BY WAY OF RESPONSE TO BHASKAR SEN SHARMA'S COMPLAINT THAT I DO NOT GIVE 'LIKE' OR MAKE COMMENTS ON MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS' POSTS

BY WAY OF RESPONSE TO BHASKAR SEN SHARMA'S COMPLAINT THAT I DO NOT GIVE 'LIKE' OR MAKE COMMENTS ON MY FACEBOOK FRIENDS' POSTS

Wrong assessment as I quite often, everyday in fact, keep giving 'like/love' signs to those posts of my Facebook friends which come my way and which I like or find pertinent to social well-being and spiritual evolution, and I am one of those who shares posts of others the most, often to the tune of 40 plus 'shares' of a single post for my more than 90 groups and near 90 pages. I never ask anyone to do so for mine and do feel writing on Facebook so copiously a waste of time and effort sometimes when I see that so few read them, preferring to give a 'like' to the appended photograph instead or simply giving them the go-by. However, my writing is my spontaneous reaction to what I see all around and I do not think anybody owes me a fig that they should 'like' or comment on my posts. One more thing. I am  a social commentator and do Facebook only for the specific cause of serving society. I do not project myself or my family or have any self-serving to act either as fillip for my posts or as inspiration motivating them. I also have my joys and sorrows but keep them to myself as far as possible. I do not see any reason why I should publicise my mother or father or family as I see going on all around, remembering ever that privacy is privacy and publicity publicity and 'never the twain shall meet' in my life so long as I remain essentially myself. I do not post 'stories' publishing my dressed-up visage for others to appreciate/admire for I seldom see myself in the mirror to even reckon that others deserve to do so at my bidding. Hence, there is a misconception here about me and I hope I have been able to duly clarify my mind and my stand thereof. And by way of bringing back a near-forgotten fact finally. I have written on you 15 small but lyrical essays by way of appreciation of your commendable literary skills which are all on my personal page and have also composed several essays on your departed daughter with sincerely felt emotions sweeping my frame as I wrote them in saddest memory of one who I have but met in imagination alone with her bereaved father standing aside bathed in tears. I wonder if anyone else on Facebook has done likewise. If they have, my heartiest commendations to them. If they have not, I deem it to have been my privilege to have done so and so set the door ajar for them to follow if they so choose. But only if they so choose of their own will and volition, for an enforced comment or 'like/love' is that much shorn of truth as forced love is shorn of sublimity of emotion itself. May God bless you and yours, my noble friend !

Written by Sugata Bose

THE ERUDITE MEDIOCRE AND HIS MASSIVE FAN FOLLOWING, A DUAL SYNDROME IN MASS MEDIOCRITY

THE ERUDITE MEDIOCRE AND HIS MASSIVE FAN FOLLOWING, A DUAL SYNDROME IN MASS MEDIOCRITY 

Scholarly mediocrity devoid of originality in thinking often passes off as intellectual excellence in our country. A more discerning polity would have been able to pick the grain from the chaff and prevented this. There are many famous examples of this but I shall desist from naming them for the sake of propriety. Originality, nonetheless, is the prime necessity in our average thinking as well if we are to build a future civilisation of our own in the mould of our predecessors who were eminently capable of such thinking. Too much of sterility has passed off as creativity in many a famous case in the past decades and the culture of increasing mediocrity continues to its detrimental effect on India's mass thinking. We need a scientific temper in the truest sense and not in its cosmetic manifestation as is the case generally with us. A rational bent of mind with a sense of statistical proportion in our conversational estimates of events must replace wild, unfounded assertions that bear hardly any semblance to factual reality. Furthermore, there must be creative interpretation and analysis of events, and beauty in expression of results thereof as opposed to routine lines of expected observations. Intellectual pretence is not welcome. We must learn to be truly intellectual and that too with an ever-broadening heart that feels for the nation and conceives ways and means to advance its civilisational cause. So, start thinking in real earnest and acknowledge talent wherever it is there rather than going by the name that authors it. Let this decadent feudal culture with all its inertial trappings in tradition and thinking go and let real democracy emerge which shall be the hallmark of our future civilisation. As Swamiji said, "Let men be thinkers."

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo : A case with a difference. Bankimchandra Chatterjee, a sharp thinker, original interpreter of tradition and culture, and a brilliant writer who revolutionised emerging Indian sociopolitical consciousness that ushered in active resistance to British colonial rule in India.

THE COMPROMISED CONFORMIST

THE COMPROMISED CONFORMIST

The privileged prefer to be conformists to ruling dispensations. After all Lenin wasn't wrong when he said, 'The State is the organ of class rule.' Point to ponder, please, before hastening to comment.

There are deep present-day implications as well in this pertinent observation. The rich and the privileged who gain from an exploitative socioeconomic order may not agree with this affirmation, and understandably so, but the truth remains all the same, nonetheless. And Swami Vivekananda boldly affirms in somewhat a sublimated though realistic understanding of the problem that in the third epoch of social evolution the business class will become a silent blood-sucking brutal order who will eat into the vitals of the masses till, as Marx says, 'the masses revolve round themselves' to redress the inhuman imbalance of socioeconomic forces and usher in the socialist age. Whatever the merits of these systems (the capitalist and the socialist) may be, the point being stressed here is that the 'haves' are always in favour of the status quo that allows them to maintain their picnic on earth at the expense of the teeming millions, the 'have nots', who must subsist on the 'merciful charity' of these dole-givers.

Written by Sugata Bose

IS ANYBODY LISTENING

IS ANYBODY LISTENING ?

Anybody who rubs the government the wrong way is an 'antinational', right? So, media must be muzzled and individual account privacy breached? And, pray, who is a nationalist? One who cries hoarse over television or idles hours over social media with his regressive politicoreligious propaganda that we are to be persuaded to believe will conduce to the resuscitation of our sinking spiritual civilisation at the hands of the integrated body of nation-breakers, the break-India forces? Better by far that ignoramuses took to a corrective course of academic training than intellectuals be told to shut up shop and take to unholy pilgrimage along the shore of the stinking sea of stupidity.

Written by Sugata Bose

BICENTENTARY CELEBRATIONS OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA BEGINS FOR A FEW OF US TODAY FOR A PROTRACTED PERIOD OF 15 YEARS AND ONWARDS

BICENTENTARY CELEBRATIONS OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA BEGINS FOR A FEW OF US TODAY FOR A PROTRACTED PERIOD OF 15 YEARS AND ONWARDS 

From today, 28 May, 2021, we, a handful of devotees, are beginning Sri Ramakrishna's bicentenary celebrations. It is as yet 15 years away from this day but not so far away after all to begin anticipatory celebrations. Who knows whether I will live to see Thakur '200 years old' or not ? By then I will have been 74 years 8 months old and in an uncertain world one cannot be confident of one's physical survival and that too in good health to be able to do justice to the cause then. Hence and for reason of gaining momentum for the great day, we are setting forth on this grand journey from today. May Thakur-Ma-Swamiji-Gurudev bless us in our endeavour ! Jai Ramakrishna !

Written by Sugata Bose

COMMENTS : SugataBose @Riya Bhattacharya

1. Spreading THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA.

2. Studying diligently THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA.

3. Studying diligently SRI RAMAKRISHNA THE GREAT MASTER / SRI RAMAKRISHNA AND HIS DIVINE PLAY.

4. Studying THE LIFE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA BY HIS EASTERN AND WESTERN DISCIPLES. 

5. Saving money to serve the suffering and the afflicted, the poor and the helpless.

6. Building character to shine as exemplars of Thakur's great spiritual cause, his divine mission on earth.

7. Encouraging friends and relatives to join in the cause.

8. Being entirely positive in approach, sparing no reproach for any, only going ahead, borne by the divine current of love for Thakur, to bring him to the door of everyone in the world with an abundance of love and goodwill for all.

9. Combining with others in the group, free of competition and jealousy, to unite forces and bring about a grand resolution of force in Thakur's service.

10. More as the days go by plans and programmes will unfold. Hold patience.

LOCKING HORNS WITH LOCKED PROFILES

 

LOCKING HORNS WITH LOCKED PROFILES

Some of you have sent me friend request while keeping your profiles locked and I have, nonetheless, accepted. But the trend continues and has become somewhat of an irritant for obvious reasons. One ought not to befriend a person who prefers to remain incognito to the one he/she requests friendship of. Hence, either show up fair and square or live to your heart's content in your island of self-seclusion. God bless you in your solitary meditation 'far from the madding crowd' !

Written by Sugata Bose

BEWARE OF THE PROLIFERATING COMMERCIAL CULTURE

 

BEWARE OF THE PROLIFERATING COMMERCIAL CULTURE 

Do not give in to modern philosophising of sentimentality and weaken your struggle against the delusion of Maya. Remember this struggle has been a long one through life after life and one cannot lower one's guard, being goaded into sensory submission by these fanciful philosophies. The entire commercial culture in communication through advertisement has of late taken a sentimental, superficial turn where pandering to the sensory vanities of man has taken centrestage. This is jelly-fish culture, an American import which finds resonance in the rootlessness of a section of westernized Indians who run these commercial circuses called advertisement. Add to that the debilitating tendencies of Indian commercial film-making and you have picture perfect of where we are headed. Virility is now a momentary act under the spotlight of the media and no more a state of being, a continuous pulsation within every fibre of the being whose faintest overflow is the valorous act. Heroism now has become commercialised as well as celluloid paints impossible attainments and real life heroes are left in the dark with scant mention save to win rating points when they could not save themselves from the enemy's shelling. This and so much more, even calling children 'partners' by 'parents' suffering from the induced infatuation of a poisonous programming of the people's surface consciousness, have opened the Pandora's Box of attributes which can scarce carry us upward but for sure can possess our being en route a fatal free fall. Hence, take stock of yourselves and arrest this commercial feature in your deforming character. Be self-possessed in the highest sense, that is, be possessed of the Self that you are and not this nonsensical sensory non-Self.

Written by Sugata Bose

NEHRU -- AN APPRAISAL ON HIS 57TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY

NEHRU -- AN APPRAISAL ON HIS 57TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY 

Yes, indeed. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was, along with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the young Turk of India's independence movement, its most progressive face at a time when the nation was in bud with ideologies struggling for a foothold in the emerging nation's polity. The twain worked for long in unison and were in close conference on issues pertinent to the politics of the day. The Planning Committee of 1938, whose idea and execution was Bose's, was headed by Nehru at Bose's request. Occasional differences notwithstanding, they carried ahead the progressive agenda of the Congress in tandem till matters came to a head post Tripuri. Nehru's non-commital betrayal of Bose's trust by his ditching him to gain Gandhiji's favour created a rift that even the highly civil and selfless Bose could not bridge, although, on paper he continued to be on affable terms with Panditji to the extent that he even named a brigade of his Indian National Army the 'Nehru Brigade'. When Netaji fatefully disappeared after 17 August, 1945 -- the day he was last photographed --, the mantle of governance by quirk of fate fell on Nehru. Those were turbulent, treacherous times and the country, freshly dismembered and devastated by civil war, was in ruins even before it had gathered its act together to set forth its first steps. Sardar Patel stood the strong man amidst this raging typhoon and integrated India but, alas, he was to pass away in 1950 when India needed him the most. Gandhiji had been assassinated in 1948, Netaji had disappeared in 1945, Rash Behari Bose was dead in 1945 and now Patel passed away in 1950. Detractors of Nehru quote these as being fortuitous which allowed Nehru preeminence and predominance in the polity. Whatever it be, Nehru now had to almost singlehandedly steer India through the early phase of India's freedom to secure democracy which was highly threatened in those initial years. A section of British politics had predicted the quick breakdown of the Indian federation but Nehru's stewardship averted such a precipitous fate for the emerging nation which went ahead from strength to strength on the firm foundation of sterling democratic institutions which Nehru built. His vision guided India through those dark days of diabolic devastation and placed India on a pedestal of which we should be proud of. There were colossal mistakes which Pandit Nehru made on account of his gentle nature and the complexity of the problems which required deft handling instead of brutish delivery. The consequence was Partition to begin with, Tibet, Kashmir and China. His mishandling of the first Indo-Pak War over Kashmir and the untimely calling of the ceasefire followed by UN involvement, his handing of undue Constitutional advantages to Kashmir arbitrarily which precipitated so much subsequent turmoil in the Valley till they began to envisage themselves as separate from the Indian Union, his quiet acceptance of China's sovereignty over Tibet, his indifference to Chinese occupation of Aksai Chin, his allowing Pakistan to occupy Balochistan and his monumental mishandling of the Northeast which led to India's humiliation in the Chinese aggression of 1962 and loss of territory in the Arunachal, all these do paint him as a leader of sublime flights of statesmanship in the global sphere and abysmal failure nearer to home in India's neighbourhood. The Non-aligned Movement which he co-founded, the general tenor of his foreign policy, enlightened, albeit internationally oriented instead of towards narrow nationalism, these were the luminous landmarks of Nehru's reign at a time when the Cold War was tearing the world apart through its secluded icy chill. You see, today undue emphasis is being laid on Nehru's failures just as undue glorification was made of his achievements earlier by successive Congress Governments at the Centre. What is now needed is a balanced assessment of Nehru's reign devoid of partisan outlook and prejudiced view thereof. So, get going to unravelling the truth by intense reading of the history of modern India.

