The Vedanta Kesari – May 2019 issue

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Vedanta Kesari May 2019

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The Vedanta Kesari

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A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914

M ay 2019

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PRIVATE LIMITED (Manufacturers of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients and Intermediates)

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COVER STORY ‘Would to God that all men were so constituted that in their minds all [the] elements of philosophy, mysticism, emotion, and of work were equally present in full! That is the ideal, my ideal of a perfect man’ declared Swami Vivekananda. May Bhagavan Buddha, Sri Shankaracharya, and Sri Ramanujacharya whose birthdays we celebrate this month bless us that rooted in Dharma, we surrender at the Lord’s feet and discharge our duties with an awakened mind and heart. The Cover Page is an attempt to present this idea.

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T he V edanta K esari

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A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of The Ramakrishna Order

MAY 2019

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Reminiscences of Sargachhi Swami Suhitananda

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Sukesaa: A Less Known Seeker of Truth from a Popular Upanishad Jayaraman M

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FEATURES 7 8

Golden Jubilee Celebrations: Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Smriti Mandir, Khetri

Dakäiëàmùrti Stotra Yugavani

9 Editorial 27 Vivekananda Way 34 Pariprasna 40 Book Reviews 46 The Vedas: An Exploration 48 Topical Musings 50 The Order on the March

Gods of the Vedas Lakshmi Devnath da

Vol. 106, No. 5 ISSN 0042-2983

CONTENTS

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Swami Vivekananda’s Visit to Shillong Asim Chaudhuri

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eV e

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Life in the Kingdom of Heaven in Indian and Western Thought Gopal Stavig

The Thirst for God is Religion io n

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li g

Wha

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Mapping Actions to Fire Sacrifice Swami Satyapriyananda

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

Website: www.chennaimath.org E-mail: thevedantakesari@chennaimath.org

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Vedanta Kesari Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004

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The Vedanta Kesari

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Dear Readers, The Vedanta Kesari is one of the oldest cultural and spiritual magazines in the country. Started under the guidance and support of Swami Vivekananda, the first issue of the magazine, then called Brahmavadin, came out on 14 Sept 1895. Brahmavadin was run by one of Swamiji’s ardent followers Sri Alasinga Perumal. After his death in 1909 the magazine publication became irregular, and stopped in 1914 whereupon the Ramakrishna Order revived it as The Vedanta Kesari.

Swami Vivekananda’s concern for the magazine is seen in his letters to Alasinga Perumal where he writes: ‘Now I am bent upon starting the journal.’ ‘Herewith I send a hundred dollars…. Hope this will go just a little in starting your paper.’ ‘I am determined to see the paper succeed.’ ‘The Song of the Sannyasin is my first contribution for your journal.’ ‘I learnt from your letter the bad financial state that Brahmavadin is in.’ ‘It must be supported by the Hindus if they have any sense of virtue or gratitude left in them.’ ‘I pledge myself to maintain the paper anyhow.’ ‘The Brahmavadin is a jewel—it must not perish. Of course, such a paper has to be kept up by private help always, and we will do it.’

For the last 105 years, without missing a single issue, the magazine has been carrying the invigorating message of Vedanta with articles on spirituality, culture, philosophy, youth, personality development, science, holistic living, family and corporate values.

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reaching 1972 libraries....

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Dr. R. Subramaniya Bharathiyar,

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Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Nasigram, Pubra Bardhaman Srikhanda Ramkrishna Srisriksha Samity, Purba Bardhaman Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Kurmun, Pubra Bardhaman Sri Ramakrishna Sarada Seva Sangha, Dainhat, Purba Bardhaman Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Seva Sangha, Purba Bardhaman Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Balurghat, Pubra Bardhaman Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Barobisha, Jalpaiguri Sri Ramakrishna Sangha, Dinhata, Cooch Behar

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Sri Ramakrishna Sevashram, Katwa, Purba Bardhaman Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Alipurduar Sri Ramakrishna Seva Sangha, Buniadpur Sri Ramakrishna Ashram, Chowdhurihat, Coochbehar Sri Ramakrishna Sarada Sangha, Dhupguri, Jalpaiguri

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To be continued . . .

Dakäiëàmùrti Stotra Sri Shankaracharya

Verse 5

मम माया दुरत्यया ।

‘My māyā-power is difficult to overcome!’

3) Apart from the Cārvākas of various hues, there is a reference here to the two well-known Buddhist schools of philosophy—the kṣaṇika-vijñāna-vādins or those who advocate momentary consciousness as the self and the śūnya-vādins or nihilists.

4) The Gītā (7.14) says:

मामेव ये प्रपद्यन्ते मायामेतां तरन्ति ते ॥

‘Those who take refuge in Me alone, will cross this māyā.’

The Bhāgavatam (2.7.42) also says:

येषां स एव भगवान् दययेदनन्तः सर्वात्मनाऽऽश्रितपदो यदि निर्व्यलीकम् । ते दुस्तरामतितरन्ति च देवमायां नैषां ममाहमिति धीः श्र्वश्रृगालभक्ष्ये ॥

‘If people truly and wholeheartedly take refuge at the feet of the Lord, they in whom the infinite Lord is so merciful, will cross the divine māyā which is very difficult to cross. For them, the sense of “mine” and “I” will not arise in this body, fit to be eaten by dogs and jackals.’

Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotra with Mānasollāsa. Translated and Annotated by Swami Harshananda

May 2019

5. (Some) disputants who can be compared to women, children, the blind, the dull-witted (and so on),1 being extremely deluded,2 think that the body, the vital airs, the senses, the fickle intellect and the void 3 are the Ātman. Obeisance to him, Śrī Dakṣiṇāmūrti, who is the Guru, who dispels the great delusion4 (of such people), that has been created by the play of the power of māyā.

1) People who are incapable of deep or independent thinking. The inclusion of women in this list is a reflection of their condition in the contemporary society of the author.

2) The Gītā (7.14) says:

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PA G E S P O N S O R : S R I R A J U Z . M O R AY, M U M B A I

देहं प्राणमपीन्द्रियाण्यपि चलां बुद्धिं च शून्यं विदुः स्त्रीबालान्धजडोपमास्त्वहमिति भ्रान्ता भृशं वादिनः । मायाशक्तिविलासकल्पितमहाव्यामोहसंहारिणे तस्मै श्रीगुरुमूर्तये नम इदं श्रीदक्षिणामूर्तये ॥ ५ ॥

May 2019

Self-surrender

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Yugavani

Two things are necessary for the realization of God; faith and self-surrender. God certainly provides everything for the man who totally surrenders himself to Him. Surrender yourself completely to God, and set aside all such things as fear and shame. He who has surrendered his body, mind, and innermost self to God is surely a holy man.

God incarnates Himself as man and teaches people the path of devotion. He exhorts people to cultivate self-surrender to God. Following the path of devotion, one realizes everything through His grace.

Who can ever know God? I don’t even try. I only call on Him as Mother. Let Mother do whatever She likes. I shall know Her if it is Her will; but I shall be happy to remain ignorant if She wills otherwise. My nature is that of a kitten. It only cries, ‘Mew, mew!’ The rest it leaves to its mother. The mother cat puts the kitten sometimes in the kitchen and sometimes on the master’s bed. The young child wants only his mother. He doesn’t know how wealthy his mother is, and he doesn’t even want to know. He knows only, ‘I have a mother; why should I worry?’ Even the child of the maidservant knows that he has a mother. If he quarrels with the son of the master, he says: ‘I shall tell my mother. I have a mother.’ My attitude, too, is that of a child.

‘O Mother! O Embodiment of Om! Mother, how many things people say about Thee! But I don’t understand any of them. I don’t know anything, Mother. I have taken refuge at Thy feet. I have sought protection in Thee. O Mother, I pray only that I may have pure love for Thy Lotus Feet, love that seeks no return. And Mother, do not delude me with Thy worldbewitching maya. I seek Thy protection. I have taken refuge in Thee.’

You no doubt need money for your worldly life; but don’t worry too much about it. The wise course is to accept what comes of its own accord. Don’t take too much trouble to save money. Those who surrender their hearts and souls to God, those who are devoted to Him and have taken refuge in Him, do not worry much about money. As they earn, so they spend.

The money comes in one way and goes out the other. This is what the Gita describes as ‘accepting what comes of its own accord’.

Whether a man should be a householder or a monk depends on the will of Rama.

Surrender everything to God and do your duties in the world. What else can you do?

—Sri Ramakrishna

Editorial

Enlightened Electorate

Unchanging Politicians Referring to his experience of elections in Europe, Swami Vivekananda writes in ‘The East and the West’ of the ‘class of people who, in the name of politics, rob others and fatten themselves by sucking the very life-blood of the masses…’ He warns, ‘If you ever saw, my friend that shocking sight behind the scene of acting of these politicians — that revelry of bribery, that robbery in broad daylight, that dance of the Devil in man, which are practiced on such occasions — you would be hopeless about man! … They that have money have kept the government of the land under their thumb,…’

Does it appear like he is writing about the politicians of our day? As on 16 April 2019 (when this issue goes to the Printer), the Election Commission of India has seized cash, liquor, drugs, gold, and other freebies worth 2,550.75 crores! And we have another month to go before the show ends! How shall we keep alive our hopes about man, about our democracy?

Whom to Elect?

W h o m s h o u l d we e l e c t a s o u r representatives or our ministers? In the Mahabharata when Yudhishthira wants to know what qualifications his legislators should have, Bhisma replies: ‘Those who have modesty, self-restraint, truth, sincerity and the courage to say what is right should be your legislators.’

May 2019

Democracy through a Dictator Swamiji opened the meeting with these words: ‘The conviction has grown in my mind after all my travels in various lands that no great cause can succeed without an organisation. In a country like ours, however, it does not seem quite practicable to me to start an organisation at once with a democratic basis or work by general voting. People in the West are more educated in this respect, and less jealous of one another than ourselves. They have learnt to respect merit. …. When with the spread of education the masses in our country grow more sympathetic and liberal, when they learn to have their thoughts expanded beyond the limits of sect or party, then it will be possible to work on the democratic basis of organization.

For this reason it is necessary to have a dictator for this Society. Everybody should obey him, and then in time we may work on the principle of general voting.’

A society of sannyasis and devotees, who were recipients of Sri Ramakrishna’s personal counsel and blessings, were deemed unprepared for democracy! And in our ongoing 2019 Indian general elections where 900

million voters are exercising their right to vote, God knows how many understand democracy and are prepared to fulfil their democratic duties.

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PA G E S P O N S O R : S A S T R Y FA M I LY, P U N E

On 1 May 1897, the foundation day of the Ramakrishna Mission, Swami Vivekananda made an interesting observation on democracy.

A number of devotees, and sannyasi brotherdisciples of Swamiji had gathered at the house of Balaram Basu, one of the close house-holder devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. They had assembled at the invitation of Swamiji to initiate the formation of an association that would spread the message of Sri Ramakrishna.

May 2019

And regarding the head of such ministers –the Prime Minister – his advice is: ‘That man who has made a name, who is self-controlled, never jealous of others, who is able, never does anything wicked nor strays away from the path of righteousness, free from lust, fear, greed or wrath, who is clever in transacting business, and whose speech is wise and weighty should be the foremost of your ministers.’

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Educating the Electorate The Election Commission, carrying the onerous responsibility of conducting fair elections in the largest democracy in the world, now has a flagship programme called Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) to educate the voters. A new aspect of this endeavour is that over 120 Community Radios stations are engaged in educating the voters.

Swami Vivekananda’s idea of educating and awakening the masses was more down to earth, and it combined secular and spiritual training. He wanted a band of perfectly selfless sannyasis to ‘go from door to door’ and ‘by means of facts and reasoning’ first awaken people to their ‘pitiable condition’, and then ‘instruct them in the ways and means for their welfare.’ They were at the same time to be given, in a very simple language, spirituality or ‘the higher truths of religion’ because without a spiritual foundation, all other accomplishments sooner or later degrade into self-centred actions.

Mahatma Gandhi too saw democracy as ‘the art and science of mobilising the entire physical, economic, and spiritual resources of all the various sections of the people in the service of the common good of all.’ But unfortunately, soon after independence our

elected representatives chose in the name of ‘secularism’ to neglect and even actively erase our ancient spiritual resources, and thus created the mess we see around us today.

The Rajarishi Ideal Our scriptures speak about the Rajarishi ideal. The term signifies a person who is at once both a raja or king, and a rishi or sage. In a democracy all the citizens are in a sense kings; and administrators, executives, and political leaders who influence the welfare of millions of people, are kings with more power. What we need today is for more and more people in our society, the electorate, to accept this ideal of rajarishi. We have to first cultivate the heroic manliness of a king and then grow into heroic saintliness of a sage.

Self-restraint Such a combination requires the balanced development of the three Hs –head, heart, and hand. And one quality fundamental for such development is self-restraint. As Bhisma points out to Yudhishtira, self-restraint is also the most important among all the duties laid down by the rishis.

Self-restraint will strengthen our brain, clear the cobwebs in our mind, and empower us to seek our inner perfection and latent powers. The more we move towards this discovery of inner freedom, the more truthful and unselfish will be our actions in the world outside. Only when our electorate are educated in this line, will they be able to think ‘beyond the limits of sect or party’ and help establish an ideal democracy. May Bhagavan Buddha, Sri Shankaracharya, and Sri Ramanujacharya whose birthdays we celebrate this month, bless all our democratic endeavours.

Reminiscences

Reminiscences of Sargachhi SWAMI SUHITANANDA

Conversations with Swami Premeshananda (1884-1967) a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi.

Question: After Sri Ramakrishna left his mortal body, Mother too strongly desired to leave her body. But she did not feel that way when Sri Ramakrishna was still alive!

Maharaj: Where could she have gone then?

Sri Ramakrishna, verily the personification of Para-Brahma, was present before her!

Question: Due to maya’s influence we see the nirguna (the attributeless) as saguna (one with attributes). Is this maya subject to our mental state?

Maharaj: The One who is without attributes, is with attributes too. He is both with form and without form. He is everything.

Swamiji preached the Advaita philosophy in foreign lands; but on his return to India, before going to offer his respects to Holy Mother, he bathed in the Ganga and repeatedly sipped its water in fear that he might not be pure enough to visit her. And Swami Brahmananda couldn’t go near her; he would shiver in awe!

When Sri Ramakrishna (finding it difficult to swallow food because of throat cancer) said, ‘I shall eat later on in my subtle body through a million mouths,’ Baburam Maharaj (Swami Premananda) responded, ‘I do not care for your million mouths or your subtle body. What I want is that you should eat through this mouth and that I should see this gross body.’ All this Advaita vanishes in the face of such love. In the Vaishnava literature it is mentioned that the attributeless Brahman is the splendour of Sri Krishna’s body. In one of my songs I expressed

May 2019

19.9.60 Maharaj: A sannyasi’s life becomes wretched without pratyahara (restraining senses from their objects). How to practise this withdrawal? Try to remain immersed in your Chosen Deity’s divine form, life, and spiritual teachings. If you do not do this now, you will face serious problems in old age. You will then have to spend your time either reading newspapers or indulging in ashrama politics.

