A large number of them came from Odisha

Book controversy takes an ugly turn The Hindu PUDUCHERRY, February 28, 2012 UNREST: Devotees staging dharna outside the Ashram Trust in Puducherry on Monday. Photo: T. Singaravelou A few Aurobindo devotees stage dharna alleging that it has distorted the facts The issue over the controversial book on Sri Aurobindo took an ugly turn 4:45 AM

Political corruption and the misuse of language

Strong people do not abuse, stronger people do not even respond to abuse… Self-restraint is required - so that the discussion doesn't degenerate into mud-slinging. But ideas and narratives need to be challenged. 

We have to challenge the Muslim Narrative that all is fine, even great, with Islam and everything wrong is America's fault. We have to challenge the Hindu Narrative that the ultimate discovery has happened here and that all is great about India. And that mindset that finds nothing great or learnable in other cultures and religions. 

We have to challenge the Secularist's Narrative that both Hindu and Muslim narratives are equally pernicious. No Sir. The Islamic Narrative today is far more dangerous than any other. Not a cinch of a doubt about that. Regards, Dilip [sbicitizen] RE: History and Narratives 1:32 PM From: Dilip Kumar Roy sbicitizen 20 February 2012 diliproy@gmail.com

There is the double-speak of the secularists that seeks to feel itself superior to the rest of the hoi-polloi by finding fault with Hindutva, but stays silent on Muslim fundamentalism. Or they construct false equivalence - equating the Hindutva and Islamic fundamentalism. It is this tribe that does the most damage 8:53 PM

How “narrative” moved from literature to politics & what this means for covering candidates Poynter.org - ‎ by Roy Peter Clark Published Feb. 20, 2012

How narrative moved beyond literary analysis - John Lanchester offers a brief take on this phenomenon in the London Review of Books:

“Back when I was at university, the only people who ever used the word ‘narrative’ were literature students with an interest in critical theory. Everyone else made do with ‘story’ and ‘plot’.  Since then, the n-word has been on a long journey towards the spotlight – especially the political spotlight. Everybody in politics now seems to talk about narratives all the time; even political spin-doctors describe their job as being ‘to craft narratives.’ We no longer have debates, we have conflicting narratives. It’s hard to know whether this represents an increase in PR sophistication and self-awareness, or a decrease in the general level of discourse.”

In 1947 it was another Brit, George Orwell, who posited a direct relationship between political corruption and the misuse of language. But Orwell’s attention was fixed on language at the level of words and phrases: the use of euphemism to veil unspeakable horrors; empty slogans meant as a substitute for critical thinking; pretentious jargon designed to lend authority to special interests. While Orwell wrote many powerful narratives – fiction and nonfiction – he showed little interest in theories of political narratives in the way Lanchester describes.

The use of narrative for political purposes was not invented in this century or even the last. It is a standard lesson of Shakespeare scholarship that the Bard’s history plays, such as the Richard and Henry plays, tilted the historical record in favor of the Tudor dynasty (the family that gave England Queen Elizabeth I), an act of political dramaturgy that provided the playwright cover and, no doubt, financial rewards.

The long journey of narrative described by Lanchester took many professional stops before it arrived so conspicuously in the barrio of spin-doctors, speech writers, and other political handlers. For decades now, narrative theory has wended its way through the worlds of medicine, law, and business management, just to name the most obvious arenas.  

[But I suppose it sounds more sophisticated, more critical-analytical. from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek (Graham Harman)]

Spiritual activist has a double task

Spiritual Activism, Spiritual Passivity And Integral Yoga

Larry Seidlitz

Spiritual Activism has recently become a popular movement in the New Age spiritual literature and community, having received strong impetus from the work of Andrew Harvey, author and founder of the Institute for Sacred Activism; Deepak Chopra, author, and founder of the Chopra Foundation and member of the evolutionary leaders network; Michael Lerner, author and founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives; Claudia Horwitz, author and founder of Stone Circles; Will Keepin, author and co-founder and director of Satyana Institute; Carla Goldstein, director of the Women’s Institute, a unit of Omega Institute, as well others. It has been an increasingly important topic in academics with influential books and papers by such writers as Barbara Marx Hubbard, AnaLouise Keating, Alastair McIntosh, Roger S. Gottlib, Ken Jones, David Loy, Donald Rothberg, and many others. ...

