From: rkrithiv@hopi.intel.com (R. Krithivas)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Swami Vivekananda and India's freedom struggle
Date: 23 Dec 1992 00:22:44 GMT
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 Sister Nivedita Academy of Madras has brought out its latest issue 
 of Tattva Darsana. It is fully dedicated to our great patriot 
 Swami Vivekananda. 

 The following is a part of an article by Sadhu Rangarajan: 
 [Kindly excuse spelling errors] 

 Should you need more information on the activities carried out under
 the Banner of Sister Nivedita academy, please write to 

       Sister Nivedita Academy
       118 Big Street, 
       Triplicane,
       Madras 600 005.

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    Swami Vivekananda and India's freedom struggle.
      By
     Sadhu Rangarajan. 


The patriot prophet: 

"Among the rishis of the later age, we have at last realized that we
must include the name of the man who gave us the reviving mantra which
is creating a new India, the mantra Bande Mataram", says Sri Aurobindo,
paying glorious homage to Bankimchandra Chatterjee, the immortal poet of
the national song Bande Mataram, who sowed the seeds of spiritual
nationalism in the hearts of the youth of modern India. Bankim had
this vision of Mother Bharath in the form of Dashapraharana Daarini
Durga and that she revealed it to the nation that was groping in the
darkness. He gave them a new light and aroused them from deep slumber to
perform supreme acts of self-sacrifice. 

The first and foremost to come under the spell of Bande Mataram
propounded by Bankimchandra was Swami Vivekananda. As a fiery patriotic
youth, Narendra had read Ananda Math and was much inspired by it. He had
also the opportunity to meet the seer of Bande Mataram, when Sri
Ramakrishna sent him and two other disciples to the house of Bankim.
Inspired by the vision of mother Bharath presented by the seer-poet,
young Narendra became a worshipper of Bharatha Shakthi. The illustrious
patriot-revolutionary and younger brother of Swami Vivekananda, Dr.
Bhupendranath Dutta, emphatically declared in his magnum opus, Swami
Vivekananda - Patriot-Prophet: "The primary objective of Swami
Vivekananda was Nationalism. To arouse the sleeping Lion of India, and
to put it on its proper pedestal was his life's mission. His national
ideal was the ideal of that of Bankimchandra Chattopadhyaya as depicted
in the revolutionary novel Ananda Math. Future Mother India, to both of
them was Durga, the Godess with a resplendent face, wearing all sorts of
weapons of force in her hands, and in the left hand seizing the hair of
the Asura, her enemy, and in the right hand assuring all not to be
afraid. This ideal, though a allegorical one, enthused the
revolutionaries of the subsequent period". 

Bharath - The blessed Punya Bhoomi

In the speeches and writings of Swami Vivekananda we find the direct
echo of the Bhoomi Sooktha of the Atharva Veda, eulogizing the land as
the Divine Mother, and the glory of this Holy land as depicted in Srimad
Bhagavata. Samiji proclaims, "If there is any land on this earth that
can lay claim to be the blessed punya bhoomi, to be the land which every
soul on earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every
soul wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land
where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards
generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all the land of
introspection and spirituality-It is India.". He cried out at the top of
his voice : "I am India - every Indian is my brother" and called out:
"Say brother - The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India
is my good".

The idea of nationalism of Swami Vivekananda was a sacred ideal and its
inmost striving was to express its own conception of ideal manhood. He
gave a national, almost pragmatic, definition of religion: "Strength is
religion". He declared: "The essence of my religion is strength. The
religion that does infuse strength into the heart, is no religion to me,
be it of the Upanishads, the Gita or the Bhagavatam. Strength is greater
than religion and nothing is greater than strength". 

[Other parts shall follow ..... slowly]. 
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From: 
 Tattva Darsana


Krithi.