Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda, known in his pre-monastic life as Narendra Nath Datta, was born in an affluent family in Kolkata on 12 January 1863. His father, Vishwanath Datta, was a successful attorney with interests in a wide range of subjects, and his mother, Bhuvaneshwari Devi, was endowed with deep devotion, strong character and other qualities. A precocious boy, Narendra excelled in music, gymnastics and studies. By the time he graduated from Calcutta University, he had acquired a vast knowledge of different subjects, especially Western philosophy and history. Born with a yogic temperament, he used to practise meditation even from his boyhood, and was associated with Brahmo Movement for some time.

With Sri Ramakrishna
At the threshold of youth Narendra had to pass through a period of spiritual crisis when he was assailed by doubts about the existence of God. It was at that time he first heard about Sri Ramakrishna from one of his English professors at college. One day in November 1881, Narendra went to meet Sri Ramakrishna who was staying at the Kali Temple in Dakshineshwar. He straightaway asked the Master a question which he had put to several others but had received no satisfactory answer: “Sir, have you seen God?” Without a moment’s hesitation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: “Yes, I have. I see Him as clearly as I see you, only in a much intense sense.” Apart from removing doubts from the mind of Narendra, Sri Ramakrishna won him over through his pure, unselfish love. Thus began a guru-disciple relationship which is quite unique in the history of spiritual masters. Narendra now became a frequent visitor to Dakshineshwar and, under the guidance of the Master, made rapid strides on the spiritual path. At Dakshineshwar, Narendra also met several young men who were devoted to Sri Ramakrishna, and they all became close friends.

Difficult Situations:
After a few years two events took place which caused Narendra considerable distress. One was the sudden death of his father in 1884. This left the family penniless, and Narendra had to bear the burden of supporting his mother, brothers and sisters. The second event was the illness of Sri Ramakrishna which was diagnosed to be cancer of the throat. In September 1885 Sri Ramakrishna was moved to a house at Shyampukur, and a few months later to a rented villa at Cossipore. In these two places the young disciples nursed the Master with devoted care. In spite of poverty at home and inability to find a job for himself, Narendra joined the group as its leader.

Beginnings of a Monastic Brotherhood:
Sri Ramakrishna instilled in these young men the spirit of renunciation and brotherly love for one another. One day he distributed ochre robes among them and sent them out to beg food. In this way he himself laid the foundation for a new monastic order. He gave specific instructions to Narendra about the formation of the new monastic Order. In the small hours of 16 August 1886 Sri Ramakrishna gave up his mortal body.

After the Master’s passing, fifteen of his young disciples (one more joined them later) began to live together in a dilapidated building at Baranagar in North Kolkata. Under the leadership of Narendra, they formed a new monastic brotherhood, and in 1887 they took the formal vows of sannyasa, thereby assuming new names. Narendra now became Swami Vivekananda (although this name was actually assumed much later).

Awareness of Life’s Mission:
After establishing the new monastic order, Vivekananda heard the inner call for a greater mission in his life. While most of the followers of Sri Ramakrishna thought of him in relation to their own personal lives, Vivekananda thought of the Master in relation to India and the rest of the world. As the prophet of the present age, what was Sri Ramakrishna’s message to the modern world and to India in particular? This question and the awareness of his own inherent powers urged Swamiji to go out alone into the wide world. So in the middle of 1890, after receiving the blessings of Sri Sarada Devi, the divine consort of Sri Ramakrishna, known to the world as Holy Mother, who was then staying in Kolkata, Swamiji left Baranagar Math and embarked on a long journey of exploration and discovery of India.

Discovery of Real India:
During his travels all over India, Swami Vivekananda was deeply moved to see the appalling poverty and backwardness of the masses. He was the first religious leader in India to understand and openly declare that the real cause of India’s downfall was the neglect of the masses. The immediate need was to provide food and other bare necessities of life to the hungry millions. For this they should be taught improved methods of agriculture, village industries, etc.

It was in this context that Vivekananda grasped the crux of the problem of poverty in India (which had escaped the attention of social reformers of his days): owing to centuries of oppression, the downtrodden masses had lost faith in their capacity to improve their lot. It was first of all necessary to infuse into their minds faith in themselves. For this they needed a life-giving, inspiring message. Swamiji found this message in the principle of the Atman, the doctrine of the potential divinity of the soul, taught in Vedanta, the ancient system of religious philosophy of India. He saw that, in spite of poverty, the masses clung to religion, but they had never been taught the life-giving, ennobling principles of Vedanta and how to apply them in practical life. Thus the masses needed two kinds of knowledge: secular knowledge to improve their economic condition, and spiritual knowledge to infuse in them faith in themselves and strengthen their moral sense. The next question was, how to spread these two kinds of knowledge among the masses? Through education – this was the answer that Swamiji found.

