For the “offspring of centuries of superstition and tyranny”…
“..I want that numbers of our young men should pay a visit to Japan and China every year.
Especially to the Japanese, India is still the dreamland of everything high and good. And you, what are you? … talking twaddle all your lives, vain talkers, what are you? Come, see these people, and then go and hide your faces in shame. A race of dotards, you lose your caste if you come out! Sitting down these hundreds of years with an ever-increasing load of crystallized superstition on your heads, for hundreds of years spending all your energy upon discussing the touchableness or untouchableness of this food or that, with all humanity crushed out of you by the continuous social tyranny of ages – what are you?
And what are you doing now? … promenading the sea-shores with books in your hands – repeating undigested stray bits of European brainwork, and the whole soul bent upon getting a thirty rupee clerkship, or at best becoming a lawyer – the height of young India’s ambition – and every student with a whole brood of hungry children cackling at his heels and asking for bread! Is there not water enough in the sea to drown you, books, gowns, university diplomas, and all?
Source: Paranjape, Makarand (2005), Penguin Swami Vivekananda Reader, Penguin India, pp. 246–248, ISBN 0143032542, quoted in Wikipedia, Courtesy my friend, Sanjay.  More (lot more) Quotes here.
P.S. As some of you may know, I studied Japanese during my years in the Foreign Service. It was also the country of my first posting abroad. And yes, there is a LOT that we can learn from them, a LOT.
Vivekananda was the dreamer who wanted genuine change in India, but his followers (Ramakrishna Mission) never understood him.
He wanted LIBERTY, he wanted people to USE THEIR BRAIN. And yet today the same thing that happened in his time happens even today. Supratim described our fundamental failure to think, here: http://sabhlokcity.com/2011/09/indias-education-system-is-its-dna-children-are-moulded-into-dictaphones/
Severe confusion (“undigested stray bits of European brainwork”) prevails not just in the minds of Congress leaders but the BJP as well: http://sabhlokcity.com/2011/09/bjp-is-a-branch-of-congress-i-challenge-anyone-to-prove-otherwise/.
We imagine that by mixing up two bits of thought from here and there we will create our own “Indian” models (e.g. “integral humanism”).
A good example of such a confused mind is Deepak Chopra who is trying to “mix” science and ancient mumbo-jumbo: http://sabhlokcity.com/2011/09/deepak-chopras-gravy-train-from-duping-millions-of-ignorant-gullible-americans/
I’m not saying that there is no value in India’s history. There is. But it is not possible to determine what is of value without getting our heads clear about how we look at the world. The scientific method, the desire for the truth must be paramount.
@sanjeev – before criticizing Ramakrishna mission please consider the work they are doing for the service of humanity. You may not be aware of the same, but the contributions of a bunch of world renouncers in the field of healthcare, education and relief and rahabilitation and delivering the message of peace of harmony to the society, are much more than that of many fat NGOs. And secondly, from the statement “his followers never understood him” it seems that you have understood Vivekananda. I must congratulate you if you have “really” done that because it is indeed a very difficult task comprehending Vivekananda, he speaks from a lofty realm where it will take mankind in its current form ages to reach, if we at all reach there.
Ramakrishna Mission headed by the first president Swami Brahmananda, took a conscious decision of only being concerned with spiritual and welfare activities and never take part in politics or interfare with state affairs. The sannyasins are carrying out that philosophy till date with utmost sincerity.
Net net, every body has right to speak their mind but there should be some substance before accusing a notable organization of a failure.
Disclaimer – I am not involved with Ramakrishna Mission but am just a devotee of the Holy trio (Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda), and I (and many other devotees like me) have not found any instance in which activities of Ramakrishna Mission have deviated from the ideologies of the Holy Trio.
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Sanjeev is a certified ‘worshipper’ of Macaulay, the immoral ******. He wants all indians to study this immoral ******’s philosophy.
@Shantanu Dey:-
Completely agree with you.
After a long time I found something to support Sanjeev Sabhlok. It is a refreshing change from the points leadership theory which is also a copy of european epics.
I have seen the mission and interacted with people in the mission. Ramkrishna Mission does a lot like giving free books to students for studies, providing deprived kids opportunity to spend their energy positively etc. But it has at no time created impact on country or on masses. The way the Ramkrishna Mission is run, it will never create impact on masses/ country.
