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 3.6 - Religious Experience

According to Vivekananda religious experience is the outcome of our deep realization of divinity in everything. He states “The nearer we approach to God, the more do we being to see that all things abide to him, our heart will become a perennial fountain of love. Man is transformed in the presence of this light of love and realizes at least the beautiful and inspiring truth that love, lover and beloved one really one.”[1] Religious experience, according to him is the feeling of oneness with all creatures. It is an attitude of oneness with all life and beyond that with the universe along with awareness of the unique entity of the self. The religious consciousness is closely related to the experience of breaking down individual and feeling one with the all.

Vivekananda recognized the force of religious experience or spiritual development which states with the recognition of oneself as the source of potential divinity, such realization is the first mark to be religious man. To Vivekananda, religion is not mere metaphysical conversation. Its experience is spiritual, to break down avidya or maya. Religious experience is the feeling of oneness with every existence. When a man become truly religious, man transcends his individual existence and realized that the truth, that ‘love’ ‘lover’ and ‘beloved’ are really one. There is no barrier of space time in religious experience. Man becomes the part of the Absolute which is eternal. In religious experience we shall find that we are in the real, everything is real, and that reality is God, and this God is our own true nature. To quote Vivekananda, “He is always in us, and with us. Let us live in him and stand in him. It is the only joyful existence. Live on the plane of the spirit.”[2]

Religious experience is mystic kind of experience. This mystic kind of experience is the root of at least all major religions of the world. It is a direct experience of God and realization of presence of God in every sphere of the world. The mysticism has two tendencies. These are–first of all, within mysticism there is a negative tendency. Within mysticism we find revolt against the barriers of space and time. The second is positive tendency. The positive tendency is the tendency to rise up from the limitations imposed by space and time.

Swami Vivekananda like a mystic realized that man is bound by the order of space, time and causation. Though freedom is the very urge of every individual but his will is severely bound by the law of causation. Both the body and the will are bound by the laws of causality. His idea of freedom aspires to attain the highest, the absolute, which is permanent and unchangeable. Man struggles for freedom, and consequently man gains it in the Zenith of religious experience, when everyone becomes one with all other existence. In this state one feels everywhere the breath of God.

The concept of religious experience of Vivekananda is akin to the view of other neo-vedantin Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He states religious experience as God realization. He says, “It is the displacement of ignorance, avidya, unawareness by knowledge, vidya or awareness. This attainment of vidya, badhi, wisdom or enlightment makes for power. It results in a complete of one’s nature, which is assimilated to new inward dimension.”[3] Vivekananda says that, mysticism is not an accidental phase of religious development. In mysticism, there is reliance on constant intuition, meditation or concentration. He writes “you see the power of meditation, intensity of thought. These men churn up their own souls. Great truth come to the surface and become manifest. Therefore the practice of meditation is the great scientific method of knowledge.”[4]

Further he delivered that meditation is the highest state, when the mind is doubtful that is not its great state. Its great state is meditation. It looks upon things and see things, not identifying itself with anything else. Vivekananda opines that as long as we feel pain, we have identified our self with the body. But the high state is a balanced state when we look pleasure or pain as the same. He says that in perfect concentration the soul becomes indeed free from the bonds of the gross body. It knows itself. We suffer because we identify our self with mortal body. The free soul knows God and then becomes God. Nothing is impossible to such a free soul. There is no more birth and death for him. Such a soul is free forever. Such kind of religious experience “The great truth of spirituality regarding oneness of existence and the divinity of men find their unique expression in the times of these three spiritual luminaries; Shri Ramakrishna, Holy mother and Vivekananda. From Sri Ramakrishna we learn that through great longing and renunciation we can have the direct experience of God. In Holy mother we see this realization of oneness manifests itself in all embracing impartial love for all beings. And from Swamiji we understand that by serving the divine dwelling within each and every person, we can attain to the same state of realization that the saint, immersed in meditation, attains through his spiritual practices.”[5]

Vivekananda opines that all religious experiences are not mystic experience. There are varieties of religious experience. These are visionary experience; numinous experience and mystic experience etc. Visionary experience plays an important role in the same religion. For example vision of the virgin or Jesus is common in Christianity. Such visionary experience is found in Mahayana Buddhism too, where one can find visionary experiences of the Bodhisattvas. The second type of religious experience is numinous experience. It is overwhelmed by vital and active power. As a power numinous experience is so great that one is reduced to insignificance in its presence. In numinous experience one encounters unfathomable mystery. It is dreadful as well as fascinating. Numinous experiences are sometimes focused on a human being, sometimes on a sacred place, some natural object etc. Rudolf Otto in his book ‘The Idea of Holy’ has given a broad analysis of this numinous experience.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda], VOl. 8, p-208.

[2]:

Ibid., VOl. 2, p-174.

[3]:

Radhakrishnan, S, Recovery of Faith, p. 146.

[4]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda], VOl. 4, p-230.

[5]:

Vivekananda, Swami, Religion Today, p-71.

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