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Swami Vivekananda (January 12, 1863 - July 4,
1902), whose pre-monastic name was Narendranath Dutta , was one of the most
famous and influential spiritual leaders of the philosophies of Vedanta and
Yoga. He was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. He is a major figure in the history of
Hinduism and India.
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While he is widely credited
with having uplifted his own nation, simultaneously he introduced Yoga and
Vedanta to America and England with his seminal lectures and private
discourses on Vedanta philosophy. Vivekananda was the first known Hindu Sage
to come to the West, where he introduced Eastern thought at the World's
Parliament of Religions, in connection with the World's Fair in Chicago, in
1893. Here, his first lecture, which started with this line "Sisters and
Brothers of America," made the audience clap for two minutes just to the
address, for prior to this seminal speech, the audience was always used to
this opening address: "Ladies and Gentlemen". It was this speech that
catapulted him to fame by his by wide audiences in Chicago and then later
everywhere else in America, including far-flung places such as Memphis,
Boston, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, and St. Louis.
Biography
Birth and early life
Narendranath Dutta was born in Shimla Pally, Kolkata, West Bengal, India on
January 12, 1863 as the son of Viswanath Dutta and Bhuvaneswari Devi. Even
as he was young, he showed a precocious mind and keen memory. He practiced
meditation from a very early age. While at school, he was good at studies,
as well as games of various kinds. He organized an amateur theatrical
company and a gymnasium and took lessons in fencing, wrestling, rowing and
other sports. He also studied instrumental and vocal music. He was a leader
among his group of friends. Even when he was young, he questioned the
validity of superstitious customs and discrimination based on caste and
religion.
In 1879, Narendra entered the Presidency College, Calcutta for higher
studies. After one year, he joined the Scottish Church College, Calcutta and
studied philosophy. During the course, he studied western logic, western
philosophy and history of European nations.
Questions started to arise in young Narendra's mind about God and the
presence of God. This made him associate with the Brahmo Samaj, an important
religious movement of the time, led by Keshub Chunder Sen. And along with
his classmate and friend Brajendra Nath Seal, he regularly attended meetings
of the breakaway Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. Later they would part ways with
Dutta aligning himself with Keshub Chunder Sen's Nava Vidhan and Seal
staying on as an initiated member. During this time spent together, both
Dutta and Seal sought to understand the intricacies of faith, progress and
spiritual insight into the works of John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte, Herbert
Spencer and G.W.F. Hegel.
But the Samaj's congregational prayers and devotional songs could not
satisfy Narendra's zeal to realize God. He would ask leaders of Brahmo Samaj
whether they have seen God. Their answers did not satisfy his quest for
knowledge. It was during this time that Reverend William Hastie, the
Principal of the Scottish Church College told him about Sri Ramakrishna of
Dakshineswar.
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With
Ramakrishna
Narendra met Ramakrishna for the first time in November 1881. He asked
Ramakrishna the same old question he has asked others so often, "Mahashaya
(Venerable Sir), have you seen god?." The instantaneous answer from Ramakrishna
was, "Yes, I see God, just as I see you here, only in a much intenser sense." "
God can be realized," he went on; "one can see and talk to Him as I am seeing
and talking to you. But who cares? People shed torrents of tears for their wife
and children, for wealth or property, but who does so for the sake of God? If
one weeps sincerely for Him, he surely manifests Himself.". Narendra was
astounded and puzzled. He could feel the man's words were honest and uttered
from depths of experience. He started visiting Ramakrishna frequently. At first
he did not believe that such a plain man could've seen god but gradually he
started having faith in what Ramkrishna said.
Though Narendra could not accept
Ramakrishna and his visions, he could not neglect him. It had always been in
Narendra's nature to test something thoroughly before he could accept it. He
tested Ramakrishna to the maximum, but the master was patient, forgiving,
humorous, and full of love. He never asked Narendra to abandon reason, and he
faced all of Narendra's arguments and examinations with infinite patience. In
time, Narendra accepted Ramakrishna, and when he accepted, his acceptance was
whole-hearted. While Ramakrishna predominantly taught duality and Bhakti to his
other disciples, he taught Narendra the Advaita Vedanta, the philosophy of
non-dualism.
During the course of five years of his training under Ramakrishna, Narendra was
transformed from a restless, puzzled, impatient youth to a mature man who was
ready to renounce everything for the sake of God-realization. Soon,
Ramakrishna's end came in the form of throat cancer in August 1886. After this
Narendra and a core group of Ramakrishna's disciples took vows to become monks
and renounce everything, and started living in a supposedly haunted house in
Baranagore. They took alms to satisfy their hunger and their other needs were
taken care of by Ramakrishna's richer householder disciples.
Wanderings in India
Soon, the young monk of Baranagore wanted to live the life of a wandering monk
with rags and a begging bowl and no other possessions. On July 1890, Vivekananda
set out for a long journey, without knowing where the journey would take him.
