tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84927747040262768302024-03-14T19:38:56.247+05:30A critique of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs and its consequences in the Ashram lifecommitted to objective, academic, respectful and honest discussionsGeneral Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.comBlogger484125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-89465081016166408392019-07-04T20:05:00.000+05:302019-07-04T20:05:15.152+05:30Distorting Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga – Anirjeet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Peter Heehs and his American
supporters at the Archives of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, should be packed
off to Donald Trump’s country and made to feel the difficulties of common
American citizens instead of allowing them to invent a false and secular
version of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga in India. Just look at the cheek of this
imposter who once labelled himself as the founder of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Archives. He publishes an interview in the Times of India the very next day of
his reinstatement at the Archives in which he smugly says, “It’s possible to be
an atheist and practise a religion.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Let me tell you first that
this is old hash which he has been repeating from the last 15 years, so there
is nothing brilliantly intellectual about it. It only shows his own failure to
do Yoga and complete inability to become part of Ashram life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secondly, his statement is an outright
contradiction as an intelligent reader has already commented on the blog. If
you are an atheist, you are generally a materialist and you don’t believe in
spiritual realities. The Divine or God or Ishwara are immaterial spiritual
realities which materialists refuse to believe in, so how can you be an atheist
and still practise a religion or spiritual discipline? The fact that the Divine
can be personal or impersonal or simply an ineffable state of consciousness
such as Nirvana or the Self does not make any difference to the basic contradiction
in his statement – Sri Aurobindo has explained that there is no opposition
between the impersonal and personal Divine, they are two facets of the same
spiritual Reality. Sri Aurobindo thus explains the material reality in terms of
consciousness which is the fundamental reality of existence. The problem with
Peter Heehs is that he wants to always please both materialists and
spiritualists – have the cake and eat it too. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The other implication of his
statement in the context of Sri Aurobindo Ashram is that you can do Sri
Aurobindo’s Yoga without believing in him. You can also dispense with
“senseless rituals” in the Ashram like bowing down at the Samadhi or meditating
in front of Sri Aurobindo’s and Mother’s photos or relying inwardly on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> direct inner contact. He does not
say so in the interview but his other articles on Sri Aurobindo and Hinduism
are ample proof of this attitude. In fact, his new book “Spirituality without
God” prepares the larger background for proving more specifically in future the
same attitude towards Sri Aurobindo. So here we are, we know the reason why he
has been reinstated at the Archives with the connivance of the Ashram Trust –
people in the Ashram are becoming too religious, so they have to be educated by
Heehs in order to practise the sadhana as Yogi (or Bhogi!) Peter Heehs has
presented it after 40 years of severe intellectual askesis! I hope we will be
spared of this unwanted transformation of Sri Aurobindo Ashram!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have not written the above
for the sake of mere amusement because I genuinely feel his reinstatement at
the Archives a serious threat to the spiritual well-being of the Ashram. I would
therefore earnestly appeal to the Home Ministry of India to intervene immediately
and see to it that Heehs and his supporters leave by the first flight to their
own country. If this indeed happens, many of us will be greatly relieved and we
will not hesitate to raise money for their tickets in first class in the best
Airlines available. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-57349433813405162942019-06-30T20:01:00.000+05:302019-07-04T19:42:35.094+05:30Peter Heehs Reinstated as Head of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives – Anirjeet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Trust in Pondicherry bent upon destroying the spiritual legacy of Sri Aurobindo
and the Mother? If not, how do you explain the sudden reinstatement of Peter Heehs
as the head of its Archives & Research Department on the 29th of June? <o:p></o:p></span></div><span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Peter Heehs wrote the most
derogatory book that was ever written on Sri Aurobindo – <i>Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i>. His book caused such resentment among the
disciples and admirers of Sri Aurobindo that a number of cases were filed
against him and the Ashram Trust, which has been protecting him from the last eleven
years. In December 2008 the Ministry of Home Affairs took cognisance of the highly
volatile situation and directed the Orissa Govt. to conduct an investigation.
This led to the banning of the book through a Gazette notification dated 9
April 2009 which said that <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“the
objectionable book contained matters
which were deliberately and
maliciously intended to insult the religious
beliefs of the devotees
of Sri Aurobindo
thereby affecting public peace and tranquility making the publication
of the objectionable book an offence punishable under Sections 295-A
and 153-A of
the Indian Penal
Code.”<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Quoted
from the Supreme Court Judgment </span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 16px;">dated 12 January 2016 </span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">in the Scheme Suit)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In this massive campaign to
defend Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual image in the public domain, lakhs of
signatures were collected by aggrieved devotees who marched in processions through
the streets of Orissa; silent dharnas were held in front of the office of the
Ashram Trust in Pondicherry; thousands of petitions and letters were written to
Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee; thousands more met him personally and
pleaded with him to “do something about it”. But all that he did in September
2008 was to request Peter Heehs to temporarily stay away from the Archives for
some time. It was this mild action taken more out of caution than as a disciplinary
measure that finally saved the Ashram Trust in the Supreme Court in a Scheme
Suit filed against it in August 2010 for breach of trust – for not being able
to protect the spiritual reputation of Sri Aurobindo who founded the Ashram in
Pondicherry. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I should also mention other notable
events: the 68 Members of Parliament who asked for clarifications on the issue
of Peter Heehs in May 2012; the consequent Enquiry in September 2012 instituted
by the Pondicherry Govt. into the financial irregularities and sexual
harassment cases of the Ashram – in August 2014 this Enquiry became a Writ Petition
filed by three lady inmates in the Supreme Court of India; the visa violations
of Peter Heehs who would have been evicted out of the country in April 2012 had
not his Leftist supporters come to his rescue; the Sri Aurobindo Society’s
unequivocal condemnation of the book around the same time, and, what is still
more amazing, the Ashram Trust’s own public notice saying that “it does not
approve” of the book. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I could continue in this
manner, but the above information is sufficient to understand the gravity of
the matter to readers who are not familiar with the issue. The Ashram Trust
should therefore seriously rethink about the dangers that may arise by the
reinstatement of Peter Heehs in its most sensitive department, which is the
repository of the spiritual treasures that Sri Aurobindo has left for posterity.
The keys of the sacred rooms have been grossly misused in 2008; do we
want them to be misused again and give Peter Heehs a second chance to write an
equally derogatory sequel to his <i>Lives of
Sri Aurobindo </i>? If the Trust does not pay heed to this warning, as it is
most likely to do given the arrogance of its own position and power, then do
not blame us tomorrow for not pointing out the dangers of this reckless action well
in advance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-55357360308229858772019-05-30T17:49:00.000+05:302019-05-30T17:49:09.462+05:30"Deliberate Distortions of Sri Aurobindo's Life and Yoga" edited by Raman Reddy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iWfRqqqmDLirSQyWkax9V8-q-3zipaop/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">CLICK HERE FOR READING PDF</a><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-23756375688063174702019-05-29T00:30:00.000+05:302019-05-29T12:20:24.358+05:30"Deliberate Distortions of Sri Aurobindo's Life and Yoga" – edited by Raman Reddy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
above book is freely available at: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iWfRqqqmDLirSQyWkax9V8-q-3zipaop/view?usp=sharing">https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iWfRqqqmDLirSQyWkax9V8-q-3zipaop/view?usp=sharing</a></span></span><br />
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 13pt; line-height: 115%;">Preface<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This book is a counter to the vicious attack on Sri
Aurobindo’s spiritual stature that came in the form of a hostile biography of
him by Peter Heehs entitled <i>The Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i>, published by
Columbia University Press in 2008. All the articles in this book are in defence
of Sri Aurobindo and many of them have been written by well-known historians
and academicians. Though the book is written in support of the disciples and
followers of Sri Aurobindo and their spontaneous rejection of the gross
distortions of their Master’s life and teachings, the refutations themselves
are based on a scholarly study of Sri Aurobindo’s works and a thorough
examination of the historical facts of his life. I hasten to make here a
necessary clarification with regard to the study of great spiritual
personalities such as Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt;">There is a general assumption that
spirituality and rationality don’t go together just as feeling and reason
cannot operate at the same time. So either you believe in an “irrational” way
in spiritual realities as disciples do, or you accept only things which come
under the strict purview of reason, as overconfident secular scholars do. But
for those of us who have outgrown this narrow attitude of looking at things, we
have a mixed bag of assumptions. We believe in the truth of spiritual
experience on the testimony of those who are spiritually advanced, but we also
believe in the truth of reason which bases itself on material facts. And we do
not see any essential contradiction in holding both positions as long as we
treat them according to the laws and principles of their respective domains.
This does not mean that our judgment of spiritual events is devoid of
rationality, with a total suspension of logic and commonsense, or that our
reason has no connection whatsoever with spirituality. For there is a lot of
common ground and mutual compatibility, which often allows us to buttress faith
with reason, or realise the shortcomings of faith in the light of reason, and
even perceive the limitations of reason itself vis-à-vis faith and spiritual
knowledge. This has of course enormously
increased the scope for subjective errors in our judgment, but it has given us
at the same time a much larger view of life, because it includes the vast inner
domains of the Spirit as well as the material world around us. The strictly
objective scholar will be horrified at this liberal attitude, but then if he
rejects the truth of the Spirit only because of the complications that it may
bring to his scholarship, then one day or the other the grand edifice of his
erudition will crumble down with the rapidly widening horizons of spiritual
knowledge in modern times.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I will give several examples of what
the regular scholar and historian would consider taboo for fear of being ostracised
by his peers. Take for instance the Adesh (a divine command) which Sri
Aurobindo received in Calcutta to go to Chandernagore, and another one to go
from there to Pondicherry. The regular historian would not even mention it; he
would simply narrate the facts and conclude that he was a coward who ran away
to French India in order to avoid being arrested by the British Police. Or take
Sri Aurobindo’s experience of Nirvana and other spiritual experiences, it would
be literally blasphemy for him to take them seriously. If he is forced to
mention them, he would have to bring in the play of imaginations and
hallucinations to explain them to his readers. Similarly, the topic of the Self
or the Soul would have to face either a stiff silence or a severe reprobation.
In the realm of spiritual associations he would see only sexual relations, and
there would be no question of brahmacharya, a yogic practice with which we are
familiar in India since times immemorial. As for the Supermind and the
different planes of consciousness described by Sri Aurobindo in such great
detail, I am sure tomorrow a super-clever scholar will map them into the
various layers of the human brain. This indeed is the petty modern
interpretation of spirituality, and it is because Peter Heehs had to constantly
bear in mind this view of leftist scholars who have dominated India and the
West, that he had to mess up his biography. Otherwise, he would have been
rejected outright and even shunned by them, and he would never have gained
entry into this elite group of short-sighted academicians.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But even this old school of thought is at least
consistent in limiting itself to material facts and evidence and rejecting all
spiritual phenomena. There is a strict criterion and discipline that these
scholars and historians follow in the matter of collecting, authenticating and
organising their documents, and drawing rigorous conclusions from them. Peter
Heehs’s biography of Sri Aurobindo lacks this basic discipline, although he
proudly calls himself an objective scholar. He is so eager to destroy Sri
Aurobindo’s image that he cannot write a fair and credible account of him even
from the leftist or secular point of view. The very fact that he spends forty
years of his life pretending to practise yoga in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, and
during that long period gathers almost exclusively negative data on Sri
Aurobindo, and that too from unreliable secondary and tertiary sources, shows
his plain dishonesty. He ends up being neither a straightforward leftist
scholar nor an admirer of Sri Aurobindo who believes in his spiritual
world-view. So then you wonder why he wrote at all a biography of Sri Aurobindo
whose spiritual life was never “on the surface for men to see”, as he said once
to a biographer. He should have chosen instead a run-of-the-mill politician
whose life is very much on the surface to see and record!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Our refutations of Heehs’s
distortions of Sri Aurobindo’s life and teachings have been on perfectly
rational grounds, questioning the dubious way he has handled historical
evidence, his omissions and commissions, without basing ourselves merely on
faith and hurt emotion. We have taken on faith only what cannot be taken
otherwise, and where we are forced to assume, such as Sri Aurobindo’s account
of his own spiritual experiences or his statements on spiritual realities and
events, which are beyond the grasp of reason and ordinary sensory perception.
But once we have assumed these, the super-structure that we have built on them
is as logical as that of any objective scholar who bases himself on material
facts and evidence. In general, we have paid Heehs in the same coin that he
thought he would get away with. He announced that he was the founder of Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Archives to gain public credibility; we exposed him to be a
fake. He flaunted his objective scholarship; we showed how he was biased and
chose flimsy negative evidence over much that was actually in favour of Sri
Aurobindo. One tactic that he has frequently adopted is to quote Sri Aurobindo
against himself, so that he can silence his disciples. We went to the very same
texts and found that he had decontextualised Sri Aurobindo’s frank remarks on
himself. For example, Heehs gleefully pounces on Sri Aurobindo’s remark of
being a coward and a liar when he was a boy of ten, but he deliberately omits
in the same paragraph the part on Sri Aurobindo outgrowing these defects after
he commenced his Yoga. Another method of Heehs that defies common sense is to
read Sri Aurobindo’s life into his works, as if what he wrote was a faithful
reflection of his actual life. Sri Aurobindo’s commentary on the Isha Upanishad
has thus given rise to such silly speculations by Heehs that you could almost
propose him to write a novel instead of a biography. Then the book is full of
insidious remarks and insinuations, nasty comments on all the major works of
Sri Aurobindo which have won so much admiration from intellectual circles, a
constant running down of Hindu values and practices, and a denigration if not
an outright vilification of the divine personalities of Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It was therefore incumbent on us to
produce a rebuttal of this biography by Peter Heehs, without which there would
be a lot of misunderstandings regarding Sri Aurobindo’s life and teachings in
the public domain. Our book therefore endeavours first to clear the distortions
and doubts that Heehs has sown among the disciples and followers of Sri
Aurobindo. It also addresses readers who may not be so familiar with Sri
Aurobindo, but are open to spiritual thought in general in order to appreciate
the purport of this book, for similar attacks of this kind have been made in
the recent past on other great spiritual figures of India and Hinduism in
general. As a matter of fact, there is clear evidence that Jeffrey Kripal, who
portrayed Ramakrishna Paramhansa as a paedophile in his book <i>Kali’s Child</i>,
exchanged notes with Peter Heehs prior to the publication of the <i>Lives of
Sri Aurobindo </i>in June 2008. Heehs has thus joined hands with this notorious
group of Hindu bashers which Rajiv Malhotra has so well countered and responded
to in his books and blogs. Our rebuttal
will also be of interest to the purely academic scholar from the point of view
of exposing a technically defective and totally biased presentation of
historical documents, of which Heehs’s biography of Sri Aurobindo is a classic
case. In other words, Peter Heehs has been very successful in showing to the
academic world how a biography should not be written! The arguments that we
have presented in this book are thus logically sound and based on sufficient
historical evidence, and the fact that they are in outright support of a great
spiritual personality should not by itself disqualify them from scholarly
consideration. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally, by the publication of this rebuttal, we have
proved that disciples, followers and admirers of great spiritual masters can
retaliate intellectually instead of being only hurt and shocked by insidious
attacks on their Gurus. While the general way of peace-loving Indians to leave
everything to the Divine is a good long term strategy, it is necessary nowadays
to pick up the gauntlet in the face of such vicious attacks on their culture
and spiritual ethos. One thing we Indians ignore today is how much Westerners
are strangers to our culture, and that unless we clarify and counter at every
point <i>their distorted understanding of it</i>, we will never be able to set
the record straight in the eyes of the rest of the world. A certain amount of
hatred of Indian culture among Westerners stems from sheer unfamiliarity with
it. The fact that Indian spirituality offers solutions to the age-old problems
of man while Western thought and culture find themselves in a state of inner
bankruptcy, increases all the more this ill-will instead of promoting a healthy
cultural exchange. Hence we see nowadays so many clever attempts of Western
scholars to appropriate the spiritual knowledge of India without acknowledging
it, or, if that appears to be too blatant a cultural theft, try to show its
hitherto unknown origin in the West. Indians are generally quick to absorb
Western culture without any such inhibitions coming in the way, but many
Westerners, if at all interested in Indian culture, can rarely overcome their
cultural barriers and genuinely empathise with it. There are of course
exceptional Westerners who have steeped themselves in Indian culture, but they
have been marginalised by the mainstream academia. It is in these rare and
genuine souls that we can hope to find one day a true synthesis of the East and
the West. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
problem is multiplied by English becoming the global language of communication
and creative expression. Most English speaking Westerners automatically think
that the mere knowledge of English elevates them beyond the need of learning
from other cultures, because everything is available in English. But what is
available in English is often half-baked knowledge or poor translations,
especially in the realm of spirituality, which moreover needs a preliminary awakening
of the inner consciousness that no amount of mental effort can bring. It is for
this reason that much stress is nowadays laid by Western scholars on the ideas
and concepts of spiritual philosophy, for then they can juggle with them in an
endless rigmarole of comparative studies and pretend to be experts in religious
studies, without having an iota of spiritual experience. Even in the case of
Sri Aurobindo, where everything indeed is available in English, the need to
practise his Yoga for a long time and gain sufficient familiarity with the
larger background of Hinduism from which he developed his spiritual philosophy,
cannot be simply brushed aside. It is precisely to avoid the necessity of doing
so that there have been recent efforts among some Western scholars to
dissociate Sri Aurobindo from Hinduism and say that he rejected it altogether
in the latter part of his life. But I attribute this again to sheer arrogance
and what is perceived by them as a cultural humiliation to learn from an “inferior
race”, though they do not dare to say so and hide their real feelings behind
sophisticated trappings. How much the world would have been better had not
these extraneous considerations come in the way of mutual understanding! As for
the large number of English-educated Indians who have unfortunately become
stooges of these Western scholars and are eager to commit cultural hara-kiri
for the sake of a so-called “global harmony” which ironically has no place for
Indian culture, it is mostly the politics of self-interest that drives their
actions. I would be at once accused of Western phobia and Hindu jingoism, but
for once let us stop mouthing these political platitudes and look at the plain
truth of the matter – Indians have never been averse to Western culture, they
have always been good learners. It is Western scholars, especially the type of
Peter Heehs and Jeffrey Kripal, who want to belittle Indian culture because of
their morbid revulsion for it. Indians therefore </span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">have every right to defend and rebuff malicious attacks
on their culture, and there is no need to be apologetic about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A last word on justifying the aggressive stand we have
taken in our rebuttal, which most mild-mannered Indians would generally avoid,
having been born in the land of the wandering Sannyasin. To this I repeat the
old adage that attack is the best form of defence, especially when the enemy is
bent upon eliminating you and taking full advantage of your naiveté. Such
defensive aggression would also indirectly pave the way for a better
cross-cultural understanding in the future, for it is only after a
confrontation and a clash that Indians will be able to command respect from
others. Finally, learn we must from everybody and especially from the West,
which has been in the vanguard of humanity’s scientific progress for the last
few centuries, but why not at the same time assure the survival of what we hold
to be infinitely more precious than all the material advancements and technical
innovations that the present world can offer – our spiritual heritage? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Raman Reddy</span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-58371515111590676062019-04-15T18:19:00.000+05:302019-05-29T12:01:30.283+05:30Challenging the Ashram Trust’s Stand on Relics<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[<i>The Notice below has been issued in the name of
Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust in the January 2017 issue of the Oriya monthly magazine
“Navaprakash”, published by Navajyoti Karyalaya, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondi</i></span><i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">cherry.
Below is an English translation of the original Notice in Oriya.</span></i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">]<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Facts One Should Urgently
Know About Relics <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">(</span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Notice on Relics published in
Navaprakash<b>)<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Words are
insufficient to express the spiritual significance of the sacred Relics of Sri
Aurobindo. It can only be realised through profound faith, devotion and
sadhana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Usually,
as per the arrangement of The Mother, the Relics are given in Sri Aurobindo Ashram
from Sri Aurobindo’s Room. They are well-kept in a series of containers
specially prepared and provided by the Ashram. The approval of Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Trust is indispensable regarding the details of the institutions that take
them, the places of their installation, the persons who receive them from the
Ashram and those who remain in charge, the way in which they are taken and the
persons who install them.<o:p></o:p></span></div><span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is especially
noteworthy that Mother herself has not given the Relics to any individual. She
has also not given the right to anybody to hand over or distribute the Relics.
If anybody claims that he or she has got the Relics, it means that they are
intended for him or her only. If he or she hands them over to any person or
institution, it amounts to an unauthorised act. If he wants to hand it over to
anybody, it is better to offer it to the Ashram Trust.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is
natural on our part to hope that the true followers of Sri Aurobindo would
sportaneously feel the importance and profundity of the enshrinement of this
most sacred thing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When this
procedure is broken and the sacred Relics are declared to be enshrined in any
place, it means the minimum discipline has not been observed. Therefore Sri
Aurobindo Ashram will not be able to approve their authenticity and will not be
responsible for them in any way.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">* *
*<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Trust’s Interference <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Without any Right</span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%; text-transform: uppercase;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">(On
the Notice in Navaprakash <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Regarding
the Sacred Relics of Sri Aurobindo)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[<i>After reading in Navaprakash the above Notice,
which was given in the name of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, we the devotees of
The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in Odisha immediately sent the following letter to
Shri Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Prof. Manoj
Das, and the Manager of Navajyoti Karyalaya of the Ashram on 20 January 2017. Because
Prof. Manoj Das had drafted the notice on behalf of the Ashram Trust, we
requested him to reply to our letter and publish it along with our letter in
the next issue of Navaprakash. As no reply was published in any of the succeeding
issues of Navaprakash, we publish below our letter for everybody’s knowledge.</i>]
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A Humble Question
to Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">On Behalf of The Mother’s Devotees in Odisha<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We the brothers and sisters of Sri Aurobindo Study
Circles in Odisha have been reading Navaprakash since many years. This year
(2017) on the inside page of its back cover under the title “Facts One Should
Urgently Know About Relics”, we read that those who are enshrining Sri
Aurobindo’s Relics taken from private people instead of the Ashram Trust, are
not following the principles of the Ashram and not observing the minimum
discipline. “</span><i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Therefore Sri Aurobindo Ashram will not
be able to approve their authenticity and will not be responsible for them in
any way.</span></i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">” This notice is written by Prof. Manoj Das,
an Ashram inmate, on behalf of the Ashram Trust, having been instructed by the
so called leaders of The Mother’s work in Odisha and published in the Odia
monthly Navaprakash that comes out from Navajyoti Karyalaya of the Ashram. The
content of the Notice is not inappropriate, but Prof. Manoj Das should know the
two reasons for which the devotees of Odisha are taking the Sacred Relics from
individual sources:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1. The Trustees of the Ashram are refusing to give
any more Relics to Odisha as a lot of them have already been given.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2. The devotees of Odisha do not consider it wrong
to follow the footsteps of the illustrious Shri Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee
of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Prof. Manoj Das and Gadadhar Mishra of Cuttack,
Matrubhaban. To elaborate a little, in December 2009 Gadadhar Mishra had come
to the Ashram to take Relics for eight places in Odisha. At that time Kumud-ben
was in charge of The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s Rooms and the Relics. When she
refused to give any Relics to Odisha, Gadadhar Mishra put pressure on her
through Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, the Director of Physical Education in
Ashram, Managing Trustee Manoj Das Gupta, Prof. Manoj Das and several others.
At last Kumud-ben agreed to give Relics for only one place. But as Gadadhar had
collected money and given assurance to the organisers in 8 places, he
threatened them that if the Relics are not given to all the eight places, he
will start a hunger strike in front of the Ashram. To please Gadadhar, the Managing
Trustee of the Ashram and Prof. Manoj Das managed to collect 7 Relics (5 from a
person outside and 2 from Ashram inmates) and requested Kumud-ben to put those
7 Relics in boxes and keep them along with the one box she had kept ready in
Sri Aurobindo’s Room. But Kumud-ben flatly refused to do it. So Manoj Das
Gupta, the Managing Trustee, took the initiative and prepared 7 boxes for those
7 Relics and kept those boxes in his Ashram office. On 7 January 2010 when one box
of Relics was brought from Sri Aurobindo’s Room to the staircase, the 7 boxes
were added to the tray that contained only one box from Sri Aurobindo’s Room.
When the tray was brought to the Ashram courtyard, people saw the 8 boxes of Relics
on the tray. Immediately Gadadhar Mishra took them via Navajyoti Karyalaya to
Odisha and himself installed the 8 Relics in their appointed places from 9 to
21 January 2010. After this the devotees felt free to collect Relics from
individual sources and install them in the centres.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do the gentlemen involved in this affair agree to
this account or not? If they agree, then who are responsible for the present
state of affairs – the Trustees of the Ashram, Prof. Manoj Das, Navajyoti
Karyalaya and Gadadhar Mishra, or the simple, innocent devotees of Odisha? We
want Prof. Manoj Das to answer our question as it is he who has drafted and published
this strange notice in Navaprakash in the name of the Ashram Trust. The readers
of Navaprakash who have read the notice must get a proper answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Faithfully yours<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Mother’s Devotees of Odisha<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">* *
*<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">More
Questions Regarding the Notice on Relics<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the concerned
persons have no courage to reply to our letter of 20 January 2017, we take for granted
that their Notice on Relics in the January 2017 issue of Navaprakash is a false
threat. We now raise more questions on some points mentioned in the Notice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1. The Notice
says: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Words
are insufficient to express the spiritual significance of the sacred Relics of
Sri Aurobindo. It can only be realised through profound faith, devotion and
sadhana.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If
this is true, why give such a Notice, advice, instructions and threats? It will
be better to leave it to everybody’s faith, devotion and sadhana.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2. The Notice
says:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Usually,
as per the arrangement of The Mother, the Relics are given in Sri Aurobindo
Ashram from Sri Aurobindo’s Room. They are well-kept in a series of containers
specially prepared and provided by the Ashram. The approval of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Trust is indispensable regarding the details of the
institutions that take them, the places of their installation, the persons who
receive them from the Ashram and those who remain in charge, the way in which
they are taken and the persons who instal them.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Here the
question arises, have the Ashram Trustees themselves followed the procedure of
The Mother in giving Relics when they gave Relics to the 8 places of Odisha on 7
January 2010? In spite of the Mother’s personal attendant Kumud-ben’s warning
letter to them and the Ashram Physical Education Director Pranab-da’s written
notice in the Ashram, did the Trustees refrain from doing what was not in the
procedure before? The Trustees break without hesitation the prevailing
arrangements of The Mother and exercise unhindered power, whereas they forbid
the centres and devotees outside in the name of The Mother not to do the very things
which they themselves have done. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3. The Notice
says, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“The
approval of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust is indispensable regarding the details
of the institutions that take them, the places of their installation, the
persons who receive them from the Ashram and those who remain in charge, the
way in which they are taken and the persons who install them.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is
applicable to those who take Relics from the Ashram Trust. But why is the
approval of the Ashram Trust indispensable for those who take Relics from other
sources? Sri Aurobindo Ashram is not a religious institution and the Trustees
are not its Head Priests. The Relics do not become sacred because the Trustees
touch and approve them. The Relics are like gold, the purity of which does not
depend on who gives them or who takes them, how he takes them, where he </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">installs </span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">them and what procedure he follows. It
is a well-known fact that those who take Relics to Odisha, whatever sources they
may come from, offer their utmost love and respect to them. They treat the
Relics with the same respect that was given to them when the Mother was in Her
physical body. This attitude and action does not depend on anybody’s approval. Moreover,
do the Trustees really inspect how the Relics are taken, how they are enshrined
and how the shrines are maintained? If they never do that, why do they put such
restrictions and show their false concern?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Ashram
Trust has made four conditions to give Relics to a centre: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1. There must be a registered Trust and
the properties of the centre must be in that Trust’s name. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2. The construction of the shrine must
be completed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3. There must be
some other activities like a study circle or school running there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4. At least one
person should always be there to see the maintenance of the Relics centre. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Trustees themselves have made these criterions. But do they follow it in
practice in every case? One example can be given here: In August 2016, on Manoj
Das’s insistence, the Ashram Trust gave Relics to Sri Aurobindo Pathmandir,
Kolkata. Has that centre fulfilled a single condition of the above four?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4. The Notice
says: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“It
is especially noteworthy that Mother herself has not given the Relics to any
individual. She has also not given the right to anybody to hand over or
distribute the Relics.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When The
Mother was in her physical body, there was no question of these conditions. But
after Mother left Her physical body, the Relics were with her personal
attendants. Some inmates and devotees outside had the privilege of getting these
precious objects from them. When the Trustees stopped giving Relics to Odisha,
the devotees started collecting them from these privileged persons and installing
them with due respect and care. Have not the Trustees done the same thing on 7
January 2010? Did those 7 Relics come from Sri Aurobindo’s Room? When people only
follow the example of the Trustees, why do the Trustees get irritated?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">5. The
Notice says at the end:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“When
this procedure is broken and the sacred Relics are declared to be enshrined in
any place, it means the minimum discipline has not been observed. Therefore Sri
Aurobindo Ashram will not be able to approve their authenticity and will not be
responsible for them in any way.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is
no justification for writing this as Sri Aurobindo Ashram is not a religious
institution ruled by Head Priests with fixed rules and procedures which create also
the possibility of breaking them. Those who take Relics from personal sources
never seek the approval of the Trustees. They never make the Trustees
responsible for the authenticity of the Relics, so the Trustees need not
unnecessarily worry about it. As the Trustees feel that they can act freely, so
too innumerable devotees in the centres are inspired by the Mother’s ideals and
feel free to offer their services to Her in various ways.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Very
recently we learnt that the imprudent Managing Trustee Manoj Das Gupta was
persuaded by Manoj Das and Gadadhar Mishra to write an official letter on 10
September 2018 to the Secretary of the Home Department, Govt. of Odisha, in
which he requested him not to offer the Police Guard of Honour to Sri
Aurobindo’s Relics unless there is a certifying letter from the Ashram Trust.
As the Home Department of the Govt. of Odisha did not pay any heed to such a foolish
letter and continued to offer the Guard of Honor, Manoj Das Gupta, Manoj Das
and Gadadhar Mishra got frustrated and instigated a mischievous person to file
a case against the person who had installed Sri Aurobindo’s Relics in his
centre on 18 January 2019 without referring it to the Ashram Trust or to the Cuttack
centre, Matrubhaban. The case has been accepted by the High Court of Odisha on
7 February 2019. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is
very strange how the Trustees act like Head Priests in matters like Sri
Aurobindo’s Relics when they declare themselves secular in matters where Sri
Aurobindo’s own prestige is concerned! When the question came up to stop the
publication of the derogatory book on Sri Aurobindo written by Peter Heehs (an
Ashramite), the Managing Trustee wrote proudly, “We neither prescribe nor
proscribe!” This statement clearly shows that any disciple residing in the
Ashram can disrespect Sri Aurobindo or the Mother in writing and the Trustees will
have nothing to do or say about it. When the Trust is so liberal, generous and
secular in the case of the blatant denigration of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs,
why does it threaten and restrict the inoffensive and innocent actions of
simple devotees in the matter of Relics? Is this not a mere changing of colour for
political convenience? The Trustees of such character have no moral right to
impose needless restrictions on devotees who are collecting the Relics from
private sources and installing and maintaining them in their centres with
utmost devotion and care.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-56467650955382940102017-11-28T19:08:00.001+05:302018-01-10T06:20:21.436+05:30Deconstructing Peter Heehs – by a Zombified Disciple<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Peter
Heehs was born & educated in USA (</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">says his bio-data on the inside cover of
his <i>India’s Freedom Struggle</i>, OUP,
1988). In 1971, at the age of 22, he <i>settled
in Pondicherry </i>[=not in <i>the ashram
Aurobindo founded</i>].<i> He is a research
scholar </i>[=not member of S.A Ashram]<i>
at the Sri Aurobindo </i>[=not S.A Ashram’s]<i>
Archives & Research Library, specializing in the life & politics of Sri
Aurobindo. In an earlier form the present book was awarded a State Prize in a
competition sponsored by the Delhi administration. </i> Since then he has published many uninhibited
books, booklets & ‘papers’ on Aurobindo in his native English-English for
his type of non-disciples, & at least one in an inhibited Indian ungrezi
for Aurobindo’s Indian disciples. [<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jIAjgoaP29ghu2B0BRIH6mKwV72Vr63v/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Click here to read full article</a>.]<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-90177682935652279022017-09-02T17:44:00.000+05:302019-07-01T11:41:06.081+05:30Manoj Das Gupta Interrogated by the Police ─ Anirjeet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On
the 25th of August 2017 the Pondicherry Police whisked off Manoj Das Gupta in a
Police jeep around 7 a.m. from the Ashram Dining Room, where he had gone to
collect his breakfast. The Police took him to the station for questioning with
regard to the rape of a minor girl by a minor boy committed in the premises of
the Ashram School on 21 July, 2017. Manoj Das Gupta happens to be the Managing
Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Registrar of the Ashram School, which
is a powerful and influential position to hold in Pondicherry, so it is
extremely surprising that the Police dared to treat him like a common citizen. He
was even made to undergo the utter humiliation of waiting in the Police Station
for two hours and told to come the next day for interrogation. The next day he
was accompanied by Dr. Dilip Datta (Trustee and head of the Ashram Medical
Services) and Matriprasad Satyamurthy (Secretary of the Ashram Trust) to the
Police station. The same week writer Manoj Das (Sahitya Academy award winner
and recipient of Padma Shri) was summoned to Chennai and interrogated by the
Intelligence Bureau. All of a sudden the long delayed karmic hand has caught up
with the actions of this nefarious group of the Ashram and the fortress of
invincibility they had built up in the public domain over the last twenty years
seemed to fall like a house of cards. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span>
<a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But
the fact that there was hardly any report of the juvenile rape incident in the English
and Tamil newspapers shows the strong grip the Ashram Trustees have over the
media. Only the <i>Hindu</i> came up with a
<a href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/girl-allegedly-raped-by-junior-in-school/article19574375.ece" target="_blank">much diluted report on the 28th of August</a> without mentioning any names
whatsoever, saying that the medical report of the victim was tampered with in a
private clinic, and the authorities of the “international school” had failed to
report the matter to the Police. One wonders how even this much news could trickle
to the surface, but the wonder of wonders is how an Ashram matter could at all
come under the Police scanner and an FIR filed against him! This indeed heralds a new era of justice for Pondicherry and troubled
times lie ahead for the Ashram Trustees who until now have always got away with
similar incidents in the past. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As
luck would have it, the double whammy of the juvenile rape incident and the older
students of the Ashram School getting caught with drugs around the same time, has
been the immediate cause of putting the Ashram Trustees in the dock. When the minor
boy (of the rape incident) was told to quit the Ashram School by the Registrar,
he protested against the discriminatory punishment meted out to him as against Dr.
