EPISTLES TO DISCIPLES: SHARMISTHA CHATTERJEE ... 1

EPISTLES TO DISCIPLES: 

SHARMISTHA CHATTERJEE ... 1

LETTER 1:

Dear Sharmistha,                         13.10.2025

                                                              Kolkata

       This body is in Swamiji's words the Taj Mahal of all temples. Such is the beauty of the Taj that Swamiji may have been thus inspired to call a mausoleum a temple. Nonetheless, beauty being an attribute of God, and the Taj being of exquisite beauty, Swamiji's words make sublime sense. But to call this physical form of perishable organic matter the Taj of measureless marvel in marble, does that make sense too? It does. Our scriptures say that three things are obtained by the grace of the gods---a human body, the desire for liberation from the karmic cycle of birth and death, and the association of a great soul. When these three are attained, freedom is at hand. As the human body is the first requisite among these three, verily has it been called the Taj Mahal of all temples, the temple where resides the Lord in the sanctum sanctorum of the spiritual heart. That you have been blessed with such a body and a discriminating, discerning mind aa befits a brāhmani, you should concentrate on realising God in this very life. That much for now. More later.

With blessings on you and yours,

Gurudev

LETTER 2: 

Dear Sharmistha,                        14.10.2025 

     In Vrindāvan monks do Chaurāsi Kos Vrindāvan Parikramā. I have introduced Vivekananda Parikramā which I will do and others, if they choose, may follow suit.

The Vivekananda Parikramā includes reading thoroughly the following:

1) The four yogas 

2) Inspired Talks

3) Swami-Shishya Samvād

4) Lectures from Colombo to Almora 

5) Chicago Lectures

6) The Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples 

7) The Master As I Saw Him

8) Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda 

9) Monastic Disciples of Swami Vivekananda 

10) Romain Rolland's biographical study of Vivekananda 

This is quite a tall order but reaching the spiritual height that is the aspired end of all spirituality is also a tall climb. Hence, you see. I will be at it. Let me see who else does. The Sanātanis are in peril today from proselytising Abrahamic religions and multiplying Muslims. To combat this civilisational threat I will lay down my life as Swamiji has exhorted us all to do. The rest rests with the God of India's destiny (Bhāratabhāgyavidhātā).

With blessings of valour and virtue on you and yours, 

Gurudev

LETTER 3: 

Dear Sharmistha,                          15.10.2025 

    Time is short, the task is big, the load is heavy and the labour is large. Let us not tarry anymore but hurry on home. Life is a fleeting dream of the senses in somnoloscence with time ticking by inexorably towards the deadly end. It must not be lost thus. Buck up and practise spirituality so that you may smash the dream here and now. No nonsense of negativity but all affirmation of things holy, so dear to the beloved Lord of beings whose mercy knows no end. Ramakrishna is God and greater than God. There is no end to his being nor no beginning. He is as anādi and as ananta as srishty itself [Anādi srishty ananta srishty]. And He must be endlessly worshipped, adored as one's nearest and dearest, as one's very Self, as oneself. May these lines come as benediction unto you before whom the gateway to God is wide open, waiting only to be walked across into the realm of infinite freedom and light. 🕉 

With everlasting blessing being showered on you and light of the heavens radiated unto your luminous self,

Gurudev

LETTER 4:

Dear Sharmistha,                          15.10.2025 

     Communication is the key to effective social functioning. In its absence social inefficiency sets in. What is true of collective living is true of individual living as well, for the collective is but the individual multiplied with all its complexes of combination in greater or lesser harmonic integration. All said and done, communication is the key to gregarious living. Even the hermit in isolation self-communicates either with his introspective mind or in self-brooding with his transcendental Self. Where communication fails, there selfishness has crept in as obstruction. Such obstructions are best removed effectively, efficiently and fast. Else, it becomes the primitive man's living in his undeveloped state of insufficient cohesion with its corresponding consequences. Social development has been ever since geared towards harmonious grouping which has led to human progress, prosperity and greater human longevity but also tribal warfare and in later times imperial wars whose more modern derivative are international wars, the bloodiest being the two world wars of the twentieth century. Now all this conflict despite better modes of communication has been owing to selfishness and a refusal to send across the right message at the right time. Not that simplistic of course but an element of diplomacy is due dialogue rather than brooding in silent suspicion over the enemy's intent which leads to misapprehension, misgivings and even otherwise avoidable conflict. The same with the individual. Interpersonal relations prosper when communication is kept up, flounder and fail when it is disrupted and discontinued. That is why, perhaps, individual minds are all apparently separate for maintenance of individual identity and linked in the cosmic mind for possibility of communication. Otherwise, each individual would never have known that others exist and the principle of 'Eko'ham bahushyām' ['I am One, I wish to be many'] would have failed. The summum bonum then is that we must all maintain good communication if we deem ourselves to be good social beings. Selfishness must not dampen human relations nor be allowed to dilute them, for that must be deemed utterly unspiritual.

