NO COMPROMISE WITH UNTRUTH, PLEASE

We must not compromise with untruth by just getting a bit of peace by observing certain spiritual practices but we must get to the root of our very existence which in common parlance is called God. God-realisation is the goal of life and nothing short of it we should aspire for or rest content with having achieved. To do this we have to reflect on the purport of the scriptures, meditate on the message of the great sages and saints down the ages and scrupulously observe their instructions unto us. Only then will knowledge dawn on us and perennial peace dwell in our entire being. we shall become illumined and deathless free. Time will cease to flow for us the way it does for the entrapped being. We shall live in the eternity of existence absolute rendered relative though by the enlightened down-gradation into space-time where our terrestrial habitat yet is owing to the play of the residual karma which is yet to be exhausted in us. But such a terrestrial location shall only be of the apparent body-mind complex and not of the Self which enfolds all of phenomena and which we now have come to identify with. Ours will be a residence in the fine line of transition between the relative and the absolute with the relative merely working out our unspent karma as the absolute waits on for our final total absorption. All this is abstruse philosophy and cannot adequately be described in figurative terms or in linguistic mode of expression. It is so subtle a truth, this Vedanta which is the most refined in human thought and veritably transcends reason and intellectual bounds, that realisation in one's very core of being is the only way to apprehend it, comprehend it in its wholeness. Any attempt to express it otherwise using the vehicle of language is doomed to failure for the subtleties involved do not admit of such crudeness of articulation as language entails.

This then is the goal of human life, humanity's highest aspiration, the realisation of who we are. As such, ordinary religiosity will fall desperately short of the ideal to be reached even in this human body even as the body falls short of the ultimate realisation when the elements are transcended and the universe is cast off as a shadow insubstantial under the stellar shine of Absolute Truth. No compromise with truth in the name of routine ritualism, mythological make-believe or philosophical sophistry will be entertained by our inner nature in finality, for our very essence is of the essence of absolute truth. Hence, life is serious business where we have an errand to run, that of Self-realisation, and the moment it is achieved, we shall pack bag and baggage to go home, not to some eternal abode of sensory comfort and pleasure called heaven nor to some place of terrible torment called hell but we shall sink within our own being which is beyond the reaches of space-time and is the dimensionless eternity of absolute existence and transcendent consciousness. We must give up our terrible attachment to this plaything called life and all its concomitant consequences if we are to transcend change and its final earthly resolution, death. To overcome death, we have to renounce life and its labour in ignorance. That does not mean we must commit suicide of the body but it does mean that we must kill our desires, uproot them quite from the very source whence they spring into being and sublimate our passions so that the fetters that bind us fall off releasing us unto the finality of freedom.

Life must be taken seriously, utilised for this grand mission of realisation of the truth within us which is also the truth within Nature, and not idly wasted in chasing delectable dreams, fleeting fancies and pleasurable pursuits which will consume the fire of youth and render life sterile. Rather, there must be earnestness of approach, sincerity of effort and the unshakeable conviction in one's capacity to grow unto the realisation of the truth within our very heart. Doubts will assail the mind and render it ineffective in its bid to advance rapidly to the goal but the focus on the great task must not be weakened. Truth will shine but in its own season, never at our bidding but in the fullness of time. Till then we must keep the task which shall be our labour of love, for the fruit of it will be the discovery of who we are and our self-possession at that. Let all mundane maladies attached to our spiritual striving thus far be shed and let us march ahead with self-dignity unto the conquest of the summit of spirituality, our very Self. This is the sum and substance of the spiritual quest and let us not settle for anything short of it. Let us not compromise with unruth. Om!

WAR CRIMINAL STILL?

If we have the slightest self-respect, we ought to immediately raise such a storm that the Government of India will be forced to take cognisance of this fact and take the necessary steps to absolve our patriot premier from this perfidy that has been perpetrated on him owing to the wilful negligence of erstwhile Congress Governments beginning with Nehru and perpetuated by his descendants ad infinitum. It is high time that the present government, which has nothing to benefit from such a blasphemous alliance with the forces that be, takes the rightful steps to remove this stain from the unblemished character of our liberator extraordinaire.

We as a nation have not the spine to act in national self-defence or righteous self-respect consequent on our seven decades long debilitation under successive Central Governments who have been party to this neglect of the hero of our liberation war and negligence, nay, wilful compliance in the matter of perpetuating his War Criminal status in the pertinent list of the United Nations.

It is to our eternal shame that we should have shaken hands with the criminals who had hanged our martyrs and tormented our sons and daughters as if they were animals or affiliates to a subhuman species. Shaheed Dweep and Swaraj Dweep stand as silent witnesses to the brutality of this barbarous people who we have befriended on unequal terms and continue to do so at the expense of national honour which has been sold to the British Crown for a pittance.

NETAJI AND SWAMIJI ... 4

In his sixteenth year he encountered Vivekananda which transformed his entire personality and set it along the path of service and renunciation. Yogic experiments followed and so did excursions to holy places in search of a spiritual preceptor who could guide him in his spiritual progress. The young Subhas was not alone in this quest but had formed a band of like-minded spiritual seekers with whom he spent his time, now in practising spiritual disciplines, now again in visiting villages where they would render service to the locals, and yet again in leaving home and hearth on pilgrimage to near and distant sites where they would interact with holy men of diverse types. All this meant defiance of familial authority and Subhas became a law unto himself in this phase of his life, taking especial pleasure in doing what he felt was spiritually right irrespective of his parents' directions or desires spelt out to him. His studies suffered from want of attention and this caused a fair bit of consternation among his teachers at school who expected him to perform to his potential instead of wasting away his final year before the Matriculation Examinations chasing wild geese as they would have understood his spiritual pursuit then. His parents were also disturbed at the turn of events as Subhas was swept along by the current of his spiritual propensities in a direction totally unfamiliar to he, himself, as to all who had thus far known him. Vivekananda loomed large in his horizons and beckoned him unto a wider world of self-abnegation where the individual self had to be sacrificed for the common weal as one strode along the path of spiritual perfection.

However, all these things did not quite happen all at once or in a ready sequential order but they were all being resolved in the complex mind of this acutely sensitive soul that Subhas was with considerable tension and torment in its wake as its inevitable price that had to be paid. Conflicting theories, contrasting conditions between the outer and the inner worlds, ceaseless battle with the psychological propensities to subdue the carnal currents, all these and the evolving mind's increasing adjustments to the treachery of the times when the country at large was in its death-throes under the brutal British colonial regime, rendered the young Subhas' mind a veritable war-zone where the forces physical and psychological were being measured out and set and reset till the resolution was complete and the personality cast in a definite mould for its emergence in the field of adult life.

Despite all his preoccupation with his spiritual pursuit though, Subhas triumphed in the Matriculation Examinations almost with effortless ease to place second in the University. His parents pleased after all, he was dispatched to Calcutta for furtherance of his academic career and to cure him of his spiritual maladies. 

NETAJI AND SWAMIJI ... 3

The problem of translating Swamiji's spiritual ideology into active political programme was one that confronted Subhas Chandra Bose and kept him absorbed throughout the entire span of his political career as he evolved from a young Congressman to the statesman of global standing. He studied Swamiji deeply and tried to live the spiritual life to the level possible within the constraints of his hectic political life, maintaining physical continence throughout as the sine qua non for his service to the motherland. Psychological continence was a greater challenge to him but he even succeeded in overcoming the carnal impulses of the mind at the surface level. However, as he himself admitted in his autobiography, 'An Indian Pilgrim', the subtler impressions deep within the mind that lay latent under the cover of surface impressions posed a far greater challenge in his combat with lust and these had to be rooted out if one was to gain mastery of one's self. In this study of the mind thus, he was heavily influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and through him, of his spiritual teacher, Sri Ramakrishna. The spiritual duo held Subhas enthralled by their magnetic presence as he went about practising what they had enunciated as the essentials in the path towards God-realisation.

