Snippets from Swamiji's TN trip, which breathed life into the freedom fight
Date : 18/05/2024
It was 26 January 1897 and the time was close to 3 pm. The sparkling and powerful eyes of Swami Vivekananda were eagerly awaiting the sight of the holy land of Mother Bharath. And the steamer carrying Swamiji and his disciples, most of whom were Europeans, was touching the shores of Pamban in south Tamil Nadu.
Swamiji was nostalgically contemplating over his reply to an English friend in London during December 1896 about his feelings for India then, after his stay in the luxurious, materialistic and powerful West for four years: “India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me; it is now the holy land-the place of pilgrimage, the tirtha.”
And symbolically, it was the tirtha (Rameshwaram is a 16-minute drive from Pamban) he was arriving at.
Bhaskara Sethupathi, the Raja of Ramnad, was kneeling down, pleading the Swamiji to place his foot on his head. He felt the Swamiji’s feet should not touch the soil first in India … only the head of a humble Raja must have the fortune of bearing it. But the Swamiji politely declined the offer and gently touched his head with his hand, blessing the Raja.
This was India’s holy message: The spiritual king always reigns supreme and the ruling king seeks his blessings humbly from the former. Supremacy and strength is redefined in our tradition. The sensual pleasures of those three days, Swamiji oft says, are nowhere before the eternal bliss of spirituality.
Thenceforth that place came to be called ’Kundhu Call’ which means with legs kneeling down to receive blessings since the Raja did the same.
Swamiji brought about a sea-change in the perspective of the Raja and his people. People saw the Ramnad king himself drawing the state carriage, unharnessing the horses. The real Maharaj is one who has renounced everything. Renunciation and service are the twin ideals of this nation, and this was demonstrated.
“The backbone of the Indian national life was neither politics nor military power, neither commercial supremacy nor mechanical genius, but religion and religion alone; that it was this that India alone could give to the world.” (Life of Swami Vivekananda - by His Eastern and Western disciples)
If viewed in the right perspective, this theory still holds good and will forever. Religion defined in a refined way means righteousness if we set aside the superstitious beliefs which atheists exaggerate to lambast believers. If righteousness is the basis of development of a country, be it socio-economic, or education, then corruption cannot take root. Of course, righteousness is definitely within the realm of all religions. Any religious man with the right equilibrium would concur with Vivekananda.
In fact there are many coincidences associated with Swamiji’s trip to Tamil Nadu. The day his feet touched the soil in Tamil Nadu--January 26--became our Republic Day.
The next day, he visited the Rameswaram temple where he defined the method of worship in a novel way, shattering the superstitious beliefs of commoners that religion means mere rituals which he humorously called ‘the kindergarten of religion’.
“It is in love that religion exists and not in ceremony, in the pure and sincere love in the heart.” (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)
He abhorred any pretensions in religion.
“External worship is only a symbol of internal worship; but internal worship and purity are the real things.” (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)
“He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary.” (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)
The people saw a new perspective, the true significance of thirtha and worship.
The spirit of the spiritual monarch influenced the ruling monarch also. When the Raja fed and clothed the poor and needy, the magnanimous gesture of the Raja did not escape the notice of the Swamiji. He called him, “Raja Rishi”. The ancient practice of kings listening to the rishis for citizen-friendly administration was demonstrated.
Satyameva Jayate
To mark the sacred spot where the Swamiji’s blessed feet first touched the Indian soil, Bhaskara Sethupathi erected a monument of Victory, 40 feet in height. It bore the inscription, ‘Satyameva Jayate’.
‘Satyameva Jayate’ (Truth alone Triumphs) was made the national motto of India on 26 January 1950, the day India became a Republic. Inscribed at the base of the Lion Capital of Asoka, it forms an integral part of the Indian National Emblem.
There was another coincidence too.
Famine hit Tamil Nadu in the late 19th century. When Swamiji visited Ramnad on 29 January 1897 the impact of the recent famine was writ large on the faces of the people of the driest district of Tamilnadu. They yearned not only for food, but also for soothing and comforting words.
The God-sent Swamiji, with his majestic demeanour, emboldened the empty-bellied commoners with his unique address full of literary eloquence, profundity of thought and promising hope for political freedom. The lengthy opening sentence echoed a thrilling sensation to the hungry masses with sunken eyes, dry hair and tattered clothes.
