WHY THE CRASH-THEORY CRASHES

Justin Li, the Justice Mukherjee Commission Enquiry has categorically stated that no air-crash had taken place at or in the vicinity of Taihoku Airport on 18 August, 1945 or within several weeks on either side of that date. The Mukherjee Commission has rejected the Air-crash Theory of the death of Netaji. This is on the basis of the Taiwan Government's disclosure that there is no such record with them of any such air-crash on or around that date at Taihoku Airport. Moreover, the crematorium records near the site of the alleged crash do not corroborate the death of Netaji and merely record the death of a Japanese by the name Ichiro Okura who had died of a cardiac arrest not on 18 August but on 19 August, 1945. Thus, there are great doubts about the factual truth of the supposed air-crash and, although, Netaji's close associate and fellow passenger on board the ill-fated flight, Col. Habib-ur-Rahman, testified that Netaji had indeed died of third degree burns subsequent to the crash, it is strange that Habib himself had hardly been burnt by the same fire despite the fact that he had held the burning Netaji close to his body. The watch he showed to Sarat Chandra Bose in Kolkata as having been recovered from Netaji's body was square-shaped which was also queer for Netaji ever wore round watches. Also, Habib's uniform made of cotton had not burnt at all. All these set Sarat Bose thinking that Habib was merely echoing the instructions of his leader (Netaji) and was not coming out with the truth although he was, perhaps, purposefully giving little hints to Sarat, through the inconsistencies in his deposition before the latter's informal cross-examination, that Subhas was after all alive. Till his last days Sarat Chandra Bose, thus, held on to the belief that Subhas had not died in the reported air-crash and that is a very credible reason why we must also seriously doubt the narrative of the alleged air-crash death. I have said what I had to say. Now do apprise us, Justin Li, of the reason for your understanding that Netaji had in all probability died in the air-crash.

RANI OF JHANSI REGIMENT ... 1

Ranis of the Rani of Jhansi Regiment of the INA. They looked upon Netaji as their father and Netaji also reciprocated the affection, looking upon the Ranis as his daughters. He took special care of them, saw to their comfort, safety and security. The Ranis adored Netaji and pledged to give their blood for the cause of India's freedom. And remember, so many of them were expatriate Indians, settlers in East Asia, who had never seen their ancestral homeland. Yet, such was the purity and charisma of Netaji that they pledged to give up their lives for the freedom of their ancestral motherland. These are our girls, valorous to the core, who served in the nursing department, in the espionage section and in actual combat as well. They wielded guns and grenades but were denied automatic weapons presumably for shortage of such weaponry. Their training was as rigorous as the men's and they fought shoulder to shoulder with them, the first of its kind in modern martial history.

WHEN TRUTH TAKES ITS TEST IN TIME

If you are a sincere follower of Netaji, you will live your life by his principles. Purity, self-control, discipline, patriotism, unselfishness, excellence and efficiency in work, helpfulness, generosity, the spirit of service and renunciation, and the aspiration for perfection are some of the attributes you will imbibe from Netaji and make them active in your life. Above all, you must ceaselessly work for nation-building and not indulge in idle talk, even for a moment, on the ever-increasing conspiracy theories about his disappearance that are doing the rounds these days. If you are truly interested in solving this puzzle, you must copiously read Netaji's Collected Works and works on him by other authors along with studying the declassified files on Netaji, the Enquiry Committee/Commission's Reports and the authentic books written on the disappearance issue.

Fruitless engagement in thrillers about the hero cannot take you anywhere near the truth about his mysterious disappearance. Few take the trouble to study the material available on Netaji's recorded life till 18 August, 1945 and most simply enjoy the thrill associated with fanciful thinking on Netaji's fate post 18 August, 1945, considering such idle imaginings and confabulation thereof to be their highest national duty when their insincerity is potently evident to all who read and research on India's liberator from foreign yoke. And do not please fall victim to sellers of books intent on raising passions about the disappearance issue simply to gain access to the penny which is yours for national service and not theirs to pocket somehow. Do not let Netaji die this way through your neglect of his true legacy.
I am no apologist for any nor do I subscribe to any particular theory as such but I feel that somehow we as a people are losing our contact with the historical Netaji in our idle bid to know the truth of his disappearance. I welcome all sincere researchers and readers to pursue the case but I seriously will dissuade all who are idling away time chasing wild geese. Research is one and weaving the web of falsity quite another. It seems that too much is at stake for too many and Netaji has become the fulcrum of it all. I pity the nation that has thus betrayed him, from the politician to the people, and I wonder if we even today deserve the greatness that had incarnated as Netaji.
Thanking you,
I remain ever yours in Netaji,
Sugata Bose

IN RESPONSE TO CHANDRA KUMAR BOSE'S REFRESHING ESSAY ON THE MAHATMA

lt is so refreshing to see Gandhi in a new light, especially, when one gets to understand his keen interest in technology as a means to overcoming the disadvantages of a poverty-stricken life. Somehow Gandhi even today, as always, continues to strike a concordant note in our hearts for his message transcends time and barriers of nationalities and addresses the basic questions of life everywhere.

