Saturday 31 July 2021
PERFECTION, DEAR PATRIOT
PERFECTION, DEAR PATRIOT
As a nation we must practise perfection in our activities and endeavours. When I see people presenting write-ups and comments with scant concern for punctuation, I immediately understand why we win neither Nobel Prizes nor Olympic medals worth the call despite being the second most populous country in the world.
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. See, I edited this write-up again today, making minor alterations and adjustments here and there. This is exactly what I meant by the continuous search for excellence in the execution of a deed, this, the perennial pursuit of perfection. Only then will we rise as a nation constructively in all fields, not before.
Thursday 29 July 2021
THE IMPERFECTION THAT HAS BECOME ENDEMIC
THE IMPERFECTION THAT HAS BECOME ENDEMIC
Unless intellectual quality of the masses improves in India there is little hope of success for our countrymen in international meets where the whole world participates. Perfection comes through diligence and patient perseverance at one's trade which is sadly missing in the average person. Hence, such abysmal showing for decades in the Olympics and in areas of learning, not to forget that the second-most populous country that we are, we have failed to win a single Nobel Prize from an Indian university since Independence. God bless us at our wonderful callousness so that the inertia of past non-performance and raucous rowdyism in the public domain continues !
Written by Sugata Bose
HAIL PHOTO
HAIL PHOTO !
Idolatry was not a part of the original Vedic religion. So have I read in Swamiji and elsewhere. If I am wrong, I am amenable to being corrected. Idol worship was introduced by the Buddhists in India to popularise their religion and has stayed on since even after Buddhism ceased to be a force anymore in India. Vaishnavism absorbed many of the elements of Buddhism including idol worship, replacing Krishna for Buddha, and, so, idol worship was thoroughly assimilated into Hinduism with all its good and bad consequences.
Now the worship of photographs on Facebook posts instead of pondering over the content of posts is a direct consequence of this ingrained idolatry and at its nadir at that. Would it were that devotees were a trifle more engaged in reading! They would have benefited more and turned into better devotees. Devotion tries to raise human consciousness above the physical level but such ardent devotion to photographs hardly does so. Thus, such show of devotion betrays quite its opposite attribute, so it seems to me. Would it were otherwise!
Written by Sugata Bose
THE ATMAN
THE ATMAN
This Witness (Saakshi), this Seer (Drashtaa), is witnessing itself in solitary habitat. The Eternal Presence is One that simply cannot replicate. Multiplicity is born out of apparent dispersion of the uncompounded Light seemingly, magically passing through the prism of the mythical Mind. Divergence is thus caused, an impossibility in original terms, yet a derivation in strange aberration of the Absolute. This impossible manifestation is Maya. It appears magically and in time disappears magically. Law is the mythical classification of events within its fold but at base meaningless for there is neither rhyme to rhyme nor reason to reason as such. Law is the inverted vision of the lawless, of Brahman as Maya. And, yet, Maya is that which seems to be but is in essence not, it being the impossible image of the Real which cannot reflect itself except within itself, unpartitioned, whole, a Self-brooding on itself. This impossible event of universal name and form is Maya and must of its own move before Brahman reveals as Brahman. Queer appearance and queer disappearance, but Maya must move eventually to reveal the Truth which then will be self-evident as eternally evident and never eclipsed or obscured ever. Time and space vanish to reveal the Self as the superconscious, frozen, existential, integrated substance in solitary status. Neither analysis nor synthesis can operate in it as it lies ever-awake in a solidarity of absolute existence.
Written by Sugata Bose
DUALISM DUPING THE MASSES, BUT FOR HOW LONG YET?
DUALISM DUPING THE MASSES, BUT FOR HOW LONG YET?
Our country is almost universally dualistic although non-dualism at its sublime best was discovered in India. But a largely feudal mentality and its consequent subservience to authority has rendered India sterile regarding Advaitic understanding. The Advaita in disposition is infiltrated by dualistic doctrines, carefully camouflaged but hopeless so, and this has allowed apologists of dualism unreasonable arguments which attempt to foil the pure Advaita from seeing the light of day. The country suffers in consequence as the standard of truth is lowered to accommodate dualistic weakness. The Spirit is relegated to second place as the body rules.
Written by Sugata Bose
DURGA ! DURGA !
DURGA ! DURGA !
Dear Durga Prasad,
You are a brilliant fellow. For your age and relative inexperience, you are simply a marvel. Carry on doctor but try and give yourself rest, too, from too much of a preoccupation with this old fellow's leisurely pursuit in relative retirement. Else, overmuch of engagement with fertile, fruitless dialogue (fruitless in terms of office work) would prove detrimental to our cause, for you are one of the finest specimens of our youth who has yet a long way to go en route to realisation and happy establishment of the Sanatan Dharma.
Ever yours in nothingness,
Sugata Bose
Wednesday 28 July 2021
TRUTH AND UNTRUTH GOING AS TRUTH
TRUTH AND UNTRUTH GOING AS TRUTH
The universe is an appearance and its God is an appearance, too. Hence, God and the universe are both unreal, being bred in ignorance. Brahman alone is and is alone real. But to affirm Brahman is to negate it even as to negate Shakti is to affirm it. But in nirvikalpa samadhi the universe vanishes and the ever-existent Absolute Reality is revealed in its solidarity of being. One then witnesses oneself as the Supreme Self. Dualistic weakness springing out of the sense of body breeds this notion of the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God but it is the product of weakness and nothing more. All these attributes in essence mean nothing as even their supposed holder cannot hold on to His phenomenal existence before the renunciate's discrimination which dissolves His identity into nothingness through analytical reduction. Existence which has been named Brahman -- although it is nameless, formless, attributeless -- alone ever abides in Self-brooding, Self-witnessing. Those who have experienced that state know what is being here stated. Others will merely wonder and through lack of incisiveness of understanding fail to apprehend the meaning. For them the universe and its God or Godlessness is valid as they remain entrapped within the meshes of ignorance. But this Absolute Reality has to be witnessed before liberation is for it alone is the ultimate Truth. Immediate experience, called Aparokshaanubhuuti in Sanskrit, is the key.
Written by Sugata Bose
PRINCIPLE AND PERSONALITY ... 2
PRINCIPLE AND PERSONALITY ... 2
Liberation means deliverance from personalilty. Hence, subservience even to divine personalilty must eventually go. Better still, let it go right from the beginning, either of one's own self or of an imposed self of a supposedly divine being, even that of God. If one wishes to savour divine love and, so, clings to personalilty, let him. Independence is there for all to choose spiritual paths. But deliverance thus is a far cry where such clinging is for material ends, even that of spiritual organisation, that of a Church, say. Ultimately, the personality has to be given up as it is a myth and must dissolve under the force of renunciation. Then liberation is at hand as it has always been, 'karaamalakavat'.
Written by Sugata Bose
Tuesday 27 July 2021
PRINCIPLE AND PERSONALITY ... 1
PRINCIPLE AND PERSONALITY ... 1
The main difference between science and religion is that the former speaks of principles always while the latter tries to glorify personalities, even God, by any means. The former's is the cause of knowledge while the latter's more a commercial cause. The only exception to this in the realm of religion is the Vedanta which entirely deals with philosophical principles and, as such, Vedanta approximates science, being the science of the Spirit, the Self behind this phenomenal appearance of name and form. In it there are no goings on of glorification of personality which is why it advanced so much in ancient India in evolution of thought like modern science in this age has done in the realm of matter.
Written by Sugata Bose
RUMINATION
RUMINATION
To call God as a being having infinite attributes is logically untenable as attributes necessarily are finite. Hence, God being the possessor of finite attributes in consequence would become finite Himself which is absurd as God by definition must be infinite. Hence, the infinite God must be devoid of attributes which would make Him formless, genderless, spaceless, timeless, beyond causation, in short, transcendent, having no connection whatsoever with one or more universes of name and form. Hence, God cannot be immanent at all. And God missing from the universe makes the universe either self-existent phenomenally, apparently, or absent altogether. At any rate, by definition, it is a Godless world then. So, atheists do have a point and a very valid point at that, although their line of argument is quite different.
Another reason why it is a Godless world is that the universe, both in its external physical aspect and in its internal mental aspect, is material, as both body and mind are matter. Hence, if God is immanent, then He is matter, too, which by definition is absurd. So, there again we see, it is a Godless world.
Written by Sugata Bose
MOTHER'S MISSION
MOTHER'S MISSION
We have to spiritualise our work with love. Only then will the work proceed well.
This work is the uplift of the world unto light, health and love itself, and no self-serving activity of any sort.
We have to break national and international barriers and make this wholly a human cause.
Spiritual work has no specific location in time and space but is ever located in the loving heart.
Spiritualisation of the whole world is the cherished aim of this movement.
Partitioning the movement on a national basis is not what can lend universality to it. Hence, our ideas must be universal, without boundaries, and we must be equipped with boundless love for the cause.
The Vedanta must not remain textual and abstruse but must be simplified into living, loving forms that men can lovingly respond to. The world must be deluged in love for that is what it is deficient in terribly. Ramakrishna must come alive as love incarnate.
This love must show in tangible terms, in welfare work, in service to others beholding them as divinities, in spreading the message of the Master and his spiritual entourage, and in soulful dedication devoid of egotism for the betterment of human life everywhere.
