Swami Vivekananda & Organization

Swami Vivekananda & Organization

Why is it that organization is so powerful? Do not say organization is material. Why is it, to
take a case in point, that forty millions of Englishmen rule three hundred millions of people here? What is
the psychological explanation? These forty millions put their wills together and that means infinite power,
and you three hundred millions have a will each separate from the other. Therefore to make a great
future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.
I begin by quoting this passage from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. This passage
appears in his lecture Future of India delivered by the great Swami in Chennai on 14th Feb 1897.
We see a few interesting points in the above passage:
The first thing to note is that here we have a spiritual giant of the stature of Swami Vivekananda
discussing such a mundane idea as making a nation great! Isnt that the job of politicians and diplomats?
Isnt that the job of the leaders of political parties? Isnt that the job of leaders who have legislative
power? Should a monk speak or think on these issues?
The second thing to note is Swamiji says that the forty millions of Englishmen put their wills
together. Did they, really? If so, how and why? Does history mention any such development where the
forty million Englishmen of the 19th century came together and decided that they would put their wills
together? None of the history books mentions such a development. Why is Swamiji mentioning this here?
The third thing to note is - Swamiji says here Do not say organization is material. Who said
organization is material? Most of us dont even know what organization means! Some of us perhaps think
that organization means corporations, consisting of profit-minded executives; some perhaps even think
that it refers to groups of people who come together for a particular cause, such as the organization for
blacks rights, or organization for the economically deprived. Even if we do understand this word to mean
something like that, who amongst us ever felt that organization is material?
The fourth thing to note is in order to become a great nation, India needs to do only one thing!
There is no need to do many things. Only one thing is necessary, says Swamiji. And that is Coordinate
the wills of the Indians.
Let us deal with each of these points one by one.
Why is a spiritual man, a monk, and that too, one of the stature of Swami Vivekananda, talking
about the future of a nation, about making India great, about organization? Shouldnt a monk confine
himself to spiritual practices, to scriptural study, to rituals and spiritual ministration? Isnt it wrong for a
monk to deal with ideas such as those mentioned in this passage?
Well, traditionally, monks have dealt with such issues. Our country has had a marvelous history.
The social power structure has always been managed by the two upper castes the Brahmins and the
Kshatriyas. Between them, they ruled the people of this country. When the Kshatriyas lost touch with the
ground reality and became too dictatorial, the Brahmins overthrew the Kshatriyas and took power into
their hands. Same thing happened when the Brahmins lost touch with the ground reality and became
arrogantly powerful and oppressed the people whom they ruled. It is because of this dipole power
structure in India from ancient times that class struggle (so fondly studied by the Communist historians)
never arose here.

