Vivekananda and Sex (was Celibacy...)

[Guest guest]

>From "Swami Vivekananda: A Reassessment" by Narasingha P. Sil:

 

Sadly enough the restless Hindu missionary fell victim to his

naiveté and nonchalance in respect to women. Vivekananda's

monastic training repudiated woman as a sexual being while

elevating her of the status of a dehumanized deity or a

de-erotized mother and sister. With little experience of the

world of man and woman, the Swami confronted a severe emotional

crisis arising from his relationship with his Anglo-Irish

disciple Margaret Noble. . . his contact with Miss Noble in

particular, brought about a profound psychic revolution at

a time when he was troubled by his terminal illness. . . His

dual struggle against failing health and crumbling monastic

indifference to kamini-kancana contributed to a sense of utter

nothingness and extinction. . . He died a totally frustrated

sannyasi, disavowing his much vaunted conviction in the success

of his exertions. . . and, contrary to his reputation for

militant activism, he recoiled in mystical isolationism and

quiescence toward the end of his short life.

 

While it cannot be doubted that Vivekananda was a great saint, it

is equally doubtless that he was a human being as well. Almost as

famous for his hyperbole as he was for his spirituality, he was often

prone to making grand and sweeping statements, and equally prone to

changing his mind. His brother discipline Saradananda complained to

him such:

 

"Sometimes you say that there is no God, and now you are

saying [there is]. You really are not consistent in what

you say because you often change your mind."

 

In short, while Jay may have full faith in the words of his namesake,

those words don't necessarily hold as some sort of absolute truth, one

that must be rigidly adhered to in order for one to be blessed with

success on the spiritual path.

 

--jody.

[digger]

Jody is right on the mark. Yes, I, author of Swami Vivekananda: A Reassessment (1997), did intend to bring out the authentic humanity of the much celebrated Hindu religious prophet. Please re-read my Preface and Conclusion. My final sentence in the study reads: "Swami Vivekananda emerges from a century-old gilded cage of myth and mystification not as the herald of a brave new world of spiritualism but as a tragic figure whose brief but tumultuous public life was spent contending with multiple tensions and conflicts--much less attractive but probably more authentic, and eminently human." This is not denigration of the person but a historian's assessment of his odyssey. Thank you. digger May 28, 2013