Vivekananda’s Metaphors at the Parliament of Religions

Written for Metaphor (Linguistics 106), UC Berkeley, Fall 2019. A conceptual metaphor analysis of Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 Chicago addresses.

Introduction

In India, Swami Vivekananda is a name that needs no further introduction. Born Narendranath Datta, Vivekananda was an Indian spiritual leader who played a key role in the introduction of Hindu philosophy to the Western world. He also contributed greatly to the revival of Hinduism in India during the mid late 19th century as well as providing a rousing voice to the people in India who at the time were being oppressed by the British colonisers. He attended the inaugural conference of The Parliament of Religions in 1893 where he gave five speeches and presented a paper on Hinduism. In the conference, Vivekananda made his presence known immediately, the tale going that he had to pause during his opening speech after his opening words gave rise to a two minute standing ovation.

Vivekananda delivered lectures throughout his travels in the West and later on in India as well as authoring work such as Raja Yoga and Karma Yoga. He essentially offered his own interpretation of Hindu philosophy, specifically focusing on one of the six schools of Hindu thought - Vedanta philosophy. Vivekananda’s influence on the development of Hindu philosophy, both in India and in the West are regarded as immense. Rabindranath Tagore, the legendary Bengali poet who was the first non European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature was famously known for saying - “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative.”[Vivekananda & Lokeswarananda, 1996] Mahatma Gandhi, the popularly called ‘Father of the Nation’ and central figure of the Indian freedom movement declared that after going through Vivekananda’s works “the love that I had for my country became a thousand-fold”. [Vivekananda & Lokeswarananda, 1996] Essentially, Vivekananda’s words and metaphor have come to embody the Hindu philosophy for millions of people both in the East as well as the West.

This paper will focus on the six pieces of work Vivekananda presented in his inaugural attendance at the Parliament of Religions. These addresses were chosen as they in some way represent the starting point of Vivekananda’s work, witnessed by them being the first volume in his Complete Works. Moreover, the conference was Vivekananda’s first formal introduction to the Western world and well as the first authentic and cohesive introduction of Hindu philosophy to the West. Vivekananda’s work is also interesting because of the content’s religious nature. As DesCamp and Sweetser point out, “there is a vast indeterminacy in our understanding of God” as human beings and a purely literal description of God would rely heavily on what God is not rather than something that God is, which would necessitate something concrete. This applies to religious discourse in general, where topics tend to frequently consist of abstract and metaphysical ideas. Since such ideas do not have an experiential basis by definition, we tend to make use of metaphor to conceptualise them by relating them to something we can experience physically. Hence, we would expect metaphor to be pervasive in Vivekananda’s work.

While work has been done on this use of metaphor in religion, most research has focused on Judeo- Christian theology. This was strong motivation to choose a non Western theology as it would allow a cross cultural comparison of religious metaphor. Religion is usually heavily influential on the structure of societies as well as shaping language and culture. Yet it can sometimes seem culture bound, as Naicker, a cognitive linguist at the University of South Africa points out, Buddhism has no analogue for God. Similarly, an understanding of Hindu philosophy can seem difficult if the underlying network of metaphorical mappings and inference are hidden. The primary goal of this paper will be to identify metaphor use and either through mappings or blends analyses the inferences they provoke. A secondary goal would be to compare the metaphors used by Vivekananda to common metaphors associated with Christianity. Metaphors identified by DesCamp and Sweetser will be used for this purpose.

Before jumping into to the metaphor, it is important to situate Vivekananda’s work being analysed. Vivekananda was fluent in both Bengali and English and had no problem in conveying his thoughts at the conference. However, he was necessitated to use language that would connect and resonate with a Western audience. Therefore, it is probable he was the metaphorical structures he engaged in were purposefully designed to transcend cultural bounds by being more universal. I anticipate that there will be differences between the metaphors found in Christian discourse and the ones used by Vivekananda but they might be muted by Vivekananda’s attempts to conform to Western trains of thought. A similar observation was made by Naicker who noted that Vivekananda was forced to adopt the standard Western frame of reference in his discourse.

Identification and Analysis of Metaphor

The procedure of metaphor identification was simply a thorough reading of the text and noting down all evidences of metaphor use. These instances were then grouped together and appropriate analysis was done, i.e. either the mappings were drawn our or the blend constructed. Possible inferences were then discussed as well as mention of the use of primary metaphor and metonymy. While most metaphors were self contained in their respective paragraphs, Vivekananda frequently made direct or subtle connections within and between frames and mappings. As expected from work presented at a parliament of religions, most of the metaphors have to do with the interaction or representation of religions. However, his paper on Hinduism was rich in metaphysical ideas that Vivekananda used a creative array of Frames to convey.