Self-realisation precludes the absence of selfishness. The least trace of selfishness must be rooted out.
We must set ablaze the world with the fire of spirituality. We must inundate the shores of the wide world with the nectarine flow of love that knows no reason save identification with all as one's own self.
India is not a material landmass. She is the vast repository of spiritual truths, a continent of ideas, the fertile field of spiritual seeds hibernating unto the hour of their timely fruition. The Vedas lie in wait for their fulfilment. The times are ripe. Must we fail?
Written by Sugata Bose
Monday 26 July 2021
SWANSONG ... 1
SWANSONG ... 1
Life was fever-stricken till the Upanishads met it. Away, far away from the din of this world, from the bustle of incessant activity that throws the mind into chaos, up there in the Himalayan hills, in those remote forest retreats of remotest antiquity, there at the hallowed feet of the ancient Arya rishi is 'Peace that passeth understanding'. There where the lovely chirping mountainous birds break the silence of the dense, making it lovelier all the more, there where the heavens meet the forest treetops in an embrace of God and man, there where the rippling rivulets, the rushing whirlpools, the dainty brooks in their downward course quench the thirst of the aspirant soul, there in the eternal abode of philosophic wisdom is revealed the knowledge, 'Thou art the imperishable Atman, the one substance in a universe of ephemeral dreams.' There lies wisdom, there lies peace, there lies my final repose, my ultimate rest.
Written by Sugata Bose
Thursday 22 July 2021
THE WAY TO GOD ... 1
THE WAY TO GOD ... 1
1. This Truth is transcendental and cannot be spoken of. It has to be experienced.
2. Experience is both phenomenal as well as transcendental. The senses experience the objects, external to the body and internal to the mind. The senses are transcended to directly experience this Absolute Truth.
3. The way to transcend the limitations of the sense-bound world of name and form is the subject matter of the scriptures and is termed in the preliminary stage as dharma and in the advanced stage as yoga.
4. Dharma preserves the aspirant en route to the goal. Yoga takes him further on to the goal.
5. Man is hopelessly bound in this dream world of name and form, in this delusive world which is the false appearance of the Real, and is cast in untold misery, that of ignorance, disease, death and the recycling of his self to bear out his past karma.
6. Enormous is his suffering, bound up body and mind and dragged about by the invisible forces of resolving work.
7. In his undeveloped state man enjoys and suffers but cannot sufficiently brood on the effects of his actions to be able to get rid of his perpetual earthly misery.
8. But as he matures through increasing experience through life after life, his inner eye opens and he becomes restless to rid himself of this limitation imposed upon him by the body and the mind and all the misery thereof.
9. Then he turns inward and the reverse order of evolution, that of the Spirit, begins. The aspirant has finally run into the blindlane of phenomena and must reverse his direction. The inward journey begins.
10. But the trappings are many. Past memories, associations, unfulfilled dreams and desires still play havoc with the reclusive soul.
11. To guard against such goings-on, it is wise to seek the protection of a preceptor and to study the scriptures.
12. The Vedas are voluminous and can delude the brain. Hence, in this day and age, the study of Swami Vivekananda is most effective as his words are simple, profound, modern, scientific and authoritative. They have the sanction of Self-realisation and the divine commission of his spiritual Master, the Avatar of the Age, Sri Ramakrishna.
13. Desires are like venomous snakes and they inject the poison of death.
14. Hence, overcoming desires is the way to immortality. From Buddha to Vivekananda all have stressed the need of self-restraint with varying emphasis as to objectives and, hence, with varying results accruing to society.
15. Desires scatter the otherwise concentrated mind. They take you away from yourself into the objective world of the many. Desires, in doing so, dissipate force, deplete energy and degenerate the man. Death is the eventual result with its unending recycling of the material self through life after life till purity be reached enough for a recoiling unto the Self.
16. The Self is the One and the World is the Many. The tussle is between the two and this constitutes life, bondage and liberation.
17. The problem of existence is one of getting out of its transitoriness. It cannot be effected by lengthening lifespan for life, however long, will eventually end. It has to be radically solved by transcending phenomenal life and entering into the absolute immortality.
18. But it is easier said than done and herein lies the subject matter of the Sanatan Dharma.
19. A certain depth of character is necessary for the aspirant. A light-hearted approach can neither persist nor prevail in the study of the soul en route to realisation of the Self. The scripture talks of 'shraddha' in this regard. It is this intense reverential attitude towards seeking spiritual perfection that is the sine qua non for advancement along the spiritual path.
Written by Sugata Bose
Wednesday 21 July 2021
VEDANTA PREACHER IN THE WEST, STOP CALLING SRI RAMAKRISHNA 'CRAZY' TO BE IN LINE WITH WESTERN WAYS OF CASUAL, COLLOQUIAL REFERENCE
VEDANTA PREACHER IN THE WEST, STOP CALLING SRI RAMAKRISHNA 'CRAZY' TO BE IN LINE WITH WESTERN WAYS OF CASUAL, COLLOQUIAL REFERENCE
We must not use such terms as 'crazy' with regard to Sri Ramakrishna while addressing western audiences, even by way of casual reference. It is an insult unto the one we adore. There is a Ramakrishna monk who needs to be more circumspect in this regard. Such verbal usage only goes to show that these preachers of the Vedanta are as yet unfit for the job and need a deepening of self before they are sent abroad to do so.
Restraint of speech is the sine qua non for preachers. Even Swami Vivekananda was cautious when speaking about his Master. How much more these others today need to be then. It is painful to behold how these monks after a three month stay in USA change pronunciation of certain words such as 'ask, 'task', 'past', 'last' and the like to their US forms while clinging on to their early-set Indian accent for the rest of the language spoken by them. This sort of quick capitulation to foreign influence, and imperfectly so, betrays a lack of character-strength and the tendency to be easily won over by foreign influence whose degenerate manifestation is in calling the very Master they represent 'crazy', if even by way of reference to how many people in his times viewed him. But there is a casualness in the manner in which this monk speaks such things which is highly objectionable. If he really understood the depth of the Master and had a like reverence, he could not have done what he so easily does and without compunction of conscience. After all his western audience laughs with him. Light-hearted speaker and a like audience! Gone are the days when Yama spoke to Nachiketa and the Kathopanishad called it 'Aashcharya vaktaa kushalasya labhdhaa' (Wondrous the speaker, adept the receiver). Now it is Vedanta in words, not in depth of intent or gravity in delivery. And the sufferer as usual is our Thakur!
Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi was much opposed to this use of the adjective 'crazy' in reference to her divine husband. Once when her own mother, Shyamasundari Devi, lamented her daughter Sarada as having been unfortunately married off to a madman, Holy Mother instantly remonstrated that her husband was not a madman, and she cautioned her mother never to use such an epithet on her husband again.
Levity afflicts us today as a nation, perhaps, but that ought not to affect our way of addressing our great men and women, especially, such ones who millions venerate and worship as the Avatar. That does not mean that certain ways and manners are being proscribed and only certain definite ways prescribed. Our Vedic culture does not believe in imposition of any sort but it definitely stresses on the cultivation of 'shraddhaa' which is that 'intense aspirational mood seeking perfection' (definition by Sugata Bose). If levity strikes at the root of this 'shraddhaa', then it is best given up and a more serious attitude adopted in reference to preaching these epoch-makers, these divinities of seminal significance.
Written by Sugata Bose
ভারতের ভবিষ্যৎ
ভারতের ভবিষ্যৎ
------------------
অনেক বেশী সংখ্যায় ডাক্তারের প্রয়োজন | ছেলেমেয়েরা, লেখাপড়া করো ভাল করে | উন্নত, চরিত্রবান নাগরিক চাই লক্ষ লক্ষ দেশগঠনের জন্য | বিজ্ঞানমনস্কতা আবশ্যক গোটা জাতির কিন্তু ঔপনিষদিক চেতনার সাথে সহাবস্থান করে তা যেন থাকে | পৌরহিত্যের ব্যভিচার বর্জন করতে গিয়ে যেন দেশ জড়বাদী নাস্তিকতাকে ধ্রুব বলে মেনে না বসে | বিজ্ঞানের সাথে বেদান্তের বিরোধ নেই, বরং বিজ্ঞান ও বেদান্ত একে অপরের পরিরূরক | তাই এই উভয় বিষয়ের সমন্বিত শিক্ষার দ্বারা ভবিষ্যতের ভারত বলিষ্ঠভাবে বেড়ে উঠুক | এতেই জাতির কল্যাণ | এরই পালনে হবে যথার্থভাবে পালন 'সত্যম্, শিবম্, সুন্দরম্'রূপী সনাতন ভারতমন্ত্রের |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
WHEN MEN REJOICE OVER THE SLAUGHTER OF MAN AND ANIMAL ALIKE, O MAHATMA, THOU ART THE BEACON FOR US ALL !
WHEN MEN REJOICE OVER THE SLAUGHTER OF MAN AND ANIMAL ALIKE, O MAHATMA, THOU ART THE BEACON FOR US ALL !