A HISTORIC CELEBRATION OF NETAJI'S 121ST BIRTH ANNIVERSARY IN BANGLADESH

Our Indian High Commissioner spoke excellently and it was so nice of him to cordially praise Ashraful Islam for his commendable work in organising the event and even committing to getting the event widely reported in the Indian Press. This historic inaugural event to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji in Bangladesh has now initiated the course for future events annually like this and it is hoped that the flame that has thus been lit will continue to blaze in the years to come making Netaji a household name in Bangladesh once more as he was in the years gone by. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was much inspired by Netaji and is said to have met him once as well in the late 1930s. What had transpired then between the two is for historians to unearth. Mujib was then a youth and Netaji in full bloom as a political leader and the latter must have cast such a deep impression on the former's mind that years later at the height of the Bangladesh Liberation War (the Mukti Yuddha) Bangabandhu had like Netaji given the clarion call for the shedding of blood for the liberation of the motherland. What Ashraful Islam has achieved is of momentous significance for the rediscovery of Netaji in Bangladesh and it seems that the movement thus initiated by him can only gain momentum as the years roll by. May Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose bless Ashraful for his selfless service in this grand cause and may we all offer him unstinted support and encouragement for advancement of his future programmes! Jai Bangla! Jai Hind!

DR. JAYANTA CHOUDHURI IN BANGLADESH

Great delivery, Drjayanta Choudhuri. Only would it were that we could hear you speak for a longer while which evidently was not possible, for the list of speakers was long and all had to be accommodated within the allotted time. How wonderful it would be if we could hear you at a stretch for a couple of hours on Netaji who has literally penetrated your very bloodstream, your nerve-current, so to say, and transformed you into an eloquent emissary of his mission! Our heartiest thanks and gratitude to you and our pride in being your comrades-in-arms in this mission to rediscover and relocate Netaji in the annals of Indian and world history. Jai Hind!

P.S. This post refers to Dr. Jayanta Choudhuri's lecture delivered in Dhaka on the occasion of the celebration of the 121st birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose organised by Ashraful Islam.

NETAJI AND SWAMIJI ... 2

It was not easy for the growing Subhas to reconcile the diverse currents of thought to which he was exposed when accidentally almost he came upon the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda one day. His encounter with Vivekananda was electrifying and changed the course of his future life. Suddenly as if there was a source of supreme spiritual strength and a fund of spiritual wisdom which he could bank on. His contact with the seminal personality of the sage was so emphatic that it transformed his evolving mind rapidly along the lines of service and renunciation which now gripped him even in the sixteenth year of his life.

NETAJI AND SWAMIJI ... 1

Netaji had never taken spiritual initiation from any, although, he considered Swami Vivekananda as his spiritual preceptor of sorts without having ever come in contact with him. He followed his teachings and tried to give them shape in his life and in his patriotic action for his motherland.

But there was a problem that Subhas faced early on as he grappled with the philosophical principles of the different systems of thought. He found especial difficulty in accepting Advaita Vedanta which declares the phenomenal world to be a delusion of the senses and the senses to be delusion as well. Here Subhas was in a quandary as to how he could proceed in his patriotic activity to drive the British away from his motherland when the motherland and her slavery as well as the colonial occupiers of her territory were all in the realm of Maya and had no substantial reality in them after all.

This problem was never philosophically solved by Subhas but he bypassed it in practical terms and resorted to his own interpretation of Vivekananda as applied to the cause of national welfare, which in his case turned out to be the ideal of gaining political freedom from the British. Philosophy had to be lived out in the concrete world, reckoned Subhas, and with Swamiji as his beacon in the dark world of dependence, he embarked on his meteoric career in politics that saw the emergence of India's premier patriot who, like his spiritual mentor, traversed the gamut of Indian culture to be the synthesis of all that was best and brightest in the Indian ethos.

