Sri Aurobindo was like a sun amongst the stars

Key to the Vedas - Page 152 - M. I. Mikhailov, N. S. Mikhailov - Vinoba Bhave, his follower, and many other contemporary Hindus state that his words were indeed prophetic. Aurobindo Ghosh `The recovery of the perfect truth of the Veda is a practical necessity for the future of the human race. ...

Indian Political Tradition - Page 221 - Mohanty D.K - 2002 - Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was the most formidable representative of Indian culture and civilisation. His philosophy synthesising mysticism and realism, materialism and spiritualism carved out a unique place for ...

Aurobindo Ghosh, revolutionary and reformer - Shiri Ram Bakshi - 1994 - He Led A Simple Life In Accordance With The Indian Traditions. The Work Would Be Useful For Teachers, Students And Research Scholars In India And Abroad.

Indian political thinkers: modern indian political thought - Page 135 - N. Jayapalan - 2000 - 11 Shri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) Life Sketch When the Indian politics demanded the personalities sprang up. Maharishi Aurobindo Ghosh was like a sun amongst the stars. He was such a person that he was high above the calibre of Swami ...

Mao Zedong and the Communist Policies 1927-1978 - Page 50 - B. E. Shinde - 1992 - CHAPTER VII AUROBINDO GHOSH AUROBINDO GHOSH in his ashrama which later became a regular teaching house of spiritual knowledge, opened out an absolutely new ground of scientific explanation of not only the Gita, but also other spiritual ...

A Comprehensive Study of Education - Page 260 - S. Samuel Ravi - Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) INTRODUCTION Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, occupies a very important position among the contemporary Indian philosophers of education due to his wide knowledge of East and West, ancient and modern system of ...

Sri Aurobindo Ghosh and Bal Gangadhar Tilak: the spirit of freedom - Suneera Kapoor - 1991 – Both Aurobindo and Tilak have made freedom as the central theme of their writings. Aurobindo regards freedom as the "wanfra"1 of his life. He says, "if to aspire to independence and preach freedom is a crime, you may cast me into jail ... Foundations of Tilak s Nationalism: Discrimination, Education and Hindutva Parimala V. Rao (Hardcover - Jun 1, 2010)

Indian revolutionaries: a comprehensive study, 1757-1961: Volume 1 - Śrīkr̥shṇa Sarala - 1999 - Aurobindo Ghosh A countless number of people crowded the High Court of Calcutta that day. ... Aurobindo Ghosh was standing in the enclosure for the accused. While arguing the case for him, Chittaranjan Das tore through the web of false ... Brahmabandhab Upadhyay: the Life and Thought of a Revolutionary.(Book Review): An article from: The Journal of the American Oriental Society Rachel Fell McDermott (Digital - Jan 1, 2003)

Educational Thinkers - Page 125 - V.R. Taneja, S. Taneja - 2006 - 8 AUROBINDO GHOSH (AUGUST 15, 1872 — AUGUST 15, 1947) In the galaxy of saints, seers, sages and prophets in India, Aurobindo outshines all because of his versatile genius sprawling over the whole human situation — man individual, ...

Philosophy of history: some reflections on North-east India - Page 60 - S.C. Daniel - 2000 - CHAPTER 8 Sri Aurobindo's Theory of History: A Philosophical Investigation (Sri Aurobindo Ghosh, 1872-1950) This chapter makes an attempt to show that Sri Aurobindo has a full-blooded theory of history, and that it is a combination of ...

Modern Indian History - Page 6-17 - Mohammad Tarique - One of the earliest leaders who criticised the moderate politics systematically, in a series of articles entitled 'New Lamps for Old' was Aurobindo Ghosh. He did not like constitutional method of struggle based on English model and ...

Bengal divided: Hindu communalism and partition, 1932-1947 - Page 13 - Joya Chatterji - 2002 - 57 For an account of Aurobindo Ghosh's rather curious and exceptionally westernised upbringing, see AB Purani, ... 58 Barbara Southard, The Political Strategy of Aurobindo Ghosh', pp. 361 369. Also see Aurobindo's discussion of his ...

