The Vedanta Kesari August 2010

A ugust 2010

August August August August August 20102010201020102010

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

Vedic Prayers 285

EditorialStrength is Life 286

ArticlesSwami Vivekananda’s Voice Recording? 292

M S NanjundiahAn Event in the Court of Janaka 294

Swami GolokanandaDisaster Relief: Valuable Experiences 297

Swami SuviranandaMary Tappan Wright: Swamiji’s first Western Chronicler 302

Somenath MukherjeeSpiritual Values in the Gita 314

Swami Visharadananda

Special ColumnInfluence of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda onContemporary Bengali Literature - IV 309

Hironmoy Mukherjee

New FindUnpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda 312

The Order on the March 318

Book Reviews 321

FeaturesSimhâvalokanam (Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master)—289,Vivekananda Tells Stories—306

VOL. 97, No. 8 ISSN 0042-2983

CONTENTS

Cover Story: Page 4

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Kapaleshwara Temple, Mylapore, Chennai

Located around 300 hundred metres from the RamakrishnaMath, Mylapore, the Kapaleshwara Temple is an ancient temple.Shiva, the presiding deity of the temple, is called Kapaleshwaraand the Divine Mother Parvati is called as Karpagambal. Ac-cording to the tradition, Divine Mother worshipped Shiva herein the form of the peacock (mayil in Tamil), and that is howthe area around the temple is called Mylapore. Holy MotherSri Sarada Devi and many direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishnaincluding Swami Brahmananda and Swami Ramakrishnanandahave visited the temple. Flanked by a large water tank in front,the temple is visited by thousands of devotees daily.

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4390. A Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna The Oxford College, J.P. Nagar, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560 0784391. -do- The Institute of Certified Management, Jaipur, Rajasthan - 302 0164392. -do- The Hindu College, Machilipatnam, A.P. - 521 0014393. -do- The Delhi School of Communication, Nebi Sarai, New Delhi - 110 0684394. -do- B.H. Education Societies, Station Road, Ahmednagar - 404 0014395. -do- Thapar Institute of Engineering & Tech., Patiala, Punjab - 147 0044396. -do- Thanagal Kunju Musaliar Institute of Mgt., Kollam, Kerala - 691 5054397. -do- Teerthanker Mahaveer Institute, Moradabad, U.P. - 244 0014398. A Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna Technological Inst. of Mgt., Tirupati, A.P. - 517 5014399. -do- Technological Inst. of Textiles, Bhiwani, Haryana - 127 0214400. -do- Technocrats Inst. of Tech., Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh - 462 021

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601. Mr. Anshul Mittal, New Delhi

Continued on page 45

285T h e V e d a n t a K e s a r i D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 9~ ~

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

VOL. 97, No. 8, AUGUST 2010 ISSN 0042-2983

Vedic PrayersTr. by Swami Sambuddhananda

`Ò_mÀnaß Zmna_pÒV qH${MV≤ `Ò_mfimUr`mo Z ¡`m`mo@pÒV H${¸V≤ &d•j Bd ÒV„Ymo {X{d {V>À oH$-ÒVoZoXß nyU™ nwÈfoU gd©_≤ &&

—Shvetashvatara Upanishad, III, 9

`Ò_mV≤ to whom na_≤ superior Anaß than whom AUr`Ö more minute

¡`m`Ö older in age H${¸V≤ any one Z ApÒV there is not d•j Bd like a tree

ÒV„YÖ immovable EH$Ö alone {X{d in his own effulgence {V>{V stands VoZnwÈfoU by that Purusha (Being) BXß gd™ the whole of this nyU™ filled.

There is nothing higher than or different from Him. Nothing isgreater or more minute than Him. Seated in His own glory He standslike a tree, one without a second and immovable. By that Purusha(Supreme Being) the whole universe is filled (pervaded).

Real existence, real knowledge, and real love are eternally connectedwith one another, the three in one: where one of them is, the othersalso must be; they are the three aspects of the One without a second—the Existence-Knowledge-Bliss. When that existence becomes relative,we see it as the world; that knowledge becomes in its turn modifiedinto the knowledge of the things of the world; and that bliss forms thefoundation of all true love known to the heart of man.Therefore true love can never react so as to causepain either to the lover or to the beloved. . . .Whenyou have succeeded in loving your husband, your wife,your children, the whole world, the universe, in such amanner that there is no reaction of pain or jealousy, no selfish feeling,then you are in a fit state to be unattached.

—Swami Vivekananda, CW, 1: 58

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286T h e V e d a n t a K e s a r i A U G U S T 2 0 1 0~ ~

Strength is Life

A Perpetual Question‘This is the one question I put to every

man, woman, or child, when they are inphysical, mental, or spiritual training,’ saidSwami Vivekananda,

Are you strong? Do you feel strength?—for Iknow it is truth alone that gives strength. I knowthat truth alone gives life, and nothing but goingtowards reality will make us strong, and nonewill reach truth until he is strong.1

Indeed, strength is the greatest necessityof life. Strength is another name for life.Weakness, in its widest sense, means death.And strength comes from reality—or fromTruth. As is the level of truth, so is the stren-gth! Though one can gain strength from ‘lowertruth’, the supreme strength comes from‘highest truth’ only. God is the ultimate sourceof all strength. And life is nothing but anexpression of strength.

Swami Vivekananda may rightly becalled as the Prophet of Strength. He was stren-gth incarnate and it is strength that he taught.He equated faith in oneself, self-control andfeeling for others with strength. In his famouspassage he said,

The weak have no place here, in this life or inany other life. Weakness leads to slavery. Weak-ness leads to all kinds of misery, physical andmental. Weakness is death. There are hundredsof thousands of microbes surrounding us, butthey cannot harm us unless we become weak,until the body is ready and predisposed toreceive them. There may be a million microbesof misery, floating about us. Never mind! Theydare not approach us, they have no power to

get a hold on us, until the mind is weakened.This is the great fact: strength is life, weaknessis death. Strength is felicity, life eternal, immor-tal; weakness is constant strain and misery:weakness is death.2

Strength, therefore, is the one thing needful.Strength is the medicine for the world’s disease.Strength is the medicine which the poor musthave when tyrannised over by the rich. Strengthis the medicine that the ignorant must have whenoppressed by the learned; and it is the medicinethat sinners must have when tyrannised overby other sinners; and nothing gives such strengthas this idea of monism. Nothing makes us somoral as this idea of monism. Nothing makesus work so well at our best and highest as whenall responsibility is thrown upon ourselves.3

Types of StrengthWhen we try to understand the idea of

strength, obviously, we should see it fromvarious aspects of our personality—physical,mental and spiritual. One should try to gainstrength at all these levels:

1. Bahu Balam or physical strength is thefirst and the grossest manifestation of strength.Of course, we need it! Only a strong body canwithstand the wear and tear of daily life andmaintain good health. Swami Vivekanandarightly pointed out,

We speak of many things parrot-like, but neverdo them; speaking and not doing has become ahabit with us. What is the cause of that? Physicalweakness. This sort of weak brain is not able todo anything; we must strengthen it. First of all,our young men must be strong. Religion will


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come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends;that is my advice to you. You will be nearer toHeaven through football than through the studyof the Gita. These are bold words; but I have tosay them, for I love you. I know where the shoepinches. I have gained a little experience. Youwill understand the Gita better with your biceps,your muscles, a little stronger.4

Indeed, how many diseases owe theirorigin to our lack of exercise and wrong habits!Rightly did a doctor once tell that if only allphysical exercises could be made into a ‘pill’,it would be the most prescribed of all pills!One needs both exercises and a healthy life-style to become strong and to maintain it. Wecannot ‘buy’ bodily strength from outside; wehave to make it manifest through physicalexercises and right eating habits.

A strong body includes avoiding allharmful habits such as smoking, eating junkfood and so on. One of the most importantaspects of true physical strength is the practiceof chastity. A licentious way of living can neverlead to strength. In spite of all medical andnutritional care, an indulgent life style willonly lead to weakness and dissipation. Hencethe need for self-control.

2. Buddhi Balam or strength of intellect isa special prerogative of human beings. Amongthe living beings, it is man alone who is end-owed with a superior intellect. The capacityto think is unique to man. A man can, how-ever, think great thoughts or mean thoughts.He can think positively or think negatively.He has the choice while animals have no suchchoice. Sri Ramakrishna says,

God no doubt dwells in all, but He manifestsHimself more through man than through otherbeings. Is man an insignificant thing? He canthink of God, he can think of the Infinite, whileother living beings cannot. God exists in otherliving beings—animals, plants, nay, in all be-

ings—but He manifests Himself more throughman than through these others. Fire exists in allbeings, in all things; but its presence is felt morein wood. Rama said to Lakshmana: ‘Look at theelephant, brother. He is such a big animal, buthe cannot think of God.5

To be able to think of God, or the HighestAbstraction of Truth called God, is man’s grea-test capacity. To think of God, one has tocultivate virtues such as chastity, non-violence,truthfulness, non-possessiveness, self-disci-pline and so on. To cultivate these virtues oneshould channel one’s thinking rightly.

Of course, it is man’s buddhi balamwhich brings forth advances in scientific,technological, economic, social, political andother fields. If today we are able to communi-cate and commute at great speed, it is due toscientific and technological developments. Butusing our buddhi only for external world andnot using it for improving ourselves is actuallynot a sign of right use of our buddhi. Despiteall modern advances, modern man is also anunhappy being. Wide spread violence, crime,suicides, frustration and depression are clearindications of this. How surprising it is thatwhile some people have such high IQ, theyare so poor and deficient in dealings withothers, with their family and organizationmatters! Hence, buddhi balam should be takenin its widest sense of term—i.e., using ourthinking faculty to explore newer areas ofknowledge of the external world on one hand,and taking care our character, conduct andbehaviour on other hand. Reading authenticbooks or articles and listening to inspiring talksand thinking over those life-giving ideas is agreat help in enriching one’s buddhi balam.

3. Atma Balam or spiritual strength isman’s greatest asset. The Upanishads say thata weak person cannot attain Self-realisation(nayaam atma bala hinena labhyate). Swamiji said,


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Religion is the manifestation of the naturalstrength that is in man. A spring of infinitepower is coiled up and is inside this little body,and that spring is spreading itself. And as itgoes on spreading, body after body is foundinsufficient; it throws them off and takes higherbodies. This is the history of man, of religion,civilisation, or progress.6

A spiritually strong and sound man will bestrong in every other respect, if he so wishes.7

Infinite strength is religion and God. . .8

Only the strong can be truly virtuous.One of the Sanskrit words for strength is virya.A vira-purusha (brave man) is one who hasvirya, strength. Swamiji explains,

Vira, the Sanskrit word for ‘heroic’, is the originof our word ‘virtue’, because in ancient timesthe best fighter was regarded as the mostvirtuous man.9

How does one develop spiritual stren-gth? Through living a God-centred or Atman-centred life. This means living an integratedand holistic life which includes following aroutine of meditation, prayer, japa on the oneside and adhering to moral principles or highervalues on the other. More often than not, manypeople after years of spiritual practices seemto make no progress. One of the main reasonsfor this is their lack of following virtues suchas truthfulness, non-violence, contentment,freedom from jealousy, anger, greed and soon. Swamiji also cautioned,

In religion, as in all other matters, discard every-thing that weakens you, have nothing to do withit. Mystery mongering weakens the humanbrain.10

Atma balam means deriving strengthfrom our deepest core, the atman. Atma balam

is the capacity to face life with calmness andresourcefulness. Atma balam equips one withmental and spiritual vigour to assimilate life’sgood and bad experiences and keep God oratman as the highest goal. Depending on Godor surrendering oneself to God’s Will in thetrue sense of the term is also an indication ofatma-balam. By knowing the true nature ofthe Self, one gains immense strength (atmanavindate veeryam).

Expressions of StrengthStrength should be manifested in all as-

pects of our social, economic and cultural life.We should become strong as individuals, asdescribed above, but we should also expressthis strength in our outer life as well. In socialmatters, one should express this inner strengthby holding on to healthy social practices. Ineconomics and commercial life, one shouldstick to those practises which are an expressionof our inner strength.

One’s inner strength should find itsexpression in one’s cultural and moral aspectsalso. A culture of strength is that which mani-fests this inner purity of our being, and notthe grossness of our being. A culturally strongperson will always want to listen to songs, orsee movies and plays, read a literature whichmakes him strong. If we wish to be strong, weshould always associate with those who arealready strong. The following prayer from theUpanishads is truly the ideal prayer forstrength,

Thou art Energy, impart energy unto me.Thou art Strength, impart strength unto me.Thou art Spirituality, impart spirituality unto me.Thou art Fortitude, impart fortitude unto me!11

References: 1. CW, 1: 201 2. CW, 2: 3 3. CW, 2: 201 4. CW, 3: 242 5. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, 4326. CW, 8: 185 7. CW, 1: 52 8. CW, 7: 13 9. CW, 7: 78 10. CW, 1: 134 11. CW, 6: 277


From the Archives of THE VEDANTA KESARI

S i m h â v a l o k a n a m

Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master

By Swami Saradananda

Dakshineswar

(June-July, 1920-21, pp. 97-101)

To understand the further development of Sri Ramakrishna’s life, and the opening up of anew avenue of earning for Ramkumar, we have to acquaint ourselves a little with the eventsthat were happening in a famous contemporary family at Calcutta.

At the southern end of the Indian Metropolis, in the quarter of Janbazar, there was theresidence of the famous Rani Rasamani. The Rani was widowed at the age of 40 with her fourdaughters and became the sole owner of the vast property of her husband, Raj Chandra Das.Since her husband’s demise she had been managing the estate herself. And through hernumerous philanthropic deeds and acts of charity she built up a great name and fame forherself among the residents of Calcutta. Moreover, she won the heart of many by her greatdevotion and faith, indomitable courage, unbounded sympathy for the poor and unstinted giftsof alms. An extraordinary intelligence, presence of mind, great assiduity to uphold a righteouscause, were also markedly manifest in her. These virtues and her continuous endeavour to dosome good turns to the people endeared her very much to the inhabitants of the West ofBengal. Though born of the low fisherman caste (Kaivartaka), yet by virtue of the excellencesof her head and heart, and the various good deeds, she gave a real and glorious significance toher title ‘Rani,’ and was able to earn love and regard from people of all castes,—from thehighest Brahmana downwards.

At the time we are speaking of here, all the daughters of the Rani were married and theyhad their children also. When her third daughter had departed from this world leaving behinda young son, the Rani who had a special partiality for the third son-in-law Mathuranath Biswas,thought of re-uniting him with her family by a new tie, and so she married her fourth daughterJagadamba Dasi to him. The descendants of these four daughters of the Rani are still alive inCalcutta. Rani Rasamani was particularly devoted to the Divine Mother Kali. The seal that shehad for her State business bore the words—’Srimati Rasamani Dasi, the aspirant of the grace ofKali.’ . . .

Tradition has it, that the Rani had been fostering fondly for sometime past a great desireto go to Benares once and worship the Lord Visweswara and Mother Annapurna to her heart’scontent. And for that purpose she had set apart a large amount of money also. But owing to


the fact of her great responsible work that had befallen upon her shoulder after the death ofher husband, she could not translate her pious intention into action till then. Now, all hersons-in-law had become quite capable of looking after their own, and specially her youngestson-in-law, the said Mathuranath relieved much of the burden of her shoulder by helping herin carrying out the estate business. So the Rani thought of going to Benares in the year 1255 B.S. When all arrangements for the pilgrimage were completed, on the eve of her proposedstarting she got the Pratyadesha (Divine command),—‘There is no need of your going toBenares. Erect a temple on a good site on the bank of the Ganges, install there a stone imageof Mine and make proper arrangements for the daily worship and offerings of that image.Being present in that Image I shall accept all thy worship and homage!’ The devout heart of theRani accepted the commandment in full faith; and with much joy gave up the desire of goingto Benares and resolved to utilize all the money she had set aside for the purpose to carry outthe Divine command.

