A letter of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Trust has recently been published in the All India Magazine of Sri Aurobindo Society in the issue of
November 2012, strongly criticising the republication of the first edition of Savitri by Helios Books. Not only the letter is written in extremely bad
taste, but totally irrelevant and misleading comparisons and statistics regarding
the various editions of Savitri have
been quoted in it to impress the lay reader without actually touching upon the
central issue.
16 Nov 2012
12 Nov 2012
A Short Note on TLOSA by Seshachalam Dutta
The author is patently ignorant of Indian History and harbours an
obvious, unreformed racist bias. He
calls the “revolutionaries” “terrorists.” Even the British knew the difference in those
days. Heehs ought to know the distinction: terrorists kill their own people or
innocent people to create terror to achieve political ends, the revolutionaries
and freedom fighters are those who fight foreign invaders and occupiers. [extract]
5 Nov 2012
Fifth Letter of the Bengaluru Study Circle to the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Pratap Bhanu Mehta admits to “have had a long professional
interest in [Sri] Aurobindo”. Are we to assume that this interest drove him at some
point of time to study for himself Sri Aurobindo’s oeuvre diligently if not comprehensively?
If he had really done so, he would have by now come to know the crucial distinction
between the subconscient and subliminal consciousness and understood where
precisely Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis belongs. And of course he would have
also been more enlightened on the subject of “madness”. This is what happens when people choose to
read about Sri Aurobindo rather than
Sri Aurobindo.
It has calamitously led to uncritical acceptance of Peter’s Book
on its face value almost as an article of faith. Quite surprisingly Peter
Heehs himself seems as confounded on his understanding of Freud, of madness
and yogic experiences. His clumsy effort at connecting all the three in Sri
Aurobindo’s life are the result of this confusion unless of course it is by wicked
design! [extract]
27 Oct 2012
Ashram Trustees Rush to Chennai High Court to Stop Enquiry of Puducherry Govt
On the 5th of October, 2012 the Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram filed a writ petition in the High Court of Chennai and got a temporary stay on the probe/enquiry initiated against them by the Collector of Puducherry. The allegations against the Trustees submitted in a memorandum to the Collector on the 13th of August, 2012 by a group of Ashramites and devotees accompanied by MLA Ashok Anand, ranged from “denial of basic constitutional rights of Ashramites, financial mismanagement” to “denial of security for women inmates who have spoken against sexual harassment and victimization” and “illegal sale and lease of Ashram properties”. Shocking, isn’t it, for those who don’t know what is happening at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram!
20 Oct 2012
Laxmidhar Samantray Passes Away
Laxmidhar Samantray was only sixty when he passed away in the afternoon of 18.10.2012 at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Nursing Home, Puducherry. He died of renal failure but he suffered from thyroid cancer, epilepsy, asthma, constipation and what not! Dr Gayatri once told him that everything was wrong with his body except his heart! One could add that his emotional and psychological heart too never failed him. For his faith in Sri Aurobindo and the Mother never wavered and his will to be on the side of the Truth never faltered or gave clever excuses to his mind. “Tell X to keep up the fight with the Trustees! Don’t leave them!” he told a well-wisher during his last months, while he himself fought undeterred with his own body, going through a period of excruciating physical pain during which he underwent thyroid surgery and daily dialysis.
14 Oct 2012
East and West – Sri Aurobindo
The unification of the East and the West is the religion of today. But in this task of unification, if we consider the West as the foundation or the chief support we shall be making a grievous error. The East is the foundation, the chief support. The outer world is established in the inner, not vice versa. Respect and emotion, or inner attitude (bhavā), are the source of energy and activity, one has to be faithful to one's inner attitude (bhāva) and sense of reverence, but one is not to be attached to the application of force and the external forms and means of activity. The occidentals are busy with the outward forms and means of democracy. But the external form is only for the purpose of expressing the inner attitude; it is this attitude that shapes the form, it is one's reverence that creates the means or the instrument. The occidentals are so attached to the forms and instruments that they are unable to notice that in their external expressions the inner attitude and reverence are languishing. These days in the eastern countries the inner attitude and respect for democracy are becoming fast clearer and creating external means and building its outward forms, while in the western countries that feeling is getting dimmed, that respect is much attenuated. The East has set its face towards the dawn, moving towards the light—the West is moving back towards the dark night.