The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo - Page 168 - V. P. Varma – 1990 - During the short but vigorously active, almost meteoric political career that Aurobindo had, 2 he earned a great and lasting reputation.3 ... Wrote Subhas: "The illustrious example of Aurobindo Ghosh ...

Congress and Indian nationalism: the pre-independence phase - Page 72 - Richard Sisson, Stanley A. Wolpert - 1988 - 420 pages - Full view

The editorial staff of this paper included BC Pal (the chief editor), Aurobindo Ghosh (who had recently come from Baroda to Calcutta as a college lecturer), Hemendra Prasad Ghosh (a zamindar from Jessore), Shyamsundar Chakrabarti (the ...

Research journal: humanities & social science: Volume 1, Issue 1 - University of Indore - 1972 - Political Vedantism of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh Dr. Ram Chandra Gupta, MA Ph. D: Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (born in 1872) was one of the most creative and significant figures in the Indian Renaissance Movement. He was gifted with surprising powers ...

Nationalism: its theory and principles in India - Page 168 - Parmanand Parashar - 1996 - name was Aurobindo Ghosh." According to Dr. OP Goyal, "From the very beginning. Aurobindo belonged to the Extremist School of Politics in India." Aurobindo dubbed the Moderates as Mendicants because they believed in prayers and ...

Saints, gurus and mystics of India: Volume 2 - Giriraj Shah – 1999 - Sri Aurobindo Ghosh Sri Aurobindo was born on thursday the 15th August 1871 about 5 AM at Calcutta in Bengal in a reputed Ghosh family of Konnagar. His father's name was Krishnadham and mother was known as Swarnalata. ...

Indian Dissertation Abstracts: Volume 7 - 1978 - KARAN SINGH : THE POLITICAL THOUGHT OF SRI AUROBINDO GHOSH1893-1910, 1963, Supervisor : CJ. Chacko The Problem The group of extremists in the Indian National Congress contained some of the most extraordinary men of modern India such as ...

Contemporary approaches to value education in India - Page 202 - R. T. Nanda - 1997 - Chapter 11 Sri Aurobindo's Approach to Value Education Life of Sri Aurobindo Ghosh (1872-1950) Sri Aurobindo Ghosh was born on August 15, 1872 in Calcutta. His father Krishnadhan, had desire to anglicise him completely. ...

The Indian historical review: Volume 28 - Indian Council of Historical Research - 2003 - BIPIN CHANDRA PAL AND AUROBINDO GHOSH: A UNIQUE RELATIONSHIP* Devendra Swarup It was a unique relationship, not at the physical level but at the highest intellectual and spiritual level. It was a relationship between two true ... Social and political orientations of Neo-Vedantism: Study of the social philosophy of Vivekananda, Aurobindo, Bipin Chandra Pal, Tagore, Gandhi, Vinoba and Radhakrishnan S. L Malhotra

Literature, caste and society: the masks and veils - Page 164 - S. Jeyaseela Stephen - 2006 - Another rabid extremist who had taken shelter in Pondicherry too was Nagaswami Aiyar who had close contacts with Aurobindo Ghosh. In early 1910, Aurobindo Ghosh had arrived in Pondicherry and men like VVS Aiyar and Subramania Bharati ...

The universalistic thought of India: from the Rigveda to Radhakrishnan -  Ramnarayan Vyas - 1970 - Shri Aurobindo Ghosh Aurobindo was not only a great political fighter, philosopher and mystic. He was a great thinker who drew great inspiration from India's past and made some constructive contribution in the realm of social thought. ...

The nationalist movement in India and its leaders - Vidya Dhar Mahajan - 1962 - Aurobindo Ghosh Shri Aurobindo Ghosh, the sage of Pondicherry, shot into prominence during the agitation against the partition of Bengal. As the editor of the Bands Matram, he took the message of the Congress to every home. ...

