R Y Deshpande's analysis: Ascent to Supermind (Pp 311-346)

The Ascent to Supermind
Apropos of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs
RY Deshpande

I’ve just gone through the chapter entitled The Ascent to Supermind: Pondicherry 1915-1926, the first of Part Five: Guide, of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs, and find it rather hastily written. It is also crude and easily popularistic-journalistic in its approach and attitude when seen in the context of the grand theme it purports to present, its quite a few inadequacies very glaring, its spiritual perceptions wanting in their penetration, in insight as much as in substance. The decidedly selective handling of the researched material much amounts to insensitive and blundering representation of Sri Aurobindo’s yogic siddhis, his realisations and his remarkable achievements. In fact the biography is doing enormous injustice to the spiritual things we value so deeply, so observantly and feelingly, injustice in more than one way. I may touch upon a few of them here.

Actually the title of the chapter itself is awfully misleading: the period 1915-1926 cannot be called “Ascent to Supermind”. Sri Aurobindo already had the knowledge of the Supermind, had it long ago—perhaps the first indication being when he was an undertrial prisoner in Alipore jail. At that time almost for two weeks the spirit of Vivekadanda would visit him and point it out to him, a bright golden star in the far above sky. And, remarkably enough, the Mother also spoke of the Supermind as early as on 15 December 1911, in Paris, much before she met Sri Aurobindo. Hers is a prayer soliciting the Sun of Truth, the Supreme Light to “pervade us entirely and illumine with its great brilliance our minds and hearts, all our thoughts and actions.” It is the Mantra of Transformation she received, the invocation being to the Sun of Truth, the Light of the Supreme, parasya jyotih of the Gayatri Mantra given to us later by Sri Aurobindo himself. Therefore what was happening during the period 1915-1926 was not the ascent but something radically different than that. It was the period of supramentalisation of the various grades of the lower consciousness. First it was the supramentalisation of the mental, during the Arya period, and then the supramentalisation of the vital. This finally paved the path for the overmentalisation of the physical, marking the siddhi on 24 November 1926, what he later called the descent of Krishna consciousness in the physical. Sri Aurobindo’s next concern was the supramentalisation proper of the physical itself. For that he put in a God’s labour, digging the dark grounds of inconscience. The result was, the Great Light, the Light of the Sun of Truth, started descending into his physical, the first definite experience coming on 8 August 1938. He has recorded it in his sonnet The Golden Light. We’ve nothing of this in The Lives of Sri Aurobindo.

Archetypal Images and Symbols—by Paulette

Here is a personal e-mail from Paulette which is significant in more than one respect. I therefore thought it gainful to post it for the benefit of the perceptive readers of the Mirror of Tomorrow, particularly the aspiring souls of the Aurobindonian or what is called the Integral Yoga Community.

Anonymous Posting on Savitri Era Open Forum

I am compelled to make a statement here. I have been somewhat following articles in SCIY and this blog. I am simply surprised that the supporters do not recognise the very elementary common sense fact that this is NO case of fundamentalism with the people who are against this book. It is because it is written by one IN THE ASHRAM. THIS IS THE BETRAYAL. Please realize that WORSE has been written and expressed by outsiders on Aurobindo on which NO ban or censorship had ever been sought. Mr Carlson also writes:

“Having no other knowledge of Heehs history at the Ashram how do you think that sounded? An author having property, and body attacked before throwing a court case on him for writing a book?”

“I can’t apologize for what Heehs is accused of over the past 30 years in the community, I have no idea of those events. But the fact is if this matter would have been dealt with in a civil manner in your Ashram, I would not have spent so much valuable time moderating post on this issue, Frankly the situation is disgusting and - court cases or not - I hope it is resolved soon so I never hear about it again!!!”

