Critical analysis of swami vivekananda & allegations against him part-1
It is a well-known psychological fact that those who are ever ready to abuse others cannot bear the slightest touch of criticism from others.
— Swami Vivekananda
1) Vivekananda was a secular spiritual personality he have no connection with Hindu nationalism :-
Arguments:-
We want to lead mankind to the place where there is neither the Vedas, nor the Bible, nor the Koran; yet this has to be done by harmonising the Vedas, the Bible and the Koran. Mankind ought to be taught that religions are but the varied expressions of THE RELIGION, which is Oneness, so that each may choose that path that suits him best.
"For our own motherland a junction of the great systems, Hinduism and Islam — Vedanta brain and Islam body — is the only hope."
"A Hindu thinks that his customs are the only right ones and are the best in the world, and that whosoever does not obey them must be the most wicked man living. This is quite a natural mistake which all of us are apt to make. But it is very harmful; it is the cause of half the uncharitableness found in the world."
"no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism."
Analysis:-
This is a letter Written to Mohammed Sarfaraz Husain of Naini Tal in 1898. As you see from the above excerpt so ofcourse he praaised Islam because that person was Muslim also as well his friend. He even praised Christianity and Buddhism as well in similar fashion. But interesting point even in this point he hold Advaita in a supreme position.
"Whether we call it Vedantism or any ism, the truth is that Advaitism is the last word of religion and thought and the only position from which one can look upon all religions and sects with love. I believe it is the religion of the future enlightened humanity. " Here it means he makes Advaita supreme.
During his journey to the West, Swami Vivekananda wrote a letter to Alasinga Perumal , dated 20 August 1893 (this is the seconds known letter written to Alasinga) where he said:-
"No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism. The Lord has shown me that religion is not in fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines of Pâramârthika and Vyâvahârika."
"The fault with all religions like Christianity is that they have one set of rules for all. But Hindu religion is suited to all grades of religious aspiration and progress. It contains all the ideals in their perfect form. For example, the ideal of Shanta or blessedness is to be found in Vasishtha; that of love in Krishna; that of duty in Rama and Sita; and that of intellect in Shukadeva. Study the characters of these and of other ideal men. Adopt one which suits you best."
(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 6/Notes Of Class Talks And Lectures/Notes Taken Down In Madras, 1892-93)
He was an unapologetic Hindu nationalist proof:-
During the residence of the Swamiji in America, he wrote a letter to Maharaja of Khetri (Rajputana), dated March 4th, 1895, where he beautifully describe this :-
"......In religion lies the vitality of India, and so long as the Hindu race do not forget the great inheritance of their forefathers, there is no power on earth to destroy them.
Nowadays everybody blames those who constantly look back to their past. It is said that so much looking back to the past is the cause of all India’s woes. To me, on the contrary, it seems that the opposite is true. So long as they forgot the past, the Hindu nation remained in a state of stupor; and as soon as they have begun to look into their past, there is on every side a fresh manifestation of life. It is out of this past that the future has to be moulded; this past will become the future.
The more, therefore, the Hindus study the past, the more glorious will be their future, and whoever tries to bring the past to the door of everyone, is a great benefactor to his nation. The degeneration of India came not because the laws and customs of the ancients were bad, but because they were not allowed to be carried to their legitimate conclusions.
Every critical student knows that the social laws of India have always been subject to great periodic changes. At their inception, these laws were the embodiment of a gigantic plan, which was to unfold itself slowly through time. The great seers of ancient India saw so far ahead of their time that the world has to wait centuries yet to appreciate their wisdom, and it is this very inability on the part of their own descendants to appreciate the full scope of this wonderful plan that is the one and only cause of the degeneration of India."
To know a man completely and understand his ideology we must also see how their close associates describes him, here is an example:-
SwamiVivekananda confided to Sister Nivedita: "The aim of my whole life is to make Hinduism aggressive, like Christianity & Islam".
Source:- The Complete Works of Sister Nivedita - Volume 1/Calcutta And The Holy Women/The Daily Round
Let's see some other quotes as well:-
On his arrival at Lahore the Swamiji was accorded a grand reception by the leaders, both of the Ârya Samâj and of the Sanâtana Dharma Sabhâ. During his brief stay in Lahore, Swamiji delivered three lectures. The first of these was on “The Common Bases of Hinduism”, the second on “Bhakti” , and the third one was the famous lecture on “The Vedanta” . On the first occasion he spoke as follows:-
"We are Hindus. I do not use the word Hindu in any bad sense at all, nor do I agree with those that think there is any bad meaning in it. In old times, it simply meant people who lived on the other side of the Indus; today a good many among those who hate us may have put a bad interpretation upon it, but names are nothing. Upon us depends whether the name Hindu will stand for everything that is glorious, everything that is spiritual, or whether it will remain a name of opprobrium, one designating the downtrodden, the worthless, the heathen. If at present the word Hindu means anything bad, never mind; by our action let us be ready to show that this is the highest word that any language can invent. It has been one of the principles of my life not to be ashamed of my own ancestors. I am one of the proudest men ever born, but let me tell you frankly, it is not for myself, but on account of my ancestry. The more I have studied the past, the more I have looked back, more and more has this pride come to me, and it has given me the strength and courage of conviction, raised me up from the dust of the earth, and set me working out that great plan laid out by those great ancestors of ours. Children of those ancient Aryans, through the grace of the Lord may you have the same pride, may that faith in your ancestors come into your blood, may it become a part and parcel of your lives, may it work towards the salvation of the world!"
