IN THEIR BID TO COMBAT MARXIST HISTORIOGRAPHY IN INDIA

IN THEIR BID TO COMBAT MARXIST HISTORIOGRAPHY IN INDIA 

There are many emerging Hindutva writers who call the leftists and the secularists names. But these Hindutva writers are much shallower scholars than their perceived ideological enemies. Hence, all the rattle will not add up to much. J. Sai Deepak, though, is an exception to this. His study is thorough like his predecessors in Sita Ram Goel and Ram Swarup, and his elder contemporary, Koenraad Elst. A few others for sure are there whose names I have failed to mention here but this seems to me to be the dominant discourse, at least going by lectures and discussions we hear online. What a renascent Hindu literary culture needs is to attract the brightest young minds into its fold so that solid scholarship can sustain its ideological discourse. Otherwise, criticising Marxist historiography will not displace it. Marxist scholars are far more thorough in their research and have a developed system of historical analysis which may not be matched by raucous calling of names. If there is to be a Hindutva way of presenting and analysing historical facts, it has to be methodical, accurate, rational and free of the cobwebs of superstition and fanciful thinking. Mere ideology maketh not historical study. Rational rigour and solid research must qualify such study so that it is able to withstand the pressure of international intellectual scrutiny. The 'Voice of India' publications are good but far more of such publications need to flood the market and a steady stream of young intellectuals with a nationalistic mindset, like Sir Jadunath Sarkar and R.C.Majumdar had, need to emerge and take charge of the historical discourse in emerging India. 'The enemy is armed to the teeth,' to quote Netaji, and Hindutva historians must arm themselves likewise to be able to effectively combat and defeat them in their bid at least to catch the national imagination to begin with.

Written by Sugata Bose

LIGHTER AND DARKER SHADES

LIGHTER AND DARKER SHADES

Within this world there are bright avenues and dark corridors. One frees, the other binds. Rebirth resolves direction unto the divine end. Eventually we behold, destination is here and now, and not there and then. Free we are and have forever been so even as life, relife, births, deaths, time, space and causality all zero in to the witnessing unitary consciousness, thoughts adding up to a nought which is not a void but a substance without break, a solidarity of self-conscious existence that has neither boundary nor limit, nor dimension nor phases, but is a reflexive state of being beyond description. Spherical consciousness, you could say, that is self-contained and absolute, and, hence, without relativistic relations or comparisons. Yes, there are bright avenues which we must tread and dark corridors which we must avoid if we are to arrive at our own Self which is the God we have thus far in partial knowledge worshipped. 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose

DOES BRITAIN FEEL ASHAMED OF ITS HORRENDOUS HISTORICAL DEEDS?

DOES BRITAIN FEEL ASHAMED OF ITS HORRENDOUS HISTORICAL DEEDS?

Does Britain not feel ashamed of the atrocities, plunder and destruction it has done on India for centuries which it conveniently passes off today as colonialism, a historical phase from which it cleverly dissociates? A self-respecting nation should never forgive such an historical injustice. If India forgives Britain for all that it has done to her, I lose respect for the Indians who indulge in such demeaning diplomacy, exercises in realpolitic which are utterly unpatriotic. I, for myself, will never forgive nor forget the dastardly deeds of the British. Universal fraternity need not and can never be achieved by such national amnesia and suppression of historical fact. Let India emulate China in this regard and quicken to far greater self-respect. A country that forgives an unforgiving enemy has outlived its hour on earth and is best wiped out from the face of the planet. But that cannot and must not be for India has a universal civilisational role to play. Let India alter stance then and exhibit an attitude with regard to Britain which will be befitting of her national honour even as she duly gears herself up for emerging as the world's spiritual Guru. My countrymen, self-respect first!

Written by Sugata Bose

FORGOTTEN THEM?

FORGOTTEN THEM?

It is such a shame that most Indians are unaware of the tremendous sacrifices our revolutionaries made to free us from British bondage. Neither are people interested in knowing about them. All that abounds is passive prostration in surface reverence to them. Scholarship is missing. The zeal to read about them is absent in the common mind given to the daily grind that it is to deal with survival challenges. It is neglect and oblivion all the way. In such a scenario it becomes imperative that literature on these revolutionaries be made available to the readers for easy access into this glorious and gory chapter of India's freedom struggle. To that end my pen shall serve you all, inheritors that you are of that legacy. Vande Mataram! 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose

স্বামীজীর বই পড়ুন, এইমাত্র অনুরোধ

স্বামীজীর বই পড়ুন, এইমাত্র অনুরোধ

---------------------------------------

স্বামীজীর বই পড়ুন | এতে নিজের, দশের ও দেশের প্রভূত কল্যাণ নিহিত |

স্বামীজীকে ঠাকুর যুগাচার্যরূপে প্রতিষ্ঠিত করে গেছেন | তিনি এ যুগের আদর্শ মানব, দেব ও মানবের মিলনস্থল, সন্ধিপুরুষ | তাঁর জীবনী, বাণী ও রচনা পাঠে বিশেষ লাভ | তাই আত্মজীবনগঠন ও সমাজজীবনগঠনকর্মে স্বামীজীর স্মরণমননচিন্তন, পঠনপাঠন ও অনুশীলন একান্ত কাম্য | ব্রতী হোন এই মহৎ কর্মে | শুভেচ্ছা রইল ও আশা যে আমাদের সম্মিলিত প্রচেষ্টায় স্বামীজীচর্চা জীবন্ত হয়ে উঠবে আবার যেমনটি বাংলার অগ্নিযুগে হয়েছিল যখন বিপ্লবীরা স্বদেশমুক্তির সাধনায় স্বামীজীর দ্বারা অনুপ্রাণিত হয়ে আত্মমুক্তির কথাও ভুলে গিয়েছিলেন ও দেশমাতৃকার শৃঙ্খলমোচনে সর্বস্ব ত্যাগ করেছিলেন | বৃটিশ গোয়েন্দা পুলিশ খানাতল্লাশী করে গীতা আর স্বামীজীর বই অধিকাংশ ক্ষেত্রেই বিপ্লবীদের ডেরায় পেত | আজ আমাদের ওই সব বীরগতিপ্রাপ্তদের পদাঙ্ক অনুসরণ করে স্বামীজীর চর্চা পুনঃপ্রচলন করতে হবে, দেশের মুক্তির জন্য নয়, দেশগঠনের জন্য ও রক্তে রঞ্জিত স্বাধীনতা রক্ষা করার জন্য |

স্বামীজী আজকের ভারতের রচয়িতা | তাঁর বাণী ও রচনা পাঠ করলে ভারতকে চেনা যাবে | নইলে এ দেশে জন্মেও বিদেশীর মতই স্বীয় সংস্কৃতি, সভ্যতা ও ধর্ম সম্বন্ধে অজ্ঞই থেকে যাব আমরা |

স্বামীজী ঘণীভূত ভারত | আমরাও ভারতীয় | তাই নিজেদের পূর্ণরূপটি পরিজ্ঞাত হওয়ার জন্য আমাদের স্বামীজীকে পড়া উচিত | আসুন, তাই করি | 🕉 

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

'SANATAN DHARMA' AND NOT SIMPLY 'SANATAN'

'SANATAN DHARMA' AND NOT SIMPLY 'SANATAN'

The correct name of Hinduism is 'Sanatan Dharma' and not simply 'Sanatan' as is gaining ground these days. The former means 'the eternal science of the Self/Atman/Brahman' whereas the latter means merely 'eternal' which is an incomplete and, hence, inappropriate description of the Vedic Dharma. We surely may call ourselves Sanatanis but that does not mean that we may leave out the 'dharma' word from 'Sanatan Dharma'. For such a comprehensive spiritual philosophy and righteous way of life it is scant justice to render it fractional thus by divorcing its better half from itself and gleefully rejoicing at that, all the while remaining blissfully ignorant of the partition thus caused. Hope 'Sanatan' will forthwith gain wholeness in 'Sanatan Dharma' in the wholesome minds of its pious practitioners and not be permitted to precipitate into partitioned peril. Ponder please before pronouncing our Dharma as merely Sanatan. Such absence of essential element scarce does the Dharma good.

