Great Modern Exemplars---Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda was an apostle of strength.

The secret of his strength was his deep faith in the God within, and he wanted all men and women to cultivate that eternal tower of strength lying dormant in them. In his view, whatever makes us strong is religion and whatever weakens us is irreligious. Everybody should be taught from childhood to have faith in one's own intrinsic divinity.

"Men are taught from childhood that they are weak and sinners. Teach them that they are glorious children of immortality, even those who are weakest in manifestation. Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into their brains from very childhood. Lay yourselves open to those thoughts, and not weakening and paralyzing ones. Say to your own mind, 'I am He, I am He' (pure, free, immortal spirit)." (Complete Works, Vol II, p. 87)

"No books, no scriptures, no science can ever imagine the glory of the Self that appears as man, the most glorious God that ever was, the only God that ever existed, exists, or ever will exist." (Ibid., p. 250)

Swami Vivekananda was an illumined soul of high stature. He realized Truth behind manifoldness and he inherited the rich tradition of Hinduism reauthenticated by Shri Ramakrishna. So by this training and realization, he could articulate the broad-minded acceptance of all paths as valid in the search for One behind many and One in many. He said:

"Our watchword will be acceptance, and not exclusion. Not only toleration, for so-called toleration is often blasphemy, and I do not believe in it. I believe in acceptance. Why should I tolerate? Toleration means that I think that you are wrong and I am just allowing you to live. Is it not a blasphemy to think that you and I are allowing others to live? I accept all religions that were in the past, and worship with them all, I worship God with every one of them, in whatever form they worship Him. I shall go to the mosque of the Mohammedan; I shall enter the Christian's church and kneel before the crucifix, I shall enter the Buddhist temple, where I shall take refuge in Buddha and in his Law, I shall go into the forest and sit down in meditation with the Hindu, who is trying to see the Light which enlightens the heart of every one.

Not only shall I do all these, but I shall keep my heart open for all that may come in the future. Is God's book finished? Or is it still a continuous revelation going on? It is a marvelous book---these spiritual revelations of the world. The Bible, the Vedas, the Koran, and all other sacred books are but so many pages, and an infinite number of pages remain yet to be unfolded. I would leave it open for all of them. We stand in the present, but open ourselves to the infinite future. We take in all that has been in the past, enjoy the light of the present, and open every window of the heart for all that will come in the future. Salutation to all the prophets of the past, to all the great ones of the present, and to all that are to come in the future!" (Ibid., pp. 373-74)

This idea of loving tolerance and active acceptance has an impressive ancestry and a significant continuity in Hindu tradition. It is due to philosophy as well as religious tradition. The source of this acceptance lies in what Radhakrishnan and Moore call the "synthetic vision" of Indian culture in their magnificent Source Book in Indian Philosophy.

Again, the synthetic spirit of Indian wisdom which experiences Unity in variety will be immensely beneficial for those who are wedded to the vision of "one world".

"To this purpose the contribution of Indian philosophy with its age-long spiritual emphasis is inestimable and indispensable," say the authors mentioned above. (Radhakrishnan and Moore, Source Book in Indian Philosophy, pp. xxiii-xxiv)

Modern people are unhappy in spite of material plenty and the phenomenal success of science and technology. They are restless, rootless, depersonalized, and depressed. Uncertainty, meaninglessness, and insecurity plague them. Vedanta has a practical message for modern men and women. It never asks any one to develop blind faith or accept any dogma. Vedanta asks everyone to return to one's real Self, and thereby develop self-esteem and self-reliance, This return journey from lower self to higher self, from human weakness to divine essence, from finite to infinite, from ephemeral to eternal, will open a new vista of hope. This change of perspective will give humanity a new lease on life. This renunciation of the superficial, the transitory, for the sake of what is deep and abiding is the real beginning of religious life.

Modern men and women are alienated from living religious tradition. The Ramnakrishna-Vivekananda Movement is singularly devoted to making human beings happy by drawing their attention to their own native divinity.

"Faith, faith, faith in ourselves; faith, faith in God---this is the secret of greatness. If you have faith in all the three hundred and thirty millions of your mythological gods, and in all the gods which foreigners have now and again introduced into your midst, and still have no faith in yourselves, there is no salvation for you. Have faith in yourselves, and stand up on that faith and be strong; that is what we need." (Ibid, Vol. III, p. 190)

"Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity." (Ibid, p. 193)

Ye are the Children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect beings. Ye divinities on earth---sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human nature." (Ibid, Vol. I, p. 11)

Paul Deussen, the German Orientalist, spoke about this momentous vision of Vedanta:

"If we strip this thought of the various forms ... under which it appears in the Vedanta text, and fix our attention upon it solely in its philosophical simplicity as the identity of God and Soul, the Brahman and the Atman, it will be found to possess a significance reaching far beyond the Upanishads, their time and country; nay, we claim for it an inestimable value for the whole race of mankind ... It was here that for the first time the original thinkers of the Upanishads, to their immortal honor ... recognized our Atman, our inmost individual being, as the Brahman, the inmost being of universal nature and of all her phenomena." (Paul Deusson, The Philosophy of the Upanishads (1906 Edition), pp. 39-40, reprinted by Dover Publications, New York, 1966.)

Swami Vivekananda's clarion call to mankind to realize the oneness of existence---of God, man, and nature---through living spiritual idealism is the "new religion of the age." It has no church, no book, no founder, no creed, and no priest. Do it yourself. Be and make. The Atman is your own divine self. Be not a stranger to your own potentiality. De-hypnotize yourself.

This new religion only wants sincerity, purity, and one-pointed earnestness to experience eternal bliss even while living in this body. The deep cry of Vivekananda's life, the song of his soul, is to bring the fresh water of spiritual experience to us all. He lit a beacon of hope for erring humanity.

  Part 12   Vedanta 101

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Books by Swami Tathagatananda:

1. The Vedanta Society of New York -- A Brief History, 2000
2. Mahabharat--Katha (Bengali), 1998
3. Ramayan Anudhyan (Bengali), 1996
4. Healthy Values of Living, 1996
5. Meditation on Swami Vivekananda, 1994
6. Meditation on Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, 1993
7. Glimpses of Great Lives, 1989
8. Shubha Chinta (Bengali), 1988
9. Smaran--Manan (Bengali), 1987

You can order these and other books on Vedanta from The Vedanta Society of New York.

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