REFLECTIONS ... 3

1. Posing to be a preceptor (Guru) does no good to the masses you cater to in the absence of genuine spiritual realisation. Instead it harms the cause of nation-building. Anything fraudulent cannot conduce to human good and it will require public rejection of such for the nation's true spiritual heritage to be the common property of all. Effective education right from childhood in India's spiritual culture will remedy this disease to a large extent overtime and give power to the masses to rise rejuvenated.

2. We must preach our scriptures free and pure without pandering to the vanity of the West. This tendency to suit truth to others' requirements is veritably the practice of falsity and bears no significance in eventual terms in so far as communication of essential truth is concerned.

3. Commerce and politics are corrupting the order of the day as mass literacy of a low kind exposes the multitude to a myriad deception by the crafty manipulators of Hindu spiritual truth to suit their own pecuniary ends. It is time to educate the masses in that ancient lifeline of our civilisation --- Sanskrit. Only then will culture cease to have its present down-flow and the masses be made aware of their genuine inheritance, the pristine philosophy of the Vedas.

4. In an age of plummeting culture a return to one's spiritual roots is the answer to all evil consequent on such degeneration. The scriptures must be studied with reverence under the guidance of preceptors of realisation and their aphoristic content comprehended and assimilated in one's system through meditative introspection. The nervous currents will be thus re-directed along higher channels leading to Self-realisation in the fullness of time. Character will have then been built and its fragrance spread all around filling the environment with vibrations of peace and bliss. Such a being, no more a mortal material personality that perishes at the touch of carnal contact but one that has transcended such transitory limitations, remains in this perishable world of ours, nonetheless, as a source of spiritual replenishment, a fount of divine bliss and a veritable pilgrimage, the interface of the human and the divine.

5. How restrained in speech, civilised to the core, loving and forgiving the disciples of the Master of successive generations are! An object lesson for those that engage in fruitless vitriol against fellow civilians in a nation desperately trying to throw off the baggage of past perfidies and establish itself in the comity of nations. Ramakrishna remains the way out of the present dissonance into the consonance of the future.

6. But for Thakur (Sri Ramakrishna) where else shall we go? He is the rudder of our lives and he is our polestar.

7. When you seek, question : when you serve, be silent.

8. The philosopher friend yet again in regal bearing redolent of yesteryears when dignity prevailed over external form and the soul of man bespoke through the outer frame that was rendered thus divine. Salutations to this sterling soul, quite a rarity these days of surface dreams and selfish ends seeking sense gratification at any cost. Susanta Mullick remains entrenched in the classical Ramakrishna culture inspirational to all.

HOW CULTURE IS PLUMMETING EVEN WHERE NETAJI IS CONCERNED!

