January 12, 2013
Fifteen decades ago a saint, patriot and
social activist by name Swami Vivekanada (Narendra) gave a call to the sleepy
Bharat to awake and arise from their despondency. There was at that time all
pervading malice of meekness and weakness in the Indian psyche because of the British
rule. People lost self confidence and were looking for a Divine intervention to
save them. General feeling at that time was that everything of Indian is
inferior to Europeans. This was cultivated by the ruling British that
demoralized the Indians in general. It at this juncture in history a pious soul
took birth on January 12, 1863, to bring them out of despondency.
SELF CONFIDENCE:
Swami Vivekanada came as a messiah and
wake up the masses to the realization they are the divya atma swaroopas and arose
them from the slavish perpetual inferiority complex that they are less than
others. He said that self-confidence was essential to realize their full
potential.
He said:
“Arise, awake and Stop not till the Goal
is reached”.
“You cannot believe in God until you believe in
yourself”.
“Despondency
is not religion, whatever else it may be”.
“Books
are infinite in number and time is short. The secret of knowledge is to take
what is essential. Take that and try to live up to it.
“All power is within you. You can do
anything and everything. Believe in that. Do not believe that you are weak; do
not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. Stand
up and express the divinity within you”.
“What the world wants is character. The
world is in need of those whose life is one burning love--selfless. That love
will make every word tell like a thunderbolt. Awake, awake, great souls! The
world is burning in misery. Can you sleep? Work unto death--I am with you, and
when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes--wealth,
fame, enjoyments are only of a few days. It is better, far better, to die on
the field of duty, preaching the truth than to die like a worldly worm. Advance”.
SERVICE:
He preached nothing new except for the
emphasis on the practice of what has been all along preached. He questioned
where we weree going in search of God. He said God lives in the hearts of all
the hungry millions. He called them Daridra Narayanas and the service to them, is
service to God. He called this service Daridra Narayan Seva. He wanted us to
see the Omni-present Divinity in all. Serving all is serving God. He preached
about the service to the down trodden, under privileged. He encouraged all to
do service as spiritual sadhana.
He Said:
“Let each one of us pray day and night
for the downtrodden millions, who are held fast by poverty, priest craft, and
tyranny. Pray day and night for them. I care more to preach religion to them
than to the high and the rich. I am no metaphysician, no philosopher, nay, no
saint. But I am poor and I love the poor”.
“Him I call a Mahatma (great soul) whose
heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratma (wicked soul). Let us
unite our wills in continued prayer for their good.
“May I be born again and again, and
suffer thousands of miseries so that I may worship the only God that exists,
the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls--and, above all, my God
the wicked, my God the miserable, my God the poor of all races, of all species,
is the special object of my worship”.
“Who will bring light to the poor? Who
will travel from door to door bringing education to them? Let these people be
your God—think of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly. The Lord will
show you the way”.
“Condemn
none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your
hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way“
“So long as millions live in hunger and
ignorance, I hold every person a traitor who, having been educated at their
expense, pays not the least heed to them”.
“The
more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified,
and God will be in them”.
“In
the world take always the position of the giver. Give everything and look for
no return. Give love, give help, give service, and give any little thing you
can, but keep out barter. Make no conditions and none will be imposed on you.
Let us give out of our own bounty, just as God gives to us”.
“I
am no metaphysician, no philosopher, nay, no saint. But I am poor and I love
the poor. I see what they call the poor of this country and how many there are
who feel for them!”
PURITY
: SELFLESSNESS:
He proclaimed the power of purity and un-selfishness.
He said that power stems
from purity and un-selfishness. Power generated by any other means is abuse of
power. One Gandhi, one mother Theresa, one
Martin Luther King and one Abraham Lincoln made such a huge difference in the
world. This is because of their purity and un-selfishness. It is not the
quantity that counts, it is the quality of character.
He said:
“Give me few
men and women who are pure and selfless and I shall shake the world”.
