The Vedanta Kesari - June 2015 issue

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㼀㼔㼑㻌㼂㼑㼐㼍㼚㼠㼍㻌㻷㼑㼟㼍㼞㼕 THE LION OF VEDANTA

A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914

Swami Vivekananda’s Statue at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum, Karnataka

J une 2015

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India's Timeless Wisdom

Daylight and darkness, dusk and dawn, winter and springtime come and go. Time plays and life ebbs away. But the storm of desire, one never leaves. (Hence) Worship the Lord, Worship the Lord. —Bhaja Govindam by Adi Shankaracharya

Editor: SWAMI ATMASHRADDHANANDA Managing Editor: SWAMI GAUTAMANANDA Printed and published by Swami Vimurtananda on behalf of Sri Ramakrishna Math Trust Pri st 2 J U N E 2 0 1 5 T h e V e d a n t a K e s a r i ~ Mylapore, ~ from No.31, Ramakrishna Math Road, Chennai - 4 and Printed at Sri Ramakrishna Printing Press, No.31 Ramakrishna Math Road, Mylapore, Chennai - 4. Ph: 044 - 24621110

㼀㼔㼑㻌㼂㼑㼐㼍㼚㼠㼍㻌㻷㼑㼟㼍㼞㼕

102

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PUBLICATION

VOL. 102, No. 6 ISSN 0042-2983 A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL MONTHLY OF THE RAMAKRISHNA ORDER

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

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

CONTENTS JUNE 2015

Gita Verse for Reflection

205

Editorial The Gift of Remembrance: A Spiritual Perspective

206

Articles Swami Vivekananda: —A Tribute to His Personality and Achievements P. Raman Menon Balaram Mandir and Swami Brahmananda Hiranmoy Mukherjee The Practice of Prayer William Page Some Aspects of Religion and Spirituality Swami Sthiratmananda

214 217 221 232

Travelogue Amarnath Yatra: A Memorable Pilgrimage Swami Tathagatananda

224

Reminiscences ‘Is He a Man or a God?’ Haripada Mitra

228

New Find Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda

230

Compilation Insights into Some Keywords: In Swami Vivekananda’s Words The Order on the March Book Reviews

236 237 239

Feature Simhâvalokanam (How Can We Live a Clean Unworried Life?)

210

Cover Story: Page 6

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N Cover Story N Swami Vivekananda Statue at Belgaum Ashrama Swami Vivekananda visited Belgaum, in north Karnataka, and stayed there from 15th to 27th October 1892. His 13-day stay in Belgaum revolved around two houses where he stayed as a guest—Sri Sadashiv Bhate’s house and Sri Haripada Mitra’s house. While Bhate’s house was Bhates’ personal property where Swamiji stayed for the first 4 days, Haripada Mitra, being a sub-divisional forest officer, lived in Government quarters. Swamiji stayed with Haripada Mitra for the remaining 9 days. (One finds Haripada Mitra’s conversations and reminiscences of Swamiji’s stay at his house in Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, published by Advaita Ashrama—see p.228 of this issue) After Haripada Mitra, other occupants made many additions and alterations to this 19th century building and over time neglect had greatly damaged the structure.

Following an appeal by admirers and devotees of Swamiji, the Karnataka State Government transferred the building along with a surrounding land of 0.8 acres to the Ramakrishna Mission in 2000. After a thorough restoration, this historic building sanctified by Swamiji’s stay is being maintained as a memorial and is the nucleus of other developments of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama at Belgaum. In the main hall of this building, used as a meditation hall for visitors, a three and a half feet high fibre-glass statue of Swami Vivekananda in the seated posture was unveiled in 2006. Incidentally the Bhate’s house is now being restored as a second memorial to Swami Vivekananda at Belgaum.

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

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711. Dr. Sundari Krishnamurthy, Chennai Dr. Sundari Krishnamurthy, Chennai Rs. 2000

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

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AWARDEE INSTITUTIONS

Sri Andal Alagar College, Kancheepuram Dist., T.N. - 603 111 Angala Amman College, Siruganur, Trichy Dist., T.N. - 621 105 Anjalai Ammal Mahalingam Engg. Col., Kovinlveni, Tiruvarur Dist., T.N. - 614 403 D.M.I. College, Polanchoor, Chennai - 602 103 To be continued . . .

㼀㼔㼑㻌㼂㼑㼐㼍㼚㼠㼍㻌㻷㼑㼟㼍㼞㼕 VOL. 102, No. 6, JUNE 2015 ISSN 0042-2983

E ACH

SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE.

T HE GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THE DIVINITY WITHIN. 7

Gita Verse for Reflection Tr. by Swami Tapasyananda

—Bhagavad Gita, 12-9

If you are unable to fix your mind steadily on Me (even at the start), then try to reach Me through the systematic practice of concentration.

B When you are trying to think of God, that is the very time these Samskaras appear. At other times they are not so active; but when you want them not, they are sure to be there, trying their best to crowd in your mind. Why should that be so? Why should they be much more potent at the time of concentration? It is because you are repressing them, and they react with all their force. At other times they do not react. How countless these old past impressions must be, all lodged somewhere in the Chitta, ready, waiting like tigers, to jump up! These have to be suppressed that the one idea which we want may arise, to the exclusion of the others. Instead they are all struggling to come up at the same time. These are the various powers of the Samskaras in hindering concentration of the mind. So this . . . [concentration] is the best to be practised, on account of its power of suppressing the Samskaras. The Samskara which will be raised by this sort of concentration will be so powerful that it will hinder the action of the others, and hold them in check.

—Swami Vivekananda, CW, 1.233

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Editorial

The Gift of Remembrance A Spiritual Perspective ‘Do not Forget’ ‘Do not forget to bring tomatoes.’ ‘And also biscuits and butter.’

‘In your physics exam, remember to do the difficult questions first and then others.’

‘The passport requires a good picture of yours. Do not forget to bring it along.’

‘Remember to greet your classmate on his birthday.’

‘Do not forget your dear younger brother when you become a big man.’

‘Remember to talk to your chairman for the salary hike that is long overdue.’

‘Nothing works, remember, better than honesty and hard work.’

Reminders and instructions such as these and in innumerable other forms keep coming into our mindscape in various situations and times. They are part of our lives. We are told in numerous ways to ‘remember’, ‘not forget’, ‘do remember’, ‘keep in mind’; and so on.

Reminders everywhere, almost every time— that is the way of life.

Not only in our mundane, day-to-day lives, in our spiritual and moral aspects too, we are reminded in various ways. Sri Krishna says in the Gita1, ‘Remember Me, and fight [the battle of life]’. Sometimes reminders come to us through unexpected ways and people, situations and circumstances. Sometimes commonplace people or children may remind one of some important but forgotten truth of life. Or reading some book, or article or news may remind us of something vital. Sometimes we keep ‘reminders’ in our mobiles or seek T h e

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assistance of someone to remind us of an appointment. Some people use written notes to remind them of something. Reminders and remembrances keep chasing us in various ways.

Understanding ‘Memory’ What is memory? Neuroscientists and experts in the structure and functions of brain allot a physical status to memory. And rightly so. There is a physical and neurological aspect of memory. In the Yoga tradition, memory is, however, viewed as a modification of mind— vritti. Called Smriti in Sanskrit, memory is held to be a capacity of mind. Sage Patanjali says in Yogasutra,2 Anubhuta-vishayasampramoshah smritih.

Memory is when Vrittis [cognitive thoughts] of perceived subjects do not slip away and through impressions come back to consciousness.

Swami Vivekananda’s observations on this Sutra are: Memory can come from direct perception, false knowledge, verbal delusion, and sleep. For instance, you hear a word. That word is like a stone thrown into the lake of the Chitta [i.e. mind]; it causes a ripple, and that ripple rouses a series of ripples; this is memory. So in sleep.

When the peculiar kind of ripple called sleep throws the Chitta into a ripple of memory, it is called a dream. Dream is another form of the ripple which in the waking state is called memory.

A thinker once called memory as a little child who is walking on the seashore, picking

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up pebbles or seashells at random. So we too remember or do not remember things at random. Do we? Or is there some design in our randomness? Actually remembering something depends much on the intensity of experience and the perceived need to remember it. Often the bitter experiences are more intense than the pleasant ones and that is how we remember them more. As to the need to remember, who needs to be told about not touching fire!

What happens when we remember something? We ‘think’ and that creates a new channel in our minds. In the lucid explanation

by Swami Vivekananda: Every new thought that we have must make, as it were, a new channel through the brain, and that explains the tremendous conservatism of human nature. Human nature likes to run through the ruts that are already there, because it is easy. If we think, just for example’s sake, that the mind is like a needle, and the brain substance a soft lump before it, then each thought that we have makes a street, as it were, in the brain, and this street would close up, but for the grey matter which comes and makes a lining to keep it separate.

If there were no grey matter, there would be no memory, because memory means going over these old streets, retracing a thought as it were.

The fewer channels there have been in the brain, and the less the needle of the Prana has made these passages, the more conservative will be the brain, the more it will struggle against new thoughts. The more thoughtful the man, the more complicated will be the streets in his brain, and the more easily he will take to new ideas, and understand them.3

This means ‘memory’ is a kind of channel or pathway through which we think. If we wish to think fresh and remember what we learn, we need to create ‘fresh paths’.

How Memory is ‘Made’ In the spiritual sense, our memory is much determined by the ‘food’ that we take.

The Chandogya Upanishad4 says, Through purity of food comes purity of mind, through purity of mind comes a steady memory of Truth, and when one gets this memory one becomes free from all knots of the heart.

Says an eminent monk of the Ramakrishna Order,

Now perhaps you have marked that when one talks on subjects in which one takes a few ideas that are familiar to everyone, and combines and recombines them, it is easy to follow because these channels are present in everyone’s brain, and it is only necessary to recur them. But whenever a new subject comes, new channels have to be made, so it is not understood readily.

And that is why the brain (it is the brain, and not the people themselves) refuses unconsciously to be acted upon by new ideas. It resists. The Prana is trying to make new channels, and the brain will not allow it. This is the secret of conservatism.

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In the above passage the word ‘food’ means everything that comes in contact with the senses.

We must have pure food for the eye, the ear, the organs of touch, smell, etc. Taking pure physical food for the stomach without purifying all other foods taken in by the senses is of no use.5 Let us now try to understand the meaning of the word Ahara, food. The word Ahara means what we take in. Does it mean only food? Pure Sattvic food? Pure vegetarian food? How far does this help? It helps a little; but unless you know how to purify the mind, nothing much happens.

There are plenty of wicked people who are vegetarians. What type of vegetarians are they?

Lord bless them! If you feed a poisonous snake with pure milk, it will only manufacture poison.

So it is not enough to fill our bellies with pure food; our poisonous nature is to be discarded.

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Ahara is that which is taken in, viz., the experience of sound, etc., which are taken in for the experience of the agent; and when this cognition of objects is purified, i.e., when the cognition of objects becomes free from all taint of aversion, attachment or delusion—then of one having such cognition, the inner nature becomes pure.

of the Ramakrishna Order, suggesting a powerful solution to handle painful memories: The more you try to forget something, the more you remember it. You cannot forget anything.

Any conscious attempt to forget strengthens the thought, you remember it all the more.

To forget any thought, do not think about it, think about something else. That is, put your mind somewhere else, then the mind goes away from the unwanted thought. If certain memories are not pleasant, get away from them by putting the mind on something more sublime. That is why in spiritual life you are asked to think of God, repeat God’s name even when you are disturbed by some memory. To blot out a memory, think of something which is closer to your heart and soul. . . . Simply telling the mind not to entertain a thought does not stop it, give it something better, something more divine, something more precious, and the mind holds on to that.

Some of you might have seen the ‘three Japanese monkeys.’ These are three monkey dolls. One monkey is closing both the ears, another, both the eyes and the third, the mouth. During my stay in Europe I came across a stone carving on the bank of a lake in Switzerland. There were also the three monkeys, but with this difference: one had only one eye closed, another had only one ear closed and third had half the mouth closed. I was taken aback for a moment. Then in a flash, I understood the meaning. ‘Don’t see what is bad but see what is good. Don’t hear what is bad but hear what is good. Don’t speak what is bad but speak what is good.’ First I thought it was an original idea. Then my mind turned to the famous Vedic prayer:

Keeping the mind on some divine thought, divine name, is of great spiritual significance; psychologically it helps us a lot; you can avoid many problems, many difficult situations. Even without an effort on your part, thoughts come up at different times according to the different suggestions outside or inside. The only way you can avoid them is to put the mind elsewhere— the thought that you give the mind must be stronger that the one you want to avoid, it must draw your entire mind.’7

O gods, may we hear with our ears what is auspicious.

O ye adorable ones, may we see with our eyes what is auspicious.

May we sing praises to ye and may we enjoy with strong limbs and body the life allotted us by the gods.6

‘Need’ to Forget The gift of memory includes not only the the ability to remember but also the ability to forget what needs to be forgotten.

We have, along with good memories, many bad memories too. What to do with them? We wish to forget those memories. Someone hurt or cheated us; spoke or behaved unkindly with us and so on. And we wish to forget it for that is the best way to deal with those experiences.

How to do it? Says one of the eminent monks T h e

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Sri Krishna says in the Gita (15.15) that ‘forgetfulness too arises from Him!’ Forgetting what needs to be forgotten is important in using this gift of remembrance or else it becomes an instrument of misery and constant pain.

Cultivating Memory Memory is important but how to handle it is the point. Portraying a graphic picture of the ways of mind, Sri Krishna says in the Gita8:

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In one who dwells longingly on sense objects, an inclination towards them is generated. This inclination develops into desire, and desire begets anger.

Anger generates delusion, and delusion results in loss of memory. Loss of memory brings about the destruction of discriminative intelligence and loss of discriminative intelligence spells ruin to a man.

