Centenary of Vivekananda Visit to the West

CENTENARY OF VIVEKANANDA’S VISIT
TO THE WEST

SWAMI RANGANATHANANDA

You have all heard that this is the beginning of a year-long celebra­tion to make our people know about Swami Vivekananda and his great man-making, nation-building mes­sage. Very few people know yet, but every day more and more people are knowing about Vivekananda and his message, and during this one year there will be many meetings all over India wherein his ideas Will be pre­sented. It is high time that the nation wakes up to this Great Awakener of our nation. We were sleeping for centuries, perfectly satisfied with our pettiness, hardheartedness, inhuman treatment of human beings, mutual quarrels and suffering through foreign invasions.

It was Swamiji who first awak­ened our nation, and he used these very words – “The sleeping leviathan is slowly awakening”. That was the theme of his first lecture on Indian soil after returning from four years in America and England – that was at Ramnad, near Rameshwaram. A tre­mendous reception was given to him and the Prince of Ramnad was pulling the chariot along with the youths. Swamiji was prompted by their enthu­siasm to give a great speech. The opening paragraph is worthy of being recited in schools and colleges – that was 24th January, 1897. He said:

“The longest night seems to be passing away, the sorest trouble seems to be coming to an end at last, the seeming corpse appears to be awaking and a voice is coming to us .... India, this motherland of ours is awakening from her long deep sleep. None can resist her any more: never is she going to sleep any more; no outward powers can hold her any more; for the infinite giant is rising to her feet.”

What a statement! What tremen­dous ideas! At that time the nation was practically asleep. There was no political consciousness, no serious desire for freedom. Most people were happy to get a thirty-rupees clerkship under the British. At that time he could see that this period was going to be a period of tremendous awakening, with impact upon the whole of India, every section of her people, and on the world outside. That is what the prophet could see and say. They can see far ahead. We see only a few feet ahead, but men like Vivekananda, and his own teacher, Sri Ramakrishna, could see far ahead – that in this age, this country of ours, which has stood and withstood so many centuries of foreign invasions and oppressions – it has some infinite strength within it. It is going to come out, manifest, and create a new glorious chapter of our long history. When you read Viveka­nanda literature you will get all these impressions, all this understanding of our nation. It is unfortunate that many of our people do not know what the nation’s innate strength is. How we can manipulate the forces acting on the nation today to make it progress in the right direction. If our people had studied Vivekananda as seriously as they did before independence, things would have been different. None of these desperate situations would have arisen, or the sense of defeatism, the sense of despair, and not knowing which way to go. No direction – that is where we are today. This would not have happened if after independence our people, who filed administrative positions from top to bottom in govern­ment and were in many other types of service institutions in India, if they had studied this literature. India would not have remained a developing nation; it would have become a fully developed nation by now – and with none of these moral problems facing us today. Because, before independ­ence thousands of patriots were in­spired by Vivekananda literature and they loved this nation and the common people and wanted to make India free. Even Mahatma Gandhi said in Belur Math, when he visited the Headquarters of the Mission and was requested to say few words: “I have studied Vivekananda literature very carefully, after reading his books the love that I had for my country became a thou­sand-fold.”

For Gandhiji to say this! He himself was a great lover of India. We in India today need to develop a little love for the nation, a little love for the people. Most of these moral problems, ethical problems, dearth of values, will disappear – with a little love for the people, love for the nation and the spirit of service that follows that love. This is the inspiration that is provided in the “Complete Works” of Swami Vivekananda, now in eight volumes. In these books you have the message of human development and fulfillment, not only for our nation but for people in all parts of the world. Men like Monsieur Romain Rolland wrote in the 1920s about Vivekananda and Ramakrishna and their contribution to Europe and America. M. Rolland wrote the most beautiful, critical, apprecia­tive biographies of Ramakrishna and Vivekananda. He could appreciate the immense dimensions of these two great personalities. He introduces both in The Life of Ramakrishna (1970 ed., page 8) in these words:

“I have chosen two men, who have won my regard because with in­comparable charm and power they have realized this splendid symphony of the Universal Soul. They are ... Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.”

