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MIDNAPORE COLLEGE, 12-3 MARCH, 2011

SWAMI VIVEKANANDAS VISION AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

Ganesh Prasad Das

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Swami Vivekananda is the architect of Indian renaissance in its philo-socio-cultural dimension. Trodden under the feet of the Hindu Mussalman or Christian, Indians are born, as it were, to be trodden under the feet of everybody who have ambition and muscle power. Due to constant invasion and alien rule, they had lost their individuality. They are to be given back their freedom and individuality. They are to be educated. Due to political subjugation by the West in the 19th century, India faced challenges on two fronts: cultural and sociological. India met the cultural challenge by a method of dynamic synthesis. This is marked by affirmation, acceptance and inclusion, rather than by rejection, resistance and exclusion. Swami Vivekananda is a prominent leader of the process. He stands as a stable bridge between the past and the present. He seeks to abandon the rigidity and closeness of the past and accept the present changes brought in by human endeavour. Swami Vivekanandas perspective is broad - as broad as the whole world. The process that Swami Vivekananda envisioned for the purpose is first self-discovery and next self-expression. The former is laid down by the Upanisadic tradition and the latter is Swami Vivekanandas own. What is new about Vivekananda is his emphasis on work intelligent and cooperative team work for the betterment of the lives of teeming millions. We are rich with high spiritual culture and outstanding spiritual geniuses. We have our great Vedantic tradition. Discipline of the inner life is great, national reservoir of spiritual life is vast. But our culture has neglected our common men and women, simply because the material and socio-political aspects of human life have been overlooked. Poverty and social backwardness cannot be removed by prayer, meditation and ritual. Rituals and ceremonies are regarded as the be-all and end-all of religion. They do not result in efficient action. The problem is how vision can flow into action. Politics is not for empty stomachs, said Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Vedanta is not for empty stomachs, says Swami Vivekananda. The problem of poverty and general backwardness can be successfully tackled only by a politics of service sense of dedication to be ingrained in the service of the common man in our politics and administration. Arm-twisting and pick-pocketing of the common man by politics and administration, and that too with his consent, is the order today. This is due to lack of, or, at the best, disintegration of personality. Swami Vivekananda is for the total integration of human personality. He is in favour of a scheme wider than this. He seeks to integrate the ancient and the modern, the East and the West, the sacred and the secular, spirit and matter, and reason and faith. Each one of these points is important. Modern science is not antagonistic to ancient values; one is complementary to the other. Both need to be integrated. East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet, sang Rudyard Kipling. The East puts emphasis on spiritual values and the West on material progress. The two are one-sided preoccupations. Both need to be integrated. The sacred and the secular are seen as excluded opposites. But what is sacred is regarded as religious in the limited sense and the secular as the

2 opposite of this. Swami Vivekananda does not conceive of religion in the limited and fanatical sense. Religion in the inclusive sense that Vedanta is, is nothing but secular. Both need to be integrated. Reason derives from head and faith springs from heart. Head does not fight with heart, or heart with head. One without the other is dysfunctional. Both need to be integrated. It is Vedanta that makes such integration. Vedanta without this aim of integration would just be static piety, not dynamic spirituality. Dynamic spirituality is not an abstract something. It is a great source of strength of character, work efficiency and care and share for all human beings. Vedanta had so far been preaching the ideal of renunciation. Swami Vivekananda added the ideal of service to it. Renunciation and service, he pronounced, are the twin ideals of India. It is not renunciation of the world, but renunciation of the lower trivial self for the sake of manifestation of the higher self. The latter makes man to reach out for the others and feel for them. This is practical Vedanta, or Vedanta in practice, or applied Vedanta. It teaches to respect a man for being a man, not for power and pelf. It teaches to be and make. Dignity and worth of mankind is valued the most by Vedanta as the birthright of every human being. Him I call a mahatman (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a duratman (wicked soul). A distinction is made between the life in the world and the life of religion. We have been widening the gulf between life and religion century after century. No religion on earth preaches the dignity of man in such a lofty strain as Hinduism and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism. The religion is not at fault. The hypocrites in Hinduism are at fault. They have invented the engines of tyranny. The doctrine of paramarthika and vyavaharika is made to be such an artifice. Paramarthika is paramarthika and vyavaharika is vyavaharika and the two do not meet. They were not conceived to be poles apart. (The bloody blows for donations in Jagannatha temple, Puri, stopping of worship of the Lord in Lingaraja temple, Bhubaneswar, uproar for stopping sacrifice in Bhagavati temple, Banapur and stopping worship for 9 days, are recent instances of religious bigotry.) Swami Vivekananda and his mentor Ramakrishna Paramahamsa both call for bridging the gulf between the two. They encapsulate their view in the following maxim: Live in the world; but dont allow worldliness to enter into you. The Bhagavadgita holds a clear message to this effect: padmapatramivambhasa.1 Santwana Dasgupta quotes her teacher Benoy Kumar Sarkar of Calcutta University as telling in the class that Vivekananda was the father of modern materialism.2 Religion is not static piety. It is dynamic spirituality with its expression of renunciation and service. Swami Vivekananda put forward the idea of universal religion. It could be said that universal religion is one which is structured out of universals. As Plato perceived it, universals are purged of the specificities and limitations of particulars and particulars participate in the universals. The universal religion involves no specificities and does not suffer from limitations of particulars. The more spiritual a man is, the more universal he is. It is only such men that can realise the urge of the modern age for a universal society. Swami Vivekananda reminds us about a distinction between two sets of truth. The one set is that which abides for ever, being built upon the nature of man, the nature of the soul, the souls relation to God, the nature of God, perfection and so on. There are also the principles of cosmology, of the infinity of creation, or of projection. These are eternal principles founded upon the universal laws in nature. The

