WHITHER WORLD PEACE?

WHITHER WORLD PEACE?

Radical religion is a major threat to world peace. Exclusive outfits proclaiming that they are the repositories of the sole truth of God and man are allowed to preach their radically perverted versions but if criticised for such hate-mongering, the liberal critics are pulled up on the dubious charge of attempting to create social unrest. Is this democracy? How can innocent civilians be allowed to be subjected to propagation of sectarian interpretations of religion when in every religion there are brighter elements to be preached? In a world divided horrendously along religious lines on account of radicalisation of politics by using the ruse of religion, how can peace obtain unless power-mongering using religion is replaced by saner policy-making and progressive people-oriented programmes? Moreover, what is the efficacy of adopting a policy of appeasement towards fanatics who subscribe neither to rhyme nor reason but follow archaic prescriptions, arbitrary and autocratic, for treatment of the maladies of the modern world?

Science is equally culpable for its snobbishness and assumed superiority in being apparently the only way to approach the problem of existence. The objective methodology is fine in so far as ascertaining the physical laws of the universe but falls short when it comes to determining the laws of the Being, of the subtler realities that escape the eye but are, nonetheless, operative . The subjective method of investigating reality is as much a valid method as the objective one and there ought to be no objection to it so long as the investigation is done along rational lines as suits psychology where the mind is the observer and the mind the observed. And as subtler realities unfold before the purified vision, the introspection takes on a finer form and its rationale also becomes redefined along inspirational channels, never contradictory to the refined reason though, but eluding perhaps the surface scientist with his equal bigotry of coarse reasoning and undue demands for empirical evidence of a Reality transcendental.

The problem of radical politics has long been a scourge of the world but when the same gets mixed with religion of an extreme kind it assumes dangerous proportions threatening the security of humanity as a whole. Radical religion is fundamentally a political movement and, therefore, shuns inclusiveness, propagates exclusive political programmes in the name of divine decree and allows only a narrow interpretation of truth as suits its earthly objective so far removed from true spirituality that cares nothing for aught of earth. Moreover, the simplistic fanatical formulations of such faiths coupled with personality and its adoration easily catch the imagination of unformed minds and so proliferate among the masses. So much for the much-vaunted theory of conversions engineered world-wide on the basis of the exclusive possession of the revealed truth of God when the reality is that enforced and enticed procurement keeps bolstering the ranks of these radical outfits masquerading as saving grace of the Lord.

The Vedanta in trumpet voice declares the divinity of man and says nowhere, on the contrary, that a saviour or a prophet is necessary to free the eternally free man. It affirms that the Self is eternally free and that it is primeval ignorance that inexplicably covers up this knowledge, so to say, to give apparent rise to the individual soul and, in the fullness of time, knowledge dawns to dissolve this hallucination, the dream breaks and the Self which all along shone unhindered, reveals itself again in resplendent glory. The mind dissolves and with it the universe and its fictitious force and over-force in the shape of an almighty God whose rise and fall are consonant with that of phenomena.

This democracy of the human Spirit, this independence from a slavish cringing before an almighty God who dispenses rewards and punishments as per the whims of humans who conceive of Him and superstitiously assign Him absolute powers over them, this liberation from a stupendous self-hypnosis and consequent debasing of the human status before archaic assumptions is the soul of Vedanta, the acme of spiritual evolution in ancient India. From the forests retreats of India, from the high hills and the river valleys of this ancient land have gone out messages of the divinity of the human soul and the clarion call to all of humanity to shake off the delusion of this phenomenal world. From India has sprung the eternal fountain of spiritual wisdom that has inundated the world again and again, fertilising the soils of the different climes and awakening the sleeping divinity of humanity. Civilisation across the world owes its debt to the land of the Vedas for its humanising influence and for the great spiritual culture that has gone out from there to the remotest corners of the globe unobtrusively, spreading the fragrance of the life eternal amidst this evanescent dream of the world. And once more the wave has arisen in the form of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda bearing the ancient message of India, the symphony of the soul, the grand harmony in our discordant world of dual dreams and diabolic destruction of human hope where to survive with independence of thought and action one has to be fortunate enough not to be born in a theocratic State or in a dictatorial regime where prescriptions of irrational faith and ideological indoctrination ruin the possibilities of poetical flights of fancy along individual lines of self-development. Once more has the individual asserted himself in India amidst the myriad maladies of the times, once more has the voice of the Atman spoken, its music reverberating across the hills and dales and sending a thrill through the nerves of humanity. Time it is to wake up and respond to the call, else it will be a trifle too late, for the forces of veritable evil, the intolerant, irrational ideologies of the world are going to take over the control of our lives and what that will mean is surely anybody’s guess---a return to the medieval dark ages.

Savage cultures of the past have had their time and it is now time enough for civilised humanity to potently respond to the challenges of the times instead of capitulating meekly to organised irrationality handed down the ages in the guise of divinely inspired communication that must by force seek to convert humanity en masse to its fold. Conversion on a global scale has long been the mission of exclusive religions and cannot be condoned at any rate. It has been in the past the seed of much violence for the victory march of these proselytising exclusive religions has inevitably been at the cost of the life-blood of the conquered cultures, often superior to the conqueror by far and so, succumbing to the might of their brutal onslaught devoid of the higher principles of piety they so vehemently seem to uphold as the essence of their faiths. In a pluralistic world this exclusive existence of a monotheistic faith can hardly be the prescription for peace and this attempt to thrust a codified culture, decadent and dictatorial, archaic and arbitrary, onto a more sophisticated civilisation is reprehensible. Unless humanity shifts from this abject submission to divine dictatorship and takes control of its own destiny, there is no hope for either progress or peace on a lasting basis. An unseen arbiter of human affairs is a dangerous proposition for it is tantamount to the abject surrender of human freedom and reasonableness to an imaginary deity who is an unconstitutional authority dictating terms to deluded, hypnotised humanity. Such surrender seems to be the essential clause of dualistic religions and it breeds horrendous harm when subscribers to such faiths harbour hatred towards those that do not belong to their denominations or when they force their cult doctrines on people who are at variance with them. Such exclusive and narrow conception of truth necessarily precipitates a fanatical mass mentality and its concomitant evil, violence and holy war. Religion which ought to foster fraternal feelings among men in effect divides humanity into warring factions vying for political supremacy which is falsely termed propagation of the faith. Gone is spirituality which is the core truth of every religion and in its place dances the devil of delusion, diabolic, dark.

The only hope then is in breaking free from this dependence on others for every little fulfilment of our needs and desires. We must strive to be independent, not merely economically and socially but more so in the mind for the fetters that bind us to this mortifying duality have their genesis there and for us to be free citizens of the universe we have to shake off the age-old delusion that the mind conjures. This is a tall order but we must begin where we are stationed now, in our day-to-day deliberations in the thoroughfare of life, in our struggle for survival amidst the myriad iniquities that threaten to crush us and in the pursuit of our aspirations and dreams that alone give a meaningful colour to our terrestrial existence. And everywhere we must carve out our destiny as free men without leaning on any shoulder, as free, self-supporting individuals with a ramrod straight spine and capable of coordinated activity where interdependence is the rule but never mere one-sided dependence. This will build self-respect and the capacity for self-sustenance which is the primary requisite for character-building and a peaceful society in its wake for society is but the aggregate of individuals and when individuals are wise and peaceful, society is so as well.

