IN DEFENCE OF MY PREFATORY WORDS TO TASLIMA NASRIN'S OBSERVATIONS ON HINDUISM FOLLOWING PROHIBITORY DIRECTIVE GIVEN BY Subhanjan Chakraborti
Subhanjan Chakraborti, understand the import of my prefatory words before passing indiscriminate comment. If you have read well the 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita' or 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' you will of course be in a position to understand the perspective of my introductory words. Thakur had pronounced thus : 'The modern religions will come and go, only the Sanatan Dharma will survive. However, they will not entirely disappear but they will remain in traces." The original words in Bengali were : "Adhunik dharma sob asbe jabe, ek Sanatan Dharmoi thakbe." "আধুনিক ধর্ম সব আসবে যাবে, এক সনাতন ধর্মই থাকবে | তবে একেবারে যাবে না, একটু একটু থাকবে |" Aytoyeb, bhraanti ta kar bujhe nin, apnar na amar? অতএব ভ্রান্তিটা কার বুঝে নিন, আপনার না আমার ? Hence, comprehend whose error it is, yours or mine?
One more point needs mention. Do not pass peremptory remarks on the discretion of others. It is individual freedom to compare and contrast and draw necessary parallels between personalities from the annals of history. A frozen idealisation of venerable ones leads to inevitable decay of their vibrant message and a fossilisation of their personalities that breeds but barrenness in the long run. Hence, the greater the movement of their message through cross-linkages across ages, across cultures and passing ideological barriers, the better for the prospects of humanity's spiritual evolution. In this no blasphemous bars may hold human hand from exercising its free rein and keeping the message of the Masters alive.
Those who clamour too much by way of restrictive proclamations of theirs on others' freedom of expression are themselves culpable to corrupting the free message of these free Masters that best flourishes in perfect freedom. Swamiji rejected this sort of bigotry in the name of personality and upheld the supremacy of principle over it. He had but a terrible scorn for all foolish adherence to blasphemous bigotry as is so often evident in the raucous reverence of so-called devotees these days.
And it is a pity that it should be so, for, as already stated, the introductory words were by no means an attempt at comparison of one's parents with one's daughter -- God and woman being beheld in that relation by the author despite Taslima Nasrin's open advocation of a sincere atheism which to the author's mind is way superior an attitude to the insincere and ignorant devotions in daring of many an articulate 'devotee' -- and were only made by way of seeking sanction in the divine Master's utterances from a bygone century which have yet again sought a suitable conduit for its reaffirmation today.
The defence can go on and on, for there are umpteen angles as yet unexplored in its comprehensive layout, but it is getting tiresome for me to print, and, so, I desist without further ado.
Written by Sugata Bose
Subhanjan Chakraborti, understand the import of my prefatory words before passing indiscriminate comment. If you have read well the 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita' or 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' you will of course be in a position to understand the perspective of my introductory words. Thakur had pronounced thus : 'The modern religions will come and go, only the Sanatan Dharma will survive. However, they will not entirely disappear but they will remain in traces." The original words in Bengali were : "Adhunik dharma sob asbe jabe, ek Sanatan Dharmoi thakbe." "আধুনিক ধর্ম সব আসবে যাবে, এক সনাতন ধর্মই থাকবে | তবে একেবারে যাবে না, একটু একটু থাকবে |" Aytoyeb, bhraanti ta kar bujhe nin, apnar na amar? অতএব ভ্রান্তিটা কার বুঝে নিন, আপনার না আমার ? Hence, comprehend whose error it is, yours or mine?
One more point needs mention. Do not pass peremptory remarks on the discretion of others. It is individual freedom to compare and contrast and draw necessary parallels between personalities from the annals of history. A frozen idealisation of venerable ones leads to inevitable decay of their vibrant message and a fossilisation of their personalities that breeds but barrenness in the long run. Hence, the greater the movement of their message through cross-linkages across ages, across cultures and passing ideological barriers, the better for the prospects of humanity's spiritual evolution. In this no blasphemous bars may hold human hand from exercising its free rein and keeping the message of the Masters alive.
Those who clamour too much by way of restrictive proclamations of theirs on others' freedom of expression are themselves culpable to corrupting the free message of these free Masters that best flourishes in perfect freedom. Swamiji rejected this sort of bigotry in the name of personality and upheld the supremacy of principle over it. He had but a terrible scorn for all foolish adherence to blasphemous bigotry as is so often evident in the raucous reverence of so-called devotees these days.
And it is a pity that it should be so, for, as already stated, the introductory words were by no means an attempt at comparison of one's parents with one's daughter -- God and woman being beheld in that relation by the author despite Taslima Nasrin's open advocation of a sincere atheism which to the author's mind is way superior an attitude to the insincere and ignorant devotions in daring of many an articulate 'devotee' -- and were only made by way of seeking sanction in the divine Master's utterances from a bygone century which have yet again sought a suitable conduit for its reaffirmation today.
The defence can go on and on, for there are umpteen angles as yet unexplored in its comprehensive layout, but it is getting tiresome for me to print, and, so, I desist without further ado.
Written by Sugata Bose
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