WHITHER THE ORIGINAL IDEALS?

WHITHER THE ORIGINAL IDEALS?

Does architecture in concrete and marble make man? Whither the original ideals of the Master (Sri Ramakrishna) and his leonine protégé (Swami Vivekananda)?

Photo : The sidelined seventeenth direct monastic male disciple of the Avatar of Dakshineshwar. Tulsi Maharaj (Swami Nirmalananda) remains in the periphery of the Mission's affections. His name as the Master's (Sri Ramakrishna's) direct disciple has been erased from the Mission's publications. Not a word about him have I heard in all these thirty-nine years (1983 - 2022) in any lecture by a monk of the Ramakrishna Mission. The court case of the early 1930s between Tulsi Maharaj and the Ramakrishna Mission has been instrumental in causing this latter-day historical distortion of fact and sadly so, for, in the words of Swamiji, 'Everything in the world can be given up for truth but for nothing in the world can truth be given up.' And, yet, scriptures are quoted, the Holy Trinity invoked everywhere while this travesty of truth continues where Swami Nirmalananda finds no spiritual parent by way of adoption as due disciple by any in the Mission. It is said that he was the disciple of Swamiji and, yet, in the list of Swamiji's disciples his name is missing. Everybody of serious and studious intent knows him to be Thakur's direct disciple and, yet, his name is missing from the listed lot of the Master's apostles which are shown to number sixteen when in truth they number seventeen. How will the youth be inspired by untruth in the name of the most truthful of human beings (Sri Ramakrishna) who has ever appeared on this terrestrial stage? No wonder there is this rudderless flow of the Mission today with its architecture in concrete replacing the original man-making mission? Untruth maketh not man. The pursuit of wealth maketh not character. Ease of attitude devoid of terrible pain at the agony of man all around in exploitative chains cannot be called anymore the Mission of the Master. Ha Ramakrishna! হা রামকৃষ্ণ !

Written by Sugata Bose