Tribute to Swami Vivekananda on His Birth Anniversary

Bhubaneswar: Today is the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. He was a cerebral Saint of India and had a phenomenal personality imbued with spiritual wisdom.

His brief address in the World Parliament of Religions in 1893 made him a celebrity and Chicago Tribune wrote about him extensively and hailed him as a young man of 30 with a big and active brain. In his Chicago speech he proudly mentioned that he was proud to be an Indian because India gave shelter to people who were persecuted elsewhere.

Today when the idea of Indian citizenship is reduced to religion for the purpose of granting citizenship status to religiously persecuted people only of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan we need to recall his broad, liberal and enlightened vision rooted in spirituality.

Our first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his book “Discovery of India” described Swami Vivekananda as a “cyclonic Hindu” because of the deep impact of his mesmerising speeches on Americans. He had recalled in his Chicago address of 1893 that humanity suffered immensely because of “sectarianism, bigotry and their horrible descendant fanaticism” and so fervently hoped that the commencement of the World Parliament of Religions would herald the beginning of end of fanaticism. It is unfortunate that forces representing fanaticism are in ascendence and endanger the culture essential to foster open mind. Swami Vivekananda apart being revered for his spiritual wisdom is being invoked for his insightful writings on health. He observed that through materialism we would get diabetes and through spiritualism we would enjoy good health. Very presciently he wrote that diabetes was spreading fast in the towns of India and people coming from rural parts of Bengal to Calcutta considered it below their dignity to walk and therefore hired a carriage to enhance their mobility.

He also noted that people thought that by feeding their children with food deeply fried in ghee and oil they would make them feel privileged and better off. Swamiji then observed that such Calcuttaised and civilised people were bound to get diabetes.

The Calcutisation and civilisation has spread unchecked and India has emerged as a diabetic capital of the world . Swamiji had prescribed that if people could climb the Himalayas to reach Kedarnath and descend back to the plains on foot the ghost of diabetes would be exorcised. In other words he was prescribing physical exercise to counter the upsurge of diabetes in the late 19th century India. He was against priestcraft and priests of some of the ancient temples of Odisha had declared that If Swami Vivekananda would ever come to visit those temples he would not be allowed to do so because he had taken food in America cooked by Christians.

He explained the decline of India due to monopolisation of education by a few and scriptural injunction not to cross the sea. He had said that the day Indians coined the word “mlechcha” that was the day when India started declining. However, he saw the bright future of India and prophetically wrote in 1897 that India would become independent in fifty years time. When India had only three universities he saw the rise of India and asked his disciples to look at the eastern sky and see the new dawn of our country. Salute to such a visionary Saint.

By- S N Sahu

“The author has served as Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India late Shri K R Narayanan and had a tenure as Director in Prime Minister’s Office and Joint Secretary in Rajya Sabha Secretariat. Views expressesd above are in his personal capacity.”