Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence

A Book Summary

Presented by Devatanu Banerjee

Overview

Swami Ranganathananandji, the Vice President of the Ramakrishna Mission, deliversa memorable lecture on ‘

Swami Vivekananda and Human Excellence’

at the HarvardUniversity in 1985. This paperback published by the Advaita Ashram compiles hisspeech into ten chapters that, in the most lucid way, capture the essence of whatSwami Vivekanada’s synthesized view of Human Excellence. In this paper, our grouphopes to summarize each chapter in an effort to learn from the lecture andVivekananda’s message as a whole.

Chapter 1: Introduction

In a quick acknowledge, Swami Ranganathananandji thanks the organizers of thelecture and his excitement at the prospect of dealing with the subject of ‘humanexcellence’ especially with reference to Swami Vivekananda’s teachings.

Chapter 2: Vivekananda – The Harmony of All Human Energy

The chapter talks of the

influence of the four yogas as well as the ancientGreeko Roman essence of philosophy

on Swami Vivekananda’s and goes on to

trace a brief biography of Swamiji

.Under the tutelage of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda not only conveyedsomething unique, but went on to propound the

synthesis of Indian and Westernexcellence, calling it ‘

Human Excellence’

. Swami Vivekananda is projected isequated to the Buddha and Sankaracharya in that at the very young age he was ableto make a lasting impact on the minds of both the East and the West.The chapter also introduces the

importance of education on not only knowledgebut also character development

. Vivekananda is also referred to as the harmonyof all human energy because he identified that

neither western nor easternculture were perfect

and that both had a lot to offer. Therefore

he chose toassimilate both their ‘excellences’

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Chapter 3: The Upanishads on Efficiency

Figure 1: Constituents of Supreme Excellence

By combining knowledge (Vidya) with the other two virtues, one can build character.Quoting from the lecture, “

The educated citizen is the source from which a moderndemocratic society receives nourishment

”. He believed that

knowledge seeking ineducational institutions and social interactions, leads to character building,which he terms –

Manliness

.Vivekanada seems to be especially impressed by the

west’s tremendous innerfaith and daring to overcome all odds – called the

Promethean Spirit

. This hecompares to the story of Bhagiratha who brings down the Ganges from heaven.Based on

Aristotle

saying – “

Man is a social animal

”, he goes on to suggest westernphilosophy’s

political view of man

, which has both positive and negative sides.

Figure 2: Political view of man

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Political view of man

Educated citizen (who has)Promethean spirit (but is)Ethically limitedSense bound (and is)Communal

PoliticalAchievementsEconomicAchievementsSocialAchievementsAggressivewarsColonialmentalitySocialexploitation

Positive societal goalsPermitted negative behavior

Viryavataram

Supreme Excellence

Vidya

Knowledge

Shradha

Faith / Conviction

Upanishad

Deep thinking

Chapter 4: Greek Specialization in Human Excellence: ItsLimitations

In this chapter, we find the

Greek

emphasis on

external political dimension

of man.In spite of this, the crucial

drawback

of Greek philosophy is that it

does notaddress the finality of death

. This is where the

Indian

thought process has beenable to develop an

inward spiritual dimension of man

that addresses the conceptof death.He concludes the chapter by

sympathizing with Socrates

, whose attempt to bringthe higher level into the thought process of the Greeks led to him being declared acorruptor of youth and eventually his death. He also goes on to suggest that