Milestones-10: January 12

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Swami Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863 in Calcutta and attained mahasamadhi on July 4, 1902.

The Government of India in 1984 declared and decided to observe the Birthday of Swami Vivekananda as National Youth Day every year from 1985. It felt that the philosophy of Swami Vivekananda and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth.

To understand the impact of his powerful life, I am reproducing a passage from the wonderful book, "Eternal Values for A Changing Society" by Srimat Swami Ranganathanandaji Maharaj:

The Intensity of Vivekananda's Brief Life

"Swami Vivekananda's span of earthly life was hardly forty years, but within this short period, he lived an intense life, first as a student in school and college, then as the foremost disciple of his great Master, Sri Ramakrishna, then as a wanderer across the length and breadth of India, and lastly as the spiritual teacher of West and East. His public teaching commenced with his speeches at the World's Parliament of Religions at Chicago in 1893; and he passed away on 4 July 1902. He spent four intense years in the United States and England, and five equally intense years in India delivering his message of a universal and practical spirituality, and setting in motion a movement as an effective conduit for the furtherance of his message.

Everywhere, he taught man to realize his divine heritage. The innate divinity of man was the constant theme of his teachings. This teaching cuts across all divisions based on political or religious affiliations. Its assimilation by man will make for a character at once deep and broad. He held that spirituality was the core of every religion; dogmatic exclusiveness and intolerance are no part of true religion. The more spiritual a man, the more universal he is. He held that the modern age stood in urgent need of this education from religion, by which men will learn to make their love of God flow into the love and service of all men. He worked hard to give this spiritual orientation to the world's religions, so that they may be transformed into wholly constructive forces and become capable of redeeming modern man from his inner impoverishment in the context of external enrichment".

For further reading:

Biography of Swami Vivekananda from Vivekananda Vedanta Network:
http://www.vivekananda.org/biography.asp

Swami Vivekananda: Life and Teachings from Belurmath.org:
http://www.belurmath.org/swamivivekananda.htm

Swami Vivekananda, an article from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda

National Youth Day from Belurmath.org:
http://www.belurmath.org/national_youth_day.htm

Full text of the book, Vivekananda, A Biography by Swami Nikhilananda:
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda_biography/vivekananda_biography.htm

Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda:
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/reminiscences/reminiscences_of_sv.htm

Full Text of the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda (9 Volumes):
http://www.ramakrishnavivekananda.info/vivekananda/complete_works.htm

Grateful thanks to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan; Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, Belur Math; Advaita Ashrama; Ramakrishna Vivekananda.info and Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.