Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 12)

[Guest guest]

We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Parts 1 to 11 were posted earlier. This is part 12. Your comments are welcome. jay/Vivekananda Centre London

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

 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA ON THE VEDAS AND UPANISHADS

By Sister Gayatriprana

part 12

(continued......)

f) Upanishad Classes in the West

Swami Vivekananda never quoted anything but the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Bhagavad Gita. And he never, in public, mentioned his own Master, nor spoke in specific terms of any part of Hindu mythology. (22)

He said, "It is only the pure Upanishadic religion that I have gone about preaching in the world." (23)

[in Annisquam in August of 1893]: the teaching of the Vedas, constant and beautiful, he applied to every event in life, quoting a few verses and then translation, and with the translation of the story giving its meaning.... In quoting from the Upanishads his voice was most musical. He would quote a verse in Sanskrit, with intonations, and then translate it into beautiful English, of which he had a wonderful command. (24)

At Greenacre in August of 1894, Swami Vivekananda rolled forth the solemn poetry of the Vedas for an hour the other night in his excellent English. (25)

December 8, 1894: "I have been here [in Cambridge, Massachusetts at Mrs. Bull’s home] for three days. I have a class every morning here on Vedanta and other topics, the 8 Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, and Shankaracharya. (26)

On January 25, 1895, the swami held the first of a series of parlor lectures at Mrs. Auel's residence in Brooklyn. The lecture was attended by about sixty-five persons, most of them ladies. The swami gave an outline of the Upanishads and the yoga system, and his conversation was highly appreciated." (27)

The dinner at Miss Corbin’s [in February, 1895] was a great success…. Swami Vivekananda was very fine and spoke to the people who came after dinner most impressively. There was the most rapt attention on the part of the 400 who seemed to feel and expressed great delight at the change from the ordinary fashionable gathering. He has made many new and valuable friends. Miss Corbin was too happy to express. She has offered the conservatory - which is lovely - for classes on the Upanishads. (28)

At Thousand Island Park in the summer of 1895, on a favorite walk with his students, sometimes they stopped several times, and sat around on the grass and listened to Swami's wonderful talks. A bird, a flower, a butterfly would start him off and he would tell them stores from the Vedas or recite Indian poetry. (29)

From Reading, England, October 1895: "I require a man well up in Sanskrit and English, particularly the latter language - either Ramakrishnananda or Abhedananda or Trigunatitananda.... The work is to teach the devotees I shall be leaving here, to make them study the Vedanta, to do a little translation work into English, and to deliver occasional lectures." (30) At South Place Chapel in London, on November 10, 1895, the first and second lessons were read by Vivekananda. They were selections from the Vedas and formed the text of his address. (31) During the next two days [after Swami's talk to the Harvard Graduate Philosophical society on March 25, 1896]… Swami Vivekananda delivered his last three talks in Boston, holding in the evenings his third and fourth classes, "Realization, or the Ultimate of Religion", and the Upanishad class at the Procopeia Club's rented arena. (32)

England, May-July, 1896: In his class-lectures... Swami Vivekananda spoke of the various kinds and levels of spiritual consciousness and of the superimposition, or projection (adhyasa) of these inner states of being upon external nature, creating, as it were, the universes experienced at different stages of spiritual awareness. It is thus that various truths have been revealed to saints and seers in accordance with their own various levels of consciousness and points of view - all of them equally valid, none of them revelations of absolute truth, of which there can be no description and no revealer. The audience... was awestruck by Swami's elaborate and detailed exposition of this line of thought, in which he explained precisely why it is that "Truth in one, sages call it by various names" (Rig Veda 1.164.46) and why it is that all religions, however different they may be, present valid views of the one Brahman. He explained rationally the phenomena of visions, giving many examples and descriptions.... It was difficult to describe the splendor of his face and eyes, and voice during these eight sessions, so great it was.... And such was the level of these talks that Swamiji’s fame increased and many new people came to hear him. (33)

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