TULSI MAHARAJ, THE MUCH-WRONGED DISCIPLE OF THAKUR

TULSI MAHARAJ, THE MUCH-WRONGED DISCIPLE OF THAKUR 

Tampering with literature to suit organisational ends is a disservice unto truth and cannot be condoned. More so when such tampering is tantamount to erasing the due status of Swami Nirmalananda (Tulsi Maharaj) as direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. This sort of heinous defiling of the sacred preceptor-pupil (Guru-shishya) bond in truth by suppression of fact and insinuation of unsubstantiated preceptor-pupil relation can hardly be deemed an ethical act. It is an insult not only to Swami Nirmalananda but to his divine Guru as well.

Generations are being kept in the dark about this seminal sage whose dynamism galvanised the Ramakrishna Movement in its early phase and secured for it a strong foothold in southern India. Tulsi Maharaj had also preached in America where he was sent to assist Swami Abhedananda, a feature over which a veil has been drawn by the official chroniclers of organisational history. Tulsi Maharaj had by the grace of Thakur established well over a dozen Ashrams which invigorated southern India. This was in the aftermath of the rift over the Bangalore Case. Prior to it he had served the Ramakrishna Mission with his life's blood in its formative stages but there is hardly much mention of his unique achievements in either any book published by the Order today or in lectures delivered by the preachers of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. He has been well and truly, and wrongfully so, excluded from the rank of Thakur's direct disciples which including him number 17 but is wrongly propagated as 16 for no valid reason given save some wild assertion that he by self-admission was Swamiji's disciple, an averment he emphatically denied during the proceedings of the Bangalore Case, citing legal document (Power of Attorney from Swami Brahmananda, President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, to represent him in South India) to prove his point. Which, perhaps, explains this strange silence over this spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna, ostensibly to bury the dead past with ugly, unholy bearings.

But a past that is buried by heaping falsities on it can hardly produce any spiritual good which has only pure truth for its pious parentage. Hence, it is of utmost moment that Tulsi Maharaj be accorded his due status as direct disciple of Thakur and the long rift at length be bridged to restore peace once and for all. In upholding the truth blessings will be showered on the organisation by the heavenly powers that be and the goodwill of the Mission increased manifold in the eyes of discerning devotees. No damage to organisational reputation will take place for truth itself will be its finest preserver. Also, this course correction will have a cascading effect in correcting erroneous executive action elsewhere as is unfortunately the wont today.

"Organisation breeds new evils," Swamiji had said prior to organising the Ramakrishna brotherhood into its present missionary order. Swamiji had brooded much over the pros and cons of organisation and had opted for it to secure the spread of his Master's message if even at the cost of a certain inevitable dilution of spiritual standards in course of time. That such a dilution has today reached preposterous proportions is alarming and needs redress. That Tulsi Maharaj has fallen victim to such a dialectical development of the Order is unfortunate but as per dialectical progression it is high time to restore him rightfully to his due status as Thakur's direct disciple. Upon this course correction or otherwise depends the goodwill of the Order with far-reaching consequences either way. How the Mission's highest individual and collective authority will respond to the specific issue centring Tulsi Maharaj and to the general aberration affecting it in terms of deviation from original principles which form its foundation will determine the character and longevity of the Mission as a spiritual entity as distinct from its identity as a welfare organisation built on material principles.

Time, indeed, it is to retrace steps to the peerless Paramahamsa of Dakshineshwar and to his prophetic protégé in the seminal Swami who rocked Chicago and the western world. Time, indeed, it is to settle the dust over unholy happenings of the past by pouring the Ganga water of truth over it. May Swami Nirmalananda emerge truly and securely from the mist of myth shrouding his personality into the sunshine of light and freedom that he is spiritually heir to! The deliberate denial, fictitious thrust and complete apathy regarding his spiritual parentage ought now to be done away with and peace and sanity restored amidst the affirmation of the apostolic integration of Thakur. After all, Thakur had 17 direct monastic disciples and not the propagated number of 16 such, the 17th being Swami Nirmalananda, our beloved Tulsi Maharaj. 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose