Response to the Lady who attacked Ramakrishna Math and Mission on the issue of celebrating Christmas

Dear Ma'am,

Writing this to you as a devotee of the Holy Trio and a spiritual aspirant. After going through your letters I am very sorry to humbly put forward that there are some gaps in your understanding of the Ramakrishna Vivekananda ideology and philosophy and unless you are a spiritual practitioner yourself, the gap will remain. However I'll try to address some of the contentions raised by you.

As far as my knowledge goes, more than worshipping a personality called Jesus Christ, Ramakrishna Mission and Math celebrate the birth of an ideal - of renunciation and sacrifice for the benefit of mankind. This monastic ideal is not bound by any narrow limitations of religion or geography. This is a fundamental divergence from the way Christianity worships Christ, the person whose womb to tomb story is essential for the very survival of that religion. Since Belur Math celebrates an ideal, there is no need for any historical personality to ever exist. The ideal of renunciation - the teachings of purity and kindness are enough. There is no need of any historical Jesus and I would daresay many of us see the image of an infant Gadai in the lap of Chandramani Devi, in the image of Madonna holding an infant Jesus. Exactly opposite has been the experience of some of the Christian devotees when the see the picture of an infant Gadai. However, this experience is reserved for the bhaktas and not for the intellectuals like you. Let me try to address your issues, point by point.

If the Delhi Mission extends an invite for celebrating Xmas to the Christian Bishop who does not accept the invite, who is the loser here? In the language of Bankimchandra Chatterjee - eulogised by the Hindu Nationalists, "tumi adham boliya ami uttam hoibona keno?" 

As far as I know from history, the practice of celebrating Christmas was started by Swami Brahmananda himself, was endorsed, and continued by Swami Turiyananda, Premananda, Shivananda, Akhandananda - all direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and all Brahmagyani. That takes care of your contention that as Sadhakas and not Brahmagyanis, the present monastics are unable to distinguish the Truth from Falsehood. They are following the practices set by Brahmagyanis, in the typical tradition of Hindu religion. Without the wholehearted endorsement of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, who bore malice towards none, even those Brahma Gyanis could not have continued with the practice of worshipping the ideal of Christ. Sarada Devi herself took a converted Christian back to the Hindu fold by initiating him, unthinkable in those days even by the most open-minded Hindus. More about her later.

Ramakrishna Math and Mission celebrates all local festivals, honouring every spiritual leader of all religions and cultures. Nabi Dibos is celebrated in Bangladesh as a mark of respect, not appeasement. They will willingly celebrate Jewish festivals along with the Hindu festivals if Israel permits a Ramakrishna Centre there. Kalipuja in America was started by the Vedanta Society, and the first Hindu temple in the West was established by Swami Trigunatita - surely you know all this.

Since you brought forward the point of "Sanatana Hindu Dharma's" problem with the ideals pursued by Ramakrishna Math and Mission, could not but help illustrate a few historical facts for your kind perusal. As per Volume 3 of Sankari Prasad Basu's "Bibekanando o Somokalin Bharatbarsho" (Vivekananda and his Contemporary India), Swamiji had to endure many attacks from the Hindu conservative and orthodox section, along with the attacks on him by Brahmos and the Christian Missionaries. From calling him a Shudra who had no right take Sannyas, to recusing themselves from taking part in the meeting set up in his honour, to attacking him and his ideals constantly with the help of conservative newspapers like Amrita Bazar and Bangobasi, to banishing him and his disciples from Dakshineswar Kali temple, to ridiculing him in public, the Hindu orthodox conservatives (I refrained from using the word fundamentalist out of respect for my own religion), had done everything possible to thwart the Ramakrishna movement in its early stage. Hope you are aware of it.

Vivekananda was not the only person to have sustained the attack. Ramakrishna Dev himself had only a few admirers among the elite Bengali upper castes (31 as per his own count in Kathamrita). Most of these upper caste Hindus in Calcutta reserved uncharitable and far from dignified language like "Great Goose" for him, disallowed their children from ever visiting the "fraud temple Brahmin priest," and spread lies and calumny. But for a select few ardent spiritual scholars who understood him, most of the worldly-minded upper-caste Hindu scholars shunned his company. The open-minded Brahmos like Keshab Chandra Sen discovered the greatness and spread his message. For your kind information, it was another Christian Missionary who endorsed the greatness of Sri Ramakrishna and told his future disciple to pay a visit to Dakshineswar - William Hasty.

