Thursday, June 28, 2012

‘Evaluation of the claim of Swami Vivekananda that, “Hinduism is the throne of all religion and that all religion lead to one great truth that is found in Hinduism: Sanatana Dharma.”


Introduction
              Swami Vivekananda is the person who has influence around the world with his philosophy of practical Vedanta. Swami Vivekananda and his teachings became the part of curriculum of the schools and colleges because of his outstanding philosophy which he has introduced to the world. He has uplifted the Indian spirituality; he made it world famous spirituality. And this has its own impact in the mission even today. Therefore, author is dealing with the Sanatana Dharma, Swami Vivekananda and evaluation of his statement which he gave in the council of world religions.      
1.      Sanatana Dharma
1.1.Introduction to Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana Dharma literally means “‘eternal religion.’ The religion of the Hindus, formulated by the rishis of the Vedas.” (Vivekananda 1998, 309) The other name of Hinduism can be considered as ‘Sanatana Dharma’. Sanatana Dharma focuses on the charity towards the people of the world and so people who follow Sanatana Dharma are more on the social work. Sanatana Dharma is meant as the legitimate teacher of spirituality from India which was the claim of the Swami Vivekananda. (Mathew 1999, 129)
1.2.Conceptual Framework of Sanatana Dharma
Sanatana Dharma can be understood as the experience of oneness according to the Vivekananda’s understanding which deals with the world principles and ideas, rather than historic personalities and cults. Sanatana dharma claims to have the principles of all religion and so conversion to dharma was not a necessary part of it, it is just a secondary aspect. According to Vivekananda’s teaching, Sanatana dharma consists of all religions and it includes all religious principles in it but ultimatum is in Sanatana dharma. Vivekananda preached to Americans that they were all Vedantins because Vedanta declares the oneness with everything and Sanatana dharma awakes human mind into a moral consciousness. (n.d.412-415)
Gandhi recognizes himself as Sanatanist, he comments that the person who follow Sanatana Dharma believes in Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas and all that goes by the name of Hindu scriptures, and therefore in avataras and rebirth. Dharma does not discourage idol-worship and not even encourage. When comes to scriptural understanding they do not believe that all scriptures are inspired but at the same accepts all religious scriptures other than Hinduism. Sanatana Dharma propagates Guruism because of the belief that it is the rare thing to find a combination of perfect purity and perfect learning. Sanatana Dharma gives more emphasis in god and his oneness in rebirth and salvation. It is an understanding that all human are born to serve god’s creation, Brahmana with knowledge. (Sharma 2004, 305-308)      
2.      Swami Vivekananda
D.S. Sarma states, “Swami Vivekananda did for the gospel of Ramakrishna something similar to what St. Paul did for the Gospel of Christ.” (Sarma 1973, 143)
2.1.Character Sketch of Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda was born in 12 January 1863 in Calcutta. His official name which his parents named is Narendranath Datta. His mother is Bhuvaneshwari Devi, called her son Vireshwara (Boon from Siva) because he was born after long offerings and prayers to Siva. Viswanath Datta, father of Vivekananda was an attorney-at-law of the High Court of Calcutta, was well verse in English and Persian literature. (Stephen 2005, 3) He belonged to the caste of Kshatriya.  At the age of seventeen as a college student, Narendranath came under the influence of Ramakrishna. He was a keen student of philosophy and poetry. He studies all the systems of western philosophy. His favorite English poets were Wordsworth and Shelley. The principal of his college, William Hastings, an English man, remarked that Narendranath was a genius and would make his mark in life. Narendranath (also called as Naren) was a member of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj before meeting Ramakrishna. But his membership of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj did not satisfy him because he was longing for a religious experience. He even questioned the religious leaders about their visibility of God and no one was able to answer him with certainty except Ramakrishna. Thus Naren became the disciple of Ramakrishna. Naren lost his father