Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhash Chandra
Muscles of iron and Nerves of steel

The month of January is an important month in the calendar of modern India. It is not only the month when our country became democratic Republic 64 years ago, it is also the month which has birthdays of two great sons of mother India, Swami Vivekananda born on 12th January 1863 and Netaji Subhash Chandra born on 23rd January 1897.

I have always a great fascination for these two greats as apart from both being truly great in the every sense of the term they have between them striking similarities. They were born within a span of 34 years in British India. Both of them lived a short life. While Vivekananda could not complete even 40 years of mortal life, Netaji Subhash was barely 48 years old when he died if the air crash theory is accepted. Vivekananda was born at a time when the Brahminical rituals had overshadowed the pristine glory of Hinduism, the Christian missionaries were getting foothold in the country and the elite of the society was getting exposed to western education and culture. Subhash was born at a time when the countrymen had started feeling the pangs of colonial subjugation and the breeze of nascent nationalism was blowing across the country.

Both are perennial source of inspiration to millions and millions of Indians cutting across the barriers of states, language, religion, caste, creed and communities. Both were stubborn fighters of the highest order, Vivekananda a warrior monk who fought for the glory of India’s religion and culture while Netaji Subhash was a relentless fighter for India’s freedom from the British rule. Both were born with rare talents.

 Narendranath whom the world knows as Swami Vivekananda was endowed with great physical prowess and brilliant intellect. His brilliant intellect helped him to embrace with equal zest not only the religious texts of Hinduism, the Vedas, Vedanta, Puranas and the Indian epics but also the Western languages and their philosophy, the scriptures of all the major religions, as well as all the modern secular subjects. Subhash had a brilliant academic carrier securing a first class in the university honours examination and then getting selected in the ICS, the most prized job for the then Indian aristocracy.

Unconquerable will and indomitable courage were the hallmarks of both these great personalities. Vivekananda was not deterred by the abject poverty which had befallen him after the sudden death of his father and did not give up his spiritual quest. He could muster courage to travel through the length and breadth of the country on foot as a Paribrajak without a penny in his hand to have a feel of India and her great diversity. He showed extraordinary courage to go to America and address the august assemblies there to proclaim the glory and the greatness of Hinduism and Indian culture. The courage which Subhash showed in his great escape form his house arrest at Calcutta to Germany to wage a war against British to free India may not have any parallel even in the most sensational fictions. His voyage from Germany to Japan in submarine at the height of the Second World War is a saga of unbelievable courage. Both are the true Indian icons of courage, determination and will power with muscles of iron and nerves of steel.

Both Vivekananda and Subhash were patriots of the highest order. Vivekananda’ speeches and writings which are quite voluminous are testimony to his great love for India and its people, the poor, the downtrodden, the low casts, the outcasts. Subhash sacrificed his whole life for his country. Instead of choosing a cosy life which he could have after getting selected in the ICS, he plunged headlong into the freedom struggle of the country.

Both were endowed with great organising skill. Vivekananda set up the Ramakrishna Math and Mission an organisation of monks with its branches now spread through out the country and abroad to serve humanity as embodiment of God. The way Subhash rejuvenated and galvanised the Indian National Army, the Azad Hind Fauj into a fighting army to fight the British army is an abundant proof of the extra ordinary organising talent that he possessed.

Vivekananda a devout Hindu and the great reveller of oriental culture and religion before western audience was also a great believer of equality of all religions and was always against religious fanaticism and bigotry. Subhash who himself was greatly influenced by the writings of Vivekananda  always believed in religious harmony and his Azad Hind Fauj was an ideal mix of people of all religions and genders.

The lives of these two great men are burning examples of the old maxim that we live in deeds and not in years.