Introduction to this Site

Welcome! This site is dedicated to a critique of the book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs.

This book is promoted as an academic study of Sri Aurbindo's life, but is in fact full of errors, distortions and misrepresentations which can easily mislead readers not familiar with the larger body of documentation of Sri Aurobindo's life and writings. The contributions on this site are intended to identify and expose to the public at large the numerous distortions in this book and to set the record straight in academic discourse.

As a first time visitor, you can begin by reading the Background note on this book and its sponsors followed by the Frequently Asked Questions. Then you can either sequentially explore the entries on the main menu at the top of the page, or plunge into specific themes of discussion through the Categories list below the main menu. You can also navigate from the master List of Categories which defines each category of posts. The latest posts are listed datewise on the main page.

Every post is followed by a discussion blog that allows you to participate in the discussion. Please respect the objectives of this site and assist in maintaining a high standard of academic discourse. We value your free participation in all the discussions, but we request you to respect others and their freedom also. Posts containing abuses or personal attacks will be deleted.

For suggestions and feedback please write to rtlosa@gmail.com.

General Editor

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The Gospel of Peter -- by Alok Pandey

If one has to believe in all that Peter and his followers are saying, then one would arrive at the following conclusions:

1. Devotion, faith and love for the Master are not spiritual but religious things. As such they have little to do with Integral Yoga which is beyond religion.

2. Spirituality is about an unbridled freedom of the mind and vital to do as they please and what they please and when and wherever they please.

3. Anything that either restrains this kind of freedom or restricts it is religion and fundamentalism.

4. Doubts about the path and criticism of the Master is also one of the roads that one can take in the journey of Integral Yoga.

5. To point out a crass misuse of freedom and theft of a most valuable treasure by those who are meant to guard it, is blasphemy and sacrilegious.

6. It is perfectly alright that someone who is entrusted with but does not possess or own a property, to steal and sell it. It is simply exercising his freedom. To point out such transgressions is being narrow-minded.

7. Some ‘yogis’ across the Atlantic are so developed that they know what is happening in an ashram in South India better than the Ashram inmates themselves. Not only they know but can also dictate what the collectivity should do and must do. This is not moral policing, but standing up to an ideal!

8. Indians are intrinsically intellectually inferior, incapable of analysing anything, have a poor knowledge of the nuances of English language and are simply a bunch of sentimental fools.

9. Laws are meant only for some and not for others. To go to the court to settle disputes is ethically wrong.

10. Writing letters that draw the attention of authorities to a serious transgression and insist that action be taken to prevent further theft and misuse amounts to sword-brandishing and arm-twisting. So also, to express the collective anguish through such a letter is simply mob mentality and mass hysteria.

11. Unity means accepting to conciliate with those who are hostile to the Yoga and to the Divine. It means to shake hands with brazen falsehood.

12. Human beings are superior and much more important than the Divine. Love for those who are akin to me in custom and culture comes first and foremost. Love for humanity comes next. Love for idealism, for truth, for honesty, for transparency comes last. And Love for the Divine is simply an abstraction or a hallucination, a fantasy and one must get rid of it fast so as to appear modern and secular, non-religious and thereby fit and acceptable for sharing the platform of elitist conferences.

13. The Avatar is simply an imperfect human being who with great labour and pain somehow achieves a doubtful divinity. He is not, as is generally and ignorantly believed and upheld by ignorant religious minded persons and mystics, a Perfect Consciousness descending into an imperfect mould to work amidst and upon an imperfect field of earth and humanity.

14. Scholars can never be wrong and man’s mind is capable of judging and criticising the Divine.

15. And finally, though it sounds like a cliché, the boss is always right! And the boss is Peter Heehs!

Alok Pandey

7.1.2010


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The IQ of Plankton and Other Stories

[This is what we have received in response to the propaganda campaign unleashed by SCIY / IYF / Peter Heehs. The AVCompats forum refused to post this response although it has always publicised any emails from SCIY / IYF. It looks like they too do not want the truth to be known!]

The IQ of Plankton and Other Stories

29.1.2010

The IQ of Plankton is not easy to arrive at in the best of circumstances. But those interested in the subject got very lucky last week when the collective IQ of the species was on spectacular display.

The pulsating light strobes shone bright into the ocean trenches in stark contrast to the darkness that punctuates the tunnel vision of the SCIY / IYF tribes. They marched out of the deep caverns to the roll of drums to take on the "Court Diary" that had invaded the depths of their pelagic zone.

Funny

It is funny how the truth has to be certified by Peter Heehs to be of any value these days. If Peter Heehs declares that there were no foreigners on the court premises, those poor blokes better not be there! It is funny how Peter Heehs has put Matriprasad in a spot by declaring that he was not present in Court. In order to control the damage caused by Peter's lie, Matriprasad has hastened to clarify the he was not present "during the court proceedings" only! And Matriprasad is right because he gave his instructions to the lawyers and left the Courtroom before the proceedings began.

It is interesting that the State Solicitor representing the visa authorities was present in court – after obtaining Peter's permission, we suppose –, but did not speak about the case or breach of visa conditions at all! What did he speak about, then? The weather? Or the greatness of the SCIY / IYF tribes? What's more, the Counsel for Manoj Das Gupta was also present but did not speak a word. What was he doing in court? Practising "dignified silence"?

It is amusing to learn that Manoj Das Gupta and the Ashram Trust can be pushed into a corner over a seemingly trivial issue, which is essentially the creation of "Sraddhalu's friend", his friend's wife and her mother and their dog! What a terrible, terrible family! They've actually gone to court over a dispute! Tut! tut! This is not how it is supposed to be done in Fundamentalistan! Gee, uncle Dave and uncle Rick, whatever happened to the Kangaroo Courts and Summary Executions?

This isn't any good for the Family Business of organising seminars on fundamentalism, and for collecting funds from the good old freedom-loving folks back home. But what about the business prospects at home in the USA?

The American Library Association (ALA) has recently released data to do with cases where individuals or groups have attempted to have books stripped from bookshelves in the schools and libraries in the USA. The ALA has recorded 513 such cases in 2008 alone, where books were targeted for censorship, of which 74 were successfully banned or restricted. What's more, 4000 attempts to ban books have been recorded over the past eight years – that's 500 ban attempts every year in a country with one fourth the population of India!

Whoa! So now we have it! There is no way in hell that Peter Heehs will leave his cushy life in Fundamentalistan. Nor will SCIY / IYF fight their holy war against the muzzling of free speech in the USA! It is much easier, more profitable and far safer to fight the terrible family and their dog in India!

Not Funny

It's not funny that a bunch of self-serving, pompous and insensitive morons sitting in the USA are attempting to misguide and misinform people in India and elsewhere about the anguish of Sri Aurobindo Ashram's inmates, and about the legal status of the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" (TLOSA). It certainly isn't funny that these guys are trying to profit from what is essentially a huge tragedy that is playing out for all-involved.

A "minor legal manoeuvre", we are told, has stopped PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA and COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS effective 4^th Nov, 2008, from publishing and distributing TLOSA in India even after a major promotional build-up. Some "minor legal manoeuvre" this!

Why don't M/s Rich Carlson, Debashish Banerjee and David Huchison pow wow with PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA and request them to simply undo this "minor legal manoeuvre"? All it takes is a flight to New Delhi and some Coffee, huh! Why don't these gentlemen waltz into any police station in India with the appropriate Government / Court order copies along with a copy of TLOSA and engage in a debate on the subject? How about starting with the Pondicherry Grand Bazaar police station? Would Peter Heehs do the honours by paying a much overdue visit to this police station and reward them for all the visits they have made since May 2009 to the Ashram Main Building and to Matriprasad's office looking for him to serve the warrant of arrest? No, it's not funny that irresponsible statements are being made with potentially serious consequences. Or, is it merely SCIY / IYF propaganda to shore up falling morale among their primary financiers and clientele?

What Government or Court, having passed notifications and orders proscribing TLOSA, would sit idle and watch the same book and content being freely circulated and sold in the country? You've got to be kidding! Is the Plankton afflicted with craniocerebral trauma?

It's not funny that Manoj Das Gupta and the other four are a poor apology for what the Ashram Trust was and should be! There is a frightening disconnect between the Ashram Trust and the Ashram inmates, and the sorrow, frustration and anger regarding TLOSA is no laughing matter.

The Ashram Trust has had hundreds of cases filed against it since Manoj Das Gupta has taken over control as Managing Trustee, a significant number of which were filed by inmates of the Ashram in various courts all the way to the Supreme Court! So Mr Carlson, please spare us the Holy Cow crap! And while on the subject of "intemperate language against Trustees", Sraddhalu Ranade has much to learn from the crude and insulting letters Peter Heehs wrote to Manoj Das Gupta when the Ashram Trust asked him to leave the Ashram community and quit staying in Pondicherry.

Dead Serious

Here are the facts that SCIY / IYF want to hide. TLOSA is in fact proscribed in the territory of India and the relevant Court / Government orders are available in the public domain.

