Swami Vivekananda established RK Math and Mission formally on 1 May 1897. These were no mere monks –
रामकृष्ण संघ के साधु धूनी रमाने वाले साधु नहीं , गुफाओं , कंदराओं में , वन में बसने वाले , अपनी मोक्ष मात्र की चाह वाले नहीं ।
The Organising has a a mission statement : आत्मनो मोक्षार्थं जगद् हिताय च
स्वयं के मोक्ष के लिए तथा जगत के कल्याण के लिए
Atmano mokshartham jagat hitaya cha (translation: for the salvation of our individual self and for the well-being of all on earth) is a sloka of the Rig Veda.[1] Vivekananda would often use it and it became the motto of the Ramakrishna Mission that he founded in 1897 and the related Ramakrishna Math.[2][1][3]
The motto suggests twofold aim of human life— one is to seek salvation for one’s soul and the other is to address the issue of welfare of the world.[1]
In the Adviata Perspective We are all one. Part of One same entity. One’s own salvation cannot stand in isolation to the Welfare of the world. They are inextricably interlinked.
When I read the content of the first page of the Book KRATU , It seems to me that This is the plot of the work and we can expect to read in the form of a gripping story and gain interesting insight into the the High Philosophy of Advaita and its practical implication and the Urgency to shape the world based on this concept .
In the author’s own words
The first page of Kratu….The huge, insurmountable rock – standing majestic amidstthe spread of smaller ones – was the meeting ground ofthe divine and the profane for the local people. The elderlytalked about the legends centring around it, while the youngstersinscribed their names and the names of their failed loves on it.Unconcerned with the meanderings of human nature, a yogisat immobile on the rock by stopping his consciousness frombecoming many. Living only on air for years on the height, hewas now mere skin and bones; his clothes had tattered away longago, and his matted hair was used as a nest by small birds. Peopleof the area had not seen him come there and so they did not addhim in the local legends.The march of progress does not care for the secular or thesacred. It now demanded that the monolith be blasted awayto make space for fresh dreams. The team assigned to do thejob had drilled holes in that rock and had planted explosives tocomplete the inevitable.‘All ready, sir.’ cried the foreman of the team, asking for thegreen signal for the blast.The project manager thought of climbing up the rock tohave one last view of the surroundings from its top before it wassmothered into nothingness forever. However, its sheer steepnessdeterred him. He looked sadly at the majestic rock: ‘Millions ofyears of being going away in a twing!’Shaking his head vigorously, he drove the thought away. Hewas not paid to philosophize but to carry out orders.Looking around to make sure that all was safe, he gave thethumbs up with ‘Alfred Nobel ki Jai’, musing at the irony of AlfredNobel being the creator of major destructive power and also thebestower of the Nobel Peace prize. ‘Irony, thy name is power.’‘B-O-O-M!’ was the response from the splintering rock.One now became many; the individual degenerated into thecollective; the inert became mobile and the mobile went dead.Birds fell to the ground, animals went fl ying through the air,heavier trees were uprooted, lighter ones swayed wildly, androcks boomed all around. Energy, milked from the universe andpreserved in the dynamite stick, hoosh- ed back to its freedom,flattening everything that separated it from being one with theuniversal.The yogi on the rock was among those who faced the furyof the once-trapped. Unseen by anyone, he was thrown up intothe sky on a parabolic path. His indifference towards the worldhad come back as its cruelty towards him…….