Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 11)

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We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Your comments are welcome. Parts 1 to 10 were posted earlier. This is part 11 ... jay/Vivekananda Centre London

Earlier postings can be seen at http://www.vivekananda.btinternet.co.uk/veda.htm

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 11

PART I:

THE ORIGINS AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VEDAS AND VEDANTA

 

(continued......)

e) Swami Vivekananda Finds His Mission

In December of 1892, sitting in meditation on the last stone of his motherland by the shrine of the great Mother of the universe [Kanya Kumari], Swami Vivekananda, like another Jacob wrestling with the angel, wrestled with his own soul, until the Spirit gained the upper hand, going beyond the limitations of orthodox religious forms or even the orthodox religious spirit into the great, vast heart of things. To him religion was no longer an isolated province of human endeavor; it embraced the whole scheme of things, not only the dharma, not only the Vedas, not only the Upanishads, not only the meditation of the sages, not only the asceticism of the great monks, not only the vision of the Most High, but the heart of the people, their lives, their hopes, their misery, their poverty, their degradation, their sorrows, their woes. And he saw that the dharma, and even the Vedas, without the people, were as much straw in the eyes of the Most High. That from which the Vedas have proceeded, That from which the Soul of the people has emanated, That from which the rishis received their inspiration and the avataras their supreme compassion, descended upon him in all the universality and eclecticism of the mightiest insight; and he felt a Power, greater than that of his own personality, and his soul in prophecy knew that That Power was all-sweeping and invincible and that it should work from within the masses in its own ways - inscrutably and perhaps slowly, but nonetheless surely - making, above all, for the resurrection of the motherland and the revival and progress of the people. Verily, in Kanya Kumari, the Swami was the patriot and the prophet in one.

Thus the meditation of the Swami was not only thought, not only idle dreaming, it was Living Power. And he said unto himself, "Yes, I have found my mission at last! I must go to the West to spread the light of the dharma for the good of India and the world. Yes, the West, the glorious, the practical, the rich and powerful West - must come to understand and accept, in a true sense, the vision, the dignity, and the vastness of the contents of the sanatana dharma. And then, having seen the West’s understanding of the East, the East itself would come to realize an invigorated and reborn Self-consciousness.... For the sake of dharma, for the sake of India’s poor, for the sake of the very life and soil of India, I will go to the West in order that means and ways might be found to raise the Indian masses and for the recognition amongst the nations of the value of the Indian experience." (19)

In Madras [after his experience at Kanya Kumari], conversations would continue and the swami would speak eloquently on the need of preaching the dharma to the nations of the world, and of raising the masses in India. He would charge the audience to give back to the masses their lost individuality by throwing open to them that treasure which has been hidden for generations from them - the learning of the Vedas and the Vedanta - if they wished India to rise. Whilst in this vein, he would show that the millions upon millions of the depressed classes of Hindusthan were its only hope. And those who heard the Swami in these divine hours were fired with the same thoughts. (20)

On the morning of the thirteenth of February, 1893, Swami Vivekananda met by appointment the Prime Minister of Hyderabad, the Maharaja, and the Peshkar… and all those noblemen promised him their support for his proposed propaganda in America. In the afternoon he delivered a lecture at the Mahaboob College on "My Mission to the West". The chair was occupied by Pandit Rattan Lal. Many Europeans attended this lecture and more than one thousand persons were present. The swami was a revelation to all. He rose to his highest level. His command over the English language, his learning his power of expression, his eloquence evoked admiration from all. The swami spoke of the merits of the Hindu religion, of the greatness of Hindu culture in its resplendent days and gave an outline of the Vedic and post-Vedic learning. He spoke of the rishis as the great law-givers and organizers of the Shastras, and showed how the Puranas incorporated great ethical ideals. Finally, he spoke of his mission, "which is nothing less than the regeneration of the Motherland", and he declared that he felt it an imperative duty to go out as a missionary from India to the farthest West to reveal to the world the incomparable glory of the Vedas and Vedanta. (21)

(to be continued.......)