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Her Greatest Child comes to meet Her
1890 was an important year, like all others, in Swami Vivekananda’s life. In the early part of this year, he stayed for a long time in Ghazipur, trying to learn some thing from Pavahari Baba. What can a Prophet learn from a mortal, after all. Yet it was Swami Vivekananda’s humility that “I shall learn wherever or whoever I can.” Lumbago tormented him for months. Then he heard of the illness of his brother monk, Swami Abhedananda and rushed to Benaras. Soon he got the news of the passing of Sri Ramakrishna’s beloved disciple, Balaram Bose. So he came to Calcutta. He had repeatedly written to his other brother monk, Swami Akhandananda, to return to Calcutta from the himalayas. Both met in the dilapidated monastery in Baranagore. It was July, 1890. Swamiji had written the previous month, in May 1890, about his definite plans of a monastery, a temple for Sri Ramakrishna, etc to his scholarly friend, Pramada Das Mitra.
Now Swamiji planned to go to the Himalayas with Swami Akhandananda. He writes on 6 July 1890: “I had no wish to leave Ghazipur this time, and certainly not to come to Calcutta, but Kali’s illness made me go to Varanasi, and Balaram’s sudden death brought me to Calcutta. So Suresh Babu and Balaram Babu are both gone! G. C. Ghosh is supporting the Math. . . . I intend shortly, as soon as I can get my fare, to go up to Almora and thence to some place in Gharwal on the Ganga where I can settle down for a long meditation. Gangadhar is accompanying me. Indeed it was with this desire and intention that I brought him down from Kashmir.”
So the two brother monks went to their Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, to seek her blessings before departure. Mother Sarada Devi was then residing in a rented house near the present Belur Math. Swami Vivekananda saluted the Mother fully and so did Swami Akhandananda. Mother, of course, always remained totally covered from head to foot. She was concerned that her son would go away to the Himalayas. She told Akhandananda: “I am handing this treasure over to you. You know the conditions in the Himalayas. Please see that Naren doesn’t suffer for want of food.” Mother knew fully well that soon Her son was to shatter the age-old constructs and encrustations of the world. She knew he had a great mission ahead. Narendra said: “Mother, I shall return soon by your grace.” To please their Mother, Swami Vivekananda sang two songs. The first one was, “O Lord, I have made you the polestar of my life. In Bengali, tomare koriyachi jiboner dhrubotâra.”
Swami Vivekananda then sang a song from Girish Chandra Ghosh’s drama, Vilvamangal. This song, which expresses the supreme confidence of a child in Ishvara’s protective care, was particularly dear to Mother. That song, “amay niye bedây hât dhore,” [God moves about holding my hand, If I weep, He weeps. If I smile, He smiles, I have nothing to worry about.”]
Mother blessed Her children profusely. “Wherever you go the Master is always with you. Mother Durga will protect you in mountains and forests, in trials and tribulations.” Thus, receiving Mother’s blessings, the two brother monks set upon their journey to the difficult terrains of the Himalayas.
[Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s birthday tithipuja falls on 22 December 2024 this year]
The Human Value in Times of Violence
Terrorists were active in Russia at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1878 the pamphlet ‘The People’s Will’ was published, explaining the principles of terrorism: “Death for death”. In the same year the chief of police, General Petrov, was shot by a young girl, Vera Zasulich. In 1881, the Tsar was murdered by the terrorists of The People’s Will. Sofia Perovskaya, Yeliabow and their friends were hanged. In 1892 this ‘worldwide propaganda by action’ reached its peak. In Europe there were more than a thousand attacks and five hundred in America. In Russia there were numerous attacks on second-rate figures of the regime. The assassinations of Plehve by Sazonov and that of Grand Duke Serge by the anarchist Kaliayev in 1905 closed the time of martyrs for this revolutionary ‘religion’. The French writer Albert Camus noted a few things in “The Rebellion of Man” (Paris, 1951; Dutch translation 1952). The murder by the Russian terrorist Kaliayew of Grand Duke Serge, after an earlier attempt had failed, was the subject of his play ‘Les Justes’. He wrote the play in 1949 and it was performed in Paris in 1950. The theme, ‘Man in times of death and violence’, which is addressed there, occupied him his entire life.