Written by Sugata Bose

শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা

শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা 

কর্মমাত্রেই সেবা নয় | আসক্ত স্বার্থপর কর্ম সেবা নয় | একই ভাবে সেবাকর্ম বলতে আমরা প্রচলিত অর্থে যা বুঝি তা যদি শ্রদ্ধাবিবর্জিত হয় তো তা সেবা নয় | যাঁকে সেবা করব তাঁকে যদি শ্রদ্ধাই না করলাম তো তাঁকে সেবা করলাল কোথায় ? শ্রদ্ধা সেবা, পূজার সার | এই শ্রদ্ধার অভাবেই জাতির পতন সংঘটিত হয় আবার এই শ্রদ্ধাসহকারেই জাতির উত্থান হয় |

একদিন দক্ষিণেশ্বরে ঠাকুর বৈষ্ণবধর্মের তিনটি মুখ্য কর্তব্য আলোচনাকালে এই কথাই বলে উঠলেন আচমকা | " 'জীবে দয়া ?' তুই কীটানুকীট | তুই জীবে দয়া করার কে ? জীবে দয়া করবেন ঈশ্বর | না, না, জীবে দয়া নয়, শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা |" নরেন্দ্রনাথ এই সময় ঘটনাস্থলে উপস্থিত ছিলেন | তিনি বলে উঠলেন, "আজ যা শুনলাল ঠাকুরের মুখে, যদি প্রভু দিন দেন তো সারা পৃথিবীতে ছড়িয়ে দেব এই ভাব |" শুরু হল রামকৃষ্ণ-বিবেকানন্দ সেবাযোগ |

বীজাকারে বহন করে নিয়ে চলেছেন যতিরাজ ভারতবক্ষে এক প্রান্ত থেকে অপর প্রান্তে গুরুপ্রদত্ত মহা ভারতসংকল্প | মাত্র তেইশ বছর বয়স | পরিব্রাজনকালে কারো প্রশ্নের উত্তরে বলেছিলেন, "কি করি ? আমার গুরুদেব ভারতের ভার দিয়ে গেছেন আমার মাথায় |" কখনও দরিদ্রের কুটিরে, কখনও রাজপ্রাসাদে, কখনও পার্বত্য গুহাকন্দরে, কখনও বৃক্ষতলে, আবার একদা সমুদ্রবক্ষে শিলাখণ্ডে ধ্যানরত -- অনামী সন্ন্যাসী এই সেবাযজ্ঞের প্রস্তুতি নিয়ে চলেছেন তাঁর বিরাট হৃদয়ে, তাঁর মহৎ সংকল্পে ও তাঁর ঋষিনেত্রে প্রতিভাত ভবিষ্যৎ কল্পনায় |

প্রচারের পূর্বে প্রস্তুতি | নির্বিকল্প সমাধিবান যুবা ঋষি যেন সেই শ্বেতাশ্বতর শ্রুতির 'কশ্চিৎ ধীরা', আধুনিক যুগে বহন করে এনেছেন 'বহুযুগের ওপার হতে আশার আলো' একালের ঘোর তমসা ঘোঁচাবার জন্য | কিন্তু দেশ জাগেনি তখনও | তাই সমুদ্রপার |

শিকাগো ধর্ম মহাসভা, ১৮৯৩, ১১ সেপ্টেম্বর | ত্রিশ বর্ষের তরুণ সেদিন বিশ্ববাসীকে এক নতুন বাণী শোনালেন -- সনাতন ভারতের শাশ্বত সংগীত যা একদা সিন্ধু-সরস্বতীর তীরে কবিকন্ঠে গীত হয়েছিল | রোমাঞ্চিত হল ইয়োরোপ-আমেরিকার শ্রেষ্ঠ বিদগ্ধজন | ১৯ সেপ্টেম্বর হিন্দুধর্মের ওপর বিশেষ রচনা পাঠ করলেন প্রাচীনতম সভ্যতার নবীনতম ঋষি | হিন্দুধর্ম নবকলেবরে বিশ্বসভায় আত্মপ্রকাশ করল |

সাড়ে তিন বছর পর যখন পাশ্চাত্য হতে স্বামীজী দেশে ফিরলেন তখন প্রথমেই তাঁর স্বদেশ উদ্ধারকল্পে কর্মের জন্য গুরুভাইদের ও ঠাকুরের সকল গৃহী ভক্তদের নিয়ে গঠন করলেন 'রামকৃষ্ণ মিশন' | এঁর আদর্শ রচনা করলেন এইমত -- 'আত্মনো মোক্ষার্থায় জগদ্ধিতায় চ', অর্থাৎ, নিজের আধ্যাত্মিক মুক্তির জন্য ও জগতের হিতের জন্য নিয়োজিত হবেন 'রামকৃষ্ণ মিশন' | এই জগতের হিতই হল 'শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা' | 

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

THE GRAND RACE PELL-MELL

THE GRAND RACE PELL-MELL 

We are running a cross-country hurdles race unto freedom. All souls are participants in this race and the victory in reaching the goal is ensured for all. It is but a matter of time, if even aeons, before all are home, safe and sound in the Mother's arms. Competition, conflict and cooperation are the handmaids in this grand worship of the Mother-heart where each one of us are to adorn Her form with our heads when She has severed form from substance and set us free. Mother, Thou art the only Reality in this cosmic delusion of name and form ! Mother, Thou art my all in all !

Written by Sugata Bose

PROTAGONISTS OF FAITH OR POWER-CRAZY POLITICIANS ?

PROTAGONISTS OF FAITH OR POWER-CRAZY POLITICIANS ?

Men with little sympathy for fellow men aspire yet to defend the faith. The Bengalis have a proverb describing them -- বামুন হয়ে চাঁদে হাত ('the dwarf reaching out to touch the moon'). Absurd proposition. Let the heart expand first to include all of humanity within its embrace. Then such political programming will make sense. Right now it is destruction of faith going on at the hands of its very protagonists, for ignorance can scarce come to the aid of any, much less the spiritual tradition of the motherland. A segmented, divided polity, continuously feeding in hatred into the social system and feeding off it in consequence, can scarce be the bulwark for the nation's development. 

Written by Sugata Bose 

TRUTH, PARTITIONED AND WHOLE

TRUTH, PARTITIONED AND WHOLE

Tell me which part of the atmosphere is Christian ✝️ atmosphere, which part Muslim ☪️ and which part Hindu 🕉? And I am not being simplistic but meditative. A big deal is made of socioreligious compulsions that prompt one to narrow down one's scope of vision and views. But the social man is not everything that there is to life and truth. If truth in its entirety is not lived out at least in a few individuals, the whole of society suffers. The health of all depends on the affirmation of truth as it is and not as dictated by political dispensations. Swami Vivekananda had famously said, "Truth does not pay homage to society, ancient or modern. Society must pay homage to truth or die." Today, in our fractured polity, in the vitiated communal atmosphere pervading and perverting people's minds, we need once more to affirm the eternal truths of the Vedas which call forth the dignity of man in divine terms and which reject the surface differences as inconsequential to human evolution in the long run. India has always stood for such catholicity and she must once more stand firm on such secure basis for not only her own survival but for that of the world as well.

Written by Sugata Bose

APPOINTMENT WITH GOD POST-MORTEM ?

APPOINTMENT WITH GOD POST-MORTEM  ?

Christian deferment of the individual's meeting with God to an hour post-mortem is curious. The Hindu must see God here and now and within himself. He cannot bear to wait till he dies nor does he believe it to be possible because this earth, he affirms, is the field of work (karmabhumi) and not heaven or hell where past effects of work get partially expended at best but new work cannot be done. Hence, if the spiritual effect of God-realisation has not taken place during one's lifetime, it certainly will not happen after death. Rebirth then is the way out and an inevitability till realisation comes. It is curious that Mother Teresa, despite her residence for so many decades in India, could not absorb from Hinduism this fundamental principle. Hence, she remained spiritually unfulfilled despite the world heaping accolades on her and calling her a saint and divinity on earth. Subsequently, though, the Vatican has conferred sainthood on her which she deserved for her almost selfless service to humanity but such a Papal blessing followed the occurrence of two genuine miracles as is mandatory for receiving the titular honour. 

Written by Sugata Bose

THE WAY AHEAD DESPITE IT ALL ... 2

THE WAY AHEAD DESPITE IT ALL ... 2

A lot of the problems we face in the country today can be largely eliminated if we encourage children from early childhood to read story books. A healthy reading habit thus generated will make succeeding generations more well-informed and less susceptible to the sway of political propaganda with undue emphasis on intolerant ideology. This will reduce the vicious hold of malicious politicians over the polity, lend sanity to social discourse and in consequence generate harmony between otherwise contradisposed communities ever at each other's throats. 

Written by Sugata Bose

THE WAY AHEAD DESPITE IT ALL ... 1

THE WAY AHEAD DESPITE IT ALL ... 1

I have in my life faced Islamic intolerance in Srinagar, Kashmir, way back in 1970 as a nine year old boy. But that unsavoury incident has lifelong strengthened my resolve to combat not only Islamic intolerance which still abounds wherever Muslims are populous but Christian intolerance and the more recent Hindu intolerance as well.

Knowledge strengthens, dispels prejudice and forges inter-community bond. Arise ! Unite ! And build a strong India in pragmatic and not fanciful terms, never hiding under the carpet the evil conversion designs of proselytising Christianity and Islam but taking care as well never to weaken the country by corroding community relations unduly by unjustly being aggressive to redress wrongs historically done unto Hindus by Muslim rulers and Christian colonisers. Love all. It shall ensure bliss and shall strengthen the nation as well.

Written by Sugata Bose

ARE WE HINDUS ANYMORE ?

ARE WE HINDUS ANYMORE ?

Are we Hindus when we are so ignorant of the precepts and principles of our own religion even as we take pride in a like ignorance of Islam and Christianity in irrationally attacking them? It is the same pitfall into which bigoted Christians and Islamists fall that we are lending ourselves to fall into as well. Is this the way forward? Ramakrishna-Vivekananda do not think so, although they have references in their sayings and writings (in the case of Swami Vivekananda) that Hindus must manifest strength enough to deluge the world with spirituality but never so in the perverse political way we see today that has utterly vitiated social discourse. 

Written by Sugata Bose

A REALITY CHECK PLEASE

A REALITY CHECK PLEASE

Theological Christianity and Islam are intolerant towards other religions and have historically caused untold damage to evolving civilisation, Christianity sending Europe from Greek high culture to the Dark Ages and Islam destroying the religion and with it the associated culture of country after country that it invaded, but that does not mean that we, Hindus, of enlightened stock and lineage, in the 21st century will only spit venom on them by way of an imaginary resurgence which Hindutvavaadi politicians are promising, for that will never fructify. Hence, let sanity prevail, amity sweeten social discourse and peace be given a chance to flourish. If objections are raised that this is the age-old secular ploy of lulling Hindus to sleep, let me tell you that it is not. It is the reality check Hindutvavaadis need today before they are ousted from power everywhere, for fanaticism does not bear a long-term chance of survival in this blessed motherland of ours, at least among the Hindus. So far as the blind and blindfolded supporters of Hindutvavaad of the malicious prevailing order are concerned, they ought to try and discover their forefathers' true religion from the pages of Swami Vivekananda instead of social media. That will strengthen both Hindus and Hindutvavaad of the right kind and not its abhorrent aberration of the hour.

Written by Sugata Bose

A COMPARISON MADE ? WELL, WHY NOT ? BUT HAS IT BEEN MADE ?

A COMPARISON MADE ? WELL, WHY NOT ? BUT HAS IT BEEN MADE ?

It literally baffles me to behold how people, well literate, misinterpret my posts and make false accusations against me of myself comparing Mother Teresa to Swami Vivekananda. Well, personally I have no qualms in comparing the two outstanding spiritual geniuses of the Age despite their pronounced philosophical and theological differences, but the fact is that I have not done so. Why then this malicious misinterpretation and accusation thereof? Or, shall I call it the output of dull preconception? To state that the greatest person born after Swami Vivekananda was Mother Teresa -- does it in any sense imply comparison or does it rather point to greatness in terms of chronological arrival on the world scene? I wonder where sanity in the literate has taken flight to when their flights of fancy allow them such aberration in thinking? India truly needs an intellectual shake-up now as mediocrity assumes centre-stage increasingly to corrupt conversation and ruin cultural discourse.

Written by Sugata Bose

FACEBOOK COMMENTS FROM DIFFERENT PROFILES ... 19

FACEBOOK COMMENTS FROM DIFFERENT PROFILES ... 19

Sugata Bose @Partha Pratim Daxx Vp : That is the Pandora's Paradox. You see the failure of the communists to seize political power in India along revolutionary or electoral channels does not exclude the possibility of leftists dominating the intellectual circles in India. From Nehru to Netaji, from Satyajit Ray to Ritwik Ghatak, from Hiren Mukerjee to Prannoy Roy, all were/are leftists. The universities in India have a dominant section of the creme de la creme of the faculty who are pronouncedly leftist in thinking and ideological inclination. And this is so because they are progressive, humanitarian in philosophical persuasion and pronouncedly people-oriented. Hence, you see, this is the ground reality whether you like it or not.

