Thursday, June 09, 2011

Anurag Banerjee awarded 2011 Nolini Kanta Gupta Smriti Puraskar


May 21, 2011 at 7:47 am (Uncategorized
Dear Friends and Well-Wishers of Overman Foundation,
 It gives us immense delight to announce that the Founder and Chairman of Overman Foundation, Shri Anurag Banerjee, has been awarded with the ‘Nolini Kanta Gupta Smriti Puraskar’ for the year 2011 for his contribution in the field of research and education. It is noteworthy that Shri Banerjee is the youngest recipient ever to receive this prestigious award given by ‘Srinvantu’ and Sri Aurobindo Bhawan, Kolkata.
 Under the guidance of Shri Banerjee, Overman Foundation has become India’s only online research institute dedicated to the mission of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. We take the opportunity to congratulate Shri Banerjee and wish him all the success in life.
 The Overman Foundation Team.

March 27, 2011 at 8:03 am (Uncategorized
Dear Friends and Well-wishers of Overman Foundation,
Since its inception in March 2010 Overman Foundation aims to recognize the invaluable contribution of the scholars, writers, researchers and workers of the Aurobindonian movement in various fields. For this purpose, the ‘Auro-Ratna Award’ was initiated to felicitate the ‘true children’ of the Divine, who, as defined by the Mother, are those few who have consecrated all of themselves and all they have—soul, life, work and wealth. In 2010, the recipients of the first ‘Auro-Ratna Award’ were K. D. Sethna alias Amal Kiran, Prof. Arabinda Basu and the late Jugal Kishore Mukherjee.
Today, on behalf of Overman Foundation, I take the opportunity to announce the names of the recipients of the ‘Auro-Ratna Award’ for the year 2011. This year the award will be given to Shri Robi Gupta, Dr. Kireet Joshi and Dr. Prithwindranath Mukherjee for their outstanding contribution in the field of literature, education, philosophy and research.
Shri Robi Gupta (b. 1926) is the youngest son of the late Nolini Kanta Gupta. He became an inmate of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1944. He is one of the foremost poets of Sri Aurobindo Ashram whose works were appreciated by Sri Aurobindo himself who gave him the title of ‘Tagore of the Ashram’. A linguist and the recipient of the prestigious ‘Sri Aurobindo Puraskar’, Shri Robi Gupta’s published works in Bengali include ‘Swapani’, ‘Sarani’, ‘Mandakini’, ‘Mormomoral’, ‘Geeti-arghya’ and ‘Shiulijhora Bhorer Bela’ to name a few.
Dr. Kireet Joshi (b. 1931) studied philosophy and law at the Bombay University. He was selected for I. A. S. in 1955 but in 1956 he resigned to devote himself at Sri Aurobindo Ashram to the study and practice the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He taught Philosophy and Psychology at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry and participated in numerous educational experiments under the guidance of the Mother. In 1976 the Government of India invited him to be the Educational Adviser in the Ministry of Education. In 1983 he was appointed Special Secretary to the Government of India and held this post till 1988. From 1987 to 1993 he was the Member-Secretary of Rashtriya Veda Vidya Pratishthan. From 1987 to 1990 he served as the Vice-Chairman of the UNESCO Institute of Education, Hamburg. In the Ministry of Education, he was in-charge of Higher Education, National Commission on Teachers, Languages, Youth Affairs and UNESCO affairs. He was also the Chairman of Auroville Foundation and Indian Council of Philosophical Research. His published works include ‘Sri Aurobindo and Integral Yoga’, ‘Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’, ‘Education for Character Development’, ‘Education for Tomorrow’, ‘Education at Crossroads’, ‘Glimpses of Vedic Literature and Veda and Indian Culture’ and ‘Philosophy and Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Other Essays’.  
