Page 36 - SocialHarmony

40 Social Harmony

Which method will help achieve social harmony? An
analysis of the efforts towards social harmony in the twentieth
century reveals that the path shown by Swami Vivekanand in
the late 19th century will prove beneficial; it will help us to
reawaken our inner energy.

Distress over the Class System
Swami Vivekanand had written in a letter to Justice Sir

Subramaniam on January 3, 1895: “It is extremely essential to
bring about a fundamental change in society. Several plans for
reconstruction of society have failed in the past. According to
me, what has been done in the past is not wrong. Our society is
not bad; it is good, I simply wish to make it better. I do not want
to take it from falsehood to truth or from bad to good; I want to
take it from truth to the highest truth and from good to best.” In
the same letter, he has expressed his pain in these words: “The
modern class is not the real caste. It is in fact an obstruction to
progress, which disturbs the uninhibited activities of castes and
classes amid their differences.”

Swami Vivekanand strongly believed that India has a
longstanding tradition of solving its own problems. The illusion
that no efforts were made in the past towards the upliftment of
the downtrodden and such efforts have started only recently is
a deliberately constructed myth. He would ask: “Has India ever
faced a shortage of reformers? Have you read the history of
India? Who was Shankaracharya? Who was Nanak? Who was
Chaitanya? Who was Kabir? Who was Dadu? All these preachers
were like the shining stars of our galaxy. Did not Ramanuj
empathize with the backward classes? Did he not try to bring
them under his fold?”

The evils spread in society were associated with religion
by some selfish people, which is why the God-fearing society is
unable to come out of it. On other side, there is a class that has
chosen the easy way out of attacking religion instead of the
underlying evils. Swami Vivekanand understood this difference
and hence he constantly tried to separate religion from the evils
of society and tried to comprehend the truth. He would say,