Yuva Bharati - September 2009

Vol.37 No.2 Bhadrapad-Aashvin 5111 September 2009

Editorial

03

13

Eco Dharma

Saffron Quark

19

28

V.Senthil Kumar

Our Heroes

Cover Page: A Road in Chicago named to Honour Swami Vivekananda

1

Yuva bharati - September 2009

INVOCATION

mih;asur innaRiz É´anam! suode nm>, êpm! deih jym! deih yzae deih iÖ;ae jih. O the one Who have destroyed Mahishaasura, to give solace to the devotees, give us good appearance, success and victory, and remove our defects. - Argala Stotram (Devi Mahatmyam)

2

Yuva bharati - September 2009

Editorial

Way to go...

wami Vivekananda gave the call for Universal Brotherhood in the parliament of Religions at Chicago on 11th September, 1893. It is not that he just gave the call for Universal Brotherhood, but also pointed out that Universal Brotherhood is not possible if some one insists in following only one 'historical' or 'personal' God. This disposition of saying 'My God alone is true and all should follow him' is quite irrational and impractical, and only brings more bloodshed. Universal Brotherhood is possible only if humanity can see God as cause of everything in this universe including the 'historical' or 'personal' Gods. This is what Vedanta is and the world needs it today. Swami Vivekananda explained this very beautifully in his lecture The Mission of Vedanta. He says “There are times in the history of a man's life, nay, in the history of the lives of nations, when a sort of world-weariness becomes painfully predominant ...such a tide of world-weariness has come upon the Western world …they are already finding out that this race after gold and power is all vanity of vanities; many, nay, most of the cultured men and women there, are already weary of this competition, this struggle, this brutality of their commercial civilization, and they are looking forward towards something better… They have found out that no amount of political or social manipulation of human conditions can cure the evils of life. It is a change of the soul itself for the better that alone will cure the evils of life. No amount of force, or government, or legislative cruelty will change the conditions of a race, but it is spiritual culture and ethical culture alone that can change wrong racial tendencies for the better. Thus these races of the West are eager for some new thought, for some new philosophy; The thoughtful men of the West find in our ancient philosophy, especially in the Vedanta, the new impulse of thought they are seeking, the very spiritual food and drink for which they are hungering and thirsting. And it is no wonder that this is so. …it is Vedanta, and Vedanta alone, that can become the universal religion of man, and that no other is fitted for the role. Excepting our own, almost all the other great religions in the world are inevitably connected with the life or lives of one or more of their founders. All their theories, their teachings, their doctrines, and their ethics are built round the life of a personal founder, from whom they get their sanction, their authority, and their power; and strangely enough, upon the historicity of the founder's life is built, as it were, all the fabric of such religions. If there is one blow dealt to the historicity of that life, as has been the case in modern times with the lives of almost all the so-called founders of religion-we know that half of the

S

3

Yuva bharati - September 2009

details of such lives is not now seriously believed in, and that the other half is seriously doubted-if this becomes the case, if that rock of historicity, as they pretend to call it, is shaken and shattered, the whole building tumbles down, broken absolutely, never to regain its lost status. Every one of the great religions in the world excepting our own is built upon such historical characters; but ours rests upon principles. There is no man or woman who can claim to have created the Vedas. They are the embodiment of eternal principles; sages discovered them; and now and then the names of these sages are mentioned-just their names; we do not even know who or what they were. But what cared they, these sages, for their names? They were the preachers of principles, and they themselves, so far as they went, tried to become illustrations of the principles they preached. At the same time, just as our God is an Impersonal and yet a Personal God, so is our religion a most intensely impersonal one-a religion based upon principles-and yet with an infinite scope for the play of persons; for what religion gives you more Incarnations, more prophets and seers, and still waits for infinitely more? The Bhagavata says that Incarnations are infinite, leaving ample scope for as many as you like to come. Therefore if any one or more of these persons in India's religious history, any one or more of these Incarnations, and any one or more of our prophets are proved not to have been historical, it does not injure our religion at all; even then it remains firm as ever, because it is based upon principles, and not upon persons. If it ever becomes possible to bring the largest portion of humanity to one way of thinking in regard to religion, mark you, it must be always through principles and not through persons.” He further says, “The second claim of the Vedanta upon the attention of the world is that, of all the scriptures in the world, it is the one scripture the teaching of which is in entire harmony with the results that have been attained by the modern scientific investigations of external nature.” “It seems clear that modern materialism can hold its own and at the same time approach spirituality by taking up the conclusions of the Vedanta. It seems to us, and to all who care to know, that the conclusions of modern science are the very conclusions the Vedanta reached ages ago; only, in modern science they are written in the language of matter. This then is another claim of the Vedanta upon modern Western minds, its rationality, the wonderful rationalism of the Vedanta. I have myself been told by some of the best Western scientific minds of the day, how wonderfully rational the conclusions of the Vedanta are.” Vedanta is not just a theory but a practical way to live in harmony with others and to raise oneself up. Swami Vivekananda says in the same lecture,” No civilization can begin to lift up its head until we look charitably upon one another; and the first step towards

4

Yuva bharati - September 2009

that much-needed charity is to look charitably and kindly upon the religious convictions of others. Nay more, to understand that not only should we be charitable, but positively helpful to each other, however different our religious ideas and convictions may be. The other great idea that the world wants from us today is that eternal grand idea of the spiritual oneness of the whole universe”. This Vedanta is not a piece of information that is to be given to others but it is to be lived and practiced. We need to organize the people, to bring all the scattered spiritual forces together in our country so that Vedanta influences our life and moulds the whole world. It is already happening. Recently in an article 'We are all Hindus now' in 'NEWSWEEK', August, 31, 2009 Lisa Miller writes that, '…But recent poll data show that conceptually, at least, we are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways we think about God, ourselves, each other, and eternity'. Sighting many polls and surveys conducted in the recent years in America, she states that many in America now believe in reincarnation as well as in the fact the all religions can lead to the eternal truth. The need of the humanity to turn to Vedanta principles is becoming acute. The time is ripe. We have to emerge as a capable nation to hasten the process to effectively incorporate and practice Vedanta in life. That is the God-ordained duty for our nation. The realization of Universal brotherhood is possible only with the practice of Vedanta. We know that after the 11th September of 2001, the people seemed to have forgotten the great message of 11th September 1893. The violence of 11th September 2001 that has invaded and paralyzed the mind of men all over the world can be removed only with the message of Vedanta, 'of Oneness' given by Swami Vivekananda on 11th September 1893. Thus, the celebrations of our Universal Brotherhood day should be to further the understanding of Vedanta. It can be best concluded in the words of Swami Vivekananda, “Work out the salvation of this land and of the whole world, each of you thinking that the entire burden is on your shoulders. Carry the light and the life of the Vedanta to every door, and rouse up the divinity that is hidden within every soul. Then, whatever may be the measure of your success, you will have this satisfaction that you have lived, worked, and died for a great cause. In the success of this cause, howsoever brought about, is centered the salvation of humanity here and hereafter.

