Swami Vivekananda, while speaking of Sri Rama, says: “There is a peculiar conception of the Hindu. Those who have been studying with me are aware that the central conception of Hindu philosophy is of the Absolute; that is the background of the universe. This Absolute Being, of whom we can predicate nothing, has Its powers spoken of as She – that is, the real personal God in India is She. This Shakti of the Brahman is always in the feminine gender. Rama is considered the type of the Absolute, and Sita that of Power.”[1]
Swami Saradananda makes the following significant observation in his magnum opus ‘Sri Ramakrishna and his divine play’:
Power is not equally manifest in all avatars because some come to teach religion to a particular nation and some to all of humanity:
There is clearly a hidden significance in the fact that aspirants of different sects enjoyed the Master’s divine company at different times. This has always happened with the auspicious advent of avatars in the past and so will happen in the future. According to a hidden law of the spiritual world, avatars are born to avert the degradation of religion as a whole or to revive a dying religion. But, when we study their lives, we find differences in the manifestation of powers within them. This clearly indicates that some of them came to meet the needs of a particular country or a few religious communities, whereas others came to revive spirituality throughout the whole world. But while they promulgated their own revelations and beliefs, at the same time they fully supported the spiritual truths that were discovered and preached by the sages, seers, and avatars who preceded them. Avatars do not seek to destroy what has come before because their divine yogic power reveals a sequence to the previous spiritual truths and relationships among them. The history of the spiritual realm and the connections between faiths always remain hidden to us because our minds are obscured by worldliness. But avatars see previous religions as strung ‘like a strand of pearls,’ and each adds another precious pearl to it from his own spiritual experience, then quietly departs.[2]
Rama was a divine incarnation, meant specifically for India. When we critically study the Ramayana, we can see that Rama integrated India for the 1st time in its history.
A couple of ideas need to be pointed out here.
- There are two distinct categories of human beings that are born in this world. The 1st category consists of the multitudes including all of us. The 2nd category consists of a special soul, a single personality, who is born in periods of 1500 years, with a special mission towards mankind.
- This special category of human beings is called ‘Avatara’ or divine incarnation in Hindu literature.
- The Avatara unleashes incredible Power into the world, which works through people, over very long periods of time, moulding the personalities of people and awakening them to divinity.
- This makes the Avatara a ‘history-maker’ according to Swami Vivekananda. It is the Power unleashed by an Avatara that directs and moulds the entire society, everywhere in the world. And this Power of an Avatara does not have an expiry date. Its influence is literally endless.
- Regarding this Power, Swami Saradananda makes a vital observation. He says: According to a hidden law of the spiritual world, avatars are born to avert the degradation of religion as a whole or to revive a dying religion. But, when we study their lives, we find differences in the manifestation of powers within them. This clearly indicates that some of them came to meet the needs of a particular country or a few religious communities, whereas others came to revive spirituality throughout the whole world. Sri Rama is an Avatara who is relevant to India, more so than to other parts of the world.
Putting all these ideas together, we can understand why there is an unprecedented upsurge in Rama’s presence in India presently. Jai Sri Rama is the cry that is uniting the different parts of India, the different communities of India, the different ethnicities of India in this 21st century, almost 8000 years after Rama’s advent! Rama was the 1st integrator of all the people who lived within the geographical confines of his kingdom, called Aryavarta in those days. Before Rama, we can safely say that people lived in these lands, but did not feel a national kinship. Rama, for the 1st time felt that all people living within these lands belong to a common identity, and that he was their king, and that his wife Sita was their queen. That is why Swamiji says: Sita is unique; that character was depicted once and for all. There may have been several Ramas, perhaps, but never more than one Sita! She is the very type of the true Indian woman, for all the Indian ideals of a perfected woman have grown out of that one life of Sita; and here she stands these thousands of years, commanding the worship of every man, woman, and child throughout the length and breadth of the land of Aryavarta. There she will always be, this glorious Sita, purer than purity itself, all patience, and all suffering. She … the ideal of the people, the ideal of the gods, the great Sita, our national God she must always remain. And every one of us knows her too well to require much delineation. All our mythology may vanish, even our Vedas may depart, and our Sanskrit language may vanish forever, but so long as there will be five Hindus living here, even if only speaking the most vulgar patois, there will be the story of Sita present. Mark my words: Sita has gone into the very vitals of our race. She is there in the blood of every Hindu man and woman; we are all children of Sita. [3]
Notice how the presence of Rama, Sita and Hanuman get awakened among the people of India the moment they all start feeling that they are one, and that they have one national identity. It is our contention that Swami Vivekananda walked over the length and breadth of India after his return from the West, infusing spiritual power into the people at large, through his lectures from Colombo to Almora. This infusion of spiritual energy has started bearing fruit in various stages beginning from the grand struggle for political independence, the framing of our own constitution, and a very belated social and political response to Islam and Christianity in the Indian society. We believe that Swamiji awakened the latent national identity within Hindus through his inspired utterances such as: ‘But remember that as Hindus everything else must be subordinated to our own national ideals. Each man has a mission in life, which is the result of all his infinite past Karma. Each of you was born with a splendid heritage, which is the whole of the infinite past life of your glorious nation. Millions of your ancestors are watching, as it were, every action of yours, so be alert. And what is the mission with which every Hindu child is born? Have you not read the proud declaration of Manu regarding the Brahmin where he says that the birth of the Brahmin is “for the protection of the treasury of religion”? I should say that that is the mission not only of the Brahmin, but of every child, whether boy or girl, who is born in this blessed land “for the protection of the treasury of religion”. And every other problem in life must be subordinated to that one principal theme. That is also the law of harmony in music. There may be a nation whose theme of life is political supremacy; religion and everything else must become subordinate to that one great theme of its life. But here is another nation whose great theme of life is spirituality and renunciation, whose one watchword is that this world is all vanity and a delusion of three days, and everything else, whether science or knowledge, enjoyment or powers, wealth, name, or fame, must be subordinated to that one theme. The secret of a true Hindu’s character lies in the subordination of his knowledge of European sciences and learning, of his wealth, position, and name, to that one principal theme which is inborn in every Hindu child — the spirituality and purity of the race.[4]
And when he said:
This national ship, my countrymen, my friends, my children — this national ship has been ferrying millions and millions of souls across the waters of life. For scores of shining centuries it has been plying across this water, and through its agency, millions of souls have been taken to the other shore, to blessedness. But today, perhaps through your own fault, this boat has become a little damaged, has sprung a leak; and would you therefore curse it? Is it fit that you stand up and pronounce malediction upon it, one that has done more work than any other thing in the world? If there are holes in this national ship, this society of ours, we are its children. Let us go and stop the holes. Let us gladly do it with our hearts’ blood; and if we cannot, then let us die. We will make a plug of our brains and put them into the ship, but condemn it never. Say not one harsh word against this society. I love it for its past greatness. I love you all because you are the children of gods, and because you are the children of the glorious forefathers. How then can I curse you! Never. All blessings be upon you! I have come to you, my children, to tell you all my plans. If you hear them I am ready to work with you. But if you will not listen to them, and even kick me out of India, I will come back and tell you that we are all sinking! I am come now to sit in your midst, and if we are to sink, let us all sink together, but never let curses rise to our lips.[5]
When the national identity of Hindus awakened, instantly awakened the long-lost memories of Rama, Sita, and Hanuman. Inspite of themselves, the modern day Hindus are rallying behind the banner of Sri Rama! We are certain that most Hindus don’t even know what they are doing, spiritually speaking, since the present awakening in the name of Sri Rama seems to be purely political. But the ancient memory of the last time they had all been integrated into a nation has awakened now. And if you study the modern developments keenly, you will notice that neither the Muslims nor the Christians know how to counter this present awakening of the ‘mild Hindu’.
We need to study Indian history, in fact all history, in terms of the influence of Avataras. That is the method of historical study initiated by Swami Vivekananda. It is indeed most interesting to note that Divine Power, unleashed by Mohammad and Jesus Christ, had to enter into India, in order to awaken the Divine Power of Sri Rama lying dormant in its people!
Against the background of these ideas, we will try to see Sri Rama through Swami Vivekananda’s eyes in this article.