. . . She bought an extensive plot of land on the eastern bank of the river Ganges andbegan to build on it a huge temple with nine towers (navaratna) and some other small templesalong with it, and laid a big garden around the temple. The work of construction was carriedon for several years till 1261 B.S. (1855 A.D.) Still it was not finally completed. But havingthought of the uncertainty of life and being eager to do the installation of the Divine Image assoon as possible, she hurried through the building work and had the Image of the DivineMother installed in the Temple on the auspicious day of 18th Jyaishtha, 1262 B.S (1855 A.D).But here our readers must know something of the incidents that led to the installation.

Either owing to a pratyadesha or through the natural inspiration of her pious heart theRani had a great mind to worship the Divine Mother with the offerings of cooked rice. Shemused that the temple was completed after her heart’s desire and she was going to endow thetemple with a large property sufficient to carry on the daily worship, yet if she could not carryon the worship and offerings as her heart desired,—if she could not offer Her, the DivineMother, the dishes of cooked rice along with the side dishes then all would be in vain. Thoughthis pious work of hers might bring to her some more name or fame,— though people mightspeak highly of the temple and her charity, yet all these were useless, she thought, as theycould not give her any true and abiding solace of life; her soul would be satisfied only whenshe could worship the Mother of the universe as her very own. And so the pious Rani kept uppraying constantly to her Ishtam, the Divine Mother, to become manifest, accept her worshipand offerings, and thus fulfil her heart’s inmost desire.

And the great barrier in her way of fulfilling that cherished intention of hers was her casteand the current custom of the society. Otherwise, the instinct of her heart never told her, shethought, for a single moment that if she were to offer dishes of cooked rice to the DivineMother, She would refuse, the offering, when the very idea of making such an offering bringsan elation of her heart with joy! Had it been sinful it would have brought in its train a feeling

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of dejection and gloom only! Then, who could have been the originator of this un-humanecustom! And why? Is Shastra the promulgator? Could it be then that the author of the Shastraswas so heartless as to give sanction to such custom? or, perhaps certain selfish motives mighthave prompted him to reserve such high privileges only for the highest caste, even in mattersrelated to religion and spirituality? If it were so, away with such Shastras; no need with suchShastras for her! She would follow the promptings of her own heart in this matter. Yet, shemeditated, that would not bring a satisfactory solution of the problem. If she were to go againstthe current custom of the land, none of Brahmin devotees, Sadhus and good people wouldcome to her temple and partake of the food offered to the Goddess. That itself was a matter ofgreat disconsolation! So, to find a way out—a satisfactory solution of all these difficulties thatarose in her mind in connection with the installation of the Divine Image and the properconducting of its worship and offerings—the Rani sent for the opinions of all great Pundits andscholars of the land, yet none of these opinions she received was after her liking.

In the mean time the constructions of the temple and the Image were completed andwere ready for installation, yet she found no hope of fulfilment of her heart’s desire. All thePundits of the country gave their opinion in one accord to the effect that a Sudra had no rightto offer cooked rice to the Deity. And when all hope of hers in the matter was about to flickerout, there came the scholarly opinion from the Chatuspathi at Jhamapukur saying that if theRani could dedicate the temple to any Brahmana before the installation of the Image and if thesaid Brahmana would have the installation done in his name and make arrangements for theoffering of cooked rice then there would be no infringement of the mandates of the Shastras,and all the upper castes like Brahmanas, could partake of the offerings without being degradedfor the same.

This opinion of Ramkumar [the elder brother of Sri Ramakrishna; who taught at Chatuspathiat Jhamapukur] revived again the withered hope of the Rani and she thought of dedicating thewhole of the temple and the temple property in the name of her Guru and then to remainherself as an agent of his to look after the proper management and worship of the temple.Next, she sent round the opinion of Ramkumar Bhattacharjee to other eminent pundits also forcriticism and none of them said that the opinion was against any Shastraic injunctions, althoughit might be opposed to the current customs.

We can well understand that the above incident must have attracted the Rani’s attentionparticularly towards Ramkumar. And in truth in those days, when Brahmins, the leaders ofthe society, were so narrow-minded and immured within the walls of bigotry, that few ofthem could see a broad purpose in the words of the scriptures and accordingly give religiousadvice suiting to the occasion, it was no small measure of catholicity on the part of Ramkumarto give the above kind of opinion on the present occasion which solved the difficulties sosatisfactorily.

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Swami Vivekananda’s Voice Recording?A note on voice recordings of speeches given at

the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893

M S NANJUNDIAH

A long-standing devotee of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri M.S. Nanjundiah from Bangalore worked in the World Bank atWashington D.C., USA for about sixteen years, and held the positions of Financial Adviser and SeniorOperations Adviser. Prior to joining the World Bank he was a Senior Officer in the Ministry of Railways and laterin the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs Department. His deep association with Ramakrishna Movement ledto the publication of A Spiritual Centre Blossoms—a large volume chronicling the 100-year history ofRamakrishna Math, Bull Temple Road, Bangalore.

The Much-asked QuestionThe much-asked question whether there

are any voice recordings of any of the speechesof Swami Vivekananda at the Chicago Parlia-ment of Religions in 1893 has been investigatedby the author. Swami Chidananda of theVivekananda Vedanta Society, Chicago, indi-cated to the author that he had made enquiriesand found that there were no such recordings.Swami Chetanananda of the Vedanta Societyof St. Louis also followed up this matter andcorresponded with the Chicago HistoricalSociety (Archives and Manuscripts) and theLibrary of Congress, as suggested by theHistorical Society. The conclusion was thatthere were no such recordings.

Marie Louise Burke, the well-knownresearcher on Swamiji’s visits to the West, whodiscussed this matter with Swami Prabha-nanda, the present General Secretary ofRamakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission,during her visit to Belur Math in January 1994,also indicated something similar. She told himthat according to two historians who havespecialised in that period of American Historyand also according to her own searches, Swami

Vivekananda’s speech was not recorded dur-ing the Parliament of Religions.

The author also directly corresponded byemail with the Research Wing of the ChicagoHistorical Society, and the Art Institute Archi-ves, Chicago. They have confirmed to the

author that there are no recordings available;the Art Institute archives also said, ‘There is noindication that any voice recordings were made atthe Congress’. This is understandable consi-dering the limitation of technology in thosedays.

Edison Home Phonograph


Some Findings by the AuthorThe author has reviewed the position re-

garding the technology available in US in 1893for voice recording and the manner in whichthe recordings were made—record makingrequired the person to speak into a mouthpieceattached to a diaphragm which was connectedto a stylus that etched vibration patterns froma sound source on a rotating cylinder (TheBerliner Gramophone, which could record ondiscs for 2 minutes only, became popular inUSA only in 1894). Only ‘two minute’ cylinderswere in use and these could record for only 2 to 3minutes. Recordings outside studios were notpracticable; getting an acceptable qualityinvolved a lot of effort even in studios. In viewof the limitations of the technology, a recordingof the sessions at the Parliament of Religionsin 1893 would not have happened.

It appears that there is a voice recordingnow being circulated on Internet and else-

where as Swamiji’s voice. This is unfortunate.The recording includes not only the first add-ress but other addresses as well and runs forseveral minutes; such recordings were notfeasible, for the reasons indicated above.

Also one recording that is circulating hasa lady introducing Swami Vivekananda. Thisshows it is not genuine. Swami Vivekanandahimself has said in a letter written to AlasingaPerumal [an admirer of Swamiji from Madras]on 2 November 1893 that Dr Barrows intro-duced him; also that the applause after hisopening statement, ‘Sisters and Brothers. . . ’lasted two minutes. The applause in the record-ing is only a few seconds. There is another as-pect. Recordings of that era (such as Edisoncylinder recordings) when retrieved after manyyears have an ‘accumulated noise’ which, ifremoved, will distort the sound; the recordingunder circulation has no such noise. It cannot,therefore, be an authentic recording.

Cylinder recorder Edison Recording Cylinder

‘Sisters and Brothers of America,It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial

welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order ofmonks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank youin the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. . .’

—Swami Vivekananda, in his opening address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions, 1893

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An Event in the Court of JanakaSWAMI GOLOKANANDA

A senior monk of the Ramakrishna Order, the author is the Head of Ramakrishna Math, Thiruvalla, Kerala.

The Great ChallengeJanaka, the King of Videha, was a cele-

brated king and a knower of Truth. A greatscholar himself, he used to promote philo-sophical learning through frequently helddiscussions and debates in his court. Scholarsparticipated in these sessions and were hon-oured with precious gifts.

Once Janaka performed a Vedic sacrifice(yajna). Learned men from neighbouringcountries were also invited to participate inthe various rituals of this elaborate ceremony.As part of the sacrifice, a debate on a Vedictheme was held in the king’s palace. The kingannounced a fabulous gift of one thousandcows with their horns adorned with gold tothe person who would emerge victorious inthe debate.

The announcement sent a flutter of exci-tement in the court. To the courtiers’ surprise,one of the learned sages stood up and orderedhis disciples to drive the prize home to hishermitage. It was Yajnavalkya, the venerablesage, who gave this order. Expectedly therewas loud protest from the assembly, for thecompetition had not even started when theprize was claimed. With utmost self-con-fidence Yajnavalkya saluted the assembly ofgreat scholars and justified his claim with theplea that he was in need of the cows!

[A narrative based on the Antaryami Brahmana, i.e. the seventh Brahmana of the thirdchapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad]

Janaka intervened and requested Ash-wala, the chief priest of the sacrifice, to beginthe debating session by asking appropriatequestions. The questions were addressed toYajnavalkya to gauge his understanding ofGod, Nature and the soul by the learnedassembly. Among the questioners was, inte-restingly enough, Gargi, the great sage’s wifeherself.

The questions were subtle and intricateand the answers pithy, precise and sagacious.It was a highly enriching experience for thelisteners who were thrilled by the confidentanswers of Yajnavalkya highlighted by hispleasant eloquence.

After answering queries from manyscholars, then rose Uddalaka, a well-knownscholar, to question Yajnavalkya. He began byrecalling an incident wherein he and his guruwas asked by a Gandharva (a demigod): ‘Didthey know about the Sutra [-atma], the threadthat strings together everything in this uni-verse—you and me, the multitude of worldsand every particle therein?’ Neither Guru norhis disciples were aware of it.

Gandharva’s next question was: ‘Thereexists an Antaryami [Inner Controller] in everything, in every constituent of this world andthe next, controlling all; do you know Him?’Again the teacher and pupils had to own igno-


15

rance. The Gandharva then explained to themthe meaning of his riddles.

He assured them that the one who knewthe answers to his questions was the wisest ofthe wise, the knower of all, and a realized soul.Uddalaka was, thus, in possession of thesupreme knowledge and with that confidencehe asked Yajnavalkya if he knew that Sutraand Antaryami and warned him of seriousconsequences if he claimed the prize withoutknowing the right answer.

The repeated warnings and forthrightmanner would have baffled an ordinary per-son but Yajnavalkya was unruffled. Calm andcomposed, he faced Uddalaka and said, ‘Vayuis the Sutra by which all things are strungtogether. Everything gets loosened in a deadperson when this Sutra vanishes. Vayu acts asa string holding together every aspect of thisworld and the next.’ Uddalaka exclai-med his approval and Yajnavalkya went on todescribe the Inner Controller of all.

The Inner ControllerBefore we try to understand the highly

philosophical exposition of Yajnavalkya, let ustry to understand how Vayu or Prana holdsthe world together.

There is a mango tree in our courtyardthat presents us with delicious fruit every year.It is a marvel to watch it in spring, its boughsweighed down with honeyed blossom and tinygreen fruit. It spreads its cool shade in thecourtyard and dances to our delight in thebreeze. But to us the ripe juicy fruit is whatthe tree means and we are apt to forget thatevery part of the tree is equally important toits system and has its function and value. Ifthe fruit nourishes many of the animalkingdom, the leaves breathe for all livingbeings. The bees and the birds and the manyinsects crawling on its rough bark, bear witness

to the multifarious purposes of the tree. Whichpart of the mango tree can be considered non-essential to the tree? Is there any part that canbe separated from the basic essence of the tree?No, because the essence dwells in every partof the mango tree. It is in the fruit, it is in theflower, it is in the leaf and the trunk. It existseverywhere, as the form and the body, as itstrue being or essence. Thus the tree dwells inevery part and controls each part from within.It manifests itself as the vital principle of eachpart to retain and develop its identity. This istrue of all living phenomena in nature inclu-ding human beings.

We possess the senses of action andperception, the mind and the intellect and allexternal and internal organs of the body. Inspite of their varied functions, they are allcoordinated into the main function of keepingthe living being happy.

This being, that is made happy, is notdifferent from its parts, which work hard tocreate happiness for it. Thus the doer andenjoyer can be understood as one and thesame.

When we open our eyes to the worldaround us, we are amazed by the beauty andgrandeur of multifaceted nature. The infiniteblue sky, the unfathomable oceans and thedark pathless forests are drawn in by our hun-gry eyes but it is not the eye that sees theseshapes and colours, but it is the brain with itswonderful mechanism endowed with itspower to identify, select and utilize what itrequires, that makes the process of seeingpossible. But the brain is not the decidingfactor in seeing what it sees. There is a seerbehind the brain, the Self. It is in the brain butis not of the brain.

The same holds good for the ear. Theworld of sounds vibrates into our being. Thelaughter of children, words of love, and bursts


16

of thunder thrill our heart. The flow of variousragas in music can carry us into our innerrecesses, away from the humdrum world. Itis not the ear that really hears. The outer eargathers sounds and conveys it to the hearingfaculty seated in the brain. The brain in itsturn listens to and obeys the Inner Controllerwho dwells in hiding.

It is the Inner Controller who is withinthe eye but hides himself from the eye, saysYajnavalkya; his body is the eye and yet theeye knows him not; his body is the ear andyet the ear knows him not; he is the awarenessthat governs seeing and hearing and indeed,all perception. In his eloquent address the greatsage covers all the modes of sensory perceptionand action: seeing; hearing; smelling, taste andspeech and turns to the mind which is theconfluence of all senses. It functions in all statesof awareness waking, dreaming or sleeping.The enormous data fed into it is processed toplan various courses of action not by the minditself but the Inner Controller, whom the minddoes not know.

The Epicentre of Human PersonalityThe intellect is the supreme faculty of

the human being and is what distinguishesman from the other animals. It is also, in turn,controlled by the Inner Controller, but theintellect knows him not. The Inner Controlleris the ‘I’, the Self proclaimed by the Upani-shads who is in each of the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—which consti-tute nature and makes it possible for every-thing to work, but is unaffected by nature.

This ‘I’, which is the epicentre of thehuman being, is the epicentre of the elementalworld as well. Each of the five elements ofNature has its own distinctive character and

function. It is the combination and recombi-nation of these elements that give rise to thedazzling variety of form in this phenomenalworld. But as Yajnavalkya describes in hissuccinct, poetic manner, each and every formand each constituent element is controlled bythe Inner Controller, omniscient and omni-present, yet unseen and unheard.

The one whose body is darkness, yetwhom darkness does not know; the one whosebody is light, yet whom light does not know—it is the same being that dwells within us,guiding us, being our very essence, yet remainshidden from our mortal understanding. All-pervasive and all-permeate, it remains the oneand only reality; nothing in the universe isseparate from it. Thus the Inner Controller isthe Sutra that runs through everything, like astring through a garland, interconnecting boththe physical and the spiritual, making themthe organs of one body.

Uddalaka and the entire assembly ofscholars listened to the brilliant exposition ofYajnavalkya and they were convinced of hisunparalleled wisdom. They cheered him andhe was requested to take to his hermitage thewinning prize for the debate.

What Yajnavalkya expounded in Janaka’scourt is the greatest of teachings. All matter istransient and perishable, but the reality thatmanifests itself through each and every formis imperishable and eternal. It is the Essenceof our being, of every being. It is what theUpanishads call Brahman. Verily all this isBrahman. This Self ‘is all in all, and none elseexists,’ as Swami Vivekananda too said.

It is love and love alone that I preach, and I basemy teaching on the great Vedantic truth of thesameness and omnipresence of the Soul of theUniverse.

MM


Disaster Relief: Valuable ExperiencesSWAMI SUVIRANANDA

The author is Assistant Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math. The following articleis based on his talk given at a seminar on disaster management held in Kolkata in February 2010.

The Ideal of ServiceIt is more than a century since Rama-

krishna Math and Mission started conductingrelief and rehabilitation services in the wakeof disasters—natural or man-made, givingsolace to thousands of victims. The Rama-krishna Math and Mission carry on their reliefactivities whenever and wherever there is acall to do it—be it floods, earthquake, cyclone,fire and so on. The monks and volunteers ofthe Math and Mission have been doing thissacred task with all sincerity and solemnity.As their activities are spread all over our vastcountry, many people fail to see the vastnessof the work that the Math and Mission havebeen carrying on uninterruptedly and silently.The flame of our relief services lit by SwamiAkhandananda—a disciple of Sri Ramakrishna—under the guidance and inspiration ofSwami Vivekananda, is still ablaze.

Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Viveka-nanda elevated all works to the level ofworship. One may recall here the incidentwherein Sri Ramakrishna spoke of service toman as equal to worship of God (shiva jnanejiva seva). ‘Each soul is potentially divine,’ saidSwami Vivekananda. He says elsewhere, ‘Heprayeth best who loveth best all creatures—both great and small.’ The Taittiriya Upanishadexhorts, ‘One should give with shraddha orrespectfulness.’ This attitude is an importantcomponent of all relief works. The respectful-

ness or shraddha also automatically bringsforth the best of quality in all service activities,under any given circumstances, for the giver,and for the receiver, an immense sense of relief.

Thus monks and brahmacharins, as wellas the devotees and volunteers, of the Rama-krishna Order carry on their service activitieswith this idea of inherent divinity of man astheir ideal. All our activities are hence a serviceof God in man, whether it is teaching in aschool or cooking a meal in a kitchen or ren-dering relief work and other service activities.

This is a reiteration of what Adi Shan-karacharya says: ‘Jivas or living beings are veri-table manifestations of Brahman or God.’ Inour relief work the sacred and the secularmerge into one. This is why our relief-servicesare held in so high esteem by the public atlarge. Be it an earthquake in Srinagar or a tsu-nami in Kanyakumari, be it a earthquak inGujarat or a fire in Arunachal Pradesh, theMission has always tried to provide relief andsuccour to the affacted people without anydistinction, and that has won the hearts of allconcerned.

In recent years, two major relief activitieswere undertaken: Aila cyclone relief, and theflood relief in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.As an instance, let us have a look at the Ailacyclone relief to get an idea of the relief acti-vities carried out by the Ramakrishna Mathand Mission.


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Aila Cyclone ReliefThe Aila cyclone struck the eastern coast

of India and parts of Bangladesh on 25 May2009. It left behind in its trail a gruesomespectacle of death and devastation, misery anddestitution in the Sundarban area of WestBengal and adjoining parts of Bangladesh.

The Ramakrishna Mission immediatelytook steps to organise primary relief on a vastscale with volunteers and monks on 26 Mayitself. It was done through six of our centres.Later on the headquarters (i.e. Belur Math) andfour more centres also joined the relief opera-tions. Three of these centres served cookedfood to the victims for about a month, whilein Bangladesh, our Dhaka centre rendered ex-tensive relief in two districts.

To give an idea of what was distributedto the affected people, here are some figures(for the sake of easy reading, we give here roundedoff figures).

More than 1,06,300 families of 450villages were the beneficiaries:

5,00,000 plates of cooked food, 1,50,000 kg chira,90,000 kg rice, 15,000 kg gur, 11,000 kg sugar,

11,000 kg dal, 15,000 kg other eatables, 36,000litres drinking water, 43,00,000 halogen tablets,1,40,000 ORS packets, 34,000 saris, 15,000 dhotis,20,000 other clothes, 1000 bales of used clothes,19,000 kg bleaching powder, 7600 kg lime, 71,100utensils, 17,000 mosquito-nets, 17,000 textbooks,6400 tarpaulins, 6200 hygiene kits, 3000 solarlanterns, and so on.

As a part of primary relief, 20,900 pati-ents were treated through our medical camps.Besides, we installed a drinking-water storage-tank at a Primary Health Centre (PHC) ofSouth 24-Parganas, supplied 1200 litres ofwater per day from it for one month to thepatients. It also helped improve sanitationfacilities and hygiene condition of the PHC,installed solid and liquid waste managementpits and bio-medical disposal pits at the PHC.We also installed 56 water purification plantsin affected areas. One of our centres sunk adeep tube-well, and is continuing its work on5 more tube wells—each having about 900 feetdepth and a 7-foot high platform.

With our speedboats, we were able toreach many interior places for conducting

Glimpses of various distress relief operations by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission


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survey and relief distribution. In many places,Ramakrishna Mission’s relief was first to reachthe helpless victims. The team members of ourAila-relief carried on their relief works withgreat resourcefulness, at times risking theirlives. The Ministry of Disaster Management,Government of India, had sent a team to assessthe extent of damage, etc., in the Aila-affectedareas. The following excerpts [translated fromBengali] from the Ananda Bazar Patrika (apopular Bengali daily from Kolkata) of the 9June, 2009, page 6, says it all:

The Aila-affected people of Sandesh-khali-I blockreported to the team of observers, ‘There wasno sign of relief from the Govt. for the last sevendays. Basically, the people are surviving becauseof the food and water provided by RamakrishnaMission.’

Organising Relief Operations: SomeSuggestions

As noted above, for more than a centuryRamakrishna Mission has been in the field ofrelief and rehabilitation and received accoladesfor its efficiency and dedication.

In this context, however, one needs toask: has there been any significant change inthe situation with regard to the challengecaused by natural and man-made disasters andthe relief work all these years? Could we reallycontain these disasters? Has any mechanismbeen evolved to minimize sufferings?

The answer is both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’.‘Yes’, because a new sense of social res-

ponsibility has been visualized now. TheGovernment has now a department for Disa-ster Management with several administrativepowers and resources.

But the answer to this vexed question isalso ‘No’. Despite all improvements, we as anation have not been able make much head-way either to minimize the possibility of dis-

aster nor could we mitigate the sufferings ofthe victims promptly and effectively. Themagnitude of the problem, however, is sostupendous that a small group of individualsor a particular section of society cannot tackleit alone. It calls for an all-out effort by everyoneconcerned.

Thanks to the dedicated work done bynumerous monks and volunteers over theyears, the Ramakrishna Mission has gatheredvaluable experience in this field. It has enabledthe Mission to develop a methodology bywhich relief services can be organised in aneffective and efficient manner at a short notice.Let us have a look at some of the recent reliefoperations done by the Mission. We feel thatmany government, semi-government and non-government agencies can derive some lessonsfrom our experiences.

1. Organising Mega Camps: In 2009, inBihar, the large-scale erosion causing changein the course of Kosi River left a trail of un-imaginable devastation of a very large scaleover vast stretches. It rendered lakhs of peoplehomeless and hapless. The government anddifferent political parties arranged mega reliefcamps, wherein lakhs of people took shelterand everyday their food, medicines, expectantmothers’ delivery cases, students’ education,etc., were systematically taken care of. Theyrequested us not to serve food to them butinstead give other essentials, and accordingly,we distributed large quantities of utensils,clothes, blankets and similar items.

If it was possible in Bihar, it should havealso been possible to set up similar megacamps in West Bengal during the devastatingAila cyclone. Had such large camps were tobe arranged after the Aila cyclone in WestBengal, then lakhs of victims, who did nothave anything for days, could have been pro-perly fed, clothed and sheltered.


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Small NGOs and groups of persons, whowere ill-equipped to handle bigger challenges,could provide relief according to their capa-cities in the mega camp itself. Small groupswere observed to distribute the relief items toAila victims in the roadsides, as they couldnot go into the interiors. Again, not being ableto distribute the relief item, it was even foundthat in a marketplace, the relief items weredumped and left behind by some group!

2. Supply of Essential Commodities: Assoon as there is a calamity, there is a man-made shortage of essential relief materials.Items such as halogen tablets [used fordisinfecting water], chira, sugar, cooking oiland so on become unavailable. For instance,after the Aila cyclone, it was such a difficulttask to get, even by paying money, requiredquantity of kerosene oil for our speedboats insome areas in West Bengal. Again, duringfloods and cyclones, scarcity of drinking wateris the main issue to be tackled. All thoseengaged in such operations should take specialnote of this fact and try to keep the flow ofessential commodities uninterrupted.

3. The Need for Basic Infrastructure:Even after seven days of Aila cyclone, deadbodies, both human and animal, were foundto be floating in rivers. It was pathetic to notethat even in villages there was no one to clearthem. Electric supply, telephonic communi-cation, clearance of debris from the main roadsand similar infrastructure are basic to conduc-ting any relief operation. After a cyclone, thesethings remain hampered for weeks in someplaces. If the local government officials suchas Gram Panchayat workers can monitor theseissues and direct the corresponding personnelto set right these on war-footing, it would beof immense help.

4. Accessing interior places: Even afterabout 3 weeks of Aila cyclone, the victims of

Hingalganj, near the Bangladesh border, couldnot get any relief either from the governmentor any NGO. The interior areas were verydifficult to reach; it took us about 7 or 8 hoursby road and water to reach there. We had tocope with the problems like lack of electricityand water supply, and flood-born infectionsbesides risking one’s life. The relief work wenton for about a month. If the government bodiessuch as Gram Panchayats can monitor the net-work of relief operation during such times,then the interior places will not go unattendedlike this.

5. Provision of Speedboats: During thefloods, it is always difficult to get launches orboats for conducting survey and for trans-porting the relief items. For example, duringflood relief 2007, in one place in Hooghlydistrict, only after much trouble we could getboats for our use. Such issues dissipate pre-cious time and energy during these hours ofcrisis. If the state governments can direct therespective departments to assist relief workersby arranging boats, it will be greatly beneficial.

6. River Dredging: Unplanned develop-ments, lopsided growth of certain pockets andecological imbalance often contribute tonatural disasters. For instance, floods havebecome almost an annual ritual in cities andvillages of West Bengal (such as Howrah andMalda districts), causing lakhs of people suffereach time. Often problems arise due to weakembankments, faulty designs, improper con-struction, poor maintenance or unplannedrelease of water from dams. One vital measureto check floods is periodical dredging of rivers.Similarly, in cities, drainage system also shouldbe regularly cleared. After the Mumbai floodduring 2005-06, the Maharashtra governmenttook steps in this direction and it proved help-ful. Why not similar steps be taken activelyelsewhere?


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7. Shelter Houses: After the Orissa super-cyclone in 1999, we constructed 6 school-cum-cyclone-shelters in Kanaguli and Kotangareas. The inspiration to do this was drawnfrom the construction of a shelter-house beforethe cyclone by the Red Cross Society whichsaved thousands of lives during the calamity.The government should take up similarprojects in flood or cyclone prone areas.

8. Rehabilitation Work: While conduc-ting various rehabilitation projects in the ruralareas, our experience is that in order tomaximize the involvement of the beneficiariesas well as to overcome the problems, BuildYour Own House Scheme is the best way. It hasbeen put into practice in several parts of thecountry with great success. Such a schemebrings the beneficiaries a sense of belongingfor their homes; it also ensures proper use andmaintenance of the houses. Small groups ofpersons or organisations with their limitedresources should be especially encouraged totake it up.

9. Feelings for the Victims: Most impor-tant of all is the sincere and spontaneousfeeling for the victims. If sincerity is wanting,then the whole exercise will be a mere howlingwithout any flavour of the soul. One instancein this regard will make the whole thing clear.We at the Ramakrishna Mission receive hugequantities of used garments during large-scalerelief activities like cyclone and flood. Some-times, we find truckloads of such clothes sodirty and torn that we just cannot give themto the victims at all! It appears that the donorssend these clothes to cleanse their ward-robes,as it were, and not out of any genuine feelingfor the victims!

Swami Vivekananda had this all-encom-passing feeling which made him utter at oneplace:

The poor, the low, the sinner in India have nofriends, no help—they cannot rise, try howeverthey may. They sink lower and lower every day,they feel the blows showered upon them by acruel society and they do not know whence theblow comes.

At another place he said,Feel, my children, feel; feel for the poor, theignorant, the downtrodden; feel till the heartstops and the brain reels and you think you willgo mad . . .

The service activities started by SwamiVivekananda were born out of this feeling.

We should try to cultivate sympatheticfeeling for the needy, by trying to help themto remove their wants, wherever and when-ever possible—not with the spirit of doingmercy but with a spirit of service. We shouldfeel obliged to the beneficiaries for giving usthe opportunity to serve them.

ConclusionRamakrishna Mission has won the admi-

ration of people for its relief work because ofits quality of service, transparency in utilisationof funds and catholicity in serving people fromall sections of society without the slightestconsideration of caste, creed, religion, genderor complexion. But all voluntary organisations,however big they may be, have their limita-tions. It cannot cover the entire area of disaster,but can play an important role in its limitedarea. We need everyone’s involvement.

Seminars and conferences on disastermanagement are surely noble endeavours.Though they bring greater understanding,better planning, and effective implementationof relief operation, one should always keepthe spirit of doing such activities—serving theGod in man—to make them effective andmeaningful. t t


Mary Tappan Wright:Swamiji’s first Western Chronicler

SOMENATH MUKHERJEE

PreludeWhenever one thinks of Swami Viveka-

nanda’s advent in the West, instant inference,more often than not, goes to the inaugural dayof the Chicago Parliament of Religions. Sounique was the occasion, so enormous wasthe incident, be in its ceremonial splendour orin its historical impact, the overriding prioritycould hardly be escaped. This has, obviously,eclipsed an unmistakable but hitherto lesserdiscussed stride the Swami unknowingly, or,perhaps, providentially, took a fortnight beforethe religious parliament began.

It all started at Annisquam, which, asLouise Burke writes, is ‘a popular and picture-sque little seaside resort village on Cape Annsome forty miles northeast of Boston.’ Butbefore we talk about what started in that littlesea village, a small account of how Viveka-nanda went there has its obvious preference.

The DiversionWhen Swamiji reached Chicago, the

Parliament of Religions was one and halfmonth away. But he was without proper intro-ductory reference to become a delegate and,more so, time for becoming a delegate waswell over. With utter dismay he looked for apossible way out. But with fund as little as hehad, it was difficult to search for an alternative

in a costly city like Chicago. He rememberedthe invitation he received from a lady of Boston

while both were on the Atlantic Expressjourneying from Vancouver to Winnipeg. TheSwami decided to accept the invitation, and,eventually, became a guest in Kate Sanborn’sfarm house at Breezy Meadows, Massa-chusetts. Without going into what exactlyhappened during his one and half week’s stayat Breezy Meadows, we shall, albeit briefly,

The author is engaged in research work on the life of Swami Vivekananda under instruction and guidance of theSwami Vivekananda Archives, Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, Kolkata.

