The Vedanta Kesari January 2011 Issue

J anuary 2011

VOL. 98, No. 1

ISSN 0042-2983

A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL M O N T H L Y O F T H E R A M A K R I S H N A O R D E R

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

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

CONTENTS January 2011

Vedic Prayers

1

Editorial

Sowing the Right Seeds

2

Articles

Bhuvaneshwari Devi: The Great and Noble Mother of Swami Vivekananda Swami Tathagatananda Sri Ramakrishna, the Kalpataru Swami Amareshananda Understanding Maturity Swami Sunirmalananda Holy Mother’s Four Visits to Orissa Swami Tannishthananda An Approach to Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita Dharitri Kumar Das Gupta

7 13 19 24 30

Reminiscences

Reminiscences of Master Mahashay Mahendra Kumar Chaudhury

11

New Find

Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda

17

The Order on the March

37

Book Reviews

40

Features Simhâvalokanam (The Tenth Guru)—5, Sri Ramakrishna Tells Stories—29

Cover Story: Page 4

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

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Cover Story

Swami Vivekananda’s Statue at Chicago, USA Installed in July 1998, this 10-foot bronze statue of Swami Vivekananda is located at Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago in Lemont, Illinois, USA. It was unveiled in an elaborate ceremony, by Swami Atmasthanandaji, the then Vice President (and the present President) of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, in the presence of over 2000 devotees and admirers. The statue is installed on ‘Vivekananda Hill’, a hillock in the temple compound, which overlooks the main entrance. It may be mentioned here that during America's bicentennial celebrations in 1976, the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution included Swami Vivekananda among the 29 eminent foreign visitors described in its book, Abroad in America.

The Vedanta Kesari wishes all its readers and well-wishers A HAPPY AND AUSPICIOUS 2011 PATRONS 607. Mr. Pralayesh Guha, W.B. 608. Mr. Venu Prasad 609. Mrs. Y.G. Smitha, Hyderabad DONORS Doddiganahalli Ramakrishnaiah Family, Bangalore

Rs. 50000

Mr. Basavapatna Thandvewara, Bangalore Mr. Ramamoorthy Rajagopal, Mumbai Mr. Balabir Kumar Sharma, HP A Devote of Sri Ramakrishna, London

Rs. 10001 Rs. 5000 Rs. 1000 Rs. 1000

The Vedanta Kesari Library Scheme SL.NO.

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To be continued . . .

VOL. 98, No. 1, JANUARY 2011 ISSN 0042-2983

E

ACH SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE.

T HE

GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THE DIVINITY WITHIN.

5

Vedic Prayers

Tr. by Swami Sambuddhananda

A{ΩZd©•Ãm{U OîZX≤ –{dUÒ`w{d©n›``m & g{_’Ö ewH´$ Amh˛VÖ & —Agneya Parva—Ch. 1. 4.

The mantras of the Samaveda admit of two different interpretations, (1) Adhiyajnik, that is, from the standpoint of sacrifice and (2) Adhyatmik, that is, from the standpoint of Self.

I. Adhiyajnik: –{dUÒ`wÖ Desirous of granting different kinds of fruits to the performers of sacrifice g{_’Ö fully blazed ewH´$Ö pure Amh˛VÖ fed with oblations A{æÖ sacrificial fire {dn›``m being worshipped by manifold hymns d•Ãm{U disease that precludes happiness OîZX≤> absolutely annihilate.

May the pure, fully blazed sacrificial fire which is fed with oblations and worshipped by many a hymn and which gladly grants boons to the performers of sacrifice totally annihilate all obstructions (disease, etc.) to happiness.

II. Adhyatmik: –{dUÒ`wÖ eager to grant (to the worshippers) spiritual strength g{_’Ö revealed into the heart ewH´$Ö pure Amh˛VÖ fully meditated upon A{æÖ the omniscient, Supreme Being {dn›``m praised by many a hymn d•Ãm{U the obstructions such as sins and ignorance on the way to the realisation of God OîZX≤> annihilate.

May the Pure, Supreme Being, praised by manifold hymns, fully meditated upon and revealed to the heart, be eager to grant spiritual strength to the worshippers and totally annihilate, all obstructions to God-realisation.

I am the resultant of all my past, both good and evil. I have committed many mistakes in my life; but mark you, I am sure of this that without every one of those mistakes I should not be what I am today, and so am quite satisfied to have made them. I do not mean that you are to go home and wilfully commit mistakes; do not misunderstand me in that way. But do not mope because of the mistakes you have committed, but know that in the end all will come out straight.

It cannot be otherwise, because goodness is our nature, purity is our nature, and that Tnature h e Vcan e d never a n t a beK destroyed. e s a r i ~ Our 1 ~ essential D E C Enature M B E R always 2 0 0 9 remains the same.

—Swami Vivekananda, CW, 2: 356

Sowing the Right Seeds The Field and the Knower Every farmer knows this: in order to have a good harvest, sowing good quality seeds at the right time is vital. Seeds should be healthy and in right quantity. They should have been taken from a good quality crop. Sowing requires fulfilment of some more conditions as well. The soil should have been well ploughed and free from all weeds and unwanted material. At the time of sowing, a certain amount of moisture should be present in the soil. And after the seeds have been sown, the place should be not walked over or else the prospective shoots will be crushed—and so on.

The human life too is like a field. The Bhagavad Gita (13.2) compares human bodymind to a field (kshetra), and the Self to the ‘Knower of the field’ (kshetrajna). Indeed, if one understands this fact, one begins to understand one’s life and personality better.

We reap what we have sown in our bodymind. By sowing is meant our actions, thoughts and feelings, or the sum total of our lives’ work. As the well known saying goes: We sow our thoughts and reap our actions.

We sow our actions and reap our habits.

We sow our habits and reap our character.

We sow our character, and we reap our destiny.

It all begins with sowing of thoughts. If our thoughts are healthy and pure, our actions too will be healthy and pure. If our thoughts are impure and evil, our actions will be equally so. And the rest of the series or chain of sowing and reaping will take its course as mentioned above—thoughts, actions, habits, character and finally destiny.

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Inner Nourishment According to Vedanta, man consists not only of physical body (sthula sharira), which is visible and tangible, but also a subtler and deeper self called subtle body (sukshma sharira).

Just as the physical body derives its nourishment from food, drinks and rest, so also the subtle body derives its strength and nourishment from thoughts. More precisely, as the Shvetashvatara Upanishad says, we derive our inner nourishment from our sankalpas. The Upanishad says:1 The body of the individual self depends on food and drink for its birth and growth. Similarly, his thinking (sankalpa), physical contact (sparsha), and looking (drishti) at things produce his attachment (moha). This attachment determines his behaviour, and his behavior ultimately results in his assumption of various forms (male, female, or eunuch).

As is clear, first one begins by thinking, or making a sankalpa. The term sankalpa is a special type of thinking. One not only thinks of something, one thinks of something as worthy of his attention and effort. A sankalpa is also translated as a resolve to do something.

How, and why, will one resolve to do something unless one finds something good and worthy of his efforts to do that? In another sense, a sankalpa is a seed form of a desire.

When these desires come in contact (sparsha) with material objects, one enjoys them (drishti) —and from enjoyment comes attachment (moha). And as it is difficult to give up enjoyment, we become bound. This, in short, is the story of human life.

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Sankalpas, or resolves, are the beginning of the whole chain. A Mahabharata verse says, I know your origin, O desire; it is in sankalpa; I will not do the sankalpa and then you will not be born!

That is a good analysis. But is it possible to give up all sankalpas at once! Life itself depends on sankalpas. The human body is a product of desires, and if all desires vanish, the body cannot be kept; along with the giving up of all desires, the human body comes to an end; one realizes one’s true nature which is ever-free and pure. But then how does one explain the living of great saints and sages in the human society? Sri Ramakrishna says that such men of Self-realisation are able live and carry on their work in the world by keeping ‘some desire’ such as ‘wanting to do good to the world.’ To be sure, ‘doing good to others’ is also a sankalpa but a noble one which keeps the blessings of such souls showered on us!

Seeing the whole issue from the other end, from the view point of spiritual seekers, one can begin, not by giving up all sankalpas, which is anyway not feasible, but by cultivating good sankalpas and countering the bad ones with them. Says Swami Vivekananda:2 Go on doing good, thinking holy thoughts continuously; that is the only way to suppress base impressions. Never say any man is hopeless, because he only represents a character, a bundle of habits, which can be checked by new and better ones. Character is repeated habits, and repeated habits alone can reform character.

In other words, one should ‘sow’ right seeds called right thoughts. Since every action, proceeds from a thought, we should take care of what we think.

The Period of Struggle T h e

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While we should consciously try to sow the right thoughts, we should also be aware that there are already quite a number of deeprooted thoughts present in our mind. They may not be visible but there is power latent in them. If we look at an apparently uncultivated piece of land, we find just a few weeds or unwanted undergrowth here and there. But wait for the rain. Let it rain, and soon after we will find the whole place covered up with a green cover. A number of plants, big or small, would have covered the place. Where were they before? Did anyone plant them during the rain? Well, these plants or weeds were present in a latent form. Invisible to our eyes, there were a number of seeds in the soil, and as soon as they got the necessary conditions for growth, they started growing.

The same can be said of the inner ‘seeds’, good and bad, that are present within our mind. Finding the conducive conditions, these seeds start growing. Sometimes we wonder at some people’s sudden change in life. Though known for their good conduct and behaviour, there seems a sudden change in them and they seem to turn to bad ways. It comes like a big shock to everyone known to them.

The simple reason for this unfortunate change is that the presence of some conducive factors would have hastened the sprouting of those inner latent tendencies. This is one of the vital reasons why all teachers of spirituality advice and warn us to keep holy and good company. A good company nourishes good samskaras (seeds), and a bad company nourishes bad samskaras. Not only they nourish but also create fresh samskaras—good or bad—and hence one should be careful about one’s company.

No thought-seed sprouts immediately.

Like a physical seed, it too has a certain gestation period. Hence, having decided to ‘sow’

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good thoughts one should give it enough time to sprout and become visible in the form of an action.

Again, when we try to open ourselves to creating good and holy samskaras, we should know that they do not happen overnight. They take time, their own time. Repetition is the key to create any samskara—good or bad. Sri Ramakrishna tells of an interesting story about a devotee of Divine Mother Kali: Is it an easy thing to destroy old tendencies?

Once there lived a very pious Hindu who always worshipped the Divine Mother and chanted Her name. When the Mussalmans conquered the country, they forced him embrace Islam. They said to him: ‘You are now a Mussalman. Say “Allah”. From now on you must repeat only the name of Allah.’ With great difficulty he repeated the word ‘Allah’, but every now and then blurted out ‘Jagadamba’. At that the Mussalmans were about to beat him. Thereupon he said to them: ‘I beseech you! Please do not kill me. I have been trying my utmost to repeat the name of Allah, but our Jagadamba has filled me up to the throat.

She pushes out your Allah.’3

The same holds true of all tendencies.

The mind resists anything new. We get used to certain ways of thinking and action and become deeply attached to them. And when we wish to change ourselves, we find it tough.

As the Upanishadic verse quoted above points out, sankalpa leads to moha or delusion.

Delusion here means the state of mind wherein one holds something very dear to oneself.

Being deeply attached to it, the mind finds it troublesome and threatening. Hence this inner resistance of mind—and the beginning of a prolonged struggle.

Reaching the Goal The goal of spiritual life, however, is to go beyond all samskaras. The Patanjali Yoga Sutras speak of a state of mind where all the seeds of desires lie burnt or roasted (dagdha bija avastha), being exposed in the fire of Knowledge. Just as roasted seeds cannot be sowed nor, therefore, any crop be expected from them, so also, freed from all resolves, one becomes free from all fear and anxiety.

This is the one stage in one’s inner life which is highly desirable and safe.4 Every now and then we are confronted with problems in life. Some of these problems have their origin in the external world, but most of them originate within our mind.

Recognition of this fact is a source of great solace and strength. For the mind is after all our own! We can play a great role in changing mind, and thus, our life.

There are many helpful means and factors such as introspection, meditation, holy company, scriptural study and so on, but they are helpful to the extent we are able to push away our inner resistance and open ourselves to the new and better ways. One great thing to remember is the goal of human life: to realize our true Self or, what amounts to same, God. Self-realisation is the ultimate goal of life.

This Self, says the Upanishads, is divine, immortal and our true nature. There may be layers and layers of good or bad samskaras, and the resultant attachment to them, but beyond these samskars lies the atman, our true Self. Keeping the goal clear, let us begin the sowing of the right seeds—consciously and without delay.

References 1. Shvetashvatara Upanishad, 5.11 T h e

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4. c.f Yogasutras, 1.47

Simhâvalokanam

From the Archives of THE VEDANTA KESARI (January, 1920-21, pp. 285-287)

The Tenth Guru

By Sri Aurobindo Ghose

In the three corners of this triangular peninsula, have risen three great cultures close towards the decline of the Mogul rule—Maharastra awakening of the South, the Vaishnava revival of the East and the Sikh culture of the North-West. Each has its distinctive feature and an element to add to the national store of spiritual culture. Vaishnavism brought a flood of love which rolled like a sweet torrent of nectar over Bengal and penetrated even beyond the Vindhyas into the South with Sri Chaitanya. Ramdas and Tukaram and a host of other mighty spiritual giants created in Maharastra by their tapas a great self conscious Hindu nation which it was given to Shivaji to organise and lead. In the Panchanad, the sacred land of the five rivers, Guru Nanak cemented the hearts of the Hindus and Musulmans in the name of Alakh Niranjan and thus laid another foundation stone to the mighty edifice of Indian Nation-building. To count by the central figures, Chaitanya gave love, love and again love, Ramdas gave calm knowledge and creative force, coupled with a ring of Bhakti, (Guru) Nanak gave the pure knowledge of soul-unification. Punjab, ancient Brahmavarta where was first sung the first Rik of our national hymnology, perhaps still conceals behind her sthul [gross] skulls and strong bones a great potentiality of pure knowledge force, bequeathed by Sri Nanak. Nanak was the worshipper of the Alakh and the Akal Purusha, the impersonal, eternity— Niranjan, void of the tinge of quality. In fact, upper Hindusthan, minus Bengal, is the land of Jnana and Karma, of predominant Knowledge and work, as Bengal is of Bhakti and Shakti, and the Dakshinatya is of Bhakti and Jnana. Indeed, it is a beautiful ring of three-fold puissances which run in twins round the three corners of the peninsula. Taken together, India herself is pre-eminently the Deva-Bhumi—the land of divine sadhana.

Be that as it may, Punjab has great contribution to offer in the way of nation-building in the life of the Ten Gurus. Each, a towering monument of fiery spirituality, has left a record of sacrifice and suffering, ever memorable in the history of the land. Indeed at times we feel confounded as which to place first in our estimation between the patriotic heroism of Rana Pratab and the religious heroism of the Sikh Gurus. Really both are inestimable. Considered on a collective scale, the reckless bravery of the Rajput men and women, shrinking not in the least from fire and steel, pouring blood like pools of water for the honour of mother and motherland,—admirable and wonderful as it undoubtedly is in its flaming brightness, must yet T h e

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be admitted to present a less constructive, when placed beside them as much deliberate selfsacrifice of the Sikh leaders, who however when they bled, they bled to build a nation.

