By Abhijeet Kislay
The great gift that Swami Vivekananda brought with his angle of the Vedantic teachings was to practicalize Vedanta so that it can be held as an ideal even by a common man. One major step in this regard can be seen in his lecture titled “God in Everything” delivered in London in 1896.
Some excerpts clarify how he elucidated Vedanta for modern times:
“Here I can only lay before you what the Vedanta seeks to teach, and that is the deification of the world. The Vedanta does not in reality denounce the world. The ideal of renunciation nowhere attains such a height as in the teachings of the Vedanta. But, at the same time, dry suicidal advice is not intended; it really means deification of the world -- giving up the world as we think of it, as we know it, as it appears to us -- and to know what it really is. Deify it; it is God alone.”
Then he beautifully explains the above with a common everyday example for a householder:
“We have to cover everything with the Lord Himself, not by a false sort of optimism, not by blinding our eyes to the evil, but by really seeing God in everything. What is meant? You can have your wife; it does not mean that you are to abandon her, but that you are to see God in the wife. Give up your children; what does that mean? To turn them out of doors, as some human brutes do in every country? Certainly not. That is diabolism; it is not religion. But see God in your children. So, in everything. In life and in death, in happiness and in misery, the Lord is equally present.”
Some excerpts clarify how he elucidated Vedanta for modern times:
“Here I can only lay before you what the Vedanta seeks to teach, and that is the deification of the world. The Vedanta does not in reality denounce the world. The ideal of renunciation nowhere attains such a height as in the teachings of the Vedanta. But, at the same time, dry suicidal advice is not intended; it really means deification of the world -- giving up the world as we think of it, as we know it, as it appears to us -- and to know what it really is. Deify it; it is God alone.”
Then he beautifully explains the above with a common everyday example for a householder:
“We have to cover everything with the Lord Himself, not by a false sort of optimism, not by blinding our eyes to the evil, but by really seeing God in everything. What is meant? You can have your wife; it does not mean that you are to abandon her, but that you are to see God in the wife. Give up your children; what does that mean? To turn them out of doors, as some human brutes do in every country? Certainly not. That is diabolism; it is not religion. But see God in your children. So, in everything. In life and in death, in happiness and in misery, the Lord is equally present.”
However, he acknowledges how difficult it can be to follow the above ideal for a beginner. He shows it with a beautiful example:
“I am walking in the street thinking that God is in every man, and a strong man comes along and gives me a push and I fall flat on the footpath. Then I rise up with clenched fist, the blood has rushed to my head. Immediately I have become mad. Everything is forgotten; instead of encountering God I see the devil!”
Then he asks something which must be going on in most of our minds. If such is the case, what is the use of teaching all these things? He answers his own question, saying:
“There is the greatest use! The use is this, that perseverance will finally conquer. Nothing can be done in a day.“
He instructs to keep the ideal to see God in Everything before us and keep working on it without minding the setbacks and failures in between.
But he does give us a tip as a starting point:
“The ideal of man is to see God in everything. But if you cannot see Him in everything, see Him in one thing, in that thing which you like best, and then see Him in another. So on you can go. There is infinite life before the soul. Take your time and you will achieve your end.”
“I am walking in the street thinking that God is in every man, and a strong man comes along and gives me a push and I fall flat on the footpath. Then I rise up with clenched fist, the blood has rushed to my head. Immediately I have become mad. Everything is forgotten; instead of encountering God I see the devil!”
Then he asks something which must be going on in most of our minds. If such is the case, what is the use of teaching all these things? He answers his own question, saying:
“There is the greatest use! The use is this, that perseverance will finally conquer. Nothing can be done in a day.“
He instructs to keep the ideal to see God in Everything before us and keep working on it without minding the setbacks and failures in between.
But he does give us a tip as a starting point:
“The ideal of man is to see God in everything. But if you cannot see Him in everything, see Him in one thing, in that thing which you like best, and then see Him in another. So on you can go. There is infinite life before the soul. Take your time and you will achieve your end.”
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