MESSAGES GALORE ... 56

MESSAGES GALORE ... 56

1. Democracy is Constitutionally there but is yet to arrive in the public psyche. Worship of iconic personalities instead dominates discourse. And this is fuelled by market forces cashing in on a populace that feeds on myths and legends while rejecting reality. The base of such worship needs to vastly broaden in that case to let democracy grow in proportion. That is the only harmonious solution to this intractable problem that besets our emerging nation. The wider dissemination of education and its deepening consequences for the polity ought to weed away this age-old tendency of the people and set up democracy along Vedantic lines of individual self-expression rather than sycophantic following of a few performing personalities in certain select spheres. Social progress can never be achieved en masse if only select personalities are showered upon with accolades and encomium beyond reasonable proportions. The vast potential of the population lies waste in such unwholesome concentration of national energy on specific individuals to churn out money from the ocean that is the economic reservoir of the nation.

2. I find the word 'batter' so unmusical. The earlier word 'batsman' was so much better.

3. Is exploding population a sign of national progress or regress?

4. It takes long for an idea to set in but it does if you persist at it. The conservative mind is slow to absorb the hard realities of life and prefers old comfort zones of thinking irrespective of changing circumstances. But the force of reality eventually succeeds in bringing sense to people and a response follows in its wake. Sometimes it is too late in coming and the dangers that loomed large over the horizons but were not thwarted in time overcome existing civilisations and fashion barbaric new ones. Then darkness follows for ages. But if the right awareness quickens the right response in time, civilisation is saved despite large destruction and death. At such a crossroad are we situated now with conflicting civilisations threatening to rupture the social fabric in Europe and a bloody resolution of forces looms large. Will Europe survive or will it be Islamised inexorably overtime owing to inevitable demographic change?

5. Wish people read more and rode less on the idle waves of imagination that encapsulates reality in reels.

6. Men of significance are busy indulging in insignificant things while the planet goes to destruction.

7. Evil must not be rationalised and tolerated but must be done away with if its own agenda is to exterminate all else and alone survive.

8. Where is spirituality where there is cowardice in confronting evil that thwarts civilisational flow?

9. ঠাকুর তো বললেন লজ্জা, ঘৃণা, ভয় ত্যাগ করতে | কিন্তু ভয়েতে তো সব জড়সড় | কারোর তো হিম্মত দেখি না অধর্মের বিরুদ্ধে প্রতিবাদ করার |

10. Much of what goes on in the name of spirituality is pure materialism. Superstition persisting through ages is hardly spiritual.

11. Why don't the ones advertising products and services on YouTube improve their diction?

12. Be not frustrated in the short term. In the long term there will be fulfilment if you work sincerely.

13. Hard work pays. All else spend.

14. Truth is my God, none else, none else.

15. Love must go deeper than the body right unto the soul. Then alone is it love.

16. The tragedy of life is that it must end in death. And we are moving towards it with eyes wide open. Whither the third eye?

17. Thoughts are of little value today. Mindless hero-worship is all that counts. Personality and not principle dominates discourse.

18. Indian cricketers must so develop themselves in all phases of the game that they can literally dominate world cricket for decades.

19. Not Sachin but Murali in this age has been the God of cricket.

20. What a pity that Test cricket has poor attendance in India while T20 has crowds flocking!

21. Free speech is of paramount importance and must at any rate be preserved.

22. Why hasn't a batsman of the calibre of Graeme Pollock been born again? He was verily the best.

23. The best way to be spiritual is to reject religion, faith of any denomination, any indoctrinating kind.

24. Religious people are often more cruel than faithless men simply because they feel that they have a righteous right to censure others who seemingly offend them on any insignificant issue. Faith justifies that which reason would reject and makes violent where harmony would prevail in the absence of dogmatic assertion. Religion leads to blind egotism no less than atheistic absolutist political ideologies. The point underscored is that a righteous certitude about things and the usurped right to suppress or punish others ag variance with one's views springs from blind adherence to the unripe ego rather than genuine humane spirituality. 

25. So long as ego lasts, embittered relations last. In humility reigns peace, in acceptance harmony, in understanding cessation of hostilities. There are exceptions to this general rule though, as in ignorance perpetuated through generational doctrinal transmission that has a segmented exclusive world-view which it mandates on all and sundry. But exceptions notwithstanding, humility creates peace in general.

