How much does it cost to smile by way of greeting when we meet
someone? Is it not better than to frown or to maintain an austere look full of
unwelcome gesture? Life becomes so much more bearable and even beautiful if we
but care to smile at each other, not derisively, as is so often our wont, but
out of fellow-feeling and goodwill. After all, what is there in life to savour
save these moments when common folks like us feel a gush of happiness amidst
the mundane pursuits of daily living when the sunshine of the soul sheds its
lustre on us by way of a merry spread of the facial muscles? We are the
children of immortal bliss, so say the Upanishads. Why then do we so cut a long
face when the vicious mood like virus spreads to sully the air around? Better
stay closeted at home in seclusion to grapple with such foul mood than to play
spoilsport with happier selves who revel in the sunshine of life. This is not my
advice but the prescription of Swami Vivekananda who so often was faulted by
westerners for his jollity despite being a man of the Order and who would
merrily retort that it was not for him to be sombre when he knew his essence to be of the substance of bliss. Even the great J.R.D. Tata, when asked in a
television interview after his receiving the Bharat Ratna as to what his parting
advice to his countrymen would be, had ruefully said, "If only we could
smile at each other a little more! Life would be so much easier." I rest
my case here. Now let us smile a bit.
Radiant like the rising sun are these flaming monks of the Order. But for these luminous beings what a dark would have enveloped the earth! Ramakrishna and his Apostles have initiated a spiritual movement the like of which the world has not witnessed since the days of the Buddha when in flowing streams his missionaries of peace carried forth the Dharma to distant lands and veritably established the first democracy of the spirit in the world at large. But this time there shall be a virtual inundation of the world, an impregnation of the mind of man with the pristine principles of the Vedas, undiluted and unsullied by misinterpretation or adjustment to suit sectarian ends for the fountain-head of the movement is the Lord Himself and the Voice of the Word the premier sage of hoary India, fresh-incarnated to sow the seed in this turbulent age when man has lost his spiritual moorings altogether. When an Avatar comes, he brings with him his entourage of kindred souls, his eternal playmates, companions of the Cause. They all of a sudden arrive, sing and dance, enact their play and then as suddenly vanish into thin air. Whither they came, whither they go, none can tell for all things are known in the middle, their extremities elude us, so says the Geeta. But they leave behind a legacy of love that rejuvenates humanity with a hearkening to a voice within and the soul of man springs up to the call of eternity. The song celestial is sung by the Master but it echoes through the corridors of terrestrial space through endless times and beckons many a tossing soul in the depth of the dark night to follow the trail of the seekers of Truth. Ramakrishna is gone and so are Vivekananda and the rest of the Apostles but their spirit lingers on. Even now the Master and his beloved Naren may be seen strolling in the deep dark night on the lawns of Belur Math, even now the image of Raja Maharaj in the Brahmananda Temple at Belur quickens to give a blessed vision to a fortunate one and even now the Mother may be seen feeding her mason children after a gruelling day in the searing heat of Chennai even before their hour of labour at her temple is over and the nuns of the Sarada Math are yet to serve the hungry ones with food at the appointed hour when their job will have been done. So the saga goes on and every generation throws up these luminous sages of the Order, Ramakrishna's apostles of the hour, Mother's children of eternity.
We say we are free but we are
not. Our freedom is curtailed on every side. We are not free to speak our minds
about our estimates of and opinions on absolutist religions for fear of being
labelled racist. What the violent votaries of these religions deem right, we
are bound to abide by those norms regarding free speech. Such is our state
today. We are slowly losing our basic human right to rationalise and criticise
totalitarian ideologies because it supposedly offends a vast number of people
who are insensitive enough to follow the dictates of intolerant ideologies but
suddenly become hypersensitive to counter-criticism when they, like
schoolchildren, start feeling a super sense of hurt. They well adhere to dogma
of their own faith which is injurious to religions other than their own, preach
intolerance extreme by copious quotes from their scriptures but find it
unpalatable when it comes to digesting some of their own vitriol by way of
boomerang. They convert as they please but will not tolerate apostasy. Such
violation of basic human rights in the name of one exclusive religion is easy
digestion for liberals and apologists the world over but rational criticism of
fanaticism by progressive thinkers is deemed racism. Facile logic, farcical
liberalism, fanciful democracy indeed!
Is the dharma of the Hindus and the Bauddhas and the Jains the way forward in today's world fraught with fanatical violence based on absolutist religious texts that allow neither enquiry nor debate about the core content of the same but impose doctrines that are irrational and inhuman on people based on self-declared authority? (Do feel free to send in your answers to start a debate on this contentious issue.)
Most comprehensive and insightful observation, the very gist of ethics and spiritual living. Please post this piece as a separate essay on this page, Sri Alok Sarkar. Invaluable gems are contained herein and they merit the light of day in an age when the world seems to have gone 'the way of all flesh' and lost its spiritual moorings. Incisive essays such as these lend their meaning to the spiritually famished who, otherwise, for want of nourishment of their spiritual selves are prone to the grossness of material living. I exhort you to consider contributing your valued thoughts and thoughtful values to enlighten readers and bring home the message of the seers and sages of our ancient land. A final thankfulness and an anticipation of your favourable response to this humble request of mine on behalf of friends and citizens.
Ustad Allauddin Khan's room in Maihar with Swami Vivekananda occupying centre-stage in the wall behind just above the window, Sri Ramakrishna adorning the wall to the left of Swamiji. Seated below is the musical maestro himself who had been fortunate in receiving the blessings of Swami Brahmananda after having delighted the sage with his musical rendition.
Swami Vireshwarananda, 10th President of the Ramakrishna Order. A disciple of Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, Vireshwaranandaji was the longest serving President after the first President Swami Brahmananda. He initiated 80,000 disciples and often invoked the youth to take up service in the Armed Forces for the defence of the motherland. A dynamo of spiritual power, Prabhu Maharaj as he was known to intimates, had at the age of five seen Swami Vivekananda in 1897 in Madras although he could not quite recall the incident in later life. He used to joke about it saying that although he did not remember having seen Swamiji, surely Swamiji must have seen him. This valiant soul, the endearing spiritual guide to so many lay and monastic disciples, compatriot to spiritual stalwarts and brother disciples like Swamis Abhayananda (Bharat Maharaj), Nityaswarupananda, Madhavananda and Dayananda, battled the dreaded cancer in his last years in an exemplary manner and eventually laid aside his mortal coil in 1985. I still recall the crowd that had gathered on the day of his funeral at Belur Math. Around noon the crowd in its bid to catch a last glimpse of the departed Sangha Guru became unmanageable. Thousands thronged the lawns of Belur Math and stood on their heels to get a glimpse while dozens climbed the staircase of Swamiji's house to do the same. The upper storey was jam packed and so was the staircase. The crowd gathered up there so surged forward to catch a glimpse of the bedecked holy form of the departed saint that at one point it seemed to me that the railing of the staircase of Swamiji's house would give way under the piling pressure causing a catastrophe. However, things were alright in the end and the proceedings went off smoothly. The events of that momentous day have remained etched in my memory and so have so many other scenes linked to the great Swami in his final years on earth when I had the privilege of meeting him.
Mother Teresa's spirit of love must now be invoked the world over in our bid to combat the evil of Islamic terrorism. Not that her love was truly universal in the sense a Vivekananda's was, but her love was large enough to include the whole of humanity despite its limitations owing to affiliation to Catholic dogma which is exclusive, though, not always violently so. The Indian ideal of spiritual love embracing the whole of sentience which is founded on the depth-vision of Truth is hard to come by within the fold of proselytising religions such as Islam and Christianity. However, Catholic mystics like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Catherine of Siena did transcend to a great extent the limitations imposed by Church doctrine to realise mystic union with God in the Christian sense and have passed on their legacy to future generations for possible emulation and even surpassing. Mother Teresa belonged to this rarefied species of Christian saints and her humanitarian works were very much in line with traditional Catholic missionary work where the object of service was humanity in general but the driving force was faith in the Gospel and the zeal to bring the so-called Good News to humanity at large with the subtle, almost imperceptible motivation to proselytise. However, all said and done, her work was yet sublime for it was done out of sincere love of man and in an exalted spirit of service backed up by physical renunciation of a high order, for Mother Teresa lived a life of extreme self-denial in her bid to identify with the poorest of the poor who were the objects of her adoration. Today, in the climate of fanatical hatred when Islam seems to be at war with the civilised world, when millions are losing their lives to the brutality of war and international terrorism, it is worthwhile to reminisce the glorious life lived just the other day by the Saint of Calcutta who cared not to divide mankind but ever preached the gospel of love and acceptance of all as members of a single human family, a realisation which surely had dawned on her not merely by dint of her Christian piety but also by her absorbing the holy vibrations of spiritual India which must have impregnated her whole being during her long pilgrimage to this holiest of lands on earth. Let us read, reminisce and reflect on her life and works as we prepare to effectively counter the menace of Jihad that is tearing the world apart for the doom of mankind is its agenda and a perfidious programme of political harakiri is its mission with Paradise and its luscious fruits its ultimate prize.