Chandra Kumar Bose has very graciously allowed us access to the letter written by the Mahatma to his father, Amiya Nath Bose, and enriched our knowledge about this essentially overlooked element of the leader, that of his abiding interest in the technological progress of the nation for the welfare of its teeming millions toiling in the villages with less than the bare necessities of life available to them.

One more thing and it is this that we must, like Bose has in this article done, revisit Gandhi periodically to seek solutions in his writings to the myriad problems that beset our national life and the whole world of complex international relations.

Gandhi remains, thus, a beacon for humanity in a tempestuous sea of ignorance where the blind forces of selfishness lead us on to inevitable destruction but for the beams shining through the dark from the soul of this singular pilgrim trudging his solitary path of truth and non-violence en route to the luminous end of life, liberation.

http://www.dailyo.in/…/mahatma-gandhi-ind…/story/1/6599.html

IN RESPONSE TO A CONCERNED ONE'S QUERY

Abhijit Chatterjee, a simple way I will suggest to you and that is to be a lone crusader for the truth through adoption of the following measures :
1. Extensive reading on the matter and becoming an expert in it.
2. Living an exemplary life dedicated to Netaji for others to emulate.
3. Writing consistently on the life and disappearance of Netaji to keep the issue alive in public memory, however insignificantly it may be.
4. Having hope and faith in the eventual triumph of truth and never letting doubt cast its shadow on the movement ever.
5. Passing information about the whole affair verbally to as many people as possible, especially, bringing children into the ambit of this greater movement for they are to be the carriers of it all in the future.
6. In summation, reading, thinking, dreaming, living Netaji every moment till yours is a life transformed and you become a beacon in this turbulent ocean of ignorance, leading men unto the truth.

JUST A THOUGHT

A singular feature of Netaji was that other than him among the great national leaders of the time, none so categorically articulated that the British must be driven away from India at any cost. Others like Nehru and Gandhi were much more moderate in their approach and expressed views. It was Netaji alone who denounced the British Raj like anything and resorted to armed revolution to terminate its duration in India.

WHEN DECLASSIFIED FILES GO ABEGGING

Well said, Rajyashree Chaudhuri, perceptive you are in your reading of the situation that exists all around in the circles discussing the disappearance of Netaji. Frothy cherry-picked off-hand verbal brandishing is tantamount to nothing substantial. Thorough engagement in this venture of research and investigative reading may lead one closer to the truth, if at all. At the very least, one must have the mental resource to go through the contents of the declassified files and the Enquiry Commission / Committee Reports if one is to judge well of the matter that mystifies all. Far later will follow clarity of understanding to be able to appreciate the nuances of the case and whether there will be an easy answer to this rather messy affair that seemingly involves the bigwigs of many a nation.

Will it lead to a massive mayhem in the light of perfidies perpetrated by the powers that be? Will it undermine diplomatic relations between friendly nations? Will it lead to an overhauling of the historical narrative of the freedom struggle of this nation and a complete new understanding of the lives and careers of major world leaders who may have been party to the 'enforced' disappearance or possibly 'death' of the great Indian patriot? Well, the mist will clear only through the heat of austerity of study and not by casual flinging of unsubstantiated ideas churning conspiracy theories by the hour.

Time for sanity indeed if there is to be any substantial progress in this matter beyond idle speculation and vain talk. The rational mode, the spirit of empirical enquiry, the methodology of the exact sciences will serve as the basis for this investigation and not preconceived notions based on personal preference or prejudice. Facts unearthed must be mastered through careful study and plausible theories in the absence of concrete verifiable narratives hypothetically built up instead of thrusting preformed concoctions seeking verification in fact revealed and rejecting the revelation should the predisposition to assumed truth fail to stand up to the light of discovered data.

