Essays

I do express myself again/My energies are the primal expression of power/The source of which is the Omkar/ Which sounds once again in the vastness of eternity/The endless sky listens in rapture to that ineffable sound/The bunch of Primal Causes wake up from sleep/To breathe new life into atoms innumerable.

These were words that Swami Vivekananda experienced at the very core of his being although they also resonate with feelings, ideas and realizations underpinning many ideas of the Vedanta philosophy as well. If one looks at the awesome reality surrounding us today, one might feel that Swamiji's words are profoundly reassuring even 100 years after his death. The world revolutionized and transformed by science and technology seems to be hurtling in a direction that leaves most of us confounded and directionless.

On the one hand we may feel proud of the onward march of science that can even facilitate human cloning. But on the other, it is also a world in which extreme factionalism and fundamentalism exist and these dimensions of our social and cultural life do not seem compatible with the march of reason that scientific Endeavour stands for.

Again, we have summit meetings and international treaties announcing world peace and the brotherhood of man. Yet when we come down to the nitty-gritty of life, we find that we are being governed by animal instincts, greed, pride and a mad rush for economic gain and political power. It has always been a contradictory and complex world, but today the stands of complexity leave ordinary folk dumbfounded.

About the Ramakrishna Order, Swamiji said: "This Math is established to work out one's own liberation, and to train oneself to do good to the world in every way along the lines laid down by Sri Bhagvan Ramakrishna."

Well, Swami Vivekananda dedicated his life to the realization of these goals. As he had once declared to his brother monks and other junior monks of the order" Work unto death—I am with you and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes wealth, fame; enjoyments are only of a few days. It is better, far better to die on the field of duty, preaching the Truth, than to die like a worldly worm Advance." It was as if to reiterate this stress on an undying ethic of work that he again said: "I am a voice without a form." He had come to awaken India from her long sleep—in spiritual terms, to awaken her long dormant collective Kundalini power.

 Vivekananda's words breathed new life into the citizens of India—and old and young, male and female, rich and poor, educated and uneducated. The tidal wave of new realization and new orientation that were unleashed through Vivekananda's words, remind us of historian Arnold Toynbee's assertion that the world today can only be saved through India's spiritual heritage, and especially through the path blazed by Ramakrishna and Vivekananda.

India has something to give to the world. We have paid for past passivity and inertia by spending centuries under colonial rule. But the spiritual tradition of India still survive. It is wondered whether any of our ancient values of selflessness, moderation and abstinence has any hold on our national imagination today.

Yet, Swamiji's ideas could act as a timely reminder if we wish to preserve what is good and efficacious in India’s psychological and social life, adhere to what is spiritually significant in our culture. India will awaken, yes, but not through material advancement, but through the power of the spirit. He further want us to "flood the country with spirituality". A certain way of looking at Swami Vivekananda would be to consider what made him great. This aspect of his being is what we would classify as "Vivekananda Tattwa" or the theory which strives to make the ideas and ideal of Swamiji comprehensible to us. This again can be split into two parts: Pure Vivekananda and Applied Vivekananda. To study the way he went about things would immeasurably benefit Indian society.

Refer to a comment made by Sri Ramakrishna comparing the Brahma leader Keshab Chandra Sen and the then Narendranath Dutta: "If Keshab has been able to bring a revolution in people's thinking, the Narendra is eighteen time more capable of doing it." But the power hidden in Vivekananda was never material, it was spiritual power. And that inherent power projected him as patriot Vivekananda, organiser Vivekananda, or Vivekananda the cyclonic Hindu monk of India. Now he is becoming a symbol of strength in the consciousness of the youth of India.

Although, Swami left us at Belur math on July 4, 1902, his presence continues to inspire and motivate the nation. The great "India of Vivekananda", as Nivedita said, will rise to lead the world. "Awake, arise and stop not the goal is reached."

Swamiji Said:

Awake, arise and stop not till the goal is reached