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Remembering Vivekananda

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Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013


INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE from the publishers of THE HINDU

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COVER STORY

Remembering Vivekananda
AMIYA P. SEN

Above the clouds, The The idea of India as a distinct civilisation and cultural habitat sun is always found its most creative expression in Swami Vivekananda. It was his persistent belief that India was capable of giving back to the shining.
world as much as it took from the world and thereby establish its rightful claim in the assembly of nations. On his 150th birth anniversary, a critical reappraisal of his life and legacy.
COURTESY : VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM

Swami Vivekananda in London in December 1896, shortly before he would start his journey back to India. He travelled through Europe by train and set sail for India from Naples on December 30. This nation has distinctive ways of celebrating its heroes. We are ever so prompt and passionate in commemorating the births and deaths of notable individuals as though these events in themselves mattered more than the ideas or institutions they left behind. Over the past couple of years or so, various agencies and organisations, including the Government of India, have been hosting a variety of programmes commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). Such celebrations have called to the platform well-known

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public figures, among them several politicians and bureaucrats, who excitedly read out speeches that probably did not originate with them. In Delhi, the local branch of the Ramakrishna Mission made a special effort to invite prominent personalities from the fields of culture and sports whose very names have led to swelling crowds. The Mission also seems to have thought rather poorly of lay scholarship, for most of the speakers invited to speak on a variety of themes ranging from international peace to quintessential spirituality were those who adorned the ochre robe. What got left out in all this were the private thoughts of a citizen on a luminous life and its legacy. It may be reasonably doubted if this long and enduring trail of public eulogy at all leaves adequate space for more measured and critical reflections on a life. That apart, Vivekanandas life and work have been variously interpreted: one has heard of the Left understanding sanyas as parasitic and of the tendentious appropriation by Hindutva forces. The new danger, though, comes from Vivekanandas closest guardians: the Ramakrishna Mission itself, which, I have reason to believe, is getting increasingly selective about what views or perceptions of the Swami to accept officially. Even so, some reflections, I felt, I owed to myself, especially considering the ways in which the life and work of Vivekananda have shaped my own understanding of modern India and Indians. I would begin by pressing the claim that the idea of India as a distinct civilisation and cultural habitat found its most creative expression in Swami Vivekananda. It was his persistent belief that India was capable of giving back to the world as much as it took from the world and thereby re-establish its rightful claim in the assembly of nations. In part, no doubt, this reflected the burgeoning nationalism of his times which drew upon shades of cultural revivalism and romanticised readings of the Indian past. However, Vivekananda also appears to have gone beyond this tendentious project, for he rejected pure political praxis and visualised freedom as much as a social concept as the political. In modern India, Vivekananda anticipates Gandhi in attempting to understand the nation not so much in terms of some ideology as developing a deep relationship with its people. This he performed not through some upper-class rhetoric, as had been pompously aired before him, but through genuine empathy and understanding, based upon close observations of Indian life. His ideals were the Buddha, who had no metaphysics but heartfelt compassion, and the contemporary philanthropist Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who rediscovered human warmth and innocence among rustic Santhals, at some distance from the pretentious world of colonial Calcutta (now Kolkata).
COURTESY: ADVAITA ASHRAMA

In 1897, Vivekananda (third from right) in Calcutta with his

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brother disciples (from left) Trigunatitananda, Sadananda (sitting on the floor), Shivananda, Turiyananda and Brahmananda. Like Gandhi again, he was not particularly seized with the idea of offering sophisticated models explaining Indian poverty but spent a lifetime in befriending the poor. It occurs to me that long before he attempted to understand the intricacies of monistic Vedanta, Vivekananda had grown aware of the fact that a philosophy that spoke so idealistically of the underlying unity of all life had been practically defeated in everyday social relations. To a weary and starving Vivekananda, human goodness shone through the noble act of the menial who willingly offered his coarse chapattis to the Swami or the courageous cobbler who shared a smoke, unmindful of the severe social retribution that might have followed. In later life, Vivekananda often tried to explain his recurring violations of taboos regarding food and drink with reference to his standing as a sanyasi on whom, apparently, social conventions did not apply. On the other hand, it would not be unreasonable to say that as a class, Hindu sanyasis, even to this day, are not usually given to such transgressions. Speaking before an English audience in London in 1896, Vivekananda was thus heard to say: One defect in the Advaita [Vedanta] was its being worked so long on the spiritual plane only. ...now the time has come to make it practical. However, that metaphysical truth could turn quite meaningless when entirely divorced from social realities would have dawned upon the Swami long before the 1896 lectures. Like several thinkers before him, Vivekananda believed that a grossly materialist West was in need of spiritual enlightenment and that such instructions could suitably arrive through India. On the other hand, he was also heard to say that England and America were more fertile grounds for Vedanta to succeed since, compared with India, they were societies that had secured a state of material development that could better sustain human life. Religion, as the Swami was never weary of emphasising, was not for empty stomachs. The other interesting quality about Swami Vivekananda was his ability to combine a programme for social empowerment with efforts to restore to the individual his innate self-belief and dignity. The social emancipation of the masses was an objective very dear to Vivekananda which he hoped to carry out somewhat in the manner of the Jesuits, combining religious zeal with an ethically ennobling mission to educate. Swami Vivekananda did not expect the poor and the unlettered to come flocking to schools; rather he anticipated present-day voluntarism by exhorting a band of dedicated young men and women to tour the country teaching people rudimentary science and familiarising them with the artefacts of material culture in a manner that might help improve their everyday life. A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with the eternal faith of the Lord, nerved to lions courage by their sympathy for the fallen and the downtrodden, he wrote in a letter to a fellow monk, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social rising up, the gospel of equality. In consistently expressing this concern to be at one with the people, to make them better aware of their own human potentialities, Vivekananda departed company of both his siksha guru and diksha guru. He differed from Acharya Sankara (in whose spiritual lineage he situated himself) by giving primacy to intuitive experiences over knowledge gleaned from scriptures. He parted the company of his own guru, Sri Ramakrishna, by rejecting the category of adhikar bheda, a system under which spiritual entitlement was linked to birth. In both cases, he had the courage and the social imagination to move away from exclusivity to what may be loosely called spiritual democracy. And yet, for Vivekananda, the most fundamental changes appeared to occur at the level of the individual.

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Freedom itself was not something that man could seize in the external world; it was something that one had to realise within. It was not knowledge per se but experience that ultimately mattered. That Moses, Christ or the Buddha had attained salvation meant nothing for a man unless he, too, could realise this himself. Man-making was, therefore, the Swamis preferred agenda, and this included both the development of material skills and the spiritual edification of souls.
COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM

In Madras, February 1897. In what is now Vivekanandar Illam, with disciples and visitors. Vivekananda distrusted organised religions and attempts at institutional reform since these operated on the basis of aggregates and not individual experiences or insights. The urge to change, the Swami maintained, had to come from within, not dictated from above by self-righteous people. This is precisely the ground on which he spurned social legislation and the condescension of upper-class reformers who believed that they could bring about meaningful changes without truly understanding the problems of everyday quotidian life. Root and branch reform was what the Swami wanted. For Vivekananda, the ideal man had to acquire four primal qualities: abhaya (fearlessness), ahimsa (non-injury), asanga (non-attachment) and ananda (divine bliss). Fearlessness came from a mans realising the Divine within. A man was to be judged not by what he manifested but what he represented, Vivekananda would say. While in this world he was always capable of sinning and wrongdoing, he was equally capable of overcoming these once he came to realise the Divine within. Both Ramakrishna and Vivekananda sharply disagreed with the idea of man being overburdened with a sense of guilt, such as one had come to hear from evangelists. A man truly treading on the spiritual path had little cause to fear moral pitfalls. Likewise, refraining from wanton violence and causing injury to others came from realising the common source of all life in God. Asanga for Vivekananda did not suggest withdrawing from everyday world or refusing to be caught in the web of social relationships but remaining dispassionate in work and transcending petty self-interest. Ananda, the Swami maintained, again much in the manner of his guru, Sri Ramakrishna, was revelling in the munificence of God and His joyous creation. The world, in his view, ceased to have meaning unless we were prepared to vest some spiritual meaning in the seemingly material aspects of our lives. Our several follies and failings could be sublimated once we understood that the world was indeed pervaded by the secret delight of God. For Vivekananda, the term religion carried multiple meanings. It could

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suggest piety and the adoration of God but also a pragmatic world view that tried to bring about the positive improvement of self and society. In yet another sense, it represented a cultural paradigm that quintessentially characterised a people or a nation. Looking back at his life and work, this would seem to be something of a paradox. The Vedantin in him wistfully eyed moksha-centric liberation, whereas the strongly humanist side to his character not only spurned such goals but came to question the universal need for salvation itself. The present-day Hindu society is organised only for spiritual men and women and hopelessly crushes out everybody else, he complained in a letter of 1894, why should they go who want to enjoy this world with all its frivolities? Swami Vivekananda once told the militant nationalist leader from East Bengal, Aswini Kumar Dutta, that so long as a dog of his country went unfed, to feed it and to take care of it was his religion and that everything else was either non-religion or false religion. Unlike Sri Ramakrishna, Vivekananda was not a sadhaka, nor did he possess the philosophical depth or originality of Sri Aurobindo. His most precious possession, though, was an expansive heart that could weep at all the pain and misery that came to be experienced in this world and rejoice, too, in the smallest improvement in the human condition. There are three aspects to the life and thoughts of Swami Vivekananda that continue to intrigue me. First, there is the inconsistency over social reform questions, especially those relating to women. Vivekananda plainly ridiculed conventions that would have a Hindu girl turn a mother at ten and felt that a religion that could not wipe the widows tears was not worth very much. And yet, in 19th century Bengal, his voice, together with that of the novelist Bankim Chandra, was the loudest in opposing widow marriages. Though a lifelong celibate, Vivekananda worried, almost in the manner of a hugely burdened father, about how his virgin daughters might find ideal suitors now that widows too were getting prepared to marry!
COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM

A view of the World's Parliament of Religions, which opened at the Art Institute of Chicago on September 11, 1893. He was also against men associating themselves with woman-related reform on the grounds that such reform was best left to women themselves. If anything, this negates the argument best put by the reformer from Maharashtra, Mahadev Govind Ranade, that the state itself and individually motivated men were obliged to speak up for those who could not speak for themselves. Second, whereas Vivekananda often critiqued the idea of always measuring religion by standards of social usefulness, he is also known to have unwittingly fallen back on the category of utility itself. The Swami rightly argued that religion could not be held to be bad just because it failed to improve the material condition of the poor. On the other hand, he leaves room for criticism when trying to explain selflessness or altruism in terms of Vedantic monism. One

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could be easily persuaded to serve others, the Swami argued, since in serving others, he really served himself. The metaphysical foundations of the argument are clear; on the other hand, it would seem as though in Vivekanandas understanding, self-concern itself led one to selflessness! Finally, there is the recurring argument that as a religion, Hinduism came closest to religion perennis. The Swami is known to have often argued how Hinduism was not founded upon any historical event or personality. Hinduism, when so defined or understood, obviously could not be said to move with time. Such a thesis, it has to be said, would better suit Sri Ramakrishna, who believed that all religions originated in God, not man. The Swami, on the other hand, appears to remain ambivalent on this question. That Hinduism, just as any other religion, was historically determined and manipulatively made to serve certain social interests was implicit in Vivekanandas own critique of contemporary Hinduism with its open condemnation of a tyrannical priest-craft. And yet, quite inexplicably as it would seem, Vivekananda prefers to treat religions autonomously of society. The institution of caste, he alleges, was a purely social institution, unaffected by religious ideology. Even over a hundred years after his death, one is apt to remember Swami Vivekananda for the openness and intensity with which he identified himself with his country and its people. At times, he could be startlingly witty and original. To the best of my knowledge, Vivekananda is the only Hindu thinker of his time or even thereafter to have dared to suggest that at the battlefield of Kurukshetra, Arjunas moral predicament was only a euphemism for the fear that he suddenly developed of the vast Kaurava army! It may also be justly claimed that Vivekananda was the first prototype of the modern guru and that his own understanding or projection of Hinduism both in India and abroad, has, to good measure, shaped the religion of modern, middle-class Hindus. Many years ago, his most well-known disciple, Sister Nivedita, had the insight to locate in him the patriot as different from the politician. This, however, was not the patriotism of the ballot boxes. Rather it had the perspicacity to see that contemporary India was nationalistic without really developing into a nation. It was a patriotism of endearment, not exclusion. It was patriotism that aimed at grass-roots reform, not cosmetic changes to institutions that were in any case out of bounds for the common man. It was patriotism that sought self-expression through its own nativity, not idioms or practices borrowed from other cultures. Though in many ways an untypical sanyasi, Swami Vivekananda remained alive to the fact that he was a part of the Hindu monastic tradition and that this placed on him certain special responsibilities. True and enduring reform, he once argued, could be carried out by the renouncer, not the lay social worker, for the former alone was a man in the world but not of it. The lay worker, by comparison, was apt to falter or be misled since his own understanding or expectations could not be detached from those of the larger community. Selfless work in this world was founded on tapas for its first precondition was to obtain moral and spiritual strength by giving up ones deepest worldly attachments and fondest desires. In the nearly 40 years that he lived on this earth, Swami Vivekananda was able to amply demonstrate how his own life had been exemplary tapasya. Amiya P. Sen is Professor of Modern Indian History, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

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Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013


INDIA'S NATIONAL MAGAZINE from the publishers of THE HINDU

Contents

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COVER STORY

Iconoclast Swami
TAPAN RAYCHAUDHURI

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January 1891, Jaipur. At this time he had not started wearing a turban. He took to the turban only after meeting the Maharaja of Khetri, who suggested that he wear one to save himself from the hot summer winds of Rajasthan. Swami Vivekananda represents the high noon of a Hindu revival, both in popular perception and serious historical literature. Expectedly, in the VHPs [Vishwa Hindu Parishad] 1993 celebration of the centenary of the Chicago Congress of Religions where Vivekananda made his debut, they claimed the Patriot-Prophet as one of their own. Amiya P. Sens study of the Hindu revival published in the same year {+1}, a work of scholarly and analytical excellence, confirms this received perception, even if it recognises the complexity and nuances of Swamijis mission. I draw upon the same material as has been used in Sens work and arrive at a very different conclusion, that the Hindu revival, a phenomenon I would prefer to describe as the Hindu reaction, was at best peripheral and for the most part antagonistic to Vivekanandas concerns. His role and his personality were misinterpreted in his own time for identifiable reasons. The