Summary and Conclusion

The recent explosion of interest in spiritual activism is a healthy development in the field of spirituality, carrying it beyond a self-centred focus on individual health and development towards a fuller embrace of the world and its challenges. However, in its movement outward towards engagement with world challenges, spirituality must maintain its inner centre and poise in the spirit. Sri Aurobindo’s ideal of the divine life, which entails a radical transformation of both the individual and collective existence, does just that. In order to bring to bear the necessary spiritual power that can truly transform and divinise the outer life, it strives to reach the highest heights of inner spiritual experience and realisation. It is relatively easier to attain a settled inner state of spiritual peace and harmony when one withdraws from the world and its problems, it is when one aims to change the outer life and the world that the fullness of the inner spiritual realisation is more severely tested and challenged. Thus, the spiritual activist has a double task, to attain the inner poise of the spiritual consciousness, and to maintain it in the midst of engagement with the problems of the world. … Our activism should be more as a catalyst awakening these divine powers in others than as a combatant, though sometimes combat too is required when the opposition is fierce and unrelenting in its obstruction to the truth that is emerging from within.

These are all very fine as high spiritual ideals, one might counter, but as long as we remain stuck in our limited human consciousness, tethered to our mental and vital existence, what are we to do about the gross injustices and the destruction of our planet? Are we to sit quietly and meditate while our fellow human beings are abused and the world is destroyed? This is the difficult dilemma in which we find ourselves, and we feel that we must act. It is here that the Bhagavad Gita advises us to act, but to do our actions as a conscious offering to the Divine. We must act more and more with the sense and feeling that it is the Divine within us that is carrying out the actions through us and that we are merely conscious instruments for his work. Indeed it is the Divine that in reality always acts through all actions, whether we are conscious of it or not.

The key is to become conscious of it, and to more and more align our will and force with the Divine Will and Force, to filter out competing mental preferences and vital desires. If we act unconsciously of the divine impetus behind our actions, the Divine will work through our unconscious and limited instruments, but if we act consciously, the Divine will work through our conscious, responsive and therefore more effective and powerful instruments. This inclusion of the dynamic parts of our nature, our abilities to carry out effective and complex actions in the world in conscious unity with the Divine, is the important and necessary ingredient in a true spiritual activism. This comes only through practice, through work done while consciously referring the work to the Divine Force behind. It does not come through meditation or inaction. Act we must, it is impossible to completely cease to act, so it is best that we act consciously, referring our actions to the Divine, seeking the Divine’s guidance, and progressively aligning and attuning our actions with the Divine Will and Force.

Sraddha-Feb'12 Cover: Usha R Patel’s painting Divine Presence Contents

The Mother Sri Aurobindo 7

VANDE MATARAM Srimat Anirvan 17

The Purpose Of The Mother's

Embodiment Upon Earth Kalpana Bidwaikar 19

Spiritual Principles Of Management Ananda Reddy 22

Sri Aurobindo's Perspective On The

Four Major Powers Of The Devi

In Integral Yoga And East-West

Psychology Hilary Anderson 37

Veda Vyasa's Mahabharata In

Sri Aurobindo's Savitri Prema Nandakumar 48

The Human Aspiration Debashish Banerji 60

Sri Aurobindo’s Metaphysics Of The

Supermind : On How To Make

Sense Of The Transcendence Of Mind R C Pradhan 86

A Primer Of Gita Daniel Grings 99

Ancient Indian Wisdom And

Contemporary Challenges Kireet Joshi 118

Revisiting The Vedas In The Light

Of The Yogic Experiences Of

Sri Aurobindo L Vijai 126

Spiritual Activism, Spiritual Passivity

And Integral Yoga Larry Seidlitz 134

Huta, ‘The Offered One’

- A Very Special Child Of The Mother Shraddhavan 151

Notes on Authors 153 (Includes names of those contributors whose writings have not appeared in this journal before)

Daniel Grings was born and raised in Germany. He came to Auroville in 2002 for a year of social work, teaching and helping with research in education. He has been staying in and around Auroville since, pursuing studies in Sanskrit, Indian philosophy and related subjects as well as freelance writing. Hilary Anderson, Ph.D. is Professor Emerita and Adjunct Faculty at California Institute of Integral Studies. She formerly served CIIS as Professor, Dean and Founding Board Member. In 1992, she founded the Universal Way Foundation in Los Angeles to support educational programmes and seasonal celebrations promoting self-sovereignty and cross-cultural regard for all spiritual pathways. As a scholar, lecturer, therapist, she presents a rich synthesis of Eastern and Western mythology and psychology, emphasising major Divine Feminine orientations. Publications include numerous essays/articles on Integral Studies and oracular symbolism.

(Dr.) Kalpana Bidwaikar is working as an Assistant Professor of English in a Government Post Graduate College at Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh). She has kept herself engaged with intense study of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri and was awarded PhD for the same. She has been delivering lectures on the vision and works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother at various places in the state and Delhi. She is an active member of Sri Aurobindo Society, Pondicherry. She has authored a book titled —‘‘ Transformation of Consciousness in Savitri” which was published by SACAR in 2011. One of her recently published paper is “Odyssey of The Life Divine”, brought out by the magazine “Mother India” in the October issue from Pondicherry. The author can be contacted at kalpanacb@rediffmail.com ; 91 92291 40103

Vijai, Dr. L Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Collegiate Education Department of the Government of Kerala and currently working in Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram. Has worked previously in University College, Thiruvananthapuram and Maharaja’s College, Ernakulam. He was a JRF of ICPR (2003-2005) and did his doctoral dissertation entitled “On Consciousness:Sankara and Aurobindo” under the guidance of Prof. S. Panneerselvam in the University of Madras. Has over 25 research articles and a few publications to his credit and is associated with IGNOU in various capacities. He is the Secretary of the Kerala Philosophy Association, a registered organisation that works for the promotion and empowerment of philosophy in Kerala. 

Integral Yoga Activism: An exploration of its foundational elements and practices udini.proquest.com - Social Sciences > Spirituality Dissertation Author: Charles Ismael Flores. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's written work is examined as a basis and starting point for ... Chapter 1 Introduction

This work explores the possibility of a new field of individual and social action that I will call Integral Yoga Activism, or IYA. It is based upon action from the integral consciousness as espoused by the Indian seer-philosopher, born Aravinda Akroyd Ghose, but known as Sri Aurobindo, and his spiritual collaborator, Mira Alfassa, who was referred to, and will be henceforward called in this work, "the Mother." The term "Integral Yoga" will be written beginning with capital letters, with respect to the way Sri Aurobindo and the Mother referred to their own creation. "Integral Yoga Activism" will likewise be written beginning with capital letters throughout this work, since it originates directly from Integral Yoga.

The World Crisis The advent of modern technologies has provided great boons to humanity in countless fields of endeavor; and has provided more material comforts and wealth to more people than could have been imagined in ancient times. Vast amounts of food are produced, modern medicine allows some people to live longer, and there is greater potential connectivity with every other person on the planet through technology. The benefits of the technology are so numerous that most of us who live today cannot even begin to imagine what it was like when the technology did not exist, until we step into a "Third World" country that has less-developed technologies. A large portion of humanity has been the beneficiary of the wonders of modern innovation. Yet there exists a widespread mindset that a grave price has been paid for these benefits. Most of the popular and scholarly authors who attempt to assess the current condition and the future of humanity appear to agree that humanity is not doing well, and that humanity, in fact, is headed toward one or many major catastrophes. There is a popular notion, which owes its roots to a number of pre- modern religious traditions, that these changes are in fact the sign of the "end times." Strains of eschatology can be found in almost all the major world religions (Hong 1981; Koslowski, 2002) but can perhaps be found most prominently in the Christian and Islamic traditions that predict an apocalypse in their scripture.

