1. Up and at it what is your morning routine?

Im awake from about 6.30am and normally get up to do a yoga workout or go for a run. Work can be unpredictable, so I prefer to do exercise before work in case something comes up and I dont get a chance later in the day. My husband leaves for work earlier than I do so I eat breakfast while catching up on the days news on my phone.

2. What might you eat in a typical working day for...

Breakfast? I love porridge with honey on cold mornings. But in the summer, I change it to overnight oats (oats soaked overnight) in apple juice with fruit, yogurt and granola.

Lunch? Lunch is often rushed and, unforgivably, normally eaten at my desk while working. My mum makes fab wheaten bread which I usually have toasted and served with a salad.

Evening meal? It varies my husband is a great cook and quite adventurous with his recipes, so we eat whatever has captured his attention that week. We try to have fish at least twice a week.

3. Is nutrition important to you?

Yes and no. I dont generally give it too much thought, but I know what food makes me feel good and feel positive, so I veer toward that instinctively.

4. Best meal ever?

I recently got married in Virginia Park Lodge in Cavan, which is owned by the chef Richard Corrigan. Our wedding tasting took place in his restaurant in London and was a five-hour affair of incredible food, matching wines and really good craic with very relaxed and lovely staff. It is a really precious memory and the first-class service and food was, thankfully, replicated on the wedding day too.

5. Do you have a guilty pleasure?

I love crisps and could happily eat them forever.

6. Have you ever been on a diet?

If so, how did it go? I haven't really been on a proper diet, but if I want to lose weight or tone up, I just do more exercise rather than restrict my food intake.

7. Do you take health supplements?

I have only ever taken protein shakes after long runs when marathon training.

8. How do you relax?

I like to go walking and hiking. My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Patagonia, Argentina, trekking in the Andes and it was incredible. It's maybe not everyones idea of a relaxing honeymoon, though, but we loved it.

9. Teetotal or tipple?

Tipple gin and tonic.

10. Stairs of lift?

Stairs I sit at a desk a lot so I like to avail of any opportunity to move about.

11. Do you have a daily exercise regime?

I try to do yoga daily and jog two or three times a week. I ran a few marathons and, although I'm not training for anything at the moment, there is nothing better to clear your head than a run outdoors.

12. Best tip for everyday fitness?

Find some sports activity you enjoy and dont stress if you miss a day or a session pressurised exercise is not fun and therefore not sustainable.

13. On a scale of one to 10, how fit do you think you are and how fit would you like to be?

I'm probably about a seven as I'm quite naturally fit, but I would like to be a nine but that would take a lot more concerted effort.

14. Have you tried, or would you try, alternative therapy?

Im very interested in mindfulness and the positive impact of focussing on the present rather than fretting about the past or imagining the future.

15. Were school sports happy times or do you have a memory you would rather forget?

I loved sport in school and played in the hockey, tennis and athletics teams. I continued playing hockey through university which was a great way to meet people. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of team sports and it was a good way to channel my competitiveness.

16. Did you ever have a health epiphany which made you change your lifestyle?

I have very sensitive skin and prone to outbreaks of eczema and hives. Two years ago, through an elimination diet, I recognised that dairy was a contributing factor to my symptoms. After cutting out dairy my skin has been relatively symptom-free. Getting used to oat milk in tea, though, has been a challenge.

17. Best health/lifestyle advice you were ever given and would pass on to others?

My mums mantra is Lots of water, sleep and fresh air and I think if you can achieve that, you should be fairly healthy.

18. Who inspires you or who would you try to emulate in terms of fitness / attitude to life?

I love the health and fitness expert Shaun T who created the intense Insanity workout. Normally I dont buy into health fads, but his positivity and enthusiasm is totally contagious.

19. What time do you normally get to bed and do you get enough sleep?

Im normally in bed for 11pm and I'll read for a while and then sleep soundly until 6.30am or so. Im not much good to anyone on less than seven hours sleep a night.

20. Would you say you have a healthy attitude towards your own mortality?

Yes, at the Childrens Heartbeat Trust we work with children living with complex heart conditions. Seeing the challenges these incredible children and their families overcome everyday with inspirational courage and positivity definitely helps me to keep a rounded perspective on life.

