Vivekananda: On Patriotism

" ..They talk of patriotism. I believe in patriotism, and I also have my own ideal of patriotism. Three things are necessary for great achievements : 


First, feel from the heart. What is in the intellect or reason? It goes a few steps nad there it stops. But through the heart comes inspiration.Love opens the most impossible gates; love is the gates to all the secrets in the universe. Feel, therefore, my would-be reformers, my would-be patriots! Do you feel? Do you feel that the millions and millions of the descendants of gods and of sages have become next-door neighbour to brutes? Do you feel that millions have been starving today, and millions have been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land as a dark crowd? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone over your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heart-beats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with the one idea of misery and ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done tht? This is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step.......

You may feel, then; but instead of spending your energies on frothy talk, have you found any way out, any practical solution, some help instead of condemnation, some sweet words to soothe their miseries, to bring them out of this living death? 

Yet that is not all. Have you got the will to surmount mountain high obstructions? If the whole world stands against you sword in hand, would you still dare to do what you think is right? If your wives and
children are against you, if all your money goes, your name dies, your wealth vanishes, would you still stick to it? Would you still pursue it and go on steadily towards your own goal? As the great King Bhartehari
says (Niti-sataka, verse 74) :

Nindantu nitinpunah yadi va stuvantu
Laksmih samavisatu gacchatu va yathestam;
Adyaiva va maranamastu yugantare va
Nyayyat pathat pravicalanti padam na dhirah-

"Let the sages blame or let them praise; let the goddess of fortune come or let her go wherever she likes; let death come today, or let it come after millions of years; he indeed is the steady man who does not move one inch from the way of truth."

Have you got that steadfastness? If you have these three things, each one of you will make miracles."
(Source: an excerpt from the book of Inspirational Speeches long back in my college library)

The Bad Omen

It all started a week back, I reconnected with an old on-line friend, with whom I had lost touch for almost 3 years. We had a pretty awesome reunion. Both were more than happy to be back in touch. When everything was going just great, my on-line friend disappeared. There were no updates about my friend's status on any of the social networking sites I knew of nor there was any reply to my messages. I was worried and even had very disturbed sleep during those days. A couple of days later my friend got in touch and I learnt that she had met with an accident! Later we had a fight over a petty reason and we stopped talking to each other.

A few days later, one night I was taking my regular walk in the streets near my home. I was lost in some thoughts and I was crossing the road in an absent mind and got in front of a two wheeler. The rider just smiled at me and passed away and I continued my walk. While I was retracing back to my home, I saw a crowd near the place I had this incident with two wheeler. It looked like the crowd was surrounding a person lying on the corner of the street. I peeped through the crowd and tried to catch the glimpse of the person. I was shocked to see that it was the same face which gave me smile couple of minutes before. The person was lying unconscious and I could see traces of blood on his shirt but couldn't tell where it had dropped from. I was afraid and like a coward I left the crowd and the person. I still do not know what happened to that stranger.

Now this happened last night. I was supposed to go to my sister's place to stay overnight there as my brother in law was out of station. I was bit reluctant to go as it was too far from my office and had to take several buses to reach the place. Moreover I had evening meeting at my office and it was going to be late. But somehow I managed to reached the place. My 4 and half year old Nephew overjoyed to receive me. He was jumping all around the home with happy and I had warned him to not to get hurt while doing so. I had had my dinner at office as it was late and I decided to prepare my bed straight away as the next day I was supposed to start early for office. I usually prefer sleeping on carpet and I started spreading the plastic carpet on the floor of the Hall. My sister went to room to fetch me a blanket and I was getting pillows from the Sofa. Just then my overjoyed - jumping nephew jumped on the carpet, slipped and fall on his face, hitting his forehead to the edge of the wall. As a normal reaction I started shouting at him and went to pick him up. When I turned turned his face he was screaming with pain as he had got a 1 inch vertical cut at the centre of his forehead. My sister came running from the room and she was panicked, she's usually more emotional and this time it was worse. My nephew was bleeding and there was blood all over his face. I was dumb stuck and and quickly grabbed him and started running out semi naked without any slippers. One of my neighbour listening to our screaming was ready with his two wheeler. We took my nephew to nearest clinic and got cleaned his wounds cleaned. I had kept my hand on his forehead while we shifted him and my whole arm was covered with his blood. After the initial cleaning of wound the clinic doctor bandaged the wound and asked us to take him to a speciality hospital to get the wound stitched. We had another neighbour who had got his car to take us to hospital and we got the wound stitched and took him back home. I had called up my another elder sister to come over to console my sister.

My nephew is better now but since its an Head injury the doctor has asked to closely monitor his behaviour for next few days. Thanks to all neighbours who were timely available for help.

I do not know what these incidents actually signify. When I look back now, I think my nephew wouldn't have had his suffering if I hadn't visited his place and spread a mat that lead to his injury. May be my absent minded walk incident caused the two wheeler driver distract and meet an accident. And I might be an Ill Omen that made my on-line friend to suffer an accident just when we met after a long time.

I know this is a very bad thought to share with you people in my first blog, but I had to write what I feel and experienced. And I want apologise all of you in advance for, God Forbid, if you ever face any untoward incidents after reading this.