Swami Vivekananda in America


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look into the unique role of New England inAmerica’s cultural and intellectual heritage.

The US history is indelibly influenced byNew England, which includes the regions ofthe northeastern United States, viz., the statesof Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa-chusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. TheEncyclopaedia Britannica, equating the NewEngland Renaissance with that of the Ameri-can one, writes:

During the 17th century the [New England]population’s high esteem for an educated clergyand enlightened leadership encouraged thedevelopment of public schools as well as suchinstitutions of higher learning as Harvard (1636)and Yale (1701). . . Its patriots played leadingroles in establishing the new nation of the UnitedStates of America . . . From the 1830s roughlyuntil the end of the American Civil War. . . theliterary scene of the period was dominated by agroup of New England writers. . . They werearistocrats, steeped in foreign culture, active asprofessors at Harvard College. . .

Initial difficulties, therefore, took theSwami to Massachusetts where, as a guest of

Kate Sanborn, he found himself surroundedby a few of the fine specimens of New Englandintellectuality. At that exact moment JohnHenry Wright, a famed scholar and Professorof the Harvard University, was vacationingwith his family at Annisquam, a place close toBreezy Meadows as well. The Wrights and theSanborns were mutually known, and the newsof one ‘phenomenal’ monk staying at BreezyMeadows could, somehow, reach the Wrights.Thus on 24 August 1893 Prof. Wright came tomeet the Swami who at that very moment wasaway in Boston. Unsuccessful in his endeavour,Prof. Wright went back, leaving an invitationwelcoming Swamiji to spend the weekend ashis guest at Annisquam. Swamiji respondedto this warm invitation. The Parliament ofReligions was exactly two weeks away.

The Resort that Welcomed a MonkAnnisquam during the days of Swami

Vivekananda, as is available in a book writtenin 1897, was as under:

A square old-fashioned house, with a centralchimney, stands atthe beginning of thewinding countryroad to Annisquam.This is a quiet littlehaven, sheltered bygranite hills that risesteeply between itand the sea, on oneside, and boulderstrewn cape hills, onthe other. No matterhow the wind mayblow outside, thelittle cove is placid.The houses aremostly snug cotta-ges, many of themvery picturesque.

A recent photograph of erstwhile Miss Lane's Boarding Housewhere Swamiji stayed during his first visit to Annisquam


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Here and there is a mouldering boat by adecrepit wharf, or a dory drawn up on a float,or an old fashioned well—in fact, the placeabounds in artistic bits of foreground…Past thepost-office and school, the road turns at the headof the harbour to the west side of the hill, wherethere is a summer settlement by Cambridgepeople.1

Referring to such setting Elva Nelson, inher article ‘Footnotes on Swami Vivekanandain Annisquam’ in Prabuddha Bharata of June1979, writes,

Such a setting attracted. . . the artistes. . . theycame with their camp stools and yellow um-brellas and used to dot the landscape. . . Severalsmall wooden hotels were built and by the timeof Swami Vivekananda’s visit, the villagers hadturned their residences into boarding houses forthe summer visitors.

They came from various parts of the East and asfar away as Chicago. So many came fromCambridge…They were not only artistes, but

professors, clergymen, and writers, many withtheir families.’2

And so, with his wife, Mary, two sons,Austin, and John, and daughter Elizabeth,there came John Henry Wright. Quoting theCape Ann Weekly Advertiser of June 23, ElvaNelson informs us that the Wright family hadarrived in Annisquam on 17 June 1893. Theywere staying in a small summer cottage adja-cent to Miss Lane’s boarding house called ‘TheLodge.’3

Responding to my queries StephanieBuck, the Librarian/Archivist of the Cape AnnHistorical Museum, has advised that ‘the totalpopulation (residents) of Gloucester in 1893was 26,000. The subdivision (village) knownas Annisquam probably contained around5,000.’

With such backdrop Vivekananda, on 25August 1897, Friday, had made his entry atAnnisquam. The Cape Ann Breeze of August25, as cited by Elva Nelson, writes that on thatday ‘the wind has blown all day in strongsweeping gusts…and the rain has droppeddown by intervals. There isn’t a hint of sum-mer abroad…We ought to be basking inAugust sunshine, instead of shivering inNovember weather.’4 His host, Prof. JohnHenry Wright, had accommodated Swamiji atthe ‘Charlotte Lane’s boarding house locatedat 8 Arlington Street. A spacious house withabout ten rooms, its grounds ran down toLobster Cove.’ Citing the Gloucester Daily Timesof July 10, 1893, Elva Nelson also writes thatMiss Lane ‘had no need to advertise her well-known private boarding house.’5

While researching for this article, it couldbe known that ‘8 Arlington Street became themost popular summer boardinghouse in Anni-squam. Miss Lane catered to professors,authors and artists, and she always had a longwaiting list. . . Miss Charlotte Lane, the ownerCharlotte Lane


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of the boarding house, was ‘a little bit of wo-man, full of vitality, she was held in high este-em by the entire community and was affectio-nately called “Aunt Tot” by everyone in thevillage. Children and adults alike were drawnto her by her warmth and her friendly interest.’It was her difficulty in maintaining ‘the spaci-ous house with its large rooms and wide vera-ndas and its sizeable plot of land’6 which ulti-mately had led her to open the boarding house.

As regards the building’s remarkability,it is learnt that

this is one of the most striking Greek Revivalhouse in Annisquam both for its setting anddesign. . . The first wing appears to be originalto the house and has an entablature framearound the entry. The second may date fromlater in the 19th century. This is the Capt. OliverG. Lane house. It was built at the height of theship building industry in Annisquam during thelate 1820’s and early 1830’s. Local histories wereunclear as to whether the house was built byO.G. Lane, senior or O.G. Lane, junior. Both weresuccessful sea captains; however, it appears thatLane, junior was quite active in Church affairsand had a great concern for the social welfare ofAnnisquam. The house remained in the Lanefamily until the 1920’s.7

Advising me about its present state,Stephanie Buck of the Cape Ann Historical

Museum has written that the ‘Charlotte Lane’sBoarding House is a private residence ownedby people from Lincoln, Mass. I presume theyuse it as a summer home.’

However, with the Swami well settled atAnnisquam for the weekend, we may, for awhile, be attentive to one remarkable lady; hermaiden name was Mary Tappan. She deservesour close attention, for hers is the first chronicleof Swamiji in the West. In the few pages ofher personal diary, and, as also, in letters shewrote to her mother, Mary Tappan had recor-ded the story of an unknown Indian monk.With keen foresight and accuracy she toldthings about the Swami which in later dayswere echoed on umpteen times by people andpress across the globe. But such notableobservations were by no means accidental oran outcome of a fluke. It came not only fromthe pen of an erudite Harvard professor’s wife,but also from someone who in her own timewas a noted writer in America. Besides, priorto her marriage, Mary Tappan had a NewEngland ancestry of impeccable erudition andaristocracy. And without knowing the exactperson and prudence behind the chronicle, wewould never know how an unknown youngmonk, even less than a month of his arrival,was first evaluated in the US.

(To be continued. . .)

1. Romance and Reality of the Puritan Coast – ByEdmund Henry Garrett (Little Brown & Co.,Boston, 1897) page 217, available at http://www.archive.org/stream/romancerealityp01garrgoog/romancerealityp01garrgoog_djvu.txt > accessed12 December 2009.

2. ‘Footnotes on Swami Vivekananda in Annis-quam’ [hereinafter Footnotes] in Prabuddha Bharataof June 1979, p. 250

3. Footnotes, p. 251.4. Ibid 5. Ibid

6. Annisquam (Peaceful Harbour), by Lydia PrescottThayer (Cape Ann Ticket and Label Company,222, Eastern Avenue, Gloucester, Massachusetts –01930-1361. Proprietor : Mr. Richard W. Tarr.1994), page 61. Made available by the Cape AnnHistorical Museum, 27 Pleasant Street Gloucester,MA 01930.

7. As per Architectural Survey done in 1985 onCharlotte Lane’s Boarding House Building, thereport of which has been made available to me bythe Cape Ann Historical Museum.

References


Swami Vivekananda was a great storyteller. His talks andwritings are interspersed with numerous anecdotes, examples, similes, and

illustrations mirroring his vast knowledge of human nature—its potential and its relativelimitations. Some of these stories are well known, many others are little known. Wepresent here some more of these insightful stories, selected from his Complete Works.

XXXXXVIII

I began by telling you that the Maha-bharata is one of the greatest books in theworld and consists of about a hundredthousand verses in eighteen Parvans, orvolumes.

To return to our main story. We left thePandava brothers in exile. Even there theywere not allowed to remain unmolested fromthe evil plots of Duryodhana; but all of themwere futile.

A story of their forest life, I shall tell youhere. One day the brothers became thirsty inthe forest. Yudhishthira bade his brother,Nakula, go and fetch water. He quickly proce-eded towards the place where there was waterand soon came to a crystal lake, and was aboutto drink of it, when he heard a voice utterthese words: ‘Stop, O child. First answer myquestions and then drink of this water.’ ButNakula, who was exceedingly thirsty, dis-regarded these words, drank of the water, andhaving drunk of it, dropped down dead. AsNakula did not return, King Yudhish-thira told Sahadeva to seek his brother andbring back water with him. So Sahadevaproceeded to the lake and beheld his brotherlying dead. Afflicted at the death of his brotherand suffering severely from thirst, he wenttowards the water, when the same words wereheard by him: ‘O child, first answer my

questions and then drink of the water.’ Healso disregarded these words, and havingsatisfied his thirst, dropped down dead.Subsequently Arjuna and Bhima were sent,one after the other, on a similar quest; butneither returned, having drunk of the lake anddropped down dead.

Then Yudhishthira rose up to go insearch of his brothers. At length, he came tothe beautiful lake and saw his brothers lyingdead. His heart was full of grief at the sight,and he began to lament. Suddenly he heardthe same voice saying, ‘Do not, O child, actrashly. I am a Yaksha living as a crane on tinyfish. It is by me that thy younger brothers havebeen brought under the sway of the Lord ofdeparted spirits. If thou, O Prince, answer notthe questions put by me, even thou shaltnumber the fifth corpse. Having answered myquestions first, do thou, O Kunti’s son, drinkand carry away as much as thou requirest.’Yudhishthira replied, ‘I shall answer thyquestions according to my intelligence. Dothou ask me!’ The Yaksha then asked himseveral questions, all of which Yudhishthiraanswered satisfactorily. One of the questionswas: ‘What is the most wonderful fact in thisworld?’ ‘We see our fellow-beings everymoment falling off around us; but those thatare left behind think that they will never die.

The Story of Mahabharata

(Continuation of previous issue. . .)


27

This is the most curious fact: in face of death,none believes he will die!’ Another questionwas: ‘What is the path of knowing the secretof religion?’ And Yudhishthira answered, ‘Byargument nothing can be settled; doctrinesthere are many; various are the scriptures, onepart contradicting the other. There are not twosages who do not differ in their opinions. Thesecret of religion is buried deep, as it were, indark caves. So the path to be followed is thatwhich the great ones have trodden.’ Then theYaksha said, ‘I am pleased. I am Dharma, theGod of Justice in the form of a crane. I came totest you. Now, your brothers, see, not one ofthem is dead. It is all my magic. Sinceabstention from injury is regarded by thee ashigher than both profit and pleasure, therefore,let all thy brothers live, O bull of the Bharatarace.’ And at these words of the Yaksha, thePandavas rose up.

Here is a glimpse of the nature of KingYudhishthira. We find by his answers that hewas more of a philosopher, more of a Yogi,than a king.

Now, as the thirteenth year of the exilewas drawing nigh, the Yaksha bade them goto Virata’s kingdom and live there in suchdisguises as they would think best.

So, after the term of the twelve years’exile had expired, they went to the kingdomof Virata in different disguises to spend theremaining one year in concealment, andentered into menial service in the king’s house-hold. Thus Yudhishthira became a Brahmanacourtier of the king, as one skilled in dice;Bhima was appointed a cook; Arjuna, dressedas a eunuch, was made a teacher of dancingand music to Uttara, the princess, andremained in the inner apartments of the king;Nakula became the keeper of the king’s horses;and Sahadeva got the charge of the cows; andDraupadi, disguised as a waiting-woman was

also admitted into the queen’s household. Thusconcealing their identity the Pandava brotherssafely spent a year, and the search of Duryo-dhana to find them out was of no avail. Theywere only discovered just when the year wasout.

Then Yudhishthira sent an ambassadorto Dhritarashtra and demanded that half ofthe kingdom should, as their share, be restoredto them. But Duryodhana hated his cousinsand would not consent to their legitimatedemands. They were even willing to accept asingle province, nay, even five villages. Butthe headstrong Duryodhana declared that hewould not yield without fight even as muchland as a needle’s point would hold. Dhrita-rashtra pleaded again and again for peace, butall in vain. Krishna also went and tried to avertthe impending war and death of kinsmen, sodid the wise elders of the royal court; but allnegotiations for a peaceful partition of thekingdom were futile. So, at last, preparationswere made on both sides for war, and all thewarlike nations took part in it.

The old Indian customs of the Kshatriyaswere observed in it. Duryodhana took oneside, Yudhishthira, the other. From Yudhish-thira messengers were at once sent to all thesurrounding kings, entreating their alliance,since honourable men would grant the requestthat first reached them. So, warriors from allparts assembled to espouse the cause of eitherthe Pandavas or the Kurus according to theprecedence of their requests; and thus onebrother joined this side, and the other that side,the father on one side, and the son on theother. The most curious thing was the code ofwar of those days; as soon as the battle for theday ceased and evening came, the opposingparties were good friends, even going to eachother’s tents; however, when the morningcame, again they proceeded to fight each other.


That was the strange trait that the Hinduscarried down to the time of the Mohammedaninvasion. Then again, a man on horsebackmust not strike one on foot; must not poisonthe weapon; must not vanquish the enemy inany unequal fight, or by dishonesty; and mustnever take undue advantage of the other, andso on. If any deviated from these rules hewould be covered with dishonour and shun-ned. The Kshatriyas were trained in that way.And when the foreign invasion came fromCentral Asia, the Hindus treated the invadersin the selfsame way. They defeated themseveral times, and on as many occasions sentthem back to their homes with presents, etc.The code laid down was that they must notusurp anybody’s country; and when a manwas beaten he must be sent back to his countrywith due regard to his position. The Moham-medan conquerors treated the Hindu kingsdifferently, and when they got them once, theydestroyed them without remorse.

Mind you, in those days—in the times ofour story, the poem says—the science of armswas not the mere use of bows and arrows atall; it was magic archery in which the use ofMantras, concentration, etc., played a promi-nent part. One man could fight millions of menand burn them at will. He could send onearrow, and it would rain thousands of arrowsand thunder; he could make anything burn,and so on—it was all divine magic. One fact iscurious in both these poems—the Ramayanaand the Mahabharata—along with these magicarrows and all these things going on, you seethe cannon already in use. The cannon is anold, old thing, used by the Chinese and theHindus. Upon the walls of the cities werehundreds of curious weapons made of hollowiron tubes, which filled with powder and ballwould kill hundreds of men. The people

believed that the Chinese, by magic, put thedevil inside a hollow iron tube, and when theyapplied a little fire to a hole, the devil cameout with a terrific noise and killed manypeople.

So in those old days, they used to fightwith magic arrows. One man would be ableto fight millions of others. They had theirmilitary arrangements and tactics: there werethe foot soldiers, termed the Pada; then thecavalry, Turaga; and two other divisions whichthe moderns have lost and given up—therewas the elephant corps—hundreds and hund-reds of elephants, with men on their backs,formed into regiments and protected withhuge sheets of iron mail; and these elephantswould bear down upon a mass of the enemy—then, there were the chariots, of course (youhave all seen pictures of those old chariots,they were used in every country). These werethe four divisions of the army in those olddays.

