u/shksa339

"The soul must be stripped of all her forms and clothed in her formless form, which is God Himself. When the soul loses her own name and her own form, she is absorbed into the infinite abyss of the divine nature."

— Meister Eckhart, Sermon 52

Eckhart is even using the same terminology/language as the Vedantic texts. The emphasis on "name" and "form" is exactly what even Vedantic texts describe, the "nama" and "rupa" as the qualities to be negated/stripped to know the truth.

My fav christian non-dualist after Christ himself.

>This monotheism, we see, came to India at a very early period. Throughout the Samhitas, in the first and oldest part, this monotheistic idea prevails, but we shall find that it did not prove sufficient for the Aryans; they threw it aside, as it were, as a very primitive sort of idea and went further on, as we Hindus think. Of course in reading books and criticisms on the Vedas written by Europeans, the Hindu cannot help smiling when he reads, that the writings of authors are saturated with this previous education alone.

>Persons who have sucked in as their mother's milk the idea that the highest ideal of God is the idea of a Personal God, naturally dare not think on the lines of these ancient thinkers of India, when they find that just after the Samhitas, the monotheistic idea with which the Samhita portion is replete was thought by the Aryans to be useless and not worthy of philosophers and thinkers, and that they struggled hard for a more philosophical and transcendental idea. The monotheistic idea was much too human for them, although they gave it such descriptions as "The whole universe rests in Him," and "Thou art the keeper of all hearts."

>this ancient monotheistic idea did not satisfy the Hindu mind. It did not go far enough, it did not explain the visible world: a ruler of the world does not explain the world — certainly not. A ruler of the universe does not explain the universe, and much less an external ruler, one outside of it. He may be a moral guide, the greatest power in the universe, but that is no explanation of the universe;

source

>One point of difference between Hinduism and other religions is that in Hinduism we pass from truth to truth — from a lower truth to a higher truth — and never from error to truth. The Vedas should be studied through the eye-glass of evolution. They contain the whole history of the progress of religious consciousness, until religion has reached perfection in unity.

source

>Another peculiarity is that this Ishvara, this God, is manifesting Himself in all these various forms of bright ones. This idea — that the same God manifests Himself in various forms — is a very rudimentary idea of the Vedas, even in the oldest portions. There was a time when a sort of monotheistic idea entered the Vedas, but it was very quickly rejected. As we go on, perhaps you will agree with me that it was very good that it was rejected.

source

>Here Vedanta begins, where these monotheistic ideas first appear. But the Vedanta philosophy wants further explanation. This explanation — that there is a Being beyond all these manifestations of Maya, who is superior to and independent of Maya, and who is attracting us towards Himself, and that we are all going towards Him — is very good, says the Vedanta, but yet the perception is not clear, the vision is dim and hazy

source

>Monistic is the highest stage, monotheistic is a lower stage.

source

>Monotheism like absolute monarchy is quick in executing orders, and a great centralization of force, but it grows no farther, and its worst feature is its cruelty and persecution. All nations coming within its influence perish very soon after a flaring up of a few years.

source

>We never build anew, we simply change places; we cannot have anything new, we only change the position of things. The seed grows into the tree, patiently and gently; we must direct our energies towards the truth and fulfil the truth that exists, not try to make new truths. Thus, instead of denouncing these old ideas of God as unfit for modern times, the ancient sages began to seek out the reality that was in them. The result was the Vedanta philosophy, and out of the old deities, out of the monotheistic God, the Ruler of the universe, they found yet higher and higher ideas in what is called the Impersonal Absolute; they found oneness throughout the universe.

source

sources are from text "The Complete Works Of Swami Vivekananda", a collection of lectures and essays authored by Swami Vivekananda.

(scroll to the very bottom for tldr;)

Popular non-dual Vedantins had "unconventional" views on the books of Vedas. Popular “conventional“ perception is that the "Astika" creed puts their weight fully on the authority of Vedas, which is true, but there is a ton of nuance that is not well known to masses.

Vedas dont contain a single religion or philosophy. Saints like Sant Dyaneshwar and even other Vedantins of older and newer generations of the non-dual schools specifically, don't subscribe to all the religions found in the Vedas. They only pick a specific religion found in the Vedas and deem the other religions of Vedas to be avoided or even harmful.

Now lets see actual verses that highlight this nuanced view of Vedas from the famous text "Jnaneshwari", a Marathi commentary on the Bhagwad Gita by Sant Dyaneshwar of 13th century Maharashtra during Yadava dynasty. Interestingly, these texts of Dyaneshwar are the oldest surviving literary works in the Marathi language, and considered to be milestones in Marathi literature. book link

Chapter 2 verse/OVIs 256 - 263

>(256) The Vedas are undoubtedly limited to the three Gunas. Upanishads are therefore Sattwic in their character.

>(257) O, the Great Archer, other scriptures dealing with rituals, and ceremonies are within the limits of Rajas and Tamas.

>(258) Therefore, you should know that they cause pains and pleasures only. Beware! You may by mistake follow them.

>(259) You should refuse to be attracted to the three Gunas. Do not think of yourself and your possessions etc. Hold in your heart only the bliss in Atman immediately; without fail.

>A Brahmin, who has been enlightened has that much use for all the Vedas as one who stands at the brink of a water-reservoir, has for it, when water is overflowing everywhere in a deluge. (46)

>(260) Though Vedas have dwelt with many aspects of life and shown the varieties of ways of seeking, we should take what is good for us.

>(261) When the Sun rises we see all the roads but are we to walk by all the roads at one time? Tell me.

>(262) Or even when water is everywhere and all the land is under water, we have to take only according to our need.

>(263) Similarly those who are wise, understand the meaning of Vedas and then accept that which is of eternal value and needed by them.

Chapter 18, verse 1457 - 1467

>(1454) Thus, the Lord has discussed the hidden meaning of the Vedas from the first chapter to the end of the seventeenth chapter.

>(1455) And this is the eighteenth chapter which is giving us the summary of all the teaching of Geeta. This is really the high peak or dome of Geeta.

>(1456) In short, Geeta with all the chapters taken together is really the very image of Veda, being most generous in imparting self-knowledge

>(1457) Veda is replete with tremendous riches of knowledge, but there is no other book so miser in imparting knowledge because it has a private talk with only the three ca-stes.

>(1458) Veda has stopped there only, without giving any place in the temple of knowledge to the other human beings like women, Shoodras etc.

>(1459) Therefore, I feel that Veda has thought of retribution of its past mistake, and therefore, has become available by wearing the apparel of Geeta, for all human beings.

>(1463) Just as the sky is the only universal place open for all, either to fly in the sky or to sit on the earth or to bask in the sunshine;

>(1464) Similarly, without asking anybody, whether he is of higher class or lower class, Geeta satisfies the whole world by its free distribution of the liberation.

>(1465) Therefore, we can say that being afraid of the blame given to the Veda in ancient times, the Veda has taken refuge in Geeta and thus has become worthy of its fair name and fame.

>(1466) Therefore, Geeta which is taught by Lord Shrikrishna to the son of Pandu should be considered as the image of Veda, which has become easily followable by all people.

Chapter 9, verse 330 - 334

>(307) O Arjuna, please consider the persons about whom I am going o tell you. They perform actions according to their ordained duties as per their stage in life, as laid down by scriptures, in such a perfect manner that they become the standards to be followed by others.

>(308) Seeing their performance of the sacrificial rituals, all the three Vedas nod in satisfaction and the fruit of their action stands in front of them together with the action.

>(309) Such initiated scholars who partake of the juice 'Soma', who are the very image of sacrifice, have, by the way of merit in that action, actually earned the sin in bargain!

