CONTENTMENT, THOU GOOD CHEER OF THE SPIRIT!

Contentment with one's lot in life is a virtue and is an imperative in one's journey's towards perfection. However, contentment is not synonymous with compromise with circumstances, however corroding they may be to the inner vibrancy of the soul, nor ought it to be a surrender of oneself to the base passions that are the lowest call of the flesh. The struggle is on for advancement to the goal but it must be not with a clouded visage symptomatic of the ever-complaining self but with a merry cheer, a pleasant demeanour and a beaming countenance which betoken a joyful progression to one's ideal end in life. Blissful is the source, blissful the course and blissful the destination at the end of all phenomenal dreams. Verily, bliss is the stuff of consciousness, bliss the substance of existence and bliss the essence of truth.

Om madhu! Om madhu! Om madhu!

STEADFAST WORKER FOR THE CAUSE

You, Pradipa, have been true to the cause in your single-minded unobtrusive way, ever giving a 'like' hither, thither a comment but never quitting the scene altogether citing calls of current compulsion. Such steadiness of effort without blazoning oneself is the fruit of inner discipline and a modicum of renunciation that is the salt of whatever worthwhile we undertake in life. Your support for and adherence to the cause for which I strive by the hour is a priceless gift for which I ardently offer you my thanksgiving. May God grant you a healthy and blessed life culminating in His vision! God bless you, Pradipa!

MOTHER MANIFEST, MOTHER UNMANIFEST

MOTHER MANIFEST, MOTHER UNMANIFEST

Take your tongue out and view it in the mirror. The external part that is visible is the manifested universe while the internal part that remains beyond ordinary viewing is the unmanifested Reality. The substance of both is the same, the essence is the same as well. The totality comprises the tongue on which are sown the seeds of Creation, the mystic formulations spelled, the letters of the alphabet from the alpha to the omega. Mother's protruded tongue is the mystic symbol of all of existence.

Written by Sugata Bose

WHEN IN PAIN

When in pain know that you are not alone.There are countless souls in deeper pain. Seek to comfort these kindred spirits with love that heals, that touches the soul and not words unfelt, bred in the brain, clothed in logic, cold and dry. Feel, then speak and you shall heal your loved ones and yourself.

THE TASK AT HAND ... 1

It is here that our work in social media also lies, Subhas Babu. We have a task at hand, nay, a joyful exercise of delving into history, excavating the gems hidden beneath subterranean layers of times gone past and furnishing them as finished ornament before the emerging generations of the day and of the morrow yet to dawn. The air we breathe, we owe it to them who we shall thus discover. And our freedom? Well, where would we have been but under the heels of our erstwhile masters had these intrepid soldiers of the soul not unshackled us from our despicable state of colonial captivity?

I, therefore, exhort all serious students of the freedom struggle to share with me in this venture to unearth and exhibit the truth that has so long been suppressed, subverted and sullied, thereby veritably suffocating the life-breath of an entire nation. Come ye and join me, my sisters and my brothers. The Mother is on our side and victory shall be ours for sure. So, give up despondency that all is lost and cast in your ploughshare to the farming of the land that has gone fallow but with our labour of love shall yield a golden harvest yet to inundate the world with our national current, our heritage, our tradition, our values and, above all, our spirituality which is the substance of our civilisation. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!

CAMPAIGN FOR THE RESTORATION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT DURING THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE

1. A nation that forgets its heroes cannot profess to be moral. Let GOI give Netaji his due honour and so bring honour to itself.

2. Must we wallow in the dust of desire and live lives of animals while the hero wanders about in the wilderness unheeded? Hail Netaji!

3. Even as the flowers that are strewn in the path of the hero are the souls that are sacrificed to fulfil his mission. Jai Netaji!

4. War raged in Europe. Congress was rendered ineffective through incarceration. Netaji fought on alone to liberate India. What then?

5. Are we men? Then how is it that we accept the perfidies of the past and subscribe to the terrible injustice done to Netaji?

6. Across the border in neighbouring Bangladesh Ashraful Islam gears up to celebrate Netaji's forthcoming birthday on a grand scale.

THE CHANGE MUST COME

The muted millions must be given utterance, society must be freed from scriptural stricture and women allowed free play in the thoroughfare of life. Only then will spontaneity exhibit itself in all its creative flow, souls resonate to the inner rhythms of life and love, and the mind of man an empire emerge where the sovereign is he and he the architect and governor of his fate. The stifling of human thinking, the codification of human action, the checks and controls on every little aspect of human behaviour, all these have well-nigh strangled the life out of an erstwhile vibrant culture where men and women freely played about in the sunshine of life and life itself was a veritable celebration, an outpouring of the inner bliss. Cultures have been uprooted by barbaric impositions of alien ones, religions resplendent replaced by tribal cults at the edge of the sword and an iron curtain drawn over women who had earlier basked in the radiance of the free sun. The masses have been reduced to the state of subhuman savages, their individual personalities destroyed and their enslaves selves labelled with titular descriptions of their vocation and status in life. All these must go. Society must be freed of scriptural strictures, archaic and arbitrary prophetic pronouncements and the commandment of a tyrannical capricious God who at best was the vain imagination of medieval warlords and must needs die in the liberating atmosphere of enlightened reason.   

SPIRITUAL IDEAS ... 3

1. Certitude of faith is contrarily disposed to investigation into truth and, hence, elementally retrogressive.

2. Scepticism is an essential element in the enquiry into truth where faith and authority have to be discarded to discover the truth.

3. The philosophies of the Semitic religions look like kindergarten stuff compared to those of the dharma traditions of India.

4. So few desire to know the Truth, fewer still to realise it. Most merely wish to affirm their flawed understanding of Reality.

5. The liberal sees life from multiple perspective whereas the fanatic has a fixed viewpoint. The former evolves, the latter rots.

6. Truth is self-existent impersonal principle. Yet, personalities are conjured up into their shadowy ephemeral apparent existence.

7. Liberalism and secularism must exhibit the character to combat fanaticism instead of being preferential apologists for the same.

8. As he points to the heavens, he points to his perennial state of infinite glory and freedom from the shackles of flesh and form.

9. The stars shine beyond the clouds. So does our destiny beckon us on to seek the infinitude of freedom in the transcendent Self.

10. Jesus Christ was a brilliant Jew, a non-conformist and a revolutionary who was much misunderstood by almost all who followed him.

11. Propagation of the Vedanta will breathe fresh life into the stagnant moral climate in the world and usher in a spiritual renaissance.

12. Hypocrisy of liberalism is not what we want but a genuine concern for the principles of enlightened humanity.

13. There is no end to human error which is why constant practice is necessary. But cutting out distractions is an imperative as well.

14. Instability of human relations is caused by the superficiality of relational bonds. A spiritual bonding will never break.

15. There is an absolute Truth transcending relativity. There are a myriad relative truths as well, each catering to a specific case.

16. Dark is our future if we heed not the advice of our wise men who founded civilisation. It is a dead end now if we do not act wisely.

