Be Good, Do Good

A Talk by Swami Dayatmananda, President, Ramakrishna Vedanta Centre, United Kingdom at the 145th Birth Anniversary Celebration held in Tokyo on June 10, 2007

Friends, I am very happy to be in Japan. This is my first visit. I am happy to meet Swami Medhasanandaji who had so lovingly invited me. I am glad to be here because Swami Vivekananda had a great love for Japan. He had high regard for the Japanese and, in fact, wanted to make another visit here toward the end of his life.

Swami Vivekananda is a phenomenon that exploded on the Indian scene towards the end of the nineteenth century and restored the self-confidence and self-respect of a nation that had been badly mauled for a millennia. Born on January 12, 1863, of an intellectual but compassionate father and a deeply religious mother, Narendranath - that was his original  name - got a good education and cultural training under them.

An innate desire for spiritual perfection brought him into contact with Sri Ramakrishna in the early part of 1882. The next four and a half years - until the Mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna - were marked by turbulence and turmoil, the direct  result of the Master chiseling and shaping the disciple, but ending in total submission of the latter at the feet of the former.

As per the specific direction of his guru, Narendra, along with the other young men who were his co-disciples, took to monastic vows and founded a monastery in his guruﾕs name at Baranagore (Calcutta) in 1886. Setting out on pilgrimage, mostly as    a wandering monk, he finally arrived at Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of Indian soil, during December 1892. There, while sitting in meditation on a rock in the sea, the mission of his life was revealed to him. Then, things moved quickly.

Setting sail for America on the 31st of May 1893 he created  history at the World Parliament of Religions held at Chicago during September of the same year. After whirlwind tours in America and England, he triumphantly returned to India on the 15th of January 1897. During the next five years he literally shook the Indian nation to its foundations, electrifying it to dynamic self-expression through his speeches and writings, as also in conversations.

He formally established the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 and consecrated the newly built Belur Math, headquarters of the Ramakrishna Monastery, in 1899. He visited the West again during 1899-1900. He shuffled off the mortal coil on the 4th of July 1902.

His was a multifaceted personality; a prophet, a patriot, a monk, a yogi, a social reformer, an educationist, an artist, a poet and a humanist, all rolled into one. His  dynamic life and message gave a new direction to a resurgent India. His work is being continued even today.

Swami Vivekananda visited Japan on his way to America. He had very sweet memories and a high regard for the land. He writes:

'From Canton I returned back to Hong Kong, and from thence to Japan. The first port we touched was Nagasaki. We landed for a few hours and drove through the town. From Nagasaki on to Kobe. Here I gave up the steamer and took the land route to Yokohama, with a view to see the interior of Japan.'

'I have seen three big cities in the interior; Osaka, a great manufacturing town, Kyoto, the former capital, and Tokyo, the present capital. Japan to me is a dream ﾐ so beautiful that it haunts one all his life. The Japanese are one of the cleanliest peoples on earth. Everything is neat and tidy. Japan is the land of the picturesque!'

'The Japanese seem now to have fully awakened themselves to the necessity of the present times. The world has never seen such a patriotic and artistic race as the Japanese. I would wish that every one of our young men could visit Japan once at least in his lifetime.'

'What is the key to Japanﾕs sudden greatness? The faith of the Japanese in themselves, and their love for their country. If you catch the social and the political morality of the Japanese, you will be as great as they are. The Japanese are ready to sacrifice everything for their country, and they have become a great people.'

Towards the end of his life Swami Vivekananda had a great desire to visit Japan again, but he could not go on account of illness. But he met two Japanese friends. One was Mr. Okakura Kakuzo, better known in Japan as Tenshin, who was head of the Committee for the Restoration of Old Temples, and one of the founders of the Tokyo School of Art, of the Nippon Bijutsuin. The other was Hori who was a zealous Buddhist priest in Nara and his age was about twenty-five.

These two Japanese were delighted to meet the Swami at the Math in the evening. The Swami said to Okakura, ﾒWe are two brothers who meet again having come from the ends of the earth.ﾓ Okakura was so charmed with the Swamiﾕs personality that he said rather fiercely, ﾒVivekananda is ours. He is an Oriental."

