I have mentioned the names of some of the authors. Also I have mentioned who made positive comments on him. Now it is up to you to decide if you want to agree with them or not.
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Sent from my iPhone
Distinguished scholars have in the past praised many without much of a reason. See through your own eyes if you can, should a monk sue his mother for a share of paternal property? Should one call himself a monk without renouncing worldly assets? A complete crackpot, like Ramakrishna (who had no knowledge of the scripture) has been made the best avatar by such persons. Who, by the way, edited the book you possess. Is it somebody of the Ramakrishna mission? It may be interesting for you to know that about three decades ago, the cult applied to the Government of India to be treated as a minority religion in order to enjoy some financial benefits. I am sure, even the founders of the cult would find it amusing.
On Sat, Sep 29, 2012 at 10:11 AM, subimal chakrabarty <subimal@yahoo.com> wrote:I have in my collection a book titled "Chintanayak Vivekananda". It is a compilation of articles on Vivekananda by distinguished scholars like R.C. Majumdar, Suniniti Chatterjee, Gandhi, Nehru, Zakir Hossain, and others. The writers have shed light on various aspects of Viveknanda's life and works. Obviously Vivekananda was a not a little man. He has been praised by Tolstoy, Romain Rolland, Rabindranath, Aurobinda, and many other great people. He was a multifaceted genius. I have read his prose that one may confuse with Rabindranath's prose used in "Chhinnapatra". Any way, let me come to the point. The book I have referred to has mentioned that when he passed his B.A examination, he was in acute financial distress. His family also was going through some sort of trouble. In order to overcome economic crisis he went to Kali mandir to pray. He was at that time 21. Ramkrishna assured him that he would help him overcome the crisis. He got a job in an attorny's office. He also started translating books. Probably he never forgot the economic crisis he went through. That is one of the reasons why his religion and philosophy mainly centered around the poor and the weaker sections of the society. Rabindranath said to Romain Rolland: If you want to know India, know Vivekananda. Every thing in him is positive, nothing is negative. I would not be surprised if Rabindranath was influenced by him in writing poems that emphasised on serving the poor as a substitute for serving God (God lives among the poor and those who have lost every thing).From: Shah Deeldar <shahdeeldar@yahoo.com>Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 7:04 AM
To: "mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com" <mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: "bangladesh-progressives@googlegroups.com" <bangladesh-progressives@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] 'A Man among men...' -- Swami Vivekananda
Why not talk about how Vivekananda faced starvation right after his graduation from Calcutta University? Is that your own fantasy or you read that in somebody's fictional work? Answer the question or get lost, you pos!
-SD"All great truths begin as blasphemies." GBSFrom: Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2012 10:07 PM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] 'A Man among men...' -- Swami Vivekananda
Read any standard biography on Vivekananda, and stop posting internet materials like a Muslim fundamentalist does in this forum. Such writings are worth no more than toilet papers. No saint sues his mother for a share in paternal property, as Vivekananda did. But many follow his example of getting laid with female devotee.
On Wed, Sep 26, 2012 at 6:38 AM, Shah Deeldar <shahdeeldar@yahoo.com> wrote:
It sounds pretty odd to me that an newly graduated young man from an aristocratic family faced starvation because he could not find a suitable employment? Who has been feeding you with such information?-SD"All great truths begin as blasphemies." GBS
From: Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com>
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 1:33 AM
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] 'A Man among men...' -- Swami Vivekananda
"All doors were open to him when he graduated from Calcutta University."
- Not really, he tried to find an employment, and didn't find any. Starvation and other deprivation was a common experience to him. He visited Dakshineswar to have a free meal. Ultimately, he found out, no business is as good as the one with religion. He wasn't much of a saint. His relation with Sister Nivedita had been questioned during his lifetime by the monks of his own congregation. Besides, he used to brag about relishing non-traditional food forbidden among his coreligionists. Though there is no scope of avatar, according to the Veda, he declared Ramakrishna as the best of them.
On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 11:18 AM, Kamal Das <kamalctgu@gmail.com> wrote:Rishi Bankim, however, irrelevant here, was not much more than another overblown icon.On Sun, Sep 23, 2012 at 3:44 PM, Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the mention of this important book. I have not read the book, but I have heard Narasingha Shil present a pre-publication paper at the Bengal Studies Conference (held that year at SUNY) on Vivekananda which convincingly exploded all the myths surrounding this con-man god-man. Narasingha is a great iconoclast, intelligent and funny, and a terrific 'adda-baj'. We became friends, and at another BS Conference he presented another hit at another Bengali icon -- Rishi Bankim. I later told him that, unlike Vivekananda, Bankim did not consciously or dishonestly create his own Rishi image. His Rishi-ization and even the hinduization of Bande Mataram were done by communal politics long after his death. Narasingha accepted my explanations, and later, when he read my own completed article criticizing Gauri Vishwanathan book with evidences cited from Bankim, he praised it profusely in an e-mail, and stopped criticizing Bankim.
Farida Majid
To: mukto-mona@yahoogroups.com
From: kamalctgu@gmail.com
Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 07:45:37 +0600
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] 'A Man among men...' -- Swami Vivekananda
One should read "Vivekananda Reassessed" - Narasingha P. Shil [Susquehenna University Press] to have a better understanding of him.On Sat, Sep 22, 2012 at 5:42 AM, Sudhir-Architect <ar_sudhirkumar@yahoo.com> wrote:
'A Man among men...' -- Swami Vivekananda
It is appropriate to celebrate this great event through the month for a simple reason. While it is generally well-known that young Vivekananda had to sleep on a sidewalk in Chicago before being discovered and given a place to stay, what is less known is that his first lecture there on September 11, 1893, catapulted him to such a great stature that the organisers had to invite him to address the gathering every day during that fortnight!
A participant of that conference said, "When the audience was bored with the tedious elo