WHEN I THINK ALONE

One wonders what needs to be done to awaken people sufficiently to engage them in collective fruitful action for the country, that is, service to the motherland, and giving their utmost to regenerate the masses whose earthly plight is worse than what humanity ought to be heir to in a just and fair world. It is misery itself to witness destitution of the masses on one side and the overflowing affluence of the few privileged ones on the other who spare not a thought for the suffering of the millions, nay, close to a billion, and nonchalantly go about their business of the accumulation of wealth and the consequent pleasures of material living. What it means to the masses is of little concern to them who wield their sovereign power by dint of wealth to determine the course of life for the teeming millions who toil in vain for bread but get kicks in return from their brutal masters.

It is a silent crushing machinery, this capitalism, that sucks the life-blood of the masses in a modern mechanised manner so sophisticated that the hapless victims cannot even fathom the reason why they have to suffer this death-deal on earth. Knowledge coupled with avarice, technology aided by legal sanction to exploit, economic theory aimed at yielding maximum profit to benefit business at a terrible human expense, these represent the challenge to the sufficient survival of billions of people across the world, not merely our country. The problem of equitable distribution of wealth and the generation of enough for the effective existence of all has not yet been solved. Thus, millions live like scavengers even as billionaires loot the nation with the fullest support of the government propped up by them and brought to power by a system of democracy that dupes the masses with fair hopes and false promises as they are led to press the ballot button yet again to bring about their own doom. Thus goes on the saga of their unending woe despite the passage of seven decades of political independence.

What is the to be done? Must we keep on watching the proceedings till kingdom come while the rich roll in luxury and the politicians, corrupt to the core, join in the party to make a common cause in the impending death of the nation? Never. We must reverse the scenario, redress the issue of poverty and illiteracy, hunger and ill-health, and all other derivatives of the terrible exploitation of the masses by the use of capital.

PATRIOT'S CALL

1. Let us work for Netaji free of egotistical impulsion and the desire for name and fame. Netaji matters, not we who work for him.

NETAJI IN BANGLADESH

Netaji has been honoured in Bangladesh on 23 Jan, 2018 on his birthday, courtesy Ashraful Islam. We must all applaud his Herculean effort and must come forward to help him in his future endeavours. Ashraful has taken up the burden of reinstating Netaji to his rightful place in the social discourse and in the public imagination whereby he hopes to bring about a wholesome change in the entire polity of our fractured subcontinent. He is very reluctant to occupy centre-stage in his mission and prefers to remain backstage for his soul's sole objective is to propagate the life and ideology of Netaji. Such an unalloyed love for Netaji as Ashraful possesses is rare indeed even among the most ardent devotees of the beloved leader and this is what makes him shy away from publicity of his person, for he prefers instead the propagation of his mission which is the upholding of Netaji before one and all. In this age of exaggerated self-publicity when people are ever-intent on seeking the limelight, Ashraful marks a healthy departure from this rampant culture of aggressive self-marketing.

Ashraful has been inspired by Kazi Nazrul Islam and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from boyhood but as the years have rolled on, his fascination for Netaji has gripped him more and more till he now is completely possessed by the inspiration that is the hero of epic proportions and eats, drinks and lives for him. With a single-minded persistence he pursues his mission to propagate Netaji and his ideology and lives a frugal life to make both ends meet as he devotes his entire day and night to the fulfilment of his cause almost careless of return. His has been a plunge into the ocean that is Netaji and his resolve it is to gather the pearls of pristine purity from the depths of this personality of matchless merit, of unimpeachable character and of uncompromising patriotism.

