GORVI JAN 12

January 12

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

We live in a world of many faiths and religious traditions. How do we get to know about them? From travelers’ tales and missionaries, from books and scholarly expositions, of course. And then there are itinerant inspired preachers, like Billie Graham and eloquent speakers like Vivekananda (born 12 January 1862).

He was born in India as Narendra Nath Datta. He was an exceptionally bright student, endowed with an inquiring and doubting mind. No clear-thinking scholar could tell him anything definite about God. But in his twenties, he chanced to meet a spiritually awakened holy man by the name of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, This encounter transformed him completely. He too had a spiritual awakening. His name was changed to Vivekananda (One who experiences the bliss of enlightenment.

Vivekananda was proud of India’s rich spiritual heritage but was also acutely aware of the chasm between ideals and practice in some aspects of Hindu society. He was completely against casteism and declared there was nothing in Hindu scriptures that proclaimed or condoned untouchability, nothing that banned lower castes from reading the Vedas (as used to be sadly the case in those days). He was pained by India’s material weakness and felt that his people could benefit from the science and technology of the West.

Vivekananda spoke to many audiences in India. He tried to enlighten the orthodox and brought knowledge of Hindu world views to the educated classes in India which were gradually moving away from their traditions. He felt there was much to be learned from the Hindu mode of religious tolerance. He recognized that India’s greatest strength was her spiritual approach to life. “This is the ancient lad where wisdom made its home before in went into any other country, the same India whose influx of spirituality is represented, as it were, on the material plane, by rolling rivers like oceans, where the eternal Himalayas, rising tier above tier with their snowcaps, look as it were into the very mysteries of heaven.

The oratorical Vivekananda wanted very much to propagate Hindu thought to the rest of the world. He came to the First Parliament of World Religions, held in Chicago in 1893. Here he expounded to a large international audience the visions of Hindu sages. The morning after his lecture one Chicago newspaper commented: “After hearing him, we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation.” He was described as “an orator by divine right,” and as the “greatest figure in the Parliament of World Religions.”

Upon returning to India, Vivekananda established the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 in a place called Belūr on the outskirts of Calcutta (Kolkata). Over the years, the Mission opened branches in several parts of India. Today, the Ramakrishna Mission may be found in many (Non-Islamic) countries of the world. One of its goals, especially abroad, is to propagate the message of Hindu philosophy and worldviews.

Monks in this movement have to undergo training in Hindu practice and philosophy. They have to do social service. Inspired by Christian missionaries, Vivekananda insisted that service to the needy ought to be an important dimension of the RK Mission. “Your duty is to serve the poor and the distressed, without distinction of caste or creed,” he declared.

Some have criticized Vivekananda as not being a scholar, but only an inspired preacher who sometimes interpreted ancient worldviews to make them palatable to the modern mind. Maybe. But  unless this is done, any religion or tradition would stagnate and wither away. For the healthy survival of religions its leaders must keep interpreting and re-interpreting ancient tenets so as to make them relevant and meaningful in a changing world, even while retaining the essence and spirit at the root of the tradition for many long centuries. This is what Swami Vivekananda tried to do for the Hindu tradition.