The greatest gift of the Sikhs to the nation is their firm-rooted Guru Bhava. In the midst of the diadem of Sikh culture, like a ring of Kohinoors stands this cluster of mighty Gurus. Really, the intense and solid line of spiritual power, which Guru Nanak founded in the heart of the Sikh sub-nation is unexampled in any history of any nation. Sikh history rings throughout with the glorious war cry—‘Shri Wahuguru ji ki Fateh.’ That history is a splendid record of the heroic careers of the great Gurus. Nowhere else do we find or hear of any such brilliant record of a whole nation, growing round one central chain of spiritual personalities, with unabated faith and unfaltering consecration from its day of start up to the present day.

That which had its beginnings in Nanak and Angada, and flowered in Har Govinda and Teg Bahadur, came to some sort of a crowning culmination in the Tenth Guru Govind Singh.

Nanak initiated the Sikhs in the fire of spirituality. Guru Teg Bahadur died with the name on his lips—the very emblem of heroic leadership, but he died without resistance, a true Satyagrahin.

Guru Govind Singh, the militant churchman, clasped the sword himself and transformed a race of udasies into a race of fiery Kshatriyas, whose sword-blades clashed more than once at the gates of Delhi and shook the Masnad to its foundations. Here again is a burning truth of history, which never wearies to be told. What exasperated the Sikhs, the Mahrattas, even the loyal Rajputs whom Akbar had literally wedded to the throne? It was the ruthless soldierstatesman Aurangazeb, whose blind and reckless policy sowed the seeds, which were left to be reaped by Shivaji in the South and Guru Govind Singh in the West. Or else, there would have been no necessity of the peace-loving children of that Indian province being turned, as if by a miracle into a nation of armed soldiers. It is not always the people that were responsible.

That was a glorious chapter in our national history, when Guru Govind Singh called five picked up souls from the multitude and breathed fire of faith into them. That was the beginning of the Pants [panth]—the mighty solidiery, that became a power. That immortal flame never left the Sikh heart. It grew mightily splendid when the Guru’s two heroic lads defied an insulting Mogul officer and were sacrificed to his wrath, being inhumanly buried alive. They died with not a single scar of fear in their countenance—young lions whose last words on the lips were the national cry of faith,—the word of Guru Teg was once more immortalised in another baptism of blood.

The Sikh-nation was made a solid rock over the suffocated corpses of the brave sons of Guru Govind Singh. That was Govinda Guru’s undying gift to his people—the blood of martyrdom of his dearer selves—dearer than his own self.

The birth-anniversary (16th January 1921) of this saviour of the Sikhs, Sri Guru Govinda Singhaji, we are told, is drawing nigh. Young India, we hope, will not fail to worship one of their great heroes in the silence of their hearts,—‘The Khalsa Advocate.’

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Bhuvaneshwari Devi

The Great and Noble Mother of Swami Vivekananda SWAMI TATHAGATANANDA

Her Husband, Vishwanath Datta Bhuvaneshwari Devi’s husband, Vishwanath Datta (1835-1884) was born into the Datta family of Simulia in northern Calcutta, a family well-known for its wealth, education and charity. A few months after Viswanath was born, his father Durgaprasad had a strong desire to become a monk and renounced the world in 1835. He did this with total mental equipoise despite tremendous family pressure.

He paid only a brief visit to Calcutta after twelve years of spiritual practices and that, too, in obedience to scriptural injunctions.

Bhuvaneshwari Devi’s mother-in-law also proved her mettle. She was deprived of her share of property and had to raise Vishwanath under very hostile circumstances, enduring enmity, hostility and selfishness from members of her husband’s family. One has to imagine how difficult it was for her to raise her son with great affection under such conditions.

Vishwanath’s mother passed away when he was nearly twelve years old. He grew up as an orphan in the family of his uncle Kaliprasad, who usurped much of Vishwanath’s rightful property. Despite his uncle’s heartless behaviour, he ‘reverenced and generously helped the uncle, though he was well aware that he was cheated by him at every step.’1

Vishwanath grew up accepting the trend of his times, namely, the blending of the Hindu, Islamic and Western cultures and developed into a man with a modern outlook.

He acquired proficiency in many Indian lang-

Bhuvaneshwari Devi uages as well as in English. He studied music, for which he had a great love, under an ustad (teacher). People in Calcutta remembered his love for music and his generosity well after his death.

The author is a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and the Head of Vedanta Society, New York. His books include The Journey of Upanishads to the West, and Light from the Orient, among others.

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Vishwanath enrolled himself as an attorney-at-law in the High Court of Calcutta.

His eminence in legal practice took him to many places in northern India. A man of liberal temperament, he enjoyed the good culture and literature of people belonging to other religions. He not only read the Hindu scriptures, he read the poems of Hafiz and the Bible as well. He was very liberal-minded and deviated a little from orthodox Hindu traditions in his food and dress and other personal habits. He was completely at home with his Muslim and English friends. Once, he presented a copy of the Bible to his son Narendranath and remarked, ‘All of religion is to be found in this one book.’2 Vishwanath was free of superstitions.

When Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar championed the marriage of young widows, for example, Vishwanath supported it. Once, in Lahore, he worshipped the Divine Mother Durga in a picture and enjoyed her festival in the company of many people by offering them consecrated food. ‘But,’ according to Swami Saradananda, ‘to earn money, live amply, and make others happy by practicing charity as far as possible—these constituted the highest purpose of his life.’3 In fact, Vishwanath’s huge earnings in the legal profession were spent extravagantly to maintain a large retinue of dependents. As one of his sons later wrote, ‘Extending charity to the poor and the distressed was like a disease with him.’ Once, when young Narendranath asked his father, ‘Father, what are you going to leave me?’

Viswanath answered, ‘Go, stand before your mirror, and you will see what I leave you.’4 An Excellent Wife and Mother Bhuvaneshwari Devi (1841-1911) was the only child of her upper middle-class parents who were very well known in northern T h e

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Calcutta. At age ten she was married to sixteen-year-old Vishwanath Datta. He was very fortunate to have Bhuvaneshwari as his wife.

Faithfully following the traditional Hindu life, she became his beneficial and moral companion in every respect and shared the joys and sorrows of her husband’s large joint family.

Vishwanath and Bhuvaneshwari Devi had four sons and six daughters. Their first child, a son, and their second, a daughter, died in childhood. Their next three children were daughters. According to ancient tradition, the birth of a son is always welcome in a Hindu family and Bhuvaneshwari Devi naturally longed for a son. Hindu women down the ages invoke the grace of God to deliver them from their difficulties in life by making their wants and grievances known to Him, practicing various austerities and reading scriptures.

Swamiji said: She was a saint to bring me into the world; she kept her body pure, her food pure, her clothes pure, her imagination pure, for years, because I would be born. Because she did that, she deserves worship.5

Bhuvaneshwari Devi observed somvara vrata, fasted and prayed on Mondays and prayed to Lord Shiva. She once fasted for fourteen days at a stretch. An elderly aunt of the family who was living in Varanasi was also asked to ‘make the necessary offerings and prayers to Vireshwar Shiva that a son might be born to her.’6 Bhuvaneshwari Devi observed all the injunctions meticulously. Her devotion to Lord Shiva was fulfilled through his grace. One night, she had a vivid dream: ‘She saw the Lord Shiva rouse Himself from His meditation and take the form of a male child who was to be her son.’7 On Monday, 12 January 1863, Makara Sankranti, their son Narendranath was born at a very auspicious time.

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At birth, Swamiji’s features strongly resembled those of his saintly paternal grandfather, Durgaprasad, who had renounced hearth and home for God. He also inherited his mother’s melodious voice, taste for sacred music and extraordinary memory. Swamiji was the sixth child of his parents. Their seventh and eighth children were both daughters. The last two children were sons, Mahendranath and Bhupendranath, both of whom lived long lives. Swami Vivekananda had one elder sister, Swarnamayee, who lived a long life.

Her Great Character The most exalted law of motherhood is the law of sacrifice, the lifeblood of a mother’s existence. Bhuvaneshwari Devi raised her prayer-born child with utmost care, infinite patience and constant prayer. Her entire being was absorbed with loving concern for her child Narendranath. Reading about his early life, we are struck by the deep impact of her personality upon the formation of his character.

It has been written of Bhuvaneshwari Devi that: Above all, Bhuvaneshwari Devi was deeply religious in temperament, and used daily to perform herself the worship of Shiva. She was not given to much talking. Calm resignation to the will of God in all circumstances, power, and reserve characterized this noble Hindu woman.

The poor and the helpless were the special objects of her solicitude. Like Vishwanath, Bhuvaneshwari Devi had a very sweet voice and could sing beautifully the songs on Sri Krishna, as heard in religious dramas. When beggars singing religious songs came to the house to beg, she could learn their songs by listening only once. She was, indeed, noted for her unusual memory and knew by heart long passages from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. More important, she had absorbed the essence of these T h e

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timeless epics, and that essence, together with the culture to which it was the key, she passed on to her children as their great heritage.

It was, then, to these two, Vishwanath and Bhuvaneshwari Devi, that the boy who was to become the greatest man of his age, whose influence was to shake the world, and who was to lay the foundation of a new order of things, was born.8

Sister Christine recalls her exceptional memory: [Swamiji said:] ‘After she hears the Ramayana read, she can recite what she has heard.’ . . . He [Swamiji] considered a good memory one of the signs of spirituality. 9

Bhuvaneshwari Devi would read daily from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

Thanks to her prodigious memory, Narendranath learned many stories from the epics and the Puranas at her knee. He shared many of these with Sister Nivedita, who revised them and immortalized them with her own style in her Cradle Tales of Hinduism.

Training Her Children Bhuvaneshwari Devi told all her children emphatically and often that in spite of hardship and troubles they should never abandon the moral principles. She always counseled them to be truthful, chaste, dignified and humane. She imprinted eternal values of healthy living in their developing minds. There is some truth to the familiar saying, ‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world.’ On one occasion when Narendra spoke to his mother about being unfairly punished by his schoolteacher without justification, she consoled him by saying:

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‘If you are right, my boy, what does it matter? It may be unjust and unpleasant, but do what you think right, come what may.’ Many times he suffered, many times he was misunderstood J A N U A R Y

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even by those nearest and dearest to him when he adopted a course which to them seemed strange, but which to him was inevitable because, in his opinion, it was right. The maxim he had learned, and which he followed always in life was, ‘Stick to your guns, dead or alive!’10

Sister Christine recalls: Many were the stories he told of his mother— the proud, little woman who tried so hard to hide her emotions and her pride in him. How she was torn between her disapproval of the life he had chosen and her pride in the name he had made for himself.

Those of us who were privileged to see his mother, know that from her he inherited his regal bearing. This tiny woman carried herself like a queen.11

Her Silent Forbearance and Fortitude Except for a brief time, Bhuvaneshwari Devi lived in the Datta family nearly her entire long life, from her marriage at age ten until her death in 1911. In spite of the harsh injustices inflicted on her by her guardian uncle-in-law and his wife—to the extent of not providing her with more than one sari to wear—she demonstrated a profound capacity to silently endure all the wrongs they heaped on her. This was eventually noticed by her husband, who grumbled, ‘How is it that I who

earn so much money see that my wife does not get [a] bellyful to eat!’ Still, his anguish had no effect at all on the aunt and uncle.12 After a particularly harsh family quarrel, separation was forced on Vishwanath Datta, and he moved to another place, where Narendranath could study for his B.A. His brother Bhupendranath wrote, ‘After separation, our family removed temporarily from the ancestral place and hired a house at 7, Bhairav Biswas Lane, where Narendranath studied to prepare himself for the B. A. Examination.’13 His father returned to their ancestral home, much to the uncle’s consternation.

After Vishwanath Datta’s death, his family was sheltered by Swamiji’s grandmother Raghumani (c. 1825-1911) at her house at 7 Ramtanu Basu Lane. Swamiji once described it in a letter to the Raja of Khetri as ‘a hovel.’ Bhupendranath wrote, ‘We stayed with her till 1903. She supported us and suffered for us. She had to part with . . . rented land . . . for conducting the law-suit brought against us by our aunt.’ 14 The court case started in 1877 and dragged on beyond the year of Swamiji’s departure from life. Bhuvaneshwari Devi’s difficulties in a joint family headed by an unscrupulous uncle, who, with others foiled their every legitimate claim at every opportunity, can only be imagined.

(To be continued. . .)

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

His Eastern and Western Disciples, The Life of Swami Vivekananda (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 2000), p. 4. [Hereafter Life] S. N. Dhar, A Comprehensive Biography of Swami Vivekananda (Madras: Vivekananda Prakashan Kendra, 1975), p. 6 [Hereafter Comp. Bio.,] Ibid Sister Christine in Reminiscences of Vivekananda (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2004), p. 184.

[Hereafter Reminiscences] CW, 8: 60-1 passim.

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Life, p. 10 Ibid., p. 11 Life, 1: 8-9 Sister Christine in Reminiscences, p. 174 Life., 1: 34 Sister Christine in Reminiscences, pp. 174-5 Bhupendranath Datta, Swami Vivekananda, PatriotProphet, A Study (Calcutta: Nababharat Publishers) p. 107. [Hereafter Patriot-Prophet] 13. Ibid.

14. Patriot-Prophet, p. 111. See also Comp. Bio., 1. 10

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Reminiscences of Master Mahashay MAHENDRA KUMAR CHAUDHURY

Master Mahashay, Mahendranath Gupta, or ‘M’, was an eminent householder disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. He recorded the conversations of Sri Ramakrishna in Bengali and published them later as Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (translated into English: The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna). The following is the translation of reminiscences of ‘M’ from Srima Samipe, [In the Proximity of ‘M’], a book in Bengali, edited by Swami Chetanananda (Udbodhan Office: Calcutta, 1996), pp.136-39. Swami Chetanananda (the translator of the present article) is the Head of Vedanta Society of St. Louise, USA. He has to his credit several notable books in Bengali and English, translations as well as original.

In 1921 I was staying at 47, Amherst Street, which was very close to M.’s school, the Morton Institution. I heard that the recorder of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna lived there and that many devotees met with him in the evenings. I was anxious to see him and enjoy his holy company. One day I arrived at twilight, and no devotees were there. M. cordially received me and asked me to meditate. I was impressed by his dignified appearance and his overflowing beard.

Gradually other devotees arrived and M. began to narrate to us the history and teachings of the Gospel.

Here are some of M.’s sayings, as I remember them: Either keep company with the holy or live alone like a lion. Pray to God in solitude, secretly with a longing heart.

What will you gain by chatting with others? One should spend that time practising meditation and spiritual disciplines.

A human being has three bodies: gross, subtle, and causal; or body, mind, and spirit.

The spiritual body does not care for worldly enjoyment; it enjoys only divine ecstasy. When T h e

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a spiritual person hears about God, he or she gets goose bumps and tears flow from the eyes.

The spiritual body merges into Brahman through meditation and samadhi.

When someone asked the Master about reincarnation, he replied that it is true and one should not doubt it.

The goal of human life is to realize God. One should adopt any means to attain Him. Too much talking and planning are useless.

The Master said: ‘You have come to eat mangoes. What is the need for counting the trees and fruits?’ If you know God, He will teach you everything. If you meet Jadu Mallick, he will tell you how much money and how many stocks and bonds he has. Some think that one should first learn by reading books, and then try to know God. First try to know God and then He will make you know everything.

