COMMENTS GALORE ... 75

COMMENTS GALORE ... 75

Sugata Bose @Mainul Islam : Because Pakistan is a failed state and if Bangladesh follows suit, India will have both its pre-Partition provinces ruined which will be a terrible loss to the subcontinent. The people of Bangladesh are suffering and their sufferance will worsen should fanaticism as evident now grip this benighted country even more. Alas, the saner citizens of Bangladesh are few and far between to be able to raise resistance that is potent enough to mitigate the current medieval tribalism unleashed in what was once in lyrical terms sung as 'Sonār Banglā'! It is sad to see fanatics ruling the roost now and reduce Bangladesh to ruins. 🕉

P.S. That is all that is there to it, my abrasive abusive brother. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Jayanta Baksi : Yes, back to square one and in historical consonance at that, for the progressive Islamisation of a nation once predominantly Muslim has always been this way. Every calamitous event has seen progressively greater Islamisation in such nations till the Islamisation was complete with the wiping out of all else but Islamic theology and Islamic law or the Sharia. Hence, what is happening in Bangladesh now is a recurrence of the historical past of many an Islamic nation and it had to happen one day despite tall talks of secularism and equal justice for all her citizens. That such an event is unfolding right now before our very eyes is greater misfortune for the suffering ones for they have been suffering all along since Partition in 1947 and since the Liberation War of 1971. It is nothing new except that with each such wave of Islamic intolerance unleashed on the non-Muslim minorities, the intensity of persecution progressively increases. We have to ponder deeply and act in defence of our benighted brethren in Bangladesh for sure. They are on the verge of total annihilation which is the stated objective of the extremists there and which must not at any rate be allowed. 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Kainat S. Hussain : Philosophically speaking, that is, from the Vedāntic standpoint, all movement is gravitating towards the common centre of superconsciousness which in Vedānta is called Sachchidānanda or the Unitary Being which is Absolute Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. As such all faiths, if practised with due discretion, perfect purity or continence and with the exercise of the subtlest discrimination that can sift through the intricate web of delusive universal phenomena which in the collective sense is termed Maya in Vedānta, must lead to the same ultimate endpoint, that divine destination where freedom is found in Self-realisation or Atmajnāna. But theological trappings stemming from codified scriptural verses that are divisive, exclusive, erroneous and hateful must be assiduously avoided so that all material contamination in pure spiritual pursuit may be avoided and transcendence duly effected. After all, the rise in consciousness happens not because of any external agency as such but because of the organic capacity of the human nervous system to do so through its progressive filtration through the practice of perfect purity. Imperfect purity or intermittent continence will advance the soul as well no doubt but will fail to help it reach its ultimate goal of total absorption, so to say, in the Self or the Atman/Brahman (to be distinguished from the highest varna, brāhman). The organic system of man among terrestrial creatures is uniquely endowed to perceive spiritual truths even unto the highest or the deepest reality. And it cannot be said that any religion or faith as such has exclusive right to effect this ascent of human consciousness even unto the divine. All religions in lesser of greater degree stimulate this inner impulse in man that careers him deeper and deeper within till he finds God in himself, seated in his very Self which is the Self of this universe and countless other universes. Ātman = Brahman. The pitfalls of certain religions in their divisive ideologies, hateful classification of humanity and mandatory observances that are detrimental to human diversity and harmonic co-existence must be avoided and only the integrating noble thoughts assimilated and made flesh and fibre in life. Here judicious discrimination is necessary. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Nitin Pandit : Perfect. And so much more violence perpetrated in the name of Islam and by its doctrinal justification and validation of it right from its warring inception to this day. The terrible deluge of blood it has rained on the world meets only its match in its worse execution by its proselytising sister Christianity and by the godless cult of communism and the brute-force cult of fascism, not to mention Euro-colonialism. But Islam has done terrible damage to civilisation in the Indian subcontinent by stifling its natural Sanatan growth. Reading the Islamic scriptures makes things clear, barring which one's conceptions are clouded by Sanatan ideas that all religions are paths to 'peace that passeth understanding', to pilfer from Christian vocabulary. Read the trinity of Islamic scriptures, the Qur'an, the Hadees and the Sira, to arrive at error-free estimation of Islam. Read direct and depend not upon apologists deflecting you en route to your own realisation as to the essence of Islam. 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Sanjeev Shrivastava : India's aggressive action will be China's gain. It will facilitate China's entry into the heart-centre of Bangladesh. This is geopolitics, my friend, and not easy mathematics. Complexities are difficult to fathom right now. Perhaps, the waiting game is on to ensure general elections in Bangladesh and then forge fresher ties of friendship as and how situation permits.