‘Delusion results in loss of memory’ not only when we are angry and upset and do things harmful and unethical but it also comes when we are careless. Carelessness (called Pramada in Sanskrit) does not mean not doing something but while knowing what is to be done—due to a lazy attitude and lack of seriousness—forgetting to do it. That is why we have to be reminded, again and again.

If ‘loss of memory’ is equivalent to carelessness (Pramada), then it implies that one should cultivate constant, unbroken memory of the ideal of our divinity. If we fail to do it, we ‘fall’ down. And it all happens imperceptibly. Acharya Shankara points the dangers of Pramada in Viveka-chudamani (325), If the mind ever so slightly strays from the ideal and becomes outgoing, then it goes down and down, just as a play-ball inadvertently dropped on the staircase comes down from one step to another.

Comments an eminent monk of the Ramakrishna Order on this verse: A boy plays with a ball standing on the top stair.

Inadvertently the ball slips from the hands and falls on the first stair. The ball does not stop

there. . . It keeps gaining momentum in the course of its fall and does not stop until it reaches the bottom . . . [Similarly] The falling mind keeps gathering momentum until it comes down crashing to a very low level of human life. This is the moral fall of man. . . Hence there is need to exercise great caution. Be alert! Be alert!9

In other words, ‘remember’ always, ‘do not forget’ ever.

To develop remembrance, in a spiritual perspective, remember our divine nature. This is generally done in two ways: either being aware of our divine core, ‘separating’ it from the material entity—drig-drishya viveka or the discernment of the seer from the seen. This, of course, presupposes purification of mind. And having mentally separated oneself from the changing and therefore painful phenomenon called this material world, one then dwells in one’s Divine Self.

The other method, much easier and widely used, is Nama-smaranam, remembering the Divine Name—or the sacred name of the Personal God one believes in.

This means doing Japa or repeating God’s Name. This repetition is not a mechanical act, done with speed and hurry. It is a loving remembrance of the Lord, the Beloved One. Both of these methods are effective in bringing back the memory of our divine nature, our Divinity, to us. And what else is the purpose of spiritual living? ‘Remember Me and fight’. One should recall till recalling becomes effortless and one becomes established in it.

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Gita, 8.7 Patanjali Yogasutra, 1.11 CW, 1.225 Chandogya Upanishad, 7.26.2 Meditation and Spiritual Life by Swami Yatiswarananda, Advaita Ashrama, pp.172 T h e

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ibid, pp.296-297 Meditation and its Culmination by Swami Sarvagatananda, volume one p.158 Gita, 2.62-63 The Message of Viveka-chudamani, Swami Ranganathananda, Advaita Ashrama, p.531 J U N E

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Simh창valokanam

From the Archives of THE VEDANTA KESARI (March, 1964-65, p. 536-544)

How Can We Live a Clean Unworried Life?

SWAMI BUDHANANDA

(Continued from the previous issue...)

Or suppose a brick-layer suddenly stumbles on a brick made of gold which he had never seen before in his life. When he goes to lift that brick he will find it incredibly heavy. Why? Because all his life he had only lifted clay bricks. When he went to lift the brick made of gold he thought its weight would be like that of any other clay brick. But the fact was not so. And therefore he found it too heavy, though the weight of the gold brick never increased or decreased.

From these examples we can derive a useful lesson which will be helpful throughout our life. The lesson is this: that facts and our concepts of facts are two different things.

When through careful study, observation and verification, we make our concepts of facts conform to the facts themselves, then it is a true concept of fact. A true concept of fact may be considered to be identical with the fact for all practical purposes. But when we have not cared to do so we are not dealing with a true concept of facts but a false conception of it; that is to say, we are dealing with untruth, or mere illusion, which for all practical purposes has become a fact for us, with all its implications for our lives.

There is a Bengali saying, that it is not the tiger of the forest that devours you, but it is the tiger of your mind.

As regards the worries of our past sins it may be said that mostly we are being devoured by the tigers of our mind and not by the tigers of the forest. In other words, our worries are not rooted in facts but in our concepts of the facts of sin.

Therefore our concept of sin has to be examined. We have to find out how far it tallies with the fact.

1. As regards the sins committed or personal sins, we are sure that it is a fact. Even if our friends may not know about it, we know it. It may be said, here the concept of the fact is identical with the fact. And as every committed sin will bear its fruit, there is reason for worry.

But is it necessary to worry? It may be natural to worry, but it is not necessary to worry.

By worrying over our past sins we do not improve our situation in any way, we rather aggravate it in many ways. We carry an unnecessary burden on our soul all our life. And that affects our nervous system, our present and our future. But it is possible to throw off this T h e

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burden. It is an affair of the mind.

By doing these three things we can get rid of the worries of our personal sins committed in the past.

(1) We must sincerely repent in contrite heart, and in true humility ask pardon of God. (2) We must resolve not to repeat the sins and see to it, no matter what happens, that we keep our resolution.

(3) We must be stoically prepared to accept the consequences of sin, as a just retribution, and derive from it a useful education for life. These three things done, we have not to worry about our past sins.

2. The concept of racial or national sin seems to have quite a hold on the minds of the people. If you enjoy certain benefits and privileges by belonging to a race or a nation, you will also be liable to bear its sorrows and agonies. If you inherit your ancestral property, you may have to inherit some hereditary disease also. You can do nothing about it by just worrying. But you can do something about it by not worrying. The mental time which you would spend in worrying over this very mysterious phenomenon, you can better spend in strengthening your character and life. Even if the visitation of nemesis comes on account of that sin, then as a stronger person you will be able to take it easier in your stride. Maybe it will not touch you at all. In any case, from the weakening process of worrying, no gain could possibly accrue.

Moreover, your share of the particular sin of your race or nation for which you may be worrying, may be individually counteracted by doing a contrary virtuous act as a matter of personal expiation—if you feel so much about it. This will be something positive to do, which might cancel your share in the racial or national retribution. As an ordinary individual you can do nothing better or more.

Then bold preparedness for suffering is any day better than cowardly worrying over an anticipated suffering. Often when you are prepared to suffer, the suffering may not care to inflict you.

3. The Hindu is surprised that anyone should at all be worried about ‘original sin’, which is nothing but a church dogma. Yet as long as you have the concept at the back of your mind, you are worrying about it.

But if you want to get rid of this worry then the Hindu can give you an idea. And it is this: lash out of your mind the idea of original sin with the Vedantic concept of divinity of soul, and the inevitability of eventual salvation of every soul. Then you will have no more worry about original sin, as the Hindus have none.

Now the fundamentalist will tell you that the original divinity of soul, and the inevitability of the eventual salvation of every soul are nothing but some Hindu ideas. Well, then the doctrine of original sin is also nothing but an idea. And for saving our insides from T h e

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being eaten up by worries, it is a very practical and helpful proposition to chase out a bad idea from the mind with the help of a good one.

Let me tell you a story: A somewhat drunken man was moving along the street, carrying in his hand a box with perforations on its sides and on the lid.

‘What have you got in the box?’ asked an acquaintance, stopping him on the way.

‘It is a mongoose,’ replied the tipsy man.

‘What on earth for?’

‘Well, you know how it is with me. I am not very drunk now. But soon I shall be. And when I am, I see snakes all around me and am awfully scared by them. That is why I carry a mongoose for my protection.’

‘But, good heavens, these are imaginary snakes!’

‘That’s all right,’ said the drunken man reassuringly, ‘this is also an imaginary mongoose.’

The box was in fact empty. When you are frightened by imaginary snakes it is better you carried an imaginary mongoose. Even that will help.

But the Hindu concept of divinity of soul is no imaginary mongoose. It is a real one.

Atman has been realized and seen by many.

Worries centering round our past can be, therefore, counteracted by these following simple measures: In regard to personal sins: (1) Sincere repentance, (2) Non-repetition of sin, (3) Facing consequences with an anxiety to learn.

In regard to racial or national sin: (1) Strengthening character and life, (2) Performance of virtuous acts as a matter of personal expiation, (3) Bold preparedness for joyous suffering.

In regard to original sin: Challenging the concept of original sin by the Vedantic concept of divinity of soul and inevitability of salvation of every soul.

VI

Now let us turn to worries centering round our future.

Our worries, centering round our future, are rooted in: (a) Our general fear of the unknown, (b) our particular fear of losing what we have gained, (c) our fear of old age, and (d) our fear of death.

There are many people who live in their past and there are many who live in their future. Those who live in their past are not sufficiently alive. Those who live in their future are not adequately born.

To the extent you worry about your future to that extent you are dead to the present.

And to that extent you are anti-God also.

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When you are dead to the present, you cannot help seeing a fearful ghost in the future making all sorts of faces at you. The more you try to strike at this ghost, the more powerful it appears. There is just no need to strike at the ghost, which is nothing but a mental image projected by yourself on the screen of your future. It has no objective reality at all.

If you do not want to confront the ghost of future worries, the first thing to do is to live in the present—fully, vigorously and enthusiastically with all your heart, mind and brain, concentrated here and now. And this should be done in the light of true religion.

When you fail to pay homage to the present by living in it fully, it is but right that you must suffer in the future. And those sufferings will only be a harvest born of the seeds sown by yourself in the gaps of your life in the present.

‘In the heart of this moment is eternity,’ said Meister Eckhart. In this moment alone we are alive. And mark, every moment is this moment only up to the end of time. God being co-eval with eternity, He is in thy heart of this moment. Therefore when we have not lived fully in this moment we have not worshipped God. By failing to worship God we have not only discarded Him, we have also embroiled ourselves in illusion born of ignorance, and resultant suffering.

The man who says that he has faith in God and at the same time worries about his future is a simple liar—hard words but fact. If you honestly think you have faith in God and at the same time you find yourself worrying about your future, then there is a clear case here of the necessity of filling up the gaps in your faith. The man of true faith has no worries at all. Why should he worry? Why need he worry? Are not his whole life, his future and all in good hands? Will not God dispense only what is good for him? Well, sufferings may very well come. But will not that be only a symbol of His compassion? Destitution may come, but that will be God’s device to pull you nearer to His heart. When He does not want us to stay separated from Him, He may strip us of everything, of all our upadhis or embellishments, which are only separating agents between man and God. All our worries are rooted in our ego-sense. . . When faith ripens, the ego-sense disappears. And as Sri Ramakrishna says, when this ego-sense disappears all our worries will cease to exist. The man of true faith cannot have fear of the unknown. For what is unknown to him, is also within God. And what is within God is all good. It may be terribly good, of course! But he does not worry about it since it is within God. When faith knocks at our fear of the unknown, it also simultaneously uproots our fear of losing what we have gained, our fear of old age and our fear of death, all of which are rooted in our ego-sense. Therefore the remedies for all our future worries are in these two measures: First, to live in the present, fully, vigorously and enthusiastically with all our heart, mind and brain concentrated here and now, and that in the light of the true religion. Second, to make our faith in God true.

(To be continued. . .)

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Swami Vivekananda —A Tribute to His Personality and Achievements P. RAMAN MENON

This article is based on excerpts from ‘Birth Centenary of Swami Vivekananda, 1963’, by the well-known Malayalam poet, Puthezhath Raman Menon. The original writing formed a part of Smaraka Upaharam, a release in Malayalam in 1963, marking the Birth Centenary of Swami Vivekananda. This is a translation from Malayalam by M. Lakshmikumari who heads Vivekananda Vedic Vision, Kodungalloor, Kerala and is author’s daughter.

Swami Vivekananda’s birth centenary [1963] is being celebrated all over the country with fullest co-operation of the Central Government . . .

Swami Vivekananda was like the great Adi Shankaracharya, an effulgent soul, unfortunately of short life duration. It was on 11 September 1893 that Swamiji gave his first public speech.

On 4 July 1902 he entered into Mahasamadhi. But this short nine years of work made him renowned as a world thinker of eminence. We have received only a very small portion of his speeches and addresses, and that too thanks to his dynamic [English] disciple Goodwin, who, regrettably passed away after a brief illness in 1896 at Ooty in Tamilnadu.

Very many people—both Indian and Western admirers—have written about Swami Vivekananda. Under the tablet on his Samadhi Mandir are written the following words: ‘What Hinduism had needed was the organizing and consolidating of its own idea. What the world had needed was a faith that has no fear of Truth.’

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But for Swami Vivekananda thousands of people would have rejected the life-giving messages of Vedas based only on the dry unintelligible commentaries of the so-called Pundits. Swami Vivekananda talked with authority, as different from a Pundit because he could delve deep into the depths of what he spoke. He returned from this depth to fulfill the desire of his Guru, like Sri Ramanuja, to reveal its secrets to the lowliest and the lost, even those from other countries.

It was Swamiji who while declaring the experience based Supreme Truth, ‘Ekameva Adviteeyam’, at the same time included Dvaita and Vishishta Advaita, as the components and part of the realization of the Truth. In his view workplace and study room, the harvest store and field, each and every thing was as important for discovering Truth and realizing God—as important as a Temple with its sanctum and sanctorum—fit enough to realize God. For him service of man was service to God; Dharmic life was itself spirituality.

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In short, more than anybody else it was Swami Vivekananda who made Hinduism wholesome, universal, vibrant and alive.

No one could completely visualize India as Swamiji did—from the Himalayas down to Sethusamudra, see her as one and work for her regeneration comprehensively, undaunted by time and place. Among the worshipful heroes of modern India, Swami Vivekananda deserves the first and foremost place, more than Gandhiji, Nehru and Tagore. We can say with conviction that he truly had understood the Oneness and fullness of India based on the essential spiritual heritage of our country and its universal nature.

Swami Vivekananda’s pride in the country had no tinge of exclusiveness based on caste and creed. He urged Indians to be good Indians first.

A great Sannyasi and visionary that he was, he felt that Indian children should play football and consume good healthy food before studying Vedanta. No politician of India has understood the true state of Indian life as Swami Vivekananda. Standing on American soil he opened up before the Americans, who came to listen to Vedanta, the true picture of India and her poverty.

He was a prophet who openly declared that bereft of self-knowledge, self-confidence and pride in her own culture India cannot stand on her feet nor survive. If at all India has passed through all vicissitudes, the one and only reason for that is her time tested spiritual strength. Even today, what she can share with others is this spiritual treasure. When India forgets her spiritual essence, gives it up and acts contrary to her basic strength, that day India would lose her individuality [which he declared many times].

Deplorably, independent India has totally neglected this pristine quality of hers.

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Hence today she is in a pitiable condition of possessing everything yet owning nothing.

There has been no subject of study or field of activity in India that had not caught the considered attention of Swami Vivekananda, including all negative aspects of Indian life.

He has provided the most relevant advices for their rectification as well. He was a sannyasi and patriot par excellence. He had up-todate knowledge in everything modern. His practical wisdom was unparalleled. He was courageous to extreme yet full of humility with abiding faith in the Lord Almighty. Not even a tinge of egoism spoiled his character. In every sense Swami Vivekananda was the creator of Modern India.

During this centenary celebration efforts are on to get Swamiji’s Complete Works translated into all Indian languages. That is the best possible way to celebrate his birth’s centenary. In this context one cannot but feel that these should have become a part of the compulsory curriculum of our college-going students.

As far as Kerala is concerned we can proudly claim that Swami Vivekananda is ours. Like a loving elderly Karanavar (Grand Uncle), he faulted Kerala as a lunatic asylum.

He passed through Kerala as an unknown itinerant monk, met the great scholar Rishi of Kerala Chattambi Swamigal, proceeded to Kanyakumari and sat in meditation on the rock for three days and nights. It was there, standing at the southern tip viewing the vast Indian stretch that he received the inspiration to undertake the journey to the West. That foreign travel, visit to America and his famous Chicago Address made him known throughout the world. Hence for all of us in Kerala he should remain specially dear and worshipful.

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Since Swamiji’s famous meditation on the rock at Kanyakumari the rock has come to be known as the Vivekananda Rock. Permission has been granted to construct a suitable memorial on the rock by the Devaswom and

the Government. May this centenary celebration consolidate all liberal and positive forces, awaken them and energize them to stand as one and achieve the aim of creating the magnificent Vivekananda Rock Memorial. †

Swami Vivekananda’s Contribution Even now [1963] a hundred years after the birth of Narendranath Datta, who later EHFDPH 6ZDPL 9LYHNDQDQGD LW LV YHU\ GLI¿FXOW WR HYDOXDWH KLV LPSRUWDQFH LQ WKH VFDOH of world history. It is certainly far greater than any Western historian or most Indian historians would have suggested at the time of his death. The passing of the years and the many stupendous and unexpected events which have occurred since then suggests that in centuries to come he will be remembered as one of the main moulders of the modern ZRUOG HVSHFLDOO\ DV IDU DV $VLD LV FRQFHUQHG DQG DV RQH RI WKH PRVW VLJQL¿FDQW ¿JXUHV in the whole history of Indian religion, comparable in importance to such great teachers DV 6KDQNDUD DQG 5DPDQXMD DQG GH¿QLWHO\ PRUH LPSRUWDQW WKDQ WKH VDLQWV RI ORFDO RU UHJLRQDO VLJQL¿FDQFH VXFK DV .DELU &KDLWDQ\D DQG WKH PDQ\ 1D\DQPDUV DQG $OZDUV RI South India.

I believe also that Vivekananda will always be remembered in the world’s history because he virtually initiated what the late Dr C. E. M. Joad once called ‘the counter-attack from the East’. Since the days of the Indian missionaries who travelled in South-East Asia and China preaching Buddhism and Hinduism more than a thousand years earlier, he was WKH ÂżUVW ,QGLDQ UHOLJLRXV WHDFKHU WR PDNH DQ LPSUHVVLRQ RXWVLGH ,QGLD —A. L. Basham (1914-1986), a noted historian and indologist and author of a number of books. ,W LV DQ XQGLVSXWHG IDFW WKDW LW ZDV 6ZDPL 9LYHNDQDQGD ZKR ÂżUVW KHOG DORIW WKH banner of Hinduism as a challenge against the material science of the West. ... It was Swami Vivekananda who took on his shoulders this stupendous task of establishing the glory of Hinduism in different countries across the borders. And he, with his erudition, oratorical power, enthusiasm and inner force, laid that work upon a solid foundation.. . .

Twelve centuries ago Shankaracharya was the only great personality, who not only spoke of the purity of our religion, not only uttered in words that this religion was our strength and wealth, not only said that it was our sacred duty to preach this religion in the length and breadth of the world—but also brought all this into action. Swami Vivekananda is a person of that stature—who appeared towards the last half of the nineteenth century. —Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the frontline leader of the Indian Freedom Movement, eminent scholar in Sanskrit and Indian issues. The author of Gita Rahasya.

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Article

Balaram Mandir and Swami Brahmananda HIRANMOY MUKHERJEE

‘I Make No Distinction . . .’

An interesting incident took place many years after the passing of Sri Ramakrishna.

Balaram Babu’s son, Ramakrishna Bose, had invited the monks of Belur Math and Udbodhan to his house, Balaram Mandir, after the marriage of his daughter—they were to partake of food there.

Swami Saradananda (a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna) informed all the monks that he would be leaving for Balaram’s house at a particular time and those who wish to go there could accompany him. Swami Bhumananda was present there and commented: ‘Being monks how can we [the Hindu monks] attend a marriage feast? It would not be proper to go there.’ Swami Saradananda heard it and did not reply because of his habit to never interfere with anybody’s belief and opinion.

At the appointed time he left with a stick in his hand—two monks, Swami Gangeshananda and Swami Dayananda, accompanied him.

At Balaram Mandir, Swami Saradananda along with two of his companions sat down at the appointed place for taking food. Quite a number of monks who had arrived from Belur Math also sat beside them. In the meantime, Swami Premananda (another direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna) who was staying at Balaram’s house due to his illness, came out of his room and started rebuking the monks for attending the marriage feast saying: ‘How

Swami Saradananda

come you monks have come to attend a marriage feast! Don’t you get anything to eat at Math!’ Thus reprimanded, most of the monks prepared to leave the place.

Then the host Ramakrishna Bose came and told Swami Premananda: ‘Please do not make any comments in the matter. We are devotees for the last three generations.

I know what offerings are to be given to a monk. None of the food items here are in any way connected to the marriage function.’ On listening to this Swami Premananda retired to his room.

The author is a retired government official and is an active volunteer of Ramakrishna Math, Nagpur, Maharashtra.

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The monks sat down and partook of the food. After the food, Swami Saradananda while walking back to Udbodhan commented, ‘I do not distinguish between the food offered here at Shraddha and marriage—Sri Thakur used to say that food offered at Balaram’s house is pure—that is why I came to partake the food.’1 This incident highlights the respectful manner in which the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna looked at Balaram Bose and his family.

Sri Ramakrishna himself visited Balaram’s house more than 100 times!

Balaram’s House: A Place of Sanctity and History Balaram Bose, born in a wealthy Vaishnava family of North Kolkata, had read and heard about the life and teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and came from Puri to meet him. Himself a devotee, spending hours in meditation and Japa, he met Sri Thakur (as Sri Ramakrishna is addressed in the Ramakrishna Order) on 1 January, 1881, at Dakshineswar and was very much impressed by the Master.

The Master’s words touched his heart.

He again visited Sri Thakur on the very next day when Thakur told him: ‘The Divine Mother has told me that you are my own—you are one of Her suppliers—many things are stored up for this place (meaning himself) in your house. Buy something and send it here.’

It seemed to Balaram Babu that the Master was a close relative of his and he was very much moved by his sweet nature, high spiritual state and repeated Bhava-samadhi.

From that time onwards Balaram Babu would supply all the requirements of Sri Thakur till his passing. Needless to say Sri Thakur was always welcome at Balaram Babu’s house.

Balaram Babu’s house in Kolkata was sanctified many times by Sri Ramakrishna’s T h e

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Sri Ramakrishna

visit to it. There he lost himself in samadhi, dancing, singing or talking about God. Those of the Master’s disciples and devotees who could not go to Dakshineswar frequently used to meet him at Balaram Babu’s house and listened to his spiritual talks. The Master had visited his house at least a hundred times and Balaram Babu had kept a record of all these visits. Sri Ramakrishna had even stayed here for seven days at a stretch. Whenever necessary, the Master would stay overnight at his place and partake the prasad of Lord Jagannath—their family deity, worshipped daily at their home.

While the Master used to describe Dakshineswar temple as Mother Kali’s Fort— he would describe Balaram’s house in Kolkata as Mother Kali’s second Fort. The Master used to say that ‘Balaram’s food is very pure as members of the family have been devotees for generations and hospitable to monks and poor.

The family members are all pious and devoted to God—not only can I take Balaram’s food, but I take it with pleasure.’

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Balaram Bose Balaram Mandir, Kolkata

Sri Thakur had many spiritual sessions in this house with his devotees—his songs, dances, Bhava-samadhis and spiritual talks kept his audience enthralled. Every year Balaram Babu celebrated the chariot festival of Lord Jagannath in his home. The Master’s presence greatly enhanced the joy of the occasion.

During the Master’s illness, Balaram Babu continued to provide all his food, since the Master did not care for the food that was bought from the money people contributed through subscriptions. After Master’s passing away on 16 August 1886, a major portion of his sacred remains (ashes) was kept in a vessel (atmaramer kouto) and was shifted initially from Kashipur (Cossipore) to Balaram’s house before being finally shifted to Baranagore Math. The Holy Mother also shifted to Balaram T h e

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Babu’s house and the latter arranged for her pilgrimage to Varanasi, Vrindavan and other holy places.

Swami Vivekananda had tremendous love and regard for Balaram Babu. Swamiji once said to him: ‘Our relationship with you is different. If you push us out from the front door, we shall enter again through back door.’

Balaram Babu always stood beside the disciples of the Master and served them whole heartedly. He left his mortal coil on 13 April 1890. It is said that Sri Ramakrishna appeared before Balaram Babu where he lay and took him in a chariot to heaven.2 Even after his death, his family members saw to it that the home was always open to the Holy Mother and the disciples of the Master. Many of them used to stay here and the family members used to treat them with respect, devotion and love. The Holy Mother

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occasionally stayed in this house for fairly long periods. During a Saradiya Durga Puja, once she was there for a whole month.

Most of the direct disciples of Sri Thakur including Swami Vivekananda and Swami Brahmananda had visited and stayed in this house—some times for long periods. It would appear as if it had become a part of Belur Math premises. Swami Brahmananda and Swami Premananda left their mortal coil in this house.

The meeting in which Swami Vivekananda presided and announced the creation of Ramakrishna Mission on 1 May, 1897, was held at Balaram’s house. In the second meeting held on 5 May at the same venue the resolution about the aims and objects of the Mission was passed.

Weekly meetings were organized at Balaram’s house to discuss the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Vedanta scriptures and religious subjects in general and which were attended by monks of Ramakrishna Math and devotees. It was in this house that Swamiji, after his return from his first trip to West, tried to convince his brother disciples about his new conception of religion, namely, the worship of God through service of man and succeeded in due course. Though Cossipore was the place where Ramakrishna Math was born—it is Balaram’s house which gave birth to Ramakrishna Mission. Aptly

Balaram’s house came to be known as Balaram Mandir by public at large. It became a place of pilgrimage for devotees along with Belur Math, Dakshineshwar temple, Cossipore Math, Yogodyana and other religious places in Kolkata.

On November 12, 1898, a meeting was held at Balaram house to consider the opening of Sister Nivedita’s school. Swamiji, Swamis Brahmananda, Saradananda and others were present. A series of such meetings were held eventually. An eye-witness has recorded an interesting incident at one such meeting: In the hall of Balaram Bose’s house, an informal meeting of the lay devotees was held. Sister Nivedita spoke in English about her proposed school laying stress on giving national education to girls. Mahendranath Gupta (M), Suresh Datta, Haramohan Babu and others were present. No one noticed the presence of Swamiji behind these gentlemen. When Nivedia stopped speaking, Swamiji whispered to the gentlemen to get up and say that they are willing to send their daughters to her school. When no one really stood up, Swamiji got up and said, ‘Well, Miss Noble,’ and pointing to Haramohan Babu, ‘this gentleman offers his girl to you.’ On seeing Swamiji, Sister Nivedita was very pleased and on hearing his words started clapping her hands like a child.3

(To be Continued) References 1.

2.

‘Balaram Mandire Sri Ramakrishna’ in Satabarsher Aloke (Bengali), 1984, Balaram Mandir, Kolkata, pp. 36-37.

They Lived with God by Swami Chetanananda, July

3.

1991, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, p. 150.

Sister Nivedita by Pravrajika Atmaprana, 6th edition, 2007, Sister Nivedita Girls School, Kolkata, p. 68-69.

*RG LV ([LVWHQFH .QRZOHGJH DQG %OLVV 0DQ\ DUH +LV QDPHV DQG HQGOHVV DUH +LV manifestations. As the devotee looks upon Him, so does He manifest Himself to Him. To VRPH WKHUHIRUH +H UHYHDOV +LPVHOI DV .DOL WR VRPH DV 5DPD WR VRPH DV .ULVKQD RU Shiva, and so on. It all depends on the devotee’s own mental constitution. —Swami Vijnanananda T h e

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Article

The Practice of Prayer WILLIAM PAGE

Prayer means talking to God. It is the primary religious practice in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Westerners who come to Vedanta usually feel more comfortable with prayer than they do with Japa and meditation, because they are more familiar with it.

