The making of an ideal human being

The making of an ideal human being

According to Swami Vivekananda, man is essentially enlightened and is by nature divine. All men are `heirs of immortal bliss'. But, because of wrong education and theories he forgets his divinity and essential goodness. He starts believing that he is a sinner. So he starts worshipping and pursuing external matter and forgets spirituality within.
Swamiji persuaded those who strayed from their true nature to come out of the delusion and understand that `they are not matter, they are not bodies'. They have to realise that `matter is their servant, not they the servant of matter'.For this purpose he set for himself the goal of making them aware of “their divinity, and how to make it manifest in every movement of life“. Right type of education has as its foundation the maxim: “There is no sin in thee, there is no misery in thee; thou art the reservoir of omnipotent power. Arise, awake and manifest the Divinity within.“
Swamiji's teaching helps us realise that those who call us sinners are wrong. “It is foolishness, wickedness, downright rascality to say that you are sinners. You are all God.“
Such an education could result in enabling persons to respect others ¬ their neighbours, fellow citizens, immediate surroundings and their overall environment. An enlightened person has 10 characteristics. These are: “Contentment, forbearance, gentleness, respect for others' property , purity, self-control, knowledge, philosophic wisdom, veracity and patience.“
The aim of an enlightened being is to live according to his svadharma ¬ his true nature ¬ and learn to control his appetite. He takes from society as little as is essential for his survival, and gives to it as much as he can. His actions are not motivated by any self-interest.
Tyaga, renunciation and seva, service are his ideals. There is no selfishness in him. He synthesises the opposites ¬ materialism and idealism; the sensual and spiritual; abhyu daya and nihshreyas; preya and shreya. He does not live for himself alone; rather, he lives for the welfare of his fellow beings.
In a letter to the Maharaja of Mysore, Vivekananda, explaining the notion of enlightened men, wrote, “My noble prince, this life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive!“ He wrote this, because he believed that not exclusion but inclusion is the right policy . According to him, “All expansion is life, and all contraction is death.“
We ought to love and serve others and not hate or exploit them because loving and serving others is expansion and hating and exploiting them is contraction. Expansion comes from a firm faith in the Kathopanisad dictum which says, “The infinite Atman is present in every being, but lies hidden and therefore is not manifest; but it can be realised by the subtle and penetrating reason of those who are trained to perceive subtler and subtler truths.“
An enlightened person, according to Vivekananda, by virtue of his training and education, is able to see the same Atman in every being and therefore treats them at par, even identical with himself. He, like Vivekananda, wishes, “May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls of all races and all species.“