ARISE INDIA!

ARISE INDIA!

The country has to be rapidly raised. For this a vast spiritualisation of the masses is necessary. And it is for this that the masses will have to be fed well, housed well, educated well and employed well. This is the precondition to all spiritual aspirations we may have for them. Without the condition of the masses improving, all this shouting about nationalism will be empty talk, frothy effusion tantamount to nothing. Therefore, those that call themselves nationalists -- and of late there are such professors galore -- ought to build their character first and start sacrificing their resources, pleasures and idle pastimes, and take to devoting themselves to silent, fruitful, life-building work for the poor. Then and then alone will they qualify for being what they now raucously preach without an iota of sense as to either the destiny of the nation or to the consequence of their corrosive actions on the future of the nation. Swami Vivekananda is our guide, our General in this onward march to national well-being. Study Swamiji in-depth. Without his leading light all your efforts will be in vain. And if you do not, in hypocritical mode will you remain as you are more often than not now. The Geeta warns us against such hypocricy. Quoting its verses copiously let us not pretend patriotism, but we must actively pursue its pristine principles and its temporal solutions stemming out of such eternal wisdom. 🕉 

Written by Sugata Bose

আর কতকাল মন্থর ১৬ মাত্রায় রব?

আর কতকাল মন্থর ১৬ মাত্রায় রব?

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ঠাকুর ঢিমে তেতালা পছন্দ করতেন না | ঠাকুরের কাজ কিন্তু ঢিমে তেতালাতেই এগোচ্ছে | এর কারণ আমরা যারা নিজেদের ভক্ত বলে মনে করে থাকি, সেই আমরা যথেষ্ট তৎপর নই রামকৃষ্ণ মঠ ও রামকৃষ্ণ মিশনের দেশগঠনমূলক কাজে সাহায্যের হাতটি বাড়িয়ে দিতে এবং সংঘের মধ্যেও কল্যাণানন্দজী, নিশ্চয়ানন্দজী, শুভানন্দজী, নিত্যস্বরূপানন্দজী, কেতকী মহারাজ, দয়ানন্দজী, লোকেশ্বরানন্দজী, গহনানন্দজী, আত্মস্থানন্দজী ও রঙ্গনাথানন্দজীর মত উচ্চভাবাপন্ন, কর্মতৎপর সাধু বিরল | 

আসুন, ঠাকুর-স্বামীজীর স্বপ্ন সফল করি | কি হবে শুধু নিজের পরিবারের চিন্তায় জীবন অতিবাহিত করে? তার থেকে বরং গোটা দেশটাকে নিজের পরিবার ভাবতে শুরু করি ও রামকৃষ্ণ মঠ ও রামকৃষ্ণ মিশনের সেবাকাজে যথাসাধ্য সর্বপ্রকার সাহায্য করি | ঠাকুর সকলের মঙ্গল করুন |

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

MY GOD

MY GOD 

The only God I believe in is the one who dwells in the hearts of all, does not curse or send His errant children to hell and blesses all forgiving all error, leads them on to Him here and now and not there and then, the one who is both the One and the Many, who is both transcendent and immanent, both with form and formless, who is His children, the unmanifest and the manifest, the giver of good and the sufferer of evil which is ignorance, who is duality, qualified non-duality and non-duality itself, the form and the substance, the source, course and estuary of the perennial Ganga that flows through space-time through eternity, who is the frozen sound, the Om 🕉, who as the poor and the dispossessed is neglected here on earth by His privileged children, who is the soul of the being, who is the very being, who is the orphan's cry, the widow's teardrop, the bereaved mother's pitiful lament, who is the lover, the beloved and love itself, the trinity united in a conscious whole. Such a God is everywhere -- outside, inside, at the crust and in the very core, the alpha and the omega of existence. My Lord, my God, my Beloved, I offer you my heart's whole.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : courtesy, Bhaskar Mukherjee

নরনারায়ণ পূজাই যুগধর্ম

নরনারায়ণ পূজাই যুগধর্ম 

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সত উপায়ে আয়, মিতব্যয়ীতা, সঞ্চয় ও দান ছাড়া আর উপায় নেই | অগণিত দরিদ্রনারায়ণ প্রতিদিন অতলান্ধকারে তলিয়ে যাচ্ছে | এরা কারা ? নরদেহধারী ঠাকুর-মা | এখন কর্তব্য কি ? ব্যক্তিগত আনন্দফূর্তি না ত্যাগ ও সেবা, তাও বিদ্যুদ্গতিতে বিশালাকারে ? ঢিমে তেতালার সময় নেই আর | নিজের জন্য যেমন কর্মতৎপরতা অবলম্বন করি, পরের জন্য যদি ততধিক করি, তবেই তো মানুষ বলে পরিগণিত হব | নচেৎ, দেহগতভাবে মানুষ তো আছিই কিন্তু ভাবগতভাবে মানুষ হতে পারলাম কই ? আসুন, জীবনদর্শন পালটাই, জীবনধারা পরিবর্তন করি ও মৌখিক নয়, আত্মপ্রবোধকারী ভক্তিভান নয়, যথার্থ ভক্তিরসে সিঞ্চিত হয়ে নররূপী ঠাকুর-মার পূজায় জীবন অতিবাহিত করি | কর্মের নিষ্ঠুর চক্রে এরা নিত্যপিষ্ট | এদের উদ্ধারেই জগৎ উদ্ধার, এদের কল্যাণেই দেশের কল্যাণ, নিজের মুক্তি | তাই স্বামীজী স্বদেশমন্ত্রে দেশবাসীকে ত্যাগে উদ্বুদ্ধ করেছেন | তাই মা সারাটা জীবন মহাদৈন্যেও মুহুর্মুহু সেবা করে দৃষ্টান্ত স্থাপন করে গেলেন | তাই ঠাকুর কাঞ্চনত্যাগের অদ্ভূত আদর্শ স্থাপন করে গেলেন যা ইতিহাসে অনন্য | আমরা তো তাঁদেরই সন্তান | তাঁদের উত্তরসূরী কি হব না ?

