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| Sikhs are a soft-target in eyes of the Hindu propaganda machine. The machination comes in various forms, especially designed to penetrate the Sikh psyche by way of prophets of modern Hinduism. Both Ramakrishna and Vivekananda are such an entity of the Hindu pantheon, and many Sikhs mindlessly continue to participate in ceremonies promoting these two individuals.
| | SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S inspiring personality was well known both in India and in America during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. The unknown monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, at which he represented Hinduism. His vast knowledge of Eastern and Western culture as well as his deep spiritual insight, fervid eloquence, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, colourful personality, and handsome figure made an irresistible appeal to the many types of Americans who came in contact with him. People who saw or heard Vivekananda even once still cherish his memory after a lapse of more than half a century. |
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| Just to put issues in perspective, here are two examples that should catch your attention: (1) Ramakrishna had a great respect for the Sikh Gurus. This was because he believed that the “Gurus of Sikhism were the reincarnations of King Janaka of ancient India.” (2) Swami Vivekananda had his own reasons for he admired Guru Gobind Singh. He believed that the Guru brought on the “Sikh sect revival by his initiation when he re-Hinduised Mohammendan converts and took them back into the Sikh community.” Have no doubt, these two prophets exhibited a very shallow knowledge base, which will be even more evident when you read this article that I wrote few years ago and then updated it just for the benefit of the Sikh readers.
| | In America Vivekananda's mission was the interpretation of India's spiritual culture, especially in its Vedantic setting. He also tried to enrich the religious consciousness of the Americans through the rational and humanistic teachings of the Vedanta philosophy. In America he became India's spiritual ambassador and pleaded eloquently for better understanding between India and the New World in order to create a healthy synthesis of East and West, of religion and science. |
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| His real name was Narendra Nath Dutt. Otherwise, he is better known as Swami Vivekananda. Who would have known him had it not been for the World Parliament of Religions, Chicago, in 1893, in which the Swami participated! Who would have known him if not for New Agers, and the Yoga lovers? Who would have known him if not for Hindu International headed by the Indian government which takes great pain to keep the Swami's name alive and vigorous as ever?
| | In his own motherland Vivekananda is regarded as the patriot saint of modern India and an inspirer of her dormant national consciousness, To the Hindus he preached the ideal of a strength-giving and man-making religion. Service to man as the visible manifestation of the Godhead was the special form of worship he advocated for the Indians, devoted as they were to the rituals and myths of their ancient faith. Many political leaders of India have publicly acknowledged their indebtedness to Swami Vivekananda. |
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| After a hundred years, in August 1993, Hindus in USA sponsored and conducted a Global Vision 2000 conference in Washington, D.C., commemorating the Swami's 100th anniversary of "success" in America. The Hindu media reported as many as 10,000 people participated, including who's who of Hindu nationalist leaders. The Government of India in the spirit of commemoration declared 1993 as Rashstriya Chetna Varsh (National Awakening Year). As expected, Government of India released a postage stamp of the Swami commemorating the Centenary Year of his address to the Parliament of Religions.
| | The Swami's mission was both national and international. A lover of mankind, he strove to promote peace and human brotherhood on the spiritual foundation of the Vedantic Oneness of existence. A mystic of the highest order, Vivekananda had a direct and intuitive experience of Reality. He derived his ideas from that unfailing source of wisdom and often presented them in the soulstirring language of poetry. |
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| Intense lobbying went into action in Chicago by the Hindu groups living in and around Chicago along with the help of senior Indian Government officials. As a result, the Chicago City Council passed a resolution in October 1995 to co-name a section of Michigan Avenue as Swami Vivekananda Way. A month earlier, the Art Institute of Chicago unveiled a Vivekananda Plaque in its Fullerton Hall. In jubilation, following the successes in Chicago, in 1996, the Government of India released a large-sized postage stamp, Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Kanyakumari. One motion picture producer, known for casting movies solely for the "Hindu elite," released a four-hour film, Swami Vivekananda. The Grant Park in downtown Chicago was to receive the grand statue of the Swami. With timely intervention, this project was stopped.
