YOUR SWAMIJI
Monday 27 June 2022
FROM DUST TO DUST NO MORE
FROM DUST TO DUST NO MORE
I try to gather my senses
But my senses have already gathered me.
Scattered am I in the winds.
Bits and pieces and minuscule parts,
They seek fulfilment, each to each,
But how on earth can that ever be?
The torn fragments --
They lie in disarray,
Blown about by the winds.
Little minds over little bodies,
Broken bricks of the edifice.
The storm rages, the tempest strikes,
The billows keep crashing against the vessel of life.
Gentle leaves,
Afloat on the ripples
Of dainty brooks,
They rise and they fall
With the current of flow.
An Age passes,
Another comes.
Evening dawns like dawn breaks the mist.
Time flows on an even keel,
Then temptestuous rushes revolution.
Fortressses fall,
The Bastille breaks,
The Winter Palace from sea is felled,
The March of Mao and the March of Man,
They all come,
And they all go.
But deep within the heart I hear,
I see by the eye that witnesses deep,
The young sage by the Sarasvati,
Encircled by ancient, venerable ones,
Rise up and call out in trumpet voice,
"Hear ye, O residents of the earth,
Hear ye, O children of immortal bliss,
Even ye hear that reside in higher spheres.
I have known the One, the Ancient One,
Whose hue is of the radiant sun,
Who resides beyond the pale of the dark.
Knowing Him shalt thou for sure
Pass beyond death and dust.
O, know it now,
There is no other way,
None, none whatsoever."
And once more he rose
In the august assembly by the Pacific
In times nearer to home
When 'Come September' did fulfil
The promise of the past ages.
Chicago, the fusion point,
The meet of the sages.
A hall packed with hoary heritage,
A point crystallised in Time.
There he rose and in trumpet voice
Flying through ages of sages of the Land,
Across distant seas stood
And stormed once more
The citadel of the heavens
To declare the glory of Man.
"Sisters and brothers of America,..."
And the vault of heaven did give way
Showering the bliss of eternal life.
They came cascading down
In torrents of bliss,
In currents of life,
Enlivening a material world
Unto the deep Spirit within.
The scattered parts did gather,
The senses did take to heels,
The bits and pieces fused and diffused,
The broken doll became whole.
Composed by Sugata Bose
Friday 24 June 2022
THE TWO BOSES WHO DELIVERED THE BRITISH THE COUP DE GRACE
THE TWO BOSES WHO DELIVERED THE BRITISH THE COUP DE GRACE
The duo that freed India, now neglected to India's misfortune.
A country that is ungrateful finds it difficult to rise. India since independence has had to overcome numerous hurdles which have hindered her progress, reduced its pace and relegated her to being one of the major players in the world of geopolitics today where she could have been in a far more preeminent position were she to officially recognise the contributions of her revolutionary heroes who freed her from colonial bondage. Alas, that was not to be. Hence, her present predicament with political factions tearing the polity apart. A national sense has not developed in sufficient measure as yet among large sections of the citizenry, titular components of the nation that they are without obligations of unconditional nationalism that would have mightily strengthened the nation.
Rash Behari Bose engineered two revolutions. The first one was staged at the height of the First World War, the Ghadar Revolution which was aborted in India but broke out in Singapore nonetheless where it was most brutally crushed. At home traitor Kripal Singh undid the revolution at the penultimate moment. Rash Behari escaped to Japan and regrouped forces abroad to prepare for the second assault.
Earlier Rash Behari Bose had bombed Viceroy Lord Hardinge in 1912 along with accomplice Basanta Kumar Biswas. Biswas was betrayed unto the British by a family member and was hanged. Bose went underground, making multiple daring escapes in disguise till he finally hoodwinked the British authorities in the guise of P.N.Tagore to Japan. There he had to live underground for years with the British demanding of the Japanese his extradition. Finally, with help from prominent Japanese politicians and revolutionaries and with altered geopolitical situation Japan allowed him citizenship and Bose, now married to a Japanese lady, settled in protected peace as the son-in-law of the Nakamuraya family of bakery fame.
Rash Behari Bose had to change residence eleven times in Japan to avoid arrest and extradition to India. Wife Toshiko did all of housekeeping and liason and sheltered her husband from harm. But the strain was too much for this wonderful woman, India's best friend, and she passed away untimely leaving behind two children, a son and a daughter, and a grieving husband who never married again.
From now on Bose's mother-in-law took care of the children as Bose dived deep into activating support across East Asia for a pan-Asia revolution against British colonial occupation of Asia. His target was to relieve Asia of European colonialisation. To this end he focussed his considerable energy. At home he developed the Nakamuraya bakery, innovating and introducing Indian curries which became a rage and continues to be so till date. The rest of his hours were spent in garnering Japanese support for the cause of India's independence and for organising a pan-Asian movement against British colonialism. He was ably supported in his work by an Indian by the name A.M. Nair.
Meanwhile in India, Subhas Chandra Bose, protégé of the veteran leader Chittaranjan Das, was going strong and slowly emerging as one of the two leftist leaders of the Congress along with Jawaharlal Nehru. Deemed a dangerous revolutionary with secret links to the extreme Bengal revolutionaries, Bose spent the bulk of his time in incarceration in British India and in exile in Europe. He established international links with revolutionaries abroad and after his second term as Congress President was humiliated into expulsion from the party whereupon he embarked upon one of the most momentous journeys abroad in history, having escaped from house-arrest in a most daring adventurous bid. Calcutta-Gomoh-Peshawar-Kabul-Moscow-Berlin-Sumatra-Tokyo-Singapore-Rangoon-Andaman-Imphal-Rangoon-Singapore-Bangkok-Saigon-Taihoku -- this was the circuitous route that the hero took before he simply disappeared into the mist post 17 August, 1945.
