Oxford University bars Dr Subramanian Swamy & Rajiv Malhotra

[So much for freedom of speech in Oxford University, UK! This reminds us very much of the double standards in Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry. Peter Heehs is made the mascot of freedom of speech by the Ashram Trustees while Dr. R.Y. Deshpande and Radhikaranjan Das are summarily dismissed from the Ashram School for being frank and outspoken! – Bireshwar]

Oxford University bars Dr Subramanian Swamy & Rajiv Malhotra

Cancels lecture on "Indias Economy" & "Revisionist History"

The Human Rights Act 1998 incorporates Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights into UK law.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance.

 ‘We are stunned that a leading British University that should be championing free speech and freedom of thought, has taken such a cowardly decision.

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Response to Jayantilal Parekh’s Article – by An Irrational Ashramite

Jayantilal Parekh’s article “The Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its Administration” posted on the Well-wishers’ site is rather outdated. It applies perhaps to the first two decades of Ashram life after the Mother’s passing away in 1973, but certainly not to the next two decades, and especially to the present situation. Given the undeniable fact that the Ashram is going through a process of deterioration of values and motivations, we can hardly keep justifying all that happens here under the name of spirituality and Integral Yoga! How long are we going to repeat that “the Ashram is the cradle of a new world” and “not a religious monastery” in order to justify our human frailties? The question therefore is of the proportion of sadhana and human weaknesses, of when and how much their precarious balance tilts to the wrong side rather than a clear definition of what exactly qualifies us for the Ashram life. What I mean is that everybody in the wide world knows that “staying in the Ashram despite human weaknesses so that one day we can outgrow them” is different from “staying in the Ashram in order to fulfil our physical propensities and make the best of the facilities provided by the institution for that very purpose”.

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"Divine Trap" CNN - IBN Expose of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kyXRp6DNWk&feature=youtu.be
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S. Gurumurthy speech at IIT Bombay Hindustan Times Avenue 2010 (Full)

Gurumurthy on how economics is connected with culture and why Indians should think for themselves instead of aping the West. He mentions an incident in Sri Aurobindo's life -- check 49th minute of his talk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOckPPmdekE

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The Colonial Native Vs The Hindu – by Vamadeva Shastri

A defeatist tendency exists in the psyche of modern Indians perhaps unparalleled in any other country today. An inner conflict bordering on a civil war rages in the minds of the country’s elite. The main effort of its cultural leaders appears to be to pull the country down or remake it in a foreign image, as if little Indian and certainly nothing Hindu was worthy of preserving or even reforming.

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