CHRIST AND COMMERCE, A COARSE CORRUPTION OF THE CLERGY

CHRIST AND COMMERCE, A COARSE CORRUPTION OF THE CLERGY

The western world has always been making commerce out of Christ. Earlier it was indulgences and now it is the dollar in so many other ways, but all in the name of Christ. No wonder Swami Vivekananda had chastised them in America thus, "If you want to live, go back to Christ. You are not Christians. Go back to Christ. Go back to him who had nowhere to lay his head. Better be ready to live in rags with Christ than to live in palaces without him.” Yes, and he paid a terrible price for his open admonition thus. He was reviled, cast aspersions on, and even was on the verge of being poisoned when his merciful Master Ramakrishna rescued him.

This has been a significant trend in Christendom, this commerce to keep the pleasure of the Pope alive, the extravagant style of living, the opulence at the cost of the poor whose fears of hellfire were capitalised on in selling indulgences that would reduce their term in purgatory, absolve them of their sins and secure them seats in eternal heaven, all at the cost of a copper coin or two. Out of such poor men's collections were built the fortunes of Rome, now the Vatican, the papal palaces and the cathedrals were built and decorated with Renaissance art and sculpture while the poor Christians, gullible and giving, were reduced to penury.

The commerce continues even unto this day and it is an irony that it has been historically so in the name of one of the most ascetic of all personalities in the history of the world. But such are the aberrations that are witnessed in all spiritual orders and organisations in lesser or larger measure and the Vatican has held premier position in this regard.

God bless the poor who, though ignorant and superstitious, were in their simplicity the truer followers of Christ and not those who adorned their earthly lives at their expense.

Written by Sugata Bose

SALVATION IS NOT QUITE THE LIBERATION OF THE SELF

SALVATION IS NOT QUITE THE LIBERATION OF THE SELF

The Christian idea of salvation is not quite the Hindu idea of liberation from primeval ignorance and the cycle of birth and death. Heaven and hell are ideas that are not central to the Sanatan Dharma, being of the order of ignorance as such. Even God is the final most refined form of relativistic ignorance that must be given up in the Hindu conception of the Spirit.

The Sanatan Dharma alone has this absolute idea of freedom that transcends space, time and causality, and in its such absolute conception all heavens and hells and gods and goddesses and even the almighty God dissolve into nothingness as so much eventual figment of imagination.

The non-dual Self or the Atman or the Brahman are ideas that are apprehended only in the Vedic scriptures and are to be found nowhere else. It is this solitary conception of the eternal solitude of the Self, the ground of all relativity, the absolute essence of existence transcending even God that is the gift of the Vedas to the world. Generations, perhaps centuries, may yet pass before the world in its wholeness appreciates this stupendous conception and then it may take millenia more to realise the essence of the idea for the world to be rid of the superstition of archaic, absolutist, exclusive religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The world has waited thousands of years to hear the glad tidings of the Vedas and it may yet wait several thousand years more, but heed it will for sure this truth of the Self for it is truth after all.

Written by Sugata Bose

AS THE BUBBLES RISE

AS THE BUBBLES RISE

1. The gap between thought and deed must be that of time only and never of intent. Sincerity binds the man of character in execution of his good thoughts, those that conduce to the good of oneself and the good of all. Unto such closeness of the inner call and its outer manifestation belongs the future of humanity.

2. Superstition allows us a release from material bonds in an erroneous way and gives us a sense of freedom which, after all, is surely the shadow of the real freedom that comes in spiritual realisation. Superstition is, thus, the layman's outlet from the rigid bonds of matter. No wonder the vast mass of humanity is superstitious. They all want freedom but know not how to achieve it.

3. In these dark days of depressing death may we repose our faith absolute in the Mother ! She is the source of life and She is the sustainer of life too. Who else can save us but our discretion in following the health directives while resting in the secure faith in Mother? Mother lends life to the dead and Mother preserves Her breath in the living as well. There is but one that I trust in the dark sea of delusive death -- Mother.

