Modi’s Hyped ‘Meditation’ Negates Vivekananda’s Vision

On the penultimate day of the last phase of the 18th general elections scheduled to take place on June1, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began a fully publicised ‘meditation’ on Swami Vivekananda Rock, located in the waters of the Indian Ocean on the coast of Kanyakumari. Modi did exactly the same in 2019 in a cave in the Himalayas a day before voting for the 17th general elections came to a close.

Vivekananda Would Have Deplored Modi’s Hate-Filled Speeches

A much-publicised meditation on the Vivekananda Rock, with cameras clicking Modi ostensibly in a meditative posture would have perplexed Swami Vivekananda, who meditated on that rock in 1892 before he set on his historic tour of America to address the World Parliament of Religions in 1893.

Had Vivekananda been alive, he would have been shocked that Modi went to the same rock for meditation after repeatedly speaking lies in his election speeches and spewing venom and hatred against Muslims by calling them “infiltrators” and wrongly projecting them as people who “produce more children”.

The surfeit of hate and bigotry in the Prime Minister’s speeches while campaigning for his party, Bharatiya Janata Party, would have prompted Vivekananda to remind him of his utterances at the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in September 1893:   

“Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal”.

The “sectarianism, bigotry and its horrible descendent fanaticism” which Swamiji flagged in 1893 as the cause of much bloodshed in human history, remained pervasive in Modi’s election speeches in complete contravention of all laws and constitutional morality.

Vivekananda would have also drawn Modi’s attention to the portions of his letter written from America to his Tamil disciple, Alasinga, that, “No man, no nation, my son, can hate others and live; India's doom was sealed the very day they invented the word MLECHCHHA and stopped from communion with others.”

The hate-filled speeches of Modi while appealing to people in the name of religion to vote for BJP candidates was contrary to the vision of the revered Swamiji, who wanted to salvage India whose fate was doomed when communion among people was stopped because of hate. And Modi, after spreading hatred and breaching the legacy of Swami Vivekananda, is now sitting on the rock in Kanyakumari coast to meditate and publicise it when the last phase of the 18th Lok Sabha elections is being held on June 1, in many parts of India, including Bengal.

Vivekananda Shunned Publicity that Modi Embraces

Modi claims that Swami Vivekananda deeply influenced his life and outlook. Yet his actions and utterances using Hindu-Muslim binaries and peddling hatred in the name of faith were in sharp contrast to the vision and legacy of Swamiji.

The Prime Minister loves to publicise every action of his, including in meditative posture, by allowing the media to transmit his pictures widely. But, Swami Vivekananda shunned publicity even as media was after him to get his picture and publicise his speeches filled with spiritual content and socio-economic problems faced by the people and society.

When some Indian newspapers gave coverage to his lectures delivered in the World Parliament of Religions in 1893, he wrote to a Bengali disciple on December 28, 1893: “It is very strange that news of my Chicago lectures has appeared in the Indian papers; for whatever I do, I try my best to avoid publicity.”

In another letter, he wrote to his Tamil disciple, Alasinga Perimal: “I think I have had enough of newspaper blazoning, and humbugging of a public life. I do not care the least for it.” In yet another letter to Alasinga in September 1893, Swamiji expressed his aversion for media attention by writing that “This nonsense of public life and newspaper blazoning has disgusted me thoroughly. I long to back to Himalayan quiet.”

On another occasion, while disapproving the blazoning publicity he received in the US and India, Vivekananda anticipated that thousands would follow him in India on his arrival and so urged people to follow ideals and not a person. He pleaded for ‘Himalayan quietness’, for he was given to scholarship and meditation.

The repeated affirmation of Swamiji that he desired ‘Himalayan quietness’ and not publicity brought out his detachment from worldly life. It flowed from his deep tuning to the ideals of Yoga, of which meditation is the core component, and he being an exponent and practitioner of meditation, always maintained equilibrium and equanimity by remaining tuned to a higher consciousness.

Highly Publicised Meditation Negates Ethos of Yoga

Modi’s highly publicised media-centred so-called meditation on Vivekananda Rock deprecates the concept of meditation which is a very deep and profound idea associated with a state of mind informed by a broad outlook, compassion and empathy. In fact, he wrote that that ideals of love, compassion and fellow feeling flow from a state of consciousness, which is an outcome of the state of meditation and, its next stage, Samadhi.

People imbued with these values would remain in meditative mode, shunning attention from worldly life and, of course, media in all its forms. In this sense, Modi’s ‘meditation’ on Vivekananda Rock is more about publicity and optics. It is contrary to the ethos and essence of Yoga.

The writer served as Officer on Special Duty to President of India K R Narayanan. The views are personal.