VEDANTI

All the tortures and miseries of the world will pass over without hurting us, and we shall come out of the flames like Prahlada, so long as we hold on to this grandest of all our inheritances, spirituality. If a Hindu is not spiritual, I do not call him a Hindu. - Swami Vivekananda

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Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Why a Hindu should be proud of himself

To my mind that is the argument why our religion is truer than any other religion, because it never conquered, because it never shed blood, because its mouth always shed on all words of blessing, of peace, words of love and sympathy. It is here and here alone that the ideals of toleration were first preached; and it is here and here alone that toleration and sympathy have become practical; it is theoretical in every country; it is here and here alone, that the Hindus build mosques for the Mohammedans and churches for the Christians.

The debt which the world owes to our Motherland is immense. Taking country with country, there is not one race on this earth to which the world owes so much as to the patient Hindu, the mild Hindu.

There is not a country possessing a good ethical code but has borrowed something of it from us, and there is not one religion possessing good ideas of the immortality of the soul but has derived it directly or indirectly from us.

The one characteristic of Indian thought is its silence, its calmness. At the same time the tremendous power that is behind it is never expressed by violence.

-Swami Vivekananda

Sunday, June 24, 2007

My Country

Any one who thinks lowly of India that is Bharat, should read what Swami Vivekananda had to say about our country


AND WHAT A LAND! WHOSOEVER STANDS ON THIS SACRED LAND, WHETHER ALIEN OR A CHILD OF THE SOIL, FEEL HIMSELF SURROUNDED- UNLESS HIS SOUL IS DEGRADED TO THE LEVEL OF BRUTE ANIMALS- BY THE LIVING THOUGHTS OF THE EARTH'S BEST AND PUREST SONS, WHO HAVE BEEN WORKING TO RAISE THE ANIMAL TO THE DIVINE THROUGH CENTURIES, WHOSE BEGINNING HISTORY FAILS TO TRACE. THE VERY AIR IS FULL OF THE PULSATIONS OF SPIRITUALITY. THIS LAND IS SACRED TO PHILOSOPHY, TO ETHICS AND SPIRITUALITY, TO ALL THAT TENDS TO GIVE A RESPITE TO MAN IN HIS INCESSANT STRUGGLE FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE ANIMAL, TO ALL TRAINING THAT MAKES MAN THROW OFF THE GARMENT OF BRUTALITY AND STAND REVEALED AS THE SPIRIT IMMORTAL, THE BIRTHLESS, THE DEATHLESS, THE EVER-BLESSED- THE LAND WHERE THE CUP OF PLEASURE WAS FULL, AND FULLER HAS BEEN THE CUP OF MISERY, UNTIL HERE, FIRST OF ALL, MAN FOUND OUT THAT IT WAS ALL VANITY; HERE, FIRST OF ALL IN THE PRIME OF YOUTH, IN THE LAP OF LUXURY, IN THE HEIGHT OF GLORY AND PLENITUDE OF POWER, HE BROKE THROUGH THE FETTERS OF DELUSION. HERE, IN THIS
OCEAN OF HUMANITY, AMIDST THE SHARP INTERACTION OF STRONG CURRENTS OF PLEASURE AND PAIN, OF STRENGTH AND WEAKNESS, OF WEALTH AND POVERTY, OF JOY AND SORROW, OF SMILE AND TEAR, OF LIFE AND DEATH, IN THE MELTING RHYTHM OF ETERNAL PEACE AND CALMNESS, AROSE THE THRONE OF RENUNCIATION! HERE IN THIS LAND, THE GREAT PROBLEMS OF LIFE AND DEATH, OF THE THIRST FOR LIFE, AND THE VAIN MAD STRUGGLES TO PRESERVE IT ONLY RESULTING IN THE ACCUMULATION OF WOES, WERE FIRST GRAPPLED WITH AND SOLVED- SOLVED AS THEY NEVER WERE BEFORE AND NEVER WILL BE HEREAFTER; FOR HERE AND HERE ALONE WAS DISCOVERED THAT EVEN LIFE ITSELF IS AN EVIL, THE SHADOW ONLY OF SOMETHING WHICH ALONE IS REAL. THIS IS THE LAND WHERE ALONE RELIGION WAS PRACTICAL AND REAL, AND HERE ALONE MEN AND WOMEN PLUNGED BOLDLY IN TO REALISE THE GOAL, JUST AS IN OTHER LANDS THEY MADLY PLUNGE IN TO REALISE THE PLEASURES OF LIFE BY ROBBING THEIR WEAKER BRETHREN. HERE AND HERE ALONE THE HUMAN HEART EXPANDED TILL IT INCLUDED NOT ONLY THE HUMAN, BUT BIRDS,BEASTS, AND PLANTS; FROM THE HIGHEST GODS TO GRAINS OF SAND, THE HIGHEST AND THE LOWEST, ALL FIND A PLACE IN THE HEART OF MAN, GROWN GREAT, INFINITE. AND HERE ALONE, THE HUMAN SOUL STUDIED THE UNIVERSE AS ONE UNBROKEN UNITY WHOSE EVERY PULSE WAS HIS OWN PULSE.