Social philosophy of Swami Vivekananda

by Baruah Debajit | 2017 | 87,227 words

This study deals with Swami Vivekananda’s social philosophy and his concept of religion. He was the disciple of the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna. Important subjects are discussed viz., nature of religion, reason and religion, goal of religion, religious experience, ways to God, etc. All in the context of Vivekananda....

Chapter 7 - Conclusion

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The present chapter intends to give a concluding remark on the ongoing discussion with regard to the main theme of the present work- “Social Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda-A Study.” From the preceding discussion on the social philosophy of Vivekananda, it becomes clear that the central theme of his philosophy is man. Man is divine, but his divinity is hidden by a veil of poverty, ignorance and superstition. His chief concern was to remove this veil so that the divinity already in man might come out in the open.

Social philosophy of Vivekananda has its foundation on the ancient philosophy of Advaita Vedanta, and he breathed a new life into the scholastic and abstruse philosophy associated with the name of Sankara to make it ‘living and poetic.’ He could do since he made his stand on the direct spiritual experience of Ramakrishna and of himself. There was identification of One and the Many-of Brahman and Jiva, and Brahman and the Universe, composed of different objects. Both realized and directly experienced that there was no other reality save Brahman. Brahman is One and allpervading and the manifold objects we call nature is nothing but the same Brahman only. They saw Brahman in every living being and in every particle of the world. Vivekananda express his direct experience in this respect in the following lines: “He who is in you and outside you, Who works through all hands, Who walks on all feet, Whose body are all ye, Him worship, and break all other Idols!”^[1]

The suffering of the poor people was always his only worldly concern. Vivekananda had always felt complete identification of Brahman with every man in suffering, in misery. He had sympathy even in man’s errors. Thus social philosophy of Vivekananda in the end converges on one point and that one point is ‘man, the only God that exists’. So Vivekananda said “He who is the high and the low, the saint and the sinner, the god and the worm, Him worship, the visible, the knowable, the real, the omnipresent, break all other idols.”^[2] Thus in Vivekananda’s philosophy man is God itself. He has called man the living God. Only going to the temple, mosque, church and any other religious institution in search of God is unnecessary if we do not have respect as well of any sense of service to our fellow brothers and sisters. Actually the omnipresent God does not need any help from human beings. Service should be provided to the helpless or who are in misery. In this way Vivekananda has given us really a pragmatic philosophy.

‘Divinity of man’ is the core of the social philosophy of Swami Vivekananda. By this doctrine he makes man almost almighty. According to him, man has inherent infinite strength. This inherent infinite strength of man as well as his sovereignty over nature is the essence of the social philosophy of Vivekananda. He places man above environment and makes him the maker of his own destiny. In the Atharba Veda also we find such a high esteem of man. In the Atharba Veda we find man declaring ‘Mighty am I, superior by name upon the earth, all conquering am I, completely conquering every religion.”^[3] Thus man is the maker of his own destiny. We must not rely on our fate. Tomorrow’s result will be determined by our past and present actions. Thus, the philosophy of Vivekananda is indeterministics in nature. He has discovered the potentialities of man.

A person is to realize his divine self and thereby attain Mukti or liberation. This is the whole object of his life. Heaven and hell and all other such matters are nothing but theological myths. As stated by sister Nivedita- “He preached mukti instead of Heaven;enlightenment instead of salvation, the realization of immanent unity, instead of God.”^[4] Thus man struggles for liberation, must fight his way out. Man cannot rest, nor can he give up the fight, because this struggle is the nectar of his life. He has to move on without a moment’s break. And Vivekananda’s philosophy is a song of this struggle, a virtual marching song of the soul. It must be noted that this dynamistic concept of man impels a man to move from idea to idea, to break down the bonds of dead customs, traditions, superstitions, dogmas and meaningless rituals. A true revolutionary that he was, Vivekananda asserted man’s right to rebel against nature as well as tyranny of traditions, customs, usages etc. So his philosophy is a gospel of hope, of optimism, which urges man to recreate his being and venture upon to create a better future of himself and for mankind as a whole.

Vivekananda’s philosophy was mainly concerned with the humanistic aspect of the social and spiritual life. However his philosophy was more social than religious. This can be said on the ground that his aim was only to uplift the Indian society (human society at large) through spiritual awakening. His lectures were explosive in nature. We can get an idea of the explosive nature of his lectures if we read part of his letter which he wrote to his fellow disciples in the fall of 1894. He wrote “If you want any good to come, just through your ceremonials overboard and worship the living God, the Man God-every being that wears a human form-God in his universal as well as individual aspect. The universal aspect of God means this world, and worshipping it means serving it-this indeed is work not indulging in ceremonials.”^[5] As per the interpretation of Vivekananda we are to serve the man God, we are to see humanity as divine, so that part of our service becomes the recognition of the divinity in men and women. Thus we may call his philosophy spiritual humanism or we may call it Vedantic humanism since Vivekananda’s philosophy is based on Vedantic oneness.

Social evils present in every society. Social philosophy discusses the social evils and tries to eradicate the social evils. Vivekananda’s philosophy is also not exception from this. Any society of the world consists of diverse and different types of persons. Persons with different religions, different castes, different colours, different gender, different faiths etc. constitute the society. It is generally expected that these various types of people should live in harmony. An ideal situation of a society is when there is equality, freedom and brotherhood among all section of society. However, in all over the world, human society shows that various types of exploitative practices are prevailing there. Human greed for power, authority and superiority is the source of such mal-practices. Societies have experienced the exploitation of the higher class people over the lower class, domination of the female by the male, exploitation of the believer of one religion by the other etc. These are really a scar on the face of a civilized society.

In such a situation some persons come forward to abolish such practices. Generally a person who is concerned about the humanity and mankind above anything else; who wants to change the existing state of the things for the better; who can not tolerate the suffering of the weaker section of people; and above all who believes in the duty bestowed upon him to leave the earth behind him as a better place, is called a social reformer. In this sense Swami Vivekananda is really a great social reformer. His concern was always with humanity. If we go through his philosophy we can know that his chief concern was the whole human race. His whole life was dedicated to the upliftment of the downtrodden. Of course, it must be mentioned here that he did not reject the upper class peoples. Since he was a Vedantist par-excellence, he did not think the upper class as separated from the lower. He was always associated with the whole human race. He wanted to solve the social problems of India by making everyone realize their true selves as well as by imparting true education which makes them physically and morally strong. As a social reformer Vivekananda made attempts to uplift the common mass from ignorance, bondage, superstitions etc. Three factories in fact, superstition, ignorance and poverty revolted Vivekananda against the so called religion and blossomed into his heart a great flame by which he has discovered the dark days of mankind. He wanted such religion that could restore the distress of the people on the one hand and help to disseminate education to the destitute on the other hand. He represented not particular sect or creed in the parliament of Religions at Chicago, but represented human masses. He said “I am of the people, I am a preacher of the people, I am a worker of the masses and my heart calls me there.”^[6]

This is how Vedantic humanism transformed Vivekananda into a socialist and democratic of the highest order. This is how he discovered a relationship between God and man testifying the fact evidently that religious humanism was God oriented and man-oriented. He went further and put up his theory declaring firmly that religious humanism is not merely sought to mitigate the sufferings of the common people but looked upon them as the manifestation of God. His whole religion is not doctrines or dogmas or rituals or books or temple, but the manifestation of divinity within. Hence he says, each soul is potentially divine. Thus Vivekananda showed the real nature of religion which is nothing but the manifestation of divinity within i.e., God realization. And if we go through all religions we come to know that each and every religion is struggling towards this God-realization. In this way he tried to save Hinduism religion from priest craft and other superstitions. He showed to the then people what religion really is.

To Vivekananda the great question was the emancipation of woman and the people. Sister Nivedita writes “Our Master regarded the order to which he belonged as one whose lot was cast for all time with the cause of woman and the people.”^[7] That, his chief concern was the people, their emancipation from social oppression, poverty and degradation. Vivekananda taught tooth and nail for the emancipation of women. His effort was to develop a full-fledged philosophy of equality. It was the equality between men and women, between the privileged and the under-privileged of all categories in the society. For securing the complete freedom of woman, this was the need of the hour. It is because for centuries in India the priests have harped on the doctrine of inequality. The priests taught the nation to look down upon women as ‘despicable worm’. The women were deprived of their human rights, even the right to education.

As a true Vedantist, Vivekananda did not believe in such ideas. The essence of Vedanta philosophy is expressed by Sri Ramakrishna in three brief words viz, Jiva is Shiva. If ‘Jiva is god’, then of course everyone must be granted the same human rights. No privileged could be granted to anyone on ground of sex, creed. It is because everyone has the same potentiality to become great and good. Therefore, in a society based on this great Vedantic ideal, women also would enjoy the same rights as men and no discrimination is admissible against them. A Vedantic society is therefore a revolutionized society in the true sense of the term. Such a society is the crying need of our time also. Vivekananda showed us the great idea of equality among men and women on the Vedantic line. Vivekananda was never tired of harping on the theme of absolute equality of the two sexes. His first and last word was in favor of complete emancipation of woman. According to him Mukti or liberation from every letter is the watchword for men and women equally. In Vivekananda, the world has seen one of the greatest champions of the emancipation of women just as the world has seen in him one of the greatest champions of the liberation of the downtrodden. In a true sense of the term he was the great liberator of women and the downtrodden.

For upliftment of the downtrodden Vivekananda used education as the only reliable tool. But so far as Indian system of education is concerned Vivekananda was not satisfied with the then prevailing system of education though it had many good aspects. The ancient education system was world famous. The Indian education system attracted the foreign students. Universities like Nalanda, Taxasila are the examples of that.

He always urged in man-making education. According to him the object of ideal system of education should not merely be the advancement of theoretical knowledge, but also the advancement of life. It is the development of highest power and capacities and also the unfoldment of noblest potentialities of the student. He must be able to apply intelligently, to his own life all the ideas that he has learnt and gathered and thus promote his growth physically, intellectually, morally and spiritually. The chief cause of Indian’s ruin has been the monopolizing intelligence of the land among a handful of men. It was his conviction that, if India is to rise again, we shall have to do it by spreading education among the masses. Mass education is the only solution to our problems.

In a very short life span of thirty nine years, he inspired his brothers and sisters to fight against all kinds of injustice and evil practices of the society. A study of his life reveals that he was never a visionary who spent all his time in contemplation and meditation. He was a very practical and work oriented person; karma yogi. He worked day and night organizing relief centers, monasteries, orphanages, hospitals and schools for the betterment of the society. Throughout his life, he was a social activist following the ideals of renunciation and service. He always looked upon work as worship of God. So we can conclude that Vivekananda had vision but he was not visionary.

A deep penetrative study of the eventful life and the glorious deeds of Swami Vivekananda reveal his wonderfully generous and broad heart and his profoundly deep feelings for all irrespective of any distinction. Some of his illustrious utterances that he declared “May I be born again and again and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the God I believe in–the sum total of all souls–and, above all, my God, the wicked, my God, the poor of all races, of all species, in the special object of my worship.”^[8] As a social reformer and an activist Vivekananda has devoted and dedicated his heart and soul to arise, awake and inspire the common masses of India. He therefore advised us to dedicate ourselves to the service of ‘Daridranarayna’.

Here we have to make clear a point of Vivekananda. Vivekananda once says that he does not believe in reform, he believes in growth. Reform may be of two types. Reform is directly associated with society. We can reform any society either by total abolition of any system which creates evils in the society or by removing the objectionable elements which create disturbance in the society from the existing system and letting it go. For the first kind we can refer to the Suttee system of India. In the second method reform is equal to growth. If any system has been prevailing in society from many thousand years, and if the system becomes very narrow then to keep the same method running in the society, we have to reform it. This means that we have to remove its objectionable elements and then to allow it grow. If without reforming we allow it to grow it will double our problems. So in the second meaning both reform and growth goes hand in hand. We can take the example of caste system. Swami Vivekananda wanted to make the caste system grow in Indian society. But the caste system which was in Vivekananda’s mind was the ancient caste system which was based on individual’s quality. He wanted to replace the present caste system by the ancient one. Both the ancient and the modern are the same. The difference is only in degree. One is narrow and the other is broad in its outlook. The ancient is broad and the present is narrow. He wanted to make the system grow by removing the elements which create social evils like untouchability. Without reforming he did not want to make the caste system grow. His sense is that he did not want any piece-meal reform in Indian society. He did not try to separate untouchability from the society by setting any rigid rule. Only he tried to make man realize his true nature on the Advaitic line. If everyone realizes that we are but the same as we are but the different manifestations of the same God then untouchability will automatically get out of the society. This is what is called by Vivekananda root-and-branch reform. In the second sense both reform and growth are interlinked. He wanted to expand the caste system from its narrower sense to its wider sense. He did not use the word reform in the sense of total abolition. He did not want to suppress any evils in the society. It was his conviction that if the people of India were given right kind of education on national lines they would eschew evils themselves. So we may say that Vivekananda did not understand the word reform in the sense of total abolition or mere suppressing. Though he tried to reform Indian society it was not any superficial reform. Reform of any kind may satisfy some kind of people though some other may suffer from that reform. Vivekananda did not believe in such kind of reform. His vision could reach the entire human race. He did not want to hurt the emotion of any kind of people, nor did he want to abolish the age-old systems of India. He wanted to make them grow. His language of preaching is different, but the essential feeling is the same.

An analysis of Vivekananda’s concept of religion is given in the third chapter. In his concept of religion Vivekananda says that religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man. So it is his conviction that man is already divine. The essence of religion is to realize God viz. to know that we all are different manifestation of God. It is necessary to mention here that Vivekananda did not restrict this divinity to certain class of people. From the lowest worm to the highest creature-man, all are expression of the same divine. But there is difference only in manifestation, i.e. this divinity is not manifested equally in all. Of course this difference is not in kind, but in degree. Divinity is manifested more in the highest who is man than to that of the lower creatures, but all are manifestations of the same Divine. Only in man this divinity is manifested supremely, as man is the highest creature. Vivekananda asserted that one unifying principle prevailing in the whole cosmos. This unifying principle is oneness. Oneness means the whole universe is one with Brahman. Thus, his concept of religion is monistic in nature.

It goes without saying that spirit of man can not remain content only with the happiness which is got by materialistic achievement. And the happiness which is got by materialistic achievement is not permanent. Men seek more than material progress. Vivekananda seeks a religion that can provide internal comfort to man. He offers a religion which is profoundly spiritual, but at the same time it is rational, which is universal, non-dogmatic and comprehensive. His religion is intensely human yet profoundly spiritual. But the uniqueness of his religion lies in its comprehensiveness. It is comprehensive because it discusses everything which is directly or indirectly related to religion. Without a human society religion is non-sensical. Religion is essentially related to social phenomenon. In his religious thought Vivekananda showed how a better society can be established by spiritual awakening. Spiritual regeneration was his life-mission. Solution of every individual and social problems can be achieved by means of spiritual regeneration of individual, that is rediscovering own divine nature. It can be regarded as the majestic solution to every problem. It is because if man realizes his true nature, i.e. he is also the manifestation of the Highest, he will avoid fear. He will not suffer from inferiority complex. But we have to mention here that this realization is not sufficient to overcome our miseries. Hence Vivekananda combines hard work with self-confidence. So he says, “Nothing great can come unless we work for it. Dreams can never become a reality without hardwork.”^[9] And if both selfconfidence and hard work is combined, we can overcome our problems to its maximum extent.

It is an obvious fact that all has equal right to live respectfully in the world. Even the plants and animals also have the same right. We must remember that this world is not only the home of human beings. Other living creatures have also the same right to live in it. Swami Vivekananda has also asserted the same. For him from the lowest worm to the highest human beings all are essentially one. All are expression of the same divine. So, all have the equal status. Except this no other struggle is necessary to abolish the conflicts that human beings are facing in the division of sex and religion. Political solutions have not been able so far to solve the problems like racism, oppression of women etc., all these problems may end if we realize and then actualize that we are divine. We are one with divine. The Gita says “In the heart of all beings, o Arjuna, resides the Lord.”^[10]

According to Vivekananda religion is not in books. We find that in every country in every religion, the book associated with the religion, becomes God itself. Holiness of such book is preoccupied in human mind. Vivekananda was conscious of the defect associated with the book worship. Absolute dependence on the book of our own religion compels us to stop liberal thinking. We are so used to such sacred book that anything new appears to us becomes false. As a result some short of fanaticism is grown in our mind, that anything that is contradictory or new to our scripture, must be demolished. It is a kind of dogmatism, which stops our rational independent thinking. In his philosophy Vivekananda has clearly mentioned the advantages and disadvantages of overdependence on book. To quote Vivekananda, “But in my opinion books have produced more evil than good. They are accountable for many mischievous doctrines, creeds all come from books, and books are alone responsible for the persecution and fanaticism in the world. Books in modern times are making liars everywhere. I am astonished out the number of liars abroad in every country."^[11]

Another disadvantage of book worship is that, the doctrines which are propounded in a sacred book are interpreted by various followers in various ways. We deduce various meaning of the same truth and refer to the same text as their authority. As a result various disconformities of religious doctrines occur. Vivekananda was quite rational and philosophical in his attitude, as he emphasized both the positive and negative aspects of particular matter. He was also aware of the advantage of book worship. If we look to the history of religions, we find that all religious sects have disappeared excepting those have a book as their resource. In this regard the best example can be showed to ancient Persians. The majority of them were conquered by the Arabs, and converted to Mohammedanism. Some of them fled from their persecutors with their sacred religious book ‘Talmud’, which is still preserving them. The Talmud keeps them up and together, in spite of the horrible persecution. Hence Vivekananda states, “A book is the most tangible form of God...One of the great advantages of book is that it crystallizes everything in tangible and convenient form, and is the handiest of all idols.”^[12] So we can conclude that Vivekananda restricted absolute dependence on book. But he never asked us to abstain from books. Again since his religion is nothing but self–realization, it does not include any religious rituals, any religious scripture, where there is no separate god from human and other living beings, so, to realize that we need not depend on any books absolutely.

One point we have to make clear that Vivekananda called his religion Vedanta religion. Truly speaking, Vedanta was not, then, the Indian religion. It was merely a philosophy originated and brought up in India. By religion Vivekananda does not mean any non-essential parts of it, say, dogmas, rituals etc. According to him religion means self-realization and realizing the same self in others. And every religion has this basic faith. If we look into his concept of universal religion we find that by universal religion Vivekananda denoted the mingling of faiths and he realized about Vedanta, particularly Advaita Vedanta of Sankara which could bring about this mingling of spiritual voices in one remarkable unity of beliefs. Again, Vivekananda preached to practice Vedanta in our every wake of life. And according to him, life and religion should not be considered as different phenomenon. Since his religion is based on Vedanta philosophy and it is his conviction that life and religion are not separate, so he calls his religion Vedanta religion. It is in this context he calls Vedanta a religion.

The assertion of Vivekananda that the worship of man is the worship of God opens out a fresh field of inter-human and inter-group relationship. For a better society, we have to rely on the spiritual re-orientation of ideas about man and not merely on politics. Political organizations tend to disintegrate society through interplay of group interests. Now the nations of the world are standing together to bring unity. But unfortunately they have failed to achieve this. The reason behind this is the lack of faith in actual human equality. Vivekananda showed us that what we need here is a total reappraisal of the dignity of the human personality, from which point of view all will appear divine without any high and low, without any rich and poor. Unity can be established on such a pedestal alone. This active faith is presented to us by Vivekananda through his call for worshiping the living God. Nations as well as Individuals need to serve or worship the God in the needy and the backward. In this service lie the safety, success and solution of every individual of every nation. So to establish an integrating, undivided and undisturbed human society, Vivekananda’s message has immense influence. Vivekananda’s every step which he forwarded out of his love for mankind was universal; it was not confined to Indian masses only. His good will for mankind was beyond the boundaries of space and time. Everyone can be inspired by his noble teachings, no matter what one’s nationality, religion, age or occupation is.

Vivekananda’s concept of religion automatically leads us to his concept of universal religion which is described in the fourth chapter. After a deep study of his concept of religion it has been cleared that his religion is universal. Every religion of the world has two parts, one is the essential part and the other is non-essential. In Vivekananda’s philosophy it has been very clearly seen that the essence of religion is God-realization viz. the realization of the Atman within us. To Vivekananda the essence of religion is not based on external affirmation. Every man carries the flame of freedom, i.e. the universal atman within. Hence man should not blindly submit to and get afraid of any external power. The essence of Vivekananda’s philosophy is spiritual freedom. We have to manifest our dormant spirituality or divinity within the process of self-evolution and reach the highest goal. To realize our divinity is necessary to recover the lost unity or to realize that we essentially are one and universal. In Vivekananda’s religious ideas we see the exposition that the spirit is universal and the essence of all faiths is universalism. Spiritual freedom separates man from temporary and emotional relation which sprung out of the ego. This spiritual freedom inspires man to rise above the ever changing world to be in the calmness of self-centered subjectivity. So universal love and compassion expand the narrow walls of the individual ego till it embraces the totality of the universe.

