Source: Preface by the Editor, to the Book ‘Letters of Swami Vivekananda’, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, India.

Letters are the reflections of one's mind. From private letters where thoughts flow freely, we can study the growth and development of a person's mind and the inner history of his being. It is for this reason that the private letters of many public men are so much in demand. From their letters many aspects of the personality of those persons are known to the public, which would otherwise have been a sealed book to all.

The history of Swami Vivekananda's life is correlated with the awakening of India and the resuscitation of Indian religion. But how much agony and suffering that mighty soul had to undergo before he was able to set in motion a machinery which was to bring about an all-round awaken­ing in Indian national life! A nation that seemed to have lost all self-respect and self-confidence, and was apparently dead, had to be roused. That was a tremendous task. Swami Vivekananda felt that this task was his. Very often, he would say he was born with that mission. But he had to accomplish in a short span of life (his real activities covered a period of not more than nine years) a work whose influence would last for many centuries. He wrote to some of his followers in India from across the sea: "Fifty centuries are looking on you, the future of India depends on you." Perhaps the disciples were amazed at such bold words. But the Seer with his prophetic vision saw across the corridor of time what was coming ahead.

The following letters [Swami Vivekananda’s letters published in the book] show the plan of his work and the means he wanted to adopt for the fulfillment of his mission. Swami Vivekananda was impatient of the delay and the slow progress the country was making. People listened to him with rapt attention, admired him with almost fanatical zeal, but their actual works were not commensurate with their enthusiasm for hero-worship. Therefore they called for a sharp rebuke from the great Swami who wanted not worship but action.

With the passing of time, however, we find that more and more of Swami Vivekananda's ideas are being fulfilled.

But still many things remain unaccomplished. These letters [Swami Vivekananda’s letters published in the book] contain hints for the present and future workers for the cause of India as to how the nation should be guided. "What is the secret of a successful organization?" "Why do Indians lack the power of collective action?" "How India's future is doomed if those defects in national character are not remedied"—these vital questions are answered in these letters, sometimes in very strong language by one whose sharpness of expression was only the outer garb of his great love for his people.

But Swami Vivekananda was not a patriot only. He was a Seer first and a patriot next. As Guru, as a Teacher, as a spiritual leader, he had to solve the deeper problems of the life of many. Every man is a hidden Brahman, but in life almost all act like miserable wretches. What is the cause of this disastrous anomaly? How to remove it? How can a man rise to the full stature of his Divinity?—by answering these questions one who had known his own Divinity was anxious to make others Divine. This is what we find in many of Swami Vivekananda's letters.

Swami Vivekananda was a militant monk, a dynamic personality, and a fiery soul. We can imagine what magnetic effects his letters had upon the life of those to whom they were addressed. His letters contain many passages, a single one of which is sufficient to bring about a great revolution and complete transformation in one's life. The same fire is hidden in them even now, though they were written many years ago. We have no doubt that this smouldering fire may be ablaze at any time and illumine any life in any clime. So they are presented to the general readers. "The Epistles of Swami Vivekananda" were formerly published in six parts. In the present edition [First edition - 1940] we have brought them out in one handy volume, with some additional matter that has recently reached our hands. The letters are now arranged chronologically as far as possible.

Link to the Book ‘Letters of Swami Vivekananda’.

" ... Our success in spiritual (or any) endeavour depends on the degree of stress we lay on the primary factor. And what is the primary factor? The next verse says:

Success depends essentially on a qualified aspirant. Time, place, and other means are but auxiliaries in this regard.

This is a great verse. Every student in India must be re­educated in the meaning of this verse. It says that success depends essentially on a qualified aspirant (Adhikārinamāsāste phalasiddhirvisesatah); time, place, and other means are but auxi­liaries in this regard (upāyā desakālādyāh santyasmin-sahakārinah) . A candidate's success in spiritual life (or in any other venture) primarily depends upon himself. Time, place, and circumstances are all secondary. Primarily, the question is: "Am I fit? Have I the desire for Self-knowledge?" This is the most important factor. If we wish to have a particular tree, we have to take the respective seed, sow it, and supply water and manure. If the seed is a living seed, it will assimilate the external supplies and grow into a tree. If the seed were a dead one, all our supplies of water and other ingredients would go in vain. Similarly, here the stress is on the seeker. Does he have a living mind, a living soul? If yes, the auxiliaries will add to his growth and success. Otherwise the external helping factors will prove futile. He must be fully living for a particular cause. External help and circumstances are secon­dary. If he is capable, truly devoted to a cause, then everything will be all right. Time, place, and other auxiliaries will then prove to be fruitful. It is the candidate who is the primary factor. This is the greatest emphasis seen in this book. We are responsible for our destiny. If we are fit, we can wade through the most unfavourable circumstances, else, even favourable conditions will fail to take us far. ..."

Source: 'The Message of Vivekachudamani', by Swami Ranganathananda, 1st Edition, Dec 2008, Advaita Ashrama.

THROUGHOUT THE AGES mankind has yearned for peace—world peace, national peace, community peace, and peace of the individual soul. This coveted yet elusive goal has been relentlessly pursued on the international level through peace talks, peace treaties, peace summits, and so forth. In a letter written by Leo Tolstoy, which was enthusiastically endorsed by Mahatma Gandhi, he expressed doubt that peace could be achieved by these methods. He wrote: "One thing only is needful: the knowledge of the simple and clear truth which finds place in every soul that is not stupefied by religious and scientific superstitions—the truth that for our life one law is valid—the law of love, which brings the highest happiness to every individual as well as to all mankind."

International peace can come only if there is national peace, and national peace can come only if there is individual peace. If the world is in turmoil today, it is because its inhabitants are in turmoil. World peace begins with each one of us. As the well-known Russian painter and thinker Nicholas Roerich said, "Every man, every member of the human family, carries the responsibility for the peace of the whole world."

A society is the summation of individuals. The values of a society are determined by its individuals, and the force of inequality in society, strengthened by selfish considerations, has to be kept under control.

The force that can hold society together is moral force, dharma, the consideration for the other person. This deep value in mankind, which enhanced becomes altruism, is possible only in an atmosphere of "toned-down materialism" and assertion of the Spirit. If the individuals value sense gratification and money, the society will be materialistic; if the individuals value intellectual pursuits, the society will be advanced in science and technology; if the individuals value the arts, the society will be cultured. Only if the individuals place the highest value on spiritual awakening, will the society be a peaceful one.

The jewel of everlasting peace is within each one of us, only waiting to be discovered. It is futile to try to find peace outside if we have not found it inside. As Swami Vivekananda said, "It is only with the knowledge of the Spirit that the faculty of want is annihilated forever. . . . Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can destroy our miseries forever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a time."

Lasting peace cannot be found in the external world. In fact, it is our identity with the external world that causes inner conflict and anxiety. Peace comes through detachment and renunciation. It [referring to peace] is not an emotion but the suspension of emotions. We can feel this temporary absence of emotion, and the peace associated with it, during an aesthetic experience. Aristotle said that the fine arts act as a catharsis. What is left after the outpouring of an emotion? An inner feeling of peace and harmony, at least until another emotion arises.

The path to eternal peace is not an easy one. It requires self-sacrifice and self-control. To quote Thomas a Kempis, "All men desire peace, but very few desire those things that make for peace." In order to achieve inner peace, we must restructure the way we now think and feel. Peace, to be a part of our character, must be continually practiced. For, as Swami Vivekananda said, "Character is repeated habits." "Blessed are the peacemakers," said the Bible. But the peace must be a victory that defeats none. To quote Abraham Lincoln, "With malice towards none, with charity for all."

The fundamental nature of man, says Vedanta, has two important characteristics: freedom and equality. These two aspects have found expression in man's urge for freedom and equality in the social realm as well. Each of the two main ideals of social and political systems of the world, democracy and socialism, emphasizes one of these fundamental urges of mankind.

