly modern selfishness resulting in societal breakdown that lasts until the survivors of decadence once again “naturally become sociable” (New 488 1106). I am indebted for this insight to Verene’s introduction to On Humanistic Education, where he connects Vico’s phrase “barbarism of calculation” to modernity (Humanistic 11) As for secularization, the New Science situated Vichian ideas in a metaphysics of providence (Miner 124-125). After modernism’s “barbarism,” he hoped for a return to the “religious, truthful, and faithful” (New 488-489 1106).
3 Some of Vico’s contemporaries, for example, were so committed to Cartesian methods of teaching and learning as to ignore the role of freedom in the creation (Study 33).
4 It all began with a thunderstorm. Early humans heard thunder and interpreted it as the rhetoric of Jupiter, the god of the sky. And though it wasn’t entirely clear what the thunder god was saying, “divine providence allowed humankind to be deceived into fearing Jupiter as a false deity who could strike them with lightning” (New 150 385). Men started dragging women to caves to hide their sexual acts, and thus marriage was created, “which we may define as a carnal union modestly consummated in fear of some divinity” (208 505). Lawgivers then arose, claiming to have deciphered the rhetoric of the god, and they founded nations (New 150 385). Eventually, the Gentiles, for whom “providence was the divine teacher of a common wisdom,” came to understand natural law (Autobiography 172).
5 Managing this tension gives him a remarkable generosity towards the intellectual habits of different eras. “In the hope of escaping censure, I ask you to give thought to the fact that my purpose is not to criticize the drawbacks of the study methods of our age or of those of antiquity, but rather to compare the advantages afforded by the study methods of the two epochs” (Study 5).
6 Richard Rorty might sum up Vichian thought by shrugging and calling it another entry in the longstanding “quarrel between poetry and philosophy, the tension between an effort to achieve self-creation by the recognition of contingency and an effort to achieve universality by transcendence of contingency” (Contingency 25). What else, after all, could Vico do? Privilege science, and he would lose the freedom of the humanities. Privilege poetry, and he would lose the rigor of science. Indeed, either choice offers unpredictable results. “It is ironic,” writes Roger Lundin, “that in their zeal to establish irrefutable arguments and unshakeable evidence for the truth, Descartes, Spinoza, and others made possible the relativism and nihilism of our present century” (246). Following Miner’s interpretation of Vico, the present essay tries to highlight the ways that Vico manages to avoid an easy dualism between science and poetry—an accomplishment that Polanyi managed as well.
7 I shall have more than one occasion in this essay’s comparison of Vico and Polanyi to remark that the two thinkers do not enjoy complete affinity. Vico is perhaps the readier to identify differences among ways of knowing than Polanyi, who was concerned to identify what was at least functionally common to human knowing across time.
8 To deny that Polanyi is concerned with wisdom may imply the conviction that fact ought to be
compartmentalized from value. After all, a chemist and philosopher would supposedly be more interested in facts than values. But this a division that Polanyi says cannot be reconciled with the “personal co-efficient, which shapes all factual knowledge” (PK 17).
9 Interestingly enough, Polanyi refers to this renovating self-investment as “a manner of disposing ourselves” (61), a term which shares some kinship with an ancient rhetorical concept for the arrangement of an argument, “disposition.” Further research might be done to develop a genealogy of this term to show its connections with the rhetorical tradition. But the fact that Polanyi uses a rhetorical term does not alone establish its connection with the Ciceronian rhetorical tradition.
10 He cites Aristotle’s famous dictum that “[n]othing is found in the intellect which was not found first in the senses” and sees this as a corroboration of his notion that poets, “the senseof mankind,” practice a knowing that is discrete from the epistemology of the philosophers, the “intellect” of the race (136 363).
11 Admittedly, though Vico considers mimesis inferior to more modern ways of knowing, he argues that their poetic constructions were divinely guided for the establishment of civil societies. He holds that “the fables are true in their form, but false in their matter” (Miner 111). Another way to cast this is to say that while primitive eloquence was admirable, it did not lead to wisdom.
12 He would not deny that providence has worked with such primitive minds for the common good of humankind, and perhaps he would allow that the barbarities of positivism might also conspire with the divine in order to find some measure of truth.
13 As Polanyi writes, “The process of selecting facts for our attention is indeed the same in science as among Azande; but I believe that science is often right in its application of it, while Azande are quite wrong when using it for protecting their superstitions” (PK 294). I am grateful to Phil Mullins for reminding me of the importance of Polanyi’s fallibilism at this point in my exposition.
14 I am grateful for this insight to Nothstine, Blair, and Copeland for their discussion of Sonja K. Foss’s textbook on rhetorical criticism. Her step-by-step procedure for writing criticism “is a crucial effort; each of the four moments she describes constitutes at least a locus for the choices that the critic must make” (54).
15 Granted, Vichian eloquence is aural in that it acknowledges the role of the audience, especially when he emphasizes the importance of probability, imagination, and memory in making persuasion possible (Study 13-14).
16 Other confirmations of this privileging of the aural appear in Polanyi’s continual contrasting of
observation with indwelling (PK 378-379); his use of examples that diminish the importance of sight (SFS 22-24); his associating of positivism with mere observation (PK 9); his relativizing of perception (PK 96-97); and his insistence that knowledge is rooted, not in the mind watching the world through the eyes, but in the whole of the body (99). I should like to add that I first encountered the insight that Polanyi deemphasizes visualist epistemology in Jerry Gill’s fine book, The Tacit Mode.
17 It is peculiar that Luft, who painstakingly develops a non-genetic, non-linear, non-eidetic reading of Vico, nonetheless argues that scholars who overemphasize Vico’s metaphysics in On the Most Ancient Wisdom neglect the fact that the New Science, which she insists offers a completely different approach to metaphysics, came twenty years later. To emphasize the New Science over the On the Most Ancient Wisdom simply because it came two decades later is a markedly genetic, linear, and eidetic sort of scholarship.
18 Despite Luft’s insistence that Vico came to love the primitive’s poetic constructions, the opposite actually seems to be the case: Vico was not very impressed with what Miner calls the “mythopoesis” of the primitives. Despite Luft’s argument that primitive poets created as God creates—that is, by speaking things into existence out of nothing—Miner points out “that Vico takes the creativity of poetic man to fall infinitely short of divine creativity” (112). In fact, Miner continues, the Vichian project of developing a scienza nouva is to identify how human truth-seeking and truth-making can participate in divine creativity by means of an intellection that is more like that of the geometer than of the poet (113, 116, 124-125).
19 Western theology has tended either to overemphasize the dependence of the created order, thus minimizing human creativity and discouraging a genuinely empirical science, or to stress the independence of the created order in such a way as to suggest that it is self-supporting and self-interpreting, and thus entirely comprehensible by means of humanly devised sciences (Gay 127).

