Swami Vivekananda whose pre-monastic name was Narendranath Dutta (Narendranath Dut-tta), was an Indian Hindu sage and one of the most famous and influential social reformers of the 19th century. A redoubtable spiritual leader, he was an exponent of Vedanta and Yoga. He was the the most eminent disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is a major figure in the history of the Hindu reform movements.
While he is widely credited with having uplifted his own nation, India, Vivekananda simultaneously introduced Yoga and Vedanta to America and England with his seminal lectures and private discourses on Vedanta philosophy. He was the first known Hindu sage to travel 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 the opening line “Sisters and Brothers of America,” made the audience clap for two minutes in appreciation, for prior to this seminal speech, they were always used to the usual address of “Ladies and Gentlemen.” It was this speech that catapulted him to fame by his 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, India on January 12, 1863, son of Viswanath Dutta and Bhuvaneswari Devi. From a very early age, he showed a precocious mind and keen memory. As a boy he practiced meditation. While at school, he was recognized early on as an academic genius, and showed excellence in 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. 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 the Brahmo Samaj whether they have seen God, but 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.
with Ramakrishna
Narendra met Ramakrishna for the first time in November 1881. He asked Ramakrishna the same question he had so often asked of others,[3] “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 a deep experience. He started visiting Ramakrishna frequently. At first he did not believe that such a plain man could have 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 either. It had always been in Narendra’s nature to test something thoroughly before he would 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 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 Sankara.
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. In August 1886, Ramakrishna’s end came in the form of throat cancer. 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
Swami VivekanandaSoon, the young monk of Baranagore wanted to live the life of a wandering monk with rags and a begging bowl and no other possessions. In 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 the Maharaja of Khetri, Ajit Singh, suggested to him the name Vivekananda because of his discernment of things, good and bad. Viveka or discrimination between the eternal and the transient was highly valued by the Swami, who, recollecting that Keshab Chandra Sen used to call him by that name, accepted it.
Vivekananda Temple on Vivekananda rock at Kanyakumari, IndiaDuring 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 realized 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 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
Vivekananda was encouraged by J.H. Wright, a professor of Greek at Harvard University, to represent Hinduism in the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. When he expressed reservations saying he had no credentials, the professor replied, “To ask you, Swami, for your credentials is like asking the sun about its right to shine.” He wrote about Vivekananda to the chairman of the committee on selection of delegates, “Here is a man more learned than all our learned professors put together.”
Vivekananda was received well at the Parliament of Religions, where he delivered a series of lectures. The audience arose in their seats and applauded loudly (for two minutes) when he started his first address with the famous words, “Sisters and brothers of America.” When the applause subsided the Swami began his speech by thanking the young nation “in the name of the most ancient monastic order in the world, the Vedic order of sannyasins.” 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.
Memorial Plaque inside the Art Institute. The plaque reads: “On this site between September 11 and 27, 1893, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the first Hindu monk from India to teach Vedanta in America, addressed the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in conjunction with the World’s Columbian Exposition. His unprecedented success opened the way for the dialogue between eastern and western religions.” On 11 November 1995, the stretch of Michigan Avenue that passes in front of the Art Institute was formally conferred the honorary name “Swami Vivekananda Way.”
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. He passed away in the evening after a session of prayer at Belur Math. He was 39. Doctors pronounced that the death was due to apoplexy, but the monks were convinced that he had attained mahasamadhi, as Sri Ramakrishna had predicted. Vivekananda had fulfilled his own prophecy of not living to be forty-years old.[8]
Vivekananda was a renowned thinker in his own right. One of his most important contributions was to demonstrate how Advaitin thinking is not merely philosophically far-reaching, but how it also has social, even political, consequences. One important lesson he claimed to receive from Ramakrishna was that “Jiva is Shiva ” (each individual is divinity itself). This became his Mantra, and he coined the concept of daridra narayana seva - the service of God in and through (poor) human beings. If there truly is the unity of Brahman underlying all phenomena, then on what basis do we regard ourselves as better or worse, or even as better-off or worse-off, than others? - This was the question he posed to himself. Ultimately, he concluded that these distinctions fade into nothingness in the light of the oneness that the devotee experiences in Moksha. What arises then is compassion for those “individuals” who remain unaware of this oneness and a determination to help them.
Swami Vivekananda belonged to that branch of Vedanta that held that no one can be truly free until all of us are. Even the desire for personal salvation has to be given up, and only tireless work for the salvation of others is the true mark of the enlightened person. He founded the Sri Ramakrishna Math and Mission on the principle of Atmano Mokshartham Jagad-hitaya cha (for one’s own salvation and for the welfare of the World).
However, Vivekananda also pleaded for a strict separation between religion and government (”church and state”) a value found in Freemasonry which as a Freemason he had been exposed to.[9] Although social customs had been formed in the past with religious sanction, it was not now the business of religion to interfere with matters such as marriage, inheritance and so on. The ideal society would be a mixture of Brahmin knowledge, Kshatriya culture, Vaisya efficiency and the egalitarian Shudra ethos. Domination by any one led to different sorts of lopsided societies. Vivekananda did not feel that religion, nor, any force for that matter, should be used forcefully to bring about an ideal society, since this was something that would evolve naturally by individualistic change when the conditions were right.
Vivekananda made a strict demarcation between the two classes of Hindu scriptures : the Sruti and the Smritis. The Sruti, by which is meant the Vedas, consist of eternally and universally valid spiritual truths. The Smritis on the other hand, are the dos and donts of religions, applicable to society and subject to revision from time to time. Vivekananda felt that existing Hindu smritis had to be revised for modern times. But the Srutis of course are eternal - they may only be re-interpreted.
Vivekananda advised his followers to be holy, unselfish and have shraddha (faith). He encouraged the practise of Brahmacharya (Celibacy). In one of the conversations with his childhood friend Sri Priya Nath Sinha he attributes his physical and mental strengths, eloquence to the practice of Brahmacharya.
Vivekananda didn’t advocate the emerging area of parapsychology, astrology (one instance can be found in his speech Man the Maker of his Destiny, Complete-Works, Volume 8, Notes of Class Talks and Lectures) saying that this form of curiosity doesn’t help in spiritual progress but actually hinders it.
Influence
Every one of the 20th century Indian leaders of note have acknowledged his influence, from Gandhi to Subhas Chandra Bose. The first governor general of independent India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, once observed that “Vivekananda saved Hinduism.” According to Subhas Chandra Bose, Vivekananda “is the maker of modern India” and for Mohandas Gandhi, Vivekananda’s influence increased his “love for his country a thousandfold.” Gandhi, who also strived for a lot of reform in Hinduism himself, said: Swami Vivekananda’s writings need no introduction from anybody. They make their own irresistible appeal. Many years after his death, Rabindranath Tagore (a prominent member of the Brahmo Samaj) had said: If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative. National Youth Day in India is held on his birthday, January 12, to commemorate him. This was a most fitting gesture as much of Swami Vivekananda’s writings concerned the Indian youth and how they should strive to uphold their ancient values whilst fully participating in the modern world.
Swami Vivekananda is widely considered to have inspired India’s freedom struggle movement. His writings inspired a whole generation of freedom fighters including Aurobindo Ghose and Bagha Jatin. Vivekananda was the brother of the extremist revolutionary, Bhupendranath Dutta. Subhash Chandra Bose one of the most prominent figures in Indian independence movement said,
I cannot write about Vivekananda without going into raptures. Few indeed could comprehend or fathom him even among those who had the privilege of becoming intimate with him. His personality was rich, profound and complex… Reckless in his sacrifice, unceasing in his activity, boundless in his love, profound and versatile in his wisdom, exuberant in his emotions, merciless in his attacks but yet simple as a child, he was a rare personality in this world of ours
Aurobindo Ghosh considered Vivekananda as his spiritual mentor.
