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The Vedanta KesariTHE LION OF VEDANTA

A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914

103rd

Year of Publication

F ebruary 2016

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2T h e V e d a n t a K e s a r i F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6~ ~

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Students praying in the Ramakrishna Mission temple, Fiji

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FEBRUARY 2016

A CULTURAL AND SPIRITUAL MONTHLY OF THE RAMAKRISHNA ORDER

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

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

VOL. 103, No. 2 ISSN 0042-2983

Cover Story: Page 6

CONTENTS

The Vedanta Kesari 103rd

Year of Publication

3

Gita Verse for Reflection 45

Editorial ‘A Rare Wise Man of Inward Gaze’ 46

Articles Holy Mother—The Divine Consort of Sri Ramakrishna 52

Sudesh

Vedanta and Swami Vivekananda 64Swami Tathagatananda

Baba Premananda Bharati and the Vedanta Society 72Gopal Stavig

Theory and Practice of Eco-Yoga: Thoughts on How Yoga Can Help Remedy Environmental Issues 75

K.V.Raghupathi

Reminiscences Reminiscences of Sargachhi 56

Swami Suhitananda

New Find Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda 70

Annual Report Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission Synopsis of the Governing Body Report for 2014-15 61The Order on the March 80Book Reviews 82

Feature Simhâvalokanam (The Birthday Celebration of Swami Vivekananda) 50

4T h e V e d a n t a K e s a r i F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 6

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SL.NO. NAMES OF SPONSORS AWARDEE INSTITUTIONS

5906. Prof. Gopal Chandra Bhar, W.B. Govt. Degree College, Sitapur, U.P. - 262 2035907. -do- Govt. Degree College, Maunath Banjan, U.P. - 275 1015908. -do- Govt. Degree College, Obra, U.P. - 231 2195909. -do- Govt. Degree College, Unchahar, U.P. - 229 0015910. -do- Govt. Degree College, Berinag, Uttranchal - 262 5315911. -do- Govt. Degree College, Khatima, Uttaranchal - 262 3085912. -do- Govt. Degree College, Purola, Uttaranchal - 249 185

The Vedanta Kesari Library Scheme

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Cover StoryN N

Ramakrishna Mission, Fiji

The Republic of Fiji is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean northeast of New Zealand. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 332 islands, spread over the total land area of about 18,300 square kilometres and has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific due to abundance of forest, mineral, and marine resources. A centre of Ramakrishna Mission was started in Fiji (which has a sizable population of Indian origin) in 1937 and was affiliated to the Belur Math in 1952. The centre runs a high school named Swami Vivekananda College, a vocational training centre, a primary school, a medical centre besides conducting a number of welfare, cultural and spiritual activities. The Universal Meditation Centre (featured on the cover page) at the Fiji Ashrama was consecrated on 26 November 2014 by Swami Suhitanandaji, General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Built with the idea ‘to equip the youth with a disciplined, focused mind and a strong will-power with high moral and ethical values’, the Universal Meditation Centre, situated on a hill side, is used for conducting a number of programmes including classes on moral and spiritual values. For more details visit: www.rkmfiji.org

720. Sri S. Sivagnanam, Chennai721. Sri Nitish Chandra Mitra, Nagpur

5913. -do- Govt. Degree College, Champawat, Uttaranchal - 262 5235914. -do- Govt. Degree College, Joshimat, Uttaranchal - 246 4825915. -do- Govt. Degree College, Talwari, Uttaranchal - 246 4825916. -do- Govt. Degree College, Chamba, Uttaranchal - 176 3105917. -do- Govt. Degree College, Karanprayag, Uttaranchal - 246 4445918. -do- Govt. Degree College, Lohaghat, Uttaranchal - 262 5015919. -do- Govt. Degree College, Dwarahat, Almora, Uttaranchal - 262 6535920. -do- Govt. Degree College, Mainila, Almora, Uttaranchal - 263 6015921. -do- Govt. Degree College, Narayannagar, Uttaranchal - 262 5015922. -do- Govt. Degree College, Syalde, Almora, Uttaranchal - 263 6015923. -do- Govt. Girls Degree College, Haldwani, Uttaranchal - 263 1395924. -do- Govt. Post Graduate College, Ramnagar, Nainital, Uttaranchal - 244 7155925. -do- Govt. Post Graduate College, Ranikhet, Almora, Uttaranchal - 263 6455926. -do- Govt. Post Graduate College, Uttarkashi, Uttaranchal - 249 1935927. -do- ISPAT College, Rourkela, Orissa - 769 0165928. -do- Janta College, Biolnda Dhenkanal, Orissa - 759 1275929. -do- Branch Library, Arani, T.N. - 632 3015930. -do- A.N.S. College, Barh, Patna, 803 2135931. -do- A.Q. Ansari College, Jehanabad - 804 4085932. -do- Allama Ekbal College, Bihar Sharif - 803 1015933. -do- B.N. College, Patna - 800 0045934. -do- Bhagalpur Evening College, Bhagalpur - 812 0015935. -do- Govt. S.S.P. Arts, Balaghat (M.P.) - 481 0015936. -do- Durgapur Government College, J.N. - 713 2105937. -do- The Senior Citizens Centre, Muttukadu, T.N. - 603 1125938. -do- Ramakrishna Vivekananda Sevashrama, Shalejval - 422 0075939. -do- Tamralipta Mahavidyalay, Purba Meinipore, W.B. - 721 6365940. Mr. Mahindra Kumar Parujar, Chennai A.S. Degree College, Mawana, Uttar Pradesh - 250 4015941. Mr. Shravana Kumar Ashannagari, Bangalore Deoraha Baba Sridhar Das, Garkha, Saran - 841 3115942. -do- Gayatri Vidya Parishad College, Visakhapatnam, A.P. - 530 0485943. -do- Kala Wanijya Mahila, Mahavidyalaya, Maharashtra - 442 4015944. Mr. Ramakrishna Babu Poludesu, Hyderabad Dist. Institute of Education, Warangal Dist., P.A. - 506 0015945. -do- Gurajada College of Education, Srikakulam, A.P. - 532 4015946. -do- Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Jaipur, Orissa - 755 0435947. -do- MCM D.A.V. College, Chandigarh, Punjab - 160 0015948. -do- Govt. Degree College, Papumpare Dist., Arunachal Pradesh - 791 1115949. -do- Sri Govinda Guru Rajakiya, Banswada, Rajasthan - 327 0015950. Dr. B.V.S.S.S. Prasad, Chennai Anna University, Sardar Patel Road, Chennai - 600 0255951. -do- A.E.M.P. College, Aurangabad, Maharastra - 431 1125952. -do- A.J.S.P. Mandals College, Beed, Maharastra - 431 1225953. -do- MGM Medical College, Aurangabad, Maharastra - 431 0035954. -do- University Library, Aurangabad, Maharastra - 431 0015955. -do- 5956. -do-

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EACH SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE. T HE GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THE DIVINITY WITHIN.

The Vedanta KesariVOL. 103, No. 2, FEBRUARY 2016 ISSN 0042-2983

—Bhagavad Gita, 12-17

He who is free from elation, anger, sorrow, and craving, who neither seeks the pleasant nor shuns the unpleasant—dear to Me is the man who is thus devoted.

Gita Verse for ReflectionTr. by Swami Tapasyananda

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God is the one goal of all our passions and emotions. If you want to be angry, be angry with Him. Chide your Beloved, chide your Friend. Whom else can you safely chide? Mortal man will not patiently put up with your anger; there will be a reaction. If you are angry with me I am sure quickly to react, because I cannot patiently put up with your anger. Say unto the Beloved, ‘Why do You not come to me; why do You leave me thus alone?’ Where is there any enjoyment but in Him? What enjoyment can there be in little clods of earth? It is the crystallised essence of infinite enjoyment that we have to seek, and that is in God. Let all our passions and emotions go up unto Him. They are meant for Him, for if they miss their mark and go lower, they become vile; and when they go straight to the mark, to the Lord, even the lowest of them becomes transfigured. All of the energies of the human body and mind, howsoever they may express themselves, have the Lord as their one goal, as their Ekayana. All loves and all passions of the human heart must go to God. He is the Beloved. Whom else can this heart love? He is the most beautiful, the most sublime, He is beauty itself, sublimity itself. Who in this universe is more beautiful than He? Who in this universe is more fit to become the husband than He? Who in this universe is fitter to be loved than He? So let Him be the husband, let Him be the Beloved.

—Swami Vivekananda, CW,3.97


Editorial

The Window Seat‘Window seat—I want window seat!’

cried young Sunil as he climbed the tourist cab. Not only Sunil, most of us, with some exceptions, wish to have the window seat while we travel. Seeing through the window the passing landscape of nature and man-made constructions, men and women working or walking, animals, moving vehicles and all that comes in the range of our vision—we wish to see the world around us, enjoy its beauty, feel free to partake of the air, light and warmth that a window seat offers.

Not only in a bus or car or flight, we wish the same with the way we look at life. We look or perceive the world around us through our senses, the Indriyas. They are the windows or gateways through which we look at the world. We wish to ‘enjoy’ life through the senses, through the experience they provide us. While this is natural to human experience, what is forgotten is that sitting on the window seats of our senses, we get only a limited view and understanding of life. We observe the ever-changing scene, the world that is in flux. Jagat, as the world is called means ‘that which is ever moving’ (gata). But how can there be a change without the changeless! The observed without the observer! Alongside the ever-changing world exists the unchanging reality called in Sanskrit as Brahman (in the sense of individuals Brahman is called Atman) which we rarely acknowledge or pay attention to!

Added to it, we get terribly attached to and depend on pleasant and unpleasant

experiences that senses bring. We then think that nothing lies beyond them. And thus we suffer, feel frustrated and dejected, not knowing that there is an experience higher, more satisfying.

The Inside ViewBrahman! Where to find ‘It’? The seers

of Vedic traditions as well as the mystics of all religions point that Brahman, though omnipresent and all-pervasive, can be perceived only when we turn within. Turning within may sound anti-senses but strangely the view of truth that senses present us is so elusive and incomplete that it is sheer deception to depend on them in our quest to know the Ultimate Source of peace and joy—Brahman. Always turning without, we only clasp the virtual and miss the actual. Swamiji points out,

From our childhood upwards we have been taught only to pay attention to things external, but never to things internal; hence most of us have nearly lost the faculty of observing the internal mechanism. To turn the mind, as it were, inside, stop it from going outside, and then to concentrate all its powers, and throw them upon the mind itself, in order that it may know its own nature, analyse itself, is very hard work. Yet that is the only way to anything which will be a scientific approach to the subject.1

This tendency to observe the outside as well to observe the inside gets manifested and crystallized through the two racial types—the Greek and the Oriental or Indian. After all it

8

‘A Rare Wise Man of Inward Gaze’


is the individuals that make a society or race. Individuals are the units that make the whole called society. Points out Swamiji:

Two nations of yore, namely the Greek and the Aryan, placed in different environments and circumstances—the former, surrounded by all that was beautiful, sweet, and tempting in nature, with an invigorating climate, and the latter, surrounded on every side by all that was sublime, and born and nurtured in a climate which did not allow of much physical exercise—developed two peculiar and different ideals of civilisation. The study of the Greeks was the outer infinite, while that of the Aryans was the inner infinite; one studied the macrocosm, and the other the microcosm. Each had its distinct part to play in the civilisation of the world. Not that one was required to borrow from the other, but if they compared notes both would be the gainers.2

Why do most of us look outwards and not inwards? The Katha Upanishad says that we are, in our present state of ignorance, made like that. We suffer from a manufacturing defect! Of course, we can rectify it and discover the truth within but that requires training, hard training For the time being, we are, in the language of Upanishads, glued to our outgoing senses and miss the ever present Ultimate Reality. Says the Katha Upanishad (II.i.I, trans. by Swamiji),

The Self-existent One projected the senses outwards and, therefore, a man looks outward, not within himself. A rare wise one, desiring immortality, with inverted senses, perceived the Self within.3

Explaining this verse, Swami Ranga- nathananda, the thirteenth President of Ramakrishna Math and Mission, said,

The verse says that nature or nature as God constructed this human system with many powers, but an initial defect. What is the defect?

That man’s senses and mind are outgoing in their disposition. The result is, they can know the truth only of what is outside and not of what is within. This is a natural state of the human system. Will it ever remain so? Can we defy nature and start an inward movement of the psychic energy? One courageous pioneer, not satisfied with this situation, took up this challenge. See the language used there—kaschit dhirah, a certain courageous, intelligent person. ‘Why should I be merely a plaything of nature? Nature says, “Do this” and I do. I am now going to defy this nature itself.’ Swami Vivekananda put this truth in a wonderful language. He said that the whole of human civilization has been achieved by defying nature. Nature says, ‘do this.’ Man says ‘No, I will be free, I will take my life into my hands away from you, I will develop it myself, shape it myself, and you must never do so.’4

A Rare, Wise ManA rare, wise man is an awakened person.

He has risen from the sleep of senses, making him see a higher reality, different from what the senses bring before us. He is not satisfied with what makes others happy, who are asleep in the world of senses. Being awake, he sees life differently. Points out Swami Ranganathananda further,

Dhirah is a great word in Sanskrit. It contains two elements. Dhi means Buddhi or reason and dhirah means also heroic, intelligent and courageous. We don’t know who he was—kaschit dhirah. They are the pioneers; nobody can be a pioneer in a field by mere heroism. There must be understanding, there must be intelligence. Mere intelligence is not enough because many intelligent people are very cowardly also. Unless these two combine, no great thing can be done. The word dhirah applies to all the great discoveries that have transformed human civilization. . .

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Everywhere you need this quality, but the field where this quality is needed utmost is in dealing with oneself. ‘Can I turn the energies of my mind and senses inward to penetrate into the depth of my spirit?’ This sage took up this challenge and said, ‘I shall do it. I shall discover what is hidden behind the senses.’ This is what we call in today’s language—in several books you find these words—searching for the hinterland of our consciousness. What is there? There is some truth hiding there. We have not tried turning the senses inwards as yet.Like in animals, the senses go out; we eat and drink and handle the world, and we think ourselves also as part of that world: that we are an object. But now someone, kaschit dhirah, has taken up this challenge. He realized the infinite, the immortal dimension of man. He discovered man the unknown. How did he do it? He quietly gave a right-about-turn to his psychic energies.5

A wise man of this type is rare indeed. The Bhagavad Gita6:

One, perchance, in thousands of men, strives for perfection, and one perchance among the blessed ones, striving thus, knows the Highest Truth in reality.

