-K.Suryanarayana Rao
.
Shri
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the Divinity
personified, the mentor and spiritual master of Swami Vivekananda, had
prophesied, whenVivekananda was just a youthful Narendranath that, “Naren would shake the world to
its foundations through his intellectual and spiritual powers. There is much
more work to be done by him”.
It is an undisputed fact that, in
modern times, it was Swami Vivekananda who first held aloft the banner of
Hinduism as a challenge against the materialism of the West. With his profound
thoughts and electrifying words he moved total strangers of high intellectual
calibre, occupying equally high positions.
Dr. John Henry
Wright, a professor of Greek classics at the famous Harvard University, U.S.A.,
whose learning was said to be encyclopedic, after his talks with the Swami for
some time, had, in his letter of introduction of the Swami, to the office
bearers of the World Parliament of Religious, held at Chicago, stated “Here is a man who is more
learned than all the learned professors of America put-to-gether.”
Vivekananda’s
first speech at the Parliament, was only for a few minutes. There was a
standing ovation and applaud. The American papers wrote “He is undoubtedly the greatest
figure in the Parliament of Religions.” “It is foolish to send our
missionaries to that learned county.” “Our professors are pigmies before him” etc.
etc.
This way the Swami established the
truth of his master’s prophecy.
Swami Vivekananda was a rare
combination of head and heart. His sorrow and concern for the suffering of the
poor millions of Bharat many a time, overpowered his blazing intellect.
In the midst of all the immediate
acclaim and popularity his appearance at the Parliament of Religions, had
brought to him, he had no thought for himself ; his heart continued to bleed
for the poor of Bharat. On the very first day of his triumph, he was invited by
a man of wealth and distinction to his home in one of the most fashionable part
of Chicago city for a banquet held in the Swami’s honour, as a glaring contrast
to the earlier insults and hostile rebuffs he had to face. Here he was
entertained Royally; a Princely room, furnished with a luxury beyond anything
he could have conceived, was assigned to him.
But instead of feeling happy in this
splendid environment, he was miserable. He could not sleep as the plight of his
brothren of his country came to his mind. The bed down seemed to be a bed of
thorns. The pillow became wet with tears. He went to the window and gazed out
into the darkness.
At length,
overcome with emotion, he fell into the floor, crying out “O Mother! What do I care for
name and fame when my motherland remains sunk in utmost poverty! To what a sad
pass have we poor Indians come, when millions of us die for want of a handful
of rice and here they spend millions of Rupees upon their personal comforts!
Who will raise the masses of India? Who will give them bread? Show me , O
Mother! How I can help them?”
In his letter,
from America, of Dec.28,1893, to Shri Haripad Mitra, the Swami
writes: “I came to this country not to
satisfy my curiosity, nor name or fame, but to see if I could find any means
for the support of the poor in India. If God helps me, You will know gradually
what those means are.”
During his wanderings as a
parivrajaka from Himalayas down he reached Kanyakumari, the southern tip of our
motherland in the last week of December 1892. Aftr prostrating before the
Godess Kanyakumari, he selected the rock in the middle of the sea to plan his
future programme.
Sitting on the
last stone of India, he passed into deep meditation on the present and future
of his country. With the vision of a seer he understood why India had been
thrown from the pinnacle of glory to the depth of degradation. In his anguish
he gazed over the ocean through mist of tears. In the midst of despair,
inspiration came to him. Yes, he would go to America. There he would earn money
by the power of his brain.
Returning to
India, he would devote himself to the regeneration of his countrymen — or die
in the attempt. To him in this hour the bliss of experience of Brahman, in the
Nirvikalpa Samadhi, became subservient to the overwhelming desire to give
himself utterly for the good of the Indian People. Yes, indeed, at Kanyakumari
the Swami became the patriot and prophet in one. No wonder he later spoke of
himself as “a Condensed India”
(25,26,27 December 1892)
In 1884, one day when Narendranath
came to Dakshineshwar to meet Shri Ramakrishna, he was seated in his room
surrounded by a few of his followers. Shri Ramakrishna was explaining to them a
few spiritual matters. The conversation drifted to the Vaishnava religion.
The master gave
the gist of the cult of Lord Gauranga and finished by saying, “this religion enjoins upon its
followers the practice of three things: relish for the name of God,
compassion for all living creatures, and the service of the vaishnavas, the
devotees of the Lord”….. hardly he
had uttered the words “compassion for all living creatures” he
went into Samadhi.
After a while he
came back to a semi-conscious state of mind and said to himself: “compassion for creatures!….
you fool! An insignificant worm crawling on earth, you to show compassion to
others! Who are you to show compassion. No, it cannot be. Not compassion for
others, but rather the service of man, recognizing him to be a veritable
manifestation of God.”
