Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda appeared lost her confidence in in a critical phase in out history when
India was struggling under the thralldom of the British rule and had almost lost her
confidence in her culture and civilization. He has been considered as the first, foremost and
the finest spark that rekindled the flame of Indian spiritual Renaissance. Netaji Subhas
Bose says, . . . With him religion was the inspirer of nationalism. . . .(The Indian Struggle).
Born into an aristocratic Bengali family of Calcutta on the 12th of January, 1863,
Vivekananda was inclined towards spiritualism when he came into contact with his Guru
and spiritual leader Ramakrishna Paramahansa. He learnt that all living beings were an
embodiment of the divine self; therefore, service to God could be rendered by service to
mankind.
After Ramakrishna's death (Nirvikalpa Samadhi) in 1885, Vivekananda with few of
Ramakrishnas disciples founded the first Matth: at Baranagar, which later on grew up to
be modern Belur Math.
In 1887, Narendra compiled a Bengali song anthology named Sangeet Kalpataru with
Vaishnav Charan Basak. Narendra collected and arranged most of the songs of this
compilation, but could not finish the work of the book for unfavorable circumstances.
In December 1886, the mother of Baburam invited Narendra and his other brother monks
to Antpur village. Narendra and the other aspiring monks accepted the invitation and went
to Antpur to spend few days. In Antpur, in the Christmas Eve of 1886, Narendra and eight
other disciples took formal monastic vows. They decided to live their lives as Jesus Christ
lived. Narendranath took the name "Swami Vivekananda"
Vivekananda toured the Indian subcontinent extensively as a Parivrajaka and acquired firsthand knowledge of the conditions prevailing in British India. During his journey in the south
after visiting Bangalore, he reached Kanyakumari in 1892. At Kanyakumari, Narendra
meditated on the "last bit of Indian rock" (later known as the Narendra Rock Memorial). At
Kanyakumari, Narendra had a "vision of one India" (the "Kanyakumari resolve of 1892") He
wrote; We as a nation have lost our individuality and that is the cause of all mischief in
India. We have to raise the masses.
He later travelled to the United States on the 31 st of May, 1893, representing India at the
1893 Parliament of the World Religions a the Art Institute of Chicago as part of the World's
Columbian Exposition. On this day, Vivekananda gave a brief speech representing India
and Hinduism. He began his speech with "Sisters and brothers of America! At these words,
Vivekananda received a two-minute standing ovation from the crowd of seven thousand.
Vivekananda conducted hundreds of public and private lectures and classes, disseminating
tenets of Hindu philosophy in the United States, England and Europe.
Nationalist approach and religion: Swami Vivekananda has been deemed as a true
nationalist in his thought. His teachings went a long way to uplift masses and serve the
freedom movement of India.
The view of M N Roy in this regard deserved mention. According to him, the nationalism of
Vivekananda was of spiritual imperialism. However, the very term is contradictory, as what
Vivekananda aspired for was not imperialism, but nationalism based on spiritualism.
What he quotes was: Race, religion, and government all these together make the nation.
The only common ground that we have is our sacred tradition, our religion. This is the only
common ground. And he urged masses to build the civilization on that rich podium.
There are three major features of Vivekanandas thoughts which merit attention. First, his
writings form a part of

The nationalist response to the imperialist critique of Indian civilization and history.
Secondly, within the national school he rejected an exclusively spiritual point of view and
welcomed modernization. In this he differed from many other national leaders as well as
spiritual thinkers. Thirdly, not only did he resuscitate Indias pride in her
civilization, not only did he try to combine a spiritual view with an urge for modernization,
but also very often he spoke in favor of religious pluralism, condemned casteism, and
upheld an ideal of what he called practical Vedantism.
We also find three lines of writing in his exposition of the idea of civilization. One is an
exhortation to Indians to be proud of their past civilization. Second, along with this
consciousness about ones civilization, he recommended that we should also learn from the
Western civilization. Third, he recommended a balanced middle course between a servile
surrender to the West and a blind admiration of Indias past.
Swamiji and the youth of India: Thus he has rightly been called the political monk of India.
He asked the young men of the country to be fearless and work for the glory of the nation.
He asked them as to why that forty million Englishmen were able to rule over three
hundred millions of Indians. The secret was the accumulation of will power, coordination,
and bringing them to force.
O fortunate youth, recognize this great duty. He appealed. Practice virtue, persevere
in virtue. Become established in virtue. Shine as an embodiment of noblest virtue and
heroic adherence to goodness.
He talked about the significance of creation of noble personality. It is atma-Viakasa. It
is Atma Nirmana.
Teachings and philosophies:
Vivekananda defines religion not as a creed or dogma; but as a manifestation of the
divinity that is already present in man. And thus he upheld humanity above all, and
respects human being as a spark of divinity. There is nothing narrow or sectarian, that is
what Swami preached.
He dreamt that the future of India will be bigger than its past, and with that India will have
a tremendous impact on the western world. India has existed with all its military power
and one of the oldest civilizations in the world, yet it has never conquered other nations.
However, it has engulfed nations through its ideas.
He was a Vedantist- a believer of Advaita or Monism. He had firm faith in the unity of
Godhood; and the deeper unity of all religions. Every religion had its own principles,
rituals, mythology and fundamental principles. Yet the common essence of them all had
been the same. Sectarianism, bigotry, fanaticism has got no place in religion when they
seek the same goal. In order to gain infinite universal individuality, the little personal
individuality should be sacrificed.
Upanishads or Vedanta present religion as Anubhava- an experience or realization. And
this is not second hand knowledge like theology, or mere rituals, or first-hand experience.
Vivekananda linked morality with control of the mind, seeing truth, purity and
unselfishness as traits which strengthened it.[174] He advised his followers to be holy,
unselfish
and
to
have Shraddha (faith).
Vivekananda
supported brahmacharya (celibacy),believing it the source of his physical and mental
stamina and eloquence. He emphasized that success was an outcome of focused thought
and action; in his lectures on Raja Yoga he said, "Take up one idea. Make that one idea
your life think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every