There are some who labour like coolies in the daytime and lie inert like a dead body at night. These will live in great misery in old age when they lose their capacity to work.

Question: This creation becomes lifeless at the end of a kalpa (cosmic cycle). It again comes into being at the beginning of the next cosmic cycle. Does this cycle have no preordained time frame? Is there no fixed timing or definite rule as to how long it will remain active and how long it will sleep?

Maharaj: We fall asleep when our vital energy for the day is exhausted. Again, we wake up after sleeping for some time. This creation too functions in a similar manner. The momentum of life energy I gave this body while assuming it, has sustained the body for eighty-two years; after this it will peter out by itself. Why this happens so cannot be explained. All this is maya.

Question: We should have more regard for the mad aunt than for Holy Mother. If not for her, could we have understood Mother?

Maharaj: Were they ordinary mortals?

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

(Continued from previous issue. . .)

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a similar idea – tava hasi-rashi... (‘Thine infinite smile sheds its rays and illumines the heart with charming light’ – a verse from the famous song ‘Arupa sayare’).

Only twelve rishis, including Bharadwaja, could recognise Sri Ramachandra as an avatara; the rest sat contemplating the attributeless Brahman. We are in an advantageous position, for we know everything. If somebody says only Advaita is correct, we immediately agree and say that God with attributes is simply maya.

Again, as soon as the topic of love is raised, the concept of Brahman is pushed far away and we say, ‘My Gadai.’ Look here, we do not perform spiritual practices, and therefore we argue and engage in polemics. If we really want to know God, then we will just settle into a spiritual practice; then He Himself will tell us what He is.

If we really meditate, then we will know His true identity. It is for this reason that the Vaishnavas forbid argumentation. They say, ‘Sit down and tell your beads; you will realise everything on your own.’

20.9.60 Maharaj: Listen. Have you heard this verse? It fairly reflects our attitude: –

अन्तः शैवः बहिः शाक्तः सभायां वैष्णवमतः। नानारूपधराः कौलाः विचरन्ति महीतले॥

‘Being a Shaivite inside, a Shakta outside, and a Vaishnavite in public interaction – this is how noble people move in this world (harmoniously balancing different attitudes and faiths).’

We will have the knowledge of Advaita within, manifest Jnanamishrita bhakti or the blend of devotion and knowledge without, and in practice maintain the attitude of Dvaita—we will be very humble, modest, and of impeccable conduct. We have heard and assimilated Advaita, but we don’t enter into polemics about it. We keep with us the dust of Sri Ramakrishna’s room, and partake mahaprasada (the sanctified food of Lord Jagannath) – we come across as staunch devotees; but within we

have a perfect understanding of the Truth. We lead our lives entirely depending on Sri Ramakrishna.

Hold on to Sri Ramakrishna with both hands. You will be free only if you shun all activity, completely restrain your sense organs, and establish your mind in the Atman. Only those who have been practising austerity through many lives, can enjoy bliss right in this world, as Gopala’s Mother did (a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna who had the constant vision of the child Krishna). It’s true that this world is bad, but there is another world – the world of Consciousness– the world of the blissful sheath (corresponding to the five dimensions of human personality described in the Taittiriya Upanishad).

Satan cannot wield his power in that world.

23.9.60 Maharaj: The sadhu who came here the other day, probably a parivrajaka, made a very interesting remark. When I asked, ‘How do you manage to procure your food?’ he answered, ‘Some days I manage it; and some days, God manages it.’ That is to say, on those days when food is available, it is God who manages it for him; and on those days when nothing is available, he manages it himself—by fasting!

Once I went to a friend’s house in Sylhet.

A handsome boy happened to come there. I attended on him with utmost care. When he was leaving after lunch, he was given a betelroll. I noticed that he ate half of it and kept the rest in his pocket. When I asked about it, he said, ‘I will eat it on the way.’ He received initiation from Sharat Maharaj (Swami Saradananda). Later he wanted to become a sannyasi and stay at the Sylhet ashrama. But I didn’t agree at all. How can such a calculating person depend on God? Later on, he became a doctor and married. Had it been in any other place, he would have become a sannyasi and managed with expertise house-keeping in the ashrama. But I wanted him to progress along his natural path.

(To be continued. . .)

Sukesaa: A Less Known Seeker of Truth from a Popular Upanishad DR. M. JAYARAMAN

Vairagya, the mind sheds its restlessness and becomes steady.

There are many characters called Sukesaa who appear in the Ramayana (Uttara Kanda), in Puranas like Skanda Purana, Vamana Purana, Brahmanda Purana, and even in a Jaina text like Trisasti-salaka-purusa-caritra. But the focus here is on Sage Sukesaa of Prasnopanishad.

Prasnopanishad belongs to Atharvaveda.

Prasna means question. In this Upanishad six seekers pose questions about spirituality and receive answers from Rishi Pippalada. Hence it is called Prasnopanishad. The very first line of the Upanishad begins with ‘सुकेशा च भारद्वाज…”

(1.1), subtly indicating the prominence of Sukesaa. Why Sukesaa, the son of Bharadvaja, is accorded such a distinction becomes clear when we study his personality.

Qualities of the six seekers The six seekers were endowed with exemplary qualities. Describing them, the Upanishad says:

ते हैते ब्रह्मपरा ब्रह्मनिष्ठाः परं ब्रह्मान्वेषमाणाः (1.1)

The author is the Director, Research Department, Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram, Chennai. jramanm@gmail.com

May 2019

Introduction Upanishads are unique texts. Swami Vivekananda calls them ‘great mine of strength.’ 1 They are considered as the fountainhead of all systems of Indian philosophy. Unlike some philosophical texts, the Upanishads are not dry. They are teeming with inspiring characters and pristine personalities.

Naciketas, Yama, Bhrigu, Varuna, Aaruni, Svetaketu, Janaka, Gaargi and Yajnavalkya are some of the names that flash in our mind when we think of the Upanishads.

Apart from these well-known characters, many other great souls appear in the Upanishads. Like fully ripe fruits hidden behind leaves, their greatness is hidden between the lines of the Upanishads. On a careful study of the Upanishads they emerge in all their splendour. This article attempts to draw attention to one such seeker/seer, about whose outstanding personality we get an inkling from the Prasnopanishad. His name is Sukesaa.

But why should we seek to know about such great personalities? The answer is given by the Yogasutras (1.37) when it states वीतरागविषयं वा चित्तम् – when we think of great personalities known for their Viveka and

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‘These were (ब्रह्मपरा) devoted to Brahman,

( ब्रह्मनिष्ठ ) firmly rooted in their quest for Brahman (ब्रह्मान्वेषमाणा) and were in search of

the supreme Brahman.’

In essence, they were seekers of the highest level, endowed with great devotion and determination. Another important quality of the six seekers comes out when they present themselves before Sage Pippalada. On seeing the six seekers the sage tells them:

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तान् ह स ऋषिरुवाच भूय एव तपसा ब्रह्मचर्येण श्रद्धया संवत्सरं संवत्स्यथ (1.2)

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‘...live (with me) for a year with great levels of austerity (tapas) celibacy (brahmacarya) and with deep faith (Shraddha).’

When the teacher delays the answer by a year, demanding some necessary preparations, the six seekers accept it without a murmur and without being de-motivated in the least. It is understood from the commentaries that they follow the instructions of the teacher and come back with their questions. They display the true spirit of seeking. It is in such a team of mature seekers that we find Sukesaa.

The Crest jewel – Sukesaa The crown jewel of this team is Sukesaa.

The greatness of Sukesaa is seen in two specific instances in the Upanishad. Though the Upanishad begins by mentioning Sukesaa’s name first among the seekers, interestingly, he is the last to ask a question. Why then is his name mentioned first? The answer lies in the nature of question the six seekers ask. The other five seekers ask relatively less direct questions about the Atman— like the nature of the world, prana, senses, mind, and the Omkara.

But, Sukesaa’s question, which comes last, is directly about the Purusa or Atman

तं त्वा पृच्छामि क्वासौ पुरुष इति (6.1)

‘I ask you, about him, where is the Purusa?’

Kalidasa, while describing the nature of King Dilipa, one of the ancestors of Sri Rama,

states ज्ञाने मौनम्, (Raghuvamsa 1.22) ‘He was silent even when possessing knowledge.’ This perfectly suits Sukesaa too. Evidently, Sukesaa is more knowledgeable than the others. But he patiently waits till the end before posing his question. When posing his question to Rishi Pippalada, Sukesaa gives a little bit of background too:

भगवन्हिरण्यनाभः कौसल्यो राजपुत्रो मामुपेत्यैतं प्रश्नमपृच्छत । षोडशकलं भारद्वाज पुरुषं वेत्थ । तमहं कुमारमब्रुवं नाहमिमं वेद । यद्यहमिममवेदिषं कथं ते नावक्ष्यमिति, समूलो वा एष परिशुष्यति योऽनृतमभिवदति तस्मान्नार्हाम्यनृतं वक्तुम् । स तूष्णीं रथमारुह्य प्रवव्राज । (6.1)

‘Hiranyanabha, a prince from the Kosala kingdom, came to see me. He asked me whether I knew about the Purusa with sixteen aspects.

I said I did not know. He could not believe that I might not know this. To him then I stated – Had I known the answer, I do not have any reluctance in sharing the answer with you.

Further I said - the one who knows and feigns ignorance will dry from the root. And hence I do not indulge in falsehood. He silently got onto his chariot and left. The question that I was unable to answer is discomforting like a thorn in my heart. Oh Rishi Pippalada! I would like to know about that Purusha with sixteen aspects, where is he?’

This question reveals some great qualities of Sukesaa: He is very knowledgeable: From the fact that highly placed people like Hiranyanabha seek the audience of Sukesaa, it is evident that h e i s a v e r y w e l l - k n o w n t e a c h e r.

Hiranyanabha’s disbelief about Sukesaa’s ignorance also reinforces his fame as a very knowledgeable person.

He has intellectual honesty: Riding on his fame as a reputed scholar, Sukesaa could have easily convinced the student with some answer or the other. Instead, he admits his ignorance in front of the student. He also relates that if a person – especially a teacher –

Thirst for knowledge Sukesaa does not rest with that. He is uneasy with his lack of knowledge. The following expression that Sri Shankaracharya uses in his commentary in this context is worth

Conclusion Because of the blend of qualities like scholarship with patience, honesty, proactive seeking of knowledge even after achieving respectability and reputation in life, and unease with ignorance, Sukesaa can be proclaimed as the crown jewel among seekers and a rare gem hidden in the Upanishads.

A popular statement about the study of sastras states, ‘adhamaṃ daśa cintanam’, ‘Studying the sastra texts ten times is (still) inferior.’ If even reading ten times is considered inferior, then the amount of effort to be put in, to raise to the level of sastra-adhyayana, study of texts to madhyama, intermediate, and to uttama the higher states can be imagined. The more time we spend with the texts, newer and better are the insights that we can develop. It is such an insight that helped to identify the great personality of Sukesaa in Prasnopanishad. The Mundakopanishad says, आत्मा विवृणुते तनुं स्वाम् (3.2.3), ‘Consciousness reveals itself (to the one who totally submits oneself to it). Similarly, it seems great personalities like Sukesaa are waiting for us to intensify our swadhyaya so that they can reveal themselves.

References: 1) Lectures From Colombo to Almora , Swami Vivekananda, p.153, Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, 1944

Select Bibliography: 1) Sri Shankarabhagavatpada's Upanishad-bhashyam, Volume 1, Edited with notes by S.Subrahmanya Sastri, Mahesh Research Institute, Varanasi, 1979. 2) Raghuvamsha of Kalidasa with the commentary of Mallinatha, Edited by MR Kale, Bombay Vaibhav Press, Bombay, 1922.

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noting: मम हृदि विज्ञेयत्वेन शल्यमिव स्थितम्, ‘This (question) about which I have to learn, has stayed in my heart like a thorn.’

The symptom of a true seeker is discomfort with ajnana, absence of knowledge, or alpajnana, incomplete knowledge. This symptom of greatness is found in Sukesaa. That is why it seems the Upanishad honours him by mentioning his name in the very opening mantra of the text. Indeed, it is a rare distinction to be honoured by the Vedas themselves.

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page sponsor : Dr. Panchapagesan K., Bengaluru

indulges in falsehood, he will dry from the root, or be destroyed.

The root referred to here can be taken as subject knowledge. It is by the strength of the root of knowledge that buds of thoughts blossom into flowers of insights and intuition.

This root will dry up when the teacher indulges in two kinds of falsehood: 1) When the teacher speaks about a subject without real knowledge about it, and gets away with it by the strength of his past reputation, he is indulging in falsehood. It is a matter of common experience that when a teacher stops learning by way of studying and referencing, his knowledge gets limited, outdated and irrelevant.

2) Even while possessing knowledge about a subject, when the teacher hides it and thus denies a sincere student, he is false. It is well-known that a knowledge not shared dies out. Knowledge is one wealth that grows on sharing and dries out when merely accumulated. As a popular verse reminds us, अपूर्वः कोऽपि कोशोऽयं विद्यते तव भारती । व्ययतो वृद्धिमायाति क्षयमायाति सञ्चयात् ॥ ‘Oh Goddess Sarasvati, presiding deity of knowledge! You have a strange reservoir. It grows on being spent and gets depleted on being accumulated!’

Sukesaa is aware of these profound implications of a teacher indulging in falsehood and so states the truth to Hiranyanabha.

Article

Life in the Kingdom of Heaven in Indian and Western Thought GOPAL STAVIG

May 2019

(Continued from the previous issue. . .)

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Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-254) concludes, ‘When we have progressed so far that we are no longer flesh and bodies, and... (are) not blinded by any cloud of disturbing passions, we shall see the rational and spiritual beings “face to face.”’18 ‘When it is said that God is ‘all in all,’ it means that he is also all things in each individual person. And He will be all things in each person in such a way that everything which the rational mind—when purified from all the dregs of its vices and utterly cleared from every cloud of wickedness—can feel or understand or think will be all God, and that mind will no longer be conscious of anything besides or other than God, but will think God and see God and hold God and God will be the mode and measure of its every movement; and in this way God will be all to it.’19 In the Neo-Platonic philosophical system of Plotinus, Nous (Divine Intellect) and Noeta (Intelligible World) form an identity, constituting a world of interpenetrating spiritual beings each containing the others, organically united in a state of contemplation.

