Adventure in China

Swami Vivekananda had traveled extensively during his illustrious life. In his short life span of 40 years he had visited many countries, China being one. When he boarded The Peninsular and started his journey towards Chicago it docked in Hong Kong for three days in June 1893. He took advantage of this time to travel 80 miles up the Pearl River to Canton. He remarked ‘I see before me the body of an elephant. There is a foal within. But it is a lion-cub that comes out of it. It will grow in future, and China shall become great and powerful.’ His words have become reality today.

He said Hong Kong was the real face of China. He saw that the boats along the shore were permanent establishments for many families which were mostly managed by women of the household.  He was impressed by the hard working Chinese women. He noted that rich women in China would tie their feet and hobble not walk. Meanwhile, women from backward sections of the society would tie their kid to their backs and skilfully row the boat and jump from one boat to another with extreme agility.

Swami Vivekananda felt “The Chinese child is quite a philosopher and calmly goes to work at an age when your Indian boy can hardly crawl on all fours. He has learnt the philosophy of necessity too well. Their extreme poverty is one of the causes why the Chinese and the Indians have remained in a state of mummified civilization. To an ordinary Hindu or Chinese, everyday necessity is too hideous to allow him to think of anything else.”

While in China, Swamiji’s earnest desire was to see a Chinese monastery. The monasteries then were forbidden to foreigners. However Swamiji insisted on visiting one. The interpreter accompanying Swamiji saw few monks approaching them armed with club in their hands. Others alongside Swamiji started fleeing. Even the interpreter took to his feet, but just in time said “He is an Indian Yogi”. The words worked magic. The monks from the monastery stood in deep reverence. It was evident that they knew what an Indian monk was. They asked Swamiji for ‘amulets to ward off evil spirits and unholy influences’. Swamiji did not believe in charms. He took out a piece of paper and wrote “Om” in Sanskrit. The monks were humbled. They touched the piece of paper to their forehead.

In gratitude they showed him the monastery. In it he saw many manuscripts written in Sanskrit and in old Bengali characters also .Here he saw images of Buddha’s followers that resembled the Bengali Indian. Close ties existed in past between Bengal and China It was obvious that Indian thought had influenced Chinese civilization to a large extent. We have proofs of Indian scholars going to China and teaching them many difficult subjects. For this they themselves also had to learn Chinese. Today however the situation is different.

Swami Vivekananda wanted Indian youth to visit China every year. For him, China and Japan could provide some practical demonstration to the sinking Indian race of what striving for collective betterment can yield. These were after all Asian civilizations, not in favour of European materialism, with some regard for spiritual culture, yet not given to superstitions, and at the same time, extremely hard-working and even meticulous, promptly devoted to action.

He remarked: “Come, see these people…Come, be men! Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad. See how nations are on the march! Do you love man? Do you love your country? Then come, let us struggle for higher and better things…India wants the sacrifice of at least a thousand of her young men—men, mind, and not brutes.”

Brahman - The Ideal Man

Swami Vivekananda had a deep understanding of our scriptures. He also knew that the common man’s understanding of the same was weak. He wanted the truth to reach each one of us. He put forward the vedantic conception of who a Brahman is.

In our culture the ideal man is the Brahman. But what do we mean by ideal man?

Swamiji explains the ideal of Brahman-ness. , meaning in which worldliness is altogether absent and true wisdom is abundantly present. Therefore it was said that the Brahman is beyond law, he has no law and is not governed by kings, and that his body cannot be hurt. This is the true and original vedantic interpretation.

He said if all men and women were Brahmans, i.e. those who were not selfish, were spiritual, moral and good, it is not difficult to understand or know of a country as being above and beyond law. No police or military power is necessary to govern them.

We have read that only such men lived in Satya Yug, there was only one caste and that was Brahman.

We read in the Mahabharata that the whole world in the beginning was full of Brahman only. As they started to degenerate, they were divided into castes. The cycle will turn someday and all will move to becoming Brahman. However an effort has to be made in this direction.

Swamiji said.” The command is the same to you all, that you must make progress without stopping, and that from the highest man to the lowest Pariah, everyone in this country has to try to become the ideal Brahman.”

We all have to move towards becoming an ideal spiritual man, who is non-resisting, calm, steady, worshipful, pure and meditative. 

How do we bring about this change?

Good results can only be produced through love and through sympathy. Vivekananda urged the people to come out. He compared the nation to a ship that had developed a leak. “Today perhaps it has become even more worn out. Be patient. Be patriots. Let us not abuse our country. Love the country and the race that has given so much to us. Let us together create a class of purity and culture. In the success of this cause lies the salvation of humanity.”

So what is the ideal of patriotism? Swamiji said three things are necessary.

First, feel from the heart. Because through heart comes inspiration.

Secondly, find a way out. Give a practical solution to take our people out of misery they are presently living in.

And the last and most important, Have the will to surmount high mountains of obstructions. Nothing comes easy. Be ready to face the challenges.

