Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Abolish desire & replace by action of purer motive power

SRI AUROBINDO'S ARRIVAL TO PONDICHHERY. Meditation with the Mothers Music Evening 7:00 TO 7:30 P.M. Centre will remain open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Sri Aurobindo Society, 11, Sahakar, B Road, Churchgate- 200 020.

The Master Meets His Mission from Auromira Yoga by Dr. Ramesh Bijlani
Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Pondicherry on 4 April 1910 marks the culmination of a long and tortuous preparation that was necessary in his outer life before he could settle down with the mission of his life… An instrument of the Divine was needed to provide this message to the world, particularly the West, which was affected the most by the material prosperity and spiritual poverty generated by the industrial revolution. And, who could be better than Sri Aurobindo as that instrument – an intellectual giant who had 14 years of intelligent engagement with the West, and 14 years of self-study in the East, along with spiritual siddhis of the highest order. This rare instrument was too precious to be battered and bruised by the batons and bullets of the British police. Hence the divine intervention that forcibly pulled him out of the freedom struggle. [Excerpts from an article first published in The Call Beyond (A periodical published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram – Delhi Branch) April 2010] 


Peter Heehs, a US national who is a self-styled "scholar" and writer, published a book called The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, purporting to be a biography of Sri Aurobindo. By his own admission, Peter Heehs has no formal educational ...

As the intuitive and evolutionary thinkers like Sri Aurobindo and Teil-hard-de-Chardin have pointed out, the main evolutionary challenge facing humanity is the growth of consciousness from the rational, divisive and analytical consciousness of ...

Tweets santosh krinsky  @santoshk1 Sri Aurobindo. 1st condition of inner revolution & transformation of life energy: abolish desire & replace by action of purer motive power 1:29 PM - 4 Apr 12
Auroville Radio  @AurovilleRadio Kalarippayat, Mohiniyattam and Theyyam performed by Udayan's Masters at Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Auroville. http://bit.ly/Hf1ikz 1:01 PM - 4 Apr 12 via aurovilleRadio
Tunku Varadarajan  @tunkuv When a govt expels a historian, you can be sure it is thin-skinned, paranoid and pandering to the gallery of intolerance #Heehs #India
Gautam Chikermane  @gchikermane The book, The Many Lives of Sri Aurobindo, is the best biography of the freedom fighter turned spiritual leader. Most haven't read the book. The book has been banned on the advice of Orissa DG Intelligence - he hasn't read the book. Is India going to end up being the place from where all free speech, intellectuals, ideas will be banished? After Salman Rushdie and MF Husain, the fundamentalists have turned their guns on Peter Heehs, an ashramite serving in India for 41 years. As one who has read the book (The Lives of Sri Aurobindo), I can say that it's unlikely ever to be surpassed: Ram Guha 9:13 AM - 3 Apr 12 Real issue: India - country of Gita, Vedas, Upanishadas - cannot tolerate truth or alternative points of view. Heehs is latest victim. 12:19 PM - 4 Apr 12@RupaSubramanya Peter Heehs is an issue of religious fundamentalism, not security as claimed. His visa denial is a shame. 11:08 AM - 4 Apr 12

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Heehs' book has created a furore

Historian Peter Heehs asked to leave India for his latest book on Aurobindo. The scholar has spent four decades studying Aurobindo. Curious. Why should a historian and scholar be asked to leave India after four decades because "certain groups” are offended? Nandita Saikia  @nsaikia Historian Peter Heehs, who's spent 40 yrs studying Aurobindo, asked to leave India for his latest book on Aurobindo. 10:55 AM
The bigger question is: have we been so dulled into non-thinking by hagiographical works that we are unable to accept another view? Dismayed that other newspapers have not taken up the Peter Heehs issue seriously - it is almost as big as Salman Rushdie, MF Husain. Chidambaram must send a strong signal to religious fundamentalists: stop harassing thinkers - if you don't like their work, don't read it. Apart from 30 intellectuals, politicians from Congress and BJP are supporting Peter Heehs stay in India. PC orders review into historian's visa row: my story on Peter Heehs's needless harassment 9:08 AM
PUDUCHERRY: American Historian Peter Heehs whose book 'Lives of Sri Aurobindo' raked up controversy is keeping his fingers crossed after Union home minister P Chidambaram said that he would review the Ministry's decision not to renew his visa, ...
PUDUCHERRY: Home minister P Chidambaram will review the decision to cancel the visa of American historian Peter Heehs, who wrote the controversial biography 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo' in 2008. He will make his decision by Monday, he told reporters.
Replying to questions about American historian Peter Heehs, Mr. Chidambaram said that he would review the decision on cancellation of the visa to the historian who was living in Puducherry by Monday. Mr. Heehs was asked to leave the country after he ...
Home minister P Chidambaram on Saturday asked for a review of an order denying American historian Peter Heehs a visa extension. Heehs, who has been living in India for the past 41 years, was abruptly told by the foreigners' registration office (FRO) in ...
NEW DELHI: Home Minister P Chidambaram will review the decision on cancellation of the visa of a US historian Peter Heehs, living in Puducherry, and will take a decision on it by Monday. Heehs was asked to leave the country after he had spent nearly ...
The ostensible reason for the non-extension of Heehs's visa, according to sources, is his ninth book, 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo'. For years, a handful of religious fundamentalists have been harassing Heehs over his treatment of Sri Aurobindo's ...
Posthuman Destinies - Cancellation of US historian Peter Heehs’s visa to be reviewed: P Chidambaram - Heehs Biography Controversy (SCIY) - SA used different terminologies and different formulations in different texts, this doesn’t necessarily mean he abandoned one for the other. debbanerji Posted March 14, 2012 Permalink
Auroville Radio - Sharing Auroville`s life and spirit - A way to Divine Anarchy 
31 March 2012: Don't expel US historian, govt told Addendum: The question about the relationship between Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is only one of dozens of objections raised by that handful of religious fundamentalists; it is not even mentioned in the Orissa Gazette Notification. It is, however, what appears to produce the most visceral effect in the public, for reasons we fail to understand. Heehs made it perfectly clear that there was no sexual element at all in this relationship. On the contrary, what he wrote underscores its profoundly sacred nature. Only readers with a serious Freudian hang-up can fail to see this. Moreover, we are aware that Minister Jairam Ramesh has read and greatly appreciated The Lives of Sri Aurobindo. He has written Heehs privately about this and also mentioned it in his letter to the Home Minister. We regret that the writer of this otherwise excellent report did not quote from JR's letter the positive comments about the book, along with the lines relating to the larger issue of freedom of expression. — Editors, IYF. Recent Additions
9 August 2011: Review by Antony Copley