PARTITION BUT A FLEETING PHENOMENON

Partition was the greatest evil perpetrated on the motherland by perfidious politicians for self-interest and for strategic gains of the Anglo-Americans post World War II. A terrible suffering has been endured by the people of undivided India on account of the transfer of population and the suffering continues till date. And all of this because of the deep sense of segregation the Muslims harboured on account of their different religious affiliation which was masterfully and mischievously manipulated by the Machiavellian British in order to permanently impair India post independence. The leadership of the day proved inadequate to the task of keeping the country united as divisions within the Congress and the general division within the polity that had been skilfully brought into existence by the British proved eventually too strong a force to successfully combat and the country broke up. Netaji's absence from the country in the hour of reckoning and Gandhiji's indecisiveness led the triumvirate of Nehru, Jinnah and Mountbatten to dismember the motherland, a villainous act which future India will never forgive as the poison of Partition spreads through the subcontinent to precipitate a pernicious stet of things.

However, Partition is not the ultimate chapter in India's history neither is it a settled fact for good. The causes that had brought it about were weak and the effect thereof must be weak too. There was no robust reason why India should have been partitioned except for the fact that an unarmed India under the Congress was not equipped to tackle the perfidious forces of the day trying to disrupt the solidarity of the motherland. The INA under Netaji had been defeated and the World war had been won by the Allies that included Great Britain as a principal member. Thus, while the British were potent enough through victory to precipitate Partition, Netaji's army was not there to resist it anymore in an organised manner, especially with the Gandhi-Nehru brigade playing truant all the way and Nehru taking care to expedite with Jinnah the political process under Mountbatten to partition the landmass. Gandhi, despite his characteristic tall protestations and falsifiable vows that verbally resisted the division of the country, eventually, meekly gave in to the pressure of the situation that had been orchestrated to such a feverish pitch by Jinnah and Suhrawardy for obvious political gains. Gandhi was sidelined by Nehru and Mountbatten as they, along with Jinnah, deliberated to divide India for respective gains. Had Netaji been around, the situation would have been different for sure but, alas, he was no more available in person to resist the evil-doers and save the motherland from dismemberment. Nonetheless, whatever may have been the real reasons for Partition, the causes were weak and their effect in historical terms will not be long-lasting and India will once more be united as she reabsorbs her severed parts and become whole again. Such a day will dawn sooner than later as Bangladesh and Pakistan will realise their folly of staying separate from the main landmass and undivided India will come into existence again.

QUESTIONS TO THE READER

1. Is spiritual initiation necessary? What is your view on it, and, why so?

2. How ought we to serve God? Only in words or in deeds as well? Your views are solicited. Be specific please.

3. Ought we to feel responsible for our fellowmen and try to alleviate their misery as far as we can or ought we not to?

4. Are we predestined to a fixed fate or are we the architects of our own fate? What is your view, my friend?

5. What is the difference between Self-realisation and God-realisation?

6. Can a married man realise God? What do you say?

7. Is life literally a waste if we fail to realise God? What is your considered opinion?

8. Why was the Bose family snooped on? Who ordered it and to what effect? Eventually, who stopped the snooping and why?

9. Netaji :
   (a) Death by air-crash?
   (b) Death in a Russian prison?
   (c) Return to India and reclusive life as a monk?
        What do you say?

10. Did Nehru actually write a letter to Attlee calling Netaji 'Your war criminal', or, is it a fake letter? Respond please.

11. How exactly did Nehru harm Netaji?

12. Had Vivekananda lived on, would he have endorsed Gandhi?

13. Who founded the Indian National Army?
      (a) Netaji
      (b) Rash Behari Bose

14. 

THE IDEAL

And the ideal is both personal and impersonal, for it is the latter that shines through the former and lends to it its supernal glory. Thus is the harmony between the personal God and the impersonal absolute principle achieved and the symphony of the soul orchestrated, albeit, in a spontaneous melodic way.

'CHALO DILLI' ... 3

This is the 75th year of the formation of the Provisional Government of Free India (PGFI) by Netaji in Singapore on 21 Oct, 1943. We must gear up for the celebration and with our enthusiasm make for a fitting tribute to the heroes of the INA. Truly speaking, 21 Oct, 1943 was the day when we became free of the control of the British and 21 October should be celebrated by all of the devotees and followers of Netaji as the Independence Day of undivided India.

On the 15th of August, 1947 we had worked out a compromise with the British and achieved Dominion Status of a partitioned motherland with her two limbs in the form of East and West Pakistan severed from her body. Then why on earth do we feel so proud to celebrate 15 August as the Independence Day when we merely became a dominion of the British Empire and became an ignominious member of the British Commonwealth?

We should rethink all these historical heresies that have been perpetrated on our motherland by the selfish leaders of the Congress and the All India Muslim League in connivance with the British Crown and resettle our stock with the true patriots who had delivered us from colonial shackles with the virtual declaration of independence on 21 Oct, 1943. For the government formed in Singapore that fateful day was called the Provisional Govt. of Free India. Now mark the words 'Provisional Govt.' and 'Free India'. While it may be argued that after all it was only provisional in nature and, therefore, not truly representative of the vast populace of India and also that India had not yet gained political independence from the British, it may be counter-argued that, historically speaking and in large practical terms, it was the day when India formed its first government free of British control and, so, this day assumes the greatest significance in terms of India's eventual attainment of freedom.

That the Government of Nehru totally rejected the legitimacy of this Government of Netaji and relegated it to the waste-bin of history does not mean that we who are the proud devotees of Netaji must accept such Nehruvian perfidy, such historical treachery meekly as well. If we are men worth the salt, we ought to rise up as a single man, a single voice and a single will to make sure that in this momentous year of 2018 which is the 75th anniversary of the PGFI, history is rewritten through our thunderous celebration of India's true Independence day from Kashmir to Kanya Kumari. We must aver that Netaji was our first President, our first Prime Minister and the first Commander-in-Chief of independent India's first army, the Indian National Army.

And it is not a token tribute that we shall be paying out of reverence to our fallen heroes in the jungles of Burma and in the hills of Kohima and Imphal but in truth they had liberated large areas in Manipur from the British and had truly established independent India's first functioning government on mainland India. Moreover, the Japanese had earlier handed over to Netaji the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands as the first territories under the governance of the PGFI. So, in all fairness, from the political and the legal perspective it can be said that 21 Oct, 1943 was our declared day of independence as we formed our first government free of British control and in subsequent days this government was given international recognition by no less than nine States of the world which, therefore, gave it legitimacy in international legal terms.

For Netaji to be the true Head of State, his State required (a) Population (b) Sovereignty (c) Territory and (d) Government as its four features. The Japanese promised him the ceding of the Andaman and the Nicobar Islands then under their control by way of fulfilling the aforesaid four features of the State whose head Netaji now was. And they kept their word. On 30 December, 1943 Netaji hoisted the National Flag in Andamans which he renamed 'Shaheed' in honour of the political prisoners who had been martyred there and he renamed Nicobar as 'Swaraj' to commemorate the establishment of India's self-rule. Later on 17 February, 1944 the administration of the two islands was officially handed over by the Japanese to the Azad Hind Government and now even from the legal perspective the State of India had been born in every sense of the word.

