Vivekananda: The Spiritual Link between Humanity & Divinity

These are a few words which shows how he, the great Indian Hindu Monk, Swami Vivekananda looked at life & what he wanted us to be.

Vivekananda on Goal of Human Life:

"Let man-making be the goal of our lives! Let us make this our only spiritual discipline! Away with vain learning! Let not the glamour of the world captivate our minds even for a moment! Realization of God is the one & only thing of life! That is what Sri Ramakrishna's life represented! We must realize God!" Said he.

Man-making, i.e. character-building still remains the prime, primary as well as the final end task of Nation-building. Are we following his path? Are we focused on character-building of ourselves from childhood? No. We are not. We are still vulnerable for learning in vain. We still are subjected to knowledge without realization. Existence of Communist ideology is a crying example of "vain learning" !

Vivekananda on Philosophy of Equality of All: The spirit of Hindutva

While Swamiji was staying with a Muslim in Rajputana he was asked by Munshi Jagmohanlal, private secretary to the Raja of Khetri, who seemed doubtful of his authenticity:

"Well, Swamiji, you are a Hindu monk. How is it that you are living with a Muslim? Your food may now and then be touched by him." At this question, Vivekananda flared up. He said, "Sir, what do you mean? I am a sannyasi. I am above all your social conventions. I can dine even with a bhangi (sweeper). I'm not afraid of God, for He sanctions it; I'm not afraid of the scriptures, for they allow it; but I'm afraid of you people and your society. You know nothing of God & the scriptures. I see Brahman everywhere, manifested even in the meanest creature. For me nothing is high or low. Shiva, Shiva!"

This is the truth & eternal learning of Vedas. This is the goal of our life. To be able to see Brahman even in the meanest creature. This is Hindutva, the ideology of plurality, restoration & inclusion of all.

Vivekananda to the Christians of America

He wrote in a letter from America, I am here amongst the children of the son of Mary, and the Lord Jesus will help me. They like much the broad views of Hinduism and my love for the prophet of Nazareth. I tell them that I preach nothing against the Great One of Galilee. I only ask the Christians to take in the Great Ones of India along with the Lord Jesus, and they appreciate it.

He taught the whole world inclusion of all. That's exactly what are our ancient learning is.

Vivekananda on Atheism:

Haripada Mitra, an avowed atheist, was skeptical of wandering monks. His outlook changed drastically during the course of Swamiji's visit: He said:

As I sat there after saluting him, I was thinking, "is he man or a god?"... When I said that faith is the basis of all religions, Swamiji smiled a little and said, "A man goes beyond all wants once he becomes a king; but the difficulty is how to become one. Can faith be infused from outside? Nobody can have real faith unless he has personal experience."

To an atheist he said, faith couldn't be infused from outside! Unless experience & realization, faith doesn't come. So, faith is not to be ignored, not to be undermined.

However, the same Vivekananda said in the Parliament of Religions in America, "...if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: "Help and not Fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," " Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."

Can we realize from this what would he have taught us about religious aggression? From anybody?

Vivekananda on Patriotism

"Practical patriotism means not a mere sentiment or even emotion of love of the motherland but a passion to serve our fellow countrymen. I have gone all over India on foot and have seen with my own eyes the ignorance, misery and squalor of our people. My whole soul is afire and I'm burning with a fierce desire to change such evil conditions. Let no one talk of karma. If it was their karma to suffer; it is our karma to relieve the suffering. If you want to find God, serve man. To reach NARAYANA, you must serve the daridranarayanas — the starving millions of India."

We must serve men, those who are in need. Not a feeling of power but that of responsibility that can generate the desire to serve, to be the SEVAK. And should we not unite to serve our countrymen?

Vivekananda on the Concept of Universal Religion

If there is ever to be a universal religion, it must be one which will have no location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints & sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space for development... It will be a religion which will have no space for persecution or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose whole scope, whose whole force, will be in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine nature.

Swamiji, thus, elaborated plurality & eternity of human existence. The Great Hindu Monk thus taught us the way forward to divinity & ecstatic consciousness.