08 the vedanta kesari august 2013

The Vedanta Kesari THE LION OF VEDANTA A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914

Ramayana Theme Park, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Coimbatore

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India’s Timeless Wisdom

Virtuous men who are always bent on doing good to others never allow their souls to be contorted even when harm is done to them. The sandalwood tree only imparts fragrance to the edge of the axe that cuts it down. —Subhasita Editor: Swami Atmashraddhananda Managing Editor: Swami Gautamananda Printed and published by Swami Asutoshananda on behalf of Sri Ramakrishna Math Trust from No.31, Ramakrishna Math Road, Mylapore, Chennai - 4 and Printed at 2 0 1 3 T h e V e Printing d a n t a Press, K e s aNo.31 r i ~ II ~ A U G U S TMath Sri Ramakrishna Ramakrishna Road, Mylapore, Chennai - 4. Ph: 044 - 24621110

The Vedanta Kesari VOL. 100, No. 8

ISSN 0042-2983

A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL MONTHLY OF THE RAMAKRISHNA ORDER

Started at the instance of Swami Vivekananda in 1895 as Brahmavâdin, it assumed the name The Vedanta Kesari in 1914.

For free edition on the Web, please visit: www.chennaimath.org

CONTENTS Vedic Prayers

AUGUST 2013

Editorial  The Pursuit of Desires—and Beyond Articles  Why Celibacy?—A Hindu Perspective Swami Tyagananda  The Art of Listening Pravrajika Virajaprana  When God Himself was a Student  Entering the Himalayas—Lord Shiva’s Abode: A Pilgrimage to Almora Pravrajika Brahmaprana  The Literary Vivekananda: Some Reflections Panchapagesan K.  Dealing with Uncertainty V. Kumar Murty

285 286 291 298 301 304 307 311

Glimpses of Swamiji  The Courageous Sannyasin—Two Notable Incidents

296

New Find  Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda

309

The Order on the March 318 Book Review 321 Features  Simhâvalokanam (The Spiritual Basis of Life)  Sri Ramakrishna Tells Stories Cover Story: Page 4

289 317

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The Vedanta Kesari Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004 h (044) 2462 1110 (4 lines) Fax : (044) 2493 4589 Email : mail@chennaimath.org Website : www.chennaimath.org TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS

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N Cover Story N Ramayana Theme Park, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Coimbatore In order to familiarize the students and general public the glorious ideals of Indian culture illustrated in the immortal Hindu epic Ramayana, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya (a well-known and large educational institute) in Coimbatore (Tamilnadu), designed and created a Ramayana Theme Park in 2009. The Park has quite a few fiberglass exhibits related to various events and characters mentioned in the Ramayana all of which have been creatively designed and are play-friendly, interspersed with a neatly laid-out garden. Located on the busy Coimbatore-Ooty Road, and forming a part of the Vidyalaya premises, the Park draws hundreds of visitors every day. A majestic statue of Swami Vivekananda is located right next to the Park (see our cover-page August 2009). Featured here is the entrance to the Park, representing Hanuman’s one-pointed devotion to Sri Rama. Says the famed verse on onepointed devotion to God, attributed to poet-saint Tulasidas: I look upon Vishnu and Rama as one and the same, but still may I hold the beautiful Rama to be my all-in-all. 

T he V edanta K esari P atrons ’ S cheme We invite our readers to join as patrons of the magazine. They can do so by sending Rs.2000/- or more. Names of the patrons will be announced in the journal under the Patrons' Scheme and they will receive the magazine for 20 years. Please send your contribution to The Manager, The Vedanta Kesari by DD/MO drawn in favour of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai with a note that the enclosed amount is for the Patrons' Scheme. (This scheme is valid in India only).

DONORS Mr. Anurag Prasad, West Bengal A Devotee, Ahmedabad Mr. K.V.L. Narasimha Rao

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665. Mr. Subhashis Banerjee, Pune 666. Mr. Shruba Mukherjee, Delhi 660. Mr. Srikanth Viswanathan, Bangalore

The Vedanta Kesari Library Scheme SL.NO. NAMES OF SPONSORS

5723. Dr. Triveni Shekaraiah, U.K. 5724.

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AWARDEE INSTITUTIONS

Doordarshan Kendra Sports, Delhi - 110 049 Doordarshan Kendra, Jalandhar - 144 001 Doordarshan Kendra, Lucknow - 226 001 Andhra Pradesh Police Headquarters, Hyderabad, A.P. - 500 004 Aunachal Pradesh Police Headquarters, Itanagar - 791 113 Assam Police Headquarters, Uluvari, Guwahati, Assam - 781 007 Bihar Police Headquarters, Patna, Bihar - 800 015 To be continued . . .

VOL. 100, No. 8, AUGUST 2013 ISSN 0042-2983

E ACH

SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE.

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GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THE DIVINITY WITHIN. 5

Vedic Prayers

Tr. by Swami Sarvananda

BB You were neither born, nor will you die. You have had neither birth, nor will have rebirth, nor life, nor incarnation, nor anything. What do you mean by coming and going? All shallow nonsense. You are everywhere. Then what is this coming and going? It is the hallucination produced by the change of this fine body which you call the mind. That is going on. Just a little speck of cloud passing before the sky. As it moves on and on, it may create the delusion that the sky moves. Sometimes you see a cloud moving before the moon, and you think that the moon is moving. When you are in a train you think the land is flying, or when you are in a boat, you think the water moves. In reality you are neither going nor coming, you are not being born, nor going to be reborn; you are infinite, ever-present, beyond all causation, and ever-free. Such a question is out of place, it is arrant nonsense. How could there be mortality when there was no birth? —Swami Vivekananda, CW, 2:235

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Editorial

The Pursuit of Desires—and Beyond The Cycle of Life Life, as we know it, is a manifestation of desires. Life is an expression of our known and unknown desires, seeking fulfilment— overcoming obstacles, conquering challenges and getting fulfilled or frustrated. Indeed, life swings like a pendulum, between fulfilment and frustration. Fulfilled now, and frustrated then—life moves through desires getting fulfilled or not getting fulfilled. No man can ever claim to have fulfilled all his desires. Nor can anyone claim to have never fulfilled any desire whatsoever in one’s life. Fulfilment of certain desires and unfulfilment of countless others—that is the story of an average human being.

What is desire? Of course, we know it—right at our very birth when as newborns we give out a cry. That cry is the first visible expression of desire—a protest for being born or a jubilation of being born, who knows?

The Vedanta philosophy believes that man is born to work out his karma, which is the accumulated result of all his actions. All actions are born of desires. Desires give birth to action and action creates karma and karma creates desires, again. The chain continues. The cycle keeps rolling. Life goes on.

But, we might ask, where did it all start?

And why? What is man without desires?

Man has grappled with these, and similar, questions from time immemorial.

The world, or creation, begins with desire!

Says the Upanishads, ‘He desired.’1 So it all started when He, the Original Cause, God or Brahman, willed it. It is His will or ‘desire’ T h e

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that makes this creation or life possible. In fact, says Vedanta further, He is the creation. The Creator becomes the creation. There is no other substance or material from which the creation comes. He wills and He becomes—that is how it all starts.

Another Upanishad says, ‘He [the Supreme Being] reflected, “I am One. Let me become many.”’2 As all mud pots are mud, essentially, so too all creation is God, in various forms, essentially.

But why? Why did the Perfect become imperfect? Why does He like to become imperfect? There is no answer to this eternal ‘why’.

Swami Vivekananda refers to this in his famous lecture given during the first World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893: How can the perfect become the quasi-perfect; how can the pure, the absolute, change even a microscopic particle of its nature? But the Hindu is sincere. He does not want to take shelter under sophistry. He is brave enough to face the question in a manly fashion; and his answer is: ‘I do not know. I do not know how the perfect being, the soul, came to think of itself as imperfect, as joined to and conditioned by matter.’ But the fact is a fact for all that. It is a fact in everybody’s consciousness that one thinks of oneself as the body. The Hindu does not attempt to explain why one thinks one is the body. The answer that it is the will of God is no explanation. This is nothing more than what the Hindu says, ‘I do not know.’3

That puts an end to all questions: we do not know why ‘He desired’!! But the fact is that life is desire-manifest, full of promises,

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fears, and the seed of all that happens in and around us.

‘Desire’ Does it All Man and God—in Sanskrit, Jivatman and Paramatman—are essentially the same. The difference lies in the fact that Jiva feels limited and conditioned. Unlike Paramatman, he is born, grows, decays and dies. He is subject to life’s experiences and demands. He is caught in the meshes of action and fruits of action.

He craves for something which he thinks is deprived to him. He seeks happiness, peace, security and life—eternally. To overcome his craving, he gets into action and action leads to some result, pleasant or unpleasant and he clings to that which is pleasant and wants to keep away from that which is unpleasant. Thus caught between likes and dislikes, he weaves his cocoon. Explains Swamiji further,

to even understand the logic of it, let alone be able to practice it. Hence the dictum, ‘Enjoy, fulfill your desires with care.’ Swamiji gives the salutary, time-honoured advice thus, Plunge into the world, and then, after a time, when you have suffered and enjoyed all that is in it, will renunciation come; then will calmness come. So fulfil your desire for power and everything else, and after you have fulfilled the desire, will come the time when you will know that they are all very little things; but until you have fulfilled this desire, until you have passed through that activity, it is impossible for you to come to the state of calmness, serenity, and self-surrender. These ideas of serenity and renunciation have been preached for thousands of years; everybody has heard of them from childhood, and yet we see very few in the world who have really reached that stage.5

What brings us in? Our past deeds. What takes us out? Our own deeds here, and so on and on we go. Like the caterpillar that takes the thread from its own mouth and builds its cocoon and at last finds itself caught inside the cocoon, we have bound ourselves by our own actions, we have thrown the network of our actions around ourselves. We have set the law of causation in motion, and we find it hard to get ourselves out of it. We have set the wheel in motion, and we are being crushed under it. So this philosophy teaches us that we are uniformly being bound by our own actions, good or bad.4

The way, thus, is a gradual climb, getting educated and enlightened through experiencing the twin sides of desires— happiness and unhappiness, fulfillment and emptiness, and so on. The journey comes to an end only when we discover we need neither happiness nor unhappiness. We are Existence itself; where is non-existence, death for us! We are Consciousness itself; where is ignorance for us! We are Bliss itself; where is the need to search for it in objects, persons, places and so on! That is ultimate freedom, and, says the Vedanta, we already have it. The issue is only to realize or discover it.

How do we come out? Or, how to manage our desires while the process of coming out is on? The first principle or fact that a student of economics learns is that desires are infinite, but means to fulfill them are limited. So we have to choose, and in the process of fulfilling our desires, we create fresh ones. Of course, we are told, ‘Overcome desires.’ It is not possible for 99.99% of people

Transforming the Desire-Power Desire is called by different terms in Sanskrit—‘kama’, ‘iccha’, ‘eshana’ and so on.

All of them have same meaning: craving and expectation. Desire or craving is a power which only those who have experienced know. Think of the power of desire! Desires generate energy and effort. Desires make us

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go forward. Desires and life are synonymous.

But while desire for objects of enjoyment bind, ‘desire to not desire’ liberates us. It is the same power turned inward, transformed to become an inner search light to find the Source of Life itself.

Desires, again, are the source of all anger, greed, lust and violence. Says the famous verse in the Gita [2.62-63],

Here are the two ways of giving up all attachment. The one is for those who do not believe in God, or in any outside help. They are left to their own devices; they have simply to work with their own will, with the powers of their mind and discrimination, saying, ‘I must be non-attached’.

For those who believe in God there is another way, which is much less difficult. They give up the fruits of work unto the Lord; they work and are never attached to the results. Whatever they see, feel, hear, or do, is for Him. For whatever good work we may do, let us not claim any praise or benefit. It is the Lord’s; give up the fruits unto Him. Let us stand aside and think that we are only servants obeying the Lord, our Master, and that every impulse for action comes from Him every moment.6

Thinking of objects, attachment to them is formed in a man. From attachment longing, and from longing anger grows. From anger comes delusion, and from delusion loss of memory. From loss of memory comes the ruin of discrimination, and from the ruin of discrimination he perishes.

Not only anger, but other forces of our lower self such as lust, greed and jealousy follow the same trajectory of development and leads to ruination of human life! It all begins, as said above, by ‘thinking of objects’. First we think of objects, then they get into our thinking and refuse to leave. It is like the case of a camel and the Arab:

Thus, rising above all attachments and worries, anxieties and disappointments that accompany them, a man becomes established in his real nature and becomes truly peaceful and joyous. This is the true meaning of renunciation as the following parable of Sri Ramakrishna illustrates;

Once, a camel just pushed its nose through the door of an Arab’s tent. The Arab first objected to this, but the camel said, ‘Oh I am only just putting my nose into your room for a moment.

Nothing more.’ But in fact, it slowly pushed in its ugly head and its whole body through the door, and when the owner objected to its presence in his room, the camel said, ‘if you do not like my presence in your tent, you had better get out. But I will not.’ That is it!

A kite with a fish in its beak was chased by a large number of crows and screaming kites, pecking at it and trying to snatch away the fish. In whichever direction it went the flock of kites and crows also followed it. Tired of this annoyance, the kite threw away the fish which was instantly caught by another kite. At once the flock of kites and crows turned to the new possessor of the fish. The first kite was left unmolested; it calmly sat upon the branch of a tree.7

If attachment is what keeps us bound, how to break this? There are two ways: one is the path of Knowledge or Jnana, and the other is the Path of Devotion.

Explains Swami Vivekananda, References : 3. CW, 1:10 T h e

1. Taittiriya Upanishad, II.vi.1 4. CW, 2:258 5. CW, 1:40

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‘Fish’ is the desire, and dropping it, the going ‘beyond’—going above the world of cravings and problems. Spiritualization of life is the only way to it. o 2. cf., Brihadaranyaka, 1.4.1, Chandogya, 6.2.1 6. CW, 1:102 7. Saying of Sri Ramakrishna, 151

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Simhâvalokanam From the Archives of The Vedanta Kesari (August, 1923-24, Pp. 611-613)

The Spiritual Basis of Life (By Brahmachari Saswata Chaitanya) The Great World-Struggles of Today

At no other time in its history was the world plunged into such a vortex of chaos and confusion as it is today, and unless and until the course of events which it is now passing through changes, it is likely to have a future darker than its present. The social and economic, political and national, and industrial and commercial problems which are staggering it are so stupendous that they well nigh defy our solution.

