SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND ETHICS
PREFACE This paper presents the Ethics of Swami Vivekananda. It shows how anyone's life's condition may be improved through an understanding of the ethics of Swami Vivekananda and the application of his principles to lead a better existence. This paper is primarily addressed to all interested in the working of spirituality and religion from Swami Vivekananda's perspective, which will play a very important role in the growth and development of the oneself. An understanding of ethics, as one of the basic factors that influence behavior will help us shift towards the necessity and purity of universalism by treating all around us equally. Grateful acknowledgment is here made to our History professor, Mrs Archana Raj Mishra and those who helped us gather data for this paper. This work would not have reached its present form without their invaluable help. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND Swami Vivekananda was born on 12th January 1863 in Kolkata. He was named Narendranath Datta by his parents Vishwanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi. Swamiji’s father was a successful attorney while mother had qualities like deep devotion and a strong character. Swamiji was always bright student. Being from an affluent family, he graduated from the Calcutta University and had a vast knowledge of different subjects, especially Western philosophy and History. Nonetheless he was also good at Music, Gymnastics and Studies. One would wonder how a person could excel in so many things. However, one of the important factors I would ascribe as the reason for his excellence would be that Swamiji was always of a Yogic temperament. This could have helped him manage the stress and maintain his health as well as mental wealth. His association with the Brahmo Samaj which was started by Raja Ram Mohan Roy shows that he thought for the people from a very young age. All this indicates that he was aware of the social situation around the world and one of the major factors responsible for this awareness in him was proper and good education. Swamiji was always curious in nature about nature. He had questions about the existence of God and Reality itself. After being directed by his college teacher, he met Sri Ramakrishna Paramhansa and soon developed a Guru- Disciple bond with him. He always used to ask questions about existence to Sri Ramakrishna but Sri

Ramakrishna had his own way to teach him. He used to confuse Swamiji more which would make him search for the truth even more and make him more curious. He wanted Swamiji to realize that the thirst for knowledge should be true and burning in that thirst is only when a person deliberately tries to reach the truth and finds it ultimately. He wanted him to know that the intensity and intention were very important and they had to be intense and pure respectively to find the right answers. However, there were some life events in Swamiji’s life that further intensified his thirst to know the truth. Two of the major events were the death of his father in 1884 and the death of his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna on 16th August 1886. After the death of his father, the family situation of Swamiji was in a very degenerate form. They were penniless. Despite of this fact, Swamiji became the leader of the group of the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna. Sri Ramakrishna died of throat cancer when Narendranath was 23 years old. After Sri Ramakrishna's death Swamiji along with other 14 disciples of Sri Ramakrishna began to live at Baranagar in North Kolkata. They finally took the formal vows of Sanyasa in 1887 when Swamiji was only 24 years old. This shows that Swamiji very well knew what he wanted to do in life. He was crystal clear with his life mission. He thereafter became Swami Vivekananda. ROLE OF ETHICS The concept of ethics preceding swami Vivekananda was predominantly a set of hindu ethics derived from sacred literature.The uniqueness of hindu ethics lay in its marriage of spirituality and practice. In the hindu scheme of things ,there were rudiments which suggested a discipline in individual life, social co existence and the ultimate belief in monism which means interconnectedness of all parts in the universe.the hindu tradition also encompassed a term called “dharma” which was a elaborate consciousness pertaining to individual duties and social obligations . The term ‘dharma’ by itself was a comprehensive socio- political as well as meta physical ethics .Another uniqueness in the tradition was the voluntariness in professing it.This formed the steel-frame foundation of the spiritual life in India. Though right conduct is generally considered to belong to legalistic ethics, it has a spiritual value as well. Also Hindu ethics differs from modern scientific ethics, which is largely influenced by biology; for according to this latter, whatever is conducive to the continuous survival of a particular individual or species is good for it. In other words ,Hindu ethics prescribes the disciplines for a spiritual life, which are to be observed consciously or unconsciously as long as man lives.

Ethics always says, "Not I, but thou." Its motto is, "Not self, but non-self." The vain ideas of individualism to which man clings when he is trying to find that Infinite Power, or that Infinite Pleasure through the senses, have to be given up, say the laws of ethics. You have to put yourself last, and others before you. The senses say, "Myself first." Ethics says, "I must hold myself last." Thus, all codes of ethics are based upon this renunciation; destruction, not construction, of the individual on the material plane. That Infinite will never find expression upon the material plane, nor is it possible or thinkable. The work of the ethics has been, and will be in the future, not the destruction of variation and the establishment of sameness in the external world, which is impossible, for it would mean death and annihilation---but to recognize the unity in spite of all these variations, to recognize the God within, in spite of everything that frightens us, to recognize that infinite strength as the property of everyone in spite of all apparent weakness, and to recognize the eternal, infinite, essential purity of the soul in spite of everything to the contrary which appears on the surface.
Swami Ananyanada- Complete works of Swami Vivekananda,President Advaita Ashrama. Maywati,Pithogarh, Himalayas

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S ETHICS ON RELIGION “Man is an infinite circle, whose circumference is nowhere, But the Centre is located In one spot; And god is an infinite circle whose circumference is nowhere But whose Centre is everywhere.” The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and do good that is the whole of religion. Man is higher than all animals, than all angels; none is greater than man. One may gain political and social independence, but if one is a slave to his passions and desires, one cannot feel the pure joy of real freedom. Swami Vivekananda believed that one of the first signs of becoming religious was to become cheerful, cheerful not only externally but also in your attitude and perception. What one feels inside is reflected outside and thus by being cheerful one can spread smiles to all. In one word, the ideal of Vedanta is to know man as he really is, and this is its message, that if you cannot worship your brother man, the manifested God, how can you worship a God who is un-manifested? If you are really pure, how do you see the impure? For what is within, is without. We cannot see impurity without having it inside ourselves. This is one of the practical sides of Vedanta, and I hope that we shall all try to carry it into our lives.

The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and do good – that is the whole of religion. ‘ Not he that cried “Lord”, “Lord”, but he that doeth the will of the Father’ which means that god did not appreciate the one who chanted his name thousand times a day but blessed those who fulfilled their duties as human beings by helping those below them in the name of religion. Swami Vivekananda very strongly believed that the basic aim of religion is to bring peace to man. It is not a wise thing for one to suffer in this life so that one can be happy in the next. One must be happy here and now. Any religion that can bring that about is the true religion for humanity. The only religion that ever existed for swami Vivekananda was that of humanity. He stated that “The living God is within you, and yet you are building churches and temples and believing all sorts of imaginary nonsense. The only God to worship is the human soul, in the human body. Of course, all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, if I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage.” The central idea in the life and teaching of Vivekananda was religious universalism. In the eyes of those who believed in universalism, there was no difference between the followers of different religions. All religions are universal — equal and true. Swami Vivekananda strongly believed that religion was superior to another and all stood equal at power. One defect in the vedanta was it being worked for so long on spiritual plane only..now the time has come to make it practical.However metaphysical truth could turn quite meaningless when entirely divorced from social realities.Like many other thinkers Swami Vivekananda believed that a grossly materialistic west was in need of spiritual enlightenment and that such instructions could suitably arrive through India. On the other hand he was also heard to say that England and America were more fertile grounds for Vedanta to succeed since,compared with india,they were societies that had secured a state of material development that could better sustain human life. Religion as the Swami was never weary of emphasizing,was not for empty stomachs.If we discuss the metaphysics of Vivekananda we find that the most attractive aspect of his thought is its claim to have broken the abstractness and impracticality of the advaita philosophy and made it social vedanta. His institutionalized practice of “Seva” based on a truly modern religio-social philosophy is sometimes rightly characterized as bringing Vedanta out of the Forestí1. Before Vivekananda the chasm between the high-flown advaita abstraction and its relevance to practice was wide, as he narrates anecdotally in a talk delivered in London on Vedanta and Privilege. If ask one of our priests in India, “Do you believe in Vedanta?” and he says, “That is my religion I certainly do; that is my life.”Very well, do you admit the equality of all life, the sameness of everything “Certainly, I do.” The next moment, when a low-cast man approaches this priest, he jumps to one side of the street to avoid that man.