Dilip Datta’s two grandsons who had been left scot free with a mere reprimand
and a short sabbatical from sports activities. “You should also throw them out
for taking drugs. Why only punish my son?” had argued the boy’s parents, to
which the Ashram authorities responded by paying for the boy’s fees in the
Acharya School, one of the premier educational institutions of Pondicherry.
When the Police finally swung into action at the behest of the higher
authorities of the Govt. and arrested the boy and his family, they seem to have
spilled the beans with regard to both the incidents of rape and drugs, and put
the Ashram Trustees into an extremely uncomfortable situation. For, on the one
hand, how could the Registrar rusticate the grandsons of a fellow Trustee? On
the other hand, how could he ignore the rape incident and not punish the boy
who had committed it? In any case, the very fact of evicting the boy from the
Ashram School and joining him in the Acharya School is itself an admission of
the rape incident, and in that case the Registrar can now be held culpable for
hiding a serious crime perpetrated in the School premises and not informing the
Police about it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meanwhile
the Registrar has informed the teachers of the Ashram School not to mess up the
situation further by telling the truth of the matter to the Police, which will
soon come to inspect the School premises and question the School personnel. “Tell
them that you don’t know anything about the rape incident. Even if you know,
pretend not to know!” has been the strict instruction sent to the teachers from
the Registrar’s office. What a sad day indeed for the Ashram School when such
instructions have to be sent to do a collective cover-up operation! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
moral of the story is: Why did the Trustees cover up the two incidents of
crime in the Ashram School? It would have been so much easier to hand over these
matters to the Police instead of playing with fire and getting themselves stuck
in a quagmire by trying to suppress them! Why did they not simply call for a
larger body of senior teachers and inmates of the Ashram and collectively
decide on the punishment to be meted out to the culprits (regardless of whether
they are the rich grandsons of a Trustee or a poor clerk’s wayward son) and decide
upon the future course of action to avert such tragedies? This would have been
a much more transparent and healthy way of arriving at collective solutions than
making the entire Ashram administration a private negotiation of two or three highly
inflated egos! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-8619247856238791722017-08-19T21:12:00.000+05:302019-07-01T11:41:06.074+05:30Relinquishing Responsibilities – Anirjeet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Our last post of 7th August,
2017 (Two Shocking Incidents – by Anirjeet) has set the alarm bells ringing,
not in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, as much as in the Sri Aurobindo
Centres closely connected with it. The inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram will naturally
pretend ignorance and vehemently deny these incidents out of sheer fear of retribution
from the Trustees, for whom it is a question of public shame and accountability. And even if the
inmates reluctantly admit in private a watered-down version of the two incidents,
they would gallantly come to the rescue of the Trustees by saying that these
were after all isolated incidents in the otherwise island of peace and psychic
growth of the children in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Centre of Education. But
then if you look backwards, these kinds of incidents (relating to drugs,
sex and alcohol) have happened before, and it is only recently that the
skeletons are tumbling out of the musty and suppressed annals of Ashram history.<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
Yes, the island of psychic growth and mental creativity does exist in the
precincts of the Ashram School, and more so in the larger environment of the
Ashram itself (I would be too stupid to deny that), but then the stormy seas are
raging close to the shore and sometimes make sudden inroads into its sanctity and
take everybody by surprise. The question is why do such things happen, and what
preventive measures can be taken with regard to them?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One way of dismissing the
question is to throw up your hands in despair and attribute it to the falling
moral and spiritual standards of the Ashram and of the world in general. It is
the transition of Kaliyug to Satyayug when all sorts of untoward things will happen
and the lower nature of mankind will rear its ugly head and the formidable
forces of life have a field day. Sure, we all agree with this rather sad
assessment of the present times, but then what do we do in spite of it?
Moreover, why don’t these incidents occur so often in outside schools where
they are dealt with due severity, if the management is not corrupt and the
politicians are not manipulating it? What then is specifically wrong with the
Ashram management, especially that of the Ashram School? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am sure this very question
will be taken by the Trustees as a sign of extreme arrogance, for according to
their faithful cronies, they are by definition above all questioning and should
never be challenged. Nonetheless, given the fact that they have not been
anointed as the next spiritual Gurus of the Ashram and have frequently exhibited
human failings, to say the least, I will come forth with a few frank
suggestions. The first suggestion stems from the most glaring drawback of the
Ashram management in general – the older generation <b><u>never never never</u></b> passes the baton to the next generation.
The result is the present rule by octogenarians (or even nonagenarians) who
don’t want to relinquish responsibility because they want to work till the very
end of their life, or at least till they are not bed-ridden permanently in the Ashram
Nursing Home and are waiting for their visa clearance for their last journey.
Actually this is done in good spirit, for their work (as a teacher or
departmental head) had been individually assigned to them by the Mother herself
– in the good old days each work was personally chosen by the Mother herself
and the inmate took it as a blessing and mission of his or her life. All this
is inspiring and should make one sympathetic to their spirit of “work unto the
last drop of blood”, but what happens to the day to day supervision of work, say,
in the School premises, which means going around the classrooms and keeping an
alert eye on naughty children bunking their classes or up to some mischief? How
can the octogenarian (or nonagenarian) manage that now when he himself (or she
herself) needs the support of a younger person to even physically move about?
Is it not time for the community to make them realise that it is time that they
guide the younger generation to take over their work and leave things to the
Mother, instead of clutching to the baton until the very end and wait for
disastrous events to strike at the very core of Ashram life?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is one big difficulty with
this apparently easy suggestion of mine. The younger generation is most often not
ready or not willing to take the baton at all, because who wants to take upon
himself (or herself) the thankless task of disciplining rambunctious teenagers
running amuck like wild horses set free from their stables? From that point of
view, the generation that grew up under the Mother’s care, which took upon
itself the burden of running the Ashram School, and is now teetering on the
brink, was far more responsible. But their inability to prepare the next
generation of caretakers has left a yawning gap. I am sure other gaps will soon
appear in the Ashram edifice as we go along, because who can replace the
binding factor that Mother represented to the life of the Ashram? I come here to
the second factor that works at a huge disadvantage for the Ashram – <b><u>free voluntary service</u></b>, or
rather taking community work as part of one’s sadhana. The older generation had
sufficient inner motivation to become exemplary in work to those who were under
them. Departmental heads worked harder than their assistants, chief accountants
were in their chairs before the clerks arrived, heads of technical services
knew what work to distribute when the workers strolled in, and teachers set
examples of sober wisdom and good behaviour which left a lasting impression on
the students. This was the primary advantage of the Ashram School over the regular
schools outside. Not the free system of education (whatever that means), not
the intensive physical education that Ashram students get, not the drama and
the singing and the dancing that Ashram students are exposed to, not even the
books of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother they have to read, but it was this
invisible moral and spiritual influence of a couple of hundred teachers on
their students, and the overall salutary effect of the yogic atmosphere of the
Ashram. <i>Not a single teacher of the
Ashram School was paid; I repeat, because it is hard to believe for people living
outside, that there were no paid teachers in the Ashram School</i>. The same arrangement continues to date but it has
now turned into a big disadvantage and become an albatross on the neck with the
fading of the older generation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The way most secular schools
avoid untoward events is to adopt a “No Nonsense” approach and assign the
supervision of the children to their respective class teachers. I suppose the
Ashram School pretends to do the same, but then it does not succeed in such a
simple matter because it cannot enforce discipline in the absence of punitive
action on the irresponsible teacher – if at all the blame can be squarely laid
on one person, for each one is likely to throw the blame on the other. Dereliction
of duty would be met in outside schools either by a stern warning or an
outright dismissal of the negligent teacher by the management. But what can you
do with a work force of volunteers who would willingly abdicate their jobs at
the slightest admonition? Or if the class teacher happens to be the daughter of
a Trustee, which is what happened in one of the two incidents mentioned above? Not
that there are no committees or teachers’ meetings in the Ashram School to
discuss about disciplinary issues; these secondary structures have always
existed, but when did they function successfully? Not only the Ashram School,
but the Ashram itself is well-known for its classic failure in collective
decision-making, except perhaps in the field of physical education. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In admitting the difficulty of
managing such an institution, the reader might get the impression that there is
no better option than to repose full trust in the present Trustees for the administration
of the Ashram. But what if the only thing that concerns the Trustees now
is the politics of remaining in power at all cost and ceding nothing to the
next generation that weakens their positions? The Registrar cum Managing
Trustee of the Ashram had recently shot into limelight by taking the most
severe action on meek and unprotesting inmates, such as Vishnu Lalit, Radhikaranjan
Das and R.Y. Deshpande, for reasons that can hardly be termed as dereliction of
duty. In fact, these inmates had bravely stood up against a most virulent
attack on Sri Aurobindo by an American inmate of the Ashram whom the Managing
Trustee was mollycoddling for inexplicable reasons. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The need of the hour is
therefore to democratise and have a wider basis for the decision-making process
without letting things go out of hand, in which the Trustees can work in tandem
with the inmates of the various departments of the Ashram in order to arrive at
practical solutions with collective good will. If this could be initiated with
the right spirit by the Trustees themselves, it would certainly convey the positive
impression that they are for once not merely busy hushing up criminal acts or acting
vengefully on those who have stood up against them, but also care for the
actual administration of the Ashram. Even this exercise, I am sure, would have
been conducted in the distant and recent past, but how long will the inmates of
the Ashram be satisfied by sham meetings and committees which pay lip-service
to the Trustees? For one day or the other the Trustees will have to win over
the hearts and minds of the inmates of the Ashram in order to improve their
collective life. Until then mere chest thumping and winning Court battles with
money and influence and calling for revenge on those who have challenged them will
certainly not arrest the steady and what seems now the inevitable deterioration
of Ashram life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-3747385310407622032017-08-07T18:11:00.001+05:302019-07-01T11:41:06.062+05:30Two Shocking Incidents – Anirjeet<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The following post, dated 6 August, 2017 on <b>indiatoday.in</b> with the title “</span><b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/puducherry-aurobindo-ashram-supreme-court-sc-sexual-harassment-financial-misappropriation/1/1019836.html" target="_blank">SC rejects plea of woman ‘abused’ at Puducherry’s Aurobindo Ashram</a></span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">” is highly misleading, even going by the report that follows underneath.
On 28 July 2017, Chief Justice Khehar dismissed the impleadment petition of
Hemlata Prasad in the Writ Petition filed by Gayatri Satpathy & Others against
the Ashram Trustees in August 2014 for a number of complaints, including sexual
harassment of minors, death by medical negligence, shady land dealings and other
financial irregularities. The Chief Justice however granted the liberty to
Hemlata Prasad to “initiate proceedings if the applicant is so advised in her
own right”. In other words, the Chief
Justice did not reject her plea of being abused but instructed her to file it
separately on her own. So while the title gives the impression of the Ashram
Trustees coming out clean in the eyes of the Supreme Court, the actual content
of the story should hardly make them comfortable, especially when the Centre (MHA
is a party to the Writ Petition) has “</span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">favoured an independent inquiry into
the affairs of the Ashram”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the meanwhile two more shocking
incidents have come to light in the Ashram, which should make the Ashram Trustees
literally squirm in their seats and regret why they ever sat on them. <span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>Both the
incidents will of course be quietly buried by them with ceremonious preaching
and blaming the falling morals of modern times, instead of looking at their own
lax administration and taking appropriate measures to stem the rot. These two
incidents according to reliable sources (the whole Ashram knows about them
though no one dares to speak) are: (1) the horrendous rape of a minor girl by a
minor boy in the video room of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram School, and (2) the
catching of a few students of the Higher Course of the Ashram School with drugs
on the East Coast Road. The raped girl is ironically a relative of Manoj Das,
the writer, whose eminence was starkly displayed a few years ago in the Seashore
Chit Fund Scam in Odissa. The students allegedly caught with drugs are none
other than the third generation of Dr. Dilip Datta himself, the second most
powerful Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram after Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing
Trustee. In this context the pompous letter of Manoj Das (the writer) to <i>The Organiser</i> on 9 September 2014 is
worth quoting: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I assert that during my half-century in the Ashram I have never
come across a single instance of violation of human rights and the other sins
your author has attributed to the Ashram. I assure you I keep my eyes open and
had there been any such instance, I would have surely acknowledged it to you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How remarkably true and sincere the writer is, so true to his ideals
that he does not even see the realities on the ground! But I suppose that is
politics – you always announce what should be and what is good for the world
and the universe and even the Milky Way, but never take action in your own
vicinity where you have vested interest. Anyway, that is one more bad report on
the Ashram which should be made public, and even if they are merely
allegations, the Ashram authorities should promptly come out with the truth of
the matter. But then be sure that they will be far more concerned to suppress
all information regarding the two incidents than going to the root of the
problem and setting things right in the institution that has been bequeathed to
them by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Admitting that such problems are difficult to solve and frequently
occur in schools across India and in countries abroad, the one big disadvantage
of the Ashramites is that they have to practise Yoga in Life without being
Yogic (which is the present day scenario). The older generation was made of
sterner stuff and everything worked out well because there was no huge
disparity between the outer and inner life, and above all no pretence and
hypocrisy of the kind that Manoj Das epitomises. So they took appropriate
action whenever it was necessary, and accordingly inmates and students were either
chucked out or tightened up with adequate disciplinary measures. I won’t say
they were always successful, but it was certainly better than now when it has
become more a matter of prestige and “upholding the name of the Ashram” at all
cost. Not that the present authorities never take any disciplinary action, but
it is only when one opposes them and their own prestige is at stake, or when
the person is weak and unable to defend himself or herself. When the person is
strong, then the authorities don’t move a finger or budge an inch, observe the
whole issue with “infinite detachment” and leave things conveniently to the
Mother’s Grace!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The case of Sujata Venkatesh, who a few months back rammed her
cycle against Lata Jauhar, an elderly lady who came to the Ashram in the early
forties, is a case in point. The fact that the assault or accident became a
criminal case is not due to the Ashram authorities, but because the victim’s
powerful family cracked the whip from Delhi. Otherwise, how do you explain the
measured and stolid silence of the Ashram authorities with regard to her all
these years, a lady who had occupied five rooms in the New Creation for herself
(when the Ashram was facing a shortage of accommodation) and was literally
rampaging about fearlessly breaking all the rules of Ashram life? This is the
sad state of affairs in the Ashram now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Coming back to the two incidents in the Ashram School, I am sure
parents will be made to sign once again a statement addressed to the Governor
of Pondicherry or the Prime Minister of India denying that no untoward
incidents have ever happened to their children, and that their children live in
heaven on earth, or earth in heaven (whichever you please). There will of
course be no evidence to go by, if somebody does go to the Court asking for an
enquiry, and everything will be once again hushed up, suppressed, forced under
the carpet and buried five feet below the ground, and the squealing victims
made to look like stupid loony complainants. But a day might come when the
parents themselves realise that it would be better not to risk their wards to
such a dangerous environment in the name of psychic growth and free progress,
and that they would rather want to try their luck in regular schools where a
spade is called a spade and appropriate disciplinary measures taken at the
right time in order to protect their children from the hazards of modern life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-82225456085656495982017-03-04T13:44:00.000+05:302017-04-20T12:43:29.053+05:30The Wrong Notion that Sri Aurobindo Rejected Hinduism – Raman Reddy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(With
specific reference to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clasp of
Civilisations </i>(2015)<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>by Richard
Hartz, published by <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nalanda International</i>,
and </span></b><b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Nationalism,
Religion, and Beyond</span></i></b><b><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> (2005), a
compilation of Sri Aurobindo’s writings on Politics, Society and Culture, edited
by</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Peter
Heehs.) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I was rather disappointed
after reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clasp of Civilisations</i>
by Richard Hartz because I expected from him a better understanding of Hinduism
than most Western scholars.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
The book starts off well with a sense of universality in spiritual matters
which justifies the title, but gets caught halfway through with the usual
antipathy towards Hinduism that is so common among secular scholars of India. The
chapter on Vivekananda’s famous address in the Parliament of Religions held in
Chicago in September 1893 is indeed well-written and the circumstances of the historic
event depicted in a most interesting manner with an undercurrent of humour. But
the chapter on Hinduism titled “<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Untold
Potentialities: Jawaharlal Nehru, Sri Aurobindo and the Idea of India”, in
which Nehru is elevated into a spiritual figure and Sri Aurobindo converted
into a secular icon, shows the fundamental flaws of Richard’s scholarship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span> One immediately gets the impression of
encountering one more Hinduphobic armchair scholar, who meticulously builds his
arguments on the works of other Hinduphobic scholars who also have never
empathised with Indian culture. Ironically, Richard Hartz has studied the Vedas
and is an expert in Sanskrit, but this only shows that mere scholarship does
not open the gates of spiritual comprehension. After all, Peter Heehs, his
colleague, did the same, wasting forty years of research on Sri Aurobindo and producing
such a hostile biography that the disciples of Sri Aurobindo had to go to the
Court to take him to task. But let us come back to Richard Hartz who could have
easily come to his own conclusions instead of following the path of Peter Heehs
with regard to Hinduism, or what is in fact the path of leftist secular
scholars of India and abroad which Peter Heehs himself follows faithfully for
the sake of his academic career. After all, for him academic success is more
important than stating the fundamental truth of Hinduism!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div><span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The most uncorroborated conclusion, which is
literally taken as an assumption or a fait accompli by Richard Hartz in this
book, is the reprehensible and obnoxious character of the “Hindu Rashtra”. This
criticism applies not only to him but to all the leftist and secular scholars as
well and I, who personally never had any RSS connections, actually had to go to
these websites to check what was so horrifying about it and found practically
nothing, apart from the expression of legitimate fears over Christian
conversions and the rise of Muslim fundamentalism in India. Read the free books
available on these sites on the so-called unmentionable communal leaders such
as Dr. Hedgewar, Golwalkar and Savarkar, and you will actually find them quite
edifying and liberal in their disposition towards other communities who hardly
reciprocate the goodwill shown towards them. Take for instance the case of our
present Prime Minister himself – what has he done to the exclusive benefit of
Hinduism as such? Hardly anything! In fact many Indians who expected a national
resurgence of their culture have been deeply disappointed by his inaction on
this front. Yet not a single opportunity is lost to call him a communal
politician with the hidden agenda of forcing Hinduism on other religious
communities of India. Take Hinduism itself for that matter – is there any real threat
of Hindus imposing it on other religious groups? I think there is hardly any,
because Hinduism has</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> so many diverse sects and forms that it would be difficult to decide in
the first place which of them express its core values, and one would be finally
left with the option of each following his own faith and letting others free to
follow their own. This is in fact what has happened in India because of the
inherent inclusivity of Hinduism. I would dare say that even the large-scale conversion
of Hindus into other religions in India is partly due to the innate catholicity
of the Hindus themselves, and not because of the discrimination the lower castes
have had to face from the upper castes, as repeated ad nauseam by leftist
scholars! </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So the only
conclusion I can draw is that Hinduphobia, or the deeply embedded fear of the Hindu
Rashtra in secular scholars, is due to political reasons and not cultural
apprehension.</span><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></b></span></span></span></b></span></a><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Just read the
newspapers daily and you see how frequently opportunistic secular politicians
support religious fundamentalism, or how the latter actually hides behind
secularism and uses its very neutrality to strengthen itself. Mark how
obstinately leftist scholars (who have dominated India from the early seventies)
reinforce this notion time and again for totally other considerations than
producing objective scholarship! Richard Hartz unfortunately follows this
well-beaten path of the secular left with unthinking devotion and faith, and is
thus totally out of sync with the spiritual ethos of Indian life. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The second objection that I make is also
general and particular, while it appeals to simple commonsense. When leftist
academics come up with adverse comments on Hindu culture under the garb of
objective scholarship, don’t they realise that they are distancing themselves
from at least 80 % of the population of India which is deeply religious? But I
suppose this is why the Left parties have politically failed in India. So when Peter
Heehs and Richard Hartz make the grand announcement that Sri Aurobindo
distanced himself from Hinduism, and the Hindu culture that was incorporated in
his Ashram was a concession to his Hindu disciples, they are also alienating themselves
from 95 % of the devotees and disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother! <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alienating themselves from others for the sake
of spiritual truth would still have been appreciated, but to cleverly quote
half sentences and stray quotations without giving the full context, and almost
bending backwards to prove one’s point can hardly be justified. This is exactly
what Peter Heehs and Richard Hartz have done, and a group of Sri Aurobindo
scholars are now doing to justify their hatred of Hinduism. Peter Heehs goes to
the ridiculous extent of stating that Sri Aurobindo made concessions to his
Hindu disciples by stressing on the importance of the Divine Mother, or
mentioning the role of Sri Krishna in his own Yoga.<a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
Even accepting the devotion and adoration with which his disciples approached
him is perceived by Peter Heehs as mere adulation which could have been avoided
by Sri Aurobindo. I wonder what would remain of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga, or for
that matter of any Yoga, if the essential means and facilitators of spiritual
union with the Divine are taken away from the seekers. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">To make matters worse, Richard has to bring in a
dichotomy in Sri Aurobindo’s life in order to reconcile his thesis of Sri
Aurobindo rejecting Hinduism in his later days. The revolutionary Sri Aurobindo,
who wrote the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bande Mataram </i>and the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmayogin</i> in which articles on the
spiritual greatness of Hinduism abound, has to be thus distanced from the Sri
Aurobindo who later wrote about the Supramental Manifestation in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life
Divine. </i>By quoting one autobiographical remark <a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
of Sri Aurobindo on having gone far beyond in his spiritual consciousness and
knowledge in his Pondicherry days from the time when he was in revolutionary politics,
Richard conveys the impression that Sri Aurobindo was then a spiritual novice<a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>,
and his early views on Hinduism are therefore obsolete. But did Sri Aurobindo
later contradict what he wrote earlier? And if he did where did he say so? The said
remark is also general in nature and has no specific reference to Hinduism at
all! Moreover, Sri Aurobindo had a number of major spiritual experiences in the
early period, so he could hardly be considered a spiritual novice then. And
what about his nuanced and comprehensive view in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmayogin</i> days on the various forms of Hinduism, which distinguish
between the “lower and higher Hinduism”, and within higher Hinduism “the
sectarian and unsectarian”? These are some of the questions that have been left
deliberately unanswered by Richard Hartz who quotes only those passages that
support his thesis. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Another argument developed by Peter Heehs in support
of this scission in Sri Aurobindo’s life is that his early views on Hinduism were
expressed in the context of the repressive colonial regime and the Indian
independence movement in which he played a major historical role. The famous
Uttarpara speech, for which leftist historians have accused Sri Aurobindo to be
the founder of Hindu nationalism and therefore of present day Hindu communalism,
has been taken by Peter Heehs as an expression of patriotism and not of spiritual
nationalism which it obviously is, when seen in the larger context of Sri
Aurobindo’s concept of the nation soul.<a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
Sri Aurobindo and the revolutionary leaders of his period were awakening the
soul of India, and spirituality was the very foundation of their patriotism.<a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a><b>
</b>They were not merely fooling the subjugated people of India by emotionally appealing
to an “idea of India” (so fashionable now) which was not there until the British
came and cobbled it together. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According
to Sri Aurobindo, the Indian nation soul was formed many centuries back and was
behind the cultural and psychological unity of its people. It was only the
political body that could never be created due to its inherent fissiparous
tendencies created by the spiritual principle which was supposed to unite India,
but failed to do so because of the great difficulty of such an experiment in
human unity.<a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
The British therefore only provided the political body to what was already one
in spirit and temperament, though they left it ruptured into several sub-nations.
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The position taken by Peter Heehs and Richard Hartz
is that Sri Aurobindo has been hijacked by right wing Hindu nationalists and
has been therefore wrongly criticised by left wing secular historians such as
Romila Thapar and Bipan Chandra. This intellectual exercise of saving Sri
Aurobindo from being appropriated by the right wing while defending him from
critical left wing scholars has been the subject of an article by Peter Heehs
titled, “The uses of Sri Aurobindo: mascot, whipping-boy, or what?” A similar
exercise has been undertaken by Richard Hartz in his book under the sub-heading
“Hindu Nationalism and the Idea of India” (pp. 140-47) in perfect copy cat
style of Peter Heehs’s arguments.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Because Left wing historians have based their accusation of Sri
Aurobindo being<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>communal on the speeches
and articles of his revolutionary days, it was technically necessary for Peter
Heehs & Richard Hartz to prove that Sri Aurobindo had moved far beyond his
early views on Hindu nationalism and distanced himself from them in his latter
days. This has been primarily done on the basis of three letters written by Sri
Aurobindo to Dara, a Muslim disciple residing in the Ashram in the thirties,
and a few other quotations from his major works. Ironically, even his early
articles in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmayogin </i>(such as<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>the one objecting to the formation of
the Hindu Sabha in 1909<a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>)
have been used to prove their point, which precisely makes a sharp distinction
between the early pro-Hindu nationalist phase of Sri Aurobindo’s life and the
universal Sri Aurobindo of the Pondicherry period when he supposedly rejected
Hinduism. This goes to show what a futile exercise it is to separate Sri
Aurobindo’s life into two distinct periods with very little connection between them.
Sri Aurobindo certainly progressed far beyond what he had attained in his early
days of Yoga, and worked out later the supramental path which can be considered
new to Hinduism, but he never rejected the essential spiritual truths of Hinduism
on which he based his Yoga and philosophy. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It is true that Sri Aurobindo accepted the spiritual
truth behind all religions and not only of the Hindu religion, but that should
not deprive the role of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher Hinduism</i>
in the spiritual future of mankind, especially when he said that it was “the richest
expression” of the spiritual essence of all religions. He wrote in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Foundations of Indian Culture</i> that India
is “the meeting-place of the religions and among these Hinduism alone is by
itself a vast and complex thing, not so much a religion as a great diversified
and yet subtly unified mass of spiritual thought, realisation and aspiration.”<a href="#_edn10" name="_ednref10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet Peter Heehs & Richard Hartz pick
out Hinduism as a black sheep that does not fit with the rest of the herd
instead of giving its due credit and place. It is here that you find a deep
rooted racial bias against Hinduism and a rather immature understanding of it.
It is like saying, “Look, the other religions to which we belong have totally failed
to deliver man, so Hinduism too should fail. We have been disappointed by our
respective religions, so you too should be disappointed by your religion! Then
only we can all go beyond religion and rise to spiritual heights.” But what if
Hindus are not so dissatisfied with their religion because of its inherent
universality and freedom to choose one’s own path? And what if many Hindus have
turned to Sri Aurobindo without leaving their traditional paths and integrated
his Yoga into their lives without feeling any sense of opposition? And what if
traditional Yogas have also evolved and modernised themselves to suit the changing
times? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(I myself know a few people who
are earnest followers of Sri Aurobindo and at the same time ardent devotees of
Lord Venkateshwara of Tirupati.) Moreover, at the basic level of consciousness
where most of us operate, the difference between traditional Yogas and Sri
Aurobindo’s Yoga of transformation is mostly irrelevant in actual practice, though
there is scope for considerable scholarly dispute at the intellectual level.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">There is often a tendency among the exponents of Sri
Aurobindo’s Yoga to grandly call for universal spirituality and glibly condemn
Hinduism in the same breath without taking into account the ground realities of
our present life. For a condemnation of Hinduism without having anything to
replace it practically except for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life
Divine</i> or <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Synthesis of Yoga</i> of
Sri Aurobindo, which you can barely comprehend or spiritually practise, ends up
only in creating a spiritual vacuum. A similar kind of facile denunciation of
all religions (with Hinduism listed in all caps) has also been in vogue among
some of the followers of Sri Aurobindo without realising that this attitude will
soon deprive them of the very Gurus they hold in such great esteem. For Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother are now themselves considered among the religious
figures of Hinduism, despite their own aversion to religion. After all, it is mostly
the disciples who create religion for their own convenience than the Gurus who are
responsible for it. An anti-Guru tirade is also considered <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">avant garde</i> spirituality even as you fall easy prey to the tech
talk and mumbo jumbo of new-age Gurus who look more for commercial success than
the honest propagation of spiritual well-being. I would certainly propose the
intervention of plenty of common sense in these matters than rely upon the
conclusions of half baked scholars of the above kind. </span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Again, in order to disprove some of Sri Aurobindo’s
frankly negative remarks on Muslim fanatics (which is taken as stark and
shocking evidence of Hindu communalism by leftist scholars), Richard Hartz puts
up an elaborate argument to destroy the credibility of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evening Talks</i> with Sri Aurobindo recorded by A.B. Purani and
Nirodbaran. This is tantamount to destroying the mountain for the mole that is
hiding underneath, or to carpet bomb a city to kill one terrorist. For instead
of doubting the few anomalies that are there in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evening Talks</i> due to the obvious difficulty of recording them accurately,
and checking these out against other authentic sources, Richard Hartz rejects
them <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in toto</i><a href="#_edn11" name="_ednref11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
to buttress the theory that Sri Aurobindo was not pro-Hindu and therefore never
anti-Muslim. But Sri Aurobindo was indeed never anti-Muslim, though he made
some caustic remarks on Muslim fanaticism. For that matter, he was also highly
critical of Gandhi and his policies. The conversations with his disciples were meant
to be private and therefore he was all the more free to air his views, which he
would not have done in a written statement meant for the public. One should
know that Sri Aurobindo eschewed politics in Pondicherry so that his presence would
not embarrass the French Govt which had given him refuge. Thus the fact that
his verbal remarks on Muslim fanaticism and Gandhi do not match any public
statements of that time, can be simply attributed to political discretion than
an unreliable notation of the Talks. Incidentally, Richard Hartz himself uses
the very same <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Evening Talks </i>recorded
by A.B. Purani to prove that “Bande Mataram”, the national song, is not a
religious but a national song (see footnote 51 on page 149). </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Finally, there can be no real progress in this
debate over Sri Aurobindo’s views on Hinduism, unless you fix the exact
definition of it in his own words. Otherwise, clever Hinduphobic scholars such
as Peter Heehs will keep jumping up and down, and from right to left of the
various shades and degrees of Hinduism for the sake of winning an argument than
coming to a sober conclusion on Sri Aurobindo’s views on Hinduism. Or, even if
they compile Sri Aurobindo’s views on Hinduism and Indian nationalism, they would
snip the quotations where they precisely should not be, and constantly make
corrective remarks to mislead the readers from the plain sense of Sri Aurobindo’s
words. Peter Heehs has compiled his </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nationalism, Religion, and
Beyond </span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(2005)
exactly in this way. In this compilation, in order to disconnect spirituality
from nationalism in the famous Uttarpara speech delivered by Sri Aurobindo
after coming out of Alipore jail, Peter Heehs neatly snips out<a href="#_edn12" name="_ednref12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
the most inspiring experience of Sri Krishna in jail, which Sri Aurobindo later
mentions as the realisation “of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as
all beings”.<a href="#_edn13" name="_ednref13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a><b>
</b>The motive of Peter Heehs, in what is called an active omission, is to keep
spirituality out of politics and to actually defend Sri Aurobindo (though in
the wrong way) from the standard communal accusation of leftist historians.