Peace in the world is what Auroville stands for

Travel: Universal Township The Statesman Monday, 4 August 2008
The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity, writes Anima Ganguly

Auroville is an international township in Tamil Nadu, south India. Here people of all countries live in peace and harmony, above all creeds, politics and nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realise human unity. It is about 8-10 kilometres north of Pondicherry. You can go by bus, taxi or auto rickshaw. The climate is tropical with the main monsoon in the months of October to December. From December to March is the nicest time of the year to visit.Auroville was founded on 28 February, 1968 inspired by the vision of Sri Aurobindo and Mother of Pondicherry. Over 1800 people of India and 40 other nations are building a township dedicated to an experiment in human unity with the eventual hope of contributing to international understanding and the evolution of human consciousness.

Auroville belongs to humanity as a whole. But to live here, one must be a willing servitor of the Divine Consciousness. The township will be a place of an unending education, of constant progress and a youth that never ages. Auroville wants to be the bridge between the past and the future.

The Sri Aurobindo International Institute of Educational Research coordinates educational and cultural activities within and around Auroville. In addition to school and physical education facilities, are various active research and publication centres.At the inauguration ceremony of Auroville on 28 February, 1968 representatives of 124 countries and 23 Indian states placed a handful of earth from their homelands in a lotus shaped urn at the centre of Future Township, in a symbolic gesture of human unity. Once a barren plateau of largely red earth, thanks to the untiring tree planting efforts of the first pioneers, Auroville has been transformed into a lush green landscape in which a city is progressively beginning to take shape, radiating out from the centre, the Matrimandir into four zones -each focusing on an important aspect of community life. A green belt will surround the entire city area. Over the past 40 years, with the assistance of private donors, and national and international private donors, governmental and non-governmental organizations, Auroville has grown into an expanding community consisting of some 90 plus settlements of varying size.

The residents are engaged in a wide range of activities, including research into a cashless economy, organic farming, renewable energy, appropriate building technology, village development, handicrafts, small scale industries, health care, education and many other fields. A major source of employment for the 40,000 inhabitants of the local villages, Auroville works closely with them to improve their infrastructure and provide education and health care. In 1988 the Government of India passed the Auroville Foundation Act with a view to making long term arrangements for the better management and further development of Auroville in accordance with its character.

I visited Auroville and it is hard to describe what it is about. It is a community of multinational without nationality - a place where free expression is encouraged and whose centre is the Matrimandir ~ a symbol of the Aurovillian hopes and aspiration and also of the Divine's answer to man's inspiration for perfection. You can see breathtaking diversity of housing ranging from huts woven from palm fronds and wood cottages and jaw dropping spaceship designs and studio residences. Everywhere there is evidence of sophisticated aesthetics and venturesome innovations. The defining moment of a visit to Auroville is the introduction to Matrimandir. The Matrimandir is an astounding sight, an enormous sphere supported by four pillars, seeming to emerge from a crater in the ground like consciousness from matter. It started in February 1971, which the Mother - the founder of Auroville called the "Soul of Auroville". Mother once said, “new words are needed to express new ideas, new forms are necessary to manifest new forces."

Auroville is meant to hasten the advent of the supramental reality upon Earth. It is quite a difficult task getting an appointment to go and see Matrimandir. You have to wear special socks and have to be silent inside. After entering inside, you go to the inner chamber.The room is low-lit, completely white, and circular. There are pillows to sit on. In the centre of the intense whiteness of the chamber, is a large crystal globe. Sunlight pierces a rent in the roof above and is transmuted by the sensational translucent globe into a rainbow of delicate pastels. It is mystical, very other worldly, and very beautiful. I found myself there sinking into the profound silence.

Former President APJ Abdul Kalam Azad wrote on 01-11-04 after emerging from the chamber, 'Matrimandir is beautiful divine creation. When I spent few minutes in the concentration chamber, I felt time is infinite, something echoed in me, can I give words to the Divine call: divine beauty, divine peace entered into me and blossomed happiness in my body and soul."Present activities in Auroville include wasteland reclamation and reforestation, organic farming, village development, education, health care renewable energy, appropriate building technology, arts, and culture, handicrafts, small scale industries, architecture and town planning.

Auroville aspires to be a universal town where people from all countries are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. As the Poet said, "When there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world." Peace in the world is what Auroville stands for.

The Lights of Aspiration every evening were a fitting culmination to a day of offerings and a heightened collective aspiration

In remembering Sri Aurobindo during this special August edition, also the month of His birth, the mind swiftly moved back in time, about 6 months ago, to a place in India that observed its 50th Anniversary of the First Enshrinement of Sri Aurobindo’s Relics. Amongst all the relic centres that exist today, this particular organsiation was blessed with the first relics all the way from Pondicherry, and that too by The Mother. The year of its first enshrinement was 1957, on the 5th of Dec, 7 years after Sri Aurobindo left his body. Some magical moments of those Winter days in Delhi are relived in the following article.

The 50th Anniversary of the First Enshrinement of Sri Aurobindo’s Relics here at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Delhi Branch was a spectacular event in its magnitude, in its movement across the 5 magical days, and beautifully magnificent in the dignity with which each one involved in it carried it through. It was out of this world, ethereal, surreal, in some ways. It seemed and felt as if a subtle presence manifested itself and hung over the entire stretch of the 5 magical days. As this piece is being written on the 13th of Dec, the magic is still hanging over ashram, and the blessed souls who are connected with it, whether they are physically here or not, continue to bathe in the shower of the austere silence that rains upon us continuously.

The occasion was marked by workshops, seminars, talks, musical offerings, morning invocations, Q and A sessions and distribution of Prasad every day. Sadhaks from Pondicherry and around India graced the occasion and shared gleanings of their learnings and experiences with the aspirants who gathered at the Hall of Grace and at the Hall of New Creation (Library) at Mirambika. Besides public functions like these, there were the sideline gatherings arranged on the spot, where aspirants met up with specialists from various fields to have sessions tailored to their immediate needs.

The musical offerings brought us into another dimension as each soul called out to the divine for aid and sustenance, to lead us from darkness to light, from ignorance to knowledge and from death to immortality. The renderings were soul stirring and brought quiet tears to the eyes, or they were deeply engrossing, pulling one to the seat in the centre of the being, even if for split seconds before the mind took over and blazed in its circuit only to be pulled out of its route, silenced and offered again, with the next invocation that shot into the internal spaces.

The Lights of Aspiration that took place every evening were a fitting culmination to a day of offerings and a heightened collective aspiration. It was a salute to an atmosphere charged with the powerful presence intangible but which something within knew and felt. It was for me, the highlight of the day and probably for many ashramites, aspirants, followers and devotees who had gathered in the heart of the city for this grand occasion.