Albert Camus was born in 1913 in Algeria, a year before the outbreak of the First World War. His father, Julien Camus, was conscripted into the African Zouave Regiment. During the Battle of the Marne in October 1914, he was hit by a grenade. He died a few weeks later in a hospital in Brittany and was buried in Lourmarin (Fr.). His widow, Catharine, received the fatal shrapnel, together with a personal note from a nurse: “It is better this way. Otherwise he would have gone blind or mad. He was very brave.” The shrapnel, together with the note, had been kept in a biscuit tin.
Catharine moved with her two children to her mother’s family, who ruled the fatherless family with an iron fist. Once, when Camus came home late for dinner, “she took the whip and gave him a few slashing blows all over his legs and buttocks, which were so burning that he almost screamed with pain. A little later at the table, he tensed every muscle to hold back the flood of tears. Then, after a quick glance at his grandmother, his mother turned her face, which he loved so much, towards him and said: ‘Eat your soup. It’s over. It’s over.’ Only then did he burst into tears.” Camus grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Algiers, where he attended primary school from 1918 to 1923. His teacher, Louis Germain, arranged for him to receive a scholarship to the ‘Grand Lycèe d’Alger’. In 1930, Camus suffered from prolonged coughing fits, during which he would vomit and spit blood for days on end. The doctor in charge of the care of ‘les pupilles de la nation’ (the children of those killed in the First World War) diagnosed tuberculosis. At that time, ‘consumption’ was a common and usually fatal disease in working-class neighbourhoods. His left lung was completely affected and the first symptoms were also visible at the top of his right lung. The 17-year-old Camus was given an early death notice.
Later he wrote about this ‘announced death’ in a lyrical essay: “Visit to Djemila, a dead city. Never have I felt so detached from myself and at the same time so strongly aware of my presence on earth (…). A person lives with a few familiar ideas and it takes a person ten years to develop an idea that is truly his own (…). One day, when you are lying in bed, you can hear a voice saying: ‘You are strong and I must be frank with you. I can tell you that you are going to die.’ There you lie with your whole life, sick with fear and a silly expression on your face. What does the rest mean then (…).
Back at the lyceum he followed the lessons of Jean Grenier, the new philosophy teacher. It was Grenier who opened up a new world of books and ideas for Camus. Camus found in him a teacher who would remain with him for the rest of his life as a mentor and friend. Grenier introduced his students not only to Western philosophy, but also to the philosophy of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism.
In his preface to the 1959 re-issue of Grenier’s collection of essays ‘Les Iles’, Camus writes about the shock he experienced, the emotion he felt when reading this book and the influence it had on him. Grenier could tell us “in an inimitable way that the things that appeared to us were indeed beautiful, but that they too were doomed to transience and that we had to love those things desperately”. Camus recognised the feeling for life that Grenier sketches in this book: The existential void and at the same time the attraction of Nature.
For his thesis for the entrance exam to the doctoral study ‘Diplôme d’études supérieur’, Grenier had advised him to choose a subject from Vedanta, the Hindu philosophy of India. Camus found Vedanta in North Africa, with two mystics: Plotinus and Augustine. In the work “Metaphysique chretienne et neoplatonisme” Camus describes the influence of the work of Plotinus (204 – 270, born in Egypt and studied in Alexandria) on the thinking of Aurelius Augustine (354 – 430, born in Algeria and bishop of Hippo Regius.). According to Camus, Augustine is the only great spirit of Christianity who has faced evil unvarnished. In his theology, only a few people are chosen; most people are damned, they lack grace. We must do, Camus writes, what Christianity has never done: ‘We must engage with the damned. People must be in solidarity, just and merciful to each other.’ At the end of his novel ‘The Plague’, a fictional account of the devastating pandemic in the Algerian city of Oran, Camus responds to Augustine. Through the protagonist, Dr. Rieux: ‘He had seen the injustice and violence that had been inflicted on people. He could very simply pass on what one can learn from plagues, namely that there are more things to admire in man than to despise.’
