Tuesday, January 12, 2010

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”.