Dear friend,
Calling someone a pest for whatever he may be is not appreciated here. The person your adversary spoke about derisively was so civilised in his response. It is time to learn from your leader a bit of refinement of rejoinder. I am not endorsing and I have never endorsed offensive statements about or aspersions cast on Netaji or anybody else for that matter, neither do I consider linguistic refinement used in malefic mode very civilised, but to hear that a human being is a pest, goes against the tenor of my temperament, against the sense of my soul and I pity today's youth who can indulge in such invective.
It is futile talking to someone like you, quite beneath my dignity, for, by self-admission, you are an arrogant brat and deserve no better of my attention.
Are these then the liberators of the Liberator of India, followers who have no sense of respectfulness to any whatsoever? Are these the ones who will bring justice to Netaji's cause? I feel sorry for the nation. A young man should know how to address older people with respect and however great an activist he may be, he must not violate other people's private space by questioning encroachment questionable at that, for that will be deemed transgression of the citizen's rights and will be blameworthy.
Are these the ones that question me as to where I ought to be on the day of a rally? Have all people written off their life's duties for following the fancies of a few? To pass judgement like this on me is proof as to why our country is going to the ruins and needs an effective return to our roots of civility if we are to rise as a people.
Would you, dear friend, have stayed up whole nights for nearly four years now to nurse my mother and have stayed indoors for nearing five years now to do some such duty? No, you would not have done so, for, after all, she is my mother and it is bounden on me and not you to do such joyful service to the exclusion of all else.
I have dedicated my whole life to the regeneration of our nation along the lines of Swami Vivekanand'a thinking and find it utterly repugnant to hear such open accusation as to my failure to discharge my national duty by failing to participate in the Netaji Rally risking terrible damage, perhaps death, to my helpless mother?
And this is not the first time that such an accusation I have played host to. On an earlier occasion some months back a lady of estimable governmental executive employment verbally attacked me forthwith without any prior provocation, likewise questioning my commitment to the cause of seeking justice for Netaji on the premise that I was culpable to negligence of national duty when I expressed my inability to organise a rally on Netaji at the Maidan on her behalf. My present inability to do so on account of my mother's desperately failing health she brushed aside as so much excuse on my part, for even her motherly apparently is ailing, and squarely blamed me for being hypocritical in awakening public interest in the disappearance activism and, yet, keeping aloof from the same on such flimsy ground of mother's illness. My horror knew no bounds then and is accentuated by today's happenings and it makes me feel utter repugnance at such shallow activism on behalf of the man who was the toast of the world and an epoch-maker in modern world history.
When I hear from you, dear friend in combat, that Arjun had questioned elders like Bhishma and Drona on pertinent points of statecraft and life and, therefore, it is fine for a self-styled Netaji activist like you to be disrespectfully questioning of the intentions of elders like me in the conducting of our life's affairs, I am impelled to conclude that Duryodhan is being confused by you as Arjun here, in which case I am sorry to arrive at a rather roguish inference about your own superimposed supposed mythological identity. Then I begin to wonder whether the so-called keepers of conscience of the country today, such as you seemingly in self-delusion believe yourself to be, are at all well-versed in our scriptures or mythological lore to which I, the butt of your criticism, have dedicated a lifetime in thought and reflection.
I am being told by you, my ardent adversary in this rather rancorous deliberation, that I ought to get it straight that you are the follower of Netaji, and Netaji alone, and none else in this wide world but Netaji. Well, in that case let me counter-claim that I am straight enough, for I have practised rectitude all my life, to quite comprehend your ideological leanings and bearing at that.
Perhaps, you have forgotten that I had openly praised you for the RTI act of yours some months back in an article of mine written expressly to congratulate you and you did not even acknowledge it openly in a like manner in any forum, for after all you must have thought I was giving lip-service on a social medium, utterly insincere or, perhaps, even attempting to bask in your newfound glory. However, more eminent personalities than Your Highness have been courteous in acknowledgement of the same when I have written on them. Perhaps, they value my writing and you do not, for you pass me off dismissively as a dabbler in facebook talk, even a la facebook revolutionary of silicon speeches amounting to nothing relative to your street-hitting, risking all.To monopolise devotion to Netaji in your preferred way may suit you fine for the while but does not necessarily suit others. Hence, your diatribe against my commitment to the cause will best in future be kept to the custody of your heart and ought not to hit the streets as well.
I can only say that culture is on the decline and it saddens me to see the decadence of my motherland thus. Time it is for the Lord to resurrect Himself from the womb of this ocean of humanity as He has promised aeons ago and save our benighted nation from impending doom.
'Vidya dadati vinayam' --- knowledge bestows humility. May I add to this the converse theorem as well --- 'Vinamrata dadati vidya' --- humility quickens knowledge.
Long ago Swami Vivekananda was asked by a householder disciple of his as to why the youth were going the wrong way. The Swami had replied, ''It is because of the absence of that wonderful Brahmacharya system of yore."
He who cannot serve his own mother can never serve the motherland well. And the motherland is the mere reflection of the Divine Mother seated in the heart of sentience, 'sadaa janaanaang hridaye sannivishtaha'.
Those that clamour in the name of Netaji ought to introspect before labelling others as being negligent of their duty to the hero's cause and should practise continence (brahmacharya) for a few years like Netaji did before they have the enlarged vision to comprehend the vast philosophy that impelled the patriot premier to take up the task of freeing the motherland. Before asserting verbally affiliation to Netaji's cause, they should LIVE THE LIFE that the young Netaji in spiritual terms had lived.
Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

THE QUEST FOR PEACE ... 1

The situation is not that simple, Juthika Sarkar. In a world of terrible iniquities with gross violation of human dignity by the inglorious gratification of desires pertaining to the capital, impoverishment of the teeming millions does not leave enough space to deem that mere individual inner peace without addressing these major issues is going to solve the problem arising from absence of global peace or that it can sufficiently conduce to the creation of conditions on a global scale to foster peace.

If peace is to be achieved, it has to be on the basis of curtailment of individual desires and the provision for the collective good thereof. Besides, territorial greed of nations, trying to better the condition of their own people, leads to war. We are stuck up still in the 19th century ideal of nationalism which has already caused two world wars and threatens a third yet again.

