Remembering Vivekananda: spirit of
the Nation
G.P.BAROOWAH
Vivekananda was not only a monk who brought spiritualism to the reach of millions
of people of the world but was a social reformer who inspired the youth for
nation building. He advised youth to “Arise awake and stop not till the goal is
reached”.
Swami
Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendra Nath Datta , was born
in an affluent family of Kolkata on 12 January 1863. Naren”s nick name was
“Belay”. His father Vishwanath Datta, was a successful attorney with interests
in a wide range of subjects, and his mother, Bhuvaneswari Devi, was endowed
with deep devotion with strong character . A precocious boy, Narendra excelled
in music, gymnastics and studies Born with a yogic temperament, he used to
practice meditation even from his boyhood, and was associated with Brahmo
Movement for some time where he used to sing sometime. Later he took to
Monastic life and was known as Swami Vivekananda. He was the first Monk of the
country to bring home the Divinity, from the exclusive preserve of Sanyasis at Himalayas, to the world of humanity. He declared
Godliness could be found in serving the humanity of the nation.
“So long as the millions die in hunger and ignorance, I hold
every man a traitor who having been educated at their expenses but pays not the
least heed to them!”, Vivekananda
declared.
Vivekananda advised his disciple, "Take up one idea. Make
that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and 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 the way
great spiritual giants are produced." After delivering his speech only for
six minutes at Parliament of Religion in Chicago, Vivekananda had become a cult
figure. The New York Herald wrote “He is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the
Parliament of Religion. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send
missionaries to this learned nation”.
Once Sri Aurobindo declared that the
going forth of Swami Vivekananda marked out by the Master as the heroic soul
destined to take the world between his two hands and change it, was the first
visible sign to the world that India
was awake not only to survive but to
conquer. Once the soul of nation was awake in religion, it was only a matter of
time and opportunity for it to throw on all spiritual and intellectual activities
in national existence and take possession of them. (In Sri Aurobindo Vol.
2(1972) page 33.
The same Vivekananda at the threshold of youth had to pass through a period
of spiritual crisis when he was assailed by doubts about the existence of
God. It was at that time he first heard about Sri Ramakrishna from one of
his English professors at college. One day in November 1881, Narendra
went to meet Sri Ramakrishna who was staying at the Kali Temple
in
Dakshineshwar. He straightaway asked the Master a question which
he had put to several others but had received no satisfactory answer: “Sir,
have you seen God?” Without a moment’s hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna
replied: “Yes, I have. I see Him as clearly as I see you, only in a much intense
sense.”
Apart from removing doubts from the mind of Narendra, Sri Ramakrishna won
him over through his pure, unselfish love. Thus began a guru-disciple
relationship which is quite unique in the history of spiritual masters.
Narendra now became a frequent visitor to Dakshineshwar and, under the guidance
of the Master, made rapid strides on the spiritual path. . The same
Vivekananda who was searching for God later realized that God is within the
humanity and he advised his disciple to consider humanity as the embodiment of
God. His words were “Shiva Rupe Jiba Puja”(Worship human as the embodiment of
God)
After the death of his father while his family members faced
poverty Vivekananda tried for
a job
for the
sustenance of family. He even
asked his master to help him get a job. The master told him
that he
cannot ask Goddess Ma ,
rather
Narendranath
should
beg for himself for
the divine
blessing. He
went to temple
but could not ask .The young disciples nursed
the Master with devoted care when he was inflicted with Cancer. In spite
of poverty at home and inability to find a job for himself
Narendra joined the group of
would be sanyasis
as its leader.
Vivekananda’s greatest teaching was that the history of the world is the
history of a few men who had faith in themselves. As soon as a man or a nation
loses faith in himself or itself, death comes. Believe first in yourself, and
then in God, he added.
Sri Ramakrishna instilled in these young men the spirit of renunciation and
brotherly love for one another. One day he distributed ochre robes among
them and sent them out to beg food. In this way he himself laid the
foundation for a new monastic order. He gave specific instructions to
Narendra about the formation of the new monastic Order. In the small
hours of 16 August 1886 Sri Ramakrishna gave up his mortal body.
After the Master’s passing, fifteen of his young disciples (one more joined
them later) began to live together in a dilapidated building at Baranagar in North Kolkata. Under the leadership of Narendra,
they formed a new monastic brotherhood, and in 1887 they took the formal vows
of sannyasa, thereby assuming new names. Narendra now became Swami
Vivekananda (although this name was actually assumed much later.)
Romaine Rolland the great French thinker and philosopher who attended the
Parliament of Religion in Chicago
wrote “The effect of those mighty words (of Vivekananda) was immense. Over the
heads of the official representative of the Parliament they were addressed to
all and appealed to outside thought. Vivekananda fame at once spread abroad and
India
as a whole benefited…”.(The life of Vivekananda pp 36-40 )
After establishing the new monastic order, Vivekananda heard the inner call
for a greater mission in his life. While most of the followers of Sri
Ramakrishna thought of him in relation to their own personal lives, Vivekananda
thought of the Master in relation to India and the rest of the world In the
middle of 1890, after receiving the blessings of Sri Sarada Devi, the divine
consort of Sri Ramakrishna, known to the world as Holy Mother, who was then
staying in Kolkata, Swamiji left Baranagar Math and embarked on a long journey
of exploration and discovery of India.