The concepts of a redeemer and a final judgement are a cornerstone of these traditions" belief systems, which have sometimes led to dangerous movements resulting in martyrdom, terrorism, and the taking up of arms. Some of these new these movements are secular, such as those that predict environmental apocalypse, and those that predict a technological doomsday. (Robbins & Palmer, 1997; see also Borchardt, 1990).

In these popular conceptions, all that is wrong and "evil" in the world, from wars and famines to climate changes and tsunamis, are signs that the end of the world is very near. At the current time, the year 2012 has captured the minds of many as the year the world will end, either through frightening visions of nano and bio-plagues and dirty nuclear bombs from terrorists, large-scale environmental destruction, or the final collapse of an unsustainable global financial machine. Many of these fears may have substantial scientific validity. Whether people have a modern and nuanced understanding of world events, or an outdated and simplistic one, there is often the strong belief that signs of the times point to an inexorable end to the world as it currently exists. Scholars in numerous fields over the last few decades have attempted to use rational means to interpret the phenomenon of global hypercomplexity, which is created by the deepening interdependence of individuals and systems. Simple linear analyses of problems in particular fields of knowledge, if they ever were helpful, are now clearly inadequate to understand today's systems. There are a number of scholars who claim that many of these problems constitute a world crisis from which humanity and the ecosystem may not recover, and that only the actions of large collective movements could avert catastrophe. This all makes sense to me, but only to a point. We are at an intellectual impasse. The extreme difficulty of knowing what impact that grassroots movements, corporate, and governmental actions will have on hypercomplex systems illustrates the limits of current rational thinking. The current governmental attempts to bail out the world financial system highlight the fact that no one knows what to do, even after all of the old tools are being tried. There is no guarantee that enormous government stimulus and corporate bailout interventions will work, but even the best thinkers do not really know what to do. I do not believe that a giant supercomputer will ever be invented that can take into account all global factors to solve these problems. There will always be the horizon of the unknown that, like the mathematical asymptote, we will never reach using the mind.

In what follows, I explore the possibility that Integral Yoga Activism may provide a different point of view about what constitutes a "problem" in our complex global system, and contribute a discernment that does not derive from solely discursive rational analysis, deconstruction, and critical theory, but from the direct experience of spiritual inter-relatedness and unity, and a greater consciousness of the impacts of one's own movements within that web. It does not blindly accept eschatological views of the "common person," or the conservative and the progressive agendas as they are usually framed. Integral Yoga Activism, quite unlike these scholarly analyses, and even other forms of spiritual activism, focuses instead upon the role of the individual and personal decision making in the face of complexity that is really beyond the limits of simple rational choice. It takes very seriously the motto, "one man can make a difference," as long as that one man or woman is an instrument of a higher consciousness. The examples of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother may pave the way to an alternative approach within which the individual may operate. An Integral Yoga Activist could, through yogic means, connect to a wider consciousness, which would in turn guide the activist to decide what is the correct action for her to take, and to employ both material (standard) and yogic subtle means to act in the world. The current capacity of each individual to operate in this way will vary greatly, and what form of action an individual may take may be unique to each person. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother's approach strongly suggests a different kind of spiritual engagement with the world. Sri Aurobindo and the Mother as Integral Yoga Activists Sri Aurobindo is the prime example of Integral Yoga Activism for this study. He is an example of a traditional activist who began with a secular emphasis, but who eventually turned into a yogic "integral" activist. …