Written by Sugata Bose

A LENGTHY LETTER

A LENGTHY LETTER

Dear Suvasish Ganguly,

      I underetand and appreciate your socialist concerns but wonder how socialism can effectively be applied unless large masses of people can be made good through the practice of purity, character-building and expansion of the heart. Mere Marxist principles cannot yield on the field the desired results as has been testified in the twentieth century in all those countries where it gained ground and ground to dust not only privilege but the masses with it. Even Swami Vivekananda had famously said, "I am a socialist, not because it is a perfect system but because half a loaf is better than no bread at all." His youngest brother, Bhupendranath Datta, turned a committed communist, became a revolutionary in those early years of the 'Agniyug', suffered incarceration twice, travelled to Germany and then U.S.A. to pursue a doctorate in anthropology, went to Soviet Russia in 1921 and met Lenin who asked him to organise the farmers in India for future revolution, and finally he left behind a classic study of his elder brother in the form of a book titled 'Swami Vivekananda Patriot-Prophet' which you must read if you have not already done so. Swamiji was also a bitter critic of this third epoch of human societal evolution, that of the predominance of the 'vaishya' or the capitalist. He has castigated capitalism as a silent blood-sucking machinery whose exploitative nature is hardly visible on the surface but as Dadabhai Naoroji had described British colonialism as the scalpel of the surgeon that cuts through to the heart without spilling a drop of blood, so to say, it is draining the lifeblood of the masses, nonetheless. Swamiji was predominantly a spiritual personality, albeit a seminal one at that, whose concerns embraced the whole of humanity and not merely a Marxian class concern. He had dived not only into the depths of his spiritual being but had also plumbed the depths of India's spiritual literature, the history of the world, sociology, western philosophy and political thinking, science and literature, and had arrived at this fundamental conclusion that the solution lay in man-making. Hence, he averred, "Man-making is my mission." And this not an effort on my part to resort to that old ploy of reducing every complex issue to its 'sanctus simplicitas'.

      Now, you tend to conflate religion with politics as you have a right to do, for more often than not, that has been the dominant case in world history. But there is another aspect to religion barring which human society will be rendered into a primeval barbaric one with the added advantage of technological destructive power aiding evil to gain predominance over good. Here religion in its spiritual aspect must come in to control the evil impulses and gear man toward good. Religion and politics must be fair brothers and not foul cousins either warring or cater-cousins in conjoint operation of exploitative ends. I understand your concerns for the alleviation of poverty, the ending of exploitation, et al. But which Marxist country has been able to do it? They have turned out to be remorseless murderers of the masses in the name of engendering 'dictatorship of the proletariat'. Whole populations have been wiped out by Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and their socialist siblings till humanity holds communism in rightful horror and suspicion. The track record of the socialists in India as well has not been worthy of patriotic emulation. So, in the absence of spiritual advancement where do you see society going even with attempted systemic changes? Who after all will run the altered system? Humans devoid of mercy who justify mass murder in the name of Marxism, demons dehumanised by barbaric indoctrination? We need men, real men, my friend, to do so. And for that we need to manufacture them in the 'purity-drilling machine' of genuine spirituality, as Swamiji put it. Will exploitation end? No. But it will reduce. Humanity will prevail more. You may keep pointing out at religious exploitation in India down the ages. But that, as Swamiji has repeatedly asserted, was not because of the operation of religion (read, the Vedanta) but because its high principles were never applied on the whole body politic of the country. Yet, India did not venture out of her borders to exploit other races but spread the word of truth and light everywhere which ushered in world civilisation in all its brightest aspects.

      This discussion can go on endlessly but fruitlessly so if you have hardened into a closeted close-mindedness which is quite the antithesis of the rational openness you, perhaps, propose. Thank you, my friend, for participating in civil dialogue but I had only wished that you would not conflate issues and merely carp on the othersidedness of things without exhibiting the generosity and good sense of appreciating the positive side of a post as well while reserving in good measure your due criticisms with a view to effecting wholesome social change.

      I have given you a long rebuttal, not entirely critical of your stance but appreciative as well, and would expect due consideration from your side in terms of rumination on the thoughts I have here penned. May Swamiji guide your direction in life and ennoble your mind unto a more holistic concern for humanity, concerned that you already are unto it in some measure! 🕉

Thanking you,

Yours in fraternal bond,

Sugata Bose 

পাঠান্তে প্রণাম শ্রেয়

পাঠান্তে প্রণাম শ্রেয়

--------------------

অনুগ্রহ করে স্বামীজীর বাণীগুলো যেগুলো পোস্ট করছি সেগুলো পড়ুন ও তদনুরূপ মন্তব্য করুন | শুধু 'প্রণাম স্বামীজী' বলে তাঁকে আর অপমান করবেন না | উনি এই বাণী দিতে গিয়ে আমাদের জন্য আত্মবিসর্জন দিয়েছেন | এই কি তার প্রতিদান দেব আমরা? আমার লেখা না পড়েন আপত্তি নেই, কোন আপত্তি নেই | নাহয় লেখা ছেড়েই দেব | কিন্তু স্বামীজীর বাণী ও রচনা? তাও পড়বেন না? কষ্ট করে আপনাদের মুখের কাছে এই প্রসাদান্ন তুলে ধরছি নিত্য | তাও রুচি নেই তাতে? শুধু 'জয় স্বামীজী', 'Joy Vivekananda', 'লহ প্রণাম স্বামীজী' অথবা emoji? স্বামীজী সে যুগে সিস্টার ক্রিস্টীনকে বলেছিলেন, "দেশটা মরে গেছে, পচে গেছে |" আজও কি তাই? ভেবে দেখুন |

আরেকটি জিনিস | কেউ কেউ মুরুব্বীয়ানা করেন | নিজেদের খুব বোদ্ধা ভাবেন | আমি জবাব দিই না অধিকাংশ ক্ষেত্রেই | কারণ জবাব দিলে অহেতুক তিক্ততার সৃষ্টি হবে | আমি স্বামীজীর প্রচার দেশের স্বার্থে করি, ফাজিলদের অথবা দুষ্টু নাস্তিকদের সাথে গালগপ্প করার জন্য করি না | অতএব, আমার এই প্রচেষ্টায় সহায়তা করুন, বাধা সৃষ্টি করবেন না | আপনারা কেউ কেউ, হয়ত অনেকেই, ফেসবুকটাকে লঘুচিত্ততার অঙ্গন হিসেবে দেখেন | তা দেখুন কিন্তু লঘু পোস্টকেই লঘুরূপে দেখা শ্রেয়, গম্ভীরবস্তুকে নয় | অনুগ্রহ করে ভাব নষ্ট করবেন না বাক্ অসংযমের দ্বারা অথবা অযথা ভাববৈপরীত্যের দ্বারা | তার ক্ষেত্র অন্যত্র | 

পুনঃ নিবেদন---স্বামীজীকে শ্রদ্ধা জানান তাঁর বাণী ও রচনা যা পরিবেশন করছি তা পড়ে, শুধু অলস প্রণাম প্রেরণ করে নয় | নমস্কার | 🕉 

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

NO MORE 'BANDAA' BUT 'VYAKTI'

NO MORE 'BANDAA' BUT 'VYAKTI'

This word 'bandaa' that is so frequently used even by north-Indian Hindus to denote a man is demeaning in Vedantic terms. It is derived from the Islamic concept of the believer (Momin) being the slave of Allah and goes directly against the transcendental truth of man being the everfree Atman, the sovereign monarch of the universe, instead of being its cowering bondman. Man, the Real Man, is God Himself, the Master of the universe, the Witness of cosmic phenomena, and not a lowly, fearful creature waiting on the whims of a capricious, omnipotent, partial God who damns infidels to eternal hellfire for not reposing faith in Him.

Words have their power and this easy percolation of Islamic terminology via Urdu into Hindustani, a linguistic cultural conquest of sorts, induces Hindus to subscribe to Islamic thought which is antithetical to the pristine thought of the Upanishads. We must be vigilant and work towards purging such demeaning words as 'bandaa' (slave) by popularising such words as 'vyakti' (individual). We must recover our lost heritage, our original modes of linguistic communication, our Hindi language as it ought to be in alignment with national thought and not as per alien accretion polluting it. This will work wonders for the recovery of culture, long infringed upon and altered beyond reasonable bounds. In it lies India's national recovery as well. Now no more 'bandaa' but 'vyakti'.

Written by Sugata Bose

যুগনায়কের আহ্বানে যুবসমাজ জাগো !

যুগনায়কের আহ্বানে যুবসমাজ জাগো !

