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<font size="4">Vivekananda</font></b></p>
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<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>A
PERSONAL reminiscence. A young man in prison, accused of conspiracy
and waging war against the British Empire. If convicted he might have
to suffer the extreme penalty, at least, transportation to the
Andamans. The case is dragging on for long months. And the young man
is in a solitary cell. He cannot always keep up his spirits high.
Moments of sadness and gloom and despair come and almost overwhelm
him. Who was there to console and cheer him up? Vivekananda.
Vivekananda's speeches, <I>From Colombo to Almora, </I>came, as a
godsend, into the hands of the young man. Invariably, when the period
of despondency came he used to open the book, read a few pages, read
them over again, and the cloud was there no longer. Instead there was
hope and courage and faith and future and light and air.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Such is Vivekananda, the embodiment of Fearlessness –
<I>abh<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>h , </I>the Upanishadic word,
the <I>mantra, </I>he was so fond of. The life and vision of
Vivekananda can be indeed summed up in the mighty phrase of the
Upanishads, <I>n<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>yam <FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>tm<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>
balah<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>nena labhyah . </I>'This soul
no weakling can attain.' Strength! More strength! Strength evermore!
One remembers the motto of Danton, the famous leader in the French
Revolution: <I>De l'audance, encore de l'audace, toujours de
l'audace!</I> </FONT>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The gospel of strength that Vivekananda spread was very
characteristic of the man. For it is not mere physical or nervous
bravery, although that too is indispensable, and it is something more
than moral courage. In the speeches referred to, the subject-matter
(as well as the manner to a large extent) is philosophical,
metaphysical, even abstract in outlook and treatment: they are not a
call to arms, like the French National Anthem, for example; they are
not merely an ethical exhortation, </FONT>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page – 103</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>a moral lesson either. They speak of the inner spirit, the divine in
man, the supreme realities that lie beyond. And yet the words are
permeated through and through with a vibration life-giving and
heroic-not so much in the explicit and apparent meaning as in the
style and manner and atmosphere: it is catching, even or precisely
when he refers, for example, to these passages in the Vedas and the
Upanishads, magnificent in their poetic beauty, sublime in their
spiritual truth, <I>nec plus ultra, </I>one can say, in the grand
style supreme:</FONT></P>
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<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3><I>	Yasyaite
himavanto mahitv<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT></I></FONT></P>
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<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>	He
whose greatness these snowy ranges declare</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>or,</FONT></P>
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</P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3><I>	Na
tatra s<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ū</FONT>ryo bh<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>ti
na eandrat<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>rak<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>m..</I>.</FONT></P>
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</P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>	There
the' sun shines not, nor the moon nor the stars</FONT></P>
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</P>
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agam,</FONT></P>
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<P style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3><I>	N<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>sad
<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>s<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>t
na sad <FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>s<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>t
tad<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>n<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>m</I></FONT></P>
<P style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3><I>	n<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä</FONT>s<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>t
raja no vyoma para yat..</I>.</FONT></P>
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</P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>	Then
existence was not nor non-existence, the mid</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>	world
was not nor the Ether nor what is beyond.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The consciousness that breathed out these mighty words,
these heavenly sounds was in itself mighty and heavenly and it is
that that touches you, penetrates you, vibrates in you a kindred
chord, &quot;awakening in you someone dead&quot; till then – <I>mrtam
<FONT FACE="Arial Narrow">k<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">Ä&ntilde;c</FONT>ana
</FONT>bodhayant<FONT FACE="Luxi Serif">ī</FONT>. </I>More than the
matter, the thing that was said, was the personality, the being who
embodied the truth expressed, the living consciousness behind the
words and the speech that set fire to your soul. Indeed it was the
soul that Vivekananda could awaken and stir in you. Any orator, any
speaker with some kind of belief, even if it is for the moment, in
what he says, by the sheer force of assertion, can convince your mind
and draw your acquiescence and adhesion. A leader of men,
self-confident and bold and fiery,</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=2 STYLE="font-size: 9pt">Page –
104</FONT><BR>
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<P ALIGN=JUSTIFY style="line-height: 150%; margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"><FONT SIZE=3>can
carry you off your feet and make you do brave things. But that is a
lower degree of character and nature, ephemeral and superficial, that
is touched in you thereby. The spiritual leader, the Guide, goes
straight to the spirit in you – it is the call of the deep unto the
deep. That was what Vivekananda meant when he said that Brahman is
asleep in you, awaken it, you are the Brahman, awaken it, you are
free and almighty. It is the spirit consciousness – Sachchidananda
– that is the real man in you and that is supremely mighty and
invincible and free absolutely. The courage and fearlessness that
Vivekananda gave you was the natural attribute of the lordship of
your spiritual reality. Vivekananda spoke and roused the Atman in
man.</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Vivekananda spoke to the Atman in man, he spoke to the
Atman of the world, and he spoke specially to the Atman of</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>India. India had a large place in Vivekananda's
consciousness: for the future of humanity and the world is wedded to
India's future. India has a great mission, it has a spiritual, rather
<I>the </I>spiritual work to do. Here is India's work as Vivekananda
conceived it in a nutshell:</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;Shall India die? Then from the world all
spirituality will be extinct.&quot; And wherefore is this call for
the life spiritual? Thus the aspiring soul would answer:</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;If I do not find bliss in the life of the spirit,
shall I seek satisfaction in the life of the senses? If I cannot get
nectar, shall I fall back upon ditch water?&quot;</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The answer is as old as that of Nachiketas: &quot;These
horses and these songs and dances of yours, let them remain yours,
man is not appeased with riches&quot;; or that of Maitreyi, &quot;What
am I to do with that which will not bring me immortality?&quot; This
is then man's mission upon earth:</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;Man is higher than all animals, than all angels:
none is greater than man. Even the Devas will have to come down again
and attain to salvation though a human body. Man alone attains to
perfection, not even the Devas.&quot; Indeed, men are gods upon
earth, come down here below to perfect themselves and perfect the
world – only, they have to be conscious of themselves. They do not
know what they are, they have to be actually and sovereignly what
they are really and potentially. This then is the life-work of
everyone:</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page – 105</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;First, let us be Gods, and then help others to be
Gods. 'Be and make', let this be our motto.&quot;</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>That is indeed the only way of securing a harmonious and
perfected humanity:</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;Manifest the divinity within you, and everything
will be harmoniously arranged around it.&quot;</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>The path to this higher harmonious divine life is that
of hard labour, of scrupulously untiring, conscientious work:</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;It is struggle against nature and not conformity
to nature that makes man what he is.&quot;</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>Work and not abstention from work is the way, but not
work for ignorant enjoyment:</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;The dwelling-place of the Jivatman, this body, is
a veritable means of work, and he who converts this into an infernal
den is guilty, and he who neglects it is also to blame.&quot;</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>&quot;No work is petty ... He who can properly prepare a
<I>chilam </I>(pipe of tobacco) can also properly meditate.&quot;</FONT></P>
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<FONT SIZE=3>These are luminous life-giving mantras and the world and
humanity of today, sore distressed and utterly confounded, have great
need of them to live them by and be saved.</FONT><BR>
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<FONT SIZE=2>Page – 106</FONT></P>
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