SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Prophet of Patriotism

150th Swami Vivekananda Jayanti Commemoration Number of

TATTVA DARSANA

Edited by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

Contents

Preface --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Foreword --Sri V. Sundaram, IAS (Retd.) Swami Vivekanandas Vision

of the Hindu Nation --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda The Patriot Hindoo Monk --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda and Indias Struggle for Freedom --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan` Swami Vivekananda and His Gospel of Social Service --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekanandas Shaft in Indias Freedom Struggle --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Yogi Ramsuratkumar on

Swami Vivekananda --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Swami Vivekananda --R. Vivekanandan It is for Indians

to Write Indian History --Swami Vivekananda Swami Vivekananda on the Aryan-Dravidian Theory --R. Vivekanandan Tribute to Swami Vivekananda --Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Is Ramakrishaism Non-Hindu? --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Did Swami Vivekananda Give Up Hinduism?by A Hindu (G.C.Asnani) --Publishers Note --Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Our Motherland --Swami Vivekananda

PREFACE Adoration and worship of the Motherland is the hallmark of Hindu way of life. There is no greater Divinity than the Motherland and no higher form of worship than the service of the Mother. Since times immemorial, the Rishis of our land have glorified Mother Earth as the manifestation of the Supreme Mother and declared: jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasi Mother and Motherland are greater than the heavens. "Maata bhoomi putroham prithivyaaa"This land is my mother and I am her child is the emphatic proclamation of the Vedic Aryan expressing his intense devotion to his Motherland. Oh Motherland, we humans have been born from your womb and we move upon your surface. It is you who nourish the bipeds as well as quadrupeds. All humans are your children, he declares in unequivocal terms expressing his gratefulness to his Mother who is the nourisher and sustainer of his life. This ideal of adoration and worship of the Motherland and elevating patriotism as the highest creed upheld by the Hindu race deteriorated when Hindus started founding various religious sects and creeds and started dividing the Hindu society into blind followers of various Gods and Goddesses without understanding the import of the Vedic dictum, Ekam sat, vipraah bahudhaa vadantiThe Ultimate Reality is one and men of wisdom call Him by different names. Swami Vivekananda points out the fall of the Aryan race: Over the course of time.the descendants of the Aryans deviated from proper conduct; they lost their spirit of renunciation and their sharp intelligence and became deeply attached to popular customs. They even failed to understand the import of the Puranas, thinking them contradictory to one another because each one taught by emphasizing only a particular aspect of the spiritual ideal and because each taught people of ordinary intelligence the abstruse truths of Vedanta by using concrete imagery and elaborate language. They divided the whole of Sanatan Dharma--the sum total of all

religious ideals--into many sects. They enkindled the fire of sectarian jealousy and anger and tried to throw each other into it. When the degraded Aryans had almost turned India, the land of religion, into a hell, Bhagavan Sri Ramakrishna incarnated himself to demonstrate the true religion of the Aryan race. He made visible the unity among the innumerable sects and denominations of Hindu religion that had cropped up throughout the country over a vast period of time. At that time, the Hindu religion had been devastated by continuous sectarian fights, and was seemingly divided into many sects. Its various sects were overrun by hideous customs, and Hinduism had become confusing to Indians and an object of contempt to foreigners. Over time, this eternal religion had been debased, but Sri Ramakrishna incorporated its universal and eternal aspects in his own life to become a living example of the eternal religion, which he lived before all for the good of humanity. Swamiji never wanted to create a new sect in the name of Sri Ramakrishna. He made it clear when he proclaimed: The impulse is constantly coming nowadays to my mind to do this and to do that, to scatter broadcast on earth the message of Sri Ramakrishna and so on. But I pause again to reflect, lest all this give rise to another sect in India. He asserted, As for me, I again repeat--I form no sect, nor organization--I know very little and that little I teach without reserve. He emphatically declared, I havent been born to found one more sect in a world already teeming with sects. Swamiji had clearly realized that the various reform movements that sprang up in the name of various reformers and new Sampradayas achieved no purpose other than disintegrating the Hindu society. Therefore he categorically declared, Again, a piece of wood can only easily be cut along the grain. So the old Hinduism can only be reformed through Hinduism, and not through the new-fangled reform movements. Swamiji's plan of action was to restore once again the most ancient ideal of worship of Motherland. Nethaji Subhas Chandra Bose quotes Sister Nivedita on Swami Vivekananda: The queen of his adoration was his

motherland. There was not a cry within her shores that did not find in him a responsive echo. Swamiji thundered, If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhoomi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality it is India." His illustrious disciple, Sister Nivedita, was embodiment of the spirit of patriotism that the Swamiji upheld and she declared: Age succeeds age in India, and even the voice of the Mother calls upon Her children to worship Her with new offerings, with renewal of their own greatness. Today she cries for the offering of nationality. Today she asks, as a household Mother of the strong men whom she has borne and bred, that we show to Her, not gentleness and submission, but manly strength and invincible might. Her patriotic colleague in Indias freedom struggle, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo echoed: Nationalism is a religion that has come from God. Swami Rama Tirtha, who was inspired by Swami Vivekananda and followed his footsteps asks, Is it not high time now to deify the entire Motherland and let every partial manifestation inspire us with devotion to the whole? Through praana pratishthaa the Hindus endow with flesh and blood the effigy of Durga. Is it not worthwhile to call forth the inherent glory and evoke fire and life in the more real Durga of Mother India? And Sir John Woodroffe, the renowned Western exponent of Tantra Shastra, reminds the Indian people that They will gain power (shakti) to uphold their race and will receive all their desires if they serve their country in the belief that service (seva) of Shri Bharata is worship (seva) of the Maha Shakti. Shri Bhagavati who, though appearing in one of her forms as Bharata Shakti is not merely a Devi of the Hindus but their name for the one Mother of the World." As Sri Aurobindo envisaged in his scheme of Bhavaani Mandir, We have to create an order of dedicated missionaries who are prepared to offer their everything at the altar of the Mother. And what will be the work of these missionaries? Sister Nivedita delineates their task: Let

the missionary travel with the magic lantern, with collections of post cards, with a map of India and with head and heart full of ballads, stories and geographical descriptions. Let him gather together the women, let him gather together the villagers, let him entertain them in the garden, in the courtyard, in the verandas, beside the well, and under the village tree with stories and songs and descriptions of India! India! India! During the period of long struggle of Bharatavarsha for its emancipation from the clutches of alien aggressors who ruled over this country, there did appear in the religious field umpteen number of religious and spiritual movements and gurus and sampradayas, but very few of them were interested in the liberation of the country and people from alien masters and instead they all spoke only of liberation or moksha from the world. Swami Vivekananda severely condemned such so called spiritual leaders and movements: A country where millions of people live on flowers of the Mohua plant, and a million or two Sadhus and a hundred million or so Brahmins suck the blood out of these poor people , without even the least effort for their amelioration--is that a country or hell? Is that a religion, or the devils dance? He warned people of the hypocrites in the garb of religious preceptors: When people try to practice religion, eighty per cent of them turn into cheats, and about fifteen per cent go mad. It is only the remaining five per cent who get some direct knowledge of the Truth and so become blessed. Therefore beware!And he boldly revealed a truth: Religions of the world have become lifeless mockeries. What the world wants is character. The world is need of those whose life is one of burning love, selfless. That love will make every word tell like thunderbolt. He wanted the service of the poor and downtrodden masses to be elevated to the highest creed of the land: Whoever will be ready to serve him--no, not him but his children--the poor and the downtrodden, the sinful and the afflicted, down to the very worm--who will be ready to serve these, in them he will manifest himself. Through their tongue the Goddess of Learning Herself will speak, and the Divine Mother--the Embodiment of all power--will enthrone Herself in their hearts.

Today, the vast majority of the religious and spiritual leaders of the country are followers of those sects, Sampradayas, mutts and missions, which like the Semitic or Mlechha religions, assert that their own Gods or their own prophets are the true Gods and saviours. Hinduism has always stood for universal and eternal values of life and propagated the existence of one and only God who is beyond all names and forms and whom the saints and sages worshipped in various names and forms in accordance to their inclinations and ultimately realized their identity in Him, the only One. Unless and until the various sects, sampradayas, mutts and missions in the Hindu society inside and outside the country realize that the Divine Mother manifesting in the form of Motherland is the Mother of all Gods and Gurus and all forms of worship are to be subordinated to the worship of the Motherland, there is no salvation for Hindu society. Sri Aurobindo heard Gods voice speaking to him, I am raising up this nation to send forth my word. When you go forth, speak to your nation always this word, that it is for the Sanatana Dharma that they arise, it is for the world and not for themselves that they arise. I am giving them freedom for the service of the world. Swami Vivekananda said: I was asked by an English friend on the eve of my departure, Swami, how do you like now your motherland after four years experience of the luxurious, glorious, powerful West? I could only answer, India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now to me holy; it is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha. Akshaya Triteeya, the auspicious day for the worship of the Divine Mother Sri Bharatamata, falling on Vasishaka Shukla Triteeya, every year must be celebrated in all Hindu institutions all over the country and abroad as the day to celebrate the worship of Sri Bharatabhavani. Temples, ashrams, mutts and religious congregations where the image or idol of Sri Bharata Bhavani is not installed and worshipped are all non-Hindu or Mlechha institutions and true Hindus must ignore them as useless tinsels. Sri Guruji Golwalkar gives his clarion call: Devotion to Motherland of the intense, dynamic, uncompromising and fiery type

is the life-breath of a free, prosperous and glorious national existence on the face of the earth. And we, the Hindus, are the inheritors of the most sublime devotion of the Motherland. Let those ancient embers of devotion lying dormant in every Hindu heart be fanned and joined in a sacred conflagration which shall consume all the past aggressions on our motherland and bring to life the dreams of Bharata Mata reinstated in her pristine undivided form. Psuedo-sadhus and pseudo-sannyasins who are wandering today throughout the length and breadth of the country and outside, with bloated ego and selling their merchandise of religion, yoga, meditation, cults, occultism, sooth-sayings, etc., exploiting the gullible Hindus and minting money for their luxurious life will certainly be wiped out soon. Sri Bharatamata has not lost Her virginity and She will produce hundreds of Vivekanandas to carry on Her sacred mission. Swami Vivekananda himself has assured us: Do you think that there will be no more Vivekanandas after I die! There will be no lack of Vivekanandas, if the world needs them--thousands and millions of Vivekanandas will appear--from where, who knows! Know for certain that the work done by me is not the work of Vivekananda, it is His work--the Lords own work! If one governor-general retires, another is sure to be sent in his place by the Emperor. If this humble flower, SWAMI VIVEKANANDAPROPHET OF PATRIOTISM, at the sacred feet of Sri Bharatamba could inspire even a handful of our youth to aspire to become Vivekanandas and dedicate their life for the service of our Motherland, the purpose of this Sadhus insignificant work would achieve a great result. Vande Mataram!

--

SADHU PROF. V. RANGARAJAN

FOREWORD

V. SUNDARAM, IAS (Retd.)

I am beholden to Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan for doing me the honour of writing a Foreword to a book titled SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Prophet of Patriotism, which, Bharat Mata Gurukulam Ashram is planning to bring out to commemorate the 150th Jayanthi Celebrations of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). I have read all the essays which have been included in this proposed volume. Six of the articles are by Sadhu Prof. Rangarajan and two are by his son Shri R. Vivekanandan. Besides, there is a beautiful article by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (1897-1945?). The concluding chapter titled, OUR MOTHERLAND contains the most inspired, inspiring and timeless utterances of Swami Vivekananda on Patriotism, Nationalism, Nation-Building, Hindu Heritage and Sanatana Dharma. This Volume begins with a bracing and invigorating Editorial by Sadhu Prof. Rangarajan in which he has declared: In the 150th Jayanthi Year of Swami Vivekananda, the endeavour of Hindus all over the world, especially in Bharat, should be to strive to see the dream of Swami Vivekananda --- The Prophet of Patriotism --- fulfilled. It would be possible only when the Sadhus, Sanyasins, Swamijis and Spiritual Heads of various Religious Organizations, Mutts and Missions, who claim themselves to be Hindus, wake up themselves, before awakening the Hindu Society. 2000 years of slavery and alien rule has converted the so-called spiritual leaders of our country into inheritors of Semitic Culture. The Semitic Religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam do not recognize any other religion or way of worship other than their own as True and are out to wipe them out. They consider their own Gods and Prophets the only Saviours of Mankind. This sort of fanatic and Fundamentalist ideal is alien to the hoary Hindu culture, whose Preceptors, the most ancient Rishis of Bharatavarsha proclaimed Loud and Clear in the Vedas Ekam Sat Vipraah Bahudha Vadanti The

Ultimate Reality or Truth is One. Men of Wisdom call it by different names. Unfortunately a large majority of the so-called Hindu spiritual and religious leaders today are more attached to their own Sects, Sampradayas, Gods of Worship, Gurus, Mutts and Missions than to the ETERNAL AND UNIVERSAL HINDU WAY OF LIFE AND TO BHARAT, THE MOTHER OF ALL RELIGIONS .. HOW MANY OF OUR SADHUS AND SANYASINS, PEETHAADHEESWARS AND SPIRITUAL LEADERS HAVE COME FORWARD TO JOIN HANDS WITH EACH OTHER, SHUNNING ALL THEIR ORGANIZATIONAL EGOS, TO FIGHT FOR THE PROTECTION AND PRESERVATION OF OUR HINDU WAY OF LIFE AND HINDU SOCIETY? At the time of KUMBH MELA, they may all congregate on the banks of TRIVENI ---- Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati --- and have a Holy Dip and may even address congregations to show off their learning, but HOW MANY ARE READY TO COME OUT TO STAND UNITED WITH THE COMMON RUN TO PROTECT OUR VALUES OF LIFE, TO FIGHT FOR THE PROTECTION OF OUR TEMPLES AND FIGHT FOR STOPPING COW SLAUGHTER AND CONVERSION BY FORCE AND INDUCEMENT? In this context the roaring and raging words of Swami Vivekananda come to my mind: If you want to remain happy, throw away all your bells etc. into the Ganges and worship GOD IN MEN. Opening and closing of gates and with that bathing, clothing and feeding of God is all humbug. God in the Idol changing dress several times, while the living Thakurs outside shivering in cold is mockery of worship. The following message of Swami Vivekananda has the power to move and uproot mountains: May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all Souls. And above all, My God, the Wicked, My God the Poor, My God the Miserable, of all Races and Species, shall be THE SPECIAL OBJECT OF MY WORSHIP.

After our Independence, on 15th August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru promoted his VICIOUS CONCEPT OF FALSE SEMITIC NATIONHOOD under the label of SECULARISM. Unlike Mahatma Gandhi who was not either afraid or ashamed of proclaiming from roof top that he was a devout Hindu, and a staunch supporter of Sanatana Dharma, Nehru took special pride in announcing his Himalayan ignorance of Sanatana Dharma and Hindu Culture from all public platforms. Dressed in brief mortal official authority, Nehrus supercilious, purblind audacity reached its acme of irresponsibility while delivering a lecture at the Lucknow University in 1951 when he said: The ideology of Hindu Dharma is completely out of tune with the present times and if it took root in India, it would smash the country to pieces. Thus we have before us two alternative perceptions of our NATION and NATIONHOOD --- One of Swami Vivekananda and Other of Jawaharlal Nehru. Swami Vivekananda represented the TimeDefying sources and forces of ancient Vedic Wisdom rooted in Sanatana Dharma. Jawaharlal Nehru represented the sources and forces of anti-Hindu Semitic Cultures. When we are celebrating the 150th Jayanthi of Swami Vivekananda, it is the Paramount Public Duty of every Patriotic Hindu to recall Swami Vivekanandas definition of OUR NATIONHOOD which he gave in the form of a VEDIC INJUNCTION: Hindu Dharma is the Quintessence of our National Life, hold fast to it if you want your country to survive, or else you would be wiped out in three generations. Swami Vivekananda was indeed a Phenomenon, an extraordinarily Divine Being who aroused an instantaneous world-wide awe, astonishment, surprise and admiration from the moment he addressed the World Parliament of Religions at Chicago in September 1893.

Christopher Isherwood (1904-1986) paid this tribute to Swami Vivekananda in 1977: The best introduction to Swami Vivekananda is not to read about him, but to read him. The Swamis personality, with all its charm and force, its courageousness, its spiritual authority, its fury and its fun, comes through to you very strongly in his writings and recorded words. Reading his printed words, we can catch something of the tone of his voice and even feel some sense of contact with his power. Vivekanandas English recreates his personality for us even now, three quarters of a Century later. Against this background, I offer my heartfelt and fervent salutations to Sadhu Prof V. Rangarajan for having taken a historic decision to bring out a Volume titled SWAMI VIVEKANANDA Prophet of Patriotism. Sadhu Prof V. Rangarajan has rightly hailed Swami Vivekananda as the PROPHET OF PATRIOTISM. In my view, this Book must be prescribed as a compulsory textbook at the Secondary Education Level for inculcating, fostering and developing the right spirit of selfless patriotism amongst the Youth of India. It may be too much to even expect the alien, predatory and anti-Hindu UPA Government in New Delhi to promote anything even remotely Patriotic. Therefore, it becomes the foremost public duty of all BJP Governments in the States to make this Book a compulsory Text at the School Leaving Stage. Finally, let us hear the immortal words of Romain Rolland (1866-1944) on Swami Vivekananda: Vivekanandas words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his at thirty years distance without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shock, what transport, must have been produced when, in burning words, they issued from the lips of the hero!

