We Indians today are in the habit of looking at our Independence Day from the perspective of the year 1947. We have trained ourselves to look at this day as the day on which we became politically free from the British Rule over us. This is true in a limited sense only. There is a larger perspective from which we ought to look at this day. Those of us who are the followers of Swami Vivekananda however look at this day from the perspective of the entire history of this glorious land. Swamiji articulated his alternative reading of our history, as opposed to the popular version instituted by the European historians, in his various writings such as Modern India, Evolution of Indian History, etc. In the following dissertation, we shall try to elaborate this alternate version, not as a comprehensive theory of Indian history, but rather as a starting point for a new discourse on our history – an Indian view of Indian history, if one may call it so.[1]
Indian history, as we know it today, from various recorded sources, can be divided into four distinct periods. Each of these periods was dominated by one major religion of the world.
The 1st period was the Vedic period of Indian history. This period led to the flowering of the Vedas & the Upanishads. Some even say this was the period when the major population actually lived between modern-day Syria and the Indus-Sarasvati Valley.
The 2nd period was the Buddhist period. By this time, the population had shifted base to the Indo-Gangetic plains. Buddha’s principles and his version of the Vedic religion formed the central vein of Indian history during this period.
This was followed by the 1000 year-long Muslim period.
And the latest period was the Christian period; the most despicable 500 years in all our history. As a nation, we touched rock-bottom during this period.
As Swami Vivekananda pointed out, religion has always been the back-bone of India. It has not always been the same religion, but it was always religion, understood as a marked path to reach the Infinite. What happened on 15th August 1947 was that we shook ourselves free of the shackles of Christian domination on our nation. We entered into a new era in our history. Extrapolating our past,[2] we can imagine that this new era will be again dominated by some other religion, perhaps one that hasn’t been tried in the past. Is it like that? Is that how Indian history will take shape? Well, let us see.
If we imagine India as a living person, with a mind of its own, we can ask the question – why did India choose a different religion for a certain period in the past? It seems India wanted to see, to what heights of perfection, man could reach with each of the established religions.
During the Vedic period, man perfected the individualistic spiritual quest. He grappled with the question of how a man could reach the Truth. He perfected the method of the Ashrama-dharma, where man enters society as a student, graduates into a social being, and then becomes a recluse, finally realizing the Truth within his own consciousness. Having perfected this method, what need was there for any other experimentation? Well, such is the Indian soul that it’s hunger for variety in the sphere of the Spirit in insatiable.
When the above mentioned path was worked out practically, it had a very strange fallout. Society got stratified into four Varnas, or castes. And the whole problem arose here, with this stratification. The distribution of population was such that a miniscule occupied the first two castes – Brahmana & Kshatriya; a little more number of people belonged to the third caste – Vaishya. The majority of the population belonged to the last caste – Shudra. The entire national drama was stage-managed by the first two castes, the upper minuscule of the national population. The Vaishya and Shudra didn’t matter at all. Although the people who mattered did not contribute to the national economy, and the people who essentially contributed to the national life did not figure anywhere in the entire national discourse! This was the main problem India had to address. Concomitant to this was the problem of mobility between the castes. Any foreigner could enter into the national life at the lowest caste only. Moving up from that caste was indeed nerve-wracking. The upper castes maintained a strict strangle-hold on the entry into their folds. [3]
Economy of India in this period was agriculture based. There was also many other activities like construction, manufacture of articles of daily use from metals, stone & wood, leisure activities, services, etc. This was similar to what was present in various parts of the world at that time. There was only one special activity in India, which was unique. That was Yajna. In due course of time, Yajna occupied the prime position in Indian economy. Any activity in Indian society had meaning only if it was linked to Yajna. How do we make sense of this strange thing? Why did the Yajna become so important in the national economy? Because, the economy was mainly agrarian. It generated enormous surplus in due course of time. Incentive for agriculture was going down since surplus started building up. The surplus had to be consumed. What better way to do that than to burn it all up in a grand fire sacrifice? Religious and social sanction was accorded by the Brahmana for this act.
One of the major problems all societies have had to deal with is the accumulation of political power. Geographies help people to settles down into colonies. Gradually, duties get distributed among the denizens of the colonies. There is always a group of people in those colonies who either take upon themselves, or is authorized by the society, the duty of protecting the rest of the people. Very soon, this group gathers power over other people. This group then starts losing touch with the multitudes that it has to govern. Benevolence gives way to tyranny. This has been the case in every human society. Take the case of the ancient civilizations of the world. The Egyptian, Babylonian, Ionian, Greek, Roman, in fact any number of them. All of them rose to great eminence for some time and then the society imploded. It imploded because the masses that actually formed that society were oppressed in due course of time. This phenomenon of one miniscule part of the society losing connect with the other major portion of itself, leading to oppression of the majority by the minority has always been the bane of human societies all over the world, all through time. India however, seems to have avoided this problem by means of a power struggle between the Brahmana and the Kshatriya castes. Whenever the King became too powerful, and his rise to power took on the shape of oppressing the Vaishya and the Shudra, the Brahmana came in and overthrew the King. Similarly, when the Brahmana’s insistence of religious observations by the masses took on the shape of social oppression over the other three castes, the Kshatriya came in and cut the Brahmana to size. This interplay between the Brahmana and the Kshatriya has kept the Indian society alive through ages, while the absence of this power balance ruined the greatest of civilizations the world over. This self-preservation mechanism of the caste system of the ancient Hindu society is something that is often not recognized by modern historians. This vital aspect of the Varna-system was pointed out by Swami Vivekananda.
The ancient literature records the historic struggle of Vishwamitra to be recognized as a Brahma-Rishi by Vashishtha. This is an example of the struggle entrenched in Indian society for upward mobility. It was possible, but required superhuman effort. The resistance to accept new comers into the Brahmana fold was phenomenal. However, it was not originally intended to be so tough. For instance, in the Chandogya Upanishad, we have the instance of a prostitute’s son Satyakama being inducted into the Brahmana fold, purely on the basis of the qualities of truthfulness that he exhibited. In course of time, this flexibility was lost and people got stuck in the caste into which they were born. Upper mobility was absent. [4]
That was when the national soul opted for a major experiment. It created a Buddha, who dissolved the problem instead of solving it. The main weapon in the hands of the Brahmana was his monopoly over the sacred literature, over the main economic activity called Yajna, and over the entire national education. Buddha proclaimed that spiritual growth was independent of any literature; it was also independent of any procedure. He opened up a new path and invited everyone into it, especially the Kshatriya, Vaishya & the Shudra. He further demolished the central economic activity of the Hindu nation – Yajna. This was aimed at destroying the monopoly of the Brahmana over the national life. Five hundred years later came a period of growth which was unprecedented in Indian history till then. This should have been the end of this civilization, for it had achieved everything and had solved all its problems. Or had it?
Within a thousand years of the Buddha’s arrival, the lower two castes, who had rejected the Varna-system and had adopted the egalitarian Buddhist monolithic system of society, started to degenerate. People require culture in order to hold on to and maintain any high spiritual impulse that they receive. The Indian society of this period consisted of a miniscule Brahmana & a very tiny Kshatriya population, with almost the entire Vaishya & Shudra population adopting the Buddhist scheme of social life. The major portion of the Kshatriya caste too had shifted base to the Buddhist scheme. So what actually happened was this – the Hindu scheme of Varna-system was totally rejected; social, economic & political power concentrated in the people who rejected the Hindu Varna system and proclaimed to follow an alternate scheme propounded by the Buddha. The Brahmana caste became the ‘outcaste’ or the ‘lower caste’ in this new dispensation. This did work for some time. This should have worked forever, but for a small aberration. Culture did not percolate to the masses. Human life consists of activity. They are of two types – activity that gives the daily food; activity that fills up leisure time. Both need to have an overarching goal. This aligning of all human activity toward the same goal is culture. Although national education was along Buddhist lines, it failed to culturally uplift the masses, who had implicitly accepted the Buddhist way of life. The Buddhist way of life was essentially the monastic life. The insistence on monastic life as the central essence of the Buddhist way of life was, in no small measure, a reason for this failure.
But most importantly, the one vital idea missing in the Buddhist scheme of life was the absence of an overarching goal in life.[5] Of course, the learned ones among the audience will at once jump up at me for this statement. Let us understand that philosophy is not powerful enough to inspire the daily life of the common man. Ritual is needed. The ritual has to be so designed as to gradually raise the brute unto civilized man and the civilized man unto a god. This aspect was missing in Buddhism. Bhagawan Buddha avoided all references to God and Spirit. As a result, the common man who had no recourse to disciplined philosophical thinking, ended up making a god of Buddha himself, and working up hideous rituals which exist now as the Left-handed Tantric practices. Buddhism became everything that the Buddha had fought against all his life! If we carefully analyze the reason for the failure of this great experiment on Indian society, the answer lies in the absence of emphasizing a comprehensible goal of human life. It is essential to spell out that goal of human life in comprehensible terms; in other words, the masses must be able to imagine the goal. An unimaginable goal of human life essentially renders society aimless and rudderless. Again, the goal must not be too easy to specify either, as we have with modern Christianity and Islam, in which case, it degenerates into an effete theology, a set of dogmas. This too is ineffective in leading society to anything higher, and man doesn’t grow. All it is effective in achieving is fights and quarrels. Buddha’s experiment and the subsequent religious experiments in India taught this valuable lesson to the Indian soul, the delicate balance while prescribing a goal for mankind.
Since Buddha categorically prohibited Yajna, the backbone of Indian economy got destroyed. Buddha did not give anything new in its place. So, gradually, Indians started engaging in new economic activities. Well, actually the activities were not new, per se. It was only that, the ways in which the activities were handled were new. People now started working for catering to non-local markets. The Yajna had the advantage of confining all economic activity to the local market. With the Yajna gone, people started trading in a big way. New economy set in. Intercourse with other nations became active.
All along its history, India was rich, created enormous amounts of wealth, and its goods and produce were in tremendous demand all over the world. Goods were transported across sea and land to all the lands in the world. The people who gave protection during this economic activity were the Kshatriyas. While the Shudra worked for producing the goods, the Vaishya arranged for their production and transportation, and the Kshatriya arranged for their safety. India was the greatest maritime power for a very long period. We have records of Indian ships sailing to Egypt and Babylon during the Harappa period too. Slowly, the maritime activities stopped. That happens when you have monopoly over the goods you produce. People from other lands could very well come down here and take what they wanted. We wouldn’t go out to sell our products there. Thus the importance of the Kshatriya reduced. [6]
If Buddhism had made a place for the Brahmana in its scheme, perhaps, we would have yet had the perfect civilization.
Social order was totally in chaos. Value of manly qualities was undermined at a national level. Military prowess reduced. Varna system was no longer in vogue. People didn’t know what they were supposed to do. A Brahmana revival was attempted during the Gupta period. Sister Nivedita proposes the theory that the Gupta Kings commissioned the writing of the Vishnu Purana around 400 AD, which marks this part of Indian history. Revolving around the Vishnu Purana, a renewed attempt was made to consolidate the peoples living south of the Indus and the Himalayas up to the Ceylon into one Nation again. Such a consolidation had occurred under King Ashoka during the Buddhist reformation period. But this time, the consolidation would be under the revived Vedic lines. The absorption of the Buddhist reformation had given rise to a highly changed religion in the land, which although called the Vedic religion or Sanatana Dharma still, had very little in common with the pre-Buddhist religion of the land.
In the wake of this development came the hordes of Muslims from Arabia and Persia, bringing with them a fresh spiritual impulse. When they stayed back in India after their initial victories, they tried to establish a new social order, based on equality. Everyone who converted to Islam was equal to every other Muslim in society. This impulse translated as unprecedented growth in literature, architecture, economy and political stability. Against the background of this new stability, the old Hindu scheme of life was once again tried out. Lead by spiritual leaders such as Shankara, Ramanuja and Madhva, Buddhism was completely reabsorbed into the main Hindu body politick. The entire 1000 years of Buddhist reformation turned out to be a mere cul-de-sac in Indian history. What was the Indian society like during the Islam period? Again, a handful of the Brahmana caste held onto the ancient scheme of life. The Vaishya & the Shudra thrived well under the Islamic dispensation, better than ever before in Indian history. The Kshatriya caste almost vanished. A new caste – a cross between the Kshatriya & the Vaishya arose, called Zemindar. This new caste again started monopolizing social and economic power in their own hands and the Shudra was none the better even under the Islamic dispensation in India.
The only drawback seemed to be the displeasure of the masses who were forced to convert to Islam in order to enjoy the benefits of Islamic egalitarianism. But, given a face-off between greater social freedom and adherence to his native religion, man would any day opt for social freedom. The Brahmana, the new Kshatriya-Vaishya Zemindar and the Vaishya did not yet learn that affording social freedom, social dignity and equal opportunity to one another and the Shudra was vital for national life to sustain. The Islamic rulers were actually Kshatriyas in their function.[7] If the Indian society had been flexible enough to have recognized this and if the Muslim invaders too had been flexible enough to have realized this, and had they entered into the Indian body politick, the resulting civilization would again have been the best possible. But that was not to be so. For the first time, we came across a people who insisted on living in our society and who rigidly resisted the caste system. Before the Islamic invasion, the Huns, Shakas and Kushans had come in too. But they were all absorbed into the caste system mostly at the Shudra level, but some at the higher levels, even as Kshatriya kings.[8]
Around this time came the influence of Europe, first with the Portuguese, then the Danes, followed by the French and lastly the British. The last to arrive from Europe, the British, consolidated their foothold in India and event after event led to their annexing the entire land as a colony of the larger British Empire.
This was the worst part of Indian history. No one in the entire Indian society had any freedom. The clash now was between the Indian religious weltanschauung and the European economic world-view. They simply didn’t match, apparently. But the opening out of the entire European world of thought was a new blessing on the Indians. And the oppressive missionary activities of the Christians were the greatest drawback of this period. Education was controlled by the Christian missionaries, who lacked any understanding of sociology, anthropology, psychology and history. They dogmatically drilled the morbid theology of Christianity and totally undermined the entire historical background of the Indians.
