Swami Vivekananda and the Journey of the “Hero”
A Srinivas Rao January
2013
Swami
Vivekanada’s 150 birth year celebrations conclude on 12th January
2014. I wrote this article over a period and the article was published in the “Mountain
Path” published by Sri Ramansramam in Tiruvannamalai Jan-March 2014. It is being published here with permission. An additional paragraph (second last) has been added in this version on hindsight for a more complete assessment.
This article draws its framework and argument from the
work of Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) in his path breaking book “The Hero with a
Thousand Faces”. Published in 1949 this book became one of the most influential
books of the 20th century influencing psychiatry, mythology,
anthropology, literature, filmography and other fields.
Education of youth the world over has
increasingly been skewed towards building skills and competencies to fulfilling
their economic needs and less towards a synoptic and inward awareness. In other
words while one of the first aims of education is to prepare a person for a
livelihood, there are wider aims to make him appreciate his role in society,
that he should consider himself a legatee of the range of human experience, as
a part of nature and history; that he learns to enjoy the arts and creative
pursuits in connecting himself to human culture and refinement; finally that he
ponders on the meaning and purpose of his own life. It is the latter aims that
are more enduring and timeless and don't change with age or culture. It is such
a synoptic education that develops for the youth their self worth, belonging,
autonomy, security and self awareness. The heroes whose narratives populate youthful
imagination often provide shorthand to the range of skills and capabilities,
values and identities. The ideal of the Hero across cultures show a remarkable
consistency across time and cultures. The Mahavira
or great hero of the Indian imagination has since the shramanic traditions of the axial age has been more grounded in
self conquest before he brings his light to the world. Do the lives of
individuals born in the full noontide of human history display similar patterns
to those in the pantheon of heroes mythical or otherwise who bring light and a
promise of redemption unto their fellow men? This is the question that this
note attempts to address through the life of one of India’s great modern sons, Swami
Vivekananda.
