Brij Mohan Sharma
Today, India is celebrating, with rest of the world, the auspicious birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanandaji, the patriotmonk of India, whose clarion call helped our country to wake up from her centuries old slumber, and infused a new vigour and enthusiasm into its degrading socio-political and religious environment. He brought it out into the stream of international life and thought, and exposed its religion and philosophy to the ”glare of scientific reason and revealed to the world that India’s was not a painted veneer which will melt away in light and heat, but her beauty was genuine, a blending of truth, mobility and everlasting splendour based on deep inner fulfilment.”
As a student, Vivekananda, whose family name was Narendra Nath Datta, displayed a keen intelligence. He was a voracious reader with prodigious memory. His Principal Rev. W W Hastie once remarked : “Narendra Nath is really a genius. I have travelled far and wide but I have never yet come across a lad of his talents and possibilities..”
Narendra Nath’s growing urge for divine enlightenment showed him the way to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa in whose teachings he had developed a mounting interest. His five or six years of association with Sri Ramakrishna wrought transformation in his life, and Narendra Nath emerged as Vivekananda.
After the death of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886, Vivekananda founded Rama Krishna Mission at Belur Math, and plunged into the main task of his life of transforming India and restoring her pristine glory.
He travelled to all corners of his country and saw for himself the plight of India’s impoverished multitudes. Inda’s backwardness, apathy and weakness greeted him at every step. He was pained to see the battered and bruised mind and body of his beloved country. He saw for himself the India that lived her dismal life in the millions of cottages of our poor in plains, hills and forests, in ignorance and privation. He also saw the India that lived in mansions or places bereft of all compassion and the humanistic impulse. He saw millions bereft of all human dignity.
It was there and then that he resolved to undertake the herculean task of restoring human dignity to the poor populace of India by reviving wisdom of our glorious past. Swamiji was well aware that the India of the past was great and he had assimilated that greatness into himself.
The impact of his dynamic personality and skillful oratory was often overwhelming. It was in Chicago with his discourse at the Parliament of Religions in 1893 that he gained international attention. His efforts also culiminated in the establishment of many Vedanta Centres in the world.
In his very first lecture in the East after his triumphal return from his mission in West, He said : “If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed puniya bhumi (holy land).. the land where humanity has attained its highest towards greatness, towards purity, towards calmness above all the land of introspection and of spirituality it is India… here is the life giving water with which must be quenched the burning fire of materialism…” He never spared himself in his work of projecting his own clear vision that the brotherhood of man demanded social as well as spiritual well being.
Everywhere he taught man to realize his divine heritage. The innate divinity of man was the constant theme of all his teachings. This teaching of his cuts across all divisions based on political or religious affiliations. He held that spirituality was the core of every religion; dogmatic, exclusiveness and intolerance are no part of true religion. The more spiritual a man the more universal he is,”…These names as Hindu, Christian, etc., stand as great bars to all brotherly feelings between man and man. We must try to break them down first. They have lost all their good powers and now only stand as baneful influences under whose black magic the best of us behave like demons..”, said Swami Vivekanandaji.
In our country, a large number of men and women responded to the great ideals and values presented by Vivekananda.This resulted in great upsurge of societal reform and of a struggle for political independence, throwing up great movements and great patriots and leaders and, as a result of these activities, as a result of the wide diffusion of these great ideas, we achieved political freedom.
Writing about Swami Vivekananda, the first Prime Minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru said : “Rooted in the past and full of pride in India’s prestige, Vivekananda was yet modern in his approach to life’s problems and was a kind of bridge between the past of India and her present. He was a fine figure of a man, imposing, full of poise and dignity, sure of himself and his mission and at the same time full of dynamic and fiery energy, and a passion to push India forward.. He gave us something which brings us if I may use the word, a certain pride in our inheritance…. He was no politician in the ordinary sense of the word and yet he was, I think, one of the great founders.. of the national modern movement of India and great number of people who took more or less an active part in the movement….. drew their inspiration from Swami Vivekananda. Directly or indirectly he has powerfully influenced the India of today…”
Swami Vivekananda, however, always pointed out that no individual or nation can live by holding itself apart from the community of others, and whenever such attempt has been made, the result was disastrous to the secluding one. He was also of the view that political freedom, economic advancement and social solidarity are the three planks on which India can achieve global respect and recognition.
Swami Vivekananda was very much concerned about the education and character building of our youth, In his view, the end of education, all trading, should be man-making. We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on one’s own feet. We need technical education and all else that will develop industries, so that men instead of seeking for service may earn enough to provide for themselves and save against a rainy day. “What our country 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 the ocean, meeting death face to face. It is man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want”, said Swami Vivekanandaji.
It is really heart-rending that the self labours of Swami Vivekananda so sapped and drained his boundless vitality, that he wound up his earthly career in 1902 at the age of thirty-nine. His clarion call “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached” will always ring in the ears of our youth.
(The writer is former Addl. Secy. to Govt.)
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