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Those, who never die (Mara Kar Bhi Amara Ho Gaye Jo): Vangamaya Vol-44

Nature has uniformly bestowed its boons on all human beings. Human consciousness is originally endowed with enormous potentials. However, hardly some of us pay any attention to this fact. Most of us live, though with a difference in living standard and worldly activities, an average life largely revolving around – feeding and protection of the gross body, externally stimulated conditioning of mind, extrovert pleasures, reproduction and looking after the family…. Only a few are those who sacrifice themselves for the noble cause of altruist service and elevation of the society, nation, or the world as a whole. Annals of humanity remain glorified for ever by such exceptional lives….
The ideals and altruist works of the great men and women of the above kind stand as guiding lights to show us the better and brighter ways of righteous progress in purposeful life worth the dignity of a human being. The present volume brings the eternal glow of this inspiring light near us by describing the distinguished contributions and major events of some of these glorious lives witnessed by the past few centuries pertaining to the period of social and intellectual evolution of the modern world.
Rani Durgawati, Ahilyabai and Lakshmibai were the revered queens whose patriotism, valor, justice and motherly love for the public remain unparalleled in the history. Their memories may make every woman proud of being a woman herself. Today, in the major parts of the world and especially in India, women by and large are living in a state of negligence by the society, deprived of and ignorant about even the fundamental rights granted to them by the law and suffering oppression and assault by men through different means….
Reviewing the biographies of the hilarious queens of yesteryears in above circumstances would offer a much needed source of solace and moral boost to most women today. The simplicity of language and relevant illustrative discussions in today’s context presented in this volume raise greater hopes in materialization of this possibility. Simultaneous discussions – on the lives and works of Avantikabai Gokhale, Sarojini Naidu, Kasturba Gandhi, Janaki Maiya, etc, whose social service and active participation in the freedom movement have made special place in the history of India – are also incorporated here in this context.
Adding to the honor of womanhood, the volume also presents the glorious contributions of Mrs. Annie Besant and Sister Nivedita (Ms. Noble) who, although being foreigner by birth, had spent most important parts of their lives in India. Their inner selves were truly linked with the Indian philosophy and spiritual teachings…. Both had worked for social welfare through spiritual elevation of people in the British ruled India. Mrs. Annie Besant had devoted her life to equality of all religions during her tenure as the president of the Theosophical Society. Sister Nivedita had sacrifised herself to the welfare and rise of women and the weaker sections of the society as per the great mission of her spiritual guide Swami Vivekananda.
The “Lady with a Lamp”, Florence Nightingale, who founded the noble mission of nursing – is a symbol of existing in compassion and altruist service… This volume highlights her life, her struggles and great boons she offered to humanity to arouse the inner sentiments of natural love, compassion, generosity and selfless dedication which seem to have been lost in the artificial, self-centered lives of people today.
Another section of this volume focuses on the immortal lives who laid the foundation of the modern history of India. These include great warriors and ideal kings like Vira Durgadas, Maharana Pratap, Chatrapati Shivaji, etc. The mutual conflicts and frequent wars between the large number of small and divided states would have perhaps removed the great nation of India from the world map, had the intrepid, foresighted patriots like these great kings not born on this land. In the later times, the sacrifices of the brave freedom fighters such as – Lala Lajapat Rai, Sardar Patel, Vira Savarkar, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Subhash Chandra Bose, etc, have made the sovereign Indian nation stand with pride and salute the ever shining glory of its great sons and daughters…..
The biographies of Dr. Xan, Lenin and Kamal Pasha are reviewed here highlighting how these great makers of the history of China, Russia and Turkey respectively, had succeeded in leading the historical revolutions – at gross root level aimed at providing social, political and religious liberation and justice to the masses – which had added new chapters in the modern history of the world too.
Contemporary to the peaceful freedom movement of India, there also occurred unprecedented arousal of eminent scholarly personalities in this country who revolutionized people’s thinking with the help of refined literature and gave new directions to creative art and culture. Prominent among these contributions are – the “Vande Mataram…” song by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya, Treatise on the holy Gita (Gita Rahasya) by Lokmanya Tilak , Gitanjali by noble laureate Rabindra Nath Tagore and propagation of Hindi as the prime national language of India by Rajarshi Purushottam Das Tandon.
Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya had given new directions to academics and higher level scholarly works in India by instituting the Banaras Hindu University…. around the same time period as of the cultural developments cited above. All of these great scholars had also contributed to the liberation of India from political, social and mental slavery…. How could they devote their talents and time for awakening the masses along with erudite studies and distinguished scholarly works – is described here with motivating discussions….
Finding the noble company of elevated personalities or finding the opportunity of learning via working with them has become almost impossible today. Contemplation on the thoughts and inspiring character and deeds of such people appears to be the only way of bridging this gap as it offers instant enlightenment, moral support and courage…. This volume would help realization of such effects with promising impact as a wide range of glorious lives is sketched here with thought-provoking discussions keeping in mind the complexities of the present times.
The virtual crisis of ideal values and thoughts in majority of the people found around us these days has given alarming call for collective arousal of the virtuous characters and creative orientation of the talents and potentials of all of us…. The immortal glow of great lives stands before us as an eternal guide to support sincere endeavors towards this noble goal…. The present volume bestows a rare opportunity of illuminating our minds and hearts in this auspicious light of human glory….