VANDE MATARAM ... 2

VANDE MATARAM ... 2

We have to be entirely affirmative in our outlook, positive in our actions to counter masses of negatives that surround us. The nation needs solidarity and progress amidst the despairing dark that envelopes it in turbulent, nay, even treacherous times. Our ideals must be sublime, our deeds must translate them into service of our countrymen so that a powerful nation emerges that will be a beacon unto the world. It is not good enough to have historically discovered the divinity of sentience, the integration of the universe in the light of the Atman but it is imperative that we, the descendants of those discoverers, the Vedic Rishis, are able to demonstrate the lofty principles of the Vedanta in bold deeds that will help humanity out of the material abyss it has sunk in. For this India has to rise and she can do so not by resorting to alien religious or political ideology or by giving in to shallow and superficial so-called secularism which is a mask for materialism and sense-craving but by adhering creatively to India's traditional thought that reached its climactic development in the Upanishads and gained utterance in modern terms in Swami Vivekananda. This is the Sage of the Age. He is our lighthouse in this tempestuous sea that threatens to engulf us. He shall show us the Way. Let us listen to what he has to say.

Written by Sugata Bose