February Work

Vol.40 No.6 Paush-Magh 5114 January 2013 R.15/- Editorial 03 Mata’s Message 05 The Task Ahead 06 Vivekananda – the Peripatetic Orator and The Conqueror of America 12 Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda 23-30 Oh! The youth of India V.Senthil Kumar India is calling – Swamiji 35 Vivekananda's Material Wisdom 38 Sankara and Siddhartha in Vivekananda 45 Single Copy R.15/- Annual R.160/- For 3 Yrs R.460/- Life (10 Yrs) R.1400/- Foreign Subscription: Annual - $40 US Dollar Life (10 years) - $400US Dollar (Plus Rs.50/- for Outstation Cheques) Yuva bharati - 1 - February 2013 Invocation Anyakshetre kritam paapam punyakshetre vinashyati Punyakshetre kritam paapam Praayagatheerthanayake vinashyati - Rig Veda Bad karmas committed elsewhere can be washed off in pilgrim centeres; but Prayag theerth can wash off even bad karmas committed in pilgrim centers. Yuva bharati - 2 - February 2013 Editorial Swami Vivekananda 150: The caravan moves on his month marks the dawn of the year long celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the advent of Swami Vivekananda. TSwami Vivekananda represents a new phase in the social history of Hindustan and a new awakening the consciousness of the planet. As the nineteenth century was drawing to a close Swamiji found him amidst a whirlpool of changes spanning all humanity. While more than half of the human race was subjugated by colonialism and plagued by internal stagnation, a considerable minority of humanity – the West- was progressing fast in science and technology, culture and in building socio-political institutions. New discoveries in science were shaking the basis of the old religious structures of the West. But the same old structures of the West found new pastures for their predatory pursuits in the subjugated humanities of the colonized worlds. Native spiritual traditions under social stagnation and colonialism became internal tyrannies, mere decadent forms bereft of their soul-strength. It was at this juncture that Swami Vivekananda appeared on the world scene. His message of universal brotherhood based on Vedantic humanism, showing the immense possibilities of synthesis of science and religion, democracy and tradition and different cultures from all the directions of the globe. Even as the leading socio-political philosophers of the West were hotly debating the supremacy of individual or that of the State, Swami Vivekananda harmonized both in a characteristically Vedantic way. In his social vision, the importance of freedom and the need for social equality have to organically moderate each other. He spoke of liberation of the downtrodden through Vedanta. This was a revolutionary way of ushering Vedanta into the socio-political realm. The old order panicked. The predatory belief systems marked this penniless youth their prime enemy. And they slandered him. In his authoritative two-volume biography on Swami Vivekananda Prof.K.N.Dhar explains how various factions came together to slander Swamiji: …at the time when the orthodox agitation against Swami Vivekananda was going on, his old “friends”, the Christian missionaries, perhaps also Pratap Chandra Majumdar, and Dr.Barrows also joined in the fray. They had a common object, viz., to bring down the Swami in public estimation, so as to ruin his work, though their lines of attack differed…. There was something funny in Christian missionaries and Brahmo reformers who did not believe in caste attempting to belittle one for non- orthodoxy… (A Comprehensive Biography, Vol-2, p.940) Yuva bharati - 3 - February 2013 All these happened soon after Swami Vivekananda started his active mission in India after his success in the World Parliament of Religions. More than a century later, today as a nation fondly looks forward to celebrate Swami Vivekananda's 150th birth anniversary. In a nation today bitterly divided by identity politics and ideological vested interests, the figure of Swami Vivekananda towers above all petty divisions, uniting India emotionally, cerebrally and spiritually for the world mission She has. And the forces of divisiveness panic at the prospect of an India united and strong, progressive and spiritual. So we find another malicious campaign against Swami Vivekananda unleashed by a section of English media. Indo-phobic, anti-Hindu mania of a section of English media, owned by Marxist media barons, penned by limousine liberals and funded mostly by Western academic institutions, have started a scathing attack on Swami Vivekananda, showing how still Swami Vivekananda remains the enemy numero uno of these anti-Indian forces. Yet Swami Vivekananda continues to inspire and guide the nation. His grand vision of unity propelled Tesla; fructified in Einstein and proceeds in E.C.George Sudarshan. His idea of Karma Yoga was imbibed by Gandhiji in his interpretation of Gita. His vision of Vedantic human equality and projection of Buddhist compassion manifested itself