DEFENCE OF KARMA YOGA 23

IN RESPONSE TO THE CHARGE LEVELLED AGAINST ME BY A DEVOTEE THAT I HAVE TRANSCRIBED KARMA YOGA 23 FROM THE FOUR YOGAS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA :

DEVOTEE : Sugata Bose, did you write Karma Yoga 23, or did you transcribe from Swami Vivekananda's Four Yogas?

ME : Dear Friend,

These writings are all my own including KARMA YOGA 23. However, I live in the shadow of the great Swami whose writings have shaped my life, philosophy and thought over the past 30 odd years. It is a great honour for this humble piece of writing to be elevated to the status of the transcription of Swamiji's Four Yogas and I offer you my thankfulness for that. However, as they are my own reflections and reproductions thereof, I cannot but humbly beg to dissociate myself from this accolade to do justice to the honour of the great Swami whose disciple and child I beg to remain.Thank you again for reading KARMA YOGA 23 and I will remain obliged to you if you will likewise go through the other writings on the same yogic discipline as well, namely, KARMA YOGA 1-22. May Swamiji bless you for evidently you are a student of his works and so a friend of mine !

Yours sincerely,
Sugata Bose.

DEVOTEE : Sugata Bose, I appreciate your honorable response, and recognize one devoted to the purest Samkhya/Adwaita-Vedanta continuum rendered in a most flowing prose inspired by the Lion of Vedanta himself. As one who wishes your identity to disappear in the Wisdom of the Great One, you honor the Smarta and Adwaita traditions! It is an honor to read you.

Sugata, now I read the part where you reference the Gita, the Four Yogas and the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna... One point that seems to be overlooked by some who admire the Four Yogas, at least here in the West, is that though Bhakti, disciplinary Dhyana and Jnana seem to be spontaneous exercises for many, few have a practical plan devised for Nishkamya Karma Yoga.

Inspiration of such great One, leaves devotees immersed in Loka Sangraha. I enjoyed your writings immensely, as Swami Vivekananda's inspired. Om Tat Sat!

ME : Dear Friend,

It is an honour to associate with one as erudite and perceptive a devotee as you are, bonded in kinship as we are across continents by the common thread that runs through us all. Your devotion to the study of Indian thought and your efforts at realizing the essence of the same which is the sameness of things, has moved me and inspires me to carry the message of Swamiji to the West if ever the occasion arises. This is a sacred trust that I carry, along with countless others who are the foot soldiers of our great general, and I hope that we may prove worthy of the trust that he has reposed with us. You, my friend, have devoted your life to the pursuit of Truth and it is meet that you reap the harvest of your labour of love in the fullness of time. Till then we may remain friends of the Spirit before we dissolve in the Brahman when the knots of our heart are sundered and our doubts all dispelled.

Yours sincerely,
Sugata Bose.

DEVOTEE : Sugata Bose, I feel endlessly blessed. Your pure hearted devotion to promote the message of living Gods and Goddesses from India, from the highest peaks where Ganga trickles the Mahavakyas, to her tributaries nourishing all religions of the world, is most appreciated, it is your meditation for Loka Sangraha. There is no life richer than one dedicated to the promotion of the works of Sages and Saints.

I would feel most blessed to remain in communication with you, Sugata Bose. Om Tat Sat!