SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS
By Sister Gayatriprana of The
Vedanta Society of
Chapters 1 to 10 on this page
For Chapters 11 onwards click here
For chapters 17 onwards click here
PREFACE
After fourteen years of
continuous work, the compilation, Swami Vivekananda on the Vedas and Upanisads,
is now ready to come to the light of day. It began, partially as a response
to the current confusion over the coherency of Swami Vivekananda’s Neo-Vedanta
and partially as a search for the essence of his message to contemporary
humanity. As time went by, the volume of the work and a certain compelling
pattern of inner organization built up a critical mass and momentum which swept
the project forward to its present state of completion. A number of loose ends
remain untied, however. Perhaps that is a good thing, for it provides
opportunities for readers to make contributions and additions to the overall
body of the work.
The invaluable nucleus for
this work is Swami Yogeshananda’s Swami Vivekananda Quotes the Upanishads,
an unpublished compilation made from the Complete Works in 1960, before
much material now available appeared in the public domain. The swami’s work did
not include the classical four mahavakyas, which have been researched and
included in this compilation along with some other major mantras such as Saccidananda.
I am very much indebted to Swami Yogeshananda’s pioneering work.
I sincerely hope that, by
bringing this material to light on the Internet we shall, on the one hand,
receive feedback from readers everywhere, improving and strengthening the work;
and, on the other, will take a step towards establishing the Himalayan majesty
of the Vedanta, particularly in its modern incarnation of the Neo-Vedanta of
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS
COMPILER’S INTRODUCTION
Re-visioning the Message of Swami Vivekananda
a) The Need for a
Reassessment of Swami Vivekananda and His Neo-Vedanta
When we read about Swami
Vivekananda, in most instances we hear of his charisma, his striking
appearance, or his "cyclonic", impetuous movement to effect change in
both East and West. And, as often as not, it is conceded that he met with
conspicuous success in his undertakings (though Western intellectuals, not keen
to be beholden to the Orient, are less enthusiastic on this score than are the
Indians) This much is in the common domain.
As the dust settles on the
past hundred years, however, we are hearing more and more, even from the
precincts of the Ramakrishna Order itself, that Swami Vivekananda was "not
a systematic thinker" or, less generously, that he was
"inconsistent", "confusing", and even
"incoherent". A rather strange string of epithets for a man who is,
at the same time, touted as the eternal companion of the avatar Ramakrishna!
Can we ascribe such exalted status to one whose
thinking processes were, in the common estimation, inferior even to a merely
normal, educated person?
More insidiously, there is
also a movement afoot among orthodox, scholarly Hindus and traditionalists of
other faiths which asserts that Sri Ramakrishna, as
also Swami Vivekananda and the Order he founded are anti-intellectual and
ultimately responsible for the contemporary breakdown of the Hindu tradition.
Again, a rather odd evaluation of two personalities whose avowed mission in
life was the re-establishment of the Eternal Religion and the culture which
emanates from it!
To someone who has
benefited immensely from the so-called new (Neo-) Vedanta of
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda, such assertions come as a surprise and, at the same
time, a challenge. Why are such wild statements being made, even by swamis of
the Ramakrishna Order? Are Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda merely
"paper tigers" with no enduring substance to them? The testimony of
one’s own life immediately cries, "No!" and a deep conviction arises
that, no matter what contradictions and inconsistencies may appear on the
surface of Neo-Vedanta, there must be a coherency, meaning and a
profoundly supportive and nurturing structure to Neo-Vedanta that, as yet, is
not fully apparent.
The material you have
before you is a first step towards an exploration of the structure of
Neo-Vedanta, a response to the oft-repeated statement that "Swami
Vivekananda was not a thinker, merely a Hindu reformer." The
possibility that he is a Vedantic acarya in the line of the Vedic rsis, Buddha
and Sri Sankaracarya is not entertained, far less explored; and therefore the
pronouncements on his "inadequacies" are self-fulfilled.
However, to be fair, it is
indeed true to say that the materials of Swami Vivekananda’s teaching, as
extant today, do not readily lend themselves to the sort of systematization
that is needed to see the inner structure of his thought. The primary reason
for this situation is that he died at the age of 39, worn out by his Herculean
labors to awaken the spiritual currents of both
b) A Basic Point of
Reference for the Assessment of Neo-Vedanta
At this juncture, what
seems to be necessary is to establish a reference point to which the whole
project of revisioning Swami Vivekananda’s message can be related. Almost
certainly the most basic and obvious one is that he perceived himself as a
Vedantin and that he believed his message to be a commentary on Sri
Ramakrishna’s re-living and re-interpreting the Upanisads in the contemporary
era. This is the matrix from which everything else emanated. Such a view is,
from one standpoint, Swami Vivekananda’s "application" to be taken
seriously as a Vedantic acarya or teacher, his "position statement"
for any further evaluation. It provides the basis, not only for a rational and
systematic assessment of his work, but also for the process of his acceptance
as a Vedantic teacher. Traditionally, any person who calls himself a Vedantic
teacher is expected to accept the Upanisads as the source of truth and to
comment upon them and their two auxiliary texts, the Bhagavadgita and
the Brahma Sutras. From that standpoint, Swami Vivekananda could be
readily dismissed as a Vedantic acarya., because he
failed to produce a written and systematic commentary on these texts.
We have already mentioned
how the swami was cheated of time to carry out this basic work, despite his
desire to do so; but not of infinite opportunities to introduce the Upanisadic
worldview into every nook and cranny of his vision of contemporary life. We
find, therefore, in the catacombs of the Complete Works, as well as in
the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature generally, a wealth of comments by Swami
Vivekananda on the Upanisads, Gita and Brahma Sutras, gems lying
strewn helter-skelter as the swami responded spontaneously - and gave his very
life - to the crying needs of East and West.
On pondering the problem of
the swami’s "inconsistencies" it therefore seemed an obvious first
step to gather up these gems and arrange them in the traditional patterns of
Vedanta which is, after all, the very template of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami
Vivekananda. If, under the heading of the four Vedas and their subsections,
especially the Upanisads, we could gather the scattered treasures of Swami
Vivekananda’s utterances, would we be in a better position to see the structure
and coherency of his thought? It is my hope that the reader of this compilation
is now in a position to answer that question for him- or herself. Whoever can
encompass the sheer volume of this work, amounting to nearly half of the
nine-volume Complete Works, will see how it attests to the central
position of the Vedas and Upanisads in the thought of Swami Vivekananda. Again,
the concentration of the swami’s wide-ranging and intense thought under the
rubric of a commentary on the Vedas and Upanisads puts it, as it were, in a
super-cooled crucible where its powerful internal dynamics can be more readily
studied than in the freewheeling milieu of his spontaneous utterances to an
infinite variety of people and situations. It is as if we have peeled off
several layers from the swami’s work and are laying bare the core form from
which everything else takes its origin.
Encountering such
"DNA" of Swami Vivekananda’s core thought can be nothing less than a
total experience. As one enters into his "commentaries" as presented
in this work, one find, as it were, terra firma disappearing and the rapid
unfoldment of universe after universe, each expanding infinitely and yet at the
same time as close as one’s jugular vein, to borrow a phrase from the Koran.
It is my belief that such encounters can and will open up new vistas into
what Swami Vivekananda was about, not just in the piecemeal way that tends to
result when we dabble on the surface of his vast and protean works.
c) Approaching
Neo-Vedanta as an Integral Whole
Here we are entering into
the very paradigm of the Vedanta itself, the deep matrix from which have
emanated the Upanisads, Buddha, Sri Sankaracarya and the entire galaxy of the
Vedantic tradition as we know it. The present work plugs us into the very heart
of Vedantic experience, enabling us to grasp the essence of all that preceded
Neo-Vedanta and at the same time to flow into the endless new forms that bubble
up continuously in Swami Vivekananda’s thought. This material, selected on the
basis of its conformity with the Vedantic archetype is, I believe, the basis on
which a truly critical and authentic evaluation of the structure of Neo-Vedanta
can begin to be made. This is the mode in which the compilation took form and
in which I hope readers will approach it. No doubt many a familiar or arresting
quote will attract recognition or beguile with its novelty; but my purpose is,
in fact, to go beyond individual quotes to a sense of the whole and an inkling
of the total structure. I believe that, if we grasp the gestalt itself, each
quote will then shine, not just in its own radiance, but in the radiance of the
interconnected whole. This is the best way, in my view, to reach a sense of the
consistency and cogency of the Neo-Vedanta of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda.
Approaching the work in
this spirit imposes on the compiler a rather different task than merely
providing inspirational texts for the faithful. Seeking the gestalt inevitably
imposes the mandate to be as all-inclusive as possible, even at the risk of
bringing in material, from some standpoints "peripheral". Certain
broad categories, however, should be covered:
1. East and West, the two
empirical domains of Swami Vivekananda’s work, the
mirror-image needs of which elicited from Swami Vivekananda different, but
complementary responses.
2. The integrated four
yogas, the platform from which he addressed the task of self-transformation of
contemporary humanity.
3. The concrete and the
metaphysical, the "this"-world and the "other"-world, both
of which have a valued place in Swami Vivekananda’s Neo-Vedanta and exist as
poles in his scheme of self-transcendence and self-manifestation, the two
aspects of his approach to the issue of maya at the very core of Vedanta and,
for that matter, the human condition anywhere.
4. Evolution and involution
of consciousness, the twin processes which weave together all of the phenomena related
to the three foregoing categories; the ascent to and descent from the divine
and the infinite relationships which result along their trajectories.
5. Concretizations which
encapsulate or are holograms of the Reality from which all of the above emanate,
in which they exist, and to which they return. Some examples of such holograms
would be Swami Vivekananda himself, his poems which encapsulate truth beyond
linear thinking, and some of his more aphoristic, mahavavya-like
statements which defy all logical analysis but overwhelmingly convey the
integrated truth of Vedanta.
This rather formidable list
is an attempt to cover all possible bases of human knowledge and experience. It
is not one which I preconceived and imposed on the materials, but rather the
algorithm, as you might say, which emerged from the data when it was all put
together. Its validity and applicability are questions too recondite to be
entered into here - that task will be tackled elsewhere. For the moment, I put
it on record as a set of criteria of inclusiveness and completeness with which
I have evaluated and developed this compilation. Once discovered, I consciously
applied it to the final selection and overall organization of the materials,
trying to give East and West due representation in the commentaries, as also
each of the four yogas, "this" and "the other" worlds,
evolution and involution; and finally, occasional passages of Swami
Vivekananda’s poetry which, I felt, encapsulate the very essence of his commentary
on a particular mantra.
This attempt at
inclusiveness and wholeness has necessarily meant the utilization of materials
which are not, at first sight, strictly quotes or comments directly on the
Upanisads. The bulk of such material was delivered in the West, where Swami Vivekananda
was much more freewheeling in his translations and interpretations of the
Vedantic texts than he was in
d) The Broad Picture: Swami
Vivekananda’s Introduction to the Vedas
Having laid out the
materials according to all of these criteria, I clearly sawthat Swami
Vivekananda’s "commentaries" are
power-packed, often counterintuitive, even controversial. Perhaps the main
reason for this impression is that he deals so often with what has
traditionally been considered "secular" concerns, flying in the face
of traditional religious discourse. He thus sets up a powerful voltage between
the conservative religious tradition and his deep concern with the burning
problems of the contemporary world.
So strong was this sense of
tension in the commentaries that I decided to embark on a compilation of Swami
Vivekananda’s general remarks on the Vedas and Upanisads. I thought that this
would provide, in a less aphoristic way than in the commentaries themselves,
his basic approach to Vedanta and how he integrates it with the contemporary
world. I discovered huge amounts of material which, I felt, lent itself to
presentation as a historical narrative in what I have called The
Introduction. There Swami Vivekananda traces Vedanta from its origin with
the Vedic seers and the culture that supported them to Buddha, Sri
Sankaracarya, and on to the present day. Laying out the basic tenets of Vedanta
on God, humanity and the world as well as its characteristic practices for
developing a spiritual approach to life, the Introduction traces how different
emphases and interpretations emerged in response to the unfolding historical
process. In particular, the introductory materials bring out the problems and
conditions of the modern world, and just how Sri Ramakrishna and Swami
Vivekananda propose to address them and mold them to the Vedantic paradigm.
While the commentaries can
well be read without the Introduction, especially by those thoroughly familiar
with the Neo-Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda, for others, or for those who feel
the historical dimension can deepen their appreciation, the Introduction
provides a frame of reference relating the commentaries to the whole panorama
of Vedanta - yet another gestalt in our study.
e) The Materials and How
They Have Been Put Together
1. Selection of the
Materials
Having arrived at the
criteria of selection and basic presentation, we come to the question of
precisely which materials to use in the commentaries and how to organize them.
The response to the first question was, in line with our inclusive approach, to
include all materials with credentials of authenticity. This decision spread
the net beyond the Complete Works to the writings and testimony of his
brother-disciples (including the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna) and his
students, such as Nivedita and Sharat Chandra Chakravarty. Some interesting
accounts and observations by other friends and acquaintances pertaining to Swami
Vivekananda’s views on the Vedas and Upanisads were also included in the
biographic accounts which embellish the commentaries on some of the major
mantras.
With regard to the
deployment of appropriate passages for inclusion in the present compilation I
have differentiated between passages with formal, more or less literal quotes
of the mantras and those without. The latter groups I have called
"commentaries" rather than "quotes"; their suitability for
inclusion is, of course, open to discussion. The criteria on which such
commentaries have been included are:
1. Wording of the mantra as
a paraphrase rather than as a literal quote. As mentioned previously, there is
a definite difference between the way Swamiji translated mantras in
2. Obvious comments on the
mantra without an actual quotation or paraphrase of it - again, more common in
the West.
