রচনা না প্রহসন ?
Wednesday, 30 November 2022
Tuesday, 29 November 2022
AN OPEN LETTER TO MANOJ SIVAN, THAT LONE CRUSADER FOR THE RESURRECTION OF THE STATUS OF DIRECT DISCIPLESHIP OF THAT DENIED DISCIPLE OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, SWAMI NIRMALANANDA (TULSI MAHARAJ)
AN OPEN LETTER TO MANOJ SIVAN, THAT LONE CRUSADER FOR THE RESURRECTION OF THE STATUS OF DIRECT DISCIPLESHIP OF THAT DENIED DISCIPLE OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, SWAMI NIRMALANANDA (TULSI MAHARAJ)
Dear Manoj Sivan,
Yours is a lone battle against organisational odds. If you look at some of the comments you will see how unconcerned, utterly apathetic people are to the content of a post and in consequence to the content of the case itself. At best it is a curiosity in some to get a casual glimpse into something that would pass the idle hour with some juicy gossip-stuff. Few, alas, few are genuinely interested in going deeper into the implications of the subject, far fewer in pursuing it thereafter, spending time and energy to undo the historical heresy thus far perpetrated by organisational self-interest! It has done damage to the movement and grave injustice to this seminal son of Sri Ramakrishna whose commitment to his divine Master was second to none and whose own contribution to the propagation of his ideals, energy and message was almost unequalled.
And yet this distortion of history in broad daylight! Why? Because devotees lack in character and support those who perpetuate lies, being stationed in the realm of lies themselves. There aren't men enough in this world of falsity, which is dubbed the diocese of devotion, to counter corruption when it comes from supposedly spiritual people. And this ascription can be laid against almost all but the very best such as Sri Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda, Rash Behari Bose, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the like. All others are masquerading as messiahs when they are mischievous in their means of raising money, pretending piety while resorting to perverse pecuniary practices. So, as the old adage in Bengal goes, "Thhog baachhtey gnaa ujaar." ("In picking the cheat from a host of village-folk, there remains none left who is honest.")
Anyhow, to reiterate the opening remark, public apathy consequent on pervasive ignorance is the cause of much of the prevailing corruption in individuals and in organisations. Character, indeed, is missing in most, be they among the laity or among the renunciates. One may, however, refuse to entertain such individuals or organisations in one's life's dealings and maintain morality and propriety of living on the personal front whose gradual cumulative effect could make significant changes in the character of the polity in the fullness of time.
Thanking you for your ceaseless crusade for the cause and joining hands with you,
Yours in Ramakrishna-Vivekananda,
Sugata Bose
ধাঁধাঁরণা/ Oscillon
ধাঁধাঁরণা/ Oscillon
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নেতাজীর অন্তর্ধান, মহানিষ্ক্রমণ ও বিবাহ রহস্য নিয়ে জনমানসে ঘোর ধাঁধাঁ | আমাদের ধারণা অস্পষ্ট | আমি এই ধাঁধাঁময় ধারণাকে 'ধাঁধাঁরণা' আখ্যা দিয়েছি | শব্দটি উদ্ভাবন করলাম পুরোনো অভ্যাসমত আর কি | কেউ একে অশ্রদ্ধা বলে মনে করবেন না, এইটি অনুরোধ | 'ধাঁধাঁরণা' শব্দটি অবশ্য অত্যন্ত শ্রুতিকটু, অসাংগীতিক, তাই মোটেই পছন্দ নয় আমার |
People are baffled by the enduring mystery centring the great escape, disappearance and late surfacing narrative of marriage/progeny of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. So many keep oscillating between rival theories that abound regarding these, changing views and stance with the passage of time and re-rationalisation of the whole affair. I have dubbed these oscillating individuals 'oscillions'. Let none take offence at this. All in good humour.
Written by Sugata Bose
Sunday, 27 November 2022
নাস্তিকদের কথায় কান দেবেন না
নাস্তিকদের কথায় কান দেবেন না
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নাস্তিকদের কথায় কান দেবেন না | ভগবান আছেন, অবশ্য জানবেন |
দেখা যায়, বোধ করা যায় অনেক কিছু যা জড়বুদ্ধির অগম্য |
বুদ্ধি সূক্ষ্ম হলে বিচার শুদ্ধ হয় | তখন সঠিক বিশ্লেষণ | তাই পবিত্রতা অবলম্বনে চরিত্রগঠন করা চাই | তখন দর্শন ঠিক ঠিক | অপরোক্ষানুভূতি-অন্তে বুত্থানকালে প্রাকৃত জগতে পুনরাগমন ও আত্মার আলোকে প্রপঞ্চ দর্শন | তখন বিশ্বাস বজ্রদৃঢ় কারণ তখন নিত্য স্বচ্ছ দর্শন, দ্বন্দ্বাতীত আনন্দলোকে |
তাই ঋষিবাক্য শ্রবণ করুন | আস্থা রাখুন আপ্তবাক্যে | দিকভ্রষ্ট হবেন না | নিন্দুকে কত কি বলে | তাতে কি? জীবনের সর্বোচ্চ উদ্দেশ্য যে আত্মচৈতন্যলাভ, তার দিকে মনোনিবেশ করুন | জীবন ধন্য হবে | আপন কল্যাণে দশের কল্যাণ, দেশের কল্যাণ, জগতকল্যাণ, সবই সংসাধিত হবে |
অতএব, যাঁরা বলেন আধ্যাত্মিক সাধনা, সন্ন্যাসজীবন স্বার্থপরতার নামান্তর, জগতের বিপুল সামগ্রিক সমস্যার সমাধানের প্রচেষ্টা না করে নিছক আত্মমুক্তির সংকীর্ণ প্রয়াস, তাঁরা এই পবিত্র পথে পদার্পন করে একবার দেখুন কতটা ব্যাপ্তি তার, কল্যাণের পরিধি তার কতদূর বিস্তৃত | অজ্ঞান অন্ধকারে থেকে, জড়বুদ্ধিসহায়ে বিচার করতে যাবেন না, ভ্রষ্টবুদ্ধির ভ্রান্তবিচার হবে | নিজে আলোয় আসুন | তারপর বিচারপতির আসনে বসবেন |
সর্বসাধারণের প্রতি তাই নিবেদন -- নাস্তিকদের কথায় কান দেবেন না | ঈশ্বর আছেন, অবশ্য আছেন | এই বিশ্বাসে স্থিত হ'ন | সাধনার দ্বারা বিশ্বাসকে দর্শনে রূপান্তরিত করুন | তখনই ঠিক ঠিক বিশ্বাস | ঠাকুর-মা কল্যাণ করুন আপনাদের ! 🕉
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
Saturday, 26 November 2022
ছড়ার ছড়াছড়ি
ছড়ার ছড়াছড়ি
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খাইয়া দাইয়া খুব ঘুমাইয়া,
ঘুইরা ফিইরা কাম কইরা,
বলি, কথা কইবার সময় হইবেক কবে?
