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February 2008
Volume XI, Issue I

Contents

• From the editor's desk

• Eternal Presence
  

• Auroville
  Anniversary Greetings
  

• Social and Economic Organisation of Auroville
  The Mother
  
  
• The Ideal Solution
  Sri Aurobindo
  
  
• Auroville:
  "The Future Futureless"!
  V. Ananda Reddy
  
  
• SACAR
  Anniversary Greetings
  
  
• "The Golden Project"
  
  
• Development of SACAR
  Beloo Mehra
  
  
• SACAR of Today
  and Tomorrow
  Beloo Mehra
  
  
• A Passionate Chanter
  of Savitri
  Ananda Reddy

 

DEVELOPMENT OF SACAR:
A STORY OF OUTER AND INNER JOURNEYS

A Conversation with Dr. Ananda Reddy

Beloo Mehra

Dr. Ananda Reddy is the Founder-director of SACAR, and President of its online educational wing, Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow.

Ananda gives us a view of the past and shares with us how the idea of SACAR took birth while he was living and working at Assumption University in Bangkok. He is grateful to the Mother for giving him the opportunity to visit and gain valuable experience of teaching and engaging in intellectual work at a well-functioning, highly organised academic organisation that emphasised intellectual rigour and high academic standard. It was there that this idea of starting an academic centre back home in Pondicherry began to take initial shape. Ananda knew clearly that after coming back to India he didn’t want to go back to work at any university. He had seen how the academic structure and culture of many traditional academic institutions in India can de-motivate an individual and may even result in making some individuals lose sight of the larger intellectual and spiritual life they may have set for themselves. Ananda also knew very certainly that he wanted his work to be closely aligned with the thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He felt that all the intellectual and spiritual wealth that he had been given was because of the Grace of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and now it was his swadharma to pass on some of that wealth and become an instrument in spreading the vision of Sri Aurobindo to younger generations.

The origins of this idea of an academic centre focusing on the thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo actually go much farther than this time in Bangkok, however. Ananda recalls that it was originally a dream shared with his father, late Prof. V. Madhusudan Reddy, to open a Sri Aurobindo research centre in Pondicherry. But it was during his time in Bangkok that this “idea became an ideal” for Ananda. And all his subsequent work in building of SACAR from the grounds-up has been a realisation of that ideal. Ananda knew that for any organisation to grow and succeed lot of hard and dedicated work is required and that he must give his all — all of his time, energy and thought — if he wanted to see his ideal manifested in reality. So he came back to Pondicherry in 1995 with this dream of starting an academic research centre that focused on the thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo, and that would become a means for him to give back to his country “what Sri Aurobindo and Mother had given [me].”

In 1997, as part of Sri Aurobindo’s 125th anniversary celebrations, Ananda travelled to several places in India giving talks on the vision of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This gave him an opportunity to see that there indeed was a real need for such an institution that he had been dreaming about, a dedicated institution that can guide the younger generations in a deeper study of Sri Aurobindo’s works.

Ananda also spoke with many senior sadhaks at the Ashram about his dream project and was further convinced that an advanced academic centre in Pondicherry focusing on the works and vision of Sri Aurobindo would be a welcome and valuable addition to the existing academic environment of the area. He found that there was a lack of academically oriented people in the Ashram community who could guide newcomers and help them learn about the vision and thought of Sri Aurobindo. This noble task of facilitating the learning journeys of young seekers who are new to the Integral vision of Sri Aurobindo was meant for SACAR to take up. The young minds seeking a higher knowledge, wishing to pursue work for a nobler, higher aim in life would be welcome at SACAR.

Ground-breaking for the SACAR building began in August 1998.

Ten years later, SACAR remains the only academic institution of its type in the world that is focused on the vision and thought of Sri Aurobindo. The online educational wing of SACAR, Sri Aurobindo Darshan: The University of Tomorrow (TUT) was started in 2004. TUT offers academic courses and programmes ranging from Orientation to Doctoral levels. Ananda carefully explains that SACAR started and continues to grow as an academic centre which is open to all who are interested in a serious study of Sri Aurobindo’s vision regardless of their personal devotion towards Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This necessitates a very broad, open-minded intellectual approach to studying and teaching of the vision and thought of Sri Aurobindo. Learners are given maximum freedom of thought in approaching Sri Aurobindo, but emphasis is placed that they must thoroughly read Sri Aurobindo’s works in order to see for themselves what truths resonate with them. This prevents learners from developing a biased or narrow view. Ananda says that Sri Aurobindo’s vision and thought is so grand, embracing and all-inclusive and yet it can be approached purely on a mental, intellectual level without having to appeal to the learner’s emotion and devotion.