Perhaps it all sounds very simplistic and naive and I wholeheartedly endorse the view that the above-mentioned independence of spirit will not immediately bring about breakthroughs in social consciousness but the beginning will have been made. And from the simple seed planted in the heart of humanity will in time to come grow the mighty banyan of knowledge spreading its branches and afforesting the world with generations of seekers of truth who will go afresh to Nature each time to read their own Book of Revelations seated in the core of their consciousness, in the deepest recesses of their heart where the sovereign Self is seated in resplendent glory. Inspiration shall then be ever renewed and expression adjusted to the times to thwart decadence, a fresh realisation and a fresher avowal of truth in the light of newer findings in the objective world. Then the conflict between the two worlds of which man is the interface will cease and with it will end all uncharitable feelings between brothers wending their way towards the same goal. Such a harmony will be possible as humanity progresses towards higher readings of Truth with the advance of science in particular and of knowledge in general for the soul of man may not be stifled for long nor his conscience stilled for good.

It was man that first discovered the truths of religion. It was man to whom revelations were made. Revelation or otherwise, it has always been man who has been at the centre-stage of things. To give priority to revelation and inferior status to man who was the perceiver of such revelation is, to borrow a religious term, blasphemous for without the perceiving system, such revelation would have never existed. It will be impossible to prove the independent existence of revealed truth beyond the cognition of some individual who came back, so to say, to report it whether such truths are there or not. Likewise, the existence of God is man-dependent and not the other way round in a sense although, philosophically speaking, it depends on how terms are defined. It all boils down to the simple fact that in the plane of human vibration, all knowledge is based on sense perception and that which lies beyond the senses may not be conveyed in linguistic terms or translated to the sensory mode. Thus, no scripture can claim that it possesses the Ultimate Truth or that its formulations accurately describe the inexpressible Truth which is transcendental. Nor can any scripture be held inviolable for being the perfect Word of God as scriptural revelation to any particular person is bound to be coloured up by the person’s cultural background, evolutionary status and circumstantial need. Neither can any religion claim exclusive possession of Truth and that it is its final formulation for the Book of Life is an ever-revealing text that brooks not such heresy but keeps on delivering afresh the children of Light who read into it higher and higher meaning till the very book falls and life itself is transcended. In scientific terms it is somewhat akin to the breakdown of the laws of physics in the heart of a singularity.

Liberalism cannot overcome fanaticism through dialogue or discussion for fanatical elements are conditioned into believing that the liberal-minded are heretical elements who are devoid of character and therefore do not subscribe to their codified dogma. So long as this sense of theocratic self-glorification is there, meaningful dialogue is a far cry. This sense of scriptural certitude which makes scepticism taboo is not conducive for investigation into Reality nor is a superficial scepticism bound for any reasonable understanding of Truth and this leaves the field open to diametrical opposition between parties lacking in  sympathy for each other’s views. When a middle-ground is sought by those that strive to bridge the distance created by this lack of appreciation of opposite views of opposing parties, a dialogue is necessary. Even if the sceptics argue on the basis of rational principles for they are willing to debate, it is difficult to bring in the religious bigots to the discussion table for their very dogmatism brooks no opposition in debate or deliberation and they rigidly hold on to their bigoted stance and maintain their insular status. Such refusal to communicate on a civilised basis with others who differ from them ideologically keeps the lurking fear of the befalling of all that is the child of fanaticism and the world has only to suffer for it. So, where is the chance of peace?

Education is the panacea but even accomplished scientists are bigoted in their beliefs and this is a strange revelation about the multiple reference frames obtaining in the mind of a single person. No wonder Walt Whitman had declared, “I contain multitudes.” This apparent dichotomy within the mind of a man of science throws human society into sharp focus as being a conglomeration of divergent beliefs which are so antithetical to each other that civilised co-existence has become a challenge today and the outcome of it all is violence, war, desecration and destruction and the endless streaming of tears off innocent eyes who are neither privy to the policies of politicians that trigger off war nor are they in control of their own destinies which they have under circumstantial pressure surrendered to their malevolent masters.

The prospects are bleak for peace now or in the near future. But I am no doomsday prophet and hold firmly the belief that humanity will see through this dark night of despair and desolation and the sun will rise on the eastern horizon once more with a thousand-fold effulgence to carry civilisation ahead till humankind will be one under the banner of the universal religion of man which will be not a codified doctrinaire cult but an open book of the divinity of all that exists, whose God is Man and whose holy book is the Book of Life unfolding every moment, carrying all of phenomena towards the final goal of liberation. Such a day indeed will come in the fullness of time when man will have fought with brother man to satiation and, war-weary, will be seeking salvation in peace.

NINTH SUNDAY SESSION, 30 AUGUST, 2015, 2-3.45 P.M./4.30-530 P.M.

The Ninth Sunday Session was held on 30 August, 2015 in two phases.

The First Session was attended by Deepanwita Datta​ and we deliberated on Advaita Vedanta and its ramifications. The Vedas and the Upanishads were briefly touched upon as a starting point for the classes. It was decided that The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna must be regularly read and along with it Swami Vivekananda's Jnana Yoga. This will help clarify Vedantic concepts. Some salient points on character-building were also discussed.

The Second Session was attended by Dwaipayan Bhattacharya​ and it was quite a stimulating session as usual. Dwaipayan's concepts are crystal-clear and we deliberated on Shankara's Mayavada, the Hindu definition of theism and atheism in terms of the inviolability or otherwise of the Vedas and the origin and evolution of the concept, nay, the phenomenon of the Avatara from Vedic to Puranic times.

It was heartening to re-open the Sunday sessions after the lapse of over four months and I sincerely hope that our good work will continue.

Reported by Sugata Bose

BELGAUM, 1892

Belgaum, 1892. The electrifying wandering monk was in search of the soul of India. He was only 29 and on the eve of his great departure for the West but had the burden of refashioning the whole of civilisation for the next 1500 years on the foundation of the Vedas as envisaged by him in the life of his great Master. It was a Herculean task, this reshaping the career of errant humankind and it required readjustment of the psychological forces active deep within the subconscious in man. Mere Self-realisation was not enough for the work at hand and, thus, it was beyond the province of ordinary sainthood to achieve the objective. Vivekananda would have to dive deep within the collective consciousness of man and there readjust the psychological flow of civilisation. His austerities were not for his personal freedom, for he was born free, but they were for the discovery of the mental routes of mankind, for the comprehension of man's terrestrial maladies and for the redirection of human thought in the very subconscious along higher channels whereby man would, in course of time, be able to rediscover his lost spiritual heritage and, so, sustain and advance his evolution on Earth.    