“Why do you jump?” Because his every touch would have polluted me.î ìBut you were just saying we are all the same and you admit there is no difference in souls. He says Oh, that is in theory only for householders; when I go into a forest, then I will look upon everyone as the same. Re-reading of Advaita as the potential foundation for social philosophy may be studied under the following heads : ➔ Non-dualism: the basis of love for the other. ➔ Vivekananda's philosophy of action. ➔ Non-dualism and ethics. Under the first section i.e. “Non-dualism: the basis of love for the other”, it was found that his humanitarian social ethics has in fact a fair foundation in non-dualism in the sense that realizing oneness with the universe and every other human being, humanitarianism becomes nothing but serving one's own self. Love itself is thus explained as the margin of the lover and the loved in unity. There is only one final identify and not two. Secondly, the discussion centered around Swami's philosophy of action. Action, strictly in an Advaitic sense, is possible only in a vyavaharika level of reality as at the level of ultimate reality there is neither action not actor. But in the world, where are is to work out one's moksha as a human actor, action is of extreme importance and one cannot be without action. However, action is to be performed according to the doctrine of the Gitanishkamakarma. Thirdly, the status of ethics itself in Vivekananda's non dualistic Philosophy has also been discussed. Ethics is a way to the end and a matter of the phenomenal world. It is one of the ways to “moksha” for sure and is part of all other margas as preparatory state. Within the philosophy of the one, there is neither sin nor any duality between evil and good. He does not deny evil, but explains it as one of the manifestations of the one. In such an explanation of morality, there is at the same time a universalism and relativism. It is universalistic in the sense that all ethics is a way of going beyond manyness to oneness. But as for as the particular methods of doing so is concerned there is no unity or single law, for what is good for one is evil for another and viceversa.
BARNOLIPI -An Interdisciplinary Journal -Volume -I. Issue IV. December 2011. ISSN 2249 2666 .www.reflectionedu.com/barnolipi.php © REFLECTION Mentoring Services.“Remembering Vivekananda”- Frontline magazine-February 8,2013- pp.6,12,7,13

SWAMIJI’S CONCEPT OF GOD AND MAYA From whom all beings are projected, in whom all live, and unto whom they all return; that is God.The sum total of this whole universe is God Himself. Is God then matter?

No, certainly not, for matter is that God perceived by the five senses; that God as perceived by the intellect is mind; and when the spirit sees, He is seen as spirit. He is not matter, but whatever is real in matter is He. All beings, great or small, are equally manifestations of God; the difference is only in the manifestation. The whole of Nature is worship of God. Wherever there is life, there is this search for freedom and that freedom is the same as God. The child rebels against law as soon as it is born. Its first utterance is a cry, a protest against the bondage in which it finds itself. This longing for freedom produces the idea of a Being who is absolutely free. The concept of God is a fundamental element in the human constitution. In the Vedanta, Sat-chit-ananda (Existence-Knowledge-Bliss) is the highest concept of God possible to the mind. It is the essence of knowledge and is by its nature the essence of bliss. The whole universe is a symbol, and God is the essence behind. After so much austerity I have understood this as the real truth--- God is present in every Jiva; there is no other God besides that. "Who serves Jiva, serves God indeed." Vedanta declares that our real nature is divine: pure, perfect, eternally free. We do not have to become Brahman, we are Brahman. Our true Self, the Atman individual soul one with Brahman cosmic soul .But if our real nature is divine, why then are we so appallingly unaware of it? The answer to this question lies in the concept of maya, or ignorance. Maya is the veil that covers our real nature and the real nature of the world around us. Maya is fundamentally inscrutable: we don't know why it exists and we don't know when it began. What we do know is that, like any form of ignorance, maya ceases to exist at the dawn of knowledge, the knowledge of our own divine nature. Maya can be compared to clouds which cover the sun: the sun remains in the sky but a dense cloud cover prevents us from seeing it. When the clouds disperse, we become aware that the sun has been there all the time. Our clouds—maya appearing as egotism, selfishness, hatred, greed, lust, anger, ambition—are pushed away when we meditate upon our real nature, when we engage in unselfish action, and when we consistently act and think in ways that manifest our true nature: The cause of our ignorance is a kind of mist that has come between us and the truth is MAYA. Maya is a statement of the fact of this universe, of how it is going on. Why can’t we know this secret of the universe? And the answer given was very significant: because we talk in vain, and because we are satisfied with the things of the senses and because we are running after desires, therefore, we, as it were , cover the reality with a mist… here the word maya is not used at all, but we get the idea that the cause of our

