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V SUNDARAM
I would like to describe Swami Dayananda Saraswati as the legitimate spiritual heir of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902) today. If there is one global Hindu leader who is tirelessly circumnavigating the earth several times in a year in order to achieve his grand vision of a Hindu Rashtra or Hindu Raj rooted in our timeless traditions of Sanathana Dharma, he is our beloved Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Despite the fact that he is over 75 years old, he fills every unforgiving minute with 60 seconds worth of distance run for the deathless cause of advancement of Hindutva— Hindu social solidarity, Hindu cultural unity, Hindu religion, Hindu society and Hindu way of life.
He functions like a One Man Army against the combined and vicious forces of Missionaryism, Marxism, Mullaism (both terrorist and non-terrorist in the scale and scope of its global wickedness), Nehruvian Pseudo-Secularism, Sonia's Congress Perverted-Pseudo-Secularism, Rational Dravidian Periyarism which are all out to eliminate and obliterate all traces of Hinduism— in the physical, social, cultural and spiritual sense— from the sacred soil of India. Whenever I see Swami Dayananda Saraswati addressing a public meeting, daringly making an impassioned plea for global Hindutva, the following incandescent words of Swami Vivekananda rush to my mind like guided missiles: 'Let people say whatever they like, stick to your own convictions and rest assured, the world will be at your feet. They say, 'Have faith in this fellow or that fellow', but I say, 'Have faith in yourself first', that's the way. Have faith in yourself— all power is in you— be conscious and bring it out. Say, 'I can do everything'.
| 'Even the poison of a snake is powerless, if you can firmly deny it'... Once when I was in Varanasi, I was passing through a place where there was a large tank of water on one side and a high wall on the other. It was in the grounds where there were many monkeys. The monkeys of Varanasi are huge brutes and are sometimes surly. They now took it into their heads not to allow me to pass through their street, so they howled and shrieked and clutched at my feet as I passed... It seemed impossible to escape, but just then I met a stranger who called out to me, 'Face the brutes'. I turned and faced the monkeys and they fell back and finally fled. That is the lesson for all life— face the terrible, face it boldly. Stand up and fight! No one can step back, that is the idea. Fight it out, whatever comes. Let the stars move from the spheres! Let the whole world stand against us! Death means only a change of garment. What of it? Thus fight! You gain nothing by becoming cowards. Arise! Awake! Stand up and fight.' This is the kind of inspiring message that Swami Dayananda Saraswati is giving to all the battered Hindus of India numbering more than 800 millions today— a very miniscule number indeed according to all the Pseudo-Secularists of India wallowing in the swirling electoral waters of political opportunism— to face the combined onslaught of anti-Hindu forces being cleverly manipulated by the surrogate UPA Government with surrealist wickedness today. |
summit in New Delhi |
Andrew Cohen after interviewing Swami Dayananda Saraswati has rightly observed: 'Swami Dayananda is, by his own description, a traditional teacher of Advaita Vedanta. A close disciple of the widely respected late Vedanta teacher Swami Chinmayananda, he began teaching over thirty years ago after a disciplined spiritual search that included both intensive study of the classical scriptures and several years on retreat in the Himalayan foothills. During that time, he gained an illustrious reputation both in India and abroad as a fierce upholder of the Vedantic tradition. He has published twenty-one books, including several translations of and commentaries on the traditional texts, and has established three ashrams (two in India and one in the United States) where his intensive courses in Vedanta are taught year-round.' Under the auspices of the Hindu Dharma Acharya Sabha, an Apex Hindu Body, which he convened in 2001, Swami Dayanandaji has set up an NGO solely devoted to a comprehensive programme of CARING in India, under the banner of All India Movement (AIM) for Seva, which has been accorded a Special Consultative Status at the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Acharya Sabha and the Dharma Samstha Pramukh Sabha in India, besides the Dharma Summit/Hindu Collective Initiative of North America conceived and established by Swami Dayanandaji, are gradually paving the way for the much needed Renaissance of Hindu Dharma in the New Millennium.] Swami Dayananda Saraswati is not only a man of great thought and contemplation. He is also a man of vigorous and decisive action. His message to all the Hindus of the world can be summed up as: 'Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is the lightning that does the work.' Can anyone doubt that Swami Dayananda himself is a resplendent symbol of a supreme kind of all-encompassing unsurpassed lightning in the never ending vistas of Vedantic thought and action?
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As a global Field Marshall for defending
the deathless cause of Hindutva and Sanathana Dharma, Swami Dayananda Saraswati
has taken several bold initiatives during the last two decades and more.
One such outstanding initiative is the First Jewish-Hindu Leadership Summit
which took place in New Delhi last month on 5 and 6 February, 2007. At
this summit, a delegation of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel under the leadership
of Rabbi David Rosen participated, and interacted with world Hindu leaders
on a common platform. Rabbi David Rosen is the International Director of
Inter-Religious Affairs and President of the International Jewish Committee
on Inter-Religious Consultations (IJCIC). Swami Dayananda Saraswati was
the moving vital spirit behind the whole summit. This First Hindu-Jewish
Leadership Summit is a meeting of great historical significance. After
long deliberations, in a Joint Declaration, all the participants affirmed
the following:
1. This historic gathering will lead to ongoing bilateral meetings on shared values and common concerns, many of which were highlighted at the summit. 2. Their respective Traditions teach that there is One Supreme Being who is the Ultimate Reality, who has created this world in its blessed diversity and who has communicated Divine ways of action for humanity for different people in different times and places. |
4. Hindus and Jews seek to maintain their respective heritage and pass it on to the succeeding generations while living in respectful relations with other communities.
5. Neither seeks to proselytize, nor undermine or replace in any way the religious identities of other faith communities.
| 6. They expect other communities
to respect their religious identities and commitments and condemn all activities
that go against the sanctity of this mutual respect.
7. The Jewish and Hindu communities are committed to the ancient traditions of Judaism and Hindu Dharma respectively, and have both, in their own ways, gone through the painful experiences of persecution, oppression and destruction. Therefore, they realise the need to educate the present and succeeding generations about their past, in order that they will make right efforts to promote religious harmony. 8. The representatives of the two faith communities recognise the need for understanding one another in terms of lifestyles, philosophy, religious symbols, culture, etc. 9. Because both traditions affirm the central importance of social responsibility for their societies and for the collective good of humanity, the participants pledge themselves to work together to help address the challenges of poverty, sickness and inequitable distribution of resources. 10.The representatives of the two faith communities also agree to constitute a Standing Committee on Hindu-Jewish Relations. |
Saraswati |
The clarion call of Dayananda Saraswati lies in this message: 'National ideals of India are Renunciation and Service. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself.'
(The writer is a retired IAS officer)