Peter Heehs was in fact expelled from the Ashram Archives by the Ashram Trust and from the Department of Physical Education as part of disciplinary action against him. Hundreds of Ashram inmates have submitted petitions to Manoj Das Gupta asking for action against the book and Peter Heehs.

Most major and responsible online content providers have in fact already withdrawn TLOSA from their websites. Given below are snapshots of confirmations received from Google, Flipkart and A1Books, amongst others:

From GOOGLE

Re: [#557687386] Illegal Availability of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" on Google

Fri, December 18, 2009 6:02:55 AM

From: Google To: Gitanjali Jain

Hi Gitanjali,

Thank you for your note. Please be advised that Google Book Search is a program for print publishers and authors who want to increase the visibility of their copyrighted materials, by displaying their content online.

Upon investigation, we've noted that the publisher of the book in question had an account with us and chose to display parts of the books as preview pages. Per our policy, we would like to forward your notice to the publisher to notify them that a complaint has been made regarding some content of the book. Please reply to this email to let us know if you consent to us forwarding your complaint.

Regards,

The Google Team

From FLIPKART

Re: Illegal Availability of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" on Flipkart

Fri, January 15, 2010 11:47:24 AM

From: Binny Bansal To: Gitanjali J B

Dear Gitanjali,

Thanks for pointing this out. We have made the book unavailable permanently on the website.

Binny Bansal

From A1BOOKS

Re: Illegal Availability of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" on A1Books

Tue, January 12, 2010 1:30:55 PM

From: Kishore Venkatesh To: Gitanjali J B

Dear Ms Gitanjali,

Thanks for the information on the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs. We respect the sentiments without getting into the details. We are arranging to purge this book immediately from respective seller inventories on a1books.co.in.

We are an Online Books Marketplace in India where different sellers come on board, post their books and sell on a1books.co.in. Many times it becomes very difficult to control such listings through any automated system that we currently have. It is possible in the future the same or any such books might get listed once again by sellers, despite our efforts to block such controversial items. Hence, we request you to assist us by informing us should the same book be listed by any seller that you may notice on a1books.co.in anytime in the future.

Thanks once again for your assistance.

Regards. Take care.

Kishore Venkatesh

Head - Marketing & Operations

Other major online sellers have been informed and are in the process of complying with the Court and Government Orders. Exceptions, if any, can be attributed to non-awareness, but ignorance of the law is no excuse! The fact is that, contrary to SCIY / IYF claims, the book is proscribed within the whole of India and is not available for purchase or viewing except illegally.

Contrary to Mr Carlson's assertions, Peter Heehs has two serious criminal cases pending against him and these have to do with impersonation as Founder of the Archives of Sri Aurobindo Ashram – a lie and a falsehood that Peter Heehs has been deliberately perpetrating with business gains in mind. This lie was prominently displayed on the blurb of TLOSA by the unwitting CUP based on Peter's assertions to them in this regard. The Ashram Trust has confirmed in various letters, as has Peter Heehs himself in his emails and communications to the Trust, that he is not the founder of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives. One such letter of the Ashram Trust dated 11.11.2008 is attached herewith. It should be noted that these cases have not been foisted on Peter by the terrible family and their dog but by other affected devotees of Sri Aurobindo in Orissa.

Again, there have been many bailable summons and non-bailable warrants served on Peter Heehs in connection with cases in Orissa and at least one of them is currently valid the stay against which expired on the 26^th of July, 2009. The arrest warrant in question and the magistrate's order regarding this are attached herewith. A simple matter requiring Peter's personal presence in Court has blown into a shameful basket of summons and warrants simply because Peter refuses to comply with the law of the land and make himself present when summoned. He creates his own problems and then plays the innocent victim to his audience back home.

Additionally, in publishing TLOSA, Peter Heehs is alleged to have stolen intellectual property and violated copyright conditions with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust . Peter Heeh's erstwhile colleagues at the Archives were upset that hard work and research built up over years for the Ashram was stolen and misused by Peter Heehs and sold to Columbia University Press for personal profit. Their letter is attached. Also attached is Pranab-da's letter to the Ashram Trust on various aspects of copyright and intellectual property violations.

Gitanjali JB, Sraddhalu Ranade, Alok Pandey, Ananda Reddy, et al – the hyped "fanatics" supposedly crusading against Peter Heehs – have the healthiest respect for Auroville and Aurovillians and continue to engage with them in constructive and meaningful ways as always. Rich Carlson's xenophobia, warning "Foreigners" to stay away from them, is only an attempt to create a divide within the Integral Yoga community and among devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This seems to have been the agenda of SCIY / IYF from the very outset of their misinformation campaign.

The central issue at hand is the falsehood perpetrated in TLOSA and the need to set right the record. Even Peter Heehs is an ancillary element in the matter and as such is being engaged with only in so far as exposing TLOSA is concerned.

Sad

It is sad and disgusting that a book, parading as the biography of our Master, has dragged us to courts and led us to squabbling in a very public manner over extremely private issues, which are central to our existence and form the bedrock of our lives.

It is sad that Manoj Das Gupta and the Ashram Trust, having been on record from the outset that TLOSA has "crossed all limits of decency" and having initiated disciplinary action against Peter Heehs, failed to take the simple steps of publicly disowning the book and requesting CUP to withdraw the publication on the grounds of malicious and deliberate distortion as also of IP theft and Copyright Violations by the author. Private circulars issued to this effect by Manoj Das Gupta did little to negate the upheaval and anguish that TLOSA has caused.

It is sad that SCIY and sympathisers, for all their bluster and activism about "freedom of expression", will fight shy of posting this letter and attachments on their websites, for they know that after reading this and studying the attached documents, many more will see through the campaign of falsehood unleashed by SCIY / IYF.

It is very sad that while we aspire for the right outcome of this tragic mess, it is certain that there will be no winners. Too much has been lost for any side to ever claim victory.

It is sad that the battle must go on, till the end. And it will.

List of Attachments:

• Ashram Trust dated 11.11.2008 regarding disciplinary action against Peter Heehs and impersonation as founder of Archives.
  
• Letter of Archives workers dated 20.9.2008
  
• Letter of Pranab-da dated 5.8.2009
  
• Barbil Court order relating to issue of non-bailable warrant of arrest
  
• Copy of Non-bailable warrant of arrest against Peter Heehs
  

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Rich Carlson calls the “Court Diary” a “Slanderous Document”

I don’t know if we should take those who celebrate The Lives of Sri Aurobindo and defend its author with any seriousness at all. I’m yet to see, even after year and a half of publication of the book by the prestigious Columbia University Press any worthwhile academic study, full-length or short, bringing out its claimed gainful contributions to the vast body of literature that already exists around Sri Aurobindo. Its author says that Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri is a “fictional creation” which makes the whole thing suspect. This is particularly so when we have the Mother declaring Savitri as “the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision”. If we go by her, we will be dismissed as gullible, a credulous lot who have no minds of their own. In arrogant contrast to what the Mother says, the tyros’ Lives makes it a travesty of the entire spirituality. But what are the credentials of the author or his irrational buddies to speak about this? None. Our concern is not really with the “Court Diary” but with this biography which is the cause of all the dismay. I don’t think anybody is keen to drive the matters to the Court if the Lives is given a deserving and desirable burial. Let’s hope it will happen.

________________________________________
The Truth is known only when all is seen
Let me first reproduce in the following a note I’d sent on 30 January 2010 to Paulette and Mauna at Auroville. I’d been in correspondence with Paulette for quite some time exchanging several e-mails everyday and meeting personally once in a while. This exchange fetched a rich yield of information and I believe we enjoyed as well as profited by it. In this free and frank exchange there were of course some unpalatable observations also. But these were ignored. My forwarding the “Court Diary” to her was an aspect of this friendly exchange. But it was entirely her decision to post it on the Avcompatforum. I’m sad that it has caused so much furor.

About Mauna: Here is what Paulette had written about her in one of the e-mails. “Mauna: An Aurovilian since 1971, she has served as AVI representative for Auroville, as a member of the Entry group and of the Auroville Council, was in the Matrimandir secretariat, looks after the Av mass mail communications, is a member of Outreach (Av communication with the medias and outer agencies) and regulates the subscriptions to the AVI compatforum (for residents and long terms Av and Avi associates only) and its clear flow of information.” ______________________________________
Let me first reproduce generally the note dated 30 January 2010 I’d sent to Paulette and Mauna. It has the link with the sciy and iyf postings dealing with the topic:

http :// www.sciy .org/2010/01/24/ the-lies-about-the-lives-of-sri-aurobindo/

http :// iyfundamentalism .info/j/ content/view/136/188/

The sciy link introduces the case of “Court Diary” as follows: “... a new front for battle has opened up. In this instance Mr. Heehs visa and right to stay in India are under attack. ... What follows is the deconstruction of a recent report by R.Y. Deshpande regards Mr Heehs appearance in court to defend his Visa. ...”

This is Rich Carlson attributing the report to RY Deshpande. What was sent by me as an e-mail forward has been changed to a “report by RY Deshpande”. In polite language I’ll only say that this is distortion. My e-mail to Paulette, reproduced in the following, gives the entire picture.

