The Vedanta Kesari A Journey of 100 years (1914-2014)
History and Reminiscences of 100 years of Vedanta Kesari
Edited and Compiled by Swami Atmashraddhananda
Sri Ramakrishna Math Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004
Publisher’s Note The Vedanta Kesari, a cultural and spiritual monthly of Ramakrishna Order since 1914, is one of India’s oldest religious publications, with an uninterrupted circulation of over 100 years. To mark its centenary, The Vedanta Kesari brought out a Centenary Number in 2014. The first half of the Centenary Number consisted of history and reminiscences and allied subjects. This volume is an important documentation of the historical facts and figures of this 100 year old journal. The same is now presented in the form of this volume, made available to the interested readers in a downloadable pdf format. The second part of the book, and the theme of the Centenary Issue, Spirituality Today, has been published as a separate book which can be had from Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. We may also mention here that the entire 19 years of archives of Brahamavadin, the precursor of The Vedanta Kesari, and the 102 years of Vedanta Kesari archives are available in a digitised form and can be procured from the sales counters of the Mylapore Math and other centres of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.
CONTENTS 1.
Benedictions Swami Atmasthananda
2.
Swami Smaranananda
Vice-President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
3.
Swami Vagishananda
Vice-President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
4.
Swami Prabhananda
Vice President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
5.
Swami Suhitananda
General Secretary, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
1
President, Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
3
5
7
9
vvv
1.
‘Let the Lion of Vedanta Roar’
11
2.
The Lion of Vedanta—Its Eternal Roar
13
Swami Atmashraddhananda
v
3.
‘Let this Paper be Your Ishtadevata’
Swami Vivekananda
4.
The Brahmavadin: Chronicler of Early Ramakrishna Movement
25
47
Somenath Mukherjee
5.
The Vedanta Kesari—An Overview
Compiled from various sources
6.
Eight Decades (1914-1997) of the Vedanta Kesari: A Look Back 83
B.N. Sikdar
7.
Days at the Vedanta Kesari: Recollections of Past Editors
v
v
8.
‘Do A Little Work for the Brahmavadin’ 111 The Vedanta Kesari Memories
118
Swami Tyagananda v
110
Swami Ashokananda
69
At The Vedanta Kesari (1998-2000)
122
Swami Brahmeshananda v
Days of Innovation and Enrichment
126
Swami Baneshananda
A Modern Approach to an Ancient Religion Prema Nandakumar vvv
133
Ramakrishna Math P.O. Belur Math, Dist. Howrah West Bengal : 711 202 India Sri Ramakrishna Sharanam
Benediction
July 9, 2014
I am extremely happy to know that Ramakrishna Math, Chennai is going to publish The Vedanta Kesari Centenary Issue in December 2014 on the grand occasion of the completion of its 100 years of service to the cause of spreading the message of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sarada Devi, Swami Vivekananda and Vedanta. Today’s competitive and materialistic society, which is characterized by struggle, stress, conflict and fatigue, is in a crying need of spirituality. And as a result of this we can see a surge of spirituality all over the world especially in the West. Today Spirituality has become the greatest need of humankind as people are not able to find the meaning of life. Therefore spreading of spiritual ideas which can give solace to mankind is an urgent necessity. Magazines like The Vedanta Kesari are a great help in fulfilling this need. 1
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It is a matter of pride that The Vedanta Kesari is now one of the oldest religious magazines in India which is continuing its hundred years without any break. My earnest prayer to Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda to shower their choicest blessings on all of you and hope that this issue will disseminate the universal and eternal message of the Holy Trio. I pray for its grand success.
(Swami Atmasthananda) President Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
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Ramakrishna Math P.O. Belur Math, Dist. Howrah West Bengal : 711 202 India
Benediction
July 5, 2014
Dear Gautamanandaji I am glad to learn from your letter of 1 July 2014 that the Vedanta Kesari has completed 100 years of its useful service, bringing the message of Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Ma Sarada Devi and Swamiji, along with the philosophy of Vedanta, to the people. The Vedanta Kesari started its journey at a time when there were various problems in running a monthly religious journal. Now, it is creditable that the Vedanta Kesari could complete its 100 years. May it continue its service successfully is my prayer!
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With love and best wishes, Yours affectionately,
(Swami Smaranananda) Vice-President Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
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Ramakrishna Math P.O. Belur Math, Dist. Howrah West Bengal : 711 202 India
Benediction
14.7. 2014
It is a great pleasure and pride that The Vedanta Kesari has completed of its hundred years of publication.
We can recall here that by the inspiration and advice of Swamiji a monthly journal, ‘Brahmavadin’ took birth in the year 1895 by the endeavour of some young disciples of Madras and in course of time that journal was transformed to The Vedanta Kesari since 1914.
On this occasion of hundred years its publication, a centenary volume will be published enriched by the articles and valued writings of many scholars and monastic stalwarts.
The journal which germinated with the goodwill, inspiration and advice of Swamiji, founder of the era, is now gradually expanding its branches. Our firm faith that The Vedanta Kesari one day by the blessings of Swamiji will continue to satisfy the thirst of the spiritual
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aspirants by propagating the spiritual ideals through its circulation. I pray to Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Maa and Swamiji that The Vedanta Kesari will continue and serve people for many years to come.
(Swami Vagishananda) Vice-President Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
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Ramakrishna Math P.O. Belur Math, Dist. Howrah West Bengal : 711 202 India
Benediction
July 28, 2014
I am glad to learn that Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai is going to publish The Vedanta Kesari Centenary Issue in December 2014 and in this issue the articles on the subject of ‘Spirituality Today’ from the pen of renowned thinkers will be published.
Under the inspiration of Swami Vivekananda, a monthly journal bearing the title Brahmavadin was started on 14 September 1895 by a group of young men in Madras including Alasinga Perumal. It continued to be brought out regularly for 14 years, until Alasinga passed away in 1909. From 1909-1914, the publication of Brahmavadin became quite irregular. The last issue was brought out in March-April 1914. Soon after, the Brahmavadin’s inheritance was continued by a new journal, Vedanta Kesari, started by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, and has been in circulation ever since. Now the journal is going to celebrate its centenary. I pray to Sri Sri Guru Maharaj, Annai Sri Sarada
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Devi and Swamiji Maharaj to shower Their blessings on all connected with this noble endeavour.
(Swami Prabhananda) Vice President Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
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Ramakrishna Math P.O. Belur Math, Dist. Howrah West Bengal : 711 202 India
Benediction
26 September 2014
This is a momentous occasion when the Vedanta Kesari has completed 100 fruitful years in spreading the eternal teachings of Vedanta and the ideology of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.
In olden days it was believed in India that the highest truths of Vedanta were meant only for the elite group of the society, and that it would be harmful for the masses to even hear of them. But Swami Vivekananda said that our country suffered degradation because the Vedantic thoughts were kept away from the masses. So he took upon himself the task of spreading the Vedantic teachings as his one single mission. To achieve this end he devised many plans; one of which was to start journals in English and other vernaculars. Brahmavadin, the precursor of the Vedanta Kesari, was started in 1895 under his direct guidance by Sri Alasinga Perumal and his other Madras disciples.
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When Brahmavadin ceased publication in 1914, the Vedanta Kesari took its place immediately and has been a significant instrument in spreading the noble and elevating thoughts of Vedanta for the last one hundred years.
Swami Vivekananda was fond of narrating the Vedantic tale of sheep-lion which has now become well known. The lion which thought itself to be a sheep needed the association and wise counsel of another lion to cast off its assumed sheep-hood and assert its true lion- hood. The Vedanta Kesari too in the last one hundred years has undoubtedly awakened true manliness in the hearts of many of its readers and has put them in the path of acquiring godliness. I wish and pray that the Vedanta Kesari may continue to flourish for centuries to come and carry the message of Vedanta and of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda to the doorstep of millions of people.
(Swami Suhitananda) General Secretary Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission
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‘Let the Lion of Vedanta Roar’ VmdV² JO©pÝV emóm{U Oå~yH$m {d{nZo `Wm Z JO©pÝV gQ>mjonmV² `mdV² doX>mÝV Ho$gar & All the other scriptures keep howling like jackals in the forest, until the Lion of Vedanta, shaking his mane, comes to the scene. —A Traditional Saying Make out of dry philosophy and intricate mythology and queer startling psychology, a religion which shall be easy, simple, popular, and at the same time meet the requirements of the highest minds—is a task only those can understand who have attempted it. The dry, abstract Advaita must become living-poetic—in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi-ism must come the most scientific and practical psychology—and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it. That is my life’s work. Bring in the light; the darkness will vanish of itself. Let the lion of Vedanta roar; the foxes will fly to their holes. Throw the ideas broadcast, and let the result take care of itself.
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In whatever way man may progress on the path of spirituality, everyone is unconsciously awakening Brahman within him. But the means may be different in different cases. Those who have faith in the Personal God have to undergo spiritual practices holding on to that idea. If there is sincerity, through that will come the awakening of the lion of Brahman within. Arise, awake; wake up yourselves, and awaken others. Achieve the consummation of human life before you pass off—’Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.’
—Swami Vivekananda (CW, 5.104-5, 4.351, 7.192, 6.512)
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The Lion of Vedanta —Its Eternal Roar SWAMI ATMASHRADDHANANDA
An Epitome of Strength and Courage ‘You may meditate on whatever you like,’ said Swami Vivekananda to Miss Ansell in America, ‘but I shall meditate on the heart of a lion. That gives strength.’1 That is what the lion stands for—strength, courage, bravery and independence. This is the reason ‘lion’ has been considered an epitome of these qualities in the Indian tradition. No wonder, Vedanta has been compared with a lion and its message of a lion’s qualities. This is what The Vedanta Kesari, the Lion of Vedanta, aims to propagate and broadcast— the message of strength and manliness, based on the timeless truths of Vedanta or Upanishad. Swami Vivekananda was very much fond of the imagery of a lion. He compared lion to Self-knowledge or the Divinity within. On many occasions, he told the following story of a lion cub
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being raised among sheep and its change when it meets the ‘real lion’: There is a story about a lioness, who was big with young, going about in search of prey; and seeing a flock of sheep, she jumped upon them. She died in the effort; and a little baby lion was born, motherless. It was taken care of by the sheep and the sheep brought it up, and it grew up with them, ate grass, and bleated like the sheep. And although in time it became a big, full-grown lion, it thought it was a sheep. One day another lion came in search of prey and was astonished to find that in the midst of this flock of sheep was a lion, fleeing like the sheep at the approach of danger. He tried to get near the sheeplion, to tell it that it was not a sheep but a lion; but the poor animal fled at his approach. However, he watched his opportunity and one day found the sheep-lion sleeping. He approached it and said, ‘You are a lion’. ‘I am a sheep’, cried the other lion and could not believe the contrary but bleated. The lion dragged him towards a lake and said, ‘Look here, here is my reflection and yours.’ Then came the comparison. It looked at the lion and then at its own reflection, and in a moment came the idea that it was a lion. The lion roared, the bleating was gone.
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You are lions, you are souls, pure, infinite, and perfect. The might of the universe is within you. ‘Why weepest thou, my friend? There is neither birth nor death for thee. Why weepest thou? There is no disease nor misery for thee, but thou art like the infinite sky; clouds of various colours come over it, play for a moment, then vanish. But the sky is ever the same eternal blue.’ Why do we see wickedness? There was a stump of a tree, and in the dark, a thief came that way and said, ‘That is a policeman’. A young man waiting for his beloved saw it and thought that it was his sweetheart. A child who had been told ghost stories took it for a ghost and began to shriek. But all the time it was the stump of a tree. We see the world as we are. Suppose there is a baby in a room with a bag of gold on the table and a thief comes and steals the gold. Would the baby know it was stolen? That which we have inside, we see outside. The baby has no thief inside and sees no thief outside. So with all knowledge. Do not talk of the wickedness of the world and all its sins. Weep that you are bound to see wickedness yet. Weep that you are bound to see sin everywhere, and if you want to help the world, do not condemn it. Do not weaken it more. For what is sin and what
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is misery, and what are all these, but the results of weakness? The world is made weaker and weaker every day by such teachings. Men are taught from childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them that they are all glorious children of immortality, even those who are the weakest in manifestation. Let positive, strong, helpful thought enter into their brains from very childhood.2
This is the Eternal Roar of the lion of Vedanta— be strong and assert your divinity, fill yourself with the positive thoughts of your own divine nature. The Lion Imagery Swami Vivekananda admired lion and leonine qualities. Those who lived with Swamiji heard him many times glorifying the need to be as strong as a lion. He likened Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, with lion. He valued the lion-like qualities of courage and strength needed to realize the Brahman and manifest the divinity in life. He wished everyone to be as strong as a lion and face life. Sister Nivedita said, Swami Vivekananda said: The whole of life is only a swan song! Never forget those lines:
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The lion, when stricken to the heart, gives out his mightiest roar. When smitten on the head, the cobra lifts its hood. And the majesty of the soul comes forth, only when a man is wounded to his depths.3
Swamiji himself said, Seek the Highest, always the Highest, for in the Highest is eternal bliss. If I am to hunt, I will hunt the lion. If I am to rob, I will rob the treasury of the king. Seek the Highest.4 Can anything be done unless everybody exerts himself to his utmost? ‘It is the man of action, the lion-heart, that the Goddess of Wealth resorts to.’ No need of looking behind. FORWARD! We want infinite energy, infinite zeal, infinite courage, and infinite patience, then only will great things be achieved. . .5 If there is sincerity, through that will come the awakening of the lion of Brahman within. The knowledge of Brahman is the one goal of all beings but the various ideas are the various paths to it. Although the real nature of the Jiva is Brahman, still as he has identification with the qualifying adjunct of the mind, he suffers from all sorts of doubts and difficulties, pleasure and pain. But everyone from Brahma down to a blade of grass is advancing
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towards the realisation of his real nature. And none can escape the round of births and deaths until he realises his identity with Brahman. Getting the human birth, when the desire for freedom becomes very strong, and along with it comes the grace of a person of realisation, then man’s desire for Selfknowledge becomes intensified. Otherwise the mind of men given to lust and greed never inclines that way. . . . He who is prepared to renounce all, who amid the strong current of the duality of good and evil, happiness and misery, is calm, steady, balanced, and awake to his Ideal, alone endeavours to attain to Self-knowledge. He alone by the might of his own power tears asunder the net of the world. ‘Breaking the barriers of Maya, he emerges like a mighty lion.’6
While a lion is a symbol of strength, not everyone admires a lion in toto. And Swami Vivekananda was well aware of it. He used the term lion in the sense of courage, and not cruelty. He wanted men to be straightforward, develop inner strength and squarely face the life. He did not appreciate cunningness which he considered as weakness. He said, The cruelty of the fox is much more terrible than the cruelty of the lion. The lion strikes a blow and
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is quiet for some time afterwards, but the fox trying persistently to follow his prey never misses an opportunity.7 . . . It is my firm conviction that no great work is accomplished in this world by low cunning. . .8
Dwelling further on the lion-imagery, one may point out that often in one’s soft-moments, one fails to recognise the importance of strength in life. The Upanishad says that the Atman cannot be experienced by the weak. One needs to be strong, and in a spiritual sense, being strong means to be able to give up the temporary and hold on the eternal. Says Swami Vivekananda, Vira, the Sanskrit word for ‘heroic’ is the origin of our word ‘virtue’, because in ancient times the best fighter was regarded as the most virtuous man.9 The ordinary man cannot understand anything that is subtle. Well has it been said that the masses admire the lion that kills a thousand lambs, never for a moment thinking that it is death to the lambs, although a momentary triumph for the lion; because they find pleasure only in manifestations of physical strength. Thus it is with the ordinary run of mankind. They understand and find pleasure in everything that is external.10 It is the strong that understand strength, it is the elephant that understands the lion, not the rat. How
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can we understand Jesus until we are his equals? It is all in the dream to feed five thousand with two loaves, or to feed two with five loaves; neither is real and neither affects the other. Only grandeur appreciates grandeur, only God realises God. The dream is only for the dreamer, it has no other basis. It is not one thing and the dreamer another. The keynote running through the music is—‘I am He, I am He’, all other notes are but variations and do not affect the real theme. We are the living books and books are but the words we have spoken. Everything is the living God, the living Christ; see it as such. Read man, he is the living poem. We are the light that illumines all the Bibles and Christs and Buddhas that ever were. Without that, these would be dead to us, not living. . . . Stand on your own Self.11
From another perspective, in the context of ‘lions’, one is reminded of ‘Lion Clubs’ or the worldwide Lions Clubs International, founded in 1917 by Melvin Jones, a Chicago businessman. Jones asked, ‘What if these men who are successful because of their drive, intelligence and ambition, were to put their talents to work improving their communities?’ And thus was born a secular movement with the idea of promoting and uniting efforts in community service.
