What Is Hinduism?

HERE WAS A TIME, NOT TOO LONG AGO, WHEN CHILDREN and young men in India were taught that to renounce the world in the quest for God realization, in service to God, was the noblest human path. Parents would explain to boys that sannyasa, the way of the renunciate monk, was open to them. They would explain that, if they chose it, they would have the greatest chance of knowing once and for all the divine purpose and Ultimate Truth of life. Hindu scriptures clearly and abundantly proclaim sannyasa to be the highest dharma. But how many believe this anymore? How many parents encourage a child to consider sannyasa as a life pattern? How many young men honestly feel they will be respected more for donning orange robes and serving God than for wearing a white smock and amassing money? Still, there are bastions of hope. Notable are the Ramakrishna Mission and the Swaminarayan monastic orders—among India’s three million mendicants. But today, more and more, if one proposed to Hindu parents that their son might become a swami, the response would be quiet disregard, indicating that “there are much better things the boy could do.”§

Swami Vivekananda held firm to the time-honored Hindu scriptural view of sannyasa. He lived it fully and experienced its every nuance. Yet, he is so revered for his latter few years—traveling and promoting Hinduism in the West—that details of his ascetic life prior to his trip to America are not commonly recanted. Perhaps Vivekananda anticipated that renunciates might one day lose esteem, or perhaps he saw it happening in his lifetime, for, in 1895, during a seven-week stay at Thousand Island Park, on the St. Lawrence River in New York State, he composed the eloquent “Song of the Sannyasin,” a 13-verse ode to the supremacy of renunciation.§

Vivekananda and his song have inspired many saints of this century. Sage Yogaswami of Sri Lanka was deeply touched by Swami Vivekananda’s public address given during a brief stay in Colombo in 1897. Vivekananda’s opening words, “The time is short and the subject is vast,” impacted the young Yogaswami profoundly. Yogaswami quoted the phrase like a mantra, endeavoring to impress upon devotees not to waste time in idle pursuits of the world, but immediately begin working for their liberation from the cycle of birth and death. §

Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Yogaswami’s successor, was infused with the urge to renounce the world upon reading “Song of the Sannyasin” when just a teenager.§

Today each of the hundreds of Ramakrishna monks glean inspiration and encouragement from this poem and by studying Swami Vivekananda’s life. But the song was not his only declaration on sannyasa’s supremacy. Swami is well known for saying, “Never forget and teach to your children that as is the difference between a firefly and the blazing sun, between the infinite ocean and a little pond, between a mustard seed and the mountain Meru, such is the difference between the householder and the sannyasin!”§

Vivekananda was arguably the most renowned Hindu spiritual leader of this century (even though he died in 1902 at the early age 39). It is the spirit of his renunciation, and the profound wisdom and insights into human experience gained from his dedicated life, that the “Song of the Sannyasin” presents in poetic beauty and compelling command.§

The remarkable philosopher-monk was only 32 years old at the time of his visit to the Park, but he was already a celebrity in America. He had arrived in the United States two years earlier, in July 1893, journeying from India to Chicago at the urging of his fellow monks and admirers to represent Hinduism at the World Parliament of Religions. His humble yet electrifying address, at the end of an opening day of sectarian speeches, completely transformed the tenor of the conference. The New York Herald noted: “He is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the parliament.”§

Exhausted by nearly two strenuous years of lecturing throughout the US, Vivekananda was grateful to find refuge at the Park. Feeling rejuvenated, he gathered his spiritual power to train the twelve students who followed him there. His thoughts and teachings were transcribed into “Inspired Talks,” a compilation which merged the spirituality of Ramakrishna with Swamiji’s deep concern for the political freedom and material well-being of humanity. Swami said he was “at his best’’ at Thousand Island Park. The ideas and visions he refined and expressed there grew during later years into institutions in India and elsewhere. §

Vivekananda’s song presents a bold message, one sorely needed in today’s world. We present it here in honor of the Ramakrishna renunciates, and for all courageous youth who yet today dare to wonder if life may have more to offer. Here is assurance that it does.§