SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (1863-1902)

The process of Renaissance in Hinduism started

with Raja RamMohan Roy and it was further
developed by the Arya Samaj of Swami Dayanad
Saraswathi, the Prarthana Samaj and the
Satyashodhak Samaj of Jyotiba Phule. Sri
Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami
Vivekananda, played a key role in renaissance and
reformation of Hindu society. There was a new
interpretation of Vedanta philosophy of Swami
Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo Gosh were two
major interpreters of Neo-Vedanta
philosophy.They were of the opinion that
Neo-Vedanta philosophy would increase cultural
strength of Hinduism and pave the
way for the growth of nationalism in modern
India. They interpreted Indian nationalism in the
contest of reformation and rejuvenation of
Hinduism.Swami Vivekananda, whose real name
was Narendranath Dutta, was born in an
aristocratic Kshatriya family of Calcutta on the
20th january, 1863. He was a seer,
an illumined soul, very much different from the
ordinary run of mankind. His mind was ominous,
he had that supreme knowledge of which the Gita
speaks and which results from the realization of
oneness with the Supreme Being. Besides,he had
within himself a fountain of energy to carry his
message not only to the different parts of India
but to the western countries also. Once Sri
Ramakrishna said about his young disciple
Narendra, who is known to the world as Swami
Vivekananda ‘He is not a pond, he is a reservoir.
He is not a pitcher or a jug, he is a veritable
barrel…He is not an ordinary sixteen -petalled
lotus, he is a glorious lotus with a thousand petal .’
This beautiful summing up of Vivekananda
personality suggests about his strength, vigor and
endurance The world knows him a sa gigantic
that employed his will power and energy to bring
about a regeneration of India. He was a pilgrim of
the city of God and a warrior for the cause of the
suppressed and oppressed all over the world. His
personality was notable for its comprehensiveness
and deep sensitivity to the evils prevalent in the
socio-economic and moral structure of the
country. Due to his heroic mood and sometimes
even domineering characters , Swami
Vivekananda was called, the ‘Hindu Napoleon’.
Vivekananda came under the influence of
rationalist thought of his time. He was much
impressed by European science, liberalism and
democratic pattern of western society as
expressed in political and sociological literature.
The sources of the philosophy of Vivekananda are
three fold.First, the great Vedic and vedantic
tradition. Vedantic philosophy of Shankar acharaya
influenced a lot to the social philosophy of
Vivekananda. Vivekananda was an apostle of the
Advaitha Vedanta and he belongs to the tradition
of the commentators on the Advaita system. He
studied the ideas and principles of J. S.Mill, the
philosophers of the French Revolution, Kant and
Hegel. He even entered into correspondence with
Herbert Spencer and offered criticism of some of
his ideas. Secondly, a powerful source of
Vivekanad’s philosophy was his contact with
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–1886), one of the
greatest saints and mystics of modern India.
While Ramakrishna Paramahamsa had preached
his sermons in a style of prophetic simplicity and
clarity, Vivekananda was the philosopher
combined with the religious teacher. Hence he
preached some of these same truths in more
philosophical languages and used modern
logical terminology. Thirdly, a rich source of
Vivekanada’s philosophy was his own experience
of life. He traversed the wide world and to the
interpretation of his experiences Ramakrishna’s
death in August, 1886 brought a change in
Vivekananda’s life. After the death of his master,
he embarked upon extensive travels from the
Himalayas to the Cape Comorin (Kanyakumari)
with an urge to spread the message of
Ramakrishna and see the natural beauty of
Motherland and visited all the important centers
of Indian culture.

Through his travels he not only saw India’s cultural

wealth, the strength of her traditions, but they
also saw her socio- economic backwardness, evils
of caste system and her mental inertia into which
she had fallen.Swami Vivekananda established the
Ramakrishna Mission to serve the people. He
wanted to find a new path of progress for
Hinduism because he was not happy with the
reform movements as they were mere imitations
of the western world. He had three alternatives
before him. First,to follow the path shown by Raja
Ram Mohan Roy and join Brahma Samaj. Secondly,
to follow the path of total renunciation and go to
Himalayas to attain the goal of liberation. Thirdly,
to follow the path of service to the society and
create social awakening in the minds of people
about modernization of the Indian society. Swami
Vivekananda chose the third path and told the
Indians to see Narayana (God) in the form of a
poor beggar dying of starvation. Thus for
Vivekananda the Ramakrishna Mission should
stand for selfless service of the people, ceaseless
efforts to find truth and thereby for reawakening
of the spirit of India. During Vivekananda’s life
time and after his death, Sri.Ramakrishna Mission
played a key role in the renaissance of Hinduism.

VIEWS OF NATIONALISM

Swami Vivekananda is considered as one of the

prophets of the Indian nationalism because he
tried to awaken Indian people who were lying in
deep slumber. He wanted to see the emergence
of a strong and self-confident India which would
give the message of the Vedanta to the world. He
strongly believed that the Indians should be proud
of their rosy history, tradition, culture and religion
and should try their level best to reform them. The
awakening of the spirit of India was the goal for
young people. Hence he advised them to ‘arise,
awake and stop not till the goal is
reached’Vivekananda believed that there is one all
dominating principle manifesting itself in the life
of each nation.According to him, religion had
been the guiding principle in India’s history. He
maintained thus: In each nation as in music there
is main note, a central theme, upon which all
others turn. Each nation has a theme: everything
else is secondary. India’s theme is religion. Social
reform and everything else are secondary’. He
worked to build the foundations of a religious
theory of nationalism which was
later advocated by Bipin Chandra Pal and
Aurobindo Ghosh.Vivekananda was the passionate
advocate of the religious theory of nationalism
because religion, according to him, had to be
made the backbone of the national life. He
believed that the future greatness of the nation
could be built only on the foundations of its past
greatness.Vivekananda was highly critical of the
British rule in India because he held that due to
their rule Indians lost confidence, famine engulfed
the land, farmers and artisans were reduced to
poverty and deprived. The British governments,
East India Company etc., were exploiting Indians
in all spheres of socio- economic activity. Due to
discriminatory and exploitative economic policies
of the British government, Indian’s could not
develop their natural resources and raw materials.

