M., the Apostle and the Evangelist

597 Pages·2012·2.23 MB·English

M.,the Apostle and the Evangelist
- A continuation of M's
Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna -
by Swami Nityatmananda
Table of Contents (Volumes 1 to 16)
Volume I
(First edition published in English: Sri Ramakrishna Birthday, 1967)
(Second edition published in English: Thakur's Birthday, 1972)
Publisher's note - Ishwar Devi Gupta (Nag Panchami, 1971)
Introduction - Nityatmananda (Buddha Purnima, 1953)
A biographical life sketch of Acharya M. - The author (April 11, 1960)
1. M. at Mihijam
2. Realisation of God - the aim: Unselfish work - the means
3. Material knowledge - a step to the knowledge of Brahman
4. The Indian View: everything good to be surrendered to God
5. God first, everything else afterwards - 'Hold on to Me'
6. The need of variety in Leela
7. Thakur, the embodiment of Truth held, no more fear
8. Who is the Hero? - He, who has conquered his senses
9. Woman: Image of the Mother
10. Great need of Sadachar
11. Three mantras of Thakur
12. The chatak does not drink any other water
13. Personal effort and Grace are one and the same.
14. From dualism to Monism
15. As long as fuel, so long fire
16. The happy festival of Rama-navami and M.
17. Speciality of Thakur, What? - Harmony of religions
18. All will attain samadhi
19. God takes charge of surrendering bhaktas as of a crippled son
20. Rising youth, the best time for worshipping God
21. Not mercy to jiva but service to Shiva in him
22. The poet and the philosopher have the same destination
23. Ignorance of God, the greatest sorrow
24. Max Muller and Sri Ramakrishna, six shlokas of the Gita
25. Sopenhauer and Religion
26. Immortality is rare but not impossible
27. Supplement: Memorable moments with Sri Mahendranath Gupta -
Swami Deshikananda
Volume II
(First edition published in English: January, 1971)
Publisher's Note - Ishwar Devi Gupta (Birth-Day of the Holy Mother,
1970)
Introduction - Swami Nityatmananda (Akshay Tritiya, 1962)
1. M. in Calcutta
2. The avatara comes to minimise bhakta's work
3. Simple life, aid to spiritual life
4. Sri Ramakrishna, the Absolute Brahman as God
5. God-realisation, the aim - living like the house-maid, the means
6. Thakur's words, all Veda-mantras
7. The `unknown and unknowable' of Kant - visible to Ramakrishna
8. Money makes man half-liberated
9. From this very mud blooms forth the lotus
10. If He wills, He can reverse everything - the fruit of Karma
11. Charity of Jnana, Bhakti, Prema, the best charity
12. The basic word - to live in the world in complete surrender
13. He speaks through this very mouth
14. The means : company and service of sadhus and prayer
15. Keshab Sen recognised Thakur
16. Which binds also frees, by changing the course
17. `Now You Yourself say it to me' - the jeweller recognises the jewel
18. Rama, Rama, Sri Rama, Jai Jai Rama
19. Alexander, Napoleon and Christ
20. Math, the hospital for the disease of ignorance
21. India rising, the world will rise
22. See God in one's own body, family and society
23. The devotee - a soldier in the battle-field
24. Sri Ramakrishna's catholic words - the holy formula for world-unity
25. Appendix - A glimpse of `M., the Apostle and the Evangelist' series
Volume III
(First edition published in English: 28th of May, 1977)
Author's preface - Swami Nityatmananda (May 15, 1965)
1. Jnani, My ownself
2. Ramakrishna path, simple and natural
3. Swami Vivekananda in the religious life of the world-renowned
songstress Mme. Calve
4. M.'s organising the spiritual life of Bhaktas
5. When will mukti be? - when the 'I' is dead
6. Story of God-realisation, the History of India
7. Time not yet to understand Swamiji
