The Gospel of Swami Vivekananda

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S ‘INSPIRED TALKS’

” Freedom Is The Goal Of The Universe”.

“Denial of the will to live, knowledge,and same sightedness is the trinity of liberation”.

“Inspired Talks” is a bunch of talks while Swami Vivekananda , the great World Teacher taught his 12(-1 may be less according to Marie Louise Burke) Western  desciples or students by his spiritual advice at Miss Dutcher’s cottage in Thousand Island Park of America . It was in 1895 . Swamiji got invitation from Miss Dutcher to visit there for some times for summer retreat. He had accepted her invitation to get little rest from the busiest scheduled of lectures in America. In this connection Swami Vivekananda wrote a letter to Mrs. Ole Bull:

… I cannot go to Greenacre now; I have arranged to go to the Thousand Island, wherever that may be. There is a cottage belonging to Miss Dutcher, one of my students, and a few of us will be there in rest and peace and seclusion. I want to manufacture a few “Yogis” out of the materials of the classes, and a busy farm [fair] like Greenacre is the last place for that, while the other is quite out of the way, and none of the curiosity – seekers will dare go there “.(April 25, 1895).

Ready to Welcome Swami Vivekananda

On June 18 , 1895 , Vivekananda left the White Mountains of New Hampshire by train for Thousand Island Park which is about 200 miles to the west , where some of his students awaited him. Every thing at the Park had , it would seem, been ready for his coming. – wrote Marie Louise Burke in his book ” New Discoveries”. Everything was refurbished from Dock to electric lights of the park to Tabernacle, even the steamer St. Lawrence had been newly cleaned, painted , brightly lighted refurbished community to which Swami Vivekananda reached at. Miss Dutcher ( Mary Elizabeth Dutcher) along with 2/3 other desciples already reached at the Dock to greet him and to escort him. Miss Dutcher had little three stories building , but for Swamiji’s comfort and privacy she made arrangements to add a wing to the cottage. The three – stories addition housed a guest room on the lowest floor, a class room on the first floor, and the Swamiji’s room on the top floor which opened on to a porch with a magnificent view of the river. “Welcome Vivekananda” read the banner that greeted SWAMI as he entered the Cottage for the beginning of a remarkable seven weeks.

THOUSAND ISLAND PARK

In brief, Thousand Island Park is a small village located on Wellesley Island in a remote area about 360 miles from New York city, on the St. Lawrence River, near the Canadian border. The Park was only 20 years old in 1895, yet it had already attracted enough to form a community of 600 cottages. Its several thousand summer residents supported a program of recreation for both mind and body, attracted celebrated preachers and speakers as prominent as Susan B. Anthony and Federick Douglas. Through the eyes of Swamiji the natural beauty of the place was very beautiful and charming. In short, by the 1890s, Thousand Island Park was a summer resort par excellence. It has been changed or transformed from a remote wilderness to popular resort – land where people of various taste used to visit for some days enjoying with their relatives and friends , or spending their times in playing, dancing, went boating and so on and otherwise enjoyed themselves. By 1895, this Island as a whole drew thousands of excursionists every day. It’s 800 acres in area , 100 acres of which were plotted for cottage lots. There are small and large cottages about 600 and over and in addition to the hotel, there are at least a dozen rooming houses . Swamiji wrote in early July : ” It is a very beautiful spot, but I am afraid it becomes too crowded during the season.”( Complete Works, 5:89).

From Marie Louise Burke, we came to know that the Thousand Island Park would , indeed , scarcely seem the place for a summer retreat. But most of the cottages lay jam – packed between the river and the base of Sunrise Mountain; whereas Miss Dutcher’s little house, perched alone a short way up the hill was quite and relatively secluded.

Swami Vivekananda and His Inspiring Talks : 

As “Sree Ramkrishna Kathamrita” is the devine talks of great spiritual Master , Sree Ramkrishna , just as ” Inspired Talks” is by his dearest disciple Swami Vivekananda . Sri ‘M’ ( Mahendra Nath Gupta) had taken notes of the devine talks of Sree Ramkrishna and it was published later from Kathamato Bhawan, like him , Miss Waldo , devotee of Swami Vivekananda took notes when he talked to them about ancient Hindu scriptures , Patanjali’s  Yogasutra , The Srimad Bhagwat Gita , Vedanta Religion , The Avadhuta Gita, the Brihadaranyaka and Katha Upanishads, Bhoktiyoga . There were discussions, also of Buddha, Christ, free will, the art of teaching, the need for chastity, the theory of Raja Yoga , the practice of Karma Yoga and Bhakti Yoga and so on.

On the morning of July 6 , Vivekananda went through the entire text of Shankara’s introduction to his commentary, in which is discussed the subject of adhyasa , on this same morning of July 6, he also narrated Shankara’s commentary on the first and second aphorisms of Brahma Sutras, bringing out the silent points from the midst of long and weighty arguments and expositions , which tend to confound the Western desciples. Swamiji began discussion of the Vedanta Sutras on July 6. On July 10 he took up the commentary on the third aphorisms, on July 12 and 16 that on the fourth aphorisms and July 18, on the fifth aphorisms of Brahma Sutras.

Swamiji seems to have begun his discussion of Ramanuja’s philosophy on July 7, Sunday morning , and  he quoted from Ramanuja’s Shri Bhashya on that afternoon . As for the Bhashya of Madhvacharya, he didn’t linger with it. “Madhava is a thoroughgoing dualist or dvaitist” – he said. He hardly quoted from the Puranas.He said that Brahman means Vishnu, not Shiva at all. ” Because there is no salvation except through Vishnu…. There is no place for reasoning in Madhava’s explanation, it’s all taken from the revelation in the Vedas.” ( Complete Works, 7:37)

It was the Bhashyas of Shankara and Ramanuja that made Swamiji’s attention from July 6 to July 19. Throughout these classes he not only quoted from the commentaries but gave his own harmonizing views. He mainly emphasized on the basis of Advaita that the dualistic religions, from the most crude to the most rarefied, had validity. Ultimately, it led to the highest realization of all – that of the identity of the unveiled soul with the Self or Brahman .

In Thousand Island Park he was very regular to take his classes in this subject , explaining again and again the place of dualistic religions in relation to Advaita Vedanta, the meaning of the Personal God in relation to the Absolute Brahman.

He said on July 19, ” So long as I say ” you ” I have the right to speak of God protecting us . When I see another, I must take all the consequences and put in the third, the ideal, which stands between us; that is the apex of the triangle…. The idea of creation or change is inseparably connected with will. So long as we perceive this world in motion , we have to conceive will behind it …. From our present standpoint, this world appears to us as will and consciousnes. Personal God is as much an entity for Himself as we are for ourselves, and no more.” ( Waldo,  loc. cit, P- 12) . Some days later he told: ” Separating ourselves from the Absolute and attributing certain qualities to It gives us Isvara . It is the Reality of the Universe as seen through our mind” . (CW -7:67)

A week later :

” Man does not manufacture God out of his own brain; but he can only see God in the light of his own capacity, and he attributes to Him the best of all he knows. Each attribute is the whole of God, and this signifying the whole by one quality is the metaphysical explanation of the Personal God. Isvara is without form yet has all forms, is without qualities yet has all qualities. As human beings, we have to see the trinity of existence – God, man, nature; and we can not do otherwise. ( CW -7:82)

To be continued