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.
Showing posts with label Ashram School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ashram School. Show all posts
2 Sept 2017
19 Aug 2017
Relinquishing Responsibilities – Anirjeet
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.
7 Aug 2017
Two Shocking Incidents – Anirjeet
The following post, dated 6 August, 2017 on indiatoday.in with the title “SC rejects plea of woman ‘abused’ at Puducherry’s Aurobindo Ashram” 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 “favoured an independent inquiry into
the affairs of the Ashram”.
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.
18 Feb 2015
AVOID GROUPISM – by Raman Reddy
[The following letter of Raman Reddy to the Golden Chain magazine (run by the alumni association of the Ashram School) was published in the August issue of 2005. We republish it here because of its relevance in the present context and the number of criticisms that have been raised on our blog against the stand taken by the Golden Chain Fraternity in the current crisis at Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Readers should be informed that Reddy dissociated himself from the magazine after the directors of the Golden Chain decided to become mere tools in the hands of the Ashram Trust instead of taking their own independent stand in the matter. So much for “the hero warriors” of “the great battle of the future” that they were supposed to become! – Bireshwar Choudhury]
12 Feb 2015
The Golden Chain Fraternity – Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust Nexus – by An Alumnus-Disciple
It
is the self-regarding desire-driven leap of faith of alumni and Ashramites and
would-be Ashramites that endorses SAAT’s administration as that of the Mother
Herself. And in return for their defence of its assessments, policies and
actions, SAAT certifies them as truly committed to the Mother and Her Ashram, hence
its legitimate inmates or fit to be admitted as inmates, and admits their
children to its SAICE. The criteria Sri Aurobindo and the Mother demanded for
admission as sadhaks to Their Ashram have thus been clearly overridden. – Extract
16 Aug 2014
An Interview with Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya in May 1991 (3)
Interviewer(s): Pranab-da, you said that on the 24th April, 1945 you
marched in front of Sri Aurobindo. Where and how was it?
Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya:
It was in 1948. It was in the Darshan Room. He was sitting in the Darshan Room
and we did the march past in the hall that is above Meditation Hall [downstairs]. We came in by the staircase
door that is nearer to the staircase, and then took a round and came out by the
other door. Two in a row and we told everybody not to do pranam and all that, as
that will spoil the march past. Just turn your head and see. In bhakti, you
know, if they did pranam, they would spoil everything (laughter). So the whole march past took some three or
four minutes and we got the advantage of going again for the second time, so we
had two Darshans.
Interviewer(s): She said anything after that?
PKB:
She liked it very much. Sri Aurobindo was amused, that is what Mother said.
There was a little smile on his face, we could see that. And when it was
finished, I went and told him that it was over and he gave me a nod. Then Mother
told me that the way I had come and said the thing was over was liked very much
by Sri Aurobindo.
3 Aug 2014
An Interview with Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya in May 1991 (2)
Interviewer(s): How did your family come here?
Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya:
My family? All that I have given in my paper. My grandfather died and my father
and uncle wanted to have some spiritual guidance, they were looking for a Guru.
All that I have said, I need not repeat.
Interviewer(s): When you first came here, did Mother say anything?
PKB:
That also I have said, there was no talk, but I felt that she liked me from the
beginning. I had a plan about which I have not spoken in that paper. I have
told you that I opened a physical culture club there, and though it was a
physical culture club, I was moulding the character of the boys. It was my idea that
I would prepare good specimens of men who would make the country rich by their
experience and their service. That was my idea, and it worked quite well. I was
at that time 17 or 18 years old, and it worked very well.
25 Jul 2014
An Interview with Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya in May 1991 – History Desk
[Pranab
Kumar Bhattacharya (1922-2010) was one of the closest attendants of the Mother
and the Director of the Physical Education Department of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry.
Physical Education is taken very seriously in the Ashram, far more than what most
people would expect in an institution dedicated to spiritual growth. Literally
all the members of the Ashram have a daily routine of physical exercise
interspersed with work and meditation. All the students of the Ashram School
have compulsory physical education every day for an hour and a half. The Dept.
of Physical Education is thus very well-organised and pools the talent of more
than a hundred voluntary captains, coaches and helping instructors, without
mentioning those who maintain its numerous grounds for playing football,
basketball, hockey, volleyball and other games. There is also enough infrastructure
for the regular practice of Athletics, Swimming, Gymnastics and even Combatives.
Competitions are held every year in which older Ashramites vie with the young students
of the Ashram School. Ashram records are timed with stop watches, carefully measured
with tapes, and systematically noted down. These are then databased and
preserved for posterity so that you can get an analysis of your athletic performance
twenty years back at the touch of a button. One would actually wonder as to whether
the Ashram is a Yogic or a sports institution! But no, in the Integral Yoga of
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, sports can be turned towards Yoga, and the
perfection of the body can become a Yogic ideal. At the same time, physical
health undoubtedly imparts a great stability to life, whether you choose to do
Yoga or not.