During his travels all over India,
Swami Vivekananda was deeply moved to see the appalling poverty and
backwardness of the masses. He was the first religious leader in India to understand and openly declare that the
real cause of India’s
downfall was the neglect of the masses. The immediate need was to provide
food and other bare necessities of life to the hungry millions. For this
they should be taught improved methods of agriculture, village industries,
etc. It was in this context that Vivekananda grasped the crux of the
problem of poverty in India
(which had escaped the attention of social reformers of his days): owing to
centuries of oppression, the downtrodden masses had lost faith in their
capacity to improve their lot. It was first of all necessary to infuse
into their minds faith in themselves. For this they needed a life-giving,
inspiring message. Swamiji found this message in the principle of the
Atman, the doctrine of the potential divinity of the soul, taught in Vedanta,
the ancient system of religious philosophy of India. He felt that
the masses needed two kinds of
knowledge: secular knowledge to improve their economic condition, and
spiritual knowledge to infuse in them faith in themselves and strengthen their
moral sense. The next question was, how to spread these two kinds of
knowledge among the masses? Through education – this was the answer that
Swamiji found.
Swamiji
found
that purity, patience and perseverance are the three essentials to
success and above all love. He advised youth to be pure, staunch, and sincere
to the backbone and everything else will fall in place, he added.
It was when these ideas were taking shape in his mind in the course of his
wanderings that Swami Vivekananda heard about the World’s Parliament of
Religions to be held in Chicago
in 1893. His friends and admirers in India wanted him to attend the
Parliament. He too felt that the Parliament would provide the right forum
to present his Master’s message to the world, and so he decided to go to America.
Another reason which prompted Swamiji to go to America was to seek financial help
for his project of uplifting the masses.
Swamiji, however, wanted to have an inner certitude and divine call
regarding his mission. Both of these he got while he sat in deep
meditation on the rock-island at Kanyakumari. With the funds partly
collected by his Chennai disciples and partly provided by the Raja of Khetri,
Swami Vivekananda left for America
from Mumbai on 31 May 1893.
The Parliament of Religions and after
His speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in September 1893
made him famous as an ‘orator by divine right’ and as a ‘Messenger of Indian
wisdom to the Western world’. After the Parliament, Swamiji spent nearly
three and a half years spreading Vedanta as lived and taught by Sri
Ramakrishna, mostly in the eastern parts of USA
and also in London.
Vivekananda
declared in the parliament
of religion on 11
th September 1993 “I am proud to belong to a
religion which has taught
the world both
tolerance and universal
acceptance. We
believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.
I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the
refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.”, he declared.
Awakening his countrymen
He returned to India
in January 1897. In response to the enthusiastic welcome that he received
everywhere, he delivered a series of lectures in different parts of India,
which created a great stir all over the country. Through these inspiring
and profoundly significant lectures Swamiji attempted to do the following:
- to rouse the religious
consciousness of the people and create in them pride in their cultural
heritage;
- to bring about unification of
Hinduism by pointing out the common bases of its sects;
- to focus the attention of
educated people on the plight of the downtrodden masses, and to expound
his plan for their uplift by the application of the principles of
Practical Vedanta.
Founding of Ramakrishna Mission
Soon after his return to Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda accomplished another
important task of his mission on earth. He founded on
1 May 1897 a
unique type of organization known as Ramakrishna Mission, in which monks and
lay people would jointly undertake propagation of Practical Vedanta, and
various forms of social service, such as running hospitals, schools, colleges, hostels,
rural development centres etc, and conducting massive relief and rehabilitation
work for victims of earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities, in different
parts of India and other countries.
In early 1898 Swami Vivekananda acquired a big plot of land on the western
bank of the Ganga at a place called Belur to have a permanent abode for the
monastery and monastic Order originally started at Baranagar, and got it
registered as Ramakrishna Math after a couple of years. Here Swamiji
established a new, universal pattern of monastic life which adapts ancient
monastic ideals to the conditions of modern life, which gives equal importance
to personal illumination and social service, and which is open to all men
without any distinction of religion, race or caste.
It may be mentioned here that in the West many people were influenced by
Swami Vivekananda’s life and message. Some of them became his disciples
or devoted friends. Among them the names of
Margaret Noble (later
known as
Sister Nivedita),
Captain and Mrs Sevier, Josephine McLeod
and
Sara Ole Bull, deserve special mention. Nivedita dedicated her
life to educating girls in Kolkata. Swamiji had many Indian disciples
also, some of whom joined Ramakrishna Math and became sannyasins.
Last Days
In June 1899 he went to the West on a second visit. This time he spent
most of his time in the West coast of USA. After delivering many
lectures there, he returned to Belur Math in December 1900. The rest of
his life was spent in India,
inspiring and guiding people, both monastic and lay. Incessant work,
especially giving lectures and inspiring people, told upon Swamiji’s
health. His health deteriorated and the end came quietly on the night of
4
July 1902. Before his Mahasamadhi he had written to a Western follower:
“It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body, to cast it off
like a worn out garment. But I shall not cease to work. I shall
inspire men everywhere until the whole world shall know that it is one with
God.”
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