In essence all effort should be geared to the study of the plethora of information seeking their way through the dust of decades of disregard, disowning and disinheritance by the dispensers of democracy to the people of this nation. This is the one way then that remains for the discovery of the truth of Netaji's disappearance, for scholarship invariably finds its way through the labyrinth of this world, however tortuous the path may be to the enlightening end. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

SURYA KUMAR BOSE, A VIBRANT VOICE OF FREEDOM

A very revealing data-filled interview of Netaji's grand-nephew, Surya Kumar Bose in Germany. Pertinent questions by the interviewer and penetrative answers by the interviewee. Overall, a highly charged question and answer session with bolt from the blue responses by Bose to set viewers thinking along fresh lines about the disappearance of Netaji. One thing more and it is this --- what a clear head this grandson of Sarat Chandra Bose has that could not only give sharp and effective answers to probing questions thrust at it but could augment them in the light of historical happenings and personal and familial interactions with men of mark such as Mountbatten to drive home the point.

A very ordered mind with great control over data which the interviewer found difficult to throw off-balance with a consistent volley of probing questions which Bose answered with precision and poise without resorting to histrionics of any kind that is the wont of our everyday experience with television interviews. Bose did not duck a single question but gave point-blank answers even daring the Indian government of the times for their mysterious motivations post-independence towards the hero of the freedom struggle.

One watches the video to get a clear insight into the mind of a perceptive family member who has spent a lot of his life's time ruminating the issue of the injustice meted out to his great uncle who in every sense was the prime liberator of dependent India from her colonial subjugation. One wonders how humiliating it must feel to be at the receiving end of governmental snooping for decades when one's kith and kin have toiled and bled to free the very nation whose administrative heads betrayed them thus.

Our collective efforts will be to unite forces now in the name of Subhas Chandra and his illustrious elder brother Sarat in our bid to render justice to the premier personality of our times whose memory has become enshrouded in myths and legends of a variant kind far removed from reality and revolving around fantasies and fabrications of a future fulfilment, a foolish exercise in futility. One must take the cue from the rational disposition of Surya Kumar Bose to appreciate how one ought to proceed in the direction of investigative study of Netaji, his life and legacy, his disappearance and dismissal from the perverted presentation of India's history of colonial appeasement post-independence.

Today, let us own up our failings in having allowed this perversion thus far and let us firmly resolve to setting straight the record of our recent history with a will fortified in investigative understanding and in the knowledge thereof, a heart steeled in sacrificial love for the motherland and a mind motivated by pure and unalloyed devotion to the great cause awaiting us, the rewriting of the entire saga of the freedom movement as it had happened and not as it has been fed unto us by leaders lusting for power, devoid of the moral fibre to lead the vast mass of humanity that is India, the India of the Vedas and the Upanishads, the India that flourished on the banks of the Ganga, the Sindhu and the Saraswati and in the high Himalayas whence have issued earliest in human history the clarion call for freedom, the freedom of the soul of man from every indignity of matter and its ilk, the freedom that has been lost for ages and yet needs affirmation in virile action of the hour which is our ploughshare of the work we must perform and pass on the legacy to posterity for further fulfilment.

Thus, shall our nation rise once more to the pinnacle of her material and spiritual glory and in this completion of the act of freedom will we have repaid our debt to the revolutionaries who bled for it and to that prince among patriots, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

A final word of thankfulness to Surya Kumar Bose for having triggered off this chain of thoughts in my mind whose echo will find resonant vibrations in many a kindred soul. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFMTjMMKUok&t=60s

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SURYADA!

Happy birthday, Suryada!
This day my late father had also been born in 1923. So, this day is inextricably entwined with his hallowed memory and it now assumes added significance in the light of the fact that this very day, 68 summers ago, you had seen the light of life amidst the tumultuous restructuring of our motherland post-partition.
But you were lucky enough to have been blessed by your grandfather of venerable memory. You have seen him and he has seen you too and in this has been reinforced the bond of blood through the act of vision in a final benediction showered on you.
It is for you to carry on the legacy as each year brings you closer to the ideal of perfected patriotism which you so manifestly have been the exemplar of in your own way, however inconsequential to the larger picture of life it may have been but never quite insignificant so far as we are concerned who are inspired by your august presence in deliberations that conduce to the well-being of our motherland, especially, where it concerns the resurrection of our beloved Netaji in the memory of the nation.
Happy birthday once more, Suryada! May you be blessed with health and peace that you may in turn be the fount of happiness all around!
My pranam to you.
Sugata Bose

A PROMISE KEPT AS SHE HAS CALLED IT

Read this book to get some solid information about the one on whom fiction more than fact is nowadays abounding. Madhuri Bose must be thanked for her energy and enterprise in preserving the legacy of the Bose brothers who played such a seminal role in the achievement of freedom for India.

Sarat Chandra Bose was not only elder brother and mentor to Subhas Chandra but he was his close confidant in all his activities at home throughout his eventful political career prior to his great escape in 1941. Amiya Nath Bose was a dear nephew who Uncle Subhas (Ranga Kakababu) trusted as an able lieutenant as he plotted the downfall of the British Empire from his alliances with the Axis Powers abroad.