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

POESY BENGALI

POESY BENGALI

আমি সবটা জানতে দিই নে বাবা

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আমি সবটা জানতে দিই নে বাবা,

অল্প অল্প ঢেকে রাখি |

সব জানালে কর্ম ফুরায়,

তাই মায়া দিয়ে সত্য ঢাকি |

বিশ্বলীলা সংঘটনে

বহুজনের অংশ যে চাই |

তাই বিষয়রসে মুগ্ধ রাখি,

পিঞ্জরেতে আত্মাপাখি |

জন্ম জন্ম প্রহেলিকা,

কুহকজালে বদ্ধ রাখি |

মুগ্ধ নয়ন ক্ষুব্ধ হলে 

ফিরতে গৃহে তখন ডাকি |

শ্রান্ত ছেলে দিনশেষে

অস্তগামী সূর্যদেশে

শেষ সীমানায় রশ্মিরেখায়

আলোকরথে যায় একাকী |

মায়ের দুয়ার খুলল শেষে,

ফিরল বাছা মায়ের দেশে,

আত্মসুখে বিহার করে,

শূণ্য গমন, পূর্ণ বাকি |

রচয়িতা : সুগত বসু (Sugata Bose)

MESSAGES GALORE ... 16

MESSAGES GALORE ... 16

1. আমরা হন্যে হয়ে ঘুরি একটা ভাল সাধুর জন্য | আর যখন তাঁকে খুঁজে পাই, তখন প্রাণের ভক্তি ঢেলে দি |

2. Hindus must support the cause of Hinduism in terms of active help for social good.  Mere verbal piety will not do. It must entail personal participation and self-sacrifice to bolster the hand of Hinduism. Serve the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission zealously.

3. Not wearing a mask and braving the streets and public places is not the sign of courage but of irresponsibility and foolishness. Wear your mask please and protect yourself. Save society.

4. A vast capitalistic system fuelled by greed and propelled by profit-making has consumed even spiritual organisations. Thakur's pronciple of  'taka mati, mati taka' cries in the wilderness today.

5. A general zeal is missing among devotees. A passive attitude towards the movement is not conducive for its growth. Get beyond self-interest and help bolster the Ramakrishna Movement. Be zealous. Spread the Word. Serve the Cause.

6. The steady one is the spiritual one for steadiness, steadfastness are derivations of the ultimate state of steady intelligence, that of the Self-realised soul.

7. Capitalism is organised, legalised theft, nay, robbery of the masses by rogues.

8. A spiritual organisation must not degenerate into a ritual organisation. The loss of its spirit would render it sterile.

9.

Spiritual - Spirit = Ritual ;

Ritual + Spirit = Spiritual 

10. The inability to feel proud of one's heritage and the tendency to identify with foreign culture in its place is symptomatic of spiritual decay.

11. Save yourself by yourself. You have done it in the past. You shall do it again. Despair not. There gleams success ahead. 

12. Irrational, barbaric cults must not be encouraged by calling them paths to God. They must either be exposed or left alone but never affirmed as true out of brotherly magnanimity for that would be tantamount to complicity in promotion of barbarism. Such a stance must be deemed unspiritual and antihuman. Truth alone must be preached and not diluted with doses of untruth in the hope of promoting inter-faith harmony.

13. Preaching the Vedanta while refusing to address key issues that afflict humanity is an exercise in escapism, irresponsibility and in consequence futility. Courage of conviction would deem a braver course of action.

14. Why is it necessary to spread 'harmony lies' with respect to religions that are outrageously intolerant and can only harmonise by destroying all other religions? Why resort to lies at all to effect such fanciful peacemaking? Does not the history of these violent cults teach us a different lesson? Must we fail to learn? Must we pander to the vanities of violence intrinsic to these vicious faiths?

15. Preaching love is wonderful, practising it in real active terms of social welfare even better.

16. The Religion of Man must be on the upswing and intolerant tribal cults forsaken if humanity is to rise from its present decadent state. But it must not be in theoretical terms only. It must be in genuine welfare terms. Om!

17. Another Vivekananda is due now to interpret current conspiracies and establish eternal principles to save civilisation. Past affirmations have become dated. A fresher articulation is the exigency of the hour.

18. When a spiritual lecture is going on, it is discourtesy to disturb the speaker by being inattentive or talkative on-stage. Alas, so often that is but the case!

19. Those who eulogise Holy Mother's sweetness of speech would do better to follow her instance when they deal with devotees. How many times we receive harsh treatment at the hands of these venerable ones who we adore!

20. Have infinite confidence in your abilities, unbounded enthusiasm and energy to fructify your dreams but direct all your life's labour to serving this moving mass of humanity we call India.

21. The impatient can never be spiritual. Patience is a primary sign of spirituality. 

22. Monks must not pander to the vanities of politicians. They should have the strength of character to transform the lives of politicians. Politicians must not be allowed to wield power over monks, to dictate terms to them. In vain will be monasticism then. Rather monks should have the spirituality before which politicians will spontaneously surrender themselves.

23. Man makes God after his own fashion and then says God made him.

24. আদর্শই সর্বোপরি | আদর্শ রইল তো সব রইল; আদর্শ গেল তো সব গেল |

25. In vain we seek help from others when all help is within ourselves.

26.

When desires deal you the death-blow,

Dream no more.

Awake to the Reality within

And mark your score.

27. Nature is not unconscious. All of it is throbbing palpable consciousness or so it seems.

28. গুটিকতক লোক যদি অখণ্ড সত্যরক্ষা করে তো দেশ আদর্শ ফিরে পায় |

29. Two forces, gravity and levity, are tugging at us, generating the experience called life out of which is being distilled the essence of knowledge tending to realisation of pure consciousness which is the Self.

30. The frozen moment seemingly vibrates to generate time.

31. Why rationalise the irrational? Reject it. But to reject the irrational also is to accept it. Use the water to overcome the water and swim ashore to find that the watermass never existed, that You alone did.

32. Be a dewdrop at dawn and vaporise in the misty rays of the morning sun freshening flora in its wake.

33. God is and will not be.

34. Independence assumes interdependence as unitary consciousness assumes seeming fracture into multitudinous thought bearing name and form. Immanence is apart from transcendence. It is the projection of the Real into imaginary unreality. But by whom? Inexplicable while within Maya. Redundant when beyond.

35. Circumstances line up to destroy man. The struggling soul triumphs but the body perishes in its wake. So is the tragedy of life but the resurrection follows.

36. Masses of superstition cloud the path of man as he emerges from the shadow unto the sunlit terrain of golden realisation.

37. Who says you do not see God? Every moment you witness Him all around, the palpable living reality clothed in name and form.

38. Thoughts are to be valued if this nation has to rise. Civilisation is the crystallised expression of thought.

39. If man cannot value man, where will humanity be?

40. Humdrum day-to-day existence must not throttle the life of thought.

41. Keep up hope to remove the despair of suffering humanity.

42. Do not belittle man. He is all that is there to God so long as you are man.

43. Maturity comes way into the afternoon. Those that blossom in the dewy morn are the precursors of progress.

44. God is delicate in His dispensation even as He is crushing in its effect.

45. In this world traders are all around. All life is transaction, even such dealings as are deemed spiritual. Real love, real spirituality is rare, rare indeed.

46. To serve is a great opportunity of cutting through the bonds of karma.

47. There is great pain in beholding the pitiful state of the poor of our beloved motherland and there is great joy in serving them to alleviate their misery. Swamiji must enter into the heart of the nation for its rise to material and spiritual maturity.

48. Citing this world as Maya and refusing to do good to it is the very antithesis of the Vedanta. So long as we persist in doing good to ourselves, we are beholden to the world to do good to it for interdependence is the law of life. Heartlessness cannot be at the heart of the Vedanta.

49. Thakur-Ma-Swamiji must be presented before the audience during lectures more creatively. Listening to the same hackneyed expressions, one feels fatigued. There must a training institute for prospective preachers where diction, content and creativity will be catered to and pupils (monks) prepared for preaching from the podium.

50. ধরিত্রী শিব আর তার ওপর জলধির জলধারা বয়ে চলেছে, এই শিবপূজা |

51. Almost everybody is bound by ignorance and acts accordingly. Hence, it is no one's fault for what happens on earth. Things happen by the will of the Mother. She dispenses as She pleases. Ours but to serve and surrender to Her mighty will. She knows best.

52. যাঁদের আমরা বুদ্ধিজীবি বলে জানি, তাঁরা অধিকাংশই বদ্ধজীব |

53. Ideas go far deeper into the psyche of society than is commonly apprehended. Therefore, strong, positive ideas must be preached, ideas that arouse the latent strength in man. Society may thus be galvanised into the moral, spiritual mode through effective preaching of the ethical code, the spiritual essence of things. But the preachers must be sincere and not men who use fellow men for their selfish ends however couched in grand scriptural terms.

54.

তথ্য কিছু তত্ত্ব নয়,

তথ্য তত্ত্বে পূর্ণ হয় |

55. To do work that is worship we have to be spiritually alive which is where renunciation of 'woman and gold' (lust and greed) comes in.

56. The poor are the living temples of God. Where else must we go to offer our worship when the palpable form of God in all its denuded degradation demands every moment our heart's devotion?

57. Purity is the precondition to all fruitful engagement in welfare activity which may be deemed spiritual. Purity itself is the highest charity.

58. নরনারায়ণ পূজাই যুগধর্ম |

59. দিকে দিকে ছড়িয়ে পড়ুক ঠাকুর-মা-স্বামীজীর ভাব -- কথায় নয়, কাজে; ভক্তিভানে নয়, স্বার্থত্যাগে |

60. উচ্চনীচ ভেদবুদ্ধি যত কমে ততই সাধু |

61. As a race we have to be quality-conscious, especially since it is an age of progressively declining culture.

62. Merely sharing my posts on Ramakrishna Math, Mekhliganj will not do. Much greater participation and self-sacrifice is called for for the flourishing of Thakur's cause which lies in amelioration of the abysmal condition of the poor. After all are the poor doomed to live like beasts of burden? Is that fair play? Is that justice? Is that what they deserve at our exploiting hands?

