How a Tappa can be called a “lighter” form given its complexity

A Question of Variety; Carnatic or Hindustani
from *DesiPundit* - A Little Wit. A Little Wisdom. Lots of India by uttara

Khayal and Dhrupad are the two major forms. Numerous “lighter” forms exist such as Thumri, Kajri, Tappa etc. Now a Dhrupad singer does not usually specialise in Khayal and vice versa. And while a Khayal singer may include a Thumri in a concert, there have always been singers who specialise in Thumri-Dadra and sing nothing else.

Third, a variety of different forms exist in Hindustani music, but not everyone is singing them brilliantly. Also, access to these forms remains limited. I return to my old pet peeve, there is a lot more on the net in terms of quality Carnatic music… In sum, the variety exists in the North, but differently.

Here is Malini Rajurkar singing a Tappa-Chaal Pehchaani. How a Tappa can be called a “lighter” form given its complexity I fail to see…but anyway.

Tripuraneni Gopichand is severely criticised by Marxist and Rationalist critics

A writer of philosophy and truth
C Mrunalini - expressbuzz.com 01 Nov 2009

Most writers in India, who grew up in the 40s and 50s received influences from different sources because that was the age of ‘imports’ from all over India as well as from the West. Tripuraneni Gopichand (1910-1962) was no exception to this; the major influence on him was his father, Tripuraneni Ramaswamy Choudary, who spear-headed the Rationalist and anti-Brahmin movement in Telugu literature. Later, he was influenced by Marxist thought, Aurobindo and M N Roy’s philosophy; as for literature, he was influenced by Bernard Shaw, Henrik Ibsen and Oscar Wilde, by his own admission.

But the best thing about this vociferous reader and prolific writer, was his openness to new thoughts and ideas. Admittedly, this openness may have given an impression of vulnerability and inconsistency; but, he was first and foremost a creative artist and only later a theoretician. Though he was influenced by most philosophers and social theorists, he did not bow in to them, without applying them to life and experience. That was where he differed from many of his great contemporaries; he put all his theories to test in life and accepted only those which reflected in his experience; and others, which remained only abstract theories without base of experience, he rejected.

In his magnum opus novel, Asamarthuni Jeevayatra (The Life of an Imbecile) this is the theme he discusses; in this exquisitely written novel (the very first psychological novel in Telugu, written in 1945) the protagonist cannot make adjustment with life and his theoretical world and ultimately commits suicide. [...]

Gopichand, cannot probably be described as a universally admired writer; he is severely criticised by Marxist and Rationalist critics of present day; but he left an indelible mark on Telugu fiction with his deep concern for huma­nity which came out in all sincerity through his novels and short stories.

There is an inherent philosophical pleasure to reading the prose of Nietzsche, Bergson or Latour

on intellectual correctness from Object-Oriented Philosophy by doctorzamalek

I just saw the following sentence in a story about a train accident outside Mumbai:

“India’s rail network, which crisscrosses the country, has been marred by a poor safety record.”

The typical language nitpicker might find fault with this sentence: after all, doesn’t any rail network, by definition, crisscross a country? etc. etc.

But I find it to be an excellently written sentence for a news story. Just saying “India’s rail network has been marred by a poor safety record” would be factually accurate, but completely bland.

Adding “which crisscrosses the country” may technically be redundant, but it adds intensity and special emphasis, and creates a sense (an accurate one, too) of lively sprawl about the Indian rail network, while dramatically contrasting it with a lingering sense of danger from the poor safety record.

Some people continue to think that “good writing” simply means conveying clear and accurate facts without contradiction and with as much economy as possible. That’s not true. Good writing means bringing things to life rather than merely abandoning them to clarity and economy.

And this is why good writing is perhaps the most important instrument of philosophy. To present something clearly and economically is at best only Step One of the philosopher’s job. We can see things clearly and economically while still seeing them purely externally and superficially. In every topic there is much that escapes exact definition, and you need to be able to hint vividly at it, to give additional texture and depth to your subject matter.

One professor I knew of would always smugly demand “good plain English” of student papers. Fair enough. Good plain English is better than muddled, obscure English. But it’s insufficient. The demand for good plain English assumes that fuzziness and lack of precision are the major problem with most people’s work. I would argue, on the contrary, that an excess of clarity and precision is often the problem, since not everything in the world is clear and precise– or at least not at the outset.

Clarity is merely a useful tool or means to an end. The real goal is lucidity. And lucidity demands that we admit the dark spots on the map when they are there.

False friends from An und für sich by Adam Kotsko

This week, Anthony and I have been discussing translation, specifically the question of whether translations from Romance languages tend to favor Latinate cognates over more common terms. The primary motivation to do this is laziness: I see a word that looks like “operate,” for instance, and so I type “operate” into my translation and move on. Although the meaning will probably be conveyed adequately, it might be better to just go with the more common word “work,” because here’s the thing: Romance languages don’t have the weird two-tier system that English and German (and presumably other Germanic languages) have where there are two parallel sets of synonyms that are either “common” or “Latinate.” This two-tiered system has its uses — for instance, it provided Heidegger with a simple way of designating the “originary” and “artificially philosophical” versions of concepts (Dasein vs. Existenz, for instance), and in English it’s more common to use the Latinate forms to “elevate” the discourse. But in Romance languages, the Latinate terms just are the common terms; the problem of how to deploy either set simply doesn’t come up.

Now it’s possible that I should translate Agamben with a bias toward the Latinate terms because it’s a scholarly work and the Latinate vocabulary would reflect its more “elevated” status — but I could just as easily decide that it’s stupid that scholarly work should use artificially “elevated” language that conveys no additional information and go with common terms. Perhaps Agamben himself has preferences in this regard (I’ve been told he’ll be going over the translation), but his text can’t force the decision. Whether I decide which way to go in the translation or Agamben does, one of us will be implicitly casting a vote in favor of a particular style of English scholarly writing.

Impressions And Comments by Havelock Ellis, 1859-1939 ... _November_ 22. --I note that a fine scholar remarks with a smile that the direct simplicity of the Greeks hardly suits our modern taste for obscurity.

Yet there is obscurity and obscurity. There is, that is to say, the obscurity that is an accidental result of depth and the obscurity that is a fundamental result of confusion. Swinburne once had occasion to compare the obscurity of Chapman with the obscurity of Browning. The difference was, he said, that Chapman's obscurity was that of smoke and Browning's that of lightning. One may surely add that smoke is often more beautiful than lightning (Swinburne himself admitted Chapman's "flashes of high and subtle beauty"), and that lightning is to our eyes by no means more intelligible than smoke. If indeed one wished to risk such facile generalisations, one might say that the difference between Chapman's obscurity and Browning's is that the one is more often beautiful and the other more often ugly.

If one looks into the matter a little more closely, it would seem that Chapman was a man whose splendid emotions were apt to flare up so excessively and swiftly that their smoke was not all converted into flame, while Browning was a man whose radically prim and conventional ideas, heavily overladen with emotion, acquired the semblance of profundity because they struggled into expression through the medium of a congenital stutter--a stutter which was no doubt one of the great assets of his fame. But neither Chapman's obscurity nor Browning's obscurity seems to be intrinsically admirable. There was too much pedantry in both of them and too little artistry. It is the function of genius to express the Inexpressed, even to express what men have accounted the Inexpressible. And so far as the function of genius is concerned, that man merely cumbers the ground who fails to express. For we can all do that.

And whether we do it in modest privacy or in ten thousand published pages is beside the point. Yet, on the other hand, a superlative clearness is not necessarily admirable. To see truly, according to the fine saying of Renan, is to see dimly. If art is expression, mere clarity is nothing. The extreme clarity of an artist may be due not to his marvellous power of illuminating the abysses of his soul, but merely to the fact that there are no abysses to illuminate. It is at best but that core of Nothingness which needs to been closed in order to make either Beauty or Depth. The maximum of Clarity must be consistent with the maximum of Beauty. The impression we receive on first entering the presence of any supreme work of art is obscurity.

But it is an obscurity like that of a Catalonian Cathedral which slowly grows luminous as one gazes, until the solid structure beneath is revealed. The veil of its Depth grows first transparent on the form of Art before our eyes, and then the veil of its Beauty, and at last there is only its Clarity. So it comes before us like the Eastern dancer who slowly unwinds the shimmering veil that floats around her as she dances, and for one flashing supreme moment of the dance bears no veil at all. But without the veil there would be no dance. Be clear. Be clear. Be not too clear.