"in search of religion, I had travelled among various sects — sects which had taken up the ideals of foreign nations as their own, and I had begged at the door of others, not knowing then that in the religion of my country, in our national religion, there was so much beauty and grandeur. It is now many years since I found Hinduism to be the most perfectly satisfying religion in the world."
[Source:- What have I learnt? – Swami Vivekananda (Delivered at Dacca, 30th March, 1901)]
[#NOTE:- This a very important point because he said this during his last days, because he died in 1902, and this quote itself shows his what he knows throughout his life that Hinduism is to be the most perfectly satisfying religion in the world according to him, after studying various Religions and their ideologies.]
In an interview which a representative of Prabuddha Bharata had asked Swamiji
'And what do you consider to be the function of your movement as regards India?’
Swamiji replied:- “To find the common bases of Hinduism and awaken the national consciousness to them.
(Reawakening Of Hinduism On A National Basis (Prabuddha Bharata, September, 1898))
This is one of my favourite quotes of Swamiji:-
"Again and again you hear this objection advanced:
“What good can religion do?
Can it take away the poverty of the poor?”
Supposing it cannot, would that prove the untruth of religion?
Suppose a baby stands up among you
when you are trying to demonstrate an astronomical theorem,
and says, “Does it bring gingerbread?”
“No, it does not”, you answer.
“Then,” says the baby, “it is useless.”
Babies judge the whole universe from their own standpoint, that of producing gingerbread, and so do the babies of the world."
—Swami Vivekananda
Swamiji about the converts of Hinduism
When the Mohammedans first came, we are said — I think on the authority of Ferishta, the oldest Mohammedan historian — to have been six hundred millions of Hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more.
"One thing we may note, that whereas you will find that good and great men of other countries take pride in tracing back their descent to some robber-baron who lived in a mountain fortress and emerged from time to time to plunder passing wayfarers, we Hindus, on the other hand, take pride in being the descendants of Rishis and sages who lived on roots and fruits in mountains and caves, meditating on the Supreme. We may be degraded and degenerated now; but however degraded and degenerated we may be, we can become great if only we begin to work in right earnest on behalf of our religion."
(Complete works Vol 3/ Lectures from Colombo to Almora/Reply to the Address of Welcome at Pamban)
"when a man has begun to hate himself, then the last blow has come. When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors."
"I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud that I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw. Therefore have faith in yourselves, be proud of your ancestors, instead of being ashamed of them."
(Complete works Vol 3/ Lectures from Colombo to Almora/common bases of Hinduism)
In an interview which a representative of Prabuddha Bharata, September, 1898
Swamiji said At present there are three parties in India included under the term ‘Hindu’ — the orthodox, the reforming sects of the Mohammedan period, and the reforming sects of the present time.
After discussing a lot of other things the
Interviewer asked “With which of the three parties you name do you identify yourself, Swamiji?”
He replied “With all of them. We are orthodox Hindus,” said the Swami, “but”, he added suddenly with great earnestness and emphasis, “we refuse entirely to identify ourselves with ‘Don’t-touchism’. That is not Hinduism: it is in none of our books; it is an unorthodox superstition which has interfered with national efficiency all along the line.”
However we must remember that Swamiji wasn't like mean Christian missionaries who uses dirty tricks to convert people in their cult. Here is proof:-
QUESTIONER: “I would like to ask, Swami, what special principle in Hindu Philosophy you would have us Americans, who are a very practical people, adopt, and what that would do for us beyond what Christianity can do.”
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: “That is very difficult for me to decide; it rests upon you. If you find anything which you think you ought to adopt, and which will be helpful, you should take that. You see I am not a missionary, and I am not going about converting people to my idea. My principle is that all such ideas are good and great, so that some of your ideas may suit some people in India, and some of our ideas may suit some people here; so ideas must be cast abroad, all over the world.”
(Delivered at the Shakespeare Club House, in Pasadena, California, on January 18, 1900)
Regarding the Hindu reforming sects snd disintegration of Hinduism he says:-
"The band of reformers in our country want, on the contrary, to build up a separate sect of their own. They have, however, done good work; may the blessings of God be showered on their heads! But why should you, Hindus, want to separate yourselves from the great common fold? Why should you feel ashamed to take the name of Hindu, which is your greatest and most glorious possession? This national ship of ours, ye children of the Immortals, my countrymen, has been plying for ages, carrying civilisation and enriching the whole world with its inestimable treasures."
[At an open-air meeting convened at Dacca, on the 31st March, 1901, the Swamiji spoke in English for two hours on the subject "The Religion We Are Born In" before a vast audience.]
2) Swami Vivekanand regarding food
Critics of his food habits quote that he was a Non-vegetarian and promote Non-vegetarian diet. For examples:-
"When the smoke from Yajnas used to rise in the Indian Sky & Hindus ate the meat of animals sacrificed, great religious geniuses & intellectual giants were born among them; but since drifting into Babaji's vegetarianism, not one great, original man arose midst them" ~#Vivekananda
#SwamiVivekananda lamented that the culture of Vegetarianism is ruining India. He advised Youth of India to eat large quantities of Fish & Meat. He argued that non-vegetarianism not only gives you physical strength, but also mental strength, & makes you brave, heroic & thoughtful
#SwamiVivekananda's Advice to a Young Disciple conflicted about eating meat: "People of India must be fed & clothed—must be awakened—must be made more fully active. Otherwise they'll become inert, as inert as trees & stones. So, I say, EAT large quantities of FISH & MEAT MY BOY!"
