There is no substitute for experience.
I've taken the liberty to rework Mrs. Indira Gandhi's favourite quote during the emergency: There is no substitute for hard-work.* I fully agree with Mrs Gandhi, but I cannot fully agree with the former statement, which is what Raman seems to imply in his post - The Experiential factor.
Interestingly he quotes a friend of his who holds the view, "Vivekananda never got a first hand experience of what a man enjoys in marriage and so whatever his views are on Brahmacharya as a better way of living are totally based on half knowledge . They cannot be complete and authoritative." He further goes on to substantiate this statement by relating his experience of his marital life (bliss?) till date, which has made him change his attitude-to / view-of life. Raman also observes that we might say this is just a honeymoon period and things would look rosy now since each of you are in a condescending mood. Quite clairvoyant, Raman seems to be. ;-)
I am not a Swami Vivekananda buff to either accept or reject the statement about him, but one of the commentors, multisubj yb, on Raman's blog gave a link to one of his blogs, Vivekananda YB which apparently studies and analyses [on] Vivekananda's epistles, with a different perspective.
* This quote is originally attributed to Thomas Alva Edison.
Monday, September 03, 2007
Of Experience, Swami Vivekananda, marriage ...
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6 comments:
i am not commenting here since its for public view...i have read very vlittle of vivekananda and whatever i make from that is good....but i do tend to agree with the statement..
btw,see my latest post ,its something new :)
With no malice to Swami Vivekananda or Ms. Christina Greenstidel, I wish to say that when one peruses his letters addressed to her, a reasonable deducer may get a somewhat clear impression that Swamiji might have decided to marry her or married her. This I cannot strongly vouchsafe because various interpretations are possible. Besides there are excised portions in letters. I request you to read his letters closely from his Complete Works (available on the net at several sites particularly www.vivekananda.net, www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info, wikipedia, angelfire.com etc. You can also read my Vivekananda blog, but pl. do not misunderstand me. I am also subject to corrections.
About: virtues or ills of marriage:
Our physiological and anatomical characters are built for a sex life with partners, for the purpose of reproduction which is primary and enjoyment which is secondary. Then humans are intelligent and after limiting the number of children also sexual urges continue. Hence there is nothing wrong in marrying. About marrital bliss, there is an element of luck. We have to take into consideration the proverbs 1. Marriages are made in heaven 2. Familiary breeds contempt. In India marriages are for life and many couples cohabitate mechanically, because the law does not grant easy divorces. In this respect I appeal to you to read the George Bernard Shaw's thousand page volume "The Prefaces (to his plays). These were written around 1900/1925. The first essay itself was about getting married. The second essay was about Parents and Children. Though Shaw mostly dealt with British marriages, most of them have relevance and validity even in current global conditions.
Direct Monkhood from student stage without marriage, we do not find in Indian scriptures. All the sages with the exception of Narada were family men. Even Narada became a female and gave birth to a number of children under Vishnu Maaya. Vivekananda often compared himself to Shankaracharya. By the Gupta dynasty period (400 A.D.) the Buddhist influences paved the way to direct monkhood. We can say that Shankaraccharya is the first bachelor-ochre-robed monk in true sense (Note: He too had sexual experiences with Kasi Raja's wife) . For example, Kanchi Kamakoti Pithadhipati Shri Jayendra Sarasvati was administered monkhood at the age of 8 approx. When he got his puberty at 15 or 16 to 35 (manhood at top) he would not have had an opportunity to satiate his biological urges. Hence, the proper path is boyhood, youth and middle age with marriage, early old age as monk and late old age in the care of children or in Aged Homes. This sequence we have to go through if we have to get a complete taste of life.
Even in Catholic Christian monks, the problems of resisting carnal desires have become serious in some countries. Some Churches have been asked to pay compensation or entered into out of court settlements, for child abuse by monks.
Sorry for this lengthy comment.
I didn't know Vivekananda talked so much in favor of Brahmacharya as to look down at marital institution.
@Vishesh: thanks for dropping by :)
@multisubj yb: I did drop in at your Vivekananda blog and went through a couple of posts there. As I've already said, I'm not a Vivekananda specialist, except for knowing a couple of his quotes.
My off the cuff first impression about your blog - "is he selectively highlighting parts of the letters to substantiate his idea?" This is just a first impression.
Most of the points you made regarding, marriage, monkhood etc are taken - but again I would like to ask whether you are looking at exceptions and making a generalization?
Regarding marriage my own opinion is:
1. marriage, like everything else, needs to be worked on to be "successful".
2. our opinions/ideas are quite often dependant on our state of mind at a given point of time - so there would be moments when one evaluates one's life (marriage) as a "success" and other times when one is likely to evaluate it as a failure. I dont think there is any right answer regarding success/failure - it becomes a personal POV.
You need not apologise regarding the long comment - after all this is what I would to use this space for. :)
@Deepa(LL)- I too dont know anything about Vivekananda to comment on his ideas. :)
what do we externalist know about that man. it is useless for us to comment on him. it'll take generations to get anywhere close to understanding him
Monkeys can't fully understand what humans do. Similarly some humans cant understand what spiritualy realized humans says or do.
Some ppl don't understand the fact that Swami vivekananda didn't reach at that stage in a single life. Those ppl will also reach at the same stage but who knows in how many lifes . When someone says that 'Vivekananda' never got a first hand experience of what a man enjoys in marriage...' , they just dont understand the meaning of rebirth and karmas.
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