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TheVedanta

Kesari

Cover Story

page 11

(Ω, f, p)A Cultural and Spiritual Monthly

of the Ramakrishna Order since 1914`15 J anuary 2020

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Reminiscences of SargachhiSwami Suhitananda

The Sannyasi as a Probabilist

Brahmachari Subodha Chaitanya

Women Saints of Varkari Tradition

Arpana Ghosh

Sri Ramakrishna and the Pilgrimage Mindset

Swami Chidekananda

A Get-Together of the Gods in a Temple-College

Dr. Chithra Madhavan

Poorva: Magic, Miracles and the Mystical Twelve

Lakshmi Devnath

FEATURES

8 Atmarpanastuti

9 Yugavani

10 Editorial

27 Vivekananda Way

40 Book Reviews

42 What is Religion?

51 Pariprasna

53 The Order on the March

Snake! Snake!

Gitanjali Murari

11

3

107th

Year of Publication

Vol. 107, No. 1

ISSN 0042-2983

Pocket Tales

Ch

isel

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Narr

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Cover Story

The VedanTa KesariA Cultural and Spiritual Monthly of The Ramakrishna Order

CONTENTS

JANUARY

2020

JANUARY

2020

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TheVedanta K

He was a much-celebrated and much-feted Swami. His famous

address at The World’s Parliament of Religions, Chicago in 1893 had

catapulted him to the status of a super star. But Swami Vivekananda

was not one to bask in chaffy glory. A letter to one of his trusted followers, from the USA, dated

12 Jan 1895, read, ‘I want to preach my ideas for the good of the world. …What work have you

done in the way of advancing the ideas and organising in India? …My life is more precious than

spending it in getting the admiration of the world. I have no time for such foolery.’

Swamiji, as Swami Vivekananda was fondly addressed, loved and revered his motherland

as his own mother. Every breath of his aspired for her well being and every cell in his body

yearned that she regain her lost glory. She had been a beacon light for the world until repeated

invasions pillaged her ruthlessly and left her not just poverty-stricken but also psychologically

drained. The latter struck at the very core, underlying the urgency for immediate redressal.

Swamiji’s panacea for this lay in India’s very own practical and ennobling Vedantic wisdom.

Vedanta recognises no weakness. It proclaims that in every individual lies a mine of strength.

All that is needed is an effort to draw from it.

Swamiji started looking for the right channel to propagate the powerful message of

Vedanta. He opted for the print medium and decided to bring out a journal, giving it the name

Brahmavadin. In February 1895, he sent from USA $100 and a letter to his trusted disciple

Alasinga Perumal. The letter read: ‘Now I am bent upon starting the journal. Herewith I send a

hundred dollars… Hope this will go just a little in starting your

paper.’ If selflessness and devotion would have a form, it would have borne the name of Alasinga Perumal. Brahmavadin became Alasinga’s calling and the first issue rolled out from a press in Broadway, Chennai on 14 September

1895. The magazine included a poem of Swamiji

specially composed for the occasion. It was titled, ‘The

Song of the Sannyasin’. One verse ran thus:

First issue of

Brahmavadin

First issue of

The Vedanta Kesari

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One hundred and seven years and going strong….

“Strike off thy fetters! Bonds that bind thee down,

Love, hate — good, bad — and all the dual throng,

For fetters, though of gold, are not less strong to bind;

With this message that marked its mission, Brahmavadin made a determined entry into

the strife-ridden climate of pre-independence India. The birth of the magazine was certainly

an occasion for celebration but the struggles were far from over.

One of Swamiji’s letters to Alasinga read: ‘I learnt from your letter the bad financial state that Brahmavadin is in.’ This was followed by another letter that carried the line, ‘I pledge

myself to maintain the paper anyhow.’

Bolstered by this pledge, Alasinga Perumal braved on, surmounting many an impediment.

Sadly, Swami Vivekananda passed away in 1902, at the age of thirty-nine. Alasinga’s intense

anguish morphed into heightened devotion towards the magazine. But the next hurdle in

Brahmavadin’s journey came in 1909, in the form of Alasinga’s own demise. In May 1914, the magazine, tottering as it was, floundered and ground to a halt. It was at this crucial juncture, that the Ramakrishna Mission stepped in to revive it. The

Mission was itself in its nascent stages with many a teething problem but nothing could come

in its way of reviving the Brahmavadin. For, had not their beloved Swamiji repeatedly said, ‘The

Brahmavadin is a jewel – it must not perish!” And so, the very same month when Brahmavadin

closed, it was resuscitated with the new name The Vedanta Kesari.

The history of The Vedanta Kesari is much more than just a tale of sweat, toil and a dream

realized. It is a narrative of Swamiji’s passion for India and Alasinga’s devotion to his master.

It is a celebration of love, transcending forms.

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edanta Kesari

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mission for The Vedanta Kesari.6

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reaching 2233 libraries....

Sloka - 2कषितयादीनयामवववतया कनकचित जनम तयावत तनयासतयव कवचन ककित करतरकिषयानहीनम ।

नयाकिषयात परभवकत जडो नयापनीशचिभयावसतसमयादयादयसतवमकि जगतया नयाथ जयानय कवियातया ॥२॥2) The earth and other things which are made up of parts certainly have an

origin. They are nowhere found to be without a creator and a material cause.

Neither an inert object nor one who is powerless (like the jiva) is capable of

creation. Therefore I know that You, Who alone existed before creation (aadhyah),

are the creator of the universe, O Lord.

Sloka - 3इनद कमर वरणमकनि पदमज कवषणमीश परयाहसतय तय परमकशव तय मयाया मोकहतयासतवयाम ।

एतसियािध िकिमकप चछकतिियशय िमयाप ि तव दयव शकतष कवददतः शमभदरतयादददयवः ॥३॥

3) O Paramashiva! Deluded by Your maya, people speak variously of Indra,

Mitra, Varuna, Vayu, Brahma, Visnu, as the cause of the universe. Everything,

including these, is but a fraction of Your power. O Lord, You are known in the vedas

as Shambhu, the supreme Lord.

Sloka - 4

आननदयाबियः कमकप च घनीभयावमयासथया रप शकतया ियािध परमममया शयाशवत भोगकमचछन । अधवयातीतय शकचददविकतकोदिदीपय कपददतरन आदयय सथयानय कवहरकि िदया ियवमयानो गणयशः ॥४4) Taking on an indescribable solidified form of the ocean of Bliss, desiring

eternal supreme enjoyment with Your consort Uma, O Lord with matted hair, You

ever sport in the primordial place, beyond the reach of speech and mind, which shines like a crore of suns and moons, served by the lords of the gaṇas. (The idea brought out here is that Brahman who is pure Bliss and without form takes a form

by his maya for blessing devotees, as stated in Shankara Bhagavatpada’s bhashya

on Brahma Sutra 1. 1. 20.)

Atmarpanastuti

Sri Appayya Dikshitendra

Translated by Sri. S.N. Sastri.

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Scriptures

Yugavani

Once several men were crossing the Ganges in a boat. One of them, a pundit, was

making a great display of his erudition, saying that he had studied various books—

the Vedas, the Vedanta, and the six systems of philosophy. He asked a fellow

passenger, “Do you know the Vedanta?” “No, revered sir.” “The Samkhya and the Patanjala?” “No,

revered sir.” “Have you read no philosophy whatsoever?” “No, revered sir.” The pundit was talking

in this vain way and the passenger sitting in silence, when a great storm arose and the boat was

about to sink. The passenger said to the pundit, “Sir, can you swim?” “No”, replied the pundit. The

passenger said, “I don’t know the Samkhya or the Patanjala, but I can swim.” … What will a man

gain by knowing many scriptures? The one thing needful is to know how to cross the river of the

world. God alone is real, and all else illusory.

The Divine Mother has revealed to me the essence of the Vedanta. It is that Brahman alone is

real and the world illusory. The essence of the Gita is what you get by repeating the word ten times.

The word becomes reversed. It is then tagi, which refers to renunciation. The essence of the Gita

is: “O man, renounce everything and practice spiritual discipline for the realization of God.”

One understands the scriptures better by hearing them from the lips of the guru or of a holy

man. Then one doesn’t have to think about their non-essential part.

It is true that many things are recorded in the scriptures; but all these are useless without

the direct realization of God, without devotion to His Lotus Feet, without purity of heart. The

almanac forecasts the rainfall of the year. But not a drop of water will you get by squeezing the

almanac. No, not even one drop.

How long should one reason about the texts of the scriptures? So long as one does not have

direct realization of God. How long does the bee buzz about? As long as it is not sitting on a flower. No sooner does it light on a flower and begin to sip honey than it keeps quiet.It is one thing to learn about God from the scriptures, and quite another to see Him….

To explain God after merely reading the scriptures is like explaining to a person the city of

Banaras after seeing it only in a map.You may speak of the scriptures, of philosophy, of Vedanta; but you will not find God in any of these. You will never succeed in realizing God unless your soul becomes restless for Him.

You must practise tapasya. Only then can you attain the goal. It will avail you nothing even

if you learn the texts of the scriptures by heart. You cannot become intoxicated by merely saying

“siddhi” over and over. You must swallow some.

—Sri Ramakrishna

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Nityananda and Haridas as directed

by Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu were

once going around the streets of

Navadwip, spreading the name of the Lord.

Jagai and Madhai, two drunkards who were the

terror of the town, opposed these messengers

of love. Once, Madhai attacked Nityananda and

wounded him grievously. The saint only replied,

“Shall I stop giving you love, because you have

hit me?” This merciful love transformed the ruffians and they became the disciples of Sri Chaitanya.

One day while walking in Cairo, Swami

Vivekananda and his companions, engrossed in

some discussion, lost their way. They found

themselves in a squalid, ill-smelling street

where half-clad women sat at doorsteps and

peeped out from windows. Swamiji initially did

not notice them until a group of noisy women

began laughing and called out to him. Though

his companions tried to quickly usher Swamiji

away from there, he gently disengaged from

them and approached the women on the bench.

Standing in front them he said, “Poor children!

Poor creatures! They have put their divinity in

their beauty. Look at them now!” and began to

weep. The women were silenced and abashed.

Swamiji’s compassion awakened them to their

pitiable condition and turned their thoughts

towards God. One of them leaned forward and

kissed the hem of his robe, murmuring

brokenly in Spanish, “Man of God! Man of God!”

Another lady covered her face with her arm in

modesty and fear. Slowly, Swamiji and his

companions walked away from there.

Swami Turiyananda, a direct-disciple of

Sri Ramakrishna, was once explaining Vedanta

to a Western disciple as they walked along a

fashionable avenue in New York. As he went

deeper into the subject, the faster he began to

Break the Cagewalk and the louder his voice became. Then

suddenly, he halted in the street and with one

arm raised in air told the disciple almost

shouting, “Be a lion, be a lion, break the cage

and be free! Take a big jump and the work is

done!” It was a call that the surprised

fashionable New York people heard in wonder.

Indeed, down the ages, men of God have

always given the call for love, compassion, and

spiritual courage. But somehow, we, the people

on the street, have chosen to be deaf and we

continue to live in our multi-layered cages: the

cage we are born with – body, mind, ego, and

samskaras; the cage we have constructed for

ourselves – identities born of relationships with

people, ideas, things, and places; and the cage

forged for us by the world – situations, and

circumstances. The consequence of living in

these cages are violence, debased sense gratifications, and false sense of happiness and goodness.

The irony is that most of us do not even

recognise the cage as an imprisonment. We

accept our condition as a natural state of life

and are happy to enjoy the ‘freedom’ of pacing

around in the cage! We spend our energies in

polishing the cage, defending it, and glorifying

it with euphemistic names. Our individual

cages, then together shape new cages for our

whole society.

It really requires a lion’s courage to break

free from all these cages. We have to take ‘a big

jump’, a leap of faith – faith in our innate

divinity, faith in the divinity of others, and faith

in God – to awaken ourselves and others to a

life of true freedom.

Let us begin this new English calendar

year with a prayer and a vow to recognise and

break these cages.

Editorial

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Prologue

English qualifiers bearing on greatness might well be vying with

each other to represent the many-

splendored personality of Swami Vivekananda. Be that as it may, Swami Vivekananda defies superlatives. Had he only delivered that

supremely felicitous speech in Chicago on 11th

September’1893, his place in the religious

history of the world would have been assured.

Had his only contribution to the world-thought

been the unique presentation of four Yogas –

Jnana, Bhakti, Raja, and Karma and their

integration, he would be acclaimed as the

prophet of synthesis. Had he only founded the

Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna

Mission, he would have been immortalized as

the creator of a new face of monasticism. Had

his only gift to the world literary been his

celebrated travelogue written in colloquial

Bengali, he would be hailed today as the

originator of a new style in Bengali literature.

That he gave us all these and more – so much

more – is our great good fortune and is a

testament to the power of an extraordinary

soul-force being brought to bear upon diverse

domains of human endeavors. No wonder, this ‘prophet of infinitude’1 appears in a mind

The Sannyasi as a ProbabilistBRAHMACHARI SUBODHA CHAITANYA

Swami Vivekananda’s luminous mind probed virtually every domain of human excellence to its depth and came up with astounding revelations. Little known however is his mastery of the nuances of probability theory in Statistics. This article gives us a peep into this hither-to-unknown aspect of Swamiji.

-boggling multiplicity of roles – religious-

teacher, philosopher, historian, patriot, social &

economic thinker, litterateur, humorist, singer,

sportsman ……. indeed the list could go on. Can

we possibly see a ‘Probabilist’ somewhere

down the list? Or, is it too far-

fetched to be true? Well, not

really. Let us read

on.

Dice-Playing,

Immortality, and

the Sannyasi

W h i l e t h e

great theoretical

Physicist Albert

Einstein - for fear of

vitiating Nature’s

determinism – would

not have God playing

dice with the universe,

Swami Vivekananda –

arguably the greatest

champion of God –

found the creator to be

a consummate

d i c e - p l a y e r !

The author serves in Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur, as a faculty in the Dept. of Economics and

as the Coordinator of Swami Vivekananda Research Centre. Cover page designed by Anudatto Mallick,

M.Phil student at Vidyamandira. brsubrata5433@gmail.com

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Interestingly enough, Swamiji’s ascription of

dice-playing to God does not make Him (God) a

capricious Being – rather, in and through God’s

created universe, what shows through is a

‘specialized’ deterministic pattern, powered by

the ‘law of chance’. Surely, never before or

since had the secular science of Probability

been placed on such a sacred footing!

The context of Swamiji’s reaching out to

the theory of Probability is as exciting as it can

possibly get. He was talking on ‘Immortality’ to

an American audience.

Decidedly the topic was

such as to have all the

listeners hanging on his

words. Who does not

want to live forever?

