Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 146)

[Guest guest]

Parts 1 to 145 were posted earlier. This is part 146. Your comments are welcome... Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 146

3. The Creative Genius of Guru Govind Singh Produced the Political Unity of the Sikhs

One great prophet… arose in the North, Guru Govind Singh, the last guru of the Sikhs, with creative genius; and the result of his spiritual work was followed by the well-known political organization of the Sikhs. We have seen throughout the history of India, a spiritual upheaval is almost always succeeded by a political unity extending over more or less the area of the continent, which in its turn helps to strengthen the spiritual aspiration that brought it into being. But the spiritual aspiration that preceded the rise of the Mahratta or the Sikh empire was entirely reactionary. We seek in vain to find in the court of Poona or Lahore even a ray of reflection of that intellectual glory which surrounded the Moguls, much less the brilliance of Malava or Vidyanagara. It was intellectually the darkest period of Indian history; and both these meteoric empires, representing the upheaval of mass fanaticism and hating culture with all their hearts, lost all their motive power as soon as they had succeeded in destroying the rule of the hated Muslims.(16)

f) The English Occupation of India: The Appearance of the Supremacy of the Merchant Class

Then there came again a period of confusion. Friends and foes, the Mogul empire and its destroyers, and the till then peaceful foreign traders, French and English, all joined in a melee of fight. For more than half a century there was nothing but wars and pillage and destruction. And when the smoke and dust cleared, England was stalking victorious over all the rest. There has been half a century of law and order under the sway of Britain. Time alone will prove if it is of the order of progress or not.(17)

After an age-long play of action between the two forces [priests and kings], the final victory of the royal power was echoed on the soil of India for several centuries in the name of foreign monarchs professing an entirely different religion from the faith of the land [the Moguls]. But at the end of this Muslim period, another entirely new power made its appearance in the arena and slowly began to assert its prowess in the affairs of the Indian world.

This power is so new, its nature and working are so foreign to the Indian mind, its rise so inconceivable, and its vigor so insuperable that, though it wields the suzerain power up till now, only a handful of Indians understand what this power is.