There are two classes of people working for peace. One strives to uplift humanity by eliminating tension, rivalry, and confrontation which culminate in skirmishes and war. They advocate peace as a necessity, especially in these times of nuclear development. The other class just lives peace by putting into practice the principles of peace. They are the deeply spiritual souls who have become identified with peace in their attitude and conduct. They exude peace. We honour the people who labour for peace because of its urgent need in this world of strife and tension, but we love the souls who live peace. That is why saints are so much loved and venerated.

Modern science now accepts the theory that the essence of all matter is energy, a theory which unifies the physical world. Long before the birth of Einstein, this unity was declared by the sages of the Upanishads who realized this through inspiration, or intuition. Their philosophy, Vedanta, teaches that the essence of all existence is the eternal, changeless Brahman—Existence, Knowledge, Bliss absolute. In the Chandogya Upanishad we read, "All this is verily Brahman." That is, not merely mankind, but all creation is the manifestation of the same Reality.

Everlasting peace can be found only by becoming one with the infinite, blissful Brahman. In order to experience this unity we must transcend all differences and limitations. "Here, on earth," said Swami Vivekananda, "we strive to enclose little spaces and exclude outsiders. . . . our aim should be to wipe out these little enclosures, to widen the boundaries until they are lost sight of."

Beauty, philosophy, and science, when taken to their highest point, break the boundaries that separate us and lead the way to unity. The greatest value of artistic, intellectual, and spiritual culture is that it inspires us to expand beyond ourselves. Leo Tolstoy said: "Human life ... is always striving for divine perfection that it is able to attain only in infinity. . . . Only the aspiration towards this perfection is enough to take the directions of man's life away from the animal condition ... towards the divine condition."

Our awareness should expand from consideration of the self to those of the family, to community, to country, to mankind, and ultimately to all of existence. Such expansion leads to greater appreciation of the diversity in the world. We cannot appreciate this diversity if we are self-centered and assume that our way is the best and only way. When we realize our unity with all existence, we realize that diversity is merely a change in appearance. Swami Vivekananda said, "Nature is unity in variety—an infinite variation in the phenomenal—as in and through all these variations of the phenomenal runs the Infinite, the Unchangeable, the Absolute Unity."

All the differences that cause discord have their origin in our perceptions of name and form, perceptions we have superimposed upon the essential unity of the universe. We have separated ourselves so much from the unity which pervades this world that we have become enemies of nature. This situation has reached crisis proportions. While civilization evolved from man's attempt to control nature, he became isolated from it. He has forgotten that he is one with nature. Ecological considerations get the fullest support from this idea of the unity of existence. Rabindranath Tagore wrote, "When we become merely man, but not man-in-the-universe, we create bewildering problems. . . . But this cannot go on forever. Man must realize the wholeness of his existence, his place in the infinite." Thus we see that in unity alone is lasting peace.

Swami Vivekananda said, "This idea of oneness is the great lesson India has to give and mark you, when this is understood, it changes the whole aspect of things, because you look at the world through other eyes than you have been doing before. And this world is no more a battlefield where each soul is born to struggle with every other soul and the strongest gets the victory and the weakest goes to death. It becomes a playground where the Lord is playing like a child, and we are His playmates, His fellow-workers."

In this exalted state, eternal peace is ours.

Our efforts to attain peace should be approached on different fronts. Social and political measures will directly facilitate efforts for peace. Cultural and religious movements and institutions will create the climate for peace. In all types of groups—regional, national, and international— stress will have to be given to harmony and not to difference.

An awareness of different cultures and religions will have to be made with an effort to find the unity behind all. Spiritual and cultural communities will thus lessen tension and bring about understanding and peace. Higher virtues conducive to individual and collective peace will have to be practiced. Altruism and selfless service will have to be encouraged.

May strength and conviction grow in us as we proceed with our own personal struggle for peace, and may they also unite our efforts towards world peace.