when he was appearing to B.A. and then he joined for the law but was not able to complete his studies because of his financial situation at home due to the death of his father. As a result he was searching for a job to meet his material needs but was not able to get any job and at last he ended up on Ramakrishna in asking to intercede for him to goddess or mother kali. Ramakrishna encouraged him ask by himself to mother Kali, Naren went but was not able to ask because his Brahmo Samaj[1] Influence but being with Ramakrishna he was changed. In 1888, Vivekananda started his life as a wandering monk. He went throughout India as a wandering monk initially traveler with his other monk brothers and later on alone. In these journeys he discovered India and dedicated himself for the service of the poor and needy. He realized that he has a great mission in life and when he reached Madras some of his admirers collected funds and send him to America to the first Parliament of Religious meeting in Chicago at the age of thirty. About his impression in the Parliament of Religious meeting New York Herald commented: “He is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him, we feel how foolish it is to send Missionaries to his learned nation”. (Zarchariah 1998, 78) His remaining lifespan he travelled throughout the world giving lectures and made many disciples worldwide. Because of his visits around the world and making disciples gave an understanding that there is no greater philosophy that Hinduism and also it impacted on Modern Hindu Renaissance which became self-conscious and adolescent. He died on July, 4th 1902 at the age of thirty nine. (Zarchariah 1998, 79-82) Vivekananda is recognized as St. Paul for the Ramakrishna who toiled and got many converts as St. Paul had in his missionary life. (Neuner 1997, 363)          
2.2. Influence of Ramakrishna in the understanding of Swami Vivekananda
Ramakrishna had a major impact on the life of Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda was the favorite disciple of Ramakrishna. Ramakrishna did not write any books but through the writings of Vivekananda and other disciples his teachings are known to the world. It is said that Ramakrishna as the guru of Vivekananda initiated Vivekananda into religious experience through the placing of his right foot on his body. Ramakrishna considered Narendra (i.e. Swami Vivekananda) as his spiritual son and heir and trained him for his great mission of life. Swami Vivekananda adopted his teachings and preached around the world and extended the mission of Ramakrishna. Thus, Ramakrishna Mission was founded. (Zarchariah 1998, 74-76)
In the first interview of Vivekananda with Ramakrishna has impressed him a lot and it is said that his illumination began. His second interview with Ramakrishna has made him to perceive very vividly the spiritual powers of the saints. Vivekananda (Narendranath) stated about this experience,
“Muttering something to himself, with his eyes fixed on me, he slowly drew near me. I thought he might so something queer as on the preceding occasion. But in the twinkling of an eye he placed his right foot on my body. The touch at once gave rise to a novel experience within me. With my eyes open I saw that the walls and everything in the room whirled rapidly and vanished into nought, and the whole universe, together with my individuality, was about to merge in an all compassing mysterious- void! I was terribly frightened and thought that I was facing death, for the loss of individuality meant nothing short of that. Unable to control myself, I cried out, ‘What is this you are doing to me? I have my parents at home!’ he laughed aloud at this and, striking my chest, said, ‘All right, let it rest now. Everything will come in time.’ The wonder of it was that no sooner had he said this than that strange experience of mine vanished. I was myself again and found everything, within and without the room, as it has been before. All this happened in less time than it takes me to narrate it, but it revolutionized my mind.”   (Sarma 1973, 147)
This mystic touch ultimately changed Narendranath, a college youth into Swami Vivekananda, a world famous monk. Narendra continuous his visit to Ramakrishna, which lead him to grow in his illumination till his master looking upon him as his spiritual heir. Ramakrishna was so capable that he was even able to transmit his spirituality to others by the touch. At the death of Ramakrishna he formally handed over his spiritual wealth to Narendranath.  (Sarma 1973, 148)       