The Hindu conservatives of her region did not spare even Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. She was fined for breaching the caste distinction. She took bold steps of dining with the "Mlechha" women from West, initiated Europeans and Parsi, took the local Muslims under her protection, gave shelter to the persecuted revolutionaries who sought the refuge of Belur Math, despite under constant threat from the British Empire - very few would have dared to do what she did. As I understand, none of the other Hindu leaders dared to emulate her.

Since you have raised the point of caste system and have claimed boldly that the conversion is not on account of years of neglect and persecution by the Hindu upper caste of their lower caste brethren but rather the lure of money which has drawn even Hindu upper castes to get converted, I need to counter that. One of the quicker means is to ask you to read the epistles of Swami Vivekananda, in which he describes the extent of persecution vividly, having seen and experienced them first hand. He chastises the Hindu upper-caste sharply, ridicules their obnoxious "don't touchism" and "religion in the kitchen," narrates how, on being converted to Islam and Christianity, the lower caste folks get respect from their Hindu brethren, who otherwise avoid their very shadow. I hope you know that Vivekananda was denied entry into a Malabar temple because he was a non-Brahmin. I hope you also know the stories of how his brother disciples Ramakrishnananda and Nirmalananda had to fight every inch to eradicate caste distinctions even among the devotees and how their actions enraged a section of the Hindu conservatives. I hope you know how Kalyanananda and Nishchayananda, direct disciples of Vivekananda, earned the epithet of Bhangi Sadhus, and their very presence was resented by the Hindu Sadhus till Dhanraj Giriji vociferously supported their cause.

As to your accusation of appeasement of the whites and continuance of slave mentality, it's so childish that it does not warrant a healthy debate but let me put forward a few points. Isn't it true that Belur Math grounds were purchased by the initial money donated by a Christian (Ms. Mueller, who later left its cause), and several Christians made healthy contributions to keep the legacy alive - Ms. Sarah Bull, Mr. and Mrs. Legett, Josephine Mcleod, and Ms. Mary Hale (in a later period, before her death) being some of the notable contributors. Many other western disciples and admirers, who were ardent Christians, contributed to the cause. You must also be knowing how the main temple was constructed with the money of Bhakti and Annapurna, two American ladies. For your information, none of the conservative Hindus contributed to the cause, except the ardent devotees of Sri Ramakrishna (Eknath Ranade being a notable exception who single-handedly and with a missionary zeal took up the cause of Vivekananda rock against the combined opposition of the Xtian lobby and their supporters, the local politicians). Now, who has a greater claim on the ideals of Ramakrishna? Also, many Christian devotees have taken refuge in Sri Ramakrishna by being attracted by the wonderful precepts of catholicity and harmony. They have no reason to leave their ishta behind, whom they find reflected in the ideal of Sri Ramakrishna, in the life of Sarada Devi, and in the message of Vivekananda. They have no problem in celebrating Krishna Janmashtami and Kali Puja and the birth of their ishta Christ. They had left conventional Christianity being fed up with fundamentalist and narrow-mindedness. What will be their mental state when they find the same narrow-mindedness, hatred, and bigotry in Ramakrishna Mission if the institution goes by the path prescribed by you and your cohort? This is not a question of appeasement but living up to the ideals of true spirituality - harmony and acceptance of the Universal message of love and sacrifice. You can only understand that through spiritual practise and not through a narrow political prism.

The politicization of religion has destroyed the Abrahamic sects. Only deep and sincere spirituality with its love bereft of boundary, reflected in the lives and the ideals of the Holy Trio as the consummation of all spiritual ideals of India, have sustained Hinduism for ages. Pray, how many Hindus understand this? Hindus have accepted Vivekananda as a militant Nationalist leader, not as a spiritual leader - is there any Hindu temple where Vivekananda or Ramakrishna are worshipped as avatars outside the order? Which Hindu religious leader has come forward to declare in unequivocal terms that Ramakrishna was a divine incarnation who saved India and the world from the denigration? Only a few (and surprisingly, most of them are Westerners like Romain Rolland, Aldous Huxley, Maxmueller, Arnold Toyenbee, and a few esteemed Indians like Subhas Chandra Bose and Dr. R. C Majumdar) have realized this. In that list, I don't find the name of any ardent Hindu Nationalist of the present age. Where were the Hindu Nationalists when Ramakrishna Mission was being persecuted day in and day out by the Marxists and the Communists? You have asked why the birthday of Christ is being celebrated by Ramakrishna Mission. I hope I have answered. Now can you please answer why the Janma Tithis of the Holy Trio are not celebrated by any other Hindu sects? Without naming any specific Hindu sect, I have no doubt that some of them will rival their Xtian brethren in their personality cult and fundamentalism towards even the fellow Hindus following other paths.