17. Proliferation of education, the rediscovery of roots and globalisation are sharply dividing human society into conflicting cultures.

18. Time is our greatest friend today when there is still hope of a recovery from the looming prospect of environmental annihilation.

19. The polar icecaps are melting fast. We have to act faster if we are to avert an environmental annihilation.

20. Change your attitudes, your lifestyles and work in unison to save civilisation from nuclear and environmental holocaust.

21. Love all, be attached to none. This is the secret of happiness and this is the way ahead spiritually as well.

22. Why give so much importance to your puny ego that it grows larger by the day to engulf you and your happiness with it? Look within.

23. Is there no end to the vanity of the human soul even as it is mired in material misery? When will good sense prevail, alas! when?

24. Attachment limits the soul within the confines of flesh and form and, so, breeds misery in its wake after the initial flush of elation.

25. A bloody revolution is not what we want but a civilised response to the exigencies of our times, the end to the tyranny of capital.

26. Who says you are poor, my friend? Do not ever think that way. The great Lord resides in your heart. Take heart and fight your way out.

27. The essential thing about spirituality is growth through experience. Life's the great teacher, for interactions corrode materialism.

28. The life of the many matters for the masses are not mere cogs in the social machinery but veritable divinities on earth.

29. Your affluence is at the expense of so many that suffer the indignity of an impoverished life on earth.

30. Wastage of money and resources must be avoided at all cost in a world so plagued by poverty. Your saving may be somebody's life.

31. In the midst of terrible distress hold fast onto the Lord. Believe me, the world may fail you, the Lord will never.

32. When will I be free of the shackles of this form, O when? When will I fly free in the limpid spaces of the Absolute?

33. Science is liberating human reason, rationalising man's relation to his environment but holds no clue to the workings of the spirit.

34. The mind of man an empire is whose key the monarch has lost. What obtains thus is the battle of bodies in the name of futile faith.

35. The power of the word few comprehend. Yet, it is the word that has spelled the magic as civilisation through the ages has soared.

36. The vast spaces surrounding our limited selves are merely the reflection of our inner infinitude for they come within our cognition.

37. This life is in vain if not lived for a higher ideal that embraces in its beneficial influence the whole of humanity.

38. The death of a nation comes when it shuts itself up within the narrow confines of its geography and local culture.

39. Youth is precious for it provides the one opportunity to realise the Self, possible only when the energy level is at its highest.

40. How puny is this self of man and how vast the spaces! Yet, how vast must be the Self in man to conceive in its womb the vast spaces!

41. The effort to realise God must begin in early youth, else, the resources spent deplete the system so, as to make it a futile attempt.

42. Both theism and atheism use flawed logic to establish positions. The problem of truth may be solved only through experience though.

43. The Abrahamic religions are all built on irrational assumptions of an arbitrary God quite in contrast to philosophical principles.

44. Man is divine, for God is his consciousness in the purest state of his being. Is man the image of God or is it the other way round?

45. Is God being marginalised and religion weakened with the advance of science or is science strengthening the basis of real religion?

46. It's paradoxical that the Abrahamic religions argue the case of their validity on the invalid basis of unverifiable revelation.

47. Why is Christianity so dependent on a few 'miraculous events' to prove its validity as the one and only true way to godhead?

48. How long can irrational assumptions and assertions of ignorant people of the ancient and the medieval world be held as gospel truth?

49. When will the world wake up to the higher spiritual principles discovered in India ages before the Semitic religions were born?

50. Why must mosques in West Bengal be allowed to sound the azan at dawn disturbing the sleep of the local residents?

51. A religion seeking to dominate the landscape of the entire world will fail in its bid for diversity is the way of the world.

52. Reality is double-phased with outer and inner dimensions. Science caters to its material cover and religion to its spiritual essence.

53. Why argue to validate irrational faiths when the very basis of these is rotten philosophically and entirely founded on assertions?

54. We must be fearless in expressing our views so long as we are working for human welfare and not infringing on others' rights.

55. Why fear any when we are immortal souls fired with the conviction of our divinity that cares but for the commonweal?

56. We are standing on the edge of the ocean of truth and light and, yet, groping in the dark, seeking light from an imaginary God.

57. We, Hindus, must strengthen our society by breaking down caste barriers and destroying the privilege system obtaining thereof.

58. A classless, caste-less society we want where the Constitutional provision of equality of opportunity will be fulfilled.

59. Democracy cannot entertain privilege of any sort for citizens are all equal in the eyes of the Constitution of the land.

60. Cultural rights of all must be respected but they must not infringe upon the fundamental principles of civic living.

61. Free the individual of the shackles of religion, society, tradition and all of its ilk and see how human society progresses rapidly.

62. Poverty has to be experienced to understand its pangs. The rich must make periodic pilgrimage of living in impoverished conditions.

63. When in danger of suffering harm, resist with all your might. If resist you cannot, then pray to the Mother. Surrender unto Her.

64. We have to strengthen our nation by uniting the progressive elements within the polity provided they are not opposed to the essential ethos of our nation.

65. 'Catholics should try to convert the whole world to Catholicism.' What a violent idea! A futile attempt it will be. So, give it up. If this is the stated position of the Vatican as is borne out by the statement of Msgr. Stuart Swetland, I pity its fallen state.

66. Conversion is a violent idea and religions that convert are ever at war with each other. It is more political an idea than spiritual.

67. Conversion by influence, inducement, fraud or force is as dark a design as can be and is an offence against humanity to all intent.

68. We should be good and genuinely so by manifesting strength of character and not by mere verbal pretence.

69. The world has lost its spiritual moorings and it is time that India shows the way once more. There must be a spiritual inundation.

70. Science is driving sledgehammer blows at the flimsy foundations of doctrinaire religions and liberating the soul of man.

71. Gullibility in judging a religion's real intent is a suicidal trait. Let no sane person fall into this characteristic pitfall.

72. A nation that forgets its heroes cannot profess to be moral. Let GOI give Netaji his due honour and so bring honour to itself.

73. If only men were more civil and each followed his own religion without disturbing that of others, peace would've been an end achieved.

74. Semitic religions fight over theological differences born of spiritual myopia. Their exclusive claims make for mutual hatred.

75. Beholding the poverty of spiritual conception in the non-Indian religions, I see the Vedanta as the only ray of hope for them. Om!

76. So long as conversion remains on the agenda of Christianity and Islam which it necessarily will, religious harmony is impossible.

77. Conversion invariably leads to spiritual degradation when done to increase numbers which proselytisation fundamentally aims at.

78. European civilisation and the fruits of the Enlightenment are under the threat of subversion from alien fanatical contamination.

79. I feel saddened to see the trusting European and American youth surrender their critical faculty to convert to alien fanatical cult.

80. Fanatical faiths will fight with each other to their desperate doom. If they wish to survive, they will have to reform. But can they?

81. Jesus is not the Son of God merely, He is God Himself. And so are Ramakrishna, Chaitanya, Buddha, Krishna, Rama, Shankaracharya.

