Vivekananda on the Vedas part (15)

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We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Parts 1 to 14 were posted earlier. This is part 15. 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 15

continued....

2. The Laity

It was on the afternoon of the first day of May, 1897, that a representative gathering of all the monastic and lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna took place at Balaram Babu's house, in response to Swami Vivekananda's invitation to them intimating his desire of holding a meeting to found an association. He had long thought and made a plan of bringing about close cooperation between the monastic and lay disciples of Sri Ramakrishna and of organizing in a systematic way the hitherto unsystematic activities, both spiritual and philanthropic, of his brother disciples.... The future method of work was discussed, and some resolutions were passed, comprising in the main the present principles and the aims and objects by which the movement was to be guided....

After the resolutions were passed, office-bearers were appointed. Swami Vivekananda himself became the general president and he made Swami Brahmananda and Swami Yogananda the president and vice-president respectively of the Calcutta Center. It was decided that a meeting would be held at Balaram Babu's house every Sunday afternoon, when recitations and readings from the Gita, the Upanishads and other Vedantic scriptures with comments and annotations would be given, and papers read and lectures delivered, the subject being chosen by the president. All these were decided in the two preliminary meetings on the first and fifth of May: and the first general meeting of the members was held on the ninth under the presidency of Swami Brahmananda. For three years the Ramakrishna Mission held its sittings in the above place, and whenever Swami Vivekananda was in Calcutta he was present at almost all of them and spoke and sang, to the joy of the audience. (51)

In Calcutta in 1897, Sharat Chandra Chakravarty, Swami Vivekananda's disciple, had been studying Sayana's commentary on the Rig Veda with Swami Vivekananda, who was then staying in the house of the late Balaram Bose at Baghbazar. Max Muller's volumes on the Rig Veda had been brought from a wealthy friend’s private library. Swami Vivekananda was correcting the disciple every now and then and giving him the true pronunciation or construction as necessary. Sometimes, while explaining the arguments of Sayana to establish the eternity of the Vedas, Swami Vivekananda was praising very highly the commentator's wonderful ingenuity; sometimes again, while arguing out the deeper significance of the doctrine, he was putting forward a difference in view and indulging in an innocent squib at Sayana. (52)

During his sojourn at Ambala in Northern India at the end of 1897, Swami Vivekananda daily held religious conversations at all hours of the day with large numbers of people of different creeds (which included Muslims, Brahmo, Arya Samajist and Hindu) on Shastric and other topics and won them over completely - specially the Arya Samajists - after hot discussions, to his ideas and methods of interpreting the Vedas. (53)

i) Swami Vivekananda's Last Bequest to Vedic Study

During the session of the Indian National Congress which was held in Calcutta in the latter part of December, 1901, scores of distinguished delegates from different provinces who came to attend it, availed themselves of this opportunity to visit the monastery and pay their homage to Swami Vivekananda, whom they regarded as the patriot-saint of modern India.... Among the ideas which he discussed with the leaders of the Congress was that of founding a Vedic Institution which should preserve and train eminent teachers to herald everywhere the ancient Aryan culture and Sanskrit learning. The delegates were in fervent sympathy with this plan. Recalling their visits to the swami, and particularly referring to the above-mentioned project, one has written:

His last wish (and one left unaccomplished) was to found a Vedic Institution in Calcutta. A few months before his passing away, during the Christmas holidays, the sitting of the National Congress was held in Calcutta. Delegates, reformers, professors and great men of various callings from all the different provinces of India assembled there on that occasion. Many of them came to Belur Math to pay their respects, to Swami Vivekananda [who] enlightened them on various subjects, social, political, religious, etc. In fact, these meetings formed a congress in themselves, of a type even superior and more beneficial to those present than the actual sessions of the Congress. In one of these afternoons, the proposal was to start a Vedic College in Calcutta, and all present assured him that they would help him in carrying on in every way that lay in their power. (54)

On the fourth of July [1902, the last day of his life], Swami Vivekananda went to the chapel and meditated there for three hours. A few days earlier he had told Swami Brahmananda, "This time I must do one thing or the other; either I must recoup my health through meditation and japa and work with full vigor, or else I shall give up this shattered body."... After lunch he took rest for an hour and then grammar and yoga for two hours in a class. He gave his own interpretation of the words sushumnah suryavasasah occurring in the Yajur Veda, as these words had not been interpreted by commentators. Then he went with Swami Premananda outside the math and walked two miles; and while walking told him by way of conversation, the whole history of the growth of civilization and of different nations of the world. (55)

Swami Premananda said, "For some time he had a strong desire to open a school of Vedic studies. Even on the last day three letters were sent to Poona and Bombay for some books on the Vedas. That day I had a long discussion with him regarding the school of Vedic studies. I asked, 'What will be the good of studying the Vedas?' He said, 'Superstitions will go.'... Then, while having a walk and after much talk about the school of Vedic studies, he referred to what was written in the Vedas about the sushumna and said, 'The annotation is not correct; you should try to get the meaning from the text.'" (56)

to be continued....