ignorance is a kind of mist that has come between us and truth. Maya of the Vedanta is neither idealism nor realism,nor is it a theory.it is a simple statement of facts –what we are and what we see around us. Vedantist have proved that the mind is limited ,that it cannot go beyond certain limits-beyond time, space, and causation.As no man can jump out of his own self,so no man can go beyond the limits that been put upon him by the laws of time and space. Every attempt to solve the laws of causation , time & space would be futile becoz the very attempt would have to be made by taking for granted the existence of these three. This world has no existence.it means that it has no absolute existence.It exists only in relation to our mind. We see this world with the five senses but if we had had another sense,we would see in it something more,it would appear as something more different.it has, therefore, no real existence:it has no unchangeable,immovable,infinite existence.nor can it be called non- existence,seeing that it exists and we have to work in and through it. It is ,therefore, a mixture of existence and non-existence.It can be simply explained with an example: The mother is nursing a child with great care:all her soul,her life,is in that child.The child grows , becomes a man , and perchance becomes a blackguard and a brute, kicks her and beats her everyday :and yet the mother clings to the child and when her reason awakes ,she covers it up with the idea of love. She little thinks that it is not love, that it is something which has got hold of her nerves,which she cannot shakeoff; however she may try; she cannot shake off the bondage she is in..and this is maya. In short ,what you call matter ,or spirit, or mind,or anything else you may like to call them , the fact remains the same: we cannot say that they are,we cannot say they are not.we cannot say they are one ,we cannot say they are many .this eternal play of light and darkness –indiscriminate ,indistinguishable,inseparable-is always there .A fact, yet at the same time not a fact;awake and at the same time asleep.This is a statement of fact and this is MAYA.
‘Why cant…..the truth’-pg.89-15th Vedantist …..non-existence-pg 90 ‘The mother is ….is maya’-pp. 93, 94-2nd para 1st line, 97-2nd para ‘Vedantic position –patience’ pg.102-2nd para

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA’S ETHICS ON GURU AND SHISHYA The role of guru which is a Sanskrit word used to denote “teacher” played a very crucial role in swami Vivekananda life. Tracing an incident from the life of swami and his guru Ramakrishna Paramhamsa will truly depict swami’s irrevocable devotion towards his guru.

