Kuvempu’s reverence to 'Sri Aurobindo'

Compassion and divinity: Son-in-law K T Surendra talks of the spiritual strength he derives even today from the departed soul of Kuvempu VEENA BHARATI Deccan Herald, Sunday, April 25, 2004

"The first time I saw Kuvempu was in 1956, when he became the vice-chancellor of Mysore University. He came to meet my uncle Kadidaalu Manjappa (the then education minister) at the ministerial bungalow. Later, I went to England for higher studies and heard about Kuvempu through my father when he proposed his daughter to me!" Kuvempu himself performed the marriage rituals at a small gathering in Shimoga in 1969 and expressed gratefulness to Surendra for marrying his daughter! "For my wife Indukala, Kuvempu was more than a father. He was my wife's guru and more than a father figure, he was like a mother to her." Indukala who died of cancer five years ago has also written two books on Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Vivekananda.

He talks of Kuvempu’s reverence to 'Sri Aurobindo'. "He used to tell us that the previous night of Aurobindo's death he had seen a huge tree in his dream, which suddenly came falling down to earth. It was a way of spiritual and divine interconnection, which Kuvempu used to believe in. Similarly, he used to sit near the plants which had blossomed after my mother-in-law's death, because she had planted and nourished them." For Dr Surendra, Kuvempu was a great soul and an embodiment of compassion, divinity and spirituality.

Mother was both human and divine

A true homecoming. During the hundredth year of Mother’s homecoming, AJU MUKHOPADHYAY goes back to trace its historical significance. Deccan Herald Sunday, April 25, 2004

She came to India for the first time in 1914, met Sri Aurobindo and was convinced that her place of work was here. But the wind of cruel politics tore her away to Europe and Japan. After a long struggle, on April 24, 1920, she returned to India and settled forever in Pondicherry. This was the day of her homecoming. A painter, an occultist, an educationist, a musician, a writer and an organiser, Mother was both human and divine. With an ancestry of Egyptian and Turkish, she was a French by birth but Indian by predilection. India for her was her mother country. It was Barrister Paul Richard who first came to Pondicherry in 1910. He was highly impressed after meeting Sri Aurobindo and spoke and wrote about him very eloquently. In 1914 Paul along with Mirra Richards, now married, came to Pondicherry. Mirra met Sri Aurobindo for the first time on March 29, 1914, and received an absolute silence, which she had longed for a long time. At the very first meeting she recognised him as Krishna and the guru of her dream and the spiritual rapport between the two began.

Arya, the review, which which went on to publish some major portion of Sri Aurobindo’s works, was launched by both Richards and Sri Aurobindo on August 15, 1914.But the Richards earned British disfavour for their association with the most dangerous political refugee, Aurobindo Ghose and his comrades, including poet Subramania Bharati. With the outbreak of the First World War British pressure on the French to expel political refugees - including the Richards - from Pondicherry increased. Though the expulsion of the political refugees to Djibouti could be postponed and later dropped, Richards had to leave for France on February 22, 1915. Shocked at this expulsion, Mirra had left her soul here. “O Lord, what have I done that Thou has thrown me thus into the somber Night?” she exclaimed in her dairy note, while sailing to France. As Paul Richard was given as assignment to visit Japan and China the couple reached Yokohama, Japan, in 1916 and remained there for about four years. While in Japan, Paul Richard wrote a book in French, Au Japon, which was translated into English by Madame Mirra Richard. Paul dreamed about Asian Federation and urged Japan to free Asia from the British domination. When poet Tagore and his party visited Japan, it is reported that Richard tried to register their sympathies for the cause of Asia. He collaborated with Black Dragon Society, whose organ Asia Jiron honoured Aurobindo Ghose by publishing a flaming article on him with his picture. This society also gave shelter to Indian revolutionary leaders like Rashbehari Bose and others.

