Dr. Avijit Roy's compilation has revealed many unknown sides of Vivekananda, many of which were unknown to me. I want to thank Avijit Roy for this article.
It reminds us that – the so called Saints, Priests, Prophets, Cardinals, Gurus, etc. are all normal human-beings, just appear different from us on the surface but underneath we all have very same urges and needs. They all possess the same human characteristics ((love, lust, greed, rage, sorrow, comfort, sexuality, etc.) as we do. They are, in fact, just actors/actresses on the world-stage, and we are audiences and spectators. None of these heroes and heroines can escape any of the basic human flaws and qualities. If they try to escape, they will find themselves engaged in more severe pervasive activities. In order to fulfill celibacy, Priests often embrace closet homosexuality; Shannyashis perpetrate elicit affairs with disciples remain unwed for life. It's like trying to block the natural flow of a river with a barrage; you can't. You can only divert it to another imperfect direction. The bottom line is - human species are born mainly to follow the path of the family-life. Any other path is imperfect diversion only.
I do not think Vivekananda was a Shannyashi; he was a Brahmachari. Probably, he did not succeed in that front. As far as I understand, the main goal of his life was to preach his religious philosophy to all human-being, which he called the "religion of a gentleman," meaning the religion of a good human-being. Following that goal, he presented the concept of his religion in the World Religious Congress in Chicago (1893). I believe - by the term "Jeebe Preem" he meant love for all human-beings, irrespective of caste, creed, religion, status, etc. I am sure he did not mean love for all living-beings; otherwise, he would have been a vegetarian. He needed resources for accessing the world-stage, which he could only procure from the Kings and the Queens. Yes, he also needed to earn his bread, and needed to get involved in politics to mobilize general mass to spread his messages. The bottom line is - he was a religious preacher.
If we dig into the life of Rabindra Nath Tagore, we will find plenty of dirt there also. Therefore, we should judge the messages, not the messenger. At the end of the day, they were all less than perfect, but how about their messages? It's like a drug-addict advising others not to do drugs; the man is not perfect, but his message is. If messages are perfect, we should have no trouble to embrace them.
In spite of all his flaws in life, Vivekananda's religious philosophy will keep him alive for centuries, as it did for Prophet Muhammad.
Jiten Roy
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