SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 10

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 10

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 ... 5
--------------------------------------
Swami Abhedananda, intimate disciple of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, has given the following account in his book titled 'Memoirs of Ramakrishna' :

''Of the younger disciples of Thakur, Sarada, Hari, Gangadhar, Subodh and Tulsi joined the Math* a while later and upon initiation into sannyas were given the monastic names Trigunatitananda, Turiyananda, Akhandananda, Subodhananda and Nirmalananda respectively. Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna was equally compassionate to all of them and was ever ready to shower his grace on them.''

*Baranagar Math

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 9

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 9

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 ... 4
--------------------------------------
Swami Nikhilananda, President of the New York Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Centre, has translated 'Sri Sri Ramnakrishna Kathamrita' into English which has been published from there as 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' in 1942. On page 63 of its elaborate Introduction the following account of Tulsi Maharaj (Swami Nirmalananda) has been provided :

''Two more young men, Sarada Prasanna and Tulasi, complete the small band of the Master's disciples later to embrace the life of the wandering monk. With the exception of the elder Gopal, all of them were in their teens or slightly over. They came from middle-class Bengali families and most of them were students in school or college. Their parents and relatives had envisaged for them bright worldly careers. They came to Sri Ramakrishna with pure bodies, vigorous minds and uncontaminated souls. All were born with unusual spiritual attributes. Sri Ramakrishna accepted them, even at first sight, as his children, relatives, friends and companions. His magic touch unfolded them. And later each according to his measure reflected the life of the Master, becoming a torch-bearer of his message across land and sea.''

Again on page 976 of the same book has been written :
''Hari and Tulasi, at first only visitors at the monastery*, soon embraced the monastic life and thus completed the list of the Master's sannyasi disciples.''

*Baranagar Math

DETHRONE GOD, O GODS ON EARTH, AND STAND FREE IN THE SUNSHINE OF LIFE

DETHRONE GOD, O GODS ON EARTH, AND STAND FREE IN THE SUNSHINE OF LIFE

The grand plan of waging war against the whole world to convert all to the same fold will never succeed for it is against the very order of natural diversity. The end may be one but the means many and this ought to be recognised by all who claim to belong to modern society that has cast off its associations with ancient absolutism and medieval misconceptions of the monolithic possibility of the human race.

Society is diverse and with the spread of education will become all the more so as men seek out individual channels of self-expression and refuse to comply with archaic notions of terrestrial existence in obedience to an imaginary God who dispenses His diktats on man as He wills.

This God has had none to answer to as yet but His day is done as He faces the ire of an awakened humanity that will dislodge Him from His supernal seat of self-assumption and reduce Him to the very dust unto which He thus far has reduced divine man.

Imagination of divinity must give way to realisation that God is a human construct of dreaming man who is the essential God.

And out goes the divinity of this dictator and all His messengers and messiahs who have held humanity to ransom and reduced the emblem of the real divine man to a mere servant of an imagined deity, a cringing slave in submission to scriptural dictates that bear neither significance to life nor substance to the hereafter if there be any and in whatsoever form.

Arise, my sisters, arise, brothers, in right regal state of your existential essence as divinities dreaming a fleeting bodily existence. Awake to your spiritual Self. Dethrone God, O Gods on earth, and stand free in the sunshine of life.

Written by Sugata Bose

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 8

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA 
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 8

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 ... 3
--------------------------------------
Sri Baikunthanath Sanyal was Sri Ramakrishna's direct disciple. He has provided the following account on Swami Nirmalananda in his book 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Leelamrita' on page 354 :

''When too many people would not frequent the Master, he (Tulsi) would visit him and listen to his nectarine words of wisdom. This is why many of us never saw him with Thakur. He was born of the Dattas of Baghbazar, Bosepara, at whose residence through the year festivities reigned. Gangadhar and Hari lived in the same locality and were of the same age as Tulsi. Drawn by the attraction of Swamiji, Tulsi joined the Baranagar Math and received sannyasa (monastic vows) from him. Swami Nirmalananda is a man of intense renunciation, erudition, eloquence and humour. There was a time when Kali (Swami Abhedananda) and Tulsi (Swami Nirmalananda) were inseparable buddies, a gem of a pair. This is why brother Kali took him over to America to preach the message of the Master. Tulsi Maharaj has established many a monastery in the Deccan in his bid to propagate the message and ideals of Sri Ramakrishna.''

OF HALF-TRUTHS, LIES AND PLAIN PERVERSIONS

OF HALF-TRUTHS, LIES AND PLAIN PERVERSIONS

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 while the latter, bold in clear articulation, announces intent to be combated with force and eliminated.

Deception and deflection are the twin ploys of evil which uses cover to mislead and misappropriate, then uses force to eliminate resistance and set up its toxic empire. To be civil to such a dishonest brand of barbarism is to commit suicide in ignorance of the facts. Therefore, knowledge fundamental of essential doctrine of a system of theology or political ideology is of paramount importance and not assumptions based on one's location in life and cultural conditioning thereof.

