the writings of religious thinkers and writers within this new framework with definite orientation towards Vedantic principles especially of Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo.

Attributes of Neo-Vedanta:

Swami Vivekananda has given a very simple definition. He calls it Real Vedanta. He adds “The Neo-Vedanta is available to all regardless of caste, colour or race. Its practice does not require a person to have a male body and Brahmin birth or to live in seclusion in the forest”². The age long misconception that total exclusion and seclusion from the material world and high caste birth are essential to achieve the ultimate purpose of life and religion are totally defeated here. Thus, Swamiji makes it instantly universal without any shades of barriers of any kind. He championed scientifically verifiable spiritual system suitable for all people and all religions in the present context.

Neo Vedanta of Swamiji has another salient attribute of being a scientifically verifiable spiritual system. He said that it was not reliant on faith or religious traditions. His interpretation lends it global potential and it is totally logical and scientific, anti-chemical and anti-colonial³. This notion was shared by a wide range of Indian reformers and progressive thinkers. He introduced this concept for the first time to the western audience in his famous speech in 1893 in World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago. His Neo-Vedanta or Practical Vedanta includes all the three yogas more practically and scientifically. He wants it to be equally philosophical, emotional and conductive to action. It enunciates pragmatic reality. Its central essence is the dictum ‘Thou art divine’. It advocates faith in one’s own self. He proclaims “faith, faith in themselves⁴, faith, faith in God –this is the secret of greatness”. For him, human personality is dignified with its sacredness and power of religion. There is no place for despair or weakness. He adds “It is this conscious knowledge that all is one spirit if spread will make whole community spiritual”. He hastens to add about its possibility within any time frame. It may not happen. But it is the need of the hour. It may take even thousand odd years. It has to wage a war against a bundle of old superstitions in religion. But it will reach its destination.

Neo- Vedanta as the essence of Vedanta:

Swamiji develops his critique very rationally to convince all those believe in logic and scientific reasoning. The traditional Vedanta argues that one who does not believe in God is an atheist. Neo -Vedanta says that one who does not believe in himself is an atheist. For it, both material and spiritual developments co exist and go together. They are complementary to each other and there is no place for negation. It urges one to have a balanced growth both internally and externally. Swamiji was very practical when he advocates that no hungry stomach can think about God. The first and foremost prerequisite of worldly existence is to satisfy this normal duty. He does not believe in god who promises eternal bliss in heaven but cannot provide bread here.” It is an active spiritual quest-not letting things happen but causing them to happen⁵. Swamiji made it very common for all practitioners with his modern arguments in modern language to suit modern challenges⁶. He does not discard the basic tenets of Sankara’s Advaita. He calls it Advaita Vedanta and repeats what Advaita says that the Brahman, the Ultimate Reality is one without a second (ekamevad vitiyam). But it is synthetic now to reconcile with ‘dvaita’ and other theories of realities. For Swamiji, it is both qualified and quality less (saguna and nirguna) and it has both form and formlessness (sakara and nirakara). Hence he argues that the various schools of Vedanta do not contradict one another but they all necessitate each other, all fulfill each other and one, as it were a stepping stone to the other until the goal of the Advaita, ‘tat tvam asi’ is reached⁷. Traditional Vedanta has highly developed techniques as ‘yogas’ as understood in terms of ‘union’. Every yoga has a higher and a lower aspect. The higher aspect of each yoga deals with spiritual differences whereas lower aspect deals with psychological differences. His modern thought is very lucid exposition that each yoga is an independent path to liberation⁸. The Neo-Vedantic philosophy of Swami Vivekananda was preached by his guru Sri Ramakrishna which was rooted in the ancient Indian wisdom of bhakti and spiritualism. It has its universality.

Swamiji goes for basic differences between Vedanta and Neo-Vedanta. Vedanta believed in the oneness between god and man and the solidarity of universe. It did not stand for a life of renunciation but stood for selfless action in the services of god. It propagated the principles of universal tolerance and believed that different religious faiths were different paths to reach the god of toleration. The Neo-Vedanta philosophy stood for the service, sacrifice and freedom. The Neo-Vedanta philosophy of Vivekananda is an effective instrument to encourage social good and oneness in society. The central idea of Neo-Vedanta is humanism. It subscribes to common brotherhood. For him ideal man is one in whom all elements of philosophy, mysticism, emotion and action are equally present.

