Swami Vivekananda’s birthday |17 January 2011

Vivekananda was named Narendra by his parents. All over the world his admirers and disciples celebrate his birthday on January 12 as Vedanta Day. In India it is celebrated as National Youth Day.

September 11, when he made his famous speech to the Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 is celebrated as World Brotherhood Day.  The Hindu Council of Seychelles also celebrates this day as homage to the great personality and to learn from his works and philosophy.

Swami Vivekananda was one of the greatest social reformers and a very inspiring personality. He was the pride of India.
 He made an immense contribution to purifying the souls of people.

He always said that God dwells inside every heart. He was of the opinion that a person who cannot see God in poor and unhealthy people, but claims to see God in the idol, is not a true worshipper.

According to the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda, a person who is not compassionate towards other living beings cannot find God, even if he regularly visits the temple. Thus he always asked people to see God in all.
 
He advocated that God lies within you. So you don't need to go anywhere outside to find God, as the God is there in your own heart. Your heart and your conscience are your God, to whom you are accountable for your deeds.

He was the chief disciple of the 19th century mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Mission. Rarely does humanity witness a combination of a great guru (spiritual teacher) and equally capable shishya (spiritual aspirant) as Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda.

He is considered a key figure in the introduction of the Hindu philosophies of vedanta and yoga to Europe and America, and is also credited with raising interfaith awareness and bringing Hinduism to the status of a world religion during the end of the 19th century.

He studied the Sanskrit and Bengali languages even when he was young. Later, he studied in a college at Calcutta. During this period he studied Eastern and Western philosophies.

His father died before Narendra could complete his education so he had to take up the responsibility as the head of the family. He had to face many difficulties and he lost his peace of mind.

In those days there lived a sage by the name of Ramakrishna Parama Hamsa in the village of Dakshineswaram near Calcutta. Ramakrishna took Narendra as his disciple and taught him all the Godly knowledge he knew.

He named Narendra “Vivekananda”. In the year 1888 Ramakrishna passed away and Vivekananda took his place as guru. In 1893 he attended the conference of all religions in Chicago, representing the Hindu religion. He delivered informative lectures about Hinduism and impressed the greatness of the Hindu religion on all nations.

He travelled widely in America, England, France and many other foreign countries. He had disciples in all these countries. The Ramakrishna Mission, which has branches all over the world, is the greatest monument that stands to his greatness.

Teachings of Vivekananda:

• Each soul is potentially divine.

• The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal.

• Do this by work, worship, psychic control or philosophy – by one or more or all of these – and be free.

• This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms are but secondary details.

• So long as even a single dog in my country is without food, my whole religion is to feed it and serve it, anything excluding that is unreligious.

• Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.

• Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man.

• Religion is the manifestation of divinity already in man.

• Serving man is serving God.

• The three requisites for success are perseverance, patience and purity.

• If you think negative, then only negative things will happen in your life. Always think that you can do it, only then will you be able to do it. Be optimistic in life.

• Strength is something that we need the most in our lives. People who are not strong enough to deal with the tough situations finally land in trouble and misery. Swami Vivekananda said weakness is the root cause of ignorance, and ignorance leads to misery.

The Parliament of Religions opened on September 11, 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago. On this day Vivekananda gave his first brief address. He represented India and Hinduism. Though initially nervous, he bowed to Saraswati, the goddess of learning, and began his speech with: "Sisters and brothers of America!"
 
For these words he received a standing ovation from a crowd of 7,000, which lasted for two minutes. When silence was restored he began his address. He greeted the youngest of the nations in the name of "the most ancient order of monks in the world, the Vedic order of sannyasins, a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance".

And he quoted two illustrative passages in this regard from the Bhagavad Gita: "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!"

And: "Whosoever comes to me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths that in the end lead to me."

Despite being a short speech, it voiced the spirit of the Parliament and its sense of universality.

• Swami Vivekananda was the first Indian to be invited to accept the chair of Oriental Philosophy at Harvard.

• The Place of Jamshedpur, the great Indian iron ore mine of Tata, was indicated by Swami Vivekananda to Jamshedji Tata. Tata also set up the Tata Institute or the Indian Institute of Science at Bengaluru on the Swamiji's advice and vision to provide quality higher technology and scientific education to Indian students.

• In 1963, on the occasion of the birth centenary celebration of Swami Vivekananda, the country unveiled a huge rock memorial at Kanyakumari. Every year millions of people from around the world visit this place.

• On November 11, 1995, a section of Michigan Avenue, one of the most prominent streets in Chicago, was formally renamed Swami Vivekananda Way.

Three days before his death he pointed out the spot for his cremation – the one at which a temple in his memory stands today. He had remarked to several people that he would not live to be 40.

On the day of his death, he taught Shukla-Yajur-Veda to some pupils in the morning at Belur Math. He had a walk with Swami Premananda, a brother disciple, and gave him instructions concerning the future of the Ramakrishna Math.
 
Vivekananda died at 9.10pm on July 4, 1902 while he was meditating. According to his disciples, this was Mahasamadhi.

Contributed by Rajesh Agrawal,

executive member,

Hindu Council of Seychelles