Walking through the ancestral home of Swami Vivekananda in Kolkata (now a national memorial) was like pausing to relocate the spiritual centre of not only an entire Indian ethos, but deep within oneself as well.
The S-spot, the still point, the inner core, was at the centre of his philosophy. Realising our potential as divine beings, he said: "Each soul is potentially divine, the purpose is to manifest that divinity." His teaching of the universality of all religions, envisioned as different radii within a circle, all leading to this inner centre.
Vivekananda's concept and worship of God was not limited to any one religion or creed, but was radically defined as the worship of the Virat itself, the Cosmic form of God embracing the whole of humanity at one stroke. Rekindling this Vedantic metaphor of God as Virat Purusha , he brought into focus the concept of religion as a universal experience of transcendent Reality, common to all and, in fact, underlying all religious faiths and creeds. This principle of the Oneness of the Atman or Self became the basis for his clarion call for the harmony of all religions at the World Parliament of Religions in 1893.
Aware of the enormous gulf between the concept and practice of this principle, he repeatedly emphasised in his teachings of the urgent need to see and treat every individual as a brother, sister, a fellow companion in our daily lives and not merely dogmatically assert that God is the father of us all.
The idiom of God as Virata Purusha was further formalised into a philosophy of service, which has been the cornerstone of the Ramakrishna Order of monks. " Jiva is Shiva, this is the gist of all worship, to see Shiva in the poor, weak and the diseased", he thundered in his lectures, by which he would exhort the youth to come out and treat all humans as equal, "...those who see Shiva only in the image, their worship is but preliminary". The road map to Narayana has to be through service to the Daridra-Narayana , the poor, the less privileged, the needy and the homeless.
Nirvana was no longer a solipsistic route to personal salvation, but a collective effort to address the basic needs of every person less privileged first. This paradigm has inspired generations since, and is said to have influenced even John Rockefeller after a personal meeting with Vivekananda. He transformed the rest of his life completely to philanthropic efforts. Rockefeller was given to understand that he was only a channel, and that God had given him wealth as an opportunity to help and do good to other people.
Watching the young monks clean Vivekananda's room at Belur Math later in the evening as if he were just about to come in to meditate after a hard day's work one is humbled by the stature of the monks' efforts in rousing people out of their tamas or inertia of superstition and pettiness. Tagore told a group that if "...you want to know India, read Vivekananda...".
Such a blazing life of inspiration it was to seekers and thinkers and laypersons alike. His rousing war cry of "Arise, awake, and stop not..." is predicated on the concept of strong, fearless individuals unfettered by creed or caste or social standing. This call to action, to karma above all else, is encapsulated in his own words, "They alone live, who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive". This war cry to arouse the sleeping soul is as critically inspirational at all times, and particularly in the face of today's tremendous challenges.