While various theological

traditions might well

expatiate on the ‘implied’

meaning of ‘Immortality’

(i.e. it is the spiritual Self

that is immortal), it is idle

to deny that it’s the

‘ l i te ra l ’ m e a n i n g o f

‘Immortality’ that holds the fascination for man.

None can help wondering: can I continue living

forever as the ‘person’ that I currently am?

Theological traditions, having no answer to

provide, at best promise a heaven after death.

But, Swamiji took up the gauntlet. Using an

argument which is a logical tour de force in

itself, he proceeded to show how even the

‘formed’ beings, by way of continuation, can

recur – albeit at certain periodic intervals. Like

an accomplished ‘Probabilist’ he marshalled

his facts:

‘In one sense bodies and forms even are

eternal. How? Suppose we take a number of

dice and throw them, and they fall in this ratio

— 6 — 5 — 3 — 4. We take the dice up and

throw them again and again; there must be a

time when the same numbers will come again;

the same combination must come. Now each

particle, each atom, that is in this universe, I

take for such a die, and these are being

thrown out and combined again and again. All

these forms before you are one combination.

Here are the forms of a glass, a table, a pitcher

of water, and so forth. This is one combination;

in time, it will all break. But there must come a

time when exactly the same combination comes

again, when you will be here, and this form will

be here, this subject will be talked, and this

pitcher will be here. An infinite number of times this has been, and an infinite number of times this will be repeated.’2

T h e t h o u g h t f u l

reader will not fail to

recognize that the whole

argument above rests on

the large repetitions of the

dice-throwing experiment

and the assurance of the

recurrence of a set of

outcomes that occurred at a specific throw. Now, the conclusion of the certainty of recurrence of a specific set (i.e., ‘there must be a time when the same numbers

will come again’) in a series of random

occurrences is something that a person with a

fair degree of acquaintance with probability-

theory can make. We might as well try to trace

Swamiji’s thought process here with regards to

his example of throwing four dice

simultaneously and observing an outcome

6,5,3,4. This outcome, the Probabilist in

Swamiji asserts, must occur again if the

experiment of throwing the four dice is

repeated very many times (‘We take the dice up

and throw them again and again.’). How did he

arrive at this? Here is the little calculation along

with certain a-priori assumptions that might

have raced through his phenomenal intellect:

While the great theoretical Physicist Albert Einstein - for

fear of vitiating Nature’s

determinism – would not have

God playing dice with the universe, Swami Vivekananda –

arguably the greatest champion of God – found the creator to be

a consummate dice-player!

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Assuming (a) each die is fair i.e., its six

faces are equally likely to occur (b) the

experiment of casting four dice simultaneously

is repeated ‘n’ times (c) the outcomes of each of

the four dice in any experiment are

independent (d) all the ‘n’ experiments are

independent, the probability that the outcome

6,5,3,4 does not occur in any of the ‘n’

experiments is (1 - 1/64)n i.e., (1295/1296)n.

Now, the chance that the set 6,5,3,4 occurs at

least once is 1 - (1295/1296)n. As ‘n’ gets

larger and larger, the

probability of the set

6,5,3,4 occurring at least

once tends towards 1 i.e.,

certainty! (In fact, with n

= 10,000, this probability

is approximately 0.9995).

Voi la! I t ’s truly

amazing how Swamiji

made use of this nascent

science of chance (at least

it was so during 19 th

century) to make some

hither-to unheard-of remarks on ‘Immortality’

of bodies and forms, hastening to point out

however that ‘that is not the immortality of the

soul.’3 Anyway, as the purpose of this article is

to understand Swamiji as the ‘Probabilist’, we will confine our discussion to ‘Immortality’ of bodies and forms upon which Swamiji so

adroitly brings to bear the ‘Law of Chance’. In

yet another lecture, ‘The Atman: Its Bondage

and Freedom’, Swamiji illustrates the same idea

using almost the same example, with an

additional idea of Probability-theory thrown in:

‘All the forms which we are seeing now

have been manifested again and again, and the

world in which we live has been here many

times before. I have been here and talked to you

many times before. You will know that it must

be so, and the very words that you have been

listening to now, you have heard many times

before. And many times more it will be the

same. Souls were never different, the bodies

have been constantly dissolving and recurring.

Secondly, these things periodically occur.

Suppose here are three or four dice, and when we throw them, one comes up five, another four, another three, and another two. If you

keep on throwing, there must come times when

those very same numbers will recur. Go on

throwing, and no matter how long may be the

interval, those numbers must come again. It

cannot be asserted in how many throws they will

come again; this is the law of chance. So with souls

and their associations.

However distant may be

the periods, the same

c o m b i n a t i o n s a n d

dissolutions will happen

again and again.’4

I n t h e a b o v e

example, Swamiji , in

addition to saying that the

die combination 5,4,3,2 is sure to occur

somewhere down the line, goes on to comment

on the number of throws that one might

possibly require to have the same combination

once more. This observation quoted above is

worth being relooked at: It cannot be asserted in how many throws they will come again; this is the law of chance. We can venture to suggest

that these printed words as they appear in the

Vol-II of the Complete Works might be a shade insufficient representation of what the Probabilist-sannyasi conveyed. We’ll try to

reason it out based on logic and evidence, make

an educated guess and leave it at that.

For one thing, the sentences ‘It cannot be

asserted in how many throws they will come

again’ and ‘this is the law of chance’ are

somewhat oxymoronic with respect to one

another. If a ‘law’ is operative, then it’s ipso

It’s truly amazing how Swamiji

made use of this nascent science of chance to make some hither-to

unheard-of remarks on ‘Immortality’ of bodies and

forms, hastening to point out

however that ‘that is not the

immortality of the soul.’

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facto true that the number of throws can be

asserted. To say the reverse is to go back on

logic. Granting that it’s the ‘law of chance’, not

a deterministic law - even then an emphatic

‘cannot be asserted’ runs counter to the notion

of ‘predictiveness’ implicit in the word ‘law’.

More importantly, we’ve reason to believe

that Swamiji’s ‘spoken’ words (presumably

taken down almost verbatim by Mr.

J.J.Goodwin) bearing on this theme are quite

different and are indeed closer in spirit to the specific aspect of Probability theory that he was espousing. Here goes a portion of Mr.

Goodwin’s transcript of the same lecture ‘The

Atman: Its Bondage and Freedom’ which varies

in places from the same passage in the

Complete Works:

‘Suppose there are three or four dice, and when we throw them one comes up five, and another four, and another three, and another

two, and you keep on throwing and throwing.

There must come times when those very same

numbers will recur. Go on throwing, and no

matter how long may be the interval, those

numbers must come again. It can be mathematically asserted in how many throws they will come again; this is the law of chance.’5

If, in the italicised sentence above, we care

to read ‘mathematically’ as ‘probabilistically’

(with Probability theory yet to be recognized as

an independent discipline distinct from

Mathematics, Swamiji must have been using

these two words almost interchangeably as a

matter of loose convention), it would clearly

convey the sense in which Swamiji meant ‘the

number of throws’ required to have the

repetition of the outcome 5,4,3,2. To all

intents and purposes, Swamiji implied the

‘expected value’ of throws – rather than the

exact value. Now, in a random process (a

process in which ‘law of chance’ is operative) it

is not possible to come up with the exact

number of throws – it is however possible to

find an ‘average’ number of such throws based on the law of probability. In probability

parlance, this is known as the ‘expected value’.

Let us try to wrap our minds around what

Swamiji was hinting at:

Here we’ve the situation of throwing four dice simultaneously. The outcome of the first throw happens to be 5,4,3,2. In the

subsequent throws, let us designate this

outcome as a ‘success’ and any other outcome

as ‘failure’. Let’s further assume the probability

of success is p. The probability of failure is

therefore (1-p). Given this set-up, we are

interested in knowing the throw-number at which the next success occurs. Now, defining the variable (rather, random variable as the

underlying experiment is random) X as the

throw-number at which the next success

occurs, the required probability that the next

success happens at X=x , conditioned on the fact the first success occurred at the first throw is :P (X=x|The first throw is a success) = p(1-p)x-2 ; x=2,3,……∞

It’s easy to verify that the above is a

probability mass function as

And, the expected value of X is E(X)

Now, it’s this expected value (1+1/p) that

would act as a fair representation of the throw

number at which the second success occurs. If

we consider each die to be fair, then p = 1/64.

In that case, the average value of the throw

number at which the second success takes

place is (1 + 64) = 1297. In conclusion, our

educated guess is that Swamiji meant this

expected value of throws when he said ‘it can

be mathematically asserted in how many

throws they will come again; this is the law of

chance.’

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The foregoing discussion is surely

indicative of the effortless ease with which

Swamiji handled some of the important

concepts in Probability theory. Against the

backdrop that this rather abstruse theory was confined to the rarefied academic circles during nineteenth century, it is all the more

extraordinary that a sannyasi could master this

almost to the point of expertise. This expertise

was such as to have brought out unstinted

compliment from no less a Logician-cum-

Probabilist as Dr. John Venn of University of

Cambridge, England. While not much is known

about Swamji meeting any great Mathematician

or Probabilist in the West, we know for a fact

that in England Swamiji met Dr. John Venn – the

celebrated authority on Logic and the author of

‘Logic of Chance’. The ‘Venn diagrams’ -

inseparable part of Probability theory are

named after this great logician. According to

the account of Mahendranath Datta (Swamiji’s

younger brother): ‘Swamiji impressed the

professor very much and he was most pleased

with the encounter.’6 Given this mutual

admiration, one would not be far out in saying

that it was the meeting of a Probabilist from the

East with a Probabilist from the West!

EpilogueAs we reflect on Swamiji’s exceptional ability to master even a secular science such as Probability-theory, we simply are mystified as to the source of such power. Sister Christine

makes an exegetical comment on this

extraordinariness of Swamiji: ‘Others may be

brilliant; his mind is luminous, for he had the

power to put himself into the immediate

contact with the source of all knowledge. He is

no longer limited to the slow process to which ordinary human beings are confined.’7

That settles it then! Living as he did in the

resplendent glory of the Self, Swamiji’s

‘luminous’ mind was ever in touch with the

fount of knowledge and he was thus able to

master anything and everything with unstudied

grace. His life is indeed a great object lesson

that establishes that the Atmajnani (knower of

the Self) can easily attain to any knowledge, if

he so wishes. Small wonder, his exhortation in

this regard (as always) comes laden with his

own experiential certitude: ‘Try to manifest this

Atman, and you will see your intellect

penetrating into all subjects. The intellect of

one who has not realised the Atman is one-

sided, whereas the genius of the knower of

Atman is all-embracing. With the manifestation of the Atman you will find that science, philosophy, and everything will be easily

mastered.’8

Let us put forth our best energies in

manifesting this Atman in every walk of life –

academic or otherwise. Then alone can we

count ourselves as worthy followers of this

master Probabilist-sannyasi for whom the only

‘certainty ’, amidst the probabi l ist ic

uncertainties of phenomenal existence, is

‘Atman’ which he never tired of pointing out:

‘The soul endureth forever.’9

1) Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda by His Eastern and Western Admirers [hereafter Reminiscences].

Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama,Mayavati, Fifth Edition, pp.302

2) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda

[hereafter CW]. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, Mayavai Edition, 2: 229-230

3) CW. 2:231

4) CW. 2:260

5) Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries. Marie Louise Burke. Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama,

3:555-556

6) Londone Swami Vivekananda. [Bengali]

Mahendranath Datta, The Mahendra Publishing

Committee, pp.43-447) Reminiscences. p.3298) CW. 2:138

9) CW. 4:246

References

Reminiscences

Question: Sometimes things happen

in an unexpectedly fortuitous way

for which we can claim no credit.

Can we regard such occurrences as mani-

festations of God’s grace?

Maharaj: No. These beneficial develop-

ments are perhaps due to some good deeds that

we performed in an earlier life. However, if we

have God’s grace, we will develop the faith that

they are in accordance with the will of the Lord.

If we analyse this from the standpoint of a

jnani (a man of knowledge), we shall find that we live within this body just as within our shirt

– I take off the shirt and wash it when it

becomes dirty, sew it when it’s torn, and throw

it away when it wears out. But this is

experienced only by the ripe ‘I’, not the ‘unripe I’. These ideals are for educated and refined people, for those seeking liberation. They are

not for the common people. For them there is

no other way than dualism. How many persona-

lities like Buddha and Jesus have come! Were

they able to accomplish anything? Also, what

will even Swamiji do? However, those eager to attain liberation will benefit. पदररयाणया ियािनया “For the protection of the good.” (Gita 4:8)

How much commotion has happened in

this world because of this dualism! There are

numerous sects among the Muslims, Christians,

and Hindus. The worshippers of Krishna, Shiva, and Kali fight with one another to death. This is

45

Swami Premeshananda (1884 – 1967) was a disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi. For over two decades he lived at Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Sargachhi, West Bengal. Under his inspiration countless people led a life of spirituality and service, and many young men and women entered into monastic life. His conversations – translated from Bengali and presented below – were noted by his attendant who is now Srimat Swami Suhitananda, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order.

Reminiscences of SargachhiSWAMI SUHITANANDA

sheer hypocrisy in the name of religion. Ten

fanatics set up a person as an incarnation and

a large number of people obey him out of fear.

Thus an avatar is created! Atheists are better

than these people.

Question: Sri Ramakrishna has said that

Brahman includes all living beings and the

world; i.e., our experience of Brahman is

incomplete without them, just as the weight of

a wood apple will be less if we leave out its

shell and seeds. Does this make Sri Rama- krishna a Vishishtadvaitin (qualified monist)?Maharaj: Sri Ramakrishna demonstrated

that Nirguna Brahman (Brahman without

attributes) is true. But does this mean that

those who worship God with form do not see

Brahman? Of course they see Brahman. And the qualified monists also verily see the same Brahman.

Sri Ramakrishna climbed to the highest

spiritual state, and then coming down revealed

that all spiritual states are true. The material

that constitutes the roof is the same that

constitutes the staircase. Coming down from

the state of non-duality, Sri Ramakrishna would stay in the states of the qualified monists or the dualists; but this was unlike other qualified monists and dualists who think that theirs is

the only true state. Read the verse यऽपनदयवतया भतिया जनतय शदधयाऽननवतयाः… “Even those who are

devoted to other divinities with faith in their

(Continued from previous issue. . .)

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hearts, worship Me alone, O Arjuna, though by

the wrong method [not understanding the

truth].” (Gita 9:23)

20.11.60Question: If I realise Brahman, then for

sure I will possess all powers; can I then do

whatever I want?

