To
re-establish and propagate the worship of God as Mother was one of the most
important functions of the advent of Sri Ramakrishna, the incarnation of the
age. He was himself a great devotee of the Mother Kali and gave highest honour
to women considering them as manifestation of us Divine Mother. He always
endeavoured to instill into his disciples these ideals viz. worship of God as
Mother and seeing all women as embodiments of the Divine Mother. This is why
the day Swami Vivekananda, Chief herald of his message accepted and worshipped
the Divine Mother, Sri Ramakrishna was overjoyed. Readers of Swami
Vivekananda’s biography know that initially, being a member of Brahmo-Samaj, he
was a believer in the impersonal aspect of God, and did not accept or subscribe
to the worship of a personal God with form, much less the image of a deity like
“Kali”. Compelled by financial difficulties he once approached Sri Ramakrishna
for help. Sri Ramakrishna asked him to pray to the Divine Mother, Kali, for
whatever he wanted. So the Swami went to the Kali temple and bowed and
conscious presence of the Mother and instead of asking for material gains,
prayed for renunciation, discrimination, knowledge and devotion. This event
marked the turning point in the life of Swamiji. He not only accepted the
Divine Mother, but became a perfect instrument, and one of the foremost
worshippers of the Divine Mother. Later in his life, he worshipped the various
aspects of the Mother in all possible ways and by all possible means.
FOUR-FOLD
WORSHIP:
Scriptures
describe four modes of worship. Image worship is the preliminary stage,
chanting the name of God and singing hymns is the next. Higher still is mental
worship, and union with the worshipped deity is the highest form of worship.
Swami Vivekananda had worshipped the Mother in all the four ways. In his life,
we get the special mention of three goddesses: the Mother Bhavatarini of
Dakshineswar; the Mother Kanya-Kumari of South India and the Mother Kshir-Bhavani
of Kashmir. Swamiji’s mother worship began with the acceptance of an prayer to
Mother Kali at Dakshineswar. At Kanya Kumari, he was transformed from an
unknown monk into a patriot saint and a world teacher, and his mission in life
came to a virtual end with the worship of Mother Kshir-Bhavani. It is unlikely
that he might have done elaborated worship of Mother Kanya-Kumari. But it is
well known that he performed an elaborate ritualistic worship of Mother Kshir-Bhavani
with all paraphernalia. He stayed there for a week, offered milk measuring one
maund daily and did austerities with great earnestness. He even performed
“Kumari Puja” – worship of the Divine Mother in a Virgin. Later Swamiji started
worship of Mother Durga in the image at the Belur Math, and which is being
celebrated every year since then.
Swami
Vivekananda has also done the second type of worship by composing hymns in
Sanskrit, Bengali and English in praise of the Divine Mother. His “Amba Stotra”
depicts his deep devotion, humility and child like dependence upon the Divine
Mother. In “And let Shyama Dance there” , he urges the devotee of the Mother to
set a pyre of name, fame and hope, and make the heart a burning ground of all
desires. “And let Shyama dance there”, His famous English poem, “Kali the
Mother” vividly describes the terrible aspect of the Mother.
The
Third type of worship is mental, and consists of mediation upon the chosen
deity without external aids. This Swamiji did when in Kashmir
he mediated upon the destructive aspect of the Divine Mother. He concentrated
all his attention upon the dark, the painful and the inscrutable aspect of
Reality, upon death itself, and tried to realize the Mother as instinctively in
evil, terror, sorrow and annihilation as in that which makes for sweetness and
joy, is the special contribution of Swami Vivekananda in the sphere of Mother
worship.
In
the final stage of this meditation, Swamiji had the direct realization of the
Divine Mother as Death. He had, as it were, hugged the form of death. This
highest mode of worship should more appropriately be considered the
consummation of worship.
WORSHIP OF THE
MANIFESTATIONS OF THE DIVINE MOTHER:
The
Divine Mother, the creator, preserver and destroyer of the universe manifests
in various ways in the world. Any worship cannot be considered complete if it
remains restricted to the worship of an image only and does not encompass the
Divine Mother’s various manifestations. Swami Vivekananda, apart from
worshipping the Mother as the Principle, has also worshiped four of her special manifest aspect which are (i) The
Motherland (ii) The Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi (iii) His own earthly mother,
and (iv) Women of East and West. We shall now review in short the way Swamiji
performed these worships.