Everyone present there, no doubt,
heard those words uttered from the Master’s inmost consciousness, but only
Naren could gauge their meaning. When Naren left the room he said to the
others:
“What
a wonderful light I have discovered in those words of the master! How
beautifully he has reconciled the ideal of Bhakti, with the knowledge of the
Vedanta, generally interpreted as dry, austere, and incompatible with human
sentiments! What a grand, natural and sweet synthesis! But from those words of
wisdom that the master uttered in an ecstatic mood, I have understood that the
ideal Vedanta lived by the recluse outside the pale of society can be practiced
even at home and applied to all aspects of daily life. Whatever man’s vocation
let him understand and realize that it is God alone who has manifested himself
as the world and created beings.
He
is both immanent and transcendent. It is He who has become all the diverse
beings, objects of our love, respect or compassion and yet he is beyond all
these. Such a realization of divinity in humanity leaves no room for arrogance.
By realizing it, a man cannot be jealous of, or have pity for, any other being.
Serving man, knowing him to be the manifestation of God purifies the heart; and
in a short time the aspirant who does this realizes that he is a part of God –
Existence – knowledge – bliss absolute……. All his activities should be directed
to the service of man, the manifestation of God on earth, and this will
accelerate his progress towards the goal.
If
it be the will of God, the day will soon come when I shall proclaim this grand
truth to the world at large. I shall make it the common property of all, the
wise and the fool, the rich and the poor, the Brahmin and the Pariah.”
Mathuranath Biswas was the
son-in-law of Rani Rasamani who built the Kali temple as Dakshineshwar.
He was managing the vast estates of the Rani. During 1868, he arranged a
pilgrimage to Varnasi and other sacred places. The party contained 125
persons including Sri Ramakrishna. The party first stopped for a few days
at Deoghar to visit the famous shrine of Shiva. A nearby village was
affected with severe famine conditions. Seeing this Shree Ramakrishna was
overcome with intense grief and concern for the plight villagers.
He said to
Mathur: “You are a manager of Mother’s
estate. Give these poor people one piece of cloth and one good meal each,
and also some oil for their heads”. But Mathur was reluctant.
He said: “Father, this pilgrimage is
going to cost a great deal, and there are many people here. If I give
them what you ask, I may find myself short of money later.”
Shri Ramakrishna
cried bitterly. “You wretch!, I am not going to Varanasi. I
am staying here with these people. They have no one to care for
them. I won’t leave them.” Mathur,
of course yielded. He had cloth brought from Calcutta and fulfilled all
of the Master’s other requests. Then only the journey continued to
Varanasi.
An incident took place at Belur Math
after Swamiji’s return from the west. Swami Vijnanananda, a brother disciple of
Swamiji, was in the next to Swamiji’s room, his sleep was broken on one night
by the sound of sobbing of Swamiji and rushed to his room. Their he found
Swamiji bitterly crying.
‘Are you not
feeling well Swamiji?’ asked Vijnanananda. Swamiji was startled and said, ‘I presumed you were asleep,
No, my dear, I am not sick, But I cannot sleep as long as my country suffers. I
was crying and praying to Shri Ramakrishna that we would soon see better days.’ Swamiji
was an embodiement of love for India and her people.
(Swami Vivekananda the Friend of All, Page 25)
Swami Vivekananda has poured out his
heart at all places he visited in Bharat giving the call of service to the
poor, particularly to the youth of the country”. He says:
“This
is the gist of all worship – to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees
Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and
if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary. He who has
served and helped one poor man seeing Shiva in him, without thinking of his
caste, or creed, or race, or anything, with him Shiva is more pleased than with
the man who sees Him only in temples.”
(Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, vol.3, Page 141-142)
“Blessed are we that we are
given the privilege of working for Him, not for helping Him. Cut out this word
“help” from your mind. You cannot help; it is blaspheming. You are here
yourself at His pleasure. Do you mean to say, you help Him? You worship. When
you give a morsel of food to the dog, you worship the dog as God. God is in
that dog. He is all and in all.”
(C.W., vol.5, Page 246)
Swamiji
has coined the word “Daridra Narayana”, he says: you must give your body, mind,
and speech to “the welfare of the world” you have read – “Matru Devo Bhava,
Pitru Devo Bhava – Look upon your mother as God, look upon your father as God”
– but I say, “Daridra Devo Bhava, Moorkha Devo Bhava” – the poor, the
illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted – let these be your God. “Know that
Service to these is the highest religion.”
(C.W., Vol 6, P.288)
“In
one word, the ideal of Vedanta is to know man as he really is, and this is its
message, that if you cannot worship your brother man, the manifested God, how
can you worship a God who is unmanifested?”