------------------------------------------

একদিন বাংলার বিপ্লবীরা স্বামীজীর অনুপ্রেরণায় দেশমাতৃকার স্বাধীনতার জন্য জীবন উৎসর্গ করেছিল | আর আজ বাংলার এক বিরাটসংখ্যক যুবসম্প্রদায় স্বামীজীর বাণী ও রচনার ধার দিয়েও যায় না | ফলে বাংলা নিম্নমার্গের ভোগসর্বস্ব সংস্কৃতিতে নিমজ্জিত হয়েছে, হচ্ছে |

এই ধারার সূত্রপাত আজ নয়, অন্তত একশ' বছর আগে | সুভাষচন্দ্র বসু বাংলার যুবসম্প্রদায়ের এই চারিত্রিক অবক্ষয়ের কথা প্রায় একশ' বছর আগে লিখেছিলেন ও তার সমাধানরূপে রামকৃষ্ণ-বিবেকানন্দ সাহিত্য পাঠকে নির্ণীত করেছিলেন |

স্বামীজীর তিরোধানের অব্যবহিতকাল পরে বাংলার বিপ্লবের অগ্নিযুগ শুরু হয় স্বামীজী যার ছিলেন আধ্যাত্মিক প্রাণপুরুষ | অগ্নিযুগের অবসানের পর থেকেই বাংলায় ধীরে ধীরে রুশ বিপ্লবের প্রভাব পড়তে থাকে ও পরিশেষে ভারতীয় কমিউনিস্ট পার্টির পত্তনের সাথে সাথে ক্রমশঃ জড়বাদী আদর্শের ছায়া পড়তে থাকে যা পূত অধ্যাত্মবোধকে আচ্ছাদিত করে ফেলে অনেকাংশে | বিপ্লবের রেশ তাও বিচ্ছিন্নভাবে থাকে যদিও গান্ধীবাদের প্রভাবে তা স্তিমিত হয়ে যায় | অন্যদিকে আসে রবীন্দ্রপ্রভাব যা প্রচ্ছন্ন ভোগকে কেন্দ্র করে সংস্কৃতির দিকে বাংলার যুবক যুবতীদের অনেককেই আকৃষ্ট করে |

দেশভাগের পর বিশ্বরাজনীতির পরিপ্রেক্ষিতে বাংলায় বামপন্থীদের প্রভাব বাড়তেই থাকে | পরবর্তিকালে রামকৃষ্ণ মিশনের সংখ্যালঘুতার দাবিতে আদালতে মামলাকে কেন্দ্র করে আরও জল ঘোলা হয় এবং বামপন্থার প্রকোপে যুবসমাজ বিপথে চালিত হয়ে স্বামীজীর সংস্পর্শ থেকে বঞ্চিত হয় | ধনতন্ত্রের প্রকোপ ও তার প্রতিক্রিয়ারূপে বামপন্থার ফাঁকা বুলি যুবসমপ্রদায়কে বিভ্রান্ত করে যার ফলে চরিত্রভ্রষ্ট রিক্ত হয়ে আজ বাংলার যুবক যুবতী স্বামীজীর থেকে বহু দূর |

স্বামীজী নিজেও বাংলার অনীহার শিকার হয়েছিলেন সারা জীবন | এখন তাঁর বাণী ও ভাব সেই অবহেলার উত্তরাধিকার লাভ করেছে | তাই বাংলার আজ এই দুর্গতি | এখন তো বাংলা অধঃপতনের শেষ সীমায় উপস্থিত, সংস্কৃতির সর্বনিম্ন স্তরের পঙ্কে পতিত | ইন্দ্রিয়পরায়ণতা সংস্কৃতির নামে, দর্শন-বিজ্ঞানের নামে ফাঁকা বুলি, জীবনের সর্বক্ষেত্রে চাপল্য, শঠতা ও বাগাড়ম্বর, চরিত্রহীনতার চূড়ান্ত |

এখন উপায়? উপায় বিবেকানন্দ | কিন্তু কে দেখাবে পথ? চরিত্রবান বলিষ্ঠ মানুষ কোথায় যাঁকে যথার্থ কামিনীকাঞ্চনত্যাগী বলে চিহ্নিত করা যেতে পারে? সবই তো টাকার দাস, রাজনেতনেত্রীর ধামা ধরা | তাহলে কি উপায়ে উদ্ধার হবে বাংলার যুবক যুবতী? ওই যে বললাম---উপায় বিবেকানন্দ | তাঁর বই পড়ো | তিনিই বাতলে দেবেন পথ | তিনি আজও পবিত্রচিত্তে বিদ্যমান সাক্ষাৎ অনুপ্রেরণারূপে, হৃদয়ে মহাশক্তিরুপে অধিষ্ঠিত | তাঁর বাণী ও রচনাতে তিনি আজও মূর্ত, জীবন্ত, অগ্নিরূপে প্রকাশিত | কারুর কাছে যেতে হবে না | পার্থসারথী নিজেই রথের রশি ধরে আছেন | হে বঙ্গযুবা, বিবেকানন্দরথে অধিষ্ঠিত হও ! তারপর আলোকের পথে চলতে থাকো |

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

WHITHER PEACE? [EDITED AND REVISED -- ORIGINAL ESSAY PUBLISHED ON 17 SEPTEMBER, 2014]

WHITHER PEACE?

[EDITED AND REVISED -- ORIGINAL ESSAY PUBLISHED ON 17 SEPTEMBER, 2014]

It is difficult to establish peace on earth so long as fanatical ideologies persist, be they religious or political. The variegated nature of phenomenal existence makes for these ideological polarisations. Situated as men are in different cultural terrain, they tend to view things through the prism of such location. The evolutionary process not being standardised or uniform throughout the terrestrial plane, wide divergences of culture manifest overtime which with material contamination play havoc with human civilisation. Ancient superstitions get rooted in the psyche of nations and peoples, and scriptural certification of irrational beliefs and practices make for intransigence in existing mores and modes making progress towards global integration difficult and keep the doors of strife and war wide open. In such a mental climate Summit Meets and Peace Talks, although political imperatives, prove utterly ineffective in bringing about harmony and peace or even a modicum of settlement towards these prized objectives.

The peoples of the world, rooted as they are in local archaic arbitrary assertions of faith, dogma and ideology, necessarily remain a divided lot as per the dynamics of the divergent perspectives and can scarce combine to produce a workable harmony that may enhance the peace process. Despite tall claims about the efficacy of the dialogic process and even the utter necessity of it as the core principle of diplomacy, surface medications for the world's ills have failed to cure this divergent disparate disease of worldliness and have merely prolonged the agony of man along the line of a perilous prognosis where uniformity is attempted by force and the natural beauteous diversity is rooted out to bring about a catastrophic homogeneity. The consequence has been the systematic destruction of the finest elements of manhood down the ages, devastation of culture and decimation of entire civilisations. Bathed in blood humanity is being ever reborn to yet attempt a renaissance, a revival of the ancient spirit of unity in diversity that has been sung in the hymns of the Sama Veda, a resurrection of the primeval peace of Paradise before pluralistic ignorance split peace up.

But whither peace? The arrogance of superior wisdom clothed in the clergy's cloak continues to spit venom on the mass consciousness, religious fanaticism armed in the delusion of prepossession of the absolute and inviolable truth persists in its perennial threat to peaceful co-existence, racial complexes keep up their barbarous modes of inter-racial persecution often tending to wipe off whole populations and absolutist political ideologies threaten to force the world into a mechanised uniform self-oblivious mass. So long as these forces freely operate stifling human freedom, there is no hope of sustained peace for mankind.

And yet there is no way these forces will die so soon as to usher in the age of light and freedom for they hold vast masses of populations in their grip through age-old indoctrination that merging with provincial culture is so difficult to shake off. While art and architecture and even science at times flourishing from the apparent inspiration of totalitarian religious philosophy have been sublime, its foster-soul, the doctrinaire creed, has been highly baneful for the healthy growth of thought and civilisation otherwise. Throughout history these fanatical philosophies or rather the absence of real philosophy therein have resulted in mankind perpetually being plunged in a 'deluge of blood', to quote Vivekananda.

Seldom has peace been in a pluralistic human society and that is the irony of it all. Whenever there has been any political stability anywhere other than in hoary India of sublime spiritual catholicity, it has been at the expense of all contrary opinion and the allowance of the exclusive existence of a single ideology or belief-system.

The universe which is so variegated and functions by the stupendous harmony of forces and fields necessitates even at the organic level the harmonious application of its cosmic principles. Thus, the Rishis of the Rig Veda have in trumpet voice on the banks of the Ganga, the Sindhu and the Saraswati, and in the high hills of the Himalayas declared: 'Ekam sad vipra bahudha vadanti'...'Yo eko varno bahudha shakti yogat'...'Ekoham bahushyam' ('Truth is One but sages speak of it variously.'...'That is of a single colour or element but Cosmic Energy manifests it as the manifold.'...'I am One, I wish to be many.'). In India, thus, from prehistoric times there has been the culture of religious pluralism based on the foundation of the Oneness of all existence. There has been perfect freedom of spiritual expression here in this land of the Vedas with sects multiplying ever, giving vigour to the evolution of spiritual thinking. The Sanatana Dharma or the Perennial Philosophy or the Eternal Religion has been India's contribution to world thought and is the sublimest affirmation of the divinity of all sentience, nay, of all existence. Having the Oneness of existence as its underlying philosophy, it holds that all the varied thought systems that have operated or are operating in the world are but the various expressions of the same eternal truth of transcendental unity of existence and their variance of expression is due to the differences of perspectives owing to differences of phenomenal location and evolutionary level. In essence all religions and philosophical systems are attempting to unravel the 'riddle of existence' and discover for man his lost heritage of pristine purity and transcendental unitary consciousness. The core principle is the same everywhere if one is to read into the spirit of the law and not get entrapped by the letter alone. It is ever the Book of Life revealing its pages through the smears and smudges of corporeal life. It is the One Essence attempting to express the inexpressible, faltering, fumbling, failing to fill the void but ever leaving behind in whatsoever form the imprint of the Divine, the message of the imperishable Self, the signature of Truth as the final residuum. But few can decipher this hieroglyph, fewer still may hear this song of the soul, this symphony of the supernal element, this rhapsody of the Divine. Thus we war on to force the truth on others while we ourselves stumble in the dark devoid of Truth.

This then is the rationale of all that is irrationally being perpetrated in the name of religion, ideology and its ilk. These clouds of ignorance have been hovering over us for thousands of years and their day is not done yet. These superstitions will have to run out their course, says Vivekananda, for the next three or four thousand years before sanity comes to mankind. Till then all measures to bring about lasting peace may backfire as mankind may not yet be ready to apprehend truth in its entirety and fractional understanding will mar the message of the messiahs of mankind. But then that is our lot and we have to wade through the murky waters of our own design, this terrestrial life of light and shade till in the fullness of time we arrive at the citadel of Truth and enter its portals to attain to our divine inheritance. Then shall we be enlightened, then all will be blissful and endowed with peace that passeth understanding.

Written by Sugata Bose

COMMENTS GALORE ... 35

COMMENTS GALORE ... 35

Sugata Bose @Zsuzsi Puruczki : Arrogance of doctors is a universal phenomenon it seems.

Sugata Bose @Khalid Umar : Thank you, Khalid Umar ji, for being such an intrepid crusader for our Sanatan culture at a time when the diabolical forces are yet rife and threatening to destroy our civilisation through their dastardly designs, forging unholy alliance with left-leaning political forces all the while.

The thirteen hundred year old horrendous history which was born out of wedlock in Sindh in 712 CE following the capitulation of Raja Dahir and seemingly ended with the murderous mutilation of our motherland, is breeding fresh seeds of separatism even today as a renascent Bharatvarsha led by Narendra Modiji arises to combat it. Robert Spencer is of the opinion that Hindu resistance will triumph over this deceitful design of desert forces. We shall have to unite our house against these vestiges of erstwhile nomadic hordes and each one of us will have to in smaller or greater measure play a seminal role towards that end. In this regard you are doing a marvellous job, incisive that your insight is into the workings of the antinational forces, intrepid that you are in your articulation of facts and analyses.

I often read your essays and profit from them twofold: 1) in terms of gaining insight into the workings of these agencies of national destruction 2) in terms of feeling invigorated to carry on with my crusade for national self-preservation out of a sense of solidarity that reading your write-ups quickens in my heart.

You are a true Sanatani and my respects to you for that. Your enlightened approach to this diabolical dilemma facing us, your presentation of facts and figures, your offering of combative programmes by way of solutions to these seemingly intractable problems leave every Bharatiya in perennial debt to you. You have a multitude of followers and they are growing by the day, for these mute millions feel the adversarial pressure but know not how to either express them or extricate themselves from the confining situations they find themselves in their own homeland and some exiled from theirs as in the case of the Kashmiri Hindu Pandits.

The Prime Minister, indeed, seems to be a godsend to us but we must all rise in support of him so as to secure the motherland against alien elements which will never integrate into the culture and civilisation of our motherland on account of scriptural mandate.

May Modiji live long and healthy in defence of the Dharma and the Rashtra! May you, Khalid Umarji, ever feel inspired and invigorated to serve the motherland thus! Vande Mataram! 🕉

Sugata Bose @Rohini Jalan : You are eminently qualified. A golden career awaits you. Yes, because wherever I read about great world scholars, I find most of them not having qualified from such great universities consistently as you have with Mother's blessings done. I am so proud of you. Your achievement is my fulfilment, for I had prematurely quit my formal academic career despite a promising start to it. I have endured ridicule, reviling, downright assault on account of that from adversarial forces but today stand vindicated in my assertions then made by way of self-defence. You have fulfilled me like none else.

Sugata Bose @YouTube [Arzoo Kazmi] : Arvind Saharanji elaborates any point overmuch which tests the audience's patience truly. Beyond a point such over-elaboration becomes boring.

Sugata Bose @Zsuzsi Puruczki : Money does rule the medical man which is why Sri Ramakrishna had said that he could not eat the food offering of doctors as they were tinged with puss and blood.

Sugata Bose @Henry D'Almeida : No, I did not mean that. I meant that we do not do our duties towards the nation well enough that would bring in even minuscule positive changes in the polity that would in turn usher in a brighter morrow for all.

Sugata Bose @YouTube : It is not easy to become an atheist. A fair bit of rationality is needed to become one. Spirituality is even higher where mere rationality cannot reach. Intuitive wisdom followed by immediate realisation (aparokshanubhuti) of the Atman is the evolutionary end which awaits all sentient beings and comes about when the system is purged of all desires. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Henry D'Almeida : We demand the fulfilment of our fundamental rights, and legitimately so, but fail so often in the execution of our fundamental duties towards the nation.

Sugata Bose @Henry D'Almeida : And the government personnel also are the 'common man'. Therein lies the ethical failure of the individual. Duty towards the nation is not mere doing what is expected but doing more than the expected. Most fail to comply with the minimum requisite thereof, leave aside going beyond to carry the nation along through sacrificing more for it.

Sugata Bose @Arundhoti Shome : সবার ক্ষেত্রে সমান নয় | ব্যতিক্রম তো আছেই | কিন্তু যাঁদের কথা উল্লেখ করলেন, তাঁরা সকলেই কিন্তু গভীরভাবে পাঠ্যক্রমের বাইরের বই পড়তেন | কেউই পড়াশোনায় কস্মিনকালেও খারাপ ছিলেন না |তাছাড়া, বিদ্যাভ্যাস শুধু বিদ্যালয়ের চতুরাঙ্গনেই হয় না, বিরাট বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়েও হয় |

শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণের কথা স্বতন্ত্র | তিনি অবতারপুরষ, সাক্যাৎ ভগবান | কিন্তু তিনি আক্ষরিক অর্থে স্বল্পশিক্ষিত হলেও, তাঁর সজাগ পঞ্চেন্দ্রিয়ের দ্বারা ও মনরূপ বিশুদ্ধ ষষ্ঠ ইন্দ্রিয়ের দ্বারা প্রভূত শিক্ষালাভ করেছিলেন ও আজীবন করেছেন | সত্যজিৎ রায় মাত্র ১১ বছর বয়সে Encyclopedia Brittanica পড়তে শুরু করেন | Einstein বিদ্যালয়ে চিরকাল গণিতশাস্ত্রে ও বিজ্ঞানে প্রথম স্থান অধিকার করতেন |

বক্তব্য হল এই যে যাঁরা স্বভাবের দুর্বলতাবশতঃ ইচ্ছা করে লেখাপড়া করে না, তারা অধিকাংশ ক্ষেত্রেই ভবিষ্যৎ সমাজে নানা সমস্যার কারণ হয়ে থাকে | এর মানে এই নয় যে শিক্ষতজন সমাজে সমস্যা সৃষ্টি করেন না | করেন তো এবং অনেকাংশে অধিকই করেন | এর কারণ শিক্ষার সারভাগ যে ব্রহ্মবিদ্যা, তার চর্চা তাঁরা করেন নি | করলে এই সমস্যা দেখা দিত কম | কিন্তু যারা পড়াশোনা করতেই চায় না বাল্যকালে, তারা তমোগুণী এবং এই তমোগুণ তারা ভবিষ্যৎ জীবনে ছড়িয়েই থাকে | না নিজের পায়ে দাঁড়াতে পারে, না অপরেকে সুখে শান্তিতে কাজ করতে, বাঁচতে দেয় | বিষয়টি এই দিক দিয়ে বলা হয়েছে | শাস্ত্রের বাণী, 'ছাত্রানাম্ অধ্যয়নম্ তপঃ', পালনে তারা পরাঙ্মুখ, অপারক |

Sugata Bose @Amitabha Dutta Majumdar : Einstein was very good in studies. He excelled in Mathematics and science throughout his school life. In class ten he had once failed in Latin. That was all.

Sugata Bose @YouTube [Thakurma] : The one who has done the voice-over for Swamiji has messed it up. He is too inharmoniously loud unlike Swamiji who was most musical in his talks, his voice mellow and resonant with a deep organ sound, as Lillian Montgomery and Josephine MacLeod have testified. This gentlemen has rendered it in a rather brusque and uncouth manner.

Sugata Bose @Soma Bhattacharjee : But everybody is appreciating the proposal and yet not participating in the programme. Paradox!

Sugata Bose @Prasanta Kumar Datta : Do not write the same comment for years on end. Have some variation.

Sugata Bose @Prasanta Kumar Datta : What have your comments thus have relevance to my posts? They are extraneous to them. Be pertinent to the posts please. Let your comments highlight areas that deal with the content of the write-ups.

Sugata Bose @YouTube [Swami Nikhileshwarananda's channel] : Are people that much suffering from levity that they have to clap at every bend and turn of the PM's speech? It is most disturbing and spoils the very flavour of the speech. Even such a senior Swami as Gautamanandaji has given in to such a superficial behavioural mode which betrays a lack of understanding of the gravity of the talk which deals with Shri Narendra Modi recounting the impact Ramakrishna Mission has had in moulding his life.

Sugata Bose @Suvasish Ganguly : Yes, of course. Noam Chomsky only has to be read to corroborate that, plus our own general information gleaned from diverse sources.

Sugata Bose @Biswadip Biswas : Yes, you have a point. Terrorists we know who they are the world over and the pseudo-secularists are their leftist illiberal sympathisers whose primary agenda is the destruction of India's Sanatan dharmic culture and civilisation which then is to be supplanted by their own brand of barbaric systems of governance and life.

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya (with reference to his younger son Arnab Bhattacharya's Bhatiyali rendition) : Listened to it. Fearless, bold voice, full-throated, masculine, addressing the elements in intrepid manner. Good luck for this one and future ventures. Needs a bit of tonal softening, rigorous practice to edge out rough edges that persist in the voice and consequently in the rendition. Needs classical training to fine-tune the musical ear. Overall a good rendition but much harder work needed for a more refined exposition. Thank you.

Sugata Bose @Bhaskar Mukherjee : I feel very inspired to see RKM centres spreading throughout the country but feel that educational work, both secular and spiritual, must be conducted much more. There should be a 24 hour live streaming of the Mission's message, the lives of the Holy Trinity, the history of the Mission etc. with the help of modern technology, a feature which is sadly lacking and about which you may communicate your ideas to the Belur Math authorities. The YouTube videos or daily casts which they do from some centres are woefully short of the expected standards of spiritual-oratorical-presentation excellence. Here work needs to be done. The world is burning. The Mission must douse the fire with the message of Mother. However, your service to Thakur-Ma-Swamiji's cause is commendable.

Sugata Bose @Arunangshu Mandal : Injustice, my Lord, even if you pull me up for contempt of court!

Explanation : Mistakes done by mouth. His Lordship ought to have punished the mouth but instead punished the innocent feet. And for this breach of court conduct in reminding his Lordship of the injustice thus meted out I have possibly committed a courtroom offence for which I plead guilty and am ready to be charged with 'contempt of court'.

Sugata Bose @Debasish Banerjee : Islam scripturally (refer Hadees) mandates prolificity of progeny. How should the government tackle that?

Sugata Bose @Satyanand Bhattacharjee : The word 'tribal' has a different linguistic connotation here as elsewhere in such contexts. It means archaic, unevolved in civilisation terms, barbaric of sorts. This has no bearing on the scheduled tribes as such who are often more human than their city-bred siblings. These are linguistic usages with their specific nuances.

Sugata Bose @Saikat Hajra : But Swamiji has massively urged the widespread dissemination of Sanskrit in evolving India. He had advocated a synthetic academic ideal for modern India which was the combination of Vedanta and western science.

Sugata Bose @Thakurdas Shrestha : Yes, the very democracy of choice of the Ishta and the infinitude of its depth philosophy make Hinduism universal in its scope and character.

Sugata Bose @Shantanu Bhattacharjee : Not at all. Can you think of any greater spiritual figure than Sri Ramakrishna in the history of Islam? After all he practised Islam and attained to Brahman through that path, a branch of Sufi Islam, which none other than some Iranian heretical practitioners had earlier in less propitious circumstances arrived at for which they were brutally executed. Show me one other figure in the entire history of Islam across the globe who had practised Islam and had arrived at the unitary Brahmic consciousness so rapidly or with such clarity of realisation as Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna had practised Islam and transcended its defined boundaries to heretical unlimitedness. I hope you now get my point.

Sugata Bose @Sanjeev Shrivastava : So long as death stalks man, God in His outer dimension will remain a mental reality for him. And God as Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss will forever remain the Supreme Reality as it is the transcendental Truth testified by the immediate spiritual realisations of countless Rishis, sages, saints and Avatars down the ages in this our eternal Aryavarta, the blessed geographical realm where the Spirit has revealed Itself unnumbered times and continues to do so. If you are pure enough, young and energetic, and if you duly follow the prescriptions of yoga, even you may attain to that transcendental state of unitary consciousness and come face to face with your inmost reality, the Atman which is God in His highest and deepest essence.

Sugata Bose @Sujoy Mukherjee : You have not shared but have copy-pasted the post and edited it at that. Ought not to have done so without the author's prior permission. Declaration of the act post execution devoid of allowance from author does not absolve one of the responsibility thus shirked. Sharing is welcome, not copy-pasting, that too without due acknowledgement of the actual authorship of the post, however insignificant it may be in terms of content or literary and academic excellence. Kindly do the needful as propriety decrees. I understand that you have unwittingly infringed upon the author's rights and will forthwith mend matters. Kindly do not misunderstand me or take me amiss. This is by way of setting things right in the domain of intellectual property rights. This has been my consistent stand for years and I stand by it. Kindly comply. 🕉 

Sugata Bose @Sujoy Mukherjee : Kindly share. You have copy-pasted instead and edited the post at that. Sharing the post intact by means of the 'share' button is welcome.

Sugata Bose @Parnika Bubna : I feel insulted these days that you consistently fail to communicate. Earlier it was more of an affront in this regard that I felt when you failed to keep in touch but it never felt like a casual disregard thus. Now that it has become so, it injures. I can well appreciate the ephemeral nature of human affection, platitudes in piety of no lasting endurance or any significant consequence. Nonetheless, human that I am still in vestiges of it that remaincin me, I feel a trifle neglected which to save self-respect I shall have to guard against from now on. Stay well in peace and happiness knowing that I will never return neglect in equal coin. But the detachment that has been forced on me will remain as a permanent legacy of this impermanent affection and shall keep us connected at a lower keel. May humanity quicken to greater sensitivity about human feelings and men learn to value relations more! May I never allow myself to be taken for granted anymore! Blessings endless on you!

