Teachers of Bengal – an extinct species ?

Five hundred years back during Mahaprabhu Sri Chaitanya’s time, Navadip of Bengal was considered a kind of Oxford for students from different parts of India. Another six centuries back, we are informed that Acharya Shankar’s spiritual master Sripada Govindapada was from Gauda – present Midlands of West Bengal. Another eight or nine centuries back when Chinese student Hien-sang came to Nalanda, he mentioned about high level of learning and teachers of Gauda-desha / Bengal.

During British Raj, teachers of Bengal – even in material and secular subjects were legends elsewhere. Bengali communists may note that their grandfathers were not taught a censored version of Keats, Shelley or Newton’s Principia by the ‘imperialist’ government. In spite of all the faults and shortcomings of WEM (White European Men), the grandsons of the Presidency College’s most celebrated alumni need to remind themselves this fact. There lies the only chance of any re-birth.

I read a letter to the editor (in ABP) from a distinguished alumni of Presidency (Class of 1964) where the alumni compares the teachers of his time and the present variant. He also speaks of the peasnatry of the current students.  The comparison is devastating. In 1990s  while I nurtured a dream to be a student there but a cursory look at the notice board ( same time I procured a Folio of Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of Roman Empire from the boi-para) and it convinced me that the institution has become more of a chandimantap with the roof being of British concrete. 

Why so ?

Because in a communist / socialist system where equality is the Holy Grail more easily understood by the masses (yes – masses – the lump of humanity which has never spoken and will never speak and need a leader to be guided)  and rarely praticed in its most effacious version by the leaders. In such an environment, a teacher is a functionary of the state, nothing else.

Hence a teacher in such a system can be an organizer, a Marxist intellectual, an activist, a debator, a social change agent, an administrator, representative of the dictator of the proletariat, a local/district  committee member, a Government employee like a clerk, member of an Union, closer/distant  to the Party office, reformer, dreamer, managing local Puja, blood donation, picnic  BUT not a teacher……

All these above roles suck all the vitality – biological and intellectual of the poor soul and he / she remains really lobotomized, metaphorically speaking.

The best of the lot,  being victim of this vicious role-mix demand left the geography with a bitter but painful heart. The mediocre did the waltz with political power with the incentive being suitable transfer, grants and more or less the pocket change for a professor in a proper University in West during their best of times (Mr. Nirad C Chaudhuri has documented this in his Bengali essays). Dr. Watson while analysing the veneration of a Scotland Yard functionary towards Mr. Sherlock kept a sentence to be pondered by all : An average person knows nothing above himself. A man of talent immediately recognizes true genius when he finds one. I command every Bengali born between 1970 – 1990  in Bengal to reflect on this.

The average in Bengal is institutionalized. The talented are enstupidited. The genius has shun the womb of Bengal for quite some time. There is a grand epigram in Kaviraj Goswami’s Chaitanya-Charitamrita. Adavita Charaya – a philosopher-teacher of Navadip in fifteenth century used to offer tulsi and sandal woods to the Lotus feet of the Supreme Lord Vishu with the heartfelt prayer for his coming into the world. Why ? To deliver people from ignorance and stupidity. Night after night, acharya cried and prayed for Lord to appear. On what assurance ? Because of Lord’s eternal  promise to an Indian prince 50 centuries back  : I will appear in each millenium for re-establishment of true religion and punishing the miscreants.

And the Lord listened to his prayer. Mahaprabhu appeared  as patitpavana and brought Bengal in the orbit of Civilization again. His associates or parshads – six goswamis went to Vrindavana and for the benfit of people created literatures.  What literature ? That which delivers us from the darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge for all men of all time. The Last Great Teacher Bengal, the self-effulgent Vedic Acharya – one of the greatest teachers of whole human history in this planet-  of jagat-guru status and according to some scholars – a saktya-vesha avatara of the Supreme Lord Himself – we are remembering the glories of  Srila Prabhupada.

When Prabhupada was sailing to New York to execute the Order of his Spiritual Master or Guru Maharaj – a journey and its outcome seem to be a mircale in itself now, Asoke Mitra was writing Bangladesh 1969 in Calcutta -a prophetic essay on the re-barbarization of Bengal mainland that will follow for three decades and continuing…. 

The worst of the lot will be mentioned in history after a long time when there may be their grandsons again, in some blissful moments become aware of it. The wait starts now.

In Nuremberg trial, a contrite German said : Thousand years hence, the sins of Germany will not be forgotten.

