M.R.LALU
Almost fifty years before India’s independence, a young monk, a mendicant with the power of his spiritual dedication shining in his brilliant eyes, travelled across the country and on 24 December 1892 landed at the southernmost tip of India, Kanyakumari. He was anxious and relentlessly trying to find reasons behind the perils that the country had to live under centuries of invasion. The penniless mendicant swam across the sea waters and sat in deep meditation on the mid-sea rock for three days from 25 to 27 December. That was an event which further turned out to be another milestone in the spiritual history of India since the days of Shankaracharya. The effect of the spiritual purity with which Swami Vivekananda defined the essence of Indianness was overwhelmingly deep in meaning and vision.
Kanyakumari has long been known for its spiritual splendour. The penance of Goddess Parvati for the hands of Lord Shiva depicted in the legends is believed to have taken place here. Pilgrimage of Vivekananda and his meditation on the mid-sea rock added to its spiritual grandeur and it attracts millions of visitors every year. The Vivekananda Memorial at Kanyakumari is an architectural marvel and an edifice of India’s spiritual rejuvenation and a pilgrim centre. The Congress party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra started at Kanyakumari and the reason possibly the party chose the southern tip as the yatra’s inaugural point was the geography of the country. Stretching from Kanyakumari to Kashmir, India is a landscape of socio-spiritual diversity and the Bharat Jodo Yatra led by Rahul Gandhi is probably trying to engrave a symbolic connection from the south to the north of the country. Before he launched his yatra at Kanyakumari, Rahul Gandhi paid a visit to the rock memorial. I am not sure if he was aware of the fact that the very rock was once a platform for another nationwide unification programme. Undoubtedly, Vivekananda’s spiritual renaissance mission began on the same rock but a movement to establish a monument for the saint on the same rock later became another historic initiative.
January 1962 was the right time for India to thankfully remember the patriotic saint as that was the year of his birth centenary. There had been serious plans to bring the mid-sea rock into limelight and the meditation of the saint on the rock was to be given a meaningful obeisance. Building a memorial on the rock was the dominant idea. While resistance from various corners turned the whole memorial mission a complete mishmash, the RSS stepped in with its former General Secretary Eknath Ranade being deputed to nationally mobilize the memorial movement. Emboldened by the public support, Eknath Ranade went ahead with the memorial mission. But the memorial movement in the mid-sea rock had often been blocked by sharks from Indian politics. Though they had respect for Swami Vivekananda, they disregarded and disagreed with the memorial construction on the natural rock surrounded by water. But Ranade’s indefatigable efforts began to see light on the other side of the tunnel.
Breaking all administrative and political barriers, Ranade could successfully convince 323 members of the Indian parliament securing their signatures in support of the memorial which included members from the Left as well as the Congress. What was more interesting about his endeavour was the fundraising. He opted to collect one rupee each from every Indian through coupon distribution from across the country. And the idea behind such a move was to bring the socio-spiritual sensibility of the country for one noble cause and amazingly India responded to such a move with complete earnestness. Cutting across party lines Eknath Ranade wanted the top leaders from major political parties to become the Vice-presidents of the movement. His visit to Jyoti Basu the Deputy Chief Minister of West Bengal had an interesting element. Jyoti Basu refused his invitation saying the Communist Party’s ethos fundamentally disagreed with everything that was spiritual. But Eknath Ranade skilfully managed to bring in Jyoti Basu’s wife into the memorial movement and she became a fund collector for the national monument. The memorial with its legendary architectural magnificence came into existence in 1970.
India, after 75 years of its independence can’t be silent on the stormy patriotic saint Swami Vivekananda who regarded this land as the holiest and sensed the reasons behind its social downfall and centuries of invasion. His endeavour to gloriously depict India’s cultural heritage across the globe holds significance even today. For a precise understanding we can say that he was the first spiritual ambassador of India to the west who brought massive respect for Indian spiritual wisdom in the western soil. More than that, his efforts were genuinely stupendous due to his mastery in English. Ideological interactions he started with the west were continued by many others who followed his path. Marching through its Amrit Kaal, the next 25 years are going to be so crucial for India and the thoughts for humanity that Vivekananda extensively espoused would hold relevance for centuries.
He could proclaim the inclusiveness of Hinduism to the world with its intellectual depth while different religions competed to prove each other as unacceptable, uncharacteristic and brittle by essence. The Dharmic values of Hinduism and their applicability to a deeply polarised world were his agenda and propaganda. The spiritual eloquence Swami Vivekananda dealt the world with had an effect of the reflections that he garnered from his deep meditation on the rock. He later talked vividly about the plan that he hit upon for his nation and spelt out his love for the poor who suffered unbearable hopelessness in their life due to ignorance. India’s Amrit Kaal can be a dedication to the dreams and beliefs that Swami Vivekananda lived for- a remarkable time to strive and a golden opportunity to enhance its spiritual stamina.