Dissatisfied with the state of things which existed in his time, Huxley remarked: ‘Even the best of modern civilisation appears to me to exhibit a condition of mankind which neither embodies any worthy ideal nor even the merit of stability. I do not hesitate to express the opinion that if there is no hope of a large improvement of the greater part of the human family, if it is true that the increase of knowledge, the winning of a greater dominion over nature which is its consequence, and the wealth which follows upon that dominion are to make no difference in the extent and intensity of want with its concomitant physical and moral degradation amongst the masses of the people, I should hail the advent of some kindly comet which would sweep the whole affair away as a desirable consummation.’

This was Huxley’s opinion a few decades ago but the state of things is no better today.

Appalled by the disastrous course of European politics at the close of the last century, the great prophet of India, Swami Vivekananda, observed: ’The whole of Western civilisation will crumble to pieces in the next fifty years if there is no spiritual foundation. It is hopeless and perfectly useless to govern mankind with the sword. You will find that the very centres from which such ideas as government by force sprang up, are the very first centres to degrade and degenerate and crumble to pieces. Europe, the centre of the manifestation of material energy, will crumble into dust within fifty years, if she is not mindful to change her position, to shift her ground and make spirituality the basis of her life.’ True, Europe was not mindful to change, and her foundations did shake the other day and are still shaking today.

Exhausted by the late war, the West is recouping her energies at present, perhaps only to throw herself into more desperate struggles than the previous ones.

Two streams of culture and civilisation—The Greek and the Indian Reading the histories of Europe and Asia, we would find that there are two great types of mind and culture, namely, the ancient Hellenic and the ancient Hindu. A sublime scenery T h e

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like the snow-capped and mighty Himalayas rising tier above tier and huge rolling rivers descending into the beautiful plains below, and a warm climate rendering the people more mentally vigorous than physically active, made the Indian turn his mind inward: a scenery the floral charms of which made the mind very highly sensitive to the beauty of external nature, a simplicity of life and a love of art made the Greek turn his mind outward. As a consequence, the Hindu probed into the secrets of his mind and searched the innermost recesses of his soul: the Greek analysed and investigated the external world and attained great success in making its forces subservient to his will. The Indian made conquests of the internal nature of man, and the Greek of external nature. These two types of mind and ideals have been existing from times prehistoric and whenever a favourable opportunity presented itself, the Indian ideal influenced the Greek. Thus when Greece and Islam conquered India and made her a part of their Empires, she silently influenced them through her culture.

Today it is the voice of Greece that is speaking through the West, her arts, her literature and the warp and woof of her mind. The West, therefore, is labouring under all the disadvantages to which the Greek ideal is subject. Her lust for enjoyments, for gold and land, has been eating into her very vitals and corroding her body politic, and it may be confidently prognosticated with a great degree of certitude that she will be ruining herself and the East unless she accepts the ideal of ancient India or Aryavarta.

The ideal of the enjoyment of pleasures and conquest of land and possession of gold is predominant today and has been darkening the mind of man for the last four or five centuries. It has entire invaded the West and is partly invading the East as well, and has therefore given rise to the several evils, commercial, political, national, economic and social.

The possibility of solution of all the world-problems which unnerve our thinkers depends therefore on the appreciation and acceptance of the ancient Indian spiritual ideal.

The Hellenic type of civilisation, culture, and mind has its own unique features, but also its own limitations. Like two mighty rivers rolling down the avenues of time have been existing the Greek and Indian ideals, meeting for a time and branching off, and again meeting and parting again. If these two ideals were to influence each other today, the Greek ideal will lose its sense of aggressiveness, and the Indian ideal will acquire the power of greater expansion. o The most important of spiritual practices are meditation and repetition of some holy name imparted by the Guru. The selfless service to the Guru, holy company, the reading of good books, etc., bring about a loving and reverential attitude toward such meditation and repetition of names, and also a greater control and concentration of mind. All aspirants after God-realisation, be they followers of the path of knowledge (Jnanis) or of devotion (Bhaktas), must practise meditation and repetition of holy names. —Swami Ramakrishnananda T h e

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Why Celibacy?

—A Hindu Perspective SWAMI TYAGANANDA

Brahmacharya: ‘Dwelling in Brahman’ Hindu monks take the vow of poverty and celibacy. The Sanskrit word for celibacy is brahmacharya, ‘dwelling in Brahman’. What do we mean by Brahman? What does ‘dwelling in’ mean and how is it to be practised? In order to answer these questions, it is necessary to understand the Hindu world view. Let us begin with a few key concepts.

In Hinduism, the ultimate Reality is called Brahman. Brahman is not the name of a person. It is not a state to be attained. It is not a place to be reached. Literally the word simply means that which is vast. It is used to denote pure consciousness. Why ‘pure’ consciousness?

By that is meant not the consciousness of something but ‘consciousness’-itself.

Understood thus, Brahman—or consciousnessitself—is undivided, all-pervading, birthless and deathless.

The characteristics of Brahman are best described by the word Sat-chit-ananda, ‘BeingConsciousness-Bliss Absolute’. Brahman is not merely consciousness-itself but also being-itself and bliss-itself. To be ‘dwelling in Brahman’ is the same as being one with being, consciousness and bliss. Oneness with being removes the threat of being reduced

to non-being or ‘nothingness’ (which is what death looks like); oneness with consciousness removes the threat of being reduced to dust (the eventual fate of the body); and oneness with bliss removes the threat of sorrow and suffering in this life and the afterlife. Satchit-ananda, or Being-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute, is not just the ‘ultimate’ reality, it is also the ‘present’ reality of you and me.

Atman, the ‘Real Me’ Our current experience of who we are does not, of course, correspond to what we just said. We do not see ourselves as Being-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute. We see ourselves as just ordinary human beings— weak, imperfect, and vulnerable to forces outside of ourselves. According to Hindu teachers, this happens because something is obstructing us from getting in touch with our true reality. My true reality is my real Self, the ‘real me’, which is different from the ego. The Hindus see the ego as a function of the mind. They don’t see the mind as the ‘real me’. According to them, the mind is still outside—or is a kind of covering over—the ‘real me’, which is sometimes called the true Self (to distinguish it from the ego) or the

The author is the Minister-in-charge of Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston, USA, and a former editor of The Vedanta Kesari. The article is based on author's paper presented in Boston College on March 25, 2003, in their initiative titled ‘The Church in the 21st Century’, with ‘Sexuality in the Christian Tradition’ as the general theme. The paper was later published in the Prabuddha Bharata (2003, September), the English monthly published from Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Uttarakhand. We are thankful to the author and the publishers for their permission for reprinting it after minor editing. o T h e

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divine Self (to distinguish it from our frail human identity)—usually the ‘S’ is capitalized in writing.

The Sanskrit word for the true Self or divine Self is Atman. That is the only spiritual part of the human personality. By spiritual we mean non-material. Both the body and the mind are material parts. That the body is made up of material particles is perhaps easy to understand, but it may sound strange that even the mind is material. According to the Hindu tradition, the mind is not visible the way the body is because it is made of subtle matter. Our sense organs have their limitations and so we cannot see the mind the way we can see the body.

The mind is similar to the body in many ways: both undergo changes for better or worse; both are subject to illness and both have doctors; both get tired and need rest; both can produce joy and sorrow. The most obvious difference between the two is that one can be seen while the other can only be felt. Hindu thinkers attribute this not to a difference in kind but in degree: they say that both body and mind are material, one made of gross matter and the other of subtle, or fine, matter.

Both body and mind cover—or, at least, seem to cover—the Atman, our spiritual Self, which is why our true identity remains hidden from us.

The Hindus say that the goal of life—or the supreme consummation of life—is reached

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when we have a direct experience of our true nature as divine beings, and when we dwell continually in that blessed experience. Those who attain this state are called enlightened: these are the people who are truly in the state of brahmacharya, because they are truly dwelling in Brahman.

The body and the mind limit the full manifestation of our divine nature. It’s a big climbdown really: imagine being reduced to a miserable, bound, imperfect and mortal human being from our original status as the blissful, free, perfect and immortal divine being. This is the Hindu version of the biblical myth of the fall—and the consequent expulsion—of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. For Hindus, spiritual life is a conscious and voluntary effort to go back to our original state of joy and freedom, pristine purity and perfection. For this spiritual journey to be successful, every hurdle on the way needs to be overcome and transcended.

The Value of Celibacy Hurdles and obstacles there will be plenty (as every spiritual seeker can testify), but the root problem is the chronic forgetfulness of our joyful spiritual identity and the amazing attachment to our frail, sorrow-ridden human identity. What make us human are, of course, the human body and the human mind (which includes the intellect and the ego). My human identity is inseparably

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connected with perceiving my body and mind as ‘me’. Every demand of the body and mind is considered ‘my’ demand—and in the process, the spiritual Self within is forgotten; my bodymind complex becomes my de facto ‘self’.

The practice of brahmacharya, ‘dwelling in Brahman’, involves moving away from the body-mind complex, which is the false self, and going towards the Atman, our true Self. What makes the ‘moving away’ process difficult is the strong claim the body and the mind exert over me, the constant demands they make of me. Indeed, it’s difficult for most of us to even conceive of our existence apart from our body-mind experience. Our actions and thoughts throughout the day keep us preoccupied with either the body or the mind or both.

Hunger and thirst, rest and work, joy and sorrow, ambition and frustration, likes and dislikes—who has been free from the demands and pressures of these? The body and the mind make their presence felt through all these and more. But the intensity of sexual desire is often more powerful and more persistent than that of our other needs, so the meaning of brahmacharya often gets narrowed down to sexual abstinence.

Sex plays an important part in human life and it often absorbs much of our thinking, feeling and willing. In Hinduism it is customary to view most things at three levels: physical, mental and verbal. Brahmacharya, or celibacy, includes sexual abstinence at all these levels. Celibacy thus is not limited to merely physical abstinence from sex but also nonindulgence in sexual fantasy and sexual talk.

Body, mind and speech are interconnected and they tend to influence one another. When these three become compartmentalized and disconnected, the result is disharmony, which often leads to mental stress and anxiety, T h e

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physical illness and unhealthy interpersonal relations.

This description of brahmacharya may be all right for monks and nuns, but what about those who are not monks and who choose to get married? Does this ideal not apply to them? The Hindu tradition believes that the ideal of brahmacharya is relevant to all, but its ‘application’ to monastic life is different from its application to married life.

Marriage is not a licence to do away with all restraints. Chastity and fidelity are the foundation on which a strong and happy marital relationship can be built. The Bhagavata (11.18. 43), a tenth-century Hindu text, has this message for the married: Among the duties of a married person are the practice of brahmacharya except for the purpose of procreation, austerity, purity, contentment and friendliness toward all.

In a world full of temptations, if a married person can fulfil these duties, he or she can get the same benefits that a monk does through a sincere practice of celibacy. Since brahmacharya is about self-restraint, it doesn’t really matter to whom one feels sexually attracted or with whom one has a committed long-term relationship. Sex is sex, whether heterosexual, homosexual or unisexual. For spiritual seekers of every persuasion, the ideal is still brahmacharya. This ideal is not about sex per se. It means ‘dwelling in Brahman’, or dwelling in the experience of our identity as Sat-chit-ananda, Being-Consciousness-Bliss Absolute.

The troubled times in which we live today may lead us to imagine that the brahmacharya ideal is unattainable. It seems out of reach for non-monastics and one may question whether it is attainable even for those who have chosen to be monks or nuns.

The Hindu tradition addresses this legitimate

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doubt by pointing out that the ideal of brahmacharya is no more difficult today than it was any time in the past. It has always been difficult and probably it will always be. But there are in every generation people who have lived up to this ideal and that gives hope to the rest of us.

Second, the ideal of brahmacharya, although relevant for all, is not mandatory for all. Not everyone feels the call to practise brahmacharya, and those who do, have options and a graded system of employing it in their own lives. For those who choose a monastic life, the rules are most stringent and uncompromising. If one finds that these are too difficult to follow—as some do sooner or later—one has the freedom to choose a different lifestyle, where the rules are somewhat relaxed. In marriage, the emphasis is on fidelity—remaining faithful to one’s spouse. Indeed, the glory of chastity in married life and the spiritual power it can generate have been described in great detail in Hindu history as well as mythology.

Benefits of Celibacy What are the benefits of celibacy? What exactly happens when a person practises brahmacharya? The yoga traditions of Hinduism have made a deep study of this.

According to them, the sexual impulse and the human energy that fuels it, when checked and controlled, become converted into a refined, subtle power called ojas. A yogi tries to transform all of the sexual energy into ojas through the practice of celibacy. It is only celibacy—or chastity in the case of the married—that causes the ojas to rise and be stored in the brain. Lack of chastity produces loss of mental vigour and moral strength.

According to the Hindu tradition, if one practises brahmacharya for twelve years, a T h e

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special nerve, called medha nadi in Sanskrit, is developed. This produces spiritual intuition, a strong memory and a remarkable capacity to grasp the subtle realities of life. It may not make a person an intellectual prodigy or a wrestler but it definitely makes him healthy, both physically and mentally.

For the sustained practice of contemplation our brain needs to be strong and calm—and this becomes possible through brahmacharya because it provides nourishment and vigour to the brain. It also nourishes our creative energy and makes it flow on a higher plane. The validity of these claims is borne out by the actual experience of people who have practised brahmacharya.

Aids to Celibacy It is needless to say that like any other ideal the ideal of celibacy has its own challenges and pitfalls. These challenges have to be faced head-on and the pitfalls avoided. This has to be done by individuals as well as institutions.

Among the things important to keep the ideal of celibacy untarnished are the following: 1. Motivation: There is a saying in Sanskrit: ‘Prayojanam anuddisya na mando’pi pravartate, Even a stupid person does not do anything unless there is a motive.’ Practising celibacy is not simply a matter of keeping one’s vow or abiding by the rules of an institution. lt is not a question of what one ‘should do’.

The question is: Do I really want to do it? The impulse has to come from within. For that to happen, the practitioner has to be clear about why he is practising celibacy. In the Hindu tradition, the practice of celibacy is considered a must—even if it is practised in a graded manner—to transcend our human limitations and to regain our divine identity.