| | The natural tendency of Vivekananda's mind, like that of his Master, Ramakrishna, was to soar above the world and forget itself in contemplation of the Absolute. But another part of his personality bled at the sight of human suffering in East and West alike. It might appear that his mind seldom found a point of rest in its oscillation between contemplation of God and service to man. Be that as it may, he chose, in obedience to a higher call, service to man as his mission on earth; and this choice has endeared him to people in the West, Americans in particular. |
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| Two years later, the same statue was finally installed on the premises of The Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago, located in Lemont, Illinois, on 12 July 1998. As expected, on this occasion, India’s Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee faxed a special message. Why is the Swami being projected on our public places? Is it not sufficient that more than 150 centers operating world wide; among them many in America's major cities to include--Boston, Berkeley, Chicago, Hollywood, Kansas City, Portland, Providence, New York City, Sacramento, Saint Louis, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle—spread the Hindu gospel as promulgated by the Swami?
| | In the course of a short life of thirty-nine years (1863-1902), of which only ten were devoted to public activities-and those, too, in the midst of acute physical suffering-he left for posterity his four classics: Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, and Raja-Yoga, all of which are outstanding treatises on Hindu philosophy. In addition, he delivered innumerable lectures, wrote inspired letters in his own hand to his many friends and disciples, composed numerous poems, and acted as spiritual guide to the many seekers, who came to him for instruction. He also organized the Ramakrishna Order of monks, which is the most outstanding religious organization of modern India. It is devoted to the propagation of the Hindu spiritual culture not only in the Swami's native land, but also in America and in other parts of the world. |
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| Swami's complete works run to eight volumes (the ninth volume has recently been released) along with propaganda books written by his close disciples. Needless to say, there are quite a few inconsistencies in these writings. But to know the Swami inside out requires knowledge of Hinduism. Within the constraints, few words on Hinduism will suffice: The caste is the bedrock of Hinduism. The Hindu term for caste is varna; which means arranging the society on a four-level hierarchy based on the skin color: The darker-skinned relegated to the lowest level, the lighter-skinned to the top three levels of the apartheid scale called the Caste System. The race factor underlies the intricate workings of Hinduism, not to mention evil practices embedded within. | | Swami Vivekananda once spoke of himself as a "condensed India." His life and teachings are of inestimable value to the West for an understanding of the mind of Asia. William James, the Harvard philosopher, called the Swami the "paragon of Vedantists." Max Muller and Paul Deussen, the famous Orientalists of the nineteenth century, held him in genuine respect and affection. "His words," writes Romain Rolland, "are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero!'' |
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| It is no secret that the Swami (1863-1902) was greatly impressed by what he saw in the United States and wanted his countrymen to benefit from his insight of Western experience. However, I am under the embarrassing obligation to bring to your attention as to what courses of action the Swami recommended to Hindu India. The Swami came to Chicago in July 1893. In a letter (2 November 1893) from Chicago to a friend in India, the Swami described America as "paradise of the woman and the labourer." Soon, America-the-paradise went through a shock when he wrote (20 June 1894) to another friend in India from Chicago, "...this year is a very bad year in America: thousands of their poor are without work." With less than a year of observation in Chicago and few other cities, the Swami in a letter from Chicago (23 June 1894) to the Maharajah of Mysore concluded: "No country on earth has so many laws, and in no country are they so little observed ... the poor in the West are devils...." The literature is sketchy on whether the Swami had any close contacts with Afro-Americans. It is also not clear how much of his terminology of calling America’s poor as devils applied to the Afro-Americans.
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| Now the Swami was electrically charged to bring about extraordinary changes back home. From Chicago, he drafted a letter (3 January 1895) to India to Justice Sir S. Subrahmanya Iyer in which he detailed his diagnostic acumen: "The present caste is not the real jäti, but a hinderance to its progress...that India fell because you prevented and abolished caste....Now look at Europe. When it succeeded in giving free scope to caste...Europe rose. In America there is the best scope for caste (real jäti) to develop, and so the people are great. Every Hindu knows that astrologers try to fix the caste of every boy or girl as soon as he or she is born. That is the real caste, the individuality, and jyotish [astronomy] recognized that. And we can only rise by giving it full sway again....This is my method...."
