India i.e. Bharat emerged at the stroke of the midnight hour as the sun would rise dispelling the darkness. On August 15, 1947; as this civilizational punyabhoomi metamorphosed into a constitutional state; it has worked incessantly to nurture the dignity of each of its citizens.
With its children grown to five times since, this loving mother has given enough grains to feed, enough milk to drink, enough computers to connect and enough gold to be the fifth largest economic engine on the planet.
That too achieved impressively with conserving its green lungs, keeping its sky and oceans blue, promoting its diversely democratic cultural ethos and cultivating a one constitutional civic national identity.
This land of pilgrims kissed the moon, blasted the atoms; built roads of commerce; all on the sole mission of love to humanity as evident in the recent corona pandemic.
My mother is the most unique. It is half youth and more than half feminine. It is seeing a Rajasic rise in the roots of its satvik mines. With two billion working hands and a billion working minds; it is a karmabhoomi; a kartavya bhoomi.
Today as my mother has lived for 75 proud years, I see a dream in her eyes. A dream that as it would turn hundred, each of its children would be confident to create a life of its choice. That it would be known to be a sacred land where birth is no guide to destiny. Where strength and love informs each choice of its children. Where its constitution is their very life charter.
But to realise that dream, we the citizens; we the sisters and brothers need to be ever mindful that only the united hearts can build a united home. We need to guard against the weakness of bodies, mindsets of divisiveness, and bankruptcy of souls. Our common dreams need translation in a shared vision with missionaries of love leading it with the bodies of iron and nerves of steel.
At this crossroads of deep introspection, recall the charter of the promises we made to our mother. We the people assured our mother that we would faithfully do our promised duties. Open our transformative constitution. Read clause (e) of its article 51A.
We promised to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities and to renounce practices derogatory to the dignity of women.
We need to take an oath today that the harmoniously peaceful beaches of this soil of faiths will not be devastated with tsunamis of communal bigotry and hatred. That its air of love won’t be poisoned with toxins of caste and gender violence.
As I pen these thoughts, I find that to echo my sentiments, I cannot find anyone better than the greatest civilisational ambassador of mother India, the Swami Vivekannada. This man harmonized every contradiction a human mind could ever create.
Through his timeless message of Vedanta, he led humanity to love, to oneness and to unity. Every being is potentially divine, he said. For those who fight for supremacy of their faiths causing brothers to fight; are soaked in a veil of ignorance.
I produce for them this letter written by Swami Vivekananda. Hopefully, this letter would be a Big Bang moment to blast their black holes of ignorance.
By imbibing the bold message of Swami, we would be serving well our constitutional responsibility of promoting harmony.
Swami Vivekananda had said that strength is life and weakness is death. He said to the youth that you would be more closer to the truth by playing football than by reading bhagwadgeeta and that you will understand Geeta better with a bit more of the biceps. With this bold message let us pledge to realise our goal of zero hunger as committed in SDG 30. Let us make India fit, healthy and happy.
Once I build the body, I want the mind of my fraternity to be without fear. Let us recall this ever inspiring poem of Tagore. By imbibing this timeless message we would fulfil our fundamental duty to build scientific temper as promised in the constitution.
Today when Bharat takes the pledge to be Atmanirbhar; it would be wise to recall the wisdom of Buddha. He had said, “atta dipo bhava attasaran” which means that be a light of yourself, take refuge in yourself. I thus dream that my republic would lead the Industry 4.0 and would use technologies like artificial intelligence to expand lives to more freedom and liberty.
But as we start walking on the path of our mission, we need to be bold. Very bold and courageous. We need to nurture our soul with mission of love and humanism. Even if we need to walk alone the path of dharma in the communes nation states, we must not hesitate. Me must remember this beautiful message:
So dear friends, our mother has done enough now to wipe every tear from every eye. Now our mission should be to bring smile of every face, love in every heart and dream in every eye. Let us crush starts into atoms in that spirit of service in pursuit of this mission.
I ask professionals, skilled artisans and teachers to goto schools and ignite students with dreams. I ask every parent to raise their kids in a genderless world. I ask every citizen to plant ten trees. I ask every man to chose dignity over dowry and love over currency.
I ask every countryman to chose pride over poverty, courage over corruption, giving over greed, love over lust, fight over fear and strength over surrender. That would be real Independence, the Mukti.
-Tarun goyal
So my fraternity of citizens, let us build the Bharat of our dreams. Let our tricolour ever inspire struggles in pursuit of freedom which is the birthright of every human on the planet.
Happy Independence Day!
Jai Bharat!
Keep Smiling
: )
Thoughtfully jotted down. Keep writing . Best of luck !! 👍