82. Let the propagators of the Semitic religions give up dogma for once and contemplate God through enlightened reason and realisation.

83. If there is anything that may be labelled blasphemous in religion, it is this tendency to say that God can be this and not that.

84. Wickedness masquerades as religious propagation intent on corroding the simple beliefs of men whose trust they betray and convert.

85. Hindus must streamline their knowledge of the scriptures in order to fortify themselves against perfidious attempts at conversion.

86. Vow in the name of Sanatana Dharma that you will spread it across the ends of the earth for the uplift of human spiritual culture.

87. This darkness is not an entity in itself ; it is the absence of light. Strike the lamp of the Atman to dispel it.

88. This blazing fire of the Self within is consuming all of the earthly oblations. Now may it consume this simmering self to free me.

89. These proselytisers are all trapped in Maya. Bound souls themselves, they have the temerity to attempt saving others.

90. Blessed am I that I am a Hindu for where else would I have had such a profundity of spiritual thinking to back my convictions?

91. The God in heaven has cast a spell on the spiritually fixated people of the world while the ultra-rational have renounced Him.

92. The least we can do is to manifest a bit of manhood. Effeminacy has cast its shadow on our nation paralysing its very nerve-current.

93. Mental misery is caused by degradation of the system through impure living. Even in the direst circumstance, the pure man is happy.

94. Scripture for man or man for scripture? Is civilisation the subservience of man to God or is it the eventual dethroning of God?

95. Indoctrination is destroying the human potential, the prospect of attaining cultural heights and the subliming of the soul.

96. Children? Oh, their lives are being blacked out by profane pronouncement of bygone eras and womanhood being despoiled as well.

97. Is this being religious when you honour-kill your own daughter for violating your convictions about marriage?

98. Educate the masses fast and get them out of medieval barbarism in the name of rotting religion that stifles growth.

99. Parents have no right to ill-treat their children and be violent towards them citing the grand reason that it is for their own good.

100. Shed cowardice if you are to be the instrument of change in a world plagued by a myriad evils. The valorous alone may transform.

IN RESPONSE TO DEBAPRASAD BHATTACHARYA'S HEARTFELT REACTION TO THE PITIABLE INDIFFERENCE OF ONE AND ALL TO THE POVERTY SITUATION OF THE MASSES

Absolutely so. Words, words, words galore, frothy flimsy articulate gibberish that do not change a bit of the actual state of things but, yet, Debaprasad Babu, we keep at it in the hope that some kindred soul may respond to the plea and bring about some worthwhile change in his or her life that may help society in a tangible way, however mean the measure it may be though. I keep on writing as I burn within to see the plight of people, in the hope that a few will gather round this nucleus of the idea and garner resources to help the needy and so advance the cause of evolving humanity wherever it be. Most of my pleas may fall on deaf ears as each one, trapped in Maya, that is, the exigencies of life, may but glance through my written word casually without a real bother as to the intent therein, but there are conscientious souls like you, Debaprasad Babu, as well and they may also be a considerable number even if in the minority in relation to the vast populace of unconcerned humanity, who will start at least a verbal conversation among kith and kin in their bid to start a movement that may only grow in momentum if persistence at it there be. I must say that I do feel immensely hopeful that in today's world of internet communication there are ample ways of reaching out to people and so gathering a band of unselfish workers across the globe who will take up my ideas which are the resolution of all that humanity has thought already, the seminal ideas of saints and savants of bygone eras, and work them out in the field of their life's work. Do help me in this cause, Debaprasad Babu, in whatever manner you can and exhort your known ones who may be sharing the same spirit as you to do likewise. I remain ever indebted to you, Sugata Bose.

SHALL WE OR SHALL WE NOT?

The spiritual idea should be to reduce profit and to help in public welfare. Oppression through exploitation of the very worker whose labour yields the profit is in no way dharma. Greed which fuels capitalism despite the tall claims of the creative urge as being principal to its functioning cannot be condoned in a just society with democracy as its structural set up. The poor must be provided for and this is as much the duty of the government as of capitalists and the lay person. We must all be united in this endeavour to eradicate poverty which is one the worst maladies that even today in this highly modernised world continues to afflict vast sections of humanity. It is not one man's job nor is it the sole duty of the government but it is everyone's collective effort to manifest goodness of being in fruitful action that can usher in a more equitable order where every individual lives with a modicum of dignity and has a fair opportunity to rise through effort to higher attainments in life. Let us stop blaming each other and stop passing the buck as well to others as we conjointly strive to better the lot of humanity in our much benighted nation consequent upon historical subjugation by alien powers for centuries. Jai Hind!

SPIRITUAL IDEAS ... 2

1. Seclusion is the condition that facilitates spiritual contemplation. Hence, the yogi seeks solitude. Company distracts concentration.

2. How we have failed Ramakrishna-Vivekananda's advent on earth when we have made no impact in a world of intolerable intolerance!

3. The world will go to pieces if the message of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda is not upheld before humanity at large.

4. Religion is superficial to man. The human nervous system evolves through experience unto perfection and that is all there is to it.

5. How long will man cower in fear of an invisible tyrant and forsake his rational judgement on the issues that concern his existence?

6. Thank heavens few know the doctrines of fanatical faiths properly and so do not to live by them. Ignorance has been the great saviour.

7. It is painful to see the average Hindu so utterly shallow in the understanding of his own religion, yet, reckless in judging it.

8. Human hypocrisy, cowardice and ignorance are the seedbeds for the growth of anti-human ideologies which hold civilisation to ransom.

9. Man must never submit to an imaginary God out of someone's diktat. He must struggle to realise the truth of existence.

10. Can you believe that you are God, not a part of Him or a child of His but the real God, the whole of it?

11. Concentration is the key, so is purity, and the twain are held in mutual bond of affection. Success, well-being, peacefulness and wisdom all flow as corollaries to the primal theorem.

12. Conversion by force, fraud or inducement should be abolished in India to ensure harmony of religions.

13. Ramakrishna and Vivekananda must incarnate again for the world not to go to pieces. The Vedanta must be preached on a war-footing.

14. So long as we hold on to the prime principles of Hinduism, no force can destroy our nation or our glorious spiritual tradition.

15. Where is Zoroastrianism in Iran and where is Hinduism in Pakistan? What is the common link and reason behind these disappearances?

16. Goodness can only be if it is valorous as well. Else, it is weakness wearing the garb of morality. Militancy must be mutual.

17. Why are the Kashmiri Pandits living in banishment from their homeland? Who forced them out? What ideology is behind such exodus?

18. Must we not be allowed the study of the Complete Works of Vivekananda in its pristine form? Editing has robbed much of its fire.

19. Hinduism is perhaps the only religion that says that all religions are pathways to God. Does Islam or Christianity say the same?

20. Nobody should submit to archaic arbitrary authority, prophetic pronouncement and scriptural injunction that violates the human spirit.

21. ''Face the brute'' --- this is the way and there is much significance in this pithy statement. A fearless combating of evil is the clarion call.