During the last days of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa’s body he was always engaged in Guru Seva without considering bad condition of his house and family and nor did he bothered for his own food. Due to throat cancer Ramakrishna Paramhamsa’s body was very sick. He used to spit cough, phlegm & blood. Vivekananda used to clean all these very attentively and with full love & devotion. Once one of the disciple displayed negligence in Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa’s service and frowned his nose and eyebrows upon the spits. Seeing this Swami Vivekananda became angry. To give lesson to that Gurubhai, demonstrating the love for each belongings of Gurudev he went and drank the whole vessel filled with cough, blood and such other particles kept near Gurudev’s bed. Due to his matchless devotion and loyalty towards Guru he could do great service of Guru’s body and could spread the divine message of Guru to the entire world. He succeeded in understanding Gurudev and could merger his existence in Guru’s nature. He spread the fragrance of India’s invaluable spiritual treasure worldwide. Swami Vivekananda use to tell about Guru Bhakti: - “Self-knowledge has supreme range which cannot be obtain from scriptures. Even if you go to whole earth tour, real self-realization cannot be known without Gurudev’s Kripa-Prasad at any time. So by God’s mercy when you have Gurudev Darshan, then completely take Gurudev’s shelter, consider that he is Parabrahma, be his child and serve him totally – by this you will be blessed. Those who have surrendered to Gurudev with supreme love and honor, only to them the Supreme Lord have bestowed the Param Bhakti and have displayed the supernatural miracles of spirituality.” Emphasizing on the need for guru Swami Vivekananda explained that In studying books we are sometimes deluded into thinking that we are being spiritually helped; but if we analyze the effect of the study of books on ourselves, we shall find that at the utmost it is only our intellect that derives profit from such studies, and not our inner spirit. This inadequacy of books to quicken spiritual growth is the reason why, although almost every one of us can speak most wonderfully on spiritual matters, when it comes to action and the living of a truly spiritual life, we find ourselves so awfully deficient. To quicken the spirit, the impulse must come from another soul. The person from whose soul such impulse comes is called the Guru — the teacher; and the person to whose soul the impulse is conveyed is called the Shishya — the student. To convey such an impulse to any soul, in the first place, the soul from which it proceeds must possess the power of transmitting it, as it were, to another; and in the

second place; the soul to which it is transmitted must be fit to receive it. The seed must be a living seed, and the field must be ready ploughed; and when both these conditions are fulfilled, a wonderful growth of genuine religion takes place. Swami Vivekananda composed the mantra for the worship of Ramakrishna in the monastery: “sthapakaya ca dharmasya sarvadharmavaspurine, avatarvaristhaya ramakrsnaya te namah” (we bow down to Ramakrishna,the greatest of all incarnations,the founder of dharma,he who has the embodiment of all religions.) The rules he laid down for the members of the order contained the following instruction: teach them that one may bow to all deities,but we worship only Ramakrishna...The other deities have become old and obsolete.We have a new India now,a new deity,a new faith,a new veda.
“Remembering Vivekananda”- Frontline magazine-February 8,2013- pp.13,12

INDIVIDUAL AND THE SOCIETY Swamiji had a lot to say to the ordinary man. Although Swamiji would not agree to the term ‘ordinary man’ since he believed that no one was ordinary. He gave a new ‘sense of self’ to the people from both Western and Eastern worlds. He used the force of his strong personality and powerful speeches and made people listen and injected his thought into the marrows of their bones. In his first public speech in the west itself he electrified the ‘ordinary’ audience by saying “Hear ye, Children of Immortal Bliss . . . you are souls immortal, spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant, not you the servant of matter.” His cry was thunderous and it forced people to think of themselves in a more positive way. He said that an individual had truly followed a religion if he had helped others to know the truth and if he had uplifted them. He said that the society was just one and there were no two societies. He said that as an individual one had to lift the society up for good. He rejected the philosophy of damnation prevalent in the western world and stated that man was the immortal. He was not the body and not the matter and that he would never die as he was never born. He said that God was within us and he was infinite and benevolent. This generated great positivity among the people. His work on individual and society can be traced to the Vedantic philosophy which inspired him the most. Swamiji said that a person with no perception of god was for him an atheist no matter how many churches he had been to or how many spiritual texts he had read.

