Freedom — different denouements
By Soumitra Basu - Oct 15, 2016
We all agree that freedom is the most cherished thing in life though paradoxically, we are all bound in some way or other, willingly or unwillingly to some object or circumstance, even to some value or ideal. In a way we are not even born free, the new born is not a tabula rasa, there are genetic endowments and temperamental characteristics which later will be joined by family traditions and cultural roots and will be worked upon by ecological variables and social factors.
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — freedom and fulfilment
By Soumitra Basu - Jul 15, 2016
Traditionally, ‘liberation’ from a world of suffering, ill-health, evil, darkness, ignorance, falsehood and death has been eulogised in the Indian psyche. Psychologically, the concept of ‘liberation’ arises from a yearning for ‘freedom’. Freedom is the magic word that beckons the human being in spite of one’s bondage. We are bound to our ‘fate’, circumstances, social obligations, ‘biological’ and ‘cultural’ genes, ecological discrepancies, family ties, the political system, dependency needs, our own desires, the upsurges from our subconscious, collective suggestions and what not! It is a chimera to believe we are free! Yet, as Sri Aurobindo reiterates that ‘Freedom’ is one of those key guiding lights that return after all attempts to curb it, it is one of the quartette — “God, Light, Freedom, Immortality” that “survives the longest periods of scepticism and returns after every banishment (1)”.
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — will-power and the body
By Soumitra Basu - Apr 24, 2016
Of all the disciplines of knowledge developed by mankind, the foremost is that which deals with health and well-being. Without the human body nothing tangible can be achieved in this earth of ours. We need to be in a mode of well-being to enjoy life, to enjoy the earth, to be happy and contented. Unfortunately, the forces of discord, dissonance and division need to wreak havoc in the earth and whatever medium they might choose to express themselves, it is in the final analysis, the human body which becomes the battling ground for their action. It was therefore not surprising that Āyurveda, the ancient discipline of health and healing, was intuitively constructed by the great Vedic ṛṣis through revelatory illuminations from the Superconscient, the perennial Wisdom-base. After perhaps more than a millennium of its inception, the reasoning intelligence stabilised itself to a point where evidence-based health practices could develop, paving the way for modern medicine. However, a closer scrutiny reveals that quite a significant number of milestones of modern evidence-based medical research has actually corroborated the great intuitive insights of the ancient ṛṣis. (It is a known fact that the only correct psycho-pharmacological agent to treat schizophrenia till the 1950s was the Āyurvedic drug Sarpagandha, Rawalfia Serpentina).
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — The Alpha and the Omega
By Soumitra Basu - Jan 15, 2016
The Physics of Immortality: Modern Cosmology, God and the Resurrection of the Dead
The metaphysical basis for Integral Health — liberation and freedom
By Soumitra Basu - Oct 15, 2015
Traditionally, ‘liberation’ from a world of suffering, evil, darkness, ignorance, falsehood and death has been a cherished destiny of the individual in the Indian psyche. Psycho-logically, the concept of ‘liberation’ arises from a yearning for ‘freedom’. Freedom is the magic word that beckons man inspite of his bondage. We are bound to our ‘fate’ and even those who do not believe in the machinations of fate have to concede that we are nevertheless bound to circumstances, social obligations, hereditary influences, ‘biological’ as well as ‘cultural’ genes, ecological discrepancies, illnesses of all sorts, family ties, dependency needs, our own desires, the upsurges from our subconscious, collective suggestions and what-not! It is a chimera to think we are free. Are we free from our genes, from our heredity, from our culture, from our personality traits, from our environment, from pollutants, from our political system? We clamour for freedom but truly speaking, we are in love with our chains. Yet, as Sri Aurobindo mentions in the very first paragraph of the first chapter in The Life Divine, ‘Freedom’ is one of those key guiding lights that return after all attempts at effacement, — it calls, motivates, inspires and rejuvenates us.