What is the meaning of our existence in the cosmic scheme?Is there a divine purpose in life or is it merely the mechanical playing-out of competing “greedy genes”? Do we live in a blind universe aimlessly running its course from Big Bang to Big Crunch or is there a higher purpose in evolution?If there is a conscious guiding intent, why does it allow evil to exist?How do we transcend the limits of a blind “scientism” locking itself out of a vaster understanding by refusing to admit the existence of any factors outside of its self-imposed limits of “scientific” verifiability? Can these questions be tackled without landing in the other extreme of religious dogma?Is our planet Earth special in the universe?Do we human beings have a special role in evolution?The Belgian writer Georges Van Vrekhem explores these and other timeless questions in the light of Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary concept and casts a refreshing new look on issues that have been the lasting preoccupation of seekers throughout the ages. This book contains the edited versions of eleven talks that Georges Van Vrekhem gave in Auroville in 2010 and 2011:• Adam Kadmon and the Evolution• The Development of Sri Aurobindo’s Thought• Preparing for the Miraculous• What Arjuna Saw: the Dark Side of the Force• 2012 and 1956: Doomsday?• Being Human and the Copernican Evolution• Bridges across the Afterlife• Sri Aurobindo’s Descent into Death• Sri Aurobindo and the Big Bang• Theodicy: “Nature Makes no Mistakes”• The Kalki Avatar.

Preparing for the Miraculous

Van Vrekhem, Georges

Religion & Spirituality

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

“We start from the idea that humanity is moving to a great change of its life which will even lead to a new life of the race, – in all countries where men think, there is now in various forms that idea and that hope, – and our aim has been to search for the spiritual, religious and other truth which can enlighten and guide the race in this movement and endeavour. …”“As man arose out of animal, so out of man superman shall come,” said Sri Aurobindo. Overman is a metaphysical book which dwells upon the concept of the ultimate progression of man into a highly enlightened species called the supramental being, towards which, the author says, the intermediary stage (the Overman) has already been reached.Contrary to established mystical or religious concepts, Sri Aurobindo’s quest is not for a next evolutionary stage in some “beyond”, but right here on Earth.

Overman: The Intermediary between the Human and the Supramental Being

"A Witness of creation, if there had been one conscious but uninstructed, would only have seen appearing out of a vast abyss of an apparent nonexistence an Energy busy with the creation of Matter, a material world and material objects, organizing the infinity of the Inconscient into the scheme of a boundless universe or a system of countless universes that stretched around him into Space without any certain end or limit, a tireless creation of nebulae and star-clusters and suns and planets, existing only for itself, without a sense in it, empty of cause and purpose." - Sri Aurobindo, The Life Divine, pp. 881-84  The evolution of life on Earth is a fact; Darwinism is one theory among several, based on the research of predecessors like Buffon and Lamarck, and formulated simultaneously with the very similar theory of Alfred Wallace. Besides, what is nowadays generally labelled as Darwinism hardly resembles what Darwin wrote in The Origin of Species, but is the result of scientific developments at times considered anti-Darwinian. This book narrates the relevant events in the history of 'Darwinism' and the resulting Social Darwinism and Sociobiology. It also stresses the antagonism of the scientific materialism at its basis and the religious teachings of the origin and evolution of life on our planet. It is this antagonism that has inevitably resulted in the ongoing controversies between creationism, the positivist scientific view of evolution, and 'intelligent design'. The foundations of physical science as adopted by the biological sciences are examined, as are the motives for the attacks on religion by authors like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Stephen Jay Gould. The book analyses and clearly discerns between the various branches of creationism and intelligent design.