- Influence on him during childhood:
In the ‘Life of Swami Vivekananda’ written by his Eastern & Western Disciples, we find it recorded that right in his childhood, Naren was exposed to the Ramayana by his mother. The personality of Sita and Rama struck a deeply sympathetic chord in the boy’s heart. He idolized Sita-Rama. Almost every day, Bhuvaneswari Devi would recount parts of the Ramayana, and the boy Naren would listen enraptured. He even purchased a clay image of Sita-Rama and set up a small shrine in his attic. Meditating on Sita-Rama in this shrine was a favorite pastime of the boy. Then, he happened to listen to the problems of a married life from a hassled driver of his father. The young boy put two & two together and deduced that getting married was a terrible compromise of ideals in life! And suddenly, he realized that his own ideal Sita-Rama were married! He could no longer retain them as ideals in his life, and he threw away the clay image of Sita-Rama! This is an incident depicted very colorfully in the ‘Life of Swami Vivekananda’.[6]
The child Naren was distraught. What is a small kid to do when his ideals have been downgraded! It is like the whole world has come down crashing! Having thrown away the Sita-Rama idol, Naren went weeping to his mother. He wept bitterly before her asking her how he could worship Sita-Rama when they were married. Bhuvaneswari Devi was a lady with tremendous presence of mind; she immediately pointed out, “Why, there is the Yogi Shiva; you can always worship him!” Now, Shiva is also a much married god in the Hindu pantheon. Yet, for some strange reason, monks consider Shiva as their ideal. And Shiva himself considers Rama as his ideal! Naren started worshipping Shiva, instead of Sita-Rama. But, as his biographers note, Naren’s love for Sita-Rama did not disappear altogether. He felt the pull of the Sita-Rama ideal and the Mahavir Hanuman ideal all his life. His meeting with his Guru Sri Ramakrishna led to a very interesting incident.
- Initiation in Rama-mantra
Sri Ramakrishna gave Mantra-Diksha to Naren in Dakshineswar. His biography records the following: One day Shri Ramakrishna initiated Naren with the name of Rama, telling him that it was the Mantra which he had received from his own Guru. In consequence of this, Naren’s emotions were tremendously stirred. Towards evening he began to circle the house, repeating the name of the Lord, ‘Rama! Rama!’, in a loud and animated voice. Outward consciousness had apparently left him, and he was full of ecstatic fire. When the Master was informed of this, he simply said, ‘Let him be; he will come round in due course.’ The emotional storm subsided in a few hours, and Naren became his old self again. According to another version, when Shri Ramakrishna came to know of Naren’s ecstatic state, he said to someone: ‘Go and ask Naren to come here.’ But the messenger could not manage Naren alone, and sought help from others. When they brought Naren, the Master said, ‘Oh, why are you going on like this? What good will it do?’ After a pause he said, ‘See, I passed twelve long years in the state you are experiencing now. What are you going to attain in a single night?’ [7]
Note that Sri Ramakrishna said that he himself had been initiated in the Rama-Mantra. How was that? Ramakrishna’s biography says that he had received the Shakti-Mantra from Kenaram Bhattacharya. But the tutelary deity of Sri Ramakrishna was Rama. Their family shrine dedicated to Rama still exists in Kamarpukur. It is thus natural that he must have been initiated in the Rama-Mantra by his own kula-Guru, whose name we do not know.
What is most interesting here is this:
Later on in his life, Swamiji used to say, “I am condensed India.”[8] The history of this land too must have followed a similar trajectory. This land belonged to Sita-Rama. That identification was divinely ordained, and not something that was a political arrangement. A few thousand years later, with the advent of Bhagawan Buddha, monasticism was prescribed as the ideal for all mankind. Marriage came to be seen as a fall from the ideal, as a compromise with the highest ideal. But a healthy society has to consist of married people; married people, living up to high ideals must be the majority; monks must be a miniscule portion of the population. If the monastic world is opened up to all and sundry, the highest ideal of monasticism will get degraded. That is exactly what happened in India. 500 years after Buddha, society became filled with all sorts of filthy practices. The left-handed Tantric practices all grew during this period. Swamiji opines that Valmiki composed the Ramayana in the post-Buddhistic period, to reawaken the householder ideal in India.
So, the chronology is something like this:
The actual period of Rama must have been during 10,000 BC. Nothing in writing exists of that period. But the influence of that personality must have been immense, and its memory had seared itself into the national psyche. This memory inspired the succeeding generations to lead meaningful lives, contributing to the national economy and personal development. Then came Buddha, who brought about tremendous transformation in this land, in all areas, including the caste structure. He replaced the caste structure with corporate structure of the Sangha. He impressed upon the people of this land that monasticism was the ideal state of living in society, and only those who couldn’t become monks may get married and participate in economic activity! This happened around 700 BC. During the next 500-800 years, Indian society underwent a sea-change. Monasteries dotted the entire landscape of the land. Anybody could enter the Sangha and become a monk. Essentially, there was a total breakdown of morality and work-ethic in this land. So, around 100AD, Valmiki composed the Ramayana, which Swamiji says, is the 1st Sanskrit poem. This work highlighted the ideal of the pure householder in the personality of Sita-Rama. The masses of this land woke up from a stupor, as it were, and the reclaiming of the ancient traditions began once more in this land. That job, according to Swamiji, is still going on, and Sri Ramakrishna’s advent is a watershed event in this grand process.
Once Swamiji thundered at Sister Nivedita, “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.”[9] Monasticism cannot, and should not, be made mandatory for spiritual freedom, for it is indeed not a sine-qua-non for spiritual freedom. In the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, we find him reiterating the idea that God realization is the goal of human life and that all human beings can achieve this goal, even married people can do so. Sri Ramakrishna does this repeatedly in the Gospel. Marriage and monasticism are social modes of existence. Which should be adopted by whom? That depends entirely on the personal tendencies of the person. “For, are not all souls of the same quality? Is not the goal of all the same?” The goal of life is the same for everyone, whatever he/she be, a married householder or an all-renouncing monk. What a person does with his life has nothing to do with the goal of one’s life. The goal is fixed by the very nature of the person’s soul. Every soul is potentially divine and the goal is to manifest it. You may get married and manifest your potential divinity; or you may become a monk and manifest your potential divinity. Strength is required for manifesting potential divinity. Strength comes when we know our own real history. Strength comes when we know our real literature. Strength comes when we know our real heroes. Strength comes when we know our real nature. That would be real education.
This conversation between Swamiji and Nivedita happened during a ship voyage. Nivedita writes: “I thought at the time, and I think increasingly, as I consider it, that this one talk of my Master had been well worth the whole voyage, to have heard.”[10]
- Some deliberation on Ramayana
Swamiji gave a full lecture on the Ramayana at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California on 31st Jan 1900. On the next day, he spoke on the Mahabharata to the same audience. Swamiji apriori accepts that these two epics embody the history of ancient India. But he draws a fine line between seeing history as a chronological record of events and as an educational narrative of ideas and ideals, as embodied in the lives of our predecessors. Swamiji says in an interview: Some historical truth is the nucleus of every Purana. The object of the Puranas is to teach mankind the sublime truth in various forms; and even if they do not contain any historical truth, they form a great authority for us in respect of the highest truth which they inculcate. Take the Ramayana, for illustration. For viewing it as an authority on building character, it is not even necessary that one like Rama should have ever lived. The sublimity of the law propounded by Ramayana or Bharata does not depend upon the truth of any personality like Rama or Krishna, and one can even hold that such personages never lived, and at the same time take those writings as high authorities in respect of the grand ideas which they place before mankind. Our philosophy does not depend upon any personality for its truth. Thus Krishna did not teach anything new or original to the world, nor does Ramayana profess anything which is not contained in the Scriptures. It is to be noted that Christianity cannot stand without Christ, Mohammedanism without Mohammed, and Buddhism without Buddha, but Hinduism stands independent of any man, and for the purpose of estimating the philosophical truth contained in any Purana, we need not consider the question whether the personages treated of therein were really material men or were fictitious characters. The object of the Puranas was the education of mankind, and the sages who constructed them contrived to find some historical personages and to superimpose upon them all the best or worst qualities just as they wanted to, and laid down the rules of morals for the conduct of mankind. Is it necessary that a demon with ten heads (Dashamukha) should have actually lived as stated in the Ramayana? It is the representation of some truth which deserves to be studied, apart from the question whether Dashamukha was a real or fictitious character. You can now depict Krishna in a still more attractive manner, and the description depends upon the sublimity of your ideal, but there stands the grand philosophy contained in the Puranas.[11]
We will now try to highlight some important aspects of the Ramayana, which will be useful for our study of Sri Rama in the eyes of Swami Vivekananda.
