Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 17)

October 15, 2000

We are presenting the following work by Sister Gayatriprana.

Parts 1 to 16 were posted earlier. This is part 17. Your comments are welcome... 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 17

Continued.......

2. Through His Feelings

Swami Vivekananda told us of Hrishikesh and the little hut that each sannyasin would make for himself, and the blazing fire in the evening, and all the sannyasins sitting round it on their own little mats, talking in hushed tones of the Upanishads - "for every man is supposed to have got the truth before he becomes a sannyasin. He is at peace intellectually. All that remains is to realize it. So all need for discussion has passed away; and at Hrishikesh, in the darkness of the mountains, by the blazing fire, they may talk only of the Upanishads. Then, by degrees, the voices die in silence. Each man sits bolt upright on his mat and one by one they steal quietly off to their own huts." (63)

March3, 1890: You know not... I am a very soft-natured man in spite of the stern Vedantic views I hold. And this proves to be my undoing. At the slightest touch I give myself away; for howsoever I may try to think only of my own good, I slip off in spite of myself to think of other people's interests. (64)

While in the West Swami Vivekananda's mind had always been occupied with the study of the history of the whole world and with the relation of the world to Hindusthan, and of the problems and destiny of India herself. More and more the Spirit of an awakened national consciousness had descended upon him, and he had been writing in his letters to his brother disciples and Indian disciples the method and the means for bringing it about, with a view to inspiring them with his own fire and enthusiasm. Even in the days of his American work, he had felt intuitively that a new epoch in his mission was opening up for him, and now he knew it had come to hand. For many months back, in the city of Detroit, he had once been talking with some disciples concerning the overwhelming difficulties he had met with in presenting Hinduism to an aggressively self-conscious Christian public, and as to how he had spent the best part of his vital forces in creating among the Western nations a religious reverence for what India had given as an intellectual and spiritual inheritance to the world. He was in one of those apostolic moods that often seized him after much strenuous labor. It was a late evening hour; he had been speaking in the stillness and the twilight. Suddenly his whole body shook with a fever of emotion and he cried out, " India will hear me! What are the Western nations! I shall shake India to her foundations! I shall send an electric thrill through its national veins! Wait! You will see how India will receive me. It is India, my own India, that knows how to appreciate as the Spirit of Vedanta what I have given so freely here. India will receive me in triumph." He spoke with a prophetic fervor; and those who heard him said that it was not himself for whom he was praying for recognition, but for that gospel which he felt must become for all future times the gospel for all nations of the world - India's gospel, the gospel of the Vedas and Vedanta. (65)

To a Western devotee, July 25, 1897: I am so glad that you have been helped by Vedanta and yoga. I am unfortunately sometimes like the circus clown who makes others laugh, himself miserable! (66)

[in Calcutta, in 1897, Swami Vivekananda was discussing Vedantic theories of creation with his disciple]. While all this talk was going on the great dramatist, Girish Chandra Ghosh, appeared on the scene. Swami Vivekananda gave him a courteous greeting and continued his lesson to his disciple....

Now, turning to Girish Babu, Swami Vivekananda said, "What do you say, G.C.? Well, you do not care to study all this; you pass your days with your adoration of this and that god, eh?"

Girish Babu: What shall I study, brother? I have neither time nor understanding to pry into all that. But this time, with Sri Ramakrishna's grace, I shall pass by with greetings to your Vedas and Vedanta, and take one leap into the far beyond! He puts you through all these studies because he wants to get many things done by you. But we have no need of them. Saying this, Girish Babu again and again touched the Rig Veda volumes to his head, uttering, "All victory to Ramakrishna in the form of the Veda!"

Swami Vivekananda was now in a sort of deep reverie. Girish Babu suddenly called out to him and said, "Well, hear me, please. You have made a good deal of study into the Vedas and Vedanta - but say, did you find anywhere in them the way out for us from all these profound miseries of the country, all these wailings of grief, all this starvation, all these crimes of adultery, and many horrible sins?"

Saying this, he painted over and over again horrid pictures of society. Swami Vivekananda remained perfectly quiet and speechless, while at the thought of the sorrows and miseries of his fellow men, tears began to flow from his eyes, and seemingly to hide his feelings from us he rose and left the room.

Meanwhile, addressing the disciple, Girish Babu said, "Did you see that, Bangal? What a great, loving heart! I don't honor your Swami Vivekananda simply for being a pandit versed in the Vedas; I honor him for that great heart of his which just made him retire weeping at the sorrows of his fellow beings."

