jabdakhata

Courtesy - Sanjib Maharaj or Swami Dheyananda ji from Belgharia Students' Home Excerpt from the lecture   Practical Vedanta - Part I   delivered by Swami Vivekananda at London The Vedanta preaches the ideal; and the ideal, as we know, is always far ahead of the real, of the practical, as we may call it.  There are two tendencies in human nature: one to harmonise the ideal with the life, and the other to elevate the life to the ideal.  It is a great thing to understand this, for the former tendency is the temptation of our lives. I think that I can only do a certain class of work. Most of it, perhaps, is bad; most of it, perhaps, has a motive power of passion behind it, anger, or greed, or selfishness. Now  if any man comes to preach to me a certain ideal, the first step towards which is to give up selfishness, to give up self-enjoyment, I think that is impractical.  But when a man brings an ideal which can be reconciled with my selfishness, I am glad at once and jump at it. T

Courtesy - Swami Dheyananda (Sanjeeb Maharaj, Belgharia) Excerpt from the lecture   Practical   Vedanta  - Part I   delivered by Swami Vivekananda at London I have been asked to say something about the  practical  position of the  Vedanta  philosophy. As I have told you, theory is very good indeed, but how are we to carry it into practice? If it be absolutely impracticable, no theory is of any value whatever, except as intellectual gymnastics. The  Vedanta , therefore,  as a religion must be intensely  practical .   We must be able to carry it out in every part of our lives.  And not only this,  the fictitious differentiation between religion and the life of the world must vanish, for the  Vedanta  teaches oneness -- one life throughout.  The ideals of religion must cover the whole field of life, they must enter into all our thoughts, and more and more into practice. I will enter gradually on the  practical  side as we proceed. But this series of lectures is intended to be a basi

A leader is one who grows not at the expense of others, but take others long. A true leader is perfectly unconcerned about himself/herself, and is concerned about the welfare of his people. A true leader loves his/her people and does not differentiate or discriminate. A true leader is painstakingly righteous and would never allow personal compulsions cloud his/her sense of justice. A true leader will always do whatever it takes for the real long term benefit of his/her people and would never give in to short term temptations like popularity. For their long term benefit he/she would not even hesitate to take hard and unpopular decisions. He is, in the language of Sri Ramakrishna, a good physician. An inferior physician will merely prescribe medicines. A medium one will only request the patient to take medicines. A good one not merely requests, but will apply force if necessary, because he/she knows that it is in the best interest of the patient. A true leader does not enjoy power. He/

Kalyanananda and Nischayananda became legends. They extended their work, many more people came under their service ambit, the operations of the Sevashrama expanded, they began providing services among the community of scavengers and other backward people who did not have access to education, trained and educated them, provided clean drinking water to the locals and undertook many other philanthropic and charitable work. One great feature of selfless work is that it never requires any advertisement. Help always comes to sustain and grow the work and that happened for the Sevashrama work as well It is now one of the largest multi  specialty  hospitals in that region with more than 250 beds and catering to poor people from all over India. But two monks had sacrificed their body, mind and soul for this establishment. Yet they never  solicited  donations, never asked for name and fame, never sought to become great. Their only guiding principle was a strict adherence to their Guru’s philos

Life changed for three young men of Benares when in 1901, they read a poem of Swami Vivekananda in the Bengali magazine of Ramakrishna Order called Udbodhan. The peom, titled as “Sakhar Prati”, or “To a Friend” is almost a mini life story of Swami himself and mirrors his thoughts and actions. The last few lines of the poem run as follows From highest Brahman to the yonder worm, And to the very minutest atom, Everywhere is the same God, the All-Love; Friend, offer mind, soul, body, at their feet. These are His manifold forms before thee, Rejecting them, where seekest thou for God? Who loves all beings without distinction; He indeed is worshipping best his God. The three friends, Charu Chandra Das, Kedarnath Moulik and Jamini Ranjan Majumdar were greatly inspired and eagerly looked for an opportunity to serve the God in human form. The opportunity came soon. In Benares, many pilgrims who were poor and aged, had to suffer terribly in the hands of unscrupulous Brahmin pries