Where did the two Boses converge then? Well, this was during the Second World War when in Singapore Rash Behari Bose handed over the charge of the Indian Independence League which he had earlier founded and days later the reins of the Indian National Army to Subhas Chandra Bose. The ageing Rash Behari found the younger Subhas the man of the moment who could fittingly lead India unto independence.
On 21 October, 1943 Subhas Chandra Bose formed his Provisional Government of Free India in Singapore. Two days later he declared war on the Anglo-American Alliance. India was now provisionally free by Bose's declaration and her independent status was recognised by eleven nations of the Axis Alliance. Back home the Quit India Movement of Gandhi had fizzled out and the Congress leadership were in prison. It was from now on that expatriate Indians took charge of India's independence.
There from distant Singapore and Tokyo the ailing Rash Behari watched proceedings as the Indian National Army backed up by the Nipponese forces led the assault on British India till it had freed 300 sq. km of British Indian territory in Imphal. An unusually heavy monsoon, flipping fortunes of the Axis Powers in Europe and the resultant Japanese imperative for rearguard action to save the motherland forced the INA retreat whereupon heavy casualty to the tune of 26,000 dead tilted the scales of war in favour of the Allied Powers. Subhas Chandra Bose ordered the disbanding of his forces and in attempting yet another escape to favourable terrain to continue battle disappeared into thin air. Thereafter, there is a blank in history amid continuous surfacing of fantastic conspiracy theories of his return to India in the guise of a strange monk who was marshalling fresh forces to end Anglo-American hegemony in Asia.
Rash Behari Bose had died in January, 1945, months before the nuked submission of imperial Japan to the Allied Powers. He died a hero in Japan, having been honoured with the Second Order of the Rising Sun by Emperor Hirohito, the highest civilian honour for a non-royal. Here Subhas Chandra Bose disappeared, never to return.
There have been countless revolutionaries for India's freedom whose names were 'writ in water', to quote the English poet Keats. They had this revolutionary code of absolute secrecy which meant that they themselves destroyed evidence of their revolutionary activities. But that does not mean that free India should fail to remember them even if they had wanted to erase their names from history but could not when their names and activities were recorded by British intelligence. It is a dastardly desertion of these leonine souls by successive governments of free India for which we are paying the price today.
As we survey the political spectrum today and the polity that it is ruled over by these opportunists, we notice even in the appalling darkness a stream of light penetrating through clouds of despair, and it is this unifying reverence of one and all for our revolutionaries for freedom, foremost among whom are Netaji, Rash Behari Bose, Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekhar Azad, Ramprasad Bismil, Khudiram Bose, Benoy-Badal-Dinesh, Masterda Surjya Sen, the Chapekar brothers, Udham Singh, Madanlal Dhingra, Durga Bhavi, Jatin Das, Bagha Jatin, Ullaskar Dutta, Batukeshwar Dutta and a whole host of others. Countless heroes and heroines have sacrificed their lives at the scaffold and before the bayonet and the bullet to free the motherland from her colonial shackles. That the political dispensation post-independence chose to ignore them and allow them to sink into oblivion could not quite achieve the said purpose as public memory survived and was reinforced, nonetheless, through stray sources, odd literature, oral transmission and diligent research by concerned historians who worked outside the ambit of governmental influence to bring to light facts of the freedom struggle that lay thus far beyond easy audience reach. The internet has facilitated this process of mass dissemination of data and now the nation is becoming increasingly aware of the exploits of these daring daughters and sons of Mother India. Truth is triumphing at last. And what do we see in this growing awareness? The unifying reverence of the people of India, cutting across borders of class, caste, community and creed for these sacrificing souls, the valorous sons and daughters of the soil. Here we see a seamless unity among the otherwise disjointed factions of the polity. And here lies the hope of future India to forge a bond of unity among the diverse peoples that animate this great land.
Written by Sugata Bose
Wednesday 22 June 2022
TEACH VIVEKANANDA, SAVE CIVILISATION
TEACH VIVEKANANDA, SAVE CIVILISATION
Our problems as a nation may be largely solved, at least on the ideological plane to begin with before practical results may be en masse reached, if we expose our citizenry to the uncensored teachings of Swami Vivekananda, never cherry-picked to suit political exigencies but taught wholesale as they are. Let the Government of India propagate the life and message of the Swami who had in an inspired mood described himself as 'Condensed India'. Let this glacial personality be melted to flood the motherland with her pristine thoughts dating from Vedic times to date. Let Vivekananda enter the bloodstream of India and transform her unto her highest potential state whence a new humanity may as yet arise in the country to inundate the world with its flowing streams of pure spirituality. Teach Vivekananda, save civilisation!
Written by Sugata Bose
THE LONG LOST HERO, HONOURED IN JAPAN, FORGOTTEN IN THE MOTHERLAND FOR WHOM HE SACRIFICED IT ALL
THE LONG LOST HERO, HONOURED IN JAPAN, FORGOTTEN IN THE MOTHERLAND FOR WHOM HE SACRIFICED IT ALL
Rash Behari Bose's voluminous writings in Japanese need to be translated into English. This must be our expresss demand before the Government of India. Imagine Gandhiji's writings similarly remaining in hibernation in a foreign language! The Government would have never allowed that to happen. We must demand the founding of a Rash Behari Bose Memorial Institute to institute such restoration work of the great hero's life and attainments. Raise your voice to achieving it. This is the minimum we ought to do by way of repaying our debt to the seminal leader who engineered revolution against the British Indian Government during both the World Wars, the first one aborted and the second one that precipitated independence.
