Wednesday, 5 December 2018

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 6



SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA 
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 6

Advent : 23 December, 1863 ; Mahasamadhi : 26 April, 1938

(The life, lectures, conversations and letters of Swami Nirmalananda, direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna)
Copyright : Sri Ramakrishna-Sarada Math, Baghbazar, Kolkata 700 003

Chapter 1 : Introduction ... 1
--------------------------------
The following news was published in the Jaishtha edition, 1345 (May-June edition, 1938) of the Bengali journal 'Udbodhan' of the Ramakrishna Order : ''On Tuesday, 26 April, 1938, Swami Nirmalananda Maharaj gave up his body at the age of 75 at a place called Ottapalam in the Malabar province. Swami Nirmalananda was born in the renowned Datta family located in the Basu neighbourhood of Baghbazar. His premonastic name was Tulsidas Datta and his father's name Debnath Datta. Tulsi had the good fortune to see Sri Ramakrishna in Balaram Basu's house in Baghbazar in early youth. After the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna he joined the Baranagar Math and came to be known as Swami Nirmalananda. He was held in great affection by Swami Vivekananda. In 1903 he was sent over to America to help Swami Abhedananda in his work and upon returning to India in 1906 he spent several years in pilgrimage and spiritual austerity in North India. In 1909 he was sent to assist in the work of the Banglaore Ashrama in South India that had been established by Swami Ramakrishananda. Swami Nirmalananda remained the President of the Bangalore Ashrama for over twenty years and exerted himself in preaching the message of Sri Ramakrishna in different places of South India. He also established several ashramas in the Malabar region. His high energy and eloquence was unique. He has left behind a host of devotees and disciples. Everybody is grief-stricken by his demise.''

SACRIFICE OR COWARDICE?


SACRIFICE OR COWARDICE?

1. Why must animals be sacrificed to appease God who is supposedly merciful to all creatures? Is it the hangover of our tribal past?

2. Why not offer ourselves instead, our passions, desires, ignorance, sin et al as Thakur taught us by giving them up? That would do a world of good. Why the innocent goat to substantiate this logic of sacrificial meat-eating, holy meat-eating? 

3. The Spirit does not need anything. These are all tribal cultural compositions and their inertial flow down the ages. The human mind, organic in nature as it is, is extremely conservative in its tendencies and refuses to evolve easily beyond what the beaten track minimally allows it to. 

4. Nice to sacrifice the animal to please God. But how does the animal feel about it?

5. The treaty between humans and animals needs to be drawn up fast and animal sacrifice in religious festivals stopped altogether.

6. No amount of rationalisation can justify the killing of innocent animals at the time of festive joy. Even God today shudders to be incarnated as animal.

7. What valour can be there in modern man revelling in animal sacrifice? Tagore had made Hashi say in 'Rajarshi', ''Why so much blood?'' [Eto rakta keno?]

8. Is the animal consulted before it suffers sacrifice? Is it given a chance to defend its case of self-survival? Is it not a prime party to the case? Then why this legal offence committed in all fairness? Is it fair to sacrifice it after all? If not, then this is not spirituality. It is barbarism of the ages past and hanging over our consciousness like a dark cloud of primeval ignorance.

9. Taste buds nip all our righteous attempts right there in the bud as we coax up arguments for the sacrificial meat to be consumed despite tall protestations against such consumption of innocence.

Written by Sugata Bose

ANTIQUITY AND MODERNITY

ANTIQUITY AND MODERNITY

It is a slow progression, this evolution of man, a tortuous travail through the tide of times, overcoming tribal instincts with civilisational values of modernity. The modern must meet the standards of the sublimest heritage of antiquity as well and not bask in shallow vainglory of material aggrandising attainments. The harmony of all that is best of all climes and times must be future modernity for human civilisation to best flourish.

Culture must be preserved in an enlightened way so as to gain access to all the avenues of human endeavour, human voyage in the times gone by. Only then shall we be worthy of our human inheritance and being enriched in such legacies be able to march on through the unfolding human pathways that beckon us unto future discoveries leading to the core concerns of life. Let us work in harmony to reap what is best in this future harvest of the human spirit.