Each evening, at 7 pm the slow procession would start, The Mother’s flag leading the way, with an able flag bearer at the helm. The line of candle bearers would snake their way very slowly and steadily on the path circumventing the lawn that surrounds the shrine, past Sri Aurobindo’s bust in front of Fakir Kutir, and then into the shrine premises and around the lawn. In the darkness of the winter night, the flickering lamps alone were visible. A marked silence arose from the sideline of onlookers. This was prominent and reflected on how, perhaps, everyone became deeply involved participants in the whole process. This fervour, this silence probably emerged from the collective aspiration that inevitably flowered in all of us while in the presence of the shrine and all that it means in our individual consciousness. And perhaps, something more was present on occasions such as these.

Each night, while many diyas are laid on the lawn, a portion of the diya bearers would quietly march into the shrine premises and place the candles on the periphery of the tiled area around the shrine, and carry away with them another lighted diya and proceed towards Tapasya courtyard to lay the brilliant lamps on the petalled symbol at the courtyard, to the accompaniment of invocatory music. Each night, the atmosphere was charged with a presence indescribable, and starkly real and palpable to our individual consciousness, however so it was ready to sense that presence. The moments spent there around the fountain were magical.

Taking a walk around the shrine later at night, when the crowds had thinned, was to invoke another magical experience. In the cool silence of the night, the mist hanging over the lawn with the flickering lamps on the ground added a beauty to the silent presence that was perceivable. Those magical moments cannot be expressed and neither would one have been satisfied with a click of the camera to capture the beauty. The beauty was there to be lived in deep association, each fraction of the second bearing the beauty was there to be lived and nothing in the whole wide world, in all of time, would have been able to capture those moments magical … except for that something within, that graciously and very quietly accepts the feast offered, consumes it and locks the essence of the experience away safely for assimilation. The entire magic of the period becomes interiorized and one with the experiencer. A salutation silent and still can be the only reciprocation possible.

Space and time took a backseat during those precious magical moments. - Jayanthy Magical Moments in Winter
from Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore

This August is special; this year marks the centenary of the famous Alipore Conspiracy Case

India Today Latest Issue August 11, 2008 Legacy lives on
Anshuman Bhowmick July 31, 2008

For the country at large, August is the month of India’s Independence. But, for many in Kolkata, August is the month of Sri Aurobindo. This August is special; this year marks the centenary of the famous Alipore Conspiracy Case, in which Sri Aurobindo, in his revolutionary avatar, was one of the chief accused. Fifty-eight years have passed since his demise. Yet, his admirers have made sure that his iconic stature is preserved in hundreds of places across the city. In the wake of his 136th birth anniversary, we visit some of most prominent centres of Sri Aurobindo.

SRI AUROBINDO INSTITUTE OF CULTURE

“The acquiring of various kinds of information is only one, and not the chief, of the means of education and necessities of education; its central aim is the building of the powers of human mind and spirit.” These words uttered by Sri Aurobindo are printed in the prospectus of the Future Foundation School and form the basis on which the school stands. Every morning, at a quarter past eight, the 900-strong student community of the Future Foundation School assembles at the school auditorium.Dressed impeccably, the students sing the morning prayers, which mostly consist of hymns composed by and on Sri Aurobindo, in front of photographs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Ranjan Mitter, the school principal, says the curriculum here is moulded in accordance with Sri Aurobindo’s principles of education.

The teachers work more as facilitators rather than instructors, and the students learn in an experiential framework. “The whole of life is encapsulated into that. It is like taking life back into education,” says Mitter.The higher secondary school is under the aegis of ICSE, and it is just one of the major wings of the institute. It also runs a charitable dispensary with specialist doctors— takes care of the adjoining slums, and maintains an art gallery named after the Mother. The language classes teach English and French. The music classes, conducted here by some of the leading names of both classical and nonclassical forms, are attended by hundreds of people. Besides, a number of cultural soirees, from Bangash Brothers recitals to Gobindagopal Mukhopadhyay chantings, is organised throughout the year. The cultural competitions that are held here are a big hit, especially among the youngsters.

Recently, the centre curated a son-e-lumiere gallery on the life and career of Sri Aurobindo. Bolstered by rich documentation, rare photographs and archival materials, the gallery is an intimate look into the multifaceted genius. While the research wing is yet to gather momentum, documents related to the Alipore Conspiracy Case were published a few years ago. “The historical significance of this landmark case of sedition is yet to be explored,” Mitter says. But he takes genuine pride in the publication of a collection of Jugantar editorials that had been ‘generally supervised’ by Sri Aurobindo.

However, it is the relics of Sri Aurobindo that this institute is most famous for. Daily meditations are held here, and lectures are delivered. The precincts take on an especially festive look every Jayanti day.

SRI AUROBINDO BHAVAN

Enter the premises of Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, and you will immediately feel the sanctity of the place. It’s almost miraculous how it can shut out the din of the metropolis. Unlike other holy shrines in the city, this spot, at the centre of Kolkata, is a realm of silence, a silence that speaks volumes.The same silence must have held sway when Sri Aurobindo was born here, on August 15, 1872. The neoclassical mansion, complete with a portico, has changed hands umpteen times since then. For a while in 1971, the building was known as ‘Mujib Nagar’, and housed the governmentin-exile of Bangladesh.

In 1972, on the occasion of the birth centenary celebrations of Sri Aurobindo, a national committee was formed, with Indira Gandhi, the then prime minister of India, as the chairperson. On February 16 that year, Sri Aurobindo’s sacred relics, which had been transported from Pondicherry, were enshrined in the Bhavan premises. The memorial shrine has since become a place of pilgrimage. Thousands join the collective meditation on Thursday and Sunday evenings. Besides maintaining the sylvan surroundings, the Bhavan runs a well-stocked library that is a treasure trove of Aurobindonian Studies.

Primarily built on collections of eminent scholars, it currently maintains more than 40,000 books and 100 journals. Thousands of members are attached to it, confirms Gopa Basu, the librarian. The adjacent children’s library, developed with generous aid from the British Council, is one of the largest of its kind. Ahana, the cultural wing of the Bhavan, runs classes of fine arts and performing arts. Renowned classical dancers like Amita Dutt and Nandini Ghosal, singers like Swastika Mukhopadhyay and thespians like Sukriti Lahari take good care of the students.

Although there is a lull in research activities, the Sri Aurobindo study courses are well attended. The occasional endowment lectures at the Bhavan auditorium often have the state governor attending as the chief guest. The recently established multi-gym has found a number of takers. And, if someone wishes to buy books and photographs of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, they can do so here. The incense sticks, which are from different centres across the state, are a perennial favourite with the visitors.