SWAMI VIVEKANANDAS VISION OF

THE HINDU NATION

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything. All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virt? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods. Before we can crawl half a mile, we want to cross the ocean like Hanumn! It cannot be. Everyone going to be a Yogi, everyone going to meditate! It cannot be. The whole day mixing with the world with Karma Knda, and in the evening sitting down and blowing through your nose! Is it so easy? Should Rishis come flying through the air, because you have blown three times through the nose? Is it a joke? It is all nonsense. What is needed is Chittashuddhi, purification of the heart. And how does that come? The first of all worship is the worship of the Virat of those all around us. Worship It. Worship is the exact equivalent of the Sanskrit word, and no other English word will do. These are all our gods men and animals; and the first gods we have to worship are our countrymen. These we have to worship, instead of being jealous of each other and fighting each other. It is the most terrible Karma for which we are suffering, and yet it does not open our eyes!--This soul-stirring clarion call came more than a century ago, from the great patriot monk of India, Swami Vivekananda, who wanted the most ancient Hindu Nation, Bharatavarsha, to be seated once again on the throne of Loka Guru, the preceptor of the entire world.

In the 150th Jayanti year of Swami Vivekananda, the endeavour of Hindus all over the world, especially in Bharat, should be to strive to see the dream of the prophet of patriotism fulfilled. It would be possible only when the sadhus and sannyasins, Swamijis and spiritual heads of various religious organizations, mutts and missions, who claim themselves to be Hindus, wake up themselves before awakening the Hindu society. Two thousand years of slavery and alien rule has converted the so called spiritual leaders of our country into inheritors of Semitic culture. The Semitic religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam do not recognize any other religion or way of worship other than their own as true and are out to wipe them out. They consider their own Gods and prophets the only saviours of mankind. This sort of fanatic and fundamentalistic ideal is alien to the hoary Hindu culture, whose preceptors--the most ancient Rishis of Bharatavarsha--proclaimed in the Vedas: Ekam sat, vipraah bahudaa vadanti--the Ultimate Reality or Truth is One, men of wisdom call It by different names. Unfortunately a large majority of the so called Hindu spiritual and religious leaders today are more attached to their own sects, sampradayas, Gods of worship, Gurus, mutts and missions than to the eternal and universal Hindu way of life and Bharat, the Mother of all religions. Even when hundreds and thousands of poor and downtrodden Hindus are lured by pecuniary benefits or compelled by power and influence to get converted to alien religions, our Sannyasins, Sadhus and Swamis are quite cool and unconcerned and their only concern is to protect their own mutts and missions, increase the number of followers and enrich their institutions. When people belonging to the alien religions get minority status and all privileges to run their own institutions, churches and mosques to increase their number, the most ancient Hindu temples in the country are under the control of secular (meaning irreligious or anti-religious) Governments and their wealth is looted in the name of public service by politicians in power. How many of our Sadhus and Sannyasins, Peethadheeswars and spiritual leaders have come forward to join hands with each other, shunning all their organizational ego, to fight for the protection and preservation of our Hindu way of life and Hindu society? At the time of Kumbh Mela, they may all congregate on the banks of Triveni--Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati--, and have a holy dip and may even address congregations to show off their learning, but how many are ready to come out to stand united with the common run to protect our values of life, to fight for protection of our temples and fight for stopping cow slaughter and conversion by force and inducement?

Swami Vivekananda cried out: If you want to remain happy, throw away all your bells etc. into the Ganges and worship God in men. Opening and closing of gates and with that bathing, clothing and feeding of God is all humbug. God in the idol changing dress several times, while the living Thakurs outside be shivering in cold is mockery of worship. Like Rantideva of Srimad Bhagavata, Swamiji also prayed: May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls. And, above all, my God the wicked, my God the poor, my God the miserable, of all races and species, shall be the special object of my worship. TATTVA DARSANA proudly brings out Swami Vivekanandas 150th Jayanti Commemoration Number to awaken the Hindu society, particularly the youth, the pillars of future Hindu Nation, to rise up like lion cubs to the task of rebuilding Prabhuddha Bharata, the Awakened India. We have culled out from our past issues of three decades some of the most inspiring articles on the Prophet of Patriotism. Our earnest, sincere and humble endeavour is also to arouse the feelings of patriotism and dedication to the service of the Hindu society in the hearts of our spiritual and religious leaders and appeal to them to follow the footsteps of Swami Vivekananda and lead the entire Hindu society. Bhagavad Gita proclaims: yad yad carati rehas, tad tad evetaro jana, sa yat prama kurute, lokas tad anuvartate - Whatever action is performed by a great man, common men follow in his footsteps. And whatever standards he sets by exemplary acts, all the world pursues. Let our spiritual preceptors be truly great to come out of the narrow confines of mutts, missions and ashrams, stand together and lead the Hindu society to rebuild the Hindu Nation. Let every one of them organize the 150th Jayanti Celebration of Swami Vivekananda in each and every Ashram and religious institution and convey the man-making and nation-building message to the people so that Bharat will once again emerge as Loka Guru--Preceptor of the World. Vande Mataram! [Editorial, TATTVA DARSANA, Vol.30, No. 1, January-March 2013]

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

The Patriot Hindoo Monk

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

September 11, 1893, is a red letter day in the history of religions of the world. The great patriot Hindoo Monk of India, Swami Vivekananda, proclaimed to the world the glory of the most ancient spiritual heritage of Bharatavarsha and the Mother of all religionsHinduismin the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. Swami Vivekanandas heart swayed with pride and joy when he declared that he was a child of Mother Bharat and a Hindu. Here is a talk given by the author in the Rotary Club of South Madras during the Centenary Year of Vande Mataram, 1975-76, which will be refreshing and rejuvenating to the Hindus at a time when some sections of the Hindu society under the spell of pseudo-secularism tend to lose courage to call themselves Hindus or Bharatiyas.

Sadhu Rangarajan It is at a time when the nation is celebrating the Centenary of the Immortal Song, Vande Mataram, which was written by Rishi Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and later incorporated in his famous novel, Ananda Math, and which later burst upon the nation as a power-packed mantra driving people to perform incomparable sacrifices for the liberation of the Motherland from foreign yoke, that we have assembled here to refresh our minds with the soul-stirring thoughts on the life and work of Swami Vivekananda. The Swamiji was a contemporary of Rishi Bankim Chandra and he was deeply influenced by the latter. The life of Swami Vivekananda is too well known to require delineation here. His Master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who rose from the position of a poor, unknown and illiterate temple priest to that of a world teacher, was the manifestation in human form, of the quintessence of all religions. Narendra, the representative of the educated intelligentsia of his time and a versatile genius, who sat at the feet of the master and imbibed the spirit of universal religion and humanism from him, emerged as a messiah of the avatarapurusha. It was this spirit that made

him thunder at Chicago, addressing the audience gathered at the Parliament of Religions in 1893, as Sisters and Brothers of America, and proclaim to them the glory of Hinduism as a universal religion, not merely tolerant of other faiths, but accepting all creeds as different paths to the Supreme Goal. However, Swamiji did not belong to that class of people who often pay lip service to the ideals of universal religion and humanism and forget their duty to their own Motherland and fellow citizens. It will be my endeavour here to present before you, today, the picture of Swami Vivekananda as a patriot and one who preached the religion of service to fellow human beings as a path to eternal liberation. Prophet of Patriotism Vande Mataram, the mantra of patriotism, brought under its spell, great prophets and patriots who preached the worship of the Motherland as the path for final liberation. They delineated the task before the children of Bharat as the fight for the emancipation of the Motherland from foreign yoke and service to the poor and downtrodden brethren. Swami Vivekananda stands as first and foremost among them. The primary object of Swami Vivekananda was nationalism. To arouse the sleeping lion of India and to put it on its proper pedestal was his lifes mission. His national ideal was the ideal of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted in the revolutionary novel, Ananda Math. Future Mother India, to both of them, was Durga, the Goddess with resplendent face, wearing all sorts of weapons of force in Her hands, and in the left hand, seizing the hair of the Asura, Her enemy, and in the right hand, assuring all not to be afraid (Baravaya), says Bhupendranath Datta, the illustrious younger brother of Swami Vivekananda and a renowned revolutionary. Swamiji wanted to raise all over the country a corps of militant youth known for integrity and character and ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of the Motherland. Liberty is the possession of the brave, the Swamiji proclaimed. Conquer your enemies and achieve happiness in this world, by appropriately employing saama, daana, bheda and danda, the four weapons of diplomacy, he advised the youth of the nation. He had, in the language of Sister Nivedita, a loathing for bondage and a horror of those who cover chains with flowers. To him,

Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom and spiritual freedom are watchwords of the Upanishads. Ay, this is one scripture in the world, of all others, that does not talk of salvation, but of freedom, the Swamiji taught his disciples. Even as a student, he was profoundly inspired by Bankim Chandras Ananda Math. Sri Ramakrishna used to get it read out by his disciples and once he sent Narendra and two other disciples to the renowned poet. Vande Mataram gave Narendra the Vision of Mother India and turned him into Swami Vivekananda, the patriot monk. According to J.H. Brownfield, Vivekananda had a profound influence on the development of the twentieth century Indian political and social thought, and particularly his gospel of national self-assertion found a rich soil in his native Bengal where the ground had already been prepared by the writings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. Swamiji advised his famed disciple, Sister Nivedita, to dedicate herself to the task of emancipating the whole country. I remember very well, Swamiji asked me to forge a mighty weapon out of the bones of Bengali youths which can free India, said Sister Nivedita in a conversation with the famous patriots, Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya and Ashwinikumar Dutta, in 1906. The task is going on. The twin precepts which he often repeated for us, Karma Yoga and Akhand Bharat, have become our daily mantra. They are our inspiration in all that we do, she continued. While in Europe, Swami Vivekananda tried to seek the help of Kropotkin, the renowned Russian revolutionary, and H. Maxim, the inventor of machine gun, for the revolutionaries in India. No wonder that the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, remarked after the passing away of the great patriot monk: Had Naren been living now, he would have been in the Companys jail. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has rightly proclaimed: So far at least as Bengal is concerned, Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalist movement.

Sister Nivedita, the embodiment of the ideal of spiritual nationalism propounded by Swami Vivekananda, had taken up, at the behest of the Swami, the task of liberating the country from the thraldom of alien rule. She resigned from the Ramakrishna Order to dedicate herself completely to the cause of the countrys political freedom. If at all it may be said that Swami Vivekananda had not directly participated in the freedom struggle, here is Sister Nivedita, the right hand of the patriot monk, who accomplished greater things than what he himself had envisaged. Serve Man, Serve God I would now dwell on the role of Swami Vivekananda as the preacher of a unique creed which considers service to man as worship of God. Though this has been the message of all the founding fathers of great religions of the world, the followers of those religions have forgotten in the course of time, the fundamental ideal placed before them by their preceptors and have attached themselves more and more to the less important tenets and outward manifestations like rituals and ceremonies. Swami Vivekananda brought out of oblivion that supreme message and placed it once again before all those who were groping in darkness in their bid to attain realization. Na kaamaye aham gatim ishwaraatparam Ashtariddhiryukraam apunarbhavam vaa Aartim prapadye akhiladeha bhaajaam

Antasthito yena bhavantya dukhaa I do not desire from God that great state which is attended by the eight supernatural powers or even deliverance from rebirth. Dwelling in the hearts of all creatures, I would bear their suffering that they may be freed from misery. These words of Rantideva in the Sreemad Bhaagavata represent the summum bonum of the philosophy of life propounded by the Vedic seers and handed down to us through generations. Their fervent prayers, Sarve bhavantu sukhinah and Lokaa samastaa sukhino bhavantuLet

all the living beings in the whole world be happyhave echoed and re-echoed in the sayings of thousands of great men who have come in their trail and whose actions have been exemplary manifestations of what they preached to the world. It is this same message which, in modern times, resounded in the words of the great patriot-saint, Swami Vivekananda, when he said: May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all soulsand above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship. From the snow-clad Himalayan ranges which form the crown of our Motherland, to the southern tip, Kanyakumari, where the three seas wash Her sacred feet, Swami Vivekananda wandered day and night for months together in search of inner peace. But this parivrajaka life brought him face to face with the poverty, ignorance and sufferings of the poor and downtrodden millions in the country and made him realize that his mission in life was not to seek personal salvation, nor to preach religion to the masses, but to serveserve these children of immortality who were smothering in the abyss of slavery and social decay. Sitting on the Shripada Shila off the shore of Kanyakumari, he meditated for three days towards the end of 1892 and during these intense hours that he spent there, he discovered the mission in life. And from then, this was the only religion that he preachedService to Humanity. Once, Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the late revered editor of Hitavadi, came to see Swamiji with two of his friends. Though they wanted to discuss religion with Swamiji, the latter entered into conversation with them about the people of their province, their material needs and social conditions. At the end of the long conversation, Panditji remarked that he had come to discuss religion, but unfortunately the day was wasted in conversation on common place matters. Swamiji became at once grave and solemn and said, Sir, so long as even a dog of my country remains without food, to feed and take

care of him is my religion and anything else is non-religion or false religion! Swamijis heart bled when he saw the sufferings of the poor. One day, during his evening walk on the seashore of Madras, he saw the wretched and half-starved children of the fishermen working with their mothers, waist deep in water. Tears filed his eyes and he cried out, O Lord, why dost thou create these miserable creatures! I cannot bear the sight of them. How long, O Lord, How long! Those who were in his company were overcome and burst into tears. Swamijis spirit of compassion is far different from the idea of charity which arises in ones mind pregnant with ego and vanity when one looks down upon others who are supposedly in the lower rungs of society. His was the product of his realization of that central vision of Sanatana Dharma, namely, the divinity of man. Sri Ramakrishna, who embodied in himself the entire theme of Sanatana Dharma, expressed this central vision in a very simple and beautiful equation: Every Jiva or soul is Shiva; Service of the Jiva is the worship of Shiva. Coming from the mouth of a poor, illiterate Brahmin priest of Dakshineshwar, who rose to the pinnacle of spiritual ecstasy through sadhana and sacrifice of the self, and who spoke from the realm of Supreme Realization, this eternal message was received by his worthy and illustrious disciple, Swami Vivekananda, and broadcast to the world in the following words: Look upon every man, woman and everyone as God. You cannot help any one; you can only serve; serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of his children, blessed you are; do not think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that the privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as a worship. The poor and the miserable

are for our salvation, so that we may serve the Lord coming in the shape of the diseased, coming in the shape of the lunatic, the leper and the sinner. Swamiji never considered doing good to a fellow being as an act of charity. He thundered, Do you think even an ant will die for want of your help? Most arrant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Blessed are we that we are given the privilege of working for Him, not of helping Him. Cut out this word help from your mind. You cannot help; it is blaspheming. You worship. Stand in that reverent attitude to the whole universe and then will come perfect non-attachment. Precept in Practice Swamiji set example before others by living up to what he preached. While in America, he shunned every comfort and pleasure offered to him by his rich and devout disciples, for he felt that he had no right to enjoy them as long as his fellowmen in his Motherland lacked even the basic necessities of life. Refusing to make use of the luxurious cot and bedding, he slept on the bare floor, all the time pondering in his mind over the condition of his own countrymen. When plague and famine rocked Bengal in the last years of the last century, Swami Vivekananda not only set relief centres whose management was placed in the hands of Sister Nivedita as Secretary, but he himself went to live in the slums to inspire courage in the minds of the people and cheer up his workers. He found immense happiness in living with the poor and serving them. While in their midst, he was one among them. In the latter part of the year 1901, a number of Santal labourers used to work in the Belur Math grounds. Swamiji would be talking to them and listening to their tales of woe. One day he asked one of them, Keshta by name, Would you all like to have a feast here? The man replied, Dear father, if we eat food cooked by you with salt, we shall lose our caste! After a long persuasion, he agreed to Swamijis suggestion that food might be cooked without salt and salt served separately. Under Swamijis personal supervision, a feast with choice delicacies was served to them. The Santals ate joyously, exclaiming from time to time: O Swami,

where did you get such fine things? We have never tasted such dishes before. When the meal was over, Swamiji told them, You are Narayanas. Today I have entertained the Lord Himself by feeding you! Later, to a disciple he remarked, I actually saw the Lord Himself in them! How simple hearted and guileless they are! Shortly after, to the Sannyasins and Brahmacharins of the Math, he said, See how simple hearted these poor, illiterate people are! Can you mitigate their misery a little? If not, what use is your wearing the Gerua? Sacrificing everything for the good of othersthis is true Sannyasa. Sometimes I think within myself, What is the good of building monasteries and so forth! Why not sell them and distribute the money among the poor. What should we care for homes, we who have made the tree our shelter? Alas! How can we have the heart to put a morsel to our mouths when our countrymen have not enough wherewith to feed or clothe themselves! Let us, throwing away all the pride of learning and study of the Shastras and all Sadhanas for the attainment of personal Mukti, go from village to village, devoting our lives to the service of the poor. Missionary of Patriotism Swamiji wanted every educated youth in the country to feel for the poor. Surcharged with the apostolic fire of his own personality, Swamiji wrote, I am poor, I love the poor. Who feels in India for the two hundred millions of men and women sunken forever in poverty and ignorance? . Him I call a Mahaatma, whose heart bleeds for the poor; otherwise, he is a Duraatma. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them! According to Swamiji, the first step to become a patriotic citizen is to feel from the heart. Feel, therefore, my would be reformers, my would be patriots! Do you feel that millions and millions of the descendants of Gods and of sages have become next door neighbours to brutes? Do you feel that millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that