Now, both parties alike wished to securethe alliance of Krishna. But he declined to takean active part and fight in the war, but offeredhimself as charioteer to Arjuna, and as thefriend and counsellor of the Pandavas, whileto Duryodhana he gave his army of mightysoldiers.

Then was fought on the vast plain ofKurukshetra the great battle in which Bhisma,Drona, Karna, and the brothers of Duryodhanawith the kinsmen on both sides and thousandsof other heroes fell. The war lasted eighteendays. Indeed, out of the eighteen Akshauhinisof soldiers very few men were left. The deathof Duryodhana ended the war in favour ofthe Pandavas. It was followed by the lamentof Gandhari, the queen, and the widowedwomen, and the funerals of the deceasedwarriors. (4: 90-95)

(To be continued...)

28


HIRONMOY MUKHERJEE

Contemporary Bengali Literature - IV

Bengali PoetsBefore concluding this brief survey, let

us have a look at the poets who have beeninfluenced by the Ramakrishna-Vivekanandaideology.

Karunanidhi BandopadhyaAmong the Bengali poets Karunanidhi

Bandopadhya (1877-1955) was attracted at hisyoung age to the philosophy of Sri Rama-krishna and Swami Vivekananda which gotreflected in his poems written in later years.His poem ‘Dakhineshwar’, consisting of 56lines (included in his anthology of poemsSatnari), gives a poetical description of SriRamakrishna doing his shakta-sadhana atPanchavati.

Jatindramohan BagchiJatindramohan Bagchi (1878-1948), ano-

ther poet, wrote the poem ‘Ramakrishna Dev’(Falgun, B-S 1342, Udbodhan). The poemdescribes Sri Ramakrishna as the foremost

among saints, a beacon of hope for the suf-fering mankind and as the one who built abridge of immortality between this and otherworld. Jatindramohan also wrote a 10-linepoem on Swami Vivekananda where he triesto portray Swamiji’s brilliant personality andcontribution to the modern world with won-derful poetical skill.46

Kumudranjan MallikAnother poet Kumudranjan Mallik (1882-

1971) in his poem ‘Sri Sri Ramakrishna’(Falgun 1342 BS, Udbodhan) described SriRamakrishna as Nara-Narayan and a recipientof motherly love from the Divine Motherherself. He calls Sri Ramakrishna’s Gospel as‘nothing but a new rendering of Gita’. SriRamakrishna appears to him both as SriKrishna and Jesus Christ.

Kabisekhar Kalidas RoyKabisekhar Kalidas Roy (1889-1975) in

his poem ‘Yug Yugantarer Ramakrishna’

Dr. Hironmoy Mukherjee is a devotee from Nagpur who retired as Chief Controller of Explosives, Nagpur, Ministryof Industry, Government of India.

(Continued from previous issue. . .)


30

published in Udbodhan (Falgun, 1342 BS)describes him as an eternal child in the garbof an unlettered unknown priest as well as ‘acondensed version of the spiritual effort ofIndia for thousand years.’47

Satyendra Nath DuttaSatyendra Nath Dutta (1882-1942) was a

master in rhyme poetry and a well-knownwriter of patriotic songs in Bengali. He wasalso an excellent translator of poems writtenin foreign languages into Bengali. He was wellknown for his masterful translation in Bengaliof Swami Vivekananda’s celebrated poem inEnglish ‘Kali the Mother’. He also wrote anumber of poems on Sri Ramakrishna, SwamiVivekananda and Sister Nivedita. His famousBengali poem ‘Methar’ (sweeper) articulatesas ‘who says friend that you are unclean anduntouchable; cleanliness always follow you.’One is reminded here of Swamiji’s rousingwords, ‘The cobbler, the sweeper are yourblood, your brother.’48

Many of Satyendra Nath’s poems carrySwamiji’s ideas. When one Sri Nafar Kunduentered a manhole full of poisonous gas inKolkata and saved a sweeper from dying atthe cost of his own life, Satyendra Nath wrotein his poem ‘Nafar Kundu’: ‘He had seenGod’s manifestation in man otherwise howcould he give his own life smilingly seeinganother man in acute distress.’ A number ofhis poems speak highly of the religion ofservice to all and criticize harmful socialpractices. The deepest reflection of Swamiji’s‘service to all’ doctrine gets echoed inSatyendranath’s poem ‘Sevashram’.

Kaji Nazrul IslamKaji Nazrul Islam (1898-1976) was a rebel

-poet who had to suffer imprisonment becauseof his writings which angered the British

Government. When he was on hunger strikein Shillong jail, Rabindranath Tagore had senta telegram saying, ‘Give up hunger strike, ourliterature claims you.’ But as a poet, his writ-ings were not only political; he wrote a varietyof poems—religious poems on Mother Kali,Sri Krishna, Lord Shiva and many other Hindudeities; he was a modern poet, a patriotic poetand also excelled in writing satirical poems.His famous poem on Sri Ramakrishna writtenduring centenary celebration of Sri Rama-krishna described Sri Ramakrishna as one whohad worshipped ‘God’ in temple, mosque andChurch with equal reverence—his name mixedwith love for God is spread in all three worlds.Nazrul truly believed in Sri Ramakrishna’steaching that all religions finally lead to thesame God and always raised his voice throughhis poems against rigid social practices andcommunal attitudes.

He wrote many songs on Mother Kali(Shyama Sangeet) and took this tradition togreat heights following the footsteps ofRamprasad and Kamalakanta; even today his

Kaji Nazrul Islam


31

songs occupy a prime place in ShyamaSangeet.49

About Swami Vivekananda he wrote inhis famous poem that Swamiji carried themessage of the Hindu scriptures to the proudWest which removed many misconceptionsabout India. He wrote further in the poem thatVivekananda had brought a new Veda for anew India to remove all differences betweencaste and religion. Many of Nazrul’s poemshad their base on views and thoughts expres-sed by Swamiji earlier. Swamijis call foruplifting the lower classes became a nationalagenda. Nazrul’s poem ‘Shudrer majhe jagicheRudra’ (‘Rudra is rising among Shudras’) is areflection of the same. Swamiji’s idea of ‘Sevato Daridra Narayan’ finds an expression inNazrul’s poem in stirring Bengali:

Poor is my companion in pain, Daridra is mybrother . . .Poor is my closest relation . . .My constant prayer is that no one shouldremain without food or clothes and without independence.50

Sufia Kamal

A well-known woman poet from Bangla-desh Begum Sufia Kamal paid her tributes toSri Ramakrishna through her poem Se Param-hansa Smriti. She says in her poem that thoughmore than a century has passed since SriRamakrishna left this mortal world, still eventoday millions swear by Sri Ramakrishna’sName. She describes Sri Ramakrishna as ‘adevotee of Truth’, and his message of Seva-dharma [service] which has opened a new pathof religion. 51

A number of poets namely Kabita Sinha(1931-99), Shakti Chattopadhyay (1933-1955),Jivananda Das (1899-1954) and many othershave paid their literary homage to Sri Rama-krishna and Swamiji through their poems.

To conclude, Sri Ramakrishna andSwami Vivekananda are an embodiment anda beacon light of spirituality and service. Theirinfluence on writers, poets, thinkers, historiansand others enriched Bengali literature invarious ways. We hope the modern Bengaliliterature reignites the spark of idealism andspirituality lit by Ramakrishna-Vivekanandain the hearts of some of the finest men andwomen of Bengal. (Concluded.)

46. Udbodhan, September 2008, p. 69447. Ibid, p.69548. Vivekananda O Samakalin Bharat Barsha, Vol 7 pp.

614-615

49. Udbodhan, May 2007 pp.325-32650. Vivekananda O Samakalin Bharat Barsha Vol 11

pp.619-62051. Udbodhan, September 2008, p.695

References

In my study of the world’s religions I have been fortunate in coming upon inspiringfirsthand accounts of the world’s great spiritual geniuses, including Sri Ramakrishna,India’s greatest nineteenth century saint.

During the summer in the 1950s while I was writing the chapter on Hinduism in whatwas to become my book, The World’s Religions, I read and meditated on ten pages ofThe Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna each day, and I credit those meditations for the acclaimthat has greeted that chapter.

—Huston Smith, Great Thinkers on Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, p.29

B B


April 7th 1899Morvi

My dear Akhandananda,I have mailed today a prospectus for your work at Calcutta, to get it corrected from

the Swamiji. I hope you will receive it soon.You have heard by this time of the sad death of our brother Jogananda, on the 28th of

March last.We are glad to hear of the celebration of the Utsab in the orphanage. We start tomorrow

for Bhavnagar, care of Gopaldas Viharidas Desai Esq. With love & best wishes alwaysYrs.

Saradananda & Turiyananda

April 11th 1899Bhavnagar, Kathiawar

My dear Granny,2

I thank you for your kind letter of March 15th, received day before yesterday on ourarrival here. I did not go to the Math during the anniversary and have not heard anythingabout it as yet. In the meantime the Swami Jogananda has died. He died on the 28th ofMarch last at 3 p.m. This must have made great changes in the Math and especially at ourMother’s place. I fear she will go back to her native place. The last words of dear Joganandawere ‘Om Ramakrishna!’ Nivedita was present at the last hour. She wrote the funeralceremonies were most impressive. They chanted the ‘Hari Om’ and waved lighted camphorbefore the dead, after dressing him in his sannyasin robe & turban & then they carried himaway with ‘Jaya Sri Ramakrishna Jaya’—I do not know how it will touch the Swami. Itmight pull him down again. I have written to go back to the Math or to Bombay, as hewants me to for the work.

I have read the letter of Prof.William James & I think it is very fine. I have sent it to theSwami today & told him to keep it with one of the Math men, for me.

And so you were in Italy for the last month—so near India! Is Mrs.Vaughan alsocoming there or does she go direct to Norway where you join her?

Bhavnagar is a very big place with about 75000 inhabitants. It is very near the sea &boats can be had from here to Bombay. The place is a growing one. There are so manycharitable institutions here, but it makes me sad to see, they are creating beggars for want ofa little method and organisation and these two are the great defects of India. . . What an

Unpublished Letters of Swami Saradananda1



33

1. A direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna 2. Mrs. Sara Bull, an American disciple of Swami Vivekananda3. Lala Badri Shah of Almora, a close devotee of Swami Vivekananda

Courtesy: Ramakrishna Museum, Belur Math

amount of time it will take for India to get them. We do not hope to see it in our life time atleast.

I hope you are now on your way to Norway. Do not forget to take flowers to the littlegrane. I thank you for sending the Prof.Maxmuller’s books, to A & S. & Mrs.W. Try to sendsome books for the Math library, when you go back to U.S. e.g. Prof.Fiske’s & WilliamJames & Royce’s & Dr.Jane’s & Le Contes’, etc.

My very kind regards to yourself and Mrs.Vaughan. May the journey to Norway bringyou nearer the Love that passeth understanding.

Yours affly.Saradananda

May 19th 1899Math. Belur. Howrah.

BengalMy dear Badri,3

Your two kind telegrams reached me today and I have just sent the message in replyto you, not to keep the Thompson House, but rent it if you have got a tenant. The ladyfriends are Bengali too and they will prefer to come back to their homes at Calcutta afterthey have made their pilgrimage. They were once rich; but now rather straitened in theircircumstances. But they are sincere friends to us and disciples of our Great Master. Lookupon them as your own sisters and try to help them what you can. I thank you very muchfor your sending Jairam & Ganji to take them to Kedar & Badri Narayan. I hope you havereceived my letter by this time, in which I have told you all.

The Swami Vivekananda sails for England with Turiyanandaji on the 20th June per[?]Steamship Golconda of the B.I.S.N. line. He is well.

I hope yourself and family are doing well. My love and blessings to you all.

Ever your well-wisherSaradananda.

[On the side margin:]P.S. The Swami Subodhananda might start with the ladies to Hardwar & up. Thanking

you again for the kind help.Yours



Spiritual Values in the GitaSWAMI VISHARADANANDA

Swami Visharadananda is a monk of the dashanami tradition. He lives and teaches at Vivekananda YogaAnusandhana Mahavidyapith, Prashanti Kutiram, near Jigani Industrial Area, Bangalore, Karnataka. Thisserialised article has been condensed from his book Human Values, published by Swami Vivekananda YogaPrakashan, Chamarajpet, Bangalore, pp.102.

(Continued from March 2010 issue. . .)

[An exposition of verses 7-11 of the 13th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, the following is thethirteenth instalment of the article; January to October 2009 issues contained the first ten instalments]

16. Mayi cha ananyayogena bhakti-avyabhicharini [‘by developing unswervingdevotion to Me by the Yoga of non-separation’]

Bhakta—a Sattvika BhoktaThere are two adjectives used with the

term bhakti or devotion to God in the abovephrase. These two adjectives are: unswervingdevotion to Me (avyabhicharini) and Yoga ofnon-separation (ananyayogena). Let us under-stand these terms.

We, the embodied beings (jivas), have astrong sense of enjoyment of worldly objectsand desires (bhoktritva). But as spiritual seekers,we have to change our approach towards life.Thus the enjoyer (bhokta) has to transform thisworldly tendency to ‘enjoying’ God. This ishow one becomes a devotee (bhakta). Whenone becomes a devotee, one’s craving forsense-enjoyment (bhoktritva) becomes weak-ened and one progresses towards freedomfrom desires. This inner redirection of app-roach is the best way to change one’s ten-dencies.

Most people want to enjoy objects ofsenses; they want to use every available thingfor their own selfish purpose. The attitude of

a devotee, on the other hand, is entirely dif-ferent. He does not want to use anything forhimself; he feels happy to serve God and Hisdevotees. He feels delighted if he can helpothers. He feels happy by serving and not bybeing served. This is still being an enjoyer buta sattvika enjoyer. A gross bhokta thus becomesa sattvika bhokta.

One has to learn that by giving an upperhand to sense enjoyment (bhoktritva), one onlybecomes miserable.

Can anyone be happy with a demanding,bossing person? Bhoktritva is to be like such aperson: it makes strong demands and imposesitself on one’s own mind. A mind demandingenjoyments can never be easy with itself. Itonly makes one frustrated. Expectations andfrustration are inter-related. If mind expectsmore, it will be more frustrated! A crude bhoktaexpects a lot from people, and hence gets moremiserable too. He swings between the extre-mes of depression and elation. One can enjoyplaying on the swing as long as it is smooth.If a swing rises too high, there are twitches inthe stomach and sickness is the result! Playingon a swing is enjoyable only when it is gentle.At the same time too slow a swing also does


35

not give joy. Mind is like a swing, and ourlives, hooked as they are to mind, tooexperience the same up and down as that of aswing.

We have to realise that holding to stronglikes and dislikes, or strong opinions andjudgments, is like the movement of a swing—rising high, hitting the roof one moment, andthe next moment bouncing back to bang onthe ground! As we develop bhakti towardsGod, we learn to swing in a balanced way.Then we are not affected by strong likes anddislikes and become more peaceful.

Cultivating BhaktiOne has to become a devotee in the true

sense of term. A true devotee is sincere to thecore. Of course, one can pretend to be adevotee, putting marks on one’s body such atilakam, chandanam, and vibhuti. But these donot matter to the Lord; a true devotee of Godis one who is selfless and self-sacrificing.

Bhakti is a relationship formed in themind between oneself and God. ThroughBhakti our mind learns to become subordinateto the object of devotion. In worldly life, ourego does not want to submit to anyone. Rather,it wants to take the driver’s seat. It wants todominate, manipulate and exploit others. Onother hand, in bhakti our ego learns to humbleitself, by taking the back seat and submittingto God. It learns to keep its likes (raga) anddislikes (dvesha) aside, and fill the mind withholy thoughts.

