On 15th January 1897, the
ship which carried Swami Vivekananda touched Colombo. He received a tumultuous
ovation from the Hindus of the island such as an emperor or a victorious
general would envy. A mighty shout of victory from the vast crowd gathered at
the harbour signaled his arrival. As the huge procession slowly passed through
triumphal arches, thousands prostrated on the ground to touch his feet. The
same scene was repeated a dozen times in South India
at as many places. The ground was thus well prepared for Swami Vivekananda to
deliver his message to the East in general and to India India
Swami Vivekananda voiced his message
to the East mainly through his lectures from Colombo to Almora and through his
inspiring letters written to, and conversations with his devotees, friends and
admirers. What is Swami Vivekananda’s message? In his own words: “to preach
unto mankind their divinity and how to make it manifest in every moment of
life.” (VII. 501). Stated differently, it boils down to two basic themes: (i)
Divinity of man and (ii) Practical Vedanta. In the context of the nation, it
means, (i) The message of self-discovery and (ii) the message of self
expression. We shall take up these two facets of Swami Vivekananda’s message
for the East, one by one.
Message of
Self-Discovery
While wandering through the length and
breadth of India as a wandering monk, Swamiji had noticed India’s poverty and
ignorance. He had also observed that due to centuries of subjugation, the
Indians had lost their self-respect and self-esteem. Britishers had dinned into
their ears incessantly that they were worth only to be slaves, their gods and
goddesses were mere imaginations, their scriptures were a mass of irrelevant
jargon and that their religion was superstitious idolatry. They had by such
persistent propaganda, brain washed the educated among the Indians into
believing that everything Indian was worthless and everything western was good.
Swami Vivekananda lamentingly commented that ‘one’s gold appears brass while
other’s brass appears as gold’. According to him, the loss of self-esteem is
the first sign of death of a nation. Hence, his first task to India India
The first thing Swami Vivekananda
pointed out was the India was the land of spirituality, the mother of all
religions of the world.“….if there is any land on earth that can lay claim to
be the punya-bhumi, to be the land to which soul on earth must come to account
for karma, the land to which every soul that is wandering its way god ward
towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above
all, the land of introspection, and of spirituality- it is India” and again
“this is the ancient land where wisdom made its home before it went into any
other country. Here is the same India
World’s debt in
India
Speaking in the same strain, Swamiji
said that the world owes to India immense debt. India Greece
did not exist, when Rome
Religion- the
soul of India
In the process of self-discovery, it
was necessary to learn that neither politics, nor commerce, nor military power
was the goal, or the soul of India. Religion had been, and will always be the
soul of India , the raison
d’etre of India India
Vedanta
But what did Swamiji mean by religion?
It was Vedanta. In his various lectures delivered in India India
Sages in India
The scriptures of the Hindus, the
Vedas and perfectly impersonal, and yet India has produced innumerable saints
and prophets as the exemplifiers of those eternal principles of the scriptures.
As a part of the message of self-discovery, Swamiji in his lecture “Sages in India ” took up important prophets of India Madras address, Swamiji wrote,
“Will she (India
It is obvious that this message of
self-discovery was quickly assimilated by the Indian masses. As a matter of
fact, the Hindus were infused with self-confidence, even by the news of
Swamiji’s succession in America
India’s drawbacks
While pointing out the glories of the
past, Swami Vivekananda did not fail to point out the defects of Indians.
“Jealousy in the bane of our national character, natural to slaves.” He said,
“Even the Lord with all his power could do nothing on account of this
jealousy.” Again, he said: “We Indians suffer from a great defect, viz. we
cannot make a permanent organization- and the reason is that we never like to
share power with others, and never think of what will come after we are gone.”
(VIII. 456-57).
Another cause for failure of Indians
was, according to Swamiji, the lack of inspiring leadership on the one hand and
lack of obedience on the other. “A captain must sacrifice his head!” If you can
lay down your life for a cause, then only you can be a leader. But we all want
to be leaders without making the necessary sacrifice. And the result is zero-
nobody listens to us.” (VII 326) “Learn obedience first,” Swamiji said, “Among
the Western nations, with such a high spirit of independence, the spirit of
obedience is equally strong. We are all of us self-important, which never
produces any work. Great enterprise, boundless courage, tremendous energy and
above all, perfect obedience,- these are the only traits that lead to
individual and national regeneration. These traits are altogether lacking in
us.” (VI, 349)
Swamiji was also critical of
priest-craft. According to him priests and tyranny go hand in hand. They
perpetuate superstition in the name of religion and encourage privilege based
caste system.
Message of
Self-Expression
The second part of Swami Vivekananda’s
message to the East pertains to the means of self-expression i.e. how to
manifest the glory and potentiality of the nation. If India India
Spiritual
regeneration of India
Swamiji was of the opinion that before
flooding the nation with social and political ideas, the country must be
deluged with spiritual ideas. “India India India India
India must learn
material sciences from the West
While it is important for India not
only to survive but to prosper for the spiritual welfare of the world, it was
equally important that India should learn material sciences from the West.
Swamiji was thoroughly convinced that “no individual or nation can live by
holding itself apart from the community of others, and whenever such attempt
has been made under false ideas of greatness, policy or holiness the result has
been disastrous to the secluding one.” Swamiji wanted to combine material
progress with India India
Man-making
After returning from the West, when Swami Vivekananda was
delivering his rousing call to the nation, someone asked him why did he not try
for political freedom of India. The reply which Swamiji gave was significant.
