Shri Chhaganlal Harilal Pandya was the Manager in the office of Diwan of Junagadh with whom Swami Vivekananda stayed as his guest in the house known as ‘Yuktodaya’. This article is translation of a part of his introduction to the book “Immitation of Christ”.
I had the privilege of coming in contact with the young and learned monk of Bengal who had given up everything for the selfless service of nation, who had travelled far away to America and England and hoisted the victory flag of our Sanatana Dharma there; who had also made the Americans realize the glory of India, who believed the people of India as those who think that gathering economic resources is the only goal of human’s life, who thought of the people of India as living the life of animals, who believed to be glorified by being crushed under Chariot of Lord Jagannath, who believed people of India as atheists, and showed them the other side of our nation and removed the veil of ignorance which was in front of them since a very long time. He made them realize about the pride of our land of Arya, the great sayings of ancient Maharishis, existence of incomparable scriptures like Vedas and Vedantas. In this way, he created, in them, the feeling of affection, fraternity, equality for our Arya people. He created eagerness in them to study the scriptures of our Sanatana Dharma and has made these thousands of foreigners as religious natives by establishing many organizations; have proclaimed the Vedas in such far off countries. The name of this leader, Swami Vivekananda is so famous that introducing him is like introduction of Sun to men with eyes.
That great saint had accepted the invitation of the great Diwan of Junagadh, Haridasbhai Desai, and stayed there for few days before he went to America and England. At that time, the writer of this matter had got an unexplainable benefit of being in close contact with him. Just by seeing him, his splendid, bright, and enormous image created love towards him; and on meeting him, his delicacy of speech, his natural oratory power, his amiability, his ethereal divine singing, his egoless personality, all these qualities seemed such attractive that there would rarely be someone who accompanied him and haven’t fallen in love with him. A writer of this matter never knew that a Sannyasi could be an expert in English. So when he heard from someone that Swami Vivekananda knows English, he was surprised. Moreover, during that period when most of graduates were impressed by atheism, he thought that a person knowing English can never become a monk. If this path is chosen by so called fanatical, old-fashioned devotees, then it appears normal, but the thought that a person who has studied English becomes a Sannyasi was beyond the understanding of that period. He was the Mahatma who removed this misunderstanding from us. We asked him out of fear that “Maharaj, do you know English?” He laughingly replied that “Yes, I know a little.” What an egoless personality! We are today astonished by the simplicity and modesty of the Mahatma who after a short period of time went to America and having stood up in his saffron dress among the prominent religious leaders of many countries shocked them all by his aggressive bright appearance, who shook the entire World’s Parliament of Religion with his immense command over English language and serene voice like that of a thundering cloud. Not only that, he made the audience stunned and just like the famous slogan “I came, I saw, I conquered”, he was glorified as a saint in a very short time, not only among the prominent people of Parliament of Religion but in entire America through newspapers, for presenting our ancient religion in a modernized and organized manner.
The comment made at that time by a leading newspaper of Chicago regarding his immense power is worth to ponder about even for today’s learned people. The writer had stated as follows:
“To whatever questions that were asked to him, he gave lightening answers. His wonderful mind gave a prompt answer and whosoever tried to question him was given an answer by him which destroyed his doubts like a strike of a spear. His matured understanding, deep thinking and strange gestures of mind fortified with knowledge of scriptures made the audience totally fascinated and people felt very happy with his answers. With his brilliant discriminative mind, he used to make criticism about the good and bad aspects of Christian religion openly without any hesitation. Those who once listened to this unusual saffron clad Swami were impressed by him to such an extent, by his enchanting appearance, his style of speaking, his delicacy in conversation, his ability to understand the subject perfectly, etc., that they repeatedly used to go to attend his lectures. The person among the delegates of Parliament of Religion who was cheered maximum and was repeatedly invited to speak by the audience was Swami Vivekananda.”
He got his degree in B.A. from Calcutta University and due to his immense intelligence right from the childhood, he had earned a great identity in the country; we were very late to know about that. He had many arguments with Christian Priests, in his childhood, who used to find faults in our Hindu religion and he had proved to them that even Christianity was not faultless.