4. The life of a nation is its masses and the life of the masses is in the education they receive to lead a decent earthly existence with the wherewithal for their sustenance. It is here that the government and the citizenry must stress and not engage in wasteful activity that will conduce to nothing effective in the long run for lifting the masses out of their present plight. Poverty may be eradicated only through the dissemination of scientific education and through activation of the spirit of service among the people. To serve is grand -- this must be the motto and the leaders of the nation must exemplify this spirit to deserve the honorific of 'leader'.

5. We must have a change in attitude and that is to do our duties and not merely clamour for our rights as has become the common practice these days. A country cannot sustain a clamouring mass of people for long whose sole occupation is destructive work or idle indulgence in masses of negation. Affirmative action alone builds a nation and for this we may seek sufficient inspiration from our freedom fighters whose one aim in life was to liberate the motherland from bondage at any cost, even if that meant sacrificing their very lives for the cause. Millions have lost their lives to secure our freedom and we must become worthy inheritors of such by carrying on the grand tradition of sacrificial service for the nation. In such selfless living will be our fulfilment as a people and in such sacrificial service will be the furtherance of our spiritual civilisation dating from remotest antiquity unto this day.

Written by Sugata Bose

A WORD OF CAUTION TO ARDENT OVER-ENTHUSIASTS

A WORD OF CAUTION TO ARDENT OVER-ENTHUSIASTS

Those who feel it would have been better had Netaji returned to India to take over the reins of administration, I remind them that they would have been rounded up, most of them, for their laziness, callousness of character and despicable desertion of national interest. They would have to endure the rigours of punishment for reneging on their duties towards the emerging nation. None, I say, none would have been spared. Netaji would not have tolerated common corruption among his ardent enthusiasts of the day who have nothing better to do than castigate the great leaders of our nation. All those who now revel in the name of Netaji, commoner or men of undue eminence, all these would have to pay the price of independence with their toil and labour and untold sacrifice which he would have exacted out of them, and if resisted, would have crushed the life of such opposition, for he would for sure not have allowed anything to stand in the way of his grand mission of national self-reliance.

So, next time before you utter utter nonsense against the seminal leaders of our nation in the hope that your adored Netaji will be very pleased with your deliberate irreverence, remember that you have much misread him. His thrust of discipline on your bearings would have been more terrible than you can contemplate. And rightly so. That is the one way of building a nation. Be responsible, therefore, with your adoration of the great one and do not indulge in casual foul play with the reverenced ones of our nation, prime among whom shines that lustrous figure about whom George Bernard Shaw has drawn parallels with the Himalayas.

Written by Sugata Bose

INJUSTICE INTOLERABLE?

INJUSTICE INTOLERABLE?

Most people who clamour that the history of our freedom movement has been written with over-emphasis on the non-violent Gandhian resistance have not cared to read the copious amount of literature available on the armed struggle for independence as well. It is sheer ignorance to thus clamour and is a sad pointer to what political propaganda can do to a polity.

Few care to read. Most are content to clamour. Now what can be done if people wish to dwell in their ignorance? Even Dr. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar has left an adequate account of the armed struggle. But men must shout that the venerable professor did write five times as much on the Gandhian resistance. Now who is to blame for that? Gandhiji? Pandit Nehru? The British? Dr.R.C.Majumdar? Netaji? History? Who?

Written by Sugata Bose

BROADEN THY VISION, UNTO THEE I EXHORT, MY COUNTRYMEN

BROADEN THY VISION, UNTO THEE I EXHORT, MY COUNTRYMEN

The universe of man is much bigger than individuals. Do not get bogged down in the study of single personalities alone of your specific choice to the exclusion of all else.

Although the heart of human social movements centres on the individual, often of exceptional merit and extraordinary power which the collective mass of humanity in following them lend unto them, it is principles that are to be understood which manifest through the prism of personality, and it is the corresponding world events of momentous significance that are to be comprehended which are the resolution of the labour of countless individuals lost to history.

The broadening of vision from the mere adulation of the individual leader to the apprehension of the historical process at work is the work cut out for the common mass of humanity who are apt to lose their way in life in such narrow hero-worship or narrower entertainment of hatred of leaders in the supposedly adversarial camp.

