“They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.”
By Kanchan Banerjee
Indian society then
After long years of invasions and occupations of foreign hostile political and cultural forces, reforms in Indian social system almost stopped. Superstition and cultism entered into the society. Ritualistic, caste and untouchability -ridden masses were crying for salvation.
At that time claiming that only their viewpoint is the right and valid one there were sectarian quarrels and infightings among various schools, sects and cults within the Hindu system.
He severely criticized all forms of discrimination including untouchability in the society.
He rebuked: “We are orthodox Hindus, but we refuse entirely to identify ourselves with “Don’t- touchism”. That is not Hinduism; it is in none of our books; it is an orthodox superstition, which has interfered with national efficiency all along the line. The present religion of the Hindus is neither the path of Knowledge or Reason – it is “Don’t-touchism”.
“It is a form of mental disease. Beware! All expansion is life, all contraction is death. All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. See that you do not lose your lives in this dire irreligion of “Don’t- touchism”.
He thundered: “Looking upon all beings as your own self” – be confined to books alone? How will they grant salvation who cannot feed a hungry mouth with a crumb of bread? How will those, who become impure at the mere breath of others, purify others? ”
One of the reasons behind many of the superstitions and evil practices that crept into the society was the fact that Hindu scriptures like the Vedas and the Upanishads which are the fountain head of the wisdom of the sage tradition of India were beyond the reach of the general population due to isolation resulting from invasions and discrimination created by various social hierarchies and political manipulation by the foreign rulers.
It was Swami Vivekananda who reinterpreted those sacred scriptures in the modern idiom and put movements in motion to make those available to common people to empower them, to inspire them and to enlighten them.
He then formulated a renewed unified profile and identity to a very much disoriented, debased and confusing infighting group of various sects and cults. He identified a common foundation and a binding thread among all Hindu sects and schools and showed the unity among all.
He showed the underlying great unity, a complete vision of Dharma as mentioned within the vedic and upanishadic knowledge system: ‘Ekam sat viprahbahudhavadanti’ – One and only truth is interpreted by the learned in different ways, and this was in the context of all traditions and sects found within the spectrum of a Dharma based civilization including various Hindu philosophies and related sects.
His contribution to Indian spirituality and religion can be compared with Adi Sankaracharya, who in the 4th century CE after the tide of Buddhist thoughts which swept the land and afterwards major disorder and distortion crept into to the society, he rejuvenated Hindu dharma and Indian spirituality in general.
Later India’s great freedom leader and later the great sage Sri Aurobindo commented on this synthesis and what this Hinduism is:” India is the meeting place of the religions and among these Hinduism alone is by itself a vast and complex thing, not so much a religion as a great diversified and yet subtly unified mass of spiritual thought, realization and aspiration.”
This Hindu dharma is not based on dogma and belief systems – but on human experience and evolution of the consciousness and divine visions of innumerable rishis or sages.
Awakening the Indians
After his great success and popularity at the world parliament of religions, he instantly became very popular in the Indian sub-continent as well which comprised today’s India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Srilanka. It now appears that his first goal was to free India from the British colonial yoke, which in turn became powerful force to free many other nations in Asia and Africa. And then he established the Ramakrishna Mission in the name of his guru to spread his message of Vedanta.
His fiery speeches were like whips on the sleeping masses and redefined patriotism: “Do you feel that millions are starving today, and millions had been starving for ages? Do you feel that ignorance has come over the land like a dark cloud? Does it make you restless? Does it make you sleepless? Has it gone into your blood, coursing through your veins, becoming consonant with your heart beats? Has it made you almost mad? Are you seized with that one idea of the misery of ruin, and have you forgotten all about your name, your fame, your wives, your children, your property, even your own bodies? Have you done that? That is the first step to become a patriot, the very first step.”
Being a monk he declared in Madras , current Chennai in September 1897: ‘For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote — this, our great Mother India. Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. … What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virât? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods.’
Virtually he seeded the freedom movement and inspired two generations of leaders including Aurobindo, Gandhiji, Netaji and many others. Within exactly 50 years after that speech India became free in 1947.
Sri Aurobindo said: “August 15th is the birthday of free India. It marks for her the end of an old era, the beginning of a new age. But it has significance not only for us, but for Asia and the whole world, for it signifies the entry into the comity of nations of a new power with untold potentialities which has a great part to play in determining the political, social, cultural and spiritual future of humanity.”
While Rishi Bankim’s Vandematarm was the national awakening mantra, Vivekananda inspired and triggered the freedom movement. During this period, police used to regularly confiscate writings of Swamiji among the revolutionaries. They even tried to attack Ramkrishna Mission for distributing ‘offensive’ literature.
Sister Nivedita, Swamiji’s main disciple from Ireland constantly worked with the freedom fighters, especially Anusilan Samiti a group for armed struggle against the British rule. She even officially denounced her affiliation with Ramakrishna math so that British won’t harass Ramakrishna monks.
Mahatma Gandhi said: “I have gone through his works very thoroughly, and after having gone through them, the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold.
India’s great Freedom leader who formed Indian National Army outside of India to liberate his motherland, Netaji Subhash Bose said that Swamiji was “the spiritual father of modern nationalist movement”.
Freedom leader and the last Governor General before the departure of Britain from India, Raja Gopalachari said : “but for Vivekananda we would have lost our religion, not have gained our freedom; we owed everything to him”.
During the birth centenary of Vivekananda Pandit Nehru said in his speeches: “Swami Vivekananda influenced powerfully the minds of many in India and two or three generations of young men and women have no doubt been influenced by him. If you read Swami Vivekananda’s writings and speeches, the curious thing you will find is that they are not old [but remain ever fresh].
Swami Vivekananda was one of the great founders of the National Modern Movement of India. A great number of people who took more or less an active part in that Movement in a later date drew their inspiration from him. Directly or indirectly he has powerfully influenced the India of today.”
(this is part 3 of a 9 part series)
