VIVEKANANDA Unites Nations No.

of Poll
Parties : All are Hindus:

By Soumitra Bose/Mukesh Kumar Sinha

PROLOGUE : In a dramatic turn of ideological events in India today, albeit still unknown,
unseen, unnoticed at the time of writing this, Indian Politik is 1. Unwittingly,
unknowingly, gullibly, may be even, tacitly, almost all political parties of all ideological
hues including Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Rashtriya
Swayamseval Sangh, Bharatiya Janata Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazagham, Telugu
Desham Party, Telengana Rashtra Party, AIADMK, Janta Dal, Janta Party, N-E Parties etc,
etc have unanimously united behind Swami Vivekananda thereby evincing that India is
1, India is Hindu, India is Hinduism personified, India is in for Hindu State status, India
for Hindus, by Hindus, of Hindus no 2 opinion about it among all and sundry.In a
dramatic turn of unforeseen inherently pro-Hindu social events in the country especially
since last year, all political parties unwittingly, gullibly, may be even surreptitiouslybut-deliberately-cum-spontaneously-seeing-their-helplessness-in-further-existence-cumentity cutting across their individual isms, ideologies, followings, principles, thoughts,
rules, regulations et al are, not worshipping (Swami) Vivekananda but are hellbent on
realizing his prognostications-cum-clairvoyance-forecasts-cum-pointers about Hinduism,
Hindus and India that is Bharat. What 130-year-old Indian National Congress could not
do despite hoarsely tom-toming about it all through its existence so far,VIVEKANANDA
has done it : He has consolidatedly united RSS-BJP-VHP-Trinamool CongressDMK-TDP-CPI(M)-CPI-RSP-FB etc, etc on the issue of Hinduism, Hindu India as
Super Power in the Whole World making India already as the most sought
after nation today in the whole world : confirm it from Ur sources.Swami
Vivekananda Who: The fiery monk from the East who founded the Vedanta Society of

America in 1894, was a champion of Mother India. The Hindu movement that he started
became so successful in America, that Wendell Thomas wrote a book called, Hinduism
Invades America where he observes: An old faith is now invading a new country.
Swami Vivekananda also claimed: I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught
the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. Say it with pride : We are Hindus,
is what Swami Vivekananda taught his fellow Hindus. Hinduism is the mother of all
religions so wrote Swami Vivekananda. He said If India is to die, religion will be
wiped off the face of the earth.

The Lord has declared to the Hindu in His

incarnation as Krishna:I am in every religion as the thread through a string of

pearls. Wherever thou seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power
raising

and

purifying

humanity,

know

thou

that

am

there. Vivekananda said: The Vedas teach that the soul is divine, only held in the
bondage of matter; perfection will be reached when this bond will burst, and the word
they use for it is, therefore, Mukti freedom, freedom from the bonds of imperfection,
freedom from death and misery. In December 1892, sitting on the last bit of Indian rock
at Kanyakumari, where the three seas meet, Swami Vivekananda dived into deep
meditation and came to a clear conclusion about the work that lay ahead. From
Kanyakumari, walking most of the way, he arrived in Madras in January, 1893.Swamiji
was moved by the great earnestness of the devotees particularly the young men of
Madras, and their enthusiasm to send him to attend the Chicago Parliament of Religions.
He had great hopes in the people of Tamll Nadu, in a letter from America, he wrote
feelingly:My blessings on all. Tell all the noble souls in Madras who have helped our
cause that I send them my eternal love and gratitudeToday, more than a hundred
years have rolled by since Swamijis first visit to South India. This is the time for us to
look within, renew ourselves with the inspiration his words give and rededicate
ourselves to the task he set before us.The lectures that Swami Vivekananda delivered
from Colombo to Almora after his return from the West carried a special significance as
they reflected not only his spiritual realisation, but also his secular experience in the
West. It was in Colombo that he delivered his first public lecture on January 15, 1897,
while returning to India from the West. After Colombo, he delivered public lectures at
Jaffna, Pamban, Rameshwaram, Ramnad, Paramakudi and other places as he was
moving towards the north of India via Madras and Calcutta. In all his lectures, he
emphasised (1) the role of religion in India. (2) the distinction between the essentials
and the nonessentials in Hinduism. (3) the oneness of reality and the different
approaches thereto. (4) upliftment of the masses through education and culture and (5)
the futility of secular knowledge without spiritual knowledge. The future of India as
envisaged by Swamiji must be based upon these basic principles and he suggested a
plan of campaign with a view to realising the goal.While delivering a lecture at the

