Enlightenment or political theatre?

In Kanyakumari, did Modi receive enlightenment from Vivekananda or intimations from Savarkar? Whose path will he take if he wins a third term?

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari to sit in meditation for two days, I was reminded of a delightful poem by Rabindranath Tagore. Here it is in his own translation:

In the depths of the forest, the ascetic practised penance with fast-closed eyes; he intended to deserve Paradise.

But the girl who gathered twigs brought him fruits in her skirt, and water from the stream in cups made of leaves.

The days went on, and his penance grew harsher, till the fruits remained untasted, the water untouched; and the girl who gathered twigs was sad.

The Lord of Paradise heard that a man had dared to aspire to be as the Gods. 

Time after time he had fought the Titans, who were his peers, and kept them out of his kingdom; 

yet he feared a man whose power was that of suffering.

But he knew the ways of mortals, and he planned a temptation to decoy this creature of dust away from his adventure.

A breath from Paradise kissed the limbs of the girl who gathered twigs, and her youth ached with a sudden rapture of beauty…

The time came when the ascetic should leave the forest for a mountain cave, to complete the rigour of his penance.

When he opened his eyes in order to start on this journey, the girl appeared to him like a verse familiar, yet forgotten…

The ascetic rose from his seat and told her that it was time he left the forest.

‘But why rob me of my chance to serve you?’ she asked with tears in her eyes…

That night, remorse kept the girl awake. She began to dread her power and hate her triumph, 

yet her mind tossed on the waves of turbulent delight.

In the morning she came and saluted the ascetic and asked his blessing…

He gazed on her face in silence, then said, ‘Go, and may your wish be fulfilled.’

For years, he sat alone till his penance was complete.

The Lord of the Immortals came down to tell him that he had won
Paradise.

‘I no longer need it,’ said he.

The God asked him what greater reward he desired.

‘I want the girl who gathers twigs.’

That seemingly easy thing to do -- to sit tight and banish all thoughts from your mind -- is most difficult. Within a few minutes after shutting one’s eyes, the fickle mind flits from one thought to another, from one image to another. It’s an unbridled wild horse. As you try in vain to dive deep into your soul, unable to locate it, and attempt to penetrate into the mysteries of creation, like the sages of yore, in the end ‘realisation’ dawns that all that you know is that you do not know. And whatever it was that you strove for all this long, you want something else now.

So, I wondered what thoughts may have passed through the mind of Modi, sitting alone in contemplation for two days at the fag-end of this election season, having uttered all that he did during the campaign, inside an enclosed monument, in front of Swami Vivekananda, immortalised there in stone, surrounded by the sound of lapping waves, howling monsoon winds and lashing rains? Modi was, in a way, a prisoner of his trappings -- under observation by surveillance and media cameras, waited upon by dour and bare-bodied, ash-smeared male priests, in the company of battalions of uniformed security forces, secret service agents and commandos hovering in the shadows, not letting him out of sight, with no prospects of tantalising Apsaras to tempt and tease him out of his penance.  

Notwithstanding the social media attacks on him for hypocrisy and theatrics to hoodwink people, and criticism of the humongous expenditure to be borne by the State -- with thousands keeping guard and naval ships cordoning off the southern tip of the peninsula -- to allow one man to indulge in the luxury of meditation, the nation can indulge Modi even if his meditation costs the exchequer a few hundred crores if something good comes out of it. 

As it is impossible to focus on God or ‘Brahman’, the ultimate reality, beyond a couple hours, it is fair to assume that Modi’s mind will have wandered on myriad issues facing him and the nation – the criticism over majoritarian politics; on the diminishing autonomy of institutions like ED and CBI, and including the Election Commission now; on the vitiated Hindu-Muslim relations and the nation’s social fabric; on crony capitalism and the rising inequality between the few rich and the millions and millions of the poor and middle class; on the marginalisation of Dalits and tribals; on the rising unemployment; on the strained Centre-State relations; on the still-simmering conflict in Manipur; on the challenges of creating Hindu Rashtra as his hordes demand; on the Chinese still menacing our borders…  

Now that Modi is predicted by the exit polls to win a historic third term, and he will be 79 by the time it ends, the thought of what legacy he would want to leave behind will have naturally entered his meditations. What accomplishments would he like to be remembered for? Does he want to be valourised for putting India on the path to becoming a Hindu Rashtra, one where Hindus may come to dominate the polity and all the minorities will live insecure lives as second-class citizens without rights, as the Hindutva ideology desires, leaving the nation on the edge and on a short-fuse, waiting for a violent resolution?  

What about his global standing? Will he be extolled as a statesman like Jawaharlal Nehru if he ends up being seen as a bigot and an autocrat who trampled on democracy? The world hailed him when he told Vladimir Putin “This is not the era of war.” These thoughts may have floated past him during his reflections. 

For years, Modi has worn Savarkar and Golwalkar on one sleeve, and Mahatma Gandhi and Vivekananda on the other, whose preachings are antithetical to one another. Modi is a zealous votary of the Hindutva ideology of Savarkar and Golwalkar but he also pays homage to Gandhi and invokes Vivekananda, whose pantheistic Hindu philosophy is incompatible with the Hindutva ideology. Whose path will he take if he wins a third term? In Kanyakumari, did Modi receive enlightenment from Vivekananda or intimations from Savarkar?

(The writer is a soldier, farmer and entrepreneur)

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