Some four miles north of Calcutta, Rani Rashmani —a wealthy Bengali lady—had built the famous temple of Dakhineshwar On 31st May, 1855, as assistant priest of this temple, came a man whose fame and achievements have made the temple of permanent historic interest. That man was Rama Krishna, whose reputation for sanctity, simplicity of life and God-intoxication, brought him adoring disciples from the four corners of India. He would go into ecstasies as he would concentrate his mind on the worship of the goddess Kali, and would for long intervals become quite unconscious while prac tising Samadhi (i.e., intensive concentration). He would work himself into a frenzy of delight as he contemplated on the attributes of the Mother, as he called the goddess. It is interesting to note that he used the worship of Kali as a symbol of the God whom he believed to be pervading all, around him. Professor Max Milner thus characterises his mode of worship : " He now began to look upon the image of the goddess Kali as his mother and the mother of the Universe. He believed it to be living and breathing and taking food out of his hand. After the regular forms of worship he would sit there for hours and hours, singing hymns and talking and praying to her as a child to his mother, till he lost all consciousness of the outward world " (cf. Max Muller : " Rama Krishna," p. 57). He practised great austerities and penances, fought long and hard for a complete suppression of the sex-instinct with the result that he absolutely declined to live with his lawfully married wife, who was moved on hearing of her husband's fame to lead a similar life of asceticism. He engaged in similar struggles against the observance of caste distinctions, did all sorts of work usually done by the pariahs, and even ate their cast-off food, accepted priesthood in a temple built by a lady that was not a Brahmin, and worked up such a feeling of revulsion against money and earthly possessions that even while asleep his body would be convulsed if touched with a coin. His prayers for deliverance from sexual passions and from love of money were so earnest and sincere that his words would bring tears to the eyes of his hearers. It is said that he once had a vision of Jesus, and for days after that went into such transports of delight that he would think and talk of nothing else. He had also the power to induce Samadhi in others, to send them into a hypnotic trance, that is to say, and to attract people to him.
Norendra Nath Dutt, for that was the original name of the hero of this sketch, was born on the 7th of January, 1862, of a Kayastha family in Calcutta. There was nothing very extraordinary about him, in his earlier years, except that he had a sweet, rich voice and was in great demand for singing Bengali hymns, and impressed one as an intelligent boy, gentle and persevering. During his school days he would attend Brahma Samaj meetings and was constantly under the influence of their prevailing ideas. He had a thoroughly good English education and in 1881 took his Bachelor's degree from the Duff College in Calcutta, taking second class honours in philosophy. Later, he took up the study of law, presumably with intent to settle down to a secular life, but finding the study uncongenial, he gave it up. In 1882, he came under the influence of the great ascetic Parmahansa Rama Krishna, whose fame for religious devotion, passionate fervour for the goddess Kali, and complete absorption in meditation and ecstasy, to the entire neglect of temporal needs, had travelled far and wide through Calcutta and other parts of India. His contact with the great Sannyasi (i.e., recluse) marked the crisis of his life, since from that moment he renounced all secular ambitions and concentrated his mind on the quest after spiritual truth. On the death of Rama Krishna in 1886 Norendra Nath was himself initiated as Sannyasi and spent about six years in solitude, in complete retirement from human inter course ; thinking and contemplating on the mysteries of life.
He travelled far and wide, met saintly and learned men, leading a similar life of renunciation, compared notes on religion in the course of his peregrinations, and is said to have visited parts of Tibet in order to study Buddhism, with the aid of adepts. We find him, at the termination of this prolonged novitiate, resume public life as preacher of Vedantism and attract large audiences by means of his powerful oratory and attractive personality. He had a virile and independent character, and his utterances breathed a spirit of self-reliance and new-born con fidence which delighted his hearers and infused new hope in them. He never offered an apology on behalf of India, and was thoroughly convinced that she did not need any, and in fact that it would amount to disgracing the glorious traditions of that time-honoured home of religion and spirituality to attempt to do so. Whatever be the value of his exposition and doctrine, it was quite a unique presentation of Hinduism, proclaiming it as the world's premier religion, as embodying a system of doctrine and an outlook on life that was in its essence profoundly spiritual. Contemporary cultures and
religious traditions may have many redeeming qualities, but in point of spiritual perception and intuition into the bases of reality, there was nothing to compare in the annals of religious experiences with the gospel of Vedantism. , This was the message that he dinned into the ears of his countrymen, exhorting them to be mission aries of the Vedantic faith, to take pride in its sublime teaching, and to realise that this was India's contri bution to the philosophical and religious thought of the world. In this he excelled his Master Rama Krishna, who simply preached the harmony of all religions, that there were elements of truth common to all beliefs, and that every one should preserve his loyalty to the faith in which he was born. His famous article of faith ran as follows : " A truly religious man should think that other religions also are paths leading to the truth. Every man should follow his own religion. A Christian should follow Christianity, a Muhammadan should follow Muhammadanism and so on. For the Hindus, the ancient path, the path of the Aryan Rishis is the best." (Max Muller " Rama Krishna " 153, 177). The special significance of Vivekananda's addresses was that during times when everything Indian was customarily branded as possessing an inferior value, and the enthusiasm of the people in cherishing their ancient heritage was paralysed both by the systematic iconoclasm of a few narrow-minded Christian missionaries and the reforming zeal of bodies like the Brahma Samaj, Vivekananda had the audacity to proclaim Hinduism as a world-ideal, every element of whose teaching must be zealously preserved against the attacks of reformers. His epigrammatic way of expressing this truth was in words, which his English disciple Sister Nivedita (Miss Margaret Noble) has preserved for us in " •My Master as I saw him," (p. 13.) " The old ideas may be all superstition, but within these masses of superstition are nuggets of gold and truth. Have you discovered means by which to keep that gold alone, without any of the dross ? Of course, we must remember that when Vivekananda engaged in public activity, the theosophist propa ganda was in full swing and the monumental researches of Western orientalists into Vedic and Upanishadic texts and the schools of Hindu philo sophy were within the grasp of educated Indians. The West was gradually recognising the claims of ancient Hindu faiths, and a new pride in their past was instilled into the minds of young and old alike by the sympathetic and—to India—highly compli mentary conclusions in reference to the treasures of knowledge buried in India's past. Theosophists were, likewise, declaring with a fan-fare of trumpets both the primacy of the Hindu faith and the unique value of its teachings. So it is rather difficult to say, for certain, whether Vivekananda had developed his teachings without being in any way influenced by either of the two powerful agencies operative towards securing a world-recognition for Hinduism. But one thing is certain. Namely, that Vivekan anda's English education coupled with a satisfactory knowledge of Sanskrit made him a very able exponent of truths that had gripped his mind and towards the realisation of which extraneous influences may have, indirectly, served as contributory causes.
In 1893, the Parliament of Religions was to be held in Chicago, U.S.A. Many prominent Hindus felt that no abler exponent of the Hindu faith could be sent over, and accordingly Vivekananda went as an accredited representative. He was indisputably admitted as the greatest personality of all the members of that distinguished assemblage. He rose to heights of eloquence while expounding the inner core of truth in Hinduism and his novel presentation of Hinduism produced a pro found impression. The American audiences were swayed by an impulse of uncontrollable appreciation. The New York and other proMinent journals rang with a chorus of approbation. India acquired a highly dignified status in the estimation of those who previously had heard only a prejudiced version of her past history. He made a few disciples in America, started a number of Vedanta societies, accepted numerous invitations to engage in lecturing and propaganda work and was acclaimed there as an exceptionally brilliant champion of the Hindu faith. His return to India was a triumphal progress. He received deep homage as one that had vindicated the verities of the Hindu faith, and had thus elevated the dignity of an ancient civilisation in the eyes of the Western world.
ti To Western readers, all this may convey only a sensational, theatrical effect. But we have seen how the visit to the West broadened the Swami's vision, and though his religious convictions remained unshaken, he acquired a new zeal for social service and organised work of a humanitarian nature.