Sugata Bose @Arundhoti Shome : You are a thinker and that is great. Only be not influenced by others unduly but keep creatively appreciating life and understanding its complexities which surface as historical episodes and continuing narratives. Be deep and unbiased in your study and understanding thereof. Let not ideology collude with your comprehension and confound you. We need thinkers, unbiased and free, what would in European parlance be termed 'free thinkers' who have thrown off allegiance to this or that stifling system of thought, have broken free of the trappings tradition and are yet in search of newer and more effective ways of humanistic living. All said and done, it would be puerile to imagine though---true though it may be---that humans are fighting humans when ideology, religious and political, colours up the personality to make demons out of men. Human? It is a grand term to utter and in limited perspective even feel its essence but it is selling man short of his transhuman spiritual dimension without which this very human has historically been rendered into a murderous beast. Here the Vedanta comes into play and must be studied to comprehend the deeper connotation of the term 'human' and to then activate its deepest import in sociopolitical life. Humanism is grand and breaks sectarian boundaries apparently but falls woefully short of man's divine dimension which is the support of all that apparent is. Perhaps, I have been a little abstruse in my delineation of this deeper dimension of man as must necessarily be the case when I am prompted to sum up a vast subject succinctly within the compass of a counter-comment but I will recommend you to study Swami Vivekananda's works to be able to arrive at a clearer understanding of the subject which incidentally will address your deepest reality as well as mine. God bless you for your spirited observation and keep commenting more often thus with fairness and a non-partisan, unbiased attitude to complement your comments!

MESSAGES GALORE ... 52

MESSAGES GALORE ... 52

1. As self proclaims its sovereignty, it is now soul for sale.

2. India is declining. The world is going to ruins. There is increasing chaos everywhere. Thakur will manifest his form again. Soon.

3. Can you understand Thakur?

4. স্বামীজী বাঙালী পুরুষদের মেয়েলী হাবভাব পছন্দ করতেন না | তাই সংগীতে, সাহিত্যে, বাদ্যে, কাব্যে, ব্যবহারে, শরীরচর্চায় পুরুষালী হতে বলেছিলেন বাংলার যুবকদের | দুর্ভাগ্য যে বাঙালীর সেই মেয়েলি হাবভাব আজও বিদ্যমান | এমনকি তাঁর অনুগামীরাও পৌরুষদৃপ্ত নন, এমন অনেকেই আছেন | স্বামীজীর সর্বশেষ শিক্ষা ছিল পৌরুষ | Swamiji said, "Manhood---this is my last gospel."

5. The gist of the Sanatan Dharma is: 'Man, thou art divine!'

6. To make lying legitimate to further the proselytising cause, and that too by divine dictate, is hardly a spiritual exercise.

7. বাংলা নিল কই ঠাকুর-স্বামীজীকে? ভোগাকাঙ্ক্ষায় জর্জ্জরিত বাঙালী নাচতে-গাইতেই ব্যস্ত | আগে ওসব মিটুক, তারপর তো |

8. As population explodes, people's patience is on the decline. The capacity to serve is growing less.

9. Religion [Islam because of its divisive view of humanity as momins (believers) and kafirs (infidels)] has separated India and Pakistan. Were it not so, who knows, perhaps, we would have been siblings still, bound in fraternal love. This medieval tribal instinct of man to group under adversarial religious identity has caused this rift and continues to split siblings apart. The sooner man rejects affiliation to such divisive organised religions, the sooner will humanity manifest in him and humankind integrate into the fabled single family.

10. China and Japan must be reclaimed as fraternal countries by the spread of the Vedanta. Japan already is. China must be. 🕉 

11. Spreading the Vedanta worldwide in its pristine form bereft of undue dualistic accretion or aberration is India's best foreign policy.

12. If India is christened Bharat by Parliamentary legislation, will RKM edit Swamiji's works and replace India with Bharat? Hope not. Likewise, will it be soon 'The Discovery of Bharat'?

13. People who attack the Sanatan Dharma need to study Vivekananda well to arrive at a better understanding of what the Sanatan Dharma stands for. Ignorance or partial knowledge cannot be the basis for such virulence. Selective quotations or citations can neither be the basis for it. Study Swamiji whole, then form your opinion. That will be formation and reformation indeed.

14. I say, young men and women, read Vivekananda. It will transform you. It will make real men and women out of you instead of the hybrid hodge podge you right now are on account of undigested, unassimilated western thought, and that, too, interpreting Indian civilisation.

15. Have tremendous faith in yourselves. That will work wonders. Self-confidence is the basis of all achievement, of all renunciation.

16. Give up cultural decadence and turn to the Vedanta. Faith in oneself is its basis. Make Vedanta practical.

17. Read Indian history, especially the history of the freedom movement. It is a shame to discover that Indian post-graduates from eminent western universities are ignorant of even the names of such seminal leaders as Bipin Chandra Pal and thought leaders like Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay.

18. Man has no age, neither woman has. The mind is ageless as the soul and the Self behind. Eternity is our habitat and undated is our rambling. A slice of life comes in between eternal life, the slice continuing for millions of reincarnations which, though, is but an infinitesimal part of the beginningless, endless Presence. Unhurried must be one's living, unwavering the concentrated flow of the mind, steady, rock-steady the soul and brimful the confidence. Knowledge is yours, health is yours, love is yours, power is yours and peace surpassing all is yours. You have but your aspiration to hold on to, your dream to fulfil, right now and in times unborn, your Self stretching till the end of times and beyond. All weakness shed and manifest supreme strength to know that you are all that there is to this magical, mythical, mystical phenomena and the vast reality beyond. Remain focussed on the ideal ever and acquire all the powers that lie locked in your soul. Then in bliss supernal ramble freely, a free soul, a jeevanmukta in the meadows of this beautiful earth, in the shadows of the deep divine and in the light effulgent of the shining Self, the sun of infinite radiance.

19. The effeminate must be sent to the borders to defend the nation. Compulsory military training will drive this effeminacy away.

20. স্বামীজী যা বলে গেলেন তার উল্টো করছ আর কেবল 'লহ প্রণাম স্বামীজী'? নেবেন না প্রণাম স্বামীজী | খালি নিঃসার অভিব্যক্তি !

21. The impersonal ideal is Brahman, the ground of all existence. But the personal ideal for me is Sri Ramakrishna, the greatest soul ever manifest on earth, Ishvar in His highest incarnation.

22. বাঙালীদের মধ্যে আজ এত অশ্রদ্ধা কেন? কারণ তারা স্বামীজীর বক্তৃতা, লেখা, পত্রাবলী পড়ে না | তাই এত লঘুচিত্ততা, এত কাপুরুষতা |

23.

Effeminacy being rationalised these days by way of raising gender issues. Simple question: Will these cowardly, unmanly mere semblance of men keep singing, dancing and writing sentimental poetry while the valorous jawans in the bloom of their youth die to defend the territorial integrity of our nation? Let these effeminate men instead go and defend the borders. That is what will make men out of them.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo: Mr. Effeminate, learn manliness from this lion of a man, the last Sikh Guru, the great Guru Gobind Singhji.

24. UCC poses a major problem. It will stop polygamy.

25. I am who I am. But who am I?

26. সমাজ যেমন হালকা, ফেসবুকে মানুষের প্রতিবেদন ও মন্তব্যও তেমনই হালকা |

27. We worship God without realising that we ourselves in our inmost Self are God.

28. The more the Ramakrishna Movement spreads, the more will peace and harmony prevail in the world. But will it? What do you say?

29. ছোটবেলায় যারা পড়াশোনা ঠিকভাবে করে না, তারা বড় হয়ে সমস্যা তৈরি করে সমাজে |

30. Apology on behalf of weakness, apology to justify weakness is baneful. Better be bold and admit weakness, then conquer it.

31. No woman in the history of the world could match the matchless Sita till she herself came along as Sarada Devi to match her.

32. জনসংখ্যা যত বৃদ্ধি পাবে, সমাজে অসভ্যতাও সেই অনুপাতে বৃদ্ধি পাবে | এখন কথায় কথায় সংঘাতই নিয়ম |

33. সাংবাদিকতা নিরপেক্ষ নয় | সবই ধনতন্ত্রের বশ |

34. বুদ্ধি থাকা ভাল, সুবুদ্ধি আরো ভাল |

35. ভগবান আছেন | সদাজাগ্রত তিনি | অন্তরালে অন্তর্যামীরূপে নিয়ন্ত্রণ করছেন বিবর্তনের গতিপথ | দুর্জ্ঞেয় তিনি | তাই এত বিতর্ক তাঁকে নিয়ে, এত দ্বন্দ্ব, এত সংঘাত, এত ভয়ঙ্কর হত্যালীলা |

36. 

