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        I have just finished reading a very  inspiring book titled 'Saga of Pa  triotism, Revolutionaries in India's Freedom Struggle' written by Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan and R Vivekanandam. This book has been published by Sister Nivedita Academy in Bangalore. This book contains inspiring and enlightening biographical sketches of great revolutionaries like Madame Cama, Mahakavi Bharathiyar, Sister Nivedita, Champak Raman Pillai, Bhaga Jatin, Madan Lal Dhingra, Lala Har Dayal, Dr Hedgewar, Rash Bihari Bose, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekar Azad, Sri Aurobindo, V O Chidambaram Pillai, Mangal Pande, Kartar Singh Saraba, Ram Prasad Bismil, Khudiram Bose, Surya Sen, Sardar Udham Singh and Nethaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

        Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan is the Founder Trustee of Sister Nivedita Academy in Bangalore. Inspired by his Siksha Guru, H H Chinmayananda and his mentor, Sri Guruji Golwalkar Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan started dedicating himself to the advancement of the sacred cause of Sanathana Dharma and Hindutva more than three decades ago. He has held important positions of trust and responsibilities in institutions like Chinmaya Mission, Rashtriya Swyamsevak Sangh, Vishva Hindu Parishad, Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission and Vivekananda Kendra.

        Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan served with distinction as the Associate Editor of Yuva Bharathi for the youth from its inception on 15 August, 1974. He wrote a series of articles on the great patriots and revolutionaries of India who had willingly and cheerfully laid down their lives upon the altar of India's freedom. Most of the biographical sketches included in this volume under review had appeared in the issues of Yuva Bharathi in the 1970s. When that shameless predatory dictator Indra Gandhi imposed the illegal Emergency upon the country starting from 25 June 1975 to 21 March 1977, Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan founded the Sister Nivedita Academy. To begin with it started as a small study group of patriotic youth, to inspire manliness and courage in our frightened youth to fight against dictatorship and tyranny. This later flowered and developed into an Institute of Hindu thought and culture in 1977 and its main objective is to foster the spirit of patriotism and respect for our ancient culture. In establishing the Nivedita Academy, I have no doubt whatsoever that Sadhu Prof V.Rangarajan was moved by the following deathless words of Sri Aurobindo in his pamphlet Bhawani Mandir which he wrote 'for the revolutionary preparation of the country': 'If India is to survive, she must be made young again. Rushing and billowing streams of energy must be poured into her: her soul must become, as it was in the old times, vast, puissant, calm or turbulent at will, an ocean of an action or a force. Many of us, utterly overcome by Tamas, the dark and heavy demon of inertia, are saying nowadays that it is impossible, that India is decayed, bloodless and lifeless, too weak ever to recover; that our race is doomed to extinction. It is a foolish and idle saying. No man or nation need be weak unless he chooses; no man or nation need perish unless he deliberately chooses extinction.....We have to create strength where it did not exist before; we have to change our natures, and become new men with new hearts to be born again....We need a nucleus of men in whom the SHAKTI is developed to its uttermost extent, in whom it fills every corner of the personality and overflows to fertilise the earth. These, having the fire of Bhawani in their hearts and brains, will go forth and carry the flame to every nook and cranny of our land.'

        The maiden publication of Nivedita Academy was VANDE MATARAM published in 1977. It was authored by Sadhu Prof V.Rangarajan. Achariya J.B.Kripalani blessed the founding of the Nivedita Academy which synchronised with the Centenary Celebrations of the composition of the BANDE MATARAM song by Bankim Chandra Chatterji (1838-1894). This book was released on the auspicious day of Akshaya Triteeya, the day sacred for the worship of Bharat Matha on April 21, 1977. Achariya J.B.Kripalani in his inspiring forward to this book wrote as follows: 'Sri V. Rangarajan has done some original work in giving the history of our National Anthem, Vande Mataram. It was necessary because thousands of our pre-independence patriots had to suffer grievously in uttering and singing this song which before independence was considered the National Anthem. Some of them lost their lives for singing this song. Every patriot from Khudiram Bose to Bhagat Singh and Rajguru died with the mantram of Vande Mataram on their lips. It had become spontaneously the National Anthem adopted by the mass of our people'.

        Ever since then, the Nivedita Academy under the exalted leadership of Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan has made rapid strides by setting up Centres not only in India but also in South Africa, Botswana, Kenya and Singapore. The Academy is involved in multifarious activities like publication of books, journal and news letter, conducting orientation courses on Hindu thought and culture for students all over the world and spearheading a spiritual movement for collective Sadhana for world peace.

        Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan later established the Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram at Bangalore on December 1999. Can anyone doubt that this is a duly deserved spiritual fruit of the Sadhana of service of a humble Swayamsevak like Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan, a great social activist whose resplendent life of service and self sacrifice has been totally dedicated to the service of Bharat Matha and all her children for more than four decades? Bharatamata Gurukula Ashram serves as an abode for several children of Mother Bharat, both from India and abroad, where they can reside in an atmosphere quite similar to that of our

        ancient Gurukula system of ancient India.

        For spiritual and social activists like Sadhu Prof V.Rangarajan our beloved mother-country is not just a clod of earth, nor an unreal figure of speech, nor a contrived fiction of the mind. It is a mighty Shakti, composed of the Shakthis of all the millions of units that make up the nation, just as Bhawani Mahisha Mardini sprang into being from the Shakti of all the millions of gods assembled in one mass of force and welded into unity. To quote the appropriate words of Sri Aurobindo in this context: 'This Shakti we call India, Bhawani Bharati, is the living entity of the Shakthis of more than 300 million people (now more than 1000 million!), but she is inactive, imprisoned in the magic circle of Tamas, the self-indulgent inertia and ignorance of her sons..... What India needs especially at this moment is the aggressive virtues, the spirit of soaring idealism, bold creation, fearless resistance, courageous attack..... We need to cultivate another training and temperament, another habit of mind. We would apply to the present situation the vigorous motto of Danton, that what we need, what we should learn above all things is to dare and again to dare and still to dare.'

        These inspiring thoughts and emotions rushed and gushed to my mind when I read Sadhu Prof V.Rangarajan's introduction to his book 'SAGA OF PATRIOTISM': He has clearly brought out the historic fact that in the last two decades of our struggle for independence from 1927 to 1947, when the non-violent, non-cooperation movement led by Mahatma Gandhi was becoming popular among the masses, a sinister and deliberate attempt was made by some unscrupulous politicians to paint the earlier phase of our armed struggle for the cause of freedom, hallowed by the sacrifice of great revolutionaries like Madame Cama, Bhaga Jatin, Madan Lal Dhingra, Rash Bihari Bose, Veer Savarkar, Bhagat Singh, Chandrasekar Azad, Mangal Pande, Kartar Singh Saraba, Ram Prasad Bismil, Khudiram Bose, Surya Sen, Sardar Udham Singh and Nethaji Subhash Chandra Bose, as an insignificant period of senseless violence and miss guided patriotism. As Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan rightly concludes: 'Though it is a historic fact that the non-violent, non- cooperation movement proved to be a total flop and when the Quit India Movement took a violent torn, Gandhi had to withdraw it, and that the final blow to the British Empire was given by the Indian National Army led by Nethaji Subhash Chandra Bose which created mutiny in the Army, Navy, Air Force, compelling the British to leave India.'

        The effete Congress Party under the weak and effeminate leadership of Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting and Hindu-hating Jawaharlal Nehru came to power soon after the British left and this Party exploited the absence of Nethaji on the scene after 15 August, 1947. A deliberate attempt was made by Nehru and his Congress men to make the best use of Gandhi's name for the advancement of their own political self-interest and in this process they cheaply marketed the political fiction that only the Congress Party and the Gandhian Movement in general were responsible for the independence of India, with a catalytic role played all the time only by Jawaharlal Nehru and his family! All the history text books in schools and colleges spoke only about Nehru, Gandhi and the Congress Party and the great sacrifices, through blood, tears, toil and sweat, made by great revolutionaries during the last two centuries were completely blocked out and kept out of all academic studies.

        Sadhu Prof V Rangarajan and his son R Vivekanandam have put the whole nation in a debt of gratitude to them for having brought out the splendid story of the saga of heroism, courage, and self sacrifice of great and violent revolutionaries ranging from Mangal Pande to Subhash Chandra Bose in our struggle for freedom. To conclude in the words of a great revolutionary:

        'Nature renews herself and covers yesterday's battlefield with green grass and flowers and the revolutionary blood that is shed, feeds the soil and gives sustenance and stimulation to new life'.