As I explore the emergence of Integral Yoga Activism, I find that although the dualistic notions of "inner" and "outer," and to some degree, "individual" and "collective," are useful constructs to describe and research reality—particularly for Ken Wilber's own understanding of integral, which is used methodologically in this work, they may create false dichotomies for personal action. Integral Yoga Activism requires a complete reorientation toward world problems, globalization, and such dichotomies. It emphasizes how one should act, from the wellspring of a deep spiritual understanding of the relationship of one's role in the many, and how one's individual actions influence the world through its underlying unity in diversity in the world. In the work toward this primary objective, there are some secondary research objectives that require investigation. The articulation of the principles of a spiritually engaged activism based on Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is another goal of this project. Through the exploration of these principles, this work also aims to identify what Integral Yoga Activism that currently exists in Auroville and the United States, and areas for its future development.

Corporations, cities, crime and war

Re: Organising Action from sbicitizen at Yahoo! Groups by devinder singh gulati

The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory, first developed by the German sociologist Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties. It states that …

The human economy in a revolutionary moment: political aspects of the economic crisis from The Memory Bank by keith

Jean-Louis and I based our conversation on what Marcel Mauss and Karl Polanyi understood by economic change, since we were looking for a more positive construction than a simple negation; and this is where the idea of a human economy came from. What makes an economy “human”?

First, it privileges people before abstractions. People make and remake their economic lives and that has to be the basis for thinking about economy. Any economics has to be accessible to them as a practical guide to how they manage those lives. But the economy is human in another sense too in that we increasingly confront economic problems and dilemmas as humanity. The future of humanity as a whole is at stake in the economic crises that we face and not just the world seen through the blinkers of national politics and media. So the idea of a human economy points in these two directions: towards what people really do and extending our perspectives to a global level, if possible…

I have been working quite closely for 5 or 6 years now with my friend and colleague at Goldsmiths, David Graeber. He is an anarchist who was prominent from the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. His book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years, is a best-seller. His politics inform his economic analysis; and he has always taken an anti-statist and anti-capitalist position, with markets usually subsumed under the concept of capitalism. That is, he sees the future and the means of getting there as being based on the opposite of our capitalist states. The core of his politics is “direct action” which he has practised and written about as ethnography. I have always been centre-left with a liberal streak, but my mentor, the person from whom I have learned most, was the West Indian revolutionary, C.L.R. James and through him I gained a literary interest in the history of revolutions. 

In our book, Jean-Louis and I argued that people everywhere rely on a wide range of organizations in their economic lives: markets, nation-states, corporations, cities, voluntary associations, families, virtual networks, informal economies, crime and war. We should be looking for a more progressive mix of these things. We can’t afford to turn our backs on the institutions that have helped us make the modern transition to the world society that humanity now lives in. Large-scale bureaucracies co-exist with varieties of popular self-organization and we have to make them work together rather than at cross-purposes, as they often are now. All of these are responses to the challenges posed by the modern world and we need to combine them at a new and more inclusive level.

David and I agree on much of the economics. As anthropologists, we both claim inspiration from Marx and Mauss in departing from mainstream economics. Our theories of money are pretty close. Although he is less explicitly indebted to Polanyi, he too believes that economic life everywhere may be understood as a plural combination of moral principles – what he calls baseline sociality or communism, reciprocity and hierarchy – which take on a different complexion when organized by dominant social forms. Thus helping each other as equals is essential to capitalist societies, but capitalism is a terrible way of bringing it out effectively. But at the same time he believes that a radical rupture with the norms of capitalist states is necessary if we are to realise out human potential through a new kind of political economy. At first, I saw our positions as being incompatible, but recent political developments now persuade me otherwise…

I have not yet come across a civil society movement capable of launching a communications satellite. So there probably will be room for mutual accommodation between large-scale and small-scale economic organization in any imaginable future. The political terms of their cooperation remain to be settled, of course and there lies the scope for revolution…

Three things count in our societies — people, machines and money, in that order. But money buys the machines that control the people. Our political task – and I believe it was Marx’s too – is to reverse that order of priority, not to help people escape from machines and money, but to encourage them to develop themselves through machines and money. To the idea of economic crisis and its antidotes, we must now add that of political revolution. I have argued here that the dynamics of revolution require active consideration in this context. Revolutions give rise to digital contrasts and rightly so, but human societies are built on analogue processes. This is not just an academic debating point. A lot hinges on how humanity responds to the contradictions of the turbulence ahead.

