🕉 MESSAGES GALORE ... 33

🕉 MESSAGES GALORE ... 33

1. If someone offers you Dawa-e-Deen and attempts to convert you to Islam, just ask him what will be the price you will have to pay for leaving Islam in case you do not like it post-conversion. Remember, apostasy under Islamic law (Sharia) is punishable by death. So, ask him why you should be induced to apostasise from your current faith when the stakes are so heavily laid against your possible prospective apostasing from Islam.

2. Where there is no support at home or in the world, be, O pilgrim of the soul, thy sole support.

3. The world is ruled by profit-motivation, not by sense of service.

4. Bengal is fast becoming Arabia. Dark days ahead with desert storms blowing. Time to recover heritage.

5. This one-sided liberal acceptance of all faiths by the Hindus is a patent racial weakness.

6. Islam is an unfair faith as it allows converts into it but disallows converts out of it.

7. Raise the price and give a discount. Good economic policy for seller, hardly economical for the customer.

8. He/she is a fool who cuts the branch on which he/she sits. Such is the cited reference to Kalidas. But surely he was not so. We are all undoubtedly that, though, fools of the first order.

9. 🕉 Reality strikes us harder than the poetry of life can bear, and yet it is poetry that triumphs in the end, for it is the messenger of the Deep Divine which the surface waves can scarce touch. 🕉

10. সর্বত্র মায়ার জাল বেছানো । ঠাকুরের ভাষায়, 'বালিতে চিনিতে মিশে আছে ।' প্রতি মুহূর্তে বিচার চাই । এখানে আদালত নিজের ব্যক্তিসত্তা, অভিযুক্ত পঞ্চভূত ও বিচারক স্বয়ং আত্মসত্তা ।

11. কোকিলের কুহুতান মুক্তির গানেরই প্রতিধ্বনি ।

12. মায়া কাটাতে হবে, নইলে গতি নেই । মায়াতেই বদ্ধ । তাই স্বামীজী নির্মোহ ছিলেন । ক্ষীর ভবানীতে তাই মায়ের অশরীরী সতর্কবাণী । মায়ামুখে উদ্ধার । 'সৃষ্টির পথ' যথার্থই 'বিচিত্র ছলনাজালে আকীর্ণ' । রবীন্দ্রনাথের শেষ উপলব্ধি অব্যর্থ ।

13. পবিত্রতার বশ বিষয় । মুক্তি করতলগত তাঁর যিনি পবিত্র । ধর্মলাভের আর কোন পথ নেই । হিন্দুর বিনাশ অসম্ভব যতদিন হিন্দু স্বধর্মে স্থিত । গীতার এই বাণীই স্বামীজী পুনরোচ্চারণ করেছেন । এ তত্ত্বটি নির্ভুল, অব্যর্থ, প্রায় অদ্বয়বাণী ।

14. ভগবানকে ছোট করলে নিজেকে ছোট করা হয় । ভগবান কে? নিজের আত্মসত্তা ।

15. পতনের পরেই উত্থান । এ কথাটি ভুললে চলবে না ।

16. There is neither loss nor gain in life, only the progressive unveiling of character.

17. Sceptics and secularists are more often than not more spiritual in the true sense of the term than ritualistic and often superstitious believers.

18. My Sage Lord, pay not your employees poorly. They deserve your charity too.

19. It is rather disconcerting to see so many caught in the glare of the camera, if even in appreciation of the outcome (photograph, that is), when the text of glorious passages penned by writers goes abegging. Surely, this is a sign of cultural degradation.

20. 

Genius, if ever there was one. But who was he? Men speculate but none can with certitude say. He did shake the stage in his times and we feel the tremors even now. The thrill remains, reinforced afresh with every passing generation. Such is the timelessness of his creation that a contemporary (Ben Johnson) was moved to say, "Not of an age but for all time." Indeed, Shakespeare has beaten all-eroding Time and lasted through the ages, traversing the globe in so many tongues that verily he may in truth be said to be, somewhat in Johnsonian terms, 'not merely of England but of the whole world'.

21. It is best to shake off one's customary low mentality and manifest magnamity instead as befits a gentleman.

22. একটা গোটা জাতির পক্ষে সম্ভব বুদ্ধিকে বন্ধক রাখা? সম্ভব, অবশ্য সম্ভব | নিত্য, প্রতিনিয়ত ঘটছে প্রতিটি প্রতিবেদনে প্রতিক্রিয়া এইরূপ 'জয়, স্বামীজীর জয়' | আর কোন ভাষা নেই মন্তব্যের | আরো অধম এই অলস জোড়হাতে নমস্কার না কি একটা চিহ্ন দেন কিছু মানুষ, তা | 'সত্য সেলুকাস, কী বিচিত্র এই দেশ!' 

