Monday, March 21, 2016

George Eliot and Virginia Woolf are more courageous than their women characters

By Madhurantakam Narendra | THE HANS INDIA | Mar 20, 2016
But there are some
Vasanthasena in ‘Mrichakatika’ may be arguably the first woman with a strong backbone and her precarious condition of being a harlot that cornered her pitilessly and forced her to be a rebel reflects another vicious dimension of the patriarchy.
But there are some courageous women in the epics of the yore and the most striking among them is Savitri, who was chosen by Sri Aurobindo as a legend and symbol for his mystical epic. The worship of Shakti, the invincible feminine power from whom the entire creation originated has been one of the oldest traditions of India, but it is not powerful enough to provide a prestigious position to the women as patriarchy has been in vogue in every part of the world.
Helen, Cleopatra, Penelope and scores of such strong women of the western classics dominated their male counterparts but they simply exploited some weaknesses of the patriarchy though they could never break the shackles of the tradition. John Ruskin opines that Shakespeare has only heroines but no heroes, but it is true of only his comedies.
The heroines of his comedies, Portia, Viola, Olivia, and Rosalind are undoubtedly charming, however, vital and vibrant they may be when compared with the heroes of his tragedies like Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth and King Lear they become less archetypal and individualistic. History of mankind consists of many strong women like Razia Sultana, Rudramadevi, Indira Gandhi and Margaret Thatcher of the recent times proved that they were iron women. George Eliot and Virginia Woolf are more courageous than their women characters. 
A writer who could create a woman like Mrs Dalloway, an animated mirror of the contemporary times who feels immensely happy when Septimus Warren Smith, a neurotic who can’t tolerate the hypocrisy of the people, commits suicide because he could do something, which she couldn’t do. George Eliot rebelled against the traditional and religious patriarchy and lived on her terms.

Many women characters of modern Telugu literature are conventional and stereotypes and only a few of them are distinguished because of their strong character. Madhuravani in ‘Kanyasulkam’ is a full blooded vital character and as the victim of the hypocritical patriarchy, a nautch girl, a kept woman, she handles all men, who come in contact with her efficiently and judiciously. 
Many of the women of Chalam’s fiction are strong but they are all more like ideas or personified abstractions. Buchibabu created many memorable woman characters among whom Moona in ‘Arakuloyalo Koolina Shikharam’ exhibits extraordinary courage and it obviously reflects the prestige that the woman has in the tribal societies. 
Vaddera Chandidas’ Githa Devi in ‘Hima jwala’ seems to have emulated the example set by George Eliot but she too becomes an idea, a symbol of the anarchic streak in the human being that craves to violate the laws of the society to fulfill his/her guanine. Moreover like Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina she too gets crushed under the burden of invincible forces. 

Oct 14, 2011 - Sri Aurobindo and the Mother said that the primary cause is not the ... A woman can even become a prostitute as a result of the influence of ...

Sri Aurobindo' book, Savitri. ... Sri Aurobindo SAVITRI Book Two THE BOOK OF THE TRAVELLER ..... As might a harlot empress in a bouge, Nude, unashamed ...

savitri.in/library/sri-aurobindo/letters-on-savitri
Nov 21, 2013 - Sri Aurobindo's Savitri Sri Aurobindo's Letters on Savitri. ... "A harlot empress in a bouge"—somewhat after the manner of Eliot and Ezra Pound.

https://books.google.co.in/books?isbn=8170586127
Sri Aurobindo - 2000 - ‎Bhagavadgītā Sri Aurobindo ... is without difficulty visible in the sage and the saint, how shall he be easily visible to us in the sinner, the criminal, the harlot and the outcaste?

www.motherservice.org/.../Changing%20Dimensions%20of%20Conscio...
She then understood that Sri Aurobindo was in that terrible state all the time while he was alive but .... Sri Aurobindo adores the feet of the criminal and harlot.

www.trivenijournalindia.com/harindranathchatopadhyayajul90.htm
Sri Aurobindo hailed him as “the future poet of India” and in his review of the book commented: “Here perhaps are the .... to suit the public's harlot needs.”.

inpr.odisha.gov.in/Download/index-or.pdf
Jan 27, 1992 - Devadasi and the Harlot : A Sociological Endeavour. Bimal Chandra ....Sri Aurobindo - The Seer of Swadeshi and Swaraja. Saroj Kumar ...

