Balakrishnan Satyam
1863 was six years after the 1857 uprising closer home in India. It was also the time the US Civil War had started. It was 35 years since the founding of the Brahmo Samaj. 46 years since the Presidency College (as Hindoo College) in Calcutta had been founded. So, it was during a chapter of revolt, reform and renaissance that Narendranath Datta was born.
In terms of family history, his own grandfather had unusually taken sanyaas at age 25 just after his father had been born. And the young renunciate had already been known as a scholar-linguist. Narendranath's father had much success in his profession and was also proficient in several languages. With these various gifts and legacies running in his family, and the social initiatives in his milieu, Narendranath, born January 12, 1863 would go on to emerge as Swami Vivekananda.
While none of us can pick the family we are born in (it could be argued that this is decided by one's deeds in an earlier birth!), and inherit many of our capacities and cultural traits, it is the pedagogic, artistic, and intellectual stimuli we respond to that shapes our uniqueness. The poems, prayers and songs of our childhood, the social discussions in the neighbourhood, the kids we play with, the books seen at home – they are all making far deeper and lasting impressions than we might realise.
It is the medley of early influences and subsequent exposure and experience that can, to a good extent, explain the formation of an extraordinary individual. In Swami Vivekananda's case, many ingredients can be identified – religiosity, eloquence, the gift of languages, a spiritualist temperament, renunciation, a passion for reform and modernisation… that seem directly drawn from his family. Then there are the influences of the poets and historians in a person's college curriculum, the thinkers whose ideas are at the centre of student discussions, and what the newspaper editors are writing at the time. Each one of us is really a complex aggregate put together from diverse sources. Yet, for some of us, despite all this, a dominant direction emerges in which we develop and a central purpose falls into place. When this click does happen, there's meaning and fulfilment. There's great service rendered to a cause.
One can definitely think of Swami Vivekananda's success in entrepreneurial terms. After all, it was not like joining a career in government and serving in assigned roles. In the first part of his journey, he developed into a yogi through study and practice, and by assimilating wisdom from his chosen guru. He then leveraged the influencing power of his personality towards serving religious and social causes – to mobilise manpower, resources, cooperation and moral support for projects of material and spiritual upliftment. He initiated many Vedanta centres, monastic mutts, journals, publishing teams, and ashrams. He built overseas goodwill for the country by networking with luminary scholars and enlightened souls in Europe and America. He delivered the message of the Upanishads in an impressive way to broader audiences both within the country and in many cities of the world. These are an entrepreneur's pre-requisite – the ability to mobilise committed teams of size to work towards identified goals, a large-scale vision, and the creation of a constantly learning organisation.
When quite young, Narendra-nath had been attending gatherings of reformist faith groups that were looking beyond castes and sects. Coupled with his interest in what the treatises of ancient India had to say on the nature of the cosmos and the human soul, and his introduction to the ideas of the political philosophers of Europe, he developed and retained an interest in research. Even today, the blogs and publications of Advaita Ashrama in Uttarakhand, or the conferences on Science and Consciousness organised in Kolkata reflect this outlook of extending the horizons of knowledge through constructive dialogue.
As a keen reader of the Upanishads and as a practitioner of spiritual sadhana such as meditation, he was largely engaged with the notion of deliverance or Mukti. This is a freedom from the cycle of birth and death. However, a level of creature comfort and material advancement is necessary before people can consider higher accomplishments such as self-knowledge and even liberation. Towards that, a better sustenance and lifestyle for the masses, and widespread basic education would be essential and so the evils of colonialism and other oppression couldn't be ignored. “To care only for spiritual liberty and not for social liberty is a defect, but the opposite is a still greater defect. Liberty of both soul and body is to be striven for”
In the present generation, the willingness to sacrifice societal values and the natural environment to raise personal luxury and to expand amenities is creating more miseries than joys. The value of tempering material progress with an Erich Fromm-like emphasis on people more than things is being brought home to us every week – whether through a pandemic, global warming, or human cruelties. At the same time, the common man's exposure to Yoga and meditation has indeed gone up in recent years, both through television as well as live gatherings. Easy access to video content has made it more readily possible for practically anyone to get some idea of seers and sages of ancient times had written, without having to be born in a sect, caste or linguistic group.
Indeed, it is a situation that Swami Vivekananda would heartily approve of. Digital booklets, online portals, Youtube videos – sound guidance on spiritual matters and salvation is very much available to anyone with a slight inclination and adequate leisure.
The growing awareness in bureaucratic and political circles about the Human Development Index (HDI), and recent global initiatives such as Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are robust signs of a balance between quantity and quality, and between asset building and citizen well-being. Yet we can't depend only on policies, whether of parties or corporates – while they matter very much, a deeper relationship with our fellow humans – family, neighbour, colleague, fellow member and so on – to be concerned with their welfare to an extent – that core human value has to be inculcated early and reinforced from time to time. As a former professor and Himalayan trekker from the US, Baba Ram Dass put it more recently, “We're all just walking each other home”.
The subject of walking/ trekking will again remind us how Swami Vivekananda accorded equal weight to the four Yogas – Raja, Bhakti, Karma and Jnana – as viable paths of spiritual progress. He wrote admirably on each of them, and his words invite us to march on ahead on the trails most suited to our own resources and temperament. We also realize that concepts such as freedom, culture, goodwill cannot be grasped well enough in economic doctrines. While we currently use terms like soul and spirit more in a posthumous than living sense, it would be a good thing to bring in some expressions from Indian languages even while writing in English to invoke that vital aspect more often.
Swamiji's poetry too touches people because it gets as direct as: “The mind hungers for peals of laughter sweet, the heart pants to reach realms beyond sorrow”.
(The writer is a Creative Director, advertising faculty, and an amateur epistemologist. The views expressed are personal.)