The vanishing forest cover. Augurs not well for mankind. Global warming will kill us all. Act before it is too late. Alter lifestyle. Plant trees. Yo oshadheshu yo vanaspateshu ... Vishwacharaacharam Brahman.

37. 

ফুল ফুটেছে, ফুটছে, ফুটবে, কিন্তু কতদিন?

38. আপনারা যদি এতই স্বামীজীর ভক্ত অথবা এতই হিন্দুত্ববাদী হন তো তাঁর 'বাণী ও রচনা' তন্ন তন্ন করে পড়েন না কেন? হিন্দুত্বের বীজ তো নিহিত স্বামীজীর বাণীতেই | পড়ে দেখুন | পরিস্কার হয়ে যাবে যে স্বামীজীর বাণীর বিরাট ব্যাপ্তিতে হিন্দুত্বও পূর্ণমাত্রায় বিদ্যমান, যদিও কোনরূপ সংকীর্ণতা ব্যতীত | হিন্দুত্ব না এলে কি হিন্দু রক্ষা পাবে নাকি হিন্দুধর্ম থাকবে? দেশ ভাগ করল ওরা কাফিরের সাথে সহাবস্থান অসম্ভব জ্ঞান করে, তথাপি আপনাদের বোধদয় হল না? কবে হবে? আর স্বামীজীর বিরাট হিন্দুত্বের স্বরূপও যদি তথাকথিত সংকীর্ণ হিন্দুত্বের কবল থেকে বের করে আনতে হয়, তাহলেও তো তাঁর 'বাণী ও রচনা' পাঠ করা কর্তব্য | শুধু এখানে একটু অংশ, ওখানে একটু অংশ পাঠ করলে তো চলে না | যথাযথ অধ্যয়ন প্রয়োজন |

39. স্বামীজীকে খুব কম লোকই পড়েন | এটা দুর্ভাগ্যজনক ! তাই 'স্বামী বিবেকানন্দের বাণী ও রচনা' পাঠের জন্য পাঠচক্র করলে কেমন হয় ?

40. We can only inspire a few people. And the circle broadens till it engulfs the whole of humanity. If this be the sphere of our influence, let it be filled with Vivekananda.

41. Please read the posts on Swamiji. Do not insult his message by neglecting it and merely paying pious pranams to him.

42. "I am proud to be a Hindu." -- Swami Vivekananda 

"I am a proud Hindu." -- Rishi Sunak

43. পাঠ প্রয়োজন, প্রণাম নয় | পাঠের মধ্যেই প্রণাম হোক | প্রণাম অভ্যন্তরীণ অনুভূতি হোক, প্রকাশিত শব্দব্যঞ্জন নয় |

44.  Today, society is full of hollow men, superficial to the core. A contradiction in terms, perhaps, but true, nonetheless. Now the crust has not collapsed to the core. Rather, the core has been buoyed up owing to levity in thought and personality, and stretched to become the crust.

45. Be deep. Never be superficial. Depth-living is spirituality.

46. The literature of a race is symptomatic of its morality.

47. When I pass out of this body, what a shame it'll be that I'll not have left behind even a ripple for progressive social change!

48. অন্যকে সে সম্মান করবে যার নিজের মধ্যে মান আছে |

49. Be animal-lovers. Do not brutally kill them to please your tribal religious instincts. There is no spirituality in it but barbarism.

50. Early birds chirp when the world sleeps.

51. The heroic resistance of Hindu rulers to Arab invaders and their complete rout over and over again must be studied in order to understand that the Gandhian narrative of non-violence as the dominant credo of historical India is completely false.

52. Caught up in the whirl of work, we forget our dear ones. And then it is too late. Alas!

53. The problem with preaching is that the preacher preaches with words that are scripturally valid but have not yet found validation in terms of Self-realisation in him/her.

54. Quality × Quantity = Constant

This equation was revealed to me in a divine vision in a dream at night some time after my spiritual initiation. I had in the dream felt it to be Gurudev's grace (kripa).

55. সংস্কৃতের বহুল চর্চা দেশগঠনে সহায়ক হবে বলে বিশ্বাস করি |

56. Caught in the cross-current of contemporary realities great men are prone to making volatile statements which in altered setting in subsequent centuries suffer from unsympathetic critical scrutiny as future generations sit in judgement over predecessors who were the architects of the present. Those that emerge least scathed from such post-mortem of their life's utterances and deeds enter the pantheon of the immortals cherished by humanity everafter.

57.

Doubtless the Rishi is, I am but a fallible human uttering scriptural quotes learnt by rote with no clue to source-connection by dint of immediate realisation.

Written by Sugata Bose 

Photo: Here stands upright the Rishi.

58. Hinduism is democracy of the Spirit.

59. If school is school, home is university.

60. One thing I can tell you for certain that READING SWAMIJI WILL LEAD TO LOVE FOR INDIA.

61. Business is theft, robbery, plundering of the people, silent sucking of the life-blood of the masses. Capitalism! A necessary evil of the day, perhaps, but a deathly disease that sends hundreds of millions careering to the concentration camp of cash while its perpetrators pride in their perverse pursuit of profit earned at the expense of easy blood.

62. What a leader Atal Behari Vajpayee was! What Parliamentary oratory! What poise! What high dignity! What a transparent sincerity!

63. স্বামীজী এমনি মরে গেলেন ? অনেক দুঃখে মরে গেলেন |

64.    

                                                     G    S    B   T

-------------------------------------------------

1. CHINA                                   90  51 26 167

-------------------------------------------------

2. South Korea                        24  23  39  86

3. Japan                                     18  30  30  78

4. Uzbekistan                           6 10   15   31

----------------------------------------------

5. INDIA                                     6   8  11  25

----------------------------------------------

6. Thailand                                 6   3    9  18

7. Hong Kong (China)              5  12 15  32

8. Chinese Taipei                      4   3    6  13

9. Iran                                          3   9  10  22

10. North Korea                        3    5    4  12   

Above is the Asian Games Medals Tally till September 28, 2023. A question arises. Why is India so far below China in sports if she is such an emerging world power as is so eloquently claimed by so many? Is not excellence in sports in the international arena one of the major indices of the development of a nation?

65. Fraud Gurus are ruining the popular discourse in Hinduism. We need to visit Swami Vivekananda to seek the truth about our Dharma.

66. The progress of women is the index of the progress of a nation.

67. The progressive elements of society are going to destroy the regressive elements of religion. The time of the latter is up. But in doing so they must not fall victim to the regressive elements of politics. Human evolution takes place but terribly slowly, for the complexities of societal functioning and human psychology are hard to simplify and straighten. Rectitude is a spiritual and ethical attribute that is not easily acquired by large masses of men who compose human society. Revolutions transform the outer crust of society, albeit through 180°, but the inner core remains untouched. There organic evolution must make slow adaptations and wholesome changes which take time, a very long time. Fast-forwarding the process is not possible as one fancies but surely education does expedite things. The combative work is on as reason battles it out against superstition and man slowly sees light. Regressive religion has held humanity in its clutches for ages but it must now bid adieu.

68. The whole of cosmic manifestation is but a fraction of Brahman.

69. Progressive atheists are combating Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh and getting persistently persecuted as well.

70. If doctrine be toxic, indoctrination of such will invariably produce mass toxicity in its adherents.

71. Fight the ideology, not the instance thrown up as its consequence. Sincerity and courage in this regard must be deemed spiritual.

72. There is darkness on the surface but there is depth-divinity. Material dross obscures the divine light.

73. It is best to be progressive. Being dated in antiquity and fast-forwarding medieval conceptions unto modernity takes us backward.

74. Are atheists and ex-Muslims who criticise Islam secure in Bangladesh?

75. We are too loud and weak in our journalistic discourse, too inharmonious, too unmusical, so to say. What we need to be is gentle and firm in our dialogic discourse with raucousness replaced by clear rationality.

76. Sri Ramakrishna is the greatest sage in the history of Islam, being a Brahmajnani and a validator of its essential truth, even beyond its scriptural pronouncements which stand in stark opposition to all that Sri Ramakrishna said.

77. জাতীয় শিক্ষার প্রথম সূত্র সহযোগিতা |

78. Critically scrutinise religious doctrines and rationally reject absurd propositions. This is the way to progress.

79.