Talking the Talk Prayer is especially suited to people who like to talk. It can be of great benefit to people who are lonely and need somebody to talk to. Why be lonely? God is with us. He’s right here, right now. He’s in the air that surrounds us. So talk to Him. That’s what He’s here for.

The words can be spoken aloud, whispered, or uttered mentally. But what should we talk to Him about?

Some people ask for specific blessings or favours. ‘O Lord, please help me to pass all my courses, let me find a good job, let me earn enough money to buy a car.’ This is called petitionary prayer, and it has a shortcoming. It turns God into a cosmic Santa Claus.

If God were human, He would surely get irritated with people who are always begging Him for things. Fortunately for us, He is not human. But good manners require us to exercise restraint in our importunities.

Pestering God for favours all the time is impolite.

Despite its shortcomings, petitionary p pr ay yer is at least a beginning. It can easily prayer

expand into less self-centered kinds of prayer.

One of these is thankful prayer. Anybody can ask God for things. How many people bother to thank Him? Thankful prayer is a good way to start the day. It puts us in a good mood and reminds us of how much God has blessed us. Counting our blessings, in fact, is a wholesome practice much neglected in the modern world. Thanking God for everything He’s given us may still be self-centered, but it’s a considerable improvement over ‘gimme, gimme, gimme.’

There’s also laudatory prayer, in which we praise God and recount His glories.

Some people feel uneasy about this, because it can get prodigal. ‘O Lord, how great You are! You are omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent.

You bestride the universe and give light to the sun and stars.

The heavens are Your throne and the earth is your footstool. O Lord, You are so great!’

Does God want us to butter Him up? Is He pleased when we flatter and fawn upon Him and grovel before

William Page has been associated with the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society ie ety y of Massachusetts, Ma asssa s chus ch huset setts ts,, USA, ts USA, since US sin inc ce ce 1960 and is a member of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society of Thailand.

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Him like slaves? Do we want to turn him into a fathead? I can picture him listening to the prayer above and growling, ‘Yes, yes, yes, I know all that. Get to the point. What do you want now?’

The Lummox and the Casserole One of the best kinds of prayer is conversational prayer. It means simply talking to God, and it brings us back to the question we asked at the beginning: What should we talk to Him about?

Anything and everything: whatever is going on, both in our minds and in the world.

We can discuss knotty theological questions with Him if we like, or any doubts that we may have. We can ask for His advice and guidance. Adults can talk to Him about their families and their jobs; children can talk about their friends and their schoolwork. We can talk about our hobbies, sports, and even politics. I know a devotee who, as an adolescent, used to discuss current events with God. It turned out to be excellent preparation for his Social Studies classes.

A wonderful embodiment of conversational prayer was Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Carmelite monk whose writings have been compiled into a little book called The Practice of the Presence of God.1 Brother Lawrence cultivated God’s presence by constantly conversing with him. He was a simple and humble man who worked as a cook in the monastery kitchen, and described himself as ‘a clumsy lummox who broke everything.’

Whether at work or at rest, Brother Lawrence talked to God about everything, all the time, and experienced a constant sense of His presence. I picture Brother Lawrence as a big, burly guy, lumbering around the kitchen in his apron, juggling the pots and pans and talking to God. I’ve often wondered how T h e

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these conversations, which may have been somewhat one-sided, might have gone. They might have gone something like this: O Lord, please help me to make this casserole a tasty one. I want it to please the monks. Should I add more salt? What do you think, Lord?. . . All right, it’s salty enough. A bit of pepper, then. . . .

Good, it tastes good. Into the oven, then. . . . Out of the oven and onto the table. And, Lord, please help me not to drop it, clumsy lummox that I am.

Some people will scoff at this kind of prayer as nothing more than childish chatter. But Jesus reminds us that we have to become like children to enter the Kingdom of God; and our minds are always chattering.

Why not funnel such chatter into a constant conversation with God? ‘Well,’ people will say, ‘God will get bored. Do you think He has nothing to do but listen to some simple-minded fool prattling about casseroles? God has more important things to do with His time. He’s got the entire universe to run.’

And that’s where they’re wrong. God does have the entire universe to run, but He’s concerned with the microcosm as well as the macrocosm. He’s intimately involved in both. He has a keen interest in the lives of His devotees, and doesn’t mind being bored. In fact, He likes being bored. Whenever a devotee reaches out and talks to Him, God is delighted.

How do I know this? Because it makes sense. He wouldn’t be much of a God if He weren’t concerned about the things that concern His devotees. He won’t care if the devotee’s prattle is boring. What He values is not so much the prattle, but the reaching out.

After all, how many people reach out to Him? How many bother to talk to Him at all?

Sri Ramakrishna Shows the Way

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Sri Ramakrishna was the king of devotees, and he really knew how to pray.

There was nothing formal or rehearsed about his prayers. They were artless and spontaneous. I have often wished that they could be compiled into a book 2, so that anybody who wanted to learn how to pray could read it and find out.

We know that we can approach God as a beloved master, as a close friend, as our father or mother, or even as our own child.

Sri Ramakrishna assures us that God is our nearest and dearest. And that’s how Sri Ramakrishna approached Him. He was never shy or diffident; he never held anything back.

His prayers were spontaneous outpourings of emotion, passionate and intense.

He prayed the way a child cries out for its mother. Before his first vision of Kali, his only prayer was for her to reveal herself. After his first vision, his only prayer was for her to reveal herself again and again, and to stay with him forever. In all his subsequent prayers, he conversed with her the same way a child converses with its mother: now cajoling, now weeping, now satisfied, now laughing, now grateful, now philosophical, now petulant and complaining. You can’t compete with Sri Ramakrishna when it comes to praying.

Above all, Sri Ramakrishna prayed for bhakti, pure love for God. Mother, here is Thy knowledge and here is Thy ignorance. Take them both, and give me only pure love. Here is Thy holiness and here is Thy

Sri Ramakrishna unholiness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy good and here is Thy evil. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love. Here is Thy righteousness and here is Thy unrighteousness. Take them both, Mother, and give me pure love.3

By his example, Sri Ramakrishna taught us how to transform petitionary prayer into a constant reaching for God. If we’re going to ask for anything, Sri Ramakrishna says, we shouldn’t ask for petty things like wealth, fame, and enjoyment. We should ask for the greatest gift of all: the gift of God Himself. And prayer does that. It calls out to God in love and yearning, and through its calling draws Him from the heavens to the heart.

References 1.

2.

The Practice of the Presence of God, by Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection, translated by John J. Delaney, Image Books, Doubleday, New York, 1996, p. xxi.

See ‘Thus Prayed Sri Ramakrishna’—a T h e

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compilation of Sri Ramakrishna’s prayers was published in The Vedanta Kesari, 2010, September, pp.330-335.

The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, New York, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1947, p. 312.

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Travelogue

Amarnath Yatra: A Memorable Pilgrimage SWAMI TATHAGATANANDA

It was an exhilarating and memorable pilgrimage to Amarnath cave situated at a height of about 13,000 feet, 88 miles from Srinagar. At the north-east corner of the cave is the majestic ice Lingam which is a natural formation of ice, and is the symbol of Lord Amarnath. The atmosphere is spiritually charged and awe-inspiring. Peace permeated the atmosphere with the presence of Amarnath who is a wish-fulfilling deity. When Swami Vivekananda visited Amarnath in 1898, he had the vision of Lord Shiva in this cave and was blessed with the boon of death-at-will (iccha-mrityu). Reminiscing about his visit to Amarnath, he wrote: ‘I never had been to anything so beautiful, so inspiring! . . .

I enjoyed it so much (that) I thought the Lingam was Shiva Himself. . . It was all worship. I never enjoyed a religious place so much.’

There were five in our party, three Swamis of the Ramakrishna Order—Swami Satyabratananda, Swami Tanmayananda, another Swami from Vrindavan Ashram, myself—and Mr. Bud, an American devotee of Sri Ramakrishna. Mr. Bud was a young boy of nineteen and had spent one year at Banaras Hindu University, studying Hindi and Sanskrit. His devotion, sincerity, and painstaking capacity had impressed me much.

On the 25th July of 1974, we left Delhi for Jammu by Kashmir Mail and reached there in the morning. Previously, the train used to go up to Pathankot. From Jammu, we took a bus to go to Srinagar which is about 200 miles away. The bus fare was Rs.15/- and the journey took ten hours.

The famous Amarnath cave lies at a distance of about 88 miles from Srinagar and 30 miles from Pahalgam. We took a bus from S riinagaa and went to Pahalgam on the 27th.

Srinagar

Pahalgam is a picturesque village located at the confluence of the Lidder and the Seshnag rivers at an altitude of 7,200 feet. Its beauty attracts large number of tourists. It is also a health resort. The famous Shiva Temple there bore the marks of vandalism. There was an ancient Vishnu Temple also. The necessary preparations for the journey, coolies (porters), ponies, tents and appropriate garments, were to be made at Pahalgam. The journey to Amarnath had to be accomplished either on foot or pony or in Dandis (chairs carried by 4 porters). Sometimes, one could go by private car or jeep up to Chandanwadi, a distance of 10 miles from Pahalgam.

We engaged two pack-ponies to carry our beddings. The cost for the round trip from Pahalgam to Panchatharani was Rs.250/-, the prices being Rs.130/- and Rs.80/- for the pony and the porter respectively. There were only three halts on the route—Chandanwadi,

The author is a senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, and the Head of Vedanta Society, New York, USA. This article is based on his pilgrimage in 1974.

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Seshnag and Panchatarani. Nowadays, tents and food are available on the way.

We left Pahalgam at 8 pm on the 27th of July and reached Chandanwadi on foot around 11:30 pm. We were alone. Chandanwadi, located at 9,500 feet above the sea level, is a tourist centre. Beyond this point, no tourists other than the pilgrims go. From here, one had to undertake the journey along a bridle-path.

The road, as it winds along, represents a series of enchanting landscapes.

On the morning of 28th, we left Chandanwadi for Seshnag, eight miles up on the way to Amarnath. After 1.5 miles, began a nerve-racking, horrifying steep ascent called Pissu Ghati—the valley of Pissu (in Hindi, snail), indicating that due to its steep topography travelers walk like snails, i.e., very slowly.

We halted for meal at Seshnag which is at an altitude of about 12,000 feet. The famous Seshnag Lake is here, lying about 500 feet below the road level. The water of the lake is greenish-milk-white. The clear reflection of the passing clouds on the water is simply

captivating. The atmosphere is spiritual and awe-inspiring.

We had to pass through Vayujan and Mahagunapas. Mahagunapas, at an altitude of about 14,500 feet, was the highest and most formidable climb on the route. Air becomes cooler and breathing gets difficult here, pulse-rate rises to an abnormally high level.

Mahagunapas to Panchatarani, at an altitude of 12,015 feet, is a risky descent—very steep and slippery.

We had to go through long stretches of snow beds, torrential rivers and marshy slopes. In some places, rivers run under a heavy sheet of snow. Snow giving way under our feet was not uncommon experience there.

Panchatharani is so called because five rivers converge there. It has an atmosphere charged with spirituality. We spent the night there.

The next morning, 29th of July, we started for the holy cave leaving our luggage in the tent. At Amaranth, one could stay only till afternoon and had to be back to Panchatarani before dark. The path from Panchatarani to the cave is open only between June and

The way to Amarnath

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September; for the rest of the year, it is covered with snow. Amarnath was 4.5 miles ahead of us. The path at some point was too narrow and the chance of a slip was too high; any accident was sure to be fatal. Many of the snow beds were hidden dangers to limb or life. On the western side of the cave, flows a small river called Amar-Ganga, crystal clear and icy cold.

Four of us took bath in the holy river and climbed up to the cave 300 feet above.

The Amarnath cave is situated at a height of about 13,000 feet. It is facing south. The cave is about 150 feet high and 90 feet wide at the entrance, 500 to 600 people can stand there.

There are two holes in the northern wall of the cave from which water trickles down and freezes into ice. At the north-east corner of the cave, is the majestic ice Lingam which is a natural formation of ice and is the symbol of Lord Amarnath. It is glossy and emits a radiant bluish-white light.

It is said that Amarnath Lingam grows and diminishes in size with the waxing and the waning of the moon. The height of the Lingam

is said to be 7.5 feet in July, 4 feet in August and 1 foot in September. We saw the Lingam having a cylindrical shape with a height of 7 feet and 3 feet in diameter. Amarnath is a wish fulfilling Deity. Swami Vivekananda had the vision of Lord Shiva in this cave and was blessed with the boon of iccha-mrityu—death at will. Shiva manifests in this form for the benefit of man, out of His infinite mercy.

This Darshan or visiting and seeing Lord Amarnath stands out in my memory with glowing vividness. I felt inspired, became quiet—almost breathless with adoration. I entered, as it were, into a new world. I was conscious of a vastness, of a hush folded in hush, and of something that defies language.

Peace permeated the atmosphere with the presence of Lord Amarnath. All our troubles and anxieties were amply rewarded. I saw a few snow pigeons in the cave. Seeing them is considered to be very auspicious.

After the visit of Amarnath, we returned to Panchatarani at 10 am and started for Seshnag around noon. We spent the night

The sacred Amarnath Cave

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there and came back to Pahalgam around 6 pm on 31st July. Pahalgam was full of pilgrims. No place was empty.

The ‘official Yatra (pilgrimage)’ was to begin on the next day.

The annual festival of Shravan Purnima (full moon day of the Hindu month of Shravan) is a great event which attracts a large number of devotees from all parts of India and abroad. During this time, to make the pilgrimage to Amarnath a success, the Government makes excellent arrangements for the convenience of the pilgrims all along the route. Sadhus (monks) are given one meal a day. Hence, during the ‘official Yatra’, the journey is easier and less risky, but it is indeed a very crowded affair.