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Over and above the four castes of this unique social structure, there was one more group of
people who outlawed themselves from this four-caste structure and stayed outside the society. They were
the monks. This group of people were quite objective in their perceptions of society and were sensitive to
the tilts in the power balance of the ancient Indian society. Since the monks were self-declared outlaws,
they did not need patronage from anyone, neither the Brahmins nor the Kshatriyas. They would boldly
point out the flaws in their functioning and warn them to correct themselves or get ready for an upheaval
and overthrowing from power. Moreover, since monks themselves were not beneficiaries in the resulting
social change, their observations and advices carried a great moral value. Repeatedly, this happened in
Indian history. However, the unwritten norm of the Hindu monks has been that the monk could at most
point out the flaw and then hands off! The monk would not engage in actually re-structuring the power
equations in society. From time immemorial, it was considered one of the activities assigned to monks to
point out the corrective measures that society needed to get back on track; and it was simultaneously
considered anathema for monks to directly get involved in engaging in the political activities required for
bringing about the prescribed social changes.
This is what we see Swamiji do here. He was able to see why Indians lived as slaves to a foreign
power. He was able to see why a foreign power was able to enslave the Indians and rule over them. He
was able to see how Indians could break themselves from the shackles of such foreign domination. But,
he wouldnt involve himself directly in any political activity required for breaking India free from foreign
rule. He however delineated what was required for Indians to become a great nation, which included
obtaining political freedom, educational self-reliance and economic superiority in the comity of nations. If
we were concerned about our countrys future, we would heed these words of Swamiji and work as
directed by him.
Swamiji says that the forty millions of Englishmen put their wills together. Did they, really?
The rise of the Joint Stock Companies in Europe, especially in Britain was a watershed event in
the history of mankind. This event fueled the Industrial Revolution as much as the scientific discoveries
did, if not more. Man knew a particular type of production until then. Production activity was largely
localized. And it was confined to a small group of people who held the technical knowhow as a safely
guarded secret. All of a sudden, the British were engaged in a new type of production that required
enormous coordination of the activities of an enormous number of people across enormous physical
distances. For instance, a large number of people were engaged in one part of the world in growing
cotton. Once they had grown the cotton, it was all collected by another large group of people and
transported across oceans to huge mills situated in some other part of the globe. Yet another large group
of people ran these huge mills. They worked day and night to manufacture standardized cotton threads.
These threads were then collected by yet another large group of people who were engaged in
manufacturing clothes out of those yarns. One more large group of people then transported those clothes
all over the world and handed them over to a different large of people who then sold them to end-users.
This was the main reason behind the rise of the organization in Britain. The cause was economic
in nature. More and more number of people joined together in a particular enterprise. Large amounts of
money and resources were pooled in. Huge amounts of things were manufactured in a short time. And the
things thus manufactured were more often than not, very complex. As long as man confined himself to
the old style of manufacturing, all he could produce was a bullock cart, or a horse drawn carriage. Once
large number of people came together, as they did in Britain, man was able to produce a motor car. It is
impossible to produce a modern motor car in the old style of production.
Whatever be the reason, the British had found out a way to get a large number of people to come
together, pool in their money, resources and effort, and consequently multiply their individual strengths
while cancelling out their individual weaknesses. This strange form of community activity was later on
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given the term organization. Thus, the root of the modern organization, as we know it today, is purely
economic, purely material.
The point that Swamiji is trying to make here is granted that the western worlds organization
has purely materialistic roots, but, once an organization has been formed, it no longer remains a purely
materialistic entity. Why is that so? The objectives of forming an organization may be to earn money, to
wage wars and kill people and to conquer new regions. But what exactly is an organization? Is any motley
group of people called an organization? If a group of people is to be considered an organization, there are
certain important criteria. First, there has to be a group of people, who, amongst them have a wide variety
of skills, talents, experiences and abilities. This allows for division of labor amongst them. Secondly, they
have jointly agreed upon a common goal, or a common set of goals to be achieved. Thirdly, all of them
pool in their resources, energies and time to work together in order to achieve those commonly set goals.
Fourthly, their attitudes and behaviors are conditioned by commonly accepted norms. And lastly, all of
them recognize that the group has an existence of its own, just as all of the individual members have an
existence independent of one another. In other words, the group is considered as a living entity, just as the
individual members are. And this existence is recognized in all the individual and collective activities and
decisions of the group. These criteria show one very important characteristic: the existence of the
organization, therefore, is not temporal. The existence of organization is in the minds of the members.
The more the individuals get identified with this mental construct, the stronger that organization becomes.
The individual members pour in their life-force into the sustenance and growth of this organization. That
organization now develops a life of its own, as it were. It develops individuality, as it were. Long story
short, it comes into existence. All that exists has spirit as its basis. Hence, Swamiji says that we shouldnt
write off organizations as inconsequential by thinking it is a mere material entity.
Allow me to float a strange theory of my own here. Of course, I cant claim it as my own entirely.
I base it on the ideas of Swami Vivekananda. But, this particular interpretation is my own, and I say this
to avoid any possible controversy later on by experts and academicians who will claim that Swamiji never
meant any such thing as what I am presenting here.
Swamiji said to Sister Nivedita once1, That is precisely my position about Brahman and the
gods! I believe in Brahman and the gods, and not in anything else!". You see, I cannot but believe that
there is somewhere a great Power that thinks of Herself as feminine, and called Kali, and Mother. And I
believe in Brahman too ...But is it not always like that? Is it not the multitude of cells in the body that
make up the personality, the many brain-centers, not the one, that produce consciousness?... Unity in
complexity! Just so! And why should it be different with Brahman? It is Brahman. It is the One. And yet
and yet it is the gods too! Elsewhere he makes a significant statement about God: .the only God that
exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls2 It seems clear to us now that Swamiji saw
God as the sum-total of souls, apart from subscribing to the Impersonal aspect. When we extend this idea
to an organization, we find that when a group of people come together, putting in their wills together for a
common goal, no matter how trivial or mundane that goal be, in effect, there is a spiritual entity, a god,
that is created!
This is a very powerful idea.
Our actions here have a repercussion on the spiritual realm! It has always been believed to be the
other way around. It has always been held that some entities somewhere in an unapproachable spiritual
realm decides that something should occur on earth, in our lives, and then we human beings act out that
1

