Greetings.
I fondly recall our meeting in January of 2007. Much has transpired
since then, in America, In India and in the world at large. We are
passing, as you well know, through difficult and dangerous times in our
evolution as a species. Witness the recent events in Mumbai and the
contagion of violent intolerance, communalism, reactionary
fundamentalism and ideological extremism polarizing our planet.
In
view of this resurgent atavism and the resistance that inevitably seems
to precede the breakthrough of a more integral consciousness, I have
been troubled and saddened to see the way certain members of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram and some devotees in other parts of India and abroad
have responded to the recent publication of Peter Heehs' book. For I
expect more from those of us who aspire to practice Sri Aurobindo's
Integral Yoga. After all, aren't we meant to be nobler examples of a
more enlightened humanity that models inclusiveness rather that
exclusiveness, expansiveness rather than rigidity, rising above bias
and pre-judgment, widening ourselves in the spirit of a truer
integrality to embrace the validity and value of cultural experiences
and expressions other than those in which we have been conditioned?
In this light, I wish to share with you my own experience and evaluation of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo which
I believe is not only an important biographical work but
an insightful documentation of India's transition from British Colony
to independent Nationhood.
Until recently, I
had not actually read Peter's book. So, despite the
polarizing atmosphere and escalating polemics surrounding its
publication, I refrained from taking a position or passing judgment.
For how could I come to conclusions about something that I myself had
not personally experienced?
As a published
author myself, my own natural writing style tends more toward the
creative rather than the academic or scholarly. So to be honest, I was
not sure if I could wade through more than 400 pages of biographical
details drawn from decades of archival research. After all, I was, I
believed, sufficiently familiar with the essential outline and major
events of Sri Aurobindo's life. And as a dedicated practitioner of Sri
Aurobindo's Integral Yoga as well as a serious student of his own
writings since the mid-1960s, having read all of his major works before
coming to Pondicherry to meet the Mother, I wondered how I could
possibly benefit from pouring through the micro-facts and minutia of
such a figure whose Life was so much greater than the sum of its parts.
I also had reservations about whether such an academic approach would
turn out to be a boring compilation or disconnected series of
meticulously-researched historical details which would simply drone on,
failing both to hold my attention or hold together as a whole.
I
am happy to say that none of my initial hesitations and reservations --
nor any of the biases of others that flooded the air-waves and internet
-- proved to be true. On the contrary, once I plunged into the work,
restrained and academic as it was, I not only could not put it down but
I also learned other dimensions of Sri Aurobindo's life and lives that
enriched and reinspired my own.
I was
particularly touched by the chapters that took me into the deeper
depths of the development of Sri Aurobindo the Revolutionary and the
unique catalytic role he played and endured in sustaining the fire of
India's will for Independence despite the inertia of more moderate and
conservative elements of Indian Society who preferred the comfort zone
of British Rule. I am not familiar with any other writing till now
which has ever brought to light and life this Sri Aurobindo and all he
did and suffered for the liberation of Mother India.
Speaking
personally, this contribution alone justifies this work of Peter's. For
it de facto sets aright a more accurate historical perspective which
till now -- in India and the world -- has accorded primary credit,
attention and gratitude to Gandhi as the father-figure, force and
aspiration behind India's Freedom Movement and Her eventual liberation.
In this sense, Peter's scholarly research has not only filled in
crucial missing pieces in the history of that period but also provided
critical documentary evidence that allows historians to update and
upgrade Sri Aurobindo's actual role, acknowledging his rightful place
in the struggle to liberate India's soul and reforge Her truer
cultural identity.
Following this progression
of lives within a Life, I particularly appreciated the subtle way in
which Peter tracked the metamorphosis from Aurobindo the Revolutionary
to Sri Aurobindo the Evolutionary. For the reader could begin to feel
his momentum and field-of-focus shifting from political activism to
spiritual activism, taking that same Shakti energy and applying it to
radicalize Spirituality from a passive static internal quest to an
active evolutionary transformative practice.
By
tracking Sri Aurobindo's Life as a successive series of lives lived in
a single lifetime, and by documenting those lives through an
unbroken continuum of historical phases through which he passed,
Peter's research begins to resemble the investigation of a
post-Darwinian detective. For I believe he fills in missing links in
the evolutionary unfolding of Sri Aurobindo, allowing us to catch a
glimpse of him in a larger span of time -- a synoptic
past-present-future view of Sri Aurobindo as an incarnate human being
barrier-breaking through the successive evolutionary cocoons of his
humanity, leading us through his own example to the next stage of
Evolution.
In this sense, I believe Peter's
work can serve as an important bridge to a wider audience, expanding
Sri Aurobindo's appeal to a whole new set of seekers -- scientists,
historians, academics, secularists -- whose primary portal of entry is
through the intellect and critical thinking. For through The Lives of Sri Aurobindo, Peter
speaks to this wider audience in a language that they can understand --
the "native" language of Western critical thought. In fact, through my
own contact with the literary world as well as with leading-edge
research institutes, universities, graduate schools and progressive
media, I can already attest to the receptivity and success of this
bridge-building.