22. Where is spirituality in some of the sacred texts? Everything material has found place there but no sign of spirituality whatsoever.

23. They have robbed me of my saffron robe but my heart has been coloured by the love of the Lord.

24. When scripture spreads hate and abhors the infidel, when authority aborts reason and holds civilisation to ransom, hell's here on earth.

25. The asymmetrical pattern of human evolution has made ignorance a perpetual companion of knowledge with its consequent fallout.

26. Obliteration of local culture in the name of imposed religion is the bane of civilisation.

27. Preaching goodness to the evil-minded is an exercise in futility. He learns his lessons the hard way.

28. Truthfulness is the preeminent virtue of the spiritual person, deceitfulness and falsity that of the wicked and the perpetrator of evil.

29. Evil is a real proposition that must be combated to uphold civilisation. Evil is engendered in ignorance.

30. Unite the forces of good to fight evil. It is not good enough to vainly speculate or idly philosophise.

31. Knowledge reveals inherent power, ignorance obscures it. Know and be free. Assert your independence.

32. Obedience is good but in welfare alone, not in injuring others by blind execution of divine diktat.

33. There is a point of return and there is a point of no-return. Between the two lies the interface of 'Bhavamukha' where Thakur dwelt.

34. Egotism has no place in spirituality for it creates artificial division in an otherwise integrated world of the Spirit.

35. The Hindus have discovered the ultimate spiritual principle ages ago. The time has come to propagate it in the wide world.

36. Ramakrishna is the proof of God in this modern age of scientific scepticism. He was truly the scientist of the inner world.

37. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda must be made available to the reader in its unedited, original form for it to fire its salvo.

38. We must set Vivekananda's works free of the editor's scissors for it to bear the fruit which the Swami had intended to fearlessly.

39. Affirm that you are free and in a flash you will witness that you are free.

40. Cut off the body-connection and stand in the sunshine of freedom.

41. The awareness of the psycho-physical self is at the root of bondage and this arises from the apparent fracturing of consciousness.

42. Few are genuinely interested in spirituality. Most dabble with a few vague ideas and dish them out as gospel truth.

43. The Self is separate from phenomena. Waves arise in the cosmic sea of delusion but do not affect the seer Self. It is ever detached.

44. Body-consciousness is the substance of worldliness and the bane of spirituality.

45. How flimsy are human relations, even relations we deem dearest in life! This perception is the precursor to spiritual realisation in life.

46. So long as selfishness adorns the human heart, how can God find residence there? Exhibited devotion is as obscene as any pretence is.

47. The Guru infuses life into the mantra chanting which the disciple can progress to the divine end of life. Verily, the Guru is God.

48. How can anyone aspire to realise God when laden with a myriad material desires and their concomitant low selfishness?

49. There is such a deal of assumption, assertion and irrational doctrine in the Semitic religions that it all seems silly to the Hindu.

50. Devotees, give up your sycophantic pseudo-proximity to monastics in your brazen bid to buy a fast ticket to the highest heavens.

51. Spirituality claims nothing of this world as its own. Hence, self-interest of any kind is incompatible with it.

52. Unless there is decency in demeanour, refinement of feeling and discernment as to what is real, spirituality is a far cry.

53. We must crush Maya and stand supreme for we are the omnipotent Lord of the universe and the Self transcending all.

54. I subscribe to no faith on earth save faith in my rationality and in my scepticism about its omniscience too.

55. There is but one religion, THE RELIGION OF LOVE, there is but one God, LOVE itself.

56. Shongssharira kartabya bole ja paalon koren o koren na, taar e modhye kshudra shartho nihita thakey, tai jantrana.

57. A vast number of educated humanity is turning towards atheism in the West. This augurs well for the spread of the Vedanta.

58. It is important that we as Hindus support secularists and liberals in so far as they are not apologists for fanatical faiths.

59. How can nay religion claim to be the exclusive avenue to God unless it is bigoted, to say the least?

60. So much of bloodshed in the name of religion, so little of love in the name of God. A revision of scripture is necessary now.

61. Science is triumphing over the major irrational world religions and freeing the spirit of man. This will pave the way for the Vedanta.

62. Irrationality in religion must be rejected if religion is to survive the onslaughts of science. Else, the whole edifice will fall.

63. Conversion, what a primitive idea, what a barbaric deal! Be a better human by being pure and moral and care not for divine diktat.

64. Will liberalism clear the clouds of corrupt conceptions and their cruel practice or is a more forthright resistance necessary?

65. God is the summation of all possible attributes and the ones beyond manifestation. He is the ultimate resolution tending to the Void.

66. God-consciousness is spirituality.

67. If we practise our dharma well enough, we will be able to absorb and assimilate all those faiths which foreigners have brought here.

68. The world looks to India for a new spiritual movement to save it from imminent destruction. Must Krishna not manifest Himself now?

69. Unless faith-based religions rationalise and reform, they will die at the hands of modern science. Humanity is awaking to reason.

70. Vedanta dethroned God and enthroned Man as the highest being whose pale shadow is the universe and its so-called creator God.

71. Unless society is transformed from within, corruption will prevail in every sphere of life. Spiritualisation is the way out.

72. Is love potent enough to overcome evil? Then why is evil so rampant in society? Is it because of lack of sufficient love?

73. The path of purity is the path of peace.

74. Imposition of doctrinaire nonsense may serve the barbarous their savage needs but not the civilised their refined requirements.

75. I accept your religion as true but you outright denounce mine as false. Now, how tolerant is that?

76. The world is full of heresies and the greatest of them all is to forsake one's own divinity at the altar of an imaginary God.

77. To submit to a tyrant God who curses and instils fear in you is far removed from loving a God who loves you infinitely more.

78. Ramakrishna was LOVE incarnate, so said Swamiji, and he had ample personal experience to substantiate his statement.

79. Stop fearing God. He can do you no harm except what your karma forces you to suffer which you ascribe to Him as His punishment.

80. Everyone is in a sense spiritual for each one can feel the pulsations of love, and this love is the manifestation of the Spirit.

81. So many propagate principles of spirituality, so few realise them themselves. No wonder spirituality has become a sham everywhere.

82. Hinduism is the only spiritual system in the world that accepts all religions as true. No other world religion can claim that.

83. Why did Islam and Christianity convert entire nations to their fold and thus destroy local spiritual and social culture?

84. It is improper to convert any by fraud, force, inducement or influence, for it is counterproductive to human evolution.

85. Each soul is potentially divine, said Swamiji, and, O Christian missionary, you want to save our souls by converting us! Hilarious!

86. For a 1000 yrs the Hindus could not be converted en masse to Islam and still they try. It's a futile attempt. Live in harmony instead.

87. Hinduism survives even today not out of the charity of proselytising faiths but on the strength of its inherent philosophy and truth.

88. From the ocean to land, from land to the sky, from the sky to space, thus has been the journey of man. The final lap will be within.

