Robert E. Wilkinson ©
In an attempt to
discourage someone from writing his biography, Sri Aurobindo once wrote that he
did
not want to be murdered in cold print by his disciples; yet, this is exactly
what has happened. In an April 6, 2012 report by CNN/IBN, American historian
Peter Heehs, author of the controversial book, 'The Lives of Sri Aurobindo’ is
quoted as making the authoritative statement that'…Sri Aurobindo was a
spiritual leader, not an Avatar.’
In response to the recent furor in Pondicherry over Peter
Heehs’s controversial book, ‘The Lives of Sri Aurobindo’, the Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Trustees have issued the following statement:
‘The considered view of Sri Aurobindo
Ashram Trust is that it does not project itself in the role of dictating
to readers and followers of Sri Aurobindo, as to what they should read and what
they should not read. Each person is at complete liberty to decide for
himself whether he finds any book to be meaningful and useful, or whether he
does not find it to be so, and Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust respects and has full
faith in the intellectual and spiritual discernment of the readers. No one
should or needs to force his personal opinions on any other reader in general,
and more particularly on the followers of Sri Aurobindo.’ (bold emphasis mine)
Anyone who has bothered to follow events in the Pondicherry
Ashram since the Mother’s passing in 1973 will find this statement by the
Trustees to be the absolute peak of hypocrisy. Not only have members of the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram dictated to their students what they should and should not
read and think, Ashram Press employees have even destroyed an important
manuscript in their possession to prevent students of Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother from having access to knowledge that would expose the inexcusable
incompetence of their own leaders. In 1978 the manuscript of The New Way,1. Vols. 1 & 2’ by ‘Thea’, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet
was sent to the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press for printing under a agreement
between Thea and the Ashram Trustees. As many will know, this book chronicles
the history of the Mother’s Temple plan from its inception until its willful
destruction by the Mother’s own disciples on January 17th, 1970.
More importantly The New Way gave
forth the indisputable proofs and objective cosmic credentials of Vishnu’s
Evolutionary Avatars.
‘It is the Vedic Divine Measure alone that provides the objective key
which allows the Avatar to have his mission confirmed not by the sentimental,
emotional and subjective experiences of his devotees, but rather the Cosmos
becomes his credentials. God supports His supreme REALISER by the cosmic
harmonies of His universal manifestation, the script written in his very body.
Indeed if this is veritably the Supramental Manifestation, which is the
ultimate reconciliation of Spirit and Matter, that ‘spirit’ must unveil itself
unquestionably in the workings of the material kingdom which is the extension
of its own truth-essence. The coming of the Evolutionary Avatars is itself the
means for this unveiling.’ ‘Thea’, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, The Vishaal Newsletter, December, 1987
Owing to petty conflicts and ego disputes with Thea an
Ashram Press employee named, Shanti, intent on halting publication of The New
Way, filed a bogus complaint with the Press manager, Rob Ganguly who then
refused to print the manuscript. Together they proceeded to shred all copies of
the then 2/3 completed book. While most people may find it incredible that such
an important book could be destroyed over a personal vendetta, it is necessary
to go deeper into the nature of the forces behind these extraordinary events.
Then as now, the Sri Aurobindo Ashram was not exclusively populated with highly
evolved spiritual types, it also contained individuals representing the most
irredeemable evolutionary forces of resistance and denial - a collective entity
that the Mother called the ‘Lord of Nations’. In an encounter with this Vital
Asura on the subtle plane he told her, "…I know you will destroy me,
but before being destroyed I will wreak just as much havoc as I can, you can be
sure of that." (The Mother's
Agenda, Jan. 12, 1965). The Mother went on to explain that certain
individuals are unconscious that they act for this asuric force, genuinely
believing that they are doing the right thing. Sri Aurobindo was in complete
agreement with the Mother, writing that some of his biggest disciples were
Asuras - anti-divine forces vehemently dedicated to the suppression of the
truth and a denial of the light. Few will appreciate that owing to their petty
jealousies and personal vendettas, Shanti and Rob Ganguly made themselves
unwitting pawns of these retrograde forces dedicated to the suppression and
destruction of Sri Aurobindo’s, the Mother’s, and Thea’s work. Today, after decades
of ruthless censorship, connivance, and lies these anti-divine forces acting
through Pondicherry’s mental elites have succeeded in concealing from aspiring
students throughout the world the descent of a Supramental Knowledge
unparalleled since the Vedic age. With this malicious act of censorship Ashram
authorities formalized an ongoing policy of suppression and distortion that
finally culminated in the complete deconstruction of Sri Aurobindo’s work and
mission by Peter Heehs in the pages of his controversial book.
