Vivekananda on the Vedas (part 181)

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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 181

 

6. The Modern Methods of Teaching Vedanta

In the books of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar [a distinguished Bengali educator and philanthropist] for little boys you read: "God is without form and of the essence of pure knowledge", "Subal is a good boy", and so on. That won’t do. We must compose some books in Bengali as also in English with short stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads, etc. in very easy and simple language and these are to be give to our little boys to read.(31)

April 4, 1895: My idea is for… a society in Madras where people would be taught the Vedas and Vedanta, with the commentaries.(32)

1894: The work should be in the line of preaching and serving at the present time. Choose a place of meeting where you can assemble every week, holding a service and reading the Upanishads with the commentaries, and slowly go on learning and working. Everything will come to you if you put your shoulders to the wheel….

If you could start a magazine on Vedantic lines, it would further our object. Be positive; do not criticize others. Give you message, teach what you have to teach, and there stop. The Lord knows the rest….

Expand your hearts and hopes as wide as this world. Study Sanskrit, especially the three bhashyas (commentaries) on the Vedanta. Be ready, for I have many plans for the future. Try to be a magnetic speaker. Electrify the people. Everything will come to you if you have faith…. In time all of you will do great things at which the world will wonder. Take heart and work. Show me something you have done. Show me a temple, a press, a paper, a home for me. Electrify people. Raise funds and preach. Be true to your mission.(33)

January 3, 1895: The work has begun well in India and it should not only be kept up but pushed on with the greatest vigor. Now or never is the time. After taking a far and wide view of things my mind has now been concentrated on the following plan: first, it would be well to open a theological college in Madras and then gradually extend its scope to give a thorough education to young men in the Vedas and the different bhashyas and philosophies, including a knowledge of the other religions of the world. At the same time a paper in English and the vernacular should be started as an organ of the college.(34)

d) The Time Has Come for India to Teach the Life-Giving Message of the Upanishads to the Waiting World

For a complete civilization the world is waiting, waiting for the treasures to come out of India, waiting for the marvelous spiritual inheritance of the race which, through decades of degradation and misery, the nation has still clutched to her breast. The world is waiting for that treasure; little do you know how much hunger and thirst there is outside of India for these wonderful treasures of our forebears. We talk here, we quarrel with each other, we laugh at and ridicule everything sacred until it has become almost a national vice to ridicule everything holy. Little do we understand the heart-pangs of millions, waiting outside the walls, stretching forth their hands for a little sip of that nectar which our forebears have preserved in this land of India. Therefore we must go out, exchange our spirituality for anything they have to give us; for the marvels of the region of the spirit we will exchange the marvels of the region of matter. We will not be students always, but teachers also. There cannot be friendship without equality, and there cannot be equality when one party is always the teacher and the other party sits always at his or her feet. If you want to become equal with the English or Americans, you will have to teach as well as learn, and you have plenty yet to teach to the world for centuries to come. This has to be done. Fire and enthusiasm must be in our blood.(35)

None will be able to resist truth and love and sincerity. Are you sincere? Unselfish, even unto death? And loving? Then fear not, not even death. Onward, my lads! The whole world requires light. It is expectant! India alone has that light - not in magic, mummeries, and charlatanism, but in the teachings of the glories of the spirit of real religion - of the highest spiritual truth. That is why the Lord has preserved the race through all its vicissitudes unto the present day. Now the time has come. Have faith that you are all, my brave lads, born to do great things! Let not the barks of puppies frighten you - no, not even the thunderbolts of heaven - but stand up and work!(36)

Back to the Upanishads! Back to the strengthening, life-giving teachings of the Upanishads! They who thinks they are weak, are weak; and they who believes that they are strong, are already invincible! "Arise, awake! And stop not till the goal is reached!" [Ka. Up., 1.3.14](37)