Swami Vivekananda

India is a land of tremendous contradictions. On one hand, one sees such enormous prosperity and wealth, while on the other hand one-third of Indians go without a second meal every day. While India’s scientific achievements in the field of telecommunication, information technology and space is enviable, it makes one’s heart bleed when you know that only around 20% of rural Indians have sanitation facilities and 40% of them are able to get potable water to drink. Even today nearly 42% of our children in the villages find it difficult to access schooling while many children are still labouring away in the fields and factories to make their family’s ends meet. While we are able to find solutions to all kinds of technical and software problems all over the world, we still are grappling with having nearly 25% of the world’s poor in our country. While we are finding more young achievers in the field of sports, music, arts, technology and wealth creation, we find very few young people leading us in the political and social arenas. Finding solutions to the complex social, economic, infrastructural, political and poverty-related problems is indeed a great challenge. This challenge needs enormous energy, a fresh perspective, a grandiose vision and superhuman effort. How do we get to address the myriad problems facing us? What kind of reforms will bring in this much-needed change?

Things do not seemed to have changed too much from the times of Swami Vivekananda. Looking at India’s condition prevalent at the time, Swamiji had made this response when he was asked what kind of social reform would change India, “I do not believe in reform; I believe in growth. I do not dare to put myself in the position of God and dictate to our society, ‘This way thou shouldst move and not that.’ My ideal is growth, expansion, development on national lines. Each individual has to work out his own salvation; there is no other way, and so also with nations. Until higher institutions have been evolved, any attempt to break the old ones will be disastrous. Growth is always gradual. Take man where he stands, and from there give him a lift.”

Swamiji strongly believed in the power of the people and in creating strong grassroots based democratic institutions that reflected the aspirations of the people. He writes, “We do stand in need of social reform. At times great men would evolve new ideas of progress, and the kinds would give them the sanction of law. Thus social improvements had been in the past made in India, and in modern times to effect such progressive reforms, we will have first to build up such an authoritative power. Kings have gone; the power is the people’s. We have, therefore, to wait till the people are educated, till they understand their needs and are ready and able to solve their problems. The tyranny of the minority is the worst tyranny in the world. Therefore, instead of frittering away our energies on ideal reforms, which will never become practical, we had better go to the root of the evil and make a legislative body, that is to say, educate our people, so that they may be able to solve their own problems. Until that is done all these ideal reforms will remain ideals only. The new order of things is the salvation of the people by the people, and it takes time to make it workable, especially in India, which has always in the past been governed by kings.”

Swamiji was very pragmatic and understood that true citizen participation in matters of governance and policy-making cannot happen overnight. Merely creating democratic institutions cannot ensure the engagement of the people in matters that concern their own development. It needs to be done gradually and is co-terminus with building their capacities and capabilities.

Kannada version in Prajavani (20-Dec-12)

What separates great and extraordinary people from the rest of us is their ability to stay humble and rooted to their values all their lives. Greatness does not affect them and they never lose sight of their convictions. It is only people who are insecure and are constantly seeking affirmation from society try to project themselves as great. We have our own share of political masters who demand that their cars carry the symbolic red beacon light and that they are always accompanied by a pilot police car. It is as though they are constantly seeking to showcase their position and are demanding respect from people around them because of this position. This need for self-aggrandizement has not spared some of our traditional religious leaders too.

Swamiji was an example of how he had not allowed his greatness and popularity to affect him at all. I would like to mention two specific incidents that happened when he visited Alwar in today’s Rajasthan after his return from America. He was now popular and well-known and he had come to Alwar to meet his intimate friends and disciples. Many of them had assembled at the railway station to accord him a grand welcome. The people in the crowd were well-known personalities who were jostling with one another to receive him. Swamiji’s attention fell on one person, apparently a man of no significance standing humbly at the edge of the crowd. The man was shabbily dressed but he was beaming with joy on seeing his Swamiji after such a long time. He too wanted to be in Swamiji’s company, but did not have the courage to force his way through the crowd of such eminent people of the town. Swamiji noticed him and called out, ‘Ramasnehi! Ramasnehi!’ The crowd made way for this simple looking man who then came forward and greeted the Swami. Swamiji affectionately chatted and spent some time with him.

