Relatives recede, new friends arrive; friends recede, death approaches; now, Thou, O Lord, stay close, for Thou, beloved, art my sole refuge.
The world ever drifts in its selfsame way while deluded humans make changes to last. Alas, before a minute transformation may well be made, death seizes the fragile soul. Time, the killer tyrant, dictates over the course of life and man in his fanciful dream perishes whole by the hour even as the Niagara discharges itself into the vast abyss or the cosmic dust whirls headlong into the black singularity and its yawning chasm. So does death dance over the meadows green, now blossoming the budding dreams and then devouring its ripened end.
And in the days of yore in Bengal when revolution ripped through the ramparts of the Raj, death was a playmate for the heroes in their adolescence and early youth. The shadow of this beloved friend never left the revolutionaries as they plotted the downfall of the Raj. Even when they failed to achieve the desired end, they left behind in their self-sacrifice a supreme example of patriotic fervour and sublime love for the motherland for others to follow in their wake.
When the youth of Bengal met Swamiji, he inspired them with revolutionary ideas and impressed upon them that the utmost task at hand was the unshackling of the motherland from colonial fetters. Bagha Jatin, Hemchandra Ghosh and the like who were privileged enough to meet the Swami, were reborn after having been baptised into extreme revolutionary enthusiasm by Swamiji. His was a flaming personality, a veritable volcano he was, to quote Hemchandra, and the pure souls with revolutionary intent and potential who came in contact with him caught his fire. Thereafter, they became the sworn enemies of the British Raj and plotted to overthrow the barbarous regime at any cost.
Swamiji's own Irish disciple, Sister Nivedita, caught the fire, too, and became a principal proponent of India's freedom for which the ire of the British fell on the Ramakrishna Mission to which she was affiliated. The organisation which was preeminently spiritual and eschewed all connections with politics of any sort was now under governmental watch and was on the verge of being banned when influential devotees of Vivekananda like Miss Josephine MacLeod intervened and prevented such a catastrophe. But it was not before Sister Nivedita paid a personal price to save the Mission from the wrath of the British Government.
Swami Brahmananda who was the President of the Ramakrishna Order had a serious discussion with the Sister as to her future intentions regarding revolutionary politics. When the redoubtable Irishwoman cited Swamiji's teachings to her and her interpretation thereof of the same as her principal motivation for entering the revolutionary realm and averred that she would like to continue that way, the Abbot of Belur was left with no other option than to safeguard the interests of the spiritual mission of Sri Ramakrishna by requesting Nivedita to resign her membership of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission and to publicly make an announcement regarding the same. This she did and with it all formal links of the Sister with the Mission were severed for good, although, in spirit the love-links with her parent organisation continued. And remember, all these developments took place during the lifetime of Sri Sarada Devi.
These were also the revolutionary imperatives of the day. Sister Nivedita's contributions to our motherland's freedom have sadly been underplayed and it remains to us to reinterpret the role she played in those dark days of revolution and retribution that sowed the seeds of our future freedom.
These are in hindsight mere episodes in the eyes of the modern generation but, remember, in those days of titanic tussle with the octopus of the Empire that was squeezing the life out of our ancient race, despoiling us of our wealth with scientific efficiency and rendering us sterile as a people, the revolution was started by the Krishna of modern times, Sri Ramakrishna, the spiritual preceptor of Swami Vivekananda. His was the spirit of eternal India striking back at the colonising corruption and the fire he lighted in his fiery protege, Narendranath, lit up the path of future revolution in India. Rammohun had started the Renaissance in Bengal but it was Ramakrishna that gave fulfilment to it. Between the preceptor and the pupil, the spiritual duo of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, who Sister Nivedita envisioned as an integrated personality with a dual terrestrial manifestation, spanned the gamut of India's spiritual and cultural experience to chart out for future generations the blueprint of freedom. And this the revolutionaries read well to set fire to the British Empire.
The world ever drifts in its selfsame way while deluded humans make changes to last. Alas, before a minute transformation may well be made, death seizes the fragile soul. Time, the killer tyrant, dictates over the course of life and man in his fanciful dream perishes whole by the hour even as the Niagara discharges itself into the vast abyss or the cosmic dust whirls headlong into the black singularity and its yawning chasm. So does death dance over the meadows green, now blossoming the budding dreams and then devouring its ripened end.
And in the days of yore in Bengal when revolution ripped through the ramparts of the Raj, death was a playmate for the heroes in their adolescence and early youth. The shadow of this beloved friend never left the revolutionaries as they plotted the downfall of the Raj. Even when they failed to achieve the desired end, they left behind in their self-sacrifice a supreme example of patriotic fervour and sublime love for the motherland for others to follow in their wake.
When the youth of Bengal met Swamiji, he inspired them with revolutionary ideas and impressed upon them that the utmost task at hand was the unshackling of the motherland from colonial fetters. Bagha Jatin, Hemchandra Ghosh and the like who were privileged enough to meet the Swami, were reborn after having been baptised into extreme revolutionary enthusiasm by Swamiji. His was a flaming personality, a veritable volcano he was, to quote Hemchandra, and the pure souls with revolutionary intent and potential who came in contact with him caught his fire. Thereafter, they became the sworn enemies of the British Raj and plotted to overthrow the barbarous regime at any cost.
Swamiji's own Irish disciple, Sister Nivedita, caught the fire, too, and became a principal proponent of India's freedom for which the ire of the British fell on the Ramakrishna Mission to which she was affiliated. The organisation which was preeminently spiritual and eschewed all connections with politics of any sort was now under governmental watch and was on the verge of being banned when influential devotees of Vivekananda like Miss Josephine MacLeod intervened and prevented such a catastrophe. But it was not before Sister Nivedita paid a personal price to save the Mission from the wrath of the British Government.
Swami Brahmananda who was the President of the Ramakrishna Order had a serious discussion with the Sister as to her future intentions regarding revolutionary politics. When the redoubtable Irishwoman cited Swamiji's teachings to her and her interpretation thereof of the same as her principal motivation for entering the revolutionary realm and averred that she would like to continue that way, the Abbot of Belur was left with no other option than to safeguard the interests of the spiritual mission of Sri Ramakrishna by requesting Nivedita to resign her membership of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission and to publicly make an announcement regarding the same. This she did and with it all formal links of the Sister with the Mission were severed for good, although, in spirit the love-links with her parent organisation continued. And remember, all these developments took place during the lifetime of Sri Sarada Devi.
These were also the revolutionary imperatives of the day. Sister Nivedita's contributions to our motherland's freedom have sadly been underplayed and it remains to us to reinterpret the role she played in those dark days of revolution and retribution that sowed the seeds of our future freedom.
These are in hindsight mere episodes in the eyes of the modern generation but, remember, in those days of titanic tussle with the octopus of the Empire that was squeezing the life out of our ancient race, despoiling us of our wealth with scientific efficiency and rendering us sterile as a people, the revolution was started by the Krishna of modern times, Sri Ramakrishna, the spiritual preceptor of Swami Vivekananda. His was the spirit of eternal India striking back at the colonising corruption and the fire he lighted in his fiery protege, Narendranath, lit up the path of future revolution in India. Rammohun had started the Renaissance in Bengal but it was Ramakrishna that gave fulfilment to it. Between the preceptor and the pupil, the spiritual duo of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, who Sister Nivedita envisioned as an integrated personality with a dual terrestrial manifestation, spanned the gamut of India's spiritual and cultural experience to chart out for future generations the blueprint of freedom. And this the revolutionaries read well to set fire to the British Empire.
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