We all have emotions. If we do not directthese emotions towards God, we will directthem towards the family and friends. Bhaktiis directing our emotions towards God. It isdepending on God instead of others.

A bhakta learns to practice respectfulnesstowards others. By respecting others, he learnsto get rid of his cranky likes and dislikes. These

likes and dislikes are the source of all negativeemotions. To have strong likes and dislikes islike having a notorious terrorist inside. Itdictates terms to us and says, ‘I want this anddo not want that!’ And like a slave of likes-dislikes, we follow every word of what weare told by the inner terrorist! What could bemore miserable than this?

But one can overcome this by directingthe mind toward the altar of God. By devotionone becomes a sattvika bhokta. A sattvikabhokta does not transgress dharma and acceptslife as it comes. Whatever life brings, he rec-eives it as God’s prasadam.

When an action is done with devotion, itbecomes spiritually rewarding. A bhakta doesnot wait to enjoy the fruits of his action later;he enjoys even while doing. He sees everyopportunity to serve as a privilege and not ajob to be done. This brings him back his posi-tive emotional self and when that happens itmakes life joyful, free from all drudgery.

Many times we do not want to do someparticular work yet we cannot help it andfinally become tired and exhausted. In otherwords, while working this way our emotionalself is full of negative thoughts and feelings.But when our emotional self becomes positive,we do not become tired, and remain enthu-siastic always. Life, then, becomes a sweetmelody, and all discordant notes vanish. Asense of gratitude fills the mind. Mind seeshow it has received so much, and in gratitude,wants to give back something. And one beginsdoing so to the best of one’s capacity. Ourvision expands then, and we start seeing theLord everywhere.

Sadhana—the Path to FreedomSadhana or spiritual practice is a path

towards freedom. We have limited time at ourdisposal. If our mind runs after wealth or


36

worldly fame, we should remind it that allthese would be left behind when we leave thebody. Only our mind, its purity and impurity,will go with us. We should try to make ourmind better through cultivating the divinequalities (daivisampatti).

By always complaining about thingswhich we do not have, we are expressing ourlack of gratitude towards Lord. One keeps ask-ing God to give an endless list of things. Ofcourse, to ask things from God is not wrong.If one has to ask, then one should ask Godand not any mortal being. When we approachGod to fulfill all our needs, this it called‘unswerving devotion‘(avyabhicharini bhakti). ASanskrit proverb (subhashita) says:

The legendary Chataka bird is very self-respecting. It drinks only the rain water. Whenit is thirsty, it would have water directly fromthe (clouds) only and from no other source, evenif it dies of thirst.

The point here is that to a devotee Godalone is the provider of everything. Whyshould he then approach anyone else? Aperson who approaches others for his needsdoes not have an unswerving devotion.

Unswerving devotion means asking Godand God alone for my needs. Whatever is myneed, I will approach only God—that is theattitude of a bhakta. He is devoted to Godonly. Such an attitude brings steadiness inone’s spiritual efforts. Or else, one will be likea housefly which sits everywhere and partakesof all kind of things. A bhakta, on the otherhand, is like a honey-bee that sits only onflowers. It is called ‘one-pointed devotion’(aikantika bhakti).

A person with unswerving devotionapproaches only God to solve his problemsand God rescues him from a precarioussituation. Such a devotee does not ask forfavour from anyone else.

Bhartrihari, a great Sanskrit poet, says,

O friend please listen carefully to what I say. Somany clouds come in sky; some pour water,some roar and go away. People are also likethat. All are not going to fulfil your desires.When desires cannot be fulfiled by all, why doyou go on telling them to all? If at all I ask, Iwill ask God only. When He cannot fulfil them,even others cannot. If it is not in our karma,nobody can do anything, so why should not oneask God only? If He gives, fine, and, if not, Iaccept it!

The Purpose of Spiritual PracticesThe purpose of all our spiritual practices

is to remove our self-centredness. As an en-joyer, one tries to use everything for oneself.But as a seeker of God, one becomes aware ofone’s higher purpose of life, and hence insteadto using others for one’s purpose, one developsan attitude of service and humility. One shouldfirst of all be aware of one’s worldly ten-dencies. Then only can one amend oneself andgive a spiritual turn to his tendencies.

How to change one’s attitude? Throughintrospection and self-analysis. We have torealise that we cannot be happy by just mani-pulating others. By manipulating others weonly make others miserable, and that cannotbring happiness. It is only by making othershappy that one becomes happy. Thisis a kind of enlightened self-interest—toseek one’s happiness by seeking others’ happi-ness.

We keep complaining about things whichwe do not have. When we are thus busy withour complaints, we overlook the presence ofthings we already have. What we are privi-leged to have is the precious human body—out of millions of other things which we couldhave become, we are born as human. But wejust do not look at this privilege; we only


37

complain. If only we could focus on what wehave, we will feel grateful for it.

This feeling of gratefulness does notcome easily because of our complaining atti-tude. We need to realise that everything is notprovided to everybody. If something isprovided to us, something else is absent inour life. Everyone’s life is a permutation andcombination of presence and absence; every-one gets certain things and does not get certainthings according to one’s past actions. It is saidthat people who have teeth do not havegroundnuts (that requires chewing) and thosewho have groundnuts do not have teeth. Thatis life!

Reversing Our RolesIt is always said that of all the sadhanas,

bhakti is the best sadhana (uttama sadhana).Ultimately, Supreme bhakti (para-bhakti) andSelf-knowledge (jnana) are one and the same.An ordinary man’s life is ego-centred. Bhaktimelts down the ego. In bhakti, the attitude is‘O Lord, what is yours, only is offered to you’(tvadìyam vastu govinda tubhyameva samarpaye),

Thus, through bhakti, the ego becomes asecondary enjoyer (gauna bhoktritva). ThenIshwara/Guru/elders/others become moreimportant than oneself. This is akin to theworking of a professional cook. Though hehimself enjoys what he cooks, the primarypurpose of his cooking is to please the master.So also a driver enjoys his driving but heessentially drives for the master. This is thecase of a secondary enjoyer.

If we apply it in life, ego becomespurified and ultimately disappears. In the pathof devotion it is said of ego: ‘I and Lord both

cannot be there. Either He can be there or Iwill be there.’

Bhakti is a slow and gradual meltingdown of our ego. It is realizing the fact thatwe are merely an instrument in the hands ofGod. When this feeling (bhavana) becomespermanent, a change takes place in our per-sonality and we become free from all angu-larities and pain.

In bhakti one begins with the assumption‘I am different from the Lord.’ But as oneprogresses, one discovers that one is notdifferent from the Lord. ‘I and the Lord arenot different.’ This is called ananyabhava. Theterm anya means ‘different’ and ananya means‘not different’. One has to ultimately discoverthe Lord as his own self (svarupa). One beginsone’s journey by accepting the difference untilthe oneness is discovered.

In another sense, in the path of bhaktione learns to de-identify oneself from one’supadhi—our false personality. Our body andmind are controlled objects and Lord is thecontroller. God is our Inner Controller(antaryami) and He makes us function. Oneshould slowly find out the deeper dimensionof one’s personality. We should pray to theLord to give us dispassion and strength to seeour oneness with Him.

Finally, let us remember that we live inour mind only—whether in this life or the next.Hence it is better to clean it up. Let us clearup all the garbage of anxieties, worries, ego-struggles and wrong notions, and cultivatepurity of mind and devotion to God. Oncethat happens, peace, shanti, enters into ourlife.

(To be continued. . .)

With the thirst, the longing for God, comes real devotion, real Bhakti. Who has thelonging? That is the question. Religion is not in doctrines, in dogmas, nor in intellectualargumentation; it is being and becoming, it is realisation. —Swami Vivekananda


�� Bal Vikas Kendra—Patna Ashrama’s Initiative for the Poor ChildrenMore than a century ago, Swami Vivekananda rightly said, ‘I consider that the great national sin is the

neglect of the masses, and that is one of the causes of our downfall. No amount of politics would be of anyavail until the masses in India are once more well educated, well fed, and well cared for.’ He also said, ‘LetNew India arise—out of the peasants’ cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fisherman, thecobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer’s shop, from beside the oven of the fritter-seller.Let her emanate from the factory, from marts and from markets…’

It is, therefore, befitting to do something significant for uplifting the deprived children, especially whenwe are preparing to observe the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda in 2013.

At the initiative of the Patna Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, 100 children from poor sections wereadopted with the idea of meeting their physical, mental, and educational needs. Coming from financially and

socially deprived sections of the society, most of these children are in their pre-teen and teens. The childrenwere selected and adopted by the Ashrama after a meticulous survey of the children’s background.

To begin with, in order make them feel secure and ‘being wanted’, an affectionate treatment was given tothem by the monks. They were taught Hindi and English alphabets, and basic mathematics through fun andgames, using books and interactive CDs available in the market. They were also taught about basics ofhygiene, how to maintain discipline, and not to utter bad words to which they are accustomed to in theirfamilies. Each adopted child is supplied with:

1. One bath soap and one washing soap and 250 ml oil per month.2. Two pairs of dresses per year with the Ramakrishna Mission logo on it3. Study materials (note-books, hand-writing books, pen, pencil, eraser, and a school bag)4. A pair of slippers5. A nail cutter

Prayer session and coaching class in progress—Patna Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama


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Swami Prabhanandaji, the General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, inaugurated thenewly constructed western wing of the Higher Secondary School building at Ramakrishna Mission,Cherrapunji on 11 June.

Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai conducted a three-day All Tamil Nadu Youth Retreat from 8 to 10June in which 225 young men participated.

As part of its free tuition centre for the poor students Sri Ramakrishna Math, Madurai, distributedfree note-books worth more than eighty thousand to 500 deserving students from 4 to 12 classes from variousgovernment schools. The function was held on 10 June 2010.

Five teachers are appointed with honorarium to teach the students for three hours (4.00 pm to 7.00 pm).The following is the routine of the adopted children when they come to the Patna Ashrama:1. Arrival at 3.30 pm at the campus with uniform supplied to them, cleaning their own place of study and

keeping the study materials ready (black board, carpets, etc.)2. Playing the in the campus of the Ashrama (30 minutes)3. Prayer session (in Hindi and Sanskrit) (10 minutes)4. Checking cleanliness (dress, hair, nails, teeth) (10 minutes)5. Teaching session (two and a half hours)6. Music Class (teaching of shanti panchakam, narayan sukta, purusha sukta, etc.) (20 minutes)7. A sumptuous evening snack8. Interaction (story telling by the monks or some general chatting)While adopting the children, they are divided into two groups (4 to 6, and 7 to 8) and the children are

coached in various ways using stories and games. As the students progress, they are subdivided, for the sakeof better coaching, into different classes—from first to fifth year—and then arrangements are made by theAshrama to get the eligible children admitted to schools. Even after getting admitted to schools, the childrenkeep coming to the Ashrama for coaching and regular studies.

Occasional tours to local tourist spots are also arranged for them. Screening of films/documentaries on thetopics of value education, cartoon films on Indian gods and goddesses, Ramayana, Mahabharata and so onare also arranged for them.

Sometimes the students are also involved in the activities of the Ashrama so that they identify themselveswith the Ashrama and feel that they are part of the society. This helps them to get back their self-dignity.

Despite financial limitations, the Ashrama has taken up this noble work. It is a right step towardsrealising Swami Vivekananda’s dream of a modern India. All right thinking people, including public sectorunits and industrial houses, should come forward to support such a worthy cause. Currently the Ashrama isspending some eight lakhs of rupees annually for this purpose.

The following centres conducted summer camps for children. The programme included chanting,bhajans, moral lessons, yogasanas, etc.

Sl.No. Centre Duration of the camp Total Participants

Two weeks (from 14 to 29 April) 50 boys from class 8 to 10

Ten days (from 1 to 10 May) 85 boys from class 5 to 7

2. Porbandar Five weeks (from 1 May to 5 June) 160 students from class 4 to 7

3. Rajkot Four weeks (from 3 to 28 May) 73 children in the age group 7-13

Three weeks (from 26 April to 14 May) 128 students from class 3 to 7

Three weeks (from 17 May to 4 June) 82 students from class 3 to 7

5. Chennai Four weeks (from 3 to 30 May) 350 children in the age group 8-14

6. Hyderabad Four weeks (from 25 April to 22 May) 1080 children in the age group 8-15

7. Kanpur Two weeks (from 9 to 23 May) 175 children in the age group 9-16

1. Belgaum

4. Visakhapatnam


Concluding Function of Golden Jubilee Celebrations of Japan CentreThe Vedanta Society of Japan [Nippon Vedanta Kyokai] brought its year-long programme, commemorating

50 years of service in Japan, to a close on May 30 this year. The concluding function was combined withSwami Vivekananda’s 148th Birth Anniversary.

Organised by the Society’s Golden Jubilee Celebration Committee and co-organized by the Department ofGlobal Citizenship Studies of Seisen University, a women’s Catholic liberal arts university, the event washeld in the campus’ spacious auditorium facility. From May 26 to 30 the Society’s Indo-Japan RelationshipExhibition was also on display in the foyer of the university’s main building annex.

After the opening Invocation, floral offerings were made to Sri Ramakrishna, the Holy Mother andSwami Vivekananda. Swami Medhasananda gave the Welcome Address summarizing the centre’s programmesand projects and highlighting future projects. Sister Junko Shioya also gave a brief welcome, followed by therelease of Society’s new publications. Swami Smarananandaji, Vice-President of the Ramakrishna Math andMission, Ambassador of India Sri H.K.Singh, Tokyo Archbishop Peter Takeo Okada, Buddhist Jôdo SectMaster (Kangaku) and Professor Emeritus of Taisho University, Ryojun Sato, and Dr. Yasuji Yamaguchi ofMeiji University addressed the gathering. A Vote of Thanks was presented by Tsuyoshi Nara. Light Indiansnacks were then distributed to about the 600 guests present. A cultural programme comprising classicalIndian dance and a sitar performance was also presented.

Supplies of the book Swami Vivekananda and Japan, both Japanese and English versions, along with thebooklet Inspirational Messages were completely exhausted. A CD of songs in Japanese on the Holy Trio, aCD of Mantras and Hymns on Shiva, a DVD, ‘Swami Vivekananda—A Documentary,’ with Japanese sub-titles, were released. A special Golden Jubilee Issue of The Universal Gospel, the Society’s bi-monthlymagazine, was also released. An exhibition exploring the Indo-Japan Relationship was organized by theSociety and held at four locations throughout the year drawing a viewership of about five thousand.

Service for the homeless Narayanas was included during the Golden Jubilee year and it will be continuedby the Society.

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Karnataka Rehabilitation NewsAfter rendering primary relief services to the victims of October

2009 flood, Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Belgaum and SriRamakrishna Ashrama, Mysore have jointly taken up constructionof 229 houses in two villages of Sindhanur Taluka of RaichurDistrict, Karnataka, for the people affected by heavy rains andfloods. The construction has begun in Chintamanadoddi Villagewhere 126 houses are in the different stages of construction. Outof them nearly 72 housed have come up to the plinth level.

(From left) At Tokyo—the public meeting, Bharatanatyam performance, and Santoor recital

��


For review in THE VEDANTA KESARI,publishers need to send us

two copies of their latest publication.

THE WONDER THAT IS SRI RAMA-KRISHNA

By Swami Bhaskarananda. AnEnglish translation of theBengali book Sri Sri Rama-krishna Mahima by AkshayKumar Sen

Published by Sri RamakrishnaMath, Mylapore, R.K. Math Road,

Chennai - 600 004. 2009, paperback,Pp.213, Rs.60.