True leader must be able to put aside what he wants

In search of a true leader PRAMOD PATHAK, The Pioneer Sunday Edition Agenda SPIRITUALITY Hiddensouls SATURDAY, 04 FEBRUARY 2012 There may be lack of agreement regarding the problems the country faces today, but one challenge that leaves little room for disagreement is the leadership crisis. India needs a leader of stature and credibility, one who commands respect and is acceptable to all. As we march past yet another Republic Day, it is time we figured out what is wanting in most of our leaders claiming to fit the bill. Here are a few tips from the writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

The first and foremost requirement of a true leader is that he must be able to put aside what he wants, and wishes to know what God wants. He must have the ability to distrust what his heart, his passion or his habitual opinions hold as right , and must seek to know what God has set down as right and necessary. This is what Lord Krishna told Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita. He must be strong in his faith that whatever is right will inevitably happen as the outcome of his due fulfillment of the kartavyam karma. He must have faith in the wisdom of divinity.

An important precondition is not to have one’s own personal interest as a goal. The first qualities needed are boldness, courage and perseverance. A true leader must be conscious that he knows nothing compared to what he ought to know, that he can do nothing compared to what he ought to do, that he is nothing compared to what he ought to be. He must have an invariable will to acquire what is lacking in his nature, to know what he does not yet know, to be able to do what he is not yet able to do. He must constantly progress in the light and peace that come from the absence of personal desires. The true leader must always set the example; he must always practise the virtues he demands from his followers. He must be patient and endearing. To forget oneself, one’s own likings and preferences is indispensable in order to be a true leader.

To forget oneself is important as it will make him think above selfish interests and want nothing for oneself and consider only the good of the the whole. To be a leader, one must master one’s ego. He must be more eager to know truth than success. Truth is the rock on which the world is built — satyena tisthate jagat. Falsehood can never be the true source of strength. When falsehood is at the root of a movement, that movement is doomed to failure. Diplomacy can ensure progress only when it is based on truth. There is no greater courage than to be truthful and honest.

A true leader must be vigilant. To be vigilant is not merely to resist what pulls you downward, but also to be alert enough to grab any opportunity to progress, any opportunity to overcome a weakness, to resist a temptation, any opportunity to learn something, to correct something, to master something. A true leader must have complete control over oneself. He must be equal with everybody. He must be master of himself in order to be master of others. Let us honestly find out how many people claiming to be our leaders have these qualities. The writer can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com The Pioneer Sunday Edition Agenda SPIRITUALITY Educating the mind and soul [The power of one - Indian Express Sat Jul 31 2010 at 9:39 AM]

Rank religious practices lower than polity

Attempts to create an “Aurobindonian religion”: from Auro Truths by aurotruths

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have unambiguously stated that their ideals, teachings and the institutions that they have founded do not belong to any religion or religious body, in any name or form. […] For whatever is it’s worth – especially in the realm of spirituality – there is even a judgment of the Supreme Court of India, S.P. Mittal Etc. Etc. vs. Union of India, 1982 (http://judis.nic.in/supremecourt/imgs.aspx), that has established that Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s ideals, teachings and the institutions that they have founded do not belong to any religion or religious institution.

There are numerous other instances where Sri Aurobindo and The Mother have unambiguously stated that their ideals, teachings and the institutions that they have founded have nothing to do with religion. There is even nothing in their teachings and works to suggest that they wanted their followers to create a new religion or establish religious institutions.