It is interesting to note the unique war tactics developed by the Muslims of Arabia. Indians never knew that before Islamic invasion. In India, war was always fought in the city outskirts. Muslims, however, entered living areas inside cities and towns and villages. Common man was attacked and killed. Surprise attacks on the common man were something that the Muslims brought. We don’t find historical evidence of Prophet Mohammed having taught this type of warfare to his followers. In all probabilities, this was a Mongol trait among the Muslims. If we study the history of Islamic Arabia, we find that the Islamic invaders into India were all actually from the Mongol stock. Genghis Khan and his descendants had exterminated the entire male Muslim population during their successive attacks on Arabia & Persia and what we now know as Muslims are actually the Mongols who lived on in that region. What exists as Islam today is the contribution of the Arabian women to the Mongol stock. The fearless Turks that had conquered half of the civilized world and ruled over it are actually from Mongol stock.
The Vaishya produced wealth with the help of the Shudra. Goods were produced that needed to be transported. The Vaishya arranged for the transportation too. However, since the means for transportation was very slow, there was great chance of being waylaid. Goods needed protection. The Kshatriya provided it. Mohammed and his followers, the Muslims, were basically Kshatriyas in this sense. They gave protection to the businessmen and their goods.
In Indian history, the Kshatriyas faced mass annihilation twice; first, by Parashurama, when he vowed to destroy Kartivirya Arjuna; and a second time in the Kurukshetra war of the Mahabharata. That brings up the question, if all the Kshatriyas had been exterminated by Parashurama, who were the Kshatriyas during the Mahabharata War? In all probabilities, what would have happened was that many Kshatriya women must have escaped the wrath of Parashurama. Some of them must have borne children in exile. Again, many weak-bodied Kshatriyas, who did not participate in the battle also must have escaped and must have propagated their clans. We however do not find any instance of the Brahmin caste being mass annihilated in Indian history. This could perhaps explain the steady weakening of the Kshatriya caste in India, which laid the grounds for the subsequent invasions by Islamic and European races on India.
The effort of the Indian mind has always been the following: Human life has the ultimate goal of Self-realization. The way to achieve this is what the Indian mind has been experimenting with, all through its history. In the Vedic period, it tried to do so by formulating a caste system, which dictated what a man should do for living, earning a livelihood, and then how he should spend his leisure time. This ran foul with the inherent principles of natural justice in the sense that one caste always tried to monopolize the entire national life and mobility among the castes was rigidly obstructed. It was like missing the forest and getting lost among the trees. The main aim of instituting the caste system was lost in the social complexities that arose from maintaining the system! Then came the Buddha’s reformation. He was an iconoclast. He broke down the entire caste system and gave nothing in its place. He did not specify what man had to do for achieving the ultimate goal. Therefore the original caste system got revived, albeit in a totally changed form. While the original system was meant to guide man from where he stood up to the ultimate realization of his true nature, the resurrected caste system was devilish in its new form. The Muslim period gave rise to a new caste – the Zemindar. But the masses, who were always included in the Vaishya and Shudra caste were still oppressed. The British period brought a new impetus. The religion they brought, as did the Muslims, was easily included in the Bhakti cults that already existed in India. But the social modes that they brought were all new to India. Having lived in India for quite some time, the Muslims had come to understand that caste was the mode of social functioning for the Indian. The British did not, or rather could not, understand this unique Indian institution. They opened up education to every one under their rule. Thus we had B R Ambedkar (a Shudra by birth) studying to be a barrister alongside Mohandas Gandhi (a Vaishya by birth) and Subhas Chandra Bose (a Kshatriya by birth) and Umesh Chandra Banerjee (a Brahmana by birth)! The universal education system, evolved by Thomas Macaulay with clear selfish aims for the British Empire, broke down the impossibly ossified caste barriers and created a level playing field. This single act has unleashed a power of unimaginable proportions, as the present condition of our country reveals very well.[9] The British rule allowed for all sorts of mobility – upwards & downwards – within the Indian society, based on meritocracy and not by birth.
The greatest contribution of the British to India however was, in our opinion, the concept of “organization”.[10] Why do we say so? Let us re-state our understanding of Indian history. Then we will be able to see the supreme importance of this British contribution.
India, as it were, has fixed the goal of complete self-realization for its citizens. This has been the main strain in its history as we have seen till now. The soul of India wants, as it were, that all Indians should realize their real nature. How are they to do this? India formulated a scheme of life such that all their activities would be wound up so as to converge towards this one goal, which is complete self-realization. Her first attempt to do so, that is, formulate a viable scheme of life for all living in India, ran afoul due to the complications arising out of the caste system. She tried to set it right through one of her most brilliant sons, the Buddha. His attempts, though seemingly very effective, backfired. The final outcome of the Buddhist experiment was that the Kshatriya caste all but disappeared from India, the Vaishya and the Shudra got a taste of social freedom which they could not sustain, and the Brahmana came back with a vengeance. But, the Brahmana who now raised his head again this time was but a caricature of the original Brahmana of the Vedic period. The original Brahmana was a God-realized soul, one who had seen God face to face, even while living in the society as one of us. Whereas, the resurrected Brahmana, in post Buddhist India was a scheming Brahmana, who cooked up an elaborate theosophy of the ten incarnations of the Godhead, the Dasha Avatara, and silently absorbed the Buddha into the Hindu pantheon of gods! The Buddha was accepted and everything he said and did was completely forgotten from the national mind. It was one of the greatest coup-de-etat staged in human history! But, a nation is unsustainable without a strong group of people who specialize in protection and governance. The Brahmana never allowed that group to rise and in due course of time, the situation was back to square one – a weak nation, which was waiting to be overrun by anyone who would care to do so. Indeed, that is what happened. The Islamic hordes came and this grandest nation among all the nations in the known world at that time was conquered, not by the glorious Arabs, but by a slave of the Arabs. He set up his empire here and that was the time the Nation decided it would run another experiment by factoring in Islam in its scheme of things. Again, the ancient Vedic religion immediately saw that Islam could easily be absorbed within the body politick, provided two things were ensured – the invading Muslim had to be absorbed into the Kshatriya caste, and in exchange, there must be a greater social freedom given to the Vaishya and the Shudra in India. The second condition was partially fulfilled by religious conversion of the lower caste people into Islam. We say partially fulfilled because unless the people converted to Islam, if they remained within the Hindu caste structure, they would not enjoy the social freedom! The first condition was not, however, fulfilled. Not only was it not fulfilled, the Islamic invaders stayed back to rule India, but never fully integrated themselves with the Vedic scheme of things that was in vogue here. The rampant dogmatism that the Muslim exhibited was something alien to the Hindu. Just as the Muslim could not learn to integrate with the idolatrous Hindu, the Hindu too could not make sense of this foreigner who resisted any intercourse with his caste system. For, we must realize one thing, and this is vital; the only way a Hindu could make sense of any human being was if he could accommodate himself in one of the four castes. Thus the Greeks and the Huns entered into the Kshatriya caste. Many Mongols were accommodated into the Shudra caste. So also were many who had rejected the Vedic religion and had opted for the Buddha’s version of religion, and had now again opted to be back with the Brahmana’s national resurgence. But this Muslim refused to enter into the caste system. If a person resists entering into any one of the castes, the Hindu is clueless about how to deal with him! That is what happened with the Islamic people. So, we had a situation where we again had a miniscule Brahmana population, no Kshatriya caste worth the name, a sizeable Vaishya population and a huge Shudra mass, alongside a sizeable population of a new type of people – the Muslims (most of whom, were converts from the Shudra caste, with only a handful of Muslims from the original Arabian & Persian stock) – who were not a part of this Varna system.
