Nerves of Steel, Muscles of Iron and Minds like Thunderbolt - A Hindu Monk’s Quest for Education

In his writings and speeches, Svāmī Vivekānanda emphasized that education should not be limited to merely the acquisition of knowledge, but should also aim to develop the physical, moral, and spiritual dimensions of an individual.

Svāmī Vivekānanda’s educational ideas cannot be analyzed without stressing the significance his guru, śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa, had in his life, who discovered the genius in him. Svāmījī and śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa came from universes that were diametrically opposed to one another. While one was a member of the family that was an adherent of Brahmo Samāja, a monotheistic reformist movement of the Hindu religion that denounced polytheism and idol worship, the other was an Indian Hindu mystic who lived his life according to the religious practices from the Hindu traditions of Bhakti yoga, Tantra, and Advaita Vedānta. When their worlds collided, it was Svāmī Vivekānanda who had to not only completely surrender to śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa but also to go through a long-drawn un-learning process to know the ‘self’ hidden within. His world was transformed. He was given a new vision by his guru. No wonder then that education for Svāmī Vivekānanda meant “the manifestation of perfection already in man”.

Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa, being an enlightened person, understood the greatness hidden in his favourite disciple Naren. Even their first meeting had Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa crying in joy, and saying to Svāmījī, “You made me wait for long, Naren. Finally, you are here.” The following two conversations between this guru-śiṣyā duo are illustrative of how Svāmī Vivekānanda’s life was transformed forever after being introduced to śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa;

Svāmī Vivekānanda– Because of so many problems, we don’t know where we are heading?
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa– If you look outside you will not know where you are heading. Look inside. Eyes provide sight. The heart provides the way.
Svāmī Vivekānanda – One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered?
Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa – There are no unanswered prayers. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Life is a mystery to solve, not a problem to resolve. Trust me. Life is wonderful if you know how to live.

Despite his emphasis on “self-discovery”, śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa did not want Svāmījī to be selfish and focus only on his enlightenment. He instructed him to travel the world to spread the message behind the real purpose of life. Svāmījī was supposed to do what śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa had done for him; making every human being realize the infinite power which resided within them, and attain saccidānanda (existence, consciousness and bliss).

Following his Guru’s path, Svāmījī saw immense possibilities in every single individual. For him, education was a matter of recognizing what was innate within all of us. The external self or nature for him was “merely the internal nature writ large”. But this process of inner discovery that Svāmījī often spoke about was not an easy route to follow. It required one to observe the “purity, patience and perseverance” to get success on this path, and above all, performing one’s duties while being unattached yet full of love. In a letter written to Shri Pramadadas Mitra on 21st March, 1889, Svāmījī described his inner struggle on the path of gaining knowledge and wisdom and how it meant facing a lot of trials and tribulations;

I am indebted to you for the advice which comes from you as the outcome of your experience and spiritual practice. It is very true, and I have also found it so very often, that one has to suffer at times for holding in one’s brain novel views of all sorts.

Success in life, for Swami ji, was not to be narrowly defined, where material desires prevailed, but to strive for moral purity and passion for truth. Svāmījī himself attempted to establish this, through his words and deeds. For him, any scheme of education that conceptualized success only in material terms, was meaningless. In a lecture delivered in 1897 at the Victoria Hall, Madras, Svāmījī stated;

The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion— is it worth of the name.

He, instead, argued for an education, where man-making was considered an end goal. The products of his scheme of education, which nurtured all three dimensions of life; soul, mind and body, would produce men, who according to him, would have “nerves of steel, muscles of iron and minds like thunderbolts.”

In his diagnosis of the colonial situation, Svāmījī saw the prevailing education as the root cause of all problems being faced by Indians. It did not create confident Indians, instead aimed for producing “a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and color, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.” The colonial education also instilled in Indians the hatred for their own cultures and civilizations, their own roots, which they held so dearly. The objective of such an education was to create a mass of individuals who were only good at following orders, behaving meekly, and who were devoid of any original thinking. In a letter written to Shri Surendra Nath Sen, Svāmījī remarked;

we have had a negative education all along from our boyhood. We have only learnt that we are nobodies. Seldom are we given to understand that great men were ever born in our country. Nothing positive has been taught to us. We do not even know how to use our hands and feet!

