Revisiting Educational Thoughts and Actions of Swami Vivekananda

BIKAS C. SANYAL 

EDUCATION 

Revisiting Educational Thoughts and Actions 

of Swami Vivekananda 


The topic that I have chosen had a 

beginning in the year 1992 when I 

called on Swami Lokeswarananda, 

the then Secretary of the Ramakrishna 

Mission Institute of Culture. He asked me if 

I could explore the possibility of organizing 

the centenary of Swami Vivekananda’s 

participation in the Parliament of Religions 

in 1993 at UNESCO. 

Although I had been working in an 

educational institution of UNESCO engaged 

in training and research for educational 

planning and management for the memberstates 

of the United Nations, little references 

at that time were made to Swami 

Vivekananda’s ideas on education. I had 

seen references to the ideas of Rabindranath 

Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, Krishnamurthy, but 

nowhere did I find any reference to the 

world leader in educational matters—Swami 

Vivekananda. But somehow I knew that 

there must have been some similarities 

between these two big organizations— 

UNESCO and the Ramakrishna Mission. So 

it made me look at the foundations of these 

two institutions, and I found many 

similarities. 

First, let me give you some idea of the 

objectives of the Ramakrishna Mission 

which was founded in May 1897. The 

Memorandum of Association says: 

The Objectives of the Association are: 

(a) To impart and promote the study of the 

Vedanta and its principles as propounded by 

Sri Ramakrishna and practically illustrated 

by his own life, and of comparative theology 

in its widest form. 

(b) To impart and promote the study of the 

arts, sciences, and industries. 

(c) To train teachers in all branches of 

knowledge above-mentioned and enable 

them to reach the masses. 

(d) To carry on educational work among the 

masses. 

(e) To establish, maintain, carry on, and 

assist schools, colleges, orphanages, 

workshops, laboratories, hospitals, 

dispensaries, houses for the infirm, the 

invalid and afflicted, famine relief works, 

and other educational and charitable works, 

and institutions of a like nature. 

(f) To print and publish and to sell or 

distribute gratuitously or otherwise, 

journals, periodicals, books or leaflets, that 

the Association may think desirable for the 

promotion of its objects. 

(g) To incorporate any institutions, societies, 

or associations having objects wholly or in 

part similar to any of those of the 

Association, and to co-operate with any 

person or persons in aid of such objects. 

I found that six of the seven objectives 

of the Ramakrishna Mission mentioned 

above deal with education, science and 

culture. The UNESCO is dealing exactly 

with all these,—hence it is named United 

416 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture September

REVISITING EDUCATIONAL THOUGHTS AND ACTIONS OF 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA 

Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural 

Organization. Now, let us have a look at the 

UNESCO’s mission. It says: 

1. The purpose of the organization is to 

contribute to peace and security by 

promoting collaboration among the nations 

through education, science and culture in 

order to further universal respect for justice, 

for the rule of law and for the human rights 

and fundamental freedoms which are 

affirmed for the people of the world, without 

distinction of race, sex, language or religion, 

by the Charter of the United Nations. 

2. To realize this purpose, the Organization 

will: (a) Collaborate in the work of 

advancing the mutual knowledge and 

understanding of peoples, through all means 

of mass communication and to that end 

recommend such international agreements as 

may be necessary to promote the free flow of 

ideas by word and image; 

(b) Give fresh impulse to popular education 

and to the spread of culture: 

By collaborating with Members, at their 

request, in the development of educational 

activities; 

By instituting collaboration among the 

nations to advance the ideal of equality of 

educational opportunity without regard to 

race, sex or any distinctions, economic or 

social; 

By suggesting educational methods best 

suited to prepare the children of the world for 

the responsibilities of freedom; 

(c) Maintain, increase and diffuse 

knowledge: 

By assuring the conservation and protection 

of the world’s inheritance of books, works of 

art and monuments of history and science, 

and recommending to the nations concerned 

the necessary international conventions; 

By encouraging co-operation among the 

nations in all branches of intellectual 

activity, including the international 

exchange of persons active in the fields of 

education, science and culture and the 

exchange of publications, objects of artistic 

and scientific interest and other materials of 

information; 

By initiating methods of international co-operation 

calculated to give the people of all 

countries access to the printed and published 

materials produced by any of them. 