In the Intelligible World [Indian Brahmaloka], ‘Each part is not cut off from the whole; but the whole life of It and the whole intellect lives and thinks all together in one, and makes the part the whole and all bound in friendship with Itself, since one part is not separated from another.’20 There a thing ‘has everything in Itself

and sees all things in every other, so that all are everywhere and each and every one is all and the glory is unbounded; for each of them is great.... each comes only from the whole and is part and whole at once: It has the appearance of a part, but a penetrating look sees the whole in It.’ For the Divine Intellect ‘thinking [Nous] and being [Noeta] are the same thing and knowledge of immaterial things is the same as Its object.’21 ‘That [Nous] which is conscious of Itself and thinks Itself comes second, for It is conscious of Itself in order that in this actuality of consciousness It may understand Itself.’ ‘In the Intelligible World seeing is not through another [medium], but through itself, because it is not [directed] outside.’ ‘Intellect is not simple but many; It manifests a composition, of course an intelligible one, and already sees many things…. Intellect and being are one and the same thing; for Intellect does not apprehend objects which pre-exist It, as sense does sense-objects, but Intellect Itself is Its objects.’22 Nous ‘has nothing lacking to Its existence. Since It is complete It has no need of anything for Its preservation and existence but is cause to other things…. It must be intellect, and wisdom in Its fullness. And it must therefore be defined and limited, and there must be nothing to which Its power does not extend, nor must Its power be quantitatively limited; otherwise It would be defective.... But real being must be being in every way; It must

The author is a member of Vedanta Society of Southern California, USA.

stavig@earthlink.net

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any sensible good, and more intimate, and more continually delightful; and also as that delight is free from all admixture of sorrow, or concern about trouble.… the blessed attain perfect sempiternity [being eternal in time] and are safe from all harm … intellectual substances obtain true felicity, in which their desires are completely brought to rest and in which is the full sufficiency of all the goods.’28 The beatific vision of the Divine Essence cannot be lost; there is nothing contrary to it to bring its end.

‘Now it is impossible for anyone seeing the Divine Essence to wish not to see It…. the vision of the Divine Essence fills the soul with all good things, since it unites it to the source of all goodness…. Nor again can it be withdrawn by any other agent. Because the mind that is united to God is raised above all other things, and consequently no other agent can sever the mind from that union.’29 When writing about the Catholic faith, Anthony Wilhelm designated that in God’s kingdom, ‘We will love and be loved with an unimaginable, ever-increasing love. We will be fully possessed, continually overwhelmed by God’s beauty and goodness, and yet we will go on thirsting for more—even as we are filled to perfect contentment we yet seek and find still more and more. God will be able to totally give Himself to us. No longer shall we have to intuit or reason to Him from His works, speculate about Him, or catch fleeting, unsatisfying ‘glimpses.’ We shall see Him as He is, His very self, “face to face.” Each of us will know God and be loved by Him in the most intimate way possible, in a way no one or nothing in creation is or ever will be. This will be incredible, unimaginable happiness… In this heaven-state there will be no sorrow, no pain, no hardship, no struggle or temptation of any kind. We will understand everything we have ever wanted to—the secrets of the universe, the mysteries of our faith. We will have everything we want. And we will be secure in this eternal happiness,

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therefore come having everything for existence from Itself: and It must be all things together, and all of them one.’ ‘It is something which abides in the same in Itself and does not change at all but is always in the present, because nothing of It has passed away, nor again is there anything to come into being, but that which It is.’23 Nous encompasses all things ‘as a genus does its species and a whole its parts.’24 For Neoplatonism there are two levels of Divinity, the Divine Intellect (Nous) that is completely separate from the creation, and a lower aspect (World-Soul) that interacts with the phenomenal world. If this idea were put into the Indian perspective, the higher aspect of Saguna Brahman would be Ishvara and the Divine world (Brahmaloka), and the lower aspect would create, maintain, and destroy the phenomenal world and include Mahat, the Universal Mind and Body.

Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) formulated that, ‘Final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence.’25 ‘Whatever is desirable in whatsoever beatitude, whether true or false, all pre-exists in a more eminent way in the Divine beatitude.’26 Transcending the realm of time, ‘The intellect which sees the Divine Substance contemplates all things at once and not in succession.’27 ‘In the felicity that comes from the Divine vision, every human desire is fulfilled … through the vision of the First Truth, all that the intellect naturally desires to know becomes known to it … since reason will be at its peak strength, having been enlightened by the Divine light, so that it cannot swerve away from what is right…. men are raised through this vision to the highest peak of honor, because they are in a sense united with God … the most perfect delight is found in this felicity; as much more perfect than the delight of the senses which even brute animals can enjoy, as the intellect is superior to sense power; and also as that good in which we shall take delight is greater than

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knowing that there is no possibility of ever losing it.’30 According to one study about 10% of those people who had a near death experience, reached the state of ‘Entering the Light.’ This realm corresponds to a lower heaven far beneath the beatific vision, yet more joyful than any earthly experience. One woman who had a cardiac arrest described her idyllic experience this way, ‘Then, suddenly. I saw my mother, who had died about nine years ago…. ‘Well, we’ve been waiting for you. We’ve been expecting you.

Your father’s here and we’re going to help you.’

And all I felt was a tremendous kind of happiness, of pleasure, of comfort…. And I could hear beautiful music; I can’t tell you what kind, because I never heard anything like it before…. It sounds—I could describe it as a combination of vibrations, many vibrations.

The whole thing was just very good, very happy, very warm, very peaceful, very comforted, very—I’ve never known that feeling in my whole life.’ Indians call this the Pitruloka, the realm or lower heaven of our ancestors. People living there enjoying the fruits of their good deeds will eventually be reborn on earth. Lower heaven is depicted by the Native American Indians as a happy hunting ground, the Arabians as a shady oasis containing trees, and by the Nordics as a warm and sunny place.

Three Higher Worlds Indian scriptures state, ‘Make me immortal in that realm where movement is accordant to wish, in the third region, the third heaven of heavens’ (Rig Veda 9:113.9). ‘The lowest is the Watery heaven, Pilumati the middle most; the third and highest, that wherein the Fathers dwell, is called Pradyaus (Highest Heaven)’ (Atharva Veda 18:2.48; cf.

4.3; 9:5.1, 8).

Swami Vivekananda outlines three levels of higher worlds, the Lunar sphere, Electric sphere, and the Brahmaloka. ‘All these spheres

or layers of the universe are only so many varying products of Akasha (Matter) and Prana (Energy). That is to say, the lowest or most condensed is the Solar sphere, consisting of the visible universe, in which Prana appears as physical force, and Akasha as sensible matter.

The next is called the Lunar sphere (Lower heaven), which surrounds the Solar sphere.

This is not the moon at all, but the habitation of the gods, that is to say, Prana appears in it as psychic forces, and Akasha as Tanmatras or fine particles. Beyond this is the Electric sphere, that is to say, a condition in which the Prana is almost inseparable from Akasha, and you can hardly tell whether Electricity is force or matter. Next is the Brahmaloka, where there is neither Prana nor Akasha, but both are merged in the mind-stuff, the primal energy. And here— there being neither Prana nor Akasha –the Jiva contemplates the whole universe as Samashti or the sum total of Mahat or mind. This appears as a Purusha, an abstract universal Soul, yet not the Absolute, for still there is multiplicity. From this the Jiva finds at last that Unity which is the end.’ 31 ‘The highest heaven, called the Brahmaloka, is where the Jiva lives eternally, no more to be born or to die. It enjoys through eternity.’32 The older Jewish apocalyptic knew of three heavens: of meteors, of stars and of God, as does ‘Those men took me thence, and led me up to the third heaven’ (Enoch 8:1). Some Jewish Christian texts such as the Testament of Levi (3:1-4) retained the three-heaven concept.

In the New Testament the Apostle Paul wrote, ‘I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up in the third heaven ... I know that this man was caught up into Paradise’ (2 Cor. 12:2-3).33 Gregory of Nyssa (c. 330-95) a Bishop from Asia Minor considered the First Heaven to be ‘on the frontier between the human and the incorporeal natures.’ By purification and illumination the soul ascends to the Second

References 18) On First Principles (hereafter FP). Origen. Trans. G. W. Butterworth. Gloucester MA: Peter Smith, 1973, II,11:7.

19) FP, III, 6:3.

20) Enneads, (hereafter Enneads). Plotinus.Trans. A. H. Armstrong. 7 vols. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1989, II, 6:1; III, 2:1,14.

21) Enneads, V, 8.4; 9.5.

22 Enneads, III, 9.9; V, 3.8; V, 4.2.

23) Enneads, III, 6.6; 7.3; G. Stavig, ‘Plotinus and Indian Philosophy,’ Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture (Aug. 2002), pp. 313-18; (Sept.

2002), pp. 360-64.

24) Enneads, V, 9.6.

25) Basic Writings of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica (hereafter ST). St. Thomas Aquinas. Trans.

Anton Pegis. 2 vols. New York: Random House, 1945, I-II, 3:8.

26) ST, I, 26:4; Gopal Stavig, ‘A Western Saint’s (Thomas Aquinas) Dialogue With Some Indian Theologians,’

Journal of Dharma 25 (2000), pp. 60-85.

27) Summa Contra Gentiles (hereafter CG). St. Thomas Aquinas. Ed. Vernon Bourke. 5 vols. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1975, III, 59-60.

28) CG, III, 63.

29) ST, I-II, 5:4.

30) Christ Among Us. Anthony Wilhelm. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1985, p. 420.

31) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (hereafter CW). 5:102-03.

32) CW. 1:398.

33) The Theology of Jewish Christianity. Jean Danielou.

Trans. John Baker. London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1964, pp. 173-74.

34) The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy. Ed. A. H. Armstrong. Cambridge: University Press, 1967, pp. 448-50, 453-56.

35) A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion. John Dowson. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968, pp. 179-80; Danielou (1964), pp. 174-81.

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which the apprehension and discovery are eternal processes.’ ‘The beauty (of the Beatific Vision) reveals itself with ever-increasing clarity, the Divine majesty exceeds more and more as the soul advances, and the perpetual discovery of new delights in the transcendent realm makes each seem the beginning of a fresh ascent.’34 In addition, the Vishnu Purana (II: 7) describes each of the seven heavenly spheres (lokas), and 2 Enoch 3-20 (c. 35-50 A.D.) an early Jewish and/or Christian apocalyptic book gives a detailed account of the nature of the seven heavens. For both of them there are three lower and four higher spiritual heavens. A hierarchy of seven heavens of increasing glory is listed in the Jewish Christian Testimony of the Twelve Patriarchs. It is possible that this idea was diffused among the ancient Indians, Iranians, and Babylonians; and then passed on to the Jewish and non-Jewish Christians like Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria.35 (Concluded)

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Heaven and becomes a ‘son of light’ when the ‘image of God’ is restored. As his interpreter I. P. Sheldon-Williams explains it, ‘The only creature who is not confined to one side or other of the First Heaven which separates the sensible from the intelligible world is man. As animal he belongs to the one, as rational soul to the other. Therefore, he is a “borderline case” and a means of transition from the one to the other…. Man was first created in the Second Heaven and therefore as an intelligible and incorporeal being. But since he was made in the image and likeness of God, differing from his Prototype only as the created differs from the uncreated, he is not only intelligible but also one…. The restored image, as perfect man, has become one with Christ the Perfect Man, but not one with Christ as God, for God is absolutely transcendent.’ In the words of Gregory, ‘When the soul has become simple, unified and Godlike, she cleaves to this only true and desirable Beloved by the living energeia of Love.’ The soul ‘is transformed into that of

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Article

Swami Vivekananda’s Visit to Shillong ASIM CHAUDHURI

Swamiji’s last public lecture and the man who captured it The public lecture—the only one on record that Swamiji gave in Shillong—was delivered at the famous Quinton Memorial Hall on April 27, 1901. Rai Saheb Kailash Chandra Das, Swamiji’s host, was the secretary of the Quinton Memorial Hall Committee. A day or two after Swamiji’s arrival, the Rai Saheb and other prominent citizens expressed their wish to have Swamiji give a public discourse on religion. Swamiji said, ‘What’s the need for a public meeting? We are already having these

The author, a well known researcher on Swami Vivekananda, lives in U.S.A.

asimphoenix@gmail.com

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Photo taken after a long illness in Shillong, 1901

nice parlor talks every day. Moreover, considering my physical condition, will your Civil Surgeon or the Chief Commissioner give permission to have such a public meeting involving me?’ The group said that they had already talked to Sir Henry about it, and that he was even willing to chair the meeting. They assured him that the meeting would only be scheduled depending on the prognosis of Swamiji’s health condition.23 Swamiji’s only lecture at Shillong was not reported by any local Bengali or English newspapers (daily, weekly, or monthly), and it is doubtful if one in either language was extant at that time. It was not until 1935 that the Shillong Mail came into being. It was also Swamiji’s last public lecture, and that is why it is so important. But the May 1901 edition of a Khasi monthly magazine, U Khasi Mynta (The Khasi Today), reported on the lecture, which was delivered to a packed audience; some of the people had to stand outside for want of space. The report was probably written, or at least edited, by Hormurai Diengdoh, a prominent Khasi journalist who brought out, in 1895-96, the first Khasi monthly magazine that was secular in nature. It was translated by Swami Gokulananda and appeared in The Vedanta Kesari in 1998.

It is amazing that it took nearly one hundred years for the lecture, given in English, to be published in English, and that too from a

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(Continued from the previous issue. . .)

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Khasi source! According to the Khasi magazine report, the subject of Swamiji’s speech was ‘The Faith of Orthodox Hinduism,’ although the speech had very little to do with either orthodoxy or Hinduism as such, except for some reference to the Vedas. An excerpt of the report from The Vedanta Kesari is quoted below: He [Swami Vivekananda] began by saying that any religion without a sacred book cannot stand the test of time. As examples of his thesis he cited the religions of the Romans, the Greeks and others. Though their religions were based on knowledge and discipline, in the long run they could not survive, for they had no sacred books. But when people have sacred books of their religion, even though they might go astray like the Jews, their religion or faith can never die. It is the same with the Hindus, he said. Even they are very much misguided by those manmade multifarious teachings. But so long as their Gospel, the Vedas, remain, there is hope.

In his speech Swami Vivekananda laid stress on the fact that religious ceremonies without deeds are worth nothing. A man who does something, who performs something, although he might commit crimes, is better than a man who does nothing or performs nothing, for the slothful or undutiful are not different from a tree or a bull. He quoted and recited stanzas from the Vedas in Sanskrit and then translated them into English. He preached at length for the betterment of the fellow human beings. He divided the good deeds of human beings into three categories—first is to give alms, to help the physical body with food and clothing; the second is to give training or knowledge, like teaching in a school; and the third is to show the human soul the way to Godrealization. He stressed this last category as the most important. For this, he said men like the Brahmins must be respected, for they are the preachers of the soul.

He exhorted man to enlighten his fellow human beings and help them. Those who could

afford to go to school should be provided with facilities to learn extensively, but those who could not, should at least learn the alphabet. He has done a good thing and he must be praised and blessed. He concluded by saying, ‘Our work in India now is to open the eyes of the people.’

From all his speeches and the stanzas that he quoted and recited from the Vedas, one can understand that he considers all human beings in the world as one. None is to be looked down as a low caste Hindu. He said that the Vedas exhort that we should preach to the people the truth. Probably, it is for this reason that he had travelled throughout the world and preached.24 Swami Alokananda analyzed the speech and came up with some salient points that Swamiji had emphasized: religion is realization; to serve humanity is the highest religion; national progress depends on expansion of education; self-manifestation is the true indicator of one’s humanity; it is important to link spiritual lessons with vocational education and training.25 Since the public meeting was organized under the leadership of the Chief Commissioner, and he was in the audience, it must have been attended by the local elites, both British and Indian. The report said, ‘…on the night of 27th April 1901, he fell ill while he was delivering the speech, and has not fully recovered even now.’ Swamiji was already seriously ill then, and the strain of giving the lecture probably took its further toll.

