Purpose in work brings enthusiasm and joy

Now, when we turn to our own country, one of the things that strikes us is a lack of this sense of purpose, this sense of direction, this sense of enthusiasm in the work that we do. Swami Vivekananda had told us that national work should be suffused with national vision and enthusiasm and a spirit of joy. Otherwise, all work, he said, would become static, stereotyped, and meaningless, and a source not of freedom but of bondage. Whether it is teaching or learning, whether it is the simple household duties or the larger duties of government and administration, what we need to capture in every sphere of life is this national purpose and enthusiasm. Our country has become free after centuries of political and social immobilization; it has now got the opportunity to build the structure of an enduring society on the basis of justice and equality, human dignity and unity, inspired by the vision of general human happiness and welfare. Swami Vivekananda exhorted the youth of the country to be up and doing to achieve this goal. It was not the time to sleep he said, nor to waste time in idle talk, but to work intelligently, moved by the spirit of love of man; for ‘on our work depends the India of the future’, said he.

I would request you to keep this idea constantly in your minds. Inspired by this vision and idea, whatever work you do, little or big, in any nook or corner of India, will have telling effect on the march of India to prosperity and progress. It is the cumulative result of such work by millions of dedicated men and women that creates a nation. Swamiji gave us this national vision – this vision which imparts a sense of urgency, a sense of sacredness, to a mission, a sense of faith to the work we do. Every citizen must be imbued with the sense of a mission, a sense of faith in his own work. The work that is done with faith, the work that is done with an awareness of the worth of one’s contribution to the making of the nation, that work becomes most effective. In our Chhandogya Upanisad, written nearly three or four thousand years ago, we find this definition of work efficiency (I.1.10). Yadeva vidyaya, vidyaya karoti, sraddhaya, upanisada, tadeva virayavattaram bhavati – ‘Whatever work is done with vidya, knowledge, through sraddha, faith, and backed by upanisad, meditation, that alone becomes most effective.’

Vidya, knowledge, is necessary, knowledge of the methods and techniques of work, of the theoretical and practical aspects of a subject. But this knowledge will remain static until it is energized by sraddha. And that energy needs to be disciplined and properly directed by upanisad, calm meditation. Any work which has these three sources of strength behind it will be most efficient. It alone will have world-moving power. Our country needs work of this type today in every department of national activity.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 3 – Education for Man-Making (Pg:50-51; ed. 1995)
This was an address to the trainees of the Senior Basic School of the Ramakrishna Mission Boys Home, Rahara, on January 9, 1962.

Assimilation of Knowledge is the aim of Education

Such is the Indian society that is waiting to receive each and every one of our youths who complete their university education today. It is a society of bubbling hopes and mounting problems, with an impressive past and a glorious future. Every youthful generation of modern India owes it to itself and to the nation at large to strive to become strong and dynamic. Such strength is the product of faith in oneself and in one’s country’s heritage, reinforced by the assimilation of all available knowledge, national and international. This is the aim of all true education. Vivekananda defined the scope of our national education as the assimilation of the spirit of Vedanta and modern science. The Chandogya Upanisad in a memorable passage (I.1.10) refers to the energy of character generated by education:Yadeva vidyaya karoti, sraddhaya, upanisada, tadeva viryavataram bhavati – ‘Whatever is done through mastery of the know-how, through faith (in oneself and one’s cause) and through inner meditation – that alone becomes charged with the highest energy’.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 1 – India's Educational Vision (Pg:16-17; ed. 1995)
This was the address delivered at the Calcutta University Convocation on February 15, 1966.

Practical Vedanta synthesises the outer and the inner

The strong point of the Indian tradition is, as we have seen, its vision of the spiritual dimension of the human personality, and the scientific tradition of religion in which this vision is embodied. Stressing as it does the spirit of seeking and inquiry, and upholding experiment and experience as the criterion of true religion, the Indian tradition frees religion from all dogmatic and creedal limitations and blends with the spirit of modern science. This Indian spiritual tradition has within it the energy and the power to deepen the scientific humanism of the modern West. The Western tradition, similarly, has the energy and the power within it to broaden the scope of the Indian tradition, channeling its blessings from a small minority of the spiritually gifted to the millions of ordinary men and women. This synthesis of the inner and the outer, of the sacred and the secular, had already been achieved in the plane of thought in the unifying philosophy of Vedanta, and especially in its great formulation, namely, the Gita. Its achievement in the plane of the work-a-day world is what Vivekananda gave to modern India as his unique contribution in his philosophy and programme of Practical Vedanta, and what the nation is engaged in ever since.

Our programme of material improvement of the country does not necessarily commit us to the philosophy of materialism. On the other hand, our spiritual philosophy, as Vivekananda pointed out, considers involuntary poverty to be unspiritual and commits us to the improvement of the material condition of the people with a view to improving their spiritual life. This is the meaning of his plea for what he terms a “toned down materialism” for India. “I do not believe in a religion”, Says he, “Which cannot wipe the widow’s tears or stop the orphan’s wails" again, “even if a dog goes hungry in my country, my religion will be to find food for that dog”.

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 1 – India's Educational Vision (Pg:16-17; ed. 1995)
This was the address delivered at the Calcutta University Convocation on February 15, 1966.

Citizenship is both freedom and responsibility

Citizenship in a democracy involves, as I said earlier, not only freedom but also responsibility. This sense of social responsibility releases the energies of the citizen for the service of his fellow-citizens, ensuring thereby the all-around development of society and its unity and integrity. If “We, the People of India”, have given ourselves a free constitution, as the preamble to our constitution proclaims, it is again we, the people of India, on whom lies the responsibility to ensure the dignity of the individual and the unity of the nation through hard work and mutual co-operation. In this sphere of practical politics, success depends upon the whole nation living down much of its own obsolete traditions, and assimilating the traditions of the modern West. Such assimilation depends upon the igniting of the Promethean spark in every one of our citizens, making him or her a reservoir of disciplined energy and resource.

This is what is being done in our country since our independence. During the last eighteen years after independence, India has achieved by way of economic development and social transformation more than what she had achieved in the hundred years before independence. This is a proof of the youthful vitality of the nation, and its assimilation of the spirit of energy and progress, action and endeavour, of the modern West. Under the pressure of mounting problems yet remaining to be solved, the nation should not fail to recognize its own solid achievements. Constant self-deprecation saps the vitality of a nation, says Vivekananda, by destroying its faith in itself. Ajnasca asraddadhanasca samsayatna vinasyati — “the ignorant, the faithless, and the doubting come to ruin”, says the Gita (IV. 40).

India has begun translating its ideals into realities
Nation-building in the case of India, we should always remember, means nothing more than forging a new body-politic for her undying soul. That soul had so far been housed in a body inconsistent with its own majesty and glory. No other society in the world has exhibited such a contrast between ideals and realities as India in her spiritual vision and her body-politic. In the poignant words of Vivekananda (Letters of Swami Vivekananda, p.69.)

“No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism”.

For the first time in her long history, India has resolved to translate her vision of human excellence into reality by earnestly embarking on the creation of a free and egalitarian society offering opportunities for self-development to every one of her citizens.

“Hitherto, the great fault of our Indian religion has lain in its knowing only two words-renunciation and mukti (salvation). Only “mukti” here! Nothing for the householder!
“But these are the very people whom I want to help ….
“And so strength must come to the nation through education”…

EXTRACTS FROM: Eternal Values for a Changing Society Volume III – Education for Human Excellence; 1 – India's Educational Vision (Pg:12-13; ed. 1995)
This was the address delivered at the Calcutta University Convocation on February 15, 1966.