William Watson's poem: Epigrams

Think not thy wisdom can illume away The ancient tanglement of night and day. Enough, to acknowledge both, and both revere: They see not clearliest who see all things clear.

***

Here are few examples of Amal-da’s humorous writings: ... “Anatole France can be summed up in his literary quality by the rule he has laid down for writers: ‘D’nabord la claret, puis encore la clarté, enfin la clarté’ _ ‘Clarity first, clarity again, clarity at the end.’ " Home > E-Library > Works Of Disciples > Jugal Kishore Mukherjee > The Wonder That Is K. D > The Wonder That Is K. D. Sethna Alias Amal Kiran

Dance combines in itself speed, stamina, dexterity, endurance and grace

Dance to remember, calculate and plan
Why dance is supposed to make you a better person Shanta Serbjeet Singh Hindustan Times Saturday, June 24, 2006

‘A sound brain in a sound body’ is not just a saying. It encapsulates the spiritual wisdom of our traditional societies. We know now that every cerebral activity like reading, writing or solving a mathematical problem may be primarily concerned with the brain but also has a direct impact on the body. And the emotions, feelings and sensory reactions created by brainwork have a bear ing, however subtle, on the body and its health.

Similarly, every kind of exercise has an impact on the brain and the nervous system. There’s the direct effect when we plan and think about exercise. At the same time there’s the indirect effect due to the release of adrenaline and other chemical substances in the blood from exercising.

Classical dance involves both the physical and the neurological halves of the body and dance students develop such a high ability to remember, calculate and plan that their academic record, too, improves significantly. In Indian dance training, the skills that are imparted are almost universal: from control of the body in every position and movement, except climbing, to a heightened sense of the body in space and overall alertness. There is also the refinement of the fine neuro-muscular adjustments of a whole host of cooperating nerve fibres.

Now, the autonomous nervous system connects with the involuntary organs like the heart muscles, blood vessels of the respiratory system and the muscles of the digestive tract. Through connections that dance creates between the autonomous and the central nervous systems, the exercises of the skeletal muscles have a tremendous influence on them and heighten the balance between the reciprocal nerve fibres regulating the heart muscles, blood vessels and the intestinal tract. This indirect effect is very important in helping a child grow into a healthy adult, free from disease.

In his book, The Function of the Human Body, Guy A.C.C says: “Repetition is the great secret of success, to allow the whole coordinated performance to become smooth and satisfactory.” He talks only of sports and such activity. Dance scores over them because it combines in itself a host of skills like speed, stamina, dexterity, endurance and grace, normally attained by different exercises for each benefit. This not only saves time but, as dancers swear, comes with a high degree of genuine enjoyment enhancing a holistic spiritual connect. Especially since the source of the drive to dance is in the emotional mechanism, invaluable in the nervous organisation of man! 10:14 PM Saturday, June 24, 2006

Classical dancers are eye candies; they are easy on the eye

Q&A: 'Classical dancers are eye candies'-Editorial-Opinion-The ... Anita Ratnam developed neo-Bharatam after years of research in classical and folk arts. She speaks to Rohit Viswanath on the motivations behind her creation... Neo-Bharatam is my humble attempt at this. I love traditional Bharatanatyam and I do not want to manipulate, mangle and distort it and still call my dance ...

Anita Ratnam - Indian Dance
Anita Ratnam - Performer – Choreographer – – Cultural Activist – Arts Presenter – Speaker – Transcultural Collaborator – Scholar – Writer - Television ...

Arangham
Anita Ratnam conducted a series of Interactive theatre workshops for young adults ... Anita Ratnam in "One Day in Ashadha", play by The Madras Players in ...

webindia123.com-Anita Ratnam-dancer-Anita Ratnam
Anita Ratnam, one of the India's most gifted artists is an accomplished classical dancer and choreographer. With a career spanning three decades and over ...

Anita Ratnam classical dancer - Anita Ratnam Bharatnatyam ...
Anita Ratnam classical dancer - Anita Ratnam Bharatnatyam, Kathakali and Mohiniattam dancer -Anita Ratnam choreographer.

Anita wrote Natya Brahman, a book for dance students, and also served as the editor and publisher of 'Narthaki', a directory of Indian dance. She is the Founder-Director of 'Arangham', an organization based in Chennai that is involved in the promotion of performing arts. She regularly takes part in dance and theatre seminars in foreign destinations, right from the Far East to Europe to United States. Anita is one of the main persons responsible behind the initiation of 'The Other Festival', held in Chennai every December for promotion of contemporary Indian dance. In her career of three decades, she has given over 1000 performances in 15 countries and made immense contribution in the field of classical dance.

Deeper understanding of creative expressions and mass media

Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication
Home » Advisory Board

Mr. Anurag Kashyap (Filmmaker & Script Writer)
Mr. Anurag Kashyap is one of the most talented scriptwriters in Hindi cinema today with such popular and critically acclaimed films as Satya, Yuva and Water etc. Mr. Kashyap made foray into direction with 'Paanch' and has 'Black Friday', 'No Smoking' and 'Dev D' t and Gullal his credit.
Ms. Aruna Vasudev (Founder, Cinemaya Film Quarterly, Osian’s Cinefan Film Festival)
Ms. Aruna Vasudev is the founder of Cinemaya - The Asian Film Quarterly in 1988, which endeavours to create awareness of good cinema. She founded Osian’s Cinefan, the reputed film festival of cinema from Asia and Arab held every year in New Delhi. She is an active member of the Indo-French Initiative Forum and has contributed to building cooperation between the two countries in the field of cinema. Ms. Vasudev has recently been conferred France's top cultural award, the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres.
Mr. Bappa Ray (Ethnographic Filmmaker)
Winner of five National Awards, Mr. Bappa Ray is a filmmaker. He has contributed immensely towards documenting culture and life styles of various ethnic origins of India and filming them. Mr. Ray's films have been selected in panorama at various international film festivals.
Mr. Manoj Das (Academician and Eminent Writer)
Mr. Manoj Das, a writer par excellence writes with élan in both in English and Oriya. He has been honoured with several prestigious awards - Padma Shri, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Sarala Puraskar and the Saraswati Samman.
Mr. Rahul Dev (Senior Journalist, CEO - CNEB Channel)
Mr. Rahul Dev is a well-known name in Hindi journalism. A bilingual journalist, he has spent 18 years in print in Hindi and English newspapers and magazines culminating in the editorship of Jansatta. In television, he has been associated with Aaj Tak, Doordarshan, Zee News, Janmat and CNEB TV.
Mr. Raghu Rai (Eminent Magnum Photographer)
Mr. Rai is an internationally acclaimed photographer. He emerged as one of the best photojournalists in India. Mr. Rai specializes in photographing people and capturing different faces of India. He was hounoured with the Padma Shri and his works are permanently displayed at the prestigious Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris.
Mr. Ram Sehgal (Advertising Professional and Ex- President, Rediffusion DY & R)
Mr. Ram Sehgal, considered an icon of the advertising industry was instrumental in moulding Contract into one of the finest agencies in the country. For his contribution, Mr. Sehgal was awarded the A & M Advertising Man of the Year in 1994.
Ms. Rani Jethmalani (Eminent Legal Consultant)
Ms. Rani Jethmalani is a Supreme Court advocate who has worked constantly to eliminate discrimination against women. On her non – professional side, she advocates yoga and has founded the Human Organ Procurement and Education - HOPE.
Mr. Santosh Sivan (Cinematographer and Film maker)
Santosh Sivan is a critically acclaimed film director and cinematographer. He has done Cinematography for acclaimed films such as Kalapani, Halo, Iruvar, Dil Se, Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities and directed films such as Tahaan, Prarambha, Navarasa, Asoka, The Terrorist, Malli, Halo. Films directed by him has been critically acclaimed in many reputed international film festivals. He has also won five National Film Awards, three Filmfare Awards, and ten international film festival awards.
Mr. Tarun Tejpal (Editor in Chief, Tehelka)
A leading journalist, Mr. Tarun Tejpal has been in several senior editorial positions with leading publications like India Today and Outlook. He now heads Tehelka and its various media operations. He has also written for several international publications, including The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Financial Times and Prospect. He is also a celebrated author.
Mr. V. Shanta Kumar (Advertising Professional and CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi)
Mr. Shanta Kumar, the Managing Director of Saatchi & Saatchi is an adman par excellence. Called the turnaround man in the ad world, his career graph includes agencies like Rediffusion and Contract, where he revitalised their creative product getting them ready for the future. Home About us Vision Advisory board Faculty FAQ’s Admission Alumni Projects Twilight Past events Symposium Courses Contact us Site map Resources © 2009 Sri Aurobindo Centre for Arts & Communication

