Face the Brutes

By Shantanu -
When Swami Vivekananda was wandering as a mendicant in Varanasi, he was once troubled by a group of monkeys. He started running out of fear but the monkeys chased him. Seeing this, another ascetic shouted at him, ‘Swami, turn around, face the brutes!’ Swamiji did just that and the monkeys vanished. Later, while recalling this experience Swamiji said that problems in our life are like that of these monkeys. If we run away from the problems, they will chase us and hunt us down, but if we face them bravely, we may be able to beat all odds and emerge unscathed. It is a vital lesson of life that unless we stand up and face the challenges, the challenges will multiply and will eventually destroy us. What is a vital lesson for an individual is also a lesson for a nation and for the entire world. India has repeatedly been attacked but it has not faced the brutes. Time and again for the past 60 years or so it has proved that it is a nation of cowards, non violence and tolerance are just its façade. It is time that we rise above such cowardice but for that we need another Vivekananda, this time as a national leader. We need Swami Vivekananda as the ideal and role model, we need courage and dynamism, we do not need a Gandhi-ism suitably exploited and moulded by the present political class. We need a synthesis of all yogas, not "akarmas", "vikarmas" and 'Naiskarmas" (inaction, bad action and passivity resp.)

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