WORSHIP OF THE
MOTHERLAND:
Generally
Motherland is equated with a geographically bound piece of land and is called a
Nation. But for Swamiji, she was a living, conscious entity, goddess, whom he
sometimes called a Laviathan or an ogress, having religion as its life force
and innumerable citizens as the cells of her body. Swamiji is considered a
patriot and a social worker, but it would be more appropriate to call him a
worshipper of the goddess Mother India. Serving the nation is noble, but to do
so in a spirit of worship is nobler, and is a spiritual practice superior to
image worship or even japam and meditation.
Every
worship, to be effective, must be done with faith, and according to prescribed
rules. It must consist of mantras and offering etc. and the worship of Mother
India as performed and preached by Swamiji was complete in all these details
Swami Vivekananda was once asked how he looked upon India India
What
are the mantras required for this worship? They are “Atmano mokshartham,
Jagaddhitaya Cha” , i.e, “For the Salvation of the Soul, and for the Welfare of
the world”, “Service of man as God”, “Renunciation and service are the national
ideals of India”, “Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached” etc.
Swamiji wanted every worshipper of the Mother India to chant proudly: “I am an India India ’s
god and goddesses are the pleasure garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi India is my
highest heaven, the good of India
And
the prayer to accompany the worship: “O thou Lord of Gauri, O thou the Mother
of the universe, vouchsafe manliness unto me; O, Mother of strength take away
my weakness, take away my unmanliness, and make me a Man.”
Every
ritualistic worship consists of certain preliminaries like nyasa, shuddi,
vighnopasarana etc. by which obstacles are removed and energies of the worshipper
centralized. This is followed by infusion of prana, (prana-pratishtha),
invocation of the deity, and offering the seat to Her. The actual worship is
finally performed with the help of five, ten or sixteen items called upacharas.
All these details can be traced in the worship of the Motherland also. Giving
up jealously, back-biting and priest-craft, not to follow western ideal
blindly, and obedience are the preliminaries by which obstacles in the worship
of Motherland are removed. “Jealousy is the bake of our national character”,
“We Indians suffer from a great defect viz. we cannot make a permanent
organization”. “Learn obedience first. Great enterprise, boundless courage,
tremendous energy, and above perfect obedience- these are the only traits that
lead to individual and national regeneration”, Swamiji has said. Next is
“Prana-Pratishtha” Swamiji’s unprecedented success in the parliament of
Religions, and later his fiery lectures from Colombo
After
this Swamiji wanted India
An
important condition of worship is that the worshipper must consider himself
too, divine. “Worship the divine by becoming divine”, says an Indian saying.
Swamiji repeatedly addressed Indians as “Children of immortality”, “Descendents
of ancient Rishis”, “Heirs of immortal bliss” etc., thus infusing divine
consciousness into them.
According
to Swamiji the items or upacharas by which the worship of the Motherland must
be performed are:-
i.
Material
prosperity with the help of science and technology.
ii.
Uplift
of the masses, the untouchables and the downtrodden.
iii.
Uplift
of the women.
iv.
Flooding
the nation with spiritual ideas.
v.
Character
building with the help of man making education.
In
every worship, offerings are made to the deity, which sometimes take the form
of animals sacrifice, and at the end of the worship gifts are made and
sacramental food is distributed among people. These also have their counterpart
in the worship of the Motherland. “What we want are some young men who will
renounce every thing and sacrifice their lives for their own country’s sake”. “India wants the sacrifice of her hundred
thousand that India India
WORSHIP OF THE
HOLY MOTHER SRI SARADA DEVI:
The
worship of a living personality necessarily differs from that of an image. In
the living being, for example Prana-Pratistha is not needed. However, certain
fundamentals are common in both worships. Worship can be defined as the method
or the process undertaken to please the adored diving being. To be effective,
every worship must be done with the knowledge of the divine nature of, and
devotion for, the idol or person worshipped, failing which a procedure, however
elaborate, can not even called a worship.
