Universal Brotherhood Day :Yuva Bharati September 2025

 

Sisters and Brothers

Saprem Namaskar

11 September - Universal Brotherhood day is celebrated all over the world on grand scale. Mananeeya Eknathji, founder of Vivekananda Kendra, named the celebration of 11 September – the day Swami Vivekananda spoke first in the Parliament of Religions at Chicago - as Universal Brotherhood Day. Universal Brotherhood is possible only in Sanatana Dharma – i.e. in Upanishadic Principles. How is it so, has to be understood by every one o
f us.

During all his lectures in the west, we see that Swami Vivekananda propounded Upanishadic principles in front of the elite of the world. When the elite in the West appreciated Swami Vivekananda’s exposition, the elite in our country also was shaken out of his slavish mentality. Therefore, it is those thoughts of Swami Vivekananda which are to be presented here in the celebration of Universal Brotherhood day.

The Brotherhood is possible based on principles and not personalities

We see Christianity claims Jesus is the saviour of the humanity. But to prove that point – Christianity has been exterminating communities after communities in the world. Millions were killed in Europe, Americas and Africas in the name of Jesus. Islam talks of brotherhood but no Muslim country or Muslims in any country stay in peace with others. They are always at war. It is not possible to bring humanity to the path of one God with one name. Diversity is the rule of nature. So how humanity can be brought together in brotherhood? It is only in the unifying principles which are beyond the apparent diversity that humanity can be made to come together. Swami Vivekananda said, “I have become used to hear all sorts of wonderful claims put forward in favour of every religion under the sun. ..Let me lay before you my reasons why I think that it is Vedanta, and Vedanta alone, that can become the universal religion of man, and that no other is fitted for the role. Every one of the great religions in the world excepting our own, is built on historical characters but ours rest upon principles…It is in vain… to gather all the peoples of the world around a single personality. …If it ever becomes possible to bring the largest portion of humanity to one way of thinking in regard to religion, mark you, it must be always through principles and not through persons.”

Compatible with modern science

Our Sanatana Dharma – The Dharma practiced by Hindus and so also called as Hindu Dharma – is based on Upanishadic principles which are compatible with the science, with the rational aspirations and convictions of the modern man. Swami Vivekananda said, “…The second claim of the Vedanta upon the attention of the world is that, of all the scriptures in the world, it is the one scripture the teaching of which is in entire harmony with the results that have been attained by the modern scientific investigation of external nature.”

India: Where search of One led to great principle

Swami Vivekananda explains in one of his lectures how in the world history, the search for One was always there whether in religion or in science. In other lands as different tribes came in contact with each other, they were puzzled by existence of Gods of others. Till then they used to think that their God is the only true and great God. There could not be two rulers or two creators of the world! There has to be only ‘One’, all others have to be false. Only one has to be the greatest God. Who was it? Naturally each tribe claimed that its God was the greatest. To prove that started the wars of domination in the name of God, each group claiming its God alone as the only True God, the Ruler of the World, the most powerful etc. Swamiji asserted, “And I am sure, most of you know the amount of bloodshed, of tyranny, and of brutal savagery that this religious conquest entailed.” As we know, it still is the reason, whether the wars in Iraq or Israel or the senseless bomb blasts by the Muslim terrorists in Mumbai on 11 July 2006 or 11 September 2001 when the twin towers of WTC were hit or the killing of Hindus at Pahalgam after asking their religion, is because of the exclusive claims of the only true god. The search for the One - greatest God has gone wrong. The claim of only One God being true cannot bring peace or brotherhood; it has brought till now only bloodshed of the innocent. This exclusivity then extended to social and political theories too which are causes of tensions in many parts of the world.

In India, too, the search for the greatest God - the One -started and fortunately for India and even for the whole humanity, the sages here did not conclude that only our God had to be the supreme most and so its authority had to be established. They saw it was One which has manifested as many. Really it was the greatest discovery for the survival and brotherhood of humanity. Swamiji says beautifully, “India alone was to be, of all lands, the land of toleration and of spirituality; and therefore the fight between tribes and their gods did not long take place here. For one of the greatest sages that was ever born found out here in India even at that distant time, which history cannot reach and into whose gloom even tradition itself dares not peep – in that distant time the sage arose and declared, ‘Ekam sad viprahbahudhavadanti’.- ‘He who exists is One; the sages call him variously.’ This is one of the most memorable sentences that was ever uttered, one of the grandest truths that was ever discovered. And for us Hindus this truth has been the very backbone of our national existence.”