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persistence of that misreading is, however, less justified. There are three distinct, though necessarily interrelated features in Swamijis religious concerns. First, his personal quest was defined early in life as a quest for ultimate realisation. He sought its fulfilment as a disciple of the saint, Ramakrishna. The Ramakrishna order of monks which he set up shared his faith in the guru. But Vivekananda refused to propagate their very special perception as to who Ramakrishna was and the reasons for his advent. I argue, however, that he too had full faith in that perception, a fact which set a limit to any sense of identity with the prevailing modes of Hindu reaction. Ramakrishna himself has been identified as one major source of Hindu revivalism, a thesis which needs to be scrutinised very carefully. The second component of his religious concern was articulated during his first visit to the USA and Europe. It consisted in an exposition of what he considered to be not only the highest spiritual truths attained in the Indian religious tradition, but the ultimate truth underlying all religious beliefsAldous Huxleys highest common factor. He also did his best to counter the mischievous propaganda which had long presented Hindu faith and practice as forms of extreme barbarism. The rapturous reception he received in India as a hero of militant Hinduism derives primarily from this two-fold agenda for his actions abroad. But the way his role abroad was interpreted in India had more to do with the cultural insecurity of middle-class Hindus in his day than with what he actually sought to achieve. And the stereotyping of Vivekananda as a militant Hindu has persisted for less obvious reasons.
PICTURES COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM AND ADVAITA ASHRAMA

His agenda for national revival in which the Ramakrishna Order of monks and nuns were to play a central role is the third component of his religious concern. The monistic doctrine of Vedanta was to be the inspiration of this activity; but the virtues he preached for the benefit of Indians was not particularly Hindu, and in fact not particularly religious in any accepted sense of the term. There is, however, a self-consciously Hindu orientation in this agenda but only up to a point. More important, he rejected with contempt the central planks in the propaganda of Hindu reaction. The fact that he had an equal lack of regard for the Babu-sponsored reforms has obscured that act of rejection. His agenda for national regeneration was unique for his time and that explains much of the contemporary as well as later misinterpretations of his objectives. His personal faith, a belief in Advaita, non-duality without any qualification is summed up in a letter to one of his American devotees: He who is eternal, without limits, omnipresent and all-knowing is not an individual person, but only a consciousness. You, I and everyone else are but manifestations of that consciousness. Finally everyone must become his image in full and then in reality everything will become one. Religion is nothing but this. The obsolete and lifeless rituals and notions regarding godhood are but ancient superstitions. [BR 7:293]

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COURTESY: ADVAITA ASHRAMA

The Peepul tree at Kakrighat on the way to Almora, Uttarakhand, where Vivekananda is said to have had a vision about the oneness of the microcosm and the macrocosm. He also accepted without qualification the doctrine of maya. This world which you behold, he told his disciple Sarat Chakravarti, also does not exist. Everything is an act of imagination. [SSS:67] Advaita, or non-duality as projected in Vedanta, is certainly a central theme in the Brahminical tradition. But in the perceptions of Vivekananda and his guru it transcended the limits of any particular religious or cultural tradition. They certainly did not see it as a part of any denominational creed. Ramakrishna stated his faith in the basic unity of all religions in a folksy epigram, jato mat tato path (there are as many ways as there are creeds). Vivekananda developed this simple notion, the truth of which Ramakrishna is said to have realised through his own mystical experiences, into a systematic philosophical statement. The Vedas, in his view, were eternal in the sense that they contained timeless truth. Further, all religious and metaphysical notions were inherent in Vedanta. The doctrines of duality, qualified monism and monism were but three successive stages in mans spiritual progress. Hinduism was the form which Vedanta had assumed as the end product of Indian beliefs and practices. Dualism was its first stage. Christianity and Islam were also dualistic faiths and as such expressions of the Vedantic truth shaped by particular cultures in historic times. Buddhism on the other hand was an embodiment of non-duality or yogic consciousness. [BR 7:157] In these terms, all religions had to be accepted as true and not simply tolerated. All divisiveness was traceable to ignorance. The distinction between castes, religions and races ceased to have any meaning for the enlightened. [SSS:35] The plea is not for syncretism la Keshab Sen but a recognition of the fundamental unity of all religions. Its cultural antecedents were the doctrines of the medieval saints and the Upanishadic dictum ekam sad, vipra bahudha vadanti (the truth is one, only the sages state it in many different ways). Vivekananda summed up his personal faith in one simple statement: Truth alone is my God; the entire world is my country. [Letter to Alasinga, BR 7:193] What could be further from the preoccupations of Hindu chauvinists either in our time or in the nineteenth century? There is an aspect of Vivekanandas personal faith which certainly belongs to the Hindu tradition, but which he firmly refused to project beyond the immediate circle of his fellow believers. I refer to the belief of Ramakrishnas disciples that their guru was an incarnation of the deity. Vivekananda was under some pressure to declare this faith as the foundation of the Orders credo, the central plank of all their religious

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propaganda. There is little reason to doubt that he more than shared this faith. It was he who composed the mantra for the worship of Ramakrishna in the monastery: sthapakaya ca dharmasya sarvadharmasvarupine, avataravaristhaya ramakrsnaya te namah (We bow to Ramakrishna, the greatest of all incarnations, the founder of dharma, he who was the embodiment of all religions). [SSS:70] The rules he laid down for the members of the order contained the following instruction: Teach them that one may bow to all other deities, but we worship only Ramakrishna The other deities have become old and obsolete. We have a new India now, a new deity, a new faith, a new Veda.

He wrote to his fellow disciple, Sivananda, in his characteristic irreverent slang, I do not have the least doubt that Ramakrishna is the father of God himself We do not know if Krishna was ever born or not, Buddha and Chaitanya now appear to be hackneyed. Ramakrishna Paramahansa is the latest and most perfect Can anyone else be compared to him? But he was averse to forcing this belief down peoples throats, partly because he did not want to establish another sect. [BR 7:75] Besides, he explained, I understood him very little. I consider him so great that I am afraid to say anything about him, lest I demean him by painting him in my own light. [SSS:146] In the Indian tradition, every incarnation has a particular purpose. The reason for the advent of Ramakrishna according to Vivekananda was to end sectarianism in all its forms and hence the disciple could not risk founding one more sect in the name of the master. [SSS:26] The belief in incarnations combined with the faith that Ramakrishna was born to end all sectarianism locates Vivekananda in a curious relationship to the Hindu tradition. The very acceptance of a notion peculiar to that tradition is mobilised to transcend all allegiance to any particular creed. Yet there was an element of ambivalence here. Vivekananda celebrated the ritual worship of Durga, Kali and Lakshmi in the monastery he set up, and would have sacrificed animals but for Sarada Devis refusal to allow it. And all this was done in accordance with the prescriptions of Raghunandana. The orthodox pundits who came to the monastery went back satisfied that the monks of the order were true Hindus. These rituals were of course unacceptable not only to non-Hindus, but to Hindu sects like the Vaishnavas. [SSS:225ff.] To repeat, Swami Vivekanandas image as the champion of militant Hinduism derives above all from his mission in the USA and Europe. But one needs to emphasise here that he certainly did not go to the USA primarily with the object of propagating Hinduism. The purpose of his visit is stated quite explicitly in a letter to Mary Hale: In fact I came here with the object of quietly raising some funds; but I have been caught in a trap, and now I shall not be left in peace. [BR 7:25] Shortly before his death he again told his disciple Sarat Chakravarti that one major object

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of his Western mission was to find some way of providing for the poor in India. [SSS: 235] It is not quite clear how he proposed to set about achieving this end. We have somewhat imprecise references to his two-fold expectationthat he might help secure Western technology for Indias industrial development and that the Americans would help with funds to set up a monastery in India which would be the centre of a programme for ameliorating the condition of the masses. The available record however suggests that his plan of action in the West emerged gradually and was partly determined by changing circumstances. Arguably, that plan had very little to do with the propagation of Hinduism in any accepted sense of the term, despite the fact that he stood forth as the representative of the Hindu religion at the Chicago Congress. What he actually said in different sessions of that Congress needs to be analysed carefully. His famous speech at the inaugural session emphasised his pride in belonging to a religious tradition which taught people to accept all religious opinions as true: We do not merely tolerate all religions, but accept them all to be true. He quoted the Sivamahimna stotra: rucinam vaicitryad rjukutilananapathajusam, nrnam eko gamyas tvam asi payasam arnava iva (You alone are the object of all human quest, the way all rivers merge into the ocean. They follow straight or winding paths because their tastes happen to vary). And the concluding paragraph ended with the expression of a robust faith that sectarian conflicts which had drenched this earth with human blood would now come to an end. The speech on 19 November was ostensibly an exposition of Hinduism. It addressed the metaphysical and philosophical foundations of Hindu practicethe concepts of Brahman, karma, duality and non-duality. But its central emphasis was on a spiritual or rather mystical ideal: Hinduism does not consist in any effort to believe in any creed or dogma; its prime object is the realisation of the transcendent, to merge in the ideal. He concluded by congratulating the Americans for their initiative in declaring that one encountered God in every religion. As leaders of human civilisation it was their preordained task to carry forward the flag of universalism. The Hinduism he preached in the West during the years which followed was also primarily an exposition of Vedantic metaphysics. Besides, he also lectured and wrote on the fourfold path to realisation: karma, action without attachment, bhakti, the path of devotion, jnana, knowledge and raja yoga, the techniques of a mystical regime expounded in Patanjalis Yogasutra. The Vedic and Puranic Karmakanda, ritualistic duties so central to Hindu practice and beliefs, is totally absent from these expositions. In a letter written to a fellow disciple in December 1895, he explained the nature of his mission in the West: I am not writing any book on Hinduism at the moment Every religion is an expression, a language to express the same truth, and we must speak to each in his own language We will see about Hinduism at some point later. Our main concern is his (i.e. Ramakrishnas) religion. Let the Hindus call it Hindu religionand let others similarly name it (what they like) Does our master belong only to India? Indias degeneration is the result of such narrow attitudes. Any beneficial outcome is impossible unless these are destroyed. [BR 7:246-7]
COURTESY: ADVAITA ASHRAMA

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Hardwar, where the stoicism of ascetics made a strong impression on the young sadhu. There is no scope for misreading this statement. He was in the West to preach the universal spiritual truth embodied in the life of his guru. The Hindus might call it Hinduism and others by other names, but his concern was to break down all such barriers. The same idea is made even more explicit in a letter to Mrs. Bull: My master used to tell us that Hindu, Christian etc. are but different names (of the same truth). They are barriers to fraternal feelings between human beings. We must first try to break these down Even the best among us behave like monsters under their evil influence. Now we have to work hard to break these down and we will surely succeed. [BR 7:127] In his farewell speech at the Congress of Religions he stated unequivocally what he did not want: Much has been said here about the common ground for unity among religions But if anyone here hopes that such unity will be achieved by the triumph of one of the many religions now current and the destruction of others, I tell him, Brother, yours is a false hope. Do I wish that the Christians should become Hindus? God forbid. Do I wish that any Hindu or Buddhist should become Christian? God forbid. [BR 1:33] Vivekanandas Indian agenda, more than his personal faith and his mission abroad, does up to a point provide evidence in support of the thesis which projects him as a hero of neo-Hinduism, albeit a reformist one. His chief handiwork back home, the Ramakrishna Mission, did have in practice a strong Hindu orientation, both in its ideological pronouncements and in the sections of the population it actually served. Swamijis self-conscious and persistent efforts to counterbalance this bias however needs to be emphasised. In a letter dated 1897, he states specifically that from the very beginning the Mission did not discriminate between the different communities of India in their programme of service. [BR 7:446] His plans for national reconstruction gave a priority to the Hindus, but chiefly in a chronological sense. In his view the decline of India was the end result of its culture of discrimination, its long tradition of contempt for others. [SSS:176] That decline began the day the contemptuous epithet, mleccha was invented. [BR 7:29] To reverse that process, it was first necessary to raise the entire Hindu community from its fallen state and then revitalise the whole of mankind. The process of regeneration for the Hindus had to proceed step by step. First, the divisions within each caste had to be abolished, then all castes had to be given the sacred thread until every Hindu had attained the status of Brahmins because all Hindus were brothers. [SSS:78] Despite the revolutionary implication of such a programme as spelt out by Swamiji (the Brahmin and the Chandal must be placed on an equal footing) it

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does sound like an agenda for Hindu communal solidarity. Such an interpretation of his objectives are however countered by other features of the same programme. The Ramakrishna Mission under his leadership dedicated itself to the task initiated by Ramakrishna of establishing a close relationship among the followers of all religions in the knowledge that all religious beliefs in this world were but the varied expressions of the same eternal truth. [SSS:56-7] He declared that the reason for the advent of Ramakrishna was the destruction of communal barriers, sampraday-bihinata. [SSS:26] In a letter to a fellow disciple written in 1894, he spelled out what the projected organisation must avoid at all cost: Make sure that the universalist attitude is not hampered in any way. Everything must be sacrificed, if necessary, for that one sentiment universalityuniversalityperfect acceptance, not tolerance only, we preach and perform. [BR 7:56-7]

The monastery, guided by the spirit of Ramakrishna, was to be the centre for the union of all faiths, sarvadharma-samanvay. [SSS:112] The movements mouthpiece, the Brahmavadin, was to contain translations from religious texts in Arabic and Persian as the basis for an enquiry into the fundamental truth underlying all scriptures. He explained his understanding of the advent of Ramakrishna in the following words: The satyayuga, the age of truth, dawned the day he was born. All divisiveness ended from that day. He was the one who would resolve all conflictsall distinctions, between Hindus and Muslims, Christians and Hindus all these disappeared. Those sectarian conflicts belong to another age; in this age of truth everything is submerged in the flood of his love. [BR 7:252] The point of radical departure in Vivekanandas Indian mission, where he stood apart from all reformers of that era, was his emphasis on the masses, the deprived and the underprivileged people of the country. Service to the poor, in the belief that in serving them one served God, does have antecedents in the Hindu tradition. And other Indian reformers like Ranade had organised volunteer groups to offer help to those most in need. But Vivekanandas understanding of the Indian problem differed from theirs, because he attributed to the underprivileged in India a centrality in the life and history of the country in a way which has no precedents. I have argued elsewhere that in course of his travels in India as a parivrajaka, a mendicant, he discovered Indian poverty and developed a passionate empathy with the Indian masses. As he told a fellow disciple, he had not found God in his travels but had learned to love human beings. What is especially remarkable is that there was no element of condescension in his faith that the grand achievements of Indian high culture were insignificant compared to the contribution of the