The central theme of his universal religion is the divinity of man, for this is the core of every religion. The knowledge of this divinity is the secret of man’s secular and spiritual development. This knowledge gives him infinite faith in himself and the awareness that he has infinite potentialities. He is thus invested with great strength which finds expression in creativeness of various types and dimensions enriching the society also.

In his philosophy of universal religion Vivekananda envisages national unity within international unity. He also envisages the unity of the diverse races and heterogeneous linguistic, religious and ethnic groups within a particular nation. But ultimately he envisages the unity of mankind. Romain Rolland pointed out “His call was also for unity of action, reason, love and work and unity within the vast ocean of all religious thought and all rivers past and present.”^[13] With unity of all these, Vivekananda sought to bring national awakening in India.

It is an obvious fact that his call of national awakening was not a call of narrow nationalism. Nevertheless, it was thoroughly national, since unity of man or universal brotherhood was typically an Indian ideal. Arnold Toynbee says, “Hinduism is unique among the historic higher religions in holding that neither Hinduism nor any other religion is unique representation of the truth or a unique way of salvation. In the Hindu view, each the higher religion is a true vision and a right way and all of them alike indispensible to mankind because each gives a different glimpse of the same truth, and each leads by a different route to the same goal of human endeavor.”^[14] In Vivekananda’s testimony to the harmony of religions we have the attitude and the spirit that can make it possible for the human race to grow together into a single family. His concept of religion which is synonymous with universalism integrates nationalism and internationalism. On the one hand he defended India’s distinctive cultural heritage, which became the foundation of the upsurge of India’s nationalistic spirit, at the same time, he hoped the world to be benefited by India’s spiritual culture and India to be benefited by the fruits of western civilization. This implies unity of the East and the West. This concept of world unity was a significant contribution of Vivekananda to political thought in those days when narrow nationalism was having its hey-day.

In his call of national unity Vivekananda showed that heterogeneity of the people to an unlimited extent is no bar for national unity. Every one of them can be harmonized to a common pattern as is found in the case of India. India is a case in point of ‘Unity in diversity’-its unity lies in its faith in the spiritual unity of all living beings. All the heterogeneous groups within the boundaries of India share this faith.

So we may conclude that Vivekananda was an exponent of the democratic humanistic type of nationalism. Not only nationalities, every distinct group, ethnic, linguistic, cultural religious etc., within a particular nation has a right to preserve their distinctiveness. Each single group, each nationality, irrespective of its size, has distinctive contribution to make human civilization. What Vivekananda dreamt of was ‘One world’, with a multiplicity of nations, enjoying equal rights and each working out in its own way the betterment of human life. This conception of Vivekananda was aptly brought to light by Romain Rolland who observed: ‘That which emerges (from his message of spiritual oneness of the universe) is his universal sense. He had hopes of democratic America; he was enthusiastic over the Italy of Art, Culture and Libert-the great mother of Mazzini. He spoke of China as the treasury of the world. He fraternized with martyred Babists of Persia. He embraced in equal love the India of the Hindus, the Mohammadans, and the Buddhists. He was fired by the Moghul Empire; when he spoke of Akbar the great, tears came flowing into his eyes. He could comprehend and defend the grandeur of Chenghis Khan and his dream of Asiatic unity”^[15] With this universal sympathy, this lively acceptance of all that is great and good in every nationality, Vivekananda’s nationalism was in fact a great ideal of unity of mankind. His is a nationalism which merges into internationalism, merges into universalism in the end. A special characteristics of his ideas is the comprehensiveness of his vision, he looks upon mankind as a manifestation of the Universal Soul. It is his conviction that in each particular nationality this universal soul is manifested and nothing else. All the varieties therefore, are manifestations of the universal soul. Swami Vivekananda thus perceived spiritual unity as the ultimate basis of all diversity. Like his master Ramakrishna he dreamt of unity in variety. But neither of them wanted uniformity. Vivekananda never wanted the disappearance of all individual religious distinctiveness, which according to him was quite impossible. If there remains the variety of cultures, there is no harm in it. Different religions will also remain without any detrimental effect on society. But we must realize that the different religions will co-exist. The result is not a uniform pattern of religion for diverse people but the accordance of all religions as true by all.

If we look into his conception of renunciation and service, we can very easily understand that renunciation and service were the alpha and omega of his life. He in fact was the veritable embodiment of renunciation and service. He thinks that renunciation in the sense of total giving up of all obligatory duties and works with desires, is not possible for the majority of people. It is his conviction that Buddha has committed a mistake in emphasizing total renunciation in flooding the whole country with monks. Vedanta opens up a number of paths for the attainment of liberation. Thus, we find, the word renunciation has been taken in the sense of detachment by Swami Vivekananda.

So far as service is concerned, by service Swami Vivekananda means sacred and obligatory social act based on ontological fact. Soul is indispensably connected with God in its pure essence. Man in a higher sense is God Himself. Hence service in any form to a man is inevitably a service to God in that form. Thus service is a privilege in his philosophy. It is not a duty, but a right. Moreover service is not a secular act, but a sacred religious act. Service with such attitude is a privilege to serve mankind, for this is the worship of God. God is here, in all these human souls. He is the soul of man.

Vivekananda visualized the living God all around him. It is a great privilege to all of us to serve God in and through man who is subjected to untold suffering in this world. This spiritual experience of the divinity of man has made Vivekananda proclaim that ‘the national ideals of India are Renunciation and Service’. Renunciation and service are the best forms of the practical application of Vivekananda’s doctrine of the potential divinity of man. Mahatma Gandhi was also inspired by Vivekananda’s idea of the divinity of man. Hence he called the so-called untouchables of India ‘Harijans’.

The spirit of detachment and service must be cultivated in all the societies of the world, so that societies can rise or attain the greatest result in any field. We must cultivate in ourselves this ancient spirit. Not only this, we must infuse it in every field viz. in scientific research, in technology, in teaching, in nursing, in village improvement and in social uplift. Without the application of this spirit of selflessness and service, India cannot rise or attain greatness in any field.

Vivekananda preached and practiced service as religion. In his philosophy service and religion go hand in hand. Vivekananda could easily see oneness in the whole of humanity. Hence his teachings were meant not for India alone, but for the other countries of the world as well. His teachings did not imply only national integration of which we are hearing so much today, they also implied what may be called as global or world integration. It is for this universality of human sympathy that his teachings equally appealed to the different peoples of the different countries. He also could not find any discrimination in any form of religion. If sincerely followed, all forms of religions were equally effective and profitable.