This was not just an isolated incident. During his stay at Alwar, many of the rich and powerful kept inviting him to lunch or dinner. But before he accepted any of their invitations, Swamiji first accepted the invitation of a poor old woman who during his wandering days had offered him food when he had nothing to eat. Swamiji did not forget her kindness. On reaching Alwar, he had sent a message to her saying that he wished to be treated to some of the thick chapattis he was offered years before and which he relished very much. The old woman was beside herself with joy. She prepared the chapattis with great care and waited eagerly for Swamiji and his disciples. When they came, she lovingly served them the simple meal. Swamiji enjoyed the food and told his disciples, “See how devout, how motherly, this old woman is! And how pure and simple the food is!”

These incidents reflect how Swamiji could remain unaffected by the adulation, name and fame that he received. His concern for the poor and the marginalized was something that was integral to his nature and he always made sure that they had a special place in his heart.

Kannada version in Prajavani (27-Dec-12)

We live in times where patriotism has been reduced to celebrating by bursting firecrackers after India wins a cricket match, especially against Pakistan. Waving the tricolor and shouting slogans like ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Jai Hind’ have now become symbols of street-corner Nationalism. In this kind of setting, how does one view the life and times of patriots like Bhagat Singh, Chandrashekar Azad, Mahatma Gandhi and Subhas Chandra Bose? Can our expression of patriotism go beyond this mere sloganeering into something more constructive and useful? Many of our own national heroes who believed in living every minute of their lives for the progress of our Nation have claimed to have drawn their inspiration from Swami Vivekananda. Many of us today continue to see Swami Vivekananda as one of India’s greatest Nationalists. How would Swamiji have interpreted Nationalism? One incident that happened in 1897 just before Swamiji went on his second visit to the West throws some light on this.

It was the days when famine raged with all its attendant suffering and Swamiji’s dominant thought was for the victims. The cry of the distressed seemed to transfix his heart and he was completely consumed by the desire to ameliorate their suffering and want. All who heard him talk at that time about the ways of alleviating the lot of the people were amazed by the intensity of his sympathy for his countrymen. There were occasions when pandits, who had come to discuss matters of theology and philosophy, found these matters swept aside in the flood-tide of his compassion, and what to them seemed mundane matters formed almost the entire subject of discussion. For instance, possibly about this time, Pandit Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar, the respected editor of Hitavadi, came to see the Swami with two friends. Learning that one of them came from Punjab, the Swami entered into conversation with him on the needs of that province, especially about the scarcity of food there, and how that had to be met. The talk drifted to the duty of the upper classes to provide the poor with education and to the subject of the betterment of their material and social conditions generally. Before taking leave the Punjabi visitor courteously expressed his regret as follows: “Sir, with great expectations of hearing various teachings on religion we came to see you. But unfortunately our conversation drifted towards mundane matters. I believe it was a mere waste of time.” On hearing this, Swamiji became very serious and said, “Sir, as long as even a stray dog of my country remains without food, my religion will be to feed and take care of them. All else is either non-religion or false religion.” The three visitors were stuck dumb by Swamiji’s flaming words. Years after his passing away, Pandit Deuskar, when relating the incident, said that those words remained ever grafted on his mind and made him realize, for the first time, what true patriotism meant.

On another occasion, a pandit of northern India came to argue with him on the Vedanta. Swamiji was then much depressed at his helplessness in coping with the wide-spread famine. Without giving the pandit any opportunity to discuss the scriptures, he said, “Panditji, first of all try to ameliorate the terrible distress that is prevailing everywhere, to still the heart-rending cry of your hungry countrymen for a morsel of food; after that come to me to have a debate on the Vedanta. To stake one’s whole life and soul to save thousands who are dying of starvation – this is the essence of the religion of the Vedanta.”

At a time when the nation is reeling with issues of moral degradation, corruption, lack of value-based leadership, society rampant with human brutality and forces that constantly seek to divide rather than unite, what we need is the spirit in which Swami Vivekananda interpreted Patriotism and Nationalism. For him these were not merely emotions for public consumption but reflected a deeper, pragmatic conviction that resulted in concrete action. This positive action meant wiping away the widow’s tears and bringing a piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth. It meant waging a battle against poverty, social evils and the constant striving to bring in equity, justice and fairness in all public affairs. A new India can arise only when we translate this vision of Swami Vivekananda into reality.