Before we returned, we visited the famous temple of Goddess Kshir Bhawani where Swami Vivekananda had a divine experience.

I can never forget the simple, honest, and faithful, though very poor, coolies and pony-wallas (pony handlers). They were all Muslims, but without them, nobody could go to Amarnath. I still visualize the trekking of the pilgrims. Most of them were on foot, a

Amarnath Shiva Lingam

few were on the ponies or in Dandies. With the exception of the coolies and pony-wallas, all had only one wish—to have Darshan of Lord Amaranth. Most of the pilgrims were householders—all cheerfully walking on, stick in hand, enjoying the wondrous sight of the heights, rivers, valleys and the snow-clad peaks. Among the travelers were young men and women, American hippies and college students with cameras in hand; some even were bare footed, like the Sadhus in scanty clothes.

May Amarnath attract our youths in large numbers! Jai Amarnath!

Many times I have been in the jaws of death, starving, footsore, and weary; for days and days I had had no food, and often could walk no farther; I would sink down under a tree, and life would seem ebbing away. I could not speak, I could scarcely think, but at last the mind reverted to the idea: “I have no fear nor death; I never hunger nor thirst. I am It! I am It! The whole of nature cannot crush me; it is my servant. Assert thy strength, thou Lord of lords and God of gods! Regain thy lost empire! Arise and walk and stop not!” And I would rise up, reinvigorated, and here am I, living, today.

—Swami Vivekananda T h e

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Reminiscences

‘Is He a Man or a God?’ HARIPADA MITRA

October 19, 1892 [Belgaum, Karnataka] I had been waiting for Swamiji [Swami Vivekananda] from six o’clock in the morning.

It struck eight. So without waiting any longer, I left for Swamiji’s place with a friend. There we found him seated in the midst of a respectable gathering of lawyers and other learned men, and carrying on conversation with them.

He answered their questions without the slightest hesitation, sometimes in English and sometimes in Hindi or Sanskrit. There were also people like myself who accepted Huxley’s philosophy as their Bible, and started arguing with Swamiji on that basis. But he silenced them all either through repartees or serious dissertation. As I sat there after saluting him, I was thinking, ‘Is he a man or a god?’ So I could not remember all that I heard. I write down only the few words that come to my mind.

A lawyer asked, ‘The Mantras we use in our morning and evening prayers are in Sanskrit, and we do not understand a bit of them. Is it of any use to us to go on uttering them?’

Swamiji replied, ‘They do have good results. Born in a Brahmin family as you are, you can easily learn the meaning of those few Mantras. If you do not do so, who is to blame?

Even if you do not understand the meaning, I hope, when you sit for prayer, you have the feeling that you are doing something virtuous and not sinful. If you have the belief that you are doing something meritorious, then that in itself is enough to yield good results.’

Just then somebody said, ‘Talks on religious matters should not be carried on in a foreign language, since it is prohibited in suchand-such a Purana.’

Swamiji replied, ‘It is good to talk of religious things, no matter what the language is.’

In support of this he quoted from the Vedas and added, ‘A judgement passed by a High Court cannot be set at naught by a lower court’ [a reference to the fact that the Vedas are more authoritative than the Puranas].

Thus it went on till it struck nine, when those who had to attend office or court left, while others still sat there. Swamiji’s eyes now fell on me, and he said, ‘My son, I had not the heart to disappoint so many people and go to your place. Please don’t mind this.’ When I pressed him to come and stay with me, he replied at last, ‘I shall go if you can make my host agree to your proposal’. So I persuaded the lawyer friend somehow and returned to my place with Swamiji. His belongings consisted only of a Kamandalu (a water pot used by monks) and a book wrapped in a piece of ochre cloth. Swamiji was then studying French music. . . Some time earlier, somebody had published a poem in the Times asserting that it was extremely difficult to determine what is God, which religion is true, and such other abstruse questions. As that poem had much affinity to my religious ideas of those days, I preserved it carefully. I now produced it before him. He read it and remarked, ‘The

The author was a sub-divisional forest officer at Belguam. Swami Vivekananda was his guest in 1892 when he moved around India a wandering monk. This article is based on excerpts from Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Pp.25-28 T h e

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man has become confused’. Gradually I got over my hesitation. From the Christian missionaries I had not got any solution of the contradiction involved in holding that God is both just and merciful; and I feared that Swamiji, too, could throw no better light.

When I put the question to him, he said, ‘Methinks you have read much of science.

Do not two opposite forces, centripetal and centrifugal—act in each material substance? If such a contradiction can meet in matter, may not justice and mercy be reconciled in God? All I can say is that you have a poor idea of your God.’ I was silenced.

Again, I believed that truth is absolute, and that all religions cannot be true at the same time. In answer to such questions he said, ‘All we know about things now or may know in future are but relative truths. It is impossible for our limited mind to grasp the absolute truth. Hence, though truth be absolute, it appears variously to di verse minds and intellects. All these facets or modes of truth belong to the same class as truth itself, they being based on the same absolute truth. This is like the different photographs of the same sun taken from various distances. Each of them seems to represent a different sun. The diverse relative truths have the same kind of relation with the absolute truth. Each religion is thus true, just because it is a mode of presentation of the absolute religion.’

When I said that faith is the basis of all religions, Swamiji smiled a little and said, ‘A man goes beyond all wants once he becomes a king; but the difficulty is how to become one.

Can faith be infused from outside? Nobody can have real faith unless he has personal experience.’ When in the course of talk I called him a Sadhu (holy man), he said, ‘Are we really so? There are holy men whose very sight or touch wakes up spirituality in others.’

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Again I asked, ‘Why do the Sannyasins idle away their time in this way? Why do they depend on the charity of others? Why don’t they undertake some work beneficial to society?’

Swamiji said, ‘Now, look here. You are earning this money with such struggle, of which only a little portion you spend on yourself; and some of it you spend for others who, you think, are your own. But they neither acknowledge any gratefulness for what you do for them, nor are they satisfied with what they get. The balance you save like the mythological Yaksha who never enjoys it. When you die, somebody else will enjoy it all; and perchance, he will abuse you for not having accumulated more.

This is your condition. On the other hand, I do nothing. When I feel hungry, I let others know by gestures that I want food; and I eat whatever I get. Neither do I struggle nor do I save. Now, tell me who among us is the wiser—you or I?’ I was astonished, for before this nobody dared to talk to me so boldly and frankly.

After lunch we had some rest. Then we went to the house of that lawyer friend, where we had more of such discussion. At nine o’clock at night we returned home. On the way I said, ‘Swamiji, you must have been greatly bored today by all this argumentation.’

He replied, ‘My son, would you have offered me even a morsel of food, if I had kept mum, the out and out utilitarians that you all are? I go on chattering like this. People get amused, and so they crowd around me. But know it for certain that people who argue, or put questions like this before an assembly are not at all eager to know the truth. I also read their motives and answer them accordingly.’

‘Swamiji,’ I put in, ‘how do you get such ready and pointed answers for all the questions?’ ‘These questions are new to you,’ he said, ‘but these have been put to me and I had to answer them times without number.’

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New Find

Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda1 Math. Belur. Howrah.

23rd Feb. ’05.

My dear Mrs.Brown, I am exceedingly glad to get your kind letter and the enclosed order for seven dollars equivalent to Rs.21 – annas 6 of Indian coin. I thank you for them both. You will be glad to know that the money has been spent on the female work here and it came at a time when we were rather hard-pressed to meet certain items of expenses for the same work.

It gave me great pleasure to know the little details of the lives of our Montclair friends. They are and will be dear to me always and the kindness received at the hands of each one of them can never be forgotten. Remember me kindly to all of them.

I am sorry to hear of Mrs.Wilmer’s illness. I hope she will come out of it soon.

I am indeed sorry to hear of Dr.Butler’s death. His life has been one of great sacrifice. May he rest in the Lord.

My eyes have been giving me trouble since a week or so and all reading and writing have been prohibited by the doctors for a month or twain. I hope to write you personally when I am well. With my kindest regards to you always and blessings to the children I am Yours in the Lord Saradananda [on the cover:] Mrs. B. Brown 109 Mountain Ave. (North) Montclair N.J. U.S.America _*_*_*_*_ Math. Belur. Howrah.

India. May 11. 05.

Dear Mrs.Bull2 Sister Nivedita has gone to Darjeeling with Christina on Sunday last. She sent me the copy of Mr.Thorp’s letter to Mr.Leggett which you so kindly sent.

I have seen Mr.Mohini and asked his opinion. He has promised to write his opinion directly to you this mail.

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Our attorney Mr.P.C.Kar has been informed too & he too will write to you by the next mail, if not this.

The Holy Mother is still here & desires her love & blessings. My mother & Jogin Maa are sending their warmest love to yourself & blessings to Olea.

The plague has gone down & the number of mortality has become less than half of what it was before.

With my warm regards & best prayers, I am Ever yours affecly Saradananda P.S. Enclosed you will find letters from Sister Nivedita & myself declining to act as an Executor to the Will leaving you free to do what you think best in the matter. I could not see the Swami Brahmananda else he too would have done the same. I have informed him however & I am sure he will send in his refusal to act as an Executor by the next mail, if not in this.

[On the envelope:] Mrs.Sara C. Bull 168 Brattle Street Cambridge. Mass.

U.S.America [Enclosed letter:] Math. Belur. Howrah.

India. May 11. 05.

With regard to the Will of the Swami Vivekananda, I beg to say that in order to facilitate the probation of the Will in America, I decline to qualify myself to act as an Executor.

Saradananda

References 1. A direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna

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

Courtesy: Ramakrishna Museum, Belur Math

&RQÀLFWLQJ GHVLUHV DULVH LQ WKH PLQG %HFDXVH RI WKHVH GHVLUHV WKH PLQG LV FRQVWDQWO\ lashed into waves. As long as these waves form, the mind is restless. In order to control these waves which give rise to thoughts of a worldly and distracting nature, one must live a life of self-discipline. —Swami Saradananda T h e

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Article

Some Aspects of Religion and Spirituality SWAMI STHIRATMANANDA

Ethics—True Foundation of Religion Said Swami Vivekananda, ‘No amount of force, or government, or legislative cruelty will change the conditions of a race, but it is spiritual culture and ethical culture alone that can change wrong racial tendencies for the better.’1 Indeed, ‘spiritual culture and ethical culture’ alone can solve the problem of immorality, fraud, hypocrisy, misunderstanding and violence that plague the society everywhere. Only making strong government laws may check the man from doing wrong but it will not remove the tendency to do wrong.

We need a lasting solution to these problems and not a symptomatic relief. A devoted study of the lives and teachings of great mystics such as Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda and that of the Gita and Upanishads can be of help to us in exploring this issue and find a permanent solution.

Swami Vivekananda rightly remarked, ‘Anything immoral will not help, but will only retard.’2 An ethically strong life alone can make one truly religious. But why do we need religion? Swamiji says that as long as there is death, man needs religion. For it is religion which shows man the life beyond life.

It teaches him through spiritual practices how to transcend body-mind complex and discover the Eternal. So long as death persists, man will think about God and religion. For religion is a

search for the Eternal, and not observing some rituals, festivals, custom and so on. Upanishad says, ‘By knowing Him alone a human being can cross the ocean of death, there is no other way.’3 Lasting peace comes only when one transcends the world of relativity and finds that which is One and Absolute.

What Religion Provides Religion brings eternity into our lives.

How? By enabling us realize the eternal truth of our being. Swami Vivekananda says, ‘Only through experience can there be any reality in religion.’4 Prophets and great leaders of religion did not only believe religion but they had direct experience of the reality. Religion, in its deepest sense, is based on direct and immediate perception. When as a young man Swami Vivekananda asked Sri Ramakrishna, ‘Have you seen God?’, Sri Ramakrishna replied, ‘Yes, I see Him just as I see you here, only in a much intense sense.’5 It is this experience, which Sri Ramakrishna referred to, that imparts strength to the words of all seers and prophets.

To see objects or persons eyes are necessary. How do we see God—through what or by which instrument? According to Vedanta, the Highest Truth is Brahman, the allpervading reality of our being. To experience Brahman, one does not need any medium; for Brahman is the very core of being and thus

The author is a monk of Ramakrishna Order at its branch in Dhaka in Bangladesh.

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one realizes it through direct experience. Only when we ourselves realize, through our pure heart, Brahman, do all our doubts go away. All that is needed is that heart or Buddhi should be made pure. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.’ Rest all is a preparation.

We are using the word ‘He’ for the Ultimate Reality, but the Ultimate Reality is beyond all gender sense. It is not he, she or it but includes all these. Again, if we say that there is ‘nothing’ called God, in a way it is right. For according to Vedanta, God is not a ‘thing’—He is Consciousness. God is not object. All things are objects but God is Consciousness, Eternal subject.

Every human being has a sense of discontentment which compels it to seek more and more. Swami Vivekananda said, ‘There is, again, the universal dissatisfaction. . . . What is the meaning of this universal dissatisfaction?

It is because freedom is every man’s goal. He seeks it ever, his whole life is a struggle after it.’6 Swamiji illustrates it further: ‘If you put a single molecule of air in the bottom of a glass of water it at once begins to struggle to join the infinite atmosphere above.’7 Similarly all the creatures continue to go towards the Infinity from the present finite existence. Swamiji says, ‘To be more free is the goal of all our efforts, for only in perfect freedom can there be perfection.’8 Now, what is morality? Morality is the destruction of separateness or false individuality—it means removal of selfishness.

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Swamiji says, ‘Everything that strengthens the will by revealing the real nature is moral.

