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#3144 - Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - Editor: Jerry Katz
Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
File this under "Hey, what's time anyway?"
On June 3, 2001, the following was forwarded to Nonduality Salon (original post at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NondualitySalon/message/55845)
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Form posted from Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Date: 3 Jun 2001 12:14:42 -0700
From: "Vamadeva Gautam" <drom@hotmail.com>
To: <umbada@ns.sympatico.ca>
Search for Sri Anirvan Searching for Sri Anirvan on web
came to this site; found Sri
Shunyata was visited by Sri Anirvan. One had many contacts with
people influenced by Sri Anirvan, at Calcutta; have read much by
him
since 1976, thought about him even more.
Is anyone familiar with Gauri Dharmapal of
Calcutta? She was a close
'disciple' or 'daughter of the soul' of Sri Anirvan. The
Aurobindo
devotees may also recognize him as the translator into Bengali of
THE
LIFE DIVINE, an translation approved by Sri Aurobindo himself.
Please, Dharma Friends, please let me know
of anyone who is
interested in Sri Anirvan's life and thoughts, or who have been
in
contact with him. Ask your Indian friends as well, especially
those
from Bengal born before 1960. Please beg those Bengalis to link
up
with their relatives in Bengal, as these latter might be the best
repository. I am quite desperate to link up with anyone very much
immersed in Sri Anirvan. Please help.
Respectfully,
vamadeva gautam drom@hotmail.com
--------------------
On April 21, 2008, nearly 7 years later, a reply has been received. I deleted the sender's name and other statements that might identify the sender:
Hello,
For your kind information, Prof. Gauri Dharmapal of Calcutta was
neither the disciple nor 'daughter of the soul' of Sri Anirvan -
she
was simply a student and admirer of his! And this applies to her
husband Mr. Gautam Dharmapal also. By the way, I'm translating
many
of Sri Anirvan's shorter Bengali works and his letters into
English.
If felt the need of, we can form an online forum for discussing
and
reflecting upon the works of Sri Anirvan and putting more and
more of
his works into the hands of the world through English
translations. I
can share plenty of information about Sri Anirvan.
More after hearing from you.
Till then, "live luminously", as Sri Anirvan always
used to say.
Best wishes,
SM
---------------------------
Let us see if the person from 2001 is still around. I'll keep you posted.
If anyone else is interested in SM's proposal, I'll forward your email.
The following describes a book of Sri Anirvan's collected English writings:
Buddhiyoga Of the Gita And Other Essays http://www.samatabooks.com/BookDetails.asp?Language=3&Books=14
Sri Anirvan wrote almost exclusively in
Bengali and only occasionally in English. This is a collection of
all his English writings except his letters which he wrote to his
Western and non-Bengali friends and disciples.
The present volume contains nine essays, the first on Buddhiyoga
being the most considerable. In these essays, Sri Anirvan covers
a wide area and touches upon most of the salient points of Hindu
spirituality, direct and indirectly. He roams through the vast
territory of Hindu philosophical and theosophical thought with
ease and familiarity. He combines scholarship and sadhana
supported by an intellect which is analytical as well as
synthetic. Beginning with the Rig veda, Sri Anirvan shows how to
every Vedic concept or image there is Puranic or Tantric
equivalent, how the same truths are found in Buddhism, and how
they are celebrated by medieval saints. He shows inner links in
the truths of different spiritual traditions and sadhanas and
relates them to the deeper life of the soul. India would rise
through the rise of the great Hindu culture and the soul of
Hinduism is the life of the spirit. Sri Anirvan has shown the
unity and profundity of this culture and, to that extent, has
become a leader of the Hindy
There's another book:
To Live Within by Sri Anirvan (Author), Lizelle Reymond (Author), Jacob Needleman (Introduction) http://www.amazon.com/Live-Within-Sri-Anirvan/dp/1596750162
Book Description
Originally published in France in 1969 and in America in
1972 and again in 1995, To Live Within is
a thoughtful, beautifully written record of Lizelle Reymond’s
five years spent in a hermitage in Northern India. Reymond
studied with guide and mentor Shri Anirvan, a master of the
ancient Samkhya tradition. As presented to Reymond, Samkhya is a
source teaching previously unknown in the West and universally
relevant regardless of one’s tradition or cultural
background. Anirvan’s teachings of this discipline centered
on the concentrated purity of silence that nourishes the Self,
allowing his pupil to achieve an unfettered understanding of her
life and achieve an inner awakening. In five parts, the book
covers Reymond’s life in the Himalayan hermitage; lessons
for a spiritual life; facing reality; rambling thoughts; and
mystic poetry of the Bauls. This new edition contains two
additional chapters drawn from Reymond's lifelong correspondence
with Shri Anirvan after the retreat.
After the above Highlights was sent out, SM responded:
The sections "Thoughts on Samkhya", "Rambling Thoughts", etc. to be found in Reymond's "To Live Within" were given a separate book-form in 1983 and published by the Sri Aurobindo Pathmandir, Calcutta as "Letters from a Baul: Life Within Life". In the preface to this volume, Mdm. Reymond says that before he passed away, Anirvanji (that is the usual Bengali mode of addressing Sri Anirvan) carefullly made additions and alterations to the text to express his thoughts better. Another piece which may appear very useful for understanding Anirvanji's thought is his introduction to Reymond's book "Shakti: A Spiritual Experience". There he nicely deals with the concept of Void (Akasa) dealt with in the Upanisads. By the way, I'm enclosing a PDF containing the text of my English translation of a lecture that I delivered in Bengali on Sri Anirvan's conept of Void on 9th July, 2006 at the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Culture, Regent Park, Calcutta, at the invitation of the Haimavati-Anirvan Vedavidyalaya Trust, Calcutta. [not included here, but may become available later.]
Best wishes,
S. M.