part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the
way to success that is way great spiritual giants are produced.
Thus he maintained that there is an abstract humanity which is common to all. There is a
universal religion that runs through all the religions of the world in the form of God.
Scientific Approach: Swami Vivekananda educated out people truly against the distortions
of religion, and it is truly as the -Science and technique of mans spiritual growth.
According to him Science is nothing but the confining of unity. Science has proved that
physical individuality is a delusion; and the body is one and continuously changing in the
ocean of matter in the Advaita is the necessary conclusion with other counterparts like the
soul.
View on Culture: This was also intimately linked to the political struggle for freedom. The
political struggle for freedom had evidently within it a cultural struggle which Swami
Vivekananda addressed to because he felt that the recovery of Indians confidence in their
own culture and civilization was immensely important. He was therefore one of those who
forcefully presented Indias civilization as something her people could be proud of.
Secondly, talk about Indias ancient culture and civilization in the nationalist discourse
often led to a blind glorification of the past. Vivekananda was keenly aware that to be
proud of the past is one thing, and to live in the past is quite another. That awareness was
the door to modernity without losing the Indian identity.
Thirdly, Vivekanandas emphasis on the unity of the Indian people despite differences in
religion, caste, status, class hierarchy, language and culture struck a chord common to all
nationalist thought.
Finally, Vivekananda cast a spell on nationalist minds in recommending to the youth in
particular a fearless engagement in action. This message of abhih or fearlessness was
connected with his message of practical Vedantisma philosophy of Karma-Yoga. It
appealed to almost all the nationalists though they were, in terms of doctrine, divided.
Views on West, Modernization: There is a passage in Modern India where Swamiji
expands on this idea and says that we must learn from the West. He has known very well
the positive and negative aspects of the West during his long stay in America and England.
What India needs, he says, is to combine the awareness of modernity with an awareness
of her own traditional civilization. Vivekananda upholds the tradition in his emphasis on
Indias civilizational past. At the same time he also breaks away from that tradition in
some
ways. How does he do so is an important point to bear in mind. First, the idea of religious
pluralism was not supported by all of his contemporary, nationalistic-minded intellectuals.
For instance, Tilak and many of those in the extremist faction were far from being inclusive
in their approach to the Muslim community. Vivekananda, however, believed that the
greatest treasure of wisdom that he obtained from his Master, Sri
Ramakrishna, was the idea that was encapsulated in the wordsJata mat tata path. He did
not have a vision of India being developed without the combination of all religious culture
in some form or the other. He underlined this point in his speeches in Chicago in 1893 and
said that he did not believe that there will be a fusion of all the different religions; but
important is to look at the convergence of the different paths leading to the same goal.
Thus one should pay more attention to in future is his openness to modernity. He
emphasized that we have to learn many things such as science and technology from the
West, but at the same time he was aware of the negative sides of the West. Hence he
exhorted us to strike a healthy balance between the western and the eastern civilizations
of the world.

Missionary Work: The point on which Vivekananda differed from the traditional Hindu
intellectuals was that he believed in proselytization. That is to say, he believed in
missionary work to spread the message of Hinduism. [However, the fact is, Swamiji never
believed in conversion or proselytization as he was against all religious bigotry and
fanaticism. He said emphatically at the Parliament of Religions on 27 September 1893: Do
I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid.Do I wish that the Hindu or
Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.
Hinduism was never propagated in that manner. He believed that in order to answer the
challenge of such effort to convert Indians to other religions, India too must develop its
own mission with a Hindu spirit. This was something most unusual.
The next point is that Vivekananda spoke of the need to combat caste oppression. He had
said much on this theme which is particularly referred to in the last paragraph of
Vartamana Bharata.
He believed that unless caste oppression was removed there was no possibility of uniting
the Indian people in taking up the national cause
Religious thought in India was explicitly cultural thought in the 19 th century. It was Swami
Vivekananda who imbibed a new lease of life into it. His triumph in Chicago at the
Parliament of Religions is usually regarded
as an assertion of Indias spiritual superiority. . He was not looked upon only as a spiritual
leader; he was looked upon as the flag-bearer of India, as someone who restored Indias
place of pride in the world. It also contained a political message. The other thing that is
striking in Vivekanandas writings, particularly after he came back to India, was that he
repeatedly warned his people against being vainglorious about the past. He condemned
that kind of pride which is blind to the present and the future.
This aspect has also been mentioned particularly by Nehru in his Discovery of India. He
says, here was a man who was proud of the past but did not want to live in the past.

On the 14th of July, 1902, we woke up early, taught Shukla Yajur Veda, and attained
Mahanirvana, renouncing the world. This great embodiment of spirit left the earthly abode,
yet inscribed his name in the hearts of civilizations wide across the globe.
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