Where does Neo-Vedanta differ from Advaita Vedanta?:

Neo-Vedanta offers a way to make a sense of unity in diversity. It acknowledges various religions as different paths to the same goal and diversity in practice and even dogmas are not deterrents. It is very catholic in outlook and finds noble truths in the Bible and ‘Jesus’ is described as a great ‘Yogi’ as one of many ‘avatars’. His famous story of the frog in the well told to the audience in the Chicago Parliament of Religions is a fitting answer to all fanatic religious followers. He is so very candid to include the greatness of all great religions. It is all a drawn out conclusion taken from his master through his spiritual experience, Ramakrishna Paramahansa gave so simple, direct and unfaltering expression to dispel all doubts and misgivings from the minds of the modern rationalist and unbending unbelievers. Swamiji developed them into a philosophy of Practical Vedanta. Its basis is Advaita Vedanta as provided by Sankaracharya. For the rationalists, Swamiji gave some historical facts to prove his Neo-Vedanta. He professed that many of the Vedantic thoughts emanated from persons who lived the busiest lives in the world. The best part of Vedanta philosophy came from meditation but were expressed by the busiest brains. There is no need to neglect the worldly life. This amazing fact as embedded in the Bible of Hinduism, says that the quintessence of Vedanta philosophy was taught to Arjuna by Sri Krishna in the battlefield of Kurushetra⁹. There cannot be any more hyperkinetic location other than this in the world.

Neo-Vedanta and its Multiple Functional Operations:

Neo Vedanta admits renunciation of ego of the self or atman and its identification with universal consciousness. Swamiji believes strongly that all religions function as streams to the one oceanic source. This confession puts an end to the meaningless rivalry between the religions and negates the very question of superiority or inferiority. He promotes religious pluralism and spiritual development through the relinquishment of the ego and ultimate identification with universal consciousness¹⁰.

Apart from his pluralistic structure, Swamiji is acclaimed as the reformer of Hindu religion with inputs of scientific thoughts. Neo-Vedanta is the very way of practice of life through Vedantic guidance. He championed a scientifically verifiable spiritual system suitable to all people and all religions in the modern world. Neo- Vedanta can operate independently of religious structures. Thus, it is applicable even to the atheists¹¹. His Neo- Vedantic humanistic tradition recommends a holistic approach in higher education and it includes love and work together. He was vehemently opposing the British system since it is totally devoid of Indian cultural potents and its orientation fully facilitates colonial empowerment and its extension in India. Mecauley’s system of education brings only cosmetic superficial changes and does not help a person to develop internally. He is for indigenous educational structure that alone can help individuals to develop as holistic citizens, empathetically and spiritually. It stresses a sense of duty, love and service as the core elements in higher education¹². Sacrificing individual freedom for social supremacy is real socialism according to this sage of India. It has no doubt serious limitations. Swamiji says “I am a socialist not because I think it is a perfect system but half a bread is better than no bread”¹³. Nowhere in the world, any religious hermit included this life-saving philosophy as an integral part of his spiritual doctrine.

Swamiji describes Neo-Vedanta as the outcome of renewal and dialectical integration. It is not a new concept. It is already in the main stream of Vedanta. There are some distinctions between old and new perspectives of Vedanta. Its version stresses two main principles viz., harmony and practical application. The modern version is for four types of harmony, harmony of different schools of Vedanta, harmony of Vedanta and science, harmony of world religions and harmony of individual and society¹⁴.

Neo- Vedanta gives the message of hope for deathless. Fearlessness is the motto of life. It advises us not to fear death or enemies. One has to fear his own weakness and sin. One has to despise his own narrowness and limited outlook. One has to strengthen the mind and confidence of one’s ownself. Neo-Vedanta is thus acting as an instrument of universal toleration. If we all come to understand the fact that all individuals are identical in God’s creation and the differences of degree , not of kind, in us are also of the same divine energy, we shall gradually do away with communalism and divisive do away with communalism and divisive tendencies.

For him, religions are the backbone of the nation. Swamiji even condemns reform movement since they do not represent natural growth of Hinduism as a whole and they lost their momentum over a period of time. He believes in growth and not in reform. He wants us to go forward and complete the practical realization of the scheme of human progress that has been laid out in the most perfect order by our ancestors. He wages a war against psudo critics of Hinduism who blames it for all degradation. It was due to poor social political and economic condition of the nation. The dynamic principles of Hinduism stand for prosperity of the nation. It is nothing but Neo-Vedanta¹⁵. ‘Mukti’ is nothing but realizing the divine. God alone is the constant basis of an ever changing world. He alone is the real soul and all others are delusive manifestations. Thus Neo-Vedanta makes the spiritual journey very candid. It includes thus the potential divinity of the soul, principle of direct intuitive experience of god and principle of harmony.

