MESSAGES GALORE ... 23

MESSAGES GALORE ... 23

1. When the Hindu says, "🕉 Shanti, Shanti, Shanti," he says it for all of sentience, not just the whole of humanity, and certainly not just for only Hindus. Hinduism is the only universal religion that blesses all and curses none, damns none to hellfire for disbelieving its philosophy and principles. Hinduism declares the divinity of all, even the most depraved ones, the darkest of souls under temporary delusion which will pass with added experience and awakening knowledge amidst the cyclical system of rebirth.

2. Salman Rushdie's life hangs in the balance. He is on ventilator. If he survives, he is likely to lose an eye. His liver has also been damaged from abdomen stabbing.

3. 75 years of the horrors of Partition are over and, yet, the horror continues.

4. We have a habit of digressing from the main issue and choose soft targets instead of the real culprits who precipitate criminal events in history. For instance, how often people criticise, nay, calumny, Gandhi-Nehru for Partition and absolve Jinnah from the crime.

5. This day, 75 years earlier, was founded the first Islamic republic, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The motherland was mutilated into three to give birth to this perpetual enemy of India.

6. Some fought for freedom, bled to free us, some abstained, while some plainly betrayed the cause and bled us to partition the motherland. Happy 75th anniversary of India's independence!

7. Being one in six of every human living on earth, we should be able to win one out of the six Nobel Prizes awarded every year. Let this be our aspiration as well on the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

8.

The old guard passing the baton of the race for freedom to the young.

Photo : Subhas Chandra Bose (sitting) and Rash Behari Bose (standing)

9.

The man who held the reins of the country's struggle for freedom for full three decades (1917-1947), albeit making compromise here and a truce there to suit his temperament and the exigencies of the times. A titanic figure of rare attributes such as the world has seldom seen in the long recorded history of humanity. Apostle of peace and non-violence, a crafty politician, though, he held the reins of the Congress till the very end when he was assassinated by his countryman for perceived excesses in terms of allowance to the enemy nation of Pakistan. 

Photo : Mahatma Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

10. 

The earliest exponent of India's aspiration for freedom, albeit in constrained terms amidst constraining circumstances.

Photo : Raja Rammohan Roy

11. 

The forerunner of freedom.

Photo : Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar

12. 

The maker of Vivekananda who then laid the foundarion for India's freedom. 

Photo : Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

13. 

Fiery monk, prophet of patriotism, founder of the Bharat Sevashram Sangha that he dedicated to the service of humanity. 

Photo : Swami Pranavananda

14. 

The Irish disciple of Swami Vivekananda who fought to free India. She was the ideological leader of the early revolution, the fiery Bengal days of Svadeshi.

Photo : Sister Nivedita/Margaret Elizabeth Noble

15.

The unsung hero of Muzaffarpur.

Photo : Prafulla Chaki

16. 

The young girls, barely sixteen, of the Rani Jhansi Regiment of the INA.

17.

The unifier of India who thus prevented its Balkanisation.

Photo : Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel

18.

The preceptor and the pupil.

Photo : Swami Vivekananda (left) and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (right)

19.

He inspired them all. The energy behind all the action that followed. Maker of modern India, prophet of patriotism, the founding father of the freedom movement.

Photo : Swami Vivekananda

20.

Father of the armed revolution in India's struggle for independence. Poet, journalist, author, philosopher, patriot, prophet -- the early architect of India's revolutionary thrust for freedom.

Photo : Aurobindo Ghosh

21.

The revolutionary duo who really freed India by launching the final clinching attack on British India from beyond its borders.

Photo : Subhas Chandra Bose (left) and Rash Behari Bose (right)

22.

The bare boy who was the first martyr in the cause of India's independence. Hanged on 11 August, 1908 at Muzaffarpur.

Photo : Khudiram Bose

23.

Father of Indian nationalism, philosopher and prophet of India's freedom, inspiration of the revolutionaries, igniter of the struggle for independence. 

Photo : Swami Vivekananda

24.

Master of disguise, leader of two revolutions during the two World Wars, architect of India's freedom.

Photo: Rash Behari Bose

25.

Teenager who was hanged in 1915 for being a Ghadar conspirator. 

Photo : Kartar Singh Sarabha

26. 