Decision to attend the Parliament of Religions:
It was when these ideas were taking shape in his mind in the course of his wanderings that Swami Vivekananda heard about the World’s Parliament of Religions to be held in Chicago in 1893. His friends and admirers in India wanted him to attend the Parliament. He too felt that the Parliament would provide the right forum to present his Master’s message to the world, and so he decided to go to America. Another reason which prompted Swamiji to go to America was to seek financial help for his project of uplifting the masses. Swamiji, however, wanted to have an inner certitude and divine call regarding his mission. Both of these he got while he sat in deep meditation on the rock-island at Kanyakumari. With the funds partly collected by his Chennai disciples and partly provided by the Raja of Khetri, Swami Vivekananda left for America from Mumbai on 31 May 1893.

The Parliament of Religions and After:
His speeches at the World’s Parliament of Religions held in September 1893 made him famous as an ‘orator by divine right’ and as a ‘Messenger of Indian wisdom to the Western world’. After the Parliament, Swamiji spent nearly three and a half years spreading Vedanta as lived and taught by Sri Ramakrishna, mostly in the eastern parts of USA and also in London.

Awakening His Countrymen:
He returned to India in January 1897. In response to the enthusiastic welcome that he received everywhere, he delivered a series of lectures in different parts of India, which created a great stir all over the country. Through these inspiring and profoundly significant lectures Swamiji attempted to do the following:

to rouse the religious consciousness of the people and create in them pride in their cultural heritage;
to bring about unification of Hinduism by pointing out the common bases of its sects;
to focus the attention of educated people on the plight of the downtrodden masses, and to expound his plan for their uplift by the application of the principles of Practical Vedanta.

Founding of Ramakrishna Mission:
Soon after his return to Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda accomplished another important task of his mission on earth. He founded on1 May 1897 a unique type of organization known as Ramakrishna Mission, in which monks and lay people would jointly undertake propagation of Practical Vedanta, and various forms of social service, such as running hospitals, schools, colleges, hostels, rural development centres etc, and conducting massive relief and rehabilitation work for victims of earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities, in different parts of India and other countries.

Belur Math:
In early 1898 Swami Vivekananda acquired a big plot of land on the western bank of the Ganga at a place called Belur to have a permanent abode for the monastery and monastic Order originally started at Baranagar, and got it registered as Ramakrishna Math after a couple of years. Here Swamiji established a new, universal pattern of monastic life which adapts ancient monastic ideals to the conditions of modern life, which gives equal importance to personal illumination and social service, and which is open to all men without any distinction of religion, race or caste.

Disciples:
It may be mentioned here that in the West many people were influenced by Swami Vivekananda’s life and message. Some of them became his disciples or devoted friends. Among them the names of Margaret Noble (later known as Sister Nivedita),Captain and Mrs Sevier, Josephine McLeod and Sara Ole Bull, deserve special mention. Nivedita dedicated her life to educating girls in Kolkata. Swamiji had many Indian disciples also, some of whom joined Ramakrishna Math and became sannyasins.

Last Days:
In June 1899 he went to the West on a second visit. This time he spent most of his time in the West coast of USA. After delivering many lectures there, he returned to Belur Math in December 1900. The rest of his life was spent in India, inspiring and guiding people, both monastic and lay. Incessant work, especially giving lectures and inspiring people, told upon Swamiji’s health. His health deteriorated and the end came quietly on the night of 4 July 1902. Before his Mahasamadhi he had written to a Western follower: “It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body, to cast it off like a worn out garment. But I shall not cease to work. I shall inspire men everywhere until the whole world shall know that it is one with God.”

Swami Vivekananda's contributions to the Nation and the World : A New Perspective

Sri Ramakrishna has descended to this earth for redemption of mankind. With the Power and Authority bestowed by him, Swami Vivekananda forged ahead to promote the upliftment of the world, upliftment of the Nation and upliftment of the individual souls (लोकोध्दार Lokoddhāra, देशोध्दार Deshoddhāra and जीवोध्दार Jīvoddhāra). Rare and far apart are such souls that sanctify the earth; and the Mother Earth enshrines them in her bosom with pride. Swami Vivekananda is one of the main moulders of the modern world of positive advancement. His momentous and significant historical contribution to the world and the nation can be summarised as:

Some of his sayings/writings in his own language for us to contemplate:

