Narendranath Datta / Swami Vivekananda.
...
Today is the 144th Birth Anniversary of Narendranath Datta, who, in his later years, was known as Swami Vivekananda.
Happy Birthday, Naren ! You made yourself unforgettable.
:)
Narendranath Datta / Swami Vivekananda
India alone has that Light : Vivekananda
It is in the fitness of things that the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is being celebrated as “Youth Day” today. To come by another example of his youthful energy, appearance, words, thoughts and deeds is difficult. He lived precisely for 39 years, five months and 23 days from 12 January, 1863. Conspicuously contributing to the cause of humanity in this brief space, he had left an indelible mark for an intimate remembrance. His advent and departure from the world was like a hero, winning the hearts and minds of millions.
Swamiji grappled with hunger, poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, untouchability, human rights abuse, women’s oppression, gender discrimination, communal disharmony, racial hatred, cultural degradation and other contentious problems during his time. He applied an aggressive spiritual means to deal with these social evils, since he was keen to “start a new thing, entirely new”. He wrote: “My ideal indeed can be put into a few works and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life.”His crusade against injustice and struggle for truth had earned him the sobriquet “Cyclonic Monk” abroad.
Vivekananda’s association with his guru, Sri Ramakrishna, was for almost six years from the age of 18. It reformed him and determined his future. Sri Ramakrishna taught him that education was the secret of life and liberty its goal. He removed his misgivings regarding God and religion. Bringing about a catharsis, Sri Ramakrishna unfolded to him:
- Religion is not a matter of sectarian fuss;
- God exists and could be realised, if desired;
- Sacrament of marriage and monastic vow are not contradictory, if observed singlemindedly for a spiritual purpose;
- There is essentially no conflict between science and spirituality;
- An empty stomach is no good for religion and
- Renunciation is not a world-denying, dry exercise but a relentless service of the afflicted with a spiritual motive.
Armed with wisdom and experience, Vivekananda found out that Sri Ramakrishna was a repository of “sympathy for man in bondage”. He did not perpetuate his name so much as he chose to propagate the principle Sri Ramakrishna embodied. He believed that it was necessary for global peace and stability. Explaining it, he said: “The eternal, the infinite, the omnipresent, the omniscient, is a principle, not a person. You, 1, and everyone are but embodiments of that principle; and the more this infinite principle is embodied in a person, the greater is he, and all in the end will be the perfect embodiment of that, and thus all will be one, as they are now essentially. This is all there is of religion, and the practice is through this oneness that is love.”
Swamiji had thus logically presented a universal form of religion and spirituality acceptable to all, cutting across creed, colour and country. The first thing Vivekananda attempted after his Master’s passing was to organise a few unselfish, sincere and courageous young men and women, who would go forward “rolling like irresistible waves over India, bringing comfort, morality, religion and education to the doors of the meanest and the most downtrodden”.
Its urge propelled him from pillar to post, and, at times, even caused him agony, as he initially failed to accomplish it forthwith. He expected a passionate participation of the youth in the work of rebuilding the nation. When he later got a band of young people, he “set in motion a machinery” to spread “noble ideas”.
Given the opportunity and assistance, he thought, men and women would uniformly progress. He wanted that their individuality should never be disturbed while involving them in activities. “Liberty of thought and action”, in his view, “is the only condition of life, of growth and well-being. When it does not exist, the man, the race, the nation must go down”.
Swamiji was particular about women’s welfare. He considered the trampling upon women for ages the ultimate cause of our downfall. He wasn’t pulling any punches while condemning their tormentors. No country could prosper holding women “in dishonour”, was his opinion. “It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.” For inauguration of women’s power, he held, Sri Ramakrishna preached the motherhood of God and accepted a woman as his spiritual teacher, besides showing much honour and affection to his wife Sarada Devi.
Swamiji called child marriage a “devilish custom”. With a view to stopping little girls being married, he commanded his follower: “Directly, you stop the marriage of boys, that of girls will stop itself.”
He wanted to weed out the hindrances from the way of their physical, intellectual and spiritual growth. He asked men not to meddle in their affairs for their unimpeded advancement. Swamiji didn’t find any point in blaming religion. He observed everywhere that “the evils exist not with, but against, religion”. Often being used with ulterior motives, it received an ugly look. Raising the masses, he tried to give back the “lost individuality” of the nation.
“The Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian, all have trampled them underfoot.” It is not necessary that all should have the same faith, same food and dress. True religion does not restrict one to apply one’s own preferences regarding these matters. He spoke of a synthetic religion with a novelty, of which his Master was a vibrant personification. He made it simple, popular and, at the same time, suited to the “highest minds”.
He said: “I want to give them dry, hard reason, softened in the sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily digest it.” He therefore boils down theories to describe religion as “the manifestation of divinity already in man”. The more one does so, the more one demonstrates goodness.
A Vedantic transcendentalist, Vivekananda was, nevertheless, conscious of the fact that the world “would not be the world” if it were good. He was aware of its essential nature. So he said in a personal letter, ‘“A good world”, “a happy world” and “social progress” are all terms equally intelligible with “hot ice” or “dark light”.’ The truth is that there can be no progress without “corresponding digression”. Evils were in all “periods of history” ~ in one, one set and in another, another.
“In the Middle Ages, there were more robbers, now more cheats.” But he was sure that very few would ever know this. The notion of “manifesting the infinite in finite matter” is therefore foolish and trying to “escape” from its “delusion” is wise and the “beginning of religion”.
In his spiritual mood, Swamiji would sometimes give vent to his feelings. “These works, and doing good etc, are just a little exercise to cleanse the mind. I had enough of it. This world will be the world ever and always. What we are, so we see it.”
Swamiji could glide with ease from one subject to another like an intellectual amphibian, as it were. He thus made non-dualism “living~poetic~in everyday life”, intricate mythology morally concrete and “bewildering Yogi-ism”, “the most scientific and practical psychology”. He had a mind of “writing something big on the Vedanta philosophy”, employing “the Advatic idea, then the Vishishtadvaitic, and the Dvaitic from the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas”.
His personality and learning attracted many a philosopher, academician, scientist, artist, industrialist, philanthropist and statesman from all over the globe. He had convinced the cynics by his pure character that he “did not care the least” about lust and lucre. No wonder then that he had friendships with famous people such as Prof F Max Mueller, Prof P Duessen, Prof William James, Nicholas Tesla, Kakuso Okakura, Sara Bernhardt, Emma Calve, John D Rockefeller (Sr) and a host of others from the West.
At home, he became a heartthrob of the youths and a pathfinder to the leaders. His celebrity status and flamboyance, however, did not detach him from the masses in distress; his feeling for them was poignant. He wouldn’t cease to remind us: “No amount of politics would be of any avail until the masses in India are once more well-educated, well-fed and well cared for.”
One of his Western disciples noticed that by simply pronouncing the word “India”, he could instantaneously rouse love for India in others. The “magic power” of its sound would make “her people, her history, architecture, her manners and customs, her rivers, mountains, plains, her culture, her great spiritual concepts, her scriptures” living to them. So the appellation “Patriot Prophet” given him by his freedom fighter and Communist ideologue brother, Bhupendranath Datta, is also appropriate.
He loved India because he believed that the spiritual and cultural heritage of India was indispensable for the survival of the world civilisation.
Swamiji proclaimed: “The whole world requires Light. It is expectant! India alone has that Light, not in magic, mummeries and charlatanism, but in the teaching of the glories of the spirit of real religion ~ of the highest spiritual truth. That is why the Lord has preserved the race through all its vicissitudes unto the present day.”
Freedom from all physical and psychological slavery was his mantra. He inspired innumerable young people to lay their lives for emancipation of India from British yoke. His invectives against its imperialist occupation and socio-economic persecution generated zero tolerance among them about the Raj.
He incidentally mentioned that he was a socialist. But he did not regard socialism “a perfect system”. As it was never tried earlier, he felt it should be given a try, at least for the sake of “novelty”. Education, to him, was a comprehensive remedy of the sufferings of the poor, the destitute, the ignorant peasant and the labouring class.
Acquiring training, they must know to teach themselves, to bring prosperity in their societies. He desired that they should have no sense of dependence, while trying to stand on their own feet. Swamiji visited the West with a determination to uphold the glory of India, which was hardly purposefully done before him. The 1893 Parliament of Religions of Chicago he attended, brought India’s “people and their thought prominently before the world”. There was still a greater purpose sneaking around his mind.
He wanted to show that there was nothing for us to feel diffident about. India was not less compared to any other country. For spiritual knowledge, every other nation has to approach her, whether she likes it or not. He gave a jolt to the somnolent nation from outside and infused confidence in us. He said: “One blow struck outside of India is equal to hundred thousand struck within.”