63. The earnestness and spirit of sacrifice of a young man today moved me. He was hungry, yet he kept on engaging in spiritual conversation with me over the phone for nearly two hours before I realised that he was on empty belly for far too long. Blessed are they who can thus suppress hunger even as they hunger for God!

64. Is there a way out for man out of this terrible network of Maya? There is in man's very heart, devotion to the living, moving gods and goddesses which can save him and render him free.

65. Let not intelligence get the upper hand over the heart that feels for the feeble, the poor, the destitute and the living corpses daily dying despicable deaths through human callousness and neglect.

66. Christs galore are crucified each day. Who cares for them? Who says a kind word? Who suffers their suffering in sympathetic bond?

67. Peace is omnipresent, like air, like God.

68. সমস্ত ভারত যে দেবভূমি ঠাকুরের দিব্য দর্শনসকলই তার প্রকৃষ্ট প্রমাণস্থল |

69. On this auspicious day let us remember our less fortunate brethren and assist them in their hard battle for earthly survival. May we be inspired by the ideal of service to them!

70. অহংবুদ্ধিই সংসারবুদ্ধি |

71.

নিজের ভক্তি-মুক্তি তো সবাই চায় | পরের দুঃখে কাতর ক'জন ?

আলোকচিত্র : রামকৃষ্ণ মঠ, মেখলীগঞ্জ, কোচবিহারের আদিবাসীদের মাঝে সেবাকর্ম | চিত্রে স্বামী ওঁকারাত্মানন্দ (সুধাংশু মহারাজ), অধ্যক্ষ, রামকৃষ্ণ মঠ, মেখলাগঞ্জ | আপনারা সাহায্যের হাত নিয়ে এগিয়ে আসুন |

72. Those who serve the poor, serve Thakur-Ma-Swamiji best.

73. বক্রবুদ্ধি হতে ঈশ্বর বহুদূর | সরলতার দ্বারা তাঁকে পাওয়া যায় |

74. Myth is not reality. Do not make a myth out of reality even in phenomenal spiritual terms.

75. There is no New Year for the dispossessed, no festive joy for them. Do something to better their lot but refrain from toying with their pain by dishing out a dole to stifle the conscience pricks in your heart.

76. Here's a Swami of the Ramakrishna Order (Swami Samarpanananda) who dares speak the truth. He is not compromised into pleading apologies for the intolerant Semitic religions, Christianity and Islam. 

77. রামের হাতে অস্ত্র, ভক্তের হাতে চরকা !

78. Carelessness must not become central characteristic of personality.

79. Swamiji was neglected during his lifetime. Now his message is being neglected.

80. Once more must Acharyas rise from the South to rescue the Sanatan Dharma from desecration by its enemies. Once more a Shankaracharya, a Ramanujacharya, a Madhvacharya, a Nimbarkacharya rise to resurrect Hinduism.

81. Money that is spent only for oneself and one's family becomes toxic in the end.

82. Unless selfishness is rooted out no amount of pilgrimage will help.

83. My motherland is my root, my shoot, my stem, my leaf, my capillary, my life, myself -- everything.

84. God is Here and Now, not there and then.

85. Through the vast infatuation of Maya the soul proceeds to Truth.

86. প্যাঁচ কষে কি হবে? সরলতায় তাঁকে পাওয়া যাবে |

87. Forget not your debt to your motherland. Whosoever serves India, serves God.

88. The life of a nation is in the masses. They must be fed well, clothed well, housed well, educated well and employed well. This is how a nation progresses. Study Swamiji, follow him, implement his ideas. India will then rise to material and spiritual eminence once more.

89. People are too self-involved. And that complicates matters for them. If selflessness is practised, the self will be served better. Hence, Thakur's formulation: 'Shivjnaney jeevseva'.

90. Does one leave one's mother in distress and settle abroad? Yes, selfish children do so. They leave their motherland in distress and settle in the U.S. They then make it a permanent settlement by taking up U.S. citizenship and merge in the ocean of asuric living.

91. Do not flaunt your ill-begotten wealth earned at the expense of the poor. Your 100 crore worth of jewellery counts for little. It only writes in bold letters your heartlessness in a world where billions suffer grinding poverty because of exploiters like you.

92. স্বামীজী চলে যাওয়ার পর দেশ অনাথ হয়ে গেছিল | এরপর গান্ধীজী জাতির জনকরূপে দিঙমণ্ডলে আবির্ভূত হন | তাঁর অভিভাবকত্ব না পেলে যে কি হত দেশের হাল, তাই ভাবি |

93. গান্ধীজীকে যে জাতি সম্মান করতে পারে না, তার ভবিষ্যৎ কি?

94. কী সুন্দর মানুষ সব! মুক্ত হস্তে গান্ধীজীকে গালি দান করছেন | এদিকে এ যাবৎ যে এত আহ্বান করছি সকলকে দরিদ্রনারায়ণের সেবার জন্য অভাবক্লিষ্ট রামকৃষ্ণ মঠ, মেখলীগঞ্জের সহায়তা করতে, এই গালি-ব্রিগেডের কিন্তু তাতে কোন আগ্রহ নেই | এমনকি গালি দিতে গেলে যদি অর্থ ব্যয় করতে হত, তাহলে এঁরা সত্বর বাকসংযমি হয়ে উঠতেন | স্বাদেশিকতার কী বিচিত্র পরিহাস!