This much for today. Ideas flow and they seek utterance. Hence the poet composes, the artist paints, the philosopher writes and the commoner laughs in joy, weeps in pain and lives his life in shared bonds and suffered ends. But there is bliss at the end of it all. It is eventually by no means a tragedy. It is tragedy, perhaps, from start to a long long way up but comedy at the end of it all. The prize awaits for all. So, there is nothing to be despondent about.

With blessings on you unending,

Gurudev

LETTER 5: 

Dear Sharmistha,                         18.10.2025

     The One is there and none else. The inscrutable hand of Māyā makes it appear as the Many. Māyā is the Power of Brahman which is at once inscrutable as it is inexplicable. Which is why Shankarāchārya calls Her 'anirvachaniya' (beyond explication). This One Brahman you are in the Absolute and this manifold Māyā you are in the relative. And like Jacob's ladder the outward current or the expanding sphere (pravritti) and the inward current or the contracting sphere (nivritti) are in reverse order continuously operating, the Biblical lore talking of people going up and down along the ladder between heaven and earth, much like our gods and men in the Puranas traversing likewise between heaven (svarga), earth (martya) and hell narak). But all that is representative of the real phenomenon of the complex apparent disintegration of the Ablsolute Consciousness into multifarious thoughts and the apparent integration of these thoughts back to the Absolute Consciousness. All this is apparent, though, and not real. In reality the Absolute abideth unchanging and ever unchanged as the One Existence-Consciousness without partition or even its remotest possibility for being so broken. The immortal Self has been abiding above phenomena, above the triune of space-time-causality eternally in the absolute sense. It becomes rather dry to dwell on these topics for long which is why the juicy tales of the Puranas were written to impregnate the masses with the grand ideas of the highest Vedas in a more humanly palatable way. Even the Upanishads fall short of the actual realisation in one's Being of the glory of the Ātman. Life is this shadow of the Self in all its variegated beauty, pleasure and pain but the Being is like the sun beyond aught of earth on which its rays are incident and help illumine objects. It is a transcendent altitude that no spaceship may ever attain nor any submarine dive to reach the depths where the core of consciousness is. Either way externally it is unreachable although Ŕishis have discovered the route to the Root within this bodily mansion of six chakras (shadachakra) and seven planes (saptabhūmi). The universe and countless such (anantakoti brahmānda) are floating like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. 

Is the world unreal then? It cannot be said so. It is Brahman in the relative mode and as such relatively real. Are there two realities then, Brahman and Jagat (universe)? No, it is the same reality either in the Absolute state when the relative vanishes or in the state of relativity when the Absolute cannot be perceived, substance and form alternating roles in our cognition. When Brahman is perceived, Māyā is not, and when Māyā is perceived, Brahman is not. The two are the obverse and reverse of a single Reality which you could call the One-Many, Brahman-Māyā, Shiva-Shakti, the essence and the extension. These are deep philosophical matters which need mediate realisation (parokshānubhūti) and immediate realisation (aparokshānubhūti) for clear conception. Intensify austerity and scriptural study, and by the grace of the Guru things will become apparent, for divine you are and divinity is your birthright as also inheritance. 

With blessings,

Gurudev

LETTER 6: 

Dear Sharmistha,                          19.10.2025

Humanity is not under the control of some weird bābās but is ruled by the Law if Karma. It is completely decentralised in that sense. Do not be credulous. All these Mahāvatār Bābāji and others of their ilk are so much hoax concocted and propagated across generations by interested parties among the superstitious people of the world. Their day is not yet done, though, because the human mind is as yet only too susceptible to these paralysing, hypnotic influences. Such is the current state of human evolution en masse. Remember, man has barely a few centuries back, in places merely a few millennia back, emerged from the dense dark of the forests. His technological advancement has barely touched the hem of his inner mental apparel and he remains the same old brute with quaint ideas, queer conceptions, irrational and unbalanced, his interpretation of reality barely better than a toddler of little understanding. Read all but reflect and reject the trash elements. The Upanishads are the mine of knowledge and strength, and they speak a different language altogether which is utterly impersonal. This Jnāngunj business is of Purānic mould, of Purānic origin in terms of ideas derived and fit for people with slave mentality who need a big brother to boss over them. It is true that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of the philosophy of Horatio but it is equally true that such paranormal phenomena are not the governing principles of earthly life but are perceptions of the mind in certain subtle states. Therefore, cast aside all superstition and take refuge in the Lord who is beyond all such idle ideas but is the repository of all knowledge, all peace and all blessedness, pure and holy, strong and free. Free you are, free you were, free you shall ever be. No Jnāngunj Bābā has ever bound you nor can ever do so. Remain blissfully independent. 🕉 