2. Spiritual Longing: Motivation and hunger go together. I cannot be motivated to

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eat unless I am hungry for food. I cannot be motivated to study unless I am hungry for knowledge. Similarly, I cannot be motivated to practise celibacy unless I am hungry for the spiritual ideal or, in theistic language, I long to commune with God. Burning love for God is the greatest aid in the practice of celibacy.

With love of God in the heart, no challenge is too difficult. Without it, every step becomes potentially slippery. Armed with God’s grace, we can attain any ideal. Without his grace, we cannot be certain about anything—not even the next moment or the next breath.

3. Detachment: Allurements can come in many guises and from many directions. Unless we look deeply and analyse what is ‘essential’ and what is ‘non-essential’ to our lives, we won’t know what we must keep and what we need to trash. Wealth and fame, power and possessions, may have their utility but a spiritual seeker learns to deal with them with detachment. Monks in the Hindu tradition take a vow—and remind themselves about it daily—to renounce the desire for wealth (vittaishana), fame (lokaishana) and sensual enjoyment (chittaishana). This obviously does not apply to non-monastics. What does apply to all is the necessity to arrange our priorities in life or importance depending on what we perceive as the goal and purpose of our existence.

4. Self-restraint: Daily reminders of one’s vows would be meaningless unless these are backed up by a lifestyle that is in harmony with one’s spiritual ideal. Swami Brahmananda, the first spiritual head of the Ramakrishna Order, gave this advice to those who wished to practise brahmacharya: ‘Avoid exciting food, oversleep, over-exercise, laziness, bad company and useless conversation’. Hindus have given much thought to the effect food has on the body

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and mind, even going to the extent of experimenting which food has what effect on us. Accordingly, they have classified certain foods as ‘exciting food’: meaning that too much of their intake stimulates passions and restlessness. They also found that overdoing of anything—be it physical exercise or sleep—is injurious to spiritual life; hence the advice to practise moderation in everything.

5. Higher Creativity: Every one of us is endowed with creative energy and we have the freedom to decide how to express that creativity. In most people, at least a portion of the creative energy gets expressed through sex at the physiological level. But it is possible to express it through other channels such as art, music and scholarly pursuits. One who wishes to practise brahmacharya must learn to give a higher turn to one’s creative energies. This helps to keep the mind on a higher plane.

We have mentioned five factors which are helpful in the practice of celibacy. The rules and tradition of Hindu monastic life in particular—and spiritual life in general—have incorporated all of these factors to facilitate the practice of brahmacharya.

There are times when some of those who embraced monastic life, mostly novices, find it difficult to continue for one reason or another. Many of those who return to secular life start families and become responsible and respected citizens, and contribute positively to community life. This has confirmed the belief that monastic celibacy is a great ideal but it is not for all. When people are unable to maintain celibacy, it’s because they’re trying to fit into a situation where they cannot fit. Problems arise only when people find themselves in a wrong place or with a wrong vocation. Every problem needs to be addressed appropriately and there is no problem that doesn’t have a solution. o

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Glimpses of Swamiji

The Courageous Sannyasin —Two Notable Incidents Under the vow of poverty and mendicancy Vivekananda travelled widely in northern and southern India for years, and his experiences, as may be imagined, were varied. He spent a great deal of his time in the Madras Presidency [now, the four southern states], and he had first-hand knowledge of the evil influence of professional Sadhus. He knew intimately the village life of the Telugu and Tamil-speaking people, and he found his earliest admirers in the Madras Presidency.

He was in Behar [Bihar] when there was great excitement in that Province on account of the marking of mango trees with lumps of mud mixed with vermi­lion and seed grain. In a number of districts in Behar numer­ous mango topes were discovered marked in this fashion.

The trustees of an empire, as the Government in this country somewhat theatrically call themselves, may have a lofty func­ tion; but they have an uneasy conscience; and the official mind was filled with forebodings of some impending grave peril. The wonderful [British] secret police got busy at once, and it was shrewdly surmised that the marks on the mango trees bore a family resemblance to the mysterious chapatis which were circulated immediately before the outbreak of the Mutiny [of 1857]. The villagers, frightened out of their wits by the sudden incur­sion of armed and unarmed, but not the less terrible on that account, authority in their midst, denied all knowledge of the authorship of these sinister marks.

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Suspicion next rested upon the itinerant Sadhus wandering all over the country; and they were arrested wholesale for some time, though they had to be let off for want of evidence, and the recent facilities of regula­ tions and ordinances did not then exist. It was found out afterwards that the marking of mango trees was merely by way of an agricultural mascot for a good mango or general crops.

Vivekananda had to get up early in the morning and to trudge along the Grand Trunk Road or some village path until someone offered him some food, or the heat of the sun compelled him to rest under a roadside tree.

One morning as he was tramping along as usual, he heard a shout behind him calling upon him to halt. He turned round and saw a mounted police officer, bearded and in full panoply, swinging a switch and followed by some policemen. As he came up, he inquired in the well-known gentle voice affected by Indian policemen [of the British Government] who Vivekananda was. ‘As you see, Khan Saheb’, replied Vivekananda, ‘I am a Sadhu.’ ‘All Sadhus are badmashes (rogues),’ sententiously growled the Sub-Inspector of Police. . . . ‘You come along with me, and I shall see that you are put in jail,’ boomed the police officer. ‘For how long?’ softly asked Vivekananda. ‘Oh, it may be for a fortnight, or even a month.’

Vivekananda went nearer him and in an ingratiating and appealing voice said, ‘Khan Saheb, only for a month? Can you not put me

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away for six months, or at least three or four months?’

The police officer stared, and his face fell.

‘Why do you wish to stay in jail longer than a month?’ he asked suspiciously.

Vivek­ ananda replied in a confidential tone, ‘Life in the jail is much better than this.

The work there is not hard compared with this wearisome tramp from morning till night. My daily food is uncertain, and I have often to starve. In the jail I shall have two square meals a day. I shall look upon you as my ben­efactor if you lock me up for several months.’

As he listened, a look of disappointment appeared on the Khan Saheb’s face, and he abruptly ordered Vivekananda to go away.

The second encounter with the police took place in Calcutta itself. Vivekananda with some of his fellow-disciples was liv­ing in a suburb of Calcutta quietly pursuing his studies and rendering such small social service as came his way. One day he met a police officer who was a friend of Vivekananda’s family. He was a Superintendent of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department, and had received a title and decoration for his services. He greeted Vivekananda and invited him to dinner for the same evening. There were some other visitors when Vivekananda arrived. At length they left, but there were no signs of dinner.

Instead, the host spoke about other matters until suddenly lowering his voice and assuming a menacing look he said, ‘Come, now, you had better make a clean breast of it and tell me the truth. You know you cannot fool me with your stories for I know your game. You and your gang pretend to be religious men, but I have positive information that you are conspiring against the [British] Government.’

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‘What do you mean?’ asked Vivekananda, amazed and indignant, ‘What conspiracies are you speaking of, and what have we to do with them?’

‘That is what I want to know,’ coolly replied the police officer. ‘I am convinced it is some nefarious plot, and you are the ringleader. Out with the whole truth, and then I shall arrange that you are made an approver.’

‘If you know everything, why don’t you come and arrest us and search our house?’ said Vivekananda, and rising he quietly closed the door.

Now, Vivekananda was an athletic young man of a powerful build, while the police officer was a puny, wizened creature.

Turning round upon him Vivek­ananda said, ‘You have called me to your house on a false pretext and have made a false accusation against me and my companions. That is your profession. I, on the other hand, have been taught not to resent an insult. If I had been a criminal and a conspirator, there would be nothing to prevent me from wringing your neck before you could call out for help. As it is, I leave you in peace.’

And Vivekananda opened the door and went out, leaving the redoubtable police officer speechless with ill-concealed fright. Neither Vivekananda nor his companions were ever again molested by this man. o

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Reference: Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Admirers, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Pp.7-9 T h e

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The Art of Listening PRAVRAJIKA VIRAJAPRANA

Beyond the Art of Talking In the Brihadaranyaka Upanisad, there is a conversation between the sage Yajnavalkya and his wife Maitreyi in which he said to her: ‘The Self, my dear Maitreyi, should verily be realized.’ How? ‘It should be heard of, reflected on and meditated upon. By the realization of the Self alone, my dear, through hearing, reflection, and meditation, all this is known.’

Let us consider the art and science of listening, shravana [‘to be heard of’], that the sages have given such so much importance to in our spiritual journey. In fact, it is considered so central to spiritual unfoldment that it is prescribed as the first part of the threefold means to Self-realization: hearing, reflection, and meditation referred to by Yajnavalkya.

We have all mastered the art of talking.

We are good at it for the most part. It’s easy to talk. But it’s difficult to listen. How many of us can say that we have mastered the true art of listening? Yet without listening properly, our comprehension and understanding are compromised. Listening is a profound skill that requires training like any other art form, though, by far, this art is fundamentally more important because all knowledge depends upon listening.

We learn mostly through the use of words. Through words, we continuously acquire new ideas, information, skills, and

intellectual depth. We simply cannot dismiss or ignore words, verbal statements, either what is said or what is written, because this is the principal source of all our education and resulting knowledge.

First of all, to cultivate the art of listening it is helpful to have an idea of the science of sound and the components of hearing: how listening is connected with thinking; how hearing is different from listening; and how listening and thinking, a very subtle form of sound, can take us beyond thought.

Sound and How Do We Hear It Briefly, according to one of the schools of Indian philosophy, the Tantras, the whole universe is created out of and composed of vibrations. What we ordinarily understand as sound is a form of energy generated through external physical vibrations of the cosmic ether. Sound is produced when air molecules vibrate and move in a pattern of pressure waves. These vibrations or waves travel through the air. Unlike light, which can travel through a vacuum, sound cannot; it requires a medium.

But there are subtler levels of sound than merely audible sound, such as electromagnetic waves like radio waves, etc. Still more subtle are thought waves. Vedanta accepts this vibration theory; furthermore, the ancient

A nun at the Vedanta Society of Northern California, San Francisco, USA, since 1972, Pravrajika Virajaprana is the editor and compiler of Photographs of Swami Vivekananda. She has contributed many thoughtprovoking articles for Vedanta Kesari and Prabuddha Bharata. This article is based on her talk on the same subject delivered at the Vedanta Society in April 2013. o T h e

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Vedic sages have perceived that thought itself is a manifestation of the ‘eternal supersensuous cosmic pulsations’ of the unmanifested Shabda, or Sound Brahman, in the cosmic mind of which individual minds are a part.

Actually, shabda means both sound and word because these two are inextricably connected.

This pulsating energy ultimately evolves into matter, which constitutes the universe of names and forms as we know and experience it.

So audible sound, what we hear, is only the grossest form of sound called vaikhari.

When we talk, this sound is produced by the movement of our vocal cords, tongue, etc.

Behind audible sound is the word produced by our thinking; this is called madhyama sound. But thought itself is the result of a still subtler impulse called the pashyanti sound, which in turn originates in the unmanifested Sabda Brahman, and this unmanifested stage is called para. So the first rung of the ladder of this discussion, audible sound, has its roots in Sound Brahman. It is actually non-different from Brahman. Swami Vivekananda discusses this idea at length not only in Raja Yoga and Bhakti Yoga, but also in some of his lectures.

Now that we have touched on what sound is.

How do we hear the ordinary grossest form of sound?

Swamiji explains the process in his lecture on the Microcosm by stating that three things are necessary for the perception of any sound: the external instrument, the ear, the corresponding nerve center in the brain, and the mind. If any one of these three is absent or deficient, we will not hear anything, or even if we hear something, no meaning is conveyed.

This is what happens if a person is deaf or hard of hearing. The auditory nerves that carry the vibrations are damaged. The ear itself may be fine; the mind may be attentive, but the nerve T h e

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center in the brain cannot receive the signal, hence very little, perhaps distorted, or no sound at all reaches the person.

So a sound wave passes through the vibrating medium, air, to the receiver of the sound, the ear; the ear drums serve as receptors transmitting the pulsations, or vibrations, in the air to the middle ear where the oscillating pressures are converted into electrical signals that are carried through auditory nerves to the brain. Then the mind connects with the nervous system. But according to Swamiji, this is not enough for perception to take place.

He says the mind has to carry the sensation to the intellect, buddhi, the determining faculty, which decides what to do with the sound; i.e., how to pigeon-hole it.

Then the intellect conveys the message to the Self within, the Atman, and thus the order as Swamiji says, ‘goes down in the same sequence to the intellect, to the mind, to the organs, and the organs convey it to the instruments, and the perception is complete.’ So simply stated, this is how hearing takes place.

We all hear many sounds simultaneously throughout the day and night. Our brains are wired in such a way that some order is superimposed upon the cacophony of sound that bombards us continuously. Otherwise, the resulting internal chaos would be overwhelming. Even though we hear many sounds simultaneously each one is registered separately in our brains. These sounds cover a vast area including speech, animal, natural, artificial, and so on. For the most part, our hearing has become very mechanical. We tend to block out many sounds; they become just background static. Unless our mind connects to the sound and attaches some meaning to that sound, we tend to ignore it, consciously or unconsciously.

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How many times has someone said while talking with us, ‘Did you hear me?’ And we have to admit though we were standing, or sitting nearby, we did not hear what the person said. And according to our analysis, in this case it is because we were absentminded.

We were not paying attention to what the other person said. So our ears received the vibration, the auditory nerves conducted the current to our brain center, but our mind being elsewhere, we did not hear what was said, though we may have noticed the person was talking.

Our external sense of hearing is what connects us to the outside world of sound, just as our other senses, such as sight, touch, taste, and smell connect us to the outside world of objects. This is the basis of our knowledge

acquired through sense perception. And although this is certainly one valid form of knowledge, we know that sense knowledge is limited; it is confined only to what our five senses reveal to us at the present moment. For knowledge beyond this immediate perception, we depend upon other sources such as inference from our past experiences or upon what others say.

This latter source is essential for spiritual knowledge. Until we have our own direct perception of spiritual reality, we have to depend upon shabda pramana, the verbal testimony of a spiritual master, or authority, one who has realized the Truth. And our access to this testimony is through listening to their words, either through their speech or inaudibly through reading their words.

