INDIA, O INDIA

'Men, men, these are wanted, everything else will be ready'...these were the inspired words with which Swamiji charged us to take up the cause of national reconstruction. Indeed, a century and more have elapsed since the day the leonine Swami uttered these electrifying words and yet we see that there is an abject deficiency of men of character in our national scene, those who we may admire and emulate and rightfully follow as we tread the path of nation-building. It is an utter hollowness that we find everywhere and this lack of leadership cannot but be a great demotivating factor for the young and the aspiring as they launch their youthful careers rudderless and bereft of direction. A defective system of education is behind all this, a university education replete with cartloads of sterile information without any invigorating life-giving philosophy or principle to enliven the youthful minds who digest it as their curriculum. A sense of national identification at a depth is totally missing from the youth of India for a cowardly representation of national history and gross distortions about the freedom movement to suit the house in power at New Delhi from 1947 cannot but be counter-productive in terms of generation of real patriotism and the spirit of sacrifice for the Motherland. Shallow sentimentality for the nation abounds today masquerading as love of the Motherland but real, genuine, sincere, all-sacrificing spirit for the nation is progressively on the decline as capitalistic inroads further enfeeeble the moral character of a country that is fast losing its traditional moorings in the mire of materialistic mirages fostered by the foul forces of market economy. Whatever be the economic system to which we as Indians choose to subscribe, there can be no compromise on national ideals if we are to survive as a nation and as a people with a hoary spiritual heritage. Our martyrs' deaths must be avenged and what better way to do so than to lay down our lives as well to build Swamiji's fabled national bridge of human bodies lying prostrate over which shall walk India's vast populace enroute to the summit of national glory. Dear brothers, such a spirit of pure love for the nation is called for today if we wish to avert a great national disaster and utter ruin of our people for only love of the Motherland may yet raise a hundred thousand heroes who shall, to quote Swamiji, 'go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising-up---the gospel of equality.' I earnestly hope that my feeble words may enkindle some inspiration in some such recipient soul and usher in brighter days for our benighted Motherland. Jai Hind!

CHANT RAMAKRISHNA

Chant the blissful name RAMAKRISHNA and be full of bliss. It is a beautiful name full of the essence of the highest spiritual truth. It is an unfailing medicine to cure the soul of worldly ills and to help make it return to its primeval moorings. In this world of evanescent dreams where disaster strikes us without warning, where death stalks night and day seeking its victims and snatching our dear ones from us without consulting us, it is meet that we take refuge in the Master and chant his holy name as our sole means of protection from life's maladies. And the Master will never let us down for we are his own ones, dearer than his self. So, friends, with great enthusiasm chant RAMAKRISHNA, RAMAKRISHNA, RAMAKRISHNA...and live lives of purity and blissfulness. Jai Ramakrishna!

AN APPEAL: RAMAKRISHNA MATH, GADADHAR ASHRAMA --- 8 COMPUTER-SETS REQUIRED FOR COMPUTER TRAINING COURSE

Ramakrishna Math, Gadadhar Ashrama is one the few centres of the Ramakrishna Order where the Master is offered 'Anna-bhog' (rice and allied edibles). This is so because here at Gadadhar Ashrama the Master's relics are enshrined. Located in Bhawanipur, this ashrama is indeed a place of pilgrimage for all those who are devoted to Thakur, Ma, Swamiji and their Cause.

Other than the regular spiritual activities typical of a Ramakrishna Math, Gadadhar Ashrama also is conducting welfare activities such as maintenance of a text-book library and free academic coaching classes for children along with providing them with nutritious meal. Besides these, the Ashrama is about to start a computer training course shortly. 8 computer-sets are required to launch the programme. We exhort well-wishers and large-hearted devotees to come forward and help us acquire the computer-sets.

The tentative date has been fixed unofficially as yet for the launch of this programme as 1 April, 2015. Please come forward and help us in this noble cause whereby many a young aspirant will get much-needed computer training to equip her or him for securing a good job and thereby achieve self-establishment.

