Thursday, August 28, 2008

पूर्ण विजय ...बी निवेदिता

Vijay! Poorna Vijay!!
(Vivekananda Kendra is preparing to conduct ‘Vijay - Poorna Vijay’ Mahashibir for thousands of youth. What does ‘Vijay - Poorna Vijay’ menas? An article explaining the concept of Poorna Vijay)

‘Up India! Conquer the world with your spirituality!’ – says Swami Vivekananda. Does it mean that there should be no striving for victory in the battlefield, no victory of this world is expected? Worse still, does it mean that even when the enemy wants to gobble us and so it starts claiming one after other all that belongs to us, we should keep quiet to prove our spirituality? Not at all. Swami Vivekananda also has told that, "Heroes only enjoy the world. Show your heroism; apply, according to circumstances, the fourfold political maxims of conciliation, bribery, sowing dissentions, and open war, to win over your adversary and enjoy the world—then you will be Dharmika. Otherwise, you live a disgraceful life if you pocket your insults, when you are kicked and trodden down by anyone who takes it into his head to do so; your life is a veritable hell here, and so is the life hereafter. This is what Shastras say... This is my advice to you my beloved co-religionists. Of course do not do any wrong, do not injure or tyrannize over any one, but try to do good to others as much as you can. But passively to submit to wrong done by others is a sin."
Mahatma Gandhi who always stressed on Non-violence also wrote in Young India, 16 June 1927 that, "My creed of non-violence is an extremely active force. It has no room for cowardice or even weakness. There is hope for a violent man to be some day non-violent, but there is none for a coward. I have, therefore, said more than once.....that if we do not know how to defend ourselves, our women and our places of worship by the force of sufferings, i.e., non-violence, we must, if we are men, be at least able to defend all these by fighting."
The very concept of Poorna Vijay includes all gradations and levels of victory like physical and spiritual at individual and collective levels. Poorna Vijay includes even the physical fights if required in self defence. But Poorna Vijay does not and should not stop with victory over attacking enemy. If it stops then it is not Poorna Vijay. This can be very beautifully understood if we contrast and compare Ashoka and Arjuna before and after war and its impact on nation. Many a times to disguise our cowardice or the personal likes and dislikes, feelings and sentiments we profess non-violence, universalism or spiritualism. And worse still, we impose this on the nation by presenting it as some higher value. This is what Arjuna tried to do. But fortunately Krishna was there to rescue him from such confusion. The example of Ashoka illustrates that confusion can be very disastrous. this.
Many wrongly interpret Ashoka as a follower of Buddha. He was not a follower of Buddha. Ashoka in a sense only copied Buddha, but did not follow him. Buddha left the Throne. He left the kingdom. And so the dharma and karma of the ruler did not attach to him. He ceased to be a king and then he preached compassion to one and all, non-violence. But Ashoka wanted to be the Emperor as well as a Buddha. While he had the dharma and the karma to wage war as the King, he vowed not to wage war. This became an ideal for the nation as time went by, as being an emperor and a victor his conduct had high persuasion. But he nevertheless confused between his role as the disciple of Buddha and as the Emperor of Maghada. Thus and there started the intellectual confusion and it intensified as time passed. So the confusion of the Indian society is directly inspired by the Ashokan Ethics. The intellectual confusion in India even for tackling the enemy is because of the glorification of Ashoka’s giving up of war.
So the Ashokan psyche which has confused the nation needs to be cleared. India has to win wars but not to renounce them like Ashoka. This is what we did in1948 and in 1971. With little push the problem of Kashmir would have been over then. With wise approach the terrorist –ridden Bangal Desh would not be there. We were victorious but we renounced the war and could not consolidate our gains. Only an individual who has won the war can give it up. But a nation should never give up wars required for self-defense, self-respect and also for the expression of its soul. A nation that needs victory will have to follow Krishna, not Ashoka. India needs to follow the Ashoka who won the Kalinga war but not the Ashoka who gave up war altogether on arguments that were forwarded by Arjuna for escaping the war. Krishna removed the confusion in the mind of Arjuna and made him fight war. India needs to follow Krishna who cleared Arjuna’s confusion, not Ashoka who after he won the Kalinga war, got into personal emotional conflict and took a personal vow which has been turned totally inappropriately into an illustration for a nation. The logic is simple. Pacifism is the rule of the victor, not the one who needs to emerge as a victor. And the pacifism cannot be the rule for a nation. For victory and its consolidation not just capability for fighting successfully but also the clarity of thought is required. This clarity of thought is one of the aims of the Vijay Poorna Vijay Shibir.
Does that mean that India should go for conquering the countries around? Not at all. That is not what is the message of Srikrishna and the history of our nation. Actually ours is the only country in the world which though being a big and richest nation for the longest period in the world history does not have blood on its hand. The reason is India has the vision of Oneness (Ekatma Darshan) as the basis of her philosophy of life. We being the one sixth of the humanity cannot just exist. We should not only live but live with self-respect, self-esteem. This is the first requirement. But that is not enough. We should also live a contributing life because we are part of this whole creation not a mechanical part but an organic part. The body is organic and all its organs are interrelated, interdependent and interconnected. This vision that everything is an expression of the self, motivated India never to strike for annihilating others as there are no ‘others’. India raised her hands only for self protection otherwise it was always the hand blessing the whole world.