ফুল ফুটসে পানি পাইয়া পানিপথে টবে ।
ঘন্টাকর্ণ ঘন্টাভোর কি সেই প্রতিক্ষায় রবে?
বৃক্ষ নই তো ধৈর্য্য কেমনে এমন ধারা হবে?
রবির কিরণে কি হইব কবি, খাদ্য রচিব ভবে?
তুষ্ট করিব কি গাথা গাইয়া দৈব স্তুতিস্তবে?
ফুটসে তারা গগন জুইড়া দিকবিদিক ওই নভে ।
বলি, জব্দ কইরা আমাগো লগে কোন সাজা দেন তবে?
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW
When people pray, they commune with the one and only God who resides in the human heart. But when they rationalise thereafter, it is then that they create divisions, distinctions and differences that lead to sectarian rivalry, hatred and violence.
The human heart is organically the same for all but the conditioning of the human mind differs from place to place, time to time, culture to culture. If religion were left to individuals to be pursued as personal endeavour, much of the evil centring it would have not been. It is institutionalising of religion that has caused all the mischief and created seemingly unbridgeable barriers between man and man. Yet, we have to work through these divisions, for the gregarious nature of the human species necessitates the formation of groups, and human society inevitably throws up cultural collections as religious sects which become the mainstay of religion, develop multifarious excellence of art and architecture centring religion but which dilute the standard of spiritual perception through their programmes of scriptural indoctrination and regimentation of the flock along lines of structural suitability and organisational interests.
Sages and saints, though, transcend these societal impositions and the doctrinaire cult to strike the core of their human consciousness and arrive at the universal religion of love and knowledge. But their followers subsisting at lower planes of consciousness pollute their thought in due course of time by the rationalisation process and by routinising the spiritual culture to hold the flock. This has been the lot of all great spiritual movements which began on the high note of inspiration of a seer but which inevitably petered out into a socio-political movement of sorts with spirituality remaining merely a fringe element. Thus, with the existence of so many world religions, humankind remains hopelessly divided along lines of warring ideologies centring a God whose children we supposedly all are. And this God is the God of love and mercy that knows no bounds by all scriptural admission. Yet, history bears testimony to religious carnage that have wiped off populations and rendered human life unbearable for centuries at a time. But their day is done and all past superstition must give way before the deluge of scientific knowledge, and the universal symphony of the Vedanta orchestrated by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.
Change, however, will not be easy for scientific advancement and technological progress cannot arbitrarily quicken organic evolution of the human species. Superstitions deeply ingrained in the mind of man take millenia to drain out and no amount of rationalisation may help evolve men to see reason. Or, if even they may be convinced by the force of reason to behold their superstitious folly, they are powerless against past habit to shake off enmasse the dead weight of their ignorance. Such is the plight of man caught in the dualistic trap of religious superstition ever fulled by nefarious elements to perpetuate the sorrowful state of things for their own ends.
Progress must then necessarily be slow in order to ease out the age-old superstitions of bondage to an extra-cosmic being governing the fate of man. It will take ages for all of humanity to come to the understanding that their fates lie in their own hands and not in any outside agency however potent. But the effort must be on to rationalise education along Vedantic lines so that children may at least grow up with the notion of their inherent freedom of soul so that they are better equipped to battle against the inequities of life. However, this very endeavour to sanitise the academic process will meet with the stiffest resistance from all that is toxic in tradition and will have to be carried out with circumspection and care. And all this will be a painfully slow process much to the disappointment of those hyper-energetic activists who would grant you the millenium in a trice.
So, onward with the work of slow transformation of society along lines laid down by the Rishis of India ages ago when they trumpeted the spiritual oneness of sentience, nay, of all phenomena, and declared in the forest retreats, in the hills and dales, and by the river banks that man is divine, that divinity is his birthright, that he is born of bliss and not of sin, that his earthly folly is his hallucination fraught with ignorance and not his fall from Paradise, that he is the ever-free Atman (Self), pure and effulgent and beyond all sin, that he is the maker of his own God, that no God save he himself and his karma has any power over him, and that no God save he himself can save him.
