PB January 2010.Indd

A Western Vedanta Tradition? Swami Atmarupananda have been asked to write on the Vedanta Vaishnava tradition of iskcon to the Advaita Ved- Itradition in the West, but we must first decide anta of Sri Ramana Maharshi’s followers. To make if such a thing exists. Vedanta in the West, yes, a ‘Western Vedanta tradition’ out of this rich mix is but a tradition? That implies at least two things. impossible. Therefore, we should perhaps limit our- First, there must be something at least minimally selves to the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda tradition. cohesive that we can point to as ‘Western Vedanta’, Even here the task is not easy, as we have a great something more than just ‘Vedanta teachings given deal of diversity within this one tradition: from in the West’. Second, tradition implies that this the impersonal emphasis of Swami Ashokananda identifiable body of teachings has had some con- to the devotional and ritualistic accent of Swami tinuity through time. In other words, the fact that Prabhavananda, from the scholarly emphasis of many teachers from different traditions have taught Swami Satprakashananda to the emphasis on karma Vedanta in the West for more than a century doesn’t yoga by others. in itself constitute a Western tradition. Where in all this do we find a tradition? Or Vedantic influence has had some recognizable should we look for a plurality of traditions? The presence in the West since the time of Schopen- thesis of this article is as follows: a genuine West- hauer (1788–1860) in Europe and the Transcen- ern tradition of Vedanta is in the process of being dentalists, sometimes dated from 1836, in America.1 formed. It is still fluid, immature, not yet defined. But this also doesn’t constitute a living tradition. It Many and diverse elements are going into its forma- represents interest and influence. tion. Hopefully its mature form will also be diverse, At the time of Swami Vivekananda’s sojourn in multi-formed, rich, making room for all sorts of the West, however, an incipient Vedantic tradition people of varying temperaments and levels of de- was seeded in the West. One could, in fact, date the velopment. But it will, I think, be a Vedanta trad- beginning precisely to late 1894, when the swami ition that is recognizably Western. The rest of this said in answer to a question, ‘I have a message to article is not descriptive, but predictive, attempting the West as Buddha had a message to the East.’ 2 At to foresee the general shape of what is to come. that point he was no longer in America just to raise Two Ideas Critical to money for his work in India: he was there to give a the Spread of Vedanta beyond India message, to initiate a tradition. Before returning to Swami Vivekananda it Swami Vivekananda saw in the teachings of Ved- would be good to recognize that since his time there anta a much-needed spiritual foundation for the have been many other teachers of Vedanta, from emerging modern world. He also saw the harm many different traditions, that have taught in the which missionary religions had caused in the past, West. There is found everything from the Bengal often unintentionally. To make of Vedanta a religion that would spread of its own inherent appeal, enhancing civilizations rather than conquering Swami Atmarupananda is Manager, Ramakrishna them, he honed two principles that were critical to Monastery, Trabuco. his teaching beyond India. PB January 2010 95 114 Prabuddha Bharata First, the swami held that every nation has an Why was this at the heart of his life’s work? Why ideal which is its life, its purpose for being. As he so important? It is primarily important if Vedanta is says in ‘Women of India’: to be a global force. The religions of the world are largely mythological in their thinking. Even when [Each nation] represents a great ideal; towards that they tie their origins to historical occurrences, the it is moving. And, therefore, it is rightly assumed interpretation of those occurrences is mythological. that to understand a nation you must first under- And the power generated from those occurrences stand its ideal, for each nation refuses to be judged comes from that mythological interpretation, not by any other standard than its own. … [Different countries develop] through such different ideas from the bare historical fact. It isn’t the fact that that to judge one people by the other’s standard a Jew named Jesus was born in Bethlehem that is would be neither just nor practicable. Therefore important, it’s the significance of that birth that’s we must know what the ideal is that a nation has important. It isn’t the fact that a black meteorite raised before itself (8.55–6). lies in the city of Mecca that’s important, it’s the significance of the Kaaba that inspires Muslims. It This is perhaps the swami’s greatest single con- isn’t the fact that a brahmana priest named Rama- tribution to social thought: that the life of each krishna lived at Dakshineswar that’s important, it’s nation is an ideal, which is its very purpose for exist- the meaning of his life that’s important. ence, and losing which it dies. This idea he repeated But mythology is not universal. A myth’s mean- often, giving the example of India, whose ideal was ing is seen only by those who are sensitive to its God or the realization of God. Because India as a symbolic world and its presuppositions. The Kaaba whole had never strayed from that ideal, he would is not sacred to a Christian. The Eucharist is not a say, she had weathered every storm, every threat to sacrament to the Muslim. Ganesha is not a sacred her existence, while other nations had been born image to a Jew. Each civilization has its own myths, and were subsequently destroyed. Understanding tied to its culture and values, its history and geog- this principle is the key to finding the seeds of a raphy. Principles, however, are universal. The prin- Western Vedanta tradition. Let us hold this idea in ciple of gravity might have been discovered by mind a moment while we examine another key idea Newton in seventeenth-century England, but there of Swami Vivekananda’s. is nothing English about the principle: it works just The swami also said: as well in Japan and on the moon and on Jupiter. Swami Vivekananda saw that the Upanishads To put the Hindu ideas into English and then were interested in principles, not in stories, not in make out of dry philosophy and intricate myth- myths, and as such they presented a religion based ology and queer startling psychology, a religion on principles. He therefore sought to extract those which shall be easy, simple, popular, and at the principles from the Vedanta, seeing that they had same time meet the requirements of the highest great meaning for the world and knowing that only minds—is a task only those can understand who principles could find application everywhere in the have attempted it. The dry, abstract Advaita must world. He had seen first hand the damage done by become living—poetic—in everyday life; out of missionary religions that remained tied to a myth- hopelessly intricate mythology must come con- crete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi- ology and culture as they spread. Unable to dis- ism must come the most scientific and practical tinguish between universal principles and cultural psychology—and all this must be put in a form myths, such missionary traditions destroyed whole so that a child may grasp it. That is my life’s work. cultures in the wake of their expansion. The Lord only knows how far I shall succeed Tying these two ideas together—this valuing (5.104–5). of universal principles on the one hand and his 96 PB January 2010 A Western Vedanta Tradition? 115 view that each nation had its own ideal that was spect you’. And so, Swami Shraddhananda used to its reason for existence on the other—we come laughingly say, ‘I became a grease monkey’, mean- to the heart of his method of teaching. He pres- ing a mechanic who serviced the cars and trucks at ented Vedanta as a religion of universal principles, the Olema retreat. untied from the great and beautiful cultural ex- In his advice Swami Ajayananda recognized that pressions they had found in India throughout the the best ideals of America could be gleaned from a ages; principles that could be assimilated in any study of Abraham Lincoln’s life and times, since the culture without doing that culture violence, prin- latter had struggled to understand those very ideals, ciples that could be harmonized with each na- struggled to find how they could be realized. And tion’s ideal. in his advice, Swami Ashokananda recognized the American respect for labour. This is a peculiarly Respect for Each Culture American quality, not found to the same degree in Thus we come to the central principle observed by Europe or elsewhere. In America, the person who the swami as he established Vedanta in the West: actually does the work is respected more than the respect for the integrity of each culture. He went person who supervises or manages, whatever the so far as to say: ‘Never forget that a man is made work might be. great and perfect as much by his faults as by his One might object, of course, that respect is only virtues.

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