Spirituality and freedom in Swami Vivekananda's in search of God and other Poems

Abstract

This research explores the issues of spirituality and freedomin twelve selected poems from Swami Vivekananda's anthology, In Search of God and Other Poems. It aims to interpret the role of Vivekananda's spiritual thoughts to liberate people from colonial restrictions. The interpretation of the primary texts is based on the principles of inter-subjectivity, historicity, infinity of understanding, productivity, interrelatedness, hidden reality and linguistics found in Hans Georg Gadamer's two books: Philosophical Hermeneutics(1977) and Truth and Method(1960). Following qualitative research design, this study attempts to fill the gap between spiritual thinking and materialistic hunger through Swami Vivekananda's poems, which favour spirituality, freedom and tranquillity. Poems such as "In Search of God,” "The Song of the Free," "Kali, the Mother," "Peace," "On the Sea's Bosom," "Misunderstood," and "A Benediction,"emphasize spirituality, whereas "My Play is Done," ""The Cup," The Song of the Sannyasin," "To the Awakened India," and "To the Fourth of July" advocate for freedom. The use of imagery of nature, metaphors, similes and symbols enhance spiritual thoughts in his poems. During Vivekananda's life, the Indians were suffering from British colonialism. So, he expressed his longing for freedom through his poems and advised them to follow the concepts of service to man as service to God. These ideas are quite relevant to replacing the hunger for material prosperity and selfishness. He appeals to Goddess 'Kali', regarded as 'Bharat Mata' or the incarnation of ‘Shakti', to destroy the evils and save innocent people. He recognized Indian's spiritual thoughts by addressing World’s Religious Conference in Chicago in 1893. Hence, I have found him to be a source of spiritual thoughts, freedom fighter, positive ideals, humanity, patriotism and optimism to lead life in a more progressive and scientific way. Keywords: Hermeneutics, spirituality, liberty, linguistics, interrelatedness and historicity.