Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Spirituality can be a resource in nation-building only if it is genuinely world-affirming

A Dialogue with Dr. Mangesh V. Nadkarni
P.N. Paranjape Inovcation 27. pdf

MVN: This turning was gradual and it began in my mid-twenties. i turned to Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy because i found it intellectually the most liberating and satisfying. Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy is neither for the world-weary nor for those whose minds are so befuddled that they can’t see the turban of doubt on the head of every purely rational, mental theory about man, nature and reality.

if by my ‘progress on the path’, you mean the progress I have made on the path of Yoga, let me say this. I find it interesting that this is a question that gets thrown at me quite a bit; it is a well-mannered way used by some of my cynical friends of being sarcastic about my interest in spiritual philosophy and in spiritual matters in general. The factual answer to this question is very difficult to give; at least I can’t give it about myself and then again, it cannot be of much use to other people, so it is not a very profitable question either to ask or to answer. But having said this, i should also point out that there is nothing exceptional or unique in that i am on the path of yoga.

According to Sri Aurobindo, there is nobody here who is not a yogi, who is not on the path of Yoga. After all what is Yoga if not Nature in the process of the evolution of consciousness? This progressive evolution of consciousness began with the state of seemingly inconscient Matter, and moved on to semi-conscient Life in trees and plants, and then to conscient life in animals and then to selfconscient mental consciousness in man. Which one of us has his existence outside of evolutionary Nature? Whether we know it or not, we are all participants in this process of the evolution of consciousness. And thus we are all yogis. This evolution in which all of us are participants is an adventure of consciousness. if the animal is the living laboratory in which Nature has worked out man, man himself may be a thinking and living laboratory in whom and with whose conscious cooperation Nature intends to work out the perfect manifestation of this evolving consciousness.

PNP: is spirituality an escape from day-to-day problems? Does it have anything to contribute to nation building?

MVN: Spirituality can be an escape from life, or from what you call ‘day-to-day’ problems. But in this it is no different from, say, a preoccupation with literature, social service, or with Linguistics or even women’s lib. it is the nature of your engagement that determines whether it is a creative engagement with life or a form of escape. in the case of spirituality, it all depends upon why one turns to spirituality, and what one understands by spirituality. if you turn to spirituality because this world has not been kind to you, or if you seek in spirituality a private world into which you can retreat when you find it hard to face the realities of life around you, then it is a form of escape. if, on the other hand, you turn to spirituality because you are not happy with the way of your being and want to discover your real self, the inner being, and live from that consciousness, then it is not an escape from what is called day-to-day problems. For this you need to explore all the dimensions of your consciousness and establish the real ‘you’ in the place of the present surface ‘you’ who is confined so much within the shell of the ego.

Most of us do not realise that in our present mode of being we cannot see the world or understand it except through this coloured glass of the ego; only some people feel suffocated in the prison-house of the ego. They wish to step out of the fantasy-land of the ego and step into the world of reality.

That is genuine spirituality. You can really understand the world and its problems only when you transcend your ego. Once you have really understood the problems of this world, then you can work on them with the resources of your new consciousness. For me the aim of spirituality is the terrestrial perfection of human life, but such perfection cannot be achieved through the resources of human reason or mental consciousness operating through the grid of the ego. it requires the resources of a spiritual consciousness. We have today too many people vending answers to problems which they have not really understood. That is why in human history most of the revolutions have failed to realise their promise. This was true of Karl Marx as much as it is of your local politician or moral reformer or religious zealot. Even to know what really afflicts man, one needs the light of the spirit.