It is rare because, according to Hindu sages, one has to undergo much experience to realize the futility of sensory enjoyments; that only can make one disillusioned and seek something beyond. The Katha Upanishad7 calls people who are busy with the world of senses as ‘children’:

The unintelligent people follow the external desire. They get entangled in the snares of the wide-spread death. Therefore, the discriminating people having known what true immortality is in the midst of impermanent things do not pray for anything here.

Such people are free of all fear and anxiety. Swami Vivekananda says,

There is death, you know, inevitable death, in water, in air, in the palace, in the prison—death

everywhere. What makes you fearless? When you have realised what you are—that infinite spirit, deathless, birthless. Him no fire can burn, no instrument kill, no poison hurt.8

Men bereft of the knowledge of the Self are caught in the ever-going cycle of birth and death—like riding a roller coaster, up-down, down-up and so on.

Discovering the Truth Within What happens when we turn our vision

within? Of course, physically speaking that cannot be done. Eye cannot look within; they are designed to see objects and that involves the image of an object falling on the retina and getting recognized. The inward gaze therefore is a reference to understand or comprehend whatever is happening in our mind, in our thoughts and feelings and our intentions. It is a study of ourselves, not of objects that senses perceive. This looking within is further elucidated thus by Swami Ranga- nathananda:

This is expressed in one single Sanskrit phrase—avritta-chakshu. Chakshu means eye. It is symbolic of all sense organs. My skin gives me knowledge of tangible things, my nose gives knowledge of smell, my ear gives me knowledge of sound. All the five sense organs give us sensory information about the world. This wonderful scientist-researcher-experimenter, the dhirah, is courageous and intelligent. He made a right-about-turn to all these energies and to his great joy he discovered his true dimension: I am not this tiny little body, not a speck of dust in this world; I am infinite, I am immortal, I am divine. This is the experience and the joy that came: I am free, I am free, I am free. Nothing in the world is free, everything is conditioned by time, space and causality. Everything in this world, even my body and mind is conditioned. According to Vedanta, mind also is only a subtle form of matter. Beyond all this, the sage

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discovered his true dimension—the infinite Atman. Pratyagatmanam aikshat. . . .

Pratyak in Sanskrit means inward; the opposite is parak (outward). Every object is referred to as parak. Our sages have studied these words very thoroughly. Whenever you point your finger out and say ‘this, this, this’, that is called parak—outgoing understanding of things. Is this all the reality? No. Reality has parak and pratyak dimensions. We study objects that are near, and we use instruments like telescopes or radio telescopes to study objects that are far away, and microscope to study smaller things. But all they study is parak—only objects. If you want to study the subject, you have to change the direction; the finger must point to oneself. This finger turning inward is called pratyak. To turn to the pratyak direction is to discover an infinite consciousness hidden in the human being.There is a Sanskrit word, pratyak-chaitanya. Chaitanya means pure consciousness. This refers to our true nature. We do not understand this truth at first, and take ourselves to be an object among objects. We begin like that, but if we investigate, this knowledge of pure consciousness will dawn upon us. . . . Think of a river flowing from west to east. Technology comes and makes it flow from east to west. Plenty of these things happen these days. Similarly, here is a technology of inner life, leading to tremendous consequences for man and human civilization—that of turning the energies from outward to inward. This is a wonderful idea and we express this in our day-to-day life. When you close your eyes and sit for meditation, what are you trying to do? Exactly what the pioneer of inner quest (the dhirah of the Upanishad) achieved in his time. He [Adi Shankara] had tremendous courage,

tremendous energy, and tremendous purity of the inner life. Hence, he could achieve it without much difficulty. This pioneering spirit laid the road on which many have travelled. He blazed a trail through which many have achieved these great things.

A thousand years before came Buddha. He did the same thing: just turned the energy inward. He discovered the immortal man behind the mortal man, the infinite man behind the finite man. After he attained enlightenment, Buddha said that he experienced this immortal dimension. What tremendous energy came out of that experience! The whole of Asia felt the touch of that experience. Buddha got it silently at midnight, on a full moon night, and yet, the repercussions of that experience were tremendous. How much of peace and well-being came to millions of people thereby! Today Sri Ramakrishna, sitting in the temple of Dakshineswar, far away from human contact, did this very thing, as a scientist. He just went in an inward direction and made tremendous discoveries.9

ConclusionWhile as human beings, we depend

on our senses for all experiences, we cannot remain satisfied with only the experience and information that our senses bring. However rare it might happen, we must dig deeper into our mind and personality to know who we really are—seek what lies beyond the senses. We need to move forward, go higher, dive deeper to come face to face with the truth of our being—the Brahman or Atman or Divinity within. It is, as Sri Ramakrishna would say, ‘aiming a lighted torch not on others but one’s own divine essence.’

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1. CW 1.129 2. CW, 3.184 3. CW, 2.175 4. Man The Known And Man The Unknown, Swami

Ranganathananda. Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, p. 14—(hereafter Man) 5. Man, p.16 6. The Bhagavad

Gita, 7.3 7. The Katha Upanishad, II.i.I 8. CW, 4.245 9. Man, p. 17-19

References


From the Archives of The VedanTa Kesari

S i m h â v a l o k a n a m

(February, 1915-16, p. 316-318)

The Birthday Celebration of Swami Vivekananda

At MadrasThe 54th Birthday of Sri Swami Vivekananda was celebrated

with usual devotion and enthusiasm by his numerous disciples, friends and admirers, ever growing in number, on Sunday, the 30th ultimo, in a spacious pandal specially erected for the occasion at the Ramakrishna Home premises, Brodies Road, Mylapore.

The functions of the day commenced in the morning with Bhajana in which people of all sects, castes and creeds, took part with intense devotion and which lasted till 12 o’clock in the noon. Then about 2,000 poor people were sumptuously fed through the aid and kind co-operation of the generous local public and of the mofussil. In the afternoon, Mr. M. K. Tatacharyar, B.A., of the Public Works Secretariat, entertained his big audience with a Harikatha Kalakshepam on Kuchalopakhyanam of absorbing interest. At 5-30 p.m., a public meeting was held in the pandal with the Hon’ble Rai Bahadur B. N. Sarma, B.A., B.L., in the chair, when Dr. T. S. S. Rajan, M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., of Srirangam, delivered a stirring and edifying lecture on the ‘Place of Religion in our National Development as interpreted by Swami Vivekananda,’ the full text of which we publish elsewhere. The Hon’ble Mr. Sarma in winding up the proceedings of the day expressed his emphatic belief that without religion as its basis the complete regeneration of India could never be properly accomplished. Indian mind gave always ready responses to calls that were religious. He was not one of those, he said, who believed that the present state of the Hindu Society was due to Hindu Religion, but rather it was due to the wrong conception of the Religion of Vedanta prevalent in the popular mind, which was mainly responsible for so much unpractical dreaminess or self-centred coldness found in the society. Hence the preaching of the true Vedanta of which Swami Vivekananda was the modern prophet, should be disseminated widely. Even the consciousness that we were spiritually great would sustain the nation to a very great extent. ‘Faith in the Atman will make us believe that we are equal in every respect, at least potentially, to any people however great, on the face of the earth, and we have the power too to manifest that greatness, and we must manifest it.’

Lastly, he said that money or wealth was necessary for the growth of national life and it should not be shunned. It symbolised power. The defect lay not in the acquisition of wealth,


but in its misuse. So he exhorted not to despise wealth but to acquire it to be utilised only for the good of the nation.

The function of the day was concluded with Aratrikam and distribution of Prasadam.

At BangaloreOn Thursday, the 27th of January, after the Tithi Puja in the presence of a large

gathering, Prasadam was distributed to all who were fortunate enough to be present on the auspicious occasion. On the following Sunday, the public celebration was a grand success.

From the early hours of the morning, many loving hands were busy in doing the various little offices, necessary to make the function a success. At about eleven, Sankirtan parties began to arrive and the air resounded with the name of the Lord Almighty, who has us all in his merciful keeping. One such party came from Ellegowdanpalayam, a suburb of Bangalore, with a photograph of Swamiji placed on a Ratham beautifully and tastefully decorated. These parties were welcomed cordially at the entrance to the Ashrama by Swami Nirmalanandaji, the President of the local branch of the Sri Ramakrishna Mission. This photograph was then placed in a prominent position inside the spacious pandal, and the decorated photographs brought by two other parties supported it on the right and on the left. At about twelve in the noon the feeding of the poor began with great enthusiasm in the premises of the ‘Chatram’ adjoining the Anjaneya Temple, Basavangudi, and lasted on till about half-past three.

Over a thousand ‘Poor Narayanas’ were fed by young men animated by the spirit of true social service. Surely Swamiji must have been present in spirit throughout the whole day. In the afternoon, Sriman Belur Kesava Murti Doss entertained the audience with his Harikatha. Gradually, people numbering nearly two thousand began to pour in from all sides, till the spacious pandal was almost full, a prominent feature of the gathering being the presence of about two hundred ladies. At about half-past five, when the pandal was full of eager listeners, Sriman Chenna Kesava Iyengar began his lecture in Kannada. He spoke for about an hour on the import of Swamiji’s work for Aryavartha. Then Brahmasri Pandit D. Narayan Sastri, a prominent representative of the orthodox community, spoke on the reshaping of the entire contents of the Sanatana Dharma by Swamiji to suit the needs of Modern India. Mr. N. N. Murthi followed him with a very interesting paper on ‘Swami Vivekananda and Modern India.’ A brief report of the celebration of the anniversaries during the year 1915 was, afterwards, read by Mr. Kunhi Raman.

Finally Mr. M. A. Narayana Iyengar, a staunch friend of the Mission, rose up and read a letter from His Highness the Yuvaraja who therein regretted his inability to be present on the occasion. As usual, His Highness had sent in his subscription of a hundred rupees. After Arati and the distribution of Prasadam the huge crowd dispersed.

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The Eternal SpouseThe night of 15th August 1886—the

disciples of Sri Ramakrishna found him immersed in Eternal Silence. When the Mother, crying bitterly, was about to take off her gold bracelets, the signs of a married woman, Thakur [Sri Ramakrishna] appeared before her and forbade her to do so. He had only passed from one room to another. Though she had the vision of Thakur’s imperishable divine body, yet the emptiness and physical separation from him was unbearable to her. The disciples, therefore, sent her to places of pilgrimages, so that she might recover somewhat from her mental anguish.

Like the gopis who were overpowered with grief when Krishna disappeared and longing for him all the more, and were so much absorbed in thought of Him that they came to identify themselves with Krishna, a similar self-absorption was seen in body and mind of Holy Mother. Swami Yogananda said:

One day her lady companions found her absorbed in Samadhi. . . We have heard that in deep meditation the worshipper and the

Holy Mother—The Divine Consort of Sri Ramakrishna

SUDESH

(Continued from the previous issue. . .)

worshipped become one. . . a spiritual state known as tadatmya-bhava, being at one with God . . . the Mother too forgot her own separate existence and acted just like the Master.17

The passionate anguish of separation gradually turned into the bliss of union. A sense of joy and peace filled her whole being. Thus convinced of Thakur’s living presence

A devotee from Ambala, Sudesh regularly contributes inspiring articles to The Vedanta Kesari.

even after he cast off his mortal coil, she did not discard fully the signs of a married woman. She did not get her head shaved clean like Lakshmi Devi at Allahabad—the


Article

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sacred confluence of the Ganges and the Yamuna, according to custom of the place. After returning from her pilgrimage Sarada Ma went to stay at Kamarpukur as per Thakur’s wish. At the sight of a young widow wearing bracelets and a thin red-boarded cloth there was a lot of vociferous criticism and antagonism. She now decided to silence her critics by removing her bracelets but was prevented by a vision of Thakur. Thakur told her that Gauri-Ma would explain to her. Gauri-Ma did come and explained to her with the help of Vaishnava scriptures how there could be no widowhood for Mother, since her husband’s body was not material but spiritual. Prasannamayi, the aged sister of the Lahas, silenced the scurrilous women by declaring that Gadai and his wife were no ordinary beings but divine, and Gadai’s wife was a veritable goddess. Mother herself declared that she was deathless when once at Banaras the mad aunt had cursed her the whole night, saying, ‘Let. . . my sister-in-law die.’18

Thakur and Ma were no ordinary mortals born on earth to reap the fruits of their karma or to attain personal salvation. Those who hold the key to others’ liberation do not pass out of the cosmic sphere with physical death. They continue to shower their divine mercy on all who take shelter in them.

Even after Thakur’s demise, a keen sense of his presence as living palpitating reality continued to be the firm ground of Mother’s consciousness. She visualized his physical presence even in his picture. At the time of worship it seemed as if she were sitting in his living presence and was in intimate communion with him. In November 1914, a woman devotee entering the chapel heard the Mother addressing the Master like a bashful newly married maiden, ‘Come, come for food.’19

As Thakur had not visited the temple of Jagannath at Puri in his lifetime she took his photograph to the temple and showed it to the image during her pilgrimage to Puri in November 1888. When a devotee told her that he could not concentrate his mind in meditation, Mother advised him to look at the picture of Thakur with his mind fixed on him. To another who asked if the Master was present in the picture, ‘Why should he not be?’ Mother replied. ‘Is he present in all the pictures?’ ‘Yes, his presence can be felt after repeated prayer.’20

To some intimate disciples Mother revealed that she was Thakur’s Shakti and came with him through all his previous incarnations, that they were eternally united and wedded to each other. Nalini Sarkar of Midnapur asked her once, ‘Mother, did you come with all the incarnations?’ ‘Yes, my son’, replied the Mother. 21

Helpmate in Thakur’s MissionOur scriptures say that for the sake of

Bhaktas, the formless, attributeless Brahman assumes forms and descends in the world, accompanied by his Shakti, as his consort. Thus Sati and Sita as the consorts of Shiva and Rama showed unparalleled devotion to their husbands and Radha illustrated the madhur bhava. In the life of Holy Mother alone we see where the consort of an Avatara became actively associated with the act of bringing about a new spiritual renaissance in the world. She played a vital role in his noble mission of calling humanity back to an awareness of its inborn divine nature. Before his departure from this playfield of world’s theatre, Thakur had told her that the people of Calcutta were wallowing in darkness. Looking after the spiritual destiny of jivas was not his burden alone, it was her responsibility too.


15

Her Spiritual MinistryFor thirty four years of her earthly

existence, after Thakur’s maha-samadhi, it was Mother who continued his spiritual ministry. The tremendous power of her love drew aspirants from all parts of the globe, seeking guidance in spiritual life, initiation and succour from worldly afflictions. In her they found a unique mother, Guru and Ishta who had the power to soothe the afflicted and awaken the slumbering souls. She gave the mantra which welled up spontaneously from her heart and was always proved right according to mental make-up of the aspirant. In many cases the candidates felt as though an electric current darted through their body and filled them with peace and joy. She could with her supernal insight divine a person’s spiritual malady and guide accordingly.