Written by Sugata Bose

Tuesday, 4 December 2018

TWEETS GALORE ... 41


1. Why must animals be sacrificed to appease God who is supposedly merciful to all creatures? Is it the hangover of our tribal past?

2. Nice to sacrifice the animal to please God. But how does the animal feel about it?

3. Is there no end to medieval malpractice? Must modern man for all his progress so submit to it?

4. Smile more, frown less, do your duty with love and care, and all will be fine.

5. Spiritualisation of the whole of humanity seems to be the only hope for the survival of civilisation. Ugly nationalism must go.

6. The treaty between humans and animals needs to be drawn up fast and animal sacrifice in religious festivals stopped altogether.

7. There is a great deal of anger in the mind of man owing to past injustices meted out to him. But forgiveness remains the way ahead. Forgetfulness need not be, for the mistakes of the past must not be allowed to repeat.

8. The environmental threat and that of nuclear holocaust both impel nations to work together instead of for petty national interest.

9. Europe colonised Asia and Africa to civilise them. Now Europe is being recolonised by Muslim immigrants for her re-civilisation.

10. The clash of cultures is on. Christianity and Islam collide in their bid for world-domination as Hindus watch the play in amusement.

11. These adolescent religions are creating cultural confusions the world over. Let our adult dharma be their guide.

12. Human pretence above, animality beneath -- this is civilisation.

13. A superficial liberalism need not be castigated as pseudo-liberalism but must be critiqued to point out its shortcomings.

14. A half-truth distorts and is often worse than an untruth for the former deceives and leaves behind its toxic trail for evil to persist.

15. We have struggled for one thousand years to get our freedom. Now let us be strong enough to preserve it. No foolishness anymore.

16. The kshatriya spirit of the Hindus must be awakened once more for them to rise in defence of the dharma. Real valour, not rioting.

17. Peace will come when everybody submits to the Final Word beyond which there may not be any. It will be peace indeed, peace in pieces!

18. How wonderful it is that men utterly ignorant of the content of malefic texts pronounce them to be benign and as pathfinders to Truth!

19. Hell? Heaven? How long must men entertain these foolish notions and cower before a tyrannical dictator whose divinity is so suspect?

20. Pointless attempting to reform medieval malefic texts that hold humanity to ransom. Just reject them and breathe the air of freedom.

21. It is better to depend on oneself and on others sympathetic to us than to depend on an imaginary God who will never help.

22. The political problems of the world are far too complex for easy solutions. Evolution takes tortuous routes through conflict.

23. Employ every human means and science to subvert culture and pronounce that it is, after all, divine help that did it. Hypocrites!

24. Sectarian sympathies. Oh, how limited they are even in that universal attribute called love !

25. Beliefs are fanciful ideas that give comfort. They cannot be termed truth.

26. Umbilical cords are never cut. We are still within Mother's womb.

27. The ideal of our women is Sarada Devi, the synthesis of Seeta, Savitri, Damayanti and so much more.

28. Ramakrishna remains yet the only hope of harmony in a world that has strayed from the original truth of the Atman. Study him.

29. The original truth is the final truth. It is the Atman, the Self of man and all that is.

30. A man of God is to be judged by his level of chastity before being pronounced great. Conquest of passions is the key.

31. Let people show their faces on their facebook profiles. Why remain incognito? Fear whom? Be bold and come out into the open.

32. On television on news night shows we must not behave like a bunch of hooligans. We are a civilised people after all.

33. We in this country emulate sages, not politicians who stall Parliamentary proceedings. Let us be civil in our social discourse.

34. Democracy has sounded the death-knell of culture.

35. How will education help when the very basis of it is flawed and rooted in self-assertion? Self-sacrifice is the call to culture.

36. Atheism may be practised in humility and not in egotistical display and disregard of all religious and cultural sensibilities.

37. There is too much poison as yet in human blood that hundreds of Buddhas need to reborn to purify humanity. Dare ye be one such?

