A PLETHORA OF COMMENTS BY WAY OF RESPONSE TO CONTENTIOUS NATIONAL ISSUES AND NETAJI

That is what Netaji had advocated --- ruthless dictatorship of the Congress for 20 years post-independence --- initially as the form of government independent India ought to adopt. However, at so distant a date from those heady days of the freedom struggle today, it seems rather improbable that such a measure will be feasible now, yet, some sort of enforcement of national discipline ought to be practised anyhow if this nation is not to precipitate into eventual anarchy.

The reason why dictatorship is inferior to democracy as a form of modern government when the masses are beginning to assert their rights of self-governance and education is awakening them to their responsibilities of conjoint civic living is that one benevolent dictator is likely to be followed by nine malevolent ones by the law of probability as aptly stated by Einstein in his denunciation of dictatorship as a form of government. Hence, with changing times we have to change our socio-political stance as well and what may have been deemed right by Netaji in the 1940s may not be the right prescription anymore after seven decades of democratic governance, albeit with all its failings.

Indeed, that is true also Sir.

Brilliant rejoinder Sir.

Marvellous illustration, most apt, dear friend.

Fantastic! What originality of approach, dear Sir! You have real fire in your belly. Bravo! Answer if you can this one Mr. Adversary.

But we are drifting from the post, the video by Anita Bose Pfaff. Let us talk about the issue of national service as exhorted of our youth by her.

Mr. Adversary, how about it?

Superb, my friend. But who will light that lamp? Who will ignite that spark? What is your take on this revered Sir?

So, why don't you take up the cudgels, friend, and propagate Vivekananda in a manner that some such valorous soul will take up the cause in a bigger way if you feel diffident to yourself carry it to fruition?

Mere words will not suffice but action by way of real service to the nation, propagation of the Word and upholding of the message of the Master and his leonine protege.

Swamiji, however, has exhorted us to do the work of propagation of the Word by way of service without any selfish attachment of acquisition of name and fame with it. If only we followed Thakur's words of seeking his commission, in our day-to-day self-centred and selfish activities as well, how well it would have been observance of Thakur's words! It, indeed, is a pity that we avoid our social responsibilities so wonderfully well, hiding under the cover of the Master's words while blissfully ignoring his mandate in everything else where our self-interest is involved.

Not so, if one does so with honest intent without getting involved in dirty politics.

Fair enough, yet, Narayan is the same in all, although interpretation of His calling differs from person to person as per their location in life and their understanding and appreciation of things.

Madam, who prevents being practical? Let service to the nation be a part of it.

Service does not need money always. It is an attitude which has to be inculcated in oneself following the principles of the great spiritual masters of the world and has no bearing on whether one is a monastic or a lay person. Even a lay person may be a worker for the nation's good, else, how was this nation liberated from the shackles of British imperialism, certainly not by the monks but by their inspiration often and, in real terms, by the lay public fired by the ideal of love for the motherland and love of freedom in the heart.

Not quite, for that is a retrograde way of looking at things, Madam, inspired by a raw sampling of one's everyday experience. But the vision enlarged, one finds meaning in the higher idealism and the efficacy of following the dictates of the higher heart beyond the considerations of one's immediate environment which detracts one from engaging in altruistic activity.

Netaji remains one of those rare souls who had not an iota of selfishness in his being unlike most of the celebrated leaders of his day who, despite their seminal contributions to the freedom movement, were not entirely motivated by pure love of the motherland without a tinge of personal gain in material terms or ideological imperatives coloured by their partial personalities. Netaji does not need recognition from his foolish, forgetful countrymen in whose ill-informed estimation, consequent upon a faulty education full of historical falsities and fabrications, his perfidious adversaries in Congress are reckoned as great and the hero, one of the others who also ran for the coveted leadership of the Congress but was eventually expelled from it at the behest of the manipulating Mahatma, but he is richly ingrained in the hearts of millions of his devotees across the world for whom freedom and patriotism are synonymous with the lion-soul that Netaji was. These are the ones that carry the flame of his unspelt aspirations for the motherland in their heart, these are the ones that will give utterance to his dream of a renascent India when the nation, long slumbering, will awake to self-consciousness with Swamiji and Netaji as their twin heroes, the guiding principles of their rejuvenated lives.

Thanks, everybody, for engaging in this long intellectual deliberation on national issues and Netaji.