Write an essay on Swami Vivekananda's internationalism
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Answer:
Explanation:
Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk from India. He played significant role in the growing Indian nationalism of the 19th and 20th century, reinterpreting and harmonising certain aspects of Hinduism. His teachings and philosophy applied this reinterpretation to various aspects of education, faith, character building as well as social issues pertaining to India, and was also instrumental in introducing Yoga to the west.
According to Vivekananda a country's future depends on its people, stating that "man-making is my mission."[1] Religion plays a central role in this man-making, stating "to preach unto mankind their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life."[2]
Indian nationalism
Vivekananda played a major role in the growing Indian nationalist sentiments in the late 19th and the 20th century, encouraging many Indians with his success and appeal in the West. His example helped to build pride in India's cultural and religious heritage, and supported the Indian independence movement. Vivekananda participated in several of these movements, calling for Indian independence from British rule.
Swami Vivekananda believed that India is the blessed punyabhumi, the "land of virtue":
".. the land where humanity has attained its highest towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality - it is India. "[3]
According to Swami Vivekananda it is coordinated willpower that would lead to independence. He gave the British colonial rule over India as an example, with forty millions Britons ruling three hundred million people in India. According to Vivekananda, those forty million Britons put their wills together and that resulted infinite power, and that was the reason of their success. Vivekananda prescribed, to make a great future India the whole serest will lie in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.[4]
"The tidal wave of Western Civilisation is now rushing over the length and breadth of the country. It won't do now simply to sit in meditation on mountain tops without realizing in the least its usefulness. Now is wanted intense Karmayoga, with unbounded courage and indomitable strength in the heart. Then only will the people of the country be roused."
- Swami Vivekananda
According to Vivekananda the Indian race never cared about physical wealth, although they acquired immense wealth.[5] Swami vivekananda believed in unity of all religions.
Religion
Religion played a major role in Vivekananda's ideas. To Vivekananda religion was nothing but a waste theory. He said,
[I]t is being and becoming, not hearing or acknowledging; it is the whole soul becoming changed into what it believes."[2] He hated the religious rituals that were in practice during that time[6]
According to Swami Vivekananda, religion is the idea which is raising the brute into man, and man into God. Religion was his main focus after self realization.[7]
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa
Vivekananda was deeply influenced by the Brahmo Samaj, and by his guru Ramakrishna, who regarded the Absolute and the relative reality to be nondual aspects of the same integral reality. According to Michael Taft, Ramakrishna reconciled the dualism of form and formless,[8] regarding the Supreme Being to be both Personal and Impersonal, active and inactive. Ramakrishna
The Personal and Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness, the diamond and its lustre, the snake and its wriggling motion. It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.[9]