With blessings and light forever showering on you and yours,

Gurudev

LETTER 7: 

Dear Sharmistha,                          20.10.2025

     "Kāli worked up the body of Ramakrishna," said Swamiji to Nivedita. Traditionally, though, the Yugāvatār is the incarnation of Vishnu. But that may be only a post-Buddhist Purānic ideological thrust when Vaishnavism replaced Buddhism and became the dominant religious sect of the Sanātan Dharma. Moreover, Brahmā creates, Vishnu preserves and Maheshvar destroys. Hence, the Yugāvatār, whose descent is for the preservation of the Sanātan Dharma in temporal terms, may have been considered as being representative of Vishnu. And Sri Ramakrishna did show up the forms of Shree Rāma and Shree Krishna in Kāshipur to dispel the lingering doubt as to his divinity in the mind of his protégé. He had earlier shown himself to be Shiva and Kāli to Mathur Babu in Dakshinesvar. But Swamiji insisted that Thakur was Kāli's Avatār. And Thakur lifelong remained the veritable instrument in the hands of the Divine Mother as he went about his terrestrial sport (jagat leela). At Shyāmpukur finally on the night of Kāli Puja in 1885 he emerged as the Barābhayā Herself at the inspirational instance of being worshipped as such by Girish Chandra Ghosh which was then followed by others. The divine drama was drawing to its climactic close and this was one of the high points reached. Another Kāli Pujā Thakur was not in his earthly form to witness as he passed away on 16 August, 1886 (15 August by the Hindu almanac which determines the beginning of the day at sunrise). So, on his last earthly Kāli Pujā night he revealed his Kāli identity. He used to in his Dakshineshvar days sometimes say that within him there were two personalities. One was He/She (God/Goddess) and the other was His/Her devotee. Probably, we should discount the 'He'-part here and emphasise the 'She'-part as Thakur was predominantly a Kāli bhakta, that, though, not meaning that he was exclusively so. But the dominant deity in his life was Mā Kāli and Swamiji must have definitely envisioned what he affirmed thus about Thakur to Nivedita. Even when Thakur entered into mahāsamādhi on 16 August, 1886, Sri Sri Mā Thakurāni wailed over her departed husband's form saying, "Mā Kāli, where have you gone?" From all these occurrences, observations and even self-admission of Thakur it is clear that Swamiji's understanding of his Guru was correct. Which also means that this time it has been a departure from the passive Bhakti Movement of medieval times to the Vedic virile culture in all its comprehensiveness, given fresh impetus by Shankarāchārya. No wonder Mā called Thakur 'all Advaita' and his movement Advaitic when dispute arose over the Advaita Ashrama's departure, at Swamiji's injunction, from the devotional adherence to worship of Thakur in the shrine at Māyāvati. In summation, thus, it may be said that Sri Ramakrishna's descent this time has been to combine all that was strong in the pre-Buddhist Vedic period with all that was glorious in the post-Buddhist Bhakti period which is also the reason why Thakur called his brand of devotion as jnānmishra bhakti. Was the Buddhist period left out then from the Avatār's consideration? Not at all. The Ramakrishna Sangha, the travel to foreign lands to propagate the message of the Vedas, the philanthropy and service were all in line with the Buddha and his movement. The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement has been the catholic culmination of the spiritual history of Bhāratvarsha and its unfolding in the centuries ahead will prove to be the great harmoniser of the diverse streams of world thought. As for Thakur, he remains the embodiment of Kalikrishna about whom Rāmprasād sang a century before the Paramahamsa's advent, in the court of Mahārāj Krishna Chandra Sen. 

It, therefore, is incumbent upon all to imbibe this true Ramakrishna Kālikrishna spirit and worship the Mother not just on Kāli Pūjā night but on all days of the year, the worship of the Terrible with one's heart's blood, as Swamiji put it. Kāli is Death and She must claim our skulls to bedeck her form. And Ramakrishna is Kāli.

