The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Reports in American Newspapers/The Divinity of Man
THE DIVINITY OF MAN
(Detroit Free Press, February 18, 1894)
Swami Vive Kananda, Hindoo philosopher and priest, concluded his series of
lectures, or rather, sermons, at the Unitarian church last night, speaking
on "The Divinity of God" [sic]. [1] In spite of the bad weather, the church was crowded almost to the
doors half an hour before the eastern brother — as he likes to be called —
appeared. All professions and business occupations were represented in the
attentive audience — lawyers, judges, ministers of the gospel, merchants,
rabbi — not to speak of the many ladies who have by their repeated
attendance and rapt attention shown a decided inclination to shower
adulation upon the dusky visitor whose drawing-room attraction is as great
as his ability in the rostrum.
The lecture last night was less descriptive than preceding ones, and for
nearly two hours Vive Kananda wove a metaphysical texture on affairs human
and divine so logical that he made science appear like common sense. It was
a beautiful logical garment that he wove, replete with as many bright colors
and as attractive and pleasing to contemplate as one of the many-hued
fabrics made by hand in his native land and scented with the most seductive
fragrance of the Orient. This dusky gentleman uses poetical imagery as an
artist uses colors, and the hues are laid on just where they belong, the
result being somewhat bizarre in effect, and yet having a peculiar
fascination. Kaleidoscopic were the swiftly succeeding logical conclusions,
and the deft manipulator was rewarded for his efforts from time to time by
enthusiastic applause.
The lecture was prefaced with the statement that the speaker had been asked
many questions. A number of these he preferred to answer privately, but
three he had selected, for reasons which would appear, to answer from the
pulpit. They were: [2]
"Do the people of India throw their children into the laws of the
crocodiles?"
"Do they kill themselves beneath the wheels of the juggernaut?"
"Do they burn widows with their husbands?"
The first question the lecturer treated in the vein that an American abroad
would answer inquiries about Indians running around in the streets of New
York and similar myths which are even to-day entertained by many persons on
the continent. The statement was too ludicrous to give a serious response to
it. When asked by certain well-meaning but ignorant people why they gave
only female children to the crocodiles, he could only ironically reply that
probably it was because they were softer and more tender and could be more
easily masticated by the inhabitants of the rivers in the benighted country.
Regarding the juggernaut legend the lecturer explained the old practice in
the sacred city and remarked that possibly a few in their zeal to grasp the
rope and participate in the drawing of the car slipped and fell and were so
destroyed. Some such mishaps had been exaggerated into the distorted version
from which the good people of other countries shrank with horror. Vive
Kananda denied that the people burned widows. It was true, however, that
widows had burned themselves. In the few cases where this had happened, they
had been urged not to do so by the priests and holy men who were always
opposed to suicide Where the devoted widows insisted, stating that they
desired to accompany their husbands in the transformation that had taken
place they were obliged to submit to the fiery test. That is, they thrust
their hands within the flames and if they permitted them to be consumed no
further opposition was placed in the way of the fulfilment of their desires.
But India is not the only country where women who have loved have followed
immediately the loved one through the realms of immortality; suicide in such
cases have occurred in every land. It is an uncommon bit of fanaticism in
any country; as unusual in India as elsewhere. No, the speaker repeated, the
people do not burn women in India; nor have they ever burned witches.
Proceeding to the lecture proper, Vive Kananda proceeded to analyze the
physical, mental and soul attributes of life. The body is but a shell; the
mind something that acts but a brief and fantastic part; while the soul has
distinct individuality in itself. To realize the infinity of self is to
attain "freedom" which is the Hindoo word for "salvation." By a convincing
manner of argument the lecturer showed that every soul is something
independent, for if it were dependent, it could not acquire immortality. He
related a story from the old legends of his country to illustrate the manner
in which the realization of this may come to the individual. A lioness
leaping towards a sheep in the act gave birth to a cub. The lioness died and
the cub was given suck by the sheep and for many years thought itself a
sheep and acted like one. But one day another lion appeared and led the
first lion to a lake where he looked in and saw his resemblance to the other
lion. At that he roared and realized else full majesty of self. Many people
are like the lion masquerading as a sheep and get into a corner, call
themselves sinners and demean themselves in every imaginable fashion, not
yet seeing the perfection and divinity which lies in self. The ego of man
and woman is the soul. If the soul is independent, how then can it be
isolated from the infinite whole? Just as the great sun shines on a lake and
numberless reflections are the result, so the soul is distinct like each
reflection, although the great source is recognized and appreciated. The
soul is sexless. When it has realized the condition of absolute freedom,
what could it have to do with sex which is physical? In this connection the
lecturer delved deeply into the water of Swedenborgian philosophy, or
religion, and the connection between the conviction of the Hindoo and the
spiritual expressions of faith on the part of the more modern holy man was
fully apparent. Swedenborg seemed like a European successor of an early
Hindoo priest, clothing in modern garb an ancient conviction; a line of
thought that the greatest of French philosophers and novelists [Balzac?] saw
fit to embody in his elevating tale of the perfect soul. Every individual
has in himself perfection. It lies within the dark recesses of his physical
being. To say that a man has become good because God gave him a portion of
His perfection is to conceive the Divine Being as God minus just so much
perfection as he has imparted to a person on this earth. The inexorable law
of science proves that the soul is individual and must have perfection
within itself, the attainment of which means freedom, not salvation, and the
realization of individual infinity. Nature! God! Religion! It is all one.
