Subject : Contemporary Indian Philosophy Project : Practical Vedanta Reference : Complete Works Of Swami Vivekanand, Volume-2
Introduction
Vedanta is practical can be adduced from the fact that the best thoughts from the Vedanta is not the concoction or invention of sages who spends prodigious amount of hours meditating in the wilderness of the forests or the oblivion of the caves. They are not thought by those delinquents who have wriggled themselves out of all responsibilities and have secluded themselves from the earthly, materialistic life and now are living like vagabonds or hermits. The most impactful thoughts in Vedanta are taught by those who live the busiest lives who equates their work, responsibilities, obligations with their Dharma and performs them to the best of their ability with unflinching devotion.
Work with dispassion
The primary goal of Vedanta is work arduously utilising every atom of our energy with an unruffled, unperturbed mind. Normally intense activity is associated with incorrigible passions. But the very evident though perplexing irony is you can do the greatest amounts of work with utmost adherence to quality in a state of dispassion. Also dispassion happens when you follow the principle of Nishkaam Karma, working without expecting anything in return. When you work expecting huge dividends in the future, we will alternate perenially from a state of ecstasy to a state of despondency which may lead us to sporadic states of flying passions, anger and frustration. But the technique is to give your every bit of energy to your work without any speculations about the results with a stoical, placid mind devoid of passions, filled with the ambrosia of dispassion, impervious to any circumstances whatsoever.
You are God
Vedanta preaches an ideal that is well within the infinite human capacity. Infact Vedanata says that the ideal is the truth and is already pre-existent and is all the time dormant within us as our eyes are shrouded with the clouds of illusion. Normally the ideal seems to be beyond human capacity, but as per Vedanta, the ideal is itself the practical. There is no two ness, there is just oneness. However people normally harmonises the ideal with the life. They manipulate, distort the ideal to fit in the finite, limited demarcated boundaries of their life. But we should elevate ourselves to reach that all pervasive ideal. Birth and death are inconsequential when compared with the immortality of the soul just like energy which is neither created nor can ever be destroyed. Also anything can be attained by the infinte potential of humans. Swami Vivekanand says that other religions may be preaching that if you don't believe in God, you are an atheist. But Vedanta preaches that if you don't believe in the infinite capacity of the soul, you are an athesist. Vedanta recognises no sin, it recognises only illusion, error. And the biggest error or illusion is to consider yourself to be finite, weak compartmentalising yourself in doing these things and not doing those things. It is to consider yourself to be evil. This is just the dust of illusion that is troubling our eyes and evading us to see the ultimate reality. Vedanta expounds oneness in things. In a way we are Brahman. We are Gods, it's just that it is not manifested to us. Hence we have all the qualities of the divine that is infinite, immortal, omniscient. If we elucidate further the oneness of things our soul is a treasure of all the hidden secrets of the universe. Everything lies within us.
Attainment of self-realisation is difficult, but not impossible
In contrast to the conventional wisdom, the reality is not realised by truants who escape from the responsibilities in the blindness, selfish pursuit to attain Nirvana. But those who have submerged themselves in their daily duties, responsibilities and more importantly work. In the present context, it doesn't mean that you have a beautiful wife or a pretty girlfriend. Or you attend marriages, you watch movies, you cannot realise the reality. It doesn't mean if you abstain yourself from your karma, your responsibilities, your work and clothed yourself in religious robes and become servile to self-styled Godmen or evangelists who claim that they possess the panacea of all ills, enlightenment will force its entry to the realm of your soul. It means that we can live our social lives but live by certain well founded principles, work diligently towards our goals in a state of calmness and dispassion expecting absolutely nothing in return and at the same time take some time off and contemplate about things that are meaningful, things that needs to be integrated in life and things that are meaningless that needs to be discarded from the life and with confidence follow our reasoned conviction, we can surely attained that apparently elusive self realisation.
Live and let live
Everything is just One. That also means that the divinity exists within every particle of the universe. Then it becomes obvious that the divine resides within animals. Hence animals should not be slaughtered for food. They also not be subjects or victims of scientific experiments. There are many schools of thought that expounds animals are created for food for humans as they are beasts and we are humans the superior beings. Swami Vivekanand thereby Vedanta says that the difference is in degree not in kind. They just variate from us in some peculiar idiosyncrasies but they are not altogether different. But just like from the vantage point, the slums, the cottages, the big buildings all look alike, the same way from a man's higher Truth everything is equal, it is just that that one indivisible consciousness that pervades everyone and everything.
Keep the ideal: the way it is.
Swami Vivekanand reiterates repeatedly that the ideal should not be dragged down and should not be somehow accommodated in the actual. This is the problem why religion has contaminated over the years, instead of being harbingers of peace, they have become a bloodthirsty hens laying eggs of violence. As people distort, manipulate , at times subconsciously even misinterpret the truth or the ideal to bring it down to such a level that there remains absolutely no difference between the real and the actual. And this ill-conceived ideals exponentially grows until the rationalist man metamorphosises into a chauvinist, fanatic individual. Swami Vivekanand in a way is also a rationalist rather than an empiricist as he vociferously and passionately advises people almost in a didactic manner to abstain from school of thoughts or religions that preaches man to succumb to corporeal pleasures and pains. At the same time we should not castigate or ostracise people which is obsequious to these schools of thoughts.
Religion for all
Infact I personally believe that the cause of violence in this world is because people are not able to realise or see the oneness in everything and everybody. Also the inexperience, naive prejudice that my religion or philosophy is the best I what brings the journey of learning to standstill and convert men into fanatics, rabble-rousers and demagogues. Swami Vivekanand insists that religion should be practical, it should serve the man at whatever stage of growth or whatever level of development it may be. Or it will just be an implausible theory understood by a very few. Religion should be able to cater the requirements of any person irrespective of the perspective he may have. For eg there are few intellectual Hindu who have an abhorrence for rituals. However their religion is manifested in the way they fulfil their responsibilities, their duties with utmost honesty and dedication. Religion should be eclectic, it should incorporate views, perspectives and beliefs of different, varied nature till it helps in the growth of the society and the development of the individual.
Faith moves mountains
Swami Vivekanand says that a person should have incorrigible faith in himself because we are nothing but that one Brahman. It is said only Gods can worship Gods. The existence of faith is what separates the great from the mere good. We have to be convinced that we posses all those infinite, divine qualities which can take us to insurmountable heights. We cannot become great because we are already great, so greatness is the quality that has patiently lied latent within us all this time, so when people claim that you have become great, it is nothing but the long awaited manifestation of that greatness. So there is nothing that this immortal soul that is closed by the hide of our body cannot do. However, whenever we talk of Vedanta, we should remember that underlying oneness or the absolutes that pervades everything and everyone. Hence faith in Vedanta means faith in all. Love means love for all because we all are just the manifestations of that one consciousness, just like the multifarious waves part of that one prodigious sea. There can be not an iota of violence if people have this irrevocable faith in themselves and in others and realise that oneness that binds everything, because killing someone would be something like amputating your own limbs, hurting someone would be hurting oneself. Hence people who have realised this oneness can empathise or feel the pain and suffering of others and can rejoice in the happiness of others.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that the practical application of Vedanta mostly revolves around the conviction that we all are one. If we just believe in this oneness, then boundaries will melt, the wall of differences will collapse. I think only when everybody share this experience of oneness, only then we will realise the apparently implausible objective of Vasudhaiv Kuntumbakam. One world one family.
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