Clearly Carlson has a lot of sympathy for Heehs’ property and body. You would think he would have paused to consider the emotional and psychological violence that has been inflicted upon the devotees and disciples unless of course all the reactions of all of them are a concoction and a fabrication. One may compel and prevent and decry the physical act of violence but can he undo or understand the mental violence that led to the physical acts? Accepted that he had no idea of the past acts of Heehs but he is surely not oblivious of the current deep discontent and hurt that this has caused people. NOT A WORD on that at all from the supporters save Kepler (which too I am not sure. He seems to be playing both sides and trying to be ingratiate himself with both. His response to Sraddhalu betrays his lack of sympathy for the devotees that have been hurt). Those who have experienced the psychological violence are also the followers of Aurobindo many of whom have dedicated their lives or at least drawn to the Mother and Aurobindo deeply enough to take residence there and happily accept the travails and hardships of that life unlike Carlson who prefers to pass judgement - on their intellectual acumen - ensconced in the comforts of America. Shame on you, thrice shame on you.

Sraddhalu's Open Letter to Auroville and Centres

Open Letter to Auroville and Centres dated 1^st May 2009

Dear All,

The recent circular titled "Integral Yoga Fundamentalism" (IYF) dated 16^th April 2009 signed by David Hutchinson, Debashish Banerji and Rich Carlson has come to my notice. It is unfortunate that these three have resorted to a campaign of character assassination rather than academic response and refutation of differences.

Since you have read their letter and have very likely been inflamed by their allegations, I request you in the interest of fairness to take some time to read my response in detail and go over the facts that I have to offer in place of their wild allegations. As will become clear, their allegations are false and their circular and website totally misrepresent my views and attack me on issues that I have no concern with while completely ignoring the main concerns and criticisms that I have raised.

This note is somewhat long because it must cover all the issues that the IYF circular has raised in its accusations. While reading my response, you will come across many surprising facts, some of which might even shock you. Do keep in mind throughout, that I have factual evidence for every statement that I make here, even though I cannot present it all in this note for reasons of space. In case you need substantiation or further elaboration of any of these statements, I will be happy to provide additional facts and evidence as necessary.

Cause of Differences

The cause of my differences with the IYF group is the recent biography of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs (referred to as The Lives). The book relies entirely on three decades of meticulous research conducted by dozens of researchers of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram's Archives. Heehs was only one among these researchers, although in his book he takes exclusive credit for the whole research. Unlike other researchers, Heehs had full and free access to the entire body of this research as well as to all the internal and unpublished documents which most biographers of Sri Aurobindo have never seen or even known of. Hence there are several factual details in The Lives which have been published for the first time – mostly of trivial interest and of no major significance. In addition The Lives is meticulously documented, as any scholarly work should be. But this is as far as the scholarship goes.

The content of the book has been arranged and slanted to force-fit Sri Aurobindo's life and work into a Freudian framework to win accolades from Freudian scholars. For this purpose, Heehs has chosen to sacrifice fundamental norms of scholarship including a) factual accuracy, b) honesty, and c) completeness in representing facts. All three norms have been compromised not on some occasions but all through the book, consistently and deliberately. Note that I do not criticise The Lives on grounds of objectivity, even though it seriously fails this criterion also – the book is in fact biased against Sri Aurobindo. I do not criticise his objectivity because any biography is necessarily an author's perspective, and I see nothing wrong with Heehs or anyone else presenting their own viewpoint or interpretation of Sri Aurobindo. Everyone is free to hold his views and to express them in his own way. In spite of Heehs' claim to objectivity, his biography too (as all others before his) is highly subjective. And I do not criticise him for that.

My primary opposition to The Lives is on grounds of a) misrepresentation of facts out of their historical and social context, b) presentation of Heehs' speculations and imaginations as actual facts, c) deliberate distortion of actual quotations, d) factually incorrect and fallacious criticism of Sri Aurobindo, his views and his actions, e) factually wrong statements about the Mother, the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo's yoga, and life in the Ashram, f) deliberate bias towards criticising Sri Aurobindo and intentionally concealing facts or accounts to the contrary.

In essence, my criticism of his book is on account of its deliberate distortion of facts and nothing more. Where is the fundamentalism in this? Factual accuracy should be the foundation of any scholarly work; otherwise it must be withdrawn or reclassified as a work of fiction. And that is all that I and others have demanded.

About Gitanjali JB's Lawyer

The SCIY website (platform for Heehs and his group) has claimed that one Mr Anirban Tripathy is Gitanjali JB's lawyer representing her in the Orissa High Court.

