Thursday, August 25, 2011

Tribute to Shyam Sundar


In Memoriam Shyam Sundar  -  Memorial gathering of Shyam Sundar on August 14, 2011 at Savitri Bhavan, Auroville
On Saturday, 14th August, a memorial gathering was held in Savitri Bhavan dedicated to Syam Sundar who recently passed away. Shyam Sundar was appointed by the Mother as the secretary of Auroville affairs and was involved in the township project from the very beginning. About thirty Aurovilians and fifteen Ashramites gathered in Savitri Bhavan to pay tribute to Shyam Sundar. After a short meditation, several friends spontaneously shared their reminiscences of Shyam Sunder, who had taken significant roles in his lifetime.
Shyam Sundar played a central role in the unfolding of Auroville in the early years as Mother entrusted him with the responsibility for the project.

The foundation day of Sri Aurobindo's Action (Kolkata unit) was celebrated at Maha Bodhi Society Hall at 4A, Bankim Chatterjee Street on Friday, 29 July 2011. ...

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Sri Aurobindo's message has to be spread all over the country

Welcome to Sri Aurobindo's Action
(WORDS OF THE MOTHER)
"The only and unique aim of Sri Aurobindo’s Action is the country – India
India has to guard her independence
India has to defend herself
India has to reorganise herself"
“The only solution of the country’s problems is what Sri Aurobindo has given in His writings. He has replied to all questions, including capitalism, communism, political organisation. These are to be put together. He wrote in English, but as many Indians do not know English it is necessary to translate in the languages which they understand. His message has to be spread all over the country, his solutions are to be shown to all who wish to know.
"A great force is there. One has to work without personal sentiments"
To work for the attainment of the perfect man and the perfect society as envisaged by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.
To work for India’s Resurgence, the world and the advent of a progressive universal harmony.
To demonstrate in action the possibility of realising Sri Aurobindo’s ideals in all fields of life, education, science, literature, fine arts, economics, industry etc.
To carry out research into the problems facing man, present their solutions and work them out in practice. [9:07 PM]  


Sri Aurobindo’s Action aims at a collective change and every human being is an essential unit in the integrality. All are welcome to follow the Sunlit Path of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo and work towards India’s Resurgence. Given below are a few ways of being part of this collective effort, movement and a sublime ideal. ...
At present the work is being carried on by the Management Team of Sri Aurobindo’s Action at Pondicherry. The Team consists of Kittu Reddy, Secretary; Shyam Sunder Jhunjhunwala, Treasurer; and Manju Bonke, Member.

A fighter for creative space The Hindu ARTS » THEATRE August 20, 2011 SATHYA SARAN
Actor, director, writer and producer Veenapani Chawla created Adishakti, a theatre collective, which operates in Puducherry now. After years of struggle, she is glad to have had her dreams come true. […]
“I shifted here because my Gurus, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are here. Everyone looks for roots in language and culture, but because my roots are in their philosophy, I find myself open. My vision for Adishakti continues to grow in concentric circles, and I am constantly seeking...”. Another search, another hurdle which she will cross, giving of herself in the process, to emerge surprisingly unscathed and triumphant.