(To be Continued . . .)

You Should Speak about God All teachers of devotion have said that indulging in gossip is one of the greatest obstacles to spiritual progress. As a matter of fact, it is an obstacle along any path, but teachers of devotion have particularly emphasized it. What then are you to do? . . . You should speak about God with fellow devotees, but you have to be sure that they are devotees. At first, you might get acquainted with a person on the basis of spiritual contact. Afterwards, unless you are very cautions, the friendship will turn to just a worldly association. At the very first opportunity a woman, if she is married, wants to speak about her husband or about her children. Well, men also have their wives and children. They don’t speak of them so much, but a man will carry a picture of his baby in his wallet and show it to everyone. That is the nature of men and women both. But since you are a devotee, you are neither man nor woman; you are a child of God, and your behavior should be different.

You must not indulge in those things unless it is necessary. You should consciously make a point of speaking about God alone, and expect that others would speak of God with you.

Thereby you can avoid lots of gossip. In other words, anything that takes your heart away from God and makes you forget Him you should avoid.

— Swami Ashokananda, Ascent to Spiritual Illumination, 179-180

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Inspiring Anecdote

When God Himself was a Student This is a story of one-pointed devotion and love for God. It is the story of bhava, the devotional disposition of a devotee of Sri Rama.

Once, there was an annual gathering of Ramayat Sadhus (the monks bearing allegiance to Lord Rama) in Ayodhya. Present among the holy gathering was a bright looking Sadhu. He looked detached and radiated deep calm and peace. Draped in white, with a Sphatik Mala around neck, with white matted hair, using wooden slipper, he would remain silent most of the time.

He was never seen going about asking for food or provisions. But somehow, as if from nowhere, he would always get basic provisions required for cooking—flour, vegetables, pulses and so on. He would cook his simple meal of chapattis and dal or subzi on his little woodoven and live on the banks of river Sarayu. He lived and slept on the river bank. Sometimes he roamed about on the banks of Sarayu but never went farther from the Kanak Bhavan, which enshrined the images of his beloved Ram-Sita Darbar. At times, he was seen doing Homa, offering pieces of wood into sacred fire, accompanied by clear enunciation of Vedic Mantras. Everyone respected him but kept themselves away, not wanting to disturb him in anyway.

One strange thing the people observed about him was that at night he would be heard calling ‘Lala, Lala’ [the Hindi term used

for calling a child], and talking to someone.

If someone went to find out what was happening, all they found was that he sat in deep meditation. Sometimes very early in the morning, people heard him, as if imparting instructions to someone. He did not sing the glories of Sri Ram or read out from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas—unlike other Ramayat Sadhus. He only had a copy of the Yoga-vasishtha Ramayan. Even that he did not read; he only was apparently explaining it to someone, keeping the book in front.

Other Sadhus wondered and speculated about what he did. What type of a Sadhu was he who never went out or sang Bhajans. Since he possessed an overwhelmingly peaceful and dignified personality, he was often the subject of their discussion. Why did he not visit Kanak Bhavan, the sacred place in Ayodhya where the Lord is worshiped?

One day one of the Sadhus broached the subject with great seriousness. He said, ‘We all worship and love our Sri Rama. Some of us call him Ramlala [baby-Rama], some as Raghuveer, the young scion of Raghu Clan, some as Sri Ramachandra, the King of Ayodhya and so on. We look upon Rama and Sita as God Incarnate and feel joyous to offer our Pranams to the Lord at the Kanak Bhavan. How does that Sadhu look at Prabhu Rama? Surely, he is also a devotee of Rama! What is his mode of Sadhana? Which aspect of Lord Rama does he worship? Why not we ask him? Let us together

Based on a story, titled, ‘Se Jay Bhaver Bishay’, by Pravrajika Vedantaprana, published in Nibodhata (22 year, Number 3), the journal brought out by Sarada Math, Dakshineswar, West Bengal. The English translation has been done with the help of Sri Santosh Kumar Sharma, Kharagpur, West Bengal, while editing of the article has been done at the Vedanta Kesari Office. o T h e

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go to him and discuss all this with him.’ He seemed quite reasonable and some of the Sadhus agreed to his proposal.

On the chosen day, they took their daily bath in the river, did Japa and went to see the Sadhu who, as usual, radiated serenity and divinity. He smiled at them, as if he knew the purpose of their visit. He welcomed them and asked them to be seated. With great humility, folding his hands, he asked them what he could do for them. ‘Maharaj,’ began one of the monks, ‘you do not visit any temples of Ayodhya. You spend all your time on the Sarayu’s banks, engaged in your Sadhana.

Please tell us what type of Sadhana you do, and how do you worship Prabhu Ram.’ With a child-like smile, the Sadhu began to narrate: ‘Revered Sadhus! We all Sadhus take to the spiritual life with a one-pointed devotion to the Lord. We have a Bhava, adhere to a particular line of thinking and approach the Lord. We spend all our lives accordingly.

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Likewise, since my early childhood, I was given to listening stories from Yoga-vasishtha Ramayan from my father. Listening to the stories, I felt attracted to Vasishtha Muni who taught so much about life and death to Sri Ramji. So intense was this attraction that I began to identify myself with Vasishtha. I felt one with him, with his penance, pristine character and lofty stature.

In the course of my Sadhana of meditating on Vasishtha Muni, like him, I too started looking upon Sri Rama, the object of my worship, as my student. I felt I should ‘teach’ scripture to him, based on reasoning as one finds in Yoga-vasishtha Ramayan. Gradually, I do not know how, but soon my Lord and me developed the Guru-shishya (teacher-student) relationship and that is the support of my devotional life. Everyday I read my scriptures in the presence of my Lord, who has kindly been listening to me like a disciple. This is so deeply embedded in my thoughts that going to a temple to have darshan of Sita-Ram has no appeal to me. My Lord is always with me.

In fact, a student always wants to be near his teacher. So my Lord always wants to be with me and I too do not feel like leaving him, or seeing him in any other manner or form.’

Everyone was speechless. No one had heard of this type of devotion earlier. Loving Rama as the student! The Sadhus were surprised but they also wanted him to come to the Kanak Bhavan and offer his Pranams to SitaRam there. They requested him in many ways to comply to their wish. One of the Sadhus said that the education of the Lord is over and he is now married, and living with Mother Sita in Kanak Bhavan. After their marriage, Mother Kaikeyi had presented the Kanak Bhavan to Sita. And now there are images of the Sri Rama, Sita, Lakshman and Hanuman there.

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You must come at least once and have their darshan’.

The Sadhu replied, with a sense of unwillingness, ‘Look, if I come there, I would cause unnecessary problems. Seeing me, Mother Sita will feel abashed [as I am her husband’s teacher], and Prabhu Ram will get up to welcome. It would not be proper to create a scene in the temple. Please spare me.’

Although he pleaded with all Sadhus gathered, he was prevailed upon and they together went to Kanak Bhavan. After reaching the Kanak Bhavan, he was hesitant to enter it.

But finally when he did enter, lo! to everyone’s shock, the crown on Mother Sita’s head fell

off, the veil of Sari covered her face and the Lord, got up from his seat!

The Sadhu immediately rushed out of the Kanak Bhavan and went away. Other Sadhus realized their mistake in forcing him to come there against his wishes. ‘It was not good; let us go to him and seek his forgiveness’, the Sadhus said. As they all went to the banks of Sarayu, the Sadhu was nowhere to be seen. He had left the place, in search of a more suitable place, a forest cave or the banks of a river—to teach scriptures to his Prabhu Rama!

A devotee’s heart, as is said, finds numerous ways and means to worship his Beloved One. There are no limits to it. o

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Sri Ramakrishna and A Ramayat Sadhu On another occasion there [at Dakshineswar] came a Sadhu who had absolute faith in the name of God. He also belonged to the Ramayat denomination. He had nothing with him except a water-pot and a book. The book was very dear to him. He used to worship it daily with flowers and one day I persuaded him to lend me the book. When I opened it, I found that the only thing written in it with red ink in big letters was 'Aum Ramah'. He said, 'What is the use of reading a large number of books? For, it is from the one Divine Lord that the Vedas and the Puranas have come out; He and His name are non-separate.

Therefore, what is contained in the four Vedas, the eighteen Puranas and all the other scriptures, is there in any one of His names. That is why His name is my only companion.’

Such was the Sadhu’s faith in the name of God! —Sri Ramakrishna, in Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai. pp.612-13

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Entering the Himalayas—Lord Shiva’s Abode A Pilgrimage to Almora PRAVRAJIKA BRAHMAPRANA

(Continued from the previous issue. . . ) Sri Ragunathji Temple, Almora From Lala Badri Shah’s house, we then drove to the town of Almora and navigated the hilly streets to the Ragunathji temple,

traditional full-length skirts and adorned with nose rings, offered arati to Vivekananda as he passed on his way to the temple. Suddenly Swamiji recognized the Muslim fakir in the crowd and offered him some money in token of his gratitude for saving his life seven years earlier.

To also honour this special occasion of their hero monk’s return to India, the Almora sweet-meat shop owners offered barrels of sweets free of charge to Lord Ragunathji, and the prasad was then distributed to the thousands who had gathered there.

A hundred years later, in 1997, this celebration was re-enacted.

Jageswara Shiva It is said in the Puranas that one A recent picture of Ragunath Mandir (on left, with steps), Almora of the twelve jyotir lingas (‘pillars of light’) is deep within a deodar forest. where Vivekananda gave his famous response The deodar tree literally means ‘tree of God’. to the town official’s address after his It is believed that this jyotir Shiva linga–a triumphant return from the West in 1897. The natural emblem arising from the earth—is temple is located in the main Bazaar street.

Jageswara Shiva, once visited by the great seerIt is recorded that along the street leading philosopher Shankara in the 8th century ce, to the temple, local women, dressed in their Pravrajika Brahmaprana is a nun of the Vedanta Society of Southern California, Hollywood. She has compiled and edited several books on Vedanta, including The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 9; Vivekacudamani of Sri Sankaracarya, translated by Swami Turiyananda; and With the Swamis in America and India. Brahmaprana has also written numerous articles on the philosophy and practice of Vedanta for journals and anthologies in America and abroad. (Pravrajika Brahmaprana’s pilgrimage to Almora took place in October 2012.) o T h e

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and now worshiped within an ancient stone temple compound next to the Koshi River.

So after breakfast one morning, with Govind as our driver, Vina, a young brahmacharini, and I rode two hours through dizzying mountain curves to finally arrive at the sacred site of Jageswara Shiva—a temple compound that strangely emanated the same atmosphere as that of Badri Narayana, one of the four pithas [Joshi Math] of the Shankara Order, deep in the Himalayas near the China border.

After we made our water and flower offerings to the jyotir linga, we selected a spot on the stone mandir, amidst the several dozen small stone Shiva temples, to meditate.

The smell of a nearby yajna fire burning, the priests’ Vedic chanting, the crisp mountain air, and the sound of the stream rippling nearby filled the outer chambers of our heart. At last we descended to the river to sprinkle ourselves with the sacred water of the Koshi River before wending our way back down the mountainous route to Sarada Math.

I have never slept more soundly than I have here in Almora, with the snowcapped

Kakrighat—a view from the river T h e

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gods and goddesses in the distance standing guard over each of their sleeping devotees in the hills and valleys below. Complete stillness and tranquility reign as the night lights of bejeweled Almora glisten and twinkle below a rising Shiva moon.

Kakrighat The next morning after our breakfast tiffin, with Pravrajika Bhumaprana as my guide, we started by jeep to Kakrighat, where Swamis Vivekananda and Akhandananda in their early wanderings through the foothills of the Himalayas—without any money and depending solely on alms for food—had stopped for the night under an old peepal tree. Kakrighat is where the Koshi River meets the Suial River—an auspicious confluence. ‘This place is wonderful for meditation,’ Swamiji told his brother. Washing his face, hands, and feet, he said, ‘You can bathe, but I shall meditate here,’ and immediately he became absorbed in meditation under the peepal tree.

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After 45 minutes he returned to normal consciousness. ‘O, Gangadhar!’ he then revealed to his brother monk: I have just passed through one of the greatest moments of my life. Here under this peepal one of the greatest problems of my life has been solved. I have found the oneness of the macrocosm with the microcosm. In this microcosm of the body everything that is there in the macrocosm exists. I have seen the whole universe within an atom.1

Shortly thereafter, he jotted down his notes pertaining to this experience with reference to the metaphysical meaning of Logos, which we now find in Swami Vivekananda’s Complete Works.2 Pravrajika Bhumaprana and I removed our shoes and descended a steep path and staircase to the temple compound below the street level.

Beneath the peepal tree was a small ancient Shiva cave where Swamiji must have spent some time, so we also entered and meditated there with the sound of the confluence of the mountain rivers coursing beneath us. It being Sunday, we heard only the background drone of the river’s gentle rumble as it made its way through the mountain valley and the occasional gentle mooing of cows in the distance as they drank from the river. Seated within this small cave, it seemed as though the gushing river current was coursing through the pathways of our mind itself, cleansing it of all thoughts as we entered the cave of the heart. This natural cave carried such a concentrated atmosphere—so intimate, quiet, clean—a most auspicious place for meditation.

At last we emerged from the cave and climbed up on the cement platform that surrounded the peepal tree. With the Reference: T h e

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Himalayas before us and the confluence beneath us, again we meditated. Then at last we descended to the river itself, past a small white-flagged cremation spot on the riverbank, to bathe as Vivekananda himself had bathed— face, hands, and feet in the cool river. Finally we made our way back up to the road and returned to the Math.

The Gift of Pilgrimage That evening after supper, Pravrajika Prabhaprana took me to the Math library and presented me with what has become one of my most cherished gifts—a second-generation print of Vivekananda in his aspect as Lord Krishna—the same photo that had become living to the young bride, Janaki Devi, in Lala Badri Shah’s home. My pilgrimage to the Himalayas was complete.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, I took one last look at Nanda Devi and Trishul peaks—my daily guardians in Almora, silently made my salutations to their snowcapped forms, and turned to bid adieu to my dear Prabhaprana Mataji and her precious flock. ___________ My darshan of the Himalayas was over—rather it had now become internalized.

And as I rode back into the veil and bustle of Delhi’s city life, I reflected on Vivekananda’s life—how he prayed that his last days would be spent in the Himalayas. For at the very sight of those mountains, he had said that all the ferment of his work—his world mission— that had been going on in his brain for years quieted down, and his mind reverted back to the one eternal theme which the Himalayas symbolize and imbue within us—detachment, strength, and renunciation—the sacred abode (Concluded.) of Lord Shiva. o

1. The Life, 1:250.

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The Literary Vivekananda: Some Reflections PANCHAPAGESAN K.

Swami Vivekananda is widely known as a great monk and a Vedantin. But one of the aspects of his multifaceted personality was his literary accomplishments. Besides his vast erudition in various Sanskrit scriptures, world history, art, architecture, and other areas of human progress, he was also a lover of English literature. Says Swamiji’s biography: Those in Madras who heard the Swami were amazed. . . Each day new gifts and areas of knowledge came to light. Today he would be speaking of Valmiki, Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti in almost the same breath as of Homer and Virgil, Shakespeare and Byron; tomorrow it would be of the Trojans and of the Pandavas, of Helen and of Draupadi. Now he would descant on the idealization of the sensuous in Greek art, and then would go on to contrast it with the whole trend of Hindu art and culture towards the supersensuous. In discussing Hindu psychology he would give his hearers entrøe into worlds of heightened perception of which they had not dreamed.1

Here are some representative instances of his literary sensitivities: v While travelling all over India, he visited Belgaum [in Karnataka] and stayed there for a few days. Haripada Mitra, one of his two hosts, one day found Swamiji reading the famed Pickwick Papers:

should be so familiar with profane literature, he asked the Swami how often he had read the book, and was astonished to learn that he had read it only twice. When asked how he could have memorized it in only two readings, the Swami answered that when he read anything he concentrated his entire attention upon it.2 v Miss Kate Sanborn, one of Swamiji’s American admirers, reminisced about Swamiji thus:

He spoke better English than I did, was conversant with ancient and modern literature, would quote easily and naturally from Shakespeare or Longfellow or Tennyson, Darwin, Muller, Tyndall; could repeat pages of our Bible, was familiar with and tolerant of all creeds.

He was an education, an illumination, a revelation!3 v In his well known lecture titled ‘Indian Women’, Swamiji says, quoting from Bible,

They [Indian women] ‘neither toil nor spin, yet Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them.’ And the poor boys, they die like flies.4 v Once about Indian and English literature, Swamiji said,

Haripada Babu found the Swami well read not only in religion and philosophy, but in secular matters as well. To his surprise the Swami quoted at considerable length from The Pickwick Papers. Thinking it strange that a sadhu

Compare India and England in the Elizabethan period. What a dark age it was for your people, and how enlightened we were even then. The Anglo-Saxon people have always been badly fitted for art. They have good poetry—for instance, how wonderful is the blank verse of Shakespeare! Merely the rhyming of words is not good. It is not the most civilised thing in the world.5

o A long-standing devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, the author taught English at the Vivekananda College, Mylapore, Chennai.

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v Swamiji’s note of comparison about English and Sanskrit literature is also worth remembering here. He said, in course of a lecture,

Do you remember how Yajnavalkya was questioned at the Court of King Janaka? His principal examiner was Vachaknavi, the maiden orator—brahmavadini, as the word of the day was. ‘Like two shining arrows in the hand of the skilled archer’, she says, ‘are my questions.’ Her sex is not even commented upon. Again, could anything be more complete than the equality of boys and girls in our old forest universities?

Read our Sanskrit dramas—read the story of Shakuntala, and see if Tennyson’s Princess has anything to teach us!6

While Shakuntala is the very picture of innocence, simplicity and modesty, Tennyson’s Ida is a liberated woman with intense hatred for men.

In his famous lecture ‘Vedanta In All Its Phases’, Swamiji says, in a tone of comparison between English and Sanskrit poetry: Take our own Kalidasa—‘Darkness which can be penetrated with the point of a needle’; then Milton—‘No light but rather darkness visible’; but come now to the Upanishad, ‘Darkness was covering darkness’, ‘Darkness was hidden in darkness’. We who live in the tropics can understand it, the sudden outburst of the monsoon, when in a moment, the horizon becomes darkened and clouds become covered with more rolling black clouds. So on, the poem goes.7

Swamiji was a great lover of Shakespeare too and would often be using short lines from Shakespeare to drive home his point. v In the course of a conversation with a disciple about some strange instance of

occultism that he once came across, Swamiji quotes from Hamlet: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.8 v In the course of his address given in south India (in Paramakudi, Tamilnadu), Swamiji referred to a character in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice:

The West is groaning under the Shylocks and the East is groaning under the tyranny of priests.9 v In one of his letters, he kids someone because he was jealous; ‘Alas, Nick Bottom would you thus be translated!’10 Not only Shakespeare, Swamiji was well acquainted with other English poets as well.

Some instances: v While in America, he read Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, with great avidness and called him ‘the Sannyasin of America’. v In a letter to a woman disciple from the Thousand Islands Park, Swamiji writes, ‘Send my love to the babies on the other side—the real “Innocents Abroad,”’—alluding to a work of Mark Twain, the well-known American author. v The words ‘I look before and after and find that all is right’ which he writes in a poem ‘The Cup’ is a reminder of Shelley. Actually, Vivekananda’s thirty-three poems satisfy Shelley’s definition of poetry ‘The very image of life expressed in its eternal truth.’

In conclusion, one can safely state that Swamiji’s grasp of literature, Sanskrit as well as English, was truly masterly and he used phrases from both in his talks and conversations to his effect. His literary abilities were of high order. o

References 1. Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples, 1:365 5. CW, 4:196 6. CW, 5:230 7. CW, 3:330 8. CW, 6:516 4. CW, 8:64 T h e

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New Find

Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda1 Math. Belur. Howrah.

India. July 25th 1901.

My dearest Granny2 – I thank you so much for sending me the letter of Dr.Janes with Nivedita’s. It is good to know you are well and happy in your Norway home. I had a few lines from Santi last mail. She speaks with such tenderness of you. Send her my regards when you addresss her next.

Has Olea settled to join you? I hope she will. My regards & blessings to her as ever.

I hope she is well.

I had to run of to Darjeeling again for a fortnight for the Bannerjees wanted my advice on certain things. I am feeling strong again though as you say correctly, it will take some time to get back my old nerve tone & vigour. I believe I will get it back when I see you again in India in November next. I am so happy in anticipation of the day! May Sri R. ever bless & protect you.

The Swamiji is as before. I do not think he will ever be quite well again or get over his nervousness. All the rest of the Math are well.

The holy mother ever inquires of you & wishes her love & blessings. My friend & mother are sending their heartfelt love.

With dear love & blessings as ever Your affectionate Boy Saradananda.

[On the envelope:] Mrs. Sara C. Bull c/o Bergens Kredit Bank, BERGEN Lysven[?]

Loiftelands[?]

England.

Math. Belur. Howrah. India.

July 25th 1901.

My dear Nivedita3 Your kind letter of July 2nd received last mail. It is so good & kind of you to write me while you were busy with writing books & finishing everything there before your coming here. I am glad to know you are having a little much needed rest & quiet in the ‘Shiva’s Heaven’.

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The Kali Puja will take place on the night of Nov.10th this year. We are all so glad to know you will be with us on that night.

The Holy Mother is better and always inquires after you. She is sending her love & blessings.

I am sure she will never get tired of offering fruits &c on the day you come back to her & celebrate it with a feast to your girls.

It is so cheering to know of the Ole Bull-day at Norway. Granny never wrote me in detail of it & I thank you very much for doing the same.

The King4 is so-so, though much stronger than when he came back from his tour to East Bengal. The rest of the Math members are doing well. They are all sending their love & blessings to you.

Sadananda was glad to get your new book & was so enthusiastic about it. His health is not what we would like for him, but he is getting better. He will be going to Bunar[?] to spend a few days with his brother. I believe he will be able to pick himself up while there.

As for the new knowledge you have found for one’s regeneration, I for one will be glad to get my initiation at your hands, for I feel myself so ignorant; but I cannot vouch the same for the other as you justly said. But Truth has its own attraction & I hope it will do its work among them too, if you have hit at the right thing, if not our love for you will offer you absolution at all times for all that you do. So no fear about it.

Swami Brahmananda is well & joins me in sending love & blessings to you & St.Sara.

Yours affecly P.S. It is no wonder we do not recognize the genius of our own men as that of Prof. Bose— we have fallen so low indeed & become so blind. It will take so long a time with all your new knowledge to raise us even an inch!

You will be glad to know my brother has got his degree in U.S. & will start for London on Aug 14th next with the friends with whom he was staying. I hope he will be able to meet you & St.Sara in England on your return.

References 1. A direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna

2. Mrs. Sara Bull

3. Sister Nivedita

4. Swami Vivekananda

Courtesy: Ramakrishna Museum, Belur Math All kinds of work, from the mending of shoes to the reading of scriptures, help a man to proceed towards knowledge, if he does it disinterestedly. He who is ever anxious about his own self, power, or even about his own salvation, can never be a true karma yogi.

—Swami Saradananada T h e

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Dealing with Uncertainty V. KUMAR MURTY

(Continued from the previous issue. . . ) Let us understand that uncertainty is intrinsic to all knowledge and that in the phenomenal world, we can never eliminate it. Those who feel it can be eliminated tend to point to science. Some hold the view that the angst that we feel as a result of uncertainty could be eliminated if we were only more scientific in our approach. They feel that over many centuries of accumulated knowledge, science holds the potential of giving us the power of total control of our lives and the elimination of all uncertainty. We shall begin by examining the nature of scientific knowledge from the point of view of certainty and uncertainty.

Let us consider the question of whether there is any uncertainty in science. The reason that science and the scientific approach have taken such a firm hold in our culture is because of the predictive ability of science. It helps us to gain a degree of certainty about our world and our lives. We want to know today what the weather will be like tomorrow so that we can plan our activities. Will it be warm or cold, will be it sunny or rainy and so on. Or more seriously, we want to know ahead of time if a cyclone or hurricane is about to strike, and if so, how severe it will be, so that we can take measures like evacuation and fortification.

Science apparently helps us to discover certainty amongst uncertainty.

Uncertainty in Mathematics Amongst the sciences, there is a view that mathematics is the foundation or bedrock of certainty. The mathematical language is designed to be completely precise at the expense of everything else. A mathematical assertion is either true or false and the same holds for a mathematical proof. There is no room for ‘maybe’. There is no room for compromise or to find ‘a middle ground’.

Mathematics seems to have found absolute certainty. This was the view for many centuries in the mathematical and scientific communities. I think it is probably the popular view even today. Unfortunately, it is not the case: mathematics is actually plagued with its own version of uncertainty.

Let us examine the precision of its expression. The precision of mathematics is both its limitation and strength. That degree of precision is achieved at the expense of excluding a whole range of thought and ideas that cannot be expressed mathematically. For example, an intrinsically imprecise concept such as feelings cannot be captured by a mathematical formula. We may try to model the biochemical processes that are triggered at the time that we have an emotion, and we can certainly study those processes and try to express them mathematically. But it is an open question whether those processes are the same

The author is a Professor of Mathematics and Chair of the Department of Mathematical and Computational Sciences at the University of Toronto. He gives regular lessons to young students’ group attached to the Vedanta Society of Toronto, Canada. o T h e

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as the feeling or whether they are the effect of some other, perhaps psychological, process which is the actual cause of the feeling.

Let us ask a slightly different question.

We acknowledge that there are certain concepts and ideas that cannot be expressed mathematically, but within the realm of those ideas that can be expressed mathematically, can we assert that we have complete certainty?

By what we said above, it would seem at first that the answer is ‘yes’, that any assertion that can be expressed mathematically is either true or false, not ‘maybe’, and so we have complete certainty. But in fact, the answer is ‘no’. It is correct that a mathematical assertion is either ‘true’ or ‘false’ and that there is no ‘maybe’, but it may not be possible for us to determine whether it is ‘true’ or ‘false’.

I do not mean this in the sense that if we are faced with a mathematical assertion, we have or do not have the ability to prove it. Perhaps I cannot prove something, but you having more insight and ability, are able to prove it. When I say that it may not be possible for us to determine whether a statement is ‘true’ or ‘false’, I do not mean this in the sense of ability. It is a mathematically demonstrable theorem that in any finite axiomatic system, there will be assertions that can be neither proved nor disproved within that system. In other words, we can add such an assertion to our current axioms and build a consistent theory, or we can add the negation of such an assertion and build a consistent theory.

An example of this is the parallel postulate. It asserts that given a straight line, and a point not on the line, there is a unique line through this point that is parallel to the original line. It turns out that this cannot be proved or disproved without further assumptions. It seems to be intuitively obvious, and yet can neither be proved nor T h e

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disproved. When we look more closely at this situation, what we discover is that this assertion that we consider intuitively obvious, is so only because of a hidden assumption.

We are assuming that space is flat. If space is flat, the assertion can be shown to be true. If it is not flat, the assertion can be proved to be false. But without this additional information about the space that we are working in, the assertion—which is a rigorously formulated mathematical assertion—can neither be proved nor disproved.

If we find this unsettling, we should imagine how much more unsettling it was to the scientific, and especially, the mathematical, community when it was discovered in the 1930s. Mathematics, as our bastion of certainty, our refuge from the uncertainty that abounds in the rest of our life, was showing the same vulnerability to uncertainty as we find in other aspects of our life.

Uncertainty in Science We may retreat from mathematics to science in general, and ask whether science has the ability to remove all uncertainty. But here also, we fare no better. Soon after mathematical uncertainty (or incompleteness to be more precise) was discovered, uncertainty began to manifest in other areas of science. There is the Heisenberg uncertainty principle which asserts that one cannot know both the position and velocity of an electron. The very act of our attempting to know disturbs one or the other.

There is Schrödinger’s model of the atom in which precise locations and trajectories of subatomic particles are replaced with clouds that represent probability distributions of location and trajectory. You know how in the early pictures of the atom, you see a central mass called the nucleus and you see little particles called electrons in a precise

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orbit around the nucleus. You might still find such pictures in elementary school textbooks.

Schrodinger’s work showed that the situation is quite a bit more complicated. We cannot say that there is a precise orbit. What can be asserted is that there is a probability cloud within which the electron will move. And there is not one kind of cloud but a sequence of such clouds, each successive one becoming more complicated than the previous one. And more recently, there is the concept of quantum entanglement of photons, where light particles can apparently be in two places at the same time. This is a phenomenon that is the basis of the recent research on teleportation.

Such examples can be multiplied, but the implication is clear. We cannot naively expect science to be free of uncertainty.

classify. All knowledge is classification. The attempt to understand the phenomenal world is a matter of reconciling sensory experience to our internal classification. All reasoning is based on assumptions and is therefore limited.

Reasoning is the principle of causality or the connection between what we say is cause and what we say is effect. The phenomenal world that we know is bound in time, space and causality. This includes not only the sensory world, but also the psychological world.

Knowledge that is bound within the confines of time, space and causation is necessarily incomplete and is thus bound with ignorance and therefore, also with uncertainty. All our attempts at gaining certainty through knowledge within time, space and causation will be unsuccessful.

Epistemology In all of these examples, we observe that uncertainty comes with the introduction of the observer or the knower. The mathematical incompleteness theorem mentioned above has to do not with whether a statement is true or not, but whether we can determine its truth or falsity. The Heisenberg uncertainty principle is not about whether or not a particle is in a given position and given velocity, but whether we can it. It is the attempt to know for certain that entangles us in a web of uncertainty.

To understand this more clearly, we have to consider the question of knowledge from a philosophical point of view. In philosophy, this subject is called epistemology. It asks such questions as how do we know anything, is there an external reality or is the universe that I perceive existent only in my mind, is there such a thing as a-priori knowledge, and so on.

Let us summarize the view of Vedantic epistemology. We are born with a fund of experience by which we categorize and

Varieties of Uncertainty Our discussion thus far implies that we cannot deal with uncertainty by making it go away. It is something that will stay with us, and therefore, we have to learn to deal with it. In attempting to deal with it, we have to recognize that not all uncertainty is the same.

We can deal with some uncertainty, but there are other uncertainties that can keep us awake at night. Perhaps there is an event the next day that we consider important for our lives, such as a crucial meeting or interview or test. Perhaps there is some ongoing difficulty that we do not know how to resolve, such as a health or a legal issue or a family or professional matter. Even after we have gone to bed, we may continue to think (or rather, brood) about the possible outcomes, hoping for a positive outcome and worrying about how we will handle a negative one. At some point, the thought may occur that worrying about a problem will not help us to solve it, and that all we can do is to try our best. This consoles

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us to some extent, but does not eliminate the worries, the doubts and the uncertainties.

Also, if we are faced with several uncertainties at the same time, we may implicitly or explicitly order them in some manner and we may find that we are better at handling some of these than others.

Consider for example the case of lotteries.

Empirical reasoning would strongly suggest that one does not win lotteries. The only one that gains from a lottery is the one who runs it. A person may enter the lottery hundreds of times and fail. And yet, the person is ready to try again. This is an instance of our deliberately embracing the uncertainty of the lottery as it offers the potential of eliminating a greater uncertainty of material want. We place such a high priority on our desire to eliminate the uncertainty of material want that we deliberately embrace another uncertainty.

In the case of life-threatening issues, a priority is imposed on us. It is very clear that in comparison to losing a loved one, failing an exam is of less importance. In the case of our material well-being also, to some extent we impose a priority on ourselves.

Another instance of varieties of uncertainty is the case of interpersonal relationships.

If we want to really communicate with someone, we have to open ourselves to them and that could put us in a position of vulnerability. But it is that openness that makes serious communication possible. Thus, we may embrace the uncertainty caused by our vulnerability for the chance that there may be some significant communication. The extent that we actually do this in practice of course depends on many factors. We should not do anything that is beyond our ability to manage.

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conflict often entrench themselves in their own position and expect the other person to move. Then they wonder why no progress is made even in many years of discussion. For progress to be made, someone has to lower their defensive shields and that requires us to say that the possibility of removing the uncertainty caused by conflict is worth embracing the uncertainty caused by accepting vulnerability. This is why Christ included such people in his sermon on the mount: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God.’ The readiness to take the risk of sacrificing oneself to bring about peace is a divine quality.

Certainty as a Subjective State Next, we come to the third principle which is the subjective nature of uncertainty.

Is certainty an objective or a subjective state?

Does it correspond to a particular arrangement of material circumstances or does it refer to a state of mind? If it is objective, then given the same set of external circumstances, every one should have the same sense of certainty or uncertainty.

Consider, for example, the daily weather forecast. We hear the weather forecast for the day and thereby feel that we have reduced uncertainty about the appropriate way to dress, about whether we need to take an umbrella and so on. But what is behind that certainty? We did not get the meteorological data, nor did we study the satellite maps.

And even if we were presented with all of that data, we do not have sufficient training and experience to draw any conclusions. We rely on the weather forecast on the radio or television or the internet. In turn, the radio, the television and the internet rely on the weather forecast provided by some government service.

There may be a hundred radio stations, but

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they all give the same forecast because their source is the same. In turn, that government weather service relies on the interpretation of data provided by certain designated individuals who are considered to be experts.

In this chain, where is the objective certainty? Is it in the radio station, the government service or in the scientists or in the satellites? It is a hierarchy of trust, but not an objective certainty. The radio station trusts the government weather service and the government trusts the experts whom it has employed to predict the weather. Indeed, the only place where there is the possibility of objective certainty is at the last stage, where the meteorologists interpret the data. There is a possibility that given the same set of data, different meteorologists will reach the same conclusion. But a conversation with them will reveal that they are very keenly aware of the limitations of their interpretation and that there are many unknowns and hidden assumptions and that as a result, a certain degree of ‘guesswork’ based on experience and the predictions can be entirely wrong. So this last stage is also based on trust, namely that the experts trust their own experience.

Certainty is a subjective or psychological state. Once we have grasped this, the way that we try to deal with uncertainty takes a different turn. Our effort has to be not to change external circumstances as to deal with the vicissitudes of our own mind.

Averaging Uncertainty to produce Certainty Finally, we come to the fourth principle that uncertainty in the small becomes averaged into a degree of certainty in the large. To understand this, let us begin by considering the toss of a coin. It will land on one of its sides, either heads or tails. In exceptional cases, it may land vertically on its rim.

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Suppose you are asked to predict which of these three possibilities will occur in a given toss. The answer would be that we cannot predict (unless the coin has been tampered with in some way). However, suppose we were to toss the coin ten times and ask for a prediction whether at least once the coin will land on heads. Even now, we cannot say for sure. However, we can say that the likelihood of getting at least one heads is very high. This can be made plausible in the following way.

Let us assume that the possibility of the coin landing on its side is so remote that it can be eliminated from further discussion. Assuming that it is equally likely that on any given throw, we can get heads or tails, there are two possible outcomes and each may be assigned a ‘probability’ value of ½. Now, if we were toss the coin twice, there are four possible outcomes (namely (heads, heads) or (heads, tails) or (tails, heads) or (tails,tails)). Of these four, in three outcomes we have an occurrence of at least one heads. Thus, assuming each outcome to be equally likely, in two throws, the ‘probability’ that there will be at least one heads is ¾. Observe that ¾ is larger than ½. If we do this ten times, the ‘probability’ that there will be at least one heads is more than .999.

A ‘probability’ value of 1 signifies complete certainty and the closer the value is to 1, the greater is the presumed degree of certainty.

Let us consider another problem. Suppose a student is taking a year long course, beginning in September and ending in April.

During the year, there will be assignments, quizzes and midterms. At the end of the year, there will be a final exam. As the year progresses, the instructor will be able to observe the students and as the final exam approaches, will be able to predict with ‘reasonable’ certainty that certain students will fail and that others will pass or even do well.

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But, suppose we ask whether this prediction can be made in October, that is, one month into an eight month course. Clearly, the earlier we can make a reasonable prediction, the higher the chance that the student can be helped and the outcome changed. This method is actually being used at the University of Toronto.

As with the coin toss, for a single student, it may not be possible to make a prediction one month into the course. However, observing thousands of students who take the same course, one finds a striking correlation between the mark on the first test (which is in October) and the final mark (in April). This is a statistical and empirical observation. We cannot explain why it is there, but the pattern is quite evident. And that pattern can be used to advise specific students provided that we keep in mind that we have a statistical and not a deterministic indicator.

Thus, uncertainty in the small seems to get averaged out to produce certainty in the large. This is the case even in our ordinary experience. When we look at a door or a table, the surface appears quite smooth. But if we were to look at a microscopic level, we would see many undulations. From that microscopic view, our conclusion would have been that the surface is quite uneven. It is true at that level but not at a larger level. Similarly, the laws of physics are well defined at the macroscopic level, but become probabilistic statements at the atomic level.

This kind of averaging of uncertainties to produce a greater degree of certainty does have its limitations. A nice discussion of this is given in the book The Black Swan. The author makes the point that for some events, repeating an experiment any number of times may still be insufficient to predict significant and unexpected events. So we do not mean

that averaging or taking a larger perspective will remove all uncertainty. We only mean to suggest that it has the tendency to produce a greater degree of certainty in many cases.

There is also the story of ‘the will of Rama’ that Sri Ramakrishna often narrated.

Once there was a village in which there was a very honest and devout weaver. He would preface every statement with ‘by the will of Rama’. Everyone knew how honest he was because in selling a piece of cloth, he would tell the price he paid for the cloth, how much he charges for his labour and how much his profit will be, prefacing each of these with ‘by the will of Rama’. One day, he was in the temple praying and contemplating, when some thieves came by. They had just committed a robbery and they needed someone to carry the loot. Seeing the weaver sitting alone in the temple, they grabbed him and put the bundle of loot on his head and asked him to walk with them. The police arrived and arrested everyone including the weaver.

When he was produced in front of the magistrate and asked to explain what happened, he said, ‘by the will of Rama, I was sitting in the temple. By the will of Rama, the thieves came and made me carry their loot. By the will of Rama, I am now in front of you.’ Thus, even in these circumstances, he did not lose his peace of mind or develop any anxiety, because it was all ‘the will of Rama’. The magistrate was convinced of his honesty and released him and he told his friends ‘by the will of Rama I was released’.

If we can have that kind of self-surrender, we will never be assailed by worry or anxiety or disturbed by any kind of uncertainty.

To reach that level of self-surrender, we might reflect on the fact that whatever has a beginning has an ending. The problems we are facing now had a beginning and they will have an ending. No problem lasts forever. o (Concluded.) vvv

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Sri Ramakrishna was a master story-teller. While he spoke of profound spiritual truths and mystery of human life, he amply used stories, anecdotes, examples and analogies to drive home his point. At times, while narrating a story, he would even make gestures and change the tone of his voice to bring in a lively element in his narrative. The following stories, mainly culled from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai) are an attempt to present before the readers Sri Ramakrishna’s rich store-house of stories which are both illuminating and simple.

32 Story of Ranjit Raya Ranjit Raya was the landlord of that part of the country. Through the power of his Tapasya he obtained the Divine Mother as his daughter. He was very fond of her, and she too was much attached to him; she hardly left his presence.

One day Ranjit Raya was engaged in the duties of his estate. He was very busy. The girl, with her childlike nature, was constantly interrupting him, saying: ‘Father, what is this?

What is that?’ Ranjit Raya tried, with sweet words, to persuade her not to disturb him, and said: ‘My child, please leave me alone. I have much work to do.’ But the girl would not go away. At last, absent-mindedly, the father said, ‘Get out of here!’ On this pretext she left home.

A pedlar of conch-shell articles was going along the road. From him she took a pair of bracelets for her wrists. When he asked for the price, she said that he could get the money from a certain box in her home. Then she disappeared. Nobody saw her again.

In the mean time the pedlar came to the house and asked for the price of his bracelets.

When she was not to be found at home, her relatives began to run about looking for her.

Ranjit Raya sent people in all directions to search for her. The money owed to the pedlar was found in the box, as she had indicated.

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people came running to him and said that they had noticed something in the lake. They all ran there and saw an arm, with conch-shell bracelets on the wrist, being waved above the water. A moment afterwards it disappeared.

Even now people worship her as the Divine Mother at the time of the annual festival. (p.797) Brahman is the Innermost Reality Where the mind attains peace by practising the discipline of ‘Neti, neti’, there Brahman is.

The king dwells in the inmost room of the palace, which has seven gates. The visitor comes to the first gate. There he sees a lordly person with a large retinue, surrounded on all sides by pomp and grandeur. The visitor asks his companion, ‘Is he the king?’ ‘No’, says his friend with a smile.

At the second and the other gates he repeats the same question to his friend. He finds that the nearer he comes to the inmost part of the palace, the greater is the glory, pomp, and grandeur.

When he passes the seventh gate he does not ask his companion whether it is the king; he stands speechless at the king’s immeasurable glory. He realizes that he is face to face with the king. He hasn't the slightest doubt about it. (p.836)

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The Order on the March Ramakrishna Math and Mission—News and Notes

Commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda Statue Unveiled On 24 June Swami Prabhanandaji, Vice President of Ramakrishna Math and Mission, unveiled a marble bust of Swamiji at the Presidency University (formerly Presidency College, where Swamiji had studied) in Kolkata in the presence of the Vice Chancellor of the University and other dignitaries. o All-India Youth Convention Held at NarayanpurAshrama As part of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Birth Anniversary Celebrations, an All-India Youth Convention was held at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama at Narayanpur in the state of Chhattisgarh. Over 4000 youth

A view of the programmes—All India Youth Convention

delegates from 20 states in India, besides a good number of observers and guests, took part in the threeday Convention from 13 to 15 June 2013. The three-day-long events included speeches by monks from different centres of the Ramakrishna Order, and learned and well-known lay speakers on subjects such as youth, women empowerment, concentration of mind, inspiring life and teachings of Swamiji and other allied themes.

Many youth delegates too spoke on the occasion and a number of cultural presentations including dance, drama and singing by youth and professional troupes on themes such as life and message of Swami Vivekananda, rich cultural heritage of India, and Chhattisgarh in particular, and other aspects of interests for the youth were staged.

Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, located in the remote part of Abujhmarh in Chhattisgarh, was started in 1985 and runs a host of activities for the welfare of tribal populace. These include a residential higher secondary school, a multi-purpose workers’ training centre, an agriculture training-cum-demonstration farm, a 30-bed hospital, mobile medical unit, fair-price shops, among others. o T h e

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Postal Stamp Released in Sri Lanka A postage stamp to commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda was issued by the Philatelic Bureau of Sri Lanka. The First Day Cover was ceremonially handed, by the Postmaster General, to President Mahinda Rajapaksa at ‘Temple Trees’ on Friday, the June 07, 2013, in the presence of a large and distinguished gathering, according to a communique issued by the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), Colombo. Several Ministers, Members of Parliament, Diplomats, Senior Government Officials and Community Leaders had graced the occasion.

Those present included the Acting High Commissioner for India in Sri Lanka Mr P Kumaran, Swami Atmaghanananda from Chennai who was invited by the Government of Sri Lanka to represent the Ramakrishna Mission in India, the members of a Special Delegation from the India Foundation, led by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, a Delegation of four Swamis and 18 devotees representing the Ramakrishna Mission in Sri Lanka and two Nuns from the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, the Principal, Deputy Principal and a Senior Students representing the Vivekananda College, Colombo, and representatives of the Hindu Swayamsevaka Sangha including its President R. Wijayapala. o Sister Nivedita’s House in Darjeeling handed over Roy Villa, the palatial house in Darjeeling, is the house where Sister Nivedita died on 13 October, 1911.

The Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, the hill council in Darjeeling, handed over Roy Villa to the West Bengal government for being made into a centre of excellence by the Ramakrishna Mission.

The house was handed over at a function attended by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha President Bimal Gurung. ‘The Ramakrishna Mission will take care of maintenance of the building,’ Ms. Banerjee said announcing Rs one crore from the state government for its renovation.

Ms. Banerjee said that the historic building would be made a heritage institution and would be used for the purpose of women’s empowerment. Officials said that it would also be a centre for study of different languages, computer education and for training aspirants for competitive exams. o Vidyarthi Homa Performed at the Chennai School Vidyarathi Homa is a simple fire-ritual in which students sit beside the fire, chanting in Sanskrit five vows and prayers to infuse discipline, concentration, hard work and enlightened citizenship.

This is performed in many schools run by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

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The Chief Minister of West Bengal and the General Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Mission in front of the Nivedita's House

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A Vidyarathi Homa was performed, on 26 June 2013 in Sri Ramakrishna Math Vivekananda Centenary Girls’ Higher Secondary School, Mint, in north Chennai. This is the first time that this Homa was conducted in this 100-year old institution. As part of the Homa, newly admitted girl students from various classes (class 6 to 11) of the School stood near the Homa-kunda (fire-enclosure) and repeated the Vidyarathi Mantras, describing the real purpose of education and preparing oneself to achieve it.

The Homa arrangements were officiated and looked into by monks of the Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore.

All teachers, staff, students and others were present on the occasion. After the Homa, Prasada was distributed to one and all. o

Students' taking part in the Vidyarathi Homa in Chennai

Flood Relief in Uttarakhand In the wake of the unprecedented devastation caused by cloudburst and flashfloods in a major portion of Uttarakhand, our Kankhal centre has started a relief camp at Agastyamuni in Rudraprayag district.

Food packets (each packet containing a loaf of bread, rusk, puri, pickle, sweets, etc), baby food and water

The relief work in progress in Uttarakhand

bottles were distributed among 5000 affected people at Agastyamuni, and 8000 buns, 12,000 cakes, 4000 packets of rusk, 4800 packets of biscuits, 1100 kg atta (flour), 16,060 kg dalia (broken wheat grains), 3100 kg chira (rice flakes), 1515 kg milk powder, 1050 kg sugar, 11,090 kg gur (molasses), 5000 kg salt, 4000 candles, 12,000 matchboxes, etc., were distributed among nearly 600 families at 20 inaccessible villages between Rudraprayag and Gupta Kashi till 29 June.

Besides, 460 flood-affected patients were treated in the medical camp established at Ganganagar, about 7 km from Agastyamuni. Relief work is continuing in full swing.

Steps are being taken to start a relief camp at Joshi Math by our Dehradun centre. o

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Book Review For review in The Vedanta Kesari,

publishers need to send us two copies of their latest publication.

Swami Vivekananda’s NeoVedanta—In Theory & Practice: A Critical Study

By Dulal Chandra Panday Published by Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, Kolkata - 700 029.

2012, Paperback, Pp.130 + xii, Rs.75.

This is a refreshing interpretation of Swami Vivekananda’s Neo-Vedanta in theory and practice. It is a Ph.D. Thesis submitted to Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, by the author who is on the staff of the Department of Philosophy and Religion of the same University.

He has rewritten the thesis for the common reader by reducing in many ways the academic anchorage that goes with any thesis.

The author has tried to show the significance of Swamiji’s Neo-Vedanta in the context of the modern world. A brief historical account of Vedanta from early times to the present is followed by a discussion of the metaphysical concepts of Brahman, Ishvara, Maya, Jiva, Jagat, and their relationship to each other, to highlight the essential oneness of all human beings and their spiritual foundation. Swamiji insisted on how it is not enough a man knows Vedanta in theory but practice it in the light of one’s inclination. Karma yoga, Bhakti yoga, Raja yoga, and Jnana yoga, or a synthesis of them, only open the paths for a man to realize the supreme goal of life. This does not mean a man goes out of this world but live here in the midst of men and women in a network bound by love and trust, and live in peace and harmony.

Practical Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda is a panacea to the ills of the modern world.

The book under review is very well brought out with a beautiful colour portrait of Swamiji on the cover and another inside. _____________________________ N. EAKAMBARAM, CHENNAI.

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A Patriot Monk Swami Vivekananda

By Shanta Kumar Published by Ocean Books Pvt. Ltd., 4 /19, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi, 110002. 2012.

Hardbound, Pp.176, Rs.250.

It is not quite often that men from political field write on subjects such as the life of Swami Vivekananda. The book under review is an exception. Sri Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, wrote the original book in Hindi (Desh Bhakt Swami Vivekanand) some 40 years ago. The present volume is its English translation. The author details the circumstances under which he wrote the books: ‘In 1967, I had contested the State Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh and lost. My first election and my first defeat. Disappointment and sadness was natural. . . . I decided to spend some peaceful days with Swamiji’s literature all alone. . . On the third day, a thought came into my mind to write a book. .on Swamiji’s life. . . I managed to complete the books with a couple of days.’ Thus was born the present book.

A prolific writer in Hindi, the author introduces the book thus: ‘Swami Vivekananda is the architect of modern India, and also has been my source of inspiration from my childhood. I have read his works many times and have always tried to follow his ideals.’ The book has 23 chapters (the last three have been added in 2012) and has several pictures of Swamiji in multicolour. The book makes a smooth reading despite the fact that it is a translation work. Swamiji’s patriotism, intense feeling for others, his first-hand knowledge of Indian culture and religion and, above all, his purity of character—the book illustrates all

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these, and more, through retelling the narrative of Swamiji’s life. Several events of Swamiji have been dramatically presented which speaks of author’s literary abilities.

With a few facts requiring further confirmations, the book is a welcome addition to evergrowing literature on Swamiji. _______________________________________________VK OFFICE

Dharma, the Global Ethic

By M. Rama Jois Published by Vijnaneshwara Research and Training Centre in Polity Matter, Gulbarga. 2010, paperback, pp. 159, Rs.100.

‘Yato dharma stato Jayah’ is the quintessential doctrine of the Mahabharata, the pioneering work by Sage Vyasa. He said, ‘Dharmo rakshati rakshitah’ (Dharma protects one who protects Dharma).

Vedic sages, Upanishadic Rishis, Smritikaras, all classical poets and rulers of the past like Bhoja, Vikaramaditya, Dilipa, Raghu and Janaka directly or indirectly proved the greatness of Dharma by their life and teachings. They tried to convince the generations to come the value and importance of the Sanatana Dharma. Dharma, according Indian tradition and philosophy, is the most important value of life. All the scriptures and later works propounded the essentiality of Dharma.

Lord Buddha preached ‘Dharmam Saranam’.

Justice M.Rama Jois in his masterly treatise Dharma the Global Ethic goes deep into the concept of Dharma and establishes relevance of it in human existence quoting statements from Rigveda to the works of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda. The book is dedicated to ‘all those who founded and propounded Dharma’ and that itself shows the credibility of the learned authors’ right to write such a brilliant monograph on Dharma at a period when people of all walks of life compete in becoming Adharmic forgetting the famous dictum, ‘Satyam Vada, Dharmam Chara’ [Speak Truth and follow Dharma].

The present book contains thirteen chapters and the whole text is a well prepared document T h e

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on Dharma. Concept of Dharma, Dharma, the six antigens of the mind, values of life-based Dharma, Doctrine of Trivarga Supremacy of Dharma, etc., are the contents of the various chapters in the book.

The author expresses his ardent desire: This book is intended to remind us about the ancient Indian wisdom is the form of Dharma formulated and evolved as the panacea for all human problems. . .

Before the night falls, before it is too late, humanity should realize what is happening and retrace its steps and proceed in the right direction. Let us begin a new chapter from at least the 21st century for a happy harmonious living.

In the twelfth chapter, after detailed discussions about the pre-conditions the author enumerates for making Dharma as ‘Global ethic’, the book concludes with a very relevant quotation from the Gita—Uddharedatman-atmanamn atmanamavasadayet. [‘A man should uplift himself by his own self, so let him not weaken this self’].

This well documented study on Dharma teaches the readers the indispensable Global ethical value which alone will save the mankind from the growing tyrannies and lunatic actions of a large number of people. In the chapter XII the declaration signed by the members of the Religions Parliament, which is famous by the monumental address of Swami Vivekananda, is fully quoted and the author says that it should be the blue print for modern education and human life at large. The book is a fine record which teaches great human values which secure real success and happiness in life. ______________________________ V.S. SHARMA, TRIVANDRAM

Trivarga

By M. Rama Jois Published by Vijnaneshwara Research and Training Centre in Polity Martur, Gulbarga. 2010, paperback, pp. 159, Rs.100.

Justice M.Rama Jois, the learned author of Trivarga (Dharma, Artha, Kama) starts his study on his subject and makes an appealing interpretation of the ‘Trivarga Sadhana’. Twelve chapters in the book are as follows—Trivarga sadhana, concept and scope

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of Dharma, Trivarga as Six Antigen for the Mind, Trivarga foundations of the family life, Dharma of Employers and Employees, Rajadharma, Rajaneeti, Dharma of Judiciary, Simple and less expensive life, Criteria of Good Government in Ramayana and Mahabharata, Trivarga and Human rights, Gandhiji’s ideal of Ramarajya.

Justice V.R. Krishna Iyer, an advocate of Dharma and social justice, introduces the book with his encomium: ‘His lucubration has amazed me and his books and lectures have few parallels especially in the world of vintage Indian law. His recent book Trivarga Sadhana condenses the wonders of learning of the ancient thinkers of our land.’

Justice Rama Jois believes that ‘doctrine of Trivarga which is of eternal value and a panacea for all our social, political and family problems’ thoroughly examines the ideal of Trivarga— Dharma, Artha and Kama—and points out that the most important topics dealt with in the book are essential for peace and happiness in the community. The author, who is fully aware of the maladies of the present times, especially of India, strongly argues for the Trivarga Sadhana with many illustrations and necessary quotations from ancient classics in Sanskrit. In the Lalitha Sahasranama stotra the two names of the Goddess trivarga datrayai and trivarga nityayai is also worth mentioning here.

Being a distinguished Judge, the author who closely watches the developments around the world and as one who stands for the great ideals, principles and human values has succeeded in exposing the concept of Trivarga Sadhana. He deserves all appreciation for this authentic study on the subject and this book can be considered as a guide to all those who want to be a good citizen in this age of unlimited human problems and agonies _______________________________ V.S.SHARMA, TRIVANDRUM

Biography of Guru Devi Janaky Matha

By Dr. G. Swaminathan Published by Gurudevi Janaky Matha Ashram, 15, Ganapathy Nagar, Thanjavur-613 001. T.N. 2012, paperback, pp.200, price not given.

Here is the concise biographical sketch of Sri Janaky Matha, a wife and mother, who attained great spiritual heights by the grace of her Guru Bhagavan Ramana. This is also a saga of a saint who, by her sheer Vairagya, firm determination, sinT h e

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cerity of purpose and zealous spiritual Sadhana, was transformed into a spiritual luminary. Sri Matha’s life stands as a shining example of perseverance to the ideal of Liberation and devotion to Guru.

Born in a village in Palghat in 1906, Janaky displayed unusual detachment, tranquility, devotion and purity of character from the childhood.

She was married at the young age of thirteen to Dr. C.S. Ganapti Iyer and was blessed with two sons and three daughters. Very soon after her marriage she realized that ‘to none but Him (God) should true love be directed. To turn to the Divine is the only truth in life.’ From that day on she continued to take care of her family and responsibilities but shifted her life’s ideal to that of total devotion to God. Discharging her duties of a housewife and a mother, she never wasted a single minute and regularly spent fixed hours in meditation, chanting and studies of the scriptures like Bhagavad Gita.

With the advancement in her Sadhana, she experienced divine visions, and the occult powers.

In one extraordinary event in 1934, a stranger came, said that he was ‘Subrahmanya’, and showed her a photo of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, who, he said, was her Guru. He also said that Subrahmanya would be born as her son. In 1935, Janaki was bedridden for forty days, her body suffering from strange changes. She heard the ‘Om’ uttered by Vinayaka and then recovered.

Meeting with Sri Ramana Maharishi in 1935 was the turning point of her life. Her mind was ready to absorb the full flow of Bhagavan’s Grace.

Throughout that night she enjoyed visions of Bhagavan blessing her. To Janaky, Bhagavan was no different from the formless Arunachaleswara, a form of Shiva. Bhagawan also accepted her as his disciple, Sometime in 1938, she experienced the rise of Kundalini. Samadhi and spiritual ecstasy began to manifest, and in the months and years that followed, she began to be addressed as Sri Matha and devotees began to pour in her Ashrama in

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Thanjavur, where she lived from 1942 to 1969. They used to congregate for worships, chanting, etc. Her teachings emphasized good conduct, devotion to God, meditation, worship and charity.

In the latter half of 1966, the breast cancer developed, but none of her devotees was aware of this. She did not take any medical treatment. Her last visit to Ramana Ashrama was around January 1969. She attained Mahanirvana, in a sitting posture, on 27th April 1969.

Her amazing life of inner visions, spiritual yearning, surrender and bhakti is indeed inspiring.

It motivates spiritual aspirants to delve into the Supreme Self and not waste even a minute in the mundane activities.

This biography is written by her son, who is currently running the Ashrama located at Thanjavur. This Ashrama is now engaged in doing many religious as well as philanthropic activities and spreading the message of Ramana Maharishi.

lead an unhappy life. The author has been making a sustained effort to help humanity in identifying and eliminating causes for distress in life. As may be expected this book has valuable lessons to develop a positive outlook in life.

Dada Vaswani directs our attention to some of the common sources for frustration and how we tend to miss the wood for the trees. One should learn to enjoy life. But it is common knowledge that people are haunted by memories of the past and anxieties of the future. We thus hold on to old baggage and suffer. Says Dada Vaswani: ‘. . . past is a canceled cheque; the future is an unfulfilled promissory note; the present is the only cash we have in our hands; we must use it wisely and well’.

Further, the law of life is to ‘Get along with the present’, learning to ignore the past and worries of an uncertain future.

The author counsels, if you are assailed by disappointments, gloom and pessimism, you should remember that they ‘too shall pass away’.

After all, everything in life is ephemeral. The sense of unhappiness is our own creation as ‘. . . it is we who have chosen the role we are to play in this life’. Hence, having scripted our life we should hold ourselves responsible for what we experience.

Several lessons of Dada Vaswani remind us of the wisdom handed over to us by Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swamiji.

Sudden spurt in economic growth since early 1990s opened opportunities for wealth acquisition but many failed to leverage a proper mix of acquisitions in improving lifestyle. Strangely, faltering economic growth, absence of a level playing field in many areas and failure to recognize and reward merit have made life hard for those who value ethics and morals. To face such situations the wisdom offered by books such as Living in the Now . . . will be of immense help.

_________________________ CHETANA MANDAVIA, GUJARAT

Living in the Now and Other Heart-to-Heart Talks

By J.P. Vaswani Published by Sterling Publishers. Available from Gita Publishing House, 10, Sadhu Vaswani Path, Pune 411 001. 2012, paperback, Pp.176, Rs.190.

J.P.Vaswani, brings out nuggets of truth in our lifestyle that have a propensity to identify causes for unhappiness and generate distress as if that is inevitable. In Living in the Now… Dada observes that despite economic recession, people find a life full of material acquisitions. But more often than not they

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We may study all the books that are in the world, yet we may not understand a word of religion or of God. We may talk all our lives and yet may not be the better for it; we may be the most intellectual people the world ever saw, and yet we may not come to God at all. . . . An intellectual, heartless man never becomes an inspired man. It is always the heart that speaks in the man of love; it discovers a greater instrument than intellect can give you, the instrument of inspiration.

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Phone: (033) 2654-1144, 1180, 5700.

Fax: (033) 2654-9885.

E-mail: rkmrelief@gmail.com , relief@belurmath.org Website: www.belurmath.org

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RAMAKRISHNA MISSION (Relief Section) P.O. Belur Math, Howrah West Bengal – 711 202, India

UTTARAKHAND FLOOD RELIEF WORK

By RAMAKRISHNA MISSION, BELUR MATH Brief Report as on 26.06.2013 In the wake of the unprecedented devastation caused by cloud-burst and flash floods in major parts of Uttarakhand, Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math has undertaken relief work in the affected areas through its Kankhal (Haridwar) centre.

A relief camp has been established at a place called Agastya Muni, about 25 kms from Rudra Prayag. Dry food packets {each packet containing bread, chira (flattened rice), atta (flour), roasted grams, sugar, milk powder, rusk, puri, pickle, sweets, candle, match boxes, etc.}, baby food and drinking water are being distributed among thousands of affected people. A medical team has also been providing the much-needed primary medical relief to the affected people. The relief work will be further expanded depending upon the gravity of the situation prevailing then.

While thanking all who contributed for this noble cause, we request others to come forward and donate liberally, to help us in this noble endeavour. All donations paid in cash or by cheque / demand draft drawn in favour of “RAMAKRISHNA MISSION” payable at Kolkata are exempt from income tax under section 80-G of the I.T. Act. Online donation facility is also available through our website (http://www. belurmath.org/donation_cca/donation.php). Donation may please be sent to: The General Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, (Relief Section) Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal – 711 202, India.

One may also deposit his/her benevolent contribution at our nearest branch centre.

Swami Suvirananda Uttarakhand Relief in pictures

Assistant Secretary

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Sri Ramakrishna Sevashram

(Regd. No. S/15296 of 1974) Vill. & P.O. B-Ramakrishnapur, PS.: Bishnupur, Dist-24 pgs.

(S), West Bengal, Pin-743610 (A member Ashram of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Bhava Prachar Parishad, South 24 Pgs. Dist, advised by Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission Belur Math, W.B.) Ph: 9674399608, 9433350418 Website: www.srks.org Regd. Off: 6, Baroda Thakur Lane, Kolkata-700 007

AN APPEAL Dear Sisters and Brothers, ‘Extension of Boys’ Home, betterment of the living condition of the inhabitants of the Ashram, construction of Temple of Sri Ramakrishna and a prayer Hall.’

We are grateful to many of you who extended their assistance for the betterment of our SEVASHRAM, which was set up in 1973 under the patronage of Swami Ramanandaji Maharaj (former Secretary Ramakrishna Mission Saradapith, Belur) and registered in 1974. As you know, ours is a philanthropic organisation, involved in— 1. Upbringing of 50 orphan boys and intend to increase to 150.

2. Helping nearly 200 destitude widows.

3. Maintenance of Old Age Home for men & women.

4. Renovation of a) The Primary School for Boys upto Class IV. b) Existing Charitable Dispensary c) Guest House We have already set up 18 Vivekananda Free Schools for the poor children in remote villages in the Sundarban areas.

About 1.5 k.m. from Dakshin Durgapur Rly. Station on Diamond Harbour line, near Kolkata, the Sevashram grew up on a 40 Bigha plot of land with all activities.

Over the foundation stone, already consecrated by the most Revered Srimat Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj, 13th President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, we intend to complete the construction of a Sri Ramakrishna Temple and A Prayer Hall to accommodate 500 devotees. For the aforesaid activities we need financial assistance of Rupees 1 Crore 5 lakhs. 'Service to man is service to God’ is, to our mind, the essence of Swami Vivekananda's teaching of practical Vedanta, and is our source of inspiration. Our religion is to serve humanity.

Arrangement for insertion of memory stone tablet at Rs. 10,000/- (15" x 15"), Rs. 20,000/- (18" x 18") and for insertion on the boundary wall of the temple Rs. 30,000/- (24" x 24") is available. Your valued assistance through A/c Payee Cheque/Demand Draft/M.O. in favour of Sri Ramakrishna Sevashram to our above registered office will be accepted with gratitude. Donations are exempted under 80G of IT Act and the same will be gratefully acknowledged with our official receipt.

Yours in the Lord, Sudhanshu Biswas Secretary

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Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Matri Bhavan

7A, Sree Mohan Lane, Kolkata - 700026 Phone Numbers: 033-24644937/24668207/24668273 E-mail: rksmmatribhavanhosp@gmail.com, website: www.rksmmatribhavan.org

Welcome to Join Us in Providing Quality Community Health Services Committed to the ideal of ‘Atmano Mokshartham Jagat Hitaya Cha’, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Matri Bhavan is a branch of Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Dakshineswar, Kolkata. For over six decades, the Matri Bhavan has been serving the cause of women and children welfare through its 100-bed charitable hospital, community health services, nursing school and vocational training unit. Our services are offered to all, without any consideration of religion, caste or creed.

Since 2011, the Matri Bhavan has been conducting a ‘General Nursing Midwifery’ residential course of three and a half years, with an annual intake of 20 students and ‘Nursing Assistant Course’ for marginalised girls with an annual intake of 20 students. Our Community and Vocational Training units teach the poor girls and women skills such as sewing, knitting, spoken English, arts and computer training.

To house these activities in commodious settings, we are in the process of constructing the Vivekananda Educational Complex and Community Hall.

The building will be used for conducting workshops and seminars for doctors and nursing-staff and for imparting hygiene and health education to women and children. We are also renovating the hostel for nursing students. The estimated cost of the entire project is rupees Four Crores. We are in urgent need of funds to complete the work. We appeal to all kind-hearted individuals, philanthropic institutions and charitable organisations to contribute generously towards this project.

Donations may be sent by Crossed Cheque/ Demand Draft in favour of Ramakrishna Sarada Mission Matri Bhavan to the undersigned. In your covering letter, kindly mention that the donation is for the ‘Hospital Development Fund’, along with your PAN Number, complete postal address, e-mail id and mobile number. Donations are exempt from the Income Tax under Section 80G of the IT Act, 1961. We accept donation in foreign currency also.

Yours in the service of Holy Mother, Pravrajika Anirvanaprana Secretary

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Welcome to a Spiritual Feast!

Reminiscences of Three Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna

Swami Brahmananda As We Saw Him Hardbound, Pages xii + 588 Price: Rs. 200/- + Postage: Rs.35/- per copy

Swami Adbhutananda As We Saw Him Hardbound, Pages xvi + 464 Price: Rs. 175/- + Postage: Rs.25/- per copy

Swami Ramakrishnananda As We Saw Him Hardbound, Pages ix + 525 Price: Rs. 180/- + Postage: Rs.30/- per copy

request for vpp will not be entertained

Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004 Email: mail@chennaimath.org

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SRI RAMAKRISHNA ADVAITA ASHRAMA (HQS: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Belur Math) P.O. Kalady, Ernakulam-683574, Kerala Phone: 0484-2462345, Mob: 9447051231 E-mail: srkaadv@dataone.in The Ashrama has been running a free hostel for the poor & underprivileged children from classes V to X since 1936. They are provided with food, uniforms, accommodation and education up to Xth Std. absolutely free of charge. They are enrolled in the school managed by the Ashrama within its campus.

There is an urgent need for repair and renovation of the old hostel buildings and also creating a ‘Hostel Corpus Fund’ of Rs. 2 Crores for maintaining the hostel with 100 boys.

We appeal to the generous public, friends and well wishers to donate liberally for this most essential educational project.

You are also welcome to donate towards various other regular activities: a) Daily Puja & Seva; b) General Maintenance of the Ashrama; c) Charitable Dispensary; d) Widows’ Welfare.

Donations towards the activities of the Ashrama are exempt from Income Tax under 80G. Cheques or Bank Drafts may be drawn in favour of ‘Sri Ramakrishna Advaita Ashrama, Kalady’ and sent to the above address. Donations also can be sent directly through RTGS/NEFT to our A/c No. 338602010009164 at Union Bank of India, Kalady (IFSC Code: UBIN0533866).

Swami Amaleshananda Adhyaksha

Ishavasya Upanishad and the True Import of Dharma

By Swami Tyagishananda

Pages 400 Price Rs. 200/- . Postage extra.

Based on the notes of the classes conducted

by Swami Tyagishananda (1881-1951), an eminent monk of the Ramakrishna Order, known for his vast scholarship and profound thinking. The class notes were taken down by Swami Kirtidananda in 1946-49 (a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, now deceased).

The present book was released in March 2013 at a function held at Ramakrishna Math, Bangalore.

Special discount for all centres of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission.

For more details, contact: Viveka Hamsa Prakashana #569, 3rd cross, Srinivasanagar, Bangalore - 560 050, Karnataka Phone- 080 2669 6388 and 2679 1827. E-mail: vivekahamsa@yahoo.com

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NAVAJEEVAN BLIND RELIEF CENTRE (FREE HOME FOR THE BLIND, ORPHAN AND AGED) TIRUCHANOOR, TIRUPATI - 517503. Ph : 0877-2239992, 9908537528 [Mob.] E-mail: sreenavajeevan@gmail.com Website: www.navajeevan.org

An Appeal 34 Years of Service to Humanity 1979 - 2012 1. Navajeevan School & Hostel for Blind Children – Tirupati, Parlekhimundi, Golamunda 2. Navajeevan Free Eye Hospital

– Tirupati

3. Navajeevan Free Home for Aged – Tirupati, Rishikesh, Parlekhimundi and Chennai 4. Navajeevan Harijan Sewa Ashram

– Kothapeta

5. Navajeevan Sharanagati Vridhashram

– Tirupati

6. Navajeevan Rural Medical Centres

-

Berhampur [Orissa]

7. Navajeevan Eye Care Centres

-

Serango [Orissa]

8. Navajeevan Orphanage Homes – Tirupati, Parlehkimundi, Saluru, Golamunda, Berhampur, Pandukal, Vizag

A Humble Request for Donation 1. Sponsor one day Annadan to Blind Children and aged

– Rs. 5000/-

3. Sponsor one blind child or Orphan child for one year

– Rs. 6000/-

2. Sponsor 5 IOL Cataract Eye Operations

4. Sponsor one poor aged person for one year

5. Sponsor one free eye camp at Rural/Tribal area 6. Vidyadan—Educational aid for one Child

– Rs. 7000/– Rs. 5000/-

– Rs. 50000/– Rs. 2000/-

Donor devotees can send their contributions by cheque/DD/MO to the above address on the occasion of birthday, wedding day or any other special occasion and receive prasadam of Lord Balaji Venkateswara of Tirupati as blessings.

Contributions to NAVAJEEVAN BLIND RELIEF CENTRE, Tirupati are eligible for Tax Relief U/S 80G of Income Tax Act.

‘We can attain salvation through social work’ – Swami Vivekananda K. Sridhar Acharya Founder/ President

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Vol.100-8 The Vedanta Kesari (English Monthly) August 2013. Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under No.1084 / 57. POSTAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:TN / CH (C) / 190 / 12-14. LICENCED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-259 / 2012-14 Date of Publication: 24th of every month

Teach yourselves, teach everyone his/her real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity. —Swami Vivekananda

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Subscription Annual S T 2 0 1 3 10 years: ` 1000 T h e V e(inclusive d a n t a of K postage) e s a r i ~ IV ~ A U:G` U100 Contact: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. Website: www.chennaimath.org