CROSS-CURRENTS ... 2

Devotees, it is time to dedicate ourselves to the cause of nation-building by following the dynamic teachings of Swami Vivekananda in an equally dynamic way, the way Swamiji would have like it. Passive piety will no longer do. It has had it dubious day. Now we must be off to action. Brahmacharya (continence and contemplation) shall be the base of our movement for we have to energise our system with refined thoughts to deal the death-blow to tamas (inertia) that has so beset our nation. Swamiji is our general and we are his soldiers of the soul. We must seek inspiration from his writings and lectures, study deep his life and message and mould our lives in the divine direction that we may effectively give shape to his plans and programmes which he has left behind for us to fulfil.

We, as a nation, must have solidarity. We must combine the forces of good to strengthen the national will, the national resolve to higher attainment. Weakening, debilitating, hypocritical anti-national stance in the name of higher humanity will not do for unless a man learns to love his own mother, it is puerile to imagine he will love the world at large. Instead of indiscriminate condemnation of our Hindu religion and culture from a cursory glance through its contents, it will be worthwhile studying the system deep before hazarding derogatory opinion. The ancient texts are there for their study. Let us with open mind study them, think critically, contemplate deeply their philosophical and social import, and then come to conclusions about their relevance today. Till then let us not be judgemental foolishly and through false propaganda cause damage to our heritage and history. Let our enquiry establish fact, not our prejudices and preconceptions.

The nation is rising and the shudras will have their say at last. It is futile making furtive efforts to deny them their rights for the time has come when through sheer numbers they will wrest control of the national affairs. Now the upper castes will find it prudent to share the spoils of life with them, else, a billion-strong proletariat will crush the very life of all that stands in the way of their first coming to life for the history of the world has till now seen only the brutal repression of these so-called human savages who, though veritable divinities on earth, have forever been denied basic humanity by the priests, the privileged and the aristocrats, and now, even worse, by the cunning capitalist who deals them the death-blow by his perfidious profit-making, reducing the shudra to such penury that life itself becomes a veritable hell. But their hour is at hand and nothing can resist the might of the awakening masses, the vast body of the visible God. Hence, help usher in the Shudra Yuga (the Age of the Proletariat), for the power-balance is fast shifting to the side of the shudra and, in the interests of preservation of culture, it is imperative to raise the shudra to the level of the brahman through ample education and exposure to culture, else, it will be an erosion of all that was glorious and great in erstwhile civilisation that will vaunt as the epitome of the popular culture to be.