Sri Ramakrishna is worshipped by millionsas an Incarnation of God. However, very few couldcomprehend his greatness, his ecstatic moods andSamadhi when he was living. The author of thebook under review, Sri Akshay Kumar Sen, wasone among them. The book has a great historicalvalue so far as the history of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature is concerned.

Akshay Kumar Sen, a householder devoteeof Sri Ramakrishna, is well-known as the writer ofSri Sri Ramakrishna Punthi, a long narrative poemin Bengali on the life and divine play of Sri Rama-krishna. Since its publication more than a hundredyears ago, it continues to be read in most Bengalvillages with the same devotion and fervour as theIndian epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Thepresent book is the English translation of AkshayKumar Sen’s Sri Sri Ramakrishna Mahima.

The book opens with the conversations andmature reflections between two friends on Sri Rama-krishna; they subsequently approach a devotee ofSri Ramakrishna to satiate their hunger to knowmore regarding his life. The first four chaptersintroduce Sri Ramakrishna and from the fifthchapter onwards, the devotee draws up the gloriousand enlightening portrait of Sri Ramakrishna and

his divine play. The devotee (the author himself) isinundated with the devotion for Sri Ramakrishna,and he beautifully explains the significance of SriRamakrishna’s life and teachings with suitableexamples and establishes him as a Divine Incar-nation, by chanting whose name one can instantlyremove all sins and sufferings. He advises, ‘Divedeep into the ocean of Sri Ramakrishna’s Lila, thenyou will find precious gems.’

Sitting alongside this ‘devotee’, we witnessSri Ramakrishna’s spiritual ecstasy, his amazing in-sights into spiritual life, his wonderful anecdotes,his straightforward teachings imbued with deepphilosophy, and his advice for common peopleyearning to know God. The stories of the disciplesof Sri Ramakrishna are also described in swift sket-ches. The narrative abounds with incidents andanecdotes, enlivened by the author’s commentaryinterspersed with devotional verses composed bythe author as also those sung by Sri Ramakrishna.

Having read the book, one indeed marvels atthe wonder that was Sri Ramakrishna. An un-lettered person, unostentatious and simple, heexperienced God not only through Hinduism but alsoother religions. Having walked the path to God, heis best suited to give us authentic knowledge andguidance. No wonder, today his teachings permeatethe Interfaith Movement, New Age thoughts, Yogaand modern Hinduism.

The translation is lucid and clear, capturingthe interest of the readers all throughout. The readerexperiences Sri Ramakrishna’s living presence andfeels that the reading of the book is as revitalizingas a bath in the limpid waters of the Ganga. SwamiBhaskarananda, the Head of the Vedanta Societyof Western Washington, Seattle, U.S.A. and SriRamakrishna Math, Chennai, deserve gratitude ofSri Ramakrishna’s devotees._______________________ CHETANA MANDAVIA, JUNAGADH


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TOWARDS THE GOAL

By Mrs. Vandana Sarathy,Dr.Rajeev Ramakrishna

Published by Chikala Centre, 12AFletcher Avenue, Blackhurst,NSW 2221, Australia. 2009,paperback, pp.113, $10. [Bookavailable from Kanaka Rama-krishna, C/o S.R. Sampath, 36,

NRI Lay-out, RTI Extn., Sanjay-nagar, Bangalore - 560 094]

Towards the Goal is a chronicle of the comingtrue of a dream of a band of devoted and highlymotivated devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, dedicatingtheir lives to achieving their treasured goal—to havea Centre of Vedanta in Australia, affiliated to theRamakrishna Order. It is a joy to read the evolutionof Ramakrishna-Vedanta Movement, beginningfrom a tiny seed to the present proportions.

The seeds of the Vedanta Movement inAustralia were planted by Swami Shivananda, adirect disiciple of Sri Ramakrishna. During his visitto Ceylon in 1897, he inspired an Australian lady,Mrs. Elsie Picket, a keen student of Vedanta andespecially trained her to teach Vedanta. Conse-quently, she opened the classes in Adelaide andNelson, which marked the beginning of the VedantaMovement in Australia. In 1920s, a fresh momentumwas added through a mysterious vision of SwamiVivekananda which James Wales had. James laterjoined the Ramakrishna Order as a monk, anddedicated his life to the ideals of Sri Ramakrishnaand Vivekananda.

Thereafter, it was Swami Ranganathanandaji,the spiritual and cultural ambassador of India, who,right from his first visit to Australia in 1956 till1986, gathered around him a band of sinceredevotees attracted by his life aglow with spiritualityand by his erudition and oratory. The VedantaMovement continued to gain strength by the visitsof Swami Damodaranandaji from Fiji RamakrishnaMission and other monks who would hold satsangsand provide guidance to the growing number ofdevotees. The book provides a detailed account ofthese devotees as also their perseverance andstruggle to set up Vedanta Centres in Australia.One can palpably feel their intense and passionateefforts in persuading the Belur Math authorities tosend a Swami to start an official centre. Their efforts

finally bore fruit when the centre started functioningfrom October 2000, with Swami Sridharanandaji toguide the devotees.

The book opens with the philosophical back-ground of Vedanta, and the introduction of SriRamakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Viveka-nanda. Chapter I provides a preamble to the Rama-krishna Order, briefly describing its origin andactivities, enabling the reader to grasp the signi-ficance of what follows in the successive chapters.Chapters II through VI slowly unfold the history ofthe centre: early years, establishment, growth, affili-ation, and opening of additional centres spread overAdelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Perth.This provides an insight into the contribution ofthe devotees and the monks of the Order in establi-shing and putting the Movement in Australia onstrong footings. Genesis of the centre of SaradaMath, the women’s wing of Ramakrishna Order, isalso described.

Short biographical sketches of pioneeringmonastic members and devotees who worked forthe furtherance of the cause, visits of the swamis ofRamakrishna Mission from 1985 to 2000, importantphotos and references are appended.

Written by the children of a devoted couple,this book is a faithful and valuable record of theVedanta Movement in Australia, offered with bril-liant lucidity and painstaking detail along with thephilosophical background. One is struck by theworldwide acceptance of the ideals of the Order bypeople belonging to different religion and culture.

Printed on the fine quality paper and with anelegant cover page, the book will surely be likedby the Ramakrishna devotees in general and bythoughtful people in particular.______________________ CHETANA MANDAVIA, JUNAGADH.

THE SCIENCE OF GOD-REALIZATION

By Roy Eugene Davis

Published by New Age Books, A-44, Nariana Industrial Area Phase–I, New Delhi-110 028. 2002,paperback, pp.142, Rs.150

This is a compact book, acollection of essays, some of

them published earlier as maga-zine articles, and the rest new. The

author, Roy Eugene Davis, is a disciple of Parama-


43

hamsa Yogananda of the Self Realization Fellow-ship, Los Angeles. He is also the founder-directorof the Center for Spiritual Awareness.

There are fifteen short essays in the book,preceded by a short preface, and containing at theend a section on questions and answers. This isfollowed by a glossary. This makes the book self-contained.

Each essay is about a specific topic, all topicshaving something or other to do with meditation.The book starts by establishing that the spiritualquest is a scientific quest. It demands of us thesame methodical investigations as physical sciences,emphasizing experimentation rather than dogma.The book goes on to describe what is meant byself-discovery, in a fairly long essay. The rest of thebook is about specific practices, like meditation, thepurpose of life, how to make life worthwhile, statesof consciousness, mysticism, righteous living, God’sgrace, peace of mind and positive affirmation.

Each of the essays is independent and thetheme of the essay has been described in un-equivocal terms for easy understanding andappreciation. Each essay closes with a positiveaffirmative statement and a quotation from ascripture.

An added attraction of the book is the lastsection on questions and answers. The answersprovide a good number of practical hints on howto live in this world and face its challenges. Thesuggestions are down-to-earth and do not indulgein polemics or hair-splitting arguments. This makesthe book all the more useful to the common readers.

Though small in size, the book is profoundin its message. Anyone interested in entering thefield of spirituality will find the book quite valuable._______________________________NVC SWAMY, BANGALORE

DEWDROPS OF LOVE

By J.P. VaswaniPublished by Sadhu VaswaniCentre, Singapore, 127, Mar-shall Road, Singapore 424914.2008, Hardback, pp.128,Rs.500. (Available at Gita

Publishing House, 10, Sadu Vaswani Path,Pune - 411 001)Dada Vaswani obliged his Singapore-based

devotee Jyoti Mirchandani by incorporating his

thoughts in the form of a diary, during his visits tothat country.

This elegantly brought out book containsthose noble thoughts along with attractive picturesof the spiritual leader taken on different occasions.Undoubtedly, the wisdom of Dada Vaswani willenable a person to shed all bad tendencies anddevelop true love. The unhappy situations in lifeare best tackled if we approach with an offer ofunconditional love.

Every page in the book has very usefullessons as the following selections indicate:

‘May I see good in everyone I meet. Then Ishall never judge anyone, never criticize anyone…only then will my mind be at peace’

‘Strive for the imperishable’, not for moneywhich is ‘like quicksilver’.

‘Blessed is the man who sees no fault inothers, only in himself…’

The book, like its author, abounds in epigramsof joy and happiness. The sagely wisdom the bookcontains will be a source of strength to all thosewho feel frustrated and make them realize that ‘lifeis’ indeed ‘beautiful’._______________________________P. S. SUNDARAM, CHENNAI

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE INDIAN

SPIRITUAL SCHOOL

By Jack Canfield, Mark VictorHansen and Veena SeshadriPublished by Westland Ltd. S-35A, III Floor, Green Park Main(In Green Park Market), NewDelhi - 110 016. 2009, paper-back, Pp.393+xii., Rs295

Everyone is familiar withthe Chicken Soup for the Soul series—

warming and satisfying as only soul food can be.Here is the next volume which is specially meantfor Indian audiences, with 101 contributions tofurther faith in human goodness, to showemphatically that human beings will conquer anyodds to come up as winners.

The book is divided into eight subheadings,ranging from Faith, to Love and Forgiveness, Death,Caring and Sharing, and even on Lighter Moments.Contributors come from every walk of life—journalists, editors, doctors, teachers and even anex-President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.


44

We have stories that celebrate triumph overphysical odds that come out of the blue, unexpectedand harrowing as in Way to Go Megha byKhursheed Dinshaw (p. 44), events that transform,as in When He Calls by Veena Seshadri (p. 67 ) andthe satisfaction of doing the ‘Right Thing at theRight Time’ by Shinie Anthony (p. 93). There areaccounts of finding a nugget of truth in the mostunexpected of places, of learning to count onesblessings, seeing God in the places least imagined.

All through the book the message that comesout clear and strong is: we are not alone and loveand faith and forgiveness are the pillars upon whichmoral fibre stands. These three virtues show upwhether we will or not, and astound us with theirpower and magnitude, however small the incidentwhich revealed it.

This is a very inspiring book which would bea great addition to our bedside tables rather thanthe library shelf—to be read and savoured everyday, to be reflected upon and, most importantly, tobe emulated at every opportunity.___________________________ PREMA RAGHUNATH, CHENNAI

THE PERFECT RELATIONSHIP (GURU

AND DISCIPLE)

By J.P. Vaswani

Published by Sterling Publishers(P) Ltd. A-59, Okla IndustrialArea, Phase II, New Delhi - 110020. 2008, Paperback, Pp.298,Rs.250. (Copies received fromGita Publishing House,10, SadhuVaswani Path, Pune - 411 001)

The greatest human experience is liberationor self-realization. It is also called, by varioustraditions, as salvation, mukti, deathlessness oremancipation from bondages. To ‘attain’ to thisexperience, one needs the guidance of a self-realizedperson. Such a person is the Guru who acts as aguide unto the disciple. The necessity of having aqualified Guru, qualities expected of the disciple,relationship between Guru and disciple and thejourney to liberation are the main themes of thebook under review.

The book begins with a discussion of the needto embark on such a journey—by highlighting thedeeper dimensions of our existence and the gift ofhuman life. Of course, this journey is daunting and

requires time, effort and attention on the part ofthe disciple. The aspirant needs directions,guidance, protection, encouragement and advice.But once the disciple succeeds in awakening hisfaith and serves and surrenders unconditionally tothe Guru, the Guru takes on the responsibility forthe disciple. The Guru then becomes a father,mother, guardian and preceptor to the disciple.

The book dwells in great detail on the Guru’snature, centred on love and grace. The authorexplains that the Guru is not merely a great teacheror guide, but an exalted being having powers topurify, transform and bring forth illumination. Thebook has references to the Guru-disciple relation-ship in different religious traditions spanningseveral centuries and diverse communities. Highlyanecdotal and narrative in style, multiple illustra-tions and examples in the book simplify theconcepts explained. All chapters, except the last oneon frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) are greetedwith pictorial line-sketches depicting the stories. Thesimple language adopted by the author speaksdirectly to the reader. The book ends outlining livesof great Gurus, teachers and a brief sketch of theauthor’s own Guru—Sadhu Vaswani—who was anembodiment of humility, compassion and service.

A preface or introduction and note on theauthor would have further aided readers appreciatethe book. Non-English words are in italic fonts—areader new to Indic languages may need someresearch to understand them.____________________SHARATKUMAR VARIYAR, BANGALORE

NEARER HEAVEN THAN EARTH, THE

LIFE AND TIMES OF BOSHI SEN AND

GERTRUDE EMERSON SEN

By Girish N. Mehra.Published by Rupa & Co., 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj,New Delhi - 2. 2007, Hard-back, Pp.815 +xxi, Rs 995.

The book is a lucid acco-unt of lives of Boshi Sen andGertrude Emerson Sen, with

many rare pictures, and a Foreword byDr. MS Swaminathan. Boshi Sen was the founderof the Vivekananda Laboratory for agriculturalresearch in Almora. He was associated with manydirect disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. He workedwith the famous Dr. J.C. Bose and many others.

