Friday, February 17, 2012

Savitra patents Sunlit Path

Sunlit path to where? « auroleaks From: Savitra Date: February 16, 2012 Subject: re. your center’s upcoming retreat conference - To the Sri Aurobindo Center South East: A friend received the follow announcement through you and forwarded it to me. I struggled with the futility of replying to you or the easier path of simply deleting. As you can see, I have chosen the former. (Please do not take this personally as I am addressing it to your Center. However after reading this yourself, I would sincerely appreciate you passing it on to those in charge of the Center and its upcoming Conference. Thank you.)

I must say that I am profoundly shocked by the contradiction of hosting a conference/retreat titled “Sunlit Path to Life Divine” when many of your primary speakers/presenters are directly or indirectly engaged in a court case against the Trustees of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. In addition, as you must know, the same speakers have been engaged in ideological warfare and a sustained persecution of one of the Ashram’s longtime residents whose biography of Sri Aurobindo (published by Columbia University Press) they deem blasphemous.
By way of introducing myself and my concerns in this matter, I have been involved with the work of Mother and Sri Aurobindo since 1967. I have also been a resident of the Ashram and later Auroville (1969-1990), accepted both in the Ashram and Auroville directly by the Mother from whom I received the name Savitra. I am also a published author here in the States with a new book on the way. In this light, I ask:
How can your Center disconnect from these troubling realities and the shadow these speakers cast, inviting such speakers to present on the theme of “Sunlit Path to Life Divine”? How can your Center consider itself a Center of Sri Aurobindo yet provide a platform for speakers who choose the path of open warfare with the Trustees of the Ashram bearing Sri Aurobindo’s name? Such disconnection makes a mockery of the concept of “Integral” in Integral Yoga. And to host such speakers under the banner of “Sunlit Path to Life Divine” only adds to the absurdity and surreality.
In this Yoga, are we here to simply preach in words or practice in action? Surely you know the answer to this question. In which case, how can you in good conscience sponsor such a dis-integral and divisive contradiction in the name of Sri Aurobindo? Namaste, ~Savitra (Alan Sasha Lithman)

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