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?
Showing posts with label Manoj Das Gupta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manoj Das Gupta. Show all posts
30 Jun 2019
2 Sept 2017
Manoj Das Gupta Interrogated by the Police ─ Anirjeet
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.
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.
17 Oct 2016
Timeline of the Controversy
1978
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.
12.02.1984
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 Lives of Sri Aurobindo 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.
|
28 Jan 2016
Response to FIRSTPOST on the Scheme Suit issue – by Bireshwar Choudhury
On 14 January 2016,
the Editor of the FIRSTPOST has referred in passing to the petitioners of the
Scheme Suit in a most disparaging manner in an article titled “SC has shown great foresight in striking against proxy PILs as instruments of intimidation”. As
an admirer of this website, which has dared to take on the likes of Wendy Doniger, it is strange that it has now decided to support one of “Wendy’s
children” – Peter Heehs (read this post). 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 FIRSTPOST, 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:
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.
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]
27 Jul 2015
Reply to Benimadhav Mohanty – by Bireshwar Chowdhury
Yesterday Benimadhav
Mohanty took a nasty swipe at a friend of mine who (along with many others) had
the gumption to take on the Ashram Trustees when they shamelessly supported the
denigration of Sri Aurobindo in his own Ashram by Peter Heehs. As we all know, the crisis in Sri Aurobindo
Ashram, Pondicherry, still continues, and perhaps by the end of this month the
Supreme Court of India will give a major judgment in the Enquiry Case pending against
the Ashram Trust. It is in this backdrop that I am replying to Benimadhav
Mohanty who made the silly accusation of “self-aggrandisement” on those who
have stood up to the Trust instead of whimpering down like puppies, as most
Ashramites have done, to the insidious threats of the Ashram Trustees
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]
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
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
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.
27 Jan 2015
Who Represents the Ashram? – The Hornet’s Sting
The other day, while having lunch in
the Dining Room, someone asked me if I have done right in going against the
Ashram. I was completely taken aback at such an absurd question. I answered
back as to how one could ever think of going against our most revered Guru’s Ashraya [refuge] which He and the Mother have founded with so much pain and struggle against all possible odds. I always
think of our Ashram to be the nucleus of a greater world. If anyone thinks that
going against the present Trustees is equivalent to going against the Ashram,
then he or she is mistaken one hundred percent.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)