Dr. Prithwindra Nath Mukherjee (b. 1936) is the grandson of the famous revolutionary Jatindranath Mukherjee alias Bagha Jatin. He came to Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1948, studied and taught at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education. He was mentioned by the Sahitya Akademi manuals and anthologies as a poet before he attained the age of twenty. He has translated the works of French authors like Albert Camus, Saint-John Perse and René Char for Bengali readers, and eminent Bengali authors into French. He shifted to Paris with a French Government Scholarship in 1966. He defended a thesis on Sri Aurobindo at Sorbonne. He served as a lecturer in two Paris faculties, a producer on Indian culture and music for Radio France and was also a freelance journalist for the Indian and French press. His thesis for PhD which studied the pre-Gandhian phase of India’s struggle for freedom was supervised by Raymond Aron in Paris University. In 1977 he was invited by the National Archives of India as a guest of the Historical Records Commission. He presented a paper on ‘Jatindranath Mukherjee and the Indo-German Conspiracy’ and his contribution on this area has been recognized by eminent educationists. A number of his papers on this subject have been translated into major Indian languages. He went to the United States of America as a Fullbright scholar and discovered scores of files covering the Indian revolutionaries in the Wilson Papers. In 1981 he joined the French National Centre of Scientific Research. He was also a founder-member of the French Literary Translators’ Association. In 2003 he retired as a researcher in Human and Social Sciences Department of French National Centre of Scientific Research in Paris. A recipient of ‘Sri Aurobindo Puraskar’, in the same year he was invited by Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the world premiere of Correspondances, opus for voice and orchestra where the veteran composer Henri Dutilleux had set to music Prithwindra’s French poem on Shiva Nataraja, followed by texts by Solzhenitsyn, Rilke and Van Gogh. In 2009 he was appointed to the rank of chevalier (Knight) of the Order of Arts and Letters by the Minister of Culture of France. He has penned books in English, Bengali and French and some of his published works include ‘Samasamayiker Chokhe Sri Aurobindo,’ ‘Pondicherryer Dinguli’, ‘Bagha Jatin’, ‘Sadhak-Biplobi Jatindranath’, ‘Undying Courage’, ‘Vishwer Chokhe Rabindranath’, ‘Thât/Mélakartâ : The Fundamental Scales in Indian Music of the North and the South’ (foreworded by Pandit Ravi Shankar), ‘Poèmes du Bangladesh’, ‘Serpent de flammes’, ‘Le sâmkhya’, ‘Les écrits bengalis de Sri Aurobindo’, ‘Chants bâuls, les Fous de l’Absolu’, ‘Anthologie de la poésie bengalie’ and ‘Les racines intellectuelles du movement d’independence de l’Inde (1893-1918)’ ending up with Sri Aurobindo, “the last of the Prophets”.  
It will be our privilege to hand over the ‘Auro-Ratna Award’, named after Sri Aurobindo, to three of his most faithful followers.
With warm regards,
Anurag Banerjee
Chairman and Chief Executive,
Overman Foundation.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Concept of Man in Sri Aurobindo's Poetry


