E. P. Chelyshev On Swami Vivekananda

E. P. Chelyshev On Swami Vivekananda:

E. P. Chelyshev or Eugene Petrovich Chelyshev (Russian: Евгений Петрович Челышев, Ramakrishna Mission books' spelling: E. P. Chelishev, born 27 October 1921) iis a Russian Indologist, academician and public figure. His fields of research are— Literary and Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, Indian philology. In 2002,he was awarded the prestigious Padma Bhushan.  In 2004 he became the first Russian to receive  the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship by the Government of India. Chelyshev had been an admirer and a researcher of Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. He worked as one of the vice-presidents of the Committee for Comprehensive Study of Ramakrishna Vivekananda Movement. A detailed biography of Chelyshev is available at Wikipedia. In this article you'll find E. P. Chelyshev's quotes and comments on Swami Vivekananda.

E. P. Chelyshev told—

• Reading and re-reading the works of Vivekananda each time I find in them something new that helps deeper to understand India, its philosophy, the way of the life and customs of the people in the past and the present, their dreams of the future. ... I think that Vivekananda's greatest service is the development in his teaching of the lofty ideals of humanism which incorporate the finest features of Indian culture. ...

• In my studies of contemporary Indian literature I have more than once had the opportunity to see what great influence the humanistic ideals of Vivekananda have exercised on the works of many writers. ... In my opinion, Vivekananda's humanism has nothing in common with the Christian ideology which dooms man to passivity and to begging God for favours. He tried to place religious ideology at the service of the country's national interests, the emancipation of his enslaved compatriots. Vivekananda wrote that the colonialists were building one church after another in India, while the Eastern countries needed bread and not religion. He would sooner see all men turn into confirmed atheists than into superstitious simpletons. To elevate man Vivekananda identifies him with God. ... Though we do not agree with the idealistic basis of Vivekananda's humanism, we recognize that it possesses many features of active humanism manifested above all in a fervent desire to elevate man, to instil in him a sense of his own dignity, sense of responsibility for his own destiny and the destiny of all people, to make him strive for the ideals of good, truth and justice, to foster in man abhorrence for any suffering. The humanistic ideal of Vivekananda is to a certain degree identical with Gorky's Man with a capital letter. Such a humanistic interpretation of the essence of man largely determines the democratic nature of Vivekananda's world outlook. ...

• Many years will pass, many generations will come and go, Vivekananda and his time will become the distant past, but never will there fade the memory of the man who all his life dreamed of a better future for his people, who did so much to awaken his compatriots and move India forward, to defend his much suffering people from injustice and brutality. Like a rocky cliff protecting a coastal valley from storm and bad weather, from the blows of ill winds and waves, Vivekananda fought courageously and selflessly against the enemies of his motherland.

• Together with the Indian people, Soviet people who already know some of the works of Vivekananda published in the USSR, highly revere the memory of the great Indian patriot, humanist and democrat, impassioned fighter for a better future for his people and all mankind.