“Truth,
purity and unselfishness—wherever these are present, there is no power below or
above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one
individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition”.
“The
essential thing in religion is making the heart pure; the Kingdom of Heaven is
within us, but only the pure in heart can see the King. While we think of the
world, it is only the world for us; but let us come to it with the feeling that
the world is God, and we shall have God”.
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea
your life--think of it, dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain,
muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave
every other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great
spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines”.
“Mind you, this is life's experience: if you
really want the good of others, the whole universe may stand against you and
cannot hurt you. It must crumble before your power of the Lord Himself in you
if you are sincere and really un-selfish”.
“Are you unselfish?
That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single
religious book, without going into a single church or temple”.
“To
devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion.
Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion”.
RATIONAL
APPROACH TO RELIGION:
He revitalized the Sanathana Dharma and
propagated it in the west like no other saint of his times. His scientific mind
and rational approach to spirituality attracted millions of youngsters. His
speeches compiled in 9 volumes as “Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda” is a
must read for any young Hindu. I strongly recommend that every Hindu child and
parent should read these 9 volumes. This helps them develop understanding of
the uniqueness and the tenets of Sanathana Dharma.
He wants us to be scientific and
rational thinkers. He condemns superstition and blind practices that are not
understood satisfactorily by the seekers.
He said:
“The
moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the
moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him—that
moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free’.
“Superstition
is our great enemy, but bigotry is worse”
“I will
abide by my reason, because with all its weakness there is some chance of my
getting at truth through it. We should therefore follow reasons, and also
sympathize with those who do not come to any sort of belief, following reason”.
“Experience
is the only source of knowledge. The same methods of investigation which we
apply to the sciences and to exterior knowledge should be applied to religion.
If a religion is destroyed by such investigation and found it was nothing but a
useless and unworthy superstition; the sooner it disappeared the better. Why
religions should claim that they are not bound to abide by the standpoint of
reason no one knows. For it is better that mankind should become atheist by
following reason than blindly believe in two hundred million gods on the
authority of anybody. Perhaps there are prophets, who have passed the limits of
sense and obtained a glimpse of the beyond. We shall believe it only when we
can do the same ourselves; not before. It is said that reason is not strong
enough, that often it makes mistakes. If reason is weak why should a body of
priests be considered any better guides?”
“The goal
of mankind is knowledge. . . . Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No
knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man
"knows," should, in strict psychological language, be what he
"discovers" or "unveils"; what man "learns" is
really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine
of infinite knowledge”.
“If
superstition enters, the brain is gone”.
“Knowledge
can only be got in one way, the way of experience; there is no other way to
know”.
“We must be bright and cheerful. Long
faces do not make religion. Religion should be the most joyful thing in the
world, because it is the best”.
“To
believe blindly is to degenerate the human soul. Be an atheist if you want, but
do not believe in anything unquestioningly”.
STATUS OF WOMEN:
As a reformer
he wanted woman’s status in the society should be improved. He felt that when
woman advances, the whole country advances with them. He said it was not enough
to pray goddesses in the form of Shakthi, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. We should
respect and revere the voluble role they play in mentoring the children and in
fostering unity of family, in addition to the poorly appreciated multi-tasking
they do, day in day out at home.to a question.
While addressing a women's group in Chicago he defined the status of women in India in answer to a question. He said: that ideal of woman in the east is a mother and the ideal woman in the west is a wife, He depicts a very sharp intellect with brevity and profoundness of his statements. Above one is an example of it.
“Woman
has suffered for eons, and that has given her infinite patience and infinite
perseverance”.
“Women
will work out their destinies—much better, too, than men can ever do for them.
All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny
of women”.
GROWING INSIDE-OUT:
He suggests
us to grow inside-out. He wants our inner purity drive our outer activities. He
jokingly commented that the Easterners keep inside clean and throws the dirt
outside and the westerner keeps the outside clean and brings the garbage
inside. This statement has spiritual significance that inner purity is more
essential and that should drive and spiritualize all our activities.