How could a pure Sannyasi who gave up his family for the welfare of others have luggage with him! As seen by us, he carried two-three saffron clothes in his ‘Potli’ (a saffron cloth used as bag) and when I came in close contact with him and when he opened the bag, I saw two things in it. One was a photo of his Guru, Swami Sri Ramakrishna, and other was the book ‘Imitation of Christ’. After seeing the photo, I too felt proud for the photo – however, at that time, we had hardly heard even the name of that Mahatma of that time. But by seeing a book related to Jesus Christ with a Sannyasi who was preaching Hinduism, we were surprised and after us, whoever saw this among us were also stunned. We thought that Christianity is totally opposite from Hinduism; their priests too preach wrong ideas to our people and convert them to their religion; the duty of our Sannyasis was to nullify the effect of their preaching by keeping them away from their lectures and teach them about following their own religion. When we saw him giving such a respect to a book related to Christ, we even doubted him to be a Christian Missionary. Due to his love towards me, I could gather my courage and politely enquire him saying, “Maharaj, you are a Hindu preacher, then why are you carrying a book of Christian religion with you? For you, it is better to carry scriptures of Vedas and Vedantas with you.” To this, he very politely replied me that, “Brother, the goal of all the religions is one. It is not that Christianity teaches something different from Hinduism. Just as the Avatars of our religion, Christ, Mohammad Paigambar, Zoroaster all of these divine souls had same divine greatness within them and if it was not so, then such a huge population of the world would not follow them.”
यदा यदा हि धर्मस्य ग्लानिर्भवति भारत।
अभ्युत्थानमधर्मस्य तदात्मानं सृजाम्यहम्।।4.7।।
This is true in its verbatim. Just like entire earth is not only in Bharat, it is false to believe that God incarnates in our nation and not elsewhere. No one is worshipped without a divinity within them and just like our people, if other people worship any person, then we must believe that there is some divine entity within that person. So, just as we believe Krishna and Rama as God, we should also believe Christ as God and following the reality of “udarcharitanam tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam” we should not have partiality in us. Morality rules, rules of goodness, orders to obey the rules of God, are equal in all religions. It is just due to the single sightedness, dogmatism or ignorance that these divine orders are being misinterpreted; wrong preaching are given due to selfishness; in the name of religion, non-religious activities are being done; preachings are given to create hatred among different religions and an environment of conflict is being created. When I was young, I used to visit Churches and listen to their preachings from Bible. They used to interpret some words of Bible, which were different from their actual meaning, to the mass according to their own opinion and represent them as wish of God. At that time, I used to stand up against them and express the true meaning before them; but after that, they used to restrict me from visiting their Churches again. That made it clear in my mind that they understood the true meaning but are preaching incorrectly among the illiterate masses to satisfy the greed for their own selfish benefits.”
After these talks, he inspired us to read the scripture ourselves and after pondering over it, we realized that, the true words that affect the pure mind, the preachings in it are so canonical that we understood that it was the mistake of our low-levelled vision to think that we are polluted by the preachings that contained the name of Christ in them. Haridasbhai also realized that truth and with the desire of Swamiji he ordered many copies of that book and gifted it to cultured people who came in his contact. He helped many people in understanding its true value and improving the human life following its teachings. There was a massive grace of Swamiji on us. From that day onwards, I had made a strict rule for myself to read some part of that book in the morning and before sleeping at night and the benefits of sympathy and patience that I had received from it cannot be expressed in words.
I had a severe desire to select some precious gems from this treasure house of quotes and present them to our Gurjar masses but it could not be fulfilled due to lack of convenience. Now by the grace of God, I am starting to get the convenience to do that work and am presenting it gradually before the readers. But I understand that this effort of mine is like crossing the infinite oceans through a small boat as greatly said by the great poet in his verse “titirshu dustaram mohad udupenasmi sagaram”. That is because, by the elegant way yet through easy phrases in which these immensely considerable English thoughts of this great personality are noted down, there is no expectation for me to do it in that way. But if the readers welcome this effort with the proverb that ‘something is better than nothing’ and even if the life of anyone is benefited after pondering, I would consider myself to be blessed.
In the bottom of the messages, I have also placed the verses collected from the texts, poems, and dramas from our religious scriptures, ethics, etc. which will clarify the reader that the goal of every religion is one. I have been fortunate to receive the benefit of erudition of Professor Mulshankar Dayaram for collecting some verses among this and I heartily thank him for that.
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