Yuva Bharati / March 2018 / 17Sri Ramakrishna gave to India the final
message of Hinduism to the world. A new
era dates from his birth, an era in which
the peoples of the earth will be lifted for
a while into communion with God and
spiritually become the dominant note of
human life. What Christianity failed to do,
what Mahomedanism strove to accomplish
in times as yet unripe, what Buddhism half-
accomplished for a brief period and among
a limited number of men, Hinduism as
summed up in Sri Ramakrishna, has to
attempt for all the world. This is the reason
of India’s resurgence, this is why God has
breathed life into her once more, why
great souls are at work to bring about her
salvation, why a sudden change is coming
over the hearts of her sons. The movement
of which the first outbreak was political,
will end in a spiritual consummation.”
(Bande Mataram, Sri Aurobindo). Here it is
worth mentioning that it was H.H. Swami
Veereshwarananda Maharaj, the then
President of the Ramakrishna Mutt
and Mission, who inaugurated the Rock
Memorial.
Sri Aurobindo was a towering personality, a
great Yogi and patriot who could see India
as a nation destined to play a great role
in the comity of nations. This Mahayogi
to whom Shri Parameswaranji has made
frequent references, and whom he has
quoted at every appropriate turn in his
work, had great hopes for the future of
India.
Before Swami Vivekananda left for India,
a friend asked him: “Swami, how do you
visualize your motherland after four years’
life in the luxurious and powerful West?”
Swamiji replied joyfully: “India I loved
before I came away. Now the very dust
of India has become holy to me, the very
air is now to me holy, it is now the holy
land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha.”
One hears an echo of this statement in the
words of Sri Aurobindo. He, the Mahayogi
said: “India is not a piece of earth, nor a
figure of speech, nor a fiction of the mind.
It is a mighty Shakti.”
In the Editorial ‘Tilak, Sri Aurobindo and
India’s Independence’, the exposition of
the patriotic spirit of Tilak and Aurobindo
is very illuminating. These two luminaries
had several traits in common. Here,
quoting Shri Parameswaranji’s own lines
will be more appropriate: “On 15th August
1996, India is entering the 50th of her
Independence. August is a memorable
month in the history of India’s freedom
struggle. Two great stalwarts of the
freedom movement are associated with
this month – Lokamanya Tilak, who passed
away on the first, and Sri Aurobindo, who
was born on the 15th of August. That
India won her freedom on the birth day of
Sri Aurobindo is looked upon by many as
indicative of a divine design. He himself
firmly believed that it was so.
“...Had India not been under British
rule, it is possible that neither Tilak nor
Sri Aurobindo would have taken keen
interest in politics. Tilak is on record as
having told an admirer that once India
achieved freedom, he would retire from
politics and take up teaching mathematics.
He was essentially a scholar and the fields