3 other set comprises the minor laws, which guide the working of our everyday life. These have been changing all the time and will still have to change. Swami Vivekananda sees a distinction between universal laws and minor laws. Radhakrishnan brings out an elucidation of this point. He says that social flexibility has been the chief character of Hindu dharma. To uphold the sanatana dharma is not to stand still. It is to seize the vital principles and use them in modern life. All true growth preserves unity through change. According to Swami Vivekananda, man-making should not only be the end of philosophy education, but also the end of all education and all training. The end and aim of all training is to make men grow. The human being has free will. But if he is allowed to exercise this freedom without education and training, suicide would be his easy choice. It is education that teaches and trains him to discipline the exercise of his will and helps to bring out his potentialities in the very best way. Swami Vivekananda does not utter the word nationality; nation-making is not his mission. Man-making is his mission and vision. His interest is not national. This is parochial. His interest is broader than the broadest. It is cosmological, it is universal. What happens if a country espouses man-making religion? Two things happen one negative and the other positive. First, the countrymen discard narrow loves and hates which are due to sectional loyalties of sects, castes, creeds and cults (sampradaya, jati, mata and pantha). These are particulars. By transcending these they grow into that wholeness which is perfection of character. Fullness and wholeness are expressions of the Divinity in man. Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man. It brings to man eternal life. Positively, they owe allegiance to certain fundamental values, which are universal and human. These values guide the man in his thought and action in every clime and at every time. Guidance and inspiration of such religion is needed for any form of political governance and any form of socio-economic planning. This would not come from dogmas and creeds of sectarian religions and religionism. This would come from their inner core of essential truth. The essence of religions in the plural is that every being is only your self multiplied. Vedanta pronounces this vividl y: atmavat sarvabhutani or sarvam khalu idam brahma. But Swami Vivekananda observes with dismay that the truth lacked practical application. Want of practical application is want of sympathy and want of heart. He further observes that social forces are there needing and leading to universalisation of lofty ideas of religions. For example, there is fusion and synthesis of Hinduism and Islam resulting in the work of Kabir, Nanak, Dadu, Caitanya, Surdas and others. But this social force must be directed to human ends. The primacy of practical Vedanta is the dignity of the human individual as we have pointed out above. Mutual respect leads to mutual emulation. Swami Vivekananda finds that this sociological factor of emulation has been suppressed for long. He means emulation of the internal qualities, i.e., qualities of head and heart, not the exterior qualities. He means further that it is not patchy imitation, but healthy assimilation. Swami Vivekananda talks about practical Vedanta and talks about practical Islam too, but he intends to transcend both, or better, all forms of religionism. The whole humanity is one and the religion for the humanity is one. To vouchsafe this, Swami Vivekananda asserts that the solution of any problem