Sugata Bose @YouTube [Sange Tanmoy] : Thank you, Tanmoy, for interviewing Sri Shankar Kumar Chatterjee once again. I had made this request long back, after your previous interview of him, and I am gratified that my aspiration has been fulfilled. Shankar Kumar Chatterjee brings in a fresh approach to truth-telling in a self-effacing manner that is devoid of self-debasing mannerisms though. His utter absence of personal play of egotism in delivery of utterances, the rational rigour of whatever he says and his focussed replies make him doubly credible and a delight to watch. His military background makes him disciplined in his approach to being interviewed and his accurate replies make viewing the interview a learning experience. These words may seem facile but they are sincere thoughts that somehow failed to find due apparel in the right words that would convey their true meaning. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Chandan Bhattacharjee : But the fanatical fundamentalist conveniently and by coercion converts the Hindu to his fold. This must be countered vigorously by reverse conversion of the perverts from the Sanatan Dharma back to the Sanatan Dharma if we are ever to find peace again here in Punyabhumi Bharatvarsha. The task may be onerous but it will have to be accomplished as our due dharmic duty. The solidarity of the Sanatan fold must be maintained and its body enhanced and strengthened by the return of these converted ones back to its fold. 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Chandan Bhattacharjee : I hope the declining Hindu population and in sharp contrast the increasing Muslim population in India will in the coming decades and perhaps century allow sustenance of the Sanatan civilisation in whatever remains of Hindu India. 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Sanjeev Shrivastava : The Islamic theological stance in inertial historical practice as mandated by the Divine.

Sugata Bose @Kapil Patil : Will you be in the gallery watching or playing out your part on-stage?

Sugata Bose @Anirudha Bhattacharya : 'Be in the world but not of it.' This principle of the Sanatan Dharma is the key to detached living on earth where duty is delightfully performed without deflection from the ideal of Self-realisation which is to be achieved, for which very purpose terrestrial human life has been afforded by Conscious Nature or God (Mahāprakriti) through progressive organic evolution over ages and in the case of the individual soul through the transmigratory cyclical process of birth and rebirth. Ignorance clouds our vision and makes us unaware of our real divine Self. This ignorance is the compound of material contamination of all sorts which like the sky cloud hides the sun of the Self. And this matter belongs to Nature and not to the Self. The Self we are and not matter. Thus, this latter element which holds us, binds us in terrestrial chains, must be removed, the fetters sundered and the captive soul released from its stranglehold. This process of freeing the soul from material bounds is detachment and this has to be practised while living in the world---for there is no way a terrestrial being can live beyond it---, that is, remaining like the lotus afloat on water but not getting wetted/moistened by it. This is the secret of karma yoga, the science and art of work, that grand philosophy taught in the Geeta by the Lord who was himself karma yoga incarnate. Practise it and live blissfully free of fear or want, expectation or disappointment, the sense of loss or gain. But to attain to this state of detachment a certain purification of the mind-stuff is necessary which will come through practice and renunciation, renunciation of the fruits of work while attending to the effort in performing it with wholehearted application. Be blessed! 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Sanjeev Shrivastava : You are hilarious to a fault. How about Bradman, Hitler, Napoleon and Ramnath Parker (this last one, Gavaskar's one-time opening partner in Test matches, made the latter look like a monument)?