Written by Sugata Bose
Tuesday 21 June 2022
QUESTIONING ARBITRARY ASSUMPTIONS ON THE RISE AS REASON TAKES TO FIGHTING ITS OWN BATTLE AGAINST THEOCRATIC ODDS
QUESTIONING ARBITRARY ASSUMPTIONS ON THE RISE AS REASON TAKES TO FIGHTING ITS OWN BATTLE AGAINST THEOCRATIC ODDS
The next two generations of people across theocratic countries will see a large rejection of imposed faiths and the emergence of scientific consciousness. Today, it is the growing body of ex-Muslims, persecuted but persisting. Tomorrow, this will be the normalised thing. The human faculty to reason and reject arbitrary assumptions can never be subdued by dogmatic exaction of submission to an imaginary Almighty.
Written by Sugata Bose
THE BLIND FURY OF THE FAITHFUL
THE BLIND FURY OF THE FAITHFUL
The more you invest your life's energy in idealising a personality, the more susceptible you are to resorting to fanatical violence at the slightest perceived offence against him from an apparent adversary. This is the standard response of the indoctrinated ones in a fanatical exclusive faith.
Faith makes it worse as reason by way of fundamental condition is ruled out and submission to an unseen and imagined entity imposed arbitrarily on the compliant ignorant masses. Once the faith has taken hold of a sizeable section of people, it goes on to increase its irrational hold on its adherents through brainwashing from birth, cultural transmission, threats here and of hellfire hereafter for doubting or disbelieving, overall a cultural conditioning and a political subjugation that allows one entry into the fold but blocks exit. Proliferation in numbers through procreation, proselytising and checking apostasy by death-threats is how such a faith seemingly flourishes, bringing death to civilisation in the process.
Such movements are not spiritual in the least but are purely politically motivated while wearing the garb of religion. They must be resisted for the sake of saving humanity from barbarism. The regressive outlook of such faiths slows down human evolution and must be rejected outright to hasten human progress.
We are in such a time when large numbers of ex-believers are mustering force to undo the damage that this sort of a fanatical faith is causing. All strength unto them! The combined might of a large body of rational people must inevitably defeat the forces of darkness but the price, nonetheless, has to be paid before such evil is eliminated to usher in a humane order of things.
Written by Sugata Bose
FACING THE CHINESE CHALLENGE
FACING THE CHINESE CHALLENGE
We need to ally with the US despite our differences if we wish to face the Chinese challenge to our sovereignty. Arunachal and Ladhakh both face existential threats from expansionist China.
Long ago Swami Vivekananda had forewarned that soon after independence India might lose her independence to China. His words came almost true in North-eastern India during the 1962 Sino-India conflict when President John F. Kennedy came to our rescue. Otherwise, the whole of the North-east might have fallen to the Chinese.
Now, sixty years on we are again facing the Chinese threat but we are not quite facing it the way we should. The QUAD may not be adequate defence for us for it is not an alliance but a loose strategic defence partnership with the US, Japan and Australia.
And we are averse to making US our ally at any rate because of historical complications, with Russia remaining our long-term strategic defence partner since Indira Gandhi signed the Soviet-India defence pact with Leonid Brezhnev.
Now the Soviet Union is no more and a significantly weakened Russia is almost junior partner to China which is a superpower of six times financial strength with respect to India, four times more expending on defence and pursuing a dangerous policy of encircling India from all sides which is dubbed the 'String of Pearls' design to overcome India in a potential future war. Russia running junior partner to China can hardly be relied upon to come to India's aid in any future Sino-India conflict.
Hence, our only hope is to strike some sort of an agreement with the US that will ensure our safety in such an unseemly eventuality. A US-India defence pact will surely deter China from engaging in such a misadventure of attacking India. But the Indian leadership, long habituated to non-alignment in a polarised world, cannot as yet get over the inertia of the past and come to terms with present realities on a pragmatic basis. The dragon-danger looms large and India needs to quickly address the threat. Else, one shudders to think what might perchance in an unequal full-scale war with the superpower that China is. In such an eventuality we will have to seek American help to save us. Why not now when time there is yet?
Written by Sugata Bose
Monday 20 June 2022
A FOUNDING FATHER OF HINDU NATIONALISM WHO LIES IN NEGLECT THOUGH
A FOUNDING FATHER OF HINDU NATIONALISM WHO LIES IN NEGLECT THOUGH
Swami Pranavananda, founder of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha, an inspirational sage, a powerhouse of strength, a fount of wisdom and a unifier of the Hindus, one who alerted the Hindus about their impending decimation should they not hold hands and stand together. And this he said in those years before the horrendous Partition when his words were not heeded much by our national leaders.
Every Hindu must read his life and message to gather courage of conviction, to find direction in life, to steady the national ship.
A patriot par excellence, a visionary with incisive insight into the heart of things, both internal and the external order that obtained, a prophet with articulate enunciation on the prospects of the polity then and way into the future, a leader of renunciates who have carried on the life-building cause of the nation, Swami Pranavanandaji remains a peerless personality among the ranks of great men who have graced this land in modern times, one who could unequivocally be called the worthy successor to the Acharya of the Age, Swami Vivekananda.
However, Pranavanandaji lies in neglect of public memory and governmental recognition thus far, not that it matters to him but that it makes the polity and the nation poorer, for when does such a sage visit us so often?
Written by Sugata Bose
HINDUS, BE SCIENTIFIC!
