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Vivekananda Kendra is celebrating Ma.Eknathji Ranade’s birthday as
‘Sadhana Diwas’. Let us see what was the thought of Ma.Eknathji, when he
started the spiritually oriented service organization, Vivekananda Kendra. He
said, “People of our country are, by tradition, religion-minded and this
country is therefore described as a land of Dharma and spirituality. Swami
Vivekananda used to say that the soul of our country is in Dharma. The highest
and the ultimate goal, or Purushartha, aspired for by the people of our country
is Mukti…
“If going to temples, visiting places of pilgrimage,
participating in Bhajans, Yagnyas and Anusthanas as also listening to
philosophical and religious discourses by millions of people, or the presence
of numerous religious teachers, gurus and such other men of God all over the
country are the manifestations of a growing religiosity, our country is,
perhaps, more religious today than it ever was at any time in the past.”
“But, unfortunately, the natural impact of this apparent
God-wardness of the general society is little in evidence today. Purposeful
living, discipline, character, truthfulness, fellow-feeling, fearlessness,
subordination of the self and a zest for works of public good, which are some
of the traits that develop in a God-ward society and which, we have enough
evidence to say, existed in good measure in our country in the past, are seen
fast disappearing from our midst. Ironically enough, with the apparent
religious fervour presently on the increase, general corruption, in- discipline
and other kinds of moral degradation are also in the ascendant. How is this
paradox to be explained?”
"…Any discerning mind will be able to see that a
distorted conception of Dharma is the root cause of most of our ills for the
last several centuries, which persist even today. It is rightly said that
Dharma is the soul of our country. But, as that itself is blurred, we have the
sorry spectacle of deterioration all round.”
“Spiritual awakening means experiencing the presence of
God in one’s own self and in the world. That makes one conscious of the divine
within and urges him to work for its unfoldment and enables him to grow
spiritually. Simultaneously, it generates in him a sense of oneness with God’s
creation and, consequently, an intense fellow-feeling for the members of his
own species – the human race – and prompts him to work with zest for human
welfare and progress… If, and as long
as, the spiritual awakening intensifies on these lines, it is dynamic and full
of tremendous potentialities for the transformation of humanity into higher and
higher planes of existence. But, if it remains limited to rituals, forms of
worship and offerings to God, or prayers and praises addressed to Him, it
becomes static and has hardly any role to play in human advancement.”
"Swami Vivekananda was the foremost among the modern
religious teachers who strove to take out Dharma from that static condition
into which it had degenerated over the centuries, and drew the attention of the
people to its real role. He pointed out in no uncertain terms that ceremonies
and forms are not the essence of Dharma but that it lies rather in the realization
of a higher life. He said, 'We may study all the books that are in the world,
yet we may not understand a word of religion or of God. …Dharma is not in
doctrines or dogmas, nor in intellectual argumentation. It is realisation in
the heart of hearts; it is touching God; it is feeling, realising that I am a
Atman in relation with Paramatman and all its great manifestations.' To those
who lost themselves only in forms and rituals, turning their back on the people
and the misery that had befallen them, he said, 'What vain gods shall we go
after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all around us, the Virat
(Janata Janardan) When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all
other gods.”
Does it mean that we need not follow our rituals, do Pooja etc. it does
not mean that but limiting ourselves to our god will not be enough. The real
spirituality is in living in interacting with others with all compassion,
kindness and love. To be able to do that, one needs to do some Sadhana and that
is what our shastras had prescribed as some Pooja, Upasana etc so that we are
capable to render service to our people. Then only the practice of Dharma is
complete. This complete meaning of Dharma needs to be taken to the people.
Ma.Eknathji wrote, “A Two-pronged
Movement - The Need of the Hour: The remedy for the ills of our country,
therefore, lies in launching a mighty movement of right thought sweeping the
entire country. It has to be a two-pronged move. On the one hand, it is to be
aimed at (1) transforming our people’s inherent God- wardness into the right
spiritual urge rising out of the teachings of the Upanishads, namely, (a) each
soul is potentially divine and (b) faith in God, in turn means faith in one’s
self, i.e. in one’s potentiality to rise to divine heights. On the other hand,
it is (2) to convert the spiritual fervour thus released into works of national
reconstruction”.
Thus, Vivekananda Kendra works with the twin ideals of Man – making and
Nation-building. Man - making means giving confidence, aspiration to a person
to rise to divine heights and work for the nation with a feeling of Oneness.
Nation building is possible only by creating teams of such men of evolved
consciousness who would take up the work of national reconstruction to fulfil
the mission of Bharat of guiding the world in spirituality. Thus, the service
activities of Kendra do not depend on poverty of the society or the occurrence
of cyclones, earthquakes, famines etc. Ma. Eknathji says in 'Sadhana of
Service', "If we are merely a service-oriented organization, we will
have to pray to God to create cyclones, floods, famines and accidents to
provide us opportunities of service. Service with a spiritual orientation
results in man making, which is invariably and inseparably connected with
nation building. It is the core of all our thoughts behind this organization.”
Real service is awakening a person to his potential divinity and making
him realise the purpose of life. The purpose of life also has to be the
fulfilment of the mission of this nation. The mission of this nation has been
to help man to evolve with higher consciousness so that a caring, considerate
and well-knit society based on the vision of Oneness is built. This spiritually
oriented service is what Kendra intends to do.
Eknathji says in ‘Sadhana of Service’, “That service is the best and
the noblest which is performed with the attitude of total surrender to God. …It
is the divine design that I should render service on His behalf. He desires the
betterment of the world and I am being used as a tool or a means to carry out
His design. I am just an instrument in His hands …the action must be performed
without any attachment but sincerely and honestly to the best of our ability
with an attitude of being a tool only. We have been called upon to execute
whatever is essential and possible as willed by God. This is SERVICE. We are
doing His work. Such work elevates us and leads to Self-realization, which is
the supreme goal of human life.”
As the service rendered with this bhava of being the instrument in the
hands of God leads to self- realization, it is termed as “spiritually oriented
service”. Such surrender helps the karyakarta to merge with the organization
and thereby strengthens it to carry out work of national reconstruction. To see
Mother Bharat seated on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she
ever was, the Sadhana needed at this hour when Bharat is making a mark at
global level, is to render such "spiritually oriented service".
Sadhana Diwas is a day when we focus on whether each day we are becoming
better and better with our inner development, whether our capacity to face the
situations with courage and conviction to proceed confidently in our work is
increasing.
Nivedita Raghunath Bhide
