Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7

VIVEKANANDA is the embodiment of the newly awakened, heroic and eternal soul of India. India forgot herself, forgot I what she was, what was her mission in the world. With the true nature of her psychic being gone out of her consciousness, India was sunk in slumber. India had lost her spirit, virility, wisdom and, withdrawn into her shell was about to be swamped by the deluge of an utter destruction. Vivekananda lifted India up as did the Lord when he had incarnated himself as a white boar and lifted the earth from the ocean-bed with his pointed tusks. Thus with his indomitable power Vivekananda upheld India before the world and awakened her to establish herself in the assembly of

nations. Or he is, as it were, the Indra of the Vedas. Panis had, removed the Sun and concealed him in a cave. Indra cleaved through the rocks and rescued him from the robbers and raised him from the darkness to the heavens above. So runs the mythological story. In the same way, Vivekananda brought India, the knowledge-sun of humanity, out of the tenebrous abyss of degradation and established her in her original glory and her pristine Light.

Many had preceded him with the message of the awakening of India and many a man of action had come down to clear the path and create the field. But Vivekananda was a Seer. He saw and revealed the mystic Word, by the force of which the godhead of India awoke and stood vibrant with life. The seer is he whose vision and creative power go together. His creative genius is the fruit of his

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vision. The seer-vision of Vivekananda cast aside all veils and non-essentials and penetrated straight into the soul of India and, like Bhagirath, inundated the world with her glory. With the force and fire of his dynamic vital he gave her a living and mighty reality.

Hosts of seers and saints had invoked the awakening dawn, but no sooner did Vivekananda utter, "Awake, Mother, awake," than India's power in its fullness manifested. Vivekananda's gift was the mantra of strength, of self-reliance, of self-power and self-control. Just a few words constitute his whole philosophy, all his magic – "No fear; Brahman am I. Fear not! Infinite is your courage, limitless your capacity. You are the very Brahman. Awake in the Being of the Brahman within you. Know who you are and what you are. You will blow off the illusion of attachment to the small and the petty, the sense of inferiority and incapability. Man's entire sadhana consists in kindling this fire of the Brahman, the flaming tongues of which will purify him by consuming all impurities in order to manifest the blazing forms of the Vast in whatever he does and creates. How shall this fire be kindled? By sraddha, by the power of faith alone. A man becomes as is his faith. A man becomes whatever he has faith in."

It was all due to Vivekananda that on the life-plane of India, in her mundane occupation, there entered faith in the self. And thus the fire of the Brahman lighted up.

Vivekananda's was the creation that was instinct with the impulsion of life and it flowed in currents of power. It was not his mission to give an actual form to the creation of a well-built and lovely external image. Vivekananda diffused his inspiration and illumination over the firmament and set the country's heart-strings vibrating. That is why we do not find anything static in his creation. He has sketched many forms and has pointed out many a line of multiple beauty. But these were merely constructive hints and suggestions. If we adhere to anyone of them in toto we shall be cramping

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and limiting the real Vivekananda. Even the philosophical truths and the conclusions he arrived at and the spiritual secrets he revealed should not be regarded as something final and irrefutable, for Vivekananda's advent was not meant for formulating a new scripture. He did not take upon himself the burden of constructing the body, the outer shape. The first vibrant throb of the descent of the soul into life which is the source of all external creation, the awakening of the individual soul to its real nature which is divine – this constitutes the real Vivekananda. The first requisite is to be awakened in one's own self, to be able to feel an altogether new flow-tide in life-power. The thing next to be done, the power that will organise and regulate this awakened life and its activities, is a matter for the future. All problems will have their infallible solutions as the inevitable result of the powerful awakening of the soul when achieved. These problems can be solved in various ways and Vivekananda has given countless instances of them. He did not consider it at all necessary for his work to evaluate, harmonise and organise his solutions. In the midst of various contradictory and disorganised conclusions Vivekananda had only one word to say: "This self is not to be attained by the weakling."

Vivekananda was not a householder, yet he was not a sannyasin. He was a seeker after spirituality; nevertheless his patriotism had no parallel. Vivekananda told the youths of India to set aside the Gita and play football. Again it is he who gave them the call to wear the loin-cloth and lift high the ochre-coloured banner. He has accepted all these as the symbol of a profounder truth. Whether you become a sannyasin or a philanthropist or a patriot, first you must become a man. Vivekananda welcomed the manifestation of the Brahman in any form, be it in the strength of the sannyasin or in the power of the leader of men, in self-abnegation or in self-reliance.

He was a votary of the Upanishads, not because the

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Upanishads embody the deep and subtle mysteries of the spiritual realm, but because of the fire of strength they emit, the lightning that strikes and awakens in man the presence of the Brahman, and because the Upanishads alone have the hardihood to declare, "Thou art That."

In his philosophical views, Vivekananda subscribed to the doctrine of Maya, but in practice Karmayoga was the motto of his life. According to him, the true Mayavada is freedom from the bondage of limitation, the backward pull of attachment – a sense of infinity which sunders the knots of the heart and before which the entire world appears to be quite insignificant, a mere toy in one's palm to play with. Therefore Vivekananda's conception of the Brahman is totally different from the static, immobile and the infinite Void of Shankara. He looked upon the Brahman as absolute Power. The Brahman signifies the full glory and magnificence of the soul of man. He has viewed the static Brahman too with an eye of appreciation, because its immobility comprises perfected power self-absorbed. He aspired for the Infinite Void as well. For the individual soul feels a unique and powerful urge to identify itself with the Infinite Void. Vivekananda has sung the glory of renunciation as a source of strength. But as a matter of fact, his nature was that of a man poised in meditation and yet not averse to action. He wanted action founded on the Brahman, what he called practical Vedanta. Vivekananda sought to establish India's life on the Brahman. He has awakened and dynamised the eternal soul and spiritual being of India and stimulated her life. .

The eternal power of the Brahman residing in the soul of India has been activised by this lion of a man. But how to give it a practical form in life in all its minute detail and to make a subtle and apt application of it – that he has not indicated; and to approach him for this is to take him amiss.

It is thus that Vivekananda has placed India's mission also before the world. Life is to be built up with the power

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of the Brahman. He has laid stress on the Brahman even in Europe which is moved and guided by the vital Force. India has to be poised in the Brahman, to attain to the power of the Brahman. Herein lies India's distinction, a distinction that belongs to her soul. The true function of India consists in preserving, cherishing and keeping it up for the entire world. And this lies at the root of the message of human unity and of synthesis of religions that Vivekananda carried over the world. The ceremonials, the outer forms of religions vary in different climes and different ages. The repose in the Brahman with all its power is the truth by which humanity can be inspired with the idea of unity and it is here that all spiritual practices are one. This alone is the quintessence of all true religious practices.

India's Shakti is the soul of the world. And this Shakti is nothing else but Brahman's own Power that ensures man's attainment of ultimate godhood by the awakening of the Self, the infinite Power, Freedom, Tranquillity, the spirit of Askesis. Vivekananda is the divine dynamism descended into the life-atmosphere of the world. He appears at the meeting-point of a past that is dying and a future ushering in a new age, a new life.

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