The Role of Swami Vivekananda in Reviving Hinduism - Essay Example

19 April Assignment Swami Vivekananda, a chief disciple of Ramakrishna, is a world renowned Hindu saint who preached the teachings and goodness of the Gita and has worked on various Indian philosophies ranging from the Vedanta to the Yoga and has also contributed immensely towards marking Hinduism as a world religion. In modern day India, he has played a vital role in reviving Hinduism among people. Swami Vivekananda has also delivered many speeches on interfaith awareness, one of his renowned speeches being titled ‘Sisters and Brothers of America’, which he delivered in Chicago. Referring to the Bhagavad Gita, he has made use of the Yogas and Vedantas in order to help people understand the importance and implementation of the major themes namely Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga and Jnana Yoga. (Vivekananda Kendra) Vivekananda was born in Calcutta on 12th January, 1863 to a Bengali Kayastha family and his birth name was Narendra Nath Datta. He was influenced greatly by both his parents; his father helped him to inculcate within him a sense of logical thinking equipped with rationality whereas his mother assisted him on thinking along the lines of religious spirituality. His guru Ramakrishna also played a major role in his life by teaching him about the faith and service that a man devotes to God and how this service is the same in all religions to all Gods. Swami Vivekananda also was heavily influenced by the teachings in the Bhagavad Gita and remarked on an allegory of the war taking place on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. He stated that the war was a metaphor of the war that is constantly raging within the mind of a human being with respect to good and evil and what he should give in to. In 1881, Vivekananda experienced a turning point in his life as he met Ramakrishna; it is surprising to note that at first he revolted against all of the ideas of the guru and did not accept him as his senior; he had his own views regarding spirituality and did not believe in Ramakrishna’s vision. However, during the course of studying for five years under him, he began to accept his views and became a man ready to renounce the world in order to understand the realization a man achieves by being close to God. When Ramakrishna began suffering from throat cancer, Vivekananda formed a monastic group of which he was a part of and was given the duty to look after all the other disciples and take forward his teachings. From 1888 to 1893 Vivekananda wandered all over India as a monk with nothing but a pot of water and the robes on his back. He carried with him a copy of the Imitation of the Christ and the Bhagavad Gita and during the course of this journey he was able to understand people from different walks of life as he stayed with, and interacted with all kinds of people from all over the country. (Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda) After 1893, Vivekananda began travelling abroad with his first visit to Japan. He was very impressed by the cleanliness in the Japanese lifestyle; both in their way of living as well as their attitude. From there on, he visited Chicago where he was taken to the Parliament of World Religions by Prof. John Henry Wright of Harvard University. Vivekananda has hosted several lectures on his tours across England and America and after coming back to India, founded the Ramakrishna Mission all over the country where young learners are taught about the Gita as well as other world religions with emphasis on Hinduism. He has tried to keep Ramakrishna’s message and vision alive by spreading the word about God and self-realization. The essence of his teachings has best been described through a Vedanta philosophy of the soul as potentially divine. He is also considered to be a social reformer as he worked to help the poor and made provisions of providing them with food, shelter as well as knowledge through the Ramakrishna Missions set up throughout the country. The Bhagavad Gita is a 700 verse discourse in Sanskrit, a part of the Sanskrit epic titled the Mahabharata written by Valmiki. Also known as the Gita, this book of religious scriptures forms the single most important text of Hinduism because it contains a great number of teachings under the branch of philosophy. The purview under which the Gita has been set is a conversation between Lord Krishna and the Pandava prince, Arjuna, in the middle of the battlefield of Kurukshetra right before the war was to commence. However, is it possible for an individual to attain such spiritual enlightenment in a realm of consciousness? Although if it were easy, then every man would know and practice justice, which is not the case; The possibility of attaining spiritual enlightenment by following the holy text of the Gita is rampant in an individual's sub conscious and needs to be tapped in order for him to feel it, by reading the verses and making personal revelations. (Swami Vivekananda) Lord Krishna answers questions regarding the moral dilemmas that Arjuna has been facing regarding battling his own cousins who imposed tyrannical rule over the empire, by turning despotic. Krishna takes it upon himself to advocate the duties that a warrior and a prince should have, elaborating the same to Arjuna, through the ideas of ‘karma’, ‘moksha’, ‘Samkhya’ and the