The religions are all good. A bubble of air in a glass of water strives to
join with the mass of air without; in oil, vinegar and other materials of
differing density its efforts are less or more retarded according to the
liquid. So the soul struggles through various mediums for the attainment of
its individual infinity. One religion is best adapted to a certain people
because of habits of life, association, hereditary traits and climatic
influences. Another religion is suited to another people for similar
reasons. All that is, is best seemed to be the substance of the lecturer's
conclusions. To try abruptly to change a nation's religion would be like a
man who sees a river flowing from the Alps. He criticizes the way it has
taken. Another man views the mighty stream descending from the Himalayas, a
stream that has been running for generations and thousands of years, and
says that it has not taken the shortest and best route. The Christian
pictures God as a personal being seated somewhere above us. The Christian
cannot necessarily be happy in Heaven unless he can stand on the edge of the
golden streets and from time to time gaze down into the other place and see
the difference. Instead of the golden rule, the Hindoo believes in the
doctrine that all non-self is good and all self is bad, and through this
belief the attainment of the individual infinity and the freedom of the soul
at the proper time will be fulfilled. How excessively vulgar, stated Vive
Kananda, was the golden rule! Always self! always self ! was the Christian
creed. To do unto others as you would be done by! It was a horrible,
barbarous, savage creed, but he did not desire to decry the Christian creed,
for those who are satisfied with it to them it is well adapted. Let the
great stream flow on, and he is a fool who would try to change its course,
when nature will work out the solution. Spiritualist (in the true acceptance
of the word) and fatalist, Vive Kananda emphasized his opinion that all was
well and he had no desire to convert Christians. They were Christians; it
was well. He was a Hindoo; that, also, was well. In his country different
creeds were formulated for the needs of people of different grades of
intelligence, all this marking the progress of spiritual evolution. The
Hindoo religion was not one of self; ever egotistical in its aspirations,
ever holding up promises of reward or threats of punishment. It shows to the
individual he may attain infinity by non-self. This system of bribing men to
become Christians, alleged to have come from God, who manifested Himself to
certain men on earth, is atrocious. It is horribly demoralizing and the
Christian creed, accepted literally, has a shameful effect upon the moral
natures of the bigots who accept it, retarding the time when the infinity of
self may be attained.
* * *
[The Tribune reporter, perhaps the same who had earlier heard "giants" for
"Jains," this time heard "bury" for "burn"; but otherwise, with the
exception of Swamiji's statements regarding the golden rule, he seems to
have reported more or less accurately:]
(Detroit Tribune, February 18, 1894)
Swami Vive Kananda at the Unitarian Church last night declared that widows
were never buried [burned] alive in India through religion or law, but the
act in all cases had been voluntary on the part of the women. The practice
had been forbidden by one emperor, but it had gradually grown again until a
stop was put to it by the English government. Fanatics existed in all
religions, the Christian as well as the Hindu. Fanatics in India had been
known to hold their hands over their heads in penance for so long a time
that the arm had gradually grown stiff in that position, and so remained
ever after. So, too, men had made a vow to stand still in one position.
These persons would in time lose all control of the lower limbs and never
after be able to walk. All religions were true, and the people practiced
morality, not because of any divine command, but because of its own good.
Hindus, he said, did not believe in conversion, calling it perversion.
Associations, surroundings and educations were responsible for the great
number of religions, and how foolish it was for an exponent of one religion
to declare that another man's belief was wrong. It was as reasonable as a
man from Asia coming to America and after viewing the course of the
Mississippi to say to it: "You are running entirely wrong. You will have to
go back to the starting place and commence it all over again." It would be
just as foolish for a man in America to visit the Alps and after following
the course of a river to the German Sea to inform it that its course was too
tortuous and that the only remedy would be to flow as directed. The golden
rule, he declared, was as old as the earth itself and to it could be traced
all rules of morality [sic]. Man is a bundle of selfishness. He thought the
hell fire theory was all nonsense. There could not be perfect happiness when
it was known that suffering existed. He ridiculed the manner some religious
persons have while praying. The Hindu, he said, closed his eyes and communed
with the inner spirit, while some Christians he had seen had seemed to stare
at some point as if they saw God seated upon his heavenly throne. In the
matter of religion there were two extremes, the bigot and the atheist. There
was some good in the atheist, but the bigot lived only for his own little
self. He thanked some anonymous person who had sent him a picture of the
heart of Jesus. This he thought a manifestation of bigotry. Bigots belong to
no religion. They are a singular phenomena [sic].
- Notes
- ↑ Actually the subject was "The Divinity of Man".
- ↑ This and the next four paragraphs appear in Vol. IV of the Complete Works under the heading, "Is India a Benighted Country?"