- The issue of Rakshasas & Vanaras:
Ramayana is full of tales of a type of beings called Rakshasa. Generally, this term is translated as ‘demon’ in English. But, this word might not convey the full meaning intended. Demons belong in fairy tales. Demons are imaginary. In ancient Hindu literature, Rakshasa is a type of human being, similar in some respects, but, also different to human beings, in many aspects.
In all probabilities, Rakshasa ought to be translated as ‘Neanderthal’ or ‘Denisovan’. Studies in Anthropology and Biology have established that homo-sapiens shared space on earth with two sub-species called Neanderthal and Denisovan long ago. As of now, the time period is said to have been at least 40,000 years. If this time period is right, we may have to contend with the fact that Ramayana is at least 30,000-40,000 years old. Or, further research might revise the time period of these two sub-species to a much later period such as 8,000-10,000 years ago.
Anyway, if we understand Rakshasa to refer to these sub-species, it will make much more sense. Modern genetic research has established that there was rampant interbreeding between homo sapiens and Neanderthals.[12] Ravana is said to have a Brahmin father and a Rakshasa mother.
Apart from the Ramayana, we come across stories of interactions between normal human beings and Rakshasas again and again in most Purana literature. Even in Krishna’s life, we find some interaction, but, the frequency seems to be subdued. Then, in Buddha’s period, there is no further reference to Rakshasas. This will make sense because Buddha lived 2500 years ago, by which time, the Neanderthals and Denisovans had become extinct.
Swamiji says: The Aryans did not know who were the inhabitants of these wild forests. In those days the forest tribes they called ‘monkeys’, and some of the so-called ‘monkeys’, if unusually strong and powerful, were called ‘demons’[13]… You see, by the ‘monkeys’ and ‘demons’ are meant the aborigines of South India.[14]
The forest tribes during that period were all collectively called as ‘Vanara’. We must note that this term is used to denote ‘monkey’, as well as a tribal dwelling in the forests. It is meaningless to consider Vanara as a simian, since we don’t have any record apart from Ramayana where human beings and apes interacted socially. On the other hand, if we consider this term to mean tribal, it makes reasonable sense. By reaching out to the tribal societies in India, Rama enabled an unprecedented integration of the peoples of this land. Of course, such an integrated people would need a name. and such an integrated land would also need a name. today, the name is India, and Indians. During Rama’s time, the names were Aryavarta and Aryans. And the process of integrating the various people of the hills into the mainstream has been called ‘Aryanization’ by Swamiji. According to Swamiji, the process of Aryanization initiated by Rama is still incomplete and it is our duty to take it forward in the right spirit. In the Math Rules, he says: India is full of many races, indigenous as well as foreign. The Aryan religion and the Aryan ideas have not yet penetrated into most of them. Therefore, we should be able to avert this great danger by first Aryanizing India, giving everybody the privilege of the Aryans, and inviting all without distinction to the Aryan scripture and spiritual practices.
So, what Rama achieved was something as follows: The mainstream society in Aryavarta consisted of kingdoms (called Janapadas), of which Ayodhya was an important one. These kingdoms were all peopled by those who called themselves ‘Aryans’. (We shall presently see what this term ‘Aryan’ means.) They had very specific modes of thinking, and modes of living. In other words, they had a very distinct ‘Culture’. And they had organized society into a four tier caste system, closely governed by a four-tier classification of duties and responsibilities. This was called the ‘Varna-Ashrama’ system. Wherever he met the hill-tribes (Vanara), or the Neanderthals/Denisovans (Rakshasa), he invited them to adopt the Aryan culture. Thus he Aryanized all people living in the geographical confines of what constitutes present India.
Dasharatha had told his son Rama that his forefathers ruled over Kishkinda Aranya, but he himself had left that region almost ungoverned. Thus, when Rama went to Kishkinda Aranya during his exile, and got entangled in the power struggle between Vali and Sugriva, he was merely performing his regal duties of bringing order in a land that actually belonged to his suzerainty. But, Rama was certainly the 1st King in India who accepted the tribal, the Sudra, the outcaste, and the fringe-beings as ‘Our own people’. Swamiji composed a hymn in Sanskrit, where he sings: He who was Shri Rama, whose stream of love flowed with resistless might even to the Chandala (the outcaste).[15] That is the reason, while speaking on the Buddha in ‘The sages of India’ lecture, Swamiji said: As it were, to give a living example of this preaching, as it were, to make at least one part of it practical, the preacher himself came in another form, and this was Shakyamuni, the preacher to the poor and the miserable, he who rejected even the language of the gods to speak in the language of the people, so that he might reach the hearts of the people, he who gave up a throne to live with beggars, and the poor, and the downcast, he who pressed the Pariah to his breast like a second Rama. [16]
Thus, the integration of these people was achieved at the highest levels of consciousness in Rama. This is the reason why there is so much variety among the Indian people, and yet they feel united. It is almost impossible to identify the locus of their unity, since they differ incredibly from one another. Yet, they are all connected. Where exactly lies the nucleus of their unity? We contend that the national unity lies in the spiritual plane, and it was established by Rama. Subsequent leaders have reinforced this national unity at the spiritual level. This is the main reason why Indian nationalism does not fit into any of the standard theories of nationalism propounded by European thinkers. This is also the reason why even seasoned statesmen like Winston Churchill said, “India is no more a political personality than Europe. India is a geographical term. It is no more united than the Equator.”[17] He predicted that after the British left the subcontinent, “India will fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle Ages. It is likely that an army of white janissaries, officered if necessary from Germany, will be hired to secure the armed ascendancy of the Hindu.” [18] Shortly after India became free, the last British commander in chief of the Indian Army, Gen. Claude Auchinleck, wrote: “The Sikhs may try to set up a separate regime. I think they probably will and that will be only a start of a general decentralization and break-up of the idea that India is a country, whereas it is a subcontinent as varied as Europe. The Punjabi is as different from a Madrassi as a Scot is from an Italian. The British tried to consolidate it but achieved nothing permanent. No one can make a nation out of a continent of many nations.” [19] Speaking in Cambridge in 1880, a high official of the British Raj named Sir John Strachey said that the “first and most essential thing to learn about India is that there is not, and there never was an India. It is conceivable that national sympathies may arise in particular Indian countries, but that they should ever extend to India generally, that men of the Punjab, Bengal, the Northwestern Provinces, and Madras, should ever feel that they belong to one Indian nation, is impossible.” [20]
Whereas, contrast these views of experts of Political science, with the views of a spiritual person, i.e. Swami Vivekananda: “I see that India is a young and living organism.” [21] “First understand that India has strength as well, has a substantial reality of her own yet. Furthermore, understand that India is still living, because she has her own quota yet to give to the general store of the world’s civilization.” [22]
Rama’s job of aryanizing the people in this land, and consolidating them into a living nation seems to have consummated in the Ashwamedha Yajna that he performed. In fact, Rama seems to have been among the first kings to have performed the Yajna. Conservative sources place a time period of at least 2000 years between Sri Rama and Sri Krishna. This is important for us because, in this intervening period, the name of this nation changed from Aryavarta to Bharatavarsha, due to another great king Bharata, who again consolidated the people of the land. This is a different Bharat and not to be confused with Rama’s own younger brother. This King Bharata must have been a formidable one, without doubt. But, his identification with the nation, with the land, and with the people of this land, must have been a great deal lesser than that of Sri Rama. This is par for course, since Rama was a divine incarnation.
- Aryanizing influence:
When we study the history of ancient India, through the complete works of Swami Vivekananda, we notice his repeated use of the term Aryan. Unless we understand this term, we will fail to catch the drift of the history of our nation.
The biggest problem in studying this all-important term is the perversion of this term by the Europeans, especially the Germans. After the Nazis, this vital term has become taboo. Nevertheless, we will try to unravel the meaning of the term Aryan.
- Goal of life:
What a person considers as the goal of life is the single most important marker of an Aryan. God realization is the goal of life of an Aryan. If anything short of God realization is the goal of life of a person, even if he is born a Hindu, in this blessed land, he is a Non-Aryan.
In the Chandogya Upanishad,[23] there is the incident of Indra and Virochana approaching Prajapati. Both of them are given the same teaching. They were told that material achievement is God. Both depart, happy at being taught by the greatest living teacher. After sometime, Indra returns, saying, ‘Sir, I am not satisfied with what I have learnt. I need to know more.’ This urge in Indra is what made him a Deva. This term Deva is the precursor to the term Aryan. And the material satisfaction that became the goal of Virochana is what made him a Daitya. This term Daitya is the precursor to the term Non-Aryan or Rakshasa or Danava.