Kannada version in Prajavani (03-Jan-13)

Over the past one year, i was writing a weekly column in Prajavani Kannada daily titled Naa Kanda Vivekananda (Vivekananda as I saw him). It gave me an opportunity to share with the readers the life and times of Swamiji and the relevance of his messages to the present day world. The series ends today with this article: Yuvashaktige Sarala Sutra

Here’s an article of mine on ‘Swami Vivekananda’s message to the Youth’ that was published in the Kannada daily Vijaya Vani on the occasion of his 111th death anniversary (04-Jul-13).

ಶುಭ್ರ ಯೌವನದ ಶುದ್ಧ ಶಕ್ತಿ

 

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? And, if I am only for myself, then what am I? And if not now, when? If not me, who?”

– Hillel the Elder, In Pirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers)

The country is getting younger and everyone seems to wishfully want the demographic dividend to start paying off. We see more and more young achievers today and one is able to feel and sense the sociological and economic transformation that is occurring all around us. But when one scratches a little deeper and starts to observe and study what is happening more intently, we can notice that all is not as well as what one thinks. One can then see the frustrations and the emptiness that many of the young are today experiencing. Despite the individual attainments and the material comforts that surround them, there exist an unexplained restlessness that is very troubling. They seem to be suffering the consequences of the irony of having everything material but still finding themselves missing something unexplainable. A discontent that is not explainable or articulated in terms that they can currently comprehend. And in seeking to fill this emptiness, they turn to either drugs, or more transient pleasures or seek out the ‘instant’ gurus or in desperation commit suicide. It is as though, we have a generation of people who have trained themselves well cognitively but seem to be woefully inadequate when it comes to their emotional, social and spiritual competencies. We seem to have a generation of people who are unable to manage their inner conflict and tensions and unfortunately have no role models to look upto and learn from, in solving these problems. In our enthusiasm to imitate the consumerist cultures, we seem to have become experts in managing external environments and adapting our selves well to it, but have lost the ability to look inwards and learn to manage our own inner selves. Many young people I interact with, not surprisingly have no idea of what their existence means or why they are doing what they are doing – it is as though they are continuing to live with absolutely no meaning to life itself.

Imagine what such a rich talent pool could achieve if there was someway of getting them to seek a meaning for their lives, a meaning that not only gives them personal fulfillment but is also able to make them feel worthwhile and awakens their inner evolution. While looking inward may not come easily, would there be some way of using the means of looking outward to go inward? Will living for others give our lives the meaning that one is hungry for? Will the desire to make a difference in this world without seeking any personal reward or incentive drive our emptiness out? I believe that this is not only possible but is necessary. And it is here that Swami Vivekananda’s message of personal spiritual growth through selfless service finds relevance and utility.

Swami Vivekananda was not only a visionary spiritual giant but also very pragmatic when it came to matters of national reconstruction. He not only appreciated the energy and restlessness of the youth but also the problems of the toiling millions. He knew that bridging the prevailing inequity couldn’t be possible without making the ‘Self’ think of the ‘others’. He had to find the delicate balance of getting people to re-focus on matters spiritual without feeling unsettled and overawed. And he did it in the most practical manner possible. He inspired young people with a new meaning of finding themselves in the service of others. His method of personal spiritual evolution through unconditional and unselfish service to others is possibly his greatest message to mankind. He saw the ‘means’ of serving society leading on to the ‘end’ of spiritual growth of the person doing it. And he so beautifully advised us to ‘Serve God in man’. All his philosophy so elegantly and simplistically packed into one statement. In such simple and lucid language that makes it at once achievable and attractive to everyone. This ideal not only looks within the reach of each one of us but also makes it so emotionally appealing and motivating to undertake. And he simplified the pursuit of spiritual seeking into internalizing our own inner divinity and in seeing this divinity in everyone else.

