Dr Sushil Rudra
Swami Vivekananda is a great spiritual teacher ,distinguish philosopher, humanist, nationalist, educator and man – makinng socio reformer of the World. Sri Ramakrishna, his spiritual guru once remarked, ” Naren Will teach.” Naren is one of the Rishi of the Saptarshi – told Sri Ramakrishna.
So if anybody wants to know Swamiji, they ought to read thoroughly the letters of Swami Vivekananda. So, I have described here as a title “ Swami Vivekananda:As it is portrayed in his letters.
In fact , a man like Vivekananda in the history of mankind is rare in true sense of the term . He sacrificed his life for the awakening and advancement of the human race of the East and West by his tremendous powers and mammoth deeds .
So, I think , his massages and the means he directed and started in India and the West ,that is the only path to solve the global problems.
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA & INDIAN NATIONALISM AND OTHER ACTIVITIES:
¶¶ Swami Vivekananda played significant role in the growing Indian Nationalism of the 19tn and 20th century. And in addition to this, he was solely involved in reinterpreting and harmonising certain aspect of Hinduism.
His teachings and philosophy applied this interpretation to various aspects of education, faith , character building as well as social issues pertaining to India. And he was also instrumental in introducing yoga and Vedanta to the West.
Truly, he painted a golden picture of the glorious ancient India before the peoples of the West. In fact, they were totally blind in regards to this matter.
His vision and mission was to making a human from a man, an unbiased society from corrupted people, and not like that of Plato’s ideal kingdom. Swamiji said:
” Man – making is my mission. ” And for this purpose he intended to visit the Parliament Of World Religion.
HIS MESSAGE TO WEST:
¶¶ Though his worldwide fame is for introducing the philosophy of Vedanta and Yoga to the Western World.
It is also for presenting Hinduism to the Christian society, and drawing its respect for the Indian culture, but as many don’t know, this was never his intention.
So, What Was His Intention?
WHY HE WENT THERE?
Vivekananda himself gave this answer. He wrote:
” Primarily my coming has been to raise funds for an enterprise of my own.”
What it was? Swami Ji noticed during his staying in the West, that there was barely a difference between the higher classes of India and America, but there was an infinite distance between the poor of the two countries.
Therefore, his vision, therefore, became the empowerment of the masses through education.
” If the poor can not come to education, education must reach them at the plough, in the factory, everywhere…….So they would have ideas and moralit, and hope for the better. ”
¶¶ The Strength of his Language:
Vivekananda writes in a personal voice with a style that is direct and decorated at the same time.
His language is poetic, and in poetry even, when talking about personal things – An interesting correspondence and Requiescat in Pace are two of his examples of the many poems which were found among his letters.
THE VIBRANT WORDS OF SWAMI JI :
Sometimes His tone is analytical, sometimes his voice often gets bold and prophetic.
“ Despair not! Remember the Lord says in Gita, ”.
To work you have the right, but not to the result. Guard up your lions my boy. I am called by the Lord for this. I have been dragged through a whole life full of crosses and tortures.
… I have seen the nearest and dearest die, almost of starvation; I have been ridiculed, distrusted and have suffered for my sympathy for the very men who scoff and scorn.
… Trust not to the so-called rich, they are more dead than alive. The hope lies in you. ..”
POETIC EXPRESSION :
¶¶ The poetic expression of some of his letters are fabulous. Here are some instances.
“Up, up, the long night is passing, the day is approaching, the wave has risen, nothing will be able to resist its tidal fury. The spirit, my boys, the spirit, the love, my children, the love; the faith, the belief and fear not! The greatest sin is fear. ” ( letter to Alasigha, Letters of Swami Vivekananda, page – 107)
In his letter to Mrs Mery and H. Hell, we see the same poetic diction. He writes:
” Thou music of my Beloved’s flute, lead on, I am following. It is impossible to express my pain, my anguish at being separated from you, noble and sweet and generous and holy ones. Oh! How I wish I had succeeded in becoming a stoic! ” ( Letters or Swami Vivekananda – Page 119)
¶¶ To achieve this, however, one needed money and he did not trust a “Pauper” government to do this job.
He, therefore, decided to reach at the Parliament of World Religions in that hope he could get a massage across that would bring in the required funds .