Cf: Complete works of Sister Nivedita: Vol-1: Master as I saw him: Ramakrishna Sarada Mission, Kolkata: 1967: pg-118
We can recall here the fact that Sri Ramakrishna used to go into Samadhi whenever he saw a crowd or a gathering of people.
Could it be that he perceived a vision in those cases, the vision of the spiritual entity corresponding to that group, or crowd.
2

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decision of the gods. This has been the commonly held belief. When we combine these three ideas of
Swamiji first, that organization is a spiritual entity; second, Reality is Personal as well as Impersonal;
third, Personal God is the sum total of souls; - we arrive at a totally different conception of human
actions. Gods may or may not influence our actions. But it is of much greater importance for us that our
actions here influence the spiritual realm! By our actions, we can create new spiritual entities. If we
decide to get together and combine our wills, we give rise to a new god! And that god needs to be
worshipped. How? By our actions, again. Take an organization such as a factory. The moment you
consider yourself a part of that organization, you are in the presence of a new god, the spiritual entity
associated with that organization. You will need to worship that new god. Since this new god has a
strange form, unlike a stone image, consisting of buildings and machinery and people and processes, your
worship will have to be in consonance with this new form. Your so-called work in that factory will be
nothing but worship that the new god demands.
Some readers may object to the line of thought presented here, saying, I am blowing a simple idea
of Swamiji out of all proportions. To answer such objections, let me quote one amazing statement of
Swamiji: Now we have a new India, with its new God, new religion, and new Vedas.3
This brings us to the fourth point: What India needs for a bright and strong future is just this
organization. People living in the geographical confines of India should feel identified with India. That is
one organization Swamiji definitely wanted to take shape. All through history, people have populated this
particular geographical region but have seldom felt identified with it as a Nation. Our identity has all
along been to the religious and cultural mores of the sub-regions rather than to the abstract concept of a
Nation.
The historic struggle for freedom from the British Rule in the early 20th century saw the
development of national sense in us. The post-independence period in India however has done little to
ensure that this national sense grows in the coming generations. The national sense grows along various
lines in different cultures. The Civic sense is the basis in most western countries. In India, we do not see
much hope along that line. A poor nation, habituated to hunger and squalor cannot be expected to
appreciate the civic sense to any decent degree. Our hope lies in spiritualizing the abstract concept of
the Nation. Swamiji makes a significant observation in a letter as follows: But, excuse me if I say that it
is sheer ignorance and want of proper understanding to think like that, namely, that our national ideal
has been a mistake. First go to other countries and study carefully their manners and conditions with
your own eyes not with others' and reflect on them with a thoughtful brain, if you have it: then read
your own scriptures, your ancient literature, travel throughout India, and mark the people of her different
parts and their ways and habits with the wide-awake eye of an intelligent and keen observer not with a
fool's eye and you will see as clear as noonday that the nation is still living intact and its life is surely
pulsating. You will find there also that, hidden under the ashes of apparent death, the fire of our national
life is yet smoldering and that the life of this nation is religion, its language religion, and its idea religion;
and your politics, society, municipality, plague-prevention work, and famine-relief work all these things
will be done as they have been done all along here, viz. only through religion; otherwise all your frantic
yelling and bewailing will end in nothing, my friend!4

Cf: Complete works of Swami Vivekananda: Vol-7: Epistles: Letter No. XXXII, dated 27th April, 1896, written from Reading,
USA to his brother disciples at Alambazar Math
4

Cf: Complete works of Swami Vivekananda: Vol-5: Writings: Prose and Poems: The East And The West (Translated from
Bengali) Chapter-I: Introduction

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India is a living goddess and She demands our worship. Wont we respond? Extrapolating this
idea further, every sub-structure within the nation is also a goddess (or a god, if you will). Every
organization constituting the national economy is a living goddess. Let us worship these goddesses with
the appropriate form of rituals. While a stone or marble image of a goddess called for the ritualistic
dashopachara or shodashopachara puja, these new goddesses call for meaningful, systematic labor of our
hands, heads and hearts. Let us please these modern goddesses, which are organizations, and allow our
Nation to reach great heights of economic and social development simultaneously achieving our own
spiritual unfoldment, Atmano moksha jagaddhita cha.
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