This is a tall order to achieve and needs the lifeblood of thousands of spiritual heroes who will sacrifice their all to bring about the regeneration of humanity. A spiritual renaissance it will be for mankind considering that such an awakening had come about in grand old India millenia ago when the Sanatan Dharma (Eternal Religion) had been discovered on the banks of the Saraswati and the Ganga and in the high hills of the Himalayas, and its universal principles had been lived out in the plains of the Ganga and the Sindhu (Indus) before the ravages of time sent India careering into the dark abyss of self-oblivion, a state compounded worse by machinations of foreign powers attempting to subvert the Indian spiritual culture through enforced conversion and crafty ideological indoctrination.
But let none conclude that thereby India had lost her spiritual moorings. Life on the outside had been touched by the foreign aggressors. Millions had been converted to the Semitic religions, Islam and Christianity, by force or by circumstance. But the philosophical undercurrent of the Indian race had remained untouched for the vast majority of the population. This was because the Indian religion, that is, the religion of the Vedas is fundamentally free of institutions, and its intangible element, being too subtle for comprehension by alien aggressors abounding in grossness, was beyond the ruinous range of their arsenal. Thus, destruction and desecration of stone temples and images could scarce sully the Indian ideal of the free spirit of man where enshrined lies the indestructible Self in its own majesty.
Each soul is the sanctum sanctorum of the Most High, each form the temple of the Divine. And to teach these in times of great spiritual-cultural peril of the Indian race a succession of sages and saints, prophets and incarnations trod the holy land, the Punyabhumi Bharatvarsha, resurrecting the Sanatan Dharma and breathing fresh life into it.
Thus has spiritual life been through its ebb and tide in India without ever it giving way to wholesale materialism as in other lands, although its flow has been inconsistent, following the dynamics of time, now a river narrowing up in the summer heat, now a river in spate deluging all with its monsoon current. But through it all India has held on fast to religion as the very basis of her national life and the vicissitudes of time could scarce make a dent in the fabric of her spiritual being. And where it at all did so, the outcome of the clash of spiritual forces was that the ancient religion of the Hindus sucked up the new movements of the Spirit, absorbed them and assimilated them and in its wake refreshed them with the touch of the eternal Self that animates the soul of the religion of the Vedas.
India has been saved by the Rishis of yore, and her vast diversity of peoples, unified ever by the singular bond of a pluralistic spiritual philosophy, have lived the religious life down the ages in peace and harmony, although there were a thousand different sects operating within the ambit of the Mother Religion. Unity in diversity has been the call of India ever with her catholic spirit accepting all religions as true, be they be bred in India or elsewhere. The call of the Spirit has been honoured in India like nowhere else. Here alone we hear the Upanishads declare in trumpet voice, "Hear ye, O peoples of the world who art the children of immortality. Even ye hear that reside in higher spheres. I have known the Great Being whose colour is of the radiant sun and who resides beyond the realm of darkness. Thou too shalt have to know Him if ye shalt conquer death. There is no other way."
Time it is that this message of the Shvetashvatar Upanishad addressing humanity as children of immortality is disseminated across the wide world that this uplifting hopeful principle of the Vedanta may raise the consciousness of man by whatsoever measure and help usher in a golden age of peace and light, amity and goodwill in the remote future when man will have learnt to live with brother man in love and not in hate, respecting each other's difference of perspective in the envisioning of the same integral truth.
Now no hour of rest. Upon our labour of love lies the fulfilment of the future age, the birth of a peaceful posterity. Shall we fail our children? No, certainly not. So, friends, let us combine the forces of good, as Vivekananda was wont to saying, and combat the prevailing darkness of the world that the light of the coming age may shine through the future inhabitants of this storm-tossed planet and render them whole, that fratricidal battles may be a distant nightmare never to haunt humanity for ages to come and that civilisation may for once get a chance to speak for itself.
Jai Ma! Jai Ramakrishna! Jai Swamiji! Victory to humanity!
Written by Sugata Bose
P.S. Reader Comment :
By Debaprasad Bhattacharya : Excellent write up worthy of publication in a journal. But I am afraid generally readers of social media like FB have too little patience to go through such large exhortations and much less comprehend and practice. Please forgive me if I have been a little harsh.
Friday, 25 November 2022
MISINFORMATION MISLEADING THE MASSES
MISINFORMATION MISLEADING THE MASSES
Swami Madhavananda's photograph these days is doing the rounds on YouTube as that of Swami Saradananda of Shaulmari. Such misinformation is being unwittingly spread by uninformed video-makers, and regrettably so.
Swami Madhavananda, an initiated disciple of the Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, was a venerable sage, an erudite scholar and an administrator par excellence. He rose to be the General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission and then the President of the Order. A brilliant student in his school and college days, he stood second in the Matriculation Examination like Subhas Chandra Bose and like the latter again secured high rank at the University level. When he was introduced to the Holy Mother by a senior monk as one who was a scholar of such high accomplishments, she famously remarked, "ও বাবা, এ যে দেখছি হাতির দাঁত সোনা দিয়ে বাঁধানো !" ["Dear, dear! Here is one who is an elephant's tusk rimmed in gold!"] Mother was greatly pleased to behold a spiritual aspirant who was at once a renunciate and an intellectual of a high order.