Friday, August 19, 2011

There are few who can compare with Sri Aurobindo


Reviews Written by John Pellicci (Palm Beach Gardens, United States)
The Upanishads, 1st US Edition by Aurobindo Ghose Edition: Paperback Price: $12.26 Words of a Master, October 14, 2010 Amazon This review is from: The Upanishads, 1st US Edition (Paperback)
There are few who can compare with Sri Aurobindo Ghose. His erudition is only surpassed by his realization. A wordsmith of the highest order, who can bring to light and clarity the often confusing and veiled jargon of the ancient Rishis. His commentaries on the Upanishads opens vistas of thought that allow the earnest and informed seeker the opportunity to sit at the feet of a modern master-sage. Comment | Permalink
Essays on the Gita, New U.S. Paperback Ed. by Aurobindo Ghose Edition: Paperback Price: $14.96 Availability: In Stock 30 used & new from $3.59 Doing the Gita Justice, October 14, 2010 Amazon This review is from: Essays on the Gita, New U.S. Paperback Ed. (Paperback)
You can't ask for a more robust and accurate discourse on the profound truths of the Gita. Unlike the envious who seek to dethrone the Supreme Personality with their misreadings of the Gita's message, Sri Aurobindo maintains and magnifies the spirit of devotion throughout his writing. In his unique style, the Master-Sage brings the Gita to life for the modern, critical-thinking God-seeker; who blushes at sectarian stupidity and obtuse scholarship. If you are looking to understand the "Song of the Lord" in a way that brings you to the oceanic depths of Godhead, then click "add to cart." Comment | Permalink
The Life Divine - U.S. edition by Aurobindo Ghose Edition: Hardcover Price: $30.36 Availability: In Stock 38 used & new from $14.63 Our Future Self, July 26, 2011 Amazon This review is from: The Life Divine - U.S. edition (Hardcover)
Aurobindo is a golden Vessel. His words convey thoughts of the most sublime and supreme that a human is given to think and become. His depth of realization and breadth of learning continues to leave me aghast. This magnum opus dethrones and perfects the intellect, opens the being to higher ranges and transmissions to the effect of developing the necessary mental architecture for the radical uplift and trans-human amplification. Comment | Permalink

Sunday, August 07, 2011

Narad worked personally with the Mother on the significances of flowers

Notes on Authors - S´raddha - April 2011
Dalal, Dr. A S   A Moslem by birth, Dr. Dalal was born in Tanzania, moved to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram for seven years, then worked in the U.S. as a psychologist for over two decades before returning to the Ashram where he now lives. He has compiled about a dozen books based on the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and has written two books integrating Sri Aurobindo’s psychological thought with modern psychology. Various books of his, published in India and abroad, have been translated into French, Italian, German, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lithuanian, Korean and several Indian languages.

Deshpande, RY (born 17 Apr. 1931) obtained his M.Sc in Physics from Osmania University, Hyderabad. Thereafter he worked as a Research Physicist successively at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay, 1955-57, BARC, Bombay, 1957-80, and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA. Headed several Atomic Energy & Space Projects in Advanced technology. Prof. of Physics at SAICE, Pondicherry since 1981 where he also teaches Astrophysics,  Savitri,  The Future Poetry and Science & Society. Editor of Mother India, 1996-2004; Sr Editor of Science-Culture-Integral Yoga (SCIY) web magazine, founded in Los Angeles, 2007-8. A prolific writer, he has to his credit some 50 scientific research papers in professional journals, over 20 books of prose and poetry and nearly a dozen publications ready for publication or are under preparation.

Narad (Richard Eggenberger), is a longtime member of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Landscaper, plumerian, gardener, musician and poet, Narad was born on 29th July 1938 at New Jersey, U.S.A. He studied the philosophy of Rudolf Steiner including his bio-dynamic practices and studied Raja Yoga from a Pandit, at the same time prepared for an operatic career for the Metropolitan Opera on a scholarship from one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of the day, Regina Resnick and took voice lessons from her teacher, Rosalie Miller. He arrived in Pondicherry on November 23rd 1961, when he had just turned 23. He began the OM Choirs in the Ashram,  Auroville and many places around the world. Narad  was asked by Mother in 1969 to design and build the Matrimandir Gardens. He was responsible for preparing the first slides of Huta’s Meditations on Savitri paintings, which the Mother arranged to be shown in the Ashram theatre, and later in Auroville, in 1972 as part of the celebrations of Sri Aurobindo’s  Birth Centenary. Narad worked personally with the Mother on the significances of flowers and on the Matrimandir Gardens in Auroville. He is past President of the Plumaria Society of America and author of numerous books and articles on tropical plants. He is the editor of the book “Flowers and their messages”, the first book published by the Ashram on spiritual significance of flowers.