23. We are today too loud as a people. That goes against refinement of culture, against aesthetics, against the 'Sundaram' principle which forms the bedrock of our civilisation.

24. Anchoring is an art, moderation needs moderation after all. Verbal restraint, a delightful diction, civilised delivery, not too loud, not too boisterous, are what make a programme pleasing to the senses and satisfying for the soul.

25. How to make India rise culturally in an age of progressive popular perversion aimed at profit-making?

26. A minimum sense of musicality in means and manners, a modicum of poetry in performance that is devoid of pretension, though, a touch of the golden mean in expression and execution, will go to adorn our much molested ancient culture, now denuded to skeletal form by insensitive overseeing. May beauty in all her economy dwell in simple sublimity!

27. Bodyline bowling best defines in sporting terms the colonial character of England. It has deep underlying significance and is a pointer to the grave historical injustices the English have meted out to peoples ruled by them.

28. A patriotic thing to do would be to read a lot of good books and improve one's fund of knowledge and vocabulary.

29. People who believe in a single human life followed eventually by eternal bliss in heaven or eternal torment in hell are superficial, shallow thinkers, in fact not much of a thinker after all. Else, such arbitrary and irrational assumptions could not have carried their convictions along.

30. Should we speak out against injustice as devotees of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda or must we maintain a studied silence citing apolitical status following original instructions given by Swamiji to the Ramakrishna Mission?

31. If you wish to serve your nation, educate yourself. In knowledge lies strength and in strength service to the nation.

32. কাপুরুষে যে ভগবানকে লাভ করার কথা বলে, সে ভগবানকে আমি বিশ্বাস করি না |

33. আমাদের দেবদেবীরা অস্ত্রচালনা করেন আর আমরা, বীর ভক্তের দল, নেচে নেচে, গেয়ে গেয়ে খঞ্জনি বাজাই |

34. NEIL HARVEY ON THE WAUGH BROTHERS AND TENDULKAR 

In 2002, Harvey called for Mark and Steve Waugh to be dropped from the Australian team, claiming that they were a waste of space. He stated:

"Money is the only thing that keeps them playing...If they earned the same money as I did when I was playing they'd have retired at 34 as I did, and Australian cricket would be the better for it." [Source: Wikipedia]

[Addenda by Sugata Bose:

Harvey's observation was most pertinent as this is the modern-day reality of professional cricketers, the undue greed for money, clinging to their caps even when past their prime and, so, denying the next generation of players from stepping into their shoes and building the future prospects of the national team. We have had in our midst one such prime example of an illustrious performer who would not relinquish space to a future player for the sake of crawling to his landmark of a century of centuries. In 1999 when the Australian press was making a huge fanfare of this batsman, comparing him with Sir Donald Bradman, Harvey came down heavy on them and rubbished such a comparison. He had said that Tendulkar, unlike Bradman, seemed never quite set even when he was on 80 runs, making rash strokes which were unbecoming of a set batsman, something which the Don never did. Don, once set would inexorably move on to making a hundred which Tendulkar could never be relied upon to do. Moreover, Harvey went on, Bradman, if he played with the modern inordinately broad and heavy bats that were available and with the protective gear that batsmen wore, would have averaged 200 runs per innings instead of the 100 that he did. Neil Harvey thus dismissed the undue comparison of Tendulkar with Bradman on solid grounds of reason and put the matter forever to rest  that Bradman was but a unique phenomenon in cricket, nonpareil and unapproached thus far by any.

Photo: Neil Harvey, perhaps the best post-war Australian batsman after Bradman, later national selector from 1967-79 and Chairman of Selection Committee from 1971-79.]

35. It is time we, Indians, in social discourse develop a rational attitude.

36. Our commercial culture is now built upon frivolous advertising projects that care not for a bit of rational reality check and cater to wild fantasies. This is inducing dark ignorance in the polity and can but ruin our chances of rapid development of human quality.

37. When you forget yourself, you realise your Self.

38. Is there a recipe for success? Why? hard work.

39. এমন শিক্ষা চাই যাতে মায়া কাটে, নিত্যনতুন বন্ধনের কারণ না হয়, সত্ত্বগুণ বৃদ্ধি পায়, রজোস্তমো কমে |

40. Sustained concentration and persistent effort along a chosen line of activity inevitably leads to success.

41. Our intellectual culture on the whole is abysmally low. So is our manifested sense of beauty. Both need to improve if we are to flower as a nation and find our footing in the international arena.