In recent years, many of the younger generation have taken the spiritual route. Sravani Goswami, now a college lecturer, has frequented this place since her childhood, as a participant in the singing contests that the Bhavan organises. Today, she judges the same competitions. The parampara rolls on.

SRI AUROBINDO MUSEUM

Back in 1996, the late Joya Mitter discovered a dusty trunk containing the entire proceedings of the Alipore Conspiracy Case, in a nondescript corner of Alipore Judges Court. Justice P.L. Dutta joined forces with her and, within years, the duo prevailed upon the judiciary to set up the Alipore Memorial Courtroom. The room in which Sri Aurobindo was tried was converted into a museum which also houses many important court documents pertaining to the struggle for freedom. Indeed, a visit to this museum is an unforgettable experience.

SRI AUROBINDO PATHAMANDIR

Sri Aurobindo left Kolkata and made Pondicherry his home. But at his home turf in Kolkata he continued to win admirers among the urban elite. On August 15, 1941, the meditation centres spread across the city got their unofficial headquarters at this Abhiram Mullick property that once housed the famous Albert Hall.

Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir, as the centre is called, now rubs shoulders with Indian Coffee House, forming the intellectual hub of the city.

The walls of the stairs leading to the upper floors are lined with portraits of the master and his favourite comrade. The first floor memorabilia shop is always buzzing with activity. The second floor library is a storehouse of spiritual literature and the meditation room doubles as the seat for the School of Sri Aurobindo Studies. Professor Biswanath Roy’s lectures draw a considerable audience from nearby Mirzapur, Shyambazar and Bowbazar localities.Roy, who is also the publisher of Sri Aurobindo Pathamandir Annual, is one of the foremost exponents of his master’s philosophy in the city.

CENTRE FOR SRI AUROBINDO STUDIES

Back in 1906, Sri Aurobindo left his princely job with the Gaekwads of Baroda and joined the Bengal National College as its principal. The National Council of Education, the parent body, eventually gave birth to the Jadavpur University.

In its golden jubilee year, the Department of Philosophy offered a befitting tribute to this philosopher by opening the Centre for Sri Aurobindo Studies. Set up under the UGC scheme for ‘Epoch-Making Social Thinkers of India’, the centre is currently housed at the first floor of the Darshan Bhavan. In the words of Professor Indrani Sanyal, the centre’s director:

“Sri Aurobindo’s wide sphere of thought, his Catholic, comprehensive but analytic approach, his secular but outright nationalistic outlook—all these have been major sources of inspiration for venturing into this domain.”

Over the last three years, the centre has organised several seminars and workshops to fulfil its objectives. A series of academic publications are also in the offing. Efforts are on to get the outreach activities in place. Prev 1 2 3 Next Jadavpur University’s Centre for Sri Aurobindo Studies

Auroville is a continuing process and is in an evolutionary stage

Other States - Puducherry Karan Singh looking ahead for the next chapter of Auroville
Staff Reporter
He expects a positive movement for building the city and its infrastructure PUDUCHERRY:

“With the completion of Matri Mandir and the installation of Sri Aurobindo’s statue, one chapter of Auroville has come to an end. Now, we are in a new chapter of building the city,” Auroville Foundation chairman Karan Singh said on Sunday.
Talking about the path ahead of Auroville, he said it had taken 40 years to complete the first phase.
“Till now, we were basically building Matri Mandir and communities. Now, we have to start building the city, and it needs infrastructure, streetlights, sewerage and properly planned communities. In the next five years, we expect a positive movement,” he said.

Design
Describing the design for the prototype section of the Crown as “innovative and good,” he said electric vehicles would be operated. “With Auroville being strong on the environment, there will be green vehicles. The road has been beautifully planned and consists of a main road, pedestrian and cycle paths.”
On his term so far as the Chairman of Auroville Foundation, he said, “It has been an interesting and satisfying experience. Despite a number of conflicts, the community has come together. With the completion of the first phase, there is a definite sense in the community to work together to build the city.”
Roger Anger had completed Matri Mandir, and the new generation has to take over now, he said. “Auroville is a continuing process and is in an evolutionary stage. I think it is beginning to move forward.”

Call for solidarity
“The nation is in turmoil with bomb blasts. It is a difficult and dangerous period, and we need to mobilise outer and inner resources. We need to develop inner strength to meet and overcome the challenges,” he said.
“The nation should develop a sense of solidarity. There are several divisive forces, in terms of caste, class, religion and political parties. India should develop as a nation with a deeper consciousness,” he said.
“The government winning the trust vote is certainly significant. We can continue the development programmes and the 123 agreement,” he said.
On a few MPs’ wading out currencies in the Parliament, Dr. Karan Singh, who is the chairman of the Ethics Committee of the Rajya Sabha, called the incident unfortunate and shameful.
© Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu

There is nothing fantastical in Swami Dayananda’s idea that the Veda contains the truths of science

‘Islamic’ political assault on Arya Samaj-II By: V SUNDARAM vsundaram@newstodaynet.com Friday, 25 July, 2008 www.newstodaynet.com

Go back to the Vedas’ was the quintessence of Swami Dayananda Sarasvati’s timeless message. He said ‘I hold the four Vedas (the divine revealed knowledge and religious truth comprising the Samhita or Mantras) as infallible and as authority by their very nature’. He clearly stated in his Satyarth Prakash that the Veda contains the truths of science as well as of religion. Sri Aurobindo endorsed this approach of Swami Dayanand Sarasvati when he said

‘There is then nothing fantastical in Swami Dayananda’s idea that the Veda contains the truths of science. I will even add my own conviction that the Veda contains other truths of science which the modern world does not at all possess, and, in that case, Swami Dayananda has rather under-stated than over-stated the depth and rage of the Vedic Wisdom. Immediately after the character of the Veda is fixed in the sense Swami Dayananda gave to it, the merely ritual, mythological, polytheistic interpretation of Sanayacharya collapses, and the merely mateological and materialistic European interpretation collapses. We have, instead, a real scripture, one of the World’s sacred books, and the divine word of a lofty and noble religion’.

Swami Dayananda advocated Vedic Education for all the castes and communities, including the Sudras, Ati-Sudras and also those below the Mudras. Thus Swami Dayananda laid the foundation for the amelioration of the depressed classes. As per those Hindu lower classes and other Hindus who have been converted to Islam or Christianity, through force or inducement, he advocated ‘shuddhi’ or ‘re-conversion’. Out of the shuddhi movement there logically develop about the beginning of the twentieth century a campaign to recruit low castes and untouchables, with a ceremony evolve to invest the new recruits with the sacred thread, thus making them equal with the high-caste Hindus.