8. The greatest message: renouncing all, call on God
9. The ideal householder devotee and the ideal sannyasi
10. M., without body consciousness
11. Durga-puja festival in Belur Math and M. in picnic in Dakshineswar
Temple
12. Not only see God but also talk to Him
13. M. in the Gadadhar Ashrama on the Raspurnima day
14. M. with the bhaktas, Sri Ramakrishna & Girish, the Holy Mother &
Amjad, Christ & Mary Magdalene
15. M. in the Nava-vidhan Brahmo Samaj
16. Man's real nature: I, the son of a King. Satchidananda
17. M., absorbed in meditation
Volume IV
(First edition published in English: Janam Dvitiya, 4 March 1984)
Sri Ma Trust, A brief introduction - Secretary
The founder's prayer - Swami Nityatmananda (December 20, 1967)
The author's blessings - Swami Nityatmananda (Navarati, 1965)
The Publisher's note - Ishwar Devi Gupta
The author's preface
1. Complete surrender to God - First hint of Godliness
2. Hold the calf, the cow will come itself
3. Those who have not fallen into hardship are mere babies
4. M. at Dakshineswar on Dol-yatra day
5. Sri Ramakrishna, the embodiment of the Gita
6. Math, the Bengal Club of bhaktas
7. 'I come down from Age to Age'
8. Swami Vivekananda in the eyes of the Fox sisters of America
9. No sentiency and insentiency in Ramakrishna's body
10. The Kathamrita in pictures
11. Tramcar trolley and Sri Ramakrishna
12. Brahma-jnana when the mind is exterminated
13. Faith brings half-liberation in life
14. Samadhi, the normal state of man
15. Divine conduct
16. No anxiety when the real teacher is found
Volume V
(First edition published in English: The Ganga Dashahara, 29 May 1985 - 92nd
birth day of Rev. Swami Nityatmanandaji Maharaj)
Publisher's note - Ishwar Devi Gupta
Introduction by the author (Sri Shankar Jayanti, 1968)
1. Different natures, different paths
2. Meditate on Me and inherit my wealth
3. M. at the Gadadhar Ashrama
4. Bound within the five elements Brahman wails
5. M.'s genius in the field of education
6. Mental renunciation and complete renunciation
7. M. with a Parsi devotee in Dakshineswar
8. M. with Dr. Hummel of America - I
9. M. with Dr. Hummel of America - II
10. Message of India to the West
11. M., an Upanishadic Rishi - I
12. M., an Upanishadic Rishi - II
13. Quinine in Banana
14. Christ in deep Samadhi
15. Upanishad, Gita and Bible
16. Weeping yearningly, the panacea in the age of Kali
17. M. the honeybee - Church, Gurudwara and Ashrama
18. Work, not the end but the means
19. Playing with fire
Volume VI
(First edition published in English: 29 September 1990, Sri Durga Puja)
Publisher's note - Ishwar Devi Gupta (September 29, 1990)
The author's preface (The Birth Anniversary of the Holy Mother, 1968)
1. The unperturbed M.
2. Mechanical puppets we all are!
3. The son will return home
4. Pain versus the ideal
5. Sri Ramakrishna, the full manifestation of the Avatara
6. Dakshineswar, the most sacred place of pilgrimage
7. At the feet of Bhavatarini
8. 'Without alloy no gold ornaments can be made'
9. 'Heard with my own ears and seen with my own eyes'
10. 'You have come to eat mangoes, eat them'
11. Oh, you are perhaps jewellers!
12. Holy Mother - the living proof
13. Wound by a sword - scratch by a nail-cutter
14. Elephant-pearl in the lion's den
15. M. in the joy of worship
16. Brahman reveals himself in the Avatara
17. Narendra, a thousand-petalled lotus
18. Sri Ramakrishna, personification of the eternal religion
19. You have got it all wrong, oh Rama!
20. The magician has a solution to all problems
21. We have only to hatch eggs
22. 'I was born in the clan of the Buddha'
23. A living commentary
Volume VII
(First edition published in English: Sunday, May 30, 1993; Sri Ganga
Dussehra, Birth Centenary of Swami Nityatmananda.)