Unto a fuller understanding of history then is my exhortation unto my countrymen who have pitted Netaji against Gandhiji for God knows to what good effect.

Written by

Sugata Bose

THOUGHTS AS THEY COME BY

THOUGHTS AS THEY COME BY

1. We must be rooted to our heritage in a very enlightened way that allows us sufficient freedom to forge ahead. Hyper-conservatism is to be avoided and a fluid growth encouraged. Enlightenment must be the watchword.

2. The Bible says nothing about purgatory and, yet, the purgatory persists to this day in Church doctrine where Catholics are cleansed after death, a process that supposedly readies them for ascension to heaven. The Bible even does not mention indulgences whereby one can buy reduction of term in the purgatory or even a complete pardon for all sins committed on earth, the payment made to Church authorities right up to the Pope. Finally, the Bible does not even mention a Pope. All these are accretions with the passage of time, exigencies of organisational survival.

3. Holiness is a state of the mind but the mind's intimate connection with the body makes it imperative for one to maintain the strictest physical purity as well. Physical energy stored thus is transmuted into higher spiritual energy which helps ascend the peaks of realisation leading to ultimate freedom.

4. Ideology is a force but often for evil when it resists change and stagnates. It is here that the scientific method of examination and reexamination of existing theories and assumptions becomes relevant. Religious dogma holds the human spirit to ransom and must be rejected just as much as political dogma is to be rejected. The soul, freed of arbitrary assumptions, archaic injunctions and devout beliefs thrust on it, flourishes to usher in higher learning, a brighter understanding of the workings of Nature and a clearer vision of truth, both material and spiritual.

5.Ultimately almost all of religion is social relations but once in a while a saintly figure comes along who lends the touch of the Spirit to what ordinarily without merit goes by the name of spirituality. It is such sages, who transcend the limitations of the physical senses and reach the realm of spiritual realisation, that give validity to all the sublime transcendent principles of religion that otherwise remain food for common acceptance by way of tradition and faith. Religion stands on the secure foundation of the realisations of these seminal figures of light and love that transcend all barriers, temporal and phenomenal.

6. What a terrible thing to be weighed own eternally by the idea of 'original sin' that simply has no basis in reason whatsoever to abide by ! Christianity is founded on such fragile concepts -- but with their rigid hold on superstitious man -- that perpetuate weakness in humans and retard civilisation unless men choose to reject such impossible doctrines.

7. This Christian idea of meeting one's Maker when one dies is utterly false. A single earthly life, incomplete and fractured by in experience, unfulfilled by the realisation of the oneness of all existence, cannot be the springboard for heaven or hell or even of redemption otherwise but is rooted in rank material superstition. Sooner or later the entire edifice of the three Semitic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, will crumble under the sledgehammer blows of reason and they will have to befriend Indian spiritual philosophy for sheer survival. The Vedas were the primal body of philosophical articulation and they will be the final body of the same as well.

8. There is but one religion in the world that can be called 'the science of the soul' and that is the Sanatan Dharma, in linguistic aberration popularly known as Hinduism. This is the eternal religion, the 'Perennial Philosophy', as Aldous Huxley put it, and this is the eventual destination of the spiritual man as he spirals unto his Self through the myriad experiences of evolving life.

9. Do not allow anybody to sell you religion however great he be in the eyes of society. He is merely duping you with pompous talk.

10. It is good to pay to learn engineering of the material world but beware if anybody sells you the secrets of 'inner engineering'.

11. Making commerce out of the Sanatan Dharma is not quite upholding its principles. This is no way to regenerate the nation.

12. To affirm the individual is not to negate God but to affirm God in humanity.

13. God is love. Love and spread love. That is all there is to life and that is all there is to living.

14. The Lord is with the simple folks, men of ignorance who trust Him in all their innocence.

15. Try to find God, free of organisation, free of allegiance to Church, in your own simple way.

16. Bow not to the tyranny of man or God but raise your head high in the sunshine of freedom.

17. 'Incorrigible' is the word reserved for the modern fanatical devotees of Netaji whose only business is Gandhi-baiting.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Maharshi Yajnavalkya recording his realisations.