We must note how the term Aryan refers therefore to qualities in a person’s outlook of life. Any person who believes that the goal of his/her life is to realize God while living, before death, is an Aryan. Nothing else about the person matters. European thinkers perverted the meaning of this term to refer to a particular set of people who lived somewhere in modern-day Russia, and then migrated to various parts of the world, thousands of years ago. Thus, Aryan refers to geographical origin only, according to the European thinkers. And towing the line of European thinkers, Indians too believe that is so. Aryan has today come to mean a purely racial term.
The term Aryan has nothing to do with race, geography, language, religion, etc. It denotes a spiritual outlook to life as a whole. Anyone, no matter what his/her background, who believes that the overarching goal of life is to realize the potential divinity innate within him/her, is an Aryan. Anyone who believes differently, no matter what his/her background, is a Non-Aryan.
Sri Ramakrishna was known to ask anyone who visited him a peculiar question: ‘According to you, what is the goal of life?’ Many incidents are recorded in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.[24] The answers that people gave him were varied. Many said that the goal of human life is honor. Somebody called Hem would visit him at Dakshineswar and say this to him. Recalling Hem, Sri Ramakrishna laments, ‘Alas! How few consider God realization as the goal of human life!’[25] Some others such as Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar and Shambhu Charan Mallick said that the goal of human life was to serve others selflessly. Sri Ramakrishna would correct them patiently, saying, “Selfless service can purify the heart; but do not mistake the means for the end; with the purified heart, call on God, and realize him in this very life.”[26] Some others such as Bankim Chandra Chatterjee answered that the goal of human life is to eat, drink and make merry; this seems to be the same outlook that Virochana entertained during the days of the Chandogya Upanishad! To this particular answer, Sri Ramakrishna would get visibly upset. He would have nothing to do with persons who held such a view of life. We have here a clear picture of the Aryan and Non-Aryan personality. We also get a clear picture of how Sri Ramakrishna re-initiated the Aryanization process in the present age. Swamiji considered it as a precious trust bequeathed by his Master to him, and his followers. That is why, in the Math Rules, he writes: India is full of many races, indigenous as well as foreign. The Aryan religion and the Aryan ideas have not yet penetrated into most of them. Therefore, we should be able to avert this great danger by first Aryanizing India, giving everybody the privilege of the Aryans, and inviting all without distinction to the Aryan scripture and spiritual practices.
God realization is the goal of human life. It is an experience while living, and not a post-mortem event. Concomitant with this fundamental idea of god realization being the goal of human life, an Aryan will believe in his ability to ‘see’ God. An Aryan will believe in the ability to reach a state of consciousness called ‘Samadhi’, in which perception of divinity happens. Anybody who does not believe in such a thing cannot be called an Aryan.
- Strong belief in rationality
An Aryan believes strongly in rational thinking. Regarding everything – religion, world, God, personal life, society, politics, economics, history – the Aryan will be rational in his approach. Rational approach to religion is called Vedanta. Hence an Aryan will invariably lean towards Vedanta. It is not possible for a person to be Aryan and not resonate with Vedanta.
It is not possible to discover Vedanta (rational religion) all by oneself. One may be very rational in his approach towards the study of the world, but, there is no guarantee that such a person will one day stumble upon the rational approach to religion, i.e. towards God and oneself. The rational religion needs to be transmitted through a living medium. Note how Swamiji says that we need to ‘invite others into the Vedanta’, in the Math Rule quoted above.
An Aryan intuitively believes that the macrocosm and microcosm are built along same lines. This is a vital intuition that led to all the discoveries in religion among the ancient Hindus. When every civilization struggled with understanding how the world is created and what will happen to it in future, the Aryans had unraveled the mystery. The Aryans studied the human personality, which is close at hand and is accessible to deep study. They saw that a man is awake, then starts dreaming and then falls into deep sleep, only to start dreaming before waking up again. This cycle of ‘waking-dream-sleep-dream-waking’ at the microcosmic level must have an analogous process at the macrocosmic level too. Thus, they concluded that this world is now manifest; it will go into a seed-form in the future; then it will completely vanish; then again, it will attain a seed-form before becoming manifest again. Thus, the cosmology of the Aryans is based on the study of the microcosm, extrapolated to the macrocosm. But, this cyclic pattern of history is an important marker of the Aryans.
While even the non-Aryans recognize three sources of human knowledge – sensory, inference/logic, and written records of the past; the Aryans recognize one more in addition to these three. That source of knowledge is called ‘Samadhi’. The greatest contribution of the Avatara is demonstrating this state of Samadhi. Everyone is potentially capable of achieving Samadhi. The advent of an Avatara heralds the common access to this unique state of consciousness for the common man. In the Ramayana, we find Rama falling into a swoon now and then. This must have been Samadhi. In Sri Ramakrishna’s life too, we find records of onlookers saying that he would die and come back to life often. This is actually Samadhi.
Even though the Aryans recognize Samadhi as a valid source of knowledge, they subordinate knowledge obtained from that source to verification by the other three sources. If knowledge obtained from Samadhi were to contradict the conclusions of reason, sensory perception, or past written records, such knowledge would be worthless.
- Strong belief that Reality has two aspects: Consciousness & Power
Did consciousness create matter? Or did matter create consciousness? This dilemma is un-resolvable by reason. Swamiji says: There seems to be a great difference between modern science and all religions at this point. Every religion has the idea that the universe comes out of intelligence. The theory of God, taking it in its psychological significance, apart from all ideas of personality, is that intelligence is first in the order of creation, and that out of intelligence comes what we call gross matter. Modern philosophers say that intelligence is the last to come. They say that unintelligent things slowly evolve into animals, and from animals into men. They claim that instead of everything coming out of intelligence, intelligence itself is the last to come. Both the religious and the scientific statements, though seeming directly opposed to each other are true. Take an infinite series, A-B-A-B-A-B-etc. The question is – which is first, A or B? If you take the series as A-B, you will say that A is first, but if you take it as B-A, you will say that B is first. It depends upon the way we look at it. Intelligence undergoes modification and becomes the gross matter, this again merges into intelligence, and thus the process goes on. The Sankhyas, and other religionists, put intelligence first, and the series becomes intelligence, then matter. The scientific man puts his finger on matter, and says matter, then intelligence. They both indicate the same chain. Indian philosophy, however, goes beyond both intelligence and matter, and finds a Purusha, or Self, which is beyond intelligence, of which intelligence is but the borrowed light.[27]
The belief that consciousness is the root of all is Aryan. The belief that matter creates consciousness is Non-Aryan. It is indeed a way of looking at the world. Consciousness is fundamental existence. Everything arises from it, even the so-called dead matter. In fact, if something has emanated out of consciousness, out of life, it is impossible for it to be devoid of life; it is impossible for it to be ‘dead’ and lifeless. Hence, an Aryan believes that everything that exists is ‘living’. He may or may not perceive it as such, but that is the truth of the things, and he believes it to be such.
Thus, the highest generalization of an Impersonal God is the starting point, as also the goal of an Aryan. The Impersonal includes the Personal. The Personal does not necessarily include the Impersonal; at least logically, the Personal does not include the Impersonal, although in lived experience, it may do so, as testified by many devotees of many religions. The Aryan conception of God is therefore Impersonal-Personal.
That is the reason the Vedanta or the Aryan religion or Hinduism considers Brahman (the Impersonal transcendent Absolute) and Shakti (the Personal immanent divinity) to be one and the same. When Sri Ramakrishna kept on reiterating the fact that Brahman and Shakti are identical, he was engaging himself in “Aryanizing India, giving everybody the privilege of the Aryans, and inviting all without distinction to the Aryan scripture and spiritual practices.”
Whatever be the form of God one worships, the Aryan knows that it is but one of the infinite forms of the Impersonal transcendent Absolute. Hence, the Aryan society will enable an eternal presence of variety in it. It is not Aryan practice to make everyone conform to the same choice of Personal God, or same religious practices, or same beliefs about cosmology, eschatology and philosophy. All sorts of variety can be accommodated, so long as one doesn’t harm another. Since consciousness is fundamental existence, the essence of man, the soul of man, is eternal and deathless. Whatever be the present state of a man’s self-identity, it will unfold in its own sweet way and realize its one-ness with the Impersonal transcendent Absolute. Hence, all paths of spiritual practice can be valid and ought to be allowed, so long as it does not harm or obstruct others.
