Kanyakumari, Eknath Ranade - Tomorrow's role model ....Tapan Ghosh.
Kanyakumari is the last land towards south of India where three seas are washing the feet of Bharatmata . There is a huge rock in the sea a little away from the ground. As everyone knows, there is a huge statue of Swami Vivekananda known as Vivekananda Shila standing with his eyes fixed on the Indian subcontinent.There is also a Vivekananda Memorial. Almost everyone knows its history.
After the death of Sri Ramakrishna, his beloved disciple Narendra took sannyasa and traveled all over India from the huts of the poor to palaces, cities, villages, jungles, deserts, hills, mountains, and ended his journey in Kanyakumari.
Swamiji experienced the sufferings of the common people, poverty , superstitions above all slavery attitude, extreme lack of confidence due to several centuries bondage and became restless.
How can the nation be lifted? How will this chain of mental slavery be freed? How can confidence be instilled in this confidence less nation? How can the inertia of this nation obsessed with extreme Tamogune be hurt?
How can Rajoguna be transmitted or cultivated to this nation? All these questions was burning Swamiji's mind.
He began to squirm in an unspeakable mental anguish. His glance fell on the rocks in the sea little away from the last land of Bharatmata towards south.
Eventually, ignoring the big waves of the sea Swamiji who used to swim in the river Ganges swam across the cliff. There was no people there. He sat there meditating continuously for three days.
On the other side of the water holy India be seen in front of him. He began to see the past and present of India with the eye of the mind, and began to think deeply, what is the path? What is the way? In that state of meditation, he seemed to find some way. It was as if he had received instructions from his heart that this cause or redemption of the nation was his.
A saffron clad monk usually used to leave his family meditate and perform austerities for his own salvation.
But Vivekananda remembered the sharp rebuke of his guru, “Shame on you, I thought you would be like a giant banyan tree, in your shadow many sinful people would find refuge, and you are just thinking of your own salvation like a selfish person! ”
The whip of that memory of the Guru's rebuke seemed to shake Swamiji and show him the way. A 29-year-old man carried the burden of the whole of India on his shoulders.
Yes, I think so, Swamiji took the burden of the whole of India on his shoulders that day. But in a nation subjugated for thousands of years, everything has been shattered. Only extreme poverty, illiteracy and superstition in the country after 1000 years of foreign plunder existed.
There is not even an old temple in the whole of northern India. All higher education centers like Nalanda Taxila have been destroyed. Art, culture and literature have all been destroyed one by one. As a result of conversion, a quarter of the people have become infidels. Such a great ruin or havoc over a great country. Could the determination to pull the nation out of this situation be called daring? Or, should I say madness ?? No matter what anyone thinks, the 29-year-old is still made the determination.
. To Bibekananda this was the instruction of his guru, and to us it was the provision of the destiny.
In those three days a new Vivekananda was born on top of that rock in the middle of the waves of the three seas. So that rock is not only memorable to Vivekananda devotees but also very important place in the life of our entire nation.
It was very unfortunate there was no memorial of Swamiji in that place.
On Swamiji's birth centenary, "Swamiji Birth Centenary Celebration Society" was formed in 1963 on the initiative of the volunteers of the then Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of Madras.The officials of that association decided and installed a statue in the memory of Swamiji on top of that rock. But many Christians already inhabitate mostly fishermen in the district of Kanyakumari. One day they broke the statue of Bibekananda and placed a Christian bigger Stone Cross there. As a result extreme religion tension broke out.To control the situation, the Madras state government had to deploy police guard there. Inevitably it became impossible to do anything else on that rock. That was a great shame for Hindus. On the other hand organization of RSS in Madras was very weak. They had nothing to do. But the members of that association did something, the result of which was far-reaching.
A delegation of RSS of Madras went to Nagpur and met Shri Guruji Golwalkar, the venerable Sarsanghchalak of the RSS. Informing him of the situation, they asked for help to place a statue of Swamiji on that rock in Kanyakumari.
Guruji asked, what kind of help do they want? Then they asked for an activist of the Sangh, whose name was Shri Eknath Ranade. Eknathji was then in charge of the All India Chief Intellectuals( Boddhik Pramukh) of the RSS.Three years before he was in a more important position - (SaraKaryabahak) General Secretary. Guruji granted their request and asked Eknathji to take charge of that terrible task.
But this task was almost impossible. Because, the Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru, the Union Minister of Education Humayun Kabir and the then Chief Minister of Madras Bhaktavatsalam were against it. Even the name Tamil Nadu was not wel known inside the country.