26. We always justify ourselves for self-preservation. 

27. Young girls are not breeding machines. They need to be educated for the fulfilment of life's greater goals. Women's liberation is paramount in today's world where the opportunities are plenty for their self-actualisation should patriarchy move away from hindering them in their path of progress. It is a pitiful sight to watch pregnant girls in their bare teens in theocratic societies that as yet persist in barbaric medieval times. Alas! when will women be free to determine their own destiny?

28. Negative bowling down the leg-side in Test cricket must be banned by instituting the no-ball rule as it is in limited overs cricket. Only the allowance of pitching the ball outside the leg-stump may be a little more in terms of measure. Batsmen who are full set and are on the verge of making a big score are today often prevented from doing so by such negative tactics and induced into indiscretion to force the pace somehow. This is unfair to both the batsmen and yo the spectators who are denied an exhibition of strokeplay that can in general pull in crowds. Test cricket dwindling in audience attraction today deserves a better deal and making negative bowling unlawful should be a step towards redressing it. A point for ICC to consider. By way of immediate illustration comes to mind how in a Chennai Test match the English left-arm spinner Ashley Giles under skipper Nasser Hussain's instruction bowled negative to frustrate Tendulkar and deny him a much deserved century. Tendulkar fell for 90 after being tied up through such abominable use of down the leg-side bowling for nearly an hour. Same was when Sangakkara in a Test match played in India tied down the rampaging Indian batsmen through adoption of the same tactic. The law ought to be amended and such bowling outlawed.

29. Do you realise that riches acquired are paid us by others, alternatively,  collected by us using clever means and ploys which are deemed business? It is society's wealth held in custody which is no way ours barring a minuscule fraction of it. Do you really realise?

30. We are slaves to our nervous associations. We must break free of them. That is called spiritual conquest. 

31. Warne is a great bowler but Murali is greater and doubtlessly so. His bowling action has been cleared by ICC after successful biomechanics test. Hence, he was never a thrower of the ball but his congenitally deformed hand gave all the illusion that he did so. Murali's Test record is far better than Warne's and there the matter rests as to who the greater bowler was.

31.

Whiskey, soda, wine,

My life is fine.

How about thine?

32.

Q. What work have you other than cricket?

A. I am batting for the great ball of life. And that's cricket.

33. "I love to take up a challenge. I never shy away from it. I love to play pace helmet-free and hook and pull, cut and drive that strikes fear into the hearts of the pacers. You have a ball that you hurl as a missile and I have a bat that can hurtle it over the boundary. You wage the war and I combat you on your stated terms. Now let us see who vanquishes whom?" --- Monologue imagined by the author (Sugata Bose) on behalf of the Master Blaster Viv Richards. 

34. There is nothing called the past or the future, there and hereafter. It is all here and now. The moment extended is eternity, the present dilated is memory and imagination stretching the depths of time gone by or ages yet to unfold. This very existence is God, Soul, Atman, Brahman, everything. And love, that primeval attraction between components of an unbroken whole, weaves its magical web through it all.

35. Every now and then a saint comes along to lower the temperature of our feverish world. But they are unable to resist the cumulative might of our ignorance and, so, the tussle continues, the undulating game of life and death.

36. The first sip must be steaming hot. But he whose last sip is steaming hot as well has solved the secret of life. Unto him belongs eternal peace and the benediction beyond. The job is to keep the vitality going through a lifetime of trials and tribulations, the breath of life pulsating fine as layer after layer of coffee unfolds before the sipping lips.

37. The western nations are superior to us in almost every aspect save in deeper civilisational terms. They frequently fight to settle disputes, protracted violent wars that destroy weaker nations. The West is evidently still in the clutches of Darwinian evolution where the struggle through might for earthly survival and prosperity holds fort. We, on the contrary, have evolved ages ago to the humanistic fold where reason, understanding, compassion and peacefulness have striven to resolve issues in the spiritual light. Here the West remains immature owing to the youth of their emerging civilisation while ours has matured in the distillery of experience over millenia and in consequence stands spiritually superior. We have to activate our spirituality in surface life to overcome its incongruities whereas the West has to deepen its surface life in the hidden reserves of the Soul. Thus, complementary civilisations will in opposite advancement achieve a global synthesis which shall usher an age of peace and light. Humanity in essence is a whole and must in the end attain its spiritual wholeness. Let India show the way through self-amendment in every phase of her life and in holding the light aloft for it to shed its lustre on all the spiritually darkened nations of the world. 

