The Vedanta Kesari – March 2021 issue

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The

Vedanta Kesari

रामो विग्रहवान्‌धर्मः Sri Rama Navami

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`15

A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914

A pril 2021

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April 2021

1 April - Swami Yogananda Jayanti

The Vedanta Kesari

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“Time is running out.

You have neglected a beautiful thing — your own inner development.

You were busy with your achievements, name, fame and all that.

That won’t do.

Reduce stress on them and concentrate on enriching your inner life.”

— Swami Ranganathananda

With Best Compliments PRIVATE LIMITED (Manufacturers of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Intermediates)

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The Vedanta Kesari

A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of The Ramakrishna Order

CONTENTS

108

Vol. 108, No. 4 ISSN 0042-2983

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Year

of

APRIL 2021

Publication

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Swami Vivekananda and the Concept of Freedom in Indian Culture Swami Bhajanananda

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8 Atmarpanastuti 9 Yugavani 10 Editorial 17 Reminiscences of Sargachhi 25 Vivekananda Way 33 Pariprasna 35 Special Report 37 Lessons from Swamis 44 Book Reviews 47 The Order on the March

Mahasamadhi of Swami Vagishanandaji

Rabindranath Tagore on Karmayoga Shubhra Jyoti Das

Erskine Mason Phelps: Swami Vivekananda’s First Host in America Asim Chaudhuri Look on the Bright Side Gitanjali Murari Po

ck

et

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Ta

les

40

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FEATURES

Manomohan Mitra Dr. Ruchira Mitra

Poorva: Magic, Miracles and the Mystical Twelve Lakshmi Devnath

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Ca

lls

Wh

en

Go

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Editor: Swami Mahamedhananda

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Published by Swami Vimurtananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, No.31, Ramakrishna Math Road, Chennai - 600 004 and Printed by B. Rajkumar, Chennai - 600 014 on behalf of Sri Ramakrishna Math Trust, Chennai - 600 004 and Printed at M/s. Rasi Graphics Pvt. Limited, No.40, Peters Road, Royapettah, Chennai - 600014.

Website: www.chennaimath.org

E-mail: vk@chennaimath.org Ph: 6374213070

April 2021

The

The Vedanta Kesari

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Vedanta

One hundred and seven years e of 895 u 1 s r s e and going strong…. ti mb Firs pte e S in, He was a much-celebrated and much-feted Swami. His vad a m h famous address at The World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago in Bra 1893 had catapulted him to the status of a super star. But Swami Vivekananda was not one to bask in chaffy glory. A letter to one of his trusted followers, from the USA, dated 12 Jan 1895, read, ‘I want to preach my ideas for the good of the world. …What work have you done in the way of advancing the ideas and organising in India? …My life is more precious than spending it in getting the admiration of the world. I have no time for such foolery.’

Swamiji, as Swami Vivekananda was fondly addressed, loved and revered his motherland as his own mother. Every breath of his aspired for her well being and every cell in his body yearned that she regain her lost glory. She had been a beacon light for the world until repeated invasions pillaged her ruthlessly and left her not just poverty-stricken but also psychologically drained. The latter struck at the very core, underlying the urgency for immediate redressal. Swamiji’s panacea for this lay in India’s very own practical and ennobling Vedantic wisdom. Vedanta recognises no weakness. It proclaims that in every individual lies a mine of strength. All that is needed is an effort to draw from it.

Swamiji started looking for the right channel to propagate the powerful message of Vedanta. He opted for the print medium and decided to bring out a journal, giving it the name Brahmavadin. In February 1895, he sent from USA $100 and a letter to his trusted disciple Alasinga Perumal. The letter read: ‘Now I am bent upon starting the journal. Herewith I send a hundred dollars… Hope this will go just a little in starting your paper.’

If selflessness and devotion would have a form, it would have borne the name of Alasinga Perumal. Brahmavadin became Alasinga’s calling and the first issue rolled out from a press in Broadway, Chennai on 14 September First iss 1895. The magazine included a poem of Swamiji ue of The Ved anta Ke specially composed for the occasion. It was titled, sari, Ma y 1914 ‘The Song of the Sannyasin’. One verse ran thus:

Kesari

One hundred and seven years and going strong….

“Strike off thy fetters! Bonds that bind thee down,

(Handwritten words in Swamiji’s own hand) With this message that marked its mission, Brahmavadin made a determined entry into the strife-ridden climate of pre-independence India. The birth of the magazine was certainly an occasion for celebration but the struggles were far from over.

One of Swamiji’s letters to Alasinga read: ‘I learnt from your letter the bad financial state that Brahmavadin is in.’ This was followed by another letter that carried the line, ‘I pledge myself to maintain the paper anyhow.’

Bolstered by this pledge, Alasinga Perumal braved on, surmounting many an impediment. Sadly, Swami Vivekananda passed away in 1902, at the age of thirty-nine.

Alasinga’s intense anguish morphed into heightened devotion towards the magazine. But the next hurdle in Brahmavadin’s journey came in 1909, in the form of Alasinga’s own demise. In May 1914, the magazine, tottering as it was, floundered and ground to a halt.

It was at this crucial juncture, that the Ramakrishna Mission stepped in to revive it. The Mission was itself in its nascent stages with many a teething problem but nothing could come in its way of reviving the Brahmavadin. For, had not their beloved Swamiji repeatedly said, ‘The Brahmavadin is a jewel – it must not perish!” And so, the very same month when Brahmavadin closed, it was resuscitated with the new name The Vedanta Kesari.

The history of The Vedanta Kesari is much more than just a tale of sweat, toil and a dream realised. It is a narrative of Swamiji’s passion for India and Alasinga’s devotion to his master. It is a celebration of love, transcending forms.

5 The Vedanta Kesari

For fetters, though of gold, are not less strong to bind;

April 2021

Love, hate — good, bad — and all the dual throng,

Appeal

April 2021

For the last 107 years, without missing a single issue, the magazine has been carrying the invigorating message of Vedanta and alongside, continuously revamping itself to meet the changing needs of the times.

The relevance of Vedantic wisdom to everyday life is all the more pertinent today than ever before. ‘Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached,’ is the thundering motto of Swami Vivekananda. The Ramakrishna Mission, as you all know, is a unique organisation where sannyasis and lay people come together and endeavour for the common good. Let’s join hands in taking forward our revered Swamiji’s vision and mission for The Vedanta Kesari.

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Prayer

Atmarpanastuti Sri Appayya Dikshitendra

April 2021

Sloka - 44 विविधमपि गुणौघं वेदयन्त्वर्थवादाः परिमितविभवानां पामराणां सुराणाम् । तनुहिमकरमौले तावता त्वत्परत्वे कति कति जगदीशाः कल्पिता नो भवेयुः ॥४४

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Let the arthavadas (statements of praise) in the Vedas attribute various kinds of merits to the other gods who are of limited power and glory. O Lord with the crescent moon on Your forehead, in this way how many lords of the world are being (wrongly) imagined as superior to You!

Sloka - 45 विहर पितृवने वा विश्वपारे पुरे वा रजतगिरितटे वा रत्नसानुस्थले वा। दिश भवदुपकण्ठं देहि मे भृत्यभावं परमशिव तव श्रीपादुकावाहकानाम् ॥४५

O Paramashiva! Sport in the cremation ground or in an abode beyond the universe, or on the Silver Mountain (Kailasa), or in the valley of gems. Make me the servant of those who carry Your sacred sandals and bless me with proximity to You.

Sloka - 46 बलमबलममीषां बल्वजानां विचिन्त्यं कथमपि शिव कालक्षेपमात्रप्रधानैः । निखिलमपि रहस्यं नाथ निष्कृष्य साक्षात् सरसिजभवमुख्यैः साधितं नः प्रमाणम् ॥४६

The strength or weakness of these weak ones (the various gods) may be a matter of discussion among those whose object is only to spend the time, O Lord Shiva, for us, what has been established by Brahma and others after delving into the secrets of the scriptures is what is valid.

Translated by Sri. S.N. Sastri.

Beyond the Three Gunas

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PA G E D O N O R : S R I . R . C H I N T H A I A H , C H E N N A I

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he three gunas―sattva, rajas, and tamas―have men under their control. They are like three brothers: As long as sattva exists, it calls on rajas for help; and rajas can get help from tamas. Tamas kills and rajas binds. Sattva no doubt releases man from his bondage, but it cannot take him to God. It is said in the Purana that Ravana had an excess of rajas, Kumbhakarna of tamas, and Vibhishana of sattva.

That is why Vibhishana was able to receive the grace of Rama. The truth is that unless a man has got rid of rajas and has acquired sattva, he cannot steadily dwell in God; he cannot love God and realize Him. Bondage is of the mind, and freedom is also of the mind. When you say that a certain person has become impure, you mean that impurity has coloured his mind. The mind will take the colour you dye it with. It is like white clothes just returned from the laundry… They will take only the colour you dip them in, whatever it may be…If you are in bad company, then you will talk and think like your companions. On the other hand, when you are in the company of devotees, you will think and talk only of God. Even pictures may prove harmful. You see, it is good to keep pictures of sannyasis and holy men in one’s room. When you get up in the morning you should see the faces of holy persons rather than the faces of other men. People with rajasic qualities keep ‘English’ pictures on their walls—pictures of rich men, the King, the Queen…That shows their rajasic temperament.

Work for the good of others belongs to rajas, yet this rajas has sattva for its basis, and is not harmful…It is highly beneficial for a person to try to perform such action…Through disinterested action sattva mixed with rajas gradually turns into pure sattva.

— The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna

April 2021

Yugavani

Editorial

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Our Duties in Life

April 2021

n his Tirukkural, Thiruvalluvar writes, “He alone lives who knows (and discharges) the proper duties (of life).

He who knows them not shall be reckoned among the dead.” One personality who knew his duties and fulfilled them in the most exemplary manner was Sri Ramachandra.

Therefore, Ramanavami coming, we would do well to reflect on our duties in life.

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What is our duty in life? While it is not possible to give an objective definition of duty, yet from the subjective side, as Swami Vivekananda points out, we see that “certain acts have a tendency to exalt and ennoble us, while certain other acts have a tendency to degrade and to brutalise us.” Therefore, “any action that makes us go Godward is a good action, and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil, and is not our duty.”

How does an action become good?

Swamiji again tells us, “When you are doing any work, do not think of anything beyond. Do it as worship, as the highest worship, and devote your whole life to it for the time being.”

When our actions are thus divinised they become efficient instruments to tame our senses, overcome the restlessness of our mind, and burn our selfishness and sensuality. Thus by the strength of rightly performed actions we evolve even to the highest realisation of spiritual perfection. While this is duty towards ourselves, we have other duties which stem from our relationships in society.

In society we have multiple personal and social identities like son, daughter, brother, sister, husband, wife, friend, neighbour, employer, employee, citizen, and so on. In each of these roles we have duties to fulfill. But given the differences in human nature and varying

external circumstances, it becomes difficult to determine what constitutes good action in these relationships. Again, we wrongly interpret fulfilling morbid attachment to sense pleasure, or greed for wealth and gain as our duty. Truly, sometimes Maya comes in the guise of duty.

However, from Sri Rama who performed his duties as son, brother, husband, friend, warrior, king etc., in the most ideal manner, we learn that our family and social duties will lead us Godward if those actions are truthful, non-injurious, unselfish, and unattached.

Another important duty we have is towards Sanatana Dharma which preserves the highest universal truths discovered by man.

Our work is to experientially realise the great Vedantic truths and share it with the whole world. Swami Vivekananda says, “For a complete civilisation the world is waiting, waiting for the treasures to come out of India, waiting for the marvellous spiritual inheritance of the race…”

The challenge is to first recognise these various duties, then understand how to perform them in a dharmic manner, and finally carry them out in the best possible way overcoming all difficulties. In short, our duty is to engage in actions that help to manifest our inner divinity and simultaneously bring about the good of the world. When duties are so performed, it is called dharma.

This dharma was the strength of Sri Rama.

When he is about to leave for vanavas, his mother Kausalya blesses him saying, “The duty which you are carrying out with courage and self-discipline, O tiger among the descendants of Raghu, will alone protect you.”

May “dharma incarnate” Sri Rama awaken in us the strength to fulfill all our duties in life.

Focus

Swami Vivekananda and the Concept of Freedom in Indian Culture SWAMI BHAJANANANDA

Here we are concerned only with Swami V i v e k a n a n d a’ s c o n t r i b u t i o n t o t h e understanding and furtherance of freedom in the context of Indian culture. It may be remembered here that Swamiji was a liberated soul. A Catholic father belonging to the Don Bosco Order, in his doctoral dissertation on Swami Vivekananda, has described Swamiji as a “man without frontiers”2 and Dr Radhakrishnan has described Swamiji as “a spokesman of the Divine Logos”.3 Being a

liberated man, Swamiji’s words on freedom have the ring of authenticity and authority.

His three main contributions

Human freedom is generally regarded as having two dimensions: external and internal.

External freedom includes political freedom and social freedom. Internal freedom includes intellectual freedom, moral freedom, and spiritual freedom.

All these realms of freedom are generally treated as if they were independent of each other. Swami Vivekananda was the first great thinker to show that all these types of freedom are expressions of a single existential urge for freedom derived from the intrinsic freedom of the Atman or true Self.

