Bharat Mata Ki Jai!

Sri Mohan Bhagwat, Sarsanghchalak of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, said on March 3, 2016: “Now the time had come when we have to tell the new generation to chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. It should be real, spontaneous.”

AIMIM MP Asaduddin Owaisi came out with a statement that he will not chant Bharat Mata Ki Jai even if a knife is put to his throat. Maharashtra Assembly suspended AIMIM MLA, Waris Pathan, for refusing to say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ while 73-year old Tajuddin Barbhuiyan of Assam proclaimed: “What’s wrong in shouting that slogan? Am I not Indian? I am not on Asaduddin Owasi’s page. I will chant the slogan a hundred times.” However, Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, issued a Fatwa on April 1, 2016, against chanting of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’, holding that the slogan goes “against the tenets of Islam”. Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umri, President of Jamat-E-Islami backed the fatwa. In Meerut, members of the Muslim community chanted ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’.

Clarifying his remarks about Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Sri Mohan Bhagwat said, “We have to create such a great India where people themselves chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’. It need not be imposed.” In 1980, when the Christian sect of Jehowa’s Witness objected to the children of their sect in schools standing when National Anthem, “janaganamana” was sung, saying that it went against their faith, the High Court of Kerala said, their religious sentiments were not wounded by singing of the National Anthem. However, the Supreme Court said that it would not amount to showing disrespect if the children refused to sing. Renowned columnist, Prabhu Chawla, in the New Sunday Express pointed out: “Bharat Mata Ki Jai was the most successful non-violent verbal weapon forged by a freedom-starved crowd which helped end the 200 year-old British rule sent the English packing. Any attempt to kill the spirit behind the slogan runs the risk of being labeled anti-national. Bharat Mata Ki Jai is just an assertion of independence from slavery of every colour and nothing more.” Another columnist Ravi Shankar wrote in the Indian Express: “The optics of the argument is about the characterization of Bharat Mata as Hindu goddess. Apart from the fact that ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ is motto of the Indian Army, which has given Pakistan a bloody nose in all wars, her origin lies in the folklore of the Indian freedom movement. She first appeared in a 19th century nationalist play by Kiran Chandra Bannerjee. Subramania Bharati saw her as parashakti. She is the deity of India’s freedom, mother to her children born in Bharatavarsha, irrespective of religion, even though she is not mentioned anywhere in the scriptures. She proves there can be no rebate on patriotism—fatwas notwithstanding. By politicizing her personification as majority chauvinism, are the Nehruvian Socialists, drawing room revolutionaries and parvenu student icons projecting the Indian Freedom Movement as a Hindu Movement? Has their beloved secularism changed sides in the art of sophistry?”

Irfan Habib, who claims himself to be a historian, has given an interview to The Hindu in which he says that consideration of  Bharat as a mother was not there in ancient India and it was a concept that came from Europe. We would like to bring to the attention of that ignoramus, what an eminent Indologist and patriotic Bharatiya, Sri Anwar Shaikh, has pointed out, commenting on the verses of Bhumi Sukta of Atharvana Veda. Writing on ‘BHARATA MATA’ in his quarterly, Liberty, published from Prescott, U.K., he says:

“Verse 12 expresses the total devotion of a Hindu to Bharat Mata: ‘… I am the son of Earth, Earth is my Mother.’
“Study of this hymn reveals that while the Vedic doctrine respects all gods, it attaches the greatest importance to the land of Bharat because it is the Mother of all those who dwell in her bosom. However, the following two points ought to be noted in this respect:

“a. One can live in India and believe in any god he likes because so vast is the Vedic concept of Divinity that there is no jealousy among gods. This liberality is based on the advanced Vedic thinking, which realizes that as the wheel of time moves forward, changes of all sorts must take place, thus religious doctrines may not form the cause of social discord.

