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Swami Vivekananda Titbits

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
"My experience comes to this, that it is rather wise to avoid all sorts of fanatical reforms." - Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902). Picture taken in London, 1896.
He questioned people of holy reputation. Ramakrishna, who became his master, made his doubts go away and transformed him too. Compassion for India's people drove him to seek material help for them from the West.
His lectures and writings are gathered into nine volumes. There are many other Vivekananda books and collections too.

"Love for yourselves means [in the end] love for everything." - Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda on Paris and France
Happiness in some cases
Vivekananda: No Quarrel with the Gods
Essence of Vivekananda's "Maya and Illusion"

Supporting "well medleys" are presupposed throughout:

Swami Vivekananda on Paris and France

From an article written by Vivekananda after his visit to Paris, France, in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when the British Empire appeared to be at its height.

Mass for a while, "The English imitate the French"

What the French initiate, the Germans, the English, and other nations imitate, maybe fifty or twenty-five years later. - Swami Vivekananda ¤

Yet be careful and don't go very much into topics like "the charming hills and grasslands of France" after a visit to Paris alone -

If anyone has to give the world any new idea, this Paris is 'the' place for its dissemination. If one can gain the approbation of the citizens of Paris, that voice the whole of Europe is sure to echo back. :) (3) - Swami Vivekananda

France. A picturesque country, neither very cold nor very warm, very fertile, weather neither excessively wet nor extremely dry, sky clear, sun sweet, elms and oaks in abundance, grass-lands charming, hills and rivers small, springs delightful. Excepting some parts of China, no other country in the world have I seen that is so beautiful as France. . . . Nature so lovely, the men so fond of beauty! - Swami Vivekananda ¤

The wealthy of other countries . . . see Paris as the home of immorality and enjoyments. . . . In other countries the means of enjoyment are commonplace and vulgar, but the very dirt of civilized Paris is coated over with gold leaf. - Swami Vivekananda

Why should those who get rich hasten to Paris, of all places? Why do kings and emperors, assuming other names, come to Paris and live incognito and feel themselves happy . . . ? - Swami Vivekananda

French civilization roused England so that English progress could be won - for the French know how to enjoy even universities -

The spirit of the French Revolution is still working among the other nations of Europe. (5) - Swami Vivekananda

We hear only of the darker side of this Paris in our country - that it is a horrible place, a hell . . . Some of the English hold this view. - Swami Vivekananda

French civilization reached Scotland, and . . . it awoke and roused England. - Swami Vivekananda ¤

One distinguished scientist of England told me the other day that Paris was the centre of the world, and that the more a nation would succeed in establishing its connection with the city of Paris, the more would that nation's progress be achieved. - Swami Vivekananda

Paris is the centre of Western Civilization. - Swami Vivekananda

Paris is the fountainhead of European civilization . . . This huge metropolis is . . . the city of constant rejoicing. Such luxury, such enjoyments, such mirthfulness are neither in London nor in Berlin nor anywhere else. - Swami Vivekananda

The French have perfected [sense-enjoyment] as a science, they know how to enjoy, they have risen to the highest rung of the ladder of enjoyment." - Swami Vivekananda

The Paris University is the model of European universities - Swami Vivekananda

The whole country [France] looks like a picture. - Swami Vivekananda

Of science, philosophy, and art, this Paris is the mine. (7) - Swami Vivekananda

Summary

Mass for a while, "The English imitate the French" and see what happens.
But be careful and don't go very much into topics like "the charming hills and grasslands of France" after a visit to Paris alone -
French civilization roused England so that English progress could be won - for the French know how to enjoy even universities -

History shows that the English did not tackle the soldiers from grasslands of France, so France got rid of them after some hundred years - and very much of the "charming progress" of industrialisation in Great Britain was "funded" by dominions overseas. For example, the stockholders in the East Indian Company got an interest of 150% a year for decades - all of which spells severe exploitation - but not of the stockholders . . .

A false impression that brings togetherness, mars that fellowship

Before Vivekananda went to the West, he travelled about in India for a long time, changing his name to Ramananda and so on to avoid being recognised. Once he visited the seer Rajnarayan at Baidyanath with a brother disciple of Ramakrishna. Vivekananda had advised his fellow disciple not to disclose to Rajnarayan that he himself knew English, and he pretended to have no knowledge of that language, even though he was university educated.
Rajnarayan got the impression that Vivekananda knew no English, and therefore they spoke in Bengali. Rajnarayan was highly pleased with the Bengali youth who did not use a single word in English while they talked together. But alas, by a slip of the tongue the rishi (seer) used the word "plus" during their Bengali conversation. Thinking that it would be still worse to explain the word in English to the guest, he placed one finger across another and explained it that way. The Rishi was dead against the British.
Other Indians had it differently. One said: "I can speak in English, write in English, think in English, and shall be supremely happy if I can dream in English!"
He loved his motherland still.

