Education Must Result in Man-Making

The Ideal of all education, all training, should be this man - making. But, instead of that, we are always trying to polish up the outside. What use in polishing up the outside when there is no inside? The end and aim of all training is to make the man grow. The man who influences, who throws his magic, as it were, upon his fellow - beings, is a dynamo of power, and when that man is ready, he can do anything and everything he likes; that personality put upon anything will make it work.

CW: Vol.2: The powers of the mind (p.15)

Now, we see that though this is a fact, no physical laws that we know of will explain this. How can we explain it by chemical and physical knowledge? How much of oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, how many molecules in different positions, and how many cells, etc., etc. can explain this mysterious personality? And we still see, it is a fact, and not only that, it is the real man; and it is that man that lives and moves and works, it is that man that influences, moves his fellow - beings, and passes out, and his intellect and books and works are but traces left behind. Think of this. Compare the great teachers of religion with the great philosophers. The philosophers scarcely influenced anybody's inner man, and yet they wrote most marvellous books. The religious teachers, on the other hand, moved countries in their lifetime. The difference was made by personality. In the philosopher it is a faint personality that influences; in the great prophets it is tremendous. In the former we touch the intellect, in the latter we touch life. In the one case, it is simply a chemical process, putting certain chemical ingredients together which may gradually combine and under proper circumstances bring out a flash of light or may fail. In the other, it is like a torch that goes round quickly, lighting others.

Ibid.: (p 15-16)

The science of Yoga claims that it has discovered the laws which develop this personality, and by proper attention to those laws and methods, each one can grow and strengthen his personality. This is one of the great practical things, and this is the secret of all education. This has a universal application. In the life of a householder, in the life of the poor, the rich, the man of business, the spiritual man, in every one's life, it is a great thing, the strengthening of this personality.

Ibid.: (p 16)

The end of all education, all training, should, should be man-making. The training by which the current and expression of will are brought under control and become fruitful is called education.

CW.: Vol.4: Translation: Prose: Our present Social Problems (p.490)

It is a man - making religion that we want. It is man - making theories that we want. It is man - making education all round that we want.

CW:Vol.3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: My Plan of Campaign (p. 224)

We must have a hold on the spiritual and secular education of the nation. Do you understand that? You must dream it, you must talk it, you must think it, and you must work it out. Till then there is no salvation for the race. The education that you are getting now has some good points, but it has a tremendous disadvantage which is so great that the good things are all weighed down. In the first place it is not a man - making education, it is merely and entirely a negative education. A negative education or any training that is based on negation, is worse than death. The child is taken to school, and the first thing that he learns is that his father is a fool, the second thing that his grandfather is a lunatic, the third thing that all his teachers are hypocrites, the fourth that all the sacred books are lies! By the time he is sixteen he is a mass of negation, lifeless and boneless. And the result is that fifty years of such education has not produced one original man in the three Presidencies. Every man of originality that has been produced has been educated elsewhere, and not in this country, or they have gone to the old universities once more to cleanse themselves of superstitions.

CW:Vol.3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Future of India (p. 301-301)

Likewise the education that our boys receive is very negative. The schoolboy learns nothing, but has every - thing of his own broken down -- want of Shraddha is the result. The Shraddha which is the keynote of the Veda and the Vedanta -- the Shraddha which emboldened Nachiketa to face Yama and question him, through which Shraddha this world moves -- the annihilation of that Shraddha! [Sanskrit] --"The ignorant, the man devoid of Shraddha, the doubting self runs to ruin." Therefore are we so near to destruction. The remedy now is the spread of education. First of all, Self - knowledge. I do not mean thereby, matted hair, staff, Kamandalu, and mountain caves which the word suggests. What do I mean then? Cannot the knowledge, by which is attained even freedom from the bondage of worldly existence, bring ordinary material prosperity? Certainly it can. Freedom, dispassion, renunciation all these are the very highest ideals, but [Sanskrit] --"Even a little of this Dharma saves one from the great fear (of birth and death)." Dualist, qualified - monist, monist, Shaiva, Vaishnava, Shakta, even the Buddhist and the Jain and others -- whatever sects have arisen in India -- are all at one in this respect that infinite power is latent in this Jivatman (individualised soul); from the ant to the perfect man there is the same Atman in all, the difference being only in manifestation. "As a farmer breaks the obstacles (to the course of water)" (Patanjali's Yoga - sutra, Kaivalyapada, 3). That power manifests as soon as it gets the opportunity and the right place and time. From the highest god to the meanest grass, the same power is present in all -- whether manifested or not. We shall have to call forth that power by going from door to door.

CW: Vol.4: Translation: Prose: The Education that India needs (p. 483-484)

The real thoughts, new and genuine, that have been thought in this world up to this time, amount to only a handful. Read in their books the thoughts they have left to us. The authors do not appear to be giants to us, and yet we know that they were great giants in their days. What made them so? Not simply the thoughts they thought, neither the books they wrote, nor the speeches they made, it was something else that is now gone, that is their personality. As I have already remarked, the personality of the man is two - thirds, and his intellect, his words, are but one - third. It is the real man, the personality of the man, that runs through us. Our actions are but effects. Actions must come when the man is there; the effect is bound to follow the cause.