The same Indian genius that came up with the Dasha Avatara to digest Buddha within itself, now came up with the Sufi religion and the Bhakti movement, as a means of incorporating the Muslim into its body politick. But the invaders’ religion lacked the philosophical flexibility to recognize the utility of such a development and as a result, at some local levels, the integration of the Muslim into the Hindu society was indeed successfully effected by the Sufi and Bhakti attempts. But there remained a virulent strain of Islam that refused to integrate with Hinduism. This was the first time that India had faced such a situation, where it failed to integrate the invaders into its own society and align them to its religious orientation.
When the country was in this stage, there came along a fresh invader, who came in through business and commerce, not like the Muslims had come in, with a sword on a horse (the famous imagery of the incarnation after Buddha, called Kalki, as per the Brahmana!). Having entered the land for the express intent of setting up business, the European stayed back. He even started taking over administrative functions regarding this strange land, but never with the idea of ruling it per se. Every decision of the European rose from the perspective of business. While the Muslim who had entered this land exhibited clear Kshatriya qualities, this European was but a Vaishya at best!
Caste system was completely demolished by the British rule in India. We needed to re-organize Indian society immediately or we were in danger of losing our identity. That is where Swami Vivekananda comes in. He realized that the western concept of organization could fulfil the vacuum created by the demolition of caste system in India. This re-adjustment is what we are still seeing in our society today. We are still in the transition from caste to corporate organization.
One concept that we need to explore is the intimate relation between caste and religion, especially in the Indian context. Time and time again, it has seemed as though caste is a religious institution. It is however not so. Religion has nothing to do with caste, per se.[11] Then, why is it that all the religious leaders in India have worked specifically to breakdown caste system, favoring the upliftment and education of the lower castes and attempting to soften the heart of the upper castes? This is because each of our great religious leaders has tried to remain true to the vision of the founding fathers of the Indian society, the great rishis, so lost in antiquity that today, we do not even know their names for sure. But the power of their vision has driven this nation for over five thousand years, through an unbroken continuity of the institution of Caste. Ask anybody in India and you will be told that caste system is heinous and a blot on Indian society and that it must go. Most of them will even assert vociferously that the institution is now good as dead and exists mainly due to its benefits on the political parties. Caste identities make it very easy to group together and monopolize over large swathes of people, as we have seen time and again since 1947. But the greatest advantage of this institution was to be had only if every citizen had an overarching goal to achieve in his or her life. We must remember that the origin of this institution was in this idea of providing means for realization of the goal of God-realization for every member of society. If we lose that idea of God realization as the goal of our social life, then the institution of caste becomes a terrible bondage. Let me explain this a bit.
Supposing the patent aim of my life is to realize my real nature. How am I go about it? Either by renouncing social life and embracing monastic vows; or by living in society and contributing to the national economy; if I choose to live in society, participate in the national economy, how do I realize Atman? I can do that by working in such a way that my daily work becomes a worshipful offering to God. What will be the work that I will have to do? Who will decide what work I will be doing? Suppose we have a body of authoritative persons in society whose duty it is to allot work to every member of the society. Can anyone ensure impartiality in that allotment? Will such allotments of duty be wholeheartedly accepted and not be challenged? Ah! Therein lay the genius of the institution of caste! My own birth determines what work I will do in my life. The argument is simple: I can realize God by offering whatever work I do as an offering to God; what work I will do is determined by my birth; caste system prescribes and ensures the relation between birth and the work to be done; as long as I haven’t yet attained the state of inner freedom, I belong in a hierarchy in society; there are castes above me and below me; once I achieve the blessed state of real freedom, I break free from the social hierarchy. So, this is how the caste system was envisaged to function in society. This is how it did function for a long time. You will appreciate that this system will function flawlessly, so long as the aim of our life, of our work, of our living in society, is to realize our true nature as the Atman. If that is the aim of our life, then caste system is the best social arrangement imaginable. Now, the whole trouble starts if we lose our grip on that pivotal idea of self- realization. If enjoyment is the aim of life, then this institution stands as a barrier to achieving that aim to our heart’s content.
Against this simple argument, we will be better able to appreciate the reformatory steps adopted by Buddha. He found that the rigid social structure was standing as a barrier to man’s development. He wanted to allow everyone to develop fully and freely. He knew that by pulling down the super-structure, he could unfetter the human soul on its journey to its destiny. At the same time, he was aware that man needed a goal in life. No social system can give that to man. It is only a spiritual impulse that can give an overarching goal to man. He therefore did the sane thing possible; he pulled down the caste system; he prescribed that monasticism was the path to be followed; he further specified that knowledge of one’s real nature was the goal of human life. Similarly did all the other religious reformers in India do the same thing; reiterate that God realization is the goal of human life. If that is fixed, then social life automatically falls into a system that is self-regulatory. Caste system was one such self-regulatory mechanism in human society. The British domination over India opened our eyes to another such wonderful system – the corporate organization.
So, effectively, by the end of 1800 AD, India had learnt that, if God Realization were to be the goal of human life, then human society could indeed be organized into a rigid caste system, which helped everyone to achieve that supreme goal of life. India had also learnt that there will always be a great number of people in its society who will not be able to adopt God realization as the supreme goal of life. Hence India leant that, in such a case, the caste system would be an aberration, an obstacle, a detriment, instead of being a tool to further man’s development. India also learnt in the meanwhile that there were many more societies in the world which did not prescribe to its weltanschauung and that it needed to interact with those societies as well. India had tried to successively experiment with Sanatana Dharma, a variant of itself called Buddhism, then Islam and finally Christianity, with a view to finding the best fit religion for its citizens; when it would find that ideal religion, it would then work out the best means of organizing society and thereby enable all its citizens to live their lives and achieve tangible progress in their evolution. As a result, India found out that none of these religions could be imposed as the only religion on all its citizens. Human nature was too diverse for straitjacketing the human soul in such simplistic terms. India had learnt that its hoary method of caste system for integrating foreigners into its body politick was not efficient, since the Muslims and the Christians refused to enter into the Caste structure, thereby remaining as un-integrated foreign bodies within the living being of Indian society. India awoke to the fact that it needed a readjustment at the very core of its being. This readjustment would begin by redefining its goal in spiritual terms, as it has always done in its long history.
That was the time when the Soul of India worked up an instrument through which it would try to make sense of the mess that its society had ended up in; that was the time when the Soul of India worked up an instrument through which it would try to discover which religion, or what mix of the religions available, would be ideal for its citizens; That was the time when the Soul of India worked up an instrument through which it would try to articulate an overarching goal for its citizens in the modern idiom; That was the time when the Soul of India worked up an instrument through which it would try to hew out a path for multitudes to achieve that goal in their lives. That unique instrument was Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa of Dakshineswar. The biographer of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Saradananda writes that Sri Ramakrishna performed unprecedented spiritual practices, which make no sense unless seen from this historical perspective. There is no need for any human being to undergo such a variety of spiritual practices for one’s own liberation. Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna’s chief disciple, mentions that in Sri Ramakrishna, the soul of India, as it were, was finding its moorings again; the soul of India was working up an essential readjustment whereby it could find a rationale for continuing its existence. What was the self-discovery that the soul of India made through Sri Ramakrishna?