Nivedita Raghunath Bhide

5 Yuva bharati - September 2009

Swami Vivekananda in London

Christina S. Bremner

uring the London season, Swami Vivekananda has been teaching and lecturing to considerable number of people who have been attracted by his doctrine and philosophy. Most English people fancy that England has a practical monopoly of missionary enterprise, almost unbroken save for a small effort on the part of France. I therefore sought, the Swami in his temporary home in South Belgravia to enquire what message India could possibly send to England, a part from the remonstrances she has too often had to make on the subject of home charges, judicial and executive functions combined in one person, the settlement of expenses connected with Sudanese and other expeditions. “It is no new thing,” said the Swami composedly, “that India should send forth missionaries. She used to do so under the Emperor Asoka, in days when the Buddhist faith was younger, when she had something to teach surrounding nations.” “Well, might one ask why she ever ceased doing so, and why she has now begun again?” “She ceased because she grew selfish, forgot the

D

principle that nations and individuals alike subsist and prosper by a system of give and take. Her mission to the world has always been the same. It is spiritual, the realm of introspective thought has been hers through all the ages, abstract science, metaphysics, logic, are her special domain. In realit,y my mission to England is an outcome of England's to India. It has been hers to conquer, to govern, to use her knowledge of physical science to her advantage and ours. In trying to sum up India's contribution to the world, I am reminded of a Sanskrit and an English idiom. When you say a man dies, your phrase is 'He gave up the ghost,' whereas we say, 'He gave up the body'. Similarly, you more than imply that the body is the chief part of man by saying it possesses a soul. Whereas we say a man is a soul and possesses a body. These are but small ripples on the surface, yet they show the current of your national thought. I should like to remind you how Schopenhauer predicted that the influence of Indian philosophy upon Europe would be as momentous when it became well known, as was the revival of Greek and Latin learning at the close of the Dark Ages. Oriental research is making great progress; a new world of ideas is opening to the seeker after truth.”

6

Yuva bharati - September 2009

“And is India finally to conquer her conquerors?” “Yes, in the world of ideas. England has the sword, the material world, as our Muhammadan conquerors had before her. Yet Akbar the Great became practically a Hindu; educated Muhammadans, the Sufis, are hardly to be distinguished from Hindus; they do not eat cow, and in other ways conform to our usage. Their thought has become permeated by ours.” “So that is the fate you foresee for the Lordly sahib? Just at this moment he seems to be a long way off it.” “No, it is not so remote as you imply. In the world of religious ideas the Hindu and the Englishman have much in common, and there is proof of the same thing among other religious communities. Where the English ruler or civil servant has had any knowledge of India's literature, especially her philosophy, there exists the ground of a common sympathy, a territory constantly widening. It is not too much to say that only ignorance is the cause of that exclusive—sometimes even contemptuous—attitude assumed by some.” “Yes, it is the measure of folly. Will you say why you went to America rather than to England on your mission?” “That was a mere accident—a result of the World's Parliament of Religions being held in Chicago at the time of the World's Fair, instead of in London, as it ought to have been. The Raja of Mysore and some other friends sent me to America as the Hindu representative. I stayed there three years, with the exception of last

summer and this summer, when I came to lecture in London. The Americans are a great

people, with a great future before them. I admire them very much, and found many kind friends among them. They are less prejudiced than the English, more ready to weigh and examine a new idea, to value it in spite of newness. They are most hospitable too; far less time is lost in showing one's credentials, as it were. You travel in America, as I did, from city to city, always lecturing among friends. I saw Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Desmoines, Memphis, and numbers of other places.” “And leaving disciples in each of them?” “Yes, disciples, but not organizations. That is no

7 Yuva bharati - September 2009

part of my work. Of these there are enough in all conscience. Organizations need men to manage them; they must seek power, money, influence. Often they struggle for domination, and even fight.” “Could the gist of this mission of yours be summed up in a few words? Is it comparative religion you want to teach?” “It is really the philosophy of religion, the kernel of all its outward forms. All forms of religion have an essential and a non-essential part. If we strip from them the latter, there remains the real basis of all religion, which all forms of religion possess in common. Unity is behind them all. We may call it God, Allah, Jahvo, the Spirit, Love, it is the same unity that animates all life, from its lowest form to its noblest manifestation in man. It is on this unity we need to lay stress, whereas in the west, and indeed everywhere, it is on the non-essential that men are apt to lay stress. They will fight and kill each other for these forms, to make their fellows conform. Seeing that the essential is love of God and love of man, this is curious, to say the least”. “I suppose a Hindu could never persecute.” “He never yet has done so: he is the most tolerant of all the races of men. Considering how profoundly religious he is, one might have thought that he would persecute those who believe in no God. The Jains regard such belief as sheer delusion; yet no Jain has ever been persecuted. In India the Muhammadans were the first who ever took the sword.” “What progress does the doctrine of essential unity make in England? Here we have a

8 Yuva bharati - September 2009

thousand sects”. “They must gradually disappear as liberty and knowledge increase. They are founded on the non-essential, which by the nature of things cannot survive. The sects have served their purpose, which was that of an exclusive brotherhood on lines comprehended by those within it. Gradually we reach the idea of universal brotherhood by flinging down the walls of partition which separate such aggregations of individuals. In England the work proceeds slowly, possibly because the time is not more than ripe for it; but all the same, it makes progress. Let me call your attention to the similar work that England is engaged upon in India. Modern caste distinction is a barrier to India's progress. It narrows, restricts, separates. It will crumble before the advance of ideas. “Yet some Englishmen, and they are not the least sympathetic to India, nor the most ignorant of her history, regard caste as in the main beneficent. One may easily be too much Europeanized. You yourself condemn many of our ideals as materialistic.” “True. No reasonable person aims at assimilating India to England; the body is made by the thought that lies behind it. The body politic is thus the expression of national thought, and in India of thousands of years of thought. To Europeanise India is therefore an impossible and foolish task : the elements of progress were always actively present in India. As soon as a peaceful government was there, these have always shown themselves. From the time of the Upanishads down to the present day nearly all our great teachers have wanted to break through the barriers of caste, i.e. caste

