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Chosen
Instrument
Eknath Ranade, the
chosen instrument for the spread of this vital man-making,
nation-building and world unifying message was not only the patient
builder of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial which took six years to
build (1964-1970), and inaugurated on 2nd
September,
1970, but was also a wise visionary, the founder of the Vivekananda
Kendra, a Service mission of active dedicated men and women, who
were to be the living, growing memorial to the message of the
Master, Swami Vivekananda who had said in his wonderful inspiring
prophetic words: "A hundred thousand men and women, fired with
the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord and
nerved to lion’s courage by their sympathy for the poor and the
fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of
the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the
gospel of social raising-up and the gospel of equality". These
were the words which were more the refrain of the one song which in
the course of my eleven years long, continuous personal association
with Shri Eknathji since 1971, I was privileged to hear again and
again and he lived and died to translate this dream of Swami
Vivekananda into a living reality, an actual fact, through
Vivekananda Kendra, through the life workers whom he taught and
trained and among whom he lived, worked and died.
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