Also he said that a man with a perception of god could be a saint regardless of the churches he visited or the books he read. He said that every doctrine had to be respected but the moment one’s doctrine was imposed on someone else forcefully; it would become a wrong doctrine. …” In the words of John Hagelin who is a Quantum Physicist (Ph.D in Physics and Consciousness), “and what we’ve discovered is that at the core, the basic foundation of the universe is this single universal field of intelligence; a field which unites Gravity with Electro-magnetism, Light with Radio-activity… So all the forces of nature, all the so called particles of nature are now understood to be one. They are all different ripples on the single ocean of existence. Called the unified field, the superstring field…“ The Famous double slit experiment first performed by Thomas Young opened doors to proving the mind boggling fact that every single electron, proton and atom itself is conscious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=pIJHJzDQcRM http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=usMsTPg-hHk

UNIVERSALISM If one were to study the religions, one would find a lot of similarity in what they preached and said. The essence of every religion seems to be similar to the others. One could also thus infer that every religion is equal and true. This is exactly what Swamiji maintained in his thoughts and this was known as Universalism, one of the greatest thought given by Swamiji to the world about religions. He believed that Truth alone was his God and the whole world was his Nation. He wanted to say that the whole world was just one place to live on. There were no two worlds within this, no separate beliefs. They were all the same, speaking just the same truth, in different ways. When he came up with this concept of Universalism it wasn’t just a philosophical thought. It was meant for the masses. It was an effort to improve the social condition of the world. It was meant to broaden the narrow attitudes of people which were the result as well as the cause of the society’s backwardness. The essentials of every religion being the same, there was no point fighting with each other. This is what Swamiji held up. He gave a wide definition of religion in the form of Humanism. For him religion was realization. He simply stated that religion if taken in the correct sense can eradicate most of the social evils in the society. It was nothing but a search for truth, for God. According to him, if everyone understood religion, there would be undoubtedly no way two religions would clash.

Universalism was not a declaration of religions being equal. Rather, it was simply an effort to open people’s thoughts to a new dimension through which they looked and felt religion. He wanted people to not just follow a particular set of rituals prescribed by the religion but also to understand what religion actually was and try to help others. That was the true sense of religion that he preached through Universalism. He meant to say that everything was just one. Today modern science acknowledges the fact that everything is just one. This also explains the statement Jesus said- “Love you brother as yourself”. Well, he said this probably because he is you! It’s also a fact that most people realize even today what Swamiji said then. Jim Carry, the famous Hollywood actor in his speech on June 4th, 2009 at the G.A.T.E (Global Alliance for Transformational Entertainment) inaugural event said that “and suddenly I was thrown into this expansive, amazing feeling of Freedom from myself, my problems. I saw that I was bigger than what I do, bigger than my body I was everything and everyone… I was no longer a fragment of the Universe, I was the Universe…”
“Remembering Vivekananda”- Frontline magazine-February 8,2013,pp.24,26,12

ETHICS ON WOMEN Swami Vivekananda warned it is completely unfair to discriminate between sexes, as there is not any sex distinction in atman (soul), the soul has neither sex, nor caste nor imperfection. He suggested not to think that there are men and women, but only that there are human beings. Swami Vivekananda felt, The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women and it is impossible to get back India's lost pride and honor unless they try to better the condition of women. Vivekananda considered men and women as two wings of a bird, and it is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing. So, according to him, there is no chance for welfare of the world unless the condition of woman is improved. Indian women: According to Vivekananda, the ideal of womanhood in India is motherhood – that marvelous, unselfish, all-suffering, ever-forgiving mother. Vivekananda felt, in India, there are two great evils – trampling on the women, and grinding through the poor through caste restrictions. Sita, the Ideal of Indian womanhood. According to Swami Vivekananda, Sita is

