HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MAHARAJ (Swami Adidevananda)!
A monk is, by definition, dead to the world of the senses, is a statement that may be true in principle, but to a lay devotee like me, Maharaj (Swami Adidevananda), it gives me especial joy to wish you well on this day of the 68th anniversary of your appearance on earth. I do not personally know you, for sure, but am a kindred spirit, for in Ramakrishna we are wedded in mutual love for the Lord.
Your articulate views on society's most contentious issues have endeared me not merely for their forthrightness but for the love of the motherland and for humanity in the highest sense without pretence or platitude that suffuses your expressions and brings home the gravity of the threat to our civilisational security.
In this open advocacy of the urgent need for Hindus to strengthen their spiritual moorings so that they survive as a community and a race, you are the exception to the lot that clamours for correctness in cultural approach, for unlike so many pretenders to piety, you are a genuine practitioner of your philosophical convictions.
A monk like you, groomed in the harmonic tradition of the spiritual trinity of the age (Ramakrishna--Holy Mother--Vivekananda) and fired up by the essential Vivekananda, unedited and unobstructed in historical affirmation by authority, can lend sanity to the whole national discussion without being swayed by partisan politics that ever mars the truth that needs expression and establishment in people's minds.
The path is like the razor's edge --- to pilfer the quote from Somerset Maugham and the Kathopanishad that had inspired him --- and needs wary walking. Politics is a treacherous game today for 'it is the art of the possible' as seasoned Indian politicians are wont to saying at the time of electoral alignment. Ethics, ideology and national interest are often sacrificed at the scaffold of puny self-interest. It is with much worry that I, therefore, pray to the Holy Trinity in the embodiment of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda that they preserve your sannyas and keep you ever on the path of righteousness, renunciation and truth and that they bar the way for filthy fame and lucre to lure you away from your vocation which is the highest and the sublimest on earth.
A preeminently spiritual personality like you must stay clear of all spiritual aberrations and yet function in a manner that inspires all, especially, the youth to build their lives in the mould of the Holy Trinity. In this will conduce the greatest welfare for the nation and for humanity at large and help disseminate the message of the Sanatan Dharma across the wide world.
India cannot live if the Sanatan Dharma dies and, should it so happen, then the world will die with it, too. These are not my assertions, you full well know, Maharaj. These are Swamiji's words uttered with a bleeding heart at the sight of the plight of Indians suffering a thousand year alien subversion of culture, drainage of wealth, subjugation of human rights and decadence in every fibre of their national being.
At Kanyakunari, sitting on the last rock of the land of the gods, Swamiji had meditated three days and three nights, amidst the lashing billows of the confluence of the three seas, on the past, the present and the future of India. The whole of national history appeared even as a motion picture before his mind's eyes and he saw India's past greatness, present decadence and future glory like never before. He, then, with his Master's blessings and Mother's ardent love inspiring him, crossed the oceans to land in the new world, Columbus' America, to thunder before the elite of the world the pristine principles of the Vedas and establish before the comity of nations congregated in their religious representatives the glory that is the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism by aberration).
Swamiji was not merely a harmoniser of faiths but he was a fiery advocate of truth as well, truth palatable and truth unpalatable. His original words were volcanic in intensity and intent. Today, when 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda' are being presented to the world in a much edited way to suit the exigencies of the times, they are losing much of their original fire and the appeal thereof. The original passages sent electric shocks through the frame of savants like Romain Rolland and galvanised the heroes of the colonial days to sacrifice their all for the motherland's freedom. But, alas, the texts, made toothless to suit political imperatives, we may only wonder what the original current of the passages were even as they 'issued from the hero's lips', to pilfer this time from Rolland. This is the tragedy of it all that what the Prophet deemed in his best wisdom to deliver for the good of the world was later construed to be too radical for the well-being of society. And it is time that we rediscover the original Vivekananda from the ruins of the past and the dusty files rotting in the shelves of archives and libraries. It is here that we need to work for the regeneration of our race and nation.
A very happy birthday to you, Maharaj (Swami Adidevananda), after such a long dissertation on our imperatives of the hour. In this you have a seminal role to play and you must do it maintaining the highest honour as befits the colour of your robe, the hue of the rising sun of consciousness and of light. Ours is a nation long impregnated with the seeds of the renunciation of sages and the masses have implicit faith in the saffron as donning their highest national honour. This must not be betrayed in any sense, for the nation looks up to renounced souls like who have spent a lifetime in contemplation of the divine. Our gift to you on this hallowed morn, revisited a 69th time since its first advent, will be our reverence, love and studentship, and may yours in turn be that of graceful receiving of our prostrations at your feet and blessing us with your benediction divine and preceptor's guidance in matters pertaining to our best interests.
May the mighty Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, bless you is the earnest prayer of this insignificant devotee of hers! Jai Ma!