Finally in 1920 the couple sailed back to Pondicherry. The return contributed to great relief and high expectation in Madame Mirra Richard. As earlier, the Richards started to live in a separate house. But on November 26, of the same year, a cyclonic storm damaged the house where Mirra was living. So her belongings were shifted to the same house where Sri Aurobindo was living with some disciples. Gradually, she took charge of the household and her caring hands changed its shape. In course of time Sri Aurobindo introduced her as the Mother to his disciples. November 26, 1926, the day when Lord Krishna is supposed to have descended on Sri Aurobindo, is marked as the Siddhi Divas - the de facto birthday of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. According to excerpts from Mother's Agenda, Sri Aurobindo then called everyone and said, “I have resolved to withdraw from activity; She will be your Mother.....”, thus officially naming Mirra as the Mother. Immersed in sadhana, he never again came out in public.

If Sri Aurobindo was the founder of the ashram, Mother was its builder. She had a dream that she would create a little world where people would not be dogged by the imperative necessities of life, so that they could devote their time for the divine life. Ashram, according to her, was the beginning of the realisation of her dream. A School started in 1943 was upgraded in 1951. Auroville was founded in 1968. With the expansion of activities ashram produced its daily needs. Yoga and study centers were created throughout the country and abroad. Mother communicated with her innumerable children - ashramites who numbered 750 in 1952 itself, when K M Munshi, the leader and statesman visited the Ashram. Writing down his experiences following the visit Munshi wrote, in Sri Aurobindo Ashram: A Pilgrimage: “A tennis playing, silk-garmented lady of seventy-five … saluting the ashramites at march-past….

Mother was everywhere. She planned, she financed, she regulated, she drew up schemes of education, buildings and workshop… she knew every disciple intimately… almost invisible, played such harmonious tunes on this seven-fifty souled orchestra… The atmosphere of the Ashram was drawn out of a living and abiding influence… of a man who lived there for nearly four decades… but how long will this mighty influence last?'”In order to remove such misunderstandings Sri Aurobindo wrote- “An Ashram means the house or houses of a teacher or master of spiritual philosophy in which he receives and lodges those who come to him for the teaching and practice…. And ends with his life-time unless there is another teacher who can take his place.”Mother was the teacher who took his place and the ashram reached the pinnacle of its glory during her lifetime. The author can be contacted at ajum24@yahoo.co.in


ELIMINATING SEX-CONSCIOUSNESS: A dress to fit and be comfortable with

Peoples of different countries had different dresses with varied colours and shapes, which stroke wonder in one's heart. Dress is attuned to the climate of a country, a part of its culture. Indians in ancient time had two lengths of cloths as their main attire: Upper garment, uttariya and the lower one from the west, paridhana or vasana. In colder places a third garment was worn, draped like a mantle, called pravara. Differing in fashion of wearing, the same pieces of dresses, called dhoti, sari and chaddar were used to cover the body of all Indians of both sexes. Ladies in olden times perhaps kept the upper part of their bodies naked up to waist, as evidenced by the sculptures and paintings and confirmed by historians like A L Basham and James Ferguson. The Nayyar women of Kerala used to appear likewise in public until the recent past.In spite of innumerable foreign invasions the pith of Indian culture remained almost the same. In dress and fashion Muslim and Western influences have been more perceptible in recent time.Young ladies have almost discarded saris, mekhalas and such things. After salwar kameez, it is the time for trousers. It may be mentioned that trousers entered with the Sakas and Kushanas from the Central Asia.

The Mother introduced white shorts and shirts with kitty caps way back in 1944, for the girl students who took part in games and athletics. Not merely for convenience, the most potent point was to eliminate sex-consciousness among the young people. To her critic she said that she came to break the conventions and superstitions. But she respected all cultures. She herself learnt wearing kimono in Japan, veil in Algeria and sari in India. One takes from others when the wind of fashion blows, but it is better not to give up one's own cultural treasure altogether. In diversity remains the unity, not necessarily in uniformity. AM

Wisest man, Worst poet, any takers?

• The swadeshi movement was, from a Moderate point of view, a negation of the entire Congress project. As a partisan of the Moderates it gives me great satisfaction that Bengal’s greatest poet, Tagore, got it exactly right and her worst, Aurobindo Ghose, got it perfectly wrong.

Mukul Kesavan The Telegraph Sunday, May 29, 2005

• We move on to Aurobindo, who, again, at times propagated ideas uncannily similar to Islam, as in the wish to return to a Golden Age where all was truth and righteousness. Then we come to Vivekananda, to this writer the most ambivalent, and hence most appealing, of the four.