RAMAKRISHNA MATH, MEKHLIGANJ, COOCH BEHAR (A BRANCH CENTRE OF BELUR MATH)

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95. গান্ধীজী সত্যবাদী ছিলেন | যারা তাঁর নামে গালিগালাজ করেন, তারা নিজজীবনে কতটা সত্যবাদী?

96. কী ঘৃণাই পোষণ করে লোকে গান্ধীজীর প্রতি ! দুশ্চিন্তার বিষয় |

97. এত গালি খেয়েও গান্ধীজী আজও স্বমহিমায় দণ্ডায়মান | এটাই আশ্চর্য | কী চারিত্রমাধুর্য্য ছিল তাঁর যে হিমালয়সম আত্মগৌরবে আজও বিদ্যমান তিনি !

98. স্বামীজীর স্বদেশমন্ত্রটি তো গান্ধীজীই পালন করেছিলেন | "তুমিও কটিমাত্র বস্ত্রাবৃত হইয়া সদর্পে বল 'ভারতবাসী আমার ভাই ... ভারতের দেবদেবী আমার ঈশ্বর ... ' |" গান্ধীজীর পরিধান, বিশ্বাস, আচরণ ও ভাব তো এই স্বদেশমন্ত্রেরই মূর্ত প্রতীক |

99. The intellectual depth of the average educated person is abysmally low. Causes distress to behold it. Online observations of people are disconcerting in their low cultural content so often that one is left in utter despair. And, mind you, many of these are well educated people.

100. শিক্ষিত মানুষের গান্ধীবিদ্বেষ দেখে বিস্মিত হতে হয় |

MESSAGES GALORE ... 15

MESSAGES GALORE ... 15

1. There must be power behind preaching, not merely sweet talk. Rational discourse isn't enough for spiritual preaching and that too interspersed with worldly chitchat. It is power born of divine perception, absolute purity and unbounded zeal that courses through the nerves of men and transforms them unto a higher order of existence.

2. The problem that confronts prospective devotees today is the dearth of effective preachers of the Sanatan Dharma. There is a surfeit of surface speakers but an utter absence of men of character who can dish out the bare truth without making a sham of a worldly compromise in doing so. No wonder Ramakrishna had brought Vivekananda along to do the alotted job of establishing dharma. The Master knew the utter hollowness of spiritual speakers for sure and made his own arrangements for spreading the Word.

3. How many times you have failed in the past! Struggle once more and you will succeed. And, if you don't, struggle yet again. You are the product of your past struggles, failures and successes. Take heart from it and battle on.

4. The main problem in spiritual speaking is the obliteration of the egoistic self when presenting one's ideas. The ego ruins discourse by highlighting the speaker's personality instead of the pure principles he is attempting to present. Personality thus hides principle and undoes the lecture.

5. The richer the man, the more questionable his source of wealth and his method of generating it.

6. The nation lives in cottages still. They must be housed well and protected from the elements. These are the living gods, the future sages who will have vision, who will save civilisation. Come to their help. Give up the vanity that you have done enough. Translate words into deeds.

7. Alas! Even today Swamiji is so unpopular among devotees. There is an utter lack of interest in his words as self-obsession pervades the putrid atmosphere while the ancient sage suffers in a billion bodies. Small wonder then that the leonine soul had died despairing that his life had gone in vain and that Thakur had promised to return to earth soon to settle the sorry state of affairs.

8. সব পরিবেশের অনুগামী, পরিস্থিতির দাস | প্রভু তিনি যিনি পরিবেশকে নিয়ন্ত্রিত করেন, পরিস্থিতির পরিবর্তনেও স্থিতধী থাকেন | তিনিই স্থিতপ্রজ্ঞ, আত্মজ্ঞানে নিষ্কম্প, অবিচলিত, স্বয়ংপ্রভায় ভাস্বর |

9. আমরা আমাদের দেশকে ভালবাসি | নিজের মা ময়লা শাড়ি পরলেও নিজের মা | ভুললে চলবে না, আমাদের স্বদেশের প্রতি কর্তব্য আছে, মায়ের প্রতি দুগ্ধঋণ, মাতৃভূমির প্রতিটি স্বর্ণরেণুর প্রতি আছে মস্তকে আশীষধারণের কল্যাণাবশেষ যা আমাদের স্বদেশসেবার আর্যকর্মানুষ্ঠান | জগজ্জননীর হৃদয়সিংহাসন এই ভারতবর্ষেই চিরস্থিত | আসুন, যে যেখানে থাকি না কেন, মায়ের সেবা করি, করে ধন্য হই | ভারতের কল্যাণেই জগতের কল্যাণ | জগৎ সুখিত হ'ক !

10. কেউ টাকার দাস, কেউ পদের দাস, কেউ বিদেশের দাস | ঠাকুরের দাস কে ?