I have a message to the world and I will give it after my own fashion. I will neither Hinduise my message, nor Christianise it, nor make it anywise in the world. I will only my-wise it, and that is all. Liberty and Mukti (Freedom) is all my religion.
We want to day that bright Sun of intellectuality, joined with wonderful infinite heart of love and mercy. This union will give us the highest philosophy. Science and religion will meet and shake hands. Poetry and philosophy will become friends. This will be the religion of the future and it will be for all times and for all people.
Religion is not talk or doctrines or theories, nor is sectarianism. It is the relation between the soul and God. Religion is spiritual realisation (Anubhuti). Purity and renunciation is the one secret of spirituality. Therefore first earn spirituality and realise the truth for yourself.
I accept all religions that were in the past and worship with them all. I worship God with every one of them in whatever form they worship Him. I shall go to the Mosque of the Mohammedans, shall enter to Christen Church and need before the Crucifix. I shall enter the Buddhist temple, where I shall take refuge in Buddha and his law. I shall go in to the forest and sit down in the meditation with the Hindu, who is trying to see the Light which enlightens the heart of everyone.
Not only I shall do these, but I shall keep my heart upon all that may come in the future. Is God’s book finished or is it still a continuous revelation going on? It is a marvellous book of these spiritual Revelations of the world.
The Bible, the Vedas, the Koran and all other sacred books are but so many pages, and an infinite numbers of pages remain yet to be unfolded. I world leave it open for all of them. We stand in the present but open ourselves to the infinite future. We take in all that has been in the past, enjoy the light of the present and open every wisdom of the heart for all that will come in the future. Salutation to all the Prophets of the past, to all great ones of the present and to all those that are to come in the future.
The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.
Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life building, man making, character-making, assimilation of ideas.
Even the least work done for others awakens the power within gradually instils into the heart the strength of a Lion.
The life is short, the vanities of the world are transient, but they alone live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
The whole ocean is present at the back of each wave.
Strength, strength is what the Upanishads speak to me from every page. This is the one great thing to remember, it has been the one great lesson I have been taught in my life; strength, it says, strength, O man, be not weak.
The greatest sin is to think yourself weak. Be not weak, either physically, mentally, morally of spiritually.
What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made. Strength, manhood, Kshatravirya, Brahmateja.
Strength is life, weakness is death; strength is felicity, life eternal, immortal! Weakness is constant strain and misery. Weakness is death. Let positive strong, helpful thoughts enter into your brains from very childhood.
Weakness is the one cause of suffering. We become miserable, because we are weak. We lie, steal, kill and commit other crimes, because we are weak. We suffer, because we are weak. We die because we are weak. Where there is nothing to weaken us, there is no death, no sorrow. Strength is one thing needful. Strength is the medicine for the world’s disease.
Stand up, be bold, be strong. Take the whole responsibilities on your own shoulders, and know that you are the creator of your own destiny. All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves. Therefore make your own future.
Either in this world or in this world of religion, it is true that fear is the sure cause of degradation and sin. It is fear that brings misery, fear that brings death, fear that breeds evil. And what cause fear? Ignorance of our own nature. Each of us is heir-apparent to the Emperor of Emperors.
What our country now wants are muscles of iron and nerves of steel and gigantic will, which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and secrets of the Universe and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion even if it meant going to the bottom of the ocean and meeting Death face to face. We have wept long enough; no more weeping, but stand on your feet and be men. It is a man making religion that we want. It is man making theories that we want. It is man-making education all round that we want. And here is the test of truth, anything that makes you weak physically, intellectually and spiritually, reject as poison; there is no life in it, it cannot be true. Truth is strengthening. Truth is purity, Truth is all knowledge. Truth must be strengthening, must be enlightening, must be invigorating.
Unselfishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to practise it.
Do not be mere white mice in a treadmill, working always and never accomplishing anything in life.
Money does not pay, nor name; fame does not pay, nor learning. It is character that cleaves its way through adamantine walls of difficulties.
Be moral, be brave, be a heart-whole man, strictly moral, brave unto desperation. Don’t bother your head with religious theories; cowards only sin, brave men never. Try to love anybody and everybody.
Get up, and set your shoulder to the wheel, how long is this life for? As you have come into this world, leave some mark behind. Otherwise where is the difference between you and the tree and stones?they too come into existence, decay and die.
Be bold! My children should be brave, above all. Not the least compromise on any account. Preach the highest truths broadcast. Do not fear of losing your respect or of causing unhappy friction. Rest assured that if you serve truth in spite of temptations to forsake it, you will attain a heavenly strength, in the face of which men will quail to speak before you things which you do not believe to be true. People would be convinced of what you would say to them, if you can strictly serve truth for fourteen years continually, without swerving from it.
It is only our scriptures that this adjective is given to the Lord Abhih, Abhih. We have to become Abhih fearless and our task will be done.
Faith, sympathy, fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Faith, faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God, this is the secret of greatness.
To preach the doctrine of Sraddha or genuine faith is the mission of my life. Let me repeat to you that this faith is one of the potent factors of humanity, and of all religions. First, have faith in yourselves.
This faith in themselves was in the hearts of our ancestors, this faith in themselves was the motive power that pushed them forward and forward in the march of civilisation; and if there has been degeneration,and if there has been defect, mark my words, you will find degradation to have started on the day our people lost this faith in themselves. Losing faith in one’s self means losing faith in God.
Don’t care for doctrines, do not care for dogmas, or sects, or churches or temples; they count for little compared with the essence of existence in each man which is spirituality and the more this is developed in a man, the more powerful is he for good. Earn that first, acquire that and criticise no one. Show by your lives that religion does not mean words or names, or sects, but that it means spiritual realisation.
Sincerity of conviction and purity of motive will surely gain the day, and even a small minority, armed with these is surely destined to prevail against all odds.
Truth, purity and unselfishness, whether these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the processor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual is able to face the whole universe in opposition.
Arise! Awake! And stop not till the goal is reached.