Secondly, Swamiji showed that religion based on universal principles such as the innate freedom of the Self can exert a tremendously liberating influence on the minds of people.

Many modern people tend to look upon religion as an obstacle to social harmony and progress.

Karl Marx referred to religion as “the opium of the people”, and Freud regarded it as the “chain of illusion”. Swami Vivekananda did not say that these views are entirely wrong, but he pointed out that they represent only a superficial view of religion. Religion in its true, experiential essence is a constructive force which fosters

Swami Bhajananandaji is a senior sannyasi and a Trustee of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission and lives in Belur Math.

April 2021

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wami Vivekananda was one of those rare great men who strove to extend the frontiers of human freedom by heightening man’s faith in the eternal verities.

He has been regarded by eminent Western scholars like A. L. Basham as “one of the moulders of the modern world,”1 although much of the influence that Swamiji has exerted on world thought has not been widely recognized as his. Swami Vivekananda was also one of the builders of modern India, and this fact has been openly acknowledged by almost all the great leaders of modern India. Swamiji revitalized the religious consciousness of the Indians, gave them a sense of unity, pride in the past, self-confidence, a sense of responsibility towards the poor and the downtrodden, and courage to face the challenge of Western culture.

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PA G E D O N O R : S R I C H A L A PAT I R A O K . V. , H Y D E R A B A D

This article was presented as a paper at the seminar on ‘Man and Freedom’, jointly sponsored by the Indian Academy of Philosophy and the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture (RMIC) on 22 January 2000. It is being reproduced here from RMIC’s journal Bulletin where it was published in July 2006.

April 2021 The Vedanta Kesari

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enlightenment, freedom, progress, and harmony.

which is the cause of all suffering. The ultimate goal of life is to break this bondage and attain the freedom of pure consciousness. Thus, freedom in traditional Hindu philosophy is an ultimate goal or value. It can be attained only through great struggle and is meant for a few individuals who choose the path of nivritti or renunciation.

Meaning of freedom

line and a small worm that was creeping upon one of the rails saved its life by crawling out of the path of the locomotive. Yet this little worm, so insignificant that it can be crushed in a moment, is a living something, while this locomotive, so huge, so immense, is only an engine, a machine. You say the one has life and the other is only dead matter . . . . How can we make the distinction between the living and the dead, then? In the living there is freedom, there is intelligence; in the dead all is bound and no freedom is possible, because there is no intelligence. This freedom that distinguishes us from mere machines is what we are all striving for. To be more free is the goal of all our efforts, for only in perfect freedom can there be perfection.4

Thirdly, Swami Vivekananda showed that this view of religion as a liberating, constructive and harmonizing force is not a utopian ideal but an immensely practical proposition. Karl Marx said, “The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.” This was precisely what Swami Vivekananda looked upon freedom Swami Vivekananda attempted to do—to as a basic, existential urge underlying all life change the world. Swamiji activities. Swamiji argued was not a speculative that, since pure consciousThe identification of pure philosopher but a prophet ness is the substratum of consciousness with mind and and pathfinder with a new life, its freedom percolates gospel of social service. He through mind and body. body is known as bondage called his system of thought Freedom is thus an which is the cause of all Practical Vedanta which was invariable attribute of life. suffering. intended to help every Swamiji illustrates this truth person, even the poorest by the example of a worm and the most ignorant, in all situations of life to and a locomotive. He says: attain freedom, dignity, strength, and fulfilment.

A huge locomotive has rushed on over the One of the most important discoveries made in ancient India, at least two thousand five hundred years ago, was that consciousness is a self-existent reality in itself independent of mind and body. Prajnanam brahma, “The ultimate Reality is pure consciousness”—this is one of the most significant metaphysical statements ever made. In the whole of Western thought consciousness is regarded as an attribute or function of the mind or of the body, never as an independent entity. In the mainstream of Hindu philosophy, known as Vedanta, consciousness is considered to be primary, and mind and matter are secondary derivatives of it. Mind and matter are created things and are bound by the laws of the universe. Pure consciousness, known as cit, is uncreated, self-existent, and ever free.

The identification of pure consciousness with mind and body is known as bondage

Although the ever-free, pure consciousness is our true Self, or Atman, we don’t feel this freedom because of the identification of the Self with the body and

Another idea of Swami Vivekananda is that, since the individual self is a part or reflection of the Supreme Self, each soul is potentially divine. That is to say, all the knowledge, power, beauty, strength, and glory that we seek outside are already within us in a potential form. These capacities manifest themselves when the obstacles are removed.

Swamiji gives the example of irrigation. There is water flowing in the irrigation channel. As soon as the farmer removes a part of the embankment, water rushes into his field.5 The urge for freedom that we all feel within is the urge to break the obstacles to the manifestation of the divinity within. As Swamiji has put it, “. . .each man is infinite already, only these bars and bolts and different circumstances shut him in; but as soon as they are removed, he rushes out and expresses himself.”6

Swami Vivekananda saw in this existential urge for freedom the primary motive power

mammals and finally to man. In man, evolution assumes a mental dimension and self-direction.

By the exercise of mind, the human being attains greater and greater freedom until he becomes the fully liberated individual known as the jivanmukta. The main aim of society should be to produce more and more of such liberated individuals. This takes us to Swami Vivekananda’s concept of social freedom.

Social freedom in Indian society

Swami Vivekananda’s love for humanity, and his concern for his motherland and its people made him think deeply about Indian society and its problems. Swamiji did not merely think about social problems, he also travelled all over India as a mendicant sannyasi and saw with his own eyes the utter poverty and backwardness of the Indian people.

There are three points in Swami Vivekananda’s approach to social problems in

April 2021

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PA G E D O N O R : D R . R A M YA S . , C H E N N A I

mind which are unfree, being governed by the behind evolution, the elan vital of Bergson. rigid laws of the universe. This identification is “What is the cause of evolution?” Swamiji asks, caused by ignorance, ajnana. Swami and then answers, “Desire. The animal wants to Vivekananda has compared ignorance to a dark do something, but does not find the screen with a small hole which covers a source environment favourable, and therefore of light which is the Atman. Through the hole a develops a new body. Who develops it? The little light of the Atman manifests itself. This is animal itself, its will. You have developed from the source of the urge for freedom we all feel. the lowest amoeba. Continue to exercise your As the hole becomes larger and larger, more will and it will take you higher still.”7 “From and more light comes out. In the same way, as mollusc to man it has been a continuous more ignorance is removed, expansion towards infinity. the Atman manifests itself Therefore the limited soul more and we feel greater can be styled an individual Moral actions and spiritual freedom within. According which is continuously practices help in the to Swami Vivekananda, expanding towards the manifestation of the Atman moral actions and spiritual Infinite Individual.”8 and make us free. practices help in the maniIn matter there is no festation of the Atman and freedom. Freedom begins to make us free, whereas throb in the amoeba. Greater and greater immoral actions and ignorance obstruct the freedom emerges as evolution proceeds from manifestation of the Atman and make us bound. worms and molluscs to fishes and birds and

April 2021 The Vedanta Kesari

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India, which need special mention here. In the first place, Swamiji was the first religious leader in India to point out that the cause of India’s downfall was the suppression and exploitation of the masses. Even fifty years ago Hindu society was so rigidly governed by caste rules and local customs that people belonging to the lower strata of society had no freedom to move upward in social status. Exploitation prevented them from overcoming their poverty and ignorance. Swamiji saw that what poor and downtrodden people needed most was a message of strength which will enable them to break the bonds of priestcraft, social tyranny, injustice and exploitation. Swamiji found this message of strength and freedom in the Vedanta.

Secondly, Swamiji made religion a liberating force, instead of being a restraining force. This he did by separating the life-giving, eternal and universal spiritual truths of religion from the non-essential outer forms, and also by separating true religion from social institutions.

Spiritual concepts such as divinity of the soul, seeing God in all people and so on can liberate the minds of people from fear, hopelessness, selfishness, etc., and bring into existence a new society of enlightened individuals.

The third point is, Swamiji held that “Liberty is the first condition of growth,” and so he never advocated a steamroller model of socio-economic reform as Lenin and Mao Tse Tung did. The beginnings of socialism had already been made and Swamiji was aware of it, but he never favoured the totalitarian approach. He always upheld the freedom of the individual and believed that social problems could be solved in a democratic way by spreading education. He stated, “My whole ambition in life is to set in motion a machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody, and then let men and women settle

their own fate. We are to put the chemicals together, the crystallization will be done by nature according to her laws.”9 Swami Vivekananda knew that the only group of people in Hindu society who were free from social rules and obligations and caste restrictions were the sannyasins. Swamiji decided to make use of their freedom for social uplift. He brought into existence a new order of monks who, while they seek final liberation, also work for the welfare of society as free individuals. With these monks as the core, a new community of liberal-minded people has come into existence and is steadily growing.

Intellectual freedom in Indian culture In no other country was there so much intellectual freedom as in ancient India, and in no other country was there such an astonishing variety of intellectual creativity as in ancient India. But after the 11th century of the second millennium much of this freedom and creativity in intellectual life was lost. Some of the best brains in India remained satisfied with i n te r p re t i n g s c r i p t u re s a n d w r i t i n g commentaries, glosses, and treatises. For centuries philosophical thinking in India was governed by scriptural authority. In order to counter the Mimamsaka claim that the Vedas are the highest authority because ritual injunctions and prohibitions can be known only from the Vedas, Sri Shankaracharya asserted that the nature of Brahman, the ultimate Reality, can be known only from the Vedas. In Hindu philosophy reasoning (tarka or yukti) refers to either inference (syllogistic or analogical) or hermeneutical arguments.10 Sri Shankaracharya rejected inference as a means of knowing the true nature of Brahman because the Buddhists had tried to prove the nonexistence of Atman through inferential reasoning. For Shankaracharya true reasoning is that based on the Vedas (sruti- anugrihita)

By contrast, in Western thought, reasoning is an independent intellectual activity based on logical consistency. Any statement is true if it follows the ‘Laws of Thought’ and there is ‘sufficient reason’ to believe it. This gave untrammelled freedom to speculation which led to the development of formal logic, advancements in mathematics and the proliferation of different schools of philosophy.12

Swami Vivekananda boldly advocated the use of reason in establishing the validity of religious concepts, practices, and experiences.13 In a lecture on ‘Reason and Religion’ delivered in London, Swamiji asked, “Is religion to justify itself by the discoveries of reason, through which every other science justifies itself? Are the same methods of investigation, which we apply to sciences and knowledge outside, to be applied to the science of Religion? In my opinion this must be so, and I am also of opinion that the sooner it is done the better. If a religion is destroyed by such investigations, it was then all the time useless, unworthy superstition; and . . . its destruction would be the best thing that could happen. All that is dross will be taken off, no doubt, but the essential parts of religion will emerge triumphant out of this investigation.”14 What did Swami Vivekananda mean by ‘reason” in this context? He himself answered this question on more than one occasion. He says that there are two principles of knowledge.

Without going into the details of Swamiji’s views on the role of reason in religion we may say that, by introducing rational thinking into Hindu religious thought, Swamiji liberated the eternal and universal truths of religion from the hands of a privileged few, made them available to common people and made them acceptable to modern people in the East as well as in the West.

Moral freedom

Morality, as it is understood and practised in most parts of the world, is based on compulsion and fear—fear of God or the law of karma in religious societies and fear of public opinion or the police in secular societies. This becomes clear when we try to find answer to the question, ‘Why should we be moral?’ Moral Science, developed by Western thinkers as a branch of philosophy, deals mostly with the question, ‘What is morality?’—that is, with the standard or criterion of moral judgement. And conventional morality as it is practised by people deals with, ‘How to be moral?’ The question why we should be moral was first raised by the Chinese Confucian philosopher Mencius (or Meng-tzu) of the 4th century BCE What is the answer given by traditional religions to this question of Mencius? The answer found in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions is that we have to be moral because that is God’s commandment and, should we behave in an immoral way, we would

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Inferential reasoning was developed in India mainly by the Naiyayikas. One of the drawbacks of syllogistic inference is, as the word anu-mana indicates, it is knowledge based on previous perception. This restricts the scope for abstract thinking.

The one principle is that we know by referring the particular to the general, and the general to the universal. And the second is that anything of which an explanation is sought is to be explained so far as possible from its own nature.15 It is clear that Swamiji’s first principle is inductive reasoning which forms the basis of the method of science. Swamiji’s second principle is what is known as ‘naturalism’ which is opposed to ‘supernaturalism’.

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and its purpose is only to clarify, interpret, and strengthen scriptural truths which are already established by sruti.11

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answer, he could not clearly state what that true or original nature of man is. According to Swami Vivekananda, our true nature is the Atman which is eternally pure, awakened and free (nitya-suddha-buddha-mukta). This view had originally been held by the sages of the Upanishads no doubt, but it was Swami Vivekananda who applied it to morality and ethics.

The answer given by Mencius was that we have to be moral and good because goodness is our true or original nature. To be good is the natural state; to be bad is a fall from that state.