At the time of the Noakhali genocide of the Hindus by Bengali Muslims in 1946 when Gandhiji asked the Hindus to rather submit to being killed by the Muslims to the last man than to resort to violent self-defence and exhorted the molested Hindu girls and women to commit suicide to save their honour, Madhavanandaji roared from Belur Math breaking all previous protocol, exhorting the Hindus to take up arms in self-defence as their rightful duty (dharma) at a time of such perilous existential crisis, mentioning for good measure how the Hindu scriptures sanctioned such righteous armed self-defence. This was a singular exception to the general apolitical stance adopted historically by the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission following the injunction of Swamiji on them.
When people make videos on YouTube, they should verify data provided before presenting such for mass consumption. Perfection in presentation, however, is a far cry these days when 99.99% of the people do not even feel the necessity of properly punctuating their sentences when they write something on social media. One can hardly expect from such a callous populace perfected presentation, be it a video, an article, a message or a comment. The result is declining standards in every field of human endeavour in our country, abounding fake news deliberately spread to confound the people and gain popularity the wrong way, mounting misinformation owing to incorrect gleaning of data and imperfect presentation, and an overall lowering of culture owing to ideals being lowered to accommodate the degenerate demands of exploding demography. In the international arena this shows up as a vast population [1/6 of the world approximately] performing poorly in all areas of competitive performance, be they the Olympic Games or any such international event.
We, as a nation, must be more watchful about our performance and must with diligent practice overcome our shortcomings to duly arrive on the world stage. Let us not confuse photographs, identities and personalities linked therein to confound further the chaotic minds of the masses. Let us, instead, with disciplined labour create a semblance of order in our much disoriented mass body, the vast, visible, living form of our motherland.
Jai Hind!
Written by Sugata Bose
Thursday, 24 November 2022
THE GLORIOUS SAGA
THE GLORIOUS SAGA
Those who are least concerned about Netaji clamour the most about discussion on his chronicled life to the exclusion of his possible whereabouts post-disappearance. These ones do not love Netaji. They merely bask in the stellar glow of the great man by dint of blood-bond or there are the others who wish to paint him as a stooge of the fascists, and a 'misguided patriot', to quote Gandhi. The truth, however, is that a mother whose son has gone missing cannot rest discussing her son's attainments and philosophy but goes madly about in search of her lost son. Had Prabhabati Devi been alive post 23 August, 1945 when the Domei News Agency flashed the news of Netaji's death by plane crash, ... [1]
... her reaction, spontaneous and reflective, would have proved the point being made, for no mother can make common cause with the adversaries of her son nor compromise on truth about her missing son. That she was spared the deathly blow through her own demise in December, 1943 was benediction bestowed on her. Else, the very blow would have killed her. When her son addressed the nation from Berlin beginning with, "Ami Subhas bolchhi," it was to her that he intimated the first news thus of his well-being. Prabhabati Devi's eyes instantly welled up with tears (info., courtesy, Subrata Bose, YouTube video). Her Subi did return to her in a vaster sense, for he had equated her with the motherland ... [2]
... When news of Prabhabati Devi's death arrived, Subhas Chandra was in the Andamans. A vast ocean of water and a vaster ocean of unshed tears separated mother and son even as they united in spirit. For Subhas Chandra was essentially spiritual and ever on the brink of embracing the renunciate's life as his early experiences and latter day late night visits to the Singapore Ramakrishna Mission amidst the cataclysm of World War II indicated. When on the last day in Saigon, 17 August, 1945 in Leon Prouchandy's house Netaji contemplated his future programme of liberating India, when he stood on an inch of ground while everything around him dissolved like a distant dream ...[3]
... or a nightmare that had barely begun, he yet held on to hope, incurable optimist that he was. Such a fighting spirit, so rare in this mortal world of fearful men, such composure amidst catastrophe, made the Japanese military officers admire him as a samurai of the highest order. Japan had pledged fraternal help to Netaji's Provisional Government of Free India and did not budge an inch even when she had been nuked twice by dastardly America. The Nipponese Army offered Chandra Bose San safe passage to the Soviet Union from where we lose our trail save for the rarest archival references and curious personal observations by pertinent people. The boy Subhas had once suddenly disappeared in adolescence in search of a spiritual preceptor... [4]
... The mature leader in disguise had disappeared from house arrest (38/2 Elgin Road) in January, 1941, travelled through Peshawar, Kabul, Samarkand and Moscow before reaching Berlin where he raised his Free India Legion with German-captured British Indian prisoners of war. Netaji had come alive for hundreds of millions of subjugated Indians when the hero addressed his countrymen over the radio and announced the broad principles of his 'fighting programme' for the freedom of India. Expatriate Indians in East Asia, thrilled to the marrow, responded. Nazi invasion of Soviet Russia had complicated matters and Netaji shifted focus to North Eastern India for launching his armed attack on imperial Britain... [5]
... Meanwhile, the Ghadar hero, the daring bomber of Lord Hardinge, the redoubtable revolutionary Rash Behari Bose had been biding time since his escape from India in the guise of P.N.Tagore in 1915. Japan had given him sanctuary, help, honour and a permanent base for his attempted pan-Asian revolution against imperial Britain. Rising Nippon shared a common aim with revolutionary India as represented by Rash Behari and his comrades-in-arms at home. With Japanese help Bose raised the Indian Independence League and the first Indian National Army comprising Japanese-captured British Indian prisoners of war. Now the senior Bose summoned the junior one... [6]