Amiya's reminiscences and verbal recordings have been here recorded in print permanently for posterity by daughter Madhuri and for this the nation must remember her exertions and effort with gratitude for good. For here is a treasure trove of vital information hitherto unrevealed and, so, unknown to the citizens of this great nation who adore Netaji like no other leader before or after him, and I say this with fullest responsibility having witnessed the love and adoration that the hero still draws in abundance from the masses across the length and breadth of this country.

The factual details recorded in this book are by no means to be revealed by this writer but must be read from the book itself to receive their due reward. Had Madhuri Bose not exerted herself enough in this grand venture, the nation would have been the poorer for it in terms of available data on the brothers Bose and for this no amount of thankfulness or gratitude may suffice to repay our debt. The best way then to exhibit our enthusiasm for the cause of freedom as envisioned by the daring duo will be to shake off our sloth and get to reading this book from cover to cover, and I say unto you, none shall be the poorer for this exercise in national duty, for in the remembrance of the heroes of the freedom struggle will be laid the foundation of true nation-building. Thank you, Madhuridi.

WHY THE INA GENERALS WERE RELEASED

And the defence of Bhulabhai Desai, so far as I gather, was that the accused (the three charged Generals of the INA, namely, Shah Nawaz Khan, Prem Kumar Sehgal and Gurbux Singh Dhillon) had waged war on the Anglo-American Allied forces not by way of seditious activity as subjects of the British Crown but on behalf of a sovereign State with its own independent functioning government, the Provisional Government of Free India headed by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, which had duly received diplomatic recognition from eleven States across the world including Germany, Japan and Russia, key players in World War II, and, as such, the captured soldiers of such a warring nation could not as per international law be tried for treason as subjects of the British Empire. Hence, the entire case fell through and the three generals were released unconditionally.

The response of the country to this release was uproarious as the INA soldiers emerged from the shadows of the closely guarded intelligence cover-up of their activity in the just concluded World War to the blaze of the midday sun and the entire country erupted in protest against further British occupation. The British Indian Armed Forces revolted, the Army at Jabalpore, the Air Force at Karachi from where it spread to sixty RAF stations across India, Ceylon and Singapore, and the Navy at Bombay. This shook the foundations of the British Indian Empire and they called it quits, not impelled by the Mahatma's Quit India Movement at all which had been squashed by the British within weeks of its initiation but by the impact of the INA on the now shifting loyalty of its erstwhile reliable soldiers who no longer could be depended on to fire on their own countrymen to hold British sovereignty over subjected India.

The above view of the unfolding drama of freedom is not based on the idle imagination or facile speculation of this writer --- elsewhere denounced by a critic as the incautious, simplistic, fallacious approach of the ardent admirer of Netaji to a complex historical episode demanding unbiased factual analysis and critical understanding thereof --- but is founded on the expressly articulated statement of Lord Clement Attlee to Chief Justice Phani Bhushan Chakraborty of the Calcutta High Court in 1956, then in the capacity of Acting Governor of West Bengal, when the former stayed as his guest at Raj Bhavan (Governor's House). Lord Attlee, who as Labour Party Prime Minister of Britain was instrumental in the Transfer of Power in 1947, had in response to Justice Chakraborty's query as to why the British, for no apparent reason in the wake of their victory in the Second World War and Gandhi's failed Quit India Movement, left India in a hurry in 1947, said that it was Bose's military activity that had significantly eroded the loyalty of the British Indian troops to the Crown which made the furtherance of the Raj in India a hazardous proposition. When inquired about Gandhi's role in bringing about their departure, I quote Justice Chakrabarty, "Attlee's lips became twisted in a sarcastic smile as he slowly chewed out the word, m-i-n-i-m-a-l."

So, there you are, my detractors, you have your ample answer. Now have the stomach to digest such new-found wisdom and grow into ardent admirers of Netaji like me and others whose number is legion. In it lies your well-being and in it lies the good of the nation as well for the bud of true patriotism will bloom once you have well-absorbed the legacy of the patriot premier, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

WHEN APPEARANCE MARS IT ALL ... (NETAJI SPECIFIC)

Dear members,

It is a pity that people do not participate generally in conversation about the content of a post and merely go about liking the photograph attached to it which hardly does justice to the hero who we hail here for his wondrous attainments and wish for reasoned deliberation on the mystery surrounding his disappearance post 18 August, 1945. While all are welcome to liking his photograph, it hardly serves the greater purpose behind the structuring of this page in Netaji's honour. It is, therefore, hoped that members will take cognisance of this fact and engage themselves in rational debate and discussion on Netaji in so far as the matter of a particular post allows them the freedom to do so, for all writing is intended to bring about fruitful communication between the writer and the reader. If photo-liking is all that matters, it will be better if members will articulate such an ardent aspiration and this writer will strive to post the most gorgeous photographs of our beloved leader that are there in his kitty. And where comments do come, they are often so off-topic, again related to the attached photograph, that they make a mockery of anyone writing the post.

