A book, a scholar and some thoughts - part 2

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 Detroit, which was a stronghold of missionaries and Christians of Ramabai circle, he thundered, “One thing I would tell you, and I do not mean any unkind criticism. You train and educate and clothe and pay men to do what? To come over to my country to curse and abuse all my forefathers, my religion, and everything. They walk near a temple and say, "You idolaters, you will go to hell." But they dare not do that to the Mohammedans of India; the sword would be out. But the Hindu is too mild; he smiles and passes on, and says, "Let the fools talk." That is the attitude. And then you who train men to abuse and criticise, if I just touch you with the least bit of criticism, with the kindest of purpose, you shrink and cry, "Don't touch us; we are Americans. We criticise all the people in the world, curse them and abuse them, say anything; but do not touch us; we are sensitive plants." You may do whatever you please; but at the same time I am going to tell you that we are content to live as we are; and in one thing we are better off — we never teach our children to swallow such horrible stuff: "Where every prospect pleases and man alone is vile." And whenever your ministers criticise us, let them remember this: If all India stands up and takes all the mud that is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and throws it up against the Western countries, it will not be doing an infinitesimal part of that which you are doing to us. And what for? Did we ever send one missionary to convert anybody in the world? We say to you, "Welcome to your religion, but allow me to have mine." You call yours an aggressive religion. You are aggressive, but how many have you taken? Every sixth man in the world is a Chinese subject, a Buddhist; then there are Japan, Tibet, and Russia, and Siberia, and Burma, and Siam; and it may not be palatable, but this Christian morality, the Catholic Church, is all derived from them. Well, and how was this done? Without the shedding of one drop of blood! With all your brags and boastings, where has your Christianity succeeded without the sword? Show me one place in the whole world. One, I say, throughout the history of the Christian religion — one; I do not want two. I know how your forefathers were converted. They had to be converted or killed;”

A few years back couple of obscure scholars decided to find themselves a place in history by denigrating Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda with their piece based on Freudian psychoanalysis. For a while the work became quite popular among intellectuals and scholars, both in India and in America. And then a monk and a nun, both extremely erudite, rose gallantly to the occasion. Pravrajika Vrajaprana and Swami Tyagananda made a point by point rebuttal of the claims made by those Freudian scholars.  The strong point of the rebuttal was that it was never personal, never going beyond facts and was purely logical and rational. The said scholars never got back on those rebuttals. The minority among scholars who had awaited facts to counter propaganda and falsifications were relieved as they had now the requisite ammunition. The result was that although the Freudian scholar’s work still finds a place in the academia, its importance has diminished greatly and occasionally it finds a mention in a footnote or so.