Spirituality and religion are taboo for the Left, for, according to them, they necessarily
foment communalism. By bringing religion into politics or hearkening back to
Hindu spiritual traditions in public life, as Sri Aurobindo and his political
associates did in the early phase of the Indian freedom struggle, united the
Hindus but permanently distanced the Muslims and other minorities from them. Therefore
Sri Aurobindo and his associates have been accused of laying the foundation of
communalism in modern India. This is the standard and stale argument of the
Left, which will perhaps never realise that Hindus can never be deprived of their
spiritual ethos.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">One of the best descriptions of the multiple layers
of Hinduism is the following passage written by Sri Aurobindo around 1910-12. I
quote it at length because I have based myself on this description to counter
the notion that Sri Aurobindo rejected higher Hinduism in his later days. (Those
who find it too long can skip it and go straight to my summarisation below.)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There
are two Hinduisms; one which takes its stand on the kitchen and seeks its
Paradise by cleaning the body; another which seeks God, not through the cooking
pot and the social convention, but in the soul.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> The latter is also Hinduism and it is
a good deal older and more enduring than the other; it is the Hinduism of
Bhishma and Srikrishna, of Shankara and Chaitanya, the Hinduism which exceeds
Hindusthan, was from of old and will be for ever, because it grows eternally
through the aeons. Its watchword is not <i>kriya</i>, but <i>karma</i>; not <i>shastra</i>,
but <i>jnanam</i>; not <i>achar</i>, but <i>bhakti</i>. Yet it accepts <i>kriya</i>,
<i>shastra </i>and <i>achar</i>, not as ends to be followed for their own sake,
but as means to perfect <i>karma, jnanam </i>and <i>bhakti</i>. <i>Kriya </i>in
the dictionary means every practice which helps the gaining of higher knowledge
such as the mastering of the breath, the repetition of the mantra, the habitual
use of the Name, the daily meditation on the idea. By <i>shastra </i>it means
the knowledge which regulates <i>karma</i>, which fixes the <i>kartavyam </i>and
the <i>akartavyam</i>, that which should be done and that which should not, and
it recognises two sources of that knowledge,—the eternal wisdom, as distinct
from the temporary injunctions, in our ancient books and the book that is written
by God in the human heart, the eternal and <i>apaurusheya </i>Veda. By <i>achar
</i>it understands all moral discipline by which the heart is purified and made
a fit vessel for divine love. There are certain <i>kriyas</i>, certain rules of
<i>shastra</i>, certain details of <i>achar</i>, which are for all time and of
perpetual application; there are others which are temporary, changing with the
variation of <i>desh, kal </i>and <i>patra</i>, time, place and the needs of
humanity. Among the temporary laws the cooking pot and the lustration had their
place, but they are not for all, nor for ever. It was in a time of calamity, of
contraction under external pressure that Hinduism fled from the inner temple
and hid itself in the kitchen. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The higher
and truer Hinduism is also of two kinds, sectarian and unsectarian, disruptive
and synthetic, that which binds itself up in the aspect and that which seeks
the All.</b> The first is born of <i>rajasic </i>or <i>tamasic </i>attachment
to an idea, an experience, an opinion or set of opinions, a temperament, an
attitude, a particular guru, a chosen Avatar. This attachment is intolerant, arrogant,
proud of a little knowledge, scornful of knowledge that is not its own. It is
always talking of the <i>kusanskars</i>, superstitions, of others and is blind
to its own; or it says, “My guru is the only guru and all others are either
charlatans or inferior,” or, “My temperament is the right temperament and those
who do not follow my path are fools or pedants or insincere”; or “My Avatar is
the real God Himself and all the others are only lesser revelations”; or “My
ishta devata is God, the others are only His partial manifestations.” When the
soul rises higher, it follows by preference its own ideas, experiences,
opinions, temperament, guru, ishta, but it does not turn an ignorant and exclusive
eye upon others. “There are many paths,” it cries, “and all lead equally to
God. All men, even the sinner and the atheist, are my brothers in sadhana and
the Beloved is drawing them each in His own way to the One without a second.”
But when the full knowledge dawns, I embrace all experiences in myself, I know
all ideas to be true, all opinions useful, all experiences and attitudes means
and stages in the acquisition of universal experience and completeness, all
gurus imperfect channels or incarnations of the one and only Teacher, all
ishtas and Avatars to be God Himself.<a href="#_edn14" name="_ednref14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Sri
Aurobindo distinguishes between lower and higher Hinduism, the first “which</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> takes its stand on the
kitchen and seeks its Paradise by cleaning the body,” and the latter “which
seeks God, not through the cooking pot and the social convention, but in the
soul”. He makes a further distinction within higher Hinduism, the “sectarian
and unsectarian”. The first, that is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher
but sectarian Hinduism</i>, limits itself to “an idea, an experience, an
opinion or set of opinions, a temperament, an attitude, a </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">particular guru, a
chosen Avatar” and is intolerant of “knowledge that is not its own”. The second,
that is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher unsectarian Hinduism</i>,
embraces all experiences in itself, “knows all ideas to be true, all opinions
useful, all experiences and attitudes a means and stages in the acquisition of
universal experience and completeness, all gurus imperfect channels or
incarnations of the one and only Teacher, all <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ishtas</i> and Avatars to be God Himself.” How could Sri Aurobindo have
rejected <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher unsectarian Hinduism</i> for
which he has so much praise and admiration? And what would be so reprehensible
and inacceptable about it even to non-Hindus?</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">But Peter Heehs plays with these different
layers of Hinduism like on a keyboard in order to prove that Sri Aurobindo
rejected Hinduism. When Sri Aurobindo decries Hinduism in the sense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lower Hinduism</i> (meaning outdated conventions
and rituals), or in the sense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher
but sectarian</i> Hinduism (meaning the different sects of Hinduism which limit
themselves to particular aspects of the Divine), he jumps up and says, “Look,
Sri Aurobindo has rejected Hinduism!” And when Sri Aurobindo speaks of the
Sanatana Dharma in the sense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsectarian
Hinduism</i> or universal spirituality, he takes it in the sense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sectarian higher Hinduism</i> and says, “If
Sanatana Dharma is truly a universal religion, how can it be part of Hinduism?”<a href="#_edn15" name="_ednref15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
Richard Hartz follows Peter Heehs’s cue and adopts the same method of semantic
deception and presenting decontextualised passages from Sri Aurobindo’s works
to prove this point. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">What however can be admitted is that Sri
Aurobindo did later go beyond any of the well-known realisations and yogic
methods of Hinduism. His Integral Yoga with the ultimate goal of the supramental
transformation of man can surely be considered a quantum leap in the spiritual
history of the world, and not merely of India. But he still linked his Integral
Yoga with the spiritual essence of Hindu traditions without always mentioning
the old terms and often creating his own vocabulary to express his yogic
concepts. The supramental Yoga disappears into unreachable and inconceivable
heights, but the preliminary stages described in his letters to his disciples,
such as the discovery of the soul (atma or chaitya purusha in traditional
Yogas), or the realisation of the Self (Atman is perhaps the most frequently
used term in Indian Yoga), or the concept of the Divine Power (Shakti), or the
necessity of sexual transformation (brahmacharya), are all familiar notions to
people in India. The fact that Sri Aurobindo does not use the words “Hindu” or
“Hinduism” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life Divine</i> has
been triumphantly produced by Richard Hartz as additional proof of Sri Aurobindo
having rejected Hinduism. But there is no dearth of references in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Life Divine</i> to the Veda, Vedanta and the
Upanishads. The very fact that every chapter in it is headed by quotations from
ancient Hindu scriptures, and the very respect shown to the “Aryan forefathers”,
“Vedic Rishis”, and “ancient sages” show that Sri Aurobindo took the general
conceptual framework of Hindu philosophy to express his own innovative spiritual
world view. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But how do
we reconcile this position with Sri Aurobindo’s highly critical remarks on
Hinduism which have been exploited to the hilt by biased Hinduphobic scholars?
It is worthwhile focusing our attention on three of the most negative
statements made by Sri Aurobindo in his letters to a Muslim disciple in 1932 and
explaining their full context. I begin by quoting first the decontextualised sentence
which has created so much misunderstanding with regard to Sri Aurobindo’s views
on Hinduism:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">If this Asram were
here only to serve Hinduism I would not be in it and the Mother who was never a
Hindu would not be in it.<a href="#_edn16" name="_ednref16" style="mso-endnote-id: edn16;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">This most scathing remark on Hinduism was made in a
reply to Dara, a Muslim disciple of Sri Aurobindo, who grudgingly complained to
him that the Ashram had become a Hindu Ashram. He wrote that the attitude of
the Hindus of the Ashram was highly discriminatory and patronising towards the
Muslims, and there was pressure on him to cease to be a Mohamedan while there
was no such compulsion on them to renounce Hinduism, despite the Mother’s
official notice in the Ashram saying, “When a man comes here, he ceases to be a
Hindu or a Mahomedan.” I quote now the full question of Dara along with the
complete reply of Sri Aurobindo so that the reader cannot complain of a
decontextualised presentation of documents: </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">I
thought the attitude towards Mahomedans lay in the minds of the people here
because of a subconscious influence and I took this to be an ignorance that can
be overlooked for the time being. But if Sri Aurobindo also writes like this, I
wish to know if the Mahomedan world is a separate block to be dealt with as one
deals with strangers, foreigners, almost enemies.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">Somehow I have no faith in the creation here
being absolutely pure on this point – unless the Mother and Sri Aurobindo
intervene. There is a terrible hatred, disgust, ignorance and suspicion against
Mahomedans and a sense of infinite superiority and patronism when dealing with
them. From the ordinary Mahomedan point of view, I would say that this is a
most dangerous place in the world, the depth of which cannot even be fathomed.</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">I wish also to ask this: The Mother has often
issued notices saying, “When a man comes here, he ceases to be a Hindu or a Mahomedan
etc.” Though there is sufficient pressure on the Mahomedans to cease to be
Mahomedan, does anybody cease to be a Hindu? Is the idea even believed by any
Hindu sadhak? So certain is everybody in its not being true that there is
hardly any hope of such a thought ever entering the mind. Under these
circumstances, God alone knows if it is right or sensible for me to live on and
see the ruin without doing anything to bring in the Mohamedan influence here.
When I surrendered, I had not ceased to be a Mahomedan as I did afterwards. </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">If there is anybody in this Asram who is a Hindu
sectarian hating Mahomedans and not opening to the Light in which all can overcome
their limitations and in which all can be fulfilled (each religion or way of
approaching the Divine contributing its own element of the truth, but all fused
together and surpassed), then that Hindu sectarian is not a completely
surrendered disciple of Sri Aurobindo. By his narrowness and hatred of others
he is bringing an element of falsehood into the work that is being done here.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I spoke
of the outside world, I meant all outside, including the Hindus and Christians
and everyone else, all who have not yet accepted the greater Light that is
coming. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">If this Asram were here only to
serve Hinduism I would not be in it and the Mother who was never a Hindu would
not be in it. </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is
being done here is the preparation of a Truth which includes all other Truth
but is limited to no single religion or creed, and this preparation has to be
done apart and in silence until things are ready. It is in that sense that I
speak of the rest of the world and all its component parts as being the outside
world — not that there was nothing to be done or no connection to be made; but
these things are to be done in their own proper time.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you tell me that all the people here
show the spirit you speak of against the Mahomedans or are you generalising
from particular cases? If it is as you say, I am quite ready to intervene to
put a stop to it. For such a spirit would be entirely opposed to the Truth I am
here to manifest.<a href="#_edn17" name="_ednref17" style="mso-endnote-id: edn17;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">17 November 1932</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">Sri Aurobindo refers in the very first sentence of his
reply to sectarian Hindus hating Mahomedans, so it was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sectarian Hinduism</i> that had no place in his Ashram. And if it did exist
in his Ashram against his own wishes, as the Muslim disciple was insinuating
him of, he says the Mother and he would not be in the Ashram. He does not refer
to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsectarian higher Hinduism</i> at
all! It was also wise not to mention Hinduism even in the higher sense, for it
would have been immediately misinterpreted by non-Hindus, as the Muslim
disciple had precisely done. The third paragraph explains the universal spiritual
basis of Yoga in the Ashram, “What is being done here is the preparation of a
Truth which includes all other Truth but is limited to no single religion or creed.”
How is this different from the wider unsectarian Hinduism or the sanātana
dharma as he described it in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmayogin</i>,
which I quote below? Note the text in bold letters. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The world moves through an
indispensable interregnum of free thought and materialism to a new synthesis of
religious thought and experience, a new religious world-life free from
intolerance, yet full of faith and fervour, accepting all forms of religion because
it has an unshakable faith in the One. The religion which embraces Science and
faith, Theism, Christianity, Mahomedanism and Buddhism and yet is none of
these, is that to which the World-Spirit moves. In our own, which is the most
sceptical and the most believing of all, the most sceptical because it has
questioned and experimented the most, the most believing because it has the
deepest experience and the most varied and positive spiritual knowledge, – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">that wider Hinduism which is not a dogma or
combination of dogmas but a law of life, which is not a social framework but
the spirit of a past and future social evolution, which rejects nothing but
insists on testing and experiencing everything and when tested and experienced,
turning it to the soul’s uses, in this Hinduism we find the basis of the future
world religion.</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">This <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sanātana dharma</i> has many scriptures,
Veda, Vedanta, Gita, Upanishad, Darshana, Purana, Tantra, nor could it reject
the Bible or the Koran; but its real, most authoritative scripture is in the
heart in which the Eternal has His dwelling.</b> It is in our inner spiritual
experiences that we shall find the proof and source of the world’s Scriptures,
the law of knowledge, love and conduct, the basis and inspiration of Karmayoga.<a href="#_edn18" name="_ednref18" style="mso-endnote-id: edn18;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I
quote another passage written in 1919-1921 of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arya</i> period. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The religious culture which now goes by
the name of Hinduism not only fulfilled this purpose, but, unlike certain
credal religions, it knew its purpose. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">It
gave itself no name, because it set itself no sectarian limits; it claimed no
universal adhesion, asserted no sole infallible dogma, set up no single narrow
path or gate of salvation; it was less a creed or cult than a continuously
enlarging tradition of the Godward endeavour of the human spirit. </b>An
immense many-sided many staged provision for a spiritual self-building and
self-finding, it had some right to speak of itself by the only name it knew,
the eternal religion, <i>sanātana dharma</i>.<a href="#_edn19" name="_ednref19" style="mso-endnote-id: edn19;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[19]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">As we can see, there is a remarkable similarity of his
concept of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher unsectarian Hinduism</i>
(or the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sanātana dharma</i>) with the universal
basis of spirituality that he founded his Integral Yoga upon. The only
difference is in the connotation of the word religion, which is used in the positive
sense of spirituality in the above two passages from the early period, as
opposed to the negative sense it acquired later when Sri Aurobindo clearly distinguished</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span lang="EN-GB">it from spirituality.
</span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">I go to the next
damaging quote on Hinduism:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">On the other hand I
have not the slightest objection to Hinduism being broken to pieces and
disappearing from the face of the earth, if that is the Divine Will.<a href="#_edn20" name="_ednref20" style="mso-endnote-id: edn20;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[20]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">I now quote again the full reply of Sri Aurobindo with
the disciple’s question:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .8in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">If the sadhaks here
remain Hindus, which in the end turns out to be their very aim and zest, what
an utter fool I would be to allow myself to be changed and trust myself to be
worked upon thus.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .8in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again, when
Sri Aurobindo writes about what he is going to manifest here, I wonder why such
a great thing is partial. Why should that creation be formed in such a way as
to exclude Mahomedans from it and put on them an all-round pressure which is
experienced by nobody else? To give up one’s past and forget it or to try not
to think about it is one thing; to go through the humiliation of taking up the
way of others is most difficult, almost shameful, and I have lost faith in it. </span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">It is news to me that
I have excluded Mahomedans from the Yoga. I have not done it any more than I
have excluded Europeans or Christians. As for giving up one’s past, if that
means giving up the outer forms of the old religions, it is done as much by the
Hindus here as by the Mahomedans. Every Hindu here—even those who were once
orthodox Brahmins and have grown old in it,—give up all observance of caste,
take food from Pariahs and are served by them, associate and eat with Mahomedans,
Christians, Europeans, cease to practise temple worship or Sandhya (daily
prayer and mantras), accept a non-Hindu from Europe as their spiritual
director. These are things people who have Hinduism as their aim and object
would not do—they do it because they are obliged here to look to a higher ideal
in which these things have no value. What is kept of Hinduism is Vedanta and
Yoga, in which Hinduism is one with Sufism of Islam and with the Christian
mystics. But even here it is not Vedanta and Yoga in their traditional limits
(their past), but widened and rid of many ideas that are peculiar to the Hindus.
If I have used Sanskrit terms and figures, it is because I know them and do not
know Persian and Arabic. I have not the slightest objection to anyone here
drawing inspiration from Islamic sources if they agree with the Truth as Sufism
agrees with it. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">On the other hand I have
not the slightest objection to Hinduism being broken to pieces and disappearing
from the face of the earth, if that is the Divine Will. </b>I have no
attachment to past forms; what is Truth will always remain; the Truth alone matters.<a href="#_edn21" name="_ednref21" style="mso-endnote-id: edn21;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[21]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">17 November 1932</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">The Muslim disciple is in the same resentful mood as
in the previous letter. In fact both letters were written on the same date, 17
November 1932. His objection again is that Mahomedans were being left out of
the new creation that was being established by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
Sri Aurobindo comes down on him like a hammer and ends with the most
devastating remark on Hinduism he ever made in his lifetime. This particular
reply, when not properly contextualised, will make the Hindu disciples of Sri
Aurobindo wince with pain and humiliation and be apologetic of Hinduism, for it
would then be a matter of choice between their spiritual Master on one side and
their culture and tradition on the other. Hindus, who are not disciples or
admirers of Sri Aurobindo, will naturally misconstrue his words and accuse him
of being too westernised to understand the true spirit of Hinduism. But it is quite
clear that Sri Aurobindo is referring to “the outer forms of the old religions”
that have to be given up in his Ashram, which applies to his Hindu as well as
non-Hindu disciples. He goes on to enumerate the conventions that his Hindu
disciples do not follow in his Ashram – they “give up all observance of caste,
take food from Pariahs and are served by them, associate and eat with Mahomedans,
Christians, Europeans, cease to practise temple worship or Sandhya (daily
prayer and mantras), accept a non-Hindu from Europe as their spiritual director,”
namely, the Mother. His objections are therefore to the past rituals and
conventions of Hinduism which do not have much value in his Integral Yoga. It
is in this context that Sri Aurobindo makes this drastic statement on Hinduism.
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Sri
Aurobindo had indeed meant that everything of Hinduism – lower, higher,
sectarian and unsectarian – had to be discarded in his Ashram, he would not
have qualified his harsh statement with the following sentence in the same
letter, “What is kept of Hinduism is Vedanta and Yoga, in which Hinduism is one
with Sufism of Islam and with the Christian mystics.” This sentence has been
cleverly misinterpreted by Richard Hartz and Peter Heehs as tantamount to Sri
Aurobindo’s rejection of Hinduism. They argue that if only the essential truth
of all religions can claim to have place in the supramental Truth, then there
cannot be any religious identity left in the spiritual future of mankind as
envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. So not only Christianity, Islam and Buddhism will eventually
disappear from the face of the earth, but Hinduism also should and will follow
suit. But the same argument can be applied to include than exclude all religions,
or include each religion insofar as it expresses the essential truth behind all
religions, and this actually works out with greater advantage to Hinduism, for,
according to Sri Aurobindo, Hindu spirituality is “the richest expression” of
this essential truth. I quote below the full text of the last quote:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">I can say what to my
view is the truth behind Hinduism, a truth contained in the very nature (not
superficially seen of course) of human existence, something which is not the monopoly
of Hinduism but of which <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Hindu
spirituality was the richest expression.</b> <a href="#_edn22" name="_ednref22" style="mso-endnote-id: edn22;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[22]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">Sri Aurobindo wrote this letter in 1936, four years
after his negative statement on Hinduism in 1932. This should set to rest any
apprehension or misunderstanding of Sri Aurobindo having turned against or
rejected the truth behind Hinduism in his latter days. What he discouraged and
rejected, and that too without any vehemence, were the past forms and
conventions of Hinduism which had no longer any value in the Integral Yoga
practised in his Ashram. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I continue
my presentation of documents with one more letter written to the Muslim
disciple by Sri Aurobindo on the same date (17 November 1932) as the two
letters that have been fully quoted above and explained in detail. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">I don’t say that all the people here have
this spirit against Mahomedanism, but I cannot think of anyone who cannot get
it. Some older sadhaks can detach themselves from it and concentrate on
something else, but about others I don’t know. From the Mahomedan point of
view, there </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">is <i>sufficient
reason to smart on the point. The great praise I got for putting on a dhoti
here evidently shows the spirit or barrier or whatever it be.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What
has dhoti to do with Hinduism or Mahomedanism? There are thousands of Hindus
who never wear it – they wear pyjamas of some kind. Rieu, Arjava, Suchi [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">three Western disciples</i>] wear dhoti
because it is convenient and good for the climate – they do not care one jot
for Hinduism.<a href="#_edn23" name="_ednref23" style="mso-endnote-id: edn23;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[23]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">17
November, 1932</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">One cannot but smile at the Muslim disciple’s insistence
of being looked down upon by the Hindus in the Ashram. His objection is now to the
dhoti (a Hindu dress) that he is being encouraged to wear by them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sri Aurobindo dismisses him by mentioning that
the facts are contrary to what he thinks. He says thousands of Hindus wear
pyjamas (generally worn by Muslims) and three Westerners in the Ashram, who “do
not care one jot for Hinduism” wear dhotis (a Hindu dress) because of the
sultry climate of Pondicherry. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover,
what has dress got to do with religion? Dress has indeed become nowadays a
major topic of public discussion on religion, but it only shows the
externalities that people generally equate religion with. It was all the more
necessary for Sri Aurobindo to therefore dissociate his Ashram from external
rituals and conventions that generally define religion in order to emphasise
the spiritual content of his Yoga. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">I come to the last letter under consideration:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
want to ask Sri Aurobindo whether the Ashram is created in such a way that
among the communities of this country or the people of other nations, it is
only the Hindus who will ultimately profit by it? Do the distinctions of
religion and nationality count for much? Does the supramental victory mean the
victory of the Hindu religion and culture over others? Will the supramental
consciousness come into the body of a man whether or not he subordinates
himself to Hinduism?</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">The Asram has nothing
to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth
of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the
descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion are the sole things
which will be the foundation of the work of the future.<a href="#_edn24" name="_ednref24" style="mso-endnote-id: edn24;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[24]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It
is again the same jealous Muslim disciple who questions Sri Aurobindo regarding
the close connection of Hinduism (as opposed to his own religion) to the
Integral Yoga. Sri Aurobindo rebuffs him this time with such a sweeping
statement on the Hindu religion that it would have silenced him for good. But Hindu
religion has to be taken again (as in the first two letters) in the sense of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sectarian Hindu religion</i> and certainly not
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsectarian higher Hinduism</i>. Also
Hindu religion or culture is particularly mentioned not because it is less
suitable for the supramental Yoga than the other religions, but for the simple
reason that the disciple had asked him about it. It is this context that
clarifies and mitigates the apparently harsh and drastic statement on the
Ashram having nothing to do with Hinduism. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sri Aurobindo goes on to explain the non-religious
and universal spiritual basis of his Yoga and points us to the ultimate descent
of the supramental power hitherto unknown to any religion</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Again the word religion need not apply here to
his concept of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">higher unsectarian Hinduism</i>
or the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sanātana dharma</i>, which “</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">unlike certain credal religions” gave
itself no name and “set itself no sectarian limits”. But even if we consider
the supramental transformation to exceed the limits of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsectarian higher Hinduism</i>, </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">the Integral Yoga that was propounded by Sri Aurobindo
in his latter days and practised by his disciples under the guidance of the
Mother in the Ashram contained many of the deeper and higher elements of
Hinduism.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">It is primarily those customs in the
Ashram which express bhakti, adoration of and surrender to one’s Guru (so
common in India) that have put off some Westerners such as Peter Heehs who
concludes that Sri Aurobindo conceded to Hindu practices and customs for the
sake of his Hindu disciples,<a href="#_edn25" name="_ednref25" style="mso-endnote-id: edn25;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[25]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
despite distancing himself from them in his writings. Ironically, he blames the
Mother for it,<a href="#_edn26" name="_ednref26" style="mso-endnote-id: edn26;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[26]</span></b></span></span></b></span></a>
though she was a French lady coming from a highly cultured European background!
Sri Aurobindo nevertheless considered her his spiritual equal and handed over
the spiritual and material charge of the Ashram when he retired in November
1926. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">In the late
twenties and thirties when he was corresponding with his disciples from his
room, the Mother personally supervised the various departments of the Ashram
(such as the Building Construction, the Dining Room, and the Dispensary to name
only a few) and conducted the daily meditation and Pranam for the disciples. In
this period of joint administration, with the Mother in front and Sri Aurobindo
supporting her from behind, all the activities of the Ashram were centred round
the Mother with the full approval of Sri Aurobindo. So there cannot be any
question of the Mother having introduced Hindu customs such as the Pranam and
Prasad distribution against the wishes of Sri Aurobindo! As a matter of fact,
the Mother was the best exponent and guide of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga to say the
least, and it is difficult to understand or even practise it without taking her
into account.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">What however can be said is that Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother did start from a clean slate, as it were, of spiritual
practices without being encumbered by past forms of Hinduism or any religion
whatsoever. They were at the same time not overly fussy of avoiding any of the
existing forms, if they proved to be useful means of inner communion with their
disciples. Apart from the three (or later four) major Darshans they gave to
their disciples and devotees every year, the Mother conducted daily meditations
followed by her Pranam to the disciples in the early period of the Ashram.
There was a soup distribution by the Mother in the evening (prior to October
1931) in order to impart her spiritual force to the disciples. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Flowers acquired symbolic significances and
became a very important means of spiritual communication. In the forties and
fifties the Mother distributed special blessings on the four Puja days of the
Hindu calendar. With the coming of the children to the Ashram and the founding of
the Ashram School, Christmas with its spiritual significance was introduced in
the Ashram. During this period sports and physical education became a very
important part of Ashram life, and for some time meditation and Pranam receded
into the background, and some disciples such as Dilip Kumar Roy expressed their
alarm and consternation at this secular transformation of the Ashram. Meditation
was again reintroduced, and concentration at the Playground in front of the
spiritual map of India became a daily feature in the fifties. A groundnut
distribution by the Mother also took place in the Playground, ostensibly for
the extra nourishment of the School children, but which was obviously a part of
her larger action of infusing her spiritual force in all the activities of the
Ashram.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">What do you make of these various
programmes of the Mother? Were they Hindu ceremonies? Yes, the Puja Darshans
could be named as such, though they ceased after some time. Celebrating
Christmas should then be considered a Christian custom, though the Mother said
that Christmas was celebrated as a festival of light long before the birth of
Jesus Christ. What about the soup ceremony? Amal Kiran compares it with the
sacred rituals of ancient Greece and Egypt. Pranam and collective meditation under
the auspices of a spiritual guide or Guru would figure, I suppose, in most religious
communities, be they Buddhist or Jain or Hindu or Sufi. But what about the groundnut
distribution? Did Mother start here a brand new ceremony or mode of spiritual
communion? Our difficulty to label the Mother’s collective activities only
shows the rigidity of our mind, by which we would like to make easy
classifications for our own convenience than to understand the plasticity and
spontaneity with which the Mother acted in the Ashram. Even religion, which Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother themselves condemned outright, has to be taken with
due qualifications especially with regard to them and the Integral Yoga they
have developed for the spiritual future of man. Otherwise we tend to reject
spirituality itself in the very process of doing away with religion, and disconnecting
ourselves from the very source and fountain of our<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>inspiration in our over enthusiasm to get rid
of old forms. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">Coming to the plain truth of the matter,
Hinduism, that is, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">unsectarian higher
Hinduism</i>, which Sri Aurobindo called the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sanātana dharma</i>, can certainly claim to have laid the spiritual foundation
for the entire human race, just as Greek civilisation laid the rational
foundation of the present Western civilisation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But non-Hindus need not feel jealous about Hinduism because spirituality
is not its monopoly, just as the rules of logical thought are not the exclusive
property of the Greeks. If science has mainly developed in Europe and America,
it does not prevent Indians from becoming world class scientists without having
to lose their own culture. So also if India has been the land of spirituality
from ancient times, it should not preclude Westerners from practising the
spiritual discipline and becoming realised Yogis without having to follow the external
rituals of Hinduism. The world moves on, and everybody learns from each other,
and nobody makes a big fuss about where you learn from as long as you get the
best available resources. It is with this generous and practical attitude that
we should go ahead instead of raising unnecessary objections with regard to the
superiority or inferiority of other cultures. Indians would certainly be
foolish not to modernise themselves with Western education despite the barriers
of language and culture they will have to face one day. But it would be equally
foolish for Westerners to reject the higher values of Hinduism out of jealousy and
chauvinism or even from sheer unfamiliarity, especially when the inner journey
has begun. Learning from other cultures in the right spirit, or at least
recognising their place in the larger scheme of things should not deprive us of
our identity nor our dignity, if that is what we are mostly concerned about in
these kinds of cultural disputes!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .2in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Garamond;">17
February 2017</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Though I
have made a generalisation I should say there are exceptions such as David
Frawley, Konrad Elst, Michel Danino and a few others who have sufficiently
steeped themselves in Hinduism in order to recognise its spiritual values. But
it is only recently that their voices are being heard with some interest – that
too has happened more because of the facility of Internet blogging than by an appreciation
of their views by the secular media.</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> I know the
secular lobby would at once raise objections to this sentence and cry itself
hoarse, “What happened in Gujarat? What happened to Mohammad Akhlaq? What about
the imposition of Vande Mataram?” But these accusations have been so often
repeated in the last few years, and in such a biased manner that they have
become more part of electoral politics than occasions for serious cultural introspection.
What I am pointing out is the current social situation in which the normally timid
Indian with a Hindu background is generally on the back foot, unless he is
pushed to the wall and forced to defend himself. In any case, I would give more
attention to the larger social picture that emerges than the few communal
flare-ups that have been over-emphasised for political gain.</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Peter
Heehs, </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Sri Aurobindo and Hinduism” (2006) at http://anti-matters.org/articles/123/public/123-180-1-PB.pdf.
Read my review on this article at http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/08/sri-aurobindo-on-hinduism-by-peter.html.</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Letters on Himself and the Ashram</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">, CWSA 35,
pp. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">76-77. Quoted by Richard Hartz on p. 153 of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Clasp of Civilizations</i>.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> This is
implied in the argument though Richard does not explicitly say so, or rather he
makes Sri Aurobindo say it for him in a decontextualised manner. For if the
spiritual value of Sri Aurobindo’s early views on Hinduism is recognised, it
becomes difficult to reject it in the long run. One has to accept the full
implications of whatever position one takes, instead of denying the conclusions
that automatically flow from the premises one states. I remember Peter Heehs
telling his critics in a television debate, “You are making me say what I have
never said,” but he actually insinuates (instead of saying it outright) and
indirectly suggests highly objectionable conclusions from his very presentation
of Sri Aurobindo’s life. Hemming and hawing, for example, on whether Sri
Aurobindo’s spiritual experiences could be a mad man’s delusions would
naturally make the reader suspect Sri Aurobindo’s sanity. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Read the chapter on “The Discovery of the
Nation-Soul” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Human Cycle</i>,
CWSA, Vol. 25, pp 35-43</span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn7" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[7]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Peter Heehs
obfuscates the issue by describing the religious (or spiritual) nationalism of
Sri Aurobindo as “</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">nationalism raised to a
religious pitch of intensity” or the “civic religion of nationalism” (see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nationalism, Religion, and Beyond</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>pp. 201; 30), but what he means is
patriotism or nationalism qualified by but not founded on spirituality. If
there was one thing that Sri Aurobindo stood for and attempted to establish, it
was the spiritual foundation of all the activities of life; so his politics can
hardly be considered an exception to this larger aim of his life. Sri Aurobindo
wrote in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bande Mataram</i> on 18
March 1907 that “in the Swadeshi movement for the first time patriotism became
a national religion” and “the name of the motherland was invested with divine
sacredness”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn8" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[8]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Read the
chapter “</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Indian Polity – 4” in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Renaissance of India</i>, CWSA Vol. 20, pp. 425 ff</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[9]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Karmayogin</i>, CWSA, Vol. 8, pp. 302-06.
