Significance of Swami Vivekananda’s -Life and Work

 Dr. Anita Manna

Significance of Swami Vivekananda’s -Life and Work 

India has produced many heroes, and it is remarkable that whenever the country has been threatened by  disintegrating forces , a spiritual leader has appeared with the right kind of message to put the country in order. Out of those leaders one is Swami Vivekananda . Actual name of Swami Vivekananda is Narendra Nath Dutta, he was born in an upper middle-class family  on 12 January 1863. Narendra Nath’s father was an Attorney at the Calcutta High Court .The family atmosphere was a blend of modernism and orthodoxy, represented respectively by his parents.

In student life the interest of Narendranath’s energy was diverted through the channel of searching for God ,the Absolute Truth .He used to practise consistence and concentration of mind as prescribed by Indian Seers .This quest of truth brought him in contact with Maharshi Devendranath Tagore ,Keshab Chandra Sen, Shivnath Shastri and others of the Brahmo Samaj of which Narendra Nath was a member for a period , and with Brajendranath Seal. In1882 after a fruitful search for a man who had seen God and could guide him to do so. He found Sri Ramakrishna to be the man and visited Ramakrishna at the Dakshineswar and finally being satisfied, he surrendered to him and realised under his guidance the  Absolute Truth in 1886.

Swami Vivekananda’s inspiring personality was well-known both in India and in America during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of 20th century.The unknown monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at the Parliament of religions held in Chicago in 1893, at which he represented Hinduism. On the opening day of the Parliament of Religions, a short speech beginning with  “Sisters and Brothers of America” made  Vivekananda the most popular speaker there and a world- figure.These speeches impressed deeply the modern  western mind as to what true religion is, and along with it the greatness of Hindu civilisation and Hindu religion.

All the subsequent speeches of the Swamiji at the Parliament were listened to with great respect and appreciation. They all had one common theme i.e, universality. While all the delegates to the Parliament spoke of their own religion the Swami spoke of religion that was vast as the sky and deep as the ocean .When the Parliament ended, the days of quiet had ended for the Swamiji.

When Swamiji returned to India in 1897 he was received by the people as a conquering hero. He was driven through the city‘s in decorated coaches drawn by admiring crowds in one instance the ruling prince of a state with this court officials joined the people in drawing the coach the story was the same wherever he went he travelled from Colombo to Almora inspiring people he was impressed by the Western progress but he did not mince matters in pointing out how the crazy for money and the comforts it brought could someday boomerangs.

Swami Vivekananda interacted with own people he was equally blunt. He saw no special merit in starving people indulging in moral and spiritual dialectics. Once his teacher Ramakrishna used to say that there could be no religion on an empty stomach .Swami Vivekananda also thought that what India needed first and foremost was bread.He had travelled extensively through India mostly on foot before leaving for the West.Next to poverty the heinous caste system of India troubled him .No one else attacked it so strongly as he did. He said India’s downfall begin from the day she coined the word ‘untouchable’ Swamiji condemned Indian society as being too  restrictive .The next problem he talked about was education .He found the prevailing system of education turned out only clerks .He did not care for this kind of education. He wanted ‘man- making’ and character building education should be in India.

Vivekananda believed education is the manifestation of perfection already in men. He thought it a pity that the existing system of education did not enable a person to stand on his own feet, nor did it teach him self-confidence and self-respect.

He appealed to the higher caste to share with the lower caste all the idealism they had so long cherished for their own use .In other words he wanted all caste barriers to go .He did not want any sort of ‘levelling down’ he wanted ‘levelling up’. He wanted the gap between the high caste and the lower caste bridged by universal education. 

Education was the Panacea for all evils, according to him. He wanted a classless casteless society. He visualised the future society as being ‘a junction of the two great systems, i.e, Hinduism and Islam- Vedanta brain and lslam body’. He was also distressed by the neglect to Indian women were subjected .They were not allowed to go to school. They were given away in marriage before eight and by fourteen they become mothers .Swamiji was prepared to revolt against child marriage. Women should have the same status as men in society. If they cannot contribute their share towards social growth, society is the loser to that extent . He said ‘it is not possible for a bird to fly on only one  wing’. Swamiji was impressed by Western woman’s capabilities .He invited some of them to come and work in India.The most notable among them was Sister Nivedita who served India till her death, working in every field of the country’s life .India still remembers her with gratitude.