Swami Virajananda once resolved to plunge one-pointedly into a life of intensive contemplation. For fifteen hours each day he would engage in Japa and meditation. Finally a day came when his brain seemed wholly dull. Utter fatigue settled over his body and mind. Immensely concerned for Virajananda’s welfare, Swami Brahmananda secured the services of a famous Ayurvedic physician. Under his care three or four months passed. Still Virajananda’s numbness of brain and bodily languor persisted. As the month of March 1904 came, Virajananda conceived an intense desire to journey to Jayrambati. Holy Mother instantly realized merely by glancing at him, that his malady was not of his body. Immediately She asked, ‘Where do you concentrate—in the heart or in the head?’ ‘In the head, at the Sahasrara, Mother,’ replied Virajananda. ‘What have you done, my son? That is the final stage—the stage of the Paramahamsa. Is it possible to raise the mind to such a height all of a sudden? At first, after

concentrating the mind in the head, the mind should be brought down to the heart and there the Ishta must be meditated upon.’

What many treatments, regulations and diets could not achieve, this simple advice of the Holy Mother had made possible! Within a few days Virajananda revised his process of meditation and felt marvellously benefited.22

Knowing that the spiritual Guru has to take the responsibility of his disciples through eternity and has to suffer the adverse effects of the bad karmas of his disciples, she still did not refuse anyone who implored her for initiation. Consequently she suffered vicariously from various physical diseases and terrible burning sensation in her feet. Perhaps that is why the monastic disciples of Thakur were very discriminative about giving initiation. But Mother in her infinite mercy, willingly swallowed the poison by giving refuge to everyone. Through her tireless spiritual ministry innumerable devotees got a new awakening. A true Sahadharmini, of the Yugavatara, she became the channel of Thakur’s universal benevolence and trans- muting compassion. She was, as it were, the light and warmth of Thakur, the visible Flame of Ma Kali, from which spiritual light and redeeming love flowed into the world.

As Sangh JananiAfter Thakur’s final beatitude, his young

disciples felt like orphans. Forlorn and lonely they were roaming about hither and thither. In this moment of their indefinable grief they found solace in the Mother who now became to them the Master cum Mother—an orbit of protection, a source of inspiration, guidance and encouragement. In every emergency or resolution of a doubt they resorted to her and she invariably gave them the conclusive solution. To spiritual giants like Swami


16

Vivekananda and Swami Brahmananda her words were law and inviolable. Swami Vivekananda embarked on his momentous mission of going to the Parliament of Religions only when she nodded approval and assured him of Thakur’s will and protection.

Swami Vivekananda had got together all the young disciples of Thakur and prevailed upon them to become Sannyasins. Yet, their tendency was to roam about as wandering Sannyasins in search of peace and Self-realization. This had not given them the sense of a monastic community holding together for a definite purpose. It was Holy Mother who realized the need of propagating Thakur’s unique message. She prayed to Thakur to consolidate his disciples into an Order of monks:

My prayer is that those who leave the world in your name may never be in need of bare subsistence. They will all live together holding to your ideas and ideals and the people afflicted by the worries of the world will resort to them and be solaced by hearing about you. That’s

why you came. My heart is pained to see them wandering.23

It was the result of her motherly solici- tude and her heart-felt prayer that the Ramakrishna Movement and the Organization have sprung up. It will be no exaggeration to say that she is the real power, the bed-rock on which the edifice built by Sri Ramakrishna rests.

Though not actively involved with the management of the Order, she became its unseen axis and gave it the unerring direction. She did her utmost to see the Order well established as an integrated brotherhood with love as its life-force. She is rightly revered as the Sangh Janani—the Mother of the Sangha.

Thus we see the divine consort that Sri Sarada Devi was and the divine role she played in the celestial play of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition. Her extraordinary life, nestled in the utterly simple and ordinary settings, is a source of inspiration and strength to millions of her devotee-children the world over. (Concluded.)

17. Sri Sarada Devi the Great Wonder, 27-28.18. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, 436.19. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, 455.20. In the Company of the Holy Mother, 77.

21. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, 460.22. Swami Shraddhananda, The Story of an Epoch

(Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1982), 100-102.23. Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, 332.

vvv

References

If We were Really UnattachedWe think that we have helped some man and expect him to thank us, and because he

does not, unhappiness comes to us. Why should we expect anything in return for what we do? Be grateful to the man you help, think of him as God. Is it not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellow men? If we were really unattached, we should escape all this pain of vain expectation, and could cheerfully do good work in the world. Never will unhappiness or misery come through work done without attachment. The world will go on with its happiness and misery through eternity.

—Swami Vivekananda


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||2||A Brahmacharin asked: We hear about

the society of that time that there were many wise and virtuous people then; nowadays perhaps all are rather superficial-minded.

Swami Premeshananda: If I get chance I will tell you one day about the society of that time. If you hear, you would put your hands on your ears and run away. There were scholars no doubt, but they passed their time on flippant trivialities. Had it not been like that, why would Thakur [Sri Ramakrishna] come? I will recite to you two verses. Can you make any meaning out of them? The scholars would remain engrossed in these. Who cares for God! Who cares for renunciation! [The verses are:]

Keshavam patitam drishtva drona harshamupagatam |Rudanti pandavah sarve ha keshava ha keshava ||

Reminiscences of SargachhiSWAMI SUHITANANDA

(Continued from the previous issue. . .)

Sargachhi is located in Murshidabad district of West Bengal and is well-known to the devotees of Ramakrishna Order for being associated with Swami Akhandananda, a direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. The following writing is about another revered monk who lived in Sargachhi, Swami Premeshananda (1894-1967), a disciple of Holy Mother and well known for encouraging many young men and women, as also many married people to live a life of spirituality and service. The following reminiscences in Bengali, Sargachhir Smriti, is by Swami Suhitananda, the General Secretary of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math. He was a personal attendant of Swami Premeshananda for several years and while serving him noted his conversations and teachings in his diary. The same is being serially published in the Udbodhan (our Bengali monthly published from Kolkata) from its Jyaishtha, B.S. 1419 issue. These reminiscences have been translated by Sri Shoutir Kishore Chatterjee, a long-standing devotee from Kolkata. English words and expressions which appear in the original have been put within single inverted commas ‘ ’. The numbers ||1||, ||2||, etc., denote the serial numbers of the Udbodhan instalments.

(The enigmatic apparent meaning of this verse is: Seeing that Keshava has fallen, Drona became delighted; all the Pandavas cried shouting, ‘Oh Keshava! Oh Keshava!’)But actually here there is a pun on the words: ka—water, shava—dead body, pandava—jackal, drone—crow. Thus the hidden meaning is: Seeing the dead body in the water, the crow is delighted, but the jackals lament that the dead body is in water (and therefore we will be unable to feed on it).

Attendant: Maharaj, you didn’t tell the other verse.

Maharaj: I see you remember what I said.

Hanumatahatarama Sita harshamupagata | Rudanti rakshasah sarve harama harama ||

(This verse apparently means: Rama having been killed by Hanuman, Sita is delighted; the Rakshasas are all crying,

Reminiscences

18


Oh Rama! Oh Rama! But actually here, the meaning of Arama is garden; therefore what is meant is: The garden Ashokavana having been destroyed by Hanuman, Sita becomes delighted; the Rakshasas are all lamenting, ‘Oh garden! Oh garden!’)

11.10. 1958Maharaj: I go on talking about gross

body, subtle body and causal body. Do you follow anything? Do you know what a monk said the other day?—‘Premesh Maharaj would tire the ears of the boy by constantly talking about Brahman and at the end he would run away.’ That is why I ask, ‘Do you follow? Are you feeling bad?’

Attendant: Had I felt bad, would I stay on?Maharaj: Let me see how far you have

followed.Attendant: The bodies are three—gross

body, subtle body and causal body. When one assumes the subtle body [without the gross body], one becomes a ghost or spirit, or in most cases roam about in an unconscious state. When one is in the causal body one understands, ‘I am not the body, nor the vital force, nor the mind, nor the intellect. I am of the nature of Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. It has neither death nor birth.’

Question: When a person dies, we think the person is no more. Then where do such persons or entities stay?

Maharaj: The chit (consciousness) in the body manifests itself in various degrees in various bodies; thus a man has more sensibility, a dog has less. Don’t you see that a person with a large sword in hand can cut more than one with a billhook? The body of a man and the bodies of animals, etc., are like that. Chit (consciousness) and chetana (sensibility) are two different things. Chetana is only the manifestation of chit.

11.10.1958Maharaj: If you can understand the

difference between chit and chetana then I can die in peace. Tell me a little what are chit and chetana.

Attendant: When chit expresses itself through the fivefold sheath (pancha-kosha), it becomes chetana. That is the sensibility present in this body of mine, or in other words, what does say ‘I,’ ‘I’ is chetana. As soon as someone touches my body, I feel that my body has been touched. That is chetana. But this chetana can exist only because there is chit inside. Chetana is just a little bit of expression of chit.

Maharaj: Well said. Rice is boiling in a pot. From above we see the rice is hot. This is because fire has heating power. Here the heating power of fire is chit and the hotness of the rice is chetana. This chit verily is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. Each soul (jivatman) verily is Existence-Knowledge-Bliss.

That undivided chit decided—‘I will become many.’ Then he became many. As if the water in the sea has frozen and turned into ice. Ice is just another manifestation of water. The ice knows that it is only another manifestation of water. After this the jivatman in the form of ice covers itself with a veil of Maya. Then it enters inside the body, the vital force, the mind and the intellect and forgets that it is the jivatman. It looks upon itself as man. As it experiences various shocks, it thinks there is no way out. It is then that renunciation begins. And then comes the thought of God.

Attendant: Will you please say a little about veiling (avarana) and projecting (vikshepa) [powers of Maya]?

Maharaj: Suppose two boys are playing by the bank of the river. Suddenly one boy goes to the brink. One step more and he would be carried away by the deep and swift current. I look at the scene from my seat at a safe

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distance. As soon as I see the boy at that point I feel a great anxiety in my heart and I shout out. This means I have forgotten my own ‘identity’ and have mixed up myself with the ‘identity’ of the boy. In other words, ‘for the time being’ I have veiled the knowledge that I am at a safe place and identified myself with the boy. This is called veiling and projection.

You have a beautiful torch; somebody has given you that a few days ago. Suddenly one evening you see a torch as beautiful as that in the hands of someone else; immediately you would think—how is it that my torch has gone to his hands? What a play of veiling and projection in the incident! Firstly, getting possession of that torch of yours, and having had it with yourself for two days, you identify yourself with it and forget that you did not have such a torch earlier. Secondly, you also forget that there may exist other torches of the same type. Exactly like that, we consider this body as mine own. Yet how many times had I assumed bodies of how many different types in earlier births! Each time I had forgotten my real identity and felt happiness or misery when the body had been happy or miserable.

Premesh Maharaj had a good sense of humour. He used to make fun in course of discussing scriptures. I remember an incident. Some people have the bad habit of eavesdropping others’ words. A gentleman had given Premesh Maharaj a Sitalpati (a kind of mat that cools the body when one lies on it). As Maharaj had already had one, he gave it to a Brahmacharin. Now a fellow would occasionally go to the latter’s room to meet Srinath who also lived in the same room and used to work in the field and the farmhouse. Once the same man went to that room and saw the Sitalpati spread on the bed of the Brahmacharin. As he examined the Sitalpati

with his hands, Srinath said that Maharaj had given that thing to the Brahmacharin. The gentleman exclaimed, ‘Oh, so that’s it! Otherwise, I have been wondering how a Brahmacharin could use such a [luxurious] thing.’ Srinath Maharaj reported it to Premesh Maharaj. After that whenever we went to Premesh Maharaj he would say, ‘Oh, that’s it! Otherwise, I have been wondering how a Brahmacharin could use such a thing.’ We would also burst into laughter.

One day Maharaj was telling us some incidents of his life. He said, ‘In Sylhet all of us—Gopesh, Soumyananda, Debesh and myself—used to make merry in the name of Thakur. One day a gentleman grave-facedly told Soumyananda, “Laugh not, you laugh not. You are Brahmacharins; so do not laugh” (he said this in the peculiar dialect current in Sylhet). We too would make merry among ourselves and say in jest, ‘Laugh not, you laugh not.’ (mimicking the same Sylhetese intonation).*

One day we were discussing scriptures with Maharaj—I do not remember the date.

Maharaj: I have explained the three states and the witness to you over a long time. Tell me a little what you have understood about these.

Attendant: Ordinary people have three types of state: (1) waking state, (2) dreaming state, (3) state of deep sleep. In the waking state we are active. Then our physical and vital sheaths remain conscious. The physical and vital sheaths act through the organs of work and perception. In the dreaming state the mind and the intellect are active. The mental and intellectual sheaths remain conscious, but the awareness of the physical world remains

* Sylheti is the Bengali spoken in Sylhet Division of Bangladesh and the Barak Valley region of southern Assam.

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veiled. In the state of deep sleep nothing other than the vital principle is active. As if ‘I’ become totally non-existent. The mind merges in the intellect, intellect merges in nescience (ajnana). I experience the original I-ness (mula).

Maharaj: So you see the same ‘I’ is undergoing the three states one after another. I am not stable in any of these. So I am the witness of the three states. In that case the question arises—who am I?

Attendant: Why can I not recognize my own true nature?

Maharaj: Whatever I think, the same thought arises in my intellect and directs the mind in that direction. For great many aeons we have directed our intellect towards eating, sleeping, etc. So it has become habituated to go that way. If for several years we turn it again towards what is good, it would run towards that. It is itself insentient. It would go as it is directed.

One can dominate over body and mind if one wills so. If Aurobindo wants to save himself from the Britishers, he has to take asylum in Pondicherry [which was a French territory]. Like that if the mind has to be saved from lust and anger, then one must take refuge in God.

Attendant: Why?Maharaj: One has to know how a person

who has conquered lust, anger and greed has done that and follow such a person. This also results in thinking about and meditating on God.

17.10.1958Maharaj: There are two [kinds of]

entities—one is insentient, the other is sentient. Tell me what you have understood.

Attendant: The tree is ‘apparently’ insentient. But it has consciousness in it, thus the lajjavati (mimosa) plant shrinks as soon

as it is touched. Or to take another example the papaya tree rises upwards in search of light.

Maharaj: Yes. See that the upper branches and twigs spread themselves to respire. Similarly small roots at the bottom spread themselves like tongues to take nourishment from the earth.

