AT DAWN ON THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDIA'S FREEDOM

AT DAWN ON THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDIA'S FREEDOM 

To make the country strong, make yourself strong. Nurture your talents, hone your skills and lay it at the service of the motherland. Let this be our resolve on the 75th anniversary of independence.

Swamiji who is truly the father of modern India had wished that each one of us would be a Rishi or a semblance of one. His simple formula for India's rise as a nation was 'service and renunciation'. Pure living, hard work, manifestation of courage and character, renunciation and service would raise India to glory, Swamiji said. Let us remember his words then and resolve to build our nation, words that had inspired our freedom fighters and even inflamed them unto revolutionary action. From Bagha Jatin, Rash Behari Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Hemchandra Ghosh, Masterda Surjya Sen, Netaji, Gandhiji and Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, that is, the leaders, to young revolutionaries like Kanailal Basu who recited from Swamiji's works the evening before execution, the list runs long of those who sacrificed their all to free the motherland from colonial consequence, being inspired by Swamiji's message of love in daring action that entailed wholesale self-sacrifice.

Today, as we celebrate the 75th anniversary of that cherished freedom for which the martyrs had bled, let us rededicate ourselves to the grand mission of raising the motherland to her pristine glory and beyond as the finest tribute we can pay to our fallen heroes. Vande Mataram!

Written by Sugata Bose