ORDER OF THE DAY

ORDER OF THE DAY

ORDER OF THE DAY 1

1. Be restrained in expenditure. Wastefulness leads to future misery, often dire poverty. Do not be niggardly but neither be extravagant. Spend moderately and save as much as you can for a possible rainy day when, fortunes reversed, one may have to otherwise face harsher realities of survival than one is accustomed to.

ORDER OF THE DAY 2

2. Cultivate shraddha. Shraddha is the compounded resolution of devotion, the aspiration for divine knowledge and the zeal to arrive at perfection. It is intense reverence whose searing concentration reveals the Truth in all its comprehensiveness. Have that shraddha for God, Guru, the Dharma and the Shastra which is in the process of unfolding, of revelation. Hold fast unto the commandments and you shall attain freedom.

ORDER OF THE DAY 3

3. A new religion is being founded, a new utterance of the soul is coming into being, the Infinite is sending forth into the world a new radiance that shall gather humanity under a single spiritual shade while venturing into the vast reaches of the recesses of the Self, the inner light flooding the corridors of the being that have remained unlit for aeons. Once more Krishna's conch-shell is sounding the Om whose varied expressions shall inundate the world with the music of the Divine, the individual selves rising in resonance to the perennial flautist's eternal tune. Wake up, O sleeping souls, to the spreading harmony and make a martyr of yourselves unto the dharma divine.

ORDER OF THE DAY 4

4. The householder and the monk are equal in the eyes of the Lord whose altitude deems all to be the same when they are well-disposed to Him and discharge their earthly functions in obedience to the Dharma. The Lord resides at the centre of the spiritual heart wherefrom he witnesses all the deeds of men. Work, therefore, O awakened ones to the best of your ability in a spirit of humility and peacefulness and in the great inspiration of service unto all. The fruits are there to follow for all but the Lord dispenses them as per His will and as per the resolutions of complex past karma. But work you must to free yourself from the entanglement of Maya which hurls men through life and death in an unending series of karmic resolution till the soul is purified in the final lap of this earthly sojourn for the grand release. Then bliss shall be in boundless freedom through the limpid spaces of the Infinite Being. Labour on, therefore, in the love of the Lord manifest before you in every form. Act. Behold.

ORDER OF THE DAY 5

5. Look not at the inessential in life's dealings but in the essential that counts. For distractions take away priceless energy and occasion to realise that which you have been born for, the primal and the final goal of life, to know who you are. In this the Light of the Lord shall ever be with you if you choose not to reject the commandments of the Lord and take to a path barren and blind. The Word guides and the accumulation is the Scripture. The Light shines within and gleams out to shed its lustre on this dark degenerate dream which is the murky mundane life of Matter. The Spirit is contradisposed to Matter and the tussle constitutes the life of the struggling aspirant which you are. You are with your fellow followers of the revealing light and in time shall be human revelations yourself, beacons of light shining in the sea of surging turbulence. Arise, my awakened ones, to live the light and spread the living message across the hills and the dales, beyond the borders that bind and confine to the lands that abide in patient expectation beyond the seas. Upon your realisation rests your zeal ; upon your zeal rests your realisation ; upon your expanding heart rests your spreading of the message of the Eternal Sound and the Light Eternal.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 6

6. The great divide between the monastic and the laity must go. Let the monastics, if they so choose, live in their sense of spiritual superiority or equality of spiritual perception, whichever they wish, but on your side, O blessed followers of the Faith, there must not be even a hint of weakness that indicates spiritual and human inferiority. Remember the emerging order shall be of self-respecting seekers of the Self and not adherents of a caste-ridden, class-conscious pilgrims of privilege. Give up archaic notions of senseless segregation, degenerate distinctions that divide humanity into sterile sections and turn man against man in the bid for political domination whose social derivatives are as toxic. Give up these and emerge in the light of love and light rejuvenated Warriors of the Spirit that know no enemy save the dark forces that they are called upon to fight, the demon within and the devil without. Arise, O faithful ones, enlightened equal souls who shall usher in a new order of equal humanity in search of the Soul and in service to the Lord in all.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 7

7. Learn, labour, love, live -- this is the Fourfold Foundation of the Faith.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 8

8. LEARN : Strive for knowledge in every field. Have boundless curiosity about the diverse aspects of life, the different disciplines that form the fabric of the total body of discovered knowledge.

LABOUR : Work incessantly for self-preservation and for social welfare. Labour lovingly with a glad heart and full of lively enthusiasm, positive and hopeful without a tinge of cynicism spoiling the dedicated deed rendered divine by your total commitment to it. Act to serve and serve to transform oneself and by living example the lives of others who come into your life's ambit. Be concentrated in your labour but detached after performance of it as to its fruits which lie with the Lord.