With eternal blessings and forever being the beacon in this turbulent sea of Māyā,

Gurudev

LETTER 8:

Dear Sharmistha,                        20.10.2025

    This is also the homecoming of Shree Rāmachandra after banishment of fourteen long years by human treachery which he, being the highest embodiment of virtue (Maryādā Purushottam), gracefully accepted and through austere living, forging dhārmic alliances and destroying the evildoers set up the standard for humanity forever. His victory over Rāvana and his rescuing of his beloved divine consort Seeta lit up humanity with hope, the devas with delight and Ayodhyā with a million lamps both on the streets, the courtyards and the sanctum of the human heart. This is Deepāvali in essence when light streams through after the dispelling of dark, the destruction of the demonic forces, the resurrection of religion. 

May your heart be likewise filled with the light that will be abounding everywhere this Deepāvali night! May Mā Kāli see fulfilment in your own empowerment as Her incarnation with all its promise!

With blessings unending and flowing in torrents,

Gurudev

EPISTLES TO DISCIPLES: PARNIKA BUBNA GUPTA ... 1

EPISTLES TO DISCIPLES: 

PARNIKA BUBNA GUPTA ... 1

LETTER 1: 

Dear Parnika,                                  13.10.2025

                                                                Kolkata                                          

Life is a golden opportunity to realise God. It must not go in vain. Running after the fleeting things of life becomes (suits) the dull, not the one of fine intelligence. Material pursuits are necessary but not to the exclusion of spiritual ones as in your case. This must not be. A harmonious balance makes for good living and evolutionary advancement. This much for now. More later. 

With blessings on you and yours, 

Gurudev

LETTER 2:

Dear Parnika,                                  14.10.2025

     Study the Sanātan Dharma by reading Swami Vivekananda's Complete Works. It is essential. Each and every Hindu must be well-versed in the fundamentals of the faith. Otherwise we will weaken as a race. The soul of Bhāratvarsha is the Sanātan Dharma and so long as Hindus are in the vast majority in Bhārat, the faith will flourish. Look at the partitioned parts of erstwhile Akhanda Bhārat. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Where is the Sanātan Dharma there? Hindus are being persecuted in these erstwhile Hindu regions and are being literally wiped out. The history of the world is replete with instances of entire civilisations being wiped out by Islam and by Christianity and history is right now being repeated. Must you sleep in the face of it? I ask you once more to ponder these pressing issues and come to conclusions as to how you would conduct your life.

With hope and blessings,

Gurudev

LETTER 3:

Dear Parnika,                                 15.10.2025 

     Life is fleeting. The vanities of the world are of two days. It is a bubble that will burst one day even while the dance on its surface is on. How one lives one's life determines the fate hereafter. Fear should not dictate direction. Rather, discretion should. Discrimination between the real and the unreal, the perennial and the ephemeral, between the divine and the human makes for worthwhile living. 

A human body is not easily come by. It is the rarest instrument in the organic world, one fitted to go beyond this very network of space-time and the causal-probabilistic web unto absolute formless, attributeless freedom. One may choose to live in relative freedom as well with attributes and form with God in some higher divine plane but remains nonetheless within the gunas that subtly hold. Only in nirvikalpa samādhi is freedom fully attained. That is the goal, a rather insipid dish to digest now when the flavour of fresh desires altering hues every now and then holds one in its apparently pleasurable grip, only to deliver the deathly blow thereafter like a harlot who has sapped one's vitality and then cast off one like refuse into the bin of rejection. Perhaps, the words are heating up too much. Hence, let them rest here. Adieu for the while before a fresh foray keeps the firing on!

With love and blessings,

Gurudev

LETTER 4: 

Dear Parnika,                                  19.10.2025

    Your devotion exceeds expectations as always. Shubha Deepāvali! May this homecoming of the divine Shree Rām in company with his divine consort, our Mother Seeta, be a homecoming of divine consciousness for you as well, as it ought to be for every devotee but seldom is. Had it been so, the festival of lights would have had its illumining fulfilment. But we are all divine and one day, in the fullness of time, when delusive desires have been satiated or en route frustrated the dissatisfied infinite individual with their finiteness, such a homecoming shall be. Then the Deepāvali will have found its fulfilling destination and the festival of lights will have found a happier home in the sanctum sanctorum of the heart. Till then these externalities shorn of inner significance will be repeating in endless cycles their regimen till kingdom come one blissful eve. Then the deep dark of the heart will light up with the blaze of the blissful reunion of the beloveds and the whole of this bodily mansion will have become Ayodhya, the realm of harmony where no war ever is. 

To that dawn, my dear,

I send these lines tonight.

They'll waft through the starry skies 

To welcome you with the light.