... Arrangements were made at the highest diplomatic level to bring over Subhas Bose to East Asia. An audience with Hitler, much delayed by the Fuhrer's refusal to meet Bose, did eventually mature but to no fruitful end save that of the assurance to provide Bose underwater conveyance from Germany to East Asia. The ninety day submarine journey, the longest ever, especially in war-ravaged seas, carried Bose to Sumatra whence he was flown to Tokyo to meet the Japanese Prime Minister General Tojo and Emperor Hirohito who assured him of all help. The Provisional Government of Free India was launched on 21 October, 1943 from Singapore and two days later on 23 October, 1943 it declared war on ... [7]
... the Anglo-American forces. Regarding Russia which was at war with the Axis forces, Bose maintained neutrality despite being an ally of the Axis powers. This was crucial to his future plans of soliciting Russian help in launching another armed struggle of liberation if the Axis powers failed to win the war which Bose reckoned would be the likely outcome the way the odds were pitted against them. One must remember that even Japan and Russia pitted on either side overall were not at war with each other. It was only as late as July, 1945 that the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. A month later the war ended on a nuclear note...[8]
... An overwhelmed Germany had surrendered in May, 1945 after Hitler had committed suicide. Earlier Mussolini's regime had been overthrown internally and Italy had been won back from Nazi occupation. Now Hiroshima on 6 August, 1945 and Nagasaki on 9 August, 1945 had been erased by atomic attack. Japan had surrendered unconditionally and the U.S. forces occupied the islands. Rash Behari Bose had died of natural causes in January, 1945 to be spared the horrors of the twin city obliteration and the death of his brave son, Masahide, in the subsequent Battle of Okinawa. Now it was Subhas Chandra Bose's turn to face the overwhelming odds pitted against the INA and his person. How would he react? ... [9]
...The Battle of Imphal-Kohima fought by the INA-Japan coalition against the Allied forces was the fiercest battle in imperial British history, surpassing even the Battle of Waterloo. 26,000 out of 60,000 INA soldiers who spearheaded the attack on the north-eastern flank of British India perished in this deadly battle. After initial successes that led to the establishment of the Provisional Government of Free India under the Prime Ministership of Subhas Chandra Bose across 300 sq. km of British India, now freshly liberated and the then Indian tricolour fluttering free, fortune started reversing. The changing scenario of the war in Europe with Germany being driven back from its occupation,...[10]
... concentrated Allied attack on Japan forcing Japanese airforce to withdraw from the Indo-Burma front and thus failing to provide aircover for the INA, an inordinately heavy monsoon in 1944 in the region causing logistical problems, the progressive withdrawal of Japanese forces and eventually her capitulation post Hiroshima-Nagasaki -- all these contributed to Netaji agreeing to a ceasefire of the INA but not a surrender as the rest of the Axis alliance had done. The fight would continue but on another front as yet unborn and lying in the womb of history. In pure technical terms, therefore, World War II had not and has not ended as one of the adversaries of the Allied forces has never surrendered...[11]
... Does a man become a leader just like that? Do his comrades-in-arms call him Netaji merely to match comtemporary epithets like Fuhrer, Il Duce and Caudillo conferred on Hitler, Musollini and Franco? Does such a title, spontaneous and free, come easy to a man unless he is loved, honoured, revered and adored by his colleagues, compatriots, patriots and fighters in war, for Netaji considered all his own and none his subordinates except in official governmental and military terms? He was their leader nonpareil who shared their woes in war, braved the battlefront and now retreated on foot with his Ranis to guard them, protect them from the least harm at the time of great calamity. He was their leader because he led from the front, fearless of death, the death which he prized as the price of freedom, the spilled blood the offering to the motherland on the road to Delhi, the road to freedom...[12]
... Only one Rani lost her life to shelling while on the retreat. The rest all reached safely their homes to their parents and guardians. Netaji personally saw to it that they reached their destinations safe and sound. When offered a jeep to retreat, Netaji refused it, choosing instead to travel with the Ranis on foot. Such was his concern for these valiant girls and women that he looked upon them as queens, as embodiment of the Divine Mother that he worshipped. They also reciprocated the filial love, looking upon Netaji as their father...[13]
... Now Netaji set forth on the next phase of his mission, that of seeking refuge in Russia where he planned to raise yet another army of liberation with Soviet help. From his early youth Subhas Chandra had developed links with members of the Communist Party of Russia as he had foreseen the necessity of seeking Russsian help in the future for India's liberation. A keen student of history, Bose had clearly foreseen the precipitation of a second great war in Europe in the decades ahead when Russia on account of her ideological differences with the Anglo-American forces could be relied upon to support India's war of freedom... [14]
... When he had escaped from house-arrest in 1941 and travelled to Moscow, Stalin had been reticent to help him as he did not wish to antagonise Britain who he reckoned could be counted upon as a potential ally against Hitler were the latter to order a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, violating the Ribbentrop-Molotov Non-aggression Pact of 1939. Bose was given a safe passage to Germany through war-torn Europe, which was a magnanimous gesture at any rate, and this was how the political equation of Bose's life changed forever. He was dubbed a fascist, a Nazi sympathiser and a power-drrunk leader who dreamt of being free India's absolute dictator one day...[15]
... But great people and small people often look alike, the opposite poles meeting in common misconception as identities. If Churchill and Roosevelt, both votaries of democracy and capitalism, could seek in communist Stalin a wartime ally to combat fascist Hitler, how different was it from democrat-socialist Bose seeking in fascist Hitler and Tojo his wartime allies to overthrow imperial Britain from the soil of India, especially after Stalin had refused help that had first been sought? But wise critics do not deem it necessary to critically appreciate these issues this way for they have their personal political ideologies and agendas to pursue... [16]
Wednesday, 23 November 2022
দেশপ্রেমী ? কে ?