Maharaj: “I am Brahman” is true; but

unless I prepare myself, how will I be aware of

my powers? All the huge mansions which were

built in the past can be built again if the

building material and other necessary things

are avai lable [preparation precedes

manifestation]. The kshatriyas pursued

Brahmavidya. It requires immense power.

नयामयातमया बिहीनयन िभः “This Atman cannot be

attained by the weak.” (Mundakopanishad

3:2:4) The brahmins preserved culture by performing sacrifices, reciting the Vedas, and leading a well-regulated life.

Question: Isn’t it enough to mentally

repeat the Ishta mantra (the mantra of the

Chosen Deity)?

Maharaj: Yes, provided the mind dwells on

the Chosen Deity. We are not even conscious of

where our mind dwells. Just as it is necessary

to keep our mind on our Chosen Deity, we

should in a more intense manner keep a sharp

eye on what is happening inside us, in our

mind. Without this, you cannot be a sannyasi.

Try to visualise this: I am speeding through

space and slowly the sheaths (koshas) are

dropping off my body one by one. Can you infer

what remains at the very end?

In the causal body (karaṇa-sharira) you

can taste the bliss in two ways – either by

savouring the joy of God’s disport, or by being

the witness of body-mind-intellect. But a

sadhaka may fall even from the highest state of

devotion if he has not detached himself from

the body-mind-intellect complex. Mathura Das’s

body was shivering from cold; yet he was

saying, “I am not trembling inside.” Even if you

constantly remember and repeat the name of

God, you may have a fall. Nowadays there are

many who don’t observe their own mind

carefully; consequently, they start accepting

disciples and keep female companions.

Therefore, unless a spiritual seeker habitually

acts after due introspection, discrimination,

and deliberation, he is at great risk and he will

not have liberation from karma.

न मया कमयातरकण किमपननत न मय कमतरफिय सपपहया ।इकत मया ोऽकभजयानयाकत कमतरकभनतर ि बधतय।। “Actions do not taint Me, nor have I any

thirst for the fruit of action. He who knows Me

thus is not bound by actions.” (Gita 4:14)

It is possible to succeed if you work after

knowing this divine truth. However, when you

work, you are bound to experience the fruits.

But he who wants to be free, though working,

always tries to realise नषकमतर, actionlessness.

Such action cannot be called work; this is just his effort to finish his work; it is worship of God. Suppose I have gone as far as Berhampore,

and then want to return to Sargachhi. What is

the way? I have to walk back to Sargachhi from

Berhampore. This walking back is not the same

as going to Berhampore. Similarly, this kind of

work is not action; it is worship. As long as you

cannot remain without doing work, you work;

after that you sit in yoga.

आररषिोमतरनययोग कमतर कयारणमचतय । ोगयारढस तसव शमः कयारणमचतय ।। “For the sage who desires to attain to

yoga, action is said to be the means. For the

selfsame person, when he has attained to yoga,

inaction is said to be the means.” (Gita 6:3)

Sri Ramakrishna has said that whatever work comes to your lot, perform it selflessly and pray: “O Lord, please reduce my hankering for work.” At first, hold on to God with one hand and keep the other hand on work. Afterwards,

work will end and every action of yours will

become worship – just as the monastic

disciples of Sri Ramakrishna used to do.

(to be continued...)

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The Varkari Sampradaya or the

bhakti movement centered around

Lord Vitthala of Pandharpur swept

over the region of Maharashtra between the

13 th and 17 th C.E. Its tradition of all-

encompassing love for God included everyone

breaking the barriers of gender, caste, and

status and threw up numerous saint-poets and

exemplary householder devotees. The ideal

was to spiritualise one’s family-life and practice

bhakti within one’s home.

Consequently, women who lived relatively

ordinary lives as wives, mothers and sisters

easily integrated into the tradition. They did not fling off worldly responsibilities and restrictions and wander off alone like a Mirabai

or Akka Mahadevi. The tradition gave them

space to evolve as teachers and sants or saints. They are referred to with the same honorific prefix ‘sant’ as their male counterparts: Sant Janabai being one of the most prominent.

The black murti of Vitthala or Pandurang

is believed to be the saguna form of the One

Supreme pervading the whole universe. Great

saint-poets like Sant Jnaneshvar, Namdev,

Ekanath, and Tukaram proclaimed that nothing

but a longing heart full of love was needed to

reach God and cross over the ocean of samsara.

Women Saints of Varkari TraditionARPANA GHOSH

In the earlier issues we presented the life and teachings of Sants Jnaneswar, Namdev, Eknath, and Tukaram. This article on the women saints concludes this series on the Varkhari tradition of Maharashtra.

And the way to attain this love was through

bhajan or chanting of the Lord’s name ‘Ram

Krishna Hari’! This bhava, to speak to God with

an intense love was the key to reach Him.

We come across nearly 15 women sants

as listed in the Sakala Santa Gatha, a

compendium of the abhangs of all the

Maharashtrian devotee-saints. This article

highlights four of the most popular women

saints hailing from very different social

backgrounds.

Sant Muktabai

Muktabai, whose name means ‘liberated,

was the younger sister of Sant Jnaneshvar, that

‘Ocean of Knowledge’ who is credited with

laying the foundation of this Vitthala Bhakti

Marga, the Varkari Sampradaya. Altogether they

were four siblings – Nivrittinath, Jnaneshvar,

Sopan and Mukta - each two years apart in age

from the other. Their father, a devout Brahmin

had left his wife to become a sannyasi in Kashi

and was later ordered by his guru to return to the householder’s life and fulfil his duties. The brahmins however did not accept this and

ostracized the whole family. They had to suffer

many torments and injustices. The parents

eventually drowned themselves as the advised

Article

Arpana Ghosh, a German by birth, is settled in Chennai for 27 years. She has embraced Vitthal Bhakti and is

Vitthal’s German Varkari. arpana-ghosh@hotmail.com

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means of expiation (prayaschitta) and the four

children were orphaned at a very young age.

Mukta must have been just a tiny girl of

three! The children continued to be outcastes

until they proved their intellectual and spiritual

brilliance in a debate with the brahmins of

Paithan, where the young Jnaneshvar made a

buffalo recite the Vedas to prove that God is not

different from his creation. From then on

people respected the children as divine and

blessed.

Mukta’s life was

entirely bound up with

that of her brothers;

wherever they went, they

stayed together like a

small family, all of them

unmarried. The eldest

Nivrittinath, was their guru and he initiated

them into the Nath Sampraday, an esoteric

Shaiva tradition, and later, when they came to

Pandharpur, they became the strongest

proponents of Vitthala bhakti; thus they

amalgamated two traditions. Mukta even

witnessed and experienced Sant Jnaneshvar’s

samadhi sohala or celebration in Alandi – a

sublime 5-day event of bliss and grief,

witnessed by thousands, where her brother

Jnaneshvar, endearingly called Maoli (mother)

took sajivan samadhi. Having fulfilled his life’s purpose and with a great longing to unite

forever with the Supreme he had himself

entombed in an underground chamber beneath

the Siddheshvar Shiva temple in Alandi at the

tender age of 22!

Muktabai is depicted as a beautiful and

brilliant young girl, spiritually very advanced

and learned. The fact that she didn’t get

married puts her above the norm. Unlike many

other women bhaktas, she never emphasizes

her womanhood. She dwells entirely in the spirit and is very confident. The great yogi Changadev who had acquired many

supernatural powers through years of tapasya

and who had many followers, was humbled by

Jnaneshvar and he eventually became a disciple

of the very young Mukta – a woman – a yogini!!

Muktabai composed about 50 abhangs.

Her main theme is taking God’s name in order

to acquire the divine qualities, experience God’s

omnipresence and become liberated. In her

abhangs she signs off simply as ‘Muktai’.

Popular among her abhangs are her eleven

‘Songs of the Door’ (tatiche abhang). As they

were treated as outcastes,

Jnaneshvar, fed up with

the derogatory and vile

comments of the people,

locked himself in his hut.

With these songs Mukta

cajoled him to open the

door. She sang Santa teci jana jagi,daya kshama jyace angi “People can

recognize a sant by his forbearance and

compassion, one whose mind has no greed and

conceit, one who has attained bliss here on

earth, one who bestows pure knowledge! Put

aside false doubts, open the door Jnaneshvar!”

As can be noted she does not adopt the servile

tone of a younger sister pleading with an older

brother; it is one self-realized soul addressing

another.

All the four siblings were divine

incarnations who came to spiritually uplift

mankind. Their miss ion completed ,

they followed their brother Jnaneshvar and

within six months all of them took sajivan

samadhi in various places. Of Muktabai it is said that she disappeared in a flash of lightning. Her age must have been at that time just 18!

Muktabai is greatly revered and admired

and people believe she is an incarnation of the

Adi Shakti, but she is not the typical example of

a bhavik Varkari sant. As a person she almost

seems intangible; her life is miraculous, full of

wisdom and mysticism.

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Sant Janabai performed all her

household chores together with Vitthala.

Sant Janabai

Of all the Maharashtrian women

sants, Janabai is the most popular and her

abhangs are sung widely. The way she

performed all her household chores together

with Vitthala, giving to her daily drudgery a

new respectabi l i ty and meaning, is

unparalleled! She is indeed the purest example

of Vitthala bhakti!

She arrived in Pandharpur as a small

lower caste orphan girl having lost her way.

There she came under the care of Damsheti, the

father of the great Vitthalbhakta Sant Namdev.

In this saintly home she grew up and spent all

her life as a maidservant. She was a few years

elder to Namdev, and took care of him as a

young boy and later became his disciple. In her

abhangs, she very often mentions her good

fortune to have been guided by Namdev

Maharaj, and she makes it a point to sign her

abhangs as ‘Nama’s Jani’ (namayachi jani). In

some of her songs she tells Vitthala that she

would gladly be born again and again –only if it

was in Pandharpur in the house of Namdev!

Her songs show the same style and images as

her guru’s. When he sings: ‘With a sling of love

I caught Gopala!’, Jani says with even greater confidence dharilam Pandaricha chor, ‘I caught

the thief of Pandhari! I bound a rope around his

neck and confined him in my heart – I will not let him go anymore!’

As Namdev Maharaj grew up, got married

and had children, there were 14 members in his

house! And Janabai would call herself the 15th

member! There was a lot of work and grinding to be done! At a time when flourmills did not exist, women would get up very early – when

other family members were still asleep – and

immediately sit down for grinding. It was an

inevitable hard work, and women would

preferably sit in pairs while rotating the heavy

millstone, and they would sing in an urge to

unburden their hearts, expressing their worries, their family concerns, confiding in the millstone! The rhyme and rhythm of their songs

and the sound of the mill brought about the

‘ovi’, a verse form for grinding and lulling

infants.

The image of Janabai grinding together

with Vitthala at dawn is etched in the mind of

the Maharashtrian people. She calls Vitthala

‘The one hungry for love’, and her bhakti was so

pure that Vitthala was there with her almost

every day, helping her in all the household

chores. Her abhangs are full of such

descriptions: Vitthala grinding in his pitambara,

yellow dhoti, telling Jani to simply watch and

sing; Vitthal fetching water with her from the

river – allowing her not even to get her feet

wet; Vitthala carrying the trash after the

courtyard is broomed; and both of them

together making cowdung cakes.

She sings, Dalitam kanditam, tuj gaina

ananta, “While grinding and pounding I sing

Sant Janabai

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your name, infinite one, not even for a second I forget to sing your Name! In all my daily chores

I have your name on my lips! You are my father,

mother, friend and sister, Chakrapani! While

grinding I am totally immersed in your feet –

says Nama’s Jani.” In these few lines she reveals

the secret of her bhakti: to take God’s name

every moment uninterruptedly and to keep him

embraced in the heart!

Vitthala appeared to her in various forms,

as a friend, as a father, but mostly as a female

friend, sister or mother – Vithabai, Vithai,

Pandurangi. Her life was one of constant

remembrance of the Lord similar to Gopaler

Maa and Kururamma who lived in this sacred

land in recent times. It is a noteworthy step in

the development of the bhakti movement that

women bring God into the kitchen, but it is even

rarer to speak of God becoming a woman

serving his bhaktas! Being an orphan, instead

of fretting about her life, Janabai gave herself

entirely to God.

In another abhang she sings Maya meli bapa mela, ata sambhali Vitthala, “Mother is

dead, father is dead - now take care of me

Vitthala! Don’t neglect me, I’m your child! I’m

your servant, ignorant and simple-minded -

give me a place at your feet! Who else but you

can protect me? How much longer will you just

look on – I’m so weary! Life of all Life! Jani calls

on you!”

Vitthala’s labour of love for Janabai

doesn’t stop here. He helped her in bathing and

oiled and braided her hair, because “Jani is all

alone, no one else to take care of her!” When

Jani feels that Vitthala neglected her or failed to

appear, she calls out to him in an intimate

language.

Songs and legends tell us that Janabai was

painfully aware of her position as a

maidservant, a woman and an orphan of a low

caste. During her initial years in Sant Namdev’s

house, we hear that Vitthala had visited for a

festive dinner, but Janabai had been left outside,

crying, longing. Feeling her pain, Vitthala lost

his appetite and stopped eating. At night he

went stealthily to Janabai’s cottage where she

could offer him nothing but his own leavings

which had been given to her. Here occurs also

the famous story of the exchanged blankets,

where Jani almost got into a huge trouble when

they found Vitthala with Jani’s torn old blanket

in the temple and his costly silk shawl in her

cottage.

Though sometimes vexed with her

repetitive chores and her being a woman, she

comes to terms with it Strijanma mhanavuni na

vhave udasa, “I should not feel sad to be born a

woman, the sadhus and sants taught me this.

I’m serving in the house of the sants, Vitthala

gave me the essence of love!”

When Namdev Maharaj had vowed to

compose one billion abhangs for the Lord, Jani

was also allotted a certain number. Her 350

verses appear as an annexure to the Namdev

Gatha. As she was unlettered, Vitthala himself

came to write them down for her and he found

them exceedingly sweet. Since that time she

was fully integrated into the group of sants

around Namdev and had the wonderful

opportunity to have their association. She was

especially fond of Sant Jnaneshvar and

composed moving abhangs on him.

Legend tells that she was also one of the

14 family-members who left their body at the

same time with Sant Namdev in 1350, and that

they were all buried beneath the ‘Namdev

Payari’, the steps to Vitthala’s temple gate. The

dates of her life must have more or less

overlapped with those of Namdev (1270 -

1350) and it seems she was in her eighties

when she left her body.

Janabai’s abhangs allow women to

identify with her easily, and they sing her songs

even now. But mostly their minds remain caught up in the worries, hopes and difficulties

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of their samsar, hardly anybody reaches the

state of surrender of a triumphant Janabai who

sings Mi to samarthachi dasi, mithi ghalina payapasi, “I’m the dasi of the All-Powerful and I will embrace His feet! This is my firm decision: I will make a festival of the Lord’s

name and I will sing His names with all my

chores! At His feet lies all bliss – Vitthala is

speaking with Jani!”