in its degenerate state, not the original system. What little good you see in the present caste clings to it from the original caste, which was the most glorious social institution. Budha tried to re-establish caste in its original form. At every period of India's awakening, there have always been great efforts made to break down caste. But it must always be we who build up a new India as an effect and continuation of her past, assimilating helpful foreign ideas wherever they may be found. Never can it be they ; growth must proceed from within. All that England can do is to help India to work out her own salvation. All progress at the dictation of another, whose hand is at India's throat, is valueless, in my opinion. The highest work can only degenerate when slave-labour produces it.” “Have you given any attention to the Indian National Congress movement?” “I cannot claim to have given much; my work is in another part of the field. But I regard the movement as significant, and heartily wish it success. A nation is being made out of India's different races. I sometimes think they are no less various than the different peoples of Europe. In the past, Europe has struggled for India's trade, a trade which has played a tremendous part in the civilisation of the world; its acquisition might almost be called a turning-point in the history of humanity. We see the Dutch, Portuguese, French, and English contending for it in succession. The discovery of America may be traced to the indemnification the Venetians sought in the far distant West for the loss they suffered in the East.” “Where will it end?”

“It will certainly end in the working out of India's homogeneity, in her acquiring what we may call democratic ideas. Intelligence must not remain the monopoly of the cultured few; it will be disseminated from higher to lower classes. Education is coming, and compulsory education will follow. The immense power of our people for work must be utilised. India's potentialities are great, and will be called forth.” “Has any nation ever been great without being a great military power?” “Yes,” said the Swami without a moment's hesitation. “China has. Amongst other countries, I have travelled in China and Japan. To-day China is like a disorganized mob; but in the heyday of her greatness she possessed, the most admirable organisation any nation has yet known. Many of the devices and methods we term modern were practiced by the Chinese for hundreds and even thousands of years. Take competitive examinations as an illustration.” “Why did she become disorganized?” “Because she could not produce men equal to the system. You have the saying that men cannot be made virtuous by Act of Parliament ; the Chinese experienced it before you. And that is why religion is of deeper importance than politics, since it goes to the root, and deals with the essentials of conduct.” “Is India conscious of the awakening that you allude to?” “Perfectly conscious. The world perhaps sees it chiefly in the Congress movement and in the field of social reform; but the awakening is

9 Yuva bharati - September 2009

quite as real in religion, though it works more silently.” “The West and East have such different ideals of life. Ours seems to be the perfecting of the social state. Whilst we are busy seeking to those matters, Orientals are meditating on abstractions. Here has Parliament been discussing the payment of the Indian army in the Sudan. All the respectable section of the Conservative press had made a loud outcry against the unjust decision of the Government, whereas you probably think the whole affair not worthy attention.” “But you are quite wrong” said the Swami, taking the paper and running his eye over extracts from the Conservative journals. “My sympathies in this matter are naturally with my country. Yet it reminds one of the old Sanskrit proverb: 'You have sold the elephant, why quarrel over the goad?” India always pays. The quarrels of politicians are very curious. It will take ages to bring religion into politics.” “One ought to make the effort very soon all the same.” “Yes, it is worth one's while to plant an idea in the heart of this great London, surely the greatest governing machine that has ever been set in motion. I often watch it working, the power and perfection with which the minutest vein is reached, its wonderful system of circulation and distribution. It helps one to realize how great is the Empire, and how great is task. And with all the rest, it distributes thought. It would be worth a man's while to place some ideas in the heart of this great machine so that they might circulate to the remotest part.

10 Yuva bharati - September 2009

The Swami is a man of distinguished appearance. Tall, broad, with fine features enhanced by his picturesque Eastern dress, his personality is very striking. Swami is a title meaning master; Vivekananda is an assumed name implying the bliss of discrimination. By birth, he is a Bengali, and by education, a graduate of Calcutta University. The Swami has taken the vow of Sanyasa, renunciation of all property, position, and name. His gifts as an orator are high. He can speak for an hour and a half without a note, or the slightest pause for a word. Towards the end of September, his lectures at St.Geroge's Road will be resumed for a few weeks before his departure for Calcutta. (The author was a journalist who frequently wrote on Indian subjects. She visited India in the late 1880s. She was a theosophist and occasionally contributed to the papers of Mrs. Annie Besantl – New India and the Commonwealth in the second decade of the 20th century. This article was published in India, August 1896. India was a monthly published in London by the British Committee of the Indian National Congress. Courtesy: Prof S R Mehrotra)

There is no happiness higher than what a man obtains by this attitude of non-offensiveness, to all creation.

Eco Dharma

The Poet And The Paradigm

S Aravindan Neelakandan

t is often thought that art and science require two different states of mind – diametrically opposite to each other in nature: one logical, dissecting and rational and the other imaginative, aesthetic and emotional. Yet can a mind poetic have premonition of the coming concepts in science? Subramanya Bharathi (1882-1921), the Tamil poet was a bard for national freedom and social progress. His songs manifest spiritual ecstasy that transcends all narrow barriers of caste, creed and gender. A poet who never saw his fortieth birthday, heralded with pain the renaissance of the society in which he lived. He naturally e n v i s i o n e d t h e technological advances for his societys should pursue. His techno-prophecies included a live telecast of conferences in the universities of North India hinting at audio–visual interaction with the scholars of South India. He wished the Indian nation

I

success in lunar studies and also to perfect the technology of waste disposal. Even these astonishingly accurate technological prophecies seem dwarfed by yet another vision of his. Hounded by an alien government for daring freedom and shunned by his own community for daring progress, relegated somewhere in the then stagnant South Indian society, Bharathi dreamt of a hypothesis that modern science would speak of after more than half a century of his death. Yes... here is a poet who anticipated the advancement of science – not just creating a technological wish list but capturing the essence of a paradigm shift. In the early 1960s, James Lovelock a bio-physicist then in contract with NASA, was studying the spectroscopic analysis of the planet Mars. He was wondering about the possibility of life on Mars – as we know it on the pale blue dot we call our home. Then it struck him that if such life exists on Mars then it would

13 Yuva bharati - September 2009

show on the nature of the Martian atmosphere and based on that he predicted that Mars would not harbour the kind of life as we know it here on earth. Slowly and steadily he was inching towards a revolutionary idea that the life on a planet and its physico-chemical composition would be so organically united that it would be hard to tell where one ends and where the other begins. He started studying the geo-cycles of the planet like the water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle etc. He discovered that life plays a very important role in all these cycles that they can very well be considered as sort of planetary metabolic pathways! M e a n w h i l e an o t h e r r e s e a r c h e r, a microbiologist Dr. Lynn Margulis, was arriving at the same conclusion at another end of the spectrum – virtually inside the cell. Her theory, then a revolutionary concept and now an accepted textbook doctrine, is called Endosymbiosis. According to her, all 'higher' animal and plant cells which have membrane enclosed inner cell organelles like Mitochondria (which help in cellular metabolism) or Chloroplasts (organelles which are responsible for photosynthesis), are actually colonies of primitive microbes which have created mutually beneficial relationships – living within a cell and shedding away unnecessary aspects of individual existence. Her theory is validated by the fact that primordial micro organisms (called prokaryotes) have circular DNA just like the mitochondria and chloroplasts, which though are cellular organelles, also contain circular DNA – a telltale sign that they could have been once individual microorganisms before they became part of the cells of larger organism.

Independently developed in the opposite ends of the spectrum of the phenomenon called life, the theory burst forth upon the scientific community and subsequently public psyche as the 'Gaia' hypothesis. Gaia is the name of the name of the ancient Greek Goddess of Earth. In their view, life became a planetary process – Gaia – a self-regulating goddess of whom we are all but components, a part of a larger whole. To quote Lynn Margulis, 'What is life?' is a linguistic trap. To answer according to the rules of grammar, we must supply a noun, a thing. But life on Earth is more like a verb. It is a material process, surfing over matter like a strange slow wave. It is a controlled artistic chaos, a set of chemical reactions so staggeringly complex that more than 4 billion years ago it began a sojourn that now, in human form, composes love letters and uses silicon computers to calculate the temperature of matter at the birth of the universe. (http://www.illahee.org/lectures/archiv e/lynnmargulislecture)

James Lovelock, speculating on the origin of Gaia, is even more poetic: Life does more than adapt to the earth; it changes it and evolution is a tight-coupled dance with life

14

Yuva bharati - September 2009

and the material environment partners and from the dance emerges the entity Gaia. (James Lovelock, Homage to Gaia: the life of an independent scientist, Oxford University Press, 2001, p.2)

Unseen by our naked eyes there exist in a square feet of atmosphere millions of microorganisms. A macro-organism and in its body are smaller organisms and in each of them still smaller organisms and in them each still smaller organisms and in this way the whole planet thrives with life. Macro-organism- and containing it a bigger form and containing it is still bigger organism and so on and minute particle and inside still minute and still and so on. And in both the directions there is no end and it moves on to infinity in both directions. Oh seers, In the dawn as we wake up, let us venerate life. Namaste Vayu thvameva prathyaksham Brahmasi

(Bharathi, Prose-poetry: 15) Here is poetic soaring of human consciousness gleaning a truth that nature veils with her diverse appearances and which science would take decades to reveal. For comparison let us see what James Lovelock has to say: Physicists are agreed that life is an open system. But like one of those Russian dolls which enclose a series of smaller and still smaller dolls, entities diminish but grow ever intense as the inward progression goes from Gaia to ecosystems, to plants and animals to cells and to DNA. The boundary of the planet then circumscribes a living organism, Gaia, a system made up of all living things and their

15 Yuva bharati - September 2009

Now what do all these have to do with Subramanya Bharathi, who died almost thirty five years before James Lovelock even got his first hint of Gaia? Perhaps, if ever a history of ideas is written in a universal manner with no bias of culture and no binary wall separating art and science, then Bharathi may qualify as the originator of Gaia hypothesis as much as James Lovelock. Here are the verses of Bharathi on the phenomenon of life.

Oh Life who knows your magnificence You are a living deity You set all rules And you dissolve all rules Oh life You are the physical elements You are the manifesting principle of all things that manifest You function as the change in all that changes The flying insect, the killing tiger, the crawling worm The uncountable forms of all living beings that constitute the bio-cosom That is you – Oh life! We meditate upon all those forms of life that permeate land, water and air.

environment. There is no clear distinction anywhere on the Earth's surface between living and non-living matter.

earth, the Gaia as a full formed theory came in a flash – perhaps a scientist's equivalent of poetic vision. Lovelock explains, The idea of "Gaia" was born in my mind in 1965 while I was at NASA in the Jet Propulsion Labs. It was a personal revelation, an idea that suddenly appeared like a flash of enlightenment. I was talking to Dian Hitchcock, an author-consultant there at the time, about the extreme difference between the atmospheres of Earth and Mars. As I was observing that Earth has such a reactive, unstable atmosphere, it suddenly dawned on me that an extremely unstable atmosphere could not stay constant unless something was regulating it. Somehow life keeps our atmosphere constant and favourable for organisms. Life on Earth not only created our atmosphere; it also regulates it.” (http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/ 8463/8463.ch01.html)

(James Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth, Oxford University Press, 2000, p.39) In fact, Bharathi puts his hand of poetry exactly at the pulse of the Gaia hypothesis:

In that little leaf that moves does Life abide? Yes. Does that roaring sea-water roar so because of Life? Yes. …. This planetary ball rotates unceasingly. She has life that can never be emptied. In her body divine everything has life. The whole planet rotates. The moon also revolves around. The sun too whirls. Millions of miles and beyond Million of miles and beyond And even far beyond all those million upon millions of miles Countless stars swirl and continue to swirl. So, this earth has life. And what we call air is the breath of the planet.

(Bharathi, Prose-poetry: 13) For James Lovelock too, despite his stray thoughts of systemic nature of life and

Lovelock, a scientist living at the edge of technology-saturated society and academically orthodox community immersed in reductionism and Bharathi a poet who lived in a society chained by colonial rule and immersed in social stagnation - yet both dared to embrace and comprehend the secrets of the Galaxies and wonders within the cells, with visions that belonged to future. And in Bharathi, we are ushered into the Third culture long before science historian C.P. Snow wrote those words.

16

Yuva bharati - September 2009

Saffron Quark

Quo vadis, Universal Brotherhood?

P Vasanth

fter ages of being muffled under the weight of oppressive alien rule, the Hindu message of universal brotherhood rang out loudly again 116 years ago through Vivekananda. September 11, 1893 was a jolt to the collective western mind that we cannot grasp in its entirety. To a society that was still struggling with the fact that they did not have a divinely ordained right to lord over “negro” slaves, to a society that refused to believe that there was no necessity of bearing the burden to civilize “heathens”, the idea of brotherhood with them was bordering on blasphemy. The thunderous response that Vivekananda's message got really can be attributed to nothing more than the purity of the man and his faith in the idea. Vivekananda

A

was able to capture the public mind and deliver a message that still thrives there after a century. All that seems like stuff of legend now, but where are we today? Skimming through the various media presents a depressing if not bleak picture. W e h a v e conflicts at every level countries fighting other countries, states fighting states and every step down to men fighting men not to mention the struggle of man fighting with his own ideas. The claimed pragmatist will feel entirely justified to dismiss any ideas of universal peace as fanciful, even downright crazy. One large populous continent is reeling from the triple strike of war, AIDS and famine. Sudan, Zambia, Djibouti, Malawi, Niger, Mali, Mauritania and the long list of countries that we forgot existed since geography lessons in middle-school are

19 Yuva bharati - September 2009

host to tales of unbelievable pain, sorrow and neglect. 29 million people are infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and 8 million people have died of AIDS in the last 20 years1 the number is not getting any lower or rate getting slower. 70 percent of cattle have died in northern Kenya2 which drives up the tensions among nomadic tribes resulting in conflict and further strife. The scale of disaster is so huge that terms like famine are being redefined. Thoughts of chronic malnutrition virtually never cross our minds but is the living reality of over 3 million children under 5 years of age in West Africa. Add to this disaster lots of corruption and much of war, we end up with a cocktail of human agony on a scale that has never been witnessed in human history. The proverbial other side, though, is not just greener but so bloated with material excesses that it's tearing at its seams. So much so that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US terms American society as “obesogenic”3 and is treating obesity on par with an epidemic. In 2008, only one US State had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of which had prevalence equal to or greater than 30%.4. If that was not enough, reports show that America wastes nearly half the food produced5. In such an unequal world are also present fanatical belief systems that come with their complete package of religious, social and

20 Yuva bharati - September 2009

political constructs. These challenge every other social, civil, religious and political system both with direct combat and through subversion. Their brutality is immense and the violence of demonizing other beliefs is equal to if not more than the amount of blood-letting that they cause. It is these beliefs that Vivekananda hoped would be choked and eventually eliminated through the Parliament of religions that he participated in. He said “Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilisation and sent whole nations to despair.... I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the deathknell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.” Now of course, we don't have just persecution with the pen as Vivekananda said, we have persecution through multimedia. Might is supremely right today - even if you are the most honest and altruistic person in the three worlds, two news anchors, a few penpushers and TV journalists just out of media school can inflict scalding wounds on you and anybody you can reach within 51 handshakes. Ditto for your religion and ditto too for everything else; just as long it rakes in the currency. These media take all their power and influence and then sell themselves for the

highest bidder not unlike those who sell physical intimacy. And enough has been said and written about the pleasure-seeking materialism that is dominating the public psyche today. These indeed are times terrible, not because of the challenges in front are daunting, but because the ones that are facing the challenges are not ready. It is only a few that are even aware of the challenges; and not many of them are ready to face it. Each of these problems seems to represent an asura of yore. Some are emotionally attached to the idea of fighting them but then the mind can only go so far. When challenged by the intellect on the methods, it almost always breaks down and sinks. Some have a strong intellectual conviction that these asuras have to be defeated, but then the intellect can only go so far. It will tell us “it is all very well to work for the country, but in the meanwhile, you are going to die, or at least be given a great deal of trouble, and when the fruit is reaped, you shall not be there to enjoy it. How can you bear all this suffering for some dream? There is your house, your property, and so many things that will be attacked. Just say 'this way is not for me.' “. How can the courage to challenge titanic problems come from such a source? What good can material strength be when faced with such ominous challenges? But it is not on material strength, or the mind or the intellect that the vision of Universal Brotherhood is founded on. It is founded on a higher source, a spiritual fount that was proclaimed in our sacred texts and is reflected in our culture. It is in these most difficult times that the message of Vedanta is needed more than ever. The challenges will only get harder

and more difficult to overcome, but overcome it we should, overcome it we shall. Such a thing can only be if we take ourselves to be spiritual born of the spirit, living and dissolving into the spirit. As Aurobindo said, courage only comes when “You are led by that Power. You are protected through life and death by the One who survives. In the very hour of death, you feel your immortality. In the hour of your worst sufferings, you feel you are invincible... filled with divine power, filled with the inspiration of the Almighty, and no power on earth shall resist it, and no danger or difficulty shall stop it”. Such a spiritual courage and such courage alone will nerve society to stand up against the asuras that are intent on global destruction. It is this courage that we have to develop, the courage to stand up for dharma, the courage to stare down and knock down the mightiest daityas and asuras, the courage to spread the word of spirituality to every corner in spite of every obstacle. The hour of trial is already upon us. With what strength shall we meet it? “The world is burning in misery. Can you sleep?” asked Vivekananda. It is for every one of us to answer. References:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

United Nations report quoted in CBS News (http://tinyurl.com/m4hal9) “Millions facing drought and famine throughout Africa “ C D C h t t p : / / w w w. c d c . g o v / obesity/index.html CDC – Obesity trends from 1985 - 2008 (http://tinyurl.com/q2tzej) Study by University of Arizona quoted here: http://tinyurl.com/bn7nxk

21

Yuva bharati - September 2009

No Creator and Creation, only the Dancer and His Dance

Srinivasa Desikan

data, Lovelock proposed, showed that the entire planet was acting like Gaia, the supreme mother-goddess of the Greeks. This idea was in a sense vindicated when NASA collected data from Mars. The Martian atmosphere was shown to be unchanging, harsh and antibiotic and there was no sign of life. In contrast, our own planet was in a constant flux; it sustained life, it even seemed to welcome it and this has been for billions of years. Lovelock eventually began to refer to the planet itself as some kind of super-organism. "The entire range of living matter... from whales to viruses and from oaks to algae could be regarded as constituting a single living entity capable of maintaining the Earth's atmosphere to suit its

he 1960s were times of churning not just with the hippie revolution but in more academic circles. It was then that a scientist, James Lovelock, proposed what he called the Gaia hypothesis - one of the most influential, ground-breaking scientific ideas of the 20th century. This triggered a flurry of research and academic studies with many of them validating Lovelock's hypothesis. The Gaia hypothesis essentially states that the entire earth acts as a single system, with its own complex methods to create and sustain life. The