দেশপ্রেমী ? কে ?
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আমাদের স্বাধীনতাকামী মা-বোনেদের ওপর যে সকল ব্রিটিশ পুলিশ অকথ্য অত্যাচার করেছেন কারাকক্ষে, তাঁরা অধিকাংশই ছিলেন ভারতীয় | সেই সব অফিসাররা শুধু ক্ষুদ্র স্বার্থের লোভে, ও তাঁদের অধিনস্ত সেপাইরা সাংসারিক প্রয়োজনের তাগিদে ভারতমাতার ঘোর অপমান, অসম্মান করেছেন | আমরা কি সেই সব বিশ্বাসঘাতকের বংশধর যে আজও দেশের স্বার্থের বিরুদ্ধে কাজ করি, একে অপরের বিরুদ্ধে মামলা করি, বিদেশী আদপকায়দায় লোকব্যবহার করি, বিদেশী বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ে উচ্চশিক্ষার উপাধি পাওয়ার জন্য উদগ্রীব হই ও তৎপশ্চাৎ বিদেশে কেমন করে স্থায়ীভাবে বসবাস করা যায় তার জন্য শত চেষ্টা করি ও কার্যকরি হলে কৃতকৃতার্থ বোধ করি ? এমন দেশদ্রোহী আজও আছেন, বিশেষতঃ তাঁদের মাঝে যাঁরা রাজনৈতিক ক্ষমতা প্রদর্শন করে দেশপ্রেম জাহির করেন, মহামানবের বংশোদ্ভূত হওয়ার পূর্ণ সুযোগ গ্রহণ করেন অথচ দেশের জন্য স্বার্থত্যাগ কিঞ্চিন্মাত্র করেন না | এঁদের চৈতন্য হ'ক ! বন্দে মাতরম !
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
Tuesday, 22 November 2022
কে বাসে ভালো ? কে রাখে মান ? কে দেয় দাম ?
কে বাসে ভালো ? কে রাখে মান ? কে দেয় দাম ?
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নেতাজীর সম্মান রাখছেন যাঁরা, আজীবন রাখলেন যাঁরা, তাঁরাই আজ আক্রান্ত | ভক্তি-ভালবাসার দাম তো দিতেই হবে -- এমনই বিশ্ববিধান | যাই হ'ক, এসব ডামাডোলের মাঝে কিন্তু ভুলবেন না দেখতে 'সন্ন্যাসী দেশনায়ক' | দেশজুড়ে চলছে নেতাজী-অন্তর্ধান পরবর্তী অধ্যায়ে বীর বিপ্লবীর অজ্ঞাত জীবনের কথিত চলচ্চিত্রায়ণ | কলকাতায় ছবিটি প্রায় পূর্ণপ্রেক্ষায় চলছে 'নন্দন'এ | প্রবেশাধিকার মাথাপিছু মাত্র ৩০ টাকা | ছবিটি দেখে আসুন | এই সৎপ্রচেষ্টাকে সমর্থন করুন, জয়যুক্ত করুন চিত্রনাট্যরূপকার-পরিচালক Amlan Kusum Ghosh মহাশয়কে | আমি তো দেখেছি ছবিটি; আবার দেখব শীঘ্র; আপনারাও সবান্ধবে দেখে আসুন |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
Monday, 21 November 2022
FAITH, FANTASY AND FANATICISM
FAITH, FANTASY AND FANATICISM
Overmuch of adulation of a person brings in its wake fanaticism, the corrosive consequence of dualism. Emotional excess, unregulated by reason and allowed unhindered free play, often turns toxic as the lower instincts take control and turn its course towards superstition and concomitant evils. Devotion devoid of reason either becomes silly sentimentality or violent emotional propensity that is unwholesome. Cold calculating reason devoid of love as pure materialistic philosophising often results in is equally dangerous as history bears testimony to. Thus, a balance of heart and head is necessary, each holding the other in check and preventing the system from going berserk when circumstances are propitious for such a foul flow. Which is why Sri Ramakrishna so stressed on 'jnanmishra bhakti' (devotion tempered by knowledge) as opposed to free-flowing unrestrained devotion as some of the dualistic schools allow. The Semitic religions, Christianity and Islam, and the materialistic philosophy of Marxism have each in consequence of such unbalanced emotion or reason unleashed inhuman violence on humanity. The forces harmonised, such a harm is avoided. This is where dualism must be balanced by non-dualism and vice-versa, and strict monotheism replaced by the system of the 'Ishta', that is, the worship of the Chosen Deity.
Devotion democratised does not degenerate to demonic culture. The Sanatan Dharma is just the system that democratises devotion by raising man and every living creature to the status of godhead. Here the Impersonal Principle comes in and replaces the Personal God even as the science of consciousness supplants the cult of the tribal God or the godless cult of the animal man. This is a point to ponder as this has to be the focal point of all future considerations of world peace. Balance, harmony -- this has to be the key for all future progress. Tilted devotion, godless science and materialistic living based purely on necessity and supply cannot be the cure for the enduring maladies of mankind. The Sanatan Dharma in all its multifarious balancing mode is the way. Om!