As i see it, there are two kinds of spirituality, the worldnegating spirituality, and the world-affirming spirituality. Spirituality can be a resource in nation-building only if it is genuinely world-affirming, such as the spirituality of Vyasa in ancient india and of Sri Aurobindo in modern india. Well, for anything like an adequate answer, this question too, like some of your other questions, would need more space than we have here. But for our present purposes this should suffice.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore

Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore July 2008 Birthdays
July 3rd Namrata Desai hiren.india@gmail.com
July 4th Rita Mehta shailendrabhandari@hotmail.com
July 5th Tara Jauhar Aurobindo@vsnl.com
July 6th Mr. KN Singaram kannappan_singaram@rediffmail.com
July 7th J.K. Gopalratnam Jkgopalratnam2000@yahoo.co.in
July 11th Balwantbhai Desai hiren.india@gmail.com
July 14th Aakash mehtaami_66@hotmail.com
July 18th Dillan Dipak Patel dhimantp@gmail.com
July 20th Dr. Kiran Kashyap sukinaela@yahoo.com.sg
July 21st Mrs Jayalakshmi Krishnamurthy swatiki@singnet.com.sg
July 22nd John Dyne soniadyne@onetel.com
July 24th Aniruddh Hiran Desai hiren.desai@gmail.com
July 24th Andrew soniadyne@onetel.com
July 24th Mrs Kripa Lok Kek Seng lokkeks@yahoo.com.sg
July 26th Sucheta Nadkarni solety@gmail.com
July 27th Priya Mariaanie kmariannie@yahoo.fr
July 28th Tejasvini Patelanand456@hotmail.com
July 29th Mrs Santosh Ravi Lal Kashyap krishankashyap@hotmail.com
July 31st Priyanka Kashyap Priyanka234@yahoo.com
August 2008 Birthdays
Aug 1st Maya Dev
Aug 3rd Mrs Sartha jsriar@hotmail.com
Aug 3rd Sushmita suvarna@singnet.com.sg
Aug 4th Tanvi raotanvi@hotmail.com
Aug 4th S. Sivakumar kannappan_singaram@rediffmail.com
Aug 5th Late Mr. Devan Nair miraur@nas.net
Aug 5h Harry Jr soniadyne@onetel.com
Aug 5th Michael soniadyne@onetel.com
Aug 6th Jagdish Parihar jagdish@olamnet.com
Aug 6th Subhi jyotiswarup@hotmail.com
Aug 8th Adrian Curic curic@imag.fr
Aug 11th Ashish Maheshwary ashish94@hotmail.com
Aug 11th Venkatramanan venkatsn88@yahoo.com
Aug 11th Devinder Bhalla
Aug 12th Priyanka Patelanand456@hotmail.com
Aug 13th Mr. Prabhudeva shape@pacific.net.sg
Aug 13th Mr Arindam Mukherjee arindam54@hotmail.com
Aug 15th 136th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo (Darshan Day)
Aug 15th Rakesh Kashyap shashi_kashyap@uacarpet.com.sg
Aug 15th Mr Kalu Sarkar sarkar@auroville.org.in
Aug 17th Kishan Kashyap krishankashyap@hotmail.com
Aug 17th Aishwarya
Aug 18th Renu Parihar jagdish@olamsin.com.sg
Aug 19th Mr Nagendra Dixit nagen@vsnl.com
Aug 19th Late Sri Kurma Rao raos@starhub.net.sg
Aug 22nd Archana Patel aabu@pacific.net.sg
Aug 22nd Mr Sraddhalu Rande sranade@md2.vsnl.net.in
Aug 24th Suvarna suvarna@singnet.com.sg
Aug 26th Lalbhai Mehta
Aug 26th Prof S Kandaswami skandaswami@hotmail.com
Aug 27th Anuvrat Rao anuvratk@hotmail.com
Aug 30th Sakthivel vats009@hotmail.com

Friday, July 25, 2008

Which page in Savitri by Sri Aurobindo I have to read daily to get admission in a good University

IndusLadies > Family and Relationship > Religion & Spirituality > About Saints & Spirituality
Devotees of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Discuss Devotees of pondicherry mother and aurobindo, on IndusLadies. Devotees of pondicherry mother and aurobindo - Postings about religious saints and other spiritual information are shared here.