Mere verbal effusions on social media or on political platforms will not transform the consciousness of the men in power. A vaster idea emanating from the depth of the illumined individual and activated en masse by vast numbers of dedicated followers with only human benefit in view without any tendency to proselytise and gain in numbers for political purposes is the call of the hour even as the hour flits by into the penultimate phase of a vast destruction on a global scale.

Forget not the depletion of the ozone layer and the warming up of the planet, the drying up of rivers and the extinction of so many species. These will all have to be addressed along with meditative inner peace of the individual.

Differentiation at the fundamental level of Nature is the scheme of phenomena and to address it well for harmonious living is the programme for peace. It is a much more complex issue than is apparent and has consumed the attention of thinkers since antiquity. Thus, to posit simplistic solutions on the spur of the moment, while understandable on behalf of individual involvement in the whole episode that concerns all, is not going to be the way out of the current mess in which evolving humanity is entrapped.

REMARK OFF THE CUFF ... 3

1. Partition was betrayal of the nation and became unavoidable only after the Tripuri traitors had driven Subhas Chandra Bose out of the country.

2. This sense of alienation from the culture of the land progressively brought about by a persistent refusal to use the mother tongue in an appropriate way without frequent interspersing of it with English words is a debilitating tendency in the urban middle class that is symptomatic of a decadent race suffering from temporary amnesia of its roots. A retelling of the true history of the nation with proper emphasis on its glorious attainments without indoctrination of any sort will go a long way in countering this cultural corruption and relocating the people of this land in their traditional terrain with a memory of the past, an imagination of the future and a fusion of the twain converging to creative output in the present that will shape the destiny of this supreme civilisation of the world.  

AN INTERESTING CONVERSATION WITH SARMISHTHA SANYAL

Sarmishtha Sanyal Few months back was flipping through a book about India written by an Indian, a JNU prof at Boston public library which doesn't mention the name of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the chapter of prominent Indians. ..felt sad and surprised. ..

Sugata Bose Why, Sarmishtha, you must have felt indignant as well, did you not? I, for sure, am feeling it on being made aware of this blatant betrayal of our hero by these 'so-called heartless intellectuals', to use the description which the Swami Vivekananda made of these corrupt cases of colonial consciousness, the remnants of their perfidious past, the hangover of their inebriated indulgence in the field of their diabolic dance.

Sarmishtha Sanyal I am indeed.

Sugata Bose Sarmishtha, read on as I write a fuller account of what we ought to do by way of countering these, what I call 'seditious moves', for they much malign through such deliberate neglect our brightest stars in the firmament of world history and, so, go against genuine national interest where it comes to estimation of our national worth in the eye of the international community.

Sugata Bose Why, Sarmishtha, you must have felt indignant as well, did you not? I, for sure, am feeling it on being made aware of this blatant betrayal of our hero by these 'so-called heartless intellectuals', to use the description which the Swami Vivekananda made of these corrupt cases of colonial consciousness, the remnants of their perfidious past, the hangover of their inebriated indulgence in the field of their diabolic dance. Moreover, it is not good enough any more to merely feel indignant as well, for these wrong representations will have to be effectively countered by newer narrations of an old history, a retelling of the revolutionary saga in the light of their actual consequences on the winning of freedom. Here, we have a work at hand and we must diligently apply ourselves towards setting the records straight such that future generations the world over and especially in our benighted nation are not deprived of the real history of all that has been glorious and much that has been inglorious in our national life.

Netaji may be neglected by noxious elements, ignored by ignoramuses masquerading as intellectuals and it will not cost the hero much, for all are aware but choose not to admit for dubious political purposes the worth of this seminal being who virtually transformed the history of the world through his thorough undermining of British imperialism in India and in South-east Asia, but there are other lesser luminaries but no less sacrificing souls than our supremo who have been obliterated from the pages of history books by deliberate denial of their role in the unshackling of colonial bondage. Unto these we owe our freedom in a large measure and unto these may we dedicate the remainder of our lives now that we know that there are forces at work for a very long time now that threaten to thwart the growth of our country to its fullest stature by diverting the attention of its citizens to a peripheral reading of its history by a consistent denial of its core values, be they in the sphere of the freedom movement or in that of the cultural consciousness of this great nation which in times of yore has been veritably the cradle of human civilisation at its highest. Jai Hind!

OH, TO BE IN ENGLAND!