Comment by Vladimir Last Updated: June 1, 2011
It is very intuitive observation:
"The individual consciousness has however, even by plunging into rationality and logic, the means to break free and become the vehicle of the soul. The individual consciousness can include the rational and logic into the process of becoming integral. It just needs to lift its gaze to the unlimited realities and give them names, make the eternal the alphabet of its reasoning and build action on its ground."
It's very true, indeed, for it is only through the individual that the integral consciousness can emerge. Logic and rationality are only the means of individualisation. Back to Discussion (Topic:Some thoughts on the Vedic studies and Linguistics)

Note the following words—“presumably”, “does not seem”, “seems to have”, “may have”, “would have”. Is this history or guesswork?

proindie Sri Keshav Baliram Hedgewar, a medico, drew his inspiration from Swami Vivekananda, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Rishi Aurobindo.

Buddha and Sankara of course were two of the greatest philosophers to have graced this planet. Another equally great, Bhagavan Aurobindo, said so …
Hegel's Dialectical Idealism was reversed by Marx ( Dialectical Materialism ). Aurobindo integrated both Materialism and Idealism and called it Dialectical Integralism. He integrated Matter and Spirit. Matter is Brahman ( Padartham Brahma, Annam Brahma ) and is the outer garment of Spirit.


All life is Yoga. – Sri Aurobindo ... Jitendra Sharma: Professor of French and Chairman, Sri Aurobindo Society of Calicut at St. Joseph's ... My new book: 'Concept of Man in Sri Aurobindo's Poetry' - from Savitri Era Devotees by aurofrance

Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd, 2008 - Philosophy - 135 pages
On the life and works of Aurobindo Ghose, 1872-1950, Indic philosopher, nationalist, and poet; includes Hindi translation of 14 poems of Aurobindo by the author. User Review -   1 Review
mene is kitab ko parha hai. hindi bhasa me sriaurobido par dinkarji ke en nibandhon dwara jo prakas dala gaya hai vah bejorh hai. dinkarji ke ye nibandh tatha kavitaon ke hindi anubad unake sriaurobindo ke prati shradha ko darsati hai. meri vinati hai ki jo bhi sriaurobindo ko hindi ke madhyam se janana chahate hain uneh is pustak ko jarur padana chahiye. munni singh kushwah gwalior m. p. india  

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Acharya Abhay Dev was a great admirer of Maharshi Dayananda as well as Sri Aurobindo


Sri Aurobindo (= Sri Arvind Ghosh) wrote two essays in English on Maharshi Dayananda: (i) "Dayananda - The Man and his work" and (ii) "Dayananda and the Veda". There essays were published first time in 'Vedic Magazine' edited by Prof. Ramdev ji in two issues in the years - 1915 & 1916. Thereafter these brilliant essays of Sri Aurobindo got published in so many other magazines and also translated in to other regional languages including Hindi. These are published from Pondicherry in a book vide "Swami Dayananda" and "Bankim-Tilak-Dayananda". Sarvadeshik Sabha of Arya Samaj also published these books. The contents of these essays have been quoted in numerous books written on Swami Dayananda and his interpretation of the Vedas.
The Hindi translation of these essays is also done by more than one scholars. Sri Acharya Abhay Dev ji was a great Vedic scholar and he used to visit and stay at Sri Aurobindo Ashram-Pondicherry when Sri Aurobindo was alive, to practice Yoga. He was a great admirer of Maharshi Dayananda as well as Sri Aurobindo. PDF of these famous essays written by Sri Aurobindo on Maharshi Dayananda (Hindi translation by Acharya Abhay Dev ji) is attached herewith. 
These essays in Hindi was published in Oct-2008 issue of Hindi monthly "Yog-sandesh" of Patanjali Yog-peeth of Swami Ramdev ji Maharaj. Our acknowledgment is due to "Yog-sandesh" and its editor also for the same. I wish these essays will be widely read, utilized and circulated among the masses by the learned readers to spread the greatness of Dayananda and the true picture of his Vedic vision. = Bhavesh Merja 

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Western rationality clearly stands under the Upanishadic golden lid

Aurovillenews, for sale, Sri Aurobindo statue for sale · 0 · Sri Aurobindo Statue. I was Shocked at first when i saw this life size cement ...
Founded by Mira Alfassa, known as “the Mother”, companion of the yogi Sri Aurobindo, close to Pondichéry, Auroville is a space of dreams where the goal is ...
In The Life Divine and elsewhere Sri Aurobindo argues that humankind as an entity is not the last rung in the evolutionary scale, but can evolve spiritually ...
He was one of the founding members of Jugantar, a revolutionary outfit in Bengal. Barindra Ghosh was a younger brother of Arabindo Ghose (aka Sri Aurobindo) ...
A Monthly E-journal by Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondichery. ... Sri Aurobindo Foundation for Integral Management. Subscribe. Please Wait... Name: Email: ...
Sri Aurobindo has outlined this very succinctly in this chapter:]
philippe on Issues of inclusion v exclusion in Auroville Recent Comments by philippe  in reply to Rod Last Updated: May 19, 2011
Western rationality clearly stands under the upanishadic golden lid, it is not rationality that has to be removed but the lid we are dying under. The discovery and the opening up of the lid is the historical force that has destined India to be the leader .
Rationality cannot combat the pseudo, the twisting, the distorted, av is facing. It cannot even identify clearly the enemy. Here is the struggle : pseudo AV vs un-distorted AV. I do not think people need to be protected against any mass paranoiac psychosis, they rather need protection against soul’s assassination. Philippe Auroire.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Mangesh Nadkarni was a student of Prof. V.K. Gokak