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20 Questions on Health and Fitness: Sarah Quinlan, CEO of Children's Heartbeat Trust - the Irish News

How To Build A Home Gym

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Health & Fitness QVC.com

Virginia Davies believes you can be fit at any age. At 61 years old Davies is in great shape. But it wasnt always that way. Although she was president of the Girls Athletics Association in high school, as her career in law progressed fitness became less of a priority.

At age 49 Davies underwent a radical hysterectomy and it was then that she became concerned about her health. Davies has a degree from Harvard Business Schools advanced management program and a doctorate in law from the University of Toronto. Before founding Fast Twitch Grandma digital media platform, Davies worked as a prosecutor for Canadas Department of Justice, then worked in banking and for the UN Foundation. Originally from Ontario, Canada, Davies has lived in New York City with her husband for 20 years and for the last seven years she has lived part-time in Coronado during the winter while her husband teaches law at USD. She has two daughters and two grandchildren with a third on the way.

Once Davies became an expert in her personal health and fitness she decided to share her knowledge with other experts on the Fast Twitch Grandma site co-founded with Grayson Fertig to help people 50 and over with their fitness journey. Based on her own experience she found out that you dont have to belong to a gym to maintain your athleticism, you can do it at home or with your family. She also realized that trainers did not include speed work for people over 40 years old in the training they offered. Davies decided to change that and started with herself. Davies is now a US Track and Field Level I coach and does sprinting and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) to stay strong, healthy and prevent injury. When she is in Coronado she enjoys swimming at the community center pool and doing sprints on the beach.

She explained the reasoning behind Fast Twitch Grandma. It was a very mindful, deliberate way to bring to readers, lay readers, the most up to date information of what scientists in the the field of fitness and exercise and other aspects of well being. We bring the most cutting edge research to readers, she said of the site. For example recently one of the writers was in Germany at a convention and reported on the latest research on back pain. They have developed a new machine in Germany, a new protocol that we dont have here, she said. Davies hopes that once her readers find out about this latest technology they will ask their doctors.

Davies took on the name Fast Twitch Grandma when once she was running on the track and someone said There goes Fast Twitch Grandma. But Davies stresses the fact that you dont have to be a grandma to check out Fast Twitch Grandma.

Readers can sign up for a Fast Twitch Grandma newsletter and the site has no ads because Davies wants to ensure the readers know the integrity of whats being presented. The site has articles and videos by fitness experts. I learned that 20 percent of childrens primary caregivers are grandparents. If they dont have that kind of information how are they going to pass it on to children. I wanted to make it accessible, she explained.

Fast Twitch Grandma offers many tips and information to get started on your fitness journey. No matter where you are, well help you understand the research. Were mentors to support you, so you can get started in your fitness journey, she said.

Davies talks about the five components of health and fitness discussed on Fast Twitch Grandma: speed, strength, endurance, flexibility and balance. Think about each one. Not everyone should be a triathlete it has to fit with who you are and where you live, she said.

Fast Twitch Grandma also gives ideas about activities anyone can integrate in their families to be more active and readers can also type in their zip code to search fitness and health events in their area.

Davies explained that just like certain types of exercise is not for everyone and you have to find out what works for you there are also differences between men and women you have to be mindful of. We do try to highlight gender differences, research has shown differences like gender nutrition and in post menopausal women the importance of strength training and repetitions, she said. Other topics covered are concussions for children that parents and grandparents have to watch out for and new studies that indicate that children should practice their math skills while doing jumping jacks.

For more information log on http://www.fasttwitchgrandma.com.

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Fast Twitch Grandma Offers A Platform For Health And Fitness - Coronado Eagle and Journal

Dear Doctor: We live in Orlando, and last year a teenager here was infected with that brain-eating amoeba. Now we're reading that it's in the drinking water in Louisiana. How common is it? Should we be worried about an epidemic?

Dear Reader: There's nothing quite like the words "brain-eating amoeba" to get the news cycle humming. And the reassurance we're about to give you it is extremely, exceedingly rare is not necessarily the most attention-grabbing. But that's where we're going to begin.

Between 2007 and 2016, there have been just 40 cases of the so-called brain-eating amoeba reported in all of the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To put that into even clearer perspective, that's 40 cases in 10 years among 324 million people.