Thought is the impelling force of action and it is here that explosives are mined for future subversion of societal values, desecration of culture and destruction of civilisation. The human mind is extremely pliable and a system of sustained indoctrination invariably wins its way through the psyche of countless fringe personalities numbering tens of millions which thereby becomes a potent threat to sustenance of security and a malefic further influence on moderate minds. The slide goes on and gains momentum as more and more are drawn into this sinister programme of perversion of innocence right from early hours and, as the day lengthens, there are millions ready to live and die for the cause of a reward in the hereafter based on righteous violence perpetrated here.

The script is there for the scripture sanctions it and the invisible hand that deals the deathblow to discrimination also lends doctrinaire hope of an eternity of bliss and instils fear of a damnation dreadful in case of disobedience of the imperial imperatives of this divine dictator that brooks no dissent or denial of its absolute injunctions. How civilisation will respond to this archaic arbitration hanging over it like the proverbial sword only the future will tell but preparations in knowledge must now begin if foolish misconceptions of the peaceful intent of this movement are to be countered with a rational understanding of its core concerns, aims, objectives and eventual ends.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : The palm impression of Swami Vivekananda. It reveals something, conceals something else, guides and misguides man unto the unfolding future within a lifetime. What does humanity's future hold out today? What are the portents that are to be right construed so that a calamitous event does not befall it in the near future? Where is humanity's overall palm impression? And who will read it right?

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 7

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA 
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 7

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 ... 2
-------------------------------------
In 1939/40 was published a dictionary titled 'Jeevani Kosh' compiled by Sri Shashibhushan Vidyalankar in whose fourth part on pages 1223-24 was provided Swami Nirmalananda's following brief bio-profile thus :

''One of the intimate disciples and companions of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, he was born in the renowned Datta family of Baghbazar Basupara Lane. His father was Debnath Datta. Swami Nirmalananda's pre-monastic name was Tulsidas Datta.

Since childhood Tulsi had an abiding love for both academic studies and spiritual pursuits. When he was only eighteen, he first saw Sri Ramakrishna at Balaram Basu's house in Baghbazar and, so, came into contact with the Master. Thereafter, he began frequenting the Dakshineshwar Temple complex.

Along with his other brother disciples, Tulsi nursed Sri Ramakrishna wholeheartedly at the Kashipur Garden House. Following the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886, he, along with several other brother disciples, rented a house in Kashipur where they founded the Ramakrishna Order. His brother disciples and he spent their life's energy to run this organisation. Later at Belur he was elected Executive Vice President of the first Working Committee of the Ramakrishna Math at Belur that was set up under the supervision of Swami Vivekananda.

In 1903 Swami Nirmalananda travelled to America to assist Swami Abhedananda in his work of preaching the message of Sri Ramakrishna and returned to India in 1906. He earned a good name in his preaching work in America.

In 1906 he wandered through many pilgrimages before engaging in severe austerity in the Himalayas.

Following the establishment of a Sri Ramakrishna Asharama in the State of Mysore, Swami Nirmalananda was summoned by Swami Brahmananda to take up the responsibility of running the newly founded centre. For the next twenty nine years he tirelessly laboured to preach the message of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda in diverse places in South India.

Swami Nirmalananda was not only simple, largehearted and guileless but he was also resolute, valorous and full of the courage of conviction.

In 1929 when Vivekananda Mission and Sri Ramakrishna-Sarada Math were established in Kolkata, he became a member of this institution and, upon the entreaty of devotees, he agreed to become its President, a post he adorned till his very end.

Swami Nirmalananda has countless monastic and lay disciples in different provinces of India.

On 26 April, 1938 Nirmalananda Swami gave up his mortal coil at the Ottapalam Ashrama in South India.

TO SANGHITA, BHASKAR SEN SHARMA'S BELOVED DAUGHTER

TO SANGHITA, BHASKAR SEN SHARMA'S BELOVED DAUGHTER

This girl captivates my heart with her resonant divinity. She is not only Bhaskar's daughter but she is my daughter as well, although, I wonder whether I can lay claim to be so luminous as to be her foster father now at this distance in time and space when the star has faded into the blissful realms whence she had appeared temporarily in our horizons to fill us with tidings of a greater good, of a higher end and of a nobler imperative in life which the breath of being leads us on to but never quite catches its illusive charm which is reserved for these daisies, rosemary's children, these fairest flowers of humanity.

The father, bereaved and blessed thus in blissful remembrance of a heavenly being who had served her earthly hour and then departed to her celestial abode, has drawn all of us into a kinship of spirits through her who remains the thread that unites us all in her necklace of love that vaporised in the first rays of the dewy dawn.

My love to you, my daughter,
I send here tonight.
They'll waft through the starry skies
To welcome you with the light.

Written by Sugata Bose