HINDUS, BE SCIENTIFIC!
The greatest threat to irrational, absolutist Abrahamic religions is science. Science will ease these religions out by the sheer power of reason and evidence. Hence, Hindus must be unreservedly scientific if they wish to combat Islam and Christianity.
So far as Hinduism is concerned, it has nothing to fear from science. Welcome science increasingly into the chambers of the Sanatan Dharma whose pristine principles are all so very scientific, albeit relating primarily to the depths of the inner world.
And the Sanatan Dharma has contributed and can as yet contribute much to empirical science as well with its rich repertoire of rational thinking that is embedded in its scriptures. For instance, the Vedanta, the Sankhya, the Yoga and the Nyaya are four of the six schools of the Vedic Dharma which can inform and enlighten modern science much about the cosmos, its macrocosmic and microcosmic understanding, the study of existence, psychology and consciousness, the rigour of rational thinking, methods of verification and proof, and the theory of knowledge itself.
Hindus, if they wish to rise again, must welcome science in every possible way, never in a negative and destructive manner but in an affirmative way that will conduce to the growth of the system that the Sanatan Dharma is and the Hindu civilisation is. This is the surest way to defeating fanatical cults which even today hold sway over vast millions primarily because these masses are ignorant of the principles of rational reasoning along the scientific mode.
And be forewarned. Science is not all materialism today but is delving deep into the study of consciousness itself. Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism, the three great Indian dharma traditions, have much to contribute in this sphere but not Islam or Christianity which are faith-based systems with not much philosophical depth to them. Whatever philosophy they present in discourse is borrowed from the Greeks primarily whose logic and thought they have conveniently adopted to somehow prop up their failing 'philosophies'.
The European Enlightenment dealt Christianity the death-blow but Islam survived its onslaught as it fell beyond the terrain of the rational awakening of Europe. Hence, it has proliferated elsewhere since. But if Hindus take to science in a big way, sincerely and not merely to serve political ends as practising Hindu communists do, then the community will so grow in knowledge that Islam and Christianity will be vanquished within India and our enlightened spiritual civilisation dating millenia will receive a fresh lease of life that will not only invigorate the motherland but the whole world. Swami Vivekananda had, thus, exhorted the Hindus to take up the study of Sanskrit and science with utmost reverence and not in a superficial manner whose mode is to mock and method is to pursue sensual pleasures.
Hindus must adhere to high morality and pursue truth, both empirical and transcendental, if they wish to save their civilisation from the inroads of irrational cults.
Hindus, be scientific! The Sanatan Dharma is the science of the Spirit. It will flourish if science in all its depths of enquiry and analysis is practised more by the body politic of the Hindus.
Like the Sanatan Dharma is true in the spiritual realm, so is science true in the material realm. It is an integrated whole, each transiting into the other seamlessly, and artificial divisions need not be made between the two. Spirit and Matter -- these are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Knowing this, stop brooding over your impending demise as a civilisation and start rebuilding it along spiritual-scientific lines. Embrace reason, not like a 'rational' fanatic with a political agenda to serve but like an enquirer into the true nature of things. One reasonable man armed in the scientific way of thinking can do far more to dispel the darkness of unreason among the masses who are being perverted by irrational religions than masses of unreasonable men who are attempting to win this ideological war by foul-mouthing these medieval tribal systems of absolutist thought. I reiterate, Hindus, be scientific! 🕉
Written by Sugata Bose
Sunday 19 June 2022
THE DOCTRINAIRE DANGER THAT THE HINDUS FACE
THE DOCTRINAIRE DANGER THAT THE HINDUS FACE
Daily indoctrination of absolutist principles is the surest way to produce mass fanaticism whose ugly manifestation we see every day in countries where Hindus are being persecuted. Even in Hindu-majority India Hindus are not safe. Free speech that is intrinsic to a secular democracy is no more in India. Here a derivation of the blasphemy law of the Sharia is in practical terms being effected. A sad demise of free speech! A sadder demise of Hindu rights in a country where the minority is yet again cornering at will a hopelessly divided majority! Who will save the Hindus if they remain disunuted with large sections among them working against Hindu interests? 🕉
Written by Sugata Bose
#IsupportNupurSharma
Saturday 18 June 2022
DEVELOP DEBATING SKILLS
DEVELOP DEBATING SKILLS
We have to learn to be focussed in our arguments with pin-pointed assertions and questioning, and not stray at all amidst verbal ornamentation of what we say. The adversary in debate must be pinned down with accurate darts of query and rebuttal instead of allowing him an escape route to safety. If necessary the same question must be repeated in terse terms and answer elicited from the adversary in disputation which will seal the argument to the aspired end.
Sadly, we lack in skilled debaters in sufficient numbers who can represent the cause of the Hindus well enough. We need to develop a think-tank which is capable of tackling this problem. Ancient India and medieval India had sages and savants who were great in disputation, and in modern times we had Swami Vivekananda who excelled in this regard. We need to follow in their footsteps and bolster our debating skills. Less words, greater focus pin-pointed arguments and clear rationality -- these must be the fourfold criteria in debating by Hindu debaters if they wish to successfully overcome their adversaries in debate. This is a science and this is an art that must be mastered before we can claim to rightly represent our dharma in public fora where inter-religious disputations are staged. 🕉
Written by Sugata Bose
PROPAGATE THE VEDANTA ZEALOUSLY ACROSS THE WORLD
PROPAGATE THE VEDANTA ZEALOUSLY ACROSS THE WORLD
The Vedanta in simple and practical terms must be heavily preached and propagated within the country and abroad. This is an existential necessity for humanity torn apart by religious intolerance stemming from inhuman fundamental 'divine' doctrine that is held inviolable and, hence, unalterable. Such doctrinaire absolutism fuels fanaticism whose evil effects we are witnessing the world over. The Vedanta holds the key to future human harmony as its principles are thoroughly humanistic, rational, open to all intellectual challenge and has no blasphemy bar throttling progressive thinking that strikes at its foundations intellectually. This ancient thought-system of the Hindus must be disseminated throughout the world with active patronage of the Government of India for the world to learn how to exist in peace. If the GOI does it, the whole of humanity one day will remain grateful to it when it will reap its rich harvest.
