Swami Vivekananda, the great saint-philosopher of India has offered us a new Dharma, a religion of tolerance, universal brotherhood and equality of humanity. He wanted to create a national dynamic culture in our country. National integration, according to Vivekananda involves nation-building which in turn implies education for man-making. We have neglected the secular field, i.e. how to relate ourselves to man in all its implications in the socio-political field. Swami Vivekananda has given us that insight into the philosophy of the Gita and the Upanishads which reveals the philosophy of man relating to man along with that of man relating to God.
We proclaimed our polity a Republic without understanding its implication of free citizenship. Citizenship involves a sense of public spirit, national responsibility, a measure of self-discipline and law-abidingness. Political freedom, by itself, does not make for citizenship. Without responsibility, freedom becomes an enemy of itself. In India we have freedom in the formal and legal sense only, but it is not enriched by social responsibility. Unless social responsibility could be injected into our sense of freedom, national integration cannot be achieved. Responsibility is the sign of human growth, of human psychic maturity.
The awakening of enlightened citizenship among citizens is the key to national integration. But there is a condition: citizens should feel satisfied that there is no injustic and favourtism perpetuated on a large scale. It is injustice and corruption in politics and administration triggers popular frustration, anger, violence and disruption. Unfortunately, even today in our country there is gross injustice and corruption in many sphers of our life.
This kind of feeling widely spread in the population constitutes the main hurdle to genuine integration of the nation. Swami Vivekananda gave a clarion call to his fellow countrymen underlying the need of building this fellow-feeling as found in one of his essays (Bartaman Bharat). He urged upon his own countrymen never to forget that the low caste people, the uneducated, the poor, the ignorant, the cobbler, the scavenger constitute their blood, and they are their brothers. This message of Swamiji cannot be adequately appreciated and internalised unless enlightened citizenship could be created. In adsence of such enlightened citizenship there will never emerge a just social order and no coordinated cooperation and proper understanding of the importance of achieving national goals and national integration.
Today is the 160th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. On his birthday we can pay our best homage by inculcating his values and ideals in our individual, social and national life. By practicing and following his ideals in our life we can act together to promote national integration and make our nation proud. Let us all act together by following Swamiji’s ideals to make our country the best in the world.