SWAMI VIVEKANAND’S NE0 VEDENTA: THE HARBINGER OF NEW RENISSACE

By: Prof LP Singh

Swami Vivekananda and the icon, was a phenomenon thinker and a great yogi. He was
born on 12th January, 1863.He met Swami Ramkrishna Paramhansha in the year 1881.
Swami Ramkrishna through his Shaktipata (Transmission of Light) awakened the
dormant divinity of Narendra. Narendra experienced the spiritual sublimity and divine
effulgence and he became enlightened. After Sankracharya and Ramanujacharya Swami
Vivekananda was the greatest commentator and exponent of Vedanta philosophy.

According to Vivekananda God is a principle and not a person, one and the many are the
same. This is the foundation of Swami Vivekananda’s Neo Vedanta. According to Vedanta
we are all God, we are to realize the true nature and ultimate truth and reality. We have
to awaken our dormant divinity. We are hibernated Cosmic Being.

Neo Vedanta epitomizes culmination of a quest for men’s real identity and destiny. It was
in this process that philosophy and religion were discovered. As men’s faculty of thinking
began evolving he started questioning. The questioning was to understand the secrets of
Natura and his own self. The Indian saints and seers discovered in their spiritual
sublimity, secrets of being and existence. They had also identified the ultimate truth as
One Homogeneous and Whole, in their divine effulgence and meditative trance.

Advaita Vedanta is the discovery of the Indian Seers who formulated Vedanta Philosophy
based on their Spiritual experience of what constitutes as truth and reality. It is both
philosophy and religion. Schrodinger the founding father of quantum mechanics, while
summarizing the Quintessential Teachings of the Vedanta writes: ‘Hence this Life of
yours which you are living, is not merely a piece of the entire existence, but certain sense
the whole; while this whole is not constituted that it can be surveyed in one single glance.
This, as we know, is what the Brahmins explained in there sacred, mystic formulae which
is simple and clear. Tattvamasi, this is you.

In their words, “I am in the east, am in the west, I am below and above, I am this whole
world”.1 It answers the quantum question WHO AM I. Plotinus raised the same question
WHO ARE WE. The genesis of philosophy and religion in finding their answers.
In the beginning man postulated the anthropomorphic vision of GOD because he thought
God must be like him. This belief manifested itself extensively in the mythology and
metaphors in different religious scriptures in the form of polytheism, henotheism,
pantheism. In the 5th Century Xenophanes was the first western philosopher who
ridiculed the anthropomorphic concept of God.

We find a very deep philosophical thought in the earliest record of Human Civilization.
Men in the beginning, was part of nature and environment had played a great role in
formulating his philosophical and religious moorings. This is evident from the earliest
writing of Indian, Chinese, Greek and the Persian thinkers.

According to Neo Vedanta of Vivekananda the universe is vibrating with life. It is living
reality because it is a modification of Consciousness. Consciousness is quint essential
nature and structure of the cosmos. Both science and philosophy culminate in
Spirituality. It is the goal and end for the quest of science and philosophy. According to
Spinoza the human body is a modification of infinite substance (God) in so far as it is
expressed in the attributes of their extension. According to him material world is a
modification of God.

Hence, it follows from Spinoza philosophy that there is a consciousness which

corresponds to the vital processes of our body. According to Schrodinger the
consciousness is singular. There is a convergence of Science and Spirituality. The
relativity and quantum mechanics are coming closer to Vedantic concept of Truth and
Reality. The cosmic consciousness (Brahman) is the only reality that exists. According to
Neo Vedanta Brahman appears as the phenomenon world without losing its essential
nature and transdentality. It is like rope appearing as a snake. Goudapada the founder
of Adavaita Vedanta propagated the theory of Ajativada: according to which Brahman
has never become the universe. Brahman does not undergo change and metamorphosis.
According to Goudapada Atman is the only reality. Mandukarika and Avadhuta Gita
have enunciated the non-dual school of thought from the transcendental point of view,
but when we discuss the nature and reality from empirical point of view the world is a
relative truth. As per Neo Vedanta; world is a modification of Sponza’s substance,
Vedantic Brahman, the Buddhist Sunyata (Emptiness) and Taoist Tao.
Neo Vedanta says each one of us have his own path, but the path is not goal. The
examination and elucidation of Neo Vedanta and Modern Science leads to the same truth
that reality is beyond the reach of philosophical ratiocination and scientific formulation.
It recognizes the limitations of reason and speaks transcendental reality which is beyond
the reach of Philosophy and Science. The Western philosophy and minds are unaware of
state of Spiritual enlightenment which is called Samadhi.

The Mandukya Upanishad describes this state of Spiritual sublimity and self-realization
in which knot of the heart is cut asunder and all doubts are solved. This is the state of
illumination. In this state once becomes free from the cause of bondage and the Yogi
realizes the truth and reality as the Brahman. Mundaka Upanishad says “The sun
doesn’t shine nor the Moon or the Stars nor the flashes of lightning shine there, how can
this fires do so”. Everything shines because Brahman is the source of all lights and life.
It is the cosmic consciousness (Brahman) that illuminates and shines through the
different channel of lights in manifested universe.

Einstein concept of cosmic religious feelings is a profound philosophy. According to

Einstein there is no place of personal God in true religion. The cosmic religious feeling
is alone the true religion which is closer to Neo Vedanta.

Swami Vivekananda awakened the dormant divinity and Spirit of India. Mahatma
Gandhi on the other hand spiritualized Politics and lit the social and political soul of
India. They are the founding fathers of Spiritual Humanism. Spiritual universalism is
ingrained in India which is not just the geographical boundary or merely a political entity.
India is not just even a sovereign nation state. India is actually state of mind and
consciousness, a myth, a metaphor, a history, a renaissance, a culture, a civilization and
spirituality, all rolled into one entity simply put, India is a Dharma. Swami Vivekananda
and Mahatma Gandhi had laid down foundation of New India ethos and culture. The
Buddha, the Swami Vivekananda and Mahatma Gandhi are the foundation of New India.