From the grammatically inaccurate
term ‘Lives’ gets unleashed this narrative style of insinuations about Sri
Aurobindo – as if the Mystic led double lives, one imagined for him by himself
which his followers and the world began believing as well, while the other
‘human aspect’ to be exclusively discovered through this self-appointed and
ambidextrous style of writing pseudo history. Deshpande shows how each left
handed compliment accompanies a dismissive, negativist, suggestive insinuation
about Sri Aurobindo.
In
fact only when we read R.Y. Deshpande’s Atrocious
Biography, it gets clear how academia and intellectuals get honey trapped
by this irreverence towards a Spiritual Stalwart, forgetting the fact that the
gems they hurry to attest as scintillating insights are from someone who has no
academic grounding, no formal education in history writing and doesn’t even have a
post graduation, least of all a PhD in historiography or any mentionable
qualifications in any other discipline. If we are to go by R.Y. Deshpande, we
are hearing the "brilliant" (!) take of an American ‘taxi cab driver and a high
school dropout’ on one of twentieth century’s most profound Mystic, and a
Cambridge alumni who was proposed the Noble prize for Literature.
When
we find that Columbia University agrees to publish this pseudo-history as
‘authentic’ over every other earlier Biography written off as just
‘Hagiographies in the opinion of the cabby historian’ – and when all this leads
to natural consternation and
controversy, Scholars, writers, media men line up taking sides for ‘academic
freedom’ – all this Circus of politicized academic activism reflects poorly on
the present status of academic studies.
This
Academic decadence and rot of western Universities is largely due to its
Politicization, and R.Y. Deshpande shows this unmistakably, drawing a clear
parallel of the Lives
with the flawed methodology of Wendy Deniger’s enormously absurd and Freudian
deconstruction of Hinduism. Aditi Banerji’s Invasion
of the Sacred obtains a case study in the
Lives.
It
is Inquisitorial in style, empty and pretentious – R Y Deshpande demonstrates
this, for instance, regarding Sri Aurobindo’s Prose.
He
tells this over tens and tens of pages (50 pages listing around 20 different
Prose Styles of Sri Aurobindo) – drawing a Classification of Prose Styles
through Thomas and Turner for the Literary academics to see for themselves the
diversity, depth and mastery of English prose by Sri Aurobindo and leaves the
beguiled scholars baffled and taken for a taxi ride.
He
meticulously shows one sample of how a competent and qualified Literary Critic
would actually see in the voluminous ‘output’ which the author of the Lives would necessarily miss because he
lacks the competence in literary criticism. To show the contrast, he takes us
through Gautam Ghosal’s highly technical dissection and comparative analysis of
Sri Aurobindo’s Prose as could come from only a Professor of English – he
was at Tagore’s Shantiniketan unlike Peter who is devoid of appropriate
academic faculties for any sound assessment – and rightly concludes:
“But what
has Sri Aurobindo in common with these three authors, that he should have been
grouped with them? Dryden’s greatest achievements were his Satire; Ruskin was
concerned with Social justice and influenced the formation of the Labour
movement; Virginia Woolf as a novelist experimented with the stream of
consciousness carrying psychological and emotional motives.... it is a mistake
to put these disparate things together which only show, more than the sheer
insensitivity of the author, his total lack of understanding of both.
We should
consider ourselves lucky that he does not put together Harry Potter and the
Life Divine.”
If
we attempt to grasp any ‘Human Side’ of Sri Aurobindo, again we are left with a
de-humanized caricature and this is shockingly established in the insinuation
that Sri Aurobindo misled, ignored or, in short, was abusive with his wife –
unless we read what Deshpande produces from records the facts of a loving and
caring husband helplessly stranded inside political currents, financial
hardships and his deeper commitments to a higher calling.
Deshpande
gives the complete picture:
“This is
from page 20 of Nirodbaran’s Talks – Mrinalini (Sri Aurobindo’s wife):
There was a
mention in her horoscope that her 32nd year would be critical. Sri
Aurobindo knew it and wanted us to remind him about it when she would be 32.
But all of us forgot except my mother. She was at that time in Ranchi. Hearing
about the illness she hastened to Calcutta but Mrinalini Devi passed away within
half hour of her arrival. When she learnt that we have not informed Sri
Aurobinbdo, a telegram was sent to him. On reading it Sri Aurobindo said “Too
late !“
My cousin
who was there at the time wrote to my mother:
Today I saw
tears in the eyes of the stone-hearted son-in-law.