Thus, objecting to a person’s philosophy of exclusivity, and violent means of conversion to a spiritual path that is not in-sync with one’s inner constitution, is a duty of the Aryan.
- Strong belief in Law of Karma
Another characteristic trait of an Aryan is a strong belief in the Law of Karma. When rationality and the Impersonal-Personal conception of God are put together, the Law of Karma becomes inevitable.
Life is a complex calculus of actions and reactions. This is true at the individual level, as well as at the collective level. A person wrongs another person; he will himself bear the result of his action in due time. A nation wrongs another nation; that nation itself will bear the result of its action in due time. Results of one’s actions are inevitable. There is no escape from it. The roosters will come back to roost! The Aryan view of time and history is thus cyclic.
This seems to be giving rise to a fatalistic view of life. In a way, that is true. There is no action in the world that does not give rise to a result that is all good. Thus no action can be categorized as purely good or purely evil. Depending on place, time and circumstance, good can become evil, and evil can become good. Thus, the Aryan conception of morality is not dependent on good action or bad action, but rather on doing one’s duty. What is it that you are supposed to do, at any particular place, time and situation? Do that. That is your duty. The overarching goal of God realization is the polestar of life in deciding one’s duty.
With a little thought, it will be clear that the Aryan conception of life gives rise to the exaltation of hard work. At every moment, a man ought to work hard. He ought to determine what his duty is, and be at it, heart and soul. This is the reason, every time an Avatara manifested in this land, there was a great surge of human activity in his wake. Every Avatara aligns the people towards hard work, designed at propelling the person towards God realization.
A concomitant idea of the Law of Karma is that one can’t ignore the laws of the world with impunity. Human society loses the idea that the Law of Karma operates in this world and every now and then, tries to ignore the laws of working of the world. It is indeed possible to accumulate sufficient power by human beings, so as to refuse to obey the laws on which this world operates. Terrible price needs to be paid for doing so, but in the long run.
In the Ramayana, we have an interesting incident. Sri Rama has come to know from Hanuman that Sita is indeed kept a prisoner in Ravana’s Ashoka Garden. So, he plans to take his make-shift army of the tribal Vanaras across the ocean to Lanka, and defeat Ravana in a battle. Rama goes to the tip of the Indian land, near Rameshwaram and lies down in Samadhi, expecting the ocean to split in two, allowing the army to cross over to the island Lanka. After many days of waiting, the ocean doesn’t budge an inch. In terrible anger, Rama plans to use a high-tech weapon that would burn up the ocean water and make way for his people. At that moment, Varuna, the god of the Oceans, appears before Rama and says, “O Rama, what you are about to do is against Dharma; i.e. it is against the Law of Karma. The world doesn’t operate that way. You know it, being an Aryan. We all know that you do have the capability to burn up the waters, if you so wish. But desist from burning me up. Instead, ask your Vanaras to pile up rocks along the shallow regions of the ocean; I will hold it up for you; create a bridge, and cross over in peace.” And that was indeed how Rama went to Lanka.
Compare this incident with a similar incident in the Bible. Moses had to lead his people across the Red Sea since they had been banished by the Pharaoh. God had revealed to Moses that he would lead his people to the Promised Land across the ocean. So Moses goes to the shore and sees the endless water in front of him. How would he ferry his people across this interminable ocean? He prayed to God for help. God then revealed to him that his wooden walking staff had immense power. He would wave his staff at the waters, and the sea would split in two, allowing him and the multitudes of his Jewish people to walk across.
Another incident from the Ramayana: It has been decided that Rama will be crowned King of Ayodhya by his ailing father Dasharatha. All preparations are going on in full swing. There is joy and festivity in the air. At that moment, Kaikeyi invokes a boon from her husband Dasharatha and stops Rama from being the King. Instead, her son Bharata will be King, while Rama will go to live in exile in the interminable forests of Aryavarta. When this news spread like wildfire, Lakshmana comes to Kausalya and says, “I will kill the old man!” Kausalya approaches Rama and tell him, “Look at what Lakshmana is saying. If you say yes, he will proceed.” Rama says, “No. That cannot be allowed. That would be against Dharma (i.e. against the Law of Karma, against the laws along which human society operates; children don’t kill their own parents). Notice how even Kausalya gave her consent for patricide! She was harassed and insulted by Kaikeyi and Dasharatha for many years. She now wants revenge for that. Even Lakshmana had no compunctions about killing his own father. That is the Dharma-glaani that society had plunged into. And Rama was restoring Dharma by his decisions and actions. Rama could have justified any step he took at that moment. He could have imprisoned his father and Kaikeyi, and got some Brahmanas to perform the coronation; he could have told he will go on exile, but not to the dangerous forests, but in a palace somewhere in the kingdom, where he would have the royal amenities he was accustomed to since birth. But he chose the hard way. The Aryan approach to life is this – choose the right way, which is generally the hard way.
Yet another incident: Rama has killed Ravana in the battle and has returned to Ayodhya with Sita. Now they will be crowned as King and Queen. Rama tells Sita, “Why don’t we go around our capital city Saketapuri and see the state of affairs of our people?” Sita agreed and both went around the city in their royal chariot. Sita was appalled to see that many poor people lived on the streets of Saketapuri. Sita identified herself as the mother of all people living in Ayodhya, even the whole of Aryavarta. It was unbearable for her to see some of her children suffering. She remonstrated with Rama, “This can’t be! They are my children. I can’t bear to see some rolling in opulence and some living in abject poverty. Do something!” Rama tried to make her see sense. Inequality is the law of the world. But Sita would listen to none of it. She kept on insisting, “I don’t care how things were before. Now, you are King and I am Queen. Why should we allow inequality in our times?” So, after his coronation, Rama arranged for all the wealth and assets of everyone living in Saketapuri to be centrally collected in the treasury. Then, through Sita’s own hands, he redistributed all the wealth equally among all the people living in Saketapuri. She was now at peace. A year later, Rama requested Sita to accompany him in one of his customary tours of the city. Sita was aghast at what she saw! Poor people were again living on the streets! Rama then explained to her, “Wealth is a product of hard work. You gave everyone here the same amount of wealth, through your own hands, just one year ago. But, the lazy ones (the Non-Aryans) frittered away their assets, which were obtained by the hardworking ones (the Aryans).”
Actions of the Avataras have a tendency to imprint themselves in the deepest recesses of the national psyche. These actions of the Avataras have rendered India and its people incapable of forgetting the Aryan way of life, no matter what circumstances they have had to face. Very recently, Sri Ramakrishna said, “If this world were real, why, I would have covered every house in Kamarpukur with gold!”[28]
- Abiding faith in Purity
An abiding faith in Purity is fundamental to an Aryan. the most important deciding factor at every moment of life for an Aryan is ‘Will it make me pure?’
Naturally, this leads to self-control becoming mandatory for all. If one is to be an Aryan, he/she will need to be pure, and for being or becoming pure, self-control is indispensable.
The Ramayana has many characters. All of them are described in terms of self-control they had achieved. The greatest praise in the poem is reserved for Sita; then for Rama; and then for Hanuman. But, every character is described in terms of this one criterion.
Purity, in Aryan thought, is one-ness. The highest generalization is the purest. Anything lesser than the highest generalization, is impure by commensurate degrees.
This conception of purity in Aryan thought allowed them to do away with Satan. For, evil is less good; it is not something opposed to good. Notice how this idea is closely connected to the Law of Karma, where we saw that there can be no absolute good or absolute evil in the present state of affairs in this world.
We have seen briefly what the term Aryan means. It is a very particular outlook towards life. The hallmarks of this outlook are:
- God realization is the goal of human life.
