PB Cover February 2010.Indd

CMYK Rs . RABUDDHA P HARATA B or AWAKENED INDIA A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in February Sri Ramakrishna and the Common People Swami Vivekananda at Ellis Island Vol. , No. CMYK RABUDDHA P HARATA B or WA AKENED INDia A monthly journal of the Ramakrishna Order started by Swami Vivekananda in 1896 Vol. 115, No. 2 Contents February 2010 Traditional Wisdom 169 This Month 170 Editorial: Harmony of Religions 171 Sri Ramakrishna and the Common People 173 Swami Tathagatananda Swami Vivekananda’s Contribution to 178 Human Values Amrita Kalasha Swami Sunirmalananda Swami Vivekananda at Ellis Island: New Findings 181 Somenath Mukherjee Editorial Office The Many–splendoured Prabuddha Bharata 187 Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Vedanta – IX Advaita Ashrama PO Mayavati, Via Lohaghat Dr M Sivaramkrishna Dt Champawat · 262 524 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: 191 Uttarakhand, India Vision and Values E-mail: [email protected] Dr Anil Baran Ray [email protected] Maya: A Bhagavadgita Perspective 195 Publication Office Dr D Nirmala Devi Advaita Ashrama Four Basic Principles of Advaita Vedanta 198 5 Dehi Entally Road Swami Bhajanananda Kolkata · 700 014 Neo-Vedanta and the New World Order 203 Tel: 91 · 33 · 2264 0898 / 2264 4000 Swami Atmapriyananda 2286 6450 / 2286 6483 E-mail: [email protected] Mahendranath Gupta: 207 The Morton Institution and Naimisharanya Intern et Edition at: Swami Chetanananda www.advaitaashrama.org Reviews 213 Cover photo: ‘Spreading Wings’ by Amitabha Bose Reports 215 Traditional Wisdom Wrút²; std{; ŒtËg JhtrªtctuÆt; > Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached! February Sri Ramakrishna on Harmony Vol. , No. JkNrl¶urKmtuvtlido]ntuvrh ;ju slt& > gtàÀguJbeNjtCt:obwvtgtltblufU;t >> As people on the ground can climb a housetop either using abamboo (pole) or a ladder or a staircase, so also is there diversity in the meansof reaching God. ‘b;uMw btdto rC‘à;u’ dög YfUtu CJuªt]KtbT > g:u˜xô:tlbtgtrà; v=vƒJh:isolt& >> ‘As many faiths so many paths’, but the goal is the same for all humans. People reach the goal of their choice on foot, aboard a boat, oratopa carriage. YfU YJu‡Jh& rfUà;w CtJltbtàglufUN& > CtJul gul ltölt Jt ÀJrbåAuô;ul jÇg;u >> God is one but has many names and forms. You can reach him in whichever form and through whatever name you wish. Jurút bt;t fU& rfUrbåAuútwÖgôlunt~rv mqlwMw > rJrCªtmtÆtfUtleN& v{eKgurØªtmtÆtli& >> Th ough she loves all her children equally, the mother knows each one’s likings. God satisfi es diﬀ erent spiritual aspirants through diﬀ erent means of sadhana. ltlt b;trl rnà=qltk rfkU ¶ugô;uMw auåA]Kw > rJ‡Jtmô;J gºtiJ rJ‡Jtmu Jm;e‡Jh& >> Th e Hindus have diverse beliefs; if you wish to know which of theseis best, listen: in whichever path you have faith (that is the best), forGod abides in faith. (Tryambaka Sharma Bhandarkar, ‘Sri-ramakrishnopadesha-dvishati’) PB February 2010 16 —No bleed here— THIS MONTH Interreligious understanding and harmony are ur- Osmania University, Hyderabad, reviews some gent necessities in today’s strife-torn world marked texts presenting Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Ved- by widespread religious conflict. A deeper look at Sri anta in the context of art, aesthetics, colonial dis- Ramakrishna’s principle of Harmony of Religions is, course, and philosophical and political narratives. therefore, an imperative for all peacemakers. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: Vi- Swami Tathagatananda, Minister-in-Charge, Ved- sion and Values is Prof. Anil Baran anta Society, New York, draws our attention to Sri Ray’s appraisal of Netaji’s position Ramakrishna’s overpowering love for the distressed, with regard to fascism, socialism, the afflicted, and the humble in Sri Ramakrishna and samyavad. The author is Pro- and the Common People. fessor, Department of Political Science, Burdwan University. While the need for value-oriented living is widely rec- ognized, there is little unanimity over which values Maya: A Bhagavadgita Perspective is a brief study need to be accorded primacy. In Swami Viveka- of the meaning and implications of the Vedantic nanda’s Contribution to Human Values, Swami concept of maya by Dr D Nirmala Devi, Reader, Sunirmalananda of Ramakrishna Vedanta Ashrama, School of Gandhian Thought and Development São Paulo, Brazil, discusses five universal values in Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. the light of Swami Vivekananda’s thought. Swami Bhajanananda, Assistant Secretary, Rama- krishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, writes about ajnana as the conjoint cause of the universe and the non-duality of Consciousness as he con- cludes his elucidation of Four Basic Principles of Advaita Vedanta. Swami Atmapriyananda, Vice Chancellor, Rama- krishna Mission Vivekananda University, Belur, sums up his article on Neo-Vedanta and the New Ellis Island, New York, was a key immigration port World Order with a discussion of the importance of the US at the turn of the nineteenth century. In of karma yoga and the idea of Satya Yuga. Swami Vivekananda at Ellis Island: New Find- Mahendranath Gupta: The ings Somenath Mukherjee, Researcher, Rama- Morton Institution and krishna Mission Institute of Culture, Kolkata, Naimisharanya is Swami presents records of Swamiji’s sojourn there and Chetanananda’s representa- contextualizes his visit against the backdrop of the tion of M, Mahendranath great human crosscurrents seen at the port. Gupta, as a unique edu- In the ninth instalment of The Many-splendoured cationist. The author is Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Vedanta Dr M Siva- Minister-in-Charge, Ved- ramkrishna, former Head, Department of English, anta Society of St Louis. 