Augustine considered the philosophy of Plato to be the purest and clearest of all Western philosophy. And he recognized in Plotinus the man in whom Plato had been revived. According to Augustine, if Plotinus had lived a little later, ‘he would have become a Christian’. Augustine wrote his most important work, “On the City of God” (the Church of Christ), in response to the sacking of Rome by the army of the Goths. He died in 416 during the siege of his city Hippo by the Vandals.
Plotinus lived 150 years earlier. He had developed his ideas in an equally disastrous period of the Roman Empire. The military leadership, aware of its power, had started to sell the highest government offices themselves. Partly because of these corrupt practices, the defense of the outer borders of the empire had been neglected, with invasions by Germans and Parthians as a result. As a result of these wars and an outbreak of the plague, about a third of the population had died. Living in this time of decline and disaster, Plotinus developed an interest, bordering on ‘escape’, in what he saw as ‘real reality’: The eternal world of beauty and goodness’ (History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell, p. 268 ff.).
“Plotinus describes the relationship of individual souls to the world soul in a way that is strongly reminiscent of the Indian Brahman-Atman doctrine. The entire world soul is present in every soul. Every person carries the universe within him, as it were (…). The highest goal of man and his highest happiness consist in his soul reuniting with the divine from which it originated (…). Such mysticism, writes Hans Joachim Störig, shows great affinity with Indian philosophy.” (The History of Indian Philosophy, p. 218 et seq.).
Both Plotinus and Augustine taught that the true path is a spiritual path; a form of introspection. The highest step consists in complete introspection on ourselves, that is to say, the divine in us. Camus contrasted this with Greek thought, in which man is the measure of all things and there is a perfect balance between mind and body. This is in contrast to the supernatural of Christianity. His prose shows that Camus pursued a form of ‘nature mysticism’. For him, happiness had to do with a state in which man is no longer aware of himself and a desire of the spirit to be merely a body. A physical love connected with an unstoppable feeling of innocence and joy.
Camus wrote his thesis under the same unfavorable star as Plotinus and Augustine. In the thirties, various democracies in Europe had failed tragically. This paved the way for a rapid rise of dictators. Dictatorial regimes are characterized above all by a display of power and a desire for expansion. In Germany, Italy and Spain, guns appeared on the streets and prisons became overcrowded. All this led to increasing international tensions and a Second World War that cast its shadow before it.
Although his thesis was judged ‘excellent’, with explicit mention of its stylistic qualities, Camus was not admitted to the university because of his tuberculosis. He noted in his diary: “What matters is to be sincere. Everything is an extension of that: humanity and simplicity”.
At the end of 1938, Camus joined the left-wing daily newspaper ‘Alger Républicain’, which had been launched that year. He soon emerged as an exceptionally good journalist, who observed more sharply and formulated better than the others and wrote more captivating reports through his sense of staging. He attracted attention in particular with combative articles about corrupt, judicial practices within the colonial administration. He concluded his report on the abuses in Kabylia, the most densely populated region of Algeria, with the observation: “Progress is achieved every time a political problem makes way for a human problem.”
[conclusion follows].
Mr Kees Boukema is a scholar in Vedanta and Comparative philosophy. His brilliant and thorough-going articles on various philosophical and spiritual subjects are being published since the first issue of the magazine. His latest work is De Beoefening van Meditatie.
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On the Truth and Jesus’ Answer
Paulo J. Bittencourt
Professor at UFFS, Erechim Campus
Arrested on charges of seditious preaching against the imperial rule, the “rabbi” from Galilee had been taken to the Roman governor of Judea to be tried. In what became one of the most infamous courts in history, Jesus of Nazareth, the Jew, was sentenced to be tortured to death by executioners of a lineage that ascended in a direct and continuous line, which would later culminate in Charles “Dark” Ustra.
Do you remember that when asked by Pontius Pilate, during the trial, about what truth is, Jesus is said to have “uttered” the most eloquent silence?
In the controversy that continued over the case for posterity, Nietzsche defended Pilate. The question, according to him, was memorable, “the only one in the Gospels that deserves respect”. Jesus would have had the precious opportunity to satisfy the unrestrained desire for conceptual answers of the philosopher for whom Christianity had become one of the most complete expressions of the denial of life. But, on Jesus’ part, the German philosopher felt like he was “watching ships”. Perhaps if Nietzsche had used a lens polished by Spinoza, so as to see the issue a little more “from the point of view of eternity”, his supposed shortsightedness, if that is really the case, could have been offset. If we take Jesus’ silence as a de facto response, we would be faced with a reply, regardless of whether or not it was satisfactory, at least coherent with the broader context of the words and actions of the person being questioned [and it is only in these terms that I adopt the word “eternity”, which, however, Spinoza uses in a very different sense]. By saying nothing, Jesus would have encompassed everything that he himself could answer. His absolute silence, therefore, would be of content and form:
1) It would be of content because, as Kierkegaard rightly said, Jesus’ response would be his own life – “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life” (John 14: 6). In fact, these same words of Kierkegaard also seem to evoke the meaning of the masterful synthesis proclaimed by the “Poor Man of God”, the “Frater Minor”, Francis of Assisi: “Take care of your life. Perhaps it is the only gospel that people read.” I find it at least intriguing that the one whom Christians believe to be the word of God, that is, his own supposedly incarnate word, the same Word through which God created the world, remained silent in the face of Pilate’s question, which, after all, never ceased to be “the” question.
2) It was also in form, and, to try to elucidate the issue a little, I recall the brief and very dense essay by Giorgio Agamben, “Pilate and Jesus”. Agamben sees in the fleeting encounter between Pilate and Jesus an enormous and unprecedented event, beyond the drama of the passion and redemption. The irreconcilable sides of the “world of facts” and the “world of truth” would be at stake in the face-to-face encounter, when, at a markedly brief turning point in history, the eternity of the sacred viscerally crossed the temporality of the profane. It is difficult not to recognize, even if only in metaphorical terms once again, the traces of polishing by Spinoza’s accurate hand in the analytical effort operated through Agamben’s lenses. In this case, Jesus would not have responded verbally to Pilate not only because the content of an alleged response would be incommunicable in the conceptual terms required by the interrogator, but also, if it were, it would not have the credentials to establish a semantic bridge between two sides of a linguistically impassable abyss. [Of course, here I cannot help but recognize that content and form are two sides of the same coin, distinguishable only for the purposes of analytical comprehension, although essentially inseparable.]
Understanding still seems to be the safest way to then agree or disagree well, since many agree or disagree, but few understand. Perhaps then Jesus was aware that Pilate would never understand him, long before he agreed or disagreed. And note that here it is not a question, in any way, of incautiously and hastily classifying Pilate as a Boeotian or obtuse, since, I repeat, the differences between the two would go beyond the simple idiomatic discrepancy between a language of Indo-European origin – Latin or even Greek – and a language of Semitic origin – Aramaic.
Perhaps the answer traditionally adopted by Christians could come into play, namely, that Jesus saw himself as “the” personal and non-transferable answer to Pilate’s question.
I leave this option to the believers, however. Here I seek nothing more than a significant glimpse into the discursive presuppositions of the current problem. What matters to me is to aim for an amateurish exercise of understanding and to follow the path outlined, which, on the other hand, will never be a small feat.
Professor Paulo Bittencourt is a brilliant teacher of Ancient and Medieval History at the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul UFFS [Erechim Campus], Brazil. He contributes articles regularly, and is a columnist of a periodical too. He has several books to his credit. He is an ardent student of Vedanta.
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Positive Notes which Inspires Everyone
Brian de Mello’s article
Twenty years ago, Hans van Hezewijk was unexpectedly diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). Up until that moment, he lived like many other families with his wife and two young children in a terraced house in an average Dutch city. That fairly carefree existence was gradually turned upside down. ‘In twenty years, I have physically deteriorated in small steps from running a half marathon to not being able to walk at all and only being able to sit in a wheelchair or lie in bed.’