This is factually wrong. Anirban Tripathy is not Gitanjali's lawyer. Her lawyer is one of the most reputed and senior counsels of the Orissa High Court with an impeccable reputation.

Heehs and his lawyer know this well, and the information is in the public domain. SCIY's claim is another lie intended to confuse people and misdirect attention.

The Appeal by Julian Lines for Harmony and Peace -- by Ranganath Raghavan

[Julian Lines, a close friend of Peter Heehs, wrote a letter to us on 22 April, 2009 appealing for peace and harmony. Here is Ranganath Raghavan's reply to it.]

The appeal seems to be a sincere and deeply felt reaction to the ongoing matter connected with the author of the book “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo”. If so, it is certainly to be welcomed and appreciated. But it could also be motivated by a desire to get Peter Heehs off the hook and save him from the predicament he finds himself in.

But if a true and lasting harmony is to be established, then the real genesis of the problem must be identified with an objective, sincere attempt, free of all hang-ups, personal, preferential, racial or otherwise.

An objective view will immediately perceive the origin of the crisis to be the following:

Ranganath’s Reply to the Accusation of Religious Fundamentalism

Alok Pandey, Shradhalu Ranade, Anand Reddy and a few others, who had objected to Peter Heehs’ book “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo” are being branded as “religious fundamentalists”, because they think that criticism of the Guru is wrong, and particularly so by a sadhak-member of the Ashram Community. The “broad-minded, objective, so-called practitioners of the Integral Yoga” and supporters of Peter Heehs do not mind if the Guru is criticized, denigrated, and found fault with. They have no objection to a limited, error-prone mental judgment being passed on the Guru, who lives on the highest planes of Consciousness possible to man.

It is to be clearly noted that criticism of the Guru by one who claims to be a practitioner of the Integral Yoga, and one who is living in the Ashram as an inmate , enjoying all its facilities, its infrastructure, material and spiritual support, is not only wrong but harmful to the institution and even to himself. There is no problem when a third person who is neither a sadhak nor a follower of the Integral Path does so. The attack can be dealt with in other ways — by intellectual discussion, by persuasion, etc. This sort of thing has happened several times in the past, even during Sri Aurobindo’s life time.

Who is a religious fundamentalist? It is one who insists on the sole truth of his religion, denies the truths of other religions, and imposes his limited views, very often by physical force, on those who do not share his beliefs. First of all, there is a big difference between religion and spirituality, but let that pass. A sadhak who objects to the falsification of the teaching, or stands for the truths of his Guru within the Community to which he belongs can hardly be called a fundamentalist!!

The characteristics of religious fundamentalism are listed as eleven by the all-wise so-called rationalists of the SCIY forum. Let us examine them one by one.


1. Rejection of Complexity

Complexity is not inconsistent with a basic simplicity.

Complexity by itself need not be raised to the status of an absolute desirable principle.

Complexity can lead to many errors and misjudgments. It can obfuscate simple truths, and, by convoluted arguments, end in self-deceit. Complexity can become an easy excuse for losing the woods for the trees.


2. Demand for Doctrinal Purity

There is nothing wrong with the demand for Doctrinal Purity. In fact it could be considered essential under certain circumstances. It is an inflexible, rigid stand that denies the truths of other paths that is undesirable and dangerous, if the rejection is carried out on the physical plane with violence. But the rejection of falsehood within the community is certainly not undesirable.

Purity of any teaching must be maintained. Enlargement of the field of purity can cause dilution, leading to falsehood. On the other hand, enlargement that includes the original purity may be also quite acceptable.


3. Feeling of being threatened

When the threat does not exist, the feelings are not justified. But when a real threat of falsehood, perverse interpretation, outright lies and personally motivated comments without any basis are disseminated, widely circulated, then not only must the threat be seen clearly, but all action to counter it becomes, not only necessary, but imperative and indispensable.


4. Control of information

There is no control of information in our stand. Rather the opposite is true. “Information”, unwanted, false, downright libelous is being circulated and passed off as authentic and official. That is what the wide distribution of a printed book does. It has a tendency to “legitimise” such false information — particularly when the author has an “official position”, wrongly claimed in the book itself. The author of “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo” claims to be the founder of the “Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives”, which is a blatant lie and intended to inject authenticity in the contents of the book. In such a case, the rectification, by the denial of the falsehood contained in the book, is the prime duty of those who desire to give the right information.