A Comment, "Fair is fit"

This chapter stems from utterances from a staunch upholder of Hindu faith at a time when the British dominated India. On the one hand he speaks for his religion, Vedanta, on the other hand he speaks well of France and Paris, but "off key" somehow. If his statements madden the English by the dominance issues he raises that are not to their favour, maybe he accomplished things according to his "family plans" too, but who can tell it now?
Let historical facts speak for themselves. Yes, France was a fine place of learning at the time, but England of the British Empire was not thought to be beneath France, far from it. As for arts like painting, Paris had not always been the centre - less than a generation earlier German towns like Dresden were thought to be perhaps more significant, so many had studied painting there, not in Paris. But that changed.
As for enjoyments, Indians have a special heritage too, the Kamasutras of love-making that the French did not originate.
And how may you eulogise the whole country, France, after a visit to the capital? What basis does the swami have to write swelling phrases of the mostly unseen un-encountered countryside of France? It should pay to take care and not be taken in, and duped after that again.
This is said to serve better thinking - much of what the swami taught, is not worth anything. Besides, much seems outdated; things that perhaps were fit enough over a hundred years ago, is rather out of tune today. Thus, it does not pay to become a blunt believer of what is stated "black on white". That is indeed a recurrent lesson to some.

Added

Learn to pay heed to the gentle wisdom of Buddha (excerpted):

Do not believe [so much] in things heard.
Do not believe [like someone low in the scale of biological or cultural evolution] in anything that has been spoken of many times just because it has been repeated that way.
Do not lowly-believe due to by the written statements from some old sage.
Do not lowly-believe in conjecture.
Do not lowly-believe in authority or teachers or elders.
But after careful observation and analysis, when it agrees with reason and it will benefit one and all, then accept it and live by it

- Gautama Buddha [MORE]

Let your quiet mind listen and absorb. [Pythagoras]

Happiness in some cases

Social life in the West is like a peal of laughter; but underneath, it is a wail. It ends in a sob. The fun and frivolity are all on the surface: really it is full of tragic intensity. [Vivekananda]

You cannot really believe in God until you believe in yourself. [With Vivekananda]

The Great Lord will not allow me to become a hypocrite. [With Vivekananda]

To worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. [Vivekananda]

No need of text-torturing, as is the fashion in the West in modern times, no need of stretching out texts until they will not stretch any more. [Vivekananda]

There are different stages of growth. [With Vivekananda]

When you have men who are ready to sacrifice their everything . . . India will become great. [With Vivekananda]

Great work may have to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Each man who thinks ahead of his time will probably be greatly misunderstood. [With Vivekananda]

Be pure to do good. [Mod Vivekananda]

Practice is absolutely necessary. It depends on practice. Simply listening to explanations and theories will not do. [With Vivekananda]

Kick out the priests who are always against progress. They are the offspring of centuries of superstition and tyranny. [Vivekananda in short]

When a man has developed a high state of spirituality he can understand that the kingdom of heaven is within him. [Vivekananda]

In some instances misery is a greater teacher than happiness. [Vivekananda]

I preach only the Upanishads. If you look, you will find that I have never quoted anything but the Upanishads. [Vivekananda]

We have to know how to act. [Vivekananda]

When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it can be transformed into an actual physical or mental state. [With Vivekananda]

Think positively and masterfully, and life becomes richer. [With Vivekananda]

Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world. [Vivekananda]

Take care about what you think. Thoughts can travel far. [With Vivekananda]

Vivekananda: No Quarrel with the Gods

To help the suffering world was the gigantic task to which Buddha gave prominence . . . yet he had to spend years in self-searching, to realise the great truth . . . The greater the work, the more must have been the power of realisation behind. - Swami Vivekananda

I have every respect and veneration for Lord Buddha. - Swami Vivekananda

The Vedanta has no quarrel with Buddhism. - Swami Vivekananda

"The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." Where goest thou to seek for the kingdom of God? asks Jesus of Nazareth, when it is there, within you.- Swami Vivekananda

Do not believe in a thing because you have read about it in a book.
Do not believe in a thing because another man has said it was true.
Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition.
Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out . . . (etc.) - Swami Vivekananda

[Similar to and maybe rendering Buddha's famous Kalama Sutra - LINK]

Essence of Vivekananda's "Maya and Illusion"

All from the book Jnana Yoga, Chapter 3: "Maya and Illusion"

Don't pass time in pessimism, delve inside instead, coupled with wise work to produce what is needed to afford wife and childen. You may be allied with patent doctrine too

IN THIS country (England) it is very difficult to become a pessimist. - Swami Vivekanada

I imagined that I should be entirely satisfied if I had a wife and children and plenty of money. Today I laugh at all these ideals. - Swami Vivekanada ¤

Nowadays it is very hard even to talk of renunciation. - Swami Vivekanada

There is a theory that life came from other planets. It is a settled doctrine with some Vedic philosophers that life comes in this way from the moon. :) - Swami Vivekanada

Wherever there is the power of producing a smile in us, there lurks the power of producing tears. - Swami Vivekanada

A high standard is from the Ocean, and should help you to reach the Ocean too

THE IDEA of a Personal God, the Ruler and Creator of this universe, as He has been styled, the Ruler of Maya, or nature, is not the end of these Vedantic ideas; it is only the beginning. - Swami Vivekanada