Western scholars and their Indian counterparts place a lot of importance on any charitable work conducted by western Christian missionaries in India. For instance Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa receives a lot of visibility, publicity, praises and donations and rightly so, because they have done great work, though not always selfless because of religious compulsions. However similar or better work done in a true selfless spirit by Indians and home grown saints and sages are often overlooked or disregarded. Neither media, nor Western scholars, nor people in the West are interested in the work. It is hardly surprising given that their viewpoints and prejudices would be coloured by religious and national affiliations and they would be hardly interested in a similar or even better work done by an Indian. What is surprising is that the Indian media and intellectuals tend to completely disregard the service and sacrifice of their own countrymen. There may be some other angles to t

Probably the people who have initiated legal action should follow this example. They need to study in greater depth their own scriptures and also Western philosophy, be a master of history and then counter the claims made by the relevant scholar. They need to understand that hard work and sacrifice goes a long way in countering falsifications than mere obstinacy and opposition. They also need to understand that when they oppose anything just because it does not match their own conviction, without fighting it logically and rationally, they are merely following their own ego. Whosoever believes that this work would cause damage to Hinduism and therefore should be withdrawn from market is extremely ignorant, because he/she has underestimated the resilience of the mother of all religions. He/She is simply making the scholar undeservedly a hero or worse a martyr in the  intellectual  circle. Instead one should expose their hollowness and intellectual shallowness. That is precisely what Vi

It was at this juncture when calumnies upon calumnies were heaped upon it that Hinduism not only survived but was rejuvenated under a towering figure whose knowledge of both Eastern scriptures and Western science and philosophy put his adversaries to shame. He was none other than Vivekananda. While several noted Hindu scholars had earlier defended their faith against the propaganda and vilification campaigns, notable among them being Bankim Chandra, Aurobindo and Tilak, Vivekananda fought the battle on the enemy’s turf and on a much grander scale. He had to endure attacks from many fronts, even from the orthodox section of his own country whom he was defending, from the missionaries who identified him as their number one enemy, from the offshoot sects like Brahmos and theosophists. But he was undaunted and unmoved. Any lesser mortal would have been overwhelmed by the combined attack, esp. on a foreign soil, but not Vivekananda. He was made of stronger mettle. In his lecture in Detroi

There is a lot of hot debates and discussion over certain scholar’s “scholarly” depiction of Hinduism. There has been much heartburn over it and now the publisher has withdrawn the book from Indian market. In the past 5000 years or more of Indian history there have been thousands of such scholars who have attacked and denigrated Hindu religion in particular and India in general. Did anything earth shattering happen? In the past two hundred years many European intellectuals and scholars unearthed a lot of hidden meanings, mostly with sexual connotation in the various symbols of Hinduism. Their findings were based on what they saw and what they wanted to believe – stories in Puranas with tales of adultery etc, famous temples with erotic curving, the devdasis in the Soutern temples, the worship of Shiva Linga or phalanx and Yoni or the Shakti principle, the Tantras, esp. the Vamachara with explicit sexual practices prescribed by the aspirants, the Rasa Leela with its apparent erotic s

It is evident that the composer of Mahabharata and Purana, Vyasa, knew very well the true significance of the Vedic Gods. He knew that when Veda speaks about Indra or Agni, they are not eulogizing a few minor Gods, but rather they, through the Karmakanda, are actually trying to reach out to one Supreme Being in various names and forms which would appeal to  worshipers  of various temperaments. The same concept is then being developed as a higher stage of spirituality in the Upanishads. Karmakanda is thus a step in the ladder to climb up and reach the roof of spiritual ascent, viz. Advaita. Since Shakti is not given due importance in Vedas and yet, got a lot of importance in Mahabharata and Puranas, it is evident that the Vedic sages considered God as an entity without sex. If they had promoted the male principle then Mahabharata and Puranas would have no other option than to follow suit and Tantra would not have become popular. Thus it is also evident that there is a progressive deve