With the
telegram in one hand, he sat still and tears were in his eyes.’
Sri
Aurobindo told him too that Mrinalini’s soul had come to him soon after her
death. Also a photo of Mrinalini Devi that was on the mantel-piece is said to
have fallen.”
We
note that he had kept her photo on the mantel-piece.
Deshpande
next asks – “this incident of Sri Aurobindo having tears after being informed
of Mrinalini’s death is not in this biography. Is the letter which says Sri
Aurobindo had tears in the eyes sent by Saurin to his mother not there in the
Archives?”
Deshpande
also furnishes for us the evident fact in Aurobindo’s letter to his father-in
law.
“I have
not written to you with regard to the fatal event in both our lives;
words are useless in face of the feelings it has caused even if they can
express our deepest emotions.
God has seen
good to lay upon me the one sorrow that could still touch me to the centre.…the
physical tie between us as you say is severed; but the tie of affection
subsists for me. Where I have once loved I do not cease from loving. Besides,
she who was the cause of it, still is near, though not visible to our physical
vision.”
He
also points how even Mother Mirra would be sent back as Aurobindo’s financial conditions
were then precarious and asked to return after the conditions improved enabling
support to the seekers – a fact that gets suppressed and other motives
attributed to Sri Aurobindo, suggesting a falsified picture of a neglectful and
abusive husband.
Suppressio
veri, suggestio falsi abounds in every single insinuation in this Inquisition
by this pseudo biography – a litany of half truths and plain lies as we are
shown by Deshpande.
Besides
he shows how this Inquisition of Sri Aurobindo is bitten by the Freudian bug.
“What makes
the book bit silly is when we see the author sniffing around, which looks
almost desperate, to find some evidence of sexual dynamics in the Lives of Sri Aurobindo. His ‘scholarly
research’ to find the reason why Sri Aurobindo married is a case in point.
His dive
into some selected poetry of Sri Aurobindo to analyze its plot shows a little
Freud in the closet. It is laughable to say the least. I wouldn’t say that
these adventures have added any depth or credibility to the book; to me it
looks rather pathetic.
This
Freudian bug is evident in many places.”
We
can concur with Deshpande when we see a summary diagnosis suggested about Sri
Aurobindo’s hearing and obeying a voice to proceed to Pondicherry – to many
people it may suggest Schizophrenia.
Carl
Gustav Jung, who founded the Jungean school of psychoanalysis after his
departure and revolt from Freudian school, also heard voices and even saw and
interacted with invisible entities called Philomena.
Should
this be left to the quacks to sit as his Shrinks – and we derive our
understanding from ‘people’ who have suggested that Jung, a genius and pioneer
of psychoanalysis, was indeed delusional and might perhaps be schizophrenic?
And all of Jung’s works are to be understood in that light as delusional? This
seems to be the case with Sri Aurobindo being psychoanalyzed by the quack hands
of the author of Lives of Sri Aurobindo.
Highly
qualified psychoanalysts have studied Sri Aurobindo’s life and eminent psychologists
have written about him. Sri Aurobindo’s psychological ideas are now considered
as pioneering new branches of Integral Psychoanalysis and they may not have
time to hear from a taxicab man cum shrink his suggestive diagnosis of
schizophrenia.
In
fact the attempt to falsify and distort Sri Aurobindo is taken note by none
other than Ken Wilber in his introduction to A. S. Dalal’s ‘A Greater
psychology’:
“I would
like to take this opportunity to clear up an unfortunate Slander that has been
circulating about Aurobindo, namely that some of his writings have a racist
overtone. In particular, sections from The
Human Cycle have been quoted to allegedly show that Aurobindo was
advocating the superiority of certain races. In fact, as those passages make quite
clear, Aurobindo was ridiculing and condemning those who think in that fashion.
Less than
honest critics have simply taken those sections out of context and presented
them as Aurobindo’s views, whereas they are clearly the view he is convicting.
Aurobindo’s integral embrace is, if anything, the opposite of racism”.
Interestingly
as soon as this eminent Psychiatrist clears the table off ‘less than honest
critics’ distortions of Aurobindo, we must have quack shrinks, unlettered
Literary critics, self taught historiographers, all rolled in one and serving
at the table our only ‘authentic’ and ‘scientific biography’.