Holy company is the best means to attain God. God incarnates in every age and makes the difficult and inscrutable spiritual path simple and easy. As a guru the avatar makes the way to God-realization smooth. The Master

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said that one could reach God by meditating on him [meaning Ramakrishna].

It is better to follow the avatar’s teachings than to talk about God. Jesus said: ‘Thou sayest O God, God, God, but why dost thou not do what I say unto you?’

A disciple should not have any worries once he receives the guru’s grace. A magician threw a string with many knots into a large audience and asked someone to untie the knots, but no one could loosen them. Finally, he shook the string once or twice, and immediately all the knots came undone.

Similarly all fetters fall off in a moment by the grace of the guru.

Practise meditation and spiritual disciplines in solitude and study holy books.

Hearing is better than reading.

Do not disturb another’s faith; rather one should help others on their own path. All paths lead to God. It is true that God can be reached through many paths, but one cannot walk on many paths at the same time. One should begin one’s spiritual journey with faith and devotion. One can climb to the roof by means of a staircase, a ladder, a bamboo pole, or a rope. While descending also one should adopt only one means. Similarly, one should follow one path for God-realization.

The Master told us again and again that ultimately the aspirant attaints nondual knowledge by realizing his identity with the object of his worship, whether he treads the path of devotion or knowledge. As proof of this, the Master’s sayings are cited: ‘Pure devotion and pure knowledge are the same thing.’ ‘There [in the ultimate state], all jackals howl alike [all knowers of God speak of the same realization].’ Thus, although he was of the opinion that nondual knowledge was the Ultimate Truth, he always instructed people living in the world on the teachings of qualified nondualism [which teaches that all living creatures and matter are parts of Brahman], and also how to love God in a dualistic way. He felt disgusted with those people who had no high spiritual experience nor intense love for God, and yet held forth, with high-sounding words, on the philosophies of nondualism and qualified nondualism. He did not hesitate to condemn such behaviour in harsh words. One day the Master asked our friend Vaikuntha Nath Sanyal whether he had read the Panchadashi and other such books. Receiving a negative reply, the Master said with relief: ‘It is good that you have not.

Some boys read those books and, giving themselves airs, come here. They do not practice anything. They simply come to argue. It is a torment to me.’

—Ramakrishna As We Saw Him, p.167

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Sri Ramakrishna, the Kalpataru SWAMI AMARESHANANDA

To the devotees and admirers of the Ramakrishna Movement, first January has a symbolic and special meaning. It was on this day, on January first in 1886, that Sri Ramakrishna bestowed his grace on devotees in a remarkable manner. It is also a day of Sri Ramakrishna’s self-revelation, and bestowal of freedom from fear. Hence the day is called the Kalpataru Day, or the day when Sri Ramakrishna became a wish-fulfilling tree (an allusion to the Kalpataru mentioned in the Hindu scriptures). He did so by raising the consciousness of some thirty devotees present there, granted them freedom from fear and blessed them.

Freedom from fear is the final fruit of spiritual practices. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (4.2.4), when Janaka attains the highest Knowledge, he is addressed as having ‘become free from fear.’

The Backdrop Sri Ramakrishna came to public attention when in 1875, the well-known Brahma Samaj leader, Keshab Chandra Sen wrote about him in the newspapers and spoke about him in Brahma Samaj gatherings. This brought many people from the elite circle of Calcutta to Dakshineswar to see Sri Ramakrishna. Later, Sri Ramakrishna too visited many devotees’ place as well as many eminent people, and gradually came to be known in the spiritual and cultural circle. Sri Ramakrishna’s intense

renunciation, and selfless attitude and pure love attracted a large number of youth and devotees.

Towards the middle of 1885 Sri Ramakrishna developed throat pain. Gradually it became acute and besides difficulty in speaking, Sri Ramakrishna could only take milk with a little rice or boiled coarse flour of wheat.

As time passed, at the request of some devotees, Sri Ramakrishna agreed to come to Calcutta for treatment as it was easier to attend to him there. He first stayed at Balaram Bose’s house. Well-known physicians of Calcutta, such as Gangaprasad, Gopi Mohan, Dwarkanath and others, were called to examine the Master. After examining Sri Ramakrishna one of the doctors declared it to be ‘Rohini which the western doctors call cancer.’ As too much drugging never agreed with the Master’s constitution, the devotees thought it desirable to have him treated according to homoeopathy.

At Shyampukur House For better treatment and care, a house on Shyampukur street, owned by Gokul Chandra Bhattacharjee was rented in the beginning of September 1885 and the Master was shifted and placed under the care of Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar. Dr. Sarkar on learning that the expenses of the Master were met by devotees’ contribution, after the payment of

A senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, the author lives at Ramakrishna Math, Kankhal, Haridwar, Uttarakhand.

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the first day, treated the Master freely as a mark of respect.

At Shyampukur, one day the Master had a wonderful vision. He saw that his subtle body came out of his gross body as he was strolling up and down in the room and he observed that especially the region of the throat of the subtle body was covered with sores. As he wondered about it, the Divine Mother explained to him that the people who had committed various evil deeds had become pure by touching him, and the burden of their sins was thereby transferred to him. As a consequence he had developed sores in his subtle body.

As there was no visible improvement and the house was small and congested, and the Master wanted to have open space for walking and fresh air, a search for better location started.

Cossipore Garden House Meanwhile, a garden house was found in Cossipore, on the broad road that runs through North Calcutta and connects Bagh

Cossipore Garden House T h e

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Bazar quarters with Baranagar. The garden house belonged to late Gopal Chandra Ghosh, son-in-law of famous Lal Babu.1 The Master was shifted to this Garden House on the 11th December 1885 and Dr. Mahendra Lal Sarkar continued to treat him.

Hearing about the Master’s illness Dr. Rajendranath Dutta belonging to the wealthy family of Akrur Dutta of Boubazar, thoroughly studied the literature on homoeopathy system and found that, ‘Lycodium 200’ was the medicine best suited for the Master and asked Autul Ghosh (Advocate, Brother of Girish Chandra Ghosh) to inform Doctor Mahendra Lal Sarkar to administer this medicine to the Master. Autul informed this to Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar as well as all the devotees. None raised any objection and Dr. Rajendranath was invited to treat the Master and the Master, derived much benefit from this for more than a fortnight.

The Cossipore Garden House had an area of 4.66 acres. Besides the main two-storied building, it had a row of rooms and one of them was used as kitchen. The main building had two rooms upstairs and 4 rooms down stairs. One in the middle was a spacious hall. To the north of it there were two rooms smaller in size, side by side. From the west of the rooms a flight of steps lead to the first floor. The room on the eastern side was occupied by the Holy Mother during her stay there. The hall on the first floor, immediately above the hall below, served as the Master’s sick room.

It was the first day of January 1886. As the Master felt better, he expressed his

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desire to have a stroll in the garden. He came down around 3 pm. There were some devotees (some thirty of them) engaged in conversation under trees. Only ten names have been mentioned—Girish, Atul, Ram, Navagopal, Harmohan, Baikuntha, Kishori (Roy), Haran, Ramlal, Akshay and Mahendranath Gupta.

When the devotees saw him coming, they stood up in reverence and bowed down to him. He slowly proceeded on the garden path leading to the main gate.

As he came closer to Girish and others, they too came closer to him joyfully. Then, suddenly, addressing Girish, he said, ‘Girish, I find, you say to one and all so many things about this (about himself). But what have you seen and understood about me to make you do so?’ Grish was completely unnerved.

Kneeling down on the ground near the Master’s feet, he said in a choked voice with folded hands and face turned upwards, ‘What more I can say of Him, Whose greatness Valmiki and Vyasa could not find words to express?’ The Master was pleased at this fervent utterance of Girish and blessed him and through him all devotees assembled there, ‘What more shall I say to you? May you all be blessed with spiritual awakening!’

Beside himself with love and compassion for the devotees, hardly had he said these words than Sri Ramakrishna entered into a deep spiritual mood (bhavasamadhi). The devotees were inspired to see him in this mood, and seemed to forget their earlier resolve to not to touch him as it might aggravate his illness. They found in him a loving mother, a saviour, a divine being who had come down to help them to go across the ocean of relative existence. Overcome by his compassion and sympathy, they eagerly bent down to touch his feet and filled the place with the shouts of ‘Victory to Ramakrishna’.

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Sri Ramakrishna’s room at Cossipore Garden House

He now began touching each one of the devotees in that divine mode. This divine touch brought about remarkable spiritual experiences in each one of them. Some had vision of their ishta-devata and some experienced an indescribable inner joy. Some worshiped him with flowers. Soon, however, that mood of the Master came to an end and everyone gained his normal composure again.

The happenings of the day are often described by the devotees as the Master turning into a Wish-fulfilling Tree (Kalpataru) as mentioned in Puranas. But it seems more appropriate to call this event ‘the self-revelation of the Master’ or ‘the bestowal of freedom from fear on all devotees by revealing himself’. The Kalpataru is believed to give whatever good or bad is asked for. But the Master did much more than that and bestowed protection against all evil and fear to one and all. Interestingly, none of the future monastic

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disciples were present among the devotees blessed on that day.

As to what the nature of experience which devotees experienced was, let us cite here two of them. Ramlal Chattopadhayay (Ramlal Dada), a nephew of the Master who was present on the occasion, also received the Master’s grace. Asked about it, he said,

touched his chest only for a moment in the ordinary way. ‘But,’ said Vaikuntha, ‘as the result of it, a great revolution took place in my mind. I saw the figure of the Master lit up with a gracious smile in the sky, in the houses, trees, plants, men and in whatever else I looked at. . . .

That mental attitude and vision of mine continued for some days throughout my waking state. I became amazed and charmed with the holy vision of the Master in all things. It continued to be so wherever I went, to the office or elsewhere on any business. . .

I could formerly see a part only of the holy Person of my Chosen Ideal [ishta devata] with my mind’s eye at the time of meditation - when I saw the lotus feet, I could not see the face; again perhaps I saw the Person from the face to the waist, but could not see the holy feet; and whatever I saw never seemed to be alive. But no sooner had the Master touched me that day than the form of my chosen Ideal appeared suddenly from head to foot in the lotus of my heart and moved and looked benign and effulgent.2

I could not attend to the work on hand and it suffered. On finding that my work was suffering, I tried to forget that vision for sometime, but failed in my attempt to do so. . . . I then prayed to the Master again with fear, ‘O lord, I am not able to contain this mental state; please ordain that it may come to an end.’ I now think, ‘. . . Why did I pray so? Why did I not keep my faith firm in him? And why did I not wait patiently to see its ultimate developments? . . .’

For as soon as I prayed in that manner, the said vision and mental state came to an end one day.

My firm conviction is that they were removed by the same extraordinary Being from whom I had got them. But he preserved compassionately a partial capacity of the mind to recapture it, perhaps because there arose no prayer in my mind for its complete removal. I felt blessed and amazed at the sudden appearance of this vision a few times daily—the vision of the gracious figure of the Master made effulgent by the divine mood.’

Another devotee, Vaikuntha Nath Sanyal, was also present on that occasion. Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, describes his experiences thus3: Vaikuntha was present on the spot at the time of this day’s occurrence. As soon as the Master had blessed two or three of the devotees by his potent touch, Vaikuntha came before him, bowed down to him with devotion and said, ‘Sir, please bestow your grace on me!’ The Master said, ‘But you have been given everything.’ ‘When you say,’ said Vaikuntha, ‘everything has been given, it is certainly so; but kindly do so, that I too can understand it.’ Saying, ‘So be it’, the Master

References 1.

It is said that Lal (or Lala) Babu, a Zamindar, while going in a palanquin, overheard a washerman’s daughter asking her father as to when was he going to charge the vessel the cloth for cleaning since the sun was setting soon. Bengali word used by the young girl basana has two meanings—desire (basana) as well as the ashes made of banana stem used as washing agent.

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2.

3.

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Endowed with a spiritual bent of mind, Lal Babu took the second meaning: since he is becoming old (evening of life)—when is he going to give up desires (basana) and seek spiritual emancipation!

He forthwith renounced the world.

Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master, Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, p.1025 Ibid, Pp.1026-27 J A N U A R Y

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Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda1 August 10th 1899 Math. Belur. Howrah.

India.

My dear Mrs.Bull,2 I am in Calcutta today at 57 Ramkanta Bose’s St. though I give the address of the Math above. Perhaps there is a letter from you waiting for me at the Math. You will understand by this if my letter is not to the point.

A great mishap has taken place. The youngest brother of Srimati Sarada Devi has died of Cholera about ten days ago. I undertook the nursing with another young man of the Math. This brother was twenty one years old, newly married, a student of the Calcutta Medical School and perhaps the most promising of all the members of the family. It has given a rude blow to the Mother, for she brought him up as her own child from the very day of his birth.

Every thing else is going on as usual here & in the Math. The R.K.Mission meetings are going on & I have already given two talks, which have been appreciated. My subject is Raja Yoga this time, though I am treating it in a little different way.

The papers have published the telegram intimating that the S.S.Golconda has reached London on the 31st July. But perhaps this is no news to you.

On second thoughts, I made up my mind not to answer that letter of the Swami, but to write him just a general letter. I do not think it necessary to send you his letter too. I can see his course plain, for I have passed through that phase. He will come round in a short time.

Serious problems are sometimes presenting themselves regarding my family. The time is nearing when they shall have to close the business & sell the house etc. In the meantime they are being harassed with little law suits in the court for little debts. My father & mother will come to Calcutta for a short time in October. I am glad I have sent my brother to the West; he might come back a man and better late than never.

Kindly tender my regards to Mrs.Briggs, Miss O’neill, Dr.James, Jojo & all friends.

With very kind regards to yourself and wishing to be remembered to Mrs.Vaughan & the Shapleighs & your brother.

Yours Sincerely Saradananda On the cover:: Mrs.Sara C. Bull The Studio House, 168 Brattle Street Cambridge, Mass.

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August 1899 My dear Mrs.Briggs,3 Your kind letter of Aug. 16th was most welcome. I am sorry you are still feeling ill. Step by step, I have been led to regard you as one of the few who are very near to my heart, and I do not know how I will feel myself, if you are taken away. But surely we will meet sometime, somewhere even if it were not in India. The union with my friends in Sri R., even as Jesus said, ‘I in you and you in me’—is complete and can never be broken. May God bless you always and may you ever be at rest in the full love the Master!

I am sorry I forgot to give you the Sanskrit of Gouri. It is thus—Jm°pa—in Bengali thus— ëKï[¹.

I live many a times in my thought over the Greenacre days, and everyday almost on Jan 8th, the latter having a peculiar sanctity of its own, as of the partaking of the sacrament!

One has to prepare oneself for it and there are but very few such days, in one’s whole life.

My toil here has but just begun & I always remember, I shall have to work for two at least, if not more.

I went to Srimati Sarada Devi, only yesterday and told her, how there is one Santi, way across the waters, who has desired to be remembered with love and regards—and she requested me to send Santi her love and blessings, and also to Jojo (Miss MacLeod) and Sàrà (Mrs.Bull).

It gives me great pleasure to think & place you, in such company in September. Write me all about these days—every little detail—if you do not feel ill, as you have been doing.

Remember me kindly to your mother, Harry and all friends, not forgetting Mr.Briggs.