38. Politician = Pollution

39. The debt to my father I can never repay. His love and sacrifice looms large in my vision as he eludes me in death even now.

40. I know of only one devotee who has the spine to stand up for truth. He is Manoj Sivan and Sri Ramakrishna is blessing him for it.

41. When I suffer, Mother save me. When others suffer, it is Mother's will, what can I do? Bravo, Mother's children, what devotion !

42. The first sign of spirituality is courage, fearlessness, faith in the power of truth and the fighting spirit to live up to it.

43. Cowardice has no place in life. No person who has a modicum of devotion can coward ever be. And yet, this is what is so common.

44. Social media I use to help quicken human consciousness about many contentious issues. Yet, what a poor response do I receive !

45. The religion that imposes its doctrines most on its adherents is the one that will die the fastest despite temporary gains.

46. I once more exhort the monks of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission to teach on fb the essential principles of Hinduism.

47. Do not allow the Hindu culture of India to be subverted by the influx of foreign religious culture. Hinduism is the life of India.

48. How can we allow our rich Hindu culture to be lost to our children through sheer self-ignorance and lapse in teaching it to them?

49. Resist conversion, save Hinduism.

50. How can Christianity and Islam ever be peaceful if they pursue conversion as organised religious policy?

51. Monotheism breeds violence on account of its exclusiveness. Better the Hindu democratic system of worship of the Ishta.

52. It is disheartening to see Hindus not being active enough in the practice of their dharma. We must strengthen our religious base.

53. Must we awake when there will remain no room left for our survival as Hindus in the subcontinent? My sisters, my brothers, arise !

54. Shed superstition, be scientific.

55. Religious fanaticism works in a weird way of subservience of the slave to his master and doing his will at any cost.

56. What a bait this dangling heaven that hangs over human head is and what a disappointment it will be when such hopes will be belied !

57. Monks of the Ramakrishna Order, use facebook vigorously to spread the message of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda-Vedanta. Combine !

58. It is frustrating to see only individual effort for Ramakrishna-Vivekananda's cause. Why can't devotees and monks combine on fb?

59. Is there any doubt in anybody's mind still that Swami Nirmalananda is a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna? If so, speak.

60. Is it necessary for some monks to speak rudely to devotees simply because they think of themselves as superior to the run of humanity?

61. The more Sw. Nirmalananda's status as direct disciple of Ramakrishna is covered up, the more will it get exposed before the world.

62. Only a truthful person can preach the message of Ramakrishna for the Master was truth incarnate and his message is all about truth.

63. It is violence everywhere. Violence at the domestic front, violence between nations, violence against the very soul of man. Peace!

64. Lies, deceit, fraud, violence -- these have been the constituents of civilisation as much as truth, honesty, virtue and peacefulness.

Debaprasad Bhattacharya To make a zero balance there must be as much evil in the society as good.

Sugata Bose : Yes, indeed, but this is a dynamic zero balance over time and never exactly so at any specific moment, for that would lead to annihilation of all that phenomenally exists. The periodic progression and retrogression of civilisation occurs on account on an ever-shifting dynamic play of forces, good and evil. When the scales are tilted towards the Spirit, there is spiritual progression and rise in ethical values, and when the scales are tilted towards Matter, there is material progression with a corresponding decline in spirituality, morality, ethics et al. Good and evil here are being described with reference to collective well-being and not in absolute terms, for these are relative understandings from individual standpoints and perspectives thereof. The entire subject is most complex and mathematically woven and a casual verbal reference to it generally misrepresents it. @ Debaprasad Bhattacharya


65. If there is a sin on earth, it is injuring others by placing self-interest above everything else.

66. Powers of goodness, combine ! Resist the forces of darkness. Else, evil will reign with impunity.

67. The poor suffer a worse deal in life than God can recompense them in His high heaven. Serve the poor as incarnate divinities.

68. Rationalise the people of the world without robbing them of their innate reverence for the inner life. Let God dwell in the heart.

69. Passive piety often is a form of siding with prevailing untruths and is even in a sense violence of sorts against truth and justice.