Sant Janabai’s life and her abhangs are

practical lessons in remembering and living in

the Lord’s company even as

wo m e n g o a b o u t t h e i r

monotonous daily chores.

Sant Kanhopatra

Kanhopatra was the very

beautiful daughter of the

courtesan Shyama. They lived

in Mangalvedhe, not far from

Pandharpur in the 15 century.

Shyama taught her daughter to

sing and dance and hoped to

make ample money out of her

performances and services.

Though forced into this fallen

p ro fe s s i o n , K a n h o p a t ra

rebelled against it and vowed

not to accept any suitor unless he was equal in

beauty to herself.

One day a group of varkaris passed her

house on their way to Pandharpur, singing

Vitthala’s praises. Hearing about Vitthala’s

beautiful, blissful image in the temple, and

learning that He was called Patita Pavan, the ‘purifier of the fallen’, she developed a great longing for His darshan. She soon visited

Pandharpur and when she saw the divine image, she was so filled with admiration and love, that she decided to stay in Pandhari and

surrender her life at the Lord’s feet. Most of the

depictions of Kanhopatra show her holding a

veena near the image of Vitthala; so it is

believed that she sang abhangs and did bhajan

in and around the temple.

Whereas other women bhaktas, whether

married or unmarried, were somehow

integrated into a family, Kanhopatra was all by

herself with Vitthala as her protector. Upon

hearing about Kanhopatra’s great beauty, the

king of Bedar of the Bahamani dynasty

requested her to come to his palace as a

concubine. When she refused, he sent

messengers to take her by

force. She took refuge in the

temple and pleaded with

Vitthala to save her, and in this

precarious situation she died

right there before the sanctum.

Did she merge into

Vitthala? Did she commit

suicide? Did her heart stop

over-powered by emotion?

One can only guess. Her body

was placed at Vitthala’s feet

and hurriedly she was buried

right there within the temple

precincts. On this very place

from beneath the stone slabs of

the temple, unfed by water, a

strange tree sprang up - the Tree of Kanhopatra

worshipped by the pilgrims. She is the only

sant who has her samadhi within the temple of

Vithoba.

There are about 25 extant abhangs sung

by Kanhopatra. Many of her abhangs refer to

her debased social status. She calls herself

impure, fallen, unworthy of God’s grace; but she

reminds Vitthala that He has liberated many

great sinners. There is a certain physical

vulnerability coming through in many of her

songs, a desperate cry for protection, feeling

her body in danger which the other women

sants don’t show; Muktabai for example never

mentions her body as a woman! This body

Sant Kanhopatra

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The highest concept is to think that everything is He. Failing that it is best to think that

he is the real agent behind all actions and He is causing us to act. —Swami Turiyananda

consciousness must have arisen from her hated

profession of being the object of desire of men.

She says patita tu

p a v a n a , m h a n a v i s i

Narayana, “You are called purifier of the fallen, Narayana, keep your

promise, stand up for your

Name! My caste is not

clean, neither my faith, I

have a vile behaviour and

character! Not even your

name is on my lips – Kanhopatra seeks refuge

at your feet!”

In varma vairiyache hati,deu nako Shripati she pleads “Don’t give my

inner essence into the hands of the

predators, Shripati! You are the

Lord of those who have nobody,

y o u a r e m e r c i f u l ,

compassionate to the low – all

the Vedas and shastras

proclaim that! Your feet carry

that label! Now stand by it and

your devotee, don’t abandon me

begs your dasi Kanhopatra.”

Giving instances of how God

lowered himself for the sake of his

bhaktas, she calls on Him to do

likewise with her.

In a beautiful abhang she

eventually describes Vitthala’s

darshan janmantariche sukrita aji phalasi ale, “The good deeds of all my

past lives have borne fruit today – I have seen

Vitthala’s feet! Blessed my good fortune that

my eyes beheld today –I have seen Vitthala’s

feet! Blessed my feet walking this sacred path

to Pandhari – and I saw Vitthala’s feet! By

coming here my body became blessed hence I

saw Vitthala’s feet! Kanhopatra would gladly

take birth again and again if she could see in

every life the feet of

Vitthala!”

The following lines

are said to be Sant Kanhopatra’s final verses before leaving her body.

nako devaraya anta ata

pahu, “Please don’t test

me! Already my breath is

leaving me! The doe’s

little fawn is caught by a tiger, this is just how

I’m feeling, Lord! Without you there is no place

to hold on to in all the three worlds, Mother

Vithabai run fast! Come! I am hopeless.

Take Kanhopatra into your heart!”

Her desperate last appeal

leaves us pensive that the only

option to transcend her female

body as an object of desire was by

giving it up. It reinforces the

concept that the loving relation

between bhakta and God is

eternal, birth after birth or as

Namdev Maharaj vows deha javo

athava raho Pandurangi dridha

bhavo, “No matter if the body goes

or remains – my love for Vitthala is firm!”Kanhopatra’s tree in the

temple, venerated for centuries, also

given up its life in 2015. No new leaves

are sprouting anymore, only the slant

overhanging stem remains. Is it due to the torture the pilgrims inflicted on the tree over the years in the name of bhakti by plucking off

pieces of this ‘blessed bark’ to take home, or is

it Vitthala’s lila?

(to be continued…)

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Without you there is no place to hold on to in all the three worlds.

Mother Vithabai run fast! Come! I am hopeless. Take Kanhopatra

into your heart.

Pocket Tales

Snake! Snake!GITANJALI MURARI

A fictional narrative based on incidents from the childhood of Swami Vivekananda.

‘Hari, Shibu,’ Naren called his playmates urgently, waving his hand. The boys

had just entered the big courtyard of Naren’s home. ‘What are we playing

today,’ they asked, running towards him. In answer, Naren took them up a flight of stairs to a big attic. ‘It is a new game,’ he said, his large, brown eyes sparkling as he locked the door.

The room was dank and dreary with hardly any sunlight peeping through the one

window. ‘This is scary,’ Hari said in a slightly shaky voice, looking at the shadows on the

walls. ‘It is perfect for our new game,’ Naren declared. ‘The game of meditation…’ ‘What!’ Sitting down on the bare floor, Naren crossed his legs. ‘My sister says if you close your eyes and sit quietly for a long time, the hair on your head grows to touch the ground,’ he

explained to his amazed friends. ‘I want to see if that is true…’

Hari and Shibu sat down, excited by the new game. All three boys closed their eyes and crossed their hands in their laps, just like the rishis of olden times. After five minutes, 25

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The author, a media and television professional for over 20 years, is now a writer of fiction. She lives in

Mumbai. gitanjalimurari@yahoo.com Illustrator: Smt. Lalithaa Thyagarajan. lalithyagu@gmail.com

Shibu peeked at his friends. Naren and Hari were quite still, so he once again squeezed his eyes shut. Barely had five minutes elapsed, when Hari opened his eyes, scratching his arm. ‘Mosquitoes,’ he complained. ‘Hush,’ Shibu scolded. ‘Be quiet…’

Quite soon, the two boys began to feel uncomfortable, frequently changing their position on the hard floor but Naren remained like a statue, his face calm and glowing. Suddenly Hari whispered, ‘What is that?’ ‘Don’t disturb,’ Shibu muttered. ‘I am serious…look…’ Shibu’s eyes flew open, ‘Could it be that your hair has started to grow?’ But when he peered in the direction of Hari’s pointing finger, his eyes widened in horror. ‘It is a snake,’ he screamed jumping to his feet, staring at the black rope slithering towards them.‘Get up,’ the boys shouted, tugging at their friend but Naren didn’t flinch, his body rigid like a rock. ‘What do we do?’ Shibu wailed, his terrified gaze locked on the approaching snake. ‘Let’s get help…’ and Hari leapt for the stairs, Shibu following close behind. They

returned quickly, bringing Naren’s parents and sisters.

‘Stay back,’ Naren’s father commanded, standing just inside the door. Everyone gasped. With its hood fanned out and its tongue flickering, the snake hissed at Naren. ‘Let me go to my baby,’ his mother cried out. But Vishwanath Datta shook his head. ‘It is a cobra…we

must remain here or it may get startled and bite our boy…’

The group remained at the door, their eyes riveted on Naren and the snake. ‘Shiva,

Shiva,’ his mother prayed, her eyes wet with tears. All of a sudden, the cobra lowered its

hood and crawled out through a hole in the wall. With a sigh of relief, everyone rushed to

Naren, afraid to touch him. After some time, his body relaxed and he opened his eyes,

looking wonderingly at the anxious faces. ‘What happened? Why are you all here?’

‘It was a snake, Naren,’ Hari said. ‘It was about to strike you…didn’t you hear us

scream?’ Naren shook his head. His mother caressed his soft chin. ‘What were you doing

my child?’ ‘Meditating ma,’ he smiled. ‘It was wonderful…I felt so happy…only…’ He touched

his head and frowned at his sisters. ‘My hair has not grown at all…’

Meditation means the mind is turned back upon itself. The mind stops all the

thought-waves and the world stops. Your consciousness expands. Every

time you meditate you will keep your growth. Work a little harder,

more and more, and meditation comes. You do not feel the body

or anything else. When you come out of it after the hour, you

have had the most beautiful rest you ever had in your life. That

is the only way you ever give rest to your system. Not even the

deepest sleep will give you such rest as that. The mind goes

on jumping even in deepest sleep. Just those few minutes in

meditation your brain has almost stopped. Just a little vitality

is kept up. You forget the body. You may be cut to pieces and

not feel it at all. You feel such pleasure in it. You become so light.

This perfect rest we will get in meditation. —Swami Vivekananda

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Sections I & II covered in this issue>>

ISSUE 10ISSUE 24

An outline of the talk is presented here:

®

Designed & developed by

ILLUMINE Knowledge Catalysts

www.illumine.in

Vedantism - part 1

focus in this issue:

PULLOUT FOR REFERENCE

Series 5: Issue 3: Understanding India

- through Swami Vivekananda's eyes

Swami Vivekananda gave a wonderful

talk at Jaffna on 24th January 1897.

(Refer, Lectures from Colombo to Almora,

Complete Works, Vol. 3). In this talk, he

introduced Hindus in the subcontinent to

their own religion in terms of its simplest

and most fundamental building blocks

and principles. This talk is rich in several

important ideas on Hinduism and will be

covered in this and the next issues of

Vivekananda Way.Defining Hinduism ISwami Vivekananda begins by defining Hindus as Vaidikas or Vedantists

- people whose religion is rooted in the Vedas and the Vedanta.

Books of the HindusIISwami Vivekananda then describes the books of the Hindus - from

the revelations of timeless truths encoded in the Vedas and the

Upanishads down to the mass of stories & myths with their numerous

interpretations.

The Practices of HinduismIVBased on the core principles, Hinduism has developed several

practices, for example, the practice of each person following his/

her own personal God/Ishta; the practice of inclusion of everyone

& exclusion of none; the practice of mercy - to the poor, animals,

everybody; and building institutions which stand the test of time.

The Core Principles of Hinduism IIISwami Vivekananda goes on to describe the core principles of

Hinduism, including the ideas of Srishti, Brahman, the law of Karma, the

Infinite Soul, the meaning of various Deities, Mukti or freedom and the

pathways to achieve it, the ideas of God, and the theory of Ishta.

The Task AheadV

Swami Vivekananda then concludes the

extraordinary presentation of Hinduism with "action

steps" for each of us. He proposes that 'Dana' or

'Service' is the great Tapasya of the modern age.

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An alternative word for Hindus: Vaidikas or Vedantists

The word Hindu, by which it is the fashion nowadays to style ourselves, has lost all

its meaning, for this word merely meant those who lived on the other side of the river

Indus (in Sanskrit, Sindhu).

Thus this word has come down to us; and during the Mohammedan rule we took up the word

ourselves. There may not be any harm in using the word of course; but, as I have said, it has lost

its significance, for you may mark that all the people who live on this side of the Indus in modern times do not follow the same religion as they did in ancient times. The word, therefore, covers

not only Hindus proper, but Mohammedans, Christians, Jains, and other people who live in

India. I therefore, would not use the word Hindu.

What word should we use then? The other words which alone we can use are either the Vaidikas,

followers of the Vedas, or better still, the Vedantists, followers of the Vedanta.

The books of the Hindus - a visualization

Vedas

ETERNAL TRUTHS

ACCESSIBLE TO SOCIETY

Smritis

Examples of Smritis

include, the six

Vedangas, Ithihasas

(Mahabharata &

Ramayana), Sastras

pertaining to each

station of life, such

as Dharma-sastras,

Arthasastra,

Yoga-sastra, etc.

There are four

Vedas: the Rigveda,

the Yajurveda, the

Samaveda and the

Atharvaveda

(Not the utterance of persons, exist without

beginning or end - revealed to the Rishis through a process of spiritual

discovery)

(Codes & Regulations specific

to time & context)

There are more than 200 known

Upanishads, one of which, the Muktika

Upanishad, predates 1656 CE.

Examples of major Upanishads

are the Aitareya Upanishad,

Taittiriya Upanishad, Kausitaki

Upanishad, Mundaka Upanishad,

Prasna Upanishad, Brihadaryanaka

Upanishad, Chandogya Upanishad

and Katha Upanishad

Examples of Puranas include

Markandeya Purana, Shiva

Purana, Brahma Vaivarta

Purana, Agni Purana and

Padma Purana, etc.

Tantra Agamas are the most

important texts on the diverse

philosophies of the Tantric

traditions

Puranas & Tantras

Vedanta & the

Upanishads

(Essence of the knowledge of the Vedas - contain

the universal unchangeable principles - the

absolute authority to be adhered

to by all sects of Hinduism)

(Religion for the people)

ESSENCE

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This mass of writing called the Vedas is not the

utterance of persons. Its date has never been

fixed, can never be fixed, and, according to us, the Vedas are eternal. ...They were never written,

never created, they have existed throughout time; just as creation is infinite and eternal, without beginning and without end, so is the knowledge of God without

beginning and without end. And this knowledge is

what is meant by the Vedas (Vid to know).

Vedas are revelatory truths, eternal, without beginning or end

All the other religions of the world claim

their authority as being delivered by a

Personal God or a number of personal

beings, angels, or special messengers

of God, unto certain persons; while the

claim of the Hindus is that the Vedas

do not owe their authority to anybody,

they are themselves the authority, being

eternal — the knowledge of God.

Vedas were revealed to the Rishis - who were spiritual discoverers

The mass of

knowledge

called

the Vedanta was

discovered by

personages called

Rishis, and the

Rishi is defined as a Mantra-drashta, a

seer of thought; not

that the thought was

his own.

Whenever you hear that

a certain passage of the

Vedas came from a certain

Rishi never think that

he wrote it or created it

out of his mind; he was

the seer of the thought

which already existed; it existed in the universe eternally. This sage was

the discoverer; the Rishis

were spiritual discoverers.

The main ideas of the Karma Kânda,

[such as] the duties of man, the duties

of the student, of the householder, of

the recluse, and the various duties of the

different stations of life, are followed more or less down to the present day.

The spiritual portion of our religion is in the

second part, the Jnâna Kânda, the Vedanta,

the end of the Vedas, the gist, the goal of the

Vedas. The essence of the knowledge of the

Vedas was called by the name of Vedanta,

which comprises the Upanishads.

All the sects of India that dare to come within the fold of Hinduism

must acknowledge the Upanishads of the Vedas.

Vedas

Karma Khanda

THE CEREMONIAL THE SPIRITUAL

(work portion)Jnana Khanda

Vedas are divided principally into two parts,

the Karma Kânda and the Jnâna Kânda

(knowledge portion)

and many more...

Uddalaka Aruni

Yajnavalkya

Gargi

Maitreyi

Shvetaketu

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So deeply have these Upanishads

sunk into our race that those of

you who study the symbology of

the crudest religion of the Hindus will be

astonished to find sometimes figurative expressions of the Upanishads — the Upanishads become symbolised after a time into figures and so forth. ...Thus the various symbols now used by us, all come from the Vedanta,

because in the Vedanta they are used as figures, and these ideas spread among the nation and permeated it throughout

until they became part of their everyday life as symbols.

Puranas were written in the language of the people

of that time. Not meant for scholars, but for ordinary

people. [Covered various topics, for example] history, cosmology (with various symbological

illustration of philosophical principles).

Tantras are similar to Puranas in

some respects. Some of them dealt

with the sacrificial ideas of the Karma Khanda.

TO BE CONTINUED...

The ideas of the Upanishads have permeated through Indian society

Puranas & Tantras illustrate the eternal principles to the people

All the philosophers of India who

are orthodox have to acknowledge the authority of the Vedanta;

and all our present-day religions,

however crude some of them may

appear to be, however inexplicable some of their purposes may seem,

one who understands them and

studies them can trace them back

to the ideas of the Upanishads.

THE AUTHORITY OF THE VEDANTA IS ABSOLUTE

1. Smritis have been written by

particular sages; in that sense

they are the same as the

scriptures of other religions.

2. Smritis, as mainly regulating the

manners and customs of the

nation, had also to be changed

from time to time.

In modern times the Smritis must change,

but the principles of our religion must remain intact.

1. Comprises the

principles of

religion that are

in the Vedanta.

2. They are built

upon the eternal

principles that

are in man and

nature; they can

never change.

Smritis

Smritis are scriptures that convert the

eternal principles of Vedanta into contemporary customs

Principles

of Vedanta

If you have any questions on this lecture, do post your queries on

www.vivekanandaway.org You can also access previous issues of Vivekananda Way here.

Roots in the Air and Shoots in the SoilThe Story of Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar

(Continued from previous issue. . .)

The visitors left, and Poorva wondered where Swami Thaatha was. She stepped

into the muddy lane, and a cool breeze wafted past her. It swept her worries

away, and she decided to explore the countryside. As she skipped through the lush green fields of Thirumazhisai, she noticed little streams of cool, crystal-clear water flowing at various places in the village. Poorva knelt down, cupped some of the water in her small palms and splashed it on her face. “Heavenly,” she sighed, and closed her eyes.

Sugarcane plants, wells, tanks, canals – “Wow, Thirumazhisai does look prosperous. I

wonder who the king of this place is.”

Some monks with shaven heads and saffron robes passed by. She heard them say,

“God bless this Pallava king. He takes such good care of his kingdom and his people.”

Well, there is my answer, thought Poorva, as she did a hop, skip and jump and landed

near the window of a little cottage. Out of idle curiosity, she peeped through the window

and was surprised to recognize the couple inside. They were the same old man and old

woman who had turned young, but who was that beside them?

“Kanikannan … don’t cry, son,” Poorva heard husband and wife soothe their child. A

baby had been born to them and he had already grown into a toddler!

Poorva took a deep breath, once again puzzled by the number of years that must have

gone by. Curious now about the adopted child of Thiruvaalan and Pangayachelvi, she

sprinted towards Thiruvaalan’s house. There she found a young lad absorbed in a palm-leaf

manuscript. Looking at him, Poorva chuckled, “For sure, this young man is a bookworm, or

should I say, manuscript-worm!”

She watched with amazement the constant stream of visitors coming to pay their

respects to him. They were addressing him, with great reverence, as ‘Shivavaakkiar’. Poorva

LAKSHMI DEVNATH

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The author is a researcher and writer with various books and articles on Indian music and culture to her credit.

lakshmidevnath@gmail.com Illustrator: Smt. Lalithaa Thyagarajan. lalithyagu@gmail.com

Magic, Miracles and the Mystical Twelve

heard one of the visitors say with utmost respect: “He is indeed Shivavaakkiar. He repeats

the name of Shiva continuously, all the time.”

Poorva looked keenly at the youth. “Wait a minute. Isn’t this young man Thirumazhisai

Aazhvaar? Of course he is! Then why are people calling him …?” Poorva was totally

confused. Tugging at her hair, she muttered, “Swami Thaatha, save me before I become a

nutcase.”

“I can’t guarantee that!” joked the Swami, walking in from nowhere.

Poorva did not even hear him, caught up as she was in solving the puzzle of

Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar. She came straight to the point. The Swami listened attentively as she told him all that had taken place in his absence. When she finished, he remarked, “You are right. Shivavaakkiar and Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar are one and the same. You wanted to

know more about Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar and I thought you would enjoy watching a

‘movie’ rather than simply listening to a story. That’s why I brought you to Thirumazhisai

from Mylapore. I hope you had a nice time.”

“No doubt about that, Swami Thaatha, though I must say I’m going bonkers with

babies appearing from nowhere, old people turning young …”

“And young people turning crazy!” the Swami smiled. Poorva grimaced, annoyed that

he was making fun of her when she was being serious.

“Incidentally, do you like your new dress?”

“Gosh! Did you really pick that out, Thaatha? I must say you have good taste. I suppose

it’s no use asking where it came from – with you, things just come, or they just happen.”

The Swami smiled mysteriously in reply.

“I have one more question,” Poorva continued briskly. “Who are the

Aazhvaar’s real parents and why did they abandon him?”

“You’re really sharp. Let me try and clear

yo u r c o n f u s i o n ,” s a i d t h e Swa m i .

“Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar is an incarnation of

Sudarshana, the discus of Vishnu. He was

born to Sage Bhargava. The parents,

obviously unaware of who he was,

abandoned the child because it was only a lump of flesh, without any limbs. God, however, blessed the baby, and it became

normal. And as you saw, it was found by

the hunter.”

“I thought that he was a kidnapper,”

Poorva laughed. “Still, you can’t deny it

was pretty mean of those parents. At least

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God is not hard-hearted. Tell me, Thaatha, why is this Vishnu devotee – an Aazhvaar –

being called Shivavaakkiar?”

“Good question,” complimented the Swami, and he continued, “Thirumazhisai

Aazhvaar was indeed a worshipper of Shiva till his meeting with Pey Aazhvaar changed all

that. Such was his devotion to Vishnu thereafter, that Shiva honoured him with the title

‘Bhakthisaara’, meaning ‘essence of devotion’.”

A short pause followed. The Swami chose his words with care as he tried to put things across clearly to Poorva. “Listen carefully. You first saw Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar at Mylapore. From there, I took you back by a few years so that you could see for yourself the

interesting events of his childhood. Now, I’m going to zoom forward again to let you

experience the extraordinary life of Thirumazhisai Aazhvaar after he became a devotee of

Vishnu.”

Anticipating another round of miracles, Poorva stretched out her arms like a bird in flight. (to be continued. . .)

This story book is available through

www.lakshmidevnath.com

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Thirumukkudal, an ancient and

historic village in Tamil Nadu is

about 25 km from the famous

temple-town of Kanchipuram. Thirumukkudal which in Tamil means `the confluence of three holy streams’, is thus named as it is situated at the confluence of River Palar and its tributaries the Cheyyar and the Vegavati. A temple for

Vishnu wherein this deity is worshipped as

Appan Venkatesa Perumal is situated here. It

was in existence from at least the 9th C.E. if not

earlier, as there is an inscription on the wall of

this temple of a king named Nripatungavarman

of the Pallava dynasty who ruled in the 9th C.E.

There are a number of other inscriptions here

which reveal that the deity of this hoary

shrine was known by different names during

the rule of the the Pallava dynasty and

subsequently of other dynasties like the Cholas

and Vijayanagara. He was known as

Tirumukkudal-Azhvar, Vishnu-Bhattara,

Mahavishnu, Venkatesvara Swamin and

Venkatesa Perumal.

The temple enshrines a grand image of

Lord Venkatesa seen in a standing posture,

A Get-Together of the Gods in a Temple-College

DR. CHITHRA MADHAVAN

This section presents less known but enlightening nuggets of information about our ancient culture as revealed in our temples, images, symbols, and inscriptions.

carrying the Sankha and Chakra in the upper

hands with Sage Markandeya and Goddess

Bhudevi at His feet. It is believed that this deity

is a combination of the aspects of Brahma,

Vishnu and Siva. The utsava-murti of this shrine

is known as Srinivasa.

Unique Festival

Tirumukkudal is famous as the place

where a unique festival is held in the Tamil

month of Thai (mid-January to mid-February)

on the Maatu Pongal day immediately after

Pongal or Sankranti. On this occasion, many

Vishnu images like the famous Varadaraja

Swami from Kanchipuram travel to the temple

of Lakshmi Nrisimha at Pazhaiya Seevaram (on

the opposite bank of the Palar) and both these

deities visit the Venkatesa temple at

Tirumukkudal. Here, all the three deities, along

with two others from temples close by give

Darshan to devotees from the numerous

mandapas in this temple. A large number of

people gather on this occasion every year to

worship all the deities at once in a same

place.

The author is a historian focussing on temple architecture, iconography and epigraphy. She is a recipient of

two post-doctoral fellowships, and author of nine books and several research papers. She lives in Chennai.

drchithra@gmail.com

Chiselled Narratives

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Ancient temple-college at Tirumukkudal

A long Tamil inscription found on a wall of

this temple, belonging to the reign of emperor

Vira-Rajendra Chola of the 11th C.E., provides

very interesting information about a Vedic

pathasala or college which functioned inside

the premises of the temple. This record

mentions in detail the different subjects taught

here, the number of teachers and students

studying each subject, the salary paid to the

teachers, etc. The Rig Veda, Yajur Veda,

vyakarana (grammar), the Rupavataara (an

elementary text on grammar), the Agamas such

as the Saiva Agama, Pancharatra and

Vaikhanasa Agama were taught here. The

famous hymn, Tiruvaymozhi of Nammalvar

(who was the foremost of the twelve Azhvars or

Vaishnava devotees of the Tamil country) was

recited at this temple.

There was a hostel attached to this

temple-college where the students lived and

sixty people were fed here everyday.

Interestingly, there was also a hospital attached

to this educational institution where the

students, teachers and the servants of the

temple could be treated. This hospital called `Vira-Cholan’ had fifteen beds and was under the charge of a physician called Kodandarama

Asvattama-Bhatta who prescribed medicines

for the patients under his care. Besides him,

there was also a surgeon in this hospital to

conduct operations which might have been

necessary. Two people for procuring medicinal herbs, three people who supplied fire-wood and also assisted in the preparation of

medicine, two nurses to attend on the patients

and also a barber, who probably assisted in

minor operations plus his regular duties were

employed in this hospital. The inscription goes

on to say that twenty Ayurvedic medicines were

stored in this hospital and their names are also

clearly given. The inscription thus reveals that

this Vishnu temple must have been a very

important religious centre in the Chola times

and equally well-known as a centre of

education as well.

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Appan Venkatesa Perumal temple, Thirumukkudal

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RAMAKRISHNA MATH, UTTARKASHIGanganagar, P.O. Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand, 249193

Mobile: 9447051231; Email: uttarkashi@rkmm.org

Offering to Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna: An Appeal

Dear Devotees & Friends,

Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math declared open a Math centre

at Uttarkashi, an ancient holy town in the Garhwal Himalayas on 20 Oct 2017. There was

already an ashrama, named “Ramakrishna Kutir”, on a small piece of land since 1963. It was

maintained directly by the Belur Math, and sadhus of our Order used to stay for intense

tapasya in the traditional monastic way, begging food from outside and living a simple

austere life. The same tradition continues till date.

In view of expanding Swami Vivekananda’s ideal of service and spirituality among the

masses we plan to purchase some land measuring at least one acre around Harsil Valley,

near Gangotri. Along with retreat centres for sadhus and devotees, some welfare activities

for the benefit of the poor and underprivileged will be taken up after acquiring and

developing the land.

An estimated cost of Rs. 2 crores is required to set up and develop this additional unit

of our Math. We request our friends and devotees, trusts and corporate bodies to contribute

liberally to complete this project of welfare and spirituality at the earliest.

Donations can be made by NEFT/RTGS to the account given below:

A/C Name : Ramakrishna Math, Uttarkashi

Bank Name : Union Bank of India

Branch Name : Uttarkashi Branch

A/C No. : 601802010006696

IFSC : UBIN0560189

Foreign contributions may kindly be sent through the headquarters at Belur Math

(Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math, Howrah-711202; email- accounts@rkmm.org) requesting

it to credit the fund in Uttarkashi Math A/c.

Kindly send us email (to uttarkashi@rkmm.org ) or SMS (to 9447051231) after the

transaction intimating the purpose of your donation as “Donation for purchase of land and

development of the Math.” Please also send your PAN and full postal address.

Donations towards our Math are exempted from IT under 80G Act.

May Sri Ramakrishna, Ma Sarada, Swami Vivekananda bless you all.

Yours in the Lord,

Swami Amaleshananda

Adhyaksha

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unselfish and

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AN APPEAL TO SERVE GOD IN MAN

Dear Devotees and well-wishers,

We pray that Sri Ramakrishna may shower

His blessings on all your endeavours.

Thanjavur is a historically and culturally

important city, famous for its art and ancient

architecture, especially temples.

It was Swami Vivekananda’s earnest desire to install Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna

in every town and spread the culture of worship and service. We now propose to

begin a centre in Thanjavur and initiate various activities:

l Youth Camps - to develop self-confidence, awareness of health and yoga etc.

l Balaka Sangha - to train children in cultural and spiritual traditions, etc.

l Spiritual Practices - daily puja, bhajans, japa yajna, parayanam, discourses.

l Spiritual & Cultural Literature - promotion and sale.

l Seminar/Workshops - for teachers, doctors and other professionals.

l Medical Services - for the poor and needy.