Publisher's note - Ishwar Devi Gupta (May 30, 1993)
The author's blessings - Swami Nityatmananda (Shardiya Durga
Navarati, 1965)
The founder's prayer - Swami Nityatmananda (December 20, 1967)
The author's preface (given as an appendix in the original) - (Sri Sri Holy
Mother's Birth Anniversary, 1970)
1. Holy Mother, the ideal of service and self control
2. Jagannath Puri, the meeting place of all religions
3. The greatest message of my life
4. Well-done! Well-done! Well-done!
5. There is no collection-bowl here'
6. God and the world peace
7. Narendra, knower of Brahman in the service of God-in-the-jiva
8. Sri Ramakrishna at the junction (of the world and the Eternal)
9. Education in the Math - the real Indian education
10. The joy of literature vs. the joy of Brahman - Kalidas and Shakespeare
11. Reminiscences of Swami Brahmananda
12. Sri Ramakrishna in wonder
13. The vedas are confused sounds made by the dumb
14. No happiness for me, no sorrow for me
15. Adversity wakens the latent strength
16. That void was filled on meeting Thakur
17. Rasik, the untouchable, is redeemed
18. Pilgrimage & tapasya - Rishikesh & Swargashrama
19. At the time of repose
20. So long one has a body, one is under Mahamaya
21. At the re-union of the sadhus on the Vijaya day
22. Which holy place could you go to leaving Me behind?
23. You are the personification of Thakur's words
24. Company of the sadhus - an oasis in the desert
25. Thakur stands at your door with a pot of immortality in his hand
26. The heart of the sadhu is stone-hard and flower-soft
27. That's why caution and prayer are needed
Volume VIII
(First edition 1998.)
Acknowledgement
Publisher's Note - The Kathamrita Day, Thursday, 26th of February,
1998
The author's blessings - Swami Nityatmananda (Sri Ramakrishna Math,
Rishikesh, Himalayas, Shardiya Durga Navarati, 1965)
[The founder's prayer - Swami Nityatmananda (December 20, 1967)]
Introduction
1. Circumambulation
2. Another forest-feast in the tapovana of Dakshineswar
3. One is saved a great deal by keeping company of an all-renouncing
sadhu
4. A relentless war with mind is needed
5. India will again rise with the glory of Self-knowledge
6. Sadhu - a living commentary on the shastras
7. The avatara doesn't have jiva's nature
8. This very man will then become a god-man
9. Then only ask for peace, peace and perfect peace
10. The Gita came into being in the battle-field
11. Let us see God in the Avatara; what use running here and there
12. M., the Bhagavata Pandit
13. Faith in God brings determination in one's actions
14. Compassion binds, service liberates
15. The avatara is that Hole
16. Bring determination, reverence and serenity in your work
17. Sannyasa is nothing but giving God what is His
18. Smoke can not pollute the sky
19. Blessed is he who imbibes Thakur's bhava
20. The spot of Thakur's leela, national monument of India
21. The Mother can make the hog-plum tree yield mangoes
22. Sri Ramakrishna's meeting with Keshab in Nava-vidhan Brahmo Samaj
23. Narendra conquers the world with a fraction of a priest's grace
24. M. in the Gurudwara
25. Guru Nanak and Arjun Dev
26. Man can tear apart the veil within
27. The avatara is the Sun, his intimate disciples its rays
Volume IX
M. in a glass-house - Author's Preface
1. Thakur's leela, the hard surrounding shield of maya
2. The blessing and the curse
3. M. in the Bhadrotsva of the Nava-vidhan Brahmo Samaj
4. You will come only here and go nowhere else
5. Enjoy yourself, you the child of the all Blissful Mother
6. Reading Kathamrita is the best company of sadhus
7. Unshakable faith who has, last birth he has
8. Eternal festival - Birth anniversary of the world
9. It is of the Bombay-mango class
10. God within, priest without
11. Have the strength of ten thousand elephants in your mind before you
enter the household life
12. Because of fear, it was all in vain
13. O,O, you are a devotee of Gadai
14. The Kathamrita, an unparalleled scripture in world history
15. You will have to narrate Bhagavata
16. M. in the Gaudia Math for the first time
17. Everybody is suffering from the delirium
18. M. in the Jain temple and again in the Gaudia Math
19. M. in the Math, Temple and Khaddar exhibition
20. World peace by joining Science with Philosophy
21. Giving to the sevakas is giving to God
22. The son will return home
Volume X
(1st edition published in English June 11, 2000)