You have been bearing your cross bravely for Sri R. and I am sure you will never lose heart. Mother wishes me to tell you, how very near she feels of your presence, and sends her heart’s love.

With very kind regards to you always, and best wishes, I am Faithfully yours, Saradananda P.S. I am going to have a bon fire again of my belongings by the side of the Ganges & in the lawn on the 12th Oct. This [is] the third since granny did the first for me. We are to meditate the whole night that day – it being the day we worship the Divine Mother.

References 1. A direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna 3. Mrs.J.A. Briggs

2. Mrs. Sara Bull, an American disciple of Swami Vivekananda

Courtesy: Ramakrishna Museum, Belur Math

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Understanding Maturity SWAMI SUNIRMALANANDA

Facets of Maturity Many people talk about maturity. To some, the whole world is childish and immature, and they alone are mature people.

To some others, the more number of university degrees an individual has, the more mature he or she is. To still others, maturity and money are two faces of the same coin. To many others, maturity and social status go hand in hand. However, when we deal with such ‘mature’ people in our day-to-day lives, we come face-to face with the harsh reality. We realise to our dismay that such people are far from being mature individuals.

What is this apparently strange quality called maturity?

First, it is not true that the whole world is childish and immature. Had it been so, there was no hope at all for anyone. From time to time, society has had mature individuals who have brought us hope.

Second, it is ignorance to think that with university degrees, we become more mature.

Nowadays every locality has many postgraduates and several doctorates. And about exams, the less said the better. What is more, they say certificates are being sold for money.

We have doctors and engineers, doctorates and post-graduates—almost in every family. Of course there are definitely many hardworking and sincere students and they greatly contribute to others’ well being. But the fact remains that many modern qualified indivi-

duals are not really as qualified as their degrees show. And so the world remains what it is. Despite having so many qualified individuals, perhaps we hardly get an opportunity of dealing with mature people in our lives.

The tragedy of the whole thing is, such immature people think they are mature because of their qualifications and pass indiscrete comments on really mature people—the flower of the earth. The misery of the world is largely due to our not respecting those who are to be respected, and respecting those who are of the common run.

Third, it is not at all true that money brings maturity. On the contrary, getting money, or to be more precise, excessive attachment to money, brings immaturity.

Fourth, status in society cannot instil maturity. It is not true that the higher the position in society, the individual is naturally more mature. There was a person, who was at the topmost rung of the ladder in a particular field. But he was seen weeping before a saint.

He wanted more. The saint asked him in surprise: ‘My child, you are at the topmost position. What else do you need?’ That man wept because he was jealous of his juniors.

He wanted his juniors to be less competent than himself. Is this maturity?

True Maturity What is maturity? Maturity is samyagdrishti—to use the words of the first of the

A monk of the Ramakrishna Order, the author is former editor of Prabuddha Bharata, a monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order.

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eightfold paths of the Buddha. Samyag-drishti means right vision of the world and of life— this is maturity.

We must know what this world is, correctly, and what we are, correctly. The difference between a fool and a mature individual lies in this right vision.

Using Swami Vivekananda’s singular explanation of maya in his Jnana Yoga lectures, maturity is to understand the ‘simple statement of facts—what we are and what we see around us.’

What We See Around Us What is this right vision and this ‘statement of facts’? Right vision or the ‘statement of facts’ is to know of things as they are. Most of us colour things before even looking at them. We look at things through ‘our angle’ of vision—that is, we paint them using such colours as our ego, desires, ambitions, and so on. Since birth, rather, since many lives, we have conditioned ourselves to look at the world as we wish it to be—as our desires want it to be. We have lost the faculty of objective vision. A mature individual never makes a mistake in this regard.

An example may explain this better: A certain educated man, and a big shot in society, was driving along a lonely path. It was a forest, it was dark, and it was almost midnight. He was eager to reach home. On the way, his car broke down. Unfortunately for him, there was no human habitation anywhere or so he thought. He wanted help. Fortunately for him, it appeared that a little light shone at a distance. Perhaps a house? Perhaps a human being? He started walking towards that light.

As he walked, he thought: ‘Well, will that man, whoever he is, entertain me? He may think I am a robber. He may not even open the door.

These days people are very selfish and do not T h e

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care about others’ difficulties at all.’ As such thoughts agitated his mind, he became angry.

Walking further, he thought: ‘If this man does not open the door, I shall bang it till he does. I shall break his door. What is this? Are not we human beings? Does this man think he is so pious as to sleep in his cosy bed while another has his car broken on the street and is helpless?

Is there no such a thing called compassion in this world?’ As he thought more and more, he became angry all the more.

And he reached the place. It was indeed a house. There was indeed an old gentleman.

A very poor and unlettered farmer lived there, who was known to help others as much as he could. He too definitely had had his share of suffering because of the situation of his house—robbers, drunkards, and so on knocked often. So, in his old age, he was a bit cautious. And so he heard a loud bang. He was startled. Someone drunk, perhaps, was almost breaking his door. He began to pray to God for safety, and never opened the door.

So we need to have right vision of things, an objective vision, and that is maturity. Now, what is the correct vision about this world?

Reading Vivekananda’s ‘statement of facts’ definition of things, we understand that this world, as it is, is neither pleasure-producing nor pain-giving. It is matter—just dead matter.

This is the mature view of the world. Dead matter cannot bring joy or happiness. Beethoven brings immense joy to my heart— whenever I listen to him. But when there is a death in my house, when I am in deep sorrow, I become angry if someone plays Beethoven.

So to know that pleasure and pain are subjective and to understand that this world can neither bring happiness or bliss, is the correct view of life.

The objective world is neither good nor bad, neither desirable nor undesirable. It is

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there, that is all. We must work constantly in such a world, without getting attached to it, because it is dead matter. This is maturity.

Then why should we work? To overcome the influence of the world. All of Vedanta exhausts itself in teaching us this simple truth. The world is there—neither good nor bad, neither wonderful nor miserable—it is just there till we know who we are. But, there is one more thing: the world is not there permanently, for all time to come, without changing. It is impermanent, as all saints repeatedly warn us.

It is anitya, impermanent. That which is impermanent is also unreal—anitya is asatya.

So, though we may have money, degrees and position, if we think this world is real and permanent, and get deeply involved in it, and seek happiness from it—we are having wrong vision of things, and therefore, are immature.

Hence Vivekananda’s advice is that education is not the number of degrees you have. True education is to have the right understanding of things.

No university teaches us this. Vivekananda said that the education that we receive is all negative. Why did he say so? He said so because the education we receive in universities is adding more and more locks to the doors of our prison. We are getting more involved in this objective world, assuming it to be real, assuming that we shall reform it, modify it, better it, derive more happiness from it, and so on. We need positive education, and colleges cannot give us that. Vedanta can give us that education. Vedanta opens our eyes by giving us the ‘statement of facts’. It tells us the truth, shows us that we are being deceived by others, and leaves us to choose for ourselves what we think is best for us.

To be mature means to know that the world is impermanent, and its so-called joys and pleasures too are impermanent. Why are T h e

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we here then? We are here because we made the terrible mistakes in the past. We thought this world was permanent, got deeply involved in it, got attached to it like mad, wanted more and more of the world, and the results are showing now. This involvement, called tanha, trishna, vasana and so on in the scriptures, has thrown us into the prison. They call this karma. So we are here due to karma. Some people say we are lost for ever. We are damned, they say. But Vedanta, and all Indian schools of thought, says that we shall definitely come out of the prison once we have the correct vision of things. Vedanta is always positive. The very karma that brought us to this fate where we see darkness as light, stupidity as brilliance, and misery as perfect bliss will once again take us to the correct vision of things. So we are here to work—to undo what we did through attachment in the past and redo things correctly, without attachment. This is living a mature life.

What We Are We said that right vision of the world and of ourselves is called maturity. We saw that the correct vision of the world is that it is neither good nor bad, real or unreal—it is there. Why is it there? The interesting point comes here. It is there so that we can be released from the prison in which we have thrown ourselves. There was a time when due to our immaturity we thought the world was everything for us—colourful, beautiful, the source of all joy, etc. Repeated blows showed us that perhaps it was not so. But we continue getting attached to it because we are helpless, and think that this is the only way to survive and to live in happiness.

But Vedanta says that is not true. So something must be wrong with us—with ourselves. What is it?

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This brings us to the second aspect of maturity: right vision of ourselves. We saw that what we see around us is not what we think we see around us. Similarly, what we are is not what we think we are.

When we say that the world is a producer of joy or sorrow, we are confused. We saw the Beethoven example already. Happiness is not outside. Further, we forget that our body too is a part of this world. And Vedanta tells us that our mind and intellect too are parts of the world. So we are ignorant about ourselves, and yet we think we are learned. We are hypnotizing ourselves with the foolish thought that we are wise and perfectly all right, while we are foolish and sick in mind.

This is the height of immaturity. May be we are the managers and directors of big companies, may be we are big inventors; but we are immature all the same until we know something about ourselves. So maturity does not come with position in society. Maturity is in knowing who we are. If we think we are this personality called body, or the mind, or the ego, we are ignorant. Imagine the horror of living with totally wrong ideas! It is like sitting on a sleeping snake and thinking we are perfectly safe.

To get out of the prison in which we have placed ourselves due to wrong interpretations of the world and of ourselves, we must know what this world is, and who we are. The great Vedanta teachers, full of sympathy and compassion for us ignorant people, have lessened the problem by saying that it is sufficient if we know who we are. They seem to say: ‘Do not worry about the world. Let it be as it is. Just try to find out who you are.

Know who you are, and you shall be free.’

They also say that the microcosm and the macrocosm are the same—knowing the microcosm, us, is sufficient to be released from T h e

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the self-imposed imprisonment. The saints also say: ‘Study yourself constantly. The moment you begin to ask yourself who you are, you are becoming more and more mature.’

We try to impose ourselves on the world thereby, thinking that we can modify or better it. We try to impose ourselves on others, saying that ‘I am a qualified person’ and want the world to know and respect us. Not only that. we try to have more and more—money, power, enjoyments, respect from others, etc.

When we do not have what we crave for, we become miserable. We are immature, because we consider our body-mind complex as permanent, and the world in which this bodymind complex is, as permanent.

Our saints say: ‘Imagine your situation!

You are using impermanent tools, your body and mind, to get joy from the impermanent world—a tiny soap bubble trying to attach itself to a huge soap bubble so as to be happy.’

So there is no end to misery and sorrow. No person—though having huge qualifications or being in the biggest positions of the world, is truly peaceful and happy. Money, power, degrees, and such other things do not bring inner peace, and seeking peace and happiness in this way is immaturity pure and simple.

Maturity does not demand university degrees, or money, or social power. Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, Swami Adbhutananda, Jesus Christ, St Francis of Assisi, Kabir, Nanak, Rabia, All Hallaj, Rumi—and an army of such extraordinary children of Light were neither university masters, nor rich, nor powerful in society. Many of the saints could hardly read and write, hardly possessed a hut, hardly got the meal of the day, or a place to sleep. Some served as servants of rich people, some mended shoes. Yet, they were mature individuals—they had attained inner peace and supreme happiness. They knew the world as

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it is, and they knew themselves. And, more importantly, they contributed immensely for the good of the world. The world remembers all these great ones with reverence.

For us common people to attain to maturity, Sri Ramakrishna has given a simple formula, which says it all. Attachment to worldly enjoyments, symbolically kamini¸ and attachment to one’s false ego, symbolically kanchana —‘me and mine’—is ignorance, is immaturity.

Those who are trying to be free from the influence of these are mature individuals.

Maturity and Decision-Making We speak of the contributions made by highly qualified people and socially important

t

individuals. But no contribution is greater than the contribution made by truly mature individuals. While ego-battered, sense-bound power lovers think that they are ‘benefiting society’ by their intelligence and maturity, they are actually not benefiting much at all. With every change in society they disappear with their contributions into oblivion. True and lasting contribution can be made only by really mature people, who never think they have contributed anything, who influence society positively through their words and actions, which sing in unison. With all the power and position people may hold in society, it is the voice of the mature individual alone that the society listens to.

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He [Swami Subodhananda] very often narrated to those who came to him for guidance the following story of Shridhara Swami, the great Vaishnava saint and a commentator on the Gita: Spurred by a spirit of renunciation, Shridhara Swami was thinking of giving up the world when his wife died giving birth to a child. Shridhara felt worried about the baby and was seriously thinking about how to provide for the child before retiring from the world. One day as he was sitting deeply absorbed with these thoughts, the egg of a lizard dropped from the roof in front of him. The egg broke as a result of the fall and a young lizard came out. Just then a small fly came and stood near the young lizard, which it caught and swallowed in a moment. At this the thought flashed in the mind of Shridhara that there is a divine plan behind creation and that every creature is provided for beforehand by God. At once all his anxiety for his own child vanished, and he immediately renounced the world. Of course, the baby was taken care of by his relatives.

—God Lived with Them, p.552

India’s Timeless Wisdom

gÂ`Àgw _hVmß {MŒmß ^dÀ`wÀnbH$mo_b_≤& AmnÀgw M _hme°b{ebmgL≤>KmVH$H©$e_≤&& At the time of prosperity, the heart of great people is as soft as a lotus flower and during difficult and trying times, as hard as the rocks of a mighty mountain.

—Neeti Shatakam, 66

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Holy Mother’s Four Visits to Orissa SWAMI TANNISHTHANANDA

Orissa (or Odisha), an Indian state, earlier known as Utkal and also known as Kalinga in ancient days, is hallowed by two temple cities of Bhuvaneshwar and Puri. Orissa, steeped in a deep religious culture, had been sanctified by the visits of spiritual luminaries such as Adi Shankaracharya, Sri Ramanujacharya, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and many direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.

In this article we shall try to describe Holy Mother’s visits to Orissa which she visited four times. Her first visit to Orissa was in 1888, second was in 1904, the third and the fourth were while on her pilgrimage towards South India and while returning from there in the year 1910 and 1911.

Holy Mother’s First Visit Towards the end of his life, the Master had one day said to the Holy Mother, ‘You visit all those places which it was not possible for this (meaning himself) to visit.’ It is difficult to understand what Sri Ramakrishna meant by this but possibly he meant that she should visit the holy places in India which he could not visit. It is a notable coincidence that just two weeks after the Master’s demise, the Holy Mother started on a pilgrimage of Upper India (as north India was generally called then).1 The proposal for pilgrimage to Puri attracted quite a number of devotees, and thus Swamis Brahmananda, Yogananda, Sarada-

nanda*1 as also Yogin-Ma, Golap-Ma, YoginMa’s mother and Laxmidevi started with her.

As the coastal railroad had not yet been constructed, they went by steamer from Calcutta to Chandbali on 7th November 1888 from where they proceeded by a launch to Cuttack*2, and by cart to Puri. Immediately on arriving at Puri, they visited the temple of Lord

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi

Jagannath as an inauspicious period as per the temple-tradition was to commence from the next day.

After the darshan, the Holy Mother and the women devotees went to live in a house

The author is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order at its Nagpur Centre.

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of Balaram Basu, called the Kshetrabasir Math or a ‘monastery for the dwellers in the holy place’. The monks had their own separate place. The Mother stayed here for a little more than two months, returning to Calcutta in the middle of January next year (1889).