The journey that followed took him to the length and breadth of the Indian
subcontinent. During these days, Vivekananda assumed various names like
Vividishananda (in Sanskrit, Vividisha means "the desire to know" and Ananda
means "bliss"), Satchidananda, etc., It is said that he was given the name
Vivekananda by Maharaja of Khetri for his discernment of things, good and bad.
During these wandering days, Vivekananda stayed in kings' palaces, as well as
the huts of the poor. He came in close contact with the culture of different
regions of India and various classes of people in India. Vivekananda observed
the imbalance in society and tyranny in the name of caste. He realised the need
for a national rejuvenation if India was to survive at all. He reached
Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian subcontinent on 24 December
1892. There, he swam across the sea and started meditating on a lone rock. He
thus meditated for three days and said later that he meditated about the past,
present and future of India. The rock went on to become the Vivekananda memorial
at Kanyakumari.
Vivekananda Temple on Vivekananda rock at Kanyakumari, IndiaVivekananda went to
Madras and spoke about his plans for India and Hinduism to the young men of
Madras. They were impressed by the monk and urged him to go to the United States
and represent Hinduism in the World Parliament of Religions. The Raja of Ramnad,
who was originally invited for the conference, promoted Vivekananda as the right
person to represent the views of Hinduism in the Parliament. Thus, helped by his
friends at Chennai, Bhaskara Sethupathi, Raja of Ramnad and Maharajas of Mysore
and Khetri, Vivekananda set out on his journey to the USA.
In one of his lectures in California, the swami described about his condition
during wandering days as follows:
“ Many times I have been in the jaws of death, starving, footsore, and weary;
for days and days I had no food, and often could walk no farther; I would sink
down under a tree, and life would seem to be ebbing away. I could not speak, I
could scarcely think, but at last the mind reverted to the idea: "I have no fear
nor death; never was I born, never did I die; I never hunger or thirst. I am It!
I am It! The whole of nature cannot crush me; it is my servant. Assert thy
strength, thou Lord of lords and God of gods! Regain thy lost empire! Arise and
walk and stop not!" And I would rise up, reinvigorated; and here I am today,
living! Thus, whenever darkness comes, assert the reality and everything adverse
must vanish. For after all, it is but a dream. Mountain-high though the
difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but
Maya. Fear not, and it is banished. Crush it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it,
and it dies. ”
In the West
Swami Vivekananda in London, 1896Vivekananda was received well at the 1893 World
Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he delivered a series of lectures. He
also earned wild applause for beginning his address with the famous words,
"Sisters and brothers of America." A newspaper account described him as "an
orator by divine right and undoubtedly the greatest figure at the Parliament."
Vivekananda's arrival in the USA has been identified by many to mark the
beginning of western interest in Hinduism not as merely an exotic eastern
oddity, but as a vital religious and philosophical tradition that might actually
have something important to teach the West.
Vivekananda successfully introduced yoga and Vedanta to the West and lectured
around America introducing the topics (1894-6). He taught hundreds of students
privately in free classes held in his own room beginning in New York in 1895.
Later, he started Vedantic centers in New York City and London, lectured at
major universities and generally kindled western interest in Hinduism. His
success was not without controversy, much of it from Christian missionaries of
whom he was fiercely critical. After four years of constant touring, lecturing
and retreats in the West, he came back to India in the year 1897.
Back in India
Admirers and devotees of
Vivekananda gave him an enthusiastic reception on his return to India. In India,
he delivered a series of lectures, and this set of lectures known as "Lectures
from Colombo to Almora" is considered to have uplifted the morale of the then
downtrodden Indian society. He founded one of the world's largest charitable
relief missions, the Ramakrishna Mission and reorganized the ancient Swami order
by founding one of the most significant and largest monastic orders in India,
the Ramakrishna Math.
However, he had to bear great criticism from other orthodox Hindus for having
traveled in the West. In his day there was hardly a Hindu in America and he
received criticism for crossing the ocean, at that time a cause for "outcasting."
Vivekananda scoffed at these critiques from the orthodox saying "I cannot be
outcast - As a monk, I am beyond caste." His contemporaries also questioned his
motives, wondering whether the fame and glory of his Hindu evangelism
compromised his original monastic vows. His enthusiasm for America and Britain,
and his spiritual devotion to his motherland, caused significant tension in his
last years.
He once again toured the west from January 1899 to December 1900. He inculcated
a spirit of respect and good will for exchanges between the East and the West.
He had American disciples whom he brought to India and initiated as Swamis and
brought Indian Swamis to America where they and their successors have been ever
since.
Death
On July 4, 1902 at Belur Math near Calcutta, he taught Vedanta philosophy to
some pupils in the morning. He had a walk with Swami Premananda, a
brother-disciple and gave him instructions concerning the future of the
Ramakrishna Math. Vivekananda passed away in Mahasamadhi after a session of
prayer at Belur Math. He had predicted that he would die before the age of 40,
which proved to be true when he died at the age of 39.
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