I fully endorse the view of Sandhya Jain:

‘The lasting legacy of Swami Dayanand Saraswati (1825-1883), for which he deserves the undying gratitude of succeeding generations, is that he told an enslaved and demoralised Hindu society to seek inspiration and rejuvenation in its Vedic civilisational roots. Whatever the merits of his own rather literal style of interpreting religious texts, the call to return to the Vedic Gangotri was an act of sheer genius’.

The political views and ideals of Swami Dayananda have received less recognition than his social and religious views. He did not approve of foreign rule over India and asked foreigners, ‘not to live here as rulers’, long before the arrival of Mahatma Gandhi on the Indian Political scene in 1915. Thus the Arya Samaj established by Swami Dayananada promoted nationalism along with Hindu revivals. It is no accident that one of the leading disciples of Swami Dayananda, Swami Sraddananda was assassinated by a Muslim in the middle 1920s. Another disciple of Swami Dayananda, Lala Lajput Rai died after he was badly beaten up during a lathi charge against a procession of protest which he was leading against the Simon Commission in Lahore in 1928. Swami Dayananda was a staunch advocate of indigenous rule (Swadeshi Raj) as opposed to foreign rule (Videshi Raj) and harked back to the Universal and presumably golden rule of Vedic Age.

Politics is about give and take, about deal-making and capturing, holding and perpetuating power

‘So what if we just had to stay in the picture?’ Jyotirmaya Sharma Hindustan Times: July 25, 2008 (Jyotirmaya Sharma is the author Terrifying Vision: Golwalkar, the RSS and India)

There has also been excess of sanctimonious verbiage around falling standards of Indian democracy. Politics in India has always been seen as morality play, and moral posturing is a national pastime.

Politics is about give and take, about deal-making and capturing, holding and perpetuating power. The question of ends and means is a contentious one, but it is not easily resolved by paying lip service to the Gandhian legacy.

The lack of morals in politics is not resolved by resorting to moral sermons but in helping to bring about good politics. In that arena, every single political formation is in favour of the status quo and against radical political and electoral reforms in the country.

+++

Cash strapped Rajdeep Sardesai Hindustan Times: July 25, 2008 (Rajdeep Sardesai is Editor-in-chief, IBN Network)

The law alone offers no solutions. Legally, there is no constitutional bar on Shibu Soren, who has had his life sentence in the Shashinath Jha murder case stayed, from being sworn in as a Cabinet minister for the third time in the last five years. But morality demands that he stay away from office till his name is fully cleared by the courts. Yet, even this is not enough.

What is actually needed is a bold new initiative to clean up the entire relationship between cash and politicians. Sunlight, it is said, is the best disinfectant and it is perhaps time that political parties openly acknowledge that our political system is linked to hard cash. Cash is needed to fight elections. Cash is needed to keep cadres loyal. So, how is this cash to be legitimised and the taint of ‘dirty money’ removed? ...

What will our politicians do? Close their eyes and insist on a phoney Mahatma-hood? Or will politicians put their heads together and honestly work out transparent, open and public methods of political funding. It is an urgent, indeed critical need. 4:03 PM

There are values of life and of the progressive spirit which must be nourished

Re: The relevance of 1857 in the context of India’s recent history—by Mubarak Ali
by RY Deshpande on Thu 10 Jul 2008 05:04 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Rich, There is no one cause for the 1857 and your observation of a “million mutinies theme” is quite valid and perceptive. The conclusion of a professional historian to summarise the findings as “a chain of very different uprisings” could be considered factual. But look at the paragraph from the earlier quote giving the narratives of the lives of "bird catchers and lime makers who have had their charpoys stolen by sepoys, the horse trader from Haryana looted by Gujars on the outskirts of Dehli on the way home from selling his wares,... Hansi the dancer who uses a British attack on Idgah to escape from the serai where she is staying with her husband and run off with her lover. Or Pandit Harichandra, who tried to exhort Hindus of Dehli to leave their shops and join the fight giving examples from the Mahabharat. Or Hazif Abdurrahman caught grilling beef kababs during a ban on cow slaughter who comes to beg for mercy from Zafar...."

What do we get from these documentary findings? Perhaps nothing, nothing much in proportion to the amount of research effort that goes into it. Is it not simply a picture of a society sunken in the depths of the mediaeval darkness? It seems the throbbing vitality of the nation had got buried in terrible inertia or Tamas of the age. There was the glāni as the Gita would say, the decline. Invasions by an alien civilization, robust and critically powerful, over the previous few centuries had uprooted the authentic traditions that had drawn nourishment from the foundational principles based on the spirit’s working. Foolish battles were fought for foolish gains and concerns of the larger society forgotten.

Renaissance and Industrial Revolution were unknown to the country. What else could then the decadent feudalism do? The only brief period of glory during those long and wearisome centuries was the reign of Akbar and the arrival of Shivaji-Ramdas on the national scene. The rest was frustration,—moral, political, economic, religious except for the exceptional Bhakti movement, educational, ethical, etc, etc. That all makes the 1857 more a reaction than forward march of a nation. ~ RYD

Reply by Rich on Thu 10 Jul 2008 07:55 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link
I tend to think that once history is stripped of its ideologies it speaks most meaningfully to us through stories. The lessons of 1857 are perhaps not only relevant to India as to they are to the world today. In an Article for Time magazine Dalrymple says:

The lessons of 1857 can be seen today on the streets of Iraq. No one likes being conquered by people of a different faith, then being force-fed improving ideas. The British in 1857 discovered that nothing so easily radicalizes a people or undermines the moderate aspect of Islam than aggressive Western intrusion in the East. The histories of Islamic fundamentalism and Western imperialism have often been closely intertwined—so much so that thinking of 1857, we might remember the celebrated dictum of Edmund Burke: that those who fail to learn from history are always destined to repeat it.

Reply by RY Deshpande on Fri 11 Jul 2008 05:11 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
1857 on the streets of Iraq—how true! If I’ve to use my earlier phrase again, here was a foolish battle fought for foolish gains. The entire region including Afghanistan and Pakistan today is in turmoil which is not going to affect India in a small way. Oil—automobile, was that not the invention of the Asura, and that America got seized by its injurious al spell?

The slogan of the globalised Capitalism is: Elite of the world, unite to protect your consumer markets. Wheels of democracy move swiftly behind the banner of the Wealth of the Nations. But this has to go, the way the workers of the world could not assert themselves and disappeared—perhaps without throwing their chains. There are values of life and of the progressive spirit which must be nourished, values which could not be discerned by the 1857. But that began to happen not too long after that, in the New Birth of India.

