Fw: Date of the Mahabharata war-- According to Sri Aurobindo

March 11, 2009

Dear Members,New information. Sri Aurobindo revised his earlier date of 1190 BCE for the Mahabharata war to (about) 5000 years before 1909 CE. .Regards,Sunil K. Bhattacharjya--- On Tue, 3/10/09, schinnas <schinnas wrote:schinnas <schinnas [WAVES-Vedic] Re: Fwd: An Important Matter (To Sunil and Robert) Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009, 7:56 AM

Dear Sir,

Thank you for the reference. Let me quote below a footnote from one of Sri Aurobindo's book (Volume 3 of Collected works of Sri Aurobindo in English), of which "The problem of Mahabharata" is a chapter.

"Â²This date (1190BCE) was accepted by Sri Aurobindo at the time of writing. On p. 66 of his Gitar Bhumika (in Bengaliâ€”written in 1909) he says: "It should be remembered that the war of Kurukshetra took place 5000 years ago." It may be that later he accepted still another date."

Here is the URL:

http://www.sriaurob indoashram. org.in/Content. aspx?ContentURL= _staticcontent\sriaurobindoashram \-09+e-library\ -01+works+ of+sri+aurobindo \-01+english\ -03_the+harmony+ of+virtue_ volume-03\ -25_the+problem+ of+mahabharata. htm

I consider Sri Aurobindo as a human being in the same way as Ved Vyasa, Sri Krishna, Adi Sankaracharya, Jesus, Buddha, Ramakrishna and other Avatars, Vibhutis, Rishis and Masters can be considered to be human beings because they took human birth and operated in a human body.

While considering the writings of Sri Aurobindo it is important to mark the distinction between his commentary on work of others and original writings (such as Savitri or LifeDivine or Synthesis of Yoga or Essays on the Gita). In the former, Sri Aurobindo utilizes worldly knowledge available at the time and does not force in his inner Yogic Knowledge on such practical works. There instances where Sri Aurobindo takes the style of a literary commentator without revealing his Yogic insight, which he shared in private with the Mother or with close disciples. One can find some arguments in major scriptures and in Upanishads which do not exactly correspond to modern material scientific knowledge.

Regarding Yogic insight, Mother has given hints that can explain this problem. As the Mother said, all yogic Knowledge of Mother and Sri Aurobindo is by identity - which is very different from intellectual speculation of humans. When a Master "looks" at a problem, they can know specific details about it, because they can "live" in it - they "experience" it as it happened. They can describe specific details about it. But they cannot "date" it in modern calendar because they would not see a calendar marked 3000BC or 1190BC in a wall when they are experiencing the historic event in inner Minds. They do not generally know (unless they need to know it for their Work) what those events correspond to in our modern calendar system (or even ancient calendar system). Sometimes when they come back from the Experience, they may not be "mentally" able to or want to co-relate the experience in words we can understand mentally.

IMHO, if Ved Vyasa is reborn today, even he may not be able to easily mark on our Gregorian calendar the dates of Mahabharata war without spending some effort, but still may know all intimate details of the War. There may be at least one exception to this - which is when for some specific purpose this inner Knowledge of the Seer comes out fully worded in modern terms as a revelation for practical purposes.

We can take this information into account before coming to a conclusion or judgment about the inner Knowledge of Masters. IMHO, unless we can live in a higher Realization than that of a Master (any Realized Master), we can avoid coming to a definite conclusion about their state of evolution or perceived limitations. In my case, I try to pray to them so I can understand them in a more vaster and deeper way.

Regarding your question about Uttara Gita, I have not read all of Sri Aurobindo's writings. I hope if there are any experts on Sri Aurobindo in this forum, they read this thread and would be able to help you. You can try searching it online.

http://www.sriaurob indoashram. org.in/SearchQue ry.aspx?Applicat ionName=www. sriaurobindoashr am.org.in/

There may be other sites which have all collected works of Sri Aurobindo in a digital format. It will be easy to search such digital records.

Best regards,

Siva.

, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjy a wrote:

>

> Dear Mr. Siva,

>

> Have you read the book "On the Mahabharata" by Sri Aurobindo, published by Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry (ISBN 13 : 9788170582564) ? Probably you should read the book. He has agreed with the finding of Velandai Gopala Aiyer and wrote "It is now beyond reasonable doubt that the Mahabharata war was fought out in or about 1190 BCE.

>

> When I said about Sri Aurobindo I did not mean any disrespect to him

> but considered him to be a human being after all despite his vast

> erudition. If you are an ardent folloower of Sri Aurobindo can you

> tell me if in any of his works Sri Aurobindo referred to the "Uttara

> Gita" spoken by Lord Krishna. This is different from the Bhagavad Gita

> and Adi Sankaracharya' s paramguru Gaudapadacharya had written a bhashya on it.

>

> Sincerely,

>

> Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

>

> Ã‚

>

> --- On Mon, 3/9/09, schinnas <schinnas@.. .> wrote:

> schinnas <schinnas@.. .>

> [WAVES-Vedic] Re: Fwd: An Important Matter (To Sunil and Robert)

>

> Monday, March 9, 2009, 7:36 AM

>

> Dear Sirs,

>

> Since Sri Aurobindo's name is brought up in this thread, I hope Robert-ji and Sunil-ji can clear up certain things which they said in connection with Sri Aurobindo.

>

> 1. Robert-ji:

>

> To the best of my knowledge, Sri Aurobindo has never said anything about Rashis (as used in astrology) and Vedas. We are free to use Sri Aurobindo's writings to come to our own conclusions, but we should not present it as Sri Aurobindo's. Patrizia-Norelli- Bachelet, whom you mentioned, considers herself as an "Avatar" or successor of Sri Aurobindo. Needless to say, this contention is not shared by Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the thousands of yogis that practice Integral Yoga. Patrizia Bachelet also propogates lot of theories on calendar system, numerology, etc., which were never touched upon by the Mother or by Sri Aurobindo and cannot be attributed to Sri Aurobindo.

>

> My sincerely request you to not drag Sri Aurobindo's name to justify your or Patrizia Bachelet's pet theories that do not have a clear connection to what Sri Aurobdinto wrote or said.

>

> Sunil-ji:

>

> Can you give a reference to your bold assertion that Sri Aurobindo dated the Mahabharatha war. I would be grateful to know where did Sri Aurobindo said Mahabharatha war started in 1190BC. I hope if supporting references cannot be obtained, such assertions would be retracted.

>

> Thank you.

>

> With Goodwill,

>

> Siva.

>

> , Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjy a wrote:

>

> >

>

> > Dear Friend,

>

> >

>

> > There can be issues where we cannot entirely depend on the wisdom of some of the past stalwarts, because either they do not know that particular subject or have no interest. For example, I said earlierÃƒâ€šÃ‚ that though Sri Auribindo was a vastly learned man he did not get the date of the Mahabharata war right. So one has to remain vigilant as the Mother in Pondicherry advised us.

>

> >

>

> > SKB

>