Constant conversation in English among elite Indians speaking the same vernacular is a disease rampant, pernicious and reprehensible. This shallow sense of self-identification through reflected culture having no roots in one's own national heritage is a sort of cultural treachery that is gaining moment among the growing middle class as well and is proof of our lack of knowledge of our glorious cultural traditions, rich and diverse, one that has nourished the civilisation of Asia for long and whose influence was once felt even in ancient Greece.

An incorrect and biased history of India presented by Western historians and Indologists coupled with independent India's capitulation to and furtherance of such a narrative where the West has ever been portrayed as the major civilising and modernising force for India and the abysmal ignorance of one's culture thereof, has been the cause of this debasement of educated India. This sort of rootlessness in language comes from a shameful complex of inferiority vis-a-vis the British and must forthwith be rectified through an amendment of our attitude towards our vernaculars. Only when we feel proud of our heritage and culture will we gain national efficiency in work and will be respected in turn by all the peoples of the world who for their part have always retained their cultural identity through strict adherence to their language and lore.

AHA! WE ARE SECULAR

Sugata Bose  Secular, indeed, we are. Indira Gandhi's government that brought in the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution was innocent of the English language. But so what? Mrs. Gandhi's advisers may have been innocent of English, but not so the rest of the populace and the political parties. They quickly became true adherents of secularism and turned the 'Punya Bhumi' (Holy Land) into land profane devoid of values in public life. Now none can say we were not accurate about our interpretation and application in life of 'secularism' for we have been perfect representatives of it. That is what you would call 'Satygraha' (enthusiasm / aspiration for truth) retrograde style.

Sugata Bose Which community Chandra Babu? Name it. Why this diffidence? Ah! I get it. You are thinking, 'What's in a name?' Right?

CHANDRA KUMAR BOSE, A LEADER WITH AN UNFOLDING MISSION

Chandra Kumar Bose is by the day developing into an orator par excellence with chiselled words pregnant with deep import issuing from his lips. His sense of humour is also impeccable and, overall, I must say that he is a gift unto us in these days of decadent politics when inferior intellect competes with coarse culture to win accolades and approval of the electorate even as the latter is molested into periodic submission to the democratic farce of choosing between the lesser of the two evils at loggerheads for victory in the polls. In such a power-crazy corrupt polity, Chandra Kumar Bose has come as a breath of fresh air, bringing sanity to the political discourse replete with frequent reminiscences of the revolutionaries of the freedom struggle and intimate details of the life of that supreme revolutionary, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, as revealed in reminisced and recorded familial interaction which Chandra Kumar Bose has gleaned meticulously for which the nation must in gratitude salute him.

We have lost many a luminary through sheer neglect of their genius, inconsiderate and insensitive that we are as yet as a nation. Let us remember, therefore, that every other day a Chandra Kumar Bose is not born who so ardently articulates his political faith derived from his illustrious ancestors, Sarat Chandra Bose (grandfather) and Subhas Chandra Bose (granduncle) and so emphatically declares his patriotic political stand. This is so much at variance with the rest of the leaders of the polity today that it stands out as a striking feature in this scion of the Bose family. Let us then offer our unstinted support to this gentleman of noble lineage and nobler intentions who has made it his life's mission to unravel the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his great ancestor, Netaji, and let us, so, offer our ploughshare of labour to the great cause that he represents.

After a long long time we seem to have found in Chandra Kumar Bose a leader who we can trust as one who is motivated by a mission and not mercenary or malefic considerations centring the petty personal self. Let us cherish this gift of God to us and so help our leader in his crusade for the discovery of the truth about Netaji, long suppressed by political dispensations of the past seventy-two years across the globe but whose hour of final revelation is now knocking on our doors. Jai Hind!

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

We need a national narrative rising above communal and caste politics which will unite the nation. Netaji is the way.

The military must be strengthened and a strong centralised governmental machinery must operate for a length of time to discipline the nation into an effective polity that will not be self-destructive but will be responsible to itself and work for its true welfare. Stringent legal measures must be adopted against all those who upset the smooth functioning of the legislature and such activity must be deemed seditious and tried accordingly.

Education must be the prime priority and a sizeable section of the budget must be set aside for research and developmental work. Education must be strengthened at both ends, the primary level and the university level so that a proper product of quantitative and qualitative brains trust of the nation is developed.

The Constitution must be amended and India declared a 'Sovereign Democratic Republic' as she was in the original framework and the Uniform Civil Code must forthwith be effective. Special status of Kashmir must be abrogated and despite severest opposition these changes must be with iron will executed.

