Visva-Bharati holds Kali talk online to avoid disruption

Visva-Bharati holds Kali talk online to avoid disruption

Subject: History

Section: Modern India

Context: Fearing disruption, Visva-Bharati University on Monday decided to hold a scheduled talk on the worship of goddess Kali on online mode instead of making it an offline event as it was originally announced to be. With the university sensing trouble, the speaker, Swami Saradatmananda Maharaj of the Sree Ramakrishna Ashrama in Kolkata, eventually delivered the lecture online from Kolkata.

Why students are opposing it?

According to those students, religion and idol worship had always been kept out of the Tagore-founded institution that was rooted in Brahmo tradition.

Brahmo Samaj Philosphy

• Brahmo Samajists have no faith in Avatars (incarnations) Brahmo Samajists denounce polytheism and idol-worship. Brahmo Samajists are against caste system. Brahmo Samajists took no definite stand on the doctrine of karma and transmigration of soul (Rebirth) and left it to individual Brahmos to believe either way.

Tagore and Brahmo Samaj

• Rabindranath’s grandfather Prince Dwarkanath Tagore was a staunch supporter of Rammohun Roy in his attempts at reforming Hindu society. Dwarkanath’s son, Debendranath Tagore, also became pillar of the Brahmo Samaj Movement. In 1863 Debebendranath established a meditation centre and guest house on some land about 100 miles from Calcutta at a place called ‘Shantiniketan’, the Abode of Peace.
• Rabindranath wrote Sandhya Sangeet– Evening songs, a volume of Bengali verse, came out in 1882. Between 1884 and 1890 various volumes of his poems appeared, together with a profuse output of prose articles, criticism, plays and novels. Tagore married when he was 23. At this stage, beyond his literary pursuits, he had begun sharing his father’s religious responsibilities. In 1911, Tagore took over the leadership of the Adi Brahmo Samaj.
• Under the influence of Rabindranath, Adi Brahmo Samaj was showing signs of revival. The old rule of allowing Brahmins to the pulpit were being relaxed and men of other castes were being invited into it.
• The TattwabodhiniPatrika had secured a new band of writers and young men trained under Rabindranath came forward to take up the work of the Samaj. Rabindranath was also intimate with Trailokyanath Sanyal who inspired him in the composition of Brahmasangeet.
• Rabindranath stated a Boys Boarding school – the Brahamacharyashram (or Ashram) School was inaugurated on 22 December 1901 with only a few pupils, his son being one of them, and with an equal number of teachers. It was to be run on the pattern of teachers and pupils living together amidst natural surroundings and willingly accepting an austere standard of living, often working with their own hands in Shantiniketan.

Visva-Bharati University

• The university was set up by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore in 1921 at Santiniketan, Bolpur in West Bengal’s Birbhum district.
• It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it Visva-Bharati, which means the communion of the world with India.
• Until independence, it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament.

Significance

• Rabindranath Tagore believed in open-air education and had reservations about any teaching done within four walls.
• This was due to his belief that walls represent the conditioning of the mind.
• Tagore did not have a good opinion about the Western method of education introduced by the British in India; on this subject, Tagore and Gandhiji’s opinion matched.
• So he devised a new system of learning in Visva-Bharati. He allowed students to continue their course till the student and his teacher both are satisfied.
• At Visva-Bharati, if a course demanded by a student is not available, then the university will design a course and bring teachers for that course.
• The university would not be bothered by the consideration of whether there is a demand for the course.
• Ramakrishna Mission (RKM) is a Hindu religious and spiritual organisation which forms the core of a worldwide spiritual movement known as the Ramakrishna Movement or the Vedanta Movement.
• The mission is named after and inspired by the Indian saint Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and founded by Ramakrishna’s chief disciple Swami Vivekananda on 1 May 1897.
• The headquarters of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission are situated at an area named Belur in the district of Howrah, West Bengal, India.
• The entire campus of the headquarters is popularly known as ‘Belur Math’.
• Vedanta (also known as Uttara Mīmāṃsā) is one of the six (āstika) schools of Hindu philosophy. Literally meaning “end of the Vedas”, Vedanta reflects ideas that emerged from the philosophies contained in the Upanishad