Sri Aurobindo objected to the formation of the Hindu Sabha because its motive
was to primarily counter the Muslim League, and not because he was against
Hinduism. He writes on the same day (6 November, 1909) that his ideal of Indian
Nationalism was “</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">largely Hindu in its spirit and traditions” but wide
enough “to include the Moslem and his culture and traditions and absorb them
into itself.” This article, which is so often quoted to prove that Sri
Aurobindo rejected Hinduism, actually shows the wide and inclusive Hinduism
that he stood for in the Indian national movement.</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn10" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref10" name="_edn10" style="mso-endnote-id: edn10;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[10]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Renaissance of India</i>, CWSA, Vol. 20,
p. 25</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn11" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref11" name="_edn11" style="mso-endnote-id: edn11;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[11]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Though
Richard does not explicitly say so, he implies it in his defence of Sri
Aurobindo against the accusation of being anti-Muslim. If Richard accepts the
authenticity of the Talks on a case to case basis, his whole defence would collapse.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn12" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref12" name="_edn12" style="mso-endnote-id: edn12;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[12]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nationalism,
Religion, and Beyond </span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(2005) by Peter Heehs, pp. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">214-19</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn13" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref13" name="_edn13" style="mso-endnote-id: edn13;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[13]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Autobiographical Notes</span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">,
CWSA, Vol. 36, p. 94</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn14" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref14" name="_edn14" style="mso-endnote-id: edn14;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[14]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Early Cultural Writings</i>, CWSA Vol. 1, pp
551-52</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn15" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref15" name="_edn15" style="mso-endnote-id: edn15;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[15]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nationalism,
Religion, and Beyond </span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(2005) by Peter Heehs, p. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">14.
Also “Sri Aurobindo and Hinduism” (2006) by the same author.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn16" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref16" name="_edn16" style="mso-endnote-id: edn16;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[16]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letters on Himself and the Ashram</i>, CWSA
35, pp 699</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn17" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref17" name="_edn17" style="mso-endnote-id: edn17;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[17]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Ibid, pp
699-700. Also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bulletin</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>August 2000, pp. 70-72. I have quoted
the unabridged <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bulletin</i> version of
the question to give the full context.</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn18" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref18" name="_edn18" style="mso-endnote-id: edn18;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[18]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Karmayogin</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">,
CWSA, Vol. 8, p. 26</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn19" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref19" name="_edn19" style="mso-endnote-id: edn19;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[19]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Renaissance of India</i>, CWSA, Vol. 20,
p. 179</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn20" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref20" name="_edn20" style="mso-endnote-id: edn20;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[20]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letters on Himself and the Ashram</i>, CWSA
Vol. 35, p. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">701</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn21" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref21" name="_edn21" style="mso-endnote-id: edn21;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[21]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
Ibid, pp. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">700-01;
</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bulletin</i>,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>August 2000, p. 74. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn22" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref22" name="_edn22" style="mso-endnote-id: edn22;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[22]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Letters on Himself and the Ashram</i>, CWSA
Vol. 35, p. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman;">702</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn23" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref23" name="_edn23" style="mso-endnote-id: edn23;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[23]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bulletin</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, August 2000, p. 72.
Not in CWSA. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn24" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref24" name="_edn24" style="mso-endnote-id: edn24;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[24]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bulletin</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, February 2001, p.
72. Also </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Letters on Himself and
the Ashram</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">,
CWSA Vol. 35, p. 701. </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn25" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref25" name="_edn25" style="mso-endnote-id: edn25;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[25]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Nationalism,
Religion, and Beyond </span></i><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">(2005) by Peter Heehs, p.
352</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">. Also “Sri Aurobindo and Hinduism” (2006) by the same
author</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn26" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt;">
<a href="#_ednref26" name="_edn26" style="mso-endnote-id: edn26;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[26]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> Peter
Heehs, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i>, p.
343: “</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But if Aurobindo was indifferent or opposed to
ceremony, Mirra thrived in it. She was happy to see the <i>sadhaks </i>spending
hours stringing garlands and preparing special dishes, and later, during the <i>darshan,
</i>bowing down at Aurobindo's feet.”</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-24138287601281669282016-10-17T17:30:00.002+05:302016-10-17T17:30:36.491+05:30Timeline of the Controversy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<td align="left" style="padding-bottom: 0in; padding-left: 9.35pt; padding-right: 9.35pt; padding-top: 0in;" valign="top"><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1978</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Nirmal Singh’s rejoinder to Peter Heehs on the birthplace of Sri
Aurobindo. According to Peter Heehs, Sri Aurobindo was wrong about where he
was born. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/search/label/Nirmal%20Singh%20Nahar" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Birth Place of Sri Aurobindo – by Nirmal Singh Nahar</span></a></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">12.02.1984</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Appointment
of Manoj Das Gupta as Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust after the passing
away of Nolini Kanto Gupta. He was recommended as Trustee by Nolini Kanto
Gupta through a dubious note signed (or made to sign) in his last days and
left in the custody of Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya. We do not know why Nolini
did not give the note to Padmanabhan Counouma, who was then the Managing
Trustee of the Ashram, and why he did not recommend Manoj Das Gupta earlier through
a formal meeting of the Board of Trustees. Manoj Das Gupta’s policy of not
rocking the boat even when the boat is about to be wrecked, as in the controversy
over the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i> by Peter
Heehs, makes him undoubtedly the most vehemently criticised Trustee in the
history of the Ashram. He is also known to protect the guilty and punish the
victims or those who have raised the alarm. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/manoj-das-guptas-strange-attitude.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das Gupta’s Strange Attitude!</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/manoj-das-guptas-strange-attitude.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">22.06.1986</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jugal
Kishore Mukherjee’s letter of 22.06.1986 to the Ashram Trust exposing the
so-called research of Peter Heehs at the Ashram Archives.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/05/jugal-kishore-mukherjis-letter-to.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jugal Kishore Mukherji's First Letter to the Trustees in 1986</span></b></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/05/jugal-kishore-mukherjis-letter-to.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">04.06.1987</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jayantilal
Parekh’s letter in reply to Jugal Kishore Mukherjee’s letter of 22.06.1986. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reply is written and drafted by Peter
Heehs and Richard Hartz, but signed by Jayantilal Parekh.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">14.06.1987</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jugal
Kishore Mukherjee’s reply to Jayantilal Parekh’s letter of 22.06.1986.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/05/jugal-kishore-mukherjis-second-letter.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Jugal Kishore Mukherji’s Second Letter to the Trustees in 1987</span></a></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">07.07.1987</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya’s letter in reply to Jayantilal
Parekh’s letter of 04.06.1987 defending Peter Heehs. He raises suspicions
with regard to the activities of foreigners at the Ashram Archives.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/10/pranab-kumar-bhattacharyas-letter.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya’s letter regarding Peter Heehs</span></b></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/10/pranab-kumar-bhattacharyas-letter.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1987</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs wins third prize in writing on the history of the freedom
movement in India in a competition conducted by the Govt. of India He hardly
mentions, or rather practically dismisses Sri Aurobindo’s contribution to the
Freedom Movement despite having researched the same subject for years at the
Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives. Asked why he did so, he answers he would not
have got the prize had he highlighted Sri Aurobindo’s role in the freedom
movement.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1989</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography </span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">by Peter Heehs
published by Oxford University Press. Heehs takes this biography as a testing
ground to introduce distortions and misrepresentations of Sri Aurobindo’s
life to the disciples and devotees of Sri Aurobindo. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/05/analysis-of-preface-of-sri-aurobindo.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">An Analysis of the Preface of Peter Heehs's "Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography", OUP, 1989 </span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/05/analysis-of-preface-of-sri-aurobindo.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/06/an-analysis-of-preface-of-peter-heehss_14.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">An Analysis of the Preface of Peter Heehs's "Sri Aurobindo: A Brief Biography", OUP, 1989 (Part 2) – A Zombified Disciple</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/06/an-analysis-of-preface-of-peter-heehss_14.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">10.02.1991</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The passing away of Padmanabhan Counouma, the Managing Trustee
of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. His unstinting devotion to the Mother combined with legal
acumen and a highly respected position in Pondicherry protects the Ashram as
long as he is there. The Ashram passes through a storm of difficulties in the
aftermath of the Mother’s passing away, which he quietly manages to overcome
without any fanfare. After his and Dyuman Patel’s passing away the Ashram begins
to have serious administrative problems and court cases against the Ashram
multiply tenfold. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">19.08.1992</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Passing away of Dyuman Patel, the last of the Trustees selected
by the Mother. Harikant Patel becomes Managing Trustee of the Ashram.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1993</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs brings out <i>The Bomb in Bengal: The Rise of
Revolutionary Terrorism in India, 1900-1910</i>. In this book, according to
historian J.B.P. More, Heehs accuses nationalist historians “for being
uncritical and unduly commemorative about the revolutionary events related to
this period”. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/04/objective-history-in-four-lessons-by.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Objective History in Four Lessons – by Prithwindra Mukherjee</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/04/objective-history-in-four-lessons-by.html"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">24.10.1996</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Formation of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Inmates’ Association to
protect the interests of Ashram inmates.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/04/the-sri-aurobindo-ashram-inmates.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Inmates’ Association – by Bireshwhar Choudhury</span></b></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/04/the-sri-aurobindo-ashram-inmates.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">04.01.1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Ashram Trust expels four inmates of the Ashram for forming
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Inmates’ Association. The four inmates appeal for
the restoration of their basic amenities in the Pondicherry Court.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">10.02.1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Appointment of Dr. Dilip Datta as a Trustee of the Ashram. A
senior Ashramite remarked later that, with the appointment of Dr. Dilip Datta
as a Trustee, the Ashram lost a good doctor (?) and got a bad legal adviser.
It was under him that the number of cases against the Ashram multiplied
tenfold (160 in 2008). He naturally mixed his legal strategy with the threat
of medical negligence to all those who did not agree with him on Ashram
matters.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.02.1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pondicherry Court restores the status of the four expelled
members as inmates of the Ashram. The Trust loses the case and has to restore
all basic amenities to the inmates, including food, shelter and work.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">12.03.1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Article in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Outlook</i> magazine
by A.S. Pannerselvan exposing the Ashram Trust’s administration.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/04/fall-from-grace-outlook-issue-of-march.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Fall From Grace? – Outlook, issue of March 12, 1997</span></b></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/04/fall-from-grace-outlook-issue-of-march.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">26.08.1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Alleged
accident (stove bursting) in the kitchen of the Lake Estate of the Ashram
resulting in the death of Ms. Kavita Mallick, who sustains fatal burn
injuries. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">23.12.1997</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ms.
Meenakshi Mohanty, a young girl from Orissa working in the Ashram Press, commits
suicide.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1998</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs submits his article “Genius, Mysticism, and Madness”
as part of the research report of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust to the Govt. of
India for seeking income tax exemptions under scientific research.. The
article shows similarities between Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual experiences and
psychotic experiences and hallucinations of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>mentally disbalanced persons. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2011/08/prof-kamal-das-on-peter-heehss-research.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Prof Kamal Das on Peter Heehs's Research at the Ashram</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2011/08/prof-kamal-das-on-peter-heehss-research.html"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1998</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs’s book <i>Nationalism,
Terrorism, Communalism: Essays in Modern Indian History </i>published by</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> Oxford
University Press. Following the line of leftist historians, he calls Sri
Aurobindo a leader of terrorists.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/08/sri-aurobindo-was-terrorist-says-peter.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sri Aurobindo was a Terrorist, says Peter Heehs – by Krish Patwardhan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/08/sri-aurobindo-was-terrorist-says-peter.html"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1999</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Cases filed against the Ashram Trust for the tampering of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Savitri</i>, Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem.
The chief editors of the new edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Savitri</i>
(1993) are Richard Hartz and Peter Heehs.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">01.07.2002</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Appointment of Prabhakar Pantulu (Batti) as Trustee of the
Ashram.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">03.11.2002</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dakshinamourty, a Tamil devotee, files a Public Interest
Litigation against the Ashram Trust in Madras High Court.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">25.02.2004</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ms.
Shobha Rani, an inmate at the Ashram, commits suicide because of alleged sexual
harassment and eve teasing in the Ashram Dining Room. In her suicide note,
she holds eight inmates responsible for the extreme step she has taken.
Nirmal Swain, the present Ashram lawyer and a close aide of the Trustees,
figures in this list of persons who are responsible for her death. The case
gets dismissed because of lack of witnesses from her side.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.10.2004</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Chairperson of the National
Commission For Women, Dr. Poornima Advani and other officials of the NCW
conduct a meeting with the officials of the State Women's Commission,
Pondicherry, to discuss issues regarding eve teasing, safety of women and
problems faced by women while registering complaints with the Police. The
minutes of the said meeting are highlighted in a report titled "A
Situational Analysis of Women and Girls in Pondicherry" by Dr. Sarala
Gopalan of the NCW.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.10.2004</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Bail Order of Manoj Das Gupta in the Selvaraj Chettiar case
pertaining to the fraudulent sale of three properties in Pondicherry to the
Ashram Trust.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/01/a-shady-property-purchase-by-ashram.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">A Shady Property Purchase by the Ashram Trust </span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/01/a-shady-property-purchase-by-ashram.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/01/statement-of-pp-raghavachary-under-sec_26.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Statement of (The Late) P.P. Raghavachary Under SEC. 161 of Cr. PC</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/01/statement-of-pp-raghavachary-under-sec_26.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/search?q=Bail+order" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Bail Order of Manoj Das Gupta</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/search?q=Bail+order"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sept 2007</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">A few
teachers of the Ashram School complain about the sexual exploitation of minor
girls by a physical education instructor. No action is taken on him. On the
contrary, severe action is taken on those who have complained.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">15.03.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">CNN-IBN
widely advertises their program titled "The Divine Trap" on the
Ashram and announces its broadcast for prime time at 9 pm on 15<sup>th</sup>
March 2008. The program was supposed to reveal the corrupt functioning of the
Ashram Trustees. On the day of the broadcast, the Trust intervenes and
manages to block the programme.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/cnn-ibn-sting-exposes-trustees-of.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">CNN-IBN Sting Exposes the Trustees of the Ashram Trust</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/search?q=CNN-IBN"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/03/divine-trap-cnn-ibn-expose-of-sri.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">"Divine Trap" CNN - IBN Expose of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/03/divine-trap-cnn-ibn-expose-of-sri.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">May 2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri
Aurobindo</i> published by Columbia Press in the USA.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2008/10/introduction.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Introduction to this Site</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2008/10/introduction.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2008/10/background.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Background to this Book</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2008/10/background.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2008/12/frequently-asked-questions.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Frequently Asked Questions</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2008/12/frequently-asked-questions.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">21.06.2008 </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">As on this date a total of 160 cases had
been filed against the Ashram Trust across various courts, largely on account
of the actions/omissions of the Trustees.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">August 2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The controversy of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives</i>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of Sri Aurobindo</i> by Peter Heehs is
triggered by a review of it in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Auroville
Today</i>. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sept 2008<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>onwards</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letters to the Ashram Trust from senior disciples and scholars of
Sri Aurobindo Ashram warning the Trust of Peter Heehs’s mischief in the Ashram
Archives. All are ignored by Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.09.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Objectionable Extracts of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives</i> arranged by subject and circulated by email, creating a storm
and outrage among the disciples and admirers of Sri Aurobindo.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/objectionable-extracts-from-lives-of.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Objectionable Extracts from the Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/objectionable-extracts-from-lives-of.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/12/writings-of-sri-aurobindo-comments.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Writings of Sri Aurobindo: Comments Apropos of Extracts from the Lives of Sri Aurobindo – by Krish Patwardhan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/12/writings-of-sri-aurobindo-comments.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sept 2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Meeting in the School presided by Manoj Das Gupta in which
senior inmates of the Ashram are called. MDG defends Peter Heehs saying that
his intentions were good though the result was bad. He reads from a letter
written by Peter Heehs to him. Vijay Poddar and Matriprasad Satyamurthy are
appointed to look into the possibility of legal action to stop the book from
getting released in India by Penguin Publishers. Vijay Poddar rings up his
lawyers in Delhi and asks Matriprasad for the contract of the Ashram Trust
with Peter Heehs. Matriprasad keeps delaying the matter until Vijay Poddar
realises that the delay is deliberate and the Trust does not want to take any
action at all.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">20.09.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letter
of long time colleagues of Peter Heehs in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives
to the Managing Trustee with regard to the blatant misuse of Archives
material by Peter Heehs.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">27.09.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs’s corrected excerpts of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i> put up on the SCIY forum.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/03/in-defence-of-extracts.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">In Defence of the Extracts</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/03/in-defence-of-extracts.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sept-Oct 2008</span></b></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.0pt; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das (the writer) has a
meeting with the Trustees (which Manoj Das Gupta does not attend) in order to
read out and explain 90 objectionable passages in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives</i>. He tells them why it is necessary to urgently and publicly
dissociate the Ashram from the book and take immediate steps to withdraw the
book. The four Trustees agree and decide to remove Peter Heehs, Bob Zwicker
& Richard Hartz from the Archives. Next morning when Manoj Das Gupta
hears about the decision, he shouts in anger, “I will not accept this
decision!” He then prevails upon the other Trustees to withdraw their
unanimous decision. News of this comes as a most painful shock to the entire
Ashram community, plunging it in despair. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2011/10/sraddhalu-ranades-letter-to-manoj-das.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sraddhalu Ranade’s Letter to Manoj Das</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2011/10/sraddhalu-ranades-letter-to-manoj-das.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">02.10.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Mass
petition signed first by Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya submitted by inmates of
the Ashram to the Trustees. More than four hundred people signed the
petition. Had not Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>called it off after two days, the entire Ashram would have followed
suit. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.10.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj
Das Gupta writes to Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya that Peter has “crossed all
limits of decency” in his book on Sri Aurobindo.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhZU9NWTRVeTg0X28/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b>Typed Transcrip</b></a>t </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhZU9NWTRVeTg0X28/view?usp=sharing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhNm15Q0lGYklrZUU/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Handwritten Document </span></b></a></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhNm15Q0lGYklrZUU/view?usp=sharing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">08.10.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhS3NxR0RVanZSS2M/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b>Internal Notice circulated by the Ashram Trust</b></a> saying that the Ashram Trust “does not
approve and has nothing to do with the book entitled “Lives of Sri
Aurobindo”. The Trust removes Peter Heehs from the Archives and reconstitutes
an ad hoc and namesake editorial board of the Archives Dept.</span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhS3NxR0RVanZSS2M/view?usp=sharing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">10.10.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhQ05MUEJubEg3dTA/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Proposal of Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya</a></b> to take corrective measures with regard to the
book. This was put up on the Ashram Notice Board. PKB was the personal
attendant of the Divine Mother and head of the Ashram Physical Education
Dept. He joined the Ashram in 1945 and commanded immense respect from the
devotees and disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.</span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhQ05MUEJubEg3dTA/view?usp=sharing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">30.10.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhSV9OMFllbjNGS2M/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Notice by Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya expelling Peter Heehs</a></b> from the Physical
Education Dept. of the Ashram. </span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhSV9OMFllbjNGS2M/view?usp=sharing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">04.11.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ex-students of the Ashram School move the Orissa High Court and
bring a Stay Order on the release of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives
of Sri Aurobindo</i> by Peter Heehs by Penguin Publishers in India.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.11.2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AtAhK4q8MhSVJQeWJxbEJhMkk" target="_blank"><b>Fax message of the Ashram Trustees</b></a> saying that they have informed Peter Heehs
about their displeasure regarding some aspects of the book and have taken the
necessary disciplinary steps. They clarify that he was not founder of the
Ashram Archives as claimed by him in his book.</span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AtAhK4q8MhSVJQeWJxbEJhMkk"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Nov 2008</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Article written by Niranjan Naik on “Guru Ninda” for the
November issue of the Oriya monthly Navaprakash. 9700 copies of the article
are printed. On realising that it would expose the Ashram Trust for
supporting Peter Heehs, the manager of the Press scraps and shreds all the
copies.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/05/guru-ninda-by-niranjan-naik.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Guru Ninda – by Niranjan Naik</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/05/guru-ninda-by-niranjan-naik.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">22.01.2009</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sraddhalu Ranade dismissed from the Archives by the Ashram Trust
for having taken a stand against Peter Heehs.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">09.04.2009</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Govt. of Orissa issues a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhWHVJdlZsU2QzUnM/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><b>Gazette Notification banning the book</b></a>.</span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhWHVJdlZsU2QzUnM/view?usp=sharing"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">25.07.2009</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pranab
Bhattacharya’s proposal to the Managing Trustee to take action on Peter Heehs
with regard to copyright violations.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.08.2009</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AtAhK4q8MhdnFMMXVBdDFPMms" target="_blank"><b>Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya’s Note to the Managing Trustee</b></a> with Legal Opinion on how
to take action on Peter Heehs. This letter follows from the previous letter
of PKB to MDG dated 25.07.2009 </span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AtAhK4q8MhdnFMMXVBdDFPMms"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">31.08.2009</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AtAhK4q8MhU2dfNnZtNXNWR2s" target="_blank"><b>Manoj Das Gupta’s reply to Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya.</b></a> He says, “If you feel that
some legal action is the need of the hour, then I am game for it.” And yet he
does nothing. </span></div>
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<a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7AtAhK4q8MhU2dfNnZtNXNWR2s"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">08.01.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Passing
away of Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya, attendant of the Mother and director of
the Physical Education Department of the Ashram. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/01/salutation-and-pledge-to-pranab-kumar.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">A Salutation and a Pledge to Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya (Dada) – by Alok Pandey</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/01/salutation-and-pledge-to-pranab-kumar.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/01/pranab-das-relevance-to-this-site-raman.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pranab-da's Relevance to this Site – Raman Reddy</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/01/pranab-das-relevance-to-this-site-raman.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">May-July 2010 </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Kittu
Reddy (professor of History in the Ashram School), Ranganath Raghavan (former
Manager of the Ashram Press) & Sumita Khandpal (retired IAS officer and
alumnus of SAICE) meet Manoj Das Gupta with regard to the Peter Heehs issue
and the administration of the Ashram. They have a couple of meetings with
Manoj Das Gupta, which are followed by a correspondence with the Ashram
Trust.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">02.05.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Molestation
of Mamata Satpathy by Mukesh, manager of New Guest House. The Trust protects
Mukesh and pretends to conduct an enquiry. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/11/a-comparison-of-sexual-assaults.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">A Comparison of Sexual Assaults – Bireshwar Choudhury</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/11/a-comparison-of-sexual-assaults.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">28.05.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letter
written to the Managing Trustee by Kitttu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan &
Sumita Kandpal asking him why no action has been taken on Peter Heehs and why
no public statement has been issued by the Trust on the derogatory content of
his book on Sri Aurobindo. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/12/letter-of-kittu-reddy-ranganath.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letter of Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal to Manoj Das Gupta on 28 May, 2010</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/12/letter-of-kittu-reddy-ranganath.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">21.06.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Recommendation
letter furnished by the Trust to the Regional Registration Officer,
Pondicherry, for the extension of Peter Heehs’s visa by five years.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">21.06.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Reply
of the Ashram Trust to Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal.
The Trust defends Peter Heehs and presents half a dozen articles profusely praising
him.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/01/ashram-trusts-reply-of-21-june-2010-to.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram Trust's Reply of 21 June 2010 to Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/01/ashram-trusts-reply-of-21-june-2010-to.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/raman-reddys-response-to-ashram-trusts.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/raman-reddys-response-to-ashram-trusts.html" target="_blank">
</a>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/raman-reddys-response-to-ashram-trusts.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Raman Reddy’s response to the Ashram Trust’s letter of 21 June, 2010</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/raman-reddys-response-to-ashram-trusts.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">02.07.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letter
of Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal to Manoj Das Gupta
raising the issue of Peter Heehs and various other cases of blatant
maladministration such as the Raghava Chettiar House case, New Guest House
diversion of funds, Mamata Satpathy molestation case, etc.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/01/letter-of-kittu-reddy-ranganath.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letter of Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal to Manoj Das Gupta on 2 July, 2010</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/01/letter-of-kittu-reddy-ranganath.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><br /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">22.07.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Reply
from the Board of Trustees dismissing all the questions raised by Kittu
Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal and threatening to take legal
action on them.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/the-ashram-trusts-reply-of-22-july-2010.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Ashram Trust’s reply of 22 July, 2010 to Kittu Reddy, Sumita Kandpal & Ranganath Raghavan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/the-ashram-trusts-reply-of-22-july-2010.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">July 2010 </span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das Gupta’s article “Some Reflections on the Agonising
Issue of a Book”. He criticises Peter Heehs, but criticises more the reaction
of those who have protested against it. He refers to this article as having
written it a few months back in a letter to the Governor of Pondicherry dated
24 September 2010.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2011/11/raman-reddys-response-to-managing.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Raman Reddy's Response to the Managing Trustee's Stand</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">23.08.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Scheme Suit against the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust filed by five
inmates and devotees in the Pondicherry District Court. The petitioners seek
the replacement of the Trustees because they have committed breach of trust
by defending Peter Heehs with regard to his denigrating biography of Sri
Aurobindo and by even giving a certificate of good conduct for the extension
of his visa in India. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/06/scheme-suit-update-sridharan.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Scheme Suit Update – Sridharan </span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/06/scheme-suit-update-sridharan.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">23.09.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">With great reluctance, the Ashram Trust puts up a notice in the
Ashram saying that it “does not approve and has nothing to do with the book
entitled the Lives of Sri Aurobindo written by Peter Heehs.” It keeps the
notice for only a few days on the Ashram Notice Board. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/09/ashram-trust-does-not-approve-of-tlosa.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram Trust "does not approve" of TLOSA book!</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2010/09/ashram-trust-does-not-approve-of-tlosa.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.10.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dr. R.Y. Deshpande, senior professor of Physics in the Higher
Course of the Ashram School and expert on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Savitri</i>,
expelled by Manoj Das Gupta on a flimsy excuse.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/prof-ry-deshpandes-expulsion-from.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Prof R.Y. Deshpande's Expulsion from the School in October 2010</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/prof-ry-deshpandes-expulsion-from.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">30.12.2010</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dismissal of Niranjan Naik as editor of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Navaprakash</i>, which he has been editing right from its inception
in 1970.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/07/reply-to-manoj-dass-letter-to-niranjan_11.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Reply to Manoj Das’s Letter to Niranjan Naik – by Sripad Singh</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/07/reply-to-manoj-dass-letter-to-niranjan_11.html"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">15.02.2011</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Principal District Judge of Pondicherry grants leave to sue in
the Scheme Suit.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">17.06.2011</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Madras High Court grants leave to sue in the Scheme Suit.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">01-07 January, 2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Silent
Protest against the Ashram Trust organised by the inmates of the Ashram and other
devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on Rue Saint Gilles, behind the
Ashram main building and in front of the office of the Ashram Trust. A Press
conference is organised on 6 January, 2012.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/01/report-of-press-conference-and-silent.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Report of Press Conference and Silent Protest by Ashramites</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/01/report-of-press-conference-and-silent.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/01/protest-by-inmates-of-sri-aurobindo.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Protest by Inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram</span></b></a></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/application-for-permission-for-silent.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Application for Permission for Silent and Peaceful Protest of January 1-6, 2012</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/application-for-permission-for-silent.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/08/why-do-dharna-by-sripad-singh.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Why Do A Dharna? – by Sripad Singh</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/08/why-do-dharna-by-sripad-singh.html"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">20.01.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram Trust issues show cause notices to Kittu Reddy & R.Y.
Deshpande for speaking in the Press conference of January 6, 2012.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/ashram-trust-issues-show-cause-notice_02.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram Trust Issues Show-cause Notice to Prof. Kittu Reddy</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/ashram-trust-issues-show-cause-notice_02.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">27.01.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Show Cause notices served to Varun Pabrai and 5 others for
participating in the Silent Protest of 1-6 January, 2012. (Read also note
dated 19.04.2012.)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/six-more-show-cause-notices-served-by.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Six More Show-Cause Notices Served by the Trust</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/six-more-show-cause-notices-served-by.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.02.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram
Trustees cancel Vijay Poddar’s talk on the book for fear of being exposed.
The talk was scheduled for 14.02.2012 at the Society Beach Office.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/trustees-cancel-vijay-poddars-talk.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Trustees Cancel Vijay Poddar's Talk</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/trustees-cancel-vijay-poddars-talk.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/gagging-of-vijaybhai-kartik-srinivasan.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Gagging of Vijaybhai – Kartik Srinivasan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/gagging-of-vijaybhai-kartik-srinivasan.html"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">26-28 February,
2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Second
Silent Protest organised by the inmates of the Ashram and devotees of Sri
Aurobindo on Rue Saint Gilles, behind the Ashram main building and in front
of the office of the Ashram Trust. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
the 27th devotees hand over petitions to all the Trustees. Dr. Dilip Datta first
refuses to take the petition, and then takes it, crumples and throws it in
the drain. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He files an F.I.R. on the
devotees for preventing his access to the office of the Ashram Trust. The
devotees file a counter F.I.R. against Shoma Datta (Dilip Datta’s daughter) who
racially insults the Oriya devotees. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/02/three-day-silent-protest-against.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Three-Day Silent Protest Against the Trustees' Support for Peter Heehs</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">09.03.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Togo Mukherjee deprived of taking food in the Ashram Dining Room
by Manoj Das Gupta.</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="928906160110195422"></a><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/03/no-food-for-togo-mukherjee.html" target="_blank">No Food for Togo Mukherjee</a> </span></b></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/manoj-das-guptas-strange-attitude.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das Gupta’s Strange Attitude!</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.03.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dr. Gayatri Satapathy, resident physician in the Ashram Nursing
Home from November 1999, resigns due to interference and harassment by Dr.
Dilip Datta. She continues to work in the Ashram Dispensary.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/03/dr-gayatri-resigns-from-ashram-nursing.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dr. Gayatri Resigns from the Ashram Nursing Home</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">14.03.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das Gupta stops Sudha Sinha’s Hindi classes.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/03/manoj-das-gupta-stops-sudha-sinhas.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das Gupta Stops Sudha Sinha’s Hindi Classes</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">04.04.2012</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/hindustan-times-4-april-2012.html" target="_blank">Chidambaram won’t allow US "historian" to stay in India (Hindustan Times)</a> </span></b></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/violation-of-visa-norms-by-peter-heehs.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Violation of Visa Norms by Peter Heehs</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.04.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs’s interview with General Bakshi on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Times Now</i>.</span></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/peter-heehs-in-live-debate-with-general.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Peter Heehs in Live Debate with General Bakshi on Times Now on April 5, 2012</span></a></b></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/letter-from-major-general-bakshi.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Letter from Major General Bakshi</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.04.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Home Minister Chidambaram under political pressure
extends Peter Heehs’s visa by one year. He was supposed to leave India on
14.04.2012 at 2 a.m. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">19.04.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Interim Injunction by the Puducherry Court restraining
the Ashram Trustees from taking disciplinary action against Kittu Reddy and
five others. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Trustees now won’t be able to
expel them, deprive them of food & shelter or remove them from their work
place.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/interim-injunction-granted-by.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Interim Injunction Granted by Puducherry Court</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">25.04.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sri
Aurobindo Society passes a resolution publicly condemning "The Lives of
Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs. This is in response to the overwhelming
expression of outrage from hundreds of Branches and Centres all over India. T<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">he statement is published in the issue of
June 2012 of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All India Magazine</i>.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/sri-aurobindo-society-condemns-lives-of.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sri Aurobindo Society Condemns "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" by Peter Heehs</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.05.2012</span></b></div>
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<b><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/cancellation-of-sraddhalu-ranades-talk.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Cancellation of Sraddhalu Ranade’s Talk by Auroville WC ─ by Sridharan</span></a></b></div>
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</h3>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.05.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Radhikaranjan
writes an article with the title “Om Namo Bhagavate” for the TLOSA website,
in which he criticises the Trustees for supporting Peter Heehs.Manoj
Das Gupta, Registrar of the Ashram School, stops his Sanskrit and Biology
classes. Radhikaranjan moves the Court in Pondicherry to get back his classes
and even wins in the Court, but to no avail. The Registrar takes advantage of
legal procedures to indefinitely delay the restoration of his classes. (Read
note dated 05.12.2012)</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/om-namo-bhagavate-radhikaranjan-das.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Om Namo Bhagavate − Dr. Radhikaranjan Das</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/manoj-das-gupta-stops-dr-radhikaranjans.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das Gupta Stops Dr. Radhikaranjan’s Classes – Sridharan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/05/report-of-dr-radhikaranjans-discussion.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Report of Dr. Radhikaranjan's Discussion with the School Committee</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">18.05.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">A
strong plea was made by Bhartruhari Mahtab (BJD MP) in the Lok Sabha today
for immediately cancelling the visa to controversial US historian Peter Heehs. </span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>25.05.2012</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">A
group of 68 sitting Members of Parliament of India write to the Ashram Trust demanding
written answers to serious allegations of corruption and breach of trust
raised by disciples and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother all over
India and abroad. The letter is forwarded by Ex-MP Dr. Kartikeshwar Patra to
the Ashram Trust on 25 May, 2012.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/06/members-of-parliament-seek.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Members of Parliament Seek Clarifications from Ashram Trustees</span></b></a></div>
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</div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/07/mps-seek-ashram-explanation-on-heehss.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">MPs seek ashram explanation on Heehs’s book</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">10.06.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Second Additional District Judge of Pondicherry grants leave to
sue for a second time in the Scheme Suit.</span><br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">21.07.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Kumud Patel, personal assistant of
the Mother and in-charge of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’s rooms passes away.