Ramachandra Guha The Telegraph Saturday, April 17, 2004

These are unreasonable remarks from fairly reasonable people. And, similar impressions have gained wide currency over the years through such supposed expert comments. By ticking off the versatile legacy of Sri Aurobindo in just one sentence is certainly cruel to his memory. It appears that he is still standing before the bar of the High Court of History.

Everybody is eminently entitled to her views but what is questionable is the methodology. It has become a fashion, or almost a compulsion of sorts, to mention the name of Sri Aurobindo as an appendage to others. But, why bring in his name at all, if only to show him in bad light?

For the fact is that, the very project of comparision in this manner, is arbitrary. Sri Aurobindo’s work in the political sphere begins when Swami Vivekananda is no longer there. Tagore is almost a spectator in the sidelines and Gandhi is yet to enter into the picture. And again, the tenor of their work, so dissimilar.

Each of the great men like these has contributed to areas of specific significance which come to form our national mosaic. But in manufacturing the synthetic metaphysics of The Life Divine and composing the epic, Savitri, Sri Aurobindo’s genius is unparalleled, not only in India but also in the whole world.

All writers may not be competent to perceive the nuances of poetry or philosophy. But then, they are expected to be honest enough not to beat someone with the wrong stick. It is only rarely that we read any independent assessment of Sri Aurobindo in the media. But his role is indispensable for the national regeneration everyone is hoping for.

Raja Subodh Mullick’s once palatial house

Heritage house entangled in legal web Statesman News Service KOLKATA, April 27, 2003 — Another case of playing the blame game while heritage crumbles to the ground — that approximately sums up the conservation saga of Raja Subodh Mullick’s once palatial house at 12, Raja Subodh Mullick Square near Wellington. The giant three-storied structure lies in a shambles, bearing the status of a disputed property. A tablet put up near the entrance by Calcutta University, which is in possession of the building, says that Sri Aurobindo usually resided in the building when he was in Calcutta, up to 1907, as a guest of Raja Subodh Mullick. The building, now bearing the look of a haunted house, is said to have boasted of intricately designed interiors and French paintings, among other expensive furniture.

Colonial rule challenged India in its very concept of civilization

Twilight of the Bengal Renaissance: R K Dasgupta and his quest for a world mind. By Subrata Dasgupta. — Soumitro Das The Statesman Oct 03,2005

British rule came as a shock to many thinking people in India, especially in Bengal. What was distinctive about British rule was that it manifested an overwhelming superiority in practically every sphere of human activity as compared to what India had on offer, whether it be science, education, law, culture and society. For a single Tagore the Europeans could boast of at least 50 great poets; for a single Shankaracharya, the Europeans could boast of at least 25 or 30 major philosophers. Besides European philosophy had totally freed itself from the burden of religious doctrine, right from the time of Plato and Aristotle. Europe, at least since the Renaissance had produced a brilliant artistic and scientific culture that will take us centuries to match. Macaulay was right when he remarked that a single shelf in a good European library could match the entire corpus of Indian literature and philosophy. The result was an abiding complex of inferiority vis -a- vis the British in particular and the West in general. This inferiority complex impacted on our culture in two different ways. One result was a mad scramble for certificates of excellence from Western writers and intellectuals.

R K Dasgupta is a typical product of the shock induced by colonial rule in Bengal and his quest for the world mind, as Subrata Dasgupta puts it, is just another quest to regain and recover the lost universality of Indian, specifically Hindu, culture. This loss of the universal continues to traumatize the Hindu mind uptil now. It is a question, for Dasgupta, to stand up with dignity to the cultural might of the West. It is, above all, a question of national pride.

