TIME TO TEST GOD AT LAST, ENOUGH OF SITTING FOR HIS TEST

TIME TO TEST GOD AT LAST, ENOUGH OF SITTING FOR HIS TEST

For long has man subjected himself to the test of God. Now let roles be reversed and God be put to the test of man. Let this be the stance of resurgent man.

No more consideration of oneself as the image of God or as His slave in perennial abject submission to Him. Now man must be the master of this figment of imagination of his wherein he places an arbitrary Big Brother up in an imagined heaven dispensing dictatorial justice of an archaic kind with no resemblance to modern values or human rights or the essential dignity of the being. This God must go and be replaced by the real God which is Man in his essence.

The fountainhead of spirituality is in the very being of man and it requires no absolutist despot, divine or otherwise, to sanction or to sustain it. It is in the very nature of things that it should be so for the cancellation of man obliterates the existence of this God, too. It is man at the focus and God and the universe at the periphery that must be the philosophical reckoning from now on. And why only philosophical? This must be the spiritual position, too.

Man evolves and so does his understanding of divinity. Ancient and medieval conceptions of God were primarily of tribal origin of a crude kind, very much at variance with the refined conceptions of the Arya rishis (seers of transcendental truth) of India whose philosophical flights took them to the spiritual conception of what in modern scientific parlance is being called the 'singularity' where the laws of physics break down and an indescribable void reigns beyond cognition or conception. What is today a faint description of the end point of physical Nature in the black hole was in much deeper and a far more fundamental sense arrived at by the Vedic rishis who dared plumb the depths of their being in their quest for reality and did not cower before ghosts of their very being which lesser mortals elsewhere termed the heavenly God with His rod to deliver punishment more than to dispense justice. We must seek solutions in the Upanishads and dispense with this cruel concoction of our medieval misinformed minds.

The future of man beckons him unto a glorious freedom and this can never be if man is ever bound down by divine dictates of his delirious mind from past ages of puerile perceptions of Nature and reality. Man must be unshackled from these fetters that bind him and released unto the atmosphere of clear thinking and the pure pursuit of truth.

Organised religion presses home archaic notions of truth that have no bearing anymore on modern man, yet, it pursues relentlessly its programme of indoctrination and proliferation in numbers to gain suicidal strength, for these religions idealise the apocalypse and each one must arm itself for victory over the other in such end times. These are terrible legacies, violent ideological inheritances that must be shunned, nay, cast into oblivion in the light of reason and scientific judgement. Here Hinduism, enlightened and uplifting, will come in handy and will be the beacon for mankind's future spiritual evolution.

Written by Sugata Bose

THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES ... 1

THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES ... 1

Nowadays people wish to be spiritual without practising their regular spiritual exercises. Their children wish to be academic without doing their regular studies. Shree Krishna must now amend his teaching of non-attachment to the fruit of action for it is now attachment to it all the way. Men speak science nowadays but must reap a harvest from seeds not sown, output from cipher input and a perfection of end from imperfect means. Such is the predicament of urban India in the modern context where sincerity has taken to the wings and life has been reduced to a circus of sorts with the common man, driven by delirious desires induced by the visual image that preaches puerile purposes and profanities galore, aspiring for unreal ends rooted in wishful thinking and no solid ground in fundamental depth labour to lend substance to the possibility of fulfilment of such.

An abject imitation of the worst elements of the West does not become the Indian mind that is capable of better performance on its national basis and need not take recourse to indiscriminate copying of superficial cultural elements from abroad. Adaptation is the key. But it must be along creative lines, not merely suited to economic requirements of the rich.

One more thing and this is a decadent inheritance post the decline of intellectual culture in India consequent on continuous conquest and colonisation. The basic grain of Indian intellectualism has been much hindered and we have today a much debilitated national intellectual climate where clear thinking is not common and a muddled mass of mental expression is all that goes about in the name of social discourse.

Written by Sugata Bose

REPLY TO AN ADVERSARY IN A PUBLIC DEBATE WHO MADE THE ALL TOO WELL KNOWN CLAIM THAT SWAMI NIRMALANANDA WAS A DISCIPLE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AS OPPOSED TO HE BEING SRI RAMAKRISHNA'S DISCIPLE

REPLY TO AN ADVERSARY IN A PUBLIC DEBATE WHO MADE THE ALL TOO WELL KNOWN CLAIM THAT SWAMI NIRMALANANDA WAS A DISCIPLE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AS OPPOSED TO HE BEING SRI RAMAKRISHNA'S DISCIPLE

You are misinformed. Please check from authentic sources like THE GOSPEL OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA, SRI SRI RAMAKRISHNA LEELAPRASANGA / LIFE OF SRI RAMAKRISHNA by SWAMI NIKHILANANDA (FOREWORD BY MAHATMA GANDHI), and a host of other sources that I am citing in my posts.

It is unfortunate that you, too, have fallen a victim to this misinformation campaign conducted by concerned parties whence you have garnered your data. Sure enough you will stand corrected soon as all relevant details are provided before you, assuming that you have the open mind and rational disposition to accept authentic sources and documents legally attested that will bring home the contentious point.