Shantih   Shantih   Shantih

Source: Article by Swami Swahananda, Living Wisdom, Published by Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai, 1995.

Swami Vivekananda had said, ‘Every­where I go in India, people come and tell me: "Swami, I want to renounce; I want to surrender everything to God." I just ask them: "What have you to renounce? What have you to surrender? Neither a strong body, nor a trained mind, nor any talents, nor money in the pocket or the bank, nor a well-developed individuality. A Buddha could renounce, he had a kingdom to renounce and a fine youthful personality; he had a world of achievement ahead in his grasp to renounce; but what have you?"’

What a beautiful idea! How inspiring and clear-cut! When I first read it as a boy, I felt inspired by the very idea of atma-vikasa, self-development, as the true scope of Vedanta. What a positive strengthening message this is for all people in all parts of the world! Very often most anaemic people resort to the higher dimensions of religion, without striving to fulfil this its early phase, and they make the whole of religion a farce, and human life a timid futility without the heroic element in it. That will not happen if they first resort to a teaching that they can digest, that will give them strength, that will slowly prepare them to climb the higher peaks, and even the highest peak, of religion. For religion, Vivekananda has said, is infinite in scope; it takes in everyone, just as education takes in everyone from wherever it finds him or her, and helps him or her to grow.

So in the Gita, you will find the cadences of this powerful music throughout. It is the music of strength, the music of steady human unfoldment, the music of human growth. An entire philosophy of man-making is given to us in the first chapters of this Song Celestial, as Edwin Arnold described the Gita. When Arjuna was really weak, he thought himself to be extraordinarily virtuous. He wanted to renounce the impend­ing battle and also the kingdom expected to be his at the end of the battle, and become a beggar, and adduced various justifications for such a step, and sought for, and expected to have, Sri Krishna's concurrence and blessing to such a course. He wept and wailed and sank down in the chariot, throwing his bow and arrows away. That is the picture of Arjuna given by the Gita at the end of the first chapter entitled, significantly, as the ‘yoga of Arjuna’s grief’. And Sri Krishna looks at him with an amused smile and thinks within Himself thus: ‘What has happened to this man? He was such a hero; he has now become weak and dejectred and rationalizes all this as high virtue.’ And so, as a tonic to his weak nerves, Sri Krishna reprimanded and exhorted Arjuna in the powerful words of verses 2 and 3 of the 2^nd chapter:

Kutastva kasmalamidam visame samupasthitam;

Anaryajustam asvargyam akirtikaram Arjuna—

'Wherefrom has come upon you, at this critical situation, this deje­ction, un-Arya-like, disgraceful, and not conducive to the attainment of heaven, O Arjuna?'

Klaibyam ma sma gamah Partha naitattvayyupapadyate;

Ksudram hrdaya-daurbalyam tyaktvottistha Parantapa—

'Never yield to this unmanliness, O Partha! It does not befit you. Casting off this mean faint-heartedness, stand up, O Scorcher of your enemies!'

That is the message of manliness with which the Gita begins is powerful music of human development. It is significant to note that, though the context of the Gita dialogue is war, everything thereafter is only the comprehensive spirituality of a philosophy of human development and fulfilment. All training in spiritual life begins with this attitude of manliness; not hanging on to an external God or gods are the deities for everything, like the baby hanging onto its mother all the time such a baby will ever remain only a baby. It won't grow. Similarly, the spiritual baby also can grow only when it understands this great message of self-reliance — atma-shraddha and atma-nirbharata — and develops its physical muscles of body, mental ‘muscles’ of intelligence and will, and emotional ‘muscles’ of feeling. The will, a resolute unified will, is very important, says Sri Krishna further on (II, 41):

‘in this philosophy (of buddhi-yoga), O son of the Kurus, there is but the will of a one-pointed determination; the wills of those bereft of this determination are many-branching and innumerable. '

There is no gulf between religious life and secular life. Life is one continuous unfoldment — unfoldment of the infinite possibilities lying hidden in everyone. It is unfortunate that we make that water-tight distinctions—this is secular life, that is religious life, this is worldly life, that is spiritual life. The Gita does not recognise any such distinctions. Sri Krishna means to say: life is one; but you begin with man-making and character-building; there are other spiritual heights to climb; and I shall tell you about them later on.