Conversion to Islam and Christianity must be made illegal for these are the seeds of international conspiracy against the culture of the people of India. Religion must remain a private affair and must not be permitted to enter the public space that concerns the electorate.

All these require a strong national will working for the welfare of the people, a national narrative embedded in the history, the philosophy and the culture of the terrain that will inspire the citizens to make sacrifices for the building up of the edifice of the country, and continuous support from the people, empowering the government with heavy mandate for long, despite its inevitable dangers of corruption corroding its ranks, and, thus, a strong public opinion must be generated overtime and the national necessity stressed in the light of the dangers of the country breaking up in the teeth of secessionist and fissiparous forces working against the impending solidarity of the nation.

Eventually, it will be the people of this great nation who will decide their own fate. India has been partitioned in 1947, its territory in Kashmir seized by Pakistan in 1948 and a vast terrain annexed in Arunachal Pradesh by the Chinese in 1962. Four wars with Pakistan, one with China, countless proxy wars waged by Pakistan against India and cross-border terrorism by the same deceitful neighbour have repeatedly destroyed the life and peace of our people. Today, we are faced with massive homegrown terror to complement cross-border terror, the virus of Islamisation with its pernicious radical philosophy and covert Christian missionary activity to subvert the State aided by the erstwhile colonial-imperial powers in their modern masquerade.

It is time to wake up to the threat internal and the threat external and to set the national narrative straight. But how may we attempt this arduous exercise of national reconstruction? Where shall we get the directive for course-correction? Why man, Netaji is the way, is he not? He did all in the 1930s and the 1940s that we as a people struggling for freedom ought to have emulated and kept on pursuing once we were free. We did not and we paid the price. But history has taught us the lessons and it is time we rectify our foolish earlier stance of non-violent weakness and its debilitating paraphernalia. Netaji has shown the way. Let us follow. 

AT THE CROSSROADS OF CULTURAL EVOLUTION

Fanatical faiths must stop conversion and seek enlightenment from Hinduism in the science of spirituality that is neither doctrinaire nor personality-based, neither heaven-oriented nor hell-centred but is simply the statement of the divine in all of sentience whose highest manifestation man is.

Spirituality consists not in numbers but in purity of being, catholicity of comprehension and universality of acceptance. Holiness goes along with liberalism of a high order and never so with narrow fundamentalist attitude that is the bane of the Abrahamic religions with the unmitigated evil of fanaticism progressing down the historical line. Time it is that these religions, barring Judaism which does not convert, give up their malefic agenda of numerical expansion and concentrate on real human welfare. Only then may inter-faith dialogue have any substance to it.

But will these archaic formulations of godhead resort at last to fundamental honesty about the whole discourse or will they continue to verbally harp on one thing and in real harbour another? Will these archaic articles of absolutist arbitration on matters spiritual ever be challenged in a manner forthright enough to cause them to take sufficient cognisance of the resistance to their malefic agenda or will they continue to benefit from liberal non-intervention and cowardly acquiescence to their endless arrogance and relentless aggression?

If the current inertia to change and the persistent diffidence to effectively counter these medieval monstrosities masquerading as messianic mercy continues, then humanity is gravely imperilled. In such a case Hinduism, shorn of pretentious selective self-reading, must take the lead and invest all its energy in redirecting the course of the world to the righteous path redolent of the realisations of the rishis (seers of transcendental Truth) and save civilisation from its precipitous fall into barbarism. The Sanatan Dharma is the only way out of the chaos of the times but how it may engineer the change in a resistive social order that is culturally bound to its fanatical formulations is a matter for investigative study which ought to engage our best attention if we are serious about meeting the threat of impending cultural subversion at the hands of horrific hoodlums masquerading as messiahs of peace, for, after all, these are religions of the Almighty who is the ever-munificent and the peaceful one.

It will be a tribute to those that take the charge of altering this decadent course of the historical stream and steer the wheel of evolution to humanity's highest cherished ends. The Christian Reformation was bloody and was rooted out of Europe to be relocated in colonial-imperial terms in Asia, Africa and America. It remains to be seen what the magnitude of the price humanity has to pay to make for similar reformation in the Islamic world.

But the transformation must happen and happen it will. Enlightenment came to Europe despite opposition from the Church and enlightenment must come to Arabia despite the resistance of tradition. Education will proliferate and make for the change and it is here that Hinduism must come to the aid of the world in setting the discourse between matter and the Spirit straight, in meeting midway between science and spirituality to harmonise each in the light of the other and in helping humanity stand together as the supreme manifestation of the highest ultimate reality that is the eternal essence of all.