With no offence meant to any and with the fond hope of a reversal of this unwelcome trend,
I remain humbly yours in Netaji,
Sugata Bose (administrator).

WHEN APPEARANCE MARS IT ALL ... (GENERAL)

Dear members,

It is a pity that people do not participate generally in conversation about the content of a post and merely go about liking the photograph attached to it which hardly does justice to the heroes and the heroines we hail here for all their wondrous attainments, their life, philosophy and message to humanity. While all are welcome to liking the photographs of these luminous beings, it hardly serves the greater purpose behind the structuring of this page in their honour. It is, therefore, hoped that members will take cognisance of this fact and engage themselves in rational debate and discussion on the subject matter of a write-up for all writing is intended to bring about fruitful communication and, wherever possible, interaction between the writer and the reader. If photo-liking is all that matters, it will be better if members will articulate such an ardent aspiration and this writer will strive to post the most gorgeous photographs of our beloved leaders that are there in his kitty. And where comments do come, they are often so off-topic, again related to the attached photograph, that they make a mockery, albeit unintended, of the content of the post.

With no offence meant to any and with the fond hope of a reversal of this unwelcome trend,
I remain humbly yours in Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-Netaji,
Sugata Bose

JUST AN OBSERVATION

I have noticed one thing that the INA soldiers and officers never refer to Netaji as Subhas Chandra Bose unlike so many others who prefer to call him sparingly Netaji and more often Subhas Chandra Bose or Subhas Bose or Subhas Chandra or Subhas or simply Bose, the last two forms of address simply sounding so jarring to the ear.

TWO QUESTIONS : I invite your answers in the form of comments

1. Why do millions concentrate more on the disappearance of Netaji and his possible whereabouts and eventual fate and do not so much bother about absorbing real-life lessons from the historical personality of the patriot perennial?

2. Why do some people always object to discussions on the disappearance of Netaji and wish him dead by air-crash in 1945, stating that his known life is more important than discussion on the so-called unknown?

IN GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Thank you, Narayanan Gandhi, for yet again rectifying a verbal lapse of mine, intended entirely by way of improvisation but not quite in keeping, it seems, with the accepted usage of the word and, hence, with gratitude I have changed 'excepting' to the less musical and rather coarse and, ought I to say, in the context of its use, a trifle harsh, 'exempting' as suggested by you and, so, I remain your disciple to that linguistic extent in all humility and beg your pardon for being boorish enough to cross you in conference over the said usage, although, I must say that I did do some referencing initially on being questioned by you to no effect in terms of understanding though. Eventually, the fact that 'excepting' is not a verb clinched the issue in your favour and I humbly accepted your suggested alteration of the word. Thank you for being such a knowledgeable individual and I pray that you will use your considerable talents to serving our motherland and our heroes instead of setting about to disparaging one in particular.

A REQUEST TO ALL

I request every group member not to engage in fruitless deliberation with a particular member, by now known to you all, who is disruptive, distracting and distasteful in his arguments. Do not accept his bait of a disorienting comment or two or even more, in case he cannot elicit from you a response, that progressively leads you to verbal desperation whereupon you lose your composure and peace of mind which is wholly unwarranted. Time is precious and so is energy and concentration of mind and these must not be frittered away in chasing wild geese. I, thus, exhort all members to disengage themselves from this particular member and allow him the self-space to ruminate in silence, reflect on Netaji and Gandhiji and all his heroes, fatally flawed or otherwise, for in it constitutes the well-being of all, the offender and the offended alike, and in this last bit of use of adjective, I am not exempting any from my disapproval considering the progressively declining standard of conversation in the group of late. Further alerts will be forthcoming in case the present one fails to elicit the requisite response from group members.

