Some Feedback from the readers -2 

From: "Partha Sircar"
Date: Wed Feb 5, 2003 5:56 am
Subject: Re: [mukto-mona] Greetings

It is so heartening to hear appreciation for our immense spirtual treasure trove. For your information, Miroslav, a very learned man from near your country, Mircea Eliade from Rumania, spent 3 years in Calcutta, studying Sanskrit and Indian philosophy and spent 6 months in the Himalayas practicing yoga. He has written some books on Indian philosophy, mostly in French. 

Partha

--- miroslav_korinek@y... wrote:

 Dear Friends,

 I have found Your site by chance. For a Note: I live in Czech Republic. I am lovely surprised of the opportunity to connect to the site respected Your trimendous cultural sphere. The Indian spiritual heritage contents the Truth. I was contact with them by reading some literature, however not in original languages, which I do not know, but in the Czech langauge editions only. The first I found was the Bhagavatgita translated by Mr. Janicek in Prague City to the Czech language. I have a profound Respect to the Truth mediated by Your Doctrines in the Indian Continent. Being emphasized to the spiritual motion, I respect Your resources of the Knowledge, and on the other side of the matter, I seen Your orientation to the "West" forms of the attitude to the Being. That makes a surprise to me. I respect You (the East), and You respect the West. Being born in one of the European Countries laying in the direction to West from Your India Continent, I know, the Europe is not so considerable Area for the spiritual living. The developing of the European Thinking is fully of Contrasts, and fully of fights Actions between persons, representing different Oppinions. For last two centuries only happened, the fights are less ferocious. Last century has been under influence of falling trends of the interest for the spirituality. Your contact to the European a USA civilisation was founded on the Roots from the more recent centuries, when the spiritual interests was more strictly. The heritage of ancient Times is present to the Nowadays. Let look to the reality in the Living of People in the "West" Contries. I am triste seeing Films in which is many violence, leaking blood and shuts from guns, but less of the Prayers, meditation, devotion or some Acts of the Religion. In my country lives one she-Yogi, and She expressed the characteristic: "..rozklada se zevnitr...", (I try to translate : ".. this is destruction processed inner (from within) ..."). However, reading documensts concerning the "Eastern" knowledge I feel the Pleasure impressed by the touch of the Truth. 

With many greetings 

Yours Miroslav

From: "Partha Sircar"
Date: Mon Jan 27, 2003 8:07 am
Subject: Nourishing Mukto-mona and Bengali Renaissance

Dr. Jaffor Ullah saheb's translations of Meghdoot, with the wonderful pictures of the cloud were really uplifting. It also made me feel about the tremendous possibilities of Mukto-mona; not just a forum for discussing the merits and demerits of RSS and BNP, and the various atrocities - not to say they are not important. Of course the occasional diversions on Ila Mitra Annadashankar Roy and others particularly by Prof. Ajoy Roy were really 'nourishing'. All this gave me an incentive to my piece below. Please forgive me if you find it worthless or boring.

Recently, I have been reading the book: Renaissance by the eminent historian Paul Johnson. The far reaching influence of the fourteenth and fifteenth century Europe: Dante, Boccacio, Chaucer, Davinci, really left a deep impression on me, particularly the wide range of areas - literature, art, sculpture, buildings - left such an indelible mark for years tocome. I was suddenly reminded of something by Nirad C. Chaudhuri (my idol!) I had read, where he indicated a comparable glorious era for the Bengalees. It appears that nearly all the greats were born in the nineteenth century, and reached their peaks by the 1930s - the effect of the newfound interaction with the British/Western influence cannot be denied.

But what a train of lumineries they were, in a wide array of human endeavour! I have humbly tried to make a small list of these luminaries, whose stamp has not only been deeply imprinted in the two Banglas, but often in the whole subcontinent,and sometimes to the world beyond. Here is my list (in no particular order:

Raja Rammohan Roy (pioneer in everything) Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (educationist, social reformer) Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (author, Hindu revivalist - Bande Mataram, great intellectual) Michael Madhusudan Dutt (pioneer poet) Girish Chandra Ghosh (pioneer dramatist and actor) Sarat Chandra Chatterjee (athor par excellence) Rabindranath Tagore (who is he?) Chittaranjan Das (great political leader and Philanthrophist) Surendranath Banerjee (pioneering national leader - India League) Manabendranath (M.N.) Roy9 founder of communist party, worked with Lenin, revolution in Mexico) Bipin Chandra Pal(pioneer political leader - Lal-Bal-Pal) Vivekananda (spirttual leader, social reformer par excellence) Keshab Chandra Sen (legendary leader of Brahmo Samaj) Subhas Chandra Bose(great patriot, political leader) Jagadish Chandra Bose(pioneer of science in India; inventor of diode for radio) Satyendranath Bose (scientist - Bose-Einstein Statistics) Meghnad Saha (astrophysicist - Saha limit) Nandalal Bose (great artist) Gaganendra Nath Tagore(great artist) Abanindra Nath Tagore (great artist) Dwijendralal Roy(poet, dramatist - Dhana dhanye --) Profulla Chandra Roy (pioneer chemist and industrialist) Ashutosh Mukherjee (educationist- put Calcutta University in the world map) Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (pioneering philologist) Jadunath Sarkar (pioneer historian) Aurobindo Ghosh (great political and spiritual leader) P. C. Mahalanobis (pioneer stasticiac; founder of ISI) Ramesh Chandra Majumdar (historian, educationist) Kazi Nazrul Islam (great poet, patriot) Ustad Alauddin Khan (pioneer of Indian classical music) Muzaffar Ahmed (Kakababu)(pioneer and legendary communist party leader) Nirad C. Chaudhuri (fearless author) Nabin Chandra Das (inventor of rosogolla)

As a personal prerogative, I did not include the name of Ramkrishna Paramhansa. To me he is a god-man in the same level as Buddha, Christ or Mohammed. I ask the reader's consideration for this idiosyncrasy.

A list such as this is obviously subjective. I am sure to some, I have left out a few names and some of those listed do not belong. But the overall message is undeniable. I can think of very few, born in the next century to measure up to the same stature: definitely Satyajit Ray, Bangabandhu Mujibur Rahman and perhaps Amartya Sen.

From:  "Ghulam Murshid"
Date:  Mon Feb 16, 2004  3:47 am
Subject:  Re: [banglarnari] Mukto-mona News Update [07/02/04]

Dear Abhijit and Charbak,

I have been browsing through the mail I received during the last fortnight and was fascinated by the nature of the discussion as well as by the amount of tolerance and restraints showed by participants, particularly in religious matters.  It seems the name Mukto-Mona does bear some meaning.  However, I thought that the discussions are too wide ranging.  I sincerely believe that fewer topics and more in-depth discussion would be more useful. Perhaps less politics and more social and cultural issues, including religious issues would be a better idea.

I noticed that an article on Rokeya was published.  In this connection, can I submit one of my articles on Rokeya as well?  Interested readers can find it at the following address: www.murshid.co.uk/Rokeya.pdf

I will soon post another article called “Adarshabad O Manusher Samgkat” i.e. Idealism and the Crisis of Humanity.  In this article, I argue that idealism has separated humans from other animals.  However, when it turns into dogmas it transforms humans back into animals.

More later,

Regards,

Ghulam Murshid

From:  "Abdullah Al Amin"
Date:  Wed Mar 10, 2004  2:31 pm
Subject:  A question to Mr. Roy

Peace be on those who follow the truth. I hope you are in good health.

I have read some of your writings long ago in NFB and after a few years later I am reading some of them in your homepage. I find the same tone, same accusations. So here I have a small question for you (in fact all others who think bashing religion is cool). Did you not ever find a good point in Islam (or in any other religion for that matter) that you can agree with? If so, would you sometimes mention those good points in your writeups? May be then your writings will look to be more balanced. If not, please do yourself a favor and stop concerning with something that cannot give you anything good and concern yourself with something more meaningful to you.

In this regard I must say that if you really like to learn Islam ( or in any other religion for that matter) you have to ask your questions one-by-one. Ask a question, get the answers, if those suit you then fine, if not then you are right in having doubt in that religion. But if you find an answer that seem to you to be logical, why don't you appreciate it and acknowledge it?

I may reply to some of your questions based on my limited knowledge, but I do not think you will be ever convinced by anybody if you are hell-bent on not seeing eye-to-eye. Anyway I appreciate your efforts to come up with difficult questions trying to get to the truth. In that way you should continue. But if you are not honest with your intentions, you might be losing something.