SWAMI MUKHYANANDA

Sugata Bose, my (Swami Sampurnananda) facebook friend, says: I had met Revered Swami Mukhyanandaji many times at the Arogya Bhavan in Belur Math whenever I paid a visit to Swami Tattwasthanandaji (Bibhuti Maharaj) there. We exchanged pleasantries. I have seen him counseling devotees with great force of conviction as if they were his very own. The earnestness was very evident from the way he addressed them, somewhat like 'the Uttam Vaidya' of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. I feel saddened by this news of his demise, if may use the term with apologies, because of my acquaintance with him which brings back memories far earlier when I had wondered why he sported a beard, as also for the fact that these venerable souls were associated with so many luminous beings of the Order under whose radiance they attained to luminosity themselves and that they are departing, one by one, impoverishing us for good unless we learn to live by the precepts they lived and taught. My humble prostrations at Maharajji's hallowed feet!

FEAR NOT, PROPAGATE THE WORD, COMMISSION OR NO COMMISSION

Let the devotees of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji combine forces to propagate the Word for this seems to be the need of the hour when sectarian violence is wreaking havoc in the world. Let us unite the powers of good and try and bring to the door of everybody their pristine philosophy, the realisation of their divine selves, so very consonant with the deepest urges of the human heart, and let us do this in a spirit of humility with service to the Master as its divine end. May we never shirk from letting others know of the divine life and message of the Holy Trinity of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda in view of the fact that we have not yet attained to God-realisation or that we have not been commissioned to preach by the Master or the Mother for we are not assuming the role of someone superior reaching out to inferiors in knowledge or trying to act as Saviours but we are merely trying to slake the thirst of the world with their holy life and message in, as I said, a spirit of utmost humility! Swami Vivekananda had once exhorted his disciple, Sri Sarat Chandra Chakrabarty, to do so and had explicitly said that such act of propagation of the Word could surely be undertaken in the spirit of service to the world and that it would be most conducive to the welfare of some such soul somewhere who might have been stuck in the spiritual path at some point. At any rate, our scriptures say that good ever brings forth good and, therefore, I do not subscribe to the view that there should be any hesitation on our part on the count that we are not commissioned to propagate the faith of our ancestors and so we should not, but, rather, I firmly believe that had I been brought to Ramakrishna-Vivekananda by someone earlier than when I was brought to them, I would have been blessed evermore. So, I exhort all my sisters and brothers to come together and start veritably a movement in the name of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda and propagate worldwide their life-giving message to save the world from the brink of destruction. Let the Master do his work as he pleases through us but let us be fruitful channels of his work. And for this great mission, let us live lives of great purity for purity alone penetrates the cavity of the heart where the Master sings his Song Celestial. Jay Ramakrishna! Jay Ma! Jay Swamiji!

PATRIOTISM ... 1

Patriotism is a daily duty, an hourly act, every moment’s commitment to the nation. But nationalism in its ugly form is not the substance of patriotism. True nationalism builds one’s own nation while living in harmony with the people of other nations for a peaceful and prosperous world order. While the territorial boundaries of one’s own nation must be protected and preserved, the boundaries of other nations must not be infringed as is the wont of many a modern nation-state. Nationalism sprang from the need to integrate people sharing a common culture at a time when absolute monarchy was in its decadent state. Feudalism had to be done away with to destroy its stranglehold on the common man whose earthly yoke was one of eternal sufferance at the scaffold of the privileged classes. The Industrial Revolution lent a sledgehammer blow to the superstructure of feudalism and released man after ages of terrible bondage into the sunshine of freedom and life.

But human nature does not easily change. The age-old tyranny continues, camouflaging itself under new names and systems, but the ruler of it still is personality with all its diabolical designs and a crushing carnage of the human spirit. Capitalism with all its cunning is exploiting the masses to the marrow as the morrow of their resurgence ever recedes. Systems change but the exploitative character of man does not change so easily. The human nervous system, while being potentially capable of comprehending the deepest mysteries of the universe and even the transcendental truth beyond, is strangely lethargic to learning virtue and continues to harbour high hopes of exclusive survival in an integrated world. Systemic changes, however, have surely increased human liberty, at least in democratic countries, although, the same cannot be said of theocratic countries where archaic scriptural injunctions continue to hold absolute sway over the masses who remain by holy decree subservient to historical personal authority that neither evolves nor lets men evolve beyond the bounds set up by faith and unreason. But the masses often gleefully gobble up the pills fed them by these absolute interpreters of truth out of sheer ignorance of their true divine status and human civilization retreats to the dark ages whence it has sprung off the womb of Eastern and Western enlightenment.

This then is the state of the world where patriotism must be practised without parochial bias or nationalistic exclusiveness. The practice of an idea must never be at the expense of the broader ideal that encompasses it but must ever be the fulfilment of the ideal, never localized in geographical terrain or a specific point in time but universal in its scope and transcending the phenomenal limits that the senses are heir to. Nationalism then will have nothing to fear from fanatical outfits when the vast majority of the human population will have been educated in the efficacy of international cooperation and goodwill. Nationalism will then be the kindergarten for the training of future citizens of the world. It will also serve to preserve the identity of the diverse cultures of the world seeking fulfilment in a universal unity.

The human race is varied in its cultural affiliations that are themselves the offspring of differences of habitat, climate and genetic orientation. Thus have groups emerged in the march of human evolution whose progressive adhesion has been the nation state. Cultural affinities, linguistic alignments and geo-political situations have coalesced diverse peoples of the world into integrated units called nations which are the nurseries of evolution of their citizens. But cultures conflict, faiths fragment society, ideologies so often throttle the soul of man. Thus, nations war with each other to settle their differences, obscuring thereby the very definition of nationalism. And this is the aberration of modern-day nationalism which the enlightened citizenry of the world must struggle to set right.

Nationalism in its liberal intent and patriotism are glorious ideals worthy of being attained to by selfless men and women. These are not dastardly concepts of the corrupt or the playthings of perverted politicians but are the noblest aspirations of man as he struggles to come of age in a universe of human synthesis and solidarity. Sanctity is its basis, sacrifice its mode. Defence is its virtue and offence vice. Preservation is its culture and destruction its curse. Mutual help is its method and global harmony its goal. Thus, nationalism must exist within the ambit of internationalism, its object being to promote the evolution of a people as a component of the broader promotion of evolution of the whole human race. Like every individual is endowed with a separate nervous system and yet communications are possible with other people on a free and democratic basis, biologically speaking, where the mind of man is like a sovereign state and the collective mind the pool where all minds merge at a focus to keep up communication, so also nation-states have their own socio-cultural evolutionary mechanisms and best develop along their peculiar individual lines even as they draw from the experiences of other nations. But conversion of another’s culture through enforcement leads to subversion of such culture and does no good to it. Therefore, all attempts to forcibly overcome, overhaul and transform indigenous cultures by so-called superior cultures is heinous and hence, reprehensible. Such ‘inspired’ legislation by the mighty on defenceless subject peoples, whether sanctioned by scripture or constitution, is culturally retrogressive and takes away the flavour of diversity of development in the world that would otherwise have made human civilization richer and less violent for sure. Tolerance, universal acceptance and the agreement to differ are civic virtues founded on the necessity of harmonious co-existence as also the understanding that there are as many perspectives as people, as many notions of Truth as there are individuals inhabiting this planet. The wider considerations or the deeper philosophical implications in such acceptance of diverse opinion on Truth are worthy of perusal. The Vedanta has long maintained its position that Absolute Truth is one but relative truths are many and that sages have interpreted Truth in relative terms in diverse ways (Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti). This being the case, it stands to reason to say that one may practise enlightened nationalism out of sincere patriotic feelings for one’s homeland without infringing upon the rights of those belonging to other nationalities. Such patriotism is entirely welcome and, if understood and practised the right way, is a valid path for spiritual development.

