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Monuments of modern history of human culture (Hamari Sanskriti Itihasa Ke Kirti Stambha): Vangamaya Vol-43

The philosophy of life as endowed in the Indian culture inherits all elements to help culmination of human self up to divine heights…. This culture, which orients the direction of life – from ignorance to wisdom, from the narrow path of selfish attachments and endless worries to the wide horizons of altruist attitude and limitless happiness….., is often referred as the divine culture. It lays the foundation of absolute progress of all beings….., of the entire world….
Annals of history glorify the Indian culture as the eternal source of generating great personalities. The seeds of divine cultural values reflected in – sacrifice for high ideals of humanity, sentiments of welfare and compassion and purity and integrity of character, were sown by the Indian Rishis of yore…. This had helped expansion of the ideal values and eventually inspired the rise in number of great men and women in the other parts of the world too.
History has witnessed ample examples of great personalities born in the modern era who also had sincerely followed the path shown by the Rishis and devoted themselves for the altruist service of the society and revival of the lost values of the divine culture. The lives and works of some of these glorious monuments of humanity are thoroughly reviewed here.
Some of these persons were born in India and had worked within or outside the country while some others were born abroad but they had adopted the principles of the divine culture inspired by the Rishis…. The precious contributions of these people to the modern world may be classified in three broad categories: (i) Saintly sacrifices for the enlightenment of mankind and spiritual elevation and welfare of the masses through the religious platform; (ii) Courageous endeavors of social reforms to eliminate ignorance, orthodox practices and suppression of the weaker ones and to provide a healthy environment of social justice and liberal thinking; (iii) Dedication for national freedom movements and progressive development of self-reliant, sovereign society based on democratic principles.
This volume presents before us a grand bouquet of varieties of flowers of the immortal beauty and ecstatic fragrance of the invaluable contributions of the great saints, scholars, social reformers and leaders…. The next volume of this Vangmaya series focuses on the lives of several great men and women whose valor, scholarly wisdom, creative talents and other virtuous potentials were absolutely dedicated to the altruist service of humanity.
Swami Ramkrishna Paramhansa was among the most inspiring saintly spiritual masters of the modern times whose devotion had set the basis for the resurrection of the glory of Indian culture. He was born in a period of cultural darkness when orthodox traditions, superstitions and exploitation in the name of religion were also at the peak. The people of India were largely illiterate, unaware and economically suppressed under the British rule and ‘mentally enslaved’ by blind faith, castism and communalism. It was in such moments of decline and despair, when spiritual philosophy and cultural developments were considered to be the topics of high intellectual discussions and had virtually become ‘privileged properties’ of some orthodox ‘religious masters’ and a few ‘forward looking’ elite groups of ‘rational thinkers’, that Ramkrishna’s simplicity, absolute devotion and pure spiritual charge bestowed an unprecedented spring of divine love and true knowledge for every man and woman. His miraculous inspirations and internal power generated a treasure of great devotees including the jewels like Vivekananda.
Vivekananda’s eminent contributions to bringing the great values of ancient Indian culture in true light stand as monuments of enlightened humanity… His works continue elevating the lives of people from all parts of the globe through the branches of the Ramkrishna mission established by him. He has remained a symbol of pure intellect and spiritual illumination and a noble hero of the youths since more than a century.
Number of books have been written on the life and works of Vivekananda and on his great master Ramkrishna. Nevertheless, the information presented here would be unique as it focuses on the fundamental aspects of Indian culture and spirituality and eloquently describes the needs and scope of expanding, in the present moments, the missions of these and several other great personalities. The author also guides practical ways of mass education and social welfare from religious platforms along the lines of our ancestors….
Swami Dayananda Saraswati too was gifted with supernormal memory and sagacity like Swami Vivekananda. He, after being inspired by Swami Virajananda, had devoted himself for destroying the hypocrisies and superstitious bonds posed on the Hindu religion and culture during the medieval era. He had founded the “Arya Samaja” as part of his mission of refining the religious system in India in the post medieval era. He had successfully implemented the fundamental teachings of Indian culture by expanding the knowledge of Yagya and Gayatri among large sections of the society those days.