As the Master had never been to Puri, the Mother carried his picture under her cloth so as to show him the image of the Lord Jagannath by showing his picture to the deity; for she believed that ‘the picture and its prototype were the same.’ About Jagannath she said, ‘I saw Jagannath as the best of all persons sitting on an altar of gems with myself serving him as a handmaid.’ At another time she said that she saw the god (Jagannath) as Shiva. On her visit

An archival picture of Kshetra-basir Math

to the temple she was delighted to see the great concourse of pilgrims; and with tears of joy she thought within herself, ‘Hey-day! Good luck! So many people will be freed (through this vision of the Lord)!’ But the next moment it occurred to her, ‘No, only those rare few T h e

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Shashi Niketan

who have no worldly desire will be freed.’

When she shared her thought with Yogin-Ma, the latter, too, concurred.

At Puri the Mother’s characteristic humility was revealed in bold relief. Govinda Shingari, the Panda of Balaram Basu’s family, thought that in keeping with honour of that family a palanquin should be arranged for carrying their guru’s wife to the temple. When he placed this proposal before the Mother, she said, ‘No, Govinda, you will walk in front as a guide and I shall follow you as a poor humble woman to visit Jagannath.’ It was thus that she visited the temple. She also visited all the noted places at Puri, and she spent long hours regularly in meditation at the temple of Mahalaxmi.

From Puri she returned to Calcutta on the 12th January 1889; and next day, she bathed in the Ganges at Nimtola.2 Mother’s Second Visit At the end of November 1904 the proposal for her going to Puri took shape. The Bengal Nagpur railway had by this time been

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completed. The Mother travelled in a reserved second-class compartment with her uncle Nilmadhav, Surabala (the mad aunt), GolapMa, Sister Laxmi, Radhu, Master Mahashaya’s wife, Chunilalbabu’s wife and Kusumkumari.

Swami Premananda and two devotees got into an inter class compartment. The train reached Puri in the morning and the Mother with her relatives and women companions took up residence in Kshetra-basir Math of the Basus, while Swami Premananda and others went to their second house near the sea called Shashi Niketan. The Mother’s first duty at Puri was to go to the Jagannath temple to have darshan at the Lord. On subsequent days it was her daily task to visit the temple with others early morning and evening. One day a Katha by a temple priest was arranged at her residence, who narrated the story and glory of Jagannath from the ancient books. On this occasion about fifty temple priests were sumptuously fed. The Holy Mother and others used to obtain, on payment, the consecrated food from the temple for their daily meals; the feast for the priests was also arranged similarly.

At Puri, the Mother had a boil on her foot, which gave her intense pain, and yet she did not allow it to be operated on. One day in the temple somebody’s foot touched the boil thereby causing excruciating pain to her. When Swami Premananda heard this, he came on the next day with a young doctor ostensibly to pay their obeisance to the Mother. She, as was her habit on such occasions, sat covering herself completely with a cotton sheet. The doctor now brought out his knife and in the act of saluting by touching the feet opened the boil and then begged her pardon saying, ‘Mother, please don’t be offended.’ This unexpected move irritated the Mother a little at first. But when through proper dressings the pain subsided and the wound healed up in a T h e

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trice, she heartily blessed her sons despite their dare devilry.

A few days after this, the Mother wanted to bring her mother and a brother to Puri to

Shyamasundari

give them an opportunity to see the Lord. A devotee was accordingly sent to Jayrambati.

This had to be done without the mad aunt’s knowledge, for she was too envious to brook anybody else sharing the Mother’s affection or money which were to be monopolized by or kept in reserve for herself and her daughter.

The devotee went via Vishnupur by train, the railway line on that side having been laid a little earlier, and communicated the Mother’s invitation to grandmother (Shyamasundari) and uncle Kali who alone were expected to come. But at news of the pilgrimage the number swelled till a big party consisting of grandmother, uncle Kali with his father-in-law, wife, and two sons, and a villager named Sitaram started by way of Garbeta. No sooner did they step into the Kshetra-basir Math than Surabala got into frenzy, and went on casti-

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gating the Mother by all kinds of gestures and postures and doggerel verses.

It is an immemorial tradition at Puri that no caste distinction is observed so far as the prasad of Jagannath is concerned, so much so, that prasad put into one’s mouth by even a man of the lowest caste, at the Anandbazar within temple precincts, may not be refused.

The Mother showed her respect for this hoary custom by putting the prasad into the mouth of the devotees and asking them to put into hers. While this merry ceremony was going on, Master Mahashay and uncle Varada came there by coincidence from Calcutta, and they too joined in it.

All those who came from Jayrambati except grandmother, left again in December 1904. The Mother continued there for some time more. Her foot was now cured of the boil, the rheumatism too, was not acute, and the body was healthy. Therefore she moved about happily visiting the sacred places such as kitchen of Jagannath, Gundicha Bari, LaxmiJala, Narendra Sarovar, Govardhan Math, etc.

She also circumambulated the Jagannath temple and bathed twice in the sea. As her mind was cheerful at this time, she spoke of many anecdotes of the Master’s life and of the Dakshineshwar days. 3 One day Holy Mother wished to attend the sandhyarti, shringar (ritual consisting of adorning the deities) and other ceremonies late in the evening. Harivallabha Basu, elder cousin of Balaram Basu, was much respected by the Pandas (priests) of Jagannath Temple. When he was informed about this, he made all necessary arrangements. They all went to temple. It was a very calm and serene environment. Holy Mother instructed everyone to do Japam of Ishtamantra. After sometime Panda Govinda Shringari announced that the temple would open soon. The moment the T h e

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Images of Balaram, Subhadra and Lord Jagannath

Jagannath temple temple was opened, everybody present there entered the temple sanctum sanatorum. Then by applying sandal paste to all the three deities and decorating them with clothes and ornaments started the shringara ceremony.

Holy Mother joyfully observed everything and told that this sight of shringara will calm down one’s mind. The arrangement was made for the shayana (ritual indicating ‘going to bed’) of the three deities. Accordingly three cots

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were decorated and made ready. Here the Holy Mother was so much engrossed in the darshan that others had to remind her that the temple was being closed. Hearing this, Holy Mother returned to her residence.

Holy Mother and her party again came to the temple in the early morning for mangalarti. With the chanting of Suprabhatam, the deities were requested to get up and take their seat on the altar. Pandas sought the deities’ forgiveness for waking them up. Then

the door was opened and party entered the temple sanctum sanatorum. By seeing local people praying in Oriya language, Holy Mother was very much touched. Then the mangalarti began. After mangalarti was over the ornaments of deities were removed and teeth were washed. At this Holy Mother commented that this simple and sweet image (vigraha) of the Lord is very good to meditate upon.

(To be continued . . .)

MM

References 1.

2.

Sri Sarada Devi: The Holy Mother by Swami Tapasyananda p.99 Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi by Swami Gambhirananda p.165

3.

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi by Swami Gambhirananda p. 200, Bengali Sri Ma by Ashutosh Mitra p.26-31

Footnotes *1. According to Sri Sri Mayer Jiban Katha in Bengali

by Swami Bhumananda, Swami Niranjanananda was a member of this party while Laxmididi’s name did not appear. (Page-107) *2. Holy Mother came to Cuttack by steamer and alighted at the Mata Math Ghat probably on 10th November 1888 where Vivekananda Ashram was started later on. From the Mata Math Ghat, she went to Harivallabha Basu’s House near Chaudhari Bazar and stayed there for the night and went to Puri by bullock cart next morning.

The first Girls’ School of Orissa was started in that house which is now known as Ravenshaw Girls’ High school. The first Women’s College of Orissa was also started at the same place. The college has now been shifted to another place at Cantonment

Road now known as Shailabala Women’s College.

Vivekananda Ashram Cuttack occupied this place on 12th January 1988 to bring out the procession on National Youth Day. The land belonged to Late K.K.Basu, who later donated it. It was registered in the name of Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Bhava Prachar Samiti, Vivekananda Ashram Cuttack on 14th January 1993, the birthday anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

Construction of the temple started in 2000. Srimat Swami Gahananandaji Maharaj consecrated it on 31st October 2006. At present the Ashrama has Library and Book Sale, Health Service departments and also Coaching Classes and Vocational Training Centre.

Without the grace of Shakti nothing is to be accomplished.

What do I find in America and Europe?—the worship of Shakti, the worship of Power. Yet they worship Her ignorantly through sense-gratification. Imagine, then, what a lot of good they will achieve, who will worship Her with all purity, in a Sattvika spirit, looking upon Her as their Mother!

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

1 Mahut God Let me tell you a story. In a forest there lived a holy man who had many disciples.

One day he taught them to see God in all beings and, knowing this, to bow low before them all. A disciple went to the forest to gather wood for the sacrificial fire. Suddenly he heard an outcry: ‘Get out of the way! A mad elephant is coming!’ All but the disciple of the holy man took to their heels. He reasoned that the elephant was also God in another form. Then why should he run away from it? He stood still, bowed before the animal, and began to sing its praises. The mahut of the elephant was shouting: ‘Run away! Run away!’ But the disciple didn’t move. The animal seized him with its trunk, cast him to one side, and went on its way. Hurt and bruised, the disciple lay unconscious on the ground. Hearing what had happened, his teacher and his brother disciples came to him and carried him to the hermitage.

With the help of some medicine he soon regained consciousness. Someone asked him, ‘You knew the elephant was coming—why didn’t you leave the place?’ ‘But’, he said, ‘our teacher has told us that God Himself has taken all these forms, of animals as well as men.

Therefore, thinking it was only the elephant God that was coming, I didn’t run away.’ At this the teacher said: ‘Yes, my child, it is true that the elephant God was coming; but the T h e

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mahut God forbade you to stay there. Since all are manifestations of God, why didn’t you trust the mahut’s words? You should have heeded the words of the mahut God.’ (Pp. 84-85) The Power of Faith A man was about to cross the sea from Ceylon to India. Bibhishana said to him: ‘Tie this thing in a corner of your wearing-cloth, and you will cross the sea safely. You will be able to walk on the water. But be sure not to examine it, or you will sink.’ The man was walking easily on the water of the sea—such is the strength of faith—when, having gone part of the way, he thought, ‘What is this wonderful thing Bibhishana has given me, that I can walk even on the water?’ He untied the knot and found only a leaf with the name of Rama written on it. ‘Oh, just this!’ he thought, and instantly he sank. (Pp. 106-107) The Peacock and the Opium [Presently the Master explained the cause of his laughter to the devotees, He said:] A man once fed a peacock with a pill of opium at four o’clock in the afternoon. The next day, exactly at that time, the peacock came back. It had felt the intoxication of the drug and returned just in time to have another dose. (p.90)

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An Approach to Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita DHARITRI KUMAR DAS GUPTA

Approaching the Kathamrita A reader wishing to read the Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamarita (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in English) may intend to do so for various reasons—an intellectual curiosity, or finding a way out of worldly afflictions, diseases and worries, or a genuine aspirant seeking spiritual knowledge. But whatever may be his motive, a few likely questions that may arise in his mind are: Why should I read it, what do I stand to gain? Does what is said in the book stand to reason? Is the author of the book competent enough?

Before we try to answer these questions, let us presume certain facts about the reader himself. The reader has perhaps some knowledge about the spiritual and humanitarian ideas of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda world, and appreciates them. May be he is also aware of the paramount position of the Holy Mother Sarada Devi in the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda world. She, the holiness personified, abides in this ‘world’ as the Supreme Controller. While she was physically present, her infallible advice and blessings were sought on all occasions—no matter whether it is Vivekananda’s journeys within the country or abroad, or establishment of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, or introduction of worshipping the goddess Durga in the Math sans ritualistic animal sacrifice, or even as trifling as reinstate-

ment of a delinquent servant. The reader may observe that the Kathamrita begins with a brief letter of benediction (written to M, the chronicler of the book) by the Holy Mother.

Holy Mother’s Letter of Benediction Should we be able to realise the significance of the Holy Mother’s letter of benediction, it shall act as the true guide to our journey to study the Kathamrita; such realisation shall enable us to understand why we should study and practice whatever has been said therein. Then our vision will be free from distortions, our mind freed from anxiety. We shall get answers to all our preliminary inquiries and realise that this letter of benediction is indeed the brief yet prophetic evaluation of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita, made at a time when the book was still in the making. We firmly believe that without her intervention it would have never seen the ‘blaze of daylight’. Let us now try to find out its significance with an open mind.

M., the Chronicler and His Mindset It will helpful to refresh ourselves with some information on the chronicler of the book [reader may kindly observe that we have used the word ‘Chronicler’ instead of ‘Author’ on purpose, the reasons shall be made known later] and its publication.

Dharitri Kumar Das Gupta is a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna from Kolkata. He has to his credit the translation of Kathamrita Prasanga of Swami Bhuteshanandaji into English.

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Mahendranath Gupta—alias M., alias Mani or Manimohan, alias Englishman, alias a devotee, alias Master Mahashay—was in deep trouble having fallen in the whirlwind of family life and failed to make any way out it. He felt so unhappy and wretched that he thought of putting an end to his life. In such a distressed state of mind and without the least preparation, directed by chance, he reached the divine presence of Thakur [as Sri Ramakrishna is often addressed in the Ramakrishna Order]. Thakur saw him, had a brief session of discussions and argumentation. In M.’s own words, ‘This was M.’s first attempt to argue a point with the Master and happily the last.’

Enlightened with modern education, a learned professor in eastern and western arts and science, M. was literally swept away by the force of Sri Ramakrishna’s words, and gave up all his intent to argue and reasoning. Indeed Thakur made him swear not to argue. In the words of Swami Tapasyananada, Literally, the man who went to die, remained to pass through a spiritual ascension without physical death. He now found the real vocation of his life, the true purpose of his earthly sojourn.1

He was filled with an inexplicable sense of trust and confidence. A complete surrender!

It was as if Thakur, intent on retaining invaluable treasure for the welfare of the mankind, put in place a chalice after thoroughly washing it with ‘Gobar and Gangajal’ [lit.

Ganga water mixed with a bit of cow-dung, traditionally considered purifying and a disinfectant]. Disinfectant for all the time! A pure receptacle without the least chance of its contents ever becoming tainted! Later we find that Thakur often examined whether the things were properly stored in right sequence and in right context—what we say in modern term ‘stock-taking’. In this regard M. told later, T h e

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I developed the habit of writing diary right from my boyhood days. Whenever at any place I heard good lectures or discussions of God and divinity, I would immediately note them down in my diary. This habit of mine made me write down whatever conversations I heard [at Thakur’s place] including the precise day, Tithi, Nakshtra and the date.

He further reflected, Because of my worldly preoccupations I couldn’t go to him as often as I wished. The apprehension that the burden of worldly life might make me forget or confuse whatever I had received from him at Dakshineswar made me note down his words and ideas. And before I would again visit him I used to read those words of his and reflected on them in my mind. Thus I started noting down [his words and ideas] for my own benefit so that I might be able to follow his advice more effectively in my own life.2

Master’s Dispensation Analysing M.’s above simple statement, we come to appreciate his faculty of mental reflection and his unerring belief of having received some invaluable treasure which by no means he could allow to lose or distort. He wished to be enriched by sincere application of the advices in his own life. Having regard to the then state of M.’s mind, it can be said that the matter could have ended there.

But Thakur’s dispensation was different.