Book Spotted

4401. A Devotee of Sri Ramakrishna Technical Edu. & Research Institute, Ghazipur, U.P. - 233 0024402. -do- Technical Inst. of Advanced Studies, Bajitpur, Delhi - 110 0854403. -do- Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharastra - 400 0884404. -do- Tamilnadu College of Engineering, Coimbatore - 641 6594405. -do- T.N. Rao College, Rajkot, Gujarat - 360 0014406. -do- Synergy Institute of Advanced Mgt., Pune, Maharastra - 411 0304407. -do- Symbiosis Inst. of Business Mgt., Pune, Maharastra - 411 0044408. -do- Symbiosis Centre for Mgt., Pune, Maharastra - 411 0274409. -do- Symbiosis Instite of Telecom Mgt., Model Colony, Pune - 411 0164410. -do- Symbiosis Institute of Mgt. Studies, Pune, Maharastra - 411 0204411. -do- Sydenham Institute, Maharastra - 400 0204412. -do- Swarna Bharathi Inst. of Science, Khammam, A.P. - 507 0024413. -do- SVKP & DKSR Arts & Science College, West Godawari, A.P. - 534 3204414. -do- Swami Vivekananda PG College, Secunderabad, A.P. - 500 0034415. -do- Suryadatta Group of Institutes, Pune, Maharastra - 411 0304416. -do- Surana College, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560 0044417. -do- Subodh Institute, Jaipur, Rajasthan - 302 0044418. -do- SSMRV College, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560 0784419. -do- Srusti Academy of Management, Bhubaneswar, Orissa - 751 0314420. -do- SRM Institute, Ghaziabad, Uttarapradesh - 201 2044421. -do- Sri Y N College, Warangal, A.P. - 534 2754422. -do- Sri Srinivasa Vidya Parishad College, Visakapatnam, A.P. - 530 0414423. -do- Sri Sringeri Sharada Institute, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi - 110 0574424. -do- Sri Ramakrishna Degree College, Nandyal, A.P. - 518 5024425. -do- Sri Nehru Mahavidyalaya College, Coimbatore, T.N. - 641 0214426. -do- Sri Indu College, R.R. Dist., A.P. - 501 5104427. -do- Saraswati Viswa Mahavidyalaya, Kanchipuram, T.N. - 631 5614428. -do- Sri Balaji PG College, Anantapur, A.P. - 515 0014429. -do- Sreenivasa Institute, Chittoor, A.P. - 517 1274430. -do- Sree Rama Institute, Godavari Dist., A.P. - 534 2114431. -do- Sree Chaitanya P.G. College, Karimnagar, A.P. - 505 0024432. -do- Sree Aman Institute of Management, Erode, T.N. - 638 1024433. -do- S.I.E.S. College of Mgt., Mumbai, Maharastra - 400 7064434. -do- SOM Lalit Institute, Navarangpura, Ahmedabad - 380 0094435. -do- Soldier Mgt. & Tech. Institute, Jalandhar, Punjab - 144 0024436. -do- Ranchi University, Bihar - 834 0044437. -do- SMT. R.D. Gardi Department of Business Mgt., Rajkot, Gujarat - 360 0054438. -do- Siva Sivani Inst. of Mgt., Secunderabad, A.P. - 500 0144439. -do- Adarsh College, Bangalore, Karnataka - 560 0184440. -do- Sister Nivedita College, Hyderabad, A.P. - 500 0044441. -do- Sir CRR College, A.P. - 534 0074442. -do- Sinhgad Technical Education, Pune, Maharastra - 411 0414443. -do- Sigma Institute, Vadodara, Gujarat - 390 0104444. -do- Siddhartha Technical Institute, Ranga Reddy Dist., A.P. - 501 3014445. -do- Shri Shivaji Maratha Societies Inst. of Mgt., Pune, Maharastra - 411 0024446. -do- Shri Shankaracharya Mahavidyalaya, Chattisgarh - 490 006

45

The Vedanta Kesari Library Scheme Continued from page 4

46

To be continued . . .

India’s Timeless Wisdom� �`Wm oHo$Z MHo$U aWÒ` Z J{V ©doV≤ü&Edß nwÈfH$maoU {dZm X°dß Z {g‹`{Vü&&

As a chariot cannot move on only one wheel, so also without personal effortdestiny accomplishes nothing.

—Yajnavalkya-Smriti, I, 353

4447. -do- Shri Ramswaroop Memorial Inst. of Mgt., Lucknow, U.P. - 226 0204448. -do- Smarak College, Bhojipura P.O., U.P. - 243 2024449. -do- Mahila College, Amreli, Gujarat - 365 6014450. -do- Shri Jaysukhlal Vadhar Inst. of Mgt., Jamnagar, Gujarat - 361 0044451. -do- Shri Guru Ram Rai Inst. of Mgt., Dehradun, Uttranchal - 248 0014452. -do- Shri Gujarati Samaj Inst., A.B. Road, Indore - 452 0104453. -do- Sri Devi Institute of Engineering & Tech., Tumkur, Karnataka - 572 1064454. -do- Shri Chimanbhai Patel Inst. Ahmedabad - 380 0514455. -do- Shri Chanakya Education Societies, Pune - 411 0334456. -do- Shri H.N. Shukla College, Rajkot, Gujarat - 360 0024457. -do- Shivdan Singh Inst. of Tech., Aligarh, U.P. - 202 1244458. -do- S.P. Mandals Department of Mgt., Nagpur - 441 3024459. -do- S.P. Mandalis Institute, Pune, Maharastra - 411 0304460. -do- S.P. Mandalis Institute, Mumbai - 400 0194461. -do- S.M.G.S. College, Wardha, Maharastra - 442 0014462. -do- Shikshan Mandals Dept. of Mgt., Nagpur, Maharastra - 440 0104463. -do- Sherwood College, Lucknow, U.P. - 226 0164464. -do- V.S.C. Academy of Mgt. Studies, Wardha, M.H. - 442 0014465. -do- Shadan Inst. of Mgt., Hyderabad, A.P. - 500 0044466. -do- Hemachandracharya University, Mehsana, Patan - 384 2654467. -do- Sengunthar Inst. of Mgt. Studies, Namakkal, T.N. - 637 2054468. -do- SDM Institute of Mgt., Mysore, Karnataka - 570 0054469. -do- Lakshminarayan College, Bhopal, M.P. - 462 0214470. Mr. V. Ramaa Subba Rao, A.P. Regional College of Mgt., Bhubaneswar, Orissa - 751 0234471. Mr. Sumanth Jagannathan, Chennai SPC Jain Institute, Agra - 282 0044472. Mr. Shantha Murthi, Chennai S.C.S. Kothari Academy, Kilpauk, Chennai - 600 0104473. Dr. P.A. Vijaya, Karnataka Malnad College of Enginnering, Hassan, Karnataka - 573 2014474. -do- National Institute of Technology, Karnataka - 575 0254475. Mr. Ashish Sharma Malout Institute, Malaout, Punjab - 152 1074476. -do- Lovely Institute, Punjab - 144 4024477. -do- Lala Lajpatrai Memorial Institute, Punjab - 142 0014478. -do- Kedarnath Aggarwal Institute, Haryana - 127 306

T h e V e d a n t a K e s a r i A U G U S T 2 0 1 0

Ramakrishna Mission AshramaP.O. & Dist. Narainpur - 494 661, Chhattisgarh

Phones - 07781- 252251, 252393, Fax - 252393

Email ID - [email protected]

AN APPEAL

47

The Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narainpur, a Branch Centre of the RamakrishnaMath & Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Howrah, West Bengal along with its five (5)Service Centres inside Abujhmarh jungles has been rendering welfare services since itsinception in 1985 for the ‘Hill Marias’, one of the poorest and most primitive Tribes inIndia, residing in ‘Abujhmarh’ of Chhattisgarh to eradicate illiteracy, ill health andpoverty. The Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narainpur covers more than 2/3 (two-third/173 out of total 233 villages) of the Abujhmarh (4000 sqr. km.) with its welfare activities.The Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narainpur runs -

A residential Higher Secondary School at Narainpur with 831 students atpresent, 2 residential Middle Schools and 3 residential Primary Schools withtotal 606 Students in AbujhmarhA 30 bedded Hospital at Narainpur and 5 health posts in AbujhmarhA Tribal Youth Training Centre (Vocational Training)An Agriculture Training and Demonstration CentreIntegrated Rural Development ProjectA free Coaching Centre for 300 studentsA Computer Training Centre

The enormity of our task in this far corner of Central India demands much moreresources to run the main activities and the problem of regular income can be solved if acorpus fund is created for each stream. We, therefore, fervently appeal to generouspeople, well wishers and friends to contribute in cash, kind and labour whatever ispossible for the noble cause. Your contribution will be of help for years together andplease be assured that every rupee will be spent for the welfare services exclusively.Cheques and Demand Drafts may kindly be issued in favour of ‘Ramakrishna MissionAshrama, Narainpur’. All donations to Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Narainpur areexempted from Income Tax under 80G of I.T. Act 1961 and donations for IntegratedRural Development Project from Business Organisations only are exempted 100% fromIncome Tax under 35AC of I.T Act 1961.

We also need doctors for our 30 bedded hospital. MBBS doctors will be paidRs.25,000/- to Rs.30,000/- with rent free quarter and MS, MD, Specialised doctors’remuneration is negotiable with rent free quarter. Please apply with bio-data to TheSecretary, Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, P.O. & Dist. Narainpur, PIN - 494 661.

Please visit our website at www.rkmanarainpur.org

Secretary


Ramakrishna MissionShivalaya, Karan Nagar, Srinagar - 190010 : Kashmir

Telephone- 0194-2479141; e-mail: [email protected](A Branch Centre of Ramakrishna Mission, P.O.Belur Math: Dist Howrah-West Bengal)

AN APPEALKashmir, the land of beauty and culture, is twice blessed with the visits of Swami Vivekananda.

In a letter to Sister Nivedita, Swamiji wrote in 1897: I shall not describe Kashmir to you. Suffice it to say, Inever felt sorry to leave any country except this paradise on earth: and I am trying my best if I can influence the Rajain starting a Centre. So much to do here and the material is so hopeful.

In 1955, a band of young men, inspired by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideology, started aCentre under the name Sri Ramakrishna Ashrama in Srinagar. Visits of senior monks like SwamiVireswaranandaji, Swami Abhayanandaji, Swami Bhuteshanandaji and Swami Ranganathanandajispurred the religious and philanthropic activities of the Centre. The Centre continued to functionunder the leadership of Prof B N Kaul despite the turbulent situation in Kashmir. In March 2008,the Ashrama was affiliated to the Ramakrishna Mission.

Srinagar Ashrama has a shrine and a prayer hall, a library and reading room, auditorium andhas published a few works in Kashmiri and Sanskrit. We now propose to upgrade our infrastruc-ture and facilities, and add the following activities for the spiritual and social welfare of the peopleof Kashmir.

1. Providing Basic Medical Services by establishing a charitable dispensary and a dentalclinic for the poor in the first phase; a modern pathological laboratory and X-ray clinic to be addedin the second phase.

2. Construct a Pilgrims Guest House to provide accommodation to the pilgrims proceed-ing to Holy Cave of Lord Amarnath and the shrine of Mata Kshir Bhavani.

Urgent requirements of the Centre include:

We appeal to all kind-hearted people and socio-philanthropic organizations to extend theirgenerous hand through donations in cash/kind towards this noble cause. Donations to theRamakrishna Mission are exempt from Income tax under section 80G of Income Tax Act 1961.

Cheques/Demand drafts may kindly be drawn in favour of ‘Ramakrishna Mission, Srinagar’.The names of the donors of Rs. 1 lakh and above will be displayed on a plaque.

With best wishes and prayers Swami ParatmanandaSecretary

Particulars Rs in Lakhs1 Establishing a Charitable Dispensary and Fully Equipped Dental Clinic 102 Renovation of Shrine and prayer Hall 153 Renovation of 200 years old Shivalaya in the Ashrama Premises 54 Upgrading the present Library and Reading Room 25 Construction of Pilgrims’ Guest House for devotees 356 Working Capital for Philanthropic services 257 Permanent Fund for Ashrama maintenance and Sri Thakur Seva 258 Renovation of the existing old monastery building 20

48


The Ashrama has been running a free hostel for the poor, underprivileged and orphanchildren from classes V to X since 1936. There is an urgent need for repair and renovation ofthe old buildings and also creating a corpus fund for maintaining the hostel of 100 children,providing them with food, uniform, accommodation and study materials free of cost.

We appeal to the generous public and well wishers to donate liberally for: 1) HostelCorpus Fund and/or 2) Hostel Renovation Fund, which are exempt 100% from Income Taxunder 35AC.

An Endowment of Rs.1 lakh and above may be created in memory of the loved ones.Donations towards other activities of the Ashrama- Daily Puja, Charitable Dispensaries,

Celebrations, Maintenance etc. (General Fund) are exempt from I.T. under 80G.Cheques/Bank Drafts/M.O. may be drawn in favour of Sri Ramakrishna Advaita

Ashrama, Kalady and sent to the above address.Donors from foreign countries can send their contributions online to our F.C. A/C No.

338602010005806 while the Indians can send to the I.C. A/C No.338602010009164 at UnionBank of India, Kalady (IFSC Code: UBIN0533866).

SRI RAMAKRISHNA ADVAITA ASHRAMA(Hqs.: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Belur Math)

P.O. Kalady, Ernakulam-683574; Ph: 0484-2462345. E-mai1:[email protected]

Swami AmaleshanandaAdhyaksha

49

Madras or Chennai is associated with theRamakrishna Movement from its inception.Swami Vivekananda, Holy Mother Sri SaradaDevi, Swami Brahmananda, Swami Rama-krishnananda and several other direct disciplesof Sri Ramakrishna have visited the city ofMadras on different occasions. The firstmonastery of the Ramakrishna Math was startedin Madras in 1897.

The present book is a compilation of detailsof these visits from various books and articles,giving a focused and comprehensive picture ofchain of events associated with the greatdisciples of Sri Ramakrishna.Paperback, number of pages 282 + vi

Price: Rs. 50/- +postage: Rs. 23/- per copy

No request for VPP entertained

Published bySri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore,

Chennai - 600 004

New Release




Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math,31, Ramakrishna Math Road, Mylapore,

Chennai - 600 004

Pages xxxiv + 589Price for single copy:

Hardbound Rs. 200/- + Postage Rs 30Paperback Rs. 150/- + Postage Rs 25

No request for VPP entertained

Fulfilling a long-felt need for having a translation of Sridhara Swami’sgloss (Tika) along with the original gloss in devanagari script, it is therevised edition of Swami Vireswarananda’s English translation of SrimadBhagavad Gita. The previous edition, with its simple and lucid language,was quite well-received by scholars as well as general readers. That edition,however, had only the translation of the gloss. The present edition alsocontains the original Sanskrit Tika in devanagari script.

In addition, provides the references (versenumber, chapter and the name of the sourcebook) to the quotations cited in the Tika, alongwith their translations. All references to theGita verses appearing in the Tika are alsosuitably cited. In order to facilitate search, anindex to the Gita verses and the words ap-pearing in the Gita verses in Sanskrit has beenadded at the end.

SrSrSrSrSrimad Bhagimad Bhagimad Bhagimad Bhagimad Bhagavad Gitaavad Gitaavad Gitaavad Gitaavad GitaWith Sridhara’s Gloss

An invitation to drink deep at the eternal spring ofBhagavad Gita presented through these pages!

52


NAVAJEEVAN BLIND RELIEF CENTRE REGD.

We can attain salvation through social work– Swami Vivekananda

K. Sridhar AcharyaFounder/ President

1. Navajeevan School & Hostel for Blind Children – Tirupati & Orissa2. Navajeevan Free Eye Hospital – Tirupati3. Navajeevan Free Home for Aged – Tirupati & Rishikesh4. Navajeevan Harijan Sewa Ashram – Kothapeta5. Navajeevan Sharanagati Vridhashram – Tirupati6. Navajeevan Orphanage – Patapatnam /

Parlaki Mudi [Orissa]7. Navajeevan Rural Medical Centres - Berhampur [Orissa]8. Navajeevan Eye Care Centres - Serango [Orissa]

Our Sewa Kendras

A Humble Request for Donation

1. Sponsor one day Annadanam 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

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

Donor devotees can send their contributions by cheque/DD/MO to the above address onthe occasion of birthday, wedding day or any other special occasion and receive prasadam of LordBalaji Venkateswara of Tirupati as blessings.

Contributions to NAVAJEEVAN BLIND RELIEF CENTRE, Tirupati are eligible for TaxRelief U/S 80G of Income Tax Act.

53


The Vedanta Kesari Regd. with the Registrar of Newspapers for Indiaunder No.1084 / 57. Postal Registered No. TN / CH (C) / 190 / 09-11

Licenced to Post WPP No. 259 / 09-11Date of publication: 26th of every month

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SGS, UK - Higher Retail SupplierSGS, UK - Higher Retail SupplierSGS, UK - Higher Retail SupplierSGS, UK - Higher Retail SupplierSGS, UK - Higher Retail Supplier

(Manufacturers of Absorbent Cotton & Health Care Products)

REGD. OFFICE:

121-122, Mittal Chambers, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400 021Tel: 91 22 6632 5141 (11 Lines)

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

TARAPUR PLANT:

H-1, MIDC, Tarapur Industrial AreaTaps Post, Boisar - 401 504

District - Thane.Tel: 02525-2722 90/91/92

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

—Swami Vivekananda

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

Documents

The Vedanta Kesari August 2010