It is not our contention that the actual system of ancient instruction should be restored in its outward features, a demand often made by fervid lovers of the past. Many of them are not suited to modern requirements. But its fundamental principles are for all The Aryan System of Education in Ancient India time and its discipline can only be replaced by the discovery of a still more effective discipline, such as European education does not offer us. The object of these articles has been to indicate the nature and psychological ideas of the old system and point out its essential relation of cause and effect to the splendid achievement of our ancestors. How its principles can be reapplied or be completed and to some extent replaced by a still deeper psychology and a still more effective discipline is a subject fit for separate treatment.
Catastrophe fell on the Uganda economy. We have a graph available of sugar production at Kakira to tell that story. In 1972 the factory produced 80 thousand tons of sugar; by 1986 it had collapsed to almost zero. I remember coming to the estate to visit with Manubhai. In place of the sugar-cane was tall elephant grass! Manubhai was working hard to rehabilitate the estate. Today the sugar production is at two-and-a-half times the 1986 level! The company feeds nearly 25 megawatts of electricity into the national power grid from burning the bagasse. In telling the story of Manubhai and the Madhvani family we are telling the story of Asian enterprise in Uganda.
With reference to the speeches in this history, some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one’s memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said. And with reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other. The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.
Gyan Bahadur Tamang was ordered to move behind an enemy position to cut them off from their reinforcements . The enemy spotted the movement and in the fire-fight that ensued, Havaldar Gyan Bahadur and his buddy were separated from others. In the exchange of fire, both were hit. While his colleague made the supreme sacrifice, Gyan Bahadur Tamang fell backwards and rolled downhill some twenty metres before he passed out with blood oozing from his neck. A light drizzle revived him the next morning and he came to his senses with the sound of automatic weapons and artillery shells landing all around him.
The key to rightly understand the whole passage is given by the Mother here: “Buddhism, Jainism, Illusionism were sufficient to sap all energy out of the country.” This truth is rounded off by Her in the concluding remark: “Then—and then only—you will be able to discern, from time to time, from place to place, an “intuition” that something else is possible; in the Vedas, for instance (the injunction to descend deep into the cave of the Panis); in the Tantras also… a little light is burning.”
Here we are told exactly why the Mother criticizes the turn towards escapism as being equally as bad as the choice to maintain “a life in this world” marked by its littleness and its near insignificant value for anything beyond just egoistic self-existence. The Mother does so not out of disdain for India or Indian spirituality but, on the contrary, out of concern for India and the degradation she has had to suffer as a result. To refute the misinterpretation of the Mother’s Words it is necessary to keep a firm hold on the context in which nirvana etc. are criticized by Her, and this context is an outline of a study project on the spiritual history of India. However “good” these realizations may be for individuals, in the context of the spiritual history of India this “spirituality of escapism” has ultimately proved to be disastrous.
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It becomes clear from this that the problem is not with presenting any kind of relation or connection between Sri Aurobindo and the spiritual history of India. Rather the problem lies in presenting the WRONG RELATION, or a misrepresentation of the TRUE RELATION between the two. The Mother clarifies that Sri Aurobindo had not come as a mere continuation of the past spirituality, He does not stand for a borrowed and moribund recapitulation of earlier spiritual truths and efforts, along with their abysmal errors. Indeed He is “outside and beyond history” and represents “a decisive action direct from the Supreme“. This is what She wants the author of this outline to convey to readers, and not the outright rejection of all Indian spirituality, indeed of ALL spirituality itself that preceded Sri Aurobindo, since that is what She refers to in the passage cited.
There’s just one thing… I don’t know… it’s when you say Sri Aurobindo “succumbed” on 5 December 1950. He didn’t “succumb.” It’s not that he couldn’t have done otherwise. It’s not the difficulty of the work that made him leave; it’s something else. You can’t mention this in your book, of course, it’s impossible to talk about for the moment. He didn’t succumb.
Meanwhile, Jagan also faces a summons from the CBI court. The court has directed Jagan to appear before it on May 28.
Jagan has reacted sharply to the latest development. “There is no freedom of speech here and hence they are after my channel Sakshi TV. I do not think the situation was this bad during Emergency too. They want to eliminate Sakshi television at any cost. They cannot face me and hence this ploy,” Jagan said.
REJECT Indian spiritual tradition or be annexed by it.
This is the false choice that the Filio/Hartz-led Western chauvinists of the Heehsian religion and their “native” (their own choice of word) mental slaves and collaborators have manufactured. The sole intent behind it is to justify their clumsy and indiscriminate attempt to hack away at all the living tissue connecting Sri Aurobindo to the spiritual tradition of India.
First they arbitrarily and unilaterally pronounce judgment on this tradition by imprisoning and limiting it to “the past”, as if it was never, or at least is no longer, a living, growing and evolving thing.
Secondly they cherry-pick certain sayings of Mother Sri Aurobindo, and mutilate or at least de-contextualize them to get support for their partial and distorted views.
Finally they ride piggy-back on the Divine and try to mis-represent thoughts and words expressive of their own totally personal, ideologically driven false prejudices (“rejection”) and phobias (“annexation”) against Indian spirituality as if these had issued forth from the Divine’s mouth.
There are four Asuras. Two have already been converted, and the other two, the Lord of Death and the Lord of Falsehood, made an attempt at conversion by taking on a physical body—they have been intimately associated with my life. The story of these Asuras would be very interesting to recount … The Lord of Death disappeared; he lost his physical body, and I don’t know what has become of him. As for the other, the Lord of Falsehood, the one who now rules over this earth, he tried hard to be converted, but he found it disgusting!
A short but powerful audio clip
Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. on “Love and Power”
Two more videos clips below of very short duration
Mirror of Tomorrow 