IN QUICK RESPONSE TO AN OBJECTION RAISED AGAINST MY REPEATED POSTING OF THE COVER PHOTOGRAPH OF SAMAR GUHA'S BOOK 'NETAJI DEAD OR ALIVE?' BY WAY OF COVER PICTURE OF A PERTINENT GROUP PAGE ADMINISTERED BY ME

Dear friend,

You have raised an objection apparently to my repeated posting of the cover photograph of Samar Guha's book entitled 'Netaji Dead or Alive?' by way of cover picture of a pertinent group administered by me, which then automatically shows up as a post proper on the group page. Your objection, I gather, is owing to the fact that Netaji in your perception is still alive at any rate, either physically in his mortal body or in your heart as a perennial palpable memory. Well, the answer to your question lies in this that it is to make people read this book and be aware of the truth about Netaji's disappearance in so far as this book goes to reveal it, for at the time of its publication classified files on Netaji today declassified were not yet so, that I have been repeatedly drawing people's attention to this seminal work on Netaji's disappearance by a scholar and a devotee who has spent the larger part of his life in pursuit of the aforesaid truth.

A simple question by way of enquiry may I also raise, dear devotee? Have you read this book? I hope you have. If not, do take the pains to go through it once. Mere emotional effusions will not do. Hard labour in terms of adequate research is necessary to back up one's emotional attachment to Netaji for, as the saying goes, it is the combination of head and heart that does wonders for the hand to eventually execute its resolutions. Only then shall one be worthy of the hero who was such an ardent scholar as well and such a wondrous exemplar of all that goes by the name of sincerity of purpose. Also, do you not see the validity of the name of the book in terms of the terrible perfidies perpetrated over seventy years on Netaji by our own government and by those of foreign countries with a whole lot of vested interests in our home affairs? If so, then why do you raise this opposition to the post, even if repeated, and if not, then why do you not retrace your steps in opposition to the adoption of a more conciliatory approach to the entire issue and get to reading the book which has been penned by a tireless crusader for the unearthing of the truth about Netaji's mysterious disappearance, a Parliamentarian and an author of considerable repute and one who no less than you or me held Netaji in endearing adoration? I rest my case here. May good sense prevail! Jai Netaji! Jai Hind!

A SUDDEN REFLECTION

As I read more and more on Netaji, he seems to me to be a divinely commissioned being born to free India and many a suppressed people across Asia from colonial subjugation. His deeds were valorous, his insight into history prophetic and his character unblemished by the least taint of lowliness or selfish motivation that is the common badge of so many others who have gone by wearing accolades from the multitude who were duped by their crafty designs to submit to their perfidies, worst of all of which was the treachery done to the hero of India's last war of liberation. Devotees of Netaji, if you do not study the life of our greatest revolutionary with care and persistence, where are we header for? Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

A WORD FOR ALL WHO CARE

Netaji's honour is India's honour, his dishonour India's dishonour. This is not fanaticism but this is patriotism and detractors of Netaji cannot be allowed to deride him in the name of having casual fun at his expense or indulging in senseless thought-experiments utterly repugnant in content and motivation. At the same time devotees of Netaji also ought to remember that the supremely civilised and highly spiritually evolved Netaji does not require his followers to pour invective against other seminal leaders of the freedom movement or their admirers. Such accusations and counter-accusations prove sterile in the long run and lead to aberrations in the understanding of history which demands a free, fair and objective outlook, a perspective untainted by preference or prejudice, and a curiosity to know the truth irrespective of personal attachment or angularities of circumstance.

It is high time that the followers of Netaji take to the study of his life and works more than indulging in fruitless deliberation over idle points raised against the hero to belittle him. At the same time one must not denigrate Gandhiji and Pandit Nehru using foul language despite the grave injustice to Netaji they have caused which has cost the motherland dear. To state a point in opposition to an earlier averment by someone need not induce one to stoop low in insulting a fellow countryman however malicious may his comments against Netaji be. One may counter such comments with solid rational argument if one feels inclined to. Else, one may simply ignore them and move on with one's study of the life and attainments of Netaji who is the life-blood of this group of committed members.

In summation I say that a fuller knowledge of the achievements of our beloved leader will help retain sanity of discourse here on this page which has of late been disturbed slightly by verbal vitriol between antagonists in debate. May civility prevail and knowledge of the supreme sacrifice of so many of the martyrs and patriots of the freedom struggle inspire us all to engage fruitfully hereon in deliberation, debate and dialogue on contentious issues of the freedom movement with neither animosity nor anger playing the spoilsport! Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