70. Insult man like anything,then burn incense sticks before God.Your God will help vitalise your being to heap further insult on man.

71. There is a being higher than in all heaven and He resides in the midst of your heart. O man, awaken to your inner Self.

72. Is there truth absolute in this world? No, this world is a mixture of truth and untruth. And yet, Ramakrishna embodies Truth.

73. The world is on fire and men are working at it to douse the flames. But it is of no avail. Despite all effort, it will burn all the same.

74. Daily you affirm your puny self and daily get crushed by Nature for it. Yet the attempt to uphold the ephemeral persists. Maya !

75. There is a meaning to life only when viewed in the light of the Self within. Else, it is chaos all the way.

76. Spiritual ignorance is the breeding ground for violence in the name of religion and theology often supports such violence. Sad !

77. Conversion is violence and proselytising religions are political movements in the name of God. There spirituality is utterly absent.

78. Education liberates the mind. Educate children in the sciences. Stop indoctrinating them with poisonous scriptural passages.

79. It will be increasingly difficult for modern man to accept man-made medieval laws as revealed injunctions of God. Fraudulence !

80. Sanjay Manjrekar is ever critical of Indian players. Undue criticism of one's own people ever before the world at large is unpatriotic, improper.

81. Greed is eating into the vitals of Indian society as India emerges a global economic power.

82. Catering to self-interest does not let us combine for a good cause. We must learn to coordinate effort through self-abnegation.

83. Are we a race of jokers who TV ads attempt to foolishly amuse? Are we a mass of rowdies that a news channel projects us to be?

84. The way we project ourselves as a people before the world constitutes our national image and this every Indian must bear in mind.

85. Goswamis were the most tranquil people in the world. Now things have sadly changed with one such raising a ruckus each night on TV.

86. Parliament is the place for enlightened discussion on national affairs. I wonder if many an MP quite can fathom what I said.

87. It distresses me to see such a display of egotism at every front in our national life and so little of the urge to build our nation.

88. Conversion is a wicked practice conducted by proselytising religions. It exposes the spiritual hollowness of these religions.

89. Hindus, awake to your religion and defend your faith. Else, you will be wiped out in the course of the next several centuries.

90. Conversion to Islam and Christianity through force, fraud and inducement poses the biggest threat to Hinduism and the world.

91. They came into our land, conquered us, converted us, and the process goes on till date unabated. What is the future of Hinduism?

92. Hindus, stand fast. Learn about your religion, practise it and defend it against proselytising aggression by Islam and Christianity.

93. Demographic changes through conversion, immigration n high fertility rate pose a challenge to Hindus that must be met adequately.

94. The cultural threat consequent on conversion en masse is a challenge before the communities attempting national cohesion.

95. Humanity must prevail despite differences among peoples. Acceptance of each other's viewpoints as valid holds the key to it.

96. However you may torture women, know for certain that feminine power is on the rise, unstoppable, irresistible, everywhere.

97. Liberals across the world must unite to fight fanaticism but it must be by recognition of the evil square on and not partially.

98. The mantra is the password to God.

99. Swami Madhavananda was an outstanding monk about whom Holy Mother had said, ''I see he is the elephant's tusk rimmed in gold.''

100. Swami Sankaranananda was monk of Shiva-like stature, blazing with the fire of renunciation. He had seen Swami Vivekananda.

AWAKE, MY FRIENDS, AWAKE !



AWAKE, MY FRIENDS, AWAKE !

Sectarian outlook promotes proselytising and absolutist scriptural injunctions promote sectarianism. But the absolute word of God is inviolable, is it not? How may it be amended to suit modern requirements without invalidating its claim to divine perfection? Does God make mistakes after all? If so, then such exclusive revealed scripture suffers from imperfection and is liable to be interpreted as human creation in response to the exigencies of the times when it was born. Whither divinity of the revealed word then, whither the divinity that so revealed it?

