October 2011 - Advaita Ashrama

48
652
… I sometimes feel the urge to break the barriers
of ‘Don’t-touchism’, go at once and call out,
‘Come, all who are poor, miserable, wretched,
and downtrodden’, and bring them all together
in the name of Shri Ramakrishna. … Let us
open their eyes. I see clear as daylight that there
is the one Brahman in all, in them and me—
one Shakti dwells in all. The only difference is of
manifestation. Unless the blood circulates over
the whole body, has any country risen at any
time? If one limb is paralyzed, then even with
the other limbs whole, not much can be done
with that body—know this for certain (7.246).
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 ’ (7.247).
With these words he turned to Saratchandra
and said: ‘What I have told you today, inscribe in
your heart. See that you do not forget it (ibid.).
The great illumined soul that was Swamiji
used to feel the pain of others in the same way as
his Master. There is at least one incident in his life
that is identical with Sri Ramakrishna’s experience
at Dakshineswar, when two boatmen were quarrelling
at a distance and the Master experienced
the blow of the one upon the other as a pain on
his back. One day when Swamiji was at Darjeeling,
he went for a morning walk with some
people after taking his breakfast. He was enjoying
the local scenery when his eyes fell upon an
old bhutia-(from Bhutan) woman carrying a huge
load on her back. Suddenly, she stumbled and fell
to the ground with her burden, painfully bruising
her ribs. Swamiji immediately felt a sympathetic
vibration in the form of a stabbing pain.34
We, common human beings, have no understanding.
But we can understand and accept from Sri
Ramakrishna’s example that the pain felt by one
individual can definitely be experienced as a sympathetic
vibration of pain by another individual
of universal affinity and sympathy.
Prabuddha Bharata
Less than six months before the day of his
mahasamadhi, Swamiji indicated that after a good
deal of spiritual struggle and maturity he had
come to the conclusion that serving the distressed
as an emblem of God is the whole of religion. In
a letter to Brahmananda dated 18 February 1902,
from Varanasi, Swamiji writes: ‘If in this hell of a
world one can bring a little joy and peace even for
a day into the heart of a single person, that much
alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all
my life; all else is mere moonshine.’ 35
Sri Ramakrishna said of Swami Vivekananda:
‘The day when Naren comes in contact with suffering
and misery the pride of his character will
melt into a mood of infinite compassion. His
strong faith in himself will be an instrument to
re-establish in discouraged souls the confidence
and faith they have lost. And the freedom of
his conduct, based on mighty self-mastery, will
shine brightly in the eyes of others, as a manifestation
of the true liberty of the Ego.’ 36
It can be understood from the foregoing incidents
that the Master’s prediction about Swamiji
was literally vindicated. P
References
24. Complete Works, 6.500.
25. The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal
Gospel, 93.
26. Complete Works, 7.327.
27. The Life of Swami Vivekananda, 2.328.
28. Swami Chetanananda, God Lived With Them
(Kolkata: Advaita Ashrama, 2008), 600.
29. Complete Works, 5.162.
30. Life of Swami Vivekananda, 2.625.
31. See Complete Works, 5.436.
32. See Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda, 397.
33. Complete Works, 7.245.
34. See Swami Gambhirananda, Yuganayaka
Vivekananda, 3 vols (Kolkata: Udbodhan, 1993)
2.429. Translation by the author.
35. Complete Works, 5.176.
36. The Life of Vivekananda and the Universal
Gospel, 6.
PB October 2011