Hence, the analysis will be done in two sections. The first will concern the various metaphors used to describe interactions between religions as well as the overall form and structure of religion. The second will be more concerned with the metaphors used by Vivekananda to talk about the beliefs and values of Hinduism

Metaphors of Religion

Followers of Religion are like Frogs in a Well

Vivekananda’s second address consisted entirely of a short story about a frog in a well and he relates this to how religious followers tend to think their own religion exclusively has all the answers. The frog in a well is a historically famous idiom, with connections to both Chinese and Indian ancient philosophy. Vivekananda could have possibly been inspired to use it based on the Sanskrit expression कूपमण्डूक (Kupamanduka) which literally translates to frog in a well. The story essentially goes as follows - A frog falls from the sea falls into a well and talks to another frog already living in the well. The well frog asks the sea frog whether the sea is as big as his well and upon receiving an indignant negative turns hostile towards the sea frog.

The story utilises the following blend -

Generic space

Agent
Entity that acts as Container for Agent
Agent that is not in Container Entity
Conflict between A1 and A2

Input Space 1 - Frog in well

FE1: Participant (Agent) : Frog 1
FE2: Entity : Well that Frog 1 lives in
FE3: Participant (Agent) : Frog 2 (does not live in well)
FE4: Event : Frog 1 hostility towards Frog 2

Input Space 2 - Follower of a religion

FE1: Participant (Agent) : Follower
FE2: Entity : Religion
FE3: Participant (Agent): Follower of different religion
FE4: Event : Conflict between followers

Blend

Follower is frog
Religion is well
Follower of different religion is second frog
Conflict between followers is hostility between frogs

The blend relies on the metaphor GROUPS ARE CONTAINERS that is evoked through the implication of religion being a container for its followers. The entailment of the primary metaphor KNOWING IS SEEING can be seen from the fact that the frog in the well cannot see outside the well and hence refuses to believe anything could be bigger than its well. Similarly, the blend suggests that Religion has similar qualities as a container, obfuscating one’s ability to see beyond it. Vivekananda conveys his point of religion’s ability to trap followers, instilling a belief that nothing lies beyond the confines of one’s own religious beliefs. Moreover, a well is a specific container that is hard to get out off once inside it, a quality that readily maps onto religion which can apply social and cultural fetters to its followers.

All these inferences are conveyed through the story but Vivekananda also goes on to make them connection explicit - “I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well”. A key evocation from the blend is the silliness of the frog in believing its well is the world and the preservation of this mapping is a key message that Vivekananda is making, that it is silly for a follower of a religion to think that there is nothing beyond his own religion. Vivekananda also identifies that each religion being conceptualised as its own container or well creates barriers that ned to be broken and ends his address with “I have to thank you of America for the great attempt you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours”.

Relations Between Religions are Familial Roles

Evoked by: daughter, mother

Example: I thank you in the name of the mother of religions

Target		Source
RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIONS	are	FAMILIAL ROLES
TIME PERIOD THAT RELIGION HAS EXISTED	is	POSITION IN AGE HIERARCHY OF FAMILIAL ROLE

Vivekananda describes Judaism as being driven out of place by its ‘daughter’ Christianity, alluding to how Christianity traces its decent from Judaism. Hinduism is described as being the mother faith, from which various sects were formed and later were integrated back into its fold. It is interesting to note the feminine nature of the familial roles.

Spread of Religion is Conquest

Evoked by: conquering, survival

Example: was driven out of its place of birth by its all-conquering daughter

Target		Source
SPREAD OF RELIGION	is	CONQUEST
FOLLOWERS	are	LAND
CONVERSION OF FOLLOWERS	is	GAINING LAND

The above mapping is motivated by the fact that historically, influential religions have tended to be exclusivist and that belief in one religion excludes beliefs in others. Hence, people are a resource that religions ‘fight’ amongst each other for, with conversion of followers from another religion mapping on to gaining land in a conquest.

The negative inferences from such a mapping should be obvious, it inevitably leads to tension and hostility between religions as the spread of a religion is seen as a threat. Vivekananda is cognisant of these inferences and ends his last address with - “if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my hear”. It is also notable that Vivekananda never uses the Conquest frame to talk about Hinduism. As will be discusses later, this is because Hindu philosophy considers other religions as equally valid and even a part of Hinduism and hence a Christian can technically be considered a Hindu. This precludes the need for using the Conquest frame since non followers can be considered followers and there is no need to convert them.

