2nd Sept : Vivekananda Rock Memorial

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Namaskar and Greetings for 48th Anniversary of Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Kanyakumari.

2nd Sept 1970 has the same TITHI of 11th Sept 1893 - Vivekananda Rock Memorial, built in honour of Swami Vivekananda who is said to have attained enlightenment on the rock, was inaugurated by then Hon. President of India V V Giri on this day in 1970 in presence of Swami Vireshwaranandaji, President of RamaKrishna Math & Mission.

Shri C. Dhanasekaran, Q97, Agathar Nagar, Villivekam, Chennai  is the first entrant to Vivekananda Rock Memorial today. He became 6,32,79,055th Visitor from 2nd September 1970.

On this auspicious occasion which falls on Janamasthami this year, Vivekananda Kendra website takes a new look and a documentary on Vivekananda Rock Memorial is going to be telecast in Doordarshan Podhigai Channel on Sept 2nd at 8.30 pm, can be watch live at https://www.ddpodhigai.org.in.

Second Phase of Vivekananda Rock Memorial was parallel when Rock Memorial was taking shape. As Mananeeya Eknathji used to say "To put up a Cement and Concrete structure is not the work for which I am born, I am to erect a living and dynamic monument which will be worthy of Swami Vivekananda and which will be capable of bringing into fruition his grand vision of future India."

Vivekananda Kendra - an Extraordinary Organisation with Ordinary Men came to existence. Mananeeya Eknathji Ranade, the Man behind the Memorial started Vivekananda Kendra a spiritually oriented service mission in 1972 as the living memorial to Swami Vivekananda comprising of a cadre of dedicated JEEVANVRATIS, Sevavratis, Vanprasthi and Thousands of Local Karyakarata as well as lakhs of patrons, well wishers and our publication subscribers. Vivekananda Kendra is centered around the noble thought service to man is worship of God - and is guided by the national ideals RENUNCIATION and SERVICE with motto Serve Man - Serve God.

Plz find herewith the report of Kerala Flood Relief Work in pdf format.

Jai Shri Krishna

The Cities of Buddhism - 4

It is the broken links in the chain, however, that fascinate us most in the light of this historical generalisation. What was the city, and what the state, that made Ajanta possible? What was teh city that corresponded to the Dharmashala at Sanchi? What was the city, and what the abbey, in the case of Amaravati?

Undoubtedly a fashion once started in such strength under Buddha-worshipping sovereigns and commonwealths would tend to be imitated in later ages when the system of ideas that we know as Hinduism had come more definitely into vogue. It is also possible that when the Buddhistic orders failed or died out, their places were somtimes taken, in the ancient Maths and foundations, by Jain religious. Something of this sort appears at least to have happened at Sarnath and possibly at Khandagiri also. But the whole history of the relations between Brahmins, Buddhists, and Jains wants working out from an Asiatic and not European point of view, if many pages of history are to become clear to us.

One question of great interest that arises in this connection, is What of this parallelism in the case of Pataliputra? Going back to Rajgir, we see the early ancestral capital of the Nanda kings confronted, at least in later ages, by Nalanda, the historic university of Bengal, to which Hiouen Tsang owed so much. But what of Pataliputra itself? Can we suppose that the imperial seat had no official Ashrama of piety and learning in its vicinity? Yet if it had, and if perhaps the "Five Pahars" mark the site of this religious college, what was the situation of the capital in regard to it?

Again we find place and occasion, by means of this generalisation, for more definite consideration than was hitherto possible of India culture and civilisation at various epochs. What were the various functions performed by these great extra-civic priories? No Englishman haas reason to be prouder of Oxford than the Hindu of Ajanta. The eternal antithesis of Europe between "town and gown" was never a source of rioting and disorder in the East, only because from the beginning they were recognised by universal consent as distinct entities, whose separateness of interests demanded a certain geographical distance. What was the life lived in these royal abbeys, whose foundations date back in so many cases-notably Bodh-Gaya, Sarnath. Dhauli, and Sanchi-even earlier than the reign of Ashoka himself? They were a symbol, to the eyes of the whole community, of decocracy, of the right of every man to the highest spiritual career. It is not conceivable that they should have been entirely without influence on the education of youth. But undoubtedly their main value intellectually lay in their character of what we would now call post-graduate universities.