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| In other words, if India has to regenerate, caste is the direction to follow. By not following the caste properly in the past, India went down the tube. After all, look at America and Europe! They followed the caste properly and that's why they are great! Writing from New York after a brief European visit, Swami summarized: "Of course, the majority of the English people are firm believers in caste." Back in London again, on a second European visit, he drafted a letter (May 1896) to Miss Mary Hale of Chicago on what miracle he would perform in India:
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| "I have become horribly radical. I am just going to India to see what I can do in that awful mass of conservative jelly-fish--and then throw overboard all old associations and start a new thing, entirely new--simple, strong, new, and fresh as the first-born baby--throw all of the past overboard and begin anew."
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| The Swami's achievements at the Parliament of Religions paved the way for his triumphal return. The Hindu masses were in a state of ecstasy; they heard that because of the Swami people of America and England are rapidly converting to Hinduism. However, they were not told that while in Chicago the Swami also truly enjoyed eating freshly prepared beef delicacies. On the positive side, Chicago received immense publicity and became the "Holy City--Chicago" among Hindus as recorded by Mark Twain when he visited India in 1896. In the midst of hullabaloo, Swami landed in India on 26 January 1897. He received many honors, although Vivekanand's love somewhat faded when less than three years later, he recalled the implications of the warm Hindu reception accorded on him: "In India the moment I landed they made me shave my head, and wear 'laupin' (loin-cloth), with the result that I got diabetes, etc."
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| But, now at the height of popularity in India, people waited eagerly to see him; hear him; hear his message of new India, new vision, and a new sense of direction. Among the few speeches that he delivered, the one at the Victoria Hall, Madras, in February 1897 stands slightly better than his standard regular huggermugger under the heading--My Plan of Campaign. The Swami made clear his prescription:
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| "Evil is everywhere; it is like a chronic rheumatism. Drive it from the foot, it goes to the head; drive it from there, it goes somewhere else. It is a question of chasing it from place to place; that is all. Ay, Children, to try to remedy evil is not the true way. Our philosophy teaches that evil and good are eternally conjoined, the obverse and the reverse of the same coin...."
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| In other words, the evil which spreads to every labyrinth of Hindu society is essential and therefore must be left intact. You suppose, the people did not come to hear him say that sort of a sermon! Vivekanand stressed the idea of preserving the evil and immediately augmented his visionary statement by providing the prime example of the Afro-Americans. Had the Negroes been kept slaves in America, they would have been better off; the evil of slavery should have been kept intact rather than destroying it, as America did. Here are Swami's own words to the same gazing Hindu audience:
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| The history of the world teaches us that wherever there have been fanatical reforms, the only result has been that they have defeated their ends. No greater upheaval for the establishment of right and liberty can be imagined than the war for the abolition of slavery in America. You all know about it. And what has been its results? The slaves are a hundred times worse off today than they were before the abolition.
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| Before the abolition, these poor negroes were the property of somebody, and, as properties, they had to be looked after, so that they might not deteriorate. Today they are the property of nobody. Their lives are of no value; they are burnt alive on mere pretences. They are shot down without any law for their murderers; for they are niggers, they are not human beings, they are not even animals....
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| The Swami's fixation on preserving evil quite never left him and it had the roots in Hinduism, especially in the Vedänta (one of the six Darshänas), on which he lectured quite extensively. Even three years later, in California, he made it clear during his lecture on April 1, 1900: "If you see something evil, think that you are not understanding it in the right light....It is blasphemy to think that you can help anyone." During his hey-days of Hindu revivalism and nationalism, he introduced a new gospel: Do even evil like a man! Be wicked, if you must, on a grand scale.
