Swami Vivekananda
- 3. INTRODUCTION Swami Vivekananda born as Narendranath Dutta was an Indian Hindu monk and chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhansa. He was a key figure in the introduction of the Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world. Swami Vivekananda was a major force for revivalism of Hinduism in India and contributed to the concept of nationalism among youth of India in Colonial India. Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.
- 4. EARLY LIFE Swami Vivekananda was born in Calcutta on 12th January 1863 during the Makar Sankrant festival. His father was Vishwanath Dutta who was an attorney at Calcutta High Court and mother was Bhuvaneshwari Devi a devout housewife. He belonged to a traditional Bengali Kayastha family. Swami Vivekanda was spiritual from a very young age and was fascinated by wandering ascetics. As a child he was very naughty and restless. His mother would often say, ‘ I prayed to Lord Shiva for a son and he has sent one of his demons.’
- 6. EDUCATION Swami Vivekananda did his primary schooling from IshwarChandra Vidyasagar School and secondary schooling from Presidency College. Swamiji completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts from the prestigious Scottish Church College in Kolkata. He was an avid reader and was interested in a wide range of subjects like religion, science, philosophy, history, art and literature. He was also interested in Hindu scriptures including the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayan, the Mahabharat and the Puranas.
- 7. EDUCATION Vivekananda studied the works of eminent people like David Hume, Charles Darwin, Immanuel Kant, J.S. Mill, August Comte. He was fascinated by the evolutionism of Herbert Spencer and corresponded with him and translated his work ‘Education’ into Bengali.
- 8. SPIRITUAL APPRENTICESHIP Vivekananda’s first introduction to Ramakrishna Paramhansa occurred during a literature class in Scottish Church College. During the class of Professor William Hastie while explainig the meaning of trance he urged his students to visit Ramakrishna Paramhansa to understand the true meaning of trance.
- 10. SPIRITUAL APPRENTICESHIP A meeting with Ramakrishna Paramhansa at Dakshineshwar proved to be a turning point in his life. Initially Swami Vivekananda rejected Ramakrishna as his teacher and rebelled against his ideas but he was attracted by the personality of Ramakrishna and so frequently visited him. Narendra tested Ramakrishna and Ramakrishna answered all his questions and queries patiently.
- 11. SPIRITUAL APPRENTICESHIP Vivekananda had to go through financial crunch following his father’s early death. He started visiting Ramakrishna more frequently. Swami Vivekananda finally accepted Ramakrishna as his guru and renounced everything for realisation of GOD. During the last days of Ramakrishna when he experienced Nirvikalpa Samadhi he appointed Swamiji as his successor. Ramakrishna Paramhansa died during the early hours of 16 August 1886 in Cossipore, Kolkata.
- 12. TRAVELS IN INDIA Swami Vivekananda toured the whole of India to explore it and experience and learn from its diversity. Vivekananda’s first destination was the oldest city in the world and also the spiritual capital of India Varanasi. He met various ascetics and monks there from throughout India. He later visited Ayodhya, Rishikesh, Agra, Lucknow, Vrindavan and Hathras. He intiated Sharat Chandra Gupta into sannyasa order and asked him to serve the country. Swami Vivekananda toured the Himalayas and interacted with various sannyasins. Nainital, Almora, Srinagar, Dehradun and Haridwar were blessed by Swamiji’s tour.
- 13. RAJPUTANA Swami Vivekananda toured erstwhile Rajputana and visited places like Alwar, Jaipur, Ajmer and Mount Abu. In Rajasthan he studied Panini’s Ashtadhyayi with the help of a sanskrit scholar. He visited Akbar’s palace and Dargah Sharif in Ajmer. At Mount Abu he met Raja Ajit Singh of Khetri, who became his ardent devotee and supporter.
- 14. WEST INDIA Next on Swamiji’s map were Maharashtra and Gujarat. Swamiji’s stayed for a brief time at Ahmedabad, Wadhwan, Dwarka and Porbander. At Kathiawar he heard of World Parliament of Religions and was urged by his followers to attend it. He then visited Bombay, Pune, Mahabaleshwar and met Bal Gangadhar Tilak during a train journey. In the course of his journey he learnt about and mastered scriptures of various religions like Jainism, Islam and Christianity.
- 15. SOUTH INDIA Swami Vivekananda was the guest of Maharaja of Mysore State and visited various places like Thrissur, Ernakulam, Kanyakumari and Thiruvananthapuram. At Kanyakumari Swamiji meditated on the last bit of Indian rock which later came to be known as Vivekananda Rock Memorial. At Kanyakumari only Vivekananda had the vision of One INDIA in which he urged the need to raise the masses.