Her loss is deeply felt by all those who have protested against the Trustees
in the Peter Heehs issue.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">10.08.2012</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The SSP of Puducherry refuses to give
permission to the Inmates to stage a dharna on the apprehension that there
might be a breach of peace. </span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.08.2012</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The District Collector of Puducherry receives a letter from
local MLA Thiru Ashok Anand citing various allegations against the Trustees
of the Ashram ranging from the denial of basic fundamental rights of the
Inmates to financial corruption and breach of trust. The MLA prays for an
immediate and independent probe into the functioning of the Trust. On the
same day a large group of Devotees, Disciples and Inmates meet the District
Collector with the objective of voicing their grievances against the
Trustees.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/08/public-protest-and-memorandum-submitted.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Public Protest and Memorandum Submitted by Devotees, Disciples and Inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.09.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Deputy Collector (Revenue) North, Puducherry summons the
Trustees to appear before him on 07.09.2012 at 04:00 pm for an enquiry along
with relevant documents. The scope of the proposed enquiry is on the
following issues: </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">1. Denial of fundamental rights of the inmates of Sri Aurobindo
Ashram. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">2. Absence of a democratic mechanism for the election of
Trustees. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">3. Lack of transparency and accountability by the Trustees. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">4. Financial mismanagement of Trust Funds by the Trustees </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">5. Denial of food, work and medical facilities to inmates who
have spoken against the Trustees.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">6. Denial of security to women inmates who have spoken out
against sexual harassment and victimization. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">7. Illegal sale and lease of valuable Ashram properties by
Trustees for personal gain. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">8. Other related matters.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">07.09.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Death of Shanti Sinha due to gross medical negligence by the
Ashram Medical Service headed by Dr. Dilip Datta.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">07.09.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram Trustees comply with the
summons of the Deputy Collector and appear before him.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">17.09.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Pondicherry District Collector puts up a public Notice of
Enquiry into the allegations against the Ashram Trust. Interested Ashramites
can disclose any information on the allegations levied against the Trustees.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">19.09.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Trustees of the Ashram submit a
written reply to the Deputy Collector denying the allegations levelled
against them in the Notice dated 05.09.2012.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">20.09.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Trustees of the Ashram Trust send
a letter to the Deputy Collector wherein they express their reservations on
affixing the Notice dated 17.09.2012. The Trustees however vide the said
letter assure the Deputy Collector of their "full co-operation to the
enquiry".</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">21.09.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashramites submit a detailed report to the Deputy Collector of
Pondicherry, containing information on the illegalities committed by the
Ashram Trust. The report is more than 1800 pages long with 10 Annexures,
including two books and one DVD Disk containing a sting operation undertaken
by the CNN-IBN into the affairs of the Ashram Trust.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">01.10.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 3.1pt; mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The
Deputy Collector sends a letter to the Trustees stating that the Notice dated
17.09.2012 has not been affixed on the notice board of the Ashram as per his
directions. Therefore a revised constructive Notice with an extended date
would be affixed at important places of the Ashram. The Trustees are directed
to extend necessary co-operation to the Deputy Tahsildar during his visit to
the Ashram for this purpose. The Trustees are also warned that non-compliance
of these directions would be viewed seriously.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">01.10.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Notice dated 01.10.2012 extends the
date for all interested Ashramites to approach the Deputy Collector with
information relevant to the inquiry by 15.10.2012. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">03-10 Oct 2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Inmates
of the Ashram make written complaints to the Deputy Collector against the
Trustees of the Ashram on issues pertaining to sexual abuse of women inmates
and children, human rights violation, denial of medical facilities, and
corruption and financial mismanagement in the Ashram. 40 complaints are given
to the Deputy Collector, out of which 9 complaints are returned because of
the stay order in Madras High Court.</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.10.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The
Ashram Trust files Writ Petition 27099 of 2012 against the District Collector
of Puducherry in the Madras High Court and gets a stay order on the Enquiry. </span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.10.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Vishnu
Lalit’s Sanskrit classes discontinued by Manoj Das Gupta because he has been
the main complainant in the Collector’s Enquiry.</span><br />
<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">18.10.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Laxmidhar
Samantray passes away.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/10/laxmidhar-samantray-passes-away.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Laxmidhar Samantray Passes Away</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">09.11.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ms.
Krishna Tirath, the Minister of State, Ministry of Women and Child
Development, issues a letter to the Chief Minister, Government of
Pondicherry, saying that "efforts need to be made to ensure that the
Trustees do not abuse their positions in any way to create an atmosphere of
fear amongst the Inmates which would obviate a fair inquiry, which I would
request you to expedite". </span><br />
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7AtAhK4q8MhZThzaHhLcTBZNDg/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Letter of Ms Krishna Tirath</a> </b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">04.12.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The
Government of Puducherry files a Counter Affidavit in W.P. No. 27099 of 2012 justifying
the need for conducting an enquiry into the affairs of the Ashram. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.12.2012</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Court verdict in favour of Radhikaranjan Das </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">restraining the Ashram Trustees from stopping his classes in the
Ashram School. Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee cum Registrar of the Ashram
School blatantly disobeys the court order, but </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">creates a false impression of
having complied with it. Radhikaranjan is given a note telling him to fix his
classes with the Higher Course students while he prevents them at the same
time to attend his classes.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-element-anchor-horizontal: column; mso-element-anchor-vertical: paragraph; mso-element-frame-hspace: 9.35pt; mso-element-top: .05pt; mso-element-wrap: around; mso-element: frame; mso-height-rule: exactly; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/12/radhikaranjan-das-wins-court-case-by.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Radhikaranjan Das Wins Court Case – by Sridharan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/02/court-order-in-radhikaranjans-case.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Court Order in Radhikaranjan's Case – Sridharan</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/12/the-crooked-registrar-of-ashram-school.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Crooked Registrar of the Ashram School – by Banamali Mishra</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">14.12.2012</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Togo
Mukherjee, grandson of Bagha Jotin, passes away.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/12/togo-mukherji-passes-away-baikunth.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Togo Mukherji Passes Away – Baikunth</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">25.01.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Inmates
of the Ashram file intervention petition M.P. No.2/2012 during the pendency
of Writ Petition 27099/2012 in Madras High Court.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">15.03.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">TLOSA website exposes the Dattagate scandal regarding the land
deal of Dilip Datta’s son with Michele Mercier, who gets prime accommodation from
the Ashram for selling her house to Dilip Datta’s son at a throw away price.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/03/dattagate-exposing-corrupt-trustees-of_6414.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">DattaGate: Exposing the Corrupt Trustees of the Ashram!</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">02.04.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Madras High Court grants leave to sue for the second time in the
Scheme Suit.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">May 2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Abhipsa Nagda appointed as Trustee in the place of Albert Patel.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">06.06.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Trustees send Ashram lawyer with Police to arrest Abala Mohanty
in the Dining Room for allegedly insulting Manoj Das Gupta. Abala refuses to
go with them. The same thing happens on the 8<sup>th</sup>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/06/breaking-news-trustees-send-police-to.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Breaking News – Trustees send Police to arrest old woman who criticised Manoj Das Gupta</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/06/update-on-police-harassment-of-abala.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Update On Police Harassment of Abala</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.07.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Posters against the Ashram Trust all over Pondicherry town.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">14.07.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Bring the Sri Aurobindo Ashram under the purview of the R.T.I.
Act, says ANRC MLA. </span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/07/bring-aurobindo-ashram-under-rti-act.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Bring Aurobindo Ashram Under RTI Act, Demands AINRC MLA</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">18.07.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Posters against the Ashram Trust all over Pondicherry town.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/07/more-posters-against-ashram-trustees.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">More Posters Against the Ashram Trustees</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">26.07.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Puducherry Assembly extensively debates on the corrupt practices
of the Ashram Trustees. Thereafter, the Chief Minister of Puducherry issues a
statement that he is seriously considering the appointment of a Government
Administrator for the Ashram. Various news reports are published highlighting
the proceedings of the Puducherry Assembly.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/07/decision-on-government-nominee-for.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Decision on government nominee for Aurobindo Ashram soon, says Rangasamy - The Hindu (27 July, 2013)</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">10.08.2013</span></b></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Tehelka</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"> magazine publishes an Article titled
"Scabs Beneath the Serenity", which vividly describes the dismal
state of affairs in Sri Aurobindo Ashram.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/08/scabs-beneath-serenity-imran-khan.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Scabs Beneath The Serenity – Imran Khan (Telhelka)</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.08.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Madras High Court appoints Justice P.R. Raman, a former
Judge of the High Court of Kerala, to head an inquiry into the affairs of the
Ashram. </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/08/former-hc-judge-to-probe-irregularities.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Former HC judge to probe irregularities at Aurobindo Ashram – The Hindu</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">26.08.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Posters against Manoj Das Gupta all over the town.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/08/third-set-of-posters-against-ashram.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Third Poster Against the Ashram Trust – Sridharan</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">15.09.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Shanti Mishra, impleader in the Writ
Petition filed in the Madras High Court (Enquiry Case against the Ashram
Trust), complains of intimidation by a henchman of the Trustees, who tells
her to withdraw her name from it.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">17.09.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">RAJ TV Programme in Tamil titled
“KOPPIUM” on sex-scandals in the Ashram.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/11/raj-tv-video-sex-scandals-aurobindo.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">RAJ TV Video – Sex Scandals @ Aurobindo Ashram (Koppiyam, 17 September, 2013)</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/11/raj-tv-programme-in-tamil-titled.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">RAJ TV Programme in Tamil titled “KOPPIUM” (17.09.2013) – English Translation</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">27.09.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Enquiry proceedings conducted by Justice P.R. Raman at Ananda
Inn, Pondicherry. Several Inmates and non-Inmates participate in the
proceedings.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/09/one-man-panel-begins-enquiry-into_28.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">One-man Panel Begins Enquiry into Charges Against Aurobindo Ashram – New Indian Express</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">29.09.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Justice P.R. Raman submits a memo saying that he cannot continue
as Enquiry Officer due to medical reasons. Also, subsequent to his
appointment as Enquiry Officer, he has been designated as a Senior Advocate
by the Supreme Court of India and in this regard was "expecting to move
out soon".</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.10.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Madras High Court appoints Justice T.L. Vishwanatha Iyer, former
Judge, High Court of Kerala, as Enquiry Officer in place of Mr. Justice P.R.
Raman.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/10/new-enquiry-officer-to-probe-aurobindo.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">New enquiry officer to probe Aurobindo Ashram case (The Hindu, 10 October 2013) – Bireshwar Choudhury</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">23.10.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Enquirer Officer, T.L. Vishwanatha Iyer, conducts a meeting with
the inmates and authorities of the Ashram in the conference hall of the
Pondicherry Secretariat.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/10/inquiry-into-allegations-against-ashram.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Inquiry into allegations against Ashram begins – The Hindu (24 October, 2013)</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">26.10.2013</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2013/10/press-release-issued-by-thiru-ashok.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Press Release Issued by Thiru Ashok Anand, M.L.A., on 26 October, 2013</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">19.11.2013 </span></b></div>
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</div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">79 complaints of Inmates personally delivered to Justice Vishwanatha
Iyer. Copies of complaints posted to Trustees and other accused. </span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">11.12.2013</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Ashram Trust replies to the complaints against them.</span></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">12.01.2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Justice Vishwanath Iyer suddenly passes away. Enquiry
proceedings come to a halt and the atmosphere in the Ashram further deteriorates.
</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/01/former-hc-judge-dead-hindu-13-january.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Former HC judge dead – The Hindu, 13 January 2014, Kochi</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">20.02.2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dr. Gayatri resigns from the Ashram Dispensary due to severe
harassment by Dr. Dilip Datta.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/03/dr-gayatri-resigns-from-ashram-nursing.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dr. Gayatri Resigns from the Ashram Nursing Home</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">March-April 2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Deliberate medical negligence of Vishnu Lalit in the Ashram
Nursing Home because he was the main complainant in the Collector’s Enquiry.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/04/the-medical-negligence-of-vishnu-lalit.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">The Medical Negligence of Vishnu Lalit – by Bireshwar Choudhury</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">04.08.2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Writ Petition filed by Gayatri Satapathy & Others asking for
an Enquiry into various allegations against the Ashram Trust is admitted in
the Supreme Court of India. The Union Govt. of India and the Pondicherry
Govt. have been made parties in the case. Both file affidavits favouring the Enquiry.
</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/08/who-is-gaining-from-legal-battles.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Who is Gaining from Legal Battles? – Sridharan</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">16.09.2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">RSS journal ORGANISER indicts the Ashram Trustees for being in
league with Peter Heehs in the defamation of Sri Aurobindo.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/09/rss-journal-organiser-indicts-trustees.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">RSS Journal "Organiser" Indicts the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">28.10.2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das in the news in connection with the Seashore Chitfund
Scam in Orissa.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/10/manoj-das-and-seashore-chit-fund-scam.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Manoj Das and the Seashore Chit Fund Scam</span></b></a></div>
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<b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;"><a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/10/why-did-manoj-das-keep-mum-in-june-2013.html" target="_blank">Why did Manoj Das keep mum in June 2013 with regard to the Seashore Chit Fund scam?</a> </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">18.12.2014</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Five sisters & parents attempt to commit suicide after being
evicted from their Ashram residence. Two sisters and mother die, the others found
in a traumatic condition. Violent protests against the Ashram Trust. A total
bandh observed on the 20<sup>th</sup> supported by all political parties.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/12/sisters-evicted-from-aurobindo-ashram.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Sisters evicted from Aurobindo Ashram: Three including mother commit suicide</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">13.08.2015</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/08/supreme-court-considers-probe-into.html" target="_blank"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Supreme Court considers probe into Aurobindo ashram harassment allegations</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">25.08.2015</span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/09/bjp-president-amit-shahs-visit-to-sri.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">BJP President Amit Shah’s Visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Bireshwar Choudhury</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2015/09/indians-and-westerners-in-sri-aurobindo.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Indians and Westerners in Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Baikunth</span></b></a></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">05.01.2016</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Supreme Court dismisses the Scheme Suit, overturning the High
Court and Pondicherry court orders.<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2016/01/dismissal-of-scheme-suit-in-supreme.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Dismissal of the Scheme Suit in the Supreme Court – by Bireshwar Choudury</span></b></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2016/01/response-to-firstpost-on-scheme-suit.html" target="_blank"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Response to FIRSTPOST on the Scheme Suit issue – by Bireshwar Choudhury</span></b></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">2016</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt;">Enquiry Case still pending in the Supreme Court of India.</span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-76532409558484236002016-09-11T11:10:00.001+05:302016-09-11T11:31:04.519+05:30Bagha Jatin: The Bengal Tiger Whom The British Feared – swarajyamag.com<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</span></b></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Saswat
Panigrahi<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif";"> - </span></span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">September 10, 2016, 11:45 am </span></span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Exactly
101 years ago, on this day, the nationalist-revolutionary succumbed to severe
bullet injuries in Balasore hospital following a gallant battle with the
British-controlled police.</span></b></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Indian history has discounted the
significant contributions of Bagha Jatin towards the freedom movement, thanks
to the Left-leaning historiographers. This, despite the fact that there is no
dearth of well documented historical records available on the vast revolution
the great freedom fighter had conceived!</span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Much before India won its independence
in 1947, there was an attempt under the leadership of Jatin in 1915 to pull the
country out of slavery by means of armed insurrection. Jatin’s efforts can also
be taken as a precursor to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s armed struggle to throw
British out of India.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Exactly 101 years ago, on 10 September
, the nationalist-revolutionary succumbed to severe bullet injuries in Balasore
hospital following a gallant battle with police.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From Kaya in Bangladesh to Chasakhand
in Odisha’s Balasore, Jatin lives on in the hearts of millions. He was indeed
an inspiration to Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman in his fight against Pakistani
army during the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Born in Kaya village in Kushtia
district of the undivided Bengal, part of present day Bangladesh, in 1887,
Jatin kindled the flame of revolution against the colonial British rule in the
Indian subcontinent. Jatin envisioned a modern India – politically free,
economically prosperous and spiritually progressive. His vision was far ahead
of his times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The epithet ‘Bagha Jatin’ was earned by
young Jatindranath Mukherjee in 1904 when he fought with a Royal Bengal tiger
all alone for three hours and killed it using a dagger. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Birth of Jugantar</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As a college student Jatindranath
joined a relief camp organised by Sister Nivedita, the Irish disciple of Swami
Vivekananda. She introduced him to Vivekananda. And it was Swami Vivekananda
who instructed Jatindranath to take up the mission to bring together dedicated
youth with “iron muscle” and “nerves of steel” who could plunge into the
service of the motherland.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Later, his meeting with Sri Aurobindo
ignited his fervour for revolution against the British further. It was Sri
Aurobindo who entrusted him to create a “secret society” for training dedicated
youth for a revolution against the British. That secret society was known as
Jugantar and Bagha Jatin became its commander-in-chief.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The nation was seething with discontent
against the British Raj. It was at that time, Jatin’s clarion call “<i>Amra
morbo, jagat jagbe</i>” (We shall die to awaken the nation) evoked the growing
currents of India nationalism. Thousands of restless youth joined Jatin’s brand
of freedom movement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jugantar soon became a pan-India
movement. The Jugantar Party successfully set up its units across India and
even spread far across South-East Asia, Europe and America.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It was an era of Indian liberation
movement where cultural nationalism and socialism had a rare blend in the focal
point of revolution against the British.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Armed Insurrection Against British</span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is no dispute that in the war of
Indian independence, Jatin proudly took the path of violence and dedicated
himself to the cause of <i>Purna Swaraj</i> (total independence) as opposed to
the framework of Indian National Congress.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The year was 1914 when the First World
War broke out. Believing in ‘<i>my enemy’s enemy is my friend</i>’, Jatin
looked towards Germany as a land of hope. In 1912, Jatin approached the German
Crown Prince for the delivery of arms for an insurrection in order to create a
socialist government in India. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The task of obtaining funds and
armaments were entrusted upon MN Roy, the key lieutenant of Jatin. In April,
1915, Roy left India in search of German armaments which were believed to be en
route, somewhere in the Pacific. The plan was indeed fantastic. As Roy had
later recounted in his posthumously published memoirs:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The plan was to use German ships
interned in a port at the northern tip of Sumatra, to storm the Andaman Islands
and free and arm the prisoners there, and land the army of liberation on the
Orissa coast. The ships were armoured, as many big German vessels were, ready
for wartime use. They also carried several guns. The crew was composed of naval
ratings. They had to escape from the internment camp, seize the ships, and
sail... Several hundred rifles and other small arms with an adequate supply of
ammunition could be acquired through Chinese smugglers who would get then on
board the ships.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Odisha’s Balasore coast was selected as
the place where shipload of arms consignment from Germany was supposed to be
delivered.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Battle of Balasore</span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jatin, along with his followers, were
sheltered in a hideout at Kaptipada village in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha –
situated in the vicinity of Balasore – to receive the shipload of arms
consignments from Germany.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Destiny, however, intervened. It is
said that EV Voska, a Czech spy, had accessed the plan of delivering the
Germany consignments at India’s east coast and sold the information to the
British. Reports further suggest that the very German agent – who was tasked to
oversee the arms consignment – had turned into a double agent and informed the
British. Though Jatin was told that a cargo of arms and ammunition was already
on its way, the consignment never reached Indian shores.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As soon as the information reached the
British authorities, they swiftly swung into action. Meanwhile, Jatin and his
followers reached Balasore walking through the tough terrain of Mayurbhanj for
two days. They took position on a hillock at Chashakhand village in Balasore. A
large contingent of British Police – headed by top European police officers from
Calcutta and Balasore – and reinforced by army unit from Bhadrak’s Chandbali
approached the revolutionaries in a pincers movement.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While the British side was armed with
highly sophisticated rifles, Jatin and his team fought with Mauser pistols. The
gunfight lasted for two hours. There were significant causalities on the
British side also.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jatin was seriously wounded in the
battle and the next day he succumbed to injuries in Balasore city hospital.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Praises For The Courageous Bagha
Jatin </span></b><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although the armed uprising could not
take off, Jatin’s martyrdom and the battle of Balasore galvanised the fight
against the British Raj.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is pertinent to mention that Jatin’s
mounting serial attacks on British Raj shook the colonial administration in
London. British records suggest that Earl of Minto and Charles Hardinge – two
consecutive governor-generals of India – had shown their desperate concern
about the rise of Jugantar movement under the leadership of Jatin.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">During the Indo-German conspiracy
trail, this is what the prosecuting British official had remarked on Jatin:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Were this man living, he might lead the
world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Struck by his heroism, Charles Augustus
Tegart, then top colonial police officer in India, wrote:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bagha
Jatin, the Bengali revolutionary, is one of the most selfless political workers
in India. His driving power (…) immense: if an army could be raised or arms
could reach an Indian port, the British would lose the war.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Augustus Tegart had once told his
colleagues:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If
Bagha Jatin was an Englishman, then the English people would have built his
statue next to Nelson’s at Trafalgar Square.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">MN Roy, the revolutionary who had
worked closely with Jatin, wrote:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All
dadas practised magnetism; only Jatin Mukherjee possessed it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Historian Prithwin Mukherjee – the
grandson of Jatin – who vividly chronicled the detailed vignettes of the great
freedom fighter from his birth until his death wrote:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Bagha
Jatin chose to suffer and taught his followers to do so in the name of a future
of India where citizens would be happy and prosperous in the midst of the other
free nations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Mahatma Gandhi had described Jatin as a
‘divine personality’.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee wrote:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jatindranath
was the well-known and principal leader of the second episode in the history of
the revolutionary movement who belonged to that band of fighters, who had
written a blood-red chapter of their country’s fight for freedom. Sacrificing
all they had… they rushed to the ritual call of death and, inch by inch, by
shedding their lives, they had left for us the relish of a greater life.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Referring to the Battle of Balasore –
where Jatin fought valourly – renowned author Hirendranath Mukherjee wrote:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Balasore battle where Jatin, with select comrades, laid down his life remains a
luminous landmark in India’s struggle for freedom from British imperialist
subjugations.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Noted author Ajoy Chandra Banerjee
wrote:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At
a time when conventional India nationalism could not even contemplate India’s
independence, Jatin was a believer of total freedom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to Raymond Aron, eminent
French historian, Jatin embodies the “thinker in action” who furnishes the
“missing link” in modern history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“India has to rise with her own
strength,” Jatin once famously declared. It was in his philosophies and
thoughts that the vocabularies of revolutionary ideas were rooted.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Living for a short span of 36 years,
Jatin left his footprints on the sands of time. His legacy will stay on to
guide the nation, nationalism and nationhood.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><b> http://swarajyamag.com/culture/bagha-jatin-the-bengal-tiger-whom-the-british-feared</b></span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-86358080164398983142016-07-04T14:17:00.001+05:302016-07-04T14:18:40.244+05:30Dr. Hedgewar (founder of the R.S.S) met Sri Aurobindo in Pondicherry<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
January 1920, Dr. L.V. Paranjpe started the Bharat Swayamsevak Mandal. Doctorji
[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dr.</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hedgewar</i>] was his chief colleague. Efforts began in the month of
July that year to organise a corps of some 1000-1500 volunteers for the
Congress session. Doctorji threw himself heart and soul into that task.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While
such fervent efforts were afoot, the tragic news of the passing away of
Lokmanya Tilak at Bombay on the night of 31st July came like a bolt from the
blue. The entire nation was plunged in indescribable grief. And more so the
people of Nagpur. With a heavy heart, Doctorji attended to the work for organising
hartal, mourning and condolence meetings on the tenth day, and offered his
tearful homage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Consequent
on Lokmanya’s demise, the organisers were faced with the task of finding another
Extremist leader for the presidentship. It was decided that a deputation should
go to Pondicherry and bring Babu Aurobindo Ghose for the session. Dr. Moonje
accordingly set out for Pondicherry. Doctorji also accompanied him as a
representative of the youth of Nagpur.</span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An
incident that took place during the journey is worth recalling. Dr. Hedgewar
was travelling in a third class compartment, while Dr. Moonje was in the first
class. Dr. Hedgewar was looking after the needs of Dr. Moonje. When the train
stopped at the station preceding Madras, Doctorji came to Dr. Moonje’s
compartment and began arranging his luggage. But before he could complete it
the train started moving. Just at that time the inspector came in for checking.
Seeing the Doctorji’s third class ticket, the inspector demanded the difference
in fare along with the penalty. Dr. Moonje patiently explained the situation to
him. But the inspector was adamant. Dr. Moonje lost his temper and shouted,
“Get out! We shall not pay a single pie. After all you are a mere servant of
the railways, while we are the masters!” At this, the inspector also became
furious and retorted, “Who are you to tell me? Remember, this is not a Muslim
country. It is you who should get out!” Dr. Moonje’s black round cap, beard,
and closely clipped hair on the head had given the inspector the impression
that he was a Muslim! The two doctors laughed heartily at this faux pas.<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
doctor duo stayed in Pondicherry for four or five days. They met Babu Aurobindo
Ghose and explained the crucial situation in the country. They pleaded with him
to accept the reins of leadership. But to their great disappointment Aurobindo
refused to leave Pondicherry.<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">http://www.rss.org/Encyc/2015/8/8/334_12_29_25_Dr.Hedgewar_The_Epoch_Maker.pdf
(p 23 of pdf)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">The
detailed narration of the incident on the train gives some historical
credibility to the more important event of Dr. Hedgewar’s meeting with Sri
Aurobindo in 1920.</span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
following passage is from a letter of Sri Aurobindo to Dr. Moonje stating the main
reason why he could not accept the offer of the Presidentship of the Nagpur
Congress:</span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The
central reason however is this that I am no longer first and foremost a
politician, but have definitely commenced another kind of work with a spiritual
basis, a work of spiritual, social, cultural and economic reconstruction of an
almost revolutionary kind, and am even making or at least supervising a sort of
practical or laboratory experiment in that sense which needs all the attention and
energy that I can have to spare. It is impossible for me to combine political
work of the current kind and this at the beginning. I should practically have
to leave it aside, and this I cannot do, as I have taken it up as my mission for
the rest of my life. This is the true reason of my inability to respond to your
call.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">August
30, 1920</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Sabon-Roman; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Sri
Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Autobiographical Notes</i>,
CWSA, Vol.36, p 258)</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="fullpost"></span></div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-26954682306856368152016-06-12T10:59:00.001+05:302016-06-12T12:10:51.679+05:30Sri Aurobindo's Response to K.R. Kripalani's Article on the Swadeshi Movement<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .4in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Did you enjoy the
article “Fifty Years of Growth” by K. R. Kripalani in the <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Visva-Bharati</span>?<a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[i]</span></b></span></span></span></a>
Fifty years of growth refers by the way to the Congress. About the Swadeshi
period he writes: “Along time was to elapse before we were to appreciate the
infinite possibilities of the muddy waters at hand. In the meantime something
startlingly romantic happened. . . .</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .4in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“The fountain [of
undefiled water] was cut by the fiery shafts of Tilak, Vivekananda, and
Aurobindo, among others. They gave to Indian Nationalism its fiery basis in
India’s ancient cultural glory and its modern mission. . . . It is always more
beautiful and more inspiring to contemplate the Idea <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>and be drunk with it than
to face the actual facts and touch the running sores. . . .</span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .4in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“But this spirit,
fiery and beautiful as it was, was fraught with grave dangers. The glory that
it invoked and the passion that it aroused were so intensely Hindu that Muslims
were automatically left out. Not that they were deliberately excluded. . . .
However that may be, it seems now not unlikely that had the influence of Tilak
and Aurobindo lasted in its original intensity, we might have had two Indias
today— a Hindu-istan and a Pak-istan, both overlaying and undermining each
other. . . .</span></i></div><span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .4in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“However that be,
the fact remains that the conditions of our country being what they were, the
beneficial effects of Tilak’s and of Aurobindo’s political personalities were
soon exhausted, and might, if prolonged, have proved dangerous, if Gandhiji had
not come on the scene. . . .”</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .4in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Subject,
politics,—taboo. Writer Kripalani a “romantic” and “idealistic” visionary
without hold on realities, living only in academic ideas—so not worth
commenting. All the present Congress lot seem to be men who live in ideas only,
mostly secondhand, borrowed from Europe (Socialism, Communism etc.), borrowed
from Gandhi, borrowed from tradition or borrowed from anywhere; Kripalani looks
down on the old Moderates for being in a different way exactly what he himself
is—only they were classics and not romantics. So what is the use of reading their
“histories”? However quite privately and within brackets<a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> I will enlighten you on one or two points.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>(1) The Swadeshi movement was
idealist on one side (no great movement can go without an ideal), but it was
perfectly practical in its aims and methods. We were quite aware of the poverty
of India and its fallen condition, but we did not try to cure the poverty by
Khaddar and Hindi prachar. We advocated the creation of an industrial India and
made the movement a Swadeshi movement in order to give that new birth a field
and favourable conditions — cottage industries were not omitted in <i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>our view, but there were no fads. The Swadeshi
movement created the following very practical effects:</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(a) It destroyed the
Moderate reformist politics and spread the revolutionary mentality (as
Jawaharlal now calls it) and the ideal of independence.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(b) It laid the foundations
of an industrial India (not of course wholly industrial, that was not our
intention) which is however slowly growing today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(c) It brought in the
commercial classes and the whole educated middle class into the political
field—and not the middle class only, while Moderatism had touched only a small fringe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(d) It had not time to bring
in the peasantry, but it had begun the work and Gandhi only carried it farther
on by his flashy and unsound but exciting methods.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(e) It laid down a method of
agitation which Gandhi took up and continued with three or four startling
additions, Khaddar, Hindiism, Satyagraha = getting beaten with joy, Khilafat, Harijan
etc. All these had an advertisement value, a power of poking up things which
was certainly livelier than anything we put into it. Whether the effects of
these things have been good is a more doubtful question.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(2) As a matter of fact the
final effects of Gandhi’s movement have been </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(a) A tremendous fissure
between the Hindus and Mahomedans which is going to be kept permanent by
communal representation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(b) A widening fissure
between caste Hindus and Harijans, to be made permanent in the same way.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(c) A great confusion in
Indian politics which leaves it a huge mass of division, warring tendencies, no
clear guide or compass anywhere.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(d) A new constitution which
puts the conservative class in power to serve as a means of maintaining British
domination or at least as an intolerable brake on progress—also divides India
into five or six Indias, Hindu, Moslem, Pariah, Christian, Sikh etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(e) A big fiasco <a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a>
of the Non-Cooperation movement which is throwing politics back on one side to
reformism, on the other to a blatant and insincere Socialism.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">That, I think, is the sum and substance of the matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">As for the Hindu-Moslem affair, I saw no reason why the greatness of
India’s past or her spirituality should be thrown into the waste-paper basket
in order to conciliate the Moslems who would not at all be conciliated by such
a stupidity. What has created the Hindu-Moslem split was not Swadeshi, but the acceptance
of the communal principle by the Congress, (here Tilak made his great blunder),
and the farther attempt by the Khilafat movement to conciliate them and bring
them in on wrong lines. The recognition of that communal principle at Lucknow
made them permanently a separate political entity in India which ought never to
have happened; the Khilafat affair made that separate political entity an
organised separate political power. It was not Swadeshi, Boycott, National
Education, Swaraj (our platform) which made this tremendous division, how could
it? Tilak whom the Kripalani man blames along with me for it, is responsible
not by that, but by his support of the Lucknow affair—for the rest, Gandhi did
it with the help of his Ali brothers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">There you are. On a tabooed subject—it is, I think, enough. Not at all
for circulation you understand and quite confidential.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">14 April 1936</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(CWSA, Vol. 35, <i>Sri Aurobindo on Himself and the Ashram</i>, pp.