Dangerous revolutionary of the early days of revolution. Compatriot and follower of Rash Behari Bose. Ghadar conspirator. Was hanged in 1915 by the British. 

Photo : Vishnu Ganesh Pingle

27. 

The trio that rocked the Empire. First the Saunders assassination, then indefinite hunger strike in Lahire Jail and finally the Assembly bombing in New Delhi where Batukeshwar Dutta accompanied Bhagat Singh. All three in the picture were hanged on 23 March, 1931.

Photo : Bhagat Singh (left), Shivram Rajguru (centre) and Sukhdev Thapar (right)

28. 

They stormed the very bastion of British India and engaged in a fearsome corridor battle in the Writer's Buildings, Kolkata. All three were martyred. 

Photo : Dinesh Gupta (left), Badal Gupta (centre) and Benoykrishna Basu (right)

29. 

The trio who led the revolution against the British for a sizeable span of time.

Photo : Lala Lajpat Rai (left), Bal Gangadhar Tilak (centre) and Bipin Chandra Pal (right)

30. 

The teacher who led a whole brigade of teenaged boys to liberate Chattogram (Chittagong) before being apprehended and hanged for his seditious activities by the British. 

Photo : Masterda Surjya Sen

31. 

The fearless leader of the Hindustan Republican Association who led his fellow revolutionaries to undertake the Kakori Train Robbery for which he was hanged to death by the British. 

Photo : Ramprasad Bismil

32.

The unsung hero of the Dakshineshwar Bomb Case and the Kakori Train Robbery both of which he masterminded. Was hanged to death by the British.

Photo : Rajendranath Lahiri

33.

Made Indians proud by his seminal literary achievements. Denounced the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre by renouncing his knighthood. Wrote patriotic songs that inspired the revolutionaries.

Photo : Rabindranath Tagore

34.

Martyred for protesting against the Simon Commission.

Photo : Lala Lajpat Rai

35.

Pleaded on behalf of Aurobindo Ghosh to successfully acquit him of all conspiracy changes against the Crown in the famous Alipore Bomb Case.

Photo : Chittaranjan Das

36. 

Composer of Vande Mataram.

Photo : Bankimchandra Chatterjee

37.

Author of Pather Daabi.

Photo : Saratchandra Chattopadhyay

38. We, Indians, must grow in personality, stature, achievements and knowledge so that our nation becomes a dominant player in world affairs. Let this be our unshakeable resolve on the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

39. Less of cacophony, more of disciplined activity and certainly the ending of exploitation of labour must be the way forward for our nation.

40. Where there is such rampant economic exploitation of labour, even among spiritual organisations, the gala celebration of freedom loses substance and meaning.

41. From childhood we were raised on the notion that truthfulness is the invincible attribute a man may possess but life's experience has taught a different lesson and it this that 'might is right', that falsity reigns over truth, superstition over reason and corruption over pious claims, all of which have not only invalidated the childhood dictum but have made one sceptical of the efficacy of truthfulness itself.

42. The poor are carefree, the rich worry-worn, each experiencing his or her individual relative freedom on this wonderful day of the 75th anniversary of India's independence.

43. Kripal Singh betrayed the Ghadar Revolution. Netra Sen betrayed Surjya Sen. Bhagatram Talwar betrayed Netaji. Betrayers galore have forever ruined India's cause. Greater patriotism does not come to a battered polity that has been reduced to a downright loss of character. And, yet, amidst all this the great leaders rose to work wonders, weave their way to our national freedom.

44. Is America the world? Or, is China the world? I think the world is bigger than either and needs to be treated as such.

45. I am proud to be an Indian not merely because of her astonishingly rich heritage and culture but because of the opportunity it gives me to serve my motherland with whatever meagre means I may be having -- my love, my labour, my skills and my talents.

46. Man makes culture, buildings do not.

47.

All our earthly love bind us. But if we love him, he will set us free. Divine love purges our heart ❤️ of all dross, purifies us and releases us into the limpid spaces of freedom. That is the real independence which we must celebrate from now on. Happy 75th anniversary of India's independence!

