Agnostic Khushwant
Page 15
I took his leave. I was exhilarated by being with him. He exuded an aura of goodwill, cheerfulness and crystal-clear honesty that envelops you long after you have left his presence. The Nobel Committee had done well in awarding him the peace prize in 1989 because he is a man of peace. He has suffered many wrongs but has never uttered an angry word in protest. He has brought solace to millions of people who are troubled by the way world is going today.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FIVE-STAR RELIGION: SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
Rereading his [Swami Vivekananda’s] thoughts confirmed my fears. There are lines that mean nothing: ‘If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent.’ How wrong his prophecy about the collapse of the materially minded West and the renaissance of the spiritually minded East was …
It started with the Bible. Every room in a five-star hotel used to keep a Bible in a drawer beside your bed, along with local telephone directories. You could dial-a-prayer free of charge and walk off with the Bible if you wanted to own one. Then Buddhism fast caught on. Fancy hotels in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Japan placed copies of the Dhammapada (a Buddhist scripture) in every bedroom. Not to be outdone Islamic nations followed suit. You get selections of the Holy Quran and sayings of Prophet Mohammed and Hazrat Ali in Muslim-owned hotels in the Middle East and North Africa.
I have yet to see copies of the Gita or the Upanishads in our hotels, but during one of my visits to Ranchi (now the capital of Jharkhand), I noticed that M. N. Chowdhury, the-then manager of the Ashok Hotel, used to present two booklets – Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation and Swami Vivekananda’s Thoughts of Power – to every guest. So, for the two days I was in Ranchi, I read Swami Vivekananda.
When it comes to preaching, we Indians have nothing to be sanctimonious about. We are the world’s greatest teachers of morality, which we do not follow ourselves. Shri Ramakrishna Paramahansa (1836–86) and Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) are two of Bengal’s top godmen of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Vivekananda, like other godmen, had a lot of legends grown around him. He believed in the cult of the superman: ‘The older I grow, the more everything seems to me to lie in manliness. This is the new gospel,’ he said. I have heard stirring speeches on the greatness of Swami Vivekananda and how he made an impact by his rousing oration at the first Congress of Religions in Chicago in September 1893. His admirers would have you believe that his speech was a stunning performance that shook the Western world. This is a myth of our own making. I looked up contemporary records of American papers of the time, which do not bear this out. He undoubtedly was a handsome, powerfully built man and a good orator but by no means as great a thinker as his admirers make him out to be. However, if India’s millions want to believe that Vivekananda shook the world, who am I to question their conviction?
Rereading his thoughts confirmed my fears. There are lines that mean nothing. For instance: ‘If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent.’ How wrong his prophecy about the collapse of the materially minded West and the renaissance of the spiritually minded East was can be gauged from what he wrote over a hundred years ago:
Europe, the centre of the manifestation of material energy, will crumble into dust within 50 years if she is not mindful to change her position, to shift her ground and make spirituality the basis of her life. And what will save Europe is the religion of the Upanishads.
Europe has not crumbled; the land of the Upanishads has.
In his enthusiasm for physical fitness, Swami Vivekananda wrote:
First of all, our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to Heaven through football than through the study of Gita. These are bold words, but I have to say them, for I love you. I know where the shoe pinches. I have gained a little experience. You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men.
Writing on God and religion he wrote:
There is a vast difference between saying, ‘food, food’ and eating it; between saying, ‘water, water’ and drinking it. So, by merely repeating the words ‘God, God’ we cannot hope to attain realization. We must strive and practice.
If I am wrong, I crave the forgiveness of millions of Swamiji’s disciples and admirers.