Political Theory & Thought - Page 444 - Sharma Manoj - Hence, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh developed a positive programme of political action against the British. His objective became the complete freedom ...Besides his revolutionary writings, Sri Aurobindo Ghosh had bcome a member of the secret ...

Imperial Japan and national identities in Asia, 1895-1945 - Page 32 - Li Narangoa, R. B. Cribb - 2003 - REVOLUTIONARY PROPAGANDA: AUROBINDO GHOSH Even though revolutionary conspiracy from 1902 onwards involved different persons, one figure was constantly in the background as organizer and instigator: Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo, ...

Secular democracy: Volume 4 - 1971 - One important feature of this revivalist element in Aurobindo Ghosh's thought was his claim that nationalism was a ... In this connection it is significant that CR Das, while defending Aurobindo Ghosh in the Aliporc Bomb case said: "The ...

Indian literature in English: critical views - Page 26 - Satish Barbuddhe – 2007 - This extraordinary fervour — the zeal of a new nationalism — came uponAurobindo Ghosh like a divine frenzy. ... The nationalism of Aurobindo Ghosh was a burning religious emotion, the voice of God in man.17 Sri Aurobindo was arrested ...

Sri Aurobindo's Writings - The Mother's Collected Works

nirmalya said, May 7, 2011 at 7:15 am

I also do not prefer calling some one Sri Aurobindo especially when the word Sri was only added sometime after 1926 and remained with him for the next 24 years. it was genuinely insignificant for him. Moreover the addition of `Sri’ does not connote anything special for him as he had gone without it from 1872 – 1926 i.e. almost 54 years. As he dropped his `Acroyd’ middle name when he boarded the ship to India, so also I favor dropping the word `Sri’ . He was a teacher and a guide and we are all his students in the classroom of this world. He was referred to as A.G. in Baroda College and also National Council of Education Bengal (Ref. Aurobindo Ghosh: B Debsharma). Balai Debsharma was one of the first 19 students of AG at the National Council of Education Bengal. As I understand he also did not like that he should have devotees and even went to the extent of prohibiting prostration in front of his picture inside the Ashram. But unfortunately things did change. Please appreciate that we are dealing with a person who was beyond us and of course beyond his time. So it is better to try in finding him in us and not just show obeisance a thing which A.G. never liked given his brilliant education and the reading of all things around.

Ashis Nandy, T.N. Madan, & Rajeev Bhargava

PRIVATE SECULARISM! | Gurcharan Das - Outlook April 13, 2004 - 07:19

The change began when Ashis Nandy first assaulted the old, orthodox, Nehruvian secularists with his critique of the European modernity in the mid-1980s. He promoted a return to tradition, wherein we might find the roots of a religious tolerance of a different kind, which might better resonate with the masses than the hegemonic language of Western secularism. A year later, T.N. Madan, the distinguished sociologist, wrote that secularism was having a problem in India because the realms of the sacred and secular continued to be deeply intertwined in Indian tradition. Secularism would only succeed in India if we understood it to mean inter-religious understanding and an equality of citizenship rights; he added that we should “take both religion and secularism seriously, and not reject the former as superstition and the latter as a mask for communalism and or more expediency.”  

This attack did not go well with the Nehruvian secularists, who roundly chastised Nandy and Madan for feeding into the hands of the Hindu nationalists. In the early nineties, Partha Chatterjeee, the eminent social scientist at Columbia University, questioned if secularism was, in fact, the right way to stop Hindu majoritarianism. The Hindu right, he argued was perfectly comfortable with the institutional processes of the modern state, and the main issue was not ideology, he felt, but to protect the cultural rights of the minorities, and this could best be done through toleration “premised on autonomy and respect for persons…but made sensitive to the varying political salience of the institutional contexts.”  