Attendant: So it is consciousness which works through the ‘medium’ of the vital principle (prana). That means in the absence of consciousness there is no work for the vital principle too.

Maharaj: You sow a seed in the ground; you would see how two roots come out of it. From the ant to man, all have that Consciousness in them. That indivisible chit desired that it would experience the life of an ant. So it entered the body of the ant. But after entering that, it forgets that it is the indivisible chit. It thinks that it is an ant. In this way

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Swami Premeshananda

Kabir says, do not flaunt yourself and laugh at the poor, for, your boat is still afloat on

the ocean (of life). Who knows what would happen next! —Sant Kabir

India’s Timeless Wisdom


after assuming 84 hundred thousand births it becomes a man. Then for 100 human births, after being knocked about and finding no happiness in the world, it searches other things and tries to understand itself. Had Thakur not come we would have been compelled to wait for another 100 births.

Attendant: How does Yoga-kshema-vahamyaham (‘I [the Lord] carry what they lack and preserve what they already have’, Gita 9/22) happen?

Maharaj: The answer is simple. Suppose a monk has become tired and hunger-stricken. There is no hope of a meal. Suddenly a party of picnickers comes. They feed the monk to his satisfaction.

22.10.1958Maharaj saw a labourer in a beautiful

dress, passing by the Ashrama and said: The country has awakened. But there is

dearth of money and a lot of suffering in the country. Yet there will be progress and the country will rise. It is not easy to repair an old dilapidated house. There is need of new ‘idea’. If one talks about continence, they say — that would be violation of the dictates of God. One will have to inject Swamiji’s ‘idea’ into this stale, rotten society. Our priests had kept the non-Brahmins as untouchables. There can be Brahminhood in anybody. Duties in the shrine should be assigned to persons who have the

samskara of a Brahmin—not to those who have only been born in a Brahmin family. Once Swami Shivananda said to a Brahmacharin, ‘Go and offer the bhoga [food offerings].’ He said, ‘I do not have a Brahmin body.’ Then Maharaj (Swami Shivananda) said, ‘What did you say? Why can one not be a Brahmin if one is not born in a Brahmin family?’

To take the responsibility of an Ashrama is not an easy proposition. To do that one has to take the responsibility of the ‘spiritual life’ of all. It will not do if one can deliver a nice lecture or write a few lines of excellent English. One will have to apply one’s mind to the situation of the Ashrama one is in. There has not been as yet any arrangement for giving ‘training’ on these.

An ideological movement centred at Sylhet had begun in that region. There should not be too much mixing of householders with monks. If one aims at getting honour in society, one should not take to monkhood.

Where can religion be found? Religion rests in one’s hair. See that the Mohammedans, Christians, the saints and sages among the Hindus, all use hair in one form or other. Again the monks here discard their hair. Do you understand the situation? All had been busying themselves with the outer shell leaving out inner life. That is why Thakur came and set up a new ideal.

(To be continued . . . .)

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23

UNESCO has established an official relationship with the Ramakrishna Mission in the areas of inter-cultural dialogue, social cohesion and a culture of peace and non-violence for a period of six years.

Foundation stone for the proposed Centre for Human Excellence and Social Sciences, ‘Viveka Tirtha’, at Rajarhat, New Town, Kolkata, was laid by the Chief Minister of West Bengal. International Diabetes Federation (IDF), Brussels, Belgium, awarded recognition to the Certified Diabetes Educator-India (CDEI) programme at Vrindaban centre for excellence in providing diabetes education to healthcare professionals.

Shillong centre was conferred Youth and Education Award 2014, by ‘Christ School International’ and ‘Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures’ in recognition of the centre’s excellent service in Northeast India. Cleanliness, a hallmark of our tradition, got an impromptu recognition under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of the Government of India and the centres enthusiastically undertook cleanliness drives in their localities.

The four-year-long service programme was run in different parts of the country from 2010 to 2014. A sum of Rs. 93 crore was spent on these central-government-aided service projects.

A new branch centre of Ramakrishna Mission was started at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. ‘Sevavrata’ a new sub-centre of Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama Sargachhi, was started at Bairgachhi village, Dist Murshidabad, West Bengal. Outside India, a new sub-centre of Jessore (Bangladesh) Mission centre was started at Narail, Bangladesh.

In educational field, the following new developments deserve special mention:

(i) Smart Class facilities (computer-aided teaching tools) were introduced in our

schools at Aalo (Arunachal Pradesh), Chennai Mission Ashrama (Tamil

Nadu) and Deoghar (Jharkhand) centres; (ii) Karimganj (Assam) centre started a computer centre;

(iii) Delhi centre trained 1700 teachers of 700 CBSE schools in Delhi NCR, Bhopal, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata in imparting values education to students; (iv) Guwahati centre launched a quarterly journal in Assamese language, entitled Vivek Bltaskar.

In medical field, the following new developments deserve special mention: (i) two modular operation theatres with advanced facilities and a new acupuncture clinic, etc., in Lucknow hospital; (ii) a cardiac care centre which includes a high dependency unit, cath.

Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

Synopsis of the Governing Body Report for 2014-15The 106th Annual General Meeting of the Ramakrishna Mission was held at Belur Math

on Sunday, the 27th December 2015 at 3.30 p.m. Following is the synopsis of the annual report presented at the meeting which was attended by monastic and lay members. The meeting also included presentation of the Report on the Commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

Annual Report


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lab and cardio-thoracic vascular surgery unit etc at Seva Pratishthan, Kolkata; (iii) Vrindaban centre opened a new emergency block; (iv) Delhi centre upgraded the Fundus Fluorescein Angiography (FFA) equipment at its TB clinic.

In rural development field, the following new projects deserve special mention: (i) Ranchi (Morabadi) centre constructed 228 percolation tanks under the IWMP (Integrated Watershed Management Programme), constructed gravity irrigation systems, which do not need any power, at Piprabera, Simrabera, Rupru and Jharna Pani villages of Angara Block; (ii) A water treatment plant with a capacity of 2000 litres per hour was installed by Rajahmundry centre at Rampachodavaram in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh for the local tribal people; (iii) Narainpur centre started various projects to develop 105 hectares of land in 6 villages and 20 Anganwadis helping 600 children.

Under the Math, following new projects deserve special mention: (i) Ma Sarada Voca- tional Training Centre was started at Baghbazar (West Bengal) centre; (ii) A newly constructed homeopathy dispensary was inaugurated at Palai (Kerala) Ashrama; (iii) Ponnampet (Karnataka) centre started a Vocational Training Centre for providing training in

tailoring, handloom, motor vehicle driving, naturopathy assistant; (iv) The renovated Dilaram Bungalow (sanctified by Swamiji’s stay in 1892) at Vadodara (Gujarat) centre was inaugurated.

Outside India, the following new developments deserve special mention: (i) Colombo centre, unveiled a bronze statue of Swamiji at Sri Ponnambala Vaneshwarar temple in Colombo which was visited by Swamiji in 1897; (ii) Sacramento centre celebrated its golden jubilee; (iii) A newly built Universal Meditation Centre at Swami Vivekananda College of Fiji centre was inaugurated.

During the year, the Mission undertook Welfare work by way of providing scholar- ships to poor students, pecuniary help to old, sick and destitute people, etc (about 8.22 lakh beneficiaries); expenditure incurred Rs. 14.74 crore.

Medical service was rendered to more than 81.62 lakh people through 10 hospitals, 74 dispensaries, 44 mobile medical units and 963 medical camps; expenditure incurred Rs. 167.08 crore.

Nearly 3.18 lakh students were studying in our educational institutions from kindergarten to university level, non-formal education centres, night schools, coaching classes, etc. A sum of Rs.267 crore was spent on educational work.

A number of rural and tribal development projects were undertaken with a total expenditure of Rs. 11.74 crore benefiting about 16.96 lakh rural people.

The Mission and Math undertook severa l re l ief and rehabi l i ta t ion programmes in different parts of the country involving an expenditure of Rs. 6.34 crore, benefiting 2.98 lakh people of 1.18 lakh families.

We take this opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks to our members and friends for their kind cooperation and help.


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Swami SuhitanandaGeneral Secretary

A final report of the Central-Govern- ment-grant-aided service projects from 08.10.2010 to 31.10.2014

1. Gadadhar Abhyudaya Prakalpa (Integrated Child Development): Implemented through 174 units in 23 states. About 18,300 children were benefited. A sum of Rs. 25.95 crore was spent.

2. Vivekananda Swasthya Parisheva Prakalpa (Health Services Project for Mothers & Children): About 13,700 mothers and children were benefited through 126 units in 22 states. A sum of Rs. 17.98 crore was spent.

3. Sarada Palli Vikas Prakalpa (Women Self-Empowerment): Implemented at 11 villages in 8 states. In all, 3194 women were benefited. A sum of Rs. 2.04 crore was spent.

4. Swami Akhandananda Seva Pra- kalpa (Poverty Alleviation): Project was implemented through 12 units in 7 states. Altogether 3109 people were benefited. A sum of Rs. 2.01 crore was spent.

5. Special Service Activities (For Professionals and Parents): Altogether 50,863 parents and professionals were benefited in 13 states. A sum of Rs. 99.32 lakh was spent.

6. Print Media Project : In all, 49.55 lakh copies of books were printed, which included short life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda in 24 Indian & 3 Foreign (German, Japanese & Zulu) languages, 75,000 copies on National Leaders of India, The Cultural Heritage of India—1100 sets (8 volumes), The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - 1200 sets (9 volumes), etc. A sum of Rs. 6.16 crore was spent.

7. Special Programmes for the Youth: Youth Counseling Cells in 12 cities - counseled 48,714 youths; Organized 3 National Level, 6 Regional Level and 18 State Level Youth Conventions / Camps—total participants: 88,600; Held competitions in essay-writing, quiz, etc.,: 1 National Level, 4 Regional Level and 13 State Level (total 4,57,304 participants); Conducted Sustained Graded Value Education Programmes through (a) 397 units (Non-formal type) in 14 states with 17,904 students of 246 institutions; and (b) 2,692 units (Classroom-based) in 18 states with 1,23,165 students of 774 schools. A sum of Rs. 28.74 crore was spent.

8. Electronic Media Project: Two docu- mentaries—‘Women of India’ & ‘A Poet, a Man, a Monk’, an e-book on Personality Development, a multimedia presentation on Education, all based on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. A documentary Rising India on the activities for the disadvantaged; 26-episode Vivekananda Answers, an interactive programme for the youth, aired on Doordarshan. A sum of Rs. 2.87 crores was spent.

9. Cultural Programmes Project: Organi- zed 2 International, 1 National, 3 Regi- onal-Level, 10 State-Level Seminars & 5 Regi- onal-Level Conferences on ‘Relevance of Swami Vivekananda in meeting the challenges in the 21st century’, ‘Religious Harmony’ and ‘Unity in Diversity’, etc. 19 Classical Music programmes. A sum of Rs. 5.34 crores was spent.

In all, a sum of Rs. 93 crore was spent on the above projects.

Commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda

‘The Great Mine of Strength’In his lecture, ‘Vedanta and Indian Life’,

Swami Vivekananda remarked:

The Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world; the whole world can be vivified, made strong, energized through them. They will call with trumpet voice to the weak, the miserable and the downtrodden of all races, all creeds and all sects, to stand on their feet and be free. Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads.1

And in his lecture, ‘The Mission of the Vedanta’, he said:

Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.2

Swamiji looked upon Vedanta as a great source of inspiration. The Vedantic doctrines of Atman points out that the human spirit is in reality identical with the Supreme Being. Atman is one and universal. The primary message of Vedanta, according to Swamiji, is the proclamation of man’s true nature as the birthless, deathless Spirit, ever free, perfect and ever pure. The human being is not really the weak and groveling creature that he seems to be—a creature who is at the mercy of hundred

Vedanta and Swami VivekanandaSWAMI TATHAGATANANDA

forces of nature and a slave to irresistible passions. The consciousness of bondage, of weakness and of impurity is present in us,

because we have forgotten our identity, and the moment we assert our divinity again, the inalienable nature of ours, which no amount of self-hypnosis can really change, it will manifest itself. The world of matter which appears so

Article

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


Swami Vivekananda

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vast and so overpowering is only a misreading of the nature of the Supreme Atman.

The next important teachings of Vedanta that caught the imagination of Swamiji were those about abhaya (fearlessness), shraddha (faith and reverence) and tyaga (renunciation).

Vedanta View of LifeVedanta does not preach a static view

of life. It is a perennial source of strength and creativity. Its theme is the freedom of the human spirit. It underlines the infinite dimensions of the human personality. It explains every great movement, social, political or religious—nay, the entire gamut of life itself as an expression of the urge for freedom that is inherent in man. The Atman is the basis of our consciousness, our happiness, even of our very existence. One man differs from another in body, colour, race or mental attitudes, but not in this essential truth of his being, his self. This is the real point behind universal religion and the brotherhood of man. The discovery of this truth is indeed of momentous importance.

Sister Nivedita has aptly described Swamiji as ‘the worker at foundations’. He is the only man who has utilized the life-giving message of Vedanta for the regeneration of India and for the establishment of Universal Religion. The base of his mission is a spiritual non-dualism and any eclectic, exotic, superficial, pseudo-universal religious propaganda indulged in by modern intellectuals have no insight into the spiritual unity of man. Vivekananda saw to it that Vedanta no longer remained confined to the forest and given over to scholastic speculation, but was made the property of the masses for lifting them up in the spiritual scale, as well as for sustaining them in the struggle of life. The concept of Atman has not been applied

previously for the elevation of the collective life of the people and for providing a solid basis for all-round prosperity.

In the light of the gospel of Neo-Vedanta, there is ‘no distinction henceforth between sacred and secular. To labour is to pray. To conquer is to renounce. Life is itself religion. To have and to hold is as stern a trust as to quit and avoid.’3 Taking his stand on this set principle, the great Swami deduced a series of consequences bearing vitally on the entirety of life, thought and activity.

The situation that faced Swamiji in his time was a very complex and baffling one. India was groaning under the heels of the foreign conqueror. It was no longer isolated and was exposed to the influence of the Christian missions, English education, Western culture, and materialism augmented by science and technology. Hence the Indian renaissance that began with the advent of Rammohan Roy was not confined to religion. People were interested in many things—politics, social reform, science and materialism. Religion itself was caste-ridden; rituals and superstition were choking it. Atheism was rampant; poverty, stagnation and exploitation were the order of the day. What was needed was all-round reconstruction at a rapid pace.

The modern age was different from the age of religious revolution of the Upanishadic era and the times of expansion and consolidation of the message of Gita. In Swamiji’s view, man had too long been obsessed with the idea of sin and weakness. It was high time for man to wake up to the consciousness of his own divine nature which was his birthright. This alone was rightly considered to be a panacea for all maladies of stagnant and moribund life. Self-knowledge alone could foster love and mutual understanding between man and man.


