Chapter 2.1 - Social Reforms of Swami Vivekananda

Vivekananda was not only a social reformer and a social activist but was also a saint, a patriot, a poet, a spiritual teacher, a humanist, an educationist, a sociologist and an orator also. As a social reformer he made attempts to uplift the downtrodden masses from poverty, ignorance, bondage, blind belief etc. He said “bondage brings only misery.”^[1] Therefore he asked everyone to make themselves free from bondage, bondage from superstition, bondage from poverty and bondage from any other degenerating system. In his view superstition makes the brain of man dull. Regarding superstition he says’ Superstition is a great enemy of man, but bigotry is worse, if superstition enters, the brain is gone.”^[2] Hence he says “Do not run after these superstitions. Better for you and for the race that you become rank atheists, because you would have strength, but if these are degradation and death, shame on humanity that strong men should spend their time in inventing allegories to explain the most rotten superstitions of the world. Be bold, do not try to explain everything that way. The fact is that we have many superstitions, many bad spots and sores on our body.

These have to be excised, cut off, and destroyed but these do not destroy our religion, our national life, our spirituality.”^[3] Vivekananda observed that the illiterate people observed peculiar systems of superstitions to worship the Gods. The educated man should avoid all superstitions, omen, and blind beliefs. Every system which makes us superstitious, makes us weak, must be completely avoided.

As a humanistic philosopher and social reformer he always thought for the betterment of the poor and backward people of India. He had realized that until weaker and low class people were not well kept and maintained through proper education and nourishment, the society could not develop. So he suggested very strongly that “The only way of getting our divine nature manifested is by helping others to do the same. If there is inequality in nature, still there must be equal chance for all or if greater for some and some less, the weaker should be given more chance than the strong.”^[4] In other words, a Brahman is not so much in need of education as a Chandala. If the ten of Brahman needs one teacher, that of Chandala needs ten. For greater help must be given to him whom nature has not endowed with an acute intellect from birth.

Swami Vivekananda was not a man living in an ivory tower. His feet were firmly planted on the earth. Nothing concerning man would escape his notice. Man was a living God for him. Man was divine but his divinity was 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. While in the west he talked of India’s great spiritual heritage, on return to India the refrain of his ‘Lectures from Colombo to Alomar’ was uplift of the masses, eradication of the caste virus, promotion of the study of science Industrialization of the country, removal of poverty the end of the colonial rule, in brief he was preoccupied with his attack on the countries socioeconomic ills. It is suspiring that the solutions that this philosopher-monk offered are still the best.

Vivekananda‘s social reforms can be discussed under the following heads religion, education, caste, culture, women upliftment, mass upliftment etc. It must be noted here that Vivekananda did not believe in reform. He believed in growth He says “I donot believe in reform; I believe in growth. I do not done to put myself in the position of god and dictate to our society; this way than should move and not that.”^[5] His ideal is growth, expansion, development on national lines.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda] VOL.8, p-414.

[2]:

Ibib. VOL.1, p-15.

[3]:

Ibid VOL.3, p-279.

[4]:

Ibid VOL.6, p-319.

[5]:

Ibid. VOL.3, p-213.