Teachings of Swami Vivekananda in a nutshell

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One way of attaining bhakti is by repeating the name of God a number of times. Mantras have effect - the more repetition of words , to obtain bhakti , seek the company of holy men who have bhakti and read books like the Gita.

We must have faith in ourselves first and then in God. He who has no faith in himself can never have faith in God

Every duty is holy , and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God

After so much austerity I have understood this as the real truth - God is present in every Jiva, there is no god besides that. "Who serves Jiva serves God indeed"

That society is the greatest , where the highest truths become practical

Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.

To me the very essence of education is concentration of mind , not the collecting of facts.

In my opinion , a race must first cultivate great respect for motherhood , through the sanctification and inviolability for marriage, before it can attain to the ideal of perfect charity.

Sita is the name in India for everything that is good , pure and holy , everything that in woman we call woman

Renunciation and service are the twin ideals of India. Intensify her in these channels and the rest will take care of itself.

This life is short , the vanities of the world are transient , but they alone live who live for others , the rest are more dead than alive.

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Swami Vivekananda Address at opening session of Chicago Parliament of Religion - 11 September 1893

Sisters and Brothers of America,

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of most ancient Order of monks in the world. I thank you in the name of mother of religions and I thank you in the name of  millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks , also to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the orient , have told you that these men from far nations may well claim the honour of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration , but we accept all religions are true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations on the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our blossom the purest remnant of the Isrealites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you , brethren , a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is everyday repeated by millions of human beings; "As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O lord , the different paths which men take through different tendencies , various though they appear , crooked or straight ,all lead to Thee".

The present convention , which is one of the most august assemblies ever held , is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in Gita "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form , I reach him ; all the men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me".
Sectarianism , bigotry and its horrible descendant , fanaticism , have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have have filled the earth  with violence , drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time has come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with sword or with the pen , and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

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Gospel of Strength by Swami Vivekanada - Part 5

Help Yourself:

[When a disciple pleaded helplessness, Swamiji thundered]

What nonsense are you talking? Within you lies indomitable power. Only thinking, ‘I am nothing, I am nothing,’ you have become powerless.

You do not deserve to live if you cannot help yourselves.

It is a diabolism to say,” I am so miserable.” Every man has his own burden to bear. If you are miserable, try to conquer it, try to be happy
Therefore, stand up, be bold, and be strong. Take the whole responsibilities on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succor you want is within you.

It is a tremendous error to feel helpless. Do not seek help from anyone. We are our own help. If we cannot help ourselves, there is none to help us… this is the last and greatest lesson, and oh, what a time it takes to learn it! Just think of that huge mass of misery, and all caused by this false idea of going to seek for help!

There is no help for man. None ever was, none is and none will be… But you are spirit. Pull yourself out of difficulties by yourself! Save yourself by yourself! There is none to help you – never was. To think that there is, is sweet delusion. It comes to no good.

You may pray to everyone that was ever born, but who will come to help you? Help thyself out by thyself. None else can help thee friend. Get hold of the self, then stand up. Don’t be afraid. In the midst of all miseries and all weakness, let the Self come out, faint and imperceptible though it be at first.

The one great question asked by Vedanta is: why are people so afraid? The answer is that they have made themselves helpless and dependant on others. We are so lazy, we do not want to do anything for ourselves, and we want a personal god, a savior or a prophet to do everything for us… If everything is done for a man by another he will lose the use of his own limbs. Anything we do ourselves that is the only thing we do. Anything thing that is done by another never can be ours… All this running after help is foolishness.

You know, there are bullock carts... sometimes a sheaf of straw is dangled at the tip of the pole, a little in front of the bulls but beyond their reach. The bulls try continually to feed upon the strew, but never succeed. That is exactly how we are helped. We think we are going to get security, strength, wisdom, happiness from the outside. We always hope but never realize our hope. Never does any help come from outside.

We human beings are very slow to recognize our own faults so long as we can lay the blame upon somebody else. Men in general lay all the blame of life on their fellow-men or failing that, on God or they conjure up a ghost and say it is fate. Where fate and what is is fate? We reap what we sow. we are the makers of our own fate. None else has the blame, none has the praise.

You know in your inmost heart that many of your limited ideas this humbling of yourself and praying and weeping to imaginary beings are superstitious. Tell me one case where these prayers have been answered. All the answers that came were from your own hearts.

In your ignorance, every prayer that you have made and that was answered, you thought was answered by some being, but you answered the prayer yourself unknowingly. The help came from yourself, and you fondly imagined that someone was sending help to you. There is no help for you outside of yourself; you are the creator of universe. These words will burn up the dross that is in the mind, words that will bring out the tremendous energy which is within you already, the infinite power which is sleeping in your heart.