CW: Vol.2: The power of the mind (p.14-15)

Education must Help us Manifest The Infinite Knowledge Within

Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man.

CW: Vol.4: Writing: Prose: What we belive in (p.358)

Knowledge, is inherent in man, no knowledge comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man "knows", should, in strict psychological language, be what he "discovers" or "unveils"; what a man "learns" is really what he "discovers", by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge. We say Newton discovered gravitation. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him? It was in his own mind; the time came and he found it out. All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets you to study your own mind, but the object of your study is always your own mind. The falling of an apple gave the suggestion to Newton, and he studied his own mind. He rearranged all the previous links of thought in his mind and discovered a new link among them, which we call the law of gravitation. It was not in the apple nor in anything in the centre of the earth. All knowledge, therefore, secular or spiritual, is in the human mind. In many cases it is not discovered, but remains covered, and when the covering is being slowly taken off, we say, "We are learning," and the advance of knowledge is made by the advance of this process of uncovering. The man from whom this veil is being lifted is the more knowing man, the man upon whom it lies thick is ignorant, and the man from whom it has entirely gone is all - knowing, omniscient. There have been omniscient men, and, I believe, there will be yet; and that there will be myriads of them in the cycles to come. Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge exists in the mind; suggestion is the friction which brings it out.

CE: Vol.1: Karma Yoga: Karma in its effect on character (p.28)

All knowledge and all power are within. All knowledge comes from the human soul. Man manifests knowledge, discovers it within himself, which is pre - existing through eternity.

Ibid.: Lectures and Discources: Vedanta and Priveledge (p.422)

No one was ever really taught by another; each of us has to teach himself. The external teacher offers only the suggestion which rouses the internal teacher to work to understand things. Then things will be made clearer to us by our own power of perception and thought, and we shall realise them in our own souls.

Ibid.: Karma Yoga: VI- Non-attachment is complete self-abnegation (p.23)

The whole of that big banyan tree which covers acres of ground, was in the little seed which was, perhaps, no bigger than one eighth of a mustard seed; all that mass of energy was there confined. The gigantic intellect, we know, lies coiled up in the protoplasmic cell, and why should not the infinite energy? We know that it is so. It may seem like a paradox, but is true. Each one of us has come out of one protoplasmic cell, and all the powers we possess were coiled up there. You cannot say they came from food; for if you heap up food mountains high, what power comes out of it.

CW: Vol.2: Practical Vedanta and other Lectures: Practical Vedanta Part III (p.339-340)

The Light Divine within is obscured in most people. It is like a lamp in a cask of iron, no gleam of light can shine through. Gradually, by purity and unselfishness we can make the obscuring medium less and less dense, until at last it becomes as transparent as glass. Shri Ramakrishna was like the iron cask transformed into a glass cask through which can be seen the inner light as it is.

CW: Vol.7: Inspired Talks Recorded by Miss. S.E. Waldo, A Disciple: Sunday, June 30, 1895. (p.21)

The Masses will be Raised when we Develop Faith in The Equality and Oneness of Man

Too much of inactivity, too much of weakness, too much of hypnotism has been and is upon our race. O ye modern Hindus, de - hypnotise yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach every one his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self - conscious activity. Ay, if there is anything in the Gita that I like, it is these two verses, coming out strong as the very gist, the very essence, of Krishna's teaching --"He who sees the Supreme Lord dwelling alike in all beings, the Imperishable in things that perish, he sees indeed. For seeing the Lord as the same, everywhere present, he does not destroy the Self by the Self, and thus he goes to the highest goal."
CW: Vol.3:  Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Mission of the Vedanta (p.192.194)

I am no preacher of any momentary social reform. I am not trying to remedy evils, I only ask you to go forward and to complete the practical realisation of the scheme of human progress that has been laid out in the most perfect order by our ancestors. I only ask you to work to realise more and more the Vedantic ideal of the solidarity of man and his inborn divine nature.
Ibid.:  (p.196)

That is what we want, and that can only be created, established, and strengthened by understanding and realising the ideal of the Advaita, that ideal of the oneness of all.
Ibid.:  (p.190)

Ay, let every man and woman and child, without respect of caste or birth, weakness or strength, hear and learn that behind the strong and the weak, behind the high and the low, behind every one, there is that Infinite Soul, assuring the infinite possibility and the infinite capacity of all to become great and good. Let us proclaim to every soul: [Sanskrit]-- arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None  is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself, proclaim the God within you, do not deny Him!
Ibid.:  (p.193)

This wonderful idea of the sameness and omnipresence of the Supreme Soul has to be preached for the amelioration and elevation of the human race here as elsewhere. Wherever there is evil and wherever there is ignorance and want of knowledge, I have found out by experience that all evil comes, as our scriptures say, relying upon differences, and that all good comes from faith in equality, in the underlying sameness and oneness of things. This is the great Vedantic ideal.
Ibid.:  (p.194)