170 PB February 2010 —No bleed here— EDITORIAL Harmony of Religions he concept of harmony of religions, mushrooming perennially equally true as the great which is now widely associated with Sri Rama- religious traditions that have stood the test of time? Tkrishna’s name, still remains poorly under- Interestingly, most critics who ask this question are stood. This is not surprising, given the nuances of convinced of the truth of their own religions and, religious experience, political and social thinking, if they have looked at other religious traditions, are and theological intricacies it involves. quick to point to faults therein. Sri Ramakrishna In 1840 the indologist H H Wilson noted that was also not blind to the faults in religions. But according to the Hindu view, ‘every form of religion he did not support an ‘exclusivist’ view: ‘You may had equal merit and “God appointed to every tribe say that there are many errors and superstitions in its own faith, and to every sect its own religion, that another religion. I should reply: Suppose there are. man might glorify Him in diverse modes, all having Every religion has errors. … It is enough to have the same end, and being equally acceptable in His yearning for God. … God is the Inner Guide?’ Sri sight.”’ This has been the traditional popular Hindu Ramakrishna ‘was also aware of the existence of outlook. It came in for criticism in the early twen- certain cults, sects, and groups which indulged in tieth century as ‘indifferentism’, as being based on degenerate practices. He did not condemn them ignorance of other religions, if not one’s own. More but compared them to the small back-door in old recently some critics have taken Sri Ramakrishna’s fashioned houses in India through which the scav- concept of ‘harmony of religions’ to mean ‘all reli- enger enters the house to clean toilets.’ gions are the same’ and termed it ‘radical universal- Another charge, brought from the opposite end, ism’, holding it responsible for Hindus being largely against the doctrine of harmony of religions is that unaware of their own tradition and thus remaining of ‘relativism’: ‘that all truth is relative, there is no particularly prone to being proselytized. While the absolute truth or Reality’. This again is a misrepre- latter charges may be true, radical universalism is a sentation of Sri Ramakrishna’s statement that the gross misrepresentation of Sri Ramakrishna’s view, religions were ‘but so many paths to reach the same as Dr Jeffery Long pointed out in the January num- goal. ‘Pluralism holds that there is one ultimate ber. According to Sri Ramakrishna: ‘There are dif- Truth or Reality, but this Truth admits of more ferent views. All these views are but so many paths than one valid formulation.’ Swami Vivekananda to reach the same goal. But everyone believes that ‘took pluralism [articulated in the doctrine of har- his view alone is right, that his watch alone keeps mony of religions] one step further by showing that correct time. … However wrong the watches may pluralism must culminate in universalism’. Univer- be, the Sun never makes a mistake. One should salism, unfortunately, is no less misunderstood than check one’s watch with the sun.’ pluralism. Swami Bhajanananda’s Harmony of Re- To people brought up in monolithic cultures ligions from the Standpoint of Sri Ramakrishna and and religious traditions, the idea still strikes as in- Swami Vivekananda has a summary discussion of credulous: ‘How can all religions be true?’ How some of the issues involved. can monotheism and polytheism be true simul- Scholars like Anantanand Rambachan and taneously? And is each of all the sects that keep Paul Griffiths argue that ‘views like the Harmony PB February 2010 171 —No bleed here— 14 Prabuddha Bharata of Religions undercut the intellectual activity of est proof of the validity of religious truths. True. In arguing for a tradition’s truth claims’. This view is his text ‘Hinduism and Sri Ramakrishna’, Swami not wholly untrue: The numerous schools and sys- Vivekananda acknowledges as much: ‘In matters tems of philosophy in ancient India and the various of religious duty the Vedas are the only capable au- religious sects in the middle ages ‘carried on vigor- thority.’ But then he adds, ‘Rishihood, this power of ous polemics.

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