Furut kore asey,

Furut kore jaye.

Eto kaajer majhe

Somoy kothay paye?

Hai hai hai re,

Hai hai hai!

80. Swamiji was of the view that for a thousand years we, Hindus, had been slaves in our own land. The Islamic invaders had begun this enslavement and the Europeans had carried on from there. The civilisational recovery is now on and there is a lot to do before we can truly claim to have purged our polity of toxic alien elements, ideologies inimical to our indigenous Sanatan culture.

81. ধর্মসমন্বয় ধর্মের সাথে ধর্মের হতে পারে, ধর্মের সাথে অধর্মের নয় | অধর্মের বিনাশই ধর্ম | তার সাথে সমন্বয়ের প্রচেষ্টা ঘোরতর অধর্ম |

82. We must not be effeminate in our manner and modes, in our ways and means, but must exhibit manliness in our bearing, in our dealings and deeds. That must be the way of nation-building.

83. Reject all irrational impositions of religion. A God who punishes infidels with eternal torment in hell must be rejected as well.

84. Hindus, unite! Learn from history what happened to your forefathers because of this disastrous disunity? Partition should prove a point. Look at Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. What is your fate there? Want such a fate here in India as well? Well, that is the looming fate for you unless you unite in defence of the Dharma.

85.

Q. Who is the greatest spiritual figure in the history of Islam?

A. Sri Ramakrishna. 

86. Sri Ramakrishna practised a version of Sufi Islam and then apparently apotasised, for he went back to Kali-worship which is forbidden in Islam. So, Sri Ramakrishna had done Islam the dual offence of apostasy and 'Shirk' (partnering Allah) which is punishable under the Sharia. Thank God, the British were ruling then. Otherwise, who knows in Islamic Bengal what might have happened? The Avatar knows how to time it well. 

87.

Q. Who is the greatest spiritual figure in the history of Christianity?

A. Sri Ramakrishna.

88.

Muhammad Bin Tughlaq shifted his capital from Delhi to Devagiri and renamed it Daulatabad. The name 'Devagiri' (mountainous resort of the gods) is divine whereas 'Daulatabad' (where wealth is flourishing) is purely material, a point of relative reference when pondering Sanatan and Islamic culture. The contrasting names and their equally opposed meaning highlight the contrasting character of the Sanatan and the Islamic civilisations, the former founded on deepest spirituality while the latter on gross materialism.

89. Indoctrinated from birth, how can you see reason? Irrationality and inhumanity abounds in your faith and, yet, you adhere to it.

90. In the impressionable early years indoctrination day in and day out creates fanatics who cannot 'shake off the sterile curse'.

91. Sharing a post is welcome, copy-pasting without author's prior permission and without due accreditation an unwholesome practice.

92. What is the future of India?

93. If demography is going to define democratic politics in India, democracy itself will die at the hands of proliferating Islam.

94.

Institutions which need money for their cultural upkeep are bereft of it and organisations which are overflowing with money are further flooded by it. This is the economic dynamic that needs to be addressed. I urge all Brahmos to come forward and help maintain the Bhawanipur Sammilan Samaj which is woefully short of money and can scarce maintain its building. Financial support needed urgently. 

95. Where are the Hindus headed?

96. Want to spread Hindutva in the name of Swami Vivekananda? Then at least know this much that Swamiji had said, 'Sisters and brothers of America' and not 'Brothers and Sisters of America'. Ignorance and inaccuracy are siblings alright but not attributes that can attain much in the way of advancing the Hindu cause. So, study!

97. Ambedkar like Savarkar was absolutely honest about Islam, something which our other leaders including Netaji and Gandhiji weren't.

98.

A STUDY IN CONTRAST --- WHY?

-----------------------------------------

ASIAN GAMES MEDALS TALLY AS ON

2 OCTOBER, 2023:

CHINA:

GOLD       SILVER     BRONZE       TOTAL

 147               81            42                270

INDIA:

GOLD        SILVER     BRONZE      TOTAL 

  13                 24              23               60

99. If source be toxic, can course be any better?

100. Swamiji is the integrating force for India. Study Swamiji and help strengthen India.

AS YOU SOW, SO YOU REAP

AS YOU SOW, SO YOU REAP

Pakistan was founded on the basis of terrorism (ref. The Great Calcutta Killing, Noakhali etc.) and has ever since maintained its numero uno status in regard to it. The continuing cross-border terrorism perpetrated by it, the unnumbered terrorist attacks on our cities, the four unprovoked wars it has waged against us since independence and the terrible treatment it has meted out to all minorities within its territory have secured it this singular status of being the hub of terrorism and the den of terrorists. Would to Man it were otherwise! But, alas, it is a theocratic state born in blood that needs must behave in this way till it disintegrates on account of internal discord and a collapsing economy!

Written by Sugata Bose

DEMOCRACY AND DICTATORSHIP OF MAN OR GOD

DEMOCRACY AND DICTATORSHIP OF MAN OR GOD

All centralised systems invariably decay. Decentralisation is the plan of the universe. Democracy is decentralisation and conduces to progress. But democracy is usurped to promote dictatorship through demographic change. The complexity of cultures and numbers, of evil and good, of power and perversion, of camouflage and cunning, of barbarism and faith, makes democracy a demographic challenge that is difficult to maintain overtime and has periodically to suffer barbaric reverses. Hence, the alternation of peace and war, of freedom and bondage, and often millenia-old slavery to divine entity of dubious existence.

Imagination, superstition, low evolution and power make a dangerous combine to counter which democracy has to be strengthened constantly through right rational and ethical education of the polity. Overall, a difficult task but attainable nonetheless. Democracy must be vigilant against these intrusive dictatorial features coming in the shape of absolutist political and religious ideology. The divine is to be trusted least as there is often not much to distinguish it from the devilish. Better be human in the real and rely on rationality than depend on a fabricated design going by the name of a diabolical divine. 🕉

Written by Sugata Bose

HINDUS---THEIR PROBLEMS AND THEIR POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ... 1

HINDUS---THEIR PROBLEMS AND THEIR POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS ... 1

The problems faced by the Hindus today are as much generated by internal decadence as by external threats. The top pop Gurus are fake. Gurugiri has become a flourishing business. One remembers what Swamiji said---"Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries. What the world wants is character." Men in the dark are leading the masses unto light! What a degenerate state of the polity that tens of millions should thus be led like the blind being led by the blind, as the Upanishad says! Duping the commoner with crafty words, gestures, quotes and dubious programmes, moving in the corridors of power, making common cause with politicians and business barons, and all the while putting up the pretence of piety---this is the scene today and has been so for quite some decades now which is eating into the vitals of our Hindu society. The common man is being duped and that augurs not well for society or the nation. Such a shame that in this day and age of science and reason tens of millions of gullible humans should so be cheated by crafty characters utterly devoid of character!

Written by Sugata Bose

End of Part 1

THE DELIGHT OF DIVINE DICTATE IN DEMOCRATIC AMERICA

THE DELIGHT OF DIVINE DICTATE IN DEMOCRATIC AMERICA 

In America you are free to be bound to the dictates of your God who denies you, though, all such freedom of choice that you enjoy, courtesy, the man-made Constitution of America which you under the command of your God hold as flawed and subservient to the law imposed by Him. It is a queer conditioning of your mind since birth in a stringent society that makes you so amenable to divine slavery while demanding all sorts of democratic freedom to be bound as bond-man to your all-imposing God and His earthly representative. It is a unique illustration of sociological inertia dating since medieval times unto modernity that has an entire mass of people bound hands and feet to fantastic misconceptions about life and existence. Such stagnation in a fast progressing world will deal the polity of believers the death-blow so very cherished by it so as to expedite the end-times. But the finishing line is far off, for it is not fancifully bound in time by divine dictate but subject to the evolution of the species and the environment it lives in. Hence, if an early demise does take place, it will be that of theology gone wrong right from start, a movement medieval muddled at inception and moving inevitably unto self-destruction. Rationality must reject reactionary regression and replace archaic faith with fertile philosophy stemming from the best of world civilisation. A churn is on and whatever toxicity there be in your system of thought and governance must give way to more humane ideas and application which will release you from the brutal bondage of centuries. Behold, the sun of spiritual awakening rising on the eastern horizon once more where it had once sprung in ancient age in hoary India! Bathe in its rays and emerge free of all dark that throttles you now. And for heaven's sake, think!

Written by Sugata Bose