22 Yuva bharati - September 2009

T

overall needs and endowed with faculties and powers far beyond those of its constituent parts," he wrote. Some saw in the hypothesis, the face of their god: A protective saviour god that kept perils away for the protection of the believers. The ground, though, is shifting under them. A number of recent discoveries have cast serious

mechanisms so that life can thrive. Research on ancient rocks, however, shows that life itself has triggered planetary changes that killed most of life that existed. There have been many instances where the planet's temperatures were changed dramatically causing “snowball earths” – microbes sucked out so much CO2 from the atmosphere that there was none left to keep the temperature warm which resulted in the entire planet freezing and extinction of much of life. Not a very Gaian result. There have been many similar occurrences, when multicellular plants came into being, when there were volcanic eruptions of unimaginable scale and so on. So much so that New Scientist science journal ran a piece suggesting that life was life's worst enemy. The data is almost irrefutable. But the believers in the Gaian idea soldier on. One even said “Just because the Gaia superorganism kicks itself in the teeth every 100 million years or so doesn't mean that it's not evolving and learning to make a stable environment for itself.” It is ironic, but there seems to be a group of scientific faithfuls that refuses to accept data of the destructive aspect of Nature. Some say that this behaviour is driven by an underlying conditioning of thought that “THE” superorganism should only be one that creates and sustains, a conditioning influenced by some religions.

doubt on the Gaia hypotheses. Two lines of research are especially damning: one comes from deep time - the study of ancient rocks and the other from models of the future. A fundamental idea to the Gaian hypothesis is the constancy of temperature through various

It is striking how easily these conflicting schools of thought will be able to rise above their differences in the light of Hinduism. Our culture has always looked at God as both the creator and destroyer. Writes Aurobindo “It is only a few religions which have had the courage to

23

Yuva bharati - September 2009

say without any reserve, like the Indian, that this enigmatic World-Power is one Deity, one Trinity, to lift up the image of the Force that acts in the world in the figure not only of the beneficent Durga, but of the terrible Kali in her blood-stained dance of destruction and to say, 'This too is the Mother; this also know to be God; this too, if thou hast the strength, adore.'” “To put away the responsibility for all that seems to us evil or terrible on the shoulders of a semiomnipotent Devil, or to put it aside as part of Nature, making an unbridgeable opposition between world-nature and God-Nature, as if Nature were independent of God, or to throw the responsibility on man and his sins, as if he had a preponderant voice in the making of this world or could create anything against the will of God, are clumsily comfortable devices in which the religious thought of India has never taken refuge. We have to look courageously in the face of the reality and see that it is God and none else who has made this world in his being.... We have to see that Nature devouring her children, Time eating up the lives of creatures, Death universal and ineluctable and the violence of the Rudra forces in man and Nature are also the supreme Godhead in one of his cosmic figures”. It is quite directly mentioned in the Gita and plainly visible for everyone that cared to look:

Bhagavan Krishna gives to Arjuna the Vishva Roopa Darshana, the form of Himself as Vishva - creation. The verses beautifully explain the terror of Arjuna, who is used to seeing Krishna only as his friend now sees Him in all His forms including that of the destroyer. Declares Krishna “I am time, the Destroyer of the worlds, the arisen huge-statured for the destruction of the worlds.” (BG 11.32) The vision of the Gaian hypothesis is grand. But the Hindu vision of creation is grander still – it does not look only at Earth as the superorganism, for earth is only an insignificant speck in this creation. The Hindu vision of creation is that the entire creation, seen and unseen is God. Krishna says “vishTabhya aham idam krtsnam eka amshena sTHito jagat”– I pervade this entire jagat with just one aspect of Me. (BG 10.42) It is striking that Krishna uses the word jagat w h i c h i s defined as “jaayate gacchati iti jagat” – that w h i c h i s continuously born and dies; the dance of joy, A n a n d a Tandavam and the dance of destruction, Rudra Tandavam, are twin inseparable aspects of the same Shiva. Creation and destruction are indeed symbiotically connected. The fantastic arrangement and unimaginably complex systems in which the universe is

24

Yuva bharati - September 2009

found to operate cannot just be a freak outcome of probability working itself out. The creation itself is aware and intelligent, our texts say. A few years ago, the Hubble space telescope took what is claimed to be the most important photograph taken by mankind – a practically dark spot in space no larger than a grain of sand revealed the existence of millions upon millions of galaxies, each with billions of stars from across 39 billion light years away. We can be sure that it was no human effort that put them there. But still they have existed and still exist, obeying the same universal laws that we are subject to. A friend of mine suggested trying

to imagine our galaxy being just a cell in His body, you and me being part of cellular cytoplasm. Insignificant, yet a part of Him. Having an identity, but not independent of Him. Free to act, but not beyond His Will. It made my hair stand on end. “What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?” wrote William Blake wonderstruck by the tiger. We can only wonder what he would have written if he had known such marvels of the universe. A verse from the Vedas perhaps?

25

Yuva bharati - September 2009

Our Heroes

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

(5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975)

Shivsankar.S

firmed up his mind to study his own tradition and philosophy. His professors were acclaimed scholars like William Skinner, William Miller and A. G. Hogg. However, they dearly adhered to their faith and therefore were influenced by its theological prejudices and misinformation. He was absorbed by the principles of Vedanta and what they had to give to the world. Therefore, he submitted his M.A. thesis “The Ethics of the Vedanta and Its Metaphysical Presuppositions” in 1908. It was both a reply to the charge by Western philosophers that Vedanta is just an inornate hypothesis on maya or illusion and has no significant value for a pragmatic and humanized way of life. and a highlight of the salient features of Vedanta. He was just 20 years old then. “Religious feeling must establish itself as a rational way of living. If ever the spirit is to be at home in this world, and not merely a prisoner or a fugitive, spiritual foundations must be laid deep and preserved worthily. Religion must express itself in reasonable thought, fruitful action and right social institutions.” Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. Provoked by the criticisms to which the Hindu culture was subjected to by his teachers – first at the Hermansburg Evangelical Lutheran Mission School at Tirupati and later at Madras Christian College – young Radhakrishnan

28 Yuva bharati - September 2009

He was apprehensive of the review his thesis would receive from A G Hogg, his professor of Philosophy. All he received however, were commendations from Hogg: “The thesis which he prepared in the second year of his study for this degree shows a remarkable understanding of the main aspects of the philosophical problems, a capacity for handling easily a complex argument besides more than the average mastery of good English” Thus started Radhakrishnan's journey through Indian Philosophy, a fine and remarkable one during which he delved deep into the

scriptures propounding the Vedantic philosophy and interpreted them in his own way, managing to discriminate the true meaning of its universal values from the shallow superstitions plaguing the social institutions. A superficial view of his work, written to appease the academic standards of the west, would result in inferring them to be conciliatory. However, an apposite reading of his interpretation reveals his emphasis on the humanism and values that Hindu philosophy proclaims and which can serve as an antidote for the destruction caused by blind materialism of the west. From very humble beginnings, Radhakrishnan rose to be thinker, philosopher and statesman. However, he remained foremost, a teacher. Radhakrishnan possessed great resolve and never was found giving excuses in fate or luck. He was after all interested in the physical sciences initially and not philosophy. Unfortunately, rather fortunately he could receive a scholarship only if he chose Philosophy. Which he promptly did! Radhakrishnan was not disappointed and so are the numerous students and seekers, for whom in fact his perspective of traditional philosophy and interpretations of the Prasthana Thraya are a blessing. This was only to be expected, since Radhakrishnan derived his inspiration from the lectures and writings of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, which gave him the much required clarity of thought for such a endeavour.