42. Thoughts are multipronged. The selective faculty must guide its flow to prevent dissipation of mental force. Conservation, selection and focus are the elemental trinity that constitute concentration. 🕉

43. It is the attitude that governs action. An arrogant superciliousness can never contribute effectively to coordinated group work. Isolation is its sterile fruit which prevents its proliferation. However, if group arrogance chances, great destruction is at hand. Humility is, thus, the mother of peace and amity. 🕉 

44. By wishing others ill one does not further one's own prospects along the line of good. Karma inevitably recoils unto its doer. 🕉

45. Swamiji had vouched for the reintroduction of Sanskrit study throughout India as the sure means of national regeneration. 🕉

46. Our Rashtrapati Bhavan proceedings, award ceremonies et al, are very regal in nature but necessarily, therefore, belonging to a feudal past and not in keeping with our democratic present. The imperial flair, pomp and show, continues. We are yet to honour the simple man in the simple way, dignified but divine and not needlessly with an imperial flourish which stands contradisposed to our democratic aspirations.

47. It is the waiting quality that wins you laurels in life. It is patient persistence that leads to a winning performance, the fruit of earlier labour.

48. Why do we not hear thundering voices in defence of the Sanatan Dharma? Why such meekness in dharmic allegiance, such passivity in preaching, such utter loss of manhood?

49. Do not economically exploit your employees in the name of being a charitable spiritual organisation. Pay them their due. They also have families to maintain. That would be charity indeed.

50. When a spiritual organisation resorts to raising money by clever means and yet continues to seek donations, it has already lost its spiritual status and has been reduced to a commercial corporation of sorts.

51. Ramakrishna-Vivekananda have not a follower today. All are the devoted disciples of Mammon.

52. It is a cause of great concern that our premier spiritual organisation chooses not to defend Hindu interests in the name of an impossible, unpractical and a cowardly universal religious harmony.

53. It seems I speak in the wilderness where the desert storm and the howling winds only keep me company. Devotees have taken to their heels to avoid trouble in confirmation of their cowardly status which Swamiji so often reminded us of and which he so abhorred. Swamiji is gone a hundred and sixty years but his words vibrate still with telling accuracy. Only there are none to follow him today. We can be what we have chosen to be at our own peril.

54. East Bengal is gone and now West Bengal is fast becoming the bastion of Islam.

55. If in this country you have to do something which is courageous and calls for going against the grain of society, you had better done it alone, for there will be none valorous enough or with the courage of conviction to stand by you. Such is the currency of the commoner.

56. 

If Thakur and Swamiji were to return today, there would be hardly any among their millions of devotees who would have given them audience. The monastic and the laity would have both failed them.

57. যাঁদের আমরা মহামানব বলে থাকি, তাঁরা কিন্তু অধিকাংশই বদ্ধজীব, মুমুক্ষজীবও নন যথার্থভাবে |

58. When the President is gullible enough to call a charlatan a Rishi, dark days are ahead. Time for God to manifest in human form again.

59. সে তত উন্নত, সে তত সহজ ।

60. So long as the Islamic agenda of conversion remains, Hindu-Muslim unity in India is a far cry. The very idea of proselytisation is inharmonious, violent.

61. Ramakrishna Mission wishes inter-faith harmony. Then it should speak against the Islamic Dawa (invitation to convert) and its scriptural call for conversion of the kafir (infidel).

62. Asking Hindus to convert to Islam and Christianity must be deemed antinational activity. It disintegrates the polity.

63. Character cannot compromise with money. And, yet, that it is what 'men of character' are doing. Love of money is eating into the vitals of an order that was founded to flood the world with spirituality. 🕉

64. There is a progressive Islamisation going on in India despite a nationalist government at the Centre. A Hindu revival is necessary. 🕉

65. The Muslim fears to leave his religion whereas the Hindu fears to defend it. Strange predicament!

66. Today's subcontinental Muslims are the descendants of those Hindus and Buddhists who were force-converted to Islam. How can they forget the oppression their forefathers had to bear, and instead defend the very cause of Islam?

67. Bodyline bowling best defines in sporting terms the colonial character of England. It has deep underlying significance and is a pointer to the grave historical injustices the English have meted out to peoples ruled by them.