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. Dara Shukoh, the Mughal prince, heir-apparent to Emperor Shah Jahan, was the first one who commissioned the translation of the Upanishads into Persian from where they later got translated into the European languages and became a subtle philosophical force in the West. Arthur Schopenhauer has testified his gratitude to the Upanishads in shaping his mature thinking, his ultimate reflections on life and existence. He called the Upanishads his solace in life and death. Walt Whitman, William James, Emerson, Max Mueller, Paul Deussen, Romain Rolland, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, D.H. Lawrence, Huston Smith and a host of other Western savants, scholars, Indologists and writers have directly or indirectly expressed their debt to the wisdom of the Upanishads. And it is these Upanishads that form the body of the Vedanta.
Thursday 16 June 2022
FAITH, FANATICISM AND FOULPLAY ... 1
FAITH, FANATICISM AND FOULPLAY ... 1
The brain is susceptible to conditioning. It is a soft pliable mass which has tremendous capacity for modification. Every moment the stimuli it receives alters its existent status which is why education alters human perception about the environment within and without.
Thoughts are at once the resultant of past impressions as also the cause of future modifications of the brain. How thoughts are manufactured and whence they arise, whether the brain creates thoughts or whether it receives thoughts from without, processes them and having refashioned them as per its complex structural limitations throws them out is the subject matter of cerebral and philosophical research. Here we shall limit ourselves to discussing the implications of modifying the apparatus that the brain is by means of programming it to aspired ends.
Man is that level of organic evolution which can analyse and synthesise thoughts by creatively responding to external and internal stimuli. Unlike the animal which merely submits to the environment man challenges the environment and refashions it to his own advantage. For this he uses his faculty of thinking which in its sophistication is unique among the living species. Man can think, analyse and synthesise thoughts, form patterns and generalisations from which he derives laws, and he can advance his superstructure of thought through the generational transmission process which forms the foundation of civilisation. But there is a pitfall in this whole affair which is the cause of all fanatical anti-civilisation forces that have caused enormous harm to humanity for ages. And we shall next discuss that.
As the brain is pliable to conditioning, laying itself open to sensory and mental impressions, external stimuli as well as internal reflections, it is in a dangerous terrain always. It can be modified by systematic indoctrination. When inputs of data are subjected to scientific rigour which is the brain's secure protection, such inflow of thoughts can be handled effectively and the person saved from becoming a victim of the imposed thoughts. But when such a safety valve is removed in the form of 'divine' decree that imposes by way of first principle the submission of the faculty of reasoning to arbitrary 'divine' authority, then the danger is wholesale on one from which there is no recovery. Arbitrary assumptions of existence of divinity with tribal attributes and extent of knowledge, perverse explanation of the purpose and objective of terrestrial human life, fantastic conceptions of postmortem continuance of life in intense pleasure-producing heaven or infernal damnation in a hideous hell, attempted imposition of exclusive faith on all else who do not subscribe to it by force, invitation, inducement or allied means which may be dubbed collectively as proselytisation -- these are the products of this pliability of the brain to getting fashioned and refashioned in undesirable directions by external agencies of interest. This is what in common parlance is called indoctrination.
End of Part 1
To be serialised and continued
Written by Sugata Bose
RAMAKRISHNA, THE RAY OF HOPE ... 3
RAMAKRISHNA, THE RAY OF HOPE ... 3
We are in a blind age that is driven by blind passions arising out of unresolved past karma. As Swamiji said, "The ancient superstitions will have to run out." But for that to happen, massive propagation of the Vedic Dharma in all its modes and mores, all its philosophical diversity will have to brought about. The Government of India must actively patronise this process, the preaching and propagation of the Sanatan Dharma throughout the length and breadth of the world. All Hindu institutions will have to be strengthened, the study of Sanskrit propagated and the education of children made along Sanatan lines, scientific and not superstitious as often popular more are. Upon the education of the coming generations along the age-old Vedic lines coupled with modern scientific thinking depends the future flourishing of India. Swamiji stands here as the key to our national development. His life and message must be studied by each and every child. Then all that is disharmonious will be set right and concord prevail in a society that is now becoming increasingly discordant and dysfunctional.
Sri Ramakrishna in his twilight year at Kashipur had made his epic statement, "Jai Radhe, the beloved! Naren will teach humanity when he will sound the clarion call at home and abroad. Jai Radhe!" His words are true and they will fulfil.
In these turbulent times when social relations the world over are rupturing, when countries are conflict-bound, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda are becoming increasingly pertinent as the solution to social maladies, as the potion to cure the world of the poison that is deep in its system and destroying it. May we all endeavour to fulfilling the promise that is latent and brewing in the distillery of mass consciousness, this manifestation of the divinity of man in slow but sure terms through the thick of medieval smog clouding out clarity of vision! May Ramakrishna-Vivekananda fulfil in the fruition of the future man!