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masses. One boasted of ones ancestors who had written a few philosophical texts and constructed a few temples, but remained oblivious of the poor on whose labour the whole structure of civilisation was raised. It was his firm belief that the future belonged to the masses and the only worthwhile task before the educated middle classes in India was to make them aware of their power, especially through education. [BR 7:276] He had no faith in any religion that was unconcerned with the physical misery of human beings [BR 7:27] and was contemptuous of bhadralok politics which paid no attention to such things as mass illiteracy. A few thousand graduates, he argued, could not be the basis of a nation. [BR 7:36] India had become a land of the dead. Educating the masses was the only way to revive it. [BR 7:241] Once they were aware of the world around them and their own power they would know what to do. People of his own class would have no further function in Indian life. It is difficult to read into this agenda any message for Hindu revival. Of course the programme he chalked out for the Mission had less mundane concerns as well. The dedicated missionaries were to preach the message of Vedanta and try to realise its ideals in their own lives. Detailed instructions were laid down as to what to avoidlike lokacara, or popular practices, and bamacara, the extreme form of Tantricism. A knowledge of the Yogas was also to be propagated. In all this the non-denominational spirituality of the doctrines was to be emphasised. Such an agenda was of course within the Hindu tradition and could well be construed as one form of contribution to Hindu nation-building. Yet, any careful reading of Swamijis words and writings leaves one with a very firm impression that the centre point of his Indian agenda was an effort to create mass consciousness and the minimum physical conditions required for the purpose. His ultimate aim, to use current and somewhat inappropriate vocabulary, was empowerment. Hindu revivalism was inconsistent with such an objective. The regeneration of the Indian people, with the masses installed in the position of primacy which they had always been denied, rather than the revival of Hindus or Hinduism, was evidently his goal. But he wanted this worldly purpose to be informed by a high spirituality, because in his perception human life, and in fact the entire universe, was an indivisible totality. That spiritual message was derived from the Vedantic tradition as realised in the life of his guru, but projected repeatedly as a universalistic faith. And the message was to be preached by a band of dedicated celibates freed of any worldly attachments. His tensions with the different strands in the Hindu reaction of his days needs to be spelled out. It is important to remember that Hindu orthodoxy found him and his ways unacceptable. They questioned this non-Brahmin youths right to be an ordained monk. They considered his journey across the black waters a violation of taboo and they suspected that he had not observed ritual taboos about food and commensality when he was abroad and of course they were right. His answer to such criticism was unequivocal. When was I an othodox Puranic Hindu? [BR 7:211] I have read carefully into our scriptures and find the spirituality and religion are not for the Sudras. Even if he observes the taboos about food etc. and journeys abroad, he does not acquire any merit. It is all wasted effort. I am a Sudra and a mleccha why should I bother about all that? [BR 7:392]
COURTESY: ADVAITA ASHRAMA

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Mount Abu in Rajasthan, which he visited in the summer of 1891. He stayed in a cave on the banks of the Nakki lake. He described the Hindu orthodoxy of his days as a religion of dont touchism where virtue had finally found a shelter in the purity of cooking pots. The florid adjectives he used to describe the educated Hindus leave Macaulays description of Bengalis cold at the doorstep: crushed by the wheels of caste divisions, superstitious, without an iota of charity, hypocritical, atheistic cowards. His contempt for certain specific manifestations of Hindu reaction in the last quarter of the nineteenth century is recorded in picturesque detail in his Bengali work, Bhabbar katha (Matters to think about). It is impossible to do justice in translation to his racy style, but it seems worthwhile to give some extracts, for they establish beyond reasonable doubt that the man who wrote these could not be a Hindu revivalist. I quote one famous passage on the then familiar efforts to prove that all Hindu superstitions had a scientific explanation: Gurgure Krishnabyal Bhattacharya is a great scholar. All knowledge concerning the entire universe is at his finger tips There is nothing that he does not know and especially knowledgeable is he regarding the movement of electricity and magnetic forces from the tip of ones pigtail to all the nine orifices in the human body. And by virtue of this knowledge he is peerless in his ability to explain scientifically such matters as the (scientific necessity for) impregnating ten year old girls As to evidence or reasoning, he has made things so simple that even little children can follow his arguments. You see, there is no religion outside India; within India none but the Brahmins have the right to understand it; among the Brahmins too everybody except the Krishnabyals is utterly worthless, and among the Krishnabyals Gurgure alone counts. Therefore whatever Gurgure says is self-evident truth. There is a lot of education around, people are getting somewhat restive, they want to understand everything, taste everything; therefore Mr. Krishnabyal assures everyone, Have no fears; I shall away whatever doubts may bother you and do so in a scientific manner. Stay just as you were. Put some mustard oil in your nostrils and enjoy very sound sleep. Only, do not forget my fees. And the people said, We are saved. What danger were we in! To actually get up from our beds, in fact move about! What botheration! They shouted Long live Krishnabyal, turned over and went to sleep again. He castigated what he described as the mindless imbecilities of popular Hinduism in equally strong language: Today there are bells [for the worship], tomorrow there will be trumpets in addition and the following day yak tails will be waved... and people are

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regaled with 2000 absurd tales; the wheel, the mace, the lotus and conch shell; the conch shell, the mace, the lotus and the wheel etc. etc. This is what is described in English as imbecility Whether the bell should be rung on the right side or the left, whether the sandal paste mark should be placed on the forehead or some other part of the anatomy; people who spend their days and nights in such thoughts are truly wretched. And we are the wretched of the earth and are kicked around because our intelligence goes no further. The lines which follow have a peculiar relevance to the contemporary strategies of Hindu chauvinism: Ten million rupees are spent to open and close the temple doors at Kashi and Brindaban. Now the deity is changing his attire, now he is having his meal, or maybe he is providing pinda for all the ancestors of the stupid bastards [the priceless expression he used in Bengali is atkurir beta , i.e. sons of barren mothers] and all the time the living god perishes for the want of food, for want of education. The banias of Bombay set up hospitals for the bed bugs. No matter if the human beings die [for want of care] A mortal sickness is abroad in our land. The entire country is one vast lunatic asylum. (BR 7:8-9) His prescription for the countrys material and spiritual well-being in this context was simple and direct: Throw away the bells and the rest of the rubbish into the river Ganges, and worship the incarnate God in man, worship all that are born as human beings. Amiya Sen in his monograph on Hindu revivalism has discussed at length the massive campaign against the Age of Consent Bill. He identifies it, correctly to my understanding, as the high watermark of the Hindu reaction. Vivekananda described that agitation as a matter for shame. [SSS:31] Again I shall quote his words because there is no other way one can convey adequately the vehemence of his feelings on the subject: I deeply despise the custom of child marriage Our people are paying for this grievous sin. I shall be an object of contempt to my own self if I support this monstrous practice directly or indirectly I must kick hard with all my might at the inhuman custom known as child marriage. [BR 7:232; also 107] Vivekanandas iconoclastic contempt for much in the Hindu tradition was not confined to the contemporary scene. His diatribe against the inanities of neo-Hindu scientism to which I have referred concludes with a swipe at the mindless ritualism of the Hindu tradition. What could one expect of a culture, he wrote, in which the best minds have been debating for over two millennia whether to eat with the right hand or the left. He lashed out at those who blamed the Muslims for the Hindus being allegedly forced to adopt the purdah system. He referred his correspondent to the Grhyasutrathe provision that a girl child must be given in marriage before she learns to masturbate, hastad yonim na guhati. [BR 7-107] And then there is that famous passage on the asvamedha sacrifice as prescribed in the Black Yajurveda: Tadanantaram mahisim asvasamnidhau patayet (Thereafter make the queen lie down beside the horse And then they all had a drunken orgy.) Vivekananda wrote, The sacrificer, the priests, their assistants, everybody. Heavens, Sita was in exile, Rama celebrated the sacrifice on his own. I was relieved to learn this. This role which he gradually defined for himself has been transformed in popular perception into one of leadership of a Hindu revival. The Ramakrishna-Vivekananda movement, we are told, stemmed the tide of reform and helped restore peoples confidence in the popular Hindu tradition, earlier shaken by Western as well as reformist criticism. In the process, the tide of reform which had swept the educated sections of

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society was turned back. I question this thesis for a number of reasons. There is no identifiable link between the movement he sponsored and the decline of interest in reform. As Partha Chatterji has shown in a seminal essay {+2}, the bhadralok did not abandon their efforts to alter the condition of women. They had achieved their basic goals in this respect. Besides, notwithstanding the alleged apathy of reformers and Vivekanandas unwillingness to support reforms, the desired changes came about slowly through the operation of impersonal forces. Through womens education, a slow rise in the age of marriage, and a decline in polygamy, the hoped-for objectives of the reformers were eventually achieved. Widow-remarriage never became popular among Hindus, an evidence in support of Vivekanandas belief that social change has a certain autonomy and can be forced only to a limited extent. The religious debates regarding the nature of the Deity, whether He or She had a form or not, and the relevance of idol worship, had long lost their urgency. The majority of Hindus, educated and uneducated, had never given up the worship of images. Even the illiterate villager believed that he worshipped, not an image, but something else that it symbolised; and whatever the merit or demerit of the doctrine, Vivekananda did not preach polytheism. The cult of Ramakrishna, like the Vaishnava movements of the nineteenth century, stimulated an upsurge of bhakti, a recurrent and characteristic phenomenon of Bengali social life. Incidentally, this particular tendency had become manifest in the lives of the Brahmos as well. Not only Keshab with his Vaishnava-style kirtans, but the non-conformist Brahmos like Sibnath Sastri were imbued with this new spirit, very different from the rationalistic and this-worldly concerns of Rammohan and his immediate followers. The new rationalism of the early nineteenth century had become a part of the bhadralok social culture, but it had to co-exist now with a much older tradition of emotional religiosity. That emotionalism was soon to inform a new impulse which had no precedents in Indian life, namely revolutionary fervour. I draw attention to this transition in attitudes only to emphasise that the appeal of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda has to be located in a context which is not coterminous with the Hindu reaction of that time. I have argued at length that Vivekananda found the basic values informing that reaction profoundly repugnant. Yet he has been and continues to be claimed as one of the great leaders of Hindu revival. His cultural vocabulary and style of action were partly responsible for it. But it is also interesting to note how selectively a movement or its devotees can interpret the messages of a leader. The Mission he set up, for instance, has been more concerned with social service in general than with educating the masses. Its preoccupation with universalism generally omits references to Swamijis enthusiasm for Islam and the Indo-Islamic heritage. Vivekananda had a two-fold agenda which he had time to pursue for less than a decade: to preach an universalist spiritual faith based on the life of his master which he saw as the ultimate realisation of the Vedantic truth, and secondly, to create a mass consciousness through service and education. The seed fell on very infertile ground. He was hailed in his own time as a hero of Hinduism who had conquered the West. Today understandably the VHP has the audacity to claim him as their own. I have argued that it is difficult to imagine him as the ideological ancestor of people who incite the ignorant to destroy other peoples places of worship in a revanchist spirit. Tapan Raychaudhuri, formerly with St. Antonys College, Oxford, is a historian of British Indian history, Indias economic history and the history of Bengal. 1. A.P. Sen, Hindu Revivalism in Bengal 1872-1905: some essays in interpretation (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993). 2. See P. Chatterji, A Nationalist resolution of womens question, in K.

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Sangari and S. Vaid (eds.), Recasting Women: essays in colonial history (New Delhi, 1989), pp.233-53. Abbreviations: BR: Swami Vivekananda, Bani o racana (Collected Bengali Works) 10 Vols, (Calcutta, 6 . Edn. 1982) SSS: Saratchandra Chakrabarti, Swami-sisya sambad (Calcutta, 5 1982)
th th

Edn.

The article is taken from the book Swami Vivekananda and the Modernisation of Hinduism, edited by William Radice and published by Oxford University Press in 1998.

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Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013


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PRALAY KANUNGO Swami Vivekananda never entertained violent identity politics. But his missionary Hinduism offered potential for the development of a militant Hindu nation, allowing Hindutva to make selective readings and interpretations of his texts and speeches.
COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM

In London in July 1896, just before he left for a tour of the European continent with Captain and Mrs Sevier and Henrietta Muller. Swami Vivekananda still commands an iconic presence in contemporary India. When India celebrates his 150th birth anniversary, various claimants are likely to compete to project themselves as rightful inheritors of his ideas and legacy. While Ramakrishna Mission, perhaps the natural custodian of Vivekanandas saintly legacy, may prefer to make the celebration a solemn affair, disseminating the message of Vivekanandas pious Hinduism in a sombre spiritual milieu, the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS), the fountainhead of Hindutva, would like to make it a pompous road show, passionately invoking Vivekanandas public Hinduism, proud patriotism and assertive cultural nationalism. In fact, the Sangh Parivar kick-started the show with Narendra Modis

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Vivekananda Yuva Vikas Yatra in the run-up to the 2012 Gujarat Assembly elections. Hindutvas Vivekananda connection What is Hindutvas connection with Vivekananda? K.B. Hedgewar, the founder of the RSS, constructed the ideology of the Hindu Rashtra on V.D. Savarkars concept of Hindutva and was under the direct influence of other Maharashtrian Hindu leaders like Bal Gangadhar Tilak and B.S. Moonje. At the same time, he was also inspired by the political Hinduism of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and Aurobindo Ghosh during his student days in Calcutta (now Kolkata). However, as an avowed political activist, he preferred not to dabble much in the domain of religion; thus, Vivekanandas Hinduism was peripheral to his politics. On the contrary, his successor, M.S. Golwalkar, who was more inward-looking and inclined to spiritualism, showed more interest in the goal of personal salvation ( moksha) prior to his joining the RSS. This urge persisted; in 1936 he abandoned his RSS work in Nagpur and left for Bengal to join the Ramkrishna Ashram at Sargachhi. Here he was initiated by Swami Akhandananda, one of the direct disciples of Ramakrishna, who had been the most active supporter of Vivekanandas ideal of service. Swami Akhandananda died within a short period after Golwalkars arrival; before his death, he reportedly advised Golwalkar to go back to the RSS.
PICTURES COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM AND ADVAITA ASHRAMA

Though Golwalkars stay at Sargachhi was short, his personality and ideology were deeply influenced by this experience. Here he recognised how Vivekananda had brought a paradigm shift in the quietistic Bhakti tradition of Ramakrishna towards the making of a public Hinduism focussed on identity construction and organised philanthropy. Golwalkar, following the new paradigm, abandoned his quest for moksha and returned to Nagpur to work on Hindu identity and service.
ADVAITA ASHRAMA

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An aerial view of the Advaida Ashram in Mayavati, which was founded in March 1899 with funds provided by the Seviers. Golwalkar translated Vivekanandas Chicago speeches into Marathi and wrote his famous text We or Our Nationhood Defined, which became the Bible of the RSS. After being anointed as the chief of the RSS, he infused some of the ideals of the Ramakrishna Math into the RSS system. Hedgewars man-making mission got a facelift with the institutionalisation of the pracharak system, which relied on renunciation and sacrifice. The RSS also adopted service as one of its key objectives and came forward to help victims during the crises of Partition, floods, cyclones and earthquakes. Moreover, the RSS projected Vivekananda as a great icon of resurgent Hindu nationalism, a champion of Hindu superiority and a great defender of Hinduism vis-a-vis Islam and Christianity. Building on this image, Golwalkar conceived the idea of an organisation dedicated to Vivekananda, which would not be directly controlled by the RSS and yet would maintain a close fraternal and ideological relationship, supplementing the RSS mission. Without raising hostility and suspicion, this organisation would expand Hindu ecumeny by bringing all hues of Hindus to a common platform and simultaneously disseminate a soft and less strident Hindutva. This was the Vivekananda Kendra. The making of the Vivekananda Kendra: A special RSS affiliate Claiming to be a spiritually oriented service organisation, the Vivekananda Kendra, a special affiliate of the RSS over the past four decades, has been pursuing the twin agenda of man-making and nation-building, in line with Vivekanandas ideals of renunciation and service. The precursor of Vivekananda Kendra was the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Kanyakumari. To commemorate Swami Vivekanandas birth centenary in 1963, the RSS planned to construct a sacred Hindu nationalist site dedicated to Vivekananda. The site identified was a rock at Kanyakumari, the southern-most tip of mainland India, situated at the confluence of the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea. As the RSS narrates, after traversing the length and breadth of the country as a parivrajaka (wanderer) in 1892, Vivekananda reached Kanyakumari, swam across the sea to this rock on Christmas Day and sat in meditation continuously for three days; it was here that the simple monk was transformed into a great reformer, a great organiser and a great master-builder of the nation.

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A Celebration Committee consisting of local RSS workers and some Hindu organisations decided to construct a memorial on the rock. But local Christians, mainly the fishermen, opposed the move, claiming that St. Francis Xavier, who converted their ancestors, had stayed on the same rock. As they also demanded a memorial, the rock became a disputed site. However, the RSS, with the help of local Hindu organisations, established its control over the rock and successfully overcame the resistance by mobilising Hindus. It formed a national-level Swami Vivekananda Centenary Celebration and Vivekananda Rock Memorial Committee, which resolved to erect a full-fledged memorial; Swami Chinmayananda made the first donation of Rs.10,000. Golwalkar appointed Eknath Ranade, former general secretary of the RSS, the secretary of the committee. An astute organiser, Ranade first drafted a memorandum and mobilised 323 Members of Parliament, cutting across political lines, to sign it. This memorandum appealed to the Central government and especially the Government of Madras to facilitate the construction of this national monument. Many of these MPs did not support the ideology of the RSS, yet they all agreed on Vivekanandas unique place in national life. The Madras government eventually gave permission for the memorial. A broad spectrum of political parties, both ruling and opposition, became partners and every State contributed towards the memorial. Ranade even roped in the Chief Minister of Nagaland, a State with an overwhelming Christian population, to become an active associate. The only leader who rebuffed Ranade was E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the Communist Chief Minister of Kerala. Ranade skilfully used the media as well, and his effort to build a consensus on Vivekananda as a non-sectarian and non-partisan model of Hindu/Indian identity was greatly successful. Despite all hurdles, the project was completed in just six years. RSS workers played a major role in the successfrom collecting donations to coordinating with different organisations and disseminating Vivekanandas ideas throughout the country. Nearly five million folders containing Vivekanandas select messages were printed and three million people donated one, three, or five rupees. The folders became an ideal medium for disseminating Vivekanandas Hinduism and nationalism in every nook and corner of the country. The Army establishment and cantonments also contributed, acknowledging Vivekanandas lofty patriotism. In every sense, the construction of the memorial became a national exercise under the guidance of the RSS.
M. VEDHAN

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The Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Thiruvalluvar statue off Kanyakumari. The making of the Rock Memorial as a sacred Hindu nationalist site was a huge national exercise and a success for the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh.
PTI

January 13: RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat at the Swami Vivekananda Yuva Shivir, organised to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary, in Nadia, West Bengal. The inaugural ceremony became a congregation of religious, spiritual and political leaders. While the chief of the Ramakrishna Mission conducted the pranpratistha ceremony, the then President of India V.V. Giri inaugurated the memorial and the Dravidian leader M. Karunanidhi, a hard critic of Aryan-Hindu-Hindi imposition on the Tamil identity, was the guest speaker. Thus, Vivekananda became a powerful symbol of cultural nationalism, courtesy of the RSS; even the secularists who earlier dismissed Vivekananda as revivalist soon recognised his influence on popular consciousness. The making of the Rock Memorial as a sacred Hindu nationalist site was a huge national exercise and a success for the RSS. More than 20 lakh persons visiting the memorial during the year 2011-12 corroborate this point. Ranade was very clear that his mission was not to construct a cementand-concrete structure but to erect a living and dynamic monument to concretise Vivekanandas grand vision of a future India. Thus, the Vivekananda Kendra was launched in 1972 with the conviction that service with spiritual orientation could result in man-making, which would simultaneously become an exercise in nation-building. In consonance with Vivekanandas prescription, the Kendra emphasised service, believing that if religiosity could be converted into public service then an all-round national reconstruction would be possible. The organisation aspired to encompass the entire Hindu society and the entire length and breadth of Bharat. It should arouse all Hindus and all India. Thus, the Kendra adopted Vivekanandas apparently inclusive and non-sectarian ideal, worship of man is worship of God (www.vkendra.org/), as it had great potential to attract many Hindus. Accordingly, it undertook a

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mission of national reconstruction by focussing on education, rural and tribal development, natural resources development, and yoga. By institutionalising spirituality and service, the Kendra fashioned a role for itself that was distinct from the roles of other organisations of the Sangh working in these fields. The Kendras headquarters is located at Vivekanandapuram, Kanyakumari. By 2012, the Kendra had set up a network of 234 branches and 690 centres across the country with more than 150,000 patrons and 2,500 workers (karyakartas). It runs 64 schools, 221 balwadis, six projects, two sevaprakalps, seven prakashanprakalps, four hospitals, 636 swadhyaya/ sanskarvargas, 52 anadalayas, 199 medical camps, 133 personality development camps and 95 yoga vargas. The Vivekananda Kendra Prakashan Trust publishes and disseminates Vivekanandas ideas in English, Hindi and the regional languages. Besides books and pamphlets, the Trust brings out many journals: YuvaBharati and Vivekananda Kendra Patrika (in English), Kendra Bharati (in Hindi), VivekVichar (in Marathi), VivekVani (in Tamil), Jagriti (in Assamese), and VivekSudha (in Gujarati). Most of the projects, spreading across the tribal and rural areas, have created a service network catering to the unprivileged and the marginalised. The Kendra has devised a well-worked-out cadre system, which categorises its workers as jeevanvratis (those who join the Kendra for life), sevavratis (those who join the Kendra for a specific period) and vanaprasthis (those who join the Kendra after retirement) . At present the three categories together have a total strength of 240: 86 jeevanvratis who have completed five years of training; 32 jeevanvratis who are yet to complete five years of training, and the rest as sevavratis and vanaprasthis. Besides this core cadre, the Kendra has recruited a number of patrons, well-wishers and thousands of local workers ( karyakartas). Women constitute 30-35 per cent of the core cadre, and their recruitment has increased to 50 per cent during the last three years; three women jeevanvratis are in the Central Managing Committee. One of the prominent projects of the Vivekananda Kendra, the Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya (VKV) has been engaged in the man-making and nation-building mission, which is manifested in a system of education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded and by which one can stand on ones own feet. In 2011-12, the Kendra was running 65 schools in tribal and rural areas, educating 26,063 children and employing 1,498 teachers and staff. In 1993, the Vivekananda Kendra established the Vivekananda Kendra Institute of Culture (VKIC) in Guwahati, aspiring to make it the Intellectual Fountainhead of the north-eastern region. The primary objective of the VKIC has been to focus on seminars, lectures, research and documentation by involving local/indigenous communities and intellectuals in order to promote the richness of indigenous traditions, and to propagate and popularise the idea of Development through/with Culture. The cultural activities of the VKIC include the protection and preservation of indigenous tribal culture by creating awareness among communities and mobilising them to defend their culture from the influence of alien culture, namely Christianity. The Kendra repeats the Sangh Parivars favourite quote from Vivekananda: Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less but also an enemy more; indigenous elites increasingly share this view. Perceiving a serious threat to their tradition and culture from Christianity and Westernisation, they strongly plead for protection, preservation, mobilisation and resistance.

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As Vivekanandas mission was also global, the Vivekananda Kendra International (VKI) was formed in 2003 to develop inter-civilisational dialogue and understanding among nations and promote Indias cause at the global level. The VKI changed its nomenclature to Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) in 2009 and started focussing more on national security strategic issues. The constitution of the Advisory Board of VIF speaks for itself: out of the 10 members, five are retired top brass defence officers, one is a retired Director General of the Border Security Force (BSF), two are retired Secretaries to the Government of India, one is a professor, and one a financial expert. The Executive Committee also consists primarily of retired defence officers and civil servants. In 2011, the VIF organised a series of seminars on contemporary political and security issues from national, regional and global perspectives and interacted with security experts in India and abroad. It seems the VIF has been slowly emerging as an alternative think tank on national security. Thus, the Vivekananda Kendra, like the RSS, is a cadre-based organisation with a dedicated band of life-workers. The Kendras service projects, catering to the poor and the downtrodden in tribal and rural areas, help expand the horizon of Hindu ecumeny by bringing new regions and people into its fold and promoting Hindu identity and Hindu nationalism. Though, in contrast to the aggression of the Sangh Parivar, the Kendra adopts a subtle and nuanced approach to the Hindu identity, nevertheless, its Hindu assertion is no less forceful than the former, and depending on the context, it has the potential to promote communal politics. The 150th birth anniversary (Swami Vivekananda Sardha Shati Samaroh) The RSS has authorised the Vivekananda Kendra to act as the nodal affiliate for the grand celebration of the 150th birth anniversary of Vivekananda from January 12, 2013, to January 12, 2014. Organising committees have been formed at the national and State levels. The theme of the celebration is Bharat Jago! Vishwa Jagao!! (Wake up Bharat! Enlighten the World!!). This will be carried through Panchamukhi, a five-pronged programme: yuvashakti (for the youth), prabuddha Bharat (for the elite and intellectuals), samvardhini (for women), gramayan (for villagers) and asmita (for Janjatispeople in interior areas like mountains and forests). The Kendra plans to reach out to four lakh villages and 20 crore persons; four crore photographs of Vivekananda will be distributed. The programmes will involve well-known religious leaders, sportspersons, social activists and leaders from various spheres of society. An impressive schedule has been prepared. The inaugural ceremony was launched on January 12 with grand processions in Delhi and other cities. A Samoohik Surya Namaskar will be organised on February 18. An

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ambitious programme of Grih Sampark/Gram Sampark will be organised between March and July. While a Bharat Jago Daud will be held on September 11, a lecture series and competitions focussing on nationalism will be organised in August-September. A workers camp will be held at Kanyakumari for three days (December 25-27, 2013) before the grand finale on January 12, 2014. Vivekanandas Hinduism and Hindutva: Convergence and divergence Though Vivekanandas Hinduism, in many respects, differs from the genre of political Hinduism/Hindutva represented by the RSS, Vivekananda has been one of the most celebrated icons and role models for RSS cadres ( swayamsevaks) and organisers ( pracharaks). Claiming to be the true inheritor of his legacy, the RSS selectively draws from his writings and speeches and conveniently co-opts/appropriates and even mis-appropriates him. The RSS finds convergence with Vivekanandas ideas as he essentially projected the superiority of Hinduism over other religions and visualised the conquest of the whole world by the Hindu religion and spirituality. Vivekanandas engagement with Hindu identity has evoked contesting responses. While one view portrays him as a proponent of a strong and virile Hindu nation and interprets his ideas of tolerance and unity of all faiths as fragile, another view contests the stereotyping of Vivekananda as a militant Hindu, arguing that Vivekanandas personal quest for ultimate realisation sets limits to identity politics, thereby making his agenda of national revival not particularly Hindu. Both the versions seem to be partly true. Vivekanandas views were quite complex and frequently ambiguous. But he surely operated within the paradigm of religious enlightenment: though he stressed the self-assertion of Hindus, he never entertained violent identity politics. However, it is clear that his missionary Hinduism offered potential and possibilities for the development of a militant Hindu nation, allowing Hindutva to make selective readings and interpretations of his texts and speeches. Moreover, Vivekanandas approach to philanthropy and accommodation of the marginalised has also been found handy for Hindutva leaders to construct an inclusive pan-Indian Hindu identity by expanding Hindu ecumeny. Hence, Hindutvas claim on Vivekanandas legacy may not be completely misplaced! Pralay Kanungo is Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Political Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

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Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013


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COVER STORY

Legacy of service
GWILYM BECKERLEGGE Pausing to consider how previous commemorations have celebrated his life, and what they have highlighted, provides a vantage point from which to reflect on the 150th birth anniversary and thus how Vivekananda is viewed at the beginning of the 21st century.
COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM

In January 1886, at the Cossipore garden house where Sri Ramakrishna spent his last days. Anniversaries of the key events of Swami Vivekanandaas life periodically confront his devotees and admirers, India, the land of his birth, and scholars and commentators with the question of how best to mark his career and legacy. That Vivekanandas achievements and continuing influence in India and beyond merit a commemorative mixture of celebration and careful reappraisal is beyond question. Pausing to consider how previous commemorations have celebrated his life, and what they have highlighted, provides a vantage point from which to reflect on the imminent 150th birth anniversary and thus how Vivekananda is viewed at the beginning of the 21st century. Vivekanandas death in 1902 at the age of 39 left his followers and

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obituary writers with a sense of not just a life unfinished but, with the Ramakrishna Math and Mission still in the process of being established, a project barely begun. A common focus of reports of Vivekanandas death, as in The Bengalee, was his role at the Worlds Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 where he emerged as a powerful apologist on behalf of Hinduism, a concept he greatly shaped in the process. Vivekananda was remembered primarily as somebody who through his skilful reinterpretation of Vedanta had been able to demonstrate to the world the richness of Indias spiritual traditions. This was undeniably a source of pride for many in India at the height of the colonial period. Some commentators presciently noted the importance of Vivekanandas publication Raja Yoga, which is now routinely acknowledged as having been influential in the global expansion of interest in yoga. In the immediate aftermath of Vivekanandas death there were many calls for memorials to be set up through private subscription. The institutionalisation of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, arguably the most fitting, living memorial to Vivekananda, was completed legally by 1909. The issue of creating a suitable national memorial to Vivekananda became central to deliberations about how to celebrate the centenary of his birth in 1963. Led very much from Belur Math and centred on activities in Kolkata, conferences, publications, public processions and cultural events drew attention to Vivekanandas various achievements in a manner captured in the Swami Vivekananda Centenary Memorial Volume, which was published by the movement with the support of some state funding. Its contributors acknowledged with differing nuances Vivekanandas patriotism, whether, as did Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, in a broad sense of promoting a religion of humanity, or, as did Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and others, more specifically as Indias nation-builder.
PICTURES COURTESY: VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM AND ADVAITA ASHRAMA