in the actions of Dr.Ambedkar. His holistic vision of humanity inspired and found fulfillment in the writings of Sri Aurobindo whose evolutionary vision of humanity in transition into Overmind has become a map for the future of humanity. His vision of national uniqueness and fullness of human organism found a comprehensive ideological expression in Deendayal Upadyaya's Integral humanism. And he will continue to inspire many a million to come – each contributing his or her own song to the beauty of human civilization and glory of Mother India. Yes. The grand Indic caravan of peace and benediction will move on through the vastness of time and royal routes of history, creating paths where none existed before and unfolding possibilities for the expression of the highest where none dreamt it as plausible, ignoring the howls of the lesser minds with the rich compassion they deserve. Aravindan Neelakandan YB-ET Yuva bharati - 4 - February 2013 Rebuttal to the recent Calumny against Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda-a Hindu Supremacist? Aravindan Neelakandan Swami Vivekananda started much earlier. Reviewing his 2007 book on Guruji Golwalkar which was given a paranoid title 'Terrifying Vision' (Penguin Viking), Christopher Jaffrelot another visceral Hindu baiter from France affirmed Sharma's assessment of Vivekananda thus: Vivekananda's respect for pluralism was largely a façade because his tolerance was presented in terms of some universalisation of the self: hen a magazine, supposedly Hinduism is so “tolerant” that it objective and mainstream, does a can accept every religion… in its Wcontroversial story on a popular fold. Hence the very abstract personality, a national icon, basic ethics definition of religion promoted demands that it presents both views –for and by Vivekananda who had not against that personality. The same is not true of selected the Vedanta just by a campaign of calumny against a person chance: “All other religions of the indulged in with malicious intent. The latter is world are included in the called hate propaganda. The cover story nameless, limitless, eternal Vedic conclusively titled 'Hindu Supremacist' run by r e l i g i o n . ” V i v e k a n a n d a , 'Outlook' magazine on Swami Vivekananda, therefore, added to the Hindutva brought out exactly at the time when the nation ideology a benign face, which started celebrating his 150th birth anniversary is presents Hinduism as an all- a perfect instance of such hate propaganda. encompassing and, therefore, The magazine published an excerpt from a hegemonic creed. book on Swami Vivekananda by a left- In the excerpt published by Outlook, Sharma propagandist and visceral Hindu hater, twists the words and their meanings to suit his Jyotirmaya Sharma, masquerading as an own design of presenting Swami Vivekananda objective scholar. Sharma's hatchet job on as an intolerant exclusivist wearing the garb of Yuva bharati - 5 - February 2013 an outwardly tolerance. Let us take a specific on some exclusivist dogmas. But if one reads example of such a gross misinterpretation: what Swami Vivekananda states about the When the argument for a single One Religion also has the adjective 'Infinite' – universal faith had to be made which Sharma ignores so that he can present s t re n u o u s l y, Vi v e k a n a n d a that as another sectarian religion what Swami abandons even the “We must each Vivekananda calls the 'One Infinite Religion'. have our own individual religion” Far from the way Sharma presents the idea of a rhetoric with alacrity: “There universal religion by Swami Vivekananda was never was my religion or yours, radically different and inclusive to the my national religion or your maximum. In his lecture titled 'The Ideal of a national religion; there never Universal Religion' Swami Vivekananda existed many religions, there is leaves no room for any ambiguity much less only the one. One Infinite Religion the 'supremacist' tendencies invented by existed all through eternity and Sharma: will ever exist, and this Religion is What then do I mean by the ideal expressing itself in various of a universal religion? I do not countries, in various ways.” m e a n a n y o n e u n i v e r s a l What, then, about the argument philosophy, or any one universal that promised to accommodate mythology, or any one universal even twenty million or more sects ritual held alike by all; for I know i n t h e w o r l d , e v e n i f t h i s that this world must go on acceptance of plurality was only working, wheel within wheel, based on the acknowledgement of this intricate mass of machinery, a multitude of external forms of most complex, most wonderful. religion? The above quote ends What can we do then? We can with the following sentence: make it run smoothly, we can “Therefore we must respect all lessen the friction, we can grease religions and we must try to the wheels, as it were.

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