The disciple and Girish Babu then went on conversing with each other, the latter proving that knowledge and love were ultimately the same.

In the meantime, Swami Vivekananda returned and asked the disciple, "Well, what was all this talk going on between you?" The disciple said, "Sir, we are talking about the Vedas; and the wonder of it is that our Girish Babu has not studied these books but has grasped their ultimate truths with clean precision."

Swami Vivekananda: All truths reveal themselves to him who has got real devotion to the guru; he has hardly any need of studies. But such faith and devotion are very rare in this world. He who possesses these in the measure of our friend here need not study the Shastras. But he who rushes forward to imitate him will only bring about his own ruin. Always follow his advice, but never attempt to imitate his ways.....

Swami Sadananda arrived there at that moment and, seeing him, Swami Vivekananda at once said, "Do you know, my heart is sorely troubled by the picture of the country's miseries G.C. was depicting just now. Well, can you do anything for our country?"

Sadananda: Maharaj, let the mandate go forth. Your slave is ready.

Swami Vivekananda: First, on a pretty small scale, start a relief center where the poor and distressed may obtain relief and the diseased may be nursed. Helpless people having none to look after them will be relieved and served there, irrespective of creed or color - do you see?

Sadananda: Just as you command, sir.

Swami Vivekananda: There is no greater dharma that this service of living beings. If this dharma can be practiced in the real Spirit, then "liberation comes as a fruit in the very palm of one's hand." [shankaracharya: Hastamalaka].

Addressing Girish Babu now, Swami Vivekananda said, "Do you know, Girish Babu, it occurs to me that even if a thousand births have to be taken in order to relieve the sorrows of the world, surely I will take them. If by my doing that, even a single soul may have a little bit of his grief relieved, why, I will do it. What avails it at all to have only one's own liberation? Everyone should be taken along with oneself on that way. Can you say why a feeling like this comes up foremost in my mind?

Girish Babu: Ah, otherwise why should Sri Ramakrishna declare you to be greater than all others in spiritual competence? (67)

[in Paris] on September 3, 1900, Swami Vivekananda was evidently still living at the [wealthy] Leggetts' house; but within a week - the exact day is not known - he moved to the lodgings of Jules Bois, a poor scholar.. who lived in a flat on the fifth floor. M. Bois wrote:

Vivekananda approached me as though we had known each other for a long time. A brief conversation followed, at the end of which he startled me by proposing to come and live with me. Expressing my sense of the honor his suggestion implied, I reminded him of the luxury and attention he was enjoying and explained that I was only a young writer who could offer him very little in the way of comfort. "I am a monk and a mendicant", was his reply. "I can sleep on the ground or on the floor. Our luxury will be the wisdom of the Masters. I will bring my pipe with me and upon its incense will re the verses of the Vedas and Upanishads." (68)

[Towards the end of his life] man-making was now the ideal of our illustrious swami. He held classes on the Vedas and the grammar of Panini, sat in meditation with the monks morning and evening, and received visitors from various parts of India.... His relation with those who came to him was of the sweetest character. His all-embracing love for each and everybody was truly divine. To the visitors he was a personification of humility.... Through a heart weeping at the sight of the suffering and degradation of the illiterate masses of India, through a soul glowing with the fire of disinterested love for humanity, through true patriotism and through self-sacrificing zeal that did not know what tiring was, he showed to his disciples how a God-inspired soul felt and worked for humanity. (69)

[The Himalayas of] India is the land of dreams of our forefathers, in which was born Parvati, the Mother of India. This is the holy land where every ardent soul in India wants to come at the end of its life and to close the last chapter of its mortal career. On the tops of the mountains of this blessed land, in the depths of its caves, on the banks of its rushing torrents, have been thought out the most wonderful thoughts, a little bit of which has drawn so much admiration even from foreigners, and which have been pronounced by the most competent of judges to be incomparable. This is the land in which, since my very childhood, I have been dreaming of passing my life; and, as all of you are aware, I have attempted again and again to live here. Although the time was not ripe and I had work to do and was whirled outside of this holy place, yet it is the hope of my life to end my days somewhere in this Father of Mountains, where rishis lived, where philosophy was born. Perhaps, my friends, I shall not be able to do it in the way I planned before - how I wish that that silence, that unknownness could be given to me - yet I sincerely pray and hope, and almost believe, that my last days will be spent here, of all places on earth. (70)

to be continued.....