PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY ... 3

PRACTICAL SPIRITUALITY ... 3

INTRODUTION

Spirituality being the basis of life, it is of utmost importance that we spend some amount of time daily in spiritual reflection. It could be meditation, chanting the Ishta mantra, reflecting on holy places and personages, reading the scriptures or associating with monks/nuns. But the direction of it all must be inward. The outgoing mind must be withdrawn from sense objects and redirected it towards the Spirit. A daily discipline of these practices will in course of time bring about a state of inner tranquillity, a never-failing poise of the being and a collectedness that will not only conduce to mental well-being but will result in physical well-being as well. Health will improve and with it the quality of life. Decision-making in life will be better and disasters brought about by rash decisions averted.

Now let us discuss the practices individually.

1. MEDITATION

Meditation slows down the breathing rate and makes breathing deeper which facilitates fuller oxygen intake. This vitalises the body and keeps the energy going. This in turn results in better efficiency in work, larger output, increased productivity and qualitative improvement in work. Stresses are reduced, fatigue minimised and a cheerfulness of being maintained throughout the day which makes for better human relationships. But most important of all, mediation makes one's mind more focused and enhances mental concentration. This not only helps one perform better in work but develops one's personality giving it an unmistakable authority in bearing.

2. CHANTING

Chanting the mantra induces a like state of the mind but the mantra is better received from a qualified Guru than from a quack. The Guru must be a shrotriya, that is, one who is well-versed in a spiritual tradition and is a proper interpreter of the scriptures. He must be a Brahma-nishthha, that is, he must be devoted to the practice of spiritual discrimination and renunciation of the results of action. Lastly, he must be akaamahata, that is, he must not be smitten by desire. Prolonged chanting over years produces a tranquil state which leads to gradual realisation of the higher principles of the Spirit.

3. REFLECTION ON HOLY PLACES AND PERSONAGES

Meditation may be of various kinds. One such is the reflection on holy places, say, pilgrimages, and holy personages like monks of exalted spiritual status or saints, sages, divine incarnations and the like. Such reflection on them gradually induces in one's personality the attributes of these luminous beings and the vibrations of the pilgrimages also adhere to one's being in a like manner.

4. SCRIPTURAL STUDY

The study of the scriptures clarifies the mind of the aspirant as to what true spirituality is and guards him against the advances of fraudulent men masquerading as messiahs. The loud utterance of Sanskrit shlokas generates energy in the system and makes it vibrate at a higher frequency for the while. Prolonged loud chanting of the Vedic mantras gradually upgrades the system and transforms personality from the intensely material to one that is tending to the spiritual. The daily reading of scriptures like 'The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' or the 'Bhagavad Geeta' is most beneficial in this regard, although, these need not be read out loud.

5. HOLY ASSOCIATION

Finally, holy company is most helpful in awakening spirituality in aspirants. The sattva of holy people quickens the sattva in those associating with them by a process akin to magnetic induction in ferromagnetic substances. Thus, constant holy association over years completely transforms the human personality and awakens dispassion for the world in those fortunate ones.

CONCLUSION

These are the benefits of the disciplined daily practice of spirituality. It makes this life a much more bearable experience instead of it being a burdensome unbearable one full of despair, defeats and disappointments. So, let us practice hard.

Written by Sugata Bose

M, A MARVEL IN MEMORY

M, A MARVEL IN MEMORY

It was a stupendous achievement for Mahendranath Gupta (M) to reproduce the words of Sri Ramakrishna verbatim at a distance of decades, a fact that was recognised by none other than Holy Mother when she commended M on his memory, in his absence, though. When someone remarked that even Swamiji had such a memory, Mother said that Naren's memory was of a different kind from M's. This settled the matter and set the seal of divine sanction on this attribute of this great lay disciple of Thakur who, incidentally, was the mantra disciple of Mother herself at the express commandment of the Master.

The diary notes that M kept of the Master's conversations were highly abbreviated and difficult to decipher in their fuller context. M published five volumes of the 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita' from those notes and at the time of his passing away in 1932 had material for another seven volumes in his great grandson Sri Dipak Gupta's estimation. This the latter told this writer in the 1980s.