SugataBose @Somnath Bandyoapdhayay : I shall rest only when I attain videha mukti. Then it shall be an eternal rest. Nonetheless, thanks for your concern and consideration. 

Sugata Bose @Sachin Ketkar : Mother Teresa did give her reason for taking donations from men of questionable bearings, stating that she was in no position to judge an individual as God is the sole and supreme judge. She said that it was not given to her to deny any the joy of giving. Whatever the source of money was, it was not possible for her to ascertain such details and act in accordance and she could not in any case deprive the giver the occasion to serve God's children in the poorest of the poor through such donations. As to the allegation of her converting masses of people to Catholicism,  it us an unsubstantiated charge and bears no credibility in terms of concrete fact.

Sugata Bose @Ashok Kotha : Right and wrong are also relative perceptions in the phenomenal realm. In Brahman there is no movement. Hence, causality ceases there and with it the notions of relative right and wrong. Duality allows dynamic flow, undulating and altering in dimension. Hence, the perception of right and wrong arises. But when the non-dual plane of the Brahman is reached, it is a changeless superconscious perfection where error simply disappears.

Sugata Bose @Aloke Mukherjee : You sure have a strong point for it is just my perception without evidentiary proof based on either statistical sampling or actual count. This idea strikes me often when I see that leftists are quite well-versed in what they discuss whereas rightists so often speak gibberish. But this is mere superficial notion and not foolproof awareness based on real study or even taking into consideration all the elements, the different strands of intellectual endeavour in the country.

Sugata Bose @Amitabha Dutta Majumdar : Communism in its thus far manifested historical apparel has for sure floundered in the final analysis despite making phenomenal contributions to human development but leftist or socialist movements across the world have surely not gone into oblivion with it. They are as yet vibrant albeit stymied by the preponderance of crony capitalism which, though, gives them sustenance in seed whence under propitious circumstances they may well spring into life and action in aid of the teeming millions that suffer the rigours of appalling iniquities of coarse capitalism.

Sugata Bose @Aloke Mukherjee : I have stated what I sincerely see to be true for present day India. Hence, I see no reason why I should withhold my keypad from printing what I find to be true. This world is from the Vedantic standpoint only an appearance and essentially unreal. But do you thereby abide by such scriptural stricture and refrain from affirming your phenomenal status as real to your associates in common communication simply to validate the scriptural mandate which for sure has experiential authentication of the seers of transcendental truth? Hence, there is no need to attempt to curb my expression when we are all every moment giving the lie to our real existence and affirming the unreal as real. Now, as to the content of the post, I was only being accommodating enough to appreciate your standpoint as well and, so, gave my reply but it seems to have misfired and carried conversation to extreme injunction now being levied on me by means of polite request which, nonetheless, infringes unduly on my freedom of expression, for I see no reason how my post may have been socially damaging or disparaging to any effect.

Sugata Bose @Souvick Mukherjee : No, I really mean that the leftist intellectuals may be more often than not materialistic but they are erudite to a degree for sure as opposed to rightist ill-informed and illogical pedantic practitioners of the professorial art who keep on speaking gibberish to the glee of the gullible multitude.

Sugata Bose @Sameer Banik : Right. Strength is dissipated in taking recourse to undue hatred which we can ill-afford if we are to survive as a civilisation. Rather we should adopt affirmative measures to advance our civilisational cause, the spiritualisation of the whole world. And we must definitely look deep into history to discover where we had gone wrong that so debilitated us to be reduced to slavery for well over a thousand years.

Sugata Bose @Poonam Mis : Aha ! You called me a fool and then cut the comment? That was a piece of cowardice indeed, or was it a late realisation that I do not deserve such an epithet? Now, quit this pretentious identity of your profile and reveal your true face, dear wisdom personified ! As far as boring people is concerned, well, that is my exact intention, to bore my ideas way within these dense heads that spew rightist venom thus. Has it gone in?

Sugata Bose @Poonam Mis : The Atman is never confused, it being the seat of all knowledge, for it is absolute consciousness.

Sugata Bose @Poonam Mis : They (Romilla Thapar and Prannoy Roy) are definitely intellectual in their thinking and have academic credentials and life's attainments to testify to that effect.

Sugata Bose @Poonam Mis : Send the doctor, diet and doses (read : medicine).

Sugata Bose @Sanjoy Goswami : Individual discernment and insight, personal perception based on collective civilisational conditioning, academic training of the discerner, and the coherence of thinking of the said intellectuals which impact and induce such judgement.

Sugata Bose @Subhrojyoti Nasker : Can you not read the content of what Swamiji says about the dire necessity of bread which socialism guarantees as opposed to the consumerist avarice which capitalism feeds on and feeds into society where the poor are crushed under the wheels of machinery that runs to fuel the iniquities that abound thereby?

Sugata Bose @Anindya Roy : This time I thought that Nivedita should be included. Earlier I have never included her in such a list. So the slots ran out.

Sugata Bose @Elora Biswas : I did not include her because I wished to draw up only those members here who were completely identified with the Indian ethos which arguably Mother Teresa with her Catholic allegiance was not. Hence. However, you can always contradict my stance by stating that her universal approach to serving God in living humanity transcended such definitive boundaries and that the list by exclusion of her person has itself suffered a diminution in spiritual stature and status in truth. Difficult to exclude any from this list to include Mother. So, I guess, like Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Mother Teresa will also have to bless the list from their station above it as, true to character, they will unhesitatingly doubtlessly do.

Sugata Bose @Partha Pratim Adhikary : Make your own list and submit. Then you will find out the difficulty of accommodating so many seminal greats within such a short list of ten.

Sugata Bose @Partha Pratim Adhikary : Why did you remove your comment? With it my response got removed too.

Sugata Bose @সুদীপ্ত চক্রবর্তী : That changes the format altogether, loosening the compactness of the traditional ten.

Sugata Bose @Partha Pratim Adhikary : What can be done when there are so many who have contributed to the resurgence of India? If Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, then the question will immediately arise as to why not C.V. Raman or Satyendranath Bose or Srinivasa Ramanujan or Meghnad Saha. Hence.

Sugata Bose @Partha Pratim Adhikary : No, no, you sure have a point. But this list includes those only whose lives were a mass of burning love for the country and the people, not in terms of excellence in this or that discipline of human endeavour as such.

Sugata Bose @সৌরভ মণ্ডল : But Mahatma Gandhi's impact on India was incredible, phenomenal, almost unseen since the days of the Buddha, according to Swami Lokeshwarananda, who himself was a member of the revolutionary society, the Anushilan Samity. At his bidding the masses moved as if held by the sorcerer's charm but really by the power of his personality. He was a mass leader not by design or clever manipulation but by his utter identification with the life of his people. Such stalwarts as Netaji, Nehru, Patel and a galaxy of other seminar leaders followed him with such reverence for his person even when they differed with him on ideological grounds or in matters of policy decisions. The world had not seen truly such a one in ages and, perhaps, will have to wait ages more to witness a like phenomenon again.

Sugata Bose @Tapan Bhattacharya : Can you prove it with credible evidence that Gandhiji was indeed a British implant into the Indian freedom movement with the expresss aim of suppressing its armed revolutionary action ?

Sugata Bose @Rítãm Màitrà : I personally believe Gandhiji, with all his political and ideological shortcomings, was one of the most extraordinary human beings in world history, a veritable phenomenon, to have trod this planet earth.

Sugata Bose @Julie Binder Maitra : Right. He (Swami Pranavananda) was a towering soul, a veritable lion of a man in the mould of Swami Vivekananda who exhorted the Hindus to unite and stand strong against the impending calamity that he had foreseen would befall them before long unless they unified their wills in resistance. To this effect, for the resuscitation of his motherland, he set afoot a band of monatics who formed the body politic of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, quite an inspirational order of monks who zealously carry on their multifarious works of service throughout the country and in some countries abroad, and so fulfil the mission of their Master Swami Pranavananda. The words of this modern sage are power-packed, thunderous calls that quicken life in the dead and waken slumbering souls into life and action to alter the otherwise tragic terrestrial fate fraught with the miseries of earthly life.

Sugata Bose @Brenda Arnold Mattox : Yes, they (Ramakrishna and Vivekananda) were Bengalis but Bengalis are Indians as well. In fact in this list eight out of the ten listed, barring Mahatma Gandhi and Sister Nivedita, were Bengalis. And Sister Nivedita operated from Kolkata (then Calcutta) which was the capital of the Bengal Presidency and of the whole of British India.

Sugata Bose @Ashok Kotha : But in stating this you are being terribly judgemental. What you deem to be best you ought to yourself follow. So, pointless stating it here. And sure there is the best pursuit of seeking to know the Self, what in common parlance is called God-realisation. But such endeavours are not be blazoned in public. There is a growing intolerance among men these days about what they deem others ought to be doing or not doing and, although it is an inevitable cultural downflow amidst its general decadence, it is regrettable nonetheless. Freedom of expression ought to be respected and since you perchance cannot bear to behold it in others, I have eased you off into affable oblivion.

Sugata Bose @Ashok Kotha : What is your problem? Are you seeking attention from me? And why are so bothered about what I do? Is it not better to oil your own machine and leave me to do mine?

Sugata Bose @Rudradeb Sanyal : No, you are quite right about the utopian nature of Marx's final assumption about the endpoint in communist statelessness when everything in the socioeconomic order will be in order and the exploitative character of man will have been replaced by theoretical understanding and societal evolution. That is a far cry in Marxian theory though but not distinct much from the religious ideal of Satya Yuga in some respects. Moreover, I am not a communist or a communist sympathizer in any way, theistic that I am where communism is atheistic, spiritualistic that I am where communism is materialistic. Hence, I read into it, just as you perhaps do as well, from academic and social interest and not from any personal affiliation as such.

Sugata Bose @Mithushree G Mukherjee : Right from class 1. Bit by bit let the children get acclimatized to its resonant vibrations. Grammar can be introduced slowly from class 5. Let the epics be taught in higher classes and the great dramas of Kalidas, Banabhatta and the like.

Sugata Bose @Subrata Ray : Where have I compared? Does the post imply comparison or does it point to chronological greatness?

Sugata Bose @Sipra Banerji : Where has the comparison been made? Does the post imply comparison or does it merely refer to chronological greatness?

Sugata Bose @ Goutam Biswas : Well said but both in essence converged onto the same service, the same veneration of God in man, one beholding Shiva in jiva and the other Christ in the suffering poorest of the poor.

Sugata Bose @Goutam Biswas : Cannot agree that she converted en masse or served any only after converting but sure enough she was inspired by her Catholic faith even unto voluntary individual conversion to her faith, never by compulsion or inducement though.

Sugata Bose @Subrata Ray : I am astounded that the simple English in which the post has been written has after repeated reading -- at least I suppose so -- remained thus incomprehensible that it can entail such misinterpretation. Indeed, suspense stories seem suspended everywhere these days when life itself lies in suspension for most of us.

Sugata Bose @Swami Sunirmalananda : You should be ashamed of yourself that as follower of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda you instigate others to ignore people who they themselves may not like to do so. This is most unbecoming of a monastic member of such an esteemed organization as the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Your posts however reveal your hateful mind masqueraded though they are as love of Hindus and their persecuted lot. Reform your ways before the double clutches of Maya envelope you. Time indeed it is that you should do so and no more bring the Ramakrishna Mission to shame with your abrasive acts. As a monk of the Ramakrishna Order you should be guiding people towards enlightenment after realizing it yourself instead of instigating them unto undue intolerance tantamount to nothing substantial by way of improvement of the lot of the Hindus and the proper defence of the Sanatan Dharma. Amend your ways. That would be renunciation indeed for one who has nominally done so at the point of formal negation of worldly life upon entering the vast void of absolute consciousness termed 'sannyas'.

Sugata Bose @ দ্যুতিমান বিশ্বাস : I have posted after a lifelong of self-inquiry. Therefore, further self-questioning is unnecessary. I have met Mother Teresa multiple times and closely interacted with her and her Order. Did you have a like occasion or opportunity to do so? Have you read any definitive biography of Mother or even that of Swami Vivekananda?

Sugata Bose @দ্যুতিমান বিশ্বাস : You must understand that Thakur-Ma are God incarnate on earth and their blessings extend to all and so much more so to Mother Teresa who was a phenomenal nun in the great tradition of Catholic renunciation about which Swamiji himself has unequivocally spoken of. As far as respect is concerned, I deserve none from any more than what Thakur-Ma-Swamiji have already given me and continue to shower on me each day out of their boundless bounty. So, if your respectfulness is so circumstantial or conditional, you may with pleasure withdraw it and for that I shall bear you neither ill-will nor harbour any rancour towards you. God bless you in your advance towards the Truth that lies hidden at the core of your spiritual being !

