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 MalAdministration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MalAdministration. 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.
8 Jan 2016
Dismissal of the Scheme Suit in the Supreme Court – by Bireshwar Choudury
The Scheme Suit
filed against the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust has been dismissed on technical
grounds 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 Lives of Sri Aurobindo. The Scheme Suit has
been dismissed because the case against the Lives
of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs is still pending in the High Court of
Orissa.
15 Dec 2015
The Necessity of Proper Procedures in Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Baikunth
It
is therefore high time that some proper procedures are introduced in the
current administrative setup of the Ashram without, at the same time,
paralysing it with procedures as we see in various Government institutions. It
is true we have made a parody of democracy in our country, but that cannot be a
justification for not introducing basic democratic structures in the Ashram. It
is also true that spirituality and democracy may be incompatible, but in the
present predicament of the Ashram when the Integral Yoga has become an excuse
to enjoy the ordinary life at other people’s expense, it is time to put in
place a few checks and balances on the unlimited powers of the Trustees to
prevent the most arrogant human errors in the name of divine justice. [read full article below]
24 Nov 2015
The Mahabharata in Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Sampdas
This
has reference to an interesting write-up titled The Bhishmacharya Complex
in Sri Aurobindo Ashram (posted on this site on 25 October, 2015). The write-up
has touched the crux of the matter; to me and a large number of followers of
the Mother, the legend of the Mahabharata looks as being re-enacted at the
Ashram, with variations in content and scope. While the ancient epic is largely
a legend and a symbol, when we ponder on the present state of affairs in the
Ashram, it looks that today’s Mahabharata is for real.
13 Nov 2015
Peter Heehs on the Crisis in Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Bireshwar Choudury
Peter Heehs says
that the crisis in the Ashram can be solved by offering career “advancement
prospects” to the senior sadhaks who are unhappy with the present
administration of the Ashram. The Ashram Trust could also establish daughter
Ashrams which could provide “new job opportunities for young men anxious to
obtain leadership positions upon finding themselves blocked by a lack of
available positions, with older men holding onto their positions for life”! [read full article below]
6 Nov 2015
On the Visit of BJP President Amit Shah to Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Sampdas
It
is both comical and ironical that the Ashram Trustees first took the BJP President,
Sri Amit Shah, to the Samadhi of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and then to the
Archives Cold Storage, where their manuscripts are preserved. It is ironical because the very
supporters of the denigration of Sri Aurobindo posed as earnest
followers of the Master in front of powerful politicians. At the same time, it
is comical that those who insolently tamper with the writings of Sri Aurobindo
are introduced as the ones who reverentially preserve his writings. [read full article below]
25 Oct 2015
The Bhishmacharya Complex – by A Concerned Ashramite
The situation of the old guard of the Ashram is the same as that of Bhishmacharya, who was unable to use his
mighty bow in the service of dharma and was forced to fight on the side of adharma
with an anguished conscience. This inability and helplessness to stand for the
truth, this forced loyalty towards the powers that be, and the apparently
virtuous stand which actually facilitates falsehood is what I call the
Bhishmacharya complex!
[read full article below]
[read full article below]
27 Sept 2015
Indians and Westerners in Sri Aurobindo Ashram – by Baikunth
I see a silver
lining in the clouds in those few Westerners who dared to stand by Sri
Aurobindo at the expense of their national pride and ego. For the true test of the
World Unity that all of us aspire for, is not in how we sing and dance and hold
our hands together in a symbolic circle when all is well, but in how we rise
above national feeling and racial prejudice when differences arise
between people from various nations and cultures. Until we can do so, the
project of the New World, which Sri Aurobindo and the Mother wanted us to build,
will never take off. We will remain on the ground imagining that we are flying
high in the sky! [read full article below]
14 Aug 2015
Supreme Court considers probe into Aurobindo ashram harassment allegations
Daily Mail Online India
By
Harish V. Nair
Published:
22:39 GMT, 13 August 2015 | Updated: 00:14 GMT, 14 August 2015
At a time when
several self-proclaimed godmen, godwomen and ashrams are making news for wrong
reasons, the Supreme Court has hinted that it might set up a commission headed
by a retired high court judge to probe complaints of sexual harassment filed by
women and child inmates of the famous Aurobindo Ashram in Puducherry against
its members.
The panel may also
probe several other irregularities, including misappropriation of funds.
A bench headed by
Chief Justice of India H.L. Dattu said this on Thursday after hearing
suggestions made by Gopal Subramaniam, counsel for the ashram.
3 May 2015
Matriprasad Satyamurthy’s Remark on a Controversial Take on Sri Aurobindo’s Life – by Bireshwar Choudhury
This is with regard to the news story titled “Bengal minister’s Aurobindo
play sitting on a time bomb / Controversial Take On Guru’s Exit From Freedom
Struggle” published in The Times of India
(Mumbai edition) on 25 April, 2015. The controversial take is stated in the
following manner:
“Did Rishi
Aurobindo ‘run away’ from the freedom movement?”
