When darkness spreads the sun rises to lighten

When drought strains rain pours to enliven

When a devil reigns a saint emerges to dethrone

When we plead and pray, God indeed heeds

There was a time Hinduism drained and strangled

Smothered by many alien norms and notions

Spiritual devastation everywhere, India was at stake

In time appeared a shooting star; a warrior saint!

Peerless he stands towering as saint of saints

Even centuries gone, still a sparkling flame

Inflaming every aspiring soul to arise and awake

A roar that echoed; a ‘very lion among men’

As simple as nature and as fierce as a storm

As calm as an ocean with whirling waves inside

As loving as a mother and as tireless as a soldier

As versatile as a god man; as exuberant as any human

His writings still vibrate kindling thousands to action

His soul still lingers enthusing dauntless daring souls

His life was short but still lives within every proud Indian

His impact is worldwide withstanding all disparities

God is within you, and you are the greatest temple,

‘Faith in oneself’, and he who lacks it, is an atheist,

Fortune is like a flirt, remain a master to enslave it,

We want strength and strength only; to fight misery,

All through his life he practised what he preached

Swami Vivekanada ‘A tonic to the repressed Hindu’

A fighter who conquered the world with his sword

A sword of his own mould, of patience, purity and perseverance

An eternal source of ‘self-respect, self-reliance and self-assertion’

Proud I feel as never before to say ‘I am an Indian’