October 2011 - Advaita Ashrama

54
Helen off her feet and stormed outdoors with
Helen riding on her hip. Straight to the water
pump she went, so that Helen would be forced
to refill the pitcher she had thrown. With one
hand on Helen’s, she started to pump; and with
her other, she drew Helen’s free hand under the
flow of water. ‘W-a-t-e-r’, she signed into Helen’s
palm. Suddenly Helen’s whole face changed. She
broke free of Anne and joyously felt the water
run through her fingers as the long-awaited
moment of recognition struck her full force.
Helen then spoke the magic word ‘W-a-t-e-r!’
She then ran to a nearby tree, hugged it, and
signed ‘T-r-e-e’ into Anne’s palm, and then
rushed to her parents on the porch and signed
first ‘mother’ and then ‘father’, as she embraced
each of them. Anne was exhausted as the young
Helen ran from object to object and person to
person until finally Helen returned to Anne,
stood before her, and signed into her hand,
‘Who are you?’ ‘T-e-a-c-h-e-r,’ Anne signed
back, tears streaming from her eyes.
In 1904, at the age of twenty-four, Helen Keller
graduated from Radcliffe College, the first deaf
blind person in America to earn a Bachelor of Arts
degree. Helen then went on to become a worldfamous
speaker and author, a renowned advocate
for people with disabilities, a suffragist, pacifist, a
women’s healthcare advocate, and, among other
organizations, she helped to found the American
Civil Liberties Union. Helen Keller and Anne
Sullivan travelled to over thirty-nine countries
and met every US president from Grover Cleveland
to Lyndon B Johnson. On 14 September
1964 President Johnson awarded Helen Keller the
Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United
States’ highest two civilian honours.27
Helen Keller’s life best exemplifies Vivekananda’s
character-building education: ‘Each one
can grow and strengthen his personality. This is
one of the great practical things, and this is the
658
Prabuddha Bharata
secret of all education. This has a universal application.
In the life of a householder, in the life of
the poor, the rich, the man of business, the spiritual
man, in every one’s life, it is a great thing,
the strengthening of this personality.’ 28
Strength of character is central to Vivekananda’s
ideal. By strength he meant not only
physical strength and well-being, but depth
of thought, strength of conviction, and faith
in oneself, a spirit of service, and practical efficiency.
It is this type of strength that enables
all of us—parents, teachers, or students—to develop
faith in ourselves and overcome all difficulties.
With infinite capacity within each one of
us, this strength can surely make us prosperous
in any walk of life. P
References
15. Complete Works, 6.38.
16. The Living Lincoln: The Man and His Times,
in His Own Words, ed. Paul M Angle and Earl
Schenck Miers (New York: Barnes & Noble
Books, 1992), 143–5.
17. See Bhagavadgita, 3.35.
18. See Complete Works, 7.269–70.
19. Matt Richtel, ‘Your Brain on Computers: Attached
to Technology and Paying a Price,’ New
York Times (6 June 2010).
20. Complete Works, 1.129.
21. ‘Your Brain on Computers: Attached to Technology
and Paying a Price’.
22. Patricia Marks Greenfield, Mind and Media: The
Effects of Television, Video Games, and Com puters
(Cambridge: Harvard University, 1984), 2.
23. Sharon Begley, ‘The Hidden Brain: What Scientists
can Learn from “Nothing”’, Newsweek
(31 May 2010).
24. Complete Works, 3.302.
25. Gospel, 147–8.
26. See Complete Works, 5.366.
27. The Miracle Worker, with Anne Bancroft and
Patty Duke (1962 version), an Oscar award-
winning movie of Helen Keller’s life, the
incidents of which are derived from her autobiography
The Story of My Life.
28. Complete Works, 2.16.
PB October 2011