BACK TO RAMAKRISHNA ... 1

BACK TO RAMAKRISHNA ... 1

The present series of essays is being written with a view to attempted restoration to main course -- at least in literary and intellectual terms, perhaps, in vain hyper-estimation of one's persuasive powers, as critics will be quick to point out -- of what it has seemed to me to be the meandering of the Ramakrishna river in popular conception from its original trajectory on account of unavoidable and avoidable historical reasons.

Following Newton's law of inverse squares, as applied, if at all possible as such, to the realm of relative spiritual reality in terrestrial terms, which deems the dilution with time of a spiritual movement in the sociological context as inevitable, I have with dismay witnessed over the past four decades the gradual decline -- if ever so slightly but not so slight as not to merit consideration and reform thereof -- of a sublime spiritual movement which has progressively gained currency among the commoner but has, in the bargain, lost some of its original lustre on account of (a) unwarranted compromise in principle and practice with the powers that be, (b) lack of austerity and truthfulness practised by some of its affiliates, and quite a few of them, (c) the lapse of time and consequent altered association with the original spirit emanating from the halcyon days of Dakshineshwar, (d) a conceited sense of organisational complacency arising out of selective reading of prophesies made by Swami Vivekananda as to the supposed incorruptibility of the movement and its life for a millenium and a half, while leaving out conveniently the Master's, the Mother's and the Swami's prophesy of the reincarnation of Ramakrishna and his divine entourage a century or two -- for versions differ -- after whatever reference time during the Master's life, and (e) the evolving times and their baggage of material contamination that inevitably affect a system.

It is, thus, with a sense of horror at the precipitous decline in character of an entire polity, to which both the laity and the monastic belong, that I venture forth in penning these thoughts of mine of what I shall consider in retrospect to have been the benediction of the Master in Self-revelation of his divine being and his message to mankind. May she who put the primal syllable in my tongue in my early days of innocence once more grace me with vision and word at her service and at the service of her Lord who is the subject of my forthcoming meditations and utterances thereof !

Written by Sugata Bose [ Sugata Bose ]