Goethe's version of Faust corresponded to the modern enlightenment

Goethe, Poet of Eros

It is well known, that Goethe was heartlessly indifferent to the fate of the nation, and Solon's wise law certainly applied to him. At the time when Germany was threatened with utter defeat under the assault of Napoleon's imperialist war campaigns, Goethe, unmoved, wrote the Affinities, a rather uninteresting piece about an exchange of partners, which appears in a favorable light only in comparison with today's soap operas. In 1811 he was still praising Napoleon, while during the entire scope of the Liberation Wars, he had nothing to say about this most sublime moment in German history, and remained utterly cut off from the general excitement. What was the reason for this coolness toward ideals, for which the heart of every ardent patriot was enflamed?

Goethe is the perfect example of an extraordinarily gifted person, who had the talent to become a genius, but who lacked the moral strength to realize this potential. What stood in his way was, quite simply, his vanity. The beauty of many of his lyric poems is incontestable, but what source does this beauty draw on? It was love, but not in the sense of Agape, but of Eros. According to Goethe's view, informed by his study of antiquity, Eros was the heavenly, productive power of life, the drive for pleasure and pain, to whose impulses one must at once surrender, as if to a higher authority. [...]

That Goethe worked up the legend of Faust in this way, rather than doing it differently, is doubtlessly a reflection of his character, for the story had been known for a good 300 years, and was originally intended to be a comparison with the fall of Lucifer, in which Faust ends in disgrace. In the second part of Faust, Goethe abolishes just this disgrace, saves Faust in a mystical way, and lets Faust challenge God with impunity, and even glorifies the deed.

Goethe's version of Faust thus corresponded directly to the philosophy of the modern enlightenment, but also that of the romantics, which was aimed not only at exterminating the moral influence of the church, but also the image of mankind of so-called German idealism, based on similar principles.

Already in the legendary version, Faust represented intellectually anti-church science and education, a trait which was to become dominant in Goethe's version. Goethe thereby created one of the most crucial points of reference for the gnostic satanism of today, and since then the battle between humanism and scientific materialism, or so-called "pure" science, has taken on many forms. It appeared, though not for the last time, in the form of Nazi ideology against the German classics, but just as much in the form of communism against Christianity.

The crucial point at issue in all of these succeeding forms is that of the image of man and the question of morality in social life, as well as in politics. Either the person is moved by Agape, and acts as a beautiful soul for the improvement of the conditions of mankind, or he lets himself be driven by Eros, and does everything to satisfy his own self-love — even if he has to sell his soul to the devil. How present this problem is, becomes abundantly clear from an interview which the liberal Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany gave on the subject. There still are people, Genscher said, who speak of the Soviet Union as "the Empire of Evil," but the Germans have something Faustian about them in any case, and so they might as well try to make a deal.

The fateful question for the German nation today can indeed be put in the following context: whether we decide, under extremely pecarious circumstances, to enter a Faustian pact with the devil; or whether there is still an echo of the greatness of Schiller among us, and whether moral resistance stirs in us, precisely in these times of need, from which alone that heroic courage can emerge, which is necessary to save a nation which has succumbed.

It is occasion of hope, that the power of love is richer than the poverty of self-love, and we owe it to our Schiller, that we not prove to be a small species in this situation. SCHILLER INSTITUTE Poetry and Agape: Reflections onSchiller and Goethe By Helga Zepp-LaRouche, Chairman, Schiller Institute (1988) Related Articles

Auroville Film Festival 2009 will feature 115 films

Other States - Puducherry

Auroville magic, mores through celluloid

Staff Reporter

94 films will be judged by three eminent personalities

— Photo: T. Singaravelou

Tinsel town air: Actor Revathy, who is one of the jury members at the Auroville Film Festival 2009, Puducherry, in conversation with Marco Feira, the organiser of the festival.

PUDUCHERRY: Over 100 enthusiastic people, mostly Aurovilians, sitting beneath the open skies, cheered loudly as the Auroville Film Festival 2009 was declared open.

The first edition of the film festival will feature 115 films under three categories – films made by Aurovilians and residents of the bioregion and films shot in Auroville by guests of Auroville, films made about Auroville, and films made by students of schools in Auroville.

The 94 films in the competition will be judged by three eminent personalities: actor-director Revathy, reporter and documentary filmmaker Gerard Perrier, and theatre person and journalist Gowri Ramnarayan.

“My association with Auroville has lasted over 20 years, and I’m happy to be a part of this festival,” said a smiling Revathy.

According to Marco Feira, the organiser of the festival who also runs Cinema Paradiso, the aim of the festival is to project a certain image of Auroville, and at the same time explore the perception that outsiders have about Auroville. The winning films will find a bigger platform when they are screened in big cities in India and abroad, he added.

“We live in an era of images, and our idea was to adopt an educational approach towards making films,” he explained.

In an attempt to realise this, Cinema Paradiso decided to conduct filmmaking workshops for participants aged eight and above, in the run-up to the festival. “This is when the award-winning French experimental filmmaker Saguenail arrived at Auroville, and became the cheese on the pasta,” quipped Mr. Feira. He went on to conduct workshops for 65 students over 10 days on all aspects of filmmaking, such as camera work, sound and editing. He also trained Aurovilians to conduct these workshops so that this tradition could continue for future editions of the biennial festival.

In all, three adult workshops and six school workshops were conducted, and most of the films made during the course of these workshops will be screened. The audience may also vote for three of the best films in their opinion.

The festival will be on until September 27, with films being screened daily at Bharat Nivas and MMC, Auroville.

Bhasha Research and Tribal Arts and Culture

National Consortium of Tribal Arts and Culture : : NCTAC
The National Consortium of Tribal Arts and Culture is funded by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. It is a project that involves the ...

The National Consortium of Tribal Arts and Culture project was initiated by Bhasha Research and Publications Center and a selected team of experts. They have been constantly engaged in coordinating with the participating museums and in the work of digitization of research materials and the creation of the interactive display and project website.
Funding for the NCTAC has been provided by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, a body responsible for planning, policy, formulation, and coordination of programmes relating to the development and welfare of Scheduled Tribes.
The Museum of Voice at the Adivasi Academy, Tejgadh, Gujarat has helped to develop the model for documentation of the objects and acquistion numbering.
All research content and data has been supplied by the staff of the Tribal Research Institutes and their Museums.
Each of these organizations has contributed their time and resources towards the development of the National Consortium of Tribal Arts and Culture.

The NCTAC hope to continue expanding in the coming years through the increased participaiton of private and government owned museums that house collections tribal art and culture.
We therefore invite all such institutions and private individuals to come forward and contribute towards this consortium.
We also look forward to hearing from individuals interested in contributing their time, experience and creativity to this project.
Please address all correspondence to:
The Project Co-ordinator, National Consortium of Tribal Arts and Culture C/o Bhasha Research and Publication Center 62 Shreenathdham Duplex Bh. Dinesh Mills, Akota Vadodara 390 007
Ph: 0265 2331968 Fax: 0265 2359059 Email: administrator@bhasharesearch.org.in

Film to chronicle not only the physical but also spiritual experiences of Sri Aurobindo

Other States - Puducherry The Hindu : Other States - Puducherry News : Filming of documentary on Sri Aurobindo begins
Monday, Aug 31, 2009 - Staff Reporter — Photo : T. Singaravelou

Minister of State for Planning, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture V. Narayanasamy at the launch of the documentary film in Puducherry on Sunday. Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy and writer Manoj Das are in the picture.