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But Swami Vivekananda went further and taught Practical Vedanta, a concept much higher than common idea of charity and generosity. He pointed out the highest ideal of mankind thus: The pleasures of the senses are great. Greater than those is the pleasure of the intellect. When you attend the fine fifty-course dinner in Paris, that is pleasure indeed. But in the observatory, looking at the stars, seeing . . . worlds coming and developing—think of that! It must be greater, for I know you forget all about eating. That pleasure must be greater than what you get from worldly things. You forget all about wives, children, husbands, and everything; you forget all about the sense-plane. That is intellectual pleasure. It is common sense that it must be greater than sense-pleasure. It is always for greater joy that you give up the lesser. This is practical religion—the attainment of freedom, renunciation. Renounce!12
Vedanta Personified Finally, while one speaks of the lion of Vedanta and its eternal roar, one should turn to Swami Vivekananda who was Vedanta Personified. He was, and will continue to be for eons, the true lion of Vedanta. One of Swamiji’s western disciples
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described Swamiji thus: We saw [in Swami Vivekananda] a soul struggling to escape the meshes of Maya, one to whom the body was an intolerable bondage, not only a limitation but a degrading humiliation. ‘Azad, Azad, the Free’, he cried, pacing up and down like a caged lion. Yes, like the lion in the cage who found the bars not of iron but of bamboo. ‘Let us not be caught this time,’ would be his refrain another day. . .13
Swami Vivekananda came with a mission and described it thus. I have a message, and I will give it after my own fashion. I will neither Hinduize my message, nor Christianize it, nor make it any ‘ize’ in the world. I will only my-ize it and that is all. Liberty, Mukti, is all my religion, and everything that tries to curb it, I will avoid by fight or flight. . .14
To his disciple Saratchandra, Swamiji confided, [Adi] Shankara left this Advaita philosophy in the hills and forests, while I have come to bring it out of those places and scatter it broadcast before the workaday world and society. The lion-roar of Advaita must resound in every hearth and home, in meadows and groves, over hills and plains. Come all of you to my assistance and set yourselves to work.15
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On this happy and historic occasion when The Vedanta Kesari completes a hundred years of its service to the cause of spreading Vedanta and Swami Vivekananda’s universal message of man-making, strength and freedom, let us rededicate ourselves to the noble mission the magazine has been carrying on—and will continue to do! Let the Eternal Roar of the Lion of Vedanta reverberate and resound in every heart, everywhere!
References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Life 2.529 CW, 2.87 CW, 9.416 CW, 5.275 CW, 6.384
6. CW, 7.192 7. CW, 1,428 8. CW, 7.125 9. CW, 7.78 10. CW, 2.65
11. CW, 7.89 12. CW, 4.243 13. Life, 2.35 14. Life, 2.17 15. CW, 7. 162
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‘Let this Paper be Your Ishtadevata’ SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Swami Vivekananda was instrumental in starting three magazines during his life time. Besides the Bengali journal, Udbodhan (started in Kolkata in 1899), two English magazines started under his inspiration and instruction were: Brahmavadin (started in 1895) and Prabuddha Bharata (1896). Both the English magazines were launched in Madras (now Chennai). While Prabuddha Bharata is now published from Advaita Ashrama, Mayavati, Uttarakhand, the Brahmavadin, in its reincarnation as The Vedanta Kesari continues its publication from Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. When these three magazines were being started in 1890s, Swami Vivekananda wrote a few letters to some of his brother-disciples and disciples (to Alasinga Perumal and others in Madras) which contain some of his very insightful and inspiring ideas and plans regarding publication of magazines.
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The following compilation from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda in nine volumes gives a glimpse of it. The passages given below, although classified under broad headings, have many overlapping ideas and references. The classification is more to help facilitate reading than actual. ‘What About the Magazine . . .’ Were you [brother disciples] not going to start a paper or something of that sort, what about that? We must mix with all, and alienate none. All the powers of good against all the powers of evil—this is what we want. Do not insist upon everybody’s believing in our Guru. . . . You shall have to edit a magazine, half Bengali and half Hindi—and if possible, another in English . . .1 What about the magazine which I heard was going to be started? Why are you [Swami Brahmananda, a brother-disciple] nervous about conducting it? . . . Come! Do something heroic! Brother, what if you do not attain Mukti, what if you suffer damnation a few times? Is the saying untrue?2 What about a certain magazine that Haramohan was trying to publish? If you can manage to start
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one, it will indeed be nice.3 [To Swami Brahmananda] I am trying to raise money for the magazine. See that the sum of Rs. 1,200 which I gave for the magazine is kept only for that account.4 ‘The Brahmavadin is a Jewel’ Put your energies together to start a magazine. Shyness won’t do any more. . . He who has infinite patience and infinite energy at his back, will alone succeed. You must pay special attention to study.5 With a magazine or journal or organ—you [Alasinga] become the Secretary thereof. You calculate the cost of starting the magazine and the work, how much the least is necessary to start it, and then write to me giving name and address of the Society, and I will send you money myself, and not only that, I will get others in America to subscribe annually to it liberally. So ask them of Calcutta to do the same.6 I learnt from your [Alasinga] letter the bad financial state the Brahmavadin is in. I will try to help you when I go back to London. You must not lower the tone. Keep up the paper. Very soon I will be able to help you in such a manner as to make you
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free of this nonsense teacher business. Do not be afraid. Great things are going to be done, my child. Take heart. The Brahmavadin is a jewel—it must not perish. Of course, such a paper has to be kept up by private help always, and we will do it. Hold on a few months more.7 Since writing to you [Alasinga] a few days ago I have found my way to let you know that I am in a position to do this for the Brahmavadin. I will give you Rs. 100 a month for a year or two, i.e. £60 or £70 a year, i.e. as much as would cover Rs. 100 a month. That will set you free to work for the Brahmavadin and make it a better success. Mr. Mani Iyer and a few friends can help in raising fund that would cover the printing, etc. What is the income from subscription? Can these be employed to pay the contributors and get a fine series of articles? It is not necessary that everybody should understand all that is written in the Brahmavadin, but that they must subscribe from patriotism and good Karma. . .8 I received your [Dr. Nanjunda Rao’s] note this morning. As I am sailing for England tomorrow, I can only write a few hearty lines. I have every sympathy with your proposed magazine for boys, and will do my best to help it on. You ought to make it independent, following the same lines as
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the Brahmavadin, only making the style and matter much more popular. As for example, there is a great chance, much more than you ever dream of, for those wonderful stories scattered all over the Sanskrit literature, to be rewritten and made popular. That should be the one great feature of your journal [a reference to Prabuddha Bharata]. I will write stories, as many as I can, when time permits. Avoid all attempts to make the journal scholarly—the Brahmavadin stands for that—and it will slowly make its way all over the world, I am sure. Use the simplest language possible, and you will succeed. The main feature should be the teaching of principles through stories. Vivekananda Illam where the Ramakrishna Math was started in 1897 in Chennai
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Don’t make it metaphysical at all. As to the business part, keep it wholly in your hands. ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth.’ . . . I have also promised to help starting a magazine in Bengali in Calcutta. Only the first year I used to charge for my lectures. The last two years, my work was entirely free of all charges. As such, I have almost no money to send you or the Calcutta people. But I will get people to help you with funds very soon. Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year. Always hold on to the highest.9 . . . Let this paper be your Ishtadevata, and then you will see how success comes. . . . On receipt of this letter you send me a clear account of all the income and the expenses of the Brahmavadin so that I may judge from it what best can be done.10 Now we have got one Indian magazine in English fixed. We can start some in the vernaculars also. Miss M. Noble of Wimbledon is a great worker. She will also canvass for both the Madras papers. She will write you [Alasinga]. These things will grow slowly but surely. Papers of this kind are supported by a small circle of followers. Now they cannot be expected to do too many things at a time—
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they have to buy the books, find the money for the work in England, subscribers for the paper here, and then subscribe to Indian papers. It is too much. It is more like trading than teaching. Therefore you must wait, and yet I am sure there will be a few subscribers here. Again, there must be work for the people here to do when I am gone, else the whole thing will go to pieces. Therefore there must be a paper here, also in America by and by. The Indian papers are to be supported by the Indians. To make a paper equally acceptable to all nationalities means a staff of writers from all nations; and that means at least a hundred thousand rupees a year.11 You [Alasinga] are very welcome to publish the Jnana-yoga lectures, as well as Dr. (Nanjunda Rao) in his Awakened India—only the simpler ones. They have to be very carefully gone through and all repetitions and contradictions taken out. I am sure I will now have more time to write. Work on with energy.12 . . . I have marked the passage to be quoted; the rest of course is useless for a paper. I do not think it would be good just now to make the paper a monthly one yet, unless you are sure of giving a good bulk. As it is now, the bulk
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and the matter are all very poor. There is yet a vast untrodden field, namely—the writing of the lives and works of Tulasidasa, Kabir, Nanak, and of the saints of Southern India. They should be written in a thorough-going, scholarly style, and not in a slipshod, slovenly way. In fact, the ideal of the paper, apart from the preaching of Vedanta, should be to make it a magazine of Indian research and scholarship, of course, bearing on religion. You must approach the best writers and get carefully-written articles from their pen.13 Miss Muller was the person who offered that money I promised. I have told her about your new proposal. She is thinking about it. In the meanwhile I think it is better to give her some work. She has consented to be the agent for the Brahmavadin and Awakened India. Will you write to her about it? Her address is Airlie Lodge, Ridgeway Gardens, Wimbledon, England.14 Get a little money and buy those things I have just now stated, hire a hut, and go to work. Magazines are secondary, but this is primary. You [Alasinga] must have a hold on the masses. Do not be afraid of a small beginning, great things come afterwards. Be courageous.15
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What about The Brahmavadin? Are you [Mary Hale] pushing it? If four pushful old maids cannot push a journal, I am blowed. You will hear from me now and then. I am not a pin to be lost under a bushel.16 Also the Brahmavadin, if any have arrived. Max Muller wants to know about our plans . . . and again about the magazine. He promises a good deal of help and is ready to write a book on Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.17 I hope you [E. T. Sturdy] will consider well the plan for the big magazine. Some money can be raised in America, and we can keep the magazine all to ourselves at the same time. I intend to write to America on hearing about the plan you and Prof. Max Muller decide upon. ‘A great tree is to be taken refuge in, when it has both fruits and shade. If, however, we do not get the fruit, who prevents our enjoyment of the shade?’ So ought great attempts to be made, is the moral.18 References to Prabuddha Bharata The numbers of Prabuddha Bharata have been received and distributed too to the class. It is very satisfactory. It will have a great sale, no doubt,
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in India. In America I may get also a number of subscribers. I have already arranged for advertising it in America and Goodyear has done it already. But here in England the progress will be slower indeed. The great drawback here is—they all want to start papers of their own; and it is right that it should be so, seeing that, after all, no foreigner will ever write the English language as well as the native Englishman, and the ideas, when put in good Advaita Ashrama Mayavati
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English, will spread farther than in Hindu English. Then again it is much more difficult to write a story in a foreign language than an essay. I am trying my best to get you subscribers here. But you must not depend on any foreign help . . . One point I will remark however. The cover is simply barbarous. It is awful and hideous. If it is possible, change it. Make it symbolical and simple, without human figures at all. The banyan tree does not mean awakening, nor does the hill, nor the saint, nor the European couple. The lotus is a symbol of regeneration. We are awfully behindhand in art especially in that of painting. For instance, make a small scene of spring reawakening in a forest, showing how the leaves and buds are coming again. Slowly go on, there are hundreds of ideas to be put forward. You see the symbol I made for the Raja-yoga, printed by Longman Green and Co. You can get it at Bombay. It consists of my lectures on Raja-yoga in New York.19 I have returned about three weeks from Switzerland but could not write you [Alasinga] further before. I have sent you by last mail a paper of Paul Deussen of Kiel. Sturdy’s plan about the magazine is still hanging fire.20 Struck by the sayings and teachings of Shri
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Ramakrishna published in the two well-established journals, the Brahmavadin and the Prabuddha Bharata, and reading what the Brahmo preacher, Mr. Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, wrote [‘Paramahamsa Sreemat Ramakrishna’ published in Theistic Quarterly Review, October, 1879] about Shri Ramakrishna, he was attracted by the sage’s life.21 [Wrote Sister Nivedita:] At this time the transfer of the Prabuddha Bharata from Madras to the newly established Ashrama at Mayavati was much in all our thoughts. The Swami had always had a special love for this paper, as the beautiful name he had given it indicated. He had always been eager too for the establishment of organs of his own. The value of the journal in the education of modern India was perfectly evident to him, and he felt that his master’s message and mode of thought required to be spread by this means as well as by preaching and by work. Day after day, therefore, he would dream about the future of his papers, as about the work in its various centres. Day after day he would talk of the forthcoming first number under the new editorship of Swami Swarupananda. And one afternoon he brought to us, as we sat together, a paper on which he said he had ‘tried to write a letter, but it would come this way.’22
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To The Awakened India Once more awake! For sleep it was, not death, to bring thee life Anew, and rest to lotus - eyes for visions Daring yet. The world in need awaits, O Truth! No death for thee! Resume thy march, With gentle feet that would not break the Peaceful rest even of the roadside dust That lies so low. Yet strong and steady, Blissful, bold, and free. Awakener, ever Forward! Speak thy stirring words. Thy home is gone, Where loving hearts had brought thee up and Watched with joy thy growth. But Fate is strong— This is the law—all things come back to the source They sprung, their strength to renew.
About Udbodhan The Bengali fortnightly magazine, Udbodhan, had been just started by Swami Trigunatita under the direction of Swamiji for spreading the religious views of Shri Ramakrishna among the general public. After the first number had come out the disciple had come to the Math at Nilambar Babu’s garden one day. Swamiji started the following conversation with him about the Udbodhan.
