Swami Atmasthananda (10 May 1919 – 18 June 2017) was the fifteenth president of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He joined the Ramakrishna Order at Belur Math at the age of 22 years.
In 1945 the then-President of the Order Swami Virajananda gave him Brahmacharya vows, and in 1949 Sannyasa vows and the name Atmasthananda.
He is sometimes known as the monk who changed PM Modi’s life. Back in 1966, when Modi has expressed his desire to become a monk after spending some tim at the ashram in Rajkot, it was Atmasthananda who told him that Sannyas was not for him, and his work was among the people and not in seclusion.
The Pointless Controversy
Swamiji passed away last Sunday at the Rama Krishna Mission Seva Pratishthan, Belur. On Monday morning, the remains were kept in a glass coffin at the Sanskriti Bhavan of the complex.
Later in the evening, it was taken around the various temples of the Math before being taken for a bath at the Mayer Ghat. It was then brought to his quarters at the complex, shortly before the final rites were conducted.
He was given a salute by the state government police. Since then, there have been posts on social media claiming him to be a religious purist who didn’t deserve a gun salute. People have even gone as far as comparing him to the likes of Bal Thackeray and Zakir Naik.
And the pseudo liberalism doesn’t stop. People have gone on to accuse Mother Teresa of being a converter and there have even been allegations of severe corruption inside Ramakrishna Mission.
It Is Time ‘Libtards’ Grew Some Sense
While it is perfectly laudable to have a liberal outlook at things, it is NOT OKAY to term anybody who is not an atheist as a religious purist.
According to what we know, Swamiji has never been known to enforce religion upon anyone or have Hindutwa propagandist inclination at any point of time.
The primary mantra for Ramkrishna Mission has always been Vivekananda’s words which said,
“To serve mankind is to serve God.”
Swamiji spent several years in solitude of Shyamla Tal in the Himalayas. In 1952, he was posted to Ranchi TB Sanatorium branch as an Assistant Secretary.
He worked hard to expand its services in many ways. He was sent to Rangoon (Yangon) Sevashrama as its Secretary in 1958. He developed the Sevashrama hospital and it soon became the best hospital of Burma (Myanmar) at that time.
He travelled extensively in various parts of the country and visited many branches of the Order and some unaffiliated centers. In 1998, he visited various places in US, Canada, Japan and Singapore.
He also went to Malaysia, Fiji, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh at different times. In all those places, he spread the message of Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi, Vivekananda and Vedanta and also gave spiritual initiation to many seekers.
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No matter if you are an atheist, an agnostic, a non believer, or whatever degree of irreligious, one cannot just compare someone like Swami Atmasthananda to the likes of a religious fanatic like Bal Thackeray, a pro-terrorism speaker like Zakir Naik and an essential corrupt like Asharam Bapu.
There is a dearth of good people in the world anyway and we do not need pseudo liberals spewing hatred at everyone, thank you very much.
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Not even one sentence of this article justifies why the swami deserved gun salutes. Not even one.
I fail to understand your interpretation.
Besides that, the article was largely aimed at the overtly projected atheism of liberals and bashing anybody who doesn’t confirm to that. The fact that the controversy is pointless has been explained in the “The pointless controversy” paragraph. Consequently, if the controversy is pointless, there should be no issues with the gun salute.
And if you can,I would be more than happy to know and understand, why do you and some others think that the gun salute was unnecessary?
Let’s go by the title. You have a pre assumed notion that those who do not feel that gun salute was justified are “pseudo” liberals, and not liberals. Second, and the main issue, your title says that swami deserved every inch of the gunshots. But the article doesn’t explain why.
Yes, I agree that comparing him to Zakir Naik is absolutely rubbish and disrespectful. But I fail to understand your argument in favour of the respected late swami.
Surely the discussion should be on why the gun salute was necessary ?
If a policeman bends down and ties the shoe laces of the IG of Police or the local MLA , we will be asking why he bent down and tied the shoe laces ?
Any action deserves a justification. Inaction does not need to be justified unless there are severe consequences to that inaction.
In this case , there would have no consequences , nor any discussion , if the Swami had not been given a gun salute.