When I was small, my father used to identify all the pictures of the Gods and Goddesses in our house to me, I’d somehow remember them and then the very next moment I would go back to my own childish world of toys and play, play and play all the time. I enjoyed every bit of it, and routinely I’d sit with my father even though I was barely 4-5 yrs of age at that time, and ask him to re-identify all the God-Goddess pictures, while I’d sit and gaze at them and wonder, even though I was too immature at that time, how could a person (All the pictures of Gods had to be human figures!) have ten hands and legs, and all sort of strange thoughts would pop up within me.
Slowly, as I grew up, I developed some sort of repulsion to this “Religion” stuff, because I felt, it had to do with things that actually could never exist on Earth! Only till that, when I came across some thoughts and writings of this man, Swami Vivekananda, did I have a clear view of what actually we expect/learn/do with this Religion-thing. Somehow, I could not help thinking, that Vivekananda was really an “educated Religious and Social” figure. These terms do not simultaneously apply to many persons on Earth.
Vivekananda’s view of Religion:-
What amazed me the most was how could a person in the late 1870’s, when the curse of superstitions was at its height, boldly proclaim the thoughts that He had about Religion. These thoughts were revolutionary in many ways, like, hardly anyone had ever said anything before as worshiping and serving mankind is the supreme form of worshiping God. Orthodox and Ritualistic were considered to be the only ways as worship, with priest-crafty and their no-sense ways at peak, such thoughts could not have been spoken out in those days. More, Vivekananda’s Religious views did not make God a compulsory figure – who must be worshiped and prayed to, no such being existed in the Swami’s thoughts. He emphasized on believing more in oneself, and less in “someone whom you can’t even see“. Beef eating is considered as a huge sin in Hindu Religion, do you know that Vivekananda proved with citation, that the Vedas had proclaimed Beef eating within the Hindu Religion itself. Above all, could you ever imagine a Religion stating that it is not compulsory to be a theist – there are better ways than that. Vivekananda’s Religion and His philosophies provided enough and more space for atheists. These thoughts are way too wide and diverse to be siad within a single topic, so I’ll write about these in detail some other day.
Vivekananda’s view of Education:-
Education should lay more emphasis on character development and not manufacturing of Robots capable of doing only what they are programmed to doand i.e they should follow their own thoughts, not be programmed to follow others. Look at its significance today, 90% of IIT-pass-outs each year had dreamed of becoming something other than an engineer in their childhood-days, only that they had to follow what others had followed. A man, who was living in the 1860’s, could foretell what was to become of this country’s future student-community (literally after 150 years) truly is spine-tingling and enticing enough. Mediation, to improve concentration and will-power is something that should compulsorily be introduced at all levels of education. Most of our students nowadays lack originality, they are not capable of doing something of their own and from their raw talent; I heard a saying long back in a website, and it still resonates within me often – ‘All of us are gifted, but some never open their package…’ I wrote about teaching methods being flawed some days back in this blog right away, Swamiji literally says the same thing – ‘The entire educational program should be so planned that it equips the youth to contribute to the material progress of the country as well as to maintaining the supreme worth of India’s spiritual heritage’ – when we don’t even know our country in the proper light, little hope that we can get to know about other countries progressing and advancing in their own ways.
Vivekananda’s thoughts on Self-Development
Such modern thoughts have never been spoken before, and little chance that anything as such will ever be spoken or shown, as was said by Swami Vivekananda.
If you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully, with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience
I had written about this earlier when I wrote one of my pages on the Human Mind. So scientific a thought, and yet surprisingly spiritual and true – all these leave me wondering as to what made this man, and how organised and well-structured thoughts ran through his mind! Late 19th Century, Swami Vivekananda spoke about “mind waves”. He explained that our mind generates waves, both positive and negative. This thought was accepted by many, but that is what proclaims to be a very recent discovery of Science in modern times (Search in Google about Torsion Theory and you would know what I’m talking about). I don’t believe in miracles (neither the Swami did), but for someone to speak of this height in those days seem no less than a miracle at hand.
Vivekananda’s open-minded philosophy earned him the highest regard. His thoughts spoke volumes of scientific reasoning, “don’t believe a word, even if you read it, heard it, someone told it, your parents told it, I told it, until and unless it agrees with your common sense, examine everything in the light of scientific reasoning and logic.” Swami Vivekananda’s emphasis on self development was unanimous. “You alone have the power to change the world……..Arise Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached…….Neither money pays, nor name pays, nor fame, nor learning; it is character that cleave through adamantine walls of difference……” are just some of His Long-standing advice to mankind.
I was thus not wrong when I said Vivekananda was the only “educated Religious and Social” figure of modern times.