This
is all the more so in the case of the worship of a personality. In the worship
of the Holy Mother, Sri Sarada Devi, done by Swami Vivekananda, the essentials
of a true worship are very beautifully demonstrated, even though it is bereft
of external formalities. Swamiji was fully conscious of the divine nature of
the Holy Mother. He considered her the living goddess Durga and goddess
“Bagala” who are terrible within, with a garb of meekness outside. He had great
devotion for the Holy Mother, which found expression variously. While going to
pay obeisance to her, he would repeatedly sprinkle Ganges
water on his head to purify himself since he was going to meet her, who was the
embodiment of purity. He would always salute her by prostrating full length on
the ground. Before undertaking any important work, e.g. going abroad etc. he
always took the Holy Mother’s permission. This was not all. When, after the
passing away of Sri Ramakrishna, his remuneration as the priest was stopped, he
tried to persuade the temple authorities to continue it to be paid to the Holy
Mother, who had no other source of income. He also wanted the Cossipore Garden
House, associated with the sacred memories of the last days of Sri Ramakrishna
to be allowed to remain the residence of the Holy Mother for some time, after
the passing away of Sri Ramakrishna, so that she may not feel hurt. Among his
plan of work in India
WORSHIP OF HIS
EARTHLY MOTHER:
Swamiji’s
respect for his mother was next only to that for the Holy Mother. He was all
praise for her sprit of sacrifice, forbearance prodigious memory, and austere
life, and always gratefully acknowledged her contribution in building his
character and personality. Before he renounced and became a monk, he did his best
to keep her happy. During the days of financial crisis, after the passing away
of his father, Swamiji as young Narendranath would remain hungry and forge his
share of food so that his mother and brothers could eat what little food was
available. Later, even as a monk he went to the extent of requesting the
Maharaja of Khetri to arrange for a monthly stipend for her and asked money
from Mr. Legget to purchase a land for her. To roll on ground in front of the
goddess Kali at Kalighat as desired by his mother, to take her for pilgrimage
to East Bengal and many such incidents may be cited to show how Swamiji
worshipped his mother in thought, word and deed.
WORSHIP OF WOMEN
IN GENERAL:
The
Divine Mother, the supreme creatrix of the universe has taken the form of all
the feminine of all species. Hence to recognize the Divine Mother in all women
and to try to please them is an integral part of Mother worship, without which
it can never be considered complete. In Swami Vivekananda’s Mother worship this
aspect too has not been neglected. He was fully acquainted with the glorious
past, and the present degradation of Indian women and the reasons there of. He
wanted the condition of Indian women to improve so that once again ideal Sita,
Lakshmi Bai etc. may be born in India America
and Europe ? The worship of Shakti, the worship
of Power. Yet they worship Her ignorantly through sense-gratification. Imagine,
then, what a lot of good they will achieve who will worship Her with all purity
in a satrika Spirit, looking upon Her as their Mother”.
For
this purpose Swamiji wanted to start monasteries for women. He has provided
detailed outline of the uplift of women by giving them education. “There shall
be a girl’s school attached to this women’s Math”, Swamiji says, “in which
religions, scriptures, literature, Sanskrit, grammar and even some amount of
English should be taught. Other matters such as sewing, culinary, arts, rules
of domestic work, and upbringing of children will also be taught while jap,
worship, meditation etc. shall form an indispensable part of the teaching”. To
do this worship he had selected Sister Nivedita and trained her to be an ideal
worshipper of the Indian women. It must be mentioned here that although Swamiji
was against the corrupt form of Vamachara of the Tantras, he did not denounce
the Mother Worship of the Tantras or even the real Vamachara. The purport of
the Tantras, according to him is to worship women in the spirit of Divinity.
As
for the American women, Swamiji did not do any philanthropic works nor was
there any need for them. He, however, was full of praise for them and always
offered his worship in the form of acknowledgement of his debt to them. To his
brother-disciples he once wrote: “Nowhere in the world are women like those of
this country. How pure, independent, self-relying, and kind hearted. It is the
women who are the life and soul of this country. All learning and culture are
centered in them.”
CONCLUSION:
Mother
worship is a very charming aspect of the Advaita Vedantin monk, Swami
Vivekananda. On one hand he was a great Yogi ever merged in the consciousness
of the formless absolute; on the other hand, he was a simple, helpless child of
the Mother, fully dependent upon her. This devotion to the Divine Mother and
respect for all the women, not only adds beauty to his uncompromising, all
renouncing monastic personality, it also makes it all the more balanced, ideal
and perfect. The study of Mother worship as done by Swami Vivekananda demonstrates
that although Mother is the Primordial power, Shakti, which creates, preserves
and destroys the Universe. She also manifests in innumerable ways in the world.
It also clearly delineates that Her worship does not merely mean ritualistic
image worship but has various modes and forms which must be studied and practiced
to make the worship comprehensive.