>(310) They know the three Vedas, perform hundreds of sacrifices, but missing me who receives the offerings, choose to gain heaven.

>(311) It is like a man of bad luck who sits below the divine wish-tree, ties the knot of his begging sack and starts out for begging!

>(312) Similarly, they perform hundreds of sacrifices as a propitiation to me, but desire and aspire for the heavenly pleasures! Is it their merit? Is it not sin?

>(313) So, it is the ignorants way of earning merit to desire heaven by denying me. The men of real knowledge call it a nuisance, a real loss!

>(314) Actually, experiencing the pains in the hell, people call the condition in heaven as happiness but my real nature is the only eternal joy without any blemish.

>(316) The heaven is reached by the sin which is wrongly called merit, and the hell is reached by the sin which is actually known as sin; but that action is pure merit by which I am reached.

>(329) Just as a man spends all his money for a prostitute and then he is not allowed even to knock at her door, similarly shameful is then the living of such initiated people.

>(330) Thus those who choose heavenly pleasure instead of my eternal reality lose the real deathlessness and come back to this world of death.

>(331) They remain for nine mouths in the womb of their mothers, troubled by all sorts of hot secretions in their vicinity and come out only to die eventually after a life full of miseries.

>(332) The heavenly pleasures of person who is well-versed in performance of sacrifices according to Vedas should be considered equal to the treasures received in the dream, which is lost as soon as the man is awake.

>(333) O Arjuna, even if a man is well-versed in Vedas and if he does not know me, his life is useless just as some one who throws away the grain and takes the husk.

>(334) Therefore, in the absence of knowledge of my Reality, the rules of all the three Vedas are useless. It is definite that if you know me, and do not know anything else, still you will be really happy.

Chapter 13, Verse 218-234.

>(218) First of all, you should know that the quality of non-violence is defined and described by different people in various ways.

>(219) But all those descriptions are so irrelevant that it is like erecting a compound fence around a tree, by first cutting down its branches and keeping only a thwarted trunk.

>(220) Or like cutting our arms and boiling them to make a dish of food and then satisfying our hunger, or by demolishing the temple itself and constructing a surrounding line of seats around the god,

>(221) In another way, the philosophy of Meemansa which lays down the code of performing rituals and sacrifices, propounds that violence is to be used to ensure non-violence.

>(222) In that system, when all the people are faced with tremendous vicissitudes due to drought, people are advised to perform sacrifices to invoke rain.

>(223) In that sacrifices, the slaying of goats etc. is advised. How can you reach the other bank of life of non-violence through these killings?

>(224) How can non-violence grow if one sows only violence? But my dear! See the wonderful daring of these performers of sacrifices!

Chapter 2, verse/OVIs 247- 254

>O Arjuna, those who are full of worldly desires and are attached to the letter of the Vedas, who look up to heaven as the highest goal to be reached and argue that there is nothing beyond heaven are not wise. They utter flowery speech, recommending many rituals as their fruit. Those who are enticed by this speech and who are deeply attached to pleasures and earthly glory, cannot attain the firm intellect concentrated upon God, in the Supreme Trance. (42-43-44)

>(247) These stupid people say that there is nothing else in this world as important as these rituals.

>(248) Please see! They perform these rituals under the influence of desires, by thinking about enjoyments only.

>(249) They perform various important and special rituals, do not neglect the code and rules laid down for them, and being veterans in them, perform those ceremonies.

>(250) But they make only one great mistake. They harbour in their mind the desire to attain heaven and miss or forget the one God who is the presiding deity of all rituals.

>(251) It is like preparing beautiful heap of camphor and then putting fire to it; or mixing severe poison in good food.

>(252) It is like kicking the pot of nectar which one has received by sheer turn of good fortune. Similarly they spoil and desecrate the religion by their desires.

>(253) If merit is earned by great efforts, why desire for mundane joys in the petty worldly life? But these stupid people do not know. How can they yearn for things not easily available?

>(254) It is like a housewife who prepares delicious food articles but sells them for some money; The thoughtless people let go the true religion for enjoyments instead.

>(255) Therefore, O Partha, know that only bad intellect reigns in the minds of those people who are engrossed in arguments in favour of Vedas.

Chapter 16, verse 164 - 167

>(164) Then on this very branch of human race, on its lower side, there are tender leaves of lowest type of passions, which grow into various branches of wicked and sinful deeds.

>(165) Then the dirty half burnt offshoots of sins come out straight, very forcefully, on which there are profusely developed twigs of vices which are full of very heavy growth of leaves.

>(166) We should understand that the trinity of Vedas namely Rigveda, Yajurveda, and Samaveda which indicate the right and wrong actions is the delicate topmost group of tender leaves,

>(167) After that the tender leaves of Atharvaveda which has charms used for evil purposes grow into a creeper of desire.

tldr:

1. The Vedas Require Selective Acceptance. - Jnanadeva explains that while the Upanishads are Sattwic, other ritualistic portions of the Vedas operate within Rajas and Tamas, requiring a seeker to selectively accept only what is of eternal value from the offerings of Vedas.
2. Historical Exclusion of Women & Shudras & The Gita as Redemption of the Veda - Jnanadeva explicitly points out that the Veda acted miserly by holding a "private talk" only with the three upper ca-stes, excluding women, Shudras, and others from its temple of knowledge. He explains that the Veda took refuge in the Gita to compensate for its past mistake, creating an open sanctuary where liberation is freely offered to every human being
3. Rejection of Vedic Ritual ani-mal Sacrifice. - Directly refuting the Mimamsa school's doctrine that ritual slaughter does not constitute sin, Jnanadeva questions the practice of slaying goats, asking how non-violence can ever grow when one sows seeds of violence.
4. Darker Aspects in Vedic Texts - He remarks that tender leaves of the Atharvaveda contain charms used for evil or desire-driven ends, functioning as offshoots of worldly desire.

>Yoga means the person lives a life of peace and harmony and he is friendly. Yoga is friendliness. And also very loving. That is the Yoga. And that Yoga when it becomes mature, the fruit of Yoga is happiness. When you live in harmony, you discover happiness in you. Yoga is about life.

>But what we do is we convert it into some bookish knowledge or scholarship, we make it very scholastic. And so it becomes books, aphorisms, commentaries, commentary upon commentary. So like that it builds and builds upon itself. And now it has become such a system that unless a person is very intelligent, very high IQ, and he spends a few years, till then he cannot master all that knowledge. And at the end of it, he emerges as a great scholar. But there is no happiness in life. No friendliness, no love, no harmony, no peace. You see how it has become. So sometimes I feel Yoga, Vedānta, these things have become very semantic and they have acquired a lot of jargon.

>So in one word, if I have to say one word, gobbledygook. It has become like that. So we are all very highly trained scholars of Vedānta not knowing or not having any harmony in life. That scholarship is not yoga. Yoga is not defined as scholarship.

- excerpt from his recent Gita Ch12 class transcript

>Go to Malabar [a part of present Kerala]. The Raja there has robbed the lands of his subjects and offered it at the feet of Brahmins. There are big big religious organizations in every village where sumptuous meals are provided, supplemented by presents in cash. And oh! the pompous ways of sexual enjoyments! Right from the maid-servants to the queen, all want to have sex exclu­sively with Brahmins! And then, the Brahmins will bathe immediately after having sex because every caste other than the Brahmin is impure, so touching them at any other time is a great sin, except only at the time of having sex!