Swami Vivekananda had a nice idea of Buddhism in Japan. He said: ﾒJapanese Buddhism is entirely different from what you see in Ceylon. It is the same as Vedanta. It is positive and theistic Buddhism, not the negative atheistic Buddhism of Ceylon.

Sister Nivedita writes: 'Of three wishes' which Swami Vivekananda expressed the very day he died one was ﾔI want to do something for Japan.ﾕ I am so happy we have a Vedanta Centre in Japan in fulfillment of Swami Vivekanandaﾕs wish.

What did the great Swami want to do?  As he himself said, ﾒMy ideal, indeed, can be put into a few words, and that is to preach unto mankind their divinity and how to make it manifest in every movement of life."

Swami Vivekananda summarized Vedanta saying, ﾒEach soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity 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. Religion is the manifestation of the divinity already in man. Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.

"The secret of religion lies not in theories but in practice. To be good and do good - that is the whole of religion. Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God."

Swami Vivekananda was a practical man. He preached practical Vedanta. Vedanta or religion ought to make us good, pure and happy. This is a very important teaching of Swami Vivekananda, which teaches us how to combat evils in society and make our lives peaceful. He says, "If one millionth part of the men and women who live in this world simply sit down and for a few minutes say, 'You are all God, O ye men and O ye animals and living beings, you are all the manifestations of the one living Deity!' the whole world will be changed in half an hour."

"Be good, and evil will vanish for you. The whole universe will thus be changed." The above exhortation of Swamiji illustrates that divinity is present in all of us. But this fact has to be brought to our awareness; we should be conscious about it. We should strive to manifest our inner divinity. This manifestation occurs through a transformation in us. Swami Vivekanandaﾕs ideas reveal a process through which we can bring about this transformation.

The first step is to become mature, responsible and rational beings. To become mature personalitiesﾐthis is the goal of psychology. What is maturity? How do we know we have become mature? Here are some conclusions of a great psychotherapist, Carl Rogers, and his characteristics of a mature personality:

1) He has a through knowledge of the workings of his mind, knows his assets and liabilities.
2) He becomes integrated, a conversion of head and heart.
3) He accepts himself, loves himself and takes upon responsibility for himself.
4) He has a clearly defined philosophy and goal in life.
5) He has an optimistic, cheerful but realistic attitude towards life and the world. He suffers neither from a superiority nor an inferiority complex.
6) He has sufficient self-control to sacrifice weaknesses and defects.
7) He constantly strives to improve himself without getting frustrated.
8) He always tries to see the best in others. Forgives himself and others.
9) He integrates evil and suffering as stepping stones to a better life.
10) He has a place, a definite routine for everything in life.
11) He has a keen sense of humour without becoming a buffoon.

The next step is a re-orientation of the mind to this invaluable truth. One has to believe that not only is one divine, but also every living being is essentially divine. The soul of everyone is pure, good, beautiful and blissful. It is infinite and eternal. It is free from all bondage, limitation, and sorrow.

We are always required to keep our mind engaged in high and noble thoughts. The importance of thought in shaping the personality cannot be overemphasized. Says Swamiji, "Fill yourselves with the ideal; whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, deified, by the very power of the thought. If matter is powerful, thought is omnipotent. Bring this thought to bear upon your life, fill yourselves with the thought of your almightiness, your majesty, and your glory."

This further means that we should desist from sending any harmful or hateful thoughts. If our essential nature is divine, our thoughts should be pure; they should not harbour hatred for anybody.

Bhagavan Buddha and all great saints have taught through scriptures only two things: If we make others happy, happiness will be ours, and if we make others unhappy, we are inviting miseries for ourselves. This is based on the universal law of ﾔevery action brings a reactionﾕ.

We surely want our own good. It is, therefore, prudent to prepare ourselves to imbibe these virtues. A paradigm shift in oneﾕs thinking is necessary to do that. Our thoughts make things beautiful, and our thoughts makes things ugly. The whole world is in our own mind. Learn to see things in proper light.

Swamijiﾕs teaching of ﾔBe and Makeﾕ is of great significance in this respect. For what we ﾔmakeﾕ depends on what we are. And what we are depends on what we practice. May the great Swami Vivekanandaﾕs blessings be upon us all.

Om Shanti Shanti Shanti