Chapter 2.1a - Social Reforms: Cultural

[Summary: Social Reforms of Swami Vivekananda (a): Cultural.]

For a proper understanding of Indian culture, an in-depth study of Swami Vivekananda is imperative. It is because Vivekananda once spoke of himself as a ‘condensed India’. His life as well as his teachings are of inestimable value for the complete understanding of the Indian mind. Indian culture got reinvigorated by his interpretation of the scriptures, philosophy and the way of life to the modern world. Vivekananda has pointed out that every civilization or culture has a particular lifecenter, a dominant characteristic. It is this particular life-centre that determines the lifespan of that culture. In the Indian context, one can see throughout its history, invaders after invaders making barbarous attacks on this land. Vivekananda says any other nation with even one tenth of this attack would have been wiped off from this earth. But India is still surviving. The reason behind this is the spiritual strength of the country. “This is the land from whence, like the tidal waves, spirituality and philosophy have again and again rushed out and deluged the world, and this is the land from whence once more such tides must proceed in order to bring life and vigour into the decaying races of mankind.”^[1] He again says “It is the same India which has withstood the shocks of centuries, of hundreds of foreign invasions, of hundreds of upheavals of manners and customs. It is the same land which stands firmer than any rock in the world, with its undying vigor, indestructible life. Its life is of the same nature as the soul, without beginning and without end, immortal; and we are the children of such a country.”^[2] According to him, the life-Centre of Indian culture is spirituality. It has to be mentioned here that Vivekananda for the upliftment of the downtrodden Indians first tried to imbibe the idea of spirituality in their minds. He gave Indians proper understanding of their country’s great spiritual heritage and thus gave them pride in their past. He further says about culture thatit is culture that withstands shocks, not a simple mass of knowledge. We can put a mass of knowledge into the world, but that will not do it much good. There must come culture into the blood.

According to Swami Vivekananda, Sanskrit language is the primary tool to preserve the Indian culture. He opines that Sanskrit is the real success of Indian culture and is capable of removing the caste barriers, untouchablity etc. The ideas must be taught in their mother language; at the same time, Sanskrit education must go on along with it, because the very sound of Sanskrit words gives prestige and strength to the race. The attempts of the great personalities like great Ràmànuja, Chaitanya and Kabir to raise the lower classes of India show that marvellous results were attained during the lifetime of those great prophets. But they could not wholly succeed in their planes. The effect of their teachings stopped almost within a century of the passing away of these great Masters. The secret is here. They raised the lower classes; they had all the wish that lower classes should come up. But they did not apply their energies to the spreading of the Sanskrit language among the masses. Vivekananda opines that even the great Buddha tooks one false step when he stopped the Sanskrit language from being studied by the masses. Buddha wanted rapid results, and translated and preached in the language of the day, Pàli. That was grand; he spoke in the language of the people, and the people understood his ideas. Because of using the language of the peoples his ideas spread quickly and made them reach far and wide. But, according to Vivekananda through the Pali language knowledge came, but the prestige was not there, culture was not there. Therefore along with that, Sanskrit ought to have spread.

Again, Vivekananda showed that the Vedanta philosophy which forms the bedrock of Indian culture is very practical. The great insight of the Upanishads, the relationship between the atman and Brahman, is the keynote upon which the entire Vedantic teachings revolve and which is summed up beautifully in his statement, ‘Each soul is potentially divine.’ Man’s exploration of his deepest self, is not only essential for his spiritual progress, but indispensable for his survival. Recognizing the innate divinity as basis of all-embracing love is the hallmark of Indian culture. It is to this unique principle of inherent divinity that Swami Vivekananda drew our attention in modern times. In a sense, the greatest contribution of Vivekananda to Indian culture is that he built up his new universal gospel of divine humanism based on the concept of man as divine. Vivekananda with an intellectuality and foresight showed the supreme necessity of ministering to the physical, intellectual and spiritual needs of suffering humanity by initiating large-scale organized works of service to be done in the true spirit of worship as an efficacious means to self-realization popularly known as ‘Practical Vedanta’.

Another significant contribution of Swami Vivekanandais to show the relevance of Yoga. Sri Krishna in Bhagavad Gità had tried to popularize and synthesize the Yoga and Vedanta. But in course of time, yoga had taken its back due to the popularization of Vedanta. Vivekananda reinterpreted the four main paths of Yoga. He showed how a proper synthesis of these four main paths is the necessity of the age and he converted the traditional four yogas into wonderful spiritual disciplines suited for the age. This could be considered one of his significant contributions to Indian culture. He synthesized action, love, and philosophy by making it easy and modern for the presentday believers. Moreover, even atheists could practice Karma and Raja yoga. He showed that the four yogas are different facets of the human personality that can lead one to self-realization. The emotional, intellectual, active and psychic faculties of the mind are channelled in bhakti, jnàna, karma, and ràja yogas respectively. A synergy of these yogas could quicken the attainment of the goal.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nirvedananda, Swami, Swami Vivekananda-On India and Her Problems, p-7.

[2]:

Ibid.