Thus morality involves no compulsion; it is only regaining our natural state.16

In modern times Swami Vivekananda also raised the same question, “Why should we be good?” The answer that he gave was that we should be good because goodness is our true nature. Although Mencius had given a similar

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Swamiji’s view makes morality a free and spontaneous expression of the innate goodness and purity of the true Self of man. According to it, I am good not because somebody compels me to be so, not because I am afraid of punishment, but because goodness is the natural expression of my true, innate nature.

Needless to say, this view of Swamiji can bring about a radical change in the moral attitudes and behaviour of people in the modern permissive society. It can have an immediate appeal, especially to modern youths, who rebel against compulsion and restriction of freedom.

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be disobeying God and He would punish us.

Immanuel Kant tried to develop a theory of ethics independent of Christian theology, but his ‘categorical imperative’ also implies a sense of compulsion. In the Indian tradition (Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain) morality is conformity to the moral order of the universe known as Dharma and violation of Dharma would bring retribution according to the law of karma.

Morality in traditional religions is thus based on fear or compulsion.

Notes and References

1) Swami Vivekananda in East and West. A.L. Basham.

London: Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, 1963, p. 210.

2) Man Without Frontiers (Doctoral thesis). Maria Arokiam Kanaga. Rome: Salesian Pontifical University, 1988 3) ‘Swami Vivekananda: A Spokesman of the Divine Logos’ article by Dr S. Radhakrishnan in The Vedanta Kesari, August 1963.

4) ‘What is Religion’ The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (henceforth CW). Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 1: 333.

5) CW. 5: 298. It may be mentioned here that Swamiji’s idea of ‘manifestation’ is derived from Patanjali’s idea of ‘infilling of Prakriti’ [see Swami Vivekananda’s comments on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in the Complete Works, 1: 29l-93].

6) CW. 5: 298.

7) CW. ‘Practical Vedanta’ 2:356.

8) CW. ‘Practical Vedanta’ 2:346 9) CW. 5:29.

(To be concluded)

10) See M. Hiriyanna, ‘The Place of Reason in Advaita’ in Indian Philosophical Studies Mysore: Kavyalaya Publishers, 1957, p.45 f.

11) Shakaracharya says, “Once the truth that Brahman is the cause of this universe is established by the sruti, to strengthen this understanding we may have recourse to reason which is not opposed to scripture.”—Commentary on Brahma-Sutra, 1.1.2.

12) This difference between Indian thought and Western thought was first pointed out by the Italian philosopher Beneditto Croce.

13) For a comprehensive study of Swamiji’s views on reason vis-a-vis scripture, see Anantanand Rambachan, The Limits of Scripture. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.

14) CW. 1:367.

15) CW.1:369-72.

16) For a discussion of Mencius’s theory see Philip Ho Hwang, ‘What is Mencius Theory of Human Nature?’ in Philosophy East and West, April 1979, p.201

Reminiscences

Reminiscences of Sargachhi SRIMAT SWAMI SUHITANANDA JI

(Continued from previous issue. . .)

Maharaj: This world is like an exhibition.

We go around visiting it. It’s like a game of three sticks – sattva, rajas, and tamas. What a variety of things it has for us to see! We gaze for a long time at whatever is pleasant to us.

What is unpleasant is left out. We don’t need to buy anything – we are just witnesses.

There are some people who are rogues by nature. There is rubbish and dirt all over their home. But they have a room set apart as their shrine. And that room is filled with conversations about Sri Ramakrishna and Holy Mother. Even if they are unaware of it, that shrine room is their predominant corner. This is the influence of yogamaya. As soon as the topic of Sri Ramakrishna is broached, a rogue becomes a different man.

I met a man who had met Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna) in Dhaka. He talked about many things related to the Mission, like the availability of food. Then he suddenly said, “Your Baburam Maharaj came here once. I went with our teacher and saluted him. He touched my back with his hand. Oh! How cool and soothing was his hand!” This is the influence of yogamaya. How can a hand be cool? Baburam Maharaj had bestowed his grace on him. At the time of death that man will recall this feeling of joy and get liberated. Perhaps these people had not been exposed to education, but they had not committed any evil acts, either.

Mahapurush Maharaj (Swami Shivananda, one of the direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and the second president of the Order) gave sannyasa to the son of a carpenter. People like him were full of kindness. His idea was ‘Let the boy try and see if he can succeed.’ This is grace.

But can grace be bestowed on all and sundry?

Sri Ramakrishna came. He used to attract anyone in whom he could see a little spark – that is why he went to the house of Ishan. If he was full of grace, why did he not bestow his grace on everybody? The fact of the matter is, the sun has risen in the sky. If the glass is clean, the sun will reflect on it. The glass thinks that the sun out of kindness is giving its light. This “grace” business is like that. ---A novice had an ulcer on his hand.

Premeshanandaji Maharaj told him, “A person is considered to be impure if he has a wound or sore on his body and in that condition he is not allowed to worship the deity. Once when Sri Ramakrishna was in samadhi, Nitya Niranjan tried to hold him. Immediately, Sri Ramakrishna was startled out of his samadhi. Nitya Niranjan had a tumour on his head which had been operated on.”

Attendant: Why do we find diverse types of people in society?

Maharaj: By practising truthfulness, control of the senses, purity, and contentment for a long time, a group of people called brahmanas became highly cultured. Their only

The author, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, presents here his conversations with Swami Premeshananda (1884-1967), a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.

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16.2.1961 (cont’d…)

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objective was to reflect on how the country might develop and give advice accordingly. In exchange they would get their sustenance without doing any other work. Society used to provide for them.

Another group of people were physically strong; they said that they would protect the country and save it (traṇa) from injury (kṣata); they came to be known as kṣhatriyas. They took upon themselves the task of restraining misdeeds in society; and in return, they started receiving from society one sixth of all produce as tax/tribute. They came to be known as kings.

The vaishyas took upon themselves the responsibility of agriculture, protection of cattle, and commerce. In this way there grew a strictly organized society.

With the passage of time, as the spirit deteriorated, the kings became despotic, the brahmanas resorted to unholy practices, and the vaishyas became deceitful. During the time of Rama the division of society into brahmaṇas, kṣhatriyas, and vaishyas became well established. That is why people refer to the reign of Rama as an ideal society.

The terms brahmaṇa, kṣhatriya, etc., do not refer to heredity. The Lord Himself said, चातुर्वर्ण्यं मया सृष्टं गुणकर्मविभागशः, “The four castes were created by Me according to differences in aptitudes and actions.” (Gita 4:13). If you notice, you will find that among the inhabitants of every village, surely there will be brahmaṇas, kṣhatriyas, vaishyas, and shudras. The shudras also have an equal right to the path to liberation स्त्रियो वैश्यास्तथा शूद्रास्तेऽपि यान्ति परां गतिम् “ “Women, vaishyas, as also shudras, attain the highest goal.” (Gita 9:32).

Raja yoga is a practical manual for the spiritual path. Man proceeds towards God along the path of knowledge and the path of devotion too – but raja yoga represents the process, the science and the method of advancement. If the

mind becomes absorbed in yoga, it means knowledge and devotion are proceeding along the right path; otherwise, they are not. Besides, the paths of knowledge, devotion, and yoga are not actually separate. The yogi too has to know about the nature of the Atman and Paramatman and their relationship; and he has to discriminate by the method of negation—neti, neti “not this, not this”—to concentrate the mind; and what else is devotion than the impetus required to make the mind concentrated?

Without devotion and yoga, even the man of knowledge cannot keep his mind on God. And if the devotee does not know the relationship between God and the jiva, and does not have the knowledge of Truth, then towards whom will he direct his devotion? Also, whenever he keeps his mind on God, does he not become united with Him? However, karma yoga belongs to the external aspect. As long as I am not prepared and I am unable to free myself from desires, I have to go on doing work. As soon as I am free from desires, शमः कारणमुच्यते “inaction is said to be the way.” (Gita 6:3). In this context we may recall that Sri Ramakrishna told Swamiji, ‘You are such a great receptacle and you say such words! I thought you would be like a big banyan tree, and thousands of people would take shelter under your shade! Instead of that, you ask for only your own liberation!’ These words are applicable only to Swamiji – his mind was naturally inclined to samadhi. If, like him, we say that we will lay down our lives for the sake of the world, it will be a joke. If someone among us can sincerely remain engrossed in meditation and japa, he will verily be a blessed soul – provided there is no hypocrisy. We remain on a lower plane, and we cannot stay there without work. We need to do work. We are controlled by work, whereas Swamiji had control over work.

(To be continued. . .)

Article

Erskine Mason Phelps: Swami Vivekananda’s First Host in America In 1893, Swami Vivekananda set sail to America to participate in the World’s Parliament of Religions with just one introductory letter to a high-society couple.

This article draws attention to Sri Varada Rao who gave that letter.

Prior to Swami Vivekananda’s departure from India in 1893 to attend the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, one Mr. Varada Rao from Madras gave him a letter of introduction to a high-society couple in Chicago. This is how the Life put it:

One of his Madras friends, Varada Rao, wrote to a lady of his acquaintance in Chicago about the Swami. She and her husband belonged to the highest Chicago society, and were very kind to the Swami. Thus began a friendship that lasted as long as the Swami lived. All the members of the family came to love him dearly, to appreciate his brilliant gifts, and to admire the purity and simplicity of his character, to which they often bore loving testimony. We, however, do not definitely know their names; but in the opinion of some researchers they were Mr. and Mrs. Milward Adams.1 In the Life’s electronic version (Swami Vivekananda: Life, Works, and Research) later, this statement has been replaced by: “One of his Madras friends, Varada Rao, introduced him to a socially prominent Chicago couple, who were,

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as the Swami wrote on 20 August 1893, ‘so very kind to me.’” Someone eventually realized that it could not have been Mr. and Mrs. Milward Adams, whom Swamiji came to know much later. The couple to whom Varada Rao had introduced Swamiji was Mr. and Mrs. Erskine Mason Phelps. It took over one hundred years to finally solve the mystery.2 Whereas the identity of the “socially prominent Chicago couple” was established, owing to the serendipitous discovery of a letter that a Unitarian woman had written to a Chicago divine, that of Varada Rao’s wasn’t; it has been haunting some resolute researchers ever since. 3 Regardless of whether Swamiji enjoyed his stay at the Phelps residence or not, Rao was singularly instrumental in arranging for Swamiji’s first accommodation in an American home. That was a big deal, which deserves Varada Rao a place in history.

The author, a well-known researcher who has written a number of books on Swami Vivekananda, lives in USA. asimphoenix@gmail.com

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ASIM CHAUDHURI

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Going back a little, it has been alleged that Swamiji never revealed the couple’s name in any of his letters, which was why nobody was able to determine their identity.4 But that is not entirely correct. In a letter he wrote to Prof. J. H. Wright on September 4, 1893, he seems to have mentioned a name “Theles.” He wrote, “I have received a letter from Mr. Theles of Chicago giving me the names of some of the delegates and other things about the Congress.” 5 It appears that Swamiji wrote “Phelps,” but it was transcribed incorrectly as “Theles” in the Complete Works. Swamiji had been with the Phelpses less than a month ago, and apparently was corresponding with them, at least for a short period after he had left Chicago for New England. According to the Chicago Historical Society, many prominent Chicagoans failed to leave their personal papers behind—Erskine Mason Phelps being one of them. Here was a lost opportunity to find some of Swamiji’s letters.

Who was Varada Rao?

In a letter to Alasinga Perumal in August 1893, which was Swamiji’s first known letter to India after arriving in America, he actually used Varada Rao’s name twice. First, it was “The lady to whom Varada Rao introduced me and her husband belong to the highest Chicago society, and they were so very kind to me,” and second, “And the gentleman, to whom Varada Rao introduced me, is one of the directors of the Fair.”6 That was the extent of it. The only inference one can draw from the tone of the statements is that Perumal knew who Varada Rao was. It is hard to understand why Perumal, or others who were privy to the contents of Swamiji’s letter and knew Rao, did not contact Varada Rao to identify the Chicago couple and reveal how the former came to know them.

Maybe it wasn’t too important to them at that time since they all knew the story. When the

Life came out with its first edition in 1912-14 the trail had become too cold (Perumal died in 1909) and the unknowns too many; Varada Rao’s name wasn’t even mentioned in that edition. It was ultimately mentioned, probably for the first time, in the fifth edition, published

by Advaita Ashrama in 1979. Looking through the local government papers from that era, the only reference to a Varada Rao one could find was with respect to one Tumalapalli Varada Rao, who rose to a position of Sub Judge in Madras in 1899. He was a probationer for the Civil Service in July 1885 and rose to the position of Assistant Collector and Magistrate in December 1886. He also seemed to have been the Acting Head Assistant Collector of Tirunelveli in 1890.7 The “India List and India Office List” gives us some additional information about Varada Rao’s credentials: VARADA RAO, Tumalapalli, B.A., B.L., Statutory C.S. (sub-judge Mcuiras [Madras]).

— Educ at Madras Univ. ; probr. for the civil service, July, 1885 ; asst. collr. and mag., Dec, 1886; confd. [confirmed] in civil service, 17th Aug., 1887; sub-judge, Mar., 1899.8 How did Varada Rao come to know Swamiji?

