Chapter 3.8 - Conclusion (concept of Religion)

From the above discussion it has been seen that according to Vivekananda 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 in our heart and to realize the same god in others. We have to know that we all are children of God that we have come from God, and going back to God. It is significant to mention here that Vivekananda did not restrict this divinity to man only. From the lowest worm to the highest creature-man, all are expression of the same divine. But this divinity is not manifested equally in all. There is difference in manifestation, but this difference is not in kind, but in degree. Divinity is manifested more in the highest than to that of the lower creatures. So in man this divinity is manifested supremely, as man is the highest creature. But he asserted that this divinity is one unifying principle prevailing in the whole universe.

Thus in Vivekananda’s philosophy religion is nothing except the manifestation of the divinity already within man. Therefore, it is not necessary to have doctrines or dogmas and intellectual argumentation. It is realization in the very heart of man. Religion is the realization of the truth that ‘I am a spirit’ in relation with the universal spirit and all its great manifestations. Plainly speaking, Vivekananda’s way of understanding of religion is that man must realize God, feel God, see God, and talk to God. That is the religion. To him material prosperity and wealth is not an important thing. It is the wealth of the spiritual thought in brain that is more needed to the human progress. Religion has been a great healer as well as cruel killer. True religion has the capacity to heal evil thoughts in human mind. Similarly the false religion has the capacity to bring darkness in human mind and thus leads to the destruction of the human society. Vivekananda’s message was that man must occupy the highest place. Hence, the welfare of man in the true sense of the term is his predominant impulse, and a true religion is the only agent for that purpose. He further said that the supreme reality is the only source of happiness and true religion teaches us that the goal of life has to be sought in Atman.

Vivekananda asserts that though man is already divine, this divinity is hidden. The purpose of religion is to make man realize his divinity. To realize that man should practice four yogas. Those are the yoga of knowledge, or control of mind, or of selfless work, or of love of God. Vivekananda had laid down also what religion is not. According to him religion is not dogmas, doctrines, rites, rituals and other externals. But, Vivekananda did not outright reject dogmas, doctrines etc. According to him, these externals are helpful at the initial stage of religion. But man must soon cross this stage and come to the higher stage when he realizes-‘spirit as spirit’. He has given us a religion which is monistic, spiritualistic, humanistic as well as pragmatic.

Another point has to be mentioned here that Vivekananda was not a religious preacher. Though he tried to give his own concept of religion, his intention was not to establish a new religion with a new sect. In his eyes all religions of the world have equal validity. To be one with God he prescribed for four Yogas. Every individual, no matter what his religion, caste, sex is, can follow the path. According to him, diversity of religions will remain. But we must realize that the different religions will co-exist as diverse ways of worship of the one infinite. The result is not a uniform pattern of religion for diverse people but the accordance of all religions as true by all.

The central theme of his religion is the divinity of man. It is Vivekananda’s conviction that the knowledge of this divinity is the secret of man’s development, secular as well as spiritual. This knowledge of divinity 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.

Swami Vivekananda has introduced a universal form of worship. Since every human being has the same divinity in him, we can worship God by serving man. He says “You may build a temple in which to worship God, and that may be good, but a better one, already exists, the human body.”^[1] This religion is new in the sense that it does not depend on persists, churches, temples, books, dogmas, ceremonials and rituals. It dispenses with all these auxiliaries prone to be misused.

At last we must mention that Vivekananda never tried to be a preacher of Hinduism or any other such religion. In our first chapter we have seen that the miserable condition of the Indian masses has given birth to the philosophy of Vivekananda. Vivekananda urged on the people of India to realize their own true self so that they could get self-confidence. He had another intention in his mind. He was convinced that if the higher class peoples, specially those belonged to the well-to-do and literate families, realized the presence of God in everyone, they would come forward to help the helpless. But this was not his selfish motive. He just preached what was the truth.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

[Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda], VOl. 6, p-313.