#SwamiVivekananda on vegetarian Vaishnavas:- Instances are found in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata of the drinking of wine and the taking of meat by Rama and Krishna, whom they worship as God. Sita Devi vows meat, rice, and a thousand jars of wine to the river-goddess, Ganga!"
Analysis:- I think this is an unnecessary topic to discuss about because he never force anybody to become vegetarian or Non-vegetarian. He himself admitted eating meat is ethically wrong, as per him those aren't bhaktas and do very hard work they should eat meat because it will give them strength, he himself clearly said Sattvik food is good for spiritual development.
"I am not be a very strict vegetarian, but I understand the ideal.
When I eat meat I know it is wrong. Even if I am bound to eat it under certain circumstances, I know it is cruel. I must not drag my ideal down to the actual and apologise for my weak conduct in this way. The ideal is not to eat flesh, not to injure any being, for all animals are my brothers. If you can think of them as your brothers, you have made a little headway towards the brotherhood of all souls, not to speak of the brotherhood of man! That is child’s play. "
(Delivered in London, 10th November 1896))
Swamiji 's views about food and food related rules:-
In a letter Written to Shrimati Saralâ Ghosal, B.A., Editor, Bhârati, from Darjeeling, 24th April, 1897. He said :-
•His Guru Thakur Ramkrishna Paramhans himself was vegetarian, but if he was given meat offered to the Goddess, he used to hold it up to his head.
•The taking of life is undoubtedly sinful; but so long as vegetable food is not made suitable to the human system through progress in chemistry, there is no other alternative but meat-eating. So long as man shall have to live a Râjasika (active) life under circumstances like the present, there is no other way except through meat-eating.
•who do not earn their livelihood by manual labour, not take meat; but the forcing of vegetarianism upon those who have to earn their bread by labouring day and night is one of the causes of the loss of our national freedom. Japan is an example of what good and nourishing food can do.
"The proper diet means, generally, simply do not eat highly spiced foods. There are three sorts of mind, says the Yogi, according to the elements of nature. One is the dull mind, which covers the luminosity of the soul. Then there is that which makes people active, and lastly, that which makes them calm and peaceful.
Now there are persons born with the tendency to sleep all the time. Their taste will be towards that type of food which is rotting — crawling cheese. They will eat cheese that fairly jumps off the table. It is a natural tendency with them.
Then active people. Their taste is for everything hot and pungent, strong alcohol….
Sâttvika people are very thoughtful, quiet, and patient. They take food in small quantities, and never anything bad.
I am always asked the question: “Shall I give up meat?” My Master said, “Why should you give up anything? It will give you up.” Do not give up anything in nature. Make it so hot for nature that she will give you up. There will come a time when you cannot possibly eat meat. The very sight of it will disgust you. There will come a time when many things you are struggling to give up will be distasteful, positively loathsome."
(Delivered in San Francisco, April 5, 1900)
He is not very much strict regarding social customs:-
(Delivered at the Washington Hall, San Francisco, on March 16, 1900)
3) Swami Vivekanand ate beef:-
Critics often claim this that he ate beef.
Analysis:- There were allegations against Swami Vivekananda that during in his stay in the United States, he ate beef.
Here is a good article regarding this topic:- https://vivekavani.com/did-swami-vivekananda-eat-beef/
In short Dr. Barrows told that he observed Swami Vivekananda eating beef in the United states. However we don't know whether Dr. Barrows’ allegations were true or false, but we must note that Dr. Barrows was not a supporter and well-wisher of Vivekananda and the relationship between him and Vivekananda did not remain friendly and nice always. Also note, it took Barrows almost 4 years to report the restaurant incident. And also he was a hardcore Christian, his wish was to get recognition of Christianity as the best religion in the world which was not a So, it was highly probable.
It is not clear whether he ate beef or was it a conspiracy against him, we don't know.
4) Vivekananda's views targeted as Racism:-
When he visited USA for the first time, was in in TOTAL AWE of women there. NOT African American women, but WHITE American women, He called Indian women "BLACK OWLS" in comparison.
"Even the most beautiful woman of our country will look like a black owl here. Yet it must be admitted that the women of the Punjab have very well-drawn features."
~ Swami Vivekanand
Letter from USA to M. Bhattacharya (1894)
Analysis:- The statement here is nothing related to any kind of racism, it was just a simple declamatory statement. He himself was a dark skin man. Here are certain things which clear that he never had any kind of racist mindset:-
"We are all human beings; but some are men, and some are women. Here is a black man, there is a white man; but all are men, all belong to one humanity. Various are our faces; I see no two alike, yet we are all human beings. Where is this one humanity? I find a man or a woman, either dark or fair; and among all these faces I know that there is an abstract humanity which is common to all. I may not find it when I try to grasp it, to sense it, and to actualise it, yet I know for certain that it is there. If I am sure of anything, it is of this humanity which is common to us all."