When Swamiji arrived in Madras in January 1893, he met with many prominent Indian businessmen, civil servants, and literary figures in that region and came to know some of them intimately. He was a guest at Manmatha Bhattacharya’s house, who was then the Deputy Account General of Madras, a rather high position in the Government circle. It is quite possible that Varada Rao met Swamiji there.

Varada Rao was also a civil servant of high ranking, and probably knew Mr. Bhattacharya personally in that capacity. The Life gave an extensive account of Swamiji’s time at Manmatha Bhattacharya’s house on Beach Road, St. Thome, and how he interacted with

Assuming the identification of Varada Rao to be correct, and that we have established a plausible Swamiji-Varada Rao connection, the question that remains is: how did Varada Rao come to know Mr. Phelps, the CEO of Phelps, Dodge & Palmer, an enterprise that enjoyed both local and national fame as a premier shoe and boot manufacturing company in America?

Mr. Phelps was no ordinary business executive.

He was instrumental in electing Grover Cleveland to the presidency of the United States and was his confidant and advisor.11 How did an Assistant Collector from Madras come to know this important American from thousands of miles away?

To answer that, we have to look at the May 5, 1892, issue of the Chicago Tribune newspaper. It seems that Mr. Phelps, when he became a member of the World’s Columbian Exposition Commission, went on an eightmonth world tour with his wife in 1891-1892 in the interest of the Commission. One could call it a “World’s Fair promotion tour.” He was accompanied by, among other prominent Chicagoans, Columbus R. Cummings, a millionaire banker from Chicago who was Mr. Phelps’ neighbor on Indiana Avenue. The Chicago Tribune reported as follows: NEW YORK, May 4,—[Special]—Among the Chicagoans who arrived in New York from Europe today on the Teutonic were Columbus R. Cummings, Erskine M. Phelps and wife, Charles L. Hutchinson, ex-Senator Farwell and

Mr. Cummings was deeply touched by the extreme poverty of India. In India he says the condition of the natives under British rule is going from bad to worse. The merchants in the Orient are in a bad way owing to the depreciation of the value of rupee paper, which is payable in silver. The latter commodity depreciated 10 percent, Mr. Cunningham says, during their short stay in Asia.

The newspaper report does not mention their route from Ceylon to Bombay, or any other details of their sojourn in India.

Swamiji had heard about the Parliament of Religions towards the end of 1891, or early 1892, while traveling through Western India.

The editor of The Hindu (published from Madras), Mr. Ganapathy Dikshitar Subramania Iyer, was a member of the Advisory Council of the Parliament of Religions. In that capacity he must have received all the announcements and literature concerning the Parliament. It is quite possible that the news about the Parliament was published in his newspaper around that time.12

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How did Varada Rao come to know Erskine Mason Phelps?

wife, H. M. Kinsley, and W. S. Hutchinson. Mr. and Mrs. Phelps are at the Windsor and Mr. Cummings is at the Holland House. They will have completed a trip around the world when they reach Chicago, which will probably be the latter part of this or the first of next week….

“We have all enjoyed the best of health during our trip of nearly eight months,” said Mr. Cummings. We took our time, and a jolly good time it was, too. But we are glad to be back after so long an absence. We left Chicago Sept 17, spent a week in San Francisco, then a month in Japan, another month in China; went from Singapore to that magnificent island, Ceylon, and started from there across India for Bombay on New-Year’s day [January 1, 1892]. We journeyed on elephants in India. We were a month in India and another month in Egypt.

The rest of the time was spent in Europe….

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the local people from all walks of life.9 Varada Rao could have been present at one or more of the “conversaziones” at the Literary Society of Triplicane that Swamiji held and became friendly with him. In one of these meetings, it was probably decided that “Swamiji should be sent to the Chicago Congress.”10

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It is conceivable that the Phelpses had made a beeline for Madras to play the role of the “traveling ambassador” of the World’s Columbian Exposition of which the Parliament of Religion was an auxiliary part. If Erskine Mason Phelps and his team wanted to publicize and promote the World’s Fair in India, meeting a prominent newspaper editor in Madras who was already clued-in to the event would have been a necessary prerequisite. Moreover, Madras was then a prominent city in Southern India, the capital of the Madras Presidency. It is then also conceivable that the Varada RaoPhelps connection was established during some reception for the influential American guests in Madras in early1892. They could also have met in connection with shoe or leather importexport since Phelps was in shoe manufacturing business. Madras was then India’s premier leather exporter. Swamiji was an itinerant monk then, spending time at various places in Gujarat; he hadn’t yet met Varada Rao. Conclusion

Swamiji arrived in Madras in January 1893, and when it was finalized that Swamiji

would be leaving for Chicago in May 1893, Varada Rao presented him with the letter of introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Erskine Mason Phelps, whom he had presumably met a year earlier. That must have happened before midApril 1893, when Swamiji left Madras for Khetri; from there he proceeded to Bombay and finally left for America on May 31, 1893.

A few days after his arrival in Chicago, Swamiji contacted the Phelpses and they welcomed him to their home; that was how they became Swamiji’s first host in America.

One cannot yet find a conclusive documentary proof that that was what exactly happened, but the circumstantial evidence is quite strong. If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, then it must be a duck.

A look into the copies of The Hindu or other Madras newspapers from the early part of 1892 may put an end to the speculation, and the author challenges future researchers to do that.

(The author is grateful to Mr. Karthik Bhatt for providing him with the information on Varada Rao.)

References 1) The Life of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Disciples. Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Sixth Edition, 1:402.

2) Swami Vivekananda in Chicago-New Findings. Asim Chaudhuri. Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, pp. 62-63.

3) Ibid., pp. 148-150.

4) New Discoveries, 1:18.

5) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 7:449.

6) Ibid., 5:11-19.

7) Private communication with Mr. Karthik Bhatt of Chennai.

8) https://archive.org/stream/ indialistandind00offigoog/ indialistandind00offigoog_djvu.txt 9) Life of Swami Vivekananda. pp. 361-370.

10) Life of Swami Vivekananda. p. 367.

11) http://archive.org/stream/ chicagoitshisto02currgoog/ chicagoitshisto02currgoog_djvu.txt 12) Swami Vivekananda in Chicago - New Findings, pp.46-47.

Pocket Tales

Look on the Bright Side GITANJALI MURARI

The author is a media professional and writer. The Crown of Seven Stars is her first novel. She lives in Mumbai. gitanjalimurari@yahoo.com Illustrator: Smt. Lalithaa Thyagarajan. lalithyagu@gmail.com

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aren’s voice rose to the highest note of the raaga before gently descending the scale and fading away. Ahmed Khan nodded, “Bravo! You held the top note very well…there is a big improvement in your singing from the last class.”

“Thank you Khan saab,” Naren smiled happily, “my father gave me some tips.”

“Ah! Your father is a fine singer,” the teacher exclaimed, getting to his feet, “you get your talent from him.” Turning to leave, he gently tugged his young pupil’s ear, “Your ear for music is even better than some experts…I hope you’re practising on the esraj?”

When Naren shook his head, the teacher sighed, “Ah, it’s for your own good, son.”

A little while later, Naren hurried into his father’s office, “Baba, my friends and I are leaving for Fort William…I need money for the carriage fare.”

“Is your class with Khan s a a b ove r a l re a dy ? ” Vishwanath Datta asked.

“What is he teaching you nowadays?”

“Bhajans in Persian, Hindi and Bangla, but …I’ve disappointed him.”

“How’s that?”

“He wants me to play the esraj but after tabla practice, I don’t get the time.”

“Esraj stirs the soul,” Vishwanath said, h a n d i n g N a re n t h e money, “make time for it as you do for your other activities.”

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PA G E D O N O R : D R . S U B R A M A N I YA B H A R AT H I YA R R . , K A N C H E E P U R A M

A fictional narrative based on incidents from the childhood of Swami Vivekananda.

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Twenty excited boys clambered into several hired carriages. Chattering incessantly, they didn’t notice time fly and were surprised when they halted at the imperious gates of the fort. Hopping out eagerly, none of them noticed that Ranjan appeared pale. When the group entered through the gates, he complained of tiredness and sat down on a bench. “An hour’s drive has aged you so much,” his friends laughed, “you’ve become an old man!”

Naren strode down the gravel path, pointing out intricate carvings on the magnificent fountains. As they made to climb the steps to the main building, he looked around. “Ranjan isn’t with us,” he frowned and retraced his steps part of the way. “I see him…he’s near the gate,” he cried and turning to his friends, added, “He’s really not well…why don’t you carry on with the tour while I take him home?”

“No, no,” the group protested, “we’ll go with you…we can come back another day.”

But Naren would hear none of it. “There’s no need to cancel the plan…go on now… enjoy yourselves.” When he reached Ranjan, he saw him shivering uncontrollably. “I’ve a terrible body ache,” Ranjan whispered, “I don’t know what’s come over me.”

Naren touched Ranjan’s face, “You have high fever,” he said with concern, “can you walk a little until we find a carriage? Here, take my arm for support.”

Walking slowly down the street, Naren at last spotted an empty carriage and waved frantically to the driver. Within a few minutes, the boys were seated inside and riding along at a brisk pace.

“I’m sorry to ruin your day,” Ranjan said in a small voice.

Naren grinned, “This morning Khan saab, my music teacher, told me I must practice the esraj…thanks to you, I’ll be able to do it today!”

“You always look on the bright side,” Ranjan said gratefully.

“That reminds me of a song,” Naren exclaimed, his eyes twinkling, “about a lazy bull giving the same advice to his long-suffering master.” Clapping his hands, he began to sing, changing his voice for the bull and the farmer.

Ranjan smiled weakly and then despite the fever, giggled. “This is very odd, Naren” he laughed, “but I swear I’m feeling better already.”

In happiness, in misery, in famine, in pain, in the grave, in heaven, or in hell who never gives me up is my friend.

Is such friendship a joke? A man may have salvation through such friendship.

— Swami Vivekananda

PULLOUT FOR REFERENCE

In this issue, we cover Part 4 −Swami Vivekananda's Plan of Action In this issue of Vedanta Kesari we complete the third and final instalment of “My Plan of Campaign”. After examining the motives and approaches of various reformers, developing the principles of change, and presenting a landscape of reform movements in India, Swami Vivekananda outlined his own plan or strategy for bringing about reform in India.

ISSUE ISSUE 37 10

My Plan of Campaign - 3

My plan is to follow the ideas of the great ancient Masters. I have studied their work, and it has been given unto me to discover the line of action they took. They were the great originators of society. They were the great givers of strength, and of purity, and of life. They did most marvellous work. We have to do most marvellous work also.

April 2021

4.1 What is the inspiration for Swami Vivekananda's approach to reform?

25 4.2 What is the lever for social reform in India?

––

According to Swami Vivekananda, each nation, like each individual, has one theme in this life, which is its centre, the principal note around which every other note comes to form the harmony. In one nation, political power is its vitality (as in England), artistic life in another, and so on. In India, religious life forms the centre, the keynote of the whole music of national life.

––

If any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality — the direction which has become its own through the transmission of centuries — that nation dies if it succeeds in the attempt.

––

India has made its choice ages ago, where it has chosen to think not of matter but of spirit, not of man but of God.

Designed & developed by

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––

Swami Vivekananda says that India’s very nature is – intense faith in another world, intense hatred for this world, intense power of renunciation, intense faith in God, and intense faith in the immortal soul.

I have seen that I cannot preach even religion to Americans without showing them its practical effect on social life. I could not preach religion in England without showing the wonderful political changes the Vedanta would bring.

So, in India, social reform has to be preached by showing how much more spiritual a life the new system will bring; and politics has to be preached by showing how much it will improve the one thing that the nation wants — its spirituality.

The Vedanta Kesari

PA G E D O N O R : D R . S U B R A M A N I YA B H A R AT H I YA R R . , K A N C H E E P U R A M

focus in this issue:

4.3 What is the broad strategy to be followed? a.

Bring out the truths scattered across our country The first work that demands our attention is that the most wonderful truths confined in our Upanishads, in our scriptures, in our Purânas must be brought out from the books, brought out from the monasteries, brought out from the forests, brought out from the possession of selected bodies of people, and scattered broadcast all over the land, so that these truths may run like fire all over the country from north to south and east to west, from the Himalayas to Comorin, from Sindh to the Brahmaputra.

b. Our primary activity should be the diffusion of spirituality and spiritual knowledge

April 2021

Everyone must know of them, because it is said, "This has first to be heard, then thought upon, and then meditated upon." Let the people hear first, and whoever helps in making the people hear about the great truths in their own scriptures cannot make for himself a better Karma today.

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––

Swami Vivekananda says that in the Kali Yuga, sacrifices and tremendous Tapasyas are of no avail. Rather one karma remains – the Karma of Giving.

––

There are multiple kinds of Gifts – the highest being the gift of spirituality and spiritual knowledge, and the next being the gifts of secular knowledge, the gift of life, and last being the gift of food. Of these, Swami Vivekananda exhorts us to take up the energy of the first charity – the diffusion of spiritual knowledge.

––

This diffusion of spiritual knowledge must take

c. The diffusion of spiritual knowledge should take place not only within the bounds of India, but across the world place not only within the bounds of India, but go out all over the world.

––

––

This is not the first time this has happened.