So, in all fairness we now know that 21 October, 1943 was a day of momentous significance and we are now standing on the threshold of the Platinum Jubilee of that historic occasion. We need to start a massive campaign and bring the import of this day to the Union Government so that the Union Parliament passes a resolution to celebrate this day and the year succeeding this day in a befitting manner throughout the country. Our demands are several but I leave it to other eminent writers to further deliberate on the demands and make them public for everybody's cognisance.

With a pulsating heart and the thrill of a superior excitement in being a part of history in the making, I now sign off in the hope that you, my friends and co-workers in this campaign, shall not spare your means to make this day, that is, 21 Oct, 2018, a historic occasion that will by the sheer weight of numbers and the strength of support force the Govt. of India to recognise the true history of India and rewrite it accordingly where the past perfidies will not only be exposed but the true narrative of the freedom struggle will be held before the eyes of the world and Netaji and his INA will be accorded their rightful place in history. I know it is asking for a tall order for it will mean a 180 degree turnabout of the fictional flow that has thus far been allowed to permeate the minds of the ignorant populace of India and quite a few feathers will be badly ruffled in the process. Hence, the clarion call to all to 'Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.'

Jai Hind!

QUEST EXTERNAL, QUEST INTERNAL

Is thought the product of the brain or is the brain the product of thought? Perspectives differ as standpoints differ. Both are products of inexplicable ignorance (anirvachaniya Maya) of the reality of the Self (Atman/Brahman) and there is no way to rationalise one way or the other save to apprehend truth in essence through immediate experience (aparokshanubhuti). Arguments will lead nowhere beyond the gratification of the ego and the enforcement of one's rational position on the adversary in deliberation, for truth in its rarefied essence lies far above mundane debates, far beyond the reach of words and images. The apprehension of truth by the rational mind may at best be the shadowy perception of the image universe, that is, the second derivative of reality. If man is made in the image of God, so is God conceived as the image of the Absolute Reality which is beyond finite comprehension. For it is in and through the Absolute, so to say, that the universe is apprehended imperfectly and it is the Absolute that is eternally the witness of panoramic Maya. So, to know the Reality within phenomenal bounds is a contradiction in terms, for fractional knowledge can never know the whole, the apparatus failing as it falls short of the vanishing centre. Our seers, in advancing empirically initially, faced this dilemma and came to a grinding halt as they understood the impossibility of attainment of true knowledge using the mental apparatus which being a component of the very reality it was trying to unravel would contribute to its flawed understanding and, hence, a new method had to be worked out which would make it possible to transcend the mind and bring man face to face with Reality.

Thus began the method of yogic introspection. The mind was turned in to delve into the mind, to study it, analyse and bypass its layers to arrive at deeper levels.

THE HISTORICAL FLOW

History takes its own course as the resolution of past human action. It is not the individual that alters it but the collective will of humanity. The leader arises who lends utterance to the muted hopes and aspirations of the masses and seems to shape the destiny of events but even he is impelled in his course by the overbearing historical trend, the force of the past coming unto him to shape future events. Even so in our individual lives, we are impelled by past karma to do what we do and our freedom is somewhat limited by such. It does not mean that everything is predestined, for there is neither 'pre' nor 'post' to Maya, it being the inscrutable order in chaos and chaos in order, obeying neither law nor lawlessness but is a curious admixture of the two. Hence, all our interpretations of history and its heresies and truths are flawed.

OPEN THY FIST AND BOUNTIFULLY GIVE

We as a nation do not deserve a better deal from the government simply because we ourselves are so selfish and will not expedite the fruition of a social cause. We have a million excuses for our stated self-centred living and cannot look beyond our immediate requirements and securities. Who cares, after all, whether millions live or die in hunger and privation, sickness and ignorance, so long as our own ones remain well and fine. We own no responsibility, owe no liability to the nation or to the world at large. We are devotees after all and must secure our own liberation and keep chanting those pretentious terms in the name of gods and goddesses, divine incarnations and prophets, while the rest of humanity, which is the visible form of our divine ideal, goes to ruins. This world is Maya, after all, and we must mischievously interpret its meaning to suit our ends. Thakur and Ma are supposedly waiting on us to tend to our hypocritical stance while we go about the business of upsetting their divine order on earth and feel content to have done our duty on earth in merely shouldering our desires which we call duty and, for good measure, uttering their name hither and thither as if they were dispensable commodities of little value beyond being showered false flattery in the name of devotion. This much for our national involvement, this much for our duty towards our countrymen, this much for our 'love' for God. When will the essence of the Vedanta be evident to devotees? When will familial bounds extend to the whole of humanity? When will the sense of the 'self' embrace all who are seemingly not the 'self' but are 'others' about whom we need have no commitment beyond pretentious social etiquette with no genuine feeling that merits sacrifice for them nor any depth of love to give substance to it? All these are pertinent questions that need a lot of soul-searching before we come to terms with them and, with it, our present state of earthly existence.

Life is of two days, a day of growth and aspiration, and another of decay and desperation unless, of course, detachment and renunciation be our helpmates in this latter phase of recession. But the motion must begin from childhood and continue through adulthood. Only then in ripeness will fruition be. Else, it will be a visit to earth in vain, much of fun and frolic to end in deadly pain. Hence, the need for dharma, the necessity of virtue, the practice of unselfishness, love for all and the imperative of charity, that is, the habit of giving out of the fullness of the heart for one's fellowmen who are less endowed and less fortunate in the horrendous scheme of things this world is. There can be no excuse for not giving, no rationale for giving too little, but there is the desperate need of billions for the mighty giving of those whose hearts have opened. Otherwise, futile will be rendered the lives of our brethren and in vain will our lives have been. So, be up and doing, for there is no more time to be lost and each moment lost means a life lost as well, bereaving a mother somewhere, a daughter somewhere else or widowing a woman in the prime of her youth. Jai Hind!

MOTHER'S HOUSE EXPANSION PROJECT

Greater participation solicited from devotees, please, even in the form of conversation about the project. It will go a long way to help bind all, in and through Mother, for the success of this project and, why not, many a future project as well. Here we are all the children of Mother afforded the unique opportunity of serving Mother's House which is a rare occasion, indeed, and we must not let go the opportunity abegging. Our service is our devotion, our feeblest attempt at sacrificing a wee bit for our motherland and in this we shall surely not fail.

Foreword written by Sugata Bose

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jn1YDLgzKhFuvh2g4xa_h-yqH4isMh6O/view

GLORY UNTO HUMANITY!

Words, words, words, frothy words without substance or soul! Will words alter conditions? Will prayers change the state of the fallen? No, words may at best inspire but deeds are necessary, deeds that will direct resources to where need is most, where gods and goddesses lie in wait for millenia seeking succour, seeking solace in this uneven battle of life. They who are our sisters and brothers must be saved from destitution and death, from starvation and ill-health, from illiteracy and ignorance that have covered up the world like a nor'wester cloud stretching from end to end of the sky that hangs the same for all overhead. It is one earth, one sky, one humanity. If God is to be worshipped, let us worship the living God, the God immanent in every being and residing in the midst of the heart. The God in Nature will come next and then the God transcendent. But till the living God has been well appeased, our only worship must be of Him, must be of Her as humanity is deified and raised to where it truly belongs. This man is the highest creature and this woman is his mother. Glory unto man! Glory unto woman! Glory unto humanity!