Sugata Bose @Vikram Chug : Yes, smart indeed to combat corruption masquerading these days as spiritual renaissance of sorts. It is decadent revivalism and not religious regeneration that is the order or the day today in this blessed motherland of ours and that needs the adoption of corrective measures.

Sugata Bose @Vikram Chug : By the way it's been years I have heard from you since those early years of mine on Facebook when you were one of the earliest to frequent my posts, on my page, though, and not on my profile. How have you been and how are you?

Sugata Bose @DrSanghamitra Chakrabarti : Nivedita for sure was and is the blessed daughter of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji but can Mother Teresa be excluded from their grace even if she on account of exclusive religious persuasion could not live upto their ideals completely. But Thakur being Christ and Ma being Mother Mary -- by experiential assertion of both Swamiji and Nivedita -- can it be gainsaid that Mother Teresa was not therefore by inference at least their blessed child? Who can do such mighty deeds of mercy which were literally poems of compassion but the one who has the commission of God, and what were Thakur-Ma but the Divine incarnates whose blessings for sure must have been showered on Mother Teresa who carried into practice Thakur's formulation of 'Shivjnaney jeevseva' as 'Service to suffering Christ in the living form of the poorest of the poor'?

Sugata Bose @Hitendra Mehta : Surprising analysis that needs no commenting further on beyond stating that in Facebook posts one does not write treatises to clarify clouded conceptions of all and sundry. Your response has highlighted the intellectually impoverished state of the polity in general.

Sugata Bose @Hitendra Mehta : What are you talking about? All preconceptions, prejudices and pettiness pouring out profusely with pertinent perversity. I honour you as Brahman which you fail to understand. Hence, your self-defamation and laying the blame for it on me.

Sugata Bose @ Hitendra Mehta : Please receive my respects at least for all your uncharitable remarks about me for they come from a brother with good intentions impelling them. One day you will realise the validity of what I have stated thus far.

Sugata Bose @Hitendra Mehta : No, no, I am amused at you preposterous ignorance and consequent innocence in appreciation of the current of such a simple post as mine. Anyhow, brood on it more in the days to come and this cloud will clear. A person who deems respect as disrespect can but be pitied and left alone, and so shall I do with you now. God bless you and stay safe !

Sugata Bose @Partha Pratim Adhikary : Study Swamiji thoroughly if you wish to redress this. Mere online protest in the absence of proper preparation for such will be of no avail.

Sugata Bose @Sipra Banerji : Have I called you so? That was addressed to Swami Sunirmalananda who instigated you by implication to ignore me without actually naming me.

Sugata Bose @Sipra Banerji : Do you not understand basic English that you do not follow the chronological content of the post which has no comparison intended in it anyway?

Sugata Bose @Susan Baker : Perverse people with no sense whatsoever as to what a post is intended to convey even when explicitly stated in clear, concise and uncomplicated terms.

Sugata Bose @Surajit Ghosh : Mother Teresa was the living exemplar of most of Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual principles, from 'Shivjnane jeevseva' (service to sentient beings in the spirit of service to God) to 'Kaamkanchan tyag' (renunciation of lust and gold). Her consecrated life to Christ was a consecration unto Thakur-Ma in essence, whatever be its external form. Her superhuman austere living, her universal love despite her conditioned Catholic limitations which she largely transcended, and her limitless pity for the poorest of the poor where she became the conduit of God's love for them, all were vibrant illustrations that she had indeed been the blessed daughter of Thakur-Ma. Words count for little, deeds do.

Sugata Bose @Sharmistha Chatterjee : This patient perseverance at assimilation of the best in life from all quarters is the key to growth which is the special genius of the Hindu race for which it has been able to successfully tide over countless civilisational aggressions against it during its protracted evolutionary march through millenia. Unfortunately, the Partition of India, the historical mishandling of the Kashmir problem and the subsequent political perfidies that have allowed mischievous proselytising by the Semitic religions, Islam and Christianity, and the persecution of Hindus en masse in places such the Kashmir Valley, Pakistan and Bangladesh have left a bitter taste in the palate of the Hindus which, now aided by political activity on behalf of it, has made Hindus largely less tolerant and more wildly abusive in the air against those of these orders of Abrahamic religious persuasion. Education and enlightenment will reduce this crass culture but in changing demography where Hindus feel threatened by growing Islamism and corrosive Church activity, and amidst the general decadence that must necessarily accompany such demographic lower order boom, plummeting culture is the natural consequence and assimilation as before a receding reality. Here we have work at hand to which I exhort you and kindred souls to join in and bring about the much-needed healthy transformation of humanity here and elsewhere in general.

Sugata Bose @Tapan Mukherjee : Thank you for your kind appreciation. It is ever an inspiration to be lauded thus which adds fillip to my creative endeavours. Thank you once again for you are elderly and transparently sincere in your articulate sympathy for my writing which is a rare commodity these days here on Facebook where the discerning reader is rare and an expansive heart that can ardently appreciate rarer still.

Sugata Bose @DrMrityunjoy Mahato : Why? Socialists can't innovate?

Sugata Bose @Rudradeb Sanyal : Growing suffering will increase awareness and the reverse current of discontent will set in to do so. 'Necessity is the mother of invention', so the saying goes, and alternative leadership and a truly nationalistic party with positive reformist programmes as opposed to a pretentious one with divisive regressive propaganda will be thrown up by the same Indian polity that has catapulted Modi to power, a seat which he hardly deserves anymore and has now become by the Peter Principle his undoing. Do not worry, the change will come and will be for good as a saner generation restores the country to health, and democracy in distinctive delight, as opposed to divisive, diabolical plight, dances again to usher in light, love, happiness, peace and prosperity where the poor are no more offered as human oblation to the sacrificial fire of crony capitalism.

Sugata Bose @Bhaskar Bhowmick : Visionary leader, towering titan of the political realm. (Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru)

Sugata Bose @Rítãm Màitrà But that does not detract from the fact that the present economic order in the world is inexcusably exploitative and needs reform, if not a revolutionary replacement altogether immediately. We ought not to be apologists for crony capitalism.

Sugata Bose @Rítãm Màitrà : You and I and we unless, of course, we ourselves are the cat. Then others will do the restraining act.

Sugata Bose @Rítãm Màitrà: Yes, change always takes place in the future for the problems crop up in the present and redressing them inevitably and necessarily takes time, all events, being as they are, phased out in time when circumstances eventually become propitious for such adjustment, amendment or revolutionary, sweeping alteration.

Sugata Bose @Soumitra Sankar Roychowdhury : It is more or less a constitutional compulsion in the average humanity to repose such faith in a supposedly omnipotent elder brother who shall save us in sinking situations, given the treacherous turbulence life throws up invariably in the shape of sorrow and suffering,  disease and death. But belief and its sibling of an assumption of peace is one and genuine conviction born out of spiritual realisation another which can tide over a tsunami of trouble, unshaken, unmoved, for in this latter psychological state there is the foundation of the Self to hold one whose absence in perception makes the earlier assumed peace vulnerable and susceptible to the further modification of a frustrated faith and a cynical outlook on matters religious thereafter. Hence, realisation has been deemed the key and cornerstone of the dharma in our ancient spiritual tradition.

Sugata Bose @Surajit Ghosh : Somewhat, if you take recent events and convictions into consideration. But you know me well enough to not require a reminder that I have never been into politics ever in my life and have never been partisan in any way in anything, preferring always to hold on to truth and side with the cause of the ultimate spiritual truth of life and existence as exemplified and lived by the divine duo, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. But the suffering fate of the country in the hands of rogues at the helm of affairs everywhere had induced me to take for the first time some sort of an active interest in the electoral politics of our state with consequent terrible disillusionment with the callousness and cruelty in indifference towards the health hazard that related mass rallies and road shows entailed. Moreover, the mischievous untruthfulness of politicians across the spectrum during the recently concluded state elections have completely broken my confidence in any party or politician worth the call. Hence, my present pronouncement and my explicit stand regarding them.

Sugata Bose @Riya Bhattacharya : Yes, indeed. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was, along with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the young Turk of India's independence movement, its most progressive face at a time when the nation was in bud with ideologies struggling for a foothold in the emerging nation's polity. The twain worked for long in unison and were in close conference on issues pertinent to the politics of the day. The Planning Committee of 1938, whose idea and execution was Bose's, was headed by Nehru at Bose's request. Occasional differences notwithstanding, they carried ahead the progressive agenda of the Congress in tandem till matters came to a head post Tripuri. Nehru's non-commital betrayal of Bose's trust by his ditching him to gain Gandhiji's favour created a rift that even the highly civil and selfless Bose could not bridge, although, on paper he continued to be on affable terms with Panditji to the extent that he even named a brigade of his Indian National Army the 'Nehru Brigade'. When Netaji fatefully disappeared after 17 August, 1945 -- the day he was last photographed --, the mantle of governance by quirk of fate fell on Nehru. Those were turbulent, treacherous times and the country, freshly dismembered and devastated by civil war, was in ruins even before it had gathered its act together to set forth its first steps. Sardar Patel stood the strong man amidst this raging typhoon and integrated India but, alas, he was to pass away in 1950 when India needed him the most. Gandhiji had been assassinated in 1948, Netaji had disappeared in 1945, Rash Behari Bose was dead in 1945 and now Patel passed away in 1950. Detractors of Nehru quote these as being fortuitous which allowed Nehru preeminence and predominance in the polity. Whatever it be, Nehru now had to almost singlehandedly steer India through the early phase of India's freedom to secure democracy which was highly threatened in those initial years. A section of British politics had predicted the quick breakdown of the Indian federation but Nehru's stewardship averted such a precipitous fate for the emerging nation which went ahead from strength to strength on the firm foundation of sterling democratic institutions which Nehru built. His vision guided India through those dark days of diabolic devastation and placed India on a pedestal of which we should be proud of. There were colossal mistakes which Pandit Nehru made on account of his gentle nature and the complexity of the problems which required deft handling instead of brutish delivery. The consequence was Partition to begin with, Tibet, Kashmir and China. His mishandling of the first Indo-Pak War over Kashmir and the untimely calling of the ceasefire followed by UN involvement, his handing of undue Constitutional advantages to Kashmir arbitrarily which precipitated so much subsequent turmoil in the Valley till they began to envisage themselves as separate from the Indian Union, his quiet acceptance of China's sovereignty over Tibet, his indifference to Chinese occupation of Aksai Chin, his allowing Pakistan to occupy Balochistan and his monumental mishandling of the Northeast which led to India's humiliation in the Chinese aggression of 1962 and loss of territory in the Arunachal, all these do paint him as a leader of sublime flights of statesmanship in the global sphere and abysmal failure nearer to home in India's neighbourhood. The Non-aligned Movement which he co-founded, the general tenor of his foreign policy, enlightened, albeit internationally oriented instead of towards narrow nationalism, these were the luminous landmarks of Nehru's reign at a time when the Cold War was tearing the world apart through its secluded icy chill. You see, today undue emphasis is being laid on Nehru's failures just as undue glorification was made of his achievements earlier by successive Congress Governments at the Centre. What is now needed is a balanced assessment of Nehru's reign devoid of partisan outlook and prejudiced view thereof. So, get going to unravelling the truth by intense reading of the history of modern India.

Sugata Bose @Debjit Biswas : Spirituality and not regressive religion as is the order of the day thanks to political programming.

Sugata Bose @Sumit Mukerji : Please share these articles on Facebook if it is possible so that many may know many unknown facets of his life and that of his forefathers.

Sugata Bose @Sumit Mukerji : Serialise it if you can. I am eager to read. I knew Prof. Hiren Mukerjee personally.

Sugata Bose @Diganta Sengupta : The name 'Marine Drive' was appropriate and the change just the reverse for it is not indicative of the location or historically of any pertinence, I guess, in this regard. Naming for naming's sake is pointless for everything must bear some significance in terms of historical or geographical reference. The only objection, if any, one might have had to the thus far existent name could have been its Anglicised phonetic flavour, but then India, courtesy colonial consequence, has her disproportionately large share of colonial heritage to disown elsewhere in that case as well. These are cosmetic changes tantamount to nothing substantial and will, despite such renewed reference in terms of name, produce hardly a ripple in public memory about the great hero of India's independence which can only be substantially effected through inclusion of his heroic deeds in school curriculum when the child mind is most impressionable. May the powers at the helm of affairs effect such necessary and consequential changes !

Sugata Bose @Kalyan Ghosh : আপনি কী অসাধারণ কাজ করছেন !