It is uncertain exactly when Hormurai Diengdoh met Swamiji personally and had discussions with him on religious topics. It could have happened in the days before his lecture, or afterwards, probably the latter.

Arpita Sen gave a concise account of one of those discussions as follows (using Shillonger Bangalee as her source): … Diengdoh met him and expressed his unhappiness about the way the Welsh missionaries were condemning the followers of

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That must have endeared Mr. Diengdoh to Swamiji, because both he and his Master Sri Ramakrishna disliked the doctrine of Original Sin, which is central to Christianity. They always accepted everyone as children of immortality, or children of bliss.

There is an anecdote told by a member of the audience, Birendra Kumar Majumdar, about an incident during Swamiji’s lecture at the Quinton Hall. The pressured paraffin lamp (Petromax) that illuminated the lecture hall momentarily went off, leaving the hall in total darkness. But according to Mr. Majumdar, even in that darkness Swamiji’s image became clearer and clearer and he, as well as others, saw the area where Swamiji was standing become fully illuminated. ‘It was not an [optical] illusion, but a perfectly clear act of seeing. All listeners felt blessed at the heavenly sight. Everyone was captivated by Swamiji’s erudition and sonorous voice,’ wrote Birendra Kumar Majumdar in his reminiscences of that occasion.29 It is entirely possible that what Mr. Majumdar saw was ‘divine illumination,’ literally if not metaphorically. Self-effulgent light of divine glory could produce such illumination, and ‘he who has eyes to see’ will see it; although Swamiji, characteristically, would be the last person to invoke such a mystical interpretation in public. But one will always wonder if Sir Henry Cotton, or the other British officers who were also in the audience, had the same visual experience. That would have shocked them unless there is a simple explanation for what had happened. The newly built hall may have had a stage that was equipped with an alternate method of lighting to handle such an emergency; or the stage may have always been lit with a separate and independent light source, which became progressively visible and prominent when the Petromax malfunctioned and the eyes got used to the dark auditorium. The second explanation

23 The Vedanta Kesari

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Khasi indigenous religion as animists and heathens. Swamiji laughingly retorted that the Absolute Soul was manifested in all creations of God and those who believed in this concept and worshipped mountains, trees and rivers were at the same time worshipping the Supreme Being. In that sense the Khasis were animists. If someone believed in God he could not ignore His creations or Nature. As for heathens, Swamiji was quick to point out that those who were prejudiced towards other religions and regarded only themselves as true believers, called the rest heathens. The word heathen, therefore, was indicative of intolerance and narrow–mindedness.26 It is not clear exactly when and where Prof.

Bhattacharya got this information, but the views expressed above would be very typical of Swamiji. Hormurai Diengdoh was a Presbyterian who reverted back to indigenous Khasi religion.27 It is not certain whether he did that before or after meeting Swamiji. However, Swamiji’s speech and subsequent association with him transformed Mr. Diengdoh from a ‘narrow-minded’ Christian to a liberal nationalist. One wonders if Swamiji’s comments at the end was aimed at the Presbyterian missionaries. During one of his meetings with Swamiji, maybe the same or a different one, Mr. Diengdoh narrated the following incident to him: In 1845, three Khasis approached Mr. Lewis [apparently a missionary] for baptism.

When asked if the Saviour would receive such as they, the three men answered, ‘O, yes, He will; why shouldn’t He? Did He not come into the world to die for sinners such as we?’ In 1896 in Wales, John Roberts, the Welsh missionary, gave a lecture followed by thunderous applause when he mentioned that by asking Khasi children to repeat the line, ‘I am a sinner, you are a sinner and we are sinners,’ he was able to convince the Khasi children to embrace Christianity in order to be freed of sins.28

May 2019

is more plausible. The report in The Vedanta Kesari, or in the Khasi article for that matter, didn’t mention this incident.

The Vedanta Kesari

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Ending the trip Despite all efforts by Sir Henry Cotton and his assigned doctor Major Campbell, Swamiji’s health showed no sign of improvement. As far as we know, there are four photographs of Swamiji taken at Shillong.30 Two of those seem to have been taken in a studio, in front of artificial backdrops; and the other two in natural settings. The latter two rather unflattering photographs reflect his extremely poor health at that time, thus denying us his usual photogenic look.

Shillong and its environs are replete with beautiful eye-catching and awe-inspiring spots, each more picture-perfect than the next.

Swamiji’s interest in visiting scenic, historic, and cultural sites is also legendary. He was not the kind of person to stay in bed during the entire time he spent in Shillong, despite his ill health. He gave one lecture that we know of, but there is no available information about his doing any sightseeing or other activities while he was there. But it is conceivable that some prominent Khasi and Bengali residents of Shillong, including editor Diengdoh, visited him to engage him in conversations about religion and important social issues; we have seen some evidence of that already in Swamiji’s reference to ‘parlor talks’.

When did Swamiji leave Shillong then? We simply don’t know. It seems odd that Prof.

Bhattacharya, who devoted three pages in his article giving a vivid description of Swamiji’s trip from Gauhati to Shillong, had nothing to say about when he left, or about his trip back to Gauhati; he just said, ‘He returned to Belur Math on May 12.’31 Since there is no credible information on that, we have no other recourse but to work progressively backwards from the date Swamiji

reached Calcutta (Belur Math), which was May 12, and then settle on a date of departure that seems logical. It took one day by train from Goalundo to Calcutta, about three days to reach Goalundo from Gauhati by steamer,* with no stops en route, and two days to reach Gauhati from Shillong, this time downhill; which means he stayed at Shillong for two weeks and left on May 6. This date presupposes that he spent some time in Gauhati on his way back; there are indications that he met Padmanath there again.32 The two sites: where Swamiji stayed and where he spoke Unfortunately, we know of only two sites within Shillong where Swamiji’s footprints can be traced with any degree of certainty: where he lived and where he lectured. Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke) once wrote about Swamiji: There is no detail of his [Swamiji’s] action too small to record, no whiff of his thought too inconsequential to ponder over, perhaps to write tomes about. If he spoke to some fortunate man or woman for five minutes, we want to know the biography of that person; if he entered a building, we want to know its architecture and its history.33 We have met Sir Henry Cotton and Hormurai Diengdoh earlier; very little is known about the others Swamiji met in Shillong. Now we would like to know a little more about the house that Swamiji stayed in and the hall where he lectured. The house was originally constructed using hay for the roof (Photo 1),

* Frederick William Sudmersen, then the newly

appointed principal of Cotton College, travelled to Gauhati (Sukreshwar Ghat) from Goalundo Ghat by steamer in three days and arrived on May 27, 1901. (https://avinibeshsharma.wordpress. com/2018/03/28/vignettes-of-a-heritage-city-3principal-sahib/ It may take a little less time going downstream from Gauhati to Goalundo.

which was later developed into an Assam-type cottage, replacing the thatched roof with corrugated tin (Photo 2). (The left and right sides of the house are shown respectively in Photos 3 and 4, in p.31) The front verandah was enclosed to transform it to a foyer or a parlor.34 It is not known exactly when the renovation took place. If the house had been damaged during the June 1897 earthquake like many other buildings and houses in Shillong, it could have acquired the new look before Swamiji reached there. On the other hand, the backgrounds in the two photographs of Swamiji, which were presumably taken at the house because of his poor health, do not indicate that those were taken at the renovated house. The said photographs could have been taken on the left side of the old house, which probably had a verandah with wooden railing that was later covered with an asbestos roof and the house extended in width (see Photo 3 in p.31).

In 1943, the owner sold the house to two zamindar (land owner) brothers, Nagendranath

and Dhirendranath Chowdhury, from then Sunamganj sub-division in the district of Sylhet (now in Bangladesh).35 Based on the name of their native village Gourarang in Sunamganj, the new owners named the house ‘Gourarang Lodge,’ and that was the name by which the local Laban residents identified the house.36 (Nagendranath’s native house in Sunamganj, the ‘Gourarong Zamindar Bari’, where he lived until the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, is now one of the top tourist spots in the area.) In 1963 or thereabouts, the Shillong Ramakrishna Mission constructed a stone memorial in front of the house that has the following inscription (see Photo 5): ARISE AWAKE AND STOP NOT TILL THE GOAL IS REACHED HERE LIVED SWAMI VIVEKANANDA IN APRIL 1901 CENTENARY 1963-64 It seems that the descendants of the Chowdhurys lived in that house until around 1997, when the house was sold to a Khasi gentleman. The Ramakrishna Mission was not successful in its attempt to acquire the property. The new owner allowed some of the old residents to live in part of the house, with a plan to eventually demolish the house and build a new one in its place.37 Photographs of the house that were taken by the author in 1998

Photo 2: Front of the house (circa 1998)

(Continued on page 31...)

May 2019

Photo 5: Front of the house showing the monument (circa 1998)

25 The Vedanta Kesari

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Photo 1: Front of the house (circa 1901?)

The Vedanta Kesari

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May 2019

PULLOUT FOR REFERENCE

This is the fifth issue in the 9-part series on Swami Vivekananda's message to the youth.

For previous issues refer Vedanta Kesari January, February, March & April 2019

Issue 17

ISSUE 17: MESSAGE 5: Believe in yourself

issue 10

ISSUE 18: MESSAGE 6: Be bold and fearless ISSUE 19: MESSAGE 7: Expand your heart

IN THIS ISSUE:

ISSUE 20: MESSAGE 8: Be open to learning from anyone

Message 5

ISSUE 21: MESSAGE 9: Develop a gigantic will

Believe in Yourself

“

Have a tremendous faith in yourselves, like the faith I had when I was a child, and which I am working out now

“

1

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

3

BELIEVE IN OTHERS AROUND YOU

CW:III:303.2

“

BELIEVE IN THE NATION

I have faith in 4 my country, and especially, in the youth of my country CW:III:320.2

Designed & developed by

ILLUMINE

Knowledge Catalysts

®

www.illumine.in

I have never failed in my faith in man in any case, even taking him at its worst.

Wherever I had faith in man, though at first the prospect was not always bright, yet it triumphed in the long run CW:III:383.3

BELIEVE IN YOUR DESTINY

“

2

I have not lost faith in a benign Providence – nor am I ever going to lose it CW:VI:206.4

©ILLUMINE KNOWLEDGE RESOURCES PVT. LTD.

®

> EXPLORE EACH ZONE FURTHER...

27 The Vedanta Kesari

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

BELIEVING IN OURSELVES - THE FOUR ZONES OF SELF-BELIEF

May 2019

Swami Vivekananda was the epitome of believing in oneself.

Here is what we can learn from his life:

Zone 1: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF

Amit is asked to volunteer for an event...

I don't think I'll be able to do the work they will assign. Better not volunteer and get into trouble.

Amit's response is a belief flash point Every time I stay away from trying out a new thing, I lose confidence in my ability to do it, and lose a little belief in myself.

Rajan's team gets a sudden deadline to finish their project...

It's tight, can we find a creative way to solve the problem and finish it on time?

Rajan's response is a belief builder Every time I find a new creative response to a challenging situation, I build a little more confidence in my ability to face problems and develop my own answers.

May 2019

Himanshu's exams are coming up...

The Vedanta Kesari

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I have to write with my lucky pen.

I'm depending on it to succeed.

Himanshu's response is a belief flash point When I depend on superstition instead of my own capability, I lose faith in my own hard work & capacities.

Can you think of more such belief flash points or belief builders in this zone?

Zone 2: BELIEVE IN YOUR DESTINY

Santosh is preparing for an internship interview...

It's always some lucky people who seem to get everything. Even if I work hard nothing is going to happen to me.

Santosh's response is a belief flash point This approach leads to a sense of 'victimhood' and a feeling of despair which in turn destroys faith in myself.

Radha is going through a bad time...

Even if things are not working out for me right now, I need to keep building myself to be ready for whatever opportunity I will get in future.

Radha's response is a belief builder The belief that life is a cycle of both good times and bad times helps me focus on my own strength and contribution rather than on the events and circumstances.

Madan is in an academically challenging phase in college ...

If I put in enough efforts, I know I can improve and reach where I want, even if it takes time!

Madan's response is a belief builder This increases my faith that no good work will go waste in the larger scheme of things. This strengthens my resolve to further do good work in my space of activity.

Can you think of more such belief flash points or belief builders in this zone?

Zone 3: BELIEVE IN OTHERS AROUND YOU Shreya is a project manager. Her team has just been allotted a new project...

This is a complex project.

But I have faith that my team members can pull it off. They will do what it takes!

Shreya's response is a belief builder By acknowledging the capacity of others to rise up to a new challenge, I strengthen my belief in people's capacity to improve and expand their capacities & accomplishments.

A neighbour proposes to Rani & others a cleanliness drive for the building society...

I wonder what he is going to get out of it, as if he cares about such things! May be he wants to be the secretary of our building...

Rani's response is a belief flash point When I mistrust the intentions of others I lose faith in people's capacity to be motivated & live by higher ideals (beyond self-interest alone).

Rahul's response is a belief flash point Every time I invalidate another person based on his/her background, I lose faith in the enormous potential waiting to be manifest in each human being.

Can you think of more such belief flash points or belief builders in this zone?

Zone 4: BELIEVE IN THE NATION

Asmita, a graduate engineer is applying for immigration...

I want to lead a comfortable life. So I'll go abroad and settle down.

What is there to look forward to in this country?

Asmita's response is a belief flash point When I doubt my own country's prospects, I lose faith in the power of millions of Indians, including myself, to transform our own destiny.

Raghav, during a debate in class...

All our development came only after the British came.

Raghav's response is a belief flash point A lack of belief in one's own culture & forefathers and their achievements makes us lose faith in our Indianness and makes us cheap imitators of the west.

Sunita is representing India in an international forum on malnutrition...

We are busy putting together the resources needed to solve this complex problem by ourselves. Your help & support to our team is welcome.

Sunita's response is a belief builder This stance increases my faith and belief in myself, my team, and my country, and does not allow India to become "dependent" on others.

Can you think of more such belief flash points or belief builders in this zone?

May 2019

I don't know why these tribal university students waste their time sending in such proposals. When was the last time such a student had a new idea?!

29 The Vedanta Kesari

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A student pitches his ideas for a start-up to Rahul, a potential investor...

SISTER NIVEDITA: A ROLE MODEL OF SELF-BELIEF

Zone 2: Belief in her destiny

Zone 1: Belief in herself Sister Nivedita's whole life is a demonstration of how she had belief in herself.

Here are instances from her early life: •

She finished her education early, at the age of 17. By 25, she had already set up her own school, where she tried several innovative ideas.

•

During this period – from age 17 to 25 – she was not only a teacher, but was also a prolific writer and intellectual. She wrote in several newspapers and periodicals in England.

She closely interacted with the intellectuals of Britain – including Thomas Huxley and George Bernard Shaw.

She was also involved in community work, working for the emancipation of orphans & coal miners.

•

At the age of 29, after meeting and accepting Swami Vivekananda as her guru, she left England and dedicated her life to the people of India.