Everything that does the reverse is immoral.’9 Selfishness separates one from another. It instigates one to adopt immorality. The result is anxiety and fear. Small-mindedness and selfishness are the causes of all evils. It is the degree of selfishness or unselfishness which determines how much truly religious one is.

Swami Vivekananda says: ‘Every religion preaches that the essence of all morality is to do good to others.’10 Without religion a human being becomes a brute—says a Sanskrit proverb. Swami Vivekananda said: ‘Religion leads a brute to man and a man to God.’ The Sanskrit term for God is Deva. It comes from the root div meaning ‘to shine’. It is a reference to the Selfeffulgent nature of man—the divinity within.

The acts of eating, sleeping, begetting children and fear of death are common to all animals and human beings. But man alone has the power to separate right from wrong, real from unreal and make one experience one’s inherent divinity. Thus man has a sense of religion which makes him the best of all creatures. Sri Ramakrishna said: ‘Is man an insignificant thing? He can think of God, he can think of the Infinite, while other living beings cannot.’11 Further, why should we follow ethical life? Swami Vivekananda says, ‘Behind everything the same divinity is existing, and out of this comes the basis of morality. Do not injure another. Love everyone as your own self, because the whole universe is one. In

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injuring another, I am injuring myself; in loving another, I am loving myself. From this also springs that principle of Advaita morality which has been summed up in one word— self - abnegation. The Advaitist says, this little personalised self is the cause of all my misery.

This individualised self, which makes me different from all other beings brings hatred and jealousy and misery, struggle and all other evils. And when this idea has been got rid of, all struggle will cease, all misery vanish. So this is to be given up.’12 Or as the Gita says, ‘Thus seeing the same Lord equally present everywhere, the sage does not injure the Self by the self, and thus reaches the highest goal.’13 Thus religion lies in the experience of the spiritual practitioner.

Another aspect of religion is that it is an attempt to solve the mystery of human existence. No one, no living being including humans, wants to die. The reason? The Reality behind us—the Atman—is immortal. It has no death. The desire to live is manifested in many ways. For instance, man wants to have children so that he can be remembered through his children. Or he wants to leave behind some form of memory—building up a monument or write a book or create some record in some field of achievement. Atman is infinite by nature—Infinite Existence, Knowledge and Bliss. Hence we too want to have infinite existence, knowledge and bliss.

This being our real nature, we are all moving towards it. As Swamiji points out, ‘All the active manifestations of human nature are struggles of those ideals to become realized in practical life. All the various movements that we see around us in society are caused by the various ideals in various souls trying to come out and become concretized; what is inside presses on to come out.’14 T h e

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Social Ethics There are two sides of ethics: subjective and objective. The Bhagavad Gita says: ‘Lust, greed and anger—these are three gateways to hell. These are to be avoided.’ Ethics in its subjective aspect is aimed to make one free from these three. It seeks to purify our heart and help us discover our ever blissful spiritual nature.

Objective-ethics is related to the social welfare. All persons must perform his or her duties. That is objective ethics. In the Hindu tradition, there is the scriptural injunction to perform five types of sacrifices or duties.

These are duties towards human beings, towards parents, to seers of truths (Rishis), to gods and to other creatures. If these duties are performed then religious life or happiness certainly is achieved. The personal or social unrest or problems come from the defect or insincerity in discharging duties.

Sri Ramakrishna observes: ‘A worldly man spends thousands of rupees for his daughter’s marriage. Yet, all the while, his neighbours are dying of starvation; and he finds it hard to give them two morsels of rice; he calculates a thousand times before giving them even that much. The people around him have nothing to eat; but what does he care about that? He says to himself: “What can I do? Let the rascals live or die. All I care about is that the members of my family should live well.” And they talk about doing good to others!’15 True purpose of religion is to expand our mind. It transforms a brutal human being to refined human being, and then to spiritual person. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says: Prajapati Brahma has three offsprings— gods, humans and demons. Devas or gods are good but they are selfish and have attachment for enjoyment. Human beings are

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naturally greedy. And the demons are envious, cruel. Prajapati Brahma instructs them to practice self-control (dama), charity (datta) and compassion (daya) respectively, to overcome the shortcomings of their characters. In the society too, there are three types of people.

Self-control, charity and compassion can uplift all and make them instruments of good for society.

T S Eliot, the well-known English poet, in the poem ‘What the Thunder Said’ of The Wasteland points out the impact of ethics and spirituality. He tells that as rain water makes the barren land full with fruits and flowers, so also in social life peace and development come from following the ethical codes like selfcontrol, charity and compassion. Ethical norms make living in a society meaningful.

According to Vedanta, man has four goals of life. These are: righteousness (dharma), wealth (artha), sense pleasure (kama), and spiritual liberation (moksha). Righteousness or Dharma has been given the first place. This means one should try to earn money with righteousness. Money helps in fulfilling desires and those desires too should be fulfilled in a righteous way. What man seeks everywhere is same but the ways of seeking it is the point of dispute and discussion.

Conclusion

Swami Vivekananda observed, ‘In every country I have visited, I found this fighting over the means going over, and the people have no eye on the ideal. Sri Ramakrishna came to show the truth of this.’16 And in the simple language Sri Ramakrishna: ‘In this creation of God there is a variety of things: men, animals, trees, plants.

Among the animals some are good, some bad.

There are ferocious animals like the tiger. . .

Likewise, among human beings, there are the good and the wicked, the holy and the unholy.

There are some who are devoted to God, and others who are attached to the world.’17 This is important: men differ. Remembering this diverse nature of society can help us conducting our lives better. All men are not same but alongside this variety, there is also an underlying unity. ‘I am present in the heart of all beings’, says Sri Krishna in the Gita. Sri Ramakrishna says, ‘The heart of a devotee is the parlour of God.’ When we are aware of this truth, we will treat everyone with respect.

‘When you hurt anyone you hurt yourself, for you and your brother are one,’18 said Swami Vivekananda.

This is the core of religion and spirituality: discovering this oneness of existence.

That alone can remove all selfishness and differences and make us live lives of meaning and peace.

References 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

CW, 3.182 CW, 3. 89 Shvetashvatara Upanishad 3.8 CW, 5. 293 The Life of Swami Vivekananda, 1.77

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

CW, 1. 334 CW, 3. 428 CW, 1.333 CW, 8.225 CW, 3. 425

11. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 432 12. CW, I. 364 13. CW, 3. 263 14. CW, 3. 90

15.

16.

17.

18.

Gospel, p. 757 CW, 7.210 Gospel, p. 86 CW, 6.83

Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries for ever; any other NQRZOHGJH VDWLV¿HV ZDQWV RQO\ IRU D WLPH ,W LV RQO\ ZLWK WKH NQRZOHGJH RI WKH VSLULW WKDW the faculty of want is annihilated for ever; so helping man spiritually is the highest help that can be given to him.

—Swami Vivekananda T h e

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Insights into Some Keywords In Swami Vivekananda’s Words A few definitions and descriptive passages from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda Mahabharata Maha means great, and Bharata means the descendants of Bharata, from whom India has derived its name, Bharata. Mahabharata means Great India, or the story of the great descendants of Bharata. (CW, 4.78) Istam and Purtam Here are two words—Istam and Purtam.

Sacrificial and other rituals are called Ishtam, and Purtam is making roads, building hospitals and so on. (CW, 9.236) Ishta Devata The word Ishta is derived from the root Ish, to desire, choose. The ideal of all religions, all sects, is the same—the attaining of liberty and cessation of misery. Wherever you find religion, you find this ideal working in one form or other. Of course in lower stages of religion it is not so well expressed; but still, well or ill-expressed, it is the one goal to which every religion approaches. All of us want to get rid of misery; we are struggling to attain to liberty—physical, mental, spiritual. This is the whole idea upon which the world is working. Though the goal is one and the same, there may be many ways to reach it; and these ways are determined by the peculiarities of our nature. One man’s nature is emotional, another’s intellectual, another’s active, and so forth. Again, in the same nature there may be many subdivisions. Take for instance love, T h e

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with which we are specially concerned in this subject of Bhakti. One man’s nature has a stronger love for children; another has it for wife, another for mother, another for father, another for friends. Another by nature has love for country, and a few love humanity in the broadest sense; they are of course very few, although everyone of us talks of it as if it were the guiding motive power of our lives. Some few sages have experienced it. A few great souls among mankind feel this universal love, and let us hope that this world will never be without such men. (CW, 4.51) Food (Ahara) This word for food, in Sanskrit, is derived from the root, meaning to gather.

Ahara means ‘gathered in’. What is his [Adi Shankaracharya’s] explanation? He says, the passage that when food is pure the mind will become pure really means that lest we become subject to the senses we should avoid the following:. . . When the senses, without being extremely attached, without jealousy, or without delusion, work in the world, such work or collection of impressions is called pure food, according to Shankaracharya. When pure food is taken, the mind is able to take in objects and think about them without attachment, jealousy or delusion; then the mind becomes pure, and then there is constant memory of God in that mind.

(CW, 4.6)

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THE ORDER ON THE MARCH News and Notes from Ramakrishna Math and Mission Nepal Earthquake Relief as on 03 May 2015 In the wake of the recent devastating earthquake which affected a major portion of Nepal and some parts of India, the Ramakrishna Mission is conducting primary relief among affected families in the devastated areas.

Till now our Kathmandu centre, with assistance from the Headquarters, has set up a community kitchen and served cooked food to about 750 affected people in its vicinity. On 28 April, the Kathmandu centre distributed 100 kg rice, 20 kg dal, 5 kg salt, 5 litres oil, 3 kg sugar, 3 packets of chocolates and 30 packets biscuits among 130 orphan children of Aravindo Orphanage at Thankot in Kathmandu. On

Earthquake Relief by Ramakrishna Mission in Nepal

29 April, the centre distributed 700 kg chira (rice flakes), 700 bottles of drinking water and 500 packets of biscuits in Sako, a village 20 km from Kathmandu, and 800 kg chira, 500 bottles of drinking water and 500 packets of biscuits in Sankarpur Nagarpalika, around 40 kms from Kathmandu. On 30 April, 700 packets dry food (chira and sweets), 500 bottles of drinking water and 500 packets of biscuits were distributed at Liwali, Kamal Binayak and Ghate in Bhaktapur area. Moreover, 200 packets of rice (2 kg each) and 100 packets of dal (100 gm each) were also distributed at a relief camp in Maheswari Playground in Jala Tol. The centre has also conducted extensive survey in some of the worst affected districts and distributed 950 kg chira, 50 kg sugar, 30 kg gur (molasses), 1050 kg rice, 160 kg dal (lentils), 216 kg biscuits, 233 litres of edible oil, 95 kg salt, 150 kg potatoes, etc. among 360 families in Duwachar, Upper Melunchi, Arigaun, Panauti, Tokha, Balaju, Samakoshi and Gairidhara areas on 2 May. Our Lucknow centre has started primary relief work in the worst affected Gorkha district of Nepal.

Through its four camps set up at Kharre, Balushora, Mohatar and Gankhu the centre distributed dry food materials, candle sticks, match boxes, etc., among more than 600 affected people. The centre is also providing extensive medical assistance to the affected people in these remote areas. Nearly 308 patients have already been treated, among whom 14 were very serious cases. We are receiving assistance from the local people as well as the Army in our relief services.

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Our Darjeeling centre has initiated steps to carry out primary relief work in Sindhuli district of Nepal.

The centre has already conducted extensive survey in the affected areas and all arrangements have been made to transport various dry food materials, first-aid materials, etc., at the earliest.

Our Patna centre has started a camp at Raxaul in Bihar and is catering to the earthquake victims who have taken shelter in the border areas by distributing 1200 water bottles, 1000 pieces of cake, 1000 packets of rusk, 1000 packets of biscuit and 100 packets of protein powder among 1200 families. The centre, along with our Muzaffarpur centre distributed fruits, water bottles, protein powder, multivitamin tonic, biscuits, cake, etc., among earthquake victims admitted in the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital and the Motihari Sadar Hospital.

Arrangements are being made to distribute tarpaulin sheets, blankets, tents, etc., among the affected families. The relief work is running in full swing and will be further expanded depending upon the situation. Further Reports are awaited.

RAMAKRISHNA MISSION (Relief Section) P.O. Belur Math, Howrah West Bengal - 711 202, India Phone: (033) 2654-1144, 1180, 5700. Fax: (033) 2654-9885. E-mail: relief@belurmath.org Website: www.belurmath.org While thanking all who contributed for this noble cause, we request others to come forward and donate liberally, to help us in this noble endeavour. All donations paid in cash or by cheque / demand draft drawn in favour of “RAMAKRISHNA MISSION” payable at Kolkata are exempt from income tax under section 80-G of the I.T. Act. Online donation facility is also available through our website (http://www.belurmath.org/donation_cca/donation.php). Donation may please be sent to: The General Secretary, Ramakrishna Mission, (Relief Section) Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal - 711 202, India.

Swami Suhitananda General Secretary A Souvenir Released Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Memorial, Vadodara, Gujarat, published a Souvenir to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. Titled Swami Vivekananda—A Global Leader for a Global Civilization, it was released by Swami Gautamanandaji, a senior Trustee of Ramakrishna Math and Adhyaksha of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, at a public meeting held at Vadodara on April 12, 2015.

The souvenir contains tributes paid by world thinkers on Swamiji, by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, Irina Bokava (Director General of UNESCO) Anna Hazare and others. It also has the report of activities conducted by the centre as a part of the 150th birth anniversary celebration of Swami Vivekananda. It has over two hundred Release of the Souvenir pictures.

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FOR REVIEW IN THE VEDANTA KESARI,

PUBLISHERS NEED TO SEND US TWO COPIES OF THEIR LATEST PUBLICATION.