To establish a new centre and conduct the above activities, an amount

of Rs. 7 Crore is required. We invite you to contribute whatever you can

and be a part of this noble mission.

Names of those who contribute Rs.10,000/- and above

will be inscribed in the Math premises.

Donations are exempted under Section 80 G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

Donations may be sent cheque/DD in favour of “Sri Ramakrishna Math”.

For Online donation please visit https://donations.chennaimath.org

After online payment please intimate us by email your address, and PAN number.

Yours in the Service of the Lord,

Swami Gautamananda,

Adhyaksha.

Sri Ramakrishna Math

31, Sri Ramakrishna Math Road, Mylapore, Chennai-4.

& : 24621110. email : mail@chennaimath.org

Website : www.chennaimath.org

For more details - Mob : 98409 87307

A New Sri Ramakrishna Math at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu(A Sub-Centre of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai)

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Book

ReviewsFor review in

The VedanTa Kesari,

publishers need to send

us two copies oF their

latest publication.

Knowing the Knower by Swami Tyagananda

Published by Secretary,

RMIC.,Gol Park, Kolkata

- 700 029. E -mai l :

rmicsale@gmail.com.

2017, paperback, pp.

153+x, Rs.60.

This is a meticulously orgainised handbook of five chapters along with a preface and end notes

section. ‘Preface’ presents a crisp synopsis that

facilitates easier grasp of the concepts and

instructions in the book. The source citations,

mainly drawn from Swami Vivekananda’s

lectures, authenticate the argument of course; but their greater significance lies in their potency to inspire the reader to passionately engage herself/

himself with yoga.

The manual opens with the Upanishadic

sage Saunaka’s query, ‘What is that by knowing

which everything becomes known?’ This question

sets the tone for the whole book. It is termed as

the ‘master key’ or ‘master password’ that opens

all passwords.Chapter one reflects on the origin, nature and possibilities of knowledge, and distinguishes

between indirect/lower knowledge (paroksha/

apara vidya) that is merely informative, and

direct/higher knowledge (aparoksha/para

vidya) that is revelatory. The relation between

the knower and the known is discussed without

the burden of technical, epistemological jargon.

The rendering of the abstract in clear, concrete

terms is an obvious strategy adopted in manual-

writing; yet it is a surprising feature of Knowing

the Knower, because the substance and the

material instruments to be handled (the mind

and the senses) here are of a subtle category. And,

the goal, the objective is attainment of the highest

knowledge, awareness of atman, the non-material

aspect of self.

Chapter two pertains to ‘ignorance’ which

is what thwarts knowledge. It is described as not

just ‘absence of knowledge’ but as a ‘presence

that exists and doesn’t’. The concept of maya

introduced at this appropriate point is explained

as that ‘translucent screen’ with power to conceal

(avarana shakti) and to project (vikshepa shakti).

One’s real identity as atman is concealed and a

new, false identity gets projected due to the power

of this veil. Maya is comprised of space, time and

causality (desha, kala and nimitta). Since all our

knowledge is framed or conditioned by these

three categories, the challenge for the jnana yogi

is to go beyond this frame. The chapter also traces

samsara-chakra, the cycle of death and ephemeral

life: desire that prompts karma which in turn

gives scope to birth and sorrow and so on. The

cycle elucidates the manner in which the identity

of self as the undifferentiated ‘One’ descends to

assume multiple identities. The best way to get

out of this Karmic cycle is to strike at the weakest

link—the desire-karma link—in the chain,

which can be done, according to the manual, by

fearlessly questioning every assumption. The

argument at this stage ushers in the notion of

discernment which is the title of chapter three.‘Discrimination’ is defined as the practice of looking ‘carefully and deeply’ and not accepting

anything at face value. Every idea, notion, concept,

regarding the self, the world and god, every

assumption including reason is to be examined

thoroughly. One understands to an extent why the

handbook takes the reader through paradoxical

statements (‘Knowing the Knower’, ignorance

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‘exists and doesn’t’, and so on). Since ‘Truth’

or ‘Truth Knowledge’ lies beyond the realm of

reasoned thought, all communication regarding

it must inevitably employ paradoxical statements.

The next chapter, ‘Practice’ is about

applying in practical life, the key concepts thus

far elaborated. The manual lists three basic practices—hearing (sravana), reflection (manana) and meditation (nidhidhyasana) in relation to the

three types of aspirants: the extraordinarily gifted

(uttama), the moderately gifted (madhyama) and

the lowest (kanishtha). The book then proceeds

to suggest ways for ‘atman remembrance’ (atma

smrita)

Concrete steps to stay connected with the

‘Self ’, from the moment of waking up till one

goes to bed are proposed, not in the spirit of a

conventional book on morals but with the gentle

caution that practice should not become a ritual,

or a ‘chore to the hurried through.’ The call is to

be alert and creative every moment.

The concluding chapter elaborates further on the significance of Saunaka’s question and ponders over the meaning of self-knowledge or

atma-jnana.

It is a remarkable feat to narrate the story of

cosmic boredom or monotony (‘the never-ending

circular journey of repeated birth and death’) all the

while ensuring the listener’s (a more appropriate

word than ‘reader’ for the one who participates in

the narrative process here) involvement, without

lapsing into despair or frustration. Images such as

wave-ocean, serpent-rope etc., which have been

employed any number of times in the discussion of

Vedantic ideas reappear in this work too, but with a

startling freshness.

An excellent daily companion to seekers

of knowledge, the ‘manual’ sends invigorating

echoes of Swami Vivekananda’s voice.___________________________ DR.R. RAMACHANDRA, MYSURU

Spiritual Legacy of Ramakrishna Order: Brief Life Stories of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Direct Disciples by Swami Satyaprabhananda

Published by Sri Ramakrishna

Math, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004.

E-mail: publication@chennaimath.org

2016, paperback, pp.126, Rs.45.

This slim volume is an easy-to-read

and eminently accessible account

of the lives of Sri Ramakrishna, the

Holy Mother and the sixteen direct disciples of

Sri Ramakrishna who had the great good fortune

of coming in contact with him as young boys

and having their lives transformed forever such

that they grew to be stalwarts who inspired

generations of people.

The accounts are simple and short and

would be very valuable to anyone who wants a brief history or make a first acquaintanceship with a religious movement which has only grown

with time. The one difference in the narration,

however, is (as the title suggests) that emphasis

has been laid on the spiritual content of the lives

of the subjects, rather than the biographical

details. The boxed items at the end of each

account is a very good idea and puts in a nutshell

the main teaching of each of them._________________________ PREMA RAGHUNATH, CHENNAI

Instead of sitting idly waiting for an illumined soul to become your Guru, make an effort

to do these three things which are necessary for spiritual life: 1) Contemplate on God,

2) Study the scriptures, and 3) Associate with the holy.

—Swami Saradananda

The Religion Which Is Oneness

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What is Religion?

In the Jan-Nov 2019 issues, we have

tried to present Swami Vivekananda’s

conception of religion under this

series: ‘What is Religion?’ There are at least 60 different ‘definitions’ of religion peppered across Swamiji’s lectures and writing! Each month, we took up one such definitive statement and tried to explain it using his own

utterances, as far as possible. This month we

will wrap up the series.

While some people say that religion is

losing its relevance in our lives, at least in our

daily lives, there are others who say that

religion is growing stronger in its relevance in

our daily lives. Some say that religion is an

historic relic, a sad remnant of the dark past,

completely out of sync with the modern world.

Many others say that never before in human history did religion have as much significance or relevance than it has at present. Some

people say that religion will be phased out from

daily life, since it has outlived its utility for

mankind. Many contend that we need to

urgently factor religion into our lives if we need

to maintain our sanity and grow as individuals. Caught in this crossfire of opinions, man looks askance at anyone who can resolve this

dilemma for him.

Swami Vivekananda provides the much

needed resolution. Hidden in his lectures and writing, we find four predictions he makes about religion. We shall attempt to explain each

of these in this article.

Religion will be scientificScience rests on two principles1; Occam’s

razor applied to all knowledge; and the

principle of perception-generalization-

universalization of all knowledge.

If we have multiple explanations for a

phenomenon, that explanation will be chosen

which is the simplest. In other words, the

explanation must proceed from within the

nature of the things involved and newer entities

must not be unnecessarily brought in to explain

them. This is Occam’s razor.

All that we perceive can be categorized

under two groups – things outside us, things

within us. Religion has attempted to explain

these two groups of perceptions. Religion has

always recognized a third category – the

perceiver. Science is a much better way of

explaining the former two categories of

perception, which are the external world and

the internal world. For centuries, Religion was

the only means of answering any questions that

naturally arose in our minds, be it regarding the

external world or internal world, or about the

perceiver itself. Religion now ought to

relinquish its interference, nay, hegemony on these two categories. Religion will confine itself to explaining the perceiver alone, for Science is

unable to enter that area with the tools

presently in its armory.

All religions speak of a divine being, God.

All religions have a unique theory of how God

created this universe. Now, no one in any of

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these religions ever saw God in the act of

creating the universe. We must realize that it is

merely a plausible theory posited by the

founding fathers of these religions. We are

asked to implicitly believe in these theories,

which are basically stories! When we apply

Occam’s razor to these theories, we end up

concluding that positing a divine being engaged

in creation of this universe is not necessary at

all. Let us have the intellectual maturity to

acknowledge that if we do away with this

aspect of any religion, not

one religion will vanish,

for such theories are

indeed irrelevant to any

wo r l d - re l i g i o n ! T h e

theories of origin and

s u s t e n a n c e o f t h i s

universe are better left to

the scientists. We must

acknowledge that they really do a better job of

dealing with that aspect of the world.

The reality accessible to us really has two distinct aspects – the infinite external universe, and the largely unknown inner universe. This

world within us is really amazing. A huge

portion of the inner world too, especially the

body, the nerves, and many layers of our mind,

is better dealt with by those ‘godless’ science

guys. But there is one aspect of the inner world

that will forever remain the domain of religion

– Consciousness. Every religion has dealt with

consciousness, although some of them couch their findings in a strange language, which is largely theistic in its syntax. Consequently, they

have all become largely theologies today.

The moment you apply Occam’s razor to

these theologies, something magical happens

with all religions! Each of these religions will

reveal an Impersonal divinity enshrined in their

core teachings. The Impersonal God does not

negate the personal god. In fact, the Impersonal God is the only justification you can have for all the personal gods that are posited by various

religions. Thus, with the revelation of this

Impersonal divinity, we come to comprehend

that divinity is Personal-Impersonal. Then we

apply the 2nd principle on these theologies and

lo & behold! We get another magical thing from

each of these religions! We are divine!

Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Judaism,

Christianity, Islam, Jainism, Buddhism, Taoism,

and every religion that has survived ups and

downs till the present, did so only because it

contained these two vital ideas in its

labyrinthine mass of

teachings: The Personal-

Impersonal God, and

D i v i n i t y o f m a n .

Remember that many

religions just vanished

from history. They did so

not because of military

r e a s o n s o r s o c i o -

economic or political reasons, although such

may indeed appear to be the immediate cause.

They all disappeared from the face of Earth only

because they did not enshrine these two ideas

within them. In fact, the whole of religion can

be summed up in these two concepts: The

Personal-Impersonal God, and divinity of man.

The sooner the world religions do this homework, and refine these two ideas from within their body of truths, more will those

religions become relevant in the lives of their

followers, just as they were supremely relevant

in the lives of the people during their periods of

origin.2

Religion will be entirely personal

Historically, religion performed social,

economic and political duties. Society has

reached its present stage of development as a

result of the contribution that religion made in all these fields. But, society no longer needs religion to perform these functions. If you

remove all social, economic and political

activities from religion, what remains in

The whole of religion can be summed up in these two concepts:

The Personal-Impersonal God, and divinity of man

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religion? The essence alone remains! Religion

essentially dealt with the relation of man with

God. Religion will continue to perform this vital

function of bringing man to God. Everything

else will be taken care of by secular principles

of modern, democratic government. In many

religions, the secular leadership and spiritual leadership are conflated. This is the root of most of the social and political problems in

human history. The time has come for that to

end. The democratic organizing of social life is

a necessary growth which dissolves this

‘unholy’ nexus of secular and spiritual

leaderships.

Once every aspect of social, economic and

political life is taken care of by secular

government, religion will provide spiritual

leadership on a personal basis. Each individual

will approach religion directly, not as part of a

group, not as a community, but as an individual

establishing his own direct relationship with

the divinity within himself. Of course, this kind

of spiritual leadership cannot be given by

priests. We need persons who have established

such a direct relationship in their own lives. We

obviously mean realization and not just belief

in dogmas. Men of realization alone can provide

the leadership we speak of. And religion will

become customized to each individual.

Religion will inform all aspects of human life

Once we have learnt to make religion

entirely personal, we will then be able to bring

religion into every aspect of our life. Making

religion entirely personal means realizing the

truths of religion; it means perceiving that I am

divine. Once that perception has been achieved,

then and then alone starts the great job of

divinizing every aspect of our life.3 Any attempt

to do so before this realization will only end up

in regressing to, and espousing, the social,

economic and political aspects of religion. But,

as humanity progresses, this is the direction all

the world religions will take.

When religion will become scientific, and when religion will become entirely personal,

then will dawn a glorious epoch in human

history when people will be able to live truly

spiritual lives.

Religion will break down barriers and bind

us all together

If such indeed is the

destiny of religion, if such

indeed be the destiny of the

human soul, does it behoove u s t o f i g h t a m o n g s t ourselves in the name of

religion? Does it make sense

to convert the other person

into ‘our’ religion? Does

even the term ‘our religion’

make any sense anymore?

When religions will be based on scientific principles, when religions will mature into personal religions, customizing

itself to the needs of the individual practicing it,

where will different religions exist anymore? A

grand consolidation of religion will occur in the

world, something that is most essential for

survival of the human race. Then will

spontaneously dawn real brotherhood amongst

the people of this world. All attempts to forge

bonhomie between followers of different

religions have been futile because these

attempts were never informed by recognition of the scientific, personal religion, the essential religion; all such attempts retained the

individuality of each religion, making one

incompatible with other religions by its very

nature. True harmony of religions proceeds

from realizing these two truths: the Personal-

Impersonal God, and divinity of man. Thus, we

can foresee, through Swami Vivekananda’s eyes,

a time when religion, having lost its divisive

character and merged into a unity through

personal spiritual experience, will really bind

people together.

