Vangelis - Chariots of Fire

AKASH BHORA SURJO TARA

Akash bhora shurjo tara
Bishwa bhora pran
Tahari majkhane ami peyechhi
Peyechhi mor sthan
Bishowye tai jage, jage amar gaan
Asim kaler je hillole
Joar bhatae bhubon dole
Narite mor raktadharae legechhe tar Tan
Bishowye tai jage, jage amar gaan
Ghase ghase pa phelechhi
Boner pathe jete
Phuler gandhe chamak lege uthechhe mon mete
Chhariye achhe ananderi gan
Kan petechhi chokh melechhi
Dharar buke pran dhelechhi
Janar majhe ajanare karechhi sandhan
Bishowye tai jage, jage amar gaan

PERSONS ASSOCIATED WITH BRAHMO SAMAJ

RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY

Raja Rammohan Roy has come to be called the ‘Maker of Modern India’. Without giving up what was good and noble in the past, he laid the foundations for a great future. He put an end to the horrible custom of burning the living wife with the dead husband. He was a great scholar and an independent thinker. He advocated the study of English, Science, Western Medicine and Technology. He spent his money on a college to promote these studies.

Brahmo Samaj
In 1828, a man named Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) founded an organization called 'Brahmo Samaj'. Indian historians consider this organization forerunner which paved the way for reformation in India and its establisher as the 'father of modern India'. Raja Ram was a Brahman from Bengal. He was a British civil servant in India. He saw in British rule of India the best things that were benefical to India. He adored the west European philosophy of democracy, liberalism and humanism. He had a great interest in non- Indian cultures and religions. He was especially impressed by Christianity and other religions which preached the existence of one Almighty God.

Raja Ram tried to create a new Hindu religion philosophy and enfolded in it the existence of one God and other beliefs, which were then not the predominant features in Hinduism. He attacked some Hindu traditions and features among them caste system, child marriages, Sati - burning of the live wife over her dead husband's pyre, idolatry and other beliefs. He tried to change the popular Hindu traditions and claimed that the popular Hindu traditions were different from the real Hindu beliefs.

Raja Ram and his organization 'Brahmo Samaj' tried to change the social order of India. He established newspapers and schools all around India. He convinced the British in 1829 to outlaw Sati. But during that period there wasn't yet an Indian ethos among the Indians. Indians were never one nation but always a collection of different entities. They were used to different rulers including non- Indians. From their point of view the British were just another ruler over them.But the main contribution of the Brahmo Samaj to the society of India was that it evoked issues that were common to people all around the Indian sub-continent. The notions of this organization were the inspiration for other organizations and various secular political parties, like the Indian National Congress, which were later on created in India

DEBENDRANATH TAGORE

Debendranath Tagore, Debendranath also spelled Devendranath, Bengali Debendranāth Ṭhākur (born May 15, 1817, Calcutta, India—died Jan. 19, 1905, Calcutta), Hindu philosopher and religious reformer, active in the Brahmo Samaj (“Society of Brahmā,” also translated as “Society of God”), which purged the Hindu religion and way of life of many abuses.

Born into a wealthy landowning family, Tagore began his formal education at the age of nine; he was instructed in India’s classical language, Sanskrit, in Persian, in English, and in Western philosophy. He became a close friend of his younger fellow reformer Keshab Chunder Sen. Tagore spoke out vehemently against suttee (self-immolation of a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre), a practice that was especially prevalent in Bengal. Together, Tagore and Sen attempted to raise the Indian literacy rate and to bring education within the reach of all. Unlike Sen, however, Tagore remained a more conservative Hindu, while Sen drifted toward Christianity. This philosophical break between the two men eventually resulted in a schism within the Brahmo Samaj in 1866.

Tagore, in his zeal to erase Hindu idolatry as well as divisive and undemocratic practices, finally rejected the whole of the Vedas, the ancient Hindu scriptures, claiming that no set of writings, however venerable, could furnish complete and satisfying guidelines to human activity. Failing to find a middle path between radical rationalism and fanatical Brahman conservatism, Tagore retired from public life, although he continued to instruct a small band of followers. In 1863 he founded Śantiniketan (“Abode of Peace”), a retreat in rural Bengal later made famous by his poet son Rabindranath Tagore, whose educational centre there became an international university. Until his death Tagore bore the title Maharishi (“Great Sage”).

Tagore’s voluminous writings were in his native Bengali. One of his books was translated into English, Vedantic Doctrines Vindicated (1845). His Brahmo-Dharma (1854; “The Religion of God”), a commentary in Bengali on the Sanskrit scriptures, is considered to be a masterpiece.