Written by Sugata Bose
Photo: Swami Virajananda
A CASUAL POEM IN CONVERSATION
A CASUAL POEM IN CONVERSATION
Over the phone when the hour comes,
When the bubble can bear no more,
When it verges on its burst,
When the frenzied wait can scarce delay
A moment more,
When old curiosity's shop must buy its antiques before it sells,
Then shall I reveal such precious gems as sparkle by their own light
In the deep dark night of oblivion,
In the half-forgotten lullabies of primeval times
Whence arrive even unto this day messages of yore
The pangs of the newborn moment,
The universe with all its dreams locked in a misty mood of future possibilities.
There I dwell.
Come ye and 'catch me if you can'.
Composed by Sugata Bose
Photo : Rani Rudabai
সন্ন্যাসী দেশনায়ক
সন্ন্যাসী দেশনায়ক
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নিজের খোঁজে ছিলেন তিনি,
খুঁজতে গিয়ে দেশকে পেলেন |
দেশের খোঁজে ছিলেন যবে,
খুঁজতে গিয়ে নিজেরে পেলেন |
এখন দেশের তিনি, তাঁহারই দেশ |
ভাবনা ঝাঁকে, ঝাঁকে অশেষ |
আচম্বিতে ঘূর্ণিপাকে
হঠাৎ আবার কোথায় গেলেন ?
এই ভাবনায় কত কত প্রাণ
নির্নিমেষে চায় চক্রবালে |
বদ্ধ যে তাঁর অঙ্গিকারে,
প্রাণপরশে প্রতিক্ষা করে |
এঁরাই তাঁহার যোগ্য ছেলে,
বাকি সব ভান, কপট করে |
রচয়িতা সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
নেতাজীর উত্তরাধিকারী ?
নেতাজীর উত্তরাধিকারী ?
---------------------------
যাঁর গঠিতচরিত্র, যিনি সহজ, সরল, অনারম্বর, আদর্শস্থিত, প্রচারবিমুখ, নিঃস্বার্থ আত্মত্যাগে স্বদেশসেবায় রত, যিনি অক্রূর, নিরভিমান, মানবপ্রেমী, স্বদেশপ্রেমী, নির্লোভ, পবিত্রচিত্ত, যিনি রাজনীতি করেন রাজর্ষির ন্যায়, কপটাচারী নৃপতির ন্যায় নয়, সুযোগসন্ধানী অমাত্যবর্গের ন্যায় নয়, যিনি পারিবারিক সূত্রে মহামানবের সম্বন্ধীয় হয়েও ভোলেন না কদাপি যে মহামানব সমগ্র দেশের মানুষের, পারিবারিক একাধিপত্যের ব্যক্তিবিশেষ নন, তিনিই মান আর হুঁসযুক্ত মানুষ, তিনিই নেতাজীর যোগ্য উত্তরাধিকারী, অনুরাগী, ভক্ত, অনুসারী -- তিনিই প্রণম্য | এই নিরিখে ভেবে দেখুন একবার, নিজের মান নিজেই নির্ণয় করুন |
রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)
Sunday, 20 November 2022
SUPPORT THE CINEMATIC VENTURE 'SANNYASI DESHONAYAK'
SUPPORT THE CINEMATIC VENTURE 'SANNYASI DESHONAYAK'
Watch the movie 'Sannyasi Deshonayak'. May the pictorial presentation produce pulsations of the real!
Support the cinematic venture of Amlan Kusum Ghosh and help bring the Netaji disappearance issue more into the limelight to bear upon the Government critical pressure to declassify pertinent files and bring to light what had truly chanced post 17 August, 1945.
Help build up a mass movement to honour the contribution of the revolutionaries and their redoubtable leader. Do it in small measure to begin with by making the film a grand success. Then and then alone will other filmmakers feel encouraged to take up a similar venture. As you can see, the odds against such filming and screening are great and the forces that wish to bury Netaji are sinister indeed. Which is why your small but not insignificant support is being solicited.
Help the cause by visiting the theatre and viewing the film. A lot depends on its success. Future ventures will be born out of it.
So, come forward and visit your nearest cinema hall where the film is being screened. In Kolkata the film is running to packed houses at Nandan. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!
Written by Sugata Bose
SALUTE, DR. JAYANTA CHOUDHURI !
SALUTE, DR. JAYANTA CHOUDHURI !
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid021zw645AR3KT4PxaZwBX8Pozc7vDLcnbgtkAiQRJEELWDcn7JuiB6XycNnshqQxTcl&id=100002901927700&mibextid=Nif5oz
What a brilliant lecture! Dr.Jayanta Choudhuri has laid bare facts in a forceful and decisive manner. A stunning display of erudition, oratory and factual finding coupled with a deep, sincere emotion for Netaji has made this talk not only illuminating but endearing as well, often disturbing too when one is made to face facts that expose the conspiracy that has been for decades hatched against the premier personality of the Indian freedom struggle, the prince of patriots but for whom we would have been enduring colonial shackles for God knows how much longer. And the historical heresy and betrayal of the hero continues unabated to this day despite growing public awareness about it. One only hopes that public ire will force a change in official attitude towards Netaji and with it all roguish elements that have thus far sullied Netaji's spotlessly pure reputation with carnal connections forged in secrecy will alter attitude as well. Vande Mataram! Jai Hind!