He is the One who we should follow in these troubled times when our religion, our culture, our nation, our very existence are in the gravest of threats from the aggression of foreign religious and political ideologies. We should stand united as a nation to ward off these threats and protect our people and our beloved motherland, already amputated by Partition, from foreign offences whose network has now infiltrated our very ranks. The Bhagavad Geeta teaches us not to submit to evil but to fight it, subjugate and eliminate it, for in it lies dharma. Let us then pledge to defend our culture and our land against alien attacks and so fulfil our obligation as blessed children of Bharat Mata. Jai Hind!
There is an enormity of ignorance about us. Half awake, half dreaming, we move on in this world with neither knowledge of who we are nor where we are from, save from mother's womb, nor where we are headed hereafter if at all we survive death of the physical form. There is a stupendous sense of uncertainty about our lives in every sense of the term, yet, we live clinging to the ephemeral pleasures of life like delirious children dancing in the ball room of a sinking ship oblivious of their impending fate. This sense of uncertainty about life has given birth to religious certitudes of heaven and earth, unproven, obligatory doctrines to be adhered to, throwing rational caution to the winds and debasing one's faculties to observances irrational and archaic. Such scriptural tyranny typifies radical Christianity and Islam and is the cause of much friction between the two major world religions, especially, when both are proselytising faiths that rely on the numbers of their flock to keep their dominance over the world. Fortunately, Judaism, the other great Abrahamic religion and the most ancient of the three, is free from this impulsion to convert . Hence, the Jews are a brilliant lot but sadly lacking in numbers which, perhaps, is the reason why they have suffered persecution everywhere over the ages. Coming to the religions emanating from India, they are far more civilised in their approach to propagation of their principles. I say, principles, because Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, all these Indian denominations of the Dharma, are based on the realisations of sages and saints down the ages and are not founded on arbitrary pronouncements by so-called-prophets who would not have stood the test of either science or the standards of the Rishis of India in their claims to prophethood. The Indian dharmic traditions do not proselytise by the sword or by cunning. Hinduism does not proselytise but Buddhism does. However, Buddhism has spread throughout the world by the power of love (virtue/dharma) and never by force. Hinduism is spreading by the strength of its philosophy and by the sublimity of its principles, both theoretical and practical. Jainism is a totally non-violent religion where this doctrine of non-violence has been carried to its logical and often, shall I say, illogical extreme. But all these Indian dharmic traditions are highly enlightened in their approach to the problems of life and the hereafter with reverence for the individual as the core principle and compulsion in faith a blasphemy. The Indian religions uphold democracy of the spirit and are in no way exclusive. Hence, India has never gone out of her borders to persecute other races in the name of religion, ever beholding humanity as a single race, the highest manifestation of the absolute divine principle. In return she has been butchered by invading Islam, killed by the tens of millions by fanatical Muslim warlords and finally amputated in her limbs by perfidious partition of her geographical terrain with never-ceasing malicious warmongering thereafter by the betraying seceding sections. Christianity, in the name of that sublime soul Jesus, has inflicted terrible wounds, too, in the body of the motherland, converting tens of millions by sleight, subversion of indigenous culture and by political machinations. What remains still is unyielding India with her glorious spiritual tradition dating from time immemorial and rolling down the high Himalayas like the rushing Ganga onto the plains below. And, yet, so little is known to the common man who gropes about in darkness.
Yog means union with the divine within us, the divine within Nature and the perception and realisation of the essential oneness of all of phenomena. In a wider sense yog may also be extended in scope to mean unity of spirit of the diverse peoples that inhabit this planet. The culture of yog is, thus, an effective means of promoting harmony among the diverse cultures of the world and this is perhaps the objective behind the celebration of the International Yoga Day under the auspices of the United Nations Organisation. Physical fitness is but a minor derivative of yog. The larger purpose is the spiritual unfolding of humanity which is the end of evolution as well. Aasan (practice of bodily postures) and pranayam (breathing exercises) form but the third and the fourth levels of the Patanjali Ashtanga Yog and are in no way the gamut of the yogic discipline. Thus, other than avoiding the mispronouncing and misspelling the word YOG as YOGA, we have to take care as a nation that we do not export this ancient Hindu tradition as the Indian version of certain gymnastics exercises and that we represent it as the comprehensive spiritual culture of the Hindus wherein are included the grand paths of Raj Yog, Karm Yog, Bhakti Yog and Jnan Yog as well. Our thankfulness to our Prime Minister for having taken the initiative to getting Yog official U.N. sanction for its celebration annually by member nations on 21 June. This is but the first step towards popularising liberal and scientific Hindu traditions in the strife-torn modern world which has lost direction amidst the conflict of material cultures often masquerading as religious traditions. Om!
Urgently required 16 computer sets for official work in the different departments of Vivekananda Netralaya. Interested parties may kindly contact at the above address or speak to Swami Bhavatmananda over phone for relevant details. Donations of all denominations are welcome from individual donors as well as from corporate houses under their CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SCHEME. Devotees of Ramakrishna Mission do come forward and see the project through. May Thakur bless all!
Why is there silence in India over this brazen attempt to thwart human rights, secular values and religious pluralism, and why is there no protest from the establishment in India against the insensitive extreme exhibition of Islamic intolerance towards such an esteemed and enlightened spiritual organisation as the Ramakrishna Mission whose sole purpose is to serve humanity everywhere irrespective of any classification whatsoever? Sucha barbaric act, coming in line with a series of brutal persecutions of the minorities in Bangladesh that has reduced the Hindus drastically in numbers over the decades, is so much the characteristic feature of the radical elements of this proselytising religion across the globe today that one hangs one's head in shame to even contemplate that these were our brothers before Partition, children of the same Bharat Mata, or, were they not?
Standing on the bridge I feel that I too am flowing like water under the bridge and I fix my gaze at the stationary bridge and my illusion vanishes. So when I fix my gaze at the eternal Atman, my delusion that I am the transmigratory soul vanishes and I discover my true eternal Self...Written by Swami Ekarthananda
What a perception Maharaj and how articulate you are! Simple, yet, profound! I feel beholden to see you articulate your views so cogently in desperate times as prevail in the world today when leading men of learning and light ought to come forward and guide humanity in the direction of the Self wherein lie the correctives for the present malaise....Written by Sugata Bose
We are free and not subject to any assumptions of faith. Our will is free of any arbitrary control of an imaginary higher being who simply does not exist after all and is born and dies in our own mental conception. Man makes these gods of his fancy and even the so-called highest God who is supposedly the arbiter of the universe, its creator, preserver and destroyer, for, to all intents and purposes, these conceptions are primitive mental constructs without basis in empirical evidence or scientific justification whatsoever. This writer is, however, not advocating atheism or materialism thereby but is merely stating that the theism of the primitive mind is, after all, of not much worth and will eventually be washed away by the tide of higher learning. Humankind, caught in the grip of cultural cross-currents, transmission of superstitions and fears by the dialogic process through unnumbered generations and held perforce by primeval irrationality to subscribing to archaic beliefs and systems of faith having no rational bearing whatsoever, continues to suffer at the hands of an omnipotent God who has been vested with all the powers of domination over man by man himself, the creator of this God. The creator (man) suffers at the hands of the created (God) and this is the sad spectacle of life. Imagination rules reality, man dictates terms to brother man under the pretext of being prophetically endowed, superstition sullies truth and the free spirit of man is held down by the forces of fascism masquerading as messianic. Billions are held hostage to horrendous articles of faith of tribal cults by force and by submission through indoctrination, and freedom is merely a myth whose hour seemingly has not yet arrived. This then is the present predicament of humankind as it battles to overcome tribal tyranny and blasphemes in its wake, yet persists on to overthrow the yoke of oppression that has stifled its growth for ages. Man, long subject to material subjugation in the name of religion, seeks at last to assert himself in the sunshine of freedom of thought and expression. Now is the hour to revolt against all forms of arbitrary assumptions, take charge of ourselves and lead the chariot of evolution along the direction of self-realisation rather than submission to a fictitious entity. Many such beliefs have come and gone with the advance of civilisation and many more have replaced them to fill up the void thus created, for, apparently, so it is argued by protagonists of these dualistic faiths, man cannot live in the absence of theistic dependence. Without going in to the theological complexities of dualism, let us try to depend on ourselves for once, on our highest Self as the Vedanta prescribes and find out whether we can arrive at real spirituality without going through the roundabout diversions of the path. Godspeed to all!
This community has been the worst persecuted throughout history. From the Egyptians to the modern-day Nazi Germans, all have threatened their survival as a community and, yet, they thrive today as ever before by dint of their superior intellect and force of character. No other community in the world has won such a vast percentage of Nobel Prizes than the Jewish people. Hitler tried to obliterate this race by his infamous 'Final Solution'. The Nazis killed 6 million out of the then 6.6 million Jews living in Germany. What a loss to civilisation it has been considering the fact that the German Jews were highly erudite and many of them were front-ranking scientists of the world, a fact of supreme importance when we try to understand how the United States of America suddenly turned into the scientific super-power since the mid-nineteen thirties. Hitler's persecution drove the likes of Einstein and his fellow Jewish scientists out of Germany seeking asylum in U.S.A. What Germany lost, America gained and that is the explanation.
This exceptional intellectual prowess of the Jews Einstein has attributed to the deep sense of reverence the Jewish people traditionally have for learning. It is this ingrained cultural inheritance of the Jews that has carried on the tradition of higher learning to this day whereby they have devoted themselves to the pursuit of academic excellence and the discovery of knowledge. And all this while forever being reviled by Christians as the murderer of Jesus, by the Muslims as inferior people of the Book, by the European nations as unfair usurers, by the Germans as sub-human species and, exceptionally by the Hindus alone in this wide world as fellow pilgrims in this terrestrial sojourn towards Godhead. Woe unto the persecuting nations of the world and glory unto India for her protection of this endangered community but for whom we would have today been dwelling way back in the dark of the Middle Ages! We should bow down to this most exceptional of races among humankind and salute their unmatched contributions in every field of knowledge.
Evasive answer by the Imam as expected to the charges and scriptural quotes by Robert Spencer about the intolerance of Islam to Jews, the Christians and the polytheists. Poor Imam is caught in mid-stream as he is a resident of Britain and can neither go forward with his belief nor backward with it. If he speaks for his religion, he blasphemes secularism, and, if he speaks for secularism, he blasphemes his religion. There is no scope for him to escape the intolerance of the text he follows and he scares makes any ground under the cover of contextual interpretation he avidly avows when confronted by the cross-fire from Robert Spencer and the television anchor. Poor Imam has no resting place save in pretence, lies, concoctions and unwitting admissions of the flawed stance of his faith.
And yet, they persist in their bid to convert the rest of humanity to their faith, vainly, violently, mischievously and maliciously so, all the while working to undermine the fabric of democracy everywhere and slowly sliding society into the jaws of the Sharia or Islamic Law whereby total domination of the world be possible. And all this undemocratic activity they conduct under the protection of liberal democratic law till they are able to overthrow democracy itself and impose Sharia! Good luck to brother Imam for, as Swami Vivekananda says, "Yours is an impossible dream."
Revelation must fulfil reason, not contradict it. If it runs contrary to reason and is exclusive in its occurrence, reject it, for truth must have validity either in universal experience or in enlightenment which must be open to all. This is the only way past dogmatic adherence to irrational beliefs, founded on so-called revelations, and their foster-child, fanaticism. If peace and prosperity in their highest sense are to prevail on earth, archaic superstitions must be given up and rationality upheld as worthy of being integral to the human pursuit for truth and excellence. This, however, does in no way mean that religious practices pertaining to cultivation of the inner life of man have no place in the future renascent order of things. Rather, reason is to be the safeguard against falling into the pitfalls of magic and mummery and absolutist assertions of the chosen ones of an arbitrary God who speaks only to the ignorant that dare not contradict Him in terms of enlightened reason. Reason that is chastened in the crucible of renunciation and purity where the least contamination of lust, lucre, power or pelf is assiduously avoided to attain to the subtlest of nervous evolution whereby the higher truths of the spirit may be perceived, such sublimation of the mental faculties are in conformity with the pursuit of truth without a tinge of external imposition or internal presupposition. Such is the rational way of the spirit as it obtains in enlightened India which in no way contradicts the investigative, evidential methodology of science as applied to the inner world and is free of dogma, doctrine, diktat or mental imposition of any kind, for freedom being the goal of this search after truth, freedom is held as the means to it as well. The Abrahamic religions have much to learn from the democracy of spirit as obtains in Hinduism and if they do so, they stand a moderate chance of surviving the onslaughts of modern science. Else, they will dwindle in course of time, for an increasingly educated humanity will refuse to abide by archaic irrational prescriptions of scriptures or absolutist assertions of messiahs or messengers. Man is on the rise and only the spiritual traditions of India that collectively go by the name of the Sanatan Dharma or, popularly, Hinduism can accommodate the rising aspirations of the human soul that will brook no opposition as it manifests progressively its godhead. Only Hinduism and its derivative schools of religious thinking such as Jainism and Buddhism allow this fullest bloom of the human soul and only these will survive the ravages of time. Grounded in the scientific spirit as these are, they are in perfect compatibility with the findings of modern science and are being strengthened by the mathematical formulations of science unlike the Abrahamic religions which are forever in conflict with science and, as such, are threatened with extinction at the hands of science. Either they reform their ways, become tolerant of other faiths and learn to harmoniously co-exist with all, or they will go down the way other ancient religions have at their hands, for, in the very words of Christ, ''Whosoever shall liveth by the sword, shall perish by it." Long live the meek Hindus and all those who choose to emulate them in civility of behaviour, catholicity of culture and universality of acceptance! Om!
Television anchors must stop harping on lies persistently that there was religious harmony in Kashmir till 1990 despite knowing the truth about Muslim atrocities on Kashmiri Hindus for centuries. This is pretentious and false journalism and potently injurious to the cause of seeking justice for the displaced Kashmiri Pundits. Misrepresentation of facts misleads the wider national audience into being gullible enough to believing that, after all, all was well in Kashmir till the other day and that religious intolerance and persecution of Hindus has been only a recent phenomenon. But that is not the case. Historically, Hindus have been persecuted brutally by the Muslim rulers of Kashmir over centuries and they have for large periods of time, barring those times when Hindu or Sikh rulers ruled over Kashmir, borne atrocities in their own homeland just because they were the minority community. The latest genocide of the Kashmiri Pundits in 1990 following which occurred their mass exodus, is but the final humiliation of the Hindus there by the fanatical Muslims who thus aim to make Kashmir a 100% Muslim inhabited State in their malicious bid to secede from India. Thus, it is imperative that the television channels make it their policy not to allow anchors to misreport on Kashmir by falsely affirming the erstwhile existence of communal harmony there. Such naivete does none any good but, surely, harms the cause of the Kashmiri Pundits as they struggle to bring to national focus their plight and seek redress thereof. Intelligent and mature journalism precludes the fundamental feature of journalistic honesty based on fact and not dubious suppression of it or concoction of ideas to suit mischievous ends. Information well-given will go a long way to solving much of the problems that beset our nation for truth ever invigorates, not falsehood. Keeping this in mind, television anchors ought to manifest a little more of character to help the national cause and, in this, no less the cause of the Kashmiri Pundits.
Stop accepting the lie that Muslims have allowed Hindus to live in amity with them in Kashmir ever. Whenever possible, they have persecuted the Hindus. This is the history of Islam in Kashmir which originally belonged to the Hindus from much before the advent of Islam on planet Earth, and, at however distant a date, will again belong to them along with other communities that choose to inhabit the Valley, for none can suppress the voice of truth nor deny justice to a beleaguered people for ever. Therefore, do I exhort the Hindus again and again to educate themselves on the criminal cleansing of ethnic Hindus from the Kashmir Valley by fanatical Muslims out there. Do not buy the deluding stories sold about communal harmony and amity there. It is genocide of Hindus right away that is the truth about Kashmir today. I am no politician, neither do I care for polarisation of communities for securing votes for any, but as a proud Hindu and a committed Indian, I do care for the well-being of members of my community perpetually suffering at the hands of the offending Muslims who dare the fairness of the Constitution of the land through their murderous offences. Hindus must learn never to offend but ever to defend themselves for none else will do it for them. They must unite to restore to the Kashmiri Pundits their homeland and so, prove that they are worthy of being called Hindus, for cowards may not be called by that name which has been the valorous identity of the Kshatriyas of timeless India. Awake, my friends, in defence of the motherland whose crowning glory is the Sanatan Dharma which is in threat today wherever Hindus are in minority, whose worst symptom is the brutalisation of the Pundits of Kashmir Valley who lie uncared for as refugees in their own country far away from their natural habitat in the high hills that bedeck this heaven on earth turned to veritable hell by fanaticism fuelled by fraudulent clerics feeding on age-old hatred of idolatrous infidels. The plight of the Pundits is our plight personal and the fight to restore their dignity is our fight as well. Let us all gear up for the mammoth task at hand and handsomely deliver what is the dharma of the moment.
