Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (July 23, 1856—August 1, 1920) |
For the first time in the history of the Freedom Struggle of India the one who guided the nation socially, religiously and politically all alike him the country know by the name of Lokmanya Tilak. His arrival on the national scene was at such crucial time when British had firmly set their tentacles on the Indian soil. The people were at the lowest ebb of their predicament As such the need for social reformation was felt by many a social leader, result of which came in the form of different social movements run by them to have come up in the country. These movements indeed did a great deal of job to shake the people from the slumber of self forgetfulness through their onslaughts on the false-beliefs, and the ill-practices born out of it. And, after Swami Vivekanand, the one whose attention drew to this essential aspect of reformation was none other than Lokmanya Tilak.
Continuously since many centuries back whomsoever, shankracharyas or saint of any cult, the people held their master, that master sang the praise of renunciation. So out of limit was this done that not only sanyasin but also well-to-do grihasta looked upon moksha or renunciation as the only mode of life, and preferred giving up mundane life for the one that of ascetic. But through his granthas (literary works) Karmyoga-shastra and Gita rahasya Lokmanya Tilak put forth before the people the very elements from Gita which inspire the man to lead cheerful and vigorous life along with performing action within the code of Dharma. This proved to be the elixir for the prevailing social ailments. Where it changed the outlook of those who mistook the renunciation for inaction then it also opened the eyes of English educated Indians who so far held their paternal religion as nothing but at all retrogressive and outdated.
Before Gandhiji, one who transformed Freedom Movement into the Mass Movement for the first time then it was none other than Lokmanya Tilak. Behind the movement were many leaders, but the wisdom of assessing the situation and, thereby, executing the programmes which Tilak had none could be held comparable to him. This only was the reason that when due to internal differences Tilak was expelled from the Congress party the movement abruptly relapsed into inertia. And it could come into the life only when he was taken back into the party. -Rajesh Pathak
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