typical of India – the idealize India. Swami Vivekananda assured if world literature of the past and world literature of the future are thoroughly exhausted, yet, it'll not be possible to find out another Sita, because Sita is unique, the character was depicted once for all. Swami Vivekananda felt there may have been several Ramas, perhaps, but never more than one Sita. "In India the mother is the center of the family and our highest ideal. She is to us the representative of God, as God is the mother of the universe. It was a female sage who first found the unity of God, and laid down this doctrine in one of the first hymns of the Vedas. Our God is both personal and absolute; the absolute is male, the personal, female. And thus it comes that we now say: ’The first manifestation of God is the hand that rocks the cradle’." If you do not allow one to become a lion, he will become a fox. Women are a power, only now it is more evil because man oppresses woman; she is the fox, but when she is no longer oppressed, she will be the lion. "In the West its ideal is wife, in India in the mother".
“Remembering Vivekananda”- Frontline magazine-February 8,2013- pp.38,36,30

COMPARISON OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND MAHATMA GANDHI'S PHILOSOPHY (a) HUMANITARIAN APPROACH: Both the thinkers were human lover.They believed that understanding humanity will enable us to reach the final goal of life. According to Swami Vivekanand, “The worship of human soul in human body is the worship of God.” (b) BELIEF IN DEMOCRACY: Both the thinkers were staunch supporters of democracy.They were democratic in their attitude. According to them the aim of education is to develop democratic qualities by keeping one in a democratic environment. (c) INSISTENCE FOR TRUTH: “The Truth is far more powerful than any weapon of mass destruction”. – Mahatma Gandhi Both the thinkers emphasized insistence for truth. Gandhiji used to say that the best means to realize God is truth. Long before Gandhiji & Swami Vivekananda termed God and truth

(d) RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Religious education does not mean education of particular religion. Both the thinkers have emphasized equality of all religions. They said that God is one, with varied forms. They did not delimit the religion to any time or place. Temples, mosques, churches, etc. do not make religion.True religion lies in realizing the Truth. According to Gandhiji true education develop the mental, spiritual and physical powers of the child. (i) SUPPORTER OF MORAL EDUCATION: Swami Vivekananda emphasized that the aim of education should be moral, spiritual and character development. There aims can be achieved only through moral education. Gandhi Ji supporting the moral side of education said true education consists not in reading writing but in character development. (j) DISSIMILARITIES IN ROLE OF TEACHER: Swami Vivekananda was a believer of self education. Hesaid that every person in his own teacher.The external teacher gives only directions and thoughts through which the internal teacher gets inspiration to do and understand the task.According to swamiji an ideal teacher is like a skilled gardener.He prepares the soil for the development of the plant, gives manure, water and plus fence around it so that, it can grow in its natural way.The place Gandhiji has given to the teacher is different.According to him a good and ideal teacher must learn the art of effective teaching.He should have the qualities of truthfulness,nobility,humility,tolerance and hard-work.
International Referred Research Journal, October,2010.ISSN- 0974-2832 VoL.II *ISSUE-21 “EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY OF MAHATMA GANDHI AND SWAMI VIVEKANAND: A COMPARATIVE STUDY”- Dr K. Rao

COMPARISON OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND RABINDRANATH TAGORE'S IDEAS ON SPRITUALITY Spirituality for Rabindranath Tagore is the dynamic principle that touches every aspect of life and is the guiding principle that "leads human existence from partiality to fullness." He characterizes his spirituality as that of an artist. This implies a change in one's attitude to the world; one should move away from an egoistic appropriation of the world, which results in experiences of the world as a source of suffering and happiness, to an artistic experience of the world, where it is the source of unconditional joy (ananda).Similarly Swami Vivekananda too stressed on the aspect of happiness in life.