Gurudev

LETTER 5

Dear Parnika,                           28.10.2025 

A continuous stream of messaging all day long must be. That will make me feel that I have a worthy disciple who is working with me in this great mission of awakening the sleeping leviathan that the Hindu polity is. Swamiji gave his life to doing it and I am doing the same right now before your very eyes. Can you not see? Such apathy is endemic to our Hindu nation and must forthwith change to a grand sympathy if we are to save civilisation as is the imperative in these treacherous times of external threats and internal perfidy, subversion either way. Today is Sister Nivedita's birthday and calls on our conscience for a concerted effort in nation-building along Rishi-laid lines culminating in that grand golden outlining done by that seminal sage, Swamiji. We cannot possibly fail these glorious predecessors by remaining passive witnesses to the demise of our Sanātan culture and the death of Bhāratvarsha with it.

Meditate on this and act. Now no time to wait and watch anymore. It is now or never.

With everlasting blessings,

Gurudev

TIME FOR ANOTHER VIVEKANANDA

TIME FOR ANOTHER VIVEKANANDA 

Time for another Vivekananda to preach Vivekananda. Preaching Vedanta to an ignorant, often highly materialistic audience, that too in a repetitive textual manner, is futile. Narrate instead the events of Swamiji's epic life in an arresting style. That will conduce to the spiritual welfare of the people. Who among these preachers is interested in preaching Swamiji after all? They are busy delivering stereotypical Vedantic doles tantamount to nothing substantial for an audience that is bound in the delusion of worldly desires with earthly cravings hardly met. In war zones where people are dying let these preachers preach the immortality of the soul. Where Hindus are dying at the hands of Islamists, as in Bangladesh and Pakistan and in select districts and provinces of Hindu minority population in India, let these preachers propagate the Vedanta. What is the use of oiling well-oiled heads? Let dry heads be oiled. And let commerce not dictate the demands of Vedanta-preaching. Let lectures be free and not charged as is the wont these days. This is a sad departure from true traditional spiritual practice despite the so-called pecuniary pressures of modern organisational existence. Now ruminate. 🕉

Written by Sugata Bose 

POESY PAK (URDU)

POESY PAK (URDU)

Kalā bhi sundar,

Jaise nāche bandar. 

Mast qalandar!

Mast qalandar!

Ek thā bhāyo 

Paidā Porbandar.

Uski bhāyā thhā

Namak samundar.

Āj nāche gāye

Jaise chhuchhundar.

Jinnā jinki 

Pāyal ki jhankār,

Woh rotey rotey

Ānsu ki phankār.

Arey, mast qalandar,

Mast qalandar!

Mausiqi: Sugata Bose

SWAMI SHUDDHIDANANDA, A LION AMONG MEN

SWAMI SHUDDHIDANANDA, A LION AMONG MEN

Swami Shuddhidananda of Ramakrishna Mission speaks with authority. It is sheer inspiration to listen to him. Maharaj should never lessen his force and speak in an apologetic tone. He does not. He should never. People like strength. That is why they adore Swami Vivekananda. As successor to 'The Lion of the Vedanta', Suddhidanandaji also must never tone down the tenor of his speech but must continue to fire up the audience with volcanic words of the Vedanta, theoretical and practical, without apology, without compromise, without pandering to the vanities of the worldly, ever intent on hearing softer stuff. Let the nerves rattle. Let the lava flow out of the heart of the Vesuvius in igneous form and metamorphose humanity, careering it along higher evolutionary channels. It takes a long time to get a masculine soul full of the fire of brahmacharya, and we have at last found in Shuddhidanandaji one such in the mould of Swami Vivekananda who left us over a century back. Now we must not let go of this leonine Swami. Support Swami Shuddhidananda wholeheartedly but do not spoil the show with silly remarks of pretentious piety that make a mockery of his supernal strength that is attempting to reach you and transform you unto becoming real men and women. 🕉

Written by Sugata Bose

COMMENTS GALORE ... 95

COMMENTS GALORE ... 95

Sugata Bose @Shankar Kumar Chatterjee : Shoecasing sentiment? (Reference made to shoe-hurling at CJI on account of hurt religious sentiment by Sanātani senior Supreme Court lawyer consequent on CJI's carping comment with reference to Bhagavān Vishnu's decapitated Khājurāho statue.)

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya : With delight I am reading your Svāmi-Shruti series on Prabuddha Bhārat. This is seminal service unto the Sanātan Dharma. Glory unto you! 🕉

Sugata Bose @Indian Express : One cannot ignore, though, the insult to Sanātanis in the form of such a caustic remark made about Bhagavān Vishnu as if the Lord is a powerless deity incapable of self-repair. He who preserves countless universes cannot preserve his own idol? Is that the insinuation obliquely and inversely stated?

Sugata Bose @Sourav Chakraborty : Disgusting display of degenerate dance, a classic representation of declining culture. [Ref: CM and coterie dancing away in the post-Pūja Kolkata Carnival.] 

