Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda

A spiritual genius of commanding intellect and power, Vivekananda crammed immense labor and achievement into his short life, 1863-1902. Born in the Datta family of Calcutta, the youthful Vivekananda embraced the agnostic philosophies of the Western mind along with the worship of science.

At the same time, vehement in his desire to know the truth about God, he questioned people of holy reputation, asking them if they had seen God. He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him God vision, and transformed him into sage and prophet with authority to teach.

After Sri Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda renounced the world and criss-crossed India as a wandering monk. His mounting compassion for India's people drove him to seek their material help from the West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda won instant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his spiritual teaching.

For three years he spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America and England and then returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness, he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He died July 4, 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered into nine volumes.

"Vivekananda in Chicago, September 1893. On the left, Vivekananda wrote: "one infinite pure and holy – beyond thought beyond qualities I bow down to thee".

Born : Narendranath Datta 12 January 1863Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India(now Kolkata, West Bengal, India)

Died : 4 July 1902 (aged 39)Belur Math, Bengal Presidency,British India(now in West Bengal, India)

Nationality : Indian

Founder of : Ramakrishna Mission, Ramakrishna Math

Guru : Ramakrishna

Philosophy : Advaita Vedanta, Rāja yoga

Literary works : Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga, My Master,Lectures from Colombo to Almora . 

Notable disciple: Ashokananda, Virajananda,Paramananda, Alasinga Perumal,Abhayananda, Sister Nivedita,Swami Sadananda.

Quotation : "Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached"

Quotes by Swami Vivekananda

·        Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

·        Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success.

·        If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

·        As different streams having different sources all mingle their waters in the sea, so different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to God.

·        The world is the great gymnasium where we come to make ourselves strong.

·        You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

·        You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.

·        We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.

·        GOD is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.

·        All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything.