As if a radiant divine force had given him a far-seeing sight for Bharat, glory of sunrise breaking unto his soul, his pilgrim heart surrendering at the feet of God, awakening a golden sense of spiritual idealism, Swami Vivekananda was born in 1863 to a pious couple named Vishwanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi. He was endearingly called ‘Naren’, he had a philosophical insight in his worldview. His unwavering loyalty to stir up Hindu resurgence made him the fiercest lion amongst men.
A kinship was established between Ancient Vedanta & Modern Science which made way for the Vedantic vision of evolution for Bharat. The progressive emancipation successively revealed that the synthesis of knowledge of the within and the without is philosophy. Such was the matter of difference that he had ushered into the soul of Bharat.
Vivekananda on spirit of religion
Swami Vivekananda’s rejection of the western paradigm as a model of progress in 1893, when the entire globe was under the dominion or hegemony of the West, was a rare act of conviction. Even his own country’s westernised elite thought his views were ridiculous. Swamiji could see the underlying self-contradictions of crass materialism and foresee the terrible implications of putting sole emphasis on the material element as an able exponent of Dharma that secures both material prosperity and spiritual advancement.
Swami sung the glory of Vedanta and proposed not merely to tolerate, but to unconditionally accept everyone. Those claps were in honour of the monk who came from a primordial country and had difficulty adjusting to life in America until just a few days ago. He faced racial discrimination, battled with his dietary habits, and lacked adequate clothing on cold days. Swamiji did not utter a single word of resentment or protest in the face of all of this.
As his London expedition ended, a British friend happened to inquest him of what he could discern about his motherland post his nonpareil, exceedingly powerful stay in the West, to which, Swamiji said: “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!”
To stake one’s whole life and soul to save thousands who are dying of starvation was the essence of the religion of Vedanta. That is the highest authority, the supreme science which facilitates the movement and making of conditional souls out of humans.
People adduced, ‘You are a Man of God!’. Rabindranath Tagore said to Roman Rolland “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda.”
Sister Nivedita reiterated Swami’s convictions and said India beats in his pulses, he was the embodiment of India in flesh and blood, he was Bharat – the self-same mark of spirituality and wisdom. The old aphorism is ‘Elevation of masses within injuring the religion’ and that must be endorsed to keep up the vitality of the Hindu spirit and destiny.
Holiness is the highest and divine at power, so on earth as in heaven. Swamiji has quoted sayings from seers from diverse countries, religions, and civilisations in many of his speeches throughout Europe and America. He had also taken the time to understand their lessons and personal experiences in order to make his argument to his audience in the most relevant way possible.
This, however, does not necessarily disturb the foundations upon which he had built an impregnable castle of philosophy. Swamiji touched upon the rational and spiritual heritage of our country and heartily embraced the great saga of fortification of Hindu Dharma.
The contribution of Indian thinking is distinctive and lasting to this immense job of reconstructing modern man’s mental existence by bridging the chasm between faith and reason, on the basis of a unified picture of man and a better notion of spiritual life.
A study of the Upanishads demonstrates that religion in ancient India was addressed objectively and dispassionately, with the goal of discovering truth rather than hugging pleasant whims and fancies or idolising tribal instincts and preconceptions. Under the image of the mother, Dharma teaches patriotism, courage, discipline and spiritual nationalism. This is a sober common sense ingrained in the young individuals to harmonise unity and solidarity, which is regarded as the utmost level of sacrifice from the citizenry. In its subtle essence, anybody who enters this spirit of devotion to the nation and believes in the spiritual unity of land and people is an Indian or Hindu.
The mental commitment must be complete and irreversible. Swami Vivekananda has elucidated this scientific approach as advocated in Indian thought in number of his lectures and discourses. He was and continues to be an Indian youth idol who has inspired millions of people with his call, which contains the divine fabric of Hindu scriptures and philosophy.
What impedes the revival of Bharat?
Despite the fact of Bharat being a spiritual giant, it bore the brunt of impure, weakened, century old western contaminations of superstition and material prosperity by the reason of prolonged onslaught on its mood and temper. A common man is not aware of the implications of regionalism, communalism, casteism and various other disruptive tendencies. Modern western humanism has been the root-cause problem of our detachment from the ideals of ‘Swadesha’ & ‘Swadharma’. While India has been invaded by a variety of opponents throughout history, Hinduism as a religion and as a profound ancient race has also been targeted for invasion and conversion, especially in recent years. Despite being respected in many quarters around the world, India’s Mahayana Buddhism heritage and yogic spirituality are seen as a possible threat to be eradicated by ruling elite in the religious and political arenas.