Even the least thing well done brings marvellous results; therefore let everyone do what little he can. If the fisherman thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better fisherman; if the student thinks he is the Spirit, he will be a better student. If the lawyer thinks that he is the Spirit, he will be a better lawyer, and so on, and the result will be that the castes will remain for ever. It is in the nature of society to form itself into groups; and what will go will be these privileges. Caste is a natural order; I can perform one duty in social life, and you another; you can govern a country, and I can mend a pair of old shoes, but that is no reason why you are greater than I, for can you mend my shoes? Can I govern the country? I am clever in mending shoes, you are clever in reading Vedas, but that is no reason why you should trample on my head. Why if one commits murder should he be praised, and if another steals an apple why should he be hanged? This will have to go. Caste is good. That is the only natural way of solving life. Men must form themselves into groups, and you cannot get rid of that. Wherever you go, there will be caste. But that does not mean that there should be these privileges. They should be knocked on the head. If you teach Vedanta to the fisherman, he will say, I am as good a man as you; I am a fisherman, you are a philosopher, but I have the same God in me as you have in you. And that is what we want, no privilege for any one, equal chances for all; let every one be taught that the divine is within, and every one will work out his own salvation.
Ibid.:  Vedanta in its application to India Life(p.245-246)

The other great idea that the world wants from us today, the thinking part of Europe, nay, the whole world -- more, perhaps, the lower classes than the higher, more the masses than the cultured, more the ignorant than the educated, more the weak than the strong -- is that eternal grand idea of the spiritual oneness of the whole universe. I need not tell you today, men from Madras University, how the modern researches of the West have demonstrated through physical means the oneness and the solidarity of the whole universe; how, physically speaking, you and I, the sun, moon, and stars are but little waves or wavelets in the midst of an infinite ocean of matter; how Indian psychology demonstrated ages ago that, similarly, both body and mind are but mere names or little wavelets in the ocean of matter, the Samashti; and how, going one step further, it is also shown in the Vedanta that behind that idea of the unity of the whole show, the real Soul is one. There is but one Soul throughout the universe, all is but One Existence. This great idea of the real and basic solidarity of the whole universe has frightened many, even in this country. It even now finds sometimes more opponents than adherents. I tell you, nevertheless, that 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.
Ibid.: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Mission of the Vedanta (p.188)

Dedicate Yourself to the Uplift of The Masses

"Arise and awake." What matters it if this little life goes? Everyone has to die, the saint or the sinner, the rich or the poor. The body never remains for anyone. Arise and awake and be perfectly sincere. Our insincerity in India is awful; what we want is character, that steadiness and character that make a man cling on to a thing like grim death.

CW: Vol.3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Vedanta (p.431)

You are all born to do it. Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds. Onward for ever! Sympathy for the poor, the downtrodden, even unto death -- this is our motto. Onward, brave lads!

CW: Vol.5: Epistles – First Series: VII (p.30)

Let each one of us pray day and night for the downtrodden millions in India who are held fast by poverty, priest craft, and tyranny — pray day and night for them. I care more to preach religion to them than to the high and the rich. I am no metaphysician, no philosopher, nay, no saint. But I am poor, I love the poor. I see what they call the poor of this country, and how many there are who feel for them! What an immense difference in India! Who feels there for the two hundred millions of men and women sunken for ever in poverty and ignorance? Where is the way out? Who feels for them? They cannot find light or education. Who will bring the light to them — who will travel from door to door bringing education to them? Let these people be your God — think of them, work for them, pray for them incessantly — the Lord will show you the way. Him I call a Mahâtman (great soul) whose heart bleeds for the poor, otherwise he is a Durâtman (wicked soul). Let us unite our wills in continued prayer for their good. We may die unknown, unpitied, unbewailed, without accomplishing anything — but not one thought will be lost. It will take effect, sooner or later. My heart is too full to express my feeling; you know it, you can imagine it. So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them! I call those men who strut about in their finery, having got all their money by grinding the poor, wretches, so long as they do not do anything for those two hundred millions who are now no better than hungry savages! We are poor, my brothers, we are nobodies, but such have been always the instruments of the Most High. The Lord bless you all.

Ibid.: XXV (p.57-58)

Without that there is no well - being for your upper classes. You will be destroyed by internecine quarrels and fights -- which you have been having so long. When the masses will wake up, they will come to understand your oppression of them, and by a puff of their mouth you will be entirely blown away! It is they who have introduced civilisation amongst you; and it is they who will then pull it down. Think how at the hands of the Gauls the mighty ancient Roman civilisation crumbled into dust! Therefore I say, try to rouse these lower classes from slumber by imparting learning and culture to them. When they will awaken -- and awaken one day they must -- they also will not forget your good services to them and will remain grateful to you.

CW: Vol.7: Conversation and Dialogues: From the Diary of Disciple: VII (p.150)

It is all right for those who have plenty of money and position to let the world roll on such, but I call him a traitor who, having been educated, nursed in luxury by the heart's blood of the downtrodden millions of toiling poor, never even takes a thought for them. Where, in what period of history your rich men, noblemen, your priests and potentates took any thought for the poor -- the grinding of whose faces is the very life - blood of their power?

