Vivekananda – Guru to the World
By Dr Akbar Ahmed
Washington, DC

 

More than any other Indian, Vivekananda brought the Hindu faith to the United States of America. With his opening words to the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, “My dear brothers and sisters of America,” he struck a chord with American audiences. So impressed was the American media that one journalist described him as “an orator by divine right and undoubtedly the greatest figure at the Parliament.”

His Hinduism was based in renunciation and  seva  (service). It also embraced other faiths with respect. “We accept all religions,” was Vivekananda’s message to the conference, emphasizing universalism and inclusivity.

A series of lectures and conferences across the United States and Europe followed. Indians saw him as the “spiritual father of modern India,” a “true rock star” and the first to “tell the civilizational story of India” ( Vivekananda – Guru to the world–The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda,  Ruth Harris ,  Harvard University Press, 2022. page 4.) India to him, was the “Mother of Spirituality.” He had set himself the task of bringing Vedanta and Yoga to the West and, in return, Western technology to the East.

Like a truly modern celebrity superstar whose life is cut short – Elvis Presley, Princess Diana, and James Dean –the Swami died while still relatively young. His death burnished his mystique with the immortal sheen of true fame. Disciples continued to spread his message and centers opened to teach his thought. He blazed across the spiritual firmament like a comet. It was an extraordinary triumph.

I had the privilege of welcoming Professor Ruth Harris, a Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, who has just published a major study of Vivekananda (2022), to my “World of Islam” class late in the Fall term of 2022. It remains a popular course at American University, and we have a full house of enthusiastic students eager to learn. My students often complain that they are taught virtually nothing about Islam in their schools. I had invited Professor Harris to speak about Hindu-Muslim relations in South Asia. In my teaching the course, I presented the basics of the subject but also explored current issues. So, I explained the foundations of Islam, the pillars of faith, the life of the Holy Prophet (PBUH), and the sweep of Islamic history. With this basic information, I drew the larger picture of how Islam relates to the contemporary world — that is, the role of women in Islam, Islam and the US, Islam and the War on Terror, Islam and Hinduism, etc. I thought it would be useful to discuss Hindu-Muslim relations by inviting Harris and exploring the ideas of Vivekananda, who I believe promoted genuine understanding between the faiths.

Born in Calcutta in 1863 to an aristocratic Bengali family, Narendranath Datta is known by his popular name Swami Vivekananda. He ate food with Muslims in Kashmir and praised the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam. He linked his spiritual Guru Sri Ramakrishna to the romantic poets Shelley and Wordsworth. He applauded Raj Mohan Roy and his understanding of Vedanta and Islam. Like Roy, he urged everyone to seek “God knowledge.” He was familiar with Hegel and Schopenhauer. He loved poetry and knew Milton by heart. The romantic poets reminded him of his beloved rural Bengal. His good looks and command of English created a charisma around him that allowed Western audiences to respond to him favorably. Women, in particular, played an important part in connecting Vivekananda’s worlds of East and West and sustained his Hindu Universalism.

Before he died at the relatively early age of 39, Vivekananda had presented two messages of fundamental importance that are still of the greatest relevance to South Asia and its current politics:

In the first one, he defined what it means to be religious in the broader sense, a definition colored by his understanding of Hinduism. True faith meant renunciation and showing compassion through service or  seva . What comes through loud and clear in his speeches and interviews is his passionate love for Hinduism and the “Sacred land of India”. For Vivekananda, the two are fused. In order to get to know India better, he decides to travel the length and breadth of the country, visiting towns and villages along the way. On his travels, he embraces the different faiths and peoples of India.

In the second message, he underlined the importance of Islam and its relationship with Hinduism. The two religions are like brothers living in the same house, and though they sometimes rub up against each other, they must learn to work together for the greater good of the house, in this case, India. He talked of their brotherhood and, while noting past Muslim conquests, he believed India could not move ahead without each other. He was aware of the history of conquests of Islam in India, yet he wished to move ahead to build a more harmonious world in the future. “Both Muslims and Hindus were all sons of the same Mother’” (Harris, p. 156). The larger objective was to unite and get rid of the colonial British.

Vivekananda singled out and praised the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam. He said in a speech in California: “Mohammed [PBUH] by his life showed that amongst Mohammedans there should be perfect equality and brotherhood. There was no question of race, caste, creed, color, or sex. The Sultan of Turkey may buy a Negro from the mart of Africa, and bring him in chains to Turkey; but should he become a Mohammedan and have sufficient merit and abilities, he might even marry the daughter of the Sultan […] How could Mohammedanism have lived, had there been nothing good in its teaching? There is much good. Mohammed was the Prophet of equality, of the brotherhood of man, the brotherhood of all Mussulmans.” (Delivered at the Shakespeare Club, Pasadena, California, 03 February 1900)

Vivekananda placed the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam on his small list of what he called the “World Movers.” These were certain individuals who changed the course of history  through their  prana  or life force.  Prana  is the fundamental energy, or as described by Vivekananda, “the infinite, omnipresent manifesting power of this universe.”

The World Mover was motivated by purity of thought and nobility of character. His examples of World Movers, along with the Prophet (PBUH), included Moses, Jesus, Confucius, and Buddha. The selection itself reflected Vivekananda’s broad inclusive approach to matters of faith.

Vivekananda believed, “The gigantic willpowers of the world, the world-movers, can bring their Prana into a high state of vibration, and it is so great and powerful that it catches others in a moment, and thousands are drawn towards them, and half the world think as they do. Great prophets of the world had the most wonderful control of the Prana, which gave them tremendous will-power; they had brought their Prana to the highest state of motion, and this is what gave them power to sway the world. All manifestations of power arise from this control.” (Personal Communications, Harris, 2022). (“Raja Yoga: Prana,” in  The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda  (Belgaum, India, 1892), Volume 1).

