Summary - Swami Vivekananda - Lectures from Colombo to Almora

Recently i got this book and one of my friend insisted to borrow it. As usual i told "i never give books to some one for free :-) , In return i need a summary of it" (to make sure the person has read it :-D).
So here we go with my friend's summary on this book:




After reading “Lectures from Colombo to Almora” the most interesting things that fascinated me is about the zealous work by Swami Vivekananda for the improvement and popularization of Hinduism. For me, he is a holy person who dedicated his whole life for the spread of truth of life through spirituality. I salute his contribution for the effort he has put in for removing the darkness from people’s life through the holy touch of spirituality. 

He gave a clear picture of the difference between the western and Indian culture by his lectures. The rich that our culture carries is precious and more valuable than the rich west.  Our sastra/vedantas/upanisedas teach us about sacrifice, decency and spirituality, which is the source of inner peace. Our descent behavior do not mean that we are weak/ low/backward or fearful, rather it provides us tremendous internal power/energy which gives us ability to solve any sort of upcoming problem to our life, our family and nation peacefully.

We Hindu follow Vedas, Shastras and Upanisedas. We live in Kaliyuga. The tapas and the other hard yogas do not work now. What is needed in this Yuga is giving spiritual knowledge, the next is giving secular knowledge and the next is saving of life, the last is giving food and drink. He, who gives spiritual knowledge, saves a soul from many rebirths. He who gives secular knowledge opens the eye of human beings towards spiritual knowledge.

There is an eternal fountain in our scriptures and our land is the apotheosis of spirituality and holiness. The sermon delivered by Swamiji about ruling and slavery is very heart touching. We want precedence in every part of life, even in the worship of God. If there is any worst/crying sin in India at this time, it is because of this slavery. Every one wants to command, no one wants to obey. First we need to learn to obey; then command will come by itself. We have to learn to be servant, and then will be fit to be a master. We have to be a staunch supporter of jealousy in every aspect.

In India we have many Gods. But the holiest and most superior truth is conveyed in one single line i.e. “ekam sat vipra bahudha vadanti”. Which means God in any shape and size is one. No one is superior to any one. These holy and real words are only preached in our motherland, which has to be preached again and again irrespective of religion, cast and region. The lesson of mildness, forbiddance, toleration, sympathy and brotherhood needs to spread among man, woman, child irrespective of cast, race or creed. Swamiji exemplified the virtue of renunciation, asceticism and restraint.

Spiritualism is a medley whose presence makes life more peaceful, beautiful and hence makes the earth a more wonderful place to stay. Eternal bliss is our goal and that can only be achieved by mukti/freedom from physical and materialistic expectations and desires. 

The soul is sexless i.e. it is neither man nor woman. Sex belongs to the body alone. It never ages. There are two ideas of God in our scriptures- the personal; and the impersonal. The idea of personal God is that he is the omnipresent, creator, preserver and destroyer of every thing; the eternal father and mother of the universe, but one who is externally separate from us and from all souls. The idea is Impersonal, where all the adjectives are takes as superfluous. He is not thinking being or reasoning being. In Vedas it is not the word “He” being used, but “It” i.e. God is sex less. 

In all other religions and countries the love is described as – Love your fellow beings as yourselves, but in India it is preached as - Love all beings as yourselves. We, people of today’s generation are more attracted towards the materialistic life, the things that looks good to eye or tastes good to us, we go attracted by it. We don’t want to investigate and see the poison and ugliness under the pretty mask. West is apathetic about the basic moral values, which creates a lot of problem in building a strong social constitution in their country. Development of science and technology only helps in solving the more effort that we put in our daily life work. But, it is not capable of giving peace to our soul which always goes through regular emotional hazards.

It is time to understand and adapt the real truth...It is time to recognize and we are and where are we from. We have to realize the teaching delivered by our ancient Rishis. Then only we can only survive from the upcoming and present social and devastations. It our responsibility to show and teach our next generation the magical touch of spirituality and truth.