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya: This happened post the advent of Jain and Buddhist non-violence and hyper-vegetarianism which killed the martial instinct largely. Also the weakening of an aging civilisation and its insular isolation from the rapidly changing technological world contributed to this capitulation. The diversity of races commingling in Bhāratvarsha and fighting with each other continuously as in a continent further complicated matters leading to capitulation before invasive thrusts. Lastly, the neglect of the teeming millions and their treatment as mere beasts of burden completely weakened the body politic of the nation which led to its downfall when barbarous forces attacked it.

P.S. There was another reason as well. Owing to Buddhist proselytism across the then barbarous races of Asia, intermingling of blood with the more civilised Bhāratvarshiyas took place. Consequent on the settlement of these mixed races within the borders of the subcontinent, their indigenous practices infiltrated into Bhārat and progressively corrupted the largely prevailing Buddhist practices with horrendous vāmāchār (the left-handed religious practices). Thus, sensuality substituted spirituality and perversion replaced purity. The wide distribution of debauchery---for Buddhism had in course of time converted two-thirds of the subcontinent to its fold---completely sapped the vitality of the nation and made it fit for foreign conquest. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Kapil Patil : Keep laughing, brother. Let the humour spread. Right now indifference is the lot that one has to bear from friends and associates. You at least are in spirit there which your sarcasm signifies, your scornful humour pointing to the futility of my endeavour in generating genuine sympathy for the Hindutva cause in the stone-hearts of apathetic educated Hindus whose souls have been sold to self-serving of every kind. Such a sorry state of affairs rightfully deserves scorn as your 'laughter' emoji like a whip lashes. But these unsympathetic ones are rhino-hides and could scarce care for your or my concerns for the fallen and falling fate of Hindus. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Stay well, brother, and keeping spreading the laugh. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya : But not to be condoned. Must be censured instead.

Sugata Bose @Kapil Patil : Guru Golwalkar was the disciple of Swami Akhandānanda who was the disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. 

Sugata Bose @Kapil Patil : Good self-submission. Like it. It takes a lot of depth to comprehend the seminal contribution of the RSS in the work of nation-building. A cursory glance through online criticism or listening to media carp will not suffice. Read first 'THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA' to equip yourself to arrive at a semblance of understanding of the national imperatives and the consequent role of the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangha in attempting to fulfil it. The task is onerous and requires Hindu solidarity of effort, not derisive laughter or denunciation that is tantamount to nothing substantial. The decades ahead will teach lessons legion to reveal the civilisational danger which the Hindus face and the great defence that the RSS has and will have built up to save the Sanātanis and the Sanātan Dharma. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya : You are spot on. We must ward off this challenge manfully.

Sugata Bose @Nandini Chowdhury : Whosoever's photograph this is, is a lovely soul, open to divine influences. She should read thoroughly 'THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA', for her spiritual evolution in consequence will be rapid.

Sugata Bose @YouTube [Sugata Bose] : This video has been made by way of initiating an awareness programme for Hindus in regard to the civilisational dangers they face today, looming threats which are going to worsen in the decades ahead. This is the first of a continuous series of video presentations that will be posted to highlight the prospective peril facing the Hindus. Unless we respond to Swami Vivekananda's clarion call, 'Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached!' we will be ushering in our civilisational doom. Hence it is meet that Hindus take to serious viewing of this series of videos and accordingly rise up to the challenges of the times. It is a case of 'now or never'. Hence, beware! 🕉 Hindu!

Sugata Bose @Parnika Bubna : Get well and get a well, Jnānvāpi (the well of knowledge).

Sugata Bose @Ujjal Kumar Ghosh : Hit it hard and right where it ought to be struck. But hit Hindus do not see their hit (welfare) despite so many hits spanning millenia. Another thing you must have surely noticed. Apologists of these weak Vedanta sādhus will never endorse my observations. Their sycophancy and support lends fuel to this shirking of the dharmic duty to defend persecuted Hindus wherever they be, as Swamiji has exhorted every Hindu to do. But puerile preaching of unpractised principles is all that constitutes modern monasticism of this said denomination and it is abominable. Sufficient unto the day is thd evil thereof and we who are of stronger blood must make up for the lapses of these weaklings by lending our life's blood to the task of defending the Hindus wherever they are suffering the infidel's infra-rational tyranny. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Rudranil Ghosh : Every sane person wants it ideally. But what about insane ones adhering to totalitarian ideology? Is secularism there in Islamic countries totalling 57? Or will it be there in the prospective 58th once demography has had its last say? Surely Netaji is not their guiding light nor his ideology. They are guided by the Deen which beholds India as Dar-ul-Harb to be converted to Dar-ul-Islam. Whither secularism, whither democracy then when demography will have put paid to it?