Nevertheless, Myths and Falsehoods that suggest that Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s ideals, teachings and the institutions that they have founded belong to some form of a new “Aurobindonian religion” continue to be spun, encouraged and propagated by some individuals or by groups that have similar interests. Persistent attempts to reduce Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s work – which they clearly enunciated belongs to the vast, non-religious realm of Spirituality – to a Religion, can be witnessed. This can be seen particularly in the dogmatic attitudes that are encouraged by those who wish to establish such a creed. For instance, the logic and culture of “hurt (religious) sentiments” and the polarization and exploitation of opinions based on such hurt feelings is gradually but systematically being cultivated in the Aurobindonian collective by those seeking to establish such a doctrine… and all that goes with it.

Just because some or even several followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother chose to follow their Masters by treading a path that is based on a religious sentiment, attitude or approach, does not mean that the Myth and Falsehood of such a new religion shall someday become a reality. For whilst the vastness of Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s ideals, teachings and their institutions can and do accommodate such religious attitudes and sentiments – without any intolerance whatsoever – so far they have however proved to be just too vast to get reduced to the limited confines of Religion in whichever name or form.

The reasons for which the creation of these Myths and Falsehoods is being attempted is left to the understanding of the reader. But it can be clearly affirmed that an “Aurobindonian religion” or a religion that is based on Sri Aurobindo’s and The Mother’s teachings is a Myth which is nothing short of a Falsehood.

However, we would like to add that we are of the opinion that if some of Sri Aurobindo's and The Mother's followers wish to establish a new religion in the name, ideals or teachings of their Masters, they are of course free and welcome to attempt it. It is entirely up to them to try and reconcile their preferred personal beliefs and intentions while going against the directions and guidance of their Masters. If this is the path that these followers choose, so be it.

But there is absolutely no reason or justification for the rest of the followers to get misled by a few individuals who wish to further their personal views and preferences by creating the Myths of a non-existent religious movement. Editors, Auro Truths. [February 3, 2012 at 9:27 am Posted by Tusar N. Mohapatra at 12:23 PM]

Lastly, we do not claim to posses the Truth, but we believe that we can help remove those obstacles that come in the way of or obfuscate Truth - especially those obstacles that are in the form of deliberate misrepresentation and distortion of facts or the creation of myths –by providing more reliable, accurate and  complete information. Administrators.

Religion and state secularization rom The Immanent Frame by Simon During

With the Indian case mainly in mind, Bilgrami resists Taylor’s argument that we should thus diminish state neutrality. He argues, however, for a negative concept of state neutrality. For him, the state needs to rank religious practices lower than the ideals and practices of its own “polity,” as he puts it, in cases where they are inconsistent with (i.e. negate) the state’s political ideals. These first-level ideals may vary from state to state, but it is clear that Bilgrami thinks of them in Rawlsian terms both as rights—to life, freedom of speech, and equal treatment under the law and so on, and as goods—like welfare provision, distributive justice, and cheap universal education.

I am in general agreement with Bilgrami’s argument… Taylor wishes to reduce democratic state sovereignty, Bilgrami to maintain it. As I said, I think he is right about that, especially in cases like India. But given the internal contradictions of democratic state capitalism, its failures to meet its own norms and purposes (e.g. equality of opportunity and participation, liberty, widely-based prosperity), I find myself also willing to imagine situations in which the state foregoes its monopolization of sovereignty, and accedes some of its power to associations. As far as I am concerned, these cannot, however, be religious associations, since the argument against religion’s validity claims has indeed been won.

From this perspective, the real challenge becomes: how to imagine and invent strong non-religious associations with substantive values and satisfying practices of life? Associations capable of taking back some state sovereignty, admittedly (as Bilgrami urges) in ways that don’t threaten state neutrality? One theoretical possibility would be for atheists (associating in the interests of truth) to take over the Churches’ rich and solid institutions from the inside, which might indeed herald a return to older conditions and styles of at least Christian ecclesiastical practice, in which belief was not a prerequisite for episcopal ordination. But that is just a politics of hope and imagination.