In this New Birth the spirit of nationalism derived its strength from the spirit of the country, when the soul of India began to awake. It was the first movement to step out of the degrading Tamas with which it was overlaid for disappointing centuries. But it seems, today, we are falling into another trap, the vitalistic trap with the consumer model as the guiding principle, a model which will spell a greater disaster if we lose contact with the soul of India. Ditto for other nations and societies. ~ RYD

Among the modern Sanskrit lyricists, Harekrishna Meher has indeed earned much fame by virtue of his poetic merit

CONCEPT OF GĪTI AND MĀTRIGĪTIKĀÑJALI -KĀVYA
By: Prof. Dr. Abhiraja Rajendra Mishra Ex-Vice Chancellor, Sampurnananda Sanskrit University, Varanasi.

In twentieth century, Sanskrit has gained all-round prosperity in comparison to other Indian languages. Numerous mahākāvyas, khaņđa-kāvyas, stories, novels and dramas etc. are being regularly composed in Sanskrit. In this literature, tradition of lyric poem is extremely rich. Though all the present lyricists have not engaged themselves in composing rāga-kāvyas, yet it must be admitted that Sanskrit poetry has become very popular only through lyric tradition. Nowadays through televisions and radios, Sanskrit poems are established in the society, and are intelligible and congratulated by all.

Among the modern Sanskrit lyricists, Harekrishna Meher has indeed earned much fame by virtue of his poetic merit. From his identity, it is known that he has authored several books in Sanskrit, English, Hindi, Oriya and Kośali languages. His genius is equally adept in churning critical scriptures, also in composing the flower-like delicate kāvyas. ‘Mātrigītikāñjalih’ (5) is one of the Sanskrit works of this brilliant poet of Orissa. This gīti-kāvya comprises twenty-five lyrics that are very graceful and based on various topics. Mind of the connoisseur gets extremely exhilarated with sentiments by reading these lyrics again and again. In these lyrics, various matters such as worship to Motherland India, universal well-being, eternal glory and greatness of woman, recognisation of Self, adoration to God Tryambaka, prayer to Gāyatrī, appreciation to poets and literary artistes, honour of love, praise of childhood, ten incarnations of God and the like have been delineated.

Composed with very simple lucid words capable of expressing exact emotions, these lyrics are really endowed with the above-mentioned significant specialities of Gīti, that are ‘Geyatva’, ‘Manohāritva’, ‘Lālitya’ and ‘Bhāvānvitatva’. The noble-minded connoisseurs are real judges in this regard. Almost all the lyrics are marked with original thinkings... Posted by Dr. Harekrishna Meher at 12:48 PM Reader & Head, Department of Sanskrit, Govt. Autonomous College, BHAWANIPATNA-766001, Orissa (India). * Phone : +91-6670-231591 * Mobile: +91-94373-62962 *** Email : meher.hk@gmail.com * * * * URL : http://hkmeher.blogspot.com/

Mahabharata war was fought out in or about 1190 B.C

Home » Articles on Hinduism The Date of the Mahabharata War
By Pradip Bhattaacharya Published 06/3/2007 Category: Articles on Hinduism Foreword

In "Vyasa and Valmiki" Sri Aurobindo refers to a “recent article of the Indian Review” on the date of the Mahabharata war praising it as “an unusually able and searching (or almost conclusive) paper”. It was Velandai Gopala Aiyer’s “The Date of the Mahabharata War” published in Vol. II, January-December 1901 of this monthly journal (Indian Review) edited by G.A. Natesan.

Sri Aurobindo was obviously fully convinced by Aiyer’s arguments, because elsewhere he writes, “It is now known beyond reasonable doubt that the Mahabharata war was fought out in or about 1190 B.C.”Aiyer had published a previous paper in the same journal fixing the date of the beginning of the Kaliyuga from four different sources... Articles Scriptures Meditation

Sri Aurobindo carved out a brand of radicalism

Home page > 2008 > June 28, 2008 > The Power of One
Mainstream, Vol XLVI No 28 The Power of One Monday 30 June 2008, by T J S George

In Kerala, which is bracketed with Bengal over the politics of communist power, the leaders came up through revolutionary struggles, often bloody. E.M.S. Namboothiripad was a lone exception in that he was the scion of a landlord family. But he too turned to communism through the social revolution that sought to end the feudal-reactionary traditions that plagued the Namboothiri community.

Bengali communism, on the other hand, was shaped by leaders who came up through academic study rather than struggles at factory gates and paddy fields. It could be said that the flames of revolution were lit in Bengal by sparks brought from Oxford and Cambridge. A family had to be not just well-to-do but fairly rich to send a young member to England in the 1930s and 1940s. Many rich Bengali families did that. And many of the bright young men turned unexpectedly to radicalism in repudiation of their class background.

Aurobindo Ghosh and Subhas Chandra Bose might have carved out a brand of radicalism all their own. But a host of others like Bhupesh Gupta and Jyoti Basu and Hiren Mukherjee and Arun Bose and Mohit Sen and Indrajit Gupta returned from Oxbridge as Communists—as did Nikhil Chakravartty and his wife-to-be, Renu.

It will be invidious to draw a distinction between peasant communism and university educated communism, but the intellectual conversance of the early leaders did give Bengal’s communist movement a sheen its parallel streams in Kerala or Andhra did not have.

A decade ago we campaigned against power mongers within Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

DRAVIDA PERAVAI 01 Jul 08 UNESCO SHOULD NOT SUPPORT AURO VILLAGE By nandhivarman
Categories: Open Debate Tags: aurobindo ashram, auroville, CBI, dravida peravai, GOI, HRD ministry, IB, nandhivarman, unesco APPEAL TO UNESCO AND INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO RECONSIDER FUNDING AURO-VILLAGE

The Other side, journal for Socialist Action and Thought Volume 17, Number 9 of October 1997 edited by Comrade George Fernandes published my interview titled Aurobindo Ashram Takeover by Central Government Demanded and a sub title Dravida Peravai General Secretary Speaks, wherein the editor gave his introduction as follows: “There has been a persistent demand for the take over of the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry by various individuals and institutions. In the forefront of this campaign is the General Secretary of the Dravida Peravai N.Nandhivarman.

Nandhivarman has over years been exposing for public view the unsavory goings on in the Ashram, which have brought this once hallowed place into disrepute. We are publishing here below a question answer report which is an interview with Nandhivarman. We hope the authorities will take note of this report and take action in the matter before it is too late to stem the rot.”

Aurobindo Ashram is a religious institution. The demand of various political parties for take over of the Trust by the Government amounts to interference in religious matters. What is your comment?

