Sonia, Modi and the Swami

By HARESH PANDYA

Swami Vivekananda, a monk widely credited for raising global awareness of Hinduism and yoga more than a century ago, has become an unlikely touchstone in the run-up to the closely watched Gujarat elections.

On Oct. 3, Sonia Gandhi visited the Swami's Ramakrishna Ashram, in Rajkot, Gujarat, just before addressing a massive political rally. There, she prostrated herself before a statue of the swami's guru, said prayers and received blessings from the monks. Mrs. Gandhi afterward told an ashram leader, “I've deep faith.”

The visit is being interpreted as a response to the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi's current month-long political yatra, or journey, in honor of the very same Swami.

There are “huge pictures, cutouts and statues of the monk on the stage” wherever Mr. Modi goes to addresses a public rallies, said Bhadrayu Vachharajani, director of the Academic Staff Col lege at Saurashtra University in Rajkot. “There is clearly a message loud and clear for Modi in Sonia Gandhi's one small but significant action,” Mr. Vachharajani said. “She simply went to Ramakrishna Ashram, like any common visitor, bowed her head before the presiding deity, offered prayers and then went to address a rally.”

Swami Vivekananda, a monk in saffron with a trademark turban, was the foremost disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa, a famed mystique of 19th century India who was believed to represent the true meaning of the religion, encompassing love, brotherhood and compassion without dogma or rituals. Swami Vivekananda preached to India's youth when the country was a colony of the British, telling them, “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.” He is credited with bringing yoga to the West, and counted Leo Tolstoy and the American writer Gertrude Stein among his foreign fans.

In honor of Swami Vivekananda's 150th birthday this Jan uary, Mr. Modi embarked on the “Swami Vivekananda Yuva Yatra” on Sept. 11, traveling from the temple town of Bahucharaji in northern Gujarat, to woo young voters. The trip appears to be an attempt by Mr. Modi to keep his Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist, image intact while reaching out to other communities.

Mr. Modi has met with minority community leaders, Muslims as well as Dalits, and has been emphasizing communal harmony and peace in Gujarat in his speeches. Response to the yatra has been excellent â€" the chief minister drew a nearly 25,000 people in the city of Limbdi and about 15,000 in Morbi last week.

Swami Vivekananda embarked upon his own yatra, the famous Bharat Darshan Yatra, in the early 1890s, but for very different reasons. During his five-year journey across India, he met maharajas and viziers, famous scholars and artists and while seeing and visiting great centers of learning. The country's diverse religious traditions were believed to have enl arged his parochial vision into a national one as he traveled.

Mr. Modi is expected by his party members to carry out a similar nationwide yatra if his Bharatiya Janata Party is re-elected in Gujarat, in order to boost support for his prime minister run in 2014.

Mr. Modi has often said he is an avid follower of Vivekananda and his ideals, and a statue of the sage travels with him on a bus during the yatra. The bus itself has been painted with photographs of Vivekananda.

Congress Party officials have been quick to condemn Mr. Modi, saying that he is politicizing the Swami. “Swami Vivekananda was an apostle of Hinduism,” Arjun Modhwadia, the Congress Party chief in Gujarat, said in a telephone interview. “He was a saint, not a political leader,” he said, one who remained distant from politics for his entire life. “But it's a pity, even shame, that Modi and the B.J.P. are using his name to gain political mileage,” he said.

Keshubhai Patel, th e former B.J.P. stalwart and chief minister of Gujarat who has started his own political group, the Gujarat Parivartan Party, has also castigated Mr. Modi for “dragging” a great seer's name in the world of politics.

“We respect Swami Vivekananda and that is the reason we've decided to take out yatra in his name,” a B.J.P. leader told the Press Trust of India last month. “This yatra ensures that Modi's core belief in Hindutva is intact along with the motto of our government â€" appeasement for none, development for all.”

Mrs. Gandhi's recent visit to the ashram, which was built in 1927, follows in the footsteps of many Indian politicians. Mohandas K. Gandhi, President Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, President Rajendra Prasad and many other dignitaries have also graced it with their visits. Congress Party officials say there is no hidden message in her visit.

“The Gandhi family members have been devotees of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa and Swami Vivek ananda” for many years, said Mr. Modhwadia. Indira Gandhi was a regular visitor to his ashrams through India, he said. “In fact, it is Modi who has carried out a political yatra in the sacred name of Vivekananda.”

During her visit, Mrs. Gandhi “came like any common devotee and pilgrim and no special treatment was given her,” said Swami Sarvasthanand, the current chief of the ashram, in an interview.

He said Mrs. Gandhi told him, “I often go to Belur Math for darshan,” or the beholding of a deity. “I've deep faith.” Belur Math, the headquarters of Ramakrishna Mission, on the western bank of the Hooghly near Kolkata, is where Swami Vivekananda spent his last days.

Swami Sarvasthananda gifted a photograph to Mrs. Gandhi as a memento on behalf of the ashram. “Many political leaders do come here to pay homage to the two seers, and we don't make any distinction between them and other people,” the swami said. “All human beings are equal for us regardless of their social statuses and sects.”