The microscopic creature that's been making headlines is called Naegleria fowleri. Trace amounts of it were discovered in two community water systems in southern Louisiana during routine testing last June. Customers of the affected water facilities were promptly alerted by the Louisiana Department of Health, and disinfection procedures were implemented.

Naegleria fowleri is a single-celled organism found throughout the world in warm freshwater, like lakes, streams, rivers, ponds and hot springs. It enters the body through the nose, typically when people accidentally inhale water while swimming or diving. The amoeba then travels through the nasal passages and enters the brain via the olfactory nerve. Once there, it begins to destroy brain tissues.

You can't become infected by drinking contaminated water, or by swimming in water that has been adequately chlorinated. There have been no known cases of transmission through water vapor, as during a shower or through a humidifier.

The majority of infections reported since 1962 have been in the southern U.S., with half of those in Florida and Texas. But infections have occurred as far north as Minnesota and as far west as Nevada and California. The specific disease the organism causes is called primary amebic meningoencephalitis, or PAM. It's diagnosed using specific laboratory tests that, because the disease is so rare, are not widely available.

Symptoms begin one to nine days after infection, and are divided into two stages. They're similar to those of bacterial meningitis, which adds a level of difficulty to an accurate diagnosis.

The first stage of the disease is marked by a severe headache in the front of the head, often with fever, nausea and vomiting. This is followed by stiffness in the neck, altered mental state, seizures and coma.

Although in most cases the disease is fatal, the Orlando teenager you're referring to survived. It is believed that a swift diagnosis the infection was identified within hours of the onset of symptoms was key to his beating the odds. So was aggressive treatment, which included an investigational drug, and cooling his body to well below normal body temperature, a process known as therapeutic hypothermia.

Unlike other survivors, who had permanent neurological damage, the Orlando teen recovered fully and is back in school. The hope is that early diagnosis and novel therapeutics may lead to higher survival rates in the future.

Send your questions to askthedoctors@mednet.ucla.edu, or write: Ask the Doctors, c/o Media Relations, UCLA Health, 924 Westwood Blvd., Suite 350, Los Angeles, CA, 90095.

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Headline-grabbing brain-eating amoeba exceedingly rare | Health ... - Hanford Sentinel

Aetna's (AET) reported deal to offer a discounted or even free Apple Watchto its base of 23 million customerswould underscore the importance of health and fitness apps to Apple's (AAPL) line of smart watches.

Apple boss Tim Cook has been bullish on health and fitness apps for the smart watch, noting that the device is "motivating [users] to sit less and move more" during a third fiscal quarter earnings call in early August. Upgrades coming in Watch OS4will allow the device to serve as a personalactivity coach, whileApple's GymKit program will connect the watchto cardio equipment, he continued.

The current Apple Watches require proximity to an iPhone to connect to the Internet, limiting the appeal to Aetna customers or others who ownphones with Android or other operating systems.The next iteration of the iPhone reportedly will have its own wireless connection, a boon for non-iPhone users.

"If you don't have an iPhone today, the Apple watch is probably not going to be in your consideration set," said Jeff Orr of ABI Research. "If those rumors do come true and a stand-alone smart watch like an Apple watch with LTE integrated into it becomes available, it's going to open up the possibility for even more people who would look to it as a potential solution for them."

Former Apple product development head Jean-Louis Gassee suggested that the company is "playing the long game" with the watch and its capabilities for health and fitness,inan interview with UBS earlier this year.

Health apps were a priority underthe late Steve Jobs, who reportedly established a biomedical engineering team to work on technology to monitor blood sugar for diabetics. Tim Cook reportedlytested a blood monitoring accessory earlier this year.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.

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Aug 15, 2017 Dan Romand Health & Fitness, The Spot

Im going to ask you to play along with me here.

I was chatting with someone the other day who was complaining about exercise. How much she hates it. It sucks. Shouldnt have to do it. So I asked, Why do you feel that way? Her response was, cause its hard.

So, heres how you can play along:

Raise your hand if you or someone you know has ever said, I know I should exercise or [blank], but I really dont want to because its hard! The [blank] can be any exercise activity such as weightlifting, biking, or jogging. Ok, so let me see those hands now. Wow, theres a lot of hands out there. Yep, I see yours and yours.