68. ব্যবহার অসম্ভব খারাপ কিন্তু তা তো সমানেই সম্ভব হচ্ছে | এরই মাঝে পারিবারিক সংরক্ষণ | স্ত্রী-স্বাধিনতার পরিণাম যাই হ'ক, স্বাধীনতাই প্রথম পদক্ষেপ এই ব্যবহার-সংশোধনে | কালের অতিক্রমণে ব্যবহারিক বিবর্তন হবে, এমনই সম্ভাব্য বলে বোধ করি |

69. Hindus who support the Islamic expansionist cause wittingly or unwittingly are either ignorant of the core tenets of Islam or are downright hypocrites who have been purchased by perfidious forces to espouse liberal tolerance of the intolerant ideology that Islam presents. We have to recognise these traitorous elements in our ranks as we fight with the advancing adversary in our bid for self-defence and the reclamation of our indigenous Sanatan culture. 🕉

70. Raag music is the great gift India has given to the world. It is science in its musical mode. 🕉

71. Disobedience of authority has become endemic in the polity. Unless obedience becomes the norm, a disciplined polity that can conjointly work for nation's good cannot obtain. Obedience, though, does not exclude critical thinking and the individual right to question and even confront archaic suppositions, irrational imposition and unscientific dogma but it only means that there ought to be a modicum of martial discipline that caters to due defence of the nation against aggressors threatening to destroy it from without or within, the preservation of its inherent culture and the enhancement of the same. A wild democracy that allows every individual right to undermine its fabric cannot be allowed, neither must dictatorship replace it to throttle dissent and thwart creative flow. Balance is the key and it must be continually worked at to achieve optimal human growth. Ultimately, thd spiritual evolution of man is the goal and through checks and balances it has to be achieved. But obedience, nonetheless, remains the key to collective growth as a wanton display of individualism cannot bring forth collective welfare oc any sort. 'Authority and the individual', to quote from Bertrand Russell's title of a book of his, must remain in optimal balance so that they are complementary to each other's progress and not otherwise. 🕉

72. By constant exposure to good classical music, children from an early age can be trained into becoming good listeners, discerning critics and accomplished musicians themselves in due course. This is the way to promoting music ideally and to developing standards of cultural excellence.

73. How would Netaji and Gandhiji respectively have reacted to Islamic oppression in India were the British not to have been their principal adversaries? Understand the question carefully and then address it part by part without obfuscating it by pouring customary vitriol preferentially on Gandhiji. I await your response, that is, if you care to and have the discernment and courage of conviction to present your honest opinion on the issue after careful consideration of Netaji's and Gandhiji's respective positions during their lifetime and their probable positions on the Islamic issue were the British not to absorb their attention the way they did.

74. Ritualistic worship only marginally improves a person spiritually and of that as well there can be no guarantee. But spiritual practices based on strict observance of continence and concentration under efficient spiritual guidance from a Guru (not a charlatan, mind you) conduces to genuine spiritual growth of the practitioner. 🕉

75. Kafir women are never safe under Islamic conquest for it is the commandment of the Qur'an that the victorious Muslim soldier may lawfully claim the women his right hand possesses. This is the reason why Hindu women have historically performed the Jauhar (self-immolation by fire) at the prospect of defeat of their Hindu kings at the hands of Muslim conquerors. For thirteen hundred years Hindu women have been molested, enslaved and sold in the markets, force-converted to Islam and made thus to become the factory for future mothering of Muslims who would carry on the Islamic jihad against the kafir Hindu. What a horrendous history we have had for well over a millennium, and the saga in democratic India in fresh guises with impunity continues!

76. It is necessary to highlight the historical Islamic atrocities for the subcontinent's Muslims to understand what tortures their forebears had undergone before they capitulated before force and converted to Islam. Then alone will they withdraw allegiance from this perversion of furthering the expansionist Islamic cause of jihad against the kafir and the transformation of dar-u-Harb to dar-ul-Islam. When the return to the Sanatan Dharma of all prior perverts to Islam is complete, peace and amity will reign in the subcontinent and then alone will Akhand Bharat be a reality.

The Sanatan Dharma is the soul of Bharatvarsha and it must be established throughout the subcontinent as of yore. But its establishment must not be token. Its principles must be practised in truth where all the inhabitants of the subcontinent will be treated as divinities on earth and capitalism must not be allowed to fuel greed, competition, corruption and vice to exploit the masses to penury and reduce the resurrected nation once more to a weakened polity incapable of self-defence. 🕉

77. Islam practises patience. It converts slowly where it cannot do so fast. As Dr. Bill Warner says, where we (non-Muslims) measure time by the clock, Islam measures time by the calender. I say, where non-Muslims measure time by the year, Islam measures time by the century. This long-term commitment of the Muslims to strengthening the Ummah (glibal Muslim polity) and expanding the domain of Islam is what separates them from the kafir who has no such long-term agenda. No wonder Islam like gravity keeps ever attracting adherents or forcing kafirs to convert. Herein lies the recipe for success of Islamic proselytisation. Christianity, too, has the same agenda but its hold on Europe has largely diminished owing to the advent of scientific enlightenment that has historically affected Europe. Otherwise, the Christian churches are all geared up to the same effect as Islam. Their proselytising work is going on full-scale in India as in Africa.