3. Passages which contain
unique key words, phrases or thoughts which Swamiji used in other, bona fide
translations of the same mantra - more common, again, in the West.
4. Poems or poetic passages
which seem to contain the essence of Swamiji's thoughts on any mantra, which I
have placed at the end of the comments as a "meditation".
In short, materials were
used which are cognate with the more recognizable, traditional passages. I feel
it is important to include such passages because it ensures coverage of his
message for the West, a very vital ingredient of his overall formulation of
Vedanta,
2 Assignment
of the Materials to Their Sources
In the Vedas and Upanisads
the same mantra may occur in more than one place, e.g. the parable of the two
birds we usually think of as coming from the Mundaka Upanisad occurs
originally in the Rg Veda. I have assigned such mantras to the earliest
source when Swamiji does not assign it himself, or to the source to which he
himself most often assigns it, e.g. "There the sun shines not" has
been put in the Katha Upanisad (2.2.15) rather than in the Mundaka
( 2.2.12)
In a number of places Swami
Vivekananda quotes mantras which are composites of two Upanisadic mantras, or
of the Upanisads and the Gita. These I have placed in the comments on both
sources.
3. The Organization of
the Materials
(i)
According to the Vedas
With regard to the question
of organization, I have followed the traditional division into four
Vedas, under each of which the materials appear as Samhita (especially in the Rig
Veda), occasional Aranyakas, and the main body of the work, the Upanishads,
presented in the sequence found in S. Radhakrishnan’s The Principal
Upanishads. Apart from the literary convenience of clustering materials
from the same source together, this method also seems to bring out the special
emphasis of each Veda and to demonstrate how it was developed in the Upanishads
belonging to it. It also served to concentrate in one place all of Swami
Vivekananda’s insights into five major themes of Vedanta, as follows:
Rig Veda Creation,
its presiding deities and inner workings
Shukla
Yajur Veda Human divinity,
the Self and deification of the world.
Sama Veda
Divine cosmology, universal individuality and oneness with the universe.
Atharva
Veda The keys to universal
knowledge on all levels.
Here again is the inclusive
overview this study is devoted to, an exploration of the central themes of
humanity and its relationship to God and the world.
(ii)
The Line of Thought within Each Mantra
The material accumulated
for each mantra has been organized throughout along the same basic lines
and presented in this sequence of thought:
i) A statement by Swami
Vivekananda of established facts and preceding theories on the subject of the
mantra.
ii) Swami
Vivekananda’s re-formulation of these facts and theories from the standpoint of
Neo-Vedanta, creating a different "space" to be explored.
iii) A general statement in
Swami Vivekananda’s words of the yoga or methods by which an understanding of
this new angle of vision may be obtained.
iv) An exploration of the form those
general methods take in each of the four yogas: karma - bhakti - raja - jnana,
as also the "fifth yoga" of integration of the basic four.
v) A word-picture of the
transformations brought about by the practice of the yogas according to
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Vedanta, either in the form of Swami Vivekananda's own
experience or his vision for future humanity.
An illustration of how this
line of thought works out in practice is given immediately below in section 3, Captions
for Mantras and Headings for Sections and Subsections.
In many cases, of course,
the material is scant; sometimes only a translation of a mantra without any
commentary occurs. From there the amount of material varies enormously up to a
maximum of nearly eighty entries for Sat-chit-ananda. Naturally, the
degree of organization depends upon the amount of material for any
mantra, but the basic approach just described is used in order to create a
systematic line of approach which again, permits easier comparison of the
commentaries of different mantras.
3. Captions for Mantras
and Headings for Sections and Subsections
When the comments on the
mantra are copious or substantial the mantra has been given a caption derived
from Swami Vivekananda's own interpretation of it, e.g. I am God for Brihadaranyaka
Upanisad, 1.4.10.
Whenever there are entries
in excess of three to five under each mantra, it was felt necessary to create
sections and subsections with heading in order to keep explicit the line of
thought we have just presented in the previous section. Such headings
were made by extracting from the text itself important thoughts and phrases
which, when put together, indicate the gist of the section or subsection in
Swami Vivekananda's own words, e.g.:
Chandogya Upanisad 6.2.1, One Existence without a
Second:
a) The Proposition That the
Absolute Is Manifesting Itself as Many
1. Many Different Meanings
of the Word "Existence"
2. The Idea of God in
Advaita Is Oneness; the Idea of Many Is Caused by Our Minds
b) We See The Self According to Different Vision
c) Freeing Ourselves from
the Variety Due to Name and Form
1. We Must Free Ourselves
from Our Bodies
2. You Cannot Be Happy
unless You Serve the One in a Suffering World
3. As You Unfold Yourself
the Reflection Grows Clearer
4. In Jnana You Lose Sight
of Variety and See Only Unity
d) I Have Experienced the
Blissful Reality of the One
e) Meditation
As mentioned in the
preceding section, this sequence also demonstrates the line of thought
presented in all of the laRiger commentaries.
(iv) Numbering of Entries and Listing of
References
In order to help anyone who
would like to go to the original sources of any quote or passage of comment,
each has been assigned a number in brackets on the right hand margin.
The list of references at the end of the comments on any mantra is listed by
the same numbering system and gives not only the volume and page number of any
entry, but also it title and date, when applicable. This latter detail is to
assist readers trying to find anything, especially in the Complete Works where
it is so notoriously difficult to find anything, or in the individual version
of Inspired Talks, where date is the key to finding anything.
f) Conventions of
Language
In going through these
translations and comments of Vedic and Upanisadic mantras by Swami Vivekananda
and comparing them with versions in English by his predecessors and
contemporaries, I have discovered that in a few cases Swami Vivekananda used
the translations of others, or that such translations have been inserted by
editors in instances where Swami Vivekananda gave only the Sanskrit
original. Otherwise, Swami Vivekananda made his own translations, more often
than not extemporaneously, which are invariably simpler and more direct than
the translations of others and often radically different in the use of
language. To check the authenticity of Swami Vivekananda's own quotes as they
appear in the texts we are using, I have made every effort to find
"original sources" - either completely unedited, or from early
sources handled by editors with a light touch. I have then organized
these "corrected" versions in chronological order (when there is more
than one), along with data as to who edited the material, whether Sanskrit
was given with it, and to what kind of audience it was given, material which
will be presented as an appendix to this work. This method has made it possible
to trace which are the most authentic versions, as also the most oft-recurring,
how the swami modified his translations according to his audiences, and with
the reliable and comparable versions, just how he himself modified his use of
language with the passage of time. From this background study I have been able
to select more confidently one quotation which can be used as the "lead quote"
for each mantra, i.e. the one which most accurately expresses the swami's
interpretation of it.
Unfortunately, due to lack
of time and resources I have not been able to present the original sources of
the comments, though in many cases, these unedited sources contain many ideas
and expressions of extreme interest and different from what appears in the Complete
Works. For the sake of accuracy references to lead quotes heading up
the comments on the mantra (Reference #1) or to entries that consist only of
quotes are to the original source with which they have been brought in
line rather than the Complete Works or other heavily edited source.
Other references are to the Complete Works or other standard source In such cases, however, the quotes of the mantra have also
been adjusted to the original source, though what that source is is not
indicated in the list of references. It is to be found in the systematic
presentation of quotes and their sources which will form an appendix to this
work.
With regard to the language
of the materials generally, I have followed the following conventions:
1. Sanskrit words are
written in phonetic English spelling.
2. In referring to the
deity, capitalization has been minimized in order to preserve the flow of ideas
and language. While proper names have of course been capitalized, pronouns have
been capitalized mostly when in the nominative, e.g. I am He, unless the sense
of the sentence absolutely requires the capitalization of pronouns in other
cases. Adjectives referring to the deity have been capitalized only when used
as nouns, e.g. "There is happiness only in the Infinite" vs. "I
have seen that ancient One".
3. I have taken the liberty
of changing the punctuation of texts, especially from the Complete Works, where
often very long sentences require more than a string of commas to make sense. I
have tended to use hyphens more liberally than does the Complete Works
to indicate sudden breaks in thought which occur quite frequently in what is largely spoken materials This usage is in line with
the punctuation of the Californian material which was done in the West in the
1960s.
4. In keeping with
nineteenth century usage Swami Vivekananda routinely referred to
"man" instead of "humanity" and to the deity as
"He". I have decided to use tactful gender neutrality in this text,
as is meant for a general audience.
5. I have used
abbreviations and some other conventions for the names of the texts used in
this compilation, a list of which follows immediately.
With the principles and
methods I have just described and enumerated, I now entrust this vessel of
Swami Vivekananda’s Neo-Vedanta to the ocean of the contemporary world,
especially as it flows through the Internet, the highway of ideas today. If the
vessel is crafted properly, it will make its way steadily over the black and
troubled waters of the present day and, in doing so, will bring coherence, calm
and light to what is at present the darkness and confusion in which we are
caught up.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS
INTRODUCTION
PART I: THE ORIGINS
AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VEDAS AND VEDANTA
Section 1: Definition and Eulogy of the Vedas and Vedanta
Chapter
1: The Vedas in Swami Vivekananda’s Own Life
Chapter
2: Some Preliminary Definitions
Chapter
3: The Glory of the Vedas
PART I, SECTION 1:
DEFINITION AND EULOGY OF THE VEDAS AND VEDANTA
Chapter 1: The Vedas in Swami Vivekananda’s Life
a) Sri Ramakrishna’s
Training of Swami Vivekananda
Sri Ramakrishna would ask
Naren to read those scriptures which treat solely of Brahman the Absolute. He
did not ask the other disciples to do this. Theirs was a different path -
theirs was the path of bhakti or love for God. But Sri Ramakrishna saw that his
was the path of jnana, or transcendental insight. His main message was to be
the incomparable glory of the Vedanta. Naren, however, would refuse to read
them. The Master would say "Well Naren! Then do just read a little of them
to me. I desire to hear them. You need not pay any attention to the text."
Yes, in that sense he would read them to the Master. Many were the times when
the Master pleaded thus, many were the times when the disciple read, and in the
reading, the ideas would burn into his soul. He lost himself in the reading.
Thus, the Yoga, the Adhyatma Ramayana, and some of the important
Upanishads were read by Naren either in the presence of the Master or by
himself.
"All this is Brahman; (Cha.Up.3.14.1);
what is perceived and what is not perceived, what is known, and what is not
known; these heaven-worlds, this mortal life, the Vedas and what are not the
Vedas, the beginning and what is not the beginning,
all this is Brahman. The soul is Brahman [Mand. Up.,2],
the gods are Brahman, the universe is Brahman, truth is Brahman, and all is
Brahman. There is nothing but Brahman. Whoso realizes this,
verily attains unto the Highest. He is freed from the deceptions of the senses
and the intellect. He sees nothing but Brahman. To him Brahman has become all
in all. As a snake throws off its skin, so does he throw off all limitations
and himself becomes the shining One. [Brih.Up.4.4.7] He himself becomes
Brahman." [Mund. .Up.3.2.9] Such is the spirit and the text of the
Upanishads; and as Naren read sublime ideas like these, his soul would soar and
soar like a great eagle, above the pettiness and the commonplaces of this
world. And the soul of Sri Ramakrishna would soar higher and higher, beyond the
confines of even the highest spiritual limitations. It would be beyond and
beyond and Beyond, until his body would become rigid in spiritual ecstasy, and
all thought was left behind and all sense-consciousness dimmed by the glory of
that indescribable effulgence of that Absolute Brahman, which only they can
know who have been utterly drowned to all objective life, and from whom all
form, thought and personality have dropped off. And Sri Ramakrishna, entering
this condition of being became a living God, become one with Brahman. What were
the Upanishads but the utterance of that consciousness into which he had
soared? Such was Naren’s training at the feet of his Master. And Naren breathed
in the pureness of that air, feeling the freedom of the Infinite in the great
depths of spiritual emotion. "Shivo’ham, Shivo’ham" (Nirvanashatkam)
"Brahman is real, Brahman alone is real, the
world is a myth. And verily, the soul itself is Brahman." [Shankaracharya:
Brahmajnanavali Mala 5.21] Thus rang the note in his soul.
Naren saw in the life of
Sri Ramakrishna the full meaning and the ripe blossoming-forth of all that the
Upanishads taught. The example of the Master, his own eagerness as a disciple,
his own great power in the spiritual faculty of understanding - these were the
factors in that making up of thought and insight which later burst forth, for
him, into the blessedness of the highest Advaita realization. Aye, he attained
that state himself where all is Brahman. And this was the greatest event in all
his life. All other realizations and events led up to and were afterwards
tributary to this. He came to accept all the gods, and "I believe in
Brahman and the gods" was his luminous declaration.
In him who became the crown
of the Vedanta, who became the spirit incarnate of the Advaita Vedanta and the
living utterance of the Upanishads, whose message was to stir the world -
verily in him, the Paramahamsa Ramakrishna, he saw the effulgence of Brahman,
verily, he saw it as his own Soul. Verily he saw this in nirvikalpa samadhi,
which is the awareness of the infinite Consciousness
and the seeing of the infinite vision.
Such was the training of
Naren. Little by little, he was lifted out of doubt into beatitude, out of
darkness into effulgence, out of anguish of mind and heart into blessedness and
bliss, out of the seething vortex of the world into the grand expanse of the
world of realization. He was taken, little by little, and by the power of Sri
Ramakrishna, out of bondage into infinite freedom. He was taken out from the
pale of a little learning into that omniscience which is the consciousness of
Brahman. He was lifted out of all objective conceptions of the Godhead into the
glorious awareness of the subjective nature of true Being,
above form, above thought, above sense, above all relative good and evil, into
the sameness and reality and the absolute - beyondness of Brahman. (1)
Sri Ramakrishna was the man
of realization. Naren aspired to be even like him. And his desire was
fulfilled. It was because he had lived in the
(b) Swami
Vivekananda’s Visions of Vedic Rishis
Swami Vivekananda always
thought of himself as a child of
In a dream or vision... he
saw sages gathered in a holy grove asking questions concerning the ultimate
Reality. A youth among them answered in a clarion voice: "Hear, ye
children of immortal bliss, even ye who dwell in higher spheres, I have found
the ancient One, knowing whom alone ye shall be saved from death over
again!" [Swet.Up.2.5 and 3.8]
Asked where he had learnt
to chant with that marvelous intonation which never failed to thrill the
listener, he shyly told of a dream or vision in which he saw himself in the
forest of ancient
"It was evening in
that age when the Aryans had only reached the
Swami Vivekananda had this
vision in his parivrajaka days, some two years after the mahasamadhi of Sri
Ramakrishna, probably in January of 1888. On that occasion he had the vision of
an old man standing on the banks of the Indus and chanting riks or Vedic
mantrams, in such a distinctly different form from the accustomed methods of
intonation that it could be compared rather to Gregorian chanting. The passage
which he heard was that salutation to Gayatri which begins: "O come, Thou
effulgent One, Thou bestower of blessings, signifier of Brahman in three
letters. Salutation be to Thee, O Gayatri, Mother of
Vedic mantrams, Thou who hast sprung from Brahman." The Swami believed
that through this perception he had recovered the musical cadences of the
earliest Aryan ancestors and thought that his own Master must have had a
somewhat similar experience in which he had caught "the rhythm of the
Vedas." He also found something remarkably sympathetic to this mode of
chanting in the poetry of Shankaracharya.(5)
c) The Education of His
Brother-Disciples
May of 1887: [After the passing away of Sri
Ramakrishna] Narendra and other members of the math often spent their evenings
on the roof [of the monastery at Baranagore]. There they devoted a great deal
of time to discussion of the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Shankaracharya,
Ramanuja, Jesus Christ and of the Hindu philosophy,
European philosophy, the Vedas, Puranas, and Tantras. (6)
A few days after the Master
had passed away, the mother of Swami Premananda invited Sri Ramakrishna's
monastic disciples to her village home at Antpur. Swami Vivekananda took them
all to Antpur. Their hearts were then afire with renunciation; they felt great
agony of sorrow at the loss of their Master; and all were engaged in intense
spiritual practices. The only thought they had during those days, and the only
effort they made, was for the realization of God and the attainment of peace.
When they were at Antpur, they applied themselves much more intensely to
spiritual practices. They would light a fire with logs under the open sky and
spend the nights there in japa and meditation. Swami Vivekananda would talk
with us fervently about renunciation and self-sacrifice. Sometimes he would
make his brother-disciples read the Gita, the Bhagavata, the
Upanishads, etc., and hold discussions on them. (7)
[At the Baranagore
monastery], Narendra... would illustrate the historical import of Sri
Ramakrishna’s life and teachings upon the present generation of Hindus who were
educated in Western lines of thought, and would show how his life was destined
to alter their minds and the entire character of their theological outlook,
thus bringing them back from drafting in an ever-widening radical divergence
from Hinduism into the understanding of and concurrence with the Hindu ideals
of worship and with the contents of the Upanishads. He would say to them,
"The time will come when you will see what part Ramakrishna has played in
the re-Hinduization of Hinduism and the consolidation, into a compact form, of
its essential elements."…
Through loving discipline
he infused into his brother-disciples the fire and a wider knowledge of the
mission that was before them, the mission which was
entrusted by the Master into his charge for fruition and dissemination. Most of
the sublime ideas which he gave to the world in the time of his fame were not
new to his brother-disciples, except in modes of expression, for they had heard
them in these Baranagore days, or even earlier at the garden-house at
Cossipore.
Most of all, the leader
initiated his fellow-monks into the living realities of Hinduism, making them
conscious of the values of its thought and spirit…. He made them master the
Upanishads, the Yoga Vashishtha, the Puranas, and the other Shastras,
until they knew why the rishis were so exclusive to those who were
outside the pale of Hinduism, but their wisdom was to brahmanize them and
brahmanize the shudras.(8)
[After his return to
Baranagore from his first pilgrimage to the north of
[In 1890], Swami
Vivekananda took Swami Akhandananda with him on his journey [of pilgrimage] to
At
[In December, 1890, Swami
Vivekananda and six of his brother disciples met by chance at
d) Vedic Studies in
Gujerat, 1891 - 1892
At Porbandar, Swami
Vivekananda was a guest at Sankar Pandurang’s place. He was the governor of
Porbandar (Sudampur). Swami Vivekananda said that in the whole of
Sankar Pandurang [was] a
learned pandit attached to the court of the Maharaja of Porbandar. At that time
he was translating the Vedas and he also begged the Swami to remain and to help
him in this extremely arduous task. So both worked constantly for several months,
the Swami interesting himself more and more deeply in the study and
interpretation of the Vedas, perceiving the greatness of thought contained
therein. Here also, he finished reading the Mahabhashya, the great
commentary of Patanjali on Panini’s grammar. (14)
The more he studied the
Vedas, the more he pondered over the philosophies which the Aryan rishis had
thought out, the surer he was that India was in very truth the mother of
religions, the cradle of civilization, and the fountainhead of spirituality.
But he was bitter in his soul that all this glory should seemingly lie buried
under ignorance and that the millions were unconscious of it. He knew that the
tides of the invasion of foreign cultures for centuries had incalculably swept
away many of the glories of the culture of the race in the eyes of the people
themselves, and that many of the pandits, who ought to be the custodians of
this culture, had become mere chatterers of Sanskrit grammar and philosophy and
were only as so many phonographic records of its past, without being possessed
of its sprit and of the sense of responsibility as to their adding to that
culture the fruits of original, intellectual and spiritual researches. (15)
During his stay in Khandwa,
the civil judge gave a dinner to the Bengali residents in honor of Swami
Vivekananda. Before going to attend the party, he took with him a book, which
was a collection of some of the Upanishads, saying that there should be some
reading of an interesting and instructive nature to pass the time usefully
before and after dinner. When the guests arrived, he read some of the very
intricate and abstruse passages and explained them in such a way as a boy could
understand. There was among the guests Babu Pyerlal Ganguly, a pleader, who was
held to be a more than average Sanskrit scholar of that part, who took the role
of critic. But when he went on listening to the illuminating replies and
comments of Swami Vivekananda, he felt himself vanquished. When the reading was
finished, Pyari Babu whispered to Swami's host that Swami's very appearance
foretold greatness. (16)
In the city of
In
e) Swami Vivekananda Finds His
In December of 1892,
sitting in meditation on the last stone of his motherland by the shrine of the
great Mother of the universe [Kanya Kumari], Swami Vivekananda, like another
Jacob wrestling with the angel, wrestled with his own soul, until the Spirit
gained the upper hand, going beyond the limitations of orthodox religious forms
or even the orthodox religious spirit into the great, vast heart of things. To
him religion was no longer an isolated province of human endeavor; it embraced
the whole scheme of things, not only the dharma, not only the Vedas, not only
the Upanishads, not only the meditation of the sages, not only the asceticism
of the great monks, not only the vision of the Most High, but the heart of the
people, their lives, their hopes, their misery, their poverty, their
degradation, their sorrows, their woes. And he saw that the dharma,
and even the Vedas, without the people, were as much straw in the eyes
of the Most High. That from which the Vedas have proceeded, That from which the
Soul of the people has emanated, That from which the rishis received their
inspiration and the avataras their supreme compassion, descended upon him in
all the universality and eclecticism of the mightiest insight; and he felt a
Power, greater than that of his own personality, and his soul in prophecy knew
that That Power was all-sweeping and invincible and that it should work from
within the masses in its own ways - inscrutably and perhaps slowly, but
nonetheless surely - making, above all, for the resurrection of the motherland
and the revival and progress of the people. Verily, in Kanya Kumari, the Swami
was the patriot and the prophet in one.
