Celebrating Freedom Festival for All

Perspective

KANCHAN BANERJEE

The whole world will observe many, many programs for India this year. Fifty years of political independence for a nation is a matter of joy and glory. We will celebrate the event with a series of programs. But why? Just to have another occasion to tickle our emotional attachment to Bharat, that is India? Another opportunity to relax in our stressful life? How about those among us who were not born in Bharat, and those who have not visited the land even once?

Yes, those of us who care for our roots definitely would be part of Freedom-50. Nobel-laureate sage poet Rabindranath said: "There are some who are insularly modern, who believe that past is the bankrupt time, leaving no assets for us, but a legacy of debts. They refuse to believe that the Army marching forward can be fed from the rear. It is well to remind them that the great ages of renaissance in history were when men suddenly discovered the seeds of thought in the granary of past. The unfortunate people who have lost the harvest of their past, have lost their seeds for cultivation and go a-begging for their bare livelihood. We must not imagine that we are one of those disinherited people of the world."

Remembrance, gratefulness, appreciation, respect and protection of the provider of support to life are inseparable parts of Hindu life and culture. Hindus have put their mothers, fathers and teachers in the seats of Goddesses and Gods. Why? Because of their contribution, and mostly selfless service, we are born, raised and given a chance to live a human life. That’s why it is natural for Hindus to feel and find the divine in everything. The cow is a symbol of respect for the entire animal kingdom. Hindus worship trees and plants for similar reasons.

The Tulasi plant and Banyan tree are sacred symbols of Hindu life. How about the land which gave the world so much? Do we recognize and appreciate her gifts to the world?

Will Durant, prominent American historian and philosopher said: "India was the mother of our race and Sanskrit the mother of Europe’s languages. She was the mother of our philosophy, mother through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics, mother through Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity, mother through village communities of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all."

Bharat gave shelter to the persecuted Jews, the Zoroastrians and Persians. Many of the oldest churches, mosques and synagogues are still intact in Bharat. Bharat is a mother indeed. Bharaty entertained almost every idea and thought of the world because of the ancient Vedic message that "Ekam sat viprah bahudha vadanti (Truth is one, sages say that variously -- paths are many). Swami Vivekananda, who is often called the architect of modern spiritual Bharat said: "The debt which the world owes to our motherland is immense. Taking country after country, there is not one race on earth to which the world owes so much as to the patient Hindu, the mild Hindu."

Does it sound like an exaggeration? Well, to uncover the truth, let us spend this year in the pursuit of self -discovery!

Some people have the notion that Bharat only gave birth to ideas of the ‘other world’ and that it had ignored the ‘worldly things.’ We think that this is a very opportune time to uncover history and realize that Hindus have been the most worldly people on the Earth. Almost every single pillar of human civilization was founded by the Hindus. Mathematics, astronomy, health sciences, metallurgy, architecture, cosmology, linguistics, grammar, music, democracy, justice -- almost everywhere Hindus were the leaders until the 7th century CE (Christian Era--AD).

Julian Huxley in his article ‘Evolution after Darwin’ has written on the centennial of Darwin’s The origin of species: Man’s most comprehensive aim is seen not as mere survival, not as numerical increase, not as increased complexity of organization or increased control over his environment, but as greater fulfillment -- the fuller realization of more possibilities by the human species collectively and more of its component members individually. Once greater fulfillment is recognized as man’s ultimate or dominant aim, we shall need a science of human possibilities to help guide the long course of psycho-social evolution that lies ahead." The Hindu system is exactly what Huxley wants: "A science of human possibilities." The system developed over thousands of years is based on eternal spiritual and natural laws and the Hindu way of living; the Hindu culture is also based on those laws, i.e. Dharma. This is the greatest gift of Bharat to the world.

Bharat is the home of Sanatana Dharma. No other country in the world is blessed by so many sages and saints who could claim "I have seen the Supreme Being. And I can show you the way." These sages were none but spiritual scientists of great power. Some people tend to say that Sanatana Dharma is eternal and that no system or method is necessary for the propagation and protection of it. For example then, if all physicists disappear from the Earth with all the books and laboratories -- all the physical laws will exist but not the system of Physics.

Therefore we need to provide our energy and effort to protect and enhance the system. Today, we cannot freely express ourselves in former parts of Bharat, namely, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Swami Vivekananda warned us saying "If India dies all spirituality will disappear from the Earth."

The President of the most powerful nation of the world, Bill Clinton has vowed to bring the spirit of community, family values and realization of human potential back to America. Hindus first realized and achieved all this long back. Today people in Bharat are yet to overcome the military, cultural and economic onslaught of over a thousand years. But it still holds on to the same values which the US President is talking about. But the sad part is that in his speech we do not find the commitment to bring together all nations of the world to realize that there is only one Earth and that we must feel one and be one. Instead we hear the echo of cheap nationalism and self-centeredness. The production, selling and usage of lethal arms dominate our calculation of economic growth. World peace and progress will be an ever distant dream as long as we don’t stop the business of killing.

The world must recognize the role that Bharat is to play in this world. No other Buddha, Mahaveer or Gandhi was born in a country other than Bharat. For the total peace, harmony and progress, Bharat will play a great role and we must strengthen it to live up to that expectation.

The world needs a vision today, and Bharat has the light for the world. Arnold Toynbee, thinker and historian said: "Today we are still living in a transitional chapter of the world’s history, but it is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a Western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in the self-destruction of the race."

Each person, each nation has a purpose and a mission. What is Bharat’s mission? Yogiraj Aurobindo, the great sage of modern Bharat said: "India of the ages is not dead nor has she spoken her last creative word; she lives and has still something to do for herself and the human peoples. And that which must seek now to awake is not anglicised oriental people, docile pupil of the West and doomed to repeat the cycle of the Occident’s success and failure, but still the ancient immemorable Shakti recovering her deepest self, lifting her head higher towards the supreme source of light and strength and turning to discover the complete meaning and a vaster form of her Dharma."

All other civilizations in the world have ceased to flow; either by entering the desert of time or due to external forces they changed their course or path.

Bharat is the only living civilization on the Earth that had continued to live and flourish through many centuries. Those of us having roots in Bharat and living in the foreign lands are the true ambassadors of Bharat and immediate heirs of its wealth and gifts. Swami Vivekananda said : "I have said that we have yet something to teach to the world. This is the very reason, the raison d'etre, that this nation has lived on, in spite of hundreds of years of persecution, in spite of nearly one thousand years of foreign rule and foreign oppression. This nation still lives; the raison d'etre is, it still holds to God, to the treasure-house of spirituality."

We must study history, otherwise it will repeat itself. Do we know why Hindus have stopped leading the world of ideas, thoughts, creativity, discoveries and inventions? Do we not need to know that to keep Dharma, life and the land that millions of our ancestors gave their lives to protect? How many women and children faced the most unimaginable fate? How many institutions with thousands of years of tradition and experience were destroyed by barbaric forces? Because of these institutions, Hindus still today can call themselves Hindus, we can still follow the path of the Vedic Rishis, and we can still tell the world: "Vasudhaiva kutumbakam (The whole world is one big family). No other race, no other nation is saying that. We must not only tell people loudly about our vision of unity and progress, but we must also want to live and teach others to live to that ideal.

What are the events that have shaped us the way we are today? What is our identity? Even for our comfortable lives in foreign lands, our excellence in various honorable professions are due to the gift of Bharat. We, including the new generation owe a lot for what we are today to the land and the people of Bharat. Swami Vivekananda also said: "Children of India, I am here to speak to you today about some practical things, and my object in reminding you about the glorious past is simply this: many times I have been told that looking into the past only degenerates and leads to nothing. That is not true. Out of the past is built the future. Look back therefore, as far as you can, drink deep of the eternal fountains that are behind, and after that, look forward, march forward. Our ancestors were great. We must first recall that. We must have faith in that blood and what it did in past; and out of that faith and consciousness of past greatness we must build an India yet greater than what she has been before."

"Live free or die," said General Stark during the Battle of Bennington -- in the American revolution. Are people really free in the Land of Liberty? "In God We Trust" or "In Gold We Trust?" Are the dreams of the nation’s forefathers being realized?

Franklin Roosevelt said: "The truth is found when men are free to pursue it." Is our pursuit for truth still alive? Every living soul yearns for freedom and freedom is the first condition for any individual or a nation to achieve their fullest potential. Freedom is for those who appreciate it and let flower in all the possibilities of a free soul. Freedom is for those who can protect it. Freedom is for those who earn it. Therefore each one of us must live and contribute towards the achievements of free people and protect the very freedom in all aspects. We sometimes take it for granted, but external freedom, the visible freedom may not be the real freedom. We must be careful enough, creative enough and visionary enough to understand it.

Political, social and economic freedom is useful and meaningful and can be fully utilized only if we must learn to be free within.

Possessiveness, greed and ego-satisfaction which culminates in the form of imperialism or colonialism is self-consuming. Hatred and anger has tormented human civilizations many a time. Tolerance, acceptance and peace are the virtues of human beings. We are evolving. We must now in the next century break the limitations of our potentials to higher realms. We must evolve to move from animal-like living to human-like living to godly living. There comes the role of Bharat again. It calls on us: "Oh children of immortals. Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached." The goal here is to realize who we are, why we are here and become truly free. Attain Mukti, Liberation, Nirvana.

Mother India does not pray only for her own children but everybody in the world: "Sarve bhavantu sukhina, sarve santu niramaya (Let everybody be happy, healthy and blessed.). In the final judgment, the achievements, failures and freedom of Bharat become one with the achievements, failures and the freedom of all people on earth. Thus Freedom -50 is not a program of Hindu Students Council or Hindus only, not only of all those who have roots in Bharat or those who love Bharat. This Freedom Festival is indeed for all freedom and peace loving people on earth, nay -- for entire humanity.

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