So do I! My immediate reaction when I see that sort of getup is to
check whether my wallet is still in my pants pocket.
--srs
On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 10:11 AM +0530, "Deepa Mohan" <mohande...@gmail.com>
wrote:
Enjoyed this account very much!
I find that I unconsciously judge people on the basis of things like
prominent streaks of vibhuti or sandal paste, astrologically significant
rings, flowing matted locks, and other external accoutrements. I find that
this is my mental conditioning due to the "dressing up" of many
quackreligious people...but since I should not judge thus, I am schooling
myself not to do so.
Still, it is hard to not to equate things like large quantities of
rudraksha malas with the kind of people who are right now providing
amazingly entertaining videos while sitting, smiling beatifically, on
silver thrones, with silver sceptres in their hands...
Cheeni is, in many ways, my guru. There is not a single conversation with
him which does not lead me to re-examine many of my ideas and beliefs...and
sometimes see that I am as ignorant, or prejudiced as those whom I hold to
be so. He allows me to throw light into my own mind...and to me, that is
what a guru is.
Deepa.
On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 10:00 AM Suresh Ramasubramanian
wrote:
>
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>
> Well that was remarkably philosophical - and sincerely felt. More
> power to you.
> The one thing I remember about the Aurobindo Ashram after being an on
> again off again visitor over the past two decades (my wife's family are
> believers and I'm normally elected to drive them across)..
> This was around 2005 or so, we were at the ashram and this six foot tall
> man with a magnificent mustache, ostentatiously dressed in simple looking
> but designer khadi, his fingers festooned with navaratna rings (with nine
> gemstones, supposedly very astrologically significant) came in, sat in
> front of the Samadhi in a rigid yogic meditation type pose and proceed to
> meditate, to the general admiration of all.
> A couple of minutes into this grand performance and the man let out a
> loud, long, thundering fart, (which sounded even louder because silence is
> requested and adhered to in the ashram premises), looked around him with a
> suddenly embarrassed face and beat a hasty retreat to, presumably, the
> nearest restroom.
> I always wondered after that incident whether the mother - or more likely
> Aurobindo, who being a bengali before becoming a saint, was doubtless well
> acquainted with rich feasts and a wide range of digestive medication (and
> this is something that is proverbial among the bengalis and depicted in
> movies and popular culture) was having a gentle joke at the expense of that
> ostentatious 'devotee'.
>
>
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>
> --srs
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>
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2018 at 9:28 AM +0530, "Srini RamaKrishnan" <
> che...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
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>
> On Wed, Oct 10, 2018 at 9:05 PM Manu Bhardwaj wrote:
> [...]
> > Your Google logo is of The Mother (
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirra_Alfassa)! Are you also an alumnus of
> > Sri Aurobindo Memorial School, Bangalore? I remember/realised that Udhay
> is
> > one too, so this list might have many more.
>
> I was not a student there, I connected with The Mother about 11 or 12 years
> ago when I visited her Samadhi in Pondicherry, though obviously I had heard
> of her before, as many have, at least in this region of India.
>
> As to why I added her photo to my DP, that was merely an act of intuition,
> or inspiration. For many years now most of my life isn't led with thought
> or logic, if I feel inspired to do something I do it.
>
> If I had to supply a post-hoc logic to it, it would go something like this.
>
> I generally don't have any photo on my profile. While messing around with
> my Google profile settings the other day a thought occurred that rather
> than having that space remain empty there might be a way to make it useful.
> I looked around in my device and found The Mother's picture, which I
> promptly added.
>
> In every photograph or creative work of a person, something of the
> consciousness of the person is present. This may not be immediately
> apparent, but this is often why humans pay millions for some paintings that
> look like a disaster. Something stirs deep inside when we look at powerful
> images, hear powerful sounds, experience powerful vibrations, and this
> photo of The Mother can do that.
>
> Many Saints carry such an aura, Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi
>
> for example, is another image I could have used. I didn't want an image
> that triggered religious or sectarian pre-conceptions. We lose our
> innocence when we approach things with a preconception of what it is. Those
> unfamiliar with The Mother I hoped would be able to look at the image with
> a curiosity, maybe they'd assume she's my grand mother? In that moment of
> innocence something remarkable can happen.
>
> When I didn't know as much about these things, I would be struck by some
> experiences, unable to explain them logically. Many years ago I was in
> Amsterdam, and I used to spend hours in front of a single painting by Van
> Gogh, and mere minutes in front of the works of Rembrandt. I couldn't tell
> you exactly why then, but it was clear to me that Van Gogh put his heart
> into his paintings. Now Rembrandt was not a bad painter by any means, but
> he didn't care about his work like Van Gogh, he did care, very much, about
> being successful. This intuition I learned much later was true when I read
> his life history, he liked to make money off his paintings, and so cared
> about customer satisfaction. Van Gogh died in poverty.
>
> I had the same experience years earlier in graduate school. I was at
> Carnegie Mellon, a top school for computer science, better in every
> materialistic measurement, but it just failed to inspire me like my days in
> the early Linux/FLOSS community. I found not many actually cared about the
> ideas they worked on, their primary focus was success, ambition and a
> desire to be unrivalled among peers. Their creative energies lacked heart.
> Of course, I did learn valuable lessons from this fierce energy of success
> too. All the same, it was not what I came to CMU to learn.
>
> I later made this heart centered approach to life the very essence of my
> life, and this led me to radically change my life, though again it was less
> a conscious choice, and more an inspired movement. This is also the essence
> of Yoga.
>
> When we even need watches to tell us our heart rate, which is a very
> obvious grossly sensate mechanical event, most people will be dull to
> subtler realities such as the quality of consciousness.
>
> I come across some stirrings in the logical world
>
> about this now and then, but materialistic proof always needs an instrument
> with dials and switches to tell people what they already can feel. Maybe
> someday such consciousness can be measured, but until then, I urge everyone
> to look within, the answers are already there.
>
>
>
> > We received a LOT of (what I now consider) propaganda about her teachings
> > while we were at that school. We also received delicious laddoos on her
> > birthday every year, so overall, I have no complaints.
>
> Firstly, she existed in an age before media management, where every word
> she uttered has been recorded by those around her and reproduced later with
> varying degrees of accuracy.
>
> Secondly, most people, especially devotees confuse the person with the
> consciousness. They assume praising the Guru, lionizing the individual is
> the way to convince people to look at greater Truths. This only forms
> religion, and religions become political forces, surviving on propaganda
> and measuring success mostly by the number of unquestioning followers and
> impressive buildings. Religions are not useless, they can do many good
> things, like for example when they end up running schools, hospitals and
> charities. However for many people that remains a plateau in their
> ascension they never leave.
>
> The Guru is as the Buddhists say, the finger pointing to the moon. The
> Awakening Force, or Guru Tattva is present in everything. The seemingly
> inert mountains can teach one something, the birds and insects too, the
> flowing river, the setting sun, just about everything in life can carry the
> Guru Force, connecting one to larger truths, ascending the individual to
> superior states of consciousness. The human Guru is useful in that he or
> she is a conscious channel of the omnipresent Force, the SatChitAnanda.
>
> The Guru need not be a perfect individual (perfection is also like beauty
> largely in the eye of the beholder), but the moments that they are
> channeling the Sat Force, they are divine. Any good Guru is constantly
> perfecting him/herself to be a channel for this force 24x7, but they are
> also humans, they need to eat, sleep, rest, they are subject to the
> vagaries of nature's forces, and they can have moments of lower
> consciousness energy.
>
>
>
>
>
>