Today in Pondicherry there is growing outrage among many of
the sadhaks over the disrespectful caricature of their beloved guru presented
in the Heehs book. There have been protests, demonstrations, lawsuits and calls
for the resignation of the entire board of trustees for approving such an
offensive biography. But in the final analysis and owing to the persistent
exclusion of the true knowledge of who and what Sri Aurobindo was, the Heehs
book was simply a logical and entirely predictable example of the
decontextualization, gossip, and lies that could only emerge given the complete
absence of any higher understanding of Sri Aurobindo’s life and mission. And while Heehs is clearly guilty of
perpetuating a disrespectful and fraudulent caricature of Sri Aurobindo, the
sadhaks themselves are equally as guilty in the outcome for allowing Ashram
authorities to tell them what they should or should not read and think instead
of pursuing the truth and deciding for themselves. And while one does not expect devotees to understand the complex question
of avatarhood, in spite of everything Sri Aurobindo and the Mother have written
on the subject, it is expected that the Trustees of their legacy would object
to a founding member of the Ashram Archives Department writing emphatically
that Sri Aurobindo was NOT an
emanation of Vishnu. It would be their duty to raise a protest
against such an ‘authoritative' statement from a person who, it would appear,
is expected to be privy to information that others ignore. However, we find the
contrary to be the case: Peter Heehs’s book receives the support of the Ashram
Trust while the only authoritative book on earth confirming empirically Sri
Aurobindo’s avatarhood, is shredded to
pieces so that devotes and disciples would not have access to the truth. This
alone identifies the Board as being hostile to the very thing they pretend to
uphold, confirming Sri Aurobindo’s statement that his biggest disciples were
asuras. And while they will never admit it, this entire Heehs affair is
about the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and its sheep-like followers reaping exactly
what they have sown.
In terms of Sri Aurobindo’s true identity the matter could
not be clearer. He had warned us years before that the true meaning of his life
was not on the surface for men to see.
‘What matters in a spiritual man's life is not what he did or
what he was outside to the view of the men of his time (that is what
historicity or biography comes to, does it not?) but what he was and did
within; it is only that that gives any value to his outer life at all. It is
the inner life that gives to the outer any power it may have and the inner life
of a spiritual man is something vast and full and, at least in the great
figures, so crowded and teeming with significant things that no biographer or
historian could ever hope to seize it all or tell it. I see that you have
persisted in giving a biography – is it really necessary or useful? The attempt is bound to be a failure,
because neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has
not been on the surface for men to see.’
SABCL, Vol
22 p. 428 (bold emphasis mine)
The Mother added to his comments saying that ‘What
Sri Aurobindo represents in the world’s history is not a teaching, not even a revelation;
it is a decisive action, direct from the
Supreme…Sri Aurobindo is an emanation of the Supreme who came on earth to
announce the manifestation of a new race and a new world: the supramental. Let
us prepare for it in all sincerity and eagerness.’
The common and willful error for both Heehs and the
Ashramites is their failure to listen to the Mother; to acknowledge who Sri
Aurobindo was and the evolutionary context of his appearance on the earth at
this particular time and no other. In his book, Heehs actively rejects the evolutionary significance of Sri
Aurobindo’s unique incarnation and in spite of the Mother’s unequivocal
statements, encourages in his readers a complete disinterest in Sri Aurobindo’s
‘Avatarhood’, an omission that he excuses as a distracting
hagiographic idealization in which he had no real interest.
