Swami Vivekananda humanified and humanised

Swami Vivekananda wrote to Pramada Das Mitra, from Almora on May 30, 1897. The Smritis and the Puranas are productions of men of limited intelligence and are full of fallacies, errors, the feelings of class and malice. Only parts of them breathing broadness of spirit and love are acceptable, the rest are to be rejected. The Upanishads and the Gita are the true scriptures. BLOGGER'S VIEW At the point of writing this letter, Vivekananda was at the zenith of his career. He was preaching to foreigners. He made money. Naturally, there were some traces of arrogance. If the producers of Smritis and Puranas were men of limited intelligence was Vivekananda a man of unlimited intelligence? Actually verse Nos. 18/42 to 45 (Path of Liberation and Renunciation)of Bhagavad Gita contain the same errors, fallacies, and malices of caste etc. which Vivekananda found in Smritis and Puranas. Upanishads such as Brihadaranyaka contain procedures and chants which carry the same errors, fallacies an...

One blogger wrote on Jan. 12, 2008: "...To Day is 145th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand.This Article is dedicated to this Grate Guide of the world ..." COUNTERVIEW 1. What is the definition of "Grate Guide of the world" (spelling error of 'grate' for 'great' 'sic')? 2. Who will decide whether a particular person is a great guide? 3. Catholics may think that Pope is the Great Guide of the World. Sunny Muslims may think that Khalifa was the Great Guide. Some Hindus may think that Vivekananda is a great guide. 4. Then how does a great guide behave? Does he sacrifice goats? Does he crave for turtles and shad fish? Does he beg women for photos? Does he call vegetarians grass eaters? What are the parameters? This criticism is addressed to and applies to preachers and top functionaries of all the religions.

Swami Vivekananda stayed at Belgaum in 1892 for nine days, with one Shri G.S. Bhate. He said to Shri Bhate, as per the latter's reminiscences of Swamiji: "... As regards food, when he was asked whether he was a vegetarian or a meat-eater, he said that as a man belonging not the ordinary order of Sannyasins but to the order of the Paramahamsas, he had no option in the matter. The Paramahamsa, by the rules of that order, was bound to eat whatever was offered, and in cases where nothing could be offered he had to go without food ..." BLOGGER'S VIEW As per Swamiji himself, a Paramahamsa was expected to accept whatever was offered. This is his justification for his eating meat in spite of being a monk. Where is the Paramahamsa order? Did Vivekananda create it? If a Paramahamsa was expected to accept what is offered by the householders, why live in a palatial bungalow and crave for turtles and shad fish?

Paramahamsa literally means Supreme Swan (Parama=Supreme, hamsa=swan). In Hindu philosophy a soul is symbolised as a swan. A paramahamsa, therefore, is a soul which has attained a state of supreme bliss. How to know whether a particular person's soul (if at all it exists) has attained/reached the supreme state of bliss? Nobody can check it. Anybody can claim that he has a soul, which has experienced the supreme bliss. There is an impression among some Hindus that 'Paramahamsa' title is conferred by some person of competent authority. We have to remember that Hinduism is not an organised religion and there are no competent authorities to award titles. Traditionally, some Monasteries used titles like 'Jagadguru (Teacher of the World)', 'Sankaracharya', and 'Paramahamsa Parivrajakacharya' etc. But even for these titles, the authority is doubtful. Somebody in the line of succession over centuries started using them and the custom glued to the in...

Mr. K. Sundara Rama Iyer was resident of Trivandrum. He was tutor for Prince Martanda Varma, nephew of the ruler of Travancore (Kerala). Vivekananda visited Kerala in Dec. 1892. He stayed nine days with Mr. Sundararama Iyer. The following is a quote from the reminiscences of Mr. Iyer in his conversation with Vivekananda. "... The Swami also told me that he had long taken no fish food, as the South Indian Brahmins whose guest he had been throughout his South Indian tour were forbidden both fish and flesh, and would fain avail himself of this opportunity to have his accustomed fare. I at once expressed my loathing for the taking of fish or flesh as food. The Swami said in reply that the ancient Brahmins of India were accustomed to take meal and even beef and were called upon to kill cows and other animals in yajnas or for giving madhuparka to guests. He also held that the introduction and spread of Buddhism led to the gradual discontinuance of flesh as food, though the Hindu sha...

I wish to clarify to the Blogspot writers on Vivekananda who may be inclined to fault me that I am spamming by writing comments in their blogs, for the sake of Google Adsense income. Those who want to maximise their Google Adsense income should not write much about India and Indians. 1. According to one school of thinking, Adsense will not pay if it finds that more than 50% of clicks are Asians. 2. There is another school which says that Google gets less income from ads displayed to Asian readers and consequently pay out will be less than the readers of European and American countries. 3. Google itself is silent. It must have been a commercial policy. Most of those who write on Vivekananda, and read on Vivekananda, live in India and even if they click on my ads, I do not earn anything. Hence there is no question of my making money by writing on Vivekananda. 1. There are about 20,000 blogs at BlogSpot which write about or quote from Vivekananda, most of which are from Indians/Asians. 2....

Swami Vivekananda wrote from New York to Shri Nanjunda Rao, on Apr. 14, 1896: "... Only the first year I used to charge for my lectures. The last two years, my work was entirely free of all charges. As such, I have almost no money to send you or the Calcutta people. ..." He wrote from England to Shri Nanjuna Rao on July 14, 1896. "... But you must not depend on any foreign help. Nations, like individuals, must help themselves. This is real patriotism. If a nation cannot do that, its time has not yet come. It must wait . ..." BLOGGER'S VIEW 1. These two letters deal with subscriptions for magazines (BrahmaVadin etc.) started by Shri Nanjunda Rao, Alasinga and Madras devotees. Unless we see the inbox letters of Swamiji, we cannot clearly estimate what advice/help Mr. Nanjunda Rao sought from Swamiji. Swamiji made it clear that they should not expect funds from him personally, or the foreign help. 2. A nation which waited for thousand years under the Muslim and ...