- Developing rational thought, and applying it in all aspects of life
- Reality has two aspects: Consciousness & Power
- Abiding faith in the Law of Karma
- Indispensability of Purity in all aspects of life
These are what make an Aryan. It will be clear that there is as yet no nation, or people, or race, or religion that can be called Aryan, for where do we find multitudes with this outlook? The word Swamiji has used to denote Aryanization seems to be ‘civilization’. Note what Swamiji said in the context of civilization and it will be clear that it is the same as Aryanization: True civilization does not mean congregating in cities and living a foolish life, but going Godward, controlling the senses, and thus becoming the ruler in this house of the Self…Civilization, true civilization, should mean the power of taking the animal-man out of his sense-life – by giving him visions and tastes of planes much higher – and not external comforts…A nation may conquer the waves, control the elements, develop the utilitarian problems of life seemingly to the utmost limits, and yet not realize that in the individual, the highest type of civilization is found in him who has learned to conquer self [29]….This universe is simply a gymnasium in which the soul is taking exercise; and after these exercises we become gods. So the value of everything is to be decided by how far it is a manifestation of God. Civilization is the manifestation of that divinity in man.[30]…The progress and civilization of the human race simply mean controlling this nature[31]…Matter changed into spirit by the force of love. Nay, that is the gist of our Vedanta. There is but One, seen by the ignorant as matter, by the wise as God. And the history of civilization is the progressive reading of spirit into matter. What is civilization? It is the feeling of the divine within. When you find time, repeat these ideas to yourself and desire freedom. That is all.[32]
Swamiji spent a lot of time explaining the Vedanta religion in the West. Then he spent a lot of time explaining the common bases of Hinduism in India. Later on, he composed the Math Rules, where he specified that the main work of the monks of the Ramakrishna Order would be to aryanize the people of this nation. We contend that these three are the same. What was called the Aryan religion in Sri Rama & Krishna’s time became Sanatana Dharma in Buddha’s time, and the very same thing was called Vedanta in the post-Buddhistic period, and the very same thing is called Hinduism in the modern days. Hence, Swamiji spent a major amount of time in India spelling out the common bases of Hinduism, which actually meant the fundamentals of the Aryan Religion.
In the lecture ‘Common bases of Hinduism’[33], Swamiji spells out the following:
- All Hindus believe that the Vedas are the eternal teachings of the secrets of religion
- All Hindus believe in God; they further believe that ‘Truth is One, but sages call Him by various names’; hence everyone is free to believe and preach his conception of Him.
- All Hindus believe in the cyclic nature of time (samsara)
- All Hindus believe in the eternity of the soul; and that the soul is essentially divine, pure & perfect, infinite & blissful.
- Finally, all Hindus believe in spiritual realization, even while living; God must be seen while living.
Note how closely this delineation of the common bases of Hinduism matches with the conception of the Aryan. Swamiji says: 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.[34]
- Sita – the ideal of womanhood
Regarding Sita, Swamiji speaks using the most superlative adjectives ever. We will quote, in full, his own words about Sita:
And what to speak of Sita? You may exhaust the literature of the world that is past, and I may assure you that you will have to exhaust the literature of the world of the future, before finding another Sita. Sita is unique; that character was depicted once and for all. There may have been several Ramas, perhaps, but never more than one Sita! She is the very type of the true Indian woman, for all the Indian ideals of a perfected woman have grown out of that one life of Sita; and here she stands these thousands of years, commanding the worship of every man, woman, and child throughout the length and breadth of the land of Aryavarta. There she will always be, this glorious Sita, purer than purity itself, all patience, and all suffering. She who suffered that life of suffering without a murmur, she the ever-chaste and ever-pure wife, she the ideal of the people, the ideal of the gods, the great Sita, our national God she must always remain. And every one of us knows her too well to require much delineation. All our mythology may vanish, even our Vedas may depart, and our Sanskrit language may vanish forever, but so long as there will be five Hindus living here, even if only speaking the most vulgar patois, there will be the story of Sita present. Mark my words: Sita has gone into the very vitals of our race. She is there in the blood of every Hindu man and woman; we are all children of Sita. Any attempt to modernize 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.[35]
There was a king, called Janaka, and this king had a beautiful daughter named Sita. Sita was found in a field; she was a daughter of the Earth, and was born without parents. The word ‘Sita’ in ancient Sanskrit means the furrow made by a plough. Sita, being the daughter of the Earth, was pure and immaculate. [36]
After killing Ravana, and crowing Vibhishana as King of Lanka, Rama with Sita and his followers left Lanka. But there ran a murmur among the followers. ‘The test! The test!’ they cried, ‘Sita has not given the test that she was perfectly pure in Ravana’s household.’ ‘Pure! She is chastity itself’ exclaimed Rama. ‘Never mind! We want the test,’ persisted the people. Subsequently, a huge sacrificial fire was made ready, into which Sita had to plunge herself. Rama was in agony, thinking that Sita was lost; but in a moment, the God of fire himself appeared with a throne upon his head, and upon the throne was Sita. Then, there was universal rejoicing, and everybody was satisfied.[37]
There came a time when Rama was going to perform a huge sacrifice, or Yajna, such as the old kings used to celebrate. But no ceremony in India can be performed by a married man without his wife: he must have the wife with him, the Sahadharmini, the ‘co-religionist’ – that is the expression for a wife. The Hindu householder has to perform hundreds of ceremonies, but not one can be duly performed according to the Shastras, if he has not a wife to complement it with her part in it. Now Rama’s wife was not with him then, as she had been banished. So, the people asked him to marry again. But at this request Rama for the first time in his life stood against the people. He said, “This cannot be. My life is Sita’s.” So, as a substitute, a golden statue of Sita was made, in order that the; ceremony could be accomplished.[38]
The oldest Sanskrit poem in existence, the Ramayana, has embodied the loftiest Hindu ideal of a woman in the character of Sita. We have not time to go through her life of infinite patience and goodness. We worship her as God incarnate, and she is named before her husband, Rama. We say not ‘Mr. and Mrs.’, but ‘Mrs. and Mr.’ and so on, with all the gods and goddesses, naming the woman first.[39]
Explaining the Ramayana in full, Swamiji concludes by saying: This is the great, ancient epic of India. Rama and Sita are the ideals of the Indian nation. All children, especially girls, worship Sita. The height of a woman’s ambition is to be like Sita, the pure, the devoted, the all-suffering! When you study these characters, you can at once find out how different is the ideal in India from that of the West. For the race, Sita stands as the ideal of suffering. The West says, “Do! Show your power by doing.” India says, “Show your power by suffering.” The West has solved the problem of how much a man can have: India has solved the problem of how little a man can have. The two extremes, you see. Sita is typical of India – the idealized India. The question is not whether she ever lived, whether the story is history or not, we know that the ideal is there. There is no other Pauranika story that has so permeated the whole nation, so entered into its very life, and has so tingled in every drop of blood of the race, as this ideal of Sita. Sita is the name in India for everything that is good, pure and holy – everything that in woman we call womanly. If a priest has to bless a woman he says, ‘Be Sita!’ If he blesses a child, he says ‘Be Sita!’ They are all children of Sita, and are struggling to be Sita, the patient, the all-suffering, the ever-faithful, the ever-pure wife. Through all this suffering she experiences, there is not one harsh word against Rama. She takes it as her own duty, and performs her own part in it. Think of the terrible injustice of her being exiled to the forest! But Sita knows no bitterness. That is, again, the Indian ideal. Says the ancient Buddha, “When a man hurts you, and you turn back to hurt him, that would not cure the first injury; it would only create in the world one more wickedness.” Sita was a true Indian by nature; she never returned injury.[40]
- Sri Rama, Sita, Mahavir Hanuman & Bhakti
Swamiji says that Bhakti or love to the Personal God was an original contribution of Sri Krishna to mankind. But the original template of the Personal God and the devotee was created for the 1st time in India by Sri Rama and his companions like Sita, Mahavir Hanuman, Lakshmana, the tribal lady Shabari, and other. We have already noted Swamiji saying: We worship Sita as God incarnate, and she is named before her husband, Rama. Right from the very beginning, Aryans have recognised that Personal God and his Divine Power, both manifest themselves, for the sake of the devotee. It can never be that the Personal God alone incarnates.
