THE MESSAGE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA.
(The following article is based on a speech delivered by Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, former President of India, on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda's birth centenary celebrations, Calcutta on 20th January, 1963).
I am very delighted to be here this evening and inaugurate the Birth Centenary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda. The city of Calcutta has produced many men of genius in education, science, literature, and spiritual endeavour, and the greatest of the last is Swami Vivekananda. He embodied the spirit of this country; he was a symbol of her spiritual aspirations and fulfilment. It is that spirit which was expressed in the songs of our devotees, the philosophies of our seers, the prayers of our common people. He gave articulation and voice to that eternal spirit of India.
Many of us are content to look upon the greatness which he achieved. But it is more interesting to know the way by which he attained that greatness, the hard difficulties which he had to encounter and surmount, the exercises which he had to undertake, the way in which he transmuted his intractable nature to the purpose of the Divine. That, also, has some interest to the pilgrims, to the stragglers, to workers who wish to attain some kind of lesson in spiritual life.
He was born here, educated in one of the institutions here, studied the works which were popular in his time - the works of John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, David Hume, - was disturbed in his mind, tried to discover the way to Truth, went hither and thither, was tossed about till at last he met Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. The impact of his personality, the sincerity of his conviction, his passionate love of God effected a remarkable change in the life and work of Swami Vivekananda. When he was disputing with philosophers and dialecticians, when he was attending many samajas which professed to declare Truth, he went to him and asked, "Have you seen God?" And the answer came: "Yes, I have seen Him even as I see you, only more clearly, more intensely". He was not arguing, he was not guessing, he spoke from his personal experience and declared that he felt the reality of God in his own life, in the pulse of his being, and was face to face with Him almost all his life. That caused a profound change in the life of Swami Vivekananda. It is the tradition of our country that religion does not consist in arguments and speculations : na medhaya na bahuna srutena - not by brain power or study of many texts; but we have to see the Supreme face to face. The Rig Veda tells us : tad visnoh paraman sada pasyanti surayah. Pasyanti, they see constantly the highest dwelling place of the Divine. So says the Upanishad : vedahametam purusam mahantam adityavarnam tamasah parastat. Do not be deluded by the glamour of this world, by the darkness of this world, beyond it is a Deity. He is the Supreme. It is something which is to be felt, which is to be realised, which is to be experienced. That is the lesson of India.
India never counted on dogmas and doctrines. They were instruments, they were the means for the purpose of realising the highest kind of truth. It is true that the Divine is in each of us, but the splendour is imprisoned. There are so many opaque things shutting it out from expression, from manifestation and austerity, if you wish to manifest the Divine which is in you. Therefore, it costs a great deal. Religion is not a thing which we can acquire by simply reading books. It is a thing which can be acquired by the wastage of your whole nature, by going through enormous difficulties and transforming yourself. He passed through all that, and attained to the sensing of the mystery of this world.
When once you recognise that the Reality is something to be felt, something to be experienced, you do not attach so much importance to the ways by which you attain it. They become subordinate. They become instrumental. And in that great utterance of his in September, 1893, in the Chicago "Parliament of Religions", what he said was that there is God above all gods, that there is a religion above all religions, that there is something which supersedes all our religiosities, all our pieties, rituals, dogmas and doctrines, and that is the religion on the basis of which the whole world, East and West, could be united.
He quoted that famous verse of the Bhagavadgita to that audience : ye yatha mam prapadyante tamstathaiva bhajamyaham, mama vartma nuvartante manusyah partha sarvasah ; even as men approach Me, and do I accept them : all men are trying to seek Me, to find Me, and therefore, I do not make any difference between the pathways and the addresses and the approaches adopted by them; I know their seeking, their earnest endeavour, the way in which they are passing through turmoil to reach the Supreme; therefore, it matters little to Me by which way they attain Me. Swami Vivekananda declared this in the "Parliament of Religions", the voice of eternal India, the voice of universal religion, the voice which says that there is one God above all gods. Devanam adideva ekah, says the Rig Veda. And the same scripture tells us that there are many ways in which that Reality is described by human beings. It is, therefore, essential for us to be tolerant, to be understanding. At a time when our country was lost in dogmatic controversies, when religious people fought with one another, became sectarian, became dogmatic, became exclusive, he emphasised that you do not know what the ultimate Truth is. You must get rid of all these prejudices and prepossessions and believe that the one Universal God belongs to all religions, and that everyone is trying to seek the pathway to that Eternal Supreme.
As in the life of the Buddha, there was in the life of Swami Vivekananda a moment when he thought that he should lose himself in the delights of inner life, in the delights of contemplation and not get back into the world. But Sri Ramakrishna told him : "Shame on you! Why are you trying so much to seek your own personal salvation?" Sivamatmani pasyanti, the Supreme is in every human being. All these are to be regarded as embodiments of the Supreme. We should realise that the name given to him, Narendra Nath, was not a mere accident. He was the embodiment of nara, of human beings. Narayanam narasakham saranam prapadye, Narasakha is Narayana. He felt the pangs of all human beings, and he wanted that every human being should live, lead a decent life. Most of us exist, but do not live. He wanted every one of us to acquire strength, beauty, power, dignity and be truly a human being. We are not that. He looked at the millions who died of poverty and hunger, and he said: "I am the worshipper of dariya narayana, of the narayana who is located in all the poor people of this world. So long as they are there, how can I content myself with my own salvation, or with my own beatitude? It is my duty to look after them all. The best way to reach God is by the service of man".
He inculcated a religion of patriotism - not patriotism in the narrow sense of the word but patriotism as the religion of humanity. His was a religion which called upon all human beings as kindred, as belonging to one family. That is the kind of religion which he taught us and which he adopted. He called it "a man-making religion". It is a humanistic religion. There is no divorce between the contemplation life and social science. The two things are expressions of one and the same kind of phenomenon. If we have reached the Supreme and felt the reality of God in our own minds and thoughts, it would be our duty to come to the rescue of all people who are suffering in this world. A call to suffering is a thing which we should heed. Therefore he said : I suffer; I suffer anguish when I look at the misery of my country, when I look at the misery of my country, when I look at the poor millions dying like flies for lack of food, sustenance, etc. Even Bhagavan takes pity : Bhagavan anukrosamanubhavani - He feels a kind of pity, a kind of compassion, when He sees how the people, in whom the divine spark is located, are not able to develop that spark and make it into a splendour, make it into a flame. That is why we are here. We are here for the purpose of fulfilling ourselves, and that kind of fulfilment does not consist merely in the accumulation of wealth, or name and fame, or possessions. It consists in completing yourself, in your making yourself a symbol or an image of the Divine which dwells in you.
It is that kind of humanistic, man-making religion which gave us courage in the days when were young. When I was a student in one of the classes, in the matriculation class or so, the letters of Swami Vivekananda used to be circulated in manuscript form among us all. The kind of thrill which we enjoyed, the kind of mesmeric touch that those writings gave us, the kind of reliance on our own culture that those writings gave us, the kind of reliance on our own culture that was being criticised all around - it is that kind of transformation which his writings effected in the young man in the early years of this century. In Madras it was so. I have no doubt that it was so in other parts of the country, too.
We are today at a critical period not merely in the history of our country but in the history of the world. There are many people who think that we are on the edge of an abyss. There is distortion of values, there is lowering of standards, there is widespread escapism, a good deal of mass hysteria, and people think of it and collapse in despair, frustration and hopelessness. These are the only things which are open to us. Such a kind of lack of faith in the spirit of man is a treason to the dignity of man. It is an insult to human nature. It is human nature that has brought about all the great changes that have taken place in this world. And if there is any call which Swami Vivekananda made to us, it is to rely on our own spiritual resources. Man has inexhaustible spiritual resources. His spirit is supreme, man is unique. There is nothing inevitable in this world, and we can ward off the worst dangers and worst disabilities which face us. Only we should not lose hope. He gave us fortitude in suffering, he gave us hope in distress, he gave us courage in despair. He told us : do not be led away by appearances; deep down there is a providential will, there is a purpose in this universe; you must try to co-operate with that purpose and try to achieve it.
Renunciation, courage, service, discipline - these are the mottoes which we can learn from his life. There was a time when Sri Ramakrishna marked him out for leadership. The last words which he uttered to any of his disciples were to Swami Vivekananda : "Take care of those boys". Many were older than he. But the advice was there - prophetic advice.
Swami Vivekananda established the Ramakrishna Mission, which has centres in India and abroad. I know of the splendid work which that Mission is doing in the way of spiritual enlightenment and social service. We owe that Mission to his far-sighted vision, and we have it, and I have no doubt that it will continue for many years to come to function for the spiritual succour and the physical sustenance of the large part of humanity which is now enmeshed in materialism, crude and trivial.
It is essential, therefore, that we should remember what this great soul stood for, what he taught us. It is not merely a question of remembering it at a centenary celebrations, but trying to understand what he wished us to do, to assimilate it, to incorporate it in our being being, and to make ourselves worthy of the country which of the country which produced Swami Vivekananda.