“Standing behind prison bars, Hemchandra bursts out in
anger: “You (Aurobindo) have saved yourself but history won’t forgive you.” In
another scene, Aurobindo’s brother Barin says: “Why did I tell my brother’s
survival lies only in mixing religion with politics? Little did I know he’d
give up politics and take refuge in religion.”
25 Apr 2015
Sampdas on Jayantilal Parekh’s Article on Sri Aurobindo Ashram
It is
no surprise then that the Wellwishers
of the Ashram Trust, knowing too well which side of the bread is buttered, have
no qualms about keeping quiet when Sri Aurobindo himself is derated, but take
up cudgels and loudspeakers on behalf of the Trustees. The guidepost for them is that those who
question the wrong actions of the Trust are necessarily heretics and their
actions are blasphemous. However, on their part, they are prone to take the
easy path of “we see no wrong, we hear no wrong, we speak no wrong” on the
actions of the Trust. They expect that wrongs against the Divine and sadhaks be
not addressed at all by chanting the rhetoric, “the Trustees can do nothing
wrong and people should accept everything that they do with the non-questioning
maxim of conduct that “thou shalt not think or reason or question the Trustees
even if they are wrong.” Their fundamental fallacy owes to the misplaced
identification of the administrative outfit of the Ashram Trust with the Ashram
itself. [extract – read full article
below]
12 Apr 2015
Comment on Jayantilal Parekh's article on Ashram – by Shiva
On 14th March the League of Lost Logicians
a.k.a. Well Wishers of Sri Aurobindo
Ashram reproduced “The Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its Administration”, an
article published in Mother India in
June 2001, which was “explicitly written in the backdrop of adversely critical
articles that were being planted by anti-Ashram elements in the various
newspapers and journals in order to malign the Ashram”, by which it means the
Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust (SAAT) of the day. The article, more rightly a
brochure, was undoubtedly compiled-written by the self-appointed ‘archivist-scholars’
of the Archives & Research Department set up by Jayantilal Parekh and since
it was based on his viewpoint, it was hung round his neck.
27 Mar 2015
Oxford University bars Dr Subramanian Swamy & Rajiv Malhotra
[So
much for freedom of speech in Oxford University, UK! This reminds us very much
of the double standards in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Peter Heehs is made
the mascot of freedom of speech by the Ashram Trustees while Dr. R.Y. Deshpande
and Radhikaranjan Das are summarily dismissed from the Ashram School for being frank and outspoken!
– Bireshwar]
Oxford University bars Dr Subramanian
Swamy & Rajiv Malhotra
Cancels lecture on "Indias
Economy" & "Revisionist History"
The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates
Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought,
conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or
belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or
private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and
observance.
‘We are stunned that a leading
British University that should be championing free speech and freedom of
thought, has taken such a cowardly decision.
22 Mar 2015
Response to Jayantilal Parekh’s Article – by An Irrational Ashramite
Jayantilal Parekh’s
article “The Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its Administration” posted on the
Well-wishers’ site is rather outdated. It applies perhaps to the first two
decades of Ashram life after the Mother’s passing away in 1973, but certainly
not to the next two decades, and especially to the present situation. Given the
undeniable fact that the Ashram is going through a process of deterioration of
values and motivations, we can hardly keep justifying all that happens here
under the name of spirituality and Integral Yoga! How long are we going to
repeat that “the Ashram is the cradle of a new world” and “not a religious
monastery” in order to justify our human frailties? The question therefore is
of the proportion of sadhana and human weaknesses, of when and how much their
precarious balance tilts to the wrong side rather than a clear definition of
what exactly qualifies us for the Ashram life. What I mean is that everybody in
the wide world knows that “staying in the Ashram despite human weaknesses
so that one day we can outgrow them” is different from “staying in the Ashram in
order to fulfil our physical propensities and make the best of the
facilities provided by the institution for that very purpose”.
16 Mar 2015
22 Feb 2015
Evicted sisters observe token fast
The Hindu
Sunday, February 22, 2015
PUDUCHERRY: The sisters, who have been evicted
from Sri Aurobindo Ashram-run premises, along with members of civil society
organisations on Saturday observed a token fast in front of the BSNL office
here demanding the Centre to direct the Puducherry government to take over the
administration of the Ashram.
21 Feb 2015
29 Jan 2015
Comment on "Who Represents the Ashram?" – by a Devotee and Disciple
If anyone has to be blamed for the
possibility of a government intervention, it is the Trustees themselves. First,
they behave with an absolute authority wherein no one has any right to question
their decisions. Then they go about systematically diluting the work of Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother by turning the Ashram into a free-for-all place where
anybody who can please them can take all the benefits. By doing this and by
constantly finding legal and police solutions, they have acted worse than
government officials and attracted such forces into the temple of the Lord.
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