The problem arises when patriotism is exclusive in its considerations and attempts to realize the interests of one nation to the detriment of others. It then degenerates into narrow nationalism, so very virulent for a peaceful world order. This is often the scenario in real life for the systems of thought prevailing in different cultures are not all liberal or universally inclusive. The result is the frequent surfacing of fanaticism, be it nationalistic or religious for each is essentially emotional in its appeal and in the absence of an upholding scientific philosophy that can stand the test of scrutiny and reason, each flounders into crude errors which undermine its very basis. The history of the world is replete with such instances, so much so that the very names ‘nationalism’ and ‘religion’ have been tainted somewhat as indicative of that which is intolerant, exclusive and insubordinate to reason, a divisive force that splits society along arbitrary lines of superimposed faith or doctrinaire cult. Time it is to overcome such cultural hangovers of the past and take a fresh look at the possibilities of the human race. Nation-wise development is still an imperative, given the world situation. Dualistic religions with their dubious unscientific claims and their concomitant consequences will also continue to play significant roles in the near future for truly rational men and women are few and far between in the world. But through it all the rational mind of man must progress towards higher understanding of truth in all its apparent diversity and its ultimate underlying unity. And patriotism also will have to play its part in the right way and in a righteous spirit for evolution of humanity within the bounds of nations to then spill over and deluge the world with the concord of enlightened humanity.  

                               

    

15 AUGUST, 2015

Free we are today and free shall remain for sure, for such is our pledge to our beloved Motherland. When Bengal capitulated in Plassey (Palashi) in 1757, it was the dastardly act of Indian traitors who in conjunction with the unscrupulous British general Robert Clive brought about the political downfall of India. Slowly, through the passage of a century the Britishers established their political mastery over us and despite resistance were able to manipulate our men to keep us in subjugation. Trickery, lies, deceit, diplomacy and valour, all played their respective roles in making the British the colonial masters that they turned out to be with the sole aim of exploiting our resources to the hilt to serve their own vested interests. The Permanent Settlement, the Subsidiary Alliance and the Doctrine of Lapse were so many British ploys to colonize India using 'fair' British means for after all the British were 'gentlemen' and used but 'fair' political means to conquer India that they might 'civilize' India with their Western mode of living and their 'superior' Western culture. Lord Macaulay had in 1836 drawn up a plan of Indian education in the British mould which would make English-educated Indians loyal servants of the British and help perpetuate their reign in India for a very long time to come. Incidentally, 1836 was also the year Sri Ramakrishna was born on the soil of India, perhaps as the defence of India to this alien challenge to India's hoary culture. The nation had unsuccessfully waged the First War of Independence in 1857 and consequently, following the Queen's Proclamation of 1858, come under the rule of the British Crown directly as opposed to the earlier rule of the vicious English East India Company. Four years after the War of 1857, Tagore was born. Two years later was born Vivekananda and six more years were all that India had to wait for the birth of the Mahatma. Ramakrishna had sounded the death-knell of the Britishers with the spiritual renaissance that he heralded at Dakshineshwar. Indian independence had been lost on the soil of Bengal and it was Bengal that led the struggle for freedom.

A spiritual renaissance has always marked the rise of national life in India in every age and this age was no exception. Ramakrishna sounded the bugle and the children of India, unlike the children of Hamlin town who had perished in the sea, all rushed unto freedom. The spiritual resurgence of India invigorated Indians with the fire of the Spirit, deathless, invincible, immortal. The Lectures of Vivekananda from Colombo to Almora upon his triumphant return to India following his world-conquering sojourn in the West awakened India from her age-old slumber and sent the ideas of freedom coursing through her veins which soon bore fruition in the protracted struggle for India's independence. Bengal led the way and unforgettable is the saga of the Bengal revolutionaries that so shook the citadels of British power in India that Lord Curzon had to partition Bengal in 1905 in his bid to debilitate her revolutionary movement. But when the move backfired, Bengal was reunited in 1911 but the British found her too hot a seat for 'peaceful' governance, so they shifted capital from Calcutta to New Delhi. But the shift had taken place in another realm too. Indian consciousness had been awakened and the children of India could now no longer be kept enslaved to alien rule, corrupt to the core that it was. World events such as the two Great Wars undermined the British colonial power and led by stalwarts like Gandhiji and Netaji, India achieved political independence on the 15th of August, 1947. 'At the stroke of the midnight hour when the world slept, India awoke to life and freedom.'

India had lost her freedom through her own Karma and she had to bleed her way through to regain her lost freedom. Millions of lives were lost in the struggle for freedom despite the fact that Gandhiji had led a non-violent struggle. But there were other parallel movements alongside Gandhi's non-violent struggle which were violent in their methods no doubt but no less heroic nor any less patriotic. Netaji's Indian National Army played a seminal role in the liberation of India. But for its heroic advances through the jungles of Burma and even its entry into the Indian soil of Imphal, the Royal Indian Navy might not have revolted against its British masters taking the cue from the the revolting Axis-captured British-Indian soldiers that eventually formed the I.N.A. It was this revolt by the R.I.N. that convinced the British that their time was up in India as the very forces that kept their Raj had turned on them.