Sugata Bose @Bhaskar Sen Sharma :  Wrong assessment as I quite often, everyday in fact, keep giving 'like/love' signs to those posts of my Facebook friends which come my way and which I like or find pertinent to social well-being and spiritual evolution, and I am one of those who shares posts of others the most, often to the tune of 40 plus 'shares' of a single post for my more than 90 groups and near 90 pages. I never ask anyone to do so for mine and do feel writing on Facebook so copiously a waste of time and effort sometimes when I see that so few read them, preferring to give a 'like' to the appended photograph instead or simply giving them the go-by. However, my writing is my spontaneous reaction to what I see all around and I do not think anybody owes me a fig that they should 'like' or comment on my posts. One more thing. I am  a social commentator and do Facebook only for the specific cause of serving society. I do not project myself or my family or have any self-serving to act either as fillip for my posts or as inspiration motivating them. I also have my joys and sorrows but keep them to myself as far as possible. I do not see any reason why I should publicise my mother or father or family as I see going on all around, remembering ever that privacy is privacy and publicity publicity and 'never the twain shall meet' in my life so long as I remain essentially myself. I do not post 'stories' publishing my dressed-up visage for others to appreciate/admire for I seldom see myself in the mirror to even reckon that others deserve to do so at my bidding. Hence, there is a misconception here about me and I hope I have been able to duly clarify my mind and my stand thereof. And by way of bringing back a near-forgotten fact finally. I have written on you 15 small but lyrical essays by way of appreciation of your commendable literary skills which are all on my personal page and have also composed several essays on your departed daughter with sincerely felt emotions sweeping my frame as I wrote them in saddest memory of one who I have but met in imagination alone with her bereaved father standing aside bathed in tears. I wonder if anyone else on Facebook has done likewise. If they have, my heartiest commendations to them. If they have not, I deem it to have been my privilege to have done so and so set the door ajar for them to follow if they so choose. But only if they so choose of their own will and volition, for an enforced comment or 'like/love' is that much shorn of truth as forced love is shorn of sublimity of emotion itself. May God bless you and yours, my noble friend !

Sugata Bose @Parnika Bubna : Time to initiate another thought-provoking debate. If breathing were so intermittent as posts and comments here are, life would have been extinct as this group's (THAKUR-MA-SWAMIJI-GURUDEV) destiny seems to be.

Sugata Bose @Sharmistha Chatterjee : Only learning will not do. Contributing original thinking as well is the dire necessity in this group (THAKUR-MA-SWAMIJI-GURUDEV) to keep it from breathing its final few breaths.

Sugata Bose @Diganta Sengupta : Economist has legitimately economised his trips and made the correct use of the privilege afforded the Bharat Ratnas by the Government of India.

Sugata Bose @Sanjoy Goswami : You are right. But that is the way rightist fascists have been dubbed in history -- ultranationalists. And did they not vouch themselves to be so?

Sugata Bose @Anindya Roy : Definitely, relative to the unscrupulous politics practised by the major world leaders like Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Churchill, Franco, Mao and the whole bandwagon. Gandhi was way more principled than the lot of them who knew only realopolitik to guide them and help them achieve their often too dubious political goals that subjected nations and races to inhuman tyranny.

Sugata Bose @Anindya Roy : These are extraneous issues that do not pertain to the post.

Sugata Bose @Anindya Roy : You are missing the basic point of the post and are dragging in stuff that are extraneous to it.

Sugata Bose @Anindya Roy: Why should you bother about what I think? Read up history and find out for yourself the truth about whatever matter you wish to. My opinion should not be of any moment to you. I am not being adamant, just being pertinent as any focused person ought to be during an intellectual discourse. There is something called post pertinence which I am abiding by. This matter has been well discussed elsewhere and may be so again when the occasion arises but certainly not now on grounds of intellectual propriety. I hope you understand that.

Sugata Bose @Sharmistha Chatterjee : When one has merged in the One, that is, the one has disappeared and with it the many, and the One stands serene in Self-revelation, the Witness to its own Self, the sensory perceptions have vanished too and the attributeless, integrated Consciousness remains in a supersensory concentrated solidarity of Being and undivided comprehension. Relativity reveals to the mind what it does fractionally and covers consciousness of the Absolute but the Absolute -- covered apparently like the sun by a speck of cloud and never really so -- shines in solitary splendour, nonetheless, beyond the reach of the relative threefold hindering elements of space, time and causality. Where we seemingly are, the Absolute seems not to be, and 'where' the Absolute is, we have like bubbles burst, disappearing like the morning mist in the enveloping atmosphere of superabiding transcendental Truth.

Sugata Bose @Santosh Kumar Banerjee : In Ramakrishna Mission schools a subject called 'Dharma' is taught.

Sugata Bose @Santosh Kumar Banerjee : Very much aware and feel betrayed by it. And it was a great relief to see them lose the Case in the Supreme Court whereby divine justice was dealt unto it. Else, it would have spelled the doom of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Movement.

Sugata Bose @Shaoni Sarma : This has been a longstanding request from another venerable friend as well and I have as yet failed to comply, much less fulfil. I must do so now that it has come in like terms from another quarter as well but I need time. Till then let me ruminate on her life and times to be able to cull out significant passages from that epochal period of India's history so as to create the right setting for the unfolding of her great and golden life, and to that general effect my work has already been for years. For the specifics, let me set myself to this virtual labour of love, for what else does the Sister of burning love for all of us deserve from us?

Sugata Bose @Chandra Kumar Bose : Oh, a brilliant presentation ! Glory unto you, Chandra Kumar Bose. And you have completely effaced yourself through, perhaps, a deliberate use of the small letter to begin your sentences which, if translated to real life terms, augurs well for all. I have always harboured the notion that men like you should come forward, inspired by Swamiji and Netaji, to act thereof as beacons for the youth and, if you heed my hope thus, you will be doing our motherland a seminal service for which posterity will hold you in grateful memory and which shall also so spiritually serve you that you shall feel fulfilled one day in having done what you had done in so many terms. But these are but my visions about your esteemed self that need translation into life terms as yet and there are many that fondly nurse these hopes about you and look forward to that day when, free of personal political ambitions and inspired solely by the spirit of service, you shall dedicate yourself to doing yourself the rightful service that shall redeem you in the public imagination and fulfil you in rightful terms, making you an honour for your family and forefathers among whom shines Netaji with undimmed lustre to light up your path. I urge you to study Swamiji daily with a thoroughness that becomes you and comprehend Netaji in a fuller form, and thence to launch your active effort towards the betterment of the polity. My sincere regards and cherished aspirations.

Yours sincerely, Sugata Bose. 

Sugata Bose @Joydeep Mukherjee : ভারতরত্ন ? কেন ? কি তাঁর (অনীতা দেবীর) অবদান ভারতের জন্য ? আর হঠাৎ বিদেশিনীকে নিয়ে টানাটানি কেন দেশের রত্ন বিতরণের অভিপ্রায়ে ? তিনি ভারতের কে ও কি কাজ কবে করেছেন আমাদের দেশের জন্য যে তাঁর ভারতরত্ন পাওয়ার যোগ্যতা হঠাৎ জন্মাল আজ ?

Sugata Bose @Joydeep Mukherjee : ভাষাটা একটু সংযত করলে নেতাজীর প্রতি অধিক সম্মান প্রদর্শন হয় না কি ? কি বলেন ? আপনি তো একজন যথার্থ নেতাজী অনুরাগী ও অনুসারী, তাই না ? আপনার মুখে কি এহেন অপশব্দ শোভা পায় ? আপনার এই দুর্ভাষণ, এই অদ্ভূত ভাষাপ্রয়োগ কি নেতাজী অনুমোদন করতেন বলে আপনার মনে হয় ? সুসংস্কৃত হোন তাঁর মহান চারিত্রছাঁচে, তাঁর দৈব অনুপ্রেরণায় | নইলে বৃথা পণ্ডশ্রম এই প্রচার তাঁর নামে | ভেবে দেখবেন কথাগুলো | 

আপনার সুহৃদ, সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose), শ্রদ্ধেয় শিশির বসুর তনয় নয় |

Sugata Bose @Joydeep Mukherjee : Are you not ruining your future prospects in terms of social respectability by resorting to such vile language?

Sugata Bose @Sujoy Chowdhury : This proof is invalid as the official narrative is of Netaji having married in February 1942 and fathered Anita on 29 November of the same year. Therefore, this document is easily bypassed by protagonists of the marriage theory. However, if you go by the earlier date of alleged marriage, 26 December, 1937, then of course your certification here is vindicated as tenable proof of Netaji's celibacy. But there was a faux pas regarding the marriage date, I have heard from a credible source which puts the date of alleged marriage at a later point in February, 1942, just over nine months from Anita's birth. Whichever is true, I have no clue to it whatsoever, neither do I take up a position in this regard. I have only commented to highlight this particular point which is often missed in the melee of information cited to refute the alleged marriage .

Sugata Bose @Joydeep Mukherjee :  Shameless exposition of exquisite ignorance on your part. You are a legal practitioner and yet so irrational in addressing an issue as pertinent as the venerable Sukanta Biswas has raised? This is infrarational attitude most unbecoming of a reputed lawyer.

Sugata Bose @Bhaswar Das : Please resort to reason to silence ignorance as profound as this.

Sugata Bose @Joydeep Mukherjee : আগে judgement, পরে case ! বেশ, বেশ ! এরই নাম প্রেম স্বদেশ !

Sugata Bose @Drjayanta Choudhuri : The points are pertinent but they need proper presentation in a more rational way following absolute logical rigour that can stand the legal test. The speaker must completely avoid making emotional gestures or unnecessary digressions to bring home the point fearlessly and with due forthrightness. Clinical precision is necessary without any needless meandering or mention of extraneous facts that may confuse the audience by conflating issues. However, we are indebted nonetheless for a plethora of information presented, although in a trifle chaotic way that falls short of inducing conviction in the stated things. Greater intelligence is necessary to combat the perfidious forces in opposition. Else, all these efforts may excite public opinion in favour of the speaker's stated stance but will fail to alter factually the narrative in the higher echelons which control mass information. A legal luminary, if contacted and brought to conviction about these data, would do wonders for the cause but it is no ordinary lawyer's job either. Only the most brilliant mind at work can dispel these delusions that distract the common man regarding the patriot premier.

Sugata Bose @Ritabhari Chakraborty : Brilliant girl ! You will go miles yet till you reach the highest. To that dawn of quickening consciousness, to that dewy morn of awakening wisdom when the manifold world will melt in an unfolding of the solidarity of the Being, the integrated vision enveloping every aspect of your self and releasing you unto your highest transcendental Self, to that noonshine I send my heartiest commendations in advance lest such an occasion never arises again. Your intelligence must come good beyond the ephemeral glitter of phenomenal achievement and appreciation thereof and lead you unto your deepest Self where in limitless splendour abide you beyond the pale of all these appendages of attributes that so cover consciousness. God bless you a thousandfold for you to achieve your cherished laurels before you cast them aside in spontaneous self-assertion to reclaim your own truest Self ! May you stay healthy and safe, pure and perfect for rising tier by tier through the vicissitudes of life ! May Mother bless you ! May Thakur be your guiding star ever ! My warm wishes I add onto theirs, insignificant though they may be.

Sugata Bose @Sujoy Chowdhury : That is absolutely correct. What I have been stressing is that the correct line of defence ought to be provided to ward off such aggressive thrusts on the basis of suppositions and half-baked 'evidence'. The purported letter of Netaji to Sarat Bose attesting to the alleged marriage has not been tested forensically to estimate its date of origin, despite repeated requests by researchers who refute the marriage claim. But all things said and done, the defence has to be foolproof on the basis of hard evidence or its hard absence and on the basis of rigorous logic that can withstand all counter onslaught.

Sugata Bose @Joydeep Mukherjee : You will lose this battle, friend, for there are far too many ardent supporters of Netaji, devoted followers who can forsake for him a lot to be expected to stand by and pocket insult such as this to their hero. So, ready yourself for an assault from all sides or surrender your case if you have not the powder to stay put and fight.

Sugata Bose @Sujoy Mukherjee : Well enumerated and qualified it well too. I once used to fancy passing away at 39 like Swamiji and Dr. Martin Luther King but the duo rejected me from their august company and blessed me, it seems, with additional years and, perhaps, if I may second your opinion, that added verve of springing youth to carry on, hopefully, with work bearing a semblance of their undying spirit.

Sugata Bose @Bhaskar Mukherjee In the same club now at last. Junior citizens have evicted me.

Sugata Bose @Amit Paul : Many claim they have been solved, that Gumnami Baba/Bhagwanji is Netaji post-disappearance who categorically denied the marriage theory and even castigated Sisir as a 'liar'. Now it's for one to read and realize, confront these assertions and come to conclusions. The mystery will not otherwise be easy to dispel in the teeth of governmental apathy, even evident opposition to disclosure of the sealed documents in the PMO and the IB archives, and a consequent satisfactory closure of the case.

Sugata Bose @Rajyashree Chaudhuri : Who has authored this letter do you think? Who is this supposed self-righteous citizen who dares not come out into the open and reveal his identity? Subterfuge used here or genuine concern?

Sugata Bose @Satyendra Singh : BOOK PREVIEW -- Superb introduction. All the very best for what promises to be a fascinating account rendered in a delectable, crisp style, fast and moving, even as the subjects of the narrative and their life-transforming, world-transforming adventures. A very welcome move, a fresh literary approach in a realm filled with an overload of hackneyed articulate expression. My wholehearted support lies in wait expectantly for you and to your splendid contribution to the cause of bringing the premier three luminaries of modern India to the fore once again and together in this inimitable original way.

