ELEVENTH CHAPTER

In this chapter, swamiji has criticised various sects developed in Aryavartt, which call themselves as Hindus. Because of existence of opposite beliefs in Hinduism, it is very difficult to define it. A person, who believes in God, vedaas, castes, idol-worship is a Hindu and a person, who does not believe in God, vedaas, castes, idol-worship is, also, called a Hindu. This happens because of non-knowledge of the basic concepts of Hinduism. In the first ten chapters, swamiji explained these basic concepts of Hinduism, enshrined in vedaas. Here, swamiji discussed the beliefs prevalent in Hindus on the ground, which is the real base of Hinduism. For his purpose, he divided the Hindus on the basis of notions, prevalent in them.

  1. There is a notion among certain Hindus that ‘dharam’ changes with the period, that is, a practice, which was said to be dharam in ‘satyug’ (time is divided in satyug, tretayug, dwaperyug and kalyug) is not dharam in ‘kalyug’. Swamiji says that dharam, which are practices like speaking the truth, doing service to the needy, avoiding bad habits et cetra cannot be dependent on time and place and accordingly, what was dharam in ‘satyug’ will remain dharam in ‘tretayug’, ‘dwaperyug’ and ‘kalyug’ also.
  2. Incarnation- Swamiji establishes that God is formless, changeless and without a body. In support of his view, he has given word-evidences of vedaas. Some people believe that since God is all powerful, he may or may not assume form or body. This notion has developed for not understanding the actual meaning of the term ‘all-powerful’. Changeful-ness of a thing is a mark of its weakness. If a thing changes for some internal reasons, then we will have to accept that there is some sort of weakness or incompleteness in that thing, because of which ‘change’ became necessary. If the change is for some external reasons, then we will have to accept that there is some external entity, which is more powerful than that thing.
  3. Idol-worship-As God is formless, there cannot be any picture, sculpture et cetra of God. Idols of gods are totally imaginary and came into existence for not understanding the meaning of ‘gods’.
  4. ‘Peers’ and Graves-In various times, there existed many sacred souls (called ‘Peers’ in Islam), who spread morals among people and saved the people from many bad habits and tendencies but, after deaths of these great souls, people started worshiping their graves or memorials (smaadhiis). Many sects originated in the names of these great souls.
  5. Brahamosamaj-Followers of Brahamosamaj were generally literate persons but they did not have any respect for this country and its culture. This organisation piled up good principles of many religions and prepared a bunch of flowers. Swamiji was against such a thought pattern. Flowers of the bouquet are plucked from their plants, finishing the very relationship of theirs with the roots. Swamiji was in favour of accepting the flowers with their respective roots only.
  6. Nationalism- Swamiji considered gratefulness to be the base of dharam. A person, who is not grateful to his nation and does not serve his motherland cannot be expected to serve the universe. Service to the motherland is a definite step towards service of the world.
  7. History of India-There is a general notion among certain people that India has always been ruled by foreigners or foreign countries. But in the end of this chapter, swamiji proved this notion wrong by giving a long history mentioning the names of the kings and period of their ‘rules’.