His clarion call to India:
Life is nothing, death is nothing, hunger nothing, cold nothing. Glory unto the Lord, march on, the Lord is our General. Do not look back to see who falls, forward and onward! Thus and thus we shall go on, brethren. One falls, and another takes up the work.
Have a tremendous faith in yourselves…. Have that faith, each one of you, in yourself, that eternal power is lodged in every soul, and you will revive the whole of India… We must enter into the life of every race in India and abroad….. This is the time to decide your future while you possess the energy of youth… Work; this is the time, for the freshest, the untouched, and un-smelled flowers alone are to be laid at the feet of the Lord.
My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions.
A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to a lion’s courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising up the gospel of equality.
Arise, awake, for the time is propitious. Already everything is opening out before us. Be bold and fear not. It is only in our scriptures that this objective is given unto the Lord Abhih, Abhih. We have to become Abhih, fearless, and our task will be done, Arise, awake, for your country needs this tremendous sacrifice.
Rouse yourselves, therefore, for life is short. There are greater works to be done than aspiring to become lawyers, and picking quarrels, and such things. A far greater work is this sacrifice of yourselves for the benefit of your race, for the welfare of humanity.
Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your names, fame or position, nay even your lives, and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross this ocean of life. Bring all the forces of good together. Do not care what banner you march. Do not care what be your colour, green, blue or red but mix all the colours up and produce that intense glow of white, the colour of love. Ours is to work.
Inspiration is not filtered out to the world through one channel, however great. Each generation should be inspired afresh.
Oh India! this is your terrible danger. The spell of imitating the West is getting such a hold upon you, that what is good or what is bad, is no longer decided by reason, judgement, discrimination or reference to the Sastras. With this base imitation of others, with this dependence on others, this slavish weakness would thou with these provisions only scale the highest pinnacle of civilisation of greatness? Would thou attain by means of thy disgraceful cowardice, that freedom deserved by the brave and heroic?
Oh India! forget not that the ideal of thy womanhood is Sita, Savithri, Damayanthi; forget not that the God thou worshipest is the great ascetic of ascetics, the all renouncing, Shankara, the Lord of Uma. Forget not that thy marriage, thy wealth, thy life are not for sense pleasure, are not for thy individual personal happiness.
Forget not that thou art born as a sacrifice to the Mother’s alter; forget not that thy social order is but the reflex of the Infinite Universal motherhood; forget not the lower classes, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper are thy flesh and blood, thy brothers.
Thou brave one, be bold, take courage, be proud that thou art an Indian and proudly proclaim : I am an Indian, every Indian is my brother, say the ignorant Indian, the poor and destitute Indian, the Brahmin Indian, the Paraih Indian is my brother. Thou too clad with but a rag round the loins proudly proclaim at the top of thy voice :- The Indian is my brother, the Indian is my life, India’s gods and goddesses are my God, India’s society is the cradle of my infancy, the pleasure garden of my youth, the sacred heaven, the Varanasi of my old age. Say brother, The soil of India is my highest heaven, the good of India is my good.
Everyone must be ready for it, the conquest of the whole world by India nothing less than that, and we must all get ready for it, strain every nerve for it……. Up, India, and conquer the world with your spirituality! Ay, as has been declared on this soil first, love must conquer hatred, hatred cannot conquer itself.
The eyes of the whole world are now turned towards this land of India for spiritual food; and India has to provide it for all the races. Here alone is the best ideal for mankind….
…….The land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, towards generosity, towards purity, towards calmness, above all, the land of introspection and of spirituality, it is India.
When the life blood is strong and pure, no disease germ can live in that body. Our life-blood is spirituality. If it flows clear, if it flows strong and pure and vigorous, everything is right, political, social, any other material defects, even the poverty of the land, will all be cured if that blood is pure. India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction, but with the flag of peace and love;….. say not that you are weak. The spirit is omnipotent.
To the women of this country, I would say exactly what I say to the men. Believe India and in our Indian faith, be strong and hopeful and unashamed, and remember that with something to take, Hindus have immeasurably more to give than any other people in the world.
