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.