This applies to many of the things we hate doing in life cleaning, driving the kids to 5 different ports practices a day. Of course, I picked exercise for a reason, because most people hate doing it more than anything else in the world. I can count on MULTIPLE hands how many times Ive heard someone say, I hate exercise, or, I dont what to have to exercise. To be honest, I sometimes do, too.

Let me give you an example. Many of my clients have heard me say I hate running. (I hate it with a passion.) But, Ive heard others say its the greatest thing since sliced bread. To the point they think it is the miracle cure thats going to instantaneously burn off fat and get you into optimal health. (Its not the only way.) But, sometimes, if you want to reach your goals you have to do it.

I ran a triathlon recently. Something I had on my bucket list for years. It involves swimming, bicycling, and in case you didnt know, running. And, when you feel like you HAVE to do something, its going to be EXTREMELY hard to stick to your training plan.

If your mindset is that you hate something, its far more likely youll avoid it, quit and fall back into old habits. That applies to any type of exercise, or exercise itself. So, if you say, I hate [blank], you are going to find so hard that youll quickly give up. By ascribing to this kind of mindset, you are essentially limiting yourself and preventing yourself from ever having success. So stop setting yourself up for failure.

You have to work on changing your mindset into one that inspires change; that If you do well, then the skies the limit. You can achieve all your goals, cross some things off youre bucket list and then some, but you cant stay in that I hate [blank] mode.

Its not an if but a when

Let me ask you this question: Whenever youve given up, howd that work out for you? Did you feel good about it? Did you feel like you accomplished something? Or, did you feel like a failure, and beat yourself up?

Focus on the long-term goal. Theres a reason why you hate doing something. Besides being hard, maybe you dont see the results quickly enough. Maybe you feel judged negatively by those around you. Dont let those doubts creep in. Stop thinking of exercise as a chore and think about it as a means to improve your health and be happier. Results can take time. Youre not being judged. And, in the long run, you will be obtain your goal.

If you stick to it

Youll be more likely to stick to it if you focus on the positive, and not the negative. Embrace the difficult, because when you overcome it there is no greater feeling in the world. Maybe youll find that not only do you not hate it anymore, you look forward to it.

Dan Romand is co-owner and operator of Full Circle Fitness-NY in Albany and Saratoga Springs, where he is a certified personal trainer. You can often read his personal health and fitness article in TheSpot518 and on our website http://www.thespot518.com.

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HEALTH and FITNESS: Success is predetermined by your approach and how you think - Spotlight News

DENHAM SPRINGS -- Three years ago, 28-year-old Audrianna Atkinson endured a 20-day migraine that resulted in complete paralyzation of the right side of her body.

She then spent more than two years confined in a wheelchair, which made simplest of tasks a struggle, before she was eventually able to move around with a walker.

By the time she met Bill Gvoich, director of the Medical Wellness Program for Peak Performance Physical Therapy, in June, Atkinson was able to walk with the assistance of a cane, although there was a noticeable limp with every step.

At that time, the Denham Springs resident still had difficulty raising her right leg or lifting her right arm above her shoulder.

Under Gvoichs guidance, a lot of has changed in the last two months.

Now, I can easily get it up here, said Atkinson as she proudly raised her arm above her shoulder. Before it was like a slow crawl trying to get it up.

To Atkinson, Gvoich and his Rxercise program is the reason for the progress.

I wouldnt be as far along without these exercises, she said.

Others have said the same about Rxercise, a program Gvoich started eight years ago through Peak Performance that bridges together medical, physical therapy and wellness services on an individual basis.

Rxercise (pronounced R-exercise) uses a team approach with other health professionals, physical therapists and nutritionists to achieve safe and measurable program results. Its established in four locations in Baton Rouge, Denham Springs and Ascension Parish.

Everything runs under the direction of Gvoich, who has a Masters of Science degree in community health and fitness programming therapy from the University of Guelph in Canada.

He has worked in the fitness arena for more than 40 years as an administrator, educator, author and coach, and hes opened a few health clinics during that time. He also produced a fitness television show that ran for 13 years and served as editor for Health Awareness Magazine in Tampa Bay, Florida.