During the past one hundred and fifty years we have discussed the philosophical importance of the concept of universal religion or world-religion. It has been clear that now we have to implement this concept to modern cosmopolitan life rather than discussing it again. Following Swami Vivekananda we may conclude that there is only one solution for this multi-cultural and multi-religious world. The solution is to adhere to the concept of one world-religion, which is not converting followers of all other religions into one religion but accepting the concept of religious pluralism. It is the essence of Swami Vivekananda’s vision to the world. This universal ideal can be practiced not only by believers of different religions but equally by non-believers. For, it is based on the ideal of oneness of humanity and it is geared for human selfrealization which is not a monopoly of any particular religion. This truly global vision can form the foundation for peaceful and co-operative co-existence of all in the globe. Vivekananda’s prescription was spiritual. He perceived spiritual unity as the ultimate goal of all diversity. His vision of democratic spiritualism or ideal universal order is to be established in which all peoples treated one another as brothers and sisters.

Realizing that religion does not consists in dogmas, rituals etc.; it consists in God-realization, and every religion’s essence is this realization, Vivekananda became religiously tolerant. Vivekananda as well as Gandhi being Vedantist believed in the spiritual oneness of life. According to both of them, Vedanta truly represents the spirit of tolerance pervading the cultural outlook of India. Vedanta says that every human being is entitled to be regarded as Brahman. We are all Brahman but only with difference that–Brahman within us is not manifested to us, because we approach to it through our material mind or due to ignorance. Being Vedantist both of them placed man at the apex to be respected by all and this respect for man constitutes the humanistic philosophy of both of them. This is explained in the sub-chapter entitled ‘Tolerance and Acceptance.’

Religious tolerance is a necessity for individuals within a society, specially within a society where a variety of culture and people with different religious beliefs live together. When religious tolerance is practiced unity and consistency exist in any society that respects religious freedom. But we must realize the fact that religious tolerance does not mean that all individuals must agree with other’s religious view as their own. It involves allowing others to practice their faith without interruption, harassment or discrimination. Without religious tolerance members of different religious faiths often find themselves as the target for hatred and violence.

It is important to be religiously tolerant, because it helps us to honor and appreciate the differences between our religious practices. Religions sometimes separate us in terms of practices, but at the same time it keeps us together. Tolerance is the road to world peace. In order to establish global peace we must avoid violence and follow morals that are preached by the religions of the world. The essence of all the religions is the same-realization of God. All the religions of the world are preaching this same morale. Human rights violations are due to religious intolerance and such violations aggravate misunderstanding between people. This will arise several threats to the security globally and regionally. Solutions for religious intolerance are found in the teaching of any religion and in all spiritual teachings all around the world.

In the fifth chapter which is ‘Practical Vedanta’ Swami Vivekananda showed that the Vedanta philosophy which forms the bedrock of Indian culture is very practical. He has not only introduced the new meaning of Vedanta but also has brought out its undiscovered aspects. This is his most outstanding contribution to the world of thought. Never before it was shown that ‘Aranyaka Vedanta’-a philosophy born and brought up in the forest had so much to do with this mundane world. He interpreted Advaita Vedanta and landed it with Karma-Vada of Buddha and applied it for practical purposes of social uplift and amelioration of the social, moral, economic condition of mankind. In other words, the Vedantic doctrine of Vivekananda is in all practical purposes, may be given the real and credential of ‘practical Vedanda’-a term which may appear to be a contradiction in terms on the face of it. But below the surface it would appear that through the insistence of Karma and making this mundane world a footstool for the next world or extramundane world, he has not outstripped the bounds laid down by Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta. Rather he brought religion to the doorsteps of all. Religion is not just a way of escaping the duties and responsibilities of life.

Religion is not ‘Vairagya’-renunciation of this world, and an escapade for running amuck with one’s passions, instinct and impulse or moulding the soul as an instrument of torture or tyranny. Religion is to be treated as a means of a soul-lifting and unifying agent. If religion is viewed from individual point of view, it shall afford the strongest mental energy. On the other hand, it would stimulate and inspire man to bring about social justice and perform social good. It is because his fellow beings in society-the lowly the downtrodden and abominable creatures are really identical with him. Once this social distinction is abolished and diffused, all will be equal-not merely in economic sphere but also in soul quality. Genuine religion exists in this great task of social justice and Advaita Vedanta of Sankara as reorganized, reinforced and harmonized by Buddhistic humanism far from being a negative and stultifying force shall be an active, spiritual and soul-stirring instrument in the hand of men. So religion is brought down to earth to live with it, not to get it soiled or tarnished but to be applied to the task of resolving mundane problems and social malaise. It has been brought not for making them complicated and complex but for illuminating with the glow of eternal soul, dispelling all individual narrowness, envy, lust, pride, prejudice and position. In this way Vedanta comes in aid of social needs and social reform. Thus Swami Vivekananda makes religion as instrument of social good. And Advaita Vedanta is the greatest conception of religion reinforced by the doctrine of Karma. This is one of the most important contributions of Swami Vivekananda to human society. Swami Bhajanananda said “He (Vivekananda) was first and foremost a prophet with a mission, a religious leader determined to bring a new message of hope to the suffering of humanity, the East and the West alike. His main interest lay in making religious beliefs and philosophical convictions issue forth inaction. But he knew that the problems of man had to be tackled at the ideological plane first. The theoretical principles of potential divinity of the soul, direct intuitive experience of God, and harmony of all fields of human endeavor together form the manifestation of Swami Vivekananda’s plan of campaign for the welfare of the work, which he called ‘practical Vedanta.”^[16] We can mention here that Vivekananda used the term ‘practical Vedanta’ in two different senses. Vivekananda knew that the problems of India were different from those facing the western countries. In India, during the time of Vivekananda more than eighty percent of the population was utterly poor. Necessities of life were the urgent need of the hungry millions in India. The problem of poverty here is complicated by the fact that the poorest people belong to the lowest caste. So India’s problems are predominantly socio-economic. Vivekananda was confident that by properly putting the life–giving principles of Vedanta into practice, the individual, social and national problems of India could be solved in the best way possible. This is an aspect of ‘Practical Vedanta’ and it may be more appropriately called ‘Vedanta in practical life’. This is the type of practical Vedanta that Vivekananda preached in India. Vedanta not only points to higher levels of happiness and consciousness but teaches how these could be attained. Self-realization and God realization are not theories only. This can be attained even in this world i.e. in this life. This side of practical Vedanta may be more accurately termed ‘Practicable Vedanta’. Its aim is the attainment of super conscious experience and through that to make a Hindu a better Hindu, to make a Christian a better Christian, a Mussulmen a better Mussulmen. Thus, the Neo-Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda has a message for all people and has a universal role to play. This is the type of practical Vedanta that Vivekananda preached in the West.