And he ends the Preface in these books by saying that Swamiji wanted to unite East and West. He had united them within himself, but externally he wanted to bring harmony between the East and the West, and so he had started digging a tunnel between the East and the West, and he appealed to his Western friends to start digging a tunnel from the West to the East, so that they could meet together in the middle, – this is the language he has used. What tremendous dimension of thought and aspiration, you can see in this type of venture, – not just for a community; not even just for a nation, but for all of humanity he came to give this message of human development and fulfilment. It is no wonder that the West is very much inspired when people there come in touch with Vivekananda literature. Romain Rol­land, in his “Life of Vivekananda,” de­scribes him as a harmony of all hu­man energy. Every type of energy found a perfect blending in the Person and thought of Vivekananda. As decades roll on, we begin to discover these great dimensions of his personality. In the beginning, one may not be able to see more than a few glimpses of that greatness, but he unfolds his person­ality steadily, decade after decade, as generally do all great men. When they were alive very few people could recog­nize them. But as years roll on, people realize “what a tremendous person was here ... a few years ago and what a wonderful teaching! And we were influenced thereby.” The Buddha’s teaching was in Sarnath 2500 years ago to five people, but that Buddha later on became the idol of love and reverence to millions and millions of people in Asia. It was a slow develop­ment of understanding. The same thing is happening today in the case of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda and Sarada Devi. People are under­standing slowly. Books are coming out. Plenty of literature is being spread; in other languages also. So a time will come when they will be known in various parts of the world. From a small country, Uruguay in South America, some people came to Calcutta, with much devotion. “We want to get books of Vivekananda and photographs.” They said, “We don’t get these things in our country.” This kind of thing is happening every day. And from this year – September 1993 – will start the centenary of Swamiji’s bursting on the Parliament of Religions like a bombshell.

What Swamiji did in the Parlia­ment of Religions was nothing less than to burst ‘thought-bombshells’. We need plenty of such ‘bombs’ today. Our terrorists are bursting bombs and killing people and destroying property. Vivekananda also will ‘burst bombs’ in the minds of people all over India, and all over the world, but to create and renew humanity, to make people grow and become fulfilled, that is the type of ‘bomb’ that are Swami Vivekananda’s thoughts.

In the Sept. 1992 issue of Prabuddha Bharata, published from the Himalayas, Mayavati, there is an ar­ticle by Professor Hal W. French (he is a Professor at the University of South Carolina in America), on the Parlia­ment of Religions and the tremendous part played by Vivekananda in that Parliament. It is worth studying. Like it, many such articles are coming out. In America itself, professors and stu­dents are being drawn to the wonder­ful personality of Swamiji, his scien­tific mind, his intense humanism, his complete absence of narrowness and intolerance. But he embodies what India represents – a spirit of har­mony. This he represented in the West – ‘that’ India – that ‘Amar Bharat,’ eternal India. These things are going on now also. In India we need these much more than they in the West. We have to reshape the life of 850 million people, about 200 million of them liv­ing very subhuman lives. It’s a huge problem. But no problem can stand before the will, the pure will and de­termination of a human being. Swa­miji gave that inspiration:

“Don’t think you are weak; don’t think you have not the strength. Infinite strength is in you. Great things will be done through you. Have faith in yourself.” And then he added: “The old religion said. ‘He or she is an atheist who does not believe in God.’ The new Vedanta tells you, ‘he or she is an atheist who does not believe in oneself.’ Have faith in yourself, then faith in God; then that faith will work.”

Till now we neverhad froth in ourselves, we felt a sense of helpless­ness, weakness. “I can’t do, I can’t do,” was the constant attitude we had for centuries. He brought the message
of Vedanta – ‘Atma-sraddha, –that infinite power is hidden in every human being. In that teaching you find a new focus of worship – the human being himself or herself. God is hidden in every human being. He is not somewhere in the sky far up in space – not at all! He is here in you, next-door to you; in every one He is present. This is the Vedantic teaching. The same Atman is present in every human being. When this teaching becomes the sheet anchor of our na­tional life, of our interhuman relation­ships, a tremendous revolution will take place in this country – a social, cultural revolution. All these problems will be completely eliminated, by devel­oping that intense strength of manli­ness.

So he coined two words to de­scribe his message: Man-making and Nation-building. Through man-making alone you can build the nation. By mere technical development you can’t build the nation. The human being must be built up. The power hidden within must be made to come out. And the capacity to love and to serve must come in the heart of a human being, if you are to achieve real integration as a nation. So Swamiji summed up India’s message to her own children in one sentence: “Renunciation and service are the twin ideals of India. Intensify her in these channels; the rest will take care of itself. Tyaga and Seva: you can never do seva without a bit of tyaga. If you want to show a person where some house is, you are to go a little out of the way to show him that house. That is “tyaga” renunciation. We left that normal way, that easy way, straight way, and round about we went. So in any aspect of “seva,” there “tyaga” is present. So these two are the national ideals; let us strengthen India in these directions. These are Swamiji’s great words – a message for our people.

(From his speech delivered at the Ramakrishna Math. Hyderabad)