Traditionally spirituality has been defined as a process of personal transformation in accordance with one’s religious ideals. The Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines ‘Spirituality’ as “the experience or expression of the sacred.” ‘Unselfishness’ is traditionally understood as the willingness to put the needs of others before one’s own. It is about giving generously and having or showing more concern for other people rather than for yourself. Combining these two powerful abstractions into a practical way of life is what Swami Vivekananda showed this world. His statement that ‘Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practice it’ also shows that being unselfish is easier said than done. Man is wired to be centered on himself. He is biologically and psychologically tuned to ensure his own survival and this usually leads one to stay focused on issues of interest and benefit to the personal self. Today’s demanding materialistic world only amplifies these tendencies and it is indeed challenging to go beyond oneself and focus on others around us. Only when one appreciates the higher reason for one’s existence and sees the benefit of personal evolution, can the focus shift from the ‘personal’ to the unselfish ‘other’. We need to seek liberation by giving ourselves fully to the task of the welfare of others. Redefining ‘success’ from the non-materialistic perspective is also critical for ensuring this shift. Unselfish work done for others can be a very constructive and a practical way of approaching spirituality.

While the practical benefits of societal transformation is clearly evident in selfless work, there is an increasing body of literature and evidence showing how such activities also enable our own inner change. Research in the leadership sciences shows that a effective and inspirational leader is filled with compassion, mindfulness, hope, ability to create a meaning for life for himself and those around him, and Faith and self confidence. It is no co-incidence that such leaders are the ones who have also found meaning in not their personal welfare but in the service of others. The higher the degree of this unselfish attitude, the higher is their effectiveness and the ability to influence those around them. The world of neuroscience also indicates how a truly unselfish man constantly seeking to serve others has better developed pre-frontal cortex in his brain. We also need to see this in the perspective of similar evidence being reported in people who are spiritual and spend long hours in reflective and meditative practices. The coming days will surely expand this neuro-scientific interconnectedness between a life led for others and spiritual existence.

Unselfish work can also be a practical way of practicing Self-enquiry. It provides a good platform for looking and exploring outside us in our search of the missing ‘equilibrium’ in our lives. Analyzing the state of people around us, the problems that they are enduring, the endless suffering of mankind are all excellent starting points. In the pursuit of these questions is the beginning of seeking solutions and trying to become a part of the solution with no personal stake in them. The next higher step would be to gradually transcend this sense of duality of ‘self’ and ‘others’ and move on to experiencing the ‘oneness’ that Advaitic philosophy talks about. Seeing god in all beings including oneself is a good starting point to experiencing oneness and going beyond the feeling of interconnectedness. Unselfish work is a practical means of achieving the higher objective of understanding our true self; it is about going beyond the illusory limitations of our body and mind and being liberated once and for all. This is undercurrent that runs throughout the life and message of Swami Vivekananda. And this is succinctly captured in his statement of ‘Atmano Mokshartham Jagath hitayacha’.

– Balu

Last month I had the privilege of running a leadership workshop for young people at Chennai. More than running the workshop, it was the location where it was being held that excited me. It was being hosted by the Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai and held at the Vivekanandar Illam (Vivekananda House, originally known as the Ice House). What would be so special in a building named after this great saint? After all, our country’s historical landscape is replete with memorials commemorating an extraordinary event or is associated with an outstanding personality in some way. This building overlooking the Marina beach in Chennai is also no different. It is not merely a building named after Swamiji but was something that invoked a special sense of awe and reverence for me.

Swamiji was a constant traveller and he visited Tamil Nadu twice – once in 1892 as a wandering monk and again in 1897 after his triumphal return from the West. He arrived at Pamban in Rameshwaram island on the 26th January 1897 and then travelled through Madurai, Trichy and other places to finally reach Madras (present Chennai). He received an unprecedented reception at the Egmore Railway station where he had reached by train and reached the Castle Kernan (as it was then known) the next day. It was here that he stayed for 9 days, from 6th to 15th of February 1897 and gave his popular talks on ‘My Plan of Campaign’ and ‘The Future of India’. These are two articles that have influenced my life and thinking enormously.