Written by Sugata Bose
RAMAKRISHNA, THE RAY OF HOPE ... 2
RAMAKRISHNA, THE RAY OF HOPE ... 2
Sri Ramakrishna had prophesied that he would come again after 100 years. Here there is hope. In these turbulent times the advent of God alone can settle things, set civilisation on the right track. Hindus are facing an existential threat. Humanity itself is facing an environmental extinction. A new consciousness is necessary, a new order of terrestrial living which God alone can give. The Avatar is due. He comes whenever the balance of forces on earth is upset. He alone can guide, save civilisation from annihilation. The Sanatan Dharma must revive for humanity to survive the terrible ordeal it is going through. 🕉
Written by Sugata Bose
Wednesday 15 June 2022
RAMAKRISHNA, THE RAY OF HOPE ... 1
RAMAKRISHNA, THE RAY OF HOPE ... 1
Many years later the turbulence that besets our civic life, our national existence and international relations will have been harmonised by the loving grace of Sri Ramakrishna who is the source of all knowledge, all love and all mercy. Human society, as it were, is being prepared for a higher order of evolutionary existence where this temporary turmoil, now having lasted for over a thousand years, will have been quelled and humanity raised and defied to its divine status. It is the evolution of the brute unto man and man unto God -- this is the spiritual process but, alas, at what a cost!
The descent of the Divine in mortal coil as prophesied by the Lord in the Geeta has been fulfilled yet again in the Avatar of Dakshineshwar. The Lord has assumed human form to save humanity. The significance of his descent is difficult to decipher as of now, for the dust of desire and the tumult of modernity emerging from medieval mores has clouded vision even of the analytic man. Seers with penetrative vision can look through the near opacity of the times to behold a harmonic human future emerging out of the old order with Ramakrishna leading the way.
Written by Sugata Bose
YOUR SWAMIJI
YOUR SWAMIJI
(originally written for children but later matured into a flowing piece for all)
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 1
Have you heard of Swami Vivekananda? Yes? But have you heard of Narendranath Datta? I am sure most of you have not but some of you may have. Well, this little boy is the subject of our story which I shall begin narrating to you, children, from today.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 2
The Dattas were an affluent family who lived in North Kolkata at a place called Simla or Simulia. Rammohan Datta was the grand patriarch who had thrived in the legal profession and amassed a fortune. His sons, Durgaprasad and Kaliprasad, grandson, Vishwanath, were the immediate ancestors of Narendranath who grew up to become the world renowned monk, Swami Vivekananda. Durgaprasad excelled like his father at law but renounced life to become a monk at age between 20 and 22 after fathering a son. So, Kaliprasad became the head of the Datta family and as he was not upto earning a living, the Dattas' fortunes started declining steadily.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 3
Durgaprasad renounced between age 20 and 22. Shyamasundari, his wife of valorous virtue, took up to rearing baby Vishwanath amidst great difficulties as Kaliprasad was not sympathetic to their lot. When Vishwanath was three years old, Shyamasundari went on pilgrimage to Varanasi by boat. En route the playful baby fell into the Ganga. Instantly the mother, forgetting the fact that she knew not how to swim, dived into the surging waters and gripped the baby, so hard that it bore the mark for several years. A fellow pilgrim and a resident of the Datta household, indigenous physician Umapada Gupta, diving suit, rescued them and hauled them overboard. The pilgrimage carried on and holy Varanasi was reached in the fullness of time.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 4
Varanasi. The Ganga flowing by since time immemorial, sanctifying this city of Shiva. Thousands of temples of all kinds of deities thronging to get the worship of devotees who flock by the millions. The most ancient city of the world, dating 5000 years, now welcomed Shyamasundari and her little boy, Vishwanath.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 5
Shyamasundari went on her daily rounds of the temples in Varanasi. One day on her way to the seat of Lord Vishwanath, she slipped on the way and fell unconscious. A monk passing by picked her up, laid her on the temple steps and brought her back to her senses. When she came to her own she was astonished to behold her own husband as her rescuer. Overwhelmed by sudden emotion, the couple, now renounced to the world, went their way.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 6
Durgaprasad visited his hometown Kolkata once, probably en route to the Gangasagar, and put up with a friend. He requested confidentiality but the message leaked and he was accosted home by his family members where he was confined to a room with food and refreshments for three days. The monk, locked up thus, touched neither food nor drink for the said period and his relatives, fearing the worst, unlocked the door. The monk quietly slipped away thereafter and was never seen again. Later it was rumoured that he had become the head of a monastery in Varanasi but nothing could be ascertained with any degree of certitude. Vishwanath in his youth visited Varanasi in search of his father but failed to trace him. Thus disappeared the monk of sterling spiritual strength from the horizons of the Datta household till his gene reappeared in his redoubtable grandson, Narendranath, whose monastic future bore unmistakable marks of his predecessor, Durgaprasad.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 7
Vishwanath, deprived of paternal care and patrimony, grew up under the loving care of his mother, though amidst straightened circumstances. But a worse fate was awaiting him. At the age of ten he lost his mother. Now, orphaned and ill-treated by uncle Kaliprasad, Vishwanath took to the hard way of labouring through to life's success. He became proficient in several languages - Bengali, English, Persian, Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, and also learnt a smattering of Sanskrit in a classical Sanskrit Tol. He studied history in-depth, astrology enough to be able to cast the horoscopes of his children, and studied music under an Ustad. After completing secondary education he attempted business, failed and apprenticed himself under Mr. Temple, a British attorney. In 1866 he qualified as an attorney and set up shop with one Ashutosh Dhar under the name 'Dhar and Datta'. Soon his legal proficiency earned him independent status as attorney-at-law in the Calcutta High Court where his practice took off.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 8
