Re: [Devotees of Holy Trio:7892] Times of India‏

[Bharat Churiwala]

Respected Devotees,
 
Saadar Pranaams.
 
Today once again I want to share some of my personal thoughts ( I am writing this not as a moderator of the group ( many times I feel that being given the responsibility of moderating this group many times curtails my expressing my personal views of feelings) but as a normal devotee of Holy Trio).
 
The first point is that many times (definitely only few times) we Devotees of Holy Trio, get carried away by some unnecessary subjects. We express our opinion or view on trivial happenings or some aberrations.
 
And in doing so, most of the time we miss or overlook some VERY IMPORTANT ISSUES!
 
I am referring the Res. Somesh Maharaj's postings titled OFF THE BEATEN TRACK!
 
I can tell you that I had to read the article atleast 3 times to believe my eyes.
 
In fact this aticle appeared in Times of India dt. 7th September 2008. There are already 14 comments posted on TOI website. Barring one comment, each comment is EXTOLLING THIS GREAT STORY!
 
I give here below one of selected one from COMMENDING THE STORY...and the one who has commented adversely:
 
Sandeep Kumar, Noida, India, says: I consider myself lucky to have been Shreesh's batchmate at IIT-Kanpur. Personally I have never met a more gifted person , intellectually and spiritually, in my life. Many of my batchmates will agree with me. I think media should take some time away from the sensational (and senseless? ) news it churns out daily and devote some time to the achievements and frustrations of noble-minded souls like Shreesh. The intent is not to make him famous or a martyr, but to correct our educational system such that we are able to produce more gifted people like Shreesh in our society. His original name is Shreesh Jadhav . His current name at Belur Math is Swami Sarvottamananda. His B.Tech project work (way back in 1989) became a paper in ACM journal (ACM is the highest research society for computer science the EE equivalent is IEEE). His paper was sent for review to Dr Binay K Bhattarcharya, a renowned prof in computational geometry at Canada McGill Univ.This gentleman ( I believe Dr Binay is still shining somewhere in US) made zero contribution to the paper but added his name as the first author of a paper which was entireley Shreesh's work. I consider this as intellectual dishonesty of the highest order. Dr Binay also went ahead and added one of his students as an extra author of the paper . Shreesh was hurt but he was magnanimous enough to forgive them and move on. What a shock this must have been to his young mind then ? Shreesh's B Tech project partner Sanjay Malhotra became an IAS topper the next year and was splashed all across the media . Sanjay is also a great human being. But he was incorrectly credited in many interviews to have won the best B.Tech project , in which by his own admission , all the work had been done by Shreesh. Shreesh found no mention anywhere except in the IIT-Kanpur folklore of his many talents. Nevertheless there are some factual errors in Rahul's article. Shreesh could not win the PGM or a perfect 10 in pur batch because some prof in Sociology gave him a B (someone who was destined to change society got a B in Sociology ?) . He was one of the two candidates but this award went to Vineet Gupta who currently works at Google Bangalore. But all of us in the batch consider Shreesh to be a very gifted personality (may be someone who was deserving of a higher award if IIT could institute one) . He was able to produce outputs with minimum input and was able to solve problems from all the engineering disciplines (not just computer science). He came into JEE without any coaching (all Kota folks raise your hands !) and stood second in the country. His approach to problem solving is very refreshing and he makes even difficult problems look absurdly simple. If he explains, everyone understands faster and better than what our professors could do. For us just knowing Shreesh is a source of immense confidence (we donot have to be overawed by Google or anyone). For the IIT-Kanpur batch of 1989 Shreesh is our universal "Guruji" with whom you can joke as well as discuss the deepest philosophy. I will pen a book on him someday if he agrees. I have many questions for him next time when we meet like what is happening in Orissa and what can we do about it etc... ? Sandeep [7 Sep, 2008 1244hrs IST]
 
and the one which responded negatively:
 
Pradeep Bhat, Yeshwantpur, says: What a foolishness! Such brilliant career wasted and doing some 'social service'! Yes, India needs social workers, and we have enough of them.But why we are in such pathetic state is not because of lack of social workers but non-coherent govt policies which lack substaance and half baked.Even when policy is implemented, beurocracy makes sure to takes its pie. [8 Sep, 2008 1420hrs IST]
 
If this mail could not bring TEARS IN OUR EYES, THEN NOTHING ELSE CAN....
 
