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Spirit News Blog - India
By Dr. Vidagdha Bennett
Most tourists arrive in Kolkata clutching the latest guidebook to India as if it were a lifeline tossed in a stormy and troubled sea. The 2007 edition from Lonely Planet, to take one popular example, is reassuringly crammed with well-researched facts on all the practical aspects of travelling in the sub-continent. The section on Kolkata prescribes exactly what to do, where to stay according to your budget, places to eat – and how to exit the city rapidly once you have exhausted the slender range of options that are listed. In practice, I found that this tome is, without doubt, a compendium of vital information should you happen to be a ‘casual’ traveller, someone who is just passing through the city on the way to, say, Darjeeling or Varanasi, someone who wants to skim the surface and cross Kolkata off the list of 100 places you hoped to see before you die.
But I was not. Kolkata has been such a rich and vibrant presence in my imagination for more than thirty years that my first trip to this cradle of spirituality, literature, music and art had become more a pilgrimage than an excursion. For me, Kolkata was not on the way to anywhere; it was a destination in itself. Having sacrificed valuable space in my suitcase for the whopping 1,236-page, one kilo Lonely Planet doorstopper, I consulted it religiously in the first instance to find somewhere decent and economical to stay. From its excellent maps, I memorised the basic layout of the streets. Then, a few days later, I sold it to a second-hand bookstore and launched into life beyond its carefully regimented scope.
After a month of exploring the city on my own, my experiences have led me to believe that Kolkata is one of those great destinations in the world that warrant a vastly different approach to tourism. To me, the worst aspects of our Western attitude to travel are summed up by Sir Edmund Hillary’s statement after he became the first person to summit Mount Everest: “We knocked the bastard off,” he declared when he arrived back at base camp with Tenzing after their victorious ascent of the world’s highest peak on May 29th, 1953.
Article by Dr. Vidagdha Bennett
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
As January 23rd dawned in Kolkata, I did not have to think twice about my destination for the day. It had to be Netaji Bhawan, the ancestral home of the great Bengali freedom-fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. January 23rd happened to be his 111th birth anniversary and the whole of Kolkata was flooded with pictures of this iconic figure.
Every year, no matter where he was in the world, my spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, used to celebrate Netaji’s birthday. “For a Bengali,” Sri Chinmoy said, “these things are in our blood.” Sri Chinmoy looked upon Netaji not only as the foremost national leader of his day but as someone who was imbued with great spiritual depth. He was “the beloved son of Heaven and earth,” Sri Chinmoy wrote. And, in the dedication to his landmark book on Netaji, published in 1997, Sri Chinmoy said:
Netaji, beauty of the Bengali heart you were. Netaji, responsibility of the Indian life you were. Netaji, capacity of the sub-continent-unity you were.
I wanted to experience the depth of this Bengali reverence for myself.
Unsure of my bearings, I took a taxi to 38/2 Elgin Road, South Kolkata. We pulled up just before Netaji Bhawan to find the street partially blocked and the house ringed by armed security guards in white uniforms. In fact, the whole scene was eerily similar to that fateful night of January 16th/17th, 1941, when Netaji made his Great Escape from the house – under the very eyes of sixty-two members of the British C.I.D. (Criminal Intelligence Department) who were supposed to be detaining him under house arrest.
Arjuna:
Tell me of the man who lives in wisdom,
Ever aware of the Self, O Krishna;
How does he talk, how sit, how move about?
Sri Krishna:
He lives in wisdom
Who sees himself in all and all in him,
Whose love for the Lord of Love has consumed
Every selfish desire and sense-craving
Tormenting the heart. Not agitated
By grief nor hankering after pleasure,
He lives free from lust and fear and anger
Fettered no more by selfish attachments,
He is not elated by good fortune
Nor depressed by bad. Such is the seer.
By: Kate Carvalho
Akbar the Great
Akbar the Great Moghul emperor ruled Northern India from 1556 to 1605. He was a great leader, warrior, hunter, a lover of nature and the arts, expert sportsman and philosopher. Akbar was a multifaceted man - a master of all arts, yet one of his most revered qualities and greatest legacies was his great love for and practice of religious tolerance. Viewed in the context of the era in which Akbar lived this is all the more astonishing and impressive. In a time where wars constantly waged in the name of religion, prejudice was rife in many parts of the world and would remain so for hundreds of years, Akbar practiced an unprecedented kindness, compassion and reverence for many religious other than his own Muslim faith.
Akbar ruled Hindus, Muslims, Zoroastrians, and Jains, members of which were all treated equally under his philosophy of sulahkul or "universal tolerance. With Akbar as their ruler, for the first time in their history India had a Muslim leader who not only tolerated the many other religions, but actively sought out their guidance and wisdom.
In an essay written in 1918 and entitled The Renaissance in India, Sri Aurobindo presents us with a masterly view of India's culture through the ages -- her essential spirit and her characteristic soul, her unique genius and powers which gave her her remarkably long periods of greatness and an unusually prolific creativity -- that which allowed her to survive for so long when other ancient civilisations faded away. He explains the basis of her strength -- that which enabled her to resist so many attempts at crushing her culture.
"Spirituality is the master key of the indian mind. the sense of infinity is native to it
- From video
young boy buddha from nepal
Quite an interesting story, a little outdated now but still worth mentioning.
A young boy by the name of Ram Bomjan decided to meditate under a tree continuously for several months. His followers claimed that during this time he didn't take any food or water. When his activities were observed by a Nepalese government team who gained permission to observe the boy continually for 48 hours. They found that to their amazement, he did remain rigid and focused in meditation.
Back in March he disappeared, perhaps because of all the interest he was receiving. Many locals believe he has gone to meditate in peace away from the glare of the media spotlight.
Bodhgaya where the Lord Buddha attained enlightenment.
Gaya is located at a distance of 105 km from Patna in the state of Bihar. Buddha Gaya is located 7 miles south of Gaya and is one of the well visited Buddhist pilgrimage centers of the Indian subcontinent.
A very interesting article in business week. Modern business leaders are increasingly looking to the wisdom of India for practical solutions to creating a successful business. There is a growing realisation that a successful business does not have to compromise its principles. In fact an "ethical" business which seeks to promote the well being of its workers and consumers can actually be a very successful business model.
" THE ANCIENT SPIRITUAL wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita seems at first like an odd choice for guiding today's numbers-driven managers. Also known as Song of the Divine One, the work relates a conversation between the supreme deity Krishna and Arjuna, a warrior prince struggling with a moral crisis before a crucial battle. One key message is that enlightened leaders should master any impulses or emotions that cloud sound judgment. Good leaders are selfless, take initiative, and focus on their duty rather than obsessing over outcomes or financial gain. "The key point," says Ram Charan, a coach to CEOs such as General Electric Co.'s (GE) Jeffrey R. Immelt, "is to put purpose before self. This is absolutely applicable to corporate leadership today."
Read more Karma Capitalism at Businessweek.com
My Country Awake
Where the mind is without fear and the head held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by Thee into ever-widening thought and action; Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.
- Tagore Poems at Poetseers
- Listen To Martin Sheen Recite "My Country Awake" by Tagore at Wired For Books
Stories of the Moghul Emperors
At Write Spirit there are many stories of the great Moghul Emperors. Including Babar, Humayun and Akbar.
These traditional Indian stories both entertain and inform. These delightful stories of the Moghul Emperors have been retold here by Sri Chinmoy and .
You can also listen to online dramatisations at Inspiration Sounds; including an episode on stories about the Mogul Emperor Humayun
Picture by Unmesh, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries