On Dec 8, 2011, at 5:35 AM, zarzari_786 wrote:
I for example compare the TM movement to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram,
where the last leader died about 40 years ago. I just met an old
lady, who works there in the Ashram since 40 years, is now 75 years
old, and to my opinion, has the typical TB mindset. She still
experienced the master (Mira Alfassa) about 3 years, if so, from a
distance (balcony darshans). And I just read a book by Peter Heehs
on Sri Aurobindo, and as I thought it was actually a very positive
review of his life. But it stirred up the whole Ashram, lead to a
huge controversy, the book is actually forbidden in India (the
lives of Sri Aurobindo), while most ashramites have read
photocopies. The book is published by the cambridge universtity
press, and directed to academics, not devotees. Yet it is in no way
deferrential, but it happens to mention certain biographic facts,
seen as a no no by the ashramites. Now the funny thing is, that the
ashram leadership, might actually have inspired the book, and is
not really against it. (they don't endorse it either) That in
itself is the reason for controversy, as it seems there is a group
of fundamentalists who want to overtake the Ashram. Right now there
are efforts on the way, to deprive Heehs of his visa, he lives
since decades in India, and was one of the main Ashram archivars,
the book was originally approved by the ashram leadership (without
reading it) before it was published.
Also, the philospophy of Aurobindo is elitary, by definition, he
says that nobody before embarked on this type of yoga or knowledge.
So, for Ashramites, anybody practicing a more traditional form of
yoga misses out on the new yoga. (The old yoga has its basis in the
'overmind', with all its gods, which is something like 'supermind'
gone wrong) And the only way is to be devoted to SA and / or Mirra
Alfassa. There is a similar idea like in TM, that 'we are the ones
doing the transformation for the world, unprecedented, for all
times to come' And it's all there in the writings of SA.
You have to wonder how much of this is part of their caste mindsets,
as both Mahesh and Aurobindo come from the same caste.
