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~ The Monk ~ The Man ~ By Samrat Kar

Narendranath Dutta (later known as Swami Vivekananda) was born into a wealthy Bengali family. When he was twenty one and reading law at the Calcutta university, he lost his father, Bishwanath Dutta- the sole bread earner in his family. As the eldest son, he had no one, save himself, to turn to for financial support. He had nine brothers and sisters to support, being part of a join family. He was faced with a large family and its associated expenses, and with no possibility of earning a livelihood! Due to issues in the joint family, his relatives started a legal proceeding against his family. His mother, Bhubaneshwari, whom he adored the most, was forced to leave her husband’s family home along with her helpless children.

After Bishwanath’s death, nobody came forward to help his grieving family. Later, Swami Vivekananda, gives us a heart-rending description of those days, in one of his letters: “Even before the mourning period was over, I began running around for a job. Dizzy from lack of food, I walked from office to office, barefoot, in the blazing sun, carrying my application papers..But to no avail. I was rejected by everyone. This early experience taught me that unselfish sympathy is very rare in this world; there is no place here for the poor or the weak. Even those who, only a short time ago, would have considered themselves fortunate to do me a favor, now turned away reluctant to help.” Going through t h e g r i n d o f a b j e c t p o v e r t y,

Narendranath moved from pillar to post in search of employment. At last, his situation came to the attention of Master-mashai (M.) who was then the headmaster of the Metropol i tan Institution (now Vidyasagar College, Kolkata). M, had later written the biography of Ramkrishna Pramhansa.

This institution was established by Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar in 1872. It was Master-mashai’s initiative that Narendranath was invited to teach to main branch of the school. Subsequently, when another branch was opened up, Narendranath was appointed headmaster there.

NARENDRANATH DUTTAAKA SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

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Vidyasagar’s son-in-law was the secretary of the school and, as fate would have it, the hapless Narendranath found disfavor with him. This gentleman and his cohorts instigated the students of class IX and X to circulate a petition against Narendranath which said: “The new headmaster cannot teach”. On seeing the petition Vidyasagar immediately ordered Narendranath’s dismissal, without investigating the matter further.

Things kept going worse for Narendranath. But, he continued to support his family with the help of the aids from his friends, keeping his search for a job on.

Those were the days of Bengal Renaissance, Narendranath shared his ne ighborhood wi th s ta lwar t s a s Rabindranath Tagore, Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Michael Madhusudan, J C Bose, etc. Being an ardent follower of Brahmo Samaj, Narendranath Dutta actively participated in various social causes, and bridging the gap between the eternal truths of the Upanishads, and the daily life of common man.

During the tough times, dealing with the economic issues of his family, Narendranath was going through extreme existential dilemma. It was during those days, the company of Ramkrishna Pramhansa, a priest in the Dakshineshwar Kali temple, was like a s t r aw t o a d row n i n g m a n , f o r Narendranath. That too had to go away eventua l ly. Sr i Ramkr i shna was diagnosed with throat cancer. On August 16th 1886, Sri Ramkrishna passed away. With 16 of his comrades, Narendranath formed a new monastic brotherhood, and in 1887 they took the formal vows of sanyasa, thereby assuming new names. N a r e n d r a n o w b e c a m e S w a m i Vivekananda.

In the middle of 1890, he left Baranagar Math and embarked on a long journey of exploration and discovery of India. During his travels, Swami Vivekananda was deeply moved to see the appalling poverty and backwardness of the masses. He was confronted face to face with the ignorance of the masses on subjects pertaining to inspiration, Vedanta and the true essence of the religion. He saw the masses clung to religion, but had never been taught the life giving principles of Vedanta and how to apply them in practical life.

One th ing became c l ea r t o Vivekananda; in order to uplift the poor masses and women through education, an efficient organization of dedicated people was needed. He wanted to set in motion, machinery which will bring the noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest. While these ideas were taking shape in course of his wanderings, Vivekananda heard about the World Parliament of Religions to be held in Chicago in 1893. He set sail for America from Mumbai on May 31, 1893. His speech at the World Parliament of Religions held in September 1893 made him famous. It was a very important event marking the propagation the true spirit of the Vedic religion, on a world scale. After the Parliament, Vivekananda spent nearly three and a half years spreading Vedanta as lived and taught by Sri Ramkrishna, mostly in the eastern parts of USA and also in London.

He returned to India in January 1897. In response to the enthusiastic welcome that he received everywhere, he delivered a series of lectures in different parts of India, which created a great stir all over the country. Through these inspiring and profoundly significant lectures, Vivekananda roused the consciousness of people and created in them, prided in their cultural heritage. He brought about unification of Hinduism by pointing out the common basis of its sects and focussed the attention of educated people on the plight of downtrodden masses. He expounded his plan for their upliftment by the application of the principles of practical Vedanta. This was a very important revival of the ancient Vedic Sanathan Dharma, on the face of a vitiated form of Hinduism that was being practiced by majority of Indians, scared by the social evils like caste system by birth, thousands of superstitions and meaningless and empty rituals. Religion was always an important part of the life of a common man. Vivekananda was trying to bring the forgotten true life into the otherwise dead and rotten religious narrowness of the masses.

Soon after his return to Kolkata, he founded the Ramkrishna MIssion on May 1897. The various missions soon became an avenue through which monks and lay people would jointly undertake propagation o practical Vedanta, and

various forms of social service, such as running hospitals, schools, colleges, hostel,s and rural development centers. In addition, they conducted massive relief and rehabilitation work for victims of earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities, in different parts of India and other countries. Theses institutions are still run today in various parts of Bengal, making active positive impact to the lives o f peop le. The schoo l s run by Ramkrishna Mission are among the topmost abode of education in Bengal. Even today, these schools/colleges stand among the top ranking schools in various board examinations. The teachers of these schools are mostly monks who are well versed in both Eastern and Western thoughts; imparting world class education on both ancient scriptures and state of the art latest developments in science as well as arts.