All this is possible only after one is ready to put Nation before our personal goals. Vivekananda, called out to the youth of the nation

Arise, Awake and Stop Not Till the Goal is Reached.

अनंतवैवेदा: - Infinite are Vedas

Veda’s are the oldest scriptures of Hindu religious text. Written in Sanskrit, they were composed years ago by many Rishis after intense meditation. It was Rishi Vyasa, who collected all this knowledge and edited it. Rishi Vyasa was born on this day and therefore the purnima falling in the month of Aasadh is also called Guru purnima or Vyas purnima.

In order to ensure that this knowledge is passed on from one generation to another he started the Gurukuls. Thus the responsibility of protecting and following the knowledge traditions in life was handed over from father to son or from Guru to Shishya. This Parampara or tradition  is celebrated during Gurupurnima. All the elders are revered and remembered on Gurupurnima day. This celebration is also for strengthening the resolve to continue the tradition by taking the responsibility i.e. Dayitva to give adequate time and energy for work being undertaken by each one of us. 

If Veda Vyasa had not devised this method of protecting the knowledge traditions of India i.e, the Vedas, then like many other countries in the middle east or Europe, we too would have lost all our knowledge and along with it our identity. Bharat would not have been Bharat.

It is said – Ananta Vai Veda – अनंतवैवेदा: - Infinite are Vedas.

Because of incessant invasions we have lost many branches of Vedas, and yet how much is still protected by our land. It is all because of the efforts made by Guru Ved Vyasa. Vedvyasa was the son of Rishi Parashar and Satyavati. The story goes that one day Prashar was going for a yagya. He was getting late. Satyavati helped him cross the river by rowing the boat. She was blessed with a boon that she would get a son, who would be well versed in different scriptures if she recited certain mantra. Out of sheer curiosity, she recited the mantra, and Vyasa was born. He was an extraordinarily brilliant child. Today we owe much of our knowledge of Veda to him.

Vivekananda’s thoughts on Vedas                                

                  

According to Vivekananda, Veda means the sum total of eternal truths.

Truth is of two kinds: (1) that which is cognizable by the five ordinary senses of man and by reasoning’s based thereon; (2) that which is cognizable by the subtle, super sensuous power of yoga. Knowledge acquired by the first means is called science; and knowledge acquired by the second is called the Vedas. Our own realization is beyond the Vedas, because even they depend upon that. The highest Vedas is the philosophy of the Beyond.

The Sanskrit in which the Vedas were written is not the same Sanskrit in which books were written about a thousand years later than the Vedas - the books that you read in your translations of poets and other classical writers of India. The Sanskrit of the Vedas was very simple, archaic in its composition, and possibly it was a spoken language.

The Vedas are divided into four parts. One is called the Rig Veda, another Yajur Veda, another Sama Veda, and the fourth, Atharva Veda. Each one of these, again, was divided into many branches. For instance, the Sama Veda had one thousand branches, of which only about five or six remain; the rest are all lost. The Rig Veda had 108, of which only one remains; and the rest are all lost.

This vast mass of literature - the Vedas - we find in three groups. The first group is the Samhitas, a collection of hymns. The second group is called the Brahmanas, or the [group dealing with different kinds of] sacrifice. The word brahmana [by usage] means [what is achieved by means of] the sacrifice. And the other group is called the Upanishads (sittings, lectures, philosophic books). Again, the first two parts together - the hymns and the rituals - are called the Karma Kanda, the work portion; and the second, or philosophic portion (the Upanishads), is called the Jnana Kanda, the knowledge portion. This is the same word as your English word knowledge and the Greek word gnos - just as you have the word in agnostic, and so on. The origin of ancient Sanskrit is 5,000 BC; the Upanishads [are at least] two thousand years before that. Nobody knows exactly how old they are.

Different parts of Vedas were preserved by different families. With invasions and plundering of our country by foreigners, a vast amount of damage was done.  Ninety-nine percent of the Vedas are missing; they were in the keeping of certain families, with whose extinction the books were lost. The cardinal features of the Hindu religion are founded on the meditative and speculative philosophy and on the ethical teachings contained in the various books of the Vedas.

This word Hindu was the name that the ancient Persians used to apply to the river Sindhu. Whenever in Sanskrit there is an s in ancient Persian it changes into an h, so that sindhu became hindu; and you are all aware how the Greeks found it hard to pronounce h and dropped it altogether, so that we became known as Indians.

The last part of the Vedas is called the Vedanta, meaning the end of the Vedas. It deals with the theories contained in them, and more especially with the philosophy with which we are concerned. It is written in Sanskrit, and, you must remember, was written thousands of years ago.

Swami Vivekananda, felt that the use of word Hindu had lost its significance in the present times. He called all those who followed the Vedas and considered it as their scriptures as Vaidika or Vedantists. Elaborate speeches and lectures of Vivekananda are available widely and freely on the net. Read them for a greater understanding of our scriptures.