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It alone would summon men and women everywhere to the mighty adventure of freedom and fearlessness, sympathy and service, and to the spiritual realization of inner unity, and thus help the solving of the formidable problems of life. An overemphasis of the jnana attitude was a historical necessity—for counteracting the pernicious and debasing effects of the feeling of unworthiness of man, which feeling was engendered by slavery. The Swami said, ‘Strength is the medicine of the world’s disease.’4 To him, spirituality was strength and strength was the test of true realization. Vedanta in his hands became a gospel of intense activity and connoted the widest expansion of the spirit. It became a great force for the moral regeneration of an India that was haunted by the spectre of fatalism, defeat and decay. Again and again the Swami reminded his countrymen of their glorious spiritual heritage and stressed the special role his generation had to play in the evolution of modern renascent India. The reconstruction of India had to be based, he said, on the bedrock of her spiritual resources, on the Upanishads, which were an inexhaustible mine of infinite strength. He taught that without faith in the Atman—ever free, pure, immortal, self-luminous, as the Upanishads describe it, men could not be strong and invincible.

That period in India’s history in which Swamiji lived and worked was characterized, in part, by the search of ideologies. Swamiji presented Vedanta as a fearless philosophy of life which helped man to frame ideas for himself ‘with the intensity of the fanatic and the extensity of the materialist’. In Swamiji, Hinduism got a fresh lease on life and vigour. He infused Hinduism with the ideal of complete self-dedication to the service of humanity. He encouraged the study of

new knowledge for the improvement of the secular life of people. He also made Hinduism dynamic by enkindling in it the zeal for dissemination of the gospel of universal truths for the welfare of the humanity at large.

Swamiji emphasized a twofold application of Vedanta in practical life:

(1) arousing man’s faith in himself, and (2) serving brother-men in the spirit of

serving God. A distinctive character of Swamiji’s

message was its comprehensiveness. His message was meant for all grades of life. In conformity with the Vedic teachings, he recognized a twofold way—the pravritti marga and the nivritti marga. He declared,

Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest ideal, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the truth.

An outstanding discovery of the Swami has to be mentioned here. His historical knowledge and insight unveiled to him the supreme fact that spirituality was the very lifeblood of India and that her regeneration had to be worked up on a spiritual basis. Underlying all diversities of sects, castes, doctrines, rites, customs, etc., there was a spiritual unity in Indian life which his extraordinary genius clearly saw. No extraneous forces could, he knew, help the growth of a nation as much as the slow-moving yet formative forces of its own national life could. The life force of India, he saw, was religion and religion alone. He said,

In India, religious life forms the centre, the keynote of the whole music of national life, and if any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality, the direction which has become its own through the transmission of centuries—that nation dies, if it succeeds in the attempt.


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Swamiji not only preached this ideal, but he went a step further and warned the country that India’s special gift to the world throughout the ages had been the profound truths of spiritual life and that on her regeneration depended the regeneration of the world.

Spirit of Tyaga—the Basis of VedantaThe spirit of Vedanta, asserted Swamiji,

was through and through permeated by the idea of renunciation. The alpha and omega in India was renunciation. Give up, says the Veda, give up. Na karmana, na prajaya dhanena, tyagenaike amritattvam anasuh (‘neither through karma, nor through progeny, nor through wealth, but only through renunciation have some attained immortality’). So he emphasized the twin ideals of our culture—renunciation and service.

It was Swamiji’s philosophy of mobility and vitality based on the message of the Aitareya Brahmana—charaiveti—‘move on’, which gave a tremendous inspiration to the new forces operating in modern India. Said he, ‘My hope is to see again the strong points of India, reinforced by the strong points of this age, only in a natural way. The new state of things must be a growth from within.’ Swamiji’s all-encompassing vision took in its ken those who aspired after temporal values as well as those who sought spiritual bliss. He said,

With us the prominent idea is mukti—there was a time in India when dharma was compatible with mukti. There were worshippers of dharma such as Yudhishtira, Arjuna, Bhisma and Karna, side by side with the aspirants of mukti such as Vyasa, Suka, Janaka. On the advent of Buddhism, dharma was entirely neglected and the path of moksha alone became predominant. The central fact is that the fall of our country, of which we

hear so much spoken, is due to the utter want of this dharma. Without enjoyment, renunciation can never come.

A New Order of Monasticism Hence, Swamiji deviated from the

traditional way, by not imparting the cardinal Vedic teaching of the divinity of the soul exclusively to the seekers of spiritual knowledge. He democratized it and proclaimed its message to one and all, to the spiritual seekers as well as to the materialists. He recommended its application not only for spiritual development but also for material and intellectual development. He said, ‘This infinite power of the spirit brought to bear upon matter evolves material development; made to act upon thoughts, evolves intellectually and made to act upon itself, makes man a God. Manifest the divinity within and everything will be harmoniously arranged around it.’

He also enjoined on the monks of Ramakrishna Order a twofold duty: While striving for his own liberation the seeker should work for the good of the world as well. And here lay the originality of the Swamiji. He, with his Guru, Shri Ramakrishna, for the first time in the history of Indian philosophy, combined the monistic Vedanta theory of the oneness of Brahman with the monotheistic Vedanta practice of universal love and service. Vedic seers, Jains, Buddhists, Monotheistic Vedantists a n d m a n y o t h e r s preached and practiced the ideal of service to humanity. But none before had preached the ideal of service to


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man as God Himself. In fact, in the whole history of mankind, as has been well stated, none has proclaimed the glory and grandeur of man—his absolute divinity, infinite greatness, and immeasurable dignity in such a vehement manner as Swamiji.

He elevated and sublimated the em- pirical to the transcendental, instead of denying the former.

The Vedanta does not in reality denounce the world—it really means deification of the world—giving up the world as we think of it, as we know it, as it appears to us and to know what it really is. . . You can have your wife but you are to see God in the wife. In life and in death, in happiness and in misery, the Lord is equally present. The whole world is full of the Lord. Open your eyes and see Him. This is what Vedanta teaches.5

And, this may be taken as one of the best commentaries on the Vedanta. He emphasized equally the twin aspects of Supreme Godhead—the transcendental and the immanent. Swamiji pointed out that the Vedanta, in all its forms, is intensely practical. Two celebrated mantras—sarvam khaluvidam Brahma (The world is Brahman)6, and ayamatma Brahma (The soul is Brahman)7, give the most comprehensive view of the state of things in the universe. Swamiji had to deal with the active, busy, complex life of intellectual triumph and material achievement—a life which demanded the spiritualizing principle of karma. Idleness in the garb of contemplation was no longer to be tolerated. He had to rouse all to action. In fact, he presented karma yoga to people, with a broad and elevated outlook, without denying the bliss and glory of the real meditative life.

The Ideal of ServiceIn his view, all domestic, social, and

humanitarian deeds could be performed in

the spirit of service to God. His message was the logical conclusion of the teachings of the Vedanta, the Gita and the Bhagavatam. Truly speaking, it was not at all a new message. But its practical application in every department of life had not been tried before. Such a course had been recommended by Shri Ramakrishna himself. ‘No, not kindness to living beings, but service to God dwelling in them’, said he. He further said, ‘If God can be worshiped through a clay image, then why not through a man?’ It was to the singular credit and eternal glory of Swamiji that he exhorted us to practise this teaching in the modern age for the welfare of the suffering humanity. He blended the ethical and spiritual ideals beautifully. His message was for men of realization, too. Serving man even after attaining the Supreme Bliss had to be regarded as a very high state—a state of super-knowledge and super-devotion.

Shri Ramakrishna and his disciples have emphasized the ideal of living in the world as a free soul for the well-being of the humanity. This is the vijnani stage of evolution. Swamiji linked Vedanta and Buddhism. His view was that one was incomplete without the other. Swamiji felt the need of all the three systems of philosophy—Dvaita, Advaita and Vishishthadvaita. He brought out their inner glory, inherent beauty, and infinite wealth through his message and synthesized in a simple, straightforward and charming manner. In his view, the oneness of Advaita had to be reached through Dvaita and Vishishthadvaita, as the three were not contradictory, but complementary.

This synthesis of Dualism, Qualified Monism and Monism was the work of the mastermind of Swamiji. It was indeed a marvelous ‘discovery’. The Advaita, as propounded and practiced by Swamiji, was therefore marked by a wonderful


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spirit of acceptance of diversity. Thus the originality of Swamiji lies in that, though a staunch Advaitin, he recognized the supreme importance and absolute necessity of feelings in one’s spiritual life. ‘It is feeling that is life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.’ This feeling or love is the logical and living outcome of his realization of the basic and infinite unity of creation. Love and knowledge are by no means opposed, but are rather complementary—like the hard stem and the soft petal of a flower.

The hiatus between the ideal and the practical has been beautifully bridged by his emphasis on the practice of Vedanta in life. Swamiji has thus carved a place for himself as modern apostle of Advaita, of cosmic unity. His words have become the modern hymn of Advaita: ‘I see God in all that exists. I see him as completely in the least fragment as in the whole cosmos. . . .’

Head and Heart CombinationSwamiji indeed had ‘the head of

Shankara and the heart of Chaitanya, the eyes of a Monist and the hands of a Monotheist,

the tenacity of a scholar and the tenderness of a lover, the devotion of a Theist and the spirit of service of a Humanist.’ We may call his interpretation of the Vedanta doctrine by a new name, manava advaitavada or ‘Humanistic Monism’. For whoever sang manava-mahatmya, or the glory of man, in sweeter tunes than he? Swamiji said,

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. Bold, brave beyond the conception of the present day stand the giant minds of the sages of the Upanishads, declaring the noblest truths that have ever been preached to humanity, without any compromise, without any fear. This, my countrymen, I want to lay before you. . . . go back to your Upanishads, the shining, the strengthening, the bright philosophy, and part from all these mysterious things, all these weakening things. Take up this philosophy; the greatest truths are the simplest things in the world, simple as your existence. The truths of the Upanishads are before you. Take them up, live up to them, and the salvation of India will be at hand.8

Such were the ringing words of Swamiji.

1. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, Vol. III, p. 238

2. Ibid., Vol. III, p. 1933. Ibid., Vol. I, p. xv

4. Ibid., Vol. II, p. 2015. Ibid., Vol. II, p. 1466. Chandogya Upanishad, 3.14.17. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, 4.4.58. The Complete Works, Vol. III, p. 225

References


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Why weepest thou, brother? There is neither death nor disease for thee. Why weepest thou, brother? There is neither misery nor misfortune for thee.Why weepest thou, brother? Neither change nor death was predicated of thee. Thou art Existence Absolute.... Be your own Self.



Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda1

New Find

Math. Belur. Howrah.India. April 30, 08.

My dear Granny2–I am sure you will be sorry to get my last letter but those are my

present feelings.Kindly tell Nivedita that I will try to answer her questions next

mail as I will have to consult some books for them. I hope she is well. When do you think she will come back to us? How is her mother? I hear that she was ill.

How is Dr.Bose? We are indeed sorry & anxious to hear that he was ill. I hope he is quite himself again.

Will you not come to India with Nivedita & Dr.Bose? It will be so good if you can. I hope you have fully recovered from the effects of Influenza.

How are the lectures of Abhedada received in London. May I trouble you to send the enclosed letter to Swami Abhedananda, as I do not know his London address or the address of the Society?

Sister Christine has gone to Mayabati for the summer. We have not had any of those beautiful April showers & thunderstorms as yet & it is hot.

Famine is almost all over Northern India! Our Relief works have been opened this year in April by the side of the Chilka Lake.

So many known to us have died this year of plague & Cholera & other diseases. Cholera & Typhoid are still raging in Calcutta.

Poor India! I do not know how she will be saved from these fell diseases & especially from famine which has now become a regular annual occurrence!

With my love to you dear Granny in which Jogin Maa has desired to join hers and prayers to Sri RK as ever

Yours affeclySaradananda

Math. Belur. Howrah.India. Oct.7.09.

My dear Grannie,I have not had the pleasure of hearing from you, since your return from Norway. I hope

this does not mean illness.I have mailed you about ten days ago 3 photographic pictures of the Math and the grounds.

I hope these will reach you in good condition. Kindly give one to Santi and one to Agnes, with

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1. A direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna 2. Mrs. Sara Bull, an American disciple of Swami Vivekananda

Courtesy: Ramakrishna Museum, Belur Math

my best wishes and blessings. I am sorry I have been as negligent in my correspondence with them as ever and I believe I am too old now to correct this bad habit with such increasing amount of work every year on me. And if my friends in America do not realize for this, that I cherish the same warm feelings towards them as ever, I am sure I will be much misunderstood—but there is no help. I will send you more photos of the Math if you write me for them.

I am well—only my eyes are getting weaker daily though I do not work at night, since the doctors told me so.

Nivedita is well and in Calcutta. She intends going to Darjeeling for a few weeks soon. We are publishing her book on “The Master as I saw him.” The book will be out by December next.

Sister Christine is in Darjeeling with the Boses. I do not know when she will be returning. You know perhaps she is in charge of a daughter of the late Mrs. Asu Bose, who is suffering from Pthisis seriously. The school is being conducted by the Hindu Ladies, whom the sisters have trained by this time.

The Holy Mother is in Calcutta now and putting up in the little house, which we have built at Baghbazar recently and of which I spoke to you in one of my former letters. The house is a tidy one but has too little accommodation, considering Her large family of children.

Sister Nivedita & myself have found out by talking to Her that She (the Holy Mother) would like to see a convent erected in the fashion of the Math, Belur for the women. Miss Glenn who was here to visit the Holy Mother, and who paused here in the name of Sister Devamata (most possibly offered to her by Swami Ramakrishnananda), had also a talk with the Holy Mother about it and is very sanguine about the work. She has promised to help raising funds as far as she can. She is now on her way to New York.

Now if such a women’s convent is ever to be it must have a house or wing for western ladies and a house or wing for Indian ladies of various provinces, besides a room or two for the Holy Mother Herself and outhouses, cowsheds & grounds etc. Then alone will it be such as Swamiji had planned for bringing the East & West together. I write you all this so that you might lay it on your head & see how far it might be made practicable regarding funds. I must consult Swami Brahmananda as soon as he comes from Puri, before settling definitely on some such plan.

I am giving Sister Christine her monthly allowance of Rs 25/-. The amount that you sent will last till December next. So kindly send another cheque by that time if it does not inconvenience you in any way.

I hope Olea is well & the adopted girl prospering. Remember me kindly to her & to all who care for me yet.