Gandhiji, for all the criticism that may be levelled against him by his fanatical detractors, stands out luminous as the exemplar of the deepest respect for all life. Generations hence will revere him as the greatest human being of his Age, one who stood on the threshold of universal unification and attempted to usher in a new understanding of life and its fundamental dignity, not merely in written or articulated theoretical terms but in living practice, in precepts made flesh through application in real life under the most trying of circumstances. No wonder has the great geniuses of the world and men of seminal eminence paid him such tributes. In the Nuclear Age with its cataclysmic possibilities Gandhiji stands out as the beacon of humanity and hope, the early apostle of a future world peace and harmonious coexistence of the diverse peoples of the world. We must brood deep on Gandhiji's life and times, his precepts and practices, even his follies and foibles, so that we may find a luminous track to traverse in this darkened and darkening world of ours.
Written by Sugata Bose
DOES MAN HAVE ANY DIVINE RIGHT OVER THE ANIMALS HE SO SELFISHLY SACRIFICES ?
DOES MAN HAVE ANY DIVINE RIGHT OVER THE ANIMALS HE SO SELFISHLY SACRIFICES ?
Who will save the dumb animals? Who is their God who will have mercy on them? Is God so man-centric? Then He is a partial God and no God at all.
We cannot claim to be civilised so long as we give in to barbaric medieval practices in the name of appeasing God when the very animals we sacrifice are embodiment of the very God we seek to appease. Torture of the lower species and their destruction cannot make us human, let alone divine in any way.
The Lord of man is also the Lord of animals, man being merely the eldest sibling in this order of animal creation. Such a Lord is a loving Lord and cannot desire the flesh of His own children. And if He does, He is no God then and all notions about His existence and divinity are best discarded. It is better to be free atheists who can foster love for all creatures than religious ignoramuses harbouring hate towards fellow humans or exercising divine lordship over the lower species in sacrificing them to appease God.
When will man be human after all? If God holds you from doing so, then give up your hold on such a God and become Man once and for all.
Written by Sugata Bose
Monday 19 July 2021
THE ATHEIST AND THE APOLOGIST
THE ATHEIST AND THE APOLOGIST
Lennox speaks rubbish even as Hitchens exhilarates. What a brilliant mind Christopher Hitchens is ! And what felicity of speech ! What delectable humour ! What instant cross-references by way of illustration of point made ! What erudition and articulation thereof ! The untimely death of Hitchens has seen the eclipse of the most brilliant world intellectual, a terrible loss to humanity. Dr. John Lennox, mathematician, Oxford professor, yet, Christian apologist, makes a mockery of everything that is worthwhile in the name of Reason, Enlightenment and the very science he represents in his profession. His outlandish arguments, baseless as they are, prove the utter hollowness of Christian theology. The audience cannot be fooled, perceptive as they are, and Christopher Hitchens scores a resounding victory over his aged opponent, a fact that mah be judged by the loudness of the applause he receives at the end.
Written by Sugata Bose
POINT TO PONDER, PERHAPS
POINT TO PONDER, PERHAPS
If the Immaculate Conception could take place as Christianity claims, why did it require a woman to give birth to Jesus, and not a man instead? If natural law could be so suspended, could it not have been done done by the Immaculate Conception of a man who would 'mother' the prospective miraculous Son of God?
Written by Sugata Bose
WHAT LIES AHEAD
WHAT LIES AHEAD
India must be democratised truly and that is possible only through the right application of the Vedanta. But that would spell the doom of priestcraft and even this overmuch of homage done to the monks. If everybody is God, then this hyper-bowing down and prostrating before monks must go. Let India arise in true self-dignity wielding the twin swords of science and spirituality. Let the God in Man or the Man in God awaken.
Written by Sugata Bose
THE NATIONAL NEED
THE NATIONAL NEED
What we need is to raise the culture of the land. An immediate exercise must be to see to it that people study more, are less superficial, less devoted to the flesh, more rational, more enterprising in diverse disciplines and more given to seeking perfection in work. The rest will follow. Individuals must take it upon themselves to pay less attention to seeking the surface attention of others and to enhance their skills, their genuine deserving to acquire real recognition in society. Study, service and soulfulness must be the trinity that should guide us in our advance towards elevated nationhood.
Written by Sugata Bose
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA -- PATRIOT-PROPHET
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA -- PATRIOT-PROPHET
The best book I have ever read on Swami Vivekananda. Such in-depth analysis, such incisiveness of thinking, such brilliant originality and, above all, such scientific, historical adherence that the author, the youngest brother of Swamiji, has exhibited take one's breath away. Easily the finest treatise on Swamiji, a must-read for all serious students of the patriot-prophet.
Written by Sugata Bose
ভাববার কথা
ভাববার কথা
------------------
আমি সেই প্রচারক ভক্তকে দেখতে চাই যিনি প্রতিটি জপের পরিবর্তে অর্থনৈতিক ক্ষতি স্বীকার করতে সানন্দে প্রস্তুত | অর্থাৎ, এমন যদি হত যে একবার ঠাকুরের নাম করলেই ১০০০ টাকা লোকসান হত, তাহলে কোন রামকৃষ্ণভক্ত এই ভক্তির প্রদর্শনে মাততেন, এটি জানার ইচ্ছা রইল | দেশের প্রবল আর্থসামাজিক সংকটের কালে কোথায় সচেতন হবেন ভক্তেরা ঠাকুর-স্বামীজীকে কেন্দ্র করে, অর্থাৎ, তাঁদের উপদেশাবলীর যথার্থ অনুধাবন ও প্রয়োগের মাধ্যমে, তা না, তাঁরা ধর্মের অহিফেন সেবনেই মত্ত, ভাবছেন মোক্ষলাভ বুঝি ওমনি দুটো সাধুর বন্দনা করলেই হয়ে যাবে, তাতে সমাজ রসাতলে গেলেই বা কি আসে যায় | ঠাকুর-মা-স্বামীজী বুঝি স্তাবকতার বশ, মানবপ্রেমের, আর্থসামাজিক শোষণের পরিবর্তনের নয় | এটি ভাববার বিষয় |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
ARISE ! AWAKE
ARISE ! AWAKE !
We are an economically exploited nation, not by the British anymore but by our own people, the capitalists who care not for us but care only for their uncouth profits at the expense of the lifeblood of the labouring class and the rest of the country that goes by the name of the peasantry and the middle class. It is robbery by broad daylight with full legal protection.
Must a handful enjoy life to facilitate which the rest of humanity must live a living death? The government is insensitive to the growing misery of the people and only rising public consciousness can avert a national economic catastrophe in the not-so-long a run with its terrible overall fallout. But the polity, despite such suffering, is being quelled into passive acquiescence of the exploitative powers that be and this invariably is done by the media and the entertainment channels which are controlled by these capitalists.
Those who rise from the middle class or even from the labouring class to the upper economic strata choose to conveniently forget their past life of strangulated means and become one with the exploitative order directly or indirectly. Thus, the bulk of humanity keeps suffering their unbearable economic hardship. This is not what a nation state should have been in seventy-four years of it having won political freedom.
We all suffer badly today. Doctors, lawyers, businessmen and politicians -- they all exploit. Even monks do not raise their voices against this exploitative order but rather make common cause with it by befriending the rich to finance their philanthropic projects, thus allowing these dastardly people to justify to themselves the fairness of their foul acquisition of wealth.
Where is justice, where fairplay, where a level playing ground? Where is God when the living God is so exploited?
Written by Sugata Bose
Saturday 17 July 2021
BACK TO VIVEKANANDA
BACK TO VIVEKANANDA
What is the use of building statues of Swamiji and temples of Thakur when the living Gods and Goddesses by the hundreds of millions are being reduced to becoming beasts of burden under the crushing wheels of crony capitalism? Does it become the renounced followers of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda not to raise their voice of protest against this brutal exploitation of the people in the name of legally sanctioned profit? Whither conscience? Whither consciousness? Whither being anymore the true adherents of the lofty ideals of the divine duo, the pristine principles of our ancient philosophy? Now there is none among the professed followers of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji that follows the real God that is the visible mass of moving, living humanity. All that they follow is the other God, the God of convenience, the God whose other name is 'the privileged class of society'. Taking donations from the rich and serving the poor may seem a noble occupation but only serves to perpetuate the misery of the masses by not striking at the roots of corruption, this crass commercial, capitalistic exploitation. Hence, the failure of Swamiji's mission and his terrible frustration before death in having in his seer's eye the forevision of the ensuing exploitative order which his countrymen would be dragged into with none among his followers even, perhaps, to resist.
Written by Sugata Bose
আমি ও আমার আয়না
আমি ও আমার আয়না
--------------------------------
দিনরাত নিজের রূপের বাহার করতে ভাল লাগে ? এত দেহবোধ ? ফেসবুকের পাতা খুললেই নিত্যনতুন বাহারের ছবি, আত্মবিজ্ঞাপন ? বুদ্ধি, বিবেক, বোধ, চেতনা -- এ সব কি নিজের দেহের প্রদর্শনের কাছে হার মেনেছে তাহলে ? সবই জলাঞ্জলি ? কিসের শিক্ষা, কিসের সংস্কৃতি, কিসের সভ্যতা তাহলে ? শুধুই দেহ বুঝি আপনারা, আর কিছু নন ?