Swamiji says: A Bhakta should be like Sita before Rama. He might be thrown into all kinds of difficulties. Sita did not mind her sufferings; she centred herself in Rama… Hanuman, the best of the monkeys, became the most faithful servant of Rama and helped him in rescuing Sita… His devotion to Rama was so great that he is still worshipped by the Hindus as the ideal of a true servant of the Lord.[41]
In the book ‘Talks with Swami Vivekananda, we find the following entry: There were times when the Swami finding his body becoming more and more incapable of work, would feel dejected, since only a few workers had come forward to help him. His hope lay in gathering together a number of intelligent young men, who would renounce everything for the welfare of others, who would lay down their lives in working out his ideas for their own good and for that of their country. He used to say that, if he could get ten or twelve youths fired with a faith like that of Nachiketa, he could turn the whole current of thought and aspiration of his country into a new channel. Speaking of this one day to Sharatchandra, he suddenly exclaimed: “Keeping before you the national ideal of renunciation which comes of devotion to the Lord, you have to work fearlessly with the strength of a lion, heedless of the fruits of action and without caring for criticism Let Mahavira be your ideal. See how, with unbounded faith in the name of Rama, he – the prince of the self-controlled ones, wise and sagacious – crossed the ocean in one bound, defying death! You have to mould your lives after that high ideal, thinking yourselves the servants of the Lord.” He condemned all weakening ideals in all departments of life including religion, and advocated the practical expression of the loftiness of spirit that is the mark of heroism. “Only by following such an ideal of manliness can we ensure the welfare of our motherland…. But, mind you, never for a moment swerve an inch from the path of righteousness. Never let weakness overcome you.” [42]
Purity as an abstract concept itself is very grand. But, if a community is really serious about making large numbers of people pure in character, they need to be given the ideal in flesh and blood. The common man needs a person in order to get a hold on the principle. That is Sita for the Indians. Swamiji says: Sita – to say that she was pure is a blasphemy. She was purity itself embodied – the most beautiful character that ever lived on earth.[43] Holy Mother Sri Sharada Devi uttered the words that were left unsaid by Sita, when she said, “My child, I have done much more than is necessary to make my life a model.”[44] It is one of the major discoveries of Hinduism that whenever God incarnates as a human being, the Avatara invariably manifests in at least two persons simultaneously – one as the representative of the Impersonal transcendent Absolute and the other as the representative of the Divine Power or Personal immanent Being. This has happened in each and every case – Rama, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad, etc. Lacking the insight, in most cases, the later followers emphasize only one of the representations and this creates endless problems in religion. Swamiji observes: The Dharma of the Westerners is worship of Shakti – the Creative Power regarded as the Female Principle. It is with them somewhat like the Vamachari’s worship of woman. As the Tantrika says, ‘On the left side the women… on the right, the cup full of wine; in short, warm meat with ingredients…the Tantrika religion is very mysterious, inscrutable even to the Yogis.’ It is this worship of Shakti that is openly and universally practiced. The idea of motherhood, i.e. the relation of a son to his mother, is also noticed in great measure. Protestantism as a force is not very significant in Europe, where the religion is, in fact, Roman Catholic. In the religion, Jehovah, Jesus, and the Trinity are secondary; there, the worship is for the Mother – She, the Mother, with the Child Jesus in her arms. The emperor cries ‘Mother’, the field-marshal cries ‘Mother’, the soldier with the flag in his hand cries ‘Mother’, the seaman at the helm cries ‘Mother’, the fisherman in his rags cries ‘Mother’, the beggar in the street cries ‘Mother’! A million voices in a million ways, from a million places – from the palace, from the cottage, from the church, cry ‘Mother’, ‘Mother’, ‘Mother’! Everywhere is the cry ‘Ave Maria’; day and night, ‘Ave Maria’, ‘Ave Maria’! Next is the worship of the woman. This worship of Shakti is not lust, but is that Shakti-Puja, that worship of the Kumari (virgin) and the Sadhava (the married woman whose husband is living), which is done in Varanasi, Kalighat, and other holy places. It is the worship of the Shakti, not in mere thought, not in imagination, but in actual, visible form. Our Shakti-worship is only in the holy places, and at certain times only is it performed; but theirs is in every place and always, for days, weeks, months, and years. Foremost is the woman’s state, foremost is her dress, her seat, her food, her wants, and her comforts; the first honors in all respects are accorded to her. Not to speak of the noble-born, not to speak of the young and the fair, it is the worship of any and every woman, be she an acquaintance or a stranger. This Shakti-worship the Moors, the mixed Arab race, Mohammedan in religion, first introduced into Europe when they conquered Spain and ruled her for eight centuries. It was the Moors who first sowed in Europe the seeds of Western civilization and Shakti-worship. In course of time, the Moors forgot this Shakti-Worship and fell from their position of strength, culture and glory, to live scattered and unrecognized in an unnoticed corner of Africa, and their power and civilization passed over to Europe. The Mother, leaving the Moors, smiled Her loving blessings on the Christians and illumined their homes. [45]
Talking of Bhakti, Swamiji says: Simply hearing lectures and all this nonsense – making the Battle of Waterloo in the brain, simply unadjusted ideas – is no good. Devotion to one idea – those that have this will become spiritual, will see the light. You see everyone complaining: ‘I try this’ and ‘I try that’, and if you cross-question them as to what they try, they will say that they have heard a few lectures in one place and another, a handful of talks in one corner and another. And for three hours, or a few days, they worshipped and thought they had done enough. That is the way of fools, not the way to perfection – not the way to attain spirituality. Take up one idea, your Ishta, and let the whole soul be devoted to it. Practice this from day to day until you see the result, until the soul grows. And if it is sincere and good, that very idea will spread till it covers the whole universe. Let it spread by itself; it will all come from the inside out. Then you will say that your Ishta is everywhere and that He is in everything. Of course, at the same time, we must always remember that we must recognize the Ishtas of others and respect them – the other ideas of God – or else worship will degenerate into fanaticism…Here is the advice of one of our old Bhaktas: ‘Take the honey from all flowers, mix with all with respect, say yea, yea to all, but give not up your seat’. This giving not up your own seat is what is called Nishtha. It is not that one should hate, or even criticize, the ideals of other people; he knows they are all right. But, at the same time, he must stick to his own ideal very strictly.[46]
The illustration Swamiji gives for this balanced outlook of a devotee is Mahavir Hanuman. So, right at the beginning itself, the one great danger associated with Bhakti to the Personal God, viz fanaticism, is solved in the personality of Hanuman. Swamiji says: There is a story of Hanuman, who was a great worshipper of Rama. Just as the Christians worship Christ as the incarnation of God, so the Hindus worship many incarnations of God. According to them, God came nine times in India and will come once more. When he came as Rama, this Hanuman was his great worshipper. Hanuman lived very long and was a great Yogi. During his lifetime, Rama came again as Krishna; and Hanuman, being a great Yogi, knew that the same God had come back again as Krishna. He came and served Krishna, but he said to him, “I want to see that Rama form of yours”. Krishna said, “Is not this form enough? I am this Krishna; I am this Rama. All these forms are mine”. Hanuman said, “I know that, but the Rama form is for me. The Lord of Janaki (Janaki is a name of Sita) and the Lord of Sri (Sri is a name of Lakshmi) are the same. They are both the incarnations of the Supreme Self. Yet the lotus-eyed Rama is my all in all”. This is Nishtha – knowing that all these different forms of worship are right, yet sticking to one and rejecting the others. We must not worship the others at all; we must not hate or criticize them, but respect them…The elephant has two teeth coming out from his mouth. These are only for show; he cannot eat with them. But the teeth that are inside are those with which he chews his food. So mix with all, say yea, yea to all, but join none. Stick to your own ideal of worship. When you worship, worship that ideal of God which is your own Ishta, your own Chosen Ideal. If you do not, you will have nothing. Nothing will grow[47]…When a plant is growing, it is necessary that it should be hedged round lest any animal should eat it up. But when it has become strong and a huge gigantic tree, do not care for any hedges – it is perfect in itself. So when just the seed of spirituality is growing, to fritter away the energies on all sorts of religious ideas – a little of this and a little of that: a little of Christianity, a little of Buddhism, and, in reality, of nothing – destroys the soul…This acceptance has its good side; and in the end we will come to it. Only do not put the cart before the horse.[48]
