2. Develop and rebuild the systems based on these principles 3. Sacrifice! Great things can be achieved through great sacrifice 4. Never lose sight of the purpose of nation-building
1. Internalize the eternal, unifying principles
Swami Vivekananda was interviewed by the representative of the
Prabuddha Bharata. He asked Swamiji, “And what do you consider to
be the function of your movement as regards India?” Swamiji replied, “To find the common bases of Hinduism and awaken the national consciousness to them.”(Prabuddha Bharata, vol. V, p. 225 , September, 1898.) Though India has immense diversity, she also has a deep cultural unity – a fact acknowledged by historians like Vincent Smith.
Unfortunately the incessant invasions and subsequent Macaulay education made us lose sight of these unifying threads. Today we harp only on diversity and interpret our diversity as differences. Therefore, we have become disunited and our energies, too are dissipated. There are educated people who ask these questions, ‘What is common between a Sikh and a Jain; or a Christian and a Muslim; or between a Gujarati and an Arunachali, or a Punjabi and a Tamilian?'; ‘Their God, festival, language, food habits, physical features
everything is different’ is their conclusion. We need to ask a different set of questions. ‘What is it that which is common for us?’ ‘What unites us?’ Swami Vivekananda wanted our society again to wake up to those unifying principles which have made Indian culture unique. He said,
…for our national welfare, we must first seek out at the present day all the spiritual forces of the race, as was done in days of yore and will be done in all times to come. National union in India must be a gathering up of its scattered spiritual forces. A nation in India must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune. (CWSV, vol. III, p. 371.)
In one of his most soul-stirring speeches “Common Bases of Hinduism” at Lahore, Swami Vivekananda focused on these unifying principles. These should be part of our knowledge and our drive for every work that we undertake for the good of our society. These six unifying principles which spring forth from the vision of Oneness are,
i. We all believe in the Vedas. By the Vedas is meant that knowledge which is eternal and not relative and does not depend on any personality or sensory perceptions. Rishis are not the authors of the Vedas, they are only seers. Thus we are not dogmatic. For example, we do not say, ‘so and so has said it and so it should be followed.’ Our religious (upasana) faiths are not personality-based but principle-based. Sister Nivedita writes in her introduction to the Complete Works of
Swami Vivekananda,
To him, all that is true is Veda.”By the Vedas,” he says, “no books are meant. They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. (CWSV, vol. I, p. xiii.)
ii. God is everywhere. God is not sitting up there in some corner. But God has manifested as this existence. The One has become many. Thus we do not fight for a specific name or form of God. Each one has
40 Wake up, Bharat! Enlighten the World!!
the freedom to follow his or her own Ishta Devata. Sister Nivedita writes,
The distinctive doctrine is that of the Ishta Devata, the right of each soul to choose its own path, and to seek God in its own way. (CWSV, vol. I, p. xiii.)
Thus we do not see in India, any community trying to convert a person of other community in the name of its God. ‘Ekam Sat Viprah
Bahudha Vadanti’- Truth is one, learned persons call it by various names.
A. P. J. Abdul Kalam the former President of India writes in his book,
Wings of Fire that his pious father after his Namaz would go to work.
On the way, when he passed the temple of Rameshwaram, he would join his hands in obeisance . Thus, India has been a land of unity in diversity baffling all scholars.
As God pervades everything the whole existence is sacred, worthy of worship for us. There are poojas before building the house and before entering the new house. There are poojas before tilling the land and also before harvesting. There are poojas for instruments and gadgets like new Television sets and computers, poojas for parents, for ancestors, for children in all parts of India. The system of pooja differs in various parts of India but the attitude, the Bhava, the vision behind the pooja is the same. Despite all the outward differences our approaches, attitudes to nature, to society, to family are same.
iii. Creation is without beginning and without end. We know that time is not linear. We do not say that the world was created so many thousands of years before and would come to an end after such and such an event. We say time is cyclical and the creation is projected and withdrawn cyclically. So psychologically we do not have apocalyptic fears.
iv. Man is not just the physical body or the finer body called mind. But he/she is Atman which takes to a body again and again till it realizes it is free. Thus body is not the real identity of man. Fear of death is less and even non-existent in many.
v. Swami Vivekananda says,
And then comes the most differentiating, the grandest, and the most wonderful discovery in the realms of spirituality that has ever been made. Some of you, perhaps, who have been studying Western thought, may have observed already that there is another radical difference severing at one stroke all that is Western from all that is Eastern. It is this that we hold, whether we are Shaktas, Sauras, or Vaishnavas, even whether we are Bauddhas or Jainas, we all hold in India that the soul is by its nature pure and perfect, infinite in power and blessed. ….Whatever the difference may be, we come to the central core, and there is at once an irreconcilable difference between all that is Western and Eastern. The Eastern is looking inward for all that is great and good. When we worship, we close our eyes and try to find God within. The Western is looking up outside for his God. …This is one great point to understand, and, my friends, my brethren, let me tell you, this is the one point we shall have to insist upon in the future. (CWSV, vol. III, p. 375.)
vi. Dharma does not mean faith or believing in some God. Swami Vivekananda had said,
The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or dogma, but in realising — not in believing, but in being and becoming. (CWSV, vol. I, p. 13.)
It is not important as to what form of God one believes. What is important is the person’s behavior and character. By worship and prayers of his God, does his heart become large enough to include all? By being religious is he really contributing to the harmony wherever he goes? That is the test. Religion is not in believing God but in Being and Becoming God.
Our history, our struggles to keep our identity and our Dharma intact in the face of invasions, the aspirations passed on to us by our ancestors, all these are our common bonds apart from the above six unifying principles. India has to be awakened to this unifying strength
42 Wake up, Bharat! Enlighten the World!!
so as to be a capable vehicle of the message of Oneness to the whole world. Swami Vivekananda emphasized the need of organization and organized efforts for the same. Taking inspiration from him many organizations came up to serve the needy. But still there is a long way to go about the conscious knowledge of our unifying principles and putting in sustained efforts in an organized way.
These grand eternal truths were realized in India and also were nourished, were lived in her national life. In every period of challenging situations, the people internalized and practiced these principles. What was eternal and should be preserved and what should be changed with time was known to all.
These grand principles of Shruti or the unifying principles are even today seen in the family and social life of India but they are not vibrant because these are not practised consciously but apologetically as part of tradition. The dust gathered on these great principles is held on to more tightly and followed meticulously as ultimate truth or tradition. Therefore, we need to internalize these principles and practice again. These principles should become a dynamic force in our life.
We have to come out of the hypocrisy and inferiority that generally a slavish race falls prey to. For example we say God is everywhere and so nature is sacred for us and yet we are defecating nature. We do not feel pain or any qualms in polluting rivers or felling trees or throwing waste anywhere. We may chant ‘Tat Tvam Asi’ but rarely do we tell our children that ‘your life is to manifest the divinity within you’. Awakening to these eternal principles is required.
2. Develop and rebuild the systems based on