Wednesday 24 April 2013

13th February in Swami Vivekananda Life

13 February:
 

13 Feb 1893 : first public lecture in Mehabub College, Hyderabad on 'My Mission to the West' - 1000 people were present
 

13 feb 1897 : Swami Vivekananda's lecture in Madras - Vedanta & its application to Indian Life - Hindus are those who stay beyond Sindhu - with people of other religions mixed up now, the one name in modern times which would designate every Hindu throughout the land would be "Vedantist" or "Vaidika" - the word Vedanta, that it covers the ground of dualism, of qualified monism, and Advaitism in India....There is enough of Bhakti in every Upanishad if you will only seek for it....There is no religion of fear in the Upanishads; it is one of Love and one of Knowledge...The texts are beautiful, ay, they are most wonderful; and they are not contradictory, but wonderfully harmonious, one idea leading up to the other. But the one fact I found is that in all the Upanishads, they begin with dualistic ideas, with worship and all that, and end with a grand flourish of Advaitic ideas...Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life; strength, it says, strength, 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? Strength, O man, strength, say the Upanishads, stand up and be strong. Ay, it is the only literature in the world where you find the word "Abhih", "fearless", used again and again; in no other scripture in the world is this adjective applied either to God or to man. Abhih, fearless!....Freedom, physical freedom, mental freedom, and spiritual freedom are the watchwords of the Upanishads....The second great idea which the world is waiting to receive from our Upanishads is the solidarity of this universe....Look upon every man, woman, and every one as God. You cannot help anyone, you can only serve: serve the children of the Lord, serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of His children,....Bring all light into the world. Light, bring light! Let light come unto every one; the task will not be finished till every one has reached the Lord. Bring light to the poor and bring more light to the rich, for they require it more than the poor. Bring light to the ignorant, and more light to the educated, for the vanities of the education of our time are tremendous! Thus bring light to all and leave the rest unto the Lord, for in the words of the same Lord "To work you have the right and not to the fruits thereof." "Let not your work produce results for you, and at the same time may you never be without work."

 

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