Sethna, K D renamed Amal Kiran by Sri Aurobindo, was born in 1904. He joined the Ashram in 1927 and is one of the foremost disciples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother fortunately still amongst us today. He is a distinguished poet, a literary critic, an artist and a seer (kavi). Apart from his own poems, he is a great prose writer on a wide variety of subjects – poetry, literature, history, Christianity, philosophy and of course Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He was founder and editor of  Mother India: monthly review of culture for 50 years and is acknowledged to be one of the greatest authorities on Sri Aurobindo’s revelatory epic poem Savitri – a legend and a symbol.

Sunayana Panda grew up in the Ashram as a student of Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education and is in the editorial team of its alumni journal,  The Golden Chain. She holds a M.A. in English Literature and has been in the field of education for over 25 years. Sunayana has brought to the stage several of Sri Aurobindo’s poetical works and contributes regularly to various Ashram-related journals.

Vladimir Iatsenko, after graduating from St. Petersburg University of Russia in Sanskrit Language and Literature, General and Theoretical Linguistics, studied in Poona University 1991-92 Sanskrit Grammar: Panini Ashtadhyayi. From 1992 he is a member of Auroville community, working in Savitri Bhavan as Sanskrit teacher and researcher in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita. He is also having courses in Indian Scriptures at ICIS in Delhi, SACAR and IPI in Pondicherry and University of Human Unity in Auroville.

Saturday, August 06, 2011

Amal Kiran was the foremost mystic poet of our generation, next only to Sri Aurobindo


A colossus passes on MANOJ DAS The Hindu August 6, 2011
To many of us, K.D. Sethna was the foremost mystic poet of our generation, next only to Sri Aurobindo. He has left behind nearly a thousand splendid poems and several volumes of prose.
Future will decide whether Amal-kiran (K.D. Sethna) who died completing 106 years of age was the last of a great tradition or the forerunner of a future poetry.
“I have nothing to declare except my genius,” said Oscar Wilde on his arrival at the New York Customs House in 1882. Amal-kiran (K.D. Sethna) could have made the same statement, but for his modesty, had his identity been demanded at any literary event, for he had no award or decoration to declare.
Probably it is an irony as well a glory that a man who, along with Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Nirodbaran and Dilip Kumar Roy had the rare privilege of blossoming as a poet under inspiration and guidance directly from Sri Aurobindo, one who as a historian produced highly original works of research, The Harappan Culture and the Rig Veda and The Problem of Aryan Origin, one who as a critic shed new light on Shakespeare's mysterious Dark Lady, who engaged Einstein in a discussion on Relativity and the poet Kathleen Raine on mystic poetry, should be primarily referred to in some of the obituaries as the oldest living poet in the world to have passed away, while running 107, on June 29.
Unparalleled
Kekoo D. Sethna was born in an aristocratic Parsi family of Mumbai on November 25, 1904. Educated at St. Xavier's College, he, according to his earliest editor, Prof. V.N. Bhushan (1945), “took both the Selby scholarship for logic and the Hughling Prize for English, a combination not achieved by anyone else yet. Passing the B.A. examination of the Bombay University with honours in philosophy, he again put up a performance not paralleled so far – namely, that he, a philosophy student, won the much-coveted Ellis Prize for English. And before he left college he made his literary debut with a bunch of poems marked by a piercing psychical and intellectual passion. Published about the same time his volume of critical essays entitled Parnassians (1923) elicited from H.G. Wells the prophetic remark, ‘This young man will go far'. And he has gone far — farther than the celebrated English writer could have meant or expected. He has gone far on the path of spiritual quest — with vision in his eyes and song on his lips.”
Song on his lips indeed. He has left nearly a thousand splendid poems behind, apart from several volumes of prose.
Is chance a pseudonym of God which He uses when He does not wish to put down His signature? It seems so in Sethna's case. As he unwrapped a pair of newly bought shoes, the piece of newspaper wrapping his newly bought shoes carried an article on Sri Aurobindo. He read it and that changed the course of his life. Instead of appearing for his Master's, he came over to Pondicherry in 1930. Rechristened Amal-kiran (Clear Ray) by Sri Aurobindo, he lived in the Ashram, with one break, till his end, editing the Ashram's monthly journalMother India, and taking classes at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education.
Sri Aurobindo, in the process of writing his poetic magnum opus, Savitri, would send cantos of his epic and answer his queries on the mystic significance of allusions and symbols used in the poem. Amal-kiran's correspondence with the Master is an indispensable help for readers in general and scholars doing research on Sri Aurobindo's works in particular.
A polymath of the first order, the originality of his outlook — often an uncanny insight — was manifest in his evaluation of any subject, literary, historical or even scientific. He interpreted Blake's Tyger as an allusion for Christ. No wonder that his thesis should surprise many and disturb the noted authority on Blake, the poet Kathleen Raine (1908 – 2003). The exchange of arguments between the two, compiled in a volume — is an exemplary document in creative criticism and dignified humility — concluding with Raine's statement, “I concede you the victory”.
Raine became an ardent lover of Amal-kiran's poetry. Praising lines from one of his poems, The Errant Life, she wrote to him (31-12-1993), that she wished she had written them! The lines are:
Speak to me heart to heart words intimate
And all thy formless glory turn to love
And mould Thy love into a human face.
She wrote further, “A life of aspiration to the divine vision cannot but bring its reward, not in the poems only, but in other ways — all ways — and setting your heart and mind on ‘whatsoever things are lovely' (in St. Paul's words) you must have experienced many times a great joy…Those friends who share that ‘divine vision' or seek it are very precious, in this dark world…”
Polio had badly affected one of his legs when he was a child. Treatment in Britain and elsewhere did not secure for him the freedom to move without a stick — before a fall in 1991 confined him to a wheelchair. But as his friend for more than 60 years, the doctor-turned poet and yet another centenarian in the Ashram, Nirodbaran wrote, “He had no regrets. Rather, he considers this God's blessing to him, for it has enabled him to plunge into the oceans of the mind, and thus acquire a vast body of knowledge at an early age — so much so that Sri Aurobindo jokingly remarked: ‘He has learnt too much. He must start unlearning now.' ” What is remarkable, whoever came in contact with him went back imbibing a ray of his ever-shining wit and humour.
According to many he was the foremost mystic poet of our generation, next only to Sri Aurobindo. Future will say whether he was the last of a great tradition or the forerunner of “those who shall be the creators of the poetry of the future”, as Sri Aurobindo anticipates in his Future Poetry.