In opposition to the negative nature of colonial education, Svāmījī wanted an education with Indian characteristic “by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which, one can stand on one’s own feet.” In his scheme of education, he emphasized equally on mind, body and soul. For him, training of mind involved long hours of meditations, the practice of concentration, and the observance of ethical purity. He did not prioritize mind training over physical training. For him, the sound body was a prerequisite for a sound mind, and he often quoted Upanishadic dictum to stress over the physical culture, “nāyam ātmā balahīnena labhyaḥ (this spirit - ātman - is not to be won by the weak. (Muṇḍ. 3.2.4)). In a similar vein, the idea of brahmacārya, which may be roughly translated as self-control, was an essential component in the process of training the soul. The exercise of brahmacārya assisted one in achieving harmony between their impulses and actions. Education, when conceived of in this manner, accomplished what Svāmījī referred to as the education for man-making. In a lecture delivered at Los Angeles, California on January 8, 1900, Svāmījī remarked,

The ideal of all education, all training, should be this man-making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow. The man who influences, who throws his magic, as it were, upon his fellow-beings, is a dynamo of power, and when that man is ready, he can do anything and everything he likes; that personality put upon anything will make it work.

Svāmījī didn’t simply talk about the principles that should guide his education; he also got into the specifics of how his educational programme should be put into effect. He advocated for education to be provided to all people in their respective mother tongues, with saṃskṛta and English serving as additional languages to be acquired and mastered. His plan for education placed a significant emphasis on learning saṃskṛta because he believed that doing so would give students access to the wisdom of our civilization and would bolster their pride in their civilizational heritage. Since he did not want Indians to have narrow minds, he advocated that Indians learn English as a third language. He believed that it was essential for Indians to be able to comprehend the western sciences and technologies. Similarly, Svāmījī wanted women to have an equal opportunity to get educated so that they could equally contribute to the wellbeing of the society. He also found in education the cure of many social evils that plagued India. It was Svāmījī’s extensive travels to different parts of the world that brought to his attention the liberating potential that education possesses. In a letter written to Shrimati Sarala Ghosal on 24th April, 1897, Svāmījī remarked,

Education, education, education alone! Travelling through many cities of Europe and observing in them the comforts and education of even the poor people, there was brought to my mind the state of our own poor people, and I used to shed tears. What made the difference? Education was the answer I got.

For Svāmījī, education was a life-long process, and it often ended with one’s own life. Emphasizing on this point, he wrote in his contribution to March 1899 edition of Bangla magazine Uddabodhanā, “Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa Paramahaṃsa used to say, ‘As long as I live, so long do I learn.’ That man or that society which has nothing to learn is already in the jaws of death.” Up until the very end of his life, Svāmījī never stopped reading, writing, communicating, and learning new things. He was the embodiment of the never-ending quest for knowledge that he espoused. Svāmījī wanted everyone to live a principled life, and put their education to the service of humanity. Education, in his scheme of things, was never self-serving, but was that which uplifted the spiritual and moral quotients of whole humanity, as he argued,

education is not the amount of information that you put in your brain and that runs riots there. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library…

Endotes

1. Bhide, N. R., & Kendra, V. (2008). Swami Vivekananda in America. Vivekananda Kendra.
2. Harris, R. (2022). Guru to the World: The Life and Legacy of Vivekananda. Harvard University Press.
3. Paranjape, M. R. (2015). Swami Vivekananda: A Contemporary Reader. Routledge India.
4. Saha, A. Swami Vivekananda’s Education–Manifestation of Perfection.
5. Swami, V. (1944). Letters of Swami Vivekanand.
6. Vivekananda, S. (2019). Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Partha Sinha.