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•

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Zone 3: Belief in others Sister Nivedita had undaunted faith in the potential of all those whom she became acquainted with.

Here are two examples: •

•

Women of those times saw themselves as only a small homemaker, restricted to work at home.

Sister Nivedita gave them a completely different vision of themselves and what they could do. For example, She showed them that women can have a national consciousness, where they could become patriots and nation builders through the medium of their home life!

Nivedita wanted artists of India to revive the ideals of Indian art rather than perpetuate the western model of art. She inspired all the upcoming artists of that time.

Artist Asit Haldar says, “Nivedita told us that on us depended the revival of ancient Indian art which was rapidly approaching extinction and that the revival of national art would be our great contribution in the movement of national awakening and freedom”.

Sister Nivedita came to India with a firm belief that she would be able to carry out her part in her Guru's mission. His words to her were, "you have the making of a world mover… awake, awake, great one!”

Here are some instances from her life in India: •

On coming to India, she went through intense training with Swami Vivekananda. This was a period of deep mental and spiritual struggle for her, where her existing mental models were questioned.

•

She had to learn what it means to be Indian and how to interact and live in a traditional Hindu society.

•

She set up her school, convinced orthodox parents to send their girls to her, braved through the ups and downs of the school - where there was always a crisis of funds.

•

She never lost faith in her mandate to re-awaken India and worked tirelessly towards that: giving talks, writing books, inspiring people, and galvanizing the freedom movement.

• Rabindranath Tagore says of her, "We had not seen before an embodiment of the spirit of motherhood which, passing beyond the limits of the family, can spread itself over the whole country".

Zone 4: Belief in the nation According to Swami Lokeshwarananda, wherever Sister Nivedita went, she gave talks on India, not as an apologist, but as someone who was proud of India. She admitted that India had many problems but they were not such that Indians couldn't solve it themselves.

In her own words: "The whole history of the world shows that the Indian intellect is second to none.

This must be proved by the performance of a task beyond the power of others, the seizing of the first place in the intellectual advance of the world. Is there any inherent weakness that would make it impossible for us to do this? Are the countrymen of Bhaskaracharya and Shankaracharya inferior to the countrymen of Newton and Darwin? We trust not. It is for us, by the power of our thought, to break down the iron walls of opposition that confront us, and to seize and enjoy the intellectual sovereignty of the world."

Share examples of your experiences of trying out these practices, on

www.vivekanandaway.org

Any questions that come up in your mind while doing so, can also be discussed here.

(Continued from page 25...)

Photo 3: Left side of the house (circa 1998)

during the Assam earthquake of 1897, and its repair and restoration were completed in April 1901. Swamiji was at Shillong just in time to deliver the inaugural lecture on April 27 in the newly renovated Quinton Hall. Since then, the hall has been the prime venue at Shillong for staging cultural and other civic functions. Many eminent personalities have graced the hall with their speeches, including Swami Abhedananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Annie Besant, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, to name a few.40 In 1993, a little over one hundred years after it was built, the building was acquired by the Ramakrishna Mission and converted into an educational-cum-cultural center (Photo 6). It has a computerized library, a meditation hall, an auditorium, and a free coaching center for school students. A full-size statue of Swami Vivekananda adorns the front yard of the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Cultural Centre (RKMVCC). The statue was unveiled on January 12, 2006, by M. M. Jacob, the then governor of Meghalaya, to commemorate Swamiji’s historic last public speech.41 Vedanta societies (essentially the faces of the Ramakrishna Mission outside India) sprouted in the West after Swamiji’s visit.

Some he founded himself, and some were founded later. In India, after establishing the Ramakrishna Mission organisation in Calcutta in 1897, Swamiji let others pick up the mantle and start branches throughout the nation.

Following that tradition, the idea of having a

Photo 4: Right side of the house (circa 1998)

May 2019

show the house in a dilapidated condition, with broken window panes and damaged walls.

In 2012, the Ramakrishna Mission Shillong tried to get the Meghalaya government to declare the house, or the ground it once stood on, a heritage site. A Times of India report says: Speaking at a press conference at the Shillong Press Club on Tuesday [April 24, 2012], he [Swami Achyuteshananda, then secretary of the Shillong Ramakrishna Mission] added: ‘The Mission is prepared to extend all help to the Meghalaya government if it takes steps to declare it as a heritage spot,’ he said. He also said that if the government wanted, it could take possession of the house [site], even as he informed that a property dispute regarding the site was being sorted out in the courts. ‘The litigation is now in a better position,’ he said.38 The plan did not work out unfortunately; the structure had already deteriorated progressively and slowly disappeared from sight by 2006—a paradise lost.39 Only the stone memorial remains as a lasting tribute to Swami Vivekananda and a reminder of his visit to Shillong.

Quinton Hall, or Quinton Memorial Hall, where Swamiji gave his last public lecture, is located on Quinton Road in the Police Bazar area of Shillong. It was built in 1892, and was named after Mr. James Wallace Quinton, the former Chief Commissioner of undivided Assam from 1889 to 1891. It was severely damaged

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Swami Vivekananda’s Visit to Shillong

Photo 6: Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Cultural Centre (Old Quinton Memorial Hall) (circa 2018)

May 2019 The Vedanta Kesari

32

branch of the Ramakrishna Mission in Shillong was first conceived by Swami Prabhananda (Ketaki Maharaj) in 1929, followed by the construction of its first building at the present Laitumkhrah site and its simultaneous affiliation with Belur Math in 1937. Swami Bhuteshananda was appointed the first secretary of the branch center. Due to exceptional leadership then and in the following years, its growth has never slowed down since its inception. Two of its leaders, Swamis Bhuteshananda and Gahanananda, went on to become presidents of the Ramakrishna Order; no other distant branch center can claim this distinction. At present, it runs a hostel for tribal boys, a library, a charitable dispensary and a mobile medical unit from the same location; and there is, of course, the RKMVCC. The cruel wheels of time that ran over the house where Swamiji stayed in Shillong could not dampen the spirit of the people of Meghalaya, or even of Assam. On April 23, 2013, one hundred and twelve years after Swamiji’s visit, and celebrating his 150th Birth Anniversary, a procession called ‘Vivek Rath’ started from Dhubri (where he first landed in Assam). It passed through Gauripur, Bilasipara, Chapar, Goalpara, Krishnai, Dudhnai, Boko [Kamakhya], Guwahati, Jorabat, Nongpoh, and Umsning, and finally reached the site of the Laban house in Shillong on April 26.42 The stone memorial served as the guiding beacon of remembrance.

The significance of this specific route was that Swamiji had touched some of those places in 1901 when he ultimately arrived in Shillong.

The first town he touched in Assam was Dhubri, and from there he could have travelled to Kamakhya partly on land and partly on water; the exact sequence is not known. Among those towns, he probably stayed overnight in Dhubri, Goalpara, Kamakhya, and Gauhati. On April 27 (2013) morning, thousands of people from

Sir Henry Cotton

different parts of the state and country who converged at the Laban house site then marched to the RKMVCC (the renovated old Quinton Hall) where several dignitaries gave lectures on Swamiji and his message.43 Swami Prabhananda (Barun Maharaj), Vice president of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, was present at the celebration, along with the then secretary of the Shillong Ramakrishna Mission, Swami Achyuteshananda.

Concluding remarks Swamiji and his party left Shillong on May 6 and were at Belur Math on May 12. Visiting East Bengal and Assam was the last of his public tours on which he delivered lectures.

After his return, Swamiji paid tribute to both Sir Henry Cotton and Shillong: ‘The Shillong hills are very beautiful. There I met Sir Henry Cotton, the Chief Commissioner of Assam. He asked me, “Swamiji, after travelling through Europe and America, what have you come to see here in these distant hills?” Such a good and kind-hearted man as Sir Henry Cotton is rarely found.44’ In another instance he said, ‘In a monk’s life taking pilgrimages is their duty. And so I came to Shillong via Kamakhya. Moreover, in a place where there is a person like Henry Cotton that place itself becomes a pilgrimage.

23) ‘Shillong Pahare Swami Vivekananda.’ Shyamadas Bhattacharya. Shillonger Bangalee. Kolkata: Patra Bharati, 2004, pp. 40-41.

24) ‘Swami Vivekananda in Shillong’. The Vedanta Kesari.

January 1998, pp. 26-27 25) ‘Swami Vivekananda in Northeast India and Present Bangladesh’. Swami Alokananda. Diamond Jubilee commemoration Souvenir 1937-1997, Ramakrishna Mission, Shillong, p. 42.

26) ‘The Missionary among the Khasis.’ Arpita Sen. Mapping the Path to Maturity—A Connected History of Bengal and the North-East, edited by Bipasha Raha and Subhayu Chattapadhyay. New Yord: Routledge, 2018, pp. 165-166.

27) Ibid, p. 164.

28) Ibid., p. 151.

29) ‘One-Hundred-year Celebration of Swami Vivekananda’s Travel to Guwahati and Shillong,’ Dr. Bani Bhattacharjee Udbodhan. August 2001, p. 549.

30) Vivekananda—A Biography in Pictures. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama. 1993, pp. 98-99.

31) Shyamadas Bhattacharya, op. cit., p. 43.

32) http://bhattacharyasofsylhet.blogspot. com/2009/04/.

33) ‘Foreword’ by Sister Gargi. Swami Vivekananda in Chicago—New Findings. Asim Chauthuri. Kolkata:

Advaita Ashrama, 2000, pp. 13-14.

34) Swami Alokananda, op. cit., p. 40.

35) Ibid.

36) ‘Shillong Theke Hariye Jacche Swami Vivekanander Smriti’ [Swami Vivekananda’s Memory Is Disappearing from Shillong] Debashish Choudhury.

Udayan, September 1, 2000, p. 14.

37) Ibid.

38) https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/guwahati/ Heritage-tag-sought-for-Vivekanandas-Shillonghouse/articleshow/12867726.cms.

39) The Shillong Times, April 28, 2006.

40) http://www.rkmshillong.org/historyRkm.html 41) http://www.rkmshillong.org/themaking.html 42) ‘Vivek Rath arrives at Pine City, Finally’, Manosh Das TNN, April 27, 2013; https://timesofindia.indiatimes. com/city/guwahati/Vivek-Rath-arrives-in-Pine-Cityfinally/articleshow/19746863.cms.

43) Ibid.

44) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.[hereafter CW] 7:209 45) Rajiv Roy, op. cit.; Swami Alokananda, op. cit., p. 40.

46) CW. 9:157.

47) CW. 5:165-166.

48) CW. 5:162.

49) CW. 9:163.

References

May 2019

swelled almost twice its normal size. These symptoms subsided, however, as soon as I reached the Math.’48 Nobody had told Swamiji that Shillong is not a place for asthma patients to visit; its high altitude and dampness may further aggravate an already existing breathing problem. He realized that later, and wrote to Christine Greenstidel in September, after visiting Darjeeling and getting sick there too: ‘Within the last few months, I got two fits [of asthma and other ailments] by going to two of the dampest hill stations in Bengal—Shillong and Darjeeling. I am not going to try the Bengalee mountains anymore.’49 He never went back on his word.

(The author is deeply indebted to Sri Pronab Goswami of Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, for providing him with some important sources for this article.)

(Concluded)

33 The Vedanta Kesari

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

Cotton is a person who understands India’s problems very well and wants its betterment.’45 Regarding Assam, Swamiji wrote to Christine Greenstidel, ‘For combined mountain and water scenery this part of the country [Assam] is unrivalled.’ 46 Even nearly two months after his return from the ‘distant hills’, he was still praising the place, as he wrote to Mary Hale on July 5, ‘Assam is, next to Kashmir, the most beautiful country in India, but very unhealthy. The huge Brahmaputra winding in and out of mountains and hills, studded with islands, is of course worth one’s while to see.’47 U n r iva l l e d i n b o t h b e a u t y a n d unhealthiness was Swamiji’s characterization of Assam (Shillong). He gave a detailed analysis of his multiple afflictions in a letter to Josephine MacLeod: ‘At Shillong—the hill sanatorium of Assam [a little sarcasm here]—I had fever, asthma, increase of albumen, and my body

Pariprasna Q & A with Srimat Swami Tapasyananda (1904 to 1991), Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Order.

May 2019

Approach the wise sages, offer reverential salutations, repeatedly ask proper questions, serve them and thus know the Truth.

— Bhagavad Gita

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QUESTION: If we resign ourselves to the will of God, would it not amount to our succumbing to a fatalistic attitude? Would there be a place in such a scheme for moral action, which presupposes freedom?

MAHARAJ: According to Sri Ramakrishna and all other great seers, prophets and incarnations, there is only one will behind the universe and that is the will of God. Whether we recognize this or not, this is the ultimate fact. To one who recognizes this in truth and spirit, the question of fatalism does not arise, as there is no place for a second will in his outlook. The sign of such a person is that he ceases to be self-centred or ego-centred in life, is free from the worrying and planning mentality of ordinary men and is always at peace with himself and with the rest of the world.

The question of the fatalistic attitude arises only in the case of men who are still ego-centred, and yet recognize a supreme Divine Will. As long as we are ego-centred, we have to accept the idea of a ‘limited free will’. As in many ultimate questions, the mean between two extremes is virtue, as far as men in general are concerned. At the one extreme there is the idea of absolute free will, which is untenable even from a purely mechanistic and biological point of view. At the other extreme there is fatalism, which implies the recognition of the distinctiveness of individuality without any freedom.

Now we have to assume a middle position which is consistent with the supremacy of Divine Will. We shall call this the idea of ‘limited freedom’. Sri Ramakrishna illustrates this idea with an analogy. The owner of a calf ties it to a tree with a rope. Is the calf free or not? It is both free as far as the rope would allow it to move and also not free beyond that. Though the length of the rope also is ultimately determined by the owner, he has in practice given the calf feedom to move about within a certain area. If the calf exhausts the grass in the given area, the owner may extend the length of the rope.

If we accept this idea of ‘limited freedom’, we can practise resignation without its conflicting with self-effort. At our level of experience a sense of freedom of will is a fact. Until this is replaced by a sense of mergence of the individual will in the Divine Will, the individual will is a fact of experience, and the idea of its ‘limited freedom’, which means freedom within a limit sanctioned by the Divine, has to be accepted and acted upon.

Selections from Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers by Swami Tapasyananda

May 2019

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QUESTION: 1. In surrendering oneself completely to God or at least in trying to do so, is it not likely that one becomes fatalistic?

2. How can we distinguish the human will from the Divine Will?

MAHARAJ: Both questions being allied, they are answered together. Resignation may become fatalism, but it need not necessarily become so if both these terms are correctly understood. Both these words are often wrongly used in the sense of complete passivism born of indolence and lethargy. The meaning of resignation is far from this. It is not so much cessation from effort as cessation from attaching ‘ego sense’ to efforts. We succeed in resignation, not if we say “we shall not do anything”, but only if we eliminate the ‘we’ from our actions and feel that all the energies that flow through us are a part of universal Nature and therefore a part and parcel of the Divine Will. If the word ‘fatalism’ also means this, there is no harm in using the words as synonyms.