The sciy page also says the following: “We sent the document to Peter Heehs, who provided important factual clarifications on what actually took place, as well as a copy of the court order.”

One of the points in the Court Diary is the following: “Matriprasad came in with Peter Heehs’ counsel and the Ashram’s counsel, and was seen giving them instructions along with Peter Heehs.” Based on “factual clarifications” provided by Peter Heehs the links state: “This is a lie. Matriprasad (a member of the Ashram) was not present.”

Clarifying his position, Matriprasad writes to Paulette: “In that particular article (I do not know who wrote it because it carries no name of the author) there is a reference to one Matriprasad, which given the context should in all likelihood refer to me. However, I am completely at a loss to understand as to how someone could possibly identify me when I was nowhere present during the said so-called court proceedings.”

This statement by Matriprasad, however, needs to be looked into with some attention. It might be true that he was not present during the “court proceedings” anywhere there. But was he present there before the proceedings commenced? If he was, then was he in the Court cafeteria when the proceedings were in progress? or else had he left the Court premises at some point of time? His statement needs proper clarification.

Apropos of the Court Diary forward, I’d written earlier to Paulette: “If this is a misrepresentation, let someone who has an authentic version post it on the forum.”

This has not yet happened. I still maintain that position.

Here are the three latest e-mails I’d sent to Paulette:

[1] I'd received the said "Court Diary" as independent e-mails from a couple of my contacts. It was not a question of my believing it or not, but here was something which could not be dismissed. I now understand that the "Diary" was actually written by one who was himself present in the Court. You may say that what is presented in it is his version, which also means that there could be another version. But I'm yet to see another version; instead what is seen is a "confutation" which does not really impress me much. If my opinion has any value, I'll not go by any of such versions even if they are claimed to be from persons who were present in the Court. The question is: who is going to decide the veracity of these reports? I don’t know. Perhaps it’s time only which will come out with the answer. In the meanwhile, I might continue to remain not unconcerned but informed about these goings-on. The Truth is known only when all is seen: (Savitri, pp. 256-57)

All here deformed guards there its happy shape,
Here all is mixed and marred, there pure and whole;
Yet each is a passing step, a moment's phase. …
The little Mind is tied to little things. …
Our reason only a toys' artificer,
A rule-maker in a strange stumbling game. …
The world she has made is an interim report
Of a traveller towards the half-found truth in things
Moving twixt nescience and nescience.
For nothing is known while aught remains concealed;
The Truth is known only when all is seen.

The Truth is known only when all is seen.

[2] You have absolutely every right to believe or not to believe anyone you like, and I don't have to tell it to you or to anyone else. Therefore in the same spirit you would perhaps like to confirm from the Managing Trustee of the Ashram if anyone apart from the lawyer was present in the Court on behalf of the Ashram. Whether it should be done or not is your decision.

[3] Does it not occur to you that it will be an irresponsible act on part of the Ashram not to have sent its representative to the Court when it was an involved party mentioned in the writ petition? I don't care what others say, and so I wanted you to confirm from the Managing Trustee himself directly, if he had sent anyone to the Court in this connection. Never such a thing is done without such a representative, leaving everything to the lawyer when one is seriously involved in the matter. But if this has really happened I call it an irresponsible act. Please check.

~ RYD
________________________________________
I wanted to know whether my e-mail presenting the above details was posted on the Avcompatforum. On 1 February 2010 Mauna wrote back to me as follows: “As a number of compat subscribers started objecting regarding the continuing stream of messages pertaining to this unfortunate affair, your message was not sent to the compat list, but only to some individuals who had expressed specific interest.”
________________________________________
On 3 February 2010 Paulette posted the following on the Avcompatforum:

Savitra wrote the following: “Just because we point out a Big Lie does not mean we claim to have the whole truth ‘on our side’. No peaceful conciliation is possible so long as certain parties feel no hesitation to use violence and lies to achieve their ends. Even Mother told us that She could not work with us if we continued to tell lies. Was She taking a side when She said that?”

This hit me on the stomach because, whenever humans claim to be the prophets of truth, a big shadow lurks behind (in Integral Yoga, the evil persona), and the prophet(s) turn immediately into the very opposite of the professed truth. Holy inquisitors and prophets of truths abound in all camps, history keeps repeating itself. The immediate proof is that while Savitra was writing this, from the opposite camp this handwritten message from the Mother was circulated, also hitting me on the stomach:

1966: Let us serve the Truth—the Mother

Where is “the Truth”, which both parties claim, both of them in a most violent language?

There are two issues. One is fundamentalism, with all that follows; but the other is that very serious legal infractions have been perpetrated. It is certainly not with militant arrogance that a solution can be patched up. For the sake of all parties involved, let’s stop claiming “the Truth”, neither camp has it. Let’s face the shadow and collective shadow, offer it to the Mother and work it out, whatever camp we belong to (or no camp).

I have always been aware that serious legal matters were at the stake but, because of the virulent language from both camps, I ended up believing that these too were fabricated. Alas, they are not. Deshpande has sent to me and a few others a text that, if one survives through the customary attacks and jargon, presents original letters and court documents unmistakably clear. If anyone wishes to go through this, contact me; Mauna too has received the whole.

My subject at the university was history; my first paper was “The collusion between Fascism and grand capital”. Please let’s behave like historians, honoring integrity, impartially assessing documents and facts, without prejudices, without projections, without ‘isms’ and ‘truths’ and reciprocated slaughtering. The situation is extremely grave; if there is any hope to sort out this mess it is by honestly admitting what’s wrong, on both sides, and do the best we can to find a way to stop further destruction.
________________________________________
http ://www.sciy. org/2010/01/24/ the-lies-about-the-lives-of-sri-aurobindo/

When Rich Carlson writes that the “Court Diary” is a “slanderous document provided by Deshpande”, I expect him to give us his approving version which he never has. It looks, he has been consistently refusing to do it. Why? But I’m not interested in the answer any more. Things have moved far ahead, and they have moved pretty fast. The miraculous Plankton has done the trick,—and thanks to the little Plankton.

But let me close the present post with the following comments which appear on the Mirror of Tomorrow. These are pertaining to The Lives of Sri Aurobindo.

http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2010/1/7/4422539.html

[1] I don’t know if one should really take them—those who celebrate this book and defend the author—with any seriousness at all. I’m yet to see, even after year and a half of publication of the book by the prestigious Columbia University Press any worthwhile academic study, full-length or short, bringing out its gainful contributions to vast body of the biographical literature that already exists around Sri Aurobindo. I would tend to agree with the suggestion that the only answer to it is to write a biography by exploring the occult-spiritual depths of the “inner myth” that it holds for us. Until then it is all a polemical debate, of no avail, perhaps of no consequence even in the intellectual undertakings, certainly in matters spiritual.

[2] Is Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri a Fictional Creation? which is what the author of the clumsy Lives wants us to believe, that it is a “fictional creation”.

http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2009/9/4/4310409.html

But we have the Mother declaring Savitri as “the supreme revelation of Sri Aurobindo’s vision”. If we go by her, we will be dismissed as gullible, a credulous lot who have no minds of their own. In arrogant contrast to what the Mother says, the tyros’ Lives makes it a travesty of the entire spirituality. But what are the credentials of the author or his irrational buddies to speak about this? None. I’d proposed to Rich Carlson to discuss in an open forum the Lives paragraph by paragraph and page by page. But he shirked. I don’t think I’ll be interested to do it anymore with him or his colleagues. The best they can do is to read hundreds of posts and comments that are present on the Mirror of Tomorrow if they are professionally keen to advance their understanding of things. My concern is not with the “Court Diary” but with this biography which is the cause of all our dismay. I don’t think anybody is keen to drive the matters to the Court if the Lives is given a deserving and desirable burial. Let’s hope it will happen.

RY Deshpande   ...full text...

Apropos of the “Court Diary"

We have the deconstructionist Rich Carlson of the post-Ron dubious sciy who writes that the Diary contents are by RY Deshpande. What was an email forward from him has become in his hand “recent report by R.Y. Deshpande”. There cannot be anything more ridiculous than this, that here is a report by RY Deshpande. But this is not unusual of Carlsons to put on an aura of rational rationalists, and distort things. But they don’t realize that none is going to buy this kind of deconstruction except perhaps their faithful but unthinking cohorts.

Further to the Court Diary / Information Release 19.1.2010 posted by the General Editor on 2 February 2010, let me add here just a couple of points. Apropos of the “Court Diary”, let me first reproduce in the following how the topic was introduced by iyfundamentalism.info and sciy.org on the respective sites:

[1] http : //iyfundamentalism .info/j/ content/view/136/188/
The following “court diary” was received from RY Deshpande, who sent it to Paulette in Auroville. She posted it on the Auroville Compats email list on Wednesday, Jan 20. Since it shows no author, and in the absence of further information, we are left to assume that it was either written by Deshpande or that he was a willing go-between for others who wrote it.

We sent the document to Peter Heehs, who provided important factual clarifications on what actually took place, as well as a copy of the court order (see below). In short, the entire “court diary” is a fabrication. We feel it is important to make this clear, since this “diary” continues the pattern of rumor, misinformation, and outright lies that have been used to smear Peter Heehs, especially in relation to the legal cases brought against his book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo.

Although the “diary” is a fiction, and contains almost no true statements, the fact that it contains specific details (such as who was present) does make clear that whoever wrote it is in close contact with the lawyers. The publication of the “diary” is a further action by the group trying to have The Lives of Sri Aurobindo censored, and now are trying to have Heehs deported.

[2] http : //www.sciy. org/2010/01/24/ the-lies-about-the-lives-of-sri-aurobindo/
The Lies about “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo” author Peter Heehs
Posted by rcarlson Published: January 24, 2010

After the court cases were found to be without merit, and just when one thought a measure of sanity had prevailed in the controversy regards the publication of the Lives of Sri Aurobindo and its author Peter Heehs a new front for battle has opened up. In this instance Mr. Heehs visa and right to stay in India are under attack. And just like the attack on the book the instruments of warfare is the lie. The persistence of the attacks on Mr. Heehs in fact confirm Ashis Nandy’s view of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram that: “Increasingly and inevitably, it acquired the trappings of a well organized modern cult and of a church as corporation.”

What follows is the deconstruction of a recent report by R.Y. Deshpande regards Mr Heehs appearance in court to defend his Visa...

On the Auroville Compats email list there was a lot of hullabaloo and Paulette felt that she should not have posted the Diary on the list. In fact she wrote the following to me. “How can a scientist forward such text without ascertaining the contents? Only because of your authority I lightly fell into the trap…” This was followed by an email from Savitra to who Paulette passed on my id without my permission: “I am surprised that a person of your stature would pass on such material without first ascertaining whether it is a reliable and trustworthy document. In this light, could you kindly clarify the following: Did you write this yourself? If not, who did and why didn't they identify themselves as the author? Why did you send it on to Paulette? Did you intend for her to forward it to the AV Compat list? If so, why didn't you verify the accuracy and truthfulness of the report before sending it on for public posting?”

All this comes to me as a funny statement when I’d repeatedly written to them that if the Diary is a misrepresentation, let someone who has an authentic version post it on the forum. This was never done; it has not been done even now. My answer to Paulette is in the following. I’d also requested her to post it on the AV Compat list which has not happened. I wrote to her:

“I'd received the said ‘Court Diary’ as independent e-mails from a couple of my contacts. It was not a question of my believing it or not, but here was something which could not be dismissed. I now understand that the ‘Diary’ was actually written by one who was himself present in the Court. You may say that what is presented in it is his version, which also means that there could be another version. But I'm yet to see another version; instead what is seen is a ‘confutation’ which does not really impress me much. If my opinion has any value, I'll not go by any of such versions even if they are claimed to be from persons who were present in the Court. The question is: who is going to decide the veracity of these reports? I don’t know.”

Instead, we have the deconstructionist Rich Carlson of the post-Ron dubious sciy who writes that the Diary contents are by RY Deshpande. What was an email forward from me has become in his hand “recent report by R.Y. Deshpande”. There cannot be anything more ridiculous than this, that here is a report by RY Deshpande. But this is not unusual of Carlsons to put on an aura of rational rationalists, and distort things. But they don’t realize that none is going to buy this kind of deconstruction except perhaps their faithful but unthinking cohorts.

What is actually expected is a version from their sources stating the facts as seen by them. I still maintain that if the present Diary is a misrepresentation, let someone who has an authentic version post it on the websites. But let me also add what I’ve been told about the “Court Diary” when it was shown to the Chief Justice of Madras High Court. He had refused to look into the matter presented to him by the lawyer concerned.

But the most unfortunate twist given is very damaging when we read the following kind of statements: “The author(s) of this “diary” are trying to force the Ashram and the Managing Trustee into a corner. It should be obvious by this point in the document that the author(s) are not merely trying to have Heehs deported, but have designs against the Sri Aurobindo Ashram itself.” Strange forces seem to be active. Surely, this needs to be looked into with greater attention. I’ll appreciate if someone who has the relevant facts with him does it.   ...full text...

Court Diary / Information Release 19.1.2010

[Here is the full text of the "Court Diary / Information Release 19.1.2010" which led to a flurry of denials from SCIY / IYF / Peter Heehs. Their denial was based entirely on Peter Heehs' assertions but offered no information to the contrary. The anonymous author of this "diary" appears to have been personally present during the court hearings.]

Court Diary / Information Release

Case Regarding
Cancellation of Peter Heehs' Visa and Deportation from India
in Chennai High Court

Parties:    Surekha Jain (Petitioner)
vs
1. FRRO, Chennai (first Respondent)
2. FRRO, Pondicherry (second Respondent)
3. Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee Sri Aurobindo Ashram (third Respondent)
4. Superintendent of Police, Pondicherry North(fourth Respondent)

Hearing on 21^st December 2009

• Lawyers representing all parties were present. Peter Heehs came with a group of 25 Westerners. However he alone was allowed to enter the Court and his friends were asked to wait outside. Matriprasad came in with Peter Heehs' counsel and the Ashram's counsel, and was seen giving them instructions along with Peter Heehs.
  
• Petitioner's legal counsel highlighted for the court that Peter Heehs has breached all visa conditions in connivance with third Respondent Manoj Das Gupta and should have his visa cancelled by first and second respondents, and immediate action taken by them to deport him. It was also highlighted that the fourth Respondent has failed to execute the live arrest warrant pending against Peter Heehs in Pondicherry.
  
• The legal counsel representing Peter Heehs expressed to the court that Peter Heehs is a world renowned scholar who has dedicated more than 35 years of the his life in Pondicherry for the Ashram community in order to spread Sri Aurobindo's teachings. He said Peter Heehs is the foremost scholar and exponent of Sri Aurobindo's teachings in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and a very important person in the Ashram. He also pointed out that the Managing Trustee of the Ashram has said that the role and contribution of Peter Heehs to the Ashram is invaluable, and that Peter Heehs has the full support of the said Managing Trustee.
  
• The legal counsel representing Manoj Das Gupta and the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust said that he was in full agreement with the statements of the legal counsel of Peter Heehs and that the Petitioner was motivated by personal animosity towards Peter Heehs and as such the Petitioner and her complaint have nothing to do with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram.
  
• Legal counsel representing Peter Heehs also declared that the book "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" is the most authentic, accurate and academic portrayal of Sri Aurobindo's life that has emerged from the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its Archives. At this point the Chief Justice was keen to have a copy of the book. To which the legal counsel of Peter Heehs submitted that neither he nor his client Peter Heehs (who was present in court) were allowed to carry a copy of the book as the book has been proscribed within the territory of India. On hearing this the Chief Justice sarcastically remarked that in that case the book could not be as wonderful as portrayed by the legal counsel.
  
• After some arguments and presentations by various sides, the legal counsel of the Petitioner conveyed strongly that this case was not about the book in any way but was about the breach of visa conditions by Peter Heehs and by Manoj Das Gupta.
  
• The Chief Justice then asked the legal counsel of the visa authorities their views regarding visa extension and deportation of Peter Heehs. The counsel for FRRO then declared that based on documents available to them they were of the view that no further extension of visa of Peter Heehs was possible. But they could not take a decision regarding his immediate deportation as there were several criminal cases pending against Peter Heehs in Orissa, and as such they would have to take that into account before taking action for deportation or cancellation. They prayed for time to study and revert to the court on the matter.
  
• After some more discussions the case was posted for hearing on 18^th January on which date the respondents were ordered to submit written replies to the Petitioner's complaints.
  

Hearing on 19^th January 2010

• The case originally scheduled for hearing on 18^th came up for hearing on the 19^th.
  
• Legal counsel representing Petitioner pointed out to the Court in the strongest terms that the four Respondents have failed thus far to give written depositions/submissions to the court regarding the specific plaints made by the Petitioner. He conveyed to the court that the four Respondents are delaying/avoiding written submissions as their failures are indefensible in the matter. He pleaded to the court that no further arguments should take place till written submissions are made by the Respondents.
  
• The Chief Justice ordered the respondents to give written submissions on the next date of hearing which was posted as 2^nd February 2010.
  

  ...full text...

Pranab-da's Relevance to this Site -- Raman Reddy

The role that Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya (Dada) played in the growth of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram is invaluable and, whatever his critics might say, he will be always remembered with love and pride. Articles will now be written and books published showing how faithfully he served the Mother until the very last and how he built up the vast Physical Education Dept. of the Ashram from scratch from 1945 to 2010. He also played the role of a strong and healthy opposition within the community of the Ashram, keeping always in mind its larger good – he confronted the authorities but never really destabilised them. It is with regard to this last function that he is relevant to this site. Let it be recorded here before Time blunts our memories that he unequivocally (to say the least) condemned The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs and took some strong collective decisions with regard to it. As a matter of fact, he felt suspicious about the biographer way back in 1987 and expressed his misgivings to the then head of the Archives Dept. At that time many thought that he was over reacting and he himself said frankly that Time will tell the truth, and that he wouldn’t mind if he were eventually proved wrong. It took more than twenty years for Time to prove that he was one hundred percent right!

Raman Reddy
23.01.2010   ...full text...

A Salutation and a Pledge to Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya (Dada) – by Alok Pandey

A strong pillar of the Ashram life has fallen -- a pillar of strength, a pillar of love, for behind the strong exterior of Dada there always flowed a soothing river of love even as fresh streams reside within and flow from a majestic mountain’s heart. This was not the usual thing that men call love, not something weak and sentimental that human beings often romanticise. It was a strong and mighty current, much like his being and his persona, that derived its truth and force from his unflinching faithfulness and love for the Mother.



[Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya (affectionately called Dada) who first came to the Ashram in 1942, settled in 1945 and became one of the closest attendants of the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, passed away at 2.40 in the afternoon on 8 January 2010.]

A strong pillar of the Ashram life has fallen -- a pillar of strength, a pillar of love, for behind the strong exterior of Dada there always flowed a soothing river of love even as fresh streams reside within and flow from a majestic mountain’s heart. This was not the usual thing that men call love, not something weak and sentimental that human beings often romanticise. It was a strong and mighty current, much like his being and his persona, that derived its truth and force from his unflinching faithfulness and love for the Mother. It was, we may say, the Mother’s love, the love She had abundantly poured on him and all whom She drew close to Herself. Of course, Dada was a special recipient of that Love and Glory. And this special Grace, of which he was the recipient and a strong vessel, was not just because of his straightforward nature, his honesty and fidelity to the truth, his courage and fearlessness, not even for his love for Her. These are no doubt admirable and rare qualities, indispensable for the Yoga and the Divine Life. They are the solid elements of human nature, the best that the old creation could provide, to be used as scaffolding for the Future Work, the New Creation of tomorrow. Dada had these in abundance, qualities that would not only mark one as a hero and a leader in any sphere of life, what the Gita calls as srestha, the very best among men. But that was not the only thing. The deeper reason perhaps lay in the fact that Dada took upon himself the most challenging field of work. Not the subtle regions of the mind, not even the flowing domains of the heart, which respond more easily to the divine touch. Instead he chose to work upon the most obstinate, the most stubborn of all elements, the physical body -- that hard, rock like material, impervious to all Light and which does not allow any Ray to pass through its thick and obscure substance. As we know, the yogis of the past did not even attempt it; most dread this domain that is the very bastion of resistance. Dada consented to enter this dark and dangerous field, dark to any spiritual light, and by Her Grace, with Her as his divine Teacher, did admirable work that will help the coming generations. He established Her fort in the most difficult terrain, the country of fixed dead matter, as we call it. Yet by the power of Her Love, he managed to bring this dead matter to life and awaken it to Her love and compelled it to aspire for Her Light.

Such men never die! Nor does their work go vain. They have inspired the hearts and minds of humanity, they have shaped many lives by their subtle influence and neither the inspiration one has derived from them, nor their occult influence cast upon men by their inner beings cease with their passing on to domains beyond the grasp of our material senses. If anything, freed from the hard grip of the human frame and the limiting cage of embodied nature, they become freer, larger and universal in their action, even as a god bears with his immensity the creation’s load. Their force liberated from the narrow circle of the few and the fortunate reaches out to the many, often even unknown to them. Having done their appointed task, they return to the hill tops of silence from where they came. But what they have gathered within their bodies, they leave behind as a gift to earth. They enrich the earth not only during their life but also through their death. While it is natural that we feel his loss as if some material aspect of our Divine Mother has left us, yet by this very act of sacrifice, if we may say so, this material power universalises itself and enters into hearts and souls that are ready. It even diffuses itself into matter, percolating silently layer by layer and from there awakens it to aspire, increasing and releasing Light from within its dark folds much as the Angirasa sages of old released Light from the caves of darkness by the power of the Mantra. But this is not just the power of the mantra releasing Light from the caves of darkness, but rather converting those very caves into homes of Light, to invade the dark bases upon which the foundations of our earthly life seem to stand. They have been instrumental in establishing upon earth the seeds of the Supramental Truth-Consciousness that the Mother and Sri Aurobindo brought down to earth by Their tapasya.

Indeed it is Their labour, Their Glory, Their Grace and Love that we see fructified in these pioneers that have gone before us in this life. But they needed instruments, earth-natures that are fit and ready or willing to be made ready, surrendering themselves to Her tremendous touch, plastic to Her Force that few can bear or hold. These pioneers and pillars provided that much needed soil to plant the divine seed upon earth. The seeds did take roots and have grown, watered by Her Love and helped by the Sun of Their Grace brooding over our earth. The work done, They withdrew but not before ensuring that the roots are secure. In time to come, many more saplings will emerge out of each of these trees, the seeds of Light will find better and better human vessels, and earth made ready by the Supramental Force ploughing our minds and bodies and life since Its descent on 29th feb 1956....

Alok Pandey

  ...full text...

Comments by Vikram

Why are we studying Savitri if it is a fictional creation and "the circumstances of this life have nothing to do with" the plot? I looked up the reference. He has picked up HALF A SENTENCE (!) from somewhere. Secondly, he is assuming that this other lyrical poem has something to convey about Sri Aurobindo's Sadhana....

Ref A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by R.Y. Deshpande
Comment by Vikram on Thu 16 Jul 2009 07:32 AM IST:

I am a little late on this debate... Has anyone pointed out the following lines from p. 398 of this book?

Because his talks entirely ceased and his correspondence virtually so, there are no first-hand accounts of Sri Aurobindo's sadhana after 1941. One is tempted to mine Savitri to make up for the lack. Sri Aurobindo's accounts of Aswapathy's voyage through the worlds of matter, life, and mind before reaching "the kingdoms of the greater knowledge," and Savitri's transit through the "inner countries" until she reaches the inmost soul certainly are based on his and the Mother's experiences; but the poem is a fictional creation, and Sri Aurobindo said explicitly that "the circumstances of this life have nothing to do with" its plot. One is on somewhat firmer ground looking for clues in his lyrical poems, but he wrote only a few after 1943. Those he did write are uncharacteristically dark:

Is this the end of all that we have been,
And all we did or dreamed,-
A name unremembered and a form undone,
Is this the end?
A body rotting under a slab of stone
Or turned to ash in fire,
A mind dissolved, lost its forgotten thoughts,
Is this the end?

So begins a poem of June 1945. It ends, however, on a brighter note: the "Immortal in the mortal" is "unwilling to cease"…

Is this really true? Why are we studying Savitri if it is a fictional creation and "the circumstances of this life have nothing to do with" the plot? I looked up the reference. He has picked up HALF A SENTENCE (!) from somewhere. Secondly, he is assuming that this other lyrical poem has something to convey about Sri Aurobindo's Sadhana.

The sentence comes from CWSA Vol. 27, Letters on Poetry, p. 276:

If Aswapati is he, I’ll learn about his role from the poem -- but couldn’t you say something about him in direct reference to Mother and yourself?

This incarnation is supposed to have taken place in far past times when the whole thing had to be opened, so as to “hew the ways of Immortality”. Theon and the circumstances of this life have nothing to do with it.
10 November 1936

This man Peter has been there for since the 70’s. Are there no other statements asserting the relevance of Savitri that he could find?

Ref A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by RY Deshpande
Comment by R.Y. Deshpande on Thu 16 Jul 2009 04:48 PM IST:

We can take up the technical part of the comment separately, but let me suggest here to avoid expressions such as "This man...has been here...", etc. Sorry. The other points are very valid and must be pursued further. I invite comments on them from perceptive readers. Thanks.

Ref A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by R.Y. Deshpande
Comment by Vikram on Thu 16 Jul 2009 07:42 PM IST:

Sure. I meant he has been associated long enough with the Archives to know that Savitri is not a work of fiction. This doesn't look like an innocent typo. Sticking to the primary sources is one thing but misrepresenting the Master's intent by using HALF A SENTENCE is quite another.

With a little effort I found at least 5 statements in the same CWSA Vol. 27 that he seems to have ignored. The Agenda may have more.