With five hundred men the conquest of India might take fifty years; with as many women, not more than a few weeks.
There is no chance for the welfare of the world unless the condition of women is improved. It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing.
Our women are not learned but they are more pure. To every woman every man, save her husband, should be her son. To every man every woman, save his own wife, should be as his mother.
Along with other things, our women should acquire the spirit of valour and heroism. In the present day, it has become necessary for them also to learn self-defence. See, how grand was the queen of Jhansi.
Look upon every men, women and everyone as God. You cannot help anyone; you can only serve; serve the children of the Lord; serve the Lord Himself, if you have the privilege. If the Lord grants that you can help any one of His children, blessed you are; don’t think too much of yourselves. Blessed you are that privilege was given to you when others had it not. Do it only as a worship. The poor and the miserable are for our salvation, so that we may serve the Lord coming in the shape of the diseased, coming in the shape of lunatic, the leper and the sinner. The only God to worship is the human soul in the human body. Of course, all animals are temples too, but man is the highest, the Taj mahal of the temples. If I cannot worship in that, no other temple will be of any advantage. Vow then to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of the 300 millions goings down and down everyday.
Do you love your fellow men? Where should you go to seek for God? Are not all the poor, the miserable, the weak, Gods? Why not worship them first? Why go to dig a well on the shores of the Ganges? Believe in the omnipotent power of love. Who care for these tinsel puffs of name? Have you love? You are omnipotent. Are you perfectly unselfish? If so, you are irresistible. It is character that pays everywhere. Give up jealousy and conceit. Learn to work unitedly for others. That is the great need of our country. Have patience and be faithful unto death. Do not fight among yourself. Be perfectly pure in money dealings. So long as you have faith and honesty and devotion, everything will prosper. So long as there is no feeling of disunion amongst you, through the grace of the Lord, I assure, there is no danger for you. Do not open your mind, unless you feel it will be positively beneficial. Use agreeable and wholesome language towards the greatest enemy. Contraction is death. All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves, lives; he who is selfish, is dying. Therefore, love for love’s sake. Because, it is the only law of life.
All the work you do, is done for your own salvation, is done for your own benefit. God has not fallen into a ditch for you and me to help Him out by building a hospital, or something of that sort! He allows you to work… not in order to help Him, but that you may help yourself. Do you think even an ant will die for wants of your help? Most arrant blasphemy! The world does not need you at all. Cut of the word help from your mind. You cannot help; it is blasphemy! You worship. When you give a morsel of food to a dog, you worship dog as God. He is all and is in all.
Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world and thus, become pure and perfect. Be grateful to the man you help, think of his as God. It is not a great privilege to be allowed to worship God by helping our fellowmen?
After so much austerity, I have understood this as the real truth; God is present in every Jiva, there is no other God besides that. Who serves Jiva serves God indeed.
Calm and silent and steady work and no newspaper humbug, no name-making, you must always remember this.
Go all of you, wherever there is an outbreak of plague or famine, or wherever the people are in distress, and mitigate their sufferings. At the most you may die in the attempt. What of that? How many like you are taking birth and dying like worms, every day? What difference does that make to the world at large? Die you must, but have a great ideal to die for, and it is better to die with a great ideal in life. Preach this ideal from door to door and you will yourselves be benefited and at the same time, be doing good to your country. On you lies the future hope of our country. I feel extremely pain to see you leading a life of inaction. Set yourselves to work, to work ! do not tarry, the time of death is approaching day by day! Do not sit idle, thinking that everything will be done in time, later. Mind, nothing will be done that way.
Let us all work hard, my brethren; this is no time for sleep. On our work depends the coming of the India of the future. She is there ready, waiting. She is only sleeping. Arise and awake, and see her seated here, on her eternal throne, rejuvenated, more glorious than she ever was this motherland of ours.
Work unto death I am with you, and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes, wealth, fame, enjoyments are only for a few days. It is better, far better, to die on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. Advance!