So, without this letter written to Maharaja , we could not be able to know the purpose of his visiting to America.
¶¶ The Strength of his Language:
Swami Vivekananda: as it is portrayed in his letters
Vivekananda writes in personal voice with a style that is direct and decorated at the same time. His language is poetic , and in poetry even, when taking about personal things – An interesting correspondence and Requiescat in Pace are two of his examples of the many poems which were found among his letters.
¶¶ Sometime His tone is analytical, sometime his voice often gets bold and prophetic. “ Despair not ! Remember the Lord says in Gita.
¶¶ The poetic expression of some of his letters are wonderful and fabulous. Here are some instances.
“Up , up , the long night is passing, the day is approaching, the wave has rise , nothing will be able to resist its tidal fury . The spirit, my boys, the spirit, the love, my children, the love; the faith , the belief and fear not ! The greatest sin is fear . ” ( letter to Alasigha, Letters of Swami Vivekananda, page – 107)
In his letter to Mrs. Mery and H. Hell , we see the same poetic diction. He writes : ” Thou music of my Beloved’s flute , lead on , I am following. It is impossible to express my pain , my anguish at being separated from you , noble and sweet and generous and holy ones . Oh ! How I wish I had succeeded in becoming a stoic ! ” ( Letters or Swami Vivekananda – Page 119)
VARIOUS INFORMATION
¶¶ Vivekananda wrote numerous letter to his friends, relatives, disciples and the people those came to contact with him. Hence, we will try to re-open Swami Vivekananda: as it is portrayed in his letters.
His letters, if read in a chronological manner would serve as his biography he pours his heart out in them. There we can find out various known – unknown information about his life and works.
¶¶ Besides information, these are the gems of English and Bengali literature. The language of these letters are poetic, sometimes humorous, and some are bold and high tuned.
He used language according to the temperament of his content. Sometimes language is narrative and colloquial, and again decorative as well as classic.
¶¶ Mayawati Ashram first published Vivekananda’s letter as ” Letters of Swami Vivekananda” on 1st January 1940. He wrote most of his letters from 19.11.1988 to 14.06.1902. And all these letters he wrote in the English language.
Swami Ji wrote these letters to his friend, Mr Promadadas Mitra, Master Mahashay Mahendranath Gupta, Swami Akhandananda and Balaram Bose.
They were all senior in age and so he did salutation accordingly. He writes some letters in Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit and French. He uses very simple and placid words, but complex analogies.
A MONK WHO NEVER FORGETS HIS MOTHER:
However, Vivekananda never forgot his Mother & Brothers. He was a monk, but not an inhuman. Hence, to know Swamiji’s heart you have to read ” Swami Vivekananda:As it is portrayed In his letters”.
The readers of Vivekananda’s biography know that his father was a renowned Barrister in Calcutta and earned a lot, but he was a very wide – hearted man.
Therefore, he had to look after his poor relatives and ultimately, he had no bank balance at the time of his death. So being eldest son, Swamiji was in great crisis. And had tried to overcome anyway.
Therefore, Swami Ji, as an elder son of the family had to face big financial problems. Besides, they had some family dispute which turned into a legal suit in the High Court of Calcutta.
Moreover, His brothers are studying then. His mind was then full of apathy. Vivekananda writes a letter to Promadadas Mitra in 1889 :
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: AS PORTRAYED IN HIS LETTERS /WORRIED ABOUT HIS MOTHER
. ” In Calcutta live my mother and two brothers. I am the eldest; the second is preparing for the first Arts Examination and the third is young. they were quite well off before, but since my father’s death, it is going very hard with them – they even have to go fasting at times! “
He further wrote: (Swami Vivekananda: as it is portrayed in his letters )
To crown all, some relatives, taking advantage of their helplessness, drove them away from the ancestral residence. Though a part of it is recovered through seeing at the High Court, destitution is now upon them – a matter of course in litigation. ”
So, Swami Ji , like his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, don’t like to touch the money. Although we came to know from his letter that he went there to collect money for his own. Might be contradictory, but that is for his great purpose. As a result, he started it from Belur Math – Service for the poor and weak and downtrodden.
Read more:
Jesus Christ As Seen By Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda’s Inspired Talks
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