Brij Mohan Sharma
Today is the auspicious birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the most exalted patriot-monk of Bharatvarsh, whose clarion call roused our motherland from its age-old slumber , and exhorted sons of the soil to gird up their loins and be one to cut off the shackles of foreign dominance in order to redeem the country’s freedom and its glorious past surreptitiously usurped by motley foreign invaders and plunderers one after the other.
The Swami urged the masses to “awake and arise… sleep does not become you… Think not that you are weak and miserable… It is not fitting that you think yourself weak.. say that to the world… and see that a practical result comes, see how with an electric flash everything is manifested, how everything is changed…”
Enthused by the patriotic and revolutionary fervour of the Swami, Romain Rolland the Nobel Laureate of France has said” He (Vivekananda ) was energy personified, and action was his message to man. For him.. it was root of all virtues.. India was hauled out of the shifting sands of barren spaculation wherein she had been engulfed for centuries, by the hand of one of her own Sanyasins, and the result was that the whole reservoir of mysticism, sleeping beneath, broke its bounds and spread by series of great ripples into action…”
It needs no emphasis that the role played by Vivekananda ji for the revival of India and the welfare of the world at large is a widely recognized reality. Though the Swami lived only a short life in the latter half of the 19th century and was actively engaged in public affairs for just a little less than fifteen years, the work he did during that period and the legacy he has left will survive through ages. His utterances and teachings have an unfading freshness and timeless relevance.
“I have gone through his works thoroughly and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousandfold”, says Mahatama Gandhi.
It is heart-warming that some of our distinguished present day leaders do try to fall in line with the progressive and rejuvenating ideas of Swami Vivekanandaji for the welfare of Indian nation, but as the things stand some immature incorrigible and habitual trouble makers are diffident to digest such noble and sincere endeavours.
Instead of supporting the re-vitalizing reforms and infusing the spirit of oneness in our nation, they are always on the look out to recreate the shameful scenario of false distinctions and religious fanaticism which have been eating into the vitals of our nation ever since our subjugation to foreign powers, who plundered the fabric of our rich cultural values. They fail to understand that all our attempts to make our country a model of brotherhood, peace and prosperity cannot succeed unless we reunite, eliminate classism and get rid of our haughtiness, self-conceit and stolidness.
Swami Vivekananda ji was a many-sided genius. He was a philosopher, a man of action, an introspective yogi, a prolific writer, a dynamic speaker and a brilliant conversationalist blessed with a handsome figure. In his inmost heart he was a true lover of God, which was manifest in his love for whole humanity. This love captivated the hearts of all who came into contact with him, either in the East for the West. He travelled to all corners of India and visited mush of Eastern Asia, Europe and the United States.
Swami ji leapt into prominence at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893 in which he represented Hinduism. One feels elated to record that his dynamic and highly impactful speeches delivered at the Parliament held the audience spellbound, and left indelible stamp of his extraordinary genius on the hearts of Americans, moreso when he reverently called them ‘Sisters and Brothers of America, His vast knowledge of Hinduism as also of other religions made an irreversible appeal to the vast gathering.
Vivekananda’s mission in America was mainly the interpretation of India’s spiritual culture, especially in the Vedantic setting. In America, he became India’s spiritual ambassador to create both understanding and healthy synthesis of East and West. His message of the divinity of the soul, the unity of existence, harmony of religious found an abiding place in the thoughts of Americans.
As is well known, the Americans and other foreign countries had many false notions about Indians. They believed that Hindus were an uncivilized people, superstitious, half-naked and little removed from beasts. Swamiji’s lecturers removed those misunderstanding and awakened in them an interest in Hindu religion. Several eminent persons began to accept Hindu ideas. The versatility of the Hindu religion was just the reason that found such ready favour and instantaneous effect in the highly advanced and intellectual minds of America and Europe.
Swami Vivekanandaji made them to understand that “Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or psychic control, or philosophy by one or more, or all of these and be free. This is the whole religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.”
In this very first lecture to the Parliament of Religions, he said : “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. “We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. “To illustrate his point, he quoted a hymn which he had learnt in his boyhood, “As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.
He was intensely emotive to point out that “Sectarianism bigotry, and its horrible discendent, fanaticism, have long possessed this earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization, and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now…”
What is the main cause of this horrible state of degeneration? The problem is that we all behave just like that frog who is born and brought up in a well and had no idea of the length, breadth and depth of a sea. In frog’s view nothing is bigger than his well, and that nothing can be bigger than his well. This had been the difficulty all the while. If I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well. Similarly, the followers of other religions think in the same manner. This gives rise to parochialism and its offshoot fanaticism. We have to make all out efforts to break down the barriers of this abhorrent line of thinking if we are truly sincere to live like human beings.
Swami Vivekananda ji says “holiness, purity, charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character.. If anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart…..”
As such, the notion created by some vested interests that Swami Vivekanandaji was a fanastic Hindu needs to be erased en bloc. On the other hand, the Swami was a lover of mankind. He strove to promote peace and human brotherhood on the spiritual foundation of the Vedantic Oneness of existence.
This little personalised self, says Vivekananda, if the cause of all misery. When an individual self thinks himself different from all other beings, it brings hatred and jealousy accompanied by many other evils. When this idea is got rid of all evil cease, all misery vanish. Love is the only law of life. Love binds, love makes Oneness. Whenever there are two, there is fear, there is danger, there is conflict, there is strife. When it is all one, who is where to hate, who is where to struggle with ? When it is all HE, with whom you will fight ? This explains the true nature of life, this explains the true nature of being. This is perfection, and this God, proclaims Swami Vivekanan ji.
(The author is former Addl. Secy to Govt)
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