Hindutva is Humanism.
This is with reference to to Hindutva. Hindutva has been well explained by Swami Vivekanada in his famous address at the Parliament of Religion held in Chicago on September 11,1893. He said, " I am proud to beong to to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal tolerance but we accept all religions to be true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth." Here he mentions Jews and Parsees who took refuge in India but also prospered.
Then he added, " I will quote to you, brothern, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest childhood, which is repeated by millions of human beings: ' As the difference steams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear,crooked or straight,all lead to Thee.'
The Swami concluded by saying that the the august assembly in Chicago itself is a vindication of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: ' Whoever comes to Me, through whatever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to Me.'
The Swami explained Vedanta as Oneness of the Universe – the same Life Force animates the human beings, flora and fauna, that man is not the master of the universe but a part of it. All life has a right to its existence. Every man is a Spark of the Divine. This principle which is accepted in spiritual life should be practiced in everyday life, which he called practical Vedanta, and this is the real foundation of human equality. Liberty and fraternity. Hinduism or Hindutva is humanism.
October 6,2013.
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