Neera Chandoke, the political scientist at JNU, responded by arguing that the concept of toleration was not enough and that minorities needed supportive structures in order to protect their cultural identity. The writer, Mukul Kesavan, and others rightly worry, however, that this sort of thinking will only delay the day when we might call ourselves equal and common citizens of one state. Rajeev Bhargava, the editor of an excellent volume of essays on Indian secularism, distinguishes between political and ethical secularism, and says that to exist in a more liveable polity, we as citizens need to agree to what is right rather than what is good.   Let's just be content with living together, rather than living together well (which is, of course, another project, and a valid one too.)  

So, how do we begin to privatise religion? The answer, I think, lies with the deeply religious but moderate voices in each religion's mainstream, who must come forward and proclaim once again that true religion has nothing to do with political life. The failure of our contemporary public life is that we do not hear these voices, but only hear the shrill voices of extremists at both ends. It was not always so. Earlier, we had sensible public figures who were also deeply religious. Mahatma Gandhi, Maulana Azad, Vivekananda used to speak with credibility on behalf of the vast majority of religiously minded Indians. Today, what we have is an unfortunate polarization between an influential and articulate minority of secularists and the vast majority of silent, religiously minded Indians. Neither takes the trouble to understand the other, and what we have as a result is a dialogue of the deaf. We need to hear the many reasonable voices of good sense within the Hindu and Muslim religious communities, surely, there must be a few courageous individuals who will speak up before their faith is totally hijacked by the terrorists!  

Following Rajeev Bhargava, our secularists should learn from the American philosopher, John Rawls, and distinguish between public reason and secular reason. While public reason limits itself to political and civic principles, secular reason is broader and deals with a secular person's moral doctrines and first philosophy. Our secularists need to be aware of this distinction and refrain from introducing secular values and secular reason into political debate. This is not easy to do, I realise, because liberal political values are intrinsically moral values and closely intertwined with moral doctrines.  

Above all, let's learn from our own Emperor Ashoka, who ruled when Hindus and Buddhists were fighting each other in mid-third century BCE, and who declared in his famous Edict XII,   “The sects of other people deserve reverence…By thus acting, a man exalts his own sect, and at the same time does service to the sects of other people…He who disparages the sects of others…inflicts the severest injury on his own sect.” Here is a wonderful insight for our times: you damage your own religion when you malign another's and secularism is not only good for governance but also for religion. Those who call for a Hindu nation not only harm the nation, they also damage Hinduism.

Many of the ills of contemporary Indian society can be traced to the unfinished agenda of the Indian renaissance

Was there a renaissance?  

Frontline - K.N. Panikkar

By the 20th century, Brahmo Samaj and Prarthana Samaj increasingly lost their appeal, Arya Samaj ceased to be a social force, Satya Shodak Samaj could not ...

Nietzsche: He rattled church, his philosophy a generation He admired Manu 

Organiser - Vaidehi Nathan 

FRIEDRICH Nietzsche is a cult. He has been deified by almost all who read him, studied him and researched on him. Such is the pull of the man, his words and philosophy.

BOOK REVIEW:  The Wealth Of Adam

In 'Adam Smith: An Enlightened Life' Phillipson depicts the man behind the legend by representing his ideas through a detailed biography of the economist and his great works

two online articles moved 

from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek

“In Praise of the Spooky”

“A Larger Sense of Beauty”

Charting a course to the next Renaissance

Why didn't economists predict the crisis? from Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen

Raghu Rajan nails it: “I would argue that three factors largely explain our collective failure: specialization, the difficulty of forecasting, and the disengagement of much of the profession from the real world.” Read the whole thing, hat tip to Mark Thoma.

Thomas Friedman weighs in by doctorzamalek (Graham Harman)

Here’s his new OPINION PIECE about Tahrir Square, in which he grasps what much American media seems not to be grasping: this is something new. Friedman’s piece will probably make you feel happy, so read it immediately.