Swami Shraddhananda had reestablished the Gurukul system of education for ideal development of children with inculcation of virtuous tendencies and escalation and creative orientation of their natural talents and potentials…, by instituting “Gurukul Kangadi” near Hardwar in India. Prabhu Jagadbandhu, Thakur Dayananda, Swami Keshavananda, Swami Sahajananda, Baba Raghawadas, etc also fall in this category of religious saints who rendered great service to humanity by educing people’s faith in the original principles and values of the Indian Philosophy.
Maharshi Arvinda was a revolutionary freedom fighter, who, upon realization of the divine power of consciousness had endeavored great yoga and spiritual experiments of refining the subtle environment of life. He, like Vivekananda, had inspired people all over the globe and blessed the world with divine disciples like “Shri Maa” of France, and the spiritually charged centers – like “Aurovilla Ashrama” at Pandichery in India – for higher level yoga-sadhanas.
Illumination of divine glow in the soul of Tirtharam who was a professor of Mathematics had transmuted his personality into that of a saint. He, popularly known as Swami Ramtirtha, was among the few scholars of the British ruled India whose sagacity and dedicated attempts towards resurrection of Indian culture were recognized world wide. Among the saintly leaders of the later years, Acharya Binova Bhave is regarded as an ideal disciple of Mahatma Gandhi who did not join politics. Rather, he worked till the last breath for the welfare of the masses through the grand experiment of Bhudana and Sarvodaya and showed how creative implementation of the teachings of the true Indian culture could lead to self-reliant development of the society and arousal of the nation in the present times too.
The volume also describes several of the great saints of the rest of the world. The list includes the following: The saintly philosopher Socrates, whose philosophy is considered to be the medium via which the waves of ancient Indian cultural developments had reached Rome and Greece; his teachings had accelerated the expansion of liberal thinking in the western world and originated the scholarly innovations which are of relevance even today; Saint Francis, who is among the most revered saints in Christianity; his thoughts preaches had motivated a large number of people across the globe to adopt the ideal principles of Christianity in life and contribute to the altruist service of the society; Saint Bahaullah, the founder of the Bahai religion, who too taught the righteous principles of divine culture and enlightened the lives of people by his saintly inspiration and sacred love for humanity.
Among the great personalities who made excellent contributions to social reformation during the most critical period of history, the names of Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara, Master Prabhudayal, Keshav Chandra Sen and Shri Ganga Ram sand as the symbols of human dignity and the live examples of the limitless potentials of the human intellect when the latter gets linked with the inner sentiments of compassion and love for all beings…. This volume presents the life-histories of such great humans with greater emphasis on how they struggled with the adversities and helped uprooting the ‘cancer’ of illogical, orthodox and inhumane convictions and customs that prevailed in the Indian society of the 18th and 19th century…. The contributions of these truly brave social reformers were perhaps more effective in emancipation of India than the political or economic freedom movement as the formers helped arouse self-prestige and generate awareness towards the lost and suppressed values of the ancient culture of this country….
In the above context, this volume also describes the revolutionary efforts of Martin Luther King towards the refinement of the customs and convictions of the systems of Christian religion which during his times were captured in orthodox traditions. Readers will also get an opportunity to see the life of Abraham Lincoln – the founder president of the USA , as that of a great social reformer who had even put his life at a stake in order to wipe out the ugly spots of racism and apartheid from his country…. The immortal works of these great leaders too correspond to establishing the fundamental elements – like liberty, justice and equality…, of the divine culture.
The peaceful freedom struggle of India secured unparalleled success and kindled an ever shining lamp of guidance for the future generations of human society because of the collective endeavors of a large number of great saints, patriotic scholars, dedicated social reformers and martyrs…. The glorious sacrifices and historical contributions of the latter category of the leaders or heroes of India are also highlighted in this volume. The distinct descriptions range from those of Mahatma Gandhi, Lokmanya Tilak, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Dada Bhai Nauroji, Chittaranjan Das, Surendra Nath Banerjee, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, etc, to those of the academicians, engineers and industrialists like Raja Mahendra Pratap, Shri Vishveshwaraiya, Radha Mohan Gopal, Jamanalal Bajaj etc.
In essence, the volume presents the gamut of shining examples from the treatises of modern history of the world and illustrates how the arousal of the inner strength existing in the human self leads to the transmutation of ordinary mortal beings into great personalities who motivate resurrection of ideal culture on this earth age after age…. The lives of the great saints, leaders and social reformers offer us eternal guidance to forward our march along the path of escalation of human glory…