THE CONDITIONED, THE RECONDITIONED AND THE UNCONDITIONED ... 1

LEADERS OF THE FREEDOM MOVEMENT ... 1 (BAGHA JATIN/JATINDRANATH MUKHERJEE)

Inspired by Swami Vivekananda, he was a veritable lion among men who attempted to overthrow the British in an armed insurrection at the height of the First World War. Betrayal as usual put paid to their dreams of delivering the motherland from the shackles of colonial bondage and the lions fells in an open armed battle, an unequal gunfight in which Jatin Mukherjeee was seriously wounded and died subsequently in Balasore hospital. The date --- 10 September, 1915. Bagha jatin was the precursor to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in open armed revolution against the British Crown.

THE POWER MANIFESTED AND THE POWER BEHIND ... 1

The power manifested and the power behind. How the transference took place of the power is a matter of deep study and intuitive understanding. The rational process will lead to where comprehension will be confounded, analysis obscured and links so widely spaced that the intervening gaps will be filled only by superficial details of everyday experience where the chasms in the higher realms will remain ever agape seeking fulfilment of a spiritual bridging. Herein the prophet and the hero will seem realms apart and a lowering of the prophet's ideal to the plane of mundane reality --- where patriotic fervour seems a spiritual imperative in the times of national tribulation that have been and spirituality, pure and pristine, seems an idle preoccupation with the selfish dream of individual liberation --- will be a practical necessity not merely to meet the challenges of the times but to harmonise the two spirits in terms of aspiration and idealism. Thus will the harmony between the hero and the prophet be achieved but at a terrible cost to the statement of truth which cares not for current dilemmas or timely aberrations of life's movements but judges heavily on the scales of the eternal verities that obtain in this phenomenal world held at its philosophical highest. Thus, a deep understanding fraught with spiritual insight is necessary for a comprehensive viewing of the current, its source and flow and its assimilation in the recipient. Apparently disjointed occurrences seek connections that lie in subterranean realms and the subliminal consciousness of man but whose origin is in the super-consciousness of prophetic existence. How the heavens and the earths are thus joined to form the necklace of union, how the spirit is made flesh in the mind of man and then translated to real terms here on earthy earth without losing a tinge of the original complexion which is of the radiant white, is a matter of deep meditation and may not be apprehended by surface scratching of historical text or data, for history at the manifested level is but the material fulfilment or the tendency towards it of the deepest spiritual urges of the Cosmic Mother-heart that seeks fruition for some inexplicable reason here on this terrestrial plane of human delusion.

POLITICIANS, STOOP NO MORE SO LOW

''I have received an allowance of one hundred pounds only up till now. I shall remit the amount to the India Office as soon as my resignation is accepted.'' Mark this corrupt politicians and businessmen! You take everything away from the country and despoil the people of their legitimate inheritance of the national wealth till they are reduced to destitution. But here is one who is so very different, in a different league altogether at whose feet you ought to sit and imbibe the lessons of life, those of character-formation and service to the nation. He is in a hurry to give up personal pleasure and take up service to his motherland, not for profit or political gain but for enduring the rigours of revolutionary activity and the hardship and torment of incessant incarceration. And all this he could bear because he was cast in the heroic mould that stooped not to pick up the filth of lucre and power but soared high into the heavens to bring for us the elixir of freedom. Politicians of today, you have not even the right to offer floral tributes to the honour of this peerless patriot, this prophet of nationalism before you mould your character in the rightful way and give up your pretence in the name of perfidious politics. Netaji is your political preceptor. Study him, learn from him, follow him and breathe every breath for him. Then and then alone ought your countless followers to pay you their respects, else not.

BUT FOR A TRUER FRIEND

With the comrade-in-arms who betrayed at every step, yet, is worshipped as the architect of modern India by millions. What Nehru did to Netaji ought to be the subject matter of research for scholars with a semblance of patriotic zeal and not hired historians who have and even today benefit from governmental patronage. The filthy lucre lures all and men lose morality despite academic attainments and leonine lineage. The historical narrative then dished out is what the victor foul commands it to be and not as events had actually mapped out to be. The culprits who thus pervert history are to be exposed by future generations for the present one seems to be content with sensate pleasures and random rabble-rousing and seem to be no more intent on research and fact-finding than hoodlums are on nation-building. The current crop of politicians belongs to this last distorted brand of humanity and the so-called gentlemen too timid and enervated to take up a cause worth the while. Netaji, thus, continues to live in the shadow of lesser mortals masquerading as modern messiahs in the political firmament like Gandhi and Nehru and their entire brigade. Till the mischief done by the duo and their comrades-in-betrayal of the hero is exposed fair and square before the lay public, there cannot be any redemption for our motherland. Till then let us carry on with our present effeminacy and leave the burden of national cleansing to the robust generations of unborn time.

