VANDE MATARAM ... 4

VANDE MATARAM ... 4

Durga Puja ought to call out the valour in Bengalees to destroy the demon within and without and not just to indulge in annual frivolous merrymaking. Here was a living Durga who even today stands as the exemplar of manly valour much like Joan of Arc was to medieval Frenchmen. Swamiji could hardly restrain his tears when mentioning her, calling her a goddess as he did so. Netaji, following his spiritual mentor's footsteps, made his women's regiment in the Rani's name and called each female member of the regiment 'Rani'. Such is the significance of the Durga Puja in the vision of our highest minds and such should be our attitude as well. Bankimchandra composed the Vande Mataram in Mother Durga's name. Swamiji instituted the annual Durga Puja in Belur Math. Subhas Chandra Bose fought for the right to worship Mother Durga in jail and in the Rammohan Student's Hostel of City College. All this was done to instil patriotic fervour, arouse virility and valour in a subject race struggling for freedom from foreign occupation. But that spirit has been lost as Bengalees have somewhere down the line lost that spiritual idealism, no doubt a consequence of the decadent materialistic influence of the Age. But the decadence has to be countered and the spirit revived. Let us from now on once more start worshipping Devi Durga in the real spirit then. Let us be manly in our aspirations, in our attitudes, in our actions and in our adoration of the Divine Mother. As Swamiji said, "Mother wants the sacrifice of a thousand heroes." I offered myself at the sacrificial altar in my youth decades ago and have been awaiting Mother's sickle to sever my head ever since. That has been my lifelong Durga Puja. You too offer yours, my friends, and attain through death at Her hands to immortality. Jai Durge !

Written by Sugata Bose