3. With a view to preserving the independence, 

integrity and fruitful diversity of the 

cultures and educational systems of the 

States Member of the Organization, the Organization 

is prohibited from intervening in 

matters which are essentially within their 

domestic jurisdiction. 

So, it was a pleasant surprise for me that 

Swamiji could be so precise in setting the 

ideals of education more than five decades 

earlier than the establishment of UNESCO. I 

also believe that an early appreciation of 

Swamiji’s ideas on education would have 

helped UNESCO to articulate its own 

objectives in a much better way. 

Unfortunately, very few UNESCO people 

knew about Swamiji and his exemplary 

vision until 1993. The Director-General of 

UNESCO, however, gave the inaugural 

speech at a seminar in commemoration of 

the centenary of Swamiji’s historic addresses 

at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. I 

had the privilege of coordinating the seminar 

in co-operation with the Indian Embassy, the 

Indian delegation of UNESCO, and the 

Centre Vedantique Ramakrishna—the 

branch of the Ramakrishna Mission in 

France. It was held at UNESCO on 8 

October 1993. The Director-General, having 

recognized the contributions of 

Vivekananda, pointed out a few things. First 

he said, Swami Vivekananda’s commitment 

to universalism and tolerance is active 

identification with humanity as a whole. 

2012 Bulletin of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture 

417


Second, he showed remarkable concern for 

the poor and the destitute people. The 

Mission he established in India and which 

has now spread all over the world is working 

to reduce poverty and eliminate 

discrimination among the different segments 

of the society. There is no greater challenge 

we face today than this and, he added, that 

he believed that the United Nations has been 

working with all possible NGO partners to 

overcome these problems. ‘Maybe, soon we 

shall see the Ramakrishna Mission to be a 

respectable and respected NGO of 

UNESCO.’ Thirdly, the Director-General 

pointed out that Swamiji’s preoccupation 

with human development and his vision of 

education, science and culture are the 

essential instruments for such development. 

But his final recognition of 

Vivekananda’s ideas came from the 

following statement: ‘I am struck by the 

similarities of the constitutions of the 

Ramakrishna Mission established as early as 

1897 with that of UNESCO drawn up in 

1945. Both place the human being at the 

centre of their efforts in their development. 

Both place tolerance at the top of their 

agenda for building peace and democracy. 

Both recognize the variety of the human 

cultures and societies as an essential aspect 

of the common heritage.’ 

With this background information let me 

dwell upon Swamiji’s ideas of real 

education. Swami Vivekananda said: ‘If you 

have assimilated five ideas and made them 

your life and character, you have more 

education than any man who has got by 

heart a whole library.’ [C.W. III. 302] I shall 

modestly attempt to share five of his ideas 

which I have tried to assimilate. 

First, his definition of education and his 

concern about the need to strengthen 

spiritual and secular values in education; 

second, his appeal for spreading moral and 

ethical education; third, his ideas of women 

education; fourth, his call for education of 

the masses; and fifthly, his idea about the 

need for an interface between science and 

religion in the present-day world. 

Swamiji lived in the 19th century. But 

you see how relevant his statements and his 

messages are even today! Frankly speaking, 

his ideas are even more necessary today to 

be practised and realized than they were 

during his time—not only by Indians but by 

the people of the whole world. 

Swamiji defined education as ‘. . .the 

manifestation of the perfection already in 

man.’ [C.W. IV. 358] What a man learns is 

really what he discovers by taking the cover 

off his own soul which is the mine of infinite 

knowledge, he asserts. Indeed, the origin of 

the idea lies in the philosophy of Vedanta 

which asserts that knowledge is inherent in 

human being like spark in a piece of flint. 

All that is needed is the strike of a 

suggestion to bring it out. 

