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Glory of Indian Civilization Contest 2022: An overview

On the occasion of 75th year of India’s Independence (Aazadi ka Amrit Mahotsav), and the 125th year of Swami Vivekananda’s glorious message to India through his Lectures from Colombo to Almora, Aaryajanani Trust and Ramakrishna Math, Hyderabad present this contest to benefit the youth of the nation to understand the glory of Indian civilization in the words of Swami Vivekananda. The youth of today need someone as dynamic, inspiring and charismatic as Swami Vivekananda to look up to. His lectures from Colombo to Almora throw light on the various facets of human and national existence, and have impacted and ignited the minds of several Indians to think in the direction of the glory of Indian Civilization. This contest is another earnest attempt in that direction. We hope that the youth through this contest will be able to understand their relationship with their mother land better.

It is also seen fit to conduct this contest as the entire nation is celebrating with joy and fervor the 75 years of Indian independence, in which Swami Vivekananda had played a major role of influencing several nationalist leaders.

Through the 75 years of independence struggle and the British rule before, the glory of ancient civilization seem to be lost. This contest, conducted on a nation-wide scale has also emphasised on this aspect of ancient Indian glory and the Indian civilisation- as seen and spoken by Swami Vivekananda.

The contest is a national level online quiz, open to anyone from age 18 to 30 years based on selected four chapters from the book ‘Lectures from Colombo to Almora’. Four relevant lectures of around 108 pages have been chosen for the benefit of the youth.

You can find the e-book here.

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Many other testimonials have been received, but could not be included here due to the paucity of space.

Context for the Contest

By Swami Shitikhantananda

Swami Vivekananda, the foremost disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, had undertaken a Bharath Parikrama in 1892 just to have a firsthand understanding of the state of affairs of his motherland. He had been a great patriot throughout his school and college days. He journeyed across the length and breadth of the nation. He travelled on foot for most part of his journey, and had journeyed in trains only when there was an urgency. As part of his itinerary he had met kings, zamindars, scholars and common people and saw personally the condition of people in the contemporary Indian society. He was the guest of kings, zamindars, dewans, rich aristocrats; at times slept under the trees, and sometimes stayed in the huts of poor people. What did his eyes see? How were his fellow human beings faring? He saw people who were ridden in poverty, sunk in ignorance and holding on to superstitions. There was fear and despair on their faces. Exploitation of the weak by the strong, the poor by the rich, the subjects by the rulers was the order of the day. The population was totally diffident, the race had lost its self-confidence as it were, because of prolonged subjugation. His heart felt for his countrymen. He had made some unsuccessful attempts to influence the kings and the well-to-do to motivate them to come forward to serve their fellow citizens. He didn’t get the anticipated response. The indifference and apathy of the aristocratic Indian society pained Swamiji.

The wandering monk at last reached the last rock of his country near Kanyakumari and meditated on it for three nights seeking guidance from the Divine for the means to rejuvenate his motherland. There he obtained clarity, as it were, as to his mission in life and as to the plan of action that he had to adopt to make Mother India sit on her throne in all her glory again. He made up his mind to go to the West to raise money for doing constructive work for the uplift of his countrymen. His friends in Madras encouraged him to go to the Parliament of Religions being held at Chicago as a representative of Sanatana Dharma. After obtaining the blessings and permission of Holy Mother Sarada Devi, he set sail for the USA. He won the hearts of the people of the USA with his brief but touching lecture at the Parliament of Religions. His addressing  of  the  audience  at  the  parliament  of  religions  on  that  historic  day  11th September, 1893 as ‘Sisters and brothers of America’ struck a deep chord with them and stirred a fraternal feeling among all who read the address later. Swamiji became a celebrity overnight. He was given an effusive welcome thereafter at every place he went in America and people thronged to his lectures in large numbers. For nearly two and a half years he preached the glorious message of the sages of India viz,. the Vedanta. Then he came back to India and had set his foot on Indian soil in Colombo on 15th   January, 1897.  Swamiji was greeted with a hero’s welcome at every place he stopped. Welcome addresses were presented to him by the prominent and learned people of society at all the places where he chose to stop. People gathered in large numbers to see and hear him. As a response to their warm and affectionate welcome, Swamiji would give them a talk speaking mostly on the glory of India’s civilization. In fact, he poured his heart out in these lectures. Subsequently, all these lectures were compiled in a book form under the title ‘Lectures from Colombo to Almora.’ This is the 125th   year of that lecture series of the patriot par excellence. To help the youth of the nation understand the wonderful message of Swamiji this contest is being organized. There are a total of 18 lectures, but out of them only four are selected as the content for the contest, as we want to expose the students, busy as they are with myriad things, to the gist of his teachings in as less number of pages as possible.

These lectures provided great inspiration to a galaxy of national leaders during the freedom movement to fight against the British rule. As we are celebrating this year the 75 year of India’s Independence, we thought it fitting to introduce the youth of the nation to some of the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda that had inspired big names in the freedom movement like Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Jawaharlal Nehru,  Sri  Aurobindo  etc.  Incidentally,  this  year  also  happens  to  be  the  125th anniversary year of the founding of the Ramakrishna Mission. So the contest is a way of our celebrating the three momentous occasions.

– Swami Shitikhantananda