ast month, India celebrated the success of Swachh Bharat Mission which is the world’s biggest movement for sanitation and cleanliness. The Mission or Abhiyan which began as a five-year project in 2014, had the goal of achieving a Clean India by the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on 2 Oct 2019. It became a people’s movement and created cleanliness awareness all over the country. By building over 11 crore toilets across rural and urban areas, the Abhiyan saved over 750 million Indians from the fate of open defecation. This single achievement along with waste management and personal hygiene awareness has saved millions of lives from communicable diseases, and brought financial and economic benefits to millions of poor people.
The first positive duty that Yoga prescribes as a preparation for a meaningful, spiritual life is Shaucha or cleanliness of mind, speech and body. And indeed, Indians are one of the cleanest races in the matter of personal hygiene – we bath at least once a day and our homes are quiet clean. But then why did we end up – as a foreigner described us – as ‘a very clean people living in a very dirty place’? Our public or common places are dangerously dirty and for centuries have caused millions of deaths through epidemics. But we know also of the high standards of cleanliness and sanitation that was present even from the times of the Indus Valley Civilisation. Somewhere down the time this aspect of social life was lost and we became, as Gandhiji observed, a race who saw no virtue in national or social sanitation. Those with a keen understanding of history,
trace this downfall as beginning from the time foreign invasions disrupted our social structure. Hence, in our struggle to regain our national identity, leaders like Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi laid great stress on social morality. From the very beginning of the Ramakrishna Math, Swami Vivekananda insisted that the sannyasis give importance to social cleanliness and orderliness. Once, very early in the morning someone was found to be cleaning the common toilet in Belur Math. It was uncleaned for many days. When curious sadhus went to see who it was, they were shocked to find Swamiji vigorously scrubbing and cleaning the whole place. He rejected their wailing request to desist and allow them to do the job. After a thorough cleaning, he came out and reminded the sadhus of the importance of keeping their surroundings clean. There is a symbiotic relationship between us and the external nature. Swamiji’s concern for social morality developed a greater dimension when plague broke out in Kolkata in 1899. As the terrorstricken public fled the city in thousands, Swamiji who was recovering his health in the hills rushed back to Kolkata. Under the leadership of his disciples Swami Sadananda and Sister Nivedita he initiated the fight against the epidemic on 31 March 1899. He drafted a Plague Manifesto in which among other things he advised people to ‘Always keep the house and its premises, the rooms, clothes, bed, drain, etc., clean.’ He arranged a public meeting where university students and professors were gathered. He wanted the
November 2019
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Swachh Bharat Our Pride - Our Responsibility
9 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E S P O N S O R : E C O N O M I C S D E P T. , 2 0 0 9 - 1 2 B AT C H , R A M A K R I S H N A M I S S I O N V I D YA M A N D I R A , B E LU R M AT H
Editorial
