| WHY TIBET |
WHY BOYCOTT |
HUMAN RIGHTS |
REPORTS |
PHOTOS |
VIDEOS |
DONORS |
| TIBET FOUNDATION |
TIBET RESEARCH |
SRI AUROBINDO ON TIBET | OSHO ON TIBET |
WORLD TIBET DAY |
⋯
Sri Aurobindo (Aug 15, 1872-Dec 5, 1950), philosopher-sage from India studied at King's College, Cambridge and returned to India in 1893 to work as a professor in Baroda College. While at Baroda, he joined a revolutionary society to take part in secret preparations for an Indian uprising against the ruling British Government. After the Partition of Bengal, Sri Aurobindo quit his post as a professor and left for Calcutta to become one of the Nationalist movement leaders. It was his newspaper 'Bande Mataram' which first put forward the idea of complete independence for India in written words. He was prosecuted 'sedition' and conspiracy several times to be released later. After his 'fundamental spiritual realisations' in 1908, he later withdrew from active politics found his new home in Pondicherry in order to devote himself for inner spiritual life and work. And it was in Pondicherry he developed "Integral Yoga", a "spiritual realisation that not only liberates man's consciousness but also transforms his nature". In 1926, he founded the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, with the help of The Mother, his spiritual associate. Indian Nationalist leader Subhash Chandra Bose writes: "The illustrious example of Aurobindo Ghosh looms large before my vision. I feel that I am ready to make the sacrifice which that example demands of me." //
Sri Aurobindo's insight into the 1950 Korean conflict foretold the possibility and consequences of China's invasion on Tibet and aggression against India in 1962, reveals the book "Sri Aurobindo: A Contemporary Reader" written by Prof Sachidananda Mohanty, former Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Orissa and former Professor and Head, Department of English, University of Hyderabad.
Years later, in 1962, the Chinese aggression against India created international concern. In March 1963, Sudhir Ghosh, an Indian emissary of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had a meeting with the 35th US President John F Kennedy in Washington DC, USA and shared with him a letter from Nehru dated January 5, 1963, "on the problem posed by the military power of Communist China". He also showed the president the following excerpt from that Mother India editorial dated November 11, 1950, referring to it as "the last testament of Sri Aurobindo". Though this was not written by Sri Aurobindo himself, it is clear from the full content of his letter to KD Sethna on the Korean War that the editorial represented his general views on the subject.
To quote from Sudhir Ghosh's own account: The President read the words of Sri Aurobindo's last testament several times over and said: "Surely there is a typing mistake here. The date must have been 1960, not 1950. You mean to say that a man devoted to meditation and contemplation, sitting in one corner of India, said this about the intentions of Communist China as early as 1950?" ◼
"A truly benevolent man. Buddhist benevolence, you know, and he practices it marvelously. He seems to have no selfishness in him... there's no word for it in French. I mean, a constant concern to do the right thing."
Dalai Lama: It is my dream to have the perfect economic development of Tibet, the perfect organization, the efficiency that we find in Communism, but all this based upon, founded upon the Buddhist qualities of Compassion and Love, so that the people in power do not degenerate into corruption. What is Mother's view of this dream, and whether such a thing will be realised in Tibet?
Mother: It is not a dream. It will naturally be. But the time it will take, I do not know. This is something like what Sri Aurobindo has said about the Supramental. Truth, Love, Compassion will give a basis to the new creation. It is not birth but the value of men that should give the right to authority. If the teaching of Sri Aurobindo can spread over the world, and if there is the full manifestation of the Supramental, then the Supramental will be the power of the liberation of Tibet. It is bound to come, it will come; but if it goes as it is going now, it will take hundreds of years. But if the Supramental is manifested, it may come quick. Quick does not mean ten or twenty years — that would be almost miraculous.
Kireet Joshi: But the Supramental is now working very powerfully.
Mother: It is, it is working. It will be manifested with enough power when the right people have the authority. For the moment, it seems that the opposition, the falsehood attacks with full power before dying. Never, never have men lied as much as they are doing now. It seems the old habit comes spontaneously. But it must be broken. We are at a very... what we could call an unpleasant moment of the history of the earth. It is interesting because the action is very powerful, but I can't call it pleasant. But I have told you that already; I wrote it. [Message of November 26, 1972: "Before dying, falsehood rises in full swing. Still people understand only the lesson of catastrophe. Will it have to come before they open their eyes to the truth? I ask an effort from all so that it has not to be. It is only the Truth that can save us; truth in words, truth in action, truth in will, truth in feelings. It is a choice between serving the Truth or being destroyed."]
Kireet Joshi: Yes, Mother. The Mother has given the message.
Dalai Lama: As for myself, I have no desire to continue in power in the Government. For I feel that the Government involves so much of conflicts of parties, and the necessity of taking sides with one party against the other...
Mother: One can govern without taking sides. That is the mistake of all the governments; they reduce their capacity tremendously. But beyond the mind, there is a higher and deeper consciousness — they would find a Consciousness in which one can make use of all the capacities. It is a question of the consciousness being broad enough, so that each capacity can be put in its place in order to make a general harmony.
Dalai Lama: There is good will, there is sincerity among people all over the world, but the number of such people is not large. Will they be able to have an effect to change the conditions of the world?
Mother: It is bound to change; it is bound to change. Only, if the people are sincere it will shorten the time; it will go faster if the people are sincere. The first and indispensable step is to stop all falsehood. Falsehood is all that contradicts in us the Presence of the Divine. ◼
(Mother's Agenda; Volume 13; Pages 352-354)
SRI Aurobindo's principal philosophic work "The Life Divine" presents the theory of spiritual evolution. His prophetic writing also suggests that "the present crisis of humanity will lead to a spiritual transformation of the human being and the advent of a divine life upon earth." The Life Divine first appeared serially in the monthly review 'Arya' between August 1914 and January 1919. In 1939 and 1940 Sri Aurobindo revised The Life Divine for book publication. The first volume of the revised version, consisting of the first twenty-seven chapters of the Arya text, along with a newly written twenty-eighth chapter, was published in November 1939. ◼
DOWNLOAD: The Life Divine (PDF) ↧
The Chinese Betrayal, Early Warnings Unheeded
Titled "The Chinese Betrayal, Early Warnings Unheeded: Lessons from Sardar Patel and Sri Aurobindo", this two-part essay by Prof Sachidananda Mohanty, former Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Orissa explores and narrates historical happenings in the form of letters and comments from Sardar Vallabhai Patel and Sri Aurobindo, to extract lessons we should have learnt and taken action on at the time. Today as we keep wrestling with the question of Chinese intrusions into Indian territory, more than five decades down the line, their growing demands and claims for our lands, it is worth recalling the two forgotten prophetic chapters from India's history in 1950. ◼
Friends of Tibet, PO Box 16674, Mumbai 400050, India.
⋯
Digital Support: Design & People, India + Ibiblio Digital Library & Archive Project, University of North Carolina, USA |
MIRRA Alfassa (The Mother), whom Sri Aurobindo entrusted material and spiritual charge of the Aurobindo Ashram received His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama at the Ashram on January 18, 1973. Kireet Joshi, a disciple of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother facilitated the dialogue between two great minds.
“The Life Divine” 
IT is often said that those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. The truth of this adage is seldom realised. With the brutal and savage killings of unarmed Indian soldiers by the death squads of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) and brazen claims of the People's Republic of China over the entire Galwan valley of Ladakh and other vital territories that historically belonged to India, we seem to have come full circle from the debacle of 1962. Despite the passage in time, history seems to repeat itself. Could some of the earlier missing narratives help in our understanding as a new India is emerging?