Rik Veda is claimed to be polytheist by many scholars. In a way it is because there are hymns addressed to apparently various Gods. Most of the hymns are addressed to Indra and Agni, several to Mitra-Varuna, others to different divine entities like Tvasta, Pushana, Savitri, Soma, Ashwins, Rudra and so on. Since these entitles also represented a particular form of nature, many may think that the sages, being awed by the power of nature, composed hymns by ascribing to every natural phenomenon a divine power. The Western scholars also assert that Vedas to Mahbharata to Upanishads represent an evolution of spiritual thought, with Karmakanda of the Vedas with nature worship as the predominant goal is the first stage, Some prominent Puranas with myriads of forms and personal gods the second, Mahabharata with Vishnu as the Supreme Being and Gods relegated to secondary position is the third stage and almost in parallel with the Puranas. Upanishads are the final stage where theology is fully

Now with this as the foregone conclusion, what measures Swamiji tells us to adopt in order to ensure that a successful and largely peaceful transition happens. First of all, let us write off the elitists. They are, in the language of Swamiji, “fossils”. To the rest of us, who are more open to the transition, he asks us to collaborate, rather than oppose the transition. So it would be better to help in the transition through sincere help and service, through the worship of the living beings, the masses in various ways, by giving them proper education, by helping in their cause, by treating them with with the respect that they deserve as fellow human beings and co sharers of our lives. In short, the privileged few should sacrifice and willingly give way to the deserving many. This is very difficult, esp. when a society is driven by narrow selfish interests. Therefore the transition or handoff won’t be easy and there may be more trials and tribulations in days to come in every society a

Another trend that we see worldwide is the decline of the geniuses, extra ordinary merits. In every sphere esp. in science, there are very few ground breaking ideas. So the decline in culture which Swamiji described as one of the chief traits of the coming of the age of the Sudras is probably already evident. There are not literature well worth speaking, no art that can command respect. Innovations are mostly in the commercial realms. Life expectancies and medical cares have increased but so is the need of the persons providing such services, i.e. Sudras, the serving classes. The service industry is growing exponentially and the mainstay of the jobs for a large number of people, again by definition they are Sudras. There are no charismatic leaders and military expeditions are less and less. On a global scale rise of China is an extra ordinary event as China was reduced to a deplorable state in the nineteenth and early twenthieth century. There are a billion people out there whose ris

Do we see today that such a stage has set in? We see some indications in the social and economic circumstances of the present world. The financial crisis caused by housing bubble is taking a pretty long time to heal. None of the world economies are in a sound state. There is a risk of collapse of currencies and the so called financial stability to blow apart. At the micro level there are insecurities associated with job and life more than ever before. We also see some grave indications in the social system. We see that today political leadership in many states in India is driven by people from the so called humble backgrounds. The elites who have often jeered others with humble backgrounds are fast getting eclipsed. One such sneer was at aimed at one leader who possibly sold tea at some stage of his career. The politics based on entitlements and endolements are not clicking because people are fed up with the elitist attitudes. They are not happy with the feudal mindset. Instead they

Now let us see what Swamiji has to say w.r.t the different rule. In a letter to Mary Hale he writes: Human society is in turn governed by the four castes — the priests, the soldiers, the traders, and the labourers. Each state has its glories as well as its defects. When the priest (Brahmin) rules, there is a tremendous exclusiveness on hereditary grounds; the persons of the priests and their descendants are hemmed in with all sorts of safeguards — none but they have any knowledge — none but they have the right to impart that knowledge. Its glory is that at this period is laid the foundation of sciences. The priests cultivate the mind, for through the mind they govern. The military (Kshatriya) rule is tyrannical and cruel, but they are not exclusive; and during that period arts and social culture attain their height. The commercial (Vaishya) rule comes next. It is awful in its silent crushing and blood-sucking power. Its advantage is, as the trader himself goes everywhere, he is a

In the early twentieth century however the influence of the British waned, as a result of the two world wars declared earlier and  Europe  was changed beyond recognition. Instead, America emerged as the new Vaishyas. The freedom it offered in matters of pursuing one’s goals made it a prominent destination for talents and it leveraged the talents to increase its commercial dominion.  Warfare  continued throughout twentieth century but the reasons were mainly commercial and not  surprisingly  America was in the centre for most of them. The class struggle at first had shown signs of hope with Russia being pitted against Americas and with the rise of China as a potential power, but soon Communist blocks fell like a pack of cards one after another and Soviet Union became a mere Russia. The powers that had promised establishment of dictatorship for  proletariat  had actually established dictatorship for a privileged few, an oligarchy, which ruled over the masses there. However it was e