Such a day is not yet in the offing and it seems we are in for a protracted struggle for human transformation, especially, when geopolitics plays truant with the entire episode of this religious cultural change.

WHEN MEN SPEAK IN VARIANT VOICE

The voice of assent and the voice of dissent, both are necessary in a polity but there needs to be unity of intent, the welfare of the nation, and in the larger context, the overall welfare of humanity, the survival and efflorescence of civilisation, and the fulfilment of the highest aspiration that can be, the ultimate freedom of the soul of man from the meshes of matter.

WHEN KNOWLEDGE DIVORCES REALISATION

Scholars and savants are so often spiritually so impoverished and hardly know the inner way. Strange is this stratification in the realm of knowledge where the intellect truly dares not peep into the secrets of the heavens nor can raise itself sufficiently to get a glimpse of the beyond, for to do so will be to erase itself altogether. Small wonder is it then that the Vedas unambiguously give utterance to this organic incapacity of the material intellect to transcend the meshes of matter and ramble in the realm divine. The emphasis has ever been that the Absolute is beyond the reach of the finite mind and its articulation thereof. The Indian scriptures in this sense have dug up their own graves and the graves of all other scriptures as well. Truth does in no way suffer, though, for it subsists in its own glory, self-existent, supreme, without a tinge of personality affecting it to seek the ratification of the latter for its survival. Truth simply abides and all things abide in it as pale parallels of it. Meanwhile, scholars have read more in the interim period that has passed and their ignorance about matters of the Spirit have become worse confounded. Strange stratification indeed!  

WHEN COWARDS CRITICISE THE HERO

Critics of Netaji expose their lack of patriotic feeling and their feeble character. It requires leonine strength to understand a Netaji, far more to be devoted to his cause and sheer sublimity of soul to live every breath for him and die to give life to his dreams of a renascent free India.

A WORD UNTO RESEARCHERS

Investigators into the Netaji disappearance mystery must maintain rational rigour for credibility. Fallacious logic proves nothing and one may be held culpable to misleading the people. Credibility once lost is hard to regain and public estimation failing, one is faced with insurmountable barriers in the path of establishment of the truth.

Researchers and truth-seekers would, therefore, be well-advised to treading the path of caution and not engaging in the hazardous misadventure of making fantastic unsubstantiated claims in their bid to bring about a fanciful quick solution to the protracted mystery of Netaji's disappearance. Neither is it scientifically tenable to pass off undocumented and unauthenticated 'episodes' of Netaji's life as gospel truth on the basis of acceptance by familial or social authority, for the validation of an event and its correct interpretation has to be lawfully established and not by emotional human consent.

Thus, the imperative today as always is to be well-grounded in reason, not malefic as rationality traversing down devil's lane is apt to degenerating into while maintaining the facade of adherence to truth, but the genuine striking of rational roots in one's bid to scientifically unearthing the real from a mass of falsity and fabrication.

Researchers must, thus, be well-trained in scientific thinking that bases its findings on evidence and not on personal preference, prejudice or predilection. They must learn the art of sifting, the technique of picking the grain from the chaff and selective acceptance of data based on rejection of arrant nonsensical stuff.

But such rejection must come at the end of thorough investigation of each and every piece of pertinent matter coming through for one's perusal and no bias may be harboured in so far as selection of data to be examined is concerned. Any piece of information may contain the seed of revelation of the truth and, as such, deserves fullest attention before acceptance or rejection as the case may be. This sort of impartial attitude is most congenial to discovery of the truth and must be the bedrock of all investigation.

Lastly, the facts found must be presented in an agreeable manner with aesthetics complementing the concrete core of unshakeable truth for the good and welfare of all. Thus, the trinity of truth, beauty and goodness will have been served well. Jai Hind!

REMARK OFF THE CUFF ... 2

1. Vandalising Netaji statue and getting away scot-free. Opinion please.

2. Modi will attain to iconic status in Indian history if he can reveal the whole truth about Netaji.

3. This was the primrose path of Gandhian politics, not the thorn-strewn path of Netaji's armed struggle which truly freed us.

