Remebering Vivekanand: Spirit of the Nation

   Remembering Vivekananda: spirit of the Nation

                                  G.P.BAROOWAH

Vivekananda was not only a monk who brought spiritualism to the reach of millions of people of the world but was a social reformer who inspired the youth for nation building. He advised youth to “Arise awake and stop not till the goal is reached”.

Swami Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendra Nath Datta , was born in an affluent family  of Kolkata  on 12 January 1863. Naren”s nick name was “Belay”. His father Vishwanath Datta, was a successful attorney with interests in a wide range of subjects, and his mother, Bhuvaneswari Devi, was endowed with deep devotion with strong character . A precocious boy, Narendra excelled in music, gymnastics and studies Born with a yogic temperament, he used to practice meditation even from his boyhood, and was associated with Brahmo Movement for some time where he used to sing sometime. Later he took to Monastic life and was known as Swami Vivekananda. He was the first Monk of the country to bring home the Divinity, from the exclusive preserve of Sanyasis at Himalayas, to the world of humanity. He declared Godliness could be found in serving the humanity of the nation.

“So long as the millions die in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who having been educated at their expenses but pays not the least heed to them!”, Vivekananda  declared.

Vivekananda advised his disciple, "Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success that is the way great spiritual giants are produced." After delivering his speech only for six minutes at Parliament of Religion in Chicago, Vivekananda had become a cult figure. The New York Herald wrote “He is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religion. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation”.

 Once Sri Aurobindo declared that the going forth of Swami Vivekananda marked out by the Master as the heroic soul destined to take the world between his two hands and change it, was the first visible sign to the world that India  was awake not only to survive but to conquer. Once the soul of nation was awake in religion, it was only a matter of time and opportunity for it to throw on all spiritual and intellectual activities in national existence and take possession of them. (In Sri Aurobindo Vol. 2(1972) page 33.

The same Vivekananda at the threshold of youth had to pass through a period of spiritual crisis when he was assailed by doubts about the existence of God.  It was at that time he first heard about Sri Ramakrishna from one of his English professors at college.  One day in November 1881, Narendra went to meet Sri Ramakrishna who was staying at the Kali Temple in Dakshineshwar.  He straightaway asked the Master a question which he had put to several others but had received no satisfactory answer: “Sir, have you seen God?”  Without a moment’s hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: “Yes, I have.  I see Him as clearly as I see you, only in a much intense sense.”
Apart from removing doubts from the mind of Narendra, Sri Ramakrishna won him over through his pure, unselfish love.  Thus began a guru-disciple relationship which is quite unique in the history of spiritual masters.  Narendra now became a frequent visitor to Dakshineshwar and, under the guidance of the Master, made rapid strides on the spiritual path. . The same Vivekananda who was searching for God later realized that God is within the humanity and he advised his disciple to consider humanity as the embodiment of God. His words were “Shiva Rupe Jiba Puja”(Worship human as the embodiment of God)
After the death of his father while his family members faced poverty Vivekananda tried for  a job for the  sustenance of family. He even asked his master to help him get a job. The master told him  that he  cannot ask Goddess Ma ,  rather  Narendranath  should  beg for himself for  the divine blessing. He  went to temple  but could not ask .The young disciples nursed the Master with devoted care when he was inflicted with Cancer.  In spite of poverty at home and inability to find a job for himself  Narendra joined the group of  would be sanyasis  as its leader.
Vivekananda’s greatest teaching was that the history of the world is the history of a few men who had faith in themselves. As soon as a man or a nation loses faith in himself or itself, death comes. Believe first in yourself, and then in God, he added.
Sri Ramakrishna instilled in these young men the spirit of renunciation and brotherly love for one another.  One day he distributed ochre robes among them and sent them out to beg food.  In this way he himself laid the foundation for a new monastic order.  He gave specific instructions to Narendra about the formation of the new monastic Order.  In the small hours of 16 August 1886 Sri Ramakrishna gave up his mortal body.
After the Master’s passing, fifteen of his young disciples (one more joined them later) began to live together in a dilapidated building at Baranagar in North Kolkata.  Under the leadership of Narendra, they formed a new monastic brotherhood, and in 1887 they took the formal vows of sannyasa, thereby assuming new names.  Narendra now became Swami Vivekananda (although this name was actually assumed much later.)
Romaine Rolland the great French thinker and philosopher who attended the Parliament of Religion in Chicago wrote “The effect of those mighty words (of Vivekananda) was immense. Over the heads of the official representative of the Parliament they were addressed to all and appealed to outside thought. Vivekananda fame at once spread abroad and India as a whole benefited…”.(The life of Vivekananda pp 36-40 )
After establishing the new monastic order, Vivekananda heard the inner call for a greater mission in his life.  While most of the followers of Sri Ramakrishna thought of him in relation to their own personal lives, Vivekananda thought of the Master in relation to India and the rest of the world In the middle of 1890, after receiving the blessings of Sri Sarada Devi, the divine consort of Sri Ramakrishna, known to the world as Holy Mother, who was then staying in Kolkata, Swamiji left Baranagar Math and embarked on a long journey of exploration and discovery of India.
During his travels all over India, Swami Vivekananda was deeply moved to see the appalling poverty and backwardness of the masses.  He was the first religious leader in India to understand and openly declare that the real cause of India’s downfall was the neglect of the masses.  The immediate need was to provide food and other bare necessities of life to the hungry millions.  For this they should be taught improved methods of agriculture, village industries, etc.  It was in this context that Vivekananda grasped the crux of the problem of poverty in India (which had escaped the attention of social reformers of his days): owing to centuries of oppression, the downtrodden masses had lost faith in their capacity to improve their lot.  It was first of all necessary to infuse into their minds faith in themselves.  For this they needed a life-giving, inspiring message.  Swamiji found this message in the principle of the Atman, the doctrine of the potential divinity of the soul, taught in Vedanta, the ancient system of religious philosophy of India.  He felt that  the masses needed two kinds of knowledge:  secular knowledge to improve their economic condition, and spiritual knowledge to infuse in them faith in themselves and strengthen their moral sense.  The next question was, how to spread these two kinds of knowledge among the masses?  Through education – this was the answer that Swamiji found.   Swamiji  found  that purity, patience and perseverance are the three essentials to success and above all love. He advised youth to be pure, staunch, and sincere to the backbone and everything else will fall in place, he added.

 

It was when these ideas were taking shape in his mind in the course of his wanderings that Swami Vivekananda heard about the World’s Parliament of Religions to be held in Chicago in 1893.  His friends and admirers in India wanted him to attend the Parliament.  He too felt that the Parliament would provide the right forum to present his Master’s message to the world, and so he decided to go to America. Another reason which prompted Swamiji to go to America was to seek financial help for his project of uplifting the masses.
Swamiji, however, wanted to have an inner certitude and divine call regarding his mission.  Both of these he got while he sat in deep meditation on the rock-island at Kanyakumari.  With the funds partly collected by his Chennai disciples and partly provided by the Raja of Khetri, Swami Vivekananda left for America from Mumbai on 31 May 1893.

The Parliament of Religions and after

His speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in September 1893 made him famous as an ‘orator by divine right’ and as a ‘Messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world’.  After the Parliament, Swamiji spent nearly three and a half years spreading Vedanta as lived and taught by Sri Ramakrishna, mostly in the eastern parts of USA and also in London. Vivekananda  declared in the parliament of religion on 11^th September 1993 “I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught  the world both tolerance and universal  acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.”, he declared.

Awakening his countrymen

He returned to India in January 1897.  In response to the enthusiastic welcome that he received everywhere, he delivered a series of lectures in different parts of India, which created a great stir all over the country.  Through these inspiring and profoundly significant lectures Swamiji attempted to do the following:

• to rouse the religious consciousness of the people and create in them pride in their cultural heritage;
• to bring about unification of Hinduism by pointing out the common bases of its sects;
• to focus the attention of educated people on the plight of the downtrodden masses, and to expound his plan for their uplift by the application of the principles of Practical Vedanta.

Founding of Ramakrishna Mission

Soon after his return to Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda accomplished another important task of his mission on earth.  He founded on 1 May 1897 a unique type of organization known as Ramakrishna Mission, in which monks and lay people would jointly undertake propagation of Practical Vedanta, and various forms of social service, such as running hospitals, schools, colleges, hostels, rural development centres etc, and conducting massive relief and rehabilitation work for victims of earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities, in different parts of India and other countries.
In early 1898 Swami Vivekananda acquired a big plot of land on the western bank of the Ganga at a place called Belur to have a permanent abode for the monastery and monastic Order originally started at Baranagar, and got it registered as Ramakrishna Math after a couple of years.  Here Swamiji established a new, universal pattern of monastic life which adapts ancient monastic ideals to the conditions of modern life, which gives equal importance to personal illumination and social service, and which is open to all men without any distinction of religion, race or caste.
It may be mentioned here that in the West many people were influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s life and message.  Some of them became his disciples or devoted friends.  Among them the names of Margaret Noble (later known as Sister Nivedita), Captain and Mrs Sevier, Josephine McLeod and Sara Ole Bull, deserve special mention.  Nivedita dedicated her life to educating girls in Kolkata.  Swamiji had many Indian disciples also, some of whom joined Ramakrishna Math and became sannyasins.

Last Days

In June 1899 he went to the West on a second visit.  This time he spent most of his time in the West coast of USA.  After delivering many lectures there, he returned to Belur Math in December 1900.  The rest of his life was spent in India, inspiring and guiding people, both monastic and lay.  Incessant work, especially giving lectures and inspiring people, told upon Swamiji’s health.  His health deteriorated and the end came quietly on the night of 4 July 1902.  Before his Mahasamadhi he had written to a Western follower: “It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body, to cast it off like a worn out garment.  But I shall not cease to work.  I shall inspire men everywhere until the whole world shall know that it is one with God.”

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