Victoria Hall in Madras, Swami Vivekananda highlighted, for example, the special
significance of religion in the Indian context. His thesis was that, like every individual,
every nation has its own specialty and it is necessary to develop it to the full to derive
the maximum benefit out of it. In the words of the Swami: I see that each nation, like
each individual, has one theme in this life. which is its centre, the principal note round
which every other note comes to form the harmony In India, religious life forms the
centre, the key-note of the whole music of national life, and if any nation attempts to
throw off its national vitality the direction which has become its own through the
transmission of centuries that nation dies if it succeeds in the attempt. So, all
reformers, planners and political and social leaders should bear this in mind when they
formulate any scheme of action for the betterment of India. If they fail to do, their
endeavour, according to Swamiji, will be in vain.A distinction has to be made between
the essentials and the non-essentials in every religion. This is as much true with regard
to Hinduism as it is with regard to other religions. The essential principles are those
which abide forever. They are perennial for the simple reason that they are, declares
Swami Vivekananda, built upon the nature of man, the nature of the soul, the souls
relation to God, the nature of God; perfection, and so on. The non-essentials of a
religion are concerned with the day-to-day practices, religious observances, and so on
which vary from time to time and place to place. In the case of Hinduism, this distinction
between the essentials and the non-essentials is based upon the distinction between
the teachings of Sruthi and those of Smriti. According to Swami Vivekananda, religious
quarrels arise when people, ignoring the essentials, pay attention only to the nonessentials.Swami Vivekananda was never tired of repeating one of the central
teachings of Sruthi That which exists is one; sages call it by various names. Supreme
reality, which is by definition infinite, eternal, immutable, must be one. It makes no
sense to speak of a plurality of reality. However, this supreme reality, can be spoken
about in different ways, as Siva, Vishnu, God, the Absolute and so on. Whatever be the
name that one uses, it refers to the same reality. Also, this reality, according to Swamiji,
can be approached in different ways. The example that his Master, Ramakrishna
Paramahamsa, used to give, is relevant here. There are many steps in the four
directions of the tank to reach the water in it. Whatever be the direction through which
people proceed to reach the water, the one and the same water is attained by all of
them. Even so there are many paths to one and the same ultimate reality. It is against
this background that one must try to understand the differences, for example, between
non-dualism and dualism. If one realises that the core of all religions is the same, there
will be, according to Swamiji, religious harmony. To quote Swamiji: That is religion
which makes us realise the unchangeable one, and that is the religion for everyone.

Reference has already been made to the lecture that the Swami delivered at the
Victoria Hall, Madras, in which he outlined his plan of action. That service to the people
the poor and the down-trodden is service to God, is one of the basic principles of the
practical Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda. Nothing short of radical reform, says Swamij,
will help India to progress. What is urgently required is education for the poor and the
downtrodden and unless the education of the masses is taken care of, the country will
not progress. To the question, Why does not the nation move? Swami Vivekanandas
answer is: First, educate the nation. Reformation of the superstructure is no
reformation at all. On the contrary, reformation of the substructure is real reformation.
Going down to the basis of the thing, to the very root of the matter this is what
Swamiji called radical reform. It is a pity that this first step in what Swamiji
characterised as My plan of Action has not been taken care of and fully implemented
even after the independence of the country. The problem of adult illiteracy will not
stare at us today if every child born after independence had been given the benefit of
education. Mere talk will not do. Reform calls for action and not for talk. The Swamiji has
nothing but contempt for those who would talk and not act.
If the upliftment of the masses has to be achieved only through education, then what
kind of education is needed? According to Swami Vivekananda, The gems of spirituality
that are stored up in our books have to be made available to the masses have to be
the common property of all. Swamiji was convinced that for achieving this, Sanskrit
education was necessary for all. Mere economic and social upliftment without cultural
upliftment will not help the masses. In the words of Swamiji: Teach the masses in the
vernaculars; give them ideas; they will get information; but something more is
necessary; give them culture. Until you give them that, there can be no performance in
the raised condition of the masses. In the course of his talk on The Future of India.
Swami Vivekananda draws a distinction between the right type of education for the
cultural upliftment of the masses and the wrong one which does not promote cultural
upliftment. Ideal education, according to Swamiji, is life-building, man-making, and
character-making, and cultural upliftment can be achieved only through ideal education.
Commenting on the present day education, Swami Vivekananda observed: In the first
place, it is not man-making education; it is merely and entirely a negative education. A
negative education or any training that is based on negation, is worse than death. The
child is taken to school, and the first thing he learns is that his father is a fool; the
second thing, that his grandfather is a lunatic; the third thing, that all his teachers are
hypocrites; the fourth, that all the sacred books are lies! By the time he is sixteen, he is
a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless What, then, is the alternative to this
negative education? According to Swami Vivekananda, we must think in terms of life-

building, man-making and character-making education as the alternative. The Swami

spells out what we should avoid and also what we should aim at in our education. He
says: If education is identical with information, the libraries are, the greatest sages in
the world, and the encyclopaedias are the Rishis. The ideals, therefore, is that we must
have to whole education of our country spiritual and secular, in our own hands, and it
must be on national lines, through national methods as far as practical.

This observation of Swamiji requires careful consideration. Swamiji refers to (1) the
content, (2) the administration, (3) the scope and (4) the method of education in this
statement. An educational system which is satisfactory in all these four aspects can be
looked upon as the ideal one. Let us first consider the content of education. Swamiji is
against the dichotomy between secular and spiritual education. Secular education,
however useful, will not be beneficial when it is divorced from spiritual education. On
the basis of the Upanishadic distinction between the pleasant (Preyas) and the good
(Sreyas), we could say that, while secular education is concerned with the former,
spiritual education aims at the latter. If we impart only one of these two, that is, either
secular or spiritual education, we are not providing according to Swami Vivekananda,
whole education. As for educational administration, Swamiji says that it must be in our
own hands. It means that Swami Vivekananda was against the foreigners controlling
and administering the educational set-up in India. We must have total freedom in
educational administration. Thirdly, education should foster national spirit; it should be
conducive to the development of the ideal of unity of the nation. Swami Vivekananda
quotes one of the Rigveda texts which says: Be thou all of one mind, be thou all of one
thought Commenting on this text, he says that Being of one mind is the secret of
society. Lastly, the methods of education should be national. The methods that an
educationist follows should be suitable to the people to whom education is imparted. It
will not be helpful to import the methods which are successful elsewhere. Our education
will be ideal, i.e., will be life-building, man-making, and character-making, only if we
have control over the content, administration, scope and method of education
INFERENCE : From above, it is now clear that why Vivekananda has united all political
parties (or better still, why acutely diverse, always quarelling political parties are solidly
united

behind

Vivekananda,

Hinduism)

on

Hinduism

because

sans

preaching/practicing/behaving/uttering Hinduism among the countrymen today (thanks

to US, Americans, etc), no political parties barring spartan ones,