The personality of Mahavir Hanuman is the ideal of a devotee. Till the advent of Sri Rama, it was only the Impersonal Absolute known as Brahman that was preached in our religious literature, known as the Upanishads. Rama presented himself as the anthropomorphic focus of devotion. Hanuman was his devotee. The path of Bhakti has one great danger, and that is fanaticism. So Swamiji points out: This is the only danger in this Nishtha Bhakti – becoming this fanatical demon. The world gets full of them. It is very easy to hate. The generality of mankind gets so weak that in order to love one, they must hate another; they must take the energy out of one point in order to put it into another. A man loves one woman and then loves another; and to love the other, he has to hate the first. So with women. This characteristic is in every part of our nature, and so in our religion. The ordinary, undeveloped weak brain of mankind cannot love one without hating another. This very characteristic becomes fanaticism in religion. Loving their own ideal is synonymous with hating every other idea. This should be avoided and, at the same time, the other danger should be avoided. We must not fritter away all our energies, otherwise religion becomes a nothing with us – just hearing lectures. These are the two dangers. The danger with the liberals is that they are too expansive and have no intensity. You see that in these days religion has become very expansive, very broad. But the ideas are so broad that there is no depth in them. Religion has become to many merely a means of doing a little charity work, just to amuse them after a hard day’s labor – they get five minutes religion to amuse them. This is the danger with the liberal thought. On the other hand, the sectarians have the depth, the intensity, but that intensity is so narrow. They are very deep, but with no breadth to it. Not only that, but it draws out hatred to everyone else. Now, if we can avoid both these dangers and become as broad as the uttermost liberals and as deep as the bluest fanatic, then we will solve the problem. Our idea is how that can be done. It is by this theory of Nishtha – knowing that all these ideals that we see are good and true, that all these are so many parts of the same God and, at the same time, thinking that we are not strong enough to worship Him in all these forms, and therefore must stick to one ideal and make that ideal our life. When you have succeeded in doing that, all the rest will come.[49]
Bhakti is grand. It is the highway to God for the common man. Unless one is able to renounce all duties and responsibilities and take up specialized spiritual practices, the only alternative is Bhakti. So, it is inevitable for most of us that we shall take up one form of the Personal God that appeals to us, and continually shower our heart’s attention to it. So, Bhakti to our Ishta is the spiritual path for all of us. But, the way we are constituted, what happens is – the only way most of us can show Bhakti to our Ishta is by hating the Ishta of others around me! This is a very dangerous aspect of Bhakti, the Personal God, and religion. This is the root of the fundamentalism problem of religion. The philosophical remedy for this problem has been dealt with elsewhere.[50] The psychological remedy for this problem that Hinduism discovered long ago, even during the time of Sri Rama is ‘Nishta Bhakti’. Every religion in the world educates its followers to worship its form of the Personal God. But Hinduism alone has gone one step further and taught its followers what should be their attitude towards the different forms that the Personal God takes for the sake of other types of devotees! Hinduism teaches how its followers should interact with followers of other religions. Swamiji summarizes the remedy beautifully when he says: In the first place, we are bound to become sectarians. But this should be the ideal of sectarianism – not to avoid anyone. Each of us must have a sect, and that sect is our own Ishta – our own chosen way. However, that should not make us want to kill other people – only to hold onto our own way. It is sacred and it should not be told to our own brothers, because my choice is sacred, and his also is sacred. So keep that choice as your own. That should be the attitude of worship of everyone. When you pray to your own Ideal, your own Ishta, that is the only God you shall have. God exists in various phases, no doubt, but for the time being, your own Ishta is the only phase for you. Then, after a long course of training in this Ishta – when this plant of spirituality has grown and the soul has become strong and you begin to realize that your Ishta is everywhere – then naturally all these bondages will fall down. When the fruit becomes ripe, it falls of its own weight. If you pluck an unripe fruit it is bitter, sour. So we will have to grow in this thought.[51]
Once God incarnates as a human being, the influence of that form in the spiritual plane is literally endless. Today, Rama is a force to reckon with in India. But that is mainly political in nature. Is Rama, then, only a remnant of the ancient past, to be used for political gains only? What about the spiritual Rama? In fact, what is the real worth of Sri Rama for Hindus? We have always believed (as we saw above) that every person is capable of achieving a blessed state of existence called Samadhi. Any person who achieves that state is called a ‘Rishi’. Recall that we said at the beginning of this article that the Avatara is a very special type of human being. An Avatara too achieves Samadhi. In fact, when people have lost the technique of reaching Samadhi, that is when an Avatara manifests, in order to re-teach mankind how to achieve Samadhi. So, in the Ramayana we see innumerable instances of Rama falling into a swoon. Rama being completely overcome by grief where his breathing stops, Rama lost in so deep a thought that he isn’t breathing, etc. Another duty that an Avatara performs is that he ‘creates’ a unique spiritual plane where he exists eternally, and invites devotees to enter there and interact with him. It is this spiritual plane that Rama ‘created’ which we contend is the real Nation, call it Aryavarta, Bharat, Hindustan, India, or what you will. It was this spiritual vision of his own Ishta that Swamiji had twice – once at the shores of Dwaraka, and then on the rock at Kanyakumari. The Nation always existed. All we need to do is realize it!
*************************
[1] Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda: Vol-9: Lectures & Discourses: The women of India
[2] Sri Ramakrishna & his Divine Play: Ch-II: Section-27
[3] Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Sages of India
[4] Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: Reply to the Address of Welcome at Ramnad
[5] Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: My Plan of Campaign
[6] Life of Swami Vivekananda by his Eastern & Western disciples: Pg-16
[7] Life of Swami Vivekananda by his Eastern & Western disciples: Pg-162
[8] A biography of Swami Vivekananda: Swami Nikhilananda: Ch- Trip to America
[9] Master as I saw Him: Sr Nivedita: Ch-XIV: Past & future in India
[10] Ibid
[11] Complete Works: Vol-5: Interviews: The Hindu, Madras, February, 1897
[12] https://weather.com/en-IN/india/science/news/2023-05-09-the-shape-of-our-noses-might-be-the-result-of-dna-from-the
[13] Complete Works: Vol-4: Lectures & Discourses: The Ramayana
[14] Ibid
[15] Complete Works: Vol-8: Writings: Poems: A Hymn to Sri Ramakrishna (In Sanskrit)
[16] Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Sages of India
[17] Speech at Continental Club, London, on 26th March 1931
[18] https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2007/08/democratic-india-british by Ramchandra Guha
[19] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/08/14/india-was-miracle-democracy-its-time-downgrade-its-credentials/; by Ramchandra Guha
[20] https://www.newstatesman.com/long-reads/2007/08/democratic-india-british by Ramchandra Guha
[21] Complete Works: Vol-8: Sayings & Utterances
[22] Complete Works: Vol-5: Writings: Prose & Poems: The East & The West: I. Introduction
[23] Chandogya Upanishad: Part-8: Ch: VII-XII
[24] There are at least 17 references to this query in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna!
[25] The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna: Entry on Oct 26th, 1885
[26] The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna: Entry on Dec 6th, 1884
[27] Complete Works: Vol-1: Raja-Yoga: Patanjali’s Yoga Aphorisms: Ch-II: Concentration: Its Practice: Sutra-19
[28] The Gospel of Holy Mother: Pg-130: Holy Mother: What is there in money, my dear? The Master could not even touch money. His hand used to curl back when any metal contacted him. He used to say, ‘The world is an illusion. Ah, Ramlal, if I felt that the world was real, I would have covered your Kamarpukur with gold. But I know that it is all illusion. God alone is real.’
[29] Complete Works: Vol-4: Lectures & Discourses: Is India a benighted Country?
[30] Complete Works: Vol-5: Questions & Answers: A Discussion (This discussion followed the lecture on the Vedanta Philosophy delivered by the Swami at the Graduate Philosophical Society of Harvard University, U.S.A.
[31] Complete Works: Vol-1: Raja-Yoga: Ch-I: Introductory
[32] Complete Works: Vol-8: Epistles – 4th Series: To Sr Nivedita, dt. 1st Oct 1897
[33] Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Common Bases of Hinduism
[34] Complete Works: Vol-6: Notes of Class Talks & Lectures: Notes taken down in Madras, 1892-93
[35] Complete Works: Vol-3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Sages of India
[36] Complete Works: Vol-4: Lectures & Discourses: The Ramayana
[37] Ibid
[38] Ibid
[39] Complete Works: Vol-9: Lectures & Discourses: The Women of India
[40] Complete Works: Vol-4: Lectures & Discourses: The Ramayana
[41] Complete Works: Vol-6: Notes of Class Talks & Lectures: Notes Taken Down In Madras, 1892-93
[42] Talks with Swami Vivekananda: Part-XIX
[43] Complete Works: Vol-6: Notes of Class Talks & Lectures: Notes Taken Down In Madras, 1892-93
[44] Gospel of Holy Mother: Pg: 209: Swami Arupananda writes: One morning the Holy Mother was assisting in husking paddy. It was almost her daily job. I asked her, “Mother, why should you work so hard?” She replied, “My child, I have done much more than is necessary to make my life a model.”
[45] Complete Works: Vol-5: Writings: Prose & Poems: The East and The West: Ch-V: Etiquette & Manners
[46] Complete Works: Vol-9: Lectures & Discourses: Bhakti-Yoga
[47] Complete Works: Vol-9: Lectures & Discourses: The First Step towards Jnana
[48] Complete Works: Vol-9: Lectures & Discourses: Bhakti-Yoga
[49] Ibid
[50] Globalization article
[51] Complete Works: Vol-9: Lectures & Discourses: Bhakti-Yoga
Swami Vedatitananda 