With veneration and in pain,
I remain ever at your service in Netaji,
Sugata Bose
Jai Hind!

WHEN THE TITANS MET

The only one in the world who could dare to face up to the Fuhrer and point out the errors the latter had made in his reference to Indians in the 'Mein Kampf' and in his declaration of war against Soviet Russia. Netaji also pointblank told Hitler that he had gone to seek his assistance in India's war against British imperialism and not the Fuhrer's advice in political matters pertaining to India. Witness the erect posture of Netaji as he shakes hands with the titan of the times while Ribbentrop awe-inspired waits on them.

WHY NOW, WHY NOT THEN? (IN RESPONSE TO A QUERY BY A CERTAIN GENTLEMAN)

You see this is a complex question that may not be answered in a simplistic manner. The exigencies of life may compel different people to react to their realities in different ways. Not all are of revolutionary fibre to begin with and go about the business of life like others. But when men mature and see things in an altered light owing to altered conditions, and when circumstances change, the pressure of events often draws such people into the vortex of the developing scenario and the result is this involvement somehow in the scheme of things. It is difficult for me to pass a judgement on the motivations impelling such involvement and I cannot adequately address that issue with effective clarity of perception or articulation thereof, for my judgement may fail to make its mark. But it is public perception that we are addressing here as well and herein lies the knotty problem. While we may be unrealistic in our inordinate expectations from members of a revolutionary family through successive generations, to see them at the opportune moment cast in their 'might' in the task of salvaging the glory of their illustrious ancestor and so sink into the mire of contemporary politics may seem a trifle unsavoury to some, unwholesome to many and downright detrimental to the revolutionary cause to some others but it cannot be gainsaid that as citizens they reserve the right to participate in the ensuing events as much as any one of us without necessarily being branded as opportunists. Moreover, their participation adds fillip to the movement for the resurrection of the hero of epic proportions from the debris of historical oblivion and inconceivable perfidies that have been perpetrated against him. I know you raise your eyebrows there as to where such commitment to the cause was in yesteryears when others toiled and they 'watched' but then things map out as they do in the fullness of time and mere mortals may not exceed the limitations of their nature cast upon them by past impressions (sanskaras). However, you must admit that their present participation in the movement, each in his own way, has generated considerable enthusiasm among the general public about the almost lost cause of Netaji's resurrection and to this end I heartily thank them. Differences of approach, opinion and aim notwithstanding, I believe the involvement of the family to a considerable extent is holding the movement together and carrying it forward to a desirable end. It is up to all of us who are ardent admirers, fervid followers of Netaji to cast in our lot as well instead of bothering too much as to what the relative contributions of any may be and so we may rise above pettiness of all sorts in the name of the one who shone like the radiant sun in the firmament of freedom like none other. Thus, we may hope to make a significant contribution, a sizeable difference to the entire episode unfolding before our eyes by the blessings of the martyrs and the revolutionaries who smilingly bled to freedom. Jai Hind!

LO, THE MESSIAH COMES!

The times are treacherous and the saviour invariably comes in the fullness of time. So, do not give in to despondency but rather hold your heart in high hope of the resurrection of humanity and the coming of the messiah who will deliver humanity from distress and despair. The revolutionaries are gone but only for a while. They are but gathering breath before they are reborn to carry on with their mission, to fulfil their unfinished task of the redemption of the motherland from the shackles of slavery, destitution, corruption and perversion of the grand ideals of freedom for which they had laughingly given up their lives at the scaffold and before the bayonet and the bullet of the barbarous British Raj. Jai Netaji! Jai Hind!