In thousand years hence, we may be in a position to assess the crime committed in pushing Bengal into an age of intellectual darkness. But this may never take place. Why ? A supreme wordsmith genius of Bengal told us long back

দেহের মুত্যুর রেজিষ্টার রাখা হয়, আত্বার হয় না

I hope that in Bengal somewhere, some acharya is praying sincerely with full surrender to the Lord to intervene again.

My obesiances to the feet of that mahatma of Bengal – the great teacher – such a teacher’s feet makes the earth holy.

The Beast Rising in Calcutta

Calcutta mainstream media – both print and electronic, I was mortified to find is talking about a ‘bold new actress’ who performed something on screen so revolutionary that dogs in the Calcutta streets are suing for copyright violation !

Then I heard panelists in TV discussing Kama Sutra and some women actresses supporting lesbianism and other deviancies becuase WHO has certified it. Is WHO the authority  deciding what is deviancy and what is healthy ? But I forgive them. I also remain thankful that even forty years of communism induced feminism could not make women here completely degenerated. Bengal’s legacy of Tantric, Buddhistic and Vaishnav tradition saved us from complete degeneration. But the Beast is Rising.

In 2006, I wrote a book called The Wordsmith Sutras and I quote a sutra from there

Subliminal Messages: You have an embedded foreground and background processor unit inside you

One of the most-subtle, hard-to-detect mind control methods. Advertisers, high finance and high politics, media, control-freaks use this technique to influence us without our direct knowledge. This technique lowers down inhibitions and implants acceptance of something which normally is abominable.

Our cognition processes both in foreground and in background and even while shutdown (sleep). Three examples:

1. Many soaps and tele-serials portray men or male characters as inefficient, indecisive, and incompetent and some are contemptible. The subliminal message is to create a general derision about men or typecasting among young and impressionable females.
2. Many contraceptive emergency pills are being advertised in both print and electronic media with a front message of convenience (from abortion) and safety (from a botched one).

But there are a set of powerful subliminal messages:   there are ways now to get away from responsibility. Since such a sexual encounter is one-time affair, it can occur many times. It never tells the hazards of such pills.

1. Item numbers: Suddenly we woke up to find that films need at least an item number which simply means a salacious nautanki. The gulf between heroine and bamboo/vamp is being made thinner and thinner.

The subliminal message is to get whoring / flesh business as a career – an acceptance.

Nobody can make you anything without your consent. Just like eating something means acceptance, be careful what is eaten for mind.  

The actress and the media rascals dont know that they are sheer instruments for a cause of which they have no idea and this qualification through ignorance makes them where they are. Or being chosen. Or being used as a useful idiot.

Let me be now brutal to all these Bengalis with whom I do share a bodily relation : Will you sleep peacefully if your 20+ daughter going out at night to be a stripper in Park Street ?

Will you be dancing in joy if your daughter / sister / wife is an actress of such bold movies ?

Will you tell everyone via an email that your daughter / sister / wife is in that flick which has the most number of hits in yougtube  ?

Be sincere to answer this.

And I tell to all Bengali Women, the race of my mother : You all have a mystic potency in you – gifted by the Supreme Lord. This potency you can use to make us gods here or you can make us animals here. The power works both ways and equally potent. But as a spirit soul, you have the independence to make the decision as how you will use it.

Ja devi sarbhabhuteshu Vishnu-Mayeti Sabdita

Namostasmai, Namostasmi, Namostasmi Namo Namo.

Major Teachers of Humanity

Not a single major teacher of humanity has told that you can be happy in the material world.

Lord Buddha : Nirvana is the cessation of desire and that is the greatest goal of life. [ 250 BC]

Acharya Shankar : The Brahman is the only Truth, the world is an illusion. The greatest aim of life is to realize the Brahman. [8th century]

Lord Jesus : This world is like a bridge, not make a house on it [ 15 AD ]

Lord Sree Krishna Chaitanya : Surrender unto the Lotus feet of the Supreme Lord Sri Krishna to realize your eternal relationship with the Lord.  There is no other way in this Age of Kali other than chating the Holy name of the Lord.[16th century ].

Srila Prabhupada : If we are interested to know the Supreme Absolute Truth, we need to be cleansed from the material contamination. The most effective means in the current age of Kali is to chant the holy name of the Lord – Hare Krisna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna Hare Hare / Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama Hare Hare [ 20th century]

Any teacher of humanity (how popular, how well connected, how great, how many twitter follower, how charming…) who does not repeat what these major acharyas have told is a false teacher and is a spiritual criminal committing the highest offense.  These ‘false teachers’ want us to make animals.

