The Indian Monk Swami Vivekananda for the Service to Mankind:

[Narendranath Dutta]

Swami Vivekananda, born on January 12, 1863 initially knew as Narendranath Dutta, who was the chief disciple of the 19^th century mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and who the founder of Rama Krishna Mission was. He was a person who introduced a doctrine by the spirit of Vedanta and Yoga in Europe and America. He was credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of world religion during the end of the 19^th century. He is best known for his inspiring speech beginning with “Sisters and Brothers of America” through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World’s Religions at Chicago in 1893. From his childhood, Vivekananda showed inclination towards spirituality and God realization. He came in contact with Ramakrishna who taught him Adyaita Vedanta and that all religions are true and service to man was the most effective worship of God.  In course of time Vivekananda became a wandering monk, touring the Indian subcontinent first and later sailed to Chicago to attend the Parliament of World Religions in the year 1893. As an eloquent speaker, he was invited to several forums in the United States. He successfully preached the teachings of Vedanta, Yoga and Hinduism in America, England and Europe. His teachings influenced the other national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Sarvepalli Radhakrinan.

[Vision of one India]

The wandering Monk went to South India at Emakulam and proceeded to Kanyakumari on foot during the Christmas Eve of 1892. There he meditated for three days on the “last bit of Indian rock”, and that in later the rock became famous as the Vivekananda Rock Memorial. At Kanyakumari Vivekananda had the “Vision of one India”, also commonly called “The Kanyakumari resolve of 1892. He wrote, “ At Cape Camorin sitting in Mother Kumari’s temple, sitting on the last bit of Indian rock – I hit upon a plan: We are so many sanyasis wandering about, and teaching the people metaphysics-it is all madness. Did not our Gurudevo used to say, ‘An empty stomach is no good for religion?’. We as a nation have lot our individuality and that is the cause of all mischief in India. We have to raise the masses’.

Returned to India from West:

Vivekananda returned to India on 15^th January 1897. According to Vivekananda “Jiva is Shiva” (each individual is divinity itself). It was his ‘Mantra’, and he assimilated the concept of ‘daridra narayana seva’ – the service of God in and through (poor) human beings. He concluded that these distinctions vanish into nothingness in the light of oneness that the devotee experiences in MOKSHA. He founded the Sri Ramakrishna Math and Mission on the principle of one’s own salvation and for the welfare of the world. He advised his followers to be holy, unselfish and faithful. Swami Vivekananda is believed to have inspired India’s freedom struggle movement. His writings inspired a whole generation of freedom fighters including Aurobindo Ghosh and Bagha Jatin. He was the big brother of the extremist revolutionary, Bhupendranath Dutta and Subhash Chandra Bose who were the prominent figures in Indian independent movement.

Ramakrishna Mission:

The creation of Ramakrishna Mission to different places started with creation of Belur Math at Dakshnieswar at the opposite shore of River Ganga, 50 km away from the City of Kolkata in early 1888 and worked for relief works for the cause of sudden calamities apart from other activities. He used to say “If God can be worshipped in an image, can He not be worshipped in a living person”. Swami Vivekananda transformed relief and rehabilitation into an act of worship.

The statistics shows to day the Math and Mission have 171 centers all over the world – 128 in India, 13 in USA, 12 in Bangladesh, 2 in Russia, one each in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Fiji, France, and UK. Besides, there are many sub-centers. After triumphant success in spreading India’s message of Advaita Vedanta, which is nothing but Eternal Truth of Eternal Religion- Swami.

The writ-up of other leaders:

Mahatma Gandhi said, “ Swami Vivekanada’s writing need no introduction from anybody. They make their own irresistible appeal.”  Further Gandhi said that his whole life was an effort to bring into actions the ideas of Vivekananda. Many years after Vivekananda’s death, Rabindranath Tagore, a noble Poet Laureate had said, “ If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative.” The eminent British historian A L Basham stated that “ in centuries to come, he will be remembered as one of the mail moulders of the modern world..” One of the most significant contributions of Swami Vivekananda to the modern world is his interpretation of religion. It is a universal experience of transcendent Reality, common to all humanity. In addition to that Swamiji met the challenge of modern science by showing that religion is as scientific as science itself; religion is the ‘Science of Consciousness’. As such, religion and science are not contradictory to each other but are complementary.