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Swamiji: (humorously caricaturing the name of the magazine) Have you seen the Udbandhana (the word means ‘suicide by hanging’.) Disciple: Yes, sir; it is a good number. Swamiji: We must mould the ideas, language, and everything of this magazine in a new fashion. Disciple: How? Swamiji: Not only must we give out Sri Ramakrishna’s ideas to all, but we must also introduce a new vigour into the Bengali language. For instance, the frequent use of verbs diminishes the force of a language. We must restrict the use of verbs by the use of adjectives. Begin to write articles in that way, and show them to me before you give them to print in the Udbodhan. Disciple: But, sir, it looks rather odd in our eyes that Sannyasins in ochre robe should go about from door to door as the Swami is doing. Swamiji: Why? The circulation of the magazine is only for the good of the householders. By the spread of new ideas within the country the public at large will be benefited. Do you think this unselfish work is any way inferior to devotional practices? Our object is to do good to humanity. We have no idea of making money from the income of this
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paper. We have renounced everything and have no wives or children to provide for after our death. If the paper be a success, the whole of its income will be spent in the service of humanity. Its surplus money will be profitably spent in the opening of monasteries and homes of service in different places and all sorts of work of public utility. We are not certainly working like householders with the plan of filling our own pockets. Know for certain that all our movements are for the good of others. Disciple: So this magazine will be a fortnightly. We should like it to be a weekly. Swamiji: Yes, but where are the funds? If through the grace of Sri Ramakrishna funds are raised, it can be made into a daily even, in future. A hundred thousand copies may be struck off daily and distributed free in every street and lane of Calcutta. Disciple: This idea of yours is a capital one. Swamiji: I have a mind to make the paper selfsupporting first, and then set you up as its editor. You have not yet got the capacity to make any enterprise stand on its legs. That is reserved only for these all - renouncing Sannyasins to do. They will work themselves to death, but never yield.
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Whereas a little resistance or just a trifle of criticism is bewildering to you. Disciple: Sir, the other day I saw that Swami Trigunatita worshipped the photograph of Sri Ramakrishna in the Press before opening the work and asked for your blessings for the success of the work. Swamiji: Well, Shri Ramakrishna is our centre. Each one of us is a ray of that light-centre. So Trigunatita worshipped Shri Ramakrishna before beginning the work, did he? It was excellently done. But he told me nothing of it. Disciple: Sir, he fears you and yesterday he told me to come to you and ask your opinion of the first issue of the magazine, after which, he said, he would see you. Swamiji: Tell him when you go that I am exceedingly delighted with his work. Give him my loving blessings. And all of you help him as far as you can. You will be doing Shri Ramakrishna’s work by that. Immediately after saying these words Swamiji called Swami Brahmananda to him and directed him to give Swami Trigunatita more money for the Udbodhan if it was needed.
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The same evening, after supper, Swamiji again referred to the topic of Udbodhan in the following words: In the Udbodhan we must give the public only positive ideas. Negative thoughts weaken men. Do you not find that where parents are constantly taxing their sons to read and write, telling them they will never learn anything, and calling them fools and so forth, the latter do actually turn out to be so in many cases? If you speak kind words to boys and encourage them, they are bound to improve in time. What holds good of children, also holds good of children in the region of higher thoughts. If you can give them positive ideas, people will grow up to be men and learn to stand on their own legs. In language and literature, in poetry and the arts, in everything we must point out not the mistakes that people are making in their thoughts and actions, but the way in which they will gradually be able to do these things better. Pointing out mistakes wounds a man’s feelings. We have seen how Shri Ramakrishna would encourage even those whom we considered as worthless and change the very course of their lives thereby! His very method of teaching was a unique phenomenon. Your history, literature, mythology, and all other Shastras are simply frightening people. They
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are only telling them, ‘You will go to hell, you are doomed!’ Therefore has this lethargy crept into the very vitals of India. Hence we must explain to men in simple words the highest ideas of the Vedas and the Vedanta. Through the imparting of moral principles, good behaviour, and education we must make the Chandala come up to the level of the Brahmana. Come, write out all these things in the Udbodhan and awaken everyone, young and old, man and woman. Then only shall I know that your study of the Vedas and Vedanta has been a success. What do you say? Will you be able to do this?’23
It is no doubt a good idea that Trigunatita has of starting a magazine. But I shall consent to it if only you [members of the Alambazar Math] can work jointly.24 If all the money even for the magazine is to be collected by me and all the articles too are from my pen—what will you [Swami Brahmananda] all do? What are our Sahibs then doing? I have finished my part. You do what remains to be done. Nobody is there to collect a single penny, nobody to do any preaching, none has brains enough to take proper
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care of his own affairs, none has the capacity to write one line, and all are saints for nothing! . . . If this be your condition, then for six months give everything into the hands of the boys—magazine, money, preaching work, etc. If they are also not able to do anything, then sell off everything, and returning the proceeds to the donors go about as mendicants.25 Put forth all nerve for the magazine that Sarada is wanting to publish. Ask Shashi to look to it.26 Now is the time for you to apply yourself to start the magazine. Come, here is a task for you [Sarada], conduct that magazine. Thrust it on people and make them subscribe to it, and don’t be afraid. What work do you expect from men of little hearts?—nothing in the world! You must have an iron will if you would cross the ocean. You must be strong enough to pierce mountains. I am coming next winter. We shall set the world on fire—let those who will, join us and be blessed, and those that won’t come, will lag behind for ever and ever; let them do so. You gird up your loins and keep yourself ready. ... Never mind anything! In your lips and hands the Goddess of Learning will make Her seat; the Lord of infinite power will be seated on your chest;
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you will do works that will strike the world with wonder.27 Sarada is talking of bringing out a Bengali magazine. Help it with all your might. It is not a bad idea. You must not throw cold water on anybody’s project. Give up criticism altogether. Help all as long as you find they are doing all right, and in cases where they seem to be going wrong, show them their mistakes gently. It is criticising each other that is at the root of all mischief. That is the chief factor in breaking down organisations.28 I got all the news from your [Swami Brahmananda] letter. . . . My opinion regarding what you have written about Sarada is only that it is difficult to make a magazine in Bengali paying; but if all of you together canvass subscribers from door to door, it may be possible. In this matter do as you all decide. Poor Sarada has already been disappointed once. What harm is there if we lose a thousand rupees by supporting such an unselfish and very hardworking person?29 Sarada writes that the magazine is not going well . . . Let him publish the account of my travels, and thoroughly advertise it beforehand—he will have subscribers rushing in. Do people like
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a magazine if three-fourths of it are filled with pious stuff? Anyway pay special attention to the magazine. Mentally take it as though I were not. Act independently on this basis. ‘We depend on the elder brother for money, learning, everything’—such an attitude is the road to ruin.30 References 1. CW, 6.274 2. CW, 6.314 3. CW, 6.324 4. CW, 8.453 5. CW, 6.305 6. CW, 5.41 7. CW, 5.110 8. CW, 5.111 9. CW, 5.108 10. CW, 5.112
11. CW, 5.123 12. CW, 5.115 13. CW, 5.116 14. CW, 5.118 15. CW, 5.36 16. CW, 8.378 17. CW, 8.380-81 18. CW, 8.3 81 19. CW, 5.109 20. CW, 5.116
21. CW, 4.411 22. CW, 9.369 23. CW, 7.167-171 24. CW, 7.491 25. CW, 8.469 26. CW, 6.355 27. CW, 6.296 28. CW, 6.326 29. CW, 8.454 30. CW, 8.468
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The Brahmavadin: Chronicler of Early Ramakrishna Movement SOMENATH MUKHERJEE
Brahmavadin, the monthly started in 1895 at Madras, was the predecessor of The Vedanta Kesari. While we commemorate the centenary of The Vedanta Kesari, it is quite appropriate to recall Brahmavadin’s pioneering role and contribution to the early days of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission (collectively called as Ramakrishna Movement). In 2010, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai, brought in CD all the available old issues of the Brahmavadin. These digitised format, available at the Math sales counter, provide an opportunity to the discerning readers the hitherto inaccessible treasure trove of ideas, facts and events that Brahmavadin was privileged to publish. The following article aptly chronicles this. Swamiji’s Three Magazines Swami Vivekananda was the founder of three magazines; two were in English—the Brahmavadin
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and the Prabuddha Bharata, and the Bengali one was— Udbodhan. The Brahmavadin one was discontinued in April 1914, and in the very next month, in May 1914 The Vedanta Kesari was launched—continuing with ease the poineering role of Brahmavadin in being a vehicle of spreading the man-making message of Vedanta and Swami Vivekananda. The Brahmavadin was conceived and inspired by Swami Vivekananda. Since inception Alasinga Perumal, his devoted disciple from Madras, became its owner-editor and ran the magazine according to his Guru’s wish. Many other disciples of Swamiji at Madras were equally involved in the cause. A brief look into the history of this magazine will give us ideas about its glorious contribution. Why Magazines? We must know first when and why Swamiji thought of bringing out a magazine. Three reasons are offered by Professor Sankari Prasad Basu (now deceased), the well-known researcher and scholar from Kolkata, in his magnum opus in Bengali, Vivekananda O Samakalin Bharatvarsha. First, the intention might have come up when Vivekananda decided to propagate the life and
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message of Sri Ramakrishna. Secondly, from his American experience he knew that the eulogistic attention he was receiving from the Indian press would fade away in a moment if he failed to toe their line. Therefore, to propagate his views and carry on the Vedanta movement, he had to have a publication of his own—either a magazine or a paper. Thirdly, he knew too that his enormous success in the West brought great impact in India; and instead of allowing that to feed his own image, he decided to utilize the trend to start an organization with a mouthpiece attentive to its cause. Since it was Madras where his early ambitions were focused on, he chose Alasinga Perumal to run the magazine. Besides, since the middle of 1894, according to Marie Louise Burke, Swamiji became inclined to make Vedanta the world religion. This could also have contributed to his interest in starting the magazine. The Starting of Brahmavadin In his letter to Alasinga Perumal on 11 July 1894 Swamiji first expressed his desire for a magazine. But it took almost a year before he was more specific to his trusted disciple on 6 May 1895:
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Now I am bent upon starting the journal. It must not be flippant but steady, calm and high-toned. I will send you money; do not fear work . . . I will get you many subscribers here, I will write articles myself and get articles written from time to time by American writers. You get hold of a band of fine steady writers. Your brother in law is a fine writer. Then I will give you letter to Haridas bhai, Dewan of Junagad, Khetri Raja, Thakur of Limbdi and others who will subscribe and then it will go on. Be perfectly unselfish, be steady and work on. We will do great things, do not fear. Make it a point to have a translation of one of the three Bhasyas in each issue . . . The first volume ought to be very nicely got up. I will write an article for it, and get some other strong articles from fine writers in India on different subjects. One ought to be a translation of the Dvaita Bhasya. On the Cover will be the names of the articles and the writers. On the four margins of the Cover will be the names of the strongest [?] articles and that of the writers. Within the next month I [will] send you the money with the article.1 Leaving out a few other letters of Swamiji assuring Alasinga of his financial support to the magazine, let us see what he wrote on July 30: You have done well. The name2 and the motto [Name: ‘Brahmavadin’; motto: ‘Ekam Sadvipra Bahudha
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Vadanti’] is all right. Do not deliberate on the social reforms. Prior to spiritual impressions social traditions cannot be built up. Who told you that I want social reforms? I do not want that. Spread the name of God, and do not talk a word against the social evils and traditions. The ‘song of the Sannyasin’ is my first contribution for your journal. Don’t feel depressed. Don’t lose faith in your guru. Do not lose faith in God. Oh, Child! as long as the inspiration and faith in the guru and God is within you, nothing will be able to defeat you. Day by day I am experiencing a manifestation of power in me. Oh, my courageous children! go on working.3
On receiving the first number of the Brahmavadin dated 14 September 1895, Swamiji wrote to Alasinga on October 24: Received the two numbers of the Brahmavadin. It is all right, go on. Try to improve the covering a little and make the short editorial remarks a little more light in style and more brilliant. Heavy styles should only be reserved for the leading articles . . . Pay all attention to the paper. Make it a great success. Mr. Sturdy will write from time to time, so will I . . . Put all your energies to make the paper a success now.4 Notwithstanding his unceasing inspiration and guidance, Vivekananda never overlooked the
A Journey of 100 years First volume and page of Brahmavadin, September 1895
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financial imperatives of Brahmavadin; he writes on 18 November 1895: I have to make a few suggestions as to the Brahmavadins. I have already news that it has got a good many subscribers in America. I will get you some in England too . . . The Brahmavadin ought in every number write something on Bhakti or Yoga or Gnana. Secondly the style is too stiff, try to make it a little brighter. . . Hold on to your own ideas with strength and purity and whatever obstructing may be now—the world is bound to listen to you in the long run.
In the same letter Vivekananda tried to teach some practical points too, Try for more advertisements. That is what keeps up a paper. I will write you a long thing on Bhakti but you must remember that I have no time even to die as the Bengalees say, work, work [,] work . . .5
The prospectus appearing in the first issue broadly spelt out the aims and objectives of the magazine: The main object of the journal is to propagate the principles of Vedantic religion of India, and to work towards the improvement of the social and moral conditions of man by steadily holding aloft
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the sublime and universal ideal of Hinduism . . . The New India of to-day is, in many respects, far different from the old India of centuries ago, and all our old institutions have to get themselves readjusted, so as to be in consonance with the altered conditions of modern life. For this purpose, it is highly necessary to see that the Hindu religion is more than ever earnestly engaged in the service of man in this ancient land of ours. . .
As the Contemporaries Viewed It Briefly, this was how the Brahmavadin began its journey. But the magazine could never be a financial success on its own, and the swami had to struggle hard to collect money and patronage for it besides what his Madras disciples could do in this regard. However, fiscal adversities notwithstanding, enlightened readers welcomed and followed the magazine with enthusiasm. The Madras Times, an Anglo Indian paper, wrote on 20 February 1896: It is a scholarly exponent of philosophical Hinduism, and is of considerable literary merit. It has lately met with commendation from high quarters, none other than Professor Max Muller. . . It is at least evident that the Professor’s interest in Hinduism was no passing freak. . . He asks for the particulars
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Nanjunda Rao
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of the lives and teachings of the Paramahamsa Sri Ramakrishna and of Ramaniya [Ramanuja].6
Echoing almost same view, the Madras Mail, another Anglo Indian paper, wrote on 31 December 1896: . . . In the short time of its existence [the Brahmavadin] has done much to clear up a large amount of misconception which prevailed hitherto in regard mainly to Vedantism.7
Even after one year, the same paper was equally appreciative on 15 September 1897: The paper is considered one of the best exponents of the Vedanta Philosophy, and seems to uphold the excellence of the early issues, of which we have already have occasion to speak well.8
The views of the Indian papers obviously revealed the contemporary impact of Brahmavadin. The Hindu of Madras on 16 September 1895 wrote: The Brahmavadin . . . has made its appearance, and the first number is very good. Hindus and those that have any acquaintance with the philosophic literature of the Hindus will find in it much interesting matter.9
Equally appreciating was The Theosophic Thinker of 12 October 1895:
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Hitherto we have been having only most orthodox or most radical journals. A journal, progressive and tolerant in aim, has been a long felt want. . . We have no doubt in saying that the Brahmavadin would fill up the gap.10
The Indian Mirror was all praise on 22 December 1895: A new era of religious thought and aspiration is dawning everywhere, and it is hoped that Brahmavadin in its catholicity and unsectarian spirit will be in accord with the spirit of the age. The ability and originality with which some of the articles are discussed establish its writers on the list of the strongest thinkers. . .The journal is a notable contribution to the religious literature of the day.11
The Indian Social Reformer was no less admiring in what they wrote on 25 October 1896: . . . We have no hesitation in according to the Brahmavadin the high praise of having lifted the revival of religion from the mire of mere reaction against wholesome social changes.12
Literary and Editorial Challenges Alasinga Perumal took every measure to keep the flag of Brahmavadin held high. But he had his limitations as well. Sankarai Prasad Basu writes:
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For in spite of all his admirable qualities, Alasinga was never known for his ability to write lofty philosophical articles etc. More so, we just have seen a letter wherein, on 17 February 1896, Vivekananda wrote to Alasinga, ‘Your brother-in-law has been editing the paper efficiently. He is a ripe scholar and indefatigable worker.’13
This ‘brother-in-law’ of Alasinga Perumal was Professor M. Rangacharya, the de facto editor of the Brahmavadin during its initial phase. It was hardly surprising that Brahmavadin could achieve what it did under the brilliant supervision of Professor Rangacharya. On various parameters he was a man of high distinction in Southern India. Some information14 on this extraordinary man would help us to understand the quality of people Swamiji could impress upon even before he went to the West.