There is no help from anyone. That is the truth. There have been more gods than human beings; and yet no help. We die like dogs- no help. Everywhere beastliness, famine, disease, misery, evil! And all are crying for help. But no help. And yet hoping against hope, we are still screaming for help. Oh, the miserable condition! Oh the terror of it!

You have cried to all gods in the world. Has misery ceased? The masses in India cry to sixty million gods and still die like dogs. Where are these gods? The gods come to help you when you have succeeded. So what is the use? This bending the knee to superstitious this selling yourself to your own mind does not befit you, my soul. You are infinite, deathless, birth less. Because you are infinite spirit, it does not befit you to be slave. Arise! Awake!

Those that blame others- and alas! The number of them is increasing everyday- are generally miserable with helpless brains; they have brought themselves to that pass through their own mistakes and blame others but this does not alter their position. It does not serve them in any way. This attempt to throw the blame upon others only weakens them the more. Therefore, blame none for your own faults, stand upon your own feet, and take the whole responsibility upon yourselves. Say “This misery that I am suffering is of my own doing, and that very thing proves that is will have to be undone by me alone.”

If the whole responsibility is thrown upon our own shoulders, we shall be at our highest and best; when we have nobody to grope towards, no devil to lay our blame upon, no personal god to carry our burdens, when we are alone responsible, and then we shall rise to our highest and best

Gospel of Strength by Swami Vivekanada - Part 4

The source of strength – Soul

What we need is strength; who will give us strength? There are thousands to weaken us and of stories we had had enough. Every one of our Puranas, if you press it, gives out stories enough to fill three-fourths of the libraries of the world. Everything that can weaken us as a race we have had for the last thousand years… Therefore, my friends, as one of your blood, as one that lives and dies with you, let me tell you that we want strength, strength and every time strength. And the Upanishads are the great mine of strength. Therein lies strength enough to invigorate the whole world; the whole world can be vivified, made strong, energized through them.

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? Will weakness cure Weakness? Strength, O man strength, says the Upanishads, stand up and be strong.

First step is getting strength is to uphold the Upanishads and believe “I am soul,” “ Me the sword cannot cut; nor weapons pierce; me the fire cannot burn; me the air cannot dry; I am the Omnipotent, I am the Omniscient.” So repeat these blessed saving words and be strong.

You must know what you are, what your real nature is. You must become conscious of that infinite nature within. Then you bondage will burst.

Think all of you that you are the infinitely powerful Atman, and see what strength comes out.

“Knowledge is Power,” says the proverb. Does it not? It is through knowledge that power comes. Man has got to know that he is a man of infinite power and strength. Really he himself is by his own. And this he must know. And the more he becomes conscious of his own Self, the more he manifests this power, and his bonds break and at last he becomes free.

The soul was never born and will never die, and all these ideas that we are going to die and are afraid to die are mere superstitious. And all such ideas as we can do this or cannot do that are superstitious. We can do everything. The Vedanta teaches men to have faith in themselves first.. Not believing the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism. To many this is, no doubt a terrible idea; and most of us think that this ideal can never be reached; but the Vedanta insists that it can be realized by everyone.

Always talk and hear and reason about this atman. By continuing to practice in this way, you will find in time that the Lion (Brahman) will wake up in you too.

The self within is always shining forth resplendent. Turning away from the people say, I I, I, with their attention held up by this material body, this queer cage of flesh and bones. This is the root cause of all weakness.

Hear day and night that you are that soul. Repeat it to yourselves day and night till it enters into your very veins, till it tingles in every drop of blood, till it is in your flesh and bone. Let the whole body be full of that one ideal, “I am the birth less, the death less, the blissful, the omniscient, and the omnipotent, ever-glorious soul.” Think on it day and night; think on it till it becomes part and parcel of your life. Meditate upon it.. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, deified, by the very power of thought. If matter is power, though is omnipotent. Bring this though to bear upon your life, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty and your glory.

These conceptions of Vedanta must come out, must remain not only in the forest, not only in the cave, but they must come out to work at the bar and the bench, in the pulpit, and in the cottage of the poor man, with the fishermen that are catching fish, and with the students that are studying.. If the fisherman thinks that he is the spirit he will be a better fisherman; if the student thinks that he is the spirit, he will be a better student. If the lawyer thinks that he is the spirit, he will be a better lawyer and so on…

You have now to make the character of Mahavira [Hanuman] your ideal… He was a perfect master of his senses and wonderfully sagacious. You have now to build your life on this great ideal of personal service. Through that, all the other ideals with gradually manifest in life. Obedience to the guru without questioning and strict observance of Bramacharya – this is the secret of success. As on the one hand hanuman represents the ideal of service, so on the other he represents leonine courage, striking the whole world with awe.

