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Vivekananda on Tattvamasi
- Thread starter atanu
- Start date
Amrut
Aum - Advaita
Namaste,
What Swami Vivekananda did was to unite people and try to dissolve sect-diferences. Many things were said to europeans and americans, so it was said in that context. Many speaches were inspirational to Indian masses and he tried to inspire them freedom movement, that is why he says, first believe in yourself.
As Vivekananda says, that in Europe, you must give a political bend, if you want to impress the masses, show them the political advantage of theory. In India it is religion. So connect everything with religion, as it is our backbone.
He had to unite people for freedom struggle, and for that dissolve caste differences and philosophical differences. He preferred that Indians should start their own business, rather than working for Europeans and filling their pocket.
He said, the whole education system was negative and not man-making, but machine-making. they taught us that our shastras are all lies, teachers are hypocrites, we do not belong to our own land, their culture is the best and our is primitive. So first have faith in yourselves, then you can have faith in God.
What he said is that, we respect renunciation, so there is a lot of sattva guna, but without passing through rajas how can you have sattva. e.g. siddhartha renounced his kingdom and became Buddha. But a begger does not have anything to renounce, so where there is renunciation. What he meant was that you should be capable enough to hit back, yet choose to forgive, else this 'forgivesness' and other such noble qualities are more of a compulsion. He also said that this is my own interpretation of vedanta.
All this was necessary at that time. He had to fill people with spirit of fighting and do not tolerate injustice and keep fighting for freedom. Hence there was a twist in his interpretation.
He also saw the modus operandi of Christians. They used to bribe people to change faith. They would spot the weak one who is hungry, give him food and clothes and converted him to christian. They used caste distinction for this purpose. So Vivekananda adopted same approach. Serve people, help them, feed the poor and he connected it with spirituality, - those who sees Shiva in poor are serving Shiva, etc.
whatever difference we find in traditional advaita and his version are due to the above reasons, else he had actually explained it very well. All explanation is given keeping in mind the mindset of audience.
Hari OM
What Swami Vivekananda did was to unite people and try to dissolve sect-diferences. Many things were said to europeans and americans, so it was said in that context. Many speaches were inspirational to Indian masses and he tried to inspire them freedom movement, that is why he says, first believe in yourself.
As Vivekananda says, that in Europe, you must give a political bend, if you want to impress the masses, show them the political advantage of theory. In India it is religion. So connect everything with religion, as it is our backbone.
He had to unite people for freedom struggle, and for that dissolve caste differences and philosophical differences. He preferred that Indians should start their own business, rather than working for Europeans and filling their pocket.
He said, the whole education system was negative and not man-making, but machine-making. they taught us that our shastras are all lies, teachers are hypocrites, we do not belong to our own land, their culture is the best and our is primitive. So first have faith in yourselves, then you can have faith in God.
What he said is that, we respect renunciation, so there is a lot of sattva guna, but without passing through rajas how can you have sattva. e.g. siddhartha renounced his kingdom and became Buddha. But a begger does not have anything to renounce, so where there is renunciation. What he meant was that you should be capable enough to hit back, yet choose to forgive, else this 'forgivesness' and other such noble qualities are more of a compulsion. He also said that this is my own interpretation of vedanta.
All this was necessary at that time. He had to fill people with spirit of fighting and do not tolerate injustice and keep fighting for freedom. Hence there was a twist in his interpretation.
He also saw the modus operandi of Christians. They used to bribe people to change faith. They would spot the weak one who is hungry, give him food and clothes and converted him to christian. They used caste distinction for this purpose. So Vivekananda adopted same approach. Serve people, help them, feed the poor and he connected it with spirituality, - those who sees Shiva in poor are serving Shiva, etc.
whatever difference we find in traditional advaita and his version are due to the above reasons, else he had actually explained it very well. All explanation is given keeping in mind the mindset of audience.
Hari OM