A question ....are we all unequal?

[Guest guest]

Dear List

The following email was received by us from Rakesh. The questions

posed by him are very interesting; it will be interesting to see how the

list

reacts to this line of reasoning. Please reply via the

list...................jay

 

---from

Rakesh----------

Dear Sir,

I'm a big fan of Swami Vivekananda & I'm grateful to read Swami's article

online on your website. I've been going tru' the online book of the complete

works of Swami Vivekananda for quite some time. Recently I came across the

paragraph on VOLUME 1 PAGE 114 THE IDEAL OF KARMA YOGA AS FOLLOWS:

 

" Absolute equality, that which means a perfect balance of all the struggling

forces in all the planes, can never be in this world. Before you attain that

state, the world will have become quite unfit for any kind of life, and no

one will be there. We find, therefore, that all these ideas of the

millennium and of absolute equality are not only impossible but also that,

if we try to carry them out, they will lead us surely enough to the day of

destruction. What makes the difference between man and man? It is largely

the difference in the brain. Nowadays no one but a lunatic will say that we

are all born with the same brain power. We come into the world with unequal

endowments; we come as greater men or as lesser men, and there is no getting

away from that pre-natally determined condition. The American Indians were

in this country for thousands of years, and a few handfuls of your ancestors

came to their land. What difference they have caused in the appearance of

the country! Why did not the Indians make improvements and build cities, if

all were equal? With your ancestors a different sort of brain power came

into the land, different bundles of past impressions came, and they worked

out and manifested themselves. Absolute non-differentiation is death. So

long as this world lasts, differentiation there will and must be, and the

millennium of perfect equality will come only when a cycle of creation comes

to its end. Before that, equality cannot be. Yet this idea of realising the

millennium is a great motive power. Just as inequality is necessary for

creation itself, so the struggle to limit it is also necessary. If there

were no struggle to become free and get back to God, there would be no

creation either. It is the difference between these two forces that

determines the nature of the motives of men. There will always be these

motives to work, some tending towards bondage and others towards freedom. "

 

I'M IN LOT OF DOUBTS AFTER READING THIS ARTICLE. I WANT TO KNOW THE ANS TO

FOLL. QNS:

 

1. ARE PEOPLE BORN WITH UNEQUAL BRAIN POWERS? IF YES, THEN IT WILL BE SO

DISCOURAGING FOR THOSE WHO ARE TAUNTED AS POOR LEARNERS.

 

2. ALSO THE SPEECH IS IN CONTRAST TO SO MANY SPEECHES WHEN SWAMIJI SAID THAT

ALL PEOPLE ARE DIVINE, ARE EQUAL?? HOW CAN A MAN TRY TO IMPROVE IF HE's SAID

THAT HE'S BORN WITH LESSER BRAIN POWER!

 

3. IF PEOPLE ARE BORN WITH UNEQUAL BRAIN POWER THAN IT CREATES PREJUDIE THAT

AMERICANS/EUROPEANS ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS.

 

I'M CONFUSED. PLZ HELP.

 

Thanks & Regards,

Rakesh

[Guest guest]

Rakesh,

 

The statments " we all have different brain power " and " our true

nature is divine " stand independent of each other. Where did Swamiji

say that a person with more intellectual abilities is more divine

than the other? I am sure everyone believes that one person can be

more attractive and better looking than others, but does that mean

that the first person is more divine than the rest. Isn't brain,

beauty, physical appearances all part of maya. Isn't karma also

maya. An illusion that we are bound and not infinite. Here Swamiji

is talking about how through karma itself we can remove this

illusion. (How a thorn is used to remove a thorn). We are

created 'unequal'so that we work toward reducing that apparent gap

and hence realize our true nature (which is divine) by the means of

action/karma. That is karma yoga. This is why it should not be

discouraging for a 'poor learner' that he is in some way inferior to

others because his true nature is equally divine as others and in

trying to bridge that intellectual gap between him and the rest he

will realize his true nature. If everybody was equal then there

would be no progression and hence no karma, and non-progression is

death. I will be fooling myself if I believe that my intellectual

capabilites are equal to that of Albert Einstein, but my duty is to

do the best I can, within my limitations, and limit the gap between

him and me to the maximum possible extent.

If all this were true then it certainly doesn't reinforce the idea

that westerners are intellectually superior than others. Swamiji is

the perfect example to counter this belief. In fact, when I came to

US we discussed popular prejudices in one of my classes and the one

for Indians was that they are good at maths.

 

I would also take this opportnity to comment on Ramanujam's question

on why Arjuna was chosen for Gita updeesh and not Bhishma. I haven't

read Gita or Mahabharata but there can be several practical reasons

why a future king was chosen for this message instead of an aging

warrior. But more importantly, you said God sees the soul. What is

the difference between Arjuna's soul and Bhishma's soul or Arjuna's

soul and Duryodhana's soul for that matter? None. Isn't the nature

of each soul equally divine? I think the fact that Bhishma fully

knew that he is defending Adharma disqualfies from receiving God's

message.

 

I would love the group members to correct my immature thoughts.

 

Regards,

 

Siddharth Panwar

[Guest guest]

I think Rakesh is puzzled because on one hand Swamiji says that we all are

divine, and on the other hand he says that people are unequal because of unequal

brain power. We can reconcile the apparent paradox if we consider that our

true nature is Brahman, but we have to realize it. So long as we have not

realized Brahman, so long are we under the sway of maya, and bound by time,

space

and causation. In this state we are all constituted differently depending on the

different combinations of gunas. Based upon the differences caused by these

gunas, some have more brain power than others. I don't think any one would deny

these differences; on the contrary, even the most ardent socialists would

recognize such differences. What is unacceptable, however, is unequal treatment

of people based on their incomes property and social status, which might have

been due to the differences in their brain power. Since the ultimate nature of

everyone is Brahman, one should go beyond external differences as indicated by

name, religion, country, sex, caste, race, status, etc., but love everyone

equally. Swamiji always advocated that we must love God in man. So, I don't see

any contradiction in what Swamiji said.

Umesh