Thus the meditation of the
Swami was not only thought, not only idle dreaming, it was Living Power. And he
said unto himself, "Yes, I have found my mission at last! I must go to the
West to spread the light of the dharma for the good of
In
On the morning of the
thirteenth of February, 1893, Swami Vivekananda met by appointment the Prime
Minister of Hyderabad, the Maharaja, and the Peshkar… and all those noblemen
promised him their support for his proposed propaganda in
f) Upanishad Classes in
the West
Swami Vivekananda never
quoted anything but the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita. And he
never, in public, mentioned his own Master, nor spoke in specific terms of any
part of Hindu mythology.(22)
He said, "It is only
the pure Upanishadic religion that I have gone about preaching in the
world." (23)
[In Annisquam in August of
1893]: the teaching of the Vedas, constant and beautiful, he applied to every
event in life, quoting a few verses and then translation, and with the
translation of the story giving its meaning.... In quoting from the Upanishads
his voice was most musical. He would quote a verse in Sanskrit, with
intonations, and then translate it into beautiful English, of which he had a
wonderful command. (24)
At Greenacre in August of
1894, Swami Vivekananda rolled forth the solemn poetry of the Vedas for an hour
the other night in his excellent English. (25)
December 8, 1894: "I have been here [in
On January 25, 1895, the
swami held the first of a series of parlor lectures at Mrs. Auel's residence in
The dinner at Miss Corbin’s
[in February, 1895] was a great success…. Swami Vivekananda was very fine and
spoke to the people who came after dinner most impressively. There was the most
rapt attention on the part of the 400 who seemed to feel and expressed great
delight at the change from the ordinary fashionable gathering. He has made many
new and valuable friends. Miss Corbin was too happy to express. She has offered
the conservatory - which is lovely - for classes on the Upanishads. (28)
At
From
At South Place Chapel in
During the next two days
[after Swami's talk to the Harvard Graduate Philosophical society on March 25,
1896]… Swami Vivekananda delivered his last three talks in
g) Systematizing the
Concepts of Vedanta
More and more as time went on, the Swami had found it necessary to systematize his
religious ideas. To do this he felt he would necessarily have to re-organize
the entire Hindu philosophical thought by unifying its distinctive features
around a few leading ideas of the Hindu religious systems, so as to make it
more readily intelligible to Western minds. He wanted to bring out, according
to different schools of Vedanta, the ideas of the soul and the divinity or
final goal, the relation of matter and force and the Vedantic conception of
cosmology, and how they coincided with modern science. He also intended to draw
up a classification of the Upanishads according to the passages which have a
distinct bearing on Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and the Dvaita conceptions, in
order to show how all of them can be reconciled. His constructive genius thus
roused made him want to write a book, carefully working out all these ideas in
a definite form. (34)
To Alasinga, April 4,
1895: "Send me
the Vedanta Sutras and the commentaries of all the sects." (35)
To Alasinga, May 6,
1895: In your
[English language] journal write article after article on the three systems [of
Vedanta philosophy], showing their harmony as one following after the other,
and at the same time keep off the ceremonial forms altogether. That is, preach
the philosophy, the spiritual part, and let people suit it to their own forms.
I wish to write a book on this subject; therefore I wanted the three Bhashyas;
but only one volume of the Ramanuja Bhashya has reached me as yet."
(36)
By the time Swami
Vivekananda went to
To Swami
Ramakrishnananda from Caversham, Autumn, 1895: Well, you just patiently do one
thing - set about collecting everything that books, beginning with the Rig Veda
down to the most insignificant of Puranas and Tantras, have got to say about
annihilation of the universe, about race, heaven and hell, the soul,
consciousness, and intellect, etc., the sense-organs, mukti and transmigration
and suchlike things. No child's play will do - I want really scholarly work.
The most important thing is to collect the materials. (38)
To Mr. E. T. Sturdy,
If we can get it through
before we have finished the classes, and publish it by publicly holding a
service or two under it, it will go on. They want to form a congregation, and
they want ritual. (39)
[This proposal of Swami
Vivekananda was apparently never carried out]
To Mr. Sturdy from
[This was never done,
but from his lectures in
Swami Vivekananda came to
"Send Swami
Abhedananda to
His brother-disciples went
to the abode of the savant Satyavata Samashrami and purchased all the volumes
of the Vedic books, Bibliotheca Indica, compiled by him and published by
the Asiatic Society. Then Swami Abhedananda boarded the ship and his brothers gave
him a sendoff. (41)
On
Friday, August 6th, 1897... Swami Abhedananda landed at the
To Alasinga, Autumn, 1896: I am busy writing something big on the Vedanta philosophy. I
am busy collecting passages from the various Vedas bearing on the Vedanta in
its threefold aspect. You can help me by getting someone to collect passages
bearing on, first, the advaitic idea, then the vishishtadvaitic, and the
dvaitic, from the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Upanishads and the Puranas. They
should be classified and very legibly written with the name and chapter of the
book in each case. It would be a pity to leave the West without leaving
something of the philosophy in book form.
There was a book published
in
October 31, 1896, from
the Journal Light: We lately listened to a discourse by Swami Vivekananda.... The
subject, in the main, was the Vedas, but we got excursions on evolution, modern
science, idealism and realism, the supremacy of the Spirit, etc. On the whole,
we gathered that the speaker was a preacher of the universal religion of
spiritual ascendancy and spiritual harmony. Certain passages from the Vedas -
beautifully translated and read, by the way - were charming in their bearing
upon the humaneness and sharp reality of a life beyond the veil. One longed for
more of this.
