Transcendence

Whence arose evil? Does it constitute the proof for the presence or otherwise of God? Every theology has its own pet answer and every philosophy a way to escape it. It is only the Gita who can hold the bull by the horns, can speak of God the Terrible on the Battlefield, the gory Battle of Life. But let us see in Savitri how the origin is traced and how in its wake other issues arise, arise in a subsidiary way. The puzzle formulated in the Sphinx-myth is one such subsidiary description. We shall see the four mentioned in the epic. But here is first the dark origin: (Savitri, pp, 222-23) When nothing was save Matter without soul And a spiritless hollow was the heart of Time, Then Life first touched the insensible Abyss; Awaking the stark Void to hope and grief Her palid beam smote the unfathomed Night In which God hid himself from his own view. In all things she sought their slumbering mystic truth, The unspoken Word that inspires unconscious forms; She groped in his deeps for an invisib

by RY Deshpande on Tue 27 Nov 2007 05:49 AM PST Alexander Pope (1688-1744), poet and critic belonging to the Augustan period, wrote his famous Essay on Man during 1733-34. The opening part of the Essay is at times entitled as The Riddle of the World, a phrase from the piece which runs as follows: Know then thyself, presume not God to scan The proper study of Mankind is Man. Placed on this isthmus of a middle state, A Being darkly wise, and rudely great: With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side, With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride, He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast; In doubt his mind and body to prefer; Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err; Alike in ignorance, his reason such, Whether he thinks too little, or too much; Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus'd; Still by himself, abus'd or disabus'd; Created half to rise and half to fall; Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all, Sole judge of tr

This is Sri Aurobindo’s translation of the Mother’s prayer, Gloire a Toi, Seigneur (Glory to Thee O Lord). Glory to Thee, O Lord, who triumphest over every obstacle. Grant that nothing in us shall be an obstacle to Thy work. Grant that nothing may retard Thy manifestation. Grant that Thy will may be done in all things and at every moment. We stand here before Thee that Thy will may be fulfilled in us, in every element, in every activity of our being, from our supreme heights to the smallest cells of the body. Grant that we may be faithful to Thee utterly and for ever. We would be completely under Thy influence to the exclusion of every other. Grant that we may never forget to own towards Thee a deep, an intense gratitude. Grant that we may never squander any of the marvellous things that are Thy gifts to us at every instant. Grant that everything in us may collaborate in Thy work and all be ready for Thy realisation. Glory to Thee, O Lord, Supreme Master of all realisation. Give us a f

November 28, 2007 I’ve just discovered the website of psychotherapist, writer and poet Robert Augustus Masters. His system seems partially based on the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. I don’t agree with everything he says, of course, but I am stunned by the quality of his writing — what eloquence! It just reminds me of what a long way I have to go before learning to write with such elegance, beauty, and simplicity. Here is a sampling of his poetry: When Truth came Did you crucify it in a field of facts? When you condemned the executioner Did you see in your hands the bloody axe? Such a deep art it is To learn our lessons by heart While we roam in dreamland Hungry for Home Since I often have a lot of neuroses related to guilt, I really enjoyed Robert’s essay, The Anatomy of Guilt. Here are some wise words from this essay: Put another way, guilt means that we get to again do whatever it is that seemingly generates our guilt — we permit ourselves to do it over and over again, even a

November 29, 2007 Dr. David Frawley of the American Institute of Vedic Studies writes, in an interesting essay, that what has been characterized as the “Hindu right” in India is substantially different from “right wing” groups in other countries and cultures. The essay is entitled, The Myth of the Hindu Right, and I quote from it below: The idea of the ‘Hindu right’ is largely a ploy to discredit the Hindu movement as backward and prevent people from really examining it. The truth is that the Hindu movement is a revival of a native spiritual tradition that has nothing to do with the political right-wing of any western country. Its ideas are spiritually evolutionary, not politically regressive. It’s a provocative and thought-provoking article, and it does undercut the fact that Western-inspired leftists generally tend to side with whoever they perceive as the “victims” or as the “minorities” without looking into the truth-value of the philosophies or worldviews of those they are defendi

November 30, 2007 For another side to the issues covered in David Frawley’s article that I linked to in the previous post, read Whatever Happened to the Hindu Left? by Ruth Vanita at the Infinity Foundation website. Ruth Vanita is an Indian academic, activist and author who specializes in lesbian and gay studies, gender studies, and British and South Asian literary history. One of the focuses of her academic work is deconstructing the somewhat Gandhian stereotype that India has gone back and forth between arranged heterosexual marriages and ascetic celibacy. I quote from her article below: Here, the position of Muslim, Christian and Sikh leftists is somewhat different. Because these happen to be minorities in India, the left has to support their rights, hence there is somewhat less embarrassment attached to acknowledging these identities as a modern Indian leftist. Secondly, they do not have to carry the burden of being called backward polytheistic idol-worshipers. Secular feminist org

Yesterday Zimbabwe's remarkable win was great, as also NZ's. Today, at Calcutta, both Ganguly and Laxman scored centuries and India declared at 616/5 and took a Pak wicket for 50. Kumble effected the first breakthrough. Ganguly scored his 14th hundred and Laxman, his 11th. This is a great comeback for Ganguly. His allround performance was good in the last Test. If India wins the series, she may move over to the 3rd position in Tests. SL were all out for 188. England in reply are 49/1. Sangakkara continued his ominous form with the bat and scored 92. Hoggard took 4/29, wrecking SL. Tomorrow the match will start earlier than scheduled. India has a different team for Tests, another XI for ODIs and another XI for T20s! Australia, on the other hand, has the same eleven for all formats ! The explanation given is that the Test batsmen like Dravid, Laxman etc are slow starters or they take time to settle down. Anyway, it has been a good disply by India, ( except against Aussies ) in al