ASHVAGHOSHA’S DESCRIPTION OF GAUTAMA’S ENCOUNTER WITH A CORPSE

PRINCE TO THE CHARIOTEER:”WHO IS THIS BORNE BY FOUR MEN, FOLLOWED BY MOURNFUL COMPANIONS, WHO IS BEWAILED, ADOURNED BUT NO LONGER BREATHING?”

CHARIOTEER: THIS IS SOME POOR MAN WHO, BEREFT OF HIS INTELLECT, SENSES, VITAL AIRS AND QUALITIES, LYING ASLEEP AND UNCONSCIOUS, LIKE MERE WOOD OR STRAW, IS ABONDONED ALIKE BY FRIENDS AND ENEMIES AFTER THEY HAVE CAREFULLY SWATHED AND GUARDED HIM.

HAVING HEARD THESE WORDS OF THE CHARIOTEER HE WAS SOMEWHAT STARTLED AND SAID TO HIM, “IS THIS AN ACCIDENT PECULIAR TO HIM ALONE, OR IS SUCH THE END OF ALL LIVING CREATURES?”

THEN THE CHARIOTEER REPLIED TO HIM, “THIS IS THE FINAL END OF ALL LIVING CREATURES; BE IT A MEAN MAN, A MAN OF MIDDLE STATE, OR A NOBLE, DESTRUCTION IS FIXED TO ALL IN THIS WORLD.”

THEN THE KING’S SON, SEDATE THOUGH HE WAS, AS SOON AS HE HEARD OF DEATH, IMMEDIATELY SANK DOWN OVERWHELMED, AND PRESSING THE END OF THE CHARIOT POLE WITH HIS SHOULDER SPOKE WITH A LOUD VOICE:

“IS THIS END APPOINTED TO ALL CREATURES, AND YET THE WORLD THROWS OFF ALL FEAR AND IS INFATUATED! HARD INDEED, I THINK MUST THE HEARTS OF MEN BE, WHO CAN BE SELF-COMPOSED IN SUCH A ROAD.”

“THEREFORE, O CHARIOTEER, TURN BACK OUR CHARIOT, THIS IS NO TIME OR PLACE FOR A PLEASURE-EXCURSION; HOW CAN A RATIONAL BEING, WHO KNOWS WHAT DESTRUCTION IS, STAY HEEDLESS HERE, IN THE HOUR OF CALAMITY?”

FROM GAUTAMA BUDDHA, IQBAL SINGH

LIGHT OF ASIA

 EDWIN ARNOLD

But lo! Siddârtha turned
Eyes gleaming with divine tears to the sky,
Eyes lit with heavenly pity to the earth;
From sky to earth he looked, from earth to sky,
As if his spirit sought in lonely flight
Some far-off vision, linking this and that,
Lost -- past -- but searchable, but seen, but known.
Then cried he, while his lifted countenance
Glowed with the burning passion of a love
Unspeakable, the ardor of a hope
Boundless, insatiate: "Oh! suffering world,
Oh! known and unknown of my common flesh,
Caught in this common net of death and woe,
And life which binds to both! I see, I feel
The vastness of the agony of earth,
The vainness of its joys, the mockery
Of all its best, the anguish of its worst;
Since pleasures end in pain, and youth in age,
And love in loss, and life in hateful death,
And death in unknown lives, which will but yoke
Men to their wheel again to whirl the round
Of false delights and woes that are not false.
Me too this lure hath cheated, so it seemed
Lovely to live, and life a sunlit stream
For ever flowing in a changeless peace;
Whereas the foolish ripple of the flood
Dances so lightly down by bloom and lawn
Only to pour its crystal quicklier
Into the foul salt sea. The veil is rent
Which blinded me! I am as all these men
Who cry upon their gods and are not heard
Or are not heeded -- yet there must be aid!
For them and me and all there must be help!
Perchance the gods have need of help themselves
Being so feeble that when sad lips cry
They cannot save! I would not let one cry
Whom I could save! How can it be that Brahm
Would make a world and keep it miserable,
Since, if all-powerful, he leaves it so,
He is not good, and if not powerful,
He is not God? -- Channa! lead home again!
It is enough! mine eyes have seen enough!"

POEMS OF FRANCIS THOMPSON

Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play

 Go, songs, for ended is our brief, sweet play;
Go, children of swift joy and tardy sorrow:
And some are sung, and that was yesterday,
And some are unsung, and that may be tomorrow.

Go forth; and if it be o'er stony way,
Old joy can lend what newer grief must borrow:
And it was sweet, and that was yesterday,
And sweet is sweet, though purchased with sorrow.

Go, songs, and come not back from your far way:
And if men ask you why ye smile and sorrow,
Tell them ye grieve, for your hearts know Today,
Tell them ye smile, for your eyes know Tomorrow.

 

 

The Kingdom of God

 

O WORLD invisible, we view thee,
O world intangible, we touch thee,
O world unknowable, we know thee,
Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,
The eagle plunge to find the air—
That we ask of the stars in motion
If they have rumour of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,
And our benumbed conceiving soars!—
The drift of pinions, would we hearken,
Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places;—
Turn but a stone, and start a wing!
‘Tis ye, ‘tis your estrangèd faces,
That miss the many-splendoured thing.

 

 

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)