We were much impressed with
the admission that in the Vedas there are many contradictions, and that devout
Hindus never thought of denying them nor reconciling
them. Everyone was free to take what he liked. At different stages and on
different planes, all were true. Hence the Hindus never excommunicated and
never persecuted. The contradictions in the Vedas are like the contradictions
in life - they are very real, but they are all true. This seems impossible, but
there is sound sense in it. (44)
Swami Vivekananda was
invited by the Paris Congress of the History of Religions [in the autumn of
1900] to contradict the conviction of many of the Sanskrit scholars of the West
that the Vedic religion is the outcome of the worship of the fire, the sun, and
other awe-inspiring objects of natural phenomena. He promised to read a paper
on this subject, but he could not keep his promise on account of ill health,
and only with difficulty was he able to be personally present at the Congress,
where he was most warmly received by all the Western Sanskrit scholars, whose
admiration for the swami was all the greater as they had already gone through
many of his lectures on the Vedanta. (45)
h) Beginning the
Educational Work in
1. The Monastic Order
In 1894-95 we did not know
the thoughts that were seething in Swami Vivekananda's mind day and night.
"The work!, the work!" he cried. "How to begin the work in
First, a large plot of land
on the
It was Swami Vivekananda's
great desire that the Vedas and other Shastras should be studied at the math.
Since the time the monastery was removed to Nilambar Babu's garden [in
February, 1898], he had started, with the help of his brother disciples,
regular classes on the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Vedanta Sutras, the Gita, the
Bhagavata and other scriptures and had himself taught for a time Panini's Astadhyayi.
(47)
Of Swami Vivekananda's stay
in
All through the serious
period of his [final] illness in 1901 and 1902 and even up to the very end, the
swami was eager to receive friends and visitors and to instruct his disciples,
notwithstanding the plea of his brother disciples to take perfect rest for the
sake of his health; for in the matter of teaching, he knew no limits.
Everything must be sacrificed, even the body itself....
All through the period
under description, and especially from the early part of March, 1902 until the
time he passed away [in July of the same year], in spite of his physical
afflictions, the swami was busy in many ways. Disease counted as nothing when
his mind was set upon doing something. Even unto the last day he himself
conducted numerous Vedic and question classes at the monastery, and oftentimes
the brahmacharins and even his own brother disciples came to him for spiritual
advice. He often spoke of methods of meditation and would train such as were
backward in this spiritual science. He spent hours in answering correspondence,
or in reading, noting down his thoughts for writing some book on Hindu
philosophy or on Indian history; and then, for recreation he would sing some
song or discourse with his brother disciples, giving himself up to fun and
merriment. (49)
The swami always abhorred
extremes. He protested against the too elaborate paraphernalia of daily worship
at the math in the strongest terms and insisted on his disciples devoting more
time to sacred study, religious talks and discussions, and to meditation, in
order to mold their lives and understand the spirit of Sri Ramakrishna's
teachings than to superfluous and minute details in conducting the worship. It should
be done in the simplest way with due devotion and fervor, along with the former
occupations, without taking up the whole time of the monks as it used to do. To
enforce this, he introduced the ringing of a bell at appointed times at which
the members, leaving aside - or, rather, finishing all other works - must join
the classes for study, discussion, and meditation.... About three months before
his departure he made a rule that at four o'clock in the morning a hand-bell
should be rung by someone going from room to room to awaken the members of the
Order, and that within half an hour all should gather in the chapel to
meditate. So, also, classes on the Gita, Bhagavata, Upanishads and the Brahma
Sutras, and question classes for religious discussion were regularly held.
Over and above these, Swami Vivekananda encouraged his disciples to practice
austerities.... In his charge to his disciples he repeatedly pointed out that
no monastic order could keep itself pure and retain
its original vigor as well as its power of working good, without a definite
ideal to work for, without submitting itself to rigorous discipline, vows, and
without keeping up culture and education within its fold. (50)
2. The Laity
It was on the afternoon of
the first day of May, 1897, that a representative gathering of all the monastic
and lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna took place at Balaram Babu's house, in
response to Swami Vivekananda's invitation to them intimating his desire of
holding a meeting to found an association. He had long thought and made a plan
of bringing about close cooperation between the monastic and lay disciples of
Sri Ramakrishna and of organizing in a systematic way the hitherto unsystematic
activities, both spiritual and philanthropic, of his brother disciples.... The
future method of work was discussed, and some resolutions were passed,
comprising in the main the present principles and the aims and objects by which
the movement was to be guided....
After the resolutions were
passed, office-bearers were appointed. Swami Vivekananda himself became the
general president and he made Swami Brahmananda and Swami Yogananda the
president and vice-president respectively of the
In
During his sojourn at
Ambala in Northern India at the end of 1897, Swami Vivekananda daily held
religious conversations at all hours of the day with large numbers of people of
different creeds (which included Muslims, Brahmo, Arya Samajist and Hindu) on
Shastric and other topics and won them over completely - specially the Arya
Samajists - after hot discussions, to his ideas and methods of interpreting the
Vedas. (53)
i) Swami Vivekananda's
Last Bequest to Vedic Study
During the session of the
Indian National Congress which was held in
His last wish (and one left
unaccomplished) was to found a Vedic Institution in
On the fourth
of July [1902, the last day of his life], Swami Vivekananda went to the chapel
and meditated there for three hours. A few days earlier he had told Swami
Brahmananda, "This time I must do one thing or the other; either I must
recoup my health through meditation and japa and work with full vigor, or else
I shall give up this shattered body."... After lunch he took rest for an
hour and then grammar and yoga for two hours in a class. He gave his own
interpretation of the words sushumnah suryavasasah occurring in the
Yajur Veda, as these words had not been interpreted by commentators. Then he
went with Swami Premananda outside the math and walked two miles; and while
walking told him by way of conversation, the whole history of the growth of
civilization and of different nations of the world. (55)
Swami Premananda said,
"For some time he had a strong desire to open a
j) Expressing Vedanta in
Everyday Life
1. Through
Work
[On his way to the West,
Swami Vivekananda stopped in
During his sojourn in
Northern India at the end of 1897, [Swami Vivekananda] visited the Arya Samaj
Orphanage in Bareilly on August 10th; and on the next day, as a result of an
impressive conversation with a gathering of students on the need of
establishing a students' society which might conjointly carry out his ideas of
practical Vedanta and work for others, it was formed then and there. (58)
At the beginning of 1899,
Nag Mahashaya [a devotee of Sri Ramakrishna] came all the way from his distant
village home in Deobhog to meet with Swami Vivekananda at the new monastery [at
Belur]. It was like the coming together of two great forces, one representing
the highest ideal of the ancient garhastya dharma [householder mode of life]
and the other the ideal of a new type of monasticism - one mad with
God-intoxication, the other intoxicated with the idea of bringing out the
divine in man - but both one in the vision of sannyas and realization.
After mutual salutation and
greeting Nag Mahashay exclaimed, "Jaya Shankara! Blessed am I to see
before me the living Shiva!" and remained standing before Swami
Vivekananda with folded hands, notwithstanding his solicitations to make him
sit. On being asked about his health he said, "What is the use of
inquiring about a worthless lump of flesh and bones! I feel blissful at seeing
Shiva himself!" So saying, he fell prostrate before Swami Vivekananda, who
at once raised him up, entreating, "O, please do not do such things!"
