Meditations on Vivekananda Rock Memorial

From Swami Harshanandaji's talk to Jeevan vratis reported in January 1978 Yuva Bharati:

 

The training has two aspects. The first aspect is : it will help you to build up your own personality. It will make you better persons with a more homogeneous, integrated personality. It puts into you necessary strength and confidence and develops the qualities of leadership in you.  When you go out after completing the training, you will be able to serve the country in a more effective way. Therefore, make the most of it. The first aspect is, what you gain, what you get here is to be distributed to others.

 

In this twin aspect of training and in this life of service which you have taken unto yourself, the Rock Memorial can be a source of inspiration. It has a foundation of solid rock embedded deeply in the ocean. Your life also must be built on a solid foundation. And that solid foundation is our national ideal – renunciation and service. Then you have got the superstructure, a beautiful building, incorporating in it, embodying in itself, almost all the best of our religion and culture. So when you build up your life, have a broad and wide view. Try to imbibe the true spirit of Indian culture in its multifarious aspects. Then the third, you have got Garbha Griha. Inside the Garbha Griha is God Himself. Here Vivekananda is the presiding deity. He represents our soul. He is the lion of Vedanta. Whenever you get discouraged, become desperate or lose your heart, when you become oppressed or depressed, remember the lion of Vedanta and draw inspiration from him for your life.

 

Then there is another factor. The whole monument is set in the midst of the sea. There is the infinite sky and the deep ocean. Your personality must become as broad as the sky and as deep as the ocean, as Swamiji himself used to say. It is very significant. That is the way you have to keep before you broad ideals, absolutely no narrowness should be there. Our country has suffered a lot because of narrowness, fanaticism and bigotry.

 

Then we have something else to learn from Swamiji's image. His eyes are fixed on the Shreepad, Holy feet of the Mother. After all, Swamiji used to say, ' what India today needs is Shakti : India can be raised by Shakti. Shakti is power and the personification of Shakti is the Divine Mother. So you should never forget to fix your gaze on the feet of the Mother and draw inspiration from them.

 

And then, if you sit on the Rock, you see the whole country stretching from this end to that end and that is the field of your service. If you can build up your life even like the Rock Memorial, who beacons you to use that life for selfless service of Bharat Mata. You have to dedicate your lives to her service. You have to jump into this field and give your best, your blood and your life.