Religions are Buildings

Evoked directly by: stand, arose, foundations, shocks and shake, sheltered, fostering, laid at the door

Example: “all received tremendous shocks and all of them prove by their survival their internal strength”

Generic space

FE1 Entity
FE3 Entity/Event
FE4 Event

Input Space 1: BUILDING

FE1: Entity : Foundations
FE2: Event (Process): Erect structure
FE3: Entity : Doors
FE4: Event : Collapse
FE5: Event : Provide shelter

Input Space 2: RELIGION

FE1: Entity : Fundamental beliefs
FE2: Participants : Followers
FE3: Event: Conversion
FE4: Event : Dissolution

Blend

Religion is a Building
Fundamental beliefs of religions are foundations of buildings
Faith of followers is the erect structure of building
Dissolution of a religion is collapse of a building

Vivekananda utilises the Building frame to explain aspects of Religion, specifically when talking about the persistence of Hinduism throughout history. Similar to how buildings with strong foundations are able to stay erect and can withstand shocks, a religion with robust fundamental beliefs avoids dissolution. While the followers of a religion do not seem to be incorporated into the blend, the faith of the followers map onto the erect structure of the building. Hence, the following is mapping is entailed - EVENTS THAT NEGATIVELY AFFECT FAITH IN RELIGION ARE EVENTS THAT NEGATIVELY AFFECT PERSISTENCE OF BUILDING which can be seen in -

“sect after sect arose in India and seemed to shake the religion of the Vedas to its very foundations”.

The capacity of buildings to provide shelter is also mapped to religion, as in “which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation”. The last point is interesting, as the Shelter frame element is absent in the typical mapping of Theories are Buildings, as pointed out by Grady in ‘Theories Are Buildings Revisited’. This is of course the result of the difference between Religion and a Theory, especially in the context of Religion being akin to a container (GROUPS ARE CONTAINERS).

Finally, the frame element of doors is also used, as seen in - “And even this cannot be laid at the door of his religion any more than the burning of witches can be laid at the door of Christianity.” The meaning of laid at the door seems to be to be given responsibility. This probably arises from the fact that anything outside the door of a building is probably associated with the building, since it acts as an opening to the building.

Religions are Biological Bodies

Evoked by: absorb, sucked in, assimilated into, immense body, natural death

Example: Buddhism had to die a natural death

Target		Source
RELIGIONS	are	BIOLOGICAL BODIES
MERGING OF RELIGIONS	is	DIGESTION OF SMALLER BODY BY BIGGER BODY

Note how in “these sects were all sucked in, absorbed, and assimilated into the immense body of the mother faith”, the digestive process of first being ingested, then absorbed and then assimilated is followed, as well as the result being an implied increase in size as seen in immense. The primary metaphor of IDEAS ARE OBJECTS or more specifically IDEAS ARE FOOD seem to be present. For instance when popular religion like Hinduism merges with a smaller sect, the result is the incorporation of the sect’s beliefs within the fabric of Hinduism. Another possibility could be that the ‘size’ of a religion is more related to the number of followers the religion has and a merger between religions necessarily means that the followers are all grouped into the resulting religion. It should be noted that this conceptualisation implies that the merging of two religions, when one religion is ‘bigger’ than the other, results in an overall larger entity that is nonetheless homogenous in nature.

This use of a different metaphor for religion probably arises from the fact that the BUILDINGS frame was incapable of conveying the concept of Religions merging with each other.

It is worth pointing out the difference between this metaphor and the one that used the Conquest frame. Being absorbed and assimilated is generally less violent than being conquered and moreover, the implication is that the previous religion still exists in some form.

Metaphors of Metaphysics

Veracity of Spiritual Ideas is Verticality

Evoked by: high spiritual flights, low ideas of idolatry, grasp high spiritual truths, lower to higher truth, struggling to rise high

Target		Source
VERACITY OF SPIRITUAL IDEAS	is	VERTICALITY
INCREASE IN VERACITY OF SPIRITUAL IDEAS	is	UPWARD MOVEMENT
DECREASE IN VERACITY OF SPIRITUAL IDEAS	is	DOWNWARD MOVEMENT

The primary metaphor of QUANTITY IS VERTICALITY and MORE IS UP is evoked frequently by Vivekananda in the form of VERACITY OF SPIRITUAL IDEAS IS VERTICALITY. This is made explicit in the following lines -

“To the Hindu, man is not travelling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher truth. To him all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many attempts of the human soul to grasp and realise the Infinite, each determined by the conditions of its birth and association, and each of these marks a stage of progress; and every soul is a young eagle soaring higher and higher, gathering more and more strength, till it reaches the Glorious Sun”

