Swami's life the way we never saw!

I happen to read a book which had the collection of letters which Swami Vivekananda wrote during his days in India and abroad. There were many takings from these chronicles. It is very true that the letters a man writes depicts the actual picture than any books or biographies could ever do. This book gave me a peep into Swami's life and his lifestyle. By the way, this is not written in hysteria.


To those who believe Swami Vivekananda was just another religious leader, please have a second thought would be my recommendation. For a person like me who after all these years of following his life and teachings in many aspects this book changed the way I think and now am at a stage of self-ridiculing from what I see that I once thought.

I am not judging a great person like Swami but sharing my thoughts on a worldwide subject. More than a religious soul he was a reformer that India could never actually benefit from. He was not a person who advocated only religious/spiritual aspects of life but a person who prayed to his disciples to work towards teaching common man - geography, astronomy and current affairs from across the globe. He believed that knowledge is really the power and for a person to understand God better he needs to understand his world and life better.

The famous words which all the Sw. Vivekananda fans believe is once delivered by him is written as repeated from vedas according to his letter where he says, "Do not stop until the goal is reached!” To put this in right context, this was told so that his disciples in India work towards forming more groups and spread the knowledge and teachings of his guru Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to the world along with the geography, astronomy and current affairs. This is often misquoted in different contexts by many disciples and fans alike as a motivational dialogue attributed in attaining ones goal in life.

I am sure I will receive enough hate in acknowledging that I understand he used to smoke and also engaged in masticating non vegetarian food during his term life. He advocated eating what is available in abundant to stay alive and healthy to work towards ones goal than being stubborn towards following only a vegetarian life. There are many other occasions where I have read his liking towards fish. One of the famous examples talks about the life of Japanese. In case they decided to be vegetarian and abstain from having fish, they would never have reached the prosperity. The food which is abundant in our regions should be consumed so that our nation can concentrate on other aspects of life.

Most Indians of my time and before mistake religious people to follow a strict Brahmin life, which very well could be an after-effect of the caste system which had been followed in India for all those centuries. The rule of thumb being common man attains the spiritual levels being a Brahman as Brahmans are synonymous to the godliest men can get. According to Swami Vivekananda letters, he prefers not to touch or discuss what men eat or how they live because to him it doesn't matter; more important is how receptive you are. He also conspires the fact that Brahman world always held the spiritual knowledge to a closed sect whereas the common spiritual facts that men got to know are from two Kshatriyas in the form of Krishna and Buddha. This is not a religious deliberation from my side but an alternate view shared by Swami in his letters to dear and near ones. He was completely against the priest led Hinduism and life that was followed in India. He wanted priests to coach the spiritual part of the body that is the soul and not the social situations which was more political and needed to be handled by people who live normal life who can digest the common mans issue better keeping God aside.

In his letters, Swami ridicules the people from Travancore since they were the easiest to convert to other religions because of the caste system that was staunchly followed. The lords and kings in Tranvancore according to Swami would forget the caste a man was in the previous day once they are converted to other religions other than Hinduism and were willing to treat them as equals. This showed that it is not the person they couldn't adjust, it was just the caste. The same good men were invited to sit among the Kings once they were out of the lower caste life in Hinduism. Such were the silliness of the people of India during those days which maybe according to Swami helped other religions too.

He was a born leader and he was sure whatever thirst for knowledge he carried could only be handled by his guru. Based on his words, Shri Ramakrishna was the embodiment of vedas and the knowledge it imparted. There was everything imbibed in his guru all within. He often ridiculed the contemporary reformers like Raja Ram Mohan Roy and others for working on solutions of re-marriage for widows and other such issues without focusing on the core issues that people needed help in India during those times.

Jealousy is the root of all evils which affects our growth as a nation based on Sw. Vivekananda's thought. According to him, ignorance, suspicious nature, caste feeling and all such issues became part of Indian mindset just because of slavery for few thousand years that people were forced to enjoy. This is not only related to imperial and colonial rulers but also to the kings and regional war and land-lords alike. We were too used to being submissive while our mind plotting the alternate theory of suspicion and distrust on everyone around which being our experience from past.

To conclude with...I believe once you learn the reality about the world, your time in this world will get over. It doesn't matter whats your worldly age. The soul lives the body no matter at what stage of life you are. Many great men had died young which signifies this. Sw. Vivekananda being one glorious example. Being a family man, the total time to indulge in such divine ecstasy is reduced which might be the reaons for such an ignorant society. Divine doesn't mean spiritual, it just means realizing the actual world and the meanings hidden in the way nature interacts with you!

All these texts above might make you re-think about how much you know me and my take on religion. For all such folks, remember to read: http://fallingmarkets.blogspot.in/search?q=God#!/2009/01/god-myth-part-1.html