HOLY MOTHER'S HOUSE --- EXPANSION PROJECT

The momentum is picking up and the effort must not be allowed to slacken. Those that have already come forward have set us the precedent for the rest of us to follow. And we will follow suit for sure, that is the hope, that is what Mother will dispense if our intent is noble and effort sincere.

We as a race, Swamiji had once lamented, have not the capacity to combine, and, hence, our national maladies where evil runs riot, the wicked rule the roost and the solitary good man ever faces the uphill struggle and has to battle against heavy odds to make good his welfare work for the common weal. Over a century has passed since that day when Swamiji's oceanic heart, bleeding at the plight of his countrymen had given utterance to this profound insight into the psychology of his fellow beings. Have we not changed a bit in all this time? Have we not studied Swamiji and discovered for ourselves this trait in us that has been the cause of our downfall and continues to plague our polity even today? Then we must make amends and make good too Swamiji's prophetic words about the future of our motherland. He had said the past of India was grand and great but the future of India shall outshine all past glory and our motherland, enthroned in all her majesty, shall be the spiritual preceptor of the world. Swamiji had also said that we are the children of Hrishis (Rishis) and that 5000 years of historical India are watching us as we embark on our task of nation-building. Shall we fail the seer that Swamiji was, then, waiting for some others to do the yeoman's service necessary to usher in the prophesied golden age, the Satya Yuga, as Swamiji had foreseen? No, we shall not. We shall muster strength by combining our collective resources, by uniting our fragmented wills and by daily dedication to the cause, and so shall we serve Mother in the manner She dispenses out of Her bounty.

I solicit all again and again to join in this holy venture and do Mother proud, for which mother will not feel so when she witnesses her children sacrifice their pleasures to bring about the collective good of all? Jai Ma!

'CHALO DILLI' ... 2

Bravo! Brilliant, Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshiji. You have hit the hammer on the head but we expect a sustained campaign from your side, for your following is large and pen potent with conviction stemming from your martial background. Who will be able to appreciate the valour of a soldier and suffer the pangs of his misfortune post enforced retirement from service than a fellow soldier like you and a patriot perennial at that? So, step up the campaign with multiple posts everyday and we will be there to boost the support base of this movement. Only one word here. There are too many who clamour too much and too few who truly feel, and herein lies our motherland's malady that we are, as yet, unequipped to set personal interest aside in serving our motherland. Which is all the more reason why an army man like you, with a seasoned background of service to the motherland in the front, must lead the cause.

Thanking you,
I remain yours in service to the Lord,
Sugata Bose.

'CHALO DILLI' ... 6 (INCOMPLETE)

Netaji like Swamiji had stressed the need for character-formation as the prerequisite to national service. 'Service and sacrifice' was his mantra in the manner of his spiritual mentor who he had never met in person but had imbibed the principles of and made them his own in his mission to liberate the motherland from colonial bondage. And this was a singular feature of the personalities then. They creatively applied Swamiji's principles in their lives to serve the motherland unlike the current crop of devotees of both Swamiji and Netaji who merely clamour for justice but do not do effective work to bring about significant changes in their own lives as well as in the lives of their fellow countrymen who supposedly they represent and whose larger interests they are catering to.

The status quo about the historical heresies that have been perpetrated by the governments of independent India must be now overcome and we must unitedly rise to achieve this difficult but not unattainable task. But in and through it all we must never lose sight of the ideal of 'service and sacrifice' which was the galvanising element of the freedom struggle and which if not adhered to in our present mission, we are bound to fail in our stated endeavour. So will the malefic forces continue to win this uneven battle as we continue to protest offences by the million while making hardly a dent in this fabricated superstructure of lies. What is needed then is character-formation as I have earlier stated for it is only men and women of character who can translate Swamiji's and Netaji's large ideas into life's small changes so that the cumulative consequence in due course is significant in the life of the polity.

Now, how do we go about it, after all, this said translation of idea to deed? For this we must first do what Netaji had done in the formative years of his life. He was a brilliant student and an intellectual of the highest order. We may not be so and it may be beyond bounds for most of us to attain to the academic and intellectual heights of Netaji. But we must strive for academic excellence, for conceptual clarity and for disciplining of the truant mind through spiritual exercises and practice of purity so that we are in line to be worthy inheritors of the legacy he has left us behind.

Next we must have an ideal in life. It may come in a personified shape or the abstract idea, the pure principle. However, as Swamiji said, it is better to have ideal in life, for if a man with an ideal makes one thousand mistakes, a man without it will make fifty thousand. The ideal sets a standard in life which we must attain if we are sincere and prevents us from being a rudderless boat devoid of direction and swayed by the current of life in a chaotic manner. The ideal must be, according to Swamiji, not too low, for it will be debasing, nor too high and impossible of attainment, for it will degrade the individual, frustrated by his incapacity to live up to it and, so, impelled by such failure to lower it to abysmal levels. Thus, the ideal must be optimally set which will be possible for the sincere seeker to attain, yet, it must be comprehensive in its sweep and lofty in terms of principles enunciated.

Then comes the practice in real life terms, the interpretation of the ideal and its translation into programmes of human welfare with the widest reach exclusive of none in society. For this the creative genius is necessary in an individual attempting to show society the way and to lead the masses to a betterment of their existing state. Else, one must follow the leader who has such genius and one must diligently do so with perfect obedience for the preservation of organisational solidarity always except when such compliance is in complete violation of basic human values and in contravention of truth. 

NETAJI ... OBSERVATIONS 1

1. Who loves Netaji truly? The common man who has no stake in the benefits that so accrue. And yet, it is he who Netaji had lived for.

2. Who will serve Netaji? Why? The unselfish one, of course. For no man who is not so can touch the hem of the garment of Netaji.

3. I request all the members to read these two books written by Netaji : (a) An Indian Pilgrim (b) The Indian Struggle.

FLASHES ... 5

1. Nothing stays, nor this body nor this mind. All things formed must dissolve. I am but a fleeting fancy of the Divine.

2. Music! Oh, that much abused art that dies a thousand deaths every day by the profane touch of the pretentious!

3. Irreparable losses that take place in life are all reparable in God-realisation. It heals, I say, it heals.

4. Is there a cosmic will that determines the course of human life or is it all a human determination after all?

5. A bubble on the ocean am I but a bubble significant, for the part composes the whole and lends meaning to it.

6. Is there a means to separate me from the rest of my brethren save that of my little understanding of the cosmic mechanism?

7. He bites and the poison passes to the brain. Then there is no escape. And he holds the heart too. The master musician, he enthrals.

8. The piper blows his pipe, the flock follows to drown. But the ocean swells in pride as collective ego dissolves.

9. Life is so tragic. The freshest flowers wither away in the bright beam of midday and their fragrance spreads to flavour spring.

10. She wrote her epitaph and it read : 'Alone I travelled in search of love till love came and deserted me.'

11. A sorrow that will live on beyond this birth and brew in the womb of the morrow the bliss of union.

12. The fragrant do not last long in the sunshine of life. Theirs is the lunar light to melt into, dissolve in the darkness unheeded.

13. There is a tragedy to it all, this life, this love, this dream, et al.

14. As the bus detoured along its mountain track, life blossomed in the winds.

15. Charity enhances health, wealth and happiness which is why it is an integral part of dharma.

16. The path of life is tortuous for the one who moves without the grace of the Guru but straightens into the royal avenue of God once the Guru graces.