>Such wicked monks and Brahmins have brought the country to rack and ruin, always shouting ‘give, give’, with the intent to cheat people—and these rascals pose as preachers of religion! They would take money and gifts from all kinds of people, would inflict the greatest harm on them through such debauchery, and yet at the same time shout, don’t touch me! don’t touch me! Those rascals!—and what great things have they been doing?—“If a potato happens to touch a brinjal, [they would shout and behave in such a way that] the universe is going to be doomed at any moment;” “if people do not cleanse their hands 14 times with clay—will their 14 genera­tions go to hell, or 24 generations?” They have been concocting scienti­fic explanations for such trivial matters for the last two thousand years. Meanwhile, one-fourth of the people are starving. They marry off their eight-year-old girl to a thirty-year-old man, and the parents eagerly await her pregnancy!! If someone prohibits them from doing so, they say—“We will lose our religion.”

>What sort of religion have they, who want to see their eight-year-old girls conceive, and offer scientific explanations for it? Many, again, lay the blame on the Mohammedans. It is their fault indeed!! Just read all the Grihya-Sūtras —हस्तात् योनिं न गूहति —and see what is given as the marriageable age of a girl. There it is expressly stated that a girl must be married before attaining puberty. The entire Grihya-Sūtras enjoin this.

>Remember the Aśvamedha Yajña […illegible] तदनन्तरं महिषीम् अश्वसन्निधौ पातयेत् etc.; and the host of men known as Hotā, Pota, Brahma, Udgātā, and others used to be involved in orgy with the maid-servants of the king in a state of intoxication. It is there in all the Brāhmaṇas, and all the commentators admit them. How can you deny?

>Oh! brother, I heaved a sigh of relief to learn that Lord Rama singly performed the Aśvamedha Yajña when Jānakī [Mother Sitā] was sent in exile to the forest.

>What I mean by telling you all this is that, in ancient times, there were many good as also vulgar things. The good things are to be retained, and the India that is coming up—the future India will be much greater than ancient India.

>There is that dreadful quagmire before you—watch out—many fall into it and die. The quagmire is this—that the present religion of the Hindus lies not in the Vedas, nor in the Puranas—not in Bhakti, nor in Mukti—the religion has entered into the cooking pot. The present religion of the Hindus is neither in discrimination nor in reason—it is in छुँत्-मार्ग [Don’t-touchism]. “Don’t touch me!” “Don’t touch me!”—that is all. See that you do not lose your lives in this dire irreligion of “Don’t-touchism”. The teaching, “आत्मवत् सर्वभूतेषु” [looking upon all beings as my own self]—should it be confined to books only? Those who cannot offer a crumb of bread to a hungry mouth, how will they confer salvation to others? Those who think they would become impure at the mere breath of others, how will they purify others?

>छुँत्-मार्ग [Don’t-touchism] is a form of mental disease. Beware! All expansion is life, all contraction is death. All Love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live. This is the secret of selfless love, selfless action, etc.

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda to Swami Brahmananda, Early-September 1894. Letter 159 in the book "Letters of Swami Vivekananda" https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/071_rakhal.htm

context: Swamiji is criticising the corruptions in the Priestly class that peaked during the last 1000-2000 years, not the essential religion based of Non-duality based on Gita, Upanishads etc which was unpopular in the laity. The Priestly class (Brahmins) are not a monolith, Priests of different religions/sects dont share a common theology or practices, and often see the sect/religion/Mata's Priestly class as delusional. We have to look at Priestly class through the lens of various Matas and then differentiate the Priestcraft corruption of the greedy from the pious, simple ones who contributed to literature, Math, poetry, metaphysics, self-knowledge throughout various phases of Indian history and not limit the lens to just the worst period of last 1000-2000 years.

>Go to Malabar [a part of present Kerala]. The Raja there has robbed the lands of his subjects and offered it at the feet of Brahmins. There are big big religious organizations in every village where sumptuous meals are provided, supplemented by presents in cash. And oh! the pompous ways of sexual enjoyments! Right from the maid-servants to the queen, all want to have sex exclu­sively with Brahmins! And then, the Brahmins will bathe immediately after having sex because every caste other than the Brahmin is impure, so touching them at any other time is a great sin, except only at the time of having sex!

>Such wicked monks and Brahmins have brought the country to rack and ruin, always shouting ‘give, give’, with the intent to cheat people—and these rascals pose as preachers of religion! They would take money and gifts from all kinds of people, would inflict the greatest harm on them through such debauchery, and yet at the same time shout, don’t touch me! don’t touch me! Those rascals!—and what great things have they been doing?—“If a potato happens to touch a brinjal, [they would shout and behave in such a way that] the universe is going to be doomed at any moment;” “if people do not cleanse their hands 14 times with clay—will their 14 genera­tions go to hell, or 24 generations?” They have been concocting scienti­fic explanations for such trivial matters for the last two thousand years. Meanwhile, one-fourth of the people are starving. They marry off their eight-year-old girl to a thirty-year-old man, and the parents eagerly await her pregnancy!! If someone prohibits them from doing so, they say—“We will lose our religion.”

>What sort of religion have they, who want to see their eight-year-old girls conceive, and offer scientific explanations for it? Many, again, lay the blame on the Mohammedans. It is their fault indeed!! Just read all the Grihya-Sūtras —हस्तात् योनिं न गूहति —and see what is given as the marriageable age of a girl. There it is expressly stated that a girl must be married before attaining puberty. The entire Grihya-Sūtras enjoin this.

>Remember the Aśvamedha Yajña […illegible] तदनन्तरं महिषीम् अश्वसन्निधौ पातयेत् etc.; and the host of men known as Hotā, Pota, Brahma, Udgātā, and others used to be involved in orgy with the maid-servants of the king in a state of intoxication. It is there in all the Brāhmaṇas, and all the commentators admit them. How can you deny?

>Oh! brother, I heaved a sigh of relief to learn that Lord Rama singly performed the Aśvamedha Yajña when Jānakī [Mother Sitā] was sent in exile to the forest.

>What I mean by telling you all this is that, in ancient times, there were many good as also vulgar things. The good things are to be retained, and the India that is coming up—the future India will be much greater than ancient India.

>There is that dreadful quagmire before you—watch out—many fall into it and die. The quagmire is this—that the present religion of the Hindus lies not in the Vedas, nor in the Puranas—not in Bhakti, nor in Mukti—the religion has entered into the cooking pot. The present religion of the Hindus is neither in discrimination nor in reason—it is in छुँत्-मार्ग [Don’t-touchism]. “Don’t touch me!” “Don’t touch me!”—that is all. See that you do not lose your lives in this dire irreligion of “Don’t-touchism”. The teaching, “आत्मवत् सर्वभूतेषु” [looking upon all beings as my own self]—should it be confined to books only? Those who cannot offer a crumb of bread to a hungry mouth, how will they confer salvation to others? Those who think they would become impure at the mere breath of others, how will they purify others?

>छुँत्-मार्ग [Don’t-touchism] is a form of mental disease. Beware! All expansion is life, all contraction is death. All Love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live. This is the secret of selfless love, selfless action, etc.

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda to Swami Brahmananda, Early-September 1894. Letter 159 in the book "Letters of Swami Vivekananda" https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/071_rakhal.htm

context: Swamiji is criticising only the corrupted Brahmins, not all the Brahmins or Priests of various religions/matas. Brahmins are not a monolith, Brahmins of different religions/sects dont share a common theology or practices. We have to look at Brahmins through the lens of various Matas and then differentiate the Priestcraft corruption of the greedy from the pious, simple ones who contributed to literature, Math, poetry, metaphysics, self-knowledge.

>Now the question before us is this. There can not be any growth without liberty. Our ancestors freed religious thought—we have a wonderful religion, but they put a heavy chain on the feet of society, and our society is, shortly to speak, horrid diabolical. In the West, society always had freedom, and look at them; on the other hand, look at their religion.

