Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda repeatedly stressed renunciation to be the keynote of character-building and spiritual living. Swamiji used to warn his followers against the temptation of watering down the ideal and tailoring it to suit one's compromised present position of material living. Spirituality is not the progression of social life but is an outright rejection of it. Society is the shadow of Reality and intrinsically hollow. Therefore, those that run after the pleasures of life that society offers are in the kindergarten of human evolution and are yet to mature into spiritual adulthood. Many of the rich are content, nay, conceited enough to posit charity to the 'poor' as adequate spiritual practice, attempting thereby to appease an imaginary gluttonous God waiting to grant them a passport to heaven. But who do you do charity to and wherefrom do you do so? Charity of Ganga water to the Ganga? Are not all those who you do charity to, God? and is not the wealth that you give away anyway His and not yours? You are merely the trustees of God's wealth and not the owners of what you in your vanity think to be yours. Therefore, in all humility and with great reverence serve these living gods in a worshipful manner and stop practising your vaunted 'charity' which is the sole prerogative of the God of the universe who owns it all. Serve with all your might your brethren, your very selves suffering everywhere from hunger, squalor, destitution and sickness. This is your work, your worship, your mission in life. Awake, arise and redress the balance that all may have a fairer chance to utilize their life's experience as they wend their way Godward. Jai Ramakrishna!
Suchitra Sen chole gelen Ramakrishnalok. Tnar tyagputo jiboner aaj jabonika patan holo. Deergho 32 bochhor antaraalbasini ei tapaswini aaj tnar swadham Sri Ramakrishna charaney samaahitaa holen. Janopriyotar sheersha hotey hyalaye sab kichhu tyag kore tini je saadhikar jibon japon kore gelen tar nojir birol. Maan josh khyati protipotti---ei sob tuchha bastur pichhei manush sarajibon chhotey o abosheshey bhagnahriday, bhagnapran, atharba abasthay patito hoye ei martyalok chhere chole jay. Kintu ei niyomer byatikrom hoyechhe Suchitra Sen er khetre. Er karon...THAKUR SRI RAMAKRISHNA.
Jiboner nana ghat protighatey je chaitanyer unmesh hoyechhilo ei mahiyoshi narir ta tnake abosheshey Belur Math ei niye jay. 1978 shaley Pranay Pasha chhobir ashapholyer abyabohito pore ekdin hajir holen eka Sri Ma Sarada Debir mantra-shishya Bharat Maharajer charaney. Songbedonshil ei mahapratibha sedin sarala balikar nyay tnar antarer koshter katha khule bolen Maharaj ke. Tini upodesh korlen, '' Ma gridha (lobh korona)''. Badhha duyarer pichhe sedin ar ki katha hoyechhilo Thakur janen kintu chirodiner jonyo bodle gelen Suchitra Sen. Dhire dhire gutiye nilen nijeke. Sheshey puropuri antaraalbasini. Deeksha nilen Ramakrishna Math Mission er ar ek jugandharpurush Sri Ma er opor ek mantra-shishya dasham President Maharaj Swami Vireswaranandajir kachhe. Er por deerghyo 32 bochhor antaraaley katalen. Dada Saheb Phalke Puroshkar porjyonto grohon korlen na. Sadhana rato roilen. Majhe majhe Belur Mather sadhuder shathey dyakha korten Mathey abar Maharajder deke ene nijogrihey seba korten. Nije hatey kore khabar prostut kore khaoaten tnader.
Swamiji ekbar bolechhilen je Budhhadeber nyay mahabhikhhur tyag e tyag, samanya bhikharir tyag tyag noy, tar ki ba achhe tyag korar. Ei katha mone pore Suchitra Sen er tyag dekhe. Man, josh, khyati, protipotti, artha, bhog, ei sob tuchha bastukei toe apamor janasadharon, emonki jashoswi byaktirao sarajibon sarbashho gyan kore jibon-sayanhe bhagnapran, bhagnahriday hoye ei bhulok parityag koren. Ei toe itihas. Kintu Suchitra Sen er byatikrom. Er karon...THAKUR SRI RAMAKRISHNA. Deekshar paroborti jibon tnar ketechhe Thakur-Ma-Swamijir nirontor chintay. Tnar dainondin jibonti Ramakrishnamoy chhilo, tai sekhane parthibo bhoger ar proyojon hoyni chittobinodoner jonyo. Gurumantrey nimojjitaa ei mahiyoshi nari ek e jiboney adbhut dui biporit dharmi jibon japon kore gelen. Bidya-shakti ei Ramakrishna anuraagini roye gelen chiro bismay-balika, thik tnar Ishta jemon chiro bismay-balak !
Jai Sri Ramakrishner Jai ! Jai Ma ! Jai Swamiji !