The Himalayan tusk opposed by the Prime Minister Education Minister and Chief Minister being successfully completed by Eknath Ranade whom all counselor Hindu remember with great reverence. Even his contribution is remembered with great respect by Ramakrishna-Vivekananda fans and devotees. The devotees Ramkrishna Mission still remember Eknath Ranade from the Core of the heart.
But what strength of Ranade made the impossible tusk successful? Was he a god? No, he was an ordinary man like us? So in what strength did he overcome that mountain-proof obstacle? That is why I am writing this today.
Considering the situation at that time, it is clear that the obstacle was government, administrative and political. Obstacles of the Prime Minister, Education Minister and Chief Minister. All three are very powerful political personalities and belong to the same party i.e. ... Congress. Did Eknathji overcome that obstacle with the help of opposition political parties? In 1963-64 the strength of opposition party was very nominal comparing to the mighty Congress Party. The Communist Party had the little strength but they were against the ideology of Swami Vivekananda.
Political Party Bharatiya Jana Sangh, friend of RSS had only 14 MPs at that time. But Eknath Ranare collected the signatures of a total of 323 MPs in favor of the temple and submitted a demand to the central government. Wasn't that almost impossible? How did Eknathji make this work possible? If Eknathji had tried to overcome this hurdle only with the help of the opposition parties of Congress( Prime Minister Nehru opposed sthe statue & he was from Congress) could he have done so? So Eknathji did not allow the issue of construction of this temple to be the agenda of a single political party. And was able to transcend the narrow boundaries of all parties and turn it into a national agenda. As a result, everyone could think of it as their own.
Today, compare the Kanyakumari temple with the construction movement of Ramandir in Ayodhya? Eknathji took charge in 1963, and ... In 1970, the temple was completed and inaugurated by President VV Giri. Only 6 years! But the movement for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya started in 1984. Today, in 2016, in 33 years, not a single brick could be built. But now that party has 262 MPs in the hands of BJP, and then it was only 14!
Does the reader understand the reason for this failure? The Ayodhya movement has been the party agenda of only one political party from the very beginning. And Eknath Ranade was able to make his issue a National agenda . In no way he didn't allow the isseue of temple to become a single party political agenda. So the pressure that Nehru succumbed to was not the pressure of the opposition political forces. That was the pressure of National Power.
Our country is also very big and the society is also very big. The population of our country alone is two and a half times the total population of 50 countries in Europe. So there is a lot of big work left for our country and society. Many big agendas have to be fulfilled. These tasks are so big, so difficult and so time consuming ... that they cannot be completed with the consent and strength of a single political party.
Let me give you a few examples ....
(A) The problem of caste or social discrimination in our country.
(B) To make millions of temples, hundreds of religious leaders and communities state-oriented and socially sensitive
(C) Revival of Sanskrit language.
(D) Indianization of the country's large Muslim community or return to Hinduism.
(E) Transparency of all rivers including Ganges.
(F) To build sympathy for the masses of the working class and redeem them from their economic exploitation.
(G) Universal education and health. ... etc etc ....
.... None of this work is possible by the power of a single political party and cannot be completed in 5-10 years. If one of the big parties and the government takes up one of these tasks, but loses power in the next election, the task will be lost in the middle. Because in a democratic system every party has victories and defeats. Therefore, any large-scale work, especially social or religious work, should not be allowed to become the party agenda of a single party. Then that work will fail.
... I am about to enter a new phase of my career with this article. Bringing them to ancestor's religion. Hundreds of years ago, the part of our society that was forced to convert to Islam under the pressure of foreign and pagan rulers to welcome them back to Hinduism and Hindu society. Their number is huge. There are now about 200 million Muslims in India. They cannot be cut off. So will we leave them in the hands of mullahs, clerics and jihadists? So can we Hindus live in peace? I can't. So bringing them into the Hindu society is good for both them and us. And only conscious people will realize that the world situation is becoming more favorable for us to do this day by day. So we have to get down to this. Nanya pantha bidate ayanaya( There is no other path left).
And this huge task is not possible for one or two political parties. The entire Hindu community must take this work seriously. As soon as we invite them collectively..... work completed. Can't build a small temple in 34 years, and bringing back 2,000 million Muslims to Hinduism! Impossible. So let us start our quest to involve the entire Hindu community in this work. And the very role model is Shri Eknath Ranade.
Author: Late Shri Tapan Ghosh ... (Collected from Swadesh Samhati Sangbad, March 2016)
[This post was rebroadcast on the occasion of the death anniversary of this great worker (August 22, 1982).]
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