By comparison and contrast with other religions, Swamiji enlightens the basis of Neo Vedanta. For example, man is an unreal self caught in a real world of sorrow and change in Buddhism. In Christianity, he is described as a sinner with the curse of Adam upon his head constantly pegged by Satan’s black-mail. Against all these dismal presentations of man in this universe, Swamiji preached the doctrine of potential divinity of man. For him, man is a sprit a spark of divine light and puissance, triumphing over matter. Life is not a prison- house but a challenging ring and all the victims and achievements of man in religion, art, science and social life are the victorious shouts of the cohorts of the spirit advancing in spite of countless obstacles put in their way by nature¹⁶. Here both spiritual development and work of material progress are worshipped together.

New Vedanta, Its Humanism and Universalism as the Needs of the Hours:

There cannot be any two opinions about the fundamental fact that Neo-Vedanta derived its basis explicitly from Advaitic doctrine. The classical Vedanta tries to impose the aroused faith of men to earnest seekers of truth and to apply it to their spiritual development. By contrast the Neo Vedanta movement is for teaching it to men and women at various levels of life. By arousing their faith in themselves and others they can achieve physical, mental and moral growth individually and collectively and proceed from the existing position towards higher supreme goal. Here, the achievement is totally voluntary and optional and there will be no sense of guilt even if we get struck at some stage or the other even before nearing the avowed goal-post. It has tremendous benefit of channeling and synthesizing one’s own energy to perform well in this world which is again real and not a shadow as perceived in the old Advaita. In precise this material existence is qualified to be very meaningful and useful and spiritual bliss comes as a parallel complement if one strives towards its attainment. Vedanta stresses the need for scheduled life and exhorts us to liberate by self-knowledge. But Neo-Vedanta does not stop at this stage of individual development alone. It adds some more duties to it. After liberation by solitary practice, one should do good to the world as a part of spiritual disciple for self-realization¹⁷. He says that our first call is to understand that every man, woman and everyone as god. He believes that all life is one. There is no individual or separate existence for anyone. All are equal and there is no place for inequality. Individual liberation is incomplete without total liberation of mankind. Swamiji’s message of humanity is clear in his statement. He declared, “I believe in god and I believe in man. I believe in helping the miserable. I believe in going even to hell to save others. I do not believe in a god or a religion which cannot wipe the widow’s tears or bring a piece of bread. I do not call it religion so long as it confined to books and dogmas”¹⁸. He further pleads that man who is an end in himself must also become a means to save humanity. The only god to worship is the human soul in the human body. Of course all animals are temples too but man is the highest, the Taj Mahal of temples. Every human being is the subject, the object, the end and the means.’ That is why some critics tend to call Neo-vedanta as humanist’s Advaitism.

The singular greatness of Neo-Vedanta is its typical stress on universalism. It accepts all religions and does not merely tolerate other forms of worship. He wants us to respect others methods of worship, rituals and ceremonies. It is a journey from truth to truth, from lower truth to higher truth¹⁹. It is nobody’s exclusive property. No particular race or religion can claim monopoly over truth. It is the very nature of all souls. One should train ones mental framework to treat others with love, sympathy and compassion. When we practise high level of mutual respect and transparent concern for others, all peevish and meaningless premises will perish in the fire of love and care for others. He projects a new vision of Hinduism. We should unite ourselves with every other religion praying in the mosques of the Muslims, worshipping before the fire of the Zoroastrian and kneeling to the crops of the Christians are equal in respective domains of belief. Equally we should understand that all religions are alike from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism. There were many attempts of the human soul to grasps and realize the Infinite. They are to be gathered like flowers and bound the together with the god of love and make them into a wonderful bouquet of worship. Hence nobody is alien to us. There exists only humanity and truth. Commenting on Swamijis universalism, Ninian Smart writes” it is therefore important to recognize that the Universalist message of Swami Vivekananda and of his master Ramakrishna genuinely represents a new departure in world religions - the attempt to make the highest form of Hindu a world faith. In doing so, the Vedanta would cease to be highest form of the old Hinduism as such, but it would become the highest of religion in general²⁰.

