I guess you are referring to Brahmo Samaj of those days as pseudo-Christian. I too have heard that they had no problem with beef. No Sir, i don’t mean to divert the topic, just letting you know that i got your point.

On the same lines Swami Vivekananda was able to convince an Arya Samajist that idol worship is not wrong, but again my contention is that we never made serious efforts to counter Islamic/Christian missionaries with the same reasoning and rather always lost and lost and lost.

Consequently we have “weakened” the “strongest” profounder and reviver of Sanatan Dharma in India, the “Arya Samaj” with our own reasoning and weakened it as against idol worship.

Believe me Sir they are still the “most effective” and open in our revival but are not nurtured sufficiently due to our prejudices. They were the most practical and strongest giving sleepless nights to the enemies of Sanatan Dharma, Swami Shraddhanand was killed because of this.

I am happy though not surprised that you knew about the influence of Swami Ramdas on Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj given your knowledge on the subject.

But i refrained from mentioning this earlier and i am unable to comment on this because this aspect is now more strongly embroiled in the allegation that Samarth Ramdas’s contribution is exaggerated by Brahmins and so on. It takes an almost ugly turn today here in Maharashtra occasionally.

You are right Sir heroism cannot but succeed without the Sanskaras of a dharmic approach.
Till the time benevolent and enlightened materialism of the west completely overtakes the world, we will have to put up with this. This was just my take in what actually looks promising about the future.

It’s true this aspect has to be studied in more depth – but before Ramakrishna all the so-called Hindu renaissance movements were all pseudo-christian. Ramakrishna was at the heart of the rejuvenation and revivification of the native spiritual genius – and once Keshab and his branch of the Brahmos converted to his ideas, the masses of Calcutta followed. Anyway that’s not the main point of the article – the article seeks to bring out the forgotten details in the life of this Hindu spiritual colossus and how that shaped us.

Vivekananda said that in India always political unification follows spiritual rejuvenation. This is true historically and we cannot disparage one section of the Hindu society over another. We cannot think of Shivaji Maharaj without Samartha Ramadas or Hari and Bukka (founders of Vijayanagara) without Vidyaranya.

Yes there is a type of sainthood that is otherworldly but there is the self-acknowledged Hindu tradition of rishihood which everyone agrees is a few notches above sainthood and rishis always inspired heroes to defend dharma – in fact ‘brahma’ and ‘khshatra’ have to go together, as noted in the Vedas themselves. As per the Mahabharata in fact both are of the same stock through Rishi Deerghatamas who is said to have fathered most Kshatriya lineages after the massacres by Parashurama.

The aim of this site is to comprehensively cover the heroic self-defence all Hindu (and pagan) peoples against the onslaught of exclusive monotheism – and this must include Hindus who are warriors, sages, merchants and the commonfolk. I am sure articles on great Hindu vaniyas such as Jagat Singh or the farmer heroes like Suhal Dev or the tribal heroes such as Karia Munda will follow.

Agreed that we tend to focus more on otherworldliness these days, to the detriment of practical survival – but so we cannot veer to the other extreme and just focus on heroism. We need a dharmic approach and that means to learn balance which comes from seeing all parts of the whole and not just focusing on one or the other to the loss of all else.

And yes your article has more details than i could ever get in my childhood from Amar Chitra Katha. Thanks Sir.

I can have nothing negative to say or even positive to add unfortunately, to your elaborate and wholesome post.

But i can’t ignore the fact that British rule is passe and we are still facing the same civilizational crisis from external onslaught for centuries, but we attach more importance to our struggle with the British as though they are the only invaders.

Agreed the awakening has to come from the masses, and adding to the last sentence of my first para, i would say people like Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj actually did more to save culture than the saints of Maharashtra, to feel otherwise in fact is wrong, misleading. So visionaries and warriors have done more to our civilization in inspiring the masses than saints.

The colossal statue of Buddha was demolished right in front of camera and Thiruvalluvar is being at times usurped by missionaries.

A warrior would not have allowed the statue to become dust, the saint will only ask people to pray.

Not directly related to it though, i find our continuous narcissism about our culture etc extremely defeatist.

Conversions to Islam continue till date like during Ramakrishna’s time (not just Christianity). Given this and the subsequent events, what is the purpose of feeling proud of our spiritual Guru and our temples and saving the cow in this context. Our baggage is too heavy and defeated.

As such the article is informative.