The spiritual oneness: The basis of brotherhood and upliftment

It is not only the God is One who appears as differently, or is called by different names by the sages, but the man also though having separate body-mind complex is sharing same spiritual Oneness with all. It is that One which is expressed as many therefore though apparently we are different, spiritually we are One. The real nature of each one of us is Divine, is Ishvara. In this realization there is initially brotherhood at behavioural level and after realisation Oneness with all. This great principle of Vedanta we have to give to the world for ushering in Universal Brotherhood. We have to apply this principle within our country to raise our masses, to be one with them who were neglected for centuries during foreign invasions. Swami Vivekananda said, “The other great idea that the world want from us today …is the eternal grand idea of the spiritual Oneness of the whole universe… It is the one great life-giving idea which the world wants from us today, and which the mute masses of India want for their uplifting, for none can regenerate this land of ours without the practical application and effective operation of this ideal of the Oneness of things.”

The spiritual Oneness: The Sound basis for Morality and ethics

The brotherhood is possible if everyone behaves responsibly and with concern for others. A fear of Satan or the commandments of any personage cannot make man to be moral and ethical perpetually. The morality and ethics should have sound basis. Swami Vivekananda said, “The rational West is earnestly bent upon seeking out the rationality of all its philosophy and its ethics; and you all know well that ethics cannot be derived from mere sanction of any personages, however great and divine he may have been. Such an explanation of the authority of ethics appeals no more to the highest of the world’s thinkers; they want something more than human sanction for ethical principle of truth as the sanction of ethics. …The infinite Oneness of the Soul is the eternal sanction of all morality, that you and I are not only brothers but that you and me are really One. …This Oneness is the rationale of all ethics and all spirituality.”

Religious awakening means experiencing the presence of God in one’s own self and in the world and not exploiting the world or bombing innocent women and children out of existence. Understanding of spiritual Oneness makes one conscious of the divine within and urges him to work for its unfoldment and enables him to grow spiritually. Simultaneously, it generates in him a sense of Oneness with God’s creation and, consequently, an intense fellow-feeling for the members of his own species – the human race – and prompts him to work with zest for human welfare and progress. Vedanta provides the sound and rational basis for ethics in personal and social life. As the whole existence in interconnected, what one does to others actually heis doing it to himself, thus it comes back to him. Therefore, one has to behave with others what he expects others to behave with him, as others are not others but our own extended self.

Thus, we see that Universal brotherhood is rooted in Vedanta – in Sanatana Dharma. Therefore the Universal brotherhood day is to point out two things - how exclusive approach in religions lead to bloodshed. Secondly, it is to stress these life-giving, inclusive principles of Sanatana Dharma. Howsoever great may be the message of Sanatana Dharma unless Hindu society is strong and united to deliver it, it will not make any impact especially on the people blinded with exclusive religions or materialism. It was for that, Swami Vivekananda stressed on organization, organization, and organization. It was for that, apart from carrying the message of Sanatana Dharma, we also need to bring more and more persons in organizational fold. Our work also should add to the efforts of correcting the thinking of the Macaulites in our society as they are on the forefront and also dominate the intellectual space in our country. Due to the Macaulay education our capacity is impaired to understand our strength, life-giving principles and the purpose of our nation.

So, let our celebration of this day be effective in giving the message of Sanatana Dharma and let us involve ourselves in nation-building activities. Let us make the younger generations to get acquainted with thoughts of Swami Vivekananda in this great day.

 

                                                                                           Nivedita Raghunath Bhide

                                                                                                                                 Vice President  

Universal Brotherhood Day :Yuva Bharati August-2023

 

For organisational work to grow, Mananeeya Eknathji has given us chatusutri. The base of chatusutri is contacts, lokasampark. The broader the base of  chatusutri, more  trained karyakartas we ultimately get for our work at the fourth stage called lokavyavastha. The utsava of universal brotherhood day is more for reaching out to new contacts and renewing the earlier contacts and involving them in our work. We celebrate Universal Brotherhood Day to test our strength as a team as to how many people can we bring together for a function and also to reach out to the people effectively with the message of Swami Vivekananda.