Sugata Bose @Sudhansu Barman : But he (Gandhi) did make a platform movement of pleaders into a mass movement of peasants.

Sugata Bose @Jayanta Das : Brilliant position for a brilliant person. Inspire your students with not only an avid interest for their subject of study but also love for the land, their motherland, their true mother who has nourished them and brought them thus far to fruition. They must not leave her shores for good, relegating her billion children to perpetual misery born in ignorance of the material means for decent survival. They have been educated at their expense and owe it to them to give, by way of loving return, their best services for the amelioration of the condition of the masses. God bless you in your noble endeavours ahead !

Sugata Bose @Rítãm Màitrà : He (Milkha Singh) sure did long back. Now may be our slow-reacting government will wake up and confer on him typically the posthumous Bharat Ratna.

FACEBOOK NEW MESSAGES AND TWEETS ... 32

FACEBOOK NEW MESSAGES AND TWEETS ... 32

1. May good come to all ! My love and respects to all.

2. The poor people suffer everywhere whatever their religion. Does any vociferous political Hindu contemplate any measure to alleviate their misery or are they the chosen ones of God to perpetually suffer the pain consequent on grinding poverty?

3. Netaji and Swamiji belong as much to you as to me. As such I need no advice from you as to what epithets I give them in my concerned estimation of their seminal attainments. You may contradict me reasonably but, pray, do not be condescending in your suggestions as to what I may or may not write about them in my own reasonableness.

4. If you really care to be a true Hindu, then read up thoroughly 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda' and discover for yourself what his views were on the momentous issues of life and existence, both temporal and transcendental.

5. In today's India meritorious people are being persecuted and mediocrity fostered. Augurs not well for the future. This stems from the fact that we have less than mediocre men and women at the helm of political affairs at the centre and in the states barring the odd exception.

6. The Upanishads form the climactic portion of the Shrutis, their knowledge section where the Vedas reach the pinnacle of their philosophical thought. Hence, they are called the Vedanta, both in terms of horizontal evolutionary movement along the timeline and in terms of vertical gain either by way of depth dimension or measure of sheer spiritual altitude.

7. Agnosticism, atheism, antitheism, humanism, materialism -- all these are different stages in the upward spiral of human evolution towards grasping the central truth of existence, the divinity of the human soul which is termed the Atman. Vedanta, indeed, is the last rung of this evolutionary ladder.

8. We are all one. These differences are superficial. Deep within unity abides. It is one solidarity of existence. Hence, love, the unifying bond, is the song of evolution unto its climactic crescendo.

9. Hindus must not narrow their hearts in their bid to defend their Dharma. The very soul of the Sanatan Dharma lies in its expansiveness. Hindus ought to practise spirituality more to gain strength to resist invasive aggression against them. They must manifest the heart which is the seat of all power and come to the aid of fellow Hindus who may be in distress. Mere talk, vicious and venomous, against proselytising Christianity and Islam will be of no avail. It is like abusing China on social media while the enemy keeps gathering military strength during our hour of languishing.

10. Where jealousy is, there love is not.

11. My Facebook friends, please do not try to curb my keypad from expressing my thoughts, spontaneous as they are and carrying my best intentions and inspiration. Where you request me to refrain from expressing myself, you should introspect and expand your own inner horizons instead to be able to appreciate what I mean by my messages. It is not civil to curb civic communication thus, and contrary to democratic norms.

12. The ancient Indian philosophers, when they started their own sects, they tortured the texts of the Vedas to suit convenience. Here on Facebook I detect the same common propensity of readers to torture my texts to suit their preconceptions and prejudices. Rarely do I find any who reads into the text and even attempts to appreciate its real intent and inspiration.

13. In resurgent populism it is a woeful intellectual climate today in the country. Academic standards are plummeting and cultural appreciation dismally one-sided, prejudiced, partisan and pitifully partitioned. This is merely decadent revivalism, not refreshing regeneration.

14. TEN MODERN GREATS OF INDIA

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1. Ramakrishna 

2. Vivekananda 

3. Rammohan

4. Vidyasagar 

5. Gandhi 

6. Netaji

7. Rabindranath 

8. Aurobindo 

9. Nivedita

10. Rashbehari Bose

--------------------------------------------------------------------

15. Thinking of the people is also thinking of God, for He is manifest everywhere in conflicting and in harmonic terms, the vast field of interaction being His visible face while the core of reality lies hidden deep within in the seed of things, in the germ of creation and in the vaster beyond where a supreme stillness reigns in consciousness frozen.

16. There are two forces battling for supremacy in this world. One is materialistic, the other spiritualistic. To which does India's resurgent Hindutvavaad belong?

17. Our sympathies must not be limited by our cultural conditioning nor constrained by nationalism or segmented internationalism of any kind. They must transcend all such limiting barriers to embrace the whole of humanity in its rich legacy and diverse fruition. The heart must never be corrupted to feel only for a few nor the head made to conceive only traditional trappings of thought but our souls must soar to higher and higher realms till the whole of phenomena seems kindred to our being. No wonder Swamiji said, "Expansion is life, contraction death."

18. The people's revolution is for mass evolution unto spiritual freedom. This was the cardinal philosophy of Swami Vivekananda.

19. Human ignorance is at the root of all evil, the overattachment to body which creates this sense of separation between man and man, the desire to appropriate wealth and territory for oneself and one's kin, and the invasive aggression of ideology which one tends to impose on others to create an artificial and impossible homogeneity.

20. It is better by far to be an erring liberal with universal sympathies than a fanatical fool with a fixed frog-in-a-well consciousness.

21. THE TEN GREATEST PERSONALITIES OF MODERN INDIA

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1. Sri Ramakrishna 

2. Sarada Devi  

3. Swami Vivekananda 

4. Mother Teresa

5. Raja Rammohan Roy

6. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar 

7. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

8. Rashbehari Bose 

9. Mahatma Gandhi 

10. Rabindranath Tagore

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22. I am persuaded to believe that the Buddha meant by Nirvana (the state of extinguishing of the fire of phenomena) the state of Nirguna Brahman (the Self devoid of all attributes), although, the great Master categorically denied the existence of such a Self as such.

23. 

All sectarian in attitude despite pretensions to scriptural universality. Rarely does one come across a soul with universal sympathies. Crooked, knotted hearts that cannot extend love beyond kindred frogs of the same well and there, too, fighting constantly for petty self-assertion.

24. 

Those who hate Mother Teresa and vilify her unduly, let them hate her and vilify her well. Mother will bless them for it with divine love. How lucky they are that their hatred will turn to love for it is 'Shatrurupi bhajanaa' (worship in the mode of enemy) they will be unconsciously doing thus !

25. 

Only the Vedantist accepts all forms of philosophy, religion, opinion and faith as but different stages in man's onward progression to the ultimate transcendental truth. All others are in some way or the other exclusive in their approach, accepting one and rejecting the others. Hence, despite many a soul clamouring to be a universalist, it is the Vedantist alone who is in conviction truly so. And then comes even for the Vedantist the element of praxis. Should he live up to his high standard of intellectual acceptance in practice as well, then alone will he truly deserve the epithet of being a universalist. Else, it is so much wishful thinking, plain hypocrisy or ignorance about one's true status regarding life and philosophical standing.

26. 

WHAT A SHAME !

'The greatest person born after Swami Vivekananda was Mother Teresa.' This post has brought forth spitting venom against the great Catholic nun, people unduly castigating me on account of comparing Mother Teresa with Swamiji. How absolutely absurd and fancifully funny ! Pray, where has the comparison been drawn by me? Is plain English that difficult to understand for people who are well-versed in it? This is pure personal assessment of human greatness in chronological order of appearance and activity on earth, and by no stretch of imagination whatsoever any remotest attempt to compare the incomparable Mother with the incomparable Swami.

Written by Sugata Bose 

27. May genuine love come into the hearts of people for all ! Supposed love that is sectarian can hardly be called love which by definition is universal.

28. 

A fanatic is a fanatic, not a Hindu who is culturally and by philosophical persuasion universal in his outlook. The fanatical Hindutvavaadi is a politician who uses the Sanatan Dharma to his earthly advantage and has no spirituality worth the call whatsoever. 

Written by Sugata Bose

29. 

Defend Hinduism by all means through knowledge of scripture, resist conversion to Islam and Christianity, but do not give in to the poison of ignorant fanaticism while all the while cleverly clamouring universalism in the name of the Sanatan Dharma.

30. I request all Hindutvavaadis to thoroughly go through 'The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda' before spitting venom on Facebook. That would be service to the Sanatan Dharma and to the Hindu community indeed.

31. 

Hindus are divided, true. But is dividing the entire polity through both truthful and false propaganda the way to uniting them? Will electoral victory alone ensure the survival and safety of the Hindus? What about the guardians of political Hinduism becoming moral, ethical and spiritual Hindus as well? There lies the crux of the matter.

32. When I see such mass ignorance and intolerance abounding in society, I wonder whether we are sliding back as a nation, or is it a mountainous ascent with its corresponding detour that seems like a drop in altitude ?

33. 

Sri Ramakrishna practised and preached religious amity and harmony. Let us follow his teachings and become worthy devotees of his.

34. Are some people really that foolish that they keep on making the same old misinterpretations of my 'Swami Vivekananda-Mother Teresa' post where I have not compared them but have merely placed them in chronological order while calling them great? I am appalled to behold their blindness to reason and shocked at English-literate people's gross inability to judge implications of posts which are as clear as daylight. I now get it. Perhaps, it is deep-seated prejudice that is playing this perverse game and surely no love for Swamiji, for love does not stifle heart so.

35. 

How many of you who are busy abusing Mother Teresa ever met her in person, known her in close acquaintance thus or even studied in depth her several renowned biographies? First study, meditate deep on her life and austerities for the world, and then arrive at an illumimed understanding. May Mother bless you all !

36. I may be an insignificant person but my insignificance is also significant in the larger scheme of things where every atom contributes to the vast machinery of Matter, every pulse adds on to the larger life of the Spirit, every breath joins in to lend immortality to the Being.

37. Tell me which part of the atmosphere is Christian ✝️ atmosphere, which part Muslim ☪️ and which part Hindu 🕉?

38. The Taj Mahal is a teardrop on the cheek of Time...Tagore 

কালের কপোলে অশ্রুবিন্দু তাজ | (বঙ্গানুবাদ -- সুগত বসু)

39. Divinity is nothing but purity of love.

40. সৃষ্টিকর্তার অনাসৃষ্টি এই ব্রহ্মাণ্ড ! ভাগ্যিশ ! তাই মুক্তি সম্ভব | নইলে চিরবন্দী থাকতে হত |

41. Politics is the limiting sphere of man. Religion and science are both in essence liberating spheres. Liberation lies beyond the senses, though.

42. The sectarian man can scarce understand the glory of transcendence of sect. His is a limiting vision that clings to earthly survival and adopts crude means to advance his corrosive cause.

43. Ministers should be highly educated. Ignoramuses cannot govern.

44. 

The life of a nation is in the condition of its masses. If they are to survive somehow like brutes, the nation is nearing its death. Now, businessmen and politicians, you know what you have done to the people and sure enough you realise where your duty lies. And if you fail to discharge your duties, the masses will eventually rise up and overthrow you. So, beware ! and rectify means and measures.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo : Bhupendranath Datta -- freedom fighter, revolutionary, scholar, author and youngest brother of Swami Vivekananda.

45. 

Inspired by Swamiji to liberate India. Jatindranath Mukherjee or Bagha Jatin. The continent revolutionary. Met Swamiji in person several times and was told by him to read Bankimchandra's 'Ananda Math' and to set up gymnasiums for young men throughout the land. Swamiji sent him to Ambu Guha's gymnasium where he had himself done physical culture in youth. Swamiji taught him the secret of 'brahmacharya' or continence and urged him to consecrate his life for the motherland. Died a martyr's death after the Battle of Balasore in 1915. Received glowing tribute from his armed adversary, Charles Tegart, who compared him with Nelson.

Inspired by Swamiji to liberate India. Rashbehari Bose, master of disguise. Bombed Hardinge, organised aborted Ghadar Revolution, escaped to Japan to orgsnise pan-Asian resistance to British rule in India and European dominance in Asia. Never could set foot on the soil of his motherland again after leaving her shores in 1915 for Japan. Spanned five decades of revolutionary activity, organised the Indian National Army, the Indian Independence League, and cooked curries Indian style in Nakamuraya in that hub of revolutionary meet in Japan, dreaming of freedom one day.

Gave her life to the service of her Guru's 'Queen of adoration', India. Sister Nivedita, consecrated to Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, a versatile genius, sacrificed her everything to help raise India from her prostrate position to her perennial glory. Met Swamiji in London in 1896 and followed him to India to love, live and die for her cause at a time when the British were at their ruthless worst in their dealing with the 'natives'. Her white skin raised eyebrows amongst her kin but broke the slumber of the Indians who found in her moral support and sanction for raising their voice and arms for freedom. Nivedita had to sever formal connections with the Ramakrishna Mission founded by her Master which must have been 'the unkindest cut of them all' but she gracefully accepted the 'deal' which allowed her fullest freedom to pursue her adopted motherland's -- nay, true motherland's -- freedom. But her connection of soul and heart with the Mission continued unabated. And all this she did for Swamiji.

