This post clarifies in my way what was Swami Vivekananda's contribution to Indian Spirituality.
Many know that he addressed the World Parliament on Religion in Chicago on Sep 11th 1893 and his speech made him world famous.
We also know that his initial Salutation "Brothers and Sisters of America" found a instant connection with the foreign audience.
Apart from oratory skills, his contribution were:
Many know that he addressed the World Parliament on Religion in Chicago on Sep 11th 1893 and his speech made him world famous.
We also know that his initial Salutation "Brothers and Sisters of America" found a instant connection with the foreign audience.
Apart from oratory skills, his contribution were:
- He upheld Hindu Religion and the teachings of VEDANTA. His preachings were ONLY reaffirmation of the VEDANTA principles and He did not invent any new philosophy.
- The most important principle in VEDANTA is RENUNCIATION. This means after fulfilling your worldly needs, a Hindu should at his own pace move towards Renunciation of materialistic world as the ultimate goal. This enables him to focus and understand the PARAMATMA.
- What is PARAMATMA? - VEDANTA preaches that the whole universe is nothing but one single being, the PARAMATMA, one supreme consciousness. The same consciousness is also prevalent in each of the living beings in this universe and also in every material and non material particle (like Energy waves etc).
- Then whats the difference between individuals and supreme being? Individuals are a combination of physical body, mental body and a spiritual body. The spiritual body is the Soul and this soul does not perish. It re incarnates through birth and death. So at various times, it resides in various physical bodies and the present body is one such. This is the reason for not going after materialistic pursuits like money, power, control etc. All these are Maya or illusion as it lasts only one life time.
- Pursuit of the Spiritual well being, that of the soul can be the only permanent goal as this is the only permanent part within us. Hence understanding what the Soul needs, deeper understanding of how the individual Souls are connected to the Supreme being is what Hindu religion and Vendanta is all about.
- Vivekananda convinced the world that Hindu Religion has a place in the world for its pursuit of spirituality. He had deep knowledge of Vendanta - which according to me was - Vedas, Upanishads, Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Bhagavat Gita. He also classified these knowledge into what is permanent unchanging Principles and what is Evolutionary Principles that can change according to the needs of the time.
- Then why are the Hindus suffering? The reason why Indians/Hindus were slaves (under British) and why Indians were empoverished is because of lack of pride in our Religion and our principles. We have started to garner wealth for just ourselves and our families and we neglect the poor brethren who live without a square meal a day. Garnering wealth for our selfish needs, passing them to ONLY our direct descendents, Forgetting the sufferings of millions of poor people IS NOT WHAT VENDANTA is. We have introduced political structures where one class has to do menial jobs, another class will rule etc. We have introduced heriditary rules that money, power, control all will flow from one generation to another through birth and nothing else. This prevents us from having compassion, sympathy towards fellow Indians. The British and the foreigners though smaller in number exploit these inconsistencies and become masters. Once we awake and discard these ignorant practices and follow the original VEDANTA principles, we become so powerful that the WORLD will follow us in our spiritual ideas. We shall do so NOT by violence, NOT by force, but by PEACEFUL means, by preaching TOLERANCE, SYMPATHY.
- Vivekananda was able able to highlight that Hinduism i.e VEDANTA principles have survived through thousands of years. That itself is the authority and our authority is not based on FORCE, VIOLENCE or PERSONALITY. He pointed out that other religions in the world is based on individuals - Jesus for Christianity, Mohammed for Muslims. The principles preached by them are the same but the authority can be lost if evidence arises that these personalities or some of the events associated are not true. Then there is a risk of collapse of these instituitions.
- Vivekananda also laid stress that Vedanta was the only religion that propogated TOLERANCE. This is the only religion that says that you can practice any religion of your choice, but the GOAL is the same which is unification with the supreme or PARAMATMA. Thats the reason you can find a temple, a mosque or a church side by side in India, not in any other part of the world.
- Vivekananda's goal was to awaken every citizen of the world to these aspects of Vendanta. He also reasoned that every country/Race had a unifying theme. For Indians, it is Spirituality NOT politics, NOT Socialism. Hence Every Indian must make Religion a way of life rather than just a part of his life. This is the only way the world can awake with the ideas of spirituality, the need for understanding the supreme being and make constant progress even beyond the death of the physical body.