But the word ‘fatalism’ usually means a sort of wilful passivism, under cover of the feeling that things shape themselves in spite of ourselves and our efforts. This can easily degenerate into sloth and idleness. But if ‘fatalism’ implies energetic action, accompanied by the background feeling that there is an ‘unknown factor’ which ultimately determines everything and that we must therefore be prepared for success or failure without elation or disappointment, it comes very near the ideal of resignation. But true resignation is achieved only when the element of ‘self’ is eliminated from action. Even in the higher idea of fatalism, elimination of the ‘self’ cannot be achieved, and therefore the signs of true resignation, a sense of complete restfulness and freedom from worry and fear, are absent from it.

Regarding the distinction between Divine Will and human will an absolute distinction in this regard is difficult to make. We see only human will but not the Divine will. We only infer it. ‘Will’ is an expression of energy directed by an inherent intelligence and purposiveness. In the whole of Nature we find a highly complex but impersonal intelligence functioning purposively. It is the creative force, the Divine Will. Man is a part of Nature and the same creative force is functioning in him too. But unlike in the rest of Nature, the will in the human being is like an eddy in a flowing stream. Though a part of the whole, it has an individuality and a self-conscious expression and therefore feels itself free. But in our present ignorant condition, we, the eddies, have forgotten that we are parts of the flowing stream from which alone all powers are derived.

So since in our ignorant state we are aware of the human will alone, we cannot distinguish it from Divine Will in a very tangible way. We can only proceed accepting its existence and taking for granted that it works through the human will. So what a sincere spiritual aspirant can do is only to function with a prayerful attitude and keep off his limited individual ego from appropriating credit or liability for the actions accomplished through him.

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Article

Mapping Actions to Fire Sacrifice

May 2019

SWAMI SATYAPRIYANANDA

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Today people rarely talk about fire sacrifice; it is criticised for the ‘wastage’ of melted butter and grains which could feed several hungry mouths. However, fire sacrifice has its own profound significance in our daily lives.

A fire sacrifice involves in addition to the time and energy needed for making the preparations, the performer of the sacrifice (yajamana), the instrument used in the sacrifice (arpanam), the materials offered in sacrifice (havihi), and the sacrificial fire (agni), as also the result of the sacrifice. The Bhagavad Gita in its verse 4.24 says:

ब्रह्मार्पणं ब्रह्महविर्ब्रह्माग्नौ ब्रह्मणा हुतम् । ब्रह्मैव तेन गन्तव्यं ब्रह्मकर्मसमाधिना ।।

‘The ladle is Brahman, the oblation is Brahman, it is offered by Brahman in the fire, which is Brahman; Brahman alone he attains who sees Brahman in action.’

This is the idea that should be in the mind when one performs a fire sacrifice: The one who sacrifices is Brahman; he is offering oblations which is Brahman with the help of the ladle which is Brahman into the fire which is Brahman. One who sees Brahman in action attains Brahman alone. Attaining Brahman is the fruition of such a sacrifice. Interestingly it is not mandatory to have a burning fire for performing a fire sacrifice! The Bhagavad Gita gives several examples for such sacrifices in its fourth chapter from verse 25 to 30.

1) Karma-yogins worship gods with great devotion through sacrifice.

2) The Jnana-yogins offer the sacrifice in the fire of Brahman (brahmāgni) through sacrifice.

3) Life-long brahmacharins offer the ear and other senses in the fire of self-control (samyamāgni).

4) Householders, being unattached even at the time of enjoying the sense-objects, offer sound and other sense-objects as a sacrifice in the fires of the senses (indriyagni); they offer the functions of the organs of action like talking, and grasping, and the functions of the ten vital forces in the fire of self-control (atmasamyama-yogagni).

5) Some sacrifice through giving of gifts.

6) Some others sacrifice through penance.

7) Some others sacrifice through yoga.

8) Others of austere vows sacrifice through knowledge from scriptural studies.

9) Others devoted to the control of the vital force offer as a sacrifice the outgoing breath in the incoming breath, and the incoming breath in the outgoing breath.

10) There are others who regulate their food and offer as a sacrifice the prana of food into the prana enlivening the body.

All these are said to be knowers of the sacrifices and are purified of their sins through sacrifices. We see that no sacrificial fire is actually lit in the above instances. How do we understand the fire sacrifice in these cases?

These set of verses take fire sacrifice out of the usual fire sacrifice scenario. In attempting to understand this concept let us see the idea of Panchagni Vidya in the Mundaka Upanishad

The author is a senior sannyasi of the Ramakrishna Order and lives in Belur Math.

satyapriyananda@rkmm.org

May 2019

Thus we see that fire sacrifice can be mapped to any mundane action performed even without fire. One has only to associate the actions in its entire detail to the several components of a fire sacrifice listed above and look upon every element which constitutes the sacrifice with the idea that it is all Brahman; thus meditating on Brahman, one certainly attains to Brahman. It is easy to identify the giver, instrument used for giving, the thing given, and the receiver in any act of giving.

Even a battlefield can be viewed in this light: the battle-ground is the ‘altar’, the warring sects are ‘those who sacrifice’, the blood is the ‘oblation’, and the lives of the dead are the sacrifice (bali) with the result, victory for either of the sides and the attainment of the ‘destiny of heroes’ (virgati) for those who die.

Conventionally, verse 4.24 of the Bhagavad Gita is chanted before partaking of food with the idea that the individual is offering food using his hands with or without spoons, into the fire in the stomach. Each of these elements is to be identified with Brahman and the eating process is to take place in a meditative spirit and not as a titillation for the taste buds in a noisy scenario!

The receiver being fire, it is apt that the giver kneels down and gives, while the receiver stands up and receives. Obviously, the thing given must be pleasing and needful for the receiver. For those who like the idea of Sopadhika Brahman (Brahman with attributes or Personal God) in place of Nirupadhika Nirguna Nirakara Brahman, one can keep the idea of Ishvara in the receiver when serving anyone. That service will be transformed as Shiva jnane jiva seva or serving fellow beings looking upon them as Shiva Himself.

In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord’s advice to Arjuna sums up the significance of sacrifice: ‘This world is bound by action other than that done for sacrifice (God); therefore, perform actions for the sake of that (God), O son of Kunti (Arjuna), free from attachment.’ (3:9)

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which explains the process of creation and refers to five fires spelling out the corresponding ‘Altar’, ‘Fuel’, ‘Oblation’, and ‘Result’. (II.i.5).

Panchagni Vidya finds a mention also in Chandogya Upanishad in greater detail. There was a student named Svetaketu who was the son of sage Uddalaka. This student was wellread and finely educated, but alas he was proud. He once visited the court of a king called Pravahana Jaivali, a noble emperor. The king received him with respect, and after offering him the requisite hospitality becoming of a Brahmin boy well-versed in the Vedas and all the branches of learning, asked a question: ‘Are you well educated? Have you studied? Is your education complete? Has your father instructed you?’ The boy replied, ‘Yes, my education is over, and I am well-read.’

Then the king posed some questions which Svetaketu could not answer. The humbled boy then returned to his father Uddalaka with those questions. But as Uddalaka too did not know the answers, he went to King Pravahana Jaivali to learn from him. In the king’s answer to the first question, we find the mention of Panchagni Vidya. The Five Fires, called the Panchagnis, are meditation techniques and the detailed classification of the five fires is listed under the headings: ‘Fire’, ‘Fuel’, ‘Smoke’, ‘Embers’, ‘Sparks’, ‘Offerings’, ‘Offered by’ and ‘Result’.

In the Kathopanishad, Nachiketa goes to meet Yama, the God of Death. As Yama is out of station, Nachiketa has to wait. On Yama’s return, his councillors tell him, ‘A Brahmana guest enters the houses like fire. For him they accomplish this kind of propitiation. O God of Death, carry water for him. If in anyone’s house a Brahmana guest abides, without food, that Brahmana destroys hope and expectations, the result of holy associations and sweet discourse, sacrifices and charities, sons and cattle—all these of that man of little intelligence.’ (I.i.8)

See God with Open Eyes : Meditation on Ramakrishna

by Swami Chetanananda

May 2019

Published by Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 205 S. Skinker Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63105, U.S.A. 2018, Hard bound, pp.480. $29.95

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Book Reviews

(Available at Advaita Ashrama, 5 Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata - 700 014. `500.)

‘Sir, have you seen God?’ asked an English-educated young man from 19th century Bengal to a priest of Kali at Dakshineswar temple, a question he had already asked many spiritual luminaries of that time. But unlike the other answers which skirted round the issue with vague generalisations, this time the reply from the priest was definitive: ‘Yes, I have seen God. I see God with open eyes as clearly as I see you. And I can also show God to you.’

This cameo forms the foundation of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition extant in various pockets of the globe today. From this scene Vivekananda formulated his Practical Vedanta: ‘The same Brahman pervades all beings; this knowledge is the culmination of Vedantic experience.’ These words make it evident that we see God in everyone and everything around us—obviously with our eyes open.

As an heir to this vibrant tradition, Swami Chetanananda has wielded his prolific pen to tell us in the present volume how each one of us can ‘See God with Open Eyes’ (an assurance given by Sri Ramakrishna to Narendranath Datta (later Vivekananda) in the initial days of their acquaintance), if we follow the procedure detailed by this book.

As a process of natural transition, the inexhaustible creative fount of Chetanananda has moved from his earlier books—a series of interesting life-stories of people associated with the tradition—to the inward realm of human experience. In this book See God with Open Eyes, he has given a remarkable treatise on the art of

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latest publication.

meditation using Sri Ramakrishna as the centre.

One can visualise how he himself must have deeply meditated on Sri Ramakrishna and others he wrote about for each of the excellent volumes he has earlier presented to the interested reader with such disciplined regularity. This present volume can therefore be taken as a roadmap to seeing God with open eyes through the process of meditation based on the felt and lived experiences of the author.

After the science-religion conflicts and controversies which clouded the human mind for a long stretch of time, the present century seems to be veering towards a resolution. And in the process, spirituality is being foregrounded by thinkers and practitioners of various disciplines. In this global pursuit, ancient Indian spiritual experiments are gaining ground. See God with Open Eyes is a timely effort by Swami Chetanananda to contribute to the move towards spiritualising the contemporary times, using Sri Ramakrishna who has been variously hailed as the culmination of the thousands of years of wisdom of India.

As the subtitle suggests, meditation on Sri Ramakrishna is the path to follow for ‘seeing

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becomes one’s guru.’ (p.35) Since all attempts at meditation aim towards God-realization, Chetananandaji quotes a mystic saint of India to give another dimension, ‘Service, worship, and humility are three important disciplines for God-realization.’ (p.104) The scene of Jesus serving bread and wine to his disciples, helps to bring forth an important process of meditation: ‘Visualising these actions of the avatars is a kind of dynamic meditation that quickly connects our minds with the Ishta (Chosen Deity).’ (p.107) Citing scriptural injunctions, Chetananandaji highlights ‘what’ the qualities of a mind which has reached the pinnacle of meditation are: ‘The scriptures say that the mind of a knower of Brahman is not affected by pleasant and unpleasant, good and evil, happiness and misery, praise and blame.’ (p.40) In other words, the equanimity which evolves human life to a higher level of existence is succinctly projected here.

Talking about the ‘when’ of meditation, he indicates the need for surrender after which the time is ripe for meditation. For this one needs to overcome maya and go beyond the gunas. Lord Krishna’s words in the Gita explains this point: ‘This divine maya of mine consisting of gunas is hard to overcome. But those who take refuge in me alone transcend this maya. (Gita 7:14)’ (p.47) Throughout the volume Chetananandaji has repeatedly mentioned various possible contexts for meditation using scenes and experiences connected with the life of Sri Ramakrishna. He has chapters devoted to each of these: Ramakrishna’s Form, his Mind, Divine Qualities, Lila, Service to Humanity, Places of his Lila, Teachings on Meditation, Prayer and Scriptures.

A very interesting part of the volume found in Chapters 10 and 11 talk about the history of two seminal books of the Ramakrishna tradition—Sri Sri Ramakrishna Lilaprasanga (Divine Play) and Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita (Gospel).

Not only for spiritual practitioners but also for researchers there is a chapter on ‘Krishna and Ramakrishna on Meditation.’ Here we find

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God with open eyes’. The author describes Sri Ramakrishna as ‘the ideal of innumerable people both in the East and the West.’ (p.13) The definitions and other aspects of meditation on Sri Ramakrishna that dot the present volume are therefore very significant.

In fact, the author spends much effort in explaining the ‘why’, ‘what’, ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘where’ of meditation in the pages of this sizeable volume. In the ‘Introduction’ itself he takes up the concept: ‘why’ meditation: ‘Meditation is the science of calming the mind and attaining spiritual enlightenment.’ (p.13) The author clearly enunciates that in the turbulence of material progress, meditation is that stable support which eludes the mind unless concerted efforts are made to calm it. He also says, ‘Meditation opens the inner eye, known as the “third eye,” “the mental eye,” or the “eye of knowledge.”’ (p.78) Then comes the question of executing the change we have been preparing for in entering the arena of meditation. Here Chetananandaji speaks about ‘what’ is needed for practising meditation: ‘A pure mind.... We meditate with a concentrated, one-pointed mind.’ (p.24) In this context the author quotes the words of Ramakrishna, ‘He who is aware of his conscious self is a man.’ Focussing on these words of Ramakrishna, the author emphasises: ‘This awareness is the awakened living mind’ (p.24)—the kind of mind which is ready to undertake the task of meditation.

Chetananandaji also provides us a role-model for emulation: ‘Ramakrishna’s mind was pure, cosmic and free from desires and doubts.’ (p.28) The importance of human imagination for success in meditation is then sharply underlined. (p.78) Chetananandaji clearly shows how this can be done. Tackling the question ‘how’ of meditation, he lays emphasis on ‘love’: ‘When love dawns, meditation becomes easy.’ (p.13) Again, in another place quoting Swami Saradananda he elaborates how the mind becomes fit for meditation: ‘A spiritual aspirant becomes pure by controlling the mind completely through constant practice of detachment and self-control.

The Master used to say that one’s very mind then

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among other details an answer to the ‘where’ of meditation: ‘...the place for meditation should be clean; a nice view is also preferable... a spiritual atmosphere’. In the absence of these desirable traits, Sri Ramakrishna’s expansive view is proferred: ‘You may meditate wherever you like.

Every place is filled with Brahman-consciousness.’ (p.359) For those who want to embark on a virtual tour of the place where Sri Rama krishna lived and enacted his worldly play, Chapter 13 ‘Dakshineswar: An Abode of Bliss’ is very helpful.

A chapter entitled ‘The Magnitude of Ramakrishna’s Life and Message’ does much to reiterate the genius of this unique phenomenon who lived in the 19th century in almost complete anonymity but whose distinctive efforts to unfold an inclusive and non-sectarian vision to the world at large is slowly but surely taking shape.

Swami Chetanananda’s present volume and his other books as well as the publications of the Ramakrishna Order have had a role to play in this, continuing a process that was initiated by Swami Vivekananda’s appearance at the Chicago Parliament of Religions in 1893.

