Here is your essay on the Main Principles of Swami Vivekananda’s Educational Philosophy:
1. Doctrine of Divinity:
Like a true Vedantin, Swami Vivekananda believed in the divinity and the immortality of the soul. There is no difference between the Absolute Soul (the Almighty Brahman) and the individual soul. The difference, however, lay only in the degree in which the individual soul manifests itself.
That is why Swamiji says, “Each soul is a star.” “Man is potentially divine” ‘Man is perfect and education is the manifestation of the perfection already existing in man.” What is therefore, needed is self- realization. “The moment you begin to realize, you are relieved.” What is religion? Religion is nothing but being and becoming. True religion’s realization. Whatever is supreme in this universe in but Truth. But truth is to be known, and to be practised. So says the Swamiji.
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“That society is the great, where the highest truth becomes practical standsup, men and women, in this spirit dare to believe in the Truth, dare to practise the truth.”
Divinity is Truth (Sat), Pure Consciousness (Chit) and Pure Bliss (Ananda). Divinity resides in one’s own self. “The Aryan man is always seeking divinity-inside his own self.”
2. True Religion:
The Swamiji adopted universal religion and preached universal brotherhood. All religions, sects, creeds, view-points and philosophies converge, mingle and merge into the universal religion, the essence of which is proclaimed in Vedanta. His religion is not the monopoly of a particular man.
“I am proud of belonging to a religion which preaches tolerance, and which has given refuge to every other religion… It speaks that He is one, but spoken about in diverse ways.” “I go to church,” says Swamiji, “I go to mosque and I go to any temple.”
3. Goal of Life:
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Is material prosperity the goal of life? No, The Swamiji was pained to see the dark aspect of the materialist life in the West. “They are blindfolded bullocks with the yoke on their neck.” Real happiness lay neither in the body, nor in the mind, but in life without dependence, in life absolutely free from any bondage.
The happiness through dependence on sense gratification is temporary and false, and is like a sugar-coated bitter pill. Dependence is misery, and independence is Absolute Joy and Absolute Bliss, Discriminate between the real and the false ananda (through viveka) and renounce the false, pleasures of the world with the attitude of Vairagya.
“Let man have light, let him be pure and misery will end.” The goal of life is freedom. “And freedom is the motive of the universe, freedom is its goal. Freedom is attained by work, worship and knowledge.”
4. Fourfold Path:
For the attainment of freedom and liberation, the Swamiji, in the simplest terms, presented the fourfold path of work, worship, contemplation and knowledge. He advocated these to be followed by any human being selecting one or more paths in accordance with his background and temperament.
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He thus threw open the floodgates of the wisdom of the entire spiritual and philosophical literature of the Hindus, interpreting and re-interpreting the eternal canons, revealed by the saints and sages. In his lectures on Karma-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Raja- Yoga, and Jnana-Yoga, he made a masterly analysis of the diverse means of attainment of the spiritual goal.
In the simplest possible terms he beckoned the light governing our spiritual journey:”Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divine within, by controlling nature, external and Internal….. Do this either by work, or worship, or Psychic control, or philosophy by one, or more, or all of these……… and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.”
5. Spiritual Guide:
The Swamiji, while emphasising the adoption of any one of the four types of yoga, also affirmed the need for a spiritual preceptor or guru. He reasserts : “You may go and knock your head against the four corners of the world, seek in the Himalayas, the Alps, the Caucasus, the deserts of Gobi or Sahara, or the bottom of the sea but it will not come, until you find a teacher.”
6. Optimism and Strength:
The Swamiji instilled in the minds of all an undaunted strength and deep rooted optimism and faith in the self. He called men ‘lions’ on the face of the earth’ and exhorted them to behave like lions. “Strength is life, weakness is death; strength is felicity, life eternal immortal: weakness is constant strain and misery. Weakness is death. Let positive, strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood.”
So he gives a clarion call to all. “Stand up, be bold, be strong you are the creator of your destiny.” He made the actual diagnosis of our malady and announced: “What our country now wants, are the muscles of iron and nerves of steel- gigantic wills which nothing can resist “.
He further reassured: “All the strength is within you. Do not brood over weakness, mistakes of the past.” His sermon was a fiery exhortation, kindling fire in the minds of his countrymen, when he said, “Your country requires heroes. Stand firm like a rock. Truth always triumphs.
What India wants is a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins. Be brave, be brave, man dies but once.” It is fear that is the greatest cause of misery in the world. One who is afraid of nothing will do marvelous work. Sometimes the Swami even chided those who took to relatively effeminate tasks like bhajan and kirtan, while our country at present needed valour and bravery, and sacrifice for attaining freedom.
7. Patriotism:
The Swamiji, himself a patriot of the first order, advocated a deep spirit of patriotism in every Indian. He felt the pulse of the times, the communal discord, the strain of untouchability, the linguistic and provincial and caste differences, the lack of vision, and a sort of indolence and inertia cutting through each and every call of India’s life blood.
So he looks the whip of reprimand and hit out through his speeches. He asked all the communities to forget the points of difference, disharmony and strife, and to hear, instead, the gentle voice of the motherland. He further asked them to remove all the weakness, to root out priest craft and orthodoxy, and to work of the economic uplift of the country through trade, commerce and agriculture.
In its far-reaching vision, he saw India awakening from her deep, long slumber, He sees: “Like a breeze from the Himalayas, the voice of Mother India is bringing life into even the dead bones and muscles of our countrymen. The lethargy is passing away and only the blind cannot see….that India is awakening from her deep, long sleep.
“He dreamt of the new resurgent India, with an integrated people. He found in India the vigorous functioning of Hinduism and Islam, and he integrated the two by advocating the Vedanta brain and an Islamic body.
The Swami had the fullest appreciation of the glory of India, its culture, the teachings of its sages, the gifts of knowledge, and the fountains of spiritualism. India never lacked in spiritual giants, and therefore, it was for India to preach spiritual values to mankind. A country with such a glorious past and rich heritage cannot perish.
He makes it emphatically clear:
“Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct; all moral perfection will be extinct; all sweet sympathy for religion will be extinct; all ideality will be extinct … Such a thing can never be…. “Hence Swamiji exhorted the Indians to wake up, unite and rise in order to bring about the revival of India’s glory and heritage, and reconstruct the nation with determination.
He intensely felt that once Indians awoke, no outward power could hold India back, and that India was going to exhibit her glory again. He never stopped giving fiery speeches to his countrymen, enthusing them to work for India’s regeneration. “Arise, awake, and see India seated on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she was this mother-land India is calling. How can you sleep?”
8. Humanitarianism:
The greatest of patriots, worshipped Mother India, and worshipped every Indian. His heart was bleeding at the sight of poverty and misery in his country. He declared that individual salvation had no meaning; “Go to Hell yourself to buy salvation for others. There is no mukti on earth to call my own.” “No one can be happy until all are happy.”
“So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance,” declared the Swamiji, “I hold every man a traitor, who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them.” The Swamiji defined a Mahatma as one who bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Duratman.
To him worship of man is the true worship of God. As he explains, “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, the TajMahal of temples. If cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage.”
The Swamiji made a deep analysis and diagnosis of the miserable condition of the Indian masses. He enumerated a number of causes of the misery. The first factor is the ignorance of the teeming millions. The second reason his lack of energy, a sort of lethargy or inertia, or stupor or what is called tamas. Thirdly, there is an inbuilt dissension due to the casteism.
Narrow-mindedness and unsympathetic attitude of the elite. Caste distinction is the veritable cancer of the community. “When the word, mlechcha was coined,” says the Swamiji, “India’s doom was sealed.” He vehemently criticised caste distinction. “We are just don’t-touchists. Our religion is in the kitchen. Our God is the cooking pot, and our religion is ‘don’t touch me, I am holy’. If it goes on for another century, every one of us will be in a lunatic asylum.” Thus the Swamiji taught humanism and egalitarianism long before Gandhiji led his campaign.
9. Service:
To the Swamiji, the only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. He therefore, asked every Indian to vow there and then to devote his whole life to the cause of the redemption of the millions going down and down every day. He ordered them to lay aside their comforts, their pleasures, their name and fame, position and status, and to make a bridge of human chains over which millions would cross this ocean of life.
To him love of mankind is love of the Almighty. So he instructed: “Money does not pay, nor name -.fame does not pay, nor learning. It is love that pays; it is character that clears its way through adamantine walls of difficulties. “Love and character are the two highest gifts of greatness.”What the world wants is character. The world is in need of those whose love is one burning love – selfless. That love makes every word tell like a thunderbolt. Awake, awake, great soul! The world is burning in misery. Can you sleep?”
Love is truly for the sake of life, and this is the only law of life. “He who loves, lives; he who is selfish, is dying.” The Swamiji emphasised character over and over again. He asked us to discard for ever self-aggrandizement, faction-mongering and jealousy, and to imbibe the spirit of tolerance, so badly lacking in us.
10. Position of Women:
Swamiji was equally vocal about the rights and necessary privileges of women. They deserve to have equal rights with men. Indians preached in the past, and should preach now also the excellent ideal of women, so unknown in the West. He idolised motherhood as Maha Shakti and as Divinity in action.
The Swamiji found to distinction between man and women. “Is there any sex distinction in Atman?”Again he declared: ‘The best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women.’ So he advocated.
“Woman must be put in a position to solve their own problems in their own way.” It will be wrong to suggest that the position of women is more satisfactory in the West. “The trouble with the nations of the West is that they are young, foolish, fickle and wealthy.”
But women, there are no longer happy. This is because they do not pursue the ideal of motherhood known in India. Swamiji instructed every daughter to follow the ideals of Sita, Maitreyi, Lila, Ahalyabai and Mira.