We are all so sorry to hear of Mr.Leggett’s death.With my love & blessings to my grannie

The affectionate boySaradananda

References

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From A Journalist to a Vaishanava MonkSurendranath Mukherjee (or Mukherji)

the man later known as Baba Premananda Bharati(1858-1914) was born into an orthodox family in Dhaka in January 1858. After attending the University of Calcutta, Surendranath became a journalist, writer and editorial staff member of the Lahore Tribune and the Punjab Times. He then traveled to Calcutta and founded his own newspaper, the Gup and Gossip. The following statement by Professor Gerald T. Carney the leading authority on Baba Bharati in the West describes his personality aptly. Carney received this information from a Bengali source:

In Calcutta Mukherjee [or Mukher j i ] formed part of the cadre of young Bengali intellectuals who gathered around Rama- krishna, a group that included the playwright Girish Chandra Ghosh, Narendra Datta (later, Swami Vivekananda), and Amritlal Roy. In this company he attended a performance of the Chaitanya Lila, staged by Girish Chandra Ghosh at Calcutta’s Star Theater from August 1884. This experience brought about the religious conversion of the young journalist. No exact date is given for this conversion experience.1

It must be cautioned that this statement must be considered to be tentative until further

Baba Premananda Bharati and the Vedanta Society

GOPAL STAVIG

evidence comes forth. According to The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna attended the Chaitanya Lila at the Star Theatre on Sunday, September 21, 1884. ‘He was accompanied by

M. Baburam, Mahendra [Mukherji], and two or three others.’2

What has been verified is Bharati’s wonderful conversion experience discovered by professor Carney in an old newspaper. It is to the credit of Girish Ghosh that this life transforming event occurred when Bharati was viewing one of his powerful devotional plays.

For over 50 years the author has been a member of Vedanta Society of Southern California, USA. He is the author of the book Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples, edited and published by Advaita Ashrama Kolkata, and has contributed thoughtful articles to various religious and philosophical journals including The Vedanta Kesari.

Article

Baba Premananda Bharati


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In Bharati’s own words from the New York Herald of November 23, 1902:

But just at this time my religious instinct started to assert itself, and very soon it overcame my passion for journalism. I was witnessing a performance of ‘Chaitanya Lila’ at the Star Theatre. Chaitanya was an incarnation of Krishna, the Form Manifestation of the Hindoo’s absolute deity . . . This indescribable, wondrous scene made a profound impression upon me. I had at last found my religion of love so hazily understood in boyhood, and resolved to give my life to it. With this awakening all attraction for things material left me, and in the depth of my heart flowed a stream of nectar which every moment thrilled through my being. ‘Krishna, my beloved!’ I exclaimed to myself, ‘I am thine forever. Thou art the mystery of love, the universe is its expression, and Chaitanya their most merciful explanation. Merciful, O Lord, because thou art thy Chaitanya thyself, thou comest again as thy own devotee to teach us the way to thee.’3

As a result of this experience, Baba Bharati became a Vaishnava sannyasin in 1890, being a disciple of Srimad Brahmananda Bharati and a devotee of a young Prabhu Jagadbandhu (1871-1921). He tells us,

I then proceeded to the holy land of Brindaban, about a thousand miles from there, on foot. It took me about two months . . . After preaching and singing the praises of Krishna and Chaitanya for ten years I retired to live for good in Radhakund in the forests of Brindaban . . . They were the holiest men I have ever seen.

Towards AmericaHis brother wrote that Baba Bharati

‘got a command from Sree Chaitanya in a dream to proceed to America to help Swami Abhayananda in her mission to spread Vaishnavism in the world.’ Abhayananda was the former Marie Louise, a devotee of Swami

Vivekananda who was then preaching in Chicago.4

After traveling to Suez, Paris and London, on October 15, 1902, Bharati arrived in New York City and soon became a popular spokesman for Indian religion in the West. Bharati greatly benefited from Vivekananda’s success in the West and he was aided in his mission by a number of devotees of Swamiji. His biographer Carney wrote, ‘There are reports that Baba Bharati had met with Swami Vivekananda in India, and may have received the names of some contacts [in the West] from him.’

The New York Herald of November 23, 1902 described him this way. ‘As Baba [Bharati] speaks and writes English with skill and frequency, he has great advantages over many Hindoos visiting this country. His personality is pleasing, fascinating and picturesque. He is a handsome man, tall, statuesque, dignified, with dark, sparkling eyes.’ The following day an article from the New York Times mentioned that Swami Abhedananda and Baba Bharati were among 200 hundred guests who attended the recep- tion of Countess Zampini Salazar in New York City.

A six-column feature article followed in the New York Herald of February 23, 1903 subtitled ‘Growing Interest Among New York Christians in the Philosophy Taught by Two Indian Priests.’ It deals entirely with Baba Bharati and Swami Abhedananda with their photographs included, but does not mention if they made contact with one another. Bharati is pictured with his most important disciple Rose Reinhardt Anthon (d. 1951). Eight years previously, on the last day of February 1895, Miss Anthon sang a song at a gathering held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Amzi Barber. On that occasion Swami Vivekananda lectured


References

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on ‘The Vedanta Philosophy: Soul.’ Three of Bharati’s sponsors were the Episcopal Reverend R. Heber Newton (1840-1914) a great admirer of Swami Abhedananda; Charles Lanman (1850-1941) of Harvard University who aided in producing Vivekananda’s book The Vedanta Philosophy, and as a friend of Abhedananda was an honorary member of his Vedanta Society in New York; and Dr. Felix Adler (1851-1933) founder of the Ethical Cultural Society previously visited years earlier by Swami Saradananda who was scheduled to speak there. Adler and Vivekananda were two of three guest speakers at the Convention of the Free Religious Society held on August 13, 1894.5 Ella Wheeler Wilcox the famous poet and a great admirer of Swami Vivekananda attended the classes of Baba Bharati in New York City. Concerning his book on Sree Krishna (1904) she wrote, ‘It is most interesting. I find it most clearly and simply told... It broadens and interests, and so I enjoy your most exhaustive work on Creation.’ In 1910 or 1911 she published a short article in Bharati’s journal praising Swami Vivekananda.6

At Greenacre Summer Conferences At Greenacre owned by Sarah Farmer

(1847-1916), Bharati shared the stage with Swami Rama Tirtha (1873-1906) during July and August 1904. Miss Farmer had invited Vivekananda whom she greatly admired to the Greenacre Summer Conferences ten years previously. Swami Rama Tirtha, a former University professor at Lahore, in 1897 was motivated by Swami Vivekananda to renounce the world and become a monastic. The director of the Monsalvat School for the Comparative Study of Religion at Greenacre who selected the speakers at that time was Myron Phelps (1856-1916). He had invited Vivekananda to his home in New York City on more than one occasion conversing on the subject of education in India. These conversations brought about a radical change in Mr. Phelps who renounced his successful career as a lawyer and devoted his life to the betterment of India where he passed away in 1916. From October 1904 until June 1905, Bharati engaged in a series of lectures in the city of Boston.7

(To be Continued . . . )

1. Bharati, Baba, Sri Krishna: The Lord of Love, ed. Neal Delmonico (Kirksville, MO: Blazing Sapphire, 2007), pp. xxviii, p. 332. The biography is this book was written by Professor of Religion, Gerald T. Carney of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. Gerald Carney, ‘Baba Premananda Bharati (1857-1914), an Early Twentieth-Century Encounter of Vaishnava Devotion with American Culture,’ Journal of Vaishnava Studies (Spring 1998), pp. 161-88.

2. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, pp. 550-51.3. New York Herald (Nov. 23, 1902) found in Bharati

(2007), pp. xxix, 332-33. 4. Bharati (2007), pp. xxx-xxxii, 334-36; New York

Herald (Nov. 23, 1902).5. Bharati (2007), pp. xxxiv-xlii, 330-31, 339; New

York Times (March 1, 1895), p. 8; (Nov. 24, 1902); Gopal Stavig, Western Admirers of Ramakrishna and His Disciples, ed. Swami Shuddhidananda (Advaita Ashrama, 2010), pp. 397, 432, 456-57, 679, 817; Marie Louise Burke, Swami Vivekananda in the West (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1987), II, pp. 161-62.

6. Bharati (2007), pp. lxxv; Los Angeles Times (May 13, 1906), p. VI18; Prabuddha Bharata (Feb-March 1911), p. 58.

7. Bharati (2007), pp. xlii-vii; Stavig (2010), pp. 333, 361.

The Contemporary SceneOver the past few decades since the

Second World War, there has been a deep concern over the environment destruction. For every creature to live happily and co-exist, not merely human beings, balance has to be maintained between nature and us. There has been no problem with the animals and birds as they do not know what destruction is. They live perfectly in tune with nature. It is instinctive and inherent. The problem is with man. He is the prime cause for disturbing the balance in nature caused by his own selfish motives. As a result there has been an incredible change in climate as well as in the survival of several creatures.

In the beginning, until the advent of Industrial Revolution in Europe man was maintaining balance with nature. Man was in harmony with nature. Only after the advent of technology, man has increasingly become self-centered, selfish and greedy. Natural resources have been systematically exploited to meet and satisfy man’s greed and ambition. With the result, he has lost balance with nature. Therefore the need of the hour is restoring this balance between man and nature.

Ecology, to put it simple, is a study of nexus between man and nature. It emphasizes that all life is interconnected. How we live, how and what we eat, how and where we

Theory and Practice of Eco-YogaThoughts on How Yoga Can Help Remedy Environmental Issues

K.V.RAGHUPATHI

work, how we talk and behave, how we maintain relationship and even how we study and interact are interrelated activities. Our earth is a beautiful planet where we have to live with all creatures in a harmonious way without taking away the life by reckless killing and indiscriminate destruction. This earth does not belong to any particular human being/s or creature/s. It belongs to all. Everyone including tiny ants have a place in it. As Walter Rojas Perez, a Latin American advocate-critic of environment, says, ‘our home planet is our “Spaceship Earth”, a place where none are conquerors but all crew members’ (Bressler, 231).

Unfortunately, this most beautiful planet is being exploited indiscriminately by killing and eliminating flora and fauna. Before the advent of human civilization, man was a hunter. He was surviving only on killing animals and birds. As the civilization began expanding more and more, as man became increasingly conscious of himself, he has increasingly become greedy. With the advent of Industrial Revolution coupled with numerous scientific discoveries and inventions, man instead of making himself more sensible and sensitive to the environment became the potential cause for damaging ecological balance. He became more ruthless, greedy, lustful and self-centered. As these evil

Article

Dr. K.V. Raghupathi is Senior Assistant Professor in English, Central University of Tamil Nadu. Thiruvarur, Tamil Nadu. He has a number of articles and books to his credit.


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thoughts, feelings and emotions enveloped him leading to destruction all around and further plunged the earth into a deep crisis by emptying the resources and dwindling the rare species, there arose a desperate cry and need for preserving the balance on this planet as well as life.

These environmental concerns and studies have not been confined only to Life Sciences but have become chief concerns of several social science disciplines such as Sociology, Anthropology, Economics and Political Science. In Literary world these environmental studies have been dubbed with a variety of names: green studies, green cultural studies, green criticism, Eco poetics, literary ecology, environmental literary criticism, and perhaps, the most popular name, eco-criticism.

Nature Writings and Eco-criticism What is Eco-criticism? Eco-criticism is

the latest emerging field in literary studies that directly relates who we are as human beings to the environment. This has been developed in the west in late 1980s. The practitioners of eco-criticism emphasize place, nature and the physical world attesting to the interconnectedness between humans, their culture and nature. Perhaps the most succinct and best definition of Eco-criticism has been found in the book The Eco-criticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology (1995) jointly edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm:

Simply put, Eco-criticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. Just as Feminist Criticism examines language and literature from a gender conscious perspective and Marxist criticism brings an awareness of modes of production and economic class to its reading of texts, Eco-criticism takes

an earth centered approach to literary studies.(Bressler, 231-2).

Eco-criticism has now become a legiti- mate field of study in literary criticism with its canonical status dating from 1993. The term ‘Eco-criticism’ was first coined by William H. Ruckert in his article, ‘Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Eco-criticism’ (1978).

Writing about nature is not a recent phenomenon. It is found in all continental literatures in all traditions and cultures. These writings called ‘nature literature’ are as old as world literature itself. When we talk about such writings we are immediately struck by writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson whose essay on ‘Nature’ has been considered a treatise on nature, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott who are popularly known as ‘American Transcendentalists’ and the English Romantic poets such as William Wordsworth, John Keats, P.B. Shelley, S.T. Coleridge, Robert Southey and William Blake. These writers, most of them were poets, have celebrated beauty in nature; and some like Emerson and Wordsworth have said that one can derive immense spiritual and moral discipline from her, and recognized the Supreme Principle / Power in her. Long before these writers, the Greeks and Romans authored texts that contained pastoral scenes that highlight setting and the natural world.

Lawrence Buell in The Future of Environ- mental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination (2005) identified two waves in the field of eco-criticism. The first wave (from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s), according to him, is the somewhat older environmental criticism of the twentieth century that reread and examined ‘nature writing’ of the nineteenth century. This divides itself on geographical grounds: American


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and British. The American authors of mid-nineteenth century such as Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), editor of the literary mouth piece for the American Transcendentalists, The Dial, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau set the standard for nature writing. They have highlighted their chief concerns on place, setting, nature, earth and the elemental forces embodied in nature itself. Simultaneously in Great Britain the first wave scholars focused their attention on the Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Blake, Coleridge and Southey who centered their writings on nature by celebrating her beauty.

Second wave of criticism, on the other hand, examines more current works such a Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), which focuses directly more on current environmental concerns. These critics, chiefly Richard Kerridge, have been active in the environmental justice movement. Proponents of this movement have highlighted questions of gender, class, race and colonialism, challenging the first wave eco critics who seem more interested in preserving ‘wild’ and untamed nature than protecting the environment.

The emergence of this second wave can be dated from the mid-1980s in America and the early 1990s in Great Britain. A pivotal year for Eco-criticism is 1992. It was in this year the Association of Literature and the Environment (ASLC) was formed along with its official academic journal Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE) first published in 1993. Since then the leading eco critics have contributed significantly to eco critical theory and practice.

These critics have focused on a set of questions to be raised by the readers while reading such a text where nature has been depicted: What do we mean by ‘nature’ both in a given text and in our world? How nature is portrayed in a text? How are the characters in a text portrayed in relationship with nature? How do the characters interact with nature? How does nature interact with the characters? How does the text demonstrate how the microcosm (humanity) affects the macrocosm (nature) and how the macrocosm affects the microcosm? How does the actual physical setting of the text affect the texts’ plot? How are race, class and gender illustrated in the text, and how are they related to nature or the land? What particular historical period is depicted in the text? How is this historical period related to issues of nature or the land? Is the text challenging its readers to environmental action and promoting changes in how we treat nature? Other classes? Races? Gender?