Neo- Vedanta does not believe in controversies of different schools of Vedanta. There are three main points of controversy about the nature of the ultimate reality- whether it is personal or impersonal. It argues about the relationship between the self and the supreme self. It tends dispute in terms of superiority between Jnana and Bhakti. These doctrinal variations are mainly due to different interpretations of the schools of thought. Neo-Vedanta tries to establish harmony among them. It stands on the validity of direct personal experience and by assigning different views to different levels of experience. Neo-Vedanta thus tries to sort out issues by displaying a scientific approach. There is no antagonism between Vedanta and science and the wrong conception that Vedanta does not have scientific proof and hence scientific validity is totally broken is a myth. Vedanta is based on universal truths about life, consciousness and reality. It is transcendental ‘Still’, it satisfies all the parameters of material life. Its professed harmony between the individual and the society is not sociological but spiritual. It regards individual selves as parts of the supreme self and service to men as service to god. It recommends Karma Yoga which is based on this principle of worship as a direct path to God realization.

CONCLUSION:

Neo-Vedanta opened new vistas of spiritual wisdom and made the tenets of Advaita in its new form totally universal. It stands to integrate all religions and does not accept the ideas of superiority or inferiority between religions. He stands for equality between them. Individualistic Advaita has become totally universal and it does not belittle the material existence equally. However, the basic perception of understanding the superior self by the individual self and its realization of the fact that one is the other are retained in pristine glory. Thus Vivekananda’s Neo- Vedanta as practical Vedanta has become a bonding force of all religions and the human dignity is given due place of pride and honour. He rejects all barriers of caste, creed, language, race and religion and the essence of human brotherhood, mutual love and harmony are the guiding principles of Neo-Vedanta. Thus it has come to stay as a refined and progressive form of our own age long Advaita modified to suit all nations and people together at one go.

REFERENCES:

1. Wikipedia, Neo-Vedanta, Wikimania, 2015, P.1.

2. Ibid.P.1

3. Shah. C.S, Neo-Vedanta (article), International Forum for Neo-Vedantin, October, 2009.P.1

4. Corinne .G. Dempsey, What is Neo-Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda? Bringing the Sacred Down to the Earth: Adventure in Comparative Religion, Oxford University Press, 2011, P.115.

5. Ibid. P.115

6. Shah. C.S, Neo-Vedanta (article), International Forum for Neo-Vedantin, October, 2009.P.1.

7. Sooklal, Anil, The Neo Vedanta Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, The Department of Hindu studies, University of Durban, 1993, P.33.

8. Amalendu, Chakrabarthy, Swami Vivekananda’s Neo-Vedanta, Prabuddha, June2003, P.63.

9. Vedanta: Concepts and Application, Ramakrishna Mission Institute of culture, Kolkata, 2010, P.118.

10. Vivekananda: The Great Spiritual Teacher-A Compilation, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, 2008, pp.275-276.

11. King, Richard, Orientalism and Religion: Post Colonial Things India and “The East”, Rutledge, 2013, P.135.

12. Corinne .G. Dempsey, What is Neo-Vedanta of Swami Vivekananda? Bringing The Sacred Down to the Earth: Adventure in Comparative Religion, Oxford University Press, 2011, P.115.

13. Srivatsva, Abhishek Kumar, Humanistic Approach of Swami Vivekananda reflected through sublimation of Work, love and service in Higher Education, International E-Journal (Quarterly), Vol.III, Issue.1, Jan-March, 2014, P.1.

14. Urmila Sharma and S.K. Sharma, Indian Political Thought, Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 2001, P. 186.

15. Bhajananda, Swami, Swami Vivekananda and Neo- Vedanta, Vedanta, No.375, Jan-Feb, 2014, P.6.

16. Bhajananda, Swami, Swami Vivekananda and Neo Vedanta, Vedanta, No.375, Jan-Feb, 2014, P.6-7.

17. Satprakashnanda, Swami, Swami Vivekananda’s Contribution to the Present Age, The Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 1978, P.1.

18. Sooklal, Anil, The Neo Vedanta Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, The Department of Hindu studies, University Of Durban, 1993, pp. 46-47.

19. Vivekananda: The Great Spiritual Teacher-A Compilation, Advaita Ashrama, Kolkata, 2008, pp.278-279.

20. Sooklal, Anil, The Neo Vedanta Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, The Department of Hindu studies, University Of Durban, 1993, P. 49.

Received on 06.10.2016

Modified on 22.12.2016

Accepted on 08.01.2017

Research J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 8(2): April- June, 2017, 183-188.

DOI: 10.5958/2321-5828.2017.00026.2