Human Excellence

Group Work
Vivekananda & Human Excellence

Roll No. EMP21/A/22
Amit Moza
Swami Ranganathananda in this speech made at Harvard University tries to present

disseminate teachings and thoughts of Swami Vivekananda on human excellence. I
through this note will try to understand a few of the propositions made in this
speech and try them to relate or find their relevance in day to day professional life.
Learning to be: The first proposition that Swamiji talks about is the idea of Learning
to be rather than Learning to do. The proposition talks about what the nature of
education really should be. The education for most of the time teaches a man what
to do, how to do and so on. But it must at the same time impart the very important
knowledge on what one should be. The real implication of what to be is character
building. Thus the concept brings forth the importance of education in character
building besides imparting skills and equips one with knowledge to improve
efficiency. The Learning to be concept of education stresses on depth of thought,
strength of conviction, faith in oneself, the humanistic impulse and practical
efficiency. If we see it in the light of contemporary professional life, isn’t that what is
required of any executive or for that matter any human being.
Harmony of all human energy: This is said in the context of one assimilating
excellences of all great cultures that are there. No single culture is perfect, and each
culture has some great values and hasn’t some others while as other cultures have
some and not some others and all these separate cultures are essentially aspects of
one human culture. If one learns to do that, if one learns to assimilate these essential
elements, he will have achieved human excellence and he would be a harmony of all
human energy. All through our lives we try to debate on whose culture is good or
who’s bad and we never try to look beyond our limited horizons and as a result we
never get to receive the knowledge or the wisdom other great cultures have to offer
and this is where the concept of Learning to be again comes in. A good education
lends us a point of view of building character and also imparts us the elements which
constitute human excellence. A good education surpasses the barriers of class, creed,
and culture and helps oneself in assimilating these elements from entire universe
and that’s what lets one be a harmony of all human energy.
Vidya, Shradha, and Upanishad: Swamji by explaining the values of Vidya, Shradha
and Upanishad tries to capture the essence of efficiency which he believes to be the
hallmark of human civilization. Vidya or knowledge alone is not sufficient to convert
thoughts into action; it has to be backed up by conviction and faith which is nothing
but shradha. When knowledge and conviction is combined with deep meditative
thinking, that is Upanishad, we achieve supreme efficiency. Any work that has these
three values behind it becomes supremely efficient. It is very striking to think how
great a relevance this thinking has to modern professional life. So many times
despite our confidence in our technical knowhow, we feel the results are not
satisfactory and wonder what went wrong. We go about doing jobs assigned to us
and maybe we go about doing them with some values mentioned above missing.
How many times do we take up a job which we really do not believe in and then are
disappointed over the outcomes? For any job to be a success it is necessary to have
knowledge but it is more necessary to have the conviction in doing it, to have faith
that it is worthwhile to do it; then alone can we achieve the supreme efficiency.
Manliness: This concept is derived from above three propositions only and was first
used by Swami Vivekananda to designate an ideal of Manliness. The ideal of
manliness lies in the character strength of a man to enable him to handle efficiently
the world of man and nature around him or her. This character building again is a
function of Learning to be type of education. Manliness besides physical health and
well being encompasses depth of thought, strength of conviction, faith in oneself,
the humanistic impulse and practical efficiency. All these constitute excellence of
character, character that comes out of the virtues of Vidya, Shradha and Upanishad.

Human Excellence

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Group Work

Vivekananda & Human Excellence

Swami Ranganathananda in this speech made at Harvard University tries to present

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