The sixth chapter is an explanation of his concept of education. Swami Vivekananda realized that spiritual development of the individuals of a society is not sufficient for its material prosperity. Taking divinity as postulate, Vivekananda for upliftment of the downtrodden, used education as the only reliable tool. But so far as Indian system of education is concerned Vivekananda was not satisfied with the then prevailing system of education though it had many good aspects. We are all aware of the inadequacy of the present day system of education. Educationists are engaged for decades in devising better methods of imparting knowledge as well as improving the moral of the student community. But in spite of their efforts, we are left in the same deplorable condition as we were before.

Swami Vivekananda has bestowed his thoughts on this difficult problem and has offered practical solutions. If it is applied zealously, it will facilitate establishing a system that will be harmonious blending of the culture of India with the scientific methods of the west. Vivekananda fully visualized the healthy system of education that is bound to replace the present one if India has to survive again. So he said that we must have life-building, man-making, character-making, assimilation of ideas. This, in fact is the summum bonum of education. Education should aim at the development of the entire personality of man. Vivekananda has completely comprehended all the aspects of education. According to him the object of ideal system of education, should not merely be the achievement of theoretical knowledge only; it is his conviction that the object of the ideal system of education should also be the advancement of life, development of the highest powers and the enfoldment of the noblest potentialities of the student. A student must be enabled at the same time to apply intelligently all the ideas that the student has learnt and gathered to his own life and thus promote his allround growth-physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual. Mere book learning and information gathering is not education. If we learn the whole libraries of the world and on the other hand can not apply the information or knowledge in our life that knowledge in no way can be called education. Our education becomes fruitful only when we can digest the ideas getting through education and thereby make the ideas fruitful in our life. It is in this sense Vivekananda says that education is not in books, nor it is information gathering process. He did not outright reject the role of book in education. That is why he asked us to read history, Veda, Upanishads etc. He knew well that history is not a subject which is flying over the sky. It must be included in books. But if we learn any history book and can not understand anything of that book, those ideas are really useless for us. Mere gathering of information of that history book can not be called education.

In the Vivekananda’s scheme of education, we find that he includes all those studies, which are necessary for the all-around development of the student. Physical culture, religion, classics, aesthetics, language, science and technology etc. all are included in his scheme of education. According to Vivekananda, the cultural values of the country should form an integral part of the curriculum of education. Indian culture has its roots in her spiritual values. The time-tested values are to be imbibed in the thoughts of the students through the study of the classics like Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gita, Vedas and Upanishads. This will keep the perpetual flow of our spiritual values into the world culture.

Vivekananda reiterates that religion is the innermost core of education. However, by religion, he does not mean any particular kind of its but its essential character. This essential character is nothing but the realization of the divinity already in man. He reminds us time and again that religion does not consist in dogmas or creeds or any set of rituals. To be religious for him means leading life in such a way that we manifest our higher nature in our thoughts, words and deeds. All impulses, thoughts and actions which lead one towards this goal are naturally ennobling and harmonizing, and are ethical and moral in the truest sense. It is in this context that Vivekananda’s idea of religion, as the basis of education should be understood. We note that in his interpretation, religion and education share the identity of purpose. Human being is not a mass of cell; he is soul. Vivekananda admits that each soul is potentially divine and the goal is to manifest the divine within. Religion, in his view is the manifestation of this divinity and this self-realization is possible only through education which is the manifestation of perfection already in man.

Therefore study of the essential points of religion should be included in our today’s education also. We must remember that no religion should be given any preference. Students should be taught that no religion teach us to hate the religion of others. This way they will be introduced with the different religions of others and come to know that essentially all religions are the same since, all religions lead us to the same spiritual feelings and thus humanism.

It is a misconception to think that Vivekananda has overemphasized the role of spiritual development to the utter neglect of the material side. Vivekananda, in his plan for the regeneration of India, repeatedly presses the need for the eradication of ignorance, poverty and unemployment. He says that we need technical education which may develop industries, so that men, instead of seeking for service, may earn enough to provide for them-selves, and save something against a rainy day. He feels it necessary that India should take from the Western nations all that are good in their civilization. However, just like a person, every nation has its individuality, which should not be destroyed. India’s individuality lies in her spiritual culture. Hence in Vivekananda’s view, for the development of a balanced nation, we have to combine the spirituality of our country with the dynamism and scientific attitude of the West. The whole educational program should be so planned that it equips the youth to contribute to the material progress of the country as well as to maintaining the supreme worth of India’s spiritual heritage.

Another important aspect of Vivekananda’s scheme of education is women’s education. He realizes that if the women of our country get the right sort of education, then they will be able to solve their own problems. The main objective of his scheme of female education is to make them strong, fear-less, self-reliant and conscious of their chastity and dignity. He observes that although men and women are equally competent in academic matters, yet women have a special aptitude for studies relating to home and family. Hence he recommends the introduction of subjects like sewing, nursing, domestic science, culinary art, etc. We have to mention here that these subjects were not part of education at his time. Vivekananda’s aim was to make the Indian women self-reliant as well as expert in solving domestic problems. So far as sewing, upbringing of children and rules of domestic work are concerned, at home in any patriarchy these duties are ascribed on female. So he understood that in India for a healthy environment of any family women must learn these subjects. One should not think that Vivekananda was unaware of the psychological and physiological differences between male and female though he said that the soul has no gender. He knew very well that men and women need not compete with each other, for each is great in his or her own place as assigned by nature. Their roles are complementary. The perfect well-being of the society can be achieved through their mutual cooperation based on cordiality and respect. Man can not bring up child with such patience, endurance and love as the women. Men has developed the power of doing and women the power of suffering. In India for a healthy environment of any family women must learn these subjects.

Again he ascribed the responsibility of teaching the women on women. Two reasons of this may be that, first of all during the time of Vivekananda maximum evils against women were caused by men. Secondly Vivekananda patronized universal mass education. According to him if the student can not come to school, teacher should go to the student. If a girl student can not come to school because of her family restriction, and if a male teacher wants to go to her home to teach, her family members as well as the society where she lives may oppose it. But there is every possibility of allowing any female teacher to teach this girl. It is a misconception to think that Vivekananda could not come out of narrow social limits of the then Indian society. Had he not come out of the social restrictions, he would have submitted to the priests who had then the overwhelming power in the society. He was really a very practical philosopher for which he offered solution in proportionate to the problem. He understood that by preaching the noble ideal that we all are but the same can not as soon as change the minds of the peoples. It was not so easy to break down the social limits for maximum number of peoples at the time of him. Poverty and superstition were the prime reasons of it. He understood that if people could be given right kind of education they would eschew superstition and poverty would slowly leave the society. His aim was to make every men and women educated. He therefore made the provision of informal education. According to him if the student can not come to school then teacher should go to the student. Then poverty would not hamper in anyone’s education. Changing any society at once is not possible. Though Vivekananda on the Vedantic line taught people that we all are but the different manifestations of the same God, he was not unconscious of the practical social problems.

Again so far as his curriculum is concerned, though it is not followed in our modern formal education, specially in higher education, his curriculum can not be thrown away. According to him students should learn Arts, Science, History, Puranas, language, and so on. In modern formal education there is water-tight division of stream. In higher education there are various streams like science, arts, commerce etc. Subjects of Science are Physics, Chemistry, Biology and so on. Again in the Arts stream there are subjects like political science, History, Geography, philosophy, Language and so on. In the Commerce stream too Accountancy, Management, Banking are included. A student of science is not allowed to study philosophy or political science formally at the same time and vice-versa. But informally there is no restriction of learning any subject. A scientist if he studies political science will know our constitution, his duties to his motherland as well as his rights in the same country. Again if a student of arts learns physics, chemistry if he can not do more at least he can sit for any competitive exam where he will get more advantage than others who do not study these subjects in solving the question paper. So we may conclude that Vivekananda’s scheme of education in our post-modern era is in no way irrelevant. We should study all these subjects. Though formally it is not possible, there is no restriction of learning these subjects, since education is a life-long process.

A scheme of education to be called it a sound scheme of education must provide teaching of Fine Arts. Otherwise that scheme of education will be incomplete. Vivekananda felt that the source of greatness of a nation lies mainly in its art. He felt the necessity of experience-oriented education and vocational training. It is one of the greatest problems of many developing countries including India that the peoples who are formally educated find it more difficult to arrange his own means of livelihood. Therefore in such countries it is necessary to make education more experience-oriented so that those who would get formal education would have the capability of employing themselves gainfully. All these aspects are taken into consideration in Vivekananda’s philosophy of Education.

Vivekananda in his concept of education says his idea of education is personal contact with the teacher-gurugrihavasa. His idea is the ancient gurukul system. In ancient India, the Gurukuls were dedicated to achieve the highest ideals of complete human development that included physical, mental, spiritual development. Devotion for the Almighty and religion, character formation, personality development, sense of duty as a citizen, development of fields of excellence and the protection as well as the expansion of national tradition and heritage was the aim of ancient Gurukul Education system.

Some features of Gurukul System that may be followed by present education system are character building and philosophy which should get an appropriate place in today’s education system. The schools should be situated away from the noisy and polluted environment so that the students are not affected by the everyday fights and bad practices. However, it is not possible to completely lead a life full of control in modern times, but we should try to adapt to such way of living. Those concepts of Gurukul system which when fully adapted by present education system may prove to be meaningless such as–not granting access to education to Shudras, using Sanskrit as the medium of instruction for attaining education. In this education system, the spiritual world was given more importance than the practical or real world. Both the teachers and the students never went beyond the forethought of the religious conviction. It is because of this reason there was nothing such as independent thinking or thinking out of the box. It has to be noted here that Vivekananda patronized universal mass education. His aim was to impart free education to everyone. The Shudras and the females were given prime importance in his concept of education. So we may say that his system of education can not be called the photo-copy of the ancient Gurukul system though he himself said his idea of education is gurugrihavasa. It is because of his conviction that the teacher’s personality affects the students and to know the personality as well as the personal character of the teacher the student must remain in close contact with the teacher, Vivekananda recommended the Gurukul system. Again he suggested to follow the Gurukul system for the all-round development of one student. If the students remains in close contact with the teacher they will get enough time to solve their problems relating to their syllabus.

It must be mentioned that Swami Vivekananda has given us a complete system of education. ‘Divinity of Man’ must be made the pivot from which all other types of education proceed. Our dismal failure in the things of the spirit, our failure to give a greater depth to life, has brought us nowhere near the true goal of life. Mere intellectual development can not give us the true happiness of life. Vivekananda gave the greatest emphasis on the resurrection of man. Though this idea is no doubt found in ancient Hindu scriptures, but Vivekananda was its most powerful exponent. His lucid explanation of the Vedantic view of man is rational and scientific. He is an experiencer of Truth also. So, in the gigantic task of education we have first to create a strong faith in the divinity of man as well as in the moral order in the universe. The dominance of the spiritual over the material must be the base in the educational programme of mankind. It is because there can be no ethos, no ethics without God.

Swami Vivekananda visualized education as a sacred vocation and hence it is equated with spiritual struggle. Virtue is that which tends to our improvement, on the other hand vice is that which tends to our degeneration. Man has three qualities–brutal, human and godly. That which tends to increase divinity us is virtue and that which tends to increase the brutality in us is vice. We must kill the brutal nature and become human, that is, loving and charitable. In this way, our mind and intellect will be purified, and in the pure mind Truth flashes. The sun is not reflected in wood or stone; it reflects in transparent glass or in any other such things. Hence, to be a good reflector our mind has to be pure, so that the real nature of our being may be realized.

Higher culture is the fruit of good education. Self-knowledge, self-discipline and the training to develop individuality are the keynotes in Vivekananda’s scheme of education. Vivekananda gave maximum importance to education in developing our allround faculties. But modern education does not lay stress on the all-sided progress of life and hence, we see only a broken image of human life all-round. We depend on the politicians who handle power without character and the scientists who are concerned with knowledge without purpose. Even in the spiritual quest, we find people having faith without Truth. Lopsided development of the brain has done far greater harm to society.

Good men—-honest, broad-minded, well-integrated whole men with spiritual knowledge are the crying need of the day. Only such persons can change the society through their moral power. The crisis facing the world is not material poverty so much as the poverty of men-soulful men of vision taking their bold stand on spirit with faith in themselves. Down the ages, the contribution of such men to human welfare and world peace has been far greater than that of so-called educated people having no faith in themselves. So Vivekananda always and everywhere searched for ‘real men’. Modern man is alienated from nature, God, society and even from himself. He has been increasingly mechanized, atomized and depersonalized. He is sick, embittered and weak. Therefore, Vivekananda tried to formulate an educational scheme based on spirituality which can give us strength, dignity and manliness. His life mission was to inculcate strength, to bring all-round progress in the individual’s life and in the society. He attributed the maladies of our education to the miserable lack of self-confidence in the educated man of modern times. Boldly, therefore, he tried to wake up the sleeping soul in man. “Teach everyone his real nature. Call upon the sleeping soul, and see how it awakens. Power will come. Glory will come. And everything that is excellent will come, when he sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.”^[17] he declares. Such was Vivekananda’s method. His own life is a great testimony to this educational policy. His life is a great source of inspiration to all students everywhere. If a tree is known by its fruit, then Vivekananda’s life is the most nutritious fruit in the tree of his education.

In conclusion we can say that the social philosophy of Swami Vivekananda is nothing but Humanism. This humanism is spiritual humanism or we may call it Divine humanism. In India the conception of Divinity in living beings is as old as the Vedas. The Vedic seers realized the Absolute in the highest superconscious state and visualized Him in and through all. The Upanishads emphatically declare that one supreme Brahman pervades the whole universe and it is the sum-total of all souls. The Gita, the Bhagavatam, the Puranas and the Vaishnava scriptures sing equally of the noblest idea of the all-pervading Brahman. But it is unfortunate that no serious attempt has been made by the people to translate this sublime doctrine into practical life. There has been an age-long conflict between theory and practice and as a result of it, the highest teachings of the Vedanta are out of touch with the practical life of the nation.