KESHAB CHANDRA SEN

 

Keshab Chunder Sen, also spelled Keshub Chandra Sen (born Nov. 19, 1838, Calcutta—died Jan. 8, 1884, Calcutta), Hindu philosopher and social reformer who attempted to incorporate Christian theology within the framework of Hindu thought.

Although not of the Brahman caste, Sen’s family was prominent in Calcutta, and he received the required education. At age 19 he joined the Brahmo Samaj (Society of Brahmā, also translated as Society of God) founded in 1828 by the Hindu religious and social reformer Rammohan Ray. The Brahmo Samaj was intended to revitalize Hindu religion through use of ancient Hindu sources and the authority of the Vedas. Sen was convinced, however, that only Christian doctrine could bring new life to Hindu society.

By the use of dynamic and practical Christian missionary methods, Sen effected social reforms that were badly needed in India; he organized relief campaigns for the poor, promoted literacy among his countrymen by founding schools for children and adults, and issued a number of inexpensive publications to bring reading matter within the reach of all. He condemned child marriage and was instrumental in having the marriage rites of his society recognized by law in 1872. He also advocated widow-remarriage and even intercaste marriage.

While his contemporaries Debendranath Tagore and Ramakrishna remained thoroughly Hindu in outlook, Sen very nearly converted completely to Christianity. The deterrent proved to be his belief that Christ, however admirable, was not unique. Nevertheless, he did want his people to emulate Christ, believing that only a vital Christianity would be the salvation of a stratified and ossified Hindu society. He was more interested in the practical application of religion to social conditions than in depth of thought. An open break with Debendranath Tagore followed, and Sen formed a new society in 1866 called the Bharatvarshiya Brahmo Samaj (“Society of Brahmā of India”). The original society was renamed the Adi Samaj (“Old Society”) and was quickly purged of Christian teaching.

In 1870 Sen lectured widely in England and was presented to Queen Victoria. Again he was impressed with Christianity as a force in English life. Back in India, however, he allowed his 14-year-old daughter to marry the son of the maharaja of Cooch Behār, thus publicly repudiating his avowed opposition to child marriage. As a result, some of his followers broke away, and he organized a new society, Naba Bidhān, or Nava Vidhāna (“New Dispensation”), continuing to preach a mixture of Hindu philosophy and Christian theology. He revived many ancient Vedic practices and sent out 12 disciples to preach under a flag bearing a crescent, a cross, and a trident. Sen retained public esteem until his death.

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND HIS DISCIPLE SWAMI KRIPANANDA