18-21)</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[i]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">K. R. Kripalani, “Fifty Years of Growth”, </span>The
Visva-Bharati Quarterly<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">, vol. I, part
IV, New Series (February </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Book Antiqua";">–</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">April 1936), pp. 53</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Book Antiqua";">–</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">60.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Sri Aurobindo put brackets at the beginning
and end of this reply to indicate that it was not to be circulated in the
Ashram at that time. </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Book Antiqua"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-font-family: "Book Antiqua";">—</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"> Ed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> I
am referring to my prophecy made at the beginning of the Non-Cooperation
movement, “It will end in a great confusion or in a great fiasco.” I was not a
correct prophet, as I have pointed out before. It should have run, “It will end
in a great confusion <i>and </i>a great fiasco.” But after all I was not
speaking from the supramental which alone can be infallible.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
<span id="fullpost"></span></div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-59448039417129421922016-05-31T18:43:00.000+05:302016-05-31T18:43:53.431+05:30Why India Is A Nation – Sankrant Sanu<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Introduction</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One of the oft-repeated
urban myths that sometimes pops-up in conversation even among many educated,
well meaning Indians is that India as a nation is a British creation. The
argument goes roughly as follows – India is an artificial entity. There are
only a few periods in history when it was unified under the same political
entity. It was only the British that created the idea of India as a single
nation and unified it into a political state. A related assumption, in our
minds, is that the developed Western countries have a comparatively far greater
continuity of nationhood, and legitimacy as states, than India.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This urban myth is not
accidental. It was deliberately taught in the British established system of
education. John Strachey, writing in `India: Its Administration and Progress’
in 1888, said “This is the first and most essential thing to remember about
India – that there is not and never was an India, possessing … any sort of
unity, physical, political, social or religious; no Indian nation.</span></div><br />
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To teach this
self-serving colonial narrative obviously suited the British policy of divide
and rule. That it still inanely survives means that it is worth setting to
rest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In this essay, we
establish that Strachey’s colonial narrative is demonstrably false. Not only is
India a coherent nation but, in fact, there are few countries on the planet
that are more legitimate nation-states than India. That some of us don’t see
this clearly only reflects how we have accepted the colonial myths as well as
failed to study the history of the rest of the world.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Modern States and Their Origins</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The concept of
nation-states, i.e. that the aspirations of the people that constitute a nation
are best served by a common political entity is considered a relatively recent
idea in Europe from the 18th century. Nationalism led to the formation of
nation-states and modern countries. This development was followed up with a
gradual hardening of state boundaries with the passport and visa regime that
followed it.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Note that the concept
of nationhood is based on the idea shared by a set of people that they
constitute a nation. This idea or feeling may be based on common ties of a
people based on their culture, common descent, language, religion or other such
attributes. The state constitutes a group of people inhabiting a specific
territory and living according to a common legal and political authority.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The modern
nation-state, as it exists today, <i>is a new development for the entire
world</i>, and not just for India. Mediaeval Europe, for instance, was divided
politically into many small principalities, the boundaries and sovereignties of
which changed frequently. Many of the countries as we know them
today got established in the 19th and 20th century, and the boundaries of these
changed throughout the 20th century – in the two World Wars, border disputes
and the turmoil in Eastern Europe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The United Kingdom was
not really united till the act of Union in 1702 when England (including Wales)
and Scotland came together. Even then they retained different laws and (even
more crucially in European nationhood) retained separate national Churches. In
1801, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was formed. In 1922,
Ireland broke off as an independent country resulting in the present political
formation – the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Thus the
UK in its present political state, if that is the criteria to be used, is not
even a hundred years old.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Across the Atlantic,
the picture is even more stark. In 1700, the British colonies were spread
barely over the area that comprises the few North Eastern States, less than 10%
of the current geographical areas. The diverse Native American tribes that
inhabited the area of the present day United States could not be said to have
comprised a nation, and even if they did, the current United States neither
considers itself as a continuity of the native culture, nor are its people
primarily descendents of the natives. Even in 1776, when America declared
itself a separate state from the British, its area was a small fraction of the
area it has today, mainly constituting the states on the East Coast. Only in
1845 did Texas and California, among its largest states, become part of it as a
result of a war with Mexico. Washington State gained statehood in 1889, Hawaii
in 1900. Thus the United States in its present political and geographic
conception is barely 100 years old as a state and, at the maximum limit, as a
political entity is about 250 years, with many annexations and a civil war in
between. No state or kingdom existed on its boundaries before that in history.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If you take Mexico, the
story is better, but not much. While it has greater continuity from
pre-colonial times than the United States because of the Aztec Empire that
existed for about a hundred years before the Spanish Conquest, the Aztec never
controlled all of present day Mexico. No other conception of nation-hood, such
as shared religious beliefs, united the other areas of Mexico with the Aztec
ones. Furthermore, while present day Mexicans take pride in their Aztec
heritage and use symbols from the Aztec nation on their flag, they have largely
lost any direct cultural continuity of either language or religious beliefs from
pre-colonial times. Spanish has very nearly wiped out the native languages and
95% of Mexicans are now Christians and described as `Hispanic’. i.e. of the
Spanish culture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Similarly, Africa and
South America mostly constitute of state boundaries carved up by colonial rule.
The present boundaries of the African states were largely carved out by
treaties among the European nations between 1884 and 1899 in meetings held in
Europe with no African representation into the process! While there had been
some kingdoms like Ghana and Mali in earlier times that were politically
united, the boundaries of current African countries rarely map to the
territories of historical kingdoms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In short, if we take
the legitimacy of current nation-states on the basis of centuries of common
continuous political rule over the same geographical boundary and inhabited by
the same people, then practically no country on the planet meets this criteria.
Simply put, shifting nature of political kingdoms and their boundaries over the
centuries legitimize virtually no country in its present form.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To understand
nationhood then as it is supports the modern nation-state, we thus must search
the roots of nationhood first and foremost in the conception of nationhood,
i.e. did a particular set of people, within a particular geography, imagine of
themselves a common socio-cultural geographical heritage that comprised them as
a nation?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Understanding Indian Nationhood</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br />
</span><b><i><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Geography</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The first element of
Indian nationhood draws from its unique geography. India is one of the few
countries that can be located on a physical map of the world, even when no
political boundaries are drawn. It is worth taking a deep breath and looking at
the map below, reflecting on the significance of this geography before we go
further.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYhw_5mvs-gAnvoTI7trxYf8ai2npGnlDLG4_sW5iNnNder6zIYKGRCon2S1D25lFixlb4_BFWpQZVK4OEo2X66pcneRH0omSAT1UM5NuycH8IMK12R2Cbuvc6qBJE2w0Qr4pIQa6Ka7GD/s1600/India-physi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYhw_5mvs-gAnvoTI7trxYf8ai2npGnlDLG4_sW5iNnNder6zIYKGRCon2S1D25lFixlb4_BFWpQZVK4OEo2X66pcneRH0omSAT1UM5NuycH8IMK12R2Cbuvc6qBJE2w0Qr4pIQa6Ka7GD/s400/India-physi.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Fig 1: India’s geographical unity</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Indian peninsula
and vast plains are bounded by the ocean on three sides and the land stretches
to the highest peaks of the Himalayas in the north. The vast sweep of the land
ends in the East with the mountainous border with Burma. In the West, just past
the Indus, the mountains come downwards towards the ocean again forming a
natural boundary.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Early civilizations all
developed on the banks of great river systems – Egypt on the Nile, Mesopotamia
on the Tigris and Euphrates, the Chinese on the Yangste Kiang. Thus
civilization developed on the great river systems of the Indus and the Gangetic
plain – one of the richest river-soil-climate systems in the world; and on the
Narmada and Cauvery. And because of the ease of access in this land throughout
the ages, there was an enormous interchange of thought and ideas, people and
customs, and there developed a culture that is distinctly Indian, and at the
same time incredibly diverse.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The culture’s
distinctive nature evolved precisely because the unique geography facilitated
it. The large mountains and bodies of water separated it from surrounding
cultures to give it its distinctiveness. The low barriers to movement within
this land mass ensured an ease of access to build a coherent whole. This
ensured that the exchanges that took place within this large separated petri
dish were much deeper and longer lasting than those that took place with those
from without. Hence was created a unique and diverse civilization.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Political Unity</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Among the earliest
political consolidations, even by the dates of present colonial scholarship,
was under the Mauryas from the 6th century BC to the 3rd century BC, when most
of India was under their rule.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the Mauryas,
there was repeated political consolidation of large parts of India, even when
all of it was not under a single rule. The Kanishkas consolidated the north
from the Hindu Kush Mountains to Bihar and south to Gujarat and Central India.
The Satavahana Empire, considered to be founded by high officials of the
Mauryas, consolidated the south and central parts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Gupta Empire again
politically consolidated the area from Afghanistan to Assam and south to the
Narmada, possibly exerting political control even further down south.
Samudragupta led an expedition all the way down to Kanchipuram in present Tamil
Nadu. While the southern areas were not formally part of the Empire, they were
quite likely de-facto vassal states, paying tribute to the Emperor. The only other
major comparable empires in the world of this size at the time were the Chinese
and the Roman.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Note that it would be a
thousand years after the Mauryan Empire was established and even much after the
Gupta Empire that the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century AD would first move into
the region that would later be called England. It would be nearly five hundred
more years before the territory of England would be consolidated as an
independent political entity. Only much later would there be attempts at unity of
`Great Britain’. The `United Kingdom’ that includes Scotland, Wales and
Ireland, as we mentioned earlier, is only a recent political artifact.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After the Gupta Empire,
the Chalukya-Chola dynasty consolidated most of India in the south, leading
expeditions even up to the north of the Ganges river.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Later on, much of India
would be consolidated again under the Mughals, and after the Mughal empire
disintegrated, by the British.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So while the British
were the last power, before the current state of India, to administratively
consolidate its territory (as well as to divide it up as they left), they were
by no means the first ones to do so.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even when multiple
kingdoms existed, these kingdoms were not like the countries of today with a
passport and visa regime needed to cross and all kinds of regulations on
movement of goods and people. A continued exchange of ideas, people, goods and
scholarship took place throughout the sub-continent, largely unmindful of the
boundaries of kingdoms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Furthermore, the
territorial boundaries of India were largely maintained. There were few, if
any, times before the British came when large parts of India were consolidated
into kingdoms that were centered outside it. There were no significant
long-lasting kingdoms, for instance, that ruled from Persia to the Ganges
plain, or from Burma to Bengal, or from China or Tibet to Delhi. There was a
separateness and integrity to this land, unlike European countries or even
Europe as a whole. For centuries, the Romans consolidated north Africa and
southern Europe into one contiguous centrally ruled empire, as did the Ottomans
after them. Central Asia became part of one external empire or another.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Even in the case of the
British, when all of India became part of a larger empire centered outside it
for the first time, it was clear that it was distinct from Burma, for instance,
even though they were contiguous land areas ruled by the British. And thus the
freedom movements in Burma and India were separate. Burma and India did not
become one after their respective independence, nor was there any call by
Indian or Burmese nationalists to do so.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thus there was an idea
of India that made it be regarded as a separate and whole, even through
political change and shifting boundaries of internal kingdoms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Idea of India</span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This then becomes our
second question – is the <i>idea</i> of India as a unit a new idea brought
by the British or did it exist long before the British came? Did the people of
this vast land recognize that they were linked together? Did they share a
common story of their civilization, of their Indian-ness, their <i>Bharatiyata</i>?
Remarkably, the idea of India, as <i>Bharatavarsha</i> or<i>Aryavrata</i>,
appears to have been alive for thousands of years in our stories, thousands of
years before there was an America or a Great Britain or a Mexico or France.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">From the Manusmriti, we
learn of the land of <i>Aryavrata</i> stretching from the Himalayas and
Vindhyas all the way to the eastern and western oceans. Without the idea of
Bharata, there could have been no epic called the Maha-Bharata that engaged
kings throughout this land of Bharata. The story of Mahabharata shows a
remarkable degree of pan-Indian context and inter-relationships, from Gandhari,
the wife of Drithrashtra who came from Gandhara, (spelled as Kandahar in
present-day Afghanistan), Draupadi from Panchala (present day Jammu and
Kashmir), all the way to Arjun meeting and marrying the Naga princess Uloopi on
a visit to Manipur in the east (from where he gets the `<i>Mani</i>‘ or Gem).
Interestingly, Arjuna is said to have gone on a pilgrimage to the holy places
of the east when this happens, showing the current North-East was very much
linked in this. Finally, Krishna himself is from Mathura and Vrindavana (in UP)
though his kingdom itself is in Dwarka (Gujarat).</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Similarly, the story of
Ramayana draws the north-south linkage from Ayodhya all the way down to
Rameshwaram, at the tip of which is finally the land of Lanka. Note that it is
not, for this particular thesis, important that the stories are historically
accurate. What we are interested in rather is whether the <i>idea</i> of
India or <i>Bharatavarsha</i> or <i>Aryavrata</i> as a culturally
linked entity existed in the minds of the story-tellers and ultimately in the
minds of the people to whom these stories were sacred. And these stories were
then taken and told and retold in all the languages of the people of this great
civilization, till the stories themselves established a linkage among us and to
the sacred geography they celebrated. This sacred geography is what makes
northerners flock to Tirupati and southerners to the Kumbha Mela.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And the diffusion of
these common ideas was certainly not only from the north to south. The
great <i>Bhakti</i> movement started in the 6th and 7th centuries AD had
its roots in the south in the Tamil and Kannada languages. Even while the
boundaries of kingdoms changed, enormous cultural and religious unity continued
to take place across India. It started off with the Alvars and the Nayanars
(Tamil, 7th to 10th century AD), Kamban (Tamil, 11th century), Basava (Kannada,
12th century) and moved on to Chaitanya Mahaprabu (Bengali, 15th century),
Ramananda (15th century, born in Allahabad of south India parentage, guru of
Kabir, 15th century), Raskhan (16th century), Surdas (Braj, 16th century),
Mirabia (Rajasthan, 16th century), Tulsidas (Avadhi, 16th century), Nanak
(Punjabi, 16th century) and Tukaram (Marathi, 17th century), among the many.
All these together weaved a garland across the land that spoke again of our
common truths, our common cultural heritage.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The <i>Bhakti</i>
movement retold our ancient stories in the language of the common people, in
Marathi and Bengali, in Avadhi (present day UP) and Bhojpuri (present day
Bihar), in Gujarati and Punjabi and in Rajasthani. We can marvel at the
cultural unity in India, where while the<i>Bhakti</i> poets initiated the great
movement for devotion to Shiva in the south, the erudite philosophy of
Kashmir <i>Shaivism</i> was being developed coevally in the north. Or that
Kamban in the south was the first poet to take the story of Rama to the major
regional languages, and Tulsidas, much closer to Ayodhya, came centuries later.
Or that the great Krishna <i>bhakta</i>Chaitanya was celebrating his
devotion to the King of Dwarka in Bengal while Tukaram sang praises of Lord
Vithal in the west. An immense body of pan-Indian worship revolved around the
triad of Vishnu, Shiva and Shakti in their various forms – whether as Rama,
Krishna, Sri Venkateshwara, Sri Dakshinamurti, Jagdamba, Durga Mata or Kali.
These common stories were told and retold without the mandate of any central
church and seeped through the pores of the land of Bharata, forging a shared
bond, unlike any other seen on the planet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It was this idea of
civilizational unity and sacred geography of India that inspired Shankaracharya
to not only enunciate the mysteries of the Vedanta but to go around setting up<i>mathas</i>
circumscribing the land of India in a large diamond shape. While sage Agasthya
crossed the Vindhya and came down south, Shankracharya was born in the village
of Kalady in Kerala and traveled in the opposite direction for the
establishment of <i>dharma</i>. If this land was not linked in
philosophical and cultural exchanges, and there was no notion of a unified
nation, why then did Shankracharya embark on his countrywide <i>digvijay
yatra</i>? What prompted him to establish centers spreading light for the four
quadrants of this land – Dwarka in the west (in Gujarat), Puri in the east (in
Orissa), Shringeri in the south (Karnataka) and Badrinath (Uttaranchal) in the
north? He is then said to have gone to Srinagar (the abode of `Sri’ or the
Shakti) in Kashmir, which still celebrates this in the name of Shankaracharya
Hill. What better demonstration that the idea of the cultural unity of the land
was alive more than a thousand years ago?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And yet, these stories
are not taught to us in our schools in India. We learn instead, in our colonial
schools, that the British created India and gave us a link language, as if we
were not talking to each other for thousands of years, traveling, telling and
retelling stories before the British came. How else did these ideas travel so
rapidly through the landmass of India, and how did Shankracharya circumscribe
India, debating, talking and setting up institutions all within his short
lifespan of 32 years?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37N-nUion-eBRMI8wWzhnMrYRaRVRH6itaIRF4vo1tRTifB2l2jifb8xAt0aCyk_vn93na9Kpnvand373eIfZzCbawrcc4FyCyTHcl2KkC41AK4bEYumuxZdusT0g-8quv76pe80wFFkO/s1600/Shankrachar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37N-nUion-eBRMI8wWzhnMrYRaRVRH6itaIRF4vo1tRTifB2l2jifb8xAt0aCyk_vn93na9Kpnvand373eIfZzCbawrcc4FyCyTHcl2KkC41AK4bEYumuxZdusT0g-8quv76pe80wFFkO/s400/Shankrachar.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Fig 2: Ideas of India: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shankaracharya and Shakti</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">These ideas of our
unity have permeated all our diverse darshanas. We have talked about <i>Bhakti</i>
and Vedanta and the epics of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But this idea of
unity was not limited to particular schools. They were equally present in
the <i>tantric</i> schools that exerted a tremendous influence on popular
worship. Thus we have the legend of Shakti, whose body was carried by Shiva and
cut up by Vishnu, landing in 51 places throughout the landmass of India that
are now the site of the Shakti Peetham temples. The body of Shakti, or so the
story goes, fell all the way from Neelayadakshi <i>Kovil</i> in Tamil Nadu
to Vaishno Devi in Jammu, from Pavagadh in Gujarat to the Kamakshi temple in
Assam and 47 other places.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why would the story
conceive of these pieces of Shakti sanctifying and falling precisely all over
the landmass of India, rather than all of them falling in Tamil Nadu or Assam
or Himachal (or alternately, Yunan (Greece) or China, or some supposed `Aryan
homeland’ in Central Asia) unless someone had a conception of the unity of the
land and civilization of <i>Bharatavarsha</i>? Whether these stories are
actual or symbolic, represent real events or myths, it is clear from them that
the <i>idea</i> of India existed in the minds of those that told these
stories and those that listened. Together, all these stories wove and bound us
together, along with migration, marriages and exchange of ideas into a culture
unique in the story of mankind. A nation that was uniquely bound together in
myriads of ways, yet not cast into a mono-conceptual homogeneity of language,
worship, belief or practice by the diktat of a centralized church, intolerant
of diversity.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">And this unity as
nation has been with us far before the idea of America existed. Far before the
Franks had moved into northern France and the Visigoths into Spain, before the
Christian Church was established and Islam was born. They have been there
before Great Britain existed, before the Saxons had moved into Britannia. They
have been there while empires have fallen, from when Rome was a tiny village to
when it ruled an empire that rose and collapsed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thus the Arabs and
Persians already had a conception of Hind far before the Mughal Empire was
established. If we suggest that their conception of Hind was derived only from
their contact with Sindh in western India, why would the British, when they
landed in Bengal, form the East<i>India</i> Company, unless the conception of
the land of India (a term derived from the original Hind) was shared by the
natives and the British? They used this name much before they had managed to
politically hold sway over much of India, and before they educated us that no
India existed before their arrival. Why would the Portuguese celebrate the
discovery of a sea-route to India when Vasco de Gama had landed in Calicut in
the south, if India was a creation of the British Empire?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The answer is obvious.
Because the conception of India, a civilization based in the Indian
sub-continent, predates the rise and fall of these empires. True, that large
parts of India were under unified political rule only during certain periods of
time (though these several hundreds of years are still enormous by the scale of
existence of most other countries throughout the globe) such as under the
Mauryas or the Mughals. But those facts serve to hide rather than reveal the
truth till we understand the history of the rest of the world and realize the
historic social, political and religious unity of this land. We are not merely
a country; we are a civilizational country, among very few other countries on
the planet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Some Other Civilizational Countries</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While we occupy the
rarefied space of countries that have as much legitimacy and continuity as
civilizations, it is worth examining a few others civilizations that have
lasted. The country of Greece is one such country. However, Greece as a
contemporary state was established in the 19th century, coughed up by the
Ottoman Empire as it was breathing its last. Over the centuries, Greece has not
existed as an independent political entity, having been absorbed by the Roman
Empire and assimilated into the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. Ironically, the
rise of contemporary Greek nationalism can be traced to the late 18th century,
when Greek students studying in Europe came to realize that their civilization
was actually highly regarded in western Europe. This resurgent pride about the
ancient Greek civilization formed the basis of the movement to establish the
modern Greek state even though there was no political continuity between the
two entities.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If the continuity of
political unification is the criteria that is used to define the legitimacy of
a country, then Greece is far less legitimate than India, and other countries
around the globe are even less so. The boundaries of the contemporary Greek
state do not match with the original Greek Empire. Furthermore, even ancient
Greece constituted of politically independent city-states, united more by the
feeling that they belonged to the same culture, rather than having political
unity. So clearly the measure of political unification, even when it did hold
true for large parts of India over the ages, is not the relevant criteria, but
the idea of a shared culture and civilization.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The only other
continuous civilizations that come close to India as legitimate nations are
nation-civilizations like Egypt, Iran and China. But Egypt, though old, having
been assimilated in various empires and conquered first by Christianity and
then by Islam, hardly retains much contact with its ancient traditions,
languages or indigenous religion. Similarly Iran, the inheritor of the Persian
empire which reached its peak in the 6th century BC, was assimilated into other
empires and finally conquered by Islamic Arabs – it retains little of its
Zoroastrian roots, though it retains its pre-Islamic language, albeit in Arab
script. China is the other civilizational nation that can claim to have a
legitimacy and continuity similar to India. However, for most of its history,
Chinese civilization developed and concentrated in the Eastern plains.
Consolidated rule, either political, social or religious/ideological over the
entire vast area that present-day China occupies is relatively recent. Indian
Buddhism obviously had a huge influence on China. Interestingly, despite
communism and the Cultural Revolution, Chinese intellectuals have sought to
link the roots of present day communist ideology with the teachings of
Confucius.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So there we have it.
India is one of the few nations of the world with a continuity of civilization
and an ancient conception of nationhood. In its religious, civilizational,
cultural and linguistic continuity, it truly stands alone. This continuity was
fostered by its unique geography and its resilient religious traditions. Unlike
any other country on the planet, it retained these traditions despite both
Islamic and Christian conquest, when most countries lost theirs and were
completely converted when losing to even one of these crusading systems. The
Persians fell, the civilizations of Mesopotamia and Babylon were lost, the
Celtic religion largely vanished, and the mighty Aztecs were vanquished,
destroyed and completely Christianized. Yet Bharata stands. It stands in our
stories, our languages, our pluralism and our unity. And as long as we remember
these stories, keep our languages and worship the sacred land of our ancestors,
Bharata will stand. It is only if we forget these truths that Bharata will
cease to be. That is precisely why the British tried to hard to make us forget
them.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Posted on Oct 9, 2003
by </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://sankrant.org/author/admin/" title="View all posts by Sankrant Sanu"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sankrant Sanu</span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">http://sankrant.org/2003/10/why-india-is-a-nation/</span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-68967112134559101452016-05-10T14:46:00.000+05:302016-05-10T14:46:05.267+05:30Revivalism and Secularism – by Amal Kiran<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This article was published in the “Mother India” issue of 14 October
1950. How relevant it is even today!</i>]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">For a number of days
after the election of Purushottamdas Tandon to the Congress Presidentship the
talk of the whole nation turned on Congress’s future policy under the direction
of the new President. Perhaps feelings ran high more about the issue of the
Secular State and the question came to the fore: Should our country, with its
huge Hindu majority, be revivalist or, because of its multi-communal character,
secular? </span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If we are to see
straight, the confusion which hangs round the terms “revivalism” and “secularism”
must be cleared. People who call themselves progressive look upon all
revivalist tendencies as if they were the plague: they understand these
tendencies to be pure and unadulterated communalism. Intolerant Hindu
sectarianism on the rampage is their notion of whoever seems to be a
revivalist. It must be admitted that there is a good number of Hindu bigots and
we cannot sufficiently emphasise their harmfulness. But two things must be kept
in view when we condemn them. Most of these bigots are a reaction to the
fanaticism that was the father of the Muslim League and therefore the
progenitor of Pakistan. They are the unnatural consequences of a most unnatural
phenomenon and are to a large extent a sort of defence mechanism against a
menace that has kept on growing. To discourage them is indeed our duty, but if
our stand is not equally strong against the root cause of their upsurgence we
fail to be realists. To expect that no section of the Hindu community would
indulge in reprisals for acts of injustice and brutality committed against
Hindus in Pakistan is simply to be ignorant of human nature: the way to avoid
retaliations is not merely to preach Gandhism to the masses or to punish those
who take the law into their own hands but to add to all genuinely preventive or
deterrent measures an attempt to stop the occasions of provocation. The second
point to bear in mind about the Hindu sectarians is that in a perverse manner
they suggest a truth which should never be neglected. Let us explain this
seeming paradox. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Hindu Sectarians and Essential Hinduism</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">We catch the key to
the paradox the moment we fix our eyes searchingly on the credo of the Hindu
sectarians: “India is the land of Hinduism and the Muslims are Hinduism’s
enemies and must be kept under Hindu domination.” The perversity here is, of
course, the undemocratic idea of domination of one community by another. To
discriminate between communities within a country is to sow the seeds of
Hitlerism. The fullest equality not only on constitutional paper but also in
living practice must be there. Some perversity can be read too in the belief
that the Muslims are Hinduism’s enemies. Although unfortunately an anti-Hindu
virus has been working in the Muslim community owing to the machinations of
fanatics and especially since Jinnah brought forward the two-nation theory and
caused the sanguinary commotion that culminated in Pakistan, one cannot tar all
Muslims with the same brush. Out of the three and a half crores residing in
India many see clearly the folly of the country’s partition and wish to
cultivate friendly relations with the Hindus amongst whom they live. The mere
fact that the Muslim religion does not see eye to eye with the Hindu religion
in several doctrinal matters need not be taken as any direct antagonism between
communities. But a great truth is enshrined in the statement that India is the
land of Hinduism. If we forget this truth and seek to create a country with all
psychological and metaphysical and spiritual colour of Hinduism wiped off, we
shall seriously thwart India’s growth and make the nation either a mediocrity
or a monstrosity instead of a light to the whole world. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Let us, however,
hasten to declare that by Hinduism we do not mean the present form of the caste
system or the old marriage laws or any specific orthodox convention. The giving
of central place to cow-preservation as if the Vedas, the Upanishads and the
Gita boiled down to abstention from cow-slaughter is also far from our meaning.
If there are sound arguments in favour of sparing every cow, we may certainly
practise cow-protection -and in any case we should cease from the cruelty of
yoking bullocks to two-wheeled carts that throw extra pressure on the poor
animal’s necks - a cruelty which strangely enough is seldom noticed by cow-worshippers.
But it is ridiculous to put cow-protection at the very centre of Hinduism: a
man may go on protecting cows all his life and yet be a most deplorable Hindu
if the far greater elements of the Hindu religion are neglected as perhaps more
often than not they are. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hinduism means
essentially to live in constant sense, ultimately rising to a continual
realisation of the Divine Being, infinite and eternal, from whom emanates this
universe and who dwells within it as well as beyond it as its single yet
multifarious Self and Sovereign. Hinduism implies essentially the progressive
irradiation of one’s whole life down to the most physical movements by the
Divine Being’s supra-intellectual Consciousness and Delight. Not only inner but
outer, not only static and peaceful but dynamic and creative regeneration in
terms of that Consciousness and that Delight is the aim and goal of Hinduism. A
direct all-round turn towards supra-intellectual experience - a concrete
mystical and Yogic trend of the widest order - is therefore the final
definition of being a Hindu. The phrase “widest order” has importance, for it
distinguishes the ideal Hindu God-knower and God-lover from the ideal mystics
of other religions in two ways: most religions draw a line between spiritual
and secular and feel that God is the business of certain parts of our being and
not the be-all and end-all of our entire life, and most religions confine
themselves to a particular splendid formula of the deific and fight shy of
certain sides of mystical experience - Christianity, for instance, of the
pantheistic realisation or the realisation of absolute union between God and
man, and Islam not only of these realisations but also of the God with form as
well as of the incarnate Godhead, the Avatar. Of course, there are some lines
of Christian mysticism that escape here and there from these limits just as the
Sufi developments of Islam do, but this is so because overtly or covertly the
influence of Hinduism has been felt by them. Hence to be a Hindu, as distinguished
from a Christian or Muslim or Jew or Zoroastrian or even Buddhist, is to be
steeped in the tradition of a spirituality which, while admitting of various
kinds of contact and communion with the Infinite Eternal and so granting the
validity of various approaches according to temperament, holds the vision of an
experience combining all approaches and all contacts and communions and is able
to include and allow every sort of religious experience in even an exclusive
form precisely because it holds that wide and comprehensive vision and keeps it
at the back of all the differring experiences so that there is mutual
understanding among them and a deep tolerance. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
Necessity of Progressive Revivalism</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Of Hinduism, thus
defined, India is the land and all that is finest and grandest in our history
has sprung from it. Not to put the utmost stress possible on this Hinduism is
to castrate spiritually a people that has had the unique distinction of being
one of the very few who have kept a living continuity with the hoary past and
survived unimpoverished in cultural vitality. Try to take away or relegate to
the background the wonderful Hindu spirituality and you do your best to render
India utterly impotent as a truly cultural force. That spirituality is the
greatest historical fact in our country and it is the very core of India. It is
also something that opens up the profoundest possibilities of human growth and
provides the power for the next step in evolution - the change from mind to
what Sri Aurobindo calls supermind as our established and effective status of
consciousness. Unless a single Self in all creatures becomes a concrete
experience, unless a derivation of every being from the one Divine Creative Person
is inherent part of our life-sense, there can be no genuine brotherhood and
harmony on earth. Other modes and means of promoting equality and peace are
mere patching-up devices, temporary and restricted expedients or at best
half-way houses to the basic spiritual unity-in-diversity. If we have any ideal
before us of human perfection, individual and collective, the large and liberal
and all-permeating Hinduism of which we have spoken is the world’s prime
necessity. Not for a moment must we forget or ignore the fact that India by the
fundamentals of her Hinduism is the brightest hope of the earth’s future. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To be a revivalist of
this vastly transformative power is the duty of every Indian. And if secularism
is the enemy of that power, then we must fight secularism tooth and nail. Such
secularism is no authentic foe of the communalist mind but a destroyer of India
and a destroyer too of the only foundation on which non-communalism can be
built with any lasting security. There is a tendency in officialdom to refrain
from giving encouragement to anything which breathes markedly of Hinduism.
Moral maxims from the Hindu scriptures are culled because they bear a
resemblance to ethical aphorisms from other religions, but an openly religious
and spiritual song like <i>Bande Mataram </i>- a cry of obeisance to the divine
creative Power that is mother of the world and that is visioned as the ultimate
being of the National Soul of India the God-intoxicated country - is made to
play second fiddle to a much inferior though by no means crude national anthem
which never inspired any heroism or sacrifice as the other constantly did
during the course of our struggle for freedom. That <i>Bande Mataram </i>should
ever have been challenged on the ground that it was too Hindu and not secular
enough for a country where there were some millions of Muslims is a sad symptom
of national decadence. Perhaps a still sadder one is the lukewarm apologia put
up for it at times - namely, that the Goddess invoked should not worry anybody
since nobody now believes in the reality of such a being and she can be taken
as a harmless poetic metaphor for the motherland. Heaven save us from this kind
of secularism! Secularism should mean nothing more than that every citizen of
India is free to follow his beliefs, religious or non-religious, and has equal
civic rights and that no discrimination will be made against him in any sphere
because of his particular creed. It must never signify that India will not be
regarded any longer as basically the land of Hinduism and that Hinduism in its
essentials will not be allowed to mould increasingly the life of the three
hundred million people who have inherited it from the most glorious spiritual
past any country can claim. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Here we may enter a <i>caveat.
</i>Revivalism in so far as essential Hindu spirituality with its
myriad-aspected realisation of both inner and outer truth is revived is a
progressive force. But it should keep clear of sticking to past achievements
and declaring that the <i>ultima thule </i>has been reached. New discoveries of
the Supreme Spirit’s hidden powers are always possible - or at least novel
developments of known powers in order to carry further the transformative urge
in man and bring it into tune with contemporary modern needs. Surely, it cannot
be said that even India has completely found the secret of life’s
transformation. An immense inner enlightenment is not enough: the outer mind
has to be more than merely purified and made plastic to the inner truth, the
outer vitality has to be more than merely inspired by the inner dynamism, the
outer physicality has to be more than made a mere medium of the inner stability
- they have themselves to grow divine by the direct descent of some perfect
counterpart of not only our selfhood but also our instrumental nature. Towards
whatever spiritual discipline that would effect this complete change in us we
have to move, for the whole many-sidedness of past Hinduism has no meaning if
it bars an extension of the spiritual new-birth. Revivalism should never be a
magnificent stagnancy. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Hinduism
and Foreign Cultural Influences</span></i></b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The point about
stagnancy holds also in the matter of foreign cultural influences. We should
refrain from shutting our doors to the wide world. Hinduism is the very
opposite of a hermetically sealed culture, just as it is the reverse of a
rigidly uniform religion. Not only is it many-strained, it is also remarkably
assimilative and is even on the alert to draw new tones and rhythms into its
harmonising organism. To think that by whittling our life down to indigenous
products, whether material or psychological, we shall advance most the spirit
of Hinduism is a capital error. Of course, our growth has always to be from
within outwards, but our “within” need not be a fenced-off secrecy. There can
be an Indian “within” that assimilates the essence of all cultural movements of
the world, puts itself in connection with the time-spirit and is significantly
modern without sacrificing any creative characteristic of its own. In fact, if
Hinduism is to grow more powerful it should welcome the play of the whole world’s
thought and activity, enlarge its own scope of earth-knowledge, give to every
department of human effort its true Godward drive and by a spiritual
intuitiveness lead it to its finest fulfilment, so that at the same time
Hinduism may be in the midst of living history and in vibrant touch with
mankind as a whole and impart to the contemporary universe the typically Hindu
light and colour which are of the deep divine Self of selves. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Amplitude,
multiplicity, variety to the utmost on a basis of absolute unity - penetration
of the entire world and absorption too of the world in its entirety - these are
Hinduism’s natural modes of being. And if these modes are not to be vitiated it
is necessary to consider as a vital portion of our national life the English
language. We may regard Hindi with a fostering care, we may try to spread it
more and more, but let us not commit the blunder of attempting to cut out or
atrophy what is now a natural organ of our culture-body and what to our good
fortune is the vividest medium of the developing world-mind. When people all
over the globe are wishing to make English more and more a part of their
education we should not be foolish enough to diminish its actual established
presence in our culture. English is now as much a language of India as any of
the indigenous tongues. If it is not as well spoken by many of those who employ
it as Tamil is by the South Indians or Hindi by the northerners, it is spoken
by the south and the north, the west and the east of our sub-continent in a unifying
nation-conscious manner as no Indian language is spoken. It is the language by
which the political unity of our country has been historically formed, it is
the language in which our whole battle for freedom has been fought, it is the
language with which we have put India on the map of the world, it is the
language of our best journalism and our rarest literature - Nehru has fashioned
of it a gleaming mirror of his idealistic personality, Gandhi has effectively
used it for straight thrusts of moral force, Radhakrishnan has achieved through
it a striking lucidity of versatile intellectual exposition, R. K. Narayan has
made by its help the novelist’s art a rare blend of the simple and the subtle,
Sarojini Naidu has been enchantingly lyrical in it, Tagore has given with it to
his <i>Gitanjali </i>an immortal poignancy, Vivekananda has forged from it a
thrilling clarion of the Vedanta calling both the East and the West to
God-knowledge, Sri Aurobindo has turned through it philosophy into a
magnificent marshalling of spiritual truths and of mystical realisations and
poetry into a mighty image of the Eternal, “mountain-lined, crowded with deep
prophetic grots”. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mention of Sri
Aurobindo spotlights English as undeniably integral to our growth in greatness.