Gvoich has trained professional and national sports teams in Canada and the United States during his long, illustrious career, tailoring personally-designed programs to fit their needs. Some of his trainees have even made it to the Olympics, world and national championships.

But now, rather than helping world-class athletes reach their competitive goals, Gvoich can be found helping his 30 or so clients improve their quality of life.

But the end goal is still the same.

My goal is for them not to just participate, but to thrive and progress, he enthusiastically said.

Gvoichs sessions are held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays each week, and costs are $100 per month, which comes out to less than $10 per session. That is significantly cheaper than a personal trainer because Peak Performance takes care of most of the costs, Gvoich said.

We all believe in this, he added.

What makes Rxercise unique, according to Gvoich and many of his clients, is that it takes into account the individualized needs of each person. Hell go through his clients confidential health history, get copies of their blood work from doctors and design a program that specifically targets their needs.

Gvoich will then supervise the workouts during small group sessions, which allow him to give more one-on-one attention to his clients. As their fitness levels change, he changes their program accordingly.

There are goals each client is supposed to meet during this fitness journey, and Gvoich tries to be along every step of the way.

If you lose weight, improve your strength and your cardiovascular training, that helps with your medical aspects of your life, Gvoich said. Its not only prevention, but it also compliments medical care.

One of the most common issues Gvoich said his clients have is a loss of balance, which is precisely why retired Denham Springs dentist Joe DePaula returned to the program eight weeks ago after he had to stop going following the Great Flood of 2016.

Before then, DePaula said his balance was so off that he had difficulty doing step-ups, an exercise that requires you to step on a raised platform and bring your knee to your chest before switching legs.

After struggling to do even one step-up, DePaula was able to push through an entire set of them during a recent session at Spectrum Fitness in Denham Springs.

I really needed this, DePaula said.

And he isnt the only one who did.

Mary Flowers, a retired teacher and assistant principal who lives in Walker, was also at that session with DePaula and Atkinson on Friday, Aug. 11, working up a sweat as she performed the various workouts.

She joined Rxercise in May shortly after suffering a hard fall in a grocery store parking lot and badly spraining her wrist, leg and knee.

But the injuries were so severe that, during her first workout with Gvoich, she fell to the ground while trying to do a one-legged exercise. After taking a quick look at her right knee, Flowers recalled Gvoich saying it was unusable and likely the reason she couldnt complete the workout.

That convinced me that I needed to do something, Flowers said.

Since that second painful fall, Rxercise has become her main priority. She attends all three one-hour sessions per week and even finds time to work out at Spectrum Fitness on her off days.

Flowers make sure to send Gvoich a text whenever she loses a pound. In less than three months, shes sent 20 text messages.

And every time, Gvoich responds with congratulations before telling her the next milestone.

Just that one-on-one encouragement means a whole lot, Flowers said. Its keeps you focused just having someone there to talk to.

Ive got a long way to go, but Im on the right track now.

Gvoich hopes others will follow Flowers on that track.

The goal is to improve the fitness and wellness of people, regardless of their age, he said. You dont have to be elderly to have the health benefits of an active lifestyle. We have all age groups. A lot of people think its just for the elderly, but its not.

Its for anyone who wants to live a healthier life.

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Local fitness expert uses "Rxercise" program to help others achieve health goals - The Livingston Parish News (press release) (subscription)

TUESDAY, Aug. 15, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Light to moderate drinking can lower your overall risk of premature death and, specifically, your odds of dying from heart disease, a new study reports.

Moderate drinkers -- men who have one or two drinks a day, and women who have one drink a day -- have a 29 percent decreased risk of heart-related death and a 22 percent reduced risk of death from any cause, compared with teetotalers, the study findings showed.

This study is the latest to examine whether alcohol is good or bad for you. The researchers found that light drinkers (fewer than three drinks a week) also receive some protection -- a 26 percent reduced risk of death from heart disease and a 21 percent overall lower risk of premature death, according to the report.

But the relationship between alcohol and death risk is a "J-shaped curve," in which too much drinking can be detrimental to health, said study co-author Dr. Sreenivas Veeranki.