The path of presentation of divine truths to humanity is chequered one. And it takes different courses, assumes varied forms at different ages. Besides, M. is essentially a Master Mahashay [teacher]. Thakur had already identified and trained him to act as an instrument for educating the masses. So this invaluable treasure can never be meant for the limited spiritual elevation of an individual— M. One and all, indeed everybody needs it,

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like one does the ever-purifying, invigorating sunrays. Thus we find that on the eleventh year after passing away of Thakur, and perhaps, in a rather incomplete form and in instalments it came out first in English periodicals like Brahmavadin and later in Prabuddha Bharata.

Almost simultaneously it came out in pamphlets entitled The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna [according to M. a son of the Lord and disciple]’ from Madras. When Kathamrita or The Gospel began to come out in parts in English language, everybody wished that it should be published in Thakur’s own language as well.

Then M. also had it published, in parts, in Bengali through several periodicals like Tattvamanjari, Udbodhan and Bangadarshan.

Thereafter after compiling and editing all the parts, the first volume of Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita came out in the year 1902, sixteen years after the passing away of Thakur.

Four additional volumes followed, the last one in the year 1932. But the legendary ‘M. a son of the Lord and disciple’ joined his Master leaving the mortal plane even before the last one saw the light of the day. There are many tales—documented, undocumented and oral— behind this important historical event. But it is not necessary to go into details of these in the present context. We will do well to revert to our original pursuit and try to understand the true significance of Holy Mother’s letter of benediction.

Holy Mother’s Divine Intervention One day, while M. was still holding on to the treasury of Thakur’s words all to himself anxious, unsure and hesitant, reading, enjoying and meditating, the Holy mother sent words of blessings for him. At that time, very likely, she stayed ‘in a rented house near the Ganges on the Sarkar Bari Lane (Baghbazar).’ M. had visited her with an anxious heart, read out T h e

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from his diary notes. Holy Mother heard him, perceived his agony, blessed him and blotted out his sense of fear and diffidence. Besides oral blessings, the Holy Mother (at M’s request) sent M. a letter of benediction from Jayarambati, who probably thought of using it as a gem of an introduction to his upcoming book. We have reasons to believe that at the hour of blessing M and his mission, she must have been in a Supremely Divine state and her divine intervention made the publication of the book possible. Here is the text of Mother’s letter.3 Jayarambati 21st Asha 1304 (4th July 1897) Dear Child, Whatever you had heard from Him [Thakur] is nothing but the Truth. You need not feel any diffidence about it. At one time it was He who had placed those words in your custody. And it is He who is now bringing them to the light of the day according to the needs of the times.

Know it for certain that unless those words are brought out, man will not have his consciousness awakened. All the words of His that you have with you—every one of them is true. One day when you read them out to me I felt as if it was He who was speaking.

The In-dwelling Mother knew every bit of her child’s anxiety. So she bestowed her blessings and boon of freedom from fear. We have taken the liberty to translate the second line of the letter literally—Ihâte tomar kona bhay nai, ‘You need not feel any fear about it.’ (Here the term fear is generic one that includes his sense of anxiety, diffidence and reservations et al.) Indeed the Holy Mother’s blessings and boon of freedom from fear were greatest treasures of M., who acknowledged it in no uncertain terms. To quote from his words,

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Sri Sri Kathamrita, you showered your blessings and the boon of freedom from fear. Sri Narendra and other brother-disciples also encouraged me utmost. Even today Sriyukta Baburam, Sashi, Girish and other brothers are encouraging me without end.

Ma, thy blessings and boon of freedom from fear are the only treasures of Thy servant of servants.4

Significances of Holy Mother’s Words In our estimate, the letter of benediction is extraordinary. It is most brief yet so complete! Analysing the truths behind her words we come to the following conclusions.

1. In a firm and determined tone so as to create an unfailing trust, the Holy Mother says that everything M. heard is true. Whatever is thought to be extraneous or incidental, what has so far been read and those that wait to be brought to light—everything is true. Should we wonder what the nature of truth is, the Holy Mother assures that, ‘. . . It was He [Thakur] who was speaking.’ True—‘every one of them is true.’ A question may arise what is meant by saying ‘every one is true’? Is it possible that truth has relative validity? The answer is both yes, and no. Realisation of truth is dependent on individual’s state of mind, one’s level of consciousness. Truth absolute is Truth per se, and eternal. It is Truth at all times under all circumstances and does not suffer any change. But realisation of truth that is reflected on an individual’s mind depends on its state of consciousness. That is why different people have different perceptions of truth. So the Holy Mother exhorts us to shed all such different perceptions and believe implicitly that everything said therein is true. Whatever is apparently thought to be extraneous or incidental is also true. We may explain the matter using Thakur’s own imagery, T h e

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Suppose you have separated the shell, the flesh and seeds of a bel-fruit and someone asks you the weight of the fruit. Will you leave aside the shell and the seeds and weigh only the flesh?

Not at all. To know the real weight of the fruit, you must weigh of the whole of it—the shell, the flesh and the seeds. Only then can you tell its real weight.5

This explains that to a reader ‘everything is true.’ It does not contain anything that can be discarded. On attainment of the Supreme knowledge one realises the Truth.

Thus while studying Kathamrita we will be guided by the belief that whatever it contains is true, indeed nothing but truth.

2. Holy Mother says that its publication is divinely ordained. ‘At one time it was He who had placed those words in your custody.

And it is He who is now bringing them to the light of the day according to the needs of the times.’ M. is, thus, simply a trustee or custodian of Sri Ramakrishna’s words. Incidentally, the book documents as much Thakur’s own words, advice, discussions with others, comments of his associates and devotees as much as the physical ambience and natural scenery in which they were given. They are beautifully painted with rare artistic skills and grace. This is the fruit of M.’s power of observation and his sense of creativity. But here is also something of a mystery. As he confided later, he used to record Thakur’s words very briefly in his diary, which were so cryptic that it had no meaning to others. Before starting to write the Gospel, he would meditate on the scene of the day related to those words. While meditating, the whole scene of each day under consideration would appear clearly before him. He would start writing only when the entire scene would surface clearly before his mind. M. firmly believed that Thakur’s words were not merely to be heard; those were objects of

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meditation. Re-living the total scene is necessary to help us meditate. It was Thakur himself who credited M. with necessary artistic skill, his thoughtfulness, and how best to make use of the words and power to be able to do so.

Holy Mother says that Thakur had placed those words in M.’s custody and it was He who was bringing them to light according to the needs of the time. Why? What is the need to bring them to light? We have already said that these are not meant for personal benefit of any individual; the Holy Mother emphatically says ‘unless those words are brought out, man will not have his consciousness awakened’. Shall the words brought to light necessarily awaken man’s consciousness? In this regard Thakur’s advice is identical with those of Lord Krishna’s advice in the Gita where he says that a spiritual aspirant seeking inner change should always practice (do abhyasa). An aspirant must regularly practice spiritual precepts, studying, reflecting on and trying to emulate them in his own life. What to practice? That is why there is need for proper set of advice suited to modern days conveyed in the language of the common man —a new commentary on the Gita. So its publication is divinely ordained.

A regular study the Kathamrita, hence, should be followed by a reflection over what we read. We should try to practice what we reflect over.

3. Holy Mother’s benedictory letter also contains a very significant statement where she assured M. —‘You need not feel any fear about it’. Fear! What to fear about? It is worth remembering that M. was no ordinary person.

Besides, living in close quarter with the God Incarnate, all his human weaknesses and sense of fear must have left him. And his state of consciousness must have been turned nectarean by the very touch of nectar. So here fear does not refer to normal human attribute of T h e

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fright. But fear, rather diffidence and anxiety must have sustained in his mind that stood in the way of publication of Kathamrita. This explains why Kathamrita took long eleven years after the passing away of the Master to see the light of the day.

M’s Sense of Fear But why at all does such sense of fear come from? If it does, then what is its nature? It appears to us that his first and foremost anxiety was as the receiver of these invaluable treasures since entrusted on him. Of course as the trustee or receiver he certainly took good care and preserved them but he was uncertain, rather anxious, as to how and to what extent he should bring them to light. At first he thought that he would use them for his own personal benefit. It was more so because Thakur gave different sets of advice to his monastic disciples and associates who made use of them. Perhaps, this may explain the history of eleven long years of anxious silence— it remained with him, to read and go back on the wings of imagination, to relive those old ecstatic days and experiences he had during Thakur’s lifetime.

We may draw some likeness of his anxiety with those of Milton after he had become blind. A vital question tormented Milton’s mind—he was unable to make proper use of the rare ‘talent lodged’ by the Lord that lay ‘useless’ for half of his life was spent in the ‘dark world and wide’. When returning to the Lord, He might chide and ask Milton to present ‘true account’. What should he answer? At last realisation dawned on him—

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But this realisation was not sufficient for M., because he had yet another worldly duty as a ‘Master Mahashay’ [teacher]. He had been identified as an instrument—the ‘Master Mahashay’—for awakening peoples’ consciousness. That is why he was anxious and the thought ever tormented him as to how and to what extent he would publish them.

M. was wary about yet another grave matter, which is perhaps the most important of all. Thakur’s unalloyed, stern advices were placed in a rather soft way, using colloquial lingo, but those were sharp-edged and unkind at times—his talks reflected on many contemporary socio-religious beliefs, thoughts, habits and practices, and touched upon many influential persons of the day. We should not lose sight of the fact that Sri Ramakrishna did not come to destroy anything; he came to rejuvenate and reconstruct, not to set aside anything. Whatever is untrue or malignant shall automatically wither away, to use Thakur’s own words, ‘One shouldn’t forcibly tear off the green branch of a coconut tree.

That injures the tree.’7 It falls off when the time is ripe.

Hence Thakur never criticised anything, not even the meanest of the creatures, insects.

Well, whom to criticise? Does not the Thakur comprise good and whatever is seemingly bad? However, during the course of personal discussions and having regard to the need of explaining with reference to the context and the specific circumstances, many things had crept in which could not be avoided. Besides the Master’s own words, the discussions also contained words and comments of his associates and devotees. M. was anxious that disclosure of all these may raise a storm of protests and slanders. That his anxiety had been substantive was also corroborated later as conveyed to him by Vivekananda himself, T h e

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. . .You will have many blessings on you and many more curses. That is always the way of the world, sir. This is the time.8

In this regard we may do well to remember that contemporary society was not at all sympathetic towards the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda world. Many pundits, social, religious communities and many influential personalities of the day were openly hostile towards them. Worse, they also faced the frowning of the then royalty and the police vigil with harassments that followed at times. That indeed may have made M. wary and anxious.

This explains why M. considered Holy Mother’s blessings and her boon of freedom from fear invaluable treasures.

Holy Mother’s Reflections on the Book She reflected on the book many a time later during her homely discussions. Indeed Swami Ishanananda, one of Mother’s attendants, later recalled: In the evening, we would read the Gospel to Mother. As she heard it she would say, ‘Oh, it is as if the Master himself is speaking in our presence. One’s hair stands on end!’ Once Mother remarked, ‘How intelligent people are these days—they have taken Thakur’s picture.

And M.—is he an ordinary person? He managed to record everything Thakur said.’9

Besides this we refer to only two instances of her observations dating as late as July and September 1918, or after lapse of twentyone years. In July 1918 Holy Mother spoke about ‘M’s book’ as ‘good’. She said, He has recorded Master’s own words. What sweet words! I heard that there is so much material that there could be four or five parts. He has now become old, would he be able to do that?10

We know by Holy Mother’s grace he did it! The September 1918 reflections are associated with the Pravrajika Bharatiprana Mataji,

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the first President of the Sri Sarada Math. Holy Mother said, ‘Sarala read about Sri Ramakrishna. How fine his teachings were! How could we know then that things would take this turn! …Often he (Thakur) would tell me nice words of advice. If I had known how to write I would have noted them down. Well, Sarala, please read something today.’ Sarala began to read from the Kathamrita the Bengali original of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.11

Such unpretentious, simple discussions, and more so, her sense of apparent wonder (‘How could we know then that things would take this turn’) make us believe that while blessing M. way back in July 1897, Holy Mother must have been in a spiritually high state and facilitated a historical event divinely ordained.

Being in a high state of spiritual consciousness, as cited above, has many parallels in our scriptures. In the Mahabharata (Ashvamedha Parva, Chapter 16), for instance, it is mentioned that before the Kurukreshtra War Sri Krishna gave his immortal message of the Gita. After the War, victorious Arjuna requested Sri Krishna to re-state the teachings

once again, as he had forgotten what Sri Krishna told earlier. Lord Krishna then expressed his inability to do so because while speaking of the Gita he had been in the high state of consciousness (yogayukta) and now he was in a different state. Sri Krishna hence chose to deliberate on the old history of the knowledge of Parambrahma. The high spiritual state, in Sri Thakur’s own words, is: Master…It is good to remain on the plane of the Lila after reaching the Nitya.

M: You once said that one comes down to the plane of Lila in order to enjoy the divine play.

Master: No, not exactly that. The Lila is real too.12

Conclusion Come ye all—wise readers, devotees, afflicted and distressed people! Let us enrich ourselves with the Holy Mother’s blessings and set out to study the Kathamrita or the Gospel. Ye, inquirers of truth! Let us move ahead no matter how perilous the path is. We shall reach the goal, because: ‘By knowing Him alone one transcends death; there is no other path to go by’ (tameva viditva atimrityumeti nanyah pantha vidyateayanaya).

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

The Condensed Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Ed. Swami Tapasyananda. (3rd Ed. 12th Impression.1993), pp. xiii -xiv M’s statements as reported in Vivekananda O Samakalin Bharatvarsa Vol II. (Third Reprint 1981) Sankari Prasad Basu. p.254.

The text of the letter of benediction of the Holy Mother is taken from The Condensed Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna [M.’s own English version] edited by Swami Tapasyananda.

M’s submission in his Introductory Note to Vol.IV (of Gospel in original Bengali) dated 10th Asvin 1317 BS [Sept.27.1910] The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (Swami Nikhilananda) p.328, hereafter Gospel T h e

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6.

The Golden Treasury. Ed. F.T.Palgrave. (Indian Ed. Twelfth Impression.1991) p.62.

7. Gospel p. 487.

8. Swami Vivekananda’s letter to M. dated October 1897.

9 . The Way to God As Taught by Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Lokeswarananda [RMIC] 1st Ed.1992. p.10.

10. The Gospel of the Holy Mother recorded by Her Devotee-Children. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai (4th Impression 1996) p. 38.

11. Ibid. p. 56. It is also supported by her reminiscences as incorporated in Matridarshan compiled

by Swami Chetanananda. Pub. Udbodhan (1st Ed. 9th Impression 2001) p.73.

12. The Gospel, p.238

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Durga Puja Celebrations Durga Puja was celebrated at Belur Math from 14 to 17 October 2010 with all solemnity. Though the weather was cloudy, there was no rain during the main Puja hours. Thousands of devotees attended the Puja on all the four days to receive the blessings of the Divine Mother. The Kumari Puja performed on 15 October drew huge crowds, and the Sandhi Puja on that afternoon was also attended by many devotees.

Sri M K Narayanan, Governor of West Bengal, also attended the Sandhi Puja. Kolkata Doordarshan telecast live the Puja at different times on all the days. Cooked Prasad was served to more than 47,000 devotees on Ashtami day and to about one lakh devotees during the four days.