“b. This Vedic Liberality is, however, restricted by the Concept of Bharat Mata, that is, a dweller of this land must confess: ‘I am the son of Bharat Mata, and Bharat is my Mother.’
“It goes without saying that just confession of love is not a convincing proof of one’s affection; it must be reinforced by sustained action. Therefore, a dweller of India does not acknowledge her as his Motherland if he hates Kaashi and loves Kaaba. All his civic rights depend on this point.”

Sri Anwar Shaikh, dedicated the article to Sadhu Rangarajan about whom he wrote under the title, “A Sadhu With a Difference” and said:

“Finally, I salute Sri Rangarajan, the hero of this article and stress that a patriotic sadhu dedicated to serve Bharat Mata is not an ascetic but a saint, who seeks Mukti through national glory. He represents Lord Shiva, who is both a warrior and lover. It is high time that the Hindus were taught the Vedic virtues of fighting evil to uphold the cause of righteousness. To a virtuous Hindu, nothing is more righteous than serving Bharat Mata. She is the fountain of life for all those who live on her soil. Therefore, her dignity and honour must be the priority of all her sons and daughters. It is essential that consciousness of the dignity of Bharat Mata is preached with utmost zeal and sincerity. This goal is best achieved if every sadhu learns to girdle himself with a sword to lead the way for Dharma Yudh. Let every Hindu temple be adorned with a statue of Bharat Mata and have facilities for training the devotees in martial arts and patriotism. This is a job for the great Sadhu Rangarajan, the creator of Vande Mataram. Singing patriotic hymns is great but making people true patriots, eager to serve the cause of Bharat Mata, is immensely greater. In England, they say: ‘An ounce of practice is better than a tonne of theory’.”

The Sanskrit word, Rashtra, is not a cultural term, but a political one meaning ‘nation’ or ‘state’. The Barhaspatya Samhita says, “Himalayaad aarabhya yaavad indu sarovaraparyantam tam deva nirmitam desham hindusthaanam prachakshate”—that land created by God and stretching from the Himalayas up to the Indian Ocean is Hindusthan. It is also known as Bharatavarsha. The Vishnupurana says, “Uttaram yat samudrasya himaadreschaiva dakshinam, varsham tad bhaaratam naama bhaaratee yatra santatih”—that land which is to the north of the ocean and south of the Himalayas is Bharata and the people of the land are Bharatiyas. Chanakya, who was instrumental in the building up of the mighty Maurya Empire by Chandragupta Maurya, declared:”Prithivyaa samudra paryanataayaa eka raat”—the entire land stretching up to the seas is one nation. Lord Ramachandra declared: Jananee janmabhoomischa Swargaadapi gareeyasi–“Mother and Motherland are more sacred than Heavens!”

Since times immemorial, spiritualism has been the bedrock on which the edifice of our glorious nationhood has been built up. The Vedic Rishi prays in a sookta in the Atharvana Veda: “Oh Mother, those who hate us, those who march with armies to overpower us, those who think evil of us in their minds, and those who desire our death and destruction, may you crush them to pieces; it is this my Motherland on whose lap my forefathers, the great Rishis, performed sacrifices, penances and sang songs in the seven seasons.”  The Mahaabhaarata proclaims: “Bharat is the greatest land on earth, and it alone is the Land of Action, while the rest are Lands of Pleasure. It is only after great acquisition of merit that a person gets the privilege of being born a human being in this country.” It is our glorious tradition to invoke the Bharata Bhavani—Mother India—in all the 52 Shakti Peethas of our land and offer our worship to the Desha Maatrikaa—the Mother in the form of Motherland.

Swami Vivekananda, in his clarion call to the Hindu nation, proclaimed: “For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote — this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race — ‘everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything.’ All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Viraat? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods.” His illustrious disciple, Sister Nivedita, gave us “Our National Prayer”:

“I believe that India is one, indissoluble, indivisible. National Unity is built on the common home, the common interest, and the common love.

“I believe that the strength which spoke in the Vedas and Upanishads, in the making of religions and empires, in the learning of scholars and the meditation of the saints, is born once more amongst us, and its name today is Nationality.

“I believe that the present of India is deep-rooted in her past, and that before her shines a glorious future.
O Nationality, come thou to me as joy or sorrow, as honour or as shame! Make me thine own!”

Swami Rama Tirtha propounded patriotism as practical Vedanta. He roared: “The land of India is my own body. The Comorin is my feet, the Himalayas my head. From my hair flows the Ganges, from my head come the Brahmaputra and the Indus. The Vindhyachalas are girt round my loins. The Coromondal is my left and the Malabar my right leg. I am the whole of India and its east and west are my arms.” The great Tamil poet-philosopher, Mahakavi C. Subramania Bharati, addressing the little kids of his Motherland, sang: — Chedamillaata Hindusthaanam, Atai deivamenru kumbidadi paappaa—”Oh little child, adore and worship the Undivided Hindustan—Akhanda Bharat—as your Goddess.”

Sir John Woodroffe, the renowned Western exponent of Tantra, referring to the children of the sacred Bharatavarsha, says: “They will gain power (Shakti) to uphold their race and will receive all their desires, if they serve their country in the belief that service (seva) of Shri Bharata is worship (seva) of the Mahashakti. Shri Bhagavati, who though appearing in one of Her forms as Bharata Shakti, is not merely a Devi of the Hindus, but their name for the one Mother of the World”.

Eulogizing Bankim Chandra as “one among the Rishis of the later age”—the seer of the mantra, ‘Vande Mataram’, which is creating a new India, Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo says: “It is not till the Motherland reveals herself to the eye of the mind as something more than a stretch of earth or a mass of individuals, it is not till she takes shape as a great Divine and Maternal Power in a form of beauty that can dominate the mind and seize the heart that these petty fears and hopes vanish in the all-embracing passion for the Mother and her service, and the patriotism that works miracles and saves a doomed nation is born. To some men it is given to have that vision and reveal it to others.”

“If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow, in some parts a very paradise on earth, I should point to India……..”, says Max Muller in India – What It Can Teach Us. Romain Rolland also echoes the same sentiment, “If there is one place on the earth where all the dreams of living men have found a home from the very earliest days when man began the dream of existence, it is India.” Lin Yutang in his Wisdom of India, adores India as “world’s teacher”. Great historians like A.L. Basham, Arnold Toynbee, and thinkers like Monier Williams and Albert Einstein also adore the land of Bharat as the land of wisdom and enlightenment.

Rev. Fr. Anthony Elanjimittam of St. Catherine of Siena School, Mount Mary Road, Bandra, Mumbai, an enlightened Christian missionary, who followed the footsteps of the great patriot-revolutionary of India, Sri Brahmabandhav Upadhyaya, says in his article on “Vedantic India”, in Tattva Darsana, quarterly: “This Bharat is so carved out by Mother Nature that our sub-continent is a world of its own with an inalienable soul of  the  highest Everest-high esoteric wisdom, enshrined in our Vedic culture. In the perennial philosophy of the Upanishad, Bhagavad Geeta, the Brahma Sutras, the Prasthaana traya, which is the hall mark of this land of Krishnas and Rams, of Buddhas and Mahavirs, of Kapilas and Shankaras, Patanjalis and a countless number of celestial stars that still shine in the firmament of Gnosis, Wisdom, Esoteric Science and Theosophy.”

Sri Cho Ramaswami, Editor of ‘Tuglak’, Tamil weekly, once wrote in an Editorial that the talk of some Hindu leaders that India is ‘Hindu Rashtra’ promoted hatred. In our reply to him, which he duly published in his journal, we pointed out that even the Supreme Court Judges, Justice M.C. Chagla, belonging to Islamic religion, and Justice K.T. Thomas, belonging to Christian religion, have pronounced that the word Hindu referred to the nationalism and culture of Bharat and spiritual savants like Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo and Subramania Bharati have all proclaimed that Bharat is Hindu Rashtra.

