The Present State of Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Baikunth

The following sentence from the last chapter of Sri Aurobindo’s Human Cycle reflects the psychological state of most of the present inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram:

The holding of an ideal becomes almost an excuse for not living according to the ideal; the existence of its institutions is sufficient to abrogate the need of insisting on the spirit that made the institutions.

(The Human Cycle, CWSA, Vol. 25, pp 262)

I translate it into more real terms. Pay lip service to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, bow down to their Samadhi and recite your favourite lines from their works on special occasions. (For it is only the special occasions that matter!) Go about leisurely within the security net provided by the Ashram, because that is not only practical but prudent. Get your daily food in time, get your laundry in time, do your daily physical exercises and avail of free medical care. And finally do a little bit of sadhana as and when you feel the rare inner pull!

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The Price of Conscience

The Trust Board of the Ashram Trust is scrambling for damage control following the conscientious resignation of the senior-most Trustee of the Ashram, Albert Patel.

At first the Trustees begged Albert-da not to resign. When they found him adamant, Manoj Das Gupta, the Managing Trustee, put great pressure on him to sign a second letter of resignation where he would declare his resignation on grounds of “loss of memory and ill-health”. This is a dangerous trick that he has played with others earlier, but which everyone sees through now.

Failing all these options, Manoj Das Gupta has now ordered his men to spread the word that Albert-da is resigning only in March and not before.

Meanwhile the Trustees are in a desperate search to find a suitable successor. But this is not an easy task any more. To begin with, any successor must be someone who will swear personal loyalty to Manoj Das Gupta as against Sri Aurobindo. Some of the names being discussed include Vishweshwar, Chitra Sen and Swadesh Chatterjee who have for long proved their personal loyalties. But the thinking within the Board is to try for a better public profile to soften the widespread criticism. Two names are being discussed openly: Jhumur Bhattacharya who has been one of Manoj Das Gupta’s preferred girl-friends from his young days at theatre, and whom he has been steadily promoting first as a spiritual figurehead and later as head of the Ashram’s college and its alumni journal, and now as keeper of the Mother’s room. But the dark horse is Meera Gupta whom he had earlier assigned as head of the Ashram’s book distribution agency, and who was recently working overtime organising the Ashram-wide signature campaign to garner support to save the Trustees from going to jail.

But therein lies the rub. Although there are enough people waiting to serve the Trustees in their abuse of Sri Aurobindo, none of them is keen to go to jail with them!

Vishweshwar and Chitra Sen are already telling all those who care to ask that they are too old to take up such responsibilities. Swadesh, it is felt, does not bring any value to the Trust Board. Jhumur Bhattacharya is excusing herself saying she already has too many responsibilities. Meera Gupta alone has kept a strategic silence. When asked of her chances of becoming a Trustee, she merely said, “It is for them to decide.” But she did not appear too enthusiastic. After all selling one’s conscience is easier than going to jail for life.

Albert-da may well turn out to be smartest of them all.

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Enough of Falsehood – Ashram Trustee resigns!

This morning saw high drama in the Board of Trustees of the Ashram Trust.
          In the general backdrop of the ongoing Probe of criminal actions of the Trustees by the Government of Puducherry and their desperate attempts to stay the probe by legal devices, several members of the Board of Trustees have been expressing their discontent with the high-handedness and wrong decisions of the Managing Trustee Manoj Das Gupta which have brought the entire Ashram into disrepute.
          Especially in the last one year, there have been many disagreements in the Trust Board, but always the high-handedness of the Managing Trustee has trampled upon others, and his personal interests have prevailed over the collective conscience.
          In the last four months, in desperation, the Trustees have chosen to plunge head-on into battle with the Government of Puducherry, and it is obvious that they are at the losing end of their struggle against the inevitability of the law of the land. Their well-wishers and advisors have warned them repeatedly that if they do not solve their problems in-house they will surely end up in jail. And their time is not far.
          Overwhelmed by the circumstances and under pressure of his own conscience, this morning Albert Patel, the senior-most Trustee of the Ashram Trust, submitted his resignation to the Trust Board, and walked away from the Board meeting.
          The rest of the Trustees followed him to his house and pleaded with him to stay on at least till the 21st of January when the battle in the High Court is going to decide the fate of the Trustees. Albert Patel steadfastly refused. Eventually, Manoj Das Gupta declared in his typical high-handedness that he would only accept the resignation after the 21st and not before.
          We can only hope that if any of the other Trustees still have their conscience intact, they too will follow the sane example of the eldest Trustee.
          A copy of the resignation letter, in wide circulation in the Ashram, is given below.

