When India will radiate its glory again....
ভারত আবার জগৎ সভায় শ্রেষ্ট আসন...
I’ll start this writeup with few lines from a speech which has been delivered little before the unfortunate event of 9/11 . Incidentally that speech was delivered on the month of September only at Chicago but few years early - in1893 . And I dare not to touch the purity of the speech with my ignorance and limited capabilities. CONCLUDING ADDRESS - Chicago, Sept 27, 1893- By Swamy Vivekananda
“Sisters and Brothers of America,
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee."………….
When we talk about ancient Indian knowledge system and spirituality, its all about giving up …attaining Nirvana .. showing the emptiness in every worldly activities…..but is it the only virtue India wants to spread as Vishwa guru ?
People often say unless you deny all worldly pleasure you won’t realize the ultimate, but reality is different, once people get a glimpse of this experience and realize the true source of this, they feel so much emptiness in everything else, its simply not be possible to get attached with anything else for long. In the words of Jim Carry ….ever since I always try to be at that moment and take as many people as I possibly can over there.
My personal opinion is, the biggest cause of the unrest in modern society is the absence of that element from our life. But this was as common part of human life as retiring to bed at night. Those content silent moments were as readily available in life as singing dancing or even as water. Very naturally falling into those quite moments of spending time with self helps to propel through joy and expand heart (হৃদয় প্রসারী ) and fill us with simple joy or bliss ….and this was very common in daily life. Lets listen to a song from Rabindranath Tagore to catch the feeling…
আনন্দ ধারা বহিছে ভূবনে .........
Joy and bliss flow in all of creation...
Now the biggest obstacle to missing this element from life is television and other electronic media, which occupies our invaluable time with ourselves. Not knowing the joy of those moments, we often get scared or bored when we have to be with ourselves and we desperately seek company if not anything else rush towards the TV or internet. Which not only eats up that valuable time, but also bombards our brain with thousands of extrovert thoughts and kills the very natural introvert ness of human expression. All these opinions, false portraits of happy life, make our tired confused mind more stressed or slowly made us another zumbie of that school of thoughts on which we walk but don’t know why we are walking. Effect of missing that element of joyful silence from our lives, which could have fill ourselves with full of vitality and make our intellect sharp enough to make choices, is reflected in every aspect of modern society and also in our personal life.
This quite time doesn’t mean daydreaming or laziness, both of them have equally adverse effects in our life, but to get connected with inner silence. The potential of all dynamism lies in it. Once we can stay few moments in that silent conciseness naturally you get tremendous motivation for creative work, the outcome, can be visibly displays in the passion and intensity of our work we do in our day to day life. Now the question is, getting engaged in activities is a fall of the divine existence from its ideal state. The answer is no, that passionate dynamic state is also a nature of expression of the pure soul. Ignoring this, is the common mistake in the so-called religions or even spiritual path…….Quite often we ignore inspiration as another divine nature. Stay in that joy of creative state ( সৃষ্টি সুখের উল্লাসে ) like an innocent child with full of life and dynamism is also equally divine.
We impose so many formalities, rules, restrictions on our life and on our world of action, but we simply ignore to appreciate the dynamism of pure inspiration which rises from pure inner aspiration as a divine expression. With that mind set when we take up work with half-hearten will, we don’t find our spirit in action, don’t get the joy of work. Any effort of restricting that expression results in emptiness.
I believe all the rules, regulations, laws, and formalities are created only for one reason, to prevent ourselves from the addiction of some activity, which comes from attachment. The moment we wrongly associate the source of joy from work to some external object; it kills the very free nature of our existence. Then we get engaged to that activity not from the inspiration of free will but (Moha) to seek pleasure or happiness or anxiety. But in the process of stopping ourselves from addictive work we mistakenly started discouraging the inspired work too.
There is an acid test for realizing a work is from attachment or an inspired work. I heard this explanation from somebody in TedTalk. After finishing an inspired work, we leave with an ah-ha moment just feel good from the extension of the feeling during execution but doesn’t want to go back to do again the same activity but an attached work we tempt to do it again to sick some sense of fulfillment.
From outside, people can observe passion, the intensity at the time of executing the job, which is a result of pure inspiration. No wonder, passion is the new buzzword of professional life. So we should try to embrace those inspired motivated feelings that spawn inside of us and try to channelize it in some creativity or productivity. When we can identify some work and can devote ourselves in it, that time also gives a great feeling.
Many time people wonder, why India, in spite of having so much spiritual knowledge failed to display its prosperity in today’s world. I think, answer to this will be that historically a lot of rule regulations have been imposed on our society, but we forgot the true intention of it, so as if blocking every initiative become our social moto. To prevent ourselves from some attached work which causes misery, we started discouraging any form of dynamism, this is one of the main reasons behind the failure of India to flourish with its knowledge heritage.
Finally Indian spiritual quest, which is beyond of any established religion of the world, which not only accept every religion but also confirms every single path towards Thee leads to same ultimate goal.....
The strength of Bharatiya Spirituality comes from its inclusiveness as basic foundation, where highest value has been given in seeking or self-realization not in practicing or adopting or preaching or converting.....this doesn’t encourage to increase the headcounts of one’s own community…doesn’t even attempt to stop the debate abruptly exclaiming your path is good for you so my path for me…rather logically can explain and conclude that, where your philosophy, your practice, are trying to direct you is not different from mine as long as the goal and objective is to realize Him, which is no different from knowing self in Bharatiya spirituality. Beauty of this concept is, this even includes who doesn’t want to agree with so called god and religion. It embraces every diversified school of thoughts and try to be respectful to them and to each and every possible soul which has manifested these thoughts. At the same time it always anchored to the idea of expansion or uplift as common goal for each soul. The unity in the diversity what gives glory to the Indian culture is a organic derivative of its Spiritual quest only…....