Only one thing needs constant recollection---life is for God-realisation. If that is attained, life is fulfilled, else, all is in vain. We must not take this temporary halt at the station of planet Earth to be our destination. The journey is on and this is but a brief stoppage to set our accounts right. That we must surely do, then pack up and hurry home. Even as birth is certain, so also is death the sure sequel to life. But we must transcend both terrestrial life and death and attain to immortality, an eternal infinite existence which is unbounded by space, time and causality. This we must possess before our earthly sojourn ends.
This is no material possession. This is SELF-possession. The SELF brooding on the SELF is SELF-possessed. Also we are 'most' there where we are 'not'. Our ideas about existence are so phenomenal that we tend to measure our infinite status by relativistic standards and here the limitations imposed by language, nay, expression plays truant. It is the lower self with its universal baggage that is dissolved, not the Real SELF which forever is. Self-dissolution is SELF-possession. The eternal debate on the merits of the two cases, namely, the nihilism of Buddhism (Shunyavada) and the theory of Maya (Mayavada) of Shankaracharya continues though with no solution yet as to the final validity of either to the invalidation of the other.
Service to all sentience is the living ideal of the Age. One day at Dakshineshwar Sri Ramakrishna was expounding the attributes of a true Vaishnav. One of the attributes was compassion to all living beings. Suddenly in a moment of luminous spiritual insight the Master burst out saying,''Compassion? You ordinary mortal, who are you to show compassion to your fellow beings? No, no, not compassion, but service to all knowing them to be God-incarnate.''
The young Narendranath (the future Vivekananda) overheard the Master's words from the adjoining verandah and was flooded with spiritual understanding of its deep import. Herein lay the perfect synthesis of Jnana (The Way of Knowledge), Bhakti (The Path of Love) and Karma (The Way of Work) as the living ideal of the Age. Hitherto for centuries Shankaracharya's non-dualistic aphorism:'Brahma satyam jaganmithya jiva Brahmaiva na parah' (Brahman is real, the universe is unreal, living beings are but the manifestations of Brahman) had been but fractionally understood and the unreality of the universe primarily stressed on which led to India's degradation but Sri Ramakrishna's brilliant articulation flooded this ancient Vedantic doctrine with a new light. Shankara's aphorism gained fulflment in Ramakrishna's exposition.
Narendranath could scarce contain himself when he said,''If Providence is merciful and grants me the days, I shall scatter broadcast this message of the glory of man and this living ideal of worshipful service to him across the wide world. Oh, what a wonderful insight I have gained today from the Master's words!''
In 1896 Swami Akhandananda began in Murshidabad District at a famine-affected place called Mohula the Ramakrishna Mission's first Relief Service. Ramakrishna's children had begun their Master's work : SHIVA-JNANEY JIVA-SEVA (Service to sentience knowing it to be God-incarnate). The work is on even today. Come ye all and help the Mission. God bless you all !
Jai Ramakrishna!
Who was Vivekananda ? He was man-incarnate, the ultimate possibility of the evolved man. And who was Ramakrishna ? He was God-incarnate, the cumulative synthesis of the divine ideal. The two were the complementary aspects of a unified whole, the dynamic and the static aspects of the spirituality of India. The sesquicentennial celebrations of Swamiji are about to conclude but their reverberations will live on and usher in a golden age of renascent humanity for sure. May the youth awake to Swamiji's clarion call and sacrifice their all to his Cause. Jai Swamiji !
In this world O LordThere is none to hold,To hold onto
Save Thee who art
My friend forever,
My sole refuge,
My solace, sucoour,
My everything.
So many come,
So many go,
All things change
As time doth flow
But Thou O Lord
Never leave my hand
Though I so oft
Do forget Thee.
Thy call I hear
Like a distant dream
Coming from far,
From deep within.
I hearken to that
Call O Lord,
Thy evensong
At the vesper hour.
The boat hath banked,
'tis time to sail,
The tide is high,
The breeze is set.
I come O Lord
To my sole refuge
Whence there is
No more return.
Free am I,
Free was I,
Free as free
Can ever be.
Boundless bliss,
In Thee replete,
None no more
I miss, I miss.
To endless end,
My Lord do take,
To Thy own realm,
The dream doth break,
In Self supreme
Where all is One,
My play is over,
My day is done.
Silence is golden but who cares to be still? There is so much verbal violence in the air everywhere. We understand war as devastating for human society. It is time we comprehend the damage caused to humanity by the cumulative uncharitable feelings let loose in the shape of words profane and thoughts divisive bred in hate. Love then is the way out. But how to love? First, character must be formed adhering to the principles of brahmacharya. A defective system of education founded on the principles of materialism has led us to where we are. A corrected system based on spiritual principles will cure the present malady. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi used to say that we must always speak sweetly and never harshly for the latter roughens up our nature gradually which is not desirable. She herself was the living embodiment of the highest human culture, the epitome of womanhood at its noblest. She never could find fault with others or speak with a loud harsh voice. Let us study her life and try to follow in her footsteps for we are her children and ought to learn from our Mother. This indeed will be relearning our Mother-tongue.
Peace unto all ! Om ! Shanti ! Shanti ! Shanti ! Jai Ma !