This academic approach to the works of Sri Aurobindo also has the approval of the Mother, Ananda adds. He refers to the Mother’s advice: “It is not by books that Sri Aurobindo ought to be studied but by subjects — what he has said on the Divine, on Unity, on religion, on evolution, on education, on self-perfection, on supermind, etc., etc.” (CWM 12, p. 208). The different courses offered by TUT are organised by subjects and topics, and learners generally get to read a variety of selections from different texts by Sri Aurobindo, the Mother and several other writers. This when combined with practical exercises, written assignments, discussion with peers and facilitators make the learning experience a living and dynamic one. And this academic approach, Ananda feels, is helpful for learners who are new to the thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo.

Since its beginning Ananda hoped and dreamed that SACAR will build alliances, connections and collaborations with different universities in the India and abroad, thus bringing Sri Aurobindo’s vision in the mainstream of higher education. This required that attention must be paid to the academic structure of the institution and also to the rigour and content of its programme offerings. At the same time, it was very important for Ananda that the Mother’s Free Progress system of Integral Education, which values freedom and flexibility, is adopted at TUT. At present, SACAR and TUT are collaborating with two universities in the US to offer programmes and courses, and the recent affiliation with the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda has opened a new chapter for SACAR.

Ananda emphasises that while the outer story of SACAR is important, but personally for him it is his inner journey and experience facilitated through his work for and at SACAR that are more significant. SACAR has been a means for Ananda’s intense personal sadhana. SACAR has taught Ananda to rely more and more on the Mother, to surrender more and more to Her, and to surrender on all different levels of the being. Ananda says, “When something has to manifest, it requires lot more of the Mother’s Grace. I have been shown that She is here to do Her work, and not me.” He says that all through the experience of building SACAR and developing its various activities and programmes, he has been shown the true meaning and power of surrender in different ways. While on an outer level a certain form of planning and organising are certainly required in developing and running an institution, on a deeper level he doesn’t worry or get concerned about the future of SACAR because of the lessons learned through his complete surrender to Her. Ananda conducts his organisational planning and administrative work with a deep and complete faith that the Mother would guide him in every activity, and if anything is against Her wish for SACAR, She would correct him and put him on the right path.

Ananda adds that the Mother has always provided for SACAR, and though it is not a rich place he feels safe in knowing that She has provided for whatever is needed at any time, and that She will always provide. He gives the example of how the construction of the new Scholars’ Home at SACAR premises has been entirely made possible because of Her Grace.

Ananda emphasises the deeper meaning that SACAR holds for him in these words: “Inwardly, SACAR has been a beautiful mode of sadhana for me. Constantly thinking and working for SACAR, working to manifest Her Will and vision, constantly being in touch with their written works has been a great boon. With all my weaknesses, etc., I am always put on the path, this constantly being with Their vision and works, and thinking of Them always has been my safeguard. If I can summarise it this way, the inner aspiration and outer manifestation have become one and the same, so it has been an integral sadhana for me. My business is to think, write, speak about Sri Aurobindo, so I feel doubly blessed.”

While discussing the academic framework of SACAR, Ananda says that it is possible to keep one’s personal devotion separate from a purely intellectual approach to enter the thought and vision of Sri Aurobindo. He describes how in many of his talks at different places he has been able to reach a large number of audiences by presenting purely the intellectual power of Sri Aurobindo’s thought. He explains, “Sri Aurobindo’s is a vision and a thought, He survives powerfully as a thought, as a consciousness. The thought is so inclusive that the listeners get to see the truth in the thought.”

