“Uddhava, before many days pass since my ascension to heaven, the sea will swallow this Dwarka, built by Vishwakarma [the architect of the gods]. With that, Kali [the personification of this dark age] will begin his dance of destruction…”
As Krishna warned Uddhava, Varuna [the god of the sea] soon brought Dwarka into his domain… The Dwarakadhish temple that we see here today was built by Vajranabha, Krishna’s grandson… For many millennia, Dwarka remained a mystery to humankind, untouched after Krishna’s ascension. Hidden by nature itself from invasive forces, the proud legacy of a mighty Hindu nation remained submerged in the ocean, awaiting the day when this country would be restored into the hands of its true inheritors.
When the location of submerged Dwarka was discovered in the 1960s, it should have been we, as the inheritors of that great legacy, trying to reclaim it… But a people who forget their ancestors, what use do they have for heritage? We could not comprehend its importance or value back then… Swami Vivekananda once warned us about the dangers of incidents like this.
“The vitality of India lies in religion. As long as we don’t lose this great wealth inherited from our ancestors, no power on earth can destroy India. Today, everyone criticizes those who always look into the past. They say that this backward-looking is the reason for India’s woes. However, I feel the opposite is true. When Hindus forgot the past, they became lost in distractions and forgot themselves. Now, looking back at the past, new power is manifesting everywhere. The future must be shaped from the past. The past is what transforms into the future. If Hindus studied their past, their future would become radiant. Those who bring this past to the doorstep of every Indian are doing this country a great service.”
Things become valuable only when they reach the hands of the right people or movements at the right time… Today, words once spoken by one Narendra [Vivekananda] are becoming a reality through another Narendra [Modi]. The Gujarat government will soon develop underwater tourism centered around Dwarka… The remnants of Hindu ancestry that stand tall beneath the sea will now be seen by Hindus of the present and the future. Prime Minister Modi performed an unofficial inauguration of this today….
Taking a bundle of peacock feathers, he made a small hole in front of Dwarka and placed them within. He then sat in meditation, traveling back to that ancient past. The radiance of the rise of a great Hindu nation is becoming more apparent before us, and we are unwittingly absorbed into it. That magnificent city, which stood steady for millennia awaiting its true inheritors, will now have a time of resurgence… Just think about how wondrous the Hindu people are. Think about the vastness of our culture, our heritage.
We are the only people on earth whose heritage remains both in the highest place, the Himalayas, and at the bottom of the ocean, where we can still offer worship…