11. গম্ভীরাত্মা আর বড় একটা দেখি না | সব পালকের ন্যায় হাল্কা |

12. তথ্য কিছু তত্ত্ব নয় |

13. সাধুর পদতলে প্রণামের সময় কেন প্রণামীর ঝুড়ি রাখা হয় ? ওঁরা তো 'টাকা মাটি, মাটি টাকা', এই মন্ত্রের জনক যিনি, সেই শ্রীশ্রীঠাকুরের প্রতিভূ | দেখতে বড় খারাপ লাগে | অনেকেই প্রণামী সকলে দিচ্ছেন দেখে, এই চাপে এক প্রকার মানসিক বাধ্যতাবশতঃ দেন | এ তো ভাল না | তাছাড়া প্রণাম ভক্তিপ্রসূত আধ্যাত্মিক কর্ম | তাতে অর্থের যোগ হওয়ায় তা কিয়দংশে হলেও নিরর্থক হয়ে যায় |

14. It is frustrating to see spiritual standard decline even in the noblest spiritual organisation.

15. ঠাকুর ছাড়া কাউকে মেনো না |

16. Vedanta preachers must not sit on a high pedestal and receive pranams from devotees who in their affirmed estimation are divinities, the embodiment of the highest Brahman in its Mayic terrestrial manifestation. This sort of a feudal approach is antithetical to the very spirit of the Vedanta. In his celebrated address 'Is Vedanta the Future Religion?' Swamiji had said that despite its discovery in India, Vedanta would find it hard to find its home en masse in India owing to this feudal, monarchical attitude that had settled in mass consciousness there over the ages. The United States of America with its pronounced and practised democracy would, if Americans duly understood the deeper import of the Vedanta, offer a better habitat for the flourishing of the Vedanta.

17. Money contaminates the soul and hinders spiritual progress.

18. The substance and its attributes are seemingly inseparable. Hence, it is hypocrisy to aspire for wealth and then pretend detachment. Possession of the substance will bring in its wake its due attributes that will bind. Rare in history has a being been who in the midst of wealth was serenely detached from it. King Janak is the celebrated instance from Puranic lore.

19. I am a fool who prattles much and knows so little.

20. I love the poor, the helpless, the hapless, the destitute and the dispossessed, the lowly, the despised, the miserable, the forsaken among humanity, those in whom the light of the soul has been covered deep through circumstance or through human neglect, the suffering masses who bear like beasts of burden the yoke of civilisation, yet reap not a morsel of the rich harvest of their labour in a world of merciless exploitation.

21. Thakur and Ma were both born poor. I feel their sympathies were with the poor. Swamiji became poor after his father's death. He suffered poverty and bled for the poor. So must we.

22. If as human beings we fail to sympathise with the plight of the poor in the name of lofty Vedantic scripture, we will have failed to qualify as human beings. 

23. Forget not the weak, the miserable, the forsaken children of Man who God has yet not forsaken but who God has left for you to bring succour unto. Unto you belongs the great privilege of serving these hapless children of the Lord who Man has forsaken. Will you also forsake them? Just consider that they are your very selves who with a little light, with a little food, with a little help and with loads of sympathy can yet arise to assert their latent powers which Mahamaya sleeping within them has endowed them with. Arise and bring relief, bring light and love to these, your very selves in the 'distressing guise' of the poor, the vulnerable, the perishing lot of withered humanity.

24. Give up superstition as a preliminary to practising religion. Only then can you be truly spiritual.

25. 'Prasad' is that which gives 'prasannata' (happiness).

26. We must love the poor for they are our very selves. Our sympathies must be spelled out not merely in words but in deeds which call for us to make sizeable sacrifices in bringing home solace and succour to these hapless brethren of ours.

27. Westernisation of thinking of Indian students studying in America is not a very welcome sign. We must strike deep our national roots and act accordingly.

28. The might of money cannot go far. It roams about in the periphery of our selves. The might of love can go farther, right to the depths of our being. The force of love is irresistible. Hence, love is the solution to the world's maladies.

29. An organisation goes to ruins when it compromises heavily its original ideals to suit the exigencies of the hour. Expansion at the cost of truth and adherence to original principles initiates the decline of organisational life.

30. Too much talk goes on about devotion and God while the teeming millions are routinely sent to despair, destitution and death by human apathy all the while.

31. Swami Nirmalananda (Tulsi Maharaj) was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna but has been denied that status by the Belur Math for reasons best known to them. But affirm or deny, the fact remains unaltered and truth cannot be suppressed. Nirmalanandaji was the 17th direct disciple of Thakur. History will one day make sure that its aberration thus far is undone and Nirmalanandaji is once more assigned his rightful status as the Master's initiated disciple.

32. The parts added fall short of the whole. So is Sri Ramakrishna infinitely greater than the summation of his direct disciples. His infinitude is beyond human or divine estimation. It is puerile to state that he was the sum of his apostles. He was far more than that, limitless and beyond dimensional or depth guaging. He was simply infinite.

33. We returned from Belur Math unfed when we were asked for compulsory donation against which the coupon for prasad would be issued whereupon we insisted that we would donate at the Math office to the sitting Swami after the coupon had been issued. We were informed by the concerned volunteer that he was under instruction not to issue coupon to any without ensuring that some contribution had been collected. This was happening beside Thakur's main temple and I was horrified to see this commercial transaction being conducted right under the shadow of Thakur. We refused to compromise and came away without prasad. I vowed never to partake of prasad at Belur Math again. Later at Saradapeeth another Swami comforted us and lovingly gave us lozenges to assuage our grief. Strangely enough, the consumption of the lozenges sent my mind soaring for a full twenty-four hours, such was the grace of the said Maharaj. This was an unfortunate incident but has been repeated in the lives of other devotees as they have reported the same to me. Alas, it is such a far cry from the esrly days of the Math when Thakur's children would themselves starve but would see to it that devotees were fed nonetheless! They did not have money then but had the heart to feed one and all and never against a mandatory charge extracted for the same.

