Wednesday, March 21, 2012

29 March 1914 is a momentous event in the annals of spirituality

The Mother’s Work—A Radio Talk by RY Deshpande on Wed 21 Mar 2012 03:30 AM IST Permanent Link A Talk on All India Radio Pondicherry: 21 February 2001, 9:15 PM
The Mother came to India to meet Sri Aurobindo. Destiny had brought them together in the fulfilment of its divine objective. Their meeting on 29 March 1914 must be taken as a momentous event in the annals of spirituality…
Since 1926 the Mother took charge of the Ashram and gave to it another direction, worked on a wider basis for universalisation of their achievements. Practical aspect of the collective spiritual life is a necessary concern to create and shape the future. 
She was now “at the centre of the organization”. At that time, in 1927, there were just 30 disciples but in less than two years the number increased to 90, with seventeen houses for their stay. Presently there are about 2000 disciples in the Ashram. People came from all the walks of life, men and women, elderly persons and the young, from different parts of India and from distant foreign lands, they with varying backgrounds and qualifications, writers, poets, painters, musicians, thinkers, philosophers, doctors, engineers, bureaucrats, business-men,—accomplished souls aspiring to live a life in the wonder and greatness of the spirit. 
The Mother had to take care of them all. She had to organise services to look after such a large family with diverse interests and with different expectations, though the central aim was the spiritual. Soon she created a number of departments and attended to their daily essential problems. This was done with a twofold purpose: organization and work as a part of the sadhana. Thus were created several departments such as Reception, Dining Room, Bakery, Laundry, Domestic Services, Health Care, Buildings, Electrical, Workshop, Furniture, Gardens, Agricultural Farms, Dairies, Tailoring, Cobblery, Weaving, Cycle Shop, Hair Saloon and such many services. Along with these also grew Music, Painting, Poetry, Embroidery, Dancing, Drama, Theatre, Photography, Physical Culture, Cottage Industries, Printing Press, Publications, and so on. And all this had to be done within the limited resources available at the time. 
Work as a necessary aspect of spiritual growth was the truth that found its place in the scheme of things deeply spiritual. Sadhana through work gives a certain solidity and equipoise, and prepares the base more luminously. By it the will in action opens out to higher consciousness, bringing perfection to it, to things of nature which must change. Similarly, in another sense, to express the creative delight through music, painting, poetry was important, and great attention was paid towards this, these as means of spiritual-inner growth. Nothing is considered trivial or out of place. During the anxious and turbulent period of the Second World War another situation arose, and the Mother had to start a School for the children of the disciples who had come to the Ashram…
Enlarging on the Ashram experiment, the Mother moved to the larger humanity, a preparatory step towards the new race capable of manifesting the Divine ideal. She was already 90 when she initiated the Auroville project, but it was with such enthusiasm that as if she was in her full joyous youthful vigour… On 21 February 1971 the Mother initiated the project of Matrimandir as a living symbol of Auroville’s aspiration for the Divine, a unique place in the wilderness of man’s hopes and struggles. Matrimandir is the Soul of Auroville. If the Ashram and Auroville were the preparatory projects initiated by the Mother, their true fulfilment is to be seen in the New World she was preparing to make a reality here on earth.

Health, Science and Dance by Hamish  Friday, 16 March 201 auroville radio
Announcing a 5 day Wind/Solar Hybrid Workshop. A presentation of Bharatnatyam Classical Dance is being offered with images of Ashwini's oil paintings. A salutogenetic communication group will be formed to discuss our total health. The University Of Human Unity Seminar will discuss Transhumanism. Can science heal humanity and conquer death? Will we create super-humans, or monsters? Sri Aurobindo and The Mother advocate Integral Yoga. Science advocates biomedicine and technology. Are we to become Spiritual Beings, or chip enhanced cyborgs?
For nearly forty years behind the wholly good I was weakly in constitution; I suffered constantly from the smaller and greater ailments and mistook this curse for a burden that Nature had laid upon me. When I renounced the aid of medicines, then they began to depart from me like disappointed parasites. Only then did I understand what a mighty force the natural health within me and how much mightier yet the Will and Faith exceeding mind which God meant to be the divine support of our life in this body.

Mind-Body Medicine and Beyond Date: Jun 16, 2012 Venue: VAN NIWAS Himalayan Centre of Sri Aurobindo Ashram -- Delhi Branch Bara Patthar NAINITAL

Hindi translation of ‘SMRITI KATHA’ is being published in ADITI. Serially. Wonderful authentic document of history! Must read. Suresh Tyagi

Language, Nation and Narration WRITING INDIA, WRITING ENGLISH By G.J.V. Prasad, Routledge , New Delhi, Delhi, 2011. pp. 176, 545.00 Anjana Sharma
Before I begin the review of G.J.V. Prasad's work a word on the dust jacket cover: it speaks of the multicultural, multilingual, multifarious ways in which English is read, written, and spoken in India. Hence, fish swim in a sea of words taken from Hindi, Tamil and English, the fish possibly being us who swim in the multitudinous seas that make up the many currents of English usage in India today and of yore. Artera

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