But the Lord is great, the vengeance came sooner or later, and they who sucked the life - blood of the poor, whose very education was at their expense, whose very power was built on their poverty, were in their turn sold as slaves by hundreds and thousands, their wives and daughters dishonoured, their property robbed for the last 1,000 years, and do you think it was for no cause? Why amongst the poor of India so many are Mohammedans? It is nonsense to say, they were converted by the sword. It was to gain their liberty from the . . . zemindars and from the . . . priest, and as a consequence you find in Bengal there are more Mohammedans than Hindus amongst the cultivators, because there were so many zemindars there. Who thinks of raising these sunken downtrodden millions? A few thousand graduates do not make a nation, a few rich men do not make a nation. True, our opportunities are less, but still there is enough to feed and clothe and made 300 millions more comfortable, nay, luxurious. Ninety per cent of our people are without education -- who thinks of that?-- these Babus, the so - called patriots?

CW: Vol.8: Epistles – Fourth Series: XXXIV (p.329-330)

Trampled under others' feet doing slavery for others, are you men any more? You are not worth a pin's head! In this fertile country with abundant water - supply, where nature produces wealth and harvest a thousand times more than in others, you have no food for your stomach, no clothes to cover your body! In this country of abundance, the produce of which has been the cause of the spread of civilisation in other countries, you are reduced to such straits! Your condition is even worse than that of a dog. And you glory in your Vedas and Vedanta! A nation that cannot provide for its simple food and clothing, which always depends on others for its subsistence -- what is there for it to vaunt about? Throw your religious observances overboard for the present and be first prepared for the struggle for existence. People of foreign countries are turning out such golden results from the raw materials produced in your country, and you, like asses of burden, are only carrying their load. The people of foreign countries import Indian raw goods, manufacture various commodities by bringing their intelligence to bear upon them, and become great; whereas you have locked up your intelligence, thrown away your inherited wealth to others, and roam about crying piteously for food.

CW: Vol.7: Conversation and Dialogues: From the Diary of Disciple: VII (p.144-145)

Ay, in this country of ours, the very birth - place of the Vedanta, our masses have been hypnotised for ages into that state. To touch them is pollution, to sit with them is pollution! Hopeless they were born, hopeless they must remain! And the result is that they have been sinking, sinking, sinking, and have come to the last stage to which a human being can come. For what country is there in the world where man has to sleep with the cattle? And for this, blame nobody else, do not commit the mistake of the ignorant. The effect is here and the cause is here too. We are to blame. Stand up, be bold, and take the blame on your own shoulders. Do not go about throwing mud at others; for all the faults you suffer from, you are the sole and only cause.

CW: Vol.3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Vedanta (p.428-429)

Women Must Develop Their Own Solutions

Women must be put in a position to solve their own problems in their own way. No one can or ought to do this for them. And our Indian women are as capable of doing it as any in the world."

CW: Vol.5: CW: Vol.5 Interviews; On Indian Women - Their Past, Present and Future (p229-230)

It iswrong, a thousand times wrong, if any of you dares to say, "I will work out the salvation of this woman or child." I am asked again and again, what I think of the widow problem and what I think of the woman question. Let me answer once for all -- am I a widow that you ask me that nonsense? Am I am a woman that you ask me that question again and again? Who are you to solve women's problems?

CW: Vol.3: Lecture From Colombo to Almora: Vedanta in its Application to Indian Life; (p.246)

Educate your women first and leave them to themselves; then they will tell you what reforms are necessary for them.

CW: Vol.6: Notes of Class Talks and Lectures: Notes Taken Down in Madras (p.115)

After that they will act as they think best.

CW: Vol.7: Conversation and Dialogues: From the Dairy of a Disciple; XVIII (p.218)

Women Must be Given an All-Round Education

Education,…. may be described as a development of faculty, not an accumulation of words, or as a training of individuals to will rightly and efficiently.

256 CW: Vol.5: Interviews; On Indian Women – Their Past, Present and Future (p.231)

What does our Manu enjoin? "Daughters should be supported and educated with as much care and attention as the sons." As sons should be married after observing Brahmacharya up to the thirtieth year, so daughters also must observe Brahmacharya and be educated by their parents. But what are we actually doing? Can you better the condition of your women? Then there will be hope for your well - being. Otherwise you will remain as backward as you are now.

257 CW: Vol.5: Epistles – First Series: VI (p.26)

The Hinduwomen are very spiritual and very religious, perhaps more so than any other women in the world. If we can preserve these beautiful characteristics and at the same time develop the intellects of our women, the Hindu woman of the future will be the ideal woman of the world."

CW: Vol.8: Notes of Class Talk and Lecture: Women In India (p.198)

Of course, they have many and grave problems, but none that are not to be solved by that magic word 'education'.

CW: Vol.5: Interviews; On India Women – Their Past, Present and Future (p.231)

Female education is to be spread with religion as its centre. All other training should be secondary to religion. Religious training, the formation of character and observance of the vow of celibacy -- these should be attended to.

CW: Vol.7: Conversation and Dialogues: From the Diary of a Discipline: XVIII (p.220)

"I look upon religion as the innermost core of education", said the Swami solemnly. "Mind, I do not mean my own, or any one else's opinion about religion. I think the teacher should take the pupil's starting – point in this, as in other respects, and enable her to develop along her own line of least resistance."

CW: Vol.5 Interviews; On Indian Women - Their Past, Present and Future (p.231-232)

To make a beginning in women's education: our Hindu women easily understand what chastity means, because it is their heritage. Now, first of all, intensify that ideal within them above everything else, so that they may develop a strong character by the force of which, in every stage of their life, whether married, or single if they prefer to remain so, they will not be in the least afraid even to give up their lives rather than flinch an inch from their chastity. Is it little heroism to be able to sacrifice one's life for the sake of one's ideal, whatever that ideal may be?