It does not require a magnifying glass to discern that those who are opposing ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ are first rate traitors, stooges and progeny of those who aggressed this holy land and subjugated the Hindu Rashtra. Their only message and mission is that the integrity of this nation must be jeopardized and once again it must be brought under the control of pan-Islamic forces or the European Christian forces. Unfortunately, the English educated and Europeanized Congress leadership which took over the reins of the country from the outgoing Britishers played into the hand of anti-national and treacherous forces inside the country.  On February 4, 1938, John Francis Ashley Erskine, Governor of Madras, wrote to Victor Hope, Governor-General and Viceroy of India, seeking his view on dropping Vande Mataram from the proceedings of the Legislative Assembly. The Governor said Muslim members were staging walkouts, opposing the singing of Vande Mataram. Even in Independent India, though the Indian Constitution recognized Vande Mataram as a National Anthem having an equal status with Janaganamana, the so called secular Congress leadership under Pandit Nehru, mutilated the song to appease the Muslims. In his preface to VANDE MATARAM by Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan, the great patriot and national leader, Acharya J.B. Kripalani, wrote:

“Sri V. Rangarajan has done some original work in giving the history of our National Anthem, Vande Mataram. It was necessary because thousands of our pre-independence patriots had to suffer grievously in uttering and singing this song which before independence was considered the National Anthem. Some of them lost their lives for singing this song. Every patriot from Khudiram Bose to Bhagat Singh and Rajguru died with the mantram of Vande Mataram on their lips. It had become spontaneously the National Anthem adopted by the mass of our people. ….

“Even now it will be desirable to have Vande Mataram as the National Anthem along with Janaganamana. Also the whole song must be sung, because the portions that are left out express the most beautiful and poetic sentiments about the Motherland”.

This call of the great leader has fallen into deaf years of the vast majority of the Hindus in our country. Veer Savarkar pointed out in his magum opus, HINDUTWA, the definition of the word Hindu: Aasindhu sindhu paryeta yasya Bhaarata bhoomika, pitrubhu punyabhuschaiva sa vai Hinduriti smritah—“All those who adore and worship the holy land of Bharatavarsha stretching from the River Sindh in the north up to the Indian Ocean, Sindhu sagar, as the land of forefathers and their holy land are Hindus.” All those who do not worship Her are mlecchas—aliens or outcastes. Unfortunately there are very few Hindus who adore and worship the Motherland, Bharatavarsha, as greater than all the gods and goddesses in their shrines. The vast majority of people including the so called dharmacharyas—sadhus, sants, spiritual masters and heads of religious institutions—deserve the title of mlecchas.

In a recent congregation of dharmacharyas held under the auspices of Dharma Jagaran of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, this sadhu asked some plain and blunt questions:

1. There are thousands of temples, mutts and prayer houses of the so called Hindus throughout the length and breadth of Bharatavarsha. In how many of them one could find an image—an idol or at least a picture of Bharatamata?

2. Hindus are supposed to be the majority of the population in our country. In how many Hindu homes you find a picture or idol of Bharatamata in their shrines?

3. How many of the Hindu Acharyas say ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and ‘Vande Mataram’ in their congregations and speak about adoration and worship of Bharatamata?

4. In how many cities, towns and villages of our country we have temples of Bharatamata?

5. The injunction of the shastras is that when a Hindu gets up from the bed in the early morning, the first thing that he has to do is to look into his hands and chant, karaagre vasate lakshmi, karamadhye saraswati, karamoole tu gauri, syaat prabhate kara darsanam—Lakshmi resides in the finger tip, Saraswati in the palm, and Gauri in the wrist—and samudra vasane devi parvatasthana mandale, Vishnupatni namastubhyam, paadasparsam kshamaswa me—Oh Mother Earth, the consort of Vishnu, I salute you; I am getting up from my bed and I have to place my feet on your body, please forgive me.” Are the Acharyas ignorant of this? How many of them have taught their disciples and laity to practice this every day?