Indian Constitution and Hindutva - A comment by B.A.Desai from Communalism Watch by c-info

by B.A. Desai (Senior Advocate Fmr. Minister Fmr. Add. Solicitor General of India)

Indian constitution is both a Legal and Social Document. The unique Freedom Struggle based on “Truth and Non Violence” took in its fold all sections of the Society, the Rich and The Poor Man and Women, Youth all Religious Communities, be it Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Parsis, Sikh, Jain in fact all castes and …

Hitler as Darwinian Word Made Flesh from One Cosmos by Gagdad Bob - Feb 4, 2011

As Van Vrekhem writes, Hitler believed he "had been sent, and was constantly guided, to change the conscience and morality of man into something like the opposite of Christianity." This would be "a new system of values based on brutality and violence." Hitler actually saw Christ as his precursor, in that he would be the "link," so to speak, between the Volk and their most primitive instincts. Again, it was very much as if he were "word made flesh," except that in this case, the word was the primordial lie from below…

Hitler wrote that "the life of the individual should not be given such high value. A fly lays a million eggs, they all die. But flies survive." As Van Vrekhem notes, "the perspectives this opens reveal something of the real dimension of the evil to be discovered behind all the destruction and slaughter caused by this German Messiah." 

Market colonization of the virtual public sphere

XIII International Conference

Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda in collaboration with Department of English and Cultural Studies, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Theme: The Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere

15-18 December 2010 Venue: Hotel Parkview, Chandigarh, India

Program-Schedule

Thursday, 16^th December Venue: Banquet Hall (Upper)

feelphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/12/cyberspace-and-postmodern-democracy.html

Friday, 17^th December

Fifth Session (Plenary) Venue: Banquet Hall (Upper)

9:00 – 10:00 am Chair: Ravina Aggarwal

Speaker: Lewis R. Gordon, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Philosophy, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA

    Topic:  “Market Colonization of the Virtual Public Sphere?”

Sixth Session 10:00 – 11:30 am Venue: Board Room

A3: New Media, New Identities Chair:    Deepti Gupta

a)     Vipan Pal Singh, “Media Culture and the Construction of Postmodern Identities”

b)     Nizara Hazarika, “Inventing the Self in the Public Domain of Cyberspace: A Cyberfeminist Perspective”

c)      Charulata Singh, “New Media Technologies and the Cultural Shift: Changing Dimensions of Public Sphere and Identities”

d)     Balaji Ranganathan, “The Virtual World and the Reconstruction of the Self”

B3:      Virtual Realities/Real Consequences Chair: Jaspal K. Singh

Venue: Conference Room

a)     Kalpana Purohit, “Being In-Between Two Worlds”

b)     Ankit Gandhi, “Online Blogging Communities Threatening Real Life Relations”

c)      Jyoti Rane, “Honour and Killing - Community Public Sphere vs. Public Sphere of a Nation State”

C3:  The Virtual Construction of Culture Chair: William D. Pederson

Venue: Banquet Hall (Lower)

a)     Shweta Rao, “Virtual Kitchens: Food and Community in Media”

b)     Alankar Kaushik, “The Public Sphere and Media: Vernacular Television Networks”

c)      Ankita Sharma, “Media and Degeneration of the Public Sphere: A Critique of the Ad World”

Seventh Session (Plenary)  11:45 – 1.00 pm

Chair: Javeed Alam Venue: Banquet Hall (Upper)

Speaker: Akeel Bilgrami, Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy and Director, the Heyman Centre for the Humanities, Columbia University, New York, USA

Topic:  “The Mentality of Democracy”

Eighth Session 2.00 –3.30 pm Venue: Conference Room

A4: New Media Sexualities Chair: James Winchester

a)     Bini B.S., “The Public Spheres of Vicarious Fulfillments: Live Sex on the Internet and the Performative Dynamics of Body and Sexuality”

b)     Dibyajyoti Borah & Ratan Deka, “Social Networking, Sexuality of the Closet and the Second Life”

c)      Golam Rabbani, “Media and Peeping Tom Culture: Disorienting Public Spectacle in the Evolution of Voyeurism”

d)     Sunita Manian, “New Media Erasing Boundaries or Erecting Barriers?: Gay/Transgendered vs. Kothi/Aravani”