Hindus should not feel diffident in calling a 'spade', a 'spade'. Enough of appeasement of intolerant Islam in this heartland of Hindustan. It is necessary to realise that the Kashmiri Pundits are languishing in refugee camps in Jammu for over 26 years and successive governments are keeping quiet over this extreme intolerance in the Valley. Now it is time to redress the issue and settle once and for all whether this is a secular country or are parts of it slowly sliding into becoming Islamic zones? Conversion from Hinduism to Islam and Christianity under inducement and nefarious marriage settlements where the Hindu is considered an infidel and must therefore convert in marriage to a Muslim, all these must stop forthwith if we Hindus are to preserve our identity and self-respect as well as our numbers which are in relative decline by the decade and augur not well for us and our ancient heritage in the long run, distant though but ever creeping close for comfort. Hindus must unite casting aside caste restrictions and their ill-begotten privileges. We must love our fellow Hindus and never think poorly of them knowing that they are our flesh and blood. Each and every Hindu is my own, this should be the attitude as we build up a harmonic Hindu society free of inequities and full of fraternal feeling. A strong Hindu society can effectively control the nefarious elements threatening to disrupt the harmony of our nation and our territorial integrity, and can protect and preserve all that is best in our age-old culture which has shed light on the rest of the civilised world for millenia. It is time to act in defence of the Kashmiri Pundits by way of our first patriotic action and restore them their home and hearth not as per the perfidious agenda of the Islamist criminals that drove them away from the Valley in 1990 but as per the comfort zone of the to-be rehabilitated Hindus in the violent anti-Hindu Kashmir. We have to pull in our might, contribute our mite and fight tooth and nail for the restoration of Hindustan to all that adhere to the law of the land and we must cower before none of these traitors from across the border and within our own homeland, criminals who work for foreigners and for alien ideology which they call Islamism. Hindus have ever been protected by the re-incarnation of the Lord Himself, such has been the history of the Hindus. Despite this benediction of the divine unto this nation, we have been brutalised by Islam for over a thousand years of intolerance leading finally to the amputation of the motherland when she lost both the Indus Valley and the Gangetic delta to the then Pakistan. On top of this, gluttonous, traitorous Pakistan snatched away a large chunk of Kashmir from us and unashamedly eyes the whole of Kashmir as the cherry it wishes to gobble up. Desecration and destruction of temples, mass conversion of Hindus to Islam, murder, loot and violation of the modesty of Hindu girls, these have characterised the Muslim rule for the last so many centuries in Kashmir. Whenever Hindu or Sikh kings happened to rule Kashmir, there was for Hindus a period of reprieve from Islamic terror, else, it has ever been a nightmare for them. But the worst case scenario has been enacted in independent India just the other day. On a fateful night in 1990, Kashmiri extremist Muslims carried out a massive ethnic cleansing of the Valley when they unleashed a night of terror to force 350,000 Hindus flee their homeland and seek refuge elsewhere. Thousands were butchered, hundreds of Hindu girls physically violated and the property of the Hindus simply plundered. These Kashmiri Pundits are still seeking justice while we, their brethren, are busy defending all other causes but this most calamitous of them all. Shame on our passive piety, twice shame on our 'holy' hypocrisy and thrice shame on our 'Indian' indifference to intolerance where we dare not raise our voices for fear of violent reprisal !
For the youth to awaken to the call of the motherland, it is essential that they read thoroughly the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda so that they may feel the pulse of the nation, learn about its history which is the story of their forefathers and so doing, feel energised to attempt living chaste lives full of the fire of spirituality. Character thus formed, the youth will be empowered to make meaningful contribution to the nation through their worshipful service to their countrymen. Institutions must be built but for that we need masses of young people dedicated to the cause of nation-building. Affirmation may be easy, but not so, execution of an idea. For this, individuals must train themselves in the conception of the idea and its execution thereof. Rigorous rational build-up, meditation and cultivation of the heart are necessary before any welfare work may be undertaken. Intense sympathy that roots out selfishness and purifies the soul by the very sublimity of feeling for the national cause is the crying need of the hour. Hundreds of thousands of young men and women, armed in the philosophy of the Vedanta as expounded by the leonine Swami, must set forth in the direction of self-building and nation-serving. They must be fired only by the commonweal and not by any selfish motive whatsoever. They must be able to sacrifice themselves, their pleasures and their pains and that most difficult of all devils that besets the human frame, egotism. This done, let them vow to offer themselves as human sacrifices to the cause of the redemption of the motherland. May Swamiji bless such valiant souls achieve success in their endeavour! May our prayers preserve them in their purity of purpose and resolve! Jai Swamiji! Jai Hind!