All religions are true. No one religion can claim to appeal to every human being on earth. Each soul approached life in its own unique way and thereby qualifies to its own brand of religion. All the same, each of these religions, or paths of human evolution, is harmonious in their goal. The goal of every religion is perception of the consciousness that is in every human being. In fact, each soul is potentially divine. The goal of human life is to manifest that divinity. Human life itself, therefore, can be envisaged as the Universal Religion, with all the known ‘isms’ being just geographical & cultural variants of the Mother Religion.
Further, religion is realization; religion is perception; religion is not a set of beliefs or customs or traditions; religion is not thoughts, ideas or feelings, no matter how sophisticated or refined. If you don’t know your own true nature, you are not spiritual, no matter what. You are not a Hindu because you are born to a Hindu; you are not a Hindu because you believe in the Vedas and Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita; you are not a Muslim because you believe in Allah, the Prophet Mohamad and the Quran; you are not a Christian because you believe in Bible and the Immaculate Conception. If you have perceived directly the Hindu conception of God, you are a Hindu. If you have perceived directly the Islamic conception of God, you are a Muslim. If you have perceived directly the Christian conception of God, you are a Christian. Not otherwise. A Hindu who has directly perceived the Hindu conception of God will totally and completely understand and accept a Muslim who has directly perceived the Muslim conception of God or a Christian who has directly perceived the Christian conception of God.
In the light of this self-discovery, the Soul of India will now work out a new society wherein every kind of religious thought will be accorded full freedom to unleash the potential divinity within its adherents. In the light of this self-discovery, the Soul of India will work out the necessary corrections in Hinduism, Islam,[12] Christianity,[13] Buddhism and every other religious path known to man till date.[14] In the light of this self-discovery by the Soul of India, we can foresee that the future of India will be dominated by no single religion, but equal opportunity will be accorded to every religion that its citizens would like to follow; the only conditions will be mutual respect to everyone else and a dogged commitment to take one’s avowed religion to its logical conclusion which is a direct perception of one’s true nature. Thus the future of India will be dominated by a ‘Harmony of Religions’ in place of any one religion holding forth on Indian society. [15]
We would beg for a little patience at this juncture since a survey of the present situation doesn’t show anything of this kind happening in our country. The country is right now undergoing a series of vital transformations. A period of transition cannot be read correctly except by hindsight. But, our reading of Indian history, as detailed above, forces us to conclude that a society based on the harmonious existence of all religions will certainly dawn very soon. In the beginning of this article, we had said that perhaps “It seems India wanted to see, to what heights of perfection, man could reach with each of the established religions.” It is but logical to conclude that man will reached unprecedented heights of personal and collective growth under this new regime of ‘harmony of religion’.[16] You will certainly appreciate that we have started our new epoch by adopting a “Constitution”, which is unique in its scope and content. It is a blue-print which will guide how exactly the Indian society will re-organize itself in the centuries to come. The Fundamental Rights, Directive principles of State Policy, and Fundamental Duties comprise the corner stone of our Constitution. You will note how these drive our society towards a caste-free, organization-based structure enabling every citizen to enjoy the fruits of opportunity for life-fulfilment, unhindered by one’s religious affiliation. Moreover, the Constitution ensures, for the first time in India, that the State will not impose any one religion on its citizens, awarding full freedom for each citizen to choose for oneself.[17]
Moreover, Sri Ramakrishna revealed a new goal for mankind. He gave it a name called ‘Bhavamukha’.[18] The Soul of India realized through Sri Ramakrishna that the common man would reach this goal of human life by following the path of ‘Practical Vedanta’ or more specifically known as ‘Karma Yoga’,[19] the details of which were worked out by Swami Vivekananda. Karma Yoga will be the key through which will be unlocked an unprecedented spurt of human growth, such as history has never witnessed till date – such was the prophesy of Swami Vivekananda.
In fact, the present restructuring of the Indian society along the lines of corporate organization in the place of caste system presents an ideal ground for realizing the new ideal revealed by Sri Ramakrishna. Elsewhere we have shown how the civic structure of corporate organization lends itself to the mass spiritual practice of Karma Yoga by everyone in society.[20] We would do well to realize as soon as possible that the European form of organization is indeed a viable alternative to the caste system[21]; it retains the positive points of the ancient caste system in that it allows the interested people in practicing Karma Yoga and moving towards personal life fulfilment; more importantly it has the added advantage[22] of providing an avenue for those people not interested in immediate salvation, to contribute towards collective growth in such a way as to eventually lead them towards the inner life.[23]
It is important to note the course correction[24] that Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda have effected in the history of India. At the risk of appearing repetitive, let me explain this point here. India began its grand journey by specifying that individual freedom is achievable in this very life, even while living. The goal of human life was to be spiritually free while living. If that indeed were the goal, what sort of social arrangement should we have? Caste system was the answer given by our ancient sages. We tried to make it a workable arrangement. Something went wrong along the way. We sort of lost sight of the goal to be achieved and made a big issue of the social arrangement! As a result, life in India became a curse. Buddha tried to sort it out. Buddha said that the goal of human life, the raison deter of our existence was indeed to become the ‘Living Free’, the ‘Awakened One’. However, we need not enroll ourselves into any formal social arrangement for that. Renounce, become a monk and get free. That was the iconoclastic approach of the Buddha. Thus, in effect, Buddha reiterated the goal of human life prescribed by the ancient Rishis, but tore down the social structure they had erected for assisting the common man to achieve the same. He, instead, invited all and sundry into the highest path, directly. Although Buddha’s motive was the finest, such egalitarian approach is impractical, unfortunately. Very soon, the Indian society started crumbling. India tried to bring about reformations within itself from time to time, all of them ensuring only one result – each attempt merely reiterated and strengthened the original idea that the goal of human life was indeed Moksha or individual spiritual freedom. The social mess that the botched caste system experiment had resulted in was not touched in any serious measure.[25] All of the reformers ended up certifying the utility and validity of the caste system, in so far as it threw up perfected individuals from time to time in the Indian society. None seemed to bother that there could be a possibility of masses reaching up to perfection too, and that society need not be designed to effect random individual perfection here & there, now & then, alone.[26] None seemed to be bothered about the possibility, or impossibility, of designing or redesigning society into a mass manufactory of perfected individuals. For, the origin of the caste system was indeed that – to ensure that each member of the society moved forward towards spiritual perfection. In the midst of all this confusion came the Islamic invasion. India saw an opportunity to draw in some new blood into its body and see if a new way could thereby be opened up for achieving its goal – a method of living to bring about mass perfection among its members. The Islamic invasion turned out to be a disaster since the invaders could not integrate into the society they had conquered. As a result, the already confused Indian society now had to contend with an added element of confusion, a significant portion of society that refused to blend into the culture and religion of the major portion of society.[27] Even while India was coming to terms with the peculiar situation of its society consisting of two apparently irreconcilable groups of people, there came a new impulse in the form of the European invasion. The invading European stood as a mirror to the hypocrisy underlying the Indian society. The invading European, although professing to be religious, quoting the Lord Jesus Christ on and off, was patently materialistic. He believed in enjoying this life here on earth. But there is always the fear of death. He had overcome that by cooking up a very clever theology of the original sin and the son-hood of Jesus and universal emancipation by merely believing in Jesus’s status as the Son of God. It was a stroke of genius of a much higher level than the devious Brahmin could imagine! In one shot, you had it all. You could now enjoy as much as you wanted here in this life, and have a cozy passage to heaven, post-mortem! This resonated with the pleasure-seeking urges of many individuals in the Indian society. India understood that not all her children can really seek to know their true nature. Many of her children really wished to enjoy this life, this world. The means provided by the caste system did not encourage enjoyment in this life. Life was one long self-sacrifice under the older scheme of things. But then, Moksha need not be imposed as the goal of life on every member of society. Controlled enjoyment (or Dharma, as it is called in Indian terms) could indeed be prescribed as the goal of many interested individuals. “Dharma aviruddha bhuteshu kamosmi Bhatarshaba” says the Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita. Can we have a social arrangement for such people too in India?
