Swami Vivekananda Prophet of Patriotism

ContentsSWAMI VIVEKANANDA Prophet of Patriotism 150th Swami Vivekananda Jayanti Commemoration Number of TATTVA DARSANA Edited by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Preface --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Foreword --Sri V. Sundaram, IAS (Retd.) Swami Vivekananda’s Vision of the Hindu Nation --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda —The Patriot “Hindoo Monk” --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda and India’s Struggle for Freedom --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan` Swami Vivekananda and His Gospel of Social Service --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda’s Shaft in India’s Freedom Struggle --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Yogi Ramsuratkumar on Swami Vivekananda --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda --R. Vivekanandan It is for Indians to Write Indian History --Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda on the Aryan-Dravidian Theory --R. Vivekanandan Tribute to Swami Vivekananda --Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Is Ramakrishaism Non-Hindu? --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan “Did Swami Vivekananda Give Up Hinduism?”by A Hindu (G.C.Asnani) --Publisher’s Note --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Our Motherland --Swami Vivekananda PREFACE Adoration and worship of the Motherland is the hallmark of Hindu way of life. There is no greater Divinity than the Motherland and no higher form of worship than the service of the Mother. Since times immemorial, the Rishis of our land have glorified Mother Earth as the manifestation of the Supreme Mother and declared: “ jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi” – “Mother and Motherland are greater than the heavens”. "Maata bhoomi putroham prithivyaaa"— This land is my mother and I am her child – is the emphatic proclamation of the Vedic Aryan expressing his intense devotion to his Motherland. “Oh Motherland, we humans have been born from your womb and we move upon your surface. It is you who nourish the bipeds as well as quadrupeds. All humans are your children,” he declares in unequivocal terms expressing his gratefulness to his Mother who is the nourisher and sustainer of his life. This ideal of adoration and worship of the Motherland and elevating patriotism as the highest creed upheld by the Hindu race deteriorated when Hindus started founding various religious sects and creeds and started dividing the Hindu society into blind followers of various Gods and Goddesses without understanding the import of the Vedic dictum, “Ekam sat, vipraah bahudhaa vadanti”—“The Ultimate Reality is one and men of wisdom call Him by different names.” Swami Vivekananda points out the fall of the Aryan race: “Over the course of time….the descendants of the Aryans deviated from proper conduct; they lost their spirit of renunciation and their sharp intelligence and became deeply attached to popular customs. They even failed to understand the import of the Puranas, thinking them contradictory to one another because each one taught by emphasizing only a particular aspect of the spiritual ideal and because each taught people of ordinary intelligence the abstruse truths of Vedanta by using concrete imagery and elaborate language. They divided the whole of Sanatan Dharma--the sum total of all religious ideals--into many sects. They enkindled the fire of sectarian jealousy and anger and tried to throw each other into it. When the degraded Aryans had almost turned India, the land of religion, into a hell, Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna incarnated himself to demonstrate the true religion of the Aryan race. He made visible the unity among the innumerable sects and denominations of Hindu religion that had cropped up throughout the country over a vast period of time. At that time, the Hindu religion had been devastated by continuous sectarian fights, and was seemingly divided into many sects. Its various sects were overrun by hideous customs, and Hinduism had become confusing to Indians and an object of contempt to foreigners. Over time, this eternal religion had been debased, but Sri Ramakrishna incorporated its universal and eternal aspects in his own life to become a living example of the eternal religion, which he lived before all for the good of humanity.” Swamiji never wanted to create a new sect in the name of Sri Ramakrishna. He made it clear when he proclaimed: “The impulse is constantly coming nowadays to my mind to do this and to do that, to scatter broadcast on earth the message of Sri Ramakrishna and so on. But I pause again to reflect, lest all this give rise to another sect in India.” He asserted, “As for me, I again repeat--I form no sect, nor organization--I know very little and that little I teach without reserve.” He emphatically declared, “I haven’t been born to found one more sect in a world already teeming with sects.” Swamiji had clearly realized that the various reform movements that sprang up in the name of various reformers and new Sampradayas achieved no purpose other than disintegrating the Hindu society. Therefore he categorically declared, “Again, a piece of wood can only easily be cut along the grain. So the old Hinduism can only be reformed through Hinduism, and not through the new-fangled reform movements.” Swamiji's plan of action was to restore once again the most ancient ideal of worship of Motherland. Nethaji Subhas Chandra Bose quotes Sister Nivedita on Swami Vivekananda: “The queen of his adoration was his motherland. There was not a cry within her shores that did not find in him a responsive echo.” Swamiji thundered, “If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhoomi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality – it is India." His illustrious disciple, Sister Nivedita, was embodiment of the spirit of patriotism that the Swamiji upheld and she declared: “Age succeeds age in India, and even the voice of the Mother calls upon Her children to worship Her with new offerings, with renewal of their own greatness. Today she cries for the offering of nationality. Today she asks, as a household Mother of the strong men whom she has borne and bred, that we show to Her, not gentleness and submission, but manly strength and invincible might.” Her patriotic colleague in India’s freedom struggle, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo echoed: “Nationalism is a religion that has come from God.” Swami Rama Tirtha, who was inspired by Swami Vivekananda and followed his footsteps asks, “Is it not high time now to deify the entire Motherland and let every partial manifestation inspire us with devotion to the whole? Through praana pratishthaa the Hindus endow with flesh and blood the effigy of Durga. Is it not worthwhile to call forth the inherent glory and evoke fire and life in the more real Durga of Mother India?” And Sir John Woodroffe, the renowned Western exponent of Tantra Shastra, reminds the Indian people that “They will gain power (shakti) to uphold their race and will receive all their desires if they serve their country in the belief that service (seva) of Shri Bharata is worship (seva) of the Maha Shakti. Shri Bhagavati who, though appearing in one of her forms as Bharata Shakti is not merely a Devi of the Hindus but their name for the one Mother of the World." As Sri Aurobindo envisaged in his scheme of Bhavaani Mandir, “We have to create an order of dedicated missionaries who are prepared to offer their everything at the altar of the Mother. And what will be the work of these missionaries?” Sister Nivedita delineates their task: “Let the missionary travel with the magic lantern, with collections of post cards, with a map of India and with head and heart full of ballads, stories and geographical descriptions. Let him gather together the women, let him gather together the villagers, let him entertain them in the garden, in the courtyard, in the verandas, beside the well, and under the village tree with stories and songs and descriptions of India! India! India!” During the period of long struggle of Bharatavarsha for its emancipation from the clutches of alien aggressors who ruled over this country, there did appear in the religious field umpteen number of religious and spiritual movements and gurus and sampradayas, but very few of them were interested in the liberation of the country and people from alien masters and instead they all spoke only of liberation or moksha from the world. Swami Vivekananda severely condemned such so called spiritual leaders and movements: “A country where millions of people live on flowers of the Mohua plant, and a million or two Sadhus and a hundred million or so Brahmins suck the blood out of these poor people , without even the least effort for their amelioration--is that a country or hell? Is that a religion, or the devil’s dance?” He warned people of the hypocrites in the garb of religious preceptors: “When people try to practice religion, eighty per cent of them turn into cheats, and about fifteen per cent go mad. It is only the remaining five per cent who get some direct knowledge of the Truth and so become blessed. Therefore beware!”And he boldly revealed a truth: “Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries. What the world wants is character. The world is need of those whose life is one of burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like thunderbolt….” He wanted the service of the poor and downtrodden masses to be elevated to the highest creed of the land: “Whoever will be ready to serve him--no, not him but his children--the poor and the downtrodden, the sinful and the afflicted, down to the very worm--who will be ready to serve these, in them he will manifest himself. Through their tongue the Goddess of Learning Herself will speak, and the Divine Mother--the Embodiment of all power--will enthrone Herself in their hearts.” Today, the vast majority of the religious and spiritual leaders of the country are followers of those sects, Sampradayas, mutts and missions, which like the Semitic or Mlechha religions, assert that their own Gods or their own prophets are the true Gods and saviours. Hinduism has always stood for universal and eternal values of life and propagated the existence of one and only God who is beyond all names and forms and whom the saints and sages worshipped in various names and forms in accordance to their inclinations and ultimately realized their identity in Him, the only One. Unless and until the various sects, sampradayas, mutts and missions in the Hindu society inside and outside the country realize that the Divine Mother manifesting in the form of Motherland is the Mother of all Gods and Gurus and all forms of worship are to be subordinated to the worship of the Motherland, there is no salvation for Hindu society. Sri Aurobindo heard God’s voice speaking to him, “I am raising up this nation to send forth my word. When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word, that it is for the Sanatana Dharma that they arise, it is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world.” Swami Vivekananda said: “I was asked by an English friend on the eve of my departure, ‘Swami, how do you like now your motherland after four years’ experience of the luxurious, glorious, powerful West?’ I could only answer, ‘India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now to me holy; it is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha’.” Akshaya Triteeya, the auspicious day for the worship of the Divine Mother Sri Bharatamata, falling on Vasishaka Shukla Triteeya, every year must be celebrated in all Hindu institutions all over the country and abroad as the day to celebrate the worship of Sri Bharatabhavani. Temples, ashrams, mutts and religious congregations where the image or idol of Sri Bharata Bhavani is not installed and worshipped are all non-Hindu or Mlechha institutions and true Hindus must ignore them as useless tinsels. Sri Guruji Golwalkar gives his clarion call: “Devotion to Motherland of the intense, dynamic, uncompromising and fiery type is the life-breath of a free, prosperous and glorious national existence on the face of the earth. And we, the Hindus, are the inheritors of the most sublime devotion of the Motherland. Let those ancient embers of devotion lying dormant in every Hindu heart be fanned and joined in a sacred conflagration which shall consume all the past aggressions on our motherland and bring to life the dreams of Bharata Mata reinstated in her pristine undivided form.” Psuedo-sadhus and pseudo-sannyasins who are wandering today throughout the length and breadth of the country and outside, with bloated ego and selling their merchandise of religion, yoga, meditation, cults, occultism, sooth-sayings, etc., exploiting the gullible Hindus and minting money for their luxurious life will certainly be wiped out soon. Sri Bharatamata has not lost Her virginity and She will produce hundreds of Vivekanandas to carry on Her sacred mission. Swami Vivekananda himself has assured us: “Do you think that there will be no more Vivekanandas after I die! There will be no lack of Vivekanandas, if the world needs them--thousands and millions of Vivekanandas will appear--from where, who knows! Know for certain that the work done by me is not the work of Vivekananda, it is His work--the Lord’s own work! If one governor-general retires, another is sure to be sent in his place by the Emperor.” If this humble flower, SWAMI VIVEKANANDA—PROPHET OF PATRIOTISM, at the sacred feet of Sri Bharatamba could inspire even a handful of our youth to aspire to become Vivekanandas and dedicate their life for the service of our Motherland, the purpose of this Sadhu’s insignificant work would achieve a great result. Vande Mataram! -- SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN FOREWORD V. SUNDARAM, IAS (Retd.) I am beholden to Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan for doing me the honour of writing a Foreword to a book titled ‘SWAMI VIVEKANANDA – Prophet of Patriotism’, which, Bharat Mata Gurukulam Ashram is planning to bring out to commemorate the 150 th Jayanthi Celebrations of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). I have read all the essays which have been included in this proposed volume. Six of the articles are by Sadhu Prof. Rangarajan and two are by his son Shri R. Vivekanandan. Besides, there is a beautiful article by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945?). The concluding chapter titled, ‘OUR MOTHERLAND’ contains the most inspired, inspiring and timeless utterances of Swami Vivekananda on Patriotism, Nationalism, Nation-Building, Hindu Heritage and Sanatana Dharma. This Volume begins with a bracing and invigorating Editorial by Sadhu Prof. Rangarajan in which he has declared: “In the 150th Jayanthi Year of Swami Vivekananda, the endeavour of Hindus all over the world, especially in Bharat, should be to strive to see the dream of Swami Vivekananda --- The Prophet of Patriotism --- fulfilled. It would be possible only when the Sadhus, Sanyasins, Swamijis and Spiritual Heads of various Religious Organizations, Mutts and Missions, who claim themselves to be Hindus, wake up themselves, before awakening the Hindu Society. 2000 years of slavery and alien rule has converted the so-called spiritual leaders of our country into inheritors of Semitic Culture. The Semitic Religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam do not recognize any other religion or way of worship other than their own as True and are out to wipe them out. They consider their own Gods and Prophets the only Saviours of Mankind. This sort of fanatic and Fundamentalist ideal is alien to the hoary Hindu culture, whose Preceptors, the most ancient Rishis of Bharatavarsha proclaimed Loud and Clear in the Vedas ‘Ekam Sat Vipraah Bahudha Vadanti’ – The Ultimate Reality or Truth is One. Men of Wisdom call it by different names. Unfortunately a large majority of the so-called Hindu spiritual and religious leaders today are more attached to their own Sects, Sampradayas, Gods of Worship, Gurus, Mutts and Missions than to the ETERNAL AND UNIVERSAL HINDU WAY OF LIFE AND TO BHARAT, THE MOTHER OF ALL RELIGIONS …….. HOW MANY OF OUR SADHUS AND SANYASINS, PEETHAADHEESWARS AND SPIRITUAL LEADERS HAVE COME FORWARD TO JOIN HANDS WITH EACH OTHER, SHUNNING ALL THEIR ORGANIZATIONAL EGOS, TO FIGHT FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF OUR HINDU WAY OF LIFE AND HINDU SOCIETY? At the time of KUMBH MELA, they may all congregate on the banks of TRIVENI ---- Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati --- and have a Holy Dip and may even address congregations to show off their learning, but HOW MANY ARE READY TO COME OUT TO STAND UNITED WITH THE COMMON RUN TO PROTECT OUR VALUES OF LIFE, TO FIGHT FOR THE PROTECTION OF OUR TEMPLES AND FIGHT FOR STOPPING COW SLAUGHTER AND CONVERSION BY FORCE AND INDUCEMENT?” In this context the roaring and raging words of Swami Vivekananda come to my mind: “If you want to remain happy, throw away all your bells etc. into the Ganges and worship GOD IN MEN. Opening and closing of gates and with that bathing, clothing and feeding of God is all humbug. God in the Idol changing dress several times, while the living Thakurs outside shivering in cold is mockery of worship.” The following message of Swami Vivekananda has the power to move and uproot mountains: “May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all Souls. And above all, My God, the Wicked, My God the Poor, My God the Miserable, of all Races and Species, shall be THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF MY WORSHIP.” th After our Independence, on 15 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru promoted his VICIOUS CONCEPT OF FALSE SEMITIC NATIONHOOD under the label of SECULARISM. Unlike Mahatma Gandhi who was not either afraid or ashamed of proclaiming from roof top that he was a devout Hindu, and a staunch supporter of Sanatana Dharma, Nehru took special pride in announcing his Himalayan ignorance of Sanatana Dharma and Hindu Culture from all public platforms. Dressed in brief mortal official authority, Nehru’s supercilious, purblind audacity reached its acme of irresponsibility while delivering a lecture at the Lucknow University in 1951 when he said: “The ideology of Hindu Dharma is completely out of tune with the present times and if it took root in India, it would smash the country to pieces.” Thus we have before us two alternative perceptions of our NATION and NATIONHOOD --- One of Swami Vivekananda and Other of Jawaharlal Nehru. Swami Vivekananda represented the Time– Defying sources and forces of ancient Vedic Wisdom rooted in Sanatana Dharma. Jawaharlal Nehru represented the sources and forces of anti-Hindu Semitic Cultures. When we are celebrating the 150th Jayanthi of Swami Vivekananda, it is the Paramount Public Duty of every Patriotic Hindu to recall Swami Vivekananda’s definition of OUR NATIONHOOD which he gave in the form of a VEDIC INJUNCTION: “Hindu Dharma is the Quintessence of our National Life, hold fast to it if you want your country to survive, or else you would be wiped out in three generations.” Swami Vivekananda was indeed a Phenomenon, an extraordinarily Divine Being who aroused an instantaneous world-wide awe, astonishment, surprise and admiration from the moment he addressed the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in September 1893. Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) paid this tribute to Swami Vivekananda in 1977: “The best introduction to Swami Vivekananda is not to read about him, but to read him. The Swami’s personality, with all its charm and force, its courageousness, its spiritual authority, its fury and its fun, comes through to you very strongly in his writings and recorded words. Reading his printed words, we can catch something of the tone of his voice and even feel some sense of contact with his power. Vivekananda’s English recreates his personality for us even now, three quarters of a Century later.” Against this background, I offer my heartfelt and fervent salutations to Sadhu Prof V. Rangarajan for having taken a historic decision to bring out a Volume titled ‘SWAMI VIVEKANANDA – Prophet of Patriotism’. Sadhu Prof V. Rangarajan has rightly hailed Swami Vivekananda as the PROPHET OF PATRIOTISM. In my view, this Book must be prescribed as a compulsory textbook at the Secondary Education Level for inculcating, fostering and developing the right spirit of selfless patriotism amongst the Youth of India. It may be too much to even expect the alien, predatory and anti-Hindu UPA Government in New Delhi to promote anything even remotely Patriotic. Therefore, it becomes the foremost public duty of all BJP Governments in the States to make this Book a compulsory Text at the School Leaving Stage. Finally, let us hear the immortal words of Romain Rolland (18661944) on Swami Vivekananda: “Vivekananda’s words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his at thirty years distance without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shock, what transport, must have been produced when, in burning words, they issued from the lips of the hero!” SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S VISION OF THE HINDU NATION Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan “For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote — this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race — ‘everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything.’ All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virât? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods. Before we can crawl half a mile, we want to cross the ocean like Hanumân! It cannot be. Everyone going to be a Yogi, everyone going to meditate! It cannot be. The whole day mixing with the world with Karma Kânda, and in the evening sitting down and blowing through your nose! Is it so easy? Should Rishis come flying through the air, because you have blown three times through the nose? Is it a joke? It is all nonsense. What is needed is Chittashuddhi, purification of the heart. And how does that come? The first of all worship is the worship of the Virat — of those all around us. Worship It. Worship is the exact equivalent of the Sanskrit word, and no other English word will do. These are all our gods — men and animals; and the first gods we have to worship are our countrymen. These we have to worship, instead of being jealous of each other and fighting each other. It is the most terrible Karma for which we are suffering, and yet it does not open our eyes!”--This soul-stirring clarion call came more than a century ago, from the great patriot monk of India, Swami Vivekananda, who wanted the most ancient Hindu Nation, Bharatavarsha, to be seated once again on the throne of Loka Guru, the preceptor of the entire world. In the 150th Jayanti year of Swami Vivekananda, the endeavour of Hindus all over the world, especially in Bharat, should be to strive to see the dream of the prophet of patriotism fulfilled. It would be possible only when the sadhus and sannyasins, Swamijis and spiritual heads of various religious organizations, mutts and missions, who claim themselves to be Hindus, wake up themselves before awakening the Hindu society. Two thousand years of slavery and alien rule has converted the so called spiritual leaders of our country into inheritors of Semitic culture. The Semitic religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam do not recognize any other religion or way of worship other than their own as true and are out to wipe them out. They consider their own Gods and prophets the only saviours of mankind. This sort of fanatic and fundamentalistic ideal is alien to the hoary Hindu culture, whose preceptors--the most ancient Rishis of Bharatavarsha--proclaimed in the Vedas: “Ekam sat, vipraah bahudaa vadanti--the Ultimate Reality or Truth is One, men of wisdom call It by different names.” Unfortunately a large majority of the so called Hindu spiritual and religious leaders today are more attached to their own sects, sampradayas, Gods of worship, Gurus, mutts and missions than to the eternal and universal Hindu way of life and Bharat, the Mother of all religions. Even when hundreds and thousands of poor and downtrodden Hindus are lured by pecuniary benefits or compelled by power and influence to get converted to alien religions, our Sannyasins, Sadhus and Swamis are quite cool and unconcerned and their only concern is to protect their own mutts and missions, increase the number of followers and enrich their institutions. When people belonging to the alien religions get minority status and all privileges to run their own institutions, churches and mosques to increase their number, the most ancient Hindu temples in the country are under the control of ‘secular’ (meaning irreligious or anti-religious) Governments and their wealth is looted in the name of public service by politicians in power. How many of our Sadhus and Sannyasins, Peethadheeswars and spiritual leaders have come forward to join hands with each other, shunning all their organizational ego, to fight for the protection and preservation of our Hindu way of life and Hindu society? At the time of Kumbh Mela, they may all congregate on the banks of Triveni--Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati--, and have a holy dip and may even address congregations to show off their learning, but how many are ready to come out to stand united with the common run to protect our values of life, to fight for protection of our temples and fight for stopping cow slaughter and conversion by force and inducement? Swami Vivekananda cried out: “If you want to remain happy, throw away all your bells etc. into the Ganges and worship God in men. Opening and closing of gates and with that bathing, clothing and feeding of God is all humbug. God in the idol changing dress several times, while the living Thakurs outside be shivering in cold is mockery of worship.” Like Rantideva of Srimad Bhagavata, Swamiji also prayed: “May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls. And, above all, my God the wicked, my God the poor, my God the miserable, of all races and species, shall be the special object of my worship.” TATTVA DARSANA proudly brings out Swami Vivekananda’s 150th Jayanti Commemoration Number to awaken the Hindu society, particularly the youth, the pillars of future Hindu Nation, to rise up like lion cubs to the task of rebuilding Prabhuddha Bharata, the Awakened India. We have culled out from our past issues of three decades some of the most inspiring articles on the Prophet of Patriotism. Our earnest, sincere and humble endeavour is also to arouse the feelings of patriotism and dedication to the service of the Hindu society in the hearts of our spiritual and religious leaders and appeal to them to follow the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda and lead the entire Hindu society. Bhagavad Gita proclaims: “yad yad ācarati śreṣṭhas, tad tad evetaro janaḥ, sa yat pramāṇaṁ kurute, lokas tad anuvartate - Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues.” Let our spiritual preceptors be truly great to come out of the narrow confines of mutts, missions and ashrams, stand together and lead the Hindu society to rebuild the Hindu Nation. Let every one of them organize the 150th Jayanti Celebration of Swami Vivekananda in each and every Ashram and religious institution and convey the man-making and nation-building message to the people so that Bharat will once again emerge as Loka Guru--Preceptor of the World. Vande Mataram! [Editorial, TATTVA DARSANA, Vol.30, No. 1, January-March 2013] SWAMI VIVEKANANDA —The Patriot “Hindoo Monk” Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan September 11, 1893, is a red letter day in the history of religions of the world. The great patriot “Hindoo Monk of India”, Swami Vivekananda, proclaimed to the world the glory of the most ancient spiritual heritage of Bharatavarsha and the Mother of all religions—Hinduism—in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Swami Vivekananda’s heart swayed with pride and joy when he declared that he was a child of Mother Bharat and a “Hindu”. Here is a talk given by the author in the Rotary Club of South Madras during the Centenary Year of Vande Mataram, 1975-76, which will be refreshing and rejuvenating to the Hindus at a time when some sections of the Hindu society under the spell of pseudo-secularism tend to lose courage to call themselves Hindus or Bharatiyas. —Sadhu Rangarajan It is at a time when the nation is celebrating the Centenary of the Immortal Song, Vande Mataram, which was written by Rishi Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and later incorporated in his famous novel, Ananda Math, and which later burst upon the nation as a power-packed mantra driving people to perform incomparable sacrifices for the liberation of the Motherland from foreign yoke, that we have assembled here to refresh our minds with the soul-stirring thoughts on the life and work of Swami Vivekananda. The Swamiji was a contemporary of Rishi Bankim Chandra and he was deeply influenced by the latter. The life of Swami Vivekananda is too well known to require delineation here. His Master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who rose from the position of a poor, unknown and illiterate temple priest to that of a world teacher, was the manifestation in human form, of the quintessence of all religions. Narendra, the representative of the educated intelligentsia of his time and a versatile genius, who sat at the feet of the master and imbibed the spirit of universal religion and humanism from him, emerged as a messiah of the avatarapurusha. It was this spirit that made him thunder at Chicago, addressing the audience gathered at the Parliament of Religions in 1893, as “Sisters and Brothers of America”, and proclaim to them the glory of Hinduism as a universal religion, not merely tolerant of other faiths, but accepting all creeds as different paths to the Supreme Goal. However, Swamiji did not belong to that class of people who often pay lip service to the ideals of universal religion and humanism and forget their duty to their own Motherland and fellow citizens. It will be my endeavour here to present before you, today, the picture of Swami Vivekananda as a patriot and one who preached the religion of service to fellow human beings as a path to eternal liberation. “Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are watchwords of the Upanishads.” Prophet of Patriotism According to J.H. Brownfield, Vivekananda had a profound influence on the development of the twentieth century Indian political and social thought, and particularly his gospel of national self-assertion found a rich soil in his native Bengal where the ground had already been prepared by the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Swamiji advised his famed disciple, Sister Nivedita, to dedicate herself to the task of emancipating the whole country. “I remember very well, Swamiji asked me to forge a mighty weapon out of the bones of Bengali youths which can free India”, said Sister Nivedita in a conversation with the famous patriots, Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya and Ashwinikumar Dutta, in 1906. “The task is going on. The twin precepts which he often repeated for us, Karma Yoga and Akhand Bharat, have become our daily mantra. They are our inspiration in all that we do”, she continued. Vande Mataram, the mantra of patriotism, brought under its spell, great prophets and patriots who preached the worship of the Motherland as the path for final liberation. They delineated the task before the children of Bharat as the fight for the emancipation of the Motherland from foreign yoke and service to the poor and downtrodden brethren. Swami Vivekananda stands as first and foremost among them. “The primary object of Swami Vivekananda was nationalism. To arouse the sleeping lion of India and to put it on its proper pedestal was his life’s mission. His national ideal was the ideal of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted in the revolutionary novel, Ananda Math. Future Mother India, to both of them, was Durga, the Goddess with resplendent face, wearing all sorts of weapons of force in Her hands, and in the left hand, seizing the hair of the Asura, Her enemy, and in the right hand, assuring all not to be afraid (Baravaya)”, says Bhupendranath Datta, the illustrious younger brother of Swami Vivekananda and a renowned revolutionary. Swamiji wanted to raise all over the country a corps of militant youth known for integrity and character and ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Motherland. “Liberty is the possession of the brave”, the Swamiji proclaimed. “Conquer your enemies and achieve happiness in this world, by appropriately employing saama, daana, bheda and danda, the four weapons of diplomacy”, he advised the youth of the nation. He had, in the language of Sister Nivedita, “a loathing for bondage and a horror of those who cover chains with flowers.” To him, “Ay, this is one scripture in the world, of all others, that does not talk of salvation, but of freedom”, the Swamiji taught his disciples. Even as a student, he was profoundly inspired by Bankim Chandra’s Ananda Math. Sri Ramakrishna used to get it read out by his disciples and once he sent Narendra and two other disciples to the renowned poet. Vande Mataram gave Narendra the “Vision of Mother India” and turned him into Swami Vivekananda, the patriot monk. While in Europe, Swami Vivekananda tried to seek the help of Kropotkin, the renowned Russian revolutionary, and H. Maxim, the inventor of machine gun, for the revolutionaries in India. No wonder that the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, remarked after the passing away of the great patriot monk: “Had Naren been living now, he would have been in the Company’s jail”. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has rightly proclaimed: “So far at least as Bengal is concerned, Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalist movement.” Sister Nivedita, the embodiment of the ideal of spiritual nationalism propounded by Swami Vivekananda, had taken up, at the behest of the Swami, the task of liberating the country from the thraldom of alien rule. She resigned from the Ramakrishna Order to dedicate herself completely to the cause of the country’s political freedom. If at all it may be said that Swami Vivekananda had not directly participated in the freedom struggle, here is Sister Nivedita, the right hand of the patriot monk, who accomplished greater things than what he himself had envisaged. all the living beings in the whole world be happy”—have echoed and reechoed in the sayings of thousands of great men who have come in their trail and whose actions have been exemplary manifestations of what they preached to the world. It is this same message which, in modern times, resounded in the words of the great patriot-saint, Swami Vivekananda, when he said: “May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls—and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.” Serve Man, Serve God I would now dwell on the role of Swami Vivekananda as the preacher of a unique creed which considers service to man as worship of God. Though this has been the message of all the founding fathers of great religions of the world, the followers of those religions have forgotten in the course of time, the fundamental ideal placed before them by their preceptors and have attached themselves more and more to the less important tenets and outward manifestations like rituals and ceremonies. Swami Vivekananda brought out of oblivion that supreme message and placed it once again before all those who were groping in darkness in their bid to attain realization. Na kaamaye aham gatim ishwaraatparam Ashtariddhiryukraam apunarbhavam vaa Aartim prapadye akhiladeha bhaajaam From the snow-clad Himalayan ranges which form the crown of our Motherland, to the southern tip, Kanyakumari, where the three seas wash Her sacred feet, Swami Vivekananda wandered day and night for months together in search of inner peace. But this parivrajaka life brought him face to face with the poverty, ignorance and sufferings of the poor and downtrodden millions in the country and made him realize that his mission in life was not to seek personal salvation, nor to preach religion to the masses, but to serve—serve these children of immortality who were smothering in the abyss of slavery and social decay. Sitting on the Shripada Shila off the shore of Kanyakumari, he meditated for three days towards the end of 1892 and during these intense hours that he spent there, he discovered the mission in life. And from then, this was the only religion that he preached—Service to Humanity. Antasthito yena bhavantya dukhaa “I do not desire from God that great state which is attended by the eight supernatural powers or even deliverance from rebirth. Dwelling in the hearts of all creatures, I would bear their suffering that they may be freed from misery.” These words of Rantideva in the Sreemad Bhaagavata represent the summum bonum of the philosophy of life propounded by the Vedic seers and handed down to us through generations. Their fervent prayers, Sarve bhavantu sukhinah and Lokaa samastaa sukhino bhavantu—“Let Once, Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the late revered editor of Hitavadi, came to see Swamiji with two of his friends. Though they wanted to discuss religion with Swamiji, the latter entered into conversation with them about the people of their province, their material needs and social conditions. At the end of the long conversation, Panditji remarked that he had come to discuss religion, but unfortunately the day was wasted in conversation on common place matters. Swamiji became at once grave and solemn and said, “Sir, so long as even a dog of my country remains without food, to feed and take care of him is my religion and anything else is non-religion or false religion!” Swamiji’s heart bled when he saw the sufferings of the poor. One day, during his evening walk on the seashore of Madras, he saw the wretched and half-starved children of the fishermen working with their mothers, waist deep in