Independence and The Patriot-Monk

Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Benoy Kumar Sarkar, Bepin Chandra Pal, M. K. Gandhi, Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Aurobindo Ghosh, Subhas Chandra Bose, Ashfaqulla Khan, Bhagat Singh, Bagha Jatin Mukherjee, Chittranjan Das, Chakravarty Rajagopalachari, Chandra Sekhar Azad, Dinesh Gupta, Jay Prakash Narayan, Jawaharlal Nehru, K. Kamaraj, Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, Khudiram Bose, Rash Behari Bose, Sukhdev, Sarojini Naidu, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, Vijayalaxmi Pandit … Do you know what is the common thing among them? YES… they are Indian… YES… they all are respected FREEDOM FIGHTERS also. BUT another thing is also common between them – that is ONE GREAT MAN – by whom the above mentioned patriots were deeply inspired – by whom India felt its root and gave birth such country-lovers. And the inspirer is none but VIVEKANANDA. Those great soldiers always were with 2 books while they were caught – one is Bhagabat Gita and the second one is Lectures and Writings of Vivekananda. They got enormous courage, energy and spirit from these 2 books. This blog basically takes us to that age 1900 – 1947 – the time which is the witness of the sacrifice of those martyrs to feel the love that they had with India and to feel the fire of their heart.


“India I loved before I came away, now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now holy to me. It is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha..” - Swami Vivekananda. Prophetically he saw the future and demanded his countrymen to come forward to work for the nation saying that: "For the next fifty years this alone should be our keynote - this, our great Mother India. ... This is the only God that is awake.....", The next decades were to follow with the birth of numbers of great freedom fighters. In exactly 50 years, India became free of British occupation. Netaji Subhas Bose said: "Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalist movement." This discussion is basically in search of the root fire of Swamiji which had spread among the youth in that time. For the readers, who are a little bit familier with this PATRIOT MONK, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, established the Ramkrishna Mission at Belur in 1897. He championed the supremacy of Vedantic philosophy. His talk at the Chicago (USA) Conference of World Parliament of Religions in 1893 made the westerners realize the greatness of Hinduism for the first time. Swami Vivekananda presented Hinduism with unification at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 made the whole world aware of the greatness of India, her religions and culture. After his return to India he electrified the whole nation with his clarion call: "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached".


Now we will see how they are moved by Vivekananda’s golden sayings …. “Forget not - that the lower classes, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper, are thy flesh and blood, thy brothers. Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian - and proudly proclaim. " I am an India, every Indian is my brother." Say: "The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother. The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India's gods and goddesses are my God. India's society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure-garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age." Say brother: "The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good." … He became “Condensed INDIA” after he tasted, felt and touched our Motherland. The reflection we saw in Sister Nivedita on whom patriot Bipin Chandra Pal once said, “Nivedita loved India more than an Indian loves India”.When an American friend asked how she could help him in his work, he told her: “Love India!”

Patriot Monk

Gandhiji said, " I have gone through Vivekananda’s works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold". J.Neheru said, “Vivekananda... He was a fine figure of a man, imposing, full of poise and dignity, sure of himself and his mission, and at the same time full of a dynamic and fiery energy and a passion to push India forward”. Netaji Subhas C. Bose shared, “Swamiji was a full-blooded masculine personality —and a fighter to the core of his being. I can go on for hours and yet fail to do the slightest justice to that great man. He was so great, so profound, so complex. If he had been alive, I would have been at his feet”.
V. Bhave said, “Vivekananda not only made us conscious of our strength, he also pointed out our defects and drawbacks”. C. Rajagopalachari said, “Swami Vivekananda saved Hinduism and saved India. But for him we would not have lost our religion and would have gained our freedom. We therefore owe everything to Swami Vivekananda. May his faith, his courage and his wisdom ever inspire us so that we may keep safe the treasure we have received from him”. Historian R.C.Majumdar opined, “Though an ascetic, Vivekananda was a patriot of patriots. The thought of restoring the pristine glory of India by resuscitating among her people the spiritual vitality which was dormant, but not dead, was always the uppermost thought in his mind. . . ”. Final Complement which was made by Rabindranath Tagore to Roma Rolland, “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative.”


Today still Indians fight for their motherland at the border of Kargil like the real Heroes and I hope She still can give birth to the braves like Jhansi Rani, Netaji Subhas, Khudiram, Bhagat Singh when it requires. But in present time we really lack the fire which can help us to build the “New India” which was once dreamt by Swamiji, Netaji, Vidyasagar, Nazrul, Tagore etc…  "... Let New India arise  let her arise  out of the peasants' cottage, grasping the plough; out of the huts of the fisherman, the cobbler, and the sweeper. Let her spring from the grocer's shop, from the oven of the fritter-seller. Let her emanate from the factory, from marts and markets. Let her emerge from groves and forests, from hills and mountains.” ... Jai Hind!!! Vande Mataram!!!