PEACE AT LAST

Peace at last. What a protracted suffering for the redemption of suffering humanity! Veritably the soul of sacrifice even unto the very end. Most revered Srimat Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj (15th President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission) has folded his earthly vesture and set it aside. He is on his ethereal journey, a tired child seeking rest on the lap of the Mother. His departure time was 5:30 p.m., 18 June, 2017.
Born Satyakrishna Bhattacharya at Sabajpur in erstwhile East Bengal in May, 1919, disciple of Sri Ramakrishna's direct disciple Swami Vijnanananda, Swami Atmasthananda was one of the all-time luminaries of the Order notwithstanding the fact that he grew to be the President of the Order. With his demise an era ends as the last of the titans of the Order has seemingly passed away.
Atmasthanandaji was the witness to the consecration of the New Temple of Sri Ramakrishna at Belur Math in 1937 and had met and served several direct disciples of the Master, having been almost comically beaten by a stick by Kedar Baba (Swami Achalananda) into submission to becoming a monk at the age of 22 thereby relinquishing further academic pursuit at the post-graduate level.
The boy Satyakrishna used to play marbles at his Sabajpur ancestral house with Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. Anecdotes like this keeping flooding the corridors of my mind. There is so much to say and so little may yet be said now as we line up to pay our last respects this night and the morrow to follow whereupon his mortal remains will be consigned to the flames beside the Ganga at the sacred cremation site of Belur Math. My last reverence to this early spiritual mentor of mine with a final prostration (pranam) at his hallowed feet.

TITANS OF THE TIMES

SWAMI GAHANANANDA

The 14th and the 15th Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, Srimat Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj (facing right) and Srimat Swami Atmasthanandaji Maharaj (facing left). These two stalwarts of the Order have given shape in many a way to what we now know as the Ramakrishna Movement.

Gahananandaji, disciple of Srimat Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj who was the 6th President of the Order and a disciple himself of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, had served as the able assistant to another illustrious member of the Ramakrishna Order, Srimat Swami Dayanandaji Maharaj who had founded the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan. Dayanandaji was a disciple of Holy Mother too and a brilliant student who after a stay of several years in the United States of America had returned with the mission of eliminating undue infant mortality. Comparing the death rates in USA and in India, he was mortified and resolved to do away with this scourge in India once and for all. He then pioneered a movement of maternity care promising to the Mission authorities that he would bear the burden of his life-care mission throughout his life. When his elder brother Shrimat Swami Madhavanandaji Maharaj, the 9th President of the Order attained mahasamadhi, the Mission authorities approached Swami Dayanandaji to assume the presidency of the Order but he humbly declined the offer remembering his earlier promise to the Order about looking after the Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan for his whole life. Such was the sacrifice these stalwarts of old made with effortless ease and it was at the feet of this sage that Swami Gahananandaji (Naresh Maharaj) learnt the art and science of running the Misison's maternity care unit.

Times were changing, Dayanandaji was growing old and he increasingly began depending on his able assistant in running the hospital till he relinquished responsibility of being Secretary in 1963 and handed over charge to the young and dynamic Gahanananda. For the next 22 years Gahananandaji guided the course of the hospital and with the blessings of his mentor built up a 550 bed general hospital. He had served the Seva Pratishthan from 1958 to 1985 and this was his active life's seminal contribution to the Order and to suffering humanity. Later, as Vice-President and then President of the Order, Gahananandaji initiated over 142,000 aspirants with the sacred mantra and changed the course of the lives of this vast body of disciples towards the highest end of human life, God-realization. His inspirational life serves even today as a beacon for us all who have seen him and have been blessed by him as we navigate through the turbulent sea of life.

SWAMI ATMASTHANANDA

Atmasthanandaji, our beloved President Maharaj, who is ailing and is now in a most critical state in Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, is the other titan of the order of recent times. Born in Sabajpur in erstwhile East Bengal in 1919, he came over to Calcutta to do his university studies when he was caught in the wondrous web of the peerless Paramahamsa and after initiation from Shrimat Swami Vijananandaji Maharaj, the 4th President of the Order and a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, he joined the Order at the behest of Kedar Baba (Swami Achalananda). Soon he was afforded the opportunity to serve the then President of the Order, Swami Virajanandaji as his personal attendant. He received his brahmacharya and sannyas vows from him.

Atmasthanandaji, commonly called Satyakrishna Maharaj, initially served at the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Order at Belur Math, the branch centre of Deoghar Vidyapith and in the Mayavati Advaita Ashrama. He remained in the holy company of Swami Virajananda for several years at the Shyamla Tal Ashrama as well. Thereafter, in 1952 he was posted to Ramakrishna Mission Ranchi TB Sanatorium as Assistant Secretary. In 1958 he was transferred by the Mission authorities to Rangoon Sevashrama where he had to take up charge as Secretary. Such was the dexterity in work of Swami Atmasthananda that soon the Sevasharma became unarguably the finest hospital in Burma. However, with the advent of military rule in Burma, the hospital was brought under the control of the forces and Swami Atmasthananda bid adieu to Burma.

