There is an absolute dearth of good medical facility in many parts of India and even where medical facility is tolerably good, the level of efficiency is far from the highest. In a country which prides itself in its spiritual heritage and antiquity of civilization this is a regrettable state of things, especially, when there is no dearth of spiritual inspiration in the country. In fact, there has been since Vedic times a surfeit of spiritual inspiration from sages and saints who have trodden the Punyabhumi ( Holy Land ) of India. Even in recent times Ramakrishna-Vivekananda have deluged the land with spiritual vibrations and the Ramakrishna Order is doing yoeman's service to the Cause of rebuilding the nation along the lines laid down by the Rishis of yore as envisaged and formulated by Swami Vivekananda in this Age. But a nation that had been enslaved for over seven centuries by foreign occupation from 1192 ( The Second Battle of Tarain ) to 1947 ( Freedom of India from British imperialism ) does not awake quite so easily from its age-old slumber even it be suffering the pangs of material misery. Consequently, the social commitment of the people in general towards philanthropic causes is poor. The result is that everybody expects the government alone to deliver the goods on the simple premise that, after all, they pay their taxes. But this is a shallow self-defeating argument that negates the possibilities of quick progress of the nation. The government is composed of citizens of the land and, if the common man is negligent about his commitment to the nation, then it stands to reason to say that such a nation can hardly give itself a good government. Society in India has to be thus remodelled along lines of equitable resource distribution which is as much the job of the Government to dispose as of the citizens of the country to bring about by participation in social causes, especially, developmental projects that are beneficial to the poor and underprivileged of the land. It is here that the question of helping the Ramakrishna Mission comes as it is the premier organization of the nation that has been shouldering the task of nation-building for over a century through its multifarious philanthropic activity. But the social projects undertaken by the Ramakrishna Mission invariably are unduly delayed in their completion owing to perennial shortage of funds despite the fact that the Mission enjoys a singularly high goodwill. This, therefore, boils down to the simple fact that people are largely unconscious of national needs and that the spirit of philanthropy for which India has been famous in the world through history has now considerably diminished. Consequently, the poor of India, despoiled of home and hearth, live miserable lives shorn of basic human necessities. They suffer and they endlessly suffer. But who cares for them ? So long as one is satisfied with narrow self-interest one is not perturbed by social and economic degradation all around. But Ramakrishna's children who have renounced home and hearth cannot idly watch the plight of the people. They have pledged to their leader Vivekananda that they will work night and day to ameliorate the lot of the poor and, should they fail to do so, to share their suffering with a smile ahead and a blessing behind.
Awake devotees, awake ! Now no hour of sleep. It is time to assume your allotted responsibility in this Mission which Vivekananda had started with great hopes pinned on the laity that they would plunge themselves into the task of building this wonderful nation whose condensed form he had felt he was. Shall you fail the Swami ? Ah, that will be ' the unkindest cut of all ' ! Arise my friends and dedicate your lives wherever you may be to fulfil the Mission of Ramakrishna who even today watches you through the frequent flips of his eye-lids in indulgent affection and ' patient expectation ' that his Mission on Earth stands fulfilled. Must you fail ? Arise and help the Ramakrishna Mission build its schools and its hospitals, its institutes and its universities. Give your all to completion of the projects as quick as it can be for the nation bleeds and cannot afford to do so. The Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission are the life-lines of the nation, nay, the whole world and it is your holy duty, oh my countrymen, to provide all sorts of assistance and service to them that they may usher in a golden age of truth and light not only in India but across the wide world. May Sri Ramakrishna bless you all in this noblest of endeavour !
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