There used to be in the 'Kathamrita Bhavan' suspended from the wall outside the shrine a framed page of the Master's conversation with Vidyasagar and there one could see how M made super-short notes of the words that fell from the lips of the Master and his associates. M who used to intently listen to all that was said and observed all that happened including the direction of the flow of the Ganga on a particular day at a particular hour, later wrote them down in his diary in the aforementioned highly condensed form and then meditated on them. He later expanded the notes to their original form and out came the magical words of the Master before the wide world in the translated form of 'The Condensed Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna' in the beginning and then in the pristine form as 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita' in Bengali later on at the express request of devotees. This was later translated into English again by Swami Nikhilananda for M's original translation was only a partial one and was never completed after he set to writing the words of the Master in Bengali. Swami Vivekananda had read the first two pamphlets originally written by M in English and had highly commended them but Swamiji had never had the occasion to read the Bengali version which was published after his death.

On reading the English pamphlets of 'The Condensed Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna', Swamiji was ecstatic and showered praises on M saying that he had achieved what even Plato had failed in his chronicling of the dialogues of Socrates. Swamiji said, ''Socratic dialogues are Plato all over. You are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it, here or in the West.'' Swamiji further said, ''My heart leaps in joy and it is a a wonder that I do not go mad when I find anybody thoroughly launched into the midst of the doctrine which is to shower peace on earth hereafter.'' These were at once words of appreciation from the sage as they were words of benediction and foretelling of the future course of the spiritual evolution of the world.

M was, thus, blessed by both the Holy Mother and Swamiji. He remained steadfast in his task of reporting to the world what he had himself witnessed of the Master and his divine play and only lay on the lap of the Divine Mother after finishing with his proof-reading of the fifth and final volume of his life's work, 'Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita', a work that will endure the ravages of time and bring men everywhere closer to God.

Our prostrations at the hallowed feet of this teacher of mankind, his Master's chosen one for the special mission that he was commissioned to execute and which he did by his Guru's grace so admirably like no one had ever done before in the history of humanity.

Written by Sugata Bose

WE, THE PEOPLE ... 1

WE, THE PEOPLE ... 1

Society today is getting divided into polarised compartments, often inimical to each other. Let patriotism be the unifying link of all, though. Else, ideological divides will weaken the nation instead of bolstering democracy through divergent opinion.

Posturing as patriots will not do. Genuine patriotism demands service and sacrifice for the common weal which the clamorous critics of our nation's seminal figures do not think it necessary to possess themselves but think it their birthright to indulge in corrosive criticism, nonetheless. This degeneracy of social interaction is lending support to roguish behaviour in many and threatening the civic discourse in no uncertain terms. Culture is being consequently lowered and civilisation regressing to medieval mode in the name of all such grand ideas and institutions as nationalism, religion, caste and its ilk with no bearing to their inner essence or sublimity of highest conception. That which divides society is now deemed the force of unification, that which is patently anti-human is now termed aggressive nationalism.

In an age of universal education this is bound to happen, for the proliferation of education by way of fact-dispersal, unaccompanied by the diffusion of culture, is bound to boomerang by empowering the masses with an arsenal of ideas which they will shoot indiscriminately to keep up the Conservation Principle in a decadent way, though. But the process must be gone through, for evolution entails such meandering motion, such mountainous detour en route to the summit of social advancement.

But must we sit pretty and watch proceedings while culture plummets to its nadir in our country of hoary heritage? Or ought we to act by way of arresting this progressive degeneracy that seeks sanction in pretentious spiritual quotes and historical heresies that this country has suffered from? If we care for our country, we must act now.

What then is the way out, what the method that we must adopt to combat the current corruption of civic conversation that is shaping the attitudes and aims of a vast mass of men with oscillating convictions between contrary ends?

Well, if social conversation is tainted by intolerant irrational verbal thrusts, if communication is corrupted by articulate assumptions unfounded in fact and based on biased distorted narratives, then civilised discourse based on reason and evidence must counter it.

Democracy demands debates on contentious social issues and rational engagement in such ought to be the way of combating conversational cultural corruption. If thousands of sane people join in the crusade to set the social discourse right by initiating civil conversation in real life and in the virtual one online, this proliferating infra-rational and uncultured interaction that pollutes the social environment can be beaten back. To this end we must devote our energy and we must persist at this endeavour irrespective of the reverses that we may suffer. Victory shall be ours in the long run -- this ought to be our conviction. The rest, let history unfold.

Written by Sugata Bose

AWAKE TO A SENSE OF SANITY BY STUDYING HISTORY IN THE COMPREHENSIVE LIGHT

AWAKE TO A SENSE OF SANITY BY STUDYING HISTORY IN THE COMPREHENSIVE LIGHT

History should be dispassionately studied to arrive at an objective understanding of its workings. This is the scientific method. Personal associations, frustrated aspirations, ideological preferences and prejudices, illogical and incomplete thinking based on fractional references -- all these must go before a correct appraisal and appreciation of historical events is possible. For this, proper training is necessary. Otherwise, what will result is a biased misapprehension of history with its concomitant evils.

