jabdakhata

Courtesy - Swami Dheyananda (Sanjeeb Maharaj, Belgharia) Excerpt from the lecture   Practical   Vedanta  - Part I   delivered by Swami Vivekananda at London I have been asked to say something about the  practical  position of the  Vedanta  philosophy. As I have told you, theory is very good indeed, but how are we to carry it into practice? If it be absolutely impracticable, no theory is of any value whatever, except as intellectual gymnastics. The  Vedanta , therefore,  as a religion must be intensely  practical .   We must be able to carry it out in every part of our lives.  And not only this,  the fictitious differentiation between religion and the life of the world must vanish, for the  Vedanta  teaches oneness -- one life throughout.  The ideals of religion must cover the whole field of life, they must enter into all our thoughts, and more and more into practice. I will enter gradually on the...

A leader is one who grows not at the expense of others, but take others long. A true leader is perfectly unconcerned about himself/herself, and is concerned about the welfare of his people. A true leader loves his/her people and does not differentiate or discriminate. A true leader is painstakingly righteous and would never allow personal compulsions cloud his/her sense of justice. A true leader will always do whatever it takes for the real long term benefit of his/her people and would never give in to short term temptations like popularity. For their long term benefit he/she would not even hesitate to take hard and unpopular decisions. He is, in the language of Sri Ramakrishna, a good physician. An inferior physician will merely prescribe medicines. A medium one will only request the patient to take medicines. A good one not merely requests, but will apply force if necessary, because he/she knows that it is in the best interest of the patient. A true leader does not enjoy power. He/...

Kalyanananda and Nischayananda became legends. They extended their work, many more people came under their service ambit, the operations of the Sevashrama expanded, they began providing services among the community of scavengers and other backward people who did not have access to education, trained and educated them, provided clean drinking water to the locals and undertook many other philanthropic and charitable work. One great feature of selfless work is that it never requires any advertisement. Help always comes to sustain and grow the work and that happened for the Sevashrama work as well It is now one of the largest multi  specialty  hospitals in that region with more than 250 beds and catering to poor people from all over India. But two monks had sacrificed their body, mind and soul for this establishment. Yet they never  solicited  donations, never asked for name and fame, never sought to become great. Their only guiding principle was a strict adh...

Life changed for three young men of Benares when in 1901, they read a poem of Swami Vivekananda in the Bengali magazine of Ramakrishna Order called Udbodhan. The peom, titled as “Sakhar Prati”, or “To a Friend” is almost a mini life story of Swami himself and mirrors his thoughts and actions. The last few lines of the poem run as follows From highest Brahman to the yonder worm, And to the very minutest atom, Everywhere is the same God, the All-Love; Friend, offer mind, soul, body, at their feet. These are His manifold forms before thee, Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God? Who loves all beings without distinction; He indeed is worshipping best his God. The three friends, Charu Chandra Das, Kedarnath Moulik and Jamini Ranjan Majumdar were greatly inspired and eagerly looked for an opportunity to serve the God in human form. The opportunity came soon. In Benares, many pilgrims who were poor and aged, had to suffer terribly in the hands of unscrupulous Brahmin pries...

Western scholars and their Indian counterparts place a lot of importance on any charitable work conducted by western Christian missionaries in India. For instance Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa receives a lot of visibility, publicity, praises and donations and rightly so, because they have done great work, though not always selfless because of religious compulsions. However similar or better work done in a true selfless spirit by Indians and home grown saints and sages are often overlooked or disregarded. Neither media, nor Western scholars, nor people in the West are interested in the work. It is hardly surprising given that their viewpoints and prejudices would be coloured by religious and national affiliations and they would be hardly interested in a similar or even better work done by an Indian. What is surprising is that the Indian media and intellectuals tend to completely disregard the service and sacrifice of their own countrymen. There may be some other angles to t...