"For any one who thinks of drive, energy, and manifold activity as peculiarly characteristic of the West, it may be surprising to find that among the philosophers of our time, no one has achieved so much in so many fields as has Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan of India. His career, even thus far, can be matched only by drawing upon the careers of a group of his contemporaries. Any number of these have been teachers, authors, lecturers, translators, and editiors. Some have been historians of philosophy. Some have had academic administrative greatness thrust upon them. A few, like W. E. Hocking, have travelled much in the realms of gold and taught in the universities of foreign lands. William James was influential in religion, and John Dewey has been a force in politics. One or two American philosophers have been legislators. Jacques Maritain has been an ambassador. Radhakrishnan, in a little more than thirty years of work, has done all these things and more ...never in the history of philosophy has there been quite such a world-figure. With his unique dual appointment at Banaras and Oxford, like a weaver's shuttle, he has gone to and fro between the East and West, carrying a thread of understanding, weaving it into the fabric of civilization… Except for an occasional Marcus Aurelius, philosophers never will be kings, but sometimes a philosopher wields among his contemporaries an influence which any king might envy. " From Radhakrishnan's World, George P. Conger

29

Yuva bharati - September 2009

“It is an honour to philosophy that Dr. Radhakrishnan should be President of India and I, as a philosopher, take special pleasure in this. Plato aspired for philosophers to become kings and it is a tribute to India that she should make a philosopher her President” Bertrand Russell, on Radhakrishnan's election as President of India.

Further Reading 1. 2. Paul A. Schilpp, ed., The Philosophy of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, 1952 C. E. M. Joad, Counterattack from the East: the Philosophy of Radhakrishnan, 1933 3. 4. Sarvepalli Gopal, Radharkrishnan, A Biography, 1989 K. Satchidananda Murty and Ashok Vohra, Radhakrishnan : his life and ideas, 1989

30

Yuva bharati - September 2009

Lest We Forget

The Shell which shocked the Empire

days following the nocturnal shelling, the trains were packed and the roads were filled with almost 70,000 citizens fleeing any more impending attacks by the mysterious Emden. The economy of the city was greatly affected as merchantmen refused to ply on seas prowled by the notorious German marauder. This brought trade along the Eastern sea lanes normally witnessing heavy traffic to a stumbling halt and became an embarrassment for the British Empire. As is well known, the name of this daring cruiser found its way into the local lexicon to describe a person of great ingenuity, enterprise and cunning. The reaction from the Allied powers was pressing into immediate operation warships from Britain, Russia, France and Japan. During her lifetime, Emden captured three colliers and converted a captured vessel into an armed cruiser, sunk a cruiser, a destroyer and 16 merchantmen. Almost 78 Allied warships were employed in the hunt for this single evasive cruiser. SMS Emden carried on with its successfully elusive run until the Battle of Cocos, on 9th November, 1914, when it finally met its match in HMAS Sydney. Throughout her journey, the Emden was known for her daring, initiative, resourcefulness of the crew and respectful treatment of prisoners. The Emden

2130 hrs, 22nd September, 1914

“KABOOM!”

The large fuel tanks owned by the Burmah Shell Oil on the shores of 'Madras', holding 346,000 gallons of fuel oil went up in flames lighting the night sky of an important port city and centre of trade and commerce of the Empire. The cause of the explosions: 25 precisely targeted salvos of 130 shells from the German light cruiser, SMS Emden. Emden also attacked a merchant ship docked at the port, quickly sinking it. The attack was carefully planned by Korvettenkapitän Karl von Müller to avoid civilian casualities. This resulted in 5 sailors killed and 26 people injured. Damage to property was around 8000–10000 pounds. This was relatively minimal when compared to the damage incurred at the various western fronts, where the conflict was raging in full scale between the Allied and Central Powers. The impact, however of this sole attack deep in the heart of the empire was disastrous for the British. The city of Madras, as noted by von Müller, which had a carnival atmosphere with its dazzling lights visible from sea just before the bombardment, was duly panic stricken. For

31

Yuva bharati - September 2009

was both admired for this chivalry and hated for causing a huge disruption in

were all equally significant targets? Unless, there was someone aboard to lead the cruiser to Madras and point it out as the most significant among the targets. And there indeed was one

shipping and distraction of Allied warships from the fronts of action. The Telegraph from London published this in memory of the Emden and its gallant crew: "It is almost in our hearts to regret that the Emden has been captured and destroyed....There is not a survivor who does not speak well of this young German, the officers under him and the crew obedient to his orders. The war on the sea will lose some of its piquancy, its humour and its interest now that the Emden has gone." The Engineer of Emden Who could have expected the Emden to narrow down and attack the city of Madras, when Colombo, Calcutta, Chittagong, Singapore

such person, South Indian by origin but

32

Yuva bharati - September 2009

belonging to the whole of India, on the crew of the Emden. Herr Pillai, Dr. C. Chembakaraman had served on the ship as an engineer (vouched for by his dual doctorates in Engineering and Economics from Zurich, Switzerland), although he is reported to have served as the surgeon in some accounts. Chembakaraman stands out among the patriots and revolutionaries. Where others followed, he led. He organized the International Pro–India Committee at Zurich, which later merged with the Berlin Committee, later known as the Indian Independence Committee. He was joined by Taraknath Das, B h u p e n d r a n a t h D a t t a , Vi r e n d r a n a t h Chattopadhyaya, Abhinash Bhattacharya and many other revolutionaries living abroad at that period. Chembakaraman established contact with the Kaiser through the German head of intelligence bureau for the East, Max von Oppenheim. This helped him secure positions with the German foreign office and

later in the Kaiserliche Marine, Germany's Imperial Navy. These activities of his placed him in the surveillance of British Secret Service. Chembakaraman was also known to be among the forerunners, who popularized the term “Jai Hind”. He founded the Indian National Volunteer Corps, which inspired Rash Behari Bose and Subhash Chandra Bose to form the Azad Hind Fauj. In December 1915, Chembakaraman traveled to Afghanistan as part of the Kabul Mission and the Provincial Government of India established there under Raja Mahendra Pratap. These initiatives, spurred the British government themselves to introduce progressive reforms in India to try and quell the revolutionary spirit brewing among the Indians. Thus, it was the idea of this Lion among patriots and master strategist to strike at the heart of the Empire to create panic and confusion, and bleed the Empire's shipping trade.