The very next page of the same CWSA Vol. 27 from which he picked up this half statement has this to say:

There was no climbing of planes there in the first version—rather Savitri moves through the worlds of Night, of Twilight, of Day—all of course in a spiritual sense—and ended by calling down the power of the Highest Worlds of Sachchidananda. I had no idea of what the supramental World could be like at that time, so it could not enter into the scheme. As for expressing the supramental inspiration, that is a matter of the future.
31 October 1936 (p 277)

In the new form it will be a sort of poetic philosophy of the Spirit and of Life much profounder in its substance and vaster in its scope than was intended in the original poem. I am trying of course to keep it at a very high level of inspiration, but in so large a plan covering most subjects of philosophical thought and vision and many aspects of spiritual experience there is bound to be much variation of tone: but that is, I think, necessary for the richness and completeness of the treatment.
1946 (pp 279-80)

The lines I quoted from myself are not in any published poem, but in the unfinished first book of “Savitri, A Legend and a Symbol” which was in intention a sort of symbolic epic of the aim of supramental Yoga! I may send it to you for typing when I have completed it; but in view of my abundant absence of leisure, the completion seems still to lurk in the mists of the far off future.
15 September 1931 (p 261)

But if I had to write for the general reader I could not have written Savitri at all. It is in fact for myself that I have written it and for those who can lend themselves to the subject-matter, images, technique of mystic poetry.
This is the real stumbling-block of mystic poetry and specially mystic poetry of this kind. The mystic feels real and present, even ever-present to his experience, intimate to his being, truths which to the ordinary reader are intellectual abstractions or metaphysical speculations. He is writing of experiences that are foreign to the ordinary mentality. Either they are unintelligible to it and in meeting them it flounders about as in an obscure abyss or it takes them as poetic fancies expressed in intellectually devised images. (p 315)


This is not the method of Savitri. Its expression aims at a certain force, directness and spiritual clarity and reality. When it is not understood, it is because the truths it expresses are unfamiliar to the ordinary mind or belong to an untrodden domain or domains or enter into a field of occult experience; it is not because there is any attempt at a dark or vague profundity or at an escape from thought. (p 317)

Ref A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by R.Y. Deshpande
Comment by Vikram on Fri 17 Jul 2009 10:46 PM IST

The biography says "One is on somewhat firmer ground looking for clues in his lyrical poems, but he wrote only a few after 1943. Those he did write are uncharacteristically dark".

I looked at the Collected Poems volume for poems after 1943 and I didn't see any other poem which is "uncharacteristically dark" as he seems to suggest. He seems to have picked the only poem which may be negative - perhaps to fit his account of Sri Aurobindo's Sadhana.

These are the other poems. As you can see, none of these are dark in nature.

Mother of God (1945)

A conscious and eternal Power is here
Behind unhappiness and mortal birth
And the error of Thought and blundering trudge of Time.
The Mother of God, his sister and his spouse,
Daughter of his wisdom, of his might (strength) the mate,
She has leapt from the Transcendent’s secret breast
To build her rainbow worlds of mind and life.
Between the superconscient absolute Light
And the lnconscient’s vast unthinking toil
In the rolling and routine of Matter’s sleep
And the somnambulist motion of the stars
She forces on the cold unwilling Void
Her adventure of life, the passionate dreams of her lust.
Amid the work of darker Powers she is here
To heal the evils and mistakes of Space
And change the tragedy of the ignorant world
Into a Divine Comedy of joy.
And the laughter and the rapture of God’s bliss.
The Mother of God is master of our souls;
We are the partners of his birth in Time,
Inheritors we share his eternity. (p 642)

Silence is All (1946)

Silence is all, say the sages.
Silence watches the work of the ages;
In the book of Silence the cosmic Scribe has written his cosmic pages;
Silence is all, say the sages.
What then of the word, O speaker?
What then of the thought, O thinker?
Thought is the wine of the soul and the word is the beaker;
Life is the banquet-table - the soul of the sage is the drinker.
What of the wine, O mortal?
I am drunk with the wine as I sit at Wisdom’s portal,
Waiting for the Light beyond thought and the Word immortal.
I sit in vain at Wisdom’s portal.
How shalt thou know the Word when it comes, O seeker?
How shalt thou know the Light when it breaks, O witness?
I shall hear the voice of the God within me and grow wiser and meeker;
I shall be the tree that takes in the light as its food, I shall drink its nectar of sweetness. (p 644)

Evolution (22-3-1944)

I passed into a lucent still abode
And saw as in a mirror crystalline
An ancient Force ascending serpentine
The unhasting spirals of the aeonic road.
Earth was a cradle for the arriving god
And man but a half-dark half-luminous sign
Of the transition of the veiled Divine
From Matter’s sleep and the tormented load
Of ignorant life and death to the Spirit’s light.
Mind liberated swam Light's ocean vast,
And life escaped from its grey tortured line;
I saw Matter illumining its parent Night.
The soul could feel into infinity cast
Timeless God-bliss the heart incarnadine.
(p 594)

The Silver Call (23-3-1944)

There is a godhead of unrealised things
To which Time’s splendid gains are hoarded dross;
A cry seems near, a rustle of silver wings
Calling to heavenly joy by earthly loss
All eye has seen and all the ear has heard
Is a pale illusion by some greater voice
And mightier vision; no sweet sound or word,
No passion of hues that make the heart rejoice
Can equal these diviner ecstasies.
A Mind beyond our mind has sole the ken
Of those yet unimagined harmonies,
The fate and privilege of unborn men.
As rain-thrashed mire the marvel of the rose,
Earth waits that distant marvel to disclose.
(p 594)

The Inner Fields (14-3-1947)

There is a brighter ether than this blue
Pretence of an enveloping heavenly vault,
A deeper greenness than this laughing assault1
Of emerald rapture pearled with tears of dew.
Immortal spaces of cerulean hue
Are in our reach and fields without this fault
Of drab brown earth and streams that never halt
In their deep murmur which white flowers strew
Floating like stars upon a strip of sky.
This world behind is made of truer stuff
Than the manufactured tissue of earth’s grace.
There we can walk and see the gods go by
And sip from Hebe’s cup nectar enough
To make for us heavenly limbs and deathless face.
(p 627)

Ref A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by R.Y. Deshpande
Comment by Vikram on Sun 26 Jul 2009 06:23 AM IST:

Continuing here.. few lines from this poem "Is this the end" have been borrowed to create the illusion that it is connected to Sri Aurobindo's Sadhana. You have to read the whole poem to see the reality.

This is the text from the biography:

Those he did write are uncharacteristically dark:

Is this the end of all that we have been,
And all we did or dreamed,-
A name unremembered and a form undone,
Is this the end?
A body rotting under a slab of stone
Or turned to ash in fire,
A mind dissolved, lost its forgotten thoughts,
Is this the end?

So begins a poem of June 1945. It ends, however, on a brighter note: the "Immortal in the mortal" is "unwilling to cease"

Till all is done for which the stars were made,
Till the heart discovers God
And the soul knows itself And even then
There is no end.

Let us read the whole poem.

Is this the end of all that we have been,
And all we did or dreamed, -
A name unremembered and a form undone, -
Is this the end?

A body rotting under a slab of stone
Or turned to ash in fire,
A mind dissolved, lost its forgotten thoughts, -
Is this the end?

Our little hours that were and are no more,
Our passions once so high
Being mocked by the still earth and calm sunshine, -
Is this the end?

Our yearnings for the human Godward climb
Passing to other hearts
Deceived, while smiles towards death and hell the world, -
Is this the end?

Fallen is the harp; shattered it lies and mute;
Is the unseen player dead?
Because the tree is felled where the bird sang,
Must the song too hush?

One in the mind who planned and willed and thought,
Worked to reshape earth’s fate,
One in the heart who loved and yearned and hoped,
Does he too end?

The Immortal in the mortal is his Name;
An artist Godhead here
Ever remoulds himself in diviner shapes,
Unwilling to cease

Till all is done for which the stars were made,
Till the heart discovers God
And the soul knows itself. And even then
There is no end.

The title of the poem "Is this the end" must be understood. The word "end" here means "Goal" not "Termination". It is a poem about evolution. The Immortal works his magic behind the apparently transient by evolving new forms. These lines which were omitted connect the two parts of the poem:

"An artist Godhead here
Ever remoulds himself in diviner shapes,
Unwilling to cease"

The biography has created needless distortions here first by degrading Savitri and then by misinterpreting this poem to be uncharacteristically dark and connecting it to Sri Aurobindo's Sadhana.

Ref A Few Comments Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by R.Y. Deshpande
Comment by Vikram on Sun 26 Jul 2009 06:43 AM IST:

On page 414 we find:

In November 1926 he had an experience that he called the descent of the overmind, the highest of the powers of consciousness between the ordinary mind and the divine power that he called the supermind. All that remained was to "supramentalise the overmind." This process was still in progress twenty-one years later, when he spoke of it in the last known reference to the state of his sadhana. He never announced that the process was complete.

This is another distortion. The biographer and longtime member of the Archives seems to have conveniently forgotten the last prose writing of Sri Aurobindo which was the essay Mind of Light in the Bulletin of Physical Education published August 1950. This along with the Mother's remarks on it was proof of Sri Aurobindo's achievement. Instead the biography links Sri Aurobindo's Sadhana to some obscure unrelated poem.

Courtesy http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org

Permananent link:
http://www.mirroroftomorrow.org/blog/_archives/2008/12/14/4019788.html#1255132   ...full text...

A Prayer for the New Year -- by Alok Pandey

May our minds and intelligence refuse to admit the dark and tortuous thoughts that revolt against the Light and resist it by doubt, denial and scepticism.

May our hearts banish the feelings that mock at faith, dismiss love and devotion as mere concessions to the weak, and distort the straight and simple truth they refuse to see.

May our will be free of all unclean motives, hypocrisy and duplicity, cunning and falsehood and all that corrupts and perverts by vain ambition, lust for power and greed for fame.