At this time the Upanishad class was being held. Swami Vivekananda, addressing
his disciples, said, "Let the class be stopped. You all come and see Nag
Mahashay." When all had sat round the great devotee, Swami Vivekananda,
addressing them, observed, "Look, he is a householder, but he has no
consciousness whether he has a body, or not; whether the universe exists, or
not. He is always absorbed in the thought of God. He is a living example of
what man becomes when possessed of supreme bhakti." (59)
April 9, 1899: When Swami Sadananda and Sister
Nivedita went over on Saturday to report [on the plague relief work in
Calcutta], Swami Vivekananda was so touched by the news that [the monks] had
two hours of everything, from the Upanishads onwards: there could be no
religion without that activity, that manhood, and cooperation. (60)
October 18, 1899:
Ridgely Manor,
December 26, 1900: Dear Mr. Sevier [Swami Vivekananda's
devoted English disciple who dedicated his life to founding the Advaita Ashrama
at Mayavati] passed away before I [Swami Vivekananda] could arrive. He was
cremated on the banks of the river that flows by his ashrama, `a la Hindu,
covered with garlands, the brahmins carrying his body
and boys chanting the Vedas. (62)
2. Through
His Feelings
Swami Vivekananda told us
of Hrishikesh and the little hut that each sannyasin would make for himself, and the blazing fire in the evening, and all the
sannyasins sitting round it on their own little mats, talking in hushed tones
of the Upanishads - "for every man is supposed to have got the truth
before he becomes a sannyasin. He is at peace intellectually. All that remains
is to realize it. So all need for discussion has passed away; and at
Hrishikesh, in the darkness of the mountains, by the blazing fire, they may
talk only of the Upanishads. Then, by degrees, the voices die in silence. Each
man sits bolt upright on his mat and one by one they steal quietly off to their
own huts." (63)
March3, 1890: You know not... I am a very
soft-natured man in spite of the stern Vedantic views I hold. And this proves
to be my undoing. At the slightest touch I give myself away; for howsoever I
may try to think only of my own good, I slip off in spite of myself to think of
other people's interests. (64)
While in
the West Swami Vivekananda's mind had always been occupied with the study of
the history of the whole world and with the relation of the world to
Hindusthan, and of the problems and destiny of
To a Western devotee,
July 25, 1897: I am
so glad that you have been helped by Vedanta and yoga. I am unfortunately
sometimes like the circus clown who makes others laugh,
himself miserable! (66)
[In
Now, turning to Girish
Babu, Swami Vivekananda said, "What do you say, G.C.? Well, you do not
care to study all this; you pass your days with your adoration of this and that
god, eh?"
Girish Babu: What shall I study, brother? I have
neither time nor understanding to pry into all that. But this time, with Sri
Ramakrishna's grace, I shall pass by with greetings to your Vedas and Vedanta,
and take one leap into the far beyond! He puts you through all these studies
because he wants to get many things done by you. But we have no need of them.
Saying this, Girish Babu again and again touched the Rig Veda volumes to
his head, uttering, "All victory to Ramakrishna
in the form of the Veda!"
Swami Vivekananda was now
in a sort of deep reverie. Girish Babu suddenly called out to him and said,
"Well, hear me, please. You have made a good deal of study into the Vedas
and Vedanta - but say, did you find anywhere in them the way out for us from
all these profound miseries of the country, all these wailings of grief, all
this starvation, all these crimes of adultery, and many horrible sins?"
Saying this, he painted
over and over again horrid pictures of society. Swami Vivekananda remained
perfectly quiet and speechless, while at the thought of the sorrows and
miseries of his fellow men, tears began to flow from his eyes, and seemingly to
hide his feelings from us he rose and left the room.
Meanwhile, addressing the
disciple, Girish Babu said, "Did you see that, Bangal? What a great,
loving heart! I don't honor your Swami Vivekananda simply for being a pandit
versed in the Vedas; I honor him for that great heart of his which just made
him retire weeping at the sorrows of his fellow beings."
The disciple and Girish
Babu then went on conversing with each other, the latter proving that knowledge
and love were ultimately the same.
In the meantime, Swami
Vivekananda returned and asked the disciple, "Well, what was all this talk
going on between you?" The disciple said, "Sir, we are talking about
the Vedas; and the wonder of it is that our Girish Babu has not studied these
books but has grasped their ultimate truths with clean precision."
Swami Vivekananda: All truths reveal themselves to
him who has got real devotion to the guru; he has hardly any need of studies.
But such faith and devotion are very rare in this world. He who possesses these
in the measure of our friend here need not study the Shastras. But he who
rushes forward to imitate him will only bring about his own ruin. Always follow
his advice, but never attempt to imitate his ways.....
Swami Sadananda arrived
there at that moment and, seeing him, Swami Vivekananda at once said, "Do
you know, my heart is sorely troubled by the picture of the country's miseries
G.C. was depicting just now. Well, can you do anything for our country?"
Sadananda: Maharaj, let the mandate go forth. Your
slave is ready.
Swami Vivekananda: First, on a pretty small scale,
start a relief center where the poor and distressed may obtain relief and the
diseased may be nursed. Helpless people having none to look after them will be
relieved and served there, irrespective of creed or color - do you see?
Sadananda: Just as you command, sir.
Swami Vivekananda: There is no greater dharma that this
service of living beings. If this dharma can be
practiced in the real Spirit, then "liberation comes as a fruit in the
very palm of one's hand." [Shankaracharya: Hastamalaka].
Addressing Girish Babu now,
Swami Vivekananda said, "Do you know, Girish Babu, it occurs to me that
even if a thousand births have to be taken in order to relieve the sorrows of
the world, surely I will take them. If by my doing that, even a single soul may
have a little bit of his grief relieved, why, I will do it. What avails it at
all to have only one's own liberation? Everyone should be taken along with
oneself on that way. Can you say why a feeling like this comes up foremost in
my mind?
Girish Babu: Ah, otherwise why should Sri
Ramakrishna declare you to be greater than all others in spiritual competence?
(67)
[In Paris] on September 3,
1900, Swami Vivekananda was evidently still living at the [wealthy] Leggetts'
house; but within a week - the exact day is not known - he moved to the
lodgings of Jules Bois, a poor scholar.. who lived in
a flat on the fifth floor. M. Bois wrote:
Vivekananda approached me
as though we had known each other for a long time. A brief conversation
followed, at the end of which he startled me by proposing to come and live with
me. Expressing my sense of the honor his suggestion implied, I reminded him of
the luxury and attention he was enjoying and explained that I was only a young
writer who could offer him very little in the way of comfort. "I am a monk
and a mendicant", was his reply. "I can sleep on the ground or on the
floor. Our luxury will be the wisdom of the Masters. I will bring my pipe with
me and upon its incense will re the verses of the Vedas and Upanishads."
(68)
[Towards the end of his
life] man-making was now the ideal of our illustrious swami. He held classes on
the Vedas and the grammar of Panini, sat in meditation with the monks morning and evening, and received visitors from
various parts of
[The