>Liberty is the first condition of growth. Just as man must have liberty to think and speak, so he must have [liberty] to eat and dress, and marry, and in every other thing, so long he does not injure others.

>We have a foolish talk against material civilization. The grapes are sour. Even taking all that foolishness for granted. In all India, there are, say, a hundred thousand really spiritual men and women. Now, for the spiritualization of these, 300 million must be sunk in savagery and starvation! Why should any starve? Why was it possible for the Hindus to have been conquered by the Mahomedans? It was ignorance of material civilization—gun powder and cannon.

>Material civilization is necessary; nay, even luxury, to create work for the poor. Bread! Bread! I do not believe in a God who can not give me bread here, giving me eternal bliss in heaven, pooh!! India is to be raised, the poor are to be fed, education is to be spread, and the priests must receive such a kick as will make them fall into the Atlantic Ocean after cutting a hundred thousand somersaults—Brahmins, Sannyasis, and all. No priestcraft, no social tyranny! More bread, more opportunity for everybody.

>Our young fools make meetings to get more power from the English. They laugh. None deserves liberty who is not ready to give liberty. Suppose the English give over to you all the power—why, the Rajputs will get up and rob everybody and only bribe the priests to hold the people down while they will cut their throats. Slaves want power to make slaves.

>Now, this is to be brought about slowly, and only insisting in the religion and giving liberty to society. Sift off the priestcraft from the old religion, and you find the best religion in the world. Do you understand me? Can you make a European society with India’s religion? I believe it is possible and must be.

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda to Alasinga Perumal from New York on 19th November, 1894 https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_4/writings_prose/to_my_brave_boys.htm

In Religion lies the vitality of India, and as long as the Hindu race do not forget the great inheritance of their fore­fathers, there is no power on earth to destroy them.

Nowadays everybody blames those who constantly look back to their past. It is said that so much looking back to the past is the cause of all India’s woes. To me, on the contrary, it seems that the opposite is true. So long as they forgot the past, the Hindu nation remained in a state of stupor, and as soon as they have begun to look back into their past, there is on every side a fresh manifestation of life. It is [out] of this past that the future has to [be] moulded; this past will become the future.

The more, therefore, the Hindus will study the past, the more glorious will be the future, and whosoever tries to bring the past to the door of everyone, is a great benefactor to his nation.

The degeneration in India came not because the laws and customs of the ancients were bad, but because they were not allowed to be carried to their logical conclusions.

Every critical student knows that the social laws in India have always undergone great periodic changes. At their inception, these laws were the embodiment of a gigantic plan, which was to unfold itself slowly through time. The great seers of Ancient India saw so far ahead of their time, that the world has to wait centuries yet to appreciate their wisdom—and it is the very inability to appreciate the full scope of their wonderful social plan by their own descendants [which] is the one and only cause of [the] degeneration of India.

Ancient India had for centuries been the battlefield for the ambitious projects of two of her foremost classes—the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas.

On the one hand, the priesthood stood between the lawless social tyranny of the princes and the masses, whom the “Kshatras” declared to be their legal “food.” On the other hand, the “Kshatra” power was the one potent force, which struggled with any success against the spiritual tyranny of the priests and the ever-increasing chain of ceremonials, which they were forging to bind the people down.

The Brahmana was par excellence the “Karmi”; the “Kshatra,” the teacher of “Jnanam.”

The tug of war began in the earliest periods of the history of our race—and throughout the Shrutis, [it] can be distinctly traced. A momentary lull came when Sri Krishna, leading the faction of “Kshatra” power and of “Jnana,” showed the way of reconciliation. The result was the teachings of the Gita—the essence of philosophy, of religion and of liberality. Yet the causes were there, and the effect must come.

The ambition of the two classes to be the masters of the poor and ignorant was there, and the strife became once more fierce. The meagre literature that has come down to us of that period brings to us but faint echoes of that mighty strife, but at last it broke out as a victory for the “Kshatras,” a victory for Jnana, for liberality—and ceremonial had to go down, much of it—never to come back to the surface.

This upheaval is what is known as the Buddhistic reformation. On the religious side, it represented freedom from cere­monials; on the political side, overthrowal of the priesthood by the “Kshatras.”

It is a significant fact that the two greatest men Ancient India produced were both “Kshatras”—Krishna and Buddha—and still more is significant the fact that both of these Gods threw open the door of knowledge to everyone, irrespective of sex or birth.

But, in spite of its wonderful moral strength, Buddhism was extremely iconoclastic—and much of its force being spent in negative attempts—it had to die out in the land of its birth—and what remained of it was full of superstitions and ceremo­nials, a hundred times cruder than that it intended to suppress. Though it partially succeeded in suppressing the animal sacrifices of the Vedas, it filled the land with temples and images, symbols and bones of saints.

And above all, in the medley of Aryans, Mongols, and abori­gines, which it created, it unconsciously led the way to some of the hideous “Vamacharas” —and this was especially the reason why this travesty of the teachings of the great Master [Buddha] had to be driven out of India by Sri Shankara and his band of Sannyasins.

Thus, even the current of life set in motion by the greatest soul that ever wore a human form, the Bhagavan Buddha himself, became a miasmatic pool, and India had to wait for centuries till Shankara arose, followed in quick succession by Ramanuja and Madhva.

But an entirely new chapter had opened by this time in the history of India. The ancient “Kshatras” and Brahmanas had disappeared. The land between the Himalayas and the Vindhyas, the home of the Aryas, the land which gave birth to Krishna and Buddha, the cradle of great Rajarshis and Brahmarshis, had become silent, and from the very farther end of the Indian Peninsula, from races alien in speech and form, races never regarded by the old Aryans as capable of any great achievement—from families claiming descent from the ancient Brahmanas came the reaction against corrupted Buddhism.

What had become of the Aryan Brahmanas and “Kshatras” of Aryavarta? They had entirely disappeared, except a few mongrel clans claiming to be Brahmanas and Kshatras here and there, and in spite of their inflated self-laudatory assertions—that the whole world ought to learn from, “Etaddesha prasu­tanam sakashat agrajanmanam,” they had to sit before the [people of] South in sack-cloth and ashes, in all humility, to learn.

The result was the bringing back [of] the Vedas to India— a revival of the Vedanta which India never saw before, and even the householders began to study the Aranyakas.

The Kshatras were the real leaders in the Buddhistic movement, and whole masses of them became Buddhists. And, in the zeal of reform and conversion, the popular dialects were almost exclusively cultivated to the neglect of Sanskrit, and the greatest portion of the Kshatriyas had become disjoined from the Vedic literature and Sanskrit learning.

Thus this wave of reform, which came from the South, benefited to a certain extent the priesthood and the priests only. For the rest of Indian humanity, it forged more chains than they [had] ever known before.

The “Kshatra” has always been, O prince, the backbone of India; they had been the supporters of science and liberty; their voice was ringing again and again to clear the land from superstitions, and they formed throughout the history of India the invulnerable barrier to aggressive priestly tyranny.

When the greater part of them sank into ignorance, and another portion mixed their blood with savages from Central Asia and lent their swords to establish the rule of priests in India, the cup became full to the brim, and down sank the land of Bharata, never to rise again, until the “Kshatra” rouses himself, and making himself free, strikes the chains from the feet of the rest. Priestcraft is the bane of India. Can anyone degrade his brother and himself escape degradation?

Know, Rajaji, the greatest of all truths discovered by your ancestors, that the universe is One. Can one injure any without injuring himself? The mass of Brahma [Brahmin] and Kshatra [Kshatriya] tyranny has recoiled upon their own heads with compound interest—and a thousand years of slavery and degradation is what the inexorable law of Karma visiting them with.

This is what one of your ancestors [Sri Krishna] said—“Even in this life, they have gained heaven whose mind is fixed in sameness” (167)—he is believed to be God-incarnate. We all do. Are his words vain then and without meaning? If not, and we know they are not, any attempt against this perfect equality of all creation, irrespective of sex, or birth, or even qualification, is a terrible mistake, and no one can be saved until he has attained to this idea [of sameness].

Follow, noble Prince, therefore, the teachings of the Vedanta, not as explained by this or that commentator but what the Lord within you understands. Follow, above all, this great doctrine of sameness through all beings seeing the same God in all. This is the way to freedom; inequality, the way to bondage. No man, nor a nation can attain to physical freedom without physical equality, nor mental freedom without mental equality.

Ignorance, inequality, and desire are the three causes of human misery, and each follows the other in inevitable union. Why should a man think himself above any other man or [an] animal even? It is the same throughout, त्वं स्त्री त्वं पुमानसि त्वं कुमार उत वा कुमारी । (168) “Thou art the man, Thou the woman, Thou art the young man, Thou the young woman.”

Many will say, “That is all right for the Sannyasins, but we are householders.” No doubt, a householder having many other duties to perform, can not as fully attain to this sameness; yet this should also be their ideal, for it is the ideal of all societies, all mankind, all animals, and all nature to attain to this sameness. But alas! they think that inequality is the way to attain equality as if they will come to right by doing wrong!

This is the bane of human nature, the curse upon mankind, the root of all misery—this inequality. This is the source of all bondage, of all misery—physical, mental, and spiritual.

समं पश्यन् हि सर्वत्र समवस्थितमीश्वरम् । न हिनस्त्यात्मनात्मानं ततो याति परां गतिम् ॥ “Seeing the equally-present-to-all-Lord, same everywhere, he does not hurt self by self, and thus goes to the highest goal.”—this one line contains the universal way to salvation in a few words.

Letter 242 to Raja Ajit Singh by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters of Swami Vivekananda" source: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_4/writings_prose/reply_to_the_maharaja_of_khetri.htm

>I have always found “Occultism” injurious and weakening to humanity. What we want is strength. We Indians, more than any other race, want strong and vigorous thought. We have enough of the superfine in all concerns.

>For centuries we have been stuffed with the mysterious, the result is that our intellectual and spiritual digestion is almost hopelessly impaired, and the race has been dragged down to the depths of hopeless imbecility never before or since experienced by any other civilized community.

>There must be freshness and vigour of thought behind to make a virile race. More than enough to strengthen the whole world exists in the “Upanishads.” The Advaita is the eternal mine of strength—but it requires to be “applied.”* *It must first be cleared of the incrustation of scholasticism, and then in all its simplicity, beauty, and sublimity be taught over the length and breadth of the land, as applied even to the minutest detail of daily life.

>This is a very large order, but we must work towards it, nevertheless, as if it would be accomplished tomorrow. Of one thing I am sure that whoever wants to help his fellow beings through genuine love and unselfishness will work wonders.

source: Letters by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_9/letters_fifth_series/080_sir.htm

>The Hindus say we must not do this or that because the Vedas say so, but the Christian is not going to obey the authority of the Vedas. The Christian says you must do this and not do that because the Bible says so. That will not be binding on those who do not believe in the Bible. But we must have a theory which is large enough to take in all these various grounds. Just as there are millions of people who are ready to believe in a Personal Creator, there have also been thousands of the brightest minds in this world who felt that such ideas were not sufficient for them, and wanted something higher, and wherever religion was not broad enough to include all these minds, the result was that the brightest minds in society were always outside of religion; and never was this so marked as at the present time, especially in Europe.

>To include these minds, therefore, religion must become broad enough. Everything it claims must be judged from the standpoint of reason*.* Why religions should claim that they are not bound to abide by the standpoint of reason, no one knows. If one does not take the standard of reason, there cannot be any true judgment, even in the case of religions. One religion may ordain something very hideous. For instance, the Mohammedan religion allows Mohammedans to kill all who are not of their religion. It is clearly stated in the Koran, "Kill the infidels if they do not become Mohammedans." They must be put to fire and sword. Now if we tell a Mohammedan that this is wrong, he will naturally ask, "How do you know that? How do you know it is not good? My book says it is." If you say your book is older, there will come the Buddhist, and say, my book is much older still. Then will come the Hindu, and say, my books are the oldest of all. Therefore referring to books will not do*.*

>Where is the standard by which you can compare? You will say, look at the Sermon on the Mount, and the Mohammedan will reply, look at the Ethics of the Koran. The Mohammedan will say, who is the arbiter as to which is the better of the two? Neither the New Testament nor the Koran can be the arbiter in a quarrel between them. There must be some independent authority, and that cannot be any book, but something which is universal; and what is more universal than reason? It has been said that reason is not strong enough; it does not always help us to get at the Truth; many times it makes mistakes, and, therefore, the conclusion is that we must believe in the authority of a church! That was said to me by a Roman Catholic, but I could not see the logic of it. On the other hand I should say, if reason be so weak, a body of priests would be weaker, and I am not going to accept their verdict, but I will abide by my reason, because with all its weakness there is some chance of my getting at truth through it; while, by the other means, there is no such hope at all.

source: Works of Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_2/practical_vedanta_and_other_lectures/practical_vedanta_part_iii.htm

>Hindus alone were to blame that so many had become Mahomedans and Christians. They had become so because the priests of the day, like dogs in manger, had not tasted of the jewels of spirituality which their books possessed in themselves, and yet had refused the people’s access to them.”

>“The Swami alluded to the fact, mentioned in the address [at Manamadura,] of the number of Christians and Mohammedans in India, and said that blame belonged to the Hindus alone for their having neglected the education, both spiritual and secular, of the masses. This should be attended to, instead of grown men spending their lives in discussing whether water should be drunk with right or left-hand, and so forth. This tended to the degradation of the race, and to the loss of mental energy. The religion of the nation was in danger of becoming the kitchen, and their God the cooking-pot.”

Letter 451 in the book "Letter of Swami Vivekananda"

>If one does not take the standard of reason, there cannot be any true judgment, even in the case of religions. One religion may ordain something very hideous. For instance, the Mohammedan religion allows Mohammedans to kill all who are not of their religion. It is clearly stated in the Koran, "Kill the infidels if they do not become Mohammedans." They must be put to fire and sword. Now if we tell a Mohammedan that this is wrong, he will naturally ask, "How do you know that? How do you know it is not good? My book says it is." If you say your book is older, there will come the Buddhist, and say, my book is much older still.

>Then will come the Hindu, and say, my books are the oldest of all. Therefore referring to books will not do. Where is the standard by which you can compare? You will say, look at the Sermon on the Mount, and the Mohammedan will reply, look at the Ethics of the Koran. The Mohammedan will say, who is the arbiter as to which is the better of the two? Neither the New Testament nor the Koran can be the arbiter in a quarrel between them. There must be some independent authority, and that cannot be any book, but something which is universal; and what is more universal than reason? 

source: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_2/practical_vedanta_and_other_lectures/practical_vedanta_part_iii.htm

>We who come from the East have sat here on the platform day after day, and have been told in a patronizing way that we ought to accept Christianity because Christian nations are the most prosperous. We look about us, and we see England, the most prosperous Christian nation in the world, with her foot on the neck of 250,000,000 of Asiatics. We look back into history, and see that the prosperity of Christian Europe began with Spain. Spain's prosperity began with the invasion of Mexico. Christianity wins its prosperity by cutting the throats of its fellowmen. At such a price the Hindu will not have prosperity. (Vide "Cantakerous Remarks", Complete Works, III: 474.)

