It was an honour and privilege to participate in many functions to commemorate 150th birth anniversary of Vivekananda. These were functions hosted by local people, the institute and of course, NSS, IIT Kharagpur. Articles were sought in a few places and I tried to write something. One English article recently came online. This was published earlier in print volume of Vivek-Jivan in its anniversary issue. This monthly is published by Akhil Bharat Vivekananda Yuva Mahamandal (Link) who have taken up the primary task of 'man-making, character-building' that Vivekananda prescribed for all and before any other thing. With this primary education in us, a doctor becomes a better doctor, a teacher becomes a better teacher, a shop-keeper becomes a better shop-keeper, a manager becomes a better manager, a social servant becomes a better social servant etc. and thereby can lead a life of full and take the nation / civilization forward in the right direction. It is a win-win for all but requires no-deficit in attention and engagement.
I grew up (Link) participating in study-circles where one week's discussion used to be an article from this monthly, Vivek-Jivan. The short and simple articles by respected Shri Nabaniharan Mukhopadhyaya, poupular as Nabani-da, in more than one ways cleared many a doubts of our young mind. There are several small booklets written by him on this central theme of Vivekananda. Many of them are available online now (link). Mahamandal works at grassroots in villages, towns, cities among 'ordinary' youth who embrace Vivekananda to garner confidence and build their own life. It apparently works below perceptible level and is thus not noticed by media. Even its annual camps during every Dec. 25-30 which is attended by over 1500 young man from all over the country under extreme hardship are not a news (Link). May be Mahamandal wants it that way, not to make flash-news but do the ground work that involves day to day grinding of building-up oneself and not to brag about it. I could find only two videos Nabanida in youtube which some camper recorded during Bengali Q & A session (Link1, Link2). With younger team taking over, now there is a facebook page (Link). However, since it is mostly rooted in villages and small cities working among struggling youths, the activity in facebook is mostly from city units and is thus less.
When Vivek-Jivan editorial team asked one article from me in the anniversary issue, I tried to avoid as much as possible. I know the quality of the articles published there and the life and toil of the people who write them. I am no match. But soon the wish became a kind of order! And the following is the start of the article that I wrote. To read it in full, please visit this (Link). Thanks to Arunavada for necessary help. There is an error in my affiliation there. I am not 'Vice-President' :-) but a member of Kharagpur unit of Mahamandal.
We associate childhood with innocence and a make-believe world. We cannot but be surprised when a child experiments with what his innocence asks him to believe. Let us begin with what a child showed us.
One day, his mother arranged a congregation where a priest narrated the story of the mythological god, Hanuman, who was a close confidant of Lord Rama. The child heard that Hanuman conquered death and is also fond of banana. It did not take much time to establish a cause-effect relationship and the child was there in a banana garden and waited hours there to come face-to-face with immortal Hanuman. The elders in the family had a tough time to bring the child home. The argument that worked was – Lord Rama might have sent Hanuman to some other place for some important work.
There were several hookahs, a kind of Indian smoking pipe, in their house. Each hookah was meant for people of a particular caste. Why so? The child was given the simple explanation that a person’s caste is lost if he smokes from the hookah of another caste. What happened next? The child tried all the hookahs by himself but could not find how his caste got lost. It was not so simple for the father to explain to the child about social stratification. No surprise that any round-about or evasive answer would not satisfy this child, Biley, when he attains youth as Narendra. His approach was straight and direct. ‘Have you seen God? Can you show me God?’ .... (continue)
I grew up (Link) participating in study-circles where one week's discussion used to be an article from this monthly, Vivek-Jivan. The short and simple articles by respected Shri Nabaniharan Mukhopadhyaya, poupular as Nabani-da, in more than one ways cleared many a doubts of our young mind. There are several small booklets written by him on this central theme of Vivekananda. Many of them are available online now (link). Mahamandal works at grassroots in villages, towns, cities among 'ordinary' youth who embrace Vivekananda to garner confidence and build their own life. It apparently works below perceptible level and is thus not noticed by media. Even its annual camps during every Dec. 25-30 which is attended by over 1500 young man from all over the country under extreme hardship are not a news (Link). May be Mahamandal wants it that way, not to make flash-news but do the ground work that involves day to day grinding of building-up oneself and not to brag about it. I could find only two videos Nabanida in youtube which some camper recorded during Bengali Q & A session (Link1, Link2). With younger team taking over, now there is a facebook page (Link). However, since it is mostly rooted in villages and small cities working among struggling youths, the activity in facebook is mostly from city units and is thus less.
When Vivek-Jivan editorial team asked one article from me in the anniversary issue, I tried to avoid as much as possible. I know the quality of the articles published there and the life and toil of the people who write them. I am no match. But soon the wish became a kind of order! And the following is the start of the article that I wrote. To read it in full, please visit this (Link). Thanks to Arunavada for necessary help. There is an error in my affiliation there. I am not 'Vice-President' :-) but a member of Kharagpur unit of Mahamandal.
We associate childhood with innocence and a make-believe world. We cannot but be surprised when a child experiments with what his innocence asks him to believe. Let us begin with what a child showed us.
One day, his mother arranged a congregation where a priest narrated the story of the mythological god, Hanuman, who was a close confidant of Lord Rama. The child heard that Hanuman conquered death and is also fond of banana. It did not take much time to establish a cause-effect relationship and the child was there in a banana garden and waited hours there to come face-to-face with immortal Hanuman. The elders in the family had a tough time to bring the child home. The argument that worked was – Lord Rama might have sent Hanuman to some other place for some important work.
There were several hookahs, a kind of Indian smoking pipe, in their house. Each hookah was meant for people of a particular caste. Why so? The child was given the simple explanation that a person’s caste is lost if he smokes from the hookah of another caste. What happened next? The child tried all the hookahs by himself but could not find how his caste got lost. It was not so simple for the father to explain to the child about social stratification. No surprise that any round-about or evasive answer would not satisfy this child, Biley, when he attains youth as Narendra. His approach was straight and direct. ‘Have you seen God? Can you show me God?’ .... (continue)