89. Spirituality is the pursuit of and the realisation thereof that one is not the finite phenomenal being but is the infinite impersonal Self.

90. The elements conspire to kill you while you struggle to overcome them. This tussle constitutes life.

91. Remember life is a rush against time. You either win the race and attain to immortality or you die and try again.

92. The founder of a religion ought to be perfectly continent, else, the flock will never be so. Thus, decay sets in such faiths.

93. To lay absolute stress on the inviolability of doctrinaire dualistic faith is to incite fanaticism. Liberals ought to be neutral.

94. When life drowns you in its oceanic swirl, hang on to the lifeline of the Lord who never forsakes His devotee.

95. Heaven cannot be the spiritual goal, freedom from ignorance is. The Vedanta holds man as identical to God and not merely His image.

96. The Avatar comes in every Age to save the virtuous, destroy the vicious and to establish righteousness.

97. Words unfelt and spoken dilute the message you seek to communicate. Hence, speak only out of feeling sincere words of truth.

98. Mystery-mongering is not religion. Truth must shine like the midday sun without a shade.

99. Simplistic analyses of the Indian scriptures can lead to terrible misconceptions of the aphorisms of these ancient texts.

100. Modern messiahs may make spiritual attainment appear easy for they are commercially inclined but it remains as difficult as ever.

TURBULENT TIMES AHEAD?

Demographic change owing to immigration and population explosion of a faith opposed to integration in the local culture is causing strain on social cohesion in many a European country sending waves of panic among the intelligent European inhabitants there. It is a sad reaction that by the law of karma they are facing today for the very same acts of colonising the world for the past several centuries while refusing to integrate in the colonised countries, for colonialism by definition is a proposition of looting nations and sending wealth back to one's own and not the aforesaid local integration. One wonders what the Islamic immigration in such vast numbers and birth boom will do to the social fabric of European nations in the long run. Are we witnessing the emerging clash of civilisations, that of the West versus that of Islam? What will be the outcome of such a clash, especially in this precarious nuclear age when a single missile loaded with a nuclear warhead can cause untold damage to civilisation in general? We must all ponder the possibilities and take affirmative action to prevent a civilisational holocaust.

ADHYATMIK PRASANGA

1. Bhakta tini jini Ishwarke chaan, Tnar oishwarjoke noy.

2. 

FRESH INSIGHTS

1. Can the intolerance of Islam be combated by the intolerance of Christianity? Whither humanity? Whither the Vedanta?

2. Hindus must study and practise their religion sincerely which would mean the furtherance of the process of discovery central to it.

3.The precept that one religion possesses the entire truth about God and man is the hotbed of fanatical violence. Amendment necessary.

4. Religious conversion is at the root of religious violence. Give up proselytising and peace shall ensue on earth.

5. Selective quotation from scripture and history taking care to conceal what would compromise your position is a betrayal of truth.

6. Man is man so long he is free to determine his course in life. He ceases to be so the moment he surrenders his independence to any.

7. It is cowardice on the part of so many who fear to resist evil that allows its free rise in life. Courage is virtue, cowardice vice.

8. Before a negative reaction sets in the mind cut off discussion on the confrontational point. Else, the issue blows out of proportion.

9. America talks of 9/11 all the time but hardly ever about Aug 6 and Aug 9 when in 1945 Hiroshima and Nagasaki were wiped out.

10. Millions die to appease the blood-thirst of a select few who claim to be the sole arbiters of truth and human destiny.

11. There is an overt agenda and a covert agenda which the faith fanatics pursue as they infiltrate positions in their long-term bid to pull off a takeover of nations. Population explosion, immigration, marital inducement and terrorising are some of the methods largely used to increase numbers before the fatal punch is delivered.

12. Christianity and Islam are at loggerheads over the conversion control of the world. Both believe in the numbers game unfortunately.

13. I lead myself and I follow myself and none else. There can be no way in which we may follow someone else.

14. The times are pregnant with possibilities, the age is set to enter a new phase of human evolution where the integrated vision of the Vedanta is about to unfold in the common consciousness.

15. Islamic ultra-conservatism in clash with European liberalism --- this is the setting for the coming cultural conflict.

16. We must teach our children the essentials of Hinduism by mastering the principles ourselves and then living them out in our lives.

17. The Hindus are largely ignorant of the grand philosophy of their religion and it is here that educational work needs to be done.

18. How far does freedom of speech run its course? Do we have the right to lampoon faiths, ideologies, personalities and 'holy' men?

19. We have to safeguard our democratic rights and not give in to religious fundamentalism that dictates what we may or may not do.

20. We are at the crossroads of history where a culture-conflict is heaving in the offing. The West and Islam are in head-on collision.

21. The environment poses a bigger threat to humanity than all of geopolitics combined. Global warming may simply wipe us out.

22. What is the solution to fanaticism, that is, how may it be combated? Your views are solicited.

23. It is necessary to face the brute wherever it be. Human barbarism must be countered with force as also on the ideological plane.

24. Arrogance is not a virtue; it is a form of behavioural violence. It springs from low egotism and contaminates the environs.

25. Douglas Jardine's ruthlessness in the infamous Bodyline Series was so very characteristic of the British attitude to her colonies.

ARE WE HINDUS?

Are we at all grateful to Swami Vivekananda for the seminal work he did in the West of propagating Hinduism? Then how is it that we neglect the study of the same? Can we call ourselves Hindus worth the salt when we remain so oblivious of the essential principles of our grand spiritual tradition? It is time we reflect on this and do not hide behind pretentious assertions to avoid self-censure.

REJOINDER TO A VAIN CHRISTIAN

Sugata Bose Christianity burnt future saints like Joan of Arc and hundreds of thousands of others including great scientists like Bruno in the fire of the Inquisition. Christianity incarcerated geniuses like Galileo and thwarted the advance of science. The horrendous tale goes on. Read The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda and you will be enlightened about it all including the real Christianity about which you have no clue. The Christ of Asia is not quite the Christ Rome upholds with all the pomp and show of the Vatican. Go back to the Nazarene who had no stone to lay his head on and lived in rags a life of supreme renunciation and spirituality to which evidently the West has no clue imbued as they are with ideas of social development and worldly good living. Visit India and then the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission commonly called Belur Math if you wish to come to any semblance of a comprehension of the spiritual Christianity as opposed to your pompous understanding of Western 'superior' Christianity. In realisation lies the essence of religion and not in articles of faith born in arbitrary assumption and doctrinaire imposition thereafter. The day your earthly desires diminish, then alone will you see reason in being rational in the real sense of the term and stop being so pompous in your claims about the attainments of Christianity while conveniently choosing to ignore the mass murder and genocide that the same religion has unfortunately inspired dictators and kings and reformers within its fold to have conducted. Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, the three great dharma traditions of India, the heartland of spirituality, have never resorted to such barbarous activities in their history which not only predate Christianity in their origins but also outmatche her in philosophical profundity and catholicity of spirit despite, ironically speaking, the largest sect of Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, having assumed the term which it does not in any way stand by thanks to its dogmatic insistence that it alone is the true way to godhead. You may argue that of late such is no more the case but that is only a political stance and not a sincere one for in that case the Vatican would have desisted from all programmes of conversion to its fold right away. Om! Shanti! Shanti! Shanti! (Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!) @ Deborah Edwards 

P.S. Talking of loving sinners as you point out Christianity advocates, well, Hinduism does not in the first place condemn the lot of humankind to 'original sin' as Christianity does. Hinduism, on the contrary, in trumpet voice proclaims the essential divinity of the human soul and all of sentience. So, there is no question of loving the sinner. Hinduism emphasises the oneness of all of phenomena at the level of its spiritual foundation, that is, the fundamental oneness of existence. Out of the awareness and the consequent conviction that one is everywhere in all of sentience in essence, flows the fountain of love divine for all and not out of pity for the so-to-say sinner. This is a far more ennobling idea of love than the love for the sinner. 