'...What
about the assertion that Aurobindo was an avatar? I can’t say that the question
interests me very much. Aurobindo never claimed the distinction for himself, 2. and I don’t
think anyone alive is in a position to say one way or the other...' (Peter Heehs, from the Columbia website)
3. (It
should be noted that in an April 2012 interview reported by CNN/IBN Heehs’s ‘disinterest’
has taken a significant leap with him now being quoted as saying: 'Sri Aurobindo was a spiritual leader, not an Avatar.’ (bold emphasis mine)
For persons of knowledge, the arrogance of this statement is
simply breathtaking. Unfortunately it reflects a long standing attitude of many
of the so-called wise-men who claim to ‘adore Sri Aurobindo and the Mother’. It
is as if the Vedic tradition of the Avatar is meaningless, even though it is
sanctified by the Gita in Sri Krishna's own words, and Sri Aurobindo's and the
Mother’s as well. Moreover, Heehs’ contention that no one alive today is in a
position to say one way or another reveals a stunning lack of research on his
part or, more likely, a calculated decision to ignore the volumes of objective
proofs that have been published by Thea and accepted and catalogued by the Sri
Aurobindo Ashram Archives; an organization which lists Heehs as one of its
founding member. Given the volumes of non-speculative proofs of Sri Aurobindo’s
Avataric credentials on file in the Ashram Archives and Heehs ready access to
this material, his only reason for making such a disingenuous statement is that
he, like his Ashram cronies, know that the Supramental proofs of Sri
Aurobindo’s avatarhood also include the irrefutable details of the third
stage of the Supramental Descent as well as the
details of Sri Aurobindo’s rebirth as the Fourth. Moreover they know that any acknowledgement of
these objective proofs would mean an immediate end to the rule of orthodoxy and
its stultifying dogma that has reduced this most important spiritual work of
the age to an arrogant, fundamentalist and elitist cult. It is just as if a
cadre of hard line Tibetan Buddhist fundamentalists had taken over the Potala
Palace and suppressed the knowledge of the rebirth of the next Dalai Lama so
they could continue to indulge their self-important pretentions as the
unchallenged leaders of their faith.
Today in Pondicherry the
Asuras are dancing. The forces of falsehood are thumbing their noses at the
protesters and demonstrators made impotent by the deprivation of real
knowledge. They have succeeded beyond their wildest hopes in rejecting the
light and destroying its message in, of all places, their own printing house.
HE who the Mother acknowledged as an emanation of the Supreme, unique in the
history of the world, has been deconstructed and decontextualized into simply
another spiritual teacher and no longer an Avatar. Peter Heehs has been allowed
to stay in India and is now lauded by the press as, ‘…someone who knows the documentary evidence on and around Sri
Aurobindo’s life better than anyone else, and who has deep knowledge of the
political and spiritual worlds in which his subject moved and by which he was
shaped…’ With the complicity of the
naive Indian media the deception has become complete. Every official
communication issued by the Sri Aurobindo Ashram especially the literary heresy
by Peter Heehs has become a de facto negation of Sri Aurobindo’s and the
Mother’s work and mission. In a letter
to the Ashram Board of Trustees Thea explains:
‘It is a fact that every publication issued from
Ashram and Auroville sources, Heehs’s included, passes on to the public –
though the intention appears to be other – that both Sri Aurobindo and the
Mother failed in their missions.
Not one publication can factually prove otherwise; and since there is no one in
your circles who can state the contrary and receive the accepted “imprimatur”,
this is the result: both Sri Aurobindo and the Mother failed “to deliver”. Or
if they did, we mortals are not qualified to prove what stands beyond human
comprehension. And since this is your belief, you must accept full
responsibility for spreading the idea that they seemed to have failed.
‘Nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only did
they complete their missions, they did so beyond our wildest expectations. You
can be sure that Supermind would not leave the fulfilment of its descent and
establishment on Earth to the “belief” of anyone: it is its own irrefutable proof.
‘This has been fully documented, the only existing
book [The New Way] to not only prove the victorious completion of their
missions but also it is the only irrefutable documentation of the fact that
they are Vishnu’s Emanations – i.e., Evolutionary Avatars who come yuge, yuge, just as the Gita states,
proven as only the Truth-Consciousness can do.’ ‘Thea’, Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet Letter to the Board
of Trustees, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, December, 2008.
As I write this article, there
are thousands of sadhaks throughout the world who, owing to the deception of
the Pondicherry elites, have virtually no understanding of who Sri Aurobindo
was, the evolutionary importance of his life and mission, let alone his rebirth
as the fourth in the Solar Line. Nevertheless, and without their knowledge, the
success of Sri Aurobindo’s, the Mother’s and Thea’s work goes on. An
understanding of the Supermind and objective evidence of its deployment has
been developed to extraordinary levels and applications of this Supramental
knowledge have led to major breakthroughs in areas as diverse as Yoga,
Cosmology, History, Geopolitics, and Science to name just a few. Those who have
been deprived of this knowledge for so many decades must finally come to
understand that protests, demonstrations and lawsuits will do nothing to
redress their grievances. What is required for Sri Aurobindo’s, the Mother’s
and Thea’s message to rise, take hold and endure is the final unmasking and
expulsion of these retrograde forces from the occult seat of their work. And
this can only be done with Knowledge. As Thea write: ‘It is the Vedic Divine Measure alone that provides the objective key
which allows the Avatar to have his mission confirmed not by the sentimental,
emotional and subjective experiences of his devotees, but rather the Cosmos
becomes his credentials.’ Let us begin this important work as the Mother
commanded,… in all sincerity and eagerness.