38. I'll overcome all odds and even out life. Am I not God? This is the spirit and this the application of the Vedanta from the pages of texts onto real life. 

39. Self-help must not degenerate to arrogance as is the wont with some people. Mutual help is the basis of cooperative social life and self-help is but an effective component of it and no more. This element of self-segregation when it suits and utilisation of others' resources when needed is the bane of democracy and the seed of dictatorship. The gregarious culture of the human species at its present state of evolution deems it a sacrilege on paper but blissfully allows it in practice with all pseudo-rationalising propping it up. This is sectarian selfishness, narrow nationalism and mean individualism that is the cause of persisting pain to evolving humanity.

40. The current system of education scatters the mind. What is needed, though, is to gather the mind, bring it to a focus and keep it in the zone for sustained periods. This is the key to bringing about academic success.

41. Waydaanta is the way.

42.

They all have departed to the land of dreams.

I, forlorn, remain awake in this world,

Awaiting a further wakefulness.

Composed by Sugata Bose 

43. Alas! when will you have time for me? When my days are done?

44. Curiosity in children often takes the blind lane.

45. The Hindu has transcended relativity and attained to the Absolute, and in so doing has crossed all limits of acceptance. He finds everything worship-worthy including evil which in its bare nakedness leads as well to the Absolute. Does it mean that the Hindu condones evil and practises it? No, certainly not. But he sees evil as a darker reflection of Truth, as Truth in its lower manifestation. Relativity itself shines in all its aspects as the fairer or the darker face of the Divine.

46.

সারাটা জীবন 'ভগবান', 'ভগবান' করে ভূতেরই পেছনে ছুটেছি |

চারিদিকে ভগবান, দৃশ্যমান জগত, অনাদৃত রইল পড়ে |

47. অযোধ্যায় রামলালার বিগ্রহ প্রতিষ্ঠা হতে চলেছে | লক্ষনীয়, ঠাকুর রামলালার সাধনাই করেছিলেন জটাধারীর কাছে মন্ত্র নিয়ে | রামলালাকে নিয়েই সবসময় থাকতেন | গঙ্গায় স্নান করতেন যখন, রামলালা ধাতূমূর্তি হতে জীবন্ত শিশুরূপ ধারণ করে তাঁর সাথে সাঁতার কাটত | জটাধারীর প্রাণাধিক প্রিয় রামলালা ঠাকুরের কাছেই থেকে যায় ও আজও দক্ষিণেশ্বরের মন্দিরে বিরাজমান |

আশ্চর্য সংযোগ বলে বোধ হল যে বাবরকৃত অযোধ্যার রামমন্দির ধ্বংস হওয়ার পর রামলালা নরবিগ্রহে অবতরিত রামকৃষ্ণরূপী রামচন্দ্রের কাছেই অবস্থান করেন | আজ সেই অবস্থানের পরিণতিস্বরূপ বুঝি অযোধ্যায় রামমন্দির স্বমহিমায় পুনঃপ্রতিষ্ঠিত হতে চলেছে | আগামী ২২ জানুয়ারী, ২০২৪, রামলালার প্রতিষ্ঠাদিবস |

রামবিগ্রহ যেখানে মুসলমানের হাতে লাঞ্ছিত, সেখানে রামচন্দ্র স্বয়ং পরম রামভক্ত ক্ষুদিরাম চট্যোপাধ্যায়ের ঘরে আবির্ভূত হলেন গধাধর রামকৃষ্ণরূপে ও নিজপ্রতিষ্ঠার ও সনাতন ধর্মের পুনঃপ্রতিষ্ঠা, অর্থাৎ, ধর্মসংস্থাপনের ব্যবস্থা করে গেলেন | সংযোগটি কি বোঝা গেল?

48.

মহাসমুদ্রে ঢেউ উঠছে নামছে |

এবারের ঢেউ নামলে আর উঠবে না |

এবার সমুদ্র হব ||

49. Serving is a science and serving is an art. When the two are combined well, it qualifies to be service, and service leads to God. Perfection in service and detachment to its fruits burn the seeds of desire and fill the heart with the light of realisation. Art, music, literature, science---these are verily the disciplines which combined with continent love and purified contemplation lead the aspirant unto the highest end of Self-realisation.