A look backward and we see that the British invariably resorted to brutal methods of repression to contain the revolutionary activities of the Indian freedom fighters. Millions of Indians periodically lost their lives in famines created by the British Government's inefficient handling of the Indian economy with their prime objective being the loot of the country's resources. The Bengal famine of 1943 was the most glaring instance of the government's malicious intent when all the food was diverted to the troops fighting the Second World War and artificially famine was created which claimed the lives of 5 million people. Then came the Partition of India, the master-plan of the Britishers to permanently weaken India and create an inimical State in Pakistan to thwart India's growth as a nation. In 1906 with the aim of ruling India by the policy of 'Divide and Rule', the British government had encouraged the formation of the Muslim League Party. Thereafter, they had encouraged and patronized divisive politics among the different Indian parties along communal lines to keep the Indians disunited. But when the devastation of the Second World War had put paid to the British dream of a permanent settlement in India, they, true to their vicious national character, used their diabolical means to dismember India as their final act of 'fairplay and British justice', their 'gratitude' to the Indians for all the wealth they had looted from their coffers including the Kohinoor diamond. And who can recount the horrors of Partition that followed! Some 20 million people lost their lives in the riots, disease and starvation that followed in the wake of Partition as whole populations got displaced from their homelands in Bengal and Punjab which had been dismembered. A whole generation of Indians was sent to penury and despair by the transference of population across the Indo-Pak border. Since then the two nations, brothers once, nay, the same body and soul, have fought three wars in 1965, 1971 which led to the turbulent creation of the State of Bangaladesh and 1999 when the Kargil War was fought. The Bangaladesh War took the lives of millions of erstwhile East Pakistanis with hundreds of thousands of their women-folk's modesty being outraged by the invading, marauding Pakistani soldiers. Besides, cross-border terrorism and shelling since 1947 has cost us the loss of hundreds of thousands of Indian soldiers. Both India and Pakistan are victims to violent acts of terrorism almost on a routine basis. All this is the collective Karma of our nation, of Indians tormenting Indians till we became so weak that we fell to foreign hands to debase us further and impair us perhaps for a long time yet to come. The vaunted British Empire has been destroyed by the ravages of the Second World War. Each side must account for its own Karma from which it seems there is no way out. But knowing that we are a single human family, may we start rebuilding our hopes and aspirations of a renascent future for humanity on the ashes of the dead past? May we bury our differences of the past and through a clearer vision of the oneness of the humankind build a new civilization where neither will man be predator nor will he be the prey for, after all, that is 'the way of all flesh' and not of the Infinite Spirit that seeks freedom, justice and light for all? May all the nations of the world celebrate this golden occasion of the 69th birthday of India by taking a pledge they shall honour, that of peaceful co-existence, knowing harmony to be the law of civilized living and unity in diversity to be the basic mantra that animates all of creation! Jai Hind!

THE MEANDERING FLOW OF LIFE

The key to concentration is purity. Purity conserves the psycho-physical forces that build up concentration and lead to filtration of the nervous system for higher attainments in life and eventually the very conquest of life itself. Purity is, thus, considered a sine qua non for practising spirituality and is stressed in all major religions of the world as cardinal to living the spiritual life.

This is a prime point of difference between science and religion, for while the former does in no way stress on continence as a pre-requisite for the understanding of natural law, the latter holds chastity as fundamental to the spiritual process of investigation into truth. The reason for this is simple. Scientific investigation relies on sensory data analysis and delves into Nature external which may be apprehended with the help of the mind in its relatively grosser element whereas spirituality belongs entirely to the subtler realms of the mind where even access is denied unless the aspirant has the suitable apparatus to reach there, which is the purified mind freed of all material dross, unsullied, holy. The former analyses external Nature with objective tools while the latter probes into mind itself, the world within man, and has no means available to him for his investigation other than the analytical faculty in its reflexive mode. Both, however, require intense concentration of the mental forces, and why, the physical forces as well, for no great discovery is possible without the total elimination of all distraction.

Great scientists are known to have receded into their inner world of scientific contemplation oblivious of surroundings, and this comes from protracted training of the mind punctuated by rigorous abstinence of all carnal cravings or mundane, material pleasures which are the bane of all focused thought on pursuits transcending the ordinary, the routine rigmarole of life. Perhaps, such men of genius are unconscious of the role of prolonged periods of continence observed by them during their hour of absorption in the mysteries of the universe and, hence, some of them do not subscribe to the view that strict continence is a sine qua non for inner illumination in the world of the spirit or for the discovery of natural law. But all must admit after analysis of their life’s experience of prolonged concentration that physical and mental purity do help to focus the forces of the mind for investigative advances into the vast unknown.

These, perhaps, may be scientifically tested by devising suitable sample studies of brain scans of select continent and incontinent people during test periods in select circumstances. Some such research is going on at present in some major US universities. However, the proof of the pudding ever lies in the eating thereof and the best way to go about testing the veracity of the scriptural claims as to preservation of purity being the precondition for focusing the meditative mind is for scientists themselves to observe strict continence and to subjectively experience the whole process and its fruits. Therefore, whatever be the theories attending brahmacharya (continence) in scientific terms, it cannot be gainsaid that it is of singular significance in the successful execution of the business of life, especially, the conducting of the higher pursuits of knowledge and the experience of spirituality.

It stands to reason, therefore, to lay adequate emphasis on this aspect of a child’s training, especially, in his adolescent years when the turbulence of the senses so often sweeps many a youngster off course and maroons him in his desolate isle of ‘I’, a stricken soul tossed about by the cross-currents of his uncontrolled mind, a hapless desolate being who silently suffers the lashing of the billows which buffet him about aimlessly as he struggles to find his moorings in life. Students must be brought up in the care of men with sterling character, teachers possessed of the fire of renunciation, blazing souls full of nobility of bearing, a high morality and virtue that will set up their pupils with an ethical standard of life and a purpose transcending the morass of mundane living. When the mind is soft and pliable, when it is most receptive to influences, when it is as yet unsullied by carnal appetites consummated, it is most meet that the highest idealism be upheld before these fairest flowers of humanity as objectives of life, aspirations seeking fulfilment through tireless pursuit of Truth and a dispassionate desire for discovery of the laws governing the universe and the mind of man. The children are the future and we must set store on them. They are the resource that is most precious and requires careful nurturing for the future well-being of the human species.

Brahmacharya must be the basis of the new education as it conduces to one’s highest well-being. Information-culture may take a back-seat for the while as students are taught the rudiments of concentration before they attempt to master knowledge. The mind mastered, mastery of knowledge will be relatively easy. Thus, the thrust of education must be to build up the student’s power of higher concentration on concepts and ideas, ideals and abstractions, and to build up in the student an integrated personality with a world-vision and an aspiration for the well-being of the whole of humanity, nay, all of sentience so that an enlightened citizenry may, in time to come, inhabit the world and usher in peace and harmony which has ever been the elusive dream of mankind but never been the substance of reality of his terrestrial existence.

The human nervous system is uniquely endowed with the capacity of knowing truth in both its objective and subjective aspects. The human being, apparently, is juxtaposed between the two worlds, the outer and the inner realms of nature. His mind forms the interface of the physical and the spiritual reality, overlapping with both and drawing sustenance from each. Such is the human predicament then, his occupancy of this intermediate zone between spirit and matter where he must be party to the tug of each, his soul the field of tension between contra-disposed forces and his life the battle-field of mighty tendencies seeking expression in reverse modes which the enlightened call evolution. Through it all one thing remains pertinent, concentration. For the domain of human endeavour is of the mind and all his forays into the known and the unknown terrain of universal experience necessitate the focusing of force which in mental terms is concentration.

And what better a way to achieve it than to follow the line of the rishis (seers of Truth) en route to the pinnacle of perfection? The Vedic rishis found out the solution to the riddle of the universe. Abstaining totally from sensory contact, they zeroed in to Truth. These were scientific people who experimented with mental phenomena in much the same way as modern scientists do with physical phenomena. For centuries they carried on their research in the psychological and spiritual domain before they arrived at definite conclusions which they set to enunciating in the form of spiritual formulations. So, the Vedic mantras are not arbitrary assertions of primitive farmers who were gross Nature-worshippers but were enlightened formulations of the spiritual laws governing the universe discovered by ancient seers of Truth who carried out their research into phenomena with the same scientific rigour as their modern counterparts do today and, perhaps, with a far greater logical rigour than the moderns have ever attended their train of thought. These were ancient texts, scientific for certain, but lacking in mathematical exposition owing to the unavailability of such empirical knowledge at the time as well as the difficulty of translation of the spiritual experience, so entirely subjective in nature, to objective terms. Yet, the philosophy that emanated from the lips of these rishis, in its sheer pervasiveness and subtlety baffles the modern mind even as its rational rigour leaves modern European philosophers scurrying for cover when they have the civility to go through these ancient texts in the right spirit with a free and unbiased manner as ought to be the stance of any true man of learning.

And all these were the products of the superior concentration of the ancient Indian sages who led lives of the strictest continence in their bid to unravel the mysteries of Nature. Unbroken, uninterrupted brahmacharya they laid down as the bedrock of education and spirituality and, indeed, chastity as the very life of civilisation. The grand heights to which Indian civilisation rose may be traced to the grand discoveries of the Vedic rishis---and, here for the sake of convenience, I apologetically exclude the Indus Valley Civilisation which, however, was the crowning glory of Indian civilisation in yesteryears.

If India did rise to such supernal heights once, it stands to reason to state that, with advanced knowledge of the modern age, she will rise to greater heights of material and spiritual excellence and set before the world the ideal of the divinity of man and the spiritual integration of the whole cosmos whereby humanity the world over will find its spiritual moorings in this otherwise depraved age of selfishness and chaos when materialism has struck its nadir and man has been reduced to a beast of burden whose value is set in terms of his economic utility and oftentimes as mass garbage to be cast into war and decimated to fulfil the fanciful designs of malicious murderers masquerading as merciful messiahs of men. The scenario is grim today in a world heating up with material and mental pollution from which India alone may save it with her pristine philosophy of the fundamental divinity of all of sentience, a message so full of hope and light that even in the darkness enveloping human affairs this moment, a ray goes out beckoning humankind into the realm of peace and goodwill founded on fraternal feelings and the essential liberty of the Self within.

And this light is the light of India, the light of the Atman (the Self), the light of the Brahman (the Absolute Reality underlying phenomena) that will save mankind from the edge of the abyss where it finds itself right now, for this is the great mission which India has been preserved for through the ages to fulfil whenever the need arises and what greater need there be than the need of the hour now when mankind faces certain extinction from either an environmental disaster or a nuclear holocaust. A whole new philosophy of life must emerge from India, a new way of living, a fresh outlook, an entirely new perspective that will freshen up the withered, worn-out ways of the past and infuse life into the dead mass of things.

The Vedanta has powder enough to blow up the accreted superstitions of the past and replace them with life-giving principles of truth and it must be the religion and philosophy of thinking man in the future if the human species is to survive on planet Earth. All the systems of thought that abound in the world may be harmonised by the universal philosophy of the Vedanta which has plumbed the depths of existence and arrived at the centre of phenomena which transcends it and provides the basis for all its apparent divergences. Thus, fanatical faiths, exclusive and arbitrary in assumption, will find in the Vedanta their rationale and cease to be mutually antithetical. Ideologies founded on the outer personality of man, his gross material form and his economic and political necessities, will discover their basis in the spiritual integration of the Cosmos and understand the divergences in Nature as so many radial routes flowing out from the Mother-heart that binds all, nonetheless, with a common cord and, in the fullness of time, pulls them all in along the selfsame path to the centre whence they had sprung. The trajectory of ideas and principles known, their origin and terminus studied, exclusiveness will die its natural death and true liberalism will reign in human society allowing the harmonious co-existence of all forms of faiths and philosophies suited to different masses of men with divergent cultural affiliations and historical conditioning, separate in structure but integrated in spirit, and thus will come about the golden age of awakened humanity, the highest aspirations of humankind realised.

But such grand transformations are not brought about overnight for the human nervous system is highly conservative and resistant to change. Revolutionary changes in the past have been attended with bloodbath, that is, humanity had to be coerced into accepting new norms and ideals, such is the inertia that afflicts human percolation. Ideas are historically and culturally embedded in the psyche of a people and have to be supplanted slowly with higher ideals through education of children. But children are prone to environmental influences as well and doctrinaire creeds implanted in them by over-zealous clerics tend to undermine the enlightenment otherwise fostered in them by secular learning. Moreover, in theocratic countries and in the so-called Bible Belt of even a major democracy like the United States of America, the education system itself is vitiated by religious leanings of a vicious kind where sectarian, violent and irrational ideas, archaic and arbitrary, are taught to children in the name of truth and science, and the entire process of progress in intellectual enlightenment derailed.

All social changes have to be brought about within the parameters of existing social conditions and, until times are propitious when men become receptive to revolutionary transformations, all change must be slow and gradual along evolutionary channels, both biological and sociological. The right kind of education may hasten this process but, as has been mentioned above, such dissemination of knowledge is subject to social, cultural and religious constraints and a free and rational training of children the world over is still a far cry. Patience is now the only way out and this period of wait may best be utilised in laying the foundations for future development, creating public awareness about the pitfalls of blind and fanatical faith based on implicit obedience to authority, vicious and noxious, and allowing time for the age-old superstitions to run out, for attempts at revolutionary change, unsuited to mass psychology, is apt to be counter-productive and prone to perpetuating the myths that so beset human progress. Rather, a considerate approach to the entire phenomenon of mass ignorance about the fundamental divinity of man as a spiritual and, why? a scientific truth as well, for it is based on extensive research, experience and verification by countless seers of Truth, is by no means a conciliatory approach that demands condemnation by the sceptical radicals for, after all, the goal is the good of humankind and that leaves no room for the harbouring of any animosity towards any existing practice or any section of human society whatsoever, and all social change is a function of time. Social reformers must have absolute reverence for the human being as they go about preaching the gospel of truth and enlightenment in the name of modern science and the highest principles of spirituality, and in no way must they hurt the fundamental dignity of man or injure the feelings of the multitude who they wish to reform. Only on the basis of mutual reverence is great work possible and what greater work awaits man than his transformation from an external God-centric culture to an internal Man-centric one where the word ‘Man’ has a higher connotation than is generally understood? It is the innermost being within man, his spirit, free and immortal, unborn, undying, the omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent reality pervading and transcending the cosmos, in which universes arise, subsist and merge ad infinitum.

These are facile statements, perhaps, to the sceptics but experiential realities for the sages of India. Evolution is their prescription and never barbaric revolution and in this they are not being revisionists but, with unerring vision, are pointing out the right path for humanity on the march towards final fulfilment. Instead of a series of forward and backward movements that will leave mankind more or less stranded where it is, the rishis have advocated the steady advance towards the ideal of self-realisation which in Vedantic terms means the realisation of the Self, the inner essence of man and of the universe and whatever phenomenal realities there be. But the fundamental problem lies not in the analysis of things or providing theoretical solutions to the problems but in the execution of the change required in human society to overcome the maladies that afflict it. And this is a deeper psychological issue that needs addressing than has hitherto been recognised and needs a deeper understanding of the collective mind of mankind to be able to adopt the corrective measures that will set the balance straight. And herein we arrive at the subject of concentration as the remedy to the ills of the world.