Whenever the world has required it, the perennial flood of spirituality from India has overwhelmed and deluged the world.

While gifts of political knowledge and secular and social knowledge can be given through force, and conquering other races, spiritual knowledge can be given only in silence, bringing forth thereby great good in the receiver.

This has been India’s gift again and again.

The gift of spiritual knowledge is given in silence, not through trumpets, cohorts, fire and sword.

Gifts of political knowledge can be made with the blast of trumpets and the march of cohorts. Gifts of secular knowledge and social knowledge can be made with fire and sword. But spiritual knowledge can only be given in silence like the dew that falls unseen and unheard, yet bringing into bloom masses of roses.

4.4 How is the diffusion of spiritual knowledge to be carried out?

PA G E D O N O R : S R I D E E PA K G O PA L A K R I S H N A N , C H E N N A I

––

The diffusion of spiritual knowledge has happened before Buddha and during the Greek invasion, and now this opportunity has come once again. Immediately, consciously or unconsciously, India is rising up to pour forth her gifts of spirituality to the whole world.

The power of England has linked the nations of the world together as was never done before.

English roads and channels of communication rush from one end of the world to the other.

Owing to English genius, the world today has

been linked in such a fashion as has never before been done.

––

Immediately, consciously or unconsciously, India rises up and pours forth her gifts of spirituality; and they will rush through these roads till they have reached the very ends of the world.

––

Speaking about himself, Swami Vivekananda says that his own visit to America was not his or anyone else’s doing but the guiding hand of God in India.

––

Therefore, Swami Vivekananda exhorts us to preach the truths of our religion, preach it to every nation and to every people. Only after this preaching will come secular and every other knowledge.

4.5 Who will carry out the preaching?

Men, men, these are wanted: everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous, believing young men, sincere to the backbone, are wanted. A hundred such and the world becomes revolutionized.

––

Swami Vivekananda announces his plan to start institutions in India to train young people as preachers of the truths of our scriptures.

––

He points out that even a handful of such strong visionary, believing young people can revolutionize the world.

4.6 What must be preached?

––

Swami Vivekananda points out, that for centuries people have been taught that they are nothing – not even human beings – as a result they have been frightened for centuries till they have become animals.

––

They need to develop faith in themselves. The difference between an Englishman and an Indian is this – the Englishman believes he can do anything and brings out the power within, while Indians have been told you can do nothing and non-entities you are becoming every day.

––

Therefore, what India needs is strength and self-belief. We need to become strong with muscles of iron and nerves of steel.

Let them hear of the Atman — that even the lowest of the low have the Atman within, which never dies and never is born — of Him whom the sword cannot pierce, nor the fire burn, nor the air dry — immortal, without beginning or end, the all-pure, omnipotent, and omnipresent Atman!

April 2021

––

Whenever there has been a great conquering race, bringing the nations of the world together, making roads and transit possible, immediately India arose and gave her quota of spiritual power to the sum total of the progress of the world.

27 The Vedanta Kesari

––

––

This will be done by a man-making religion, with man-making theories and man-making education all round.

––

The test of truth is strength. Anything that makes a person weak – physically, intellectually, and spiritually must be

rejected. We need to stop resorting to mysticism, which may have some grain of truth, but is gradually weakening.

4.7 What are the three qualifications needed to accomplish the task?

April 2021

––

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First, we must go beyond the intellect and reason, and feel from the heart. The heart is the source of inspiration – we must feel intensely for millions of our fellow countrymen.

––

Second, we need to go beyond frothy talk and find solutions, (instead of judging and condemning others), and provide a human touch to help our countrymen come out of their living death.

––

Third, we need to build will and steadfastness. Even if we face mountain high obstructions, and resistance from the world, can we do what we think is right? Can we proceed steadily, transcending our attachments to family and wealth?

––

Swami Vivekanda says that if you have these three things, then even if you do not write in newspapers and give lectures, your thoughts will go on vibrating until they connect to some brain and are worked out, since such is the power of thought, of sincerity, and purity of purpose.

Feel, therefore, my would-be reformers, my would-be patriots!

Do you feel? Do you feel? Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next-door neighbours to brutes? Do you feel that millions are starving today, and millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud?

Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad?

4.8 Do not criticise our country, rather take up the responsibility for making it great again This national ship, my countrymen, my friends, my children — this national ship has been ferrying millions and millions of souls across the waters of life. For scores of shining centuries, it has been plying across this water, and through its agency, millions of souls have been taken to the other shore, to blessedness.

But today, perhaps through your own fault, this boat has become a little damaged, has sprung a leak; and would you therefore curse it? Is it fit that you stand up and pronounce malediction upon it, one that has done more work than any other thing in the world?

If there are holes in this national ship, this society of ours, we are its children. Let us go and stop the holes. Let us gladly do it with our hearts' blood; and if we cannot, then let us die. We will make a plug of our brains and put them into the ship, but condemn it never.

If you have any questions on this lecture, do post your queries on

www.vivekanandaway.org

You can also access previous issues of Vivekananda Way here.

Ma

gic ,M ira cle s

and the

e Mystical Twelv LAKSHMI DEVNATH

Roles Reversed

he next morning, Poorva woke up to find that the Swami had whipped up a yummy breakfast of crisp dosais with coriander chutney, and sweet tendercoconut water. Half an hour later, she let out a big burp. “Excuse me,” she said, and noticed with fascination her new pattu paavaadai.

Soon the two were at the palace in Madurai. The Pandyan flag, with its emblem of two fish, was flying above it. Poorva stepped into the royal hall in time to hear the king say, “Selva Nambi, my honourable minister, please advise me as to what I should do in this life so that my next one is taken care of. Ever since I heard the words of a pilgrim last night, my mind has not been at rest.”

“May I make a suggestion, my Lord?” The minister paused for the royal approval and then continued, “Your Majesty may be pleased to convene a meeting of the most learned people in the land. Let them debate the issue in this assembly. It may also be announced that the winner will be rewarded with a bag of gold coins. The bag can be tied to a post and placed in the hall.”

“Excellent idea,” applauded the king. “Proceed to make arrangements for the grand event.” The assembly broke up and the king retired to his chambers.

Poorva saw Selva Nambi instructing his assistants to draw up a list of the scholars in the land. Realizing that nothing of great interest was going to happen shortly, she looked around for Swami Thaatha. On the way, she passed through a door marked ‘ROYAL TREASURY. ENTER ONLY WITH PRIOR PERMISSION’.

The author is a researcher and writer with various books and articles on Indian music and culture to her credit. lakshmidevnath@gmail.com Illustrator: Smt. Lalithaa Thyagarajan. lalithyagu@gmail.com

April 2021

T

(Continued from the previous issue. . .)

29 The Vedanta Kesari

PA G E D O N O R : S R I . R . K R I S H N A N , C H E N N A I

The Story of Periaazhvaar

April 2021 The Vedanta Kesari

30

The armed sentries standing at the door looked positively unfriendly. While she was trying to imitate their expressions, Poorva found herself inside the treasury.

“Oh my God, how did I walk through this huge door?

Am I a ghost or a human?” She heard the jingle of coins. A man was picking up handfuls of gold coins from a huge drum. He then bundled them in a rectangular piece of silk cloth.

“This must be the reward,” Poorva surmised.

Eager to dip her hands into the heap of gold coins, she moved towards the large container. In a flash, she found herself once again outside the sealed doors.

“Pity,” she sighed, and moved along. A few minutes later, she was outside the palace doors. The day was downing its shutters. Once again, Poorva looked around for Swami Thaatha.

A bullock cart transporting a few people halted near her. The driver shouted, “Cart to Srivilliputhur.” A couple standing beside her got in, and Poorva decided to jump in too.

“I’m sure I can find my way to Vishnuchitha’s garden. Srivilliputhur, at least, is known territory,” she thought.

She jumped in and found herself face-to-face with Swami Thaatha! “Oh … I thought that you had deserted me.”

He merely said, “It appears that quite a few scholars are coming to the palace tomorrow. I suggest we stay on at Madurai for the night.”

“How did the message get across so quickly to different parts of the kingdom? They don’t have telephones, e-mails, and stuff like that.” The next moment, she rapped herself on the head for being dumb. “Of course! It’s the same time-jump phenomenon at work.”

The gait of the bullocks gently bounced her up and down on the hay seat. The bells tied to their horns tinkled softly.

“Swami Thaatha …” she began again, absent-mindedly fingering a piece of straw. He did not respond. She looked up and found herself staring at a heavily decorated golden chair. It was the king’s throne!

(To be continued. . .)

When God Calls

Manomohan Mitra DR. RUCHIRA MITRA

This is the tenth story in the series on devotees who had a role in the divine play of Bhagawan Sri Ramakrishna.

यमेवैष वृणुते तेन लभ्यः

It is attained by him alone whom It chooses

“What is the use of my living then?”

“Suicide is a great sin.”

“When none is there, with whom shall I spend my days?”

“Only they have survived from this deluge who have realized God. You will meet them very soon and live with them.”

“What shall I eat?”

“See below your chest.”

Manomohan was surprised to see a wooden plank keeping him afloat. At that moment he woke up; but as the dream was powerfully realistic, he lay on the bed greatly perplexed. He asked his wife, “Who are you?

Where am I?”

This strange dream can be regarded as a turning point in the divine play of Sri Ramakrishna, because it brought to him his first disciples, expecting whose arrival he was pining away in Dakshineswar!

The next day Manomohan told about his dream to his cousin Ramchandra Datta. Ram interpreted the dream as a revelation of the fact that all beings are submerged in maya and everyone was the living dead! Both felt the need to meet a realised soul and have their questions answered. Manomohan, an ardent follower of the Brahmo Samaj, had read in the Brahmo magazines about the intense spiritual life of Sri Ramakrishna. So, they decided to visit Sri Ramakrishna who lived at the Dakshineswar Kali Temple. When they reached Dakshineswar, Sri Ramakrishna opened the door of his room and came out as if he was expecting them!

Manomohan and Ram had a long conversation with Sri Ramakrishna. Manomohan was averse to image worship. Understanding his attitude, Sri Ramakrishna told him, “As an imitation custard apple reminds one of a real custard apple, so the divine images enkindle the presence of God. God is all powerful. It is possible for him to manifest in anything.”

The author is a devotee and researcher on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature. Her doctoral thesis was on the life stories of Sri Ramakrishna. ruchiranewid@gmail.com

April 2021

I

t was a Saturday night in 1879.

Manomohan Mitra had a dream in which he saw the whole world being flooded! All the tall buildings of Calcutta, including the Ochtorloney Monument1 were swept away by the terrible current. He saw only water in all directions. He couldn’t see anyone and was drifting helplessly on the water. When he worried about his mother, wife, sisters, and daughters, he heard a voice say, “No one is alive in this world. All are dead.” The voice then continued to answer his every thought:

31 The Vedanta Kesari

PA G E D O N O R : S R I V I N AYA K S U TA R , B E L A G AV I

(Kathopanishad. 1.2:23)

April 2021

Charmed by his loving words, cordiality and kindness, they returned home filled with peace and joy.

The Vedanta Kesari

32

Manomohan was born in September 1851 at Konnagar, in Hooghly district of West Bengal.

His father Bhubanmohan Mitra was a physician and well versed in History, Science, and English literature. In spite of his Western education, he was an ardent follower of traditional Hindu culture. Manomohan’s mother Shyama Sundari Devi was very pious and regularly practiced spiritual disciplines. To test the genuineness of her absorption in meditation, once a relative dropped a scorpion on her lap! But that did not disturb her. Under the strong influence of his p a re n t s , M a n o m o h a n t o o p ra c t i s e d spiritual disciplines; but without proper guidance he was unable to make any spiritual progress.

From the time of his first visit to Sri Ramakrishna, his life took a different turn. He accepted Sri Ramakrishna as an incarnation of God and encouraged his extended family, relatives and friends to visit Dakshineswar and benefit from the blessed company of Sri Ramakrishna. In this process he brought his sister’s husband Rakhal to Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna recognised Rakhal as the spiritual son promised to him by the Divine Mother.

Rakhal, later known as Swami Brahmananda, became the first President of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

Once, Manomohan told Sri Ramakrishna, “I do not know God. But I have taken refuge in you. Please accept my responsibility.” Sri Ramakrishna replied in an ecstatic mood, “He who comes here for God realisation or to attain knowledge, his desire will be fulfilled. Let me say again: his desire will definitely be fulfilled.”

Manomohan desired to renounce the world and become a sannyasi. But Sri Ramakrishna advised him to develop dispassion and take care of his family, living in it as a lotus in water. Thereafter, Manomohan made Sri Ramakrishna the central figure of his family.

Once, Manomohan angrily scolded a p e r s o n wh o c r i t i c i s e d h i s g u r u S r i Ramakrishna. But, when Sri Ramakrishna pointed out that anger is a vice second only to lust, Manomohan renounced anger for ever!

Every weekend, Manomohan would spread Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings in his native place Konnagar. He was so successful in this that the people of Konnagar would join his music (keertan) party in hundreds. They would also often visit Dakshineswar and sing keertans in Sri Ramakrishna’s presence.