Have you read these books? If so, you ought to know. If not, then please read them thoroughly. Take some pains and you will stand enlightened. We all have to work a bit harder than indulging in casual flings in the form of stray negating comments. However, for good measure, you shall be provided more details soon. But I must say that your own sincerity will have to stand the test of purity through self-exertion as well and not mere lazy acceptance of data provided like delicacy to your very mouth by others who work hard at arriving at facts. Nonetheless, rest assured that your heart's aspirations in this regard will be fulfilled.

You have been given a few documentary proofs. Go through them. You will be provided with more in case you wish for such. Now let us see your sources, too, please. And one more thing. I ask again -- have you read the books I have named or are you just indulging in casual conversation without any serious intent at attempting to know the truth?

Written by Sugata Bose

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA, A LIGHT THAT YET SHINES

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA, A LIGHT THAT YET SHINES

''Let Sri Guru Maharaj's will be done. I am to work and obey his command to my last breath. No question, no flinching. Absolute submission.'' These words are of Swami Nirmalananda (Tulsi Maharaj), the seventeenth direct monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, who dedicated his life to the propagation of the life and message of his Master in India and America with especial contribution in Southern India where he stayed for nearly three decades and sowed the seeds of the future flourishing of the Mission. He established a string of monasteries in Kerala among which Haripad Ashrama has now been freshly taken over by the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission as one of its administered branch centres. Sadly, though, to all intents and purposes, Swami Nirmalananda is no more given the status due to him as the rightful direct disciple of Thakur and this calls for concerted efforts on the part of devotees and conscientious monks to redress this state of things. Why this apathy of the Mission towards Swami Nirmalananda is hard to tell for there is no clear statement that has ever come out of the organisation in this regard and this strange stance is all the more strange as it has been adopted since the 1960s prior to which the Swami featured in all official photographs of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna from where he has been subsequently expunged for reasons unknown.

Swami Nirmalananda was engaged in a legal battle with the Belur Math authorities over matters involving the Bangalore Ashrama and this led to future misconceptions among devotees that he was not a direct disciple of the Master. Subsequent indifference shown towards this seminal sage by the mother organisation in excluding him for all practical purposes from being recognised as a direct disciple of the Master has been a rather unfortunate historical development of the Order for it has been not only a terrible injustice done to Thakur's own spiritual child but has also through lack of clarity provided on this issue confused both devotees and monks of the Order as to what the exact spiritual lineage of Swami Nirmalananda is. It has also temporarily befuddled historians of the Ramakrishna Movement before they have been able to sift fact from fiction and this is quite unwarranted for an Order that supposedly stands on the rock-like foundation of Truth.

Today, in this age of global communication the truth is revealing and now no more may facts be suppressed or sidelined for the gaze of the internet is ever on and any attempt at suppression will seriously compromise the status of the suppressor itself. To this effect I am serialising the life of Swami Nirmalananda and consistently writing essays on him, and I exhort you all to participate in this grand venture of uncovering the real truth about this stellar personality who had in the first four decades of the twentieth century lit up the lives of countless devotees and pilgrims to the cause.

Written by Sugata Bose

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA ON THE UNFOLDING POWER OF THE RAMAKRISHNA AVATAR

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA ON THE UNFOLDING POWER OF THE RAMAKRISHNA AVATAR

Hereafter, the work of all institutions and the life of all nations will be moulded in Ramakrishna fashion. Politics and Government and all such things will have to pass through that mould, viz., Ramakrishna. I may not live to see all those wonderful happenings. The next generation will see it. The power of Ramakrishna is now in its infancy, just beginning to spread. That mighty power will take years to fully manifest itself and to envelop the world. All things will be pervaded, devoured by it. The effulgence of Sri Ramakrishna will permeate everything. There will no Ramakrishna or Religion of Ramakrishna. There is no question of sectarianism at all. His spirit will be accepted by all.

Written by Swami Nirmalananda

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 12

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 12

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 ... 7
--------------------------------------

Once Swami Vivekananda drew the attention of his brother disciples and spoke thus about Swami Nirmalananda :

''Look at Tulsi ! A sadhu should be like him. He has a very fine head and a very strong body. He works indefatigably days and nights ; he can also immerse himself in meditation for long hours. He can sing well and play on musical instruments. He can expound the shastras, hold conversations, give lectures and cook well ! You should be all-round like him.''

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA ... 11

SWAMI NIRMALANANDA by SWAMI JAGADISWARANANDA
(Translated by Sugata Bose) ... 11

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 ... 6
--------------------------------------
In 1886 during the last illness of Thakur at the Kashipur Garden House the disciples devoted themselves to the cause of serving him. By way of mentioning their names in his magnum opus 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Leelaprasanga' ('Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master' / 'Sri Ramakrishna and his Divine Play'), revered Swami Saradananda has given us the following account on page 329 of the fifth section of the book :

''To satisfy the curiosity of readers the names of those twelve who formed the band of devotees at the service of the Master are being provided here. They were as follows : Narendra, Rakhal, Baburam, Niranjan, Yogindra, Latu, Tarak, Gopal Dada, Kali, Shashi, Sarat and Hutko Gopal. Owing to his father's torture, Sarada could only manage to stay for a day or two at the most. After visiting the Garden House for a few days, Harish, while at home, became afflicted with mental derangement. Hari, Tulsi (Swami Nirmalananda) and Gangadhar practised austerity while staying at home and visited the Garden House from time to time.''

Photo : Swami Nirmalananda