Coming back to the keyword of the volume, that is, ‘meditation’, in Chapter 15 the author talks about ‘Meditation on the New Year’ (the Kalpataru Day—an important event in the Ramakrishna calendar) and Chapter 16 ‘Blessed Meditation’ which gives the phalasruti of the volume like at the end of our mantras: ‘We want to achieve spiritual experience and divine inebriation through meditation.’ (p.401) Chapter 17 ‘An Imaginary Interview with Ramakrishna’ is an English version of Swami Chetanananda’s original Bengali piece published in Udbodhan magazine in 2011 which raises crucial questions that trouble the contemporary minds and structures the rational answers which Sri Ramakrishna gives.

This is followed by an Appendix which is equally relevant in today’s world dogged by crises on all sides. This too is an article which was

published by the author in 1980 in the Souvenir of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission Convention. It gives a closure to the presentations in the preceding chapters. An exhaustive list of references and a detailed index follow the Appendix.

On first reading, the book See God with Open Eyes appears like a detailed manual of dynamic spirituality. And this conviction is firmly established with repeated readings. In fact, to Swami Chetanananda’s long list of methods of meditation leading us to see God with open eyes I would like to add one more—reading a few pages of his book every day would be a valid method too. The vivid and cogent narrative makes Sri Ramakrishna come alive in the eye of our imagination and makes meditation a natural outcome. It induces the deep love which is a prerequisite of meditation. The reader is immersed in a spiritual current which inundates the mind and brings the bliss of peace. Therefore this book is a much needed resource.

The volume can also be seen as a valuable sourcebook for spiritual tourism—a consciousness enhancing experience. For instance, there is an impressive list of places on pages 154-55 which will awaken a deep intimacy with the divine lila (play) of the ishta (chosen ideal—in this case Ramakrishna) and aid the process of meditation.

Swami Chetanananda has established himself as a writer of repute in the dominion of global spirituality with a readership spanning the East and the West. His writings are considered a reliable resource for spiritual growth of the aspirant. I feel that he has merged the essence of all his other published works into this single magnum opus to help all those who have or are about to embark on their spiritual voyage.

Excellent pictures, meticulous editing and impeccable quality of publication, the usual hallmarks of his books, enhance the value of the present volume too. A book worth reading again and again. __________________________ PROF. SUMITA ROY, HYDERABAD

What is Religion?

always eagerly asked people the way, and they gave him the right directions, saying, “This is not the path; follow that one.” At last, the devotee was able to get to Puri and worship the Deity. So you see, even if you are ignorant, someone will tell you the way if you are earnest.’3 Once, while discussing with someone, he was told that Jnanis have no desires at all. Sri Ramakrishna made a marvelous statement. He said, ‘I have not got rid of all desires. I have the desire for love of God.’ 4 But, this desire is classified as desire only for the sake of logical propriety, while it is nothing like the desires we generally deal with in our life. Just as we saw last month that the pleasure of the Self is totally different from every kind of pleasure we are generally experiencing, so also, this desire for God, the thirst for God is totally different from all other desires.

‘What creates these desires? The existence of external things. It was the light that made the eyes; it was the sound that made the ears. So every desire in human beings has been created by something which already existed outside. This desire for perfection, for reaching the goal and getting beyond nature, how can it be there, until something has created it and drilled it into the soul of man, and makes it live there? He, therefore, in whom this desire is

May 2019

The thirst for God is religion. 1 This is yet another amazing statement by the Prophet of this age. Let us listen to the words of his master Sri Ramakrishna in this regard. Once, Sri Ramakrishna said to the devotees assembled in his room, quoting the words of Sri Girindra Ghosh of Pathuriaghata, regarding turning our passions to God: ‘Since you cannot get rid of your passions – your lust, your anger, and so on – give them a new direction. Instead of desiring worldly pleasures, desire God. Have intercourse with Brahman. If you cannot get rid of anger, then change its direction. Assume the tamasic attitude of bhakti, and say: “What? I have repeated the hallowed name of Durga, and shall I not be liberated? How can I be a sinner anymore? How can I be bound anymore?” If you cannot get rid of temptation, direct it toward God. Be infatuated with God’s beauty. If you cannot get rid of pride, then be proud to say that you are the servant of God, you are the child of God. Thus turn the six passions toward God’ 2 Elsewhere, he said, ‘A man may not know the right path, but if he has bhakti and the desire to know God, then he attains Him through the force of sheer bhakti. Once a sincere devotee set out on a pilgrimage to the temple of Jagannath in Puri; he did not know the way; he went west instead of south. He no doubt strayed from the right path, but he

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The Thirst for God is Religion

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awakened, will reach the goal. We want everything but God.’5 ‘The chief thing is to want God. We want everything except God because our ordinary wants are supplied by the external world; it is only when our necessities have gone beyond the external world that we want a supply from the internal, from God. So long as our needs are confined within the narrow limits of this physical universe, we cannot have any need for God; it is only when we have become satiated with everything here that we look beyond for a supply. It is only when the need is there that the demand will come. Have done with this child’s play of the world as soon as you can, and then you will feel the necessity of something beyond the world, and the first step in religion will come.

‘There is a form of religion which is fashionable. My friend has much furniture in her parlor; it is the fashion to have a Japanese vase, so she must have one even if it costs a thousand dollars. In the same way, she will have a little religion and join a church. Religion is not for such. That is not want. Want is that without which we cannot live. We want breath, we want food, we want clothes; without them we cannot live. When a man loves a woman in this world, there are times when he feels that without her he cannot live, although that is a mistake. When a husband dies, the wife thinks she cannot live without him; but she lives all the same. This is the secret of necessity: it is that without which we cannot live; either it must come to us or we die. When the time comes that we feel the same about God, or in other words, we want something beyond this world, something above all material forces, then we may become religious. What are our little lives when for a moment the cloud passes away, and we get one glimpse from beyond, and for that moment all these lower desires seem like a drop in the ocean? Then the soul grows, and feels the want of God, and must have Him.

‘The first step is: What do we want? Let us ask ourselves this question every day, do we want God? You may read all the books in the universe, but this love is not to be had by the power of speech, not by the highest intellect, not by the study of various sciences. He who desires God will get Love, unto him God gives Himself. Love is always mutual, reflective. You may hate me, and if I want to love you, you repulse me. But if I persist, in a month or a year you are bound to love me. It is a well-known psychological phenomenon. As the loving wife thinks of her departed husband, with the same love we must desire the Lord, and then we will find God, and all books and the various sciences would not be able to teach us anything. By reading books we become parrots; no one becomes learned by reading books. If a man reads but one word of love, he indeed becomes learned. So we want first to get that desire.

‘Let us ask ourselves each day, ‘Do we want God?’ When we begin to talk religion, and especially when we take a high position and begin to teach others, we must ask ourselves the same question. I find many times that I don’t want God, I want bread more. I may go mad if I don’t get a piece of bread; many ladies will go mad if they don’t get a diamond pin, but they do not have the same desire for God; they do not know the only Reality that is in the universe. There is a proverb in our language – ‘If I want to be a hunter, I will hunt the rhinoceros; if I want to be a robber, I will rob the king’s treasury.’ What is the use of robbing beggars or hunting ants? So if you want to love, love God. Who cares for these things of the world? This world is utterly false; all the great teachers of the world found that out; there is no way out of it but through God. He is the goal of our life; all ideas that the world is the goal of life are pernicious. This world and this body have their own value, a secondary value, as a means to an end; but the world should not be the end. Unfortunately, too often we make the

1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

References The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

6) CW. Vol-4. Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga: The First [hereafter CW] Vol-1. Practical Religion: Breathing Steps And Meditation 7) CW. Vol-2. Bhakti Or Devotion The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. [hereafter Gospel] 8) CW. Vol-7. Inspired Talks: Entry on July 31, 1895 Entry on October 22nd, 1885 9) CW. Vol-4. Addresses on Bhakti Yoga: The Ibid Preparation Gospel. Entry on Monday, October 20th, 1884 10) CW. Vol-3. What Have I Learnt?

CW. Vol-2: Bhakti or Devotion

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nothing except God. This world is good so far as it helps one to go to the higher world. The objects of the senses are good so far as they help us to attain higher objects. We always forget that this world is a means to an end, and not an end itself. If this were the end we should be immortal here in our physical body; we should never die. But we see people every moment dying around us, and yet, foolishly, we think we shall never die; and from that conviction we come to think that this life is the goal. That is the case with ninety-nine percent of us. This notion should be given up at once.

This world is good so far as it is a means to perfect ourselves; and as soon as it has ceased to be so, it is evil. So wife, husband, children, money and learning, are good so long as they help us forward; but as soon as they cease to do that, they are nothing but evil. If the wife help us to attain God, she is a good wife; so with a husband or a child. If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.’ 9 ‘After initiation, there should be in the aspirant after Truth, Abhyasa or earnest and repeated attempt at practical application of the Truth by prescribed means of constant meditation upon the Chosen Ideal. Even if you have a burning thirst for God, or have gained the Guru, unless you have along with it the Abhyasa, unless you practice what you have been taught, you cannot get realization. When all these are firmly established in you, then you will reach the Goal.’ 10

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world the end and God the means. We find people going to church and saying, ‘God, give me such and such; God, heal my disease.’ They want nice healthy bodies; and because they hear that someone will do this work for them, they go and pray to Him. It is better to be an atheist than to have such an idea of religion. As I have told you, this Bhakti is the highest ideal; I don’t know whether we shall reach it or not in millions of years to come, but we must make it our highest ideal, make our senses aim at the highest. If we cannot get to the end, we shall at least come nearer to it. We have slowly to work through the world and the senses to reach God.’6 ‘Until you have that thirst, that desire, you cannot get religion, however you may struggle with your intellect, or your books, or your forms. Until that thirst is awakened in you, you are no better than any atheist; only the atheist is sincere, and you are not.’7 ‘Atheists and materialists can have ethics, but only believers in the Lord can have religion… The first essential is to want God honestly and intensely. We want everything but God, because our ordinary desires are fulfilled by the external world. So long as our needs are confined within the limits of the physical universe, we do not feel any need for God; it is only when we have had hard blows in our lives and are disappointed with everything here that we feel the need for something higher; then we seek God.’8 (There is something) ‘called Vimoka, freedom from desires. He who wants to love God must get rid of extreme desires, desire

The Vedas: An Exploration

Gods of the Vedas LAKSHMI DEVNATH (Continued from previous issue...)

May 2019

सहस्रशीर्ष‌ ा पुरुषः। सहस्राक्षः सहस्रपात्‌। The

The Vedanta Kesari

46

Purusha Sukta, A Vedic hymn extols the preeminence of the Purusha who is unanimously identified as Narayana. Purusha Sukta along with other hymns in the Vedas promulgates the pantheistic view of creation. An analysis of the Vedic hymns reveals that Lord Vishnu, is in reality the sum and substance of the verses.

They clearly establish the supremacy of Vishnu.

In fact, he is extolled as the highest God par excellence in the Rig Veda – an adjective applied to none other than Vishnu. A sampling of the verses given below reveal the veracity of this statement.

‘Three of these worlds Vishnu strode; thrice did he plant his foot’; ‘The whole of this universe was gathered in the dust of His footsteps’; ‘Vishnu, the Guardian of all, he whom none can deceive, made three strides and henceforth established the Dharma (an obvious reference to the Trivikrama)’; ‘As the eyes spread out as it were in the sky so do the wise ones see the supreme state of Vishnu’; ‘The ever prayerful and awakened wise realised that Supreme state of Vishnu.’ Yaska, the master of etymology, explains the literal meaning of the word Vishnu as immanent and the all-pervasive Principle who spreads over all the planes of existence.

The rishis of the Vedas perceived the universe in three different stratas or planes of existence: Dyuloka or Swarga– the celestial sphere which is the topmost plane, Antariksha

or Bhuvarloka – the intermediary space, and Bhuloka – the terrestrial sphere. The presiding deities of these spheres are Savitr or Surya, Indra or Vayu and Agni or fire. These three Gods again got multiplied into 33 and divided as 11 for each sphere. Numerous passages in the Rig Veda as well as in the other Vedas indicate the existence of these 33 gods. The Satapatha Brahmana throws some more light on the subject when it elucidates that the 33 gods consist of the eighth Vasu-s, the 11 Rudras-s, the 12 Aditya-s, Dyu and Prithvi. The 8 Vasu-s are Dhava, Dhruva, Soma, Apa, Anila, Anaala, Pratyusha and Prabhasa. The 12 Aditya-s are Vishnu, Dhatr, Mitra, Aryaman, Tudra, Varuna, Surya, Bhaga, Vivasvat, Pusan, Savitr, and Tvastr.

The names of the 11 Rudras are not clearly mentioned in the Vedas, but they have been variously referred to in the Yajurveda and Taittriya Aranyaka. These 33 Gods were further augmented into three thousand three hundred and thirty-nine Gods. (R. V. 111.9.99) The most mentioned God in the Rig Veda is Indra. Of the gods belonging to the Ethereal region, Vayu is the most prominent and Agni is described as the greatest of the Terrestrial gods.

He perhaps next to Indra gets the largest number of prayers from the Vedic Rishis.

Besides these principal deities there is also mention of many minor gods and goddesses in the Rig Veda. Some of the most sublime hymns of the Rigveda are dedicated to Mitra and Varuna revealing yet another facet of our Rishis

The author is a researcher and writer with various books and articles to her credit on Indian music and culture. lakshmidevnath@gmail.com

May 2019

the dawn. The Vedic religion reveals an attempt by the Rishi to interpret the true nature of their direct experience of inner power in terms of the objective nature known to ordinary man.

Even an ordinary man can invoke the gods through the mantra composed by the Rishis. In fact, communion between gods and men forms the most essential feature of the Vedic religion.

The gods are the friends of man; their most obvious quality is benevolence and they are invoked for favours.

Frequent allusion to the birth of the gods can also be gleaned from the Vedic hymns.

Some of the hymns go thus – ‘Indra was without a foe from his birth.’ ‘The Rbhu-s were the sons of Sudhanvan who belonged to the Angiras family.’ The Maruts were originally men who later became Immortal. There is a mention of the birth of the Asvin-s. Most of the gods are the sons of the goddess Aditi. The root meaning of the word Aditi is unbroken, indivisible or infinite. There are not many hymns in the Rig Veda dedicated to this ‘mother of gods’; still the names Aditi and Aditya-s are often met with in all the Vedic texts.

Thus while there is a description of a host of gods and some goddesses in the Vedic hymns, one also comes across a very telling statement, एकं सद्विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति ‘Truth is one, the learned call it by many names.’ Thus while religion and spirituality formed an intrinsic part of the Vedic society, a cursory reading of the societal descriptions of the times reveal a very vibrant society. People of the Vedic age seem to have enjoyed a very high degree of material comfort. There was plenty and luxury and most importantly the Vedic Rishis did not have a pessimistic view of life. To them, this world was a stepping stone to a higher life into other regions. In the next issue, we will close this series on the Vedas with a glimpse of the day-to-day life of the people of the Vedic age.

(To be continued. . .)

