1.1 On Fanaticism :

Swami Vivekananda : "Vedantham"  



1.1  On  Fanaticism : 



In this excerpt, Swami Vivekananda focuses, amicably and with humor, on the reformer’s single-minded zeal and points out that it is a distortion of "selfless activity." Included in the Complete Works (5: 242-45) as "Notes from Lectures and Discourse," this was originally published in the London edition (no longer available) of Vivekananda’s Karma Yoga. The book was compiled from the transcripts of class talks Swamiji gave in New York in December 1895 and January 1896.


Kinds of Fanaticism


There are fanatics of various kinds. Some people are wine fanatics and cigar fanatics. Some think that if men gave up smoking cigars, the world would arrive at the millennium. Women are generally amongst these fanatics. There was a young lady here one day, in this class. She was one of a number of ladies in Chicago who have built a house where they take in the working people and give them music and gymnastics. One day this young lady was talking about the evils of the world and said she knew the remedy. I asked, "How do you know?" and she answered, "Have you seen Hull House?" In her opinion, this Hull House is the one panacea for all the evils that flesh is heir to. This will grow upon her. I am sorry for her. There are some fanatics in India who think that if a woman could marry again when her husband died, it would cure all evil. This is fanaticism.


When I was a boy I thought that fanaticism was a great element in work, but now, as I grow older, I find out that it is not.


There may be a woman who steals and has no objection to taking someone else’s bag and going away with it. But perhaps that woman does not smoke. She becomes a smoke fanatic, and as soon as she finds a man smoking, she strongly disapproves of him, because he smokes a cigar. There may be a man who goes about cheating people; there is no trusting him; no woman is safe with him. But perhaps this scoundrel does not drink wine. If so, he sees nothing good in anyone who drinks wine. All these wicked things that he himself does are of no consideration. This is only natural human selfishness and one-sidedness. 


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