PUDUCHERRY: Union Minister of State for Planning, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture V. Narayanasamy on Sunday sounded the clapperboard for a documentary film on Sri Aurobindo. The film, directed by ‘Gunavathy Mainthan’ Ravi, will be released on April 4, 2010, marking the centenary of Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Puducherry.
Mr. Narayanasamy said that little was known about Sri Aurobindo, the freedom fighter, and his life as a revolutionary. He expressed the hope that the film would throw more light on Sri Aurobindo’s political life such as his partnership with Bal Gangadhar Tilak and his stints as editor of nationalist magazines.
Welfare Minister M. Kandasamy was also present. Member of Legislative Assembly S.P. Sivakumar said that in commemoration of Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Puducherry, a postal stamp would also be released .

Writer and professor of the Sri Aurobindo International Centre for Education Manoj Das said that the filmmaker had taken on a difficult task by attempting to chronicle not only the physical but also spiritual experiences of Sri Aurobindo.
Mr. Das wanted the first house Sri Aurobindo stayed in Puducherry to be declared a national monument. This was because it has great significance to the beginning of his spiritual journey.
Mr. Ravi, who has made 15 documentary films so far, said that the 60-minute docu-drama would depict Sri Aurobindo in all his avatars - freedom fighter, writer, intellectual and yogi. Produced by K.I. Manirathinem of Anugraha Cultural Akademi, it would be made in Tamil and English under the guidance of Mr. Das. Shooting would be held in Kolkata, Vadodara, Darjeeling and Puducherry over the next few months.

***

A tri-lingual documentary on Sri Aurobindo Asian Tribune
Tue, 2009-09-01 11:30 — By Gopal Ethiraj, Chennai
Puducherry, 01 September, (Asiantribune.com):

Noted documentary film-maker Gunavathy Maindan’s next documentary venture “Sri Aurobindo” was inaugurated by the Union Minister of State for Culture V.Narayanaswamy in Puducherry on Sunday.
The film is being made in commemoration with the centenary year of the coming of the Mahan Aurobindo to Puducherry (April 1910 to 2010). It is planned to shoot as a tri-lingual—Tamil, English and Hindi.
The one-hour documentary would be shot at Puducherry, Baroda, in Gujarat, Kolkatta and Darjeeling in West Bengal where the Indian Nationalist and freedom-fighter, writer, poet, philosopher and yogi had lived and worked.
Sri Aurobindo had his schooling and higher education (Cambridge) in England and returning to India, his mind flowed to what he had missed of his motherland—its culture, philosophy, literature and languages. What struck him more was the nationalism.
He joined the movement for India’s freedom from the British rule in 1905. The famous Alipore Bomb case in which he was implicated proved to be a turning point in his life.

He migrated to Puducherry in 1910, then under French regime, continued his freedom struggle, possibly under the garb of spiritualism. For him spiritualism and nationalism were same as Sanatana Dharma. While practicing both, spiritualism seemed to have overtaken him, with which he is known to the world. He was a contemporary of the nationalist poet Subramaniya Bharathi.
Puducherry stood to gain largely from his presence here for forty years, and also with his prime disciple the Divine Mother.

As the Union Minister sounded the clap-board and started the shooting of the film, the invited dignitaries hailed the writer-director Gunavathy Maindan, who has 14 documentaries to his credit. The speakers included Welfare Minister Kandaswamy, Prof. Dr. Manoj Das, Prof. Dr. Murali Sivaramakkrishnan, Dr. P. Raja, Dr. Ritanath Kesari, MLA S.P. Sivakumar, Dr. K.I. Manirathinem, Chairman, Navasaksti Township Developers and Journalist Gopal Ethiraj. - Asian Tribune

***

We all know that Sri Aurobindo's life was rich with events and involvements, voluntary or otherwise, that would fill up volumes of interesting biographies. But it is also known to all of us what he told one of his earliest would-be biographers – that there was nothing on the surface of his life which could justify writing a biography. Obviously what he thought to be the real purpose, works and achievements of his life were matters that remained beneath the surface.
But I realise that we cannot help writing about his life. I have not been able to restrain myself from doing it in a small way. Auroville Today > Current issue > Current issue > August 2009 “We cannot help writing about His life” – Manoj Das

Digital version of the French Salons or the Greek Agora

A cosmopolitan anthropology via The Memory Bank by keith on 9/10/09 Emergent world society is the new human universal – not an idea, but the fact of our shared occupation of the planet crying out for new principles of association... The task of building a global civil society for the twenty-first century, even a world state, is an urgent one and anthropological visions should play their part in that...

Anthropology does not sit well with the modern university. We retain the will to range freely across disciplinary boundaries; the humanism and democracy entailed in our methods contradict the bureaucratic imperatives of corporate privatization at every turn. Anthropology has always been an anti-discipline, a holding company for idiosyncratic individuals to do what they like and call it ‘anthropology’... The rapid development of global communications today contains within its movement a far-reaching transformation of world society.

The internet is a wonderful chance to open up the flow of knowledge and information. Rather than obsessing over how we can control access to what we write, which means cutting off the mass of humanity almost completely from our efforts, we need to figure out new interactive forms of engagement that span the globe and to make the results of our work available to everyone. Ever since the internet went public and the World Wide Web was invented, I have made online self-publishing and interaction the core of my anthropological practice. And recently I have stumbled into what may turn out to be the most powerful vehicle for this project yet: the Open Anthropology Cooperative.

It matters less that an academic guild should retain its monopoly of access to knowledge than that ‘anthropology’ should be taken up by a broad intellectual coalition for whom the realization of a new human universal – a world society fit for humanity as a whole — is a matter of urgent personal concern. Paper presented at the inaugural conference of the Centre for Cosmopolitan Studies, University of St. Andrews, ‘A cosmopolitan anthropology?’, 15-16th September 2009 11:14 AM

Speculative Realism Wiki via Larval Subjects . by larvalsubjects on 9/7/09
Michael Austin of Complete Lies has cleaned up the Speculative Realism entry, substantially improving it... Given the important role that blogging has played in the SR movement, however, I do think more needs to be written for that section...

If SR has truly been the first philosophical movement that’s unfolded on the internet, it is important to reflect the vitality and breadth of this net presence and also avoid hierarchializing works published in journals and presses over research and theoretical elaborations that have been written in other mediums. The day is quickly approaching where the book and article are going to be significantly called into question or undergo a profound transformation in how they are produced and circulated. SR has been at the forefront of these shifts. The entry should also include links to these blogs.

SR has been, perhaps, the first philosophical movement to take new media seriously, given the claims that certain variants of SR make on behalf of objects, it is important not to treat one set of objects as being more real than others. One of the most attractive features of the SR movement is the manner in which it has been a “grass roots” movement that has circumvented traditional power structures presided over by the academy. That could, of course, mean that it is a movement dominated by a bunch of cranks– certainly few of us are at marquis institutions –but I prefer to think of it more as a contemporary, digital version of the French Salons or the Greek Agora.

Philosophy should not seek converts, but rather should aim at the proliferation of differences

Of Cranks and Olives from Larval Subjects . by larvalsubjects
Recent discussion surrounding trolls, minotaurs, gray vampires and the whole growing bestiary have gotten me thinking about a post I wrote my first year blogging entitled “In Praise of Irritation” later published in Reconstruction. [...]

The measure of a successful philosophy, in my view, is not whether or not it manages to earn converts. In this respect, the very thesis of the grey vampire as the subject that always seems just about ready to agree or endorse a position is deeply, in my view, mistaken. The true measure of a successful philosophy, I think, is whether or not it becomes a difference engine. As I understand it, a difference engine is an entity that is perpetually adept at producing differences. This is not an egalitarian, happy go lucky free for all. There will be antagonisms, conflicts, wars, and so on. But nonetheless differences are produced. The differences that a difference engine produces can be unexpected projects that a philosophy manages to spawn. I have been surprised as a somewhat militant atheist, for example, at the manner in which my onticology has been picked up and sent in very different directions by certain theologians. This is something that I would have never expected.