Prof. Rangacharya Prof. Rangacharya studied Physical Science in the college and had passed two out of three examinations that were required in those days for the M. B. & C. M. Degree. Persuaded by the then principal of the Madras Medical College, Dr James Kees, he later gave up his medical studies
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and joined the Department of Education to become Science Lecturer at the Government College of Kumbakonam. Subsequently he obtained his M. A. in Chemistry and became a Professor of Chemistry at the Presidency College of Madras. Alongside, he developed himself as an erudite Sanskrit scholar and writer. Lord Ampthill (Oliver Villiers Russell, 2nd Baron Ampthill, 1869–1935), the Governor of Madras (1900 to 1906) who acted as the Viceroy of India from April to December 1904), considered Prof. Rangacharya as the best person to be appointed as the Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology at the Presidency College in 1901. It was in December 1892 at Trivandrum where Swamiji first met Prof. Rangacharya, and thus begun an enduring relation that withstood the test of time. An Overview of Its Contents The birth of Brahmavadin preceded by twenty months the official beginning of the Ramakrishna Mission; this no doubt gave historical importance to what appeared in the magazine during its short but eventful years. Let us discuss a few of the significant items that used to appear in the Brahmavadin. A regular column entitled ‘Vedanta Missionary Work’
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used to report the work carried out by the monks of the Ramakrishna Mission within India and abroad. Another great aspect was its regular publication of the ‘Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna’, which began from the very first issue. Reports of philanthropic activities of the Order since the early days were regularly published and efforts were made to draw patronage essential for those activities at various places. The role played by Swami Ramakrishnananda in this regard is beyond praise. Lectures, letters, poems of Swamiji were regularly published, so also were those of many other direct disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Articles, reviews and letters of both Indian and Western disciples and admirers of Swamiji found places in regular issues. Erudite people did also contribute important writings in conformity with the ideal and motto of the magazine. Apart from these, activities and celebrations, as well as incidents of importance of the Mission were always reported. Price and Periodicity Initially the cost of a single issue of the magazine was 4 Annas,15 while annual subscriptions were Rs4/= within India, and 7s 6d for overseas
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Swami Ramakrishnananda
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subscribers. Later, from the XII issues in 1907 this became 6 Sh for UK and 2 Dollars for US with no change for the Indian subscribers. Since this time single issues within India and abroad became 6 annas and 6d respectively. As regards its periodicity, the magazine ran as a fortnightly till 28 August 1897. From September 1897 Brahmavadin became bimonthly and was published on the 1st and 15th of every month. It became a monthly since Volume V in November 1899 and remained so till the concluding issue. The ‘Manager’s Notice’ in the first monthly issue announced that: ‘From the commencement of the Fifth Volume it has been arranged to issue the Brahmavadin as a Monthly with almost double the number of pages of the Fortnightly.’ The terms of advertisements were Rs.8, Rs.5 and Rs.3 for full, half and quarter page insertions respectively. Space hardly permits to include here the list of impressive books that could be published utilizing the infrastructure of the magazine. Alasinga Perumal stewarded the magazine till his demise in May 1909 with determination and sacrifice perhaps unmatched in religious history. Afterwards it was managed by his inheritors with presumable involvement of people committed
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to its continuity. The concluding number of the Brahmavadin and the inaugural issue of the Vedanta Kesari coincided in the same month—May 1914. Reports of Growth and Expansion It seems remarkable that without losing attention to almost everything that came upon the Ramakrishna Mission, Brahmavadin was equally attentive to other movements which began to grow by imbibing inspiration from the spirit and message of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. To give instance, we shall see what the magazine wrote in October 1900: We hear from our Vanyambody correspondent that a building for the Vivekananda Society at Dharmapuri is almost complete and that another at Arsampatti Village is rapidly progressing. Lectures are being delivered in the surrounding villages on Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and his mission. At Vanyambody itself the building appears to have been extended so as to accommodate the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna who may go there from time to time. It is a matter for congratulation that all this work is being done by a person who knows neither English nor Bengali, but whose ardent
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devotion to the cause is none the less highly remarkable.
Likewise, we find a list of Vivekananda Societies which were functioning at different parts of Southern India with targets to ‘continue on a larger scale the humanitarian work they have begun already.’ Further news adds that those societies were inspired by ‘the immense influence of . . . Swami Vivekananda’, and the ‘quiet, laborious, and useful work’ of Swami Ramakrishnananda. To sum it up, we may say that since the Brahmavadin was in existence during the greater part of the early phase of the Ramakrishna Movement (1893-1920)16, it became witness to many historical happenings including untimely demises of many of the stalwarts. And none can claim that Brahmavadin did ever fail to do justice to those vital incidents— disregarding whether they brought glory or gloom. Therefore, anyone inclined to look into the early history of the Ramakrishna Order of Monks can never ignore what were published in the magazine around a century back. A Pioneering Work We shall conclude with a wonderful observation
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available in a review entitled ‘Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’ by K Vyasa Rao, which appeared in the issues of July, August-September and December 1910. The reviewer opened up: Not many had known the name of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa before that day when a young man in orange robes from a British Dependency in the East stood before the Parliament of Religions and took captive a vast and cultured assembly of divines, philosophers and orators.
But this was only the prelude; the writer had more to say: Yet, it may truly be said that the Era proper of Sri Ramakrishna commences from the publication of his Gospel. Now the text slowly approaches the final mark in a captivating way: To the critical it was difficult to explain the point of contact between a disciple so militant in his attitude and aggressive in his outlook and a master so supremely good and self-effacing. It was tacitly assumed after a fruitless endeavour at analysis that Ramakrishna like the bidding source of a river must remain a mystery to most while Vivekananda was a broad-day reality. Then came the verdict with supreme finesse:
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. . . To discern the spiritual parentage of Vivekananda in Ramakrishna Paramahamsa would have been by no means easy in the absence of the present publication [The Gospel], as it is to this we owe our insight into Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, whose personality all along has been no more than the abstract Guruship to Vivekananda. It is now that we get the real identity of Sri Ramakrishna, and once this is obtained, we obtain as well the point of contact between the Guru and the chela. Thus we can form some idea as to the minds which stood behind and encircled an extraordinary historical magazine called the Brahmavadin. o
References and Notes 1. Vide original letter at Belur Math 2 Here we find the swami approving the name of the magazine which seemingly was proposed by Alasinga Perumal. But the obituary of Alasinga Perumal in the Hindu states that, ‘. . .on the suggestion of the Swami himself the characteristic name of the Brahmavadin’ was given 3 Vide the Prabuddha Bharata, July 30, 1977, page 287 4 Vide original letter at Belur Math 5 Vide original letter at Belur Math 6 Sankari Prasad Basu, Editor, Swami Vivekananda in Contemporary Indian News (1893-1902), Volume II (RMIC, Calcutta, 2007), p. 405
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7 Ibid, p. 540 8 Ibid, p. 602 9 Contemporary Indian News, Volume I (RMIC, Calcutta, 1997), p. 60 10 Theosophic Thinker, 12 Oct. 1895, Ref.: Sankari Prasad Basu, Vivekananda O Samakalin Bharavarsha, Vol. 5 (Mondal Book House, Kolkata, 2006), p. 14 11 Sankari Prasad Basu and Sunil Bihari Ghosh, Editors, Vivekananda in Indian Newspaper-1893-1902, (Basu Bhattacharyya and Co. Pvt., Ltd., Calcutta, 1969, p. 86 12 Ibid, p. 428 13 Vide original letter at Belur Math 14 Life Sketch of Rao Bahadur M. Rangacharya, M.A., 1861-1916 Vide URL: http://hinduhighschool.net/lifesketches/life_ sketches5.htm > Accessed September 1, 2011 15 Indian Currency contemporary to the time was based on Taka, Anna and Paisa. Each Taka comprised sixteen annas, while each anna was composed of four paisas 16 Vide the Story of Ramakrishna Mission : Swami Vivekananda’s Vision and Fulfilment, (Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, 2006)
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The Vedanta Kesari— An Overview COMPILED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES
Brahmavadin The Vedanta Kesari was started in 1914. Earlier in 1895, under the constant urging of Swami Vivekananda who was then in America, a group of Swamiji’s disciples in Madras which included G. Venkatranga Rao, MC Nanjunda Rao and Alasinga Perumal started 14 September 1895 a monthly journal bearing the title Brahmavadin. This was the first journal, published ‘under the advice and with the encouragement of Swami Vivekananda’. Brahmavadin means ‘The Messenger of Truth’ or ‘The Voice of Highest Truth’. Students of Swami Vivekananda’s life would be well acquainted with how Swamiji’s inspiration guided this pioneering journal. It was when he was in America that Swami Vivekananda first took an active interest in publishing a journal, and the first person that came to his mind to take charge of it was Alasinga
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Perumal, a close associate and disciple of Swamiji in Madras. And like his master, Swami Vivekananda, Alasinga too felt the need for a journal and wrote to Swamiji about it. Within a short time Swamiji gave his approval to Alasinga’s proposal. In the letter of 11 July 1894 he wrote to Alasinga: Start the journal and I will send you articles from time to time. . . I shall try to send you money from time to time to publish paper, etc. . . what about Madras magazine?. . . It was with Swami Vivekananda’s approval that the journal was named the Brahmavadin and took a verse from Rig Veda: Ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti— ‘Truth is one; sages call it by various names’—as its motto.
Brahmavadin made its appearance in Madras on Saturday, 14 September 1895, as a ‘Religious and Philosophical Journal’. It was printed by Thompson and Co. In its prospectus it was stated ‘. . . it is proposed to start a weekly journal. The main object of the journal is to propagate the principles of the Vedanta Religion of India. . . .’ The prospectus was signed by G. Venkataranga Rao, M.A.; M. C. Nanjunda Rao, B.A., M.B. & CM.; and M. C. Alasinga Perumal, B.A.
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Even though the prospectus stated that it was to be a weekly, it was a fortnightly magazine. For the first two years it was brought out in a bigger format; afterwards its size was reduced. The number of pages varied. The first issue contained 14 pages. Although The Brahmavadin was not an official organ of the Ramakrishna Mission, its contribution to the Mission is immense. Swamiji told Alasinga, the founder-editor of the Brahmavadin, ‘Let this journal be your God.’ And Alasinga responded to Swamiji’s call wholeheartedly. Swamiji’s help, support, and inspiration, as well as Alasinga’s back-breaking labours, made the Brahmavadin a success so long as Alasinga was alive. But within a few years of Alasinga’s death, its publication ceased. Financially, the journal was never a success. It was sustained more by its life-giving ideas. A small portion of the history of its tremendous struggles can be found in hints contained in Vivekananda’s letters. Later Alasinga Perumal, with the help of others, started Brahmavadin Publishing Company from Madras, which, besides publishing Brahmavadin, also brought out some of Swami Vivekananda’s lectures in book form.
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In the early years, the news and reports on the Ramakrishna Mission’s philanthropic activities were published mainly in the Brahmavadin. Hence the archives of the journal have great historical value and documentary importance. The Brahmavadin was the first to publish in India many lectures of Swami Vivekananda delivered in the West. The journal rendered a great service towards the furtherance of the ideals of the Ramakrishna Movement. From the very first issue, the Brahmavadin published ‘Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna’ almost regularly, sometimes on the first page. In the first year, 198 sayings in all were published. Besides this, the works of Swami Vivekananda were serially published in ‘The Open Column’, e.g. ‘Bhakti-Yoga’, ‘Karma-Yoga’, ‘The Real and the Apparent Man’, ‘Song of the Sannyasin’. It also included articles by Swami Saradananda, ET Sturdy, Mahendranath Gupta, (i.e. ‘M’) and others. Brahmavadin was regularly brought out for 14 years, until Alasinga’s demise in 1909. From 1909 to 1914, the publication of Brahmavadin became quite irregular. The last issue was brought out in 1914 (March-April). Soon after, the Brahmavadin’s legacy was continued by a new journal, The Vedanta Kesari, started by Sri Ramakrishna Math Chennai, and has been in circulation ever since.
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In December 2012, the digitized archives of Brahmavadin, was released at function at Chennai Math. Consisting of 265 issues, with contributions from 247 authors, running into more than 14000 pages (1895-1914), these are available in a CD with easy-to-use features such as search facilities— indexed author-wise, title-wise, year-wise and by keywords, and other features. The CD can be had from the Chennai Math book sales counter. The Vedanta Kesari 1913-16 Annual Report of Ramakrishna Mission from Belur Math records thus: In May 1914, a high-class religious and philosophical monthly-magazine named the ‘Vedanta Kesari’ was started by the Math with the object of propagating the higher ideals of life in .the light of the Vedanta. It is satisfactory to note that the magazine has kept up to its ideal and is gaining ground.
Here is another report about Vedanta Kesari: It is to be hoped that Dr. Mehta's labour of love will receive the serious attention of English educated India. The following pages were written by him for the Vedanta Kesari of Madras and are now printed in their present from for circulation throughout
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An archival photo of old shrine of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai
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India. The question of vernaculars as media of instruction is of national imporance; neglect of the vernaculars means national suicide. One hears many protagonists of the English language being continued as the medium of instruction pointing to the fact that English-educated Indians are the sole custodians of public and patriotic work. If would be monstrous if it were not so. for the only education given in this Vernaculars as media of Instruction (Introduction to Dr. Mehta's ‘Self-Government Series’)
The Contributors The Vedanta Kesari has a long scholarly tradition. Its contributors include John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon, the Englishman known for pioneering work in Tantra studies), Mahatma Gandhi, Sarojini Naidu, C. Rajagopalachari (the first Governor General of Independent India), T.L. Vaswani (the founder of Vaswani Mission, Pune), K.M. Munshi(the founder of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan), Dr Karan Singh, H.H.Dalai Lama and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. Many learned monks of the Ramakrishna Order also contribute to the magazine. The usual pattern of the contents published in the Vedanta Kesari is—editorial, Simhavalokanam
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(articles from the Archives of the Vedanta Kesari), articles based on the teachings and incidents in the lives of the Sri Ramakrishna, Sri Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda—on Vedanta, Indian culture and philosophy, self-improvement and the ideal of service. There is a section on book review where latest books published in religion, philosophy, culture and self-improvement are reviewed by eminent men in the concerned fields. And also a news section detailing service activities carried A recent photo of old shrine of Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai
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out by world-wide centres of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Since 1978, the Vedanta Kesari has been regularly bringing out an annual number dedicated to a theme. Some of its popular theme-based issues published so far are: Yoga and its Aspects, Values for the Present Age, Globalization, Religion Today, Culture and Civilization, Channeling Youth Power, Nurturing Inter-personal Relationship, Upanishads in Daily Life, Indian Culture—its Timeless Appeal and Ageless Charm, Swami Vivekananda—The Man and His Message, among others. Many of these numbers have later been made into books and published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. Some of the well-known books published from the Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, were originally serialized in the Vedanta Kesari. Among such are included such popular volumes such as Upanishad Series (Sanskrit, with English translation by Swami Sharvananda), Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master (by Swami Saradananda), some sections of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna (by Mahendranath Gupta), Bhakti Schools of Vedanta (by Swami Tapasyananda), and so on.