THE LIFE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
BY HIS EASTERN AND WESTERN DISCIPLES

Page No. 3, 13, 33, 58, 63, 67, 69, 73, 489
PASSAGE FROM THE BEGINNING OF AMERICAN WORK
“I am very happy now,” he had written to Mrs. Bull a few days earlier. “Between Mr. Landsberg [later Swami Kripananda] and me, we cook some rice and lentils or barley and quietly eat it, and write something or read or receive visits from poor people who want to learn something, and thus I feel I am more a sannyasin now than I ever was in America.”
Leon Landsberg, the latter of whom lived for about two and a half months with the Swami in his New York quarters on West Thirty-third Street, helping him with the organizational aspect of his work.
The Swami Kripananda , before he was taken into the circle and took the vows of poverty and chastity, was a newspaper man , employed on the staff of one of the most prominent New York papers. By birth he is a Russian Jew, named Leon Landsberg.
“Today, I shall cook for you.” To this Landsberg would ejaculate in an aside, “Heaven save us!” By way of explanation he said that in New York when Swamiji cooked, he, Landsberg, would tear his hair, because it meant that afterwards every dish in the house required washing.
SWAMI KRIPANANDA(LEON LANDSBERG):
I SHALL NEVER FORGET THAT MEMORABLE EVENING WHEN THE SWAMI APPEARED SINGLE-HANDED TO FACE THE FORCES OF MATERIALISM, ARRAYED IN THEIR HEAVIEST ARMOUR OF LAW, AND REASON, AND LOGIC, AND COMMON SENSE, OF MATTER, AND FORCE, AND HEREDITY, AND ALL THE STOCK PHRASES CALCULATED TO AWE AND TERRIFY THE IGNORANT. IMAGINE THEIR SURPRISE AND CONSTERNATION WHEN THEY FOUND THAT, FAR FROM BEING INTIMIDATED BY THESE BIG WORDS, HE PROVED HIMSELF A MASTER IN WIELDING THEIR OWN WEAPONS, AND AS FAMILIAR WITH THE ARGUMENTS OF MATERIALISM AS WITH THOSE OF ADVAITA PHILOSOPHY.
PEOPLE ARE QUICK TO APPRECIATE THE GRANDEUR AND BEAUTY OF A SYSTEM WHICH, EQUALLY AS A PHILOSOPHY AND A RELIGION, APPEALS TO THE HEART AS WELL AS TO THE REASONS, AND SATISFIES ALL THE RELIGIOUS CRAVINGS OF HUMAN NATURE; ESPECIALLY SO, WHEN IT IS BEING EXPOUNDED BY ONE WHO, LIKE OUR TEACHER WITH HIS WONDERFUL ORATORY, IS ABLE TO ROUSE AT WILL THE DORMANT LOVE OF THE DIVINELY SUBLIME IN THE HUMAN SOUL, AND WITH HIS SHARP AND IRREFUTABLE LOGIC TO EASILY CONVINCE THE MOST STUBBORN MIND OF THE MOST SCIENTIFIC MATTER-OF-FACT MAN. NO WONDER, THEREFORE, THAT THIS INTEREST IN HINDU THOUGHT IS TO BE MET WITH AMONG ALL CLASSES OF SOCIETY…
BY THE BY, INDIA HAD BETTER AT ONCE MAKE CLEAR HER TITLE TO THE OWNERSHIP OF THE SWAMI. THEY ARE ABOUT TO WRITE HIS BIOGRAPHY FOR THE NATIONAL ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THUS MAKING OF HIM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN. THE TIME MAY COME WHEN, EVEN AS SEVEN CITIES DISPUTED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THE HONOUR OF HAVING GIVEN BIRTH TO HOMER, SEVEN COUNTRIES MAY CLAIM OUR MASTER AS THEIRS, AND THUS ROB INDIA OF THE HONOUR OF PRODUCING ONE OF THE NOBLEST OF HER CHILDREN.


SWAMI KRIPANANDA(LEON LANDSBERG):

The portrayal of Leon Landsberg (Swami Kripananda) is, to say the least, unjust and unduly harsh.
In fact, Leon Lansberg (Swami Kripananda) was detachment personified and a true sanyasin. All his actions have to be seen in this light. Swami Vivekananda was very fond of him, and Swami Kripananda was an ardent admirer of Swamiji.
The above quotes should make the position clear.
IT WOULD NOT BE OUT OF PLACE TO MENTION THAT BUDDHA’S DISCIPLES LEFT HIM AFTER GAUTAMA’S ENLIGHTENMENT BUT RETURNED LATER AT SARNATH TO RECEIVE HIS FIRST SERMON.

Sri Ramkrishna Arati (at Belur Math)

Vivekananda meets with Ramakrishna

buddham sharanam gachchhaami Manna Dey Anil Biswas Bharat Vyas ANGULIMAL...

Angulimala Sutta
To Angulimala

I heard thus:

At one time the Blessed One was living in the monastery offered by Anathapindika in Jeta’s grove in Savatthi. At that time in King Pasenadi Kosala’s kingdom there was a robber named Angulimala. He was fierce, with bloody hands, engaged in killing living things without mercy. At that time he destroyed complete villages, complete hamlets and even the state. He killed humans to wear a garland of fingers. Then the Blessed One put on robes in the morning, taking bowl and robes entered Savatthi for alms. Going the alms round and returning from the alms round and after the meal was over, arranged the dwelling and taking bowl and robes, followed up the path to where Angulimala was. Cowherds, farmers and travelers seeing the Blessed One following up the path leading to where Angulimala was staying said. ‘Recluse do not fall to that path, there lives a robber named Angulimala, a fierce one with bloody hands, engaged in killing living things, without mercy. He has destroyed complete villages, complete hamlets and even states. He kills humans to wear a garland of fingers. O recluse, even a band of ten, twenty, thirty forty, or even fifty people going along this path were killed by this robber Angulimala. When this was said the Blessed One went on, silently.

For the second time they said it and the Blessed One went on, silently and for the third time they said it and the Blessed One went on, silently.

The robber Angulimala saw the Blessed One coming in the distance and it occurred to him: Indeed it is wonderful, people come along this path in bands of ten, or twenty, or thirty, or forty, or fifty, they all got into my hands, this recluse comes all alone, without another, may be he thinks to overcome me. What if I kill this recluse? Then the robber Angulimala took out his sword and armor and fixed his bow and arrow and followed close behind Blessed One. The Blessed One performed such a psychic intention, that the robber Angulimala pursuing the Blessed One with all his strength would not reach the Blessed One. Then it occurred to the robber Angulimala: It is indeed wonderful, earlier, I could overtake a running elephant, a running horse, a moving chariot, here running with all my strength, I cannot reach up to this recluse. He stopped and called to the Blessed One. ‘Stop! Recluse stop!’