>I have sat here to-day, and I have heard the height of intolerance. I have heard the creed of the Moslem applauded, when to-day the Moslem sword is carrying destruction into India. Blood and the sword are not for the Hindu, whose religion is based on the law of love. 

source: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_9/newspaper_reports/part_iii_indian_newspaper_reports/03_the_indian_mirror_dec_7_1893.htm

>"on this matter of receiving back into Hinduism those who have been perverted from it. Is it your opinion that they should be received?"

>"Certainly," said the Swami, "they can and ought to be taken."

>He sat gravely for a moment, thinking, and then resumed. "Besides," he said, "we shall otherwise decrease in numbers. When the Mohammedans first came, we are said — I think on the authority of Ferishta, the oldest Mohammedan historian — to have been six hundred millions of Hindus. Now we are about two hundred millions. And then every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more.

>"Again, the vast majority of Hindu perverts to Islam and Christianity are perverts by the sword, or the descendants of these. It would be obviously unfair to subject these to disabilities of any kind. As to the case of born aliens, did you say? Why, born aliens have been converted in the past by crowds, and the process is still going on.

source: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/interviews/on_the_bounds_of_hinduism.htm

>The movements in northern India during the Mohammedan period are characterised by their uniform attempt to hold the masses back from joining the religion of the conquerors — which brought in its train social and spiritual equality for all.

>The friars of the orders founded by Râmânanda, Kabir, Dâdu, Chaitanya, or Nânak were all agreed in preaching the equality of man, however differing from each other in philosophy. Their energy was for the most part spent in checking the rapid conquest of Islam among the masses*, and they had very little left to give birth to new thoughts and aspirations. Though evidently successful in their purpose of keeping the masses within the fold of the old religion, and tempering the fanaticism of the Mohammedans, they were mere apologists, struggling to obtain permission to live.*

>One great prophet, however, arose in the north, Govind Singh, the last Guru of the Sikhs, with creative genius; and the result of his spiritual work was followed by the well-known political organisation of the Sikhs.

source: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/writings_prose_and_poems/historical_evolution_of_india.htm

>every step forward was made with the sword — the Koran in the one hand and the sword in the other: "Take the Koran, or you must die; there is no alternative! " You know from history how phenomenal was their success; for six hundred years nothing could resist them, and then there came a time when they had to cry halt. So will it be with other religions if they follow the same methods. We are such babes! We always forget human nature. When we begin life, we think that our fate will be something extraordinary, and nothing can make us disbelieve that. But when we grow old, we think differently.

>So with religions. In their early stages, when they spread a little, they get the idea that they can change the minds of the whole human race in a few years, and go on killing and massacring to make converts by force; then they fail, and begin to understand better. We see that these sects did not succeed in what they started out to do, which was a great blessing. Just think if one of those fanatical sects had succeeded all over the world, where would man be today? Now, the Lord be blessed that they did not succeed! Yet, each one represents a great truth; each religion represents a particular excellence — something which is its soul.

>Take Mohammedanism, for instance. Christian people hate no religion in the world so much as Mohammedanism. They think it is the very worst form of religion that ever existed. As soon as a man becomes a Mohammedan, the whole of Islam receives him as a brother with open arms, without making any distinction, which no other religion does. If one of your American Indians becomes a Mohammedan, the Sultan of Turkey would have no objection to dine with him. If he has brains, no position is barred to him. In this country, I have never yet seen a church where the white man and the negro can kneel side by side to pray.

>Just think of that: Islam makes its followers all equal — so, that, you see, is the peculiar excellence of Mohammedanism. In many places in the Koran you find very sensual ideas of life. Never mind. What Mohammedanism comes to preach to the world is this practical brotherhood of all belonging to their faith. That is the essential part of the Mohammedan religion; and all the other ideas about heaven and of life etc.. are not Mohammedanism. They are accretions.

source: https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_2/practical_vedanta_and_other_lectures/the_way_to_the_realisation_of_a_universal_religion.htm

>Now I will tell you something else. The Hindu mind was ever deductive and never synthetic or inductive. In all our philo­sophies, we always find hair-splitting arguments, taking for granted some general proposition, but the proposition itself may be as childish as possible. Nobody ever asked or searched the truth of these general propositions.

>Therefore independent thought we have almost none to speak of, and hence the dearth of those sciences which are the results of observation and generalization.

>And why was it thus?—from two causes: The tremendous heat of the climate forcing us to love rest and contemplation better than activity, and the Brahmins as priests never undertaking journeys or voyages to distant lands. There were voyagers and people who travelled far; but they were almost always traders, i.e. people from whom priestcraft and their own sole love for gain had taken away all capacity for intellectual development. So their obser­vations, instead of adding to the store of human knowledge, rather degenerated it; for their observations were bad and their accounts exaggerated and tortured into fantastical shapes, until they passed all recognition.

>So you see, we must travel, we must go to foreign parts. We must see how the engine of society works in other countries, and keep free and open communication with what is going on in the minds of other nations if we really want to be a nation again.

- letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/002_panditji_maharaj.htm?highlight=hairsplitting

>The Smritis and the Puranas are authored by men of limited intelligence and are full of fallacies, errors, ideas of discrimination, and hatred. Only the parts that are liberal in spirit and full of love are acceptable; the rest should be discarded.

>The Upanishads and the Gita are the real scriptures; Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Chaitanya, Nanak, Kabir, and so on are the true Avataras [Incarnations], because their hearts were as endless as the sky—and above all is Ramakrishna. Rama­nuja, Shankara, and such others were mere Pundits with narrow hearts. They did not possess that love, and their hearts did not cry at the suffering of others—only the dry pedantry of the Pandits—and hastily wanting their own salvation!!! But is that possible, sir? Neither ever has it happened, nor will it. Can freedom be attained until even a speck of “I” remains?

>Another great divergence—my conviction is getting stronger day by day that the idea of caste is the greatest dividing factor and the root of Maya. All ideas of caste, either Janmagata [hereditary] or Guṇagata [qualitative] are bondages. Some friends say, “Let’s keep that in the mind; but outside, in the practical world, caste distinctions must be observed.” A somewhat indecent incident comes to my mind. Once I met an old, marriage-crazy vairāgī. I asked him, “Babaji, at this age what will you do with a Boshtamī?” His reply was, “I shall mentally have sex with her”!!!

>The views of those friends [as mentioned above], are just like that. It is like nurturing the idea of oneness mentally (although one well understands its implication), and in practice—the devil’s dance of tyranny, oppression and persecution, and the deliverer of death to the poor like Yama; but if even the Chandala [Pariah] is wealthy enough, he is held as the Protector of Religion!!!

>I am a Shudra + Mleccha. To me, the food prepared by a Mleccha or a Pariah makes no difference. And the craziness about caste distinction etc. is found only in books written by the priests, and not in books of God. Let the priests enjoy the fruits of their ancestors’ achievements, while I follow the words of God, for my welfare lies there.

>Another truth I have realized is that doing good to others is the only religion; the rest, fire-sacrifice, rituals, ceremonies and all that is madness—even it is wrong to hanker after one’s own salvation.

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/124_sir.htm

>I believe that the Satya-Yuga has come—when there will be one caste, one Veda, and peace and harmony. This idea of Satya-Yuga is what would renovate India. Believe in it.

source: Letter 113 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda"

>In the Buddha-Avatara [Incarnation], the Lord says that the root cause of ādhibhautika suffering is Jāti [caste], that is, the formation of distinctions [caste and classes] based on birth, guṇa [qualities], or wealth—is the cause of this suffering.