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| He remained oblivious to the repercussions of his often-misinformed misunderstood speeches that will cause havoc to an already violence-ridden Hindu populace. Ceremoniously, he would proclaim to the Hindus: "sin is impossible; there is no such thing as human responsibility; man can do no wrong." After all, his Hindus are the descendants of a glorious race the Swami would retort repeatedly. This glorious Hindu race concocted the most evil system man has ever envisioned: the caste system. The Swami spared no effort to justify that: "....Caste is good. That is the only natural way of solving life...." At other references his explanation of caste system was grossly wild and converged on somewhat Hindu version of Marxist's eye to history, as recorded by a disciple:
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| The vaisya, or the merchant, and the sudra, or the worker, represent the third and fourth castes in Hindu society. Swami Vivekananda said that the four castes, by turn, governed human society. The brahmin dominated the thought-current of the world during the glorious days of the ancient Hindu civilization. Then came the rule of the kshattriya, the military, as manifested through the supremacy of Europe from the time of the Roman Empire to the middle of the seventeenth century.
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| Next followed the rule of the vaisya, marked by the rise of America. The Swami prophesied the coming supremacy of the sudra class. After the completion of the cycle, he said, the spiritual culture would again assert itself and influence human civilization through the power of the brahmin. Swami Vivekananda often spoke of the future greatness of India as surpassing all her glories of the past.
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| "I am a socialist" the Swami proclaimed of himself. Even though Vivekanand showed many inconsistencies, he remained somewhat stuck to his version of the Marxist ideology as he understood it; he prophesied about the coming of Proletarian Culture of the future. In 1896, he said to Sister Christine: "The next upheaval will come from Russia or China. I cannot see clearly which, but it will be either the one or the other.... The world is in the third epoch, under the domination of the vaisya. The fourth epoch will be under that of the sudra."
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| The Swami had no historical notion of the past. At the spur of a moment, he would mix multiple often contradictory political ideologies, both foreign and domestic; with the result the end-product Swami's political ideology looked irrational and beyond any comprehension. Now, almost a hundred years later, both Russia and China had had a communist revolution; Russian Bolshevik revolution is now dead after consuming roughly seventy million lives. The Chinese Maoist revolution is still thriving, while the human toll has run into millions. Ironically, the sudra revolution that Swami often talked about not only never surfaced, it escaped even it's mere conception. Instead, with the British departure, what was left turned out to be brahmin "revolution."
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| Today, in India, there are more than 600 million sudras (sudra means slave), not to mention more than 150 million Untouchables and 80 million totemistic castes; all getting the brunt of the brahmin oligarchy. If and when the human toll is counted, I would venture to say, both the Bolsheviks and Maoists will regrettably take the back seats; thanks to the pantheon prophets of modern Hinduism, of which Swami Vivekananda held a high position.
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| With roughly two and one-half years of hardly any worthiness to his stay in India, the Swami left again for the West on 20 June 1899. This time he made it to our west coast--in California, where he found a more receptive audience. Some of his speeches of this time got lost; however, one speech that clearly stands high is the one delivered on February 2, 1900 at the Shakespeare Club, in Pasadena, California. I bring a portion of this speech, titled--Buddhistic India--to your attention which throws some light on Aryan Hindu's attitude to darker-skinned race and above all, on the breathtaking convolutions of the Swami's mind:
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| "There is something in caste, so far as it means blood: such a thing as heredity there is, certainly. Now try to [understand]--why do you not mix your blood with the Negroes, the American Indians? Nature will not allow you. Nature does not allow you to mix your blood with them. There is the unconscious working that saves the race. That was the Aryan's caste. Mind you, I do not say that they are not equal to us. They must have the same privileges and advantages, and everything; but we know that if certain races mix up, they become degraded.
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| "With all the strict caste of the Aryan and non-Aryan, that wall was thrown down to a certain extent, and hordes of these outlandish races came in with all their queer superstitions and manners and customs. Think of this: not decency enough to wear clothes, eating carrion, etc. But behind him came his fetish, his human sacrifice, his superstition, his diabolism. He kept it behind, [he remained] decent for a few years….