76. The life of a nation is in its masses. If we wish to raise our country, we must improve the living conditions of our people, the teeming millions who render us life and vitality. And we can do so only if we spread out love and sympathy for each one of them, each one in our smallest spheres of daily intercourse. This throbbing, pulsating love seeking expression in healthful, helpful activity will be the truest manifestation of our freedom. Happy 75th anniversary of India's independence! Vande Mataram! ❤️

77. The heart is a battlefield of emotions, the mind a whirlpool of ideas, the soul a war zone that is pitted against Nature, trying to extricate itself from its fold.

78. The Indian view of independence is liberation of the embodied soul from the bondage of matter and its release unto transcendental freedom that is beyond the transmigratory cycle of birth and death.

79. Politically India may be a secular state but from the civilisational perspective it is predominantly a Hindu 🕉 state and for the benefit of entire humanity must remain so. If Hinduism ceases in India to be its dominant spiritual force, India dies with it and so is the world plunged into the darkness of religious superstition and sin.

80. 

মানুষ, যত ছোটই হ'ক, তাকে ছোট করবেন না | তার মধ্যে বিরাট সম্ভাবনা | বীজ যেমন বনস্পতিতে পরিণত হয়, তেমনি এই ক্ষুদ্র মানুষ | সুকান্ত লিখেছেন,

"ক্ষুদ্র আমি, তুচ্ছ নহি,

জানি আমি ভাবী বনস্পতি |"

81. Bodies are coming like serial images, the Cosmic Mind projecting them on the screen of Universal Life.

82. Please punctuate your sentences properly. An unpunctuated polity cannot produce works of perfection in real life.

83. Cold War was followed by Cold Peace. So said Boris Yeltsin. Cold War we know what it is. But what is Cold Peace? It is enmity in suspension. It is a cultural, civilisational, geopolitical animosity held in abeyance.

84. The right of the individual is to perform his duties.

85. The purple badge of privilege is gone. Now the red badge of labour is on.

86. বন্ধন কর্মের দ্বারা; বন্ধনক্ষয় কৃপার দ্বারা |

87. The darkest of devils is God camouflaged.

88. Do not mistake your outer cover of the body to be yourself. You are deeper within, the bearer of the body, the mover of the mind.

89. Individual courage, highly laudable though it is, is an insufficient tool for confronting mass fanaticism. Collective consciousness and the courage of conviction to confront bigotry and violence is indispensable in this murky business of setting society free of such dross.

90. Transmission of superstition, suppositions and dogma from generation to generation by relaying wrong information to impressionable young minds is not quite passing culture to them but is the perpetuation of the ignorance of bygone ages in the human psyche. Science, reason and enlightenment ought universally to be the keys to modern living.

91. If the 'here' is temporary, the 'hereafter' is temporary as well. Nothing sensory can transcend time. And 'subtle sense' is also sense.

92. Every other day a Vivekananda will not be born. It is upto his followers to carry home his message to the world with compelling conviction in the truth it represents.

93. I feel saddened to see the plight of the Hindu polity. We are only after photographs of our spiritual masters, not caring to read the texts written about them. This is not good for our collective future as a culture. It seems Hindus have not yet come of age. Maturity, alas, takes a long time and, perhaps, our hour of fulfilment has not yet arrived despite our remonstrances galore against Islamic and Christian persecution for ages.

94. They love to sleep. Alas! who can wake them up?

95.

A rotten basket of dried-up flowers hiding a festering corpse!

A current of water, fresh and flowing, creating ever-renewing forms.

Which of the two would you prefer as forming life's norms?

96. Do not subscribe to evil masquerading as holiness. Where it does, either as doctrine or diabolical deed thereof, reject it. Doctrines and dogmas that fuel fanaticism are best discarded. Religion, if it prescribes division of humanity into opposing camps of the faithful and the infidel, are outdated and must not hold human imagination anymore. Humanity must evolve beyond them and move on.

97. We are a voiceless people today as fanatics have robbed us of our right to free speech by force of the sword. The Constitution needs an amendment to guarantee unfettered freedom of speech and expression.

98. Compromise on essential points of freedom of speech is a euphemism for cowardice.

99. Despite tall talk on civilisation and human rights the world even today is ruled by the dictum 'Might is right.' And such a shame that it should be so!

100. The mind is a minefield of ideas exploding across the earth, setting ablaze the evolutionary course of humanity and lighting up the progressive path.