Sunday 30 June 2019

POINT TO PONDER ... 8


POINT TO PONDER ... 8

The vast mass of ignorant humanity is sunk in the superstition and fear of an intolerant God who promises heaven for good deeds done and punishes with hell-fire for deeds that do not please Him. Fear begets greater evil than the so-called unrighteous deeds. Hence, it is time to cast aside such a God who instils fear into the hearts of His devotees in order to exact the perennial price of His lordship over His created beings. Better atheism and self-belief than submission to the dictates of such a God.

Stand aside and assert your freedom. This is the way ahead and the only way humanity may be lifted fast unto its rightful status as a thinking species that ought not to subscribe to such archaic scriptural prescriptions, such arbitrary injunctions of so-called messengers of God. Arise and shed this veil that hangs heavy over your eyes, and look around to discover your long-lost freedom. Do this and I call you a man. Otherwise, you are not worth being dubbed so, for in the revolt against untruth and superstition lies the manifestation of manhood, the expression of one's inner sublimity of being. Ponder this and make the necessary change in your lives.

Written by Sugata Bose

Saturday 29 June 2019

HINDUISM ... 1


HINDUISM ... 1

A CURSORY COMPARISON WITH THE SEMITIC FAITHS

The Vedas carry spiritual revelations of the rishis which are universally verifiable. The prophetic revelations of the Abrahamic religions are, however, supposedly unique and non-verifiable. Hence, in the Semitic religions, namely, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, faith in the absolute declarations of the prophets and their absolutist injunctions is the sine qua non for adherents and challenging the doctrine is considered heresy. In the Sanatan Dharma (Hinduism), on the other hand, challenging all spiritual and philosophical propositions is the sine qua non as a stage in the process of rationalisation before depth meditation on such results in realisation which alone leads to perfected conviction in God, Spirit, Self et al.

In the Sanatan Dharma there is no compulsion to believe in anything. It is the science of the soul and requires only depth enquiry to arrive at the results. This is where the Sanatan Dharma essentially differs from the Semitic religions. It has no binding theology, dated in time and enforceable on all by force, to go by. Hence, it is the only scientific system of spirituality, liberal, universal in scope and allowing complete freedom to seekers to enquire, challenge, deliberate, debate and then to accept or to reject it. As such there is no scope for the violence of conversion in it as it has nothing to do with the politics attending religions as is the case with the Semitic faiths of pronounced proselytising violence attached to them.

Written by Sugata Bose

NETAJI AND HIS FANATICAL FOLLOWING ... 1


NETAJI AND HIS FANATICAL FOLLOWING ... 1

Netaji would better be rid of the fanatics who seem to have appropriated him, so that he may live in the sunshine of fair appraisal and criticism. Right now, the Prince of Patriots is living in the exile of unsavoury adulation of his person and hatred directed towards his political colleagues, opponents and even mentors in the form of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi. This sort of an unseemly attitude not only leads to an unfair assessment of history but is productive as well of a negative end in so far as establishing the historical truth about the freedom struggle is concerned.

Netaji, who was a person of supreme sanity and high idealism, would fain accede to such fanatical following devoid of substance, rationality and fundamental civility that they ought to bear towards his towering compatriots of the national struggle for freedom. It is regrettable that such a large-hearted person should have such a mean following that can stoop to such abysmal levels in levelling grossly exagerrated and often unsubstantiated charges against such seminal figures of the freedom struggle as Pandit Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi.

It seems that hatred unites a fanatical following better than absorbing, assimilating and living by the principles of pure patriotism and essential humanity espoused by the great liberator of our colonised and conquered motherland. A change in this dubious 'devotion' is the need of the hour and the sooner right-thinking men and women take to living the principles that were once lived by the patriot, the better for our sinking polity.

I leave you to ruminate on this and respond adequately for the enlivening and furtherance of the prospective debate.

Vande Mataram !

Written by Sugata Bose

INDECISION AND DECISIVENESS

INDECISION AND DECISIVENESS

In indecision often is the humble allowance for the uncertain possibilities of the ensuing life, in decisiveness often the arrogance of an ignorant certitude that crushes finer possibilities pregnant in the womb of futurity. Human knowledge has advanced on the shoulders of such scientific indecision, on prolonged rational deliberations, speculative adjustments and intuitive verifications, and never quite riding the chariot of a subordinating wilful decisiveness. In indecision lies the glorious submission to ever-unfolding truth in all its fluctuating expression, in blind decisiveness the sacrifice of floral possibilities at the scaffold of the single brute enforcement of the arrogant will.

Written by Sugata Bose

TO BE OR NOT TO BE MYSELF

TO BE OR NOT TO BE MYSELF

I am not Prof. Bose or Netaji's some supposed grandson if ever he had one. I am content to be Sri Sugata Bose with no blood-bond whatsoever to Netaji's extended family. Therefore, dispel your illusions and delusions about me and desist from misidentifying me with historian or politician or grand-nephew of Netaji of scholarly eminence and allow me my microscopic space of self-survival in my own humble way.

This sort of undeserved and unwarranted adulation of my person, mistaking me for another, is uncalled for, and this kind of fascination with Netaji's familial descendants is productive of unwholesome dynastic dispensations which our motherland continues to badly suffer from. At its least level of toxicity it leads to the personality cult which in principle is highly incongruous in a democratic polity.

What the cause of this misapprehension of my identity is, has never been quire adequately explained to me by any of my Facebook friends, unnumbered among them having been initially prone to the same error. If my cover picture misleads, then I must say, ' "The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings." '

My honourable Monsieur, the cover picture expressly reveals my identity, my contrasting features from that of the venerable Prof. Bose you confuse me with. A fair comparison of the profiles of the twain will set the record straight in your befuddled mind. If the cameramen apparently photographing me, as seemingly revealed in my cover photograph, deludes you into such exaggerated estimation of my attainments and lineage, I must illumine you then adequately on that count, too.