Angulimala, I have stopped. ‘Stop you too!’ The Blessed One said.

Then it occurred to the robber Angulimala: These recluses, the sons of the Sakyas talk the truth and are established in the truth: Yet while walking why did he say, I have stopped and Angulimala you too stop! What if I ask about it from the recluse?’ Then the robber Angulimala said this verse to the Blessed One.

‘While going the recluse says ‘I have stopped,’ when I have stopped, he says I have not stopped.

Recluse, explain this to me, how have you stopped and I have not stopped.

Angulimala I have stopped for good, giving up punishing living things.

You are not restrained towards living things, therefore I have stopped and you have not.

After a long time did we meet a great sage in the great forest,

I will throw away demerit for good, hearing your words enjoined with the Teaching.

Then and there the robber threw away his weapons into the depths of the forest, fell at the feet of the Blessed One and begged for the going forth.

The Blessed One, the sage with compassion, for the whole world, gave him the going forth saying. ‘Come O Bhikkhu!’ that was his going forth

Then the Blessed One with venerable Angulimala as the second monk went through the streets of Savatthi and arrived at the monastery offered by Anathapindika in Jeta’s grove. At that time at the entrance to the palace of king Pasenadi of Kosala was assembled a large gathering, making much noise: Lord, there is a robber Angulimala, in the kingdom. He is fierce, with bloody hands, has no compassion for living things, destroys, hamlets, villages and states. He killing humans collects fingers to wear as a garland round his neck. Lord he should be punished.

Then king Pasenadi of Kosala left his palace with about five hundred riders on horseback and approached the monastery. Went as far as could be reached in that conveyance and approached the Blessed One, on foot. Approaching the Blessed One worshipped and sat on a side. Then the Blessed One said thus to king Pasenadi of Kosala ’Great king, has king Seniya Bimbisara of Magadha arisen against you, or has the Licchavis of Vesali arisen against you?’ ‘No, venerable sir, neither king Seniya Bimbisara of Magadha has arisen against me, nor the Licchavis of Vesali have arisen against me. Yet there is a robber in my kingdom, by the name Angulimala, fierce, bloody handed, without compassion for living things. He destroys hamlets, villages and states killing humans to collect fingers to wear a garland round his neck. Venerable sir, I cannot punish him.’

‘Great king, if you see, Angulimala, with shaved head and beard, donning yellow clothes, gone forth homeless, abstaining from, destroying life, taking the not given, telling lies, partaking one meal a day, and virtuous. What would you do to him?’

‘Venerable sir, I will get up from my seat on his arrival, prepare him a seat, invite him, arrange to provide the four requisites of life, robes, morsel food, dwellings and requisites when ill and provide him righteous protection. Yet venerable sir, how could such virtues come to evil doers, like him?’

At that time venerable Angulimala was seated close to the Blessed One, and the Blessed One stretched his right and said, to king Pasenadi of Kosala: Great king that is Angulimala.

Then king Pasenadi of Kosala was shivering with fear and his hairs stood on end. Then the Blssed One knowing that king Pasenadi of Kosala was shivering with fear and that his hairs were standing on end, said thus: Great king, do not fear, there is nothing to fear now. Then all that fear vanished from the king and approached venerable Angulimala and said. ‘Venerable sir, are you Angulimala?’

‘Yes, great king, I’m Angulimaala.’

‘Of what clan is the venerable one’s father and of what clan is the venerable one’s mother?’

‘Great king, my father is Gagga and my mother Mantani’

‘Venerable sir, venerable Gaggamantaniputta, take pleasure in the Dispensation, I will provide with the four requisites of life such as robes, morsel food dwellings and requisites when ill. At that time venerable Angulimala was a dependent on morsel food, a forest dweller, a rag robe wearer and confined to three robes. So venerable Angulimala said to king Pasenadi of Kosala.’ Useless great king, my three robes are complete.’

Then king Pasenadi of Kosala approached the Blessed One worshipped, sat on a side and said. ‘Indeed, it is wonderful, how you tame, those that have to be tamed, how you appease those that are not appeased, how you make the not extinguished to extinguish. How you tame those that could not be tamed with stick or weapon, without stick or weapon. Now we have much work to do, we would go. Then king Pasenadi of Kosala getting up from his seat, worshipped and circumambulated the Blessed One, and went away.’

