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Swami Vivekananda is generally approached as a patriot-­monk  par excellence.  He is simply credited with revealing the soul of India to the Western world. He is mostly regarded as a spokesman of Hinduism. The spiritual dimension of his personality seems to have obviously got the better of the social. It looks as though the “Vivekananda” was drowned under the heavy weight of the “Swami”. Although he was a man of religion and meditation, Viveka­nanda was all for activity that would lead to increase in production and the removal of poverty. He always said with his Guru, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, that, “religion is not for empty stomachs.” He shocked people out of their self-com­placency and plunged them into action. Thus, he influenced the course of life in modern India by stimulating the Rajasic qualities in the Indian people, and getting them to set about the task of betterment of their material conditions of life rather than get lost in a soporific religion that produced content

Swami Vivekananda enjoyed smoking. In the days of his pilgrimage, when he used to walk along the streets of India, here, there and elsewhere, smoking was his great avocation. One evening, as Vivekananda was walking along a village street in northern India, he came to a small cottage where an old man was smoking an Indian hookah. Vivekananda had a tremendous desire to smoke, and he asked the old man if he would give him his pipe.” The man said, “Oh, Swami, I am a scavenger, I am an untouchable. How can I give you my hookah? How will you smoke from the hookah of an untouchable? I am so happy to see you. You are so handsome, so spirited. I am so fortunate to see you. But, alas, I come from an untouchable family.” Vivekananda felt sorry that the old man was an untouchable. He said to him, “I am sorry, I am sorry. Alas, I won’t be able to smoke.” Vivekananda left him and continued walking. In a few minutes he felt miserable. He said to himself, “What am I doing? What am I doing?

STAFF REPORTER    Ramakrishna Mission Vidyapith Swami Lakshmidharananda addressing the National Seminar on '' Social Changes In India and Swami Vivekananda in Puducherry on Thursday. Photo: T. Singaravelou TOPICS India Puducherry religion and belief philosophy His 150th birth anniversary observed with a seminar on ‘Social Changes in India and Swami Vivekananda’ In order to celebrate the 150 birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the History Department of the Kanchi Mamunivar Centre for Post Graduate Studies (Autonomous) conducted an ICHR-UGC National Seminar on ‘Social Changes in India and Swami Vivekananda’. Speaking at the seminar, Swami Lakshmidharananda of the Ramakrishna Mission, Vidyapith elaborated how Swami Vivekananda supported women in the society. He strongly believed that the women should be educated and that any decision regarding the welfare of widows and women should be in the hands of the women themselves. “Vivekananda was not i

The caste system promotes good social behaviour because - like feudalism - it sets out clear expectations of how members of each caste should behave. There is no argument about how a Brahmin should behave, how an untouchable should behave, etc., because these are clearly spelled out. Punishments are set out, but upper classes are held to a higher standard and stricter punishment; because they are expected to know better.  The caste system also eliminates bad behaviour that comes from inappropriate ambition - eg., People of no true talent/ability/intelligence who steal or do drugs, to become wealthy, and leave their social class. The caste system prevents such people from leaving their social class. Finally, the caste system sets out concrete versions of how you will be rewarded after death, for living a good, virtuous life. For comparison, Christians/Muslims have a description of heaven they must take on faith; Hindus can see with their own eyes what will happen if they live a virtuou

Vivekananda’s views on caste   are instructive in that they sum up the views of today’s defenders of the caste system. Even among people who don’t defend the caste system, you will find rich echoes of thoughts that Vivekananda puts forth. What is the point of this article? To show that Vivekananda was a casteist? If by being casteist, it means that one is wilfully justifying an inhuman practice, then no. Vivekananda is not a casteist in that sense. I don’t think he had any malicious intent and means well when he defends the caste system. The point of this article is to show that even though his defense is well meaning, it isn’t of any good. So, what does Vivekananda say about caste? He readily accepts that the caste system as it exists has become corrupt. He stresses that caste is not by birth, but is based on qualities. He even says that one exhibits qualities of all varnas in their life. The beauty of the caste system is that it leads to a stable non-violent system and the