There is much to unpack here. First, Vivekananda implies that spiritual truth is a cline and not absolute and uses the frame of verticality to situate the cline. However, he then uses the phrase ‘highest absolutism’, implying that absolutism is the most desirable end of that cline. This seems to be contradictory and will be dealt with in the conclusion segment of the paper. Second, Vivekananda represents this movement along this cline as a Journey, drawing upon the ubiquitous LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor. Vivekananda makes frequent use of the Journey frame and a specific instance of this in a blend is examined later below. Finally, the concept of there being varying levels of truth to different spiritual ideas emphasises the non proselytising nature of Hinduism. This is mirrored in the aforementioned Journey frame, since each soul can move through the different stages ‘like an eagle soaring higher and higher’, each person has a unique journey.

Path and Journey Metaphors

“As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”

Vivekananda crystallises his idea of the non existence of one singular conception of spiritual truth with the above line. The following blend deconstructs the mappings taking place -

Generic space

Path taken/made by participant/entity
Event of culmination

Input Space 1: SPIRITUAL LIFE IS A JOURNEY

FE1: Participant (Agent) : Spiritual believer
FE2: Event : FE1’s spiritual life conceptualised as a journey
FE3: Event : End of journey

Input Space 2: Streams ending in the Ocean

FE1 : Entities : Streams
FE2 : Entity : Ocean
FE3 : Event : All streams merge with ocean

Blend

One’s spiritual life is a stream
All streams end at the ocean, all spiritual paths end at God

The above blend makes use of the ubiquitous LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor by conceptualising one’s spirituality throughout life as a journey along a path. The primary metaphors of STATES ARE LOCATIONS and CHANGE OF STATE IS CHANGE OF LOCATION are evoked. Once an end to one’s spiritual journey is achieved it maps onto the end of the journey since END OF AN ACTION IS END OF THE PATH.

The blend communicates two important concepts. One is the uniqueness of each individual’s spiritual life, as each stream is unique and can twist and turn an umpteenth number of times. However, the end is the same for all streams and the metonymy of RESULT FOR EVENT is evoked. The blend makes the following resonate stronger -

“Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me.”

As noted before, the VERACITY OF SPIRITUAL IDEAS IS VERTICALITY metaphor entails movement along the cline of spiritual truth. The different and unique ways individuals can move through this cline is similar to how streams can take different paths to the ocean. The Streams blend better conceptualises this multiplicity of options however, especially stressing on the common end goal. Vivekananda also frequently used the vertical movement along the cline of truth, as can be seen in - “To the Hindu, then, the whole world of religions is only a travelling, a coming up, of different men and women, through various conditions and circumstances, to the same goal”. A similar mapping is seen in - “It is the same light coming through glasses of different colours” but in reverse, rather than different streams reaching the same ocean, it is the same light being split into different colours.

Spiritual Wisdom is Physical Wealth

This would have been an uninteresting metaphor as it seems obvious that the abstract spiritual is represented by the concrete physical. However, the line “They mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times” reveals there is more than just that, with the implication that such wisdom exists independent of human existence and is waiting to be ‘discovered’. This is cohesive with the previous mapping of the cline of spiritual truth, as this cline is necessarily independent from human existence. Such metaphorical usage conveys Hinduism’s general idea of the existence of spiritual universals.

Individuality is a Prison

Evoked by: prison

Example: this miserable little prison, individuality must go

Target		Source
INDIVIDUALITY	is a	PRISON
SOUL	is a	PRISONER

On some level, the above mapping relies on the BODY IS A CONTAINER metaphor. Vivekananda extends this however, for him the Body is almost metonymic for physical matter and we are all - held in the bondage of matter. This is a fundamental tenet of Hindu philosophy, the way to achieve enlightenment is to attain ‘Moksha’, the release from the endless cycle of life, death and rebirth. This is done through the renunciation of physical and sensual pleasures, which are rooted in the individual self.

Vivekananda also makes use of the mapping CAUSATION IS A PRISON as in endless prison of cause and effect.

Causation is an Entity That Moves Forward

Vivekananda conceptualises CAUSATION as a WHEEL and as a CURRENT, with both frames sharing the capacity of forward movement, a key aspect of causation that is gleaned with the primary metaphor TIME IS SPACE.

Causation is a Wheel

Evoked by: wheel of causation

Example: “little moth placed under the wheel of causation which rolls on crushing everything in its way”

Cause and effect is typically conceptualised as a forward arrow in time-space, since causes precede effects. Hence, it makes sense that a wheel that moves forward is used to represent causation. But another aspect is also mapped by using a wheel, Vivekananda was specifically talking about the life, death and rebirth, a cause and effect system that is cyclic in nature. Thus, a wheel is also an image representation of the cycle whose continuous movement is like a wheel crushing the little moth.