Making religion entirely personal

means realizing

the truths of

religion;

it means

perceiving that I am divine

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You will certainly appreciate that this is

indeed a grand conception of religion, with the

most practical outcomes we can expect from

religion in our lives and society. When will it

happen? Will it happen in our lifetime? What is

the timeline we are looking at?

More importantly, what will happen to the

different religions that exist now? What will

happen to the priests that make a living by

peddling the opium of religion? Will personal

gods not remain? What about temples,

mosques, churches?

Just take another look at the religion of

the future, as distilled from the thoughts of

Swamiji that we have described above. Is it

Islam? Is it Hinduism? Is it Christianity? Of

course, it is not Islam in its entirety; nor is it

Hinduism or Christianity or any of the world

religions entirely.

You may point out that it is Vedanta, but is

Vedanta a recognized religion, independent of

its mother-religion, Hinduism? Despite the

complete blossoming of Vedanta, hasn’t

Hinduism retained all its various forms starting

from the grossest animistic ideas of religion? It

is indeed a wonder that some of the greatest

brains of India applied the

a b o v e m e n t i o n e d

principles of Science to

H i n d u i s m , m a d e

Hinduism utterly personal

a n d c a m e u p w i t h

Vedanta. But never before

did anyone appear, in

India or elsewhere, who had the heart to broadcast such a scientific, personalized religion to one and all! This same

exercise that Hinduism performed on itself, as

a result of which Vedanta came out of it, will

now have to be performed by all other world

religions, in order to bring out their own

equivalents of Vedanta hiding now within their

bosoms. And when that happens, all the

religions, will regain their relevance for

mankind.

All of these religions are as good a starting

point to reach here as any other religion of the

world. We all will have our freedom to start

from any point and forge ahead to culminate in

our experience of this solidarity of all existence. Note that once we render religion as scientific, and make it personal, and start incorporating

divinity in every action and moment of our life,

the natural outcome will be a perception of the

Oneness of all existence. If this entire world is

divine, and if I too am divine, doesn’t it

naturally follow that there is no difference in

essence between anything here? This

perception of Oneness has tremendous ramifications for human society. But, the ramifications arise only from spiritual perception of Oneness, and not from an

intellectual or conceptual understanding of

Oneness. Swamiji says, It is here in India that

Hindus have built and are still building

churches for Christians and mosques for

Mohammedans. That is the thing to do. In spite

of their hatred, in spite of their brutality, in

spite of their cruelty, in spite of their tyranny,

and in spite of the vile

language they are given to

uttering, we will and must

go on building churches

for the Christians and

m o s q u e s f o r t h e

Mohammedans until we

conquer through love,

until we have demonstrated to the world that love alone is the fittest thing to survive and not hatred, that it is gentleness that has the

strength to live on and to fructify, and not mere

brutality and physical force.4 The spiritual

perception of Oneness is immediately

associated with a tremendous boost of strength

in personality. This is not strength that

The spiritual perception of Oneness is immediately

associated with a tremendous boost of strength in personality.

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manifests itself as violence. It is strength that

manifests as gentleness, yet, is capable of

protecting one’s temporal existence from the

onslaughts of barbaric manifestations of

strength that may emanate from others. Not

just protect oneself, but it can transform the

barbaric manifestations on others into benign

forms of strength. Notice that Hinduism, which

is a non-proselytizing religion, has the strength

to build mosques and churches for Muslims and

Christians, while Islam and Christianity lack that strength, in the sense, you don’t find Muslims and Christians building places of

worship for other religions. These things will

change in the future as a result of Swamiji’s

contribution to religion.

Things of the past will indeed remain.

Islam, Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, and all

the other religions will remain. Temples,

churches, mosques and other places of worship

will remain. Newer ones will be added. Puja,

Mass, Namaz, Roza, festivals, Vrata and other

rituals will remain. Newer ones will be added.

Personal gods will remain. Innumerable more

personal gods will be added to the existing

pantheon. Then, what new change did Swamiji

bring into religion?

Each religion will come to recognize that

they all have two distinct phases – the lower

religion, and the higher religion. People will

perforce start from any one of the existing

religions. They will utilize the resources that

belong to their religion – places of worship,

scriptures, personal gods, rituals, etc. Each

religion will inaugurate and herald a higher

echelon in itself, into which each of their

followers will graduate. All the rudiments of all

religions will be understood to serve one and

only one purpose – bring spiritual realization to

each of their followers. Religions will be ranked

and graded in society not according to the

number of followers they boast of, but by the

number of followers who have graduated into

spiritual realization. Religions of the world have

to accommodate these persons whose eyes

have opened into the perception of Spirit.

Unless religions produce such

persons, the existence of those

re l i g i o n s w i l l h ave n o

relevance.

All the religions of the

world will come to recognize

that the higher echelon of all

religions is actually the same.

While there will always

remain tremendous diversity

in the lower religions, the

higher religion will be one. It

may be l ikened to the

education system we have in

the world today. The millions of schools all over

the world are engaged in preparing its

multitudes of students to qualify for higher

education. The cutting-edge research

institutions all over the world are melting pots

of the very best from all countries, all cultures,

all races, and all geographies. Similar

developments are already occurring in business

and governance all over the world. While each

country is sovereign in its own right, the

political and business policies of the world are

now decided in international forums. The

formation of UNO and WTO has not

undermined the sovereignty of any nation, has

it? Something similar will be the outcome in

religion as a result of Swamiji’s contribution.

We must note one more important thing

here: All this violence that this world has seen,

in the name of religion – how will this ever end?

Who will listen to whom? Will any religion be

able to establish its superiority over others? Is

it not clear that the only way religions can live

in peace with one another is by discovering

common elements amongst their constituents?

But, at the lower levels, can common elements

ever be found? When the differentiating

elements in the religions are exactly what

(Continued on page 52...)

Each religion will come to recognize that they all have

two distinct phases – the

lower religion,

and the higher

religion

Introduction

Sri Ramakrishna first arrived in Kolkata in 1853 at the behest of his

elder brother to assist him in starting

a Sanskrit tol school. From 1853 to 1886, apart

from intermittent visits to Kamarpukur and

other places of pilgrimage, he remained in the

Kolkata city (earlier spelt as Calcutta) his whole

life. During this period, he visited over 100

places in the Kolkata. These places can be

grouped into 6 categories: 1) places celebrating

festivals of various Hindu rel igious

denominations, including different branches of

the Brahmo Samaj and other denominations like

Vaishnava or Tantric sects; 2) diverse non-Hindu

places of worship including churches and

mosques; 3) various temples of Mother Kali and

other aspects of the Divine Mother; 4) numerous

places associated with Sri Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu; 5) residences and institutions of

prominent personalities like Ishvarchandra

Vidyasagar, Bhagavan Das, Keshab Chandra Sen,

and other Brahmo devotees, etc.; 6) residences

of devotees who had intense bhakti, or hosted

religious festivals, pujas, etc.

In the next few issues, we will explore in

detail these and other hidden or lesser known places sanctified by Sri Ramakrishna. We can begin with a fundamental

question: Even though scriptures claim that

Sri Ramakrishna and the Pilgrimage Mindset

SWAMI CHIDEKANANDA

Sri Ramakrishna visited numerous places in the city of Kolkata. Many of them are now teertha kshetras for thousands of devotees. Beginning with this article we will explore these places sanctified by his foot-dust.

visiting holy places associated with saints can

deeply transform one’s spiritual life, why does

this transformation happen so rarely even for

serious spiritual aspirants?

The answer is that we fail to follow Sri

Ramakrishna’s systematic preparation and

approach prior to, during, and after visiting

places of pilgrimage. He not only preached

these principles but practiced them in his own

life. He repeatedly warned that merely visiting

places of pilgrimage—or even witnessing his own spiritual ecstasies—was not sufficient to bring about transformation in spiritual life.

This article series focuses on Sri

Ramakrishna’s teachings and the necessity for

the pre-pilgrimage mindset. It will attempt to

answer the questions: What do the scriptures

say about the sanctifying power of teertha-sthaanas or places of pilgrimage? What are Sri

Ramakrishna’s warnings about visiting places

of pilgrimage without cultivating a “spirit of

bhakti?” How can we cultivate this spirit of

bhakti? What are the kinds of external and

internal distractions that we may encounter at

the teerthas? And how will the spirit of bhakti

help to overcome these distractions?

Scriptural support for pilgrimage

Sri Ramakrishna often eulogised the spiritual significance of teertha-sthaanas:

Article

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The author is a sannyasi of the Ramakrishna Order and is serving at Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata.

swamichidekananda@gmail.com

Each religion will come to recognize that

two distinct

“Throughout the ages many monks, devotees,

and perfected souls have visited sacred places

to see God and call on Him wholeheartedly,

shunning all other desires. That’s why there is

a special manifestation of God in those places.”1

As the scriptures claim that God is all-

pervading (sarvavyaapi), then what is the

necessity for visiting places of pilgrimage?

Anticipating this argument, Sri Ramakrishna—

in the very next sentence—provides a simple

analogy (digging for water) to explain that

though God exists everywhere, the spiritual

aspirant need not put in much effort in teertha-

sthaanas: “God exists everywhere equally. If one digs deeply enough, one can find water in any place. But one does not need to dig for water

where there is a well, a pool, a pond, or a lake.

One can get water there at any time.”2

In the Srimad Bhagavatam Yudhishthira

eulogises Vidura and describes how great souls

enliven holy places:

भवद-कविया भयागवतया: तीथतर -भतया: सव कवभो I तीथथी-कवतरननत तीथयातरकन सवयानत :-सथयन गदयाभपतया॥

(1.13.10)

“O Great One! Lovers of God like you,

having risen to the height of holiness, sanctify

the holy places you visit, by bringing the

presence of Narayana who resides in you.”

Swami Vivekananda further explains that

“sages and holy persons, who have much of this

sattva quality, can send it out and exert a tremendous influence day and night on their surroundings. A man may become so pure that

his purity will become tangible. Whosoever

comes in contact with him becomes pure.”3

Such is the case with the places visited by Sri

Ramakrishna, Holy Mother, and Swamiji.

Even incarnations—such as Chaitanya

Mahaprabhu, Sri Ramakrishna, and Sri Sarada

Devi—were eager to visit places associated

with previous incarnations as an opportunity

to engage in the sadhana known as Leelaa-cintana. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, along with his

disciples, visited Vrindavan and revitalised it as

a place of Krishna Bhakti. Similarly, Sri

Ramakrishna visited places in West Bengal

associated with Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and sites in Vrindavan sanctified by the leelas of Sri Krishna. Sri Sarada Devi, spiritual consort of Sri

Ramakrishna, too journeyed to Vrindavan to

assuage her grief after her husband’s passing.

Nonetheless, Sri Ramakrishna repeatedly

cautioned spiritual aspirants that merely

visiting a holy place without devotion will not be spiritually beneficial: “Look, one who has it here (in the heart), has it there; one who has it

not here, has it not there either….For one who

is endowed with devotion, devotion increases with the influence of holy places. And as for one who does not have that, what can be derived?”4

This is further supported by the Sri Jaabaala

Darshana Upanishad:

आतमतीथध िमतिपज बकहसतीथयातरकन ो वरजयत।करसथ ि महयारतन तकतवया कयाच कवमयागतरतय॥ (4.50)

“One who, having forsaken the teertha of

the Self, merely visits the external teertha is a

person who, having forsaken the invaluable

jewel in hand, goes in search of mere glass.”

In this regard, Sri Ramakrishna went to

the extent of stating that “without this spirit of

devotion,” witnessing his spiritual ecstasies will not bring much benefit. On 14 July 1885, Ratha Yatra was being celebrated at Balaram Bose’s

house (a close householder devotee of Sri

Ramakrishna). It was a day full of spiritual

festivity and divine intoxication. Girish Ghosh

had “brought with him a bespectacled friend” who had witnessed first-hand all of Sri Ramakrishna’s ecstatic moods amidst the

singing and dancing of the joyous devotees. At

the end of the day Girish’s friend remained

unmoved and “quietly left the place without

comment.” Sri Ramakrishna then said to Girish,

“I say this to you and to everyone: Please do not

force anybody to come here. Nothing happens

except at the right time.”5 (emphasis added).

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Why does Sri Ramakrishna place so much

emphasis on cultivating a “spirit of devotion”

prior to visiting places of pilgrimage?

Some spiritual aspirants may believe that their spirit of devotion is already sufficient, and that further preparation is not necessary prior

to visiting places of pilgrimage. However, in the

Gospel, Sri Ramakrishna emphasises that the

spirit of devotion includes not only love of god

but also vyakulata or spiritual yearning. He

repeatedly says, “Nothing whatsoever is

achieved in spiritual life without yearning.”6 He

further emphasises that this yearning for the divine is not a fixed quantity and must be constantly intensified through prayer and other spiritual activities. In other words, whatever

may be the spiritual aspirant’s level of bhakti, it

must be given further momentum and a

particular focus prior to embarking on

pilgrimage or going to an isolated place for

tapasya. For this reason, before visiting a place

of pilgrimage Sri Ramakrishna would cultivate a “specific mood” (this will be discussed in a subsequent issue).

External and internal distractions in places

of pilgrimage

One of the reasons why Sri Ramakrishna

placed so much emphasis on cultivating a spirit

of devotion prior to visiting teerthas is that

there are many distractions—both external and

internal—in places of pilgrimage which have

the potential to hijack a spiritual aspirant’s

mind and prevent him from utilising time in a

proper way at the pilgrimage site. One of the

common external distractions which pilgrims

encounter is that they must devote an

inordinate amount of energy and time planning

and organising the minute details of the trip

from start to finish, including the mode of transportation, lodging, clothes to carry, etc.

Sometimes for weeks or even months together

before the actual pilgrimage, pilgrims will

direct all their energies into planning to the

exclusion of everything else. Hence, when they finally leave and arrive at the holy place, their minds will

remain occupied and active in

this planning mindset. They will have difficulty turning off this planning mindset and

thinking of spiritual things. Sri

Ramakrishna often said, “If a

man thinks of worldly things

day and night, then his words

are coloured by his thoughts.” Similarly, if a

spiritual aspirant’s mind is constantly

preoccupied with worldly thoughts prior to

visiting holy places, then his/her mind will

naturally drift toward mundane things even in

a spiritual setting.

Another external distraction is the

common problem of encountering worldliness

at pilgrim centres. For instance, pilgrims are

often accosted by avaricious priests who will

not allow them to have darshan in peace until

they extract a large sum from them. Even an

incarnation like Sri Ramakrishna acknowledged

these external distractions in teerthas. During

his visit to Varanasi in 1868, he was deeply

anguished by Mathur Babu’s worldly mindset

as well as the general preoccupation with “lust

and greed” of the people there. Despite his

spiritual experiences in Kashi, Thakur nearly

regretted having visited Varanasi at all.

