Why this project, why Vivekananda?

A stormy delusive current of materialism is engulfing this beautiful world of ours. The younger generation is totally mesmerised and drawn to and dragged by elusive temptations of worldly enjoyments which is bound to be destructive and be the cause of suffering and bondage. The elder ones are already bound hand and feet, by their own latent tendencies, expectations and demands, busily running about in the world.

With all these shortcomings within them remains their hidden divine nature, the source of all goodness, nobility, pure unselfish love, dedication, sacrifice, righteousness and a matchless power that can accomplish anything and attain any goal. This is their higher self. The world of temptation presented to them mainly through audio-visual media has suppressed their higher self and has activated the lower-self that are linked to base instincts. 

We have to reverse the process, create higher awareness in them and make them conscious of their own glory, greatness and divinity. They are the children of Immortality, the Amrtasya Putrah  , with high calibre and unique intelligence. If we can draw their attention somehow to higher human ideals, then they realise their greatness and their spiritual heritage, their divine inheritance. Once their higher self-awakens, their evolution begins eventually leading them to their inner beauty, inner bliss, inner peace and inner freedom. The installation of Swami Vivekananda’s Global Monument is to draw the younger generation of entire world to the higher ideals.

Vivekananda represents the entire Indian cultural and the spiritual tradition, Her purity, perfection, Her noble ideas and supreme ideals, Her divine qualities, Her virtuous conduct and elite mannerism, Her glory and grandeur, the Supreme knowledge and the Supreme Goal of manifestation of inner Divinity of Man, and all that is good and great. He is the embodiment of strength and purity, of universal love and patriotism, of supreme knowledge and pure devotion, of unselfishness and dedication, of service and sacrifice, of renunciation and asceticism. He is youth icon. Free from politics, free from differences of caste, creed, religion race or nationality always seeking universal oneness: one life and many beings, one God and many religions, one world and many nations, one family and many members, One Atman I and You; the One manifesting asmany. He could love and endear all, serve all without any difference because he was rooted in that Oneness. He used to say, Truth is my God, the universe is my country, and he said everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment, Universality.

By placing this monument before this world we are invoking a new world of peace, prosperity, mutual love and oneness. Each time one looks at or remembers him, one is compelled to come back to one’s senses and try time and again to match with the Supreme Ideal standing brightly in front of oneself.  The soul scorched in the world-ward life, derives great solace and starts moving self-ward and finds great changes coming over within oneself. With the struggle for self-development begins man’s evolution to his divine-hood. He feels the joy of life, life becomes blissful without worldly enjoyments. One begins to experience the real peace of transcendence of one’s own nature. The soul attains more and more internal freedom, gradually helping him to express inner divinity, rather, the inner Divinity starts manifesting Itself. He discovers harmony at every level life, life becomes beautiful, worth living.  His godly qualities manifest, his consciousness expands beyond family level, beyond national level, beyond racial level, beyond the boundaries of Religion and sects, gender, species to embrace the whole universe. This, to be sure, is saint-hood. A lowly man fallen in worldly-ways climbs to the saint-hood. This is what a stone statue does to convert crude man into the refined god.

The whole world will not change at once it may take a few lives for a man, and it may take centuries for the mankind, but it does. One or two percent may undergo real transformation. They form small unseen pockets to spread the light around, like a street light at night. One day or other, in one life or other, man shall witness that LIGHT, for it is his real nature. Man is Divine, whatever be his life good and bad. Good and bad bring their own results without tarnishing the glory and greatness of the Inner Divinity.

So did Swami Vivekananda said Man is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divine within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy by one or more or all of these and be free. This is the whole of the religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms are but secondary details.

Swami Vivekananda is both a spiritual eminence and a social reformer who is regarded as the main architect in moulding the modern world of oneness. He, emerging out of the fundamental Oneness of this universe, found that harmony is the principle that maintains this basic Oneness. Thus, he initiated that oneness in human existence by creating harmony of science and spirituality, harmony of the East and the West, harmony of the ancient and the modern, harmony of spiritual and secular, harmony of all religions of the world. It is thisharmony that we have to adopt and internalise so that it becomes one in with our system. If man lives, he must live in harmony for, harmony is alone brings peace. We must have internal harmony and live in harmony with the external Nature.

If this is Vivekananda, then imagine what his Guru Sri Ramakrishna might have been! How He trained him, what knowledge, Realisations and power He might have given him in making him the Vivekananda. Hinduism is alive and vibrant today and is getting universal recognition and acceptance mainly because of the life, realisations and teachings of this Great Master, Sri Ramakrishna and due to the ceaseless efforts of Swami Vivekananda in bringing them to limelight for the world. Swami Vivekananda was an illumined saint who took the role of a preceptor, a philosopher, a reformer. In his brief life of 39 years he restored the pristine glory of India and the Upanishadic Truths. He taught, preached and served, by the power and authority bestowed upon him by his Guru.

Now so far in the history of the world has single handed done so much contribution to the world-welfare as him. His influence on human life, civilisation, culture, religion and spirituality are unique and remarkable. He spurred Indians to

Why this place?

The purpose is to create an awareness in man that makes him evolve to his divine-hood. For such a spiritual message to be conveyed, a suitable place that is in tune with the Divine is necessary. Usually it is a place where some saint lived, or some spiritual aspirant had performed severe austerities (Tapasya) to attain God, or the Nature expressing such glimpses transcendental beauty that man’s external coverings (mind, senses etc.,) are silenced and he feels the immediate presence of Divinity eternally there or within himself. Some places depict an unimaginable mystery and splendour. People have revered such places as places of sacred power and Spiritual eminence. They are the sanctuaries of divinity.

The place we have selected for the erection of the monument, with a backdrop of divine and elegant Nakre Kallu hillock is one of its kind.  The calmness and silence of the place radiates holiness. Elegant hilly slopes with charming view of vast horizon with a blue sapphire canopy of captivating evergreen forest likened to emerald all around.  On one side 35 kms away there is the famous Udupi pilgrimage centre, the seat of Dvaitic school of philosophy.  On the other side at a distance of just 5Kms there is the another famous religious and historical place Karkala, where Bahubali image (42 feet height monolith) is situated and is a seat of Jainism glory. Sringeri, the seat of Advaitic school of Indian philosophy, the Dharmasthal, Horanad etc., are close by situated pilgrimage centres where devout people visit in large numbers.  And above all this Ashrama is a non-sectarian organisation and compatible with all religious faiths, orders and paths, and helping man to grow not only spiritually but in all fields and sectors of life, people of all community, of all strata and of all sections of society from all walks of life visit without any hesitation.

So, in such a sacred and holy place of mutual love and concern, people undergo a real transformation. The place too becomes a universal temple. Otherwise it becomes sight-seeing spot, a tourist spot or a picnic spot. Now we need life, not enjoyments, we need character building education, not the modern mere information giving and money-yielding education. This place is viewed to be sanctifying mankind and lifting to higher levels of humanity and divinity without any difference of caste, creed, gender, religion or status.

United let us honour and offer an heartfelt humble tributes
By building the Global Monument
For the Nation-builder and universal preceptor loved by humanity,
The Swami Vivekananda
Who wished, toiled and blessed the world to be One.

Swami Vivekananda's contributions to the Nation and the World : A New Perspective

Sri Ramakrishna has descended to this earth for redemption of mankind. With the Power and Authority bestowed by him, Swami Vivekananda forged ahead to promote theupliftment of the world, upliftment of the Nation and upliftment of the individual souls

Rare and far apart are such souls that sanctify the earth; and the Mother Earth enshrines them in her bosom with pride.Swami Vivekananda is one of the main moulders of the modern world of positive advancement.  His momentous and significant historical contribution to the world and the nation can be summarised as:

Some of his sayings/writings in his own language for us to contemplate:

1. I have a message to the world and I will give it after my own fashion. I will neither Hinduise my message, nor Christianise it, nor make it anywisein the world. I will only my-wise it, and that is all. Liberty and Mukti (Freedom) is all my religion.
2. We want to day that bright Sun of intellectuality, joined with wonderful infinite heart of love and mercy. This union will give us the highest philosophy. Science and religion will meet and shake hands. Poetry and philosophy will become friends. This will be the religion of the future and it will be for all times and for all people.
3. Religion is not talk or doctrines or theories, nor is sectarianism. It is the relation between the soul and God. Religion is spiritual realisation (Anubhuti). Purity and renunciation is the one secret of spirituality. Therefore first earn spirituality and realise the truth for yourself.
4. I accept all religions that were in the past and worship with them all. I worship God with every one of them in whatever form they worship Him. I shall go to the Mosque of the Mohammedans, shall enter to Christen Church and need before the Crucifix. I shall enter the Buddhist temple, where I shall take refuge in Buddha and his law. I shall go in to the forest and sit down in the meditation with the Hindu, who is trying to see the Light which enlightens the heart of everyone.
5. Not only I shall do these, but I shall keep my heart upon all that may come in the future. Is God’s book finished or is it still a continuous revelation going on? It is a marvellous book of these spiritual Revelations of the world.
6. The Bible, the Vedas, the Koran and all other sacred books are but so many pages, and an infinite numbers of pages remain yet to be unfolded. I world leave it open for all of them. We stand in the present but open ourselves to the infinite future. We take in all that has been in the past, enjoy the light of the present and open every wisdom of the heart for all that will come in the future. Salutation to all the Prophets of the past, to all great ones of the present and to all those that are to come in the future.
7. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
8. Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life building, man making, character-making, assimilation of ideas.
9. Even the least work done for others awakens the power within gradually instils into the heart the strength of a Lion.
10. The life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
11. The whole ocean is present at the back of each wave.
12. Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life; strength, it says, strength, O man, be not weak.
13. The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. Be not weak, either physically, mentally, morally of spiritually.
14. What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made. Strength, manhood, Kshatravirya, Brahmateja.
15. Strength is life, weakness is death; strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal! Weakness is constant strain and misery. Weakness is death. Let positive strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood.
16. Weakness is the one cause of suffering. We become miserable, because we are weak. We lie, steal, kill and commit other crimes, because we are weak. We suffer, because we are weak. We die because we are weak. Where there is nothing to weaken us, there is no death, no sorrow. Strength is one thing needful. Strength is the medicine for the world’s disease.
17. Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibilities on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves. Therefore make your own future.
18. Either in this world or in this world of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what cause fear? Ignorance of our own nature. Each of us is heir-apparent to the Emperor of Emperors.
19. What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel and gigantic will, which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and secrets of the Universe and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it meant going to the bottom of the ocean and meeting Death face to face. We have wept long enough; no more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man making religion that we want. It is man making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth, anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, Truth is all knowledge. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating.
20. Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practise it.
21. Do not be mere white mice in a treadmill, working always and never accomplishing anything in life.
22. Money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.
23. Be moral, be brave, be a heart-whole man,strictly moral, brave unto desperation. Don’t bother your head with religious theories; cowards only sin, brave men never. Try to love anybody and everybody.
24. Get up, and set your shoulder to the wheel, how long is this life for? As you have come into this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise where is the difference between you and the tree and stones?they too come into existence, decay and die.
25. Be bold! My children should be brave, above all. Not the least compromise on any account. Preach the highest truths broadcast. Do not fear of losing your respect or of causing unhappy friction. Rest assured that if you serve truth in spite of temptations to forsake it, you will attain a heavenly strength, in the face of which men will quail to speak before you things which you do not believe to be true. People would be convinced of what you would say to them, if you can strictly serve truth for fourteen years continually, without swerving from it.
26. It is only our scriptures that this adjective is given to the Lord Abhih, Abhih. We have to become Abhih fearless and our task will be done.
27. Faith, sympathy, fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God, this is the secret of greatness.
28. To preach the doctrine of Sraddha or genuine faith is the mission of my life. Let me repeat to you that this faith is one of the potent factors of humanity, and of all religions. First, have faith in yourselves.
29. This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of civilisation; and if there has been degeneration,and if there has been defect, mark my words, you will find degradation to have started on the day our people lost this faith in themselves. Losing faith in one’s self means losing faith in God.
30. Don’t care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects, or churches or temples; they count for little compared with the essence of existence in each man which is spirituality and the more this is developed in a man, the more powerful is he for good. Earn that first, acquire that and criticise no one. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words or names, or sects, but that it means spiritual realisation.
31. Sincerity of conviction and purity of motive will surely gain the day, and even a small minority, armed with these is surely destined to prevail against all odds.
32. Truth, purity and unselfishness, whether these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the processor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition.
33. Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached.

His clarion call to India:

34. Life is nothing, death is nothing, hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord, march on, the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls, forward and onward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls, and another takes up the work.
35. Have a tremendous faith in yourselves.... Have that faith, each one of you, in yourself, that eternal power is lodged in every soul, and you will revive the whole of India... We must enter into the life of every race in India and abroad..... This is the time to decide your future while you possess the energy of youth... Work; this is the time, for the freshest, the untouched, and un-smelled flowers alone are to be laid at the feet of the Lord.
36. My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions.
37. A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to a lion’s courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising up the gospel of equality.
Read more...
Arise, awake, for the time is propitious. Already everything is opening out before us. Be bold and fear not. It is only in our scriptures that this objective is given unto the Lord Abhih, Abhih. We have to become Abhih, fearless, and our task will be done, Arise, awake, for your country needs this tremendous sacrifice.
Rouse yourselves, therefore, for life is short. There are greater works to be done than aspiring to become lawyers, and picking quarrels, and such things. A far greater work is this sacrifice of yourselves for the benefit of your race, for the welfare of humanity.
Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your names, fame or position, nay even your lives, and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross this ocean of life. Bring all the forces of good together. Do not care what banner you march. Do not care what be your colour, green, blue or red but mix all the colours up and produce that intense glow of white, the colour of love. Ours is to work.
Inspiration is not filtered out to the world through one channel, however great. Each generation should be inspired afresh.
Oh India! this is your terrible danger. The spell of imitating the West is getting such a hold upon you, that what is good or what is bad, is no longer decided by reason, judgement, discrimination or reference to the Sastras. With this base imitation of others, with this dependence on others, this slavish weakness would thou with these provisions only scale the highest pinnacle of civilisation of greatness? Would thou attain by means of thy disgraceful cowardice, that freedom deserved by the brave and heroic?
Oh India! forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savithri, Damayanthi; forget not that the God thou worshipest is the great ascetic of ascetics, the all renouncing, Shankara, the Lord of Uma. Forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness.
Forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mother’s alter; forget not that thy social order is but the reflex of the Infinite Universal motherhood; forget not the lower classes, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper are thy flesh and blood, thy brothers.
Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian and proudly proclaim : I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother, say the ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Paraih Indian is my brother. Thou too clad with but a rag round the loins proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice :- The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India’s gods and goddesses are my God, India’s society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age.Say brother, The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good.
 Every one must be ready for it, the conquest of the whole world by India nothing less than that, and we must all get ready for it, strain every nerve for it....... Up, India, and conquer the world with your spirituality! Ay, as has been declared on this soil first, love must conquer hatred, hatred cannot conquer itself.
The eyes of the whole world are now turned towards this land of India for spiritual food; and India has to provide it for all the races. Here alone is the best ideal for mankind....
.......The land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality, it is India.
When the life blood is strong and pure, no disease germ can live in that body.  Our life-blood is spirituality. If it flows clear, if it flows strong and pure and vigorous, everything is right, political, social, any other material defects, even the poverty of the land, will all be cured if that blood is pure. India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love;..... say not that you are weak. The spirit is omnipotent.
To the women of this country, I would say exactly what I say to the men. Believe India and in our Indian faith, be strong and hopeful and unashamed, and remember that with something to take, Hindus have immeasurably more to give than any other people in the world.
With five hundred men the conquest of India might take fifty years; with as many women, not more than a few weeks.
There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.
Our women are not learned but they are more pure. To every woman every man, save her husband, should be her son. To every man every woman, save his own wife, should be as his mother.
Along with other things, our women should acquire the spirit of valour and heroism. In the present day, it has become necessary for them also to learn self defence. See, how grand was the queen of Jhansi.
Look upon every men, women and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone; you can only serve; serve the children of the Lord; serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of His children, blessed you are; don’t think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as a worship. The poor and the miserable are for our salvation, so that we may serve the Lord coming in the shape of the diseased, coming in the shape of lunatic, the leper and the sinner. The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. Of course, all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, the Taj mahal of the temples. If I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage. Vow then to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of the 300 millions goings down and down everyday.
Do you love your fellow men? Where should you go to seek for God? Are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, Gods? Why not worship them first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of the Ganges? Believe in the omnipotent power of love. Who care for these tinsel puffs of name? Have you love? You are omnipotent. Are you perfectly unselfish? If so, you are irresistible. It is character that pays everywhere. Give up jealousy and conceit. Learn to work unitedly for others. That is the great need of our country. Have patience and be faithful unto death. Do not fight among yourself. Be perfectly pure in money dealings. So long as you have faith and honesty and devotion, everything will prosper. So long as there is no feeling of disunion amongst you, through the grace of the Lord, I assure, there is no danger for you. Do not open your mind, unless you feel it will be positively beneficial. Use agreeable and wholesome language towards the greatest enemy. Contraction is death. All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves, lives; he who is selfish, is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake. Because, it is the only law of life.
All the work you do, is done for your own salvation, is done for your own benefit. God has not fallen into a ditch for you and me to help Him out by building a hospital, or something of that sort! He allows you to work... not in order to help Him, but that you may help yourself. Do you think even a ant will die for wants of your help? Most arrant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Cut of the word help from your mind. You cannot help; it is blasphemy! You worship. When you give a morsel of food to a dog, you worship dog as God. He is all and is in all.
Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world and thus, become pure and perfect. Be grateful to the man you help, think of his as God. It is not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellowmen?
After so much austerity, I have understood this as the real truth; God is present in every Jiva, there is no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva serves God indeed.
Calm and silent and steady work and no newspaper humbug, no name-making, you must always remember this.
Go all of you, wherever there is an outbreak of plague or famine, or wherever the people are in distress, and mitigate their sufferings. At the most you may die in the attempt. What of that? How many like you are taking birth and dying like worms, every day? What difference does that make to the world at large? Die you must, but have a great ideal to die for, and it is better to die with a great ideal in life. Preach this ideal from door to door and you will yourselves be benefited and at the same time, be doing good to your country. On you lies the future hope of our country. I feel extremely pain to see you leading a life of inaction. Set yourselves to work, to work ! do not tarry, the time of death is approaching day by day! Do not sit idle, thinking that everything will be done in time, later. Mind, nothing will be done that way.
Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready, waiting. She is only sleeping. Arise and awake, and see her seated here, on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was  this motherland of ours.
Work unto death I am with you, and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes, wealth, fame, enjoyments are only for a few days. It is better, far better, to die on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. Advance!