34. The ideal must never be compromised. It is the life of organisation. Expansion will take place in due course but never must it be at the cost of compromise of ideals.

35. কথামৃত সংঘের সূচনা হল | প্রত্যহ যাঁরা কথামৃত পাঠ করবেন বলে মনস্থ করেছেন ও সেই নিমিত্ত স্থিতসংকল্প, তাঁরা যোগাযোগ করতে পারেন | [7.4.2022]

36. Between monk and householder make no difference. All are divine.

37. Stand on your own feet. That is spirituality.

38. The atheist is as holy as the theist. At source the same Atman animates all beings. Surface differences disregard. Dive deep. Have depth-vision.

39. My child, concentrate on your ideal. Do not drift.

40. Between church and home make no difference. Make each a pilgrimage.

41. Between secular and sacred make no difference. Behold each with an equal eye.

42. A new spiritual order is on the rise. Behold its bloom in bud now, soon to burst into fragrant blossoming to afforest the wide world. Ramakrishna comes yet again. Mark the Master. He is marking you.

43. Slavery is not spirituality. Sycophancy is not spirituality. Service is spirituality when the attitude is right.

44. Trees are there to photosynthesise and feed, to provide shade and shelter, nest to birds. Does one spread a net on leaves to prevent birds their natural habitat, to keep the ground clean of droppings?

45. A life of cowardice is not a life of the Lord. Love -- deep, abiding love bereft of a tinge of matter is the substance of spirituality. Nor fame nor fortune nor sense of pedestal-positioning of self must mar it.

46. The life of a man is the life of a civilisation that holds him as his heritage roots whence he draws sustenance for survival. He in turn leaves behind the flora of his life's breath for posterity to seek inspiration from. So the saga continues.

47. The rich have a responsibility towards the poor.

48. How easily we spend on ourselves! Yet, how hard it seems to spend by way of public charity! Serve the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

49. The average person in India is holy and this holiness must be preserved. No amount of material education must be allowed to tamper with this holiness.

50. Everything is divine.

51. গঙ্গা গঙ্গায় মিলল |

52. Holy men have trodden the soil of this motherland of ours from time immemorial to preserve her holiness, to intensify it. The trend continues to this day.

53. The rich spiritual tradition of India is indestructible. Despite countless onslaughts it stands supreme even today. The survival of the world depends on it. God Himself is preserving India since ancient times.

54. There is something deeper than religious denomination. It is the Supreme Self. Awake to the Divine within that is seated in the heart of man.

54. Swamiji's wanderjahre across India marks the awakening of the national kundalini.

55. As yet many will come who will uphold the banner of Eternal India. India will rise to spiritual eminence yet again to save the world from impending ruin. The Master's advent is due. Prepare.

56. Beyond language, beyond the letter, beyond learning, beyond letters, beyond even the primal sound Om, lies the Divine, ever-awake, bestowing benediction.

57. Maya has entranced all, Gods dreaming they are men.

58. Behind the facade of phenomena lies the One brewing up the destiny of things in the distillery of the Divine.

59. Duty is divine.

60. The Word holds the stimulus, the Soul holds the power. The Word quickens the response in the Soul that awakens awareness of the One Divine.

61. Distinctions cease when sameness is realised in the depths of the Being. Then it is the Divine Play all over again but with a different hue.

62. ভগবানের নামে কর্মপাশ কাটে | তাই যত জপ করা যায় ততই ভাল |

63. লীলাচিন্তন, গুণকীর্তন, নামস্মরণ -- এই উপায় ঈশ্বরসান্নিধ্যলাভের |

64. কাজ করলেই হল না; কাজ নিখুঁতভাবে, নিপুণভাবে করা চাই |

65. It is not good enough to do a piece of work; it must be done well, with care, with precision, with perfection. Then comes the attitude, the spirit of service and reverential worship involved. Last comes detachment to the fruits of work. Peace abides thereafter and illumination. Om!

66. The self-effaced is the Self-affirmed.

67. Vivekananda, Ashokananda, Ranganathananda - the trinity of inspired teachers!

68. মন যত ধীর, চিত্ত যত স্থির, ব্রহ্ম তত বিকশিত |

69. নিজের সাথে নিজের কথা বলাই ভাল | তাতে গোল থাকে না | বুদ্ধি দিলে, বাক দিলে, মা, কিন্তু শ্রোতা দিলে না | শুধু প্রয়োজনের জগৎ, তাৎক্ষণিক নিজস্বার্থটি রক্ষা পেলেই হল | বাকি সবই তো তাঁর কৃপা ! এমন বকধার্মিকেরও অভাব নেই সংসারে |

70.

জীবনে যাহারে দিলে না শ্রদ্ধা,

মরণে কি দিবে শ্রাদ্ধ তাহার ?

71.

কিবা জানি, কিবা বুঝি, কিবা করি কাজ ?

এইমাত্র জানি প্রভু, তব সর্ব দিব্য সাজ |

72. We have to grow in sympathy for the poor. The living God seeks our service in their emaciated bodies. They are our very selves. Can we neglect them thus?

