jabdakhata

Very few people in India outside Bengal know of Girish Chandra Ghosh, the prolific play writer, the father of theatre in Bengal and in India who was once widely regarded as Shakespeare of Bengal and Garrick of Bengali stage. Girish Ghosh was a playwright, a director, an actor, a poet, all moulded into one. He was a versatile genius. He was a lion among men and like a lion he dominated everything that he did. He never cared for conventions. He did not tolerate hypocrisy. He ensured decent living for many women who were otherwise considered "fallen" by the society. He led an intemperate life in a rebellious spirit for sometime, till he met the ultimate man whom he was searching for throughout his life. Girish was appreciated by many eminent personalities, actor and intellectual Utpal Datta being one one of them. In his book Girish Mahima (Greatness of Girish), Utpal Datta was full of praise for him. Recently veteran actor Soumitra Chatterjee enacted as a solo actor in one of

Interwoven Parallel Threads in the Seemingly Independent Universes If we follow the lives of Sara and Ma Sarada closely we see that there are many interesting parallels in the lives of them. This could be classified into three distinct themes. 1)       Marriage: Sara Bull married an extra ordinary musician, who was intellectually perhaps the best of his time. She could only live about ten years with him. He was much older than her, the age difference being about forty years. The Holy Mother on the other hand was the Shakti of the avatara or the divine incarnation for the present age. It is to be noted that Sri Ramakrishna was an artist per excellence. He excelled in painting, music, clay modelling and fine arts. He went into Samadhi by listening to the Veena recital of Mahesh Veenkar in Varanasi. So he would probably have highly appreciated the compositions of Ole Bull. Moreover both shared a distaste for worldliness, although in different ways, Sri Ramakrishna through comple

Sara’s Life in Brief Let us first get to know Sara Chapman Bull. She, as we have already mentioned, born in a wealthy business and socialite family of Thorps.  (Prabuddhaprana, 2002) She was married at the age of nineteen to Ole Bull, the famous Norwegian violinist, and one of the greatest musicians of that time, who was then sixty years old. The couple had one daughter Olea (later Olea Vaughan). Sara spent ten happy years of marriage with Ole Bull, organized his concerts, helped the spendthrift and out-worldly man in his financial affairs, became an ardent admirer of his music and was also the inspiration behind his compositions. Ole Bull and Sara spent several years travelling between Europe and America till the death of Ole Bull in 1878. Sara was a pianist and often she would spend lovely evenings with her husband accompanying him on creating divine music. They had an interesting social life with leading intelligentsia, artists and philosophers like George Santayana, William J

The Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Sara Chapman Bull are two very important personalities in the whole history of Ramakrishna Movement. Although Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi is perhaps the larger figure in comparison being the embodied divine mother Herself, Sara Bull nonetheless had a very important role to play, esp. in the mission of Swami Vivekananda in the West. Sara Bull was probably four or five years older than Sarada, being born in 1850. She was born in a wealthy and influential family in the pre-civil war America, Sara’s father Joseph Thorp being a senator and a businessman while mother Amelia being a noted Socialite. Sarada, on the other hand, was born to a poor village priest Ramchandra Mukherjee and his wife Shyamsundari in the remote hamlet of Jairambati, under British East India Company’s hegemony, just a few years before the mutiny of 1857. Sarada had learnt to respect the Queen Victoria who through a royal proclamation took India under her sovereign crown post 1857.

There are obviously some vested interests who are taking advantage of the publicity received by Netaji in the wake of the demand for classifying the files about him to resolve the mystery associated with his disappearance. Some have tried to portray him as a Japanese stooge, while others complain that he was "enamoured by Hitler" and therefore "sided with the Nazis". Some try to portray him as a fascist dictator who (contrary to popular perception) would have established a ruthless regime of dictatorship and Nehruvian socialism had saved India from such an eventuality. By censoring him therefore Gandhiji and the Congress did a favour to the nation is what these writers would want us to believe. Needless to say that their attempts are at best feeble and weak and at worst pathetic attempts to depict isolated events and speeches as the whole of Netaji and thereby justify all the injustice meted out to him by Congress. Not only Nehru, but even Patel was anti Subhas as