(The Ideal Of A Universal Religion HOW IT MUST EMBRACE DIFFERENT TYPES OF MINDS AND METHODS)"If the Europeans do not like us, Aryas, because we are dark, let them take another name for themselves — what is that to us?
Whether black or white, it does not matter; but of all the nations of the world, the Hindus are the handsomest and finest in feature. I am not bragging nor saying anything in exaggeration because they belong to my own nationality, but this fact is known all over the world. Where else can one find a higher percentage of fine-featured men and women than in India?"
"The Englishmen here are very friendly. Except a few Anglo-Indians, they do not hate black men at all. Not even do they hoot at me in the streets. Sometimes I wonder whether my face has turned white, but the mirror tells the truth. Yet they are all so friendly here."
Long after Southern magnates in America had apologized to Vivekananda when they learned that he had been mistaken for a Negro and was thus refused admission into hotels, the Swami remarked to himself:-
“What! rise at the expense of another! I didn’t come to earth for that! . . . If I am grateful to my white-skinned Aryan ancestor, I am far more so to my yellow-skinned Mongolian ancestor and, most so of all, to the black-skinned Negritoid!” (CWSN 1: 153)
5)Vivekananda's views about Women:-
Critics often points to prove he was mysogynist here are such examples they quote Randomly:-
SwamiVivekananda on Women in Hinduism: "The one thing that fulfills womanhood, that is womanliness in woman, is motherhood. Wait till she becomes a mother; then she'll have the same right. That, according to the Hindu mind, is the great mission of woman — to become a mother."
' Vivekananda and his gurubhais at the Baranagar Math used to refer to women as magi, that is, "whore." The young renouncers who habitually moved about in the monastery stark naked would cry out on seeing women visitors: "The magis are coming."
The Swami did not seem to consider women capable of mature behavior. Thus he declared in Madras, rather nonchalantly, that "through centuries of slavery, we have become the nation of women. [...] Women are not only quarrelsome by nature, they are also meddlesome."
"In fact, he was quite explicit and deliberate about his attitude to femininity. In his letter written from Almora to Akhandananda he declared: "I am a fighter [bir] and will die in the battlefield. It does not behoove me to sit idle like a woman here."
' His androcentrism was so pronounced that he once told Nivedita: "Yes, the older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is my gospel. Do even evil like a man!"
Vivekananda unwittingly revealed his gender bias when he told his audience in Boston that one of the mutineers (of 1857) led by the Rani of Jhansi regarded the queen as "a goddess" & reportedly confessed to the Swami that "when overcome, she fell on her sword & died like a man"
The Swami often equated femininity with effeminacy.'
"Through the preaching of that love broadcast, the nation has become effeminate--a race of women! The whole of Orissa has been turned into a land of cowards, and Bengal, running high after the Radha-prema, these past 400 years, has almost lost all sense of manliness"
'Vivekananda ridiculed his gurubhais Premananda (Baburam Ghosh) and Yogananda (Yogindranath Raychaudhuri) who, as devotees of the late Paramahamsa, followed the path of devotion, as effeminate in that theirs was an attitude of a helpless and hapless woman (deenaheena bhava).'
He admonished them to get rid of such a mentality by reflecting: "I am the Soul, how could I be sick? Deenaheena for what?" He similarly disparaged Christianity as effeminate devotionalism (meyeli bhaktir dharma) in a conversation with a friend.'
Vivekananda found inspiration to become a monk after reading this couplet:-
O desire, you are the lowliest of
the lowly [ati neechan ki neech],
like a woman of the caste of sweepers or tanners [chamari].
Had you not come inside me, I would have remained a Brahman
Women, slaves to their own irritable, jealous tempers, are apt to blame their husbands, and assert their own “freedom”, as they think, not knowing that thereby they only prove that they are slaves.
Analysis:- I can quote similar quotations from his works where he praised women, and wrote many things for upliftment of Women. But I will not quote anything randomly, we need to understand his view properly:-
Why Motherliness complete a woman ? for this statement of Vivekananda we have to understand him and his upbringing and his deep emotional connection with his mother.
His mother, Bhuvaneswari, played her part in bringing out Narendranath’s innate virtues. When he told her, one day, of having been unjustly treated in school, she said to him, in consolation: ‘My child, what does it matter, if you are in the right? Always follow the truth without caring about the result.
Very often you may have to suffer injustice or unpleasant consequences for holding to the truth; but you must not, under any circumstances, abandon it.’ Many years later Narendranath proudly said to an audience, ‘I am indebted to my mother for whatever knowledge I have acquired."
"The very peculiarity of Hindu women, which they have developed and which is the idea of their life, is that of the mother. If you enter a Hindu's home, you will not find the wife to be the same equal companion of the husband as you find her here. But when you find the mother, she is the very pillar of the Hindu home. The wife must wait to become the mother, and then she will be everything."
"If one becomes a monk, his father will have to salute him first because he has become a monk and is therefore superior to him. But to his mother he — monk or no monk — will have to go down on his knees and prostrate himself before her. He will then put a little cup of water before her feet, she will dip her toe in it, and he will have to drink of it. A Hindu son gladly does this a thousand times over again!
Where the Vedas teach morality, the first words are, “Let the mother be your God" (Taittiriya Upanishad 1.11.) — and that she is. When we talk of woman in India, our idea of woman is mother. The value of women consists in their being mothers of the human race. That is the idea of the Hindu.
have seen my old master taking little girls by the hands, placing them in a chair and actually worshipping them — placing flowers at their feet and prostrating himself before these little children — because they represented the mother God.
The mother is the God in our family. The idea is that the only real love that we see in the world, the most unselfish love, is in the mother — always suffering, always loving. And what love can represent the love of God more than the love which we see in the mother? Thus the mother is the incarnation of God on earth to the Hindu.
Swami Vivekananda would go on to gratefully confess that, “I know that before I was born, my mother would fast and pray and do hundreds of things which I could not even do for five minutes. She did that for two years. I believe that whatever religious culture I have, I owe to that. It was consciously that my mother brought me into the world to be what I am. Whatever good impulse I have was given to me by my mother – and consciously, not unconsciously.” Swami Vivekananda, “The Women of India” (Lecture delivered at Cambridge, December 17, 1894), Lectures and Discourses, Volume 9, Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.
His emotions regarding motherly love also clear from this statement:-
"The highest of all feminine types in India is mother, higher than wife. Wife and children may desert a man, but his mother never. Mother is the same or loves her child perhaps a little more. Mother represents colourless love that knows no barter, love that never dies. Who can have such love? — only mother, not son, nor daughter, nor wife."
(Based on fragmentary notes of a class talk by Swami Vivekananda in New York.)
But critics often portray this simplicity into something else that he wanted to mean that Motherliness is the complete of womenhood, and no women will complete until unless she became mother, then the question comes why did he said this ?
"The natural ambition of woman is through marriage to climb up, leaning upon a man; but those days are gone. You shall be great without the help of any man, just as you are."
(This is from a letter written to Miss Josephine MacLeod.THE MATH, BELUR,
HOWRAH DIST.,14th June, 1901)
Regarding the second claim that he & his gurubhai addressed women as Magi(whore) is absurd because The word magi did not originate as a bad word. Many famous writers of that time including Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay used this term in their literature. I don't know from when the term became almost obsolete in Bengali literature. Even still today villagers used this word to addressed their wives and daughters.
Regarding his patriarchal behaviour and statements, here are certain points which need to focus:-
"No man shall dictate to a woman; nor a woman to a man. Each one is independent. What bondage there may be is only that of love. Women will work out their own destinies -- much better, too, than men can ever do for them. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny of women."
(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 8/Lectures And Discourses/My Life And Mission)
From the above statement does it anywhere seems he was patriarchal mentality?
And the above statement was Delivered at the Shakespeare Club of Pasadena, California, on January 27, 1900. Which means it was just 2 years before his death, it means this is not his early life views but very much of his last years.
In a letter dated July 29, 1897, the Swami wrote to Sister Nivedita:-
“Let me tell you frankly that I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man but a woman, a real lioness, to work for the Indians – women especially."
"That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future. The principal reason why your race has so much degenerated is that you have no respect for these living images of Shakti."
"The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women."
"There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of woman is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing."
In an interview:-
Q. — Why are the women of India not much elevated?
A. — It is in a great degree owing to the barbarous invaders through different ages; it is partly due to the people of India themselves.
(At the Brooklyn Ethical Society, Brooklyn, U. S. A.)
His view of ideal Indian women:-
"It is very difficult to understand why in this country so much difference is made between men and women, whereas the Vedanta declares that one and the same conscious Self is present in all beings. You always criticise the women, but say what have you done for their uplift? Writing down Smritis etc., and binding them by hard rules, the men have turned the women into mere manufacturing machines! If you do not raise the women, who are the living embodiment of the Divine Mother, don't think that you have any other way to rise."
"women who are the living embodiment of Divine Mother, whose external manifestations, appealing to the senses have maddened men, but whose internal manifestations, such as knowledge, devotion, discrimination and dispassion make man omniscient, of unfailing purpose, and a knower of Brahman. "सैषा प्रसन्ना वरदा नृणां भवति मुक्तये -- she, when pleased, becomes propitious and the cause of the freedom of man" (Chandi, I. 57). Without propitiating the Mother by worship and obeisance, not even Brahma and Vishnu have the power to elude Her grasp and attain to freedom. Therefore for the worship of these family goddesses, in order to manifest the Brahman within them, I shall establish the women's Math."
Another interesting instance:-
QUESTIONER: “We would like to know the result of your philosophy; has your philosophy and religion lifted your women above our women?”
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: “You see, that is a very invidious question: I like our women and your women too.”
Regarding education of Indian women here you will find his complete views :-
Source:- Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda - by Advaita Ashrama pg no.140
Women Initiation in his order :-
Swamiji cheerfully raised the topic of his future Math for women, saying, "With the Holy Mother as the centre of inspiration, a Math is to be established on the eastern bank of the Ganga. As Brahmacharins and Sadhus will be trained in this Math here, so in the other Math also, Brahmacharinis and Sadhvis will be trained."
Here is the full link:- https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Complete_Works_of_Swami_Vivekananda/Volume_7/Conversations_And_Dialogues/XVIII
Conclusion:-
"Any attempt to modernise our women, if it tries to take our women away from that ideal of Sita, is immediately a failure, as we see every day. The women of India must grow and develop in the footprints of Sita, and that is the only way."
(Complete works of Vivekananda Vol-3/ lectures from Colombo to Almora/The sages of India)
Here lies his whole view if anyone have any problem then it's their problem.
