Sri Aurobindo Society, Panaji branch celebrates April 4, 2010

Home » Centenary celebration commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Pondicherry held

Published on: April 5, 2010 - 23:15 NT NETWORK

The centenary celebration commemorating Sri Aurobindo’s arrival in Pondicherry was held by the presentation of enlightening talks. A seminar titled ‘Sri Aurobindo- the many splendored visionary’ was held at the Sri Aurobindo Society premises, Panaji branch recently.

Dr S S Kulkarni gave a comprehensive speech on Sri Aurobindo who was a modern spiritualist par excellence. In his address Dr Kulkarni traced the arrival of spiritualism in Pondicherry with the entry of Aurobindo in Pondicherry. Aurobindo acquired the knowledge of the Indian classics to study spiritualism. Not only this, he specially came down to India to become spiritual himself and wished to spread the teachings he learnt to the rest of India, said Dr Kulkarni.
Dr Kulkarni threw light on Aurobindo’s journalistic background. Aurobindo came up with a publication ‘Vande Mataram’ whose readership spread the length and breadth of Kolkatta. ‘Karmayogi’ was his next publication, published with the purpose of increasing awareness on spiritualism.
The speaker was Dr Prakash Desai who presented his thoughts on Aurobindo’s political ideas and their relevance. Dr Desai sharing his knowledge said that to Aurobindo, a nation was not a mere piece of earth it was a piece of mind. His nationalism was inclusive. Dr Desai condemned the fact that people attribute bad governance in India as the cause of lack of spiritualism.
Dr Chandralekha D’souza presented an inspirational talk on ‘Maharshi Arvind ke yog ke naye tattva’. Dr D’souza concisely explained Aurobindo’s aim of human development, saying man should help man bring about overall change. Dr D’souza continued that in order to see change in others we should be the change. Everyone cannot become ‘Maharshi’ but by practicing even a bit of their ethics, a transformation is possible, concluded Dr D’souza.
Dr Kiran Budkuley spoke on the relevance of Aurobindo literary and cultural vision of modern India. Dr Budkuley said Aurobindo represented the legacy of cultural heritance of India and did not view the nation as a mere conglomeration.  He represented open mindedness which made him to see everything dispassionately. Dr Budkuley also said that Aurobindo’s spiritualism was never confined to any nation; it was freely available to everyone wanting to make spiritualism their power.
Dr Sanjyot Pai Vernekar conveyed on evolutionary theory called the Aurobindonian perspective.
The speakers at the event threw immense light on Aurobindo to the audience. The secretary of the Aurobindo society, Mr Deepak D’souza was also present.