Integral to the second wave of Eco-criticism was the ‘Deep Ecology Movement’. In 1973, Norwegian philosopher Arne Naes published the summary of a lecture at the third World Future Research Conference (Bucharest, September 1972). In it he articulated the distinction between hallow and deep approaches to environmentalism.


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He characterized the latter by seven principles (Naes, 3-6):

(1) Rejection of the human-in-environment image in favour of the relational, total field image.

(2) Bio spherical egalitarianism—Ecological egalitarianism implies the equal right to live and blossom. Its restriction to human is an anthropocentrism which is detrimental to human themselves.

(3) Principles of diversity and symbiosis. Diversity enhances the potentialities of survival. It implies respect for all creatures. ‘Live and let live’ is a more powerful ecological principle than ‘Either you or me’.

(4) Anti-class posture. This principle favours classless society. It is against the exploiter class. Both the exploiter and the exploited get adversely affected.

(5) Fight against pollution and resource depletion.

(6) Complexity, not complication. This principle favours division of labour, not fragmentation of labour. It favours integrated actions in which the whole person is active, not mere reactions.

(7) Local autonomy and decentralization. This principle lends support to strengthen local self-government, material and mental self-sufficiency.

Inadequacy of This ApproachInterestingly, the eco-criticism, ecological

studies or environmental studies or green studies have been developed in the west in academic institutions. In other words these are purely intellectual in character. Over forty to fifty years numerous conferences and seminars have been organized all over the world and numerous articles have been published in hundreds of academic journals. Numerous theories have been formulated and

terms have been coined. All this knowledge is exploding with no boundaries. But all these have served the academicians’ interest to score a point in academic promotions. Only a fraction of this profusion of knowledge finds its way into our brains, and only a small proportion of that fraction is truly assimilated by us. Indeed this knowledge explosion is one of the problems we are facing. Like any explosion it leaves us with fragments. Even specialists are no longer able to keep abreast of the developments in their own discipline. They know less and less about more and more. The lay public is even less able to keep up with, or make sense of, academic knowledge. The alarming truth is that we have no firm grasp on all the information produced by academic institutions. Our so called Information Age is rich in data but sadly lacking in understanding.

These numerous academic publications and conferences have neither stopped systematic destruction of environment nor brought any significant transformation in human consciousness. On the other hand, university libraries are stuffed with such academic writings. The same proponents have recklessly indulged in wasteful expenditure, negligence and superfluous wastage, indifference to environmental destruction and pollution. For instance, in such seminars, workshops and conferences so much food is wasted, when millions in the world are starving, water bottles are left half empty and unused water is thrown, when we in India are fighting among ourselves over sharing of water, reckless use of water and so on. The less said about the social functions the better. The ecological imbalance triggered by our unwise way of life affects not only one region or continent but every living organism on earth. A global ecological catastrophe could


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C.F.von Weizsacker, Robert Oppenheimer, David Bohn and others.

The Role of Yoga It is here that Yoga has much to teach

us. How does Yoga help here to maintain and achieve this balance between man and nature? Let us examine the role of Yoga—how Yoga can create an awareness, how Yoga can restore the lost balance with nature, how Yoga can create and establish peace and happiness for all, how Yoga can conserve environment, how Yoga can stop the destruction, how Yoga can teach and preach principles that can be put into practice, and if done so, how it can restore peace and harmony.

Yoga has several meanings. ‘Union’, ‘Equanimity’ and ‘balance’ are the inherent meanings of Yoga. Indeed, Yoga is defined as balance. The Sanskrit word for it is ‘samata’. In the Bhagvadgita Yoga is defined as ‘samatvam’ (II.48). ‘Samatvam’ need not be understood only in metaphysical sense. In fact, to achieve ‘samatvam’ at metaphysical level, one has to make it at the individual level. If one achieves an inward balance, automatically he will have balance and harmony with nature. Once this happens, he will have perfect union with the entire creation/cosmos. In Yoga ‘balance’ has to be first achieved at individual level. Once this is established this in turn automatically leads to balance in nature.

Who has to achieve this ‘balance’? It is not dog or any animal or bird. It is man who has to do this. This task of maintaining balance is for man in order to lead a happy life. It is man who has to maintain and preserve this balance because the problem is with the man as he is the sole destroyer of nature/environment. If man doesn’t do this, this planet shall perish.

(To be continued. . .)

bring modern civilization perilously close to extinction.

One thing clear from the above dis- cussion is that our academic knowledge about ecology has failed to create awareness among the public. Clearly we moderns are in quandary. Many of us feel utterly lost and confused. The western knowledge whose tentacles reach around the globe is transitional. The transition is radical and decisive. We are in the throes of deep crisis. We need something drastic to bring in deep transformation in human psyche. When we go to the root of the problem it is the crisis of consciousness. How does India help in preserving our planet?

India has given two powerful ideas which are integral to the Indian civilization to the west and the whole world: one is the idea of living in harmony with nature and the other is that the reality has a scientific basis. In the recent couple of centuries, these and other derived notions have inspired many great scholars, scientists and literary figures: Hegel, Fichte, Schlegel, Goethe, Nietzche, Schopenhauer, Tennyson, Keats, Wordsworth, Carlyle, Thoreau, Emerson, A. E.Russel, Edwin Arnold, E.M. Forster, Romain Rolland, Paul Brunton, Georg Feurestein, Maxmuller, Alduous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood,


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News and Notes from Ramakrishna Math and Mission

The Order On The March

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Tamil Nadu Flood Relief Work: A Brief Report as on 1 January 2016

Torrential rains in many parts of Tamil Nadu in November and December caused severe inundation in several areas of the state, affecting lakhs of families. Nine of our centres in Chennai conducted the following relief services.

(a) Chennai Math served cooked food to 22,100 affected people and tea to 1250 people. Besides, the centre distributed 37,185 kg rice, 2200 kg rava (semolina), 765 loaves of bread, 5647 kg dal (lentils), 6000 kg vegetables, 4022 litres of edible oil, 675 kg sambar powder, 397 kg turmeric powder, 440 kg chilli powder, 2436 kg salt, 196 kg pickles, 13,725 packets of biscuits, 300 litres of milk, 4872 kg sugar, 27 kg tea powder, 710 packets of mosquito-repellent coils, 7862 mats, 8612 bed-sheets, 7653 saris, 3992 nightgowns, 7683 lungis, 30 shirts, 7232 towels, 200 assorted garments, 800 buckets, 200 mugs, 1006 plates, 1006 tumblers, etc among 31,703 people in various parts of Chennai city from 24 November to 25 December. Further, in Cuddalore district, the centre distributed 42,285 kg rice, 1300 kg rava, 25 kg flour, 525 loaves of bread, 6000 kg dal, 4100 kg edible oil, 120 kg sambar powder, 310 kg turmeric

Relief work by Chennai Math


powder, 330 kg chilli powder, 100 kg cumin seeds, 100 kg mustard seeds, 100 kg tamarind, 3100 kg salt, 7500 packets of pickles, 500 packets of rusk, 2575 packets of biscuits, 505 kg Horlicks, 3600 kg sugar, 2100 packets of mosquito-repellent coils, 25,200 matchboxes, 4313 bed-sheets, 2288 mats, 3143 saris, 224 dhotis, 2017 lungis, 2240 towels, 4500 assorted garments, 150 cooking vessels, 25 pots, 369 plates, 512 buckets and 512 mugs among 5686 people from 9 to 20 December.

(b) Chennai Students’ Home distributed 1125 kg rava, 1125 kg semiya (vermicelli), 1500 kg dal, 375 kg soybeans, 750 kg edible oil, 375 kg tamarind, 75 kg mustard seeds, 75 kg turmeric powder, 37

kg cumin seeds, 75 kg chilli powder, 750 kg salt, 75 kg pickles and 750 kg sugar among 751 families in West Tambaram area of Kanchipuram district, and 505 kg assorted vegetables among 185 families in Mylapore area of Chennai from 27 to 29 November. The centre also distributed 9561 packets of cooked food (each packet containing rice, pickles and a water sachet) and 20,359 loaves of bread among 29,920 people in 16 areas of Thiruvallur, Kanchipuram and Chennai districts from 1 to 5 December.

(c) Chennai Mission Ashrama distributed 7630 packets of cooked food, 4457 kg rice, 2627 loaves of bread, 692 kg dal, 35,349 packets of biscuits, 1880 kg of milk powder, 20,477 litres of drinking water, 1090 utensil-sets (each set containing pots, plates, kadahi, tumblers, etc), 2100 buckets, 2100 mugs, 2100 plates, 2100 bed-sheets, 1814 blankets, 4047 mats, 2100 saris, 1155 dhotis, 2100 lungis, 3054 mosquito-repellent coils, etc among 5038 families in and around T Nagar area of Chennai from 3 to 29 December.

Relief work by Chennai Students’ Home

Relief work by T.Nagar Ashrama

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The Life-STory of Sri ramakriShna Original Bengali by Ramachandra Datta, English Rendering based on the translation by Swami Sarvadevananda

Advaita Ashrama, 5, Dehi Entally Road, Kolkata – 700006. Emai l : mai [email protected] 2014,

hardbound, pp.184, Rs.75.This is the eye-witness account of the

extraordinary life of Sri Ramakrishna written by his disciple Ramachandra Dutta when Sri Ramakrishna was alive. The book, originally written in Bengali entitled ‘Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsadever Jeevanbrittanta’ was published in 1890 C.E. It is noteworthy that Ramchandra was the first person to publish a biography of Sri Ramakrishna, to build a first temple of Sri Ramakrishna at Kakurgachhi, Kolkata and to announce and preach publicly that Sri Ramakrishna was an Incarnation of God.

During the years from Sri Ramakrishna’s passing away in 1886 until his own death in 1899, while most of Sri Ramakrishna’s young monastic disciples were leading the lives of wandering monks and practicing spiritual disciplines in various places of pilgrimage, coinciding with Swami Vivekananda’s stay in the West, Ramachandra took it upon himself to spreading the teachings of the Master, lecturing, writing books and articles, maintaining Sri Ramakrishna’s temple, organizing the festivals of the Master’ birth anniversary and giving initiations to the disciples in and around Kolkata. The uniqueness of the book lies in the fact that it is written by a disciple who was transformed by his Master, who was an eye-witness to his Master’s life, who knew Sri Ramakrishna personally, moved with him, talked with him and was blessed by him.

That is why the book throbs with life, passion and inspiration, and educates and teaches the reader.

The book has twenty two chapters depicting Sri Ramakrishna’s life in detail from his birth and early life, childhood, his coming to Kolkata and accepting the post of priest at the Kali temple of Dakshineswar, his relationship with Rani Rasmani who built the temple; and Mathurbabu, Rani’s son-in-law, his vision of Kali, his various sadhanas, his marriage, his practicing Christianity and Islam, his pilgrimage, his meeting with the great people of India, the coming of his devotees, the training of his disciples, and his passing away.

The reader is convinced from reading this book that someone who lived so fully, burnt with divine love so ardently, and taught so profoundly walked on the earth is very rare indeed, but it is all the more unusual to have a detailed contemporary account of such a life. This book not only communicates a real sense of Sri Ramakrishna, his life and times, but is interpretative also in terms of Sri Ramakrishna’s actions and words as also his spiritual disciplines and experiences. The author’s passionate involvement and his ardent devotion and reverence for his Master who was proclaimed by him as the Incarnation of God is felt by readers very evidently. Not only that, Sri Ramakrishna’s transparently pure and well-documented life remains a guide and inspiration to millions on their spiritual path.

The translation is faithful and clear; however, the narrative would have been more com- prehensible, coherent and lucid, if the frequent use of Bengali words in the text would have been avoided.

We are indebted to Swami Sarvadevanandaji, Minister-in-charge of Vedanta Society of Southern California, and Mr. Pulak Ghosh, whose labour of love has enabled us to read the first hand account of Sri Ramakrishna’s God-centered life. ________________________CHETANA MANDAVIA, JUNAGADH

Book ReviewsFor review in The VedanTa Kesari,

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

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45

PageS from The PaST – ParT 1 By Rameshwar Tantia

Published by General Sec- retary, Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Daksineswar, K o l k a t a - 7 0 0 0 7 6 . [email protected]; [email protected]; 2014, paperback, pp.104, Rs.5.

Many stories expose how the rich and mighty are shamed

by the standards of morality set by people who shun luxury. From personal experience Swami Vivekananda observes that the poor are more willing to help and serve than the affluent.

Eleven stories by the author included in this book extol virtues of idealism. The eleventh is a heart rending tale of two sisters who sang Megh Malhar for Emperor Akbar and ended their lives in surging rain water to protect their chastity. This is also a poignant tale of Emperor Akbar’s agony after a series of battles leaving countless women widowed, children orphaned and his relief after Mian Tansen sings Deepak to brighten up the atmosphere.

Unrestrained enjoyment of wealth and power finally results in disaster. There is joy in giving, renunciation being the highest virtue. Alexander’s encounter with the sage in India leading to a paradigm shift in his attitude is the focus in one of the stories.

‘The Unfortunate’ looks at the harsh realities of life that haunt honest people. ‘Balji Burji’ is an interesting story. It reminds us of how Sri Ramakrishna conveyed subtle spiritual lessons through parables with telling effect.

Like case studies, stories provide a fine medium to inculcate virtues. In recent years graphic novels are becoming popular and enjoyed by readers, a technique found in the Panchatantra series.

The author of ‘Pages from the Past – Part 1’ has offered a useful set of stories. With financial support from the Ministry of Culture the book has been nominally priced.

While there are some spelling/typographical errors for attention, the book is a welcome

addition to the literature that informs, inspires and transforms._______________________________ P. S. SUNDARAM, MUMBAI

The hindu mind

By Bansi Pandit

Published by New Age Books, A -44, Naraina Industrial Area Phase-I, New Delhi-110 028. [email protected]; 2014, paperback, pp.448, Rs.500.

After India was forced out of her self-

imposed cultural isolation by European powers, there grew a novel interest

in her religion and culture. Over the years this interest grew into a discipline in many universities and among the elite in the West. With Swami Vivekananda’s travels to the West this interest was fanned, and the study of Hinduism was taken by many common people, which in the past few decades, has grown astonishingly. With New Age movements, with their smattering of Eastern spirituality and the influence of Buddhism, India and Hinduism has taken centre stage in today’s discourse on religion and spirituality worldwide.