The occasion was Mother Teresa's Centenary Memorial Meet held at the Terrace Garden of Taj Bengal, Kolkata, in 2011 with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama the Chief Guest and the memorial speaker. Eminent personalities such as Sunita and Naresh Kumar who were the organising hosts, Sister Marie Prema who is the Sister Superior of the Missionaries of Charity, the ex-Governor of West Bengal, N.K. Narayanan, the TMC leader, Derryck O'Brian, the tennis legend, Leander Paes, film actress, June Malia, and a host of other leading lights of society attended the meet. There I was as well, insignificant me, invited specially by Sister Lynn, the Sister-in-charge of the Centenary Memorial Celebrations.

Inconspicuous as I was, I stood up, nonetheless, to greet His Holiness in Tibetan and proceeded to ask him a pertinent question on the inception of Buddhism in Tibet. This was in the Q & A Session following an enthralling and quite a humorous speech by the exiled leader. It was then that my photograph was clicked by the official photographer, the source of all my suppoosed Facebook fame of an ulterior kind and my consequent discomfiture at that.

Now, Monsieur, may I request you to take off your high-powered lens and behold me with the eye bestowed on you originally by Nature. It is unbecoming to foist on others one's imagined identities and to then proceed to enter into deliberations with them. I neither deserve such misplaced honour nor do I feel gratified by misjudged identity. I am happy to be myself, the old fool that amuses the courtiers of this kingdom of God. And be thou pleased to be amused by this present jest by way of affable gesture to thee as well.

Concluding now this long address and hoping to hold your attention,
I thank you in my much befuddling name,
Yours in truth,
Solely, wholly in truth,
Sugata Bose of an alternate identity, family and lineage.

WORSHIP THYSELF, WORSHIP THY SELF


WORSHIP THYSELF, WORSHIP THY SELF

There is no Creator who has created you. You are your own Self-manifestation. Fear not, therefore, hell, seek not heaven. You are pure Spirit that transcends these low temporary habitats. You are the highest where heaven reaches not nor God finds residence, for you are the very God you objectify and worship. Give up, renounce these childish ideas of objectified God and take residence in your real Self, the Father of all Gods, the Being, the Essence of everything.

Written by Sugata Bose

Friday 28 June 2019

PARENTS WHEN THEY ARE MADE PICTURES BEFORE CASTING THEM AWAY FOR GOOD


PARENTS WHEN THEY ARE MADE PICTURES BEFORE CASTING THEM AWAY FOR GOOD

Today, my parents are pictures. Tomorrow, they will be obliterated from memory. Such is the impermanence of life. And yet, they move on. Such again is the mercy of God despite human selfishness.

Written by Sugata Bose

BUT FOR HIM


BUT FOR HIM

Today, my father is a picture. Tomorrow, he will be obliterated from memory. Such is the impermanence of life. And yet, my father moves on.

Written by Sugata Bose

POLITICS, PRETENCE, POISON ... 1

POLITICS, PRETENCE, POISON ... 1

When politicians, who follow an agenda of communal divisiveness, come up with statements seeking communal harmony, hypocrisy has then completed its full circle. The causes are never attended to, neither scriptural nor ideological. Only cosmetic changes are pretended to be sought which neither address the ground reality nor repair the deeper fissures, existing and potential, that drive society into communal compartments. 

Politics has played havoc with our polity thus far and is systematically disintegrating society in the name of nationalistic integration, fostering communal harmony, liberalism, secularism and so on. Real good intent is missing in the politicians and all that we see is electoral politics aimed at gaining the mandate to political power. The larger welfare of the people nobody is concerned about. All that leaders seek is the furtherance of their personal ambitions at the expense of the people's welfare, and all in the name of the people, though. 

This is the case in so far as rudderless parties with monomaniac leaders at the helm of affairs is concerned. These parties are like political whirlpools in whose vortex they draw society for the while. As such these are pernicious but to a lesser extent. The worse scenario is where political parties with a driven agenda of communal divisiveness gain the upperhand in the polity and spread the toxin of hate in it to polarise the people. Here we have a serious national issue as multiple nations within a single nation then develop and increase the secessionist forces that threaten to rupture the nation. Today, we have such a situation where a single people is becoming multiple peoples and a nation, thus far tending to unite, is now traversing the reverse way. 

It is time to ponder the imperatives. 

Written by Sugata Bose

WORK FOR WELL-BEING, WORK FOR WELFARE

WORK FOR WELL-BEING, WORK FOR WELFARE

Life is not to be wasted chasing wild geese. Something worthwhile has to done and it must conduce to the good of both oneself and to society at large. Laziness is to shunned and slow, disciplined work performed on a daily basis must build up the edifice of spiritual life.

Creativity must be the foundation of all endeavour and depth of thinking fostered by daily meditation will awaken the creative self. Then all work will be an expression of self-discovery and a joyful repose will permeate one's most laborious hours, for it will be a labour of love and not toil under duress.

A mighty concentration on the work at hand with total detachment as to its result once the work is over and the hour past is the formula for success. Work performed in this manner purifies the mind-stuff and paves the way for realisation of the Self, although, work itself cannot help one reach the summit of realisation. Work falls short of the endpoint in this journey of the Spirit, being that much extraneous to the final realisation but being one's best ally in this long and arduous evolution from the near unconscious to the super-conscious.

Therefore, we must constantly work for self-preservation and for world-welfare but we must do so in a detached manner with full attention to the means and no attachment to the end. This does not mean we must be irresponsible in action. No, not at all. We have a responsibility to ourselves and also to society and our work must conduce to the welfare of both. As such, only ethically sound activity must be undertaken and that is dharma. In essence it may be said that there may not be an hour when work may be relinquished for that would create a vacuum in one's spiritual pathway and cause one to have a precipitous fall. Hence, work, work, work, and attempt to scale the summit of realisation in this very life.