After 1993 some activities started at 

UNESCO. In 2002, UNESCO awarded a 

prize. Then we started working on the ideas 

of Vivekananda’s education in the journal of 

UNESCO. I requested Swami Prabhanandaji 

Maharaj to write on Vivekananda’s 

educational thoughts for that journal, and he 

did. I quote how he interpreted this 

particular sentence which we hear too often 

and also read about—‘Education is the 

manifestation of the perfection already in 

man.’ According to him, manifestation 

indicates a spontaneous growth provided 

that the impediments are removed. He 

explains the term ‘perfection’ as the goal of 

actualizing the highest human potential. 

However, the goal varies from society to 

society and, in the context of the vast Indian 

civilization, perfection may be viewed from 

two levels. 

First is the metaphysical level where 




perfection means the realization of the soul’s 

own ever-perfect nature. Second is the 

empirical level. There, according to 

Vivekananda himself, perfection means 

achieving the stage where one stands on 

one’s legs, well-equipped to win the 

struggles of life with a spirit of philanthropy 

and the courage of a lion. 

Swami Prabhananda interpreted 

‘Perfection’ that is mentioned in Swamiji’s 

definition of education as the human beings’ 

potential which has again three aspects. The 

first is capacity which means the acquisition 

of a specific characteristic or competence 

that makes learning possible. The second is 

propensity of doing something when the 

opportunity comes—implying the 

development of learning. And the third 

aspect is capability, the competence of 

working towards an intended outcome with 

the strength of getting rid of obstacles to 

learning. It implies self-development or selfempowerment. 

Therefore, in the spiritual 

sense, education is the process of 

discovering the capacity, propensity and 

capability of a human being to realize his/ 

her own soul’s ever-perfect nature. 

In the secular sense, education is the 

process of bringing out in a human being the 

capacity, the propensity and the capability of 

self-development and self-empowerment in 

order to be self-reliant with a spirit of 

philanthropy and courage. One may note 

here the continuity of secular and spiritual 

values in Vivekananda’s definition of 

education. We shall see how the secular 

values have also been emphasized by 

Swamiji, and how spirituality and secularism 

have been integrated in his thoughts, ideas 

and actions. 

In respect of the secular values, 

Swamiji continues: ‘Education is not the 

amount of information that is put into your 

brain and runs riot there, undigested, all 

your life. We must have life-building, manmaking, 

character-making assimilation of 

ideas’. [C.W. III. 302] Then he goes on to 

say: ‘The training by which the current and 

expression of will are brought under control 

and become fruitful is called education.’ 

[C.W. IV. 490] So, according to him, the 

end of all education, all training should be 

man-making. Education should let human 

beings grow. What the country wants for 

that, he says, are ‘muscles of iron and 

nerves of steel’. First of all, our young men 

and women must be strong. Religion will 

come afterwards. This is the special 

characteristic of Vivekananda. Though a 

monk, he always stressed that the world is 

not to be ignored. Why? For our own 

benefit, as well as for the benefit of the 

world as a whole. He said: Be strong, my 

young friends. That is my advice to you. 

Indeed, the ultimate goal of the whole 

process of education is to unravel the truth 

of inherent perfection—perfection already 

existing in man. For that we have to 

combine knowledge with compassion, 

efficiency and moral excellence. This brings 

us to the next idea that I try to assimilate— 

the issue of moral and ethical education. 

While reviewing Politics, Theology and 

History, a book by Raymond Plant, a 

philosopher, R. Harris, the Bishop of 

Oxford, writes about Plant’s identification of 

Christianity’s two weaknesses—the absence 

of a unified Christian view in trying to 

supply a religious view of society, and the 

use of terms such as ‘justice’, ‘common 

good’ and ‘community’ without providing 

any detailed understanding of what is meant 

by these. Under the circumstances, Plant 

questions the possibility of providing a 

moral basis for a liberal democratic society 

that can commend itself universally and 

Christianity’s capacity to contribute to such 

a moral foundation. 


