Tuesday 12 January 2016

Swami Vivekananda Jayanti

Samartha Bharat Parva Pranams!

Swami Vivekananda is always relevant. His message is to be applied in all walks of life.

Today we are exploring the realm of information but have not understood the greater importance of consciousness. Information does not always unite us. It can reinforce separate identities. We are similarly looking to the outer mass media, rather than to our inner connection with the cosmic mind. Mass media, used incorrectly, can make us more intolerant, rather than more compassionate. Our world has not yet rejected the artificial divisions of nation and creed that marked the era before global communication and which can be reinforced by wrong use of the new technology. Swamiji did not just teach ideas but emphasised the building of character, making the soul and spirit powerful, so that we are no longer the slaves of desire, opinions and impulses from the outer world. It is not just what we know or what we own but who we are that truly matters.

Swamiji's message was the lion's roar of Vedanta, the great upanishadic teaching that each individual is the self of the entire universe. He taught that you are not merely this small physical body, this mere brain, or even this complex mind. In the core of your being, you are one with the universal consciousness and all of its powers. Once we know this, even the thought of harming another person cannot arise.

Humanity cannot discover its true unity merely at an outer level of technology and communication, however helpful these may be. It cannot erect that unity based upon upholding the divided identities of an earlier era. It is a unity of heart and consciousness that is required. Yoga can show us the way.

• "What India wants is a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins. Be brave, be brave, man dies but once!"
• "What the nation wants is pluck and scientific genius. We want great spirit, tremendous energy, and boundless enthusiasm."
• "A nation is advanced in proportion as education & intelligence spread among the masses. The chief cause of India's ruin has been the monopolising of the whole education & intelligence of the land, by dint of pride & royal authority, among a handful of men. If we are to rise again, we shall have to do it in the same way, i.e. by spreading education among the masses."
• "Being of one mind is the secret of society. Our solution is renunciation, giving up, fearlessness, and love, these are the fittest to survive."

Let us think and meditate more on the life and message of Swamiji!

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