Sugata Bose @Rudranil Ghosh True perhaps, but that hardly alters the historical narrative.

Sugata Bose @Rudranil Ghosh : Read all of RSS literature. Visit the Shākhās and join. Serve the country. Dedicated soldiers of the Sanātan spirit ought to be fired up by Rāshtrabhakti and build the nation. Read Swami Vivekananda so thoroughly that you get spiritual insight into the evolutionary flow of our national life. Also read the Qur'an, the Hadees and the Sira to allow for comprehensive comprehension of Islamic theology, ideology, history, inspiration and intent. Then shall surface notions dissolve and disappear in the depths of real understanding. Then shall perception be perfected. 'Then shall the knots of the heart be pierced through and all doubts be rent asunder.' (Geeta) 🕉

Sugata Bose @Priyadarshi Gupta : Every census since 1947 has revealed decreasing Hindu population percentage and increasing Muslim population percentage. In nine states already Hindus are a minority. The trend is on. Moreover, statistics must must be understood in depth as well. When the country was partitioned in 1947, Hindus were 76% and Muslims 24%. Still the dismemberment of the motherland took place.

Sugata Bose @Swami Nikhileswarananda : Two glorious sons of the soil, one propagating the message of the Master through the Word and the other inspiring us all through his affable personality, honesty, idealism lived out in life and accessibility to all and sundry, the current flowing both ways. 🕉

Sugata Bose @RN Singh : Do open such a school where you will be Headmaster and we your pupils.

Sugata Bose @Subhrajyoti Bhowmick : Join hands with me and work for Sanātan solidarity.

Sugata Bose @Parnika Bubna : And I am writing such letters to so many, all along the contours of their characters and the pertinence of their personalities.

Sugata Bose @Siddhartha Sankar Chakraborty : Read Abdullah Yusuf Ali's English translation of the Qur'an. It is authentic and close to the original, as close as translation can possibly be.

Sugata Bose @YouTube [Debabrata Bandyopadhyay] : Why have you played so loud the disturbing background music in all its effeminate pseudomusicality? It has resulted in a jarring contrast to the address by the Reverend Gahanānandaji instead of being a soft harmony soothing to the ear and embellishing the aesthetic beauty of the presentation.

Sugata Bose @Tapas Banerjee : Why wait for what happens hither or thither, however significant they may be? Why not do one's own wee bit and that too in a massive way from the personal standpoint, full of fiery conviction and free of fear, propagating the Word like lightning as I do? Perhaps you do. Then Godspeed, do more. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Jukta Basu Mallick : একটা জিনিস মনে রাখবে, hurdles may be many but victory is yours.

Sugata Bose @Sulekha Basu : বড় মর্মান্তিক কিন্তু রুধিররঞ্জিত সত্যসুন্দর আপনার মন্তব্যে |

Sugata Bose @Rudranil Ghosh : Sanātan solidarity is needed. We may all work for it.

Sugata Bose @Puneet Sahani : You are doing yeoman's service to the motherland. Thank you, brother.

Sugata Bose @Sanjoy Chatterjee : হবে যেদিন রামকৃষ্ণ মিশন এক সুরে স্বামীজীর স্বাদেশিকতাবিষয়ক বক্তব্যের সত্য উপস্থাপন করবে, যথার্থ পৌরুষ অবলম্বন করে বলিষ্ঠ বচনে বলবে বীরবাণী যেমনটি স্বামীজী চেয়েছিলেন | এখন ত' নানান সুরে মিশ্র রাগ পরিবেশন হচ্ছে যা অনেকটাই জায়গা বুঝে তুষ্টিকরণ |

Sugata Bose @Mukesh Kumar : Please explain in detail, O invisible one with name but no form, seemingly at least, somewhat like the Saguna Nirākār Brahman. 🕉 is your symbol.