water. Tears filed his eyes and he cried out, “O Lord, why dost thou create these miserable creatures! I cannot bear the sight of them. How long, O Lord, How long!” Those who were in his company were overcome and burst into tears. Swamiji’s spirit of compassion is far different from the idea of charity which arises in one’s mind pregnant with ego and vanity when one looks down upon others who are supposedly in the lower rungs of society. His was the product of his realization of that central vision of Sanatana Dharma, namely, the divinity of man. Sri Ramakrishna, who embodied in himself the entire theme of Sanatana Dharma, expressed this central vision in a very simple and beautiful equation: “Every Jiva or soul is Shiva; Service of the Jiva is the worship of Shiva.” Coming from the mouth of a poor, illiterate Brahmin priest of Dakshineshwar, who rose to the pinnacle of spiritual ecstasy through sadhana and sacrifice of the self, and who spoke from the realm of Supreme Realization, this eternal message was received by his worthy and illustrious disciple, Swami Vivekananda, and broadcast to the world in the following words: “Look upon every man, woman and everyone as God. You cannot help any one; you can only serve; serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of his children, blessed you are; do not think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that the privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as a worship. The poor and the miserable are for our salvation, so that we may serve the Lord coming in the shape of the diseased, coming in the shape of the lunatic, the leper and the sinner.” Swamiji never considered doing good to a fellow being as an act of charity. He thundered, “ Do you think even an ant will die for want of your help? Most arrant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Blessed are we that we are given the privilege of working for Him, not of helping Him. Cut out this word ‘help’ from your mind. You cannot help; it is blaspheming. You worship. Stand in that reverent attitude to the whole universe and then will come perfect non-attachment.” Precept in Practice Swamiji set example before others by living up to what he preached. While in America, he shunned every comfort and pleasure offered to him by his rich and devout disciples, for he felt that he had no right to enjoy them as long as his fellowmen in his Motherland lacked even the basic necessities of life. Refusing to make use of the luxurious cot and bedding, he slept on the bare floor, all the time pondering in his mind over the condition of his own countrymen. When plague and famine rocked Bengal in the last years of the last century, Swami Vivekananda not only set relief centres whose management was placed in the hands of Sister Nivedita as Secretary, but he himself went to live in the slums to inspire courage in the minds of the people and cheer up his workers. He found immense happiness in living with the poor and serving them. While in their midst, he was one among them. In the latter part of the year 1901, a number of Santal labourers used to work in the Belur Math grounds. Swamiji would be talking to them and listening to their tales of woe. One day he asked one of them, Keshta by name, “Would you all like to have a feast here?” The man replied, “Dear father, if we eat food cooked by you with salt, we shall lose our caste!” After a long persuasion, he agreed to Swamiji’s suggestion that food might be cooked without salt and salt served separately. Under Swamiji’s personal supervision, a feast with choice delicacies was served to them. The Santals ate joyously, exclaiming from time to time: “O Swami, where did you get such fine things? We have never tasted such dishes before.” When the meal was over, Swamiji told them, “You are Narayanas. Today I have entertained the Lord Himself by feeding you!” Later, to a disciple he remarked, “I actually saw the Lord Himself in them! How simple hearted and guileless they are!” Shortly after, to the Sannyasins and Brahmacharins of the Math, he said, “See how simple hearted these poor, illiterate people are! Can you mitigate their misery a little? If not, what use is your wearing the Gerua? Sacrificing everything for the good of others—this is true Sannyasa. Sometimes I think within myself, ‘What is the good of building monasteries and so forth! Why not sell them and distribute the money among the poor. What should we care for homes, we who have made the tree our shelter? Alas! How can we have the heart to put a morsel to our mouths when our countrymen have not enough wherewith to feed or clothe themselves!’ Let us, throwing away all the pride of learning and study of the Shastras and all Sadhanas for the attainment of personal Mukti, go from village to village, devoting our lives to the service of the poor.” Missionary of Patriotism Swamiji wanted every educated youth in the country to feel for the poor. Surcharged with the apostolic fire of his own personality, Swamiji wrote, “I am poor, I love the poor…. Who feels in India for the two hundred millions of men and women sunken forever in poverty and ignorance? …. Him I call a Mahaatma, whose heart bleeds for the poor; otherwise, he is a Duraatma…. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!” According to Swamiji, the first step to become a patriotic citizen is to feel from the heart. “Feel, therefore, my would be reformers, my would be patriots! Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of Gods and of sages have become next door neighbours to brutes? Do you feel that millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of the misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done that? That is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step.” Then the next step, according to Swamiji, is, instead of spending one’s energies in frothy talk, to find a way out, a practical solution, to bring the suffering masses out of the living death. Yet that is not all, there is a third thing that is required—the will to surmount mountain-high obstructions. “If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right? If your wives and children are against you, if all your money goes, your name dies, your wealth vanishes, would you still stick to it? Would you still pursue it and go on steadily towards your goal?”, he asked. Once the determination comes, one must be prepared to make any amount of sacrifice. “No great work can be done without sacrifice. The Purusha Himself sacrificed Himself to create this world. Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your names, fame or position, nay, even your lives and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross the ocean of life.” It is this goal of making a bridge of human chains which inspired him to bring into existence the Sri Ramakrishna Order of Sannyasins. “A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion’s courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the down-trodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of social rising up—the gospel of equality.” He gave them as the ideal and motto—the great mantra—“Aatmano mokshaartham jagat hitaaya cha”—‘for one’s own spiritual liberation and for the welfare of humanity’. He commanded his followers: “And go to the untouchables, the cobblers, the sweepers and others of their kind, and tell them, ‘You are the soul of the nation, and in you lies infinite energy which can revolutionize the world. Stand up, shake off your shackles, and the whole world shall wonder at you!’ Go and found schools among them, and invest them with the ‘Sacred thread’.” Swamiji had immense faith and confidence in the success of his mission. He proclaimed: “Glory unto the Lord, we will succeed. Hundreds will fall in the struggle—hundreds will be ready to take it up…. Faith—sympathy, fiery faith and fiery sympathy. Life is nothing, death is nothing. Glory unto the Lord—March on; the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls—forward—onward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls and another takes up the work.” Swamiji’s outpourings, saturated with the spirit of patriotism and service to humanity, were nothing but the echoes of the voice of the great sages and seers of Bharatavarsha who proclaimed, “Jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi”—“Mother and Motherland are greater than heaven.” In “Our Master and His Message”, which is an introduction written in 1907 to the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita sums up the message and mission of her great master in the following words: “In the four volumes of the works of the Swami Vivekananda which are to compose the present edition, we have what is not only a gospel to the world at large, but also to its own children, the Charter of Hindu Faith. What Hinduism needed, amidst the general disintegration of the modern era, was a rock where she could lie at anchor, and authoritative utterance in which she might recognize herself. And this was given to her, in these words and writings of Swami Vivekananda. “For the first time in History, as has been said elsewhere, Hinduism itself forms here the subject of generalization of a Hindu mind of the highest order. For ages to come the Hindu man would verify, the Hindu mother who would teach her children, what was the faith of their ancestors will turn to the pages of these books for assurance and light. Long after the English language has disappeared from India, the gift that has here been made, through that language, to the world, will remain and bear its fruit in East and West alike. What Hinduism had needed, was the organizing and consolidating of its own idea. What the world had needed was a faith that had no fear of truth. Both these are found here. Nor could any greater proof have been given of the eternal vigour of the Sanaatana Dharma, of the fact that India is as great in the present as ever in the past, than this rise of the individual who, at the critical moment, gathers up and voices the communal consciousness.” As long as the heaven and earth, and the mountains and seas exist, as long as the holy rivers flow on the sacred soil of Motherland nourishing and nurturing the lives of our people, as long as Sanaatana Dharma sustains human values in the world, the eternal message of the Upanishads—Uttishthata, jaagrata, praapyavaraan nibodhata—“Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached”—passed on to us by the great patriot monk would goad us to action and to march on from success to success. May the great Swamiji’s life and work be the beacon light to guide us to immortality through service to Motherland and humanity. Tam desikendram paramam pavitram Vishwasya paalam madhuram yateendram Hitaaya nrinaam naramoortimantam Vivekanandam aham namaami —“My obeisance unto Swami Vivekananda, the chief of preceptors, the holiest of the holy, the protector of the world, the sweet-tongued king among monks, who took to human form for the welfare of mankind!” Vande Mataram! [TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 4, No. 3, August 1987] SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND INDIA’S STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Among the Rishis of the later age, we have at last realised that we must include the name of the man who gave us the reviving mantra which is creating new India, the mantra Bande Mataram, says Sri Aurobindo, paying glorious homage to Bankimchandra Chatterjee, the immortal poet of the national song, Bande Mataram, who sowed the seeds of spiritual nationalism in the hearts of the youth of modern India. Bankim had the vision of Mother Bharat in the form of Dasapraharana dharini durga and he revealed it to the nation that was groping in darkness. He gave them a new light and aroused them from deep slumber to perform supreme acts of self-sacrifice. weapons of force in Her hands, and in the left hand seizing the hair of the Asura, Her enemy, and in the right hand assuring all not to be afraid (Baravaya). This ideal, though an allegorical one, enthused the revolutionaries of the subsequent period.” In the speeches and writings of Swami Vivekananda, we find the direct echo of Bhoomi Sookta of the Atharva Veda, eulogising the land as the Divine Mother, and the glory of this Holy Land as depicted in Srimad Bhagavata. Swamiji proclaims: “If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed punya bhoomi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for karma, the land to which every soul wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and spirituality - It is India”. He cried out at the top of his voice: “I am Indian - every Indian is my brother” and called out: “Say brother - ‘The soil of India is my highest Heaven, the good of India is my good’”. Worshipper of Motherland Ideal of Indian Nationalism The first and foremost to come under the spell of Bande Mataram, propounded by Bankimchandra was Swami Vivekananda. As a fiery patriotic youth, Narendra had read Ananda Math and was much inspired by it. He had also the opportunity to meet the seer of Bande Mataram, when Sri Ramakrishna sent him and two other disciples to the house of Bankim. Inspired by the vision of Mother Bharat presented by the seerpoet, young Narendra became a worshipper of Shakti. The illustrious patriot-revolutionary and younger brother of Swami Vivekananda, Dr. Bhupendra Nath Dutta, emphatically declares in his mangum opus, Swami Vivekananda - Patriot-Prophet: “The primary object of Swami Vivekananda was Nationalism. To arouse the sleeping Lion of India and to put it on its proper pedestal was his life’s mission. His national ideal was the ideal of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted in the revolutionary novel Ananda Math. Future Mother India, to both of them was Durga, the Goddess with a resplendent face, wearing all sorts of The idea of nationalism of Swami Vivekananda was a sacred ideal and its inmost striving was to express its own conception of ideal manhood. He gave a national, almost pragmatic, definition of religion: ‘Strength is religion’. He declared: “The essence of my religion is strength. The religion that does not infuse strength into the heart, is no religion to me, be it of the Upanishads, the Gita or the Bhagavatam. Strength is greater than religion and nothing is greater than strength”. If Sri Aurobindo declared in his Uttarpara speech that “Sanatana Dharma is Indian Nationalism”, it was the unfailing inspiration that he received from his predecessor, Swami Vivekananda, who did not hesitate even an iota to swear his loyalty to his proud heritage of Hindu nationalism. Swamiji says: “When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud of myself a Hindu. I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud, I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw”. He called out to the nation: “O India, forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti; forget not that the God thou worshippest is the great Ascetic of ascetics, the all-renouncing Sankara, the Lord of Uma, forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness; forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mother’s altar”. His call was a direct call to the youth of the nation to offer their lives at the altar of the Motherland to liberate her and to install her on the pedestal of loka guru. “Liberty is the possession of the brave”, he declared and called upon the valiant youth of the nation to use sama, dana, bheda and danda—the four weapons to conquer the enemy. may be said that Swami Vivekananda had not directly participated in the freedom struggle, here is Sister Nivedita, the right hand of the patriotmonk, who accomplished greater things than what he himself had envisaged. Referring to her mentor she says that he had “a loathing for bondage, a horror of those who cover chains with flowers”. In the course of a conversation with the famous patriot-revolutionaries, Brahmabandav Upadhyaya and Aswini Kumar Datta, in 1906, she remarked: “I remember very well, Swamiji asked me to forge a mighty weapon out of the bones of Bengali youths which can free India”. Influence on the Patriots and Revolutionaries “While Swami Vivekananda set out on a tour of the eastern districts of India in 1901 we the young men of Dacca, especially those of us of the Shyamakantha Parshanath’s gymnasium hastened to listen to the Hero of the Age…We sought to know from him direct and in seclusion as to what he wanted us, young Bengal, to do in reality for Humanity and Patriotism… The fact that Swami Vivekananda directly influenced the Indian revolutionary movement in the cause of achieving freedom is borne out of the statement that Mother Sarada Devi made sometime after the passing away of the Swami: “Had Naren been living now, he would have been in Company’s jail”. The renowned biographer of Swami Vivekananda, Romain Rolland, says: “If the generation that followed saw, three years after Vivekananda’s death, revolt of Bengal, the prelude to the great movement of Tilak and Gandhi, if India today has definitely taken part in the collective action of organised masses, it is due to the initial shock, to the mighty ‘Lazarus, come forth’, of the message from Madras.” Sister Nivedita, the embodiment of the ideal of spiritual nationalism propounded by Swami Vivekananda, had taken up, at the behest of the Swami, the task of liberating the country from the thraldom of alien rule. She resigned from the Ramakrishna Order to dedicate herself completely to the cause of the country’s political freedom. If at all it Sri Hemachandra Ghose, the well-known revolutionary leader with long records of imprisonments in jails and an indefatigable worker for national cause, has narrated in a soul-stirring letter to Sri Bhupendranath Dutta the event of a group of revolutionaries including himself meeting Bhupen’s elder brother, Swami Vivekananda in 1901, in connection with the revolutionary movement. He says: “Swamiji endearingly drew us near and patted us with is pet phrase: ‘Ye, sons of immortal bliss!’ (Amrutasyaputrah). The very touch and tone electrified us with enthusiasm and surrender. The veins in us quickened and our hearts throbbed. It was the majestic touch of Baptism… “He stressed on cadre-building for a noble cause. He was not happy with the ways of the then Indian National Congress. ‘That is not the way to build up Patriotism anywhere. A Beggar’s bowl has no place in a Banik’s (merchant’s) world of machine, mammon and merchandise. Everything has got to be controlled and directed by the invocation of human conscience, that is, Mahamaya’s voice - the latent energy in man’, the Mahapurusha asserted. ‘First ‘thing first’, he went on, ‘and bodybuilding and dare-devilry are the primary concerns before the buoyant young Bengal (Sariram Adyam)! This urgency of physical fitness must take the topmost priority even to reading the Bhagavadgita itself. And in the pursuit of dare-devilry - Paurusha, the spirit of chivalry that is Vir-Niti, must be observed in siding always with the weak and rescuing them. Honour womenfolk, as the physical embodiment of Mahamaya herself and the Motherland itself in human form. Know ye not, Janani Janma bhoomischa Svargaadapi gariyasi (The mother and the Motherland is more glorious that Heaven)?