6. Bankim Chandra sang in his immortal song, Vande Mataram, “Twam hi Dugaa  dasapraharana dhaarini, Kamala kamala dala Vihaarini, Vaani vidyaa daayini, namami twam, amalaam, atulaam, sujalaam, suphalaam maataram!”—“Thou art Durga, Lady and Queen; With her hands that strike and her swords of sheen. Thou art Lakshmi lotus-throned, And the muse a hundred-toned. Pure and perfect without peer, Mother, lend thine ear. Rich with thy hurrying streams, Bright with thy orchard gleams.” How could they be Hindus who worship all these Mothers, but could not see them in Bharatamata? In how many of the Hindu congregations one could hear this immortal song sung?

Acharya is one who practices what he preaches and sets example before his disciples. If our so called Acharyas are not doing all the above things, how could they claim themselves that they are Hindu Acharyas?

Hear the voice of the great patriot saint, Swami Chidananda, former World President of the Divine Life Society and head of Sivananda Ashram, Rishikesh, who lived in our midst in the recent period and who called himself “A Worshipper at the altar of the Great Mother”:

“My beloved countrymen! There is a great and urgent need for counteracting these negative tendencies without taking recourse to violent means but, through sagacity, socio-political acumen and friendly and loving persuasion. The citizens of our nation from the Himalayas to Rameshwaram and Cape Comorin are children, are citizens of one great national family under our Matrubhumi, Mother India. Our Motherland looks to you for this great and unifying movement. Right from very childhood and young age the children have to be encouraged to develop love for the country by their parents, all over India. Throughout the length and breadth of our entire country, this great unifying movement must be taken up and carried out with such fervour that gradually the entire population of India, each and every man, woman and child will rise in response to your loving call and enthusiastically join this unifying movement with all their heart, mind and soul. There is great need to encourage the emergence of a New Generation that will regard patriotism as one of the foremost and highest virtues and values. Because, the child of today is the citizen of tomorrow! India’s future is in their hands as much as it is in your hands today. Do this duty of yours. Through it serve your Motherland, our INDIA, that is Bharat. May God grant you all success and bless you throughout your life!

“Before closing, I will set at rest a query as to why a monastic and a Sannyasi should bother about these matters pertaining to the country? My answer to their unspoken query is twofold. Firstly, I am not a Sannyasin. Because, in our shastras there is acceptance of a fifth state transcending the four orders of an individual’s life. This is known as “Ati-Varnashrama”. Secondly, even if you regard me as a Sannyasin, nevertheless I am also a son of India, a son of Bharat-Mata who is my Motherland. Jai Hind! Vande Mataram!”

Lauding the work of this humble sadhu, Swami Chidananda, in his speech, following Sadhu Rangarajan’s address in Swargashram, Rishikesh, on October 26, 1987, remarked: “I will take this opportunity for saying a few words about Professor V. Rangarajan. He has shared his lofty ideas and inspiring thoughts with us all in a very very dynamic and thrilling manner. You all know: Brahmavit brahmaiva bhavati (Knower of Brahman becomes Brahman); and you also know: ‘As a man thinketh so he becometh.’ Constantly thinking about Swami Vivekanandaji, constantly thinking about such noble patriotic souls like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Aurobindo Ghosh and Subrahmanya Bharatiyar, who saw in India a veritable Divine Shakti, a veritable deity, not merely a land, not merely a nation, but a living force of all our herats, a dynamic, a potential force to transform humanity into divinity — thus, in their inner intuitive vision they beheld the eternal, living reality, the true saviour, Bharatavarsha, and the redeemer if not today at least tomorrow of the future of mankind; they adored, they eulogized in their intuitive vision their spiritual identity of their self with the soul of India, Bharata Shakti — and Professor V. Rangarajan, who is amongst us, in constantly thinking about these lofty souls, their sublime ideas and their inner spiritual intuition of their Divine Mother, beloved Motherland, ‘Matrubhoomi, Bharatavarsha’,  he has imbibed verily their fervour — their patriotic fervour — and love for India, and the great spirit of adoration of India so that, when he speaks, their own words come through him. Constantly thinking of Vivekananda, he has himself become an inspired orator”.