For Vivekananda, one of the central features of Hindu religion is its emphasis on "direct experience" of the ultimate Reality. Religion is to be realized, not simply to be heard or repeated like a parrot, and there is a diversity of spiritual paths to direct, personal experience of the ultimate Reality… On the theme of diversity of religions, Vivekananda holds the view that all religions are true and meaningful since they are diverse expressions of the same Reality and appropriations of one Ultimate Truth. The goal of all religions, Vivekananda points out, is a "final unitive experience," which for him is highlighted in the Hindu philosophical school of Advaita Vedanta. Tagore stresses the need to respond to the call from within, from "the man of the heart." The relationship between the man of the heart and the individual is very intimate. The intimacy is often described as the relationship of the lover and the beloved. It is this inner intimacy that also enables one to experience unity with the external world. While for Swami Vivekananda, the advaitic experience (non-dualistic experience) is the final goal toward which all religions are progressing, representing different points along the journey, a "staircase model" by which he is able to advocate tolerance, reject claims of exclusivism, and affirm the relative importance of various religious traditions of the world. www.adishakti.org/_/spirituality_of_rabindranath_tagore_ramakrishna_and_vivekananda.htm FINDINGS Swami Vivekananda And His Relevance Today' assumes more and more importance in modern times because of the dynamics of globalization and 'free market' economy forced upon or undertaken by one country after the other. Such socioeconomic changes produce a transient or temporary phase of social confusion, unrest, and apprehension. It produces stressful life style. When science and technology, inventions and discoveries, and advances in knowledge fail to answer questions pertaining to declining moral and ethical values, widening gap between the rich and the poor, failing economies, and feeling of insecurity all around, one turns to something else for finding peace and balance of mind. Religion offers such a hope for most of us. This is particularly so because inherited spiritual and religious cultures from ancient times guide us on the path of both Abhyudaya (social and individual progress) and Nishreyasa (path of renunciation) for human fulfillment. Today, human evolution has progressed to the stage where we are prompted to look deeper into our religious beliefs and spiritual understanding. In one's own religion or faith one is sure to find treasures of higher truth; the truth of diversity held together by the unifying substratum of universal divinity.

However, from time to time such teachings are misinterpreted or diluted, and thus they lose their force. They become mere play of words, and we see selfishness and sense enjoyment raising their head again as the sole aim in life. At best one tries to identify excellence in action or art or literature or physical sciences as the ultimate aim of human life. However, this is not spirituality; spirituality is a state of consciousness. It is realization of universal divinity; this is a factual thing and not a speculation or a concept. CONCLUSION The essence of the teachings of Swami Vivekananda was Advaita Vedanta as revealed in the life of his Master, Sri Ramakrishna. The main points of his teachings are: 1) that each soul is potentially Divine, 2) the goal of human birth is to realize this Divinity within and manifest it for the welfare of the humanity, and 3) Essentially all religions lead to the same realization. The important point to note is Swami Vivekananda's insistence on individual liberation as a priority over the efforts to 'do good to the world'. The idea is to strive for special state or plane of consciousness that would lead a person to realize his or her true nature. Achieving such exalted state of altered consciousness forms the basis for human actions. Every human act should have this aim in sight, even in 'service to humanity and renunciation of sense pleasures'. Thus, religion or spirituality for the Swami was an act of inching higher and higher on the steps of consciousness, from animal consciousness to human consciousness, and from human consciousness to Divine Consciousness. Vedanta is everywhere; only you must become conscious of it. These masses of foolish beliefs and superstitions hinder us in our progress. If we can, let us throw them off and understand that God is spirit to be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth. ...All the different ideas of God, which are more or less materialistic, must go. As man becomes more and more spiritual, he has to throw off all these ideas and leave them behind. If Vedanta - this conscious knowledge that all is one Spirit spreads, the whole humanity will become spiritual. But is it possible? I do not know. Thus, harmony of religions, universal solidarity, and human being as the highest manifestation of Spiritual Consciousness are the basic fundamentals one should not lose sight of in reading or understanding Swami Vivekananda. The practical aspects of these teachings reflect in renunciation and service. This forms the twin ideal of Swami Vivekananda's emphasis for the modern man and woman to strive for. Along with excellence and perfection in every field of human endeavor one should keep these ideals before eyes, lest the person should miss the aim.