Afterwards he lamented, “Mathur Babu had

taken me with him on pilgrimage. We stayed for

many days in Raja Babu’s house in Kashi. One

day I was sitting with Mathur Babu in the

drawing room. Raja Babu was also there with

his men. I noticed that they were talking about

worldly things: so much money was lost, and so

on. I began to weep, ‘Mother, where have you

brought me? I was so well off in Rani Rasmani’s

temple. That I should hear of lust and greed

even in holy places!’”7

Nothing

whatsoever is

achieved in spiritual life

without

yearning

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Internal distractions: The dichotomous nature of the human mind

External distractions like lust and greed in

teerthas become even more problematic

because of the dichotomous nature of the

human mind. The idea is that all human minds,

including those of a spiritual aspirant, possess

opposite tendencies (spiritual and mundane),

and that environment dictates which samskaras

are activated. Sri Aurobindo explains this in

detail: “… everyone possesses in a large

measure...two opposite tendencies of character,

in almost equal proportions, which are like the

light and the shadow of the same thing. Thus

someone who has the capacity of being exceptionally generous will suddenly find an obstinate avarice rising up in his nature, the

courageous man will be a coward in some part

of his being and the good man will suddenly

have wicked impulses. In this way life seems to

endow everyone not only with the possibility of

expressing an ideal, but also with contrary

elements representing in a concrete manner

the battle he has to wage and the victory he has

to win for the realisation to become possible.”8

An interesting example of the emergence

of “two opposite tendencies in almost equal

proportions” in places of pilgrimage is found in

the life of Mathur Babu during his visit to

Varanasi with Sri Ramakrishna. As we have

already mentioned, Sri Ramakrishna lamented

Mathur Babu’s worldly talk in Kashi. On the

other hand, Sri Ramakrishna praised Mathur

Babu’s wonderful generosity during the same

trip. He recalled, “Mathur spent more than

1,00,000 rupees on the pilgrimage to Varanasi.

After arriving at Varanasi, Mathur arranged a

feast for the local brahmin pandits; [on]

another day he invited their entire families, fed

them sumptuously, and gave a cloth and a rupee

to each one of them.”9

Unfortunately, since Sri Ramakrishna’s visit

to Kashi more than 150 years ago, the external

obstacles at teerthas have multiplied. In addition

to money-minded priests, worldly-minded

tourists, and travel companions with varying

temperaments, there are now modern

distractions such as mobile devices and internet.

These technologies further prevent spiritual

aspirants from going inward and upward. In her

book Rapt, Winfred Gallagher accurately

describes the explosion of external stimuli in the

21st century internet age: “At any one moment,

your world contains too much information,

whether objects, subjects, or both, for your brain

to represent, or depict clearly for you. Your

attentional system selects a certain chunk of

what’s there, which gets valuable cerebral real

estate and, therefore, the chance to affect your

behavior. Moreover, this thin slice of life becomes

part of your reality, and the rest is consigned to the shadows or oblivion.”(italics added)10

To counter these external and internal

distractions and make a spiritual pilgrimage as

fruitful as possible, Sri Ramakrishna teaches

that three mindsets must be cultivated prior to,

during, and after completion of the pilgrimage:

1) the pre-pilgrimage mindset, 2) the

pilgrimage mindset, and 3) post-pilgrimage

mindset. This three-fold methodology will be

discussed in subsequent issues.

(To be continued)

1) Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play. [hereafter Divine Play] Swami Chetanananda. p. 605 2) Ibid.

3) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. 1:252 4) Divine Play. p.606 5) The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. p. 809

6) Gospel, p. 86 7) Divine Play. p.119 8) Integral Education. Sri Aurobindo 9) Divine Play. p.608 10) Rapt, p. 9

References

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Pariprasna Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991), was one of the

Vice-Presidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in

personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual

Quest: Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a selection from this book.

QUESTION: How can we intensify our spiritual life even

when we are engaged in work?

MAHARAJ: In the intensification of spiritual life, whether we are at work or not is not a very important

matter. It comes to be of importance only at a later stage of

spiritual life. The most important point is whether we have

spiritual aspiration or not, and how intense it is. To what

extent do we feel life to be utterly meaningless without the thought of, and striving towards, the

Lord coming into it? This is what determines the intensity of our spiritual life. To the extent that

ambitions and pleasures prove satisfying to us, to that extent our spiritual aspiration will not gain

strength. As long as these worldly values continue to give us meaning for our life and our strivings,

our spiritual life remains at the mere conventional level. The cessation of this state of mind is called

the dawn of Sraddha—the state when we take God and spiritual life as very serious concerns in our

life.

A person whose ideas of God, soul and the hereafter remain at the mere conventional level

cannot attach to these the same importance and put forth the same earnestness in his striving for

them as he will attach and put forth towards questions relating to his property, relatives and other

worldly concerns. But in one in whom Sraddha has dawned, the attitude changes and gets reversed

completely. He is ready to devote his time, service, efforts and resources and also to risk dangers

and suffer worldly losses, for the sake of his cherished spiritual values. The intensity of our spiritual

life will depend upon the depth and sincerity of our Sraddha. On it too depend our application to

spiritual practices and our success in them. Sraddha itself is established in the mind through contacts with persons who lead a really holy life, through reflection and discrimination and through lessons taught by intense sufferings in life. Of all these factors, contact with holy men, i.e., persons

who live their lives taking God as the pivot of their lives, is the source of all spiritual inspiration.

A spiritual aspirant who has work to do as a part of his duty, should look upon them as a trust

from the Supreme Being and then discharge them with Him in view. Only thus can the sense of

opposition or discord that one feels between his work and spiritual life be overcome and an

integrated spiritual life built up.

Sri Ramakrishna advises all aspirants engaged in various activities in the outside world to

take a holiday for a day or two once in a while and go into some solitary place, where one can be in

congenial surroundings away from one’s usual environment and spend one’s time at a stretch for

spiritual practices. It is maintained that this will refresh the spirit, and help one maintain an

attitude of detachment.

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Attempt must also be made to keep constant remembrance of the Lord by taking his name

silently in the mind while engaged in work. By long practice such constant repetition can even become

effortless. Impressing the mind with the transitoriness and pettiness of worldly values through the

discipline of discrimination, will also help one to keep an attitude of detachment in work.

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distinguish one from the other, how can we even think of finding common elements at this level?5 It is only by inaugurating the higher

phase of religion, in each of the world religions,

that the common ground can be found. Don’t the different rivers, which fight for right of passage while on land, mingle peacefully and

harmoniously once they enter the ocean?

Similar will be the case in religions as a result

of Swamiji’s contribution.

Such is the religion that Swamiji

conceives. Such is the religion Swamiji has

bequeathed to us. It is now up to us to take up

this challenge and realize it. For, our ancestors

expect that from us, and the future beckons us

to achieve this in our lives.

Go to the direct source. Ask God what He

is. Unless He answers, He is not; but every

religion teaches that He does answer.6

1) Strictly speaking, they are more heuristics than

principles. But we will not enter into semantics here. For the purpose of this article, it is sufficient to consider these ideas as foundational principles of

Science.

2) This section is actually a synopsis of the two lectures

Practical Vedanta-II and Practical Vedanta-III . The

conclusions we have presented in this section follow

from the ideas Swamiji has presented in these two

lectures.

3) Cf: According to the Vedanta, when a man has arrived

at that perception, he has become free, and he is the only man who is fit to live in this world. Others are not. The man who sees evil, how can he live in this

world? His life is a mass of misery. The man who

sees dangers, his life is a misery; the man who sees

death, his life is a misery. That man alone can live in

this world, he alone can say, “I enjoy this life, and I

am happy in this life”, who has seen the Truth, and

the Truth in everything. Complete Works: Vol-2:

Practical Vedanta-II

4) Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to

Almora: The Mission of the Vedanta: Kumbakonam

5) Complete Works: Vol-7: Inspired Talks: Sunday,

August 4, 1895: All the different religions are but

applications of the one religion adapted to suit the

requirements of different nations.

6) Complete Works: Vol-7: Inspired Talks: Sunday,

August 4, 1895

7) Ibid

8) Ibid

9) Complete Works: Vol-6: Epistles – Second Series:

CXLII: Written to Mohammed Sarfaraz Husain of Naini

Tal from Almora, 10th June, 1898

I will go to God direct; let Him talk to me. I

cannot take belief as a basis; that is atheism and

blasphemy. If God spake to a man in the deserts

of Arabia two thousand years ago, He can also

speak to me today, else how can I know that He

has not died? Come to God any way you can; only

come. But in coming do not push anyone down.7

All we know is the projection of the Self.

Teach this to the children, they can grasp it. Every

religion has worshipped the Self, even though

unconsciously, because there is nothing else.8

We want to lead mankind to the place

where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible,

nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by

harmonizing the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran.

Mankind ought to be taught that religions are

but the varied expressions of THE RELIGION,

which is Oneness, so that each may choose that

path that suits him best.9

(Continued from page 46....)The Religion Which Is Oneness

References

t t

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News & Notes from Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission

The Order on the March

Guests of Honour

Sri Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, visited Vrindavan

ashrama on 28 Nov. Governor of Meghalaya Sri Tathagata

Roy visited the Shillong ashrama on 13 Nov. Sri Banwarilal

Purohit, Governor of Tamil Nadu, visited Chennai Math on

19 Nov. Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman of the Committee for

Draft National Education Policy visited Belur Math on 7 Nov.

Dr Bhushan Patwardhan, Vice-Chairman of the University

Grants Commission, New Delhi, visited Belur Math on 20

Nov.

News of Branch Centres

Gandhi Smarak Sangrahalaya, Barrackpore, presented the

Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Award to our centre in Sargachhi

on 2 Oct, in recognition of its service activities.

Bhubaneswar Ashrama began its year-long centenary

celebrations with a two-day programme from 31 Oct. Srimat

Swami Gautamananda Ji, one of the Vice-Presidents of the

Order, inaugurated the celebrations. Swami Suvirananda Ji,

General Secretary of the Ramakrishna Order, Sri Dharmendra

Pradhan, Union Minister for petroleum and Natural Gas &

Steel, 500 sannyasis and brahmacharis, devotees and admirers

participated in the programme.

Srimat Swami Gautamananda Ji dedicated two new exhibits

in theVivekananda Exhiition of Delhi ashramaon 12 Oct. The

new exhibits are use virtual reality and augumented reality

technology.

Sri Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, inaugurated

the Sarada Block of Vrindaban hospital on 28 Nov in an

impressive function which was also

attended by the Governor of Uttar

Pradesh Smt. Anandiben Patel and the

Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Sri Yogi

Adityanath and other dignitaries. The

new state-of-the-art block houses MRI

and CT scan facilities, two modular

operation theatres, a cancer ward, and

a number of other departments and

facilities.

Values Education and Youth

Programmes

The following centres conducted

value education workshops, conventions,

camps, lectures etc:

Delhi Math:13 workshops in

Ajmer, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata

and Pune (126 principals and 686

teachers);Haripad Math: workshops

(553 students in 3 schools); Kanpur

Math: Convention (240 youth);Koyilandy

Math: Convention (70

s t u d e n t s ) ; R a j k o t

A s h r a m a : 9

p r o g r a m m e s

( 682 s t uden t s

from 5 schools);

Vadodara Math:

Shraddha

Tyaga

Nir

bh

aya

Pavitr

ata

Satya

Ahimsa

Jiva S

eva

Des

ha B

hakt

i

Coimbatore

Vrindaban Cyclone Bulbul Relief

54

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and 500 kg gur (molasses) among 1333

families.

Cyclone Relief: In the wake of the

devastation caused by Cyclone Bulbul in

North 24 Parganas, South 24 Parganas

and Medinipur districts in India and in

some parts of Bangladesh, the following

centres conducted relief operations as

given below:

India: West Bengal: Manasadwip

centre provided shelter to 230 persons on

9 November and served cooked food to

7522 persons from 10 to 12 November.

Sarisha centre distributed 23,360 kg rice,

5490 kg dal, 7100 kg potatoes, 1398

kg cooking oil, 1978 blankets, 3000

saris, 800 dhotis, 1800 lungis and 800

uttariyas among 1996 affected families

in South 24 Parganas district from 18

to 21 November.Taki centre distributed

2000 kg chira, 750 kg sugar, 4032

packets of biscuits and 2160 candles

among 2412 cyclone-affected persons in

North 24 Parganas district from 12 to 17

November.

Bangladesh: Bagerha t cen t re

distributed 1000 kg rice, 100 saris

and 100 lungis among 100 families in

Satkhira district on 15 November.

Distress Relief:

21 Math and Mission centres in India

and 3 centres abroad distributed: 16,778

shirts, 12,629 trousers, 5,461 saris and

1,335 dhoties.

Winter Relief:

13 centres in India distributed to the

needy 2,732 sweaters/jackets, and 4,144

blankets.

Programmes in 11 schools (3755 students)

The off-campus centre of RKMVERI (deemed university)

in Coimbatore Mission Vidyalaya held the 14th Convocation

on 9 November. 202 successful candidates were awarded

certificates and degrees. Dr. Sunil Kumar Barnwal, Principal

Secretary to the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, delivered the

convocation address.

Health Services

Aalo Mission held a medical camp at Humoli, a remote

village, in which 60 patients were treated.Asansol Math

conducted a blood donation camp in which 101 of its ITI

students donated blood.Bajepratappur Math in Bardhaman

held a medical camp in which 850 patients were treated, and

a blood donation camp in which 84 people donated blood.

Guwahati centre conducted a medical camp at Makaria village

in Morigaon district of Assam in which 384 patients were

treated. Kailashahar Ashrama held a blood donation camp on

2 November in which 64 people donated blood.

Swami Gautamananda Ji inaugurated the newly set-up MRI

scan facility at Vrindaban hospital on 14 November.

17 centres in India conducted eye camps in which 12,991

patients were treated, 907 were given spectacles, and 1,798

were operated.

Commemoration of the 125th Anniversary of Swami

Vivekananda’s Addresses at the World’s Parliament of

Religions in Chicago, USA

Bamunmura Math: Devotees’ convention attended by 365

devotees; Kochi Ashrama: Students’ Convention for 150 High

School students; Mumbai Mission: A day-long programme

attended by 900 college students and others. Justice Pinaki

Chandra Ghose, Lokpal of India, inaugurated the programme,

and Swami Suvirananda Ji and others participated. Lusaka

centre in Zambia: A public meeting in which Srimat Swami

Gautamananda Ji and others addressed a gathering of 83

people.

Relief Services

Flood Relief: In response to flooding in Katihar district of

Bihar, Katihar Ashrama distributed 4000 kg chira (rice flakes)

55

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