17. Waltzing on water requires levitation skills. So must the gravity of earthly desire be countered by divine aspiration.

18. You see the things so rough and coarse, but for me the moments linger on, on moods felt in lunar light.

19. All of life is surface-scratching while the depth remains unfathomed.

20. It is a shame that we are ignorant of our parent language, Sanskrit, and yet aspire to forge ahead into advanced westernisation.

21. Not a bit of life overall changes. It is just taking a brick out of there and laying it here.

22. Till disenchantment comes with this life of the senses, the spiritual world does not open up. Rare indeed is the monk of merit.

23. The body is strong, the mind's vigorous. Now is the time to call on God, lest the hour slips by.

24. Self-interest is eating into the vitals of the race and reducing a billion Indians to a state servile.

25. Who will inherit the legacy of Thakur? The one who is devoid of self-interest and works only for the world oblivious of self.

26. Till disenchantment comes with this life of the senses, the spiritual world does not open up. Rare indeed is the monk of merit.

27. Who will save me, which God, if I do not save myself?

28. One must try and struggle to exert one's will for the good of all, fail and then submit to Mother. Passive piety must be shunned.

29. Poetry is one, practice quite another. So long as words seem to suffice and deeds are reduced to nought, one has missed the mark in devotion.

30. We must not be disheartened at the apathy of any in our bid to serve Mother for men are bound in their daily struggle for survival.

31. The integrated personality of Thakur-Ma is our ideal. But devotion must be in deed as well, not merely in tearful isolation.

32. Swamiji had lamented the lack of general sympathy among Indians then for charitable causes. Alas, it is the same even today!

33. Who loves Thakur? Who loves Ma? They suffer in a myriad garb and we celebrate their suffering. Ah, what devotion!

34. The rich exploit the poor. The middle classes merely rationalise. And the poor mutely suffer. Alas, how friendless the poor are!

35. When the chips are down, serve the Mother, and when the going is good, serve Her too.

36. Men suffer so much, still they cannot give up attachment to this world, this temporary habitat where everything is false.

37. Sense-living is like catching water by closing the palm, and the palm closes and the water escapes too.

38. When the deeds are done and it is time to depart, let me, O Lord, lament not a bit that life was ill-spent. So help me live.

39. O Lord, help me extend my familial bounds to include the whole of humanity, for everywhere you reside in the heart enthroned.

40. We speak so much, feel so little. Our words must flow from the depth of feeling. Else, shallow whirlpools will we be.

41. The procession of words continues, dauntless, unabated. Who will lend feeling to them? Who will infuse life into dead words?

42. Life is not a lucky draw. We reap here the effects of past actions and produce fresh ones to draw from the substance of the future.

43. As I breathe life into the bud, fresh flows the sap that blossoms it.

44. Memories keep flooding as the flowers of yesteryears keep blossoming in the garden of my maturity.

45. The dark deep night is wedded to the dawn. It is the moment of confluence, the 'sandhikshan'.

46. The karmic bonds are severed, the boat is afloat, the tide is set and it is the vesper hour, fit to sail. Tarry no more, my soul.

47. So many years have elapsed, yet, they who cared have not forgotten, not forsaken too.

48. My blessings I shower on a long-lost one who shall yet affirm the power of the word and fulfil the dream the word entails.

49. There is a joy in living when you see yourself come alive suddenly in a fresher form, in a newer aspiration.

50. The forces conspire to deal a death-blow to the aspirations of the young one but undeterred the soul advances to conquer.

51. Duty or desire? How shall we define our deliberations? How determine the course of life?

52. Life cyclically revolves to bring back old associations. There is a law of love that holds all life.

53. Mother, grant me a thorny life but end it with a beautiful death.

54. Open up the divine channel, Mother. This slavery to time, this bondage to bonds, this dated decay no more inspires.

55. Character-formation is the prerequisite for service to the motherland and purity the bedrock of it.

56. The forces of Maya align to destroy the aspirant's blossoming dreams of freedom by making allowances meagre.

57. I owe no one allegiance, I seek the allegiance of none. I am a lone pilgrim on the face of this earth.

58. My allegiance is to Truth. May the God of Truth guide my steps as I wander the face of this earth!

59. This world is brutal, the systems are geared to exploit the weak. It is a devil's handiwork and this devil is man.

60. Capitalism is cruel and capitalists are brutal in the way they suck the lifeblood of the masses. How can a rich man have respite?

61. Create poverty first, then donate to absolve the sin. This is the philosophy and practice of the capitalist.

62. The baby is born with a fund of experience and is not a blank sheet. Hence, the divergences observed in children's behaviour.

63. Women must solve their own problems, so said Swamiji. Men are not to interfere for that would lead to mischief.

64. The moment you feel weak, call on the Holy Mother. She will protect you.

65. The Guru is one who seeks nothing but the spiritual well-being of the disciple. His impersonal nature makes him selfless.

66. A disciple is one who veritably worships the Guru and does everything to please him. Such a one makes the mark.

67. A million follies, a million foibles, a hundred hurdles may beset you, yet, hold hard onto the ideal without fail.

68. Practise purity, cultivate character, resist evil.

69. Fame is abhorrent to a man of renunciation, yet, how often we see he falls for it. And this is Maya.

70. It is a delight to see someone take the name of Thakur lovingly and, so, progress in the spiritual path steadily.

71. Multiple marriages are not conducive to the manifestation of good character. Hence, such acts must be abhorred and abstained from.

72. A legend is born and a legend dies. In between they span the gamut of the creative spirit.

73. The apathy of people to the genuine study of Netaji and his life and mission is painful to witness. Time to step up campaign.

74. Introspection is spirituality.

75. If you are truly devoted to Netaji, try to be spiritually illumined. Read 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' and 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', both of which were so dear to him.

76. Is spiritual initiation necessary? What is your view on it, and, why so?

77. Let us gear ourselves to serve the Mother by rooting out selfishness from our system and so equip ourselves to receive the grace of the Mother.

78. Through the turbulence of life, O Mother, lead me Thou to the serenity of the beyond.

79. Those who wish to serve the motherland beyond professional commitment, let them practise unselfishness and charity first. Jai Hind!

80. To be born a human being is no joke and to then squander the opportunity to attain to higher consciousness, ah, what a calamity!

81. The form deflects but the soul does not, the personality shines through the image bearing the stamp of the being.

82. Music that flows from the heart bears a truth that frees even as the melody binds one to the world of forms and dreams.

83. Appeasement and antagonisation are both pernicious evils that leave the polity perilously polarised.

84. How strange it is that men make the same mistake over and over again without any sincere attempt to rectify stance!

85. When there's relative ease in life, we must advance spiritually, and when we are buffeted by the four winds, we must hang on to Mother.

86. There is so much suffering on earth, so little solace. Mother, grace Thy children, where else may we go?

87. Such apathy for the misery of the masses, so much of passive piety, such unconcern for others must be met forthwith.

88. The inability to maintain commitment to a cause, to give a word and then fail to honour it, is symptomatic of tamas.

89. Slavery to God is the bane of spirituality and the great degeneration of the freedom of the spirit.

90. The glory of religion is where it frees man and not where it debases him through the imposition of bondage.

91. Expect nothing for good deed done, for your expectation at any rate in most of the cases will be belied.

92. Sincerity is the primary attribute to success in any field of human endeavour. Insincerity reaps a cipher.

93. Ever so near, ever so far, this is God in me.

94. This universe is the problem and God is its solution.

95. There is a way to solve this puzzle of life and that is to seek God within.

96. When youth is bounding and springtime green, it is best to direct one's energy to seeking God within, for when life fails and energy ebbs, it is a futile effort to do so.

97. If words are enough to move the Holy Mother and deeds are unnecessary, may I plunge into the Ganga to purify myself!

98. Let us help the Ramakrishna Mission conduct its multifarious welfare projects by contributing our resources for the same.

99. Can we sit pretty when a cinema hall has caught fire and people are being burnt to death? How then do we mutely witness millions burning in poverty, ignorance and abysmally low life-conditions?

100. Betrayal is a common element that led to our motherland's downfall in the past and continues till date to debilitate her. Awake!

'CHALO DILLI' ... 1

Lord Louis Mountbatten ordered the demolition of the INA Memorial in Singapore immediately after the Allied forces under his command occupied Singapore. This memorial structure had been hastily built at the express desire and command of the INA Commander-in-Chief Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to honour the memory of the 26,000 soldiers of the INA who had laid down their lives in India's final War of Liberation. Mountbatten sank to a dastardly level to order the demolition of the monument, an act barbaric in human terms and totally not in keeping with military ethics. Later Mountbatten was blown up by the IRA and thus was atonement for his earlier sin fittingly accomplished. History ever avenges injustice. But that was at a personal level. The injustice done to the INA soldiers yet lies unheeded and it is a sheer shame on the part of the civilians, especially those of West Bengal, to have allowed things to precipitate so far that Netaji and his valiant army have almost sunk into oblivion. We need to once more draw the attention of our countrymen to their valiant deeds as they marched on to Delhi in their bid to unshackle the colonial bondage of their motherland. We must build up a movement, stir up such an enthusiasm that the world takes cognisance of it, that the sleeping mass of humanity in India awakes to the clarion call, 'Chalo Dilli'.

LOVE

1. We often speak of the spreading of love as the panacea for all of the world's ills but to do so one must first possess that exquisite emotion called love. It is not an ordinary affection that one feels for one's own but a deep and overspreading consciousness that fails to contain itself within narrow bounds even when felt for a single soul. Such a love is an exalted emotion that springs from the depths of the heart and not from its surface reaches, that calls for a courage of conviction that quails not in the face of universal opposition to it and that which is the outflow of the distilled purity of the being, sweeping the mind and the physical form in an inundation that knows no containment save that of allowance to reach its destiny. How often do we behold such a supernal soul that spells the doom of desires and sublimates feeling into ethereal empathy for all that knows no bounds save that of the ever-enlarging circle of kinship, of the ever-shifting horizon of holiness? It is not uncommon even among the common mass of humanity to feel such a pulsating sense of the sublimity of love when all who we behold seem dear to our selves and a current of bliss suffuses consciousness but the ambit of such love does not extend often beyond our immediate associations and the duration of such emotion is fleeting.       


2. Love issues from the fourth centre of consciousness, that of the heart, the 'anahata chakra'. So long as the mind does not rise to this plane, real love is not possible to feel. The mind ordinarily dwells in the lowest three centres of consciousness which keep one bound to the physical plane. Here genuine love is not possible to feel, although, shades of the real love do cast their impress upon the sensitive mind but not the full flow of it. Purity and devotion to the ideal of love raises the mind to the fourth plane when in a luminous glow all around love floods the being with bliss percolating through every pore of the body. The body is transcended for the while as the soul soars in an ethereal plane where the compounded sensation of knowledge and bliss alters the vision and man is rendered divine. The 'kulakundalini shakti' having eased its way to the 'anahata' after passing through the three lower centres, the mind is in a free zone somewhat, unfettered as if by the bonds of the body. This rise of the mind, though temporary --- for the mind reverts to the body after some time ---, it has a permanent impact on the personality which is thus transformed into a semi-open system where the call of both worlds, that of the Spirit and that of Matter, are heard and the soul responds to such as per its 'sanskaras' (tendencies).

WELL, IT'S NOT QUITE CRICKET

Cricket since its inception has been racist for humanity has been so. The English found Bradman hard to digest, hence, bodyline. Till Tendulkar came on to popularise cricket in liberalising India to levels unprecedented and the riches of the BBCI came to dominate ICC proceedings, this white racism was an accepted feature despite isolated individual attempts to get past it. Now, with the power equation shifting considerably owing to financial considerations, this white supremacist attitude shows its ugly fangs less often and in a more measured and discreet manner but in no mean a manner, nonetheless. Coming to the current 'cricket' episode now, the Aussies have been booked for a betrayal of the spirit of the game at long last. This has ever been their manner of play short of such absolute perfidy as in the current instance, and they are reaping the fruits of their abuse of the cricketing culture for so long. Karma inevitably recoils and so have the Aussies been exposed for their cumulative violation of the spirit of cricket. Dennis Lillee had filthily abused Sunil Gavaskar in the 1981 Test Series down under over a controversial leg-before decision that the umpire had delivered despite the ace Indian opener, in the words of RIchie Benaud, having had 'the thickest of edges'. Gavaskar pointed to his bat and thus drew the attention of the umpire but Lillee charged down the pitch and poured expletives at Gavaskar of the most horrendous familial order. It was only then and not before that Gavaskar, who was the skipper as well, asked his partner, Chetan Chauhan, to leave the field which in cricketing annals is still remembered as the great fiasco of the 1981 Series while the real culprit, Lillee, continues to escape the censure of history. Finally, a word about the 'mental disintegration' theory of Steve Waugh which was the sophisticated form of gamesmanship or, in other words, cheating. If the Aussies ever really played cricket, it was during the Bodyline Series when they were at the receiving end of everything that could not be quite cricket. But the Aussies will not learn still, for one's fundamental trait does not alter nor does it give one reprieve and, so, the Aussies will be now ever more circumspect in exercising their considerable skills in perverting the spirit of the game and will be more diligently schooled in the sharpening of such skills while training in their cricket academies. The inertia of the past will still hold sway and the Aussies, despite perfect pretence like that of the Pommies, will continue to play the game the Aussie way which is not quite cricket.

POESY ... SO BE, MY LOVE

When the river swells and floods the farms,
When the moonbeams flood the meadows,
Then, come, my love, and flood my heart
With bliss surpassing free.
In such a spate when the waters be,
Let us merge in ecstasy.
Let rivers meet and currents course
Through meanders now in confluent force.
Like the silver streaks beaming through,
So be you, my love so true,
In full-moon night,
In the dark delight,
Flood me so, that I take to flight
In bliss sublime, in love serene,
In poesy pure, in meadows green
Where flowers blossom to fade no more,
Flows the brook from source to shore,
And end to end fullness is,
So be, my love, so full of bliss.
In such a spate flows the free
To dive, dissolve in the shoreless sea.  