Ibid: Conversation and Dialogues: IV (p.342-343)

Ideal characters must always be presented before the view of the girls to imbue them with a devotion to lofty principles of selflessness. The noble examples of Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, Lilavati, Khana, and Mira should be brought home to their minds, and they should be inspired to mould their own lives in the light of these.

CW: Vol.6: Conversation and Dialogues: VIII (p.493-494)

"Revive the old arts. Teach your girls fruit - modelling with hardened milk. Give them artistic cooking and sewing. Let them learn painting, photography, the cutting of designs in paper, and gold and silver filigree and embroidery. See that everyone knows something by which she can earn a living in case of need.

CW: Vol.8: Saying and Utterances (p.275)

"in worship of the gods, you must of course use images. But you can change these. Kali need not always be in one position. Encourage your girls to think of new ways of picturing Her. Have a hundred different conceptions of Saraswati. Let them draw and model and paint their own ideas.

Ibid.: (p.274)

Along with other things they should acquire the spirit of valour and heroism. In the present day it has become necessary for them also to learn self - defence. See how grand was the Queen of Jhansi!

CW: Vol.5: Conversation and Dialogues: IV (P.342)

“And Never forget Humanity! The idea of a humanitarian man-worship exists in nucleus in india but it has never been sufficiently specialized. Let your students develop it. Make Poetry, make art, Of it. Yes a daily worship at the feet of beggars, after bathing and before the meal, would be a wonderful practical training of heart and hand together. On some days again, the worship might be of children, of your own pupils. Or you might borrow babies and nurse and feed them.

Ibid.: (p.275)

If the women are raised, then their children will be their noble action glorify the name of the country – then will culture, knowledge, power and devotion awaken in the land.

Ibid.: (p.220)

Women Must be Treated with Utmost Respect

All Nations have attained greatness by paying proper respect to women. That country and that nation which do not respect women have never become great, nor will ever be in future.

CW: Vol.7 Conversations and Dialogues: From the Diary of a Disciple: XVIII (p.215)

Manu, again, has said that gods bless those families where women are happy and well treated. Here men treat their women as well as can be desired, and hence they are so prosperous, so learned, so free, and so energetic. But why is it that we are slavish, miserable, and dead? The answer is obvious.

CW: Vol.5: Epistles – First Series: VI (p.26)

Do you know who is the real "Shakti - worshipper"? It is he who knows that God is the omnipresent force in the universe and sees in women the manifestation of that Force.

Ibid.

I now see it all. Brother, [(Sanskrit)]-"The gods are pleased where the women are held in esteem"- says the old Manu. We are horrible sinners, and our degradation is due to our calling women "despicable worms", "gateways to hell", and so forth. Goodness gracious! There is all the difference between heaven and hell!! [(Sanskrit)]-"He adjudges gifts according to the merits of the case" (Isha, 8). Is the Lord to be hoodwinked by idle talk? The Lord has said, [(Sanskrit)]-"Thou art the woman, Thou art the man, Thou art the boy and the girl as well" (Shvetashvatara Upa.). And we on our part are crying, [(Sanskrit)]-"Be off, thou outcast!" [(Sanskrit)]-"Who has made the bewitching woman?"

CW: Vol.6: Epistles – Second Series: XI (p.253)

The jealous guardianship of our women shows that we Hindus have declined in our national virtues, that we reverted to the "brutal state". Every man must so discipline his mind as to bring himself to regard all women as his sisters or mothers. Women must have freedom to read, to receive as good an education as men. Individual development is impossible with ignorance and slavery.

CW: Vol.9: Newspaper Reports: Indian Newspaper Report: A Bengali Sadhu (p.525-526)

Meet with women on the Grounds of Common Humanity

In the highest reality of the Parabrahman, there is no distinction of sex. We notice this only in the relative plane. And the more the mind becomes introspective, the more that idea of difference vanishes. Ultimately, when the mind is wholly merged in the homogeneous and undifferentiated Brahman, such ideas as this is a man or that a woman do not remain at all. We have actually seen this in the life of Shri Ramakrishna. Therefore do I say that though outwardly there may be difference between men and women, in their real nature there is none. Hence, if a man can be a knower of Brahman, why cannot a woman attain to the same knowledge?

CW: Vol.7 From the Diary of a Disciple (p.219)

"We should not think that we are men and women, but only that we are human beings, born to cherish and to help one another. No sooner are a young man and a young woman left alone than he pays compliments to her, and perhaps before he takes a wife, he has courted two hundred women. Bah! If I belonged to the marrying set, I could find a woman to love without all that!

CW: Vol.5 Sayings And Utterances (p.412)

When I look about me and see what you call gallantry, my soul is filled with disgust. Not until you learn to ignore the question of sex and to meet on a ground of common humanity will your women really develop. Until then they are playthings, nothing more. All this is the cause of divorce. Your men bow low and offer a chair, but in another breath they offer compliments. They say, 'Oh, madam, how beautiful are your eyes!' What right have they to do this? How dare a man venture so far, and how can you women permit it? Such things develop the less noble side of humanity. They do not tend to nobler ideals.