Dasgupta takes a look at R K Dasgupta’s thinking on what is sometimes called the Bengal Renaissance. Here, R K Dasgupta, instead of relying on historians, either British or Indian, whom he reproaches of applying blindly the model of the European Renaissance, turns to a poet and a politico-religious figure to better understand the phenomenon. In Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, R K Dasgupta finds an emphasis on the indigenous element in the Bengal Renaissance rather than on Western influences. The spiritual dimension is also stressed. Once again, of asserting national pride. It is evident from R K Dasgupta’s thinking on this subject that colonial rule challenged India in its very concept of civilization, something that Muslim rule has never been able to do. (The reviewer is a freelance contributor)

Brahmabandhav Upadhyay

Felix Raj The Statesman Oct 03, 2005

Brahmabandhav was a fiery patriot from an early age. He had joined the Brahma Samaj influenced by Keshabchandra Sen and went to Sind to preach his new faith. In Sind he met Reverend Kalicharan Bandyopadhyay who inspired his conversion to Christianity. On 26 February 1891, Brahmabandhav was baptised by Mr Heaton, a clergyman of the Church of England. But soon, as a protest against the British Raj, he decided not to attend the Church services.

Influenced by Swami Vivekananda, Brahmabandhav retraced his steps back to Hinduism. To propagate Vedanta in the West and to enlist the sympathies of European savants in his cause, he travelled to Europe in 1902. He gave a series of lectures on Hinduism with a view to winning the authorities of the Church over to his side. He wanted to make Europe pay homage to Hindu thought.

Christian and Hindu, holy man and savant, prophet and revolutionary, Brahmabandhav Upadhyay was a paradoxical figure who played a key role in the struggle for India’s independence, alongside Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghose and others. His fiery convictions and passionate rhetoric won him many admirers and branded him a dangerous revolutionary in the eyes of the British colonial establishment. He was an ardent nationalist, who died while under arrest — he had been arrested for alleged seditious activities — on 27 October, 1907. The author is professor of economics, vice principal, St. Xavier’s College and director, Goethals Indian Library and Research Society, Kolkata

Visit Pondicherry. Give time a break.

Smita Tripathi The Telegraph Saturday, August 06, 2005

If France was the single most important influence over Pondicherry before it became a part of India, the Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville now exert the same influence in giving Pondicherry its present character. The Ashram is in the heart of town while Auroville is 10 km away. While nearly 1,500 persons of different nationalities are Ashram members, almost 1,800 people belonging to 40 countries live in Auroville. Both the Ashram and Auroville are based on the philosophy of Shri Aurobindo, the revolutionary turned scholar, poet and seer and his spiritual partner, The Mother. Auroville is based on the ideal of human unity and is based on the principle of community living.

Both the Ashram and Auroville are, obviously, worth a visit. The Matrimandir, for instance, is a huge meditation hall in the centre of Auroville. It has been under construction for a long time and the outer globe is being covered with huge gold disks. You can’t really miss the influence of the Ashram or Auroville on Pondicherry since nearly half the shops sell products made by the Ashramites or Aurovillians and many eateries and guest-houses are run by them. If you want budget accommodation, check into one of the guest-houses run by the Ashram. They are well located and reasonably priced at around Rs 750 a night for an AC room. But they have their own rules like you have to be back by 10.30 pm. Is Pondicherry too out of the way to make the effort? Perhaps the Pondicherry Tourism slogan says it all — Visit Pondicherry. Give time a break.

A spiritual revolution

Statesman News Service COOCH BEHAR, Dec. 5. — The Joint Secretary and the International Secretary of the Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry, Mr Gopal Bhattacharjee will visit the Dinhata Centre of the Society on 17 December, 2005. During his visit he will deliver a speech on transition from human life to divine life through Purna Yoga at Nripendra Narayan Memorial Library in Dinhata, Cooch Behar.

On behalf of the Dinhata Centre of the Sri Aurobindo Society Dr Balaram Basak said that Mr Bhattacharjee had visited more than 127 countries to spread the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He is the founder member of Sri Aurobindo Society, UK and the only non-British citizen trustee of the Society. He is also the founder of the Society in Germany, USA, Lithuania, Canada, Bangladesh, Hungary and many other countries of the world. He also the represents in the United Nations Economic and Social Council, New York and Geneva. The Dinhata Centre of the Society started functioning recently. It is the second centre after Siliguri in North Bengal. There is arrangement for reading of the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, practice of meditation (dhyan) and discussions on implementation of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the mother, Dr Basak said.

It may be mentioned here that Sri Aurobindo Society was founded in 1960 by the Mother to spread the teachings and ideals of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, their system of Integral Yoga, and to work for its fulfilment in all possible ways and for the attainment of a spiritual society as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo. It holds information and consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and has been recognised by the government of India as a research institution.

