Thus Spake Sri Aurobindo: Reward and Punishment and Rebirth

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Reward and Punishment and Rebirth

Note that the idea of rebirth and the circumstances of the new life as a reward or punishment...is a crude human idea of “justice” which is quite unphilosophical and unspiritual and distorts the true intention of life. Life here is an evolution and the soul grows by experience, working out by it this or that in the nature, and if there is suffering, it is for the purpose of that working out, not as a judgement inflicted by God or Cosmic Law on the errors or stumblings which are inevitable in the Ignorance.

[Letters on Yoga, p. 441]

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People have just started to show interest in Sri Aurobindo. Sporadically notwithstanding, there has already been a beginning in the psychologically elite people (in the true sense of the phrase) to know about this great person and to learn about his message to man and his life and world. It is in the expected line as he was as great as to be understood by man the very species he tried to lift from their manhood. In his own country –in India, he is regarded as one of the yogis or spiritual persons only-where there has been no dearth of them in historical time in India. And it is still difficult for conventional spiritual mind to grasp the immensity of Sri Aurobindo’s relevance to spirituality. It’s because Sri Aurobindo was basically rooted in Life in all its aspects –material and spiritual. Mere spirituality for personal or individual salvation did not attract him. He wanted to act with spiritual power and endeavoured for a radical change in man’s life and to lift him to the higher consciousness than mind. He was the forerunner for the coming of another species-superman, the hidden and inherent destiny of man in the progress of evolution. He came upon earth to aid and to hasten the process of man’s becoming superman. Naturally such a possibility is not conceivable by lesser conscious species –the man- as it was not possible for apes to conceive of crossing the barrier of their own consciousness for attaining manhood.

Sri Aurobindo wrote immensely in this matter. There was not a single being in flesh and blood who uttered so luminously and magnificently after the Upanishads and the Gita about the truths of life and world as Sri Aurobindo did. Moreover he wrote and discussed in all affairs of life-literature, politics, nationalism, religion, history, architecture, science et al. All his lines are filled with the light of wisdom. Whenever he spoke or wrote –he revealed and enlightened with the touch of truth.

I love to read Sri Aurobindo. So it is a delighting work for me to make a collection of quotes from his different writings here and share it with readers. I think a reader will gain from his deep insights and feel to begin reading Sri Aurobindo through his books in original English.

While making this collection I have not maintained any system, order or norm. I like to quote him at random as in this way the casual readers may get some idea of the varied wisdom of Sri Aurobindo in first hand readings.

Some eminent persons on Sri Aurobindo

*"In fact, he is a new type of thinker, one who combines in his vision the alacrity of the West with the illumination of the East. To study his writings is to enlarge the boundaries of one's knowledge... He is a yogi who writes as though he were standing among the stars, with the constellations for his companions"-[Review of Collected Poems and Plays in the 8 July 1944 Times Literary Supplement]

*"Sri Aurobindo's yoga points the way toward the kind of transformative practice we need to realize our greatest potentials. No philosopher or contemplative of modern times has done more to reveal our possibilities for extraordinary life."- Michael Murphy, founder, Esalen Institute and author, The Future of the Body

*"Sri Aurobindo (is) the foremost of Indian thinkers, who has realized the most complete synthesis between the genius of the West and of the East." -Romain Rolland, Nobel Laureate

*"Sri Aurobindo is not only the most original philosopher of modern India--he was also an accomplished yogi who based his metaphysical vision on his own inner discoveries."- Stephen Phillips, Professor of Philosophy"

*”Sri Aurobindo serves humanity as a spiritual master who directs and sustains all seekers whose inner aspiration leads them to a yoga as wide and deep as life itself."- Robert McDermott, Former President, California Institute of Integral Studies, University of Texas, Austin

*"Brahman defies description, mind and speech return baffled from it. Likewise Sri Aurobindo defies description, no adjective, no epithet, no appellation seems to be adequate. So universal is his genius, so many-faceted his personality, so varied his life and career that mind and speech are overwhelmed and fall silent when confronted by him, a being with peer, -- scholar, journalist, educationist, politician, statesman, revolutionary leader, nation-builder, poet, philosopher, lover of humanity, lover of God, Yogi, Guru and Master.

Sri Aurobindo the illumined and inspired seer-poet has raised poetry to the level of mantra and transformed English into a devabhasa, a language of the gods."-Arabinda Basu, Sri Aurobindo Professor of Philosophy, Banaras University
Director, Sri Aurobindo Research Academy and Professor of Philosophy Sri Aurobindo International Center of Education, Pondicherry

*"Sri Aurobindo opened the way to my religious consecration... I have derived considerable solace and enlightenment from reading his works"

-Gabrielle Mistral, Nobel Laureate, Chile

*"Aurobindo is to me one of the greatest teachers of mankind today. His wisdom surpasses intellectual knowledge and inspires efforts to reach contact with the life divine. In a darkened age his message brings hope."

-Baron Palmstierena, World Congress of Faiths

*"Gandhi is one of the greatest saints, Tagore one of the greatest poets of modern India, but Sri Aurobindo is one of the greatest thinkers, indeed he has attained an incomparable triune greatness as poet, philosopher and saint."

-Raymond Frank Piper, Ph.D, Professor of Philosophy, Syracuse University

*"Sri Aurobindo [is] the foremost of Indian thinkers, who has realized the most complete synthesis between the genius of the West and of the East."

-Romain Rolland, Nobel Laureate, France

*"Aurobindo�s treatises are among the most important works of our time in philosophy, ethics and humanities. Sri Aurobindo himself is one of the greatest living sages of our time."

-Pitirim A. Sorokin, Research Center Director, Harvard University

*"I shall not restrict Sri Aurobindo�s greatness to this age only. We have Plato, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel � but they do not have the same all-embracing metaphysical structure, they do not have the same vision."

-Dr. Frederic Spiegelberg, Stanford University

*"At the very first sight I could realize that he [Sri Aurobindo] had accumulated within him a silent power of inspiration... I said to him, �You have the Word and we are waiting to accept it from you. India will speak through your voice, 'Hearken to me.' "

-Rabindranath Tagore, Nobel Laureate, India

*“Sri Aurobindo’s Ilion is a remarkable achievement by any standard and I am full of amazement that someone not of English origin should have such a wonderful command not only of our English language as such, but of its skillful elaboration in poetic diction of such high quality.”-Herbert Read .Letter of 5^th June 1958, in Sri Aurobindo Circle no 42

*“Six foreign languages have given the Master of Pondicherry a gift of co-ordination, a clarity free from gaudiness, and a charm that borders on the magical…These are indeed ‘glad tidings’ that come to us: to know that there is place in the world where culture has reached its tone of dignity by uniting in one man a supernatural life with a consummate literary style, thus making use of his beautifully austere and classical prose to serve as the handmaid of the spirit.” Gabriela Mistral on Sri Aurobindo.-Quoted in D.K. Roy, Sri Aurobindo came to Me.

Thus Spake Sri Aurobindo

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Reward and Punishment and Rebirth

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Sri Aurobindo

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Some eminent persons on Sri Aurobindo

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