Ibid.

The Best thermometer to the progress of a nation is its treatment of its women. In ancient Greece there was absolutely no difference in the state of man and woman. The idea of perfect equality existed.

CW: Vol.8 : Notes Of Class Talks And Lectures Volume : Women Of The East (p.198)

the Aryans is the freedom of women. It is in the Aryan literature that we find women in ancient times taking the same share as men, and in no other literature of the world.

CW: Vol.9: Lectures and Discourses: The Women in India (p.192)

It is very difficult to understand why in this country so much difference is made between men and women, whereas the Vedanta declares that one and the same conscious Self is present in all beings. You always criticise the women, but say what have you done for their uplift? Writing down Smritis etc., and binding them by hard rules, the men have turned the women into mere manufacturing machines! If you do not raise the women, who are the living embodiment of the Divine Mother, don't think that you have any other way to rise.

CW: Vol.7 : Conversations And Dialogues: From The Diary Of A Disciple : XVIII (P.214)

Women are Equally Eligible for The Highest Knowledge

In what scriptures do you find statements that women are not competent for knowledge and devotion? In the period of degradation, when the priests made other castes incompetent for the study of the Vedas, they deprived the women also of all their rights. Otherwise you will find that in the Vedic or Upanishadic age Maitreyi, Gârgi, and other ladies of revered memory have taken the places of Rishis through their skill in discussing about Brahman.

CW: Vol 7: Conversations and Dialogues: From the dairy of Disciple: XVIII (p.214-15)

In what scriptures do you find statements that women are not competent for knowledge and devotion? In the period of degradation, when the priests made other castes incompetent for the study of the Vedas, they deprived the women also of all their rights. Otherwise you will find that in the Vedic or Upanishadic age Maitreyi, Gârgi, and other ladies of revered memory have taken the places of Rishis through their skill in discussing about Brahman. In an assembly of a thousand Brahmanas who were all erudite in the Vedas, Gargi boldly challenged Yâjnavalkya in a discussion about Brahman. Since such ideal women were entitled to spiritual knowledge, why shall not the women have the same privilege now? What has happened once can certainly happen again. History repeats itself.

 Ibid.: (p.215)

If even one amongst the women became a knower of Brahman, then by the radiance of her personality thousands of women would be inspired and awakened to truth, and great well-being of the country and society would ensue.

Ibid.: (p.219)

Studying the present needs of the age, it seems imperative to train some women up in the ideal of renunciation. So that they will take up the vow of life long virginity, fired with the strength of that virtue of chastity which innate in their life-blood from hoary antiquity. Along with that they should be taught sciences and other things which would be of benefit, not only to them but to other as well, and knowing thes they would easily learn these things and fell pleasure in doing so. Other motherland requires for her well-being some of her children to become such pure-souled Brahmacharins and Brahmacharinis.

Ibid.: (p.343)

By their example and through their endeavours to hold the national ideal before the eyes of the people, a revolution in thoughts and aspirations will take place. How do matters stand now? Somehow, the parents must dispose of a girl in marriage, if she he nine or ten years of age! And what a rejoicing of the whole family if a child is born to her at the age of thirteen! If the trend of such ideas is reversed, then only there is some hope for the ancient Shraddhâ to return. And what to talk of those who will practice Brahmacharya as defined above — think how much faith in themselves will be theirs! And what a power for good they will be!

CW: Vol.5: Conversation and Dialogues: IV (p.343)

The Ideal of Women as a Warrior

We come to another class of women. This mild Hindu race produces fighting women from time to time. Some of you may have heard of the woman [Lakshmi Bai, Queen of Jhansi] who, during the Mutiny of 1857, fought against the English soldiers and held her own ground for two years — leading modern armies, managing batteries and always charging at the head of her army. This queen was a Brahmin girl.

Ibid: (p.200)

A man whom I know lost three of his sons in that war. When he talks of them he is calm, but when he talks of this woman his voice becomes animated. He used to say that she was a goddess — she was not a human being. This old veteran thinks he never saw better generalship.

Ibid.

The story of Chand Bibi, or Chand Sultana [1546 - 1599], is well known in India. She was the Queen of Golconda, where the diamond mines were. For months she defended herself. At last, a breach was made in the walls. When the imperial army tried to rush in there, she was in full armour, and she forced the troops to go back.

Ibid.: (p200-201)

In still later times, perhaps you will be astonished to know that a great English general had once to face a Hindu girl of sixteen.

Ibid.: (p201) 

Women in statesmanship, managing territories, governing countries, even making war, have proved themselves equal to men — if not superior. In India I have no doubt of that. Whenever they have had the opportunity, they have proved that they have as much ability as men, with this advantage — that they seldom degenerate. They keep to the moral standard, which is innate in their nature. And thus as governors and rulers of their state, they prove — at least in India — far superior to men. John Stuart Mill mentions this fact.

Ibid.

Even at the present day, we see women in India managing vast estates with great ability. There were two ladies where I was born who were the proprietors of large estates and patronesses of learning and art and who managed these estates with their own brains and looked to every detail of the business.

