Aurobindo-Nehru on Vivekananda

 

Testimony of the Freedom Fighters

Sri Aurobindo wrote in 1916, “Vivekananda was a soul of puissance if ever there was one, a very lion among men, but the definitive work he has left behind is quite incommensurate with our impression of his creative might and energy. We perceive his influence still working gigantically, we know not well how, we know not well where, in something that is not yet formed, something leonine, grand, intuitive, upheaving that has entered the soul of India and we say, ‘Behold, Vivekananda still lives in the soul of his Mother and in the souls of her children.’”

In 1949, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, noted, “I do not know how many of the younger generation read the speeches and the writings of Swami Vivekananda. But I can tell you that many of my generation were very powerfully influenced by him and I think that it would do a great deal of good to the present generation if they also went through Swami Vivekananda’s writings and speeches, and they would learn much from them.” Nehru concluded, “Men like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, men like Swami Vivekananda and men like Mahatma Gandhi are great unifying forces, great constructive geniuses of the world, not only in regard to the particular teachings that they taught, but their approach to the world; and their conscious and unconscious influence on it is of the most vital importance to us.”