Written by Sugata Bose
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM YET AGAIN BUT TO BE PAID BY WHOM?
THE PRICE OF FREEDOM YET AGAIN BUT TO BE PAID BY WHOM?
https://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbangla.hindustantimes.com%2Fbengal%2Fkolkata%2Fpil-in-calcutta-high-court-on-netaji-public-interest-litigation-against-movie-made-on-netaji-distorting-history-31668910233827.html&h=AT2Yc7CPgAuU_CIAfVOTXODlW8iYnF-VrJNGVP6dWX5ftaQJAh7Kn22Ov7irEiCjIT_WRIYaF9Cg6R70m2ox6XvX99j5kWeDB_F_kfXZ5bUmqBSWNijQKm7s5QkcvWXSK1bNxPM6c9s15PmL_mqw
Drama heightens as PIL is filed in the Calcutta High Court as per this news report. Confirmation needed as to the veracity of this information because contradictory naming of the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court happen in the same report. Authentic news needed. Awaiting it.
Such a development as this litigation is unfortunate in no mean measure but could go to popularise the film by leaps and bounds. Such could be its direct consequence.
Historicity? Netaji's disappearance and whereabouts thereafter are shrouded in mystery and any attempt to unravel it to awaken public interest in it are bound to face the challenges of parties with vested interests, however pious their claims to upholding the reputation of the hero may be. In a democracy these are but natural, public battles over iconic beings, with the law court being the permitted stage for settlement of contentious issues.
So, let the ball roll on and we shall see how things are determined in the end. One more step taken ahead that will go to popularise the disappearance issue of Netaji which should eventually bear upon the government critical pressure to reveal as yet undisclosed truths lying buried in its Intelligence files on Netaji.
Written by Sugata Bose
THE LEADER NONPAREIL
THE LEADER NONPAREIL
If there is one leader in India who even today outmatches all current leaders, outnumbers in ardent following all of them massively, who is revered the most, loved and honoured more than any other, it is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. You love him, too, do you not? Then pay your respects to the leader at Nandan. Watch 'Sannyasi Deshonayak' researched, scripted, directed and literally lived for by Amlan Kusum Ghosh. See it before the film disappears from public view like the mysteriously disappeared leader. Do you not so often say, "We would like to know what happened to Netaji post 17 August, 1945 when he was last photographed disemplaning at Saigon Airport. Why does the Government of India not release all the classified Intelligence files?"? Well, here is someone whose passion, whose mission has been to unearth the secret of Netaji's disappearance and whereabouts thereafter. Will you not now be true to your evinced interest and visit the theatre to find out what happened? So, book your ticket and watch the film while yet it runs to packed house at Nandan. May Netaji-Bhagavanji bless you!
Written by Sugata Bose
Saturday, 19 November 2022
A CURIOUS QUESTION AND TWO SELF-DEPRECATING ANSWERS TO GLORIFY THE ONES WHO DESERVE GLORIFICATION
A CURIOUS QUESTION AND TWO SELF-DEPRECATING ANSWERS TO GLORIFY THE ONES WHO DESERVE GLORIFICATION
Question. If you were born when Netaji was alive, what would you have done?
Answer 1. I would have been the first coward who would have deserved to have been shot for his cowardice.
Answer 2. I would have been just another insect [allusion to Sri Ramakrishna's 'lok na pok' (man or insect)] under the boots of the British. [No offence meant to fellow countrymen now or then.]
The questioner, intent on glorifying me, was stopped short by these radically unexpected answers and there the conversation ended. Let us be realistic and not over-estimate our powers and love for the motherland and, so, inadvertently reduce the sublime love and sacrifice of the revolutionaries for securing freedom. Many of us, certainly I, evidently fall well short of the expected standards of a standard freedom fighter, far less that of a revolutionary, to even contemplate such comparisons. Let us prove our mettle now in terms of worthwhile and selfless service to the motherland in whatever station we may be so that the sacrifices of the revolutionaries go not in vain. Instead of idle speculation as to what we might have been or done in that age of intense revolutionary activity were we then living, let us do some realistic service, selfless and sublime, to the cause of strengthening our country today. Vande Mataram!
Written by Sugata Bose
N.B. The aforementioned answers came fast and flying to my lips without any forethought whatsoever.
MY MOTHER INDIA
MY MOTHER INDIA
India is a vast temple whose middle level is located geographically here but whose depths of foundation and heights of flight stretch beyond human cognition. It is not a finite piece of planet earth but an illimitable entity which encompasses the earth and transcends it to subliminal depths and sublime heights which is why she is worshipped by her children as the veritable Mother Goddess. Those that do so are blessed. Others have yet to rise to this conception which is so rudely rejected by crude Semitic conceptions of spirituality and vilely violated by materialistic philosophies as superstition born out of archaic ignorance. But India, hoary India, lives on to proclaim the grand truth that matter itself is the Spirit in disguise seen through the erroneous retracting medium of the senses that reveal the surface only to hide the depths. India, eternal India, holy India, our divine mother, the civiliser of the world, the most violated of nations, lives on to usher in a new order of spiritual humanity. Unto the realisation of that distant dream I offer my life's labour, my heart's ardour and my soulful sacrifice. Vande Mataram!
Written by Sugata Bose
MY MEMORABLE MATES [331 -- 350]
MY MEMORABLE MATES [331 -- 350]