various ‘yogas’. The Gita is also called the ‘Song of the Divine One’ and is an attempt to explain the purpose of life to Arjuna via the attainment of enlightenment by understanding the dedication one should have towards the worship of God. The discourse takes place as Krishna urges Arjuna to fight the battle despite his friends and relatives being on the other side and thus explains to him the necessity for the war in order to establish a just society. He does the same by trying to explain to Arjuna how one must fight without any sort of guilt on a battlefield because the soul of a person always remains eternal and thus cannot be destroyed or made to lose its lustre. In the context of the soul, Krishna says, “It is not killed when the body is killed… the embodied self discards its worn-out bodies to take on other new ones.” (Sa?karacarya) The body is like a material part of the ephemeral world that man lives within and merely is a house for the soul for a temporary period of time before the body decays and the soul moves into another body for shelter. (Vivekananda, Swami) This very soul is made of God’s energy according to the Gita, and thus, has a permanent form and is infinite in nature. “Learned men do not grieve for the dead or the living. Never have I not existed… never in the future shall we cease to exist.” (Sa?karacarya) Krishna’s words are an attempt to explain to Arjuna how he should not have second thoughts about fighting because this is the only opportunity that he has in order to bring about peace in the land by winning the battle. Everyone is aware of the fact that the battle cannot be won without Arjuna’s skills and thus he is made to understand that even if he dies during the fight, his soul will attain peace and enlightenment in the form of another body. However, pertaining to the thesis, spiritual attainment should come to every man in order to make him understand that the war should not be fought in the first place because even though it promises to bring about balance, it also is a cause for a vast amount of bloodshed and spread of hatred among the people, something that God should initially condemn, looking at the philosophy that He teaches. Thus, this brings about a debate on whether or not spiritual attainment is possible at all and how it may help people to restore unity and humanity. The aspects of ‘karma’ and ‘dharma’ have been explained within the subsequent verses as Krishna reveals to Arjuna that he is in fact the divine God Vishnu, and descends upon the Earth from time to time in order to protect the people and make sure that fairness and truth prevail. He descends in the form of a human being in order to protect the ‘dharma’ of the people, or the good deeds that they do and help them understand why living such a life is important instead of doing wrong. This has been explained as ‘what one does is what one gets.’ The concept of ‘karma’ means the fruit that the person receives upon acting in a certain manner, and the sweetness of the same depends on the sweetness with which the action was carried out, figuratively. Swami Vivekananda questions that on understanding the same within the concept of this battle isn’t it obvious to note that if Arjuna does fight and kill his enemies, he will reap what he has sown in the form of more bloodshed and hatred faced by people within the land? Karma affects the spirit of a man and makes him what he is, thus one may wonder whether or not it is the karma ultimately that brings about spiritual enlightenment? (Adiswarananda, Swami) The Gita also provides moral life lessons, philosophical topics pertaining to life, expressions of the purpose of life as well as how a human being should rightfully exist in tandem with others, through the words of Krishna to Arjuna. This over the years has become the holy text of the Hindus who follow the teachings and have incorporated the same into their lives. The main lesson that the text teaches is how a person must be able to attain enlightenment and cleansing themselves of all the sins that they have committed during the course of their lifetime by worshipping in God and devoting all of one’s duties to Him. As per the Gita, God grants the freedom to people of either believing in His supremacy or ignoring the same. Once someone ignores Him, he moves into the material world for a short period of time because God’s energy is eternal and so powerful that it is capable to bring a man back from the material world full of pointless pleasure, and into a divine one that makes a difference. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings also contain these words of wisdom if one looks at them closely and understand the inherent meaning within his works on Vedanta and Yoga philosophy. Works Cited Adiswarananda, Swami. Vivekananda, World Teacher : His Teachings on the Spiritual Unity of Humankind. Woodstock, Vermont: Skylight Paths, 2006. Print. Sa?karacarya. The Bhagavad Gita. Madras: Samata, 1977. Print. "Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda." Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. . "Swami Vivekananda." About.com Hinduism. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. . Vivekananda, Swami. Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 9. Advaita Ashrama, 2001. Print. "Vivekananda Kendra | Spiritually Oriented Service Mission." Vivekananda Kendra. Web. 21 Apr. 2012. . Read More