Consecrating Sri Bharatamata Mandir at Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore, in the presence of Sri H.V. Seshadri, former Sarkaryavah of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, on Friday, December 24, 2004, H.H. Swami Vishwesha Teertha, Jagatguru of Udupi Pejawar Mutt, proclaimed: “Sadhu Rangarajan has done the good work of setting up Sri Bharatamata Mandir and the idol of Sri Bharatamata has been installed here in order to revive and revitalize our age-old national values. We need to keep Her happy, not merely by taking aarati, but by totally dedicating ourselves at her service. The situation today warrants that we act beyond our hands, beyond our shakti to make Her happy.”

About  a century ago, the patriot-saint,  Swami Rama Tirtha said, “The Sadhu’s of India are a unique phenomenon peculiar to this country. As a green mantle gathers over standing water, so have the Sadhus collected over India, full fifty-two lakhs by this time. Some of them are indeed beautiful lotuses—the glory of the lake! But a vast majority are unhealthy scum. Let the water begin to flow, let there be marching life in the people, the scum will soon be carried off. The Sadhus are the natural outcome of the past dark ages of Indian History. But now-a-days the general spirit of reform, in as much as it is changing the feelings and tastes of the householders, is affecting the Sadhus also. There are springing up Sadhus who instead of remaining as suckers and parasites to the tree of Nationality, are anxious to make their body and mind humble manure for the tree, if nothing more.”

Three decades ago, when this sadhu left the shores of Bharat to serve the brethren in South Africa, Mauritius and Reunion, and returned to the Motherland, his Sikshaguru. Swami Chinmayananda lauded this sadhu’s work:

“I had many glowing tributes paid to you received by me in many letters from Reunion and Mauritius. I had a very clear picture of what you are accomplishing.

“We need such champions of Hinduism, who scream into the ears of the sleeping Hindus, reviving and revitalizing them in their hearty consciousness of their proud past. This alone can make them live dynamically and carve out for themselves a brilliant future which they so eminently deserve.
“

Today we feel the task before us is to scream into the ears of our sleeping dharmaacharyaas to awaken them and appeal to them to go to every nook and corner of the country spreading the cult of worship of the Motherland Bharatavarsha, who is the Mother of all our gods, goddesses, saints, sages, sannyasins and of our sampradayas and consecrating temples dedicated to Her.

Sri Bharatamata Mandir in Bangalore, which is completing twelve years after consecration on December 8, 2004, is going to celebrate the Mahakumbhaabhishekam on December 24, 2016. Right from the Vaishaki Day, April 14, 2016, We have commenced a Laghu Bharatachandi Homa  performed every day, to invoke the Bharatashakti through Deshamatrika Pooja to destroy all the evil and anti-national forces which are trying to destroy the integrity and sovereignty of this nation. The homas will continue till Kumbhabhisheka and we appeal to all Hindu Dharmaachaaryas and Hindu brethren inside the country and abroad to extend their helping hand and participation in our humble efforts and congregate on the auspicious occasion. Bharat Mata Ki Jai! Vande Mataram!

WORSHIP SRI BHARATAMATA ON AKSHAYA TRITEEYA!

Proud, patriotic and self-respecting Hindus should celebrate Akshaya Triteeya—Vaishaka Shukla Triteeya—falling on May 9, 2016, which is the auspicious day for the worship of Sri Bharatamata. In every Hindu home, temple, mutt and religious, cultural, social or spiritual institution, this day should be observed with prayers to Sri Bharatamata for the plenty and prosperity of the country and for the ascendance of our Motherland as the Spiritual Preceptor of the whole world—Loka Guru.
—Sadhu Rangarajan

Sadhu Prof. V. Rangarajan Founder Trustee, Sister Nivedita Academy, Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram & Yogi Ramsuratkumar Indological Research Centre Sri Guruji Golwalkar Hindu Resource Centre, Sri Bharatamata Mandir, Srinivasanagar, Krishnarajapuram, Bangalore 560 036, INDIA Phone: 091-80-25610935; e-mail: [email protected]; Website: sribharatamatamandir.org