4. Investigators into the Netaji disappearance mystery must maintain rational rigour for credibility. Fallacious logic proves nothing and one may be held culpable to misleading the people. Credibility once lost is hard to regain and public estimation failing, one is faced with insurmountable barriers in the path of the establishment of truth. Researchers and truth seekers would, therefore, be well-advised to treading the path of caution and not engaging in the hazardous misadventure of making fantastic unsubstantiated claims in their bid to bring about a fanciful quick solution to the protracted mystery of Netaji's disappearance. Neither is it scientifically tenable to pass off undocumented and unauthenticated 'episodes' of Netaji's life as gospel truth on the basis of acceptance by familial or social authority, for the validation of an event and its correct interpretation has to be lawfully established and not by emotional human consent. Thus, the imperative today as always is to be well-grounded in reason, not malefic as rationality traversing down devil's lane is apt to degenerating into while maintaining the facade of adherence to truth, but the genuine striking of rational roots in one's bid to scientifically unearth the real from a mass of falsity and fabrication. Researchers must, thus, be well-trained in scientific thinking that bases its findings on evidence and not on personal preference, prejudice or predilection. They must learn the art of sifting, the technique of picking the grain from the chaff and selective acceptance of data based on rejection of arrant nonsensical stuff. But such rejection must come at the end of thorough investigation of each and every piece of pertinent matter coming through for one's perusal and no bias may be harboured in so far selection of data to be examined is concerned. Any piece of information may contain the seed of revelation of the truth and, as such, deserves fullest attention before acceptance or rejection as the case may be. This sort of impartial attitude is most congenial to discovery of truth and must be the bedrock of all investigation. Lastly, the facts found must be presented in an agreeable manner with aesthetics complementing the concrete core of unshakeable truth for the good and welfare of all. Thus, the trinity of truth, beauty and goodness will have been served well. Jai Hind!

5. Gandhi, Amit Shah had had in sarcasm said was a 'chatur baniya' (shrewd businessman) but he was not 'chatur' (clever) enough to succeed in business at home. He had, thus, to venture forth to South Africa to try his luck there and in the process started afresh his legal business which led him to the vocation of his life, the freedom struggle of his people. Here again he exhibited great 'chaturayee' (dexterity) at 'baniyahood' (business-mindedness) to outwit opponents within his political fold, his comrades-in-arms, in centring power to himself but could not quite match up to the combined might of the malefic elements pitted against him in the eventual analysis by the recoil of karma, for Gandhi himself had so often played foul with his adversaries within and without the Congress in the name of high-sounding ideological principles, more preached than practised in their real intent. And the price of his business liquidated and debts being dealt with, we are paying for the past seventy years and will pay for how long more who knows? Certainly, the 'chatur baniya' does not.

6. Critics of Netaji expose their lack of patriotic feeling and their feeble character. It requires leonine strength to understand a Netaji, far more to be devoted to his cause and sheer sublimity of soul to live every breath for him and die to give life to his dreams of a renascent free India.

7. Facts about the disappearance mystery of Netaji must be dispassionately but sincerely discussed without any attempt to artificially or through self-folly quicken audience emotion or to commercialise for self-benefit, if truth is to be revealed as to what happened to Netaji post 18 August, 1945. The absolute focus must never be lost.

8. The nation needs to wake up to the threat of the Sino-Pak combine and the answer lies in Netaji's military thinking.

9. The voice of assent and the voice of dissent, both are necessary in a polity but there needs to be unity of intent, the welfare of the nation, and in the larger context, the overall welfare of humanity, the survival and efflorescence of civilisation, and the fulfilment of the highest aspiration that can be, the ultimate freedom of the soul of man from the meshes of matter.

10. Revolution throws up its leader in due course as per the exigencies of the times. Till then small awareness, scattered and disconnected apparently but building up to a grander union in time, keeps up the momentum, sending forth the clarion call for freedom till the leader arrives on the scene and offers his sacrificial self to embody the aspirations of a million souls and leads his flock unto final fruition in freedom.

Niladri Banerjee, it was political expediency on the one side to thwart the British from wedging in disunity in Indian ranks and reverence for elderly leader on the other, born out of Netaji's innate spiritual culture, that prompted him to call Gandhiji the 'Father of the Nation'.

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN SATYENDRA SINGH AND MYSELF

Satyendra Singh It is highly disappointing and sad..... But I'm not surprised...... I saw it coming........ People abusing Gandhi...... Nehru...... Subhas..... It's a result of making cult of these leaders by their own fans..... You can't expect better.

Sugata Bose While Gandhi and Nehru, for sure, deserve much greater censure for the way they have destroyed the nation, Netaji does not. Hence, these aberrations hardly matter. But woe unto the nation that yet we hear these voices who try to smother the real history of India by painting these perfidious elements like Gandhi and Nehru in a brighter light than they deserve.