Bhupendranath Datta, youngest brother of Swamiji. Inspired by his elder brother to track the path of revolution in his bid to liberate the motherland and her masses. Was imprisoned for a year for anti-British revolutionary activity in 1907, then aided and advised by Nivedita, left for America to pursue higher studies and completed doctoral thesis. Turned communist, met Lenin in Russia during those tumultuous post-revolutionary days there, was advised by the latter to organise the peasants in India for the coming Indian revolution. Late in life authored the groundbreaking study of his elder brother, 'Swami -- Patriot-Prophet'. Made mother Bhuvaneshwari proud when post release from prison in 1908, she was felicitated by the people of Kolkata for mothering such a patriotic, valorous son.

Met Swamiji in Dhaka in 1901 and was electrified by his personality and his benedictory touch on his head. Life revolutionised by Swamiji, he set himself to organise armed revolution to free India. Wax the one gave Swamiji the epithet 'cyclonic monk'. Hemchandra Ghosh of famous memory, of notoriety for the British.

The greatest of them all. Swamiji's spiritual child. Gave his every breath, every ounce of energy, every thought to the fulfilment of his life's ideal, the liberation of his motherland. Inspired by Swamiji to do it all. Read Swamiji's works at age fifteen, was fired up by it to take up at first spiritual and social work which soon consumed him in patriotic activity for the freedom of his motherland. A complex personality who combined in his being absolute continence with revolutionary activity, non-violent agitation with armed aggression in secret that eventually broke bounds, post his great escape from internment in India to distant Germany and Japan, to culminate in armed assault on the north-eastern frontier of India, Netaji remains Swamiji's greatest gift to India, his shining testament to his befallen countrymen and to all colonised people of the world. Netaji was Swamiji in fulfilment, the complement to his being in planes where the transcendental seer had no access to on account of his station in the world of the Spirit which demanded a universal approach to the problem of entire humanity. Netaji did what Swamiji dreamed of but was inhibited by circumstances from real-life accomplishing.

46. When a group (THAKUR-MA-SWAMIJI-GURUDEV) sleeps thus, it is best to shut it. Of course, then you can hardly call it a social group, for in the absence of interaction it is individualism all the way.

47. The inability to chant the divine mantra at least 108 times twice a day is an inexcusable spiritual offence for the initiated.

48. Leaders mislead and the masses like Hamlin's rats follow. But beware of the end result. It is drowning in the sea.

49. 

A ritual reach is outer religiosity. The inner life consists in reaching within to place one's heart at the hallowed feet of the Divine waiting patiently by the river bank where you left Him to seek greener pastures in the village of the world and completely forgot that He has been awaiting your return since a moment back while in your mind aeons have passed like a delusive dream on celluloid.

50. Be intellectually active yourself if you wish your children to do well academically.

51. I have lost faith in politicians of the present dispensation. Politicians are crooks.

52. 

My respects to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, India's greatest Prime Minister after Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who was undivided India's first Prime Minister, on his 57th death anniversary.

53. Be scientific and not religious regressive. Science is the order of the day even if you wish to advance spiritually.

54. India today is walking along a regressive path of archaic religious revivalism. What we need, however, is a progressive scientific outlook that will advance the nation in real terms.

55. Education that makes one a roguish atheist is as bad as indoctrination that makes one a religious fanatic.

56. The Om is the junction of the relative and the absolute.

57. ভগবান আর কি ? বিশুদ্ধ প্রেম |

58. যেখানে ভয় সেখানে প্রেম কই ?

59. 

এই অনৃত জগতে ঠাকুর, তুমিই একমাত্র সত্য |

60. There lies Everest. But who can lend it form? Who can picture it, who photograph?

61. Myself am a bubble, any moment to burst.

62. The life of a nation lies in the individual. Curtail his freedom and you have destroyed the nation itself.

63. 

Fight for freedom. 'Freedom, freedom is the song of the soul.' What would Swami Vivekananda say to this curb on freedom of expression? If criticism of government goes, goes with it democracy.

64.

India loves domination it seems by the powers that be. No wonder we were under foreign domination for well over a thousand years before we got our truncated freedom. Or, have we got it still when freedom of expression is being thwarted this way or that? Must art and literature now call it quits if they dare oppose the ruling dispensation? Must we start practising silence then like the great Trailanga Swami in order to keep our own counsel and peace with it? Else?

Written by Sugata Bose

65. How politicians love power !

66. विनाषकाले विपरीत बुद्घि ||

বিনাশকালে বিপরীত বুদ্ধি |

At the time of self-destruction opposite intelligence prevails.

67. Left, left, left-right-left,  backward march !

68. 

Speech stifled, must truth be compromised then? But did not Swamiji say, "Truth does not pay homage to any society, ancient or modern. Society has to pay homage to Truth or die. Societies should be moulded upon truth, and truth has not to adjust itself to society."?

69.

Must you crush all the pearls of the necklace to make a powdery whole? Alas, what a necklace it will be -- more a noose than an adornment ! Look at this inspirational figure and learn. Learn while yet there is time. Are you listening, dear 'inspired' one, you who gained so much inspiration to serve the people from him?

70. Anybody who rubs the government the wrong way is an 'antinational', right? So, media must be muzzled and individual account privacy breached?

71. The problem with the current crop of reformers is that they themselves are so heavily compromised with all that they exhort others to renounce. Who will follow such self-seeking hypocrites?

72.

If men of distinction are suppressed in our society and only sycophants to ruling dispensations given the go, quality in governance will so plummet that in a generation's time we will be back where we were generations ago.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo : One such outstanding man of distinction, Prof. Hiren Mukerjee, CPI leader, five time Parliamentarian (1952 -- 1977) academic, bilingual author, orator par excellence, Padma Vibhushan and man of sterling character, veritably one of the builders of the Communist movement in India. Stood first in Matriculation and in University in History, Oxonian, bar-at-law, and outstanding Parliamentarian whose oratory drew crowds in college when he lectured and earned the applause of fellow Parliamentarians including Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru who he opposed as Leader of Opposition in India's first Parliamentary five-year term between 1952 and 1957. Never allowed anybody to touch his feet whenever someone attempted it, holding human head-held-high dignity as sacrosanct. Such a one as he was is rare indeed in the annals of Parliamentary history the world over and we were privileged to witness the flowering and flourishing of his genius till just the other day. Prof. Hiren Mukerjee was simply breathtaking in his attainments. When shall we see another such again?

73. Our leaders talk too much, work too little, bungle in work and fight among themselves. Would it were otherwise as Sri Ramakrishna had once told his nephew Hriday, asking him to first accomplish the act and only then speak about it !

74. There is something called being a titular Hindu and another a practising Hindu. Which one we are it is time to introspect.

75. I made this group THAKUR-MA-SWAMIJI-GURUDEV) specifically for you all but your apathy towards it appals me. I feel ashamed of my endeavour to this effect.

76. Dawn shows the day.

77. Affirm your divinity.

78. With open eyes see God, with shut eyes feel Him, with sense transcended be Him.

79. In serving others we serve ourselves. Who is alien to us after all ? All are us.

80. 

Reform has to be phased in time. Too radical a reform more often than not backfires unless the people through education have been readied for it. Social evolution is a function of time and social revolution as well.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo : Bhupendranath Datta, communist revolutionary, freedom fighter, scholar and youngest brother of Swami Vivekananda.

81. Buddha, Chaitanya and Ramakrishna were all fond of humour, being themselves humorous to a pronounced degree. Wit is the sign of exalted intelligence in its complementary mode. Swami Vivekananda also had a devastating sense of humour.

82. 

EXQUISITE

The sheer symmetry of it with a slight forward incline in the direction of the watchful vision, indicative as if of the grand cultural evolution of future India as she first retraces her ancient steps from her fallen recent past before marching on with the onward times with creative fresher affirmation of her inmost realisations, now in concrete terms expressible in more propitious circumstances. 

Written by Sugata Bose

83. Why without study of Marx and Lenin so many ill-informed men hate Marx and Marxism?

84. 

All ignorance is held at root in the ego. The ego is the delusive shadowy entity that like a dark cloud covers the effulgent sun, using spatial proportions to come to combative magnitudinal terms. All of evolution is but the primary progression and the secondary retrogression of this elastic entity till in point contraction the ego dissolves to reveal that which ever was abiding in Self-revelation, the eternal Presence behind the fluctuations of the cosmic field.

85. 

Leon Trotsky, the great Marxist theoretician of the Russian Revolution.

86. 

বিপ্লব স্পন্দিত বুকে,

মনে হয় আমিই লেনিন |

... সুকান্ত ভট্টাচার্য্য

87. P.V. Narasimha Rao has been India's greatest Prime Minister since Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

88. Whatever you may say about Marx and communism, the future belongs to left movement. The Shudra Yuga is coming. Socialism will sweep.

88. 

Whatever you may say about Marx and communism, the future belongs to left movement. The Shudra Yuga is coming. Socialism will sweep. This exploitative capitalist order will crumble under its own contradictions and pave the way for people's rule, the reign of the masses with lowered culture but greater living amenities for all. Mass slavery as it obtains today will give way to mastery by the masses. This is the imperative of history, this the evolutionary destiny of man.

Written by Sugata Bose

89. England was built at the expense of India. British hands are soaked in Indian blood.

90. To build your life you must do your spiritual practices regularly. Otherwise, character will not be formed neither energy flood your system.

91. My posts weep in vain. My rejoicing co-members (THAKUR-MA-SWAMIJI-GURUDEV) are too busy to read or respond.

92. The modern Jew is so much like the ancient Greek, brilliant in science.

93. Self-advertisement is reaching disproportionate proportions in these days of commercial common culture. Personalities are up as much for sale as commodities.

94. Use democracy to forge communism, then kill democracy. What a grateful return for opportunity allowed !

95.

Too much of preaching is going on, too little practice. And I may be held culpable to the same offence, too, to which in advance I plead guilty.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo : Swami Nirvanananda, courtesy, a Facebook post by a friend whose name I fail to recall but to whom I extend my obligation and gratitude in all sincerity.

96.

The Indian revolutionary in the classical sense of the term was Rash Behari Bose. All others, even the very best of them, fell short of his total identification with the revolutionary spirit.

97. Communists criticise media gagging done by autocratic governments but communists do exactly the same wherever they assume power. The history of communism is a reference point in this regard.

98.

Capitalism generates wealth but to what end? Exploitation of the very labour force that generates it and with it impoverishment of the teeming millions under the garb of rising GDP and all such bogus statistics that nonetheless reduce man to a beast of burden, suffering the terrible consequence of unbearable rising cost of living and increasing economic disparity between the haves and the have-nots? Is this world then the playfield of only the exploitative rich class and a veritable hell for the billions in beastly burden thereof?

Written by Sugata Bose

99. 

The more I study the world's great political leaders, men who have brought about momentous changes in civilisation, I find Gandhiji incomparably superior to them all in terms of moral integrity, principled politics and human concern.

100. 

So, leftist is internationalist and rightist nationalist? Is that so?

101. 

A nucleus of dedicated workers, intensely sincere, with hearts pouring out love in abundance for the motherland, intelligent and energetic, pure and dynamic, can as yet release fresh life into the polity for it to reassert itself along the grain of its age-old civilisation and bring forth a golden age for itself and the whole of humanity. To that end Swamiji has exhorted us to 'work and die in harness' and to the fulfilment of his dream we must sacrifice our living selves. May Mother give us the strength to achieve and renounce ! May Thakur bless us with light and direction ! May we conjointly labour towards that glorious destiny which lies in wait for us for ages !

Written by Sugata Bose

102. যখন আমি আছি, তখন প্রশ্ন নেই |

        যখন প্রশ্ন থাকবে, তখন আমি নেই |

103. 

Marxism has one war embedded in its very DNA - class war, which is why it is inherently so violent and invariably leads to diabolic despotism wherever it gains a foothold. Where philosophical justification is there for perpetrating violence, barbarism necessarily follows, leaving its trail of gruesome mass murder dubbed the 'Great Purge'. The history of practised Marxism is a pointer to this effect. 

104. I am in every pulse of humanity, I am the breath of the universe.

105. Oversimplification of Truth is not good. There must be absolute rational rigour to one's pronouncement on Truth and not a pandering to social vanities to catch the popular attention. Practicality must not reduce theory to laughing stock, neither must theory remain in its ivory tower with connection severed from social life. But for all that, Truth must retain its essential enunciation and not be reduced to its social derivative in terms of its very definitive articulation. 

106. Power is common to God and the Devil, purity is God's alone.

107.

Khudiram gave his life for us to sing and dance to film tunes now, at best to Tagore tunes, and for us to ruin our country's future with our indiscriminate living, our power-hungry, desire-crazy consumerist ways and means which have made a mockery of his cherished dreams for his beloved motherland, right? What a price the boy, barely stepping out of innocence, paid to free dancers and singers galore, alas, what a price !

