Desperately Seeking Another Vivekananda

13 January 2002, 12:07am IST
JAGMOHAN.

Today, on vivekananda’s birthday, it is appropriate to rearticulate the belief that we need an intellectual and spiritual giant in our midst — like vivekananda — who can restore to india the ‘ancient nobility of temper’ and the ‘quiet content of her unacquisitive soul’. when social and cultural degeneration clouded the horizon in late 19th century india, vivekananda’s dynamic and rousing mission began to instil courage and confidence in the people. he declared, with passionate intensity: ‘‘here is the same india whose soil has been trodden by the feet of the greatest sages that ever lived. here first arose the doctrines of the immortality of the soul, the existence of a supervising god, an immanent god in nature and man... we are the children of such a country’’. to a superstitious people he exhorted: ‘‘stand up and fight! you gain nothing by becoming cowards. you cry to 60 million gods and still die like mad dogs. this bending of the knee to superstitions does not befit you. you are infinite, deathless and birthless’’. his words of inspiration removed the diffidence caused by colonial rule, creating an atmosphere of self-respect and self-confidence. this spirit was later carried forward by eminent leaders like gandhi and tilak. sri aurobindo said: ‘‘british rule has been the record success in history in the hypnosis of a nation. it persuaded us to live in a ‘death of the will’, creating in ourselves the condition of morbid weakness the hypnotist desired, until the master of a mightier hypnosis laid his finger on india’s eyes and cried, ‘‘awake’’. then only the spell was broken, the slumbering mind realised itself and the dead soul lived again’’. india today is a pale shadow of what she should have been. instead of leading the world in life-nurturing ideas, she is being led by materialistic forces. her economy should have reflected the care and culture of her people; instead, it has been dehumanised by neo-materialism. she should have recreated and strengthened her tradition of upholding unity in diversity. instead, the country has been torn asunder by conflict and confusion. this has happened because india has failed to include the service- oriented way of life based upon the highest principles of ethics and morality, as propagated by vivekananda. vivekananda gave importance to serving ‘‘the outcast narayanas, the starving narayanas and the oppressed narayanas’’. he posed the question to his own class; ‘‘what have we done, we the so-called men of god, the sanyasis? what have we done for the masses?’’ pointing to the main culprits, he thundered: ‘‘you, the upper classes of india, do you think you are alive? you are but mummies, ten thousand years old...in the world of maya, you are the real illusion. you merge yourself in the void and disappear. let a new india arise in your place’’. if vivekananda were here today, he would, i’m sure, speak to the present-day social and political elites in the same tenor and tone. he would tell them: ‘‘you have betrayed the country. you have stifled the underlying inspiration for constitutional goals. you proceeded to set up political and administrative institutions, but failed to create the mind and motivation that would have given life and meaning to them. you built bodies without souls. you ignored the values engendered in the ideals of karmayogi, contentment, compassion and ‘tyaga’ and ‘tapasya’ and started worshipping the new gods of power and pelf. from the great storehouse of the past, you should have picked up the gems and thrown out the stones. you did exactly the opposite’’. vivekananda knew the importance of spiritual traditions in building a strong foundation. he said: ‘‘if any nation attempts to throw off its national vitality, that nation dies. in india, religious life forms the centre’’. but for occasional lip service, nothing was done to construct the nation from within. the decision-makers paid no heed to vivekananda’s sane advice that ‘‘a nation in india must be the union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune’’. in 1950, india’s share of the world’s gross national product was two per cent; now it has come down to one per cent. then, 12 per cent of the third world’s gnp was contributed by india; today it is only five per cent. clearly, the pace of economic achievement has been slower not only in comparison to the world’s overall performance but also vis-a-vis other developing countries. this is because india, ‘the sleeping giant’, as vivekananda called her, had woken up but started moving in the wrong direction. only another vivekananda can help her get back on the right path, towards founding ‘‘the greatness of the future on the greatness of her past’’.

(the author is union minister for tourism and culture)