47 The Vedanta Kesari

PA G E S P O N S O R : S M T. P R E E T I A J I T K H I M S U R A , C H E N N A I

as master poets. Mitra symbolises light and was considered to be the God of day and Varuna, the deity of the deep blue sky. The root meaning of the word Varuna is ‘one that covers’.

Here are a few specimens of the beautiful hymns addressed to these two deities – ‘O Mitra and Varuna, you are mighty ones and increase the might of the devotees. You hold the three celestial regions, the three shining worlds and the three terrestrial worlds. O Mitra and Varuna, it is under your command that the cows give milk, the rivers give sweet waters and the three shining Gods – Agni, Vayu and Aditya exist while carrying and raining waters.’ The god next in importance among the Aditya-s is Savitr or Sun. He is often described as golden handed and seated in a chariot to which are yoked seven horses. The hymns describe him as the great giver of life, wealth and energy. The Rig Veda mentions the names of only 6 Aditya-s – Mitra, Varuna, Bhaga, Savitr, Vishnu and Indra.

However, in the other Vedas sometimes different names are given to these Sun gods.

It is not easy to decide the exact nature of the gods in the Vedas. They are represented as human in form. Some of their attributes relate them to various natural phenomena. The Maruts are the storm gods, Ushas is the dawn, Vishnu, Savitr, Surya and Mitra also represent

May 2019

Topical Musings

The Vedanta Kesari

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This month, let us open our hearts to Swami Vivekananda, as he sings about the unparalleled glory of man.

‘This human body is the greatest body in the universe, and a human being the greatest being. Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is greater than man. Even the Devas (gods) will have to come down again and attain to salvation through a human body. Man alone attains to perfection, not even the Devas.’1 ‘The Real Man is one and infinite, the omnipresent Spirit. The apparent man is only a limitation of that Real Man. The Real Man, the Spirit, being beyond cause and effect, not bound by time and space, must, therefore, be free. He was never bound, and could not be bound. The apparent man, the reflection, is limited by time, space, and causation, and is, therefore, bound. Or in the language of some of our philosophers, he appears to be bound, but really is not. This is the reality in our souls, this omnipresence, this spiritual nature, this infinity. Every soul is infinite, therefore there is no question of birth and death.’2 ‘I am omnipresent, eternal. Where can I go? Where am I not already? The Advaitist dethrones all the gods that ever existed, or ever will exist in the universe and places on that throne the Self of man, the Atman, higher than the sun and the moon, higher than the heavens, greater than this great universe itself. No books, no scriptures, no science can ever imagine the glory of the Self that appears as man, the most glorious God that ever was, the only God that ever existed, exists, or ever will exist. I am to worship, therefore, none but myself. “I worship my Self,” says the Advaitist.

To whom shall I bow down? I salute my Self. To whom shall I go for help? Who can help me, the Infinite Being of the universe? These are foolish dreams, hallucinations; who ever helped any one? None. Wherever you see a weak man, a dualist, weeping and wailing for help from

What We Truly Are somewhere above the skies, it is because he does not know that the skies also are in him. He wants help from the skies, and the help comes.

We see that it comes; but it comes from within himself, and he mistakes it as coming from without. Man, after this vain search after various gods outside himself, completes the circle, and comes back to the point from which he started – the human soul, and he finds that the God whom he was searching in hill and dale, whom he was seeking in every brook, in every temple, in churches and heavens, that God whom he was even imagining as sitting in heaven and ruling the world, is his own Self. I am He, and He is I. None but I was God, and this little I never existed.’3 ‘You may invent an image through which to worship God, but a better image already

t

References

1) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

[hereafter CW]. Vol-1: Raja-Yoga: Ch-II: ‘The First Steps’ 2) CW. Vol-2: Jnana-Yoga: Ch-II: ‘The Real Nature Of Man’ 3) CW. Vol-2: Jnana-Yoga: Ch-XIII: ‘The Atman’ 4) CW. Vol-2: Practical Vedanta: Part II 5) Ibid.

6) CW. Vol-4: ‘Christ, The Messenger’ 7) CW. Vol-9: ‘Sayings and Utterances’ 8) CW. Vol-3: ‘Vedanta in Its application to Indian Life’ 9) Ibid.

10) CW. Vol-6: Epistles, 30 November, To Dr. Nanjunda

Rao

11) CW. Vol-3: ‘Reply to Address of Welcome Presented

at Calcutta’

May 2019

49 The Vedanta Kesari

it were – in that man is God Himself; for in him self-will is gone, crushed out, annihilated. That is the ideal man. We cannot reach that state yet; yet, let us worship the ideal, and slowly struggle to reach the ideal, though, maybe, with faltering steps. It may be tomorrow, or it may be a thousand years hence; but that ideal has to be reached. For it is not only the end, but also the means. To be unselfish, perfectly selfless, is salvation itself; for the man within dies, and God alone remains.’6 ‘Men should be taught to be practical, physically strong. A dozen such lions will conquer the world, not millions of sheep. Men should not be taught to imitate a personal ideal, however great.’7 ‘We must strengthen our body and mind. First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you.’8 ‘Who will give you strength? Let me tell you, strength, strength is what we want. And the first step in getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads, and believe – “I am the Soul”, “Me the sword cannot cut; nor weapons pierce; me the fire cannot burn; me the air cannot dry; I am the Omnipotent, I am the Omniscient.”

Repeat these blessed, saving words. Do not say we are weak; we can do anything and everything.’9 ‘India can only rise by sitting at the feet of Shri Ramakrishna.’10 ‘If this nation wants to rise, take my word for it, it will have to rally enthusiastically round this name.’11

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exists, the living man. You may build a temple in which to worship God, and that may be good, but a better one, a much higher one, already exists, the human body.’4 ‘The living God is within you, and yet you are building churches and temples and believing all sorts of imaginary nonsense. The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. Of course all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, the Taj Mahal of temples. If I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage. The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.’5 Compare these words with his scathing words that we presented in the last issue of Topical Musings. We saw Swamiji describing our actual state of existence, in the bluntest possible terms, without mincing any words.

Now, we see the same Swami describe what we truly are! This forces us to see the huge gap between these two versions of man.

This bridge has to be gapped. Bridging this gap is the Sadhana, according to Swami Vivekananda. How shall we perform this Sadhana?

‘We should work in the best way we can, without dragging the ideal down. Here is the ideal. When a man has no more self in him, no possession, nothing to call ‘me’ or ‘mine’, has given himself up entirely, destroyed himself as

The Order on the March News & Notes from Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

May 2019

Headquarters

125th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Addresses at the World’s Parliament of Religions

The following centres of the Order held various programmes

for school students, youth, teachers, and devotees: Baranagar Math: 4 lectures (264 students and 30 teachers); Coimbatore Mission: cultural competitions (507 students); Hatamuniguda: Quiz (140 students), 2 youth conventions (350 youth), lectures (400 students); Hyderabad: 4 youth conventions (3000 youth); Malda: youth convention (470 youth); Mangaluru: lectures (2750 students); Mysuru: 5 workshops (1044 youth); Naora: lecture (1200 devotees); Pune: 5 lectures (1077 tribal youth); Srinagar: cultural competition (60 orphanage girls); Vadodara: essay-writing (1159 students); Vijayawada: lecture (670 students and 60 teachers); Colombo, Sri Lanka: 3 lectures (6500 devotees); Mymensingh, Bangladesh: lecture (100 devotees).

News of Branch Centres (India) Lucknow centre inaugurated the year-long golden jubilee celebration of its Vivekananda Polyclinic and Institute of

Medical Sciences. Rajkot centre brought out a commemorative volume to mark the 125th a n n ive r s a r y o f Swa m i j i ’ s visit to Gujarat . Chennai Math distributed buttermilk and sharbat to about 20,000 people on 17 and 18 March on the occasion of the annual Ratha Yatra celebrations of Sri Kapaleeshwarar Temple, Chennai. The Math devotees and s t u d e n t s o f Ra m a k r i s h n a Mission, Students’ Home cleaned the streets around the temple after the celebration.

Srimath Swami Vagishananda Ji inaugurated the extension to the prayer hall at Gadadhar Ashra ma , Kol ka t a , on 24 March, the birthday of Swami Yogananda.

The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) awarded the highest grade of A++ to Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Educational and Research Institute (RKMVERI deemed university), Belur, for five years in the first cycle of its assessment. The Cumulative

A

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The birthday (janma-tithi) of Sri Ramakrishna was celebrated at Belur Math on Friday, 8 March, with spiritual fervour and delight.

Cooked prasad was served to about 35,000 devotees. Swami Vishwanathananda presided over the public meeting held in the afternoon. As part of the celebration, Devotees’ Conventions were held on 13 and 14 February in which about 2500 devotees participated on each day.

The annual Public Celebration in connection with Sri Ramakrishna’s birthday was held at Belur Math on Sunday, 17 March. More than one lakh people visited Belur Math in the course of the day. Cooked prasad was served to about 40,000 people. Due to unavoidable circumstances, the fireworks display was cancelled this year.

Satya

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Pa

Nirbhaya

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vit

Mangaluru A s h r a m a conducted the following activities in February: (i) five cleanliness drives in Mangaluru involving 1850 volunteers, (ii) awareness campaigns for 24 days in which volunteers reached out to nearly 1250 households in different parts of Mangaluru city, spreading awareness about cleanliness, and (iii) ten seminars in colleges covering 3560 youths.

Medical Relief: 51 people donated blood at a blood camp held by Kailashahar centre. Pala centre held two Mysuru

Winter Relief: Through 26 centres in India the Order distributed 31251 sweaters, 19500 jackets, 4848 blankets, 306 mufflers, and 1000 coats. Dinajpur centre in Bangladesh distributed 1200 blankets.

Distress Relief: Through 28 centres in India the Order distributed 64234 Baghbazar

shirts, 47160 trousers, 1248 saries, 8010 tops, 1249 dhotis, 119 school bags, 1086 shoes, 577 umbrellas, and 7334 notebooks.

Dinajpur centre in Bangladesh distributed 60 saris and Lusaka centre in Zambia distributed 40 T-shirts.

Flood Relief & Rehabilitation: Continuing relief services to families affected by the severe floods of Aug 2018, Tiruvalla centre distributed 23,588 notebooks, 115 geometry boxes and 516 T-shirts among 3816 students. The headquarters has undertaken construction of 8 anganwadis (childcare centres) in Alappuzha district through the Kochi centre.

Fire Relief & Rehabilitation: Aalo centre in Arunachal Pradesh, and Saradapitha centre in West Bengal helped a family each with relief material after their houses were burnt down.

Contai centre in West Bengal helped a family to rebuild their house destroyed in fire.

May 2019

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

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ak

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The following centres conducted several outreach programmes: Baranagar Mission: programmes in 4 colleges for 304 students and 118 staff; Delhi: students’ convention for 820 students, 9 workshops in Delhi, Ernakulam, Chandigarh, Gurugram and Visakhapatnam for 676 teachers and 169 students, 110 LED projectors to government schools in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan; Gurap: lectures for 320 youth; Medinipur: workshops in 7 institutions for 2814 students and teachers; Rajkot: 2 programmes for Shraddha 160 primary school Ty students; Vadodara: ag a programmes in 21 schools for 5170 students. es

m

i Ah

Jiva Seva

Values Education Programmes

medical camps; 298 patients were treated and given free medicines.

Porbandar centre held a cancer detection and awareness camp where 69 patients were examined.

Salem centre held a medical camp and treated 733 patients. 13 centres of the Order conducted Eye Camps where 7825 were treated, 991 given spectacles, and 1759 operated.

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PA G E S P O N S O R : A D E V O T E E , K I S M AT P U R , H Y D E R A B A D

Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.66 (out of 4) secured by RKMVERI is the second highest CGPA obtained so far by the universities accredited as per the Revised Accreditation Framework of NAAC.

Economic Rehabilitation: Guwahati centre distributed 11 tantsals (weaving instruments) and 20 sewing machines. Rahara centre distributed 6 tricycles and 2 wheelchairs.

(Continued on Kochi

page 54...)

May 2019

Special Report

The Vedanta Kesari

52

Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Smriti Mandir, Khetri It is unknown to many that Raja Ajit Singh, king of Khetri from 1870 to 1901, and an ardent patron of fine arts, science, and technology, played an important role in the life of Swami Vivekananda. The two came in contact at Mount Abu in 1891 when Swamiji reached there as a parivrajaka. Very soon, the raja became Swamiji’s close friend and disciple. This unique relationship between the king and the sannyasi became the golden chapter in the

Ajit Vivek Museum

Raja Ajit Singh & his son

May 2019

53 The Vedanta Kesari

Swami Vivekananda as a wandering sannyasi, 1891

history of Khetri. Swamiji was in close touch with the Raja until the latter’s untimely death in 1901.

Swamiji visited Khetri three times – twice in 1891, and once in 1893 and altogether stayed there for 95 days. He stayed as the royal guest in ‘Fatteh Billass’, the palace built in 1866 by Raja Fatteh Singh.

Raja Bahadur Sardar Singh, the grandson of Raja Ajit Singh gifted this palace to the Ramakrishna Mission in 1958. In 1959, the palace began to serve the people of Khetri as Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Smriti Mandir.

As part of the golden Jubilee celebrations, this heritage building, which is a unique example of the art

Pilgrimage

The Order on the March

(Continued from page 51...)

Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai is for over 30 years rehabilitating Leprosy Cured but Deformed Persons (LCDPs). As part of this programme, the LCDPs were, in the last three years, taken on a pilgrimage first to Kanyakumari, and then to Kashi, Prayag, Ayodhya and Gaya. As a pilgrimage to Kashi is complete only with a pilgrimage to Rameshwaram, the LCDPs went on a 5-day yatra from 11 March 2019 to Sri Rangam, Rameshwaram and Madurai. Before leaving, Kalaimamani Smt Gowri Rajagopal conducted a Kathakalakshepam and explained the significance of the three pilgrim centres. The yatra team included 36 LCDPs, 10 family members, 7 volunteers and a doctor. Special abhishekam was performed to Lord Rameshwara with the Ganga water that the yatris had brought from Kashi.

NOTICE: Swami Vrajamohanananda, whose pre-monastic name is Prashanta, has recently left the Ramakrishna Order attached to Ramakrishna Math, Belur Math. He is not eligible, therefore, to raise funds or seek other help from our devotees and general public on behalf of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. —General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission

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May 2019 The Vedanta Kesari

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and architecture of the Shkehawti region of Rajasthan, has been restored to its pristine glory. The Diwankhana, the outhouse of the palace has been converted into the Ajit-Vivek Museum.

The 3000 sq.feet, 4-floor multi-media museum, designed by National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, showcases the life and teachings of Swamiji.

Swami Suvirananda, the General Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, inaugurated the Ajit-Vivek Museum in a 2-day function on 30th and 31st March 2019. Over 800 devotees and 50 sannyasis participated in the lectures and cultural events held during the two days.

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Vol.106. No.5 The Vedanta Kesari (English Monthly) May 2019. Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under No.1084 / 1957.

Postal registration number:TN / CH (C) / 190 / 2018-2020. Licensed to Post without prepayment TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-259 / 2018-2020.

Date of Publication: 24th of every month; Posted on 26 April 2019

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

—Swami Vivekananda

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