419


Thus moral excellence that the Oxford 

professor talks about is ignored in practice 

not only in Christian societies but in all 

others as well. Discrimination and hierarchy 

are still being practised as they were in the 

days of Swamiji. Then each religion, 

fanatically claimed superiority over others 

and did not hesitate to belittle the 

practitioners of other religions. Swamiji 

went out in that circumstances to broadcast 

what his Master, Sri Ramakrishna, taught 

him from his own experience and 

demonstration that all religions lead to the 

same goal. Had Harris known about this 

experience he could be far more emphatic in 

contradicting Plant. 

Explaining the essence of religion, 

Swami Vivekananda said, ‘Religion is not in 

books, nor in theories, nor in dogmas, nor in 

talking, not even in reasoning. It is being 

and becoming.’ [C.W., III. p. 253] It is 

realization. It is the innermost core of 

education, manifesting the divinity already 

in man, as Swamiji said. That is why he 

proclaimed in the Parliament of Religions in 

Chicago on 11 September 1893: 

Sectarianism, bigotry, and the horrible 

descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed 

this beautiful earth. They have filled the 

earth with violence, drenched it often and 

often with human blood, destroyed 

civilization and sent whole nations to 

despair. . . . But their time is come; and I 

fervently hope that the bell that tolled this 

morning in honour of this convention may 

be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all 

persecutions with the sword or with the pen, 

and of all uncharitable feelings between 

persons wending their way to the same goal. 

Alas! the earth is as much, if not more, 

filled with violence and fanaticism today as 

it was then. What happened on 11 

September 2001 in New York and on 26 

November 2008 in Mumbai? Those were 

cruel demonstrations of the continued 

misuse and misinterpretation of religion. 

Vivekananda therefore reminded us: 

‘The noblest words of peace that the 

world has ever heard have come from 

men on the religious plane, and the bitterest 

denunciation that the world has ever 

known has been uttered by religious men.’ 

[C.W., II, 375] 

The world today is passing through this 

crisis. There is a great necessity therefore to 

stress the importance that the Swami gave to 

education for the cultivation of peace, a 

spirit of acceptance and inclusiveness. 

Contribution made by the 

Ramakrishna Mission 

The setting up of the Ramakrishna Math 

and Ramakrishna Mission was to 

demonstrate the universality of religion, not 

as a mode of belief or theory, but as a 

palpable reality through practice. This was 

one of the greatest contributions made by 

the Math and Mission to the human race 

in general, and Indians in particular. As 

on 2010, there are about 172 Mission 

centres, including 42 in 19 countries outside 

India, propagating this message. There are 

1506 educational institutions of various 

types with more than 400,000 students 

benefiting as much as possible from the type 

of education Swamiji envisaged. There are 

of course social, political, and ideological 

constraints. But all the same, the 

Ramakrishna Mission, institutions, I think, 

have kept its foundation strong. 

As we know, in almost all the 

educational institutions of the Mission, 

students have to study religion and culture as 

core subjects. Besides these students, 

millions of Indians and world citizens have 

been deriving benefit from the activities of 

the Math and Mission. The 42 centres 

outside India have been spreading for 




decades the message of Vivekananda’s 

spiritual and secular values. 

These apart, Vivekananda’s ideas on 

moral and ethical education have several 

other dimensions. First, although 

Vivekananda, wanted men and women to 

grow intellectually, he was sceptical about 

the efficacy of dry intellectual training, 

which in most cases churn out irreligious 

persons. It is one of the evils of the Western 

civilization, he said, for mere intellectual 

education that does not take care of the heart 

only makes man ten times more selfish. We 

know about the recent financial crisis all 

over the world. The brains behind the whole 

scheme were all highly educated 

professionals who cheated the world, and 

who did not have the heart to feel the misery 

of the people they were cheating. 

We are also aware how the marketdominated 

society fuels the greed for 

unlimited material progress. There are then 

other problems such as deforestation, global 

warming, water and air pollution which are 

direct consequences of heedless industrial 

development. The Tsunami was a bitter 

lesson for us. The irregular climatic changes, 

droughts and recurring floods are all 

affecting our day-to-day lives severely and 

that is because of uncaring industrialization. 