Sugata Bose @Satyanand Bhattacharjee : This message is of Sri Ramakrishna, later rearticulated by his disciple, Swami Vivekananda, in its translated form "Religion is not for empty bellies." The original averment of Ramakrishna was "খালি পেটে ধর্ম হয় না |"

Sugata Bose @Ujjal Kumar Ghosh : শ্লেষের শেষ কথা ! দিল্লীশ্বর যে ইতিহাস রচনায় ব্যস্ত, ইতিহাস পঠনে কালাতিপাত করেন নি, মাত্র আত্মমহিমাবর্ধনে অতি তৎপর | 

তইমুর, জাহাঙ্গির দুই পুত্রের নাম | প্রথম জন নৃমুণ্ডস্তুপ রচনায় ইতিহাসকুখ্যাত, ইসলামের প্রসিদ্ধ গাজী যিনি চীন ছেড়ে মুশরিক হিন্দুদের হত্যা করার অনুপ্রেরণায় সমরাভিযানের দিক ফেরান ও নগরে নগরে কলঙ্কিত কাফিরকে জহন্নুমে প্রেরণ করেন ইবাদতের অঙ্গরূপে | আর দ্বিতীয়জন আব্বুজান আকবরকে জিজ্ঞাসা করেন, "হিন্দুস্তানের এই কাফিরদের আপনি সমূলে বিনাশ করছেন না কেন ?" মনোমত উত্তর না পাওয়ায় পরে সে কাজের স্বল্পাংশ নিজে সম্পন্ন করেন | পিতৃতুল্য নবরত্ন ওয়াজির-এ-আজম আবুল ফজলকে হত্যা করেন, পঞ্চম শিখ গুরু অর্জনদেবজীকে অগ্নিসংযোগে নৃশংসভাবে হত্যা করেন, বিদ্রোহী জ্যেষ্ঠ পুত্র খুসরোকে অন্ধ করে দেন, হিন্দুমন্দির ধ্বংস করেছেন, হিন্দুদের ধর্মান্তরিত করেছেন, এ ছাড়া উচ্ছৃঙ্খল জীবনযাপন করেছেন, মদ্যপ, আরামপ্রিয়, পরপতিহননকারী, পরস্ত্রীহরণকারী, চরিত্রহীন ছিলেন | এ হেন মহানুভবদ্বয়ের স্মরণে যদি এই বিশেষ দম্পতি পুত্রদ্বয়ের নামকরণ করেন তো তাঁদের মানসিকতা সুস্পষ্টভাবে প্রতিভাসিত হয় | 

অধিক আর কি বলব ? এই ধর্মের মোড়কে রাজনৈতিক মতবাদটি এমনই যে তার অনুগামীরা অবধারিত তার শিকার হয় ও বিধর্মীশিকারে পরমতৎপর হয় জন্নতে যাওয়ার লালসায় | তবে এ দিন থাকবে না | ২০৭১এ এর শেষকৃত্য সম্পন্ন হবে | 🕉 হিন্দু !

Sugata Bose @Nilanjana Chakraborty : দুইয়ের শৈল্পিক সংমিশ্রণ এঁরা, এক খানেকাপুরূপ অপরূপ সংস্করণ |

Sugata Bose @Pranjal Mallick : Shooting the viewer. I feel fearful.

Sugata Bose @Satyanand Bhattacharjee : You are lucky to be in highly secular India. Had you made your observations about Islam in an Islamic country, like you so often make here about Hinduism calling its philosophical systems flawed and false, you would have known the difference between India's acceptance of all creeds and the Islamic nations' rejection of all except Islam, that too their specific sect. Hence, these extraneous observations are counterproductive so far as as India's larger interests are concerned and opposed to Hindu interests necessarily as well. The very fact that you are free in India to publicly criticise, even condemn the Sānkhya and the Vedānta as false on the basis of some venerable's supposed statement to which I have earlier given my categorical response, that you are free to highlight supposed human values that are free of all so-called temple-ritual blemish, proves that India is truly a secular country with all its limitations and shortcomings. 

