SWAMI VIVEKANANDA - THE LIGHT OF WISDOM

SWAMI  VIVEKANANDA  -  THE LIGHT OF WISDOM

 

 

Swami Vivekananada, born Narendranath Datta, was an Indian Hindu monk, social reformer and philosopher.  

 

Swamiji was a world spokesperson  for Vedanta.  His lectures, letters and poems are published as The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.  Swamiji, as Vivekananda  is affectionately known, believed it was best to teach universal principles  rather than personalities.  

 

Swamiji was an orator, singer, poet and an artist.  He was also known as social reformer, spiritual leader and philosopher.

 

He was one of the most celebrated spiritual leaders of India.  He was a prolific thinker, great orator and passionate patriot.  He was instrumental in reviving Hinduism and establishing it as a revered religion on the  world stage. 

 

He was a chief disciple of the 19th century Indian mystic guru Ramakrishna Paramhansa. Swami Vivekananda was the founder of Ramakrishna Mission on the banks of River Ganges.

 

He was born in Calcutta (Kolkata),  the Capital city of Indian state Bengal on 12th January, 1863.

As a young boy, Swami Vivekananda displayed sharp intellect.  His mischievous nature belied his interest in music both instrumental as well as vocal. He excelled in his studies as well.   First, at the Metropolitan, and then in the Presidency College in Calcutta.  By the time he graduated from the college, he had acquired a vast knowledge in different subjects. He was active in sports, gymnastics, wrestling and body building. He was an avid reader and read up on almost everything under the sun.  He perused the Hindu scriptures like Bhagvad  Gita and Upanishads  on the one hand, while on the other hand he studied western philosophy, history and spirituality by the famous writers David Hume, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Herbert Spencer.

Swamiji was a popular figure in UK and United States of America.  His Chicago lectures are very famous.  He influenced many western disciples and they followed him to Calcutta            (Kolkata), where he started  Ramakrishna Mission foundation.in 1897.

Swami Vivekananda died on July 4, 1902 near Calcutta at the age of 39 during his meditation or Mahasamadhi.

 

He was a spiritual leader and reformer in India who attempted to combine Indian spirituality with Western material progress, maintaining that  the two supplemented and complimented one another.

 

 

 

Born into the upper-middle-class family of Kayastha's (scribes)  caste in Bengal, he was educated in Western-style university where he was exposed to Western Philosophy, Christianity, and Science.  Social reform became a prominent element of Vivekananda's thoughts, and he joined "Brahmo Samaj" (Society of Brahma) , dedicated to eliminate child marriage and illiteracy and determined to spread education among the women and lower castes.

  

Netaji Subash Chandra Bose once said,   "Swamiji harmonized the east and the west, religion and science, past and present.  And that is why he is great.  Our countrymen has gained unprecedented self-respect, self-reliance and self-assertion from his teachings".

He has traveled the length and breadth of India, thru jungles, Himalayas and large towns and cities by road, bullock cart and rail.  During  the travel he met a cross-section of people from the Maharaja to the man on the street and interacted with them.

 

During one of his sojourn to South India, he stayed  in Thiruvananthapuram for several days and spent some days in Cape Comerin (Kanyakumari), in the southern-most tip of India. He also visited the temple town  Nagercoil close to Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu in December, 1892.

In Kanyakumari, he saw the large rocks in the sea and wanted to reach there.  He asked some boatmen to take him there but he did not have money to pay them.  He then swam  across the sea to reach the rocks. A shocked boatmen asked him to return to the shore as this adventure was fatal.  A determined Swami Vivekananda safely swam and reached the rocks.  After reaching the rocks, he spent three days and three nights on the rocks doing meditation.

Today, in Kanyakumari and closer to Nagercoil there is a monument namely "Vivekananda Rock", a memorial for Swami Vivekananda, surrounded by waters in the Indian ocean.  No tourist misses a visit to Kanyakumari and Vivekananda Rock.

 

                            

  

                                                    Vivekananda Rock Memorial

Swami's absolute was a person's own higher self; to labour for the benefit of humanity was the noblest endeavour.

He later became the most-notable disciple of Ramakrishna, who demonstrated  the essential unity of all religions.

 

"Everything is ended if you forgive and forget" - Swami Vivekananda

  

Swamiji  was a prominent nationalist, and had the overall welfare of his countrymen top most in his mind.  He urged his fellow countrymen to  "Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached". 

 

Swamiji was an advocate of Advaita Vedanta.   It is incomplete, if not referred the  Vadanta philosophy while we discuss the life and times of Swami Vivekananda.

 

Vedanta is a spiritual philosophy and has its root in Vedas / Upanishad (Shruti).  Vedanta is also known as "Uttara Mimamsa" and is one of the six schools (astika) of Hindu philosophy.  The  word Vedanta means the end (-anta) of Vedas (ved-).  The core ideas of the Vedantas  come from the texts of Prasthana Trayi, i.e., the three sources of divine philosophy of Hinduism, namely Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita and the Brahma Sutras.  Vedanta is not one particular doctrine or philosophy.  It comprises several different schools of thought, and Advaita Vedanta is the oldest extant sub-school  of Vedanta.

 

Advaita Vedanta is a non-dualistic school of Hindu philosophy originating primarily from the Upanishads. It is then elaborated on by eminent scholars such as Gaudapada and Sri Adi Shankaracharya.  Advaita meaning can be explained by two words. Dvaita refers to duality, whereas Advaita refers to non-duality.  The actual Advaitam meaning is described as the absence of duality between subject and object. When we are awake, we experience duality, but in a deep sleep, we only experience non-duality.

 

Advaita Vedanta is a great mash-up of various Hindu philosophies with a very good core inspiration. Advaita Vedanta is one of the most followed and influential schools of classical Indian thought.  Although several scholars classify Advaita philosophy  as a type of monism, others classify it as non-dualistic.  Advaita Vedanta texts advocate a range of viewpoints, from idealism, including illusionism, to realistic or almost realistic positions mentioned in Shankara's early works.

The Vedanta Society of Southern California was founded in 1929 in Los Angeles, California. USA.  The Society is under the spiritual leadership of the Ramakrishna Order of India.  The Society's headquarters are in Hollywood, California and it maintains branch centers in Santa Barbara, San Diego, South Pasadena and Trabuco Canyon in Orange County. 

The influence of such as David Hume, Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Herbert Spencer, the distinguished writers, and their literature, simulated more growth for the Society.  Since men and women interested in monastic life began to come, and soon nearby houses were acquired to house a convent and a monastery. 

"It is faith that makes a lion of a man"   - Swami Vivekananda

 

Swamiji had greater influence on the youth.    His birthday January 12 is celebrated as National Youth Day in India.