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| "And that was degrading to the whole race. And then the blood mixed; [intermarriages] took place with all sorts of unmixable races. The race fell down. But, in the long run, it proved good. If you mix with Negroes and American Indians, surely this civilisation will fall down. But hundreds and hundreds years after, out of this mixture will come a gigantic race once more, stronger than ever; but, for the time being, you have to suffer.
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| "The Hindus believe--that is a peculiar belief, I think; and I do not know, I have nothing to say to the contrary, I have not found anything to the contrary--they believe there was only one civilised race: the Aryan. Until he gives his blood, no other race can be civilised. No teaching will do. The Aryan gives his blood to a race, and then it becomes civilised. Teaching alone will not do. He would be an example in your country: would you give your blood to the Negro race? Then he would get higher culture."
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| The Swami's speeches on Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions displayed a plethora of deliberate lies. The leaders who convened the meeting did not fail to notice such lies. But, today, the surprise is how scholars fail to recognize a sinister plan orchestrated by Swami Vivekananda to elevate Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836-1886) to the world as “God.” The Swami is reputed to be Ramakrishna's most famous disciple.
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| To prove my case, I am indebted to Jeffrey J. Kripal, and Narasingha P. Sil (both in academia in United States) for their thorough research outlining the complicity of Swami Vivekananda to fraud. His rhetoric on Ramakrishna littered all over his writings remained consistent; Ramakrishna is portrayed as a God incarnate to save the humanity through a medium of Swami Vivekananda. After all, the Swami upon his return to India established Ramakrishna Mission Association, an organization he himself headed to spread his master's message--not the message his master practiced and taught but the communiqué that Swami saw fit for western consumption.
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| Now allow me to be bold enough to briefly outline Ramakrishna's bizarre behavior. Taken from the research of Dr. Kripal, then of the University of Chicago, I categorize the following:
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| Homoeroticism
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| Ramakrishna greatly admired the young men, particularly Swami Vivekananda whom he named Kamalaksa (lotus eyed). The master exhibited a "strange and strong attraction" for the Swami. Ramakrishna's infatuation for the Swami was expressed frequently in his petting the young man's face and body, shedding tears while seeing him, gazing at him intently for a long stretch of time, and above all, becoming rigid in samadhi. Once, he worshiped the penises of young boys. Pratapcandra Hazra, another devotee of Ramakrishna once reprimanded his master and has reported to have observed that his master was especially fond of good looking and wealthy boys.
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| Worship of Penis
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| Within the body of Hinduism, there stands a unique object of worship: Siva's lingam, literally a penis. Ramakrishna prayed to this lingam and called it "Place of the Father." As a token of respect to his father, he would then worship his own penis as Siva's "Living Lingam," teasing a precious "pearl" of seminal fluid out of it. Strangely, even in this frail man the little pearl would come out when aroused--as a proof of worshiping his own penis.
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| Strong Taste
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| The master broke all "bonds of shame, disgust and fear." In the pursuit of imitating a Hindu goddess Kali, (he called her Ma, the mother) Ramakrishna under the tutelage of Bhairavi (his female Tantric guru) he not only touched with his tongue a rotting human flesh but also ate it. He ate a piece of fish cooked in the skull of a dead body. In the spirit of, as if possessed by Kali and her lolling tongue, the master would go to the river where people defecate and urinate. There he would take some clay laced with feces and touch it to his tongue. Tasting, or even eating his own feces and pee was no big deal, of course.
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| Oral sex with vagin-shaped lotuses
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| Ramakrishna was no stud, mind you, not even close to it. He frequently commented that the gory contents of the female body--blood, intestinal worms, fat, phlegm, piss, guts, and bad smells--disgusted him. This was a source of deep concern to his close female Tantric associates, who had envisioned taking Ramakrishna on a path of sexual intercourse in which all the holes of the body--down to the hairpores--become great vagins. In each and every hole, one experiences the pleasure of sex with the Self. As much as Ramakrishna tried the Great Love, the literature shows, he failed. Having failed, Bhairavi induced the master to engage in sexual play with the vagin-shaped lotuses. The details of such practices are much ugly; even though sanctioned by Hinduism, for sake of brevity I choose to bypass.
