Dr. Debilal Mishra
‘Bold has been my message to the people of the West. Bolder is my message to you, my beloved Countrymen’, said Swami Vivekananda who needs no introduction to a mind aspiring to rise to the higher levels of consciousness through the traditional Hindu-yogic approaches based on the practical facets of life.
According to Him, ‘to put the Hindu ideas into English and then make out of dry philosophy and intricate mythology and queer startling psychology, a religion which shall be easy, simple, popular, and at the same time meet the requirements of the highest minds– is a task only those can understand who have attempted it.
The dry, abstract Advaita must become living, poetic in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi must come the most scientific and practical psychology– and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it. That is my life’s work’. Swamiji lived for a universal cause and believed in the inherent divinity for universal purposes. Going beyond the life’s sordid narrowness his vision embraces the rich spiritual prodigality of the human existence.
His philosophy vibrates the idea that “this life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive”. He believed in the spiritual strength of humanity, and aspired to a religion that would reinforce humanity and human values in the larger interest of the universe. According to him, it’s a man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want.
And here is the test of truth, anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. He says Truth is strengthening, enlightening and invigorating. Swami Vivekananda could inspire countless minds through his philosophy of self-belief and self-exploration: ‘All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that, don’t believe that you are weak; don’t believe that you are half-crazy lunatics, as most of us do nowadays.
You can do anything and everything without even the guidance of anyone. All power is there. Stand up and express the divinity within you’. Swamiji defined religion in connection with human divinity. According to him, ‘Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man’. He further went on to say that Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God. Religion is the essential realization of one’s own divinity.
His concept of humanity is never limited to personal goals, rather it extends to universal well-being and benevolence. He says: ‘if you want to give up everything for your own salvation, it is nothing. Do you want to forgo even your own salvation for the good of the world? You are God, think of that.’ Swamiji always believed in the strength of character to attain success.
According to him, To succeed, one must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul, “at my will mountains will crumble up. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will, work hard, and you will reach your goal.”
In the Song of the Sannyasin, a poem written in 1895 in New York, Swamiji has introspected on the life of a true Yogi and realized that a proper yogic consciousness can lead one in the journey that attains greater goals and liberation. Here are some stanzas from the poem that best capture the perspectives of a Yogi in their spiritual journey:
Strike off thy fetters! Bonds that bind thee down,
Of shining gold, or darker, baser ore ;
Love, hate—good, bad—and all the dual throng,
Know, slave is slave, caressed or whipped, not free ;
For fetters, though of gold, are not less strong to bind ;
Then off with them, Sannyâsin bold! Say—
“Om Tat Sat, Om!”
Let darkness go; the will-o’-the-wisp that lead
With blinking light to pile more gloom on gloom.
This thirst for life, for ever quench ; it drags
From birth to death, and death to birth, the soul.
He conquers all who conquers self. Know this
And never yield, Sannyâsin bold! Say—”Om Tat Sat, Om!”
Truth never comes where lust and fame and greed
Of gain reside. No man who thinks of woman
As his wife can ever perfect be ;
Nor he who owns the least of things, nor he
Whom anger chains, can ever pass thro’ Maya’s gates.
So, give these up, Sannyâsin bold! Say—
“Om Tat Sat, Om!”
Few only know the truth. The rest will hate
And laugh at thee, great one ; but pay no heed.
Go thou, the free, from place to place, and help
Them out of darkness, Maya’s veil. Without
The fear of pain or search for pleasure, go
Beyond them both, Sannyâsin bold! Say—
“Om Tat Sat, Om!”
(Author is a Communicologist. Views expressed are Personal)