DIIVINE PLAYS OF LORD HIVA (PICTORIAL) SH

By Dr.T.N. Ramachandran Ra Pu Published

by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. kri E-mail: mail@chennaimath.

E-m org, 2013, hardback, pp.404.

Rs.400. pp.4 The Periya Puranam (of Sekkizhar), the Kanda Puranam Kacchiyappa Sivaachaariyar) and the P Pura Pu ura rana n m ((of na o K of acch ac chiy ch hiy iya appa S ap Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam Paranjyothi Munivar) are T Ti iru ruvi vila laiy iyad iy dall P uran ur anam am ((of of Pa chief Shaivite Puranams thee ch th chie i f Sh Shai ivi vite te P uran ur anams in Tamil.

Chittira Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam, Tamil version of the book under review, was published in 2003 which was revised in 2013 and which was again adapted and translated into English as the book under review. All the above books and a few more on Shaivism were published by the Chennai Math with the Editorship and munificence of Dr. N.Mahalingam, the well-known philanthropist who donated liberally for the revival and dissemination of the Shaivite Puranams in India and abroad.

Dr.T.N. Ramachandran, the master translator, with an equal mastery in English and Tamil, translated the saint’s long poetic legend into a powerful prose narrative besides translating a few selected poems from each episode into English preserving the original devotional and spiritual tenor. Sri S.Rajam, a renowned musician and an amazing artist has brought out the divine players alive in his colourful paintings and sketches tracing the progress of events in each episode. ‘Tiruvilaiyadal’ in Tamil means ‘divine sport’.

English translations of the Indian scriptures, according to Max Muller, are a sine qua non for the global community to know and benefit by the hoary heritage of India. Secondly, English translations of the traditional religious literature in Indian languages help the Indian diaspora to revisit their T h e

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roots’. A society wrenched away from its past and its roots may be a society without a future,’ says Edmund Burke.

The story of the ancient Madurai and its Pandya kings, described in the book, is the story of Lord Somasundara and Goddess Meenakshi.

When Indra worshipped a Shiva Linga in Katampa Vana [the old name for Madurai] to get rid of a sin with golden lotuses from a nearby sacred pool, the Lord was pleased and sprinkled the nectar from his crescent moon all over the place. Hence, the name Madurai. Kulasekara Pandya, a small king was bidden by the Lord to raise a city from the Katampa Vana with His Grace. The Pandya’s son Malayadwaja and his wife Kanjanamalai (in previous birth, a fervent devotee of Meenakshi) got a daughter (Thatathakai who is Goddess Herself) whom Lord Somasundara weds and becomes the ruler of Madurai with the name Sundarapandya.

Lord Siva is described, ‘Kripa Samudram’ (Ocean of Grace). He is never appealed to in vain.

Swami Vivekananda’s mother prayed to Lord Vireswar of Kashi for a son like Him. She got Swamiji who was an incarnation of Shiva Himself.

Shiva’s Grace was available even to a blackbird and a heron which took a holy bath in the sacred pool of golden lotuses inside the temple of Meenakshi and attained moksha. Madurai Tamil Sangam (literary academy) consisted of poets who vied with one another for supremacy. Shiva being the chief poet, all the contenders go to Him for judgment which scene adorns the backcover of this book. There is an incident here, which is similar to the one in Bakthisara’s life. When the Alwar and his disciple were banished from Tiruvehka by the king, Lord Bhujagasayana also left the place. Here, Lord Somasundara leaves with his devotee Idaikkadan when he was offended by the king. During the rule of Abhisheka Pandya, the Lord assumes the form of a Siddha Purusha and performs miracles for conferring fortune and welfare on Madurai. This we see on the colourful front cover.

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When Varuna floods the city, the Lord protects it by four clouds which gave the name ‘the roofed city walled on four side’ (naanmaadakkudal) to Madurai. Madurai has another name ‘Alavaai’(aalaa—poison; vaai—mouth). The Lord asks the snake on His wrist to reveal the boundary of Madurai to the king after a pralaya (deluge). The snake mapped the boundary. Hence, the name.

Sri Ramakrishna said once that it is the Guru who often chooses a competent disciple rather than it is the other way about. In the case of Vaadhavoorar, it is Lord Dakshinamurthy who was sitting under the Kurundam tree who conferred on him His Grace by giving him the Upadesa and changing the jackals into the horses and vice versa. God Himself gave him the name ‘Manickavaachakan’ as his utterances were rubies.

There are 64 lilas of Lord Somasundara in Tiruvilaiyadal Puranam. It is said to be a Tamil version of Halasya Puranam. Each page is adorned with the Shiva Panchakshara [five-lettered mystic syllable on Siva], a cute Linga on top of the golden lotus pool and a tiny lotus at the foot of ‘A Note on the picture’. As we scan through the paintings, we have a feeling that we are viewing the frescoes on the walls and ceilings of the long corridor of an ancient Siva temple in the south. _______________________ K.PANCHAPAGESAN, BANGALORE

GOA— BLES LESSED BY HIS SACRED TOU OUCH

By Swami Atmashraddhananda Atmashradd Published b

by Sri Ramakrishna Ma Math, Chennai 600 004, EE-mail: mail@ chennaimath.org, 2013 chennaima paperback pp.72. Rs. 25 pa p ViveSwami kananda’s kanaanda’s life li and teachingss lay in the way he From demonstration demonstrated his beliefs. F rom this d realization, that religion ‘iss re th real aliz ization, not talk, not doctrine, theories, not theori ies, however beautiful they may be. It is becoming….’’ arises the po power he had to being and becoming change whoever came in contact with him during his eventful life and still continues to have from his writings, others’ accounts of his travels and T h e

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the divine touch of revolutionary change he exerts on whoever has had the lucky chance to read his works.

Every corner of India, quite literally from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kolkata to Dwarka, experienced the essential magic of his presence and touch, the magic which transformed whoever it came in contact with. This account of his travels in Goa by the author, who edits The Vedanta Kesari, is an account of Swamiji’s Goa sojourn.

Wherever Swamiji went, he won respect for his erudition, admiration for the breadth and sweep of his knowledge and love for his ability to reach out to the masses. Nor was all this limited to one religion or community. Swamiji would converse brilliantly in a number of languages, including Sanskrit. As the writer has chronicled, Swamiji’s visits to every place he went to in Goa starting with his arrival in Madgaon station where he was enthusiastically received, to his short stay in the Rachol Seminary to study Christian theology, Swamiji enraptured whoever he came in contact with.

This slim volume contains a comprehensive history of Goa, from its earliest mention in the Mahabharata (as Goparashtra or Govarashtra) and works through its chequered history when it was occupied by various dynasties through to the point when it became a Portuguese colony. Goa’s liberation and accession to India finally took place only in 1961. The author has packed so much into a very small space without losing its sacredness to factuality. The book is marked by its readability and interest, while it is thought-provoking. There is a small collection of Swamiji’s sayings as well as a bibliography for those interested in finding out more about Swamiji. This pocket-sized book makes for easy reading and is recommended for the personal library. ___________________________ PREMA RAGHUNATH, CHENNAI

SRI RAMAKRISHNA ASHRAMA THIRUVALLA SHATABDI SMARANIKA Published by Ramakrishna Ashrama, Tuklasery, Thiruvalla Kerala - 689 101. 2013, paperback, pp.90, Rs 100.

The Thruvalla Ramakrishna Ashrama completed hundred years of service in the year 2013. The Centenary Celebrations of Ashrama were inaugurated by the Governor of West Bengal,

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Shri MK Narayanan.

This Souvenir effectively highlights the facts surrounding the origin of the Institution, its growth through sacrifices and dedicated work of those who served the organization.

Got up in elegant style embellished with photographs of the Holy Trio and other pictures, along with many informative articles, the Souvenir attracts attention.

The formation of Thruvalla Ashrama, its progress, the challenges faced by the organization as also a history of the Ramakrishna Movement in Kerala are included for the benefit of readers.

Significantly, the Thiruvalla Ashrama was a place where a number of young men joined the Ramakrishna Order as monastic members. The Ashrama had the privilege of receiving Swami Brahmananda, Swami Ramakrishnananda a and other direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.

The Souvenir serves as an excellent source to learn about the progress of the Ramakrishna rishna Movement in Kerala. ________________________________ P.S. SUNDARAM, SUN MUMBAI

SANNYASA UPANISHADS ADS TRANSLAT RANSLATED BY SWAMI AMI ATMAPRIY TMAPRIYANANDA Publishe by Advaita Published dvaita Ashrama, 5 Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata olkata 700 014 014. E-mail: mail@ advaitaashrama.org, 2013, ha hardback, pp.144, p.144, Rs.70.

Rs Sannyasa UpaniSan shads, as the translatorauthor says, are rich in auth hor say descriptions descript ptions n of the characteristics, qualifications, inward and outward q alific qu i at atio ions ns, lifestyle, life li festyle, inwa proclivities proc pr ocli livi viti ties es aand nd inclinations, and various other particulars (p.12). Of p rticcul pa ular a s concerning the Sannyasins Sannya about upon abou ab outt 17 Sannyasa San anny nyas asa a Upanishads Upan Up a ishads commented com

by Upanishad Brahmayogin (an eminent scholar), the translator has selected 9 for translation. Though T h e

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many of the descriptions regarding the mode of life of a Sannyasin as depicted in these Upanishads are not found in vogue now, the spirit of purity, renunciation and service alluded to there have been the life-breath of monasticism.

There seems to be some repetitions in notes.

Probably it is deliberate in order to enable a reader to go through the notes without having to turn around the pages. The author has added, wherever necessary, free translation of the Upanishad Brahmayogi’s commentary which clarifies meaning to some abstruse ideas expressed in Upanishads.

The notes on Turiya-svapna (pp.117-118) supplied by the translator is really commendable. He relates this state to Sri Ramakrishna’s description of Vijnana state. Many Sanskrit terminologies which may be difficult to comprehend to a non-Hindu reader have been clarified by notes.

Though we already have two other translations on the said work, this translation is unique in its approach and deserves to be added to one’s book shelf. ___________________ SWAMI KARUNAKARANANDA, KARUNAKA MYSORE

A GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL LIFE

By Swami Swam Chetanananda Published by Adhyaksha, Publishe Advaita Ashrama, 5 Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata 700 014.

014 E-mail: mail@ advaitaashrama.org 2013, advaitaas paperback, paperbac pp.303, Rs.100.

A spiritual seeker piloting h his ship of spiritual voyage on the choppy waters worldliness needs a wate wa teers of wor compass reach his destination co omp mpas asss to ssuccessfully as ucccessfully rea uc of of God-realisation.

God od-realisation n. The The book under review is precisely reliable prec pr ecis i el ely y such such a reliabl le compass. compass The book is thrice-blessed as it has for its core the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, for its main body the experiential findings and outpourings of Swami Brahmananda, a direct disciple of the Master and for its English translation Swami Chetanananda, a senior monk noted for lucid spiritual writings.

Almost all the essentials of a purposeful spiritual life are dealt with in the book. Such spiritual concepts as Oneness of Existence, Samadhi in its twin levels, the goal of human life, the need to begin

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Sadhana early in life, the alertness to overcome rcome obstacles. aversion for sensual joys, mind control, ontrol, n. and the need for meditation and renunciation.

Besides this, Swami Brahmananda, a, the spiritual son of Sri Ramakrishna, also discusses cusses the need for a God-realised guru, forbearance, rance, holy company, value of solitude, japam, pam, moral excellence, self-surrender, dedication on to Truth, infinity of God, divine grace, self-effort, effort, brahmacharya, self-study, work and worship, rship, and so on. Hardly any aspect of spiritual lifee and spiritual disciplines is left out! Many gems aree to be found in the the mighty sweep of the book.

The book contains a brief essay on Ramakrishna and Vivekananda, an appendix containing aining an article on Guru and also a useful glossary. y. The handy book may well be considered a kind of a gloss—Vartka—on the Gospel of Ramakrishna, the modern Upanishad, by an acknowledged stalwart. _________________________________ N.HARIHARAN, N.HA MADURAI

THE SECON ECOND EPOCHAL TRANSFORMATION AND TRANSFOR

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

By Vijay Kashkhedikar Published by Ramakrishna Vivekananda Matri Dham, Vivekana Sri Narayana Nagar, Waddhaman, Amravati Waddha Road, Ta Tah. Hingna, Dist.

Nagpur, Maharashtra, E-mail: vkaskhedikar@ yahoo.co.in, 2013, paperyahoo.co. back.48, Rs.30 b ba ackk.4 . 8, R s.30 first Thee fi Th i rs r t phasee of the Epochal Transformation, author booklet, happened fo orm rmat atio ion, n, ssays ayss th ay thee au auth thor of this b Swami Vivekananda when wh en S wami wa mi V ivek iv ekan anan a da usherd usher in his message to the West. Swamiji had said, ‘I have a message to the West as Buddha had a message tom the East’.

‘West’ meant that part of the world considered modern and not a ‘geographical concept’. Further, he points out that this mission is being done in two phases; the first one in the 20th Century and we have moved to the second phase.

The need for religion, how Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated by his own life, followed by Swami Vivekananda’s exposition of Vedanta are mentioned in the booklet. ________________________________ P.S. SUNDARAM, MUMBAI

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MEND YO YOUR MIND ON MONDAY ONDAYS

By Swami Swam Hamsananda Published by The Divine Life Society, Shivanandanagar-249 192, Shivanan Tehri-Garhwal District, Tehri-Ga Uttarakhand. 2013, paperback, pp.54. price paperbac not given The title bears a riddle. ridd ri d le. The answer to it is provided by in the Preface. prov pr ovid vid ded b y tthe he rrevered evered author aut Accordingly, meant for all days Acccordinglly, the lessons Ac les esso sons are m although Mondays have alth thou ough gh M onda on days y hav ve some significance. sig Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda was the sourcebook for the compilation of the booklet under review. The Preface advices readers that Swami Krishnananda’s book will need repeated careful reading to understand the subjects.