LOVE : Love all without distinction but interact with only the good and the virtuous. Shun evil company while sending to the Lord a prayer for their reform of heart and mind. Expand your soul through spiritual practice and extend thus the horizons of your all-embracing love. Consider all as your own self replicated but maintaining the required social distance as per the attributes of the individuals.

LIVE : Life is a grand opportunity for realising the Divine, that is, beholding Him with the divine eye and delighting in His company. God is male, female, the union of the twain in the Ardhanarishwar form and neuter in the superconscious attributeless being of the Brahman. Live your life, therefore, with the sole purpose of Self-realisation or the direct perception of the Atman/Brahman/God. For this build your character and be of sterling mettle which alone can empower you to realise and propagate the faith with efficacy and power. Live the life and help transform others through your exemplary living and potent thought-force.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 9

9. You must be charitable to the needy and must never be vain about your wealth, knowing that you are but the trustees of the Lord's wealth. Nothing belongs to you in the ultimate. You are but the keepers of what belongs to Him who is the Master of the Universe. Therefore, be not miserly, O devotees of the Beloved, and spend judiciously for the welfare of all, for the survival of the dispossessed and for the ones in acute need. Do not expect to get the grace of God unless you are gracious yourselves for the Lord verily considers the niggardly as unworthy of His bounty and grace. Live with dignity in simplicity and holiness and help others to do so as well by helping them when they are in dire need.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 10

10. The Guru is not a body. The Guru is the soul of your soul, the innermost throb of your pulsating heart, the life of your life, the essence of your existence. To worship the Guru is to worship God for the Guru is one with God. Behold the Guru in your unfolding spiritual life and be blissful. Reverence, utmost reverence is the ritual of the day, reverence that sanctifies life and makes it a pilgrimage of the Divine. Deepen your reverence, shed frivolous indulgence in words and sacrifice yourself daily at the altar of the Lord to arrive at the destination divine.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 11

11. Serve the Lord throughout your day and your wakeful hours of the night. In every act remember the Lord who is your God, your sovereign Spirit who governs your every action through His inscrutable, omnipotent divine will. Merge your will in His and in surrendered dependence be blissful. Such self-giving will obliterate the petty self and make you fit to enter the sanctum sanctorum of the Divine. The temple is outside as the vast universe, inside as the spiritual heart, as the core consciousness wherein flows the inner Ganga of endless, engulfing bliss. Devote yourself to the Word and in ever-increasing awareness of the Divine, like a blemishless babe, dissolve yourself in the sacred chamber that is the enthroned residence of your Lord.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 12

12. As Truth unfolds layer by layer, as leaf after leaf of the Book Divine is laid bare before the witnessing vision, fresh meaning is seen into life and a new significance animates the soul. There is a purpose to this terrestrial existence, both personal and collective, and that is to gather unto the recollecting soul the fruit of a higher order of existence what may be called the life of the soul in proximity to the Lord who is the oversoul, and a carrying out of His bidding to progressively purify the sullied self till it merges in the Supreme Soul and becomes one with it. Liberation is the goal, freedom from the unceasing cycle of life and death, birth, life, death and rebirth till the fire of desire is extinguished unto release from earthly shackles. Pure purpose, pure means, pure motivation and pure end must be the way. The Guru shows the path and the shishya/shishyaa follows in implicit obedience to quicken the progress and limit it to a few lives that otherwise would take countless births through aeons. Thus is the Guru venerated in adherence to his Word which is the inspired essence of his inner realisations in keeping with the great scriptural tradition of hoary India. The revelation is the message, the message is the life and the life is the progressive faith that shall reach out to countless souls in wait. Arise and spread the Word. Fear not, the Lord is the guide in this advancing tide of the Spirit that shall inundate the world.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 13

13. There shall be no distinction of gender in our Order. Women and men are but manifestations of the same genderless soul and as such are equal in essence and abilities, although having physical and mental differences of marginal significance in work. Women are the mothers of men and cannot but be of equal merit and capability, equal potential to realise the Divine and discover the myriad truths of relativistic life. There shall be equality and, therefore, no question of superiority or inferiority of either gender or the tendency to vociferously equalise. This equality is the preeminent principle of the movement and it must show in our attitudes and actions. There shall be no discrimination against either women or men knowing that both are manifestations of the same divine source and, so, endowed with the organic capacity for equal achievement in both the temporal and transcendental aspects of life. Let equality prevail from the very heart from the very inception of our movement without any sense of gender bias. May the Self reveal the real sameness of being !