Footnotes:
1.) Destruction of The
New Way manuscript
The original manuscript of The New Way was shredded in the offices of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram
Press because it gave out indisputable proofs that the revised architects’
version of the Mother’s temple plan was not what she had originally intended.
Anyone who doubts this need only read ‘The
Matrimandir Dialogues’ ( http://www.aeongroup.com/momtem.htm
) Out of her original seeing which was utterly destroyed by the architects, the
Mother recorded not only the arrangements of the elements of the room, but its
fundamental measurements as well. It is a womb of Supramental Gnosis from which
it is possible to receive the most essential information about the earth's
journey into the future. The keys to Time are contained in the inner room, and
the secret formula given in its sublime measurements. It records the descent of
the Supramental consciousness and the actual dates of birth of Vishnu’s
Evolutionary Avatars, which are in fact recorded in the measurements of the
Temple. This is why it has generated such hostility in those who would usurp
Sri Aurobindo’s authority and mission.
The New Way was later published in its entirety by Aeon
Books along with numerous other volumes by Thea. A list of these titles may be
found at: http://www.aeongroup.com/bks-art.htm
The New Way Vol. I
& II: A study in the rise and the establishment of a gnostic society,
Volumes 1 & 2, by ‘Thea’ Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet, at $45.00, from Æon
Books, ISBN: 0945747063. The preeminent symbol of a new consciousness now
manifesting upon the Earth is a cosmological structure known as the Mother's
Temple. This sacred structure is a living manifestation of the descending
Truth-Consciousness into Earth's atmosphere and symbolizes Earth's emerging
Soul. Written into its architectonic structure are keys to the harmonies of the
cosmos and the secrets of Supramental Time. ‘Thea’ explains the origins of this
contemporary temple design and its occult measurements which define the
evolution of consciousness on this planet.
The New Way and
other titles may be ordered through Aeon Books, P O Box 396, Accord, NY 12404,
USA, or Aeon Trust, P O Box 11,
Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India. If you wish to contact Aeon Group the email
address is aeongroup@msn.com
2.) Regarding Avatarhood.
In an April 20 letter to her students Thea discusses Heehs’s
specious claim that Sri Aurobindo never claimed to be an Avatar.
‘I
realise that this issue of avatarhood cannot be appreciated by westerners because
it is not in their culture. But living in India since 1971 makes Heehs's
position unforgivable. He has no contact with the soul of this civilsiation -
of which the axis is the Dasavataras. I realise though that others cannot
vibrate to the importance of highlighting this aspect of his mission. For me,
there is nothing of greater importance for India and for the world.
And when Heehs writes and states that Sri Aurobindo never claimed the title for himself, this is absurd! He described the function of each Avatar since Sri Ram - the mental man; Sri Krishna, the overmental; and the next (skipping over the Buddha) would be Kalki, the Supermind. Kalki would come to correct the error of the Buddha. Who, pray tell, has been the pioneer of Supermind if not Sri Aurobindo? Where was Heehs living all those years?
I had to come along to put each thing in its place. Thank God for that, but I doubt any of you realise what this means...Thea ‘
And when Heehs writes and states that Sri Aurobindo never claimed the title for himself, this is absurd! He described the function of each Avatar since Sri Ram - the mental man; Sri Krishna, the overmental; and the next (skipping over the Buddha) would be Kalki, the Supermind. Kalki would come to correct the error of the Buddha. Who, pray tell, has been the pioneer of Supermind if not Sri Aurobindo? Where was Heehs living all those years?
I had to come along to put each thing in its place. Thank God for that, but I doubt any of you realise what this means...Thea ‘
3.) Vishnu’s Line of Ten Avatars
Given the critical importance of Vishnu’s
appearance in our present Aquarian age, there can be absolutely no mistakes
about his identity, his position in the Line of Ten Avatars, and his
evolutionary mission. But due to the suppression of Sri Aurobindo’s irrefutable
Avataric credentials by Heehs and the Pondicherry elites, pretenders have
emerged claiming the title for themselves, further clouding the issue and
delaying the restoration of the Sanatana Dharma. The most prominent of these
pretenders was the Indian god-man, Sathya Sai Baba. For a detailed account of Sai
Baba’s empty Avataric claims and his lies concerning Sri Aurobindo made
believable by the treachery of Sri Aurobindo’s own disciples see: http://circumsolatious.blogspot.com/2011/06/sathya-sai-baba-counterfeit-avatar.html