Durga Puja (in image) was celebrated at the following 24 centres in India: Antpur, Asansol, Barasat, Contai, Cooch Behar, Dhaleswar (under Agartala), Ghatshila, Guwahati, Jalpaiguri, Jamshedpur, Jayrambati, Kamarpukur, Karimganj, Lucknow, Malda, Medinipur, Mumbai, Patna, Port Blair, Rahara, Shella (under Cherrapunji), Shillong, Silchar and Durga Puja Celebrations—Belur Math Varanasi Advaita Ashrama.

Durga Puja (in image) was performed at Durban (South Africa), Geneva (Switzerland), Mauritius and Toronto (Canada) Ashramas and the following nine centres in Bangladesh: Baliati, Barisal, Chittagong, Comilla, Dhaka, Dinajpur, Habiganj, Narayanganj and Sylhet.

At Dhaka centre, Ms Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Ms Sahara Khatun, Minister of Home Affairs; Mr Shah Jahan Miah, State Minister of Religion; Mr Shamsul Haq Tuku, State Minister of Home Affairs; Mr Ahad Ali Sarkar, State Minister of Sports; Mr Abdur Razzaq, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for the Water Resources Ministry; Mr Sadeque Hossain Khoka, Dhaka City Corporation Mayor; Mr Hossain Mohammad Ershad, former President of Bangladesh, and several other distinguished persons attended the Durga Puja celebration.

Kadapa Centre’s Written Quiz on Swami Vivekananda As part of its Centenary Celebrations, the Kadapa centre of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission conducted an All Andhra Pradesh Written Quiz based on a small book of the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda. Over 79,000 school and junior college students participated in the quiz. Prizes worth two lakh, besides certificates to more than 2400 students, were awarded to the winning students. All the 759 educational institutions which took part in the Quiz were presented a set of books. The prize distribution ceremony was held on 21 November 2010.

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Awards Presented Y Swaraj Sansthan Sanchalanalaya, Ministry of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh, conferred Maharaja Agrasen Rashtriya Samman on Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, in recognition of its outstanding service activities and its efforts to achieve fraternity and equality in society. Sri Laxmikanta Sharma, Minister of Culture, Government of Madhya Pradesh, handed over the award comprising a citation and a sum of Rupees two lakh to the General Secretary on 8 October 2010 at Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal.

Y Indian National Congress conferred Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration for the Maharaja Agrasen Rashtriya Samman being presented year 2009 on Narainpur Ashrama. Smt Sonia Gandhi, President, Indian National Congress, handed over the award comprising a citation and a sum of Rs. 2,50,000/- on 31 October 2010 in a function held at Teen Murti House auditorium, New Delhi, in the presence of Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, and several other dignitaries.

Y Bhilai Steel Plant conferred the Bhilai Mitra Puraskar on our Narainpur centre on 14 November 2010 for the centre’s excellent welfare activities for the poor and backward people.

The award carries a memento with citation.

Y Sarada Kindergarten of our Singapore Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration being presented centre has won the following prestigious MOEAECES 2010 awards: (1) ‘Distinction’ for Innovation, (2) ‘Merit’ for Outstanding Kindergarten Teacher, and (3) ‘Merit’ for Good Practices. Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Minister of State for Education & Home Affairs, Singapore, handed over the awards on 23 November. These awards are jointly presented by MOE (Ministry of Education) and AECES (Association of Early Childhood Educators Singapore).

Y Sri Anupam Ray, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, visited Vedanta Society, New York, USA, on 28 November and released the book Celebrating Shri Ramakrishna authored

by Swami Tathagatananda.

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Ponnampet Ashrama’s Temple Dedication Anniversary The first Anniversary of the Consecration of its recently-built temple of Sri Ramakrishna at Ramakrishna Sharadashrama, Ponnampet (Kodagu, Karnataka) was celebrated on 15 November 2010. The morning programme consisted of special puja, homa, parayana, reading from the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, and bhajans. In the post-lunch session, there was a poetic presentation (in Kannada) on the glory of Indian Culture and Traditions (called Jago Bharat) by Sri Sulebele Chakravarthy and party. In the afternoon, a public meeting was held. It was addressed by, among others, Swami Suhitanandaji, Assistant Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, Belur Math and Padmashri Dr. Nalli Kuppuswamy Chettiar. After the evening arati, a Harikatha presentation was held.

On the previous day (14 November), a youth convention has held at the Ashrama premises. It was attended by 850 students and many teachers and invitees. A number of monks and eminent people addressed the gathering.

The new office block at Ponnampet centre was inaugurated on 15 September.

Inauguration of office block at Ponnampet Ashrama

General News Y Srimat Swami Atmasthanandaji, the revered President Maharaj of the Ramakrishna Order, released a DVD containing the archives of 60 years of The Bulletin of the Institute of Culture, Kolkata, on 11 October.

Y The cardiology clinic at Thiruvananthapuram hospital was inaugurated on 1 October.

Y On 1 October, National Blood Donation Day, Viveknagar (Tripura) centre organized a workshop on health awareness, which was inaugurated by Sri Manik Sarkar, Chief Minister of Tripura. A blood donation camp was held on the following day in which 47 persons donated blood.

Y Mr M O H Farook, Governor of Jharkhand, inaugurated a 20-bed primary health care unit at Ranchi Sanatorium on 9 October.

Y Kozhikode centre organized an Eye Care Programme in which 3731 students of our school there underwent eye check-up. Of these, 56 students with refractory errors were given free glasses.

Relief News Flood Relief: Our centres in North India continued relief operations among the flood victims. Details of the operations are given below. (a) Haryana: Chandigarh centre treated 300 flood-affected patients in Panipat district last month. (b) Uttar Pradesh: (i) Kanpur centre distributed 803 saris, 800 lungis, 800 blankets, 800 mats, 4 plastic buckets, 4 sets of steel utensils (each set containing 2 plates, 2 glasses and 3 cooking vessels), 2020 kg rice, 8 kg dal, 8 kg sugar, etc., to the victims of Ganga Katari area in Kanpur district last month. (ii) Vrindaban centre distributed 1000 kg rice, 200 kg dal, 2,00,000 halogen tablets, 500 kg bleaching powder, 478 saris and 400 blankets to 200 flood-affected families of Vrindaban Khadar area in Mathura district. (c) Uttarakhand: (i) Almora centre distributed 5000 blankets to 1674 families in Almora district. (ii) Kankhal centre provided medical relief to 1200 flood-affected patients of 9 nearby villages.

Distress Relief: The following centres distributed various items, shown in brackets, to the needy: Agartala (435 saris, 113 dhotis and 470 children’s garments), Garbeta (110 kg rice, 45 kg flour, 174 saris, 10 dhotis, 27 lungis, 25 vests, 337 children’s garments and 24 assorted garments), Jalpaiguri (500 saris), Karimganj (355 saris and 65 dhotis), Taki (100 saris and 50 dhotis).

The following centres distributed various items, shown in brackets, to needy people: Belgharia (1573 saris, 157 dhotis, 374 lungis, 1358 pants, 1516 shirts and 2146 children’s garments), Cooch Behar (317 saris, 63 dhotis, 20 lungis and 102 pairs of socks).

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For review in THE VEDANTA KESARI, publishers need to send us two copies of their latest publication.

UNDERSTANDING CONSCIOUSNESS— RECENT ADVANCES Published by Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, Kolkata - 700 029. 2009, Hardback, Pp. 469, Rs.175.

Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, has been organizing every year, for the past few years, a seminar on topics of contemporary interest, especially on Consciousness.

It has also been publishing the proceedings in the form of books, for the benefit of the general public.

The present book, under review, is the latest in this series.

The concept of Consciousness has intrigued human beings since time immemorial. It has been studied under various disciplines, with different meanings and definitions. Hence, scholars from diverse disciplines have used their own individual definitions. This has led to a piquant situation, in which scholars appear to think on parallel tracks, without any indication of convergence.

Nevertheless, an interdisciplinary discussion does serve a useful purpose. One can come to appreciate the views of others, leading to an understanding of the spectrum of Consciousness.

The seminar, whose proceedings are reported in this book, had seven academic sessions, along with an inaugural session and a valedictory session.

The inaugural session was devoted to a comprehensive overview of the existing knowledge, so that a meaningful discussion could take place.

Each academic session had two presentations, except the last one (which had three), thus making a total of fifteen papers. The topics covered ranged from Neurosciences to Vedantic perspectives. The first session was about the integration of Knowledge and Consciousness, and about the role of Avidya.

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The second session was about Meditation and Yogic Integration. The third session was devoted to Vedanta, with a presentation of basic issues like— ‘What is Consciousness?’ The fourth session presented a viewpoint according to Buddhism.

The research methodology used in investigations of Consciousness, as well as the relation of Consciousness with Cognitive Science, has been dealt with in the fifth session. The point of view of Neurologists is the theme of the sixth session.

Consciousness and its relation to the Brain, Yoga and its relation to the Unconscious are discussed in the last session. The final paper throws up suggestions for an interdisciplinary dialogue about Consciousness, which is needed for a proper understanding of Consciousness. All discussions about these fifteen papers have been compiled and presented after the texts of all the papers.

The papers thus represent a wide range of opinions about Consciousness, indicating the complexity of the study. No wonder that the last paper

by Prof. Mukunda talks of an interdisciplinary dialogue! But, to reach a common ground may not be so easy, unless one becomes aware that Consciousness is a spectrum, and is clear as to which part of the spectrum one is referring to. Otherwise no meaningful discussion would be possible.

It is evident that serious thinkers on Consciousness would benefit a great deal by a close study of the papers. Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture should be thanked for the excellent work they have been doing organising these seminars.

The get-up of the book is, as usual, excellent. The Institute should continue organizing such seminars for the benefit of the scholars and the general public. ______________________________ NVC SWAMY, BANGALORE

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RELICS

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BUDDHA

By John S. Strong.

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Published by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 41, UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi - 110 007. 2007, Hardback, pp. 290, Rs. 595.

The philosophy of Buddhism remarkably centres on the noble truth that the nature of the universe is always in a state of flux and this theory of impermanence forced the Buddhists to deny the existence of a permanent self and an omniscient Being called God. One may wonder as to how a faith without a soul and God could attain global popularity and everlasting prosperity. As a religion, it insists that even an ordinary human being can be elevated to the heights of perfection through arduous discipline and assiduous practices. The best example is the Prince-turned Enlightened Buddha.

The Sakhyamuni or the Tathagatha was adored as the God among men since he preached and practiced the truths promulgated by him leading to the attainment of emancipation which is free from an iota of pain without God’s grace and the soul’s involvements as the theistic religions proclaim. Hence there is no wonder that his followers not only venerated his whole physical structure as an embodiment of divinity but also revered the various limbs and organs of his body.

The author of this book under review has endeavoured earnestly and enthusiastically in explicitly elucidating and justifying as well the respectful tributes paid by the devotees of the Buddha to his relics. The pilgrims from overseas countries had discovered the prevalence of the physical remains of the Buddha, his personal belongings, mostly associated with his preaching or his community of followers. It was firmly believed that King Asoka had enshrined the relics of the Buddha in 94,000 places throughout his domain and hence they gain significance. The legendary and cultic traditions of the South and the Southeast Asia enabled the author to highlight the glory of the relics such as Buddha’s footprints, his bowl, his robe, and his Bodhi tree.

The ‘exegetical exploration’ of the author involves myths, legends, stories, of doctrines, the records of inscriptions, reports of pilgrims, the comments of modern scholars, etc., which helped the author to narrate resourceful information about the relics. The T h e

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author himself acknowledges that these will be preposterous or absurd to some readers, but others may view them as profound expressions of religious devotion or experience.

A cursory glance of the contents shows the architectonic pattern followed by the author who has comprehensively presented the chosen theme in a serious, sincere and systematic fashion. Right from the introduction the work describes the relics of the previous Buddhas, of the Bodhisaattvas, of the still living Buddhas, Asoka and the Buddha relics, stories of various traditions, relics and eschatology and an originally research oriented conclusion. The bibliography and the index are worthwhile and have pragmatic value. The syntactic and the semantic approaches with authentic source and authoritative reference reveal the deep erudition, appropriate acumen and elegant expressions of the subject matter. The data collected about the relics and the perfect description make the readers wonderstruck. On the whole this book will be a treasure trove to the inspiring followers of the Buddha and a resourceful and fascinating piece of information to the general reader. __________________________ R. GOPALAKRISHNAN, CHENNAI

THE JAIN SAGA

By Kalikal Sarvagna Acharya Hemchandrasuriswarji Maharaj. Parts -1, 2 and 3.

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, 41, UA Bungalow Road, Jawahar Nagar, Delhi - 110 007. 2009, Paperback Pp.1800, Rs.1000 for one set .

This book is a translation of one of the most important Jain epic Tri-sasti-Shalaka-Purnima-charitra, whose literal translation would be ‘Biographies of Sixty-three Illustrious Personalities.’ Although the cover mentions it as the ‘Brief History of Jainism’, it is more a mythological text rather than the history of the origin and the growth of Jainism.

This great epic, comprising 34,000 stanzas was written by the author at the request of King Kumarpal, an able ruler and a devout lay Jain devotee, in the 12th century AD. It is said that the author prayed to the goddess Saraswati and with her blessing, not only wrote this classic, but also many more scriptures, comprising as many as 35

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million verses. Acharya Hemchandra Suriswar has been eulogized as ‘Kalikala-Sarvagna’, ‘omniscient sage of the present Iron Age.’ Indeed, as one goes through the pages of the book, one is amazed at the inexhaustible knowledge of the author.

The present English translation is in three parts, which are in fact three separate volumes of more than five hundred pages each, totaling 1800 pages. It seems the first English edition was in six volumes. In the present translation, the original division into ten books or parvas has been given up. Instead, the whole book is now divided into twenty four chapters, each being the life of one Tirthankara. While this division may appear sensible, it has made some chapters very brief. The present Part I contains the life of first ten tirthankaras. Of these, greater space has been allotted to the life of Risabhaswami and Ajitanath. Part 2 deals with the eleventh to twenty-first Tirthankaras, and much space is allotted to the Jain Ramayana, i.e. the story of Rama and Sita. Part 3 deals with the remaining three Tirthankaras. While describing the life of Neminath, the author has taken up the story of Krishna and the Bhagavatam. The life of Mahavirswami, forms the main bulk of this part.

An important task which the author had to accomplish was to integrate the Jain society with the much larger Hindu society—both of which existed together. This, the author has done by including and re-narrating the stories of such Hindu heroes, like Rama-Lakshman, Sita, Krishna, Balarama, Bhagiratha, Parashurama, Nala-Damayanti, etc. Naturally, the killings of Kansa, Ravana, Jarasandha, Bana, etc., are also included. However, and naturally, these stories are very much different from the Hindu versions. The Hindu heroes are shown inferior to the Jain prophets and even as lay followers of Jainism. Nonetheless, the noble values like total dedication of Sita and Damayanti to their husbands (pativratya) as well as dharma as practised

by Rama and other Hindu heroes are accepted and extolled, since they are equally accepted in Hinduism as well as Jainism. Yet, all through Jainism is shown to be superior to other faiths. Damayanti is described as a devout Jain lay woman. A Jain lay devotee is considered even superior to a Vaishnava ascetic and after death, the former is born as Indra and latter as his vehicle airavata in one such story.

