Blessed day today - 24th December 2015

Today is a thrice or Four-way blessed day :

 Christmas Eve - 

and also the day most of the core group of monks of the Ramakrishna Order firmed up their Sannyasa - 

and also today is the Swami Nirmalananda Jayanti - 

Tithi Puja day - Shukla Chaturdashi - of the most ready follower and brother-disciple of Swami Vivekananda. 

Ramakrishna Vivekananda Movement owes a lot to this disciple of Sri Ramakrishna. 

He played a pioneer role in Baranagore Math, Alambazar Math, Holy Wanderings of disciples, a bit during the early days of Madras Math at Ice House, and much more than a bit in the Vedanta Movement in New York. 

Then after a productive Himalayan interlude and a trip to Kamarpukur and Jayarambati where he became instrumental along with Swami Dhirananda to the growth of Rural Bengal Ramakrisna Movemnt by inspiring Kedar Babu of Koalpara to go and meet the Holy Mother, he was specially chosen by Swami Brahmananda and sent for his main mission in life, Regeneration of the Motherland through development of Ramakrishna Movement in South India. 

He also played significant roles in Ramakrishna Movement in Burma, Bangladesh and some portions of North India.

Study of Ramakrishna Movement will remain incomplete, (with a gaping hole in fact), if Swami Nirmalananda's Life is not studied.

We know Karnataka owes it to him for having brought Holy Mother to Bangalore. Many will not be aware that in a way he thus brought Mother to Kerala too.

But today's gift to me was in discovering that he accompanied Swami Yogananda and Swami Saradananda in taking the Holy Mother to Koilwar on the banks of River Son near Chapra.

I suppose Biharis will sure be happy.

Readers are advised to read the links and ask questions. I propose to give details later.

Happy Milad-i-Nabi as well.

Read :

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirmalananda

http://www.vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/Nirmalananda.pdf

Ramakrishna Ashrama Value Education Centre at Vavode in Trivandrum District - Vijaya Dashami Celebrations

These Centres function in decrepit buildings belonging to Ramakrishna Mission, where there is the ever lurking danger of some accident happening (roof falling or well caving in) any day but these are all still lively centres where many earnest children throng. More people,especially young children, come to these places than the number that come to mainstream Ashramas, like say, Kalady or Trichur. Many scores of volunteers and devotees and one monastic member have come out of these activities .. Jai Ramakrishna Jai Ma Durga Durga Durga

Smt. Satikumari and Smt. Sudarsanakumari (our staff) and children in rapt attention to the gentle exhortations of Swami Jnanamayananda ji.

V

My First Impression about the book 'The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America By Stefanie Syman

My First Impression about the book  'The Subtle Body: The Story of Yoga in America

 By Stefanie Syman

I came across this book online while searching for a copy of the 1897 copy of Raja Yoga by Swami Vivekananda. I am just making some comments here in the fashion of facebook comments and not like a proper Review. Still, I suppose, our time now is a Great Time. For Good or else, we are net democratic. Net in the sense of internet and also in the sense of defining the bottom-line in any affair. Nobody is an island and every body counts and counts in some little or big way in everybody else's affairs. This is all just to say that even a first impression expressed after a (though not cursory but still only) a partial reading of a book is of some value in our times.

The book starts nicely with a very readable description of the President's Dinner function, which turns out to be first time Yoga appears in America as a mainstream affair as American as Apple Pie. The book then goes flashback and starts with Emerson's Brahma poem and then comes to talk about the Coming of the Guru to America, in the person of Swami Vivekananda. 

The Author discusses a lot about Swami Vivekananda, Swami Abedhananda and Mrs. Sara Bull. She makes a lot of statements about these times, some of which I wish to contest at a future date, but the Author deserves credit for the pains she had taken to study the subject sincerely and work hard in arranging the facts and then finally in producing the book. 

The American 'Yankee' spirit has done great service to the world in taking the pearl of Yoga out from the vast oceans of Hinduism and mass marketing it in different attractive versions, making Yoga a sort of secular thing, and providing it with different 'made to order' versions based on clients' specific needs. 

Yoga's first good thing has reached or reaching every body - which is to keep the body steady and strong.

Now for the next thing. The body behind the body. The Spirit within each human .. 

One has to keep fit in body, 
sit easy, 
breath easy, 
relax, 
develop compassion, 
send good thoughts around, 
keep at it when you are on your feet, 
reaching different levels of depth within while thus working, 
keeping at it, strong and steady, 
not getting distracted by bouquets and brickbats coming your way, 
at it, 
stopping not, 
you reach the Goal - 
the Fulfillment of Yoga. 

Swami Sampurnananda - two days post Guru Purnima 2015