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Letter of Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal to Manoj Das Gupta on 2 July, 2010

To

Manoj Dasgupta

We thank you for the letter dated 21-6-10 containing the reply to our questions. We are however both surprised and disappointed that the letter was not signed by you but by Dilip Dutta. You will remember that this whole process started when we wanted to talk to you and you alone and not to the other members of the Trust. We would like to know your reasons for not signing the letter. Are you in disagreement with the contents of the letter?

Secondly, as quite expected from the authors of this letter, it is an exercise in obfuscating facts and  in deception. Many issues have been  avoided altogether.

We shall now take up some of the issues raised in this letter. It is not our intention to reply to all the points for that would require at least a volume. We are therefore taking up some specific points.

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Ashram Trust's Reply of 21 June 2010 to Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal

Dear Friends,

Your above letter was placed before the Board of trustees.

Essentially the letter dated 28.05.2010 focuses on the following broad issues:

a.     Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust and the responsibilities of its trustees

b.     The book entitled "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo".

c.     Whether the author of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" continues to remain an inmate of the Ashram, and if so how and why

d.    Whether the finances of the Ashram are misused and

e.     Disciplinary proceedings regarding some persons who were inmates of the Ashram.

Here are the answers for your satisfaction.

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Letter of Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal to Manoj Das Gupta on 28 May, 2010

[The following letter was written by three senior Ashramites – Kittu Reddy, Ranganath Raghavan & Sumita Kandpal (retired Collector) – to Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. The letter stated the views and concern of most of the Ashramites and devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother regarding the Peter Heehs issue. The letter is still relevant to the present situation which has more or less remained unchanged as far as the intransigent attitude of the Managing Trustee is concerned.] 

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Letter to the Ashram Trustees – by Nanjappa

The senseless writings of Heehs will be countered by real scholars even outside the Ashram and without its patronage, as it has been done in the case of Sri Ramakrishna  vis-a-vis  Jeffrey Kripal. The spiritual stature of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother and their philosophical insights will stand the test of time as they are based on profound Truth. Sadly, what stands exposed is the lack of vision and courage on the part of the present Trustees of the Ashram. [extract]

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Togo Mukherji Passes Away – Baikunth

Togo Mukherji passed away on 14 December, 2012 at Puducherry. An excellent article covering the notable aspects of his life has been written by Anurag Bannerji on his site, which I would recommend for reading to all those who are interested to know the details of  his life. 

I will limit myself here to the most prominent aspect of Togo, his bravery and audacity to challenge the powers that rule, which he obviously inherited from his grandfather, the legendary Bagha Jatin (Jatin Mukherji, one of the two Jatins who were contemporaries of Sri Aurobindo and fought in the first freedom struggle of India). His grandfather challenged the British, the grandson challenged the present Trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Togo flouted the authorities by openly discussing with pusillanimous Ashramites the issue of Peter Heehs in the Ashram Dining Room and circulated articles exposing the distortions and misrepresentations in the Lives of Sri Aurobindo. Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the present counterpart of the British Viceroy during his grandfather’s times, deprived him of his food as a punishment. Togo could have apologised and got back his Dining Room facility, but he did not give in. Not only he participated in the two dharnas that were held in protest against the support of the Trustees for Peter Heehs, but he even deposed in the Puducherry Collector’s enquiry on the Ashram Trustees. This enquiry has been temporarily stayed by the High Court of Chennai, but once the stay is lifted, Togo’s signed statement along with thirty other depositions will be of great use to dethrone the present Trustees and bring a new era of peace and justice in Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Thus Togo Mukherji would continue to fight injustice even after his demise. 

