MESSAGES GALORE ... 15

MESSAGES GALORE ... 15

1. There must be power behind preaching, not merely sweet talk. Rational discourse isn't enough for spiritual preaching and that too interspersed with worldly chitchat. It is power born of divine perception, absolute purity and unbounded zeal that courses through the nerves of men and transforms them unto a higher order of existence.

2. The problem that confronts prospective devotees today is the dearth of effective preachers of the Sanatan Dharma. There is a surfeit of surface speakers but an utter absence of men of character who can dish out the bare truth without making a sham of a worldly compromise in doing so. No wonder Ramakrishna had brought Vivekananda along to do the alotted job of establishing dharma. The Master knew the utter hollowness of spiritual speakers for sure and made his own arrangements for spreading the Word.

3. How many times you have failed in the past! Struggle once more and you will succeed. And, if you don't, struggle yet again. You are the product of your past struggles, failures and successes. Take heart from it and battle on.

4. The main problem in spiritual speaking is the obliteration of the egoistic self when presenting one's ideas. The ego ruins discourse by highlighting the speaker's personality instead of the pure principles he is attempting to present. Personality thus hides principle and undoes the lecture.

5. The richer the man, the more questionable his source of wealth and his method of generating it.

6. The nation lives in cottages still. They must be housed well and protected from the elements. These are the living gods, the future sages who will have vision, who will save civilisation. Come to their help. Give up the vanity that you have done enough. Translate words into deeds.

7. Alas! Even today Swamiji is so unpopular among devotees. There is an utter lack of interest in his words as self-obsession pervades the putrid atmosphere while the ancient sage suffers in a billion bodies. Small wonder then that the leonine soul had died despairing that his life had gone in vain and that Thakur had promised to return to earth soon to settle the sorry state of affairs.

8. সব পরিবেশের অনুগামী, পরিস্থিতির দাস | প্রভু তিনি যিনি পরিবেশকে নিয়ন্ত্রিত করেন, পরিস্থিতির পরিবর্তনেও স্থিতধী থাকেন | তিনিই স্থিতপ্রজ্ঞ, আত্মজ্ঞানে নিষ্কম্প, অবিচলিত, স্বয়ংপ্রভায় ভাস্বর |

9. আমরা আমাদের দেশকে ভালবাসি | নিজের মা ময়লা শাড়ি পরলেও নিজের মা | ভুললে চলবে না, আমাদের স্বদেশের প্রতি কর্তব্য আছে, মায়ের প্রতি দুগ্ধঋণ, মাতৃভূমির প্রতিটি স্বর্ণরেণুর প্রতি আছে মস্তকে আশীষধারণের কল্যাণাবশেষ যা আমাদের স্বদেশসেবার আর্যকর্মানুষ্ঠান | জগজ্জননীর হৃদয়সিংহাসন এই ভারতবর্ষেই চিরস্থিত | আসুন, যে যেখানে থাকি না কেন, মায়ের সেবা করি, করে ধন্য হই | ভারতের কল্যাণেই জগতের কল্যাণ | জগৎ সুখিত হ'ক !

10. কেউ টাকার দাস, কেউ পদের দাস, কেউ বিদেশের দাস | ঠাকুরের দাস কে ?

11. গম্ভীরাত্মা আর বড় একটা দেখি না | সব পালকের ন্যায় হাল্কা |

12. তথ্য কিছু তত্ত্ব নয় |

13. সাধুর পদতলে প্রণামের সময় কেন প্রণামীর ঝুড়ি রাখা হয় ? ওঁরা তো 'টাকা মাটি, মাটি টাকা', এই মন্ত্রের জনক যিনি, সেই শ্রীশ্রীঠাকুরের প্রতিভূ | দেখতে বড় খারাপ লাগে | অনেকেই প্রণামী সকলে দিচ্ছেন দেখে, এই চাপে এক প্রকার মানসিক বাধ্যতাবশতঃ দেন | এ তো ভাল না | তাছাড়া প্রণাম ভক্তিপ্রসূত আধ্যাত্মিক কর্ম | তাতে অর্থের যোগ হওয়ায় তা কিয়দংশে হলেও নিরর্থক হয়ে যায় |

14. It is frustrating to see spiritual standard decline even in the noblest spiritual organisation.

15. ঠাকুর ছাড়া কাউকে মেনো না |

16. Vedanta preachers must not sit on a high pedestal and receive pranams from devotees who in their affirmed estimation are divinities, the embodiment of the highest Brahman in its Mayic terrestrial manifestation. This sort of a feudal approach is antithetical to the very spirit of the Vedanta. In his celebrated address 'Is Vedanta the Future Religion?' Swamiji had said that despite its discovery in India, Vedanta would find it hard to find its home en masse in India owing to this feudal, monarchical attitude that had settled in mass consciousness there over the ages. The United States of America with its pronounced and practised democracy would, if Americans duly understood the deeper import of the Vedanta, offer a better habitat for the flourishing of the Vedanta.

17. Money contaminates the soul and hinders spiritual progress.

18. The substance and its attributes are seemingly inseparable. Hence, it is hypocrisy to aspire for wealth and then pretend detachment. Possession of the substance will bring in its wake its due attributes that will bind. Rare in history has a being been who in the midst of wealth was serenely detached from it. King Janak is the celebrated instance from Puranic lore.

19. I am a fool who prattles much and knows so little.

20. I love the poor, the helpless, the hapless, the destitute and the dispossessed, the lowly, the despised, the miserable, the forsaken among humanity, those in whom the light of the soul has been covered deep through circumstance or through human neglect, the suffering masses who bear like beasts of burden the yoke of civilisation, yet reap not a morsel of the rich harvest of their labour in a world of merciless exploitation.

21. Thakur and Ma were both born poor. I feel their sympathies were with the poor. Swamiji became poor after his father's death. He suffered poverty and bled for the poor. So must we.

22. If as human beings we fail to sympathise with the plight of the poor in the name of lofty Vedantic scripture, we will have failed to qualify as human beings. 

23. Forget not the weak, the miserable, the forsaken children of Man who God has yet not forsaken but who God has left for you to bring succour unto. Unto you belongs the great privilege of serving these hapless children of the Lord who Man has forsaken. Will you also forsake them? Just consider that they are your very selves who with a little light, with a little food, with a little help and with loads of sympathy can yet arise to assert their latent powers which Mahamaya sleeping within them has endowed them with. Arise and bring relief, bring light and love to these, your very selves in the 'distressing guise' of the poor, the vulnerable, the perishing lot of withered humanity.

24. Give up superstition as a preliminary to practising religion. Only then can you be truly spiritual.

25. 'Prasad' is that which gives 'prasannata' (happiness).

26. We must love the poor for they are our very selves. Our sympathies must be spelled out not merely in words but in deeds which call for us to make sizeable sacrifices in bringing home solace and succour to these hapless brethren of ours.

27. Westernisation of thinking of Indian students studying in America is not a very welcome sign. We must strike deep our national roots and act accordingly.

28. The might of money cannot go far. It roams about in the periphery of our selves. The might of love can go farther, right to the depths of our being. The force of love is irresistible. Hence, love is the solution to the world's maladies.

29. An organisation goes to ruins when it compromises heavily its original ideals to suit the exigencies of the hour. Expansion at the cost of truth and adherence to original principles initiates the decline of organisational life.

30. Too much talk goes on about devotion and God while the teeming millions are routinely sent to despair, destitution and death by human apathy all the while.

31. Swami Nirmalananda (Tulsi Maharaj) was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna but has been denied that status by the Belur Math for reasons best known to them. But affirm or deny, the fact remains unaltered and truth cannot be suppressed. Nirmalanandaji was the 17th direct disciple of Thakur. History will one day make sure that its aberration thus far is undone and Nirmalanandaji is once more assigned his rightful status as the Master's initiated disciple.

32. The parts added fall short of the whole. So is Sri Ramakrishna infinitely greater than the summation of his direct disciples. His infinitude is beyond human or divine estimation. It is puerile to state that he was the sum of his apostles. He was far more than that, limitless and beyond dimensional or depth guaging. He was simply infinite.

33. We returned from Belur Math unfed when we were asked for compulsory donation against which the coupon for prasad would be issued whereupon we insisted that we would donate at the Math office to the sitting Swami after the coupon had been issued. We were informed by the concerned volunteer that he was under instruction not to issue coupon to any without ensuring that some contribution had been collected. This was happening beside Thakur's main temple and I was horrified to see this commercial transaction being conducted right under the shadow of Thakur. We refused to compromise and came away without prasad. I vowed never to partake of prasad at Belur Math again. Later at Saradapeeth another Swami comforted us and lovingly gave us lozenges to assuage our grief. Strangely enough, the consumption of the lozenges sent my mind soaring for a full twenty-four hours, such was the grace of the said Maharaj. This was an unfortunate incident but has been repeated in the lives of other devotees as they have reported the same to me. Alas, it is such a far cry from the esrly days of the Math when Thakur's children would themselves starve but would see to it that devotees were fed nonetheless! They did not have money then but had the heart to feed one and all and never against a mandatory charge extracted for the same.

34. The ideal must never be compromised. It is the life of organisation. Expansion will take place in due course but never must it be at the cost of compromise of ideals.

35. কথামৃত সংঘের সূচনা হল | প্রত্যহ যাঁরা কথামৃত পাঠ করবেন বলে মনস্থ করেছেন ও সেই নিমিত্ত স্থিতসংকল্প, তাঁরা যোগাযোগ করতে পারেন | [7.4.2022]

36. Between monk and householder make no difference. All are divine.

37. Stand on your own feet. That is spirituality.

38. The atheist is as holy as the theist. At source the same Atman animates all beings. Surface differences disregard. Dive deep. Have depth-vision.

39. My child, concentrate on your ideal. Do not drift.

40. Between church and home make no difference. Make each a pilgrimage.

41. Between secular and sacred make no difference. Behold each with an equal eye.

42. A new spiritual order is on the rise. Behold its bloom in bud now, soon to burst into fragrant blossoming to afforest the wide world. Ramakrishna comes yet again. Mark the Master. He is marking you.

43. Slavery is not spirituality. Sycophancy is not spirituality. Service is spirituality when the attitude is right.

44. Trees are there to photosynthesise and feed, to provide shade and shelter, nest to birds. Does one spread a net on leaves to prevent birds their natural habitat, to keep the ground clean of droppings?

45. A life of cowardice is not a life of the Lord. Love -- deep, abiding love bereft of a tinge of matter is the substance of spirituality. Nor fame nor fortune nor sense of pedestal-positioning of self must mar it.

46. The life of a man is the life of a civilisation that holds him as his heritage roots whence he draws sustenance for survival. He in turn leaves behind the flora of his life's breath for posterity to seek inspiration from. So the saga continues.

47. The rich have a responsibility towards the poor.

48. How easily we spend on ourselves! Yet, how hard it seems to spend by way of public charity! Serve the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

49. The average person in India is holy and this holiness must be preserved. No amount of material education must be allowed to tamper with this holiness.

50. Everything is divine.

51. গঙ্গা গঙ্গায় মিলল |

52. Holy men have trodden the soil of this motherland of ours from time immemorial to preserve her holiness, to intensify it. The trend continues to this day.

53. The rich spiritual tradition of India is indestructible. Despite countless onslaughts it stands supreme even today. The survival of the world depends on it. God Himself is preserving India since ancient times.

54. There is something deeper than religious denomination. It is the Supreme Self. Awake to the Divine within that is seated in the heart of man.

54. Swamiji's wanderjahre across India marks the awakening of the national kundalini.

55. As yet many will come who will uphold the banner of Eternal India. India will rise to spiritual eminence yet again to save the world from impending ruin. The Master's advent is due. Prepare.

56. Beyond language, beyond the letter, beyond learning, beyond letters, beyond even the primal sound Om, lies the Divine, ever-awake, bestowing benediction.

57. Maya has entranced all, Gods dreaming they are men.

58. Behind the facade of phenomena lies the One brewing up the destiny of things in the distillery of the Divine.

59. Duty is divine.

60. The Word holds the stimulus, the Soul holds the power. The Word quickens the response in the Soul that awakens awareness of the One Divine.

61. Distinctions cease when sameness is realised in the depths of the Being. Then it is the Divine Play all over again but with a different hue.

62. ভগবানের নামে কর্মপাশ কাটে | তাই যত জপ করা যায় ততই ভাল |

63. লীলাচিন্তন, গুণকীর্তন, নামস্মরণ -- এই উপায় ঈশ্বরসান্নিধ্যলাভের |

64. কাজ করলেই হল না; কাজ নিখুঁতভাবে, নিপুণভাবে করা চাই |

65. It is not good enough to do a piece of work; it must be done well, with care, with precision, with perfection. Then comes the attitude, the spirit of service and reverential worship involved. Last comes detachment to the fruits of work. Peace abides thereafter and illumination. Om!

66. The self-effaced is the Self-affirmed.

67. Vivekananda, Ashokananda, Ranganathananda - the trinity of inspired teachers!

68. মন যত ধীর, চিত্ত যত স্থির, ব্রহ্ম তত বিকশিত |

69. নিজের সাথে নিজের কথা বলাই ভাল | তাতে গোল থাকে না | বুদ্ধি দিলে, বাক দিলে, মা, কিন্তু শ্রোতা দিলে না | শুধু প্রয়োজনের জগৎ, তাৎক্ষণিক নিজস্বার্থটি রক্ষা পেলেই হল | বাকি সবই তো তাঁর কৃপা ! এমন বকধার্মিকেরও অভাব নেই সংসারে |

70.

জীবনে যাহারে দিলে না শ্রদ্ধা,

মরণে কি দিবে শ্রাদ্ধ তাহার ?

71.

কিবা জানি, কিবা বুঝি, কিবা করি কাজ ?

এইমাত্র জানি প্রভু, তব সর্ব দিব্য সাজ |

72. We have to grow in sympathy for the poor. The living God seeks our service in their emaciated bodies. They are our very selves. Can we neglect them thus?

73. It is good to democratise society but bad to degenerate culture in the process. Is it a demographic inevitability that it must thus come to pass ? Or is it avoidable with careful nurturing of the spreading sapling of society?

74. সেবাবুদ্ধির অভাবে দেশের বর্তমান দুর্দশা | এই অভাব অজ্ঞানতাপ্রসূত, স্বার্থবুদ্ধিহেতু | প্রাথমিক উপায় ভক্তকুলের শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণপ্রদর্শিত 'শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা' এই মহামন্ত্রটি হৃদয়ঙ্গম করে তা নিজজীবনে প্রয়োগ করা মহা উৎসাহে | লক্ষ লক্ষ ভক্তের এই পূতপ্রয়োগে স্বদেশ সঞ্জীবিত হবে |

75. Those who cannot feel for the suffering of others are not fit to be Vedantists.

76.

The longest hour is the shortest hour,

Life lingers on earth.

From birth to death and death to birth,

The pearl  moment is but its worth.

Life lingers here on earth.

77.  যিনি ভক্ত, তিনি শুধু ভগবানকে ভালবাসেন না, তিনি ভগবানের সর্বোচ্চ প্রকাশ যে মানুষ, তাঁকে অবিরাম সেবা করেন, পূজা করেন, সম্মান-শ্রদ্ধা করেন |

78. The devotee is one who sees God in all. His worship is the unceasing adoration of the Divine Beloved in the sanctum of his heart and in the living sanctum of the mortal frame of  man and even lower sentience. He sees with joy God all around and madly loves all without distinction. Such is the devotee, a rare visitation on earth.

