Swami Vivekananda was not against Islam or Muslims (by Karmanye Thadani)

Some elements in the saffron brigade have, by presenting half-truths, misled some of our Muslim brothers into thinking that Swami Vivekananda was against their religion and/or community, but it is not so.

Vivekananda acknowledged that all religions were true in their own way. In fact, his guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa had been, for short periods, a practising Muslim and a practising Christian respectively, and declared that there was no difference in the essence of any of the global major religions. Some point to Vivekananda’s quotation – “Every man going out of the Hindu pale is not only a man less, but an enemy the more.” However, it is understandable that in most cases, an apostate of any religion would tend to be an ideological enemy or opponent of his former religion. Nowhere in his writings or speeches has Vivekananda advocated social boycott of or violence against apostates. On the contrary, he was a firm votary of keeping one’s mind open to diverse schools of thought and loving all human beings. In this context, his advocacy of the right to freedom of religion can be seen from the following quote of his-“So each one has an Ishta or chosen way, and we keep it to ourselves. It is between me and my teacher, because we do not want to create a fight. It will not help any one to tell it to others, because each one will have to find his own way. So only general philosophy and general methods can be taught universally. For instance, giving a ludicrous example, it may help me to stand on one leg. It would be ludicrous to you if I said every one must do that, but it may suit me. It is quite possible for me to be a dualist and for my wife to be a monist, and so on. One of my sons may follow Christ or Buddha or Mohammed…”

Further, some point out that Vivekananda did not even hold Prophet Muhammad in high regards, saying that he was not a trained yogi, as though that itself becomes enough to certify one being prejudiced against a religion or community. This may not be seen as a very politically correct position to advance by some, but merely holding the philosophy of your religion to be superior to that of others does not imply that you despise other faiths or those following them, and if it does, then many if not most, of the ardently practising Muslims and Christians (and even Jews) would indeed be guilty of this charge, and a good many of them only see Hinduism as a religion of polytheism and idolatry, refusing to even so much as understand the religion any better. None other than Maulana Azad, a strong proponent of Hindu-Muslim unity, while being Congress president in the 1940s, made statements asserting the superiority of Islam over other faiths, and even saying that it wasn’t a hereditary religion like Hinduism or Christianity, but that doesn’t in the least influence my judgment about him as a person.

That way, Vivekananda has, in no uncertain terms, criticized Hinduism for being too renunciation-oriented, in the following words –

“Hitherto the greatest fault of our Indian religion has been in its knowing only two words; renunciation and mukti. Nothing for the house-holder!”

Though this is a sentimentally driven statement and is in contradiction with what he has said on other occasions, this clearly shows that he did not shy away from criticizing Hinduism either.

Many scholars, including Karen Armstrong, a very well-known admirer of Islam, have pointed out that each of the Abrahamic faiths’ (the Abrahamic faiths are Judaism, Christianity and Islam) claiming to be the only wholly true religion and the only one that can lead to heaven (going by the mainstream interpretation), has made the idea of ‘holy war’ based on fighting non-believers, though that aspect is nowhere preached by the faith, more palatable (I have explained this with an analogy in the fourth last paragraph of this article – http://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2013/02/anti-muslim-prejudicesbias-and-wrong-notions-about-exclusivity-of-social-evils-and-other-practicespart-3/ – which clarifies that the exclusive truth claims do not imply that Christianity or Islam preaches war against non-believers, but the latter, which is a misinterpretation, indeed does flow from the former understanding). This is the position Vivekananda adopted, and therefore, held that Hinduism is a superior religion, owing to its ecumenical pluralism and openness even to atheistic and agnostic schools of thought, and he also found the staunch opposition to idol-worship in the Abrahamic faiths to not make much sense, for in his opinion, any worship always involved some visual imagery in some form.

Vivekananda did criticize the atrocities committed by Muslims upon non-Muslims historically (and Vivekananda mentions that this is what Islam had been reduced to in practice by many Muslim rulers, and that in spite of Islam advocating universal brotherhood, many Muslims did not extend this concept to non-Muslims), but has gone on to mention –

“Nevertheless, among these Mohammedans, wherever there was a philosophic man, he was sure to protest against these cruelties. In that he showed the touch of the Divine and realized a fragment of the truth; he was not playing with his religion, he was talking, but spoke the truth direct like a man.”

