Teachings of Swami Vivekananda - Concluding part

Swami Vivekananda also realized that the three schools of thoughts – Dualistic (Dvaita), qualified non dualists (Visistadvaitas) and monists (Advaitas) are in reality not different from each other, but rather are various steps towards the ultimate goal. One would start with dualism where there is a personal God to whom one can pray and whom one can love and worship, one would then realize that this personal God has become all living beings and the world (qualified non dualism) and from there by proceeding further one would be able to perceive the unity of every thing with the Supreme Godhead or Brahman and know the world to be actually non existing, all that is existing is this Brahman.

The following words summarizes his core philosophy -

"Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity 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."

Swamiji’s writings are characterized by strength. According to him anything which weakens one is to be rejected like poison. Unlike the Semitic religions which emphasize on sin, Swamiji derives much of his teachings from the the Upanishads by making the teachings more practical and universally understandable and acceptable, and hence emphasizes on the inner divinity. Sin is the other side of divinity, one which clouds the inner potential to become divine. According to Swamji weakness is sin, strength is virtue. He quotes Upanishads – “Na ayam atma valahinena labhya” – this atman is unattainable by the weak. “Abhih, abhih,” he says, “be fearless”.  Renunciation is the key to the strength as by forgetting selfishness, individuality, possessiveness, ego and desire, one foregoes all fears, including that of death. Any action, driven by selflessness and renunciation which increases the inner strength is a virtue, any one, driven by selfishness and possessiveness, which makes one weak and vulnerable, is a sin. All social malaise are weaknesses of the society and according to him they can be tackled by the forceful message of the Upanishads. He says that knowledge of Vedanta will enable one to be superior in every profession, a lawyer can be a better lawyer armed with Vedantic knowledge, a fisherman can be better fisherman equipped with the same knowledge, a student can be a better student and so on and therefore it is necessary that Vedantic knowledge is spread across the world. He had a glorious vision of future India, an India, foresaw he, that would surpass its past glories in the next five hundred years.