 This time to organise the universal brotherhood day, sit together to think at your own Nagar level as to what all the ways should we adopt to make the function attractive, very solemn, impressive and in what all ways can you reach out and get maximum number of people. As we have completed 50 years as an organization, can we think and get the strength of minimum 500 as audience? How that can be achieved? Let all the Karyakartas in Nagar think, plan and execute it together. After the function is over, you can report in activity group in Telegram about how you worked to get more than 500 audience.

This whole function is to be organized to give the message of Universal Brotherhood properly. We have to see to it that proper understanding of the message of Swami Vivekananda given on 11 September 1893 takes place through our entire program - the speech by the chief guest, the geet, the demonstration of Yogasana, a Pathanatya, the introduction of the Kendra activities, etc. The uniqueness of the message of Swami Vivekananda and its relevance of the Universal Brotherhood - is to be presented and projected very effectively.

The Parliament of Religions was organized at Chicago in 1893 to proclaim how Christianity alone was a true religion. In Parliament of Religions, everyone while addressing was stressing as to how his religion alone is the only true religion. This exclusive approach has led to clashes and violence in the history of mankind. Therefore, the whole history of exclusive religions is written in blood and extermination of communities all over the world. The terror attack on WTC on 11 September 2001 also proved the same thing in recent years. The world is diverse. No two men or two leaves of the same tree are exactly the same. The mental, attitudinal growth of each person is different so there cannot be only one path to pray to God.

Swami Vivekananda stressed that peace for world is ensured with the approach, which says that each religion is valid for its followers. This approach is the inclusive approach. It is inclusive because it understands the creation as the manifestation of One and everything in it as its parts. Therefore, each nation or religion, man or woman, family or community should accept others (not just tolerate) and contribute for the well-being of all. Each soul is potentially divine. Getting rooted in one’s own divine nature makes a person realize the Oneness of existence and brotherhood of human society. This is a message that Sanatana Dharma has given to the world and has to continue to give to the world. It is to remind ourselves of this mission of India and also to give this message, that we celebrate Universal Brotherhood Day.

But India had forgotten her mission. To awaken us to our ordained mission Sri Ramakrishna took birth in 1836, exactly in the year when Macaulay introduced his ‘Minutes on Education’ to enslave our minds completely and permanently. The Macaulay education was deliberately designed to ridicule certain aspects of our Dharma like

●        Hindus are idol worshippers,

●        They worship devils,

●        Their languages are very crude and unless they learn English they cannot develop,

●     India can be saved only if Hindus give up their Dharma and accept Jesus as the only son of God and Christianity as the only true religion.

 Sri Ramakrishna's life was exactly to show the fallacy in each of this point.

●      Sri Ramakrishna's whole spiritual Sadhana starts with ‘idol' worship. He showed through his Sadhana that we Hindus do not worship idols but worship God and realize Him through these idols as other religions do through one or other symbols. Thus, in all his Sadhanas, he saw Only God everywhere and even after the highest realisation his worship through idols continued. The worship of God in idols is the necessity of the beginner and is also the understanding of the realized. Because once the Truth is realized, one finds God in all that is around.

●        The chosen deity of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa for the ‘idol’ worship was Kali whose terrible form may appear as devil for those who are in the nursery of spirituality. But he, by his Sadhana, realized She as Mother of the Universe.

●   Sri Ramakrishna did not know English and yet the educated scholars like Keshava Chandra Sen, Narendranath Dutta sat at his feet to get the knowledge. He showed that ultimate knowledge to be acquired is beyond senses and languages, beyond Nama and Roopa or beyond time and space.

●        Sri Ramakrishna practiced various sadhanas including praying to Jesus and Allah and yet he remained in the Hindu Dharma nurtured by the Rishi tradition. He realized by his spiritual practices that Jesus was a son of God but not the only son of God. By his Sadhana of these exclusive religions he proved that the exclusive claims of Christians and Muslims are incorrect. After undergoing all types of spiritual practices he said, "The Hindu religion alone is the Sanatana Dharma. The various creeds you hear nowadays have come into existence through the will of God and will disappear again through His will. They will not last forever. Therefore, I say, "I bow down at the feet of even the modern devotees." The Hindu religion has always existed and will always exist." (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna 6 Ed, P. 610)   Sanatana Dharma is not about many Gods or One God but is based on the vision that there is only God. The whole creation is only an expression of God and God alone. This vision leads to inclusive and universal approach as everything becomes sacred and divine.  