4 can never be attained on racial, or national, or narrow grounds. Every idea has to become broad till it covers the whole of this world, every aspiration must go on increasingly till it has engulfed the whole of humanity, nay, the whole of life, within its scope.3 Vedanta perceives human welfare in a total perspective - material and moral, cultural and spiritual - both emotionally satisfying and rationally convincing. Religion is both being and becoming. It does not consist in doctrines, creeds and dogmas, temples, mosques and churches. It consists in a struggle to realise the Divine. This struggle and its end achievement is religion. This is marked by universal toleration and universal acceptance. Life is coterminus with religion. Life is also being and becoming. Maharaja of Khetri wanted to know of Swami Vivekananda what life is and Swamiji explained that it is the unfoldment and development of a being under circumstances tending to press it down. Vedanta is man-making religion with man-making education. So it is called practical Vedanta. The vision of the mission is empowerment of man to face all challenges of the present and future. Swami Ranganathananda vouchsafes, Vedanta we have in our books; Vedanta we have seen in the lives of the great sages and saints of our country; but Vedanta as a sheet-anchor of nation-building, of a dynamic social policy, by which the mass become transformed into dynamic centres of all round social development - this type of practical application of Vedanta we had never witnessed in our country before. It was the supreme glory of Swami Vivekananda that he broadcasted this life-giving message of Vedanta to one and all.4 Hunger and ignorance are twin sufferings of the countrymen. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, every man is responsible for the same in the judgment of Swami Vivekananda. Having been educated at their expenses, they turn a blind eye and deaf ears to them. By preaching universal religion, Swami Vivekananda has become a universal phenomenon. What we need now is men dedicated to the ideal, which Swamiji reminded us about, to love them and serve them. If Socrates gave moral empowerment to Greeks, if Bacon gave intellectual empowerment to Europeans, Vivekananda gave intellectual, moral and spiritual empowerment to the whole of humanity to work for the humanity knowing the whole as a unitary self. II We hail an Alexander, or a Napoleon as conqueror of the world (visvavijayi), when he fights against and wins over the rulers of all geographical territories. That is changing the boundary of physical the world by applying physical force. But unless ideas change, nothing is changed. It is Swami Vivekananda, who changed the mindset of Indians and the Westerners as well turning the movement of renaissance 180 degrees full. He believed in the principle of give and take. The West is to learn from India and India is to learn from the West. They boast of their philosophy of humanism or humanitarianism that they have imbibed from Christianity. Vivekanandas guru Sri Ramakrishna was

5 very critical of this so-called philosophy. Once while there was a discussion on Sri Caitanyas (name bhakti) jive daya, Sri Ramakrishna came in and heard this. His reaction was sharp: Compassion for creatures! You fool! An insignificant worm crawling on earth, you to show compassion to others! Who are you to show compassion? No, not compassion for others, but rather the service of man, recognising him to be veritable manifestation of God. jivajnane jivaseva is an ideal indeed, but it is a lesser ideal compared to the one that Ramakrishna esposed and Vivekananda inherited from him, that is, sivajnane jivaseva. I am jiva is a description, not a realisation. I am siva (sivoham) is well-meditated realisation like I am Brahman (aham brahmasmi).5 The ideal of bhakti is reconciled with the core idea of Vedanta. This is to serve men knowing him to be the manifestation of God. This purifies the heart and accelerates the aspirants progress towards God. Vivekananda sought to create a new society, which is classless and casteless. This is the vision of VEDANTIC SOCIETY. His mission is for self knowledge (atmano moksartham), and for good of all (jagat hitaya ca). He established an organisation in his gurus name, the Ramakrishna Mission on 1st May 1897. It is serving the plague-hit Calcutta in 1899 unto JK earth-quake hit in 2005. Here service is a way of life, ANNADANA, VIDYADANA and JNANADANA being the priorities. These are activities that go beyond the dichotomous attribution of secular-religious. One could say these are secular activities and one could as well say these are religious activities. It would be apt to say that to Ramakrishnas mission, nothing was secular as he spiritualised the so-called secular activities of men. It made people conscious that to realise the self is the goal of their life. India has at present thousands of NGOs. They claim that theirs is Non-Government Organisation and its mission is to serve people; but as a matter fact they have become Non-Government Service parallel to and on almost on par with Government employment to put in some labour and earn more. It is a stupendous task to energise the millions lying inert under the pressure of domination. Vivekananda understood that this domination is due to ignorance of the potential energy within the self and that it would be dispelled by a true knowledge of the self. There is nothing more dark, deep and heavy than ignorance and there is nothing more powerful, penetrating and energizing than self-knowledge. Hence Vivekananda needed only a handful of fifteen young men in his brigade to accomplish the uphill task in hand. Give me fifteen young men and I will change the face of the country. Later on Subas Chandra Bose said a la Vivekananda, Give me blood and I will give you freedom. What is needed always at the base is service with commitment, courage and selflessness. If Socrates gave moral empowerment to Greeks and if Bacon gave intellectual empowerment to Europeans, Vivekananda gave intellectual, moral and spiritual empowerment to the whole of humanity to work for the humanity with the realisation that the whole is a unitary self. Vivekanandas work created a renaissance-like environment and gave a great an impetus to Vedantic study in the West. Scholars in Universities and the educated class began to read the Upanisads and the Bhagavadgita. William James, American psychologist and advocate of Pragmatism observed, the paragon of all monistic systems is the Vedantic philosophy of Hindustan and the paragon of Vedantic missionaries is the late Swami Vivekananda, who visited our land some years ago. We all have some ear for this monistic music. The culture that called the clarion call of Swamiji for the unity of humanity music has also this idea about music conveyed by Shakespeares King Lear: If music be the food of life, play on. And after a short while Lear cries out, Enough, no more. Swamiji was for filling the empty