28 Sept 2012
Trustees Start a Signature Campaign at the Ashram – By An Ashramite
A desperate signature campaign is going on at Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry at the behest of its Trustees. The inmates are being forced to sign a petition saying that “the Ashram is a haven of peace and protection (!)” and that the “trustees are law-abiding long-serving inmates who help to steer the community rather than rule over it”. What an irony of Fate! In 2008 when around five hundred inmates of the Ashram spontaneously signed denouncing the book of Peter Heehs, the Trustees themselves said that signature campaigns are demeaning to the hoary spiritual traditions of the Ashram and are below the dignity of the disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In a meeting of senior inmates of the Ashram arranged in the Ashram School in September 2008, Ramraj Sehgal, the spineless chief sycophant of the Managing Trustee, stood up with his head high in the style of a Roman senator and expressed his deep anguish over what had happened at the Ashram. “A signature campaign”, he uttered with deep disgust. “Signature campaign”, seconded Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee, imploring the gods in heaven. “Signature campaign” joined the mournful choir behind composed of the helpless servitors of the Managing Trustee. But alas, the day has come when the same “divinely appointed” Trustees themselves have to carry out a signature campaign in order to save their own skins and escape the law!
21 Sept 2012
Puducherry Government Launches Probe into Mismanagement and Corrupt Practices of SAAT Trustees!
In response to repeated and serious charges of grave financial mismanagement and corrupt practices of the present Trustees of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, the Government of Puducherry has launched a high-powered Enquiry/Probe into the workings of the SAAT Trust Board.
By their letter dated 17th September 2012, the Government of Puducherry had directed the present Trustees of the Ashram Trust to publicly place their Notice announcing the probe in the Ashram Main Building's notice board, the Dining Hall, the Ashram school and the Medical Services facilities immediately, and to report to the Government their compliance in writing.
Even though the Government's letter was received by the Trustees on the same day (17th September 2012), in blatant defiance of the instructions of the Government of Puducherry, the Trustees have so far evaded compliance and have not placed the Government's Notice on the designated Ashram notice boards.
The Notice issued by the Government, intended to be seen by all the Beneficiaries of the Trust including Devotees, Disciples and Inmates, is attached below.
Let the truth be exposed and may justice prevail.
20 Sept 2012
Talk by Sraddhalu Ranade at Baroda on Affirmative Spirituality
Language: English/Hindi
Venue: Jagdish Hall, Adjoining
Sardar Baug, Race Course, Vadodara.
Date: 26th September, Wednesday,
2012
Time: 6 pm to 8.30 pm
11 Sept 2012
A Basic Scheme for Sri Aurobindo Ashram – proposed by an Ashramite
The Advisory Board
The Ashram community’s primary objective is to practise the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. As the Trustees have failed to keep in mind this primary objective while disbursing their duties, an alternate administration is required to look after the problems of the community. This self-governance not only requires accountability, internal checks and balances, but also a process of election by which new administrators are appointed or old ones dismissed. Until now, the Trustees were all-powerful. Henceforth, it is proposed to give powers to a larger body of about thirty to forty members, which we shall name as the Advisory Board. This board will appoint a five-member Governing Board for a five year term. It will appoint the departmental heads as and when required. It will appoint the members of the Election Office and the Grievance Redressal Office.
8 Sept 2012
Letter to the Trustees from Ahmedabad Centre
Dear Trustees,
...full text...
We, the undersigned Trustees of Shree AuroMa Trust (Ahmedabad) run Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Kendra. We would like to put a few words about Peter Heeh's book 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo', the stand you have taken regarding the book and its author and also the stand we expect you to take.
After perusal of certain texts from the book and correspondence by some learned, eminent devotee-scholars and institutions. We are thoroughly convinced of the following:
(1) Peter has stolen and misused privileged material from Sri Aurobindo Archives for his personal gains.
(2) Peter has violated copyrights of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, impersonated as Founder of the Archives and has numerous, serious criminal lapses too in the publication of the book.
(2) Peter has violated copyrights of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, impersonated as Founder of the Archives and has numerous, serious criminal lapses too in the publication of the book.
5 Sept 2012
Fighting the Five Sisters – A Pondicherian
This is with regard to the news item published in the Sunday Times of India, Chennai on September 2, 2012. The title of the story “HC asks five sisters to vacate Aurobindo Ashram” immediately catches your attention and you wonder as to whether it is the same Sri Aurobindo Ashram whose members always speak of spiritual families, spiritual relations and world unity! Then you find out from the news item that the disagreement between both parties began in the year 2002, which means that the five sisters have been legally hounded for ten long years by the Ashram administration. Giving the full benefit of doubt to the Trustees of the Ashram, assuming for the moment that the five sisters lodged false complaints of sexual harassment (which is anyway so difficult to establish in the Court), assuming that they were quarrelsome and mischievous sisters who gave sleepless nights to the Trustees and made them so wild that they spent a fortune to evict them from the Ashram, is it really worth all the trouble? Does it not actually speak volumes on the maladministration of the Trustees?
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