79. 

আজ পূর্ণ করে দেবার দিন |

80. Behind the mortal frame of man lies the immortal Atman, the imperishable Self, the Real Man. Knowing this make no distinction between saint and sinner. Worship all.

81. Today is Annapurna Pooja. Give today as much as your heart permits. Give all.

82. Heaven is in your loving heart, nowhere else.

83. শুধু 'প্রণাম' বললে বা করলে চলে না | ওটা বিধিবাদীয় ভক্তির আনুষ্ঠানিক প্রকাশ | চাই শ্রদ্ধা ও তার কর্মে রূপান্তর, 'লোকসংগ্রহার্থম' |

84. Great men are simple men. They see life in its bare essentials. Their depth-vision probes life to its very essence. And when they have reached the goal, they are deemed great, not a moment earlier.

85. Religious preaching has become a sham. Shallow men masquerade as preachers citing superficial instances by way of explanation of deep phenomena. Depth-causes are not investigated neither spoken of. The crust assumes the role of the core as core issues are carpeted with ornamental elements. The seer is superficial these days. One awaits the arrival of the true seer.

86. How unfortunate am I when I behold that my own ones do not care to read regularly even my whatsapp status updates! We are a nation indeed. Here talent goes abegging as men chase coarser transitory dreams relegating pure thought a base pedestal where perish the most fertile ideas in the desert-sand of neglect.

87. I do not want any God to save me in my final hour. There is no final hour for me. It is an endless sea of eternity. The flow of time is but the seeming undulation of the frozen moment. Who will save whom when God is all that is ? Fear given up here and now, freedom is here and now. You are free. You are already saved. Never were you bound, O Great One, wake up!

88. When we speak from the rostrum in Bengali we must speak in colloquial language. It strikes a chord with the people. Why use such ornamental language that seems superficial and that too with artificial pulsating voice?

89. It is better to be a rational atheist with a sense of charity for the dispossessed than a heartless believer selfish to the core.

90. Cowards are unfit for religion. The valorous alone are virtuous.

91. Belief counts for little. Facts matter. Truth must be established on the basis of hard evidence, empirical or experiential.

92. We must learn to precisely answer questions put before us. It is generally seen that people do not give direct answers that accurately address the questions put before them but they give answers that suit them, being determined by their mental predilections. This is an unscientific attitude and is a travesty of truth.

93. A casual attitude to social media messaging devoid of proper punctuation is symptomatic of carelessness, impreciseness and poor concentration that surely is not a mark of developed character or of an integrated personality. 

94. When will men have greater faith in themselves than in God ? Then will  divinity shine in human beings more lustrous than ever before.

95. Swamiji's final doctrine was manhood. He wanted Indians to exhibit nanhood, that is, strength devoid of the slightest tinge of effeminacy, to drive out the colonial predators and arrive at all-round national excellence.

96. আহা, কোকিলের সুর কি সুন্দর ! এমন সুর তো আর শুনলাম না | It is sublime music of surpassing beauty emanating from the very heart of Nature.

97. কথামৃত পড়া মানে ঠাকুরের সাথে থাকা |

98. The difference between religion and science is this: religion gets dated more often than not whereas science is ever on the move.

99. Greed today is a great source of evil as nations fight to appropriate the earth's resources. Foolish races, they kill each other for temporal gains and, yet, they vaunt of civilisation. Their violent seafaring ancestry has entered into their genes and they cannot give up their biological inheritance so easily.

100. Hindus have lived under foreign occupation of their homeland for well over a thousand years. When the Islamic hordes invaded, Hindus were hopelessly divided. If they had stood forth united as a nation, they could have wiped out the invading armies. But they fought amongst themselves and ensured their thousand year slavery. Then cane the European colonisers who looted our land for centuries and reduced us to penury. Alas, when shall we learn our lessons from history? When shall we unite?