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Radhikaranjan Das Wins Court Case – by Sridharan

On the 5^th of December, 2012 the Puducherry Court granted relief to Radhikaranjan Das who was abruptly deprived of his Sanskrit classes in the middle of the last academic year by Manoj Das Gupta, Registrar of the Ashram School cum Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. The Court granted an injunction restraining the Registrar and the Ashram Trustees from disturbing or depriving Radhikaranjan of his classes in the Ashram School. The court case was hard-fought by two of the best lawyers of Puducherry, Cyril Mathias Vincent and Palaniappan, who represented respectively the plaintiff (Radhikaranjan Das) and the respondents (Manoj Das Gupta, Managing Trustee of Sri Aurobindo Ashram and four other Trustees). Despite the false allegations of the Managing Trustee on Radhikaranjan Das spoiling the minds of the children, the line of argument that the Trust lawyer took up in the Court was totally different. The point that was stressed by him was that there was no contractual or employer-employee relationship between Radhikaranjan Das and the Ashram Trust like in regular educational institutions. That whenever the inmates of Sri Aurobindo Ashram voluntarily came forward to offer their services to the Ashram as a means of their sadhana, the Trustees gave them work without assigning any reasons and without any written appointment. Therefore whenever the Trustees likewise felt that the inmate should be removed from his existing work, they could so without any written explanation whatsoever. This arbitrary method of administration was hotly contested by Radhikaranjan’s lawyer saying that it went against the basic principles of natural justice which required of the Registrar to give at least a chance to the aggrieved party to explain his position and demand a written explanation for the punishment meted out to him. As no reasonable and fair procedure was followed by the Registrar in dismissing Radhikaranjan from his work, it was prayed that the latter should not be deprived of his teaching work in the Ashram School. The Court granted this prayer after hearing out lengthy arguments from both the lawyers during the last six months.

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Lokpal for Sri Aurobindo Ashram – An Ashramite

Considering the present impasse in Sri Aurobindo Ashram in which the Trustees are locked in a grim battle with some of the inmates and beneficiaries, how much better it would have been to have an independent Lokpal within the organisation to adjudicate matters? Had there been a quasi-judicial body which enjoyed the confidence and support of the community, and if this body were independent from the influence of the Trustees with the right to rule over their decisions, how easily matters could have been settled internally! I would therefore suggest a Lokpal for the Ashram community in the future.

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Squint-Eyed Scholarship – by Nileen Putatunda

Earlier this year, former New York taxi driver Peter Heehs, based in India since the 1970s, was in the news for his controversial book The Lives of Sri Aurobindo published by Columbia University Press. There was an attempt made by devotees of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, who were outraged by this book, to deny Heehs an extension of his Indian visa. Some supposedly-eminent Indians rushed to the rescue of Heehs by appealing to the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, and Heehs was allowed to stay on.

Being a humble admirer of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother over many years, and having delighted in attending a monthly reading session here in Kolkata of Sri Aurobindo’s epic poem Savitri, I got hold of a copy of Heehs’ book to see what the din was about. Having read every word of the book, I must say that I was disappointed with the scholarship in this part-serious, part-frivolous effort by Heehs which pop historian, Ramachandra Guha has described as: “The product of a lifetime of scholarship, its empirical depth and analytical sharpness is unlikely to be surpassed. For Heehs knows the documentary evidence on and around Aurobindo’s life better than anyone else.” 

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Ashram Trustees Criticise the Republication of the First Edition of Savitri – by Sridharan

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.

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