108. এদেশে মানুষ কই যে স্বামীজীকে, রাসবিহারী বসুকে, হেমচন্দ্র ঘোষকে, নেতাজীকে বুঝবে ? সব কাপুরুষের দল !

109. 

One is simply amazed to see Gandhi's denunciation of the revolutionaries amidst his double talk praising their patriotism in places. Shrewdness is welcome in politics but unbecoming in a supposed Mahatma. So, was he ever a Mahatma? In a like manner, was he a true patriot as well? I have my doubts. What about you?

110. 

হৃদয়ের ব্যাপ্তি যেন পাণ্ডিত্যের পরিধি দিয়ে নিয়মিত না হয় | সহজ, সরল হোক তার চলন | সাধারণের মধ্যেই লুকিয়ে আছে অসাধারণ, চাই শুধু চেনার চোখ | অসামাণ্যা এই নারীকে চিনতে গেলও একই ভাবে শুধু নিজের মাকে, বোনকে ও বান্ধবীকে চিনলেও তার খানিক চেনা হবে যদি হৃদয়ে যথার্থ প্রেম থাকে | তাঁকে বৃহৎ পরিধিতে চিনতে গেলে পরে তাঁর জীবন ও কীর্তির অনুধ্যান তো আছেই | সরল ও গভীরের সমন্বয় হবে হৃদয়ের ত্রিবেনীসঙ্গমে,স্বচ্ছসলীলা তরঙ্গিনীর স্বাভাবিক উচ্ছাসে | এমনই হোক আমাদের জীবনে মানুযের প্রতি আচরণ, কঠিন নিয়মে বাঁধা নয়, সরল প্রেমে উচ্ছসিত |

111. আমি বুদ্ধিজীবী নই, আমি হৃদয়জীবী |

112. 

হাতে হীরকখণ্ড পেয়ে তাকে ত্যাগ করা, এ কৌশল জগতের ভারতবাসীর কাছে শেখার আছে |

113. First generate wealth. Then distribute it ill. Create poverty. Then do charity. Lovely order of socioeconomic life ! Lovely sense of surface religiosity and a great sense of complacent self-satisfaction at one's benevolence ! Godly after all !

114. 

Which Gandhian including Gandhi could match this self-sacrifice? Answer, which Gandhian? Could Gandhi? He called Jatin Mukherjee 'a divine personality'. But was he any match for him? These were the real heroes, not the notable Nehrus and the gallant Gandhis !

115. গুণহীনের কী আনন্দ, গুণের বোঝা নেই ! নির্গুণেরও কি একই আনন্দ, নাকি আনন্দও নেই ?

116. পাণ্ডিত্যে কি হবে ভাই যদি হৃদয় না থাকে ?

117. স্বয়ংসম্পূর্ণ ভাবটি ভাল কিন্তু স্বয়ংসম্পূর্ণ হওয়ার পরই ভাল, তার আগে নয় | আত্মনির্ভরতা আর স্বয়ংসম্পূর্ণতা এক নয় |

118. Give up dependence on astrology and start depending on yourself.

119. Independence in material terms is enlightened interdependence but in spiritual terms is the realization of the solidarity of the Being.

120. 

The revolutionaries loved the motherland more than anything else whereas the votaries of constitutional reform and later of Gandhian non-violence 'loved' humanity above the motherland. This was the essential difference. But as Swamiji said, "He who cannot love his own mother, how can he ever love someone else's mother?"

121. মহা সংঘর্ষ এখানে | আবার বিবাহ নিয়ে বাকযুদ্ধ এবং বিশ্রী ভাষায় |

ভারতরত্ন ? কেন ? কি তাঁর (অনীতা দেবীর) অবদান ভারতের জন্য ? আর হঠাৎ বিদেশিনীকে নিয়ে টানাটানি কেন দেশের রত্ন বিতরণের অভিপ্রায়ে ? তিনি ভারতের কে ও কি কাজ কবে করেছেন আমাদের দেশের জন্য যে তাঁর ভারতরত্ন পাওয়ার যোগ্যতা হঠাৎ জন্মাল আজ ?

122. প্রচার না অপপ্রচার ? হঠাৎ এতো এভাবে সোচ্চার কেন ? কি ঘটেছে যে নেতাজীপ্রেম আজি উথলি উঠিছে ঐ ? সবটাই কি রাজনৈতিক স্বার্থ নাকি ব্যক্তিগত স্বার্থও জড়িত ? সত্যই কি সত্যপ্রকাশের যথার্থ অভিপ্রায় নাকি আর কিছু ? নাহলে এহেন দুর্ভাষণ কেন এই সকল লেখার আনুষঙ্গিক মন্তব্যস্থলে (comment stream এ) ? এই প্রচারের/অপপ্রচারের হেতু কি ? সে যাই হোক, এইটুকু বেশ পরিস্ফুট যে নেতাজী পণ্যরূপেও বিক্রয় হচ্ছেন আজ ও রাজনৈতিক স্বার্থেও ব্যবহৃত হচ্ছেন চমৎকার তাঁর প্রিয় দেশবাসীর দ্বারা | এখন আপনারা মতামত জানান |

123.

আত্মবিজ্ঞাপনের শ্রেষ্ঠ উপায়, নেতাজীর নামে কুৎসা রটাও | আর দেখতে হবে না, মুহূর্তে post viral | এরকম এখন চলছে এক জায়গায় | অধঃপতিত জাতির আর জাতিত্ব রইল না | তবে প্রতিপ্রহারও খাচ্ছেন বাবাজীবন ! এখন দেখা যাক কতদূর গড়ায় ব্যাপারটা, কত নীচে নামতে পারেন ভদ্র |

https://www.facebook.com/412592742210373/posts/2231880896948206/

124. 

আজও কেন এত দ্বন্দ নেতাজীর বিয়ে নিয়ে ? কেন প্রমাণের অভাবকে মেনে নেওয়া হয়না ? যা প্রমাণিত নয় অকাট্যভাবে তা কি গ্রহণণযোগ্য বুদ্ধিমানের কাছে ? তাহলে ? তাহলে এই ভ্রান্তি আজও কেন ? কেন কলঙ্কলেপনের প্রয়াস পবিত্রাত্মা এই মহানায়কের প্রতি ? মানুষ তো মানবেন না এই সব উদ্ভট আরোপ | তাহলে বৃথা পণ্ডশ্রম কেন ? কি স্বার্থসিদ্ধি হবে আর এর দ্বারা ? যা এতদিনেও জনমানসে স্থান পেল না তা কি আর আজ তাঁর অন্তর্ধানের আট দশক বাদে নতুন করে স্থান পাবে ? সত্য উদ্ঘাটন ভাল কিন্তু বৃথা বাক্যব্যয় ? ভেবে দেখুন, পড়ুন, জানুন, তারপর স্থির সিদ্ধান্তে উপনীত হোন |

125. প্রেমে বিশ্ব বিধৃত |

126. Adieu fifties !

127. 60 years old.

(10.06.1961 - 10.06.2021 +)

These numbers fail to give the feel of the stretch of life in love and loss, in bliss and beauty, in dark despair, in soulful flight to sunlit peaks, in fulfilment in blessed ecstasy. But they have all encompassed the gamut of Me.

128. STRAY THOUGHTS 

What is the use of maintaining a body whose spiritual, intellectual and cultural output have no value for the concerned people?

Sunfall -- streams of sunlight falling from the sun onto earth like water from a mountainous waterfall.

I know I will wait for all but that none will wait for me. So I hurry on my way to serve others, so I hasten to clear others' path, so I serve myself the least and the last lest I should inconvenience others.

Tearfall -- the dewdrop that rolls down the cheek from the eye that sees into the heart of things.

Swamiji composed 'Song of the Sannyasin' and I have composed in my life 'Song of the heart'.

It is best to cut one's anchor now and die when the high tide is there and life's ebb tide has set in. There is no purpose to living anymore when all one's hopes are betrayed, when life has lost its lingering love of the morrow and a furtherance will only decay today's freshness when departure, if even in pain, can still be delightful for it will relieve the misery while still sensation remains to feel it.

129. প্রশ্ন : কর্মের কৌশল কি ?

উত্তর  : আত্মপ্রচেষ্টা ও ভগবৎ নির্ভরতা |

130. Those who serve others, serve themselves best. Let this be the motto of life. But care must be taken of oneself as well, for there is no partition between others and oneself, the selves being all integrated in the Self.

131. We must never forsake our culture for the borrowed culture from the West.

132. The British came, plundered and reduced us to poverty like never before. Let our rich men remember this and not reduce us to poverty further by despoiling us.

133. Sincerity is a function of character, not of age, energy considerations notwithstanding.

134. India is most beautiful in her diverse currents of life. Preserve it to keep her beautiful.

135. Modernisation is the way. But it must be a modernisation of the mind, of attitudes, aspirations and the struggle, the struggle to free oneself of treacherous traditional trappings, the struggle to liberate the masses from their beasthood of existence unto the true liberty of the Self. The current religious revivalism, archaic and regressive, steeped as it is in capitalist vested interests in the dubious garb of pseudo-nationalism, all this must be replaced with a wholesome assertion of progressive ways and means, an affirmation of the eternal truths of the Vedas which are consonant to modern rational thinking and superceding it in beauty and wisdom, and the catching of the current of the liberal, advancing ways of the enlightened of the world.

Written by Sugata Bose

136. Common tendency is to classify people. But truth consists in declassification.

137. We, as aspirations, float on the sea of causation till we embody to fulfil our dreams, then dissolve again in the same old sea. Thus we proceed from life to life till, desires satiated and desires sublimated, we like bubbles burst to be the sea itself, never to rise to frothy form again. 

Written by Sugata Bose

138. The immediate future of our country seems dark as children become increasingly lax in their academic studies and take to the frivolities of life.

139. Life is to learn and love. Do so and be free.

140. এই দুটোই তো বই - কথামৃত আর লীলাপ্রসঙ্গ | পড়বেন রোজ | ভাল লাগবে, ভাল হবে |

141. যে পরিমাণে পাণ্ডিত্য, সেই পরিমাণে হৃদয়ের প্রসার না হলে বৃথা শিক্ষা |

142. A willingness to obey instructions, do the bidding and fulfil the aspirations of the preceptor is the precursor to spiritual realisation. Desire must not come in the way and bar communion.

143. Hard work heals, perseverance pays.

144. 

The British ill-treated us. We have won our freedom. Now let us not ill-treat each other. In the dignity of each Indian lies the validity of our freedom. Else, we are not yet free. We are our own bond-slaves. It is self-colonisation. Never forget the sacrifice of the revolutionaries nor pretend to be their sole legatees through vaunted true and supposed association. Obliterate ego and do not act in a supercilious way as if you are the absolute arbiters on patriotism. Contain your vanity within reasonable bounds. You are not the only true inheritors of the nation's culture nor the sole successors of those who fought for freedom. A sane sense of equality should deem this an imperative in your daily dealings. 

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo : Bhupendranath Datta

145. HOW COULD TAGORE TAKE THE KNIGHTHOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE ?

I have often wondered how Tagore could have accepted the knighthood of the British Empire in the first place from the rapacious colonisers before somewhat redeeming himself in renouncing it. Would Swamiji or Netaji or Rash Behari Bose have accepted such an 'honour' from the molesters of the motherland? And knight? Whose knight? A knight of the most dastardly regime of all time, the wicked British Crown that tyrannised over a third of the world for centuries and reduced flourishing peoples to penury? Serving as a knight of such a savage imperial order and then to be hailed as supreme renouncer of title at the awakened consciousness about British dastardliness post the Amritsar massacre? Would a right-feeling man have accepted such an 'honour' as Tagore did from the bloodstained hands of the hangmen who were regularly sending our brave revolutionaries to the gallows or to animal incarceration in the Andamans? Hemchandra Ghosh decried the deed. What would Khudiram say?

Written by Sugata Bose

146. Our helpnessness we call God, our beloved we call God, our ignorance we call God and our enlightenment we also call God.

147.

কাপুরুষের দেশ ! নাচো, গাও, আনন্দ করো, কবিতা লেখো, বিপ্লবীদের মিথ্যামালা দাও আর লোকসমক্ষে ও লোকান্তরে নিজস্বার্থ রক্ষা করো | এবার বলো জয় হিন্দ, বন্দে মাতরম্ আর জয়তু স্বামীজী !

আলোকচিত্র : সেকালের মানুষ, একালের নন, বিপ্লবী হেমচন্দ্র ঘোষ | একটু ব্যতিক্রমী বটে !

148. মা লক্ষমুখে না খেয়ে বসে আছেন, খাওয়াবেন কাকে ?

149. দুই ধরণের মানুষ আসেন -- এক মায়ায় বাঁধবার জন্য, আর এক মায়া ছাড়াবার জন্য | এবার বুঝে নিন কোন 'মহাপুরুষ' কোন শ্রেণীর |

150. That which binds you is not religion, that which frees you is.

151.