6) Vivekananda not only supported caste system but admirer of Child-marriage as well:-
Analysis:- His views regarding Caste-system I will discuss in my next article, on this article at first let's see his views regarding child-marriage, widow re-marriage like issues.
In this two quotes is enough to understand his view of social reforms:-
"Educate your women first and leave them to themselves; then they will tell you what reforms are necessary for them. In matters concerning them, who are you?"
Source:- Notes taken down in Madras, 1892-93
"Women will work out their own destinies — much better, too, than men can ever do for them. All the mischief to women has come because men undertook to shape the destiny of women."
Source:- (Delivered at the Shakespeare Club of Pasadena, California, on January 27, 1900)
There are some quotations where he criticized Child marriage like as follows:-
"We are very regular in marrying our girls at eleven years of age lest they should become corrupt and immoral. What does our Manu enjoin? “Daughters should be supported and educated with as much care and attention as the sons.” As sons should be married after observing Brahmacharya up to the thirtieth year, so daughters also must observe Brahmacharya and be educated by their parents. But what are we actually doing? Can you better the condition of your women? Then there will be hope for your well-being. Otherwise you will remain as backward as you are now."
(To C/O GEORGE W. HALE ESQ.,
541 DEARBORN AVENUE, CHICAGO,
28th December, 1893.)
"I have a strong hatred for child-marriage. I have suffered terribly from it, and it is the great sin for which our nation has to suffer. As such, I would hate myself if I help such a diabolical custom directly or indirectly."
(In a letter To Swami Saradananda, NEW YORK, 23rd December, 1895.)
The tremendous engine of competition will destroy everything. If you are to live at all, you must adjust yourself to the times. If we are to live at all, we must be a scientific nation. Intellectual power is the force. You must learn the power of organisation of the Europeans. You must become educated and must educate your women. You must abolish child marriage.
(Notes taken down in Madras, 1892-93 )
"Society nowadays does not follow the texts recommending child - marriage nor will do so in future. Even now don't you see?"
(The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 7/Conversations And Dialogues/XVIII)
Regarding widow re-marriage:-
Even the Vedas contain a trace of it in the provision, that when a man died without leaving any children, his widow was permitted to live with another man, until she became a mother; but the children she bore did not belong to their father, but to her dead husband” (Vivekananda 2006, p. 691).
(Brooklyn Standard Union, January 21, 1895)
"the prohibition of widow-marriage in our country. Don’t think that Rishis or wicked men introduced the law pertaining to it. Notwithstanding the desire of men to keep women completely under their control, they never could succeed in introducing those laws without betaking themselves to the aid of a social necessity of the time. Of this custom two points should be specially observed:
(a) Widow-marriage takes place among the lower classes.
(b) Among the higher classes the number of women is greater than that of men.
Now, if it be the rule to marry every girl, it is difficult enough to get one husband apiece; then how to get, in succession, two or three for each? Therefore has society put one party under disadvantage, i.e. it does not let her have a second husband, who has had one; if it did, one maid would have to go without a husband. On the other hand, widow-marriage obtains in communities having a greater number of men than women, as in their case the objection stated above does not exist. It is becoming more and more difficult in the West, too, for unmarried girls to get husbands.
Similar is the case with the caste system and other social customs.
So, if it be necessary to change any social custom the necessity underlying it should be found out first of all, and by altering it, the custom will die of itself. Otherwise no good will be done by condemnation or praise."
(In a letter to Shrimati Mrinalini Bose; DEOGHAR, VAIDYANATH. 3rd January, 1899.)
"Old men sometimes marry children, but if the husband was wealthy it was all the better for the widow the sooner he died. I have traveled all over India, but failed to see a case of the ill treatment mentioned."
Most of the reforms that have been agitated for during the past century have been ornamental. Every one of these reforms only touches the first two castes, and no other. The question of widow marriage would not touch seventy per cent of the Indian women, and all such questions only reach the higher castes of Indian people who are educated, mark you, at the expense of the masses. Every effort has been spent in cleaning their own houses. But that is no reformation. You must go down to the basis of the thing, to the very root of the matter. That is what I call radical reform. Put the fire there and let it burn upwards and make an Indian nation. And the solution of the problem is not so easy, as it is a big and a vast one. Be not in a hurry, this problem has been known several hundred years.
Now comes another peculiar Indian institution. I have just told you that in the first two or three castes the widows are not allowed to marry. They cannot, even if they would. Of course, it is a hardship on many. There is no denying that not all the widows like it very much, because non-marrying entails upon them the life of a student. That is to say, a student must not eat meat or fish, nor drink wine, nor dress except in white clothes, and so on; there are many regulations. We are a nation of monks — always making penance, and we like it. Now, you see, a woman never drinks wine or eats meat. It was a hardship on us when we were students, but not on the girls. Our women would feel degraded at the idea of eating meat. Men eat meat sometimes in some castes; women never. Still, not being allowed to marry must be a hardship to many; I am sure of that.
Read this :-
Conclusion:- Regarding social customs and reforms and many other issues people may find his his views are inconsistent, for that read it here it explained beautifully:-
Another interesting point regarding social reforms:-
"The Westerners say that child-marriage is the root of all evils, therefore that is also very bad, of a certainty it is!. . . We are not discussing here whether these customs deserve continuance or rejection; but if the mere disapproval of the Westerners be the measure of the abominableness of our manners and customs, then it is our duty to raise our emphatic protest against it."