Written by Sugata Bose

A QUESTION

A QUESTION

Shahista Parveen, widow of lynched Tabrez Ansari of Jharkhand. Young, innocent, pure --- what harm had she done to any to be separated thus from her husband? Is this what we ought to be proud of today?

Written by Sugata Bose

Wednesday 26 June 2019

SUBTLE ARE THE WORKINGS OF NATURE, SIMPLISTIC THE OPERATIONAL ANALYSES AND PUERILE THE SOLUTIONS OFFERED



SUBTLE ARE THE WORKINGS OF NATURE, SIMPLISTIC THE OPERATIONAL ANALYSES AND PUERILE THE SOLUTIONS OFFERED

The workings of Nature physical and Nature psychological are more complex than are made out to be by shallow spiritual thinkers. Even hallowed spiritual organisations have made a mockery of these operational laws as their esteemed representatives go about dishing shallow theories in their bid to explain these difficult principles. Their explanations are puerile for their conceptions are way beneath the soaring heights of appreciation necessary to first apprehend them, leave aside then envisioning the right mechanisms in play that keep this universal drama going and thereafter articulating them in adequate terms.

Such sub-standard intellects dishing out dull deliberations on profound philosophy has become the bane of our decadent culture and unless the best brains, armed in the pure pursuit of truth, take to this philosophical discipline of the Vedanta, the message of the Rishis will not spread across the world.

Swami Vivekananda was one such, and Sri Aurobindo, despite his fantastic claims bordering on unreason, was another when in his saner moments of rational propriety that would draw the appreciative attention of savants like Romain Rolland and not their derision as when Rolland and J.C. Bose descended upon the Prisoner of Pondicherry in no uncertain terms for his absurdities and aberrations in philosophical thinking.

Nonetheless, Aurobindo had a clear head and sought deeper explanations of Nature's workings than Vivekananda's followers on the whole have explicitly managed. The latter's exhibited dissertations remain eminently hollow as is the wont of most published mediocrity. The more brilliant followers of Vivekananda have often not had the chance to publish their preeminently original works as organisation often does not afford such opportunities to individuals who dare cross the standard line adopted to maintain the social status quo, the imperatives being understandable in the complex political context. Of course, such individuals of brilliance also are rare and what passes off as brilliance is but second-rate stuff published by the cartload and endorsed by equally second-rate intellects going ecstatic over such material mediocrity erroneously dubbed 'spiritual literature'.

This is, after all, the fate eternally of the 'creativity' of eulogised gurus, godmen and senior renunciates in an order with their plethora of adoring adherents who have hardly the capacity to pick the grain from the chaff when it comes to critiquing dissertations of a dull order, for they are either duller than their pious 'perfected ones' or blinded in judgement by their pretentious piety. No wonder Swami Vivekananda had famously said that the in the entire history of humanity there have been but a handful of individuals with truly original ideas.

As creatively original was Swamiji with his deep understanding of the workings of Nature and his enunciations thereof by way of explanation of its operational principles, so unoriginal have his followers been with hardly any significant seminal work done after his passage from the world that has shed light on the operational modes of an ever-intricate evolving spiritual process, barring, of course, that titanic thinker's intellectual output whose name transformed in the process from Margaret Elizabeth Noble to the endearing Sister Nivedita. Yes, she is the lone exception to this manifested mediocrity, and my adoration of her for that.

In this 'desert-sand of dead habit', 'to pilfer from Tagore's arsenal of ideas' --- and, here again I pilfer from Hiren Mukerjee --- Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda appears, not as a mirage offering an ever-receding respite from the routine rigmarole of philosophical pretension as the others do, but as a veritable oasis where we can slake our intellectual and spiritual thirst in depth understanding of the spiritual duo who were her life's polestars, her idols, her spiritual ideal manifested in flesh and blood. And in such understanding we envision greater revelations of the psychological processes that underlie individual life in the microcosm and the larger life manifest in the macrocosm.

Post Vivekananda we have in the trio of Aurobindo, Nivedita and Tagore our subtlest thinkers who have unravelled for us the deeper mysteries of Maya in their own inimitable creative ways. Add to it the French savant, Romain Rolland, who wrote those two priceless treatises on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, and we have our 'picture perfect' which no intruder dare mar with his puerile philosophical thinking.

Written by Sugata Bose

Tuesday 25 June 2019

FACEBOOK COMMENTS GALORE


1. Sugata Bose : [@Sabyasachi Das] 21 October, 1943. Singapore. Prime Minister of the Provisional Government of Free India. He headed his Cabinet and held the portfolios of Prime Minister, War Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

2. Sugata Bose : [@Sasanka Sekhar Ghosh] I have posted two videos from YouTube. You may have a look at them. I am hunting for a pertinent article written by Dr. Kannigan of a US university but have not yet succeeded. I shall post it the moment I get hold of it.

3. Sugata Bose : [@Sutanu] Shaikh Abdul Alim has raised this issue of the Sankeertan in a comment opposing my earlier post. Have a look at it. I have only been fair to all concerned parties in expanding the scope of the discourse, although, in a rather unfair asymmetrical manner, I dare say.

4. Sugata Bose : [Sourav Mishra] Brilliant reply, Sourav. Accurate, to the point.

5. Sugata Bose : [@Shaikh Abdul Alim] You are right in a rather restricted way, I should suppose. Both the azaan and the sankeertan are disturbing and must not be allowed to infringe, however unwittingly, upon private peace. Sankeertans may be long and may even last for 3 days at a stretch but the loudspeaker-bolstered azaan goes on 365 days a year, 5 times a day, and at inconvenient hours such a dawn, as opposed to the infrequent sankeertans centring festive occasions.