>In the Atman, there is no distinction of gender, varna [caste], or ashrama [orders], or anything of that kind; and just as mud cannot be washed away by mud, so it is impossible to bring about oneness through such ideas of discrimination.

source: Letter 215 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda"

>If anybody is born of a low caste in our country, he is gone for ever, there is no hope for him. Why? What a tyranny it is! There are possibilities, opportunities, and hope for every individual in this (United States of America) country. Today he is poor, tomorrow he may become rich and learned and respected. Here everyone is anxious to help the poor. In India there is a howling cry that we are very poor, but how many charitable associations are there for the well-being of the poor?

>How many people weep from the heart for the millions of orphans? O God! Are we men? Those low-caste people living like animals all around your homes—what have you done for their betterment? What have you done for giving a morsel of food in their mouth—can you tell? You do not touch them—you drive them away! Are we men?

>All those thousands of monks and Brahmins roaming around here and there—what are they doing for these poor downtrodden masses? They only say, “Don’t touch,” “Don’t touch me”. What a [deplorable] state they have brought our Sanatana Dharma [Eternal Religion] to! Where is [our] religion now? Only छुँत्-मार्ग । (454) [Don’t-touchism]—Don’t touch me, Don’t touch.

source: A letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/006_haripada.htm

>One of my Sannyasins is indeed a woman. She was a leader of the labourers. The others are men. I am going to make some in England and try to take them over to India with me. These “white” faces will have more influence in India than the Hindus. Moreover, they are vigorous, the Hindus are dead. The only hope of India is from the masses. The upper classes are physically and morally dead.

source: Letter 369 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda".

>Oh brother, what I saw in South India—how the upper class tortures the lower!—What Bacchanalian orgies within the temples!

>The religion—which does not remove the misery of the poor, does not turn man into god—is that religion? Ours, is it a religion?—Ours is छुँत्-मार्ग [Don’t-touchism], only “touch me not,” “touch me not”.

>Oh Hari!—That country, the big leaders of which have for the last two thousand years been only discussing whether to take food with the right hand or the left hand, whether to take water from the right-hand side or from the left—the country whose मूलमन्त्र is [mystic syllables like] ‘phaṭ phaṭ svāhā, krāng krung, huṁ huṁ’ etc.—if such a country does not become degraded, then which one will?

source: A letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/041_shashi.htm

>Land of dotards! You lose your caste if you come out!!! Sitting down these thousand years with an ever-increasing load of crystallized superstition on your heads, for a thousand years spending all your energy upon discussing the touchableness or untouchableness of this food or that! Sucked in and into the very depths of gyrating foolery of priestcraft, with all humanity crushed out of you by continuous social tyranny of ages!

>Come, be men!—First kick out the rascally priests—because these brainless brutes would never mend, their 0 [zero] of hearts would never become big. They are the offsprings of centuries of superstition and tyranny—root them out first. Come, be men! Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad. See how nations are on their march. Do you love man? Do you love your country? Then come out, let us struggle for higher and better things—Look not back, no, not even [if] you see the dearest and nearest cry—look not back but forward march.

source: Letter 74 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda".

>One thing I am very sorry to remark in these parts [is] a thorough want of Sanskrit and other learning. The people of this part of the country have for their religion a certain bundle of local superstitions about eating, drinking, and bathing, and that is about the whole of their religion.

>Poor fellows! Whatever the rascally and wily priests teach them—all sorts of mummery and tomfoolery as the very gist of the Vedas and Hinduism (mind you, neither these rascal priests nor their forefathers for the last 400 generations at least have seen a volume of the Veda)—they follow and degrade themselves. Lord help them from the Rakshasas in the shape of the Brahmanas of Kali-yuga.

a letter from Swami Vivekananda - https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_8/epistles_fourth_series/009_diwanji_saheb.htm?highlight=tomfoolery

>No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a diabolic fashion as Hinduism. The Lord has shown me that religion is not at fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of devilish engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines of Paramarthic [highest] and Vyavaharic [relative].

a letter from Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/004_alasinga.htm?highlight=sadducees

>The Smritis and the Puranas are authored by men of limited intelligence and are full of fallacies, errors, ideas of discrimination, and hatred. Only the parts that are liberal in spirit and full of love are acceptable; the rest should be discarded.

>The Upanishads and the Gita are the real scriptures; Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Chaitanya, Nanak, Kabir, and so on are the true Avataras [Incarnations], because their hearts were as endless as the sky—and above all is Ramakrishna. Rama­nuja, Shankara, and such others were mere Pundits with narrow hearts. They did not possess that love, and their hearts did not cry at the suffering of others—only the dry pedantry of the Pandits—and hastily wanting their own salvation!!! But is that possible, sir? Neither ever has it happened, nor will it. Can freedom be attained until even a speck of “I” remains?

>Another great divergence—my conviction is getting stronger day by day that the idea of caste is the greatest dividing factor and the root of Maya. All ideas of caste, either Janmagata [hereditary] or Guṇagata [qualitative] are bondages. Some friends say, “Let’s keep that in the mind; but outside, in the practical world, caste distinctions must be observed.” A somewhat indecent incident comes to my mind. Once I met an old, marriage-crazy vairāgī. I asked him, “Babaji, at this age what will you do with a Boshtamī?” His reply was, “I shall mentally have sex with her”!!!

>The views of those friends [as mentioned above], are just like that. It is like nurturing the idea of oneness mentally (although one well understands its implication), and in practice—the devil’s dance of tyranny, oppression and persecution, and the deliverer of death to the poor like Yama; but if even the Chandala [Pariah] is wealthy enough, he is held as the Protector of Religion!!!

>I am a Shudra + Mleccha. To me, the food prepared by a Mleccha or a Pariah makes no difference. And the craziness about caste distinction etc. is found only in books written by the priests, and not in books of God. Let the priests enjoy the fruits of their ancestors’ achievements, while I follow the words of God, for my welfare lies there.

>Another truth I have realized is that doing good to others is the only religion; the rest, fire-sacrifice, rituals, ceremonies and all that is madness—even it is wrong to hanker after one’s own salvation.

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/124_sir.htm

>I believe that the Satya-Yuga has come—when there will be one caste, one Veda, and peace and harmony. This idea of Satya-Yuga is what would renovate India. Believe in it.

source: Letter 113 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda"

>In the Buddha-Avatara [Incarnation], the Lord says that the root cause of ādhibhautika suffering is Jāti [caste], that is, the formation of distinctions [caste and classes] based on birth, guṇa [qualities], or wealth—is the cause of this suffering.

>In the Atman, there is no distinction of gender, varna [caste], or ashrama [orders], or anything of that kind; and just as mud cannot be washed away by mud, so it is impossible to bring about oneness through such ideas of discrimination.

source: Letter 215 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda"

>If anybody is born of a low caste in our country, he is gone for ever, there is no hope for him. Why? What a tyranny it is! There are possibilities, opportunities, and hope for every individual in this (United States of America) country. Today he is poor, tomorrow he may become rich and learned and respected. Here everyone is anxious to help the poor. In India there is a howling cry that we are very poor, but how many charitable associations are there for the well-being of the poor?

>How many people weep from the heart for the millions of orphans? O God! Are we men? Those low-caste people living like animals all around your homes—what have you done for their betterment? What have you done for giving a morsel of food in their mouth—can you tell? You do not touch them—you drive them away! Are we men?