themotherindia.com/2012/06/11/apsara-woman-in-mythology-by/
Jun 11, 2012 - The Apsaras are the most beautiful and romantic conception on the ....P.S: This essay is taken from Sri Aurobindo's Harmony of Virtue- Vol-3.

www.aurobindo.ru/workings/sa/37_05/0152_e.htm
Sri Aurobindo. Translations. CWSA.- Volume 5. Part One. Translations from Sanskrit Section Four. Bhartrihari. The Century of Life. Miscellaneous Verses.

www.kheper.net/topics/Aurobindo/Osho_on_Aurobindo.html
Apr 10, 1999 - Osho, Sri Aurobindo, and Immortality. Note, the following two posts (here combined in a single page), are taken from the auroconf mail list, and ... from Prem:
Mother and Sri Aurobindo never said that they were working on physical immortality. They said they were working on the next evolutionary step, the triple transformation: Fri, 9 Apr 1999 

Located in Viluppuram district near Puducherry, 'Auroville'- the City of Dawn is meant to be a universal town people from all countries live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creed, all politics and all nationalities. Its purpose is to realize human unity. It was founded on 28th February 1968, by Mirra Alfassa as a project of Sri Aurobindo Society.

www.aurovilleradio.org/the-integral-paradigm-day1-part-2/
21 hours ago - Program by : Philippe-Dionne
A seminar on the integration of the SENSES, the FACULTIES, the individual, universal, and transcendent SELF, and the Approches and Disciplines of Knowledge – SEEING, HEARING, SPEAKING, THINKING.

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

Moonje, Hedgewar, and Mookerjee deviated from Sri Aurobindo's direction


[Dr BS Moonje did not want the RSS to be what it is today. The RSS today is not run by ideology. Anand Moonje, Tehelka] http://marketime.blogspot.in/2012/03/dr-moonje-did-not-want-rss-to-be-what.html …

[I repeat my regret that I am compelled to disappoint you. -Aurobindo Ghose. To Balkrishna Shivaram Moonje. Pondicherry. Aug 30. 1920]

[Cripps Mission to India. On 2 April Sri Aurobindo telegraphed Dr BS Moonje, head of the Hindu Mahasabha and C. Rajagopalachari. Duraiswami]

Moonje, Hedgewar, and Mookerjee were close to Sri Aurobindo's thinking but deviating from that path is the original sin of the present RSS.


@amishra77 @sarkar_swati Had Dr Moonje had the foresight to follow Sri Aurobindo and his writings in the journal Arya http://savitriera.blogspot.in/2013/08/integral-evolution-to-unity-and-

@Parikramah Their Guruji is Golwalkar, even Savarkar is not wholly welcome. They are cold to Sri Aurobindo, so hoping RSS change is remote.

@Parikramah Rajiv Malhotra bats for Vivekananda but what is his understanding of the Veda? Or, what are Shankara's commentaries on the Veda?

@_Mauna_ Okay, nice to see Hindutva is open to debate now! So, Sri Aurobindo might be relevant. Returning to Moonje / Hedgewar roots of RSS!

@waglenikhil @PriyabrataT You should say Savarkar-Golwalker. Moonje-Hedgewar ought to be judged in different light. http://marketime.blogspot.in/2012/03/dr-moonje-did-not-want-rss-to-be-what.html …


@sarkar_swati RSS came into being mainly through Moonje and Savarkar and steered clear of politics as the latter was under oath to British.

www.mainstreamweekly.net › ... › 2007 › September 29, 2007
Oct 5, 2007 -Friday 5 October 2007, by Shyam Chand
INTELLECTUAL dishonesty is worse than crime. In his furious interview given to an English TV Channel L.K. Advani inter alia mentioned the name of Aurobindo who upheld the Rama heritage. The RSS adopted Aurobindo Ghosh as its hero and the icon of saffron culture whom Advani, during his Rathyatra from Somnath to Ayodhya, buried somewhere on the way as, according to Aurobindo Ghosh, Rama was not a historical figure. He was the figment of Valmiki’s imagination. Can anybody imagine monkeys invading a kingdom? (P. Lal in the introduction of Valmiki’s Ramayana translated into English)

28 February by Vikas Sharma
It is the season of spring characterised by the consistently blowing wind. You may say that the nation is blowing in the wind of nationalism and anti-nationalism.