Osho, Sri Aurobindo, and Immortality

Note, the following two posts (here combined in a single page), are taken from the auroconf mail list, and help to illustrate the fact that even most spiritual teachers and gurus absolutely do not understand what Sri Aurobindo was on about. I elsewhere refer to Da Free John (Adidam) in this regard. He was not the only one. Here is Osho's misunderstanding.

From Dave: Dear All I was searching the web for comments about Sri Aurobindo from various authors. I picked up the attached from www.Osho.org website.

Osho: I know about Sri Aurobindo, because he himself was teaching his whole life that his special work was to give methods to people to attain physical immortality. All old teachers have taught you spiritual immortality; that's not a big problem, because the spiritual element in you is already immortal. He used to say, "I am doing the real thing. The physical body, which is not immortal, I am going to make it immortal." And one day he died... The chief disciple, "the Mother" of the Sri Aurobindo ashram, finally found a solution to it. She said, "He is not dead, he has gone into deep samadhi, the deepest that anyone has ever gone. He will wake up again - he is simply asleep." So they made a marble grave for him, with all the comforts, because he was just sleeping and one day he was going to wake up...Then years passed, but he did not knock from the grave. People started suspecting, but the mother was over ninety, and she was still preaching physical immortality... Then one day she died. And it was very difficult for the believers, because the believers had some investment; their investment was their own immortality... I said, "But how long will it take? By that time you will all be dead! Even if they come.... You just go and open the grave, and you will know that it is no longer sleep. There are only skeletons, stinking of death, not the fragrance of immortality.

What are your intelligent thoughts on this?

from Prem: Mother and Sri Aurobindo never said that they were working on physical immortality. They said they were working on the next evolutionary step, the triple transformation: psychic transformation, spiritual transformation and supermental transformation . The first two are not new, and they stated that. The third has never yet been done in this universe or manifestation. Physical immortality would be a "minor consequence", it was not the goal...

The supermental transformation is about the consciousness beyond mind being as totally manifest as mind became in the animal. Supermental consciousness, is Truth consciousness, it is infinite and omnipotent. There are steps in that change and Mother said it would take 300 years after psychic transformation in the same body. Humanity was not willing to go as fast as was needed for Mother to achieve it in her current body. Sri Aurobindo sacrificed his body to avoid WWIII over Korea, and gave Mother the task to complete the transformation. Mother obviously did not complete it in that body. I was there the day she quote 'left', 17 Nov 1973, and when I went to the Ashram that morning to meditate there were all these long faced people. So I asked one of the students from the school who was helping people what happened. He said "Mother has left her body". He was very sad, but my heart knew and felt "Victory". She had achieved what was needed for the supermental transformation to still take place. When and how is to be unfolded. The Divine is in charge and yet humanity and each individual has free will.

There are still individuals who choose, the Great Peace, Unity, Oneness with God, and Service to the Work of Transformation, of the next evolutionary step. Is this some small miracle that takes place in a year or a decade? How hard is it for each of us to conquer anger? lust? jealousy? arrogance? ignorance? falsehood? On the other hand we have the help of the Divine, the promise that it shall be done, and in fact the promise that it is done, it must proceed in the time that it takes. I have no other reason to live. prem from the auroconf mail list Fri, 9 Apr 1999

from Kenny: There certainly is no accounting for what some sadly misinformed people will write or say, outside or inside the Ashram. Anyone who has taken the time to read what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have written and said about this subject would know that the entire skreed was a gross misrepresentation of their work.

To put it as simply as possible, the goal of the Integral Yoga was, and is, transformation of the entire being so that it can manifest the Divine consciousness on Earth in increasingly undiminished forms on every level. Some of these had perhaps been achieved or attempted in the past and some, they contended, are new in the sense that they are part of an evolutionary process, whose time in the history of the Earth is just now beginning. Unlike many other spiritual paths that have consigned the body to being forever part of the duality, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's vision included the transformation of the physical being by the Divine so that the very nature of the cells could be transformed. They stated that such a transformation would likely include an infinite flexibility in reflecting a higher consciousness and that the body would no longer be subject to the evolutionary laws that have governed it for millennia. They further stated this would likely include the ability to prolong life at will and other attributes.

However, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother also stated boldly and clearly that such changes were not, per se, the goal of their work. The goal of their work is a spiritual realization and transformation: all of the other things would be worked out by the consciousness itself as it evolved and manifested. They also stated that there is a particular state, being and force of the Divine consciousness of Truth that would be goal of this path, one that would be able to bridge the gap between the unmanifested Brahman/Satchidanada and the forever dualistic worlds of the manifested universe. Sri Aurobindo named this consciousness the Supramental Consciousness and said that this consciousness is the raison d'etre of the next steps in evolution, just has the Physical, Vital and Mental consciousness had been the raison d'etre for the previous steps in evolution.

It is the Supramental Consciousness that is the ultimate goal of the Integral Yoga. Whatever attainments other genuine yogis achieved in the past, both spiritual and physical, is wonderful and if some of them were able to achieve physical siddhis that prolonged their lives indefinitely, so be it. But unless these other past transformations were of the Supramental transformation, then they were different than what Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were envisioning and attempting. That is, if one chooses to accept Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's vision. If not, then everything is open to vastly different interpretation.

Of course, for human beings trapped in limited physical bodies, subject to decay and death and the fears and pain that are part of the human normal experience and condition, any hope for escape from an unwanted death and the loss that accompanies it, is supremely attractive. It certainly can be supposed that there have been those who have been attracted to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother's work in the hope that they could achieve the fulfillment of their fantasies of physical immortality. While Sri Aurobindo and The Mother were in their bodies, I'm sure that there were also those that pinned such hopes on them staying around in their bodies forever and that there were many followers who projected all kinds of ideas on them. I'm sure that if most of us were completely honest with ourselves, we might find some small or large part of ourselves that has also played with these thoughts. Such hopes and fears are normal and it should be part of any yoga to face them. -Kenny from the auroconf mail list Mon, 12 Apr 1999

The other worlds

Sri Aurobindo passed away 55 years back, on December 5, 1950. He is perceived as a great soul but his writings have yet to earn the reception they deserve. The vast body of his work and the difficult diction he employs, may be the reason to deter the common reader; but even the scholar is not enamoured enough of them. The most plausible factor that seems to be responsible is Sri Aurobindo’s insistence on spirituality while discussing secular themes such as politics, poetry, the arts, or education.

The convenient demarcation between secular and the sacred suits the academic approach. But for Sri Aurobindo this is a faulty notion because the causal aspect is eclipsed. The linkage between the two is less of the manner of an umbilical chord and more in the nature of interpenetrating imbrications. If our sensory and scientific construct of the world fails to accommodate such a picture, it must be understood as a lack.

Astronomy as an ancient passion has helped us to know about the outer universe. Astrology, too, by talking of stars and planets attunes us to their subtle influences. The different abodes of gods as described by various mythologies, also, permit us certain familiarity of the other worlds. But we rarely take their effect on our lives any seriously. And the task of Sri Aurobindo is to hammer the modern mind so as to rid it from secular superstitions.

The inner and the other worlds are a consistent theme in his poem, Savitri. Composed through the years from Quantum mechanics to nuclear holocaust, this modern epic puts a stamp of authority on the unseen fecund worlds and their inhabitants who are inextricably linked to our motions and emotions. To recognize this reality seriously, is what Savitri demands from its readers.

The different parts of our being and consciousness, as delineated by Sri Aurobindo in his Integral Yoga system, are nothing but the other worlds. We can well imagine our plights as puppets when disparate worlds are very much in the play to pull the strings. Somewhat similar to the insight offered by Baudrillard that it is the object which uses and employs us and not the other way round that we ordinarily perceive. But then, how do we benefit by this concept in our practical life?

That there runs a perpetual consonance between the seen and the unseen, might seem, at times, hard to digest, but a poetic impression can be allowed to swim aloft. The process should further deepen in the realm of creative imagination leading to a faint intellectual recognition. Since the notion runs counter to our egoistic autonomy, it is bound to take a long time to percolate down to the distant and defiant impulses. And regular recitation of Savitri helps here; its mantric effect casting its reach down to our body cells.