SHASHU Join Date: May 2007 City: Mumbai State: Maharashtra Country: India
Re: is there any devotee of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Hello.... Dear Suja.....I am a devotee of Mother......since many years. I had been once to Pondi...Whenever i see mother's photo...feel that she just looks thru you...Have you read an article in "Mangayar Malar" about Mother... Its really great and she looks cho chweet in her child wood days....rgdsshashu

ramaarajappa Join Date: Jul 2008 City: chennai State: tamilnadu Country: India
Re: Devotees of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Hey I am Ramaa from chennai. I am a devotee of Mother Pondicherry. My two sons are goig apply for higher studies in US. can anyone suggest me Which page in SAVITRI by AUROBINDO i have to read daily to get admission in a good University.and also to score good marks in GRE exams

Bhooma Join Date: Feb 2006 City: Chennai State: Tamil Nadu Country: India
Re: Devotees of pondicherry mother and aurobindo

Hi PoorniI dont know what you mean by "calling Mother".. I have been a devotee of Mother for many years now and let me share here what I do everyday. everyday new flowers are kept .. and I keep 1.25 every day in a container. When I visit the Ashram I take this money and drop it in the box. I also 'talk' to Mother whenever I feel like .. when i am happy/sad/upset/elated about something ...

I also make "single flower" offerings for 21 days .. ( that is each day.. one single species of flowers is kept). no species of flower is repeated on these 21 days.On the first of each month, I make extra special floral arrangements... and as usual seek her Blessings. This is my prayer for everyday. Bhooma

Bhooma Join Date: Feb 2006 City: Chennai State: Tamil Nadu Country: India
Re: Devotees of pondicherry mother and aurobindo
Dear Poornima, I honestly dont know why it is 1.25. Maybe the next time there is a prayer meeting I will confirm with the people who are more knowledgeable and let you know.

regarding flowers.. Mother loves flowers .. You can keep any flower you want. I buy flowers on a daily basis . so I use that . Otherwise on my morning walks I pick up a couple of flowers and use them too. In my next posting I shall send details of the various flowers and their significance .. I had picked this up during one of the prayer meetings Cheers. Bhooma

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Joy, Agni and Maurizio will guide the chanting of The Mother’s mantra “Om Namo Bhagavaté”

Singing Mother's mantra
Amphitheatre, Matrimandir ::: 7:00 PM
A M P H I T H E A T E R - M A T R I M A N D I R
Sunday 27 July - 7.00 pm
we will sing Mother’s mantra “Om Namo Bhagavaté”
Joy, Agni and Maurizio (acoustic guitars)
will guide the chanting
Everyone is welcome to join chanting or just be…
(Please carry your torch light for the steps)
Duration: about an hour
Amphitheatre Group
posted by suryanina

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A tribute to Sri Aurobindo on his 137th Birth Anniversary on 15th August, 2008

7.14.2008 The Life of Sri Aurobindo
The Life of Sri Aurobindo: A tribute to him on his 137th Birth Anniversary on 15th August, 2008: A tribute to a man who left Extremism in search of Complete Peace
(A special dharma and darshan is organized on 15th August, 2008 at Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry)

Foreword: As an Alma matter of Aurobindo International School under the wings of Aurobindo Ashram at Chandernagore, Bengal, I take pride to write this article on his 137th Birth Anniversary this 15th August, 2008. A special tribute to him; my small 4 page article though is not enough to speak of his works, yet as a life disciple of him, I have tried to sketch out important events of his life in this summary.

Anybody interested in attending the Dharma can contact the Ashram office at SABDA, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, 123, S.V. Patel Salai (North Boulevard), Pondicherry - 605 002, India. # +91-413- 334980, 223328, 334072 or Fax: +91-413- 223328, 334836 or can contact me at 99802-06747 ... By Arunava Das, Media Analyst 14 July, 2008