Sunday, June 17, 2007
The Real Heroes of India
I was talking with some of my friends in IISc today evening. We started talking about The Great Chatrapati Shivaji (pronounced chatrapati shivAji). I can't believe that one of the guys talking to me doubted the greatness of chatrapati shivAji. He, I found out, respects the new shivAji (the boss) rajnikAnt. I really don't understand this. People in India, today, are forgetting real heroes like chatrapati shivAji and going behind some cheap filmstars. I think if we keep going this way there is no way our country is going to improve. We really have to rewrite our history textbooks and make the youth not just respect but idolize the Real Heroes of India like svAmi vivekAnandA, chatrapati shivAji etc. I don't understand how can one even question the greatness of someone like shivAji who was an ardent disciple of samartha rAmadAs and tukArAm. I think there are two levels of people - one who can be classified as Heroes and the others who inspired these heroes to be great. Its not in the capabilities of mere mortals to rate people in the latter class.
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2 comments:
It is difficult to regard Vivekananda and Shivaji as real heroes.
Vivekananda started well but lost his way and his last days/end were miserable. www.vivekanandayb.blogspot.com
Shivaji: There is some historical evidence that Shivaji surrendered to Aurangzeb in exchange for a mansabdar of 7000 cavaliers and was enraged when cheated by Aurangzeb ordering a status of 5000 mansabdars.
REAL HEROS: 1. Bhagat Singh. 2. Jatin Das (died in Cellular prison, Andamans, on a fast). 3. Rana Pratap. 4. Sukhdev 5. Chandrasekhar Azad etc. who laid down their lives at the alter of Mother India. (and many other forgotten souls) for whom India does not care. Shivsena and BJP gave much publicity to Sivaji and Vivekananda. They must know that Vivekananda ate beef, called India "Jelly fish".
I do agree with you on the fact that people like Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, Chandrashekar Azad are also to be put in the list. But I must warn you against having such wrong notions about svAmi vivekAnandA. I can find wrong accounts about Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekar Azad written by some strong Gandhian fanatic which doesn't affect their greatness in anyway. Though I don't know your source of misinterpretation of svAmi vivekAnandA's character I feel very sorry that you have such a wrong opinion about him. There are always good and bad accounts about these great people. I can't find any great person with only good remarks about him. All I can do is to guide you to read the "Complete works of svAmi vivekAnandA" which shows the intellectual strength of svAmijI. You can also read the accounts of his life by his disciples for knowing his character better.
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