'BUT I GO ON FOREVER'

As soon as death comes, I shall shift focus to another body. The sea of humanity even millenia hence is mine, for I will come again and again to be one with my own, springing from the yesterbud to the future bloom, held in love and life undulating through unnumbered seasons of softening spring and brightening summers, till the last and the least of my brethren go home in peace. Then shall liberation be from the ephemeral to the everlasting, to the reality that ever shone through monsoon clouds that rained love and loss over and over again.

Photo : Old man, shorn of hair, in the rear of the frame is me. Then there is the better half of me, intermediate, and myself, replicated youthfully, in the fore.

A TIMELY QUOTE

Thank you, Bruce Ananta Hilliger, for finding the right quote from Swamiji that proves a point I have been imperfectly trying to point out since some time to certain monks who are intent on gaining self-recognition in the name of the Holy Trinity, perhaps, realising the dangers associated, yet, giving in to the desire, nonetheless.

RAFI SAHAB

1. Rafi Sahab, the jewel of India, remains only a Padma Shri?

2. His was the voice that sprang from the soil to reach the stars where his soul rested. Rafi Sahab, salaam!

3. For he was divine, simply a heavenly soul with a celestial voice that touched not aught of earth. Rafi Sahab, the melodic dream.

4. The fakir sang and the boy, Pheeko (Rafi), followed him to the outskirts of the village, captivated by his mellifluous voice.

5. Malika-e-Tarannum Noor Jehan sang and the atmosphere resonated to her voice. It is this quality that lends soul to music.

6. As I listen to the songs of Malika-e-Tarannum Noor Jehan, I cannot help feeling a bond of oneness with all of my motherland.

'THE OLD MAN IS GONE, GONE FOREVER'

The present recedes into the past often leaving no apparent trace behind, often the trace left behind refreshes the line but the original is gone forever. Such is the law of life which but helps blossom the flower of the hour to let its fragrance fill the air while brewing in the nursery of the future the fruition of the morrow. Each moment is fraught with the fullness that it has lent itself to, linked as it is to the line of the infinite past and the infinite future in an unending cycle of creation. Each moment is the inheritor of the past and is the conduit to the future, an ephemeral entity, yet, pregnant with the seeds of creation, an instant of infinitesimal duration but infinite significance. And all these minuscule momentary phenomena lend themselves to the macroscopic drama of existence where the laws are the same and lawlessness, too.The waves ever rise but to fall and then to rise again ad infinitum. Men, caught in this divine drama play their parts unrehearsed and without possibility of retake as spontaneous flows the moment from point to point along uncharted terrain into the vast unknown, the boundary ever shifting, the horizon ever beckoning unto a mysterious end of future fulfilment. Generations come and generations go seamlessly as the undercurrent of motion carries all along towards the destiny divine, each one rising from bubble to sink in it even as the bubble springs from fathomless depths to dive deep whence it came. But in this universal drama the unit does play its part, each uniting with its comrade-in-arms to compose the symphony of the soul which this phenomenal play is. The unit lives for the collective even as the collective symbolises the vast form of the unit. Then the unit is lost to posterity save in kindred souls where breathes its pulse, where the rhythms once felt beat to the same tune in a reenactment with a difference, the past reliving through the present in future times, shifting ever so slightly, evolving as it shifts but ever retaining the familiar fragrance of yesteryears, of times gone by. Thus the causal chain connects each of its disparate units in a necklace of undying existence where nothingness attains significance even as the significant pales into nothingness. The harmony of the part and the whole is attained here as a vast significance opens up for the unfolding totality of universal experience. The dead is buried and is reborn to bury the dead. Thus is the individual born and dies a thousand deaths as fresher flora fragrances the fields, fresher fauna enlivens the terrestrial terrain of animate existence. 'But the old man is gone, gone forever,' as Swami Vivekananda said, and the new dawn relives the past experience to usher in a new day.

FLASHES ... 4

1. There's nothing in philosophy, nothing in religion, everything in music. It is the soul of all that is beautiful.

2. The sublimity of the soul best expresses itself in love whose finest fruition is music. And rapturous sings the soul.

3. Your laziness increases my labour.

4. Lata, ah, sheer perfection of a voice, sheer sublimity of rendition!

5. Love issues from the fourth centre of consciousness, that of the heart, the 'anahata chakra'. So long as the mind does not rise to this plane, real love is not possible to feel. The mind ordinarily dwells in the lowest three centres of consciousness which keep one bound to the physical plane. Here genuine love is not possible to feel, although, shades of the real love do cast their impress upon the sensitive mind but not the full flow of it. Purity and devotion to the ideal of love raises the mind to the fourth plane when in a luminous glow all around love floods the being with bliss percolating through every pore of the body. The body is transcended for the while as the soul soars in an ethereal plane where the compounded sensation of knowledge and bliss alters the vision and man is rendered divine. The 'kulakundalini shakti' having eased its way to the 'anahata' after passing through the three lower centres, the mind is in a free zone somewhat, unfettered as if by the bonds of the body. This rise of the mind, though temporary --- for the mind reverts to the body after some time ---, it has a permanent impact on the personality which is thus transformed into a semi-open system where the call of both worlds, that of the Spirit and that of Matter, are heard and the soul responds to such as per its 'sanskaras' (tendencies).

6. Simplicity is the hallmark of greatness and humility its very soul.

7. Such humbling humility as Rafi Sahab had is a gift from God which neither knowledge nor ignorance can buy.

8. Smaller the man, bigger the ego. Humility adorns the great.

9. Life is about to end soon. Now, tarry no more, my soul. Pack up for the voyage ahead. It is a tranquil sea of silence.

10. I came alone, have lived alone, now, shall go alone into the vast unknown that beckons me. None, my friend to be with me.

11. As life lifts its mysteries galore and death befriends to set me afloat, I drift through the sea of sorrow into the peace ahead.

12. Now none to love, no one to hate but all to bid adieu. For the hour comes and the wind is right and the tide is set to carry me far.

13. A stranger have I been to this world, met you all but could befriend none. As the shadows lengthen, 'tis time to go. Salaam!

14. The fire that lights is the fire that ignites and burns all dross to release the soul, pure and free, unto everlasting life.

15. "Kya kamaal hai?" Chupke se... "Chori ka--maal hai. Chuup!"

16. I have inherited a language, am holding it, and shall pass it on to posterity for its meandering flow and evolution.

17. As soon as death comes, I shall shift focus to another body. The sea of humanity even millenia hence is mine, for I will come again and again to be one with my own, springing from the yesterbud to the future bloom, held in love and life undulating through unnumbered seasons of softening spring and brightening summers, till the last and the least of my brethren go home in peace. Then shall liberation be from the ephemeral to the everlasting, to the reality that ever shone beneath monsoon clouds that rained love and loss over and over again.

18. The moment is all that you have. Savour the senses or suppress if you can but yield not to profanity to spoil the show.

19. The moment is all that you have. The past is memory, the future imagination, the present is all of it --- perception.

20. The moment is all that you have. It is the pulsating life, the breath, the feel of all that is, that was or ever can be.

21. The moment is all that you have, my friend. Waste not it in futile fear, in fruitless frenzy while the moment flits by.

22. The moment is all that you have. It is your living life, your loving life that seeks no more.

23. But for a moment of a mood of love, but for a rush into the moonlit night when heaven and earth are one.

24. The unspelt love, the unworded song, the unremembered dream --- O, these are the buds that blossomed unseen to freshen the world.

