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Subject: THE VIVEKANANDA ROCK MEMORIAL 
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		     THE VIVEKANANDA ROCK MEMORIAL


			BY: M. LAKSHMI KUMARI

Dr. Lakshmikumari is President of Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari.
She has Ph.D. in Botany from Madras University. She relinquished her
academic career in 1982 and took to social service.


The Vivekananda Rock Memorial is a unique national monument in India
which has enshrined for posterity a great moment in history. It was
fashioned to commemorate the birth centenary of Swami Vivekananda, a
spiritual teacher par excellence and a man of destiny. It is a visual
presentation of the rare proficiency that finds expression through the
head, heart and hands of humankind when right thoughts get linked to
right actions through righteousness. It radiates Swami Vivekananda's
brilliant nation building message: Serve man, Serve God, through
renunciation and service. He naturally stands as one who drew India
out of her isolation of centuries old lethargic lifestyle and replaced
it with a new sprightliness. Swamiji meditated at the Rock Memorial
site in December, 1892.

Besides the Rock Memorial, the Vivekananda Kendra was also established
to prepare a cadre of both men and women who were not Sanyasis. A
hundred thousand men and women fired with the zeal of holiness,
fortified with eternal faith in the Lord and nerved with lion's
courage, by their sympathy for the downtrodden and preaching the
gospel of the Vivekananda Kendra goes deeper, emphasizing the need to
integrate oneself first and then the society at large. Untouchability
programs have also been encouraged. The success of Kendra depends on
its local honorary volunteer force, who have organized women and youth
camps, provided relief and support during riots to the suffering.  

The Kendra has started taking education even to far flung regions of
the country, establishing residential schools with the support of the
government. In this scheme of human upliftment and nation building,
Vivekananda Kendra has made good use of the ancient science of Yoga,
the path to achieve holistic development of humans. A Research
Foundation has been set up to examine the efficacy of Yoga practices
to benefit those suffering from asthma, diabetes, hypertension, and a
host of stress diseases.  

Rural Development programs have been undertaken to further education
and cultural activities for youth and women, provide drinking water,
medical care and nutritional foods in rural areas. In the program of
Balwadis, teachers visit homes to add a personal touch. Efforts are
being made to fight old caste hatreds. Library activities and sale of
books have helped the Kendra in reaching out to the people in
villages. Swami Vivekananda advocated the propagation of"OM" as the
unifying symbol for all of India. Lab to land is the call of science
today and Vivekananda Kendra renders a highly personalized service in
the matter of Biogas plant development and other related technologies.

While most of our voluntary agencies concentrate on economic
development the Vivekananda Kendra has set for itself a new goal of
character building, nation building and human upliftment for all
Indians. This ideal has paid richer dividends than just helping a few
people to earn their daily bread. By involving the villages in the
service activities the Kendra has ushered in more peace, harmony,
sense of well being and cohesiveness. The Kendra is setting up new
models to contact millions of our fellow Indians and awaken them to a
new world vision and zeal, and urge them to work, to uplift themselves
and the entire nation. It has launched a stupendous ten year plan for
the Vivekananda Decade, 1990-2000, years which are truly crucial for
India to establish her identity and to focus the attention of the
whole world on the universal concepts of Truth, Universal Spirit and
the whole world as One Family.