Bharat Darshan
Bharat Darshan
Vivekananda was seized with the desire of travelling all over India to know the motherland and study at first hand the conditions so as to plan how best he could spread the Master’s message in all corners of the country.
In July, 1890, therefore, Vivekananda took leave of Mother Sarada Devi, who was the spiritual guide of the young monks after the Master’s passing away and set out as a parivrajaka. For about five years, he wandered all over India, mostly on foot. During these wanderings, he had to often face starvation and walk along through deserts and forests and sometimes he stood in imminent peril to his life. But undaunted by hardships and dangers, he led the life of a true Sanyasin – one day begging for his food from door to door in obscure villages and on another day, being the honored guest of a Maharajah or a Dewan: one day observing the squalid poverty of millions of miserable hut-dwellers and another day watching the luxury of princes in their palaces. He now saw and understood the unity of India amidst all her diversity of races and sects, languages, customs and manners. He studied the weaknesses as well as the strength of his countrymen and gathered a fund of experience, which he used to great advantage when later he entered the world stage as a great teacher and organizer. It was this abject poverty of the masses which he had seen during these wanderings made him to set his mission – to uplift the life of the poor through spiritual.
During these peregrinations, he met many leading personalities of the time; Some of the Princes were also drawn to him and became his friends and disciples. One of them was Maharajah Ajit Singh of Khetri, who became his ardent disciple.
A small anecdote but of great significance and which is a message for all, relates to his sojourn at Alwar. He was invited by the minister to the royal court. The young Maharajah of Alwar had Western education and, therefore, held all “modern notions” and a skeptical attitude. He, therefore, contemptuously asked,” Swami, you talk of God. Do you believe in the stone Gods in the temples? “Vivekananda replied,” Yes, certainly,” The Maharajah said again,” But how can God be a thing made of stone?” Swami turned to the minister and said,” Please take down that picture of the Maharajah from the wall and give it to me.” When the minister did that, Swami Vivekananda said to him, “Now spit on it, it is not Maharajah.” The minister said,”Oh no, how can I?” Vivekananda then turned to the Maharajah, and said,”Do you see my point now?. The stone is like a portrait, a symbol – a sacred symbol of God, the Ultimate Reality.”
At Mount Abu, he was invited to the house of a Muslim. The latter was hesitant to offer him food, wondering whether he would accept food from a non – Hindu. Swami at once gauged his thoughts and said,” For me all castes and creeds are the same and all are my own brethren.”
At Poona, he stayed with Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the great national leader.
The Maharajah of Mysore showed him great respect and offered him financial support to enable him to go to the West to propound the universal principles of Vedanta among the people there. From Mysore he went to Trivandrum and Kanyakumari.