Vishwanath's fame as a legal practitioner spread far and wide and he had to travel extensively all over India to meet up with his clients' cases. His income soared and so did his expenditure as he lived lavishly and gave liberally to seekers in need. His charity earned him the sobriquet 'Daataa Vishwanath' or 'Philanthropist Vishwanath'. He refused none and gave to all who were in need and even to some indolent relatives who abused his magnanimity by indulging in intoxicants with his money. Vishwanath lived for the day and saved nothing for the morrow, steered by the conviction that his sons, if well fed and well educated, would be able to make their way in life but that the hapless ones he helped were too weak to help themselves and, hence, needed help. The large heart of Vishwanath bled for all, perhaps so conditioned by his own stressful childhood in financial and psychological distress under an unsympathetic uncle. Anyhow, this was how he was and this liberal largeheartedness he bequeathed to his beloved sons, Naren in particular who even imbibed sterling virtues of head and heart from his mother Bhuvaneshwari.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 9
Well-versed in the Holy Bible and the Dewan-i-Hafiz and well acquainted with Hindu, Islamic and European culture and customs, Vishwanath had a universal outlook on life and living. Progressive in thinking but guarded in giving into new-fangled socioreligious movements of the day, Vishwanath was a precursor in some sense to the modern Hindu man as yet germinating in the womb of time. His illustratious son would set the seal on the mould that was thus being cast on the dawn of this new awakening of the ancient spirit whose crest bore the personality of Ramakrishna. But we are fast-forwarding the narrative thus which we must desist from. As of now we must remember that here was Vishwanath, caught in the cross-current of the three aforementioned cultures out of which he was fashioning his own perspective, his world-view, and setting them to print in the form of three books which he authored, namely, 'Shishtaachaar Paddhati' ('Canons of Good Conduct') in two volumes and a novel in his vernacular Bengali, titled 'Sulochanaa'. Vishwanath supported Vidyasagar's crusade for the remarriage of widows but refrained from participating directly in such social movements, busy as he was with his intensive legal practice. One more pointer about Vishwanath - he was an agnostic of sorts, irreverent of superstitious religious practices that kept people down but was never irreverent towards sublime principles of spiritual and moral thought which he tried to put into practice in his own life by way of alleviating the misery of the hapless ones he came across in his life's thoroughfare. This was then the father of the future Vivekananda.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 10
Hardly anybody recalls the name of Swami Vivekananda's maternal grandfather or the maiden surname of Swamiji's mother. That she was Basu and bore in her bloodstream the kshatriya valour of this clan from erstwhile Kannakubja (Kanauj) is forgotten in the name Narendranath Datta. But the great prophet bore in his arteries that strong blood which made him revolutionise India into rebellion against the British and break the citadel of global colonialism. Narendranath's grandfather on his mother's side was Nandalal Basu of Simla, North Kolkata, and his only daughter Bhuvaneshwari Basu, married to Vishwanath Datta, was his mother. Bhuvaneshwari, born to wealth and high culture, was aristocratic in temperament devoid of its vices and it was from her that the boy Bileh absorbed in his mother's milk that nobility of character that set him out as unique in the world of men, so much so that in later years in Paris he was mistaken to be a prince by a hotel boy who could not be convinced otherwise. Well, Bhuvaneshwari, wedded to Vishwanath at ten, mothered Narendranath as her seventh child and her first surviving son. But more of that later for here we are in the midst of the maturing of a modern Madonna for who else could hold in her womb the one whose eagle eye holds countless universes in harmonic play ? Let us dwell on this girl, Bhuvaneshwari.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 11
Bhuvaneshwari was wedded to conjugal life at the early age of 10 as was the custom in those days prior to the passing of the Age of Consent Bill. She bore fruit several times of which three died in infancy and she remained without a son yet. The pious girl prayed and fasted and exhorted an aunt living in Varanasi to offer prayers at the seat of Vireshwar Shiva in Kashi. Accordingly, every Monday special offerings were made there and they were reinforced by Bhuvaneshwari keeping her vigils and fasts here in Kolkata. The channel was thus being set up for the golden road that was to connect the ancient city and this modern metropolis, and when the pathway had been fully laid, Bhuvaneshwari dreamt of the meditative Shiva awaking from his seat of concentration and announcing His resolve to be born as her son. In ecstatic joy Bhuvaneshwari awoke from her divine slumber and fell prostrate at her chosen deity's feet, the adorable Umanath, who she had so ardently worshipped all these years. Bathed in tears of bliss Bhuvaneshwari felt saturated with the Lord's grace. Soon she felt that she had conceived.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 12
12 January, 1863. Makar San°kraanti Day. Millions of pilgrims were assembled at the estuary of the Bay of Bengal to offer oblation to the Highest when heaven itself descended to earth in the form of the infant who was to steer humanity onto a new course, setting the stamp of his divine personality on the unfolding age of light that was now waiting in the wings to emerge in full flight. The forest of this world was ready for this fresh efflorescence and the bud blossomed from the womb of Bhuvaneshwari six minutes before sunrise to send a thrill of joy through the Datta household. A son had been born, Bhuvaneshwari's long-cherished dream, the parched earth's long longing, humanity's hope of redemption from its decadent state. Vishwanath grew so blissfully excited that his charity broke all bounds this hour as he started giving away to whosoever came his way anything he could lay his hands on. Finally, he had given away the very clothes he was wearing, a la Emperor Harshavardhana of old, and had to borrow his wife's saree to cover himself. The boy was named by the mother Vireshwar after the deity who had fulfilled His promise to be born as the pious supplicant's son. Soon lingustic aberration changed it to Bileh and so was how the future Vivekananda used to be called by his loving mother even in his twilight years in Belur Math when the old lady proudly strutted about the precincts of the monastery in search of her son, calling loudly, "Bileh ! Bileh !" and the son would emerge from his room and descend the stairs to fall prostrate at his beloved mother's feet. But we have much advanced in our narrative in our flight of fancy and must revert to its fresh beginnings, for we have a full lifetime to cover. Right now the baby cries in its mother's arms. Or, does it blink in wonder at the strange world around ?