Written by Sugata Bose
A monk is, by definition, dead to the world of the senses, is a statement that may be true in principle, but to a lay devotee like me, Maharaj (Swami Adidevananda), it gives me especial joy to wish you well on this day of the 68th anniversary of your appearance on earth. I do not personally know you, for sure, but am a kindred spirit, for in Ramakrishna we are wedded in mutual love for the Lord.
Your articulate views on society's most contentious issues have endeared me not merely for their forthrightness but for the love of the motherland and for humanity in the highest sense without pretence or platitude that suffuses your expressions and brings home the gravity of the threat to our civilisational security.
In this open advocacy of the urgent need for Hindus to strengthen their spiritual moorings so that they survive as a community and a race, you are the exception to the lot that clamours for correctness in cultural approach, for unlike so many pretenders to piety, you are a genuine practitioner of your philosophical convictions.
A monk like you, groomed in the harmonic tradition of the spiritual trinity of the age (Ramakrishna--Holy Mother--Vivekananda) and fired up by the essential Vivekananda, unedited and unobstructed in historical affirmation by authority, can lend sanity to the whole national discussion without being swayed by partisan politics that ever mars the truth that needs expression and establishment in people's minds.
The path is like the razor's edge --- to pilfer the quote from Somerset Maugham and the Kathopanishad that had inspired him --- and needs wary walking. Politics is a treacherous game today for 'it is the art of the possible' as seasoned Indian politicians are wont to saying at the time of electoral alignment. Ethics, ideology and national interest are often sacrificed at the scaffold of puny self-interest. It is with much worry that I, therefore, pray to the Holy Trinity in the embodiment of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda that they preserve your sannyas and keep you ever on the path of righteousness, renunciation and truth and that they bar the way for filthy fame and lucre to lure you away from your vocation which is the highest and the sublimest on earth.
A preeminently spiritual personality like you must stay clear of all spiritual aberrations and yet function in a manner that inspires all, especially, the youth to build their lives in the mould of the Holy Trinity. In this will conduce the greatest welfare for the nation and for humanity at large and help disseminate the message of the Sanatan Dharma across the wide world.
India cannot live if the Sanatan Dharma dies and, should it so happen, then the world will die with it, too. These are not my assertions, you full well know, Maharaj. These are Swamiji's words uttered with a bleeding heart at the sight of the plight of Indians suffering a thousand year alien subversion of culture, drainage of wealth, subjugation of human rights and decadence in every fibre of their national being.
At Kanyakunari, sitting on the last rock of the land of the gods, Swamiji had meditated three days and three nights, amidst the lashing billows of the confluence of the three seas, on the past, the present and the future of India. The whole of national history appeared even as a motion picture before his mind's eyes and he saw India's past greatness, present decadence and future glory like never before. He, then, with his Master's blessings and Mother's ardent love inspiring him, crossed the oceans to land in the new world, Columbus' America, to thunder before the elite of the world the pristine principles of the Vedas and establish before the comity of nations congregated in their religious representatives the glory that is the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism by aberration).
Swamiji was not merely a harmoniser of faiths but he was a fiery advocate of truth as well, truth palatable and truth unpalatable. His original words were volcanic in intensity and intent. Today, when 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda' are being presented to the world in a much edited way to suit the exigencies of the times, they are losing much of their original fire and the appeal thereof. The original passages sent electric shocks through the frame of savants like Romain Rolland and galvanised the heroes of the colonial days to sacrifice their all for the motherland's freedom. But, alas, the texts, made toothless to suit political imperatives, we may only wonder what the original current of the passages were even as they 'issued from the hero's lips', to pilfer this time from Rolland. This is the tragedy of it all that what the Prophet deemed in his best wisdom to deliver for the good of the world was later construed to be too radical for the well-being of society. And it is time that we rediscover the original Vivekananda from the ruins of the past and the dusty files rotting in the shelves of archives and libraries. It is here that we need to work for the regeneration of our race and nation.
A very happy birthday to you, Maharaj (Swami Adidevananda), after such a long dissertation on our imperatives of the hour. In this you have a seminal role to play and you must do it maintaining the highest honour as befits the colour of your robe, the hue of the rising sun of consciousness and of light. Ours is a nation long impregnated with the seeds of the renunciation of sages and the masses have implicit faith in the saffron as donning their highest national honour. This must not be betrayed in any sense, for the nation looks up to renounced souls like who have spent a lifetime in contemplation of the divine. Our gift to you on this hallowed morn, revisited a 69th time since its first advent, will be our reverence, love and studentship, and may yours in turn be that of graceful receiving of our prostrations at your feet and blessing us with your benediction divine and preceptor's guidance in matters pertaining to our best interests.
May the mighty Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, bless you is the earnest prayer of this insignificant devotee of hers! Jai Ma!
Written by Sugata Bose
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