6. Sugata Bose : [@Indrajit Dutt] Where did you discern intolerance here? Is stating the fact nowadays being considered so?

7. Sugata Bose : [@Ronita Bharatiya] Not quite plagiarised, it seems, for she admitted her source midway through her speech, I mean, the US Holocaust Museum and the pertinent points lifted from there and cited to highlight the Indian context.

8. Sugata Bose : Debaprasad Babu, I lament, too. It was not the maestro's loss so much as it was the motherland's loss. Indeed, how lacking in appreciation of genius we have been as a nation ever since independence !

9. 



BLOSSOMS


BLOSSOMS

Such are the blossoms of the heart that are offered to the Lord in the fullness of their inner efflorescence.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Hibiscus ; courtesy, Sharmistha Chatterjee

TWEETS AND TWEETS AGAIN ... 2


1. পূর্বপুরুষকে ভুলবেন না | ওটি আত্মবিস্মৃতির প্রথম লক্ষণ |

2. The truth about Netaji cannot be established by men who themselves are not in truth. Truth fosters courage. Whither courage?

3. Attempts to superficially harmonise conflicting religions will never work.They are pretentious, puerile, insincere and hypocritical.

4. The poor are God's goats sacrificed at the block so that the privileged few may savour the delicacies of life. Fair play, indeed !

5. Nature is so disciplined and we derive all its benefits but chose to while away our lives in indolence.

6. Laziness cannot arrive at excellence. Genius is comprehensive creative labour of love.

7. Upon the suffering of billions of poor people rests the luxury of the rich.

8. Fame is a noxious appendage to one's self as it deprives one of fundamental civility that is born out of selflessness otherwise.

9. Sugata Bose : I write as I ought to, as one who carves castles on the seashore of life while the waves splash past with their salty deposits.

[Sharmistha Chatterjee : Even carving sand castle ,ready to be washed away by the sea waves requires great skills of creativity.
You create and re-create only to bask in the joy of
creation....
Even God creates , but we all meet our end in death.
"ফুল সে হাসিতে হাসিতে ঝরে,
জোছনা হাসিয়া মিলায়ে যায়
হাসিতে হাসিতে আলোক সাগরে
আকাশের তারা তেয়াগে কায়
....."]

10. The mind must be raised to a level higher than the mundane. This is the prerequisite for spirituality.

11. This earthly life is equipoised and the balance of forces ideal for attaining perfection.

12. Evening meditation on the yaman reveals the pastoral Krishna in full bloom.

13. Continuous improvement of one's personality and performance should be striven for instead of seeking public adulation n adoration.

14. Strengthen Hinduism by being regular with your spiritual practices.

15. Love is a rare emotion of the cultivated heart which all think they possess abundantly but few truly do so.

[Sharmistha Chatterjee : LOVE evolves and there is a kind of porosity that allows love to filter and finally connects it with the eternal and infinite where nothing remains for self but everything is THYSELF and FOR THYSELF.]

16. We can never think of others around us because we are so preoccupied with ourselves.

17. Was not Nehru a more gifted writer than Netaji?

18. 'Vande Mataram' is a more poetic and endearing greeting than 'Jai Hind' which is rather prosaic and lacking in lyricism.

19. The Bangladesh Govt. should greatly assist in the spread of Hinduism there. Bangladeshi Muslims must come forward to achieve it.

20. The Ramakrishna Mission ought to approach all Islamic nations to allow them to open centres for the propagation of the Vedanta.

21. TRUTH AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

There is no God beyond me who will look after me. I will have to look after myself. This simple statement of fact is a major point to learn in life.

Written by Sugata Bose

22. One pure person is worth a million preachers.

23. Dogs are kicked. Human beings are kicked, too. Dogs are kept as pets, and so are humans.

24. The decline of culture in the average household is spelling the doom of society at large.

25. Stop believing, challenge authority, realise through self-experience.

26. The greater the freedom in a society, the brighter the possibility of human evolution there.

27. Through the chaos and strife we see in the world, a new civilisation is coming into being, exactly as Vivekananda had envisaged.

28. A thinker must be neutral. His fact-finding, analysis and inference must be evidence-based, objective and unbiased.

29. Are the conspiracy theories about Netaji believable? Do most of them not seem to be a bit far-fetched, a trifle outlandish?

30. A dictatorial political party does not last long. Its decadence n demise are inevitable as the dictator rots in power-drunkenness.

31. Stop brainwashing children with irrational faith ideology, dubious doctrines admixed with prospective heavenly bliss or hell-fire.

32. If hating followers of other faiths has the sanction of your scripture, ought you still not to love them?

33. Polarise the polity and face your doom in the coming elections. The reaction to attempting this electoral division is certain.

34. When they have arms, they kill with arms ; when they have stones, they hurl them. But why? Where lies the solution?

35. Which is the only religion that accepts all religions as true?

36. The strengthening of Hinduism is the only hope in a world challenged by exclusive faith doctrines and fanatical ideology.

37. Nehru's literary style was more poetic than Netaji's, although, Netaji's textual content and analysis was deeper.

38. God bless Nusrat Jahan! She has done what in the days to come millions of women will do. And I add on my heartiest blessings, too.

39. All laws governing mankind everywhere are man-made. Even those that go by as God's laws are all man-made.

40. There is a churn going on in the Indian Islamic world. Let it lead to a liberalising of their society.

41. We, as a people, must be more disciplined in our thinking.That will discipline our national conduct n enable us to perform better.

42. The slightest entry of victorious egotism can spell disaster in a future game. After India's last victory this has been the case.

43. Must television advertising necessarily be conducted on a foolish, irrational basis assuming that potential buyers are tomfools?