The phrase “playing with his religion” implies perhaps a misinterpretation of the faith on the part of those exhibiting intolerance to non-Muslims. Vivekananda was full of praise for the Sufis who were liberal-minded, as also the emperor Akbar. In fact, Vivekananda was always open to appreciating what was good in other faiths, as the famous ‘frog in a well’ speech of his – http://www.israelforum.com/board/archive/index.php/t-10336.html – clearly demonstrates.

Also, Vivekananda had a tendency to cite the name of the religion and criticize it, but then, in the flow of the same speech, clarify that he was alluding to the religion as it was being practised as being negative and that he was not referring to the religion in its true doctrinal form, which was, in his opinion, positive.

Take, for instance, this remark of his on Christianity while in the United States –

“With all your brag and boasting, where has your Christianity succeeded without the sword? Yours is a religion preached in the name of luxury.”

This makes it seem that he is ridiculing Christianity as a religion for being without substance, therefore, the need to promote it by violence or material inducements. But, if we were to further see what Vivekananda has to say, he only blames Christians as people, not Christ. Here’s quoting what he went on to say subsequently in the same speech –

“It is all hypocrisy I have heard in this country. All this prosperity, all this from Christ! Those who call upon Christ care for nothing but to amass riches! Christ would not have found a stone on which to lay his head among you… You are not Christians. Return to Christ!”

This was about Christianity. An even stronger example can be cited with reference to Hinduism! In a letter he wrote to a friend, he says –

“No religion on earth treads upon the necks of the poor and the low in such a fashion as Hinduism.”

But what he says from his very next sentence onwards makes it clear that he is not blaming the religion at the doctrinal level but what it has come to mean in practice. To quote –

“The Lord has shown me that the religion is not at fault, but it is the Pharisees and Sadducees in Hinduism, hypocrites, who invent all sorts of engines of tyranny…”

In the light of this, it becomes crystal clear that though his usage of language seemed to suggest that he was denigrating a certain religion (which could even be Hinduism depending on the context), it would subsequently imply that he was only criticizing the religion as people were practising it, not the religion in its canonical form. Thus, even for those Muslims who advocated peace and religious tolerance, he has hailed them as “not playing with their religion”, implying that they were correctly interpreting their religion, while the rest were misusing it or remaining quiet about the wrongdoings they witnessed.

That Vivekananda considered Islam a legitimate religion that deserved an honourable mention in the history of global theology is clear from this letter of his–

“Now I will tell you my discovery. All of religion is contained in the Vedanta, that is, in the three stages of the Vedanta, one comes after the other. These are the three stages of spiritual growth in man. Each one is necessary. This is the essential of religion. The Vedanta, applied to the various ethnic customs and creeds of India, is Hinduism. The first stage, i.e., Dvaita, applied to the ideas of the ethnic groups of Europe, is Christianity, as applied to the other Semitic group Mohammedanism. The Advaita as applied in its yoga-perception form, is Buddhism etc. Now by religion is meant the Vedanta; the applications must vary according to the different needs, surroundings and the other circumstances of different nations.”

He was deeply impressed by the spirit of amity and fraternity advocated by Islam, which had been lost in Hinduism (the way it was being practised), owing to caste distinctions. To quote him –

“Mohammed – the Messenger of equality. You ask, ‘What good can there be in his religion?’ If there was no good, how could it live? The good alone lives, that alone survives… How could Mohammedanism have lived, had there been nothing good in its teachings? There is much good.”

“Mohammed by his life showed that amongst the Mohammedans there should be perfect equality and brotherhood. There was no question of race, caste, colour or sex. The Sultan of Turkey may buy a Negro from the mart of Africa, and bring him in chains to Turkey; but should he become a Mohammedan, and have sufficient merit and abilities, he might even marry the daughter of the Sultan. Compare this with the way in which Negroes and the American Indians are treated in this country (the United States of America)!”

He told the Americans, “As soon as a man becomes a Mohammedan, the whole of Islam receives him as a brother with open arms, without making any distinction, which no other religion does. If one of your American Indians becomes a Mohammedan, the Sultan of Turkey would have no objection to dine with him. If he has brains, no position is barred to him. In this country, I have never yet seen a church where the white man and the Negro can kneel side by side to pray.”

“It is a mistaken statement that has been made to us that the Mohammedans do not believe that women have souls… I am not a Mohammedan, but yet I have had opportunities for studying them, and there is not one word in the Koran which says that women have no souls, but in fact it says they have.”

It is interesting to note that in a letter he wrote to one of his disciples dated 10th October 1897, he instructed him to start an orphanage in which children of all faiths would be admitted and no attempt should be made to influence the Muslim and Christian children to embrace Hinduism; on the contrary, the children of all religions should be taught the message of humanity which lies at the core of all major global religions. He further stressed that separate arrangements for halal food should be made for the Muslim children.