Satyendra Singh You are doing same thing here..... Smearing Gandhi...... Somewhere somebody is thinking differently........ and at least you can't blame him because you are same.

Sugata Bose Satyendra Singh, you are being given the reply that is most befitting for you and each time you criticise those that criticise Gandhi-Nehru, you shall continue to receive these rejoinders for we have had enough of your Gandhi brigade to our nations's doom. This was just an appetiser. The full course I have posted elsewhere for your sumptuous dinner as well which, if it be your Lordship's pleasure, you may freely feast on.

Satyendra Singh In fact I don't need any reply...... Simply because I don't belong to any Cult like you....... I'm unhappy on the insult of Gandhi and Subhas both...... While you are not only clapping but instigating the insult of Gandhi...... This game of reply and then reply again may bless you cultists..... I'm out of it...... Enjoy !!!!!!

Sugata Bose Satyendra Singh, thank you for obliging. I will be spared the sheer wastage of time on incorrigible Gandhians like you.

Satyendra Singh I belong to no brigade like you..... This brigadism may do good for you I wish.

Sugata Bose Satyendra Singh, I belong to no brigade of your choice too. I simply belong to my eternal Self which is the repository of the ultimate Truth and whose pale reflection is this false universe full of fair facades and fake intentions.

Satyendra Singh Even Subhas was a Gandhian

Sugata Bose Never ever, Satyendra Singh. Bose was never a Gandhian, although, as per circumstantial compulsions, he had to work under the leadership of Gandhi which many others did as well. But he never subscribed to Gandhian philosophy as is borne out in his classic political treatise, 'The Indian Struggle' where he has laid bare the fault-lines of Gandhism.

Even in the political foreground, Bose differed on numerous occasions with Gandhi, too frequent to recount here and that too, right from his days of political initiation in the tutelage of Gandhi's staunch adversary, Chittaranjan Das.

Later, on the question of dominion status advocated by Gandhi, Bose opposed him demanding complete independence.

Even later in 1938, Bose, in his famous Haripura Congress Presidential Address, charted out his non-Gandhian tentative future course of political action for the Congress in its bid to achieve independence. This led to the following year's schism when, pre-Tripuri, at Tripuri and post-Tripuri, Gandhi sank to his perfidious worst and showed his concealed violence towards his noble adversary and put paid for good to his supposed Mahatmahood. He tried every trick of the trade, that would have shamed even Machiavelli, to oust Bose not only from the Congress Presidency but from the Congress platform altogether to the nation's horrible shame at Wellington Square in Calcutta when the Congress formally expelled Bose from its organic system wholesale.

Bose was radically different always in views and revolutionary principles from that of Gandhi. When he did work under the latter, he did so out of circumstantial compulsions as I have said earlier.

After the expulsion affair Bose launched his own party, the Forward Bloc, and campaigned vigorously in his non-Gandhian style, urging the nation to prepare for the ensuing struggle for liberation that the Second World War had opened up opportunities for India lately. He was apprehended by the British after the Holwell Monument Case under the Defence of India Act. Thereafter, he was house-interned when he made his daring 'Great Escape' to Germany to restart his armed struggle with help from the Axis Powers. This was not being Gandhian.

The INA, later, through direct and indirect effect, liberated India while your great Gandhi kept watching helplessly his protege, Nehru, now even honey-trapped by Edwina Mountbatten, making common cause with the traitorous Jinnah to partition the motherland. Bose had created conditions for the territorial integrity in independence of the motherland and Gandhi-Nehru-Jinnah-Mountbatten conjointly divided the country. Satyendra Singh, you need to understand history a bit better through in-depth study before you make your rather facile comments.

P.S. : Gandhi meekly caved in to the Partition Demand of Jinnah and was quite easily persuaded by Nehru --- now eyeing the Prime Minister's portfolio --- to accept it even though he had earlier publicly stated that Partition would have to be effected over his dead body. That much for his truthfulness, resolve, integrity and ideological constancy along with patriotic commitment.

Netaji from aboard the war-field ever cautioned the Congress against all British ploys at partitioning India. But the Mahatma and his anglophile disciple paid no heed to his warnings and, when the hour of trial arrived, committed the greatest sacrilege of allowing the dismemberment of the motherland.

So much for Bose being a Gandhian which only a stubborn commitment to a myopic vision of history may subscribe to.