Acknowledgement
Publisher's Note
Author's blessings
Prayer
Like rice in the husk - Author's Preface
1. A `ghati' (jugful) of crying, crying like a child
2. Fire of the world and shower of peace, both are here
3. Every saying is like a lamp
4. By reciting it goes to the mind
5. Again the forest-feast and the festival of Durga
6. Kashi, the storehouse of jnana and bhakti
7. By realising God, one attains the highest culture
8. Which is the higher culture, just learning or self-knowledge?
9. M., absorbed in the rasa of Raas
10. Today, a successful day
11. There is something beyond reason too
12. The seven steps to destruction
13. M. in the Lily Cottage
14. He who sees only the eye of the fish, hits the target
15. Keshab, the steady bearer of Thakur's bhava
16. At the Kalpa-taru place of pilgrimage
17. The Madhavi Peeth - Sri Ramakrishna and Totapuri
18. In the 'meeting' temple
19. The knowledge of Shiva in the jiva brings world peace
20. Thakur's one instruction : Do something
21. The path of bhakti also brings Brahman-jnana
Volume XI
1. Sadhu, the link to God
2. Kamarpukur, all illumined
3. Swamiji broke India's sleep of attachment
4. Thakur, the illustration of the one liberated in this very life and in this
very body
5. M. in the Budhha Vihara, Church and Brahmo Samaj
6. I say, have I fallen too low?
7. Religion means faith
8. Lack of feeling of doership means the Mother's presence
9. M. and Rajarishi Manindra Nandi in Budhha Vihara
10. A diamond in the hands of brinjal-seller
11. Begging alms and the Brahmachari
12. M., the best doctor
13. Living Holy Mother in the Math today - M. and MacLeod
14. Superhuman if one sees Him
15. Raghu in search of Bliss
16. Like the moon floating on water
17. Babu himself has come today
Volume XII
1. `Hold Me' - Ramakrishna
2. Christ was born in a stable - Sri Ramakrishna in a husking shed
3. The idol of Kali - a symbol of creation, preservation and dissolution
4. Man is like a flute
5. Sadhu pilgrims at Gangasagar
6. People are mad after the world, the avatara after God
7. The avatara's interpretation of scriptures is correct
8. Premananda in the eyes of Saradananda
9. Man is hundred percent human
10. M., the modern teacher
11. Vipin Pal, the revolutionary in Nava-vidhan Brahmo Samaj
12. Attain peace before you dispense it
13. In search of intimate disciples - M., the agent
14. Vivekananda is the foremost ambassador of spiritual awakening in
America - Gilki
15. Nitai, the sannyasi, becomes a householder on a divine mission
Volume XIII
1. The Collection
2. Equality inside, distinctin outside
3. Priest or God, this is the riddle
4. You will have to do a little of Mother's work
5. Chitranjan, the Rajarishi bhakta
6. It is all quite when the curtain goes up - the bhakta from Mandley
7. The loss of powers of mind can be made up by complete renunciation
8. Everybody will partake of the feast, sooner or later
9. In search of repose
10. Thakur, the personification of Indian culture
11. Gandhiji and Chitranjan - each one is His spark
12. M. and Sri Mahapurusha
13. M. and Surendranath Banerji - wisdom vs. loss of discrimination
14. Birth anniversary of Naga Mahashay and Dr. Moreno
15. Whether you remain in family or leave it - the goal remains God-
realisation
16. Dr. Radhakrishnan, Puri dham and Sri Ramakrishna
17. Two classes of devotees, one like the fly and other like the bee
18. A forest-feast in the Panchavati
19. The bhakta wil have two eyes on his back too
Volume XIV
1. One goes as a man and returns as a god
2. Aaharan*
3. Kali Tapasvi, the lecturer in Vedanta
4. Jagannath on the one hand, Baidyanath on the other
5. Be an ant and take only sugar
6. Puri, the leela spot of Chaitanya Deva
7. At the call of Jagannath
8. The birth anniversary of Christ in Srikshetra (Puri)
9. In the Church and the Siddhashrama
10. In the pursuit of divinty : Christ and Ramakrishna
11. They will be redeemed when the knowledge of the Absolute goes in the
west
12. Brahmin Haridas under the Bakul Tree
13. On the way to Bhubaneswar
14. In the Lingraj temple
15. The Return
16. Rajvesh (the robing ceremony) of Lord Jagannath
17. Circumambulation
18. Puri filled with Chaitanya
