== ANOTHER WAY OF BANGALISATION ==
Namaskar,
We all know that our Supreme Father Baba is the Personification of
dharma and that He loves all equally. He favors no community, language,
or culture more than another. All are His divine children. And it is our
duty to project this idea to one and all.
Perhaps, nowhere else are His teachings put on display for all to see
than in His scripture: Ananda Marga books.
Thus when a slew of full--page colour photos of dogmatic deities of
Bengal are inserted into the 2008 edition of Ananda Vacanamrtam part
11-12, when no other AM book carries such an array of photos, then that
should peak our interest and we should investigate the matter seriously.
WHY SUCH A SERIOUS POINT
It is well known that pictures, not words, capture the minds of people:
Everybody looks at pictures, often skipping over the words entirely, and
'readers' often formulate their ideas based on those pictures. This is
the common way.
So if anyone were to open Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 11-12, then they would
see huge pictures of deities of Bengal-- 16 pages worth. Naturally,
general readers will then think that this book is about Bengali deities
or that Baba is concerned most about Bengali heritage, not that of any
other land or place.
When in fact, in AV 11-12, Baba is pointing out the defects and history
of so many dogmatic deities, of so many lands and places. That is the
main emphasis of AV-11: To wipe out all the dogmas about such deities.
But certain publishers have only inserted those of Bengal, as if that
was Baba's entire focus.
So the point is a serious one: It is a misportrayal of Baba's intention,
plus any idea once placed in a scripture becomes progressively more
difficult to root out as time goes by. For example, if anyone were to
attempt to change the Bible or the Koran today, it would cause a huge
uproar. Hence, changing Baba's books in generations from now will not be
easy, that is why we must act today to withdraw the dogmatic insertion of
Bengali gods and goddesses into our AM books.
AV-11 IS ABOUT SO MANY DOGMATIC DEITIES
To put forth AM ideals, Baba has to unearth and logically refute so many
dogmas and specifically in AV-11, He addresses so many dogmatic forms of
worship from so many places.
Baba addresses Chat' Puja (p.50), Yajinaoaviit (p.53), Karmaka'n'd'
(p.50, 58), Puri temple (p.16), and Jagganth (p.17). These are all
widely celebrated and dogmatic deities, and Baba has taken great care to
detail their dogmatic history and point out their defects.
Yet although, millions and millions, both inside and outside India,
worship such deities, there is not so much as a single picture of any of
them in AV-11.
Certain publishers only highlighted the deities of Bengal. Only those
deities were graced to have a picture placed in our AM book.
Bengali deities like: Shiitala, Bhadraka'lii, Carak Festival, Satya
Piir, Banbibi, Mansasa', Daksinaray and Tusu. Many of which are just
local or backyard type of deities from Bengal. Many of these like Tusu
and Banbibi are not even known outside of certain villages within Bengal.
Yet all these dogmatic Bengali deities have been honored with
full-color, high-gloss, pictures in AV-11. These glossy pages are so
thick in comparison to the other pages of the book that one cannot open
the book without noticing these pictures.
All of which points towards the Bangalisation of AM teachings.
BEST WOULD HAVE BEEN NOT TO PUT ANY PICTURES
Here the point is not that all the dogmatic deities should be displayed
in our book-- probably best would be if there were no pictures of them
at all. For more about this see note 1 after the signature.
The striking point is that somehow certain Publishers only inserted the
dogmatic deities of Bengal into the AM book. It seems they will do
anything and everything in order to put Bengal at the top of the list,
as if Baba cared more about Bengal than any other place.
Please excuse me for making such a comment, but it does seem to be true.
LET US NOT FORGET
There seems to be no end to what certain people in AM will do to
highlight Bengali culture.
As described above their latest attempt comes in the form of inserting
big, full-page colour photos of dogmatic deities of Bengal into the 2008
edition of Ananda Vacanamrtam Part 11-12. In that publication, Baba is
pointing out the dogmatic forms of worship of so many gods and
goddesses-- in order to logically refute those dogmas-- yet only those
deities from Bengal got a full-page picture in our AM book.
But this is not an isolated incident.
With all due respect, such publishers have wrongly flooded our Prout
Nutshell series with discourses on Bengal (PNS 19-21); they have falsely
declared Kolkata as a tiirtha and instituted the dogma of Mahaprayan
only to highlight their Kolkata campus; they have inserted the phrase,
'Translated from the Original Bengali', into so many AM books, even when
those discourses were not given in Bengali; indeed there is seemingly no
end to what they will do. The list goes on and on.
This episode then about placing glossy photos of Bengali deities stands
as the latest in a long-string of mishaps towards Bangalisation.
WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT & MUST BE STOPPED
Here are more points about why this situation demands our urgent attention:
1) By inserting these glossy photos of dogmatic deities they have verily
made this Bangalisation part of our AM history, to be handed down from
generation to generation.
2) The general public does not read and will not read whole discourses.
Instead they will look at the pictures. So they will think the book is
about the glory of those Bengali deities; they will not understand that
Baba is tearing them down.
3) Others will think that Baba only tried to fix and rectify the dogmas
of Bengal and no other place, as if Baba's teachings are not universal.
4) Scripture is the top-most representation of any spiritual
organisation, and now, once again, certain people have littered our
scripture with their attempts at Bangalisation.
5) While others are hungry for the post, Sarvatmananda continues in his
course to establish Bangalisation in our Marga. This must not be
overlooked.
6) This letter is not about any group per se, but the dharmic
establishment of AM teachings and doing as per Baba's wish-- not
tainting AM teachings with any geo or socio-sentiment.
7) Again, the time to act is now. With each passing day it will be more
and more difficult to take these dogmatic Bengali deities out of our AM
books.
BABA'S BLESSING
By Baba's grace, His books should be kept pristine and no attempt at
distortion or Bangalisation like the insertion of such photos in our AM
books should be permitted.
Baba says, "The scriptures containing spiritual injunctions must be
totally flawless." (NSS)
Namaskar,
Gagan
Note 1: THE USE OF PICTURES AND PHOTOS IN AM BOOKS
Photos in any book make a deep impression on the reader.
We normally do not highlight the dogmas that Baba is pointing out. For
example, if Baba is pointing out the defects of pornography we do not
then display a nude or lewd photo, as that will degenerate the mind of
the reader and wrongly highlight a dogma. Same is the case if we were to
insert pictures of liquor when Baba is discussing the problems of
intoxicants.
So if we want to put photos in AM books it should be of people doing
sadhana and engaging in our AM related practices. Photos should not
highlight or glorify the very dogmas that Baba is tearing down. That
will give readers the wrong impression.
More can be said about this but I think the idea is clear. Thus to put
photos of dogmatic Bengali deities in our dharmic AM books is to goad
people toward to dogma of idol worship and / or give them a false
impression of AM teachings.
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WT Conduct Rule:
"No logic, no reasoning but the compliance of order."
(Point #1 of 'Fourteen Points')
Note 1: This above rule Baba has made for workers to follow when there is a very proper,
ideal, & benevolent leadership in place. Only in that condition should this rule be obeyed,
otherwise...
But at present, the notorious and demonical authorities want to forcibly
impose this rule on simple, well-intentioned wts. Due to a lack of unity
those simple workers get suppressed. We should be acutely aware about this.
Note 2: Baba has given various lists of conduct rules for WTs such as (a) '32 Rules for Avadhutas', (b) '37 Workers Rules', (c) 'Fourteen Points', (d) 'Six Additional Rules', (e) 'The One Point', etc. All these rules are to be followed by each and every worker.
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