WHEN FRIENDSHIP WANES IN WAXING SELF-INTEREST

It is not easy to be a devotee while serving Mammon. It is well-nigh impossible. So, such initiates need not find fault with sincere seekers of the Lord. It is easy to sit cosy in the lap of luxury and pick faults in genuine devotees who labour for The Lord out of sincere love for Him. But far more difficult it is to be such a devotee and work for the Mission that has initiated us into the marvels of the Mother whose Mission it is. ''Better live in rags with Christ than in a palace without him,'' said Swami Vivekananda in an epic address in America. So, I refuse to entertain hopes in the foreign funds that may come by way of settling abroad and lecturing us what we in India ought to do and how we may conduct our lives here. I am happy to stay in my motherland whose very dust is holier than holy to me and I cannot even dream of leaving this land for a comfortable abode abroad while my countrymen suffer silently the rigours of earthly life of horrific hardship. My place is beside them, my billion brothers and sisters who toil in the sun to feed me. I cannot leave them to the forces of the four winds to pursue my self-interest. Therefore, those that take me to task and call me a hypocrite and a self-centred man who seeks personal glorification will be well advised to take stock of their own karma instead of dabbling in mine and passing contrary comment on me and my credentials or intent as a devotee which in their mind is below par but which only the Lord knows is beyond the pale of their impeachment.

This short defence of my position as a writer of sorts in the cause of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji is very pertinent to the cause itself, else, I would have simply ignored such derogatory comments about me via pronounced oblique reference as extraneous to my mission. Public opinion must not be swayed in a malefic manner to suit personal selfish ends and where such is the manifested intent, it has to be resisted right away to prevent its cancerous growth among my well-wishers and my readers. It is very easy to sit on the fence and do nothing but make these loose comments on a serious soul like me simply because it is becoming too hot for these backbiters to bear the verbal volleys I am firing at society in general for the many maladies it is suffering from out of its own volition. These traders in friendly affection that shifts by the hour for petty self-interest, have but their axe to grind against me for my direct thrusts at the malefic elements in society because somehow they identify themselves with such soullessness, else, why on earth should they have a problem with my aggression against such nefarious elements, I wonder. Anyhow, the colour of the chameleon is best judged by the one that witnesses it in all seasons and not so by the one that is occasionally privy to the experience. So has been my judgement been clarified by constant company of these sophisticates who make a sham of principle in the everyday conducting of their lives and reduce pure precept to polluted practice even as they mightily attempt to justify their obvious failings by such express criticism of they who have succeeded in harmonising practice with precept.

This deliberation can go on ad infinitum but must needs stop now to optimise the discourse and render some sanity to the discussion for those interested in it. The moral of the story remains as ever : 'The moment you step out to do selfless work for society, in comes the curse of the perpetrators of calumny to deflect you from your course and render your mission sterile. But the elephant never cares for cursing curs nor does the ascetic shift habitat at the prattle of puerile prosecutors.' Jai Ramakrishna!