यतो धर्म: ततो जय:
Clash and Conflict - 4
But it will be seen that there was a more basic dimension to this psychological process of inner transformation than just an orientation to India. Nivedita herself perceived it to be so.
The basic dimension was the freeing of her mind from preconceived notions about the East in general and India particular Scholars who have studied the implications of Western dominance over various parts of the world speak of the psychological process by which the Westerner has successfully driven to the unconscious his nations about his own superiority and the alleged 'inferiority' of the colonized. This is the Westerner's authority complex.' Margaret was, for all her intelligence and independence and eagerness to know the truth, a product of her times and was not free from such complexes as characterised the typical Westerner of the nineteenth century. Swami Vivekananda, who, in the words of Nivedita, 'was nothing if not a breaker of bondage,' freed her from these complexes and prejudices. What he did was never the dictating of opinion or creed but emancipating the mind from partiality.
A mind thus purged of partiality will become capable of seeing the vital truths about an alien nation, which would no longer continue to be alien, once a true understanding is arrived at. In this instance that nation happened to be India. Were it to be Africa, Nivedita would have been as capable of understanding its indigenous people as she now was of Indians.
The great humanist that he was, Swamiji made his disciple see the truth and was helping her to free herself from complexes. A complex-free, open mind is capable of understanding others, rather the truth that there are no 'others' but only fellow beings, maybe distant, but never the 'other.' The schooling she received in Almora was an enabling experience which prepared Nivedita to understand all fellow human beings, Indians and others.
But it will be seen that there was a more basic dimension to this psychological process of inner transformation than just an orientation to India. Nivedita herself perceived it to be so.
The basic dimension was the freeing of her mind from preconceived notions about the East in general and India particular Scholars who have studied the implications of Western dominance over various parts of the world speak of the psychological process by which the Westerner has successfully driven to the unconscious his nations about his own superiority and the alleged 'inferiority' of the colonized. This is the Westerner's authority complex.' Margaret was, for all her intelligence and independence and eagerness to know the truth, a product of her times and was not free from such complexes as characterised the typical Westerner of the nineteenth century. Swami Vivekananda, who, in the words of Nivedita, 'was nothing if not a breaker of bondage,' freed her from these complexes and prejudices. What he did was never the dictating of opinion or creed but emancipating the mind from partiality.
A mind thus purged of partiality will become capable of seeing the vital truths about an alien nation, which would no longer continue to be alien, once a true understanding is arrived at. In this instance that nation happened to be India. Were it to be Africa, Nivedita would have been as capable of understanding its indigenous people as she now was of Indians.
The great humanist that he was, Swamiji made his disciple see the truth and was helping her to free herself from complexes. A complex-free, open mind is capable of understanding others, rather the truth that there are no 'others' but only fellow beings, maybe distant, but never the 'other.' The schooling she received in Almora was an enabling experience which prepared Nivedita to understand all fellow human beings, Indians and others.
http://www.sisternivedita.org
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