Do we not find the echo of the same love in Narendranath? Of course, else how the same love could be magnified in Swami Vivekananda’s personality? From taking care of an injured soldier, to giving his new clothes to mendicants, to making sure that a friend is able to sit for the examination, his love was probably more channelized before coming out in a torrent or gush in the later period. How do we forget the memorable character in The Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna, of Hazra, whom probably only young Narendra sympathized with, knowing very well that Hazra was somewhat devious in nature. This same love enabled him to carry the shoes of Swami Sadananda, then Sarat Chandra Gupta, on his head, when the latter was unable to walk wearing them and yet was unwilling to leave them behind. Swami Sadananda never forgot that incident. In his later days, when he returned to India, the young Brahmacharins and Sannyasins and his own disciples like Sarat Chandra Chakravarty, the author of the D

Sister Christine’s memoirs mention of two specific examples of Swamiji’s love for the weakest and the meanest. In New York once there was pitiful little group that clung to him with pathetic tenacity. In the course of a walk he had gathered up first one and then another. This ragged retinue returned with him to the house of 58th Street which was the home of the Vedanta Society. Walking up the flight of steps leading to the front door the one beside him thought. "Why does he attract such queer abnormal people?" Quick as a flash he turned and answered the unspoken thought. "You see, they are Shiva's demons." Walking along Fifth Avenue one day, with two elderly forlorn devoted creatures walking in front, he said. "Don't you see, life has conquered them!" The pity. the compassion for the defeated in his tone ! What a boundless love did he reserve for Sister Christine? Like his own daughter he guided, chided, admonished and led her in spiritual as

As one who had renounced the world and a follower of Vedanta, he had tremendous jnana or knowledge outside, but inside, he was all love and bhakti or devotion, in his own words. Swamiji’s love for humanity probably begins under the tutelage of Sri Ramakrishna in Daksineswar. The almost inexhaustible reservoir of love who distributed it without least compunction among his many devotees, disciples and ordinary people taught his foremost disciple what magnitude selfless love can assume. In the later years while talking about that selfless love Narendranath referred to the Bengali song honouring Sri Chaitanya, “What a treasure of love Gora Rai (Sri Chaitanya) disseminates. Pitchers and pitchers of love which never empties,” and said, “So true, the love being disseminated by the Gora Rai of Daksineswar is never exhausting.” The loving embrace of the divine child was now reflected in the great flood of love for the mankind by the Supreme Being, who chose the sage of the greatest heaven as

This is a part of an article written for a magazine and is depicted here in several parts. In Ramakrishna the Great Master, by Swami Saradananda, Sri Ramakrishna’s vision about his foremost disciple is depicted vividly. He had this vision even before Narendra came to Daksineswar. In that vision his mind was going up on a luminous path in Samadhi, going beyond the gross world of manifestations into the subtle world of ideas and even beyond the world of deities. Finally it arrived in the realm of indivisible which was difficult to enter even for gods and deities with forms. There it saw seven sages whose bodies were composed only of divine light, engrossed in Samadhi. In virtue and love and renunciation they were far greater than even the deities. Then a part of that abstract undifferentiated divine light became transformed into a divine child who came and embraced one of those sages and tried waking him up from Samadhi with his nectar like words. The sage was full of love and blis

He was dead against sectarianism. In his own words, “ All this fight between sects and all those differences in dogmas will not be remembered anymore, and quarrels between your religion and my religion will have vanished altogether, when mankind will understand that there is but one eternal religion, and that is the perception of the divine within .” We can see in the world around us a massive change, compared to the late nineteenth century in which he appeared. India is now more self confident and of late has seen tremendous activity. Indian women were not only actively pursued education soon after the beginning of twentieth century, but also participate side by side, along with their male colleagues, in the freedom movement. His ideals of helping others have taken a firm root and countless voluntary organizations have sprung up, who, though not explicitly subscribing to his ideals, nevertheless perform work which would be much to his liking, in various spheres. Interfaith so