Monday, August 01, 2011

Peter Heehs is without appropriate legal permits


Peter Heehs has never been in charge of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives as you wrongly claim, and has multiple cases pending against him in various courts for impersonating as the "founder of the Ashram Archives" when in fact he was only one of 40 proof-readers/ researchers there. …
For the record, Mr. Peter Heehs is currently in India without appropriate legal permits. - Prof Kamal Das (Date: Mon, Aug 1, 2011 at 1:04 PM Subject: RAMACHANDRA GUHA: RIGHT SPIRIT - WRONG FACTS!)

This is also where the Matri Mandir – an intriguing meditation complex made by the Mother and Aurobindo is located. My first view of this center was a sense of lot of ‘disjoint’ communities working together. It probably felt disjoint because the different building complexes are some distance from each other, and surrounded by the forest. …
The Aurobindo ashram in Pondicherry is surprisingly distinct from this settlement, considering that Auroville was Aurobindo’s movement as much as the ashram was! In fact a few questions can uncover some hostilities towards the other establishment. For a visitor however these things may not matter much but for anyone planning to involve themselves further in the movement these signs could point towards deeper problems.

Radical realists Times of India Baskaran Pillai | Jul 25, 2011
The physical immortality of the body is a key concept among the Siddhas. According to them, enlightenment is simply not psychological. Liberation is not just psychological liberation from thought forms. Nirvana, according to Swami Ramalingam who turned his body into light in 1874, is a stage in the evolutionary process. He maintained that one should attain evolution of body, mind, and soul. You cannot simply evolve your psychology or your soul, and say that it is everything. Sri Aurobindo, although he was not a Siddha, upheld the Siddha ideal that unless the body is turned into light, the evolution of the human is not complete. Aurobindo admitted not reaching that stage, but praised Swami Ramalingam and the Siddhas for holding the highest ideal of enlightenment.