44. ধনতন্ত্রের অর্থলোলুপতা অবতারের 'টাকা মাটি, মাটি টাকা'র পরিপন্থি | প্রধানমন্ত্রীর বানিজ্যবিষয়ক অতিআগ্রহ ভারতের সনাতন ঐতিহ্যবিরোধী |

45. দেশে অবিদ্যাশক্তির প্রভাব কমাতে হবে | তবে দেশের প্রকৃত উন্নতি হবে | এখন অবিদ্যাশক্তিরই জয়জয়াকার |

46. From where can we learn truthfulness in this world? Truth tailored to self-interest is untruth itself. Where lies the hope?

47. Why does the Ramakrishna Mission continue to omit Swami Nirmalananda's name from the list of Sri Ramakrishna's direct disciples?

48. Let every Hindu read 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna'.

49. A hundred valorous men are worth more than a disorganised mob. Hence, rationalise your self n arise to the defence of the dharma.

50. There is but one way to address the worsening situation of the Hindus n it is to practise religiously the principles of Hinduism.

51. The gradual demographic imbalance setting in several parts of India seriously threatens Hindu security. Hindus, awake !

52. Christianity must shed its theological bigotry and only preach the enlightening message of the Messiah which is universal.

53. The spread of Buddhism in the world is necessary as is the propagation of Hinduism. Only then can Islamic intolerance be combated.

54. All the dharma traditions of India must unite to resist Islamic intolerance n conversion. Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs unite !

55. Constantly chant your Ishta Mantra to strengthen the Sanatan Dharma and resist its erosion by proselytising Islam and Christianity.

56. Every Hindu must take it upon himself to defend his dharma against all proselytising attempts made by Islam and Christianity.

57. All Hindus ought to blow the conch-shell at full volume at dusk to announce that it is time to pray.

58. The media gains TRP at the cost of the nation's welfare by publicising sensational news to the exclusion of worthwhile news.

59. Wasting Parliament's time by raising ruckus. Is this the way the people's representatives work for people's welfare?

60. If school children misbehaved the way Parliamentarians do to stall proceedings, they would be thrown out of their schools.

61. Partition nearly took Bengal away from us. What eventually was salvaged of it in the form of West Bengal was entirely due to Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

62. We celebrate friendship with Bangladesh. But it was carved out of India by bloody violence. [Great Calcutta Killing, Noakhali Riots.]

63. Muslim women will bring about the revolution within the Indian Islamic society that will obtain them their legitimate rights.

64. Feel disturbed in work and sleep five times a day over the blaring loudspeaker. Upsets concentration, induces distraction.

65. I'm not a Muslim.Then why must I be subjected to the call for prayer over the loudspeaker 5 times a day that upsets my work n rest?

66. Being woken up at 4 a.m. by the Azaan isn't funny, nor being deluged by the Sankeertan, both over blaring loudspeakers.

67. How long must man crawl before a tyrannical Creator who keeps His creatures in servile fearfulness? Reject such a God and assert your freedom.

68. Where are my moderate Muslim friends on Facebook coming to the defence of Nusrat Jahan Ruhi Jain? Why are they silent now?

69. Devotion demands nothing, offers everything.

70. Humility is essential to sustained success, for egotism spoils it all and reduces man to the sensate selfish level, despoiling him of all attainment save the massive adornment of abysmal failure.

71. Belated but heartiest and happiest returns of your birthday, Gungun. May you find peace and fulfilment in life ! My best wishes.

72. Let culture flourish. Let individual effort usher in an elevated environment for greater humanity to prosper.

73. Wet matchsticks won't burn.Seems hopeless at times,this witnessing the human scenario.Rare is the aspirant for the spiritual life.

74. You must have fire in your words if you wish to preach the message of the Vedanta. Else, dilution will spoil it all.

75. The best way to build our country will be to spread massively the message of Swami Vivekananda among high-school children.

76. Soft paralysing music must be discouraged as the nation aspires to manhood. All forms of artistic debility must be shunned now.

77. The whole thrust of the Hindu's religion is how to see God. He must see God at any cost. This is the gist of the Hindu mentality.

78. Study Sanskrit.

79. Swamiji has exhorted the whole nation to go for the study of Sanskrit so that they may be rightful heirs to the national heritage.

80. I wish that some people will join me in the movement to spread the message of Swamiji by first actualising it in their own lives.

81. Let all infatuation with impermanent life be dashed to pieces and peace reign in unfolding renunciation of the ephemeral fancies of the delusive self.

82. There is great benefit in reading the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Please join me in this crusade to spread his message.

83. @Sunanda Kar, please read regularly 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda'. It will greatly benefit you. If you wish to contact me, you may let me know, and I will further deliberate on this issue.

84. It is necessary to extricate Hinduism from the hands of charlatans and quack Gurus and present its undiluted message before humanity.

85. How will Hinduism prosper if so many fraudulent Gurus are deluding the masses and directing their minds on to wrong channels?

86. If only Vivekananda was preached more among the students and the youth, half of India's problems would be solved overnight.

87. Talk only Ramakrishna-Vivekananda with friends and associates. This is highly beneficial for spiritual progress. Avoid all other talk.

88.

Keep your vernacular as close as possible to its original form devoid of the frequent interspersing of words from foreign languages. Sanskritise your diction.

89. Imran Khan states that Pakistan is not wearing bangles. True, its bangles have all been smashed by the Balakot Airstrike.

90. Islam tries to convert the Hindus to its fold. Let Hinduism spread throughout the subcontinent by way of reverse flow.

91. Read about Ghazwa-e-Hind and draw your own conclusions about inter-faith peace and harmony. Vedanta is the only way out.

92. The Sanatan Dharma reigned in Akhanda Bharatvarsha and so shall it reign in the future.Have unbounded faith in you divine destiny.

93. Be practising Hindus, pure and pious, and not mere verbal ones, insincere and indolent.

94. India must unite under the banner of the Sanatan Dharma which is its life-blood, its integrating force, its very soul.

