Start Date: January 27, 2027
End Date: January 30, 2027
Venue: Online
As part of the ongoing exploration of ‘Sri Aurobindo and the World of Literature‘ in Renaissance journal, BhāratShakti, Sri Aurobindo Society will organise a 4-day webinar series titled ‘Women in Sri Aurobindo’s Works’ in the month of January 2027.
About the Theme
Among all the profoundly transformative works Sri Aurobindo, the Maharishi and the Mahayogi, accomplished for the future march of humanity, one important work concerns his revelation of the true spirit and nature of Divine Shakti. He most effectively placed the Shakti aspect right at the center of all that goes on at the individual, national, cosmic and supracosmic level.
This has a deep connection with how he saw the right place for woman and womanhood in his futuristic vision. We see this reflected clearly in his literary works as well as many of his cultural writings, letters and conversations.
Across Sri Aurobindo’s literary works, women occupy a position that is simultaneously cosmic and human, divine and earthly. In a radical and radically integral vision of women that we see in these works, we find a great emphasis at the metaphysical level on the feminine principle as co-eternal and co-creative with the masculine.
At the social level, Sri Aurobindo has not shied away from talking about the subordination of women as a historical distortion rooted in mutual psychological enslavement. But instead of championing superficial social reform, his concern is to protect the genuine spiritual and emotional depth of womanhood from being erased by a shallow modernism.
At the spiritual level, we find that the women in his literary works possess equal — and in some respects more direct — access to the psychic being and all things psychic including love, courage and strength.
About the Webinar Series
In this upcoming webinar series, we intend to explore a few of these aspects from selected works of Sri Aurobindo. Four speakers will focus on four different women and four themes during the series.
All are welcome to register for this programme. Details are given below.
TOPICS:
January 27 | Alchemy of Love: Vasavadutta and Aslaug | Beloo Mehra
January 28 | The Human Mother of Savitri | Shruti Bidwaikar
January 29 | Vidula – A Mother’s Call for Courage | Chitra Kolluru
January 30 | Savitri, the Spiritual Warrior | Ritam Upadhyay (Talk in Hindi)
Dates: January 27-30, 2027
Time: 4.30 PM to 6:00 PM IST
On ZOOM
REGISTER HERE.
Zoom link will be emailed to all the registered participants on 25th Jan, 2027.
Registration is free. But we welcome voluntary contributions by participants to help support such offerings. Donate online HERE for BhāratShakti works.
About the Facilitators
Dr. Beloo Mehra serves as Director of BhāratShakti, an institute of Sri Aurobindo Society, dedicated to studies in Indian Culture. A former professor at Antioch University, USA, since 2007 she has devoted herself to Sri Aurobindo Studies as a student, researcher, writer, educator, editor and programme designer. She also edits Renaissance, the online journal of Sri Aurobindo Society.
Dr. Shruti Bidwaikar, the Managing Trustee of SACAR (Sri Aurobindo Center for Advanced Research) has done her PhD from Pondicherry University on Sri Aurobindo’s Poetics and Aesthetics, especially focusing on his poetry. She is further exploring these dimensions in Sri Aurobindo’s other works. In addition to academic administrative responsibilities, she also does online and in-person teaching and writes on several aspects of Sri Aurobindo Studies.
Chitra Kolluru is a facilitator and author for BhāratShakti, SAS, working on several projects. Her deep quest to deepen her relationship with Sri Aurobindo and the Mother compelled her to step back from her corporate life of more than 23 years and focus more deeply on her studies and inner life. For past several months she has been conducting a series of talks on Twelve Qualities of the Mother’s Symbol at SAS, Bengaluru.
Dr. Ritam Upadhyay hails from Ratlam, Madhya Pradesh, and is currently teaching English Literature at a Government College. She holds a Ph.D. on Savitri by Sri Aurobindo. She is a member of the Sri Aurobindo Society, Ratlam Branch and speaks regularly on a range of topics in Sri Aurobindo Studies, especially the profound facets in Savitri. She is also an accomplished painter.
For more BhāratShakti works on topics related to Womanhood and Nāri Shakti, see HERE.
See HERE to learn more about BhāratShakti seminars and webinars.