B4:      The Location of Literature

Chair: Rumina Sethi Venue: Banquet Hall (Lower)

a)     Marie Fernandes, “Reconstruction of Galeta from White Marble to Mechanical Cyborg”

b)     Supriya Agarwal, “Modernity and Gender in Shashi Deshpande’s Urban Novels”

c)      Urmil Talwar, “The Dialectics of Private and Public Spaces in the Poetics of Marginality in The Survivor”

C4: Representations 2        

Chair: Anil Raina Venue: Board Room

a)     Geetanjali Bhagat, “Ironic Juxtaposition of Media, Ethics, Politics and Public Sphere: A Critique of Peepli Live”

b)     Sanchita Choudhury, “Bāul Fusion Music Emerging as a New Genre in the Domain of Fusion Music Fuelled by Media of the Milieu”

c)      Rajyashree Khushu-Lahiri, “Stories of a Lifetime: New Media and Orality”

Ninth Session (Plenary) Venue: Banquet Hall (Upper)

3:30 – 4.30 pm Chair: Bishnu Mohapatra

Speaker: R. Radhakrishnan, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of California at Irvine, USA

Topic:  “Public Spheres and the Challenge of Self-Reflexivity”

Tenth Session (Plenary) 4:45–6:30 pm Venue: Banquet Hall (Upper)

Gurdial Singh’s Novel Unhoye (The Survivors) Chair: Gour K. Das

Speaker: a) M.L. Raina, Former Professor of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Topic:             “Modern, Postmodern, Pre-Modern: What Survives in The Survivors?”

Speaker: a) M.L. Raina, Former Professor of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Topic:             “Modern, Postmodern, Pre-Modern: What Survives in The Survivors?”

Speaker:        b) Rana Nayar, Professor and Head, Department of English, Panjab University,                      Chandigarh

Topic: “On Translating Gurdial Singh’s Unhoye”

Speaker:  c) Gurpal Sandhu, Department of Panjabi, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Topic:     “Decentring Reality: Self, Tradition and Modernity”

Saturday, 18^th December

Eleventh Session 9.00 –10.30 am   Venue: Board Room

A5: Blog/Twitter Politics Chair: Kanika Batra

a)     Soni Wadhwa Kar, “The Promise of the Sindhi Websites”

b)     Amy Parish, “Stuff White People Like, Blogging and the ‘Racialisation’ of White Subjectivities”

c)      Sumedha Iyer, “Twitter and the Public Intellectual”

B5: Literature and Technology Chair: Lovelina Singh Venue: Conference Room

a)     Manju Dhariwal, “A Vision of Virtual Sphere in Kafka’s ‘Penal Colony’: Its Relation with Introna’s ‘Obligation’”

b)     Nipun Kalia & Kriti Kalia, “From Ink to Pixels: Literature in a Digital Avatar”

c)      S. Sridevi Selvaraj, “A Study of Mediated Internet Literature – A Facet of Electronic Communities”

d)     Urjani Chakravarty, “Relevance Theory and New Media: Interpreting Pattern Change in Literary Criticism”                                                      

C5: Open Questions, Or, the Jury is Still Out on the New Media

Chair: Manju Jaidka Venue: Banquet Hall (Lower)

a)     Smriti Singh, “From an Imagined Community to a Virtual Community: A Borderless World”

b)     Aruni Mahapatra, “Sharing or Stealing? Some Reflections on Piracy and Ethics Today”

c)      Lovleen Bains, “Is New Media Helping or Hurting the Growth of Literacy?”

