‘Arise, Awake, Stop not,
till the goal is reached’
By Kuldip Khajuria
“Twelve centuries ago, Shankaracharya was the only great personality, who not only spoke of the purity of our religion, not only uttered in words that this religion was our strength and wealth, not only said that it was our sacred duty to preach this religion in the length and breadth of the world—but also brought all this into action. Swami Vivekananda is a person of that stature—who appeared towards the last half of the nineteenth century.”
– Bal Gangadhar Tilak
Sri Ramakrishna, the Guru of Swami Vivekananda, aptly said, “The time will come when Vivekananda will shake the world to its foundations through the strength of his intellectual and spiritual powers.”
Swami Vivekananda was a great patriot, thinker, spiritual leader, lover of humanity and awakener of souls. He played a significant role in the cultural renaissance in Bengal and other parts of India in the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century. His speeches and writings were a source of inspiration for many political leaders of pre-independent India, like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, C. Rajagopalachari and others. All of them expressed their indebtedness to Swami Ji’s ideas.
Swami Vivekananda pointed out that the neglect and exploitation of the poor was the main cause of India’s downfall into backwardness. He was the first spiritual leader in modern times to speak for the masses. He tried to create national awareness about the plight of the poor in India. His utterance, “So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man traitor who have been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them,” has inspired hundreds of young people to take up social service as a way of life.
Swami Vivekananda’s efforts to establish the ideal of harmony of religions and to harmonize religion and science as well as the stress on new technology in economic development of India.
Swami Vivekananda, more than a hundred years ago, pointed out that India’s isolation from the rest of the world was one of the other main causes of her downfall. He pioneered the work of building cultural bridges between India and the west. Holding of the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 was a landmark event, that strengthened the ideal of harmony of religions in a world forum.
Swami Ji’s chief concern was spiritual awareness of humanity. “Service to man is service to God” was the main principle of his social service. He founded the Ramakrishna Mission with the aim of rendering service in the fields of education, rural development, public health and religious harmony. Swami Ji initiated many social service programmes during the very short span of his life, in the fields of famine relief, medical relief during cholera epidemic in Calcutta, education of children, etc.
Message: Vivekananda’s message for our time is clear: “Be courageous and fearless. Face the brutes. Face the Maya. Face the Death. Cowards can never be victorious. Have faith in yourself. You are the children of God. You are the sharer of immortal bliss. Be a lion and lioness; not a sheep.” “Fly from evil, terror and misery will follow you. Face them, they will flee.” Cowards never win victories. Ignorance and weakness lead to disease and death. Strength is religion. Religion is strength.” Vivekananda wanted the youth to know that great discoveries and inventions, of which Europe could boast, would not have been possible without the knowledge of ten numerals, which are actually Sanskrit words. He stated that India was the first to spin cotton and dye it, to invent the word ‘Sugar’ and produce it. That, India gave the world the game of chess, cards and dice, and so on. One of his message’s states, “O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotise yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.”
Teachings: Swami Ji was tirelessly worked for India’s regeneration, not only because he was born in India, but also because he saw that her rich spiritual culture would be the greatest gift to world culture and civilization. According to him, material goods are not the ultimate goals of life. Our hunger for satisfaction torments us till the funeral pyre. The more we chase the material goals, the more we suffer. Uninterrupted peace is our true nature. It is only this peace that we seek. Manage your thoughts: “We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care of what you think. Our thoughts make things beautiful; our thoughts make things ugly. Learn the art of ‘Action’. Practice! Practice! Practice! Repeated actions create a habit. Curb your jealousy: Avoid jealousy and selfishness. It is the greatest enemy of happiness. It is caused by cut-throat competition and negative influences of fast life, so get rid of it. Learn to appreciate that other people can also be good and important.
Special advice to youth: Vivekananda defined the source of our current problems as, “Excess of knowledge and power, without holiness, makes human beings devils. Tremendous power is being acquired by the manufacture of machines and other appliances and privilege is claimed today as it never has been claimed in the history of world.”
He foresaw a solution for the youth of India and the world and wrote to his disciple Haridas Beharidas Desai, “Three things are necessary to make everyman great: 1. Conviction of the powers of goodness. 2. Absence of jealousy and suspicion. 3. Helping all who are trying to be and do good.”
Swami Ji introduced new Indian prototype to the young men of India. “Be strong and manly,” he told them, knowing that the strength of a nation depends upon the strength of its individual members. The will is stronger than anything else. Preach unto the world the great truths of your religion: what we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. No more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is man making religion that we want. t is man making theories that we want. It is man making education all round that we want.” Vivekananda sought men of iron will and stout heart. Will-power must be a growth from within.
Great Thinkers and Admirers on “Vivekananda”:
“I have come here (Belur Math) to pay my homage and respect to the revered memory of Swami Vivekananda, whose birthday is being celebrated here today. I have gone through his works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold. I ask you, young men, not to go away empty-handed without imbibing something of the spirit of the place where Swami Vivekananda lived and died.”
– Mahatma Gandhi
“In him (Vivekananda), everything is positive and nothing negative.-If you want to know India, study Vivekananda.”
– Rabindranath Tagore
“Swamiji was a full-blooded masculine personality—and a fighter to the core of his being. He …. gave a practical interpretation to the Vedanta for the uplift of his countrymen. .. If Swamiji had been alive today, he would have been my Guru, ….. and as long as I live, I shall be absolutely loyal and devoted to Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.”
– Subhash Chandra Bose
“Vivekananda saved Hinduism in India and that is why he was born in the nineteenth century and shaped by Bhagwan Sri Ramakrishna”
– C. Rajagopalachari
Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, who later became the President of India, was once asked by many students and youth in 1981, about his opinion on the celebration of Vivekananda Ji’s Birthday as the ‘National Youth Day’ in schools and colleges. His answer was that ‘Instead of thinking about celebrating Swami Vivekananda Ji’s birthday on one day only, we should cultivate the habit of thinking about him on all the days’.
Q: How did Swami Vivekananda Ji’s life inspire you?
A: Through his visionary thoughts.
Q: You have written in your book ‘Ignited Minds’ that you meditated in Swami Vivekananda’s room at Porbander, what did you feel during meditation?
A: I prayed to God to deliver strength to our youth to be free from fear.
Legacy: “My name should not be made prominent, it is my ideas that I want to see realised – . Work for the ideas, not the person,” said Vivekananda Ji. His legacy is, first of all, the Ramakrishna Mission which you find dotted all over the world. These Missions exist in order to spread the Gospel of the Swami Ji. The other legacy which he has left and which we think of today in this troubled world is, that what makes a country great is not an affluent society, not material possession, not arms and armaments, but the things of the spirit.
Author’s Tributes: Swami Vivekananda wanted to know the world that ‘Bharat’ is called the sacred land (Punyabhoomi) because it is the motherland of spirituality. It has taught the world both, ‘tolerance and universal acceptance’ and given shelter to the persecuted people of all religions and nations. May the message, teachings, legacy of Swami Vivekananda spread more and more amongst the youth of our country and the world, particularly for those who are still unaware of his spiritual ideals for the modern age.
(Author is a devotee at Sri Ramakrishna Mission Ashram, Jammu Centre; – Mob No: 94191 30676)
