My hope of the future lies in the youths of character, intelligent, renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient – good to themselves and the country at large.

- Swami Vivekananda

Life and Learning

Vedas have defined four stages in human life – student, householder, contemplative and renunciative – in a sense more profound that the limitations of age. Learning has four aspects – Knowledge, Application, Contemplation, and Freedom. This article traces the four aspects of learning along the four stages of life – in a unique deliberation.

Lights on Life

Pulses of truth that clears up life’s pathway and makes it a joyful and confident journey

Questions and Answers

Our ordinary life is fraught with doubts, confusions and questions on its various aspects. Our Questions and Answers section is a compilation of questions on multiple subjects, asked by aspirants to Sri Aurobindo and The Mother and the answers given by Them. Please visit - an answer may be awaiting you, even if you do not have a question.

Inspiration

Be quiet and offer yourself calmly and confidently.

All that happens is always the effect of the Supreme’s Will.

Human action can be the occasion but never the cause.

– The Mother

Guidance

On life’s journey, we are sometimes struck by a distressing obstacle in our path, numbing our strength and capacities to move ahead. Or it could also be a strong aspiration that blindly seeks an expression. At these times, if we concentrate and sincerely search for an inner guidance, it does somehow reach us through some means and a path opens up, almost like miracle! If you are in a situation like this, try our Guidance section and see if it helps. Do share your experience with us.

Events and Announcements

Glimpses of recent activities at SAS

AuroYouth musically

On the occasion of the New Year and the upcoming National Youth Day (12th Jan.), AuroYouth presents this powerful musical video titled, "A Call to the Youth". With an interesting twist to a popular song, this is a wake-up call to the youth – to define a new destiny for the world, to make a new beginning empowered with hope and certitude. Follow the melody to reach the pure space within you that aspires for truth, beauty and harmony.

Exploring the Chakras within a Transformative Paradigm

Chakras are the yogic centres of energy in a human being. An understanding of these chakras helps in understanding integral psychology and the transformation of one’s self. Venture out on a journey of exploring the chakras with Dr. Soumitra Basu in this 6-day online workshop organized by NAMAH, the journal of Integral Health that begins on January 17, 2022.

Svadhyaya III: Study, Reflect and Grow Within

As part of Sri Aurobindo Society’s celebrations for the 150th Birth Anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, AuroBharati and AuroYajna invite you all to join the 11-week programme that will give an opportunity to experience the Living Force and Power of the Words of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother through a focused programme of self-study and a weekly shared reflection session. The online programme begins on 15 January 2022.

Ushering in the New Year with the power of Savitri

The ambience at Sri Aurobindo Society was somber, teeming with a positive energy, as the New Year was invoked with the continuous and complete reading of Sri Aurobindo’s ‘Savitri’ starting on December 31, 2021 through January 1, 2022. At the collective meditation on December 31, 2021 our aspirations united to work towards a beautiful harmonious future for the entire world.

New Year at SARVAM

SARVAM walked into the New Year with joy, hope and more empowerment. Students of the English Access Micro-scholarship Program had a playful day of learning on the Pondicherry seashore. SARVAM women were equipped with the latest on financial management as they look forward to better economic status in the new year.

A Golden Beginning for Pondicherry

Svarnim Puducherry a vision in the making - to make Puducherry, an ideal Pondicherry state in all dimensions, had a busy fortnight. The aspirations of a golden Pondicherry take a great leap at the start of the new year as the Svarnim team bringing the community together through a multitude of initiatives - desilting of lakes, kitchen garden at government schools, empowering teachers with experiential learning techniques, corona awareness in the villages, and positive mental health for students. Invite you all to join the movement to a glorious state, and a resplendent India.

Animation Film – Sri Aurobindo A New Dawn

Highlights of Visit by Film Production Team  

An animation film ‘Sri Aurobindo: A New Dawn’ is being made, to inspire the youth of India and the world through the story of Sri Aurobindo, as our offering for the 150th year of Sri Aurobindo’s birth.

We have commissioned this project to India’s leading professional animation studio: Studio Eeksaurus Productions Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai. On 15th August 2021, a short video-trailer was launched with the intention of gathering feedback from viewers. Several valid insights & suggestions have been received and during Oct-Nov 2021, the Production Team from Mumbai came to Puducherry to work out a script that will incorporate these insights. After several intense discussions with the Project Team and several long-time followers of Sri Aurobindo, what emerged as the kernel of the Script was something uplifting and inspiring, to say the least.

Watch here a 10-min video of the highlights of the Visit!

Click here to go to our homepage for more details!

We are happy to share with you that we have collected 50% of our budget and are sure, by the Mother’s Grace, the remaining amount also will be generated through the continued support of our well-wishers.

Donate with a heart  and join hands in the making of this film!

Offering in Humility and Gratitude

We have stepped into an important year on 15 August 2021 as it starts the 150th birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo and the 75th year of India’s independence. This section is our humble offering to this momentous occasion. We will bring a few golden glimpses from the Master’s avataric life as well as a few glorious achievements of independent India.

What is addiction in its true sense? And what is non-addiction, then?

Sri Aurobindo took a human birth. However incredible it might seem, he too had human habits. Cigars, being one of them. How was his addiction to cigars, which he smoked constantly? Well, let us find out.

Once son of Mahatma Gandhi, visited him and saw the inevitable cigar.

He shot the question, “Why are you attached to smoking?”

At once came the retort, “Why are you so attached to nonsmoking?”

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Readers' Column

Although, all of us are familiar with Srinivasanji’s writing, today he is our Reader-Writer to AuroNews. And he deals with an interesting question – what is the true gender of Nature?

Nature sings her most exquisite songs to those who love her. She does not unfold her secrets to those who come only to gratify their desire of analysis, to gather facts, but to those who see in her manifold phenomena suggestions of lofty, delicate sentiment.

– Helen Keller

The modern environmental movement needs a radical rethinking on the nature of Nature. The crucial question is: Is Nature She or It?

One of the major causes of the present critical environmental condition is the lack of reverence or sensitivity to the living beauty and divinity of Nature. This in turn is the result of a flawed conception of Nature as the inanimate storehouse of resources and a misguided humanism that looks at Nature as something which exists solely for fulfilling the needs, desires or greeds of human beings. As the Brazilian environmentalist, Lutzenberger points out: “The anthropocentric world-view westerner inherited – has allowed our technocrats and bureaucrats and most simple people too, to look at Planet Earth as if it were no more than free unlimited resources to be used, consumed and wasted for even our most absurd or stupid whims. We have no respect for creation.” The future of environmentalism requires a critical re-examination of this modern conception of Nature.

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Dose of Sunshine

(…is all we need to embrace life with a smile!)

Potion of Laughter

So, the virus wave has not ebbed yet. It is reportedly on the rise again. Does that lower our capacity to laugh? Definitely not. Especially, when you read about the other viruses that the doctors have to deal with.

A mother complained to her consultant about her daughter’s strange eating habits.

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A Capsule of Good News

Champ of the underprivileged Akarsh Shroff, a United Nations V-award winner, is an inspiration to those who feel for the orphans. It is empowering to read his ideas and ideology on the ideals of childhood. Let us strive to ensure that every child find her / his true place in the New Year.