Evolution, Religion and the Unknown God

Science & Math

Evolution

Hitler remains an enigma in spite of everything that has been written about him. Historians like Alan Bullock, Ian Kershaw and H.R. Trevor-Roper confess their perplexity openly. How was it possible that an unknown, solitary and future-less front-soldier in 1918 became, some years later, the Leader and Messiah of the German people? How could a nullity unleash the most destructive and deadliest war humanity has ever known? Academic historians give countless reasons because the essential reason keeps escaping them; fantasy writers find the most bizarre occult explanations, disregarding the historical facts. Georges Van Vrekhem has studied the literature in German, English, French, Dutch and Italian for several years. His conclusion is clear: in Hitler there must have been a cause equivalent to the effects of his actions. Van Vrekhem gives a revealing picture of the rise of the unknown Austrian corporal and brings to life the people who helped him in the saddle: Dietrich Eckart, Captain Mayr, General von Mohl, and many others. The author analyses Mein Kampf, the book in which Hitler laid bare his thoughts and intentions without being believed. And he shows how this "man from nowhere", driven by the obsession of his mission and helped by incredible luck, managed to become the Führer.  To explain the foundations of a people who made Hitler possible, Van Vrekhem undertakes, in the book's second part, a deep-probing analysis of the historical background. In this he gives a surprisingly clear picture of the German ambition, the racism which supported it, and the romantic youth movements which incorporated the racism. In a memorable chapter he sketches the history of the German Jews. And he shows another side of the German people: their longing for a better world, although vitiated by their sense of superiority. All this brings Georges Van Vrekhem to his central theme: Hitler's possession by the "god" who inspired him, guided him, brought him to power - and dropped him when no longer needed.   This leads the author, in the third part of the book, to the unexpected but well-documented role of the Indian philosopher and sage Sri Aurobindo in the action against Hitler before and during the Second World War. While Hitler wanted to bring humanity back to a state of barbarism, Sri Aurobindo stood for the progress of humanity and a future in which a new evolutionary being, beyond humanity, might at last create the world humanity has never ceased to long for. In this view of history, many worlds interact and all facts fit into the big picture.

Hitler and his God: The Background to the Nazi Phenomenon

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

Patterns of the Present is a profound and inspiring account of the present situation of mankind and the world it lives in. On the threshold of the new millennium, countless pages have been written on the meaning of our world and its possible development. The conclusion in most cases was depressing – man would become an automaton in a sci-fi world. The author puts the present situation of humanity in the perspective of the evolutionary vision of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother. The result is a positive interpretation of the global situation. The meaning of history, the globalization of our planet, the values represented by East and West, their meeting and reciprocal fertilization, the future evolution of mankind – all these topics and more are presented here in a fresh, often surprising, perspective. Contents: 1. The Big Picture 2. The Avataric Field 3. East and West 4. Reason on Trial 5. Science, Scientism, Modern Technology 6. The Supramental “Catastrophe” 7. The Future of Humanity

Patterns of the Present

Despite their essential contribution to the present world, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother are still mostly unknown outside the circles of their disciples and devotees. It is Georges Van Vrekhem’s intention in this biography of the Mother to examine all available material about her life and to present it in an accessible and interesting way. He attempts to draw the full picture, including the often neglected but important last years of her life, and even of some reincarnations explicitly confirmed by the Mother herself.The Mother was born as Mirra Alfassa in Paris in 1878. She became an artist, married an artist, and participated in the vibrant life of the metropolis during the fin de siècle and early twentieth century. She became the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in 1926. This book is a rigorous description of the incredible effort of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo. Their vision is an important perspective allowing for the understanding of what awaits humanity in the new millennium.

The Mother: The Story of Her Life

Community & Culture

Georges Van Vrekhem, a Flemish Belgian, lived in Auroville from 1978 until his passing on 31st August, 2012. In that period he published a number of highly seminal books on Sri Aurobindo and the Mother such as Beyond Man, the Life and Work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (1997); The Mother, the Story of Her Life (2000); Overman: The Intermediary between the Human and the Supramental Being (2001); Patterns of the Present, from the Perspective of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (2002); Hitler and His God, the Background to the Nazi Phenomenon (2006); Evolution, Religion and the Unknown God (2011), and Preparing for the Miraculous (2012), containing the eleven lectures Georges had given in 2010-2011 at Auroville’s Savitri Bhavan and Town Hall. In 2006 he was awarded the Sri Aurobindo Puraskar by the Government of Bengal. At his passing Georges left a number of unpublished essays behind. Some of them were based on his talks in Auroville at the end of 2011, when he embarked on a second series of lectures on a wide variety of topics related to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. However, first Cyclone Thane and later his deteriorating health disrupted these lectures. This book, which contains his unpublished essays as well as some of his articles and interviews that have been published in the magazines Auroville Today, Mother India, and The Advent, and in the book The Journeying Years, is published to honour Georges Van Vrekhem in recognition of his immense work in helping to understand the life and work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. From the contents: Sri Aurobindo and the Future of Humanity The Metamorphoses of an Avatar Overman: The Transitional Being True Philosophy A Matter of Matter The Closing of the Western Mind The Integration of the four Varnas and the New Dharma Aswapati and Sri Aurobindo On Occultism Preparing for the Miraculous The Cradle of the ‘Overman’ Five Questions on Auroville On the Use of Drugs in Auroville Lest We Forget Churchill’s Mission

The New Spirituality

Au delà de l'espèce humaine - La vie et l'oeuvre de Sri Aurobindo et de la Mère (French Edition)

Stichting Aurofonds

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