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
প্রশ্ন সাধুদের কাছে, প্রশ্ন সুধীজনের বিবেকের কাছে
প্রশ্ন সাধুদের কাছে, প্রশ্ন সুধীজনের বিবেকের কাছে
-----------------‐-----------------------------
সাধুরা শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা করেন, কত সদুপদেশ দেন, শাস্ত্রবাক্য বলেন, কিন্তু ধনতন্ত্রের নির্মম শোষণের বিরুদ্ধে সোচ্চার হন না কেন ? স্বামীজী তো হতেন | তাঁর সেই শোষণবিরোধী অগ্নিময় বাণীপ্রচারে জোর দেন না কেন তাঁর অনুগামীরা ? রাজনীতি না করেও মনুষ্যত্বের খাতিরে তা করা সম্ভব ও করা উচিত | যে দেশে এত মন্দির, এত মূর্তি, সে দেশে কেন এভাবে অজস্র অর্থ ব্যয় করে নিত্যনতুন মন্দিরনির্মাণ ও স্বামীজীর মূর্তি উন্মোচন করেন ? স্বামীজী এর ঘোর বিরোধী ছিলেন | তাঁর বিখ্যাত বক্তৃতা 'Is Vedanta the Future Religion?' পাঠ করুন ও স্বীয় সিদ্ধান্তে উপনীত হন |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
EXCERPT FROM 'IS VEDANTA THE FUTURE RELIGION ?' BY SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
The infinite truth is never to be acquired. It is here all the time, undying and unborn. He, the Lord of the universe, is in every one. There is but one temple — the body. It is the only temple that ever existed. In this body, He resides, the Lord of souls and the King of kings. We do not see that, so we make stone images of Him and build temples over them. Vedanta has been in India always, but India is full of these temples — and not only temples, but also caves containing carved images. "The fool, dwelling on the bank of the Gangâ, digs a well for water!" Such are we! Living in the midst of God — we must go and make images. We project Him in the form of the image, while all the time He exists in the temple of our body. We are lunatics, and this is the great delusion.
Friday 16 July 2021
FACEBOOK NEW MESSAGES AND TWEETS ... 35
FACEBOOK NEW MESSAGES AND TWEETS ... 35
1. He who begs cannot be God. Those that go by the name of 'yogis' and 'gurus' these days are mostly charlatans propped up by the political powers that be and are mercenaries masquerading as messiahs, albeit with a modern touch, a tinge of reason and a queer mixture of superstition and pseudo-science.
2. The problems of the world are stemming more from a lack of heart than from a lack of intelligence. Training of the heart and the building up of character must be stressed more in education.
3. 
মা, তোমার ছবির দাম মানুষের থেকে বেশী | কে তোমার সন্তানকে বুঝবে ? কে করবে রক্ষা তাদের ?
4. When a person is merry, there are lots to give him company but when he suffers, he suffers his lot alone.
5. বিদ্রোহী না হলে ভগবানকে বোঝা যায় না | নির্ভিকই একমাত্র সত্যান্বেষণের উপযোগী |
6. যে মানুষের কল্যাণকর্ম করে যথার্থ, সে আস্তিক, আর যে নিজের স্বার্থসিদ্ধির কর্ম করে, সে নাস্তিক |
7. 
সন্ন্যাসী হওয়া এত সোজা নয় | সন্ন্যাসীর প্রথম লক্ষণ সমদর্শন | তিনি ধনীকে দরিদ্রের তুলনায় অধিক সম্মান দেবেন না, কোম্পানির CEO কে কোম্পানীর চাপরাশির থেকে অধিক খাতির করবেন না, দেশের প্রধানমন্ত্রীকে দেশের দরিত্রতম ব্যক্তিটির চাইতে অধিক আতিথ্য করবেন না |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
8. সম্মেলনেই শক্তি |
9. 15 August, 1947 is Dominion Day and 26 January, 1950 is Republic Day.
10. আমাদের দেশ তো গনতন্র | Anti-Zamindari Act পাশ হয়ে গেছে বহু বছর | তাহলে সন্ন্যাসীদের মহারাজ বলা কেন ? সামন্ত্রতন্ত্র কি তাহলে আজও বিদ্যমান ?
11. It is BRAHMA and not BRAHMAN, AATMAA and not ATMAN.
12. 
আজ বাবার মৃত্যুবার্ষিকি | ১৮ জুলাই, ১৯৯৬ সালে ৭৩ বছর বয়সে তিনি ইহলোক ত্যাগ করেন | আমার প্রথম শিক্ষাগুরু | দেখতে দেখতে ২৫টা বছর কেটে গেল সেই কালসন্ধ্যা হতে |
13. POINT TO PONDER
We speak of our cultural greatness so much. Why is it then that we cannot win Nobel Prizes the way Jews go about winning them despite their tiny global population? Jews have won 25% of the Nobel Prizes thus far. Where do we stand in comparison except in tall talk about our cultural greatness? If you talk about persecution by foreign powers, well, the Jews have been persecuted no less than us, perhaps, far more. So?
14. Stop building statues of Swamiji. Build scientific institutes instead, research facilities, universities. Sardar Patel's Statue of Unity was the worst wastage of national resource, a monumental material miscarriage in living memory.
15. The moment you glorify God, you render Him human. And that is blasphemy. Hence, stop glorification and live the Life instead.
16. Everybody must read repeatedly 'Is Vedanta the Future Religion?', a lecture delivered by Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco on 8 April, 1900. It will dispel delusion and illumine.
17. Instead of glorifying an imaginary God, witness your Self of supreme glory. That is religion. That is the Vedanta.
18. Be self-reliant. Do not depend on an imaginary God. That is loss of manhood. Do not mistake medieval reactionary Hinduism to be the religion of the Vedanta. Read the 'Ashtaavakra Samhita'. It contains the highest codified wisdom whose authenticity you will have to verify, though, through actual experience. But read it, nonetheless. Repeated reading will clarify conception. Alongside read 'Is Vedanta the Future Religion?' by Swamiji.
19. Instead of clamouring whole day about Hindutva be scientific and do research in Indology to establish the greatness of our civilisation.
20. 
মায়ের তিন ছেলে -- তিনটিই রত্ন |
আলোকচিত্র : বামে -- ভুবনেশ্বরী দেবী ; দক্ষিণে -- উপরে স্বামী বিবেকানন্দ ; মধ্যে -- মহেন্দ্রনাথ দত্ত ; নিম্নে -- ভুপেন্দ্রনাথ দত্ত |
21. 
Capitalism is impoverishing the masses and ruining the middle classes. Only a handful of exploiters benefit from this order of economic existence.
22. The only way to save yourselves in these days of growing capitalistic exploitation is to save as much as you can from your earnings by living as frugal a life as possible. Medical expenses can ruin you. So, beware. We did win our independence hard but, alas, it was won by the suffering masses to be enjoyed by a new order of imperialists, the industrialist of independent India.
23. Massive exploitation is going on in the name of development and industrialisation but the exploited are content to sleep in the death-field of ignorance in the name of a comfortable, comforting religion. If this is not the seed of destruction, what is?
24. Why don't you train your children to be priests and Vedic scholars if you are so insistent that going back to the Vedic days of yore is the way ahead?
25. Unless we become a scientific nation we are doomed.
26. Barbaric practice. To involve children in the witnessing of this horror is abominable. The mass slaughter of animals can hardly be justified. Ask once the to-be-slaughtered animals what they have to say in this regard.
27. We have a lot to learn from the Jews in regard to becoming scientific. They have won 25% of all Nobel Prizes thus far. Where do we as a nation stand in comparison?
28. ভক্তরা কি সুন্দর ভগবানের নামে ভুলে আছেন ভয়ঙ্কর আর্থসামাজিক বৈষম্য | কোন ভগবান এর প্রতিকার করবেন ? কে দূর করবে দরিদ্রের দুর্দশা ?
29. Lennox speaks rubbish even as Hitchens exhilarates.
30. Blind faith binds, reason liberates.
31. OUR NATIONAL GUIDES
1. Swami Vivekananda
2. Raja Rammohan Roy
3. Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
4. Rabindranath Tagore
5. Subhas Chandra Bose
6. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
7. Jawaharlal Nehru
8. Bhimrao Ambedkar
9. Sister Nivedita
10. Sri Aurobindo
32. How like parasites they make capital out of Netaji ! Indeed, great men are succeeded by a brood of opportunists.
33. 
Baby Einstein. Baalkrishna. See the tilted foot.
34. India is racially one.
35. Despite the practical need for a common national language, the rich linguistic diversity of India must be preserved and fostered. There is much to gain from it. In it lies the germ of the individual genius of the peoples speaking the different languages which thus become the repositories of the best culture of diverse India. The commonality of the race can still be found in its common religious culture that stretches from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, despite the ethnic cleansing of the Aryas that has happened there of late.
36. I am not a Hindu. I am am Arya. How much truer it is !
37. This vast totality in front of you, including you, functional and non-functional, is God.
38. To advance the cause of your evolution along rightful higher terms is paying due reverence to your antecedents.
39. Who will save the dumb animals? Who is THEIR GOD who will have mercy on them?
40. Animal sacrifice to appease God in the 21st century raises serious questions about the real date of civilisation we belong to even today.
41. To equate God with man, it is good to write God as god and man as man. This lowering of the case settles the case of divine-human equation.
42. Our lives are held in the noose of time. Time well-spent saves but time ill-spent kills. Liberation is to be attained within the stipulated period which is our allotted lifespan. If we fail, recycling of our selves will be our inevitable lot.
43. India can never hope to rise to eminence in the world today by adhering to religious tools used yesterday. She must modernise her thinking and take to science in a big way. Our universities must be developed to world standards and our leadership must be educated in earnest. This is the way ahead. Take a cue from America and Europe, from Australia and Canada, and best of all, from Israel. In this regard we need the Nehruvian vision once more. We were fortunate that our very first Prime Minister was pronouncedly rational and eminently scientific.
44. Everybody is ignorant. Even great geniuses are ignorant of the Self. Scientific, artistic, literary men of letters, philosophical men of extreme erudition -- they are all simply ignorant as to what Reality in essence is.
45. Respect Sri Ramakrishna more. He is not your plaything in preaching in the West.
46. Politics in India must separate itself from religion. Otherwise we will never be a united, unified, integrated nation.
47. Violence - has it now become an intrinsic feature of West Bengal's politics?
48. 
Two poets - kavi. Top, Swami Virajananda, a poet in the spiritually realised sense ; bottom, Rabindranath Tagore, a poet in the literary sense.
49. What is our duty when we are face to face with oppression? To protest or to preach piety? Does God oversee oppression on earth?
50. India must take to the forward path of modern science instead of the backward path of medieval religion.
51. সন্ন্যাসী মানে যিনি ভগবান ছাড়া আর কিছু চান না | এমন সন্ন্যাসী দেখাতে পারেন?
52. Whatever it may be otherwise worth, unless the bread-question is solved, the Spirit-questiom will remain unanswered in this day and Age.
53. ঈশ্বর মহাশূণ্য |
54. ঠাকুর এসে নিম্ন জড়বাদের ও ধর্মান্ধতার -- এই দুইয়েরই অশুভ সংস্কার হতে জগতকে রক্ষা করলেন আত্মানুভূতির দ্বারা | স্বামীজী সেই আলোর বার্তাবহ, মা তার প্রেমের আধার |
55. We must develop dignity as a nation. We must not allow westerners to abuse our culture, customs and usages, and take things lying down.
56. Why is it that such an enlightened state as Pakistan does not allow the Ramakrishna Mission to set up centres there again?
57. পাকিস্তানের মত এক আলোকপ্রাপ্ত দেশ কেন রামকৃষ্ণ মিশনকে কোন শাখাকেন্দ্র খুলতে দেয় না বোঝা ভার |
58. 
এই সব মহাপুরুষেরা আছেন বলেই আমরা আছি |
59. Unless a person is totally devoid of pretension, he or she cannot realise God.
60. Those who have double personality, one private and the other public, are unfit for realisation of the highest Self.
61. জনসমক্ষে ভাল সাজব না প্রকৃতভাবে ভাল হব ?
62. কোনটা চাই -- সমাজ না সত্য ?
62. Monotheism is invariably violent. But why?
63. Mediocrity must not be praised as if it were excellence.
64. মানুষ কেন এত ঘুরিয়ে কথা বলে ? সহজ হওয়া কি এত কঠিন ?
65. রাজনীতির গাই আর দুৃধ দিচ্ছে না, তবু দুইয়ে চলেছেন | কী আপদ রে বাবা ! বলি, চরিত্র বলে কি কিছু নেই ?
66. সত্য বলব, সহজ হব, কোনো ভান করব না -- এই তো ধর্ম |
67. Love India.
68. ভগবান এই একটি বৃত্তিতে প্রসন্ন হন না, সেটি হচ্ছে অহংকার |
69. ভগবান মিথ্যা কল্পনা নয়, ভগবান অনুভূত সত্য |
70. তাঁর দয়ার অন্ত নেই, এই অনুভবই করলাম সারাজীবন | নইলে কোথায় বয়ে যেতাম |
71. Hinduism must become aggressive and proselytising. Otherwise its influence will not spread.
72. Truth transcends reason.
73. সেই ছোটবেলা থেকে আজ অবধি ভগবানের কত রূপ পালটালো | যেমন যেমন আমি পালটালাম, আমার সত্যবোধও সেইরূপ পালটালো |
74. Stop the conversion of Hindus to Islam and Christianity. This must be done immediately. Else, disaster awaits the Hindus in the long run and in the not so long a run. Demographic change against the Hindus also does not augur well for their future prospects. Kashmir is an ample instance of it.
75. How many times must Swamiji come to save us?
76. The more I listen with rapt wonderment to Swami Ranganathananda, the more I am awestruck by the profundity of his thinking, his advanced sociological vision and his deep philosophical insight into the workings of the human mind en masse. A marvel with a myriad facets to his saintly life, quite the type Swamiji had prophesied would be the future man he had ushered into the world with his life's work. Vivekananda and Ranganathananda are like the substance and the shadow without any malice meant to the seminal Swami who followed in the footsteps of the 'Cyclonic Monk'.
77. If any person deserves the posthumous Bharat Ratna, I do not know anyone more deserving of it than the great Swami Ranganathananda.
78. Swami Paramananda was a sage through and through.
79. Vituperation by ignoramuses against secular intellectuals will not serve Hinduism. These secular beings are far more learned in Hindu philosophy and lore than their ignorant common critics.
80. More of scholarship is wanted in our countrymen for it is most wanting in us. But scholarship devoid of show or crooked aggression it must be. To live is to learn and to live is to love. Let the trinity of life, love and learning happily coexist.
81. A good student follows instructions. A dull one does not.
82. Sharpen your wits if you wish to arrive anywhere in life.
83. Are sledgehammer blows necessary to drive the message in? Has sanity take to wings? Then, indeed, it is a point of no return.
84. Beware of what you read. Every word read casts its impression on the mind. So, be judicious and read only the very best, works of genius, utterances of sages, writings of men of realisation.
85. 
We are Mother's children, daredevils that we are. What fear we forsooth in this world? Fearless we live and fearless shall die even unto the arms of the Mother who has never forsaken us.
86. I have lighted the fire of life. Now let it burn on.
87. Ignorance is more killing than the body.
88. God does not belong to any Mission, any Church, any Faith, any Religion. God is God.
89. সহজ, সরল বিশ্বাসের দ্বারা তাঁকে পাওয়া যায় কিন্তু বক্রচিন্তা থেকে তিনি অনেক দূর | তাই সাধারণ মানুষ কেউ কেউ তাঁর দেখা পান কিন্তু বড় বড় পণ্ডিত, জ্ঞানীগুণীজন তাঁর হদিস পান না | একটি বস্তুর মাধ্যাকর্ষণের ফলে কেন্দ্রে পতন যেমন মহাকাশের বক্রপথ অনুযায়ী শুধু অন্তিম চরণেই প্রায় সরল রেখা ধারণ করে, তেমনি মানুষ শেষ জন্মে সরল হয় ও ঈশ্বরের সাক্ষাৎকারলাভে ধন্য হয়ে ব্রহ্মকেন্দ্রে আকৃষ্ট হয়ে বিদেহমুক্তি লাভ করে |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
90. We have to Indianise, thoroughly Indianise India. No trace of Christianising it must be present whatsoever. India must be entirely Vedic.
91. We, Hindus, must make schools for our children that must outshine all Christian missionary schools which are dominating the academic scene in India today.
92. Christian proselytising in India is a cunning conversion of the vulnerable sections of Hindu society, especially the tribals. We must look after our own people to prevent such mischievous maneuvers.
93. Why do we always fare so poorly in the Olympics? What does our forward-looking Prime Minister have to say on this? MUN KI BAAT!
94. Maya is that which seems to be but is essentially not.
95. Existence ever is and is never obscured except in obscurity itself which exists not.
96. You were never born, neither shall you ever die. The way to immortality is to give up clinging to life itself.
97. He who smashes the dream of Maya is the Guru.
98. Palpable is the Presence, the bedrock of phenomenal dreams. When desires subside, thoughts integrate, then consciousness reveals itself in self-brooding solidarity.
99. 
মায়ের মহিমা ছড়াও কিন্তু বলিষ্ঠভাবে | মা আদ্যাশক্তি মহামায়া, সর্বশক্তিমতি | এতটুকু দুর্বলতা যেন না প্রকাশ পায় তাঁর মহিমাকীর্তনে | ভাষা যেন ওজস্বী হয় | শুধু প্রণাম জানালেই হবে না, বীর হতে হবে | বিরাট বিশ্বে কোথায় তিনি অতিভাবালুতার নিদর্শন রেখেছেন যে তাঁর কথা বলতে গেলেই ভাবাতিশয্যের আশ্রয় নিতে হবে ? মা কালিও যদি বাঁশি ধরেন, তো খাঁড়া ধরবে কে ? মা যদি স্বয়ংশক্তি, তো তাঁর সন্তান নিঃশক্তি কেন ?
100. Debasing oneself before God does not liberate one. Discovering one's own godhead liberates one.
101. God-realisation means Self-realisation, the realisation of the Atman. Dualistic realisation of a deity is incomplete realisation and, hence, not the ultimate. Atmajnana is the realisation in final fulfilment.
102. The universe is an appearance and its God is an appearance, too. Hence, God and the universe are both unreal, being bred in ignorance. Brahman alone is and is alone real.
103. Hold on to the mythical 'I', then cry hoarse over your dualistic God who is equally a myth, a figment of your universal imagination.
104. First I assume myself, then go about proving other assumptions. Let all assumptions drop.
105. Delusion breeding delusion -- that is all there is to phenomena. Multiplicity is Maya, delusive, false. Truth is Self-existent.
106. Grandad was never born and they are discussing grandson's marital gifts.
107. They talk of a Creator God when there has never been creation, never a universe for this God to play with. Existence frozen stands, immovable, immutable, the One that simply cannot be many.
108. Few, alas, few understand the pure Advaita Vedanta. Most are engrossed in dualistic misinterpretation of it. It is pure and unalloyed devotion to one's Guru alone that can dispel delusion and firmly found oneself in the Self. But the finest film of ego can confound comprehension. Hence, reverence (shraddhaa) and humility (vinamrataa) are so stressed in the onward path of spiritual progression.
109. Alas! Dualistic superstition vitiates the pursuit of pure Advaitic Truth.
110. There is only one God and It is the Atman, none else. All these dualistic Gods are arrant superstitions, age-old impositions of name and form glorified to largeness that assume 'infinite, endless etcetera' proportions. But they are human conceptions and finite, nonetheless. Hence, the dualistic argument in this regard fails to establish God of infinite power, endless attributes et al.
111. Human beings have sold their independence to an imaginary God. Now wake up and take life into your own hands and be free. Enough of subservience to this age-old assumption. Strike off the fetters and be free.
112. Human beings have sold themselves to unreason and superstition. They quote scriptures and authority where they fail to establish principles themselves. Dogged dogmatic adherence to suit personal preference and a cool convenience may be the toddler's pastime but ill doth it befit the adult of philosophical pretensions. Hence, Swamiji gave up towards the end and, hence, must many more attempt and fail to bring light to humanity before they give up as well. Omnipotent is not God but His offspring, the ego.
113. The heart is missing, dear brother. So the head is not working. Egotism is playing its due part and an Oscar is long overdue for it. The American Academy of Motion Pictures needs notification.
114. Dualism panders to sensory delusion. Hence it is very popular. Pure Advaita Vedanta remains the object of popular misapprehension or utter neglect. That surely is symptomatic of the decline of the Sanatan Dharma in India but perhaps the inevitable consequence of mass social evolution in its primary stages.
115. The Ashtaavakra Sam°hitaa invalidates the sensory universe in no uncertain terms. Its approach to Truth is extremely radical. The Atman alone abides, none else, none else. Even the attempt at liberation betrays bondage. Negation of elements reveals the Atman, true, but it is queer that such negation should be possible. It is a pointer to the finite nature of phenomenal ignorance. It means that Existence-Consciousness-Bliss is never falsified by this mythical false cover of phenomena and it is rather that this falsity of name and form like a fluffy cloud in motion passes to reveal the ever-revealed Atman. Myth dissolves in the fullness of mythical time and the Reality is revealed. Strange is Maya, indeed, but grander is the revelation of Reality on its death.
116. There is but One. Call it the world on the this side of things or 'call' it the Self on the other side of the Void.
117. The dual is false, the One is the Truth.
118. I repeatedly say, "Read 'Is Vedanta the Future Religion?' by Swami Vivekananda [Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 8, Lectures and Discourses]. It is Swamiji's quintessential spiritual message to mankind.
119. The problem in listening to a lecture on the Vedanta delivered even by the miat eminent of speakers is that one is subjected to a barrage of dualistic allusions all the time than being afforded access to the pristine non-dualistic philosophy of the system, more being entertained by flimsy jokes than being engaged in a serious discussion on the abstruse philosophy in real terms. The speaker is rare who can communicate effectively the principle without undue distraction and consequent disruption of attention and a lowering of the concentration level. Indeed, we are waiting for the arrival of a genuinely realised soul who can also effectively communicate this grandest of spiritual sciences.
120. The world is in need of a realised soul now.
121. One man of Self-realisation is worth more than carloads of frivolous talkers on the Vedanta.
122. The Atmajnani does not behave like a tomfool. His realisation shines through and influences aspirants into genuine seeking of the transcendental Truth. Levity must not overcome a serious discussion. That is the way of worldliness. Blissfulness of the being must show up in a like awakening of blissfulness in the audience rather than through the cracking of cheap jokes that merely destroy concentration that has built up. Few, alas, realise the essence of the Vedanta, fewer still can effectively communicate the truth ! Literally, worldliness wastes it all.
123. The problem with Indian Vedanta preachers in the West almost without exception is that they speak on Brahman alright but in effect worship society. That gravity that comes from depth-realisation of the Atman is missing entirely. Alas, even the Vedanta is not spared societal pandering !
124. আত্মবিস্মরণ ঘটলেই মানুষ পার্থিব মান, যশ, খ্যাতি নিয়ে ব্যস্ত হয়ে পড়ে |
125. যাঁর হৃদয় সঙ্কীর্ণ, তাঁর ভগবানলাভ বহুদূর, তিনি যত বড়ই প্রতিষ্ঠা পান না কেন সমাজে আপাতআধ্যাত্মিকতার জন্য |
126. How spiritual people make material capital out of association with famous people ! Spiritual indeed !
127. There is not a spiritual soul around in the public domain who one can seek inspiration from. Now one has to be self-inspired or go back direct to Ramakrishna-Vivekananda to find it. No intermediaries are necessary for they are all compromised more or less.
128. The Avatar comes, preaches, and his message is soon lost. This has been consistently the history of spiritual organisations.
129. We are neither a spiritual nation today nor a material one. We are a strange hybrid, a vegetating concoction of the two.
130. IF YOU TRULY LOVE THE ONE YOU SO VENERATE
Renunciation of hearth and home followed by the overriding desire to seek name and name is the unfortunate lot of many a monk. Such ones should not be led to spiritual deflection further by devotees indiscriminately showing them reverence, now undue to them, for only the perfect renunciate deserves such veneration and not the ones given to seeking social standing.
Written by Sugata Bose
131. A HARD-EARNED LESSON
It is good to give a caption to one's essay and a photograph appended to it as well so that it caters to the two classes of flippers who 1) give a 'like' to the photograph and a comment on its beauty as well, and 2) leave a comment by way of quick response to the caption without bothering to go through the content of the essay as such. Thus, 1) caption and 2) photo, a must.
Written by Sugata Bose
132. Self-publicity is not spirituality. Thakur, it is time for you to revisit us and set the course of your following straight.
133. Our country is becoming more and more idolatrous. Just a fancy for photographs is evident in devotees. Such a shame! What a waste of words, indeed! I have at last taken recourse to denying beautification of my posts with photographs of the Holy Trinity and the effect has been as expected. No response from these great devotees!
134. I read all my posts when I write them. This is my insurance against damage through public neglect.
135. One Vivekananda cannot balance our cumulative ignorance, full 139 crore strong. It seems a dozen Vivekanandas will be necessary this time to set right the completely crazy course of our country, nay, our countrymen. But will the Lord oblige?
136. 'LET MEN BE THINKERS'
The common man must be made to think more. Swamiji had rightly said, "Let men be thinkers." The depth of meaning of this simple proposition I could not fathom for long in my youth but as the shadows lengthened and experience grew to reveal newer depths to understanding, I began to comprehend the sheer profundity of the statement and its consequence in human evolution if rightly apprehended and followed.
137. India slides to 47th position now at the Tokyo Olympics. But for the lone silver by Mirabai Chanu. Should we not feel ashamed of our non-performance? But we don't. That's where the beauty lies.
138. শিক্ষার প্রয়োজন | জাতিগতভাবে শিক্ষার প্রয়োজন | নইলে আধ্যাত্মিকতা দুরূহ |
139. Nobody loves me. I am desperate, desolate, completely bereft of comfort. Despised am I, desecrated am I, debilitated am I thus, literally on the verge of devastation.
140. ত্যাগ আর কত করব ? মা যার আছে তার শত দুঃখতেও চিন্তা কি ?
141. কতদিন বাঁচব জানি না কিন্তু যে কটা দিন আছি, সে কটা দিন দেশ ও জগতের সেবায় নিয়োজিত থাকব, এ বিষয়ে স্থিতসংকল্প আমি | এই মায়ার শরীর তো যাবেই | তবে যাক তা মানুষের কল্যাণকর্মে | ঠাকুর-মা-স্বামীজী-গুরুদেব অনেক ভালবাসা দিলেন | এবার সে ভালবাসার নির্যাস ফিরিয়ে দেবার পালা | তার আগে যাবো না জগৎ ছেড়ে | মানুষের জয় হক !
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
142. The whole of India is my house and all my countrymen my family members.
143. When hope dies, stillness reigns. Then the Self stands in Self-revelation.
144. Read 'Ashtaavakra Sam°hita'. It is a classic scripture on Advaita Vedanta, concise, condensed, concentrated core of the Absolute Truth.
145. মানুষের কঠিন প্রাণ -- পৃথিবীতে ভালবাসার বড় অভাব |
146. Excellence is not appreciated in India, mediocrity is. Hence the dismal showing in the #Olympics each time.
147. Sports should be introduced as a subject in our academic curriculum with full honours just as Mathematics or Science.
148. Follow the Chinese model. Introduce table tennis for children nationwide.
149. Set time-targets. Talk less, work more, achieve in equal measure. Aspire for excellence. Work to achieve it.
150. If this body goes, I shall be alive in other bodies. The mass of humanity must not cease. We must protect the environment.
151. Pakistan took one Sindhu. Now Chinese Taipei has taken the other. Badminton hopes gone bad in Tokyo.
152. Pakistan will never rise unless it becomes a secular state.
153. P.V. Sindhu beats Chinese opponent, He Bing Jiao, to win bronze for India. This makes the victory sweeter.
154. হিন্দু রাষ্ট্র কেন মাত্র ? হিন্দুবিশ্ব |
155. China 1st, India 63rd in Tokyo #Olympics, 2020, right now. Why is India's position so low?
156. In a country where cricket takes precedence over all representative Olympic sports, it is puerile to expect that such sports will ever come of age.
157. We are waves on an infinite ocean of everlasting life. There is no death for us.
158. Unless we talk less and work more, there is no hope for our country. Right now there is only national dissipation of energy, not national concentration.
159. It is Olympic, not Olumpic, nor Awlimpik.
160. If crooks manage sports, there is no hope for the future.
161. Unless ministers become real men possessed of education and character, there is no hope for us. But unless we, common citizens, en masse possess these attributes ourselves, how will we throw up qualified ministers to govern? Right now it is decadence all the way from root to apex. Society needs a cleansing.
162. অনাবরণের ওপর আবরণ দিয়ে লাভ কি ? গেরুয়া নাই বা পরলেন | আপনি তো ত্যাগী, দেহ নন | রঙিন আবরণে কাজ কি ?
163. শুধু ছবির জয়জয়াকার !
164. A sleeping nation cannot win medals, neither a selfish one. Self-publicity is all that we have graduated to.
165. Our expectations of ourselves as a nation are rather low considering the fact that we widely cheer performances in the #Olympics that fall short of the best in the world. We will never produce more Abhinav Bindras unless we raise our targets and learn to mourn when we fail to reach the goals set. Such mourning is not an exhibition of passivity but is the fuel for future more passionate striving for perfection.
166. বর্তমানে যাঁরা সত্ত্বগুণী বলে পরিচিত, তাঁরা কেউই যথেষ্ট পরিমানে রজোগুণীই নন, সত্ত্বগুণ তো দূরের কথা |
167. Education! Education! This is the one thing necessary for the arrival of our country on the world stage.
168. Why do people give fictitious names on their Facebook profile walls? Why do they not publish their profile photographs by way of establishing identity? Are they ashamed of who they are or fearful for whatever reason that they thus want to remain under cover of false name and false cover and profile picture? What fear or charm impels them to act thus?
169. দেশ এত হাল্কা হলে সহজে উন্নতি হবে না, বহু স্বর্ণপদক জেতা তো দূরের কথা | জীবন শুধু বিজ্ঞাপনের ভাঁড়ামো নয় | জাতীয় লঘুচিত্ততা দূর না হলে ওলিম্পিক গেমসে জাতীয় উন্নত প্রদর্শন অসম্ভব |
170. জাতীয় চাঞ্চল্য, চলচ্চিত্র এ বিঞ্জাপনের বিষাক্ত প্রভাব, সাধারণের ক্ষণভঙ্গুর মনঃসংযম, পরস্পর ঈর্ষাপরায়ণতা, আত্মপ্রত্যয়ের অভাব, ব্যবসায়ী লোভ -- এই সকল বৃত্তিসহায়ে ওলিম্পিক গেমসে বহু স্বর্ণপদক লাভ করা যায় না |
171. ক্রিকেটকে অতিরিক্ত প্রাধান্য না দেওয়া আমাদের সকলের কর্তব্য অন্যান্য সকল ক্রীড়ার স্বার্থরক্ষার্থে | এতেই জাতির সার্বিক স্বার্থ রক্ষা হবে | সমস্ত খেলার পৃষ্ঠপোষকতা করুন | ভারতবর্ষের ক্রীড়াক্ষেত্র শুধু ক্রিকেট নয় |
172. ভারতবর্ষের জনসংখ্যা ১৩৯ কোটি ও ক্রমান্বয়ে বর্ধমান | শীঘ্রই চীনকে ফাইনালে পরাস্ত করে স্বর্ণপদক জিতব আমরা, এ বিষয়ে সুনিশ্চিত |
173. যে দেশের মানুষ ওলিম্পিক ছেড়ে ক্রিকেট দেখতে ভালবাসে, সে দেশের ওলিম্পিকে প্রবল সাফল্যের সম্ভাবনা সুদূরপরাহত | গোটা জাতি রজোগুণী হলে সাফল্য আসবে বৃহদাকারে | তার আগে ওই কয়েকটি মেডল্ ব্যক্তিগত প্রতিভার বলে |
174. 
যাঁরা এত গান্ধীবিরোধী, তাঁরা স্বামীজীপন্থি হলেই তো পারেন | তাহলে তো আর গোল থাকে না | কিন্তু তা হচ্ছেন কি ? হচ্ছেন কোথায় ? আসলে তাত্ত্বিক দিক দিয়ে বিরোধীতা করাটা তত হানিকারক নয় যতটা হানিকারক অজ্ঞানতাপ্রসূত বাধ্যতামূলক বিরূপ মনোভাব পোষণ করা | তমোগুণের এটি একটি প্রকৃষ্ট প্রকাশ | এঁরাই ভারত উদ্ধার করবেন |
175. We should never be satisfied short of winning anything but the gold. Perfection is the key. Abhinav Bindra is the role model for our Olympians.
176. সত্যই তো গুরু |
177. In the semifinals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Ravi Kumar Dahiya of India scored a wrestling knockout, which is called a 'fall', over his Kazakhstan opponent and staged a historic comeback from a seemingly impossible point's position (2-9 initially), one that will be recounted for generations should he win the gold now.
178. ভদ্রজনের তিনটি গুণ :
১) উচ্চ শিক্ষা
২) উচ্চ সংস্কৃতি
৩) ব্যবহারে রুচিশীলতা |
179. Human beings are all free everywhere. Just beneath the cover of this loose apparent bondage of body lies the Self intrepid, blissful, free.
180. আবরণ ও বিক্ষেপ -- মহামায়ার এই দুই বৃত্তি সাধারণে ব্যবহার করে থাকেন ও তাঁর বিজয়গাথা অজান্তে গেয়ে থাকেন | মুখে বলেন ও সব মানি না |
181. Our poor show at the #Tokyo2020 #Olympics proves that we are an undeveloped nation, certainly not too spiritual as well. We rejoice over trifles. Where are you, Abhinav Bindra? As an entire nation we need your spirit.
182. Banish Mumbai movie culture from the sporting environment completely and you will build up champions worth the call. Commerce ought to support sports without corroding culture. Right now commercial communication has become terribly toxic. It is killing national culture and destroying our brightest dreams although few are aware of it.
183. We are not a scientific people. We must become one if we are to excel in sports.
184. T.V. বিজ্ঞাপন মাত্রেই বোকামো, ভাঁড়ামো, মিথ্যাচার, পৌরুষবিবর্জিত লঘুচিত্ততা |
185. Confidence, courage, conviction - these three characteristics go to constitute success.
186. Are we jokers that our commercial advertisements are such jokes?
187. সেই | কাকে ভাবি নিজের? তাঁরা যে ঠাকুর-মায়ের আরো নিজের |
188. Look deep into Kali. She is the eternal consort of Time.
189. মেয়েরা এবার (ওলিম্পিক গেমসে) আবার প্রমাণ করল যে তারা পুরুষদের তুলনায় কোনো অংশে কম নয় | তাহলে আর 'ছেলে চাই, ছেলে চাই' করবেন না তো মেয়েদের গর্ভ হতে সন্তানের জন্মের সময় ?
190. National seriousness must be if national performance is to be. Shun levity.
191. জাতিগতভাবে আমাদের কম উত্তেজনাপ্রবণ হতে হবে | তবেই সাফল্য সম্ভব |
192. Right now the 'Sundaram' principle being followed is only in beautification of one's body. Fair enough. But extend it to other areas of life as well. Let beauty adorn every activity, every endeavour, every enterprise. Let shabbiness, crudeness in finished product, sloppiness in approach to life in general be a thing of the past. Make the trinity of 'Satyam, Shivam, Sundaram' (Truth, Welfare, Beauty) be in real the national credo and not merely in surface assumption.
193. Long shot while teeing consistently lets 'Queen of the Green', Aditi Ashok, down. Misses medal. Finishes fourth.
194. বীজের সম্মান চাই, শুধু ফলের নয় |
195. Dhyan Chand honoured. Milkha Singh remembered. Khel Ratna stripped of former PM's name and glued now to the wizard with the sticky stick. Chopra does what Singh almost did 61 years ago. Nation returns with a golden haul. Must use this as the springboard for success in future Games. Support sports unselfishly, out of patriotism and not to generate profit.
196. Seven is heaven. Guess why?
197. Prannoy Roy should be awarded the Bharat Ratna.
198. 
Three time gold medallist, 1928, 1932 and 1936 -- Major Dhyan Chand, the greatest hockey player ever in the history of the game. He was not only a great sportsperson but a greater patriot as well. When in the Berlin Olympics of 1936 Adolf Hitler offered him a prestigious position in the German Army in order to get his services for German hockey, Dhyan Chand politely refused to join Nazi ranks and showed exemplary courage and patriotism in the process, a trait worthy of emulation by all Indians.
