Centre for probe in Ashram case

Deccan Chronicle / Chennai, Saturday, 17 January 2015

SC urged to appoint retd judge for investigation

J. Venkatesan / DC

New Delhi, Jan. 16

The Centre on Friday urged the Supreme Court to order a fair probe by a retired high court judge into the allegations of sexual harassment of women and children in Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry.

The allegations, through a number of complaints by the inmates of the ashram and local MLA, include misappropriation of ashram funds, illegal sale and lease of ashram properties for personal gain by the managing trustees of Aurobindo Ashram Trust.

Attorney General Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre, told a bench of the Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice A.K. Sikrit that the centre had filed its reply to the notice on a writ petition filed by Dr. Gayatri Satapathy and others seeking a probe into various allegations.

The petitioners alleged that the acts of omissions and commissions of the trustees of the ashram had resulted in sexual harassment of women who were associated with the trust either as inmates or otherwise; against minor inmates; medical negligence in providing hospital facilities; and denial of food, shelter, medical support and other basic facilities to the inmates.

They alleged that the Union of India and the Puducherry government, though had an obligation, had failed to intervene in the abysmal state of affairs in the ashram and the serious plight of the inmates. They wanted the Centre to frame an appropriate law to impart transparency and accountability into the administration of the ashram and till such time the law was enacted, to administer the affairs of the ashram.

They also sought a proper enquiry into the various allegations against the trustees.

The bench took on record the Centre’s reply and posted the matter for further hearing on January 27.

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Sricharan Singh’s Reply to the Letter to Dr. Gayatri

[The recent reply to Dr Gayatri’s “An Appeal to all the Children of Mother and Sri Aurobindo” has all the characteristics of Manoj Das. It has above all the feature that distinguishes him most, what I call “emotional gas”. After all, he is a story teller and cannot write anything more serious! (Even his stories usually end in killing the hero or heroine, as the case may be. He has a wry cynical humour and does not believe in happy endings. I hope he will not finish the story of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in the same manner!) In his letter to Dr. Gayatri, he is obviously castigating a fellow Oriya devotee for having dared to speak against the Trustees. The message that he sends across is: “How dare you raise your voice when I, in spite of being a great writer, submit myself (poor me!) to the grace of Manoj Das Gupta, through whom flows the Grace of the Divine Mother!” And how dare you criticise us senior sadhaks and sadhikas for being tamasic in our Yoga? (Did any of these senior inmates of the Ashram actually claim to have done Yoga, including Manoj Das himself? I thought that there was a general trend among the Ashramites not to claim anything of the kind, for they know too well their limitations.) But it is the use of the words “tamasic surrender” by Dr. Gayatri that did the trick. That ignited fire where all these days there was nothing but selfish contentment in the name of detachment. Manoj Das let out a roar of anguish as the arrow went straight into his soul and then the fireworks had to take place. But his name had to be hidden among the seventeen other signatures at the end of the letter. For anonymity permits more liberty, especially on the Net, and then what would the Sahitya Academy say of his use of the word “rump” in his letter to describe the rearguard of the rebel faction in the Ashram?

Sricharan Singh, an old nemesis of Manoj Das, has once again come forward to reply point by point to his letter written to Dr. Gayatri. I urge the readers to have a look once again at the highly interesting exchange of letters that had taken place earlier on this site between Sricharan Singh and Manoj Das. Long live the two combatants!]

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An Appeal to all the Children of Mother and Sri Aurobindo ― Dr Gayatri

As devotees and disciples of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and practitioners of the Integral Yoga, we have one important prerequisite condition: faith in their Teaching. With this conviction I start with a quote from the Mother:

“My point of view is this, that anything written by a sadhak about Sri Aurobindo which brings him down to an ordinary level and admits the reader to a sort of gossiping familiarity with him is an unfaithfulness to Him and His work.”

[MCW, Vol. 13, p.27]

So the book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs is in the Mother’s view an act of unfaithfulness to Sri Aurobindo and His work. If we consider the Mother as the head of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, the Trustees of His Ashram and the supporters of the book have deliberately ignored Her point of view showing utter disregard to Her. By supporting and promoting the author of the book, they have become unfaithful to Sri Aurobindo and His work. This is no doubt a grave problem. The Trustees avoided the problem by maintaining a fake “dignified silence” in front, but went on supporting the author and dishonoured the court verdict. All the senior sadhaks and sadhikas of the Ashram remain plunged in their “sadhana” of tamasic surrender and so-called “absolute faith” in the Mother. Five long years were given to them to take a conscious decision. Alas, nothing disturbed their routine! They did not take the trouble to brood over what the Mother meant by the New Year message of 1967:

“Men, countries, continents! The choice is imperative: Truth or the abyss.”

[MCW, Vol. 15, p.175]

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