Monthly Readings

Greatness is of two types: contemporary and eternal. An ordinary person who has attained greatness in any field like social service, religion, art or science, can influence the lives of a few thousand people but only for a short period, for his influence does not usually survive his death. But world prophets like Krishna, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad influence the lives of millions of people for centuries. Their influence is not limited by time. Nay, it undergoes a process of time enlargement: with the passage of centuries the glory of these prophets, instead of decreasing goes on increasing.

20 March 2005 was the day of the public celebration of Sri Ramakrishna’s birth anniversary at Belur Math, and lakhs of devotees had thronged the Math premises. An unusual sight was provided by a handcuffed man moving about on the Math premises with several guards by his side. On enquiry we found out that he was Shyamal Khawas, an inmate of Medinipur District Correctional Home. We also learnt from Shyamal that he was a regular subscriber to Udbodhan, the Bengali monthly of the Ramakrishna Order, and that he also sent regular donations for Math activities.

Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi’s 150th birth anniversary celebrations in 2003-04 witnessed the inauguration of several new service programmes by the branch centres of the Ramakrishna Order. These programmes aimed specifically at reaching out to the masses—especially women and the poorer sections of society. It was a remarkable coincidence that Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama, Malda, got a chance to initiate a programme of service for the inmates of Malda District Correctional Home during these celebrations; and this programme has since been extended to a number of other correctional homes across West Bengal.

These newly-discovered diary entries, written by M, the author of the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, were originally published in 1904 in Navya Bharat. Upon its rediscovery, it was published in Udbodhan, the Bengali-language journal of the Ramakrishna Order (vol 102, no 10 and vol 103, nos. 2 and 3.) Swami Chetanananda, head of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis, translated the articles from the Bengali and it was published in the February, 2006 issue of Prabuddha Bharata, one of the English-language journals of the Ramakrishna Order.