A final pointer and it is this. Unlike Christianity which is based on faith and personality and mythology without a genuine scientific or philosophical basis, Hinduism is based on the realisation of countless seers of transcendental truth, recorded in the Hindu scriptures, methodologies of spiritual practice that are possible to undergo with verified and verifiable results as of yore and elaborate philosophy of profundity and sublimity unmatched in the annals of religious history anywhere else in the world. The Upanishads are the only books that can successfully stand the test of time and the scrutiny of advancing modern science which the Bible full of fantastic assertions like the Resurrection cannot. Just as science is impersonal, so is Hinduism impersonal and if any number of personalities be taken away from its body politic, it will stand as strong and erect as ever. But just imagine if Christ be taken away from Christianity what remains of it. No sane person will repose faith in the Resurrection which is the foundation stone of Christianity and the 'proof' of the divinity of Christ and to sanity Christianity will fail to press home its 'truths' which is why so many millions of educated Europeans are turning to atheism, humanism, Hinduism, Buddhism and the like. The concept of heaven, hell and their ilk are central to the destiny of Christians. Not so for Hindus who think heaven to be too low a place for God or the soul to inhabit. Hinduism has heavens and hells of a mythological kind but they are places of temporary residence for experience of the consequences of temporal karma following which the soul must revisit earth to continue its spiritual journey en route to eventual liberation in the realisation of Existence Absolute, Consciousness Absolute and Bliss Absolute. It is the non-dual plane of transcendence of the sensory universe whence there is no return. The soul is now free of all dual throng and is one with the fundamental principle whose shadow is this universe. Hari Om Tat Sat!

BRAVO, O BRAVE ONE!

Those who are confronting the evil of religious fanaticism instead of shying away from them out of security concerns are doing a service unto humanity. They are truly the children of the Lord for they are fearless in their combativeness and true to their convictions which run in tandem and never in conflict with the higher aspirations of man and the evolving purpose of civilisation. Those that cower in fear and dare not confront the malefic elements of societies going progressively roguish by the presence of this pernicious influence do all a disservice by failing in their duty to resist evil and uphold the principles of civilised living which these noxious notions of God and man seem to be attempting to replace with their vile and toxic thrusts. Liberalism is one and cowardice quite another. While the former is the product of enlightenment, the latter is its very antithesis and needs to be repudiated as such. Cowardice today the world over camouflages as liberalism when it is essentially the fear of violent retribution that prompts the average so-to-say liberal from taking a stand on radicalism in the name of religion. This has to be understood as a basic chink in the armoury of civilised humanity that is so body-bound that it prefers the sanctuary of a compromise with untruth to a bold enunciation of fact as it is and not as is out of fear portrayed out to be by these less than valorous men and women.       

OF WHAT AVAIL IS THIS SUPERFICIAL PREACHING?

Mere preaching the Vedanta in a goody-goody way in the West and avoiding the harsh realities of the political scene in the world all the while will not do mankind much good. What is needed is a robust propagation of the message, a facing up to the challenges that confront humanity in the intellectual domain pertaining to spirituality and not conveniently shying away from it in a cowardly manner quoting institutional principles which bar the way, and taking the lead in lighting up the path for depraved humanity that civilisation may survive the present anarchy. Spreading the spiritual light in great haste and with deep love for all is the need of the hour and this requires a zeal that few possess but that which must now be the common possession of all who profess in God's name what they to humanity preach. Evil in the name of archaic arbitration of faith, absolute assumptions beyond rational discourse or debate must be met with collective pulsations of love from millions that will in their combined might defeat the perfidious purpose of the evil doers. The intellectual discourse must be on and discussions and debates in a civilised manner undertaken to combat the power of reverse propaganda that seeks to take the world ages backward way in the medieval dark ages of tribal cults and practices totally unsuited to the requirements of modern times.

RELIGION MUST REASON AND DISCARD FAITH

Holding any individual as infallible is fundamentally flawed. His ideas and utterances must be tested for their veracity even as scientific propositions are. The same rigour of reasoning needs to apply in religion as in science and the principles enunciated cannot be held as sacrosanct beyond scepticism and query. There is nothing venerable in science whose pursuit is strictly objective and in its adherence to the unabashed discovery of truth lies its sanctity of spirit. It modifies models that attempt the description of natural truth in human linguistic and mathematical terms as and how flaws in existing hypotheses or even erstwhile accepted laws or theories are detected. Science does not consider such modification or rejection of past principles heretical and welcomes research into truth for the uncovering of its essence closer than ever before. And this honest addressing of the natural question advances its cause as it forays into uncharted territory using what I would say truly spiritual principles of enquiry, discipline, rational rigour and intellectual honesty. Thus, the cause of science, vibrant and dynamic, is served better than any religious cause, rotting since inception in its stagnant adherence to prophetic pronouncement, unaltered and unalterable, for, after all, they are the Word of God, inviolable and unerring. Such stagnancy inevitably plays upon the darker facets of the human mind and seeks its coarser corrupting elements to subsist and to thrive, gaining its mandate to undermine civilisation through the gathering of numbers and not garnering of fact and ever feeling threatened in its survival when confronted by the basic questions of human rational thinking.

The religions of Abrahamic tradition arising in West Asia are all dogmatic and doctrinaire. They are based on arbitrary assumptions of faith imposed upon the multitude of their adherents by prophetic pronouncement, unverified and unverifiable, which stand in direct contradiction to the rational deductions of science. On the contrary, ages ago in India, our sages discovered spiritual principles in much the same manner as modern scientists apply in their search for natural truth except for the fact that the direction of seeking in Indian spirituality was in the interior of the human mind and the tools of introspection necessarily the discerning faculties of the mind itself.

LIGHT AFTER A MILLENIUM OF DARK

Our country has suffered no less at the hands of Muslim rulers with their barbarous persecution, conversion and desecration of our culture and finally Muslim politicians who precipitated Partition than we have at the hands of the British who drained us of our wealth, despoiled us of our very subsistence and rendered the most prosperous nation on earth to one of the poorest, and eventually connived with the Muslim League to partition our motherland. It has been a thousand year old ordeal and we must recover from it, a strong and united nation, with the solemn promise we make to ourselves that never again shall we so debilitate ourselves that we fall prey to such human predators whose tribal culture sends civilisation to despair and reduces life on earth to a veritable hell, ever dangling the vain hope of paradise, post perfidy of all civilised norms. We must not forget the indignities heaped on us, the massacre of our population, the forced and induced conversion and the ravaging of our resources, and these shall inspire us to love our motherland all the more and build up her future more glorious than ever before. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind! 

INTEGRATION, A HISTORICAL IMPERATIVE

Pakistan and Bangladesh are historically India and must one day come back into her fold. But some ideological adjustments on the part of the splintered regions will be necessary before such an assimilation is possible or is even worthwhile for the mother country. History has severed the parts and history shall likewise unite, for that is the destiny of our nation, the vision brewed in the minds of the illumined sages of yore and of the modern sages who have come as fulfilment of that great tradition.

EDUCATION, THE PANACEA

Men are born into cultures which leave their indelible mark on them. It is education, wide and universal, that helps them overcome the limitations of inherited culture.

IN MEMORIAM ... 2

Let there be universities built in the names of Srinivasa Ramanujan, S.N. Bose, J.C. Bose, Meghnad Saha and the like. These will be inspirational institutions that will propel India into becoming a premier scientific nation of the world in due course of time. These living institutions throbbing with the pulsations of higher thinking are the fitting tributes we can pay to our great men and not dull statues made in their likenesses which are but poor caricatures and serve no creative purpose save to perpetuate the tradition of deification of the personality while the principles he upholds and which in turn uphold him go abegging. 

BUILD INSTITUTIONS, NOT STATUES

Not a pice of public money must be spent in building statues of any, however venerated such a one may be in public estimation. All of the nation's resources should be geared to developing science so as to successfully eradicate poverty from this land of fabled plenty throughout history save in the colonial exploitative reign of the British. Public money will be well utilised in building institutions of learning and that, indeed, will be the truest homage to the personages of venerable memory. Let these institutions be dedicated to and named after these stalwarts of the past as fitting tribute to their seminal contributions towards the resurrection of our motherland. Jai Hind!

HUMAN BEINGS ARE BUT HUMAN BEINGS

Human beings are human beings, not Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Buddhists. Religions are cultural attachments largely, not intrinsic elements central to man.

MISSION INDIA TWEETS

1. How abysmally ignorant we are of our 1000 yr past history full of foreign tyranny, conversion, genocide and cultural desecration!

2. We have to build our motherland along the lines laid down by the Hindu Rishis. Hinduism is the life-blood of our nation.

3. The kshatriya dharma has not been much stressed upon in recent times thanks to Gandhiji. Time to reverse this trend to vivify us.

4. We have to rebuild Kashi as the seat of Hindu culture once more in a manner that it will be the cynosure of the whole world.

5. The resettlement of the Hindu Pandits of Kashmir, victims of an enforced exodus from their homeland, will prove the PM's mettle.

6. The study of Sanskrit as a classical language must become mandatory throughout India right from the secondary level.

7. Patriotism is not a verbal act; it is an act that speaks eloquent.

8. It is the brave alone who are the flag-bearers of freedom, it is valour that stands up to tyranny and strikes a path out of it.

SPIRITUAL IDEAS ... 1

1. Peace is the precondition to progress.

2. While it may to some be alright to address the human being as a social animal, somehow it demeans his inherent divine status.

3. While external resources are limited and need equitable distribution, our internal resources are unlimited and need mere manifestation.

4. The tussle is on. Tibetan Buddhism versus Chinese Marxism. Which one will win?

5. The surface man is the aggregate of attributes which shift in degree and kind but the carrier principle is constant.

6. What right has China over Tibet beyond what might has obtained for them? Ought not China to be isolated by the global community?

7. The mind is potent enough to do damage to the body through ill-direction of its forces. It can heal the body as well. Use the mind well.

8. While in the flush of youth devote yourselves to the higher pursuits of life, be they in the domain of the arts or the sciences.

9. A continuous stream of matter is the secondary perception, the same of the mind the primary perception and consciousness the origin.

10. By honouring others we do not dishonour ourselves. So, let us give up vanity and its sibling, selfishness, and give all their due respect.

11. We need not complicate our lives too much with the abstractions of philosophy. Let us just practice a bit of virtue in life.

12. Let us not partake of food till we have reserved some of it for the living God that is man. Indian hospitality must be revived.

13. Religion must consist as much in the application of simple principles in life as in the pronouncement of grand philosophy.

14. What an abysmal capitulation to sense-pleasure! Is this what you call civilisation?

15. Religions that convert rely on numbers and not on the truth they supposedly represent. Never knew God needed numbers.

16. If you convert any, you are creating evil in society by spreading the seeds of separate consciousness and breaking social solidarity.

17. Hindus must not be vague about the principles and the philosophy of their religion. Mere performance of rituals will not suffice.

18. Fanaticism cannot be allowed to muzzle free speech. What constitutes violation of dignity is open to debate and needs no imposition.

19. Criminal is this human greed for power and money that reduces the masses to penury. Virtue remains an unpractised principle.

20. Mere making effete verbal demonstrations is of no use. It is vital that we carry out our convictions into practice in real life.

21. May Hinduism, Buddhism and Science show the way to mankind blinded by impositions of fanatical faiths!

22. Evil elements abound in society to exploit the malefic content of fanatical faiths to suit their perfidious purpose. Resist them.

23. Is there a God who arbitrates over human affairs or are humans the sovereigns who determine their fate in life and death?

24. Would a Vivekananda sit idle today preaching piety and not take a stand on the issues that threaten to destroy the world?

25. Are we men when we cower in fear and so refuse to raise our voices against the many heresies perpetrated on humanity?

26. Where is our sense of morality when we allow the drainage of wealth upwards creating comfort and chaos in alternate terms?

27. If Islam is now on a collision course with the West, Hinduism and Buddhism are now the dharma preceptors of the West.

28. The one way to end fanaticism is to focus on principle rather than personality and to venerate humanity in general.

29. In today's democratic world God cannot be allowed to be autocratic. Man must occupy centre-stage. This is the gist of the Vedanta.

30. One of the better ways of tackling the onslaughts of religious radicalism is to practice our respective religions sincerely.

31. Inter-faith meets must be sincere in enunciating each religion's core principles and must not cover up each other's fatal flaws.

32. Is there no end to human thirst for blood? How long must man wait till sanity settles civilisation and ushers in the good of all?

33. What a punishment to be born under a religious regime that cannot tolerate dissent of any sort! And to be born a woman at that!

34. The best way to overcome religious tyranny, some argue, is to abolish religion itself from their lives. But the heart clings to God.

35. The impersonal ideal is the best. It enhances the soul through democracy of the Spirit.

36. Let every child get education, free and fair, bereft of doctrinaire imposition. Then let them determine their own future.