- 17. PARLIAMENT OF WORLD RELIGIONS At the parliament of world religions Swamiji gave a thunderous speech and represented India and Hinduism. He started his speech with ‘Brothers and Sisters of America’ for which he got a standing ovation from the 7000 strong crowd for about 2 minutes. By his speech at America he created a niche for INDIA on the world stage. He was referred to as the ‘cyclonic monk’ and orator by divine right. .
- 18. PARLIAMENT OF WORLD RELIGIONS American media printed that it was very foolish of them to send Christian missionaries to such a learned nation. The World Parliament of Religions was the diplomatic as well as spiritual victory for India and it raised standard and position of INDIA among world citizens
- 20. LECTURES IN THE US AND ENGLAND Swami Vivekananda spent two years giving lectures in the US. He established the VEDANTA SOCIETY in New York. In England he met Margareth Elizabeth Noble an Irish woman who became his disciple and later came to be known as Sister Nivedita. Vivekananda also met Max Muller and Paul Deussen who were noted Indologists. Swami Vivekananda was offered academic chairs at Harvard as well as Columbia Universtiy but he declined both the offers since his duties would conflict with his commitment as a monk.
- 21. LECTURES IN THE US AND ENGLAND Vivekananda attracted followers and admirers in the U.S. and Europe, including Josephine MacLeod, William James, Josiah Royce, Robert G. Ingersoll, Nikola Tesla, Lord Kelvin, Harriet Monroe,Sarah Bernhardt, Emma Calvé and Hermann Ludwig He initiated several followers : Marie Louise became Swami Abhayananda, and Leon Landsberg became Swami Kripanandaso that they could continue the work of the mission of the Vedanta Society.
- 22. LECTURES IN THE US AND ENGLAND Swamiji translated The Imitataion Of Christ and published it in Brahmavadin in 1889. Swamiji left for India in 1896 and on the way to India visited France and Naples in Italy. He was followed by Sister Nivedita to India and she devoted her whole life to educate Indian women and fight for India’s Independence.
- 23. BACK IN INDIA Swami Vivekananda returned to India and on 1st May,1897 established Ramkrishna Mission in Kolkata. The ideals of the mission are based on Karma Yoga and the its governing body consists of trustees of the Ramakrishna Math. The headquarters of the Mission is situated at Belur Math. Vivekananda inspired Jamsetji Kanga to found an research and education centre . Tata established Research Institute of Science and asked Vivekananda to head it but he declined humbly owing to his spiritual interests.
- 24. FINAL YEARS Swami Vivekananda gave lectures concerning worship of lingam and authenticity of the Bhagavad Gita in Paris. He then visited Brittany, Istanbul, Athens, Vienna and Egypt. Swamiji then retreated to Belur Math where he coordinated the works of Ramkrishna Mission. He had to restrict his activities due to deteriorating health and did pilgrimages to Bodhgaya and Varanasi.
- 25. DEATH Swami Vivekananda left this materialistic world for heavenly abode on 4th July 1902. He attained Mahasamadhi on this day. He was cremated on a sandalwood funeral pyre on the banks of Ganga in Belur, opposite where his guru Ramakrishna was cremated 16 years earlier.
- 26. TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY Vivekananda believed that a country's future depends on its people, and his teachings focused on human development. He wanted "to set in motion a machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest". Vivekananda believed that the essence of Hinduism was best expressed in the Vedanta philosophy, based on Adi Shankara’s interpretation. Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship, or mental discipline, or philosophy—by one, or more, or all of these—and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
- 27. TEACHINGS AND PHILOSOPHY "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, that is way great spiritual giants are produced".
- 28. INFLUENCE AND LEGACY Vivekananda revitalised Hinduism within and outside India, and was the principal reason for the enthusiastic reception of yoga, transcendental meditation and other forms of Indian spiritual self-improvement in the West. Sri Aurobindo regarded Vivekananda as the one who awakened India spiritually. Mahatma Gandhi counted him among the few Hindu reformers "who have maintained this Hindu religion in a state of splendor by cutting down the dead wood of tradition".
- 29. INFLUENCE AND LEGACY The first governor-general of independent India, Chakravarti Rajagopalachari, said "Vivekananda saved Hinduism, saved India". According to Subhas Chandra Bose, a proponent of armed struggle for Indian independence, Vivekananda was "the maker of modern India