TO MY FRIENDS, SAMEER BANIK (Sameer Banik) AND SHUBHRANSHU MOHAN BANERJI (Shubhranshu Mohan Banerji), THIS, A GIFT IN SIMPLICITY AND AN OFFERING IN HUMILITY AS WELL
What we need is to be practical about the dispensing of our dharma, for dharma is all about the practice of spiritual principles. Mere living in the ivory tower of ideas and ideals will not do now. Our motherland needs the execution of lofty spiritual principles in simple life terms. Only then will she see the light of day as is her destiny that has been prophesied by Swami Vivekananda.
We are over 1.32 billion people now and growing in numerical strength every day. At no distant date we shall overtake China to become the most populous country in the world. How shall we feed our people, house them and employ them, take care of the aged, nurse the sick, eradicate poverty, improve the standard of living of the people and educate all? These are pertinent questions and these looming conditions potent threats to the continuing stability of our polity. How shall we tackle them all if we as a people do not become practical about our dharma?
Dharma implies the correct conducting of human affairs as per one's station in life and one's location in a specific situation. It is based on the eternal principles of the Spirit discovered by the rishis (seers of transcendental truth) and now codified in the Vedas. From the Vedas and the Upanishads have as corollary sprung the Puranas and the Smritis where human affairs have been discussed at length and human problems tackled and solutions sought and offered. These have long been the bearers of the standard of righteousness and morality in our country. The principles enshrined herein will have to be vivified in real terms through life's realisations and made practical in day-to-day living so that the country rises from its stupor and take its rightful place in the comity of nations.
We are a spiritual people, highly evolved in purity and goodness but we lack in practical skills in so far as implementation of the scriptural principles in real life is concerned. We were not always like this but continued colonisation for centuries by the European powers have robbed us of our ingenuity for the while as they inflicted the severest suffering on us by looting us through and through in a manner as unrelenting as it was brutal. But now we are a free nation and we must implement Swamiji's programmes for future India.
Sitting on the last bit of rocky protrusion of the motherland from the Indian Ocean and surveying in meditation for three days and three nights the history of India's past, present and the future yet to unfold, Swamiji charted out the blueprint of India's destiny in his seer's mind which he later gave expression to in his celebrated 'Lectures from Colombo to Almora'. There on the edge of the Indian landmass, he hit upon a plan to revitalise the motherland. He decided to channelise the force of renunciation in India to practical fruitful terms.
Following his return from the West in 1896, Swamiji, in a string of impassioned speeches, laid out his plans for rejuvenating India. From Madras he gave his clarion call and exhorted his countrymen to arise from their thousand year sleep. His was 'the organ voice of God' and it sent a thrill through the nerves of Indians as they gathered themselves for the first time as a cohesive national unit in self-dignity and reverence. Vivekananda spoke, India listened.
On 1 May, 1897 Swamiji founded the Ramakrishna Mission Association at Balaram Bose's house in Kolkata and gave organisational shape to his movement. A fortnight later his brother disciple, Swami Akhandananda started the Mission's first relief activity in famine-stricken Murshidabad. This set the ball rolling and the Ramakrishna Mission since that day has not looked back whenever any calamity has befallen the nation where their selfless service could assuage human grief. But the laity has been largely non-functional in terms of taking the lead in plunging in for national service as envisaged by Swamiji. The householders have failed to fulfil Swamiji's expectations of them and it is time that this issue is redressed by increased participation of the lay devotees in the movement of the Master. Thus, practical Vedanta is becoming increasingly relevant today as our nation faces grim challenges ahead.
Education is the key. But it must be an education that teaches children the use of their limbs as much as their brains, their muscles as much as their heart, the harmony of all faculties in a comprehensive manner that will conduce to maximum national welfare.
End of Part 1
To be continued ...
Written by Sugata Bose
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