He said:
“You have
to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. Goal
what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what man
"learns" is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own
soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge. There is no other teacher but your own soul”.
“The
sages are often ignorant of physical science, because they read the wrong
book—the book within; and the scientists are too often ignorant of religion,
because they too read the wrong book—the book outside”.
“Learning and wisdom are superfluities,
the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power.
It is not in the brain but in the heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge,
power, and activity, has its seat’.
“Experience is the only teacher we have.
We may talk and reason all our lives, but we shall not understand a word of
truth until we experience it ourselves”.
“All power is within you. You can do
anything and everything. Believe in that. Do not believe that you are weak; do
not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays. Stand
up and express the divinity within you”.
“The first sign that you are becoming
religious is that you are becoming cheerful.
“Knowledge
is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside”.
BE FEARLESS : BE STRONG:
He encourages us to be strong, forcible
and fearless. He says kingdom of God will be inhabited only by the strong. He
further states meekness and weakness is not religion. Fear is faithlessness.
Faith is fearlessness.
He said:
“The
moment you fear, you are nobody. It is fear that is the greatest cause of
misery in the world. It is fear that is the greatest of all superstitions. It
is fear that is the cause of our woes, and it is fearlessness that brings
heaven in a moment”.
“Stand
up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders,
and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and
succor you want is within yourselves. Therefore, make your own future”.
“Freedom
can never be reached by the weak. Throw away all weakness. Tell your body that
it is strong, tell your mind that it is strong, and have unbounded faith and
hope in yourself”.
“Don't
look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and
infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished”.
“Brave,
bold people, these are what we want. What we want is vigor in the blood,
strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening
namby-pamby ideas. Avoid all these. Avoid all mystery. There is no mystery in
religion”.
“Be
strong! … You talk of ghosts and devils. We are the living devils. The sign of
life is strength and growth. The sign of death is weakness. Whatever is weak,
avoid! It is death. If it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it!
There is salvation only for the brave. None but the brave deserves the fair.
None but the bravest deserves salvation”.
“Be
brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual life, fight
as long as there is any life in you. Even though you know you are going to be
killed, fight till you “are killed.” Don’t die of fright. Die fighting. Don’t
go down till you are knocked down”.
“Astrology
and all these mystical things are generally signs of a weak mind; therefore as
soon as they are becoming prominent in our minds, we should see a physician,
take good food, and rest”.
“All
power is within you. You can do anything and everything. Believe in that. Do
not believe that you are weak; do not believe that you are half-crazy lunatics,
as most of us do nowadays. Stand up and express the divinity within you”.
“The
earth is enjoyed by heroes”—this is the unfailing truth. Be a hero. Always say,
“I have no fear.”
“You cannot believe in God until you believe in
yourself”.
“To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance,
tremendous will. ‘I will drink the ocean’, says the persevering soul; ‘at my
will mountains will crumble up’. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will;
work hard, and you will reach the goal”.
“Each
work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then
acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood’.
Today 1/12/2013 is the 150th
birthday of this great saint. His still lives in our hearts through his message.
With the state of affairs in India at the moment where criminals rule the
country, corrupt leaders in prison winning elections with bumper majority, money
and liquor deciding the outcome of elections, where anarchy rules, gloom and
helplessness abounding, his message is particularly has more relevance.
He calls upon each one of us not be
silent spectators. He wants us to
get involved, do our share to protect mother India and preserve its culture. He
encourages us to be pure and unselfish that will unleash the divine power in
each one of us to become a formidable force of transformation. On this day let
us dedicate ourselves to this sacred task. This will be a greatest birthday
gift that we can offer to this great son, saint, patriot and social reformer of
mother India.
JAI HIND.
LOKA SAMASTA SUKHINOBHAVANTHU