73. It is good to democratise society but bad to degenerate culture in the process. Is it a demographic inevitability that it must thus come to pass ? Or is it avoidable with careful nurturing of the spreading sapling of society?

74. সেবাবুদ্ধির অভাবে দেশের বর্তমান দুর্দশা | এই অভাব অজ্ঞানতাপ্রসূত, স্বার্থবুদ্ধিহেতু | প্রাথমিক উপায় ভক্তকুলের শ্রীরামকৃষ্ণপ্রদর্শিত 'শিবজ্ঞানে জীবসেবা' এই মহামন্ত্রটি হৃদয়ঙ্গম করে তা নিজজীবনে প্রয়োগ করা মহা উৎসাহে | লক্ষ লক্ষ ভক্তের এই পূতপ্রয়োগে স্বদেশ সঞ্জীবিত হবে |

75. Those who cannot feel for the suffering of others are not fit to be Vedantists.

76.

The longest hour is the shortest hour,

Life lingers on earth.

From birth to death and death to birth,

The pearl  moment is but its worth.

Life lingers here on earth.

77.  যিনি ভক্ত, তিনি শুধু ভগবানকে ভালবাসেন না, তিনি ভগবানের সর্বোচ্চ প্রকাশ যে মানুষ, তাঁকে অবিরাম সেবা করেন, পূজা করেন, সম্মান-শ্রদ্ধা করেন |

78. The devotee is one who sees God in all. His worship is the unceasing adoration of the Divine Beloved in the sanctum of his heart and in the living sanctum of the mortal frame of  man and even lower sentience. He sees with joy God all around and madly loves all without distinction. Such is the devotee, a rare visitation on earth.

79. 

আজ পূর্ণ করে দেবার দিন |

80. Behind the mortal frame of man lies the immortal Atman, the imperishable Self, the Real Man. Knowing this make no distinction between saint and sinner. Worship all.

81. Today is Annapurna Pooja. Give today as much as your heart permits. Give all.

82. Heaven is in your loving heart, nowhere else.

83. শুধু 'প্রণাম' বললে বা করলে চলে না | ওটা বিধিবাদীয় ভক্তির আনুষ্ঠানিক প্রকাশ | চাই শ্রদ্ধা ও তার কর্মে রূপান্তর, 'লোকসংগ্রহার্থম' |

84. Great men are simple men. They see life in its bare essentials. Their depth-vision probes life to its very essence. And when they have reached the goal, they are deemed great, not a moment earlier.

85. Religious preaching has become a sham. Shallow men masquerade as preachers citing superficial instances by way of explanation of deep phenomena. Depth-causes are not investigated neither spoken of. The crust assumes the role of the core as core issues are carpeted with ornamental elements. The seer is superficial these days. One awaits the arrival of the true seer.

86. How unfortunate am I when I behold that my own ones do not care to read regularly even my whatsapp status updates! We are a nation indeed. Here talent goes abegging as men chase coarser transitory dreams relegating pure thought a base pedestal where perish the most fertile ideas in the desert-sand of neglect.

87. I do not want any God to save me in my final hour. There is no final hour for me. It is an endless sea of eternity. The flow of time is but the seeming undulation of the frozen moment. Who will save whom when God is all that is ? Fear given up here and now, freedom is here and now. You are free. You are already saved. Never were you bound, O Great One, wake up!

88. When we speak from the rostrum in Bengali we must speak in colloquial language. It strikes a chord with the people. Why use such ornamental language that seems superficial and that too with artificial pulsating voice?

89. It is better to be a rational atheist with a sense of charity for the dispossessed than a heartless believer selfish to the core.

90. Cowards are unfit for religion. The valorous alone are virtuous.

91. Belief counts for little. Facts matter. Truth must be established on the basis of hard evidence, empirical or experiential.

92. We must learn to precisely answer questions put before us. It is generally seen that people do not give direct answers that accurately address the questions put before them but they give answers that suit them, being determined by their mental predilections. This is an unscientific attitude and is a travesty of truth.

93. A casual attitude to social media messaging devoid of proper punctuation is symptomatic of carelessness, impreciseness and poor concentration that surely is not a mark of developed character or of an integrated personality. 

94. When will men have greater faith in themselves than in God ? Then will  divinity shine in human beings more lustrous than ever before.

95. Swamiji's final doctrine was manhood. He wanted Indians to exhibit nanhood, that is, strength devoid of the slightest tinge of effeminacy, to drive out the colonial predators and arrive at all-round national excellence.

96. আহা, কোকিলের সুর কি সুন্দর ! এমন সুর তো আর শুনলাম না | It is sublime music of surpassing beauty emanating from the very heart of Nature.

97. কথামৃত পড়া মানে ঠাকুরের সাথে থাকা |

98. The difference between religion and science is this: religion gets dated more often than not whereas science is ever on the move.

99. Greed today is a great source of evil as nations fight to appropriate the earth's resources. Foolish races, they kill each other for temporal gains and, yet, they vaunt of civilisation. Their violent seafaring ancestry has entered into their genes and they cannot give up their biological inheritance so easily.

100. Hindus have lived under foreign occupation of their homeland for well over a thousand years. When the Islamic hordes invaded, Hindus were hopelessly divided. If they had stood forth united as a nation, they could have wiped out the invading armies. But they fought amongst themselves and ensured their thousand year slavery. Then cane the European colonisers who looted our land for centuries and reduced us to penury. Alas, when shall we learn our lessons from history? When shall we unite?