All the best,

Abdullah Al Amin Tokyo, Japan

Avijit Roy Responds:

Abdullah Al Amin wrote: 

 Peace be on those who follow the truth. I hope you are in good health.   I have read some of your writings long ago in NFB and after a few years  later I am reading some of them in your homepage. I find the same tone, same  accusations. So here I have a small question for you (in fact all others who  think bashing religion is cool). Did you not ever find a good point in Islam  (or in any other religion for that matter) that you can agree with? If so,  would you sometimes mention those good points in your writeups? May be then  your writings will look to be more balanced.

Response:

Response: History reveals that the consequences of beliefs have created mental barriers to understanding and has caused ignorance, misery, violence and war. MM site examines beliefs, faiths and superstitions to help become aware of their methodology and dangerous consequences. Most of the freethinkers like me consider religion to be not only untrue, but harmful as well. It has been used to justify war, slavery, sexism, racism, homophobia, mutilations, intolerance, and oppression of minorities, women and humanists for centuries over centuries. The totalitarianism of religious absolutes chokes progress. You see our homepage like that because we feel in such a way. If you are liberal or claim to be taught by Islamic/religious good teaching, then you have to accept those fact. MM has not been created to publish "balanced" view. MM is not a news media. To propagate balanced view is not our motto. We cannot be balanced or neutral when an option is given to choose between blind faith and reason, progressiveness and superstition, humanism and cruelty, science and dogmatism, right?

Of course Religion also have good side that you might want to point out, but what I want to mention, Religion does not have a monopoly on good deeds. Most modern social and moral progress has been made by people free from religion--including Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Charles Darwin, Margaret Sanger, Albert Einstein, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, H. L. Mencken, Sigmund Freud, Bertrand Russell, Luther Burbank, Ahmed Shariff, Aroj Ali Matubbar, Humayun Azad and many others who have enriched humanity.

Abdullah Al Amin wrote: 

If not, please do yourself a  favor and stop concerning with something that cannot give you anything good  and concern yourself with something more meaningful to you.

Response:

Don't you think its a bit arrogant to advise what I would do and what not? What if I start advising you in the same way what you would write, and what not? :-)

Abdullah Al Amin wrote: 

In this regard I must say that if you really like to learn Islam ( or in any  other religion for that matter) you have to ask your questions one- by-one.  Ask a question, get the answers, if those suit you then fine, if not then  you are right in having doubt in that religion. But if you find an answer  that seem to you to be logical, why don't you appreciate it and acknowledge  it?

Response: 

Please be assured that I am learning and updating myself continuously. Freethinking and Rationalist approach is reasonable for me rather than blind belief. It allows me to do my own thinking. A plurality of individuals thinking, free from restraints of orthodoxy, allows ideas to be tested, discarded or adopted. Whenever I find the answer, I accept- dont worry about that;  whereas in your case, you tend to believe without caring any reason. Reason is a tool of critical thought that limits the truth of a statement according to the strict tests of the scientific method. Most of the times believers ignores this truth. They cannot form their opinions about religion independently of tradition, authority, or established belief.

Abdullah Al Amin wrote: 

I may reply to some of your questions based on my limited knowledge, but I  do not think you will be ever convinced by anybody if you are hell- bent on  not seeing eye-to-eye.

Response: 

You are most well-come. Be my guest! I know that the store of human knowledge and understanding is constantly growing. Some of today's beliefs will be swept away for better ideas tomorrow just as some of yesterday's ideas have been replaced by today's knowledge. If you can come with a better argument to refute me, why shouldn't I accept?

Abdullah Al Amin wrote: 

if you are not honest with your intentions, you might be  losing something.

Response: 

I think I am honest about my intention. May be that is why I am gaining more than loosing :-)

Thanks a lot for writing in MM.

take care,

 Avijit

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful ( on amazan.com) :

Interesting debate, January 23, 2003

Reviewer: A customer

This site has a secular perspective. The forum is where most of the action is.

The contributors are mainly but not exclusively Bangladeshi, Bengali and Indian and the topics largely concerned with South Asia and religious/secular debate. There are a large number of extreme left contributors who form perhaps the consensus political view. Some quite original and articulate anti-fundamentalist religion voices are well represented although defenders of Islam and Hinduism from critiques are there too.

Overall the site offers a very valuable forum for the free exchange of views which is the essence of the democratic model.

The level of debate ranges from lousy to brilliant and one needs to be a bit patient reading through the articles to find occasionally some quite original and intelligent articles.

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