5. Exclusivism

Here too, as in the other cases, exclusivism is not necessarily a sin. When it is a negative rejection of fresh ideas, without sufficient rational consideration of whether these ideas are acceptable or not, then it is a narrow and blind attitude. But if after a careful consideration of the new ideas, they are found to be contradictory to the basic teaching of the Guru, then a rejection is obviously needed. Non-exclusiveness does not mean a wholesale, indiscriminate, pell-mell acceptance of all ideas.


6. Opposition to Discussion

Where is the opposition to discussion? Again this does not mean that one is obliged to accept all ideas that are being forwarded by the opponents. The right of rejection is always a prerogative in any debate.


7. Abusive Language

Abusive language is never justified, but a strong rebuttal of the false opinions expressed in the book is always justified. Also the rejector has the right of “proportional” rebuttal, commensurate to the text being rejected.


8. Rousing the masses

This has to be understood correctly. There has been NO ROUSING of the masses by the initial objectors to the book by Peter Heehs. The masses have been roused by the blatant lies and self-opiniated comments of the author that are ignorant, foolish and motivated and intended to “ingratiate him to the academics of the West”. This is exactly what happened in this case. Richard Hartz and his band of supporters are making it sound as if Hitler and Goebbels have “roused the masses” by their false propaganda. Nothing of the sort happened. The book has been forcefully rejected, and the falsehood contained in it had, by itself, the power to rally all lovers and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The French Revolution, the Bangladesh Uprising, Mahatma Gandhi’s rousing of the masses during the Indian independence movement, are all examples of the truth and necessity of bringing revolution to the masses. They were spontaneous uprisings against falsehood and injustice. Having said that, let it be clearly and firmly stated that the “rousing” was not “caused” by anybody (as falsely claimed), nor was there any such intention in the minds and hearts of the first objectors. The truth of their stand itself was enough to initiate and snowball into a mass movement of resentment and anger.


9. Atmosphere of Violence

No one in his senses will justify violence without sufficient reason. But when fighting blatant injustice, violence may very well be justified. The freedom movements around the world against the intransigent colonialism of the West with all its rapaciousness, greed, selfish and cruel grabbing of all that did not belong to it by military might, are certainly justified. But the mindless violence of the terrorist imposing his narrow and ignorant views on the rest of the world is certainly wrong. In the present case, violence is certainly to be condemned, if it has occurred without justification. There was no physical violence except in two cases, when an inflamed disciple had an argument with Heehs, and when the author’s cycle tube was cut by a group of kids. If this is supposed to be violence, then it is indeed laughable.


10. Demonising the enemy

Here again the enemy may or may not be the demon. But if the enemy attacks the very Avatar, – Sri Aurobindo – the very representative of the Divine on earth, are we not justified in calling the enemy an anti-divine force? This may not be acceptable to the personal friends and admirers of Heehs. But the large number of devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother HAVE felt strongly the attack to be that of a dark force. There is no need to shy away from this rather “seemingly” extreme statement. It is a truth whose vindication will come out in due time. Each sadhak and follower of the Integral Yoga must recognise this fact and stand up boldly and reject the book. It is possible that the author of the book has become an instrument of this dark force without being fully conscious of the implications of his actions. But that does not diminish the seriousness of his misbehaviour.


11. Heroic Role in a great Cosmic Drama

There is absolutely no motive of heroism or any other in the first objectors to the book. Motives are being ascribed to them — personal and selfish motives. The only motive is to stand up for the truth and honour of their Gurus. In fact, why don’t Richard Hartz and Co. come and announce their motives publicly?

Rather the motive of the author of the book was to be recognised as a “scholar” by the academia of the West!! What a motive for a “so-called sadhak” of the Integral Yoga, after having stayed for thirty years in the Ashram and enjoying all its basic infrastructure, hospitality and support!!!

The motives of Richard Hartz and Co. are clearly the return of Peter Heehs to the Archives so that he may continue his dubious activities all over again.


