TULSI MAHARAJ---SCULPTING HISTORY AFRESH

REPRINTING AN OLD POST THAT IS PERTINENT STILL

TULSI MAHARAJ---SCULPTING HISTORY AFRESH

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HISTORY OR HERESY?

The Dakshineshwar Kali Temple Trustee Board is planning a construction programme of the statues of 16 direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and are apparently leaving out Swami Nirmalananda who is the 17th direct disciple of Thakur from their list. This I have inferred from the stated content of the live television programme beamed on the Kali Puja night this year (6-7 November, 2018) on DD Bangla. If this happens, it will a sad end to the immaculate truth which stands in Dakshineshwar till date. Thakur who was truth incarnate will be, thus, blasphemed in a manner that generations hence will not forgive us for our silence on this unfolding falsification of the history of the Ramakrishna Movement. I, thus, urge all devotees to stand together in this regard and bring home the matter to the notice of the said trustees of the Kali Temple Complex that Swami Nirmalananda was a direct disciple of Thakur and cannot under any circumstance be left out of the count of the same in connection with the construction of the statues which will be installed in the Temple Complex.

One may have reservations about the installation of statues of the direct disciples because every addition to and alteration of the original landscape robs it of its historicity. But if the authorities do carry out the programme to fruition, then it stands to reason to apprise them of the facts of the case and bring home to them that Swami Nirmalananda's statue also ought to be installed there along with those of his 16 other brother disciples. That will be in keeping with the fact of history. However, Nirmalanandaji's deliberate omission would be tantamount to distortion of historical truth and the future propagation of a blatant lie in concrete terms for which posterity will not forgive the Temple Trustees nor have any respect for us, devotees, for not raising a storm over the issue. 

I respect your judgement in this matter and, hence, call upon all to reflect deep on the implications of leaving a direct disciple of Thakur out deliberately and so attempting to rewrite history along fanciful lines as suits the exigencies of the hour for whatever organisational necessity there may be.

History cannot be altered and any attempt to alter its narrative means a perversion of truth which is the seed of decay and degeneration or 'dharmaglaani' (the subsiding of virtue), the very state which the Avatar of the Age had descended into human form to rectify and redress. Shall we fail him? Shall we continue to support this perfidious sidelining of Swami Nirmalananda (Tulsi Maharaj) and the attempted erasing of his name from the stated history of Sri Ramakrishna and his mission on earth? Do we not have any fear of karma? Have we lost all sense of sanity? Have we even lost our love for Thakur-Ma-Swamiji that we so allow all these heresies to be enacted before our very eyes? I await your response.

Written by Sugata Bose