Vivekananda was a soul of puissance if ever there was one, a very lion among men, but the definitive work he has left behind is quite incommensurate with our impression of his creative might and energy. We perceive his influence still working gigantically, we know not well how, we know not well where, in something that is not yet formed, something leonine, grand, intuitive, upheaving that has entered the soul of India and we say, “Behold, Vivekananda still lives in the soul of his Mother and in the souls of her children. –Sri Aurobindo–1915 in Vedic Magazine.
Vivekananda inspired Jamshedji Tata[11] to set up Indian Institute of Science, one of India’s finest Institutions. Abroad, he had some interactions with Max Mueller. Nikola Tesla was one of those influenced by the Vedic philosophy teachings of the Swami Vivekananda.
Above all Swami Vivekananda helped restore a sense of pride amongst the Hindus, presenting the ancient teachings of India in its purest form to a Western audience, free from the propaganda spread by British colonial administrators and Christian missionaries, of Hinduism being a caste-ridden, misogynistic idolatrous faith. Indeed his early foray into the West would set the path for subsequent Indian religious teachers to make their own marks on the world, as well herald the entry of Hindus and their religious traditions into the Western world.
Swami Vivekananda’s ideas have had a great influence on the Indian youth. In many institutes, students have come together and formed organizations meant for promoting discussion of spiritual ideas and the practice of such high principles. Many of such organizations have adopted the name Vivekananda Study Circle. One such group also exists at IIT Madras and is popularly known as (VSC). Additionally, Swami Vivekananda’s ideas and teachings have carried on globally, being practiced in institutions all over the world.
[edit] Vivekananda and science
In his book Raja Yoga, Vivekananda writes that practice of Raja Yoga can confer psychic powers such as ‘reading another’s thoughts’, ‘controlling all the forces of nature[12]‘, become ‘almost all-knowing’, ‘live without breathing’, ‘control the bodies of others’ and levitation. He also explains traditional eastern spiritual concepts like kundalini and spiritual energy centres.[13]
However, Vivekananda himself says in the book,
“ It is not the sign of a candid and scientific mind to throw overboard anything without proper investigation. Surface scientists, unable to explain the various extraordinary mental phenomena, strive to ignore their very existence.[14] ”
He further says in the introduction of the book that one should take up the practice and verify these things for themselves, and that there should not be blind belief.
“ What little I know I will tell you. So far as I can reason it out I will do so, but as to what I do not know I will simply tell you what the books say. It is wrong to believe blindly. You must exercise your own reason and judgment; you must practise, and see whether these things happen or not. Just as you would take up any other science, exactly in the same manner you should take up this science for study. [15] ”
Vivekananda (1895) rejected ether theory before Einstein (1905), stating that it cannot explain the space itself.
The great electrical engineer, Nikola Tesla, after listening to Vivekananda’s speech on Sankhya Philosophy, was much interested in its cosmogony and its rational theories of the Kalpas (cycles), Prana and Akasha. His notion based on the vedanta led him to think that matter is a manifestation of energy . After attending a lecture on vedanta by Vivekananda Tesla also concluded that, modern science can look for the solution of cosmological problems in Sankhya philosophy, and he could prove that mass can be reduced to potential energy mathematically.[17]
Works
Vivekananda left a body of philosophical works (see Vivekananda’s complete works) which Vedic scholar Frank Parlato has called, “the greatest comprehensive work in philosophy ever published.” His books (compiled from lectures given around the world) on the four Yogas (Raja Yoga, Karma Yoga, Bhakti Yoga, Jnana Yoga) are very influential and still seen as fundamental texts for anyone interested in the Hindu practice of Yoga. His letters are of great literary and spiritual value. He was also considered a very good singer and a poet[citation needed]. He had composed many songs including his favorite Kali the Mother. He used humor for his teachings and was also an excellent cook. His language is very free flowing. His own Bengali writings stand testimony to the fact that he believed that words - spoken or written should be for making things easier to understand rather than show off the speaker or writer’s knowledge.
Abhinav Bindra Born September 28, 1982 (1982-09-28) (age 25)