However, a difference engine is not simply the production of sympathetic projects. It is also to be found at the level of antagonistic projects. If a philosophy can generate antagonisms, alternative thoughts, opposing thoughts, and so on, it has been successful as a difference engine. This might be a painful admission or observation as none of us like existing in a state of warfare and conflict or witnessing our painstakingly developed thoughts trod upon. However, not only has a philosophy made a contribution to the symbolic world in functioning as a stimulus of creating antagonisms and therefore shifting the frame of discourse, but also I think philosophies benefit self-reflexively from the others or the antonyms they generate insofar as they’re forced to generate new concepts, lines of argument, and applications.

In this regard, I cannot agree with the sortal of “grey vampires”, no matter how much I sympathize with and admire those who are formulating it. In my view, the evangelical model of philosophy is a monstrosity. Philosophy should not seek converts, but rather should aim at the proliferation of differences. The difficult issue is how to distinguish between the verb of trollery where the aim is to shut down any and all discourse through shouting and wearing guns on ones hip, and the verb of grey vampirism where it is possible to produce some productive differences.

However, in this medium, in this strange universe of the blogosphere, I think it is above all important to remember that from the perspective of the academy, we’re all cranks, trolls, and gray vampires despite any philosophical and theoretical difference we might have. Our very mode of engagement, from an institutional perspective, is illegitimate and lacking in seriousness or productivity. We are cranks, trolls, strange new minotaurs of an electronic world. There is no division here. We’re all selected in one and exactly the same way. The real question is not whether these judgments are true, but whether or not we identify with those who make those judgments.

Further, it should never be forgotten that those of us who have attained some success in this medium are outsiders and marginalized figures in an entire institutionalized setting. They are folks who got sick of submitting materials to shriveled and tired dusty figures functioning as the real minotaurs at the gates of journals, conferences, and presses, submitting their work to a scrutiny by these minotaurs to decide whether or not they were worthy of their gate (to be read as worthy of being submitted to their university discourse or established habitus), and who preferred to accept their minor, marginalized status and do what they really wanted to do anyway: think, invent, and talk to other interesting cranks.

The real test is whether or not one identifies with those minotaurs guarding the gate [...] Sometimes its better simply to collect sea glass and talk about turtles and mothmen. Although we have quasi-minotaurs that appear here in the blogosphere, that’s not where the real minotaurs are to be found.

Mukherjee's mâ tujhé bulâtî hai sung in Paris

from Prithwin Mukherjee prithwin.mukherjee@gmail.com to "Tusar N. Mohapatra" tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com date 15 Aug 2009 19:13 subject Darshan Day
Bhâi Tusar,

The Ambassador, H.E. Ranjan Mathai had informed me last month about a possibility of programming my patriotic song mâ tujhé bulâtî hai for 15 August ceremony. Yesterday evening my musician friend Bittoo Banger confirmed that he has been invited by the Ambassador to sing it this morning after flag hoisting, janaganamana and the President's message : he had forgotten to intimate me!

It has been a grand success: everybody seems to have caught the spirit behind the composition. I had composed it fifty years ago, as a protest against Chinese aggression, and our Ashram choir had interpreted it ardently. The senior poetesse Vidyavati 'Kokil' was so happy with it that she sent a copy of the words to Sumitranandan Pant-ji. Recently I have worked electronically on the orchestra accompaniment.

Wish you all the best.
Prithwindra

Philosophy in its purest form, its most productive form, is 'blogosophy'

Maverick Philosopher: In Praise of Blogosophy
by Bill Vallicella Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Philosophy is primarily an activity, not a body of doctrine. If you were to think of it as a body of doctrine, then you would have to say there is no philosophy, but only philosophies. For there is no one universally recognized body of doctrine called philosophy. The truth of course is one not many. And that is what the philosopher aims at: the one ultimate truth about the ultimate matters, including the ultimate truth about how we ought to live. But aiming at a target and hitting it are two different things. The target is one, but our many arrows have fallen short and in different places. And if you think that your favorite philosopher has hit the target of truth, why can't you convince the rest of us of that?

Disagreement does not of course prove the nonexistence of truth, but it does cast reasonable doubt on all claims to its possession. Philosophy aspires to sound, indeed incontrovertible, doctrine. But the quest for it has proven tough indeed. For all we know it may lie beyond our powers. Not that this gives us reason to abandon the quest. But it does give us reason to be modest and undogmatic.

Philosophy, then, is primarily an activity, a search, a quest. Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft, Kant remarks that "Philosophy cannot be taught, we can at most learn to philosophize." I agree. It cannot be taught because it does not exist as teachable doctrine. Philosophy is not something we profess, except perhaps secondarily; it is something we do. The best professors of philosophy are doers of philosophy.

How then should we do philosophy? Conversation face-to-face with the like-minded, intelligent, and sincere is useful but ephemeral and hard to arrange. Jetting off to conferences can be fun especially if the venue is exotic and the tab is picked up your department. But reading papers at conferences is pretty much a waste of time when it comes to actually doing productive philosophy. Can you follow a technical paper simply by listening to it? If you can you're smarter than me.

So we ought to consider the idea that philosophy in its purest form, its most productive form, is 'blogosophy,' philosophy pursued by weblog. And there is this in favor of it: blogging takes pressure off the journals. Working out my half-baked ideas here, I am less likely to submit material that is not yet ready for embalming in printer's ink. Posted at 09:32 AM in Blogging, Metaphilosophy Permalink

Philosophy, then, is primarily an activity, a search, a quest.

Independent philosopher Jeff Meyerhoff has a paper titled "Arguments beyond reason", where he says:

"It's commonly thought that once the participants in a rational discussion have exhausted all rational means of coming to agreement there is nothing more to do except to agree to disagree. By following a line of thought justified by current outcomes in contemporary analytic philosophy, I argue that there is a further investigation that rational discussants can pursue which is called for because our deeply held beliefs are held for non-rational rather than rational reasons. I further argue that this exploration into the basis of belief — rather than the belief itself — does, contrary to the genetic fallacy, affect truth and objectivity. While distasteful for most intellectuals to contemplate, the basis of individual beliefs in personal psychologies makes necessary the individual and joint exploration of the irrational"

One of the arguments used by Meyerhoff (to support his position) is:

"If we examine our reasons for believing what we believe beyond the reason-giving we do to defend our beliefs we find the animating core which motivates us to have the beliefs that we have and deploy the reasons that we do. The reasons we give for believing as we do are not the real reasons we believe because they always ultimately end in circularity, regress or assumptions.[6] Since all belief-systems if pursued far enough will end in circularity, regress or assumptions we cannot say that reasons are what ultimately cause us to believe. There must be something else which causes us to adopt our particular chain of reasons or web of beliefs. Since in terms of their ultimate rational foundation our belief system is as good as an opposed belief-system, there must be something else which causes us to choose, and which holds us to, our particular belief-system. What is characteristic of us is not only the combination of beliefs we have woven together, since everyone does that with greater or lesser originality, but why we adhere to this, rather than that, belief-system. In our rational discussions there is a way in which we completely miss the point since it is not the reasons we are deploying that cause us to believe. If we are trying to convince another person or challenge our own beliefs then we should, for more efficiency, go to the source of the belief, which is the emotional and psychic need to have the world be the way we believe it is" http://www.philosophos.com/philosophy_article_96.html

As far I disagree with some of Meyerhoff's ideas, I think he's right about the "non-rational" motives of beliefs (including, philosophical beliefs). His thesis explain why highly brillant philosophers, discussing about the same problem, can't get a rational agreetment about it, according to the truth and the best arguments for it. But it rarely ocurrs.

Meyerhooff's thesis also explain David Lewis' assertion "philosophical theories are never refuted conclusively". The reason is that one position considered "decisively refuted" by many (e.g. substance dualism), isn't considered refuted by others (like Bill Vallicella, Edward Feser or a non-professional philosopher like me). Are we more rational, wise, intelligent or informed than the others anti-dualistic philosphers? It could be the case or not, but I doubt it's the core of the problem.

