jabdakhata

Not all are lost. There is still a sizeable proportion, notwithstanding the stance at the leadership and academia level, who eulogize Vivekananda and his ideologies and stand for it. Prof. Sankari Prasad Basu was one of the leading Vivekananda scholars, who did in India what Mary Louis Burke did in America, through his seven volume magnum opus Vivekananda and contemporary India (Bibekanda O Samakalin Bharatbarsha) and 2 volumes of Nivedita Lokamata on Sister Nivedita’s work and contribution towards Indian independence and Indian Renaissance. Other scholars, poets and literary figures include such names as poet Subramania Bharati, noted grammarian Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, historian Ramesh Chandra Majumdar, social activist Anna Hazare, social activist Begum Sufia Kamal, scientists Basishwar Sen and Satyendranath Bose, philosophers and leaders Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, C.R Rajagopalachary, and many other eminent persons, who did leave indelible imprints through their own work and in...

Here are some facts and figures. “CIC pulled up NCERT because it reduced the content on Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhas Bose in its history books. The content on Swami Vivekananda, which originally stood at 1,250 words in the Class 12 history books, has now been reduced to only 37 words. Additionally, in the history books of Class 8, mention of Vivekananda was removed from the syllabus altogether (indiatoday.in, Jan 2016). The CIC order also mentions 36 other Indian revolutionaries who played a part in the freedom struggle against the British rule, but have not been given space in the textbooks. 37 history book pages were reserved for cricket and the history of fabric. (ibid)” Seems like a joke, but this is alarming. And precisely this has kept happening with school, college and university education in the past 70 years. It had happened during British Raj, but then education was mostly in the hands of Nationalist leaders who, even while working under tremendous pressure from Brit...

Mary Louis Burke, also known as Sister Gargi, a nun of the Vedanta Society, who is better known for her painstaking labour of two decades on research and new discoveries on Swami Vivekananda in America and the consequent work in 6 volumes, once made a very important comment in her introduction to one of the editions of Swami Vivekananda, New Discoveries. She said that if India forgets the teachings of Vivekananda, she will do so at her own peril.  Incidentally the warning bugle was sounded a hundred years back by a noted revolutionary, Jatindranath Mukherjee, popularly called Bhagha Jatin. Jatindranath was one of the architects of an international conspiracy to wage an armed revolution against Britishrule taking the advantage of the first world war. He was one of the most dangerous men sought by British, but his activities were unknown and his audacious plan would have succeeded in rattling the empire had it not been for a treachery of a Chek spy in America. Jatin and his men...

Alexander the great has been widely acclaimed for his conquests throughout the world. Western historians who wanted to have their own hero deified him and greatly exaggerated some of his achievements, esp. his achievements in India have been inflated by some of the Western scholars and their Indian stalwarts based on dubious historical records maintained by Greeks and also derived from their fertile imagination based on their own sense of superiority. However some other accounts of contemporary history exists which gives a completely different account of Alexander’s conquests, esp. that in India. After defeating Darius of Persia, Alexander set his eyes on India. Magnificent stories of India were prevalent at that time, of her vast treasures and golds and the strange behavior and customs of the people living beyond Indus, whom the Persians called as Hindus (people living beyond Indus or Sindhu). The stories of the gold attracted the Macedonian king. It would greatly help him in ex...

The prevailing situation of disharmony and dissension seems to be one created by vested interests of all hues. Before India got independence British policy of divide and rule had firmly taken roots among political classes and the new leadership who saw its vast potential in furthering their own design. The divide and rule was exploited by opportunists who sought power over anything else. Policies were partisan, favoring one group over other, further creating chasm. Of late that division seems to have increased multi fold. Its not at all coincidence that more India is trying to shed its baggage of the past, more it is being highlighted as to how nefarious its record is in maintaining harmony. In fact India is being portrayed by media in the same league or perhaps worse than Pakistan, Russia, China, and Sub Saharan Africa in ethnic cleansing and human rights violation. Terrorists who are on the verge of hanging for their crimes or who are killed on the battlefield in a legitimate encou...

Education has a lot of positive connotation in our mind. When a find a person to be educated we're psychologically reassured about the credibility of a person. Higher the educational qualifications, higher is a person's credibility, so much so, that a Masters degree holder or an MBA from reputed institutes, a doctorate in science or literature or engineering, occupies a very high place in our mind. They are very bright prospects in job markets, always on demand in various fields including matrimonial alliances, and are assumed to be of impeccable character. But is education synonymous with character?  Of late we see that there are many cases in which educated youth are engaged in activities which are condemnable in the strongest term, like assault on women, murder, terrorism, drug peddling, robbery and many such heinous crimes, which shakes our faith in the country's education system. It leads us to question as to are we creating demons or men from the system that we ...

More I read about the character Yudhisthira in Mahabharata, more I am amazed. Perhaps everybody should read the entire Mahabharata atleast once in life just to know intimately about these characters and gain something from them. Its true that Yudhisthira had his weaknesses. He was probably  not a great warrior, was a bit addicted to gambling, although to be fair to him he was merely performing the dharma of a kshatriya by responding to the challenges of Shakuni. Also in Mahabharata war he was a late bloomer. He was defeated and disgraced by Karna who let him go thinking of his promise to mother Kunti, and he vented his frustration on Arjuna. By the grace of Sri Krishna Yudhisthira survived Arjuna's foolhardiness. That was the only instance in the entire Mahabharata where we saw him losing his cool. That was also the only situation where he expressed candidly his fear regarding the outcome of war, esp. the many sleepless nights he spent thinking about how to defeat Karna. However ...

One of the greatest assertions of this age is Jato Mat Tato Path (As many thoughts so many ways). Once we begin to think deeply on the meaning of this apparently harmless statement made by Sri Ramakrishna one hundred and fifty years back one gets amazed by the significance that it conveys and the immense possibilities if one actually wants to actualize this statement. This one statement has the potential of reconciling all differences, ensuring world peace and universal brotherhood in social and spiritual realm. But this one also holds immense potential in material life. The key here is respecting every opinion and thought without evaluating them at their face value and judging them by their merits without any prejudice. In this way apparently irreconcilable problems become reconcilable, and differences cease to exist. All differences stem from ego and selfish interests or conflict of interest. When I have a different opinion from others I would definitely like to think that mine one...