Media captionSwami Vivekananda had a huge following but died aged 39
Few in the west have heard of Swami Vivekananda, who was born 150 years ago this week. Yet this Bengali intellectual, still revered in India, introduced many people to yoga and meditation.
The crunch of car tyres on gravel, the heavy smell of an imminent thunderstorm, swaying elm trees - random childhood memories of my grandmother's house, Ridgely, in upstate New York.
I also dimly remember casual references to a Swami. "That was Swami's sofa." "The end room - that is where the Swami used to sleep."
I would collect fallen branches from a huge fir tree for the Alsatian dog to chew - it was known as "prophet Swami's pine".
Then there were those fading sepia photographs of Victorian ladies in hats and long dresses standing next to a striking young Indian with a turban and large expressive eyes.
None of it meant much to me back then in the 1970s. It is only recently I have realized that this Swami was in fact one of India's most influential spiritual teachers - the first to package eastern philosophy for the West.
My family had invited him to stay in this house and helped him publicise his work.
Swami Vivekananda was a Bengali intellectual and chief disciple of the Hindu mystic Ramakrishna. His talent was in distilling complex ancient texts down to a simple message - that all religions are equal and God is inside everyone.
He first shot to stardom at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. He called for tolerance and the end of religious fanaticism - by a strange coincidence the date was 11 September (or 9/11), 1893.
After his first words, "Sisters and brothers of America", there was a standing ovation - women fell over each other to get a closer look at this handsome Hindu monk with ochre robes and turban who spoke flawless English in a deep authoritative voice.
He became hugely in demand and people flocked to his lectures.
To those used to the Judeo-Christian view of an external God, his ideas on yoga and meditation were exciting and new.
Image captionThe Ridgely house today and the tree under which Vivekananda held talks
In between long lecture tours round America, Vivekananda used to rest at Ridgely - then owned by my great-grandparents.
A hundred years later, the house has passed to the followers of his Vedanta teaching.
When I went back there, I was surprised to find it had changed remarkably little, except the home in which I used to romp around and throw beanbags is now treated as a holy place of pilgrimage, where devotees tiptoe in respect.
Volunteers dig the vegetable patch and mend the crumbling pipes, working to preserve the beautiful old clapboard house. To them it is not just a property but a shrine to a holy man.
A steady stream of quiet, thoughtful people arrive for lectures on the ancient Hindu texts, the Vedas, and chanting sessions. It is all very understated and peaceful - a slice of India being nurtured in the heart of New England.
One Indian couple from New Jersey said they came to feel Vivekananda's presence, perhaps hoping a residue of the great man's holiness would rub off. They even touched me on the arm, as if being a descendant of the family who helped him somehow made me special too.
Image captionThe Dalai Lama attended Vivekananda's 150th anniversary celebrations
In charge of the Retreat Centre is a dynamic Californian nun from the Ramakrishna order called Pravrajika Gitaprana. She showed me around.
"His bed has been shipped to India, but this room is where he slept, this dining room is where he ate," she told me, as we wandered through the house.
"It was a place he could just be himself. He used to roller-skate down the corridor, and he loved ice cream."
She pointed at the "Prophet's Pine" and explained: "That grew from a seedling taken from a tree in Maine. Swami Vivekananda used to hold his talks under it. The tiny sapling was planted by your great-great-aunt, Josephine Macleod."
"Joe Joe" as Vivekananda called her, had become one of his lifelong friends and supporters.
Image captionJosephine Macleod (far left) travelled to Kashmir with Vivekananda
She went as far as embarking on her own 19th Century hippy trail, travelling with him and other disciples to India. I noticed a photograph of her with the Swami in a remote part of Kashmir.
It was almost unheard of in those days for white ladies and Indians to travel together.
Many thousands have since followed her to seek spiritual enlightenment in India.
Hundreds of gurus and swamis, some holier than others, have lured them there. But to Josephine, her penniless wandering monk was incorruptible - a true mystic.
In India today, Vivekananda is revered as a saint. In the west he is virtually unknown.
But then, Gitaprana told me, "he would not have minded, he did not want to be worshipped slavishly or remembered for all eternity. He just wanted people to discover the prophet, Buddha or Christ inside themselves".