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Editors From May 1914 to April 1928, there was no name of the editor mentioned. Towards the end of the April 1926 issue, page 478 it was mentioned in the News and Reports: Swami Sharvananda who has been the President of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission in Madras since 1911 and has been editing the Vedanta Kesari from its very start is retiring from work after nineteen years of strenuous labour. He means to lead at present a life of perfect solitude and retirement. Swami Yatiswarananda who has been in charge of the Ramakrishna Ashrama in Bombay for nearly the last two years has come over to take charge of the Math and Mission in Madras. He has spent eight years of his monastic life in South India and has an intimate knowledge of several of its parts. He is the late editor of the Prabuddha Bharata and is well known for his scholarship and literary abilities. He was also intimately connected with the editorial work and the publication of the Vedanta Kesari for a long period. Our Journal will appear under his editorship from May next. All official correspondence must hereafter be addressed to him. We pray to the Lord to crown his work with complete success.
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Swami Sharvananda (1885-1970) —the 2nd President of the Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai, who started The Vedanta Kesari in 1914
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From 1928 May onwards, 14 years after its start in May 1914, the Vedanta Kesari started printing the names of the editors. It would mention both the names (President of Madras Math and the actual editor) as ‘Editors’. September 1993 onwards, nomenclature was changed over to ‘Managing Editor and Editor’. The following is the list of editors of the Vedanta Kesari. Editors of Vedanta Kesari S.No
Period
Editor Br. Jnana chaitanya
1
May 1928 to April 1931
2
May 1931 to April 1939
Swami Tapasyananda
3
May 1939 to April 1941
Swami Vimalananda
4
May 1941 to April 1942
Prof. PN Srinivasachar
5
May 1942 to November 1948
Swami Nityabodhananda
6
December 1948 to September 1951 Swami Kailasananda
7
October 1951 to July 1956
Swami Budhananda
8
August 1956 to April 1962
Swami Swahananda
9
May 1962 to April 1967
Swami Paratparananda
10
May 1967 to July 1971
Swami Kailasananda
(Swami Taijasananda)
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August 1971 to September 1979
Shri R. Ramakrishnan
12
October 1979 to December 1986
Shri CS Ramakrishnan
13
January 1987 to December 1997
Swami Tyagananda
14
January 1998 to December 2000
Swami Brahmeshananda
15
January 2001 to March 2004
Swami Baneshananda
16
Since April 2004
Swami Atmashraddhananda
The digitised archives of the Vedanta Kesari for 96 years were released in October 2010. An updated DVD containing 100 years of the archives will be released soon. ď Ż
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Eight Decades (1914-1997) of the Vedanta Kesari: A Look Back (1998 February, Pp.69-72 and March, Pp.108-112 ) B.N. SIKDAR
Prolegomenon A critical view of individual men or of isolated works in the Vedanta Kesari (hereafter called VK) cannot be done satisfactorily within the compass of space available. The strong law of necessity must determine the scale of treatment of authors or writings contained in a monthly that stepped into its eighty-fourth year of existence in 1997. A rapid look-back through VK’s thousands of pages makes clear to a careful reader certain characteristics. These characteristics have dominated the journal’s policy and purpose, overtly or covertly; they also distinguished VK from kindred publications in the opening decades of the twentieth century (e.g. Satyartha Prakash, Tattwabodhini Patrika, Dhyana Prakash). VK’s roots lie in the Ramakrishna Movement, which led to the establishment of
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ashramas by the apostles of Sri Ramakrishna and by their disciples, and which in due course assumed proportions grand enough to encompass continents. The times were critical for India as well as the world. Weeks after VK’s appearance on the scene, the powder-magazine that was Europe burst into a blaze (World War I). Nearer home, Indian intellectuals, both Hindus and Muslims, reeling under the impact of vigorous Anglo-Saxon culture, had lost their moorings. The British rule was firmly established; the Christian missionaries were free to persuade, force or tempt the poor or the illiterate; the reaction and rivalry of churches had ensued. By 1894-95 Swami Vivekananda could convince the West that beneath the surface overgrown with moss there was much precious gold in the most ancient religion of India. Most of this gold lay buried in Vedantic literature which, if mined, he was sure, could stem the tide of materialism. To scatter the seeds of this literature among the educated was one of his first duties, as he saw it. To do this, Vivekananda inspired the starting of three journals: Brahmavadin and Prabuddha Bharata, both in English, and Udbodhan, in Bengali.
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2 The Brahmavadin (first editor Dr. Nanjunda Rao, a profound scholar in Sanskrit) abounded in scholarship, also technicalities, not within the parameter of the ordinary scholars’ talent. Its presentation too was not much to the taste of readers who liked elegant English and easier treatment of themes. One of its attractions was the writings of Vivekananda which ceased to appear after his serious illness (1900–1902). How and why the Brahmavadin was reborn as Vedanta Kesari is not clear, but the subject has been succinctly and feelingly treated in the January 1995 issue of VK in the editorial ‘Where Shall I Come?’ By the end of the first decade of the present century the Brahmavadin had declined into a nondescript affair, so much so that even the salvage operations probably proved quite herculean. Swami Sharvananda was the president of Sri Ramakrishna Math at Mylapore, Madras when Brahmavadin’s offshoot came out. The principles of the earlier version were left unchanged, even reaffirmed. Thus the two magazines—Brahmavadin and Vedanta Kesari—while intimately connected with each other, are yet definitely different. At the core of the Brahmavadin was Vedanta, so is it with the VK.
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Basically one, the difference lay in diversity and depth. There is positive evidence (See Vol. 12, p. 478, ‘News and Reports’) that Swami Sharvananda was the first editor, manager, compositor, proofreader. He was evidently a tough, vigorous man of conviction and sincerity. VK was published at Mylapore, as it is even now. However Mylapore was not yet a part of the city of Madras. About five kilometres from the centre of the Presidency-town, it was jungled and sparsely inhabited. The town and its suburbs had already been thoroughly infected by the virus from the northwest. In Volume 4 (Sept. 1915) of VK, an anonymous writer has left us some pertinent comments in this regard: ‘... a hoary place of antiquity, Saivite and Vaishnavite temples, the birthplace of saints, the great sage Tiruvalluvar (c AD 1), author of Thirukkural; the grand temple of Kapaleeswara with its magnificent tower . . . . the modern day educated Hindu considers all this as superstitious nonsense and spends his evenings in clubs and light talks . . .’ The writer bewails the degeneracy of the intellectual class and is too nervous to add his name for fear of ridicule, even contempt. The extract is
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internal evidence which indicates the critical juncture at which VK was launched. In Madras the tide turned in favour of India’s ancient wisdom. 3 First Principles The motto chosen for the first issue of VK, as for subsequent ones, was the well-known words of Vivekananda: ‘Let the Lion of Vedanta Roar,’ amplified by another quote from the same source: ‘Let me tell you—strength, strength is what we want. And the first step in getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads and believe that “I am the Atman.” ’ This subcontinent was then verily a babel of tongues, nothing less voluble than roaring could be heard, no murmurs. Murmuring is for feeble men. The speaker was certainly not feeble, as even his addresses in print sound tempestuous. To a modern reader the opening issue of VK will certainly look pitiable, if not contemptible, for its paper, presentation and getup. Printed in double column, it consisted of 15 leaves within lean covers. The headlines are not prominent. Obviously there was not enough paper or letters or both. To publish a journal and keep it running is not as easy a matter as one would think. The manager-editor has to
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take care of the budget and the marketing, procure articles and advertisements. In order to be able to sift the grain from the chaff, he must be a jack of all trades. Swami Sharvananda was just that but also a master in innovative skill. The reading public was superficial and undiscriminating, addicted to horror news, scandalous reports and indecent words. VK could not increase its sale, popularity and income by appealing to those interests of the public which were anything but intellectual. Therefore a number of first issues seem disappointing. The none-too-impressive collection of two formats was introduced in the market by an editorial under the Latin heading, Avant Propos, which said inter alia: ‘Dedicated to the good of the many,’ to preach ‘with the voice of peace and benediction, the revival of the grand Saswata Dharma, and carry its message to the door of every devout son of India’— were the proclaimed principles. The editorial also stressed that the voice would be devoid of hatred or antagonism and ‘free of abusive language towards any individual or sect,’ that it would be geared to do service to all classes. It seems the crier in the wilderness was a product of the college system, his composition is modelled on academic form. We live
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in days of too many declarations and few fulfilments or adherences. It is to the credit of VK that, for more than eight decades, it has abided by these principles conscientiously. 4 Included in the first issue is an essay on ‘Vivekananda, Our Supreme Teacher’ (pp. 6–11) by K. Sundararam Ayer. His pen has bequeathed to posterity a document of inestimable biographical value. He wrote in 1914: ‘. . . on arrival at Trivandrum in December 1892, Vivekananda was directed to my home and received with regards due to a Hindu Sannyasi.’ Ayer had not yet heard of Sri Ramakrishna. Vivekananda told him, ‘India’s immediate needs are not religious but economic. . . Keshab Chandra Sen, Dayananda Saraswati and other modern religious leaders are simply feeble echoes—however disguised—of foreign religious ideas which are far below the lofty level and the rich products of India’s own spiritual genius. . . . Their work is calculated to destroy her mission in the world as the spiritual leader and saviour of the human race, and its unique and marvellous fruits. . . Sri Ramakrishna alone has taught the true ideal of unity of thought, work and aim for Modern India to strive after.’ Vivekananda said that at the Parliament
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of Religions in Chicago he wished to proclaim his guru’s message regarding ‘the harmony of all religions.’ This takes us directly into the future Vivekananda’s frame of mind and to the gist of the speech he was to deliver less than a year later. From the first there was nothing theoretic or abstract about Swamiji. A year later, our journal presented that tireless pilgrim, as he must have looked to K. Sundararam, a staff in hand, on his legs, head shaven, in a ‘loongi and chadar.’ It was a realistic sketch, not an embellished photograph, the tall gaunt figure reminiscent of John Wyclif’s poor priests living in poverty and journeying about western Europe, clad in simple russet. To come back to theology. We smell the aroma of the Upanishadic lore in most of the issues of VK over the ten years following, until greater diversity creeps in slowly at first in 1920–21, faster afterwards in 1927. The fragrance now faint, now exhilarating, wafts in such pieces (to name a few): ‘The Vedantic View of Social Progress’ (by Satyakam); ‘Is the World Real or False?’ (Suddhananda; a translation); ‘A Spiritual Basis of Life in Ancient and Modern Times’
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(Saswata Chaitanya); ‘The Destiny of Man in the East and the West’; ‘The Sannyasin and the Householder’ (Swami Vireswarananda); ‘Sri Ramakrishna and the Higher Religious Synthesis’ (S. K. Yagnanarayana Aiyer, Principal of Salem College); ‘The Self-imposed Struggle’ (Swami Prabhavananda’s lecture at the Hindu Temple at San Francisco, USA); ‘Evolution or Revolution’ (Swami Ramakrishnananda). These essays scattered in VK’s pages, prove one fact: VK’s message preached with so much insistence— occasionally with great energy of utterance though subdued in tone (as in Vireswarananda’s in May 1920)—had begun to permeate the land of Ayers, Sundararams and Raos. Volume 11 opens with Ramakrishnananda’s ‘Work and Worship’ with echoes of Carlyle in it. There is a deeply moving account of the last night of Sri Ramakrishna’s earthly existence under ‘Gleanings.’ The saint kept talking ‘to the very last,’ took ‘a whole half glass of payasam (gruel) and seemed to relish it.’ Then he sat up against five or six pillows supported by Ramakrishnananda. He asked them to fan him. Vivekananda started rubbing his feet. His last words to Vivekananda were ‘Take care of these boys.’
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Like Shakespeare’s sonnets, or the Man in the Iron Mask, or the explanation of Napoleon’s rout at Waterloo, the saint and his dearest disciple have inspired a spirit-elevating literature. Some of it is in VK, for instance, ‘Ramakrishna the Great Master,’ ‘The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna’ (by M.), ‘Echoes of the Teaching of Swami Vivekananda’s Re-orientation of Religions’ (an illuminating analysis). Later on, the profiles tend to become over-coloured. 5 VK’s offer of hitherto unpublished letters, some lively others pensive, written by stalwarts of the Sangha [Ramakrishna] like Vivekananda and Brahmananda, belong to epistolary didacticism and constitute the addition of a peculiar interest to theological literature. Vivekananda’s lovely lyric, ‘To an early Violet,’ was a portion of his letter to Sister Christine. The September 1923 issue, in which it is printed, is Vivekananda from cover to cover. Meanwhile there has been considerable improvement in the quality of contents as well as paper and printing. Besides the Vedantic themes, VK began to deal with themes such as ‘On Buddhism and Tamil Literature,’ ‘Vocational Training,’ ‘India’s Problems,’
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‘Sixth Sense: Its Possibilities,’ ‘The Pancharatra and Vaishnava Daily Life,’ ‘Gospels and Acts,’ ‘Vernacular as the Medium of Instruction in Schools and Colleges of India.’ Though of assorted merit, their worth is not to be measured in the literary or theological qualities but by the fact that in them were implicit the taste and sentiments of the readership. The respectable reading public, which corresponds roughly to the section in society described as middle classes, wanted diversity. There is an essay ‘On the Tenth Guru’ written by Swami Aurobindo in his usual terse, compact manner, reproduced in VK from The Khalsa Patriot. To Tagore’s international reputation, tributes were paid in ‘Spiritual Beauty of Tagore’s,’ ‘The King of the Dark Chamber,’ and ‘Inner Meaning of Tagore’s The Post office.’ In the output during the first decade also figure a Maharajadhiraj Bahadur, K.C.S.I., K.C.I.E. and D. Rajan, an M.R.C.S, L.R.C.D. Most of the English verses printed are bungling performances in trinky measures, ‘The Sannyasi, a Petrarchan sonnet,’ is an exception. By 1917, VK had begun to receive and review important books by eminent authors. These include such diverse books as ‘Copper Plate Inscription,’
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‘The Dream Problem,’ ‘Enquiry after God’ by Kutubdir Sultan. Of historical interest are the reports on the work and growth of the Ramakrishna Math in India and overseas. This decade may be described by the trite phrase of ‘teething times.’ The blemishes of manner and treatment may lead the eclectics of today who are proud of their better taste to grimace. Every age is entitled to pronouncing judgment on the past. De gustibus non est disputandum, ‘there is no disputing about tastes.’ Should we however forget that the primary justification of VK lies not in intellectual stimulation but the moral influence it has been exercising ever since its inception? Since 1920–21 faulty generalizations of casual reading begin to give place to intensive time-consuming studies. The first principles still hold fast. The monk-editors never give in to sectarian or racial prejudice. 6 The Third and Fourth Decades It is the end of an era and also a new beginning in the affairs of the world as well as India. The thirties, forties and fifties of this century passed through, and were affected by two upheavals: World War II and the partition of India. The former broke
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out in 1939 and the whole of continental Europe was overrun by satanic forces. A staggering totality of loss of life, property, women’s honour, took place before and after a bifurcated India got liberty. Through all this inhuman brutality and massacre, the Vedanta Kesari tried its best, both directly and indirectly, to help the world and India to retain and recuperate moral values through its ‘Notes and Comments’ and editorials. To this end, the Vedantic thought was the main propelling force. Volume 16 (1929–30) mentions things that point from which quarter the wind blows. Girls have commenced join-ing physical culture tournaments; Sivananda Vidyalaya opens in a Ceylon [Sri Lanka] village. Government Agent Harrison Jones speaks at the opening ceremony, of ‘the Mission’s good work in Jaffna, Batticaloa and Trincomaly.’ Sharvananda, president of the Madras Math for 15 years, opines in an open meeting that the people of Madras exhibited simplicity of life and purity of Vedic culture (Vol.13; 1926; p.77). In the same volume we read of the independent centres started by Swami Abhedananda in Darjeeling and Calcutta. By 1952, the Ramakrishna Mission has got a foothold in such far-flung areas as Burma, Singapore, Mauritius, and Fiji. In East Pakistan it maintained its
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existence ‘with some difficulty.’ The Second World War compels VK’s management to lump three or four issues owing to scarcity of paper and other printing materials. The quality of its externals could not but deteriorate. The volumes of this period, which saw upheavals, particularly those between c.1940 and c.1950, naturally exhibit belated appearance, hastiness in printing and proofreading, thinner and colourless covers, faulty spacing of paragraphs as well as lines, even partially incorrect quotes. March 1949 issue has no motto, only the emblem. No wonder. The monks of the Ramakrishna Order are busy writing and lecturing on the oneness of all religions, and organizing in a desperate attempt to salvage as much of the morally ruined mankind all over the world, and to reconcile sharp decline in culture with revolutionary zeal, as the reports in VK tell us. Like the other journals issued by the Mission, VK too bears in its pages a fairly comprehensive account of the expansion and development of the Ramakrishna Movement in India and abroad, especially in the Deccan. 7 Volume 43 prints articles whose writers are
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struggling with an obssessive past, e.g. ‘Challenge of the Eternal Religion’ in which the eternal religion stands for Hinduism. One of the longest (pp. 366–77), the essay is full of a pseudo-scholar’s vituperations. A saner product is ‘Where Hinduism and Islam Meet’ by a Muslim writer. The meeting points as enunciated could not be disputed, they are so broad and inclusive: faith in God, faith in angels, faith in scriptures, faith in prophets, faith in resurrection and final judgment. Many an effort is little more than elucidation or summarization of the Gita or of the more well-known Upanishads. The obituary in volume 34, no. 10, after M. K. Gandhi’s assassination adopts rather highfalutin language (‘Nature heaved and sobbed in an anguish that wrenched her heart’— which is no English.) Gems are also there though not so easily available as in the years following. For instance, ‘Sri Ramanuja’s Conception of Mukti’ by P. N. Srinivaschari; Veritas’s demolition of J. K. Koar’s contention on the extent of Keshab Chandra Sen’s influence on Ramakrishna. Through VK, it seems, humanistic tradition has been able to penetrate the culinary area (see ‘Humanitarianism in Food as the Basis of Humanitarianism in Life’ by K. S. Ramaswami Shastri); also the dark prison in Rao
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Sahib C. R. Aiyer’s ‘Humanizing Influences in British Gaol.’ Raman Chandra Bhattacharya’s ‘Growth of Ahimsa as an Idea’ is a study of Ahimsa in the ages before M. K. Gandhi’s enunciation of the concept. It may seem ironical to recall what Republic of China’s Minister of Justice and Finance—Liang Chichad— said when he opened his talk on ‘China’s Debt to Buddhist India’: ‘India is China’s nearest and dearest brother . . .’ One historically valuable (anonymous) piece is ‘The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Movement’ of which there is a profounder treatment in Swami Ranganathananda’s essays in later issues. The swami, as VK tells us, arrived at Madras from Burma via Karachi to emerge in our journal with ‘The Bhagavad Gita—A Universal Gospel’ and ‘Arjuna’s First Lessons in Discipleship.’ These two essays presage the depth, critical acumen and confidence of his copious later works. VK’s glory in this lap of its journey consists in printing some of the first apostles’ letters. Thus they were committed to eternity. 8 Since about the middle of the thirties, publishers are sending books and pamphlets by scholars and political personages for review. They must have,
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by this time, noted the prestige and popularity the journal was gaining. We can but make a flitting glance at some: Dr. Rajendra Prasad’s Mahatma Gandhi and Bihar; Anil Kumar Roy Chowdhury’s The Doctrine of Maya; Devatmananda’s Basis of Indian National Awakening; Jean Herbert’s Le Mythologue Hindousen Message (French). S. K. Maitra’s Nicolia Hartmann’s Ethics, a critical exposition of Annie Besant’s The New civilization. From Charing Cross, London, came the Romance of the Soul, and R. B. Gregg’s The Economics of Khaddar. There are also A. Osborne’s Ramana Maharshi and the Path of Self-knowledge, Dilip Kumar Roy’s Among the Great, introduced by S. Radhakrishnan. (Incidentally, D. L. Roy’s worthy son forgets to include Sri Ramakrishna among the five men he considered great, and later makes the failure up with a beautiful, competent English verse on the Saint, Holy Mother and Vivekananda.) The white Umbrella by D. Mackenizie Brown presents a survey of Indian political thought from Manu to Gandhi (an almost impossible task even for a board of scholars to do adequately). We have also the Septuagint Bible (ed. by C. A. Muses), Essays in Honour of A. R. Wadia (ed. by S. Radhakrishnan and others). While most of the earlier reviews are anonymously
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written or initialled, like S.S.P., K.S., R.V., G.S.S. now we have T. V. Satyamurthi, B. Natarajan, C. T. Krishnamachari. The journal’s phase of pseudoscholarship would soon be over. Besides, VK helps us to measure the Advaita Asrama’s expanding activities in publication of the texts of the apostolic band by means of advertisements. The widening gulf between the two major communities in India is evident in many essays that spit fiery vehemence. The Modern Review, having chosen to criticize VK’s sober stance in this regard, earned a slap in the face in the form of a spiritual reply. The Modern Review was already an influential magazine popular among India’s intellectuals; occasionally VK had to borrow articles from it. Specialism is apparent in the general content, editorials, notes and comments, some of which are exceptionally well-written (e.g. volume 41, pp. 352– 54). The co-editors’ moral courage is evident in the salvo fired at the then all-powerful Prime Minister of free India. Jawaharlal Nehru, who had a rather loose tongue chose to call sadhus ‘the parasite-class living on other peoples’ earning,’ slandering begging as ‘theft’ and indulging in all sorts of glib talks so usual with him. VK displayed its guts by replying politely, firmly, sarcastically: ‘It is the politician’s
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pleasure to imagine that he alone keeps human life possible on earth. . . . The greater the stature Pandit Nehru attains in leadership, the firmer his hold on the mind and hearts of men, the more dangerous becomes his personal follies for the entire nation, even for humanity. . . .’ (p. 311). How many editors in those days, when Nehru’s smile or frown could make or mar princes and when he was the virtual dictator, could throw such observations to his face? Those were the times when politics and culture were getting closer, culture being more and more contaminated in consequence. And therefore the Vice-President, much less ‘wise’ than Nehru, Justices, Governors, Ministers, M.L.A.s, Commissioners of Police, District Magistrates are flocking to the shrines of the semi-literate man of God and his consort. 9 Hearteningly, more and more lay men are coming forward to study and meditate and listen to the Gospel. Apart from monk-devotees like Virajananda, Vimalananda, Ramakrishnananda, Sadashivananda, reputed pundits and political figures begin to fill VK’s pages. We picked these illustrious names among the contributors: C.
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P. Ramaswamy Iyer (a Knight), Proves Jiban Chowdhury, B. G. Kher, J. B. Kripalani, G. Cruiz Sants, Dr. A. C. Sen, Floyd H. Ross (‘On Ecclesiastical Control of Education’). Floyd Ross’s piece as well as the editorial note after C. T. K. Chari’s ‘The Unwalled City of Spirit’ (November 1951) are a pointer to VK’s efforts at diversification. More and more essays on education and village welfare find a place. Our journal is exerting hard towards the all-round development of India along the lines proposed and initiated by Vivekananda. The cultural attache to the American embassy in India, Dr. Horace Isac Pobman, attended the Math and Mission’s sixteenth session at Lucknow (‘A Culture Yatra’, pp. 262–69 by Dr. V. Raghavan, M.A. Ph.D., Head of the Sanskrit Department, University of Madras). Despite the tributes to Holy Mother, prejudice against womanhood lingers in T. R. Venkatarama Sastri’s ‘The Rise and Fall of Hindu Women,’ subtitled ‘Dr. B. R. Ambedkar’s View’s Examined.’ For the first time volume 39 (1952–1953) introduces two features: Index of Book Reviews and Letters to the Editor. The October issue opens with a translation of Ramprasad’s song to Goddess Kali, an attempt sincere but hazardous
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because no rendering even by a genius can reproduce the original flavour of it. Unusually, we have a series of editorials on Varnashram ‘Dharma,’ which is called ‘a superb service scheme.’ Meanwhile VK is receiving transcripts of talks over the All India Radio (Madras; Dec. 1951). A Cambridge man, G. N. Mathram, writes on ‘The Appeal of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Movement to the Modern Mind’; Liovid Elvin, Director of Education, UNESCO, contributes an essay titled ‘The Problem of Free and Compulsory Schooling’ and foresees the practical hindrances to the implementation of a good idea and the consequent decline in quality, a view amply justified by history. 10 Among other highlights are ‘Spiritual Beauty of Tagore’s “The King of the Dark Chamber,”’ Girish Chandra Ghosh’s letter to Ramakrishnananda which is of great historical value. It calls Rakhal Maharaj a ‘Mahapurush’ and says of the saint: ‘. . . the prema of Ramakrishna has been flowing in a hundred streams through the channel of his devotees. . . . I have an aspiration that I should correct a wrong notion of people. Many people think that the ideas of Naren
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are different from those of Sri Ramakrishna. I have a strong desire of exploding this error.’ Dr. F. S. C. Northrop’s ‘The Difficulty in Relating the Diverse Spiritual Value of the Orient and the Occident’ is an address delivered at the unveiling of the bronze portrait of Vivekananda in New York. Northrop was then a Professor of Law and Philosophy. It contains a brilliant touch in ‘This is why no people are understood until their philosophy is known’ (p. 213). The fine occidental mind’s power to go to the root of a problem, its faith in logic, its distrust of emotionalism and other virtues are perceptible in this illuminating address. Another of less intrinsic merit but of greater historical interest is by U Win, Education and acting Foreign Minister of Burma, who spoke at a gathering at Ramakrishna Ashrama in Rangoon on 14 June 1950 (volume 37). We learn from it, among other things, that Manipuri scholars acted as court chaplains to Burmese kings. ‘Charaiveti’ is one of the regular features of the magazine. There is an editorial note appended to ‘The Hollywood Swami (i.e. Prabhavananda) and the Literate’—summarized so succinctly and containing the substance of Vedantic lore: ‘Vedanta is frequently but less correctly referred to as Hinduism. . . Three basic tenets form the core of Vedanta: Man’s
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inner nature is divine; man’s purpose on earth is to manifest this divinity; truth is universal.’ This reminds us of Swamiji’s brilliant observation on the nature of truth: ‘I will compare truth to a corrosive substance of infinite power. It burns its way in wherever it falls—in soft substance at once; hard granite slowly, but it must. What is writ is writ.’ The Contemporary Phase (C 1975 - C 1995) I am quite conscious that by taking leaps across the span of years I am apt to be guilty of evoking confusion in the peruser’s mind. The critic who attempts to survey the Vedanta Kesari’s course during eight decades cannot take a rigid position if he hopes to be read. Earlier in the seventies the journal had to fight social problems which grew keener and more multifarious than before and consequently it had to devise fresh designs to catch the readers’ eye. Perhaps we cannot open this phase better than by a backward glance, by quoting from Vidyatmananda’s heart-rending account of the final moments of the saint’s earthly life: ‘. . .He (Sri Ramakrishna) was lying on the left side with legs drawn up, eyes open, mouth partly open. His disciples, some at least, were under the impression
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that he was in samadhi, not dead. I dispelled their impression. . .’ quoted from Dr. Mahendralal Sarkar’s hand-written diary, Monday, August 16, 1886, (Vol 63, Jan, 1977). The year 1977 saw the introduction of a new feature, ‘The Kesari Looks Back Half a Century,’ which reminds us of the assessment of Vedanta Kesari’s virtues by Romain Rolland, Devamata, Dorothy Kruger and many other eminent personages. However, the less known of such appreciations exhibit a tendency to overwrite. Light is thrown on the higher side of Swamiji’s multifaceted personality in the quote from one of his letters to a European lady: ‘In your country, Madam, a bachelor is feared. And here you see, they are worshipping me, a bachelor.’ Of special value are the Bhakti numbers in a series. It was a brilliant stroke conceived by the Editorial Board and later on there were a Shakti number, a Shanti number, a Vaishnava number, a Youth number, and so on. To the Bhakti and other series such clerics as eminent as Vireswarananda (Self-Surrender), Nityabodhananda (Bhakti in the Bible), and others; such lay scholars as Dr. B. B. Kundu (who attempts a rather vast field, ‘The Vedic Economic Structures’ since 2500 to 800 B.C.), T.
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Rajagopala Aiyer—contributed. The editorials too begin to improve appreciably in style as well as treatmenting (compare Matter Judges Spirit and Sri Ramakrishna on the Canvas of History). Certainly the author of An Open Letter to the People of India is a close observer of the realities of life as was then lived in India. Contentious races, regional favouritism, and barriers put across the path of those individuals who were keen on social welfare—all served to create an atmosphere of distrust, dislike and lethargy. A host of contemporary records also find a prominent corner in this phase of the VK’s course, e.g., the Government of India chose belatedly in 1985 to declare January 12 (Swamiji’s date of birth according to the Julian Calendar) the national Youth Day. Among the travelogues are Lokeswarananda’s accounts of journeys in Bulgaria and Russia sponsored by the Union of Soviet Writers, including the paper the Swami presented at Sophia Peace Conference. C. S. Ramakrishnan’s ‘Kiddies Corner’ is still going strong with breaks feeding Pauranic/ Vedantic legends in a form calculated to be palatable to innocent childhood. Essays on Rabindranath Tagore, on Sri Aurobindo, on the saints of southern India, of Japan, Malay, Siam (New Thailand), St. Francis of
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Assissi, Sufism and other allied topics; on the right sort of education required to stop the rot—show the unprejudiced, careful choice made by the Editors one after another. The VK has further broadened its base in order to compass sea and land, telescoping centuries of moral progress. In less than two decades, our magazine will celebrate one hundred years of its existence. The introduction of computer-printing, varied artistic touches, discriminated use of shades, more rational sectionalisation, alternations, cover designs, have made each volume lovely. Probably, these externals are not entirely unappealing to the contemporary reader, terrylene and terrycot of shining hues being the current craze. What we see of any spectacle depends on where we are standing. Just now we are in a valley—rather a deep one—it is not for us to measure with some correctness the eminences presented by our journal. The first editors were Sri Thakur’s direct disciples, then came disciples’ disciples, one after another fired by the same zeal. Every editor since Sharvananda down to Tyagananda have persistently seen to it that the ideals the paper stood for (as proposed in Avant Propose) are maintained in letter and spirit.