Vivekananda was a sannyasin; and he defined sannyasa as the love of death. Dying in harness, in full awareness, he gave it credibility. He says: “… I shall very briefly characterise it as ‘the love of death’. Worldly people love life. The sannyasin is to love death. Are we to commit suicide then? Far from it. For suicides are not lovers of death... What is the love of death then? We must die, that is certain; let us die then for a good cause. Let all our actions ~ eating, drinking, and everything that we do ~ tend towards the sacrifice of our self. You nourish the body by eating. What good is there in doing that if you do not hold it as a sacrifice to the well-being of others?
“You nourish your minds by reading books. There is no good in doing that unless you hold it also as a sacrifice to the whole world. For the whole world is one… ”
Even a trivial suggestion of binding was awful to Swamiji. He said: “I have given up the bondage of iron, the family tie ~ I am not to take up the golden chain of religious brotherhood. I am free, must always be free. I wish everyone to be free ~ free as the air.”
The body is the worst tyranny on the soul. To be free of it is the greatest joy of a sannyasin. One of his brother disciples saw him in a dream in the night of his demise, saying, “Shoshi! Shoshi! I have spat out the body!” This was on the 4th of July, 1902. Swamiji is unforgettable, for he had made a real dent on our nation, affectionately touching every aspect of our life. By God-realisation, he understood expansion of the heart, which, he believed, he had surely undergone.
As a result, he all the time felt the pains of the miserable everywhere. His sympathy for us knew no bounds. So, whatever he did would have a bearing on many generations ahead. He said: “The road to the Good is the roughest and steepest in the universe. It is a wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many fall. Character is to be established through a thousand stumbles.”
We ought to remember this with every step we take to pursue our goal in life. He was a pragmatist par excellence. In her reminiscence, Sister Christine, conclusively writes: “Blessed is the country in which he was born, blessed are they who lived on this earth at the same time, and blessed, thrice blessed are the few who sat at his feet.”
(The author is a monk at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar.)
Today is the 144th Birth Anniversary of Narendranath Datta, who, in his later years, was known as Swami Vivekananda.
Happy Birthday, Naren ! You made yourself unforgettable.
:)
Narendranath Datta / Swami Vivekananda
India alone has that Light : Vivekananda
It is in the fitness of things that the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is being celebrated as “Youth Day” today. To come by another example of his youthful energy, appearance, words, thoughts and deeds is difficult. He lived precisely for 39 years, five months and 23 days from 12 January, 1863. Conspicuously contributing to the cause of humanity in this brief space, he had left an indelible mark for an intimate remembrance. His advent and departure from the world was like a hero, winning the hearts and minds of millions.
Swamiji grappled with hunger, poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, untouchability, human rights abuse, women’s oppression, gender discrimination, communal disharmony, racial hatred, cultural degradation and other contentious problems during his time. He applied an aggressive spiritual means to deal with these social evils, since he was keen to “start a new thing, entirely new”. He wrote: “My ideal indeed can be put into a few works and that is: to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life.”His crusade against injustice and struggle for truth had earned him the sobriquet “Cyclonic Monk” abroad.
Vivekananda’s association with his guru, Sri Ramakrishna, was for almost six years from the age of 18. It reformed him and determined his future. Sri Ramakrishna taught him that education was the secret of life and liberty its goal. He removed his misgivings regarding God and religion. Bringing about a catharsis, Sri Ramakrishna unfolded to him:
- Religion is not a matter of sectarian fuss;
- God exists and could be realised, if desired;
- Sacrament of marriage and monastic vow are not contradictory, if observed singlemindedly for a spiritual purpose;
- There is essentially no conflict between science and spirituality;
- An empty stomach is no good for religion and
- Renunciation is not a world-denying, dry exercise but a relentless service of the afflicted with a spiritual motive.
Armed with wisdom and experience, Vivekananda found out that Sri Ramakrishna was a repository of “sympathy for man in bondage”. He did not perpetuate his name so much as he chose to propagate the principle Sri Ramakrishna embodied. He believed that it was necessary for global peace and stability. Explaining it, he said: “The eternal, the infinite, the omnipresent, the omniscient, is a principle, not a person. You, 1, and everyone are but embodiments of that principle; and the more this infinite principle is embodied in a person, the greater is he, and all in the end will be the perfect embodiment of that, and thus all will be one, as they are now essentially. This is all there is of religion, and the practice is through this oneness that is love.”