50. কি হবে কাউকে বলে খারাপ? কেউ ভাল, কেউ বেশী ভাল | বিচারটি অন্তরে থাকলেই হল যাতে সত্যের অপলাপ না ঘটে, মান না খর্ব হয় | এতেই সুস্থতা, এতেই শান্তি |

51. Multiculturalism will wipe out Europe's distinctive culture. With mass immigration of Muslims and their refusal to integrate, Europe will face a reverse colonisation with proliferating Muslim population outpopulating Europeans in their own homeland. This is a serious issue to which Europe is slowly awaking. 

Western foreign policy and domestic shortage of workforce have much to do with Europe allowing mass immigration. Where all this leads is to be seen but, if not checked now, the clash of Europe with Islam will be bound to take a bloody turn where Europe will rescue herself only by wading through a deluge of blood. Hope she awakes before it is too late.

Question is, will Europe survive eventually the steady growth of indigenous Muslim population till the Christians---believing and cultural---have been outnumbered?

52.

খেলাশেষে সব যাব ঘরে,

কেউ আগে আর কেউ পরে ||

53. খাবার দাবার খেয়ে কি লোকে বাঁচে? লোকে বাঁচে ভালবাসায় |

54. A forgotten soul, I shall be forgotten soon as I drift into the Sea of Silence.

55. I have freed myself of all struggle. Now resign I unto Thee, O Mother. Thy Will be done!

56. বাবা-মাকে চিনতে চিনতে সারা জীবন চলে যায় | যত চৈতন্য, তত চেনা |

57. We can make beautiful art even in poverty. Prosperity need not be the precondition to the creation of beauty.

58. Poor is that soul which has forgotten its inherent grandeur and become dependent on a crude externality. 

59. Introspection holds the key to spirituality. 

60. The scholar needs to hold a neutrality of stance, an intellectual equanimity to be able to arrive at a wise appreciation of truth.

61. If God can be violent enough to send disbelievers to hell, it is easily understandable why the fanatically faithful resort to earthly violence in the name of the faith they espouse.

62. Routine brainwashing is the basis of this barbarous political ideology that masquerades as a religion. Fear and greed, lust and loathing form the fabric of this fanatical faith.

63. Sometimes I feel it were better if people signed off on a sweeter note than they quite so often do, for in an eventuality, should it unfortunately happen, such a leave taking would surely remain as a source of perennial blissfulness in saddened memory.

People aren't sensitive enough to understand these subtler elements that would make life infinitely sweeter. Who cares after all for all these in a world driven merely by business instincts?

64. The earth is warming, yet population is exploding. Whither are we headed?

65. জনসংখ্যার বৃদ্ধির সাথে সাথে শিক্ষার অবনমন বড় ভয়ঙ্কর পরিস্থিতি তৈরি করতে চলেছে | অবিলম্বে শিক্ষার মানোন্নয়ন ও সেই উন্নত শিক্ষার ব্যাপক প্রসার এর প্রতিষেধক বলে বিবেচনা করি |

66. দেশগঠনের প্রকৃষ্ট উপায় স্বামীজীর 'বাণী ও রচনা' পাঠ জনে জনে |

67. As yet in this civilised world of ours, might is right. When will real civilisation be?

68. The year ends. Let it end on a bright note of hope and harmony. But hope is one and reality another. May the twain meet!

69. বছরের শেষ দিন | সকলকে শুভেচ্ছা আগামী বছরের জন্য | সুস্থ থাকুন, আনন্দে থাকুন সকলে |

70. However utopian it may seem, business ought to be conducted with the motive of maximising service and not profit.

71. It is important to savour the moment for who knows what the future holds.

72. Worldly life must be subordinated to spiritual life. Too much of worldliness is not good. A balance between worldly life and spiritual life is necessary. And that should gradually be spontaneous through initial discriminate effort. Dispassion and practice are the dual aspects of this spiritual discipline.

73. Truth triumphs but who dares to speak it? All are cowering in fear and making compromised statements that conceal more than they reveal.

74. What is the point in trying to prove that your religion is superior and so trying to convert others to your fold? The moot point remains: Have you realised God?

75. Proselytising is not a good thing after all. It is an archaic feature, an expansionist attitude that is best done away with.

76. Spread the harmonic message of Sri Ramakrishna to usher in a golden age of peace and goodwill. But do not be naive about evil.

77. Unless rational standards radically rise across the face of the earth, religious bigotry will not cease.

78. মানুষের সচেতনতার ওপর নির্ভর করে ওজন | অতিরিক্ত না খেলে কি আর ওমনি ওমনি ওজন বাড়ে?

79. Men are the slaves of scriptures. God is free of them. Literature written by men has such a hold on the superstitious.

80. মানবসভ্যতার আজ সর্বোচ্চ ভরসা শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণ | তাঁর প্রদর্শিত পথেই সম্প্রীতি, সমন্বয়, শান্তি |

81. 496 years after the demolition of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya in 1528 CE by the invading force of Babur, it is being reconstructed and is awaiting inauguration on 22 January, 2024. What a momentous day it is in the history of renascent India when heritage will be restored and historical injustice redressed!

82. Sri Ramakrishna had revealed himself to Narendranath Datta (later Swami Vivekananda) as Shree Ram and Shree Krishna at Kashipur Garden House days before his earthly disappearance. His epic words ring even today in the hearts of devotees, "He who was Ram, He who was Krishna, is now incarnated as Ramakrishna but not in your Vedantic sense."

83. It is difficult to get beyond childhood indoctrination which is why vast masses of men are in the grip of superstition and fear.

84. The family deity of Sri Ramakrishna was Raghuvir or Ramchandra. And Shree Ram incarnated himself as Sri Ramakrishna again in this age to defeat the demonic forces of the day and establish the Sanatan Dharma suited to the age.

85. Vilification of the Sanatan Dharma and the Hindus has become a pleasurable pastime with certain sections of people who are ill-disposed to our age-old national culture and heritage. Despicable! The renaissance of Hindu civilisation is on and in full swing. None can resist its onward movement. A great spiritual tidal wave is on the rise. Every demonic disposition will be swept away by the all-embracing current of divine love. Come ye all and plunge into the holy waters of this onrushng Ganga. Save yourselves by its saving grace. Jai Shree Ram! Jai Shree Krishna! Jai Sri Ramakrishna! Jai Swami Vivekananda!

86. Despite the tyranny of the times, God is awaking in the hearts of men. Such is the newest dispensation of the Divine. Jai Sri Ramakrishna!

87. 

In season and out of season

Hitchens remains so full of reason

While roguish religiosity is so often treason.

88. The monarchy ironically is now the bulwark of British democracy as alien theological forces gain ground in Britain.

89. মাতৃভাষার থেকে মধুর আর কি আছে? বিদেশী ভাষায় ব্যুৎপত্তি ভাল কিন্তু তা মাতৃভাষার বিস্মরণের মূল্যে নয় |

90. If following Vivekananda does not awaken manliness, then following him has been in vain.

91. আর এক পক্ষকাল মাত্র বাকি রামমন্দির পুনঃস্থাপনের | সেই মাহেন্দ্রক্ষণের প্রতীক্ষায় অগণিত ভক্তগণ | [Dated 7 January, 2024. Ramlala image consecration scheduled on 22 January, 2024.]

92. The Aryan Invasion Theory is a European colonial construct which is wholly untrue and a fabrication to suit colonial purposes. Swami Vivekananda categorically rejected it.

93. A fortnight more and Ramlala will be formally installed at his birthplace once more in full glory. The resurrection of Sanatan civilisation is heartwarming. Jai Shree Ram!

94. Hindu civilisation is the hope of the world. Jai Shree Ram! Jai Shree Krishna! Jai Sri Ramakrishna!

95. ভারত জাগছে সনাতন সভ্যতার পুনরুত্থানের সাথে সাথে |

96. What a development India is having these days like never before! Rapid development of the economy in its diverse phases. The Sanatan spirit is on the rise. We are now truly proud to be Indians as the world looks upon us with increasing respect and growing reverence for our spiritual culture. Some roguish elements will ever be who will find fault with every advance that India makes but they must be ignored. The nation rejoices at the renaissance that is unfolding in India. Vande Mataram! Jai Shree Ram!

97. যাঁরা রামমন্দিরের পুনঃপ্রতিষ্ঠায় খুশী নন, তাঁদের সম্বন্ধে আর কি বলব? তাঁদের আচরণই স্বয়ংবাক |

Those who are unhappy with the reconstruction of the Ram Temple, what more must I say of them? Their attitude is eloquent enough.

98. We must develop our country internally and we can do it. We need not depend on foreign nations for achieving this objective.

99. After 496 years Ramlala will be reinstalled in full glory at his birthplace. Historical injustice to be redressed at last.

100. 72 hours from Swamiji's birthday. Let us all gear up to celebrate it in a befitting manner.