I wanted to spread the message of spiritual leader, Sri Aurobindo and I have done it,” he said. He went on this expedition as part of the 'Prayer, ...
It was not a mere coincidence that the Rabindra Jayanti was held at Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Both Tagore (1861-1941) and Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) were ...
But all will not be lost if the teachings and works of the recent Spiritual Masters like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Ramana Maharishi are ...
Sri Aurobindo wrote: What, you ask, was the beginning of it all? And it is this... Existence that multiplied itself, for sheer delight of being. ...
During his college career, Nadkarni was a student of professor V.K. Gokak who influenced Nadkarni towards Sri Aurobindo's philosophy. Mangesh earned. ...
Book Lore M. K. Naik.
Among those who wrote in English outside England, we have Sri Aurobindo (India) and Patrick White (Australia). The general impression left on the reader's ...
4 - Fourth Dimension Inc. - Towards Integral Management
The author is a Research Associate at Sri Aurobindo Society and on the editorial board of Fourth Dimension Inc. His major areas of interest are Management ...
Sri Aurobindo and the Freedom of India. THE - ekNazar.com
The members of this society took an oath for the freedom of India. ... Mirra Richard—who was to be the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram—came to Pondicherry on ...
http://artcritique.wordpress.com/ Rabindranath Tagore’s Paintings: The Fundamental Dynamics of a Polysemic Descent of Consciousness and the Coplanar States of Being and Existence

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Stockhausen discovered Sri Aurobindo in 1968



German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, who is known for his ground-breaking contribution to Electronic Music, might have committed suicide after splitting from his wife, if it weren't for his reading of the biography of Bengali guru Sri Aurobindo, which is when the composition Aus Den Sieben Tagen came to him.



Stockhausen discovered the writings of Sri Aurobindo in May of 1968 and it is in these writings that he found clarification of his own individual philosophy. In the preface to Mantra, Stockhausen quotes Aurobindo who says that music like the mantra comes from the ‘overmind’: For anyone who has the capacity to enter more and more consciously into relation with the higher planes – poet, writer, artist – it is quite evident, perceptible, that after a certain level of consciousness it is no longer it is no longer ideas that one sees and tries to translate. One hears. There are literally vibrations or waves, rhythms which lay hold of the speaker, invade him, then clothe themselves with words and ideas or with music, colours, in their descent. But the word or the idea, the music, the colour, is a result, a secondary effect: they just give body to the impervious vibration

In Stimmung the swinging periodicities of repeated syllabic patterns conveys this feeling of impervious vibration that Aurobido talks of. This statement of Aurobindo equally holds true for Stimmung as it expresses an important aspect of Stockhausen’s thinking on music. Jonathan Cott writes:
Stockhausen has attempted to mediate between Eastern and Western musical traditions. His Development of a new time dimension, his exploration of sounds in space, his meditation of statistical and deterministic elements, his revelation how one can transubstantiate one musical parameter into another, and his presentation in his compositions of the process of these changes are all in the service of an integrating conception of art and life

Stockhausen surrounds himself with a close circle of devotees, many of whom share his enthusiasm for the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo: both his current "wives" - he is not legally married to either - are Aurobindo disciples, and his second wife, Mary Bauermeister, believes that these eastern philosophies have given her powers of astral projection which she uses to monitor Karlheinz's marital infidelities.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

The Mother had a unique bond of love and affection with Dilip Kumar Roy

from overman foundation overmanfoundation@gmail.com to overmanfoundation@yahoo.com bcc tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com date 12 February 2011 16:51 subject From Overman Foundation: The Mother’s Correspondence with Dilip Kumar Roy
Dear Friends, 
Not many people are aware of the fact that the Mother had a unique bond of love and affection with Dilip Kumar Roy (1897-1980), one of Sri Aurobindo’s most favourite disciples. Sri Aurobindo is reported to have written the maximum number of letters to Dilip Kumar Roy. Even after Sri Aurobindo’s accident in November 1938 which resulted in the cessation of all correspondence between Him and His other disciples, the epistolary exchanges between Sri Aurobindo and Dilip Kumar went on till the end of 1950. 
But not many people know that the Mother too had written numerous letters to Dilip Kumar. We take the opportunity of publishing a dozen of such letters written to Dilip Kumar Roy by the Mother.
To read the letters, please click on the following link: 
With warm regards, Anurag Banerjee 
Chairman, Overman Foundation

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Magic in images of daily life


From Paulette paulette@auroville.org.in Date 10 February 2011 03:36 subject THE MYSTIC SOUL OF NATURE: photographic exhibition
Nature is a world of wonder both in its grand cosmic design as in infinitesimal details. In this photographic exhibition I have tried to capture the magic found in images of daily life: misty mornings, foggy and rainy days, sunsets and sunrises and passing clouds, the intricacies of barks and branches, minute images of grass, aerial seeds and tiny wild flowers and dew drops...  A secret energy is at work, a numinous power that generates the evolution of countless forms, each of them a miracle of creation.
We have lost touch with the inner shaman, who is one with the divinity of Nature. We have to recover the untamed child within and look at beings and forms as the Divine in manifestation, inhabiting each and all, immanent, and transcendent.
“No one I am, I who am all that is”: truth of being and becoming.
Paulette

The show, presented by Apollo Children's Foundation and Astad Deboo Foundation, travels to Auroville on Feb 18, and to Pondicherry on the 20th. ...
Mohan, who was the head of the Auroville Bamboo Research Centre, believes that we need to renew our association with natural materials. ...
Sri Aurobindo discovered, for example, that there are several realms of ... According to Sri Aurobindo these other worlds are stacked in a spiral of lower ...
early 1900s and met nationalist poet and philosopher Sri Aurobindo, following the advice of his collaborator Mirra Alfassa, better known as The Mother'. ...
A FREED MAN Journey to the Farthest Reaches of the Self and to the Center of the Universe
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2011 Day 36 - 43 Day 36 - Body Memory
Check out this piece I wrote on Body Memory, which my friend that works at the garden with me posted on her wonderful blog! Evolutivity - Body Memory

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Sri Aurobindo Ashram's urgent call to the divided world


The Response of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother 85 RN Minor 6. The Response of Swami Bhaktivedanta 105 RD Baird 7. The Response of Modern Vaisnavism 129 KK Klostermaier 8. Saiva Siddhanta and Religious Pluralism 151 K. Sivaraman 9....
For a full discussion, see Robert N. Minor, "The Response of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother," in Modern Indian Responses to Religious Pluralism, ed. Harold Coward (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 85-104. 28. ...
For a thorough treatment of Aurobindo and Radhakrishnan on religious pluralism, see RN Minor, "The Response of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother" in HG Coward, pp. 85-104; and RN Minor, "The Christian Education of Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan,"...
I greet you in the name of the World Union which is the response of Sri Aurobindo Ashram's urgent call to the divided world for existence and for recovering its soul of unity. Sri Aurobindo's and the Mother's philosophy and practice of ...
On their view of other religions see Robert N. Minor, "The Response of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother," in Modern Indian Responses to Religious Pluralism, ed. by Harold Coward (Albany, 1987), pp. 85-104. ...
27. Ibid., p. 1062. 28. Ibid., XV, p. 127. 29. For a full discussion of Aurobindo's position toward "religion" and "the religions," see Robert N. Minor, "The Response of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother," ...
The Response of sri Aurobindo Ashram The Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry has been experimenting along these lines recognising the world cry and the urgent need, for the past thirty years. ...