He said that it was easy to gain freedom, but where are the men who would
safeguard that freedom? He therefore decided to found centres and institutions
for man- making. Speaking to his disciples at Belur Math, Swami Vivekananda
said: “… the aim of this institution is to make men. You must not merely learn
what the Rishis taught. Those Rishis are gone and their opinions are also gone
with them. You must be Rishis yourselves. You are also men as much as the
greatest men that were ever born- even our incarnations. …. You must stand on
your own feet. You must have this new method- the method of man-making. The
true man is he who is strong as strength itself and yet possesses a woman’s
heart. You must feel for the millions of beings around you, and yet you must be
strong and inflexible and you must also possess obedience…” (III 447-48).
“Man is man so long as he is struggling to rise above
nature, and this nature is both internal and external… and if we read the
history of nations between lines, we shall always find that the rise of a
nation comes with an increase in the number of such men; ” (II, 64065) Side by
side is the message of strength and self-confidence, which echoes through every
page of Swami Vivekananda’s works. “Say, his misery that I am suffering is of
my own doing, and that very thing proves that it will have to be undone by me
alone.” That which I created, I can demolish… therefore stand up, be bold, be
strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders, and know that you
are the creator or your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is
within yourselves”. (II 225) “Whatever you think that you will be. If you think
yourselves weak, weak you will be; If you think yourselves strong, strong you
will be” (III 130) Swamiji had noticed that many young men who came to him in India
Education
According to Swami Vivekananda, “Education is the
manifestation of the perfection already in man” (IV, 358). Defined thus
education becomes an important means of self-expression, of manifesting the
divinity and potentialities of a person, society or the nation. As a matter of
act, Swamiji laid the greatest stress on education in his scheme of national
regeneration. “Education, education, education alone! Travelling through many
cities of Europe and observing in them the
comforts and education of even the poor people, there was brought to my mind
the state of our own poor people, and I used to shed tears. What made the
difference? Education was the answer I got.” (IV, 483). But what type of
education Swamiji wanted? “To me the very essence of education is concentration
of mind, not collecting facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had
any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the
power of concentration and detachment and then with a perfect instrument I
could collect facts at will” (VI, 38-39). “Real education is that which enables
one to stand on his own legs” (VII, 147-48). “Education is not the amount of
information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested all
your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character making
assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your
life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a
whole library” (III, 302). “The only service to be done for our lower classes
is to give them education, to develop their lost individuality…. give them
ideas- that is the only help they require, and then the rest must follow as the
effect”. (IV, 362-63).
The three pillars of proper education, according to Swami
Vivekananda, are Brahmacharya, shraddha
and concentration. “…. simply by the observance of strict brahmacharya (continence) all learning can be mastered in a very
short time, one has an unfailing memory of what one hears and know but once”
(VII, 224). “What we want is this shraddha … what makes the difference
between man and man is the difference in this shraddha and nothing else. What makes one man great and another
weak and low is this shraddha” (III,
319).
Renunciation
and Service
One of the important parts of Swami Vivekananda’s message
to India was the clear enunciation of national ideals. “The national ideals of India
Uplift
of the masses
The most important part of Swami Vivekananda’s message to
the east, however, was his plea and plan for the uplift of the masses. He
considered the neglect of the masses for centuries a great national sin which
is one of the causes of India India India
But what was the plan of Swami Vivekananda for the uplift
of these downtrodden masses? In one of his letters Swamiji wrote: “In view of
all this, especially of the poverty and ignorance, I had no sleep. At Cape Common
Uplift
of Women
As has been pointed out, the trampling on the women and
grinding the masses were the two great national evils according to Swami
Vivekananda. Hence to his eastern followers he distinctly gave the command to
raise them first. Since in atman, there is no sex distinction, there must not
be, in principle any difference in privileges enjoyed by men and women. And yet
in India India
After enunciating the ideal, Swamiji gave clear methods of
putting them into practice- of raising the conditions of the women in India.
Swamiji believed that reform was always self-reform. He said that men had no
right to interfere in the affairs of the women. Our part of the duty lies in
imparting true education as a result of which they will be able to solve their
own problem. “Liberty
Thus Swamiji proposed the remedy of education, an education
which is religion-based and strength giving as the solution of women’s problem.
Swamiji told that women must received education of religion, art, science,
history and the purans, house-keeping and the art and duties of home-life,
cooking, sewing, hygiene plus the principles that make for the development of
an ideal character, and training in ethical and spiritual life. (VI, 493-94).
Swamiji wanted women’s math for the training of all renouncing sannyasinis who
will work for the salvation of their soul and the welfare of the world. He
inspired Sister Nivedita to come to India
Conclusion
Swami Vivekananda was a world-teacher, a Yugacharya. He had
incarnated for the welfare of the whole world empowered with divine authority
and power. His message was not for a particular nation or race. His message was
for the whole world. But he formulated it according to the needs of the time,
place and person. Hence we find difference between his message to the West and
that to the East. The main thrust of his message to the East is on driving away
the inertia of the Indians and to rouse them to activity. The means are,
recognition of one’s potential greatness, education, service, and uplift of the
masses and the women. There are various other aspects of Swamiji’s message to
the East, to which justice cannot possibly be done in this short essay. Whether
East or West Swamiji ’s message can be echoed
in his clarion call: “Arise, awake, and stop not till the Goal is reached.”
(N.B. References in the
brackets are to Volume and page no. from ‘The Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda’, Advaita Ashrama.).