Vijay Poorna Vijay is possible only when it is for the whole. It means when an individual is not just individual but connected to the collectives – family, society, nation, humanity, whole creation. If we go for victory of a hand at the cost of the body it is ultimately the defeat of the hand too. There cannot be victory of a wave at the cost of the ocean as that wave cannot survive without the ocean. It was this realization that our land always prayed - Sarve Bhavantu Sukinah. The world has seen this land and its culture has become immortal. Inclusive approach alone ensures sustained victory. But ofcourse if a part is a threat to the body then the body has to work to remove that part. If a man with diabetes has gangrene then he has to get his body part amputed. That is self defence, protection of the body. But it alone is not the poorna Vijay. For Poorna Vijay one would have to work for a whole. Our nation became immortal because it never went conquering other nations but at the same time unhesitatingly and ceaselessly worked for the self-protection and also ennobling the whole world. Culturing of the whole world – Krinvanto Vishmaryam is possible only with spirituality ie with the Ekatma Darshan. That is why Swami Vivekananda kept in front of us the goal of conquering the world with our spirituality. Victory cannot be of a part alone. Wholistic vision is required. Partial view would give partial and therefore temporary victory. This is what happened to nations which went for victory by destroying other lands. Swami Vivekananda said, "Ay, it is a curious fact that while nations after nations have come upon the stage of the world, played their parts vigorously for a few moments, and died almost without leaving a mark or a ripple on the ocean of time, here we are living, as it were, an eternal life. They talk a great deal of the new theories about the survival of the fittest, and they think that it is the strength of the muscles which is the fittest to survive. If that were true, any one of the aggressively known old world nations would have lived in glory today, and we, the weak Hindus, who never conquered even one other race or nation, ought to have died out; yet we live here three hundred million strong!
…Even earlier, when history has no record, and tradition dares not peer into the gloom of that intense past, even from then until now, ideas after ideas have marched out from her, but every word has been spoken with a blessing behind it and peace before it. We, of all nations of the world, have never been a conquering race, and that blessing is on our head, and therefore we live.
…There was a time when at the sound of the march of big Greek battalions the earth trembled. Vanished from off the face of the earth, with not every a tale left behind to tell, gone is that ancient land of the Greeks. There was a time when the Roman Eagle floated over everything worth having in this world; everywhere Rome's power was felt and pressed on the head of humanity; the earth trembled at the name of Rome. But the Capitoline Hill is a mass of ruins, the spider weaves its web where the Caesars ruled. There have been other nations equally glorious that have come and gone, living a few hours of exultant and exuberant dominance and of a wicked national life, and then vanishing like ripples on the face of the waters. Thus have these nations made their mark on the face of humanity. But we live."
This is what conquering the world with spirituality means. Actually conquering the world with our spirituality means to work with feeling of Oneness (Atmiyata) to contribute for elevating others. Such spiritual conquest alone ensures immortality and Poorna Vijay. Hu-Shih the former ambassador of China to USA told, "India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border" Such spiritual conquest of the world is destined mission of India. It is true that colonial period became the cause of degradation of our land. After that short period India is again rising.
Coming to an individual, we know that everyone wants to be victorious. None wants to lose, to get defeated. The desire for victory comes from the basic desire of self worth, of acquiring what is considered as important / valuable for oneself. The victory needs to define what is valuable and also who the enemy to be won over is. And for poorna vijaya one needs to know what is most valuable. Victory presupposes battle and battle presupposes preparation, training for the same. No individual in life can achieve great things without having a clear dream and readiness to prepare one self for it. The great power inside oneself can be brought forth only if the life is disciplined, organised and confident. The dream of career alone cannot release the tremendous energy within young heart nor does it gets disciplined. The professional aim is achieved by the age of 24-26. Afterwards the life becomes aimless and again the power within has no propelling urge to get expressed.
Poorna Vijay in individual life is possible again if one has the vision of Oneness in life. Individual is not just a body-mind complex. Individual is an expression of the consciousness getting expressed in the expanding layers of existence like family, society, nation and the whole creation. If in a child hand alone grows and rest of the body does not grow then it is not growth but distortion and disease. Thus only if an individual is growing but others are left behind it cannot bring the ultimate happiness for man. One can really become successful in life if he/she can relate, can derive joy from the family, community, society, nation, and the whole creation around him/her. It is this vision in a surcharged atmosphere that can release the tremendous constructive energy of youth. The boundless energy of the thousands of youth would be released and channelized for national regeneration in the ‘Vijay - Poorna Vijay Shibir’, for the fulfilling the destined mission of India.
.......................Nivedita Raghunath Bhide

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