CYCLONIC MONK ... 2
We must stop projecting Swamiji as merely a national icon. He was much more than that. He was a prophet of epic proportions whose realisations transcended the bounds of space, time and causality. His concerns were universal and not limited to his motherland nor limited by it. Swamiji himself vouched, "Truth is my God and the universe my country." Such a statement clearly enunciates the breadth of Swamiji's vision and sets to rest all debates about the limits of his earthly attention.
True it is that 'his motherland was the queen of his adoration,' to pilfer from Nivedita an arresting utterance about her venerable Guru. But by India Swamiji understood humanity at its best and sublimest, at its endpoint of spiritual evolution where earth, heaven and hell all coalesce into the transcendent beyond where the non-dual dwells, the Self brooding on itself. India was the focus of his attention, true, the origin and endpoint of his mission, but between the extremities he included the vast panoramic field of the diverse races of the world.
In a letter from USA Swamiji asks himself by way of asking the addressee whether he was an American, a European or an Asiatic. He says that he finds in himself a curious medley of personalities. These are significant statements and are great pointers to the character of his earthly personality, message and mission, none of which can be confined to the finite limits of India alone but which embrace the whole of humanity in a single sweep of universal love.
To define Swamiji, therefore, as a national icon, while it may satisfy our national needs, will do the sage disservice for it will clip his wings of their sweeping flights across the vast stretches of the world and confine him to the country of his birth alone which geographical limits he himself had broken when he had dared to cross the seas to carry the gospel of universal salvation to distant America and Europe.
Swamiji, thus, in all fairness must be deemed a universal spirit and a citizen of the world whose temporary terrestrial mission was to uplift the whole of humanity spiritually and sets its course right for its rapid earthly evolution en route to the Divine.
Written by Sugata Bose
We must stop projecting Swamiji as merely a national icon. He was much more than that. He was a prophet of epic proportions whose realisations transcended the bounds of space, time and causality. His concerns were universal and not limited to his motherland nor limited by it. Swamiji himself vouched, "Truth is my God and the universe my country." Such a statement clearly enunciates the breadth of Swamiji's vision and sets to rest all debates about the limits of his earthly attention.
True it is that 'his motherland was the queen of his adoration,' to pilfer from Nivedita an arresting utterance about her venerable Guru. But by India Swamiji understood humanity at its best and sublimest, at its endpoint of spiritual evolution where earth, heaven and hell all coalesce into the transcendent beyond where the non-dual dwells, the Self brooding on itself. India was the focus of his attention, true, the origin and endpoint of his mission, but between the extremities he included the vast panoramic field of the diverse races of the world.
In a letter from USA Swamiji asks himself by way of asking the addressee whether he was an American, a European or an Asiatic. He says that he finds in himself a curious medley of personalities. These are significant statements and are great pointers to the character of his earthly personality, message and mission, none of which can be confined to the finite limits of India alone but which embrace the whole of humanity in a single sweep of universal love.
To define Swamiji, therefore, as a national icon, while it may satisfy our national needs, will do the sage disservice for it will clip his wings of their sweeping flights across the vast stretches of the world and confine him to the country of his birth alone which geographical limits he himself had broken when he had dared to cross the seas to carry the gospel of universal salvation to distant America and Europe.
Swamiji, thus, in all fairness must be deemed a universal spirit and a citizen of the world whose temporary terrestrial mission was to uplift the whole of humanity spiritually and sets its course right for its rapid earthly evolution en route to the Divine.
Written by Sugata Bose
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