Ibid

The India Ideal of Womanhood Womanhood is Personified

Sita! She is the very type of the true Indian woman, for all the Indian ideals of a perfected woman have grown out of that one life of Sita; and here she stands these thousands of years, commanding the worship of every man, woman, and child throughout the length and breadth of the land of Âryâvarta. There she will always be, this glorious Sita, purer than purity itself, all patience, and all suffering. She who suffered that life of suffering without a murmur, she the ever-chaste and ever-pure wife, she the ideal of the people, the ideal of the gods, the great Sita, our national God she must always remain.

CW: Vol 3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora : The Sega Of India (p. 255,256)

Sita is the name in India for everything that is good, pure and holy — everything that in woman we call womanly. If a priest has to bless a woman he says, "Be Sita!" If he blesses a child, he says "Be Sita!" They are all children of Sita, and are struggling to be Sita, the patient, the all-suffering, the ever-faithful, the ever-pure wife. Through all this suffering she experiences, there is not one harsh word against Rama. She takes it as her own duty, and performs her own part in it. Think of the terrible injustice of her being exiled to the forest! But Sita knows no bitterness. That is, again, the Indian ideal. Says the ancient Buddha, "When a man hurts you, and you turn back to hurt him, that would not cure the first injury; it would only create in the world one more wickedness." Sita was a true Indian by nature; she never returned injury.

CW:Vol 4: Lectures and Discourses: The Ramayana (p.76)

All children, especially girls, worship Sita. The height of a woman's ambition is to be like Sita, the pure, the devoted, the all-suffering! When you study these characters, you can at once find out how different is the ideal in India from that of the West. For the race, Sita stands as the ideal of suffering. The West says, "Do! Show your power by doing." India says, "Show your power by suffering." The West has solved the problem of how much a man can have: India has solved the problem of how little a man can have. The two extremes, you see. Sita is typical of India — the idealised India. The question is not whether she ever lived, whether the story is history or not, we know that the ideal is there.

Ibid: (p.75)

There is no other Paurânika story that has so permeated the whole nation, so entered into its very life, and has so tingled in every drop of blood of the race, as this ideal of Sita.

Ibid: (p.75-76)

Still on this sacred soil of India, this land of Sitâ and Sâvitri, among women may be found such character, such spirit of service, such affection, compassion, contentment, and reverence.

CW: Vol.6: Conversations and Dialogues: VIII (p.491)

Any attempt to modernize our women, if it tries to take our women away from that ideal of Sita, is immediately a failure, as we see every day. The women of India must grow and develop in the footprints of Sita, and that is the only way.

CW: Vol 3: Lectures from Colombo to Almora: The Sages of India (p.256)

We have no time to go over all the life of Sita, but I will quote a passage from her life that is very much suited to the ladies of this country. The picture opens when she was in the forest with her husband, whither they were banished. There was a female sage whom they both went to see. Her fasts and devotions had emaciated her body. Sita approached this sage and bowed down before her. The sage placed her hand on the head of Sita and said: "It is a great blessing to possess a beautiful body; you have that. It is a greater blessing to have a noble husband; you have that. It is the greatest blessing to be perfectly obedient to such a husband; you are that. You must be happy". Sita replied, "Mother, I am glad that God has given me a beautiful body and that I have so devoted a husband. But as to the third blessing, I do not know whether I obey him or he obeys me. One thing alone I remember, that when he took me by the hand before the sacrificial fire — whether it was a reflection of the fire or whether God himself made it appear to me — I found that I was his and he was mine. And since then, I have found that I am the complement of his life, and he of mine".

CW: Vol 9: Lecture and Discourses: The Women of India (p.195 – 196)

The Ideal of Woman As Mother

The idea women, in India, is the mother, the mother first and the mother last. The word woman calls up to the mind of the Hindu, Motherhood; and God is called Mother.

CW: Vol.8: Lectures and discourses: Women of India (p.57)

The idea of womanhood in India is motherhood – that marvelous, unselfish, all-suffering, ever forgiving mother. The wife walks behind – the shadow. She must imitate the life of the mother; that is her duty. But the mother is the idea of love, she rules the family, she possesses the family. It is the father in India who thrashes the child and spanks when there is something done by child, and always the mother puts herself between the father and child.

Ibid. (p58)

To the ordinary man in India, the whole force of womanhood is concentrated in motherhood.

Ibid. (p57)

It is unfair to judge women in the East by the Western standard. In the West, women is the wife ; in the East she is the mother. The Hindus worship the idea of mother, and even the monks are required to touch the earth with their foreheads before their mothers. Chastity is much esteemed.  

CW: Vol 3: Reports in America Newspaper: The Women of India (p.505)

In India the mother is the center of the family and our highest ideal. She is to us the representative of God, as god is the mother of the Universe. It was a female sage who first found the unity of God, and laid down this doctrine in one of the first hymns of the Vedas. (216)

CW: Vol.2: Reports in America Newspaper: Ideals of womanhood (p: 506)

The mother is the God in our family. The idea is that the only real love that we see in the world, the most unselfish love, is in the mother – always suffering, always loving. And what love can represent the love which we see in the mother? Thus the mother is the incarnation of God on earth to the Hindu.

CW: Vol.9: Lectures and Discourse: The women of India (p.202)

From motherhood comes tremendous responsibility.

