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The
Social Thought of Swami Vivekananda
by Swami Atmajnanananda
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| NOTE:Swami Atmajnanananada
is a monk of the Ramakrishna Order who I met at the Trabuco
Canyon monastery while I lived in Orange County, CA. A
skeptical friend of mine wanted to know more about Vedanta
and it's philosophy, and Swami Atmajnanananada gave her
this piece. I was quite impressed with it, and asked him
if I could post it on the Net. The Swami is now the head
of a new Vedanta Center in Silver Spring, Maryland. (For
information call 301-603-1772.) Joan Sotkin |
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Swami Vivekananda once remarked
to a disciple in San Francisco, "You know, I may
have to be born again. You see, I have fallen in love
with man." (Swami Vivekananda in San Francisco, p.
13) When we study the life of Swami Vivekananda and read
his lectures and writings, particularly his letters, we
see what a tremendous force this love of mankind was for
him.
From the time he decided to come
to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 up
until the end of his short life in 1902, his love for
mankind, his sympathy for the poor and downtrodden of
all lands, and his great devotion to his Motherland
and her depressed masses were the motivating power behind
all of his actions. In his social views, whether
on caste, education, women's rights, or the conditions
of the masses, the one common factor was his great sympathy
for all who suffer. It was this sympathy of heart which
impelled him to accomplish as much as he did in such
a short period of time; and it was the same sympathy
of heart which brought so much suffering to his life
as well.
In considering the social philosophy of Swami Vivekananda,
we should always keep one thing in mind: Swamiji was
not a man to be easily categorized. He himself had a
distinct distaste for any "isms", and it
would be a mistake to try to categorize his beliefs
as falling within any particular school of thought,
such as humanism, socialism, or the like.
Undoubtedly, many of his views are in sympathy with
those of different political and social philosophies,
and various proponents of different schools have rightfully
drawn inspiration from his words and deeds. However,
Swamiji's teachings were never
based on any sectarian allegiance, but rather on his
own spiritual convictions regarding the divinity of
the soul, the oneness of existence, and the worship
of God in man.
In the following few pages, we will
examine the views of Swami Vivekananda on such questions
as privilege, caste, education, uplifting the masses,
and women's rights. We will also look at the various
circumstances and events of his life which helped awaken
his latent love for humanity: the influence of his family;
the teachings of his beloved master, Sri Ramakrishna;
his own first-hand experience of poverty; and his years
of wandering through India.
Above all, we will try to show the
perfect consistency between Swamiji's social views and
his spiritual realizations, between his actions and
his beliefs; for rarely has such a blend of head and
heart, spiritual genius and sympathy for mankind, ever
been seen in the world.
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| PRIVILEGE |
| Convinced
as he was of the divinity of each soul and, consequently,
of the dignity of each individual, Swami Vivekananda
waged a steady battle against all types of privilege
and exploitation. In his eyes, all distinctions
whereby one might distinguish one person from another,
such as caste, creed, race, or gender, were based, not
on the true nature of the individual, but on external
superimpositions. From the highest point of view, all
are pure spirit and, as such, share an essential identity.
Thus, all attempts to exercise
exclusive rights at the expense of others were seen
by him to be both an affront to the human dignity of
man and a contradiction of the spiritual fact of unity.
| In a lecture
delivered in London, entitled "Vedanta and
Privilege", Swamiji spoke out against the phenomenon
of privilege at all levels of society: |
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. . the idea of privilege
is the bane of human life. Two forces, as it were,
are constantly at work, one making caste, and
the other breaking caste; in other words, the
one making for privilege, and the other breaking
down privilege. And whenever privilege is broken
down, more and more light and progress come to
a race. This struggle we see all around us.
Of course, there is first the brutal idea of
privilege, that of the strong over the weak. There
is the privilege of wealth. If a man has more
money than another, he wants a little privilege
over those who have less. There is the still subtler
and more powerful privilege of intellect; because
one man knows more than others, he claims more
privilege. And last of all, and the worst, because
the most tyrannical, is the privilege of spirituality.
If some persons think they know more of spirituality,
of God, they claim a superior privilege over everyone
else. They say, "Come down and worship us,
ye common herds; we are the messengers of God,
and you have to worship us." None can be
Vedantists, and at the same time admit of privilege
for anyone. The same power is in every man, the
one manifesting more, the other less; the same
potentiality is in everyone. Where is the claim
to privilege? (CW, I.423) |
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| THE
QUESTION OF CASTE |
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The
question of caste and its relation to privilege was
one with which Swami Vivekananda struggled long and
hard. We can see from some of his early letters to Pramadadas
Mitra, a learned scholar for whom Swamiji had great
respect, how troubled Swamiji was with certain aspects
of caste. One of the letters which Swamiji wrote
to him from the Baranagore Math raised several questions
with regard to caste, specifically concerning hereditary
caste and the rights of Sudas to study the scriptures.
Swamiji's opinion on caste in
general is not always entirely clear. In some
of his writings and lectures, especially when responding
to criticisms of the caste system from the West, he
defends the concept of caste as representing a sensible
and necessary division of labor. However, he was uncompromising
with regard to his hatred of hereditary caste, of the
notion that one's station in life was to be determined
by birth alone rather than by one's ability or natural
propensities. Though he sometimes blamed religion for
the modern caste structure, Swamiji's mature opinion
seems to have been that religion was not to blame and
that the earliest references to caste in the Hindu scriptures
do not contain the notion of hereditary caste.
It is interesting to note that many of the early questions
regarding caste which Swami Vivekananda first raised
in his letter to Pramadadas Mitra in 1889 are answered
by Swamiji himself in his final letter to the scholar
and longtime friend, written in 1897. Much time had
passed since Swamiji had last written, and it is clear
from the tone of the letter that their relationship
had become somewhat strained. In this particular letter,
Swamiji voiced what may be considered his final opinion
on caste, whether hereditary or not, and on its relation
to the scriptures. He wrote:
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. . . the conviction is
daily gaining on my mind that the idea of caste
is the greatest dividing factor and the root of
Maya; all caste either on the principle of birth
or of merit is bondage. . . . The Smritis and the
Puranas are productions of men of limited intelligence
and are full of fallacies, errors, the feeling of
caste, and malice. . . It is in the books written
by priests that madness like that of caste are to
be found, and not in books revealed from God. (Letters,
pp. 337) |
Swamiji's quarrel with the caste system
centered around two separate, yet related, issues, one
economic and one religious. He blamed caste, in part
at least, for the social divisiveness which resulted
in large disenfranchised segments of Indian society
and for the grinding poverty of the masses.
He held the higher castes, particularly
the Brahmins, responsible for the evils of priestcraft,
for untouchability, and for their exclusive claims on
spirituality and the sacred scriptures. In his
reply to the address of the Maharaja of Khetri, Swamiji
remarked,
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This
[tyranny of the upper castes] is the bane of human
nature, the curse upon mankind, the root of all
misery -- this inequality. This is the source of
all bondage, physical, mental, and spiritual.(CW,
IV. 329)
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Swamiji reiterated the same theme in even stronger
language to his brother disciple, Swami Ramakrishnananda,
in a letter written from Chicago in 1894:
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My brother, what experiences
I have had in the South [of India], of the upper
classes torturing the lower! What Bacchanalian orgies
within the temples! Is it a religion that fails
to remove the misery of the poor and turn men into
gods! Do you think our religion is worth the name?
Ours is only Don't-touchism, only "Touch me
not", "Touch me not". Good heavens!
A country, the big leaders of which have for the
last two thousand years been only discussing whether
to take food with the right hand or left, whether
to take water from the right-hand side or from the
left. . . if such a country does not go to ruin,
what other will? . . . A country where millions
of people live on flowers of the Mohua plant, and
a million or two of sadhus and a hundred million
or so of Brahmins suck the blood out of these poor
people, without the least effort for their amelioration
-- is that a country or hell? Is that a religion
or the devil's dance? (CW, VI. 253)
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Swami Vivekananda's quarrel with priestcraft
centered around the notion of adhikaravada, the restriction
of the study of the Vedas and other privileges to the
Brahmin caste. Swamiji seemed to have held Sankarachrya
especially responsible for upholding the exclusive practices
of adhikaravada. Time and again, in both his letters
and his utterances, he refers to Shankara's narrowness
and lack of sympathy, even while praising his brilliant
intellect.
| As early as
1889, in the aforementioned letter to Pramadadas
Mitra, Swamiji raised the question of Shankara's
authority for excluding Sudras from studying the
Vedas. In several of his later letters, he also
criticized Shankara for his lack of liberality,
contrasting him with the compassionate Buddha. In
a letter to his brother disciple, Swami Akhandananda,
he wrote: |
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What Buddha
did was to break wide open the gates of that very
religion which was confined in the Upanishads to
a particular caste. . . His greatness lies in his
unrivalled sympathy. The high orders of samadhi
etc., that lent gravity to his religion, are almost
all there in the Vedas; what are absent there are
his intellect and heart, which have never since
been paralleled throughout the history of the world.
. . The religion of Buddha has reared itself on
the Upaniads, and upon that also the philosophy
of Shankara. Only Shankara had not the slightest
bit of Buddha's wonderful heart, dry intellect merely!
For fear of the Tantras, for fear of the mob, in
his attempt to cure a boil, he amputated the very
arm itself. (CW, VI. 225-27) |
| And in the
course of a conversation with his disciple, Sharat
Chandra Chakravarty, Swamiji said: |
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Shankara's intellect was
sharp like a razor. He was a good arguer and a scholar,
no doubt of that, but he had no great liberality;
his heart too seems to have been like that. Besides,
he used to take great pride in his Brahmanism --
much like a southern Brahmin of the priest class,
you may say. How he has defended in his commentary
on the Vedanta Sutras that the non-Brahmin castes
will not attain to a supreme knowledge of Brahman!
. . . But look at Buddha's heart! -- Ever ready
to give his own life to save the life of even a
kid -- what to speak of bahujanahitaya bahujanasukhaya
-- For the welfare of the many, for the happiness
of the many"! See what a large-heartedness
-- what a compassion. (CW, VII. 117-18) |
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| RICH
VS POOR |
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Perhaps the only injustice which troubled Swami Vivekananda
more than caste prejudice was the tyranny of the wealthy
over the poor, a tyranny which, in India, was related
to, but not restricted to, the caste system. Swamiji's
sympathy for the poor and downtrodden was one of his
most outstanding traits and was the dominant motivating
force behind many of his activities, including his initial
visit to America and his founding of the Ramakrishna
Math and Mission.
His utterances regarding the plight of the poor, particularly
the depressed masses of India, are some of his most
passionate and inspiring. In a letter to his Madrasi
disciples, Swamiji wrote, "Feel, my children, feel;
feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden; feel
till the heart stops and the brain reels and you think
you will go mad --then pour the soul out at the feet
of the Lord, and then will come power, help, and indomitable
energy. . ." (CW, IV. 367)
| In this same
letter, Swami Vivekananda pointed out the two crying
needs of the poor: "bread" and education.
He wrote: |
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Material civilization,
nay, even luxury, is necessary to create work for
the poor. Bread! Bread! I do not believe in a God
who cannot give me bread here, giving me eternal
bliss in heaven! Pooh! India is to be raised, the
poor are to be fed, education is to be spread, and
the evil of priestcraft is to be removed. . . More
bread, more opportunity for everybody. . . (CW,
IV. 368) |
| And in a lecture
delivered in Lahore, he said: |
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What we want is not so
much spirituality as a little of the bringing down
of the Advaita into the material world. We stuff
them too much with religion, when the poor fellows
have been starving. No dogmas will satisfy the cravings
of hunger. (CW, III. 432) |
| Swamiji
placed great emphasis on education for the upliftment
of the Indian masses. It was his desire that all
aspects of life be covered in this education, so
that it would be conducive to the material, intellectual,
and spiritual development of the individual. Above
all, he wanted a "man-making" education
that would build character, give the masses back
their "lost individuality", and restore
their faith in their own divine potential. As in
all matters of social reform, Swamiji's motto was
"hands off". As he explained to the Maharaja
of Mysore: |
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The
only service to be done for our lower classes is
to give them education, to develop their lost individuality.
. . They are to be given ideas; their eyes are to
be opened to what is going on in the world around
them, and then they will work out their own salvation.
Every nation, every man, every woman, must
work out one's own salvation. Give them idea --
that is the only help they require, and then the
rest must follow as the effect. Ours is to put the
chemicals together, the crystallization comes in
the law of nature. Our duty is to put ideas in their
heads, they will do the rest. (Letters, pp. 117-18)
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| Swami
Vivekananda also saw that the regeneration of the
Indian masses would necessarily involve certain
sacrifices on the part of the upper classes, whether
voluntarily performed or not. He held the wealthy,
educated, and privileged segments of society particularly
responsible for the plight of the poor and predicted
dire consequences for them if they failed to work
towards rectifying conditions. He
wrote: |
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So long as the millions
live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a
traitor who, having been educated at their expense,
pays not the least heed to them! I call those men
who strut about in their finery, having got all
their money by grinding the poor, wretches, so long
as they do not do anything for those two hundred
millions who are now no better than human savages.
(CW, V. 58)
The duty of every aristocracy is to dig its own
grave, and the sooner it does so, the better.
The more it delays, the more it will fester and
the worse death it will die. It is the duty of
the Brahmin, therefore, to work for the salvation
of the rest of mankind in India. (CW, III. 297)
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