Castle Kernan was earlier known as the ‘Ice House’ where the Tudor Ice Company stored the ice it brought from the United States. The Ice house was built in 1842 by Fredric Tudor. Tudor who was known as the ‘Ice King’ had made his fortune by shipping ice to the Caribbean, Europe and India. He had struck on the idea of harvesting ice from frozen fresh water ponds in and around Boston, cut them into blocks and sold them around the world. He had built three Ice Houses in India – at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras where the ice could be stored for months. Amongst the three buildings, only the one at Madras stands today. Once people learnt to manufacture ice locally, the ice business of his shrank and eventually wound up in 1880. It was then an advocate, Biligiri Iyengar who originally hailed from Mysuru, bought the ‘Ice House’ and renamed it ‘Castle Kernan’ in honour of his good friend Justice Kernan. Biligiri Iyengar and his family lived here till 1906, when family circumstances including the demise of Biligiri in 1902 forced them to auction off the building.

It was also in this building that Swami Ramakrishnananda, another direct disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa set up the Ramakrishna Math and lived. The Government of Tamil Nadu has now given this building on a long lease to the Ramakrishna Math who have restored it to its original state. The restoration process also has a Mysuru connection with architect Mr. Ravi Gundu Rao overseeing the entire restoration process.

Sitting in the room where Vivekananda lived and spending some quiet moments there was what made the visit very special to me.

– Balu

“There were many good things in the ancient times, but there were bad things too. The good things are to be retained, but the India that is to be, the future India, must be much greater than ancient India.” – Swami Vivekananda

India is now going through a momentous phase of transition. While we race to catch up with a world being connected seamlessly through digital technology, we can find new ideas and new ideologies bombarding us from all sides. It is at times like this that we need to pause and ask ourselves whether we are going in the right direction and at the right pace. We need to explore as a nation whether we are building our future based on the lessons of our past or are getting caught up in the mindless pursuit of mere economic growth. This is also the time for us to revalidate the relevance of the message of Swami Vivekananda and his vision for India. Vivekananda dreamed of seeing Mother India in all her glory on the resplendent throne where she rightfully belonged. If we are to go beyond the romance of this statement, we first need to understand where we are today and what the challenges are ahead of us. We also need to understand where we were in the past and what lessons we can learn from the rich history of our culture and civilisation.

India of Today: The whole country is agog with the excitement of change. Everyone seems obsessed with our growing visibility around the world and is increasingly focusing on economic growth and the trappings of visible development. We seem to be overlooking the fact that despite this constant progress and growth, 50 per cent of children under five years of age suffer from undernutrition1. While on the one hand we are making rapid strides in space and defence technology, on the other hand a large part of our rural population still lacks basic amenities, including clean drinking water and sanitation facilities. 37% of our young people drop out of school by the time they reach the tenth grade. Gender and caste inequities are very real and distressing. Despite all our scientific attainments, close to 75% of our graduating youth lack employable skills. What we are building today in our children and youth is mere cognitive growth and not the overall social, emotional, and spiritual evolution of a balanced person. As a society, we are seeing a rapid erosion of our social capital, with visible manifestations of trust deficit, lowered interdependence, and vanishing reciprocity. Monetisation has become the metric of human success and attainment, while other dimensions of human achievement are getting marginalised. While one can argue that the benefits of our growth will trickle down and most of our citizens can indeed aspire to a better life, we need to recognise the challenges ahead of us.

The Challenges Ahead: India’s progress is going to be determined by how well we can manage three major challenges facing us. The first is the increasing intolerance that we are seeing and the growing reality of religious fundamentalism. Religion has now become a political tool. Not a day passes without evidence of this threat in some part of the world or the other – whether it is India, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Russia, Afghanistan, Egypt, or the United States. The second major challenge that is becoming more evident is growing economic inequity. The gap between the rich and the poor is the widest in our recent history. The top 10% of Indians generate and control more than 75% of India’s wealth, while the bottom 20% are generating and controlling less than 1%. The increasing economic tensions are having social ramifications, and outbursts of violence are no longer the exception. The third major issue is the manner in which technology is rapidly disrupting everyday life, manufacturing, and services. This makes demands on our youth to acquire skills that are not easily available and that are out of the reach of most of our rural population. Our ability to resolve these vexatious issues will eventually determine whether we are able to place India on the world stage and give our people the life that they deserve. What can we do to confront this reality and find realistic and pragmatic solutions? It is here that the message of Swami Vivekananda and his plan for building India’s future give us a solution. Swamiji strongly believed in learning from our past in order to build our future. While he was a romantic lover of everything Indian, he was also pragmatic enough to identify the ills that we had accumulated over the years and that had to be mercilessly discarded.

Our Rich and Hoary Past: An objective assessment of the India of the past in multiple dimensions demonstrates how advanced we were as a society. The work of the English economic historian Angus Madison conclusively proves the wealth of our nation from the beginning of the Christian era up till 1600 CE. He mentions how the Indian civilisation, with its enormous intellectual, trading, and manufacturing capacity produced 35% of global GDP and was possibly the richest country in the world during those 16 continuous centuries. It was also during this time that India contributed the binary system and the concepts of algebra, trigonometry, and calculus. Metallurgy and the chemical sciences were far advanced, and knowledge of astronomy, physics, democracy, and political science was at its peak. Apart from the sciences of the ‘external’, Indian scriptures were rich in their understanding of the ‘internal’. From psychology to spirituality, our thinkers made contributions that the rest of the world had yet to discover. One can safely say that this was the glorious era of Indian civilisation. The focus was on increasing the human and social capital of India. This obviously resulted in enormous economic benefits.

The Way Forward: Swami Vivekananda strongly believed in the control of man’s inner nature in order to ensure the optimal utilisation of resources and efective functioning in the external world. He could see how a colonised and conquered India had lost her moorings, and he felt the urgency to rebuild her human and social capital. Swamiji understood that a full expression of human potential would happen only when man constantly expanded his physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual capabilities. Only then could he have the capacity to lead and sustain his life. He understood that ‘education’ had to go beyond mere schooling and result in the expression of the inner perfection already inherent in man. He could also relate physical growth to mental and emotional growth. He asked young Indians to make their biceps stronger before embarking on the study of the Gita. For him, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence were as critical as social intelligence for man to progress and grow. He gave a new meaning and dimension to the pursuit of spirituality by making it practical and socially pragmatic. His call to serve the God in man as a means of spiritual evolution is possibly the most practical means of connecting man’s inner nature with the outer world. Swamiji’s message of working for the poor and the marginalised and the call for inner evolution and not an outer revolution further strengthens this argument. His thoughts on organising people and building institutions reflect the emphasis he placed on social capital. He knew that a country could not be built on sand and that democratic institutions can be created and sustained only by people of mettle.

And what India needs today is to revisit this concept of building a complete man, who can in turn create and manage institutions and thus build a great country. We need people with the qualities of compassion, humanism, a spirit of enquiry, humour, mindful existence, positive thinking and the intent to be good and do good. Imagine a nation that is led by a type of humankind that is responsible in its consumption, respectful of all of nature’s creation, constantly striving for both internal and external peace, harmony, and good will. Such a country would be wonderful indeed, where sharing and caring would be second nature to humankind and the mad rush to acquire everything for just oneself would be a thing of the past. Imagine such a nation where these self-evolved humans are interconnected and live with the awareness of mutual trust, interdependence and reciprocity! That is the social capital that India badly needs if it wants to stop hurtling towards self-destruction. India now needs a new narrative that talks about creating and expanding this human and social capital based on Swamiji’s vision. Sustainable development will then not be a mere slogan or a fashionable statement that is talked about, but a practical and realistic attempt to build this New India.  In that new vision for India, development will be seen in terms of increased security and liberty for communities and individuals.  This means that people will have the political space to voice their problems and choose the solutions that best represent them. Dominant players in development – whether they are the government, or civil society, or the corporate world—will then take the time to listen to people with respect and provide them with the platform to articulate their just and legitimate aspirations.

India needs to become a pioneer in translating this vision of development into concrete reality, where the rule of law is the norm rather than the exception, where no Indian will go hungry, where human rights are not a mere slogan but a way of life, where democratic participation is not a fanciful aspiration but an everyday expression of citizenship, and where food, nutrition, livelihood, infrastructure, education, health care, and religious freedoms are not mere political promises but entitlements of an empowered citizenry. This is the India that Swami Vivekananda spoke of—and the India that we need to create.