Swamiji had thus logically presented a universal form of religion and spirituality acceptable to all, cutting across creed, colour and country. The first thing Vivekananda attempted after his Master’s passing was to organise a few unselfish, sincere and courageous young men and women, who would go forward “rolling like irresistible waves over India, bringing comfort, morality, religion and education to the doors of the meanest and the most downtrodden”.
Its urge propelled him from pillar to post, and, at times, even caused him agony, as he initially failed to accomplish it forthwith. He expected a passionate participation of the youth in the work of rebuilding the nation. When he later got a band of young people, he “set in motion a machinery” to spread “noble ideas”.
Given the opportunity and assistance, he thought, men and women would uniformly progress. He wanted that their individuality should never be disturbed while involving them in activities. “Liberty of thought and action”, in his view, “is the only condition of life, of growth and well-being. When it does not exist, the man, the race, the nation must go down”.
Swamiji was particular about women’s welfare. He considered the trampling upon women for ages the ultimate cause of our downfall. He wasn’t pulling any punches while condemning their tormentors. No country could prosper holding women “in dishonour”, was his opinion. “It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.” For inauguration of women’s power, he held, Sri Ramakrishna preached the motherhood of God and accepted a woman as his spiritual teacher, besides showing much honour and affection to his wife Sarada Devi.
Swamiji called child marriage a “devilish custom”. With a view to stopping little girls being married, he commanded his follower: “Directly, you stop the marriage of boys, that of girls will stop itself.”
He wanted to weed out the hindrances from the way of their physical, intellectual and spiritual growth. He asked men not to meddle in their affairs for their unimpeded advancement. Swamiji didn’t find any point in blaming religion. He observed everywhere that “the evils exist not with, but against, religion”. Often being used with ulterior motives, it received an ugly look. Raising the masses, he tried to give back the “lost individuality” of the nation.
“The Hindu, the Mohammedan, the Christian, all have trampled them underfoot.” It is not necessary that all should have the same faith, same food and dress. True religion does not restrict one to apply one’s own preferences regarding these matters. He spoke of a synthetic religion with a novelty, of which his Master was a vibrant personification. He made it simple, popular and, at the same time, suited to the “highest minds”.
He said: “I want to give them dry, hard reason, softened in the sweetest syrup of love and made spicy with intense work, and cooked in the kitchen of Yoga, so that even a baby can easily digest it.” He therefore boils down theories to describe religion as “the manifestation of divinity already in man”. The more one does so, the more one demonstrates goodness.
A Vedantic transcendentalist, Vivekananda was, nevertheless, conscious of the fact that the world “would not be the world” if it were good. He was aware of its essential nature. So he said in a personal letter, ‘“A good world”, “a happy world” and “social progress” are all terms equally intelligible with “hot ice” or “dark light”.’ The truth is that there can be no progress without “corresponding digression”. Evils were in all “periods of history” ~ in one, one set and in another, another.
“In the Middle Ages, there were more robbers, now more cheats.” But he was sure that very few would ever know this. The notion of “manifesting the infinite in finite matter” is therefore foolish and trying to “escape” from its “delusion” is wise and the “beginning of religion”.
In his spiritual mood, Swamiji would sometimes give vent to his feelings. “These works, and doing good etc, are just a little exercise to cleanse the mind. I had enough of it. This world will be the world ever and always. What we are, so we see it.”
Swamiji could glide with ease from one subject to another like an intellectual amphibian, as it were. He thus made non-dualism “living~poetic~in everyday life”, intricate mythology morally concrete and “bewildering Yogi-ism”, “the most scientific and practical psychology”. He had a mind of “writing something big on the Vedanta philosophy”, employing “the Advatic idea, then the Vishishtadvaitic, and the Dvaitic from the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Upanishads, and the Puranas”.
His personality and learning attracted many a philosopher, academician, scientist, artist, industrialist, philanthropist and statesman from all over the globe. He had convinced the cynics by his pure character that he “did not care the least” about lust and lucre. No wonder then that he had friendships with famous people such as Prof F Max Mueller, Prof P Duessen, Prof William James, Nicholas Tesla, Kakuso Okakura, Sara Bernhardt, Emma Calve, John D Rockefeller (Sr) and a host of others from the West.