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Sustained by the spirit of the frail ascetic at Dakshineswar and by the ideal of Swami Vivekananda, this organ of the noble Ramakrishna Math and Mission preached through eight decades, directly or indirectly, that socialism cannot be instituted by a few days of fighting or genocide, or mass exemption. The paper’s gradualism has consisted in a moral objection to force in the belief that a process of true and traditional education is the supreme necessity. The Kesari often roared but did never bite. That is the Kesari’s glory. hinc Incem et pecula sacra [From this source, (we draw) light and draughts of sacred learning.] o
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Days at the Vedanta Kesari Recollections of Past Editors
In its centenary of service to the cause of spreading the message of Vedanta and that of the Holy Trio, The Vedanta Kesari has been privileged to have monks and lay devotees who served as editors and guided the publication and production of the magazine. Unfortunately, there is no systematic record of the functioning of the magazine. Of course, it would have been truly valuable to have recorded the early days of The Vedanta Kesari. As per the oral tradition, in its early days The Vedanta Kesari had to pass through difficult times. Be the literary side or production side or the financial side, the magazine had to struggle to keep it going. By the divine grace, the magazine overcame all the hurdles that lay in its way and is now in its 101st year. It speaks volumes of the commitment of the people involved in the making and running of the magazine. In its early days, the magazine was printed using the technology extant then. It had its own challenges and hiccups. But thanks to technological
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advancements, now the making and the printing work is much easier. Use of computers, Internet and email has gone a long way in improving the efficiency of the magazine. Now one can download the monthly as well as a few past issues from the Chennai Math website (www.chennaimath.org). Happily, we have recollections by three senior monks of the Ramakrishna Order who served as editors of The Vedanta Kesari in the last three decades. At our request they have written down the memories which provide us a glimpse of the work involved in making of the magazine. The article by Swami Ashokananda is a compilation. It also, alongside, chronicles the growth of the magazine and its production and subscription aspect. We are grateful to all contributors for sharing their precious memories on this historic occasion.
‘Do A Little Work for the Brahmavadin’ SWAMI ASHOKANANDA
Swami Ashokananda (1890-1969) was the Editor of Prabuddha Bharata and after that Head of the Vedanta Society of Northern California,
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San Francisco, USA, from 1932 to 1969. He was in Madras Math between 1920-1922. Though he was not the Editor of The Vedanta Kesari, his recollections are of much value since they provide a graphic picture of the early days. Before the answer from Mayavati [Advaita Ashrama] came, there was a telegram from Madras asking him [Swami Brahmananda] to send me at once. So one morning when I went to him from my hotel he gave me the good news. The swami in charge of that monastery, Swami Sharvananda, was a disciple of his of whom he was exceedingly fond. Swami Brahmananda said with a smile, ‘He always needs workers—as many as can be supplied.’ He continued half in English and half in Bengali, ‘You are very fortunate to have found such a monastery at the very first. Live there five years, and your training will be over. Do a little work for the Brahmavadin.’ He was referring to the Vedanta Kesari, the monthly magazine that was in a sense the successor to the Brahmavadin . . .1 *** In addition to such odd jobs, Yogesh [premonastic name of Swami Ashokananda] was given the task of counting words for the magazine the
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Vedanta Kesari. He resolved to put his heart and soul into this and do the best counting possible. But soon some further editorial work came his way. It so happened that the editor swami was not given to his work. Each month, he approved the manuscripts with barely a glance at them, and inevitably, as Yogesh counted their words, the innumerable errors they contained would, as it were, shout at him. Although he had determined to simply count words, the deplorable state of the articles was too much to overlook, and almost every month, unknown to everyone, he carefully corrected the manuscripts before they went to the printer. Almost every month. At this time, the swami in charge of the monastery—Swami Sharvananda, a great favourite of Swami Brahmananda’s—was holding a class for the monks on the Brahmasutras. (‘Two big volumes we had to study,’ Swami Ashokananda later recalled, ‘Commentary on commentary, arguments, counterarguments, all kinds of things. It was a wonderful experience. After the class we would feel as if we had come from a deep meditation.’) The class was being serially published in the Vedanta Kesari, and Yogesh would correct it along with everything else. One month, however, he grew impatient and decided that he would let the whole
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An Archival Picture
Swami Virajanandaji Maharaj, the sixth President of the Ramakrishna Order, along with monks and devotees in front of Sri Ramakrishna Centenary Hall, 1939, at Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai. The building now houses Math's Printing Press, located next to the present Vedanta Kesari Office (mark the bricks in the corner indicating the upcoming building)
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thing go as it was. After all, it was not his job or responsibility to correct the manuscripts. So Swami Sharvananda’s class was published as it was. There was consternation in the Math: Swami Sharvananda was horrified, and the editor, much abashed. The next month Yogesh quietly resumed his self-imposed task of copy editor. . .2 *** Recalling those days, Swami Rudrananda once said that Swami Ashokananda was much admired among the younger monks for his bold thought and his daring to question long-established ideas. Swami Rudrananda said modestly that he had been appointed editor of the Math’s Tamil-language magazine only because he knew the language. ‘But I translated in that job,’ he added more modestly still, ‘because I simply translated Swami Ashokananda’s ideas into Tamil.’3 *** During his last years in Madras, Swami Ashokananda and Swami Akhilananda went off on a tour through South India in order to get subscriptions for the Vedanta Kesari and Sri Ramakrishna Vijayam, the latter a Tamil-language magazine published by the Madras Math. In later
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years he told of this tour: We travelled all over to large counties in southern India for two months, going from village to village, staying three or four days in each one. We knew the names of current subscribers and would seek them out. They would become our hosts and would themselves talk to prospective subscribers. In that way, we would get thirty or forty new subscriptions in each village. Wherever we went the people greeted us with great warmth and respect. Everyone we asked subscribed, and people would invite us to dinner, and so on. We could not speak the Tamil language, but it was not necessary, because almost everyone could speak English. Of course they also spoke among themselves in Tamil when we were there. In one village there was a brahmin who invited us to dinner. He showed me a book he was working on—a Tamil encyclopedia. Every day, after his regular work, he would work on the encyclopedia. Little by little he had finished hundreds of pages. That is the way to work!’ ‘Akhilananda,’ Swami said, ‘was all the time talking about Mahatma Gandhi, and I would hurry him along. We covered a large territory, going from one town to another by train. In the towns themselves, we walked. We canvassed for one or two months and got quite a number of new subscribers
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for both the magazines. . .’ ‘Towards the end of our trip,’ he related another time, ‘I discovered that I could understand everything that was said in Tamil. I had not learned the language, but I instinctively understood the sense of what was being said. It was as though the thoughts were communicated to my mind. If one hears a language enough, that happens. ‘I am not good at learning languages. Sanskrit came easily to me and also English. But otherwise I have no aptitude for languages. I can’t learn them and don’t like to study them.’ It was successful tour. The two swamis must have increased the subscriptions to the Vedanta Kesari and to the Tamil magazine by hundreds, if not thousands. And certainly they enjoyed themselves, for they got on well together, loved on another.4 References 1. Swami Brahmananda As We Saw Him, Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, pp. 95-95, 2. Heart Poured Out: A Story of Swami Ashokananda by Sister Gargi (Marie Louise Burke), Kalpa Tree Press, 65 East 96th Street, Suite 12D, New York, NY 10128, United States of America., p.76 3. Ibid., p.78 4. Ibid., Pp.92-94
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The Vedanta Kesari Memories SWAMI TYAGANANDA
Head, Vedanta Society, Boston, USA I was editor of The Vedanta Kesari for 11 years, from January 1987 to December 1997—the first monastic editor after a gap of around 20 years, during which period the Vedanta Kesari was managed by two reliable devotees, R. Ramakrishnan (RR) and C. S. Ramakrishnan (CSR). Until my departure from Chennai, The Vedanta Kesari was considered a ‘Madras Math journal’ and hence Belur Math did not take the responsibility of posting any monk specifically as editor, like they always did for Prabuddha Bharata and Udbodhan. Swami Brahmeshanandaji was the first Vedanta Kesari editor to be specifically sent for this work by the Belur Math. We did not have any office for The Vedanta Kesari and I worked from my living room. Nor was there any computer. All manuscripts were typed on an old-fashioned typewriter by Srinivasan (who is still happily working at the Math). Most of the manuscripts we received were typed (no digital copies, obviously) and a few were handwritten. The
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handwritten ones had to be typed by Srinivasan after I had edited them, and the typed ones also had to be re-typed if the revisions were substantial. Then they were ‘composed’ in the hot-metal press, and galley-proofs arrived. After they were proofread, page-proofs arrived and sometimes we needed 2 (occasionally 3) page-proofs before all the corrections were carried out. The Vedanta Kesari cover was same throughout the year and was printed for all the year’s issues at the same time. The number of subscribers was small and never exceeded 4,000 during those days. A view of the building housing the present Vedanta Kesari Office (a door with two side windows) at Sri Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore, Chennai
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In 1988 we finally got a simple typesetting machine and that was when I saw a computer for the first time in my life. We also got an offset printing machine and the first issue of The Vedanta Kesari printed on it was the March 1988 edition. From that point forward, the layout and printing quality of the journal began to improve. In the beginning it was all a new experience for us. I sat by the typesetter for the formatting of every issue and gave ideas regarding layout, design, etc., which I enjoyed doing. Soon we started having two covers for The Vedanta Kesari, which we used for alternate issues. Since two devotees were editors before me, the business side of the journal (such as procuring advertisements, improving circulation, etc.) was taken care of by Manager Maharaj, and this continued even after I became editor. This freed me considerably from these matters and I could focus exclusively on the content of the journal. V. Raghunandan (who continues to serve The Vedanta Kesari) used to help me whenever possible with some of The Vedanta Kesari work. It was a great advantage to have our own printing press. One instance comes to mind. When the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was
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assassinated late on the night of May 21, 1991, at Sriperumbudur, the news reached us early in the morning the following day. Since it was so terrible an event and so close to where we were, I felt that The Vedanta Kesari must respond to it in some way. It had to be done immediately, so as to have it in the June edition which was being printed. The news would be too old for the July issue. Unfortunately, the printing—except the inner cover—was already completed by then. On 22nd morning, the only available space was the second-cover page, which normally carried an advertisement. I hurriedly wrote a response in less than 30 minutes, it was quickly typeset and printed—and we were thus able to include it in the June issue, which was mailed 3 days later. All of this became possible only because we had our own press at the Math. Over many years a tradition had developed in the journals of the Order: the head of the publication center had the position of the editor, while the one who actually edited the journal was the ‘joint editor’. (I have heard that this arrangement came about when Swami Nihsreyasanandaji was editor of Prabuddha Bharata and Swami Gambhiranandaji was the head of Advaita Ashrama.) It was Swami Smarananandaji, when he became head of Madras
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Math, who made a change: the head of the center became ‘managing editor’ and the real editor became the ‘editor’. This arrangement was put in place in 1993.
At The Vedanta Kesari (1998-2000) SWAMI BRAHMESHANANDA
Ramakrishna Advaita Ashrama, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh It is indeed a joy to recount my memorable three years as the Editor of The Vedanta Kesari. I was asked to be the editor on the basis of the sporadic articles I used to write for The Vedanta Kesari, the Prabuddha Bharata, and other magazines and souvenirs, etc., for a number of years. Yet I was never sure if I could write in English! In fact, I protested to the then General Secretary, Revered Swami Smarananandaji, that I was not qualified to be the Editor. However, when I took over the charge from Swami Tyagananda, I found a venerable person in C.S. Ramakrishnan, endearingly called CSR, as my friend, philosopher and guide, and all my anxiety
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and hesitations were soon dispelled. [CSR was a long-standing devotee of the Math. Often addressed as Professor, for he had taught Chemistry for some years, he was associated with Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, for over 70 years. He passed away in April, 2008, at the age of 93 at Chennai]. At that time, there were no inter-com connections in the Math and we had to convey things personally. The hand-written manuscript of The Vedanta Kesari was typed by Mr. Srinivasan, or Mr. Vasu in the main office of the Math, and its print was proof-read by at least three persons including the editor and CSR. Sri Ramanayya (now, also, Dr. Ramanayya) used to type it and then format it in the Page-Maker in the computer. The print of this PageMaker set was again read and re-read and corrected. The editor and Ramanayya would then make the final correction. Finally 40 plates were taken out and given to the press—positively before a specific date. In Sri Ramanayya, one found a most cooperative and pleasant person. It was indeed a delight not only to work with him alone but with all the persons involved in the work of The Vedanta Kesari. The work culture was remarkably perfect.
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There was no separate office for The Vedanta Kesari then. The Editor had a chair and a table in the main office of the Math. Even after the construction of the new building and shifting of the main office in front of the new temple, the old office used to be shared by various people. At that time, the membership of The Vedanta Kesari was extremely low; probably it had come down to 1500 only! One of the reasons was that the Editor did only the editing job and was not involved in the issue of membership. Distribution was supposed to be the responsibility of the Manager of the Math. The new Editor, however, decided to take interest in the membership issue. He used to be invited for lectures, etc., outside the Math. While accepting it, he would set a condition that he shall go only if a specific number of new members of The Vedanta Kesari were enrolled by the host. Thus by the end of the tenure of three years, the membership went up above 3000. The ‘Patron Scheme’ was also introduced. The contents of The Vedanta Kesari were modified and we did the following: Apart from an editorial, hitherto unpublished reminiscences of the Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, mostly translated from Bengali were introduced, as a regular
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feature. Luckily good translators from Bengali to English were available. Or at times, the Editor did the translation himself. Next, there was one serious article on Vedanta, since the magazine is named The Vedanta Kesari. There would be two or three more articles: one on applied Vedanta, or on religions of the world, another on purely secular subjects like Science, Sociology, Arts, etc. And often there would be travelogue or other descriptive articles. The idea was to have a variety of reading material. Although, even earlier, the matter was published in two columns, a line dividing the two columns was introduced. This was to increase the readability, for it has been shown that this makes the matter better acceptable to the eyes. Some more regular features, apart from the regular ‘Book Reviews’ and ‘News’ items, were introduced. An important introduction was ‘Symbols’. It used to occupy half a page, as a vertical column on 3rd or 4th page. Often the shaded figure of the symbol was printed in the background of the printed message of the symbol. CSR, with his prodigious knowledge generally wrote the message of the symbols. To begin with, the emblem of the Ramakrishna Mission and the standard symbols of
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the world religions were taken up. Indeed, there was no dearth of symbols even afterwards. Then there used to be inclusion of an anecdote—an inspiring short event from real life, a poem, and three fillers consisting of the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda. Although it was not possible to have the ‘Questions & Answers’ in each issue they were introduced as often as possible. During those days only one cover was allowed for all the issues of the year except the December special issue. The Editor provided the idea and the covers were designed and prepared by artist (late) Sri Ravi and his brother Maniyam Selvam. Except for the special December issue, in all other issues, the list of contents was printed on the front cover.