                                                                                                                   

All problems arise from the apparent fracturing of consciousness resulting in the perception of the mind with its analytic and synthetic modes. Consciousness is absolute and never disintegrates really but relativity arising from cosmic nescience (Maya) makes it appear as having been transformed from its transcendental unitary state to its phenomenal pluralistic state. The mind, then, is the derivative of consciousness and operates along a graded plane from the lowest tamas (inertial state) to the highest sattva (tranquil state) via the intermediary rajas (active state), the trinity of gunas (qualities/states/energy levels) being permutated and combined in various proportions to produce an infinite variety of moods and vibrational phases. Universal consciousness, transcendental, integrated and unvibrating, thus, apparently transforms into the myriad-faceted cosmic mind whose individual facets are our minds, fragile and changeable, fragmenting and coalescing, never at rest, in perpetual motion. The individual mind is a portion of the universal mind and gains cognition of itself by means of the ego which itself is a derivation of the transcendental Self. This percolation of the Absolute Self into the realm of relativity is inexplicable for the Self is immovable, immutable and transcendental, bearing no contact point with hypothetical phenomena which is based on an endless series of suppositions while the Self reigns in Reality. Thus, the term ‘Maya’, to denote this contradiction in terms which phenomenal existence is, a term, much misinterpreted through linguistic aberration that inevitably affects the usage of terms over the course of centuries and has thus got mixed up with illusion, magic and mystery when all that it truly is, is a statement of phenomenal fact as it appears to be when viewed through the prism of the mind and its allies, the senses. Brahman lies beyond the purview of the mind and the senses, the transcendent Reality without attributes or form but forming the existential base of all of phenomena, the consciousness-basis of all thought and being the fount of all bliss, a repulsive field of Pure Spirit, free of all contact with material element or aggregation, surpassing space, transcending time and eluding causality or chance, the spiritual essence of life and non-life and all that lies betwixt.

Now, problems arise with their solutions embedded in them. If our fractured vision causes problematic perception of things, then integrated vision will resolve such flawed perception. And, herein lies the power of concentration to set things right. When the rays of the mind are focused, they illumine. It is a complex mechanism, for the mind, as such being material, is inert. It is the Self that truly illumines, it being ever the luminous base of all of phenomena, dark and desolate as it is in this dreary universe bereft of light or understanding, a solitary case unsolved, a puzzle-perplex that knows no meaning till effulgence is, and then, the panoramic existence stands revealed in its essence as the mirage of Maya melts. Man is released from bondage unto the bliss of perennial freedom, a freedom that had never been lost save in this cosmic delusion that had inexplicably arisen from nothingness and now has dissolved into its mysterious source.

The river meanders endlessly enroute to the sea whence it rises again to shower as rain and thus, the saga of life goes on from aeon to aeon, fulfilling the text of the divine drama enacted. As page after page of this play unfolds, one fondly hopes that humankind will awake to its truest dreams of a fulfilling civilization that will hasten human evolution and reduce human misery heaped on man by man’s own arrogance, ignorance and a stupendous theological certitude based on archaic articulations of faith unfounded in reason or realization by protagonists of a dubiously partisan God dispensing grace on individuals capriciously to conduct the business of the Spirit in a violent and malevolent manner that betrays a fundamental paucity of human culture in these sacrosanct votaries of truth. But their day is done as the masses awake to the music of the divine within and the changing rhythms of life are evident everywhere as rejection of popular myths that had seemingly settled into inertial stability. What is now needed is to fill up the void created by this mass rejection of unreason and untruth masquerading as age-old wisdom with the pristine philosophy of the Upanishads which in trumpet voice bespeaks the glory of man and his imperishable Self, a system of thought uniquely universal and addressing the whole of humanity and beyond in the most catholic terms, a precursor to all liberal and modern humanistic and spiritual systems of thought, ever inclusive and never exclusive, perhaps the faith of the future man. These are dangerous times when major transitions in culture are taking place, when shifts in the sand-dunes of civilization are sending shock-waves through the desert of dead habit crystallized as coerced culture, when liberal ideas and ideologies are threatening to sweep away all that is pernicious and peremptory and when the stifled conscience of the common man is finally seeking liberation in its first articulation and activation of the Rights of Man in the myriad political adjustments that have donned human history in the past two centuries. Democracy and socialism, though apparently contra-disposed in terms of ideology, functioning and objectives, are, nonetheless, the manifestations of the revolt of the human spirit against subjection to feudal power or the power of capital. While capitalistic democracy allows unmitigated exploitation of the masses by the factory-owners with full sanction by a complicit government that owes its origin and life to the people, socialism plays into the hands of an oligarchy and, more often not, a malevolent dictator who turns the tide of the people’s revolution into a personal absolutism that represses the soul of man.

Thus, all movements of the freeing spirit of man are tortuous and fraught with terrible dangers that threaten to carry civilization off-course as has so often been its fate in the past. The onward march of man continues despite these terrible travails as a new civilization is being born out of the womb of the past, a new culture emerging, that of the awakened man in his pristine glory as the resplendent Self, a new wave of light spreading with the common man as its prophet and God. May we all give in our ploughshare in this grand endeavour and usher in the future man who needs no prophet to obey nor master to serve, who is a god unto himself, is his own highest ideal and his own final fulfilment!                 

AN EXHORTATION TO TEACHERS AND ACADEMICS

Dear Teachers,

You are the custodians of the most precious possessions of the world---children. What you teach shapes the future and the destiny of the world. But mere syllabus-oriented, information drilling, examination-centric education is more often than not counter-productive as the state of the world amply demonstrates. Time it is to re-orient education along the lines laid down by the rishis (perfected sages/seers of Truth) of India who laid prime emphasis on brahmacharya (continence) and manifestation of the essential divinity within the student through tutelage by continent teachers established in renunciation. Swami Vivekananda used to say that children should be brought up in the care of flaming souls to build up their character. Therefore, it is of prime importance that teachers should re-orient their lives along spiritual principles alongside the rationalistic principles they follow so that they may be power-houses for the transmission of not only information but of virtue, character and holiness to children as well. The soft and pliable minds of youngsters will respond to strong, vigorous and uplifting influences emanating from the minds and souls of their teachers and this, in turn, will help build them up into integrated personalities full of humanistic impulses, iron will, the aspiration for greatness, goodness, godliness and all that is worthwhile in life and in death, and above all, the students will be imbued with the spirit of sacrifice for the common weal. Selfishness, which is the bane of modern materialistic life, will be weeded out in childhood and in early youth if Vedantic education is imparted to children from an early age by competent teachers in the proper way. Self-confidence will build up in the students when they even intellectually become aware of the fact that they are divine and that they are birthless, deathless spiritual beings with infinite possibilities. Faith in oneself works wonders and these children, armed in faith in their deathless souls and self-potency will indeed grow up to be fearless warriors of the Spirit who will lead humankind to a new age of light and love and harmony.

