Sri Aurobindo drew on Neoplatonism, Hegelianism, and Bergson

Revisioning Environmental Ethics - Page 75 - Daniel A. Kealey - 1990 - 136 pages - Preview Since Aurobindo was very reticent in acknowledging his Western sources, we can only say with confidence that he drew on Neoplatonism, Hegelianism (via the Romantic poets), and Bergson. From the latter two Aurobindo was inspired to ...

Knowledge, Consciousness and Religious Conversion in Lonergan and ... - Page 43 - Michael T. McLaughlin - 2003 - 318 pages - Preview Since Aurobindo often uses relativist arguments, playing knowledge of the part off against knowledge of the whole; the discrete off against the continuum, and uses other kinds of arguments from internal relations, as does Bergson, ... The neo-Hegelianism of F.H. Bradley, whose work had some influence on Sri Auropbindo, would seem to be …

Theoria to theory: Volumes 9-10 - Epiphany Philosophers - 1975 - Since Aurobindo has none of Nietszche's hysterical arrogance, and is careful to emphasize the necessity of the crucifixion of the ego in all self-development, I must say that it is Benz's puzzlement which puzzles me. Chardin could not publish ...

Aurobindo's philosophy of Brahman - Page 162 - Stephen H. Phillips - 1986 - 200 pages - Preview And if it is true, then it follows that the question of the veridicality of Aurobindo's experiences determines the most significant part of their worth — since Aurobindo's advocacy of a mystic pursuit presupposes their inestimable worth ...

Hartshorne, Process Philosophy, and Theology - Page 125 - Robert Kane, Stephen H. Phillips - 1989 - 198 pages - Preview And since Aurobindo's project is to provide a comprehensive explanation of the way things are (at least on my reading), what point could there be to presuming God aware of a power of creation without necessarily creating something or ...

Tradition and the Rhetoric of Right: Popular Political Argument in ... - Page 178 - David J. Lorenzo - 1999 - 339 pages - Preview Since Aurobindo had asserted that his yoga was not about living remote from the world in a "Himalayan retreat," and that his yogic insights should be treated contextually, not literally, one is hard put to decide whether Satprem's mode ...

The Religious, the Spiritual, and the Secular: Auroville and ... - Page 116 - Robert Neil Minor - 1999 - 208 pages - Preview Finally, they argued that since Aurobindo claimed insights from meditation, his teachings cannot be religious. Because scientists using scientific methods have been able to study meditation's effects on the body, meditation must be a ...

Sri Aurobindo, the perfect and the good - Robert Neil Minor - 1978 - 191 pages - Since Aurobindo's goal is not to escape from the phenomenal world about us, the concentration of integral yoga must realize the Divine in the world as well as beyond it.207 The world is to be affirmed by such concentration, not denied; ...

Jīvanmukti in Transformation: Embodied Liberation in Advaita and ... - Page 150 - Andrew O. Fort - 1998 - 251 pages - Preview Since Aurobindo holds that existence, from grossest Matter to highest Spirit, is an integral unity, the deluded individuated self (jiva) is real and can evolve back to its Spirit-ual basis (Supermind). Put another way, for Aurobindo ...

The philosophy of Sri Aurobindo: his idea of evolution - Joseph Veliyathil, Joseph Veliyathil - 1972 - 97 pages - Since Aurobindo does not admit creation out of nothing and the substantial difference between the Creator and the created universe, he is forced to conclude that the end of all the evolutionary process, is the fulL manifestation of the ...

The Ideological Integration of East and West: An Enquiry ... - Page 123 - Moazziz Ali Beg - 2005 - 240 pages - Preview Since Aurobindo teaches us that person is capable of inner evolution which is self- transcendence, "Human society progresses really and vitally in proportion as law becomes the child of freedom; it will reach its perfection when, ...

The Radical humanist: Volume 47 - Indian Renaissance Institute - 1983 - Since Aurobindo believed in spiritualising the existing institutions of man, he has not shown much interest in recreating them or creaing new ones. He reiterated that man is not a machine in his constitution and functioning and as such ...

Sri Aurobindo, Indian poet, philosopher and mystic - George Harry Langley, George Harry Langley - 1949 - 134 pages - This is especially important, since Aurobindo is himself a poet, gifted with great insight and creative power, and his characteristic approach to speculative problems is influenced by this fact. The creative aesthetic experience of the ...

The religious roots of Indian nationalism: Aurobindo's early ... - David L. Johnson - 1974 - 128 pages - The problcm'still remains, since Aurobindo's assertion just begs the question, how does the One become Many ? That is, how can there be diversification* of one into many at the same time as the reality and the unity of both ...

The Political Philosophy of Sri Aurobindo - Page 61 - V. P. Varma - 1990 - 494 pages - Preview Since Aurobindo accepts the reality of supra-physical beings1 he accepts that the Vedic and the Zoroastrian references to the forces of darkness do not relate to symbols but refer to concrete beings whose existence can be verified in ...

Journal of ecumenical studies: Volume 14 - Council on the Study of Religion - 1977 - Since Aurobindo's writings on yoga grow out of his study of the religio-political context of the Mahabharata, there is room for further analysis of his continued involvement with political liberation. The chapter on spiritual liberation ...

Indian critiques of Gandhi - Harold G. Coward - 2003 - 287 pages - But since Aurobindo claimed to see the whole picture, the part could not be privileged over the whole in the quest for independence. Violence, or nonviolence for that matter, could have only strategic value.7 Savarkar, for his part, ...