95. The times are propitious. The Vedanta must flood the remotest corners of the world and usher in global peace and goodwill.

96. আমি হৃদয়হীনকে নাস্তিক বলি, হৃদয়বানকে বলি আস্তিক | মানুষের মাঝে খুঁজি আমার ভগবান |

97. এত আলো চারিদিকে, তবু অন্ধকার | আলো কই ?

98. Improvement of diction is a sine qua non of good education.

99. Practicality and idealism must strike a balance for efficient functioning in life.

100. The desperate thing about life is that we are so powerless to alter the course of things past, so weak that we can hardly cater to the problems of the day with a sufficiency that makes life more bearable for the teeming millions who toil in vain to meet the challenges of life and die daily like beasts of burden whose blood-spilling labour builds up the edifice of our vaunted civilisation. We are powerless, indeed, to alter the state of things despite our tall talk of civilisation and culture, for complex are the problems that confront the world, complicated its mechanisms of change in the teeth of huge inertia of the decadent past, the baggage of outdated mores and norms, monstrous ideas of medieval times that throttle civilisation as they hold it in their unyielding death-grip. These will have to be overcome, subjugated, conquered if humankind is to rise to its fullest future possibilities. Herein lies the challenge which thus far man has failed miserably to meet up to, and herein will lie man's future glory, too, as he rises through the tide of times to a sufficiency of strength to be able to combat and conquer the odds of life. Right now, though, things are desperate, indeed, as humanity struggles through the present problematic state of terrestrial existence amid a sea of troubles, amidst a deluge of blood with a whole of lot of seemingly senseless human sacrifice that apparently knows no end. But brighter days will follow as winter makes way for blossoming spring and all will be sunshine again. So man hopes and so may the unfolding future bring to fruition its fairest promise that ever shines bright in the human heart.

100. Simplify the dharma, do not over-simplify it such that it loses its essential character which is deeply philosophical.

CONVERSION --- THE OTHER WAY ROUND


CONVERSION --- THE OTHER WAY ROUND

Conversion is a reprehensible practice and threatens Hindu society greatly. If at all it must be, let it be the instrument for reclaiming our lost numbers. Those of the subcontinent who have converted from Hinduism, let them in due course of time return to the Mother-faith. May the Sanatan Dharma triumph against the historical injustices it has suffered from by way of conversion of its adherents to Islam and Christianity !

Written by Sugata Bose

FLYING THROUGH IDEAS


FLYING THROUGH IDEAS 

Many among us have a tendency to leave statements incomplete and to move on to fresher ones. This is on account of the fast flow of ideas which gets the better of us, the latter conceptions drowning the earlier ones in the subconscious even as they themselves arise from the subconscious to gain prominence in the conscious plane. 

Those who have trained their minds to hold thought, escape this habit but seldom are they creative people of a high order. They are, more often than not, matter-of-fact rational people without any pronounced degree of artistic attribute adorning their personality. Their thought-flow is rationally ordered but is devoid of the emotional swings of spontaneous creativity which is what separates their way of talk from that of articulate gifted artists.

This, though, is not a universal law of articulate behaviour of a section of humans but is a sort of an attempted rationale for the incomplete utterances of many a creative personality of a high order. It has intrigued me to witness this tendency in many to high-fly through the realm of ideas, fast and brilliant, to the dazzle and dismay of the less endowed.

As regards the consistent incompleteness of utterances of the ordinary, it can be attributed only to their fair degree of fickleness in thinking.

Whatever it may be, though, fact it is that, from the common man to the genius, so many are affected by this habitual or induced or even inspired incompleteness in articulation. 

Written by Sugata Bose

বেহাল বেদান্ত

বেহাল বেদান্ত

বেদান্ত বুঝতে গেলে যে সূক্ষ্ম বুদ্ধির প্রয়োজন, তা বক্তা ভুলে যান | ভাবেন, দূরদর্শনের, অর্থাৎ, টিভির পর্দায় কিছু বলে দিলেই হল | না আছে বুদ্ধি, না অনুভূতি, শুধু লঘুচিত্ততা আর বাগাড়ম্বর | যথার্থই ধর্মসঙ্কট দেখা দিয়েছে আজ | ভালই এক দিক দিয়ে | ভগবানের আবির্ভাব আসন্ন |

রচয়িতা : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

অবশেষে বুঝি ? তা, বেশ, বেশ !




অবশেষে বুঝি ? তা, বেশ, বেশ !
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হঠাৎ এতদিন বাদে সরকারের ধুম ভাঙল ? ' তোলাবাজি ' চলবে না ? তা, হঠাৎ বোধোদয়ের কারণ ? লোকসভা নির্বাচনে বিপর্যয়হেতু সুশাসনে মন নাকি আসন্ন বিধানসভা নির্বাচনের আগে তা দেখানোর প্রয়াস ? নাকি আর কিছু ?
রচয়িতা : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

এখন উপায় বিবেকানন্দ


এখন উপায় বিবেকানন্দ 
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স্বামীজীর বাণী বহুল প্রচারিত হওয়া একাল্ত আবশ্যক আজ | চারিদিকে মানুষের চরিত্রের মূল কাঠামোটাই ভেঙে পড়ছে | কে রোধ করবে অবক্ষয়ের এই ভীষণ পরিণতি, স্বামীজী ছাড়া ? 