Given that refutation is a technical concept in logic, we'd expect that rational philosophers be agree when a thesis is "refuted conclusively" or not. But even in that simple logical question they disagree! (suporting partially, again, Meyerhoff's thesis)

Meyerhoff's thesis, pushed it consistently throught its ultimate implications, could imply relativism. But even relativism isn't "conclusively refuted"; in fact, there is contemporary defenses of it in analytic philosophy. One of them can be seen here:
http://departments.bloomu.edu/philosophy/pages/content/hales/articles/relativism.html

For the record: I'm a firm believer in realism, I believe in objective truth, I support substance dualism and I think positions like eliminativism (and other forms of materialism) are probably false. However, I'm not 100% sure that my reasons to believe in them are totally due (only) to rational motives, and these doubts tend to get stronger when I see informed professional philosophers (wiser than me) defend views that (in my opinion) are completely absurd or ridiculous. Posted by: Jime Tuesday, March 10, 2009 at 02:47 PM

Technically it's impressive, but morally it's a horror

Swans Commentary » swans.com January 26, 2009
The Poverty Of Slumdog Millionaire
by Jeff Meyerhoff Film Review (Swans - January 26, 2009)

The beloved new movie "Slumdog Millionaire," directed by Danny Boyle, exploits the poverty of India's orphans to tell a fanciful love story. Technically it's impressive, but morally it's a horror. The movie uses the devastatingly horrible life of Indian street orphans to tell what is essentially an escapist love adventure and preposterous rags-to-riches story, complete with a hero who rescues a fair maiden from a castle where she's being held by an evil mobster/monster. The audience forgets the horrors he and the other orphaned children endure because they're all redeemed by our hero becoming rich and getting the girl of his dreams.

The exploited experiences linger as the movie induces us to forget about them and move on with the story. There's the hero's brother who's been put in charge of a crew of abandoned orphan-beggars. He threatens a little girl that he'll drop a screaming baby on the ground if the girl doesn't hold the baby and keep her screaming to get more handouts on the street. At first, the girl refuses and the audience gets to experience the nightmarish prospect of this parentless, crying baby being dropped on the ground, but then, reluctantly, she agrees to hold the baby. The scene ends and the audience is guided back to the flowering love story.

In another scene, a little boy is intentionally blinded by the mobster who pimps the pack of orphaned beggar children. Years later, we encounter the blind boy again, older, but fated to stand in the subway singing for handouts, his useless eyes crossing every which way. He cheerily tells our hero a fact that comes in handy later in the movie and so, having served his purpose, can be forgotten too.

The audience is traumatized with these and other horrors, any one of which should have been the subject of a movie but here usefully serve as the horrible contrast that makes the hero's fanciful victory satisfying.

We'll allow ourselves to be exposed to Conradian horrors such as these, as long as we feel entertained and we get full redemption in the end. It's much like the TV show "Animal Rescue 911" on Animal Planet Channel. Abused animals are found and then saved. The audience is terrorized and then relieved. What's hidden is the reality of all the suffering animals that don't get saved and die horrible deaths we couldn't bear to imagine and would never agree to watch. "Slumdog Millionaire" gives us a glimpse of "the horror" to further its story and then induces us to forget. Review of Slumdog Millionaire from philosophy autobiography by Jeff Meyerhoff

Injustices and abuses that arise in anarchy are left off-stage, or, at best, used as stage-dressing and color

Keith M Ellis Says: August 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am Another way of looking at libertarianism is to see it as classic liberalism’s evil twin.

Keith M Ellis Says: August 8th, 2009 at 11:26 am
This is part of why I said it’s not just a product of the Western US, but also that it’s a product of the Western as a film genre. It’s a fable, a myth, and quite a ways removed from reality. It’s what Americans like to believe about themselves, as exemplified by the Western, and now rationalized into a political philosophy. It egregiously ignores the role that government played in making the settling of the West possible and prosperous and ignores all the ways in which lack of governance allowed horrible exploitation and ruthless monopolies.

I watched Rio Bravo the other night and I think it’s an interesting example in both how it exemplifies a typical exception to this rule and how both the Western and libertarianism square that circle. There is, occasionally, a large landowner (typically a rancher) who is ruthlessly greedy and corrupt. The character of “Nathan Burdette” plays that role as antagonist in Rio Bravo.

But notice that the film mostly elides the government’s role in controlling Burdette and bringing him to justice: John Wayne’s character, Sheriff John T. Change acts on his own (deputizing locals as necessary!) to uphold the law in the town—the courageous individual, the David facing Goliath. It would all be for naught weren’t for the Federal Marshal coming to pick up his prisoners, but we never see this. The entire situation is portrayed as a wholly local phenomena that is resolved locally. But, of course, a great many aspects of it aren’t local and involve government.

Even when one looks at something as ostensibly realist and cynical as the recent TV series, Deadwood, most of the injustices and abuses that arise in anarchy are left off-stage, or, at best, used as stage-dressing and color. Swearengen is a sort of robber-baron, but he’s a sympathetic robber-baron who is, in his own way, contributing to the greater good. What we don’t see is anything beyond the merest glimpses of life among the Chinese. Or, for that matter, the prostitutes. Indeed, even in Deadwood, there’s a lot of hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold mythology that is the essence of the traditional Western tavern girl. And, above all, the show teems with the energy of individualistic desire to build and improve. And this is among the very few most cynical examples of the Western genre, ever!

This careful blindness is precisely mimicked in libertarian philosophy. The poor, ruthlessly exploited by the greedy monopolistic rich, are either off-stage or delivered from their oppression by a brave individual acting on his own moral authority. Good will triumph! It’s a matter of faith and a very selectively blind worldview. 12:24 PM

Human unity through Hui Ward’s music

Home > Andrea Guy, Reviews > SATCHITANANDA” and “SAT (EXISTENCE)
SATCHITANANDA” and “SAT (EXISTENCE) August 7th, 2009

Hui Ward takes us to a new level of consciousness with both music and spoken word with the albums Satchitnanda and Sat (existence). Perhaps to fully appreciate the beauty of this recording would be to understand the journey that Hui Ward took to create this beautiful work. This journey led here to Auroville where she discovered Matrimandir, which is a city that was created by Sri Aurobindo Ashram that is “a universal town where men and women are able to live in peace and progressive harmony, above all creeds, all politics and all nationalities. The purpose of Auroville is to realize human unity.”

The soundscapes of Satchitananda correspond to the levels of consciousness that are embodied in the design of the 12 gardens in Auroville. Does that sound too hard to comprehend? Perhaps so, but you can achieve human unity through music, and Hui Ward’s music on these two albums should inspire you to explore that higher level of consciousness that has fascinated many over the years.

The three twelve minute soundscapes on Satchitananda are Existence, Consciousness and Bliss and the other three on Sat (Existence) are Light, Life and Power, fittingly those are the first six of the twelve gardens. Its very easy to lose yourself in the music, so beautiful are the sounds of the violin and bansuri and Hui’s voice that is often like Bjork’s but with less of an edge that sometimes make’s the later difficult to listen to for long periods of time.

The spoken word portions of both discs may alienate the listener, especially if they are of the casual variety and not quite open to understanding Hui’s journey and how she’s sharing it. If you fall into that category, step back and listen to the music a few times. Let the bansuri take your spirit in its flight, as it seems to be like the instrumental equivalent of a bird, singing its sweet song for all to hear. Listen to Hui’s voice and let it fill your mind. That’s what the music should do. Fill your mind and your soul. Listen to the six musical tracks in a row and I guarantee that your outlook will be much improved, your body more relaxed and your mind more open.

Its likely that not all of the listeners will be able to achieve the human unity that Hui is trying to create with her Om Creation series, but certainly everyone that gives these two discs a listen will take away with them a better understanding of one person and her music. The mixture of Northern and Southern Indian music is very pleasing to the ear and when combined with the vocal is a unique listening experience that one should savor.

Again these albums aren’t for just anyone, but if you seek to find even just a small piece of enlightenment, these albums are as good a place as any to start. The music is ethereal, soothing and uplifting. Truly a delight to the ears and possibly a path to paradise even if you can only stay there as long as the album plays. Reviewed By Andrea Guy http://community.livejournal.com/mossip/

The poems are certain to initiate empathy and déjà vu

‘Silent Horizons’ is the debut collection of poems of Parthajeet Das which has all the shades of his age captured beautifully in words. The two aptly named sections of the book, 'Restless Pilgrim' and 'Still Restless' mark the transition of the author not only in terms of poetic style and form but also in maturity of thought and expression. But, as the names suggest, the fundamental driver for the author remains the same - an irrepressible restlessness.