So
should we learn from the eminent psychoanalyst the human side of Sri Aurobindo
or from the polemics of politicized academics and shrinks who have no basic
degrees in psychology or read the human aspects of his history from such
incompetent Freudians and instant celebrities made of yellow journalism?
What
is clear from the above elucidation of Ken Wilber also sheds light on this
Slander of Sri Aurobindo as racist, Hindu fundamentalist and now lately
schizophrenic and organizing political murders, as an ongoing venture
attempting skillfully to insinuate, distort and falsify, that has been going on
for some time.
Koenraad
Elst the Belgian Indologist and social critic once made everyone share a good
laugh – while he interacted with an Online audience.
It
was a discussion on “How to save Sanatana Dharma?”
He
was told by a Hindu woman how Christians constantly attack and mock Hinduism.
She
was perplexed that Christian evangelism heaps insults on its divinities and
distorts and talks disparagingly about even very refined ideas of her faith –
despite Hinduism’s tolerance and respect towards Christianity.
How
is that sophisticated ideas of Hinduism are dared to be systematically
deconstructed and Hinduism attempted to be dismantled and shown as inferior?
Why
do Christians do that? Do they hate us?
Koenraad
replied – you want to know the truth, real truth why Christians do all that
insults and attacks your Hindu gods?
“Because
they Love you! “
After
a good laugh – he explains how this love
works in the minds of the missionary.
He
is convinced that Salvation can be obtained only through Christ, that is, his
own faith system.
Out
of this conviction he labors ‘out of love’ for the blighted ignorance of the
pagans to be replaced with that factual news of deliverance.
This
age old missionary antagonism of the West, unrecognizably embedded in their
Re-narratives seems now the cross of the ‘Intellectuals’.
They
out of real Love for the Objective narrative, labor now to emancipate the
faithful from the clutches of simplistic ignorance and adoring their gurus and
paths.
The
believers are told how they are doing a
labor of love, to emancipate you from superstition and childishness
about what must be, according to their views, the subtle facts missed out in
such misplaced faith.
The
light isn’t sufficient, they are informed in authoritarian styles of lecturing –
if you remain immersed in those credulous and babyish beliefs.
It
needs the Saviour light, authentic
scholastic insights of the Intellectual
who often then turns out whoever is the most cynical man of the
day, whoever makes the most scathing attacks with a veneer of dedication
exceeding the faithful and a professed Love for the objects they venerate.
Never
mind fact this Intellectual also happens not to possess the required expertise
in the concerned fields to proffer such worthless opinions –
They
will be hailed as ‘scientific’ and all critical suspicion suspended demanding
Freedom of expression.
The
behavior, attitude and premise all through, being no different from that of the
missionary who heaps insults on the pagan deities in the street corners of
India.
About
whom Vivekanada makes note – “if all the dregs at the bottom of the world’s
oceans are collected, that won’t be a fraction of what missionaries hurl on us
and Hinduism.’
Now
this dredge work, a labor of love, is done by academics.
R.Y.
Deshpande’s Atrocious Biography lays
bare all the pertinent elements of this controversial biography of Peter Heehs.
It
refutes thoroughly the insinuations and exposes the hollow claims to be the
authentic or scientific reading of what must be the Human side of Sri
Aurobindo.
He
had done this all the while he was being denied the same privileges granted by
the Ashram Trustees to Peter to equally have access to the Archives – and he says
confidently he would have dug more glaring distortions and imaginative
narratives.
We
are unable to comprehend why then an author attempting to show the fallacies of
a biography using such Archives material is not encouraged but even denied
access by an Ashram that is expected to stand up for Sri Aurobindo’s image
diminished by other incompetent hands!
R.Y.
Deshpande’s Atrocious Biography will
remain not just a thorough rebuttal showing the sub-standard and vacant
biography by Peter Heehs, but also is a single source book for any subsequent
researcher who would go into investigating Sri Aurobindo’s biographies. This
more than justifies the unconventional style of presentation of the book,
containing all the discussion threads around the controversy from both sides in
full, and on that score acquires its indispensable academic significance.
[Aron
Aronite is a medical practitioner by profession and a spiritualist by
tradition.]
Courtesy:
http://hindureview.com/2014/10/26/review-atrocious-biography/
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