THE RAMAKRISHNA MOVEMENT ... SOME REFLECTIONS ... 2
1. We are often told that Swamiji had prophesied that the spiritual wave that had hit the banks of Dakshineshwar would leave its impress for 1500 years and that the movement would soar for the said period. But we are never told that Thakur will manifest in human form once again after the lapse of a hundred years from whatever reference date during his lifetime it may be. This latter prophecy we get to know from the words of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi as recorded in 'Sri Sri Mayer Katha', Volume 2. Curiously, this news is never divulged by the monks of the Mission in their public addresses where they so repeatedly reveal, and stress on, the former. There is a curious reticence in this regard and quite often the attempt -- as in the case of Swami Chetanananda trying to trivialise the issue in his book 'How to Live with God' -- to distract attention from this prophecy by bringing in spurious logic to uphold the reverse current of thought. Strange that monks who have renounced home and hearth for a vision of Sri Ramakrishna should be so averse to beholding him in flesh and form in his earthly incarnation again whose time, as per the prophecy, is overdue.
2. There may be reasons galore that may be cited by way of defence of the negligence in straight-forward avowal of the prophecy of Thakur that he would manifest in human form again in 100 years in the direction of Bali-Uttarpara and, for sure, in Bengal, and there may be well-meaning intentions for organisation maintaining a calculated silence over it, but that is tantamount to disregarding the words of the Holy Mother who, by endless repetition in public addresses by the monks of the Mission, continues to be highlighted as the Universal Mother. I have no objection to this latter declaration of the Mother's divinity at every bend and turn thus by the Mission monks but what I do find surprising is the total disregard by these very votaries of her divinity of her divine words in relation to Thakur's prospective reincarnation in the present times. That, surely, is not a very reverential attitude towards the Mother. And in this peculiar adopted organisational stance there are a band of the 'faithful followers' of the Order who lend indiscriminate support for such a rejection of the Mother's words. Queer devotion of the day ! Thakur is unwelcome on earth so early, it seems, in the view of these monastics and men. Wonder of wonders, such devotion to Thakur !
Written by Sugata Bose
1. We are often told that Swamiji had prophesied that the spiritual wave that had hit the banks of Dakshineshwar would leave its impress for 1500 years and that the movement would soar for the said period. But we are never told that Thakur will manifest in human form once again after the lapse of a hundred years from whatever reference date during his lifetime it may be. This latter prophecy we get to know from the words of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi as recorded in 'Sri Sri Mayer Katha', Volume 2. Curiously, this news is never divulged by the monks of the Mission in their public addresses where they so repeatedly reveal, and stress on, the former. There is a curious reticence in this regard and quite often the attempt -- as in the case of Swami Chetanananda trying to trivialise the issue in his book 'How to Live with God' -- to distract attention from this prophecy by bringing in spurious logic to uphold the reverse current of thought. Strange that monks who have renounced home and hearth for a vision of Sri Ramakrishna should be so averse to beholding him in flesh and form in his earthly incarnation again whose time, as per the prophecy, is overdue.
2. There may be reasons galore that may be cited by way of defence of the negligence in straight-forward avowal of the prophecy of Thakur that he would manifest in human form again in 100 years in the direction of Bali-Uttarpara and, for sure, in Bengal, and there may be well-meaning intentions for organisation maintaining a calculated silence over it, but that is tantamount to disregarding the words of the Holy Mother who, by endless repetition in public addresses by the monks of the Mission, continues to be highlighted as the Universal Mother. I have no objection to this latter declaration of the Mother's divinity at every bend and turn thus by the Mission monks but what I do find surprising is the total disregard by these very votaries of her divinity of her divine words in relation to Thakur's prospective reincarnation in the present times. That, surely, is not a very reverential attitude towards the Mother. And in this peculiar adopted organisational stance there are a band of the 'faithful followers' of the Order who lend indiscriminate support for such a rejection of the Mother's words. Queer devotion of the day ! Thakur is unwelcome on earth so early, it seems, in the view of these monastics and men. Wonder of wonders, such devotion to Thakur !
Written by Sugata Bose
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