Swami Vivekananda was a disciple of such a person. Therefore, it was very natural that when Swami Vivekananda went to America to participate in the Parliament of Religions he stressed that all religions are valid. The whole Sadhana of Sri Ramakrishna was behind his words. And, therefore, it created such an everlasting impact on Western audience.                                                                                            

Romain Rolland puts the effect in the following words. " On Monday, September 11, 1893, the first session of the Parliament was opened...but it was the young man (Vivekananda) who represented nothing – and everything – the man belonging to no sect, but rather to India as a whole, who drew the glance of the assembled thousands...his speech was like a tongue of flame, it fired the souls of the listening throng.... Each of the other orators had spoken of his God, of the God of his sect. He – he alone – spoke of all their Gods, and embraced them all in the Universal Being. It was the breath of Ramakrishna, breaking down the barriers through the mouth of his great disciple... During the ensuing days he spoke again ten or twelve times. Each time he repeated with new arguments but with the same force of conviction his thesis of a universal religion without limit of time or space, uniting the whole Credo of human spirit from the enslaved fetishism of the savage to the most liberal creative affirmations of modern science. He harmonised them into a magnificent synthesis, which...helped all hopes to grow and flourish according to their own proper nature. There was to be no other dogma but the divinity inherent in man and his capacity of indefinite evolution... The effect of these mighty words was immense. Over the heads of the official representatives of the Parliament they were addressed to all and appealed to outside thought. Vivekananda's fame at once spread abroad, and India as a whole benefited..."

Swami Vivekananda, who completely surrendered himself to his most wonderful Master Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, could have easily given in to the temptation of talking about him. But then he was there to represent all Hindus, the whole Rishi tradition. So in the true spirit of a Hindu, his speech gave the common principles of Hindus of all sects. In Sister Nivedita's words, "Of the Swami's address before the Parliament of Religions, it may be said that when he began to speak it was of 'the religious ideas of the Hindus', but when he ended, Hinduism was created…. For it was no experience of his own that rose to the lips of the Swami Vivekananda there. He did not even take advantage of the occasion to tell the story of his Master. Instead of either of these, it was the religious consciousness of India that spoke through him, the message of his whole people, as determined by their whole past...Others stood beside the Swami Vivekananda, on the same platform as he, as apostles of particular creeds and churches. But it was his glory that he came to preach a religion to which each of these was, in his own words, 'only a traveling, a coming up, of different men, and women, through various conditions and circumstances to the same goal".

 

Swamiji who was proud of his religion and nation, which he unequivocally proclaimed there, could have stressed the greatness of his religion alone. But then he was there to represent the 'inclusive' and therefore, the universal aspects of Hindu Dharma so as to guide all other religions on the path of Universality. Though he never mentioned the name of Sri Ramakrishna or any other Rishi in his speech, it was only their teachings that he spoke. In one of his letters he wrote, "But there is one thing to know: Great sages come with special messages for the world, and not for name; but their followers throw their teachings overboard and fight over their names-this is verily the history of the world. I do not take into any consideration whether people accept his name or not, but I am ready to lay down my life to help his teachings, his life, and his message spread all over the world."    

Thus, if anyone insists on the specific name and form of God as the only true name and only true form then it would lead to clashes. The insistence on name and form brings divisions. If we stress on the ‘message’ alone then Brotherhood is possible, because any realized soul is inclusive and therefore, Universal in approach. A really spiritual person has to be inclusive. If someone claims spiritual status but is exclusive in his religious approach, then his claim of spirituality is false.

To make whole celebration meaningful and looking forward, we can focus on the message of Swami Vivekananda which Romain Rolland quotes as 'the divinity inherent in man and his capacity of indefinite evolution… ' What does it mean? To explain it in Sri Aurobindo’s terminology – it is the inner centre that holds each individuals highest evolutionary calling. It is the seat of what he called ‘true being’, and it is from here, he maintained, that a power and wisdom arises that sees perfectly in every instance what is, what must be done, and by what means to realise it's ultimate purpose. These cues, he says, are typically muffled in layers of ego, conditioning, and negative tendencies. But through persistent aspiration and effort one can encounter the presence of true being and increasingly dwell in it to evolve further.’

For India to rise and even after rising, more and more Bharatiyas have to be rooted in one's true being. In deeper layers of meditation, when we are rooted in the inner being we feel one with it and that strengthens the basis of brotherhood. Can our celebrations of Universal brotherhood day, focus on these both aspects? Outwardly, clarity of thought and inwardly rooted in Atman which frees us from our petty ego.

 Nivedita Raghunath Bhide

(Vice-President)