ignorance has come over the land as a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heartbeats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of the misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done that? That is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step. Then the next step, according to Swamiji, is, instead of spending ones energies in frothy talk, to find a way out, a practical solution, to bring the suffering masses out of the living death. Yet that is not all, there is a third thing that is requiredthe will to surmount mountain-high obstructions. If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right? If your wives and children are against you, if all your money goes, your name dies, your wealth vanishes, would you still stick to it? Would you still pursue it and go on steadily towards your goal?, he asked. Once the determination comes, one must be prepared to make any amount of sacrifice. No great work can be done without sacrifice. The Purusha Himself sacrificed Himself to create this world. Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your names, fame or position, nay, even your lives and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross the ocean of life. It is this goal of making a bridge of human chains which inspired him to bring into existence the Sri Ramakrishna Order of Sannyasins. A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lions courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the down-trodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of social rising upthe gospel of equality. He gave them as the ideal and mottothe great mantraAatmano mokshaartham jagat hitaaya chafor ones own spiritual liberation and for the welfare of

humanity. He commanded his followers: And go to the untouchables, the cobblers, the sweepers and others of their kind, and tell them, You are the soul of the nation, and in you lies infinite energy which can revolutionize the world. Stand up, shake off your shackles, and the whole world shall wonder at you! Go and found schools among them, and invest them with the Sacred thread. Swamiji had immense faith and confidence in the success of his mission. He proclaimed: Glory unto the Lord, we will succeed. Hundreds will fall in the strugglehundreds will be ready to take it up. Faithsympathy, fiery faith and fiery sympathy. Life is nothing, death is nothing. Glory unto the LordMarch on; the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who fallsforwardonward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls and another takes up the work. Swamijis outpourings, saturated with the spirit of patriotism and service to humanity, were nothing but the echoes of the voice of the great sages and seers of Bharatavarsha who proclaimed, Jananee janmabhoomischa swargaadapi gareeyasiMother and Motherland are greater than heaven. In Our Master and His Message, which is an introduction written in 1907 to the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Sister Nivedita sums up the message and mission of her great master in the following words: In the four volumes of the works of the Swami Vivekananda which are to compose the present edition, we have what is not only a gospel to the world at large, but also to its own children, the Charter of Hindu Faith. What Hinduism needed, amidst the general disintegration of the modern era, was a rock where she could lie at anchor, and authoritative utterance in which she might recognize herself. And this was given to her, in these words and writings of Swami Vivekananda. For the first time in History, as has been said elsewhere, Hinduism itself forms here the subject of generalization of a Hindu mind of the

highest order. For ages to come the Hindu man would verify, the Hindu mother who would teach her children, what was the faith of their ancestors will turn to the pages of these books for assurance and light. Long after the English language has disappeared from India, the gift that has here been made, through that language, to the world, will remain and bear its fruit in East and West alike. What Hinduism had needed, was the organizing and consolidating of its own idea. What the world had needed was a faith that had no fear of truth. Both these are found here. Nor could any greater proof have been given of the eternal vigour of the Sanaatana Dharma, of the fact that India is as great in the present as ever in the past, than this rise of the individual who, at the critical moment, gathers up and voices the communal consciousness. As long as the heaven and earth, and the mountains and seas exist, as long as the holy rivers flow on the sacred soil of Motherland nourishing and nurturing the lives of our people, as long as Sanaatana Dharma sustains human values in the world, the eternal message of the UpanishadsUttishthata, jaagrata, praapyavaraan nibodhataArise, awake, stop not till the goal is reachedpassed on to us by the great patriot monk would goad us to action and to march on from success to success. May the great Swamijis life and work be the beacon light to guide us to immortality through service to Motherland and humanity. Tam desikendram paramam pavitram

Vishwasya paalam madhuram yateendram Hitaaya nrinaam naramoortimantam

Vivekanandam aham namaami

My obeisance unto Swami Vivekananda, the chief of preceptors, the holiest of the holy, the protector of the world, the sweet-tongued king among monks, who took to human form for the welfare of mankind!

Vande Mataram!

[TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 4, No. 3, August 1987]

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND

INDIAS STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

Among the Rishis of the later age, we have at last realised that we must include the name of the man who gave us the reviving mantra which is creating new India, the mantra Bande Mataram, says Sri Aurobindo, paying glorious homage to Bankimchandra Chatterjee, the immortal poet of the national song, Bande Mataram, who sowed the seeds of spiritual nationalism in the hearts of the youth of modern India. Bankim had the vision of Mother Bharat in the form of Dasapraharana dharini durga and he revealed it to the nation that was groping in darkness. He gave them a new light and aroused them from deep slumber to perform supreme acts of self-sacrifice.

Worshipper of Motherland The first and foremost to come under the spell of Bande Mataram, propounded by Bankimchandra was Swami Vivekananda. As a fiery patriotic youth, Narendra had read Ananda Math and was much inspired by it. He had also the opportunity to meet the seer of Bande Mataram, when Sri Ramakrishna sent him and two other disciples to the house of Bankim. Inspired by the vision of Mother Bharat presented by the seer-poet, young Narendra became a worshipper of Shakti. The illustrious patriot-revolutionary and younger brother of Swami Vivekananda, Dr. Bhupendra Nath Dutta, emphatically declares in his mangum opus, Swami Vivekananda - Patriot-Prophet: The primary object of Swami Vivekananda was Nationalism. To arouse the sleeping Lion of India and to put it on its proper pedestal was his lifes mission. His national ideal was the ideal of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted in the revolutionary novel Ananda Math. Future Mother India, to both of them was Durga, the Goddess with a resplendent face, wearing all sorts of

weapons of force in Her hands, and in the left hand seizing the hair of the Asura, Her enemy, and in the right hand assuring all not to be afraid (Baravaya). This ideal, though an allegorical one, enthused the revolutionaries of the subsequent period. In the speeches and writings of Swami Vivekananda, we find the direct echo of Bhoomi Sookta of the Atharva Veda, eulogising the land as the Divine Mother, and the glory of this Holy Land as depicted in Srimad Bhagavata. Swamiji proclaims: If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed punya bhoomi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for karma, the land to which every soul wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and spirituality - It is India. He cried out at the top of his voice: I am Indian - every Indian is my brother and called out: Say brother - The soil of India is my highest Heaven, the good of India is my good.

Ideal of Indian Nationalism The idea of nationalism of Swami Vivekananda was a sacred ideal and its inmost striving was to express its own conception of ideal manhood. He gave a national, almost pragmatic, definition of religion: Strength is religion. He declared: The essence of my religion is strength. The religion that does not infuse strength into the heart, is no religion to me, be it of the Upanishads, the Gita or the Bhagavatam. Strength is greater than religion and nothing is greater than strength. If Sri Aurobindo declared in his Uttarpara speech that Sanatana Dharma is Indian Nationalism, it was the unfailing inspiration that he received from his predecessor, Swami Vivekananda, who did not hesitate even an iota to swear his loyalty to his proud heritage of Hindu nationalism. Swamiji says: When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu

race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud of myself a Hindu. I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud, I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw. He called out to the nation: O India, forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti; forget not that the God thou worshippest is the great Ascetic of ascetics, the all-renouncing Sankara, the Lord of Uma, forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness; forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mothers altar. His call was a direct call to the youth of the nation to offer their lives at the altar of the Motherland to liberate her and to install her on the pedestal of loka guru. Liberty is the possession of the brave, he declared and called upon the valiant youth of the nation to use sama, dana, bheda and dandathe four weapons to conquer the enemy.

