A LONG LETTER TO AN ASPIRANT YOUTH

A LONG LETTER TO AN ASPIRANT YOUTH

You are absolutely right, Diganta Sengupta. We have done and continue to do much disservice to Tagore, thrusting our own weaknesses on him. He is a lighthouse in this dark delusive sea of despair and holds the equipoise between the householder's life and the life of the renunciate. But his attitudes and aspirations were not those of the classical Rishi who he adored but could not emulate, immersed as he was in his pursuit of poetry and its inescapable trappings.

Tagore was not a free soul like Swamiji was. He was unaware of the deepest reality of existence and consciousness, and surfed on the billows of life, taking a dip here and there in the flowing rivulets which men mistake to be the ocean. He was thus culpable to sensory consequences which amply highlight themselves in his compositions. His status, by self-admission in his autobiographical work 'Atmaparichay', was that of a 'rasapipaasu' (taster of the flavours of life), a pilgrim, a commentator on his experiences, both outer and inner, and need not be deemed as a Rishi's pronouncement on life and existence from the transcendental plane. Swamiji was a Rishi and his utterances are the modern Veda.

Tagore differed markedly from Swamiji in his thinking on life because his was a fractional view of things, situated as he was in the penumbra of understanding on life and existence whereas Swamiji, luminous Rishi, the prophet of the modern age, the torchbearer to future humanity, gave utterance to his soul's visions, unerring and centred as they were in the transcendental Truth. Tagore was a Brahmo and hated Ma Kali whose destruction he desired to rescue the humanity of Her worshippers. The Tagore family was ill-disposed towards Swamiji and they, along with several other eminent personalities among which numbered Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar, did try to obstruct the course of Nivedita's public address at Kalighat (so I gather and welcome correction in case I am in the wrong). Tagore himself did not appreciate the importance, efficacy, suitability and sustainability of the rigorous brahmacharya for students that Swamiji espoused. How would he, himself not having ever been one? Here was a major ideological rift between the two men which was brought into sharp focus at Nivedita's tea-party at her residence in Bosepara Lane. Nivedita also did not listen to Swamiji in unduly associating with Tagore despite Swamiji's caution to the contrary. This was not due dedication to the Guru by the 'Dedicated One' despite all. She disobeyed Swamiji despite his repeated remonstration. How utterly inexplicable even if we accept her inalienable love for India and her children which prompted Tagore to post-mortem dub her 'Lokmata'!

The simple thing is this. Swamiji came to set up humanity on its feet and to do so by reviving the age-old chastity culture of the Brahmacharya Ashrama, the Gurukul. Tagore also started his 'Brahmacharya Ashrama' in Shantiniketan but, alas, there was none practising brahmacharya there, nor preceptor nor pupil! Swamjji was a seer, an everfree soul, a Prakritileen Mahapurush (the Enlightened One merged in Universal Nature), the ancient sage Nara reincarnated, a Sapta Rishi, Shiva in flesh and form, Mahavir descended to assist Thakur in establishing the Yugadharma. He was nonpareil. There was none in the world then or has been since who has even remotely approached him in personality or principle, in character or kind, in luminosity or power. Swamiji operated from the transcendental plane (the Turiya) and the Anandamaya Kosh, the blissful sheath post spiritual enlightenment.

Tagore, a poet of profound depths, a composer of sublime songs, a writer of surpassing brilliance, an artist of excellence, a builder of university, institution and township, a universalist of sorts, a voice for the mute millions, was, nonetheless, a bound soul, mired in the meshes of the material mind, however subtle to surface onlookers, an intellectual who could only operate from within the confines of his mind, that is, from the mental and the intellectual planes (Manomaya and Vijnanamaya Kosh). As such his statements in opposition to Swamiji's were flawed by mental misconceptions, misapprehensions about the deeper import of Swamiji's utterances. Swamiji did not need to live longer to size up Tagore and the gamut of his thinking but it was the ageing Tagore that gradually understood the unerring accuracy of Swamiji's observations that eventually prompted him to recommend to Romain Rolland the reading of Vivekananda to be able to read India. However, Tagore, bound as he was in Maya whose snares he neither attempted to break through nor aspired ever to do so, happy to be in 'elevated' sensory delusion, could never fully understand Swamiji. It is not given to bound souls to comprehend free souls.

Maya traps and Tagore and his family were in that trap. How could they ever understand the glory of the great soul that was Vivekananda? How can the effeminate  Bengali followers of Tagore appreciate that leonine soul? It took the bravest Bengal revolutionaries to appreciate Swamiji. He fired them up unto sacrificing their lives for the liberation of the motherland. Read Hemchandra Ghosh and you will understand. Son, how can the sensuous man understand the glory that is continence? It takes a lion to appreciate the strength of a lion. Let Bengal practise brahmacharya and with a lightning flash these debilitated ones will follow the intent of Swamiji. Then and then alone will Bengal rise, not before. This pandering to the senses has ruined Bengal. The sooner it is given up, the better for Bengal. Renounce and serve. Be manly, men, women both. Manifest strength. Study Vivekananda. Sacrifice your life for him. Build Bengal, build India, build the world, though each with its separate adjustments. 

One more thing. Your mature balance of judgement amazes me everytime I happen to interact with you. It is a rare virtue indeed and bears testimony to your strength of character. Who knows? you may be destined for greater things.

Yours ever in Thakur-Ma-Swamiji,

Sugata Bose