This seems to apply to the present compilation also.

The booklet under review may, therefore, not be helpful to beginners. One of the topics titled ‘Two Things Cannot Relate…’ (No.9), for example, can cause some confusion and requires explanation.

Exercising control of the mind through yoga is, as we know, necessary but it is not easy.

As the author observes, the term ‘yoga’ is often used casually and people attribute their own concepts. It is an ancient science. Topic 26 of Swami Hamsananda’s booklet makes it clear that the practice of yoga requires serious involvement.

Srimad Bhagavad Gita is the yoga shastra. Mere reading of the Gita will not help as the nuances have to be learned from an enlightened teacher. It was for these reasons that, when devotees sought guidance, Sri Ramakrishna counselled the path of Bhakti as ideal for Kali Yuga.

What is happiness and why is it elusive? We are in the process of evolution, says the author.

‘The more we move towards perfection, the more we are happy. . .’ (topic 4). The next topic points out that we seek freedom but it is not accessible . . .In this finite world . . .’ We are burdened with ‘. . . prejudices, psychologically and even rationally . . .Our parents have told us something and our school masters and professors have said something else.’ Here some explanation over the contradiction would be helpful.

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Printed in bold letters the booklet is easy to read. It contains useful lessons for aspiring spiritual seekers. _______________________________ P. S. SUNDARAM, MUMBAI

MANTRA FOR THE MODERN MAN AND HEART-TO-HEART TALKS Paperback pp.152, Rs.250.

Paperbac

THE HIGH IGHWAY TO HAPPINES APPINESS Paperbac pp.132, Rs.195.

Paperback Both books boo by J.P.Vaswani Published by Sterling PubliPvt. shers Pv v t Ltd. Available House, at Gita Publishing P Vaswani Mission, SSadhu adhu Va a Sadhu 10, Sad h Vaswani Path, 411 001. E-mail: Pune - 4 mail@sterlingpublishers. mail@st com; gph@sadhuvaswani, gp Paperback pp.152, Rs.250.

Paperbac These two books Th review are a comunder re pilation of lectures given who with

by J P Vaswani, Va his simple simp interpretations profound truths culled of profou from all religions, made available both to his av ail ilabl lablee eternal etternal wisdom wis immediate followers and im mme medi diate fo foll llo owers an nd now to his readers. book, Mantra The first bo book ok, M antra for the Modern Man, consists cons co nsis ists ts of of fifteen fift fi ftee een n chapters chap ch a ters each of which is an illustration of a basic tenet of ethical and spiritual living. In the first chapter, The Story of Pundalik, devotion to the guru is extolled. But who are our first gurus? Our parents, undoubtedly: however, we are forgetful of this. We are often thoughtless of our parents and, now with the establishment of the nuclear family, they are more and more relegated to spending their last days in loneliness and despair.

The spiritual guru is one who awakens us to the higher life, while our parents show us the light of day by giving us the gift of birth. Both are equally significant and with the story of Pundalik, the writer is able to illustrate his meaning.

To explain the title of the book, the writer uses several examples to show how acceptance of T h e

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God’s will is a mantra everyone should adopt if they want the peace and contentment which makes for happiness.

The last chapter of this book, ‘The Gift God Needs’, is one that Sri Ramakrishna himself has said over and over again: God wants only our devotion and love as He appreciates these more than gifts and costly presents, just as a mother would sooner have the presence of her children than expensive gifts from them.

Like the first, the second book The Highway to Happiness also consists of fifteen chapters. Here again the selection illustrates some basic truths which very often we tend to forget. Beginning with the well-known parable of the two birds which symbolize the Paramatma and the Jivatma, the message of the talk is that one should ‘make friends with our minds, let not our minds turn into our enemies.’. How to achieve this in a world full of strife and violence and unending needs?

Dada Vaswani has an answer: the threefold path of Satsang, meditation and service.

One of the most inspiring chapters is entitled ‘Arise, Awake.’ Swamiji has made these two words synonymous with spiritual life and here again they have been used to sound the clarion. Dada Vaswani points out that most of us are living in the dark, occasionally illumined by the electricity drawn from some outside source. When the inner light shines on us, we come to understand that we are self-illumined. The converse is also true: the understanding of self-illumination comes only when the inner light is lit.

Sufi masters talk of three journeys in a human being’s life. The first is wandering around without a fixed abode or goal. Once we realize that we are misguided, we make a U-turn and embark upon our second journey, which leads us on the right path to our own inner selves. The third journey is in God—not towards Him or away from Him, but in Him, leading at last to peace and a sense of rightness.

Both the books are very readable and thoughtprovoking and are written in a simple, clear and unambiguous manner, with the style and language matching the content, which makes for easy understanding. Here are two books that place the benefits of reading and listening to lectures within the reach of every sojourner. ___________________________PREMA RAGHUNATH, CHENNAI

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DEBATING CULTURE

By Anirban Anirb Ganguluy Published by D.K. PrintPublishe world ((P) Ltd., Vedasri, F-395, SSudarshan Park, (Metro SStation: Sudarshan Nagar) New Delhi - 110 N 015. E-mail: indology@ E-m dkprintworld.com, 2013, dkprintw hardbound, hardboun Pp.158. Rs.250. $10.

India’s cultural history Indi have been the envy of the aand an d le llegacy lega ega gacy cy h av ve long bee world, w worl orld, d, aalthough l ho lt houg ugh h no one on ne person can ca lay claim either In every field tto o iits ts ccreation reat re atio ion n or tto o its ownership. ownersh of knowledge we can say that there have been many firsts, much reflection, very deep and gravid observations arrived at through a system and lineage of spirit of enquiry that we can justifiably be proud of. Art, music, scientific and mathematical thinking, medicine: these are some of the areas in which India led the world. Unfortunately, now greater and greater economic activity, ever more exploitative and fierce, the word culture has taken on darker shades of meaning.

By its very definition, culture cannot be bought or sold; the usual rules of market forces cannot be made applicable, which partly accounts for the decline of Indian culture, which is in essence very subtle and all-pervasive. Thus it is that a certain spiritual basis is almost mandatory in understanding Indian culture.

The author of this book, Anirban Ganguly, has divided the book into two parts dealing with thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively. In the first part, he has considered the contributions of Swami Vivekananda, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Sri Aurobindo, Sister Nivedita and John Woodroffe. In the second part, K M Munshi (founder of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), Shyama Prasad Mookerjee and Jawaharlal Nehru have been considered.

Swamiji has been placed at the head of the renewal of interest in Indian culture and the author brings out his erudite observations made on his journeys, primarily as a peripatetic monk. In this, as in everything else, Swamiji plumbed the depths of all the art he came in contact with.

Similarly, the place of Ananda Coomaraswamy as a votary of Indian art has been discussed.

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Coomaraswamy had a very wide western audience and readership; he very rightly pointed out that Indian art should be included as part of the study of Indian students. It was his earnest desire that Indians should value their own roots and background.

Sri Aurobindo, who is the next thoughtmaker Ganguly talks about, was also of the same mind. However, to be true to ourselves, while weaving in western culture into the fabric of Indian life, is what he advocated.

To buttress the point, both John Woodroffe and Sister Nivedita agree that if India desired to take her place in world history and shine with the light that slavishness had imposed upon her, Indians, particularly those in charge of educational policy, needed to hark back to India’s lost cultural ascendancy and reassert the primacy of her position in the world of art and spiritual thinking.

KM Munshi and SP Mookerjee, both of whose names are synonymous with the re-establishment of Indian art and scriptural treasures, are two more names which bring up the rearguard of the thinkers who understood the value of India’s contribution to the world’s corpus of artistic ability.

The message the book seems to give is this: Indian culture was at the forefront of the world’s thinking and philosophy and we ignore it at our own peril. He quotes the great Gandhian and educationist Dharampal, who called for linguistic and cultural rebirth by throwing off the shackles of a newly-acquired slavery that the west imposed through colonialisation. To borrow something and pretend to own it creates a crisis of identity.

The book is certainly a product of great reflection and thinking, however, there is far too much dependence on quotations and not quite enough interpretation. Another aspect that could perhaps have been avoided is the long footnotes on practically every page. They are distracting and take away from the concentration that is certainly required to read a book of this nature.

That said, the author’s choices of the pathbreakers are relevant and cover a period in Indian history which is significant. The question arises: have we really been able to shake off the chains of colonial subjugation? Are we able to pay more than just nominal court to our own systems and values?

And would it be advisable, even if it was possible, to do that in the 21st century? __________________________ PREMA RAGHUNATH, CHENNAI

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Spirituality Today The Centenary Issue of The Vedanta Kesari December 2014 Copies Available The Vedanta Kesari completed its century in 1914-2014.

One of India’s oldest religious monthlies in English with an uninterrupted circulation for 100 years, it celebrated its centenary by bringing out a Centenary Issue in December 2014.

• With Spirituality Today as its theme, the Centenary Issue has over three dozen articles by learned monks and scholars on what spirituality is, present trends in spiritual practices in India and abroad, essentials of spirituality and so on.

• ‘Hear, Ye Children of Immortal Bliss’—a special presentation of 16 colour pages with inspiring quotes on spirituality by the Holy Trio and others.

Pages 300. Now available for 30 rupees per copy. Postage rupees 11 per copy.

For more details, please write to: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 014.

Email: magazine@chennaimath.org

Swami Vivekananda

The Charm of His Personality and Message

New Release

B any measure, Swami Vivekananda had a multifarious By and multidimensional m personality. He was a great saint, thinke thinker, scholar, educationist, organiser, nationalist, traveller, writer writer, poet, musician, ambassador of Indian Culture to the West, and what not! To study the personality and message of suc such a diverse person is surely a rewarding and enriching experi experience, both individually and collectively. No wonder, Swam Swamiji continues, and will continue to, inspire millions of peopl people the world around. This book, focussing on various aspect aspects of his manifold personality and ever-inspiring message, is a tribute tri to the greatness and majesty that is Vivekananda— on his 150th Birth Anniversary.

Paperback, Pa aperback, pages viii + 455 Price: Rs. 110/- + Po Post stag age: e: Rs. Rs. 30/- for single copy. No request for VPP entertained Postage: Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004

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Sri Shankara Stotrani New Release

(Sanskrit Text) T The great teacher of Advaita Vedanta, Sri Adi Shank Shankaracharya was equally devoted to God with form.

His literary li genius combined with his spiritual eminence and devotion d found its expression in his hymns to various Gods and Goddesses. Rich in spiritual fervour, humility, and inner longing for the highest emanicipation, these hymns are excell excellent illustrations of the harmony of Jnana and Bhakti and have h been sung by countless devotees for centuries. This vvolume olum contains, in Devanagri script, 65 extant hymns of the A char Acharya.

Hard bound bound, pages xi + 330 Price: Rs. 160/- + Postage: Rs. 30/- for f single copy. No request for VPP accepted Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004

New Release

The Mystic Wisdom of Kabir Translation of Kabir’s Popular Verses and Songs Transla In Indian religious history, Saint Kabir is unique. To the Hindu Hindus, he is a Vaishnava Bhakta, to the Muslims, a Pir, to the Sik Sikhs, a Bhagat, to the Kabirpanthis, an Avatar, and to the moder modern patriots, he is a champion of Hindu-Muslim unity.

SSwami Brahmeshananda, a senior monk of the Ramak Ramakrishna Order who is a former editor of the Vedanta Kesari and the th author of many popular books, has painstakingly done the tra translation of some of the verses and songs of Kabir.

T This book would help the readers to gain the secular and spiritu spiritual wisdom ingrained in the mystical verses and songs of Kabir.

Hardbound, H Ha ard dbo bound boun und, Pages Page es vi +168, +16 Price: Rs.70/- + Postage: Rs.20/-for single copy.

N request for VPP accepted No Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004 Email : mail@chennaimath.org

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The Vedanta Kesari

Some of the recent Annual Issues of The Vedanta Kesari now available in book form: (2002) How to Organise Life (2004) Sri Ramakrishna in Todays Violent World (2005) Channelling Youth Power (2006) No One is a Stranger (2007) Upanishads in Daily Life (2008) Gita for Everyday Living (2009) How to Shape the Personality (2010) Facets of Freedom (2011) Joy of Spirituality (2012) Indian Culture (2013) Swami Vivekananda— Ch harm h arm of His Personality and Message The Charm

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Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004 Plus postage Rs.30/- for single copy. No request for VPP accepted E-mail: mail@chennaimath.org

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

An Appeal 36 Years of Service to Humanity 1979–2015 1. Navajeevan School & Hostel for Blind Children ‒ 2. Navajeevan Free Eye Hospital ‒ 3. Navajeevan Free Home for Aged ‒ 4. Navajeevan Annaksetram 5. Navajeevan Sharanagati Vridhashram 6. Navajeevan Rural Medical Centres 7. Navajeevan Eye Care Centres 8. Navajeevan Orphanage Children Homes

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

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Why talk of sin and hell-fire all the days of your life? Chant the ‘name’ of God. Do say but once, ‘I have, O Lord, done things that I ought not to have done, and I have left undone things that I ought to have done. O Lord, forgive me!’ Saying this, have faith in Him, and you will be purged of all sings. —Sri Ramakrishna

Shrine at Sri Ramakrishna Vidyashala, Mysore

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Vol.102-6 The Vedanta Kesari (English Monthly) June 2015. Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under No.1084 / 1957. POSTAL REGISTRATION NUMBER:TN / CH (C) / 190 / 15-17. LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-259 / 2015-2017.

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Teach yourselves, teach everyone his/her real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes.

Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come, when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.

—Swami Vivekananda

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