Influence on the Patriots and Revolutionaries The fact that Swami Vivekananda directly influenced the Indian revolutionary movement in the cause of achieving freedom is borne out of the statement that Mother Sarada Devi made sometime after the passing away of the Swami: Had Naren been living now, he would have been in Companys jail. The renowned biographer of Swami Vivekananda, Romain Rolland, says: If the generation that followed saw, three years after Vivekanandas death, revolt of Bengal, the prelude to the great movement of Tilak and Gandhi, if India today has definitely taken part in the collective action of organised masses, it is due to the initial shock, to the mighty Lazarus, come forth, of the message from Madras. Sister Nivedita, the embodiment of the ideal of spiritual nationalism propounded by Swami Vivekananda, had taken up, at the behest of the Swami, the task of liberating the country from the thraldom of alien rule. She resigned from the Ramakrishna Order to dedicate herself completely to the cause of the countrys political freedom. If at all it

may be said that Swami Vivekananda had not directly participated in the freedom struggle, here is Sister Nivedita, the right hand of the patriot-monk, who accomplished greater things than what he himself had envisaged. Referring to her mentor she says that he had a loathing for bondage, a horror of those who cover chains with flowers. In the course of a conversation with the famous patriot-revolutionaries, Brahmabandav Upadhyaya and Aswini Kumar Datta, in 1906, she remarked: I remember very well, Swamiji asked me to forge a mighty weapon out of the bones of Bengali youths which can free India. Sri Hemachandra Ghose, the well-known revolutionary leader with long records of imprisonments in jails and an indefatigable worker for national cause, has narrated in a soul-stirring letter to Sri Bhupendranath Dutta the event of a group of revolutionaries including himself meeting Bhupens elder brother, Swami Vivekananda in 1901, in connection with the revolutionary movement. He says: While Swami Vivekananda set out on a tour of the eastern districts of India in 1901 we the young men of Dacca, especially those of us of the Shyamakantha Parshanaths gymnasium hastened to listen to the Hero of the AgeWe sought to know from him direct and in seclusion as to what he wanted us, young Bengal, to do in reality for Humanity and Patriotism Swamiji endearingly drew us near and patted us with is pet phrase: Ye, sons of immortal bliss! (Amrutasyaputrah). The very touch and tone electrified us with enthusiasm and surrender. The veins in us quickened and our hearts throbbed. It was the majestic touch of Baptism He stressed on cadre-building for a noble cause. He was not happy with the ways of the then Indian National Congress. That is not the way to build up Patriotism anywhere. A Beggars bowl has no place in a Baniks (merchants) world of machine, mammon and merchandise. Everything has got to be controlled and directed by the invocation of human conscience, that is, Mahamayas voice - the latent energy in

man, the Mahapurusha asserted. First thing first, he went on, and bodybuilding and dare-devilry are the primary concerns before the buoyant young Bengal (Sariram Adyam)! This urgency of physical fitness must take the topmost priority even to reading the Bhagavadgita itself. And in the pursuit of dare-devilry - Paurusha, the spirit of chivalry that is Vir-Niti, must be observed in siding always with the weak and rescuing them. Honour womenfolk, as the physical embodiment of Mahamaya herself and the Motherland itself in human form. Know ye not, Janani Janma bhoomischa Svargaadapi gariyasi (The mother and the Motherland is more glorious that Heaven)? Swamiji held hopes before us. India had a glorious past, India will have a future certainly more majestic In order to march boldly in equal pace side by side with other materially-advanced nations of the worldye, young Bengal, emulate the manly ways of Lakshmi Bai, the Rani of Jhansi, whose gallantry the English Commander has recognised The patriot-saint blessed me with a gentle look and said, Man-making is my mission of life. Hemchandra!, you try with your comrades to translate this mission of mine into action and reality. Read Bankimchandra and emulate his Desha-Bhakti and Sanatana-Dharma. Your duty should be service to Motherland. India should be freed politically first. With reverence and awe we paid homage to the Hero. And the seer smiled on us in benediction. Concluding his long letter, Hemachandra Ghose remarks, Swami Vivekananda appeared to us to be more a political prophet that a religious teacher.

What India Needs Today Is A Bomb! The nationalists of Bengal organised Shivaji Utsabs in Calcutta in 1901, with the idea of getting acquainted with the patriotic heroes from different provinces. But nobody dared to preside over the public function due to mortal fear of the lion-eyed watch of the British Government. At such a juncture, Suresh Chandra Samajpati, the

grandson of Pandit Iswarchandra Vidyasagar, sent his younger brother, Jyotish to Belur Math to explain to Swami Vivekananda their difficulty and to request him to preside over the function. Swamiji, hearing everything, began to weep and told in a voice choked with emotion: Beti (Kumari the Divine Mother) demands sacrifice. Go to Narendranath Sen, the editor of the Indian Mirror, and request him in my name to accept the Presidentship. If nobody accepts it, then I myself will be the President of the function. This incident was narrated by Suresh Chandra Samajpati himself on the occasion of the fourth and last Shivaji Utsab presided by Bala Gangadhur Tilak in 1906 at Calcutta. The ferment created by Swami Vivekananda in the intellectual plane burst forth after his death, in Bengal with the emergence of Sri Aurobindo as the leader of a revolutionary movement. Bhupendranath Dutta has recorded that Swami Vivekananda, after his return from the West the second time, told a gentleman who visited him at Belur. What India needs today is a Bomb. He uttered this before his demise in 1902 and in 1908 the bomb made its appearance in Bengal. Since the foundation of the Revolutionary Party in Bengal, in which Sister Nivedita took an active part and was a member of the Executive Committee, the works of Swami Vivekananda along with the writings and life of Mazzini, as well as the life of Garibaldi, in Bengali, were the main spring of inspiration to the youthful mind of India. In every gymnasium, i.e., the exercise club, of the Revolutionary Party of Bengal, his work entitled, From Colombo to Almora was read with avid interest. His saying, Heaven is nearer through football than through the Gita. We want men of strong biceps, inspired the youths. According to Bhupendranath Dutta, the news about the attempt at revolutions on the part of Swamiji was not unknown to the leading revolutionaries of the first batch. It was narrated by Swamiji himself in the course of a dialogue with Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the editor of Hitawadi at Belur. Pandit Deuskar himself was an active member of the revolutionary party. On being interrogated by Deuskar regarding the future of the country, Swamiji answered: The country has become a power magazine. A little spark may ignite it. I will see the revolution in my lifetime. On being asked as to the nature of his

revolution, whether the Indians will seek foreign help, he answered, No, the Indians will not make the mistake the fourth time. I know several Princes who can successfully carry on the revolution.

Sedition Committee on Swami Vivekanandas Speeches Of course, the revolution could not come forth in his lifetime as the Swamiji wished and he himself has told Sister Christine, one year before his death about the failure of his attempt. I had the idea of forming a combination of Indian Princes for the overthrow of the foreign yoke. For that reason, from the Himalayas to Cape Comorin, I have tramped all over the country. For that reason, I made friends with the gun-maker, Sir Hiram Maxim. But I got no response from the country. The country is dead. And he narrated a further attempt of his at this time in other directions, India is in putrification. What I want today is a band of selfless young workers who will educate and uplift the people. The notorious Sedition Committee Report said: His (Swami Vivekanandas) writings and teachings have deeply impressed many educated Hindus. Wherever the British CID went to search a revolutionarys house, they found the books of Vivekananda. As a result, the vim of the wrath of the British Indian Police fell on Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda. Thus, it had been no wonder that the police wanted to ban the Mission. At one time, Prabhudda Bharata, the official organ of the Math had to boldly defend the joining of young revolutionaries in the Ramakrishna Order. Many young revolutionaries joined the movement in later days and notable among them is Devabrata Basu, who came to be known as Swami Pragnanananda. Kalicharan Ghosh, in his inspiring work, The Roll of Honour Anecdotes of Indian Martyrs, says about the impact of Swamijis message on the minds of the young revolutionaries of Bengal:

Swamijis message influenced the minds of the young Bengalee with a spirit of burning patriotism and created in some a tendency for stern political activity. When the call came for joining the Monastic Order, there were not a few whose presence in the Mission was looked upon with great suspicion by the secret police service. The situation became gradually so tense that the intervention of a sympathetic Governor of Bengal was deemed absolutely necessary to put matters right. Before the demise of Vivekananda, the country had become conscious of the value of organisations which would devote much attention to physical culture, athletics, sword, dagger and lathi play, social service, relief work on a mass scale, etc. Institutions like the Anusilan Samity under Satish Mukherjee and P. Mitra, who besides being a firebrand nationalist, had a spiritual life and aspiration and a strong religious feeling sprang up by 1902 The world knows to its advantage the part played by Swamiji in the regeneration of India in general and Bengal in particular, and getting the soil eminently nurtured for Tilak, Aurobindo and others to sow the seeds of revolution. In the fullness of time, the young sapling grew into a vigorous tree that stretched its mighty branches far and wide and became a terror to the rulers of India, here and in their distant island home, with its weird fruits pregnant with bomb and bullets. Basukaka of Chitrasala Press of Pune had narrated to Bhupendranath, the interesting conversation that took place between Swami Vivekananda and Bal Gangadhar Tilak when the Swami was living at Tilaks place as his guest. It was agreed that while Tilak would work for Nationalism in the political field, Swami Vivekananda would work for Nationalism in the religious field.

