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