Followers are no better than decadent extensions of the leader or the organisation they owe allegiance to. They are mummified beings, fossilised versions of a once sentient being, with neither the capacity to think for themselves nor the will to do so. And, yet, they ever must clamour in defence of the indefensible in line with the official policy adopted by their guardians in the Order, irrespective of where facts lead them in inference and the arriving at conclusions thereof. It is in this regard that it may now be said that it is small wonder how with collective coordination truth is suppressed and falsity allowed to proliferate about certain contentious issues such as the direct discipleship of Swami Nirmalananda (Tulsi Maharaj) to Sri Ramakrishna. That Nirmalanandaji was indeed the direct disciple of Thakur is clearly mentioned in multiple authentic books written and documents attested to by the first generation of Thakur's disciples and devotees, yet, such is the force of collective conversation to the contrary and the absence of any mention of this seminal saint in such for decades that Swami Nirmalananda has virtually become the forgotten apostle of Sri Ramakrishna.
Over the last few decades all references to Swami Nirmalananda in books written by the second generation monks have excluded him from the rank of Thakur's direct monastic disciples and devotees devoid of the faculty of developed critical thinking have joined in to perpetuate in the public imagination this myth through commission and omission. When facts are presented before them that prove Swami Nirmalanada's true spiritual lineage as having issued from the lotus feet of Thakur, they resort to irrational behaviour and dogmatically hold on to their organisational stance in this regard that Nirmalanandaji was not Thakur's disciple but was by alleged self-admission Swamiji's disciple. This is unfortunate for it betrays the moral bankruptcy of the devotees at large and their inability 'to shake off the sterile curse' of organisational stranglehold on their beings, their thoughts and actions, conceptions and convictions, conversations and conclusions, all tending to a character which Swamiji had likened to the body of a jellyfish. And this ought to change. In this regard the wide proliferation of the life and message of the dynamic Swami Nirmalananda is a sine qua non for the movement. Come, hinder not the reinstatement of Swami Nirmalananda to his rightful spiritual status as Thakur's direct disciple and help in this cause for truth and justice, elements of civilisation that somehow have been hijacked in recent times in the Mission's attitude to Thakur's beloved Tulsi.
Written by Sugata Bose
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