স্বামীজীর শিকাগো বক্তৃতার ১২৫ বছর পূর্তি এই ২০১৮ তে পালন করা শুরু হয়েছে | এখনও চলছে সেই বর্ষপালন | মুখ্যমন্ত্রীর কাছে আবেদন রাখুন সবাই --- হোক ' বিবেকানন্দবর্ষ ' পালন | স্বামীজীর বাণী ও পুস্তিকা প্রতিটি বিদ্যালয়ে ও কলেজ-বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে ছড়িয়ে দিন রাজ্যসরকার | এতে নৈরাজ্যের প্রদেশে শান্তিশৃঙ্খলা ফিরে আসবে অচিরেই ও বঙ্গদেশের হৃতচরিত্র পুনরোদ্ধার হবে | ভেবে দেখুন সবাই ও এগিয়ে আসুন আমার সাথে এই মহৎকর্মরূপায়ণে ব্রতী হতে |

রচয়িতী : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

শিকাগো বক্তৃতার মূল বক্তব্য কি ছিল ?


শিকাগো বক্তৃতার মূল বক্তব্য কি ছিল ?
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স্বামীজীর শিকাগো বক্তৃতার মূল বক্তব্যটি কি ? তা হ'ল মানুষের অন্তর্নিহিত দেবত্বের উদ্ঘোষণা, সনাতন ধর্মের সারমর্মজ্ঞাপন ও সর্বমত সত্যলাভের এক একটি পন্থা, এই জ্ঞানে তাঁদের সমান ও স্বীকৃতি প্রদান করা | সর্বোপরি, ১৮৯৩ সালের ১৯শে সেপ্টেম্বরে পাঠ করা হিন্দুধর্মের ওপর লেখা বিশেষ পত্রে স্বামীজী ভারতবর্ষীয় ধর্মের প্রাচীনকাল হতে আধুনিক যুগ অবধি প্রবাহিত ধারাটি বিজ্ঞানসম্মত উপায়ে বিশ্ববাসীর সমক্ষে তুলে ধরেন | বিশ্বসৌভ্রার্ত ও সমন্বয়ের বাণীটি ছিল স্বামীজীর বক্তৃতার মূলসুর | তিনি ভারতের সনাতন ধর্মের প্রতিনিধি হওয়া সত্তেও বিশ্বমানবের মুখপত্ররূপে প্রকাশিত হন শিকাগো ধর্মমহাসভায় | শ্রীগুরুর যোগ্য বাণীরূপেই স্বামীজীর এই আবির্ভাব |

রচয়িতা : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

' LEND ME YOUR EARS ' ... SHAKESPEARE


' LEND ME YOUR EARS ' ... SHAKESPEARE 

Why does the State Government not assume responsibility for its sustained administrative failures? Why must it forever engage in passing the blame on to the Opposition to absolve itself of all sins whatsoever? Is this refusal to accept the reality of its terrible misgovernance the best way to win the future confidence of the electorate? Better to dispel these illusions about mass gullibility and own up before the people its failure to deliver good governance wherever such lapses have taken place. Such explicit honesty will win the hearts of the people and they will repose faith as yet on this malfunctioning government that has lost its moorings and its hold on the steering of the state. After all, Bengalis do not easily alter trust in the ruling dispensation as is evident from their long support of, first, the Congress, then the CPI(M) led Left Front, and, now, for two terms till date, the TMC. Hence, the present government's puerile insistence that all of the law and order failure in the state in so many spheres is entirely the handiwork of the BJP will be difficult to digest for most people and could increasingly alienate the TMC from the masses. And this in turn could determine the possible verdict of the people in the 2021 State Legislature elections.

Here it will be expedient for the TMC leadership to democratise the party from its current dictatorial set-up and lend a sympathetic ear to what the rank and file of the party have to say.

The days of dictatorship are fast disappearing in the wake of technological advancement, and with public participation in the polity increasing consequent on information revolution, it is but natural that autocracy with all its inherent inefficiency will spell the doom of the ruling party. Prudence, therefore, calls for a review and reconstruction of the party set-up followed by laying abreast before the people of all that this government in truth has to account itself for. Only then will this single-command party survive the challenges of the times and live to see a brighter morrow. Else, its fate will exactly be the same as all other dictatorial parties have suffered in the past whose most glaring instance in India is that of the Indian National Congress.

Hope sanity will prevail and good sense steer the wheels of the ruling dispensation on to a track that does not lead unto destruction. May God bless all !

Jai Hind !

Written by Sugata Bose

WHY THIS BIASED REPORTING?

WHY THIS BIASED REPORTING?

Why are the television channels so biased in favour of Narendra Modi? The media houses ought to be neutral in reporting but are sycophantly not so. How will it help the democratic character of the nation state when public opinion is being influenced in such a partisan way?

Written by Sugata Bose

WHITHER IMPARTIAL JOURNALISM ?

WHITHER IMPARTIAL JOURNALISM ?

Why are the television channels so biased in favour of Narendra Modi? Media houses ought to be neutral in reporting but are obsequiously not so. How can such a preset agenda in fashioning public opinion for gaining poitical advantage for a particular party without adherence to journalistic impartiality or to factual and objective truth be conducive to strengthening the democratic basis of our polity?

Now it is shameless journalism going on in most of the major national television channels with anchors carrying on round-the-clock propaganda for the ruling party. This is dangerous for democracy and detrimental for culture. It needs immediate redressing. But who will take the lead? It seems there is a greater trade benefit in lambasting the Opposition and eulogising the Treasury Benches, for that wins higher television rating points (TRP), so very essential for survival in a brutal world of free market trade.

However, conscientious reporters still refuse to be the poster-boys of the ruling party and so also their respective channels do to a certain degree, in the bargain maintaining that rare reporting balance which is the hallmark of enlightened journalism. But this is becoming more the exception than the rule, and it is regrettable, indeed. 

