Vijayadashmi festival is the occasion to celebrate the victory of Dharma, righteousness, over Adharma, evil, cleaning and worshipping respective weapons or instruments that we use to perform our Dharma, the duty and expression of feminine power for the protection of truth and destruction of demons. At the same time, it is also an event of stocktaking about our national preparedness for facing the present challenges.
When Bharat is taking strides in various fields to make its indelible mark, from sports to defence and space technology, simultaneously the situation emerging in and around is alarming. The danger of divisive forces, within and outside Bharat, is imminent, working day and night to create fissures on artificially constructed issues. The targeted killings in the Kashmir valley, illegal migration and growing population imbalance in the bordering areas of Northeastern states, massive conversion and other anti-Bharat activities in the southern states and increasing threat of drug trafficking in the coastal areas are not isolated but concerted mischief of the anti-Bharat forces. New social divisions and identities are fueled to halt the march of Bharat towards greater heights. Attempts to create unrest using the latest means of communication are prevalent in all parts of Bharat.
Pakistan is frustrated as their game in Jammu-Kashmir has miserably failed after the obstacles of Article 370 and Article 35A were removed. Facing political instability and economic catastrophe, Pakistan is determined to renew the old game of bleeding Bharat. The self-destructive game of promoting Islamic supremacist ideology and sponsoring terrorism as state policy has got a new momentum with the comeback of the Taliban in Afghanistan. Ambitious China with the skewed ideas of communism has realised that resurgent Bharat is the biggest challenge to its expansionist policies and therefore, employing all its might to corner Bharat on every front.
Post-corona economic recovery is a challenge for the entire world, and it provides an opportunity for Bharat to present an alternative model of integrated development. Capitalism and communism have failed miserably to ensure happiness for all due to their binary thinking: this systemic failure is represented by imbalanced growth, growing unemployment, and a degrading environment.
Bharat has got all the potential to face these challenges. The only stumbling block at the root of this malaise is the colonial mindset, ideas and structure. Even after the Independence, we could not get rid of many of those elements, especially in the intellectual sphere. In this context, a detailed stocktaking of the present situation and challenges and remedial direction for the corrective measures from familial to national levels suggested by the RSS Sarsanghachalak gains added importance. We need to think out of the box to mould the existing institutions, economy, education, healthcare, security and social structures to meet the present challenges. The direction has to be for the awakening of the national soul, as Sri Aurobindo articulated. The post-Corona churning and nationwide celebration of seventy-five years of Independence have provided us with a golden opportunity to revisit our ‘Swa’ (selfhood)and re-assess our journey from self-rule to selfhood.
