... our national sin

We Indians cannot give up jealousy and rally together.
That is our national sin.

Letter to Swami Ramakrishnananda. Written in Bengali from Chicago in January 1894. Complete Works, 6.256.

Finding of Unity

The finding of unity in variety is really what we call knowledge.

From Swamiji's article in the February 1895 issue of the New York Medical Times. Complete Works, 9.285.

శ్రీ కౌముది సెప్టెంబర్ 2010

... a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings

There is good and bad everywhere--but a nation is not to be judged by its weaklings called the wicked, as they are only the weeds which lag behind, but by the good, the noble, and the pure who indicate the national life-current to be flowing clear and vigorous.

Letter to the Maharaja of Khetri. Written from America in 1894. Complete Works, 6.249.

Those who think themselves too high ...

What you call majority is mainly composed of fools and people of ordinary intellect. Those who have brains to think for themselves are few, everywhere. These few people with brains are the real leaders in everything and in every department of work. The majority are guided by them as with a string, and that is good, for everything goes right when they follow in the footsteps of these leaders. Those who think themselves too high to bend their heads to anyone are fools, and they bring on their own ruin by acting on their own judgment.

Conversation: Saturday, January 22, 1898. Recorded in Bengali by Surendra Nath Sen in his private diary. Complete Works, 5.333.

శ్రీ కౌముది ఆగస్ట్ 2010

... think we know something!

Knowledge is mere classification. When we find many things of the same kind, we call the sum of them by a certain name and are satisfied. We discover "facts," never "why." We take a circuit in a wider field of darkness and think we know something!

Retreat given at the Thousand Island Park, USA. June 25, 1895. Complete Works, 7.18

శ్రీ కౌముది జూలై 2010

Real men do it barefoot

India qualified by default for the 1950 FIFA World Cup finals as a result of the withdrawal of all of their scheduled opponents. However, they did not take up their place in the competition. The Indian players were unable to play as boots were required according to FIFA legislation, and the Indian players were not used to footwear and thus refused.

http://www.sepiamutiny.com/sepia/archives/006211.html#more

శ్రీ కౌముది జూన్ 2010

Colours of terrorism: Hindu, Muslim

..... the political class and Indian society at large must now fully comprehend the fact that ‘Hindu’ terrorism is as real as the ‘Islamic’ one.

And that comprehension, if terrorism — particularly the home-grown variety, involving Indian citizens — is to be defeated, must lead to the awareness that the spread of communal hatred and polarisation is the driving force for such acts. The point isn’t that only a fringe element within communities is involved in terrorist attacks.

Rather, that there is a wider context of communal hatred and fundamentalism behind these attacks. And that jingoism and hatred is sustained by a discourse of difference, of narrow and sectarian interpretations of history, identity and nationhood.

Colours of terrorism: Hindu, Muslim
22 May 2010, 0525 hrs IST, ET Bureau

కౌముది మే 2010

Sixty Hours of Terror

A gripping minute by minute detail of November 26, 2008 terror, and the accounts of injured survivors. One must read this article.

శ్రి కౌముది ఏప్రిల్ 2010

Shukla Bose: Teaching one child at a time