“The long night seems to be passing away, the sorest trouble seems to be coming to an end at last, the seeming corpse appears to be awakening, and a voice is coming to us -- away back where history and even tradition fails to peep into the gloom of the past … it is bringing life into the almost dead bones and muscles, the lethargy is passing away…none can resist her anymore, never is she going to sleep anymore, no outward powers can hold her back anymore …” (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)
‘Arise and Awake’ in Ramanathapuram
Swamiji exhorted the audience with the following lines:
“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 only sleeping. Arise, and awake and see her seated here, on the eternal throne, rejuvenated more glorious than she ever was—this Mother land of ours.”
(Lectures from Colombo to Almora)
Does this sound like an ardent freedom fighter who initially escaped the scanning eyes of the British Police? But invariably, police personnel, when raiding the hideouts of freedom fighters stumbled upon the lectures and books of the Swamiji. Then the name ‘Vivekananda’ puzzled the police. Was he a saffron-robed Sanyasin or a weapon-wielding freedom fighter?
‘Stop not till the goal is reached’ in Kumbakonam
Or was he an invisible freedom fighter in a saffron robe? He stirred the sleeping masses using the electrifying words ‘arise and awake’ in Ramanathapuram and added ‘stop not till the goal is reached’ in Kumbakonam in Tanjore a few days later. These became world-famous statements.
This inspired Gandhi and Subash Chandra Bose. Both leaders were poles apart in their methods of achieving freedom but each faithfully received Swamiji’s messages. Both acknowledged his influence.
The eloquent words he uttered had far-reaching effects across the nation. Political freedom was initiated powerfully.
The Swadeshi agitation started in Bengal in 1905 after Swamiji's sad demise on 4 July 1902. But even after his death, his words inspired many. The Bengal agitation of 1905 underwent many evolutions and passed through bloody struggles. It took a better shape in the hands of Gandhian Satyagraha and the Quit India Movement, finally blossoming into national freedom on 15th August 1947.
A freedom fighter was one of the many dimensions of his personality which surfaced as the situation demanded.
His stay in Kumbakonam on February 3, 4 and 5, 1897 and his inspiring speech at Kumbakonam brought about a sea change in the attitude of the elite groups about the principle of heredity.
Intelligence and acumen are not a function of the DNA, Swamiji expounded with the example of how a boy escaped from his clan in Africa to the USA. He then got good education at premier institutions of America and eventually addressed the World’s Parliament of Religions at Chicago on 11 September 1893. He thundered:
“Ay, let every man and woman and child, without respect of caste or birth, weakness or strength, hear and learn that behind the strong and the weak, behind the high and the low, behind every one, there is that Infinite Soul, assuring the infinite possibility and the infinite capacity of all to become great and good.”
In the same breath Swamiji coined the pithy command “Arise, Awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.” It is an evolution of the two words, “Arise, Awake” which he propounded in Ramanathapuram.
It was God’s plan that the freedom movement which was already brewing gained momentum with these exhorting words of Swamiji.
This energetic statement is still stirring humanity to wake up from stupor. As long as humans exist, these words will continue to be a powerful source of inspiration.
Madras receives Swamiji
14 February 1897. Swamiji was in the then Madras region propounding his perspective of India’s future in his remarkable talk on, “The Future of India”.
The audience consisting of 3,000 people of Madras was spellbound with Swamiji’s arresting oration. A professor who attended the speech says: “The Swami’s oratory was at its best. He seemed like a lion, traversing the platform to and fro. The roar of his voice reverberated everywhere and with telling effect.” (Vivekananda - His Gospel of Man Making)
He awakened the audience:
“For the next fifty years, let this alone be your key-note—this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain Gods, disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only God that is awake, our own race—‘everywhere His hands, everywhere His feet, everywhere His ears. He covers everything’. All other Gods are sleeping.” (Lectures from Colombo to Almora)
Swami Vivekananda was a Vedic Rishi, a personification of truth, purity and unselfishness with his innate invincible armour like the kavasa and kundala of Karna. With those divine qualities, whatever his tongue uttered was satya.
He ordered us to worship only Mother Bharat and not any other Gods. He promulgated these words in 1897 and in 50 years, India was independent. This is no coincidence. Swami Vivekananda’s words in Tamil Nadu were prophetic indeed.
Picture credits: Bhaarathphotography in Wikimedia Commons
Tags :
Note: Your email address will not be displayed with the comment.
.png)
Excellent sir