Ranganath Raghavan
May 2009

Two Sides of Two Different Coins

About three weeks ago my friend and ex-colleague at the sciy, Rich, approached me,—of his own, and that could surely have been a gainful step had it progressed,—for a ‘dialog’ on the issue that has been harassing everyone for months now. I took it as a definite positive move, assuming that it was not a tactical move, and made a proposal for an open discussion on the Lives of Sri Aurobindo, going through the weighty book paragraph by paragraph and page by page. But Rich stepped back—which means that the open ‘dialog’ will continue to languish and the parties will continue to operate in their own way, moral, ethical, civic, political, literary, academic, legal, spiritual, and what not. Perhaps this has got to get exhausted before something in the nobility of the IY Community appears on the horizon. It is sincerely hoped that it will be sooner than later. But beyond this terrible ‘human potential’ there is another Hand and, true to the IY Ideal, the best, and reassuring, for us to firmly hold it, rather to let it do unhindered its work in us.

Raja Marathe’s Letter to Peter Heehs

["Raja" Shreehari Marathe is Peter's close and personal friend for the last 20 years.]

Dear Peter,

I have been reflecting on the recent events in your life and in the Ashram, and have come to certain entirely personal understandings. I am sharing them with you and several friends with whom I have discussed these matters in my recent stay in the Ashram. I was avoiding putting these thoughts on paper but considering that the controversy is still raging, I consider it my obligation to be a part of this debate.

About the preface to "Many lives of Sri Aurobindo"

• Your attack in the preface on all earlier biographers was unwarranted; in the first place many of them are not living, and have no way of defending themselves. In addition some of them were early disciples of Sri Aurobindo, and had seen him alive and possibly had more insight into Sri Aurobindo than you.
  
• As a historian your sources have been at best secondary and many of them tertiary and hearsay accounts. Instead of attacking the earlier biographers in this way, you could have easily acknowledged them with thanks and gratitude for showing you another side of Sri Aurobindo.

Jugal Kishore Mukherji’s Second Letter to the Trustees in 1987

[The is the second of two letters. The first is here.]

[After Jugal Kishore Mukherji wrote his letter to the Trustees in June 1986, Jayantilal Parekh, former head and founder of the Archives Dept. of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, wrote a letter to the Trustees in defence of Peter Heehs’ research and the publication of his Archival Notes in the Archives and Research magazine of the Ashram. Jugal Kishore Mukherji then wrote a second and final letter to the Trustees in June 1987 on the same matter, referring frequently to portions from what he called J.P.’s Statement (Jayantilal Parekh’s letter), after which he kept silent. Heehs got away with Jayantilal solidly protecting him not because he approved the former’s opinions, but because he needed him for the material organisation of the Department. Later, Jayantilal warned Heehs to be careful in whatever he writes because he would have to face one day the results of his actions. The slow wheel of Karma caught up with Heehs twenty years later, in 2008.]

Jugal Kishore Mukherji's First Letter to the Trustees in 1986

[This is the first of two letters. The second is here]

[“History repeats itself if you do not learn its lessons”, is the message that clearly comes across when you read Jugal Kishore Mukherji’s letter to the Trustees written in June 1986, twenty two years before the Heehs controversy became a big public issue in August/September 2008. Jugal-da has now withdrawn himself from the administration of the Higher Course – the final three years of higher education that is given to the students of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram School, apart from himself teaching Sri Aurobindo’s major works to them. The Mother once remarked about the clarity of his mind and the way he could project his thoughts on the stage when she had directed a play in the fifties. It is the same exceptional clarity of mind that we see in this letter, exposing not only the wrong attitude of Peter Heehs vis-à-vis Sri Aurobindo, but his equally bad scholarship in his Archival Notes in the Archives and Research magazine, published by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the eighties. Incidentally, what many of us have recently written in protest against the Lives of Sri Aurobindo is all there in seed form in Jugal-da’s arguments. We have written nothing new, and even what has been of late written by Heehs’ supporters is a repetition of what was written then in his defence. The story of Heehs has simply repeated itself, like a politician’s scandal on a much larger scale, for people to be convinced more than ever that there always was something wrong about it. In short, had Heehs’ work been editorially supervised from that point of time when Jugal-da shouted himself hoarse, a lot of unpleasantness would have been avoided now.]