All this interest, either for good or bad purposes, has spawned a vast literature on Hinduism. And this interest is not only among the people of the world but Hindus are also studying and trying to understand this grand ancient religion. Hinduism in all its dimensions—historical, philosophical, spiritual, social, ethical, monasticism, ritualistic, and so on—is a staggering sight. No one person can be said to understand every aspect of Hinduism. That is because, as Swami Vivekananda says, it includes ideas ‘from the lowest fetishism to the highest Absolutism’. It is evolutionary and composite. Today, many Hindu concepts, such as maya, Ishvara, karma, reincarnation, samskars, Brahman, and so on, have already crept into mainstream world thought.

This book gives the fundamentals of Hinduism in a brief manner. The problem with many books on Hinduism is that some authors rely more on available literature and information


46

and put it in a book form rather than depend on traditional knowledge. Tradition in Hinduism is a rigorous discipline and takes years. Of course there are many traditions in Hinduism and so authors cannot always go through these various disciples and so such books are superficial. This book, however, has one advantage: it covers a lot of ground in presenting Hinduism’s concepts and practices. This apart, Buddhism and Jainism is also briefly discussed in order to show Hindu concepts through comparison and agreement.

Hinduism has survived the test of history and also of modernity, in which many other religions have failed. It is the duty of everyone to know what made it survive and thrive. Hinduism is fascinating and its study is edifying. This book can be recommended for all those who wish to know Hinduism in brief._____________________ SWAMI SATYAMAYANANDA, KANPUR

a hindu Primer : yakSha PraShna by Dr. A.V. Srinivasan

Published by Periplus Line LLC, E. Glastonbury, Connecticut, 06025, USA. avsheenu@gmai l .com; 2014, paperback, pp.86, price :not mentioned.

Mahabharata, the Indian epic, has received

universal acclaim for its poetic finesse, wealth of wisdom, abundance

of ethical and moral values that transcend time in their relevance. Bhagavad Gita, forming part of this epic, is not a mere religious discourse; ‘not meant merely to give peace of mind…’ as Swami Ranganathananda said.

The question/answer mode is often the means for imparting knowledge, secular or spiritual, in scriptures/epics including the Gita.

Yaksha Prashna found in Mahabharata is a typical example. Yudhishtira demonstrates patience and forbearance in answering numerous tough questions by his spiritual father disguised as a yaksha while his brothers dismissed the yaksha’s warnings and suffered. The questions posed to Yudhistira number over a hundred (listed in the Appendix) some of which sound like aphorisms. Therefore brevity of the questions as also the answers requires interpretation. A. V. Srinivasan has explained in detail. Apart from rendering the Sanskrit text, transliteration and translation the commentary by the author will help readers to follow the dialogue.

The querist seeks responses on spiritual, ethical, moral values, etc. from Yudhistira. One of them is the oft quoted wisdom of the king that people fail to realize the certainty of their death even when they are exposed to this inevitability. ‘What is the right time for a shraaddha?’ The answer: ‘A learned brahmin’s time’. Rather than the day (tithi), the availability of a qualified purohit is decisive! Dharma is a complex concept that the author elaborates in one of the questions (page 57).

Again, the meaning of ‘egoism’ as ‘Total ignorance’ is a riddle (page 60). Atheist, says Yudhistira, ‘is said to be a fool’. Swamiji, it may be recalled, defined it as one who does not believe in himself. And so perhaps, a fool! A thought provoking answer of Yudhistira is that one’s mother is ‘weightier than the earth’—a truth to be remembered by all.

Even in choosing boons offered by the Lord of Dharma disguised as yaksha, Yudhistira reveals his fairness uninfluenced by emotions or attachments. The ‘Epilogue’ in the book gives details of the post question/answer session.

Having lived abroad Srinivasan observes that the next generation should be exposed to ancient Indian wisdom. This small book should help in this endeavour._______________________________ P. S. SUNDARAM, MUMBAI

Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library. —Swami Vivekananda


Sri Ramakrishna Math, MaduraiNew Natham Road, Reserve Line, Madurai – 625 014, Tamil Nadu

Ph:0452-2680224, email:[email protected]

Project Swacch Vidyalaya – Inviting your participation

This project will ensure that our school has a set of well maintained toilets, so essential for a healthy school and learning environment.

The Math runs Sarada Vidyalaya Nursery & Primary School which over the years has swelled in strength. Presently there are more than 550 students, mostly from poorer sections. The Math also Provides Free After School Hours Tuition, daily to about 350 students (Class 4 to 10), with parents accompanying girl students.

The number of toilets at present is insufficient to meet the usage needs of growing number of students. Further these toilets built many years ago needs extensive restoration that it is economically prudent to demolish some of the sections and rebuild them.

So also in the Math premises toilets built in the early 1980’s (just 3 latrines & 2 bathrooms each for gents and ladies) is inadequate given the growing number of devotees to the math daily, from Madurai as also neighbouring districts of Tamilnadu. They are dilapidated that it is necessary to demolish them and build new set of toilets.

The Math also provides breakfast (Annadanam) daily to 150 school children from nearby slums who invariably use the toilets. The number of patients coming daily for treatment in our charitable dispensary is also on the increase, accompanied by family member.

There are regular visitors to our Vivekananda Public Library. Besides, students groups from Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Kerala who come on educational tour to Madurai stay at our Math. All these combined, puts additional pressure on the meagre toilets arrangements at present.

To mitigate these circumstances we have embarked on a project that will augment the existing capacity in the Sarada Vidyalaya Nursery & Primary School wherein the existing toilets will be restored wherever feasible and the capacity will be increased from the existing 20 to 30 toilets besides increasing the urinals from the existing 5 to 12, in an area of 406 Sq. Ft.

Similarly in the Math premises it is proposed to demolish existing toilets and build anew 10 toilets & 10 bathrooms in an area of 744 Sq. Ft. Total area of the proposed toilets, urinals and bathrooms would be 1150 Sq. Ft and the estimated cost of construction is Rs. 22.5 lakhs.

We appeal to the generous public to liberally support us, either financially or by arranging material supplies, to help us complete the construction. Contribution towards this project will be thankfully acknowledged. Marble plaques with the names of those who donate rupees one lakh and above will be fixed at a prominent place, if the donor so desires.

Donations are exempted from Income tax vide section 80-G. Please send your donations by cheque or DD favouring Ramakrishna Math, Madurai with a note that it is for the swacch Vidyalaya Project to:

Sri Ramakrishna Math, Reserve Line, New Natham Road, Madurai – 625014

In the service of the Lord,Swami Kamalatmananda

President


Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama(A branch centre of Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Belur Math. Howrah, W.B. – 711 202)

Swami Vivekananda Path, P.O. Bela, Muzaffarpur–843 116, Ph.: 0621-2272127, 2272963 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.rkmmuzaffarpur.org

Appeal for Vivekananda Netralaya(Eye, ENT, Dental Clinic cum Diagnostic Centre)

Present Infrastructure:

Oldest Eye Infirmary in North Bihar established in 1947, General dispensary, Dental, Homeopathy, X-Ray, Pathology;

Service Rendered (2014-15) :

Total OPD – 74,632, Cataract Operation : Full Free – 2,470, Part Free – 1,400, Patho Test – 2,684, Preventive Health Care for 5,000 School Students, Computer Awareness & Tailoring Training, Value Added Competition for 5,000 Students, Disaster Management, Non-Formal Education and Coaching to 450 Children

Our Vision: A new Medical Building with Specialty Eye, ENT and Dental care, Various OPD Sections, Well equipped Clinical Lab., R & D, Modern Diagnostic Unit, Para medical Training.

Funds Required:

Rs.35 Lakh for remaining work of Recovery Unit, Rs.65 Lakh for remaining work of Gr Fl. and1st Fl. of Vivekananda Netralaya Rs.85 Lakh for construction of Doctors / Staff Qtrs., Rs.75 Lakh for Equipments:, Rs.15 Lakh for Maintenance, Rs.15 Lakh for Educational Programmes, Puja and Celebration Rs.1 Crore for Permanent Fund (corpus)

Dear Devotees and Friends, We appeal to you to contribute towards up-coming Vivekananda Netralaya Project (Eye, E

N T, Dental Clinic cum Diagnostic Centre) which we took up in 2011 and has made remarkable progress with your help. Muzaffarpur in north Bihar where health infrastructure is very poor, our Sevashrama needs to have a better set up for continuing its medical services. Your contribution will be a real worship to Swami Vivekananda, Ma Sarada and Sri Ramakrishna who lived their life for and whose lives embodied concern for the welfare of the poor needy, nearer to the ideals of Atmano Moksartham Jagat Hitaya Cha (For liberation of the self and good of the world). It will also serve the purpose of perpetuating memories and sentiments of your loved ones.

Kindly send your contribution by Cheque/DD or by NEFT/ RTGS to A/c No. 10877071752 IFS Code: SBIN0006016 (Ramakrishna Mission Sevashrama, Muzaffarpur)

Donations to Sevashrama are exempted from Income Tax u/s 80G of IT Act 1961. Details of the Project may be had from our office.

With Prayers to Holy Trinity for you and all yours,

Swami BhavatmanandaSecretary


Sri Ramakrishna AshramaTriveni, Indore Road, Ujjain MP - 456 006. India

Mobile: 07869705095, 09425195871E-mail: [email protected]

POORNA KUMBHA (SIMHASTH) MELA CAMP - 2016 AT JYOTIRLING MAHAKAL

An AppealDear Friend,The famous Kumbha (Simhastha) Mela of Ujjain is the biggest religious

festival of the world. This time Poorna Kumbha (Simhastha) Mela is going to be held here from 22nd April to 21st May 2016. More than a hundred fifty lakh pilgrims and Sadhus are expected from all parts of the country and even abroad to participate in this great event.

The Ashrama proposes, as in the previous year, to open a camp on the Mela ground with charitable Allopathic and Homeopathic clinics and a first-aid centre for giving free medical treatment to the assembled pilgrims and Sadhus. Board and lodging arrangements will also be made for one thousand pilgrims and two hundred Sadhus and volunteers. Mandir and Satsang pandal for regular religious programmes in the camp.

The approximate expenditure of the whole camp will be almost Rs. 100 Lakhs. Ashrama therefore earnestly appeals to the generous public for help in the noble venture as they have spontaneously done in the past. Contribution in cash will also be thankfully received and acknowledged.

Cheques and drafts should be crossed ‘A/C Payee only’ and drawn in favour of SRI RAMAKRISHNA ASHRAMA, UJJAIN and send preferably by Registered/Speed Post.

Donation to the Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama are exempted from Income- Tax under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act,1961.

Our Bank A/Cs:State Bank of India, Ujjain - 10574419581: IFSC-SBIN003028. I.D.B.I. - 08810400001430: IFSC - IBKL0000088.Thanking You,

Yours in the service of lord Swami Bhaskarananda

President


Innovation Root Softech Pvt. Ltd

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With Best Compliments

Soft-bound, Pages xi + 180 Price: Rs. 55/- Postage: Rs.22/-for single copy. No request for VPP entertained

Understanding Pratika—Symbols in the Indian Tradition

A Vedanta Kesari Presentation

‘The images, crosses, and crescents are,’ says Swami Vivekananda, ‘so many symbols—so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on.’ These symbols are scattered everywhere in our mundane as well as spiritual lives. This new book examines 53 of such symbols, with 2 appendices from Swami Vivekananda’s powerful writings on ‘The Need of symbols’ and ‘The Chief Symbols’. Two introductory chapters describe the role and significance of symbols. The book is richly illustrated with pictures.

Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004Email : [email protected]


150

1200


NAVAJEEVAN BLIND RELIEF CENTRE

‘We can attain salvation through social work’ – Swami Vivekananda

K. Sridhar AcharyaFounder/ President

1. Navajeevan School & Hostel for Blind Children

– Tirupati, Parlekhimundi, Golamunda

2. Navajeevan Free Eye Hospital – Tirupati

3. Navajeevan Free Home for Aged – Tirupati, Rishikesh, Parlekhimundi and Chennai

4. Navajeevan Dumb & Deaf Home - Patapatnam

5. Navajeevan Sharanagati Vridhashram – Tirupati

6. Navajeevan Rural Medical Centres - Berhampur [Orissa]

7. Navajeevan Eye Care Centres - Serango & Kalahandi [Orissa]

8. Navajeevan Orphanage Children Homes – Tirupati, Parlehkimundi, Saluru, Golamunda, Berhampur, Pandukal, Vizag & Araku, Dundelmal

9. Navajeevan Atharvana Veda Pathasala - Tirupati

1. Sponsor one day Annadan to Blind Children and aged – Rs. 5000/-2. Sponsor 5 IOL Cataract Eye Operations – Rs. 7000/-3. Sponsor one blind child or Orphan child for one year – Rs. 6000/-4. Sponsor one poor aged person for one year – Rs. 5000/-5. Sponsor one free eye camp at Rural/Tribal area – Rs. 50000/-6. Vidyadan—Educational aid for one Child – Rs. 2000/-

(FREE HOME FOR THE BLIND, ORPHAN AND AGED)TIRUCHANOOR, TIRUPATI–517503. Ph : 0877-2239992, 9908537528 [Mob.]

E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.navajeevan.org

An Appeal37 Years of Service to Humanity 1979–2015

Donor devotees can send their contributions by cheque/DD/MO to the above address on the occasion of birthday, wedding day or any other special occasion and receive prasadam of Lord Balaji Venkateswara of Tirupati as blessings.Contributions to NAVAJEEVAN BLIND RELIEF CENTRE, Tirupati are eligible for Tax Relief U/S 80G of Income Tax Act.

Our Bank details for online transfer :Bank Name : Indian Bank , Gandhi Road Branch, Tirupati SB A/c No: 463789382, Account Holder : Navajeevan Blind Relief Centre, Branch Code: T036, IFSC code: IDIB000T036,

A Humble Request for Donation


55


Vol.103-2 The Vedanta Kesari (English Monthly) February 2016. Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for India under No.1084 / 1957. POSTAL

REGISTRATION NUMBER:TN / CH (C) / 190 / 15-17. LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT TN/PMG(CCR)/WPP-259 / 2015-2017.

Date of Publication: 24th of every month

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REGD. OFFICE:

121-122, Mittal Chambers, Nariman Point, Mumbai–400 021Tel: 91 22 6632 5141 (30 Lines)

Fax: 91 22 6632 4979 / 6632 4421 / 2282 0577E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.lavinokapur.com

TARAPUR PLANT:

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District–Thane.Maharashtra

Tel: 02525-2722 90/91/92

v Subscription (inclusive of postage) Annual : ` 100 10 years: ` 1000Contact: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. Website: www.chennaimath.org

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


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