Taking a long view Ananda adds that Sri Aurobindo’s thought and vision will surely capture the intellectual mind-space in the future. And this wide reach of Aurobindonian integral vision on an intellectual level is much more important for the world’s future than the devotional aspect of the devotees for Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. He explains, “World will be conquered by His thought, which will open the minds of more and more people, and facilitate the working of the Supermind. Through this intellectual spread of His thought, Sri Aurobindo is preparing a new mind which will be eligible for the new consciousness. This will be the real contribution to mankind. A few will turn to become sadhaks and that will be the start of a New Race. But on the world level, a change in mental consciousness will come as a result of the intellectual thought of Sri Aurobindo taking over the imagination of more and more people, and this changed mental consciousness will be open to supramental consciousness. That is my reading of the future of Sri Aurobindo’s vision and thought.”

He explains that the world requires and will continue to require different spiritual approaches and different spiritual teachers, which in the future will reflect some aspect of Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the world. Therefore, it is important to emphasise that Sri Aurobindo can still be approached and understood on an intellectual level by those who may look elsewhere for spiritual or devotional purposes. What Sri Aurobindo offers to the world at large is that “He is preparing another kind of mind, Mind of Light, which will capture the mind of the elite of humanity, and this can serve as a bridge between mind and Supermind … Multiple expressions of spirituality will always be there … but in the future, the wide reach of Sri Aurobindo Consciousness will bring a synthesis, a unity in diversity.” It is this “bold vision” that permits Ananda to approach and present Sri Aurobindo on an intellectual level for his students and those participating in his seminars and talks. “On reading him, the mind sizzles, thrills with his ideas — that is more than enough. That experience will surely turn the individual to Sri Aurobindo,” he adds.

What is Ananda’s dream for the future of SACAR? He takes a brief break and answers that he has a two-tiered dream, a dream to be realised in two stages. On the first stage, he would hope for SACAR to become a bridge between the old and new — old and new ways of acquiring knowledge, old and new consciousness. He confesses that he is not an impractical dreamer, so he understands that in order to realise the new on a pragmatic level he can’t ignore the present reality. This explains the ongoing work at SACAR to keep improving upon, refining and strengthening its academic framework and academic approach to studying and teaching Sri Aurobindo’s works, and the efforts to enter into alliances and collaborations with Indian and foreign universities.

The second stage of Ananda’s dream is that one day SACAR becomes a centre of learning where people will come purely for the love of knowledge, and are not attached to the concept of any degrees or some such gain. SACAR will be a place where the learners, facilitators and everyone involved with it will know that “Only gain is inner gain.” This place of learning will vibrate with a kind of delight and joy of studying and doing research in the works of Sri Aurobindo. Ananda feels that the first stage of his dream is bound to take SACAR to the second stage because “any research into Sri Aurobindo inevitably leads one to searching within oneself. I would like that to be the second stage for SACAR where those on this path of in-search are attracted to this institution.” Ananda feels that he can’t speak more concretely about the outer form in which this second stage of his dream will materialise, and perhaps that is not needed at present because his present focus is on fulfilling the first part of his dream — to make SACAR a part of academic mainstream in India so it can serve as a bridge between the old and new consciousness. And this can be best realised once SACAR gains the status of an independent university, which is the target Ananda is working towards at present.

Ananda does not like to speak of any challenges in fulfilling of these dreams because he feels that if he is moving in the right direction as per the Mother’s Will for SACAR, then any challenges and obstacles that come in the way will be part of his work that is to be done for the Mother. He adds that since until now everything for SACAR has been done through the Grace of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, “even thinking of any challenge indicates distrust on Their Grace … Challenge only reflects my incapacity.” However, he is mindful of one biggest obstacle which may emerge if those in charge of the various parts of the institution are driven by their egos, are interested in self-promotion and are not ready to surrender to the Will of the Mother. “If the human in-charge is inwardly surrendered to Her, then there is no other challenge,” he says. All other day-to-day challenges are part of the travel, he adds. Because of his surrender, faith and trust in the Mother he feels that money and other physical requirements for SACAR will always be provided by the Mother. He concludes by saying that his attitude has always been to “see the Mother’s will translated through me; and thus one day not only realise what I dream for SACAR, but in truth become SACAR, that is, become Sri Aurobindo’s Child, Ananda Reddy!”