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The main theme of my life is to take the message of Sanatana Dharma to every home and pave the way for launching, in a big way, the man-making programme preached and envisaged by great seers like Swami Vivekananda. - Mananeeya Eknathji

विवेकानन्द केन्द्र कन्याकुमारी (Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari) Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra : http://www.vivekanandakendra.org Read Article, Magazine, Book @ http://eshop.vivekanandakendra.org/e-granthalaya Cell : +91-941-801-5995, Landline : +91-177-283-5995

. . . Are you Strong? Do you feel Strength? — for I know it is Truth alone that gives Strength. Strength is the medicine for the world's disease . . . This is the great fact: "Strength is LIFE; Weakness is Death."

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The Cities of Buddhism - 3

The work of the monk, then as a witness to the eternal verities, was in no rivalry to the more civic function of the Brahmanic priesthood. And this is the fact which finds expression in the relation of the monkhood to the Indian cities of the Ashokan era. The Brahmin is a citizen-priest, living in a city. The Buddhist is a monk, living in an abbey. In all lands the monk has memorialised himself by buildings instead of by posterity. In India these have been largely carved, as at Mahabalipuram in the south, or excavated, as at Ellora and elsewhere, instead of built. But the sentiment is the same. In place of a single monastery with its chpel or cathedral, we find here a number of independent cells or groups of cells, and frequently a whole series of cathedral shrines. Apparently a given spot has remained a monastic centre during generation after generation. Dynasties and revolutions might come and go, but this would remain, untouched by any circumstances save the inevitable shifting of population and the final decay of its own spiritual fire.

In its decoration the abbey would reflect the art of the current epoch. In culture it would act as a university. In ideals it represented the super-social, or extra-civic conception of the spiritual equality and fraternity of all men. Its inmates were vowed to religious celibacy. And we may take it that the place of the abbey would always be at a certain distance from a city whose government was in sympathy with it.

Thus the city of Dhauli, under the Emperor Ashoka and succeeding worshippers of Buddha, had Khaandagiri at seven miles' distance as its royal abbey. The civic power was represented at Gaya: the monastic at Bodh-Gaya. Benares was the seat of Brahmins : Sarnath of monks. Elephanta was the cathedral-temple of a king's capital, but Kanheri, on another island a few miles away, offers to us the corresponding monastery.

From these examples and from what we can see to have been their inevitableness, we might expect that any important city of the Buddhistic period would be likely to occur in connection with a monastic centre some few miles distant. Now it is possible to determine the positions of a great many such cities on grounds entirely a priori. It is clear, for instance, that whatever geographical considerations might make Benares great would also act at the some time to distinguish Allahabad. By a similar induction, Mathura on the Jamuna and Hardwar on the Ganges might also be expected to furnish proof of ancient greatness. Now outside Prayag we have to the present time, as a hanut of Sadhus, the spot known as Nirvanikal. And in the vicinity of Hardwar is there not Hrishikesh? The caves of Ellora have near them the town of Roza. But this we must regard as a sort of Mohammedan priory, inasmuch as its population consists mainly of religious beggars (of course not celibate) living about the tomb of Aurangzeb. The neighbouring capital that supported the youth of Ellora was probably at Deogiri, now called Daulatabad.

  ...Sister Nivedita - .From Footfalls of Indian History contd

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The main theme of my life is to take the message of Sanatana Dharma to every home and pave the way for launching, in a big way, the man-making programme preached and envisaged by great seers like Swami Vivekananda. - Mananeeya Eknathji

विवेकानन्द केन्द्र कन्याकुमारी (Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari) Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra : http://www.vivekanandakendra.org Read Article, Magazine, Book @ http://eshop.vivekanandakendra.org/e-granthalaya Cell : +91-941-801-5995, Landline : +91-177-283-5995

. . . Are you Strong? Do you feel Strength? — for I know it is Truth alone that gives Strength. Strength is the medicine for the world's disease . . . This is the great fact: "Strength is LIFE; Weakness is Death."

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