I have no shame to call myself as A PROUD DEVOTEE OF THE HOLY TRIO AND RAMAKRISHNA MATH AND MISSION, BELUR MATH.
 
a devotee

If you have not read the article posted by our Dearest Somesh Maharj ( how many times we have expressed our gratitude to Somesh Maharaj for his UNTIRING EFFORTS inspite of his heavy burden of Duties and his own spiritual practices) here is a link once again: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-3454508,prtpage-1.cms


 

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[Arnab Lahiri]

Dear Bharat jee
I dont know how; but somehow I have missed this article written by
you. Its my nature that sometimes I surf the previous pages to make
sure that I have read all the articles and suddenly I came across this
article of yours. Sincerely speaking I have no words at all to
define...... One thing that made my hairs stand erect is the line
where you have mentioned that (or as the article says) the elite
socialite got B grade..... Really sometimes I fail to decipher what
actually is education!!! Is it all grades or something more than that.
I have seen that in any premier institutes the caliber or the
efficiency of a student is judged by his grades. Not only the
teachers, or the institutions but sometimes the organisations do
commit this kind of mistakes. Are the grades the only method to judge
ones' true potential. If these grades were the only creteria to judge
ones caliber and potential then I believe that Rabindra Nath Tagore
and Vivekananda should have been PhD with decent marks. Instead they
refute this so called "Bread winning education". I still remember the
words of Swamijee where he says that- "Education is the manifestation
of perfection already in Man." In fact I have come across institutes
where even students commit suicide because they fail to perform in
exams and fail to attain the grades. Yes, I am talking about IIT
Kanpur only where last to last year when I was in Allahabad I came
across this news that two students commit suicide in consecutive gap
of 3 months or so because they fail to perform in exams.. And see,
this is the same Institute IIT Kanpur which has nurtured talents such
as Mr. Shreesh (Swami Sarvottamananda). Regarding TOI I am thankful
that they have published this article, inspite of the fact that half
of the readers read Page 3 and the other half is busy in analyzing
about politics. Articles of this kind should be published often so
that our youths can learn that there lies a world outside the realm of
classrooms, corporate, marks and grades. India is a land of
Philosophy. It is the same land where Kings have renounced their all
to reach the truth and then to preach the same, it is the same land
where virtues are given more mileage, where co-operation out throw
competition, the same land where compassion is more prioritize than
comparison between haves and haves not. Saints of this kind are
expected in this nation. We must not be surprise with this kind of
news, what should make us surprise should be the alter news actually.
But with time we have lost these things and that’s the reason that
these things now come to us as news.

Regards,
Arnab Lahiri

[Supriyo Bose]

Hi,

I am an alumnus of IIT Kanpur (1999-2003). I was unaware of a senior joining the Mission. 
We had a small study circle there called Vivekananda Samiti which would read from Swamiji's works each week. It's wonderful to know that Shreeshji was in the same group.

It is heart warming to read this story.

Regards,
Supriyo

2008/9/11 Arnab Lahiri <arnabl...@gmail.com>

[goutam bhattacharya]

Dear Devotees,

 

It is indeed heart warming (and not a surprise fact) that there are many such Sanyassins & Brahmacharins, who are alumnus of IITs, in our Beloved Ramakrishna Order. We do not come to know because they always avoid publicity and never reveal identity of their Purbashram. I come across a Sanyassin, Revered Darshan Maharaj (Swami Atmayogananda), who serves in the General Secretary Maharaj's Secretarial Department in Ramakrishna Math & Ramakrishna Mission Head Quarter in Belur Math.He used to work as a simple typist (although he was a B Tech from IIT Roorkee and M Tech from IIT Bombay) and was a person full of love and humility.

 

I really consider myself to be highly priviledged/fortunate and proud to belong to the Holy Trinity.

 

With Love and Namaskar,

 

[Arnab Lahiri]

Thanks to all the devotees for such wonderful and overwhelming
responses. I am sure that these words will surely motivate the youths
and let them feel that there is life outside grades and
books.....Indeed Humility, ethics and virtues come above all as we are
supposed to be human- the greatest creation of god.
Please keep posting...