The combination of the European corporate organization and Karma yoga achieves just that![28] Karma Yoga is a versatile tool for achieving both the ends of human life – personal Moksha and collective development (Atmano Mokshartham, Jagadhitaya cha, as Swami Vivekananda termed it). Karma Yoga is the ritual for the modern age. Sri Ramakrishna reminds us again and again in the pages of his recorded conversations “The Gospel of Ramakrishna” that the goal of human life is God-realization. But everyone need not renounce the pleasures of the senses and dedicate oneself to God-realization. A select few, who voluntarily opt to do so may, indeed do so. The rest of us should hold onto to God with one hand and enjoy the world with the other. This ‘holding onto God with hand and enjoying life with the other’ is called Karma Yoga.
Swami Vivekananda prophesied that this formidable combination would lead to a situation in India which he described as follows: “There were times in olden days when prophets were many in every society. The time is to come when prophets will walk through every street in every city in the world. In olden times, particular, peculiar persons were, so to speak, selected by the operations of the laws of society to become prophets. The time is coming when we shall understand that to become religious means to become a prophet, that none can become religious until he or she becomes a prophet. We shall come to understand that the secret of religion is not being able to think and say all these thoughts; but, as the Vedas teach, to realize them, to realize newer and higher one than have ever been realized, to discover them, bring them to society; and the study of religion should be the training to make prophets. The schools and colleges should be training grounds for prophets. The whole universe must become prophets; and until a man becomes a prophet, religion is a mockery and a byword unto him. We must see religion, feel it, realize it in a thousand times more intense a sense than that in which we see the wall.”
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[1] “We must create a history of India in living terms. Up to the present, that history, as written by the English, practically begins with Warren Hastings, and crams in certain unavoidable preliminaries, which cover a few thousand years…The history of India has yet to be written for the first time. It has to be humanized, emotionalized, made the trumpet-voice and evangel of the race that inhabit India.” Sister Nivedita.
[2] 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 molded; 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. Reply to the Address of the Maharaja of Khetri.
[3] There seem to be no written records of the history of this period available today. However, Swami Vivekananda reconstructs the main strain of the history of this period from the hints available in the Vedas, Upanishads and the Epics. His insights in this regard are available in his masterly writing ‘Modern India’, and elsewhere too. For instance, cf: Reply to the address of the Maharaja of Khetri.
[4] Vasishtha, Narada, Satyakama Jabala, Vyasa, Kripa, Drona, Karna, and others of questionable parentage were raised to the position of a Brahmin or a Kshatriya, in virtue of their superior learning or valor; but it remains to be seen how the prostitute, maidservant, fisherman, or the charioteer class was benefited by these upliftings. Again, on the other hand, the fallen from the Brahmin, the Kshatriya, or the Vaishya class were always brought down to fill the ranks of the Shudras.: Modern India
[5] The aims of the Buddhistic and the Vedic religions are the same, but the means adopted by the Buddhistic are not right. If the Buddhistic means were correct, then why have we been thus hopelessly lost and ruined? It will not do to say that the efflux of time has naturally wrought this. Can time work, transgressing the laws of cause and effect? Therefore, though the aims are the same, the Bauddhas for want of right means have degraded India. Perhaps my Bauddha brothers will be offended at this remark, and fret and fume; but there’s no help for it; the truth ought to be told, and I do not care for the result.: East & the West
[6] The Portuguese, in the meantime, discovered a new route to India, doubling Africa. The fortune of India smiled on Portugal — then came the turn of the French, the Dutch, the Danes, and the English. Indian commerce, Indian revenue and all are now in the possession of the English; it is therefore that they are the foremost of all nations now. But now, Indian products are being grown in countries like America and elsewhere, even better than in India, and she has therefore lost something of her prestige. This the Europeans are unwilling to admit. That India, the India of ‘natives’, is the chief means and resources of their wealth and civilization, is a fact which they refuse to admit, or even understand. We too, on our part, must not cease to bring it home to them.: Memoirs of European Travels
[7] Crushing the Brahminical supremacy under his feet the Mussulman king was able to restore to a considerable extent the lost glories of such dynasties of emperors as the Maurya, the Gupta, the Andhra, and the Kshatrapa. (The Persian governors of Aryavarta and Gujarat.) : Modern India
[8] Kanishka, the famous Kushana King is an instance; he belonged to a tribe that had come in from Central Asia, and the entire tribe was absorbed into the Caste system.
[9] This power is so new, its nature and workings are so foreign to the Indian mind, its rise so inconceivable, and its vigor so insuperable that though it wields the suzerain power up till now, only a handful of Indians understand what this power is. We are talking of the occupation of India by England: Modern India.
[10] For a detailed study of Organization according to Swami Vivekananda, please see: ‘Swami Vivekananda & Organization’: http://wp.me/p8xvki-H
[11] Was anybody persecuted in India for choosing his Ishta Devata, or becoming an atheist or agnostic even, so long as he obeyed the social regulations? Society may punish anybody by its disapprobation for breaking any of its regulations, but no man, the lowest Patita (fallen), is ever shut out from Moksha. You must not mix up the two together. Reply to the Madras Address.
[12] “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. The Hindus may get the credit of arriving at it earlier than other races, they being an older race than either the Hebrew or the Arab; yet practical Advaitism, which looks upon and behaves to all mankind as one’s own soul, was never developed among the Hindus universally. On the other hand, my experience is that if ever any religion approached to this equality in an appreciable manner, it is Islam and Islam alone. Therefore I am firmly persuaded that without the help of practical Islam, theories of Vedantism, however fine and wonderful they may be, are entirely valueless to the vast mass of mankind.” Letters of Swami Vivekananda: Here, we find the genius of Swami Vivekananda working out a course-correction for Islam, which may seem anathema right now, but, will certainly come to be accepted as the norm in the future. We say this because, man’s innate urge for survival will make him seek out paths and means for peaceful co-existence, in the long run!