37. Human beings are human beings, not Hindus, Muslims, Christians or Buddhists. Religions are cultural attachments largely, not intrinsic elements central to man.

38. Give up this puny self and see what a flood of light courses through your being. Witness your own enlightened Self.

39. Happiest is he who loves to see others happy. But sadness often is his fate as his empathy for others' sorrow makes him suffer too.

40. Why should Islam prohibit leaving the faith? It is individual choice to convert into Islam and it should be the same in leaving it.

41. Why should apostasy in Islam be punishable by death? Is it not a violation of human rights?

42. The good people are those who are pushing civilisation forward and the evil ones are those who are taking it to the dark ages.

43. Conversion in religion is a nefarious practice, completely anti-spiritual. Religions that convert are eloquent as to what they are.

44. Brainwashing children and the young with the tenets of fundamentalism has led the world to the brink of a precipice. Beware!

45. Human knowledge has exceeded human wisdom and this imbalance could spell the doom in the form of human annihilation.

46. The Vedanta must be spread on a war-footing throughout the world if we are to avert a global catastrophe.

47. The world is on the edge of annihilation and the peacemakers are busy making statues. How irresponsible can that be?

48. Perhaps atheism, agnosticism and theism are so many phases of the human mind as it evolves through dualism to unitary consciousness.

49. It takes a lifetime to shake off superstition and square up to truth face to face. Then comes spirituality.

50. Just like gravity there are psychological forces that tug precipitously. Upgrade your nervous system to avoid such pitfalls.

51. The whole idea of enforced uniformity of belief and norm by a single 'divine' decree is reprehensible to the modern man.

52. Religions that convert by force, inducement or marital condition are the nurseries of fanatical violence. Combat conversion.

53. Conversion presupposes the superiority of one religion over another. This is arbitrary, irrational, anti-equality and anti-spiritual.

54. Men are born into cultures which leave their indelible mark on them. It is education, wide and universal, that helps them overcome the limitations of inherited culture.

55. Is it not demeaning for one to submit to the will of a supposed almighty being as per the injunctions laid down by a 'chosen one'?

56. What has subservience to God to do with spirituality? Spirituality lies in the realisation of the Self through rejection of all such.

57. If God-realisation is to be, it has to be here on earth in this human body and not in some heavenly habitat of the Almighty.

58. Hinduism has the grandest philosophy, that of the oneness of existence, realised and realisable by transcendence of the senses.

59. How hypocritical can people be that they blatantly lie about fanatical faiths being peaceful when they breed violence by the day?

60. Hong much longer must man wait and tolerate the medieval monstrosity that goes on in the name of arbitrary assumptions of faith?

61. How wonderful it would be to displace God from His seat and install man there as the arbiter of his own fate! Vedanta would triumph.

62. Remove renunciation and all that remains of religion is materialism clothed in fine verbal cover. Realisation is the soul of religion.

63. The day good people have the courage to stand up for truth and stop hiding behind clever verbal cover, fanaticism can be given the death blow. Till then let hypocrisy make common cause with the worst perfidies human soul is heir to.

64. Why should I submit to God or anyone for that matter when I can with effort be a master of my senses?

65. Use democracy to subvert democracy --- that is the game plan of they who plot to impose their faith and lawless law on all.

66. Cannibalism is paramount in human society as humans prey upon each other in the name of ideology, religion and individual authority.

67. Seek the blessings of others, not their curses. Both are potent and leave their benign or baneful mark on your life. Beware!

68. Of what avail is personal liberation when the vast mass of sentience remains hopelessly bound in ignorance? Can we shirk responsibility? The Master has remained bound to us forever through our terrestrial travail

69. Preaching piety is of no avail when people wish to perforce perish. Transformation of the subliminal consciousness of man is the need.

70. Self-confidence should be such that jealousy will play no role in life and this self-confidence stems from knowing who you truly are.

71. Faith in oneself comes only when all the gods one had reposed faith in have let one down and one is left bereft of support.

72. Do not harm others if you wish to be yourself helped. Every act will recoil on you with its inevitable reaction. There is no escape.

73. Through the trials and tribulations, errors and blunders, virtue and vice, cling to the ideal of the oneness of life.

74. Hinduism and Buddhism must rapidly spread their ideas if the world is to survive growing Islamic radicalisation.

75. Monotheism has this pitfall. Carried to its intolerant extreme, it incites fanatical violence, specially, if the faith prescribes so.

76. Utopian ideology is dangerous for it sows in gullible minds the noxious seeds of unrealism fraught with pernicious possibilities.

77. Quoting from the scriptures to justify malefic human action today is opposed to all that is enlightening in modern civilisation.

78. We, Indians, must reaffirm the 'sundaram principle, our ideal of beauty, in every endeavour we strive for, in every work we undertake.

79. This lackadaisical attitude towards work, this indifference to perfection must go if we are to progress as a nation.

80. What virtue can there be in neglecting the aged while getting on with one's own life at ease? Will not the day reverse?

81. That freedom which one exercises in only railing at people who are more civilised and cannot stoop to such lows is worth not having.

82. The hard fact one eventually learns in life is that none belongs to one nor does one belong to any. It is a world of self-evolution.

83. Who to bless? Who to curse? It is all me. I can only love all despite the odd reaction here and there consequent on Self-oblivion.

84. I live on an isle of 'I' marooned and cut off from humanity. My mind remains the link with all save when it shuts down too.

85. A religion that expounds fanatical violence against infidels cannot be included in the dharma tradition of sublime humanity.

86. The bickering one can never be fortunate. Fortune smiles on the serene, the calm, the compassionate.

87. They who squabble too much lose sight of the essence of life. Their lives become miserable even as they heap misery on others.

88. The irrational doctrines of the Semitic religions is inspiring many to embrace atheism in their bid to seek their freedom.

89. Bharat Ratna, a bound soul? A strange predicament really.

90. Religions survive not because of the truths they supposedly preach but because of the Truth that is fundamental to man.

91. I wake up and am confronted with a thought. What is thought? Who is the thinker? Is there any or is the thinker a thought as well?

92. How do we see, how do we hear in a dream without the aid of light or sound? How is memory stored in the brain after all?

93. Who am I? Do I exist or is it all a seeming reality that'll vanish into nothingness in the fullness of time? Or will I just remain?

94. Why must I multiply in numbers to spread my faith? I will deepen my convictions and advance spiritually.

95. I am but a passing dream in a shifting sea
      While the sea beholds a bed I cannot see.

96. There is no hope of peace in a world so fractured along ideological and theological lines. Exclusive survival is an absurdity.

97. All spiritual good is attained by the worship of the Guru who is one with God. This is a fact hard to realise but the sooner realised, the better.

98. Spirituality is the pursuit of inner perfection and the consciousness of the integration of the universe. Oneness is the end of it.

99. Where duality is, there is fear and in fear can be no spirituality. Hence, oneness is the soul of religion.

100. Fanatical faiths grow fast because of the lowliness they cater to in man which is more generally available for induction.