The Ramakrishna Math and Mission had originally planned to restore Vivekanandas ancestral home in Kolkata to mark the centenary, but this proved impossible until 2004 because of legal disputes and the dilapidation of the original building. Thus, in the run-up to the centenary of Vivekanandas birth, it was left to the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) to orchestrate a campaign led by Eknath Ranade to create the dramatic and evocative Vivekananda Rock Memorial. It was to be located on the very rock, off the shore of Kanyakumari, where Vivekananda is said to have meditated at the end of 1892 on a future India uplifted both materially and spiritually through the efforts of sanyasins. Those responsible for planning this memorial directed attention to Vivekanandas role within India, arguably celebrating the birth of his vision prior to his journey to Chicago as the seed from which his future achievements in India would grow, rather than to his subsequent role as the first global guru who responded to the spiritual needs of those

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whom he met in the United States and Britain. Individuals across India were called on to donate Re.1, and approaches were made by Ranade to State governments, other institutions, and philanthropists. For Ranade, Vivekananda was to be hailed as a patriot, a hero who set in motion a national revival that led to the rebuilding of the country. If the Vivekananda of the obituaries is the champion of Hinduism in Chicago, the Vivekananda of Kanyakumari is the master builder of the nation. The prominent involvement of the RSS in the centenary celebrations provoked questions about which Vivekananda was being commemorated, the Hindu hero or the Indian hero. In line with its principle of not becoming involved in organised political activity, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission withdrew from actively promoting the memorial once a heated political controversy surrounded the RSS bid for permission from the Tamil Nadu government to build on the rock. The Math and Mission and many of its prominent supporters, however, played a full part in the eventual consecration of the Rock Memorial and contributed to the commemorative publications linked to it. It would seem that the major public occasions for reflecting on Vivekanandas life and work have elicited evolving responses to Vivekananda, which have emphasised different aspects of his career and legacy. They have also taken on national dimensions in different ways. It is telling that, in the context of India of the first decade of the 21st century, the Ramakrishna Math and Mission referred to its completed restoration of Vivekanandas ancestral home as the nations homage to Vivekananda. This begs the question of how the nation, the secular Republic of India, should celebrate a person who on his death was certainly saluted as one who had restored pride in India but was more typically spoken of as a Hindu religious teacher and reformer.
VIJAYKUMAR PATIL

Monks of the Ramakrishna Mission inspecting the construction of houses for families affected by a natural calamity, in Belgaum. A file photograph. As this issue goes to the press, some events are already under way. Integral to the national, public commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary will be a recognition of Vivekanandas contribution to the promotion of seva (understood here as organised service to humanity). The Prime Minister of India has inaugurated four-year-long service programmes, which will be conducted by the Ramakrishna Math and Mission with government support, and has released two books brought out by the Ramakrishna Mission in Delhi for free distribution to students. The Railway Minister has flagged off a special train from Howrah station, which contains an exhibition devoted to Vivekananda. It will travel through India until January 2014, by which time it is expected to have covered one lakh kilometres. Whatever the Ramakrishna Math and

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Mission adds to this commemoration, together with all the other organisations that independently acknowledge Vivekanandas inspiration, it is clear that the 150th birth anniversary is being conceived of as a national event, and not as one solely of concern to Vivekanandas devotees. The prominence of service projects in the forthcoming commemoration is a reminder that the Ramakrishna Mission was the recipient of the Gandhi Peace Prize in 1998, the first occasion when the award was made to an institution and not an individual. The official citation referred to, among other things, the Missions focus on action and service. In recognising the Ramakrishna Mission in this way, the Gandhi Peace Prize acknowledged the legacy of the individual who had shaped the movements philosophy of service and its earliest institutions. It was with this in mind that I returned to earlier commemorations to discover how Vivekanandas promotion of organised seva, understood as a sadhana (or spiritual discipline), had been represented. Most strikingly, the promotion of seva was not a prominent feature in the accounts of Vivekananda published on his death in which, we noted, he was more typically remembered as the champion of Hinduism in Chicago. It comes through more strongly in the Ramakrishna Math and Missions own periodicals, The Brahmavadin and Prabuddha Bharata. On reflection, this is hardly surprising as Vivekananda died while the Math and Mission were still being shaped. But, anybody attempting at that time to foresee the future shape of Vivekanandas legacy on the basis of his obituaries could be forgiven for not anticipating how much we would come to think of Vivekananda in terms of his promotion of seva, not just through the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, which he created, but through many other Hindu organisations and groups he has influenced subsequently. As commemoration should also include an element of reappraisal, I shall suggest some reasons why this might have been so.

In addition to the relative brevity of Vivekanandas unfinished life, we need to remember that it took several years after the death in 1886 of his guru, Sri Ramakrishna, for Vivekananda to reach the point where he began actively to promote a new style of seva, spearheaded by sanyasins. In the early 1890s, Vivekanandas correspondence exhibited increasing awareness of social problems in India, particularly relating to famine and lack of education. It was not until March 1894 that Vivekananda first communicated to his brother-disciples the nature and implications of the vision he reported having experienced at Kanyakumari late in 1892. Before that point, Vivekanandas concerns as a wandering sadhu were more closely tied to resolving personal dilemmas relating to the plight of his family and his own sense of an as yet unfulfilled spiritual

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destiny. Plans were made while in the U.S., but these were only translated into action in 1897 on his return to India where he had to contend with strong resistance. Several of his brother-disciples and prominent householder devotees of Ramakrishna objected vehemently to Vivekanandas proposal that sanyasins should take responsibility for seva and to the kind of organisation that Vivekananda hoped the Math would become as the conduit for the delivery of service. A difficulty we face is that the accounts we have of Ramakrishna contain several examples of his trenchant criticism of philanthropic activity, including that directed against Bankim Chandra Chatterji when Ramakrishna declared: Charity! Doing good! How dare you say you can do good to others? For Ramakrishna, doing good was the work of God, and the risk of pride or self-satisfaction from engaging in charitable action constituted an ever-present danger and distraction from the path of God-realisation. The utterance by Ramakrishna that Vivekananda selected as his primary justification for setting the Math and Mission on a life of service was delivered while Ramakrishna was in a state of altered consciousness. At that point, Ramakrishna seemingly commended service ( seva), as distinct from a condescending exercise of mercy and compassion, which he rejected, on the grounds that all beings (jiva) are embodiments of Siva. Vivekananda later encapsulated this insight in the phrase daridra narayanalet the poor be your God. Ramakrishnas original words, however, were only reported in Swami Saradananadas account of Ramakrishnas life, and not in Mahendranath Guptas record of Ramakrishnas discourses, and Saradananda acknowledges that the deeper meaning of this statement was intuited and appreciated by Vivekananda alone. The fullest accounts we have of Ramakrishnas life, moreover, do not include his final days, when he was said to have commissioned Vivekananda to lead his followers, and so we have very little direct evidence of what that commission might have entailed. In addition to trying to reconstruct Ramakrishnas intentionsand it is important not to overlook the fact that Ramakrishnas recorded criticisms of philanthropy centred on the donation of money and not specifically on the kind of life of service that Vivekananda envisagedwe also have to consider Vivekanandas own priorities. Once back in India in 1897, Vivekananda almost immediately began to plan his return to the U.S. and London. Teaching and strengthening his bonds with the American and British admirers he had gathered between 1893 and 1897 were major preoccupations in his declining years. This work was clearly intended to be supportive of his project for India. At times, it could exist in tension with it, as when in 1894 Vivekananda declared, in response to a question about whether to direct resources to the Greenacre Conference in Maine, India can wait as she is waiting centuries and an immediate work at hand should always have the preference. Vivekananda, of course, never abandoned his project for India, but from 1894 he increasingly confessed to being weary of his involvement in helping and spoke longingly of reverting to the lifestyle of a more traditional sanyasin, and certainly having nothing more to do with the raising and management of funds.
C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

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Vivekananda Shobha Yatra organised by the Ramakrishna Mission to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary, passing through Visakhapatnam on January 12, 2013. When Vivekananda began to devise an institution that would bring sanyasins and educated lay workers together in a life of service to Indias downtrodden, he thought in terms of a hierarchy of needs, ascending from bodily, through intellectual to spiritual. Service thus begins with the gift of food followed by the gift of learning, which finally leads to the gift of knowledge (here spiritual knowledge). Vivekananda had grasped the importance of dealing with pressing physical and material needs and insisted on intervention. His understanding of Indias condition rested on an analysis of structural factors and power, as is evident in his comments on famine, but linked to his insistence that lasting change could only come from the work, the service, of selfless individuals. This is why some commentators have criticised Vivekananda and those who have followed him for gradualism at the cost of radicalism, and an idealistic reliance on the transformation of the individual as the way to change society. The style of service Vivekananda had in mind, however, was undoubtedly modern in certain key respects, and those who have attempted to explain the sources of his ideas crudely in terms of borrowings from established forms of Christian charitable endeavour do his ideas a considerable injustice. Yet, while never dismissing human suffering as something to be borne stoically or as merely a prelude to some future compensation, Vivekananda saw the ultimate purpose of seva as spiritually transformative of both recipients and performers. In serving humanity as a sadhana, performers had to realise that they were serving embodied divinity and were thus privileged to have this opportunitynot to offer compassion that could mask condescension or even self-interest but to serve daridra narayana. It is against this backcloth that we can appreciate why Vivekananda became frustrated as the greater part of the newly created Math and Missions human and financial resources in the latter years of the 19th century were channelled into disaster relief, necessary at that time, but not the gifts of learning and knowledge that were Vivekanandas goals. It is somewhat ironical that Vivekananda criticised in this vein the work of Swami Akhandananda. Of all Ramakrishnas direct disciples, Akhandananda was the most supportive, albeit with some reservations of his own, of Vivekanandas attempts to lead sanyasins into a life of

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service, and Akhandananda took many initiatives to bring this about. In 1897, while Akhandananda was engaged in relief work at Mahula, Vivekananda praised his efforts but not his system: It seems they are frittering away their energies in one little village and that only doling out rice. I do not hear that any preaching has been done with this helping. This telling comment reminds us clearly of Vivekanandas priorities, as well as contrasting Vivekananda, the strategist of service, with Akhandananda, its hands-on deliverer. The Math and Missions absorption in disaster relief is indicated in an early report (1912) of its work by The Hindoo Patriot, which referred to the movement having touched the lives of in excess of 30,000 people. By this time, the Ramakrishna movement had established four major Homes of Service and other smaller centres. To understand how seva has come to dominate the public profile of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission and the way in which Vivekanandas legacy is understood today, we need to come down to the post-Independence era. The early leadership of the Math and Mission continued to institutionalise the practice of seva in the years after Vivekanandas death. This in itself was significant, given the ambivalence that Vivekanandas project had generated among Ramakrishnas immediate followers, an ambivalence that even Vivekananda expressed from time to time in the latter years of his life. At the Ramakrishna Math and Mission Convention of 1926, called to review the direction of the movement as its leadership began to pass from Ramakrishnas direct disciples, the movement affirmed it would follow Ramakrishnas reported admonition to Vivekananda that he should dedicate his life to the welfare of the many. The convention also emphasised events from Ramakrishnas life that were presented as examples of Ramakrishnas own practice of seva, although the provenance and meaning of some of these reports have been questioned outside the movement. For example, we have accounts of Ramakrishna instigating others to alleviate the terrible effects of famine, rather than acting directly himself, and of Ramakrishna cleaning a sweepers house/latrine (the reports differ) with his hair, although this seems more like a test of his own detachment rather than an act of service as such. Thus, although there are many testimonies to Ramakrishnas warmth and caring attitude, it is difficult to view his behaviour strictly as providing precedents for the later Math and Missions organised service to humanity. It certainly could not be said that he actively sought out opportunities to serve, and his own weakened state of health would have prevented him from rising to such a physical challenge.

The report of the 1926 convention affirms the centrality of the practice of seva to the life of the movement by the mid-1920s. The report also shows the beginnings of the transition from that early phase in its

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growth, when the movement was largely engaged in ad hoc, temporary disaster relief, to a new phase in which it would increasingly concentrate its resources in permanent institutions or long-term projects in, for example, health care, education, and rural development. It was not, however, until after Independence, when Indias new government looked to trusted voluntary organisations to help in the provision of welfare and education, that the extent of the Ramakrishna Math and Missions involvement in the long-term provision of seva changed to the kinds of levels we associate with the movement today. By the early 1940s, the total number of branches of the Math and Mission had risen to 129 (with additional sub-branches). By 2011, this had risen to 172 worldwide, excluding the headquarters at Belur Math. The real measure of the expansion of seva during the intervening years, however, is to be found not so much in the number of centres but in the hugely increased numbers of those passing through these centres, and in the expansion of some of these centres, such as the Ramakrishna Mission Ashrama at Narendrapur, and their projects. Ever insistent that its service is offered as a sadhana, not merely as social work, the Ramakrishna movement, nevertheless, has had to accommodate, as have other non-governmental, voluntary organisations, the increasing professionalism of the delivery of service that has inevitably accompanied growing demands for technical expertise. On the 150th anniversary of his birth, it is intriguing to speculate whether Vivekananda ever envisaged the degree to which the Ramakrishna Math and Mission would commit itself to the administration and delivery of complex service provisions. Reflecting on how Vivekananda might have imagined his legacy brings into sharper relief the ways in which the place given to seva has changed over the years both within the movement he created and in commemorative judgments passed on him since his death in 1902. There is little doubt that Vivekananda was aware of Indias acute needs by the time he came to formulate his own mission, and that seva could provide a powerful rallying point around which to bring together those committed to Indias uplift, at a time when British colonial rule imposed controls on the nature and purpose of organisations in India. Vivekanandas encounters in India with the realities of famine and limited educational provision had demonstrated to him the need to intervene and to motivate in a new way, especially as, in Vivekanandas eyes, Indias traditional elites had failed to offer the necessary leadership. Yet, it might be tempting to think that by the end of his life Vivekananda may well have begun to recall Ramakrishnas caveats about the dangers of immersion in a life of philanthropy. It should not be forgotten, however, that much of Vivekanandas frequently expressed frustration undoubtedly arose from the multifaceted nature of his career, rather than from wrestling with one dilemma of how to reconcile the solitary life of the meditative ascetic with a life devoted to the welfare of the many. Vivekananda juggled different kinds of projects in India and the U.S. and London, often torn by the competing demands of his widely spread followers and feeling unable to energise sufficiently those, whether in India, the U.S. or London, who were left to carry forward his work during his absence.
COURTESY VIVEKANANDAR ILLAM

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September 1898, Kashmir: With some of his Western disciples: (from left) Josephine MacLeod, Mrs Ole Bull, Sister Nivedita. Vivekanandas premature death arguably robbed him of the opportunity to draw together the strands of his lifes work, and perhaps to elaborate further his theory of Practical Vedanta and his social ethic. Many have come to regard these as underpinning his seva project and the summation of his distinctive contribution to Hindu thought, although scholars have questioned both the coherence and the sources of these ideas. For my part, I have long been convinced that Practical Vedanta was a response to the needs of Vivekanandas followers in the U.S. and London rather than a rationale for the practice of seva as organised service to humanity, which Vivekananda had justified in India through the identification of the poor and downtrodden as daridra narayana. Vivekananda made surprisingly little reference to Practical Vedanta by name outside the lectures delivered in London in 1896 in which he first outlined this theory. He argued that Vedanta (or Hinduism, for he often used these terms as if interchangeable) was the most scientific, and therefore universal, system to date in bringing human beings to a new level of consciousness. What made Vedanta practical for Vivekananda was its capacity to lead to spiritual self-realisation and direct experience of God, a promise that resonated particularly with those of his admirers in London and the U.S. who had turned their backs on church-based Christianity. Vivekananda at that time did not systematically connect the principles of Practical Vedanta to the practice of seva, although others have done so subsequently. Attracted to Vivekanandas brand of universalism, a significant number of his followers in London and the U.S. had limited interest in India, and they saw no reason to follow their own spiritual quest by embracing either what they regarded as aspects of Hindu belief and practice or Vivekanandas own understandable commitment to India and Indias future. Vedanta Societies in the U.S. and Europe to this day have not offered the range of activities subsumed under organised seva in India on the grounds that much of this would be unnecessary in more affluent societies, restricting service to teaching and spiritual counselling. This elasticity, I would suggest, is entirely consistent with Vivekanandas theory of Practical Vedanta, which emerged in very different circumstances from his earlier formulation of daridra narayana and was first shared with a very different audience. In considering today that specific part of Vivekanandas legacy relating to his promotion of seva as a form of organised service rooted in a sadhana, it is right that we should acknowledge the sheer scale and durability of his impact, not just through the movement he created but through many other Hindu movements that have been inspired by his example to adopt this practice. At the same time, it is important to recognise the extent to which this seva project awaited development after Vivekanandas

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premature death, and the extent to which its evolution was affected by factors external to the Ramakrishna movement and in ways Vivekananda would have been unlikely to have anticipated. External factors, such as the impact of Independence, the demands made in India on trusted NGOs, and the increasingly professional and technical nature of involvement in the voluntary service sector, have been instrumental in positioning the delivery of service within the strategic priorities and daily concerns of the Ramakrishna Mission and other Hindu organisations that have been touched by Vivekanandas influence. How Vivekananda would have reacted to this, had he seen this future, is difficult to envisage. We can linger over the ambivalence and frustration that Vivekananda voiced from time to time and indeed the resistance of some to the path he took in Ramakrishnas name. Vivekananda was an astute observer of accelerating processes that we now bundle together under the heading of globalisation, and I suspect he would have taken into account significant changes in the context and the nature of the challenges facing his later followers before venturing a judgment on the path they have taken. In much the same way, it is overly simplistic to base judgments on the direction taken by Vivekananda on our reconstructions of Ramakrishnas intentions. Even in the short time between the flowering of the careers of guru and disciple, the worlds they occupied and addressed had changed, and Vivekananda confronted challenges, issues and opportunities that Ramakrishna never faced or chose not to address. This is even more the case when one considers the passage of time between the death of Vivekananda and the Ramakrishna movement of today. Vivekanandas vision and theory of seva is central to his legacy as one of 19th-century Indias most influential thinkers and leaders. Much of its current form and its widespread practice by contemporary Hindu movements are the products of opportunities afforded by the course of Indian history from the late colonial period to the present. The mechanics of its delivery have been no less profoundly affected by international developments in this field.

From our 21st-century vantage point, I sense that the iconic power of the symbolism of Vivekanandas intervention at the Worlds Parliament of Religions is gradually fading. Vivekanandas philosophy of service, on the other hand, continues to exert influence in India. This is no less true of comparable, religiously inspired initiatives in other parts of the world, as voluntary organisations exploit the space created by civil society to meet real and urgent needs left unanswered by governmental provision. Vivekananda, the inspiration behind over a century of service to Indias people, arguably provides more of a national focus today than Vivekananda the champion of Hinduism in Chicago. It would be interesting to see what the organisers of the bi-centenaries of his birth in 2063 will choose as the focus of their commemorations, what in their time they will see most clearly and value of Vivekanandas legacy.

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Gwilym Beckerlegge studied religions at the Universities of Oxford and Lancaster, and is currently Professor of Modern Religions in the Department of Religious Studies at The Open University, UK. His research has centred on the growth of seva within the Ramakrishna Math and Mission and other contemporary Hindu movements inspired by Vivekananda. His publications include Swami Vivekananda's Legacy of Service: A Study of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission (2006). For more details, visit http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/religious-studies /beckerlegge.shtml Quotations have been taken from; Vivekananda, Swami (1989): The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Mayavati Memorial Edition, eight volumes (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama). (1997): The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, originally recorded in Bengali by M., a disciple of the Master, and translated into English with an Introduction by Swami Nikhilananda (New York: Ramakrishna-Vedanta Centre).

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Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013


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Tryst with the West


MAKARAND R. PARANJAPE Vivekananda was perhaps Indias first global citizen. No Indian before him had travelled so extensively in the West. He was much ahead of his times, but a precursor to many others who followed his tracks later.
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY: VIVEKANANDA ILLAM

Discovered in Hollywood Center in April 2002. Researchers say that it was probably taken in San Francisco in 1900. Ida Ansell, a devotee also known as Ujjvala, is thought to be the source of the photograph. On May 31, 1893, a virtually unknown, 30-year-old Indian monk set sail for the United States. He had never been out of his own country, but he had now embarked on a long voyage to an unfamiliar destination. Through Colombo, Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, Osaka, Kyoto, Tokyo, to Yokohama he sailed, and thence, crossing the Pacific Ocean, to Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. From there he would travel, via Boston, to Chicago, the venue of the Columbian Exposition and the World Parliament of Religions. He scarcely knew then that he had less than 10 years to live; yet in this short span, he would not only become worldfamous but alter the destiny of India.

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Swami Vivekananda had formed the intention of going to the Parliament of Religions towards the end of his extensive travels in India in the previous five years. The turning point was his realisation in Kanyakumari in December 1892 that he was meant to work some marvel for the reawakening of his benighted country. In Madras, where he went next, he announced his intention of going to Chicago to participate in the Parliament. His devotees, especially a band of young men led by Alasinga Perumal, began to collect funds for the trip. Later, he got a pledge of support from the Raja of Khetri. Vivekananda saw a vision in which he was walking on water and also received permission from Sarada Ma, Sri Ramakrishnas consort, to go West with his Masters message. The story of Vivekanandas participation in the Parliament of Religions is the stuff legends are made of. In the West, for the first time in a totally different culture, he found himself practically penniless and friendless, without even an invitation to the Parliament or a letter of introduction. When he visited the Columbian Exposition, of which the Parliament was a part, he was both bewildered and impressed by the immense material and technological achievements of the West. How far behind was India!

It was the end of July 1893; he found out that the Parliament had been postponed to September. In his strange ochre robes, he was teased and stared at. Hotels in Chicago were expensive. Moreover, taken for a Negro, he also found accommodation difficult to secure. Soon he ran through his meagre means. Tired and depressed, he wondered whether he would have to beat an ignominious retreat. Someone told him that it was cheaper to live in Boston. En route, in the train, his regal bearing and strange appearance attracted the curiosity of a wealthy lady, Kate Sanborn. She invited Vivekananda to Breezy Meadows, her home in Boston. As Kate Sanborns guest, he met many people in and around Boston. For most of them, he was an item of curiosity, the first Easterner and Hindu they had ever met. The image of India that they had was not very flattering, derived as it was mostly from Christian missionaries. Vivekananda realised that one of his primary responsibilities would be to show a different India to the West, one that actually had something to offer to the modern world. In Boston, he also met Professor J.H. Wright of Harvard University, who agreed to write a letter of introduction so that Vivekananda could be a delegate. Professor Wright even bought him a train ticket to Chicago. The train arrived in Chicago late in the evening. Vivekananda had misplaced some of the addresses of the committee members in charge of

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the delegates. He spent the night in a freight wagon in the rail yard. The next morning, he walked towards the Lake Shore Drive, looking to make his way to the Parliament. Hungry, he asked for food as an Indian sanyasi is wont to at the doors of the wealthy mansions lining the street. Because he was unshaven and wore soiled clothes, he was taken to be a vagabond and rudely turned away.

December 1899, Pasadena, California. Enjoying a picnic. Finally, exhausted and famished, he sat on a sidewalk. A kindly lady saw him from her window, supposed him to be a delegate at the Parliament and sent for him. She was Mrs George W. Hale, who not only offered victuals and shelter but presented him to Dr J.H. Barrows, the President of the Parliament. Vivekananda, once again, had proof that providence was watching over him. The Hales became the Swamis staunch and lifelong devotees. The Worlds Parliament of Religions, which was inaugurated on September 11, 1893, was a grand event. Part of the Columbian Exposition to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Parliament was perhaps meant to show the Wests supremacy in matters of religion and spirit as the exposition was to demonstrate the Wests material and technological superiority. Yet, here was an unprecedented opportunity for people of various faiths and cultures to talk to each other. There were many delegates not only from all over the world, but also from the Indian subcontinent: not just Christians, but Muslims, Hindus, Brahmos, Theosophists, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis participated. Vivekananda seemed unprepared and out of place in this august assembly of notables and dignitaries. Yet, when he stood up to speak, with the simple greeting Sisters and Brothers of America, it is said that he was greeted with thunderous applause. He continued:

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It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world. I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of the millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. I am proud to belong to a religion which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations on earth ( Complete Works, Volume 1, page 3).

Kate Sanborn, who befriended him while he was on his way from Chicago to Boston and invited him home. While the other delegates had tried to emphasise the strength and uniqueness of their own creeds, Vivekananda struck a different chord. He spoke of the tolerance and universality of Indias spiritual traditions. He denounced narrow-mindedness and fanaticism. He seemed to represent not only Hinduism but all faiths of the world. Vivekananda had succeeded in conveying in a modern idiom the great teachings of his Master to an unfamiliar Western audience. In his final address he declared: The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor is a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth. If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the

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world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity, and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart ( Complete Works, Volume 1, page 24). Vivekanandas intervention in the Parliament may be considered prophetic, not just for the influence of India on the West but also for the future of dialogue between the West and the East. Though his impact in the Parliament has often been exaggerated, there is no question that his debut was outstanding and that he made a great impression. The New York Herald called him Undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions and added, After hearing him, we feel foolish to send missionaries to this learned nation (Tejasananda 58). After the Parliament, Vivekananda became somewhat of a celebrity. A lecture bureau engaged him to tour the country. On his part, he needed the money to free himself from some of his patrons and to fund his activities in India. He toured and spoke tirelessly, subjecting himself to a punishing schedule. Later, he terminated the services of the bureau because it was exploiting him. From 1893 to 1896, Vivekananda travelled widely in the U.S. as a speaker and preacher. While the American Renaissance had already created a favourable climate for Indian ideas, especially in New England, it was Vivekananda who laid the foundations for Vedanata in the U.S. and then in Britain. Besides Chicago and Boston, he spoke in Iowa City, Des Moines, Memphis, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Detroit, Buffalo, Hartford, Cambridge, New York, Baltimore and Washington. He was an effective speaker but frequently outspoken because he abhorred cant and hypocrisy.

Prof. J.H. Wright, who wrote a letter of introduction to the Parliament of Religions. Of course, Vivekanandas message to the West was not always welcomed or well received. On the contrary, it was often conveyed in the most hostile of circumstances. After his initial success, Vivekananda was regularly attacked and reviled by various Christian churches. Letters were written to his hosts and well-wishers, tarnishing his character, attempting to stop him from speaking. Vivekananda, with his outspokenness, exposed the fanaticism and falsehood of his detractors. Despite his great reverence for Jesus Christ, on whom he delivered some memorable talks,

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he was unsparing of the double standards and narrow-mindedness of some missionaries. For instance, in a lecture given in Detroit on February 21, 1894, he said: 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 ( Complete Works, Volume 8, pages 211-212). Vivekananda experienced U.S. society at first hand. Though he personally encountered racial discrimination, he also appreciated the freedom and opportunity given to all sections of society, especially women. This made him all the more outraged at the ill-treatment and oppression of Indian women and lower castes in India. Vivekananda admired material progress and science. In his letters to India, he wrote enthusiastically about several aspects of American life, especially its democratic spirit, cleanliness, order, hygiene, efficiency and prosperity.

Towards the end of 1894, Vivekanandas work began to assume a new depth and seriousness. He had already established the Vedanta Society in New York as a non-sectarian organisation devoted to teaching Vedanta. In early 1895, he took up lodgings in New York City and began giving intensive courses on the yogas. These would later be revised into his first major publications. Raja Yoga, for example, came out in June 1895. A translation and commentary on Patanjalis Yoga Sutras, it attracted the attention of William James and Leo Tolstoy. Exhausted with his unceasing labours, Vivekananda retired for seven weeks to Miss Dutchers cottage at the Thousand Island Park on the St Lawrence river. He also initiated two American disciples, Marie Louise and Leon Landsberg, into sanyas, administering to them the vows of poverty and chastity. During his stay here, Vivekananda had many spiritual and mystical experiences. He also wrote some poems, taught intensely, and was at his most inspired. In July 1895, Vivekananda sailed for Europe. He was invited by Henrietta

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Muller and E.T. Sturdy to England, and by Francis H. Leggett to Paris. He arrived in Paris in August 1895. He wrote enthusiastic letters describing that city and his experiences there. Later, he would also learn some French. From Paris, he went to London, where he again began to work earnestly. His British reception was quieter and less critical than the one he received in France. The British upper classes and the press liked him. He also met Margaret E. Noble, the Irishwoman who, as Sister Nivedita, became one of his foremost disciples later.

Margaret Noble, better known in India as Sister Nivedita. He met her in the U.K. in 1895. In December, Vivekananda returned to the U.S. Once again, he started lecturing intensely. The talks he gave were published as Karma Yoga. J.J. Goodwin, a professional stenographer, now joined him. To him we owe accurate transcripts of Vivekanandas subsequent lectures in the U.S., Europe and India. In 1896, Vivekananda recommenced his lectures, speaking at the Madison Square Garden, New York City. These lectures were published as Bhakti Yoga. Thereafter, he spoke in Detroit and at Harvard University. He also reinforced the work of the Vedanta Society in New York. His aim was to rationalise and universalise the truths of the Vedanta, thereby supplying the need for a non-sectarian world practice of spirituality. A careful examination of the record shows that from December 6, 1895, to February 1896 he gave 70 classes, 10 public lectures, interviews and initiations, wrote letters, had an extensive correspondence, and wrote and edited his own lectures (Chattopadhyaya, 1993, page 40). In May 1896, Vivekananda went again to England to meet the famous Indologist Max Mueller at Oxford. He also found new disciples in Captain and Mrs Sevier. The Seviers paid for the establishment of the Advaita Ashram at Mayavati, on the foothills of the Himalayas. Vivekananda toured Europe in August 1896. He visited Geneva, Mer-de-Glace, Montreux, Chillon, Chamounix, St. Bernard, Lucerne, Rigi, Zermatt and Schaffhausen. He loved the Alps and even wanted to climb Mont Blanc. He met Paul Deussen, Professor of Philosophy at Kiel and renowned Orientalist. With him, Vivekananda visited Heidelberg, Coblenz, Cologne and Berlin. He also travelled to Amsterdam before returning to London. In December 1896, he travelled overland through Dover, Calais, Mont Cenis, Milan, Piza and Florence, heading to Naples, from where he set sail for India. Vivekananda had not forgotten India during these years abroad. He was

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forming the plans for the Math and Mission that he would establish. His letters were filled with instructions on the daily routine of monks and plans for a bigger headquarters for the order, organised and managed on modern, efficient lines. He wanted to create a generation of selfless men who would have the courage to serve their less fortunate Indian brothers and sisters. He asked of them the strength of a Kshatriya, the warrior, and the learning and luminosity of the Brahmin, the scholar. But this combination was to be transformed into a different kind of Shudra dharma or work of service of the masses.

J.J. Goodwin, the young English stenographer who efficiently recorded his lectures. Barely two years after his Indian sojourn, in June 1899, Vivekananda sailed a second time to the West. From Calcutta (Kolkata), his steamship, Golconda, went to Madras, then to Colombo, Aden, Naples and Marseilles, and arrived in London at the end of July. Swami Turiyananda and Nivedita accompanied Vivekananda. Fifteen days later, they set sail for New York. Vivekananda visited the Leggetts in their country home, Ridgely Manor, in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. After returning to New York City, he lectured there, and then went to the Midwest. He stopped at Chicago, eventually reached Los Angeles on the west coast. In California, Vivekananda visited Oakland, San Franscisco and Alameda. A centre was started in San Franscisco. Vivekananda received a gift of 160 acres (64 hectares) of land near Mt. Hamilton, California. After this successful visit, he returned to the east coast, stopping in Chicago and Detroit. Back in New York City, he gave lectures at the Vedanta Society. Later he also visited Detroit for a week. In July 1900, he set sail for Paris to participate in the Congress of the History of Religions. Here he not only gave talks but argued with French Catholics and German Orientalists. He met J.C. Bose (the great scientist), Patrick Geddes (an academic), Pere Hyacinthe (a former monk), Hiram Maxim (an inventor), Sarah Bernhardt (the celebrated actress), Jules Bois (a writer), and Emma Calve (the famous soprano operatic singer). He also visited Brittany and Mt. S. Michel. He travelled through Vienna, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece and reached Cairo. Here, he and his companions mistakenly wandered into the sex district, where they were jeered and accosted. But later, the sex workers came out into the street, knelt before Vivekananda and kissed the hem of his robe. This recalls an earlier episode when after an initial reaction, he returned to listen to a courtesans song in the palace of a Rajput prince

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during his wandering days. From Cairo, Vivekananda took a boat to Bombay (Mumbai). From Bombay, taking a train to Calcutta, Vivekananda arrived at Belur Math on December 9, 1900. Captain Sevier had just passed away at Mayavati. On December 11 he wrote to Miss MacLeod: Thus two great Englishmen [the other was J.J. Goodwin] gave up their lives for usus, the Hindus. This is martyrdom, if anything is. Vivekananda travelled to Mayavati to see Mrs Sevier. He returned to Belur Math in late January 1901. Two months later, in March 1901, he took his mother on a pilgrimage to East Bengal. The party reached Dhaka in March, where he delivered public lectures. He then went to Chandranath, Chittagong and to Kamakhya near Guwahati in Assam. After returning to Belur, he spent many quiet months in the monastery in his large room.

In 1902, many important visitors met Vivekananda including Okakura Tenzin from Japan. With Okakura, Vivekananda went to Varanasi and then to Bodh Gaya. In Varanasi, the Maharaja offered him a handsome donation, which was used to start the Ramakrishna Home of Service. Vivekanandas health was failing. He had symptoms of diabetes, which he had inherited, and of dropsy. His feet were swollen and he could hardly close his eyes to sleep. Increasingly, he began to free himself of responsibilities, concentrating more and more on meditation and prayer. Always passionate in his beliefs, he now refused even to comment on day-to-day questions. On May 15, 1902, in his last letter to Josephine Macleod, he said, A great idea of quiet has come upon me. I am going to retire for goodno more work for me (cited in Chattopadhyay, 282). In the last days of his life, everything he did was unhurried, calm, and deliberate. Towards the end of June 1902, he asked for a Bengali almanac, which he studied intently. Three days before his passing away, he told Swami Premananda where he wished his body to be cremated. He fasted on ekadashi, the 11th day of the lunar month; on that day, he himself served Sister Nivedita her meal. On July 4, 1902, which was a Friday, he spent many hours in meditation. He sang movingly a devotional song to Kali, ate a hearty lunch, taught Sanskrit grammar for three hours in the afternoon, took a walk with Premananda, and had a long conversation with his companions. He said, India is immortal if she persists in her search for God. But if she goes in for politics and social conflict, she will die. At seven in the evening, he retired to his room, asking not to be disturbed. He meditated for an hour, then asked a disciple to fan him as he lay down. After another hour, his hands trembled, he breathed deeply once, and then gave up his body. It is widely believed that he chose the day and time of this own death and that it was no accident that this happened to be the American

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Independence Day.

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His death left his brother monks somewhat nonplussed. They did not even have the presence of mind to take one last photograph of their dear brother and leader. From a bare outline of his journeys to the West, extraordinary as these were, it is impossible to form a notion of just how significant Vivekanandas influence or impact was. For these, we must rely on other accounts. For instance, when Mrs Allan sees him for the first time, she says: [He] seemed to me so big, as though he towered above ordinary mortals. The people on the street looked like pygmies and he had such a majestic presence that people stepped aside to let him pass by (quoted in Sil, 22). Or, to cite another example, Josephine MacLeod, one of his most faithful and long-standing admirers, recorded: The thing that held me in Swamiji is his unlimitedness. I could never touch the bottomor topor sides. The amazing size of him! (quoted in Sil, 23). As Romain Rolland in his prelude to The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel puts it: His pre-eminent characteristic was kingliness. He was a born king and nobody ever came near him either in India or America without paying homage to his majesty. Recalling his impact at the Parliament in Chicago, Annie Besant said: A striking figure, clad in yellow and orange, shining like the sun of India in the midst of the heavy atmosphere of Chicago, a lion-head, piercing eyes, mobile lips, movement swift and fastsuch was my first impression of Swami Vivekananda. Monk, they called him, not unwarrantably, but warrior-monk he was, and the first impression was the warrior rather than of the monk. Purposeful, virile, strong, he stood out, a man among men, able to hold his own. That man a heathen! said one, as he came out of the great Hall, and we send missionaries to his people! It would be more fitting that they should send missionaries to us (quoted in Jyotirmayananda, 689). As some of these opinions affirm, Vivekanandas greatest achievements include the reconstruction of Hinduism, the change of its image in the West, the starting of a movement of social and cultural regeneration, all of which were directly linked to the birth of Indian nationalism, which was taking place at that time. The key to all these contributions was Vivekanandas modernisation of Hinduism. Indeed, the Hinduism that he spoke about and expounded at the Parliament of Religions and, later, all over America was a new version, mostly of his own invention, of an ancient tradition. What he learned from Ramakrishna he tried to interpret in the language of modernity that he had learned as a young, Englisheducated Calcutta man. Instead of a pagan, superstitious, idolatrous, and barbarous set of rituals, customs and practices, which is how Hinduism had been by and large perceived, not just by missionaries but by a large section of the educated middle classes of India, Vivekananda turned it into a rational, universal philosophy, freed from dogma and authority. He did this by making Vedanta the spine of new Hinduism, bhakti its heart, and the yogas its sinews. For the West, what he brought was indeed original and promising. As Ninian Smart says: The universalist message of Swami Vivekananda and of his Master, Ramakrishna, genuinely represents a new departure in world religionsthe attempt to make the highest form of Hinduism a world faith (quoted in Jyotirmayananda 182). He thus reinterpreted Hinduism not only to the West but to India. Essentially, his message was two-fold: when he faced the West, he was a teacher and practitioner of Indian spirituality; when he faced his fellow countrymen and women, he was a social reformer. As Tapan Raychaudhuri observes, Vivekananda had a two-fold agenda which he had time to pursue for less than a decade: to preach a universalist

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spiritual faith based on the life of his master which he saw as the ultimate realisation of the Vedantic truth, and secondly, to create a mass consciousness through service and education (16). Vivekananda was quite scathing in his attack on the Indian society of his time. One of his most radical theses was that India had declined because of its neglect of women. We are horrible sinners, he says in his letter of March 19, 1894, to Swami Ramakrishnananda, and our degradation is due to our calling women despicable worms, gateways to hell, and so forth ( Complete Works, 6, page 253). In the same letter he goes on to say, Do you think our religion is worth the name? Ours is only Donttouchism, only Touch me not, Touch me not (ibid). In his letter to Alasinga Perumal, he is even more categorical: So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them! I call those men who strut about in their finery, having got all their money by grinding the poor, wretches, so long as they do not do anything for those two hundred millions who are now no better than hungry savages! (Complete Works, 5, page 58). From statements such as these, it would appear that Vivekananda had a complete programme for the regeneration of India. In his speech in Ramnad on his return to India in early 1897, he clearly spelt out the dangers before his fellow Indians: There are two great obstacles on our path in India, the Scylla of old orthodoxy and the Charybdis of modern European civilisation. Of these two, I vote for the old orthodoxy, and not for the Europeanised system; for the old orthodox man may be ignorant, he may be crude, but he is a man, he has a faith, he has strength, he stands on his own feet; while the Europeanised man has no back bone, he is a mass of heterogeneous ideas picked up at random from every source and these ideas are unassimilated, undigested, unharmonised. He does not stand on his own feet, and his head is turning round and round (Complete Works, 3, page 151). Indeed, if Vivekananda had not died young, he may have come into more direct conflict with the British authorities. In a personal conversation on November 16, 2003, Swami Prabhananda, the then secretary of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, said that there was sufficient evidence to show that he was under surveillance of the British for several years. His aim of decolonising India would have met with severe repression from the British authorities. Even a century later, however, the great task of freeing Indian minds from subservience to the West has not been fully effected. One of the reasons that Vivekananda continues to appeal to so many diverse kinds of people is that he was so radical and unconventional. In his letter of November 1, 1896, to Mary Hale, for example, he said, I am a socialist not because I think it is a perfect system, but half a loaf is better than no bread. The other systems have been tried and found wanting. Let this one be tried ( Complete Works, 6, page 381). Some have used such statements to invent a new category of thought called Vedantic Socialism, attributing it to Vivekananda. Indeed, there have been several attempts, many of them serious and at considerable length, to argue that Vivekananda was a socialist (see, for instance, Rao, Das Gupta, and Biswas). The latest of these efforts is the booklet Vivekanandas Message, edited by A.B. Bardhan, a veteran of the Communist Party of India (CPI), who claims to rescue Swamiji from fundamentalists and right-wing Hindus (Roy 9). I would even argue that Vivekananda was perhaps Indias first global citizen. No doubt, there were others such as Raja Rammohun Roy before

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him who had a similar breadth of outlook and cosmopolitan tendencies; indeed, Rammohun lived the last months of his life in England. But no Indian before Vivekananda had lived and travelled so extensively in the West, especially in the U.S. He was thus bicultural in a very contemporary wayhe could live with equal ease in two cultures and three continents. He was thus a crossover figure, much ahead of his times, but a precursor to many others who followed his tracks later. Mary Louise Burkes meticulous and exhaustive account of his travels in the West gives us a picture of a man who was both worldly and deeply spiritual in a complex way. For instance, during his stay at Ridgely Manor, he tried to play golf and greatly enjoyed chocolate ice cream (Burke IV, pages 120-127). Generally, he ate well, even smoked and drank, but always maintained his two vows of poverty and chastity. This is illustrated in Deussens account as Vivekanandas room-mate during their travels from Bremen to London in September 1896. You seem to be a queer sort of saint, Deussen said to him, You eat well, you drink well, you smoke all day, and you deprive yourself of nothing. He replied in Sanskrit: I observe my vows. And what consists of your vows? They require of me simply Kama Kanchana Viraha, to renounce sex and gold (Burke IV, pages 283-288). Some critics have used such accounts to offer exaggerated accounts of Vivekanandas inner and outer conflicts. Notably, Sil describes Vivekanandas life as the striving of an ambitious, idealistic, impulsive, and imaginative militant monk who envisioned, rather naively, a global spiritualisation in the manner of a Napoleonic conquest (25). Fulfilling his own prophecy, Vivekananda gave up his body before he reached the age of 40. The (ongoing) story of the imagining of modern India, of which he was a key agent, is a still unfinished if gripping narrative. The life and works of Swami Vivekananda are central to this story for those who wish to understand it. But a man like Vivekananda belongs not only to India but also to the whole world. As he himself proclaimed, I shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywhere, until the world shall know that it is one with God ( Complete Works, 5: 414). More than 100 years later that promise continues to be kept. Makarand R. Paranjape is a Professor of English at Jawaharlal Nehru Universitys Centre for English at the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies. Bibliography Burke, Mary Louise (1983-86): Swami Vivekananda in the West: New Discoveries, six volumes (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama). Chattopadhyaya, Rajagopal (1999): Swami Vivekananda in India: A Corrective Biography (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass). Das Gupta, R.K. (1995): Swami Vivekanandas Vedantic Socialism (Calcutta). Eastern and Western Disciples (1979-81): The Life of Swami Vivekananda, 1913 (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama). Jyotirmayananda, Swami (1993): Vivekananda: A Comprehensive Study (Madras: Swami Jyotirmayananda). Radice, William, ed. (1998): Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Rolland, Romain (1947): The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal Gospel (Mayavati: Advaita Ashrama). Rao, V.K.R.V. (1979): Swami Vivekananda: The Prophet of Indian

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Socialism (New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting). Raychaudhuri, Tapan (1998): Swami Vivekanandas construction of Hinduism in William Radice (ed.), Swami Vivekananda and the Modernization of Hinduism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), pp 1-16. Roy, Bhaskar (March 31, 2003): The Left turns to Vivekananda, The Times of India, page 9. Sen, Amiya P. (2000): Swami Vivekananda (New Delhi: Oxford University Press). Sil, Narasingha P. (1997): Swami Vivekananda: A Reassessment (Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press). Tejasananda, Swami (1995): A Short Life of Swami Vivekananda (Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama). Vivekananda, Swami (2003): The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, nine volumes (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama).