India owes much to Swami Vivekananda, but so does the world. He was a true citizen of the world. In fact, man everywhere was some Swamiji’s concern. Man was God Himself to him. This is not humanism , it is much more than that. This is Vedanta ,which sees God everywhere and  in everything. Man is the image of God, for God is most manifest in man. Swamiji’s distinct contribution is Vedanta. Vedanta had always been known, but not known in the form he preached it .It had been known only among a certain class of scholars who enjoyed studying and debating its propositions .Swamiji had preached Vedanta in the West— perhaps he was the first to do so.

According to Swami Vivekananda, the message of Vedanta consist in unfolding the potential divinity of man, developing an unshakeable faith in oneself, manifesting absolute fearlessness of any kind, and attaining complete freedom of the spirit now enmeshed in this body- mind complex. To attain to that total freedom even while living in the ultimate goal of human beings.

Vedanta leads to attain self realisation through the four path ie;

1. Karma Yoga: All action is karma. It means the effect of which our past actions were the causes. But in Karma yoga we have simply to do with the word Karma as meaning work. 

2. Jana Yoga :Jana yoga also known as the jana marga,  is one of the four classical path of the moksha in Hinduism, which emphasise the path of knowledge.

3. Bhakti Yoga:Bhakti yoga is a real, genuine search after the Lord, a search beginning ,continuing, and ending in love. One single moment of the madness of extreme love of God brings us eternal freedom. Bhakti  is “intense love to God”.This love cannot be reduced to any earthly benefits. 

4. Raja Yoga:Raj Yoga is as much a science as any in the world. It is an analysis of the mind, a gathering of the facts of the super-sensuous world and so building up the spiritual world.

Ramakrishna Math was established by Swami Vivekananda himself and also designed the emblem as,

The meaning behind this emblem, in the language of Vivekananda himself: “The wavy waters in the picture are symbolic of Karma, the lotus of Bhakti, and the rising-sun of Jnana. The encircling serpent is indicative of Yoga and awakened Kundalini Shakti, while the swan in the picture stands for Paramatman.

EACH SOUL IS POTENTIALLY DIVINE.

THE GOAL IS TO MANIFEST THIS DIVINE WITHIN, BY CONTROLLING NATURE, EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL.

DO THIS EITHER BY WORK, OR WORSHIP, OR PSYCHIC CONTROL, OR PHILOSOPHY, BY ONE, OR MORE, OR ALL OF THESE—AND BE FREE.

THIS IS THE WHOLE OF RELIGION. DOCTRINES, OR DOGMAS, OR RITUALS, OR BOOKS, OR TEMPLES, OR FORMS, ARE BUT SECONDARY DETAILS.

Swami Vivekananda’s greatest contribution is that he brought the East and the West closer to each other. In fact he pulled down the artificial barriers that divided them.He demonstrated that man was the same everywhere; distinctions of race and religion that irrelevant.Unity in diversity was his key principle.

He was positive, not negative. Nothing was bad to him, only some things needed to be improved. It is easy to condemn, difficult to uplift. Swamiji was for the uplift of everybody, everywhere. He would take the world as it is and then push it forward. He would have everybody grow the way that is best suited for him, and would not impose anything on him.

His very famous slogan is “ Arise ,Awake and stop not till the goal is reached.”

Reference:

1. Swami Vivekananda - A biography his vision and ideas - Verinder Grover.

2. Swami Vivekananda- A hundred years since Chicago. - Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission.

3. Vedanta Voice of Freedom - Swami Chetanananda.

4. Swami Vivekananda- Work and it’s Secret 

5. What Religion is- in the words of Swami Vivekananda- Swami Vidyatmananda.