Swami Vivekananda on Justice and Equality

Dr.Sumi Vasudevan

This paper is an attempt to make awareness about the contribution of Swami

Vivekanandas justice and equality. Justice is one of the greatest virtues of
humanity. It is based on the idea of a just society which gives individuals and
groups fair treatment and share the benefits of society. The concept of equality is
central to the philosophy of justice. It is argued that although human beings are
not created equal in all respects, they should be treated equally in all respects.
But there is injustice and inequality spreading uncontrollably to the extent that
only the powerful and the wealthy win all the goals in the society. It is here that
this paper is focused on.

Vivekananda was a great nationalist of India, who wanted to revitalize the nation
through the vitality of religion. He never claimed to be a philosopher or a social
reformer in the traditional sense of the term. He was in fact only a religious man.
He thought that if religion is interpreted in its correct sense and understood by
everybody, much of our miseries, mutual conflicts and social evils would be
automatically solved.

Vivekananda assumed the role of a world teacher and tried to infuse in to mankind
the essence of unity and equality. He belonged to the whole world and asked the
Indians to learn from the west their great concern for masses, reverence and
freedom for women and the capacity for making rapid progress. He was a true
democrat. He was of the opinion that no nation could gain physical freedom
without physical equality. His views on society and its growth were based on his
belief that man was not a mere machine, but something more, a divine being. His
views on society were humanistic. His humanism was based on his tremendous
faith in the powers of man. He has denounced the classcharacter of our
civilization, and as a remedy wanted to educate and uplift the masses on the basis
of equality.

The practical Vedanta of Vivekananda offers exalted principles for the

reconstruction of society. His thoughts shed light on the concept of justice and
equality. His supreme faith in Vedanta led him to profess the harmony between the
individual and the social life, freedom of each individual and nation, human
equality and unity. As Vedanta makes no difference between the one and the many
that is, the individual and the society, it emphasis that mutual relations are to be
based on equality of rights and opportunities. The equality that Vivekananda had in
mind was not merely the materialistic equality based on social and economic
justice. His life mission was to establish and demonstrate the spiritual equality that
elevates the individual soul to the highest plane of universal soul. Each soul,
according to him, is potentially divine.

Vivekananda was a spiritual personality, his view on society and social justice are
more realistic and pragmatic than any other modern thinkers. He strongly pleaded
for a democratic set up of social justice. He flayed social injustice and dreamed a
harmonious order in a society founded on the lofty ideals of freedom and equality.
He was much shocked to find that India, the land of the vedas, where equality was
the basis of society right from the dawn of human civilization, had been divided by
the walls of casteism -the source of all inequalities. He considered this inequality
as fictitious and monstrous. To him this attitude of inequality is the primal sin.
As a devout Vedantist, Swami Vivekananda upheld the doctrine of equality of all
men irrespective of caste, creed, faith, birth and colors .In this sense he was a true
democrat. He said, no nation could gain physical freedom without physical
equality. To him all men are alike. He thought that social inequality is a curse up on
mankind. It is the root of all the miseries and degradations. It is the source of all
bondage, physical, mental and spiritual. Equality is essential not only in spiritual
field but also in material fields.

According to Vivekananda freedom is meaningless unless it is based on the edifice

of equality. He was a staunch supporter of equality. To him, equality was the way
to freedom and inequality, the way to bondage. No man and no nation attempt to
gain physical freedom without physical equality, nor mental freedom without
mental equality. Ignorance, inequality and desire, according to him are the three
causes of human misery, and each follows the other inevitable union. Inequality is
the bane of human nature, the curse upon mankind, the root of all misery. This is
the source of all bondage physical, mental and spiritual. As already stated
Vivekananda regarded equality as a way to individual freedom.

He wanted that every individual should have the same rights and insisted upon
freedom of thought and action in every way. Vivekananda says that equality of
opportunity does not imply dead homogeneity in society. He says the whole
universe is a play of unity in variety, and of variety in unity. The whole universe is
a play of differentiation and oneness, the whole universe is a play of the finite in
the infinite. What is necessary and can certainly be attained is the elimination of
privileges, the enjoyment of advantage by one over another. That is really the work
before the whole world. In all social lives, there has been that one fight in every
race and in every country. The difficulty is not that one body of men because they
have the advantage of intelligence should take away even physical enjoyment from
those who do not possess that advantage. The fight is to destroy that privilege.

In modern India, the movement for distributive justice in its true sense was Swami
Vivekananda. It is Vivekananda who made a revolutionary statement when he
remarked: It is mockery to offer religion to a starving man, a country where
millions of people live on flowers of the mohua plant and a million or so of
Brahmins suck the blood out of these poor people. Swami diagnosed four
principles evils, viz, priest craft, poverty, tyranny and ignorance from which
millions of Indian people were to be saved. He held that equitable distribution of
wealth is to be achieved not by force but by consent and limitation of wants by the
individual.

Vivekananda's thoughts caught the imagination of people in diverse societies and

cultures because of the universality of his preaching and the exalted goals that he
set for man. Given the politics of his times and the social and economic
environment that prevailed in India and large parts of the world, Vivekananda was
a true revolutionary who was speaking ahead of his times. He ignited the minds of
millions of people in India and outside because of his commitment to humanism,
egalitarianism, equity, rational thinking and democratic values. He believed that a
nation built on the bedrock of education and equality, including gender equality,
which guaranteed a level playing field for all citizens, could never be a laggard in
the comity of nations. The base of the national super structure should be a
knowledge society he said and the mantra of equality should combine with
spiritual strength and self-belief. When this happened, a strong and vibrant India
would emerge and this nation would once again be a global leader in the market
place of ideas. If all we were to follow Vivekanandas teachings, if all were to
serve the country in this time of its need, what goal surely, would be impossible?

While Swami Vivekananda is no longer with us physically, his teachings are

indelible and serve as inspiration to all of us , to strive to grow, individually and
collectively, towards the common goal of unity, empowerment, brotherhood, faith
and a commitment to do what we can to create a much better society for everyone.

Dr.Sumi Vasudevan
Associate Fellow
Santhigiri Research Foundation
References

1. M. Sivarama Krishna and Sumitha Roy. Reflections on Swami Vivekananda

Hundred Years after Chicago. New Delhi: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 1993.

2. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 1. Culcutta: Mayavati

Memorial Edition.1992.

3. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol.1V. Culcutta: Mayavati

Memorial Edition.1995.

4. Swami Vivekananda. India and Her Problems. Culcutta: Advaita Ashram,

1963.

5. The Vedanta Kesari. Sri Ramakrishna Math. Madras:1986.