THREAD: A summary of Swami's address in Kumbakonam, from Vol 3 Lectures from Colombo to Almora:

Nothing that hasn’t been said before, but I truly believe Swami Vivekananda holds the key to analysing and formulating narratives for many of the issues we see today.

His speeches and work were eons ahead of their time, accurate at predicting the social rot of the future. The hesitance (from some) and resistance (from others) to accept and be willing to bear the weight of our collective civilizational heritage is telling.

He masterfully condenses giant volumes of ancient Indian vedantic wisdom into small nuggets - a mark of a true scholar. This particular talk becomes increasingly relavent as we find ourselves comparing our ideas and attitude towards life and religion with those of the west.

While "seculars" are of the impression that religion should be but a small part of life, as Swami Vivekananda says, in India, it is our soul, and always will be. It is inseparably intertwined with the Indian thought.

Yes, there are western societies where religion plays but a small role, but we are not them, and they are not the ideal. Religion is always going to be a massive subject in our country, no matter how much deniers try to avoid "communal" discourse.

"Ours (religion) is away beyond, and still beyond; beyond the senses, beyond space, and beyond time, away, away beyond, till nothing of this world is left and the universe itself becomes like a drop in the transcendent ocean of the glory of the soul."

"Ours is the true religion because it teaches that God alone is true, that this world is false and fleeting, that all your gold is but as dust, that all your power is finite, and that life itself is oftentimes an evil;"

The fact that Hindus have survived this long is a point of displeasure for the (abrahamic) world.. here they are, a billion of them, defying the course of history, while retaining their blasphemous native religion for thousands upon thousands of years despite recurring onslaughts

This is what the Ram Mandir signifies for us. We aren't just alive, we are THRIVING. And there's no where to go but up. "it is a curious fact that while nations after nations have come upon the stage of the world, played their parts vigorously for a few moments, and died,

almost without leaving a mark or a ripple on the ocean of time, here we are living, as it were, an eternal life. They talk a great deal of the new theories about the survival of the fittest, and they think that it is the strength of the muscles which is the fittest to survive.

If that were true, any one of the aggressively known old world nations would have lived in glory today, and we, the weak Hindus, who never conquered even one other race or nation, ought to have died out; yet we live here three hundred million strong! "

We're to blame for losing our integrity and creating an atmosphere of fear and shame to be secure in one’s religious identity, in such a religious country . Vivekananda is proof of how one can be assertive, yet ever so gentle and humble.

What is India's contribution to the world? I've heard people ask, of India's science and math was as progressive as you claim, why did they progress to technological innovation and scientific advancement like the western world did?

Much of indigenous scholarship and scientific thought was killed by successive Islamic/british invasions, and since then they've been more or less arrested. we laid the groundwork for the principles of scientific experimentation/debate, so surely hundreds of texts in that vein.

We don't know how many ancient texts on what topics were destroyed/lost. Since then, perhaps Hindu scholars have lived in a peculiar state of arrested development - protecting existing texts yet restrained from reaching their full potential by the nature of the times.

Either way the Hindus, as Swami says, have always generally accepted their external world and its phenomena as is and more-so looked inward constantly and unrelentingly for the meaning of our fleeting existence.

"For one of the greatest sages that was ever born found out here in India even at that distant time, which history cannot reach, and into whose gloom even tradition itself dares not peep — in that distant time the sage arose and declared, एकं सद् विप्रा बहुधा वदन्ति —

"He who exists is one; the sages call Him variously." This is one of the most memorable sentences that was ever uttered, one of the grandest truths that was ever discovered. And for us Hindus this truth has been the very backbone of our national existence."

"We live that grand truth in every vein, and our country has become the glorious land of religious toleration. It is here and here alone that they build temples and churches for the religions which have come with the object of condemning our own religion."

"This is one very great principle that the world is waiting to learn from us. "

How aptly the following passage applies to socio-political movements across the globe!

Some motivation from Swami:
"But this is not the time with us to weep even in joy; we have had weeping enough; no more is this the time for us to become soft. This softness has been with us till we have become like masses of cotton and are dead. What our country now wants are

muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it meant going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face toface."

Swami was well aware of the external and internal demons that bring India down and hamper its progress.

His inspiring, soul-storring message of social justice and what everyone should be aspiring to:

In our heated debate about caste, put genetics and history of colonization and everything else aside for a second, and pay attention to Swami's eternal words.

Caste and social reformation movements, and why they haven't has any effect on our society despite operating for hundreds of years.

In which society are there no evils? Tying all evils with caste and forgetting everything else can be detrimental to this society we've constructed. Our movement shouldn't be divisive, and destructive but elevatory.

"I only ask you to go forward and to complete the practical realization of human progress that has been laid out in the most perfect order by our ancestors. I only ask you to work to realize more and more the Vedantic ideal of the solidarity of man and his inborn divine nature."

"everything we have now to do was laid out years ago by our ancient law-givers, and they actually anticipated all the different changes that have taken place and are still to take place in our national institutions. They also were breakers of caste, but not like modern men."

What caste-reformers calling for "annihilation of all caste" do not understand is that every human aspired for (ideal) Brahminness not because they were rich of powerful as were the role models of the western world, but the epitome of spirituality and anti-worldliness.

Materialism was and will always be a curse dragging human beings down. The detachment our scriptures preach will only permeate society if we can accept the vedantic truth of oneness of all beings and the aspiration towards this ultimate spiritual realisation of God.

Brahmin, therefore becomes a concept we aspire to, to abide by, that ultimately puts us above governance.

Wow. How apt is this for the situation we face today?

finito. link to the entire talk: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_3/lectures_from_colombo_to_almora/the_mission_of_the_vedanta.htm