– Balu

References:

The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, Mayavati Memorial Edition, Vol.6, p, 318
https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/OD56/OD56.pdfhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_supply_and_sanitation_in_Indiahttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662127/ http://monitor.icef.com/2015/10/indias-employability-challenge/ http://www.thehindu.com/data/indias-staggering-wealth-gap-in-five-charts/article6672115.ece
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_history_of_India

A few days ago, I was traveling with a well-wisher of SVYM. During our conversation, she suddenly asked what Swami Vivekananda meant to me. Though I have deliberated on this question many times in the past, this was indeed the first time that someone asked me pointblank about it.

How do I describe what he means to me? Should I talk about my first brush with him in the early 80s, or the continued journey of the last 28 years since then? Swami Vivekananda was a mere photograph that was hung on the wall of MES College in Bangalore where I studied between 1980 and 82. The caption below the photo read Swami Vivekananda – the Hindoo monk of India. I used to pass by the picture everyday without looking up or trying to find out what this person had done. I remembered reading about him in a lesson many years ago in school and that was that!

I have already written about my later brush with Swami Vivekananda in 1982 and how I read much about him and by him within 3-4 months. From then on, I am on a continuous journey of discovering this extraordinary person and trying to understand his personality, though from the limitations of my interpretation of his works and my own personal experiences.

One of the first things that stand out when I think of him is his extraordinary compassion and concern for the poor. Here was a man who would spend sleepless nights himself, worrying about how to help the millions of poor and down-trodden Indians whom he regarded as his ‘God’. Another dimension that attracted me to him was his Humanism. Man and his salvation is a theme that runs through all his works and he declared that he would not mind being born again and again to work for the salvation of man.

Many freedom fighters of his time have claimed inspiration from his work and writings. Whether it was Subhas Chandra Bose or Gandhi or Rajagopalachari – all saw in him a very passionate Nationalist. Another extraordinary quality that I saw in him was his steadfast pursuit of truth. He never settled for half-truths or relative truths. And truth for him held meaning only when it was born out of direct experience.

He was also a Leader extraordinaire. He sought no formal authority and had none, but had the whole country and beyond at his knees. He was inspirational in both his talks and writings, demanding the best out of everyone that he came across. Unforgiving with the mediocre and constantly exhorting each one to give his best, Swamiji could rouse all who came in contact with him – from the Maharajahs living in their palaces, to the common man on the street. One only needs to read the letters written by him to appreciate the inspiration that flows from them. The specialty of his leadership was his pragmatism and the constant focus on the larger picture – his vision of India occupying her rightful place in the League of Nations.

He was the Manager’s manager. He built an Institution of the highest order, based on contextually relevant and pragmatic management principles. The processes that he laid down are followed even today not because he laid them down, but because they still serve the needs of the day.

He was an eternal experimenter. He not only experimented during his entire life but also constantly goaded those around him to do so. He always maintained that he should not be blindly followed, but one should test out what he spoke and taught. His courage of conviction was legendary. Anecdotes of his early childhood show how he refused to be cowed down by the authority of his teacher. It was this quality that enabled him to set out to Chicago for the Parliament of Religions without enough money or even a letter of invitation in his pocket.

What attracted me the most when I first read him was his brand of Socialism. His statements like half a loaf of bread was better than no bread at all; and he not believing in a God or religion that could not bring a piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth or wipe a widow’s tear, were enough to inspire a young 17-year-old in me. His constant attempts to elevate the status of women in Indian society and his desire to usher in equity, not by bringing down the rich but by pushing up the poor were indeed farsighted and socially relevant. These statements are the basis of much of my development thinking and practice.

He was also an intellectual giant who could quote from the Vedas, the Bible and the Quran – all in one breath. He could speak on just about any subject – from Archaeology to Anthropology, from Science to Religion. There are legends on how he finished reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica in a matter of days.

All this I know is similar to the four blind men feeling the elephant and describing it to the rest of us. I am also aware that words and language are inadequate to describe the personality of someone like Swami Vivekananda. Every time I read him, I see him in a different light and there is always so much that seems new to me. He is so many things to so many people and I am sure that each one would have a different experience to narrate. But what is indisputable is the fact that he was one of our country’s proudest sons, someone who has never been more relevant for today’s India.