Vivekananda’s Wisdom

We read books. We meet people. When you look back, you remember some things. They say what you forgot is not important. Only the important remained. I have in my hands an old book by Vivekananda that I read over 20 years ago. It is full of my highlights. But I am trying to think what is it that I remember, that has remained with me over these years.

Whenever I think of Vivekananda, there is a certain reverence and respect that I have only for a few. Many years ago, when I thought I was lost, he helped me understand spirituality, and find myself. When I say “to find myself”, what I mean is to understand things that we need to understand in life. Once you understand those things, I guess life has a little more meaning.

His Selected Works were my bible. I have come back to this book again and again.

Now I see things a little differently. I sometimes feel I do not fully agree with Vivekananda or what the Hindus say. But, that’s OK, I say. What has remained with me is not his passionate talks about the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta and the divinity of the soul, but a few touching talks and stories.

“Being is not consciousness”

In his own words, “Being is not identical to consciousness, but consciousness is part of the Being”. This is very subtle. We think if we could master consciousness, we have achieved our goal. But Swami Vivekananda says the real task is to go beyond consciousness. Beyond consciousness, according to him, there is infinite calmness and bliss. And that is the true nature of the soul.

According to Buddhism, there is no such thing as a soul. There is no permanent self. This whole discussion between Buddhism and Vedanta is pretty weird. But sometimes I think what if the “thing” in Vedanta is the “event” or a “state” in Buddhism? Nirvana, in Buddhism, is not a “thing” but a “state”. And yes, to me, the Buddhist definition makes more sense.

“Serve like Shiva”

I am not sure if these were his words, or if he quoted his guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s words. When we talk about spirituality, we get stuck in the concept of God, the soul, a moral life, devotion, and so on. But why is serving so important? I think it’s because serving and helping others selflessly helps us forget ourselves. If we look closely at how our mind works, we find ourselves thinking and worrying about ourselves all the time - about our health, our wealth, about tomorrow, our relationships, guilt about the past, and so on. We are lost in this endless cycle of self-obsession - our minds being busy finding solutions to this and that problem. But when we work for others, it gives us some time to step away from our little ego, which is good for us. So Vivekananda asks: “Why do you need another God when you can find God in millions and millions of poor and suffering people?” Serve them and you will find God. I thought this was a pretty good challenge.

“Be and Make”

We understand a little, but we are in such a hurry to teach others - to make them understand and see what we ourselves haven’t understood. We want others to see what we haven’t seen yet. We say “be kind” to others, but where is that kindness within ourselves? We say “Don’t be angry” but do we have control over our anger? So Vivekananda says: you have to “be” first before you can “make”.

“Face the brutes!”

I think I read this story in Swami Vivekananda’s biography. As the story goes, after visiting the famous temple of goddess Durga, Swami Vivekananda was walking along the river Ganges in the city of Benares, with a bag of puffed rice that he had bought in the temple. So he was walking and suddenly realized that a group of monkeys was following him (they were after the puffed rice). And he starts running to avoid them. But they run after him.

Then suddenly, he hears a voice of a sadhu: “Face the brutes!”

He stops and faces the monkeys. And just like that they scatter away and disappear.

This is an interesting story that deals with one of our strongest emotions: fear. Fear is one of the fiercest brutes inside each of us, ready to pounce on us. We are scared! We are scared all the time! And what are we scared of? We are scared of catching some incurable disease, losing all the wealth we have accumulated, losing friends and family, and being alone. So, the brute is always there, laughing at us. We handle one, and there is another one waiting for us. We want to run away from this brute and hide somewhere. But where?

So the lesson is: we will not resolve the issue of fear as long as we run away from them, or pretend not to see it. The only way to resolve it for good is to face them.

In his own words: “All misery comes from fear, from unsatisfied desire. Man will find that he never dies, and then he will have no more fear”.

“We are all like birds on a tree”

It’s probably from his Selected Works, but I have not been able to find the exact location where he talks about it.

He says we are all like birds who, one evening, have come together to find shelter on a tree. There are many different kinds of birds. The birds share the tree and mingle together, but the next morning they will all fly away to their destinations. Meaning this earth is the tree for us human beings. We live here, we have family, we have friends - but the time will come for all of us one day to say goodbye and move on to some other destination. What a comparison! I felt a little sad thinking about the impermanence of our own lives - this life- being just a stop in this long journey of many many lives where we come again and again.