At the moment, Hans can only use his left arm and hand to some extent. He manages with that as best he can. He lives independently and alone, because he does not want to continuously burden his family with the many support he needs because of his illness. He now receives help on call for daily care. He does his own shopping and socializes with his electric wheelchair.
For new visitors, he – born in Den Bosch – buys delicious Bossche Bollen from the local, certified pastry chef. ‘I have to watch my weight to stay as healthy as possible, so I don’t eat more than half a Bossche Bol a day.’ If only we were that sensible; the Bossche Bol that is served to us is completely devoured. Before we can take a bite and the whipped cream shoots around our ears, we grab the cutlery from the cupboard ourselves, help Hans cut his Bossche Bol and put a large kitchen apron on him (‘it will be a mess’). Then it is time to enjoy; with a special fork in his left hand he eats half the delicacy. The other half goes back in the fridge for another day.
‘I was not nearly as positive about life as I am now.’
Turning point
Looking back, Hans notes that he has experienced many setbacks and deep valleys over the past twenty years due to his limitations. ‘Certainly in the early years of my illness, I, like many other people with limitations, had a hard time and I didn’t always feel up to it. I couldn’t enjoy my life then and I wasn’t nearly as positive about life as I am now. On the contrary! While I still have many more different and enormously bigger limitations at the moment.’ The turning point came when a good friend threatened to stop visiting if Hans continued to be so negative. ‘It’s easy for you to say, you don’t have MS, I said. But I knew he was right. I decided to change course and from that moment on I chose to make the most of every day and be happy.’ He began to see the possibilities and opportunities he has to make the best of his own life with limitations. That led to the development of a personal method for a positive mindset, abbreviated to HANS. ‘The H stands for Health, continuing to work on your health. The A for Adaptation, the ability to adapt with aids or in behavior. NS stands for New Situation in your life with permanent limitations and how you deal with it. Appropriate, right?’, he laughs.
The blacksmith’s secret
Hans can still enjoy life. His ‘secret’ is: 1. do everything yourself to get and keep your health as good as possible and all associated problems as small as possible 2. and don’t worry about it but make sure you have enough good distraction and stay positive and among people. He is eager to give everyone an important practical tip from his book: ‘Don’t complain about something that the other person can’t do anything about. Because by doing so, as a person with disabilities you yourself give the starting signal for a negative course of a conversation or meeting. And if you do that often, you ensure that you lose your friends and become lonelier. Consciously choose not to talk negatively, but to give someone a compliment once, for example. Or to be nice. How hard is that? And it costs you nothing!’
Contributed by Francis van Schaik
Francis van Schaik is a coach of young people and also a student of human relationships with nature, the world and Truth. She regularly contributes to our online magazine. Francis is the regular contributor of articles in this page.
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Swami Saradananda Speaks
There are no contradictions in the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna. He did not make a rule for everyone. He saw the inner tendency of the person and advised him accordingly. His instructions were given in different ways to different people because of their different temperaments and abilities to apply his principles in life. To those who were young, energetic, intense with fiery enthusiasm, in whom he saw the potential to become monks, his inspiring words were: “Now discard all desires for name and fame and plunge headlong into spiritual disciplines. Never rest contented until the realization of God becomes an accomplished fact.” He would kindle the smouldering fire in their hearts, saying, “Is it possible to realize God without renunciation? Renunciation of lust and greed is the most essential condition for entering into spiritual life.
What is there in the world except fear, misery and trouble? Tell me, who is happy in the world? If you seek the world and desire sense objects, the world will pull you down. !!!! But if you seek God and renounce everything for Him, God will lift you up and your mind will be filled with infinite bliss.”
To those who were burdened with the heavy responsibilities of life, who were caught in the net of samsara (the world), and had grown old, his advice was: “I have cooked the food and put it on the plate. Your job is just to sit down and eat simply. You don’t have to do anything. You just have to bring it to your mouth and enjoy it. I have taken the responsibility. You won’t have to do any spiritual discipline. I have already done it for you. It will be enough if you give me the authority and are at ease.” He knew that the circumstances were not favorable for them to do spiritual disciplines, and if they were asked, it would not be in their power to follow instructions. Therefore, he would advise them to rely on him and take refuge in the Lord.