According to Vivekananda, the national

regeneration of India would begin when people
became fearless and started demanding their
rights. He asked the Indians to develop solidarity
and oneness of the spirit by the eradication of
social evils, superstitions and evils of caste
system. He was of the opinion that the evils of
caste system divided the Indian society into
classes and created the feeling of inferiority and
superiority among them. As a prophet of Indian
nationalism, Vivekananda held that though there
was a variety for languages, cultures and religions
in India, there existed a common ground between
Indian people. For the Indians religion was
unifying force as the spirituality was Blood in the
life of India. Vivekananda was an ardent patriot
and had tremendous love for the country. He was
the embodiment of emotional patriotism. He had
established almost a sense of identity-
consciousness with the country, its peoples and
its historic ideals’. According to him, it was the
duty of the educated Indians to make its
knowledge available to the people in their
oneness and solidarity. He exhorted Indians not to
get involved in the divisive issue of race and
language and imbibe the spirit of unity. He said
that Hindus should not blame Muslims for their
numerous invasions because the Muslim conquest
came as a salvation to the downtrodden masses in
India. National unity, according to him, could not
be fostered by caste conflict but it would be
secured by raising the lower to the level of higher
classes and not by bringing the upper to the lower
level. For the growth of national spirit in India,
independence of mind was necessary. Indians
should be proud of their motherland and declare
that all Indians, despite their caste, linguistic and
religious differences, are brothers. The main
component of Vivekananda concept of
nationalism is follows

1) There was unity and oneness of the Indian

people despite their outward diversity.
2) It was necessary to remove the evils of caste
system in order to inculcate the spirit of social
solidarity.
3) There was similarity in the teachings of
different
religions and India consisted of all religious
communities.
4) National spirit in India could be developed by
young
people by devoting their life to social service and
national awakening.

VIEWS ON DEMOCRACY

Though Vivekananda Swami had no interest in

politics yet he threw light on some aspects of
political theory. He opposed autocracy and
monarchy because in these systems the ruler
grabs the power. The power resides concentrated
in the hands of a single person. Oppression and
tyranny are the characteristics of these systems.
Swami advocated for democracy. He considered it
as the best form of the government. In this rule
people remain independent. Under this system
people get the opportunity to grow which propels
the people to proceed on the path of progress.
Swami had very high respect for the revolutionary
slogan of French revolution “Liberty, equality and
fraternity.” In his opinion, liberty means a system
of positive opportunity and rights but it does not
mean the absence of obstacles in the path of
misappropriation of wealth and power. He wanted
to provide individual the right to use his own
body, intelligence or wealth freely without doing
any harm to others in the society. He strongly
favoured individual liberty. Vivekananda said that
an individual should be granted utmost liberty for
his free and independent growth. He also
advocated that the same opportunity should be
given to all the members of the society for
obtaining wealth, education and knowledge.
According to him equality means absence of all
special privileges. He said, “No privilege for
anyone, equal exchange for all and everyone
will work for his own salvation.” Vivekananda
connected freedom and equality with India’s
ancient Vedantic spirituality and the philosophy
of Advaita, which proclaims the divinity and
solidarity of all human being. It shows his urge to
replicate democratic principles in spiritual life. He
stated, “All beings great or small, are equally
manifestations of God. Difference is only in
manifestations” In the light of the spirituality,
Swami showed that there is no place for any
special privileges for any group or section of the
society.He wanted to remove inequality form both
social and economic field. Swami did not fail to
observe that how capitalism leads to exploitation
as well as ferocious struggle for Supremacy. He
was against capitalism but he was not against
capitalist class. He inspired capitalist class to do
something for the welfare of the country. Similar
view was aired by Mahatma Gandhi. He also
wanted to destroy capitalism but not the capitalist
class. He wanted to convert the heart of capitalists
for the welfare of poor section. Swami did not
believe in political revolution because he thought
that it will bring only chaos and confusion in the
country. By revolution he meant a spiritual and
moral revolution which alone could bring about a
fundamental change in human society. It will bring
a fundamental transformation of human nature.
R.K Dasgupta rightly comments that Marxian
philosophy which worked behind the Russian
revolution is mostly concerned with economic and
material life. It has no connection with spiritual
upliftment of people but Vivekananda’s view on
revolution gives it a universal significance. It will
bring spiritual and moral development. Swami’s
vision was to create an ideal state where there
would not be any class or caste distinction. It
should be combination of merits of all the
different classes without any demerits. He
visualized an ideal state in which the knowledge
of the priest, the culture of the military, the
distributive skill of commercial and the ideal of
equality of the Shudras will be assimilated without
their evils. Vivekananda Swami wanted to mould a
state based on knowledge, culture, commercial
advancement and equality which are essential for
an effective democratic society. Therefore,
Vivekananda was a great advocate of democracy
and he wanted to awaken the young people to
establish free and democratic government in
India.

An Assessment

Swami Vivekananda was a great nationalist of

India who wanted to revitalize the nation through
the vitality of religion. He believed that religion
constituted the ‘centre, the keynote of the whole
of music of national life of India. He is regarded as
the patriot and prophet of modern India. It was
due to his message of courage and fearlessness
that he was described as ‘tamer of souls’ and
‘cyclonic monk from
India’.