In conclusion, I wish to
express my gratitude for the publication of this work and the labor
that went into it. And, in the spirit of maintaining the dignity and
integrity of Sri Aurobindo's Ashram through these challenging times, I
look forward to a creative and constructive resolution to the cloud of
circumstances presently surrounding the book and its author. Toward
that end, I offer my active goodwill.
Sincerely,
~Savitra
Epilogue/Postscript
Until
Thanksgiving, I had not actually read Peter's book. Yet I had come to
know of the escalating conflict months before. Maintaining a
witness/observer role through this extended limbo was very difficult
for me. Because at the very outset of the conflict, I had received
(unasked) from certain members of the Ashram extensive quotations
extracted from The Lives of Sri Aurobindo along
with accompanying interpretations. Reading these
extracts/interpretations in isolation from the actual text was very
troubling and confusing for me. For taken prima facie out of their
living context, they placed the publication in a very questionable
light, raising doubts in my own mind that left me in a very
uncomfortable -- I would say, painful -- ambivalence. For these doubts
fed into the terrible feeling that this biography somehow might have
diminished if not "betrayed" Sri Aurobindo and his work.
I
truly agonized for months through this unthinkable thought which also
left me effectively torn between friendships, sympathies and
"allegiances". After all, on the one hand, my relationship with Peter
predates his 1971 arrival in Pondicherry; yet, on the other hand, I was
receiving these extracts and compelling arguments from Ashram members
whom I also knew personally. Nevertheless, my allegiance was to neither
party but, as I have been trained for better or worse, to the Truth. So
to resolve this painful inner conflict, I had to wait until I could
actually read the book for myself.
After
finally reading the book in late November, I could make peace within
myself and reclaim my own position in the matter, shifting from
silenced witness to follow the call of my conscience. It was from that
calling that I wrote the preceding Letter to the Ashram and that I add
this Postscript.
I hope this Postscript will be read respectfully not only by those who have appreciated and supported the publication of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo but
by those who have opposed its publication and effectively maligned its
author. Because, speaking as one who read the extracts/interpretations
first before reading the book, I suffered greatly. In fact, I would say
I was unfairly and unjustly injured by them, even if that was not the
intention of their authors. In which case, how much greater then has
Peter suffered as a result of this approach to the criticism of his
work?
I believe it is completely legitimate
for fellow sadhaks, disciples and devotees to express their heartfelt
criticism or concerns regarding the content of The Lives of Sri Aurobindo.
(Or, for that matter, any other work by any of us.) But, speaking as
one who was directly accepted by the Mother into the Ashram under the
Prosperity system, and later accepted by her into Auroville where I
lived for 21 years, I hold us up to a higher standard and "warrior"
code of conduct as expressed in my Letter to the Ashram. For I believe
that a Warrior Code of Conduct is perfectly consistent and in harmony
with our Integral Yoga. Yet it must be lived in the spirit of a nobler
hero-warriorhood that the Mother set before us as evolutionaries. In
light of this truer, wiser and wider warrior-hood, I pose the following
questions which go to the core of my own discomfort and disappointment
with the way some of us have conducted ourselves:
1.)
How can one draw conclusions, let alone take serious actions against
fellow seekers and their work, without actually doing the necessary
research to verify the truth for oneself? In other words, in this case,
how can individuals and groups, especially those who claim to be
students and practitioners of an Integral Yoga, allow themselves to be
swayed in their beliefs or incited to action by quotes and second-hand
interpretations of a book that they have not even read? And perhaps
even more troubling, how can individuals who are looked up to as
leaders in the Ashram attempt to influence the opinions and actions of
others by such out-of-context quotes and interpretations? If one was
genuinely troubled -- in this case, by The Lives of Sri Aurobindo --
wouldn't it be more appropriate to express one's legitimate concerns
and then encourage others to read the book for themselves? Speaking
personally, I myself am an example of the dangers of the former
approach. For I know how different I felt after reading the book as a
whole than when I was exposed to a select compilation of extracts
pre-interpreted for me.
2.) In this same
spirit of research and fairness, why would one conduct a campaign
against a fellow seeker and his/her work behind his/her back? Why
wouldn't we find some appropriate facilitated forum to transparently
air grievances and concerns directly to the author, approaching the
matter in a spirit of education, open-minded dialogue and exchange,
allowing the author at least the opportunity to respond before
conducting such a campaign that not only publicly accuses but
effectively convicts and then presumes to execute judgment? Having
suffered the past 8 years here in America under a President whose
policy was to shoot first and ask questions later, I expect a higher
standard of action from us, particularly in this dangerous world
which desperately needs new models for addressing and resolving
conflict. Thank God, President-elect Obama represents this
evolutionary course-correction, offering new hope and promise for a
domestic and foreign policy based on common decency, healing and civil
change, employing diplomacy and dialogue before resorting to direct
military force against "the enemy".