The Journal of the Bihar Research Society: Volume 42 - Bihar Research Society - 1956 - But since Aurobindo's theory of the Godsent leader is vitally influenced by the concept of the Instrument (Nimittamatram) as found in the Gita, hence there is a cardinal difference in his notion of the transcendence of morality and that ...

A Primer on Advaita Vedanta, or Non-Dualist Hinduism: Or, Why Atman is Brahman, And Why We Should Care from Networkologies by chris

What’s also worth noting is the strong similarities between both of these schools and certain developments in contemporary philosophy, such as the immanentism of Deleuze, or my own networkological thought. These issues will be discussed at another time… A This Worldly Vedantaism

There are many reasons why such an approach, in either it’s Buddhist or Vedantist flavors, has much to offer us today. While Buddhism clearly favors metaphors of emptiness and extinction of craving, and Vedantaism favors metaphors of plenitude and fullness, they ultimately aim towards identifying with the non-dual, the non-limited, that which is beyond spacetime, beyond craving, the ego, that which is the principle of the all beyond limitations. There are many parallels here with various strains of Sufi thought, as well as Hellenist Neoplatonism, both of which may have been influenced by the more ancient Indic tradition, even as it modified itself in relation to various influences as well.

There are, however, some legitimate potential objections to such an approach to the world. Firstly, what if this is all made up? That is, just as we might say that the Big Bang is the most real, we could also say that it is the least real thing there is. None of us have ever seen the Big Bang. It’s the furthest thing from our everyday lives. Might this not be living for a fiction? Building upon this notion, Nietzsche argued that many traditional philosophies and religions are “life-hating,” because they value a world we never see over the world we do, this world, and as such, are examples of “otherwordly-isms.” Is Vedanta life-hating and otherworldly?

On the one hand, perhaps it is.  Certainly followers of Hinduism and Buddhism often remove themselves from the world and its pleasures. Many are celibate. They seem to live “in the clouds.” But perhaps this is just a historical relic. Maybe it might be possible to imagine a “this worldly” Vedantism or Buddhism. For in a sense, it does seem that the world has two poles of “most-real-ness,” namely, from one end, the Big Bang, but from the other end, each and every one of its concrete aspects in experience. Might it not make sense to play both angles, both sides at once?

If Brahman is the most free, the principle of everything, then perhaps true liberation isn’t merely to identify with this, which would certainly give freedom from the cravings of this world. But perhaps it also means to extend this freedom to all maya, all the illusions. Perhaps this is compassion beyond that to mere persons, but to all matter. Maybe we need to make the world more Brahman, and bring liberation not only to our minds, but all the world of experience. A this worldly Vedantaism, which aims to liberate not only experience, but even matter from its limitations. An activist Vedantism.

As I’ve come to realize, as I continue working on my own work on developing a networkological, relational approach to philosophy, while learning increasingly about non-western philosophies, is that a this-worldly, activist version of what Buddhism, Sufism, Vedanta, and Neoplatonism propose is precisely what the networkological project aims at.

One could make the argument that this is already latent in Vedanta. But there is without doubt an individualistic focus in Hinduism and Buddhism, despite the fact that both are ultimately about dissolving the ego. That said, change happens inside, not outside. Then again, it does seem that the only reason why Brahman would have for giving rise to the world of maya would be precisely to lead it to liberation from its limitations, and the work of Sri Aurobindo, a Neo-Vedantist, works to integrate Vedantism with an evolutionary approach to the world.

The Mahayana Buddhist spin on these issues, seems to emphasize precisely the fact that the advent of the Buddha is precisely this saving compassion for all manifesting in the world. Sufism takes this further, and sees this as in fact the very purpose of creation as such, which is to say, the lifting of the veils, which transforms the individual, annihilating them as they merge with the limitless freedom and power of God. While these are clearly different traditions, the similarities between their notions of liberation are striking. Hindu forms of this, including Vedanta, deemphasize the collective and compassionate, even though this is latent within it, while Mahayana Buddhism and Sufism emphasize this more collective end of things, and this can be seen materially as well. Buddhism makes the alleviation of suffering it’s primary emphasis, and gives rise to monasteries for monks, while Sufism emphasizes the love of God for creation, and gives rise to massive lodges and orders. Vedanta emphasizes lifting the veil of ignorance over alleviation of suffering, and doesn’t give rise to more organized collectives to the extent of Buddhism or Sufism. While compassion and collective action in the world are implicit in some ways, they are less emphasized. That said, a Vedantic critique of this might be that these approaches emphasize the Ishvara side over that of Brahman itself. Certainly in Sufism, God as that which is Beyond Being presents itself in theophanic form to speak to us in a language we understand, and in Buddhism, the manifestations of the Buddhanature in so many Buddhas and Boddhisattvas are there to give us something to hold on to, so that we hear a message put in terms that we will more easily understand.

While such comparativist discussions are necessarily oversimplifying, they do allow for the potential to see the overall projects of Sufism, Advaita Vedanta, and Buddhism as having many strong commonalities, something which has been advocated and recognized by figures within these traditions, such as the famed Vedantic scholars Swami Vivekananda and Ananda Coomaraswamy, Sufi scholars like Seyyed Hossain Nasr, western Sufi converts such as Rene Guenon and Frithjof Schuon. While Buddhist scholars are perhaps less comparativist in this sense, because Buddhism doesn’t see itself as a religion at all, the issue of exclusivity is less pressing, and Buddhism has coexisted with many of these more doctrinally exclusive formations, and the similarities in many of these projects has been noted by prominent Buddhists such as the Dalai Lama. What’s more, many scholars have noticed strong commonalities with classic Chinese Taoism, particularly as manifested in the writings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu. While these issues cannot be addressed here, they are certainly worth pursuing more systematically elsewhere.