Sugata Bose @Debashish Chittaranjan Roy [Reference : INR 1200 consolidated for three days' spiritual retreat with Swami Sarvapriyananda at Ramakrishna Math, Pune] : Everywhere money. Money! Money! Money! Sweeter than honey. Whither Vedanta? Whither spiritual realisation? All commerce, that which Thakur has most exhorted his followers to renounce, and the followers of the day are wonderfully letting him down, citing the pecuniary exigencies of the times. Time indeed for another descent of the Divine which must needs happen now in fulfilment of the prophecy made by the Master the last time. Unpalatable words for sure for apologetic disciples and devotees to digest, but truth and nothing but the truth, nonetheless. It will 'cleave its way through adamantine walls of difficulty' and make its mark on any who is as yet possessed of a semblance of sincerity of self and a conscientious heart that as yet throbs to the pulsations of truth, bitter though it may be but conducive to great good at the end if well heeded. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Debaprasad Bhattacharya : But the same Swamiji had warned thus: "The bane of a spiritual organisation is when it hangs on to the sleeves of the rich." The way the Mission is nowadays raising money at every bend and turn has logic going both ways. I believe it to the sign of spiritual degeneration. You may consider it to be necessity. Wish you are right and I am wrong. But my experience and realisation is that the Mission is traversing along the wrong track. You, of course, may differ. But as an ardent devotee of Thakur-Ma-Swamiji, my job is to sound constantly the warning bell. 🕉

P.S. Swamiji had told his disciple Sharatchandra Chakrabarty that if a person could build his character, money would flow at his feet. Also, as you have mentioned, he had asked the same person if it was money that made man or man money. But in regard to what is in currency in the Mission these days where money is being pursued with singular zeal, Swamiji's words can hardly be justifiably applied to justify this general demeanour. You see in a dualistic world of dialectical contradictions and considerations, even the jihādi justifies his violent acts by way of reaction to geopolitical mass oppression by western powers against weaker Islamic countries. But are his actions justifiable? Even the Nāzis justified their barbaric deeds by way of reaction to aggrievement post the happenings of World War I. But were they right? Logic and reason may always uphold events, occurrences and continuous happenings by citing the exigencies of the times, the needs of organisation, financial necessities, but idealism failing in the face of practicality would render a spiritual movement material. There is a thin line here which only the discerning and the discriminating can decipher and interpret to advantage as to where its boundaries are and upto where traversing would not amount to transgression. Here debates may rage but the fact remains nonetheless that one inch down the precipice would lead to headlong fall into the abyss of untruth and destruction. Such has been the case umpteen times historically and seems to be happening now---not quite now but ever since 1983 when the Minority Status Court Case began---in line with Thakur's prophecy that he would stay for a hundred years in the subtle form in the hearts of his devotees before manifesting a fresher earthly form in his newer descent which in effect validates my points of criticism raised as to the Mission's perceived degeneration.

Sugata Bose @Alokananda Mukherjee: Lovely! What a fantastic talent! Sorry, I just now noticed this message about Dishika's attendance, my mind having been at once drawn to the beautiful indigenous painting that in colours absorbed me. No problem. Let her paint. Her painting surpasses the imagination of individuals like me utterly devoid of this artistic gift.

Sugata Bose @Deepanjan Mitra : Save your comments ever. They are literary treasure.

Sugata Bose @Ujjal Kumar Ghosh : Allāmā Iqbāl in a celebrated poem of his called, I believe, Prabhu Rām so, as if offering him spiritual territory to govern under the directorship of Iqbāl's God whose provincial earthly representative as if Shree Rām is. This is crafty fooling of easily pleased Hindus while advancing the Islamic cause. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Parnika Bubna : I'll continue with the conversation if you can remind me the lost last link. Life is this continuation along the cyclical path, rotating about the karmic axle and advancing along the path of evolution. 

Sugata Bose @Dhyan Maneesha : These film stars and their selfish sense-craving! What do they know beyond self-interest? What do they care for our country? Themselves deluded, they are spreading delusion all around with their Avidyā, ruining the youth of the country. But they can do so only if people respond favourably to them. Just cast them aside, ignore them altogether and advance along your path of rectitude and righteousness like the rhinoceros. 🕉

Sugata Bose @Anuradha Bera : আপনার মাতৃবৎ স্নেহে হৃদয়ে শান্তি পেলাম |

Sugata Bose @Sharmistha Chatterjee : Difficult piece. To be read in bits and pieces and all pieced together to grasp the piece. Peace! Peace! Peace!

Sugata Bose @Shankar Kumar Chatterjee : Denmark, the mark of the lioness, lioness' den. But too much of an animal is the lioness. One must lower status to perhaps Poland, the land of poes where poes of a kind are proliferating and landing us in trouble making it Foland, the land of foes. Your quotation from 'Hamlet', though, is appropriate in another sense of a mischievously proliferating kind. Deep runs the pun, though, like the Rann of Kutch. Catch me if you can.

POESY: READ AND CHANT

POESY:

READ AND CHANT

●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●●

Read and chant,

Chant and read,

Scripture study,

And sprout the seed.

Follow the word

And do the deed,

Save your all

To last in need.

Life is lovely

If you deftly weed.

With light, more light

Your soul so feed. 

Composed by Sugata Bose