For, if a unique spirituality is the core of India, then the fact that our
greatest spiritual figure today creates in the medium of English as if English
were his mother-tongue is profoundly significant. It sets the seal on the
extraordinary capacity of English to transmit by its highly developed
plasticity, its multi-suggestive quickness and its packed power the presence of
the Infinite that is India’s special source of life abounding. This is not to
deny the spiritual potentialities of our indigenous tongues. This is only to
affirm the important role English is meant to play in our culture. To minimise
that role is to fall far short of a truly enlightened revivalism. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A revivalism
enlightened and progressive, free from superficial orthodox restraints and
insularities, moving out from a richened inward centre is our burning need,
rather than a neutral secularism ignoring the deep foundation which the ideals
of liberty, equality and fraternity must seek if they are to become living and
spontaneous facts. This revivalism does not imply the entry of terms like <i>Brahman,
Atman </i>and <i>Ishwara </i>into our Constitution: it has in that respect no
quarrel with the Secular State. But it does imply the resurgence and the
furtherance within us of the profound sense India once had of man’s origin from
the Eternal, his oneness with the Infinite and his destiny of a Life Divine. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><br />
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Amal Kiran, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">India and the World Scene</i> (1997), pp 37-44</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
</div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-88139235429942435132016-04-14T09:38:00.001+05:302016-04-24T11:51:02.925+05:30The Sage and his idea of India – Anirban Ganguly<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Pioneer, 14 April 2016</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Sri Aurobindo's vision of India had no place for pseudo-secularism,
vote-bank politics and repudiation of Bharatiya civilisation. The Sage was also
the quintessential internationalist, yet his internationalism was not a
rootless cosmopolitanism but steeped in Sanatana Dharma<b> </b>[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">extract – read full article below</i>]</span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Trinamool Congress
Member of Parliament and Harvard historian, Sugata Bose, recently quoted the
Sage out of context in the Lok Sabha. BJD Member of Parliament, Bhartruhari
Mahtab, did well in countering Bose, in pointing out how the Sage’s words were
cited without referring to the context in which they were made. Unlike West
Bengal, where the comrades once monopolised all avenues of discussion and
intellectual quest and the ‘syndicated’ Trinamool members now, which has given
up on all semblance of intellectuality, Odisha has a vibrant tradition of
discussing Sri Aurobindo’s thoughts, not only in institutions of higher
learning but also right down to the grassroots and in far-flung districts
through <i>pathachakras</i> and study-circles. Mahtab’s rejoinder was symbolic
of the awareness that the people of that State have for Sri Aurobindo’s works.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">It is strange that a
Harvard historian should have indulged in such academic theatrics to score a
political point, and that too by citing one of the most fascinating minds — not
according to Marxist standards, though — of modern India. But then Bose’s
knowledge of Sri Aurobindo is limited. One witnessed, a few years ago in
Kolkata’s Jadavpur University, how Bose confessed, just after he had delivered
a talk on Sri Aurobindo, his ignorance of the Sage’s interventions during the
Cripps proposal. Studying any historic and complex personality in silos and in
isolation may not be the right academic or ethical approach; studying Sri
Aurobindo in such a manner is especially not advisable. Let us examine some of
that which Bose left out from Sri Aurobindo.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In his historic and
immortal Uttarpara speech, Sri Aurobindo, unequivocally said how he realised
what the Hindu religion, <i>Sanatana Dharma</i>, meant. For Sri Aurobindo, and
one hopes Bose may be in a position to publicly quote this some day, “This
Hindu nation was born with the <i>Sanatana Dharma</i>, with it, it moves, and
with it, it grows. When the <i>Sanatana Dharma</i> declines, then the nation
declines, and if the <i>Sanatana Dharma</i> were capable of perishing, with the
<i>Sanatana Dharma</i> it would perish. The <i>Sanatana Dharma</i> that is
nationalism...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For Sri Aurobindo,
the ideal was “an Indian Nationalism, largely Hindu in its spirit and
traditions, because the Hindu made the land and the people and persists, by the
greatness of his past, his civilisation and his culture and his invincible
virility, in holding it, but wide enough also to include the Moslem and his
culture and traditions and absorb them into itself”. Any attempt to cite this
passage in its entirety by the likes of professor Bose, would invariably invite
the bamboo-like wrath of the TMC high command.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On the communal
question, especially exacerbated around 1909, Sri Aurobindo, in his
characteristic frankness wrote, “We do not fear Mohamedan opposition; so long
as it is the honest <i>Swadeshi</i> article and not manufactured in Shillong or
Simla, we welcome it as a sign of life and aspiration.” Interestingly, Sri
Aurobindo argued against shunning the “awakening of Islam” in India “even if
its first crude efforts are misdirected against ourselves”; for he saw “all
strength, all energy, all action” as “grist to the mill of the nation-builder”.
He was, however, ready, “when the times comes” to “meet in the political field,
to exchange with the Musulman, just as he chooses, the firm clasp of the
brother or the resolute grip of the wrestler”.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of one thing, Sri
Aurobindo was extremely certain, and it was that “Hindu-Mahomedan unity cannot
be effected by political adjustment or Congress flatteries. It must be sought deeper
down, in the heart and in the mind, for where the causes of disunion are, there
the remedies must be sought”. He was also clear that one needed to cease
approaching the “Musulman brother” “falsely or flatter out of a selfish
weakness and cowardice”; better mutual knowledge and sympathy" was the
way out. Sri Aurobindo insisted on nationalists working towards that. Professor
Bose would of course not dare to refer to the ‘falsely’, ‘selfish weakness’ and
flattery bit. It would be tantamount to repudiating the politics he has made
his own.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In a letter to one of
his close disciples, sometime in 1934, Sri Aurobindo refuted a position which
accused the <i>Swadeshi</i> movement of antagonising Muslims. “As for the
Hindu-Muslim affair”, he noted, “I saw no reason why the greatness of India’s
past or her spirituality should be thrown into the waste-paper basket in order
to conciliate the Moslems who would not at all be conciliated by such a policy.
What has created the Hindu-Moslem split was not <i>Swadeshi,</i> but the acceptance
of the communal principle by the Congress... and the further attempt by the
Khilafat movement to conciliate them and bring them in on wrong lines. The
recognition of that communal principle at Lucknow made them permanently a
separate political entity in India which ought never to have happened; the
Khilafat affair made that separate political entity an organised separate
political power.” Professor Bose, would be hard-pressed to explain away this
aspect of the Sage’s stand, it has no shades of semblance to the politics he
has adopted. Such words are out of place in the vote-bank politics frame-work
that his party has unabashedly adopted in Bengal today.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">As an aside, it
becomes clear as to why the comrades never discussed Sri Aurobindo’s
contribution and ensured that a conspiracy of silence shrouded his legacy.
Sample the following reply that the Sage gave to a question posed to him
sometime towards the end of 1938: “Under communism they [the people] are
conscious slaves.... They are bound to the State, the dictator and the party.
They can’t even choose the dictator. And whoever differs from them is
mercilessly suppressed.... The whole thing whatever its name is a fraud...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">When a disciple
pointed out (December 1939) how some object to <i>Vande Mataram</i> as the
national song and of how some Congressmen support the removal of parts of the
song because the argument is that the song speaks of Hindu gods, like Durga,
and that is offensive to the Muslims, the Sage answered in his inimitable way:
“But it is not a religious song: it is a national song and the Durga spoken of
is India as the Mother. Why should not the Muslims accept it? It is an image
used in poetry. In the Indian conception of nationality, the Hindu view would
naturally be there. If it cannot find a place there, the Hindus may as well be
asked to give up their culture...”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">From a comprehensive
reading of the vast corpus he has left behind, one aspect clearly emerges in
Sri Aurobindo’s vision of India: It had no place for pseudo-secularism,
vote-bank politics and repudiation of <i>Bharatiya</i> civilisation. Sri
Aurobindo himself, while being the inveterate nationalist, was also the
quintessential internationalist, yet his internationalism was not a rootless
cosmopolitanism; it was anchored in the very spirit and soul of, as he himself
would perhaps say, <i>Sanatana Dharma.</i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <a href="http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/the-sage-and-his-idea-of-india.html">http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/the-sage-and-his-idea-of-india.html</a></span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-57894382706695991912016-03-25T11:28:00.000+05:302016-03-25T11:32:48.898+05:30Sri Aurobindo was certainly not for the Disintegration of India – by Raman Reddy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Secular
intellectuals obfuscate the obvious, by which I mean, they use every
intellectual argument to undermine what is pretty obvious to the common man. Of
late, the idea of breaking India has been so flaunted about by the secular
brigade under the cover of free speech (especially in the columns of a national
newspaper) that one wonders what is happening to the country. Why would one
support free speech when it undermines national security, especially when it
supports criminals and Asuras and denigrates Hindu goddesses?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately, the majority of Indians will not
give much credence to this outright falsehood, so that we can rest in peace and
not bother about its practical consequences.<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a> If this was indeed not the case,
and if this was not ensured by the principle of “one person, one vote” in
electoral politics, imagine what would have happened to the country if it were
left to this band of berserk intellectuals! They would have shouted themselves
hoarse, “To ensure human rights, give away Kashmir to Pakistan, hand over
Arunachal Pradesh to China, form a Dalitsthan for the backward caste, a
Naxalsthan for the Red soldiers and carve out another mini Pakistan.” Then they
would have enthusiastically proceeded “to redefine the borders of India
according to the democratic aspirations of people” (read “tear India to
pieces”). And sure, excellent arguments would be articulated in flawless
English, which seems to be now the standard test of veracity, for it generally does
not matter how absurd the position is as long as it is well-expressed in
English. Luckily, the common man of India, who usually does not know sufficient
English, hardly understands what is going on, or even if he does, takes it in
his stride and goes about his daily business without caring a hoot for all the
undue excitement at the national level. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">But
what does the common man think about it? He will say that this whole chorus for
the disintegration of India is absurd, that India is one in spirit though
diverse in language, one in culture though diverse in expression, that not only
the rituals and celebrations but even the food-habits unite Indians from
Kashmir to Kanyakumari. And that, above all, there is a living spiritual unity
which encompasses all Indians whatever religion they belong to, and this
spiritual truth is addressed by all of them in their daily life. I come now to
the most important point I would like to make in this age when atheism and
cynicism are worn like fashionable party dresses: Be it the bus driver before
starting his rounds, be it the small shop owner before the first customer turns
up, or be it the share-broker before commencing his daily business, or the good
old grandmother before getting down to her daily chores, all of them in this
country, with very few exceptions, open their day by addressing this higher
Power. Most of them light an incense stick and let the smoke rise for a few
seconds while mumbling a few sacred words under their breath. Or they address
an impersonal Power from the tops of minarets, or offer flowers at the feet of
the deity they revere, or chant mantras or meditate at the appropriate time in
the morning. It is here that lies the essential unity of India, indefinable but
very palpable to the common man, invisible but most real to him. Of course, you
would object saying that other people in other countries also do the same, but
nothing like in India! This is India’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">forte</i>
and will keep it together in the long run despite the vicious politics that
some political parties indulge in.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Coming
now to Sugata Bose (TMC MP), I was taken aback when he quoted Sri Aurobindo to
support what I would term as the disintegration of India. He was of course
speaking against the ruling party in the Lok Sabha, and being a scholar of some
repute, had to show off his knowledge of Sri Aurobindo’s political thought. He
said Sri Aurobindo wrote (in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Foundations
of Indian Culture</i>) that the rishis of the Vedic Age had propounded “the
ideal of the Chakravarti, a uniting imperial rule, uniting without destroying
the autonomy of India's many kingdoms and peoples from sea to sea." That
the ancient ideal was “not an autocratic despotism but a universal monarchy
supported by a free assembly of the city and provinces and of all the classes”.
That, according to this ideal, unification "ought not to be secured at the
expense of the free life of the regional people or of the communal liberties
and not therefore by a centralised monarchy or a rigidly unitarian imperial
state". He then concluded, “We are a democracy, but the nationalism that
is being talked about from the other side of the House represents centralised
despotism.” <a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Is
this not quoted totally out of context? Sri Aurobindo was referring to the
Rajasuya sacrifice (Yagna) conducted by Yudhishthira in the Mahabharata. The
practice in ancient India was to invite the smaller kings to the Yagna in order
to declare the sovereignty of the King who performed the Rajasuya sacrifice. If
the smaller kings participated in the sacrifice, it meant that they accepted the
King’s sovereignty over them while retaining their regional autonomy; if they did
not, they had to be vanquished by the King in order to prove his sovereignty.
How is this ancient practice relevant to the present day political situation of
India? India had not yet become a nation then, and this was only one among several
other attempts in the history of India to achieve political unity, all of which
failed to permanently unite it. According to Sri Aurobindo, India could never
achieve political unity in spite of being spiritually and culturally one,
because it stressed on the inner psychological union more than the outer. And
this is given as a reason by Sri Aurobindo to defend India from the criticism
of not having attained political unity, not as a justification for it! Why
would he (who played such a leading role in the revolutionary movement of
India), or for that matter anybody would want his own nation to be disunited?
This is the fundamental logical flaw in Sugata Bose’s pompous show of knowledge.
He is actually playing the politician and not speaking as a serious scholar
when he makes such statements. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Secondly,
the chapter on Indian Polity that Sugata Bose is quoting from was written by
Sri Aurobindo in 1919-1921, long before the independence of India. It would be therefore
interesting to quote from his famous Independence Day Message of the 15<sup>th</sup>
of August, 1947:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">India is free but she has
not achieved unity, only a fissured and broken freedom. At one time it almost
seemed as if she might relapse into the chaos of separate States which preceded
the British conquest. Fortunately there has now developed a strong possibility
that this disastrous relapse will be avoided. The wisely drastic policy of the
Constituent Assembly makes it possible that the problem of the depressed
classes will be solved without schism or fissure. But the old communal division
into Hindu and Muslim seems to have hardened into the figure of a permanent
political division of the country. It is to be hoped that the Congress and the
nation will not accept the settled fact as for ever settled or as anything more
than a temporary expedient. For if it lasts, India may be seriously weakened,
even crippled: civil strife may remain always possible, possible even a new
invasion and foreign conquest. The partition of the country must go,—it is to
be hoped by a slackening of tension, by a progressive understanding of the need
of peace and concord, by the constant necessity of common and concerted action,
even of an instrument of union for that purpose. In this way unity may come
about under whatever form—the exact form may have a pragmatic but not a
fundamental importance. But by whatever means, the division must and will go.
For without it the destiny of India might be seriously impaired and even
frustrated. But that must not be.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">(Independence Day Message,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Autobiographical Notes</i>, CWSA, Vol.
36, pp 475-76)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">It
is clear that Sri Aurobindo stood for the political unity of India and was
disappointed by its partition into two states. He was satisfied that there were
no further sub-divisions and that India did not “relapse into the chaos of
separate States which preceded the British conquest”. He was also hopeful that
the Constituent Assembly would solve the problem of the depressed classes without
schism or fissure. The one thing that he repeats in this passage and elsewhere is
that the partition of India should go “by whatever means” for, “if it lasts,
India may be seriously weakened, even crippled: civil strife may remain always
possible, possible even a new invasion and foreign conquest. How relevant is
this passage in the present day context!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">There
was a certain practical side of Sri Aurobindo that not many people are
acquainted with. With regard to the partition of India, he told the following
to K.M. Munshi in 1950. I quote from this interview:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Then the Mahayogi [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sri Aurobindo</i>] sprang a surprise on me:
“When do you expect India to be united?” he asked.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">I
was taken aback. I explained to him how our leaders had agreed to partition. I
then said: "So long as the present generation of politicians is concerned,
I cannot think of any time when the two countries — India and Pakistan — can be
united."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Sri
Aurobindo smiled and answered: "India will be reunited. I see it
clearly."</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Was
it an opinion? Was it a clear perception? I shook my head in doubt and asked
how India could be reunited. In two short sentences the god-man described what
Pakistan stood for, and indicated how the two countries could come together.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">"Pakistan
has been created by falsehood, fraud and force. It must be brought under
India's military ambit.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">(Kittu Reddy, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Vision of United India</i>, pp 167-68)</span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">Pakistan
“must be brought under India’s military ambit,” means sanctioning the use of
force when necessary, though in the present scenario of nuclear weapons, it would
surely not be advisable. But the very fact of supporting the use of force when
it was indeed possible, implies that Sri Aurobindo was not deceived by
so-called “human rights violations” or “democratic aspirations of people”,
which are often the cover under which certain militant groups operate to fulfil
their own agenda of forceful occupation. Also India’s natural penchant for
stressing more on the inner psychological unity than the outer political union
in the process of nation-building cannot be overly insisted upon when the
nation has already been built.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
because India failed to unite politically over several millenniums despite
being spiritually and culturally one, that it opened itself to foreign attack
and conquest. It was the British occupation which finally welded it into a
nation, though they left it after deliberately splitting it into two separate
states. There is also the wrong notion that the states in India are too diverse
in language, religion and culture and that India will naturally break up after
the British left. But there was always a substratum of spiritual and cultural
unity in India despite all the differences between the constituent units. Sri
Aurobindo says:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">India has been</i>] throughout a congeries of diverse peoples, lands,
kingdoms and, in earlier times, republics also, diverse races, sub-nations with
a marked character of their own, developing different brands or forms of
civilisation and culture, many schools of art and architecture which yet
succeeded in fitting into the general Indian type of civilisation and culture.
India’s history throughout has been marked by a tendency, a constant effort to
unite all this diversity of elements into a single political whole under a central
imperial rule so that India might be politically as well as culturally one.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">(Message to Andhra
University, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Autobiographical Notes</i>,
CWSA, Vol. 36, pp 499)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">It
is from this point of view that Sri Aurobindo supported the linguistic
divisions of India in his message to the Andhra University in 1948. But he
supported them when India was already welded into a nation and its national
boundaries were quite safe. He did it for promoting diversity in unity, and not
to encourage diversity at the detriment of national unity which can lead to the
disintegration of India.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An edited version of the article was published
on swarajyamag.com on 17 March, 2016</i>.]</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.5pt;">http://swarajyamag.com/politics/sri-aurobindo-was-certainly-not-for-the-disintegration-of-india]</span></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
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<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> </span><a href="http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/nationalism-shouldn-t-turn-into-despotism-116022700714_1.html"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/nationalism-shouldn-t-turn-into-despotism-116022700714_1.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-51290298898748814692016-03-11T12:06:00.001+05:302016-03-11T12:06:23.353+05:30Sri Aurobindo’s Concept of the Nation-Soul (2) – Kishor Gandhi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="Style31" style="line-height: 200%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: center;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(3)</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Admitting that the society or
group, like the individual has, besides its soul, also a mind, life and body,
the important question immediately arises: What exactly is the nature of the
group-mind, group-life, group-body? We have a fairly clear idea of the mind,
life and body of the individual man by direct experience aided by scientific
knowledge, but our notions of these parts of the group-being, even when we
admit their real existence, are altogether vague and uncertain. Taking first
the most external part, the physical body, what really is meant by the body of
a society or a group? <span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>The physical body of the individual man is evident to us;
we know that it is a living organism composed of innumerable cells forming
themselves into tissues, organs, systems, etc. of his body. But what is the
physical body of a group? Is it the geographical territory within which its
members reside, as it is often understood? But then it is a very different
thing from the human body because the former is only a piece of land while the
latter is a living organism. If, however, the body of a group is also a living
organism, then what are its constituent units and how do they differ from the
cells of the individual's body? Sri Aurobindo answers these questions by
stating:</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"There
is only this difference that the group-soul is much more complex because it has
a great number of partly self-conscious mental individuals for the constituents
of its physical being instead of an association of merely vital subconscious
cells. At first, for this very reason, it seems more crude, primitive and
artificial in the forms it takes; for it has a more difficult task before it,
it needs a longer time to find itself; it is more fluid and less easily
organic. When it does succeed in getting out of the stage of vaguely conscious
self-formation, its first definite self-consciousness is objective much more
than subjective. And as far as it is subjective, it is apt to be superficial or
loose and vague. This objectiveness comes out very strongly in the ordinary
emotional conception of the nation which centres round its geographical, its
most outward and material aspect, the passion for the land in which we dwell,
the land of our fathers, the land of our birth, </span></span><span class="FontStyle120"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">country,
patria, vaterland, }anmabhumi. </span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
we realise that the land is only the shell of the body, though a very living
shell indeed and potent in its influences on the nation, when we begin to feel
that its more real body is the men and women who compose the nation-unit, a
body ever changing, yet always the same like that of the individual man, we
are on the way to a truly subjective communal consciousness. For then we have
some chance of realising that even the physical being of the society is a
subjective power, not a mere objective existence. Much more is it in its inner
self a great corporate soul with all the possibilities and dangers of the
soul-life."</span></span><a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle119"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 1.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thus, according to Sri Aurobindo,
the real body or the physical being of the society is composed not of the
geographical territory on which it is located but of its individual members.
These are, so to say, the cells of its bodily organism. This obviously implies
that the society or the group has no separate body of its own independent of
its individual members; it is only in and through them that it has to organise
and develop its physical embodiment on earth. This has been very explicitly
stated by Sri Aurobindo while explaining the process of the organisation of the
individual and collective beings in the course of evolution:</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 12pt;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The
initiation of the evolutionary emergence from the Inconscient works out by two
forces, a secret cosmic consciousness and an individual consciousness manifest
on the surface. The secret cosmic consciousness remains secret and subliminal
to the surface individual; it organises itself on the surface by the creation
of separate objects and beings. But while it organises the separate object and
the body and mind of the individual being, it creates also collective powers of
consciousness which are large subjective formations of cosmic Nature; but it
does not provide for them an organised mind and body, it bases them on the
group of individuals, develops for them a group-mind, a changing yet continuous
group-body. It follows that as the individuals become more and more conscious
can the group-being also become more and more conscious; the growth of the
individual is the indispensable means for the inner growth as distinguished
from the outer force and expansion of the collective being."</span></span><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This statement of Sri Aurobindo also makes it clear
that as the external body of the group-soul is not separately formed in the
evolution but is composed of its individual members, so too its external
life-parts and mind are not separately formed but are based upon and developed
through the life-parts and the minds of its individual members.</span></span><a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></span></div>
<div class="Style31" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 2.65pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style31" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 2.65pt; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-align: center;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">(4)</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The soul of a nation or of any other communal group is
its true self and reality, but in the process of terrestrial evolution it does
not overtly express itself from the beginning of group-life. As in the case of
the individual human being, though his soul or the psychic being is his true
self, yet in the earlier course of his evolution on earth it remains concealed
and secret in his inmost being and is represented in his surface nature by his
ego-self, so too in the earlier stages of its evolution the group-soul remains
secret from the external group-consciousness in which it is represented by the
group-ego.</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Though the ego is a false representation of the true
soul of the individual human being, yet it dominates his evolving frontal
consciousness so entirely that he identifies himself with it as his own self
and lives altogether under its control. It is for this reason that man in his
evolution on earth is first the physical man identifying himself with his outer
physical ego and controlled by its instincts, needs and cravings; then he
becomes the vital man identifying himself with his vital ego and driven by its
desires, passions and impulses; then he begins to evolve into the mental man
and when he fully succeeds in doing so, he becomes the true man identifying
himself with his mental ego and governed by its intelligence and will. In all
these stages, through which he progresses in innumerable cycles of birth, he
has hardly any direct awareness of his true soul which yet secretly governs
all his evolutionary development; it is as an ego and for the ego that he lives
till he evolves eventually into the spiritual being by finding his true divine
self and lives in and for it in his inner and outer existence. This is because
evolutionary Nature in the initial stages of her development on earth makes her
predominant preoccupation the development of the outer instrumental ego-self of
body, life and mind, and it is only when after a very long labour she has
brought them to some degree of perfection that she takes up definitively the
evolution of the inner consciousness and spirit. The necessity for this
egoistic development and its justification as a stage in man's evolution is
explained by Sri Aurobindo thus:</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 12.5pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"But this spiritual
truth and true aim of his being is not allowed to appear till late in his
journey: for the early preparatory business of man in the evolutionary steps of
Nature is to affirm, to make distinct and rich, to possess firmly, powerfully
and completely his own individuality. As a consequence, he has in the beginning
principally to occupy himself with his own ego. In this egoistic phase of his
evolution the world and others are less important to him than himself, are
indeed only important as aids and occasions for his self-affirmation.... This
primary egoistic development with all its sins and violences and crudities is
by no means to be regarded, in its proper place, as an evil or an error of
Nature; it is necessary for man's first work, the finding of his own
individuality and its perfect disengagement from the lower subconscient in
which the individual is overpowered by the mass-consciousness of the world and
entirely subject to the mechanical workings of Nature. Man the individual has
to affirm, to distinguish his personality against Nature, to be powerfully
himself, to evolve all his human capacities of force and knowledge and
enjoyment so that he may turn them upon her and upon the world with more and
more mastery and force; his self-discriminating egoism is given him as a means
for this primary purpose. Until he has thus developed his individuality, his
personality, his separate capacity, he cannot be fit for the greater work
before him or successfully turn his faculties to higher, larger and more divine
ends. He has to affirm himself in the Ignorance before he can perfect himself
in the Knowledge."</span></span><a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 11.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 11.75pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"For
this reason Nature invented the ego that the individual might disengage himself
from the inconscience and subconscience of the mass and become an independent
living mind, life-power, soul, spirit, co-ordinating himself with the world
around him but not drowned in it and separately inexistent and ineffective. For
the individual is indeed part of the cosmic being, but he is also something
more, he is a soul that has descended from the Transcendence. This he cannot
manifest at once, because he is too near to the cosmic Inconscience, not near
enough to the original Superconscience; he has to find himself as the mental
and vital ego before he can find himself as the soul or spirit."</span></span><a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There is the same primary necessity and justification
for the group-being in its evolution to find and affirm itself first as an
ego-self before it can find and perfect itself as the soul or spirit. It has
first to emerge as a distinct entity from the primal Inconscience of the lower
universal Nature, in which all is utter chaos and formless flux, by forming for
itself a separate self and affirming and firmly securing its independent
existence in the midst of that incoherent flux. Its natural preoccupation in
this initial stage of evolution is therefore an egoistic self-assertion, for
without it, it would not be possible for it to disengage itself as a distinct
entity from the overwhelming welter of the inconscient Nature. It is only when
its outer ego-self is sufficiently secured and developed </span></span><span class="FontStyle126"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">that it can
attempt the higher evolution of its soul and spirit and realise its ultimate
goal.</span></span><a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle126"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="Style31" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br clear="all" />
<hr size="1" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Sri
Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Human Cycle</i>, (CWSA,
Vol. 25), pp 35-36</span></div>
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life Divine</i> (CWSA, Vols. 21-22), p 720</span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="Style39" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[3]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span class="FontStyle107"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">"The society has no discoverable common reason
and will belonging alike to all its members; for the group-soul rather works
out its tendencies by a diversity of opinions, a diversity of wills, a
diversity of life, and the vitality of the group-life depends largely upon the
working of this diversity, its continuity, its richness." </span></span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Human Cycle</i>, (CWSA, Vol. 25), p 210.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[4]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life Divine</i> (CWSA, Vols. 21-22), p 719</span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> Ibid., p.
722</span></div>
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<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[6]</span></span></span></span></a>
<span class="FontStyle117"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is
very necessary to keep in view this distinction between the outer ego-self of
the society or community and its true soul or self because an indiscriminate
identification of the two is bound to lead to the same gross errors and
dangerous consequences as those which arise from the mistaken identification of
the ego-self of the individual with his true soul. The communal ego, like the
individual's, is a formation of the ignorant Nature and, in its progressive
evolution, it is subject to the same limitations, perversions and falsehoods of
that Nature as the individual is. In extreme cases it may even, like the
individual, be possessed by dark Asuric forces, bringing ruin and disaster not
only upon itself but upon other communities as well. Instances of such
possessions are not wanting in the history of humanity, and in recent times
there have been such glaring examples of them that Sri Aurobindo has repeatedly
warned against the misleading and dangerous tendency to confuse the communal
ego, especially as represented by the collectivist State, with the true soul of
the community. To quote one such warning: "The communal ego is idealised
as the soul of the nation, the race, the community; but this is a colossal and
may turn out to be a fatal error. A forced and imposed unanimity of mind, life,
action raised to their highest tension under the drive of something which is
thought to be greater, the collective soul, the collective life, is the formula
found. But this obscure collective being is not the soul or self of the
community; it is a life-force that rises from the subconscient and, if denied
the light of guidance by the reason, can be driven only by dark massive forces
which are powerful but dangerous</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span class="FontStyle117"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">for the race
because they are alien to the conscious evolution of which man is the trustee
and bearer. It is not in this direction that evolutionary Nature has pointed
mankind; this is a reversion towards something that she had left behind
her." </span></span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri
Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life Divine</i> (CWSA,
Vols. 21-22), pp.</span><span class="FontStyle117"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> 1093-94</span></span><span class="FontStyle117"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="Style34" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan;">
<span class="FontStyle117"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Some
exponents of what is known as the Idealistic or the Metaphysical Theory of the
State in Western political philosophy, notably Hegel and his followers, put
forth a view of the nation-state which is a clear example of the false
representation of the collective ego of the nation as its true soul or self.
The State, which is nothing else but the organised collective ego of the
nation, is idealised and glorified by them as a super-individual omnipotent
divine entity with absolute authority to command unquestioning worship and
obedience of the individual. This conception of the State has exerted an
enormous influence in the recent political history of Europe and has powerfully
encouraged the growth of the various types of the totalitarian States which
have been largely responsible for plunging the world into the two great wars.
Sri Aurobindo has thoroughly exposed the fallacy of this idea of the State in
his writings at a number of places. For concise statements of his criticism of
the State Idea, see Chap IV, "The Inadequacy of the State Idea", </span></span><span class="FontStyle119"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Ideal of Human Unity </span></span><span class="FontStyle117"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and Chap. V,
"True and False Subjectivism", </span></span><span class="FontStyle119"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Human Cycle.</span></span><span class="FontStyle119"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></span></div>
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<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Title
provided by Compiler and references updated</span></i></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From
Kishor Gandhi’s “Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and The New Age”, pp 36-42 (First
Edition in 1965)</i></span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">]</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-62145417139783311752016-03-03T13:31:00.001+05:302016-04-02T12:47:21.305+05:30Sri Aurobindo’s Concept of the Nation-Soul – Kishor Gandhi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mother
India is not a piece of earth; she is a Power, a Godhead, for all nations have
such a Devi supporting their separate existence and keeping it in being. Such
beings are as real and more permanently real than the men they influence, but
they belong to a higher plane, are part of the cosmic consciousness and being
and act here on earth by shaping the human consciousness on which they exercise
their influence. It is natural for man who sees only his own consciousness
individual, national or racial at work and does not see what works upon it and
shapes it, to think that all is created by him and there is nothing cosmic or
greater behind it.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><br /><br /><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Extract – read full article below. Title
provided by Compiler and references updated. From Kishor Gandhi’s “Social Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and The New Age”, pp 33-36 (First Edition in 1965)</i>.]</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div><span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>
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<br /></div>
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<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The whole structure of Sri Aurobindo</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">’</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">s social philosophy is built upon his view of the
nature of society, its evolutionary development and its ultimate destiny.