When Sri Ramakrishna developed throat cancer, Manomohan curtailed his family spending so that he could contribute towards the expenses of Sri Ramakrishna and the young disciples who served him. After Sri Ramakrishna’s passing away, Manomohan continued to support the monastic disciples, and his home became a meeting place for the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna.

Later in life he had many divine visions of Sri Ramakrishna. Once, seeing Sri Ramakrishna on the altar of Puri Jagannath Temple, he loudly cried out Jai Ramakrishna-rupi Jagannath er jai!

“Hail Lord Jagannatha in the form of Sri Ramakrishna!” Finally, in 1903 Manomohan entered into mahasamadhi incessantly repeating the name of Sri Ramakrishna. He demonstrated how to live a Ramakrishnaintoxicated life while being engaged in the duties of the world!

References: 1) The tallest building in Calcutta then; situated in Esplanade area it is now known as Shahid stambha.

2) They Lived with God by Swami Chetanananda

3) Sri Sri Ramakrishna Bhaktamalika by Swami Gambhirananda

Questions & Answers

Pariprasna

April 2021

QUESTION: Can the mind of a man comprehend the witness who is not revealing Himself? What is the way?

MAHARAJ: The witness cannot be comprehended as an object by the mind. Because, immediately it is seen as an object it ceases to be witness or the seer. It is just like the eye. We see all things with the eye, but the eye cannot see itself in the way in which it sees other things. Yet its existence is not doubted. So also there is a centre of consciousness which is not the object of perception, but through whose power all perceptions are possible. If we are to have an experience of it in itself, we have to eliminate from its field all perceptions and all the instruments with which it is in identification in the process of perception. For example, there are the senses, the mind, the intellect, the will, etc. The luminosity of the seer is percolating through all of the instruments of perception and thus the seer is in identification with all of them and is not able to recognize his autonomy.

Now to realize the separateness of the instruments and recognize their separateness from himself, it is a very difficult exercise in inward concentration, and so the Upanishads compare it to the separation of a very subtle stalk of a blade of grass from the fibrous materials adhering to it. If this could be done and the witness recognized in his isolation, then there will be comprehension of one’s essential nature as the unaffected witness. Of course it is not the mind that ultimately comprehends, because all the mental faculties have to be objectified and then there is no power of comprehension for them. The witness has to be realized as pure Self-awareness, which is another name for Samadhi.

QUESTION: How did the Jivatma originate? When one becomes a Jivanmukta has he got to take any future birth? When one becomes a Mukta, what becomes of the Atman, the ‘I sense’?

MAHARAJ: The Hindu spiritual tradition has two metaphysical positions. One is the pure absolutist point of view for which everything objective is a mere appearance, the pure subject alone being the real. An appearance means something that is experienced, but does not exist none the less in the way it is experienced. From this point of view, the universe, inclusive of the Jiva, is an appearance only. It does not actually exist, and the reason for its origination as also of the world, does not therefore arise.

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PA G E D O N O R : S R I V I N AYA K S U TA R , B E L A G AV I

Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991) was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers.

Pariprasna is a selection from this book.

April 2021 The Vedanta Kesari

34

Now this way of answering may have some show of logic but does not satisfy a man for whom his Jivahood is a fact, a lived experience. So it is better for him to leave aside the absolutistic tradition and think in terms of the realistic, in which Jiva and Prakriti (the world) are real, but dependent for their existence on God. The nature of that dependence may be described as that between soul and body or between power-holder and power. In this view Jiva becomes an aspect of the Sakti or the body of God. From that Jiva-Sakti, which is a part and parcel of His being, individual centres of consciousness are thrown out as sparks from a conflagration. But there is no particular time or reason for its origination. It is a part of His being and is therefore eternal.

The Jiva, along with Prakriti, emerges during creative cycles, and in Pralaya it becomes dissolved, or shrunk and exists only in a subtle condition as trees in the seed. The emergence at the opening of a creative cycle may be called the beginning of a Jiva in a way, but when it is remembered that it might have passed through several such cycles, it has to be taken that the Jiva has no beginning in the sense we understand it. It is a part and parcel of the structure of the divine and it has therefore existed always either in a latent condition or in an emerged state, either as shrunk and contracted to a state indistinguishable from matter or freed and liberated and shining in its blissful nature.

God’s creative activity and the emergence of Jiva are sometimes stated as relative without admitting that the Jiva is something created without any prior existence. The creative process, consisting of the cycles of manifestation and dissolution, is the divine sport in the process of which the Jiva comes into fuller and fuller manifestation. Originally almost one with matter owing to the shrinkage of consciousness by the influence of Tamas or Inertia, the Jiva is gradually stimulated into activity by the process of material evolution until it becomes a full-fledged centre of Selfconsciousness. Ultimately the process of evolution brings out the conscious and blissful nature of the Jiva into full manifestation. These are the theories regarding the origin of Jiva. It has no origin in terms of our time-sequence. All that can be said is that it has always existed either in a latent condition or in a manifested state.

The doctrine of Jivanmukti, or liberation even when the physical body is alive, is accepted only by the pure Advaitin, whereas according to the other schools of Vedanta, only a very high state of spiritual awareness is reached in the living condition, full liberation being attained only on the death of the physical body. According to both these schools of Vedantins there is no rebirth for the liberated one. In pure Advaita it is said that one who mistakenly considered himself as an individual, recognizes his oneness in essence with the Supreme. Figuratively it can be said that he is dissolved in God. The other schools will say, the Jiva is conveyed to transcendental realms from where there is no fall. It is however maintained that if the Jiva has some noble desire like serving or liberating fellow beings, he may again come to the world as an Adhikarika, a prophet with a divine commission or as a partner in the mission of a Divine Incarnation.

As for what becomes of the I-sense of a Jivanmukta, the answer is the same as for what becomes of his physical body. The physical body of every man dying dissolves into the material elements. But the subtle body has its continuity, no doubt with changes, through the whole of the transmigratory existence. I-sense, is the core of the subtle body. It continues through the whole transmigratory existence, and when ultimately knowledge dawns, it dissolves into its corresponding cosmic whole. Then the individual I-sense will dissolve into the Cosmic I-sense. So individuality as the pure Jiva persists, for the Jiva is a monad having always a dependent existence on God.

Special Report

Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission

April 2021

The 111th Annual General Meeting of the Ramakrishna Mission was held at Belur Math on Sunday, 7 March 2021, at 3.30 p.m. A synopsis of the report presented in the meeting is given below.

The Ramakrishna Mission won the following recognitions: (i) The University Grants Commission (UGC): (a) selected RKMVERI (deemed university), the College of Education (of Coimbatore Mission Vidyalaya) and the Sikshanamandira (of Saradapitha centre, Belur, Howrah ) as Mentor Institutions for helping other higher education institutions to improve their quality and get NAAC accreditation and (b) extended the autonomous status of Vivekananda College of Chennai Vidyapith for 10 years and (ii) the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology (MST), Government of India recognized Vivekananda Centenary College of Rahara centre, Kolkata as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO).

New branch centres of the Ramakrishna Mission were started in: (i) Kasundia in Howrah, West Bengal (ii) Rourkela, Odisha and (iii) Villupuram, Tamil Nadu. A new branch centre of the Ramakrishna Math was started at Purnea in Bihar. Ramakrishna Math (Kathamrita Bhavan), which was functioning as a sub-centre of Ramakrishna Math (Shyampukur Bati), was made a full-fledged branch centre. The ancestral house of Swami Trigunatitananda Maharaj in Kolkata was taken over by the Ramakrishna Math and named as Swami Trigunatitananda Memorial. The Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of the Philippines in Manila was affiliated to Ramakrishna Mission. Vedanta Centres in Vancouver (Canada) and Curitiba (Brazil) were affiliated to Ramakrishna Math. The retreat centre in Pinon Hills, USA, was made a sub-centre of Hollywood Vedanta Society.

In the educational field, the following new developments deserve special mention: (i) Chennai Students’ Home started a Skill Development Centre to train students in the fields of mechanical, automobile and computer engineering. (ii) Coimbatore Vidyalaya started an incubation centre in its Arts and Science College to create an industrial working environment in the college. (iii) Ranchi Morabadi centre was nominated by the Government of Jharkhand to start a ‘Value-based Multi Skill Development Training Course’ under the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) for minorities.

In the medical field, mention may be made of the following new developments: (i) Kankhal centre added an operation theatre complex, ICU, surgical ward, dialysis unit and CT scan facility to its hospital. (ii) Manasadwip centre built a new dispensary building. (iii) Vrindaban centre added to its hospital, a state-of-the-art Sarada Block. It is built as per NABH standards and has two modular operation theatres, a cancer ward and MRI and CT scan facilities.

In the rural development field, the following new projects deserve special mention: (i) Ranchi Morabadi centre brought 644 acres of fallow land under cultivation and trained farmers of 25 villages under the Seed Village Programme to produce quality seeds. (ii) Sargachhi centre conducted 5 On-Farm Trials (OFT) on 55 farms, published 4 research papers and provided veterinary training to 690 people in treating simple disorders/injuries in animals.

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Synopsis of the Governing Body Report for 2019-20

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A number of our centres took forward Swachchha Bharat Abhiyan by holding cleanliness drives and awareness campaigns. The work done by the following centres require special mention: (i) Mangaluru centre held (a) 26 cleanliness drives in and around Mangaluru, (b) magic shows on cleanliness theme at 99 schools in Udupi district, (c) cultural competitions and workshops in 236 schools in which 23,736 students participated. The centre also guided 130 schools to observe Cleanliness Day in which 13,000 children took part. (ii) Salem centre conducted a special programme for sanitation workers of Salem Municipal Corporation.

Under the Ramakrishna Math, the following developments deserve special mention: (i) Kalady Math added a new division in its primary and higher secondary schools. (ii) Barisha Math started an allopathic dispensary. (iii) Chennai Math started a 4D virtual reality film show at Vivekananda House on Swami Vivekananda’s wanderings in India. (iv) Koyilandy Math built a multipurpose hall.

The Mission and Math undertook several relief and rehabilitation operations in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, natural calamities including devastating floods in Kerala, Karnataka, the North East and other parts, and cyclonic storms such as Fani, Vayu and Bulbul which affected Odisha, Gujarat and West Bengal. The operations involved an expenditure of Rs. 38.24 crore and benefitted 8.24 lakh people.

During the year, the Mission and the Math undertook general welfare work by way of providing scholarships to poor students and pecuniary help to old, sick and destitute people.

Expenditure incurred was Rs. 29.42 crore.

Medical service was rendered to more than 83.11 lakh people through 10 hospitals, 87 dispensaries, 39 mobile medical units and 985 medical camps run by the Mission. Expenditure incurred was Rs. 272.31 crore.

Nearly 2.66 lakh students studied in Mission’s educational institutions ranging from kindergarten to university level and also in non-formal education centres, night schools, coaching classes, etc. A sum of Rs. 396.19 crore was spent on the educational work.

A number of rural and tribal development projects were undertaken by the Mission with a total expenditure of Rs. 131.62 crore, benefiting about 5.73 lakh people.

The year-long celebrations of the 125th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Addresses at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago, USA, had a grand finale with various programmes organized by the headquarters and the branch centres. A two-day All India Alumni Meet of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission educational institutions was held at Belur Math in December 2019. Some of our centres in the USA and other countries also held public meetings, lectures and cultural events.

Outside India, the following developments deserve special mention: (i) With the initiative of Headquarters, Belur Math, a bronze statue of Sister Nivedita was installed at her family cemetery in Great Torrington, United Kingdom. The project was funded by the Government of West Bengal. (ii) The newly built Vivekananda Bhavan at Dhaka centre, (Bangladesh) was inaugurated.

We take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks to our members and friends for their kind cooperation and help in carrying forward the service programmes of the Ramakrishna Mission and Ramakrishna Math.

Swami Suvirananda General Secretary 07 March 2021 Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

Reminiscences

Lessons from Swamis

Ramani Mohan had received mantra-diksha from Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi in 1910. In 1920 he received ochre robes from Holy Mother and sannyasadiska from Swami Brahmananda. His new name was Swami Jagadananda. Once Holy Mother told him, “In your previous birth you were a Rishi. In your heart of hearts there was a little hankering for enjoyment, so you had to be born again. Now the enjoyment is over, so you have become Rishi again.” Highly respected for his intuitive knowledge of Vedanta, and considered a Jivanmukta, Jagadanandaji translated Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lila Prasanga into English as Sri Ramakrishna The Great Master ,— the authoritative biography of Sri Ramakrishna. He attained mahasamadhi in December 1951 aged 72 at the Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Vrindavan.

Passing away of a Rishi I had many opportunities to live with Jagadananda Maharaj and study scriptures. It was a rare opportunity to study Vedantic scriptures with him, because he was a living example of the spirit of Vedanta. In 1951, after the passing away of Swami Virajananda Maharaj, the 6th President of the Order whom I served as a personal attendant, I got a long leave. I went to Kishanpur where I practiced tapasya and studied scriptures under Jagadananda Maharaj and also rendered him a little service. Suddenly, he had a heart-attack. As there were no good medical facilities in Dehradun, he was taken to our Vrindavan Sevashrama Hospital for treatment. I accompanied him and continued my spiritual practices while serving him. Maharaj too continued to conduct classes for me and 2-3 other sannyasis. He was explaining Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. One day there was a great

April 2021

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Swami Jagadananda

t was sometime in 1916. Ramani Mohan Bhattacharya from Dulari, Sylhet (presently in Bangladesh), a scholarly Headmaster in a Government High School was expounding a passage on renunciation from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad which states: “One must renounce the moment one feels dispassion.” In support of this statement Ramani Mohan repeatedly stressed that with tremendous will-power one can break the bonds of householder’s life. But his listeners refused to accept that it was possible to leave wife and children so easily. A heated discussion ensued. Ramani Mohan then roared, “Surely, one can renounce the world any moment, if he so desires.” The next moment he got up and walked away to join the Ramakrishna Order. He was married, but did not even go home to meet his wife or settle his worldly affairs.