199. Dhyan Chand, sun of the hockey field, moon of our hearts, died in penury. How happy was that?
200. Cut carbon emission, save the planet.
201. Plant trees, save the planet.
202. Where does charity stand in an exploitative capitalist society? The eternal dole?
203. Love these days is a lonely term in an increasingly isolationist world of the old.
204. A master is one who can be a perfect servant.
205. গুণীকে গুণের মর্যাদা দাও | আর, গুণহীনকে ? তাঁকে দাও তাঁর অস্তিত্বের মর্যাদা |
206. মিথ্যার অপর নাম বিজ্ঞাপন |
207. Spirituality is reduction of multiplicity to lowest unitary terms.
208. বিজ্ঞাপনের ভাঁড়ামো দেখলে আমাদের দেশের মানুষ সম্বন্ধে বিরূপ ধারণা হওয়াই স্বাভাবিক | গোটা দেশটা এক জোকার-ক্যাম্পে পরিণত হয়েছে |
209. Putting a barrier often removes a hindrance. So does discipline enhance work. So does the metre free poetry.
210. Is a baby a lump of iron that you beat it to shape? Pure, sensitive souls they are. Love them to bliss and they will shine.
211. ভারত বিভাজন দিবস !
212. A creative person who is not recognised in life suffers an early death.
213. Those who clamour patriotism are pretentious and are the least patriotic. Patriotism is an unexpressed feeling, an attitude, a silent observance.
214. Reading deepens the soul, triggers responses in the brain that illumine the path of evolutionary exploration. So, read on.
215. USA thinks it is the world and not just a nation. So, it gets in and out of nations at its own sweet will to thus destroy them without caring a fig for what then befalls the hapless citizens of those countries.
216. American selfishness marks American foreign policy.
217. Only Americans suffer. The rest of the world are inert beings, after all, incapable of suffering.
218. Biden's speech typifies what USA stands for as a nation, one that thinks it is the world. But for how long?
219. Why is America so self-serving and nothing more for all its universal pretensions?
220. Nationalism is the vice that afflicts humanity. USA and China exemplify it today.
221. When will you stop being slaves of your 'political masters' and your 'spiritual Gurus' and assert your freedom?
222. I am dead tired of the loudspeaker-blaring of the Azaan at all odd hours which affects my concentration in work.
223. Unless we become a scientific nation there is no hope for us.
224. Instead of daily drilling into us over the loudspeaker West Bengal should declare openly where its religious allegiance lies.
225. Reactionary nationalism is regressive.
226. It's Saudi Arabia again. God bless us with some silence in the afternoon! Is this West Bengal? I wonder. The loudspeaker blares on exhorting us to pray.
227. মূর্খামির নাম ভক্তি নয় | কুসংস্কার কি কখন ভক্তি হয় ? দিবারাত্র পূজা অর্চা আর তারই সাথে মানুষের চূড়ান্ত অবমাননা | এই না হলে ভক্তি ?
228. জ্ঞানের সম্মান নেই আমাদের দেশে, জ্ঞানীরও সম্মান নেই | তাই অজ্ঞানতার অন্ধকারে ডুবে যাচ্ছি আমরা |
229. Whatever we cannot understand, we attribute it to the Divine. Would it were that we better cultivated our analytical powers !
230. ঠাকুরের পুরো পরাজয় | টাকা খাঁটি, super-খাঁটি, এমনই মনের ভাব সবার | ঠাকুর, তুমি হেরে গেলে | এখন উপায় ?
231. Our great men are not so great, our small men not so small.
232. কোন চিন্তা নেই |
কর্মফল সব, সব পাবে |
ঢেউ তুললেই ঢেউ খাবে |
233. A greedy person can never be religious. To feed his greed he destroys the hopes of others, reducing them to penury. So, how religious are today's businessmen, patriots of the motherland?
234. যে দেশে, যে গৃহে সরস্বতীর অবমাননা হয়, সে দেশে, সে গৃহে লক্ষ্মীর আবাস হয় না |
235. Unless Indians deepen their intellectual thinking there is no hope of excellence in any field for this country.
236. The country is going down day by day and educated fools are laughing away. Jokers do not make for progress.
237. The dagger-thrust of pain cleaves its way to the soul and brings a deeper peace. In silence reigns the wounded man.
238. Our readings must be deep and diverse to avoid a lopsided view of things, an insecure stability in a cocooned universe that lends half-truth to the real and brings about its own downfall in the precipitous fragility of its elements.
239. Many remember that Azharuddin scored three centuries in his first three test matches on debut but few recall that in the fourth test he scored 90 and so missed his fourth century on the trot.
240. He is the happy man who lives alone.
241. The number of fanatics in India is growing by the day. This is progress, indeed. We are truly advancing as a nation. What do you say?
242. অপরকে পাপী নির্ণীত করে নিজেকে পুণ্যবান প্রমাণিত করার চেয়ে নিজবলে পুণ্যবান হওয়া শ্রেয় |
243. আমাদের একে অপরকে সম্মান করতে শিখতে হবে |
244. The Mumbai film industry is destroying India. The cinematic gibberish coming out from there is polluting the minds of Indians and by lowering culture destroying the present and the future of this fallen country struggling to rise.
245. We have become a nation of mercenaries, baniyas, and the sooner we get out of this mode, the better for us.
246. As the years roll on new estimations on the cricketing greats will emerge, new ranks will be accorded to stalwarts and new perspectives develop on their calibre. Then all this hoopla will have given way to a saner understanding, a brighter comprehension of the respective skills and attainments of the prominent players. Till then biased present-day judgements will rule the roost and cloud the correct vision of the real greatness of players in relative terms.
247. Why are we becoming increasingly a country of jokers at the advertising end? The trend is disturbing.
248. One remembers those one has otherwise chosen to forget.
249. On this day 76 years ago World War II began. Five days later Swami Abhedananda died. He was the only Ramakrishna disciple who was witness to the outbreak of the war.
250. Flooding the brain with senseless and sensual, brainless, irrational advertisement does the nation no good but corrodes character of its people.
251. আমাদের দেশে সত্যের প্রতি আগ্রহ বড় কম | ব্যক্তিপূজার প্রাদুর্ভাব, সত্যনিষ্ঠার তত নয় |
252. মূর্তি তো শুধু মাটির নয়, মূর্তি ভাবেরও হয় | অতএব, হিন্দুরাই শুধু পৌত্তলিক নয় | বাকি সকল মানুষও তাই, অন্তত ভাবপৌত্তলিক | বুঝেছেন বাবুমশায়, Mr. Highlycritical of our predominant national religious culture?
253.
Nobody is powerful
For death claims all.
He alone stands tall
Who has conquered death.
254. আজকাল মানুষ একেবারেই আদর্শচ্যূত | ব্যবসাবৃত্তিকেই আদর্শরূপে গ্রহণ করেছেন | দেশের কী দশা এর থেকেই বোঝা যাচ্ছে |
255. ঠাকুরকে সবাই ভুলে গেছে | এখন টাকা খাঁটি, খাঁটি টাকা | না থাকলে সব ফাঁকা | সাধারণ লোক তো অভাবে মরছে | অসাধারণ লোকেরাই এই অর্থতত্ত্ব উপলব্ধি করেছেন | তাই মহামায়ার জয়, যুগাবতারের পরাজয় |
256. জনসংখ্যাই শক্তি | ভারতের ভবিষ্যৎ ঊজ্জ্বল | বছরে দু কোটি করে বাড়ছে |
257. Our children must be saved from this debauch of a commercial culture that is wrecking the character of the country.
258. Advertising culture of a lowly type is softening the character of the country. Destruction lies ahead.
259. Our television advertising. What third class language ! "Ullu mut bano, Uncle." Disgusting ! And that too from a child.
260. We are a nation of jokers, not worthy of being respected as decent citizens of the world. Our demeanour needs amendment, our national culture a lift unto decency.
261. দেশে সাধু নেই | সব ব্যবসাদার | স্থুল অথবা সূক্ষ্ম ব্যবসায় ব্যাপৃত কিন্তু ব্যবসাদার বটে | ঠাকুর বলতেন, "ঐ পাটোয়ারী |" এখন চোখ থাকে তো দেখুন | না থাকে তো ঐ একই ব্যবসায় নেমে পড়ুন | দেশটাকে জলাঞ্জলী দিন |
262. শহুরে ভারতবর্ষ ত্যাগ ভুলেছে | দুর্ভোগ সামনে |
263. We live but never understand life.
264. India houses mainly poor people. Let them be honoured more than the rich. This celebration of the stinking rich must stop. Only when the entire population is well-off may celebration of prosperity be allowed to a degree and only that much as will not go against the fundamental spiritual ethos of the country which holds renunciation and service as its twin motto.
265. চালাকি মেরে ব্র্যাডম্যান হওয়া যায় না | ভগবান একটিই করেছেন ও জিনিস | দ্বিতীয় হওয়া দুরস্ত |
266. রসিকতা এক, ফাজলামো আর এক | এটি ভাববার বিষয় |
267. People are increasingly becoming shallow. Guess why.
268. Man-management is the key in leadership.
269. Death claims us all. We leave our mark on the shifting sands of Time before its mighty tide sweeps us all leaving not a trace behind save in subtler seed form wherein rises the edifice of future hopes, future aspirations and deeds before they are cast in like manner into the wastebin of the past. Thus rolls on Time and its transformations, thus evolves unending life in its myriad manifestations. We play our brief parts before we are sidelined behind the screens.
270.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)