May we reject and expunge from our entire being the whispers of the Night that cast a hostile look on all that is True and Sacred and Beautiful and Pure and inflict upon the Divine and His messengers the thorns of its fallen nature by testing, judging, condemning and crucifying Him on the world’s altar and by returning Her Love and Grace with denial and distrust, refusal and revolt instead of love, gratitude and surrender.

May ‘We’ unite as one body, one mind, one will, one heart, one soul around the central fire of aspiration that ever seeks and labours, struggles and battles for the advent of a Light greater than reason, a Love deeper than human sentiments, a Freedom born of an inner liberation, a Unity that is founded on the bedrock of the One Self behind all things, an Equality that does not blur all distinctions through a blind indifference and the complacence born of inertia but shows each thing its right place for the harmonious arrangement of all things and ideas and forces in space and time.

May we be cleansed of all blind dogmas – whether religious or scientific, of all obscurantism ─ whether born of a clouded thinking or a rigid and narrow heart and mind, of all prejudices ─ whether arising out of a misguided materialism or a traditional escapist and nihilistic philosophy.

May the diabolic force that inspires works of the likes of TLOSA be dissolved once for all, defeated of its devious designs to hold the human mind a captive to the darkness of the Night from which a New World is struggling to emerge.

May this year, 2010, the centenary of Sri Aurobindo’s coming to Pondicherry be for all of us and for the earth a year for the return of light in our minds, of clarity in our perception and understanding, of devotion and gratitude in our hearts, of faith in our will, and of all that is necessary for Their Work.

Bonne Année

Happy New Year


Alok Pandey

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Intellectual Fundamentalism -- by Raman Reddy

Of late, the view that Sri Aurobindo has to be presented either intellectually or with faith and devotion, historically or hagiographically, is fast catching up among the admirers and devotees of Sri Aurobindo. The idea behind is that faith is per se anti-intellectual and intellectuality necessarily anti-faith. The extrapolation of this stupid view into the realm of nationalities will one day land us into deep trouble, for you can politicise this view to drive a wedge into the nascent world unity that is taking shape here in the Ashram and Auroville and, hopefully, in other spiritual centres across the world. The conclusion that could be drawn is that Indians are generally good for yoga, which can be hardly be done without faith, devotion and surrender, and Westerners are only good for intellectuality and practical work, which does not make them fit for yoga. Though this might be true in certain respects – nobody would deny that Westerners have a certain advantage of coming from an organised and mentally developed society or that the age-old spiritual civilisation of India enables Indians to take up Yoga as naturally as fish takes to water – but if you overstress these racial inclinations, I wonder how further progress would be possible. We all have to rise beyond personal and national barriers, learn from each other and not insist on each other’s deficiencies and definitely not make matters worse by aggressively pitting Western intellectuality against Indian devotion. The personalities of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are the best examples of a perfect blend of these two aspects and it is precisely because of this that they have touched the hearts as well as the minds of so many people all over the world. Let me however dig deeper into this artificial rift created by these two opposing camps of intellectuals and devotees.

Being myself an educated Indian from the Ashram, let me make my own position clear. I am surely not the type to shout from rooftops that Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are the Avatars of this age, the ultimate statement that any devotee can make. But I confess, without feeling the least ashamed, that I believe the above statement to be true, though I would rather hold this precious faith in my heart and not try to convince others about it. Such an aggressive propaganda of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is often the most convenient way of forgetting their teachings. The matter is simple, they wanted us to do their yoga of transformation, they did not want us to start proselytising and found another religion. Having said this, let us find out what makes the intellectual shy away from devotion? The devotee, he says, speaks of unverifiable things of which he has no actual experience. Now this is plain nonsense and outdated materialism which believes only in the knowledge of the physical mind and senses. Once we have accepted the spiritual framework of the universe and we know from the testimony of our Gurus that there are layers and layers of consciousness above and below the present mental level, how can we revert back to the materialistic “Show me proof of God” kind of attitude? I call this intellectual fundamentalism which is perhaps as bad, if not worse, than the usual brand of religious fundamentalism. I feel that both these attitudes have to be carefully avoided in order to seek the Truth.
Coming back to the point of faith and verifiability, Sri Aurobindo says that faith is a precursor to knowledge. The Mother says that faith has to descend into the vital and physical and even to the very cells of the body. Now this introduces a complexity which the intellectual never envisaged, the intellectual who thought that faith is essentially dumb. The flaw in his arrogant attitude is that he thinks he can study spirituality with the same certainty he can study physical facts, which are easily verifiable. When the facts are not easily verifiable as in the realm of spirituality, he has the tendency to pooh pooh them in the name of rationality. But the suprarational can be as logically expounded as the physical universe and this is precisely what Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have done for us. Their writings and talks have given a vast intellectual form to the suprarational, which satisfies every part of our being and all artificial oppositions between the mind and heart cease to exist. The intellect is basically a good barrister who will fight anybody’s case for a proper compensation. Its pretensions to knowledge are therefore biased and faulty. Now all this is familiar enough to any sadhak of Sri Aurobindo’s yoga, but what beats me is when a senior colleague of mine, who is a long time practitioner of the Integral Yoga, does the same mistake of trumpeting this arrogant intellectual stance in the public arena, and that too, showing scant respect towards Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

I am reminded of the plight of Dilip Kumar Roy, one of the closest disciples of Sri Aurobindo and who received the maximum number of letters from the Master. The disciple never ceased baulking at faith all through his long years of sadhana at the Ashram in spite of having remarkable spiritual experiences. Sri Aurobindo had to finally say that no amount of writing letters would convince his doubting mind, because doubt exists for its own sake and it is the nature of the physical mind to doubt. On one occasion Sri Aurobindo wrote to him:

I ask you to have faith in the Divine, in the Divine Grace, in the truth of the sadhana, in the eventual triumph of the spirit over its mental and vital and physical difficulties, in the Path and the Guru, in the existence of things other than are written in the philosophy of Haeckel or Huxley or Bertrand Russell, because if these things are not true, there is no meaning in the Yoga. [1]

The Integral Yoga is obviously difficult and the physical mind, of all the parts of the being, the hardest to change, as is shown by the exit of several disciples who finally left the Ashram, including Dilip Roy himself. The revolt of very senior and respectable disciples is as yet an untold story. But the common thread that runs through all these sad chronicles is the loss of faith in their Gurus, without whose spiritual help the disciple is inviting inner desolation.

I end with a cynical but an absolutely true observation of a European friend of mine on the practice of Integral Yoga. You sometimes enter this difficult tunnel of inner exploration wanting to come out wise and enlightened, but often come out worse than what you were twenty years back.


Raman Reddy

September 2008



[1] SABCL, Volume 23, p 577

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Alok Pandey’s Reply to "The Larger Issues behind the The Lives of Sri Aurobindo Controversy"

[Around March 2009, the SCIY supporters of Heehs made a solemn collective statement on the larger issues behind the “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo” controversy. Laying the broad outlines of how the Integral Yoga should not be practised (as if they have been practising it for a long time), voicing grave concerns about how it was going awry at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, they formulated fourteen points with summary explanations attached it. How I wish this new charter of Yogic Rights was followed by the setting up of a new Ashram where they could have indeed shown the world how to practise the Integral Yoga in the right way. Heehs also could be anointed as its new Guru. Alok Pandey reacted to this collective lamentation by jotting down the following replies to some of their accusations – religious fundamentalism, not permitting intellectual freedom, etc.]


1. Religious Fundamentalism:

I don’t believe in any kind of fundamentalism, religious or intellectual. A narrow, one-sided, intellectual approach to truth is as harmful as religious bigotry. At the same time, every spiritual collectivity has a right to safeguard what is sacred and dear to it, its cherished values and ethos, and its unique way of life. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are the centre and the circumference of the Ashram. The members here have willingly chosen this life centered around Them. They have not been forced into conversion or coerced into submission. One is free to move in (if admitted) and one is also free to move out. But when one is part of the institution, a minimum sense of public decency is expected of him. If a member writes publicly disparaging comments that are critical of the core values and founders of the institution and, that too, for years together, and others rise up to challenge and criticize him, I do not see how they become religious fundamentalists. In this world of transparency and accountability, nobody can stay secure on his throne and demand that he will continue to be in his privileged position despite his betrayal of the very Cause, or his acting constantly against the Spirit that built the institution. To expect others to meekly submit to such unlimited privileges is not the spirit of freedom but of slavery and depravity. The Spirit that built the Ashram and sustains it is not the Spirit of Democracy or Theocracy or Autocracy or any such political ideal. It is the spirit of Yoga and acceptance of the Master. Faith in the Founder and His wisdom are part of its core values and central ethos. For the rest, there is the world outside where people are free to speak on whatever they want in appropriate forums.