Blind, lame, dumb, diseased, poor people are there in all societies, in all ages. Peoples are also rendered helpless and distressed by such natural calamities as flood, famine, earthquake etc., and also by destructive weapons of modern warfare. Except a few believers in fatalism and inexorable Law of Nature, who are callous enough to leave the miserable to their fate to reap the consequences of their misdeeds, people in general have natural sympathy and love for the distressed and feel inclined to reduce their sufferings in all possible ways. All books on religion and ethics of the world inculcate kindness, sympathy, love and charity for relieving the miseries of fellowbeings.

In India schools of thought-dualistic, non-dualistic and qualified non-dualisticappear to concur in the utility of service to the suffering humanity from different angles of vision and attitudes. The dualists are not disposed to look upon living beings as God, but they serve them knowing that the Lord abides in them. They believe that God will be pleased if His children are lovingly served. Again, the qualified non-dualists maintain that the universe is the manifestation of God and that to serve manifested beings is equal to divine worship. Non-dualists or the Advaitists hold that a living being is Brahman Himself and therefore to serve a living being is to serve and worship Brahman and to realize Brahman in him. It is on this non-dualistic conception that Shri Ramakrishna built up his universal gospel of divine humanism, and Vivekananda, preached this new philosophy of work broadened and strengthened by his intimate knowledge of the East and the West. The idealist and realist Vivekananda with an intellectuality and foresight that were his own, realized the supreme necessity of ministering to the physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual needs of suffering humanity by initiating wide-scale organized works of service to be done in the true spirit of worship as an efficacious means to self-realization.

The whole of abstruse Vedanta philosophy was reduced by Vivekananda into two basic principles. These are 1. The divinity of man and 2. The essential spirituality of life. From these two basic principles follow two other very significant corollaries: 1. That every state, every society, every religion must be based on this all-powerful presence latent in man. 2. That in order to be fruitful, all human interests should be guided and controlled according to the ultimate idea of spirituality of life. If we ponder over these propositions it becomes clear that a true classless society, a society based on equal human rights for every individual is the outcome of the Vedanta made practical. For, if behind everyone there exists the same wonderful soul assuring to everyone the infinite possibility and infinite capacity to be good and great, then none can be denied fullest opportunities to unfold his potential capacity which is his birth right. Advaita, therefore strikes at the very root of all privileges. Hence it is said “None can be a Vedantist and at the same time admit privilege to any one either mental, physical or spiritual.” ^[18]

In our preceding chapters it has been very clearly seen that an essential principle is underlying in all the chapters. And this principle is ‘Divinity of man’. While reforming the Indian society, Vivekananda first of all gave importance on manifestation of latent divinity of man in order to increase their self-confidence. In his concept of religion, which is described in the third chapter, it is seen more clearly while he says that religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man. Again his concept of universal religion is nothing except realization of this divinity. According to him, every existing religion aims at this realization. Through their respective languages they all are preaching this great ideal. Moreover, in his four lectures on practical Vedanta Vivekananda has urged us to realize this divinity. Though in his lectures he tried to show us the practicality of Vedanta philosophy his aim is to urge man realize this divinity. Again in his lectures on education also it has been detected. In his lecture on education he says that education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. According to him our soul is the storehouse of knowledge. All knowledge is within our soul. And this soul is nothing except Brahman. Since Brahman is the abode of knowledge, so our soul can not be exception of this. In Vivekananda’s philosophy the words ‘perfection’ and ‘divinity’ are ultimately the same. So in his philosophy both religion and education share the identity of purpose. Taking the latent divinity as postulate Vivekananda offered his educational ideals.

Vivekananda’s social philosophy propounds a classless society based on individual liberty. His social philosophy seeks to root socialism on democracy. It asserts the supremacy of spirit over matter and accepts man as a free agent and aims at freeing the sleeping forces of man’s enslaved spirit by granting him the widest possible liberty. Vivekananda declares liberty as the first condition of growth. The ideal of individual freedom is held supreme above everything else by the social philosophy of Swami Vivekananda. It is his conviction that to advance towards freedom, physical, mental and spiritual, and help others to do so is the supreme prize of man. That is why Vivekananda could not tolerate the idea of sacrificing individual liberty to social supremacy. It has to be mentioned here that Vivekananda did not support that type of individualism according to which liberty means absence of restraint. To quote Vivekananda “Liberty does not mean the absence of obstacles in the path of misappropriation of other people’s wealth etc. by you and me, but it is our natural right to be allowed to use our own body, intelligence or wealth according to our will, without doing harm to others.”^[19] This is a socialistic interpretation of liberty, where liberty is not a negative concept, but a positive one. It does not refer to absence of restraints but to positive opportunities. An ideal which is at once individualistic and socialistic, would be the objective ideal for the most thinking man. For the individualist is right in aiming at the variety of individuals, so is socialist in impressing on all their common interest for the fullest development of each is to be found in the performance of his function in the life of the whole. This much-coveted ideal, which is at once individualistic and socialistic, has got an excellent expression in the hands of Vivekananda by the magic touch of genius. His constructive genius can be summed up in two words-equilibrium and synthesis. Vivekananda succeeded in working out this most baffling synthesis by applying one Vedantic principle viz. ‘Bahujan-Hitaya Bahujan-Sukhaya’-i.e. for the good of the many and for the happiness of the many.

As the same soul resides in all, individual happiness is inseparable from the happiness of the many. Hence securing this happiness of the many should be the watchword of the society and the watchword of all our individual activities. Individuals should be taught that their individual happiness could be attained only through the happiness of the all. An individual should willingly sacrifice his selfish interests to serve the interests of all. Thus Vivekananda’s doctrine in the happiness of the many consists in the happiness of the individual, in the good of the many lies the good of the individual shows the way of integrating individualism to socialism.

The main concern of the world today is peace and harmony. The path that the world has until now traversed in pursuit of technological mastery has imperilled peace and environment and failed to provide prosperity and equality for all people of the world. If peace and harmony are to rise and reign in the hearts of all people all over the world, they should have an opportunity to be exposed to the revealing insights of spirituality, which Swami Vivekananda has bequeathed to humanity. Hence an earnest and vigorous propagation of his spiritual teachings is the most important means of serving that divine mission. The more the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda are made known, the more will the spiritual perspective of humanity will be widened, thereby paving the way of enduring world peace everyone is hankering for. He came with a divine message to deliver unto the world, which was about to be swept off by the rushing tide of materialism. Vivekananda was veritably a pillar of fire to show humanity the way out of the bewildering maze of faithlessness and selfishness to peace eternal. He came for all, felt for all, sacrificed for all. ‘Peace unto mankind’-was his only thought, and this thought made him restless, sleepless till he delivered his message and laid the foundation-stone of the edifice of peace in all corners of the earth. We may conclude with the words of Eknath Rnande, a great devotee of Swami Vivekananda, “Spiritual leaders, like Swami Vivekananda, are the salt of the earth and in their exalted life and inspiring teachings do we find a solvent for all our problems, individual, social, national and international. They are verily the harbinger of much needed peace and harmony on the earth”^[20]