Mary Saaleman is a devotee of Mother Sarada and Sri Ramakrishna since decades. She translates selections from books like The Master as we Saw Him and presents snippets about the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna.
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From Swami Vivekananda
Every being that is in the universe has the potentiality of transcending the senses; even the little worm will one day transcend the senses and reach God. No life will be a failure; there is no such thing as failure in the universe. A hundred times a person will hurt himself, a thousand times he will tumble, but in the end he will realise that he is God.
We know there is no progress in a straight line. Every soul moves, as it were, in a circle, and will have to complete it, and no soul can go so low but there will come a time when it will have to go upwards. No one will be lost.
We are all projected from one common centre, which is God. The highest as well as the lowest life God ever projected will come back to the Father of all lives. “From whom all beings are projected, in whom all live, and unto whom they all return; that is God.”
Meditations
[Meditations on the Self, from Viveka-chudâmani]
सर्वाधारं सर्व-वस्तु-प्रकाशं सर्वाकारं सर्वगं सर्वशून्यम्
नित्यं शुद्धं निश्चलं निर्विकल्पम् ब्रह्माद्वैतं यत्तदेवाहमस्मि ।।
“Who am I? I am the basis, the ground, the foundation of everything. I am the Light that reveals everything. I am all the forms. I am all-pervading. I am beyond everything. I am pure, divine, absolutely stable and beyond modifications. I am that One Supreme Brahman.”
सर्वात्मको’हं सर्वो’हं सर्वातीतो’हमद्वयः केवलाखण्ड-बोधो’हम् आनंदो’हम् निरन्तरः।।
“I am the Soul of everything and everyone. I am everything. I am beyond everything and yet I am One. I am that unique cognition of indivisible One. I am Bliss itself and I am beyond all separations.
न मे प्रवृत्तिर् न च मे निवृत्तिः सदैकरूपस्य निरंशकस्य।
एकात्मको यो निबिडो निरन्तरो व्योमेव पूर्णः स कथं नु चेष्टते। ।
I have no involvement in the world, nor is there renunciation. This is because I am eternally One, non-different and not a part of anything. I am the One pure Self and am always present. I fill the universe and beyond and so what ordinary thing can affect me?
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About Dreams
Surendranath Sen was a learned man. He went to seek spiritual initiation from Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji refused. The prophet told Surendranath that a great personality will initiate him. At that time Surendranath was disappointed. However, he received a mantra from a goddess in a dream. He reported this to Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji explained the dream: “The Master [Sri Ramakrishna] used to say, ‘A divine dream is true.’ It is called attaining perfection through a dream. Go on repeating this mantra. You will attain everything. you will not have to do anything else.’
“I don’t believe in dreams,” Surendranath replied. “A dream is just a baseless thought.”
Swami Vivekananda said: “In fact, this dream is true. Go on repeating the mantra, and then you will see the goddess who gave the mantra will appear before you in a physical form. She is an incarnation of Bagala and is now in the form of Saraswati.”
“I don’t understand what you mean,” said Surendranath.
Swamiji reassured him: “You will understand in time. You will see that the external form is calm and benign but the inner form is formidable. The form of Saraswati is very calm and serene.”
Surendranath replied: “I don’t believe all these things.”
“Whether you believe it or not, go on repeating the mantra. It will do you good,” Swami Vivekananda advised.
Surendranath never repeated the mantra that he received in his dream. But later, when he was initiated by Holy Mother, he was amazed to discover that the dream mantra and the Mother’s mantra were the same. He then realized the truth of Swami Vivekananda’s words.
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Birthday tithipuja of Mother Sri Sarada Devi on 22 December 2024
सर्वभूत-हितार्थाय मानुषीं तनुमाश्रिताम्
दुःखहर्त्रीं ज्ञानदात्रीं च शारदां अहमाश्रये। ।