The People Of India (Report of a lecture delivered in Oakland on Monday, March 19, 1900, with editorial comments of the Oakland Enquirer) The lecture which the Swami Vivekananda gave Monday night in his new course on "The People of India", was interesting, not only for what he had to relate of the people of that country, but for the insight into their mental attitude and prejudices which the speaker gave without really meaning it. It is apparent that the Swami, educated and intellectual man that he is, is no admirer of Western civilisation. He has evidently been a good deal embittered by the talk about child widows, the oppression of women, and other barbarisms alleged against the people of India, and is somewhat inclined to resort to the tu quoque in reply. In commencing his talk, he gave his hearers an idea of the racial characteristics of the people. He said that the bond of unity in India, as in other countries of Asia, is not language or race, but religion. In E

Question - Is this spiritual freedom among the people consistent with attention to caste? Swami Vivekananda — Certainly not. They say there should be no caste. Even those who are in caste say it is not a very perfect institution. But they say, when you find us another and a better one, we will give it up. They say, what will you give us instead? Where is there no caste? In your nation you are struggling all the time to make a caste. As soon as a man gets a bag of dollars, he says, "I am one of the Four Hundred." We alone have succeeded in making a permanent caste. Other nations are struggling and do not succeed. We have superstitions and evils enough. Would taking the superstitions and evils from your country mend matters? It is owing to caste that three hundred millions of people can find a piece of bread to eat yet. It is an imperfect institution, no doubt. But if it had not been for caste, you would have had no Sanskrit books to study. This caste made walls, around which

Hinduism is an ancient religion which has stood the test of time and onslaughts. It has continued its existence as the singularly and statistically biggest and oldest religion in India. But now it meets the misfortune of being neglected by its own followers. This is due to the fact that there is a lack of proper understanding of its tenets and principles. Numerous rites and rituals followed in the Hindu religion are full of scientific meaning and reason. The Hindu religion and culture are centred round the temple culture. Our temples have been used over the years as ''centres of excellence" for education, scientific study, fine arts, architecture and structural engineering. Above all, these temples are the centres which offer infinite peace to the mind of man. Hindu temples act as bridges linking both science and philosophy- Science sees many in one and philosophy sees one in many, philosophy is the unifying symbol in a world of disintegrated values. The presen

Sister Nivedita In the four volumes (Now in nine volumes — Ed.) of the works of the Swami Vivekananda which are to compose the present edition, we have what is not only a gospel to the world at large, but also to its own children, the Charter of the Hindu Faith. What Hinduism needed, amidst the general disintegration of the modern era, was a rock where she could lie at anchor, an authoritative utterance in which she might recognise her self. And this was given to her, in these words and writings of the Swami Vivekananda. For the first time in history, as has been said elsewhere, Hinduism itself forms here the subject of generalisation of a Hindu mind of the highest order. For ages to come the Hindu man who would verify, the Hindu mother who would teach her children, what was the faith of their ancestors will turn to the pages of these books for assurance and light. Long after the English language has disappeared from India, the gift that has here been made, thr

By Swami Vivekananda The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Practical Vedanta and other lectures/The Ideal of a Universal Religion Wheresoever our senses reach, or whatsoever our minds imagine, we find therein the action and reaction of two forces, the one counteracting the other and causing the constant play of the mixed phenomena that we see around us, and of those which we feel in our minds. In the external world, the action of these opposite forces is expressing itself as attraction and repulsion, or as centripetal and centrifugal forces; and in the internal, as love and hatred, good and evil. We repel some things, we attract others. We are attracted by one, we are repelled by another. Many times in our lives we find that without any reason whatsoever we are, as it were, attracted towards certain persons; at other times, similarly, we are repelled by others. This is patent to all, and the higher the field of action, the more potent, the more rema