The development of biotechnology 

and benefits, bioinformatics have brought 

along with some problems of gene cloning, 

surrogate motherhood and invasion 

on privacy. The impact of ethics can 

be measured in high technology areas 

such as biology, medicine, as well as 

computer science. The phenomenon of 

computerization is now affecting even 

our private life. There are good effects 

of all these but unregulated use of the 

devices of modern science and technology 

can wreak havoc in our life. If we do not 

care to connect basic ethics with 

technological progress we are bound to 

usher in an era of barbarism with a human 

face and destroy the earth. 

We are now shuddering with 

apprehension to think what will happen if 

nuclear bombs go in the hands of the 

terrorists. Now, how do we face the 

situation? How will we give ethical 

education to the terrorists? This is a big 

challenge now—because the terrorists have 

also been created by education. Like 

religion, there has been gross misuse of 

education when the Talibans are trained to 

terrorize people. In some parts of the world 

women are trained to become suicide 

bombers. What is the solution then? Should 

we hate education? Certainly not. We have 

to transform this ‘hate education’ attitude to 

‘love education’ outlook. Is it impossible? I 

do not think so because education has 

tremendous capacity to transform the human 

mind. If it can be done in the negative way, 

we can also do it in a positive way. But to do 

that, we must have the political will, 

commitment, and an institutional framework 

which Vivekananda’s ideas could provide. 

He said, ‘In a conflict between the heart and 

the brain, follow the heart.’ 

Dwelling on the aspect of ethical 

education, he said that religions of the world 

are not contradictory or antagonistic, they 

are but various faces of one eternal religion. 

‘Our watchword, then, will be acceptance, 

and not exclusion. Not only toleration, for 

so-called toleration is often blasphemy, and I 

do not believe in it. . . . I accept all religions 

that were in the past, and worship with them 

all; I worship God with every one of them, in 

whatever form they worship Him. . . . Not 

only shall I do all these, but I shall keep my 

heart open for all that may come in the 

future.’ [C.W., II. pp. 373-74] 

Swamiji delineates the third aspect of 

moral and ethical education with the 


421


following words: ‘Help and not Fight’, 

‘Assimilation and not Destruction’, 

‘Harmony and Peace and not Dissension’. 

Again, ‘each must assimilate the spirit of the 

others and yet preserve his individuality and 

grow according to his own law of growth.’ 

[Ibid.] There we find the similarity between 

Swamiji’s ideas and UNESCO’s 

apprehension of prohibiting international 

interference into domestic affairs of a 

particular country. 

In his address at the inauguration of 

the celebrations of Swamiji’s 150th birth 

anniversary on 12th January 2011, the Prime 

Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, 

announced that his government was 

approving a grant of Rs 100 crores for 

a ‘value education’ project of the 

Ramakrishna Mission. He sincerely 

hoped that the project will help to inculcate 

in Indian children a moral compass and a 

value system that would provide a bulwark 

against a tide of commercialism that is 

sweeping our societies. 

Education of women 

This is one of the slogans of UNESCO 

on education for the 21st century. This leads 

us to the next idea of Vivekananda— 

education of women. Women in India 

were far behind men in the field of education 

when Swamiji lived. Now the situation 

has somewhat improved but much remains 

to be done. 

Observing the state of women’s 

education in India, Swamiji lamented that he 

could not understand why so much 

difference was made between men and 

women, especially when Vedanta declared 

that one and the same Self was present in all 

beings. He quoted Manu to assert that 

daughters should be supported and educated 

with as much care and attention as the sons. 

This discrimination is made in every part of 

our society even now. It is not only in India. 

This malady is present all over the world. 

You know that French and Swiss women got 

their voting rights not long ago. However, 

the fact is that all nations have attained 

greatness by paying proper respect to 

women. Swamiji therefore demanded 

forcefully that women must be put in a 

position so that they could solve their 

problems in their own way. Why not? Our 

Indian women are as capable of doing it as 

any other women in the world. These were 

Swamiji’s bold words uttered in the 19th 

century. Look at the life of Sri Sarada Devi, 

the Holy Mother—how powerful she had 

been spiritually! Swamiji therefore urged his 

followers to spread female education the 

absence of which caused to a great extent 

India’s degeneration. He pointed out 

unerringly that it was only in the homes of 

educated and pious mothers that great men 

and women were born. 