Some scholars say that his teachings differ from that of his Guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, whose teachings are more direct. With due respect to them and with my limited understanding, I think they have either not understood Ramakrishna or they have not understood Vivekananda, or both. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings are the essence of the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, only made more suitable for the understanding of Western audience, whom he prepared for receiving the sublime teachings of Ramakrishna. There is no difference between teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. One can be easily interpreted in the light of the other and it is necessary to study both in order to have a holistic understanding of the Vedanta in general and Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideals in particular. In fact he was the one who understood his Guru perfectly, in all dimensions. One of those scholars pointed out that though his guru was never into politics and was always concerned about God realizatio

To say that he was liberal would be an understatement as he had greatest respect for all religions and sects. He never lost this, despite the harsh treatment that he received in the hands of the Christian missionaries. Some of the best and most liberal minds of the Western churches like the Church of England and Unitarian churches of  America  were his friends and many of them used his teachings or invited him to speak from their podiums on Sundays. He was an ardent lover of Jesus Christ. One of the books that he always kept in possession during his itinerant days was Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. It was his genuine and sincere love for the greatest ideal of Christian world, that enhanced his appeal among the liberal section of the populace and the intelligentsia who were fed up with dogmas and doctrines devoid of love or tolerance. His teachings on the positive side, the divinity appealed to them in contrast to the Church’s over emphasis on sins. His Karmic theory was much

Even though Vivekananda passionately highlighted the positive aspects of India, its culture and its people to the world, showing that even the negatives had their purpose and utility for which they were originally conceived, in speeches to his own country men he was vocal about their weaknesses. He was often scathing in his criticism of the weaknesses of her people. He despised the treatment received by the poor, the  outcasts  and the so called lower strata of the society and never stopped short of highlighting their greatness amidst all persecutions and insults.  Some of his detractors have gleefully put up some "adverse" comments of him (of course out of context, as is their norm) about India as told to Ms.  Josephine McLeod on the occasion of her first visit to India.  They suppressed the fact that these comments were told to Ms. McLeod to set her expectations about India. Any foreigner with a superficial knowledge of India and with scanty respect for her would feel i

Swamiji certainly elevated the idea of Hinduism in front of the Western audience in Chicago but he did much more than that. He actually represented India as a whole, not only Hinduism but everything good that India stands for – purity, chastity, culture, learning, tolerance, diversity, respect for others among them. His message was so liberal and so broad that it instantly appealed to all except the fundamentalists, because they realized that here was a man who was speaking truth and whole of it, from his inside, from deep realization. Unlike other speakers who spoke something and believed in something else, Swamiji was united in his thoughts, speeches and actions. People could see purity itself speaking out to them on purity and truth and they marveled. Marie Louise Burke (Sister Gargi) has given a comprehensive account of the trials and tribulations that he had to face in Americas. His first two years were spent in developing a favorable idea of India in general and Hin

Most people perceive Vivekananda in their own lights. Some see him as champion of the cause of the Hindus, some see him as a socialist, some as a great patriot, some as a spiritual leader, some as a social reformer, some as enemy, some as communal, some as the leader of a sect, some as a teacher, some as a philosopher. It speaks of the many dimensions of his personality and many traits of his character. However all these perceptions are like that of the blind men in the parable of Sri Ramakrishna, who went to know an elephant. One felt the trunk and thought that the trunk is the elephant, one felt the leg and thought that the elephant is like a pillar, one felt the tail and so on, but they could never understand the whole of the elephant. One way to look at his myriad accomplishments is to analyze his influence, both in the contemporary period and thereafter. His many accomplishments can be summed up in the following bullets – Rejuvenation of a moribund nation from its s

With the nationwide celebration of the 150 th Birth Anniversary of Swamiji it is evident that how much space he still occupies in the hearts of India and Indians. Many love him and look upon him as the ideal. Several others hate him and try to denounce everything that he preached or stood for by quoting him out of context or by questioning the very work for which he devoted his life, still others are ambivalent and use his teachings for putting forward their own doctrines and agenda. Some other cunning folks are there who use his words in a slightly different way but never acknowledge him. So one thing is evident, India cannot ignore Swami Vivekananda. Rightists, leftists, centrists, all have made a beeline either to hero worship him, use him for political gains or debunk him. So he towers above the rest of India and probably smiles. If his devotees are upset perhaps by reading some obscure scholar trying to assert himself by “tearing the myths” associated with him, he perhaps smi