Twelfth Session 10.45–12:15 pm Venue: Banquet Hall (Lower)

A6: “Are We Socially Networked Yet?” Chair: Akshaya Kumar

a)  Mallika V. Kumar & P. E. Thomas, “Anonymity and Online Interaction – A Thematic Perspective”

b)  Sanghamitra Sadhu, “Fashioning the Self on the Sites: Plausibility of a Virtual Public Sphere”

c)   Mashrur Hossain, “2b/X2b=?: IM & d trnsloc8ing f a virtual sphere”

d)  Sukhdeep Ghuman, “The Ever-expanding Sphere of Cyber Communities”

B6: The Pedagogical Imperative Chair: Timothy Allen Jackson Venue: Board Room

a)     Pankaj Roy, “The Virtual Transformation of the Public Sphere: Media’s Role in the Growth of Learning”

b)     Meenu Gupta, “Virtual Worlds A Contemporary Pedagogical Reality of Teaching and Learning”

c)      Meeta Chatterjee Padmanabhan, “Some Real Problems Faced in the Virtual World of Online Learning”

d)     Rich Rice, “Writing for Life: Narrow­­­­­­­­­­­­­­–Casted Mass Convergence and the Consumption of Newly–Mediated Knowledge”

Thirteenth Session 12:15 – 1:15 pm Venue: Banquet Hall (Lower)

Open Session & Valedictory Chair: Prafulla C. Kar

What a miracle it is that things work at all

Inward Christian Soldiers! from One Cosmos by Gagdad Bob (Robert Godwin)

Interesting that early Christianity spread in part by virtue of the sadistic violence visited upon its adherents… Once Christianity became the state religion and the era of persecution ended, a new kind of "interior martyrdom" emerged, as serious seekers fled to the desert in order to find God in the solitude of the heart. These souls engaged in a kind of extreme seeking that is also difficult for us to comprehend. I mean, it's one thing to join a monastery and become part of an interior community, but they didn't exist until much later.

Then again, perhaps there are spiritual challenges and temptations in our day that people from even one hundred years ago couldn't imagine. Most of us will never know what amounted to constants among pre-modern people, including hunger, disease, war (up close and personal, not in a distant land), chronic pain, constant loss, and early death.

Thus, for any thinking person, the utter futility of the world must have seemed quite obvious. It's the same with the Buddha's advice -- it wasn't nearly as difficult to detach from the world when the world had so little to recommend it. What was one giving up, really? Few had any possessions, any private property, any aspirations, anything to read, or anything to do except subsist.

So in an odd way, the present world undoubtedly requires its own kind of spiritual athleticism in order to transcend it, since the temptations and distractions are so much greater. In a way, the more fulfilling the world is, the more pain there is. How did people in the past endure the routine loss of a child? I would guess that infant mortality was so high, that the vast majority of parents had lost at least one child. Nowadays, this constitutes a tragic minority. Indeed, even a miscarriage is an occasion for grief, whereas I can't imagine premodern people giving it a second thought.

As I speculated in the book, this must have affected the way the premodern psyche grew and developed. We now know that the psyche is formed on the basis of attachment to early objects, and that any kind of disruption in the attachment process leaves emotional and cognitive scars for life.

Of course we can never know with certainty, but there is good evidence that prior to modernity, parents didn't invest a lot of emotional energy in their children until there was a good chance they'd survive infancy, so I don't see how this could not have resulted in what we would call schizoid (i.e., detached), depressed, or paranoid personalities (i.e., bitter, distrusting, and angry people) on a widespread basis.

For us, the modern world is so alluring that we can forget all about transcendence. It gives the illusion that it can fulfill us, but this is a promise that it can never keep. Unconsciously, this attachment to the world probably just makes us feel less secure. In a perverse way, the more secure we actually are, the less secure we may feel, because we expect things to go perfectly. We can come enticingly close to controlling most of the variables in our lives -- which only makes it more maddening that in reality we are promised nothing.

I am sure this is what animates the angry and hysterical control freaks of the left. They always wants to make things "better," with no appreciation of what a miracle it is that things work at all. They have no earthly conception that the optimal will never be perfect, and that in pursuing perfection, they will only engender the sub-optimal. Their attempts at control always generate chaos, for which they recommend more of the same.