2.3.Teachings of Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda basically taught ‘Vedanta’ or ‘Vedas’. He taught the practical aspect of Vedanta. Swami Vivekananda taught that fullest of divinity indwells man. He teaches service of man because of the presence of Reality in man i.e. Atman which is not different from Brahman. He is of the opinion that the best way to reach god is by the service of man i.e. in other words can be said that all mankind are gods. He practiced karma yoga and even taught karma yoga as it is taught in Bhagavad-Gita. He emphasized more on action and hence Ramakrishna mission was focused on Philanthropic, charitable, religious and educational missionary activities. (Zarchariah 1998, 82-83)
Vivekananda wrote a book named ‘Vedanta: Voice of Freedom’ where he has put all his teachings. He is of the opinion that Vedanta is the culmination of Vedas which has no beginning and end. He further said that there are many facets of the truth but religion is all about the realization. When spoken about god he said that god is impersonal and at the same time personal because he is everything. When comes to opinion about human the major teachings comes in that human are gods and when looked into the perspective of god, there can be made many changes in the structure of the society at the same time there will not be any fight or hatred among the mankind which he named it as practical Vedanta. He is of the opinion that the ultimate consciousness of self that is god is the attainment of Moksha. Man dies, atman emerges with Brahman.  (Vivekananda 1998, 1-270)
3.      Evaluation: “Hinduism is the Crown of all religions and that all religions lead to one great truth that is found in Hinduism: The Sanatana Dharma.”
Vivekananda is saying that Hinduism is the crown of all religion i.e. he meant that he recognizes Hinduism as superior to all religions of the world. He puts it has the king or the queen of all religion. He further continues the statement saying that all religion lead to one great truth. This can be understood as the typical Hindu mindset. He claims that Hinduism is the queen of all religion but at the same time accepts other religions also. He gives mere respect to other religions also. Further he says that truth is found in Hinduism. He is of the opinion that all religions have the truth but the ultimate truth is in Hinduism that is in other words can be said that all religion or all truths of all religion lead to one truth and that truth is in Hinduism. It simply means many truths leads to one truth that is Hinduism. Vivekananda is conveying the greatness of India as the custodian of spirituality. This statement can be understood in the sense of Atheism that is in Vivekananda’s understanding, India is the Mother Goddess. Anybody who attains divinity is a god and this can be called as Atheism.
Vivekananda says that he did not meant in external great thoughts of religion that are clad when he speaks about religions; he did not mean about different buildings, languages, rituals, books etc. that employ in various religions but what he meant is the internal soul of every religion. He further says that every religion has a soul behind it and that soul may differ from another soul in another religion. Here, in this statement of Swami Vivekananda, he is trying to bring together the whole religion of the world. He is of the belief that no religion contradicts but supplementary with each other. Each religion takes up the one great part of the universal truth. (Vivekananda 1998, 275) It is the same light which is coming through different colors. Vivekananda stated that the Lord has declared to the Hindu in the his incarnation as Krishna that he is there is in every religion as the thread through a string of people and wherever the extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity, know that it is Krishna there. (n.d.46) This simply means that Krishna is there in every religion and so all religion speaks about the same truth which is there in Hinduism. If it is so then the major question to be asked is that if in religion there is the presence of Krishna then Jesus would not have contradicted to Krishna because God cannot contradict with himself in his teachings or even in the way he provides salvation.      
The major thing to be remembered is that when Vivekananda was shouting for the greatness of Indian Spirituality, the condition of India was that Brahmins were swelling their pot-bellies at the expense of the sweat of millions of hungry, skeletal miserables who were to toil and moil the fields for producing food materials. They without food to eat, cloth to wear, huts to lay their heads, were to feed the spiritual vedabtiins. The admirers of Vivekananda never knew of the utter darkness that was rampant in India. Thousands of god-men walked in India enjoying all types of worldly pleasures without engaging in any productive activity, without shedding even a drop of sweat. These spiritual beings did not even feel pity upon the poor fold who died of hunger and thirst. Instead they squeezed them and forced them down more and more. They attributed the misery of the poor folk as the misdeeds of their previous births. The highly spiritual godmen of India never felt pity for these wretched detestable. Unfortunately these was no intelligent person in the World Parliament of Religions to test the veracity of the statement of Vivekananda by visiting India to see the godmen of India enjoying heaven upon earth amidst the millions of skeletal suffering mlechas[2] hellish life. India was and still is heaven for a small minority and hell for the large majority. (Mathew, M.G. 2002, 306-307)          
Mathew states that Vivekananda was lying when he was praising Aryanism. There was not even a shadow of truth in his portray of India. He should have been bold enough to tell the truth that India was a land of mlechas, miserables, in utter poverty, ignorance, illiteracy and ill-health. These godmen will neither help the poor nor will they allow others to help them. In Hindu spirituality, there is only selfishness, self-love and self-elation. There is no touch of love or mercy. If a Shudra or low caste learns to read and write, Hindu Vedas say that he should be killed. By birth he is banned from learning letters. A poor man should suffer misery for he is born to suffer the wages of his sins he committed in his previous life. Therefore, any religion which teaches love and mercy is abhorrent to Hindutva. Christianity holds love as supreme quality and hence Hindutva holds Christianity most detestable. (Mathew, M.G. 2002, 307)   
When looked into another side of same coin that is philosophical aspect. The statement speaks about many truths but there cannot be many truths, there can be only one truth. For instance, all the trains which leave from Chennai Central do not go to Delhi but goes to different places in India. There can be only one train which goes to Delhi at time. That is there can be one truth, it cannot be possible there should be many truths which leads to one main truth.     
Vivekananda in his book Vedanta: the voice of freedom denounced Christianity saying that it has no philosophy. But what is philosophy? More often than not, philosophy is the effort of cunning intellectuals to present their ideas as truths to the world. To present a plain truth, there is no need of philosophy. The bible lacks philosophy because the bible presents ‘The Truth’ to the world. Take the statement ‘God is love’. This is a plain truth and hence no philosophy is required to prove the same. But take the statement ‘Man can attain godhead.’ This is a lie. To make the lei acceptable to at least some people, a long narration of philosophy statements are required. To prove the biblical statement there is no need of philosophical support. It simply means that the statement of Swami Vivekananda is just a play of words. (Mathew, M.G. 2002, 308) Swami Vivekananda, in one way trying to make harmony among world religions but his try to harmonize the religion was in his philosophy of practical Vedanta which he taught around the world and even made disciples. He tried to give freedom through his philosophy. (Shah 2002, 176)   
When it comes to the practical aspect, Swami’s statement that all religions are same simply seems to be an illogical statement. If it is so how would we able to distinguish the essence of a religion from its supposed non-essentials? What principle we use? Presumably we would make our judgment that on the grounds that some elements in a religion are better than others. But from what vantage point shall we decide which is better than others. And the whole question of truth get bypassed and swept under the carpet by throwing them all into a saucepan, boiling them up and straining off the essence. What if a religion gives a fuller expression of religion than other? What if the absolute really has come in our midst, and God Almighty has actually visited His people?  One thing is certain on man can claim that all religions are the same or all religion holds the same truth. Because Christianity stand different from any other religion in this world and there is no comparison which can be made on the basis of logic when compared with any other religion. (Green 2002, 17-18)


[1] Founder of Brahmo Samaj is Raja Ram Mohan Roy and they despise idol worship.
[2] A Malayalam word used by Mr. M.G. Mathew for dirty or ugly or unattractive.

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