3.) In
view of questions 1 and 2, and in the absence of any apparent goodwill
thus far to provide Peter Heehs an opportunity to respond dialogically
to the serious questions and charges leveled against him, how can one
unilaterally escalate the conflict to the extreme steps of initiating
legal action to ban the book in India? of instigating his forced
removal from his work at the Archives? of publicly vilifying him
through innuendo as a betrayer of Sri Aurobindo, spreading volatile and
unsubstantiated rumors that accuse him of being part of unholy
alliances, nefarious plots and conspiracies?
I
wonder if any of those who have instigated or gone along with such
harsh measures and reactionary reprisals against Peter have ever made
the effort to identify with him as as a real person -- as a human being
like all of us, with feelings, flaws and vulnerabilities like all of
us. Or have we simply objectified him into an abstraction, an "enemy"
and "foreigner" to be defeated or eliminated? I wonder how any of us
-- whatever our race, culture or gender -- would feel if we were
suddenly in his place, subject to constant behind-the-back allegations
and rumors. Imagine how isolated and insecure we would feel. Especially
if this was happening in a community brought forth by the Mother -- an
Ashram that was actually meant to be a mutually-supportive safe haven
for those of us who have come from East and West in search of our
common humanity and our all-embracing divinity. Imagine.
I
can imagine. For I have lived in the American South through the
mid-1960s, actively engaged in the Civil Rights Movement at that time.
I was involved then in the protests and arrests, looked into the eyes
of hatred and intolerance, watching demagogues whip up the masses into
a frenzy that fed into a lynch-mob mentality. And I have seen and lived
through the divisive damage done to Auroville by those who refused to
recognize the "civil rights" of AV residents after the Mother's
passing. I experienced for myself then first-hand, the harassment,
arrest, beating, jail and expulsion at the hands of one party; while
being "excommunicated" by another for daring to call him out for
the divisive and intolerant behavior he was inciting among his
crusaders in Auroville. Yes, I know the damage that can be done when we
turn "other" into "enemy" in the name of righteousness or purity or
saving us from the infidels that would corrupt "our" Truth.
From
this "locus standi", I believe this raw open-warfare approach to
excommunicate Peter and ban his book not only brings great harm to him
but to us all. For I believe it will not only lead to greater
divisiveness, intolerance and narrowness of spirit; but it exposes our
own inability as fellow seekers and children of a common Divine Mother
to address grievances among ourselves in a truer way that lead to a
more harmonious and integral resolution. For what we are presently
demonstrating through such actions of internecine court cases,
book-banning and excommunication of those whose ideas or actions we
find intolerable is itself an action of the very intolerance we claim
as offensive.
After all, aren't we here in
these bodies precisely to grow and widen, to become more conscious,
more receptive, more loving? to expand and embrace and enlighten what
we do not yet understand in ourselves as well as in others, willingly
opening to light the dark parts we hide and defend in ourselves? And
isn't this effort exactly what is called for in this Moment on this
Earth? Of course it is!
Onward,
~Savitra
Savitra bio:
Cultured in the activist milieu of the
1960s, Savitra hitchhiked from London to India to meet the Mother of
the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He received his name from her and
eventually shifted from the Ashram to Auroville where he spent the
next 21 years (1969-1990) apprenticing "applied spirituality,"
community-building, and environmental restoration in the interface of
first-world/third-world realities.
Actively involved with Auroville's
pioneering experiments in self-organization, he helped jump-start the
community's internal communication systems as well as liaison with
America, getting the first grants to establish the afforestation
program, developing exchange programs such as "Peacetrees,"
planting the seeds for future relations with Russia and other former
Soviet bloc States. He relocated in 1990 to America where he
currently lives in Ashland, Oregon.
Since the early 1970s, his work and
writings have bridged him into a broad network of collaborative
relations including Margaret Mead, Michael Murphy, David Brower,
Amory Lovins, Barbara Marx Hubbard, Jean Houston and Matthew Fox; as
well as organizationally with the Institute of Noetic Sciences
(IONS), where he is an extended research associate under their
donor-advised program.
He has been a guest on Michael Toms'
New Dimensions Radio as well as a presenter at numerous conferences,
universities, and institutes including Esalen, Matthew Fox's
University of Creation Spiritualiy, the IONS 30th Anniversary
Conference, and What is Enlightenment journal's community retreat
center.
In 1999, his first American book, The
Savitri Legend, was published by Sigo Press. His latest book, An
Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium, was published by White
Cloud Press with support from IONS.
His recent trips to Auroville has
reignited his earlier liaison role to build collaborative bridges and
exchange between Auroville and the States. He may be reached via
savitra@earthlink.net.