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MAN MAKING | |
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What is 'Man-making'? |
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Swami Vivekananda said: "Man-making is my mission of life. I am not a politician, nor am I a social reformer. It is my job to fashion man…I care only for the spirit: when that is right, everything will be righted by itself." |
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'Man-making'! This Swamiji spoke as his 'new Gospel', applying it not only to sannyasins, not only to Indians, but in its most profound sense, to men and women everywhere. Indeed, to make men and to teach the highest truth constituted in Swamiji's language one and the same mission - and this mission, to his mind, formed the central task of his life on earth. |
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Manliness! Swamiji meant a great deal by that term. Manliness,
in his view, emanated from the Atman, permeating the whole empirical
man - body, senses, mind, heart and will. To have the quality of
manliness was to be established in the Self, to rejoice in the Self,
to want nothing, to fear nothing, to dislike nothing, to serve all
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Only spiritually free and strong men and women, taking their
stand on the Self - the Atman - can truly deify this world, can
truly revere it and work in it tirelessly, without desire or fear,
motivated by love alone. And, only such men and women can meet the
unprecedentedly terrible challenge of this age.
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'Man-making': This really means rousing the purblind race to an awareness of its innate spiritual strength and essential divine nature. Human beings are by no means inheritors of any original 'sin'. But, truly 'amritasya putrah', children of immortality. Such is Vedanta's Magna Carta for humanity. |
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'Man-making' was his main pre-occupation, for he believed in such a free, fearless man of character, enlightenment and love lay the hope of the world. Transformation of man is the only solution for all the ills that are found in the society. |
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'Man-making' indeed constitutes the purport and aim of all his utterances. 'Man-making' meant for Vivekananda rousing man to an awareness of his essential divine nature, making him rely always on his innate spiritual strength. Let man/woman remember his/her true nature - Divinity. Let it become a living realization and everything else will follow - power, strength, manhood/womanhood. |
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Swami Vivekananda's message of the essential Divinity of the human spirit as the main radiating source of all spiritual values, is the one teaching that can purge religions of exclusiveness and fanaticism, and thereby re-fit them to fulfil their spiritual mission. All theologies, rituals and dogmas have nothing sacrosanct in themselves, but are to be valued to the extent they can help man realize and manifest the Divinity latent in him. Harmony and mutual goodwill in the context of religious plurality is possible only in the light of such a universal philosophy that Swami Vivekananda preached. |
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