National Youth Day, Swami Vivekananda and Punjab

Greetings on National Youth Day ... a day to commemorate Swami Vivekananda's birthday.

On this occasion, revisiting an account of Swami Ji's visit to Punjab (after his return from World Parliament of Religions in Chicago) where he passionately sings the glory of the land of Punjab, Sikh gurus of the likes of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, Guru Nanak Ji.

Visit is eloquently reported in a very well written article by Jasbir Kaur in the June 97 Issue of Prabuddha Bharat magazine.

Excerpts from article ...

This lion of Vedanta roared and thundered for hours, keeping the Punjabis spellbound and lifting them up to the delectable heights of his mental eminence.

Speaking on the first lecture on ‘Problems Before Us’ the first of his three lectures there, Swami Vivekananda, greeting the brave people of the Punjab, admiring the beauty of the spiritual land of five rivers, and paying tribute to the greatness of Guru Nanak, said:

This is the land, which is held to be the holiest even in holy Aryavarta; this is the Brahmavarta of which our great Manu speaks. This is the land from whence arose that mighty aspiration after the Spirit, may, which in times to come, as history shows, is to deluge the world. This is the land where, like its mighty rivers, spiritual aspirations have arisen and joined their strength, till they traveled over the length and breadth of the world and declared themselves with a voice of thunder. This is the land, which had first to bear the brunt of all inroads and invasions into India; this heroic land had first to bare its bosom to every onslaught of the outer barbarians into Aryavarta. This is the land which, after all its suffering has not yet entirely lost its glory and its strength. Here it was that in later times the gentle Nanak preached his marvelous love for the world. Here it was that his broad heart was opened and his arms outstretched to embrace the whole world, not only of Hindus, but of Mohammedans too.

And then pointing out as to who is a true Hindu ...

Mark me, then and then alone you are a Hindu when the very name sends through you a galvanic shock of strength. Then and then alone you are a Hindu when every man who bears name from any country, speaking your language or any other language, becomes at once the nearest and the dearest to you. Then and then alone you are a Hindu when the distress of anyone bearing that name comes to your heart and makes you fell as if your own son were in distress. Then and then alone you a Hindu when you will be ready to give up everything for them, like the great example… of Guru Govind Singh… You might see thousands of defects in your countrymen, but mark their Hindu blood. They are the first Gods you will have to worship even if they do everything to hurt you, even if everyone of them send out a curse to you, you send out to them words of love.

In the second lecture on ‘Bhakti’ delivered on 9 November 1897, Swamiji likened Bhakti to a triangle of which the first angle was that love knew no want and the second that love knew no fear. Love for reward & for return service of any kind was the beggar’s religion, the shopkeeper’s religion with very little religion in it. People should not behave like beggars because in the first place beggary is a sign of atheism. Foolish indeed is the man who living on the banks of the Ganga digs a little well to drink water. So is the man who begs material objects from God.

In his third lecture on ‘Vedanta’, delivered on 12 November 1897, Swamiji made an impassioned appeal for making Vedanta practical, for bringing it out of caves and forests where it so long existed as rahasya (secret) and making it applicable to the everyday life of the people. According to Tirtham Goswami,

“..this lasted for full two and a half hours. The listeners were so deeply engrossed and it created such an atmosphere that all ideas of home and space were lost. At times one reached the stage of realization of absolute abheda (non-difference) between oneself and the cosmic Atman. It struck at the roots of ego and pride itself. In short, it was such a good success as you come by once in a way”.

Gau Gram Yatra

An unprecedented journey, marathon of marathons.

Salient features ....


# A grand journey (yatra) has begun from Kurukshetra (Haryana) on Vijayadashami Day (September 28, 2009) and will conclude in Nagpur on Makar Sankranti Day in 2010, covering a distance of 20,000 km in 108 days and there will be over 400 prominent events at different places during the Yatra. 


# Some smaller journeys will also be conducted in villages, which will join the bigger ones to be conducted at taluka, district and state levels. There will be about 15,000 such smaller journeys and they will cover a distance of about 10 Lakh Kms.

# Over 21 crore people of the country are expected to give their assent over the memorandum, which will be presented to the President of India Smt. Pratibha Patil demanding the total ban on cow slaughter, status of national animal to the cow and implementation of the existing laws against cow slaughter. According to an estimate, more than 50 crore people will resolve to protect the rural culture, villages and the cow through the Yatra.

For journey schedule, refer http://eng.gougram.org/

BEST part is that it would by and large remain a-political .... no politicians involved,which is quite a welcome step. Cultural movement have to be taken up by people (the masses) and not by politicians. The way democracy runs today, politicians can't claim that they represent the masses. So, they can't (and shouldn't) stand for cultural issues that directly touches the heart and soul of people of India. Past experience says (and I believe) that they have messed up cultural issues (and people's sentiments) and have hurt the movement rather than helping it. Ram Janmabhumi movement a befitting case.

So, IF the journey succeeds in attaining its objective even if partially (considering that we have a so-called "secular" Govt. and President appointed by them), by then we would witness a new way of governance. And alternatively, IF the journey couldn't get any of the demands, even then the message would have reached the masses and they would become more aware towards the significance and importance of Gau-Mata. In either cases, the organizers (sants and gurus) should feel happy, a state (ananda) in which they already are always [like a Karma Yogi who is unaffected by the outcome, Gita lessons are working, at the least in my mail postings .... :)]

So, spread the news ... Mark your calendar .... yatra comes to Hyderabad on 15th November (Sunday).

Lastly, in the words of Sri Aurobindo "The Sanatan Dharma, that is nationalism. This is the message that I have to speak to you." And, we can add now that ... Gau-Mata is Sanatan Dharma.

Happy Vijaydashmi

A poem composed on "Vijay Dashami" 2006 ... revisiting it today :-

अच्छाई की बुराई पर विजय,

अधर्म की धर्म द्वारा पराजय।

यही है हमारा भारत देश,

जिसने दिया विश्व को यह सन्देश।

विनाश की ओर अग्रसर हो रहा है देश,

भुला दिया है विजयदशमी का पावन सन्देश।

बेईमानी और लालच की चादर मे लिपटा है मानव,

भुला कर ईमानदारी लग रहा है दानव।

ईमानदारी की बेईमानी पर होती है जीत,

विजयदशमी गाती है यही पावन संगीत।

शोषण और दुराचार की चपेट मे है समाज,

भ्रष्ट नेता कर रहे है जंता पर राज।

अन्याय की न्याय द्वारा होती है सर्वदा हार,

विजयदशमी का यही है पावन त्योहार ।

फैली है समाज मे अमानवीयता,

गहरे सन्कट मे है इस देश की भारतीयता।

सदाचारी की दुराचारी पर विजय है निश्चित,

विजयदशमी करती है इस अटल सत्य को सुनिश्चित ।

आतंकवाद के भय से कांप रहा है देश-विदेश,

धर्म के नाम पर फैलाया जा रहा है अधर्म का उपदेश।

प्रत्येक रावण को अब लंका सहित जलाना होगा।

विश्व को विजयदशमी का सन्देश देना होगा,

विजयदशमी के पर्व पर, आज प्रण हमे लेना होगा,

प्रत्येक भारतीय को अपने भीतर श्रीराम को जन्म देना होगा।

विजयदशमी के पर्व पर, आज संकल्प हमे लेना होगा,

भारतवर्ष मे रामराज्य स्थापित करना होगा।

Sri Aurobindo - Gita, Vasudev, Sanatan Dharma and India

100 years back, on 30th May 1909, a man delivered his last political speech before retiring from active political life and moving to Puduchery for his spiritual pursuits. He was Sri Aurobindo.

http://www.searchforlight.org/Anubhuti/Anubhuti%20Vol%202/UttarpadaSpeech.htm

You'll enjoy the speech if you read through full text but for those with time constraints ... :), highlights are given below

* How he saw Vasudev (Shri Krishna) everywhere in Jail, his conversations with God (Vasudev) and also how Vasudev helped him.

I looked the jail that secluded me from men and it was no longer by its high walls that I was imprisoned; no, it was Vasudeva who surrounded me. I walked under the branches of the tree in front of my cell but it was not the tree, I knew it was Vasudeva, it was Sri Krishna whom I saw standing there and holding over me his shade.

* Bhagavad Gita and Sanatan Dharma.

Then He placed the Gita in my hands. His strength entered into me and I was able to do the sadhana of the Gita. I was not only to understand intellectually but to realise what Sri Krishna demanded of Arjuna and what He demands of those who aspire to do His work, to be free from repulsion and desire, to do work for Him without the demand for fruit, to renounce self-will and become a passive and faithful instrument in His hands, to have an equal heart for high and low, friend and opponent, success and failure, yet not to do His work negligently. I realised what the Hindu religion meant. We speak often of the Hindu religion, of the Sanatan Dharma, but few of us really know what that religion is. Other religions are preponderatingly religions of faith and profession, but the Sanatan Dharma is life itself; it is a thing that has not so much to be believed as lived.

Above description is what Gita explains as 'Karma-Yoga'.

* India's rise, nationalism and Sanatan Dharma

She (India) does not rise as other countries do, for self or when she is strong, to trample on the weak. She is rising to shed the eternal light entrusted to her over the world. India has always existed for humanity and not for herself and it is for humanity and not for herself that she must be great.......When therefore it is said that India shall rise, it is the Sanatan Dharma that shall be great........I spoke once before with this force in me and I said then that this movement is not a political movement and that nationalism is not politics but a religion, a creed, a faith. I say it again today, but I put it in another way. I say no longer that nationalism is a creed, a religion, a faith; I say that it is the Sanatan Dharma which for us is nationalism. This Hindu nation was born with the Sanatan Dharma, with it it moves and with it it grows. When the Sanatan Dharma declines, then the nation declines, and if the Sanatan Dharma were capable of perishing, with the Sanatan Dharma it would perish.

How they (China) solve problem & how we (India) ?

Came across an eye-opener article of how China resolves her problem w.r.t. Xinjiang (China's Kashmir), we (India) might want to learn something from her neighbor.

Read on ... "A tale of two Kashmirs"

E. Sreedharan ... a life sketch

Morning ... reading spiritual books, like the Srimad Bhagvadam at least for half an hour. Meditation, then pranayam. The whole process takes about one hour fifteen minutes, one hour thirty minutes. Then going for a walk in the morning.

Office from 8:30 to 5:30 ...

Evening ... again some spiritual reading, reading the Bhagvad Gita for fifteen, twenty minutes, then some pranayam and then yoga

Who is this ? E. Sreedharn, the man behind the Metros ...

Read more in his interview
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/sreedharan-wants-indias-metro-works-at-chinas-speed/97064-3-single.html

ahimsa paramo dharma ?

We often hear slogans of "ahimsa paramo dharma" but rarely anyone teaches the statement next to it "dharma himsa tathiav cha" and when you join both it becomes

"ahimsa paramo dharma, dharma himsa tathiav cha"
(Non-violence is param-dharma, so is righteous violence)

This is the complete truth.

Here is what Swami Chinmayananda ji says ... (excerpts from article)

"Ahimsa Paramo Dharmah" -- "Non - Violence is the greatest Dharma." This line in its over - emphasis, has sapped both initiative and energy in our millions, and, instead of making us all irresistible moral giants, we have been reduced to poltroons and cowards. And banking on this cowardly resignation of the majority, a handful of fanatics have been perpetrating crimes which even the most barbarous cave dwellers would have avenged. To clothe our weaknesses, we attribute to them glorious names and purposefully persuade ourselves to believe that they are brilliant ideologists !