N.B. 8 COMPUTER-SETS required. Please help.

Contact us here:
Ramakrishna Math (Gadadhar Ashrama), Kolkata

Ramakrishna Math
(Gadadhar Ashrama)
86-A, Harish Chatterjee Street
Kolkata 700 025
Phone: 033-2455 4660
http://rkmgadadharashrama.org/

Appeal written by Sugata Bose

PONDER, O GREAT ONE

When the world hurts, we take refuge in the holy man (the monk) but when the monk hurts, where do we go? Our faith, our ideals, our world-view, all these are shaken, shattered. Tell me O monk, where do we go? You who are the living representative of God, take it upon yourself to ponder once the hapless state of the wronged devotee and show him the way to peace and a re-establishment of his shaken faith in the righteousness of monks and the Order when his practical experience teaches him otherwise. And, remember, the devotees do honour and serve and reverence the monks a lot. So, it is their due to receive a like respect from monks as well.

READ THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA

If you truly wish to be spiritual, read THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA by M. In it are recorded the words of the great spiritual master Sri Ramakrishna, the sage of Dakshineshwar who is widely regarded as the last incarnation of God. The setting of the narrative is gripping and you cannot leave the book without being transformed in your personality for good. Swami Ranganathananda read it in his boyhood and was captivated by it. The story of his life is the impact the GOSPEL had on him. It is on record that the majority of the monks of the Ramakrishna Order were inspired by the GOSPEL to join the Order.

The language is so lucid, the content so ennobling and the narrative so dramatic and life-like that reading becomes easy and a delightful experience. Not only so, the study of the GOSPEL is truly a meditative exercise, only without the effort required to actually meditate. Ramakrishna brings home his own experiences in his own inimitable manner full of insight and rustic humour. The Vedas come to your door-step as you browse through the pages of this book. You are immersed in an ocean of spiritual inspiration as the book gains in ascendancy over you as you advance through it. Imperceptibly you are drawn into its ambit and silently transformed without any struggle or vigorous effort. Thakur carries you from your habitat to your eternal realm and you are immersed in bliss that will never leave you. What more will I say than to remind you that no less a personality than Swami Brahmananda had said, "If anyone reads THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA for 12 years at a stretch, such a one will be blessed with BRAHMAJNAN.''

My only request is that you try it out once and see for yourselves what the magic of the GOSPEL holds for you. Jai Ramakrishna!

ARISE DEVOTEES...1

I exhort the millions of devotees of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda to rise up as a single body in their bid to rebuild India along the blue-print laid down by the Rishis of yore and such modern sages as Vivekananda. A radical transformation of society is needed today to end the inequities that abound and are killing the life-blood of the masses. Capitalistic exploitation has reached gargantuan proportions and has reduced man to destitution in body and in spirit. Free market reigns freely to scientifically rob billions from the masses in the name of unbridled profit-making. A few benefit from this unequal state of affairs and glorify it in the name of freedom but millions are daily crushed under the wheels of this terrible machine that knows no pain nor does it recoil as it inflicts terrible agony to the ones it crushes without a tinge of remorse. When magazines glorify the increasing number of billionaires in our country and news-channels laud them, remember devotees, they make a sham of the significance of TAKA MATI, MATI TAKA (Money is mud, mud money) which our beloved Thakur had uttered as the gospel truth for the age. Mercantile civilization is ugly as it debases the masses by driving them to penury even as it scientifically fuels in man the insatiable thirst for more possession and evermore although it cuts from under his feet his very means of future sustenance thereby. Businessmen do not earn profit from their mothers but relentlessly extract exorbitant profits from others' mothers, not caring once how the poor souls will survive in their grey years. What holy prayers you offer devotees in your temples when you passively acquiesce in this terrible state of affairs? Do you realize that it is your bounden duty to revolve about and carry out the dictum of social transformation as envisaged by Swamiji? Passive piety is good but what we need is something better. We need millions of devotees armed in truth and purity with the firm resolve to carry out Swamiji's action plans without begging for the wherewithal from rich capitalists who are the very cause of this man-made poverty situation. Help will come from within ourselves and Thakur will help, NONE ELSE, NONE ELSE.