(C.W., vol.2, Page 325-326)
Our
only God — Mother India
So give up being a slave, for
the next fifty years, this alone shall be our keynote – this great Mother
India. Let all other vain Gods disappear for the time from our
minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race. And the
first Gods we have to worship are our countrymen. These we have to
worship instead of being jealous of each other and fighting each other.
“Let
each one of us pray day and night for the downtrodden millions of India who are
held fast by poverty, priest-craft and tyranny – pray day and night for
them………I love the poor. How many there are who feel for them! Who feels
for the two hundred millions of men and women sunken forever in poverty and
ignorance? Let these people be your Gods – think of them, work for them, pray
for them incessantly – the Lord will show you the way. Him I call a
Mahatman (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a
Duratman (wicked soul). My heart is too full to express my feeling; so
long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor
who, having been educated at their expense pays not the least heed to them! I
call those men who strut about in their finery, having got all their money by
grinding the poor, wretches, so long as they do not do anything for those two
hundred millions who are now no better than hungry savages!”
You
may build a temple in which to worship God, and that may be good, but a better
one, a much higher one, already exists, the human body. If you cannot worship
your brother man, the manifested God, how can you worship a God who is
un-manifested?
Serve
the living God! God comes to you in the blind, in the halt (lame), in the poor,
in the weak, in the diabolical, what a glorious chance for you to worship.
Be
thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy
in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.
The
hand was made to give always. Give the last bit of bread you have, even
if you are starving . You will be free in a moment, if you starve yourself to
death by giving to another. Immediately you will be perfect. You will become
God.
The
Shastras say that work or service for the good of others leads to the state of
‘Jeevan mukti!’
The
highest aim of all disciplines, all spiritual paths, is the attainment of the
knowledge of the Atman. If you by being devoted to the service of others and
getting your heart purified by such work, attain to the vision of all beings as
the Self, what else remains to be attained in the way of self-realisation?
The
national ideals of India are Renunciation and Service. Intensify her in these
channels and the rest will take care of itself.
“India
wants the sacrifice of atleast a thousand of her young men – men, mind and not
brutes.. How many men, unselfish, thorough going men … to struggle unto life
and death to bring about a new state of things, sympathy for the poor and bread
to their hungry mouths, enlightenment to the people at large – and struggle
unto death to make men of them who have been brought to the level of beasts, by
the tyranny of your forefathers?”
“My faith is in the younger
generation, the modern generation. Out of them will come my
workers. They will work out the whole problem like lions. I have
formulated the idea and have given my life to it”.
“My
plan is to start institutions in India, to train our young men. Men, men,
these are wanted, everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous,
believing young men, sincere to the backbone are wanted.”
Feel
from the heart, what is in the intellect or reason? It goes a few steps
and there it stops. But through the heart comes inspiration. Love
opens the most impossible gates; love is the gate to all the secrets of the
Universe. Feel, therefore, my would be reformers, my would be patriots!
“Come
out of your narrow holes and have a look around, see how nations are on the
March! Do you love Man? Do you love your country? Then let us struggle
for higher and better things. Look not back, no not even if you see the
dearest and nearest cry. Look not back, but forward!”
“Die
you must, but have a great ideal to die for and it is better to die with a
great ideal in life. Preach this ideal from door to door, and you
yourself will be benefitted by it, at the same time you are doing good to your
country. I feel extreme pain to see you leading a life of inaction.
Set yourselves to work—to work! Do not tarry – the time of death is approaching
day by day! Do not sit idle!”
Believe!
Believe! The decree has gone forth, the fiat of the LORD has gone forth—India
must rise, the masses and the poor are to be made happy.
“Rejoice! That
you are the chosen instruments in his hands”.
Arise!
Awake! Stop not till the goal is reached.
This is the gist of Swamiji’s
outpourings, coming from the innermost depths of his patriotic heart, full of
love and concern for the pitiable plight of our brothers, and his appeal to the
young men and women not to sit idle but to involve in some activity to
ameliorate the misery in our country.
To the sanyasis of the Ramakrishna
order, Swami Vivekananda has given the Motto “Atmano Mokshartham
Jagad-hitayacha” – “for personal salvation and welfare of the world.” He
inspired and induced all persons to involve actively in doing ‘Seva’ to the
poor selflessly.
Let us pray Swami Vivekananda for
his blessings so that we may rise to his expectations to regenerate and raise
our sacred Motherland once again to the pinnacle of ancient glory.
BHARAT MATA KI JAI!
Note:
Shri. K.Suryanarayana Rao was a veteran social worker; Belong to Karanataka, dedicate his whole life to rebuild our nation. He is the Ideologue of RSS, wrote many books for national integration.
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