In India, from pre-historic times, two cultures flourished almost simultaneously, the Vedic or the T h e

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Indus Valley culture, and the other the Shramana or Magadhan culture. Both have characteristics distinct from each other. As we read the lives of Jain prophets side by side with the life of Hindu prophets like Rama and Krishna, the distinction is clearly visible. Jainism is pre-eminently a monastically oriented religion laying great stress on mendicancy, renunciation, austerity, restraint and finally, total giving up of all physical, vocal and mental activity. This is highlighted over and over again in the book through stories.

The book abounds in much needed explanatory footnotes. The editor has also given a table of meanings of certain ‘hard words’, marked by italics in the text. However, it would have been better if a glossary of Jain technical terms were given. For, in spite of much pains taken by the editor in explaining ‘hard words’, giving the English names of the Indian plants, etc., the reader finds it difficult to understand the technicalities of Jainism, except a few concepts, which come up with great force: austerity, mendicancy, standing or sitting still in a specific posture (vyutsarga), fasting, Ahimsa or non-violence and the theory of Karma which forms the back bone of Jain philosophy. The previous incarnations of all the Jain prophets and other heroes have been described and it has been shown due to which specific karma they took another incarnation. The case most eloquent in this respect is that of the only lady Tirthankara, Malli. In her earlier birth, she was a male Jain ascetic who with six of his friends had an agreement that they will all do equal penance, of alternate day fasts, etc.

However, from a desire for superior results, Mahabala, the previous male incarnation of Malli, deceived his friends, making certain excuses and thus fasted even on the day of breaking fast. Because of the penance mixed with deceit, he was born as a woman in the next incarnation, named Malli.

The epic excels in literary classical descriptions. Take for example, this passage:

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Dharma is the highest happiness. Dharma bestows heaven and emancipation. Dharma shows the road for crossing the wilderness of samsara. Dharma nourishes like a mother, protects like a father, pleases like a friend, and is loving like a kinsman.

Dharma imparts very fine qualities like a guru.

Dharma confers a distinguished position like a master. Dharma is a mansion of bliss. Dharma is a shield in danger from enemies. Dharma is heat for J A N U A R Y

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the destruction of cold. Dharma knows the weak points of sins. From Dharma a creature could become a king, from Dharma a Rama, from Dharma an ardhacakrin, from Dharma a cakrin, from Dharma a god, and from Dharma an Indra. From Dharma one attains Ahamindraship in the Graveyaka and Anuttara heavens. From Dharma one attains Arhatship. What is not accomplished by Dharma? Dharma is so called from supporting creatures who have fallen into a bad condition of existence. It is fourfold with the divisions of offering (dana), austerity (shila), penance (tapas), and state of mind (bhava). (Part I, Pp 9-10)

It also abounds in illustrations and metaphors.

Look at this page from one of the most important stories of conflict between Bharata chakravartin and his younger brother Bahubali: Lord of Bharata hurled the chakra at Bahubali, throwing it with all his strength. (Bahubali thought) ‘Shall I break it quickly with the staff, like an old dish? Or shall I strike it gently and then throw it back like a ball? Or shall I throw it up in the sky as easily as a knife? Or shall I put it in the ground like an infant’s navel-cord? Or shall I catch it in my hand like a young sparrow flying up? Or shall I merely repel it to a distance immediately like a criminal unworthy of slaughter? Or shall I speedily crush the thousand Yaksas, its guardians, with my staff like grain with a grindstone? Still, all this must be considered later: first I must know the extent of its power.’ While the king of Taksaasila was making these reflections, the cakra approached and made the pradaksina to him, like a pupil to his guru. The Cakravartin’s cakra has no effect on even an ordinary man belonging to the same family, and especially such a man with the very best body. The cakra returned to the cakravartin’s hand again, like a bird to its resting-place, like a horse to its stable.’

(Part I page 202) According to Swami Vivekananda, each religion has three aspects: rituals, mythology and philosophy. Philosophy is like the kernel while the other two are like the outer husk, which protects the philosophy. In The Jain Saga, all three are presented. While mythology forms the warp, philosophy is inter-woven into it like woof, in the form of numerous sermons which are scattered all through. Jainism, being, in a way, a revolt against the predominantly ritualistic Hinduism, has, nonetheless, certain rituals, the best known among T h e

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them being the bath ritual of the new born prophet.

Besides, there are scores of enthralling stuties or hymns of praise, chiefly by Indra, the king of gods, expressing sublime sentiments, each surpassing the other.

With the biography of Parswanath and Mahavir, the 23rd and 24th Tirthankaras, we enter from the realm of mythology into the period of history, for, according to scholars these last two, and also perhaps, the 22nd, Neninath, are historical while the rest of the earlier prophets are mythological. The history of the post-Mahavir period is also mentioned in short, especially the acharyas of the future are mentioned in the form of Mahavir’s prophecies. While one or more past incarnations of all the Tirthankaras have been described in short, many of Mahavirswami’s innumerable previous incarnations are described in details. It is interesting to note that in one of his previous births Mahavirswami was one of the sons of the first Tirthankara, Rishabhswami by the name Marichi. Mahavirswami’s twelve years of austerity, the hardships and attacks by sub-human creatures, human and even by gods who tortured him to test his fortitude and to force him to give up his resolve to remain standing in a steady posture are described in details.

As one shudders to read the description of these inhuman attacks described in a forceful and poetic language by the scholarly author, one also develops deep reverence for the Arhat and the message he has to convey through his life.

No one could do such a superlative translation as has been done by Miss Helen without profound knowledge of both Sanskrit and English, and indeed only those who know both the languages well, can appreciate the excellence of the translation. One almost gets the feeling that one is reading the original Sanskrit. After reading this translation one gets a strong impetus to read the original Sanskrit. The original is replete with synonyms, especially the various names and epithets of gods, like Indra, the Tirthankaras, etc., and the translator has rightly kept them as such, rather than attempting to give their meaning.

One can learn about an alien religion through articles, describing its principles and practices.

Better is the study of the original scriptures. Still better is the study of the mythological texts, if one wants to learn about the way in which that religion manifests in practice in society and individual

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adherents. On reading this book, a Jain will become a better Jain: his faith and understanding will deepen and he will be inspired to undertake rigorous discipline. A non-Jain, as he goes through these pages, will imbibe at least some of the Jain values.

Someone, not interested in religion can yet read this Saga and enjoy hundreds of interesting stories.

The Jain Saga is a piece of finest poetic literature, of science and wisdom, of insights and instructions and an illustrator of intricacies of human nature, and human destiny, leading finally to the ultimate goal of illumination—moksha.

The Jain Saga, though printed in a readable font on Bible paper, contains innumerable printing mistakes, which have unfortunately, persisted even after proof-reading. Such an invaluable book deserves greater printing, proof-reading and editorial attention. These drawbacks, however, do not hinder the flow of reading and once picked up, the reader does not like to leave it even though one might at places skip over certain purely descriptive portions. As has been said by the Editor, it is a ‘Must-Read’ for all.

The brochure released to introduce the book contains a number of very beautiful pictures of Jain paintings, together with a table of 63 illustrious personalities, whose biographies are contained herein. However, only few of these pictures are printed on the covers of the volumes as miniatures and the beautiful table is altogether missing. Their inclusion into the book would have increased the charm of the book many fold. _______________ SWAMI BRAHMESHANANDA, CHANDIGARH

SERENITY HERE

AND

NOW

By Susunaga Weeraperuma Published by New Age Books, A-44, Nariana Industrial Area Phase –I, New Delhi -110 028.

2009, paperback, Pp.240+xviii, Rs.350 This is a translation into modern English of the last 47suttas of Sutta Nipata. Each Sutta is a discourse of the Buddha in answer to a question by an interlocutor. The Sutta Nipata is a division of the oldest, Buddhist scriptures known as the Tripitaka or the Pali Canon. Sri Weera Peruma is a practicing Buddhist brought up in the Theravada T h e

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tradition of Sri Lanka. The translation is interspersed with the translator’s explanations, which are clear as crystal, without any metaphysical obscurities. The simplicity and directness of language bring out the flavor of the Master’s original speech.

‘Within the mouth of man/ is born an axe at birth/ with which the fool /Destroys himself/By giving expression/to ill-spoken words.’ (p86) The story of the Buddha we encounter on these pages is different from the Buddha of later romanticized works. This is most conspicuous in the third Sutta which describes Gotama’s conquest of Mara. The allegory of a military confrontation is implicit in the imagery used, but Mara is more conciliatory than menacing. He sounds more like the worldly wise man than a ferocious antagonist.

‘Whereas a thousand parts of you/Are owned by death,/ Only one part of you is owned by life./ Venerable One , It is better to live your life./ By living you can do meritorious deeds.’ By living a holy life/And by feeding the sacrificial fire/You will acquire much merit,/But by striving what will you achieve?’ ‘The path of striving is difficult to tread./ It is difficult to do and difficult to succeed’.

The Buddha chides the Evil One as friend of the lazy and slothful, demolishes his arguments and makes known his great determination, ‘This army of yours, which neither gods nor men can crush to death, I will crush it/With wisdom/As with a stone/One would smash an unfired earthen pot.’

(Pp.16-17). Mara retreats with words of praise for his victor.

Every sermon is placed in the context of a narrative, which gives a touch of the drama to it.

For example ‘The Hidden Danger in Slander’ is about a monk, Kokaliya, who became jealous of his fellow monks for the respect people showed them and started spreading tales about them. There are profound sermons like ‘Dropping All Philosophical Views’, ‘The Wisdom of Having no Views’, ‘There is Only One Truth’, etc., which embody the pristine philosophy of the great master. In short, the book affords glimpses into the spiritual core of Buddhism and its founder’s life. A lay reader will find it pleasant reading and a valuable guide in his spiritual life. It may also serve as a corrective to the popular perception of this great religion as merely a social reform movement aimed at correcting the many evils engendered by the Vedic religion. ______________________M.C.RAMANARAYANAN, THIRUVALLA

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JOIN US IN SERVING GOD IN MAN Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Sikra Kulingram is a branch centre of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, West Bengal. Sikra Kulingram is a small village in West Bengal about 60 km from Kolkata. It became a blessed hamlet with the birth of Swami Brahmanandaji Maharaj (1863-1922), the first President of the Ramakrishna Order.

Since its very inception, the centre has been carrying on various welfare service schemes for the upliftment of the poor and backward classes including SC/ST/OBC and other minority communities living in nearby villages. Services like free coaching, non-formal schools, distress relief, child welfare, medical services, and other need-based services are provided in the remote Sunderbans area.

A few monks and the local devotees are carrying out these services in a severely resource constrained setup. To upgrade the present infrastructure we request you for liberal financial help to strengthen the corpus fund. All donations are exempt from Income tax under section 80G. Cheque or Demand Draft favouring Ramakrishna Mission, Sikra may be sent to the above mentioned address. For donations of more than Rupees one lakh, suitable marble slabs shall be put up in relevant places.

Construction of Office, Auditorium-cum-Library, Computer Training Centre, Free Coaching centre, Monks’ quarters, Dining Hall, Kitchen, and Staff Quarters Rs.76.5 lakhs Furniture and office accessories Rs.5 lakhs Tube Well pumping Unit Rs. 7 lakhs Corpus Fund for Rural Development Services Rs.100 lakhs General Fund for Ashrama Rs.7.5 lakhs Yours in the Service of Lord Swami Vitaragananda Secretary

Ramakrishna Mission Sikra-Kulingram, 24 Parganas (N) West Bengal, India 743 428 Ph: 03217 - 249 980

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Swami Brahmananda (1863-1922) was a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna who regarded him as his spiritual son.

Also known as Raja Maharaj or simply ‘Maharaj’, Swami Brahmananda was the first President of the Ramakrishna Order. A man of deep meditative temperament and down-to-earth wisdom and humour, Maharaj quietly carried the mantle of guiding the fledgling Ramakrishna Order in its first 21 years and also provided spiritual guidance to numerous spiritual aspirants, monastic and lay, who came in touch with him. This book is a compilation of their reminiscences and personal accounts culled from various sources.

The book has six appendices, glossary, introductory notes about the contributors and is illustrated with around 100 photographs.

Hardbound, Pages 588 + xii Price: Rs. 200/- + Postage: Rs.35/- per copy No request for VPP entertained Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004 For Online orders: www.sriramakrishnamath.org

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Now available!

The

DVD conta ining the containing Archiv es of Archives

The V edanta Kesari Vedanta

The Vedanta Kesari, a spiritual and cultural monthly of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914, has been effectively disseminating Indian Ethos and Values, with uninterrupted publication for the last 96 years. The entire collection of archival articles (1914-2009) contributed by scholars and thinkers, savants and admirers, monks and practitioners of Vedanta is now available in one DVD. The DVD has 14300 articles running into 48000 pages by 2400 authors, with search facility indexed author-wise, title-wise, year-wise and by keywords, plus other features. A veritable encyclopedia of Vedanta is now available to you at the click of a button!

Price: Rs.500/Rs.500/-Packing and Posting charges: Rs.60/- (within India) For ordering your copy, draw your DD in favour of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai and send to: The Manager, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai – 600 004, Email: mail@chennaimath.org You can also order online at: www.chennaimath.org/estore/96-years-of-the-vedanta-kesari-a-dvd-collection

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New Release

Personality development is the key to all progress and happiness. Swami Vivekananda said, ‘Men, men these are wanted; everything else will be ready’. In other words, he wanted men with a well-developed personality, full of all noble virtues such as sincerity, unselfishness and purity of heart.

How to Shape the Personality describes various aspects, methods and ways of Personality Development. Contains 30 thought-provoking articles by monks and lay writers, actively involved in teaching and implementing different aspects of Personality Development.

Paperback, Pages 352 + vii Price: Rs. 70/- + Postage: Rs.25/- per copy No request for VPP entertained Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004

SRI RAMAKRISHNA ADVAITA ASHRAMA (Hqs.: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Belur Math) P.O. Kalady, Ernakulam-683574; Ph: 0484-2462345. E-mai1:srkaadv@dataone.in The Ashrama has been running a free hostel for the poor, underprivileged and orphan children from classes V to X since 1936. There is an urgent need for repair and renovation of the old buildings and also creating a corpus fund for maintaining the hostel of 100 children, providing them with food, uniform, accommodation and study materials free of cost.

We appeal to the generous public and well wishers to donate liberally for: 1) Hostel Corpus Fund and/or 2) Hostel Renovation Fund, which are exempt 100% from Income Tax under 35AC. An Endowment of Rs.1 lakh and above may be created in memory of the loved ones.

Donations towards other activities of the Ashrama- Daily Puja, Charitable Dispensaries, Celebrations, Maintenance etc. (General Fund) are exempt from I.T. under 80G. Cheques/Bank Drafts/M.O. may be drawn in favour of Sri Ramakrishna Advaita Ashrama, Kalady and sent to the above address.

Donors from foreign countries can send their contributions online to our F.C. A/C No. 338602010005806 while the Indians can send to the I.C. A/C No.338602010009164 at Union Bank of India, Kalady (IFSC Code: UBIN0533866).

Swami Amaleshananda

Adhyaksha

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An Appeal 31 Years of Service to Humanity 1979 - 2009 1. Navajeevan School & Hostel for Blind Children

– Tirupati & Orissa

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

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The Vedanta Kesari Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under No.1084 / 57. Postal Registered No. TN / CH (C) / 190 / 09-11 Licenced to Post WPP No. 259 / 09-11 Date of publication: 26th of every month

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

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