I see quite a lot of hints in the statements 

of Swamiji. The UNESCO in one of 

its slogans therefore says that if you educate 

a man, you educate one person. But 

when you educate women, you educate the 

whole family. 

Vivekananda’s thinking on women’s 

education is more significant today when, in 

the name of religion, the women in some 

countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan are 

deprived not only of education but also of 

health care and other basic human rights. 

In a letter written to his disciple, 

Alasinga, Swamiji laments: ‘And, oh, how 

my heart ached to think of what we think of 

the poor, the low in India. They have no 

chance, no escape, no way to climb up.’ 

Again, he tells an interviewer: ‘No amount 

of politics would be of any avail until the 

masses in India are once more well 

educated, well fed, and well cared for.’ 

While the educationists today are trying 




to demonstrate the correlation between the 

development of economy and education, 

Swamiji perceived it more than hundred 

years ago. He said, ‘I see it before my eyes, 

a nation is advanced in proportion as 

education and intelligence spread among the 

masses. The chief cause of India’s ruin has 

been the monopolizing of the whole 

education and intelligence of the land by 

dint of pride and royal authority, among a 

handful of men. If we are to rise again, we 

shall have to do it in the same way, ie by 

spreading education among the masses.’ 

[C.W., IV, p. 482] He also prescribed the 

means of achieving this goal, step by step. 

First he gives a pedagogical suggestion. 

He says: Give them ideas. That is the only 

help they require. Then the rest must follow. 

Second, he suggested that the medium of 

instruction should be the mother tongue. The 

ideas must be taught in the language of the 

people. Third, he prescribed a cult of 

learning among them to sustain the 

education they received. Fourth, he 

emphasized the need for imparting training 

in life skills, trade, commerce and 

agriculture. Fifth, he said that mere 

provision of education was not enough. To 

begin with, he wanted that the selfsacrificing 

monks should go to the villages 

and teach them the secular subjects as well 

as religion and thus spread education from 

door to door. ‘Why should not education go 

from door to door, say I . . . . If a 

ploughman’s boy cannot come to education, 

why not meet him at the plough, . . .just 

wherever he is?’ said Swamiji. [C.W., 

VIII, pp. 88-9] 

Attempts have been made by the monks 

of the Math and Mission to fulfil some of his 

expectations through various programmes 

over the century. And some more 

new programmes are being launched on 

the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary 

of Swamiji. 

I conclude with the last idea of Swami 

Vivekananda. It relates to Swamiji’s thought 

about the interaction between science and 

religion. Swamiji’s spiritual contributions 

are well known. But very little is known 

about his scientific philosophy. He inspired 

Jamshedji Tata to establish a research 

institute for the development of science in 

India. Jamshedji later invited Swamiji to 

steward the institute. But Swamiji had then 

passed away. 

Swamiji was well aware that in the new 

age science and religion would meet and 

shake hands. Poetry and philosophy will 

become friends and that will be the religion 

of the future. 

A few days before Swamiji left his 

mortal body, he envisioned a university at 

Belur Math. He confided to Miss MacLeod 

that the spiritual power of Belur Math will 

last 1500 years and someday it will be a 

great university. ‘Do not think I am 

imagining it; I see it,’ he added. 

Today that university is a reality. 

Science and spirituality are on their way to 

be integrated. Indeed, to realize the vision of 

Swamiji, the authorities are building the 

school of mathematical sciences and the 

school of Indian heritage side by side to 

facilitate that integration. A monastic 

member of the Order has recently received 

the Bhatnagar Award, which is given to an 

eminent scientist. The process of integration 

has started. And it shows that spirituality 

does not contradict scientific thoughts. • 

* This article is based on the transcript of a lecture Dr Bikas C. Sanyal delivered at the Institute on 

11 January 2012. Dr Sanyal is Honorary Director, Maison Del’Inde, Paris and Vice Chairman 

UNESCO, International Institute for Capacity Building in Africa. 


423

Revisiting Educational Thoughts and Actions of Swami Vivekananda

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