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Volume 30 - Issue 02 :: Jan. 26-Feb. 08, 2013


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Engagement with Christianity


ANANTANAND RAMBACHAN

Insert Your Birthdate & Get Vivekanandas attempt to speak for Christianity to Hindus is an Answers about eloquent testimony of his readiness to receive and share Past-Present religious wisdom from traditions other than his own. and Future. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY: VIVEKANANDA ILLAM Free

In a clerical frock, on Monterey Road, South Pasadena in December 1899. His outstanding lecture during the Pasadena visit, according to Josephine MacLeod, was "Christ the Messenger". Better Be Ready To Live In Rags With Christ Than To Live In Palaces Without Him. Swami Vivekananda in Detroit, 1894. Swami Vivekananda is arguably the most influential interpreter of the Hindu tradition in recent times to both India and the West. His eloquent speeches at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 aroused the pride of Hindus in India and deeply influenced the understanding of Hinduism in both the East and the West. Vivekananda was also one of the earliest Hindus to comment in detail on Christian doctrine and practice and to evaluate these in the light of his own tradition. He not only

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influenced the Hindu understanding of Hindu traditions but also offered an interpretation of Christianity that informed Hindu responses to Christianity. Vivekanandas views, therefore, while being historically significant, are also important for their impact on the continuing relationship between both traditions. Vivekanandas earliest known views about Christ and Christianity were expressed in a preface that he wrote to his Bengali translation of The Imitation of Christ ( Complete Works, 8:159-161), a work attributed to the medieval Catholic monk Thomas Kempis {+1}. He translated six chapters of this work, added appropriate quotations from Hindu texts, and contributed these to a Bengali monthly journal. The Imitation of Christ engaged Vivekananda, and it was the only text, other than the Bhagavad Gita, that he kept with him during his years of travelling around India after the death of his revered teacher, Sri Ramakrishna. Vivekananda translated and published The Imitation of Christ in order to present to Hindus what he understood to be the true spirit of Christianity. This spirit, Vivekananda felt, was absent from the lives of most Christians whom Hindus encountered in day-to-day situations. In the context of the unequal power relationship between these two traditions in colonial India, and missionary attacks on Hinduism, Vivekanandas attempt to speak for Christianity to Hindus is an eloquent testimony of his readiness to receive and share religious wisdom from traditions other than his own. It was a remarkable effort by a leading Hindu interpreter to save Christianity from Christians.

Look where we may, a true Christian nowhere do we see. The ugly impression left on our mind by the ultra-luxurious, insolent, despotic, barouche-and-brougham-driving Christians of the Protestant sects will be completely removed if we but once read this great book with the attention it deserves (CW8: 160). In seeking to win legitimacy for the text among Hindus, Vivekananda was aware of the need to overcome the antagonism towards Christianity generated by missionary denunciations of Hinduism and aggressive proselytisation. The catholicity of his viewpoint is reflected in the manner in which he employs the views of one of the orthodox schools of Indian philosophy to make his argument. To those of my countrymen, who under the influence of blind bigotry may seek to belittle this book because it is the work of a Christian, I shall quote only one aphorism of Vaisheshika Darshana and say nothing more.

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The aphorism is this: ptopadehavakyam abdah: which means that the teachings of Siddha Purushas (perfected souls) have a probative force and this is technically known as Shabda Pramana (verbal evidence). Rishi Jaimini, the commentator, says that such Apta Purushas (authorities) may be born among the Aryans and the Mlechchhas (CW8: 160-161). The preface that Vivekananda wrote to his translation of The Imitation of Christ is important because, besides being his earliest written work (1889), it reflects faithfully the features of Christianity that he found attractive. He could understand and identify with the author of this work whose ideals and way of life closely resembled the aspirations and values of a traditional Hindu renunciant ( sannysin). Vivekananda admired the authors radical renunciation, his thirst for purity and his unceasing spiritual effort ( sdhana). Vivekananda likened The Imitation of Christ to the Bhagavad Gt; in its spirit of complete self-surrender and saw the author as embodying the Hindu ideal of devotion to God as a servant to a master (dsya bhakti).

On Mount Lowe, California, January 1900, with friends, including Josephine MacLeod. In his preface, one finds, for the first time, Vivekanandas often-repeated complaint about the divergence between Christian ideal and practice. He also chastised Hindus for the chasm between ideal and reality. This was an observation that he made on various occasions during his visits to the United States. In a lecture that he delivered at the Unitarian Church of Detroit on February 20, 1894, he lamented the absence of deep religious commitment and the prevalence of complacency. Religion nowadays has become a mere hobby and fashion. People go to church like a flock of sheep. They do not embrace God because they need Him. Most people are unconscious atheists who self-complacently think that they are devout believers (CW8: 203). Vivekananda often challenged Christians for having a shop-keeping attitude to religion and denounced what he described as a beggarly attitude to God. The Christian emphasis, Vivekananda argued, should be on generosity and on the fulfilment of the ideal of love for loves sake. Such an ideal he found to be best expressed in the songs of Solomon

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(CW7: 415; CW8: 202-203). In a lecture reported in Detroit Free Press on February 18, 1894, Vivekananda offered an interesting and unusual comment on the golden rule. How exclusively vulgar, stated Vivekananda, was the golden rule! Always self! always self! was the Christian creed. To do unto others as you would be done by! It was a horrible, barbarous, savage creed, but he did not desire to decry the Christian creed, for those who are satisfied with it to them it is well adapted (CW3: 500). One wonders what comments Swami Vivekananda would offer today on the spread of consumerism, associated with the phenomenon of globalisation, and what words of caution he would speak to Hindus in India and abroad. It was on the subject of renunciation that Vivekanandas disappointment with the dichotomy between ideal and practice in Christianity became most evident. He felt strongly that Christians had strayed far from the ideals of Jesus. In the city of Detroit on February 21, 1894, Vivekananda was fiery and eloquent and held before his audience the model of Jesus as renunciant ( sanysin). You are not Christians. No, as a nation you are not. Go back to Christ. Go back to him who had nowhere to lay his head. The birds have their nests and the beasts their lairs, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Yours is religion preached in the name of luxury. What an irony of fate! Reverse this if you want to live, reverse this. It is all hypocrisy that I have heard in this country.... All this prosperity, all this from Christ! Christ would have denied all such heresies .... If you can join these two, this wonderful prosperity with the ideal of Christ, it is well. But if you cannot, better go back to him and give this up. Better be ready to live in rags with Christ than to live in palaces without him (CW 8: 213). No person coming from outside of the Christian tradition had ever addressed Christians in such a passionate appeal for fidelity to Jesus ideal of freedom from greed. His words assume new significance with the rise of what is named as the prosperity Gospel, or the belief that affluence is a sign of Gods favour.

Vivekananda commented, more than any earlier Hindu exegetes, on specific Christian doctrines. In his apologetic method, his normative standpoint was non-dual Advaita. He questioned Christian eschatological doctrines, especially those that represented heaven or hell as eternal. Any effect is commensurate with its cause, and if the cause is finite, the effect, of necessity, will be finite. Any number of good works, therefore, cannot produce an infinite or permanent result. By the same reasoning, hell cannot be a place of eternal suffering. Vivekananda is, of course, drawing on the Advaita understanding of heavenly or hellish worlds as

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temporary post-mortem destinations before rebirth. He was foreshadowing a discussion that continues in some Christian theological circles today. Vivekananda also questioned the Christian doctrine of original sin and compared this with the Advaita understanding of the inherent purity of the tm. He felt, on the whole, that the Christian tradition, as he encountered it, emphasised, too much, human depravity and sinfulness. Be not deluded by your religion teaching original sin, for the same religion teaches original purity. When Adam fell, he fell from purity. Purity is our real nature and to regain that is the object of all religion (CW 7: 418).

The Unitarian Church in Detroit, as it stands today, where Vivekananda gave a speech in February 1894. He expressed abhorrence at the idea of salvation gained through the shedding of blood, anticipating concerns among some Christians about the meaning of atonement. The Hindu, according to Vivekananda, understood sacrifice to mean the receiving of that which is offered to God. Vivekananda also marshalled Advaita arguments to evaluate the Christian understanding of the souls eternal nature. In the Advaita tradition, the doctrine of the eternal nature of the tm implies that it is also without beginning. Claiming immortality for anything created is irrational. Sometimes people get frightened at the idea, and superstition is so strong that thinking men even believe that they are the outcome of nothing, and then, with the grandest logic, try to deduce the theory that although they have come out of zero, they will be eternal afterwards. Neither you nor I nor anyone present, has come out of zero, nor will go back to zero (CW 2: 217). Vivekananda had much less to say about Christ than Christianity. Unlike Swami Dayananda Saraswati of the Arya Samaj, and the Brahmo Samaj leaders, who rejected the Hindu doctrine of divine descent ( avatra) into the human world, Vivekananda interpreted the meaning of Jesus through the Hindu affirmation of multiple divine manifestations. Vivekananda, however, like Hindu interpreters following him, disagreed with Christian claims for the uniqueness of Jesus. He was a manifestation of God; so was the Buddha; so were some others, and there will be hundreds of others. Do not limit God anywhere (CW 4: 29). It contradicted Gods love and infinity to claim that divine revelation has occurred only once,

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and Vivekananda appealed to Christians to acknowledge the many incarnations of God, both in the past and yet to come. Let us, therefore, find God not only in Jesus of Nazareth but in all the great ones that have preceded him, in all that came after him, and that are yet to come. Our worship is unbounded and free (CW 4: 152). Interestingly, Vivekananda thought that Jesus would not want to be proclaimed as the only Son of God and he blamed the disciples of Jesus for putting greater emphasis on the person of Jesus at the expense of his teachings. The consequence of this, according to Vivekananda, is the reluctance of major Christian denominations to acknowledge any other expression of the divine besides Jesus. In this view of the meaning of Jesus, Vivekananda anticipated an interpretation that would be advanced in more detail by some Christian theologians in the late 20th century. Some offer the argument that Jesus himself had a theocentric focus. Swami Vivekanandas engagement with Christianity was guided by his larger view of human religious history and evolution. Movement in religion, according to Vivekananda, is not a growth from falsehood to truth, but from a lower to a higher truth. The world of religions is, as he puts it, only a travelling, a coming up of different men and women, through various conditions and circumstances to the same goal. For Vivekananda, the climax of this journey is the awakening to the non-dual reality underlying the universe and constituting the self (tm) of all. This awakening is available in all the religions of the world. Paths may be different, but the goal of non-duality is one and the same. Vivekananda positions religions at various evolutionary locations on the journey to non-dualism: All religions are so many stages. Each of them represents the stage through which the human soul passes to realise God. Therefore, not one of them should be neglected. None of these stages are dangerous or bad. They are good. Just as a child becomes a young man, and a young man becomes an old man, so these are travelling from truth to truth; they become dangerous only when they become rigid, and will not move further when he ceases to grow (CW 2: 500). Vivekananda traces three stages in the development of all religions. In the first stage, God is understood as an extra-cosmic being, both omnipotent and omniscient. There is little human intimacy with God at this stage, and the emphasis is on divine transcendence. The second stage emphasises panentheism. God is understood to be present not only in the heavens but also in our world and, most importantly, in the human being. In the final stage of religious evolution, the human being discovers unity and identity with the all-pervasive, non-dual truth of the universe. The gulf between God and man is thus bridged. Thus we find, by knowing God, the kingdom of heaven within us. All religions, according to Vivekananda, reflect these three phases, since the evolution to a higher stage does not imply the discarding of any earlier phase. Vivekananda applied this evolutionary theology to his understanding of Christianity and to his dialogue with Christians. He saw no difference between what he understood to be the religion of Jesus and the teaching of Advaita. Employing the same principle that he used to reconcile the dualistic and non-dualistic traditions in Hinduism, Vivekananda claimed that Jesus taught at different levels to disciples of varying religious aptitudes. To the masses who could not conceive of anything higher than a Personal God, he said, Pray to your father in heaven. To others who could grasp a higher idea, he said, I am the vine, ye are the branches, but to his disciples to whom he revealed himself more fully, he proclaimed the highest truth, I and my Father are One (CW 2: 143).

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Unlike the Arya Samaj founder, Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who rejected both Christ and Christianity and did not think that Hindus could learn anything from the Christian tradition, Vivekananda commended the teachings of Jesus while turning away from the institution of the Church. He valued Jesus as an exemplar of renunciation and non-dual truth. At the same time, he was vigorous in defending the Hindu tradition against missionary attacks. He was self-critical, defensive and appreciative. Vivekanandas positive attitude to Jesus, though based on his own distinctive Christology, found no similar echo on the Christian side. Missionaries did not exemplify a similar discernment and found little to appreciate about the Hindu tradition. Interreligious dialogue, therefore, was reduced to attacks and counterattacks. Valuable opportunities for deeper dialogue were lost. Missionary onslaught in a colonial political context did not allow the self-critical space and vulnerability that made dialogue on such issues, as the relationship between religion, justice and socio-economic issues, possible and fruitful. It is important to note also that, in his engagement with Christianity, Swami Vivekananda did not uncritically affirm the validity of all religious teachings. Advaita was normative for him and, from this location, he contested Christian eschatological doctrines, their emphasis on human sinfulness, and the contradiction of arguing for the eternity of a created soul. He exercised a discernment based on what he considered to be the validity of Advaita and its rational claims. Gandhi would follow Vivekananda in this regard and contest Christian claims for the uniqueness of Jesus and the doctrine of atonement. Today, there is much uncertainty about Hindu-Christian engagement, dominated as it is by anxieties and contests over Christian proselytizsation. Hindus, with some justification, think that conversion remains the principal concern of Christians. There are anti-intellectual trends in both traditions that lead to disinterest in the sharing of wisdom and mutual learning, reflected in the approach of Swami Vivekananda. There is, however, a rich history of rational reflection in both traditions, exemplified in the works of saintly scholars such as Sankara and Aquinas, Ramanuja and Augustine. Contemporary engagement must include a focus on this rich theological heritage. Engagement must be concerned also with justice and with the role of religion in overcoming oppression. Swami Vivekananda had a deep interest in theological inquiry, across religious traditions and in the social role of religion. He believed that traditions could learn from each other and labour together to overcome human suffering. We honour his anniversary by ensuring that interreligious engagement between Hinduism and Christianity be energetic and enriching, committed to mutual learning and to labour on behalf of those who suffer. Anantanand Rambachan is Professor of Religion, St. Olaf College, Minnesota, U.S. E-mail: rambacha@stolaf.edu 1. All references are taken from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (abbreviated CW), 8 Vols., Mayavati Memorial Edition (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1964-1971). Volume and page numbers are indicated after the letters CW.

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