Then venerable Angulimala putting on robes in the morning and taking bowl and robes entered Savatthi for alms. When going the alms round in Savatthi in due order, saw a certain woman with the pains of childbirth, then it occurred to him, indeed beings are defiled. Then after the alms round and after the meal was over, venerable Angulimala approached the Blessed One worshipped, sat on a side and said to the Blessed One: ‘Venerable sir, when I was going for alms in due order, I saw a certain woman suffering from the pains of childbirth and it occurred to me: Indeed beings are defiled.’

‘Then Angulimala go to Savatthi, approach that woman and tell her. ‘Sister, since my birth I have not destroyed a living thing knowingly, by that truth may you be well and may the one to be born be well.’

‘Venerable sir, won’t it be a lie told with awareness, I have destroyed many living things with awareness.’

Then Angulimala go to Savatthi and approach that woman and tell her. ‘Sister, since I was born in the noble birth I have not destroyed a living thing knowingly, by that truth may you be well and may the one to be born be well.’

Then venerable Angulimala agreed went to Savatthi approached that woman and told her. ‘Sister, since I was born in the noble birth I have not destroyed a living thing knowingly, by that truth may you be well and may the one to be born be well.’ Then she got well and the child was also well. Then Angulimala withdrawn from the crowd, secluded and diligent for dispelling abode and before long for whatever reason sons of clansmen rightfully leave the household and become homeless, that noble end of the holy life he here and now knowing realized and abode. He knew, birth is destroyed, the holy life is lived, what should be done is done. There is nothing more to wish.

Then venerable Angulimala putting on robes in the morning and taking bowl and robes went the alms round in Savatthi. Then if a clod was thrown at anybody else, it hit venerable Angulimala. If a stick was thrown at anybody else, it hit venerable Angulimala. If a stone was thrown, it hit venerable Angulimala. Venerable Angulimala would come to the Blessed One with a split head and blood dripping, with the bowl broken and with robes torn. The Blessed One seeing venerable Angulimala approaching in the distance would say: Brahmin, endure that, on account of the results of your actions you would have been reaping results for many years, for many hundreds of years, for many thousands of years in hell. Brahmin, bear the results of your actions here and now.

Venerable Angulimala experienced the pleasantness of release in his seclusion, and then these verses occurred to him:

‘The negligent one became diligent, and illuminates the world like the moon freed from clouds.

When his merit covers up the demerit, he illuminates the world like the moon freed from clouds.

The young Bhikkhu yoked to the Dispensation of the Blessed One illuminates the world-like the moon freed from clouds.

My enemies, listen to the Teaching, be yoked to the Dispensation of the Blessed One.

My enemies, associate friends who show the appeasing Teaching

My enemies, with patience and aversion dispelled, listen to the Teaching and live according to the Teaching,

Do not hurt me or anybody else for any reason, attain to the highest appeasement and protect the firm and the infirm.

Irrigators lead water, fletchers bend arrows, the carpenter bends wood and the wise tame the self.

Some are tamed with a stick, or hook or whip, I was tamed without a stick or weapon, by a such like one.

Earlier when I was a hurter, my name was non-hurter, now am true to my name I do not hurt anyone.

Earlier I was a robber known as Angulimala, and was carried away by the surge of the refuge in the enlightenment.

Earlier I was known as Angulimala with bloody hands, look at the refuge the leader of being is destroyed

Having done many actions leading to birth in hell, touched by the results of actions I partake food without a debt.

Fools are yoked to negligence; the wise protect diligence as the highest wealth.

Do not be yoked to negligence, and sensual pleasures, concentrate diligently to attain pleasantness.

Go to increase, not to decrease, this is good advice, reach the highest of the analytical knowledge’s.

Go to increase, not to decrease, this is good advice of mine, I have attained the Three knowledge’s and done the dispensation of the Enlightened One.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama on CNN's Piers Morgan Tonight

INNER TEMPLE OF SILENCE

This task is really reserved for a few elects. Many make adventures in spiritual life and find in the loneliness of contemplation the higher and loftier ranges of being and consciousness open unto them; the delight and the joyousness become so absorbing that they do not allow them to be disturbed in their silence and become completely hidden in the mood of thought. They become for ever buried in the inner temple of silence.
There are a few indeed, who are privileged enough to enter into the vortex of life to elevate humanity and to scatter the Divine peace and the Divine aroma of life by radiating a spiritual current from them. They scatter light, joy, peace, and power. They descend from the tower of silence to meet a definite problem in a particular epoch of civilization.