Category Archives: Beyond Religion
An Introduction to Hindu Belief
This segment is a basic overview of Hindu mythology. I discuss the trinity of Vishu, Shiva and Brahma, as well as their female counterparts Laxmi, Sarawati, and Durga. Furthermore, I discuss the creation of the world according to Hindu scripture. All the information in this segment is taken from Devdutt Patnaik various writings.
Stories of Forest
Striking to most of the visitors of Auroville are constant chirping of birds and indigenous evergreen tropical dry forest or lots of trees ...
Birds wake up in early morning hours before dawn, and perky conversations or monologues are going on all day long.
Each morning starts with another story of a day ahead.
Human ears selectively choose what to hear , but microphone hears everything. It does notice distant temple music, bikes and constant wind of the area.
Interview with Noel Parent
Noel Parent speaks about the forth coming International peace day celebrations on the 21st September and the Auroville peace month which will continue up to the 21st October.
A Call for Grace
"Thou alone art and all is Thou; and the streams of Thy infinite grace fill and overflow the world." The Mother, Prayers and Meditations. At Unity Garden in Matrimandir yesterday afternoon Vera offered to gathered a grace of Russian Bells. Despite very hot day, Matrimandir and gardens were cool with its constant breeze over the area of peace. Joining to joyful chirp of birds, bells started to share frequencies, slowly lulled all beings into a meditative state as the day was coming to an end.
Brilliant Skeptic
James Baldwin the Brilliant Skeptic
James Baldwin, arguably America's greatest black writer, was a popular Pentecostal preacher in Harlem at age 14 -- but at 17 he renounced religion as a sham.
Baldwin's novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration not only of African Americans, but also of gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals' quests for acceptance.
"Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have."
CAT -5 – TO CREATE HUMAN UNITY
Creating Auroville Together - CAT : Session 5 The CAT's are at it again, persevering and organizing yet another deep thoughts provoking meeting for the residents of Auroville. The agenda to address is of Human Unity, as clearly mentioned in the charter, Auroville is a place of Human Unity, but the question is 'How to achieve and preserve this unity'. Aspiration group joined hands with the CAT team for this special presentation and lead the entire meeting. A very unique approach was carved by them to enable a consensus on the topic. 4 questions were posed to the group to explore and introspect and the these were no ordinary or random question, they were questioned for which Mother has already left us with answers. The meeting was very warm and lot of good will exchange. People attending the meet, quite appreciated the efforts of the group to stimulate the community into a brainstorming which will capable us with out-of-the-box thinking and type of sharing which was result oriented. Auroville which is perhaps, in a kind of a transition phase, definitely can take valuable insights and inputs by the CAT's meetings. Everyone interested in Creating Auroville Together should ensure they are part of the upcoming CAT meetings.
Expressions
Sunday morning searching for the expression of the Divine in Matrimandir. Soundscape takes us through park of unity, passing the banyan tree, climbing up to inner chamber, and back down to lotus pond ... returning to shooting sounds of cascading water of the fountain...
Water
The Divine expresses itself in many ways....
water, in different forms, starting with a single drop, forming cascade in lotus pond, or a river stream; many droplets form a rain ... and all leads into the ocean
Mira Nakashima
Despite a short visit and busy schedule Mira Nakashima has managed to take some time for our interesting interview on Wednesday morning.
Most of the time our talk was revolving around her father - Geroge Nakashima who has made a Peace table which stands at Hall of Peace, and was at the beginning of the past century one of the main architects on the site in building Sri Aurobindo's Ashram Gloconde(the first concrete structure in Asia)
Mira continues father's legacy in woodwork, and is also one of the funders of Peace Foundation.
Today, along with the family will participate at Peace Mediation around Peace Table at Hall of Peace at Unity Pavilion in Interantioanl Zone.
Peace in Cacophony
Brainfever wakes us up in the middle of the night, peacocks cries ... and when the morning comes seven sisters blabber at all times ... Due to lush vegetation and ever green dry forests which surround Auroville, daily soundscapes is the one of birds .... what emerge out of it where are we going what are we striving for and lotus pond sings its song with cascading water ...