37 The Vedanta Kesari

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The Dec 2020 Special Issue of The Vedanta Kesari was on the topic ‘Lessons from Swamis’.

New content on this topic is being serialised this year.

April 2021

excitement in the class. He was explaining ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या, “Brahman alone is real, the world is illusory”, because दृश्यत्वात् स्वप्नदृश्यवत् “whatever we see is illusory as in a dream.” He declared that the argument ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या is invincible and continued to explain it for a long time. I was a student of philosophy and knew a little about how to argue. So, as he finished, I said, Maharaj you said this Truth, Brahman cannot be known by argument or logic etc. But now you say दृश्यत्वात् स्वप्नदृश्यवत्. You are contradicting yourself Maharaj!” He became furious; his appearance became blood-flushed. He said, “You! You are doing mischief! You understand, but yet you argue. Well! Well!

Well! You hear, you hear, you hear from me now (patting his chest), I have known this truth, I have known this truth not by argument not by logic but by Mother’s grace.” The great Vedantin ended by saying ‘Mother’s grace’! But he was so excited that later in the evening he had an heart-attack.

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The doctors declared that the end would come very soon. In those days, there was no proper treatment for heart patients in our hospital. The next day towards the evening when his last moment drew near, Maharaj began to gasp for breath with his eyes closed. His legs were turning ice-cold. The doctors advised me to massage his legs with brandy. I started massaging his legs.

Suddenly he opened his eyes, looked furiously at me and exclaimed in his native Sylhetian Bengali dialect, “Kita karo? Kita karo?—What are you doing? What are you doing?” I answered in a low voice, “Your legs are turning cold, so I am massaging them.” But in a high pitched voice he asked me, “विज्ञानमानन्दं ब्रह्म, Do you understand that? Do you remember that? If you don’t, everything is meaningless, futile. This knowledge and eternal joy is Brahman! If you haven’t known this, then it (i.e., this messaging) is futile. Have you known विज्ञानमानन्दं ब्रह्म?”

My God! In that condition, he did not talk of his pain, but asked me “What are you doing?” and shouted विज्ञानमानन्दं ब्रह्म. He repeated the great statement in such a manner that the sound appeared to arise churning his body and mind. When the final attack came, he forced me to make him sit-up.

Then reclining on my shoulder and uttering “Maa, Maa” he passed away!

On his face there was no sign of the pang of death. On the contrary, after a little while the face started beaming with light. Though his body became ice-cold, the body and face were radiating light. When his body was being taken to Yamuna for immersion, an elderly sannyasi protested, “Why are you taking a living man?” We said, “He is no more.” But he did not believe and madly protested again and again. Finally according to the North Indian tradition, we immersed his body in the Yamuna tying it to a long fat stone.

— Srimat Swami Atmasthananda Ji Maharaj, 15th President of the Ramakrishna Order

(Sources: A talk delivered by Revered Maharaj available at https://www.rkmstudentshome.org/audiogallery/ & Centenary Commemorative Souvenir, Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Vrindaban, 2008)

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Swami Purushatmanada

disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi Swami Purushatmananda (also known as Jnanendra Maharaj) joined the Ramakrishna Order in 1920 at the Habiganj Asharma (now in Bangladesh) of which he was one of the founder members. He received sannyasa-diksha from Swami Vijnanananda in 1937. He served as the first Secretary of Silchar Ashrama, Assam from 1939 till his passing away in 1962 aged 67.

Mother, wait a little, I am coming!

— Swami Nareshananda, Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, Imphal

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Swami Saswatananda

disciple of Swami Shivananda, Swami Saswatananda joined the Ramakrishna Mission Home of Service, Varanasi in 1919. He received his sannyasa-diksha from his guru in 1923. From 1925 to 1928 he served in Ramakrishna Mission Students’ Home, Chennai and from 1936 to 1944 as the President of Chennai Math. In 1947 he was made a Trustee and Assistant Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission in which capacity he served till his end in August 1963 aged 69.

Keeping the word even at the last hour

Swami Saswatanandaji, as an Assistant General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, was in charge of posting monastic workers. One brahmachari, ‘Junior Ravi’ as he was called, was serving as assistant to Bhandari in the main Temple. He approached Saswatanandaji for a change of centre. The swami promised to give him the change. But Saswatanandaji suddenly fell very ill and had to be taken to the hospital in haste. It was uncertain if he would return alive from the hospital. At the moment when he was being carried out on a stretcher, he remembered his promise to the brahmachari. He immediately sent for a swami from the Main Office, told him about his promise and strongly requested that he arrange for the brahmachari’s transfer and report to him when it was done. That was his steadfastness to truth.

— Srimat Swami Gautamananda Ji, Vice-President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

April 2021

In July 1962 Purushatmananda Maharaj was admitted to the P. G. Hospital, Kolkata, due to aneurysm of aorta with no chance of recovery. Later he also developed cancer in the lungs. On 21 December, just a few minutes before passing away at 4.35 A. M. he, though physically extremely weak, suddenly sat up on his bed and began to utter the name of Sri Ramakrishna. A little later he said, “O Mother, you have come, wait a little, I am coming.” Saying this he looked at the patients around him and told them, “Brothers, are you awake? My time has come, I am now going.” After this he lay down on his bed never to rise again.

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Swami Purushatmananda Maharaj was so close to Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi that he would freely express his pique with her and sulk at her. Once during the Durga puja it rained in the night and the road in the Silchar Ashrama was reduced to a squelchy mud track. The next morning, Maharaj started fetching water from the pond and pouring it on the road making it more splashy!

When a devotee asked why he was doing so, Maharaj, expressing his anger at Mother said, “Since Mother does not want anyone to come to her well-dressed, I am pouring more water on the road— let all come splattered with water and mud.”

Article

Rabindranath Tagore on Karmayoga SHUBHRA JYOTI DAS

April 2021

The term karmayoga literally means ‘union through action’. Here union stands for unification of the jivatman with the Paramatman. This article presents Rabindranath Tagore views on karmayoga which are founded on the Upanishads.

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ccording to Tagore, human life consists of three states – natural, ethical-religious and spiritual.1 Our natural disposition is matter-oriented. We tend to accept the world of sense-objects as the only reality; and hence, all our efforts are directed towards the world outside, and we measure success in terms of tangible parameters.

In the second state, resorting to religious and ethical codes of conduct, we mark a definite river as auspicious, a specific food as offensive, a particular ritual as productive and so on. We consider even God as an external object and try to appease Him through various acts of sacrifices. But soon we discover the limitations of these acts.

Upanishad describes as तच्छुभ्रं ज्योतिषां ज्योतिः and is called Brahman in the Upanishads.

Tagore notes that the Western civilisation has focussed on achieving material prosperity and developing the external aspect of human existence.

Even God has been treated as a developing phenomenon.2 On the contrary, Indians have concentrated on developing the inner dimension of human life. Tagore attempted to bridge this gap by combining material and spiritual wellbeing, taking help from the profound Upanishadic insights.

Tagore strongly opposes the view that karma creates the bondage of the soul, as Rabindranath Tagore propagated by the jnanayogins in India.3 He rejects the proposition In the spiritual state, we resort to our that liberation means acquiring freedom from inner world and put our best efforts to all forms of activities. He observes that a set of eradicate all our tendencies for external people have wrongly identified karma as an growth. We control those desires which obstacle to liberation - in the same way as some otherwise control us in the other states, and we mistake a disciplined life to be an impediment start discovering the great source of bliss and to happiness. Brahman is the substratum of all light within us: the Truth which Mundaka activities as the Taittiriya Upanishad declares, The author is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion at Visva-Bharati, a central research university located in Santiniketan. shubhrajyoti.jnu@gmail.com

Ishopanishad declares that it is impossible for anyone to abandon actions completely. It therefore prescribes – कुर्वन्नेवेह कर्माणि जिजीविषेच्छतं समाः। “one should desire to live for a hundred years by performing activities.” Tagore highlights that it is recommended by those rishis who have fully experienced the bliss of Atman. They neither proclaim karma as producing bondage of the soul nor see life as a synonym of pain. So, we can neither pronounce action as a product of passion nor set its rejection as a precondition for entering into the path of sadhana. For Tagore, it won’t at all be wise to dissociate ourselves from these two. Referring to the Ishopanishad’s passage which reads, “Into

The solution lies in the combination of action and knowledge, as Ishopanishad affirms: अविद्यया मृत्यंु तीर्त्वा विद्ययाऽमृतमश्नुते। “jiva attains immortality through knowledge after overcoming death through action.” To quote Tagore, “Whatever it may be, if activity is the essence of bliss, then by means of action itself there can be union with the blissful Brahman.

This is called karmayoga in the Gita.”5 He maintains that the mind of a karma yogi is comparable to that of a devoted housewife who performs her day-to-day activities out of sheer joy and not to fulfil any of her selfish ends.

Consequently, man has been prescribed यद्यत्‌कर्म प्रकुर्वीत तद्‌ब्रह्मणि समर्पयेत‌् “whatever act you perform, dedicate it to Brahman.” This attitude helps to get rid of jealousy, hatred, greed, and cravings; and consequently, we are able to transform our acts to pure bliss by giving up their fruits thereof. According to Tagore, had this bliss not been already present in nature, no one would have made any effort to attain this bliss. Besides, by aligning our efforts with that blissful source of all exertions, we become absolutely fearless.

Tagore maintains that our activities are primarily kindled by external stimulants, and problems arise when they overpower us; and the Upanishads have talked about shreyas only to avoid such overshadowing. Different kinds of external desires (vasanas) work as a source of distraction for us. They have to be regulated by bringing them under one purpose (iccha or uddeshya). Vasana is external and overwhelming; but iccha is internal and integrating.

As for example, if someone has different materialistic vasanas like owning a good house, a car, clothes etc., he will have to bring them

April 2021

Tagore again cites Taittiriya Upanishad which declares, “From Bliss, indeed all these beings originate; having been born, they are sustained by Bliss, they move towards and merge into Bliss” and affirms that Brahman is anandasvarupa. Thus, in Tagore’s view, actions are of two kinds – one springs from deficiency and another from sufficiency i.e., bliss. The first kind of act binds us but the second doesn’t, rather it sets us free. Thus for him, action is the essence of bliss; and bliss expresses itself through various activities. Infinite bliss has infinite expressions, so the bliss of Brahman is substantiated continuously through various activities. Brahman is blissful through His acts, and through acts only He is free.4 We too, in our daily life, become free through blissful activities alone.

greater darkness they enter who revel in passive inaction”, he remarks that karma without Brahman is darkness but Brahman without karma is void as well.

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“Crave to know well that from which all these beings take birth, that by which they live after being born, that towards which they move and into which they merge. That is Brahman.” But then, how is karma related to Brahman? We can neither say that they exist as parallels without any interaction, nor can we think that Brahman has become bound in His karma like a spider in its web.

April 2021

under one iccha of earning money. Wealth, in this case, will fulfil all the desires. Additionally, he has to control many of his petty desires. The internal purpose must rule over the external desires for enhancing productivity and creativity and not vice-versa. But an individual might also have a variety of purposes. Apart from material possessions, he might have nonmaterial or subtle purposes like attaining name, fame etc. Consequently, the internal purposes may also create a distraction similar to one created by the external desires.

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For Tagore, a garden created by cleaning a landscape is verily an expression of the beauty latent in human mind. Just as a poet follows the rules of meter while composing a poem, knowing that rules are not hindrances to his expression of joy, karmayoga too is not opposed to freedom. In fact, work should be treated as instrumental and not an impediment for liberation. Simple inactivity too is not freedom.

Tagore makes a very interesting remark about the nature of attaining Brahman, the goal Therefore, all the internal purposes must of karmayoga. He notes that Brahman cannot also be brought under one be another object added to goal to avoid the final our list of wishes.8 Brahman Sadhana is feeling disruption. Welfare of all has to be realized not as (mangal-iccha) is that final something separate from us, the unity with the Truth aspiration which should but as the existence of all in all activities, all thoughts give orientation to that exists – as is mentioned and all efforts. everything else. For Tagore, in the Ishopanishad, “All this this must be the universal is to be covered by God.” purpose of all work and a solution to all the This implies that every small entity of the problems created by desires. The fulfilment of universe is filled by the presence of that Truth. all undertakings is in the welfare of everyone.

This attitude gives us a feeling of fulfilment Work gets transformed to Brahmopasana6 or even in small achievements. worship of Brahman through this means.

