jabdakhata

He was dead against sectarianism. In his own words, “ All this fight between sects and all those differences in dogmas will not be remembered anymore, and quarrels between your religion and my religion will have vanished altogether, when mankind will understand that there is but one eternal religion, and that is the perception of the divine within .” We can see in the world around us a massive change, compared to the late nineteenth century in which he appeared. India is now more self confident and of late has seen tremendous activity. Indian women were not only actively pursued education soon after the beginning of twentieth century, but also participate side by side, along with their male colleagues, in the freedom movement. His ideals of helping others have taken a firm root and countless voluntary organizations have sprung up, who, though not explicitly subscribing to his ideals, nevertheless perform work which would be much to his liking, in various spheres. Interfaith so

Some scholars say that his teachings differ from that of his Guru Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa, whose teachings are more direct. With due respect to them and with my limited understanding, I think they have either not understood Ramakrishna or they have not understood Vivekananda, or both. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings are the essence of the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, only made more suitable for the understanding of Western audience, whom he prepared for receiving the sublime teachings of Ramakrishna. There is no difference between teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. One can be easily interpreted in the light of the other and it is necessary to study both in order to have a holistic understanding of the Vedanta in general and Ramakrishna-Vivekananda ideals in particular. In fact he was the one who understood his Guru perfectly, in all dimensions. One of those scholars pointed out that though his guru was never into politics and was always concerned about God realizatio

To say that he was liberal would be an understatement as he had greatest respect for all religions and sects. He never lost this, despite the harsh treatment that he received in the hands of the Christian missionaries. Some of the best and most liberal minds of the Western churches like the Church of England and Unitarian churches of  America  were his friends and many of them used his teachings or invited him to speak from their podiums on Sundays. He was an ardent lover of Jesus Christ. One of the books that he always kept in possession during his itinerant days was Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Kempis. It was his genuine and sincere love for the greatest ideal of Christian world, that enhanced his appeal among the liberal section of the populace and the intelligentsia who were fed up with dogmas and doctrines devoid of love or tolerance. His teachings on the positive side, the divinity appealed to them in contrast to the Church’s over emphasis on sins. His Karmic theory was much

Even though Vivekananda passionately highlighted the positive aspects of India, its culture and its people to the world, showing that even the negatives had their purpose and utility for which they were originally conceived, in speeches to his own country men he was vocal about their weaknesses. He was often scathing in his criticism of the weaknesses of her people. He despised the treatment received by the poor, the  outcasts  and the so called lower strata of the society and never stopped short of highlighting their greatness amidst all persecutions and insults.  Some of his detractors have gleefully put up some "adverse" comments of him (of course out of context, as is their norm) about India as told to Ms.  Josephine McLeod on the occasion of her first visit to India.  They suppressed the fact that these comments were told to Ms. McLeod to set her expectations about India. Any foreigner with a superficial knowledge of India and with scanty respect for her would feel i

Swamiji certainly elevated the idea of Hinduism in front of the Western audience in Chicago but he did much more than that. He actually represented India as a whole, not only Hinduism but everything good that India stands for – purity, chastity, culture, learning, tolerance, diversity, respect for others among them. His message was so liberal and so broad that it instantly appealed to all except the fundamentalists, because they realized that here was a man who was speaking truth and whole of it, from his inside, from deep realization. Unlike other speakers who spoke something and believed in something else, Swamiji was united in his thoughts, speeches and actions. People could see purity itself speaking out to them on purity and truth and they marveled. Marie Louise Burke (Sister Gargi) has given a comprehensive account of the trials and tribulations that he had to face in Americas. His first two years were spent in developing a favorable idea of India in general and Hin

Most people perceive Vivekananda in their own lights. Some see him as champion of the cause of the Hindus, some see him as a socialist, some as a great patriot, some as a spiritual leader, some as a social reformer, some as enemy, some as communal, some as the leader of a sect, some as a teacher, some as a philosopher. It speaks of the many dimensions of his personality and many traits of his character. However all these perceptions are like that of the blind men in the parable of Sri Ramakrishna, who went to know an elephant. One felt the trunk and thought that the trunk is the elephant, one felt the leg and thought that the elephant is like a pillar, one felt the tail and so on, but they could never understand the whole of the elephant. One way to look at his myriad accomplishments is to analyze his influence, both in the contemporary period and thereafter. His many accomplishments can be summed up in the following bullets – Rejuvenation of a moribund nation from its s

