Sri Aurobindo and The Mother suggested to read their works with your heart, not your head

Adventures in Exploring a New Faith (by Mrs. G.) from One Cosmos

I was raised in a secular Jewish home, but even as a young child I was a seeker and wanted to know God. I even went to a variety of different services with neighbors and with my grandparents, and was exposed early on to Reform Judaism and the Episcopalian church, as well as a 70's style of spiritual seeking with looser parameters, but based on Christianity.

Currently, I'm a devotee of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. I don't have any problem with that practice for myself, and I've been very faithful to it, for lack of a better term. I'm a true believer, you could say. But once Tristan arrived, I now have him to consider. Magic 8 ball kept saying, "answer hazy, ask again later." I knew The Mother would let me know what to do when the time came, and recently, she did...

When I was first exposed to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, they each suggested to read his work with your heart, not your head. That's not exactly how they said it, but the idea was not to intellectually try to understand and analyze each concept, but to notice how you respond in your heart and soul to what you're reading. I took this approach this morning... Thanks! Leslie (Mrs. G)

Toward a truly suprarational and transformational spirituality

I tend to be biased against religion, which usually makes my interaction with religious people difficult, if not impossible. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother also came down hard on religion, with Sri Aurobindo going so far as to say:

There are two for whom there is hope, the man who has felt God’s touch and been drawn to it and the sceptical seeker and self-convinced atheist; but for the formularists of all the religions and the parrots of free thought, they are dead souls who follow a death that they call living.

But of course they also acknowledged the role religion had played in providing humanity with a moral foundation. Their vision encompassed the past, the present and the future, and as a result they were able to maintain a certain detachment that would allow them to criticize religion without anger, ill-will or resentment. The rest of us are nowhere near that level of enlightenment. I generally have a hard time tolerating religious apologetics and the like, which always strike me as shallow and superficial, based on very weak intellectual foundations (and hardly any authentic spiritual ones). I particularly have little or no tolerance for religious justifications or apologetics for sexism.

I guess I am just reminding myself that this is something that I need to work on — my biases against religion and the anger and ill-will they generate within me, which is an obstacle to my own self-giving. May God’s grace help me overcome these weaknesses. My Anti-Religion Biases from The Stumbling Mystic by ned

He whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts

Eternal, he assents to Fate and Time / Immortal dallies with mortality / The All-Conscious ventured into Ignorance / He whose transcendence rules the pregnant Vasts / Prescient now dwells in our subliminal depths / The Absolute, the Perfect, the Alone / Has entered with his silence into space / He has made this tenement of flesh his own

(Sri Aurobindo).

Or, if you prefer an unassailable digital redoubt, "The One emerged from the Zero and proceeded to create the 1 and 0, which evolved and transcended themselves in the Cosmic 3." To be continued.... posted by Gagdad Bob at 10/18/2007 09:09:00 AM

We will miss this departed scholar from Bankikodla in Karnatak

Re: Prof Mangesh V Nadkarni
by Ranjan N Naik on Sun 14 Oct 2007 09:15 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Late Shri Mangesh V Nadkarni from Bankikodla earned M.A degree in English from Pune University and his PhD in English Literature from the UCLA, California US (year 1970). He was a Professor at Central Institute of English, Hyderabad, National University of Singapore(1985-93) and he was also one of the Chief Disciples of Aurobindo at Pondicherry.

I'm deeply saddened to hear the news about the death of Dr. Mangesh Vital Nadkarni, from our village. My thoughts are with his family (his wife and two daughetrs in the US) during this difficult time. I do remember meeting and chatting with Dr. Nadkarni, his wife and children at his Hyderabad house in the year 1986. Last month after many years, I got an opportunity to talk to him on phone while he was touring Bangalore on Savitri discourse he had undertaken since his departure as a professor of English. I wished I would meet him this time in the USA. I know we will miss this departed scholar from Bankikodla. May his soul rest in peace.

-Ranjan Naik, PhD (Mathematics) from Bankikodla.
Reply
by RY Deshpande on Mon 15 Oct 2007 02:42 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link
Dear Dr Ranjan Naik

It is interesting that you are from the same village Bankikodla in Karnatak wherefrom late Prof Mangesh V Nadkarni hailed. That prompts me to request you to write about your early associations with him, the family background, its culture, his village friends, community relationships, his school career, games, sports activities or whatever other aspects you might be able to recall. I shall be very happy to post it if you can send it as an article to me. Please indicate here, in fact I would urge you to do. We were pretty close here during the last fifteen years or so. My wife and Mrs Nadkarni are great friends and she will communicate your feelings to her. Presently her daughters are also here. Thanks RYD

The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were not interested in numbers

Ned Says: October 11th, 2007 at 3:40 pm Alan, regarding what you say about taking up the spiritual path when your personal issues are sorted out — this reminds me of something very important about Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. That is, they did not admit everyone into the Ashram. Auroville was (and is) open to all, but the Ashram was meant to be for people who truly were ready to put down all attachments and consecrate their lives totally to the Supreme and to the integral yoga. Mother and Sri Aurobindo were not interested in numbers, in gathering around them a large following of devotees just for the heck of it. There were many people whom they told clearly that they weren’t ready for the yoga, that they should basically go live the “normal” life and come back if/when they were truly ready for such a commitment. This is because the spiritual path is truly dangerous for someone who is not ready to take it up. The physical body kind of “protects” us from all the dangers of the occult worlds, but once you start going beyond the body, without a highly-developed psychic center, you are in big trouble, potentially.

Point being, I see this as a demonstration of how Mother and Sri Aurobindo took their responsibility as gurus very seriously. They were not willing to endanger their devotees. Compare this to pop-gurus who take on just about anyone, and then can’t handle it — and their devotees even end up with schizophrenic breaks and such things.

Dr. Mangesh V.Nadkarni passed away on 23 September 2007 at the age of 74

Dr. Mangesh V.Nadkarni passes away

Dr. Mangesh V.Nadkarni passed away on 23 September 2007 at the age of 74. A lover and follower of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, he has lectured extensively in India and abroad on Sri Aurobindo's vision and the spiritual heritage of India. His lecture series conducted regularly at the Society's premises in Puducherry, on Sri Aurobindo's 'Savitri' and "Essays on the Gita" were very popular. He had recently authored a book "India's Spiritual Destiny - Its Inevitability and Potentiality", wherein he puts forth succinctly the true destiny of India and the role all Indians will have to play in order to achieve it. sriaurobindosociety.org.in/oct07