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As in the life of the Buddha, there was in the life of Swami Vivekananda a moment when he thought that he should lose himself in the delights of inner life, in the delights of contemplation and not get back into the world. But Sri Ramakrishna told him : "Shame on you! Why are you trying so much to seek your own personal salvation?" Sivamatmani pasyanti, the Supreme is in every human being. All these are to be regarded as embodiments of the Supreme. We should realise that the name given to him, Narendra Nath, was not a mere accident. He was the embodiment of nara, of human beings. Narayanam narasakham saranam prapadye, Narasakha is Narayana. He felt the pangs of all human beings, and he wanted that every human being should live, lead a decent life. Most of us exist, but do not live. He wanted every one of us to acquire strength, beauty, power, dignity and be truly a human being. We are not that. He looked at the millions who died of poverty and hunger, and he said: "I am the worshipper of dariya narayana, of the narayana who is located in all the poor people of this world. So long as they are there, how can I content myself with my own salvation, or with my own beatitude? It is my duty to look after them all. The best way to reach God is by the service of man".
He inculcated a religion of patriotism - not patriotism in the narrow sense of the word but patriotism as the religion of humanity. His was a religion which called upon all human beings as kindred, as belonging to one family. That is the kind of religion which he taught us and which he adopted. He called it "a man-making religion". It is a humanistic religion. There is no divorce between the contemplation life and social science. The two things are expressions of one and the same kind of phenomenon. If we have reached the Supreme and felt the reality of God in our own minds and thoughts, it would be our duty to come to the rescue of all people who are suffering in this world. A call to suffering is a thing which we should heed. Therefore he said : I suffer; I suffer anguish when I look at the misery of my country, when I look at the misery of my country, when I look at the poor millions dying like flies for lack of food, sustenance, etc. Even Bhagavan takes pity : Bhagavan anukrosamanubhavani - He feels a kind of pity, a kind of compassion, when He sees how the people, in whom the divine spark is located, are not able to develop that spark and make it into a splendour, make it into a flame. That is why we are here. We are here for the purpose of fulfilling ourselves, and that kind of fulfilment does not consist merely in the accumulation of wealth, or name and fame, or possessions. It consists in completing yourself, in your making yourself a symbol or an image of the Divine which dwells in you.
It is that kind of humanistic, man-making religion which gave us courage in the days when were young. When I was a student in one of the classes, in the matriculation class or so, the letters of Swami Vivekananda used to be circulated in manuscript form among us all. The kind of thrill which we enjoyed, the kind of mesmeric touch that those writings gave us, the kind of reliance on our own culture that those writings gave us, the kind of reliance on our own culture that was being criticised all around - it is that kind of transformation which his writings effected in the young man in the early years of this century. In Madras it was so. I have no doubt that it was so in other parts of the country, too.
We are today at a critical period not merely in the history of our country but in the history of the world. There are many people who think that we are on the edge of an abyss. There is distortion of values, there is lowering of standards, there is widespread escapism, a good deal of mass hysteria, and people think of it and collapse in despair, frustration and hopelessness. These are the only things which are open to us. Such a kind of lack of faith in the spirit of man is a treason to the dignity of man. It is an insult to human nature. It is human nature that has brought about all the great changes that have taken place in this world. And if there is any call which Swami Vivekananda made to us, it is to rely on our own spiritual resources. Man has inexhaustible spiritual resources. His spirit is supreme, man is unique. There is nothing inevitable in this world, and we can ward off the worst dangers and worst disabilities which face us. Only we should not lose hope. He gave us fortitude in suffering, he gave us hope in distress, he gave us courage in despair. He told us : do not be led away by appearances; deep down there is a providential will, there is a purpose in this universe; you must try to co-operate with that purpose and try to achieve it.
Renunciation, courage, service, discipline - these are the mottoes which we can learn from his life. There was a time when Sri Ramakrishna marked him out for leadership. The last words which he uttered to any of his disciples were to Swami Vivekananda : "Take care of those boys". Many were older than he. But the advice was there - prophetic advice.
Swami Vivekananda established the Ramakrishna Mission, which has centres in India and abroad. I know of the splendid work which that Mission is doing in the way of spiritual enlightenment and social service. We owe that Mission to his far-sighted vision, and we have it, and I have no doubt that it will continue for many years to come to function for the spiritual succour and the physical sustenance of the large part of humanity which is now enmeshed in materialism, crude and trivial.
It is essential, therefore, that we should remember what this great soul stood for, what he taught us. It is not merely a question of remembering it at a centenary celebrations, but trying to understand what he wished us to do, to assimilate it, to incorporate it in our being being, and to make ourselves worthy of the country which of the country which produced Swami Vivekananda.
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