>All those thousands of monks and Brahmins roaming around here and there—what are they doing for these poor downtrodden masses? They only say, “Don’t touch,” “Don’t touch me”. What a [deplorable] state they have brought our Sanatana Dharma [Eternal Religion] to! Where is [our] religion now? Only छुँत्-मार्ग । (454) [Don’t-touchism]—Don’t touch me, Don’t touch.

source: A letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/006_haripada.htm

>One of my Sannyasins is indeed a woman. She was a leader of the labourers. The others are men. I am going to make some in England and try to take them over to India with me. These “white” faces will have more influence in India than the Hindus. Moreover, they are vigorous, the Hindus are dead. The only hope of India is from the masses. The upper classes are physically and morally dead.

source: Letter 369 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda".

>Oh brother, what I saw in South India—how the upper class tortures the lower!—What Bacchanalian orgies within the temples!

>The religion—which does not remove the misery of the poor, does not turn man into god—is that religion? Ours, is it a religion?—Ours is छुँत्-मार्ग [Don’t-touchism], only “touch me not,” “touch me not”.

>Oh Hari!—That country, the big leaders of which have for the last two thousand years been only discussing whether to take food with the right hand or the left hand, whether to take water from the right-hand side or from the left—the country whose मूलमन्त्र is [mystic syllables like] ‘phaṭ phaṭ svāhā, krāng krung, huṁ huṁ’ etc.—if such a country does not become degraded, then which one will? “ कालः सुप्तेषु जागर्ति कालो हि दुरतिक्रमः”

source: A letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/041_shashi.htm

>Land of dotards! You lose your caste if you come out!!! Sitting down these thousand years with an ever-increasing load of crystallized superstition on your heads, for a thousand years spending all your energy upon discussing the touchableness or untouchableness of this food or that! Sucked in and into the very depths of gyrating foolery of priestcraft, with all humanity crushed out of you by continuous social tyranny of ages!

>Come, be men!—First kick out the rascally priests—because these brainless brutes would never mend, their 0 [zero] of hearts would never become big. They are the offsprings of centuries of superstition and tyranny—root them out first. Come, be men! Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad. See how nations are on their march. Do you love man? Do you love your country? Then come out, let us struggle for higher and better things—Look not back, no, not even [if] you see the dearest and nearest cry—look not back but forward march.

source: Letter 74 by Swami Vivekananda in the book "Letters by Swami Vivekananda".

>One thing I have to remark in these parts [is] a thorough want of Sanskrit and other learning. The people of this part of the country have for their religion a certain bundle of local superstitions about eating, drinking, and bathing, and that is about the whole of their religion.

>Poor fellows! Whatever the rascally and wily priests teach them—all sorts of mummery and tomfoolery as the very gist of the Vedas and Hinduism (mind you, neither these rascal priests nor their forefathers for the last 400 generations at least have seen a volume of the Veda)—they follow and degrade themselves. Lord help them from the Rakshasas in the shape of the Brahmanas of Kali-yuga.

a letter from Swami Vivekananda - https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_8/epistles_fourth_series/009_diwanji_saheb.htm?highlight=tomfoolery

>No religion on earth preaches the dignity of humanity in such a lofty strain as Hinduism, and no religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a diabolic fashion as Hinduism. The Lord has shown me that religion is not at fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of devilish engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines of Paramarthic [highest] and Vyavaharic [relative].

a letter from Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/004_alasinga.htm?highlight=sadducees

>I believe that the Satya-Yuga has come—when there will be one caste, one Veda, and peace and harmony. This idea of Satya-Yuga is what would renovate India. Believe in it.

- Letter by Swami Vivekananda to Sri Alasinga Perumal 9th April 1894

>Nowhere in the world are women like those of this (USA) country. How pure, independent, self-relying, and kindhearted! It is the women who are the life and soul of this country. All learning and culture are centred in them. The saying, "या श्री: स्वयं सुकृतिनां भवनेषु — Who is the Goddess of Fortune Herself in the families of the meritorious" (Chandi) — holds good in this country, while that other, "अलक्ष्मीः पापात्मनां — The Goddess of ill luck in the homes of the sinful" (ibid.) — applies to ours. Just think on this. Great God! I am struck dumb with wonderment at seeing the women of America. "त्वं श्रीस्त्वमीश्वरी त्वं ह्रीः — Thou art the Goddess of Fortune, Thou art the supreme Goddess, Thou art Modesty" (ibid.), "या देवी सर्वभूतेषु शक्तिरूपेण संस्थिता — The Goddess who resides in all beings as Power" (ibid.) — all this holds good here. There are thousands of women here whose minds are as pure and white as the snow of this country.

>And how free they are! It is they who do all the work—schools and colleges are full of girls. Whereas, in our wretched land, women cannot be safely allowed to walk in the streets!

>And Manu Maharaj said, “ यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता: ।” [Where women are happy, upon those families there is abundance of God’s grace.] That is what they do here, and that is why they are happy, learned, free, and enterprising. Whereas we look upon women as low, base, despicable, and impure—and as a result—we are beastly, slavish, unenter­prising, and poor. We are horrible sinners, and our degradation is due to our calling women ‘despicable worms,’ ‘gateways to hell,’ and so forth. Goodness gracious!

>No woman is married before twenty-five or thirty, and they are as free as the birds in the air. They go to market, shops, college, teach, earn money—do all kinds of work and yet so pure! Those who are well-to-do are busy day and night serving the poor.

>And what do we do?—“If my daughter is not married by eleven years of age, she would be spoiled!” Are we men, my son? Manu says, कन्याप्येवं पालनीया शिक्षणीयातियत्नतः । Just as the sons have to be educated by observing Brahmacharya up to the thirtieth year, the daughters should also be taught likewise. But what are we doing? Can you improve the condition of your women?—then there is hope, otherwise, no end to this beastly life!

>The difference is like heaven and hell!! Is the Lord hoodwinked by frothy talks? The Lord has said, “ त्वं स्त्री त्वं पुमानसि त्वं कुमार उत वा कुमारी ” (You (Brahman/God) are woman; you are man. You are the boy, and also the girl.) and we say, “दूरमपसर रे चण्डाल,” “केनैषा निर्मिता नारी मोहिनी” (Move far away, O Caṇḍāla!) Oh brother, what I saw in South India—how the upper class tortures the lower!—the exuberance of dance of courtesans in temples!

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/006_haripada.htm

https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_6/epistles_second_series/041_shashi.htm

>If anybody is born of a low caste in our country, he is gone for ever, there is no hope for him. Why? What a tyranny it is! There are possibilities, opportunities, and hope for every individual in this (United States of America) country. Today he is poor, tomorrow he may become rich and learned and respected. Here everyone is anxious to help the poor. In India there is a howling cry that we are very poor, but how many charitable associations are there for the well-being of the poor?

>How many people weep from the heart for the millions of orphans? O God! Are we men? Those low-caste people living like animals all around your homes—what have you done for their betterment? What have you done for giving a morsel of food in their mouth—can you tell? You do not touch them—you drive them away! Are we men?

>All those thousands of monks and Brahmins roaming around here and there—what are they doing for these poor downtrodden masses? They only say, “Don’t touch,” “Don’t touch me”. What a [deplorable] state they have brought our Sanatana Dharma [Eternal Religion] to! Where is [our] religion now? Only छुँत्-मार्ग । (454) [Don’t-touchism]—Don’t touch me, Don’t touch.

source: A letter by Swami Vivekananda https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/volume_5/epistles_first_series/006_haripada.htm

>The Lord has shown me that religion is not in fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines Paramarthika (Absolute) and Vyavaharika (Transactional)

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda to a disciple https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/swamieastwest/2_files/1-20.html?highlight=vyava

>The Lord has shown me that religion is not in fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny in the shape of doctrines Paramarthika and Vyavaharika

source: Letter by Swami Vivekananda to a disciple https://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/swamieastwest/2_files/1-20.html?highlight=vyava