Sri Sarada Devi

(1853 - 1920)

If the motherly love inhabiting the hearts of all the mothers in the world to be put together and churned, the nectar that would issue forth would perhaps approximate to Sri Sarada Devi. Sri Ramakrishna left her in this world to uphold the ideal of universal motherhood.

Born of humble and pious parents at the village of Jayarambati in Bengal on the 22nd December 1853, Sri Sarada Devi grew up practically like any other village girl of those days with little schooling but plenty of work at home and in the fields. Though united with Sri Ramakrishna in wedlock at the age of hardly six, she lived with her parents most of the time in the early years. It was only in the first part of 1872 when she was about eighteen, that she arrived at Dakshineswar and started living with her saintly husband. It was during this year that Sri Ramakrishna worshiped her as `Shodashi', an aspect of the Divine Mother. With no trace of cupidity in heart and yet overflowing with the tenderest love and concern for each other, the couple has left to the world, the supreme example of conjugal life.

The next fourteen years of her life - until the demise of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886 - were a veritable saga of self-effacing service to her husband and his disciples. It was also a period of intense training for her, by her godly husband, who could well foresee her future role as a spiritual teacher in her own right. The next phase of her life from 1886 to 1909, when a permanent abode (the Udbodhan House) was built for her at Calcutta, was rather chequered. She spent much of her time in pilgrimages and spiritual ministry. The last eleven years - until her Mahasamadhi on the 21st July 1920 - were more hectic. Apart from spiritual ministrations to the earnest seekers, she had also to guide the activities of the Ramakrishna Organizations . Her rare insight into the problems of Indian women who were handicapped by obsolescent social customs on one side, and the exposure to the modern Western culture on the other, made her recognize the need for their education and even economic independence. That is why she was an ardent supporter of Sister Nivedita's endeavors in the field of education of Indian women. Her last message, `If you want peace of mind, do not find fault with others; rather find out your own weaknesses and rectify them. None is a stranger in this world. The whole world belongs to you!' is a typical reflection of her own immaculate life.

Teachings

Whenever the mind goes after anything other than God, consider that as transient and surrender the mind at the sacred feet of God.

Regarding the weakness of the mind, Holy Mother said to a disciple, `Child, this is the law of nature. Have you noticed the full-moon and the new-moon? Likewise the mind is sometimes dominated by good and sometimes by bad tendencies.'

It is the nature of water to flow downwards, but the sun's rays lift it up towards the sky. Likewise it is the very nature of the mind to go to lower things, to objects of enjoyment; but the grace of God can make the mind go towards higher objects.

How can one's mind be healthy if one doesn't work? No one can spend all the twenty-four hours in thought and meditation. So one must engage oneself in work; it keeps the mind cheerful.

I see people who talk about religion constantly quarrelling with one another. Hindus, Mussalmans, Brahmos, Shaktas, Vaishnavas, Shaivas, all quarrel with one another. They haven't the intelligence to understand that He who is called Krishna is also Shiva and the Primal Shakti, and that it is He, again, who is called Jesus and Allah. "There is only one Rama and He has a thousand names.". Truth is one; it is only called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the disagreement is due to differences in climate, temperament, and names. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realise Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart.

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You see many stars in the sky at night, but not when the sun rises. Can you therefore say that there are no stars in the heavens during the day? Friends, similarly you cannot see God because of your ignorance, but say not that there is no God.

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Be not a traitor in your thoughts. Be sincere. Act according to your thoughts and you shall surely succeed. Pray with a sincere and simple heart, and your prayers will be heard.

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Whoever wants God intensely, finds Him. Go and verify it in your own life.

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Satchidananda alone is the Guru. If a man in the form of a guru awakens spiritual consciousness in you, then know for certain that it is God the Absolute who has assumed that human form for your sake. The guru is like a companion who leads you by the hand. After realising God, one loses the distinction between the guru and the disciple. The relationship between them remains as long as the disciple does not see God.

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There are pearls in the deep sea, but one must hazard all to find them. If diving once does not bring you pearls, you need not therefore conclude that the sea is without them. Dive again and again. You are sure to be rewarded in the end. So is it with the finding of the Lord in this world. If your first attempt proves fruitless, do not lose heart. Persevere in your efforts. You are sure to realise Him at last.

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You may try thousands of times, but nothing can be achieved without God's grace. One cannot see God without His grace. Is it an easy thing to receive grace? One must altogether renounce egotism; one cannot see God as long as one feels, 'I am the doer.'

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Unalloyed love of God is the essential thing. All else is unreal.

One should feel a yearning for God like the yearning of a person who has lost his or her job and is wandering from one office to another in search of work.

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It is the unwavering conviction of the jnani that Brahman alone is real and the world illusory. All these names and forms are illusory, like a dream. What Brahman is cannot be described. One cannot even say that Brahman is a Person. This is the opinion of the jnanis, the followers of Vedanta philosophy. But the bhaktas accept all the states of consciousness. They take the waking state to be real also. They don't think the world to be illusory, like a dream. They say that the universe is a manifestation of God's power and glory. God has created all these -- sky, stars, moon, sun, mountains, ocean, men, and animals. They constitute His glory. He is within us, in our hearts. Again, He is outside. The most advanced devotees say that He Himself has become all this -- the twenty-four cosmic principles, the universe, and all living beings. The devotee of God wants to eat the sugar, and not to become the sugar.

But the Reality is one and the same; the difference is only in name. He who is Brahman is verily Atman, and again, He is the Bhagavan. He is Brahman to the followers of the path of knowledge, Paramatman to the yogis, and the Bhagavan to the lovers of God.

Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence, as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water is frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the Sun of Knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms. What He is cannot be described. Who will describe Him? He who would do so disappears. He cannot find his I any more.

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The Vedas speak of seven planes where the mind can dwell. When the mind is immersed in worldliness it dwells in the three lower planes... The fourth plane of the mind is at the heart. When the mind dwells there, one has the first glimpse of spiritual consciousness. One sees light all around. Such a man, perceiving the divine light, becomes speechless with wonder and says: "Ah! What is this? What is this" His mind does not go downward to the objects of the world. The fifth plane of the mind is at the throat. When the mind reaches this, the aspirant becomes free form all ignorance and illusion... The sixth plane is at the forehead. When the mind dwells there, the aspirant sees the form of God day and night. But even then a little trace of ego remains. In the top of the head is the seventh plane. When the mind rises there, one goes into samadhi. (Paraphrased: Then there is the direct perception of Brahman.)... Generally the body does not remain alive after the attainment of samadhi... After the well is dug one generally throws away the spade and basket. But some keep them in order to help their neighbours. The great souls who retain their bodies after samadhi feel compassion for the suffering of others. They are not so selfish as to be satisfied with their own illumination.

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He who is attributeless also has attributes. He who is Brahman is also Shakti. When thought of as inactive, He is called Brahman, and when thought of as the Creator, Preserver, and Destroyer, He is called the Primordial Energy, Kali.
Brahman and Sahkti are identical, like fire and its power to burn. When we talk of fire we automatically mean also its power to burn. Again, the fire's power to burn implies the fire itself. If you accept the one you must accept the other.

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A man cannot live on the roof a long time. He comes down again. Those who realise Brahman in samadhi come down also and find that it is Brahman that has become the universe and its living beings... The ego does not vanish altogether. The man coming down from samadhi perceives that it is Brahman that has become the ego, the universe, and all living beings. This is known as vijnana.

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There are three classes of devotees. The lowest one says, "God is up there," and he points to heaven. The mediocre devotee says that God dwells in the heart as the "Inner Controller". But the highest devotee says: "God alone has become everything. All things that we perceive are so many forms of God."

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Is it possible to understand God's action and His motive? He creates, He preserves, and He destroys. Can we ever understand why He destroys? I say to the Divine Mother: "O Mother, I do not need to understand. Please give me love for Thy Lotus Feet.". The aim of human life is to attain bhakti. As for other things, the Mother knows best. I have come to the garden to eat mangoes. What is the use of my calculating the number of trees, branches, and leaves? I only eat the mangoes; I don't need to know the number of trees and leaves.

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One who has only a mild spirit of renunciation says, "Well, all will happen in the course of time; let me now simply repeat God's name.". But a man possessed of a strong spirit of renunciation feels restless for God, as a mother feels for her child. A man of strong renunciation seeks nothing but God. He regards the world as a deep well and feels as if the were going to be drowned in it.

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How is it ever possible for one man to liberate another from the bondage of the world? God alone, the Creator of this world-bewitching maya, can save men from maya. There is no other refuge but that great Teacher, Satchidananda. How is it ever possible for men who have not realised God or received His command, and who are not strengthened with divine strength, to save others from the prison-house of the world?

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One day as I was passing the Panchavati on my way to the pine-grove, I heard a bullfrog croaking. I thought it must have been seized by a snake. After some time, as I was coming back, I could still hear its terrified croaking. I looked to see what was the matter, and found that a water snake had seized it. The snake could neither swallow it nor give it up. So there was no end to the frog's suffering. I thought that had it been seized by a cobra it would have been silenced after three croaks at most. As it was only a water snake, both of them had to go through this agony. A man's ego is destroyed after three croaks, as it were, if he gets into the clutches of a real teacher. But if the teacher in an unripe one, then both the teacher and the disciple undergo endless suffering. The disciple cannot get rid either of his ego or of the shackles of the world. If a disciple falls into the clutches of an incompetent teacher, he doesn't attain liberation.

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What are you to do when you are placed in the world? Give up everything to Him, resign yourself to Him, and there will be no more trouble for you. Then you will come to know that everything is done by His will.

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Different people call on [God] by different names: some as Allah, some as God, and others as Krishna, Siva, and Brahman. It is like the water in a lake. Some drink it at one place and call it 'jal', others at another place and call it 'pani', and still others at a third place and call it 'water'. The Hindus call it 'jal', the Christians 'water', and the Moslems 'pani'. But it is one and the same thing.

- Sri Ramakrishna

He looked just like an ordinary man, with nothing remarkable about him. He used the most simple language, and I thought, 'Can this man be a great teacher?' I crept near him and asked him the question which I had been asking others all my life: 'Do you believe in God, sir?' 'Yes.' `How can you?' 'Because I see Him just as I see you here, only in a much more intense sense.' That impressed me at once. For the first time I found a person who dared to say that he saw God, that religion was a reality, to be felt, to be sensed in an infinitely more intense way than we can sense the world. I began to go to that man, day after day, and I actually saw that religion could be given. One touch, one glance, can change a whole life.

— Swami Vivekananda about
his guru Sri Ramakrishna.

"In a recent and unique example, in the life of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa we see a colossal spiritual capacity first driving straight to the divine realization, taking, as it were, the Kingdom of Heaven by violence, and then seizing upon one Yoga method after another and extracting the substance out of it with an incredible rapidity, always to return to the heart of the whole matter, the realization and possession of God by the power of love, by the extension of inborn spirituality into various experience and by the spontaneous play of an intuitive knowledge. Such an example cannot be generalized. Its object also was special and temporal, to exemplify in the great and decisive experience of a Master-soul the truth, now most necessary to humanity, towards which a world long divided into jarring sects and schools is with difficulty laboring, that all sects are forms and fragments of a single integral truth and all disciplines labor in their different ways towards one supreme experience... Ramakrishna Paramahamsa is the epitome of the whole. His was the great super-conscious life which alone can witness to the infinitude of the current that bears us all oceanwards. He is the proof of the Power behind us, and the future before us."

Sri Aurobindo

"Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness. His sayings are not those of a mere learned man but they are pages from the Book of Life. They are revelations of his own experiences. They therefore leave on the reader an impression which he cannot resist. In this age of skepticism Ramakrishna presents an example of a bright and living faith which gives solace to thousands of men and women who would otherwise have remained without spiritual light. Ramakrishna's life was an object-lesson in Ahimsa. His love knew no limits, geographical or otherwise. May his divine love be an inspiration to all."

Mahatma Gandhi

To the Paramahamsa Ramakrishna Deva

"Diverse courses of worship
from varied springs of fulfillment
have mingled in your meditation.
The manifold revelation of the joy of the Infinite
has given form to a shrine of unity in your life
where from far and near arrive salutations
to which I join my own."

Rabindranath Tagore

"Sri Ramakrishna was completely beyond the average run of men. He appears rather to belong to the tradition of the great rishis of India, who have come from time to time to turn our attention to the higher things of life and of the spirit."

Jawaharlal Nehru

"This is the story of a phenomenon. I will begin by calling him simply that rather than 'holy man,' 'mystic,' 'saint,' or 'avatar;' all emotive words with mixed associations which may attract some readers, repel others. A phenomenon is often something extraordinary and mysterious. Ramakrishna was extraordinary and mysterious; most of all to those who were best fitted to understand him. A phenomenon is always a fact, an object of experience. That is how I shall try to approach Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna's life, being comparatively recent history, is well documented. In this respect, it has the advantage over the lives of other earlier phenomena of a like nature. I believe, or am at least strongly inclined to believe, that he was what his disciples declared that he was: an incarnation of God upon earth."

Christopher Isherwood

If You Want to Know India, Read Swami Vivekananda -
The late 19th century witnessed a mighty spiritual resurgence in Bengal. Swami Vivekananda, the illustrious disciple of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, played the leading role in spreading the message of his master all over India and abroad. To the teeming masses of India, Swamiji is known primarily as a great social reformer. He sought to eradicate the social evils born of bigotry and narrow-mindedness and to inculcate fellow-feeling among man. This mission was in consonance with his ideal of universal brotherhood and humanity. But Swamiji had a philosophic message too along with his social mission, and these were an inseparable part of his total outlook of man's life and destiny. His philosophy was essentially a philosophy of religion, its theme being man's quest for the divine. He says that man is a compound of animality, humanity and divinity. It is his mission to raise the brute-man to the level of man, and man to the level of God. So, religion is an evolutionary process through which man may rise from the lowest to the highest level of existence. And in this unfolding process man must make conscious efforts, efforts at making the latent divinity in him patent. Man should ever strive for greater manifestation of the divine that is inherent in him. It is this godward progress of Man that Swamiji calls religion. When Swamiji attended the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893, it was not as an official delegate of any particular religious organization. He stood for something larger. He came as an exponent of the ancient Indian Upanisadic philosophy of Universal brotherhood and of the universality of spiritual truths. The Upanisadic philosophy of Religion transcends all dogmas and rituals which vary from religion to religion. It is the dogmas and rituals, which constitute the outer coat of a religion, that breed intolerance, hatred and conflict. Once these divisive forces are surpassed, it will be found that all religions do, in their essence, uphold the same spiritual values. The conflicts of religion will then be resolved into a harmony. This Universal Religion is not conditioned by time, place and circumstances. And, the different religions are but different facets of this Universal Religion. The diversity of paths characterizes not only religions but also different sects within the same religion. The different paths ultimately all boil down to four main paths for the realization of divinity - the path of Work, of Devotion, of Psychic control and of Knowledge. Any one of these paths or any combinations of these paths can lead man on to the divine goal. The path of Work, or Karma Yoga, is the path particularly suited to a man of active temperament, that is, a man with the rajo guna dominant in him. This path requires that the work should be selfless work, work done in a spirit of duty without any expectation of reward, leaving the result to God's will. It must be "nishkama karma". But this path also enjoins that the work done must be in the spirit of service to man. In the constant effort to do good to others in a selfless manner, we are also helping ourselves to be good. It should be a self-effacing disinterested service of man, and service rendered in this spirit will count as service to God. Karma Yoga destroys the ego, helps promote a feeling of brotherhood, and gradually purifies a man for the blossoming of divinity within him. The path of Devotion, or Bhakti Yoga, demands loves for God with the same strong attachment that one usually has for worldly things. This path operates on the plane of emotions, feelings and passionate ecstasies. Here is involved the heart, not the intellect or the rational faulty. God is here treated as master, child, sweetheart and so on. Thus, Hanumanji's relationship to Rama is that of servant and master. Yashoda's relationship to Krishna is that of mother and child. Radha's relationship to Krishna is that of a married woman and her paramour. In Radha's love there is a total surrender of her being to Krishna, heedless of all consequences. Radha had the "Madhurabhava", an unrestrained lawless love for the Lord in total forgetfulness of shame or honour. This state is recognized as the highest state of love in Bhakti yoga. Incidentally, in Christianity we find adoration of Christ as a child and even as a beloved. Further, the God the Christians seek is a Personal God, as in Bhakti yoga. The third path, the path of Mind-control or Raja yoga, believes in realizing the divine through a graded sadhana (practice), which includes Asana, Pranayama and Dhyana. It progresses form the physical to the mental, and from the mental to the spiritual. The last stage, Samadhi, is the stage of superconsciousness, a transcendent state where there is a direct perception of spiritual truths. The fourth path is the path of Knowledge or Jnana Yoga. Its approach is intellectual, proceeding along the lines of reasoning, self-questioning, and rational analysis. In this sadhana, we should first find out what we are not. This "neti, neti" or negative approach will be followed by the positive approach of asserting what we really are - we should assert that we are Brahman, whose essence is Being, Consciousness and Bliss or Satchidananda. This we should meditate upon till we achieve oneness with Brahman - brahman which is eternal, unchanging and all-pervading. This path has been followed by a number of Upanisadic seers. The four paths have been brought together and harmonized in the emblem of the Ramakrishna Order. Swmaiji is concerned with the essentials, not the accidentals, in religion, and it is no wonder that, in its universality and loftiness- it has a lasting appeal for us all. By Bhaskar Banerjee.

Sri Ramakrishna was born on 1836; his parents had dreams that the Lord himself would incarnate as the child inside the mother's womb. Sri Ramakrishna possessed not only a great intellect and an artistic mind, but had the additional qualification that he had seen God face to face; talked with him and shared the Divine life. Sri Ramakrishna had the strange capacity to make himself interesting and intelligible to people of diverse temperaments and stages of intellectual developments.

The real Guru is the one through whom we have our spiritual descent. He is the channel through which the spiritual current flows to us, the link which joins us to the whole spiritual world. Too much faith in personality has a tendency to produce weakness and idolatry, but intense love for the Guru makes rapid growth possible, he connects us with the internal Guru. Adore your Guru if there be real truth in him; that Guru-bhakti (devotion to the teacher) will quickly lead you to the highest.

REGARDING THE SWAMI’S DEATH, JULY 4, 1902,

AND

HIS 1898 POEM “TO THE FOURTH OF JULY.”

The cause of Swami Vivekananda’s death on the 4th of July, 1902, has been long debated as whether it was a deliberate act of will—through the Swami’s powers of yoga, or took place because of his illness, aggravated by over-exertion.

One fact that might favor the former view is that the Swami wrote a poem in praise of the 4th of July, on that date in 1898.

Written when he was travelling in Kashmir with some disciples, including some American and English disciples—it was read aloud at breakfast that early morning.

The poem was preserved by one of his American disciples, Mrs. Ole Bull.

While it may have been a coincidence and possibly not unique that someone wrote a poem in praise of the day/holiday on which he happened later to die, it may be singular that it was written by someone whose death has been much debated as to its cause (and for reasons other than this poem).
Moreover, the Swami’s meaning in the poem, while clearly referencing the ideal of Amercan freedom celebrated on this holiday, possibly alludes to a greater more eternal freedom…

The Swami passed away at the age of thirty-nine years, five months and twenty-four days, thus fulfilling a prophecy which was frequently on his lips, “I shall never live to see forty.”

Three days before his passing away, as the Swami was walking up and down on the spacious lawn of the monastery in the afternoon with Swami Premananda, he pointed to a particular spot on the bank of the Ganga, and said to his brother-monk gravely, “When I give up the body, cremate it there!” On that very spot stands today a temple in his honour.

Sister Nivedita, introducing many significant facts in connection with the Swami’s passing away and his foreknowledge of it, writes:

When June closed, however, he knew well enough that the end was near. “I am making ready for death!” he said to one who was with him, on the Wednesday before he died. “A great Tapasya and meditation has come upon me, and I am making ready for death!”

Once in Kashmir, after an attack of illness, I had seen him lift a couple of pebbles, saying, “Whenever death approaches me, all weakness vanishes. I have neither fear, nor doubt, nor thought of the external. I simply busy myself making ready to die. I am as hard as that” — and the stones struck one another in his hand — “for I have touched the Feet of God!”

Personal revelation was so rare with him, that these words could never be forgotten. Again, on returning from the cave of Amarnath, in that same summer of 1898, had he not said, laughingly, that he had there received the grace of Amarnath — not to die till he himself should will to do so? Now this, seeming to promise that death would never take him by surprise, had corresponded so well with the prophecy of Shri Ramakrishna — that when he should know who and what he was, he would refuse to remain a moment longer in the body — that one had banished from one’s mind all anxiety on this score, and even his own grave and significant words at the present time did not suffice to revive it.

Did we not remember, moreover, the story of the great Nirvikalpa Samadhi of his youth, and how, when it was over, his Master had said, “This is your mango. Look! I lock it in my box. You shall taste it once more, when your work is finished!” “…And we may wait for that,” said the monk who told me the tale. “We shall know when the time is near. For he will tell us that, again he has tasted his mango.”

How strange it seems now, looking back on that time, to realize in how many ways the expected hint was given, only to fall on ears that did not hear, to reach minds that could not understand!

It would seem, indeed, that, in his withdrawal from all weakness and attachment, there was one exception. That, which had ever been dearer to him than life, kept still its power to move him. It was on the last Sunday before the end that he said to one of his disciples, “You know, the work is always my weak point! When I think that might come to an end, I am all undone!”

On Wednesday [July 2] of the same week, the day being Ekadashi, and himself keeping the fast in all strictness, he insisted on serving the morning meal to the same disciple [Nivedita]. Each dish as it was offered–boiled seeds of the jackfruit, boiled potatoes, plain rice, and ice-cold milk–formed the subject of playful chat; and finally, to end the meal, he himself poured the water over the hands, and dried them with a towel.

“It is I who should do these things for you, Swamiji! Not you for me!” was the protest naturally offered. But his answer was startling in its solemnity — “Jesus washed the feet of His disciples!”

Something checked the answer — “But that was the last time!” — as it rose to the lips, and the words remained unuttered. This was well. For here also, the last time had come.

There was nothing sad or grave about the Swami during these days. In the midst of anxiety about over-fatiguing him, in spite of conversation deliberately kept as light as possible, touching only upon the animals that surrounded him, his garden experiments, books, and absent friends, over and beyond all this, one was conscious the while of a luminous presence, of which his bodily form seemed only as a shadow or symbol. Never had one felt so strongly as now, before him, that one stood on the threshold of an infinite light. Yet none was prepared, least of all on that last happy Friday, July the 4th, on which he appeared so much stronger and better than he had been for years, to see the end so soon.

On the day of the Mahasamadhi itself, whether consciously or intuitively, his actions were most deliberate and full of meaning. His solitary meditation for three hours in the morning from eight to eleven was the most striking. He rose rather early that day and, after partaking of his tea, entered the chapel of the monastery. After some time it was noticed that he had closed all the windows and bolted all the doors. What transpired there, no one will ever know. In his meditation his own Master and the Divine Mother — to his own realization One and the Same Personality — must have been present, for, when he had finished, he broke forth in a touching song in which the highest Jnana mingled with the highest Bhakti.

Descending the stairs of the shrine, he walked back and forth in the courtyard of the monastery, his mind withdrawn. Suddenly the tenseness of his thought expressed itself in a whisper loud enough to be heard by Swami Premananda who was nearby. The Swami was saying to himself, “If there were another Vivekananda, he would have understood what Vivekananda has done! And yet, how many Vivekanandas shall be born in time!!” This remark startled his brother-disciple, for never did the Swami speak thus, save when the flood-gates of his soul were thrown open and the living waters of the highest Consciousness rushed forth.

To The Fourth Of July

Behold, the dark clouds melt away,

That gathered thick at night, and hung

So like a gloomy pall above the earth!

Before thy magic touch, the world

Awakes. The birds in chorus sing.

The flowers raise their star-like crowns-

Dew-set, and wave thee welcome fair.

The lakes are opening wide in love

Their hundred thousand lotus-eyes

To welcome thee, with all their depth.

All hail to thee, thou Lord of Light!

A welcome new to thee, today,

O sun! today thou sheddest LIBERTY!

Bethink thee how the world did wait,

And search for thee, through time and clime.

Some gave up home and love of friends,

And went in quest of thee, self banished,

Through dreary oceans, through primeval forests,

Each step a struggle for their life or death;

Then came the day when work bore fruit,

And worship, love, and sacrifice,

Fulfilled, accepted, and complete.

Then thou, propitious, rose to shed

The light of FREEDOM on mankind.

Move on, O Lord, on thy resistless path!

Till thy high noon o’erspreads the world.

Till every land reflects thy light,

Till men and women, with uplifted head,

Behold their shackles broken, and

Know, in springing joy, their life renewed!

- Swami Vivekananda