12 Jun 2014
Anti-Hindu Rant on the SAICE Forum – Sridharan
Sridharan:
Prophet cum Historian Benimadhav Mohanty Speaks, or shall we say more
appropriately, Beni Speaks Nonsense Again!
The
following is a forward sent to the SAICE forum by Benimadhav Mohanty, an SAICE
product! (The quality of academic production in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Centre
of Education, Pondicherry, certainly seems to have hit the rock bottom. It is perhaps time to infuse some foreign
funding to raise the standards!) What Benimadhav has forwarded on 8 June, 2014
is an atrocious rant on Hinduism by another ex-student to his brother in
Australia. Benimadhav finds this “interesting” to read and forwards it to the
rest of the SAICE alumni as if they are eagerly waiting to lap up this hate speech
on Hindus. Now Benimadhav cannot simply shrug away his responsibility by saying
that he has not written it, because it is he who has found it worthy of
attention and brought it to the notice of the other members of the SAICE forum.
As for the author of the piece itself, he should either be behind bars or sent to a
madhouse. But I will nevertheless respond intellectually to this foam spewing
hatred of the Hindus. As I don’t know the name of this frustrated ex-student,
let me call him Anti-Hindu for the sake of convenience.
16 May 2014
History of the Ashram School (6) – Kittu Reddy
We shall now go into the details of the points
mentioned at the end of the previous article.
1. The first point was Mother’s keenness to introduce
the free system from the Primary section to those children who were ready; this
was to be done in a graduated manner starting at the age of 7-9 in the section
known as Avenir. Almost from the very
beginning of December when the interviews began, Mother wanted us to explore
the possibility of finding out the children in the Primary section who were
ready to use their freedom in the right way. As expected there was some
resistance from some teachers and a lot more from parents; there were also some
minor misunderstandings among the teachers. Some of them wrote to Mother to
explain their position; while Mother appreciated their goodwill, She was firm
that this should be started and tried out on however small a scale.
Consequently She sent Tanmaya to identify these children and two or three were
chosen with Mother’s approval. Here is an extract from the Mother’s talk:
8 May 2014
The History of the Ashram School (5) – Kittu Reddy
Before we move on to the next part dealing with the
meetings with Mother, it is important to mention about another aspect of the
project of The Spiritual History of India.
Manoj Das Gupta wrote a letter to Mother regarding the project to which Mother
replied with a long comment in a conversation with Satprem. We are reproducing
the conversation below.
5 April
1967
(Mother writes a note.) It is an answer to a question. Do you know
what I told the teachers of the school? I have been asked another question.
Here is the beginning of my reply:
“The division between `ordinary life' and `spiritual life' is
an outdated antiquity.”
Did you read his question? Read it again to me.
1 May 2014
The History of the Ashram School (4) – Kittu Reddy
We shall
now take up the period from 1968 to November 1973 when the Mother left Her
body.
As already
mentioned En Avant was started in
December 1967. We still had the two separate sections En Avant and Vers La
Perfection, functioning separately. However in December 1968, the two
sections got united and we had one section called En Avant Vers La Perfection. In the first two years, the
responsibility of running these sections were given to Tanmay, Amita and Kittu.
Despite the two sections being united, they were still sitting in two separate
blocks in the Eastern and Western parts respectively. One revealing incident
happened at that time.
24 Apr 2014
The History of the Ashram School (3) ― Kittu Reddy
We shall first review the developments in the School
from the year 1959.
As already stated earlier, the Free Progress System
was introduced on an experimental basis in 1959 at the Secondary level; from there it evolved to a surer and larger base
in 1961; a small group of students were trying out this method and the Mother
named it Vers la Perfection. However
the whole of the secondary section was not following the Free System. One
section – in fact, the larger section – was
still continuing with the old method. The school at the secondary level was
thus divided into two sections.
4 Apr 2014
The History of the Ashram School (2) – Kittu Reddy
We shall now
go back in time to see how the Free Progress System was introduced in the
school.
From the
year 1959, many tentative experiments were being made in the Free Progress
System. These attempts were first made on a small scale with a small number of
students and teachers who were willing to try out the experiment. The source of
inspiration for these experiments was in the writings and talks of Mother and
Sri Aurobindo.
29 Mar 2014
The History of the Ashram School (1) – Kittu Reddy
[Kittu Reddy came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, in 1941 at the
age of five. The Mother started the Ashram School on the 2nd of December
1943 and he was among the first students of the school. He had all his
education at the Ashram and was appointed a teacher in December 1957. In the middle of
1958, he joined the Registrar’s office and assisted the Registrar Kireet Joshi
in the administration of the school. It is in that capacity that he often wrote
to the Mother regarding the administration of the Sri Aurobindo International
Centre of Education.]
The history
of the Ashram school – now known as the International Centre of Education – can
be probably divided into four periods. The first period is from 1943 to 1950,
the second one is from 1951 to 1958, the
third is from 1959 to 1967 and the fourth one is the period after that.
This article
will deal mainly with the third period – that is to say from 1959 to 1967.
However, the first two periods will be briefly touched upon.
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