Causation is a Current

Evoked by: current of cause and effect

Example: ever-raging, ever-rushing, uncompromising current of cause and effect

Conceptualising Causation as a Current accounts for its carrying effect, as Causation in a general cosmic scale accounts for all of your current state. This aspect is not conveyed by the Wheel frame and both metaphors have good synergistic value.

Geometry

Rather surprisingly, Vivekananda makes liberal use of the GEOMETRY frame. Upon analysis however, this makes perfect sense as it allows for the conception of abstract metaphysical concepts with the universal imagery of circles and lines.

Circles

Evoked by: Hindu believes that every soul is a circle whose circumference is nowhere, but whose centre is located in the body, and that death means the change of this centre from body to body Vivekananda uses the schema of a circle, with a centre and a circumference to map the Hindu conception of the infinite soul that resides in different physical bodies

Parallel Lines

Evoked by: “If I may be allowed to use a simile, creation and creator are two lines, without beginning and without end, running parallel to each other.”, “two parallel lines of existence — one of the mind, the other of matter.”

Vivekananda uses the schema of two parallel lines to represent a pair of dualities, creation/creator and mind/matter. The schema represented by two parallel lines allows the mapping of the concept of infinity as well as the perfectly aligned and balanced nature of each corresponding half of the duality.

Mind is a Ocean

Evoked by: surface of the mental ocean, depths

Target		Source
MIND	is a	OCEAN
CONSCIOUSNESS	is	SURFACE OF OCEAN
UNCONSCIOUS THOUGHTS	are	DEPTHS OF OCEAN

It is fascinating to note the similarities between Freud’s iceberg model of consciousness and the above metaphor. The MIND IS A OCEAN metaphor and specifically CONSCIOUSNESS IS THE SURFACE OF THE OCEAN utilises the primary metaphor KNOWING IS SEEING as the awarenesses of one’s own consciousness is mapped by the ability to see the surface of the ocean.

Relation to God is a Familial Role

Evoked by: father, mother

Example usage: Thou art our father, Thou art our mother, Vivekananda makes little use of the Family frame in his addresses. However, this could merely be due to the limited nature of the data. A more specific phrasing of the mapping could be RELATION TO GOD IS A PARENTAL ROLE, however it is kept general to allow for accommodations with future data. When used, the actual parental role does not seem to matter as Vivekananda uses them interchangeably.

Holy Books are Rocks

Evoked by: “dashed themselves against the eternal rocks of the Vedas and could not crush them” The eternal and indisputable nature of the Vedas is mapped by the unchanging and solid nature of the Rocks frame

Holy Books for Religion

‘The religion of the Vedas’ can be argued to be metonymic, using the as well as the use of ‘Vedanta’ philosophy.

Conclusion

It was interesting to note that Vivekananda’s addresses at the Parliament of Religions was rich with metaphoric usage, metaphor was not nearly as pervasive as I expected. Vivekananda was able to use literal language frequently and chose at times an an almost scientific way of description. While this could simply be due to the context of the addresses, it could also point to a highly efficient manner of using metaphor.

Vivekananda also displayed a keen awareness of the role of metaphor, as seen in -

“The Hindus have discovered that the absolute can only be realised, or thought of, or stated, through the relative, and the images, crosses, and crescents are simply so many symbols — so many pegs to hang the spiritual ideas on”

This is an eloquent description of a central tenet of cognitive metaphor theory, that more abstract ideas are represented and thought of through less abstract ideas.

Overall, highly interesting and creative metaphor usage were identified in Vivekananda’s writings. Further analysis of Vivekananda’s work as well as other Hindi philosophers promises to divulge unique metaphors that can aid our understanding of Hindu philosophy.

References

DesCamp, M. T., & Sweetser, E. E. (2005). Metaphors for God: Why and how do our choices matter for humans? The application of contemporary cognitive linguistics research to the debate on God and metaphor. Pastoral Psychology, 53(3), 207–238. ↗
Naicker, S. (2017). A cognitive linguistic exploration of metaphors within the WATER frame in Swami Vivekananda’s Complete Works: A corpus-driven study in light of conceptual metaphor theory. Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics, 47, 115–131. ↗
Vivekananda, S. (1996). My India: The India eternal (S. Lokeswarananda, Ed.; 1st ed.). Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. ↗
Data corpus: Vivekananda, S. (1893). Addresses at the Parliament of Religions. In The complete works of Swami Vivekananda (Vol. 1). Wikisource. ↗