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The
Social Thought of Swami Vivekananda - Part 2.
by Swami Atmajnanananda
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| RICH VS POOR (Continued
from Part 1)
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Furthermore,
if working for the betterment of the masses meant showing favoritism
toward them at the expense of the upper class, Swamiji was more
than willing to do so. He was adamant that the poor
be served first. In his "Addresses on Bhakti-Yoga",
he stated:
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The first of everything should
go to the poor; we have only a right to what remains.
The poor are God's representatives; anyone that suffers
is his representative. Without giving, he who eats and
enjoys eating, enjoys sin. (CW, IV. 10) |
| And to his brother
disciples, he wrote: |
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But our mission is for the destitute,
the poor, and the illiterate peasantry and laboring classes,
and if, after everything has been done for them first,
there is spare time, then only for the gentry. (CW, VI.
427) |
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If there is inequality in
nature, still there must be equal chance for all --
or if greater for some and for some less -- the weaker
should be given more chance than the strong. In other
words, a Brahmin is not so much in need of education
as a Chandala. If the son of a Brahmin needs one teacher,
that of a Chandala needs ten. (CW, VI. 319)
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| THE
CONDITION OF WOMEN |
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Another
great concern of Swamiji's was the condition of women,
not as an isolated social issue, but as intimately connected
with the well-being of society as a whole. He
wrote to Swami Ramakrishnananda, "There is no chance
for the welfare of the world unless the condition of
women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to
fly on only one wing." (CW, VI. 328)
| Swamiji's
attitude toward women's rights was very much the
same as his attitude toward all social questions:
help should be given only in removing the obstacles
impeding progress; education should be offered when
necessary; then "hands off". in
a lecture delivered in India, he said: |
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Liberty is
the first condition of growth. It is wrong, a thousand
times wrong, if any of you dares to say, "I
will work out the salvation of this woman or child."
I am asked again and again what I think of the woman
question. Let me answer once for all -- am I a widow
that you ask me that nonsense? Am I a woman that
you ask me that question again and again? Who are
you to solve women's problems? Are you the Lord
God that you should rule over every widow and every
woman? Hands off! They will solve their own problems.
(CW, III. 246) |
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Swami Vivekananda's great objection to the treatment
of women as second-class citizens was based on
two fundamental convictions. The first was his
firm belief that all distinctions between individuals
based on gender were, from the highest point of
view, untenable. Swamiji was convinced
that everyone was, in reality, non-different from
the one universal Self. As he wrote to his brother
disciples, "I shall not rest till I root
out this distinction of sex. Is there any sex
distinction between man and woman -- all is Atman!"
(CW, VI. 272-73)
The second reason why Swamiji
was so passionate about improving the condition
of women goes back to his old quarrel with adhikaravada.
According to the exclusive practices of adhikaravada,
women of all castes were lumped together with
Sudras and thus were denied access to the sacred
scriptures and forbidden to enjoy certain other
religious privileges, such as taking the vows
of sannyasa. Swamiji considered such treatment
neither fair nor in accordance with the authoritative
writings of Hinduism. When his disciple, Sharat
Chandra Chakravarty, referred to the religious
restrictions for women, Swamiji replied:
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In what scriptures
do you find statements that women are not
competent for knowledge and devotion? In the
period of degradation, when the priests made
the other castes incompetent for the study
of the Vedas, they deprived the women also
of their rights. Otherwise you will find that
in the Vedic or Upaniadic age, Maitreyi, Gargi,
and other ladies of revered memory have taken
the place of Rishis through their skill in
discussing about Brahman. . . Since such ideal
women were entitled to spiritual knowledge,
why shall not the women have the same privilege
now? . . . All nations have attained greatness
by paying proper respect to women. That
country and that nation which do not respect
women have never become great, nor will ever
be in the future. (CW, VII. 214-15) |
Swami Vivekananda was strongly opposed to
the restrictions on women taking the vows
of renunciation, and he had high hopes for
a women's monastic order built around the
wonderful life of Holy Mother. In fact, he
often spoke of the establishment of a monastery
for women as being of a higher priority than
one for men. As he explained to Swami Shivananda: |
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Without Shakti (Power) there
is no regeneration for the world. . . Mother
[Holy Mother] has been born to revive that
wonderful Shakti in India; and making her
the nucleus, once more will Gargis and Maitreyis
be born into the world. . . Hence it is her
Math that I want first. . . . First Mother
and Mother's daughters, then Father and Father's
sons. . . (CW, VII. 482) |
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| SWAMIJI'S
LIFE |
When we seek to discover
the forces which were most instrumental in helping shape
the life and character of Swami Vivekananda, we must
bear one fact in mind: a Swami Vivekananda is born,
not made. There can be no doubt that certain events
and people were of great importance in helping him to
manifest his innate genius and latent spirituality;
but brilliance of intellect, broadness of heart, and
spiritual excellence were all natural to Swamiji. Whether
he would have captured the hearts and minds of India
and the world at large had he never met Sri Ramakrishna
or had he never come to America at the time of the Parliament
of Religions in 1893 is another question. But it is
certain that he would have left his mark on the world
in one way or another.
| Sri Ramakrishna
recognized Swamiji's greatness at first glance.
Swamiji, then known as Narendra, described their
extraordinary first meeting in the following words: |
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I thought he would give
me some private instructions; but to my utter surprise
he began to shed profuse tears of joy as he held
my hand, and, addressing me most tenderly as one
long familiar to him, said, "Ah, you come so
late. How could you be so unkind as to keep me waiting
so long! My ears are well-nigh burnt by listening
to the profane talk of worldly people. Oh, how I
yearn to unburden my mind to one who can appreciate
my innermost experience!" Thus he went on amid
sobs. The next moment he stood before me with folded
hands and began to address me, "Lord, I know
you are that ancient sage, Nara, the Incarnation
of Narayana, born on earth to remove the miseries
of mankind," and so on. (The Life of Swami
Vivekananda, I. 76) |
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It is significant that Sri Ramakrishna addressed
the young Narendra as "Nara", for Nara
is not only the name of an ancient sage, it is
the name for Man. Swami
Vivekananda was, in a very profound sense, humanity
personified, the Supreme Spirit embodied as Man.
He identified himself with the whole of humankind,
and his life was lived as an offering to all of
humanity. Sri Ramakrishna, with his spiritual
insight, could easily see all this in the eyes
of the young Narendra and at first sight knew
that he was born with a special mission in life:
to serve mankind and help remove its suffering.
Narendra was born into an affluent and highly
respected family of northern Calcutta. His grandfather,
Durgaprasad Datta, and his father, Viswanath Datta,
represented two distinct ideals, both of which
Swamiji greatly admired. His grandfather became
an all-renouncing monk, devoting his life completely
to the search for God, and his father, through
hard work and perseverance, raised himself from
the position of a poor orphan to a wealthy attorney.
But the trait which seems to have impressed Narendra
most about his father was his great liberality.
Having grown up poor, Viswanath could easily understand
the sting of poverty and thus, was unstinting
in charity. One of his other sons was later to
write, "Extending charity to the poor and
the distressed was like a disease with him."
(The Life, I. 6)
It was from his mother, Bhuvaneswari Devi, however,
that Narendra received his religious training.
She was a simple, yet deeply pious, woman who
spent her free time in worship and reading the
great epics of India. Narendra was extremely devoted
to his mother and, even after becoming an all-renouncing
monk, looked after her welfare. When, as Swami
Vivekananda, he was unjustly criticized by the
orthodox Hindus for his behavior in America, his
one thought was of his mother. He explained to
an American friend: |
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Now I do not care what they even of my own people
say about me_except for one thing. I have an old
mother. She has suffered much all her life and in
the midst of all she could bear to give me up for
the service of God and man; but to have given up
the most beloved of her children_her hope_to live
a beastly immoral life in a far distant country,
as Mazoomdar was telling, would have simply killed
her. (CW, VII. 462) |
Towards the end of his life, Swamiji took his
aged mother with him to visit some of the holy
places of East Bengal. He explained to Mrs. Ole
Bull, "I am going to take my mother on pilgrimage.
. . This is the one great wish of a Hindu widow.
I have brought only misery to my people all my
life. I am trying to fulfill this one wish of
hers." (Vivekananda:
A Biography, p. 318)
Narendra's passion for truth
and his desire for spiritual realization ultimately
led him to the feet of Sri Ramakrishna, and it
was here that the contact between the ideal disciple
and the perfected master brought about the transformation
of the young college student into the all-renouncing,
world-conquering Swami Vivekananda. The road was
not always smooth, and guru and disciple often
engaged in battles of will and intellect, but
in the end, the metamorphosis became complete.
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| It is well-known
how Sri Ramakrishna gave unstintingly of his spiritual
treasures to his beloved disciple; but it is equally
true that he helped to broaden Narendra's already
liberal and sympathetic heart. Years after the passing
away of Sri Ramakrishna, Swamiji would credit his
guru with teaching him to feel for the poor and
to look upon all with an equal eye, regardless of
caste or creed. He wrote to the Dewan of Junagad,
"I love the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden;
I feel for the -- the Lord knows how much. . . I
have that insight through the blessings of Sri Ramakrishna."
(Letters, p. 96)
And to Swami Ramakrishnananda, he wrote: |
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From the very date that he [Sri Ramakrishna] was
born, has sprung the Satya-Yuga. Henceforth there
is an end to all sorts of distinctions, and everyone
down to the Chandala will be a sharer in the Divine
Love. The distinction between man and woman, the
literate and the illiterate, Brahmins and Chandalas
-- he lived to root out all. (CW, VI. 335) |
| And when Swamiji
was accused of being a "Shudra monk",
he replied: |
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. . . but I am not at all hurt if
they call me a Shudra. It will be a little reparation
for the tyranny of my ancestors over the poor. If
I am a Pariah, I will be all the more glad, for
I am the disciple of a man, who -- the Brahmin of
Brahmins --wanted to cleanse the house of a Pariah
. . . And this man [Sri Ramakrishna] woke up in
the dead of night, entered surreptitiously the house
of this Pariah, cleansed his latrine, and with his
long hair wiped the place, and that he did day after
day in order that he might make himself the servant
of all. I bear the feet of that man on my head;
he is my hero; that hero's life I will try to imitate.
(CW, 211-12 |
Sri Ramakrishna was also the inspiration for Swami
Vivekananda's teachings regarding the worship
of God in man. Swami Saradananda relates
the following incident in The
Great Master: One day Sri Ramakrishna was
explaining to a group of devotees the three main
tenets of the Vaiava faith: name ruci -- a taste
for the name of God;
jive daya -- compassion for living beings;
and vaiava seva
-- service to devotees of the Lord.
As he was explaining the meaning of compassion
to living beings, he suddenly went into an ecstatic
mood. After he had regained normal consciousness
to a certain extent, he continued, "Talk
of compassion for beings! Will you, who are nothing
but little insects, bestow compassion on beings?
You wretch, who are you to bestow it? No, no;
not compassion to Jivas, but service to them as
Siva." (Sri Ramakrishna
The Great Master, p. 817)
None but Narendra could see the far-reaching
implications of Sri Ramakrishna's words that day.
Later he remarked, "Ah, what a wonderful
light have I got today from the Master's words!
. . . If the Divine Lord ever grants me an opportunity,
I'll preach everywhere in the world this wonderful
truth I have heard today. I will preach this truth
to the learned and the ignorant, to the rich and
the poor, to the Brahmins and the Chandalas."
(The Great Master,
p. 817) |
| Swamiji was
to give expression to this truth in a letter written
many years later to his disciple Sharat Chandra
Chakravarty. He wrote: |
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Here is a peculiarity: when you serve a Jiva with
the idea that he is a Jiva, it is Daya (compassion)
and not Prema (love); but when you serve him with
the idea that he is Self, that is Prema. . . But
for us Advaitins, this notion of Jiva as distinct
from God is the cause of bondage. Our principle,
therefore, should be love and not compassion. The
application of the word compassion even to Jiva
seems to me to be rash and vain. For us, it is not
to pity but to serve. Ours is not the feeling of
compassion but of love, and the feeling of Self
in all. (Letters,
pp. 410-11) |
Narendra's feelings of sympathy for the poor were
based not only on a theoretical understanding
of the divinity of man, but also on first-hand
experience.Even the relatives
whom Viswanath had supported during his lifetime
turned against his family and sought to take control
of the ancestral home. For the first time in his
life, Narendra felt the pangs of hunger and the
additional sting of having to witness the suffering
of his near and dear ones.
There can be no question that this painful chapter
in Swamiji's life sensitized his already tender
heart and made him sympathize even more with the
plight of the poor.
After the passing away
of Sri Ramakrishna in 1886, Narendra, now commonly
known as Swamiji, banded together a small group
of his brother disciples, creating the foundation
for the future Ramakrishna Order of monks.
Before long, Swamiji felt the call to lead the
traditional life of the wandering monk and travelled
throughout the vast subcontinent of India. This
period of his life was also a great learning experience
for Swamiji as he shared both the extreme luxury
of the Maharajas and the dire poverty of the masses.
The haunting poverty of his countrymen which
he witnessed at this time was too much for him
to bear, and he made a personal commitment to
work for the upliftment of the masses. As he explained
to his brother disciples, Swamis Brahmananda and
Turiyananda: |
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I travelled all over India. But alas, it was agony
to me, my brothers, to see with my own eyes the
terrible poverty of the masses, and I could not
restrain my tears! It is now my firm conviction
that to preach religion amongst them, without first
trying to remove their poverty and suffering, is
futile. It is for this reason -- to find means for
the salvation of the poor in India -- that I am
going to America. . . Brother, I cannot understand
your so-called religion. But my heart has grown
much, much larger, and I have learnt to feel. Believe
me, I feel it very sadly. (Vivekananda:
A Biography, p. 106) |
Swami Vivekananda had great hopes of raising funds
in America to help educate and raise the masses
of India. He was soon to discover, however, that
the wealthy of America, like their counterparts
in India, were not to be relied on for much help.
As a result, Swamiji began to place all his hope
for the regeneration of his Motherland on the educated
and dedicated youth of India, fired with the spirit
of renunciation and service. "Trust not the
so-called rich," he was to write, "they
are more dead than alive. The hope lies in you --
in the meek, the lowly, but the faithful."
(Letters, p. 42) To his brother disciples he wrote:
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We want two thousand Sannyasin -- men and women,
both. . . Not householder disciples, mind you, we
want Sannyasins. Let each one of you have a hundred
heads tonsured -- young educated men, not fools.
(Letters, p. 102) |
And to his Madrasi disciple Alasinga he wrote: |
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A hundred thousand men and woman,
fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with
eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion's
courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen
and the downtrodden, will go over the length and
breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation,
the gospel of social raising-up -- the gospel of
equality. (Letters,
p. 41) |
As the end of his life was drawing near and he could
see his "machinery", the Ramakrishna Math
and Mission, in good working order, Swamiji gradually
began to withdraw his mind from the monumental task
he had undertaken. He remembered how, many years
earlier, Sri Ramakrishna, on his deathbed, drew
him aside and empowered him to work for the welfare
of mankind, to be released from his burden only
when his work was completed. Referring to this incident,
he told one of his disciples: |
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My son, there is no rest for me. That which Sri
Ramakrishna called "Kali" took possession
of my body three or four days before his passing
away. That makes me work and work and never lets
me keep still or look to my personal comforts. (Vivekananda:
A Biography, p. 322) |
Now that Swamiji's life was nearing its conclusion,
and his work was finished, he began to feel that
longed-for release, promised him by his beloved
guru. He wrote to his dear friend Josephine MacCleod: |
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After all Joe, I am only the boy who used to listen
to the wonderful words of Ramakrishna under the
banyan at Dakshineswar. That is my true nature;
work and activities, doing good and so forth are
all superimpositions. Now I again hear his voice;
that same old voice thrilling my soul. Bonds are
breaking_love dying, work becoming tasteless. .
. (Letters, p. 422)
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Swamiji's legacy to the world was a new vision of
spiritual life and pursuit. As the motto for the
Ramakrishna Math and Mission which he established,
he chose the words atmano mokartha jagaddhitaya
ca, "for one's own liberation and for the welfare
of the world". However, for his nearest and
dearest, his brother disciples and his own disciples,
he had a higher message: |
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This is the test, he who is Ramakrishna's child
does not seek his personal good. . . There is no
time to care for name or fame, or Mukti, or Bhakti.
(Letters, p. 102)
Seek the salvation of others if you want to reach
the highest! Kill out the desire for personal
Mukti. That is the greatest of all spiritual disciplines.
(The Life, II. 426)
The poor, the illiterate,
the ignorant, the afflicted -- let these be your
God. Know that service to these alone is the highest
religion. (Letters,
p.94)
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