Receive this response intellectually please and do not take me amiss. This is purely an argumentative angle afforded to your aforesaid observation in this regard. As such, I appreciate your humanistic impulses and fully understand your concern about the growing ignorance that is slowly clouding the polity, but that is not to be blamed on Hinduism or dharma whose right application will for sure raise India to her pristine heights. It is not religion that has failed India but it is its absence in the public sphere that has failed her. The Sanatan Dharma is the sublimest philosophy that can elevate humanity to its highest and the Sanatan Dharma alone has in its comprehensive sweep the capacity to integrate humankind and evolve it to its ultimate destiny of perception of the spiritual oneness of all, an endpoint which semi-wise social thinkers fail to comprehend. Pranam. 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Swami Vibhatmananda : All this is fine but what about raising your voice powerfully in defence of the persecuted Hindus in Bangladesh, especially in light of the fact that Ramakrishna Mission purportedly is the leading representative of the Hindus? Or, is my last assessment about being the leading representative of the Hindus completely wrong? Universalism is alright, even highly welcome, but as Swamiji has exhorted us to rise in defence of the Dharma even while staying apolitical, does the Ramakrishna Mission as the carrier of Thakur-Swamiji's charge not feel beholden to even hiss, and not bite, as the peerless Paramahamsa of Dakshineshwar has asked potentially persecuted ones to do, leave aside actually afflicted ones? Is this maintenance of apolitical status or is this plain shirking of dhārmic duty which has left the Hindus largely leaderless, that is, bereft of enlightened leadership? 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya : Where's the voice in raised in resistance to Hindu persecution in Bangladesh? Of what avail are meek spiritual posts at a time when the very existence of Hindus in Bangladesh is in question? Will high-flown philosophy help now or are tough posts necessary now which will infuse a spirit of resistance in the Hindus and embolden them unto aggressive self-defence? 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Swami Vibhatmananda : But this music must be rendered in a manly manner devoid of all effeminacy as is current in the devotional music we are made to listen to which is why Swamiji was in favour of the bold dhrupad music as opposed to khayal, thumri, tappa, dādra, kajri and the rest. I hereby append to this comment Swamiji's observation in this regard:

"খোল-করতাল বাজিয়ে লম্ফঝম্প করে দেশটা উৎসন্নে গেল। একে তো এই dyspeptic (অজীর্ণ) রোগীর দল, তাতে আবার লাফালে ঝাঁপালে সইবে কেন? কামগন্ধহীন উচ্চ সাধনার অনুকরণ করতে গিয়ে দেশটা ঘোর তমসাচ্ছন্ন হয়ে পড়েছে। দেশে দেশে, গাঁয়ে গাঁয়ে যেখানে যাবি, দেখবি খোল-করতালই বাজছে! ঢাকঢোল দেশে তৈরি হয় না? তুরীভেরী কি ভারতে মেলে না ? ঐ-সব গুরুগম্ভীর আওয়াজ ছেলেদের শোনা। ছেলেবেলা থেকে মেয়েমানষি বাজনা শুনে শুনে, কীর্তন শুনে শুনে দেশটা যে মেয়েদের দেশ হয়ে গেল! এর চেয়ে আর কি অধঃপাতে যাবে ? কবিকল্পনাও এ ছবি আঁকতে হার মেনে যায়! ডমরু শিঙা বাজাতে হবে, ঢাকে ব্রহ্মরুদ্রতালের দুন্দুভিনাদ তুলতে হবে, 'মহাবীর, মহাবীর' ধ্বনিতে এবং 'হর হর ব্যোম্ ব্যোম্' শব্দে দিগ্দেশ কম্পিত করতে হবে। যে-সব music-এ (গীতবাদ্যে) মানুষের soft feelings (হৃদয়ের কোমল ভাবসমূহ) উদ্দীপিত করে, সে-সব কিছুদিনের জন্য এখন বন্ধ রাখতে হবে। খেয়াল-টপ্পা বন্ধ করে ধ্রুপদ গান শুনতে লোককে অভ্যাস করাতে হবে। বৈদিক ছন্দের মেঘমন্দ্রে দেশটার প্রাণসঞ্চার করতে হবে। সকল বিষয়ে বীরত্বের কঠোর মহাপ্রাণতা আনতে হবে। এইরূপ ideal follow (আদর্শ অনুসরণ) করলে তবে এখন জীবের কল্যাণ, দেশের কল্যাণ। তুই যদি একা এভাবে চরিত্র গঠন করতে পারিস, তা হলে তোর দেখাদেখি হাজার লোক ঐরূপ করতে শিখবে। কিন্তু দেখিস, ideal (আদর্শ) থেকে কখনও যেন এক পা-ও হটিসনি। কখনও সাহসহীন হবিনি। খেতে শুতে পরতে, গাইতে বাজাতে, ভোগে রোগে কেবলই সৎসাহসের পরিচয় দিবি। তবে তো মহাশক্তির কৃপা হবে।"

~ স্বামী বিবেকানন্দ