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| Women
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| Ramakrishna's idea of women ranged on a narrow spectrum. They were: broads, bitches, and whores. Believe me the master had a young wife named Sharadamani, whom he married when she was just five years old. The literature shows that Sharadamani in her adulthood seems to have led her own Tantric secret midnight lives. Today, she is called a Holy Mother.
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| You can see the image of Ramakrishna is not a good one. For that matter, neither is that of Swami Vivekananda. Have no doubt, Swami was privy to much of this information on his master. Whether he himself practiced such outrageous "mystic" activities, the literature is sketchy. Thanks to him; he knew how to protect himself by writing threatening notes to his master's other disciples who were handwriting Ramakrishna's biographies, all designed to subdue the writers to protect his name. The Swami pursued a deliberate, calculated, and a methodical plan to transform the tantric Ramakrishna into a more familiar Vedantic type--rendering him more palatable to the audience, especially in the west. His plan took on the following path:
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| 1. The first step was to protect his name from being implicated in a “negative sense” in the original biographies written in Bengali language. How did he do that? He simply threatened the writers and that worked. At present the original manuscripts are being kept under lock by the Ramakrishna Order. Even before coming to America, his mind was entrenched considering what he wrote from Calcutta to Pramadadas Mitra of Benaras on 26 May, 1890:
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| I am Ramakrishna's servant, and I am willing even to steal and rob, if by doing so I can perpetuate his name in the land of his birth and Sadhana (spiritual struggle) and help even a little his disciples to practise his great ideals.
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| 2. The second step was to make sure that the English translations of Ramakrishna's Bengali biographies are cleansed of Ramakrishna's squeamish work-out by the strategy of silence and omission. He spent much more effort to this purpose. He handpicked the writers; prescribed them the parameters; he scolded them when they didn't listen; he advised them at times politely; and cautioned them when needed.
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| His parameters gleam from the letter written from USA dated 30 November 1894 included:
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| "A stirring propaganda must be launched out....The life of Shri Ramakrishna was an extraordinary searchlight under whose illumination one is able to really understand the whole scope of Hindu religion. He was the object-lesson of all the theoretical knowledge given in the Shastras (scriptures). He showed by his life what the Rishis and Avataras really wanted to teach.... The Vedas can only be explained and the Shastras reconciled by his theory of Avastha or stages--that we must not only tolerate others, but positively embrace them, and that truth is the basis of all religions."
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| His caution was clear in the same letter:
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| "avoid all irregular indecent expressions about sex etc. ..., because other nations think it the height of indecency to mention such things, and his life in English is going to be read by the whole world. I read a Bengali life sent over. It is full of such words.....So take care, carefully avoid such words and expressions."
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| Writing on the same day in another letter to Kidi:
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| "Take thought, get materials, write a sketch of Ramakrishna studiously avoiding all miracles. The life should be written as an illustration of the doctrines he preached."
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| A case in point is an example of Gupta's Srisriramakrsnakathamrta, a five-volume recording of Ramakrishna's visions and teachings, which is known to Bengalis simply as the Kathamrta and to English readers as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. During the time period of the translation of Gupta's original writings (which were compiled in the form of diary notes), the Swami hovered in the background keeping a "close supervision." While the translation(s) was in the making, whether Swami lived in America or in India, he continued to offer "guidelines" to Mahendra Nath Gupta (henceforth cited as M).
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| a. Before coming to America, he enthusiastically applauded M's work in a letter dated 7 February 1889:
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| "Thanks! 100000 Master! You have hit Ramkristo in the right point. Few alas, few understand him!"
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| b. When Swami read M's own translation of Kathamrta as The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna in 1896, he didn't like it and made his impression clear in his letter of April 14, 1896 from New York, to Swami Trigunatitananda:
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| "That Ramakrishna was God and all that sort of thing, has no go in countries like this [U.S.A.], M--has a tendency to put that stuff down everybody's throat, but that will make our movement a little sect. You keep aloof from such attempts; at the same time, if people worship him as God, no harm."
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| The correspondence continued with quite a few upheavals to his dismay.
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| c. Now back in India still trying to get a translation to his liking, he decided to encourage M as shown in a letter dated October 1897:
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| "Dear M. C'est bon ami--Now you are doing just the thing. Come out man. No sleeping all life. Time is flying. Bravo that is the way. Many many thanks for your publication...."
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| d. But the full impact of his blessings surfaced in a letter dated 24 November 1897 from Dehra Dun, India, to M: he applauded his second version of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna:
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| "My dear M. Many thanks for your second leaflet (leaves from the Gospel). It is indeed wonderful. The move is quite original and never was the life of a great Teacher brought before the public by the writer's mind, as you are presenting this one. The language also is beyond all praise, so fresh, so pointed, and withal so plain and easy. I cannot express in adequate terms how I have enjoyed the leaflets. I am really in a transport when I read them! Strange, isn't it? Our Teacher and Lord was so original, and each one of us will have to be original or nothing. I now understand why none of us attempted his life before. It has been reserved for you, this great work."
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| In a postscript to this letter the exuberant Swami added another comment on M's Gospel:
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| The Socratic dialogues are Plato all over; you are entirely hidden. Moreover, the dramatic part is infinitely beautiful. Everybody likes it here and in the West.
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| How Swami found out M's Gospel being liked in the West, I have not been able to decipher.
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| e. Today, in our western markets, we encounter an English version of The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna--translated by Swami Nikhilanada, a devotee of Swami Vivekananda and one time head of Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York. Based upon instructions of the Swami, he made sure his "translation" had been further purified of all "irregular indecent expressions about sex." It is no surprise that Swami Nikhilanada's version is hailed as "authentic" and a "spiritual masterpiece."
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| A question arises: Why didn't the Swami write his own biography of Ramakrishna rather than ask others to do so? I think the answer lies in the heart of strategy of manipulating others to write what he himself cajoled them to write. It makes sense. Even here, the Swami experimented with his colleagues at home in India. He wrote from United States to Swami Brahmananda in 1895:
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| "I am going to write a very short sketch of Shri Ramakrishna's life in English, which I shall send you. Have it printed and translated into Bengali and sell it at the festival [Ramakrishna Festival]--people do not read books that are distributed free. Fix some nominal price. Have the festival done with great pomp...."
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| However, a year or two later when asked why Swami had not written Ramakrishna's biography, the Swami knew how to reply:
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| "I have such deep feeling for the Master that it is impossible for me to write about him for the public. If I had written the article Max Muller wanted, then I would have proved, quoting from philosophies, the scriptures and even the holy books of the Christians, that Ramakrishna was the greatest of all prophets born in the world."
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| Ironically, later on, based upon his two lectures delivered in New York and England, a "biography" did appear under the title: My Master. Judging by any standards of biography, it is not a good one. Dr. Sil has put it aptly: "My Master is Vivekananda all over."
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| 3. The third step was to succeed in his endeavor. Did he? Yes, with flying colors! He himself boasted to his brother disciples: Without me, who would have made your Master known to the world!
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| At times, I have encountered few die-hards who often go out of their way to thank the Swami for introducing various dimensions of Hindu mysticism to the West. It is true many of Swami's speeches dealt with meditation, Jnäna-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, Räja-Yoga, and Bhagavad-Gitä; all supposedly divinely designed to make life more serene, more spiritual in our rather hectic world. But unfortunately, none of these brands of Hindu mysticism had any beneficial effects on Swami himself.
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| Again, in a letter (25 July 1897) to Miss Marie Halboister, he revealed his innermost secret: "I am glad that you have been helped by Vedanta and Yoga. I am unfortunately sometimes like a circus clown who makes others laugh, himself miserable!!" Four years before his untimely death in 1902, he confessed to his close disciples that he had been all wrong and that his patriotism and zeal as a nationalist reformer had completely vanished.