[13] “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Hindu calls this Maya, the manifestation of God, because it is the power of God. The Absolute reflecting through the universe is what we call nature. The Word has two manifestations — the general one of nature, and the special one of the great Incarnations of God — Krishna, Buddha, Jesus, and Ramakrishna. Christ, the special manifestation of the Absolute, is known and knowable. The Absolute cannot be known: we cannot know the Father, only the Son. We can only see the Absolute through the ‘tint of humanity’, through Christ. In the first five verses of John is the whole essence of Christianity: each verse is full of the profoundest philosophy.: Inspired talks. Just observe how Swamiji says that the whole essence of Christianity is in these five verses. However, the present day version of Christianity doesn’t revolve around these ideas. It stands on the ideas of Immaculate Conception, Original Sin, Emancipation through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Bringing it back to these five verses will be the course correction needed. Realization of Christ in our own consciousness will then define a Christian, and not adherence to dogmas.
[14] And as the Vedas are the only scriptures which teach this real absolute God, of which all other ideas of God are but minimized and limited visions; as the ‘The well-wisher to all the world.’ Shruti takes the devotee gently by the hand, and leads him from one stage to another, through all the stages that are necessary for him to travel to reach the Absolute; and as all other religions represent one or other of these stages in an unprogressive and crystallized form, all the other religions of the world are included in the nameless, limitless, eternal Vedic religion. Reply to the Madras Address.
[15] 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 harmonizing 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. Letters of Swami Vivekananda
[16] What new revolution will be effected in India by her clash with the new giant power, and as the result of that revolution what new transformation is in store for future India, cannot be inferred from her past history.: Modern India
[17] The Fundamental Rights, Directive Principles of State Policy and Fundamental Duties are sections of the Constitution of India that prescribe the fundamental obligations of the State to its citizens and the duties of the citizens to the State. These sections comprise a constitutional bill of rights for government policy-making and the behavior and conduct of citizens. These sections are considered vital elements of the constitution, which was developed between 1947 and 1949 by the Constituent Assembly of India. The Fundamental Rights is defined as the basic human rights of all citizens. These rights, defined in Part III of the Constitution, apply irrespective of race, place of birth, religion, caste, creed, or gender. They are enforceable by the courts, subject to specific restrictions. The Directive Principles of State Policy are guidelines for the framing of laws by the government. These provisions, set out in Part IV of the Constitution, are not enforceable by the courts, but the principles on which they are based are fundamental guidelines for governance that the State is expected to apply in framing and passing laws. The Fundamental Duties are defined as the moral obligations of all citizens to help promote a spirit of patriotism and to uphold the unity of India. These duties, set out in Part IV–A of the Constitution, concern individuals and the nation. (From Wikipedia)
[18] For a detailed discussion on this new ideal, please refer “The new ideal, the new doctrine, the new life” at: http://wp.me/p8xvki-Z
[19] For a detailed discussion on Karma Yoga, please refer “The efficacy of Karma Yoga” at: http://wp.me/p8xvki-2l and “Swami Vivekananda’s Karma Yoga – the scripture of modern mankind” at http://wp.me/p8xvki-2c
[20] Please see: ‘Swami Vivekananda & Organization’: http://wp.me/p8xvki-H
[21] With us, the prominent idea is Mukti; with the Westerners, it is Dharma. What we desire is Mukti; what they want is Dharma. Here the word ‘Dharma’ is used in the sense of the Mimamsakas. What is Dharma? Dharma is that which makes man seek for happiness in this world or the next. Dharma is established on work, Dharma is impelling man day and night to run after and work for happiness….The object of the peoples of Europe is to exterminate all in order to live themselves. The aim of the Aryans is to raise all up to their own level, nay, even to a higher level than themselves. The means of European civilization is the sword; of the Aryans, the division into different Varnas. This system of division into different Varnas is the stepping-stone to civilization, making one rise higher and higher in proportion to one’s learning and culture. In Europe, it is everywhere victory to the strong and death to the weak. In the land of Bharata, every social rule is for the protection of the weak.: East & the West
[22] On the advent of Buddhism, Dharma was entirely neglected, and the path of Moksha alone became predominant. Hence, we read in the Agni Purana, in the language of similes, that the demon Gayasura — that is, Buddha tried to destroy the world by showing the path of Moksha to all; and therefore the Devas held a council and by stratagem set him at rest for ever. However, the central fact is that the fall of our country, of which we hear so much spoken, is due to the utter want of this Dharma. If the whole nation practices and follows the path of Moksha, that is well and good; but is that possible? Without enjoyment, renunciation can never come; first enjoy and then you can renounce. Otherwise, if the whole nation, all of a sudden, takes up Sannyasa, it does not gain what it desires, but it loses what it had into the bargain — the bird in the hand is fled, nor is that in the bush caught. When, in the heyday of Buddhist supremacy, thousands of Sannyasins lived in every monastery, then it was that the country was just on the verge of its ruin! The Bauddhas, the Christians, the Mussulmans, and the Jains prescribe, in their folly, the same law and the same rule for all. That is a great mistake; education, habits, customs, laws, and rules should be different for different men and nations, in conformity with their difference of temperament. What will it avail, if one tries to make them all uniform by compulsion? The Bauddhas declared, “Nothing is more desirable in life than Moksha; whoever you are, come one and all to take it.” I ask, “Is that ever possible?” “You are a householder; you must not concern yourself much with things of that sort: you do your Svadharma (natural duty)” — thus say the Hindu scriptures. Exactly so! He who cannot leap one foot, is going to jump across the ocean to Lanka in one bound! Is it reason? You cannot feed your own family or dole out food to two of your fellow-men, you cannot do even an ordinary piece of work for the common good, in harmony with others — and you are running after Mukti! The Hindu scriptures say, “No doubt, Moksha is far superior to Dharma; but Dharma should be finished first of all”. The Bauddhas were confounded just there and brought about all sorts of mischief. Non-injury is right; “Resist not evil” is a great thing — these are indeed grand principles; but the scriptures say, “Thou art a householder; if anyone smites thee on thy cheek, and thou dost not return him an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, thou wilt verily be a sinner.” Manu says, “When one has come to kill you, there is no sin in killing him, even though he be a Brahmin” (Manu, VIII. 350). This is very true, and this is a thing which should not be forgotten. Heroes only enjoy the world. Show your heroism; apply, according to circumstances, the fourfold political maxims of conciliation, bribery, sowing dissensions, and open war, to win over your adversary and enjoy the world — then you will be Dharmika (righteous). Otherwise, you live a disgraceful life if you pocket your insults when you are kicked and trodden down by anyone who takes it into his head to do so; your life is a veritable hell here, and so is the life hereafter. This is what the Shastras say. Do your Svadharma — this is truth, the truth of truths. This is my advice to you, my beloved co-religionists. Of course, do not do any wrong, do not injure or tyrannize over anyone, but try to do good to others as much as you can. But passively to submit to wrong done by others is a sin — with the householder. He must try to pay them back in their own coin then and there. The householder must earn money with great effort and enthusiasm, and by that must support and bring comforts to his own family and to others, and perform good works as far as possible. If you cannot do that, how do you profess to be a man? You are not a householder even — what to talk of Moksha for you!!: East and the West