With the nationwide celebration of the 150 th Birth Anniversary of Swamiji it is evident that how much space he still occupies in the hearts of India and Indians. Many love him and look upon him as the ideal. Several others hate him and try to denounce everything that he preached or stood for by quoting him out of context or by questioning the very work for which he devoted his life, still others are ambivalent and use his teachings for putting forward their own doctrines and agenda. Some other cunning folks are there who use his words in a slightly different way but never acknowledge him. So one thing is evident, India cannot ignore Swami Vivekananda. Rightists, leftists, centrists, all have made a beeline either to hero worship him, use him for political gains or debunk him. So he towers above the rest of India and probably smiles. If his devotees are upset perhaps by reading some obscure scholar trying to assert himself by “tearing the myths” associated with him, he perhaps smi

In contrast, spiritual men of all ages have emphasized on the Unity and commonalities. The highest goal, said they, is to transcend diversity and perceive unity in all. Once this is accomplished, one will be able to love one’s neighbor as he would understand that he and his neighbor are in reality one. They belong to the same unity from where they have come. While every religion talks about creation, nobody seems to mind why such differences have been created. The creator could have created everybody in the same way and forced them to follow one path, the so called “true” path. However Mother Nature dictates that we follow our nature and therefore she has created a path that suits the disposition of each of her child, without enforcing anything on anybody. One can take up whichever path one deems fit, a path that would enable one to achieve perfection and reach the  goal  sooner. That’s why Gita advocates following one’s own dharma or nature and duties. Vedanta says that the diff

One of the main reasons that we lose our peace is that we perceive differences. When there is an opinion which is different from that of mine, we tend to lose peace. As long as our opinions are same we are happy. We are hostile to other people, from different religious background, political affiliation, different castes, creeds, races, spoken languages, body colours, cultures etc. In these entire cases one thing that repeatedly crops up is “difference” or atleast the perceived difference. We hate a different religion because they do not follow our avowed path and principles promulgated by our great man or men and we think that they are bereft of God and thus will have no salvation. We hate people from other races and having other body colours/cultures because we think they are either inferior or are vain. If we look around we see that nature begets difference. We see countless manifestations in nature – fishes, insects, birds, lower animals, higher animals, plants, trees, shrubs, mou

There lived once a miser king. He grew old but he could not relinquish his throne because he thought that his son would come and spend all his hard earned money. He could not give away his only daughter in marriage as marriage would cost him a lot of money. In this way that kingdom was run. One day two very famous dancers, husband and wife, came to visit that kingdom. Then all the subjects requested that king to ask the dancers to provide a night of entertainment to them. The king was afraid that it would cost him a lot of money and hence initially he did not agree. But he was also aware of the discontent of the people and their wrath that he would earn. He also thought about the reputation of the kingdom if it did not extend its hospitality to those famous dancers. He consulted his ministers and they assured him that he need not have to spend any money. The dancers were invited to the court and the entertainment began. It started in the evening and lasted throughout the night. Towar

History is pitiless. It will extract its pound of flesh along with blood, so greater the nature of the crime, greater is the payback and suffering. The outcome of indulging in enjoyment at the exclusion of the others and excessive pride in one’s own ability are recipes for destruction as history has repeatedly proved through the rise and fall of many mighty empires. Think of Europe, it had many intellectuals, scholars and thinkers from sixteenth to nineteenth century. Now where are they? Europe, at the end of its run of prosperity arising out of the Industrial Revolution and exploitation of the colonies can at best boast today of an extreme mediocrity in all spheres. One may ask, if nations have to reap the fruits of the consequences of the past misdeeds of the ancestors of the present generation, is that a fair assessment, one would say that nothing is fair in life. The same question may be asked by the people who were tortured by their ancestors – "why did we suffer?&quo