At home, he became a heartthrob of the youths and a pathfinder to the leaders. His celebrity status and flamboyance, however, did not detach him from the masses in distress; his feeling for them was poignant. He wouldn’t cease to remind us: “No amount of politics would be of any avail until the masses in India are once more well-educated, well-fed and well cared for.”
One of his Western disciples noticed that by simply pronouncing the word “India”, he could instantaneously rouse love for India in others. The “magic power” of its sound would make “her people, her history, architecture, her manners and customs, her rivers, mountains, plains, her culture, her great spiritual concepts, her scriptures” living to them. So the appellation “Patriot Prophet” given him by his freedom fighter and Communist ideologue brother, Bhupendranath Datta, is also appropriate.
He loved India because he believed that the spiritual and cultural heritage of India was indispensable for the survival of the world civilisation.
Swamiji proclaimed: “The whole world requires Light. It is expectant! India alone has that Light, not in magic, mummeries and charlatanism, but in the teaching of the glories of the spirit of real religion ~ of the highest spiritual truth. That is why the Lord has preserved the race through all its vicissitudes unto the present day.”
Freedom from all physical and psychological slavery was his mantra. He inspired innumerable young people to lay their lives for emancipation of India from British yoke. His invectives against its imperialist occupation and socio-economic persecution generated zero tolerance among them about the Raj.
He incidentally mentioned that he was a socialist. But he did not regard socialism “a perfect system”. As it was never tried earlier, he felt it should be given a try, at least for the sake of “novelty”. Education, to him, was a comprehensive remedy of the sufferings of the poor, the destitute, the ignorant peasant and the labouring class.
Acquiring training, they must know to teach themselves, to bring prosperity in their societies. He desired that they should have no sense of dependence, while trying to stand on their own feet. Swamiji visited the West with a determination to uphold the glory of India, which was hardly purposefully done before him. The 1893 Parliament of Religions of Chicago he attended, brought India’s “people and their thought prominently before the world”. There was still a greater purpose sneaking around his mind.
He wanted to show that there was nothing for us to feel diffident about. India was not less compared to any other country. For spiritual knowledge, every other nation has to approach her, whether she likes it or not. He gave a jolt to the somnolent nation from outside and infused confidence in us. He said: “One blow struck outside of India is equal to hundred thousand struck within.”
Vivekananda was a sannyasin; and he defined sannyasa as the love of death. Dying in harness, in full awareness, he gave it credibility. He says: “… I shall very briefly characterise it as ‘the love of death’. Worldly people love life. The sannyasin is to love death. Are we to commit suicide then? Far from it. For suicides are not lovers of death... What is the love of death then? We must die, that is certain; let us die then for a good cause. Let all our actions ~ eating, drinking, and everything that we do ~ tend towards the sacrifice of our self. You nourish the body by eating. What good is there in doing that if you do not hold it as a sacrifice to the well-being of others?
“You nourish your minds by reading books. There is no good in doing that unless you hold it also as a sacrifice to the whole world. For the whole world is one… ”
Even a trivial suggestion of binding was awful to Swamiji. He said: “I have given up the bondage of iron, the family tie ~ I am not to take up the golden chain of religious brotherhood. I am free, must always be free. I wish everyone to be free ~ free as the air.”
The body is the worst tyranny on the soul. To be free of it is the greatest joy of a sannyasin. One of his brother disciples saw him in a dream in the night of his demise, saying, “Shoshi! Shoshi! I have spat out the body!” This was on the 4th of July, 1902. Swamiji is unforgettable, for he had made a real dent on our nation, affectionately touching every aspect of our life. By God-realisation, he understood expansion of the heart, which, he believed, he had surely undergone.
As a result, he all the time felt the pains of the miserable everywhere. His sympathy for us knew no bounds. So, whatever he did would have a bearing on many generations ahead. He said: “The road to the Good is the roughest and steepest in the universe. It is a wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many fall. Character is to be established through a thousand stumbles.”
We ought to remember this with every step we take to pursue our goal in life. He was a pragmatist par excellence. In her reminiscence, Sister Christine, conclusively writes: “Blessed is the country in which he was born, blessed are they who lived on this earth at the same time, and blessed, thrice blessed are the few who sat at his feet.”
(The author is a monk at Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith, Deoghar.)