[23] Now, this Jati Dharma, this Svadharma, is the path of welfare of all societies in every land, the ladder to ultimate freedom. With the decay of this Jati Dharma, this Svadharma, has come the downfall of our land. But the Jati Dharma or Svadharma as commonly understood at present by the higher castes is rather a new evil, which has to be guarded against. They think they know everything of Jati Dharma, but really they know nothing of it. Regarding their own village customs as the eternal customs laid down by the Vedas, and appropriating to themselves all privileges, they are going to their doom! I am not talking of caste as determined by qualitative distinction, but of the hereditary caste system. I admit that the qualitative caste system is the primary one; but the pity is qualities yield to birth in two or three generations. Thus the vital point of our national life has been touched; otherwise, why should we sink to this degraded state? Read in the Gita, “I should then be the cause of the admixture of races, and I should thus ruin these beings.” How came this terrible Varna-Samkarya — this confounding mixture of all castes — and disappearance of all qualitative distinctions? Why has the white complexion of our forefathers now become black? Why did the Sattvaguna give place to the prevailing Tamas with a sprinkling, as it were, of Rajas in it? That is a long story to tell, and I reserve my answer for some future occasion. For the present, try to understand this, that if the Jati Dharma be rightly and truly preserved, the nation shall never fall. If this is true, then what was it that brought our downfall? That we have fallen is the sure sign that the basis of the Jati Dharma has been tampered with. Therefore, what you call the Jati Dharma is quite contrary to what we have in fact. First, read your own Shastras through and through, and you will easily see that what the Shastras define as caste-Dharma has disappeared almost everywhere from the land. Now try to bring back the true Jati Dharma, and then it will be a real and sure boon to the country. What I have learnt and understood, I am telling you plainly. I have not been imported from some foreign land to come and save you, that I should countenance all your foolish customs and give scientific explanations for them; it does not cost our foreign friends anything, they can well afford to do so. You cheer them up and heap applause upon them, and that is the acme of their ambition. But if dirt and dust be flung at your faces, it falls on mine too! Don’t you see that?: East and the West
[24] Now you understand clearly where the soul of this ogress is — it is in religion. Because no one was able to destroy that, therefore the Hindu nation is still living, having survived so many troubles and tribulations. Well, One Indian scholar asks, “What is the use of keeping the soul of the nation in religion? Why not keep it in social or political independence, as is the case with other nations?” It is very easy to talk like that. If it be granted, for the sake of argument, that religion and spiritual independence, and soul, God, and Mukti are all false, even then see how the matter stands. As the same fire is manifesting itself in different forms, so the same one great Force is manifesting itself as political independence with the French, as mercantile genius and expansion of the sphere of equity with the English, and as the desire for Mukti or spiritual independence with the Hindu. Be it noted that by the impelling of this great Force, has been molded the French and the English character, through several centuries of vicissitudes of fortune; and also by the inspiration of that great Force, with the rolling of thousands of centuries, has been the present evolution of the Hindu national character. I ask in all seriousness — which is easier, to give up our national character evolved out of thousands of centuries, or your grafted foreign character of a few hundred years? Why do not the English forget their warlike habits and give up fighting and bloodshed, and sit calm and quiet concentrating their whole energy on making religion the sole aim of their life?: East and the West
[25] And, oh, how my heart ached to think of what we think of the poor, the low, in India. They have no chance, no escape, no way to climb up. The poor, the low, the sinner in India have no friends, no help — they cannot rise, try however they may. They sink lower and lower every day, they feel the blows showered upon them by a cruel society, and they do not know whence the blow comes. They have forgotten that they too are men. And the result is slavery. Thoughtful people within the last few years have seen it, but unfortunately laid it at the door of the Hindu religion, and to them, the only way of bettering is by crushing this grandest religion of the world. Hear me, my friend, I have discovered the secret through the grace of the Lord. Religion is not in fault. On the other hand, your religion teaches you that every being is only your own self multiplied. But it was the want of practical application, the want of sympathy — the want of heart. The Lord once more came to you as Buddha and taught you how to feel, how to sympathize with the poor, the miserable, the sinner, but you heard Him not. Your priests invented the horrible story that the Lord was here for deluding demons with false doctrines! True indeed, but we are the demons, not those that believed. And just as the Jews denied the Lord Jesus and are since that day wandering over the world as homeless beggars, tyrannized over by everybody, so you are bond-slaves to any nation that thinks it worthwhile to rule over you. Ah, tyrants! You do not know that the obverse is tyranny, and the reverse slavery. The slave and the tyrant are synonymous. Balaji and G. G. may remember one evening at Pondicherry — we were discussing the matter of sea-voyage with a Pandit, and I shall always remember his brutal gestures and his Kadapi Na (never)! They do not know that India is a very small part of the world, and the whole world looks down with contempt upon the three hundred millions of earthworms crawling upon the fair soil of India and trying to oppress each other. This state of things must be removed, not by destroying religion but by following the great teachings of the Hindu faith, and joining with it the wonderful sympathy of that logical development of Hinduism — Buddhism. A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion’s courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising-up — the gospel of equality. 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 Paramarthika and Vyavaharika. Letter to Alasinga on 20th Aug 1893 from USA
[26] But you may ask—what is the place of Ramakrishna in this scheme? He is the method, that wonderful unconscious method! He did not understand himself. He knew nothing of England or the English, save that they were queer folk from over the sea. But he lived that great life, and I read the meaning. Never a word of condemnation for any! Once I had been attacking one of our sects of Diabolists. I had been raving on for three hours, and he had listened quietly. ‘Well, well !’ said the old man as I finished, ‘perhaps every house may have a back door. Who knows?’ Hitherto, the great fault of our Indian religion has lain in its knowing only two words – renunciation and Mukti. Only Mukti here! Nothing for the householder! But these are the very people whom I want to help. For are not all souls of the same quality? Is not the goal of all the same? And so strength must come to the nation through education. Master as I saw him;
Cf also: The wicked pay the price of the great soul’s holiness. Think of that when you see a wicked man. Just as the poor man’s labor pays for the rich man’s luxury, so is it in the spiritual world. The terrible degradation of the masses in India is the price nature pays for the production of great souls like Mira-bai, Buddha, etc. Inspired Talks
[27] What I mean to say is this – India learnt that Buddhism and Jainism, two new variants of Hinduism that sprang forth with great vitality, could be absorbed back into Hinduism, India’s avowed religion. So also with the occasional invaders such as the Greeks (both Macedonians & Ionians), the Mongols, the Huns, the Tartars, the Shakas (also known as Scythians), the Kushans, the Pahlavas (also known as Parthians), etc, all of whom were successfully absorbed into Hinduism and no trace was left of the invaders’ religion in the Indian society. With the advent of Islam in its midst, it found that it could not absorb it as it had always done in the past.
[28] The faithful householder was as essential to the Sanatana Dharma as the faithful monk. The inviolability of marriage and the inviolability of the monastic vow were obverse and reverse of a single medal. Without noble citizenship, there could be no mighty apostolate. Without the secular, no sacerdotal, without temporal, no spiritual; thus all was one, yet no detail might be willfully neglected, for through each atom shone the whole. It was in fact his own old message in a new form. Integrity of character, as he and his Master before him, had insisted, was a finer offering than religious ecstasy. Without strength to hold, there was no achievement in surrender. Master as I saw him
Swami Vedatitananda 