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 14

14. Arrogance is weakness, humility strength. You shall be humble as the holy servants of the Lord and must on no count treat others arrogantly. Peace lies in the way of humility for conflicts are, thus, few. However, essential principles must be defended but in a gentle manner without a tinge of violence attending it. Defence of the Dharma is the dharma of each one of you and for this you will have to be equipped with adequate knowledge of the Shâstras under able tutelage of an adept. The letter of the law is but the crust ; you must comprehend the spirit of the law. Each one of the chosen ones must be well-founded on the four fundamental features of the faith.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 15

15. The utter absence of character in the average Indian is the defining feature of the polity. You have to see to it that you are not also in the same league. Here you have work to do to lift yourselves from this despicable national trend and firmly establish yourselves at a higher altitude that has been the cultural heritage of India. I see an utter lack of application to the task entrusted to you and expect an immediate improvement in this regard. Insincerity seems to be a degenerate disease in the average Indian and you all are no exceptions to being its willing victims. Well, to be an apostle of this mission all traces of insincerity will have to be forthwith rooted out. Else, the mission will falter, flounder and miserably fail at its very inception. I leave you to ponder the imperatives and alter stance with immediate effect. The sincere alone shall survive to be martyrs to the movement. Martyrdom is not of the body but of degenerate selfish desires that make you all forget the motherland for petty personal profit. God bless you all with light and boundless love for the motherland !

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 16

16. Submission, absolute submission to the Guru is the first and foremost condition of discipleship. For it obliterates the ego fastest and releases the soul from the bonds and the fetters of the cycle of transmigration. Unquestioning obedience is the martial principle and it is the principle one maintains with the preceptor, too. Therefore, shed your egotism and surrender to the higher force, not merely in emotional affirmations of the moment or linguistic embellishments proving the point on paper but in living the grand life of lofty submission unto the Lord who dispenses as He wills with His omnipotent will and cares not to consult His children in matters of divine dispensation. Arguing with the Guru is sin and so is questioning his integrity in his mode of judging the disciple's spiritual status or even the method of judgement he adopts. Fools know not that the preceptor pure intuitively knows where stand his disciples and what each one's shortcomings or strengths are. Remember the Guru is the Lord incarnate as guide and master and in following him implicitly lies the highest dharma and, in so doing, leads to the greatest good, both individually and collectively in terms of social output. So, the flautist plays upon his flute, thou rush on to merge in his music.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 17

17. Doubtlessly the Lord is omniscient and you must submit unto Him. Doubtlessly the Lord is omnipotent and you must submit unto Him. Doubtlessly the Lord is omnipresent and you must submit unto Him. The Lord is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, so, you must submit unto Him. In such submission is peace, in such surrender utter self-effacement that leads to liberation. Dedicate yourself unto the blissful Lord, your God, your everything in life and beyond, totally with not a trace of yourself left behind that you may be lifted unto the higher realm and your spirit merged in the Lord who lights up the world and lends lustre to it.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 18

18. Communication is the soul of society. Erratic communication is detrimental to social cohesion and even in some sense for spiritual growth in so far as one's relation with one's preceptor is concerned, for one's link with the universal network failing, it weakens one's bond with the Divine. Human beings are held in society by this communicative link and where it flounders, society flounders, and where it flourishes, society flourishes, too. The element of tamas is at the root of this failure to regularly communicate and effectively to do so. Rajas is founded on communication and sattva improves upon it with soulful, introspective, spiritual communication. But communicate you must for that is all there is to life and living.

Isolation is not the motto of a gregarious species as man is, and close, coordinated living is the basis of his social life which is totally dependent on communication. Were it not so, language would have been unnecessary and would not have evolved. An arrested isolation, therefore, cannot be the social motto and communication becomes the sine qua non for effective social living.

Those that fail to be regular in their communication are bound to fail in the spiritual life. Remember, erratic communication is often a sign of whimsicality and a whimsical nature cannot proceed far in any field, far less spirituality. Stability and steadfastness, steadiness and strength are the primary requisites for social and spiritual advance.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 19