The restlessness arises from the author's experiences, his inability to answer the questions that gape at his face and also from not so successful attempts to elicit answers. The author in the space of the poems swings from being the inquisitive teenager to the wise old man and to the restless young man that he is. The poems are certain to initiate empathy and déjà vu among readers. The author experiments with form and expression but all the poems are marked with lyricism and internal rhythm and make a delightful reading experience.

Labels allusion (8) first draft (1) Kabir (6) micro-fiction/Stories (8) Poems (34) random (2) sustainability (2) Travel/Experience (15)

Science, Culture and Integral Yoga on the mountaintop

[Science, Culture and Integral Yoga Re: Yoga, religion, and fundamentalism in the Integral Yoga Community by Lynda Lester
by Debashish on Sun 30 Nov 2008 03:42 AM PST Profile Permanent Link
Dear Ned, Let me speak for myself. "Inadequacies and flaws" are a given in what is known as "the human condition" and I cannot claim any other kind of condition for myself. But that said, I am not making any claim to stand for "truth" or against "falsehood." What I am standing for here is simply the right of ignorance to struggle for and discover knowledge. What I am standing against are knowledge-claims which try to force themselves on the world... Indeed, this is a judgment call, and I cannot speak for anyone else, only myself. From my sense of the stakes involved in this case, at this time and place, I feel called upon to take this stand. Our growth from "inadequacies and flaws" are not the better achieved on the mountaintop; it is through action that we must grow. (I know Koantum may say it is equally achieved on the mountaintop and I will not argue with that; for me, at least, it is "not better achieved" on the mountaintop). Reply]

[A Chronology of Modern Indian Art and Thematic Considerations By Debashish Banerji
by Debashish on Tue 10 Mar 2009 10:25 PM PDT Permanent Link (Click this link to see the Contours of Modernity Picture Gallery) Science, Culture and Integral Yoga
The regime of modernity in India can be said to begin from the turn of the 17th/18th c. with the setting up of trading interests in Calcutta by the British East India Company. The British occupation of India swiftly replaced the indigenous miniature schools with naturalistic Company Painting and institutional forms such as art salons and art schools generated a new breed of Indian elite painters who turned to oils and water colors in a British style, though often with Indian subjects from myth, portraiture or landscape... Rameshwar Broota, on the other hand, distills a bleak essence of the human condition with his hirsute ape-like monumental forms standing blankly in dark landscapes. An unrelieved monotony and stark animality seem like unbreakable chains invisibly tied to this form of self, which is less national or individual than the global anonymous image of dehumanized modernity... While spirituality in the Indian context is justifiably seen by many as a trite buzzword or an essentialized form of cultural economy prioritized by Orientalists and used as a convenient device of modern self-labeling by nationalists, spiritual practices continue to proliferate in a variety of ways throughout the subcontinent and the quest for the liberation of consciousness from every form of subjection continues to be an individual possibility not merely for Indians but as an active discursive field available to the world. Contemporary Indian artists, while they have been wary of exotic or romantic definitions of Indian spirituality, have not kept themselves incubated from the expression of specific ideas, practices and experiences emanating from yogic traditions.]

[Here, he is saying (as per the reviewer since I have not read the book) that Science should make its "pure" seeking for Knowledge subservient to the human condition of suffering. Of course, Science, though it claims its "purity" and "freedom" from social concerns is already tainted by much worse than what the Dalai Lama is calling for, as has been brought home by contemporary philosopher-critics of the Enlightenment. More specifically, Science form the beginning obeys a hidden subservience to the purposes of Power - control, manipulation and exploitation for the possession and enjoyment of the object of scientific attention through Technology. If this is recognized, then "Science" should not find it difficult to uplift is subjection from the "rajasic" or "asuric" to the "sattwic" and "daivic" subservience that the Dalai Lama is suggesting. However, the dialog on compassion is an attempt to translate to a different cultural field the nomos of the Indic field of Knowledge. Here, Knowledge is subservient to the specific practical goal of an ontological transformation which answers to a proposed solution to the human condition. A field of modern subjetive Science can avoid the hubris and lack of the totalistic nomos of western objective Science by founding itself on these practical and dialogic bases. DB Re: "The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality" by the Dalai Lama Science, Culture and Integral Yoga
by Debashish on Sat 18 Nov 2006 04:22 PM PST Profile Permanent Link Reply]

[It's interesting though, that in the genre of portrait painting, I have yet to come across a "subjective" interpretation of Sri Aurobindo or the Mother. It seems here that the closer to reality the painting, the truer to the "divine image." But then, if this "reality" betrays any "physiological blemishes", it is not considered satisfying. If there is anything to these cultural histories of taste, then we have to ask the question as to whether these are unchanging essences and "never the twain shall meet" or whether they can be related or even synthesized? And if the second is possible, is there only one way to relate and synthesize them or many? Contemporary western art practice also grapples with issues of this kind. The mid-19th c. saw a wholesale rejection of "naturalism" in art in favor of "subjectivism." But contemporary practice has come to assert that the "naturalistic" or "illusionistic" is no less subjective than the "expressionistic." The photographic signifier hides and discloses the subjective signified. Our practices of reading have tuned to an objective-subjective taste as a result. This indeed is one kind of synthesis and I find the Lives of Sri Aurobindo very successful in this regard. I find no lack of "spiritual look" in it, just another kind of representation which bridges the eastern and western tropes in one way. Perhaps our friends with the so-called "Indian look" can try to do the same in their own way, instead of this sad rejection and aggressive hostility? DB Re: Corrections to textual excerpts of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo by Peter Heehs Science, Culture and Integral Yoga
by Debashish on Thu 16 Oct 2008 09:24 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link Reply]

Riccardo Carlotto began his musical studies at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education

Violin-piano concert at Alliance Times of India - New Delhi, India TNN 27 July 2009 BANGALORE:

Bangalore School of Music (BSM) will present a concert featuring Ladislav Brozman (Switzerland) on violin and Riccardo Carlotto (Italy) on piano, on Juy 31, 7.30 pm, at Alliance Francaise in Vasanthnagar. The popular duo is part of the BSM's East West Festival of 2008.

Brozman, born in the former Czechoslovakia, started playing violin at the age of 7. His repertory comprises all the sonatas, solo sonatas and concertos by Bach and Vivaldi, besides violin works by Mozart, Beethoven, Tartini, Brahms, Saint Sakns, Debussy, Ravel and Prokofjeff. In 2002 he toured India and Europe with Swiss piano virtuoso Christina Zulauf.

Carlotto, born in Italy, began his musical studies on the recorder and piano at an early age at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Pondicherry. He continued his studies of music in Spain, from 1989-1991, before studying at the Vienna University.

Blogging is genuinely a new form of writing, thinking, and intellectual engagement

Thursday, July 23, 2009 Interview with Levi R. Bryant
Today we interview Levi R. Bryant, author of Difference and Givenness: Deleuze’s Transcendental Empiricism and the Ontology of Immanence and co-editor (along with Graham Harman and Nick Srnicek) of the forthcoming The Speculative Turn: Continental Materialism and Realism. Many of you will also know Levi from his excellent blog Larval Subjects.

However, it could be said that the more recent shifts in my thought have very much been a product of my experience with blogging. Blogging is genuinely a new form of writing, thinking, and intellectual engagement when done properly. This point and blogging’s difference can be illustrated in terms of evolutionary theory.

One of the primary ways in which speciation takes place is through geographical isolation. Two populations of a single species come to be reproductively isolated for some reason or other and as time passes their phenotypes diverge and the respective populations become homogenous. It is really no different in traditional academia. You talk to people who share the same interests as you, you attend conferences devoted to your particular issue or thinker, you publish in journals devoted to your privileged thinker, and you read texts on your privileged thinker or problem. These are all forms of geographical isolation that lead to “academic speciations”.

This sort of isolation isn’t operative in the world of blogging. While you certainly encounter specialists in your particular area, you also encounter thinkers from entirely different disciplines, practices, and orientations and you have to find a way to engage with them that doesn’t assume the daunting scholarly apparatus of your particular thought-framework. You encounter all sorts of characters like satirists and trolls, but also housewives, people in business, activists, artists, politicians and all the rest... Posted by Paul Ennis. Labels: Interview, levi r. bryant, phenomenology, philosophy, speculative realism

Larval Subjects July 28, 2009 Design Ontology Posted by larvalsubjects

My philosophical thought has changed fundamentally since I began blogging, as can be observed from the nature of my style when I wrote primarily on online discussion lists and in the early years of this blog. Part of this has been the evolution of my thought. Another part of this has been the nature of the medium itself. Discussion lists, for example, are organized around “master-thinkers”, so they tend towards scholarly discussion of the intricacies of that thinker or questions about where something might be found in the thinkers body of work.