Sister NiveditaThe Shaft of Swami Vivekananda A concrete shape and form to the patriotic and nation-building ideals of Swami Vivekananda was given by Sister Nivedita. The great patriot-revolutionary, Dr. Rash Bihari Ghosh said: If the dry bones are beginning to stir, it is because Sister Nivedita breathed the breath of life into them. Soon after the passing away of Swami Vivekananda, the

Bande Mataram movement spread like a wildfire in Bengal. When Bhupendranath Dutta was incarcerated on charges of sedition, Bhuvaneswari Devi, the mother of Swami Vivekananda, declared in a gathering at Calcutta, Bhupens work has just begun. I have dedicated him for the cause of the country. Nivedita met Bhupendranath in the court and assured him of taking care of his mother, Bhuvaneswari, and the publication of Yugantar, the weekly journal of Bhupen writing in which led to his incarceration. While Nivedita was busy organising the revolutionary groups who used to meet her at her Nivedita School, she also played a prominent part in converting the Congress from petition presenting forum to a patriotic front of fiery Swadeshis. Her children in the Nivedita school were commissioned to model a national flagthe Bhagavadvaj, the traditional ochre flag of India from time immemorial, with the symbol of Vajrayudha exhorting the youth to dedicate their back-bone to the cause of Indias freedom struggle inscribed on the flagand it was presented in the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress. In 1910, when Sri Aurobindos second arrest was in the air, it was Niveditas advice, the leader at a distance can work as much as at home, that paved the way for his retiring to Pondicherry, the French territory. Swami Vivekananda influenced not only the revolutionaries, but also the later nationalists and freedom fighters.

The Architect of Indian Reawakening Romain Rolland points out that Gandhi, in a lecture at the lawn of the Belur Math, acknowledged that the reading of Vivekanandas books had increased his patriotism. Thus, all the militant nationalist movements culminating in Gandhijis movement for the Independence of India, was launched after Swamijis thundering roar, Arise, Awake. The renowned philosopher, Dr. T. M. P Mahadevan says: The reawakening of India which began in the 19th century, and of which Swami Vivekananda was the most stalwart leader, has infused into the people of this country a new life and a new hope. Imbued with a new strength, leaders in all walks of life emerged; and Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, made us achieve our goal of independence. The

foundations for this, let us remember, were surely laid by Swami Vivekananda, the patriot-monk of India. Though Swamijis mission was a spiritual one, the spirit of Nationalism that he aroused in the country made agents of the British power terribly afraid of him. The fire he helped to light in this ancient land of ours was responsible for scorching the bonds, which had kept India a slave. So, we must remember that Swami Vivekananda was a pioneer in politics. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who gave the final blow which brought the British Empire crashing down proclaimed: So far, at least as Bengal is concerned, Swami Vivekananda may be regarded as the spiritual father of the modern nationalists movement. Referring to Swami Vivekanandas influence on Subhas Bose, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, the illustrious disciple of Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo, points out that it was Swami Vivekananda who was responsible for Netajis giving up his idea of going in for ICS and turning into a fierce patriot and freedom fighter. Netaji was tremendously influenced by the latters message. Swami Vivekanandas message is the root of Indias freedom struggle. He was responsible for our freedom movement. It was he who started the Bengal movement. Only after him the Bengal awakening came and then came Sri Aurobindo to give the lead. But for Vivekananda, Indias freedom movement would not at all have started says Yogi Ramsuratkumar and exclaims, What a love Vivekananda had for India and Sanatana Dharma! Vande Mataram!

[TATTVA DARSANA, Aug-Oct 1992, Vol.9-N0.3;

SAGA OF PATRIOTISM by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan]

My work has been very insignificant indeed, but the kindness and cordiality of welcome that have met me at every step of my journey from Colombo to this city are simply beyond all expectation. Yet, at the same time, it is worthy of our traditions as Hindus, it is worthy of our race; for here we are, the Hindu race, whose vitality, whose life-principle, whose very soul as it were, is in religion.

Swami Vivekananda

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

AND HIS GOSPEL OF SOCIAL SERVICE

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

Aum vedarishaya samaarabhya vedaantaachaarya madhyamaah Yogi Raamsuratkumaara paryantam vande guruparamparaaam Salutations and prostrations to the lineage of great preceptors of this sacred land, from the Vedic rishis through Vedanta Acharyas to my Deekshaa Guru Yogi Ramsuratkumar! Tyaga or sacrifice, not rituals, nor progeny, nor wealth, is the sole means for the attainment of the highest goal of human existence, declare the Vedic Rishis. Sacrifice your everything and yourself at the altar of the Divine which manifests in the form of all beings. Sarve bhavantu sukhinah Let all beings be happy is the clarion call of the Vedas. In the Srimad Bhagavata, we find the great king Rantideva declaring: Natvaham kaamaye raajyam na swargam na apunarbhavam Kaamaye dukhataptaanaam praaninaam aartinaashanam O Lord, I do not want any kingdom, nor heavenly pleasure, nor even escape from rebirth. But I do want that the affliction of all beings tormented by the miseries of life may cease. This is the summum bonum of the philosophy of life propounded by the great Acharyas of this land of Bharatavarsha since times immemorial. In the modern period, this message finds echoed and re-echoed in the inspiring speeches and writings of the great patriot monk of India, Swami Vivekananda. He proclaims at the top of his voice: May I be

born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls, -- and above all, my God the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species, is the special object of my worship. Every Jeeva is Shiva!

Swami Vivekanandas illustrious Master, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, gave his whole message in a single sutra or aphorism: Every Jeeva is Shiva. Serve man, serve God, became the life mission of Swami Vivekananda. As a parivrajaka or wandering monk, when the Swami trod the length and breadth of the country from the heights of the snow-clad Himalayas to the southern tip of the land, Kanyakumari, whose feet are washed by the three mighty oceans, he came face to face with the utter poverty, suffering and misery to which the poor, illiterate and down-trodden masses of this great land were subjected to. He sat on the famous Shripada Shila, now known as Vivekananda Rock, and meditated for three days, the subject of his meditation being the emancipation of his motherland from the shackles of slavery and misery. He then discovered the work that he had to do. Standing on the shores of the Bay of Bengal, at Marina Beach in Madras, Swami Vivekananda saw emaciated faces of the starving and naked children of the fisher-folk. Tears flowed from his eyes and he cried aloud: O Lord, why doest thou create these miserable creatures! I cannot bear the sight of them! How long, O Lord, how long! Soon after, when he reached the shores of the distant American continent and proclaimed in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago the greatness and glory of this land and its spiritual culture, he became very famous overnight and a royal welcome and palatial comforts were accorded to him. But he shunned everything. How can I enjoy these comforts when a great many of my own brethren in my Motherland do not have even a morsel of food to eat, he asked to himself and lying on a piece of saffron cloth spread on the bare floor, every night he used to make it wet with his tears, thinking of the abject poverty and misery of his people.

When he founded the Ramakrishna Order of Monks, he proclaimed as its motto the twin ideals: Aatmano mokshaartham, jagat hitaaya cha For the salvation of the Self as well as the welfare of the world. He persuaded his Gurubhais not to aspire for their personal salvation alone, but to strive for the betterment of the lives of all fellow beings through dedicated service. When there was a colossal famine in Bengal, he came forward even to sell away the properties of the Math to raise funds for the relief to the famine affected people. What is the good of building monasteries and so forth! Why not sell them and distribute the money among the poor?, he asked his fellow missionaries in the Order. Practical Vedanta

Once Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the late revered editor of Hitavadi called on Swamiji to discuss with him some philosophical matters, but the discussions somehow turned to matters concerning the suffering of the people. The editor uttered with regret that he came to get enlightened on philosophical matters, but the time was spent on discussing mundane matters. The Swamiji then burst out: Sir, so long as even a dog of my country remains without food, to feed and take care of him is my religion and anything else is non-religion or false religion. While exhorting his countrymen to see their living Gods in the poor and downtrodden and worship them through service, he proclaimed: Look upon every man, woman and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone. You can only serve, serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of his children, blessed you are. Do not think too much of yourselves. He further warned that one should not take up service as though he was doing a charity. He thundered, Do you think even an ant will die for want of your help? Most arrant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Blessed are we that we are given the privilege of working for Him, not of helping Him.