Christian missionaries were a formidable tool in the hands of British imperialists to carry out the process of sabotaging the Hindu Attitude and Approach apart from launching a barrage of accusations and vilifications against Hinduism, Christian missionaries used the covert path of conversion to their faith particularly among tribals, Harijans, and other backward sections to subvert Hinduism’s nationalistic faith and carve out special pockets of British dominance.
The invasion of the missionaries was part of a larger British operation. The scientific phenomena in Bharat did not mean a comfortable conviction to rest by, however a light to set the spirit ablaze with a yearning for otherworldly acknowledgment. Religion is a question of internal experience, an approaching in contact with profound realities, and not a question of conviction or authoritative opinion or similarity. Narendra, as we all know, was a modern young man with a colossal mind and incredible willpower. He wasn’t the sort to be mesmerised or hypnotised into believing things he didn’t want to believe. When confronted with God Himself, though, he couldn’t help but be convinced of God’s existence. Such is the living tradition of God’s men, who have consistently proclaimed our land to be the land of God Realisation, Dharma Bhoomi, and Moksha Bhoomi.
The actual issue in India isn’t one of politics. It’s rather a social disturbance. This is a problem that exists in all countries, not just India. Western ideas have been dominated by politics in the West, and we in India are attempting to emulate it. We must remember that in Europe, where people have had racial unity from the beginning but natural resources are in short supply for the population, civilisation has inevitably taken on the characteristics of political and commercial aggression.
On one hand, they had no internal problems, but on the other, they had to contend with powerful and predatory neighbours. To have a perfect mixture among themselves, as well as a vigilant attitude of hostility toward others.
If we shift the focus onto our communist neighbour, their campaign of genocide in Tibet and the destruction of Tibetan culture is brushed over or reduced to a footnote. Even China’s policy of repressing Muslims in its western province of Xinjiang is largely overlooked by Muslim countries throughout the world.
Call To Reach the Ultimate Pinnacle of Glory:
Present-day India is engaged in an all-encompassed reconstruction to create self-consciousness about its purity and power that was left alone. Multifarious activities have brought tides of vigorous growth in the new society. The tragic blunders of historical ignorance, aggressive communism, ideological bankruptcy have been dealt with creative reformation post the summer of 2014. Those forces which aim to cripple the Hindu psyche are banding together to oppose Narendra Modi, India’s most important Prime Minister in recent decades, who is attempting to reawaken the country’s dharmic spirit. They are openly clamouring for his removal, even if it means splintering India with foreign forces support.
It is gradually being understood that ancient Bharat made extraordinary commitments to the studies of surgery, medication, arithmetic’s, metallurgy, cosmology, grammatical structure, etymology, town planning, and in other fields. We fostered these physical sciences in Bharat by similar strategies which the cutting-edge West has now more completely evolved as the logical technique. In all faiths, the ethnic element gets increasingly focused on the priest and feudal power over time, while the universal spiritual element becomes increasingly focused on the prophet and divine incarnation.
The ethnic part of religion will persist, but it must be subordinated to the spiritual aspect, according to Hindu tradition, if it is to assist man in his spiritual evolution. Physical science and technology have been overvalued in modern civilisation, just as they have been undervalued in previous civilisations. Today, it is necessary to view science in its correct context that of entire human knowledge and well-being. Swami Vivekananda made several significant contributions to modern philosophy, including this.
While Swami Vivekananda delivered a stirring address of peace, love, and pride in Chicago in 1893, terrorist strikes by the Islamic terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda against the United States killed over 3000 people and injured over 6000 more on September 11, 2001. With these contradicting incidents that occurred on the same date, one must look to Swami Vivekananda, particularly his Chicago speech, to comprehend not just why the 9/11 terror attack occurred, but also the basis of what is lacking in monotheistic faiths that allows terror to proliferate. No wonder Swamiji’s prognostication proved to be true when he said India would be subject to growing depredations and denigrations by both Pakistan and China after the British conquest.
Swamiji affirmed his allegiance to ‘Yatha mat tata path’ which meant ‘as many faiths, so many paths.’ Let us not brush aside what our Bhagavad Gita says: ‘Even death while performing one’s own dharma brings blessedness; taking to another’s dharma is fraught with fearful consequences…’ to safeguard the integrity & sovereignty of Bharat, for she is the indigenous haven to the ‘Mother of all Religions.’ JAI HIND !
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