Now let us make an analysis of Sri Rantidev Sengupta's original post, dated 12 September, 2018, which has created such a furore on facebook and other social media.
TEXT OF ORIGINAL POST OF RANTIDEV SENGUPTA (BENGALI) RENDERED INTO ENGLISH BY SUGATA BOSE (Sugata Bose). THE FOURTH INSTALMENT FOLLOWS :
Swami Vivekananda is not the personal property of a few saffron-clad monks of the Ramakrishna Mission. He is enthroned in the hearts of us all. We have to rescue the Ramakrishna Mission from the clutches of these so-called monks. Thus, it is a plea to all the devotees and well-wishers of the Mission to raise a collective uproar. Ramakrishna Mission must not be allowed to become a political hub.
ANALYSIS :
Sri Rantidev Sengupta brings his critical write-up to a climactic end with a clarion call to all devotees and well-wishers of the Ramakrishna Mission to voice their dissent against the current order of things as are obtaining, to his estimation, in the hallowed organisation.
Sengupta says that Swami Vivekananda is not the personal of a few saffron-clad monks of the Ramakrishna Mission. How right he is in his assertion of this self-evident truth! Who ever said that it was not so? Have the monks of the Order, any of them, ever said anything to the contrary? Has the Ramakrishna Mission, universal as it is in its professed and practised ideals, ever laid exclusive claim to their beloved leader or have they not always laboured in love to bring him home in every possible way to the very people from whom he rose and gave his life for? If the Ramakrishna Mission as an organisational entity has not claimed Vivekananda to be their exclusive property --- and how could they do so anyway? --- how does the question of a few saffron-clad monks of the Order becoming the exclusive owners of this historical personality arise? Is it not a travesty of sane thinking to aver thus?
Sri Sengupta says that Swami Vivekananda is enthroned in the hearts of us all and so very right is he. But speaking is one thing and acting in accordance another. Swami Vivekananda is not just a focus of mere emotion. He is a vast ideal for humanity to aspire for, a principle to attain and a height of humanity in spiritual civilisation that calls for renunciation of everything that is narrow, sectarian and lowly, including the indiscriminate diatribe that is now obtaining in social media in the name of valid criticism of adversaries in debate centring the Chief Minister's controversial remarks at Belur Math. Vivekananda calls for civility in discussion and not roguish rancour.
Rantidev Sengupta says that it has become necessary to rescue the Ramakrishna Mission from the clutches a few so-called monks who apparently are perverting the pristine principles of the Mission by permitting it to become a hub of political activity which under no circumstances may be allowed. He exhorts the devotees and the well-wishers of the Mission to raise a collective uproar to salvage the situation and set the Mission's course right. Here Sri Sengupta comes out in his true colour for his statements are potently political as will be apparent to any perceptive reader. His clarion call may excite emotions but may not succeed in bringing to fruition any constructive activity whereby the Mission may be benefited in the pursuit of its mission. On the contrary, these sorts of political comments in loose language are as blameworthy as the Chief Minister's sudden shifting of gear at Belur Math to enter into the forbidden zone of political campaigning in a preeminently apolitical spiritual organisation of world repute.
By using such a strong term as 'political hub' (রাজনীতির আখড়া) with reference to the Ramakrishna Mission, Sengupta has neither done justice to this hallowed organisation of unimpeachable apolitical credibility nor has he done himself justice as an initiated devotee of the Mission who ought to practise greater restraint in the use of words when it comes to commenting on such a contentious issue as the present controversy is centred on. It would be in the fitness of things if Sri Sengupta were to himself offer a statement in the media that the language he has used to castigate the Ramakrishna Mission has been a trifle too overloaded with derogatory implications and aspersions cast on the Mission and that he would like to retract some of those statements. Such a public admission will in no manner lower his social standing but will rather raise him in public estimation as a true devotee of the Mission who makes mistakes and moves on to rectify them. I am in no way suggesting thereby that Sri Rantidev Sengupta ought to withdraw the content of his own critical reading of the Mission's activities in the recent past but I exhort him merely to edit the potently improper language of some his statements related to the same and issue a statement anew by way of civilised rapprochement.
End of Part 10
To be serialised...
Written by Sugata Bose
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