COMETH THE HOUR, COMETH THE MAN ... 1

Culture is on the decline. The transition from the feudal age to the industrial age has brought in its wake the spread of a diluted version of education in an increasing world population with its consequent lowering of culture. Although the masses are more informed today than their predecessors were in the diverse fields of human endeavour, excellence in these disciplines is on the decline. Quality is being replaced by quantity as the demand to meet the requirements of an ever-increasing population is fuelling the greed of capitalists and fast bringing about this degeneration of culture. The all-absorbing motive of profit-maximization has reduced trade to an exercise of scientific extortion of money from the pocket of the people, careless of consequence, be it of impoverishment of the despoiled or proliferation of a crass commercial culture that takes no heed of humanity but serves solely the soul of a soulless world. Fantasies abound of the coming of the millennium but the daily exploitation of the masses by a handful of Shylocks keeps the date receding indefinitely for the people ever to see the sunshine of life. Religion, politics and business have all combined to contrive the downfall of human culture and the human soul is the sacrifice as Vivekananda had so aptly put it. Holiness is more a vocation now than a reality realized with the 'virtuous' turning vicious at a moment's notice should the unsuspecting devotee ever so displease 'His Holiness'. Truthfulness is a bygone virtue and character equally a thing of the past. Worst of all, monasticism is on the decline with organization playing truant with its high ideals.

The scenario is indeed dark and calls for a radical spiritual solution but who will give the lead? Where is the messiah who can liberate humankind from the shackles of matter and re-establish the essential divinity of the human soul? And if such a one does appear, for the time is ripe for the advent of the Avatar (Incarnation of God), will the present spiritual orders recognize him and his movement? After all, the emergence of the Avatar will be a direct testimony to the glaring fact which we all understand that something is deeply wrong with the way things are going on in our world including the spiritual orders we so would love to look up to but cannot unfortunately for diverse reasons. The pious protestations of devotees notwithstanding, for followers are followers and are extensions of the Order they adhere to, it remains a fact that at the fountain-head of today's world-order decadence has set in. MONEY IS MUD, MUD MONEY--- this glorious aphorism of the peerless Paramahamsa of Dakshineshwar which was such an intrinsic feature of his life and living is today an archaic truth fit for a heritage museum perhaps but certainly not suited to the life-style of the modern man, nay, even the monastic in general. And what a shame that it is so! We all pay homage to the grand old man who spent his days at the temple-garden of Dakshinehwar in sublime renunciation, praising in principle but never put into practice an iota of the principle. We have failed the Avatar. He has prophesied that he will reappear among us a hundred years from his last appearance and he will surely fulfil his word. And this is our last life-line.

So, degradation there is today all around including the spiritual world but there is hope as well that the Divine will once more be with us soon. As per his prophecy he must be already on Earth and it is but a matter of time before he surfaces within our cognition zone. So, all is not lost and we must rejoice that although we fail him, he never fails us. Let Orders keep their counsel while we welcome the Lord. Let those who will deny the Divine do so but O mind, fail not to recognize him who has come thus far for thy sake. And with his advent let us usher in a new age and uphold our age-old spiritual culture. We shall welcome him who comes to deliver us and in his mould cast our lives afresh. And thus shall culture rise once more as the Wheel of Dharma will roll up crushing decadent traces of the past and sublimating the rising consciousness of man.

May all iniquities be humanized!
May humanity pervade human relations!
May the light of knowledge and love lead us all unto the realm of peace and immortality!
Om! Shanti! Shanti! Shanti! (Om! Peace! Peace! Peace!)