In the Shirur Mutt Case [AIR 1954 SC 282] the convention is laid down. “The Court noticed that while cl[b] of Article 26 guaranteed religious denomination to manage its own affairs in matters of religion, other clauses of the Article dealt with the right of a religious denomination to acquire and own property in accordance with law. The administration of its property by a religious denomination having thus been placed on different footing from the right to manage its own affairs in matters of religion [page 290 of AIR]. The latter is a fundamental right which no legislature can take away, whereas the former can be regulated by laws with legislature can validly impose.

Mr. F.S. Nariman argues that Aurobindo Society was registered under Societies Registration Act 1960, and purely a religious society could not have been registered under Societies Registration Act. Section 20 of Societies Registration Act provides what kind of societies can be registered under the Act. It does not talk of religious institutions. Of course it includes a society with charitable purposes. The Memorandum of Association does not talk of any religion.

The Society professed to be a scientific research organization to the donors and got income tax exemption on the footing that it was not a religious institution. The Society has claimed exemption from income tax under section 80 for the donors and under section 35 for itself on that ground. Aurobindo Ashram was different from Auroville. The Ashram Trust had applied for Income Tax exemption and got on that very ground. The teachings of Aurobindo only represented his philosophy and not a religion.

It is evident from the excerpts of the Supreme Court judgment in the S.P.Mittal vs. Union of India [AIR 1983], that the teachings of Aurobindo are not religion. Hence we cannot be accused of attacking religion. Tax exemptions were obtained for specific purposes and we are within our limits in demanding the Government to oversee whether the exemptions availed is put into proper use. And if found contrary, cancellation of exemptions and take over of the trust is demanded.

Further Aurobindo in his writings categorically states: “An ashram means the house or houses of a teacher or master of spiritual philosophy. All depends on the Teacher and ends with his life time, unless there is another Teacher who can take his place. The Ashram is not a religious association [16th February 1934]

After Aurobindo and the Mother there is no Ashram. The Ashram ceases. The question before us is concern about mismanaged trust and its tax evasion. The responsibility of the Government to monitor conditions is a political affair and parties are within their rightful limits in raking up issues pertaining to Ashram…… so Nandhivarman continues the interview in The Other side. Like commercial break in TV serials, let us take a break here to know tampering of Aurobindo’s lines quoted above by two Americans.

Let me quote from OUTLOOK dated 15th March 1999 titled Editing Aurobindo: The Trustees of the Aurobindo Ashram are accused of tampering with his original works.

“SAAT was formed in 1956, six years after Aurobindo’s death and the copyright was obtained much after the death of the author, and hence SAAT has no authority to tamper with the original versions. The main grouse though is in the deletion of a sentence that actually calls for the ashrams winding up. Pranab Bhattacharya, the ashram’s physical education director, points out in his book I Remember “The editor must have thought, himself to be very clever in avoiding one line and bringing changes perhaps thinking that it could change the Ashram’s fate. The line in question is in The Teachings of Sri Aurobindo and Sri Aurobindo Ashram” first published in 1934. In that Aurobindo explains his concept of an ashram. “An Ashram means the house or houses of a Teacher or Master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice. An ashram is not an association or a religious body or a monastery, it is only what has been indicated above and nothing more. Everything in the Ashram belongs to the Teacher. The sadhaks [disciples] have no claim, right or voice in any matter. They remain and go according to his Will. Whatever money he receives is his property and not a trust or fund, for there is no public institution. Such ashrams have existed in India for centuries before Christ and still exist in large numbers. It all depends on the Teacher and ends with his lifetime, unless there is another Teacher who can take his place. By deleting the last line, which actually means the ashram’s rationale for existence ended with the passing of the mother, the trustees, say opponents are sustaining an institution against the teachings of Aurobindo. They point out that till the 1972 birth centenary celebrations; there has been no tampering with Aurobindo’s works. [Courtesy: outlook]

So far we have dealt on our party and other 10 political parties joint demand for takeover of the Ashram Trust, please note not the Ashram but Ashram Trust. We are not going into the debate whether ashram exists or not, as debated in OUTLOOK and later in Courts of this land up to Supreme Court. As public we know there is a samadhi, which attracts his followers. It has been the practice in Tamilnadu over the burial places of Siddhars; idols of Gods will be installed and made into temples. In famous Palani Murugan Temple, the samathi of Bhogar, one of the 18 siddhars of Tamilnadu remains. Over that samathi the idol of Lord Muruga, made out of a combination of 9 poisons, known as navapashanam, was installed by that Siddhar. The idol contained medicinal properties, the blessed water cured diseases, people say. Nearer to Aurobindo Ashram in the famous Manakula Vinayagar Temple beneath has the samathi of Thollaikathu swamigal . So we are questioning the existence of samadhis, temples and its worship.

We are attacking the mismanaged Trusts. Let us go back to continue from the break of the earlier part of my interview in The Other side.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. The Trust Board is trending the wrong path, inmates lament, and any comments?

Nandhivarman: Lawrence Marshal Pinto son of Lawrence Belarmino Pinto is 90 years old. On 18th December 1967, he was instrumental in floating Sri Aurobindo Ashram Harpagon Workshop Trust, which now is known as Sri Aurobindo Udyog Trust. All business units of erstwhile Aurobindo Ashram come under this umbrella organization. Still at 90 he wants to cling to the managing trusteeship of Udyog Trust. Apart from this he is also a Trustee in Honesty Engineers and Contractors Trust. [The word Trust will become lackluster in its usage. At the Ashram every activity needs only the suffix trusts] List of positions headed by the dreaded 90 year old L.M.Pinto alias Udar Pinto is endless.

In Pre-cast Concrete work Trust also he holds a position. The complete control of the major businesses by an old man who refuses to retire proves the power craziness of the Ashram ruling clique. Oriya writer Manoj Das for undisclosed reasons resigned from the post of Aurobindo Ashram Trust. But he remains Trustee of Udyog Trust. Mr. Manoj Das Guptaji is against one-man one-post principle. He is the scheming Trustee who has his eyes on the coveted Managing Trustee’s post. He is also the Registrar of the Aurobindo International Center for Education. He is Chairman of Agricultural Coordination Committee in charge of all farm lands and agricultural activities of the Trust. He is in charge of Shantiniketan at Bengal. Das Gupta is also a Trustee in Auro Travels Trust. He is the Chairman of the Technical coordination Committee, even the president of USA has only 2 terms. Lifelong positions for Ashram Trustees only. Auroform Trust, Aurofurn Trust, Fragrance and Perfume Trust and numerous Trusts are there. In all a handful and their coterie will rule the roost. Manoj Das Gupta controls all farm lands. [Break]

This is in 1997. Currently he is the Managing Trustee of Aurobindo Ashram Trust, wherein the President post occupied by French woman Mirra Alfasa is kept vacant. So a decade ago we campaigned against power mongers grabbing positions and multiplicity of sub trusts within Aurobindo Ashram Trust first initiated by Lawrence Marshal Pinto, a Goan. Now we see similarity in Auroville Foundation too. The information provided to us under Right to Information Act is given below, so that you can arrive at your own conclusions.