Selected Letters -- Jasmin's experience

[Extract from a letter of Jasmin on AV Compats]

"My experience of reading this book was an extremely difficult one. Page after page, I was reading the story of Sri Aurobindo, well-known in many details and less familiar in others, and yet it was as if a 'twist' had been given to everything described. Even without being able to verify every single detail, I found that in countless instances, materials had been presented selectively, and that details and quotes were skillfully arranged to paint a picture which in its overall effect differed greatly from the reality we know. ... The most painful aspect of all was for me the author’s style, his choice of one word over another, the colouring and nuances used in describing Sri Aurobindo. I felt in it a consistent undertone of biting sarcasm, sometimes subtle and sometimes blunt, which made me feel as if the author was using every opportunity to land a punch or a kick on his 'subject'. ... I felt almost physically sick while reading the book."


Dear Savitra,

Having read your postings on the compat forum, I have been wishing for some time to have a dialogue with you on some of the points you make. As you know, Aravinda and I greatly appreciate you as a friend with whom we have had many good and profound discussions. …

Like you, the first thing I came to read of the new publication were the few pages of extracts which have been widely read and referred to countless times since then. And like you, on reading the quotes, I felt utterly shocked, appalled, and refused to believe that what I had just read could have been the author's intention. I know from your own account, dear Savitra, that up to this point our stories are alike. From here onwards they differ, and have lead us to seemingly opposing stances. And on the basis of the precious friendship that has been ours, I humbly ask you to hear my own experience and view of the issue, allowing for the possibility that it may be as genuine and as authentic as yours is. I am not asking you to change your views, but in the spirit of true dialogue, to simply consider mine with an open mind and heart. …

Being a slow reader, and perhaps due to having done editing work, I am quite sensitive to nuances and shades of language - probably more so than those who know how to read rapidly while focusing mainly on the gist of a text. My experience of reading this book was an extremely difficult one. Page after page, I was reading the story of Sri Aurobindo, well-known in many details and less familiar in others, and yet it was as if a 'twist' had been given to everything described. Even without being able to verify every single detail, I found that in countless instances, materials had been presented selectively, and that details and quotes were skillfully arranged to paint a picture which in its overall effect differed greatly from the reality we know. We all have had the experience of seeing ourselves reflected in a curved deforming mirror - we recognise familiar features, yet so distorted that the result is a grotesque caricature of ourselves. This metaphor comes closest to my experience of the biography. The most painful aspect of all was for me the author’s style, his choice of one word over another, the colouring and nuances used in describing Sri Aurobindo. I felt in it a consistent undertone of biting sarcasm, sometimes subtle and sometimes blunt, which made me feel as if the author was using every opportunity to land a punch or a kick on his 'subject'. It translated itself into an inner 'picture' in which I saw the author engaged in a constant wresting match with his Master... as if to see who will be stronger... a fight fought with all the weaponry of the intellect, enlisting among other things a narrow 'academic' attitude which sits in judgement of that which exceeds it. I felt almost physically sick while reading the book. …

I would suggest that as children of the Mother who reminds us to 'cling to Truth', each of us tune in to our deepest and highest consciousness, and then whatever action we may be guided to take, to do so as an offering to the Divine, in the attitude taught to Arjuna by Sri Krishna...

I agree with you, Savitra, that in this important issue none of us who care for Sri Aurobindo and His work can escape the responsibility of informing ourselves, searching for truth, and taking whatever action we see as most appropriate. As I have said before, I believe that one way is to refine our mental faculties, discernment, reasoning, along with a widening, detachment, and introspection... More direct is another way, through the psychic perception, as you and others have been reminding us in this context. Whichever route we choose, we will be advancing on the path of yoga... And for those of us who consider ourselves children of the Mother, we may find the clearest guidance by asking ourselves a simple question: Can we imagine ourselves reading the ‘Lives of Sri Aurobindo’ to Her? What will She say about it? And similarly, in whatever we say or do to each other: Can we say or do the same things in the presence of Her who holds us all lovingly in Her arms?

With respect and friendship,

Jasmin
Aravinda & Jasmin Maheshwari)