CW: Vol.8: Lectures and Discourses: Women of India (p.60)

The Mother has to eat last.

CW: Vol.9: Lectures and Discourses: The Women of India (p.203)

The First part of the food – when it is ready – belongs to the guests and the poor, the second to the lower animals, the third to the children, the fourth to the husband, and last comes to the mother. How many times I have seen my mother going take her first meal when it was two o’clock. We took ours at ten and she at two because she had so many things to attend to.[for Example] some knocks at the door and says, “Guest”, and there is no food except what was for my mother. She would give that to him willingly and then wait for her own. That was her life and she liked it.

Ibid. (p.204)

As Children every day, when we are boys, we have to go early in the morning with a little cup of water and place it before the mother, and mother dips her toe into and we drink it.

CW: Vol.8: Lectures and Discourses: Women of India (p.57)

I have been told that either too much worship of the mother makes the mother selfish or too much love of the children for the mother makes them selfish. But I do not believe that. The love which my mother gave to me has made me what I am, and I owe a debt to her that I can never repay.

CW: Vol.9 Lectures and Discourses: Women of India (p.202 - 203)

In the West, the woman is wife. The idea of womanhood is concentrated there — as the wife. To the ordinary man in India, the whole force of womanhood is concentrated in motherhood. In the Western home, the wife rules. In an Indian home, the mother rules. If a mother comes into a Western home, she has to be subordinate to the wife; to the wife belongs the home. A mother always lives in our homes: the wife must be subordinate to her. See all the difference of ideas.

CW: Vol.8 Lectures and Discourses: Women of India (p.57)

Now, I only suggest comparisons; I would state facts so that we may compare the two sides. Make this comparison. If you ask, "What is an Indian woman as wife?", the Indian asks, "Where is the American woman as mother? What is she, the all-glorious, who gave me this body? What is she who kept me in her body for nine months? Where is she who would give me twenty times her life, if I had need? Where is she whose love never dies, however wicked, however vile I am? Where is she, in comparison with her, who goes to the divorce court the moment I treat her a little badly? O American woman! Where is she?" I will not find her in your country. I have not found the son who thinks mother is first. When we die, even then, we do not want our wives and our children to take her place. Our mother! — we want to die with our head on her lap once more, if we die before her. Where is she?

Ibid.: (p.57-58)

Is woman a name to be coupled with the physical body only? Ay! the Hindu mind fears all those ideals which say that the flesh must cling unto the flesh. No, no! Woman! thou shalt not be coupled with anything connected with the flesh. The name has been called holy once and for ever, for what name is there which no lust can ever approach, no carnality ever come near, than the one word mother?

Ibid

So shall we bring to the need of India great fearless women — women worthy to continue the traditions of Sanghamittâ, Lilâ, Ahalyâ Bâi, and Mirâ Bâi — women fit to be mothers of heroes, because they are pure and selfless, strong with the strength that comes of touching the feet of God."

CW: Vol. 5 Interviews: On Indian Women (p.231)

It is the youth who will transform the Nation

"My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like loins. I have formulated the idea and have given my life to it. If I do not achieve success, some better one will come after me to work it out, and I shall be content to struggle.

(CW : VOL 5 : Interview : the missionay work of the first hindu sannyasin to the west and his plan of regeneration of India : p. 223)

Where are the men? Tha is the question. Young men, my hope in you. Will you repsond to the call of your nation? Each one of you has a glorious future if you dare belive me. Have a tremendous faith in yourselves, like the faithe I had when I was a child, and which I am working out now. Have that faith, each one of you, yourself - that eternal power is lodged in every sould - and you will revive that whole of India. Ay, we will then go to every country under the sun, and our ideas will before long be a component of the many forces that are working to make up every nation in the world. We much enter into the life of every race in India and abroad; shall have to work to bring this about. Now for that I want young men. "It is that young, the strong, and healthy, of sharp intellect that will reach the Lord", say the Vedas.

(CW : VOL 3 : Lectures from Colombo to almora: The future of India p: 303 - 304)

My hope of the future lies in the youth of character -  intellligent, remouncing all for the service of others, and obedient -  who can sacrifice their lives in working out my idea and thereby do good to themselves and the country at large. Otherwise, boys of the common run are coming in groups and will come. Dullness is writeen on their faces - their hearts are devoid of energy, their bodies feeble and unfit for work, and minds devoid of courage. What work will be done by these? If I get then or twelve boyes with the faith of NAchiketa, I can turn the thoughts and pursuits of this country in a new channel.

(CW : VOL 7 : Conversations and Dialogues: From the Diary of Disciple : p. 230-231)

Among those who appear to me to be of good calibre, some have bound themelves by matrinomy; some have sold themselves for the acquisition of worldly name, fame, or wealth; while same are of feeble bodies. The rest, who form the mejority, are unable to receive any high idea. You are no doubt fit to receive my high ideas, but you are not able to work them out in the practical field. For these reasons sometimes an anguish comes into mind, and I think that taking this human body, I could not do much work through untowardness of fortune. Of course, I have not yet wholly given up hope, for , by the will of God, from among these very bodys may arise in time great heroes of action and spirtuality who will in future work out my ideas.

(CW : VOL 7 : Conversations and Dialogues: From the Diary of Disciple : 231)