On the day when the whole country started celebrating Swami Vivekananda Jayanti as National Youth Day, in the International Year of the Youth, On January 12, 1985, a couple of devotees from South Africa called on my Master, H.H. Yogi Ramsuratkumar, at Tiruvannamalai. They found him jumping with revelry over the news that the Government of India had declared Swami Vivekananda Jayanti as the National Youth Day. Oh my Vivekananda, Swami Vivekananda!, he exclaimed and said, He has given us the most Practical Vedanta for the salvation of the entire humanity. My Master asked the brethren from abroad to carry to the hearth and home of every one of Indian origin settled abroad the great message of Swami Vivekananda the message of service and sacrifice and declared, That is the greatest gift that India can give to the world. According to my Master, Yogi Ramsuratkumar, it is the mission of India to produce patriot-saints like Swami Vivekananda who will work not for their own liberation, but for the salvation of the entire mankind. It is our privilege to hand over to our younger generations this gospel of service and social rising up that we have inherited from our forefathers. Let us strive to work out in our own humble way the destiny of our glorious nation. Utthishthata, jaagrata, praapya varaan nibodhata -- -- Arise, awake, stop not till the goal is reached! Vande Mataram!

(A talk given in the All India Radio, Chennai)

[TATTVA DARSANA, Vol. 18, No. 1, January 2001]

From the highest Brahman to the yonder worm, And to the minutest atom,

Everywhere is the same God, the All-Love; Friend, offer mind, soul, body, at their feet, These are His manifold forms before thee,

Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God? Who loves all beings, without distinction, He indeed is worshipping best his God.

-- Swami Vivekananda

SWAMI VIVEKANANDAS SHAFT IN INDIAS FREEDOM STRUGGLE

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan

The first and foremost who came under the spell of Bande Mataram, propounded by Bankim Chandra was Swami Vivekananda. As a fiery and patriotic youth, Narendra had read Ananda Math and was much inspired by it. He also had the opportunity of meeting the seer of the mantra of patriotism when Sri Ramakrishna sent him and two other disciples to the house of the great novelist. Inspired by the vision of the Mother presented in Vande Mataram, Swamiji became a worshipper of Shakti in the form of the Motherland. Dr. Bhupendranath Dutta, his brother and a renowned revolutionary says : The primary object of Swami Vivekananda was nationalism. To arouse the sleeping lion of India and put it on its proper pedestal was his lifes mission. His national ideal was the ideal of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted in the revolutionary novel, Ananda Math.

In the writings of the Swami, we find the echo of the Bhoomi sooktas of Atharva Veda and the glory of the island of Jambudweepa depicted in Bhagavata. If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi, to be the land to which souls on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and spirituality - It is India, proclaims the patriot-monk. He also says: What a land! Whosoever stands on this sacred land, whether alien or a child of the soil, feels himself surroundedunless his soul is degraded to the level of brute animalsby the living thoughts of the earths best and purest sons, who have been working to raise the animal to the divine through centuries, whose beginning history fails to trace. The very air is full of pulsations of spirituality. Vivekanandas soul, like that of Bankim, was lit with the luminous vision of Mother India as the embodiment of Shakti and his expression of this vision in his writings inspired many patriots and nationalists of the freedom movement, not to speak of the revolutionaries who considered his writings as their Bible. Vivekananda gave a national, almost pragmatic, definition of religion: Strength is religion. He declared: The essence of my religion is strength. The religion that does not infuse strength into the heart, is no religion to me, be it of the Upanishads, the Gita or the Bhagavatam. Strength is greater than religion and nothing is greater than strength. Swami Vivekananda is emphatic in declaring that religious life formed `the keynote of the whole music of national life. He repeatedly warns that if India gives up spirituality, the result will be that in three generations we will become an extinct race, for the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined. Every

improvement in India required, according to him, first of all an upheaval in religion. Before flooding India with Socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas, he exhorts. According to him, it is not only true that the ideal of religion is the highest ideal; in the case of India it is the only possible means of work; work in any other line, without first strengthening this, would be disastrous. Swamiji was never ashamed to proclaim himself to be a Hindu: When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors, I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw. The true Hindu concept of patriotism finds its finest expression in Swamijis clarion call to the Indians: Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian, and proudly proclaim, I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother. Say, The ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahman Indian, the Pariah Indian, is my brother. Thou too clad with but a rag round thy loins and proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice: The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, Indias gods and goddesses are my God, Indias 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, and repeat and pray day and night, O Thou Lord of Gauri, O thou Mother of the Universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me! O thou Mother of Strength, take away my weakness, take away my unmanliness andMake me a Man! The Swamiji proclaimed to his countrymen that the Motherland and the children of the Mother are the only gods to be worshipped. Swamiji was

a lover of liberty. Liberty did not certainly mean to him the absence of obstacles in the path of misappropriation of wealth, etc., by you and me, but it is our natural right to be allowed to use our own body, intelligence or wealth according to our will, without doing any harm to others; and all the members of a society ought to have the same opportunity for obtaining wealth, education or knowledge. Liberty is the possession of the brave, he declared and called upon the valiant youth of the nation to use sama, dana, bheda and danda the four weaponsto conquer the enemies. Sister Nivedita has said that he had a loathing for bondage, and a horror of those who cover chains with flowers. The Swamiji advised her to dedicate her life for the service of the Mother. She says, he asked her to forge a mighty weapon out of the bones of Bengali youths which can free India. While in Europe he even tried to seek the help of the Russian revolutionary, Kropotkin, and the inventor of machine-gun, H. Maxim, for the revolutionaries of India. No wonder that the Holy Mother Sarada Devi remarked, after the passing away of the patriot-monk, Had Naren been living now, he would have been in Companys jail. Romain Rolland points out: If the generation that followed saw, three years after Vivekanandas death, the revolt of Bengal, the prelude to the great movement of Tilak and Gandhi, if India today has definitely taken part in the collective action of organized masses, it is due to the initial shock, to the mighty Lazarus, come forth of the Message from Madras. The following words of Sri Aurobindo almost echo this sentiment: The work that was begun at Dakshineswar is far from finished, it is not even understood. That which Vivekananda received and strove to develop has not yet materialized. Swami Vivekananda prepared his mighty instrument for his work before he vanished from the scene of the Indian Freedom Struggle. Always the root is firmly imbedded in the soil unseen to the eyes, while the sprout comes out. The mighty edifice is always visible, while the foundation is

always hidden below the earth. The shaft that Swami Vivekananda moulded and sped was visible only in its action. When a great man has prepared his workers, he must go to another place, for he cannot make them free in his own presence. I am nothing more for you. I have handed over to you the power that I possessed; now I am only a wandering monk. There is a peculiar sect of Mohammedans who are reported to be so fanatical that they take every newborn babe and expose it, saying, If God made thee, perish. If Ali made thee, live. Now what they say to the child I say, but in the opposite sense, to you tonight: Go forth into the world, and there, if I made you, be destroyed. If the Divine Mother made you, live. It is with the above stirring words that the mighty colossus, Swami Vivekananda, sped his powerful shaft, Sister Nivedita, into the battle-field of Indias freedom struggle. The freedom that he wanted her to fight for was not merely the political emancipation of Mother India from alien rule, but also the freedom from the dark clouds of ignorance that had engulfed Her for more than thousand years making Her self-forgetful of Her own ancient and pristine glory. As the illustrious brother of the Swami, Sri Bhupendranath Dutta has pointed out, To arouse the sleeping lion of India and put it on its proper pedestal was his lifes mission and the Vajraayudha, the mighty thunderbolt, that he moulded for accomplishing this task was Sister Nivedita. Born on October 28, 1867, at Dungannon in Ireland, Miss Margaret Noble belonged to a family of freedom fighters. Her grandfather, John Noble, and father Samuel, both of whom were Protestant Ministers in Wesleyan church, and her paternal grandfather, Hamilton, were in the forefront of Irish freedom struggle. Miss Margaret, after finishing her college education, served as a teacher for ten years. She came under the spell of Swami Vivekananda who had become world-renowned after his epoch-making talk in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893 and thereafter visited England. Inspired by the Patriotic Hindoo Monk, Sister Nivedita came to India in January 1898, was initiated into the order of Brahmacharya by the Swami on March 25, 1898, and

conferred the deekshaanaama, the name at the time of initiation, NIVEDITA, meaning the dedicated. While touring the country with her Master, Nivedita saw with her own eyes the appalling conditions of ignorance, poverty and disease into which India was pushed by the alien rule and her Irish blood boiled. As her first and foremost task in awakening the Hindu nation, she took up the cause of womens education and with the blessings of Mother Sarada Devi, opened her school for girls in Calcutta on November 1898. In March 1899, when there was bubonic plague in Calcutta, Nivedita with a band of dedicated workers, plunged into the relief work. She even sacrificed her daily food to serve the patients and undertook works like scavenging the streets. In June 1899, Nivedita left with Swami Vivekananda to England and then proceeded to America on a lecture tour to raise funds for her school. She met the great Indian patriot, Bipin Chandra Pal at Boston. When she returned to England, she found that the agents of British imperialism and the Christian Missionaries were engaged in a vile propaganda against her and her Master. On her return to India in 1902, she addressed a meeting of the youth at Madras and gave her rousing call to them to fight for the freedom of the country. The British Government immediately blacklisted her and set