Auroville International Advisory Council’s Comments Concerning the
Controversy over “The Lives of Sri Aurobindo”

Having watched the unfolding of this controversy over many years we are
saddened that Sri Aurobindo¹s name is being dragged into an unseemly dispute
which is contrary to the values of intellectual and spiritual freedom
exemplified by his life and teachings.

The Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust has issued a statement:

³The considered view of Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust is that it does not
project itself in the role of dictating to readers and followers of Sri
Aurobindo as to what they should read and what they should not read. Each
person is at complete liberty to decide for himself whether he finds any
book to be meaningful and useful, or whether he does not find it to be so,
and Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust respects and has full faith in the
intellectual and spiritual discernment of the readers. No one should or
needs to force his personal opinions on any other reader in general and more
particularly on the followers of Sri Aurobindo.²

We support this statement and hope that the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust¹s
authority and standing in this matter is respected.

To summarize, we feel that Sri Aurobindo¹s name must not be associated with
banning books or deportation of scholars and each of us must take the
appropriate initiatives to prevent this from happening.

Mark Tully  Doudou Diene  Marc Luyckx Ghisi    Julian Lines