EPISTLES TO 'DISCIPLES': KAUSHANI CHATTERJEE ... 1

EPISTLES TO 'DISCIPLES': 

KAUSHANI CHATTERJEE ... 1

LETTER 1:

Dear Kaushani,                              15.10.2025 

     It was providential that we momentarily met at the airport which forged this permanent kinship of spirits. You are quite a creative individual, artistic, talented, intelligent and emerging into the sunshine of life where you will characteristically be eminently successful. But success is not all that constitutes what is best in life. While material success is laudable if earned ethically, spiritual success is what makes life truly meaningful. And herein comes to aid our very own spiritual tradition in all its diverse aspects as opposed to the materialistic education that modernity is heir to from the West. This I will instruct you in. But more of that later as the exigencies of examination will be tying you down to time constraint in reading.

With blessings on you and yours and best of effort for your upcoming examination,

Sugata Bose

LETTER 2:

Dear Kaushani,                             21.10 2025

     On this day in 1943 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had formed 'The Provisional Government of Free India' in Singapore, himself assuming Prime Ministership and adorning Rash Behari Bose with the position of Chief Advisor. Two days later the Provisional Government declared war on England and the U.S.A., having itself sided with the Axis Powers. 21 October, therefore, ought to be our true Independence Day despite Partition, 14 August being Partition Day as Pakistan on the western and eastern wings of India was born that day amidst blood and carnage. On 15 August, 1947 India became a Dominion of the British Crown and not free as such. 26 January, 1950 saw her becoming a Republic with the promulgation of the Constitution. On 15 August, 1947 power had been transferred to the Congress by the Independence of India Act of the British Parliament which has ever since raised suspicions as to whether India's independence is totally free of legal bindings to the British Parliament or not. The Transfer of Power documents may reveal information regarding it but I have not had the occasion to study them neither do I have the legal training to understand such writings. Nehru under Mountbatten's persuasion and probably because of the unpreparedness of economically impoverished India from her erstwhile 22% GDP share of the world in 1800 to less than 2% or so in 1900, courtesy the depredation carried out by the East India Company and the British Crown, opted for being a member of the revised British Commonwealth of Nations. This makes in one sense the President of India at least nominally subservient to the British monarch if not in tangible terms otherwise. But perception matters and it does rob us of some sense of self-respect. But the exigencies of economics are apparently of greater moment than national self-respect. Netaji disappeared mysteriously on 18 August, 1945 and India's hopes of resurrection as a powerful self-reliant country disappeared with it. Upon youths like you, intelligent and educated, aspiring and self-sacrificing for the common weal rests the fate of our beloved motherland which is the abode of the gods and under divine guidance. 

With blessings showering ever and ever on you,

Sugata Bose