Written by Sugata Bose

PARTITION -- A TEMPORARY DIVIDE THAT MUST GO - UNFINISHED

PARTITION -- A TEMPORARY DIVIDE THAT MUST GO

The Partition of India will one day be annulled. When men reject exclusive religion, the nation will come alive in all its territorial solidarity. This malicious temporary arrangement must go, and go, indeed, it will in the fullness of time.

The curse of colonialism has mutilated the motherland on religious basis and the curse of Partition will in sufferance unite the severed parts to the motherland. This will come to pass only when adherents of exclusive religions, in this case, Islam, realise that the nation-state is above the squabbles of proselytising politics, that religion ought not to play such a decisive role in the life of the modern citizen such that it divides and destroys brethren belonging to the same racial stock and culture. When the outlook will be modern and uncluttered by exclusive and arbitrary theological considerations, then alone will our people unite erasing territorial differences. So long as religion holds man in its death-grip ...

Unfinished...

Written by Sugata Bose

স্বদেশমন্ত্র

স্বদেশমন্ত্র
-------------
তুমিও কটিমাত্র বস্ত্রাবৃত হইয়া সদর্পে বল, 'ভারতবাসী আমার ভাই ... ' -- এই কথাগুলি বলে ত্রীকালদর্শী স্বামীজী কী ভবিষ্যতের ভারতভাগ্যের কর্ণধার গান্ধীজীকেই নেতারূপে অাবাহন করেছিলেন ? আজ মহাত্মাজীর সার্ধশতবর্ষপূর্তি উপলক্ষে স্বামীজীর এই উক্তিটির তাৎপর্য বিশেষভাবে অনুধাবনযোগ্য |

বলা বাহুল্য, গান্ধীজীর ভূষণ ও আপামর জনসাধারণের সাথে একাত্মতাবোধ যুগঋষির এই মহাবাক্যের যেন অব্যর্থ ফল | কিন্তু প্রশ্ন হল এই যে স্বামীজী কী ভবিষ্যতের এই ভারতনেতার আবির্ভাব তাঁর যোগদৃষ্টির দ্বারা দেখেছিলেন ও সেইমত তাঁকে আবাহন করেছিলেন, নাকি এ তাঁর বহু বাক্যের আর এক বাক্য যা ঐতিহাসিক নিয়মানুসারে প্রতিফলিত হয়েছিল গান্ধীজীর চরিত্রে ও একই সাথে মহাপুরুষের অমোঘবাক্যের সত্যতা রক্ষা করেছিল ?

প্রশ্ন রয়েই যায় -- স্বামীজী কী অগ্রিম আশীর্বাদসূচক এই অভিষেকবাণী ভবিষ্যতের নেতার উদ্দেশ্যে উচ্চারণ করেছিলেন ? সম্ভব, কিন্তু সন্দেহাতীতভাবে কে বলতে পারেন ? স্বামীজী তো নেই আজ আমাদের মাঝে যে এই রহস্য উদঘাটন করবেন | অতএব, যল্পনা চলতেই থাকবে | কিন্তু ভারী অদ্ভূত এই সংযোগ !

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

THE REVOLUTIONARIES WERE MEN, REAL MEN ... 1

THE REVOLUTIONARIES WERE MEN, REAL MEN ... 1

The glory of the revolutionaries who led the armed struggle for India's freedom was that they manifested manhood enough to confront the enemy head on. Passive resistance was tantamount to a compromise with the principles of freedom and sort of an acquiescence to the force of occupation that was the Raj.

The revolutionaries could not muster support enough for their cause and were more often than not betrayed from within which foiled most of their attempts to overthrow the Raj. The Ghadar Revolution was betrayed by Kripal Singh and the INA assault on British India was weakened terribly by the betrayal of the multiple agent Bhagatram Talwar, code-named 'Silver' by the British.

But the glory of the extreme revolutionaries was that they manfully struggled to free India against terrible odds and did not give in an inch to the colonial conqueror. This was in sharp contrast to the Gandhi brigade which was ever making compromises and adjustments with the British government.

There was, of course, a logic to it. The Gandhians, led by the Mahatma himself, believed in a gradual gaining of power from the colonists for they were unprepared for the burdens of governance of such a vast country all at once. That they were thus playing into the hands of heretical historical forces was not within their comprehension. What transpired, though, in the final analysis, disillusioned them about their achievements somewhat but could not convince them quite about the essential emptiness of their methods in a world ruled by mischievous realpolitik.

End of Part 1
To be continued...

Written by Sugata Bose