Srila Prabhupada has given us an acid test to find such a false teacher : Any teacher who speaks other than what is in the disciplic succession with the Supreme Lord as the first spiritual master is hovering in the mental platform and like a blind claiming to lead us.

Gurur sakshad parambrhman tasmoi sree gurube namo

[ I surrender unto the Lotus Feet of the Guru who is the direct representative of the Supreme Brahman]

The Student Loan bubble (Translation from India)

Previous to anti-biotics, syphilis was a killer – silent and sure for young males in Europe. After a century, a more deadly killer in Europe and US is student loan. Just like a disease, this is spreading to India as well. There is no anti-biotic in sight for this except the complete collapse of the system itself.

Never in human history – considering we have some 5000+ years of recorded history, education of young men and women needed so much loan as we find in last decade and half. Governments have entered in this market and thus distorting it completely. I heard from a very senior bank officer in India that it can be career damaging for a bank officer to refuse a student loan even if there are genuine concerns in terms of repayment.  Since I am no economist but a translator, let me translate

” I see in front a completely ullu-looking fellow fidgeting some device in his hand. A gilded peasant with an I-pod. His father, a middle aged man is being convinced that once he gets a B.Tech degree paper DTP-ed in a A4 sheet with some symobols and seals from some private college somewhere, he can make his life. The loan sought is INR 20 Lac. Median salary for a start-up engineer in the market is INR 3 Lac that too if its in a city. The bank officer, after a brief interview with the student finds his mathematical and general abilities not very impressive. He barely understands interest rates, compound interest, inflation and median. What he is anxious is to get the money sanctioned so that he can get into the lush campus with so many pretty little things and thongs. But loan has to be sanctioned. The Bank Officer cannot do much. Nationalized banks are after all for the nation – to satisfy the citizens !”

A community of students in US is waking up. I see some ‘degree burning videos’ in youtube. There is an increasing awareness among students who find themselves ‘debt-slave’ with a paper degree.

Let us see the situation in India. Again you need translation:

There are three kinds of educational institutions of graduate level in India

• The ‘Billion Busters’ – the IITs and IIMs and such where competition is so high that unless someone is really a superhero, one will give up his ghost by looking at the mathematial chance of it. It is a billion people filter. 99% of such institutions are public funded and technically non-profit.
• The Million Busters – The for-proft private institutions which drew from some vision of a good man or a group of men and maintained a decent standard. A few among them can compete with any institution of the world.
• Marks No Bar Institutions – This is the segment where money is being minted. These institutions are the equivalent of French Revolution for those who have so long been oppressed under the tyranny of examination, benchmarks, scholarship and tests. These institutions can even accept a student with the brain size of a dragonfly and analytic ability as that of a subprime lender. In India, these institutions have replicated the battle cry once we heard in matrimonial market : Caste No Bar.

The last type comes into being like this : (you need translation again) : A medium or upper medium level builder or promoter finds that one needs to have some nice looking building, some government licenses, AC rooms, computer, Wireless etc and marketing. Faculties can always be freelancers and campus recruitment can always be avoided in the name of recession etc. For this builder, there is nothing unknown of starting a college or university, of course, if you are so ancient to demand scholarship or dedeicated teachers. So the process goes like this

1. He already knows how to build standard boxes in concrete. So he does.

2. He is an expert in getting licenses – he gets all licenses to start a college or university.

3. He hires freelancers and knows marketing well as to inflate prices and sell to certain segment

4. He  knows that he has got some four years before his first batch comes out and he makes sure that he is in profit as soon as some 100+ people are enrolled. In a country of billion (I live in a city of 10 million population) 100+ people is cakewalk.

What he gets ?  From a promoter/builder  (are you smelling paint, cement, sound of a mixer…) to that of an educationist ( serene, calm, scholarship…)

What the students get ? Liberation from the tyranny of test, cut-off, qualification and elitism. Entry to the greatest communism : Marks No Bar.

The whole student loan fuels this liberation from the tyranny of cut-off to MARKS NO BAR

 The above translation, in brief but in all its essentials is the current graduate level educational scenario in India.

