Swami Vivekananda: Difference between revisions

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Was 'befriended by some wealthy Americans and by Harvard Professor John Henry Wright who was able to pull strings to that the svami could participate even though he was not the approved representative of any religious body."<ref>Williams, George M. ''The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda''. Chio, California: New Horizons Press, 1994. p. 59</ref>
Was 'befriended by some wealthy Americans and by Harvard Professor John Henry Wright who was able to pull strings to that the svami could participate even though he was not the approved representative of any religious body."<ref>Williams, George M. ''The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda''. Chio, California: New Horizons Press, 1994. p. 59</ref>


Spoke to elite bodies in America. Critisized secrecy of western esoteric traditions.  
'''Spoke to the World's Parliament of Religions''', Chicago, 11th Sept 1893. <ref>Vivekananda, Swami. "Response to Welcome." ''Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda''. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016. <nowiki>https://www.holybooks.com/complete-works-of-swami-vivekananda/</nowiki>.</ref>
 
Critic of Christian hypocrisy. "Christians must always be ready for good criticism, and I hardly think that you will mind if I make a little criticism. You Christians, who are so fond of sending out missionaries to save the soul of the heathen — why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation? In India, during the terrible famines, thousands died from hunger, yet you Christians did nothing. You erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion — they have religion enough — but it is bread that the suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats. They ask us for bread, but we give them stones. It is an insult to a starving people to offer them religion; it is an insult to a starving man to teach him metaphysics. In India a priest that preached for money would lose caste and be spat upon by the people. I came here to seek aid for my impoverished people, and I fully realised how difficult it was to get help for heathens from Christians in a Christian land."<ref>Vivekananda, Swami. "Religion not the Crying Need of India." ''Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda''. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016. https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/SWAMI-VIVEKANANDA-COMPLETE-WORKS-Vol-1.pdf</ref>
 
Pointed out the Buddha, like Christ, "The great glory of the Master lay in his wonderful sympathy for everybody, especially for the ignorant and the poor. Some of his disciples were Brahmins. When Buddha was teaching, Sanskrit was no more the spoken language in India. It was then only in the books of the learned. Some of Buddha's Brahmins disciples wanted to translate his teachings into Sanskrit, but he distinctly told them, "I am for the poor, for the people; let me speak in the tongue of the people." And so to this day the great bulk of his teachings are in the vernacular of that day in India.<ref>Vivekananda, Swami. "Religion not the Crying Need of India." ''Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda''. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016.https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/SWAMI-VIVEKANANDA-COMPLETE-WORKS-Vol-1.pdf.</ref>
 
bodies in America. Critisized secrecy of western esoteric traditions.  
 




Revision as of 17:13, 5 December 2022

Swami Vivekananda was an Avatar, Hindu monk, author, religious teacher, and discipline of Ramakrishna

Historical Avatars

Avatars > Jesus Christ, Kalki, Mahavrata, Muhammad, Rishabhanatha, Rumi, Saptarishis, Swami Vivekananda

Notes

Was an Hindu missionary to the west.[1] Lectured in the west to get money to published books to be given to the poor of India[2]

Wanted to accomplish "what Ramakrsna had called 'the work of Kali'"[3]

Wanted to "set in motion a machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody, and then let men and women settle their own fate. Let them know what our forefathers as well as other nations have thought on the most momentous questions of life. Let them see specially what others are doing now, and then decide. We are to put the chemicals together, the crystallization will be done by nature according to her laws. Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. Set to work, I am coming sooner or later. Keep the motto before you — "Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion""[4]

Was 'befriended by some wealthy Americans and by Harvard Professor John Henry Wright who was able to pull strings to that the svami could participate even though he was not the approved representative of any religious body."[5]

Spoke to the World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 11th Sept 1893. [6]

Critic of Christian hypocrisy. "Christians must always be ready for good criticism, and I hardly think that you will mind if I make a little criticism. You Christians, who are so fond of sending out missionaries to save the soul of the heathen — why do you not try to save their bodies from starvation? In India, during the terrible famines, thousands died from hunger, yet you Christians did nothing. You erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion — they have religion enough — but it is bread that the suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats. They ask us for bread, but we give them stones. It is an insult to a starving people to offer them religion; it is an insult to a starving man to teach him metaphysics. In India a priest that preached for money would lose caste and be spat upon by the people. I came here to seek aid for my impoverished people, and I fully realised how difficult it was to get help for heathens from Christians in a Christian land."[7]

Pointed out the Buddha, like Christ, "The great glory of the Master lay in his wonderful sympathy for everybody, especially for the ignorant and the poor. Some of his disciples were Brahmins. When Buddha was teaching, Sanskrit was no more the spoken language in India. It was then only in the books of the learned. Some of Buddha's Brahmins disciples wanted to translate his teachings into Sanskrit, but he distinctly told them, "I am for the poor, for the people; let me speak in the tongue of the people." And so to this day the great bulk of his teachings are in the vernacular of that day in India.[8]

bodies in America. Critisized secrecy of western esoteric traditions.


All religions based on experience of God (Crist), certain truths (buddha), etc. [9]

Wanted to "set in motion a machinery which will bring noble ideas to the door of everybody" [10]

On the nature of human spirituality and religion, Swami says "Each soul is ... divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, BY controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy, by one, or more, or all of these and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details."[11]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 5. 9 vols., n.d. https://www.holybooks.com/complete-works-of-swami-vivekananda/
  2. ↑ Williams, George M. The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda. Chio, California: New Horizons Press, 1994.
  3. ↑ Williams, George M. The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda. Chio, California: New Horizons Press, 1994. p.55
  4. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016. https://www.holybooks.com/complete-works-of-swami-vivekananda/.
  5. ↑ Williams, George M. The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda. Chio, California: New Horizons Press, 1994. p. 59
  6. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. "Response to Welcome." Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016. https://www.holybooks.com/complete-works-of-swami-vivekananda/.
  7. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. "Religion not the Crying Need of India." Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016. https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/SWAMI-VIVEKANANDA-COMPLETE-WORKS-Vol-1.pdf
  8. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. "Religion not the Crying Need of India." Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 5. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016.https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/SWAMI-VIVEKANANDA-COMPLETE-WORKS-Vol-1.pdf.
  9. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. Yoga Philosophy: Lectures Delivered in New York, Winter of 1895-6. New York: Longmans, Green, and CO, 1896. p. 2 https://ia600303.us.archive.org/25/items/yogaphilosophyle00viverich/yogaphilosophyle00viverich_bw.pdf <nowiki>
  10. ↑ Williams, George M. The Quest for Meaning of Svami Vivekananda. Chio, California: New Horizons Press, 1994
  11. ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. Yoga Philosophy: Lectures Delivered in New York, Winter of 1895-6. New York: Longmans, Green, and CO, 1896. https://ia600303.us.archive.org/25/items/yogaphilosophyle00viverich/yogaphilosophyle00viverich_bw.pdf. Opening Quote
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