Humanity, wake up! Enough of self-debasement to imagined Godhead. Awake to your real divinity now. Scrap all archaic texts that reduce you to enslaved status and announce your coming on to the stage of life at last in right regal state with none to fear save your shadow, none to follow save your horizon ahead that beckons you unto fresh discoveries of the being.

Written by Sugata Bose

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 5

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA 
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 5

Advent : 23 December, 1863 ; Mahasamadhi : 26 April, 1938

(The life, lectures, conversations and letters of Swami Nirmalananda, direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna)
Copyright : Sri Ramakrishna-Sarada Math, Baghbazar, Kolkata 700 003

Contents 
1. Introduction
2. Boyhood
3. Meeting with Guru 
4. Direct disciple
5. Baranagar and Alambazar Math
6. Wandering monk
7. Association with Swami Vivekananda 
8. Three years in America
9. In the kingdom of Chamba
10. At the Bangalore Ashrama 
11. Celebration of Sri Ramakrishna's birth anniversary in Kerala 
12. Sanghajanani (Holy Mother) in the South
13. Stepping on to Trivandrum 
14. Propagation of the Vedanta in the Malabar
15. Establishment of the Haripad Ashrama 
16. Ottapalam, a pilgrimage
17. Supernal love for brother disciples
18. Awakened Kerala 
19. Spiritual inundation
20. Movement on the rise
21. Heartbreaking news of bereavement
22. Tireless touring to preach
23. Inextinguishable sacrificial fire
24. Hallowed memory of brother disciple
25. Ten months in Northern India 
26. Radiance of spiritual light
27. Niranjan Ashram at Ottapalam
28. From Kurg to Trivandrum
29. A deep emptiness
30. Thrice in Burma 
31. Extended work-field 
32. President of Vivekananda Mission 
33. Spiritual vision in Ottapalam
34. Building the spiritual lives of disciples
35. Mahasamadhi
36. Epilogue
37. Epistles
38. Conversations
39. Lectures 

Appendix
1. Unrevealed organisational information 
2. Valuable letters 
3. Ashramas established by Swami Nirmalananda in Southern India

Monday, 3 December 2018

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 4


SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 4

Advent : 23 December, 1863 ; Mahasamadhi : 26 April, 1938

(The life, lectures, conversations and letters of Swami Nirmalananda, direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna)
Copyright : Sri Ramakrishna-Sarada Math, Baghbazar, Kolkata 700 003

Salutations to Nirmalananda
-----------------------------------
Swami Nirmalananda was the intimate and direct mantra disciple of the Avatar of the age, Sri Ramakrishna. His biography was published through the earnest efforts of Swami Tripurananda, the then President of the Baghbazar Sri Ramakrishna-Sarada Math.

Many years have elapsed since 1962 and once more the demand for this book seems apparent. Some crucial facts related to the Ramakrishna Movement need highlighting, facts which have somehow gone under wraps for whatever reasons. It is in this regard that a new edition of this book needs to be published, so feel many a historically inclined reader and scholar. Swami Tripurananada gave mantra, brahmacharya and sannyasa initiation to the present President of the Sri Ramakrishna-Sarada Math, Swami Vishnudevananda. The latter has set himself to the arduous task of publishing this new edition of the book.

'The features evident in the establishment of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, and the temporal attitude of the venerable monks and the executive authorities of the Order, all these --- some which involved apparently unwarranted controversial actions --- will feature in this book.'

There is but one point of contention and it is this. Why did Ramakrishna Mission refuse to acknowledge Swami Nirmalananda as the direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna? And yet, in the publications of the Ramakrishna Mission there are countless clues hither and thither scattered among books, essays, letters and photographs that bear ample testimony to the fact that Swami Nirmalananda was Sri Ramakrishna's mantra disciple.

May the blessings of Thakur, Ma and Swamiji be showered on all those who have helped in various ways to bring about the publication of this second edition of the book ! We hope that the book will find favour with readers as in the past.

Seeking the grace of Thakur, Ma and Swamiji,
Swami Jyotirjayananda.
5 Paush, 1406 (Paush Shukla Chaturdashi) / December, 1999 (Eng)