Source: Divine Grace, by Swami Ranganathananda, Published in 1980 by: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.

In the beginning of our spiritual life, we depend upon, and are taught to depend upon, ourselves; we practise self-reliance and strengthen ourselves. And thus we start our long march of human growth and fulfilment. All the early chapters of the Gita are largely concerned with this growth of human individuality, with this development of individual identity and character-strength, as an integral part of its philosophy of a comprehensive spirituality, which is the yoga taught by the Gita.

That is a significant truth, which we often miss to recog­nize and act upon. Swami Vivekananda presents it as the central truth of his philosophy of man-making education and man-making religion. Says he in his lecture on ‘My Plan of Campaign’ (Complete Works, Vol. Ill, 1960 edition, pp. 224-25):

  'What we want is strength, so believe in yourselves. ...Make your nerves strong. What we want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel. We have wept long enough; no more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man-making religion that we want. It is man-making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth: Anything that makes you weak, physically, intellectually, and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it can­not be true. Truth is strengthening; Truth is purity, Truth is all-know­ledge.'

Say two popular verses of the Indian tradition:

Udyoginam purusa-simham upaiti laksmi

daivena deyamiti kapurusa vadanti;

Daivam nihatya kuru paurusam atmasaktya

Yatne krte yadi na siddhyati ko'tra dosah—

'Lakshmi, or the goddess of Fortune, comes only to the industrious lion among men; it is only weaklings that say that we have to take what fate brings unto us; forsake this dependence on fate and express your manli­ness through the strength of self-reliance; what harm is there if no results come after you put forth your endeavour?'

Udyamena hi sidhyanti Karyani na manorathaih;

Na hi suptasya simhasya pravisanti mukhe mrgah—

'It is, verily, only through industriousness that we accomplish what are to be achieved, not through vain day-dreamings; no deer are going to (oblige a lion and) enter into its mouth while (it is lazily) asleep!'

That is the first great lesson. Gain physical strength and mental strength; develop your talents and capacities and work-efficiency; gain self-confidence, practise self-reliance; and earn knowledge and wealth by hard honest labour; and share your wealth and happiness with others and earn their good-will and appreciation. All this is part and parcel of the spiritual training of man in the early stages. Renunciation of wealth, renunciation of this 'I', complete surrender to God, comes later; not at the beginning.

Swami Vivekananda sought to emphasize this truth about human growth very much, because he found among his people many, who were weak and good-for-nothing and yet holding the attitude: ‘God, I am nothing, You are every­thing. I surrender myself to You.’ They are really nothing!

Obviously, there is nothing praiseworthy about their state­ment of self-surrender. It is meaningless to regard any one unfit for the world as fit for God (or spiritual life). God will say to Himself: 'What shall I do with this fellow? He or she will be a burden to me. It is not a joy to have such a devotee; bhakti, or devotion to Me, is made of a sterner stuff.'

This is a great idea. The sooner we understand it, the better. Says Swami Vivekananda in his lecture on ‘Vedanta and Its Application to Indian Life’ (Complete Works, Vol. III, p. 237):

  'Strength, strength, is what the Upanishads preach to me from every page. . . . O Man, be not weak. Are there no human weaknesses?—says man. There are, say the Upanishads; but will more weakness heal them? Would you try to wash dirt with dirt? Will sin cure sin, weakness cure weakness? . . . Ay, it is the only literature in the world where you find the word abhih, fearless, used again and again.'

Only clean things can remove dirt, only strength can remove weakness, only light can remove darkness.

Source: Divine Grace, by Swami Ranganathananda, Published in 1980 by: Sri Ramakrishna Math, Chennai.