Heavy drinkers are 27 percent more likely to die from cancer, and 11 percent more likely to die early overall, the researchers found. Regular binge drinking one or more days a week also increased risk of early death, about 22 percent for cancer-related causes and 13 percent overall. (Binge drinkers consume excessive amounts of alcohol in a short time period.)

"If you're an alcohol consumer, drink with caution. Drink lightly," said Veeranki, an assistant professor in preventive medicine and community health at the University of Texas Medical Branch. "If you're an alcoholic, consume lower amounts on a less-frequent amount of days. If you're not an alcoholic, don't start, obviously."

For this study, Veeranki and his colleagues reviewed data from more than 333,200 people who participated in the federally funded U.S. National Health Interview Surveys from 1997 to 2009. The survey includes questions on alcohol use.

The investigators linked the survey data to the National Death Index, which showed that about 34,700 survey participants have since died. Of those people, just over 8,900 died from heart-related causes and 8,400 died from cancer.

Prior lab studies have shown that alcohol can lower "bad" LDL cholesterol and increase "good" HDL cholesterol in the blood, Veeranki said. Alcohol also appears to reduce the formation of plaques in blood vessels that can block arteries and cause strokes.

Veeranki noted that studies in the past have provided conflicting advice regarding drinking and health, in part because of unintended biases in the data. In this study, the researchers tried to account for all these potential sources of bias.

For example, the researchers accounted for the possibility that former drinkers might be misclassified as people who have abstained all their lives, Veeranki said. The study team also tried to account for the possibility that people who develop heart disease or cancer are told to quit drinking, which could skew results.

Dr. Eugene Yang, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, said that even with these efforts, any such study won't be able to control all of the variables.

For example, the surveys used for the new study rely on people self-reporting how much they regularly drink. "That already creates a bias in the study that you can't necessarily compensate for, no matter how you do the analysis," said Yang, who is also a member of the American College of Cardiology's Prevention Council.

Because of that, Yang said, "we can't really be that certain" about the potential health benefits of occasional drinking.

"If somebody is asking me if they should start drinking, my answer would be that some studies have shown some benefit, other studies have not shown a benefit. And because the level of evidence of a study like this is not the strongest, I don't advocate people start drinking just for the possibility of a cardiovascular benefit," Yang said.

The new study was released online Aug. 14 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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A Little Drinking Might Lengthen Your Life: Study - Sioux City Journal

The year was 1907. The freedom movement in India was gathering momentum. Its leader was detained by the police. The poet Rabindranath Tagore paid him a visit after his acquittal, and wrote the now famous lines: Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee! O friend, my countrys friend, O Voice incarnate, free, Of Indias soul! The fiery messenger that with the lamp of God. Hath come Rabindranath, O Aurobindo, bows to thee.

In the year 1928, the leader had now left politics and had gone to Pondicherry, where he plunged himself into the practice of Yoga.

The poet Tagore once again paid him a visit and declared: You have the Word and we are waiting to accept it from you. India will speak through your voice to the world, Hearken to me!

Years ago I saw Aurobindo in the atmosphere of his earlier heroic youth and I sang to him: Aurobindo, accept the salutations from Rabindranath. Today I saw him in a deeper atmosphere of a reticent richness of wisdom and again sang to him in silence: Aurobindo, accept the salutations from Rabindranath!

How does one describe or speak about such a personality? Sri Aurobindo has been called a scholar, a literary critic, a philosopher, a revolutionary, a poet, a yogi and a rishi. He was all these and much more. To have even a glimpse of the true Sri Aurobindo, we have to turn to the Mother: What Sri Aurobindo represents in the world's history is not a teaching, not even a revelation; it is a decisive action direct from the Supreme.

In fact, Sri Aurobindo declared, in no uncertain terms that nobody could write his biography and added: Neither you nor anyone else knows anything at all of my life; it has not been on the surface for men to see.

But he was not altogether averse to this effort and even made corrections when some biographers made the attempt. In the process the veil that hid the divine mystery was lifted a little.

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Sri Aurobindo Society | Sri Aurobindo & The Mother

The spiritual age Sri Aurobindovisualised is strikingly different from what present-day proponents of religious fundamentalism talk about with their politics of culture and religion and the stigmatisation of the other.