Written by Sugata Bose

ভাব, অভাব, ভগবান



ভাব, অভাব, ভগবান

ভগবান ভগবানের পূজা করেন | প্রতিটি কর্মই পূজা, প্রতিটি চিন্তাতরঙ্গ সেই ঈপ্সীতের আরাধনা | জড়বাদি হলে, জড়বুদ্ধিসম্পন্ন হলেও নাস্তিক্য অসম্ভব | অস্তিত্ববোধ স্বতঃসিদ্ধ, অনস্বীকার্য | চিরন্তন কিনা, সেই নিয়েই বিবাদ, বিসংবাদ, মতদ্বৈধতা |

আস্তিক্যবুদ্ধি এই স্বস্বরূপের বোধের ওপর প্রতিষ্ঠিত | যাঁর এই বোধ হয়েছে, তাঁর কাছে ভগবানের অস্তিত্ব স্বীয় অস্তিত্বের সাথে ওতোপ্রোতভাবে জড়িত, একিভূত হয়ে আছে | তাঁর আত্মবোধ চৈতন্যের শিখরে অধিষ্ঠিত ঈশ্বরবোধেরই মধ্যে সমাহিত হয়ে | কিন্তু এ সব বোধের বিষয় | এই ভাবসকল অনুৃধাবন করতে হলে চাই অখণ্ড পবিত্রতা অবলম্বনপূর্বক একাগ্র অধ্যাত্মসাধনা |

জয় গুরুদেব ! জয় মা ! জয় ঠাকুর ! জয় স্বামীজী ! জয় মহারাজ !

রচয়িতা : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

POLITICS AND POLLUTION

POLITICS AND POLLUTION

Crooks doing politics will pollute it. But does politics itself as such produce crooks? Does politics pollute the human mind through divisive play? Is there something intrinsically lowly in it, as it caters to garnering the support of the people to further its cause, that prompted Swami Vivekananda to emphatically declare, " Truth and God are the only politics that I know of and the only politics that I care for." ?

Written by Sugata Bose

' A TALE OF TWO RUPEES '


' A TALE OF TWO RUPEES '

A beggar once lost two rupees and lamented, " I had but two rupees and that, too, is gone. Now, what do I live with ? " Passers by consoled him but to no effect. The lamentation continued and even the hope of earning some more alms could not clear the clouds. Till the sun shone. And, lo, there beamed the beggar with his two old mates, lost snd found, his two copper coins, his two rupees, his soul's sustenance, his life restored !

Written by Sugata Bose

THE LEGACY WRIT IN RUDDY DROPS


THE LEGACY WRIT IN RUDDY DROPS

Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, is in effect the founder of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the successor of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. His repudiation of the obnoxious triple principle of dual Constitution, dual Flag and dual Prime Minister, that seditiously sought to alienate and eventually separate Jammu and Kashmir from the Union of India, was enunciated in his famous words thus : '' एक देश मे दो विधान, दो निशान और दो प्रधान नही चलेगा | '' 

Mookerjee paid for his vociferous opposition of this dual status of J&K within the feferal framework of India and was allegedly politically eliminated in 1953 under mysterious circumstances in J&K where he was incarcerated for illegal entry into the province without permit as was the legal necessity then. His death was never enquired into despite repeated entreaties by his aged mother and demands made nationwide by his followers.

Nehru brushed aside the theory that there was foul play involved in Mookerjee's death and refused to entertain the demands for an enquiry. Even Dr. B.C.Roy's urging Nehru to allow investigation by an informal agency of, say, a retired judge, fell on deaf ears. The matter was hushed up forever and successive Congress governments kept up the same line of their 'illustrious' predecessor and let the dead die in their coffins. 

Netaji, Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Lal Bahadur Shastri --- the legacy is writ in ruddy drops. What happened to them? Who must be held accountable for that? Who must be held culpable to the offence of suppression of facts, distortion of truth, gross falsification of history and deliberate misleading of the people of India?

Offenders, answer.

Vande Mataram !

Written by Sugata Bose

' আমার এই দেশেতে জন্ম যেন এই দেশেতেই মরি ' --- দ্বিজেন্দ্রলাল রায়

' আমার এই দেশেতে জন্ম যেন এই দেশেতেই মরি ' --- 
দ্বিজেন্দ্রলাল রায়
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বিদেশে বসে দেশোদ্ধার করছেন ? স্বদেশে ফিরুন, দেশবাসীর সেবা করুন, দরিদ্র জনসাধারণের সেবা, নরনারায়ণের সেবা |

সারা জীবনই বুঝি পরের দ্বারস্থ হয়ে থাকতে হবে ? যুক্তি যাই দিন, দেশে কাজ অনেক, দেশের ঋণও চোকানো হয়নি |

'এবার কেন্দ্র ভারতবর্ষ |' এদেশে জন্ম হয়েছে, এদেশেই বাসস্থান হোক, পরিশেষেই এই পবিত্র ভারতভূমিতেই মুক্তি |

হায় অভাগা দেশবাসী ! মা থাকতে মাকে ত্যাগ !

রচয়িতা : সুগত বোস (Sugata Bose)

POLITICIANS, BEWARE !

POLITICIANS, BEWARE !

Lip service is one and administrative delivery another. Let the latter take precedence over the former. The people cannot be fooled anymore. They have seen through the ploys political parties have adopted in the past and will take them in stride no more. Delivery on promises made is the key now.

The election manifestos may win the temporary confidence of the people for a party to gain the mandate, but if the proposed programmes outlined therein are not implemented, the party must now be prepared to be thrown out of power.

The young voters are vibrant, educated, intelligent and no-nonsense-takers. As their numbers swell, the present dispensation of roguish leaders, who are at the helm of affairs, need to take stock of their performance and deliver well on earlier lapses. Otherwise, they will be thrown lock, stock and barrel out of future political reckoning.

Now it is performance-based politics as is the market economy principle. Gone are the days of dynastic dispensations holding on to power and privilege at the terrible expense of the people.

The masses are asleep no more. They are awaking to their rightful status and will spare neither politician nor capitalist for their perfidious designs against the country. Politicians, beware !

May Mother show the way ! Vande Mataram !

Written by Sugata Bose