Days of Innovation and Enrichment SWAMI BANESHANANDA
Head, Vedanta Society, Germany I am thankful to the present editor of The Vedanta Kesari (hereafter VK for short) for inviting me to share my experiences as the editor of VK from
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January 2000 to March 2004. I did not spend a long time in that office. But it was certainly a special privilege for me that I joined at a very important moment of change over to improved technology. I lament that my illustrious predecessors could not enjoy this advantage. Earlier, we used to print the magazine outside. Ramakrishna Math, Chennai modernized its printing section with new press, image-setter, etc., in those days. So we shifted the printing-job to Math press. As a result, for me, things and life became much easier in bringing out the monthly issues. When I took over from Swami Brahmeshanandaji I noticed that I had the scope to be involved in all varieties of works concerning the magazine as a whole. In hindsight I feel that it was a fulfilling experience; I utilized the possibility; and I enjoyed my work. In those days the office of the magazine used to be shared with some volunteers who were giving their service to the main Math office. With the help of the Math administration we could use that space and induct new volunteers for the VK work. This considerably reduced the load of the editor. We had an old computer and no printer. One
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of the Math office staffs used to help us typing some articles and getting things printed at either in Sri Ramakrishna Vijayam (our monthly in Tamil from Chennai Math) office or in the main office. We acquired a new computer and a good printer. With the increase in the number of subscribers which was around 4000 when I took over our work in the office increased. So we appointed a whole-time DTP staff (for some years, Sri G. Radhakrishna, and since 2003, Sri D. Sekar). This was a big help. We could do the cover-design and compose the whole magazine in our office. Then we decided to go for four-colour covers (front and back, inside and outside) and print pictures of Sri Ramakrishna temples on the front page. For this purpose, our printing section suggested that we should use good papers—it had financial implications also. After initial hesitation we gave green signal to change the quality of paper for the whole magazine. The whole magazine got an attractive new look! The Swami in charge of the printing section, Swami Satyajnananandaji, suggested that we could opt for positive-printing and centre-pinning. We had the in-house image-setter. So there would be minimal increase in the overall cost. His demand
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went on increasing! Finally we had to give in and it improved the overall production quality of the magazine. Then I had a look at the advertisements. We found that we were spending more on printing an ad-page than the amount we were receiving from advertisers! We decided to increase the tariff. Some feared that we would lose some ads. But actually it worked better. This helped us to stabilize our finances. Simultaneously we explored possibilities on how to increase single-copy sale. The retail vendors requested for more commission from us. So we agreed to 30% discount on more than 10 copies of order. This also turned out to be a good trial. This concept of more commission to the vendors called for an increase in the single-issue price. So we took up the overhauling of the whole pricing system including monthly subscription and life-membership fees. We went for the minimal increase in the prices. My predecessor Swamiji introduced a Patrons’ Scheme. This was going on well together with the donors’ scheme. We also collected some endowment donations for VK from some friends. At this point, some of our monastic brothers casually mentioned
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about the library scheme to me. This scheme gave a big boost to Sri Ramakrishna Vijayam sales and subscription in the past, they said. I planned to try with it in a different way. The readers know about this scheme. This scheme helped us to reach 10,000 subscribers during the 150th Birth Anniversary of Holy Mother in 2003.* On the whole the financial health of VK improved. We decided to give our magazine to all our centres and some libraries of our centres free of cost for ever and also to send magazines to foreign subscribers by airmail! I am glad that VK maintains this rare example of generosity even today! One of the senior monks of Belur Math, Swami Bhajananandaji, mentioned to me that the contents page could be designed in a better way. We tried with some samples and finally decided on the form that VK continues to maintain. I will fail in my duty if I do not mention the name of the late Prof. C S Ramakrishnan (CSR) who, having long experience in the art of running the magazine (he was also an ex-editor of VK) at his command, would many a time help me take a suitable decision. We were also assisted by a nice batch of good volunteers like dear K. Srikanth, Mr. Mukundan, Mr. Sundaram, dear Raghu and others in collecting ads, enrolling new
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subscribers, proof-reading, copy editing and so on. Following my predecessor’s (Swami Brahmeshanandaji’s) practice, I also started visiting the IIT Chennai to conduct spiritual classes for the students. These young people, in their own way, also supported me in my work. I had to read more to conduct the classes for them and thus, without my knowledge, was able to enrich my ideas further. On a light note, let me mention a funny story: Someone said that Kesari in Tamil language means Halwa, a cooked sweet dish made out of Samolina (Suji or broken wheat) together with milk or water, saffron, cardamom, sugar and ghee (clarified butter)! So, we decided to make the English rendering of the name—The Lion of Vedanta-—prominent so that people should not be misled to think that one could eat VK! So we increased the font-size of the English name! It is a humbling experience for me now to recall how many people—the Math administration, our monastic brothers, volunteers, donors, reviewers, advertisers, staff-members and a host of such others—came forward to help the entire enterprise whole-heartedly! A hundred years of continuous publication of
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a monthly magazine is a great mile stone indeed! I congratulate all who had helped us in the past and have been doing so in realizing this tremendous feat in spreading the messages of Sri Ramakrishna and the age-old universal spiritual ideals of India! ď Ż * At present The Vedanta Kesari has over 12000 subscribers, including some 5000-plus public libraries, on its monthly roll. Besides, over 1000 copies are sold in retails by various centres of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission and a few book distribution agencies in India and an average of 600 free downloads of the soft copy of the monthly issues of the VK are made every month from our website: www.chennaimath.org
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A Modern Approach to an Ancient Religion PREMA NANDAKUMAR
Through the Vistas of History The First World War began in 1914. There had been rumblings for quite some time but the immediate provocation was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28th June, 1914. Soon the major powers of the world were locked in war that soon engulfed almost the entire world. Germany was rising as a terror and Britain, Russia and France felt the heat not long after. The United States of America itself entered the War in 1917. There was terrible slaughter, so unnecessary, to feed the ego of a few warlords. A majority of those who were killed were young. Among them were some fine poets like Rupert Brooke, Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon. Of course it was put in the minds of these thousands of youth that it was an honour to die for their country, Dulce et Decorum decorum est pro
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patria mori [lines from Roman lyrical poet Horace’s Odes, meaning, ‘It is sweet and fitting to die for your country’]. But death is death, a final goodbye, and made sadder by the loneliness in an alien land. The soldiers carried their religious works, the Bible, the Gita. Of course, the Gita, for there were seventy-four thousand men in the British Indian army who were ordered to go overseas when Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August, 1914. It is obvious that mankind was getting to be together, if not in life, then certainly in death. The ancient ways of religion were crumbling and that war generation cannot be faulted if it turned away from religion. Here are a few lines from the extremely painful poem of Wilfred Owen (Anthem for Doomed Youth): What passing-bells for these who die as cattle? Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattle Can patter out their hasty orisons. No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells; Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
Owen was only twenty-five when he died
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in battle. Two great thinkers wrapped up in their spiritual vision realised before the start of the First World War that mighty changes were going to come for mankind. The days of cocooned religious isolation would not do anymore. As if they were an advance guard, they assured man that he would have to make use of religion and culture to unify mankind. It would take time and the first results of the kind of churning to give up their isolation would throw up poison. Nevertheless they would give the message. It is well known that on 11th September, 1893, Swami Vivekananda gave a clear call to learn to be together and enjoy the fruits of civilisation and concluded: I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.
On 15th September he spoke again for people not to be frogs in the well but learn global togetherness. Swamiji was not satisfied with lectures. This work of gathering a global knowledge was best possible through regular religious/spiritual dosage
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given to readers through a standard magazine. Also, the need of the hour was to assure the Indians that their tradition was a unique one which they had almost forgotten because of English education. Thus was born Brahmavadin. His disciples, Alasinga Perumal and M.C. Nanjunda Rao among others, brought out the first issue on 14 September, 1895. It was renamed The Vedanta Kesari in 1914, almost defying, as it were, the forces of darkness that were gathering over the West at that time. Two World Wars and so many cataclysms, but the Lion of Vedanta has roared for the unity of mankind, guided by committed editors till today. At Another Silent Battle The question of the forces of Darkness trying to overcome humanity was taken up by another great Indian, the Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo. He had been a leading light of the Bande Mataram Movement, a unique and powerful political journalist and a fearless activist. Imprisoned for one year’s incarceration in the well-known Alipore Bomb Case, he was acquitted in 1909. The counsel for defence was Deshabandhu Chitta Ranjan Das who spoke prophetically in his peroration:
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. . . My appeal to you is this—that long after this turmoil, this agitation will have ceased, long after he is dead and gone, he will be looked upon as the poet of patriotism, as the prophet of nationalism and the lover of humanity. Long after he is dead and gone, his words will be echoed and re-echoed not only in India but across distant seas and lands . . .
After he was acquitted, Sri Aurobindo, following an ‘adesh’ (voice from within) retired to Pondicherry in 1910 to take up his first love, yoga. He went deep into Vedic studies as well. A group of young men gathered around him and became his disciples in yoga. On 29th March, 1914, a French couple Pierre Richard and Mirra Richard who had come from France met Sri Aurobindo. The next day, Mme. Richard wrote down in her diary: It matters not if there are hundreds of beings plunged in densest ignorance. He whom we saw yesterday is on earth; his presence is enough to prove that a day will come when darkness shall be transformed into light, when Thy reign shall be indeed established upon earth.
The Message of Harmony and Synthesis Subsequently when they met and discussed,
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they realised that it was time the West and the East came together. Swami Vivekananda had demonstrated that this was eminently possible. To take the move forward the three of them started a journal that would provide a forum for proving how there was a priceless past in world religions and there need be no separative walls in using them to reach the Supreme. This message, again, should be projected to the new generation in the language they would understand. English, of course, but using a diction the twentieth century would understand. As if it were a gesture of defiance against the forces of evil that had made Britain declare war on Germany on 4 August, the first issue of Arya was published on 15 August, 1914. 15 August was Sri Aurobindo’s forty-second birthday. Thirty three years late India would become an independent nation on the same day. Why the name, ‘Arya’? Like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo had a delightful and indepth view when giving titles which became classic words or phrases. As with Prabuddha Bharata and Brahmavadin we have Sri Aurobindo’s Karmayogin, Dharma and Arya. He explains the choice of the term in the issue of 15th September 1914, as obviously many readers had wanted to know about it. Now
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there was a chance to explain correctly the meaning of the word: Western Philology has converted it into a racial term, an unknown ethnological quantity on which different speculations fix different values. Now, even among the philologists, some are beginning to recognise that the word in its original use expressed not a difference of race, but a difference of culture. For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration . . . In later times, the word Arya expressed a particular ethical and social ideal, an ideal of well-governed life, candour, courtesy, nobility, straight dealing, courage, gentleness, purity, humanity, compassion, protection of the weak, liberality, observance of social duty, eagerness of knowledge, respect for the wise and learned, the social accomplishments. It was the combined ideal of the Brahmana and the Kshatriya. Everything that departed from this ideal, everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude, cruel or false, was termed unAryan or Anarya (colloq. Anari). There is no word in human speech that has a nobler history.
The magazine was intended to reach out to the educated Indian who was becoming westernised
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and was looking down upon his own heritage and tell him that he had the great duty of studying the world’s treasures including his own heritage and carry the essence to future humanity. Sri Aurobindo wrote most of the essays (philosophy, Vedas, Upanishads, bhakti poetry, yoga) while Paul Richard undertook the task of compiling the ‘wisdom of the ages’. The French quotes were translated by Sri Aurobindo into English. This column brought together world’s great thinkers, an amazing compendium indeed. The Bible, the Chinese Buddhistic Scriptures, Emerson, Asvaghosha, Schopenhauer—it seems an inexhaustible list. What is even more heartening is the recognition even then by westerners of the Ramakrishna- Vivekananda Movement towards a religion for contemporary humanity. There are plenty of quotes that appear in the various issues which posit a direct teaching. Here is Sri Ramakrishna: Many say with an appearance of humility, ‘I am even as an earthworm crawling in the dust’; so always believing themselves to be earthworms, they become in time feeble as the worm. Let not discouragement enter into thy heart; despair is for all the great enemy of progress. What a man thinks himself to be, that he in fact becomes.
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The God Within Swami Vivekananda’s ‘God is my inmost self, the reality of my being’ is followed by Eckhart’s ‘God is myself; we are one in consciousness and His knowing is my knowing’—to give us the very essence of religion for the modern world. None of these wise men encourage blind faith. As The Book of Golden Precepts would have it, ‘The wise do not linger in the thicket of the senses, the wise heed not the honeyed voices of the illusion’. If the Vedas were associated with the chants of priests, an abbracadabra for the English-educated Indian, here was Sri Aurobindo giving an intuitive interpretation of the Vedic hymns as aids to yoga. Writing of the oft-quoted Somarasa, Sri Aurobindo goes beyond the disputations regarding the Soma plant: But what is this Soma, called sometimes amrita, the Greek ambrosia, as if it were itself the substance of immortality? It is a figure for the divine Ananda, the principle of Bliss, from which, in the Vedic conception, the existence of Man, this mental being, is drawn. A secret Delight is the base of existence, its sustaining atmosphere and almost its substance. This Ananda is spoken of in the Taittiriya Upanishad
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as the ethereal atmosphere of bliss without which nothing could remain in being.
In keeping with the ‘scientific’ temper of our times, Sri Aurobindo’s intense meditations bring us the significance of the Vedic gods like Indra, Usha, Agni and Sarama. Thus Brihaspati is ‘the power of the soul’ and here is Sri Aurobndo’s translation of a Rig Vedic hymn on this god whom we have only known as the divine priest: None can assail him, he conquers utterly all the riches of the worlds which confront him and the world in which he dwells; he who for the SoulPower that seeks its manifestation creates in himself that highest good, is cherished by the gods.
This is a language we can understand which tells us that self-control and conquering one’s self are the first lessons of religion. Arya which brought out its first issue on 15 August, 1914, was published with enviable regularity till the January 1921 issue. There was no formal leave-taking. The founders of the journal had started with a programme: ‘1. A systematic study of the highest problems of existence. 2. The formation of a Synthesis of knowledge, harmonizing the diverse religious traditions
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of humanity, occidental as well as oriental. Its method will that be of a realism, at once rational and transcendental—a realism consisting in the unification of intellectual and scientific discipline with those of intuitive experimentation. The review will also serve as an organ for the various groups and societies founded on its inspiration.’ This programme had been adhered to and fulfilled to the satisfaction of the founders and readers of Arya many of whom would go on to become spiritual luminaries on their own like T.V. Kapali Sastriar. Other Aurobindonian journals like Mother India and The Advent which were started later have continued to disseminate the wisdom of the ages as a welcome mix of religion and spirituality. As for The Vedanta Kesari, it has crossed one complete century in May 2014 with an increasing readership pursuing it all the time. By the grace of the Divine Mother, we have certainly learnt the contours of a modern approach to an Ancient Religion through such great journals. The lesson has been simple, in its essentials: unity in diversity, a respect for the authorised scriptures of the past, personal endeavour and the constant prayer that removes the vestiges of ego from our personality. And the aim: Sarve janah sukhino bhavantu! o