Sri Aurobindo. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

If a real, a spiritual and psychological unity were effectuated, liberty would have no perils and disadvantages; for free individuals enamored of unity would be compelled by themselves, by their own need, to accommodate perfectly their own growth with the growth of their fellows and would not feel themselves complete except in the free growth of others. Sri Aurobindo,The Ideal of Human Unity

We live in troubled times surrounded byloudness loud religion, loud politics and loud nationalism. Yet, on August 15, as the prime minister delivers his euphoric speech from the historic Red Fort, and aspatriotic songs play on radio channels, I strive for something sublime and deep possibly to free myself from the overplay of loud symbolism of independence. I begin to converse with an extraordinary gifted sage-philosopher Sri Aurobindo who too was born on August 15 in 1872. In the process, I realise that people like us university-educated and trained in radical Western discourses often fail to tap our own cultural/philosophical capital to give a counter-narrative, and fight what is going on in the name of Indian culture and religion.

It is always possible to see the limits to what Sri Aurobindo wrote and thought about the way we say that everyone, be it Marx or Ambedkar, Gandhi or Mao, is incomplete. However, as I wish to indicate in this politico-spiritual article, the insights that we gain from Sri Aurobindo are remarkably illuminating a fresh departure from the ugly politics of culture and religion we see in these fanatic times.

The meaning of a turning point: from the political to the spiritual

Life, we all know, is not unilinear; it has its puzzling curves and path-breaking turning points. Sri Aurobindo too passed through this complex trajectory of life, and it transformed him. In the age of colonialism when the model of a colonial citizen was the educational ideal for the newly emergent English-educated Indians, Sri Aurobindos father sent him to England: the site of knowledge and power. With remarkable brilliance and scholarship, Sri Aurobindo spent 14years in England. But then, he came back. From Baroda to Bengal Indian experiences began to shape his pursuits and practices.

This English-educated gentleman began to edit Karmayogin and Bande Mataram the journals that sought to arouse the revolutionary spirit amongst the political class and eager learners. Historians have written about his involvement with the nationalist politics, and subsequently his arrest in the Alipore Conspiracy case in 1908. It was in the prison that he passed through an intense process of inner churning, and this, I believe, led to a major turning point in his life.

His famous Uttarpara speech, which he delivered after his release from the jail on May 30, 1909, revealed the magical power of this turning point: a movement from the political to the spiritual.

I looked at the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no it was Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me his shade, said Sri Aurobindo.

With this vision or inner churning, he found his ultimate calling. He began to listen to the voice within: I am guiding, therefore fear not. Turn to your own work for which I have brought to you in jail and when you come out, remember never to fear, never to hesitate. Whatever clouds may come, whatever dangers and sufferings, whatever difficulties, whatever impossibilities, there is nothing impossible, nothing difficult.

He left for Pondicherry, and from 1910 onwards a new quest began immensely meditative and spiritual.

How does one respond to this turning point? Think of yet another turning point when we refer to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. From England to South Africa yes, he did not remain a lawyer. A train journey in South Africa, as his autobiography revealed, taught him the ugliness and brutality of racism. This eventually led to the metamorphosis from the timid Mohandas to the charismatic Gandhi. Gandhis politics was, however, inseparable from his religiosity and spiritual quest.

Mahatma Gandhi with a Congress worker. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

While Gandhi united the political and the spiritual, is it possible to say that Sri Aurobindo separated the two? History poses this question before us, and we need to reflect on it. However, as I wish to argue, even in his spiritual journey never did Sri Aurobindo fail to address to the questions relating to the fate of the nation, its cultural politics, modernity, war, self-determination and human evolution. It was in the Arya a philosophical magazine that he began to write extraordinarily illuminating pieces leading to what I would regard as civilisational gifts The Life Divine, The Synthesis of Yoga, The Foundations of Indian Cultureand many other creations. I believe that we could draw a couple of insights from these works, engage with them and evolve refined politico-ethical practices for creating a better society.

On culture and polity

The cultural politics of colonialism is related to its civilising mission the way the West with its enlightenment rationality and expansionist bourgeois revolution sought to rescue the decadent/barbaric cultures of the colonised from the trap of superstitions and prejudices. James Mills History of British India possibly indicated what Edward Said wrote in his masterpiece Orientalism: the self-perception of the West as a superior civilisation, and its constant gaze and condemnation of the Orient (or fixing it as a locale for Western attention for its redemption) through categories like despotism, other worldly and life negating.

The process of decolonisation required a creative intervention into this politics of culture the way the colonial West hierarchised civilisations. Sri Aurobindos The Foundations of Indian Culture, I believe, was a response to this political and moral need. The way he critiqued William Archers contemptuous reading of Indian culture and civilisation was remarkable. An average and typical occidental mind obsessed with the vitalistic rational idea, as he wrote, could see nothing but despair, passivity and nihilism in Indian culture. However, our culture guided by its religiosity, replied Sri Aurobindo, was neither tiered quietism nor conventional monasticism. Far from denying life, as he elaborated, we accepted the reality of karma and artha, reconciled these human drives with dharma and moksha, and thereby imagined the possibility of a complete/harmonic existence that the Wests vehement secular activism could never comprehend.

Well, this struggle in the realm of culture was part of our struggle for liberation. To refer to Gandhi again, he did it through his critique of the brute force implicit in colonialism, and his creative engagement with the Sermon on the Mount as well as Bhagavadgita . While Gandhi could communicate in folk idioms and come closer to the subaltern, Sri Aurobindos solitude and philosophic reading might appear to be extremely classicist with its Vedantic and metaphysical connotations. Furthermore, it is also possible to argue that in his elaboration, what was missing was the anguish of the marginalised within our hierarchical social system say, the way Jotirao Phule elaborated it in Slavery, or B. R. Ambedkar expressed it in the Philosophy of Hinduism. Yet, what could not be denied was the eternal relevance of his reminder (almost similar to what Ananda Coomaraswamy thought about) that our cultural creations ought to generate a spiritual and psychic beauty, and see beyond the narrow prejudices of the natural realistic man, particularly at a time when the seductive culture industry of global capitalism dissociates the sexualised body from the soul, and sells gross materialism in the name of realism.

From social Darwinism to spiritual comradeship

This quest (which we tend to devalue because of our adherence to social Darwinism) enabled him to evolve a sharp critique of what post enlightenment Western civilisation regarded as the Age of Reason. Yes, in terms of human evolution the power of the intellect or the cultivation of reason has played a significant role. Yet, we are caught into the discontents of modernity. Neither liberal/bourgeois democracy with its competitive individualism nor the state-centric socialist machine with its totalitarianism could help us. Do postmodernists help us? Or do they take us to yet another kind of chaos with nihilistic relativism? Think of Sri Aurobindos point of departure. Reason, he said, neither is the first principle of life, nor can be its last, supreme and sufficient principle.

Only with the awakening of love, he wrote in The Human Cycle, is it possible to realise the spiritual comradeship which is the expression of an inner realisation of oneness. Only then, as he added, is it possible that the true individualism of the unique godhead in each man finds itself on the true communism of the equal godhead in the race. In a way, a sense of meaninglessness has haunted the modern secular age (or to use, Nietzsches words, a world in which God is dead). From the neurosis of Sigmund Freuds conflict-ridden man to the absurdity of Albert Camuss outsider we notice the absence of life-enchanting love. And the postmodern fascination with deconstruction does not seem to have an answer. In Sri Aurobindo, as I feel, we see the rising sun coming out of the darkness of night.

In a way, this quest is a quest for further human evolution, or towards ascent and integration from physical to vital to mental to psychic/spiritual stage of human consciousness. His intense philosophic/spiritual prose in The Life Divine narrates the significance of this evolution towards the spiritual age. And it is at this juncture that I wish to assert once again that the spiritual age the sage-philosopher visualised is strikingly different from what these days the proponents of religious fundamentalism talk about with their ugly politics of militaristic nationalism and the stigmatisation of the other. In a way, a quest of this kind, I believe, has to be compared with John Lenons rhythmic lyrics, Erich Fromms communitarian socialism and even Karl Marxs celebration of a world in which love becomes a living expression of man.

Are we ready for a dialogue with him?

Avijit Pathak is a professor at the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, JNU.

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