Keep aside for the present the vrindavan aspect of shri Krishna and spread far and wide the worship of shri Krishna roaring Gita out, with the voice of a lion… We now mostly need the ideal of a hero with the tremendous spirit of Rajas thrilling through his veins from head to foot… the hero whose armor is renunciation, whose sword is wisdom. We want now the spirit of brave warrior in the battlefield of life, and not of the wooing lover who looks upon life as a pleasure-garden!

This is the only prayer we should have… to tell ourselves, and to tell everybody else that we are divine. And as we go on repeating this, “I am divine, I am divine,” strength comes. He who falters at first will get stronger and stronger, and the voice will increase in volume until the truth takes possession of our hearts, and courses through our veins, and permeates our bodies.

Are not drums made in the country? Are not trumpets and kettle-drums available in India? Make the boys hear the deep-toned sound of these instruments. Hearing from boyhood the sound of these effeminate forms of music the county is well-nigh converted into a country of women. What more degradation can you expect? Even the poet’s imagination fails to draw this picture!

The Damaru and horn have to be sounded; drums are to be beaten so as to raise the deep and martial notes… The music which awakens only the softer feelings of man is to be stopped now for some time. Stopping the light tunes the people are to be accustomed to hear the Dhrupad music. Through the thunder-roll of the dignified Vedic hymns, life is to be brought back into the county. In everything the austere spirit of heroic manhood is to be revived. In following such an ideal lays the good of the people and the country.

Gospel of Strength by Swami Vivekanada - Part 3

Stop becoming weak , Be strong:

We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything; we must strengthen it.

You are lions; you are souls, pure, infinite and perfect. The might of the universe is within you. Why weepiest thou my friend?

The brain and muscles must develop simultaneously. Iron nerves with an intelligent brain – and the whole world is at your feet.

You must learn to make the physique very strong and teach the same to others—Body and mind must run parallel.. When the necessity of strengthening the physique is brought home to people, they will exert themselves of their own accord.

This is not the time with us to weep even in joy; we have had weeping enough; no more is the time for us to become soft. This softness has been with us till we have become like masses of cotton and are dead. What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it meant going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face.

If you, my sons, can proclaim this message to the world. “Yield not to unmanliness, O son of Pritha it does not befit thee” – then all this disease, grief, sin and sorrow will vanish off from the face of the earth in three days.

First of all , our young men must be strong. Religion will come afterwards. Be strong, my young friends; that is my advice to you. You will be nearer to heaven through football than through the study of Gita. These are bold words; but I have to say them, for I love you. I know where the shoe pinches. I have gained a little experience. You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men.

That is all I have to say to the world. Be strong! The sign of life is strength and growth, the sign of death is weakness. What—ever is weak, avoid! It is death! If it is strength, go down into hell and get hold of it!

Be strong. Be manly. I have respect even for a wicked person so long as he is manly and strong, for his strength will someday make him give up his wickedness, and even renounce all work for selfish ends. It will thus eventually bring him to the truth.

The sign of vigor, the sign of life, the sign of hope, the sign of health, the sign of everything that is good, is strength.

Mark you, those things which you see in pusillanimous effeminate folk who speak in a nasal tone chewing every syllable whose voice is a thin as of one who has been starving for a week, who never protest or are moved even if kicked by anybody – those are the signs of death, not of sattva [the calm and balanced state] – all corruption and stench… During these last thousand years, the whole country is filling the air with the name of the Lord and is sending its prayers to him; and the lord is never lending his hears to them. And why should He? When even man never hears the cries of the fool, do you think God will? Now the only way out is to listen to the words of Lord in Gita – “Yield not to unmanliness, O partha!”

This I lay down as the first essential in all I teach: anything that brings spiritual , mental or physical weakness, touch it not with the toes of your feat.

In your country it is as if the blood has become congealed in the heart, so that it cannot circulate in the veins as if the paralysis has overtaken the body and it has become languid, So my idea is first to make the people active by developing their Rajas [ the tendency for activity ] .. With no strength in the body, no enthusiasm at heart, and no originality in the brain, what will they do- these lumps of dead matter! By stimulating them I want to bring life into them – to this I have dedicated my life... Be you my helpers in the work!
Tell each and all that infinite power resides within them, that they are sharers of immortal bliss. Thus rouse up the Rajas within them – make them fir for the struggle of the existence and then Speak to them about salvation.

Infinite strength is religion and God.