Beloo Mehra's Blog, page 9

Of Life, Mind and Progress

Author: Beloo Mehra, Published in Sri Aurobindo’s Action, Vol. 50 (8 & 9, Aug-Sept 2019), pp. 5-6   “Western civilisation is proud of its successful modernism. But there is much that it has lost in the eagerness of its gains and much which men of old strove towards that it has not even attempted to... Continue Reading →

Notes on Reading ‘Abhaya’ in the Light of Sri Aurobindo

      “I revere Krishna today as one of the first architects of a unified India. Yes, I believe he did exist in the obscure history of India…. Abhaya has been my window to explore and experience Krishna Vaasudeva.” This is how Saiswaroopa Iyer introduces the second lead of her debut novel, Abhaya, in... Continue Reading →

Writer’s Block: Master to the Rescue

Scene I: Kitchen table, Time: Late evening   “She has been sleeping for quite a while now, I think I should wake her up, I thought she had some deadline to submit that assignment for her writing course,” her mother said, keeping the empty coffee cup in the sink. “She has been under a lot... Continue Reading →

The Narasimha Avatar: Optimisation Gone Astray

“The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution.” ~ Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, Vol. 28, p. 485. The story goes like this: The demon-king Hiraṇyakaśipu wanted revenge on Lord Viṣṇu and his followers. He undertook many years of austere penance to fulfill his desire. Lord Brahma... Continue Reading →

Hampi Continues to Live – Part 5

Continued from Part 4 Sri Krishna Temple After a tour of the remarkable Vittala temple in previous part, we now move on to another masterpiece, the Krishna temple of Hampi. The Krishna temple at Hampi — which is now in ruins, though some renovations were underway when we visited —  was built by King Krishnadevaraya... Continue Reading →

Art Appreciation with Sri Aurobindo

The decluttering and reorganising continues on this space….

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Sometime back at the suggestion of a friend, I had expanded and revised an old blog post on Art Appreciation, for possible publication in a Sri Aurobindo related journal. The article was published in the August 2019 issue of New Race: A Journal of Integral Studies, Vol V, Issue 3 (pp. 38-43).

It was wonderful to select the 13 examples of various paintings (I kept the focus on painting only) to illustrate what I have been learn...

Hampi Continues to Live – Part 4

Continued from Part 3 Vijay Vittala Temple   “Spirituality is indeed the master-key of the Indian mind; the sense of the infinite is native to it.” (Sri Aurobindo, CWSA, 20: 6)   In our last part we wrote about Virupaksha Temple, situated on the banks of Tungabhadra River. Vijaya Vittala temple is north east of... Continue Reading →

Hampi Continues to Live – Part 3

Continued from Part 2   Virupaksha Temple   On the banks of Tungabhadra River is the Virupaksha temple, dedicated to God Shiva, known in this area as Virupaksha, the consort of the local goddess Pampadevi. This is the oldest and the principal temple in Hampi. It is believed to be functioning uninterruptedly ever since the 7th... Continue Reading →

A Series Inspired by India’s Rebirth – 4

Author: Beloo Mehra (2019). Published under the title ‘When Young India Awakes’ in Sri Aurobindo’s Action, Vol. 50 (4), pp. 8-10   CONTINUED FROM Part 3     CHAPTER III Yuvaan had been in Kashi for only two days. And he was already on his way elsewhere — to Rishikesh. His mother had gone for... Continue Reading →

A Note on the Future of Inter-religious Harmony in India

Originally posted on Beauty Interprets, Expresses, Manifests the Eternal:
? ? [The following is an excerpt from a longer essay titled ‘Hinduism and the Future of Inter-religious Harmony in India’ published in my e-book – The Thinking Indian: Essays on Indian Socio-cultural Matters in the Light of Sri Aurobindo.] Let us now go a bit…