19. Religious life - struggle between faith and disbelief
20. These divine scenes are the food for the mind
21. Reading from the diary, churn out the butter and live with butter milk
Appendix
* events not in chronological order with the rest of the book
Volume XV
M., the model of sannyasa in household - Author's Preface
1. All men have their faults and qualities - even so reverence is due to
sadhus
2. Death flees when one shouts for help to the Lord
3. Living Thakur is living Truth
4. A collection of images
5. Sannyasa - the sight for gods to see
6. A child is hundred percent child
7. A chain of pearls - all these words
8. Company of sadhus, company of sadhus, company of sadhus
9. About Mahapurursha
10. The image of Shiva
11. Sri Mahapurursha, the liberated one in this very life
12. The glory of Puri
13. M. in sick bed
14. M. filled with Ramakrishna
15. Thakur came to make heroes
16. The picture of Mahapurusha Maharaj
17. The series of pictures
18. The last reading of the Kathamrita
19. The lotus grove
20. The test
21. On the way to final journey
22. New centres of pilgrimage
Appendix I - Sri Sri M.'s Mahasamadhi
Appendix II - Events immediately before M.'s Mahasamadhi
Volume XVI
A life sketch of Swami Nityatmananda
1. M. determined to transform jiva into Shiva
2. First decide upon your duty
3. Janama Dvitiya, M. in the Belur Math
4. By doing something, one has no regrets
5. M., the ascetic, in Rishikesh Himalayas
6. About Vidyapeeth
7. Faith, firm or stable
8. First work and penance, then work becomes penance
9. The first Vidyapeeth in Mihijam
10. M. and the sadhus of Belur Math
11. Thakur came only to make heroes
12. Gandhiji and Karma yoga
13. Shodasi Puja
14. Song corresponds to the mood
15. The scriptures should be heard from the lips of the guru
16. To receive His blessings is the most rare thing on the earth
17. Some letters of M.
Sources of Biographical Information
about M.

1. Chetanananda, Swami. Ramakrishna As We Saw Him. Chapter 18.
M. (Mahendra Nath Gupta). St.Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis,
1990.
M. was the pen name of Mahendra Nath Gupta (1854-1932), the
headmaster of Vidyasagar's High School in Calcutta. M. met Sri
Ramakrishna in 1882 and recorded in his diary many of the Master's
conversations and teachings until the latter's passing away in 1886.
Excerpts from this diary were first published in Bengali in five volumes
under the title Sri Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrita. In 1942 Swami
Nikhilananda translated this into English and combined the five volumes
into one, entitled The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. In his later life M. was
surrounded by devotees, and his conversations with them about Sri
Ramakrishna and spiritual life were recorded by Swami Nityatmananda
from 1923 to 1932. These conversations were published in Bengali in
sixteen volumes under the title Srima Darshan [page 289].
2. Chetanananda, Swami. They Lived with God: Life stories of some
devotees of Sri Ramakrishna. Chapter 14. M. (Mahendra Nath
Gupta). St.Louis: Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1989.
3. Gupta, Dharm Pal. A Short Life of M.: the writer of the gospel of
Sri Ramakrishna. Chandigarh: Sri Ma Trust, 1989.
4. Lata, Prem. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Chapter 9. Visitors
and Disciples - Some Prominent Devotees - Mahendranath Gupta
(pp. 176-182). New Delhi: Sumit, 1991.
5. Life of Sri Ramakrishna: Compiled from various authentic sources.
Chapter on "Mahendra Nath Gupta" (pp. 296-301). Calcutta:
Advaita Ashrama, 1924.
6. Lokeswarananda, Swami. The way to God as taught by Sri
Ramakrishna. Chapter 1. M and the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.
(See also pp. 173 f.) Calcutta: The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of
Culture, 1992 (Revised, 1997).
7. Nityatmananda, Swami. "A Biographical Sketch of Acharya 'M'"
M. - The Apostle and the Evangelist - Vol. 1. Civil Lines - Rohtak,
India: Sri Ramakrishna Ma Prakashan, 1967.
8. Prabhananda, Swami. First meetings with Sri Ramakrishna.
Chapter on Mahendranath Gupta, 26 Feb '82. (pp. 200-209).
Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math, 1987.