(Translated from a Bengali contribution to the Udbodhana, March 1899)
7) Criticism of Religions:-
People often claims he criticize Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism etc. Even he criticized great Religious figures like Adi Shankaracharya, Veda vyasa, Buddha, Muhammad, etc etc.
Analysis:- Indeed he criticized all Religions but if your read his works properly you will know he also praised what is good in each and every Religion in his eyes. Same for Religious figures as well. Nothing bother about this issue Everyone have different opinions.
8) Vivekananda was a chain Smoker ?
Analysis:- Yes it is true he did smoke but as I said earlier he didn't promote it.
In one incident recorded in REMINISCENCES OF SWAMI as follow:-
"It was in one of the rooms of this garden-house that I talked directly with Swamiji for the first time. Swamiji was then sitting within and I went and prostrated myself before him. There was nobody else in the room. Suddenly, I do not know why, Swamiji asked me. "Do you smoke?" I replied, "No", to which Swamiji replied, "Very well, smoking is not good. I am also trying to leave it off."
"I wish I were malleable enough to be moulded into whatever one desired, but unfortunately I never saw a man who could satisfy everyone. Nor can anyone who has to go to different places possibly satisfy all."~ Swami Vivekanand
9) Swami Vivekanand's views about Beef eating:-
Critics pointed out certain quotes from his speeches such as follows:-
There was a time in this very India when, without eating beef, no Brahmin could remain a Brahmin; you read in the Vedas how, when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed; how in time it was found that as we were an agricultural race, killing the best bulls meant annihilation of the race. Therefore the practice was stopped, and a voice was raised against the killing of cows.~ Swami Vivekanand
"This is Swami Vivekananda talking about ''beef-eating ancient gods''.
it is improper to hold many texts on the same subject to be contradicted by one or two. But why then are the long-continued customs of Madhuparka and the like repealed by one or two such texts as, “The horse sacrifice, the cow sacrifice, Sannyasa, meat-offerings in Shrâddha”, etc.? If the Vedas are eternal, then what are the meaning and justification of such specifications as “this rule of Dharma is for the age of Dvâpara,” “this for the age of Kali”, and so forth?
The Vedas have two parts, mandatory and optional. The mandatory injunctions are eternally binding on us. They constitute the Hindu religion. The optional ones are not so. These have been changing and been changed by the Rishis to suit the times. The Brahmins at one time ate beef and married Sudras. [A] calf was killed to please a guest.
Sudras cooked for Brahmins. The food cooked by a male Brahmin was regarded as polluted food. But we have changed our habits to suit the present yug[a].
(Madura Mail, January 28, 1893)
"You will be astonished if I tell you that, according to the old ceremonials, he is not a good Hindu who does not eat beef. On certain occasions he must sacrifice a bull and eat it. That is disgusting now. However they may differ from each other in India, in that they are all one — they never eat beef. The ancient sacrifices and the ancient gods, they are all gone; modern India belongs to the spiritual part of the Vedas."
(Delivered at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, on February 2, 1900)
"Buddha dealt a blow at animal sacrifice from which India has never recovered; and Buddha said, ‘Kill no cows’, and cow-killing is an impossibility with us.”
Analysis:- Let's see what Swamiji actually stated on these places.
"This is one fact we have to learn that the Vedas being eternal will be one and the same throughout all ages, but the Smritis will have an end. As time rolls on, more and more of the Smritis will go, sages will come, and they will change and direct society into better channels, into duties and into paths which accord with the necessity of the age, and without which it is impossible that society can live."~ Swami Vivekanand
"Every man, in every age, in every country is under peculiar circumstances.
If the circumstances change, ideas also must change. Beef-eating was once moral. The climate was cold, and the cereals were not much known. Meat was the chief food available. So in that age and clime, beef was in a manner indispensable. But beef-eating is held to be immoral now."
Here the main motto was that he based on time certain things changed in Religion, he was not admiring beef eating there. He just said there was a period when Brahmins used to eat beef and when a Sannyasin, a king, or a great man came into a house, the best bullock was killed.
If we are not biased and look then you will see what he said wasn't completely wrong nor fully right.
Not only other animals, but even the cow, was on certain occasions killed according to the grhya and dharma sutras on several occasions e.g.:-
(1)in sraddhas(Apastamba Dharma Sutra.11.7.16.25 },
(2) for a distinguished guest in Madhuparka(Ashvalayan
grhyasutras I.24.22-26, Vasistha Dharma Sutra.IV.8 ),
(3) in the Astaka Sraddha (Hiranyakeshi grhyasutra II.15.1, Baudhayana grhyasutras.II.11.51, Vaikhanasa .IV. 3 ),
(4) a bull in the Sulagava sacrifice (Ashvalayan grhyasutra IV.9.10).
In the Aitreya Brahmana(3.4) when it says that ' if the ruler of men comes as a guest or anyone else deserving of honour comes, people kill a bull or a cow (that has contracted a habit of abortion) ' refers to Madhuparka, though that word is not actually used.