2. Intellectual Freedom:

Freedom of any kind,  intellectual, vital, physical – is always relative, and comes along with its own share of responsibility. An unlimited freedom is one of those chimeras of vain intellectuals who refuse to submit themselves to a higher Law or a deeper Truth greater than their minds. They are free to say whatever they want, but they must not then complain if others exercise their freedom to contradict their publicly stated opinions and ideas. Unlimited freedom, like unlimited authority is the prerogative only of a consciousness that dwells always in Truth. Since none of us can claim that, let us not speak of it. It is true that an enforced discipline by mechanical means or regimented code leads to conservatism and stagnation, which no progressive group can afford. But equally, an unlimited, unqualified freedom leads to chaos, a mad orgy of vital instincts and mental arrogance,  a regression to barbarism of another kind, which again no progressive group can accept. A right balance is needed, a healthy combination of freedom and discipline, individual and collective. The Ashram is precisely such a place with a leaning towards freedom. Yet, sometimes a group may need to send away a member if his presence is detrimental to the whole group-life or threatening to attack and erode the very Soul of the place. Whether it is possible to destroy the Soul or not is not the issue. The issue is whether certain persisting attitudes and tendencies of an extremely undesirable type can be accepted when they damage the very fundamentals of the Ideal that a group stands and lives for. There are always other groups and places where the individual’s bent of mind and the group’s ethos will match. One is always free to move there.


3. Spokespersons of Truth:

No one except for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother can have that absolute authority. Nobody else claims it either. And precisely for this very reason it is important to see that distortions and wrong of interpretations are not made from their writings, the kind of which PH has been indulging in openly and blatantly through this book.


4. Need for Reconciliation:

Yes, of course, but around what and whom? One cannot sacrifice the central principle for the peripheral, the higher truths for the lesser lights. Unless there is a basic agreement on certain fundamental issues, how can one hope to reconcile? In that case, it is better to let different groups grow independently, each in its own way, without interfering in the other’s affairs. When we would all have grown sufficiently, then union, if necessary, will happen naturally, first inwardly, then outwardly. The fundamental issues are:

(a) Can a critical attitude towards Sri Aurobindo and the Mother be permissible in the Ashram, leave alone tacitly being encouraged as it is being done now?

(b) Does the book truly represent Sri Aurobindo’s life and does justice to His Works?


5. Tolerating Different Approaches:

Of course, there is every scope and freedom for diverse approaches. But is the scientific objectivity of the skeptic materialist or hostile criticism of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother an approach to Integral Yoga? Of course, in the widest sense, everything leads us towards God, one way or the other, but when we speak of yoga, we mean a more direct effort. Not everything can be called conscious yoga simply because everything eventually leads us towards God. Besides, there is a difference between having a personal approach and claiming it as the most authentic or best approach for everybody. There is no problem if someone writes a book about how one feels closer to God when he quarrels with Him, but there is a problem when he denounces, belittles or dismisses others while hailing his own way as the only valid one. The author of TLOSA has precisely done that and he starts it in the Preface itself. It is PH and not the devotees who have been intolerant! They have only reacted to his dismissive attitude towards devotion and faith. If you put your hand in a hornet’s nest, you should not blame someone else for your pain!


6. Hindutva Influence:

This is sheer nonsense. Hindus are perhaps the most tolerant group. If there is any Hindutva influence in the PH controversy, it is seen in the remarkable tolerance displayed by the devotees and sadhaks in the face of such audacity and arrogance displayed by PH and the blatant lies that he and some of his supporters have unabashedly resorted to. Can you imagine someone continuing to live freely and enjoying the privileges of an Ashram despite publicly denouncing its Guru and Master?


7. Anti-Western feelings:

This is again sheer nonsense, an old trick used to divide people on racial lines. Has any westerner ever been harmed before, during, or after the controversy, including those who resolutely stand on PH’s side? B. and R.H. continue to occupy their places, while Sraddhalu has been asked not to go to the Archives. The feeling of racism has not been created by people who are against PH’s book but by those who are supporting him. Somehow they are unable to see beyond the colour of their skin and country of origin. It is sad, but who is responsible for it? That is the question.


8. Western outlook:

There may be some truth in it,  maybe related to a recent past and the turn that religion has taken in the West. Maybe it is difficult for a Westerner to surrender or acknowledge a personal and embodied Divine. But I am not sure if this is still a general phenomenon or one that afflicts the Sri Aurobindo group specifically. Nevertheless, just as an Indian has to pursue yoga forgetting that he is a Hindu or Indian, so also a Westerner or others may have to follow yoga, if they wish to, forgetting that they are Westerners, Christians, agnostics, etc. Or does this simple rule of yoga apply only to one group and not to the others??


9. Moral and Religious Policing:

Nobody does moral or religious policing here. Nobody peeps into anybody’s life or passes judgments except in private. It is rather PH who has tried to peep into Sri Aurobindo’s life with a voyeuristic curiosity and passed judgments. He has made his views public and therefore people have reacted because of his misrepresentations of Sri Aurobindo, His life and His works. How is that equivalent to moral and religious policing? Nobody is bothered or cares about PH’s private and personal life. Nobody has slapped a list of do’s and don’ts on him or anyone else. All that the devotees have asked of him is not to write such derogatory stuff while he is a member of the Ashram. Is that such an unfair demand? If anything, it is his followers in America who are trying to remote control and police and pass comments and judgments on what does not really concern them! One can understand that concern for what is written or said about Sri Aurobindo when it is not confined to the Ashram. The devotees all over the world have surely the right to express what they feel. But it is not within the prerogative of everyone, including devotees outside, to comment, interfere, influence and control the decisions regarding PH’s continuation at the Archives or the Ashram. To do that would rather be moral and religious policing. A distinction must be made between the Ashram as a source of spiritual Light for all and the Ashram as an institution. Nobody here is interfering in PH’s yoga or his personal approach to the Divine, which in any case is a matter of attitude rather than outer circumstances. Nobody is ex-communicating him. All that was asked was his removal from the Archives and that too not out of any ‘righteous wrath’ but because of the gross misuse of his privileges, such as making use of unpublished things for public consumption without taking permission. Such a change of department and even taking someone out of the Ashram has been done earlier and is an acceptable norm in other institutions. It has nothing to do with this hype on ‘religious wrath’ and ‘fundamentalism’. Does it mean that every time someone was asked to leave the Ashram (and there have been quite a few cases), it was done out of ‘religious wrath’ or a ‘fundamentalist’ impulse? It simply means that the individual does not fit anymore in the organization, because he does not agree to abide by its core principles.


10. Who is the authority?

For all Ashram related matters, it is obviously the Ashram Trust that enjoys the full authority. For PED (Physical Education Dept of the Ashram) matters, it is the PED that decides, and so also for most departments. There is no doubt about this. That is why the Ashram inmates welcomed the PED decision whereas they remained silent (though somewhat sorrowfully) at the decision of the Trust. Nobody went against the Trust; they only repeatedly kept apprising them, not because they wanted to ‘arm-twist’ the Trustees but because they felt unheeded and unheard (due to their silence). If a clear decision had been taken either way and communicated to everybody, there would have been no confusion. As I have said earlier, there is a time and place for silence and a time and place for speech and communication. To delay certain decisions for long can prove to be costly.


11. Lawsuit:

Certainly not the best way to settle issues. Yet, if all options are closed, it is the only viable way of redress and there is nothing uncivilized about it.


12. A Logical Fallacy:

Finally, one may say that supporting PH while condemning the reactions to the book is a strange and fallacious logic. The same logic used to defend PH defends also the reactions against him. For instance:

(i) PH decontextualized Sri Aurobindo’s writings, quoting them in bits and parts from here and there, so did those who quoted from his book.

(ii) PH is a representative type of humanity but then so are the others.

(iii) PH has analyzed Sri Aurobindo critically (and without a heart) with the lens of a scientific objectivity. The same is being done to him by others.

(iv) PH has intolerance towards other approaches dubbing them as hagiography, dogma, etc. So also others are being dismissive about his approach.

(v) PH has intellectual freedom to write what he wants, so also others are exercising their freedom to criticize him.

(vi) PH has been critical and dismissive towards Sri Aurobindo’s works, so also have been people been towards his work.

(vii) PH has called Sri Aurobindo names (some would have thought he was a megalomaniac, coward, liar, etc); so also have others done the same to PH, called him names.

(viii) You feel love for PH and are defending him, so also we feel love for Sri Aurobindo and are defending him. Or to use your language, you believe and stand for certain mental values such as vital and intellectual freedom. We believe and stand for certain spiritual values such as devotion and surrender when you take up the yoga (not otherwise).

I am not saying that ‘tit for tat’ is a very yogic thing. All that I am doing is to point out a logical fallacy in supporting PH’s personal actions. What should have been done instead was a discussion on the book itself.


13. Circulating the Extracts:

So do you expect that the whole book should have been circulated? That would be worse! And hasn’t PH done the same, giving a one-sided picture by selective half-quotes. And have not those who have analyzed our letters done the same,  taken them out of context. PH’s background, repeated actions of a similar nature, his being part of the Ashram and that too of the Archives, his abrasive personality that hastily dismisses other approaches, his mocking at people’s faith in the Mother, all these are part of the full picture. To simply take a few extracts (that too selected for effect) and analyze them is only to create confusion, nothing else.


14. Representative Type:

Yes, everybody here is a representative type but not all need to stay in a particular department of the Ashram to do yoga and change themselves. And if he is a representative type, so are the others and he is getting it from other representative types! Such logics is obviously self-defeating in the end!


Alok Pandey

April 2009

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