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

She was known as Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa


From overman foundation overmanfoundation@gmail.com date 8 February 2011 12:30 subject From Overman Foundation: Photographs of the Mother’s early years.
Dear Friends, 
The late Pournaprema, the Mother’s youngest grand-daughter, whom we lovingly addressed as ‘Pourna-di’, has begun her book on the Mother titled A Unique Little Girl in the following words:

‘A unique little girl…
Do you understand what that means?
A unique little girl, is a little girl who is not ordinary.
I believe you know her… This is the little girl who is not ordinary.

This little girl is called Mirra—Mirra Alfassa. That is to say, right from her birth, she was called Mirra Alfassa, and her initials were M  A, MA. From the moment she was born she was called MA. On her clothes, on her sheets, on her dresses, there was embroidered: MA’

Today we take this opportunity of sharing with you some rare photographs of the Mother’s early years when She was known as Blanche Rachel Mirra Alfassa. These photographs were taken between 1883 and 1898. 
To view the photographs, please click on the following link: 
With warm regards, Anurag Banerjee 
Chairman, Overman Foundation.

Monday, February 07, 2011

Complete judgment of the Alipore Bomb Trial


From overman foundation overmanfoundation@gmail.com date 2 February 2011 17:17 subject From Overman Foundation: The Mother’s First Essay
Dear Friends, 
February is the month in which, on the 21st, the Mother’s birthday is celebrated in the Aurobindonian community. To commemorate the said occasion, we would publish from this week onwards till the 28th of February a number of documents related to the Mother’s life and works every week as tributes. 

Today we are starting our series of tributes to the Mother by publishing the first essay titled The Path of Later On which She had penned as a young girl of fifteen in 1893. To read the essay, please click on the following link: 
With warm regards, Anurag Banerjee 
Chairman, Overman Foundation.

From: overman foundation overmanfoundation@gmail.com Date: 30 January 2011 12:14 Subject: From Overman Foundation: Sri Aurobindo’s Messages on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi
Dear Friends,       
On 30 January 1948 Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at Birla House, New Delhi. On the said occasion, Sri Aurobindo had issued two statements. The first one was a telegram dated 4 February 1948 which was sent to Mr. Kumbi of Gadag, in reply to his telegram “DARKNESS SORROW SPREADS FAST INDIA BAPUJI DEATH CHILDREN PRAY MESSAGE’. It was later released to the newspapers. The second message was sent to All India Radio, Tiruchirapalli, on 5 February 1948 in response to a request for a message.

We take the opportunity of sharing these two messages with you. To read the two messages, please click on the following link: 
With warm regards, Anurag Banerjee 
Chairman, Overman Foundation.

From: overman foundation overmanfoundation@gmail.com Date: 5 January 2011 17:19 Subject: From Overman Foundation: Publication of The Alipore Bomb Trial Judgment.
Dear Friends,
It gives me immense pleasure to announce that on 30 December 2010 Overman Foundation has published its first research project in English, the unabridged version of the Alipore Bomb Trial Judgment rendered by C. P. Beachcroft on 6 May 1909. 

A portion of this judgment emphasizing mostly on Sri Aurobindo was published in the book, “The Alipore Bomb Trial” edited by B. K. Bose in 1922. But it is only through this publication of Overman Foundation that the complete judgment of the Alipore Bomb Trial has seen the light of the day. Not only will this book help the students of history but also the students of law.

Compiled and edited by Shri Anurag Banerjee, this e-book consisting of 149 pages is priced Rs. 50 (fifty) only. Those who would like to place an order may write to us at the following email addresses:
                                      overmanfoundation@gmail.com                                        overmanfoundation@yahoo.com 
With warm regards, Anurag Banerjee
Chairman,  Overman Foundation. 
                  http://overmanfoundation.wordpress.com/2011/01/05/publication-of-the-alipore-bomb-trial-judgment/