He returned home in 1965 and was posted to Rajkot the following year as administrative head of the centre. His most glorious contribution here was the building up of the beautiful Ramakrishna Temple of Rajkot Ashrama. Elected trustee of Ramakrishna Math and member of the Governing Body of Ramakrishna Mission in 1973, Swami Atmasthananda became an integral part of the administration of the twin organisation. In 1975 he was promoted to the rank of Assistant Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Soon he was given the charge of Relief Operations of the organisation and made its Secretary. It is said that it was he who organised the entire relief system of the Mission into a highly efficient modern scientific system which could deliver help in times of natural calamity with speed and energy adequate to the exigencies of the times.

Thereafter, General Secretary in 1992, Vice President in 1997 and President of the Ramakrishna Order in 2007 following the mahasamadhi of Swami Gahanananda, Swami Atmasthananda held sway over Mission matters till yesterday when at 5.30 p.m. he breathed his last at Ramakrishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata. His mortal coil will remain in state at Belur Math overnight and will be cremated today at the sacred cremation site in the Math overlooking the Ganga. Millions have been left orphaned by this tragic loss to humanity, no less the Prime Minister for whom the departed soul has over five decades been spiritual counsellor and guide. Our prostrations at the lotus feet of Swami Atmasthananda. Jai Ramakrishna! Jai Ma!

MY TEARFUL REVERENCE A LAST TIME, MAHARAJ PASSES AWAY

My tearful reverence a last time. Maharaj passes away.

THEY DIED IN BLOOM ... 1 ... MARTYR ANIL DAS (18.06.1906 -- 17.06.1932)

Martyrs are the chosen ones of the Mother, they who are nearest to Her heart, who She chooses to sacrifice at the altar of Her freedom.

If you observe the photographs of the freedom fighters, especially those of the martyrs, you will find an ethereal unearthly look on their faces, in the expression of their eyes, a sublimity born out of supreme love for the motherland and a sacrificial spirit that stops at nothing to give oneself wholly to the cause of the motherland's freedom, even dear life, seeking nothing in return but the opportunity to fulfil this act of self-giving (atmadaan).

Revolutionary Anil Das was one such martyr, brutally tortured by the British Indian police for 11 days in a Dacca (Dhaka) jail before he succumbed to his injuries in police custody, who we need to remember often as we conduct our daily life if we are to love our motherland well. If we fail in this, we will have forfeited our right to call ourselves citizens of a free country for freedom subsists in grateful recognition and remembrance of they who bled to free us.

My prostrations at the martyr's feet in memory of his martyrdom day which was duly observed at Deshapriya Park, South Kolkata, yesterday, the 17th day of the month of June when 85 years ago he had laid down his life to build this free world for us which in our oblivion of the sacrifices of the martyrs we have taken for granted as if we owe nothing to them or to the country they considered their true mother. I leave you to deliberate ans send a request to each one to buy the biography of Anil Das and to read it by way of your manifested reverence to him and through him to all such who are the forgotten heroes of our motherland.

P.S. Anil Das' birthday is today, 18 June. He died having completed 26 solar orbits exactly.

READ THIS REPORT BY DR. JAYANTA CHOUDHURI

http://epaper.thestatesman.com/m5/1247541/Dainik-Statesman/17th-June-2017#page/4/1

A revealing report by eminent Netaji scholar, Drjayanta Choudhuri, that is scathing in its literary offence against the perfidies perpetrated against the patriot premier of our motherland and has sounded afresh the clarion call to all, especially those of West Bengal, for being active in demanding of the government the erasing of the lie of the air-crash for good. Read this piece of synoptic journalism to learn, dispel illusions and destroy delusions that have clouded conceptions over seven decades of political betrayal of the people of India. This year India will celebrate her 70th anniversary of independence. Let this year then be the year of the resurrection of the hero form the 'ashes' of the past unto the sanctum sanctorum of our consciousness where he must abide in fullest glory as the first and the only Head of State (Provisional Government of Free India) of undivided free India, a structural solidarity, historically impaired through Partition, which will in the fullness of time be restored as well and the motherland rendered whole as she ever was in the minds of the true patriots of this country. Till then, arise countrymen to undo the fell deed of the powers that be that has besmirched the attainments of Netaji and his INA, and has sent the whole nation with it to irreparable damage and despair.

This foreword written in English is not a part of the editorial post by the author but has been added here by way of introduction to readers by Sugata Bose exclusively on his own initiative for which he bears sole responsibility. I wish here to thank the author, Drjayanta Choudhuri, for this pertinent piece of writing in the very month when the identity of Gumnami Baba of Faizabad is being scrutinised by the Sahai Commission. Hopefully, we will lend our ears to the passionate call of the author for rightful activism to erase falsity and to resurrect the truth about Netaji.