Writing articles for journals tends to be a largely solitary exercise that involves careful engagement with scholarship and composition. Blogging, by contrast, involves a cacophony of voices, each with their own interests and backgrounds, hyperlinked cross-blog discussions, multiple forms of media, and so on. The medium in all these cases plays a formative role in the formation of content. [1:31 PM]

Jul 21, 2009 (title unknown) from enowning by enowning Critchley, B&T, week 7. The inauthenticity of blogging.

for Heidegger, inauthentic life is characterised by chatter – for example, the ever-ambiguous hubbub of the blogosphere. Conscience calls Dasein back from this chatter silently. It has the character of what Heidegger calls "reticence" (Verschwiegenheit), which is the privileged mode of language in Heidegger. So, the call of conscience is a silent call that silences the chatter of the world and brings me back to myself. [6:04 PM]

Francis Rothluebber moderated a panel highlighting the power of unity in action as experienced in the city of Auroville

City of the Dawn, Auroville, India - Awareness of Oneness: Seeing the Power of Unity in Action
By Noreen Kelly July 1, 2009
“The New World is not only a possibility ~ it’s happening”

City of the Dawn is a remarkable documentary about a modern, universal city with 2,000 people from 40 nations who have developed innovative and inclusive solutions in every aspect of human social life: caring relationships, participative government, arts and education, architecture and building materials, complementary medicine, reforestation, and sustainable industries. The city of Auroville in Southern India provides a demonstration of what is possible when people attempt to live together in a community beyond the boundaries of nation, religion, and race that separate us. Their experience raises questions about what can be accomplished on a broader scale when awareness of oneness drives our actions.

The film premiered at the Awareness into Action: The Power of Living as One conference, held on June 27, 2009, in Chicago, IL. “City of the Dawn” started with the desire of Francis Rothluebber to create a documentary about Auroville to demonstrate the power of conscious unity. Francis was formerly the director of Columbiere Retreat Center in Idyllwild, CA; president of the School Sisters of St. Francis, an international Franciscan community of more than 1,050 sisters and associates headquartered in Milwaukee, WI; and teacher and principal of Alvernia High School in Chicago. She was inspired to learn more about Auroville after reading the works of Sri Aurobindo on evolutionary spirituality and visiting the ashram of Mother Mirra Alfassa, who founded Auroville.

After the film showing, Francis Rothluebber moderated a panel highlighting the power of unity in action as experienced in the city of Auroville. The panel included current and former residents from Aurorville who share the challenges and accomplishments of living in conscious awareness of oneness as a community. Panelists included Jean-Yves Lung, Economist; Bhavana Dee DeCew, Community Organizer; Deepti Tewari, Educator; Julian Lines, Chair, Auroville International; and Bryan Walton, President, Auroville International USA and his wife Fanou.
Life in the city of Auroville:
- The Art of Giving (Gift Economy)
- No money
- No Police/Laws
- No dogma
- Unity first
- Your life is a school; we’re here to learn
- Perspectives, not ideologies
- Work for the joy of discovering new activities
- Free education
- Meaningful life
- Develop a deeper sense of seeing
- Go within
- The less I know, the more sure I am
- We come from a single consciousness
- Getting along; learning how to listen
- Change things by the power of the inner Spirit
- Hurrying … less time to Be
- Knowing is Being
- Be a willing servitude of Divine Consciousness
_________________
New Momentum for Human Unity
Francis Rothluebber organized New Momentum for Human Unity, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization in 2006. Its mission is to create a better life on and for this planet through the evolution of human consciousness and the transformation of human relationships, by encouraging mindfulness of our interconnection and by the power of selfless love. Through programs and projects that offer tools and resources, New Momentum intends to help people create the inner shifts - the changes in perspective and motive - that lead to changes in the world that will become evident in renewed and improved relationships with each other and the environment.

Haunting parable of love and destiny

The Circle of Fate (Hardcover) by Raja Mohanty (Author), Sirish Rao (Author), Radhashyam Raut (Author) Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Above the peaks of the Himalaya, Garuda, the divine eagle of the god Vishnu, sees the Lord of Death hastening toward an exquisitely beautiful little bird. He decides to save it and hides it away-but can death be cheated?
This haunting parable of love and destiny is illustrated in the delicate and ornamental Patachitra tradition of Orissa, eastern India.

Radhashyam Raut is a young painter, trained in the traditional art of Patachitra mural paintings of Orissa, where he lives and works.

About the Author: Raja Mohanty has written and illustrated ten books, many of them made by his own hand from adaptations of Chekhov stories to 'silly tales' for children. He teaches courses in design and visual arts at the Industrial Design Centre of Mumbai's IIT, and is involved in several projects on Indian art and cultural traditions. [Prof. Raja Mohanty]

Blemished Revised Edition of Savitri

An hour comes when fail all Nature's means—an Editorial Issue
by RY Deshpande on Thu 16 Jul 2009 02:17 AM IST Permanent Link Cosmos

In many places Sri Aurobindo scans ‘inspires’ or ‘desires’ with three syllables, trisyllabic though generally they are disyllabic; so too could be taken ‘hour’ as ‘ho/ ur’. As far as rhythm is concerned, it is a matter of one’s taste and association, one’s predilections also; nor can there be any strict formula everywhere for the same poet; it could depend upon the situation. Then, while in the ‘arrival’-line there is a strong ‘r’-alliterative effect, in the ‘comes’-line the additional ‘m’-alliteration brings a kind of self-closing poetic result. Nor is this line that kind of a mantra in which nothing can be changed, the exact word in the exact position. There is neither the inevitability of ‘arrives’ nor of ‘comes’.

And yet there is a problem... One way of looking at the situation, as vehemently suggested by the upholders of the ‘arrives’, the editors of the blemished Revised Edition, is as follows. [...]

We have argued about some of these aspects in Editing Savitri—a Brief Discussion but a more detailed look into it is essential. This can happen only if there is access to the archival documents. Until then one can only point out uncertainties in the revised text and leave the matters at that. Savitri: the Light of the Supreme Recent Articles
An hour comes when fail all Nature's means—an Editorial Issue
An hour comes when fail all Nature's means—and there is the help
An hour comes when fail all Nature's means
Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate—arrival of the fated day
Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate—a story written long ago
Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate—a Query
Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate
The Issue—a Synoptic Rendering
The Issue—Related Letters from Sri Aurobindo
The Issue—as summarised by AB Purani
The Issue—Complete with Paraphrased Text and the Mother’s Explanation
The Issue—Paraphrased Text and the Mother’s Explanation [5]
The Issue—Paraphrased Text and the Mother’s Explanation [4]
The Issue—Paraphrased Text and the Mother’s Explanation [3]
The Issue—Paraphrased Text and the Mother’s Explanation [2]
Recent Comments
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Re: Re: Re: Typal being born as Human being by RY Deshpande
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Re: Sessions with Savitri—Open Page: July 2009 by Navneet Kukreja
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Re: Sessions with Savitri—Open Page: July 2009 by RY Deshpande

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The Melodrama of Difference (Or, The Revenge of the Colonized) by Jean Baudrillard Debashish Wed 15 Jul 2009 03:29 PM PDT

What I have scrupulously avoided and consider as illegitimate in the many commentators who continue to do it, is a flattening of the mystery of the Unknowable by "explaining" it. This is more so the case with Sri Aurobindo than anyone else. Meditations are meant to be meditated on. Poetic writing is an engagement with the Other and bears the sensible imprint of the Other. This is what makes it speak in so many tongues to so many people and not exhaust itself.

Baudrillard's piece here is perfectly coherent once one catches the Idea behind it. In detail it may take some time to unravel, but that's what staying with a text is about. Just as Shiva destroyed the three worlds with one arrow, Baudrillard's text achieves its powerful ramifications with one Idea which yet retains its silence. DB Re: The Melodrama of Difference Debashish