Ruth Harris comments on the World Movers: “Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Mohammed [PBUH], and Luther may be instanced as the great waves that stood up above their fellows (with a probable lapse of five hundred years between them). Always the wave that is backed by the greatest purity and the noblest character is what breaks upon the world as a movement of social reform” (Personal communication, Harris, 2022).

Vivekananda’s spiritual position was essentially democratic. Each one of us carried the potential to achieve high spiritual status through purity and nobility of character. That was his great gift to the understanding of faith. Though the World Movers are the heavyweights of history, Vivekananda pointed out that in their own way, even the ordinary person is by definition a potential World Mover, although his or her world may be limited to the community or even the family. But move the world he does. That is the purpose of his attempt to understand the “other” and build bridges.

Margaret Noble, who took the Hindu name Sister Nivedita, spent a lifetime as the chief Western disciple of the Swami. With exemplary loyalty and energy she spread his message of universal brotherhood in the East and West. She explained Hindu-Muslim relations thus:

“The whole task now is to give the word ‘Nationality’ to India—in all its breadth and meaning […] Hindu and Mohammedan must become one in it, with a passionate admiration of each other.” (Harris, p. 377).

“For Nivedita, Islam had its origins in the ‘shifting constancy of the desert sands,’ where the Prophet exemplified an ‘Asiatic’ theology, in which compassion and mercy dwelled alongside ‘ethical passion.’ But she also admired Islam’s civilizational contributions to India: ‘No one can stand and face the ruins behind the Qutab Minar [a famous minaret] at Delhi, no one can realize … the beauty of Persian poetry, without understanding that Arab, Slav, Afghan, and Mogul came to India as the emissaries of a culture different … from, but not less imposing than, that of people of the soil.’ She thus recognized the value of the Mughals’ military past and reveled in the unmatched splendor and beauty of Muslim architecture and gardens (Muslims brought roses to India); she praised Muslims in India who refused to eat meat and had forms of God-devotion that equaled those of Hindu bhaktas (here again, the ideal was a Hindu one). She also lectured on ‘Islam in Asia’ at the Corinthian Theatre under the patronage of the Calcutta Madrasa.

Her relationship with Islam at this juncture, however, was not limited to high culture and ‘civilization.’ “In 1906, she went to Barisal to investigate the plight of the largely Muslim population in East Bengal for the  Review of Reviews . She extolled the Hindu schoolteacher Ashwini Kumar Dutta, who had joined local Muslim notables in important relief work, which Vivekananda may have inspired.” (Harris ibid)

Vivekananda’s concepts and embrace of humanity virtually jump-started interfaith relations and understanding. While explaining the central importance of Hinduism, he warmly embraced the other world’s faiths.

In the meantime, the Swami was battling with ill health brought on by an out-of-control diabetic condition. He foresaw that the “disease […] must carry me off” (Harris, p. 361). “My hair is turning gray in bundles,” he observed, “and my face is getting wrinkled up all over.” He spoke of feeling “suffocated while getting up or sitting down.” (ibid). He died in 1902 when he was 39 years old.

Vivekananda died decades before Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the world stage. In some senses, he was a Gandhian figure before Gandhi. The Guru of the world, promoting peace and universal brotherhood, died on the threshold of the First World War, which then led to the Second World War. These terrible, senseless conflicts ended with the loss of almost a hundred million lives and the destruction of many more.

It has been more than a century since Vivekananda passed away. But Hindus and Muslims, and not only in South Asia, would benefit by making his acquaintance. Both will benefit by learning about the true nature of Hinduism. Muslims and Christians, and even Dalits, will be fortified in the face of the brutal and destructive pressures on the minorities by the current interpreters of Hinduism. The cruelty of mob lynching, the demolition of houses and the arrest and torture of students is how Hinduism is being interpreted today. Hindus will appreciate an introduction to a true religious giant of their faith.

Vivekananda would have been dismayed and deeply disappointed at some of the recent vitriolic attacks on Islam, including the person of the Prophet (PBUH) of Islam. The last created an international furor. Aggressive Islamophobia appears to be out of control in the land of Vivekananda’s birth. Prime Minister Modi not only shares a common name, Narendra, with Vivekananda but claims to be an avowed admirer of Swami Vivekananda. In order to truly appreciate the Swami’s message of brotherhood, Modi and his supporters need to promote a similar policy of harmony and tolerance in India today.

South Asia with its two antagonistic nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, has a population that amounts to roughly one fourth of the global population. Apart from its size, this is largely a young population. They know little about each other’s religions. Muslims know so little about Hindus and vice versa. It is crucial that a teaching of religion should be instituted in schools to check the current state of disinformation, prejudice and hatred. Vivekananda would be a good starting point. He may thus be as relevant in the 21st century as he was in the 19th century.

Just as Muslims would benefit learning about Swami Vivekananda, Hindus would gain from reading about the great nationalist poet and philosopher Allama Iqbal.

In the end, Swami Vivekananda gave the world a message of hope and optimism meant for every individual seeking spiritual truth. “Take up an idea,” Vivekananda announced, “devote yourself to it, struggle on in patience, and the sun will rise for you.” (Personal Communication, Harris,2022).

( Ambassador Akbar Ahmed is professor of International Relations and holds the Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at the American University, School of International Service. He is also a global fellow at the Wilson Center Washington DC. His academic career included appointments such as Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution; the First Distinguished Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD; the Iqbal Fellow and Fellow of Selwyn College at the University of Cambridge; and teaching positions at Harvard and Princeton universities. Ahmed dedicated more than three decades to the Civil Service of Pakistan, where his posts included Commissioner in Baluchistan, Political Agent in the Tribal Areas, and Pakistan High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland.)