1. Artisana Trust: Mr. Michael Hutin and Ms. Mariam Isaac
2. Ankur Trust: Ms. Abha Tewari, Ms. Suzane Sabatier
3. Filaure Trust: Ms. Valerie Anne Tait, Mr. Michael Tait
4. Free Flow Trust: Mr. Frederic Laurent Codonnier, Ms. Martina Anna Maria Lj, Mr. Oliver Hetzel
5. Toujours Mieux Trust: Mr. Robert Leo Trunz, Mr. Jan V.D. Dikkenberg
6. Auromics Trust: Ms. Roberta Keeping, Mr. André Deplechin
7. Auroville Export Trust: Mr. Jan Imhoff, Mr. Hemant Lamba
8. Health and Healing Trust: Ms. Hilde D’Hiedt, Mr. Albert Zwaan, Mr. Jacques Verre
9. Auroville Service Trust: Mr. M.Ponnusamy, Mr. Ulrich Wolfgong Bretschneider
10. Arvinda Trust: Mr. Paul Pinthon, Ms. Laura Reddy
11. Kalki Trust: Mr. Paul Pinthon, Ms. Laura Reddy, Ms. Adelina Intanno, Mr. André Hababou
12. Altecs Trust: Mr. Clement Gruttman, Mrs. Christa Gruttman, Mr. Bernard Grenier
13. Guest House Trust: Ms. Simonette Smits, Ms. Srimoyi Rosseger, Ms. Afsaneh Bader
14. ABC Trust: Mr. Carsten Michelsen, Mr. Marco Feira
15. Kattida Kalai Trust: Mr. Moreno Jean Marc, Mr. Herrea Carlos, Mr. M. Palani
16. Discovery Trust: Mr. P. Karuna, Mrs K. Uma, Mr. Jean Francois Bertaux
17. Mereville Trust: Mr. Ragnetti Gianfranco, Mr. Pratap Chatterjee
18. Auromitra Trust: Mr. Peter Clarence Smith, Mr. E.Rathinam, Mr. Joss Brooks, Ms. Dee Decew
19. Inside Trust: Mr. Klaus Onken, Ms. Shama Dalvi
20. Auroville Village Action Trust: Ms. Dee Decew, Mr. M.S. Subhashchand, Mr. Alain Bernard, Mr.D.Selvaraj, Mr. L.Dhanapal
21. ADPS Trust: Ms. Van Der Vlugt, Mr. Franz Fassbender, Mr. Bobby Patel
22. Aurore Trust: Mr. Hemant Lamba, Mr. Theo Hekena Baetens, Mr. Gilles Alex Andre Guigan, Mrs. Suhasini Ayer Guigan
23. CSR Trust: Mr. Gilles Alxe Andre Guigan, Mr. Theo Helena Beatens, Mr. Hemant Lamba, Mrs. Suhasini Ayer Guigan
24. Aurosarjan Trust: Mr. Wolf Pfeifer, Mr. Stephen Himmer
25. Auromode Trust: Ms. Adelena Intannio, Mr. André Hababou
26. New Engineering Trust: Mr. Pierre Elouard. Ms. Joy Choudry
27. For all Pour Tous Trust: Ms. Francoise Gabelle, Mr. Oliver Hetzel
28. Swagatham Trust: Ms. Judith Robinson, Mr. Jean Francoise Bertaux
29. Sangamam Trust: Ms. R. Meenakshi, Mr. Joseba Martinez Burdaspar, Mr. Sanjeev Agarwal, Mr. M. Ponnusamy
30. Animal Care Trust: Ms. Shivaya Ruth, Mr. Kalyan Nag, Ms. Bhavana Dee Decew
31. Palayam School Trust: Mr. V. Gunaseelan, Mr. Jurgen Putz, Mr. Anto Keulaars.

APPEAL TO UNESCO and INDIA’s HRD MINISTRY TO INTROSPECT:

These are the sub trusts under Auroville Foundation and its Trustees. We have nothing personal against any one of them with clean records and service record to people. While I was discussing this with a BJP leader, he wondered, how come all Trusts have Christians as Trustees, and to him I told it surprises me why your Murli Manohar Joshi backed up these Christians and gave approval for the Master Plan, which will make Tamils or Indians second class citizens in Auro-village of 1619 citizens. If for 1619 people there are 31 Trusts, what for, what purpose it serves for, why a Government of India organization under Human Resources Ministry should keep under its umbrella so many trusts, and do they have any relevance to the Integral Yoga of Aurobindo or any of his teachings? It is crystal clear, that as in Aurobindo Ashram Trust where in 1967 a Goan Christian, if that will be a word nice to the ears of next ruling aspirant party in Union Government, here also creation of sub trusts are for tax exemption and nothing else. These are commercial enterprises, said bold officials of Income Tax department and waged legal battles against Ashram sub trusts in various courts, before decades Courts gave favorable verdicts in favor of the Income Tax department.

Dravida Peravai demands abolition of so many trusts under Auroville Foundation. There is no need to have so many sub trusts; they can be managed by Auroville Foundation as ONE DEPARTMENT under Human Resources Development Ministry. UNESCO and other donors, who get carried away by the beautiful language of Aurobindo and his teachings, should not encourage the set up of an international city in Indian soil. If an international city is to be set up, for just 1619 people it is criminal waste of public money which no way benefits local people. Let UNESCO spend money on the poorest of poor in Zimbabwe or African nations. Let donors around the world fund projects that will convert all coastal fishermen villages as modern mini towns with all infrastructures. Let world bodies fund Government of India to make all colonies of dalits better places to live with hygiene. If this mushroom growth of Trusts under the umbrella of Auroville Foundation is encouraged further, someone will come forward to create more and more sub trusts with high sounding words and phrases, which has no relevance to the teachings of Aurobindo or for betterment of the Tamil villagers under the clutches of poverty.

It is high time Human Resources Development Minister Arjun Singh takes note of this Social Injustice, and order for a high level probe into the working of these sub trusts, in order to abolish them and merge them under Auroville Foundation, which will have government control and accountability to Indian public, and I am exercising my birthright as Indian to appeal to Indian Government, and no foreigner can snatch that right from indigenous people in any country of our civilized world

N. Nandhivarman General Secretary Dravida Peravai
AUROVILLE FOR 1619 PEOPLE IGNORING LOCAL TAMILS
« TAMILNADU GOVERNMENT STOP PATRONIZING AUROVILLE
AUROVILLE RENAMED AUROVILLAGE