Recipe of Madhuparka in details:-
Those who criticize Swamiji for saying this then they must criticize Historian RC Majumdar as well. Even in his book "The Vedic Age":-
Conclusion from Rc Majumdar's book:-
1)it was the flesh of the ox rather than of the cow that was eaten;
2) The flesh of the cow was (if at all) eaten at the sacrifices only, and it is well known that one sacrifices one’s dearest possession to please the god
3) Even in the Rigveda, only Vasās (barren cows) were sacrificed.
However we do find different scenarios in scriptures as well
In Rg-VIII.101.16. the cow is called ‘devi'
In the Rigveda itself the cow is frequently called ‘ aghnya'[eg. Rg.I.164.27 and 40,
IV.1.6, V.S3.8,
VIII,69.21,
X.87.16
Not only RC Majumdar Even PV Kane in his History of Dharmasashtras Vol-2 part-2 said:-
However beef in scriptures is a controversial topic there are other opinions of scholars as well for example:- "A REVIEW OF BEEF BY GITA PRESS" there they interpreted those verses differently they argue there is no beef in texts rather those words which are interpreted as beef was actually something else, for which they also quoted numerous Indian sources.
Conclusion:- The topic is itself controversial and scholars have different opinions regarding this issue, so we cannot criticize Swamiji based on this point.
Moreover Swamiji even said that as per him common feature among hindus is that they do not eat beef.
"In Nepal, a Brâhmin can marry in the four Varnas; while in Bengal, a Brahmin cannot marry even among the subdivisions of his own caste. So on and so forth. But in the midst of all these differences we note one point of unity among all Hindus, and it is this, that no Hindu eats beef. In the same way, there is a great common ground of unity underlying the various forms and sects of our religion."
Source: SV Complete Works, Page: 552
"Hindus from North to South are only agreed on one point, viz. on not eating beef.”~ Swami Vivekanand
#However Note he also used to believe that Buddha dealt a blow at animal sacrifice from which India has never recovered; and Buddha said, ‘Kill no cows’, and cow-killing is an impossibility with us.” This is absolutely wrong from historical point of view As we already know in Rigveda VIII.101.
15 and16 where the cow is described to be the mother of Rudras,the daughter of Vasus,the sister of Adityas and the centre of nectar ’ and the sage winds up by praying to the knowing man ‘ do not kill the cow, that is innocent and is Aditi herself.
10)Supporter of Aryan Invasion Theory:-
"The Persians and Hindus [share the Aryan ancestry] upon religious grounds, and ... they spoke the same language, only the words one sect uses for good the other uses for bad. The word Deva is an old Sanskrit word for God, the same word in the Aryan languages."
"The first invaders of India, the Aryans, did not try to exterminate the population of India as the Christians have done when they went into a new land, but the endeavour was made to elevate persons of brutish habits."
(Saginaw Evening News, March 22, 1894)
"Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda" - Volume 4
"The problems in India are more complicated, more momentous, than the problems in any other country. Race, religion, language, government — all these together make a nation The elements which compose the nations of the world are indeed very few, taking race after race, compared to this country.
Here have been the Aryan, the Dravidian, the Tartar, the Turk, the Mogul, the European — all the nations of the world, as it were, pouring their blood into this land."
"Those of you that have been to hear the first lecture already know that in India there are two great races: one is called the Aryan; the other, the non-Aryan. It is the Aryan race that has the three castes;
but the whole of the rest are dubbed with one name, Shudras — no caste. They are not Aryans at all. (Many people came from outside of India, and they found the Shudras [there], the aborigines of the country)."
Analysis:- He may have believed in Aryan Migration theory in his earlier days, because at that time it was a common theory, even Tilak also advocated Aryan migration theory. Moreover Swamiji's views changed gradually with time.
"There is a theory that there was a race of mankind in Southern India called Dravidians, entirely differing from another race in Northern India called the Aryans, and that the Southern India Brâhmins are the only Aryans that came from the North, the other men of Southern India belong to an entirely different caste and race to those of Southern India Brahmins. Now I beg your pardon, Mr. Philologist, this is entirely unfounded. The only proof of it is that there is a difference of language between the North and the South. I do not see any other difference.
We are so many Northern men here, and I ask my European friends to pick out the Northern and Southern men from this assembly. Where is the difference? A little difference of language. But the Brahmins are a race that came here speaking the Sanskrit language! Well then, they took up the Dravidian language and forgot their Sanskrit. Why should not the other castes have done the same?
Why should not all the other castes have come one after the other from Northern India, taken up the Dravidian language, and so forgotten their own?
That is an argument working both ways. Do not believe in such silly things.
There may have been a Dravidian people who vanished from here, and the few who remained lived in forests and other places. It is quite possible that the language may have been taken up, but all these are Aryans who came from the North. The whole of India is Aryan, nothing else."
"there is not one word in our scriptures, not one, to prove that the Aryan ever came from anywhere outside of India, and in ancient India was included Afghanistan. There it ends. And the theory that the Shudra caste were all non-Aryans and they were a multitude, is equally illogical and equally irrational."~ Swami Vivekanand
"the more you go on fighting and quarrelling about all trivialities such as “Dravidian” and “Aryan”, and the question of Brahmins and non-Brahmins and all that, the further you are off from that accumulation of energy and power which is going to make the future India."
Who is an Aryan as per Swamiji:-
"According to Manu a child who is born of lust is not an Aryan. The child whose very conception and whose death is according to the rules of the Vedas, such is an Aryan.
Comments
Post a Comment