25. So much of all that is, is but the relic of a shattered dream, of a poem that lost its way in its first faltering footsteps.

26. My life to me a dream it seems where I am not, yet, struggle to be.

27. We struggle in vain for that which is not ours and search for everything but ourselves.

28. The dewdrops of dawn die to give birth to the blossoms of the day.

29. Output is ever less than input for dissipation of energy is inevitable. Hence, hard work is an imperative for proficiency and competitive success.

30. Nothing stays, no one stays save myself, save my Self.

31. Beauty is ephemeral even as the trembling droplet on the lotus leaf.

32. Beauty holds us like poetry in form, like music suffused with love, like love careering through the soul.

33. Do not destroy the finer sensibilities in profanity of living or in the pursuit of supposed spirituality.

34. I have never thought, I have ever been. Thoughts flow around me like the playful water, like the scented breeze, free, ever free.

35. When life begins, all is well. When life matures, confused you dwell. And when life ebbs out, the sea doth swell.

36. Spirituality is the transformation of life, not the deadening of sensitivity or the desecration of sensibility.

37. Music, like love, is the longing of the soul of man but must never degenerate into abject craving for the pleasures that bind.

38. The love that holds is the love that binds. For love to be, love, bound and free, in love's merry tide.

39. Be grateful to your teachers, mentors, preceptors but give up that abject servility of yours, that utter loss of self-dignity.

40. Is there a God beyond yourself that in vain you seek for Him high in the heavens?

41. What goes in the name of the spiritual is so fraught with superstition that one needs sincere scepticism to arrive at the truth.

42. Rare comes the soul who, though steeped in tradition, yet embarks upon a voyage of self-discovery in the ocean of the unknown.

43. Music that uplifts, that ennobles, that illumines the consciousness even for the while is of the very essence of the Spirit.

44. The tendencies of the mind are driven so deep through past action that they hold the soul of man to ransom.

45. Effective adjustments are to be made under the guidance of the Guru to gradually get past the hold of sanskaras and be free.

46. Devotion to the Guru is of paramount importance for the efflorescence of spirituality in the disciple.

47. Illumination comes through the grace of the Guru who is the Spirit made flesh, the embodiment of divinity descended to free you.

48. The personal merged in the impersonal subdues selfishness. This is the seed of spirituality and all altruism.

49. A bit of life manifests through every being, a bit of bit through it.

50. How suffocating is this injunction that every man must renounce! What a reversal it is of the free flow of life!

51. Better enjoyment, suffering and death than enforced renunciation that degenerates. But be thinkers.

52. Give up fear and start living. Only do not injure any for even they are you in a different guise.

53. Is this devotion that dwells on worldliness while putting up the pretence of immersion in the thought of the divine?

54. Why fear thou death, my friend, when thy Self rules all of life?

55. Children must from birth be trained to be fearless souls, valorous and pure, totally devoid of superstition.

56. Why teach your child to bend before imaginary gods and goddesses while the God within goes unattended?

57. Humanity is one but it will take aeons for all to apprehend this truth in spirit, for the variations of culture are myriad and the dissensions thereof.

58. Peace is the precondition to progress but peace can never be when darkness covers consciousness.

59. There is a thin line that demarcates the ephemeral from the real. This line must not be transgressed.

60. The mind naturally gravitates to gross desires. The object must be to elevate it. This is the austerity for all.

61. The exquisite poetry of the soul is not opposed to spirituality if purity be maintained.

62. Art so often degenerates into abysmal physicality that it taints its own reputation. Sublimity is the soul of art.

63. India must learn to honour her heroes, her men of genius. Talent must prevail and mediocrity not allowed to rule the roost.

64. The river never reflects, the river simply flows.

65.  Beauty lies in the beholding as much as it lies in the beheld. The form and the vision interplay to enthral.

66. Is there a place where God is not? If He is everywhere, then where are you, my friend? And, who are you, too?

67. It takes a high degree of human evolution before Nature starts betraying the soul at every turn. Then She releases Her hold on it.

68. Is it easy to be spiritual? Most that don the robe of the renunciate are enslaved to organisation and lose their allegiance to truth.

69. He alone who dares throw the challenge to Nature and pursues his path, sincere and unswerving, pure and simple, sees the light.

70. Who cares for life when love is gone? Who cares to love anymore?

71. Love is the brief slumber of youth which makes life worth living.

72. In planning we miss the pulse of life, for life is sheer spontaneity.

73. Q. Are you a virtuous man?
      A. No, I am a virtual man.

74. Humanity is one and a day will come in the not too distant future, hopefully, that this truth will be evident to all.

75. Music and art transcend national barriers, barriers of belief and unite humanity in a common bond of fraternal feeling.

76. Who can contain the flowing love of the heart that knows no law but to seek fulfilment in union or in separation that unites?

77. India has been partitioned but cannot remain so forever. We will unite despite the perfidies that are perpetrated to prevent it.

78. Cultural exchanges are necessary for better appreciation of human diversity and the underlying unity that binds humanity.

79. Religions of the world through their contrary affiliations continue to divide humanity into conflicting segments. Time to be human.

80. As we delve in history we realise that India is one and indivisible and, despite Partition, remains so. We are people, not three.

81. The culture of India is one and beyond partition, although, the geographical terrain has undergone this unfortunate dismemberment. Hence, the hope of a future reunion.

82. Did Swamiji preview the Partition? He spoke of eternal India, integrated and whole, and certainly not this dismembered mass.

83. India will rise from the ruins of Partition and absorb her dismembered limbs. Partition is irrational, unethical and will not last.

84. You have divided our land. Pray, how will you divide our culture, our music, our art and architecture, and the common heart of our people?

85. India's strength will eventually unite the subcontinent as her severed parts realise their folly and reunite with the mainland.

86. If Partition was a vicious, villainous deed that was perpetrated to debilitate India, we ought to in spirit at least now unite.

87. You name a part of me 'not me' but 'someone else'. What blasphemy is this and under what religious law? India partitioned?

88. We do not deserve much of what is offered us on a silver platter. Hence, we fight, deny each other and suffer in consequence.

89. Love is that bond which breaks not when it seems to break. External power has no domain over it.

90. Rafi Sahab was an unpretentious person, said Dilip Kumar. About how many public personalities can this be honestly said?

91. We often speak of the spreading of love as the panacea for all of the world's ills but to do so one must first possess that exquisite emotion called love. It is not an ordinary affection that one feels for one's own but a deep and overspreading consciousness that fails to contain itself within narrow bounds even when felt for a single soul. Such a love is an exalted emotion that springs from the depths of the heart and not from its surface reaches, that calls for a courage of conviction that quails not in the face of universal opposition to it and that which is the outflow of the distilled purity of the being, sweeping the mind and the physical form in an inundation that knows no containment save that of allowance to reach its destiny. How often do we behold such a supernal soul that spells the doom of desires and sublimates feeling into ethereal empathy for all that knows no bounds save that of the ever-enlarging circle of kinship, of the ever-shifting horizon of holiness? It is not uncommon even among the common mass of humanity to feel such a pulsating sense of the sublimity of love when all who we behold seem dear to our selves and a current of bliss suffuses consciousness but the ambit of such love does not extend often beyond our immediate associations and the duration of such emotion is fleeting.