Historical cycles are gigantic. They do not occur over a few years, not even a few hundred years. They take place, often over periods of five hundred or thousand years. Therefore the wrongs committed may get re payed over periods of thousands years. Where is the empire of the mighty Alexander the great? It is lying in shambles. Of course it was disintegrated right after his death but what remains of Greece, the cradle of Western civilization, today? Greece is now a chaotic state which is desperately trying to retain its identity. It was under the dominion of the Ottoman empire and later with the help of allied efforts and already suffering from a civil war, could extract its independence. Spain is a shadow of the past, already reeling under a terrible economic depression, Portugal has fared no better. Spain had seen the worse when it was threatened by a civil war and the Basque and Catalan independence movements pose a grave threat, esp. if its economy continues on a downhill path. R

Swami Vivekananda, during his stay in Boston participated in a dinner party organized in his honor. There he narrated a fascinating prophecy. He told a small audience that if they did not believe in God, they would have to believe in revenge of history because history is full of many such instances (of retribution). Empires which thrived by ruling ruthlessly were mercilessly overthrown. People who committed great atrocities were dumped. Mighty empires faded into oblivion. While narrating the atrocities caused by British rulers and officials on Indians, he was agitated and said that whatever Europe had done, they would meet the consequences. As we sow, so we would reap. The revenge will come from China. Thousands and thousands of Chinese will overrun Europe. Audience was naturally disturbed and few of them asked, “When will it happen, Swami? In our lifetime?” Swamiji said, , “Oh it will not even take thousand years!” That was indeed heartening to hear. We have no ways of knowing

At the same time Mahabharata tells us one simple thing - the course of virtue is not so straight forward as some people think. There are many twists and turns. It narrates a story about a certain Brahmana called Kaushik who was extremely foolish but wanted to stay on the course of truth. While he was resting by the roadside, a few persons came running in fear for their lives and hid behind a bush. Shortly a gang of robbers came with the intention of killing those innocent victims and demanded the information from Kaushik about their whereabouts. The foolish Brahmana, knowing the great perils that these innocent guys face, gave away the information to stick to his vow of truthfulness. Now truthfulness is considered as a great virtue, but what do you think happened to those guys? They were all butchered. And what do you think happened to Kaushik? Despite being truthful he was sunk into the deepest hell. So what would the moralists say? Obviously neither the ends, nor the means we

How do we define a virtuous end? An end which is devoid of all selfishness, from which will result good for a large majority and which would not result in any harm to innocent victims, will be treated as a virtuous end. Struggle for Indian independence is a virtuous end, so is the restoration of kingdom to Pandavas. Both would serve as good for a large majority. Therefore any means can be adopted for that purpose. In the two examples cited in the first blog of this series, rescuing the damsel in distress is definitely a virtuous act even if the means employed are as cruel as causing grave injury to those bandits. Similarly helping the child to get well even by begging, borrowing or stealing from the rich is a meritorious act with a selfless end objective if done by a third person not related to the child. When we look into the examples cited in Mahabharata, killing of Abhimanyu is not a virtuous end and nor is the means employed. This is because Duryadhana’s victory would b

In Ramayana we have couple of examples like Lord Rama killing Vali while the latter was engaged in a battle with Sugriva. Laksman killed Indrajeet while the latter was busy in performing a sacrifice. How do we justify the acts of such so called cruelty and immorality perpetrated by the incarnations of God? And why would the scriptures written by great sages, whose main purpose is education of the masses for a very long period of time, probably till the end of humanity, would glorify such events? These lead us to look more closely into the end vrs. means debates and the objections raised by moralists as well as apologetics. It is not that end should always justify means or means should always justify end. However, if the end is virtuous and devoid of any selfish agenda, any means can be adopted for achieving it as long as it does not cause any harm to the innocents. Even this can be a yardstick in judging the actions of Lord Krishna and others in the above scenes in Mahabharata.

Would means justify ends or would ends justify means? There have been endless debates on this by scholars of excellent reputation. However as far as I know that this debate has produced two schools of thoughts – a) moralists, who decry every so called foul act and try to view the world through the prism of righteousness, and therefore opine on behalf of righteous means for anything and everything and b) pragmatists – who assert that righteousness is good as long as it is practical and therefore would depend on situation. Means and ends can be righteous if ordained practical, else one should be “pragmatic”. Now imagine two hypothetical situations. In the first, a child is going to die because his parents cannot afford his medical treatment. There is a rich man living nearby who has plenty of money but would not donate. There is no other source of getting help for the child. In the second, a gang of rapists is dragging a hapless victim in an uninhabited place. The only way of res

The entire Europe capitulated in Second World War, irrespective of the affiliations of individual nations. The European pride suffered a major jolt and to some extent the downward journey still continues. Notwithstanding the development in infrastructure and the social progress made by some of the erstwhile powers, there has been a general decline of the political and financial power. With the establishment of Euro zone, Europe perhaps thought that they would be able to salvage some of the earlier financial power in a global stage. But the same idea has now hit them back. In their ardent zeal to see a united, strong, Europe, they ignored the common knowledge that weak links added to a strong chain will not make the weak strong but the chain as a whole weak, so much so that it can snap. There were other problems as well. Some nations of Europe, not driven by any generosity but out of sheer compulsion (of industrial growth and labour shortage – the gap between demand and supply o

Europe had and still has many great characteristics. The European nations (or atleast the most prosperous of them) were diligent, knew how to make most of the material life and lay emphasis on a balanced life full of work and enjoyments. They had invested a lot in education, culture and scientific discoveries. Their great universities and institutions are a testimony to the progress made in different fields. A large majority of the great scientists of late nineteenth and early twentieth century were from Europe. In music, literature and art and architecture Europe continued its progress in the post Renaissance period till the early twentieth century. Europeans were fiercely nationalistic and did everything to build their country often sacrificing their personal lives for the society and the country. Most of the great schools of thoughts between fourteenth and twentieth centuries came from Europe. Proliferation of scientific thoughts made the learned and educated Europeans liberal and

The great message of deliverance that Gita puts forward for the so called sinners is actually an eye opener to its universal kindness and sympathy for all – Api chet suduracharo bhajate mam ananyabhak sadhureva sa mantavya samyag vyavasita he sa Even if the greatest of sinners worship me devoutly, with steadfast and never ending devotion, that person will soon get rid of his sins and become as pure as any holy man or saint. Because My name dispels the impurities of mind. Therefore such a so called sinner will be treated equally as any saint. He will become a holy man and will attain eternal bliss. This message of redemption for sinner turned devotees resonates throughout Gita. In the 4th Chapter we find – Api chedasi papebhyah sarvebhyah papakrittamah sarva gyanaplavenaiva brijinam santarisyasi Even if you have committed great offence, you still have hope if you gain eternal knowledge and wisdom, which will act as a raft to take you across the turbulence of life. Another gr

Gita also talks about compassion, kindness, non violence as essential traits for an individual on the path of realizing God. But it does not advocate weakness masquerading as non violence. In explaining His Vibhuti or the Supreme Powers to Arjuna,the Lord mentions – Ahimsa samata tusti tapah danam yashah ayasha bhavanti bhava bhutanam matta eve prithagvidha Non violence, equanimity, contentment, austerities, charity, prosperity, adversity, all these different aspects of human nature originate from Me only. These are not standalone traits, they are in Me, even though they appear to be different. Non violence is therefore an essential trait which the Lord advocates, but it is not a path for Arjuna, a Kshatriya who is facing a just and righteous war against a bloodthirsty brutal enemy. A true non violent person like Buddha will be able to disarm thousands of forces of violence. But until one reaches that very advanced spiritual stage, one is advised not to indiscriminately use th

If the Lord is indifferent or if He is compassionate, why would he bother about adharma or vices? Didn’t we say that He is above all pairs of opposites? So why would He be perturbed by good or bad? Reason may be many. Only God knows His designs. However He appears on stage for His devotees, who fall in dire straits when there is preponderance of evil tendencies. He also appears to make sure that His life and His followers’ lives become worth emulating for millions in the coming ages. If we take a very high view point then He is still indifferent because in terms of cosmic scale these wars and the associated destructions do not mean anything. Destruction paves the way for new creation. Nature destroys only to create afresh, just as people leave behind their worn out garments to wear a new one. Thus destruction is also a form of compassion, to give people another chance to lead a better life, probably in another age or in another world. Another explanation is that all these are part