And yes, there is not much difference between Congress, BJP, Communists and FTI… All are shades of Brown Britishers. They have more faith in British system which was designed to benefit looters and thieves of Britian.
@Shantanu: Thank you. You have as if spoken for me. There is it seems a totally unjustifiable sense of self-assuredness and conviction behind such ignorant and arrogant sweeping denunciations as the one from the first commentator. Part of the so called “ancient mumbo jumbo” has in fact been lifted in toto from India by the modern advanced white gods from the west, even before they came up with their natty little iPhones and their awe-inspiring mortgage-backed securities, and as they do with everything else these freeloaders repackaged it and rebranded it as their own gift to the world of “plastic surgery”. Not only that but the very same instruments used by the ancient mumbo-jumbo practitioners are STILL being used to this very day with some modifications!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_surgery
“British physicians traveled to India to see rhinoplasties being performed by native methods.[6] Reports on Indian rhinoplasty performed by a Kumhar vaidya were published in the Gentleman’s Magazine by 1794.[6] Joseph Constantine Carpue spent 20 years in India studying local plastic surgery methods.[6] Carpue was able to perform the first major surgery in the Western world by 1815.[7] Instruments described in the Sushruta Samhita were further modified in the Western world.[7]”
It would be of interest for patriotic Indians just itching to prove their modern, western-loyal credentials that people from all over the world, including the capitalist paradise of the North Atlantean civilization come to India to get a heavy dose of ancient mumbo-jumbo. Somehow they don’t seem to have the hangups that many self-proclaimed patriotic mahatma-neta-wannabes do.
Had Vivekananda been buried he would have been turning in his grave seeing his name and words being used to denounce the very same ancient mumbo-jumbo for which he gave his life. After all what did he stand for if not for Vedanta… the very acme of all of India’s ancient mumbo-jumbo.
oh boy, there is another G here…. I have to get myself another name, perhaps
@JC Moola – Point taken JC. But was the purpose of creating a Ramakrishna Mission to create an impact over masses/country?
My humble understanding is that the sole purpose was to create an organization which would silently and without much fanfare devote itself wholeheartedly towards spiritual transformation of sincere monks and devotees and would also with the motto of serving everybody as God, contribute towards welfare of ordinary people selflessly, by no means influencing and converting them towards a particular ideology.
After all Ramakrishna’s main philosophy was not to destroy or change the Bhava or ideology of anybody or any sect but to strengthen it so that realization of God is possible even by that means, because taste and preference of everybody will defer and nobody should be forcefully fed an ideology very different from the one which he or she would be able to digest, something which Europeans never realized.
As regards Swami Vivekananda is concerned, he never intended that Ramakrishna Mission would bring about a huge transformation in the country by influencing the masses, something which he himself had the power and ability to do (vide his letters). He wanted India to awake on her own from the deep Tamas, into Rajas or activity, through education and empowerment and wanted every true Indian to contribute to that cause, Mission or no Mission.He wanted himself to remain as one of the inspirations and his organization to work merely as one of the instruments of change. Still others would grow in the process.
We have seen in case of Christian Church and some such organizations the dangers of adopting a motto of influencing masses and attempting to convert people to a particular ideology and we are glad that Swami Vivekananda’s organization has not repeated that mistake.
The organization, like its founder knows how difficult it is to attempt to bring about a total transformation in the society and therefore would rather work in silence in influencing small segments. I am not so sure on the statement “it will never create an impact on masses”. Distributing literature free of cost, however insignificant a gesture it might be, has the potential to spread the message of transformation amongst a large section of the populace.
As the lord said in Bhagavat Gita, “out of thousands only a few strives to succeed and out of them only a handful is able to know me truely”. Similarly only a few out of thousands who get a transformational message from a messiah, are able to understand that message and out of them only a handful are able to implement that transformational vision. Therefore it is better to reach out to the people who have the potential to awaken the masses and strengthen them with all transformational tools rather than make an attempt of transforming the masses and failing in the process. As history has taught us, even Avatars do not attempt to transform masses, they only handpick select few who have the ability to spread the message slowly and steadily over a period by working over a still larger segment and this process of change goes on and on.