… grandson of Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, sent his younger brother, Jyotish to Belur Math to explain to Swami Vivekananda their difficulty and to request him to preside over the function. Swamiji, hearing everything, began to weep and told in a voice choked with emotion: “Beti (Kumari the Divine Mother) demands sacrifice. Go to Narendranath Sen, the editor of the ‘Indian Mirror’, and request him in my name to accept the Presidentship. If nobody accepts it, then I myself will be the President of the function”. This incident was narrated by Suresh Chandra Samajpati himself on the occasion of the fourth and last ‘Shivaji Utsab’ presided by Bala Gangadhur Tilak in 1906 at Calcutta. “Swamiji held hopes before us. ‘India had a glorious past, India will have a future certainly more majestic … In order to march boldly in equal pace side by side with other materially-advanced nations of the world—ye, young Bengal, emulate the manly ways of Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, whose gallantry the English Commander has recognised… The ferment created by Swami Vivekananda in the intellectual plane burst forth after his death, in Bengal with the emergence of Sri Aurobindo as the leader of a revolutionary movement. Bhupendranath Dutta has recorded that Swami Vivekananda, after his return from the West the second time, told a gentleman who visited him at Belur. “What India needs today is a Bomb”. He uttered this before his demise in 1902 and in 1908 the bomb made its appearance in Bengal. Since the foundation of the Revolutionary Party in Bengal, in which Sister Nivedita took an active part and was a member of the Executive Committee, the works of Swami Vivekananda along with the writings and life of Mazzini, as well as the life of Garibaldi, in Bengali, were the main spring of inspiration to the youthful mind of India. In every gymnasium, i.e., the exercise club, of the Revolutionary Party of Bengal, his work entitled, From Colombo to Almora was read with avid interest. His saying, “Heaven is nearer through football than through the Gita. We want men of strong biceps”, inspired the youths. According to Bhupendranath Dutta, the news about the attempt at revolutions on the part of Swamiji was not unknown to the leading revolutionaries of the first batch. It was narrated by Swamiji himself in the course of a dialogue with Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the editor of ‘Hitawadi’ at Belur. Pandit Deuskar himself was an active member of the revolutionary party. On being interrogated by Deuskar regarding the future of the country, Swamiji answered: “The country has become a power magazine. A little spark may ignite it. I will see the revolution in my lifetime”. On being asked as to the nature of his “The patriot-saint blessed me with a gentle look and said, ‘Man-making is my mission of life. Hemchandra!, you try with your comrades to translate this mission of mine into action and reality. Read Bankimchandra and emulate his Desha-Bhakti and Sanatana-Dharma. Your duty should be service to Motherland. India should be freed politically first’. With reverence and awe we paid homage to the Hero. And the seer smiled on us in benediction.” Concluding his long letter, Hemachandra Ghose remarks, “Swami Vivekananda appeared to us to be more a political prophet that a religious teacher”. “What India Needs Today Is A Bomb!” The nationalists of Bengal organised “Shivaji Utsabs” in Calcutta in 1901, with the idea of getting acquainted with the patriotic heroes from different provinces. But nobody dared to preside over the public function due to mortal fear of the lion-eyed watch of the British Government. At such a juncture, Suresh Chandra Samajpati, the revolution, whether the Indians will seek foreign help, he answered, “No, the Indians will not make the mistake the fourth time. I know several Princes who can successfully carry on the revolution”. Sedition Committee on Swami Vivekananda’s Speeches Of course, the revolution could not come forth in his lifetime as the Swamiji wished and he himself has told Sister Christine, one year before his death about the failure of his attempt. “I had the idea of forming a combination of Indian Princes for the overthrow of the foreign yoke. For that reason, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, I have tramped all over the country. For that reason, I made friends with the gun-maker, Sir Hiram Maxim. But I got no response from the country. The country is dead”. And he narrated a further attempt of his at this time in other directions, “India is in putrification. What I want today is a band of selfless young workers who will educate and uplift the people”. The notorious ‘Sedition Committee Report’ said: “His (Swami Vivekananda’s) writings and teachings have deeply impressed many educated Hindus”. Wherever the British CID went to search a revolutionary’s house, they found the books of Vivekananda. As a result, the vim of the wrath of the British Indian Police fell on Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda. Thus, it had been no wonder that the police wanted to ban the Mission. At one time, Prabhudda Bharata, the official organ of the Math had to boldly defend the joining of young revolutionaries in the Ramakrishna Order. Many young revolutionaries joined the movement in later days and notable among them is Devabrata Basu, who came to be known as Swami Pragnanananda. Kalicharan Ghosh, in his inspiring work, The Roll of Honour— Anecdotes of Indian Martyrs, says about the impact of Swamiji’s message on the minds of the young revolutionaries of Bengal: “Swamiji’s message influenced the minds of the young Bengalee with a spirit of burning patriotism and created in some a tendency for stern political activity. When the call came for joining the Monastic Order, there were not a few whose presence in the ‘Mission’ was looked upon with great suspicion by the secret police service. The situation became gradually so tense that the intervention of a sympathetic Governor of Bengal was deemed absolutely necessary to put matters right. “Before the demise of Vivekananda, the country had become conscious of the value of organisations which would devote much attention to physical culture, athletics, sword, dagger and lathi play, social service, relief work on a mass scale, etc. Institutions like the Anusilan Samity under Satish Mukherjee and P. Mitra, who besides being a firebrand nationalist, ‘had a spiritual life and aspiration and a strong religious feeling’ sprang up by 1902… “The world knows to its advantage the part played by Swamiji in the regeneration of India in general and Bengal in particular, and getting the soil eminently nurtured for Tilak, Aurobindo and others to sow the seeds of revolution. In the fullness of time, the young sapling grew into a vigorous tree that stretched its mighty branches far and wide and became a terror to the rulers of India, here and in their distant island home, with its weird fruits pregnant with bomb and bullets”. Basukaka of Chitrasala Press of Pune had narrated to Bhupendranath, the interesting conversation that took place between Swami Vivekananda and Bal Gangadhar Tilak when the Swami was living at Tilak’s place as his guest. It was agreed that while Tilak would work for Nationalism in the political field, Swami Vivekananda would work for Nationalism in the religious field. Sister Nivedita—The Shaft of Swami Vivekananda A concrete shape and form to the patriotic and nation-building ideals of Swami Vivekananda was given by Sister Nivedita. The great patriotrevolutionary, Dr. Rash Bihari Ghosh said: “If the dry bones are beginning to stir, it is because Sister Nivedita breathed the breath of life into them”. Soon after the passing away of Swami Vivekananda, the Bande Mataram movement spread like a wildfire in Bengal. When Bhupendranath Dutta was incarcerated on charges of sedition, Bhuvaneswari Devi, the mother of Swami Vivekananda, declared in a gathering at Calcutta, “Bhupen’s work has just begun. I have dedicated him for the cause of the country”. Nivedita met Bhupendranath in the court and assured him of taking care of his mother, Bhuvaneswari, and the publication of Yugantar, the weekly journal of Bhupen writing in which led to his incarceration. While Nivedita was busy organising the revolutionary groups who used to meet her at her Nivedita School, she also played a prominent part in converting the Congress from petition presenting forum to a patriotic front of fiery Swadeshis. Her children in the Nivedita school were commissioned to model a national flag—the Bhagavadvaj, the traditional ochre flag of India from time immemorial, with the symbol of Vajrayudha exhorting the youth to dedicate their back-bone to the cause of India’s freedom struggle inscribed on the flag—and it was presented in the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. In 1910, when Sri Aurobindo’s second arrest was in the air, it was Nivedita’s advice, “the leader at a distance can work as much as at home”, that paved the way for his retiring to Pondicherry, the French territory. Swami Vivekananda influenced not only the revolutionaries, but also the later nationalists and freedom fighters. The Architect of Indian Reawakening Romain Rolland points out that Gandhi, in a lecture at the lawn of the Belur Math, acknowledged that “the reading of Vivekananda’s books had increased his patriotism”. Thus, all the militant nationalist movements culminating in Gandhiji’s movement for the Independence of India, was launched after Swamiji’s thundering roar, “Arise, Awake”. The renowned philosopher, Dr. T. M. P Mahadevan says: “The reawakening of India which began in the 19th century, and of which Swami Vivekananda was the most stalwart leader, has infused into the people of this country a new life and a new hope. Imbued with a new strength, leaders in all walks of life emerged; and Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, made us achieve our goal of independence. The foundations for this, let us remember, were surely laid by Swami Vivekananda, the patriot-monk of India. Though Swamiji’s mission was a spiritual one, the spirit of Nationalism that he aroused in the country made agents of the British power terribly afraid of him. The fire he helped to light in this ancient land of ours was responsible for scorching the bonds, which had kept India a slave. So, we must remember that Swami Vivekananda was a pioneer in politics.” Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who gave the final blow which brought the British Empire crashing down proclaimed: “So far, at least as Bengal is concerned, Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalists movement.” Referring to Swami Vivekananda’s influence on Subhas Bose, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, the illustrious disciple of Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo, points out that it was Swami Vivekananda who was responsible for Netaji’s giving up his idea of going in for ICS and turning into a fierce patriot and freedom fighter. Netaji was tremendously influenced by the latter’s message. “Swami Vivekananda’s message is the root of India’s freedom struggle. He was responsible for our freedom movement. It was he who started the Bengal movement. Only after him the Bengal awakening came and then came Sri Aurobindo to give the lead. But for Vivekananda, India’s freedom movement would not at all have started” says Yogi Ramsuratkumar and exclaims, “What a love Vivekananda had for India and Sanatana Dharma!” Vande Mataram! [TATTVA DARSANA, Aug-Oct 1992, Vol.9-N0.3; SAGA OF PATRIOTISM by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan] “My work has been very insignificant indeed, but the kindness and cordiality of welcome that have met me at every step of my journey from Colombo to this city are simply beyond all expectation. Yet, at the same time, it is worthy of our traditions as Hindus, it is worthy of our race; for here we are, the Hindu race, whose vitality, whose lifeprinciple, whose very soul as it were, is in religion.” —Swami Vivekananda SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND HIS GOSPEL OF SOCIAL SERVICE born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls, -- and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship.” Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Every Jeeva is Shiva! Aum vedarishaya samaarabhya vedaantaachaarya madhyamaah Yogi Raamsuratkumaara paryantam vande guruparamparaaam Salutations and prostrations to the lineage of great preceptors of this sacred land, from the Vedic rishis through Vedanta Acharyas to my Deekshaa Guru Yogi Ramsuratkumar! “Tyaga or sacrifice, not rituals, nor progeny, nor wealth, is the sole means for the attainment of the highest goal of human existence”, declare the Vedic Rishis. Sacrifice your everything and yourself at the altar of the Divine which manifests in the form of all beings. Sarve bhavantu sukhinah – “Let all beings be happy” – is the clarion call of the Vedas. In the Srimad Bhagavata, we find the great king Rantideva declaring: Natvaham kaamaye raajyam na swargam na apunarbhavam Kaamaye dukhataptaanaam praaninaam aartinaashanam “O Lord, I do not want any kingdom, nor heavenly pleasure, nor even escape from rebirth. But I do want that the affliction of all beings tormented by the miseries of life may cease.” This is the summum bonum of the philosophy of life propounded by the great Acharyas of this land of Bharatavarsha since times immemorial. In the modern period, this message finds echoed and re-echoed in the inspiring speeches and writings of the great patriot monk of India, Swami Vivekananda. He proclaims at the top of his voice: “May I be Swami Vivekananda’s illustrious Master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, gave his whole message in a single sutra or aphorism: “Every Jeeva is Shiva”. “Serve man, serve God”, became the life mission of Swami Vivekananda. As a parivrajaka or wandering monk, when the Swami trod the length and breadth of the country from the heights of the snow-clad Himalayas to the southern tip of the land, Kanyakumari, whose feet are washed by the three mighty oceans, he came face to face with the utter poverty, suffering and misery to which the poor, illiterate and down-trodden masses of this great land were subjected to. He sat on the famous Shripada Shila, now known as Vivekananda Rock, and meditated for three days, the subject of his meditation being the emancipation of his motherland from the shackles of slavery and misery. He then discovered the work that he had to do. Standing on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, at Marina Beach in Madras, Swami Vivekananda saw emaciated faces of the starving and naked children of the fisher-folk. Tears flowed from his eyes and he cried aloud: “O Lord, why doest thou create these miserable creatures! I cannot bear the sight of them! How long, O Lord, how long!” Soon after, when he reached the shores of the distant American continent and proclaimed in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago the greatness and glory of this land and its spiritual culture, he became very famous overnight and a royal welcome and palatial comforts were accorded to him. But he shunned everything. “How can I enjoy these comforts when a great many of my own brethren in my Motherland do not have even a morsel of food to eat”, he asked to himself and lying on a piece of saffron cloth spread on the bare floor, every night he used to make it wet with his tears, thinking of the abject poverty and misery of his people. When he founded the Ramakrishna Order of Monks, he proclaimed as its motto the twin ideals: Aatmano mokshaartham, jagat hitaaya cha – “For the salvation of the Self as well as the welfare of the world.” He persuaded his Gurubhais not to aspire for their personal salvation alone, but to strive for the betterment of the lives of all fellow beings through dedicated service. When there was a colossal famine in Bengal, he came forward even to sell away the properties of the Math to raise funds for the relief to the famine affected people. “What is the good of building monasteries and so forth! Why not sell them and distribute the money among the poor?”, he asked his fellow missionaries in the Order. Practical Vedanta Once Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the late revered editor of Hitavadi called on Swamiji to discuss with him some philosophical matters, but the discussions somehow turned to matters concerning the suffering of the people. The editor uttered with regret that he came to get enlightened on philosophical matters, but the time was spent on discussing mundane matters. The Swamiji then burst out: “Sir, so long as even a dog of my country remains without food, to feed and take care of him is my religion and anything else is non-religion or false religion.” While exhorting his countrymen to see their living Gods in the poor and downtrodden and worship them through service, he proclaimed: “Look upon every man, woman and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone. You can only serve, serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of his children, blessed you are. Do not think too much of yourselves.” He further warned that one should not take up service as though he was doing a charity. He thundered, “Do you think even an ant will die for want of your help? Most arrant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Blessed are we that we are given the privilege of working for Him, not of helping Him.” On the day when the whole country started celebrating Swami Vivekananda Jayanti as National Youth Day, in the International Year of the Youth, On January 12, 1985, a couple of devotees from South Africa called on my Master, H.H. Yogi Ramsuratkumar, at Tiruvannamalai. They found him jumping with revelry over the news that the Government of India had declared Swami Vivekananda Jayanti as the National Youth Day. “Oh my Vivekananda, Swami Vivekananda!”, he exclaimed and said, “He has given us the most Practical Vedanta for the salvation of the entire humanity.” My Master asked the brethren from abroad to carry to the hearth and home of every one of Indian origin settled abroad the great message of Swami Vivekananda – the message of service and sacrifice – and declared, “That is the greatest gift that India can give to the world.” According to my Master, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, it is the mission of India to produce patriot-saints like Swami Vivekananda who will work not for their own liberation, but for the salvation of the entire mankind. It is our privilege to hand over to our younger generations this gospel of service and social rising up that we have inherited from our forefathers. Let us strive to work out in our own humble way the destiny of our glorious nation. Utthishthata, jaagrata, praapya varaan nibodhata -- -- “Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached!” Vande Mataram! (A talk given in the All India Radio, Chennai) [TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 18, No. 1, January 2001] From the highest Brahman to the yonder worm, And to the minutest atom, Everywhere is the same God, the All-Love; Friend, offer mind, soul, body, at their feet, These are His manifold forms before thee, Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God? Who loves all beings, without distinction, He indeed is worshipping best his God. -- Swami Vivekananda In the writings of the Swami, we find the echo of the Bhoomi sooktas of Atharva Veda and the glory of the island of Jambudweepa depicted in Bhagavata. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S SHAFT IN INDIA’S FREEDOM STRUGGLE Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan The first and foremost who came under the spell of Bande Mataram, propounded by Bankim Chandra was Swami Vivekananda. As a fiery and patriotic youth, Narendra had read Ananda Math and was much inspired by it. He also had the opportunity of meeting the seer of the mantra of patriotism when Sri Ramakrishna sent him and two other disciples to the house of the great novelist. Inspired by the vision of the Mother presented in Vande Mataram, Swamiji became a worshipper of Shakti in the form of the Motherland. Dr. Bhupendranath Dutta, his brother and a renowned revolutionary says : “The primary object of Swami Vivekananda was nationalism. To arouse the sleeping lion of India and put it on its proper pedestal was his life’s mission. His national ideal was the ideal of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted in the revolutionary novel, Ananda Math”. “If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and spirituality - It is India”, proclaims the patriot-monk. He also says: “What a land! Whosoever stands on this sacred land, whether alien or a child of the soil, feels himself surrounded—unless his soul is degraded to the level of brute animals—by the living thoughts of the earth’s best and purest sons, who have been working to raise the animal to the divine through centuries, whose beginning history fails to trace. The very air is full of pulsations of spirituality”. Vivekananda’s soul, like that of Bankim, was lit with the luminous vision of Mother India as the embodiment of Shakti and his expression of this vision in his writings inspired many patriots and nationalists of the freedom movement, not to speak of the revolutionaries who considered his writings as their Bible. Vivekananda gave a national, almost pragmatic, definition of religion: “Strength is religion”. He declared: “The essence of my religion is strength. The religion that does not infuse strength into the heart, is no religion to me, be it of the Upanishads, the Gita or the Bhagavatam. Strength is greater than religion and nothing is greater than strength.” Swami Vivekananda is emphatic in declaring that religious life formed `the keynote of the whole music of national life’. He repeatedly warns that if India gives up spirituality, the result will be that in three generations we will become an extinct race, for ‘the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined’. Every improvement in India required, according to him, first of all an upheaval in religion. ‘Before flooding India with Socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas’, he exhorts. According to him, it is not only true that the ideal of religion is the highest ideal; in the case of India it is the only possible means of work; ‘work in any other line, without first strengthening this, would be disastrous’. Swamiji was never ashamed to proclaim himself to be a Hindu: “When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors, I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw”. The true Hindu concept of patriotism finds its finest expression in Swamiji’s clarion call to the Indians: “Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, ‘I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother’. Say, ‘The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahman Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother. Thou too clad with but a rag round thy loins and proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice: ‘The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India’s gods and goddesses are my God, India’s society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age’. Say, brother, ‘The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good’, and repeat and pray day and night, ‘O Thou Lord of Gauri, O thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me! O thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness and—Make me a Man!’ ” The Swamiji proclaimed to his countrymen that the Motherland and the children of the Mother are the only gods to be worshipped. Swamiji was a lover of liberty. Liberty did not certainly mean to him ‘the absence of obstacles in the path of misappropriation of wealth, etc., by you and me, but it is our natural right to be allowed to use our own body, intelligence or wealth according to our will, without doing any harm to others; and all the members of a society ought to have the same opportunity for obtaining wealth, education or knowledge’. ‘Liberty is the possession of the brave’, he declared and called upon the valiant youth of the nation to use sama, dana, bheda and danda— the four weapons—to conquer the enemies. Sister Nivedita has said that he had ‘a loathing for bondage, and a horror of those who cover chains with flowers’. The Swamiji advised her to dedicate her life for the service of the Mother. She says, he asked her ‘to forge a mighty weapon out of the bones of Bengali youths which can free India.’ While in Europe he even tried to seek the help of the Russian revolutionary, Kropotkin, and the inventor of machine-gun, H. Maxim, for the revolutionaries of India. No wonder that the Holy Mother Sarada Devi remarked, after the passing away of the patriot-monk, “Had Naren been living now, he would have been in Company’s jail”. Romain Rolland points out: “If the generation that followed saw, three years after Vivekananda’s death, the revolt of Bengal, the prelude to the great movement of Tilak and Gandhi, if India today has definitely taken part in the collective action of organized masses, it is due to the initial shock, to the mighty ‘Lazarus, come forth’ of the Message from Madras”. The following words of Sri Aurobindo almost echo this sentiment: “The work that was begun at Dakshineswar is far from finished, it is not even understood. That which Vivekananda received and strove to develop has not yet materialized.” Swami Vivekananda prepared his mighty instrument for his work before he vanished from the scene of the Indian Freedom Struggle. Always the root is firmly imbedded in the soil unseen to the eyes, while the sprout comes out. The mighty edifice is always visible, while the foundation is always hidden below the earth. The shaft that Swami Vivekananda moulded and sped was visible only in its action. conferred the deekshaanaama, the name at the time of initiation, NIVEDITA, meaning ‘the dedicated’. “When a great man has prepared his workers, he must go to another place, for he cannot make them free in his own presence. I am nothing more for you. I have handed over to you the power that I possessed; now I am only a wandering monk. There is a peculiar sect of Mohammedans who are reported to be so fanatical that they take every newborn babe and expose it, saying, ‘If God made thee, perish. If Ali made thee, live.’ Now what they say to the child I say, but in the opposite sense, to you tonight: Go forth into the world, and there, if I made you, be destroyed. If the Divine Mother made you, live.” While touring the country with her Master, Nivedita saw with her own eyes the appalling conditions of ignorance, poverty and disease into which India was pushed by the alien rule and her Irish blood boiled. As her first and foremost task in awakening the Hindu nation, she took up the cause of women’s education and with the blessings of Mother Sarada Devi, opened her school for girls in Calcutta on November 1898. In March 1899, when there was bubonic plague in Calcutta, Nivedita with a band of dedicated workers, plunged into the relief work. She even sacrificed her daily food to serve the patients and undertook works like scavenging the streets. It is with the above stirring words that the mighty colossus, Swami Vivekananda, sped his powerful shaft, Sister Nivedita, into the battlefield of India’s freedom struggle. The freedom that he wanted her to fight for was not merely the political emancipation of Mother India from alien rule, but also the freedom from the dark clouds of ignorance that had engulfed Her for more than thousand years making Her selfforgetful of Her own ancient and pristine glory. As the illustrious brother of the Swami, Sri Bhupendranath Dutta has pointed out, ‘To arouse the sleeping lion of India and put it on its proper pedestal was his life’s mission’ and the Vajraayudha, the mighty thunderbolt, that he moulded for accomplishing this task was Sister Nivedita. Born on October 28, 1867, at Dungannon in Ireland, Miss Margaret Noble belonged to a family of freedom fighters. Her grandfather, John Noble, and father Samuel, both of whom were Protestant Ministers in Wesleyan church, and her paternal grandfather, Hamilton, were in the forefront of Irish freedom struggle. Miss Margaret, after finishing her college education, served as a teacher for ten years. She came under the spell of Swami Vivekananda who had become world-renowned after his epoch-making talk in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893 and thereafter visited England. Inspired by the “Patriotic Hindoo Monk”, Sister Nivedita came to India in January 1898, was initiated into the order of Brahmacharya by the Swami on March 25, 1898, and In June 1899, Nivedita left with Swami Vivekananda to England and then proceeded to America on a lecture tour to raise funds for her school. She met the great Indian patriot, Bipin Chandra Pal at Boston. When she returned to England, she found that the agents of British imperialism and the Christian Missionaries were engaged in a vile propaganda against her and her Master. On her return to India in 1902, she addressed a meeting of the youth at Madras and gave her rousing call to them to fight for the freedom of the country. The British Government immediately blacklisted her and set the CID police behind her. Though she plunged into the nationalist activities with the blessings of her Master, her action created anxiety in the Ramakrishna Mission circle. Immediately after the Mahasamadhi of Swami Vivekananda on 4th July 1902, Nivedita was forced to leave the Ramakrishna Mission. Soon, she undertook a tour of the whole country to give shape to her plans. Nivedita met Sri Aurobindo at Baroda and persuaded him to come to Calcutta and take up the leadership of the nationalist and revolutionary forces in Bengal. She was also a member of the political committee that Sri Aurobindo set up to unite various revolutionary bodies like Yugantar and Anuseelan Samity. Her school became a haven for all patriots, revolutionaries, scientists, artists and journalists who were all inspired by her thoughts and actions. Prominent among them were Barindra Ghosh, younger brother of Sri Aurobindo, Bhupendranath Dutta, Surendranath Tagore, Yateendra Bannerji and C.R.Das. “If the dry bones are beginning to stir, it is because Sister Nivedita breathed the breath of life into them", said Dr Rash Bihari Ghosh, about her influence on the young revolutionaries and patriots in India’s freedom struggle. In March 1905, when Nivedita fell ill, she stayed with the renowned scientist, Jagdish Chandra Bose at Darjeeling, but in the wake of Bengal Partition, she returned to Calcutta and plunged into the movement against partition. She was a trusted friend, philosopher and guide to both the extremists and moderates in the Indian National Congress. In the Calcutta Congress Session in 1906, the children of her school presented a National Flag which was none other than the saffron Bhagava Dwaj with the symbol of Vajrayudha and the slogan ‘Vande Mataram’ inscribed on it. She had revealed to Ashwini Kumar Dutta that her Master wanted her to “mould a mighty weapon out of the bones of the Bengali youth” to fight against the British rule, just like the Vajrayudha that was made out of the bone of Rishi Dadeechi to annihilate the Asuras. Her powerful pen stirred the hearts of Indian youth through her writings and editorials in patriotic and revolutionary journals like ‘Prabuddha Bharata’, ‘Sandhya’, ‘The Dawn’, ‘New India’ and ‘Yugantar’. She inspired Bipin Chandra Pal to start ‘Bande Mataram’ and her illustrious disciple, Mahakavi C. Subramania Bharati, the ‘Balabharata’. When Sri Aurobindo, who was arrested in connection with the Alipore Bomb Case and incarcerated in jail for some time, fell again a victim to the wrath of the British Government on account of his editorials in ‘Karmayogin’, it was Sister Nivedita who persuaded him to go into exile to Chandernagore and from there to Pondicherry, a French territory. Nivedita was not merely a patriot and revolutionary, but also a visionary and saintess of the highest order. She wrote on ‘Aggressive Hinduism’, but that idea of aggression was not that of a bully over a weakling. The aggression she spoke of was that of the universal values propounded by the sages and seers of this land over the narrow, fundamentalist creeds that divide humanity and unleash suppression and oppression of one section of mankind by another in the name of God and religion. She spoke of the aggression and victory of character and spiritual power over human frailties and mundane interests, making the world a better place to live in. In her vision, she saw Mother India seated on the pedestal of Loka Guru, guiding the destiny of a world which will be full of peace and harmony. She says: “No one will dispute that her ideals are a still prouder fruit of Hinduism than her widespread refinement. It is true that India is the only country in the world where a penniless wanderer may surpass a king in social prestige. But still grander is the fact that the king may be a Janaka, and the beggar a Shuka Deva.” Her prolific writings include ‘The Master As I Saw Him’, ‘Kali The Mother’, ‘The Web of Indian Life’, ‘Cradle Tales of Hinduism’ and ‘Hints of National Education in India’ The enormous strain due to her incessant work affected her health and she fell ill again in September 1910. She wrote, “I have still two years left, but no more”. She went to America in November 1910 to be by the side of Mrs. Bull who was in death bed and who bequeathed a fortune to Nivedita’s work in India. On her return, Nivedita stayed for some time in Mayavati and then with the family of Jagadish Chandra Bose in Darjeeling. She suffered an attack of blood dysentery in the first week of October 1911. Getting premonition of her end, she wrote her last will on October 7, leaving all her possessions and writings in the hands of the Trustees of Belur Math to be used for her school. On October 13, 1911, at about 7-00 am, the sun unusually shone in spite of the cloudy days. Nivedita said: “The frail boat is sinking, but I shall yet see the sun rise.” Chanting the Rudra Prayer of the Upanishad—“ From the unreal, lead us to the Real; from darkness, lead us to the Light; from death, lead us to Immortality”—Nivedita breathed her last. Today, in the distant Darjeeeling, there stands a memorial in which, on a marble tablet, are inscribed these words: “Here Repose the Ashes of Sister Nivedita Who gave her all to India.” Sister Nivedita--Second View [Published in HINDUISM TODAY, Hawaii, May/June 2000 issue.] IN "SISTER NIVEDITA'S STORY (JULY 1999), the writer, Professor V.Rangarajan of Chennai, India, says, "Immediately after the passing away of Swami Vivekananda in 1902, Nivedita was asked to leave the Mission." This statement is incorrect. Just prior to his passing, Swami Vivekananda became aware of Nivedita's political involvements and scolded her severely. He made it clear that she could not be associated with both the Ramakrishna Order and the political movements of the time. She must give up one or the other. She told him she would deliberate on it, but before she could give him her answer, Swamiji attained Mahasamadhi. She wrote in a letter at that time: "I belong to Hinduism more than I ever did. But I see the political need so clearly, too." And in another: "When I think that Swamiji planned what my life should be, and how different I shall make it soon, I feel broken-hearted. But there seems no path for me here [in the Order] except silence and submission—even in matters where I feel an overwhelming need to choose my own path and assert my own ideal." On July 18th she wrote to the head of the order, Swami Brahmananda: "Painful as the occasion is, I cannot but acquiesce in my measures that are necessary to my complete personal freedom." The newspaper Amrita Bazar Patrika, Calcutta, on July 19, 1902 published this news item: "Sister Nivedita: We have been requested to inform the public that after the conclusion of the days of mourning of Swami Vivekananda, it has been decided between the members of the order at Belur Math and Sister Nivedita that her work shall henceforth be regarded as free and entirely independent of their sanction or authority." The next month she fell sick. As soon as the news came to the Belur Math that she was ill, Swami Brahmananda went to visit her. It was an immediate example of what was to be the new shape of her life. She was independent, but in illness or trouble, the "daughter" was still a member of the family, in fact if not in name, and the head of the Order, who had agreed to her absolute right to run her own life, now exercised the right of a father to insist that she eat protein-rich food to gain strength and stamina. She protested; nevertheless she did what was told, meekly enough. When she was well again and began her planned extensive lecture tour, Belur Math sent Swami Sadananda, the first monastic disciple of Vivekananda, to accompany her. -- Swami Ekatmananda, ADVAITA ASHRAMA, LOHAGHAT, INDIA Sadhu Rangarajan's Reply on' Sister Nivedita—Second View' [Published in HINDUISM TODAY, November/December 2000] REVERED SWAMI EKATMANANDAJI OF Advaita Ashrama has, in his letter published under the title "Sister Nivedita—Second View" (May/June 2000), tried to present the view that Swami Vivekananda did not approve of Sister Nivedita's political activities, "scolded her severely" and wanted her either to give up the Order or give up her political activities. But this view is contradictory to facts presented in two authoritative biographies of Sister Nivedita, 'The Dedicated - A Biography of Sister Nivedita' in French by Lizelle Raymond (English translation by Samata Books, 10, Kamaraj Bhavan, 573, Anna Road, Chennai 600 006, India, 1985) and 'Sister Nivedita of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda' by Pravrajika Atmaprana (by Sister Nivedita Girls' School, 5, Nivedita Lane, Calcutta 700 003). Lizelle Raymond clearly points out: “During those first months of 1902, the seeds of all Nivedita’s later life had really been sown under the eyes of Swami Vivekananda. He had placed entire confidence in her and had made it clear that he would never interfere in any path she chose to take, though sometimes he appeared to be concerned as to whether she could combine this expression of active life with the spiritual discipline he had given her.” (Page 261-262). She further says, “On the other hand, Swami Vivekananda had very often remarked, to these groups of disciples and friends during the last months, that he counted on Nivedita to arouse the political sense among Hindus. He wanted patriotism in India, love for the country. It was in that sense that he had pledged her to serve India, and to sacrifice herself to the last renunciation.” (Page 262). That it was not Swami Vivekananda, but some of the other monks of the Order who were opposed to Nivedita’s political activities is made amply clear by her statement: “To the monks, Swami Vivekananda had said that Nivedita must be given full liberty, ‘even if she works without any connection with the mission’; but they now realized that she might deflect their line of conduct. They appealed to her vow of obedience either to renounce entirely the activity which was so dear to her, or so to organize her life that her freedom would be wholly recognized.” (Page 263). It was this appeal that forced Nivedita to tender her resignation from the Mission. Pravrajika Atmaprana refers to a conversation of Sister Nivedita with Swami Vivekananda, a few days before the Swami passed away. She says, “During the conversation she broached the subject of the Home for widows and orphans of which she had thought so much before she left for the West. The Swami said, it was a folly to have such Homes in India for they would do more harm than good. Nivedita’s immediate rejoinder was: ‘Yes, don’t you see! That’s exactly what I say that the other question must be answered first! Then all questions of education.’ The Swami understood that by the other question Nivedita meant political freedom. He solemnly replied: ‘Well, well, Margot, perhaps you are right, only I feel that I am drawing near to death. I cannot bend my mind to these worldly things now’. “ (Page 141-142). Pravrajika Atmaprana further points out: “The other question that made Nivedita take interest in the current political activities in the country and get acquainted with political leaders of different parties, created a new problem not only for her, but also for the Math authorities. It was difficult for Swami Brahmananda and others to say how the Swami would have acted under the circumstances, but of this they were certain, that their monastic Order was to be above politics. So they requested Nivedita to think about the matter seriously.” (Page 142). She further says: “Years ago, one day, the Swami had said to her: ‘My mission is not Ramakrishna’s nor Vedanta’s nor anything but simply to bring manhood to my people.’ ‘I will help you’, Nivedita had sworn. Gravely had the Swami replied, ‘I know it'. Was it not her duty now to give to the nation what she had received from the Swami? The nation needed her. What was she to do now?” (Page 143). Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan SISTER NIVEDITA ACADEMY SISTER NIVEDITA “The Poona plague started dismally and ended disastrously involving the lives of a number of persons some of whom have brought glory to the nation, struggling for settling accounts with the foreigners wherever possible. “The spirit of sacrifice for a cause that was displayed by Damodar and his brothers can be traced back to the great mother who could offer three sons at the Altar of the Motherland in the course of not as many months. “Sister Nivedita came to know about the momentous event and thought of paying her respects in person to the mother leading a life of devotion and retirement at Poona. The revered lady was engaged in her daily puja when the Sister reached the Chapekar home. She was astounded to find the mother completely composed; no complaints, no regrets. There was no necessity of giving expression to sentiments of sympathy and solace to one who needed none. Nivedita with devotional awe bowed down to touch the feet of the mother of the heroes. She came away with a sense of deeper philosophy in Indian mother’s life. The spirit of self-respect and march towards self-realization of the Indian nation was well on its way and Nivedita came to realize that it had proceeded far ahead of the stage of which she had any idea.” From “The Roll of Honour—Anecdotes of Indian Martyrs” by Kali Charan Ghosh, published by Asoke Das, Vidya Bharati, 8-c, Tamer Lane, Calcutta-9, April 1965, Pages 51-52. Sitting in His presence, this Sadhu was all the time thinking of the great tasks ahead. Lo! There comes from the mouth of the Great Master, the life-giving and invigorating message in the form of a soul-stirring tribute to the great man-maker and nation-builder of Modern India – Swami Vivekananda, the centenary year of whose address in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago has just commenced. The words of one of the Greatest Yogis living in our midst today, echoing the message of the Patriot-Monk who shook the whole world and aroused our nation from its deep slumber to stand up and fight for its emancipation from foreign yoke, are not mere words of eulogy. It is the same colossus who travelled to the distant lands carrying India’s spiritual light to millions of people all over the world who speaks today through the Yogi apparently remaining stationary like the Holy Mount of Arunachala, but illumining by His Divine Light every nook and corner of the world. YOGI RAMSURATKUMAR ON SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan An offer of a philanthropic-minded devotee to donate his ancestral property at Kanhangad to Sister Nivedita Academy to set up a spiritual centre to train up missionaries for man-making and nation-building tasks occasioned the visit of this Sadhu to the abode of my Master, H.H. Yogi Ramsuratkumar Godchild Tiruvannamalai, to discuss the proposal with him in detail in last July (1992). The Master enquired with keen interest about the exact location of the place offered, the plan that we had in our mind and also who would take up the responsibility of training the workers. When this Sadhu assured that he would bestow his personal attention to the task, the Master blessed the scheme and allowed this Sadhu to go ahead with the proposal. The next morning, this sadhu placed the letter received from the generous devotee at the feet of the Master who made this Sadhu read out the letter. We also placed at His feet, an off-print copy of an article published in the Vivekananda Kendra Patrika on Sister Nivedita Academy. Master went through the write up and looked intently on his photograph printed therein. This editorial is just a humble attempt to report our conversation with our Master as it serves as a fitting message from him through this issue of TATTVA DARSANA commemorating the Centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago address. “Father alone exists. Nothing else, nobody else. All is pervaded by My Father! We are all in Him and He is in all of us!” The Master was repeating these words for some time and then continued: “Swami Vivekananda used to say that we are soul, not the body. When we think that we are the soul, we don’t have depression or disease. We feel Immortal! When we start thinking we are body, then weakness steps in. Strength is religion, he said. Anything that makes us weak is irreligion.” Ch. Vivekanandan who was sitting next to this Sadhu, recalled: “Swami Vivekananda has said that God could be reached easier through football than the Gita.” Master burst into laughter and said: “Yes, he wanted muscles of iron and nerves of steel!” Then he continued: “The more we think that we are the soul, the stronger we become. No depression or pain is felt thereafter. Swami Vivekananda wanted the whole nation to be filled with this idea of strength, that we are soul. He wanted to spread this message everywhere.” Master paused for a moment and added: “Calling man a sinner makes him weak. There is no ‘sinner’. Everyone is ‘Divine’.” The Master continued: “Swami Vivekananda felt that it was India’s mission to produce sages and saints. He asks in one of his lectures: ‘What India has been doing for the last thousands of years except producing sages and seers?’” head in assent and said: “Rama Tirtha also wanted this nation to be spiritually strong. He had a great love for Ganga. He sang a song, Ganga tera balidaan. He had written several songs in Hindi and Urdu.” Vivek recalled that the Master had made him and Kum. Nivedita read those words from Lectures from Colombo to Almora, before his joining the B.E. course. This sadhu recalled the occasion by reminding the Master that he had then asked Vivek: “What sort of an Engineer you want to become – Manmaking or machine-making?” Master burst again into a hilarious laughter and then continued: This Sadhu interrupted the Master: “These songs have now been translated into English, under the title, Songs of Enlightenment, and published from London.” “What a love Swami Vivekananda had for India and our Sanatan Dharma! In Europe, people will gather around a successful businessman. But in India, people gather around a God-realised saint. That is the glory and greatness of India. Here we do not adore the rich but only the saintly!” After a few minutes of silence, the Master recalled “Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was inspired by Swami Vivekananda to take to politics and serve the Motherland. This Beggar has read somewhere that, when Netaji was in England, studying for the ICS, it was Swami Vivekananda’s clarion call that inspired him to give up ICS, become a patriot and take to politics. But for Vivekananda, Netaji would have become an ICS Officer. He gave up ICS and plunged into politics only by the inspiration of Swami Vivekananda’s words.” “Is it so?”, the Master asked and continued: “Rama Tirtha offered himself to Mother Ganga and it literally happened by his attaining jalasamaadhi in Ganga.” This Sadhu took out a circular of Sister Nivedita Academy introducing the complete works of Swami Rama Tirtha, In Woods of God-realization, to all educational institutions and individuals aspiring to read his works. Master received it and went through it. Expressing his happiness over the noble attempt of the Academy, He passed on the circular to a devotee who was sitting in our midst. The conversation then turned to the study of Indian thought and culture. At the end of the conversation, this Sadhu felt confident and reassured that we have been treading rightly on the path that the Master has set for us. Vande Mataram! This sadhu recalled that Sister Nivedita was also inspired to take to politics by Swami Vivekananda. She had said that Swamiji wanted her “to mould a mighty weapon out of the bones of the Bengali youth.” Master nodded His head with a smile and continued: “Swami Vivekananda’s message is the root of India’s freedom struggle. He was responsible for our freedom movement. Only after him the Bengal awakening came and then came Sri Aurobindo to give the lead. But for Vivekananda, India’s freedom movement would not at all have started.” He again exclaimed: “What a love Vivekananda had for India and Sanatan Dharma!” After a little pause, he again continued: “Swami Rama Tirtha also spoke as forcefully as Swami Vivekananda. His speeches are also most inspiring.” This Sadhu remarked that Swami Rama Tirtha was also deeply influenced by Swami Vivekananda and it was Swami Vivekananda who inspired Rama Tirtha to take to spiritual life and spread Vedanta. Master again nodded His [TATTVA DARSANA, Aug-Oct 1992, Vol.9-N0.3] "There are some fools in this world who use brackish water although there is excellent sweet water nearby, because they say, the brackishwater well was dug by their father.…So when each man stands and says, "My Prophet is the only true prophet", he is not correct—he knows not the alpha of religion. Religion is neither talk nor theory, not intellectual consent. It is realization in the heart of our hearts; it is touching God; it is feeling, realizing that I am a spirit in relation with the Universal Spirit and all its great manifestations. If you have really entered the house of the Father, how can you have seen His children and not known them? And if you do not recognize them, you have not entered the house of the Father." —Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda. It was here, on the last bit of Indian rock, that the great Swami sat and meditated to find a remedy to the ills afflicting the nation. SWAMI VIVEKANANDA R. Vivekanandan [Swami Vivekananda Jayanti falling on January 12, is National Youth Day. In this International Youth Year, our younger generation turns towards the patriot monk for solace and inspiration. Here is a talk on the Lion of Vedanta by our youngest contributor, R. Vivekanandan, delivered in the ‘Buds & Blossoms’ programme for children broadcast by All India Radio, Madras, on 11-7-1985.—Editor] ‘Srinvantru sarve amritasya putraa! —Listen ye all, children of Immortality!’ This year is the International Youth Year. Our National Government has declared the Vivekananda Jayanti every year falling on January 12 as the National Youth Day and this year, the year–long programme of activities in connection with the International Youth Year in our country has commenced on this auspicious day. Swami Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest patriot-saint of the modern period, who has kindled in the hearts of the Indian youth the spirit of patriotism and aroused them to perform dedicated acts of selfsacrifice for the cause of our Holy Motherland. In Kanyakumari, where the three great oceans mingle to wash the sacred feet of Mother India, there stands a magnificent memorial dedicated to Swami Vivekananda reached Kanyakumari after wandering throughout the length and breadth of the country as a parivrajaka or wandering monk. He asked some fishermen on the seashore to take him to the rock known as Sripad Shila. They demanded a fee to take him in their catamaran. But the Swami did not have even a single pie with him. Therefore, he boldly plunged into turbulent waters and swam across to the rock. There he spent three days, sitting in meditation on the country which was to him his worshipful God. Referring to the thoughts which passed in his mind during that period, the Swamiji tells: “We are so many Sannyasins wandering about and teaching the people metaphysics—it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva use to say, ‘An empty stomach is no good for religion’?” At the end of his long meditation he came to the conclusion that service must go with renunciation. From then on he consecrated his life to the service of India, worshipping the only God that exists—the Daridra Narayana, the poor and the downtrodden. He emphatically declared: “He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the distressed, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his caste, or creed, or race, or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with the man who sees him only in temples.” Swamiji reached Madras where some of his ardent devotees made preparation for his visit to America. Here he had a vision of Sri Ramakrishna walking from the shore to the ocean and beckoning him to follow. He heard the authoritative word, “Go”. Mother Sarada Devi also gave her blessings. On the request of Maharaja of Khetri, the Swamiji went to that princely state. It was here that he assumed the name ‘Swami Vivekananda’. Before that he had assumed several names such as Satchidananda, Vividhishananda, etc. Swamiji sailed to America from Bombay on May 31, 1893. The Parliament of Religions, in which he was to participate, opened at 10-00 AM on Monday, September 11, 1893, in the Art Institute Building in Chicago. All the delegates to the Parliament had come prepared with their readymade speeches. Swamiji was the only one who had come unprepared to address the august assembly of about seven thousand people. Before that he had never spoken in the public. The Swamiji who rose to speak bowed to the Goddess of Wisdom, Mother Saraswati, and addressed the audience as “Sisters and Brothers of America”. His words electrified the audience. He was the first man to cast off the formalism of the Congress in which the speakers addressed the audience as “Ladies and Gentlemen”. He spoke to them in a language which they yearned to hear. As soon as he uttered the words of address, a thunderous applause prevailed all over the stadium. Instantly thousands rose from their seats and walked over the benches to get near him. Swami Vivekananda, in his soul-stirring speech, proclaimed: “I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.” On speaking about the universal spirit of acceptance of all religions by Hinduism, he quoted our scripture: “Whosoever comes to me through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to Me!” Perhaps, the only man to speak of universal tolerance and acceptance was Swami Vivekananda. Each of the other delegates spoke of their own god and ideals and their superiority, but the only person to embrace them all in a spirit of universal brotherhood was Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda thus conquered the westerners by his soul-stirring and epoch-making speech. His name resounded everywhere. Life size pictures of the Swamiji were pasted up in the streets of Chicago. Whenever the passers-by saw the pictures, they bowed their heads in reverence. Not a single newspaper failed to pay tribute to him. They were all praise for Swami Vivekananda. The most renowned newspaper, The New York Herald, spoke of him thus: “Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him, we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to the learned nation.” This was the impression that he made of our country in the West. After his triumphant tour in Europe, including England, he left for India. He reached Colombo on January 15, 1897. From Colombo to Almora, everywhere he was given a royal welcome. As soon as he reached Rameswaram, the Raja of Ramnad himself received him. The Raja and his ministers unharnessed the horses of a carriage in which the Swami was seated and they themselves drew the chariot in a mammoth procession. When he reached Madras on February 6, 1897, thousands gathered in the Egmore Railway Station to receive him. After a grand reception, an elaborate procession commenced and wended its way along the platform amidst deafening cheers and thunderous applause. Thousands and thousands of people thronged the streets. From widows and verandas, people sought to gain a glimpse of the harbinger of Awakened India. Students of Madras city drew the carriage in which the Swamiji was seated and the procession reached Castle Kernan, the residence of Sri Billigiri Iyengar, which is now known as Vivekananda House. A leading newspaper described the reception accorded to him in these words: “Never since its earliest days has Madras witnessed such an enthusiastic reception accorded to anyone. European or Indian, of all the official receptions that were ever held in Madras, none could equal the one given to Swami Vivekananda. Such an ovation has not been witnessed in Madras within the memory of the oldest man, and we dare say that the scenes of today will remain for ever in the memory of the present generation.” It is not that the people of Madras knew him only after his conquest of the West, but it was they who had taken steps to send him to America, after realizing his greatness even before he shook the world. The credit goes to the citizens of Madras for discovering Swami Vivekananda and presenting him to the world. After his return to Calcutta, Swamiji established the Ramakrishna Math and Mission on a very firm footing. Disciples from far and wide, including Miss Margaret Noble of Ireland, who later came to be known as Sister Nivedita and who was also the Guru of our great national poet, Mahakavi Subramania Bharati, thronged around him helping him in his nation-building and man-making mission. He also made a second visit to the West, But his tireless work told upon his health. The Swamiji attained Mahasamadhi at an early age of 39, on July 4, 1902, at Calcutta. Swamiji preached the religion of fearlessness. He says: “If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bomb-shell upon masses of ignorance it is the word, fearlessness. And the only religion that have to be taught, is the religion of fearlessness.” He exhorted the children of our Motherland to be like lions. He says, “What our country now wants, are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion, even if it meant going down to the bottom of ocean and meeting death face to face.” He thundered: “Amra marbo, jat jagbe”—“We shall die to awaken the nation.” His clarion call is: “Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.” [TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 2, No. 4, November 1985—January 1986] IT IS FOR INDIANS TO WRITE INDIAN HISTORY Extracts from COMPLETE WORKS OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Amongst all the races of the world, from the earliest time of history, India has been called the land of wisdom. History itself bears testimony to this fact. All the soul-elevating ideas and different branches of knowledge that exist in the world are found on proper investigation to have their roots in India. (Vol.IV, p. 197) When the real history of India will be unearthed, it will be proved that, as in matters of religion, so in fine-arts and sciences too, India is the Primal Guru of the whole world. (Vol. V, p. 421) India has for thousands of years been peacefully existing. Here civilization and activity prevailed when even Greece did not exist, when Rome was not thought of, when the very fathers of modern Europeans, painted themselves blue and lived in forests. Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from then until now, ideas after ideas have marched from here, but every word was spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. (Vol. III, p. 106) Those of you who think that the Hindus have always been confined within the four walls of their country, are entirely mistaken that you have not studied the old books, you have not studied the history of the race if you think so. Each nation must give in order to live. When you give life, you will have life..... and what we have been living for so many thousands of years is a fact that stares us in face, and the solution that remains is that we have always been giving to the outside world, whatever the ignorant may think. (Vol. II, p. 273) The gift of India is the gift of religion and philosophy, of wisdom and spirituality. Like the gentle dew that falls unseen and unheard and yet brings into blossom the fairest of roses, has been the contribution of India to the thought of the world. Silent, unperceived, yet omnipotent in its effect, it has revolutionised the thought of the world; yet nobody knows when it did so..... There are evidences accumulating every day to show that Indian thought penetrated the world before Buddhists were born..... Before Buddhism, Vedanta had penetrated into China, into Persia, and the Islands of Eastern Archipelago. (Vol. III, p. 274-5) A nation that has no history of its own has nothing in this world. Do you believe that one who has such faith and pride as to feel, ‘I come of noble decent’, can ever turn to be bad? How could that be? That faith in himself could curb his actions and feelings, so much so that he would rather die than commit wrong. So, a national history keeps a nation well-restrained and does not allow it to sink so low. Oh, I know you will say, “But have we not such a history”. No, there is not any, according to those who think like you. Neither is there any, according to your university scholars; and so also to those who after having travelled through the West in great rush, come back dressed in European style and assert, “We have nothing, we are barbarians”. But, with all that, we have our own history exactly as it ought to have been for us. Will that history be made extinct by shutting our eyes? Those who have eyes to see will find a luminous history there, and on the strength of that history, they know that the nation is alive. BUT THAT HISTORY HAS TO BE REWRITTEN. It should be restated, suited to the understanding and ways of thinking which our men have acquired in the present age through Western Education. Study Sanskrit, but along with it study Western science as well. Learn accuracy, my boys. Study and labour, so that the time will come when you can put our history on a scientific basis. For, now Indian history is disorganized. It has no chorological accuracy. The histories of our country written by English writers cannot but be weakening to our minds, for they tell only of our downfall. How can foreigners, who understand very little of our manners and customs, or of our religion and philosophy, write faithful and unbiased histories of India? Naturally, many false notions and wrong inferences have found their way into them. Nevertheless they have shown us how to proceed in making research into our ancient history. Now it is for us to strike out an independent path of historical research for ourselves, to study the Vedas and the Puranas and ancient annals of India, and from them make it your life’s SADHANA (Tapasya: disciplined endeavour) to write accurate, sympathetic and soul-inspiring histories of the land. IT IS FOR INDIANS TO WRITE INDIAN HISTORY. Therefore set yourselves to the task of rescuing our lost and hidden treasures from oblivion. Even as one whose child has been lost does not rest until he has found it, so do you never cease to labour until you have revived the glorious past of India in the consciousness of the people. That will be true national education, and with its advancement a true national spirit will be awakened. (His eastern and Western Disciples, Life of Swami Vivekananda, 2 vols.,: Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, 2000, 1.271-2.) History Writing And Nationalism Swami Vivekananda was one of the first people to stress the need for writing Indian national history as seen through Indian eyes. In a conversation with Priya Nath Sinha he said, ‘a nation that has no history of its own has nothing in this world. … We have our own history exactly as it ought to have been for us. … But that history has to be rewritten. It should be restated and suited to the understanding and ways of thinking which our men have acquired in the present age through Western education.’,,,, Swami Vivekananda briefly outlines the purpose that he envisioned for Indian national history: one, it was to rescue the lost and hidden treasures of past Indian civilization; two, it would revive the glorious past in the consciousness of the people; and three, it would awaken the national spirit and thus make for true national education. Obviously, to Swamiji such history was essential to the making of an Indian nation, and would propel the fledgling Indian nationalism that was yet to take off. Extract From Prabuddha Bharata, August 2005 draw your own conclusions’.” And this is very significant, since we have all along been trained to tell parrot-like whatever the British had to say about us, without cogitating the least as to what it conveys and if it is the truth. On the contrary it is venerated as the Vedic dictum--the ultimate truth. Never have our historians tried to unravel the veil of myth woven around the nation’s heritage, culture and history-- all by themselves, instead of hankering for authentication by an ‘elite’ alien race. And this has proved to be our undoing, with so many divisions perpetrated long after the very raisond’etre for these have been obliterated by a vigilant and agile national leadership. The bourgeois politicians have everything to gain by way of trumpeting this cacophony and camouflaging their miserable failures in the milieu that ensues. An astute mass should be the last to succumb to such divisive ‘philanthropy’ of these ‘bountiful’ philanderers.” SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE ARYAN- DRAVIDIAN THEORY R. Vivekanandan The great prophet and patriot, Swami Vivekananda, questions the very edifice of the theory of Aryan - Dravidian racial division in India. He was unequivocal in condemning this myth and doesn’t leave anything ambiguous in his observations. He observed: “And what your European Pundits say about the Aryan’s swooping down from some foreign land, snatching away the lands of the aborigines and settling in India by exterminating them, is all pure nonsense, foolish talk! Strange, that our Indian scholars, too, say amen to them; and all these monstrous lies are being taught to our boys! This is very bad indeed. “I am ignoramus myself; I do not pretend to any scholarship ; but with the little I understand, I strongly protested against these ideas at the Paris Conference. ...And this I say to you—to our Pundits—also, ‘You are learned men, hunt up your old books and scriptures, please, and With regard to the Sri Rama - Ravana conflict in the ambience of an Aryan - Dravidian racial conflict Vivekananda has this to say : “In what Veda, in what Sukta, do you find that the Aryans came into India from a foreign country? Where do you get the idea that they slaughtered the wild aborigines? What do you gain by talking such nonsense? Vain has been your study of the Ramayana; why manufacture a big fine story about it? “Well, what is the Ramayana? The conquest of the savage aborigines of Southern India by the Aryans! Indeed! Ramachandra is a civilized Aryan king, and with whom is he fighting? With King Ravana of Lanka. Just read the Ramayana, and you will find that Ravana was rather more and not less civilized than Ramachandra. The civilization of Lanka was rather higher, and surely not lower, than that of Ayodhya. And then, when were these Vanaras (monkeys) and other South Indians conquered? They were all, on the other hand, Ramachandra’s friends and allies. Say which kingdoms of Vali and Guhaka were annexed by Ramachandra ?” [TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 16, No. 1, Feb-Apr 99] TRIBUTE TO SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose political mentality. So far at least as Bengal is concerned Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalist movement. He died very young in 1902, but since his death his influence has been even greater. I cannot write about Vivekananda without going into raptures. Few indeed could comprehend or fathom him—even among those who had the privilege of becoming intimate with him. His personality was rich, profound and complex and it was this personality—as distinct from his teachings and writings—which accounts for the wonderful influence he has exerted on his countrymen and particularly on Bengalis. This is the type of manhood, which appeals to the Bengali as probably none other. Reckless in his sacrifice, unceasing in his activity, boundless in his love, profound and versatile in his wisdom, exuberant in his emotions, merciless in his attacks, but yet simple as a child. He was a rare personality in this world of ours… In the eighties of the last century, two prominent religious personalities appeared before the public who were destined to have a great influence on the future course of the new awakening. They were Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the saint, and his disciple Swami Vivekananda…Ramakrishna preached the gospel of the unity of all religions and urged the cessation of inter-religious strife...Before he died, he charged his disciple with the task of propagating his religious teachings in India and abroad and of bringing about an awakening among his countrymen. Swami Vivekananda therefore founded the Ramakrishna Mission, and order of monks, to live and preach the Hindu religion in its purest form in India and abroad, especially in America, and he took an active part in inspiring every form of healthy national activity. With him religion was the inspirer of nationalism. He tried to infuse into new generation a sense of pride in India’s past, of faith in India’s future, and a spirit of self- confidence and self-respect. Though the Swami never gave any political message, everyone who came into contact with him or his writings developed a spirit of patriotism and a Swamiji was a full-blooded masculine personality—and a fighter to the core of his being. He was consequently a worshipper of Shakti and gave a practical interpretation to the Vedanta for the uplift of his countrymen. Strength, Strength is what the Upanishads say—that was a frequent cry of his. He laid the greatest stress on character building. I can go on for hours and yet fail to do the slightest justice to that great man. He was so great, so profound, so complex. A yogi of the highest spiritual level in direct communication with the truth, who had for the time being, consecrated his whole life to the moral and spiritual uplift of his nation and of humanity, that is how I would describe him. If he had been alive, I would have been at his feet. Modern Bengal is his creation—if I err not. How shall I express in words my indebtedness to Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda? It is under their sacred influence that my life got first awakened. Like Nivedita I also regard Ramakrishna and Vivekananda two aspects of one indivisible personality. If Swamiji had been alive today, he would have been my guru, that is to say, I would have accepted him as my Master. It is needless to add, however that as long as I live, I shall be absolutely loyal and devoted to RamakrishnaVivekananda. It is very difficult to explain the versatile genius of Swami Vivekananda. The impact of Swami Vivekananda made on the students of our times by his works and speeches far outweighed that made by any other leader of the country. He, as it were, expressed fully their hopes and aspirations. (But) Swamiji cannot be appreciated properly if he is not studied along with Sri Sri Paramahamsa Deva. The foundation of the present freedom movement owes its to origin to Swamiji’s message. If India is to be free, it cannot be a land specially of Hinduism or of Islam—it must be one united land of different religious communities inspired by the ideal of nationalism. (And for that) Indians must accept whole-heartedly the gospel of harmony of religions, which is the gospel of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda …. Swamiji harmonized east and west, religion and science, past and present. And that is why he is great. Our countrymen have gained unprecedented self-respect, self-confidence and self-assertion from his teachings. The idea of complete freedom is manifest only in RamakrishnaVivekananda towards the end of the 19th century. “Freedom, freedom is the song of the soul”—this was the message that burst forth from the inner recesses of Swamiji’s heart and captivated and almost maddened the entire nation. This truth was embodied in his works, life, conversations, and speeches. Swami Vivekananda on the one hand called man to be real man free from all fetters and on the other laid the foundation for true nationalism in India by preaching the gospel of the harmony of religions. With me it is a firm faith that unless at the beginning we have acquired strength of character, rare in its human quality, there is hardly any hope of redeeming mankind by means of all these ‘isms’. This was why Swami Vivekananda would say, “Man-making is my mission”. Men, true in spirit, were indeed the basic need, for without men, hopes of national reconstruction or the founding “isms” on any firm ground would be idle dreams. Hence every youth movement should primarily aim at producing men of the truest type: and a man to be true and good, must develop on all sides. [TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 25. No. 1, Jan-Mar 2008] The harmony of all religions, which Ramakrishna Paramahamsa accomplished in his life’s endeavour, was the keynote of Swamiji’s life. And this ideal is again the bedrock of the nationalism of Future India. Without this concept of harmony of religions and toleration of all creeds, a spirit of national consciousness could not have been built up in this country of ours full of diversities. The aspirations for freedom manifested itself in various movements since the time of Ram Mohan Roy. This aspiration was witnessed in the realm of thought and in social reforms during the 19th century, but it was never expressed in the political sphere. This was because the people of India still remained sunk in the stupor of subjugation and thought that the conquest of India by the British was an act of Divine Dispensation. A BLESSING The Mother’s heart, the hero’s will, The softest flowers’ sweetest feel; The charm and force that ever sway The altar-fire’s flaming play: The strength that leads, in love obeys; Far-reaching dreams, and patient ways. Eternal faith in Self, in all, The light Divine is great, in small; All these and more than I could see, Today may ‘Mother’ grant to thee! —Swami Vivekananda IS RAMAKRISHNAISM NON-HINDU? Aasindhu sindhuparyetaa yasya bhaarata bhoomikaa Pitrubhoo punyabhooschaiva sa vai Hinduriti smritah Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan A lot of heat and controversy has been generated in the Hindu society by the stand taken by the authorities of the Ramakrishna Mission that “Ramakrishnaism is definitely no part of Hinduism… Ramakrishna is different and separate from Hinduism with a separate God, separate name, separate church, separate worship, separate community, separate organization and above all separate philosophy”. Accepting the stand of the mission, the Calcutta High Court has ruled that “The fact that Sri Ramakrishna never expressly abjured Hindu religion, and had sometimes described his disciples as Hindu monks would not be decisive”. The issue has arisen because the Ramakrishna Mission has attempted to protect its educational institutions from the merciless interference of the West Bengal Government, by claiming minority status for the mission. The matter has now gone to the Supreme Court. Not only the entire Hindu society, but leaders of all religions in the world eagerly await the final outcome. Now, we want to raise here some very fundamental questions. Who is a Hindu? What is Hinduism? Why is it called so? Hinduism is not the name of a religion. Religion means a system of faith and worship. Hinduism is a way of life, an eternal spiritual culture, founded by great rishis who lived on the banks of River Sindhu and built up a glorious civilization which spread from Himalayas to the Southern ocean and in later days to other part of the globe. Swami Vivekananda himself has pointed out how the word “Sindhu” became “Hindu” in Persian language and “Ind” in Greek, culminating in the modern term “Indian”. Veer Savarkar, in his Hindutwa, points out the very definition of the word Hindu: --All those who adore this land of Bharatavarsha spreading from the River Sindhu to the Indian Ocean, as the land of their forefathers and holy land, are Hindus. Thus, even a Muslim, a Christian or a Parsi, if he adores Bharat as his sacred land, is a Hindu. Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya, the great patriot-revolutionary of Bengal, called himself a Hindu, though he worshipped Jesus Christ as his Ishta Devata. Justice M.C. Chagla and patriotic Muslims like Jeelani claimed that they were Hindus by birth, though Muslims by faith. A patriotic Parsi like Nani Palkhiwala owns with pride in his heart, “India’s Priceless Heritage” which includes our Vedas and Upanishads. In the Hindu culture, there are many matha or religions like Saivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktam, Kaumaram, Ganapatyam, Souram, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, etc. which have sprung up in this sacred land. Some people in the Hindu society have also embraced religions like Christianity and Islam which have come from outside. Hindu culture accepts all forms of worship as various paths to one Ultimate Reality. A true Hindu is one who looks upon all religions as equal. One who fanatically adheres to one path and looks down upon others is un-Hindu or un-Indian. The term “minorities” is the most mischievous one coined by the modern power-hungry politicians. Among the cattle, there are cows, buffaloes, goats and sheep. The sheep cannot claim themselves to be non-cattle and therefore a minority. It is so in the case of the other animals too. Similarly, in the Hindu society which means the Indian or Bharateeya society, there are people adhering to different faiths. No one can claim minority status by calling himself non-Hindu. A non-Hindu is a non-Indian and cannot claim any political rights, not to speak of special privileges, in this country. There was a time when the Christians and Muslims of this land, who went abroad for pilgrimages, were called by their fellow-religionists in other countries as Hindu Muslims or Hindusthani Muslims and Hindu Christians or Hindusthani Christians. It was the “divide and rule policy” of the foreigners which set one section of the Hindu society against the other in the name of religion. Thus the Muslims and Christians were alienated from the mainstream of the Hindu society and nation and made anti-nationals. The result was the creation of Pakistan in the name of Islam and the present attempts to further vivisect the Motherland by creating a Christianisthan in the north-East. The truncated Indian or Hindu nation, after Independence, announced itself to be “secular”, but the Christians and Muslims in this land still claim a minority status in the name of religion. The power-crazy politicians tried to pamper the so called minorities with special privileges at the cost of the other sections of people. This has induced the Buddhists, the Jains and the Sikhs, whose “Khalsa” arose as the protector of the Hindu society and nation during the Muslim invasion, to claim minority status. No wonder, some Saivites in the country, especially in Tamilnadu, and even abroad, claim that they are non-Hindus! The Ramakrishna Mission is undoubtedly a great reform movement organized by Swami Vivekananda to purify the Hindu society, to arouse the Hindu national sprit and also to present to the world, the universal spiritual ideals of the Hindu race. He was never tired of calling himself a Hindu and Hinduism “the Mother of all religions”. In his inspiring talk, “The Common Bases of Hinduism” (vide “Lectures from Colombo to Almora”), he proudly proclaims: “We are Hindus. I do not use the word Hindu in any bad sense at all, nor do I agree with those that think there is any bad meaning in it. In old times, it simply meant people who lived on the other side of the Indus; today a good many among those who hate us may have put a bad interpretation upon it, but names are nothing. Upon us depends whether the name Hindu will stand for everything that is glorious, everything that is spiritual, or whether it will remain a name of opprobrium, one designating the downtrodden, the worthless, the heathen”. He further says: “When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud that I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the sages you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw. Therefore have faith in yourselves, be proud of your ancestors, instead of being ashamed of them. And do not imitate, do not imitate! Whenever you are under the thumb of others, you lose your own independence. If you are working, even in spiritual things, at the dictation of others, slowly you lose all faculty, even of thought.” It is relevant to quote here what Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the illustrious Guru of Swami Vivekananda, uttered about the Dharma that will survive the onslaught of time. On October 20, 1884, on the occasion of Sri Sri Mayura Mukutadhari mahotsava Bhagavan proclaimed: "Hindu Dharma –yi Sanatana Dharma ; idaneem ye sakala dharma dekhchho, e sava tar ichchate have, jabe, thakve na"—“It is the Hindu Dharma which is Sanatana Dharma; what Dharmas you are seeing these days, all those by His wishes, will appear and disappear; they will not stay”. (Published in Sri Ramakrishna Kathamrta, Bengali edition, 1920 ed. Part II, p.214) Would the authorities of the Ramakrishna Mission pay heed to the words of Swamiji and desist from borrowing the tactics of the so called minorities to enjoy undue privileges in the society at the cost of others? Swamiji would not have even dreamt that his own reformist organization would one day claim the status of a separate religious sect when he remarked, in his inspiring talk on “The Religion we are born in “ (vide “Lectures from Colombo to Almora”). “The band of reformers in our country want, on the contrary, to build up a separate sect of their own. They have, however, done good work; may the blessings of God be showered on their heads! But why should you, Hindus, want to separate yourselves from the great common fold? Why should you feel ashamed to take the name of Hindu, which is your greatest and most glorious possession? This national ship of ours, ye children of the Immortals, my countrymen, has been plying for ages, carrying civilization and enriching the whole world with its inestimable treasures. For scores of shining centuries this national ship of ours has been ferrying across the ocean of life, and has taken missions of souls to the other shore, beyond all misery. But today it may have sprung a leak and go damaged, through your own fault or whatever cause it matters not. What would you, who have placed yourselves in it, do now? Would you go about cursing it and quarrelling among yourselves! Would you not all unite together and put your best efforts to stop holes? Let us all gladly give our heart’s blood to do this; and if we fail in the attempt, let us all sink and die together, with blessings and not curses on our lips.” If the so called secular government unjustly interferes in the functioning of Hindu institutions while allowing out of the way concessions and privileges to the so called minorities, the duty of the various sections of the Hindu society is not to try to get out of the main stream and claim minority status to protect their own interests, but to come forward and unite the whole Hindu society and stand as one man to fight for the common rights. The Hindu society is awakening from a deep slumber. It is the need of the hour for all leaders of various religious, spiritual and social organizations in the Hindu society to come under one banner, sinking all their vanity, false pride and superiority complex. If they fail in their duty now, the society will never forgive them and they will become non-entities when a new and powerful national spirit emerges and overwhelms the society, bringing back into existence the Hindu Nation, which is destined to become a reality in the near future. Mother Bharat is not too impotent to create new socio-religious leadership if the existing leaders fail. The energetic and dynamic Hindu youth of the country is just waiting for their turn. They will create a new and glorious nation! Vande Mataram! [Editorial, Tattva Darsana , Nov 1986 – Jan 1987, Vol.3, No.4] “DID SWAMI VIVEKANANDA GIVE UP HINDUISM?’’ by A ‘HINDU’ (G.C.ASNANI) Publisher’s Note by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna is considered as Avatara varishtha--the greatest of the incarnations of the Divine--by the followers of Sri Ramakrishna. The concept of Avatara is unique to Hindu Dharma, for Bhagavan Krishna has declared in the Bhagavad Gita that he descends into this world in every age to protect Dharma. Swami Vivekananda, the illustrious disciple of Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna, is renowned throughout the world as the greatest defender and exponent of Hindu Dharma in the modern age. In her introduction to The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita proclaims: “In these volumes, we have what is not only a gospel to the world at large, but also to its own children the Charter of the Hindu Faith…. For ages to come the Hindu man who would verify, the Hindu mother who would teach her children what was the faith of their ancestors will turn to the pages of these books for assurance and light.” Swami Vivekananda gave a rousing call to the Hindus: “When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, me of the least of the Hindu race yet proud of of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud to call myself a Hindu. I am proud that I am a country man of yours, you the descendants of the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw.” Perhaps Swami Vivekananda had spoken these words with deep foresight: “The band of reformers in our country want, on the contrary, to build up a separate sect of their own. They have, however, done good work; may the blessings of god be showered on their heads! But why should you, Hindus, want to separate yourselves from the great common fold? Why should you feel ashamed to take the name of Hindu, which is your greatest and most glorious possession?” It is, indeed, an irony of circumstances that these words of Swami Vivekananda are to be directed today to the followers of the Math that he himself founded to revitalize and rejuvenate Hindu Dharma. OUR MOTHERLAND Prof. G.C. Asnani has, in his monograph, presented the most glorious defence of Hindu Dharma by Swami Vivekananda in the course of his dazzling short life and has proved that what Swami Vivekananda presented as the Universal Religion was nothing but Hindu Dharma. Apart from the issue on which it is brought out, this work itself is a great compendium of Hindu thought from one of the greatest sons of Mother Bharat. If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way God ward must come to attain its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all the land of introspection and of spirituality……it is India. * * * * * Into this world he comes with all the past on him, the infinite past ushers the present, and the way in which we use the present is going to make the future. * * * * * At the beginning of this century, Schopenhauer, the great German philosopher, studying, from a not very clear translation of the Vedas made an old translation into Persian, and thence by a young Frenchman into Latin, says, “In the whole world there is no study so beneficial and so elevating as that of the Upanishads. It has been the solace of my life, it will be the solace of my death.” This great German sage foretold that “This world is about to see a revolution in thought more extensive and more powerful than that which was witnessed by the Renaissance of Greek Literature”, and today his predictions are coming to pass. * * * * * Great Rishis will appear and lead us to customs and manners that are suited to new environments. * * * * * These great underlying principles, being based upon the eternal nature of man, are as potent today for working for the good of the human race as they were thousands of years ago, and they will remain so, so long as this earth remains, so long as the law of Karma remains, so long as we are born as individuals and have to work out our own destiny by our individual power. Long after this issue dies down and people forget all about it, Prof. Asnani’s work will still be cherished by the posterity as a precious possession of the Hindu society. Sister Nivedita came forth to defend Hindu religion and Hindu nationalism , and roared into the ears of the sleeping lion of Hindu society: “By no means be found sleeping when the cry comes for battle”. Our Academy, named after the great Sister, deems it a proud privilege to present this monograph, especially to the children of the Rishis, to arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.” Our thanks are due to Kumari Nivedita Rangarajan who has typeset this monograph for printing and to Prof. Ranganayaki Srinivasan, who has helped us in proof-reading. Vande Mataram! Sister Nivedita Academy Madras, August 1, 1990 Sadhu Prof V. Rangarajan (TATTVA DARSANA, Vol 30, No. 2, April-June 2013) Swami Vivekananda * * * * * In India the same competing gods had been struggling with each other for supremacy, but the great good fortune of this country and the world was that there came out in the midst of the din and confusion, a voice which declared: “That which exists is One, sages call It by the various names”. It was repeated in the land, till it had entered into the blood of the nation, till it began to tingle with every drop of blood that flowed in its veins, till it became one with the life, part and parcel of the material of which it was composed; and thus the land was transmuted into the most wonderful land of toleration, giving the right to welcome the various religions as well as all sects, into the old mother-country. * * * * * It is impossible that all difference can cease; it must exist; without variation life must cease. It is this clash, the differentiation of thought, that makes for light, for motion, for everything. * * * * * Whosoever stands on this sacred land, whether alien or a child of the soil, feels himself surrounded—unless his soul is degraded to the level of brute animals—by the divine thoughts of the earth’s best and purest sons, who have been working to raise the animal to the divine through centuries, whose beginning history fails to trace. * * * * * Here, and here alone the human heart expanded till it included not only the human, but birds, beasts, and plants; from the highest gods to grain of sand; the highest and the lowest, all find a place in the heart of man, grown great, infinite. And here alone, the human soul studied the universe as one unbroken unity whose every pulse was his own pulse. * * * * * “Not by progeny, not by wealth, but by renunciation alone immortality is reached”. * * * * * So every improvement in India requires first of all an upheaval in religion. Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas. The first work that demands our attention is that the most wonderful truths confined in our Upanishads, in our scriptures, in our Puranas must be brought out from the books, brought out from the monasteries, brought out from the forests, brought out from the possession of selected bodies of people, and scattered broadcast all over the land, so that these truths may run like fire all over the country, from north to south, and east to west, from the Himalayas to Comorin, from Sindh to Brahmaputra. Everyone must know of them, because it is said, “This has first to be heard, then thought upon, and then meditated upon” * * * * * In this land are, still, religion and spirituality, the fountains which will have to overflow and flood the world, to bring in new life and new vitality to the Western and other nations, which are now almost borne down, half-killed, and degraded by political ambitions and social scheming. * * * * * O India! Forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti; forget not that the God thou worshippest is the great Ascetic of ascetics, the all-renouncing Shankara, the Lord of Uma; forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness; forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mother’s altar; forget not that thy social order is but the reflex of the Infinite Universal Motherhood; the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper, are thy flesh and blood, thy brothers. Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, “ I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother”. Say, “The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother”. Thou, too, clad with but a rag round thy loins, proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice: “The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India’s gods and goddesses are my God. India’s society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age.” Say brother: “The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good”, and repeat and pray day and night, “O Thou Lord of Gauri, O Thou Mother of the Universe. Vouchsafe manliness unto me! O Thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness, and make me a Man!” (Compiled by R. Vivekanandan) THE ARYAN-DRAVIDIAN THEORY There is a theory that there was a race of mankind in Southern India called Dravidians, entirely differing from another race in Northern India called the Aryans, and that the Southern India Brâhmins are the only Aryans that came from the North, the other men of Southern India belong to an entirely different caste and race to those of Southern India Brahmins. Now I beg your pardon, Mr. Philologist, this is entirely unfounded. The only proof of it is that there is a difference of language between the North and the South. I do not see any other difference. We are so many Northern men here, and I ask my European friends to pick out the Northern and Southern men from this assembly. Where is the difference? A little difference of language. But the Brahmins are a race that came here speaking the Sanskrit language! Well then, they took up the Dravidian language and forgot their Sanskrit. Why should not the other castes have done the same? Why should not all the other castes have come one after the other from Northern India, taken up the Dravidian language, and so forgotten their own? That is an argument working both ways. Do not believe in such silly things. There may have been a Dravidian people who vanished from here, and the few who remained lived in forests and other places. It is quite possible that the language may have been taken up, but all these are Aryans who came from the North. The whole of India is Aryan, nothing else. --Swami Vivekananda