Fanatics cannot work, they waste -. - Swami Vivekanada

The Hindus, to keep up a high standard of chastity in the race, have sanctioned child-marriage, which in the long run has degraded the race. At the same time, I cannot deny that this child-marriage makes the race more chaste. :) - Swami Vivekanada

The essence of life is going towards perfection. - Swami Vivekanada ¤

This is what is called Maya . . . this universe. - Swami Vivekanada

Is only a question of time when you and I, and plants and animals, and every particles of life that exists must reach the . . . Ocean . . . must attain to Freedom, to God. - Swami Vivekanada

We are all after the Golden Fleece . . . everyone struggles for it. :) - Swami Vivekanada

Vedantic philosophers find something which is not bound by Maya; and if we can get there, we shall not be bound by Maya. - Swami Vivekanada

This world is what the Vedanta doctrines rest on. Be not fooled away from that outlook.

WE MUST work for lessening misery . . . That lesson we shall have to learn, and it will take a long, long time to learn it. - Swami Vivekanada

One end - death. That is all that is certain -- We do not know why, we cling to life; we cannot give it up. - Swami Vivekanada

"This world has no existence." What is meant by that? It means that it has no absolute existence . . . Nor can it be called non-existence, seeing that it exists. - Swami Vivekanada

When the Hindu says the world is Maya, at once people get the idea that the world is an illusion. -- Almost all of you have heard of the word Maya. Generally it is used, though incorrectly, to denote illusion, or delusion, or some such thing. But the theory of Maya forms one of the pillars upon which the Vedanta rests; it is, therefore, necessary that it should be properly understood. - Swami Vivekanada

"By knowing Him who is beyond darkness we can go beyond death." -- The Vedantist finds that He who, he thought, was standing outside, is he himself and is in reality within. - Swami Vivekanada

The same thing which is producing misery in one, may produce happiness in another. - Swami Vivekanada ¤

Animals are living upon plants, men upon animals and, worst of all, upon one another, the strong upon the weak. - Swami Vivekanada

The man in the forest does not know what it is to be jealous, to be in the law courts, to pay taxes, to be blamed by society, to be ruled over day and night by the most tremendous tyranny that human diabolism ever invented. - Swami Vivekanada

Why cannot good be done through good, instead of through . . . diabolical methods? . . . Why must there be all this suffering now? - Swami Vivekanada

All sense-enjoyments, of all intellectual enjoyments, and of all the enjoyments of which the human mind is capable . . . they are within Maya -- In one of the latest Upanishads . . . the idea of Maya became fixed. We read in the Shvetâshvatara Upanishad, "Know nature to be Maya and the Ruler of this Maya is the Lord Himself." - Swami Vivekanada

The Maya of the Vedanta, in its last developed form, is . . . a simple statement of facts - what we are and what we see around us -- We are not born as helpers of nature, but competitors with nature. We are its bond-masters, but we bind ourselves. - Swami Vivekanada

The cause of our ignorance is a kind of mist that has come between us and the Truth. - Swami Vivekanada

The more we progress, the more avenues are opened to pain as well as to pleasure. - Swami Vivekanada (7)

Summary

To avoid passing time in blunt pessimism, be at least allied with patent doctrine and meditation.
A high standard is from the Ocean, and should help you to reach the Ocean too. This outlook links up to main Zen doctrines of Dogen (1200-53) about things to do also.
This world is what various Vedanta doctrines rest on. Be not fooled away from that outlook, for as a result you may end up outsmarted, dogmatised into a great fool instead of entering your Way.

Pessimism tends to foster its own outlooks, even doctrines, but you should instead learn how to tune in with the Ocean and also reach It. That is in the teaching of Guru Dev (Shankaracharya Brahmananda Sarawati).

Wonder-System, according to John Lennon

The Beatles were taught TM (Transcendental Meditation) by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a disciple of Guru Dev. In consequence, Maharishi was very much in demand by the press, who wondered at the attention he commanded.
An interviewer asked him, "What is it that you preach?"
"I preach a simple system of transcendental meditation which gives the people the insight into life and they begin to enjoy . . . peace and happiness," said Maharishi.

[Drug users could be reached too (statistics in a hearing to the US Senate shows how much.) "We must supply them with some tangible, simple, natural means to glorify all aspects of their personality and life," said Maharishi.]

Thoughts of a few Scientists

Mediocrities . . . cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence. - Albert Einstein

Our perceiving self is nowhere to be found within the world-picture, because it is itself the world-picture. - Erwin Schrödinger

Every man's world picture is and always remains a construct of his mind. - Erwin Schrödinger

Adjoined

Cos: Vivekananda, swami. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Vols 1-8. 6th ed. Calcutta: Advaita Asram, 1977.
Thv: Advaita Asram. The Life of Swami Vivekananda. 8th ed. Calcutta: Advaita, 1974.
Via: Nikhilananda, swami. Vivekananda. The Yogas and Other Works. Rev. ed. New York: Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, 1953.
Viw: Advaita Asram. Teachings of Swami Vivekananda. 5th ed. Calcutta: Advaita, 1971.

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