On a visit to Kashmir in 1898, Vivekananda felt overwhelmed at the sight of a Muslim girl in whom he felt he saw the Mother Goddess, and he touched her feet and worshiped her.

In a letter he wrote to a friend, dated 10th June 1898, he mentioned in clear terms–

“Whether we call it Vedantism or any ism, the truth is that Advaitism is the last word of religion and thought and the only position from which one can look upon all religions and sects with love. We believe it is the religion of the future enlightened humanity. The Hindus may get the credit of arriving at it earlier than other races, they being an older race than either the Hebrew or the Arab; yet practical Advaitism, which looks upon and behaves to all mankind as one’s own soul, is yet to be developed among the Hindus universally. On the other hand our experience is that if ever the followers of any religion approach to this equality in an appreciable degree in the plane of practical work-a-day life, it may be quite unconscious generally of the deeper meaning and the underlying principle of such conduct, which the Hindus as a rule so clearly perceive – it is those of Islam and Islam alone…”

“For our own motherland a junction of the two great systems, Hinduism and Islam-Vedanta brain and Islam body-is the only hope.”

“I see in my mind’s eye the future perfect India rising out of this chaos and strife, glorious and invincible, with Vedanta brain and Islam body.”

If someone still believes that Vivekananda was against Islam or Muslims, then I have nothing more to say. I rest my case! Also, it may be mentioned that as far as Vivekananda’s allegations of Muslim intolerance historically are concerned, they may well be seen as somewhat exaggerated now (recent research has shown how tolerant the Arab rulers were in Spain as compared to their Christian counterparts by medieval standards- http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml#section_2; though it may be stated to Vivekananda’s credit that though he criticized Islam as a faith for its exclusive truth claims, just as he criticized Christianity for the same, he acknowledged that Muslim fanaticism originated when the Turks gained control over the Arabs), with more historical research having been done on these subjects, but given his times, he had to rely on the material available to him. Vivekananda also criticized Hindu societies for not having experimented with democracy beyond the village level, but historian KP Jayaswal’s research about janapadas like the Shakya and Lichchavi republics were not available then, and it becomes clear yet again that he was not out to critique only other religious groups but was equally outspoken about his critique of Hindus.

Nonetheless, it is for the Muslims themselves to come to terms with the fact that ever since the Turks and Mongols took over the mantle of power from the Arabs, many tolerant Muslim rulers (like in the Indian context, Zainul Abedin, Mohammad bin Tughlaq, Akbar and Safdar Jang) notwithstanding, accounts left behind by those of their own faith mention in glorious terms attacks on places of worship of other religious communities and forced conversions to Islam, and even if these accounts are exaggerated, that such things were documented by writers of the time as praise for the ruler itself is shameful and is not in the spirit of Islam, and in the light of this, it may be noted that a keen admirer of Hindu philosophy like Amir Khusro remained a mute spectator to Alauddin Khilji’s intolerant activities (this piece by a Pakistani Muslim – http://dawn.com/2013/02/19/coexistence-with-india-ii/ – calls for some introspection in this respect).

Thus, Indian Muslims have no reason to despise Vivekananda, who admired their religion, and they should not fall into the trap of those in the saffron brigade who quote him out of context to promote their devious agenda. Muslim brothers may very well disagree with his assertion of Vedanta philosophy being supreme, but as Indians (and that too of mostly Hindu ancestry), they have every reason to be proud of the greatness of ancient Indian philosophy brought out in Vivekananda’s writings and how this monk could convince the world at large of ancient India’s greatness in his travels abroad, especially when he attended the Parliament of Religions at Chicago, just as Indian Hindus have every reason to be proud of India’s historic Islamic architecture, literature, painting and the likes (including even Sufi schools of thought that developed in India). It was Swami Vivekananda’s conception of national pride accommodating people of all faiths that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was a product of and which the latter epitomized while leading the historic Indian National Army. Unfortunately, even Netaji has been misused by the saffron briage, and so has Bhagat Singh, as has been discussed in this piece – http://wordpress-200526-602825.cloudwaysapps.com//saffron-brigade-appropriating-sardar-bhagat-singh-netaji-subhash-chandra-bose/.

Also, Vivekananda’s emphasis on strength of character and service to humanity being the best way to serve God serve as an inspiration to one and all, irrespective of religion or even nationality.

The author has written several short books and has been involved in making a serial on the great freedom fighter Maulana Azad.