33

Yuva bharati - September 2009

Reading Sanskrit Improves

Brynne Sissom

Brain Functioning

Transcendental Meditation technique (showing greater stability in their physiology) but remained the same during the reading of a modern language. Their ERG alpha power and coherence during reading Sanskrit were also similar to that during the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique, and both of these were higher than when the subjects read a modern language. Dr. Travis said that these findings support Maharishi's predictions on the effects of reading Sanskrit. Maharishi, in Vedic Knowledge for Everyone, predicted that reading the Vedic Literature as it flows and progresses in perfect sequential order has the effect of regulating and balancing the functioning of the brain physiology and training consciousness, the mind, to always flow in perfect accordance with the evolutionary direction of Natural Law. Dr. Travis found the similarity of physiology during reading Sanskrit and the Transcendental Meditation technique is especially noteworthy because one reads with

he physiological effects of reading Sanskrit are similar to those experienced during the Transcendental Meditation® technique, according to research recently completed by Dr. Fred Travis, director of the ERG/psychophysiology lab of Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, USA. Dr. Travis asked his test subjects to read passages from the Bhagavad-Gita in Sanskrit and in modern foreign languages (Spanish, French, or German). In each case they could pronounce the sounds but did not know the meaning. He measured brain wave patterns (ERG), heart and breathe rate, and galvanic skin resistance during two reading sessions and during a 15-minute session of the Transcendental Meditation technique. He found that while they read Sanskrit their physiology was similar to those measured during the Transcendental Meditation technique, but significantly different from reading a modern language. Their skin resistance steadily increased during reading Sanskrit and during practice of the

36 Yuva bharati - September 2009

T

his or her eyes open and engages in active perceptual and cognitive processes, while the Transcendental Meditation technique is done with one's eyes closed and entails a reduction of mental activity. This suggests that the state gained during the practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique may be integrated with active mental processes by reading Sanskrit. Dr. Travis said, "The Transcendental Meditation technique takes the awareness to pure consciousness at the source of thought. Seeing similar patterns of physiology during reading Sanskrit as during the Transcendental Meditation technique suggests that reading Sanskrit enlivens pure consciousness at the source of thought and integrates that state with reading and speaking. In short, while practice of the Transcendental Meditation technique locates pure consciousness, leading to the state of Transcendental Consciousness, reading Sanskrit integrates inner silence with outer activity, helping to cultivate enlightenment."

(Picture Courtesy : Sethupathi Arunachalam)

Nationalist Calendar - September

04 September 1825 – Birth of Dadabhai Naoroji

05 September 1872 – Birth of V O Chidambaram Pillai

05 September 1888 – Birth of Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan

11 September 1895 – Birth of Acharya Vinoba Bhave

11 September 1921 – Smrti Din of Subramaniya Bharati

11 September – Universal Brotherhood Day

15 September 1891 – Birth of Chembakaraman Pillai

22 September 1914 – Bombing of Madras by SMS Emden

24 September 1861 – Birth of Madame Cama

We need to have three things; the heart to feel, the brain to conceive, the hand to work.

28 September 1907 – Birth of Bhagat Singh

37

Yuva bharati - September 2009

PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS FROM THE ALBUM

The Parliament of Religions, originally intended to be one of a series of conferences marking 400 years since the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, was a stunning success because it brought together so many religious groups. Vivekananda's ringing call for an end to 'Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism' made a strong impression on an audience of 7000 people. Many view it as the beginning of the global interfaith movement.

Present View of the Hall where Swami Vivekananda Delivered the epoch making address

38

Yuva bharati - September 2009

The street on which the Art Institute is situated has been named “Swami Vivekananda Way” in the Memory of Swami Vivekananda in Chicago.

A Plaque kept at the Entrance of the Hall where he addressed.

39

Yuva bharati - September 2009

VK Samachar

Radha and Krishna in every little kid. V K Chennai planned such an event, where children from the Samskar Vargas and also from the nearby schools were dressed up as young Radha Krishnas. The programs organized included drawing, chanting, essay contests and skits in the morning. The evening saw a performance of around 50 little Radhas and Krishnas. The contests and performances were held at Hindu Higher Secondary School. After the performances, the little Radha Krishnas went on a procession through the streets of Triplicane, Chennai and reached the temple of Sri Parthasarathy. After the little Radha Krishnas had darshan of the big Krishna and sang a couple of bhajans, they were given a certificate to remind them of their participation in this sweet and memorable event.

VK VADODARA

• On the occasion of Guru Poornima a programme was organized at VK Vadodara on 07-07-09. Prof. Arunaben Jadhav, SNDT College, Pune, gave the significance and i m p o r t a n c e o f G u ru P o o r n i m a . T h e programme was well organized by Sanskar Varga Karyakartas in which 69 participants were present. • Sanskrutic Swadhyaya Kasoti examination was conducted on 09-08-09. Approximately 1200 students attended the examination. • Prant KPS was organized at Vadodara from 11-08-09 to 16-08-09. There were 33 participant including karyakatas.

VK SURAT

• Vivekananda Kendra Kanyakumari Branch Surat organised Guru poornima on 7th July '09. Shri Dilipbhai Varsani (Principal, J.B. Dharukawala Collage) was the mukhya atithi. Shri Sanjaybhai, Pandya-Nagar Pramukh, guided students and shared the importance of Guru with them. 203 students of standards six and seven, from seven schools participated in the utsav

VK CHENNAI

Krishna Darshan Kids are normally active and most of the times mischievous. Little Krishna was the epitome of such mischievous activity. It was that time of the year once again, when Gopalakrishna's birthday was around the corner. What better way to celebrate Janmashtami than to see

40

Yuva bharati - September 2009

Download PDF: September 2009.pdf

©Copyright Vivekananda Kendra 2011-2050. All Rights Reserved.