YOUR SWAMIJI ...13
The boy was Bileh at home, to the world Narendranath, a name that was, as if by divine sanction, to set its stamp upon the very world. An exceeding force seemed to well up within him making him irrepressibly naughty, playful, self-willed and at times given to fits of violent temper when he would even rampage his way through whatever he could lay his hands on, furniture et al. Mother Bhuvaneshwari, driven to her wit's end, would then in exasperation exclaim, "Alas ! I had prayed to Shiva for a son but He has sent me one of His demons instead." No amount of censure, threat or even inducement would work with the turbulent child and he had to be manned by two nurses constantly to keep him in a semblance of check. Finally, Bhuvaneshwari discovered a unique way of tackling the situation. When Bileh was in one of those moods, she would pour water over his head profusely while chanting the name 'Shiva'. She would further induce fear in him saying, "If you are naughty thus, Shiva will refuse you entry into His abode, Kailash, again." Like magic this would work and calm the boy and he would be his bonny self again.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 14
Now two very important features of the baby Bileh's personality were (a) his easy acceptance of all and sundry as his own and his consequent easing into anyone's arms who extended them to hold him, and (b) his submission to gentleness shown to him by any and equal revulsion of harshness by any in interaction with him. These traits manifest in the baby are worth meditating on as we attempt to unravel not only the secrets of the child-mind universally but also as we seek to plumb the divine depths of the future Swami Vivekananda, now, though, right in bud.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 15
Grandfather Durgaprasad's gene was very much manifest in Narendranath from early boyhood. He had a liking for mendicant monks and would give away alms freely to them. But he was just a small boy. What did he have that he could give? Well, he gave away his first piece of dhoti from round his waist to a sadhu. Likewise he gave away whatever he could lay his hands on to these pilgrims of the Spirit so much so that when any such appeared at their door he had to be kept confined in an upper storey room to keep him in bounds. But such ploys failed when Naren flung through the open window whatever was available to him in his cell to monks passing by on the road below. Such affinity for the renunciates was early signal of things brewing up in the heart of the Divine Mother orchestrating things from behind that was to fashion Narendranath's fate. A vast force was accumulating in the child that was to inundate the world in the days to come. And in this prophetic mission of his he was to bear not only the blessings of his divine Master but those of each and every monk who he gave and who in their turn blessed him silently from the depths of their hearts.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 16
Ebullient as he was, Naren was given to pranks galore. One of these was to tease his sisters and, when chased, to seek refuge in the open drain and makes faces and remarks such as 'Catch new! Catch me !' from there, knowing full well that they would not dare follow suit into the dirt where he lay. The future Vivekananda was worshipped in Kashi Kedarnath Temple as Shiva, was reverenced by a passing monk in the Himalayas as Shiva and venerated by many including his brother disciples like Swami Brahmananda as the same Lord Ascetic. In that sense he was Pashupati, the Lord of all animals, and to this effect he showed early signs by way of his affinity towards his pet animals. Lifelong this relation remained, even in his advanced years in Belur Math where he had quite a number of pets. The boy Bileh had a monkey, a goat, a peacock, pigeons, guinea-pigs, the family cow and his father's horse to keep him company. He with his sisters would bedeck the cow with garlands, mark her forehead with vermillion and reverence her on festive occasions. This easy relation with the dumb animals must have been a formative influence in the making of his future deep sympathy with the muted millions of his benighted motherland.
YOUR SWAMIJI ... 17
Naren's bosom buddy was his father's coachman. He spent hours in the company of the syce at the stable and nursed ambitions of one day becoming a syce himself. His intimacy with the syce drew the twain into close communication and imperceptibly lay open Naren's mind to whatever the former had to say to him. At noon every day the little boy was privy to the women folk's rendition of the Ramayana reading and with rapt attention he absorbed the epic tales which gradually endeared him to Sita and Rama. Soon he had bought from the market idols of the divine couple and with the help of a friend installed them in the attic and with floral offerings worshipped them to his child heart's content. This went on till the syce, himself victim to an unhappy marital life, criticised the very institution of marriage vehemently before Naren, thereby making the boy brood on its futility. He could no more now accept the fact that his divine ideals, Sita and Rama, were also one such married couple and in tears confided his predicament to his mother. Bhuvaneshwari instantly assuaged his grief by asking him from then on to worship the ascetic of ascetics, Shiva, instead. Naren was pacified but could not reconcile himself anymore to being in the proximity of Sita and Rama. Accordingly, he rushed to the attic, picked up his beloved idols and in the dark enveloping evening walked to the edge of the terrace railing and hurled down the images onto the road below. His ideal had been shattered, now he smashed the idols representing them. Next day he bought from the market a clay image of Shiva and began afresh his meditation on the Lord. However, Sita-Rama remained forever etched in his memory as his boyhood's first divine love and became a significant formative influence in his life and a perennial presence in his monastic life as well. Many years later he called every Indian the child of Seeta, that holy woman who unmurmering bore all her suffering in her all-encompassing love for her beloved husband, the divine Rama.
Written by Sugata Bose
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