19. A great movement is in the offing, a great utterance of the soul, a new message dawning unto humankind which draws its sustenance from all previous movements harmonised in the light of the ancient revelations to the rishis of India. Ramakrishna is on the rise in a new resurrection of humanity where the outer apparel of base matter will be ripped through to reveal the divine within. Vivekananda calls forth from the ramparts of this spiritual citadel that stretches across the vast vistas of human vision. The Vedanta is making its way into the world. It has emerged from the forests and is now penetrating into every pore of human society, slowly, surely, steadily, with unfaltering steps. Ours is to add on to the impetus already set in by 'the choice and master spirits of the age'. Ours will be a discovery of the evolutionary principles of spiritual India, the historical forces shaping human destiny and the progressive impulses of the human soul so that our life's labour does not go in vain collision against the progressive impulses that guide humanity unto its divine destiny in eventual freedom. We have to simply LIVE THE LIFE as once Swami Sumedhananda had said to me when I had submitted to him my aspiration to spread the Word. Thus, chant continuously through your day and through your night, in the wakeful state and in the dreaming state like a subterranean river of divine remembrance flowing through your consciousness without pause or break, without ever abating but building onto a mighty current of spiritual fervour that approximates you ever to the divine beloved. Unto you this is my day's utterance.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 20

20. The Divine cannot tolerate egotism in the slightest and refuses to give vision accordingly where the ego persists. It is a submission, complete and absolute, that is the prime condition for the Divine to grace the devotee. As nobody is ready to so surrender without holding a trace of any personal element, the Supreme Personality refuses to show His face, much less to accept the devotee into His very fold. Herein lies the importance of self-surrender in the fullest and holding nothing back from the Divine. In such giving alone is the ultimate fulfilment of divine union of the individual self and the Universal Self. Hence, the fetters that bind must be given up. With the fetters sundered, freedom is attained in the divine union, in the dissolution of the apparent image self. The Real persists alone in Self-glory, although, more often than not, the aspirant is so captivated by the beauty and the bliss emanating from the Divine that he/she can scarce contemplate renouncing such a possession and marching ahead unto final fulfilment in the ultimate sublimation of the self in the infinitude of the Atman/Brahman where the savouring of divine love has been forsaken as well and only the singularity of the Self abides in self-majesty, a spherical perfection of the Being with the Self brooding on the Self in an unpartitioned mode of reflexive pure consciousness. Short of that, bliss abides in the ecstatic transports of divine love. But to attain this perennial union absolute submission and obliteration of the ego is the sine qua non.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 21

21. Intelligence is a feature that must be incorporated in all of you. It is puerile to pretend devotion when the brain is dull. And herein comes the discipline of the training of the mind. Basic common sense lacking, a person cannot proceed in the spiritual path.

Self-confidence comes from intelligence and honest living. One must live within one's means, be it material or cultural, and must not overreach oneself. Such a venture would be the rushing-in act of the proverbial fool and you must assiduously avoid such a misadventure, however much the temptation to stray into forbidden territory. Hence, a modicum of conservative modesty is the spice of spiritual life instead of it being the chilling (pun intended) ingredient that freezes activity. Staying indoors thus saves extra labour in vain and saves honour, too, that is otherwise held to ransom at the hands of deriders, rather at the mocking edges of their mischievous mouths. Hence, keep sharpening your wits to brighten your hopes of a triumphant future social parley which needs must now be restricted to an inner conference with your own selves.

God bless you, my children, and keep up the flame of inner purification, body, mind, spirit et al so that you may duly emerge the brightest apostles of peace and wisdom in a planet gone terribly wrong and progressing fast to its precipitous catastrophic end. Be smart in every sense for nothing else matters, nothing short of the ideal thus will do.

ORDER OF THE DAY ... 22

22. A COUNTRY OF COUNTLESS COWARDS BARRING THE SUBLIME SONS OF THE SOIL

We are a dead country of cowards in the main -- barring a few communities like the Sikhs and the Gurkhas -- breathing free by the blood of the martyrs spilled regularly to defend our uncared-for freedom.

Our youth ought to be more valorous and not given to indolent daydreaming about self-satisfaction, self-enjoyment and self-glory.

It is a shame that so many cowards people this great country, men and women fired only by material aspirations and not by the sublime ideals of service and sacrifice.

To behold such cowardice everywhere is an eyesore. However, if my words fire up the valorous side of people, I shall consider my work as a writer well done to an extent.

Myself am past my prime to be able to serve our motherland better at this relatively advanced age, and when youth was there, the Spirit caught me in its higher pursuits which left me no scope to devote myself otherwise. Not that I regret having done so but I am just putting it on record and, so, setting the record straight.

But I watch with dismay the sheer apathy of the average Indian to serve the nation, and the greed for private and personal gain by way of an inglorious substitute for the superlative virtue of national service.

Shame, indeed, and more shameful shall it be when this post will evoke verbose responses, cowardly and callous, instead of it quickening in a warm heart ardent aspirations not for one's own self but for the nation.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Sepoy Gurtej Singh, 23 years old, martyred at the Galwan Valley of Ladhak, but not before carrying with him 12 traitorous Chinese soldiers to the other world.