We have, thus, two proselytising cults to deal with, Islam and Christianity. Both are significant destructive forces so far as Hinduism is concerned. We have to defeat the evil proselytising designs of both and their intention to destroy Hinduism and all non-Islamic or non-Christian religions respectively. 🕉

78. It is difficult for doctors to spiritualise their thoughts because they are so permeated by thoughts of the body on account of their profession. Consequently, one seldom comes across a truly spiritual doctor, although exceptions certainly are there. But such exceptions only prove the general rule which runs to the contrary.

79. Human superstition is preserved by human conservatism.

80. মুসলমান তার দীন ত্যাগ করতে ভীত আর হিন্দু তার ধর্ম রক্ষা করতে ভীত |

81. 🕉 The problem with today's Hindustani vocal musicians is that they start performing on stage before they are ready. It takes decades of diligent practice under a qualified Guru, loads of talent and character, and an absolute distaste for playing to the gallery or attempting to gain quick public recognition, before one truly qualifies for on-stage performance. Then and then alone, if one has the feel for music, that one eases into the heart of one's audience and strikes a sympathetic chord therein that sends it into raptures. Not before. 🕉 

82. সাধনার দ্বারা সুর আসে না | সুর নিয়ে জন্মাতে হয় | সাধনার দ্বারা সেই সুরের উৎকর্ষ আসে, রাগ পরিবেশনায় গভীরতা আসে, যদি অবশ্য সমভাবে বুদ্ধি ও চরিত্র উন্নত হয় | 

83. আমাদের দেশে এত চুরি হয় কেন? কেনই বা এত দুর্নীতি? সোন্দর্যবোধের অভাব বলে |

84. Ritualistic worship leads you nowhere for it is externalised, the objectification of Godhead. The secret of spirituality lies in concentration, in perfection of work done, in the constant striving for excellence.

85. Causing discomfort to another while exhibiting piety is not the way to spiritual progress.

86. All that goes about in the name of spirituality is rank materialism in the main.

87. If you are spiritual, your work must be socially beneficial and not unduly disruptive.

88. ভগবান ছাদে | একতলা, দোতলা, তিনতলায় দাঁড়িয়ে থাকলে কি চলবে? নাকি সেখানে তাঁর সন্ধান পাওয়া যাবে?

89. 'নিস্বার্থপরতাই ঈশ্বর' -- এ কথা স্বামীজী বলেছেন | কিন্তু স্বার্থের গতি যেমন স্থূল, তেমনি সূক্ষ্ম | মানুষ বোঝে না, আবার বুঝেও বুঝতে চায় না |

90. বৈকুন্ঠে ঠাকুর, আর বৈকুন্ঠ অন্তরে | 'আপনাতে আপনি থাকো মন, যেও নাকো কারু ঘরে | যা চাবি তা বসেই পাবি, খোঁজো নিজ অন্তঃপুরে |'

91.

'যত মত, তত পথ' যুগমন্ত্র কারণ এতে শুধু সর্ব সহিষ্ণু মতের সহাবস্থানের কথাই বলা নেই, এতে সর্ব কর্মকে আধ্যাত্মিক পরমপ্রাপ্তির মধ্যবর্তী অথবা চূড়ান্ত উপায় বলে ঘোষিত করা হয়েছে |

92. The first step to spirituality is efficiency in work.

93. Life is a bit of dancing on the waves before the sea swallows you up to throw you up on a fresher wave. Wave after wave thus rises and falls till its interminable sequence stops forever to release you from this transmigratory existence and the ocean wavefree lies, then disappears altogether.

94. Every breath is worship, every pulse-beat keeping to the rhythm of the 'Song Celestial'. Life itself is all Spirit, living the fountain-flow of spirituality.

95. Sri Ramakrishna must be preached in a robust manner by spiritual people well-schooled in oratory. A weak voice with poor diction does the Master grave injustice. Swamiji serves as the exemplar of the ideal speaker. Let others follow suit.

96. The greatness of a Messiah or a Prophet that is built upon the bloodshed of countless millions needs revaluation.

97. It is the collective might of the masses that builds a civilisation and never the inspiration of a single sage.

98. Verily, the masses are the God that does everything while the wily few take the credit. But the masses have to led for sure by the wise one.

99. The Gospels are the uncertain sources of information about Jesus of Nazareth.

100. Who was Jesus of Nazareth? Was he an incarnation of God? Was he a like spiritual figure of the stature of Ramakrishna or Chaitanya?