A Mission with a Better Vision



A century ago, in a prestigious Hindu family, a child was born who was destined to revolutionize his man making message throughout the world. This young man named as Narendranath Datta was later known as Swami Vivekananda. Even while he was in his teens, he displayed great zeal in the field of spirituality and worked tirelessly for the upliftment of Hinduism. Swami Vivekananda was extremely passionate for God which he frequently attained through ‘samadhi’. On Sri Ramakrishna’s passing away, Narendra with his brother disciples began a life of asceticism combined with supreme effort of realization. After leaving the monastery, he led the life of a wandering monk. The intimate knowledge that he had gained with the five years of travel from the Himalayas to Kanyakumari gave him the realization that India had been oppressed and downtrodden for the past years only because of our ignorance and hardheartedness to our fellow Indians. The appalling poverty, under which these countless millions of Indians labored, drew blood from his tender heart. Thus, like a warrior destined to fight against evil, Swami Vivekananda began his work for the regeneration of India.

While praising his country for their innate spiritual prowess, he called upon them to get rid of their ‘tamas’ or inertia which was the root cause for all the poverty in India. Swamiji sought to rouse his countrymen from their age long lethargy constantly telling them that the country was living and that spirituality was its soul. This dire need led to the origin of the Ramakrishna Mission, which pledged to eradicate poverty.


Swami may well be called the maker of modern India. He believed in giving equal opportunities to all. If a Brahmin child needed one teacher let the pariah child have four. Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda brought youthfulness to the age old experiments. Swami was not only a world spiritual leader, he was a Rashtra Guru.


In India, Swami Vivekananda saw that the work of awakening was needed mainly in the socio-political field. He saw that the Indian men and women had to be dedicated for the creation of self-disciplined citizens. This was the aim of his practical Vedanta. The root cause of all our troubles is the fading of the spirit of renunciation and service in post-independent India.  In this process of awakening India and inspiring her people into a life of thought and action, the influence that Swami Vivekananda was one of the most outstanding. He kindled in us a burning love for India and taught us to be proud of our heritage. While he was aware of the greatness of his country, he was not blind to her social and economic depressions. He says, ‘I do not believe in reform but in growth’ contains the gist of all his teachings. During the period as a wandering monk, he had come in touch with the shadows of India. He had witnessed the poverty of her people. We have our political democracy and religious people. But it is a civilization which centers on banks and factories.


Although Swami Vivekananda focused on the awakening of a new India, he never lost sight of the great mission he had to fulfill. He believed that India would develop only when the dynamism of the West and the spirituality of the East formed a camaraderie among them. ‘Up India, he exhorts, ‘and conquer the world with your spirituality.’ Let us proclaim that India shall rise out of the peasant’s cottage grasping the plough. She shall emerge from the  hills and mountains. Let his words keep ringing in the hearts of all Indians:
‘Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.

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