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| The Swami's skills in disseminating propaganda was second to none and Hindus have learned a great deal from his examples in the international market. Thanks to him alone, today, the market is flooded with seriously flawed texts on Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and their teachings; and yet the readers know nothing about it. Today, we are left to grope with seemingly an odd personality: A man who cared for India's poor but not of America's poor (he called them devils!); he wished India's regeneration but intended to preserve the evilness all around; he hoped for social harmony but carried racial bias detrimental to dark-skinned people both in India and America; and he strived to spread Hinduism overseas under various disguises but hoped West would adhere to the caste!
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| This man who claimed to champion various lofty causes suffered his greatest defeat and that was--he himself remained glued to the most detrimental aspects of Hinduism. He died as a relatively young man with a total failure to his credit, unless you count the mass Hindu stirring he caused, leaving the Hindus with an ambitious mission:
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| Heroic workers are wanted to go abroad and help to disseminate the great truths of Vedanta. The world wants it; without it the world is destroyed....We must go out; we must conquer the world with our spirituality and philosophy. There is no alternative, we must do it or die. The only condition of national life, of awakened and vigorous national life, is the conquest of the world by Indian thought....India must conquer the world and nothing less is my ideal. You have to expand or perish. This is the law of life.
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| Today, this posthumous Swami has become the great symbol of the Hindu International, second only to Sergeant-Major Mohandas K. Gandhi. They will pursue all means available to popularize the Swami, which in turn, will help bring credit to Hindus, and, of course, Hinduism.
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| BIBLIOGRAPHY
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| 1. Sil, Narasingha P. Vivekananda's Ramakrishna: An Untold Story of Mythmaking and Propaganda. 1993; NUMEN Vol. 40, pages 38-62.
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| 2. Sil, Narasingha P. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: A Psychological Profile. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1991.
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| 3. Sil, Narasingha P. Divine Dowager : The Life and Teachings of Saradamani the Holy Mother. Susquehanna University Press; London: Associated University Press, 2003.
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| 4. Sil, Narasingha P. Ramakrishna Revisited: A New Biography. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America, 1998.
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| 5. Sil, Narasingha P. Swami Vivekananda: A Reassessment. Susquehanna University Press, 1997.
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| 6. Kripal, Jeffrey J. Kali's Tongue and Ramakrishna: "Biting The Tongue" of the Tantric Tradition. History of Religions, Vol. 34, No. 2, Nov. 1994.
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| 7. Kripal, Jeffrey J. Kali's Child: The Mystical and the Erotic in the Life and Teachings of Ramakrishna. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1995
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| 8. McKean, Lise. Divine Enterprise: Gurus and the Hindu Nationalist Movement. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1996.
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| 9. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, 8 vols. (Mayavati Memorial Edition). Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1990.
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| Swami Vivekananda says that Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains are Hindus . Check out the 'Complete works of Swami Vivekananda'.
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| Here are the common points shared by Hinduism and its sects Sikhism , Buddhism and Jainism.
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| 1.All these religions see Om or omkar as a sacred word and is commonly used in the beginning of their mantras or sacred invocations. In Sikhism Om is called as Ik Onkaar .
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| 2.All these religions believe in the existence of the soul and its rebirth in different bodies.
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| 3. The ends or aim of all these religions is the liberation of the soul from the bondage of matter or Moksha. The Hindu Moksha and the Jain Nibbana and the Buddhist Nirvana is one and the same thing.
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| 4.All these religions believe in the law of karma , or the law of cause and effect.
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| 5. Vegetarianism is considered a virtue in all these religions.
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| But in a book dentity and Religion: Foundations of Anti-Islamism by By Amalendu Misra:
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| It is written that vivekananda approved sikhism a seprate religon. He admired sikhs for rising against islamic powers & religon inindia. He described the guru gobind singh was a creative genious centered around the latter religio-political expoloits against the mughal empire. Equally strong was his praise for marathas, who repelled mughal power for gaining foothold in southern side. The heroism shown by shivaji & Gurugobind singh was a tribute to hindu power.
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