Because of this, the full import of his socio-philosophical thought would not
be grasped without a preliminary appraisal of his distinctive view of the
nature of society, the process of its development and its ultimate goal. All
the ramifications of his ideas pertaining to the various aspects of social life
are only an unfolding of his central concept of society, and the reason why
they firmly retain an organic coherence even in their farthest and most
detailed extensions is that they are always governed by this central concept.
It is therefore necessary to state precisely what his distinctive view of
society is before any exposition of the general body of his socio-philosophical
thought could be properly undertaken.</span></span></div>
<div class="Style31" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">At the very outset it needs to be pointed out that Sri
Aurobindo</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">’</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">s
social philosophy is an integral part of his general philosophical system and,
as such, it has to be viewed as an application of his general philosophical
principles to the sphere of social life. His view of society or community
emanates from the same philosophical vision which also determines his view of
man, humanity and the universe. For him these are different but interrelated
expressions of the same Reality that originates and governs all its manifestations.
As he states:</span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 13.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0.3in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 11.5pt;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
is a Reality, a truth of all existence which is greater and more abiding than
all its formations and manifestations; to find that truth and Reality and live
in it, achieve the most perfect manifestation and formation possible of it,
must be the secret of perfection whether of individual or communal being. This
Reality is there within each thing and gives to each of its formations its
power of being and value of being. The universe is a manifestation of the
Reality, and there is a truth of the universal existence, a Power of cosmic
being, an all-self or world-spirit. Humanity is a formation or manifestation of
the Reality in the universe, and there is a truth and self of humanity, a human
spirit, a destiny of human life. The community is a formation of the Reality, a
manifestation of the spirit of man, and there is a truth, a self, a power of
the collective being. The individual is a formation of the Reality, and there
is a truth of the individual, an individual self, soul or spirit that expresses
itself through the individual mind, life and body and can express itself too
in something that goes beyond mind, life and body, something even that goes
beyond humanity.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn2" name="_ednref2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 13.45pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 0.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thus, according to Sri Aurobindo, both the individual
and the community are, like humanity and the whole universe, living powers of
the eternal Reality in its cosmic manifestation; they are the individual self
and the collective self of the one universal Being. As </span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">the individual is not merely the ephemeral physical
creature, a form of mind and body that aggregates and dissolves, but a being, a
living power of the eternal Truth, a self-manifesting spirit</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn3" name="_ednref3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">, so too the community </span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">is a being, a living power of the eternal Truth, a
self-manifestation of the cosmic Spirit, and it is there to express and fulfil
in its own way and to the degree of its capacities the special truth and power
and meaning of the cosmic Spirit that is within it.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn4" name="_ednref4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 0.5pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 0.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.15in;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This parallel between the
individual and the society in regard to their true self or soul also extends,
in Sri Aurobindo</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">’</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">s
view, to their external nature. For, </span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The nation or society, like the individual, has a
body, an organic life, a moral and aesthetic temperament, a developing mind and
soul behind all these signs and powers for the sake of which they exist.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn5" name="_ednref5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> It is thus evident that the social being is not
merely a group-soul without an embodied external existence but, like the
individual being, has also an external self of mind, life and body. </span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">A people, a great human collectivity, is in fact an
organic living being with a collective or rather — for the word collective is
too mechanical to be true to the inner reality — a common or communal soul,
mind and body.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn6" name="_ednref6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-right: 0.25pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.15in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.15in;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Thus, both in regard to its true self as well as its
outer being, the nature of society is closely parallel to the nature of the
individual man. </span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
society or nation is, even in its greater complexity, a larger, a composite
individual, the collective Man.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">” </span></span><a href="#_edn7" name="_ednref7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[7]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> This is true not only of the nation society but of
all other organised human groups.</span></span><a href="#_edn8" name="_ednref8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Book Antiqua";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[8]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></span></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.15in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center; text-indent: 0.15in;">
<b><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">(2)</span></span></b></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
needs, however, to be emphasised that Sri Aurobindo does not consider the
group-soul to be merely an impersonal force or power of the cosmic
consciousness; to him it is a living conscious being, a real entity, existing
on the cosmic plane with whom one can enter into a direct contact and relation
by an inward projection of one’s personal consciousness into the cosmic
consciousness. In reference to the nation-soul of India, for example, Sri
Aurobindo maintains:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 0.3in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mother India is not a piece
of earth; she is a Power, a Godhead, for all nations have such a Devi
supporting their separate existence and keeping it in being. Such beings are as
real and more permanently real than the men they influence, but they belong to
a higher plane, are part of the cosmic consciousness and being and act here on
earth by shaping the human consciousness on which they exercise their
influence. It is natural for man who sees only his own consciousness
individual, national or racial at work and does not see what works upon it and
shapes it, to think that all is created by him and there is nothing cosmic or
greater behind it.</span></span><span class="FontStyle112"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">”</span></span><a href="#_edn9" name="_ednref9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[9]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span class="FontStyle112"><sup><span style="line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br clear="all" /></div>
<hr size="1" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px;" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo, Letters
on Yoga – 1 (CWSA, Vol. 28), p 482</span></div><br />
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="Style32" style="line-height: 150%; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-indent: 0in;">
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<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif";"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: black;">Sri Aurobindo, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Life Divine</i> (CWSA, Vols. 21-22), p 1085</span></span></a></div><br />
<a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title="">
</a></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sri Aurobindo,
The Human Cycle, (CWSA, Vol. 25), p 35</span></div>
</div><br />
<div id="edn4" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref4" name="_edn4" style="mso-endnote-id: edn4;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibid</i>. <span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It needs also to be noted that the soul of the community or the
group-soul is, in Sri Aurobindo’s view, a sub-soul of the all-soul of humanity;
it is a special soul-form expressing a special aspect of the human all-soul on
earth. As stated by him, “Generally, every nation or people has or develops </span></span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">spirit in its being, a special soul-form of the
human all-soul and a law of its nature which determines the lines and turns of
its evolution.” <i>The Future Poetry </i>(CWSA, Vol. 26), p. 46.</span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
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<div id="edn5" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref5" name="_edn5" style="mso-endnote-id: edn5;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[5]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, (CWSA, Vol. 25), p 35</span></div>
</div><br />
<div id="edn6" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref6" name="_edn6" style="mso-endnote-id: edn6;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[6]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sri Aurobindo,
The Renaissance of India, (CWSA, Vol. 20), p 396</span></div>
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<div id="edn7" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref7" name="_edn7" style="mso-endnote-id: edn7;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[7]</span></span></span></span></span></a>
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri
Aurobindo, The Human Cycle, (CWSA, Vol. 25), p 73</span></div>
</div><br />
<div id="edn8" style="text-align: justify;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%;">
<a href="#_ednref8" name="_edn8" style="mso-endnote-id: edn8;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[8]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>"The family, clan, caste, class, social, religious, industrial or other community, nation,people are all organic group beings that evolve their own dharma ...” Sri Aurobindo,The Renaissance of India, (CWSA, Vol. 20), p 403</span></div>
</div><br />
<div id="edn9" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="#_ednref9" name="_edn9" style="mso-endnote-id: edn9;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">[9]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo, Letters
on Yoga – 1 (CWSA, Vol. 28), p 482</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-84301625187340581262016-02-18T11:57:00.000+05:302016-02-18T12:04:19.069+05:30Myths about Sanskrit – by Dr. Kapil Kapoor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2O4oaDaO36Y" width="425"></iframe><br />
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O4oaDaO36Y </div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-44163335571682043052016-01-28T18:02:00.003+05:302016-01-29T12:15:13.771+05:30Response to FIRSTPOST on the Scheme Suit issue – by Bireshwar Choudhury<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">On 14 January 2016,
the Editor of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FIRSTPOST</i></b> has referred in passing to the petitioners of the
Scheme Suit in a most disparaging manner in an article titled “<a href="http://www.firstpost.com/politics/sc-has-shown-great-foresight-in-striking-against-proxy-pils-as-instruments-of-intimidation-2584228.html" target="_blank"><b>SC has shown great foresight in striking against proxy PILs as instruments of intimidation</b></a><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">”. <b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b></span>As
an admirer of this website, which has <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/india/why-the-wendy-doniger-episode-is-not-a-free-speech-issue-1388751.html" target="_blank">dared to take on the likes of Wendy Doniger</a>, it is strange that it has now decided to support one of “Wendy’s
children” – Peter Heehs (<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2014/02/objectionable-extracts-from-wendy.html" target="_blank">read this post</a>). But I hope I can attribute this error
to factual ignorance and unfamiliarity with the recent problems in Sri
Aurobindo Ashram. If that be the case, I would like to point out a few outright
errors in the write-up for the clarification of the larger readership connected
with the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FIRSTPOST</i></b>, which hopefully would set the record right or at
least give us a chance to give our version of events on its website. I quote
from the article:</span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">While the case of the book is currently in the Orissa
High Court, the excerpt based on which the dissolution is being sought, is to
any mind, anything but sacrilegious; <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">on the contrary, it is deeply reverential</i></b>,
as the following paragraph reads.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>"Early
in the afternoon the Mother rejoined him, and they walked together to the small
outer room where they sat together on a sofa, the Mother on Sri Aurobindo's
right. Here they remained for the next few hours as ashramites and visitors –
more than three thousand by the end of the 1940s – passed before them one by
one, "There is no suggestion of a vulgar jostle anywhere in the moving
procession,” a visitor noted. "The mystic sits bare-bodied except for a
part of his dhoti thrown around his shoulders, a kindly light plays in his
eyes,” Sri Aurobindo looked directly at each person for a moment "the
moving visitor is conscious of a particular contact with these [eyes] as he
bends down to do his obeisance. They leave upon him a mysterious 'feel' that
baffles description. The contact, almost physical, instils a faint sense of a
fragrance into his heart and he has a perception of a glow akin to that
spreading in every fibre of his being.” Most visitors had similarly positive
experiences. But some, particularly those from the West, were distracted <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by the theatricality of the setting and the
religiosity of the pageantry</i>.” [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Emphasis
added</i>] (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri Aurobindo </i><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">by Peter Heehs</span>,
pp 399-400)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I wonder if the
Editor of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FIRSTPOST</i></b> has himself read the passage that he quotes to prove
that the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i> by
Peter Heehs is “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">deeply reverential”</i></b>! Has he read the last sentence at all?
Peter Heehs writes that Westerners witnessing the Darshan of Sri Aurobindo and
the Mother in Pondicherry “were distracted by the theatricality of the setting
and the religiosity of the pageantry “! If the Editor of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">FIRSTPOST</i></b>
could not catch the sarcasm behind this sentence, it only means he has been
fooled (like so many others) by the rest of the passage which is positive in
content. This is a familiar literary device called the ”Oxford Sandwich” which Peter
Heehs uses throughout his derogatory biography of Sri Aurobindo. I quote from
<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2009/10/intensity-of-bhakti-yoga-according-to.html" target="_blank">an excellent article by Govind Rajesh</a> published on our site:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In fact, this is a well-known literary device called an
"Oxford Sandwich", which W.W. Robson in his book "The Definition
of Literature and Other Essays" describes as follows "<b>you begin by
praise, then say something quite lethal, and round it off by praise again</b>"
(page 133). This literary device could be a perfect allegory for the book [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i>] as a whole, and
is precisely what makes it so contentious. While seeming to present a façade of
objectivity and even positivity on the surface, the book, in fact, bristles
with insidious suggestions designed to worm their way into the minds and hearts
of readers and fill them with perverse distortions of Sri Aurobindo’s life and
works.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>quote further from the same passage in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives</i>: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Vincent Sheean,
a well-know American journalist…as he stood in line to have darshan, with
incense swirling around him and people throwing themselves at the guru’s feet…
was hit by “a shock of sledge-hammer quality, to see human beings worshipped in
this way.” Failing to make sense of it, he at least was glad to see that
“whatever others may think or say”, Sri Aurobindo did not seem to “to be deceived
or befuddled by these extravagant manifestations.” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives</i>, pp 399-400)</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The American journalist is obviously shocked by
disciples falling at the feet of their reverend Master, because he does not
have an iota of spirituality in him. Any Indian with some grounding in Hindu
tradition would not at all be shocked at the bhakti and adoration expressed by
the devotees, unless he has been totally “secularised” like those praising
Wendy Doniger’s sexual interpretations of the goddess Kali.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Moreover, the fact that the Orissa Gazette
Notification quoted the first portion of the passage in its notification does
not at all mean that it banned the book on the basis of this passage only. The
Gazette Notification was passed after a thorough study of the book and after receiving
thousands of letters from aggrieved devotees and after lakhs of them signed
petitions against it. Even the majority of the members of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
signed a petition urging the Ashram Trust to publicly condemn the book, which
it never did, in spite of finding it highly reprehensible. For that matter, Sri
Aurobindo Society, which has around 400 centres and 16000 members if not more,
unilaterally condemned it in no uncertain terms and questioned the authenticity
of the documentation. It is worthwhile quoting its statement in the May 2012 issue
of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All India Magazine</i>.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Important note for all the Members, Branches &
Centres of the Society on the book “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo” by Peter Heehs</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Our Branches & Centres have made queries regarding
the controversy that has been created by the book “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo”
by Peter Heehs, an ashramite. Head Office has been repeatedly asked as to
what is the stand of Sri Aurobindo Society in this connection.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This matter was discussed in detail by the Executive Committee
of Sri Aurobindo Society and the following decision was taken: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“After having read the book ‘The Lives of Sri
Aurobindo’, by Peter Heehs, the Executive Committee of Sri Aurobindo
Society has come to the conclusion that the book, at many places, presents
facts and information based on unreliable sources and contains
misrepresentations and distortions of the life, work and yoga of Sri Aurobindo
and the Mother. The book also puts down other biographies written by
scholars and devotees, which are certainly not hagiographies and have inspired
a large number of devotees, seekers and scholars. All
these biographies are available with SABDA, the official sellers of Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother’s books and other related books. ‘The Lives of Sri Aurobindo’
has not been allowed by Sri Aurobindo Ashram to be sold at SABDA. </span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Sri Aurobindo Society strongly disapproves of the
book.”</span></b><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Here are a few more
snide remarks of Peter Heehs on Sri Aurobindo to convince those readers who are
not familiar with this highly objectionable book:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Weak and inept on
the playing field, he [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sri Aurobindo as a
child</i>] was also... a coward and a liar.” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives</i>, p 17)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Called to the
office to explain, Aurobindo told a series of lies.” (p. 30)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">With regard to Sri Aurobindo losing his
temper, Hemendraprasad noted</i>,] “Well, if you take the clothes away there
remains little to distinguish one human radish from another” (p 112)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“I suspect a tinge
of lunacy is not absent in him.” (p 112)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Aurobindo, go eat
Tilak’s shit!”(p 140)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Still, partition
and the bloodletting that accompanied it were the movement’s principal
failings, and Aurobindo and his colleagues have to take their share of the
blame.” (p 212)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That his yoga
led him to the experience of</i>] “spontaneous erotic delight” (p 245)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">[<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On the Life Divine</i>:] “Most members of
the philosophical profession – those who have read him at all – would be loath
to admit him to their club.” (p 277)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Defence of Indian Culture</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> is a polemic from the start to finish. (p 296)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“Aurobindo’s own
poetry, rooted deeply in the soil of the nineteenth century, was out of date
before it saw print.” (p 306)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The book is chockfull
of such insulting remarks on Sri Aurobindo, which are usually speculative and
not at all based on authentic documents. His standard method is to fire over
the shoulders of other critical writers and pretend innocence, or write a
paragraph or two in a positive manner followed by a most damaging comment. All
these objectionable portions have been analysed threadbare on our site for the
sake of those who are not familiar with the spiritual philosophy and facts of
Sri Aurobindo’s life. If the first time reader does not have enough time to fully
explore our site, I would advise him to click on the link below to get at least
introduced to some of these objectionable extracts:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<a href="http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/objectionable-extracts-from-lives-of.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">http://www.thelivesofsriaurobindo.com/2012/04/objectionable-extracts-from-lives-of.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Finally, with
regard to the general observation of the Supreme Court on avoidable litigation
in the Scheme Suit Order, I quote a passage from it which has been deliberately
left out in the reports of the secretaries of the Ashram Trust:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is time for all of us, litigants, lawyers and judges
to introspect and decide whether a litigation being pursued is really worth the
while and alternatively whether an amicable dispute resolution mechanism<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>could<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>be availed of to settle the dispute to the satisfaction of the litigants.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most problems have a positive solution and a
concerted effort<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>must<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>be<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>made<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by all concerned to find
that solution of<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>least<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>resistance<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>problem. This is not only in the interest of
the parties involved but also in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the larger
interest of the justice delivery system. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">(Paragraph 4, Page 2 of the Supreme Court Order)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It is clear that
the Supreme Court is urging both parties in the Scheme Suit – the disciples as
well as the Ashram Trustees – to settle matters amicably and find the “solution
of least resistance to the problem”. For those who do not know what transpired
prior to the filing of the Scheme Suit, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">let it be noted</i></b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in indelible letters</i></b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">that the
Ashram Trust</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">did not even listen to the protesting disciples</b></i> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">in
most cases</i></b>, and even if they gave a hearing, did very little to soothe
their feelings with regard to the vilification of Sri Aurobindo. It is
primarily this intransigent attitude of the Trust that aggravated matters to a
flashpoint and left the disciples no other option but to seek justice in the
Court of Law. In the beginning of the crisis, when Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya
(personal attendant of the Mother and head of the Ashram Physical Education
Department) supported the view of the disciples, the Trust resorted to a cat
and mouse game with him because of his huge popularity among the followers of
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, both within the Ashram and centres outside. A
petition signed by him and the majority of the Ashramites, demanding (1) the immediate
removal of Peter Heehs from the Ashram Archives and (2) issuing a public
condemnation of his book, was handed over to the Ashram Trust in October 2008 –
only to be contemptuously ignored. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">After Pranab Kumar
Bhattacharya died in January 2010, there was no strong personality for the
Ashramites to rally around and to oppose the Trust’s wilful inaction with
regard to Peter Heehs. In May-July 2010, three senior disciples of the Ashram,
Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Khandpal (an ex-Collector) exchanged
letters with the Trust after a couple of fruitless meetings with the ever evasive
Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee. The correspondence abruptly ended with the
Trust threatening them with stern legal action in its letter of 2<sup>nd</sup>
July, 2010. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Should this be called
intimidation of the Trust by the disciples or the reverse? The truth is that
the present Ashram Trust has constantly intimidated the inmates by the threat
of the withdrawal of food, shelter and other basic necessities of life, because
of which most of the inmates have been forced into silent and shameful submission.)
At this point, after all that had happened, Manoj Das Gupta said he was
constrained to bring back Peter Heehs to the Archives – this was the last straw
on the camel’s back. It was after he voiced this preposterous intention to
reinstate Peter Heehs as the chief Editor of the Ashram Archives in spite of
writing such an obnoxious biography of Sri Aurobindo, that the Scheme Suit was
filed by five Ashramites on the 23<sup>rd</sup> of August 2010. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The fact that the
Scheme Suit was admitted four times, twice in the Pondicherry Court and twice
in the Madras High Court, shows that it was certainly not a frivolous suit
meant only to harass the Trustees of the Ashram. It should also be mentioned
that the Supreme Court did not deem it frivolous either. It dismissed it for
the very technical reason that the Orissa High Court had not arrived at a final
judgment on the book, without which the Scheme Suit could not be admitted,
because the latter was closely linked to the former. The Scheme Suit was filed
to dismiss the Trustees for not taking action on Peter Heehs, who was an inmate
and had written a book that went against the very grain of the Ashram. But as
long as the final judgment on the book itself was pending, there was not
sufficient ground to dismiss the Trustees, despite the Gazette Notification of
the Orissa Govt. banning the book in April 2009. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "book antiqua" , "serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">All said and done,
the Ashram Trust has managed to win the case through clever court tactics,
deceitful public stands and tacit support to Peter Heehs. In the Court it has
praised to the skies his so-called scholarship! Outside the Court, it has expressed
its strong displeasure with regard to his book, and removed him from the
Archives. (It has yet to be seen whether Peter Heehs will be reinstated with
full honour as the Chief Editor of the Archives!) Finally, it has defended him tooth
and nail on the basis of free speech, while at the same time taking severe
action on all those who dared to criticise him and the Trustees. This is the
sordid tale of the Ashram Trust’s duplicity and double game behind the serene
atmosphere of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Incidentally, this serene and peaceful
atmosphere, which every sensitive visitor to the Ashram spontaneously feels, is
due to the occult presence of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother which persists not because,
but despite the arrogant and inept administration of the present Ashram Trust. </span></div>
<span id="fullpost"></span></div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-48362658428099574732016-01-21T10:39:00.000+05:302016-01-22T10:23:08.148+05:30Praise for “The Battle for Sanskrit” by Rajiv Malhotra<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 5; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Is
Sanskrit political or sacred, oppressive or liberating, dead or alive?” </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-outline-level: 4; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For the past sixty
years my primary activity has been to interpret Sanskrit and sanskriti. Indeed,
Malhotra and I are sailing in the same boat. This book provokes a debate
between the ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ of our heritage. It exposes that many
outsiders pretend to be insiders, but their hidden agenda is to convince
ignorant Hindus that the Vedas are myths and that the traditional claims are
nonsensical. They pretend to know our traditions even better than our highest
exponents. <span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>Unfortunately, most insiders are either blissfully unaware of these
subversive projects or are living in isolation and afraid of debating them.
Malhotra’s work is designed after the traditional method of purva-paksha and
uttarapaksha which makes it very interesting and thought provoking. I strongly
recommend this work to all Indologists, traditional pandits, historians,
philosophers and ordinary seekers.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DAYANANDA
BHARGAVA, Recipient of President’s Award, former Head of Department of Sanskrit
and Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Jodhpur;
presently Chairman, J.R. Rajasthan Sanskrit University, Jaipur.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This book rips
through the fortress of American Indology and its insinuations that Sanskrit
traditions are socially abusive and are driven by the political motives of the
elite. The author is devastatingly impressive in the way he exposes the
prevailing hegemonic discourse of the West and the role of the large army of
Indian sepoys who have been recruited as mercenaries. Rajiv Malhotra has been
one of the most effective kshatriyas in the intellectual kurukshetra of today.
Every traditional scholar and practitioner of Vedic traditions must read it and
join his home team.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">KAPIL
KAPOOR, former Rector and Professor of English and Sanskrit Studies, Jawaharlal
Nehru University; Chief Editor, Encyclopedia of Hinduism; Chief Editor,
Encyclopedia of Indian Poetics.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Westerners consider
themselves very progressive when meddling in Indian affairs. The values they
now defend, such as egalitarianism and feminism, are different from what
prevailed in the West during the colonial age, but the underlying spirit of
“civilizing the savages” is the same. They now try to wrest control of Sanskrit
studies from the “oppressive, reactionary” traditionalists, and increasingly
succeed with the help of native informers eager for the status and money that
Western academics can confer. Once upon a time, the colonizers brought prized
artworks to museums in the West, claiming that these were safer there than in
the care of the irresponsible natives. Now, their successors try to carry away
the adhikara (prerogative) to interpret Sanskrit texts, so as to make Hindus
look at their own tradition through anti-Hindu lenses. For the first time,
Rajiv Malhotra analyses the stakes involved for Hindu civilization, which risks
losing control over the backbone of its historical identity, and the power equation
in the production of knowledge concerning Sanskrit and the dharmic tradition.
He proposes a research programme that Hindus will need to carry out if they are
to face this sophisticated onslaught. This path-breaking book maps a
battlefield hitherto unknown to most besieged insiders.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">KOENRAAD
ELST, Indologist.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">While an army of
Western scholars has been hurling criticisms and throwing challenges against
Indian heritage for two centuries, there has hardly been a commensurate
response from the heirs of our heritage. This is largely due to gaps in
knowledge at our end: the Sanskrit pandits are often ignorant of nuanced
English and the Western frameworks and paradigms; and the modern westernised
Indians are culturally illiterate and lack the competence to respond. This book
bridges the gaps and enables traditional pandits as well as the Indian literati
to comprehend Western Indology from an Indian perspective. It also exposes how
westerners have manoeuvred by capturing Indian resources to perpetuate their biased
verdicts. The book makes it possible to have dialogues as equals. The
responsibility now lies squarely on traditional Indian scholars to take on the
issues between insiders and outsiders which this book has framed. Rajiv
Malhotra’s contribution consists of this valuable role as a prime initiator of
this dialogue.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">K.S.
KANNAN, Former Director, Karnataka Samskrit University, Bangalore</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Battle for
Sanskrit has immense potential to equip and arm Vedic insiders with the
required knowledge not just to battle the outsiders but, more importantly, to
preserve their own sanskriti based on its indigenous principles. I humbly
request all Sanskrit lovers, scholars and practitioners of Vedic traditions to
read this book and join the suggested ‘home team’ for serious intellectual
exchanges on the issues concerned.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">SAMPADANANDA
MISHRA, Director, Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Indian Culture, Sri Aurobindo
Society, Pondicherry.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Battle for
Sanskrit wrests open a main gate to the predominantly western constructed
citadel known as Indology. Who can remain silent or, worse, collaborate, in the
face of groundless allegations that Indian elites are promulgating Sanskrit and
its traditions for political gain, thus perpetuating a so-called Sanskrit-born
social abuse? As the linguistic key to the highest wisdom of humanity, Sanskrit
studies must escape captivity enforced by academic guardians who over-zealously
wield the club of Western theoretical methods. The author, besides exposing the
colonial baggage still colouring the western approach to India’s Sanskrit
heritage, also shines his torch, in fairness, upon the large platoon of Indian
sepoys colluding as mercenaries to help keep the Sanskrit potentiality in
check. A salient point this book offers us is that the Western approach to
Sanskrit is often weighed down by “political philology”—cultural biases,
hegemonic filters. Superbly presenting the positive correction to this
imbalance, the author advocates our seeing through the lens of “sacred
philology.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">H.H.
DEVAMITRA SWAMI, Spiritual Leader and Author of Searching for Vedic India.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rajiv Malhotra
deserves kudos for his insightful book, The Battle for Sanskrit, which is a
much-needed intervention that gives insiders a seat at the table as equals.
Rather than Western Indologists and their Indian supporters becoming defensive,
they should welcome this book as an opportunity for honest exchanges. The
issues raised here are too important to be ignored any longer. The direction
that this battle takes can have far-reaching consequences on approaches to
science, technology, social studies and economics. The pompous edifice of
Western Indology that has been built over a long time will not crumble
overnight. It is now up to the traditional scholars and practitioners to heed
the author’s call and develop solid intellectual responses (uttara-paksha) to
the challenges.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HRISHIKESH
A. MAFATLAL, Chairman, Arvind Mafatlal Group of Companies; Chairman, BAIF
Development Research Foundation.</span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The knowledge system
which has developed in relation to ancient India since the middle of the
eighteenth century was (and still is) dominated by Western scholarship. The
so-called consensus in this field was essentially a matter of agreement among
Western scholars, with Indians playing only a subsidiary role. The situation
should have begun to change in the light of the new power equations since the
mid-twentieth century. The fact that it has not yet significantly done so is
due to several factors operating in the background, the most important of which
is the deplorable unwillingness among Western scholars to take note of the
viewpoints of an increasing number of Indian professionals. It is basically a
confrontational situation, if not that of war. The Western academic
institutions dealing with India are full of ‘experts’ who are basically
anti-India. Rajiv Malhotra, a well-known independent scholar, has long been
known for his deep perception of this problem and his clear, well-argued
analysis and criticism of it. I have always been an avid reader of his columns
and books. In this volume he throws new light on the power network behind
Sanskrit studies in the West. This is a book which will long be cherished by
the rational elements among the Indian and Western Indologists.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">DILIP
K CHAKRABARTI, Emeritus Professor of South Asian Archaeology, Cambridge
University.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://thebattleforsanskrit.com/">http://thebattleforsanskrit.com/</a></span></div>
</div>
General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-70108714679544117682016-01-15T11:59:00.000+05:302016-01-18T17:24:06.365+05:30Subramanian Swamy on "Breaking India" by Rajiv Malhotra <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GKDkjFc1Muc" width="420"></iframe> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKDkjFc1Muc</div> General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8492774704026276830.post-42201317910217517612016-01-08T10:53:00.001+05:302016-01-27T15:24:36.655+05:30Dismissal of the Scheme Suit in the Supreme Court – by Bireshwar Choudury<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The Scheme Suit
filed against the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust has been dismissed on <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">technical
grounds</i></b> by the Supreme Court of India on 6 January, 2016. Unlike what
the supporters of Peter Heehs and the cronies of the Ashram Trust are
projecting on the Net, the Supreme Court has not exonerated the author of the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives of Sri Aurobindo</i>. The Scheme Suit has
been dismissed because the case against the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lives
of Sri Aurobindo</i> by Peter Heehs is still pending in the High Court of
Orissa. <span id="fullpost"></span><a name='more'></a>As long as there is no final judgment on the objectionable book by the High Court of Orissa, despite the Gazette Notification of the Orissa Govt. banning
the book in April 2009, the Ashram Trust cannot be expected to take “any
precipitate action” against Peter Heehs. This, in a nutshell, is what the
Supreme Court has said. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">In other words, the
Ashram Trust has taken advantage of the pending case in the High Court of
Orissa to absolve itself of the guilt of not taking the appropriate action
against Peter Heehs. It is as if the Ashram Trust has passed the buck to the Orissa
High Court, saying that the latter was in a better position to judge the distortions
in the book, while it pretended to have no intelligence of its own, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">because</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">it did not want to take</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a
quick and independent decision in its own internal matters</i>! The Trust has also
been very clever to take the bare minimum of administrative measures against
Peter Heehs by dissociating itself from his book in a fax message dated
11<sup>th</sup> of November 2008, and by removing him from the Archives Dept.
of the Ashram, so that it cannot be accused of gross dereliction of duty. Thus the
half-hearted and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">meagre </span><span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">punishment
that it finally meted out to Peter Heehs is what actually saved it from adverse
judgment! I quote from the Supreme Court Order:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-width: 103%;">29.
The sum and substance of the grievance of the respondents is really two-fold: firstly,
the appellants [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the Ashram Trust</i>] failed
to take any positive action to prohibit the availability of the objectionable
book or dissociate themselves from the objectionable book; secondly, instead of
taking some coercive action against Peter Heehs (such as removing him from the
Ashram) the appellants assisted him in getting a visa for his continued stay in
India by standing guarantee for him.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-width: 103%;">30.
In our opinion, the second grievance would arise only if there is substance in
the first grievance, namely, that the appellants failed to take proactive
measures to have the objectionable book proscribed and that they failed to
dissociate themselves from the contents of the book. This really begs the
question whether the objectionable book ought at all to be proscribed or its
sale prohibited. As we have seen above, the matter is very much alive before
the Orissa High Court and it is for that Court to take a final call on the
legality or otherwise of the action taken by the concerned authorities in the
State in prohibiting the availability of the objectionable book. Until that
decision is taken by the High Court, it would be premature to hold that the
book is objectionable enough as not to be made available to readers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I quote one more important
passage of the Supreme Court Order:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-font-width: 103%;">34.
The High Court [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of Madras</i>] has
effectively faulted the appellants [<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the
Ashram Trust</i>] for not making the first strike to secure a ban on the
objectionable book. This is really a question of the degree of reaction to the
objectionable book on which we would not like to comment. The appellants could
have expressed their displeasure over the contents of the objectionable book,
or dissociated themselves from the objectionable book or even taken proactive
steps to have the objectionable book banned or proscribed. That the appellants
chose only to express their displeasure may be construed as a mild reaction (as
compared to outright condemnation of the objectionable book), particularly
since the appellants had nothing to do with its publication. But the question
is whether the mild reaction is perverse or could in any way be held to be a
breach of trust or an absence of effective administration of the Trust
warranting the removal of the trustees. We do not think so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Book Antiqua","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The decision of the
Supreme Court has been technically correct, and the Ashram Trust has managed to
free itself legally by a combination of clever court strategy, covert support
to Peter Heehs and a reluctant dissociation from his book within the Ashram community.
But <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i></b>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">blot
of shame</i></b> on the Ashram Trust for not coming out forthwith and publicly
condemning the book, such as the Sri Aurobindo Society has rightly done, will perhaps
remain forever in the collective conscience of the disciples and followers of
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee of the
Ashram, who is at the centre of the controversy, will certainly go down in
history as the man who betrayed Sri Aurobindo and the Mother after staying for
70 years in their Ashram. From a larger national perspective, he will be
remembered as a classic example of the weak and servile Indian prostrating himself
in front of impudent foreigners who want to become famous overnight by
vilifying the great spiritual Masters of India.</span></div>
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General Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08357387091233027707noreply@blogger.com0