92. Avidya Maya wins Round 1. People flout all rules of the Geeta. Attachment to result is the norm everywhere.

93. When insincerity abounds in comrades-in-arms, it is frustrating to work, for self-respect in profession is hard to maintain thus.

94. Ah! The child is insincere, the parent protects. Now where do we proceed from here? Imperfection has become the norm of the day.

95. A thousand deaths of a thousand heroes will yet raise this land from the mire of materialism to the heights of pristine purity.

96. This life withers away at any rate. So, let me die game on the battlefield labouring for the redemption of the motherland.

97. People are so irresponsible that they laze around in luxury while the masses toil to keep them in comfort. Is this divine justice?

98. Man suffers a million afflictions, yet, he clings to his puny ego that causes it all. Now, who to blame for his benighted state?

99. The Geeta is the only solution to the current mess we find ourselves in. Constant detached performance of work is the way.

100. Detached action is superior to attached action. Thus did Arjun tilt the balance in favour of the Pandavas in Kurukshetra.

আজ ধর্মঘট

আজ ধর্মঘট

কাজ করব না, আজ ধর্মঘট | বলি, ধর্মটা কোথায় নিষ্কর্মা হওয়ার মধ্যে ? ও তো তমগুণের সাধনা | কাজ না করে থাকা কি অতই সোজা ? নিষ্কর্মার আলস্যও কাজ, তবে তা মানবধর্মবিরোধী, সভ্যতার পরিপন্থী অবিদ্যা আশ্রিত কাজ |

এখন কথা হল যে কাজ করবই বা কেন আর করব নাই বা কেন ? করব জীবিকানির্বাহের জন্য ও চিত্তশুদ্ধির জন্য | আর, করব না পুঁজিপতির শোষণের বিরুদ্ধে রুখে দাঁড়ানোর জন্য, নতুন সাম্যবাদী সমাজব্যবস্হা আনার জন্য |

রচয়িতা : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

SELF BEYOND THE MIND

The human mind is a flawed apparatus for the apprehension of the absolute truth. How can the part ever comprehend the whole? One has to go beyond mental limits to realise that which transcends the sensory plane. But this presupposes that one is distinct from the mind, else, how may one possibly go beyond the realm of the mind, and who goes after all? So, there seems to be a third entity other than the body and the mind and this is in common parlance called the soul. But in essence it is the refined mind itself and is not to be confused with the absolute Self. The mind in its variously factorised state is composed of fractions which are layered and interlocked, the fragments integrating to bind the seeming personality in the progressive phase of evolution and separating to release it in its retrogressive phase. The mind lends a seeming sense of personality to the impersonal being and it is this unreal self that is the subject matter of spiritual evolution, that is seen to rise through the successive phases of the mind before it breaks free in union with the real Self, that is, the unreal self dissolves in the final act of the dissolution of the mind and the Self remains resplendent in its own majesty, self-existent, self-conscious, perfect, spherical, brooding on itself through eternity, the one undivided being whose shadow are countless universes. It is this Self that is to be reached, to be realised, and this is the spiritual quest in essence. All others are mere attempts to attain this blessed state of oneness with oneself where there is no trace of duality, no shadow of doubt as to the truth of the being and no vestige of phenomenal dreams. This is the hallowed state, the state of absolute beatitude, the goal of evolution and the objective of all life. Having reached this state of supreme blessedness, man becomes God and he witnesses the shadowy universe as a panoramic spectacle of insubstantial forms and names, reflections of his mighty Self.

IN RESPONSE TO SWAMI SAMPURNANANDA'S REPLY TO THE QUORA QUESTION : WHY DOES RAMAKRISHNA MISSION DENY SWAMI NIRMALANANDA AS AN APOSTLE OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA ?

Swami Sampurnananda : Your question is wrong. All the authentic books published by Ramakrishna Mission mention Swami Nirmalananda as a Direct Disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. See the Life of Sri Ramakrishna with a Forward by Mahatma Gandhi or Earlier Editions of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna or Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lila Prasangha (footnote) or Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master (footnote). All these books mention Tulsi Maharaj along with the names of Hari and Gangadhar. A later day author claims that Swami Nirmalananda is not a disciple. That author can be dismissed on the principle that if Shruti and Smrithi differ Shruti is taken as the Last Word.

Sugata Bose But then why is Swami Nirmalananda not officially recognised as Thakur's direct disciple anymore, for even in the room of President Maharaj at Belur Math, his photograph is absent among those of the other direct disciples, now numbering 16? Swami Chetanananda in his 'God Lived With Them' also lists Thakur's direct disciples as 16 and leaves Swami Nirmalananda out. Surely, there must be some reason for this conspicuous omission? Also, why in countless references in lectures and articles delivered and written by monks of the Order consistently this position is maintained that Thakur had but 16 direct disciples among whom Nirmalanandaji's name does not figure? If the 'shruti' must prevail over the 'smriti' as you so aptly put it, why this reluctance of the Mission monks to clear the air once and for all and categorically affirm that Swami Nirmalananda was a direct disciple of Thakur about which there cannot be a shred of doubt? Why this refusal by the Mission itself to abide by the 'shruti' for all practical purposes as well regarding this issue and not make an open declaration that Swami Nirmalananda was a direct disciple of Thakur and settle the matter once and for all? It will do history a world of good, for this is a serious issue related to the one (Sri Ramakrishna) who was preeminently the embodiment of Truth, and will only be in keeping with the otherwise glorious spiritual tradition of the Ramakrishna Order. Devotees, now much confounded, may come to light thus, and you cannot argue that all will have to wade through authentic Ramakrishna literature amidst a mass of less authentic ones propagated by the Mission itself and promoting the counter-theory about the disciple issue, and filter their understanding to be able to come to the truth about this matter. It is a horrendous proposition that one is expected to go through copious contrary literature simply to arrive at the knowledge as to who the direct disciples of Thakur were, for otherwise one is culpable to be misled into the gathering of false fact about the same. Surely, the Mission owes it to its devotees and to the world at large to clearly articulate this truth about Swami Nirmalananda's direct discipleship in no uncertain terms. In that will be maintenance of the truthfulness which was so dear to the Master, a trait which he had said was the austerity of the Age. I await your response reverently. @ Swami Sampurnananda P.S. : Why must it be necessary to go to earlier editions of 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' or 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Leela Prasanga' / 'Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master' as you say we must to get to the truth? Does it, therefore, mean that the text in the later editions has been altered to suit the narrative that Swami Nirmalananda was not the direct disciple of Thakur? Also, who is this unnamed latter-day author who has posited the contrary view that Swami Nirmalananda was not the disciple of Thakur, and why? You have said that this author's assertion may be dismissed on the ground that it has mere smriti-like validity and must bow down to the superior shruti-like authority of the earlier more authentic versions where Swami Nirmalananda has been recognised as the direct disciple of Thakur. Then may I humbly ask as to why the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are still catering to this erroneous version of this latter-day author and are allowing this story to circulate of Thakur having had 16 direct disciples where Swami Nirmalananda is not visible? These are some of the the pertinent points I place before you in the hope that we may all arrive at a satisfactory conclusion to this contentious issue. I remain beholden to you at any rate for having thus far provided significant clues regarding the same which are helping to dispel much of the confusion that surrounds this discipleship deliberation.