In early 1898, Swami Vivekananda acquired a big plot of land on the Western bank of the Ganga in Belur, and got it registered as Ramkrishna Math. Here he established a new, universal pattern of monastic life which adapted ancient monastic ideals to the conditions of modern life. It gives equal importance to personal illumination and social service, and is open to all men without any distinction of religion, race or case.

In June 1899, he went to the West on a second visit. There he spent most of his time in the West coast of USA. After delivering many lectures there, he returned to Belur Math in December 1900, and continued to his preachings in India, on practical Vedanta. His health started deteriorating, and he passed away on July 4, 1902.

Vivekananda’s writings motivated a whole generation of freedom fighters including Subhash Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghose, Bagha Jatin, and countless others visionaries. Sense of unity, pride in the rich legacy of India, sense of mission - these were the factors which gave real strength and purpose to India’s nationalist movement.

Vivekananda showed with his teachings and writings that spirituality was as scientific as science itself; and was in fact the science of consciousness. Religion and science were not contrary to each other but were complementary.

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This all-encompassing concept freed religion from the hold of superstitions, dogmas, priest craft and intolerance, and made it the highest and noblest pursuit.

Vivekananda’s re-introduction of the Vedic concept of “potential divinity of the soul” gave a new lease of life to human beings in his time. He laid the foundation for “spiritual humanism”, rejecting the Christian idea of humans as sinners seeking the pardon of a judgmental God which was prevalent in both the Eastern and Western worlds. Even the stale religious practices of the masses of Hindus at that time of history, believed in such principles of Godliness. “Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man. Strength, it is that we want so much in this life, for what we can sin and sorrow have all one cause, and that is our weakness. With weakness comes ignorance, and with ignorance comes misery,” he said.

He demolished the theory of ethics based on fear, punishment and reward. “We should be pure because purity is our real nature, our true divine self or Atman. Similarly, we should love and serve our neighbors because we are all one in the Supreme Spirit known as Paramatman or Brahman,” he said.

Vivekananda revived the original truths of the Upanishads in every day life, giving a new leash of life to the life of millions of Indians.

Religion which was once perceived as passive, dormant, escapist or occupation of the old and retired became a dynamic, zealous and goal-oriented philosophy because of Vivekananda.

Jamshedji Tata was reportedly influenced by Vivekananda to established the Indian Institute of Science, during their conversation as fellow travelers on a ship from Japan to Chicago in 1898. Abroad, Vivekananda had interactions with Max Muller, the well known educationist. Scientist Nikola Tesla was one of those influenced by the Vedic philosophy teachings of Swami Vivekananda. On November 11, 1995, a section of Michigan Avenue, one of the most prominent streets in Chicago, was formally renamed “Swami Vivekananda Way”.

The French Nobel Laureate, Romain Rolland, is ecstatic in his praise of Vivekananda’s fiery speeches, “His words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at 30 years distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!”

Unl ike h i s ne ighbor, Rabindranath Tagore, Vivekananda was interestingly always focused on the ideal transcending beyond the common man’s emotions, love and passions. Tagore was into describing, through his songs, poems, paintings, and plays, the beauty of Divinity thriving in the day to day life of the common man in a countryside setting. His works sang man’s emotions, his limitations, his fear, his suchness of being human, and his love. Vivekananda was more into lifting man from the mundane realities of his life to what he potentially is - The Ideal. He strongly believed

that in potential, all humans are imbibed with powerful virtues, which transcend the human fragilities. Only that an effort is required to retrieve this superhumanness from the extent dormant state. This was in the same lines as that of the works of Plato and later Socrates, in the ancient Greece. Highly influenced by the Western philosophy, Vivekananda was able to synthesize the western thoughts, and was able to expose the unity between the Truth discussed in the Upanishads, and rich gamut of Western philosophy from the ancient Greece, Egypt and the like, and scientific pursuits as a fallout of the industrial revolution of the 19th century.

Both, Vivekananda and Tagore knew the importance and complementary nature of each other’s path They knew very well that their motto was the same - Unity and the Truth. Only that their paths were different.

Although having volunteered for a life of a monk, Vivekananda, never ignored his day to day liabilities and responsibilities towards his mother and family. He continued to visit his home at Kolkata, to take care of the legal issues and address other day to day affairs of his dependents at home. The core of his teachings was practical Vedanta. He was a practitioner of Vedanta in every aspects of his life.

Throughout his life, he faced countless obstacles, tribulations, pain, and rejections in various ways, both in his relationships with men and women, and also in his career and vocation. It would be very simplistic to make him a God, and create a halo of awe around him. One has to appreciate the highly “complex” and beautiful mind of this man. He had his shortcomings, his problems and limitations. His circumstantial obstacles were similar to what every common man faces in his day to day lives. He had his share of failures, pains and fears. When he was alive, there were many who hated him, and considered him worthless, for who he was and who he was not.

Narendranath Dutta showed to the world with the example of his life, that aim of life is not happiness, pleasure, success and material fulfillment. He was a penniless and poor for most of his life. Rather for him the aim of life was to experiment and know the Truth. Life for him was an opportunity to experiment with the circumstances, to discover himself. His life also is a living example of how it is actually possible for a common man to keep his connection with the ideal, and bring down the ideal from the ivory tower of the intangible Archetype, to the physical realities of day to day life, smitten with poverty, and ill-health.

Narendranath Dutta was the Prometheus of India.

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