LACK OF BRAHMACHARYA THE CAUSE OF THE CURRENT DECLINE IN OUR EDUCATED YOUTH

Irreverence seems to be the hallmark of the shallow intellect bred in a few lines of occidental learning which then proceeds to denigrate the great Swami Vivekananda for being a male chauvinist of sorts. If this is the understanding of these self-aggrandised souls of the leonine prophet of the age on the basis of flawed reasoning and vain thinking, then it is a sad day for these self-deluded youths who yet must practice strictest continence (brahmacharya) to arrive at a semblance of sanity that has fled from their mischievous minds. Swamiji used to regret saying that the cause of this degradation of the youth was 'absence of that wonderful system of yore, brahmacharya' and lamented that lack of continence had ruined the very fibre of the youth, despoiled them of their manliness and rendered them utterly hollow with a few university degrees to boot and a heartless intellect their only possession. Such a trend continues regrettably even today and needs a redressing. I earnestly hope that many a friend and associate will join in with me in this crusade to bring about a renaissance of our culture and rescue it from the dirty designs of these malefic minds.

INA, THE CAUSE OF INDIA'S FINAL LIBERATION

Gandhiji's movements were half-hearted attempts at attaining independence which was never possible through the use of such passive means. It was the INA that dealt the death-blow to British imperialism to precipitate conditions that led to the liberation of India.

CHANDRA KUMAR BOSE --- A GENTLEMAN OF SURPASSING GOODNESS AND HUMILITY

I continue to be amazed at the goodness of this gentleman, Shri Chandra Kumar Bose, each time I hear him giving a speech or an interview and I feel that he has been blessed by Sri Ramakrishna in being what he is. He is so unlike the typical politician we meet everyday and seems a class apart quite, not in terms of the arrogant aloofness of the aristocrat he could have easily been on account of his formidable lineage but in lieu of his surpassing humility that is the hallmark of true greatness.
I have written several times on him in the past and yet again I set pen to paper being humbled by his magnanimity of spirit which is so rare even among renunciates that I have met. Never upset by an interviewer's criticism, often undue personal attacks at that, and always meeting a challenge thrown at him without rancour in response but with reverence in reply and with due reference to the wider national contention, Chandra Kumar Bose seems to be the flame of future hope for a rejuvenated India that shall fulfil the highest hopes of his illustrious ancestor, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
I can go on writing reams on this person so inspiring he seems to me and in whom I see definite shades of his two illustrious forefathers, his own grandfather, Sarat Chandra Bose, and his granduncle, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, although, I must confess that I am too young to have met either of them in person to make such a reference. But the ecstasy he brings to me in his being the wide personality he is with his unfailing commitment to the national cause and his civilising the democratic discourse current in our polity that I feel almost beholden to him for so often igniting in me the living light of freedom which deserts me in the enveloping dark that surrounds us in our ever-declining public life.
I heartily thank this wonderful person who I happen to know a little and keep learning ever so much more about from a quiet distance which gives objectivity of thought and judgement and makes appraisal unbiased and impartial. Chandra Kumar Bose has brought civility to public life which other politicians must learn from and imbibe in their heart and soul, and he seems to represent an age that is coming but has not yet descended on us en masse and in such an estimation seems to be ahead of his times. My enthusiasm carries me as I write this piece on a worthy descendent of the illustrious Netaji and, following my heart that I am doing at this moment, I know that I am being unerring in my judgement.
May Thakur-Ma-Swamiji bless this wonderfully worthy son of theirs as he embarks evermore in serving their cause of the uplift of fallen humanity in his own beautifully humble manner so very redolent of Netaji who would have been so proud of him! My salutations, best wishes and humble service go with him in his epic struggle to discover what happened to Netaji and to restore dignity and humble pride in our heritage and history. Jai Hind!