ET TU VIVEKANANDA?

 

ET TU VIVEKANANDA?

Meek men preaching the Vedanta can never 'make the lion of Vedanta roar.' Here is the one who was strong enough to propagate the Vedanta without a tinge of cowardice or hypocrisy attending such preaching. He made no compromise with coarse religions that preach hatred. Mercilessly he pulled down the facade of falsehood and exposed the doctrinaire diabolism of these religions. And where he went soft on them despite his knowledge of their dastardly nature, it must be attributed to his magnanimity of spirit or to the austere compulsions that existent circumstances laid on him. Anyhow, to the extent Vivekananda compromised with these fanatical cults, allowing them a status they deserve not by doctrinaire stricture, to that extent he failed to live up to truth. He went against his own stand on truth being uncompromising and failed the ideal in his pursuit of pragmatic results which must have mattered more to him. For who has ever stood up to the Devil after all and challenged him in the face? History allows the thrust of truth against untruth but only as far as it deems expedient. And men, even messiahs, abide by it.

Written by Sugata Bose