Culture

Swami Vivekananda – a Great
Indian Thinker of the 19thCentury
By Naoyuki Haraoka

Introduction
One beautifully sunny Saturday afternoon in Tokyo in June, anevent was held at the Indian Embassy to mark 161st anniversary ofthe birth of Swami Vivekananda and the 131st anniversary of his visit
to Japan. It consisted of two parts: an opening ceremony withinaugural addresses given by Indian Ambassador Sibi George andAkie Abe, widow of late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and aseminar on the teachings of Swami Vivekananda with a number ofdistinguished scholars and experts. Traditional Indian dances andsongs between the two parts helped to inspire the audience’s interest
in Indian philosophy and religion as symbolized in the music andwords.
Mrs. Abe talked about her late husband’s friendship with Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her special gratitude to the IndianEmbassy for its warm consideration for her on the occasion of thetragedy in 2022. This reminded us of the two leaders’ personal
friendship being a source of good India-Japan relations. Swami
Vivekananda is a good person to remind us of the importance offriendship and that the current divisions we see in many places
around the world today need to be resolved as quickly as possible.

Author Naoyuki Haraoka

Japan too. He stopped by Japan in 1893 on his way to Chicago toattend the World Parliament of Religions, and visited Nagasaki,
Kobe, Osaka, Kyoto, Yokohama and Tokyo at that time. “In myopinion, if all our rich and educated men once go and see Japan,
their eyes will be opened,” he said.
Japan SPOTLIGHT has already published articles about him in pastissues by our editorial board members Mohan Gopal and MukeshWilliams. I would like to mention here what drew my attention in hisbiography.
First, he was born in Calcutta into an intellectual family. His father
was a lawyer who spoke Persian and English and his mother was
also very intelligent and had excellent English language skills. Both ofthem were greatly loved and respected by their neighbors and all
kinds of people who knew them. This family background was
Photo: Thomas Harrison

Who Is Swami Vivekananda?
Swami Vivekananda was a Hindu monk of the 19th century whoencouraged Indian nationalism in the colonial age and also promotedsocial reform of Indian society. As a man with a good Westerneducation, he told Europeans and Americans about the essence ofHinduism as a universal religion that could achieve unity andfriendship among all races and religious groups.
His understanding of Western culture and society, and his insights
into and affection for Indian culture, enabled him to be acommunicator and mediator between the two. He was respected not
only by Indians as a reformer of Indian civilization like the poet
Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian winner of the Nobel Prize forLiterature, but also by Western intellectuals like Romain Rolland. As
a communicator between East and West, he traveled long distances,
not only in India but also in the United States and Europe, and in

56 Japan SPOTLIGHT • July / August 2024

Swami Vivekananda 1893

https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

important to him when he spoke about his achievements later in life,
as he knew how benevolence is important for human happiness.
But he was also a very mischievous child, and his mother wasoccasionally at a loss how to discipline him. But he never fell into evil
conduct and in later life this mischievous nature was a source of theoutspokenness and humor that attracted many people to him. He
became a man of great sympathy – an important step in becoming agood communicator. Moreover, he was not like some men of religion
who reek of hypocrisy. He was more practical and thus he talked
about India as a nation in need of poverty mitigation first and notreligion.
Second, he was very active in international missions. Welleducated in English, he was very open-minded to any culture and did
not mind traveling far to almost anywhere in the world. This wasunusual for his contemporaries in the last quarter of the 19th century
when there were no airplanes available. This open-mindedness
eventually brought him to view the world as being unified, somewhat
unique in his age, and our politically and economically divided world
today could learn from his perspective.
Third, he died very young in 1902 at the age of 39. Death at ayoung age normally seems tragic, but in his case his portrait seems
to enhance the effects of his words today in encouraging young
people to develop their careers and contribute to society.
I think these three characteristics of his short life are closely
related to his legacy.

His Legacy to the World
Swami Vivekananda was well educated in Western culture andspoke excellent English, but inherited from his benevolent Indian
parents a deep knowledge of traditional Indian literature. He wasabove all a well-disciplined Hindu monk, and he eventually came tobelieve that Indians should learn about social equality from the Westand the West should learn about spiritual generosity from India. He
stated at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago that Hinduism
is a religion with a message of tolerance accepting all kinds of people
and is thus a universal religion that helps people to become aware of
the holy spirit inside themselves.
So what did he think about the Indian caste system and classdiscrimination originally inherent in Hinduism? He said that inreligion there should be no class discrimination and that caste inIndia merely showed a social division of labor; but he criticized caste
based on upbringing or family background as was then prevalent inIndia as a deterioration from the original idea of caste in Indiansociety. His idea of a universal religion embracing all religions andconsidering all kinds of people as equal is a useful counterpoint tocurrent global divisions between democracy and authoritarianism, orChristianity and Islam, or the wealthy and the poor. In his theory, thediversity of cultures, religions and philosophies should be acceptedjust as it is.
What we should not forget about his achievements is that he wasalso working hard for social services such as construction ofhospitals, management of schools, and publications. Hindu

nationalism was certainly provoked by his advocacy for Hinduism asa universal religion, but at the same time he recognized the many
positive aspects of Western civilization, such as the highly educatedwomen in Western society.
His readiness to accept the positive aspects of other countries’
civilizations was also seen in his visit to Japan in 1893. His
observations about Japan and the Japanese were summarized in aninterview with a Chennai newspaper in February 1897:
1. The Japanese have a strong faith in and affection for their nationand they even sacrifice everything for the nation.
2. Japanese art is authentic.
3. Their Buddhism is similar to Vedanta, an ancient Indianphilosophy, atheistic and affirmative to humans.
4. While absorbing Western knowledge in depth, the Japanese try tomaintain their own spirituality.
5. The Japanese eat an appropriate amount of rice and miso soup.
6. It is better for young Indians to study in Japan rather than in theUnited Kingdom.

His Legacy for Young People TodayHe also emphasized the need for physical and mental training tostrengthen body and soul.
He said, “If there were sin in this world, it would be frailty. Youmust refuse anything that makes you frail physically, intellectuallyand spiritually, as it cannot be truth.” Among his other sayings are:“You can achieve anything great with foresight, infinite energy,
infinite passion, infinite boldness and infinite patience.”“With responsibility given to them, the weak would be stronger
and the ignorant would have wisdom.”“You have everything within yourself and you can do anything inthis space, and so do not lose your confidence.”
In particular, he mentioned “failure in your life” as part of themeaning of life, and that a beautiful life must be achieved by failures
and that they should not be matters for concern. This is good advice
for young entrepreneurs, and these words have been encouraging
for many young Indian people in developing their lives and careers.
The ambassador himself mentioned that he was also encouraged bythese remarks when he was a student. The image of Swami
Vivekananda in his portrait must have had a strong impact on theyoung.
Above all, Swami Vivekananda emphasized altruism as theessential meaning of human life and not egoism. This encouragessocial entrepreneurship, which could lead to the blossoming of new
businesses pursuing social reform, such as green businesses or
caregiving businesses. Young Japanese people could be also
encouraged by these words and regain their confidence. For while,as Swami Vivekananda said, there would be many things for Indiansto learn from Japan, there must be many for Japanese to learn fromIndia.
Naoyuki Haraoka is editor-in-chief of Japan SPOTLIGHT & executive
managing director of the Japan Economic Foundation (JEF)

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