28 February by Arup Kumar Sen
The recent arrest of the JNU Students’ Union President, Kanhaiya Kumar, on the charge of sedition, thrashing him by a section of “lawyers” in the court premises on his way to the hearing, and physical assault on the students, faculty and journalists by the same “lawyers” on the first day of hearing in the presence of the police signify complete breakdown of the constitutional order.

28 February, by Sandeep Pandey
The manner in which Jawaharal Nehru University Students’ Union President Kanhaiya Kumar was roughed up in the Patiala House Court premises, while being brought to be produced in the court room, in the presence of observers from the Supreme Court who were there to ensure the security of Kanhaiya and everybody else targeted by the RSS-BJP, has brought back memories of the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition incident.

Two lessons for Hindus who do not want to either join the fringe or become Hinduphobic: http://swarajyamag.com/ideas/even-while-calling-out-hinduphobia-its-important-to-develop-a-hinduism-lite …
Consider how the anti-Hindu lobby is dealing with the rise of Sri Sri Ravishankar. They are attacking his World Cultural Festival on the banks of the Yamuna by talking about environment damage, and not in the usual way the Hindutva crowd attacks rivals, with unparliamentary words and violent thoughts.
If Hinduism has to hold its own at home and expand abroad, it has to have at least two products – a sophisticated version for the western markets, and a Hinduism Lite for India, where the social content is emphasised more than high metaphysics.

There, he read the writings of Sri Aurobindo, particularly The Life Divine and became his lifelong admirer and disciple. He visited Pondicherry and nearby ...

Friday, March 04, 2016

Sri Aurobindo belonged to all worlds and cultures at once

Auroville Radio Short talk with Anusuya about her research work on Johannes Hohlenerg's meeting with Sri Aurobindo - A chat with Anusuya Kumar Ph.D
Program by : Renu
Interviews with Ms Anusuya Kumar Ph.D. (School of Culture & Society, Aarhus University, Denmark) recently presented the fascinating and meticulous research work on Johannes Hohlenberg (1881-1960) encounter with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. (the actual presentation can be heard here http://www.aurovilleradio.org/close-encounters/).

"It was as if he belonged to all worlds and cultures at once…. But this was only one side of his personality. Another seemed to live in infinity. I seemed to sometimes notice a slight hint of a smile on his face when he saw my amazement at his penetrating words. It was like I had been shot through the heart and mind.” J Hohlenberg

Johannes Hohlenberg was a Danish artist and philosopher’s journey during 1907-1915 from Paris to Pondicherry where he interviewed and painted Sri Aurobindo; and the resulting origins of Integral Yoga in early twentieth-century Scandinavia.


Auroville's Kalabhumi Festival 2016 - Part 3. Perfornance by Amando and Dhani, accompanied by percussionist Brian.

Kalarigram
Friday 4th and Saturday 5th of March at 8pm at Visitors Centre Auroville Fire Spinning presents Six Creations- Friday – Journeying through mood, ...
Exploring aesthetics of Manodharma
Arianna Romano, an Italian contemporary dancer, who is attending the workshop, said that she was introduced to Bharatanatyam after coming to Auroville....  “It is an enriching experience understanding the aesthetics of Manodharma ...

Making India Home

The Dollar Business-02-Mar-2016
Jacqueline came to Auroville (in Tamil Nadu) when she was all of 24 and has not looked back since. Right from taking charge of the garments business at ...

Tantrotsav fest to begin at Auroville tomorrow

Web India 123-27-Feb-2016
The nine-day Tantrotsav 2016 will begin at Yogishananda Peetham, Edayanchavadi, Near Adi Shakti, Auroville tomorrow. The highlight this years festival is Dr ...

Seeking the supramental light | Puducherry NYOOOZ

NYOOOZ-25-Feb-2016
They had come down to the Hall of Peace, which Auroville architect Piero Cicionesi designed especially for the sacred Peace Table, in the Unity Pavilion ...

Saying it with metaphors

Bangalore Mirror-20-Feb-2016
Originally written by acclaimed theatre personality late Veenapani Chawla in 1999, the play was revived after 17 years in Auroville. Chawla's core team Vinay ...