Digest Number 2259

[Guest guest]

Dear Partha, Victor Banerjee's article has been a very poor taste. Obviously he has not been able to catch the spirit of Thakur and Swamiji. Let alone the spirit he does not seem to ahve his facts right. He does not know anything about Kalpataru and the blessings to scores of devotees. I feel sorry for him. He should read Swami Chetananda's "They Lived with God" (Life Stories of 28 leading Householder disciples/devotees of Sri Ramakrishna), a truly remarkable work. Available on www.advaitaonline.com On how the West received Swami Vivekananda, the most comprehensive and well-documented is the six volume work of Mrs. Marie Louis Burke, who later took vows from Swami Ashokanandaji Maharaj and was later called Sister Gargi. Evidently Victor Banerjee has no time to check these facts. To suit the narrow theme of his article, Victor Banrejee is trying to limit Swamiji to Bengal, saying that sitting in Kanyakumari he wanted to bring about a Vedantic future to his people in Bengal. This does not deserve any comments. It is common knowledge that Swamiji wanted the whole of Bharatvarsha to be rejuvenated in the Vedantic spirit, something he inaugurated in his "Lectures from Colombo to Almora". You have corrected the author saying that it is Raja of Khetri who funded Swamiji's visit to the West and not the Tamil prince. I think it was common people of Madras who donated in response to the door to door collections of Alasinga Perumal, Kidi and other Madras disciples of Swamji. In the West Swamiji mentioned this fact a few times with pride that "I represent the poorest of poor Indians as they have sent me here." Raja of Khetri helped get Swamiji's papers etc. for the travel and at that time suggested

that he should get his name written as Vivekananda. Victor Banerjee's article only reflects how wanting is the knowledge, and how cheap the assesment of our so-called media giants when it comes to the realm of spirituality. Sri Ramakrishna Saranam. *************************************************************************************************** Message: 6 Sat, 24 Dec 2005 01:14:49 -0000 "parthasinha1" <parthasinha1Misinformation in the Indian PressThe following is an excerpt from Op-Ed page of Indian Express on 24 Dec 2005, by Victor

Banerjee. .............. ...................................................

for Good - Make a difference this year.

[Guest guest]

Dear Vinayak and others,

 

He reminds me of Narasingha Sil who has been a very ill-informed yet

very vehement critic of Sri Ramakrishna-Vivekananda. About Sri

Ramakrishna, he took a very unkind view about his attitude towards sex

and his renunciation of sex - which he thought was not true, while

about Swamiji, he went on to say that he had an affair with Sister

Nivedita - all this out of his sheer imagination without a trace of

reference as proof ! The sadder part is the importance given to his

papers in western Indology circles.

 

As for Swamijis Vedanta conquest, it was meant not just for Bengal or

India, but the entire world! He envisioned Vedanta as the future

Universal Religion. Master Mahashaya (M.) has mentioned that Adi

Shankara during his time had a desire to spread Vedanta outside

Bharatvarsha, and it was the same Shankara who was born as Swamiji and

spread it around the world (Both Shankara and Swamiji are believed to

be manifestations of Siva).

 

With prayers,

Nikhil.

 

Ramakrishna , Vinayak Lohani

<vinayaklohani> wrote:

>

>

> To suit the narrow theme of his article, Victor Banrejee is trying

to limit Swamiji to Bengal, saying that sitting in Kanyakumari he

wanted to bring about a Vedantic future to his people in Bengal. This

does not deserve any comments. It is common knowledge that Swamiji

wanted the whole of Bharatvarsha to be rejuvenated in the Vedantic

spirit, something he inaugurated in his " Lectures from Colombo to Almora " .

>