NONE CARES FOR THE MASTER'S PRINCIPLES

NONE CARES FOR THE MASTER'S PRINCIPLES

In the name of Sri Ramakrishna I ask, do we seriously believe that he is watching every action of ours, overseeing our every endeavour in his very name? Then would we dare violate every enunciated principle of his in the name of practicality, pragmatic modern-day economic thinking that is reducing spirituality to a farce? There is much that we must answer for unless we wish our grand movement to degenerate and decay like its many predecessors. A little reflection and not much soul-searching would reveal that the mission of the Master is gaining ground and losing goodwill even as a divine movement is being deliberately more and by compulsion less reduced to a human one with all its compromised courses.

Spiritual pragmatism cannot justify material compromise. That is a contradiction in terms. Yet, this is what has historically happened in all spiritual movements. So must it be this time with our Master's too? Does divinity stoop so low as to collude with the copper coin in the name of spreading the movement? Must there be no opposition to it, no well-intentioned criticism by devotees, no withdrawal of support for causes whose manner of economic execution are patently opposed to the Master's enunciated principles? Does God oversee the growth of commercial structures in His very name? Must slavish devotion and lowly cowering before authority replace valiant opposition to value-erosion among the very votaries of those values?

Swamiji had said, "Immense idealism with immense practicality." The bit of immense practicality we see today in bold letters but where is the bit of immense idealism upholding it save in hollow articulation by its insincere votaries? 'Money is mud, mud money' -- this cornerstone of the Master's life, this core carrier of his earthly mission, can any of its current proponents vouch for in all sincerity? None bothers to even mention it today, such has been the corrosive compromise with the copper coin.

Written by Sugata Bose