Dear teachers,

This is a tall order and seemingly impossible to achieve, given the track record of humanity in the past, but the Vedic rishis and modern ones like Swami Vivekananda have vouched that it is certainly attainable. What was achieved in ancient India may certainly be achieved in modern India, nay, the modern world, if the Vedantic principles are correctly implemented. And with advanced knowledge in so many disciplines today, such a transformation of the academic system may be speedily brought about provided, dear teachers, you take the movement into your leading for you are in direct contact with the students who have to be trained in the new gospel of truth and enlightenment. You are occupying a pre-eminent position in society in that you are at the fountain-head of tomorrow’s efflorescence. Upon your work rests the future of humanity, its prospects, peace, prosperity.

Dear teachers,

You have to enliven the children with pure and holy thoughts along with the ideas of science and the various other academic disciplines. But staple to the information intake should be the pristine philosophy of the divinity of man as enshrined in the Upanishads for in it are all life-giving ideas that will advance civilization to its fulfilment in the realization of the oneness of existence. While these are apparently high-flown ideas that may seem to bear little significance in the life of students, they are actually of inconceivable importance to the act of building up their character in their formative years with the right input of a universal vision that will make them aspire for higher ideals of peace and universal goodwill and will put paid to the narrow nationalist and sectarian ideas that ever disrupt the free flow of life and even threaten to wipe out human civilization from the face of our beautiful planet. Thus, work must begin at the base for the edifice to be secure and only then may we be assured of the continuance of civilization in this nuclear age which may end in a holocaust at the hands of a megalomaniac dictator or a band of deluded warriors of a so-called God who dispenses mercy on his so-called believers while reserving hellish torment for the rest of humanity that choose not in their wisdom to subscribe to such archaic articulations of faith.

Dear teachers,

With great expectations do I pen these words to elicit a favourable response from you as I am well convinced that many among you must be thinking along like lines as I do about the efficacy of a Vedantic education for children across the globe to combat the forces that so beset the progress of civilization through separatist motivations and actions founded on unreason, hatred and indoctrination in exclusive irrational faiths spiced up with a tinge of welfare element for the faithful but spitting venom on the ones that do not subscribe to such abject submission to religious enforcement. I have infinite faith in your goodness and the unstinted love you bear towards your pupils for I, myself, have been the recipient of such love in my school days. Do turn the attention of your students towards the divine focus within and harp not on their external shortcomings for, after all, the behaviour and performance of these young ones are but the product of their past habits and will improve only if these habits be altered through observed re-orientation.

This, then, is my appeal to you, dear teachers. Information revolution may make students well-informed but will fail to develop character in them. Scattered or even ordered gathering in of knowledge-bits cannot make men out of students for such information in the absence of character will remain unassimilated in their system and therefore rendered sterile. Students must be brought out of the rut of syllabi and enlightened about the divinity sleeping within them. They must be encouraged to be rational human beings with the spirit of enquiry guiding them through life, rather than wild emotional excesses masquerading as prophetic divine injunctions. A liberalism of spirit, a catholicity of perspective and a deep respect for learning must form the basis of their academic lives. Then will awaken within them ‘shraddha’ (an intense aspirational mood seeking perfection) for higher pursuits in life culminating in spiritual perfection. Let the learning process be a life-building one where teachers are the research guides helping these young scholars advance into uncharted terrain of the cosmos and of the Self. Then will civilization flourish. My prostrations to all teachers!    

     

AWAKE MY FRIENDS, AWAKE

The youth must practise strict continence in order to conserve energy for great works. Nation-building is topmost on the agenda now and it is up to the youth to come forward as they did during the days of the freedom-struggle and build the nation of their dreams. India must be strong and vigorous but what is India save the collective will of the people who inhabit this vast landmass? Swami Vivekananda had great faith in the youth and expected them to carry out his great ideas and plans of nation-building when he was dead and gone. Must you fail him, O young people of India?

A weak country nobody respects. Our neighbours, instead of standing in awe of us, dare us each day with terrible threats to our national existence and we daily capitulate in abject submission to such heinous acts. We should be so strong that no nation on Earth will have the temerity to bully us into submission. Rather, they will have no option left to them than look up to us for support and guidance in the international thoroughfare. Economic strength is great, military strength an imperative, but spiritual strength is what sustains a civilization in the long run and is most effective in the short run as well. And who better to lend the country spiritual strength than tens of thousands of vigorous young men and women, steeled to indestructibility by absolute purity, physical and mental, whose focussed force, organized and made dynamic, will work wonders for the land?

Therefore, my young friends, be up and doing from today. India needs you as much as you need her, for she is your Mother. Must you allow her to be defiled by foreign forces who care not a shred for her? I leave you to decide.

O YOUTH OF THE WORLD! ...1

Read Vivekananda, O youth of the world, if you are to leave your mark on human society. It will give you knowledge, inspiration and strength, and, above all, it will lend you character. Now decide. Your life is in your own hands. In which direction will you go? Pleasure and ruin, or, sacrifice and life-building? Vivekananda is your guide and leading light if you choose to make him so.

SWAMI GAHANANANDA, A MONK WITH A DIFFERENCE ...1

The 14th President of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Shrimat Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj, illumined soul and spiritual guide of over 142,000 disciples, a tower of strength for his associates and a fountain of love for devotees. A disciple of Shrimat Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj who was Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi's direct disciple, Swami Gahanananda was an ideal karma-yogi who under the tutelage of Swami Dayananda (founder of the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan) built up the erstwhile 550-bed general hospital from its nascent state as a paediatric and maternity hospital through his tireless labour of love for Ramakrishna in the guise of suffering humanity. The world owes an eternal debt to this leonine monk who practised more than he preached the principles of the Vedanta and so set by his living example a high ethical code and a lofty spiritual standard in service to humanity for future generations of monk and man to emulate. My prostrations to my Gurudev who has literally transformed my life. Jai Gurudev!

BROTHERS, UNITE!

The people of India and Pakistan have nothing to gain from fighting fruitless battles with each other. Both countries have now gone nuclear and stand to face utter destruction through antagonistic attitude towards each other should there break out a nuclear war consequent on such a posture. In 1999 during the Kargil War Pakistan had been contemplating a nuclear attack on India and was dissuaded from such a horrendous course of action by the U.S. President Bill Clinton. In President Clinton's words, there would have been incalculable loss of life had there been a nuclear exchange that day and the damage from the nuclear fall-out in and around the region would have been of epic proportions. The danger has been averted once but the nuclear threat still looms large on the Indian Subcontinent. It needs a mature understanding of the problem and diplomatic measures are the only means available to both the nations to resolve disputes and to move ahead in bilateral relations. Confrontation must be replaced by co-operation as both countries have nothing to gain from a fratricidal feud, remembering that Pakistan was dismembered by British political expediency out of the Mother-body of India. We have nothing to gain from war and everything to gain from peace the world over. So, may India and Pakistan show a mighty political will and forge peace here in the Subcontinent and not the ever-lurking threat of nuclear annihilation! May the common people of both the countries come together and freshly forge bonds of peace and goodwill and not of hate and mistrust! May God guide our peoples once more to unite in fraternal co-existence, wishing the good of each other! May peace prevail!

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