6 stomachs of the hungry children of God with food before filling their minds with lessons of abstract philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, or for that matter, of any other system. James was inclined towards Swamijis thought in so far as he was talking in terms of pragmatic and Swamiji in terms of practical. James and many among us might think that both are practical and pragmatic. But there is a gulf of difference between the two. There is a sense of getting in Jamess pragmatism. A statement is true if only it is encashable in the empirical world. This getting could be egoistic or altruistic. There is only giving, no getting in Swamijis practical Vedanta. R.K. Dasgupta observes, The Ramakrishna Mission is now really a movement of peoples minds towards a spiritual and moral goal. And yet it has none of the noise and excitement we usually associate with a movementThere is a spontaneity and freedom about the movement which no other movement in human history has ever shown as its chief feature.6 Vivekanandas philosophy is not called Neo-Vedanta now (as Bhubaneswar is not called New Capital). It is no more criticised by the Western critics as life-negating and otherworldly. It is established as the philosophy of Vedanta. Western culture through English education posed three challenges before the Indian society: 1. The first challenge came from the humanistic aspect of Christian religion emphasizing mans love for man and Gods love for man, especially for the poor, the sick, and the neglected. 2. The second challenge is posed by the secular values of Western society such as freedom, equality, courage, and justice. These were in contrast to the caste-ridden Hindu society. 3. The third challenge was rational thinking and science that Western thought introduced. Swamiji was the first great leader to meet the challenges head-on by the blessings of his guru, Ramakrishna, both of whom worked out a spiritual renaissance. Ramakrishna stands for the following ideas: 1. Establishment of direct, transcendental experience as the ultimate goal and validity of religion. 2. Revalidation and purification of spiritual paths. Separated holy paths from unholy paths and introduced the idea of freedom in the choice of spiritual path everyone should follow that path which is best suited to his temperament. 3. Looked upon Hinduism as a whole, did not associated himself with any particular sect. The tension between the Personal God and the Impersonal Absolute is dissolved. According to S.C. Chatterjee, He satisfies the religious need for God who is also Absolute. 4. His quest was not confined within the bounds of Hinduism. He reached out to other religions and was for harmony of religions. Swamiji perceived that if Vedanta was to become a universal philosophy-cum-way of life, it should fulfill three main conditions:

7 1. The timeless, universal, philosophical principles must be separated from the anachronistic, narrow, institutional, mythological elements of the parental religious matrix. 2. The universal principles are to be expressed in the modern idiom adapted to the spirit of the modern age. 3. It should be practicable, applicable in all walks of life, and should produce beneficial results. Practical religion is not identifying myself with my Self. Swamiji says in forceful words: You may have built two thousand hospitals, built fifty thousand roads, and yet what of that if you have not realised that you are the spirit?...You must see God. The spirit must be realized, and that is practical realisationHe is the soul of our souls. See Him in your own soul. That is practical religion. That is freedomRealise yourself. That is all there is to do. Know yourself as you are infinite spirit. That is practical religion. Everything else is practical, for everything else will vanish. It is eternal7 Vivekananda declared that in the ultimate analysis, the whole universe, mental and materi al, will be fused into one.8 Historians of science a century apart admit the importance of the declaration. Amaury D. Reincourt says in his well-known book The Eyes of Shiva, From its modern awakening with Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, eastern mysticism has begun to adopt its revelations to the entirely different cultural framework provided by science and technology, without in any way sacrificing what is valid in the traditional understanding of the phenomenon itself.9 The Western mind is active and adept in inventing machines and technologies, the latest being the computer, and claims supremacy in power and pelf. Swamiji shows vigorously that the scientific and technological advancement of the West lacks value. He asserts, What is the value of all these machines and sciences? They have only one result: They spread knowledgeCivilisation is the manifestation of the divinity in man. John Henry Wright, Professor of Harvard University, who could gauge Vivekananda at first sight, said it all: THIS YOUNG MAN OF THIRTY IS MORE INTELLIGENT THAN ALL OUR PROFESSORS PUT TOGETHER. REFERENCES:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. V-10. The Story of Ramakrishna Mission: Swami Vivekanandas Vision and fulfillment, Kolkata, Advaita Ashrama, 2006, p.1038. Quoted from J.L. Nehrus The Discovery of India, Swami Ranganathananda, Eternal Values for a Changing Society, Vol. II, Bombay, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, p. 219. Op. cit., p. 254. Setting aside of duality (dvaita) is siva, observes Samkara in his commentary on Mandukya Karika, 1.29. The Story of Ramakrishna Mission, pp. 849-50. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Calcutta, Advaita Ashrama, 1989, (Henceforward CW), IV, 244-46. CW, VI, 5. New York, William Morrow & Co., 1981, p. 15.

oo Formerly, Professor of Philosophy, Utkal University, RUTAYANI, 396, Paika Nagar, Bhubaneswar-751 003, Odisha. Mail: gpdas45@gmail.com, Telefax:0674-2560000, Cell: 09437195757

SWAMI VIVEKANANDAS VISION AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

(ABSTRACT)
Ganesh Prasad Das Swami Vivekananda is the architect of Indian renaissance in its philo-socio-cultural dimension. Trodden under the feet of the Hindu Mussalman or Christian, Indians are born, as it were, to be trodden under the feet of everybody who have ambition and muscle power. Due to constant invasion and alien rule, they had lost their individuality. They are to be given back their freedom and individuality. They are to be educated. Due to political subjugation by the West in the 19th century, India faced challenges on two fronts: cultural and sociological. India met the cultural challenge by a method of dynamic synthesis. This is marked by affirmation, acceptance and inclusion, rather than by rejection, resistance and exclusion. Swami Vivekananda is a prominent leader of the process. He stands as a stable bridge between the past and the present. He seeks to abandon the rigidity and closeness of the past and accept the present changes brought in by human endeavour. Swami Vivekanandas perspective is broad - as broad as the whole world. The process that Swami Vivekananda envisioned for the purpose is first self-discovery and next self-expression. The former is laid down by the Upanisadic tradition and the latter is Swami Vivekanandas own. What is new about Vivekananda is his emphasis on work intelligent and co-operative team work for the betterment of the lives of teeming millions. Religion is not static piety. It is dynamic spirituality with its expression of renunciation and service. Swami Vivekananda put forward the idea of universal religion. It could be said that universal religion is one which is structured out of universals. As Plato perceived it, universals are purged of the specificities and limitations of particulars and particulars participate in the universals. The universal religion involves no specificities and does not suffer from limitations of particulars. The more spiritual a man is, the more universal he is. It is only such men that can realise the urge of the modern age for a universal society. Vedanta had so far been preaching the ideal of renunciation. Swami Vivekananda added the ideal of service to it. Renunciation and service, he pronounced, are the twin ideals of India. It is not renunciation of the world, but renunciation of the lower trivial self for the sake of manifestation of the higher self. The latter makes man to reach out for the others and feel for them. This is practical Vedanta, or Vedanta in practice, or applied Vedanta. It teaches to respect a man for being a man, not for power and pelf. It teaches to be and make. Being inspired by his master Ramakrishna, Vivekananda tried to reconcile the ideal of bhakti with the knowledge of Vedanta sivajnane jivaseva: serving men knowing him to be the manifestation of God purifies the heart and accelerates the aspirants progress towards God. He sought to create a new society, which is classless and casteless. This is the vision of VEDANTIC SOCIETY. His mission is for self knowledge ( atmano moksartham), and for good of all (jagat hitaya ca). He established an organisation in his gurus name, the Ramakrishna Mission on 1st May 1897. Here service is a way of life, ANNADANA, VIDYADANA and JNANADANA being the priorities. Vivekananda declared that in the ultimate analysis, the whole universe, mental and material, will be fused into one. Historians of science a century apart admit the importance of the declaration. The Western mind is active and adept in inventing machines and technologies, the latest being the computer, and claims supremacy in power and pelf. Swamiji shows vigorously that the scientific and technological advancement of the West lacks value. He asserts, What is the value of all these machines and sciences? They have only one result: They spread knowledgeCivilisation is the manifestation of the divinity in man. Pro fessor John Henry Wright says it all about the Western assessment of Vivekananda THIS YOUNG MAN OF THIRTY IS MORE INTELLIGENT THAN ALL OUR PROFESSORS PUT TOGETHER. <><><><><>