Further, the Upanishads say that Brahman is already attained by all of us. Why then do we This mangal-iccha prompts us to make not realise that Truth? Tagore observes that it small sacrifices and subsequently leads us to is because we have not surrendered ourselves renunciation. Nature does not support completely.9 In Tagore’s vision sadhana is stagnation and hence our desired objects will feeling the unity with the Truth in all activities, willy-nilly slip out of our hands. Therefore, the all thoughts and all effort . practice of letting things go, on a daily basis, will help us overcome this situation. This Who is the best among the knowers of freedom, this mastery over an action can be Brahman? Looking for an answer to this gained only through renunciation. He writes, “If question in the Upanishads, Tagore discovers we want to become performer of actions, we that one who abides in the bliss of Brahman, have to be free. That is why only detached who acts in Brahman and remains active, is the actions have been called karmayoga in the Gita. best among Brahmavids. The way an artist We gain mastery over actions by doing them in rejoices in his creations and a poet in his poetry, non-attached way; or else we become a part of a Brahmavid expresses the Infinite by truth, the action through attachment and never beauty and goodness through all his big and 7 become performer of them.” small acts. Escapism is ruled out as a way to

emancipation. For Tagore, sadhana is not rejection, but dedication of each act to Brahman.

In this way the self keeps on surrendering itself to the Infinite, and every act becomes a means to connect with the Truth. That is perfection, freedom and heaven since the world gets transformed to an abode of bliss.10

through all our activities, we can be more productive and creative. Unalloyed happiness is accessible to everyone.

Rabindranath Tagore gives a down-toearth interpretation of karmayoga. He rightly points out that a proper understanding of karmayoga can help to erase the artificial distinction we have drawn between work and pleasure. By devoting ourselves to the Truth

References 1) ‘Tintala’. Rabindra Rachanavali. [hereafter Rachanavali] R.N.Thakur. Kolkata: Pashchibanga Bangla Academy, 2015 , Vol.16, p.485 2) ‘Karmayoga’. Rachanavali Vol.16, p.697 3) Ibid., p.445 4) Ibid., p.700

5) Ibid., p.446 6) Ibid., p.702 7) ‘Tyaga’. Rachanavali Vol.16, p.169 8) ‘Akhanda Pawa’. Rachanavali Vol.16, p.543 9) ‘Atmasamarpan’. Rachanavali Vol.16, p.544 10) ‘Karmayoga’. Rachanavali Vol.16, p699

Tagore on Sri Ramakrishna

To the Paramahamsa Ramakrishna Deva Diverse courses of worship from varied springs of fulfillment have mingled in your meditation.

The manifold revelation of joy of the Infinite has given form to a shrine of unity in your life where from far and near arrive salutations

to which I join mine own.

—Rabindranath Tagore

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Conclusion

April 2021

Further, Tagore’s proposal to combine the best of East and West has become most relevant in the 21st century. None can overlook the impact of globalization nor should anyone get uprooted from his own culture. In the busy modern life, if we can implement Tagore’s formula by practicing self-surrender, each of our little efforts made on a daily basis will take us to perfection.

In a nutshell, Tagore presents the modern man a realistic blueprint of how to practice karmayoga and reap its benefit by rising to excellence.

Glimpses of The Upanishads

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Published by Unistar Books Pvt.Ltd., 301, Industrial Area, Phase-9, SAS Nagar Mohali-Chandigarh.

Email:unistarbooks@gmail. com. 2017, pp.xxvii+246, Hardbound, Rs.495.

Book Reviews For review in The Vedanta Kesari, publishers need to send

t was Swami Vivekananda’s mission to unlock the Vedantic treasures of the Upanishads and make them available to the common people in English and vernacular languages. Here is a book penned by one who had access only to the English commentaries on Upanishads and who courageously dived deep into them to collect pearls of wisdom to share with his readers.

A casual visit to legendary Nachiketa lake near Uttarakashi during his service in the army ultimately led Major General Purushotam Vig to engage in an intensive study of the Upanishads.

The result is “Glimpses of the Upanishads”. The book has three sections.

First Section briefly introduces the content, time, and the myths surrounding the Upanishads.

The Second Section is a simple study of all the ten principal Upanishads as well as Maittrayanya, Svetasvatara and Kaushitiki Upanishads. The Third Section gives an account of six minor Upanishads Kaivalya, Atma, Amrita Bindu, Jabala, Tejobindu and Paramahamsa upanishads.

Though Major Vig admits to his inability to make an in-depth study of original commentaries in Sanskrit language, his deep study of the available English translations finds a sincere presentation in a poetic language. Each Upanishad is dealt briefly covering only the core points under suitable sub-titles. His reflections at the end of each Upanishad presents its essence as well as its relevance to the contemporary society.

In this section, the author underlines the origin of universe in Brihadaranyka, the glory of Aum and power of truth in Chandogya, transmigration of

us two copies of their latest publication.

soul in Kaushitaki, policy doctrine on education in Taittriya and so on.

This book gives a simple and good introduction to the treasures of the Upanishads.

____________________ SWAMI TATPURUSHANANDA, VARANASI

Bhagavad Geeta

by Chilukuru Venkateswarlu.

T

Published by Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam, 20, Race Course Road, Guindy, Chennai 600 032 Mob: 9884708559.

Email:chvekateswarlu30@gmail. com, paperback, pp.135, Rs.110.

his book has Maxims from Swami V i v e k a n a n d a , Yo g i Ve m a n a , Bhartruhari’s Neeti Satakam, Bhaskara Satakam, Sumati Satakam, Kumari Satakam and Sri Ramakrishna. Except for the maxims of Sumati Satakam and Kumari Satakam, the others are good. Through these two, we get a glimpse of the society two centuries back.

However, they are very outdated to be of any moral value today. These two could have been skipped without any loss of value to the book. The others are good and are applicable even today.

In these times, when people do not have the patience to read big books, this small book gives short snippets of wisdom from great saints and thinkers. As each snippet is independent, a person can even randomly read and benefit. It will

PA G E D O N O R : S R I N I T I N M U T H A N E , B E L A G AV I

April 2021

by Maj Gen Purushotam Vig AVSM, VSM (Retd).

PA G E D O N O R : S R I PAVA N S A I D E S H M U K H , H Y D E R A B A D

Thus Spake The Divine (Vol-I)

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Published by Giri Trading Agency Pvt. Ltd, 372/1, Mangadu Patturkoot Road, Mangadu, Chenna i- 600122.

Ph.+914466939393.

Email:sales@giri.in. 2018, paperback, pp.776, Rs.450.

he title of this book under review is really fascinating since the contents contain the revelations of the divine soul, the Mahaswamigal—the religio-spiritual exemplar of the recent past who adorned the spiritual throne of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham.

The concept of dharma with its multifarious denominations and connotations is the central subject matter of this work. The Mahaswamigal has given nectar-like teachings on the entire gamut of human existence covering the physical, mental, spiritual, social, religious and cultural realms with specific reference to regional, national and international levels. These teachings are presented under 177 themes like The Auspicious Beginning, Advaita, Vedic Religion, Universal Codes of Dharma, Social matters, Culture, Karma Marga: The Path of Duties, Bhakthi, Avatara and Mangal Aarati. This great yogi exemplar of Hindu faith and philosophy has offered solace to the highly traumatized modern man by suggesting appropriate remedies for all human maladies.

The special characteristic features of these holy utterances are: Apt and accurate citations from the sacred as well as secular scriptures of Hinduism; philosophical interpretations to most of the view-points especially from the Advaitic perspective; usage of simple, but elegant expressions to elucidate the chosen theme; interpretative account of puranic episodes, poems etc; explaining through illustrative anecdotes and enchanting stories with logical substantiation; and

_____________________ PROF.R. GOPALAKRISHNAN, CHENNAI

What Then?

by JP Vaswani

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Publised by Gita Publishing House, Sadhu Vaswani Mission, 10, Sadhu Vaswani Path, Pune - 411 001. Email:gph@ sadhuvaswani.org. 2017, paperback, pp.200, Rs.150

he eternal question asked by Acharya Sankara in the Guru Ashtakam “Tatah Kim?” is the title of this small book by the renowned author J. P. Vaswani. This question posed by his mentor Sadhu Vaswani is applied to find out “What after one acquires education, wealth, fame, and power” and “what after death?”

In 27 chapters the author presents in a lucid manner the essence of the message given by the scriptures like Upanishads and Bhagavatam. Anecdotes from Sri Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and from Buddhism and Bahai faiths support the roadmap to life’s journey that the author presents before us.

Each chapter ends with a simple, powerful suggestions for self-introspection. And the last six chapters present six practical suggestions to the shadow chasers of the modern world: ‘Take charge of your life’, ‘Never forget that you are a traveller here on earth’ ‘Pain and pleasure are two sides of the same coin’, ‘Develop the spirit of detachment’, ‘Self-effort is the best effort’ and ‘Remember: This too shall pass away’.

This is a good book for those who seek the wisdom of the scriptures to lead life “meaningfully, consciously, purposefully.”

____________________ SWAMI TATPURUSHANANDA, VARANASI

April 2021

_____________________________ GOKULMUTHU N, BENGALURU

analogical argumentation that makes the most complicated theses simple and understandable.

The significant role played by the Hindu pantheon in ending the evils on this earth and establishing dharma are very well elucidated.

The work is a handbook for every spiritual aspirant who seeks to progress in the path shown

by Sanatana Dharma.

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encourage the reader to read more about these thinkers and saints.

Mahasamadhi of Srimat Swami Vagishanandaji

April 2021

one of the Vice-Presidents of Ramakrishna Order

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S

wami Vagishanandaji, one of the Vice-presidents of the Ramakrishna Order attained mahasamadhi on 12 March 2021. He was 91.

Born in Chittagong district (now in Bangladesh) on 12 January 1930, he received his mantra-diksha from Swami Shankaranandaji Maharaj. He joined the Ramakrishna Order at the Saradapitha centre in 1954, and received sannyasa-diksha from Swami Vishuddhanandaji Maharaj in 1962.

In the course of over six decades in the Order, he served in various capacities including as Assistant Secretary of the Institute of Culture, Gol Park, and head of Morabadi, Malda, Kamarpukur, Mumbai and Cossipore centres. He also participated in migrant (East Pakistan) relief work at Taki for six months in 1970.

In March 1990, he was appointed a Trustee of Ramakrishna Math, Belur, and a Member of the Governing Body of Ramakrishna Mission. From July 2011 he began to give mantra diksha to devotees in India. In June 2014 he was elected as Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Order in which capacity he served till the end.

During his spiritual ministry, he initiated many devotees all over India and also in Bangladesh, Nepal, Mauritius and Japan. His understanding, affection, and sympathy touched the hearts of countless devotees.

The Order on the March

Relief Work Covid-19 Relief: The Phoenix centre in South Africa continued to render Covid-19 pandemic relief work by distributing food grains and grocery items. The centre also provided counselling service to healthcare professionals and sponsored 32 dialysis sessions for some patients.

Winter Relief: 16 centres in India and 03 centres in Bangladesh distributed 5590 blankets/shawls, and 200 jackets to needy people.

Distress Relief: 17 centres of the Order distributed 5164 saris, 246 dhotis, and assorted garments as distress relief among the needy people.

April 2021

The birthday (janma-tithi) of Swami Vivekananda was celebrated at Belur Math on Thursday, 4 February with special worship, homa and music. Swami Balabhadrananda presided over the meeting held in the afternoon. As Belur Math was closed to devotees on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, devotees watched the programmes online.

Belur Math gates, which had remained closed for more than six months due to the pandemic, were opened to devotees and visitors on 10 February. Visiting hours, however, have been restricted, and necessary safety measures have been put in place as per the government guidelines.

Nagar Nigam of Haridwar presented a certificate of recognition to Kankhal for its contribution towards making Haridwar clean and green. The Mission hospital stood first among the healthcare facilities in Haridwar.

Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, marked the 125th anniversary of the publication of Prabuddha Bharata by bringing out a special issue of the magazine in January. It also held an online programme in YouTube on 31 January in which besides other speakers there were pre-recorded talks by Srimat Swami Smarananandaji Maharaj, President of the Ramakrishna Order, Srimat Swami Gautamanandaji, one of the Vice-presidents of the Ramakrishna Order, Swami Suviranandaji, General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Order, and Sri Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India.

The off-campus centre of RKMVERI (deemed university) in Coimbatore Mission Vidyalaya held its 15th Convocation on 3 February. In all, 210 successful candidates were awarded certificates and degrees.

The Governor of Tamil Nadu Sri Banwarilal Purohit and the General Secretary of the Order addressed the students through recorded video messages.

47 The Vedanta Kesari

PA G E D O N O R : S R I U M A M A H E S H WA R K I R A N AT I , O S H AWA

News & Notes from Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

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Vol.108. No.4 The Vedanta Kesari (English Monthly) April 2021. Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under No.1084 / 1957. Postal registration number: TN / CH (C) / 190 / 2021-2023. Licensed to Post without prepayment TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-259 / 2021-2023.

Date of Publication: 24th of every month

Our ancestors were great. We must first recall that. We must learn the elements of our being, the blood that courses in our veins; we must have faith in that blood and what it did in the past; and out of that faith and consciousness of past greatness, we must build an India yet greater than what she has been.

— Swami Vivekananda

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