 

 

 

 

My Grandfather and Me

I have never seen my grandfather. He died 15 years before I was born. He was an educationist, a teacher, a freedom fighter, a musician having high proficiency in playing khol and pakhowaz. He spent his life mostly in Calcutta, Bangladesh and Silchar – Purbasha – my ancestral home  where he settled somewhere in 1920s and lived for next forty years or so. I found a Bhagawad-Gita (edited by Jagadish Basu) annotated by him in the margin and came to know that he had a great talent  of doing kirtan in the evening – solo or in party.

In the evening, say 7 pm or so, they would all assemble in a house and do kirtan till 10 pm. The kirtan they did was Hari-kirtan – singing the glories of the Lord Hari or Lord Krishna. It was a regular affair and elites of the society used to consider this as high aristocracy.  There was no TV, shopping mall  – indulging into bridge / going to pub-bar  was considered to be the interest and pursuit of 5th class men – means – a kind of animalism.

Today, the whole scenario has changed. Men whose grandfathers did Hari-Kirtan in the evening now work like indentured slaves till 10 pm in a place called office which provides them nothing more than food, shelter, sexual access and defense. They would work, consume as per their purchasing power and would die. The tragedy is not even having the time to reflect anything. The incessant demand to have a higher standard of living has made their life completely void of leisure, time to reflect and indulging in anything other than earning money and acquiring status.

In the age of Kali, Lord Vyasa says that men would become more and more ignornat, delusioned and would deny God. They would consider suffering as pleasure. Their living force would diminish, they would have to work like an ass for a piece of bread, women would be un-chaste, materialism would run amok, people would be taxed to death and the king would be like dasyu or dacoit. Religion would be taking bath and keeping long hair without anything to do with knowledge. In the day time, they would run for ‘money / money’ like dog, in the night they would be indulging in licit and illict sex, sleep or in other kind of sense gratification.

Work, Consume, Die

Chanting the Gloroies of the Lord in the evening – doing kirtana itself is a sign of abundance in one’s Life. This opportunity itself is a Grace. Either you chant the Glories of the Lord in the evening or work like a slave in an office.

I envied my grandfather, really envied him for the rich life he lived. He must have been aware of the Grace of  the Supreme Lord Hari otherwise how could you even have the possibility of chanting His Glories ?

You would have been condemned to a chamber somewhere – illusioned and senses lolling the tongue of a hungry dog, seeking – where is more money, where is more money ?

A person who is able to chant the Glories of teh Lord is a blessed one and must have received his Grace. Without this, doing kirtana is not possible.

Swalpam alpaysya dharmasya trayate mahoto bhayat – A little of this devotional service saves you from great fear.

What is that fear ? To live and die like an animal.

 

Maya : A proof in Salt Lake, Calcutta

Salt Lake area of Calcutta sprang in 1970s as a method to solve the housing problem. A brackish waterbody was being landfilled to make a reclamed land and most early settlers were those working class middle/low. In forty years, the prices appreciated and all first generation settlers were in their 70s or eighties. The second generation of these settlers went away, some quite far and some within Indian subcontinent. Most of the older houses contain old man and woman – connected to their sons and daughters via email, telephone and occasional bank transfers. This segment does not have any contribution to the commerce, art, culture and spiritual practices of the city. They were middle class, now in quite a better station of life (due to time and not because of their efforts) and leading a peaceful if not a boring life with a perpetual irritation varying from mild to intense.

I met an old officer of Indian Navy, now in his mid seventies, a pensioner and commanding a total fixed income of approximately 70k per annum including rent. He and his wife stay in the 2 storied house and then greatest event of their daily life is coming (or absence) of the working maid.

In one of the city parks where I go for my editorial work, I became a listener. He continued telling various achievements of his life which for a Bengali is well-placed children, good money, solvency, travel stories and the ‘problems’ that he face here. 

During this discussion, I found out that the reason of his great care for money and concern about rising inflation and interest rate etc has to do with his medical bills, nothing else. His all pettiness of mind and purposeless thereof arise from a fear of his body not remaining well. The primal, the root fear is Death.

Even materally speaking, he should not have any economic concern. But he is in fear – fear of losing all his wealth to regain health. His body will go one day, whether treated by a quack or a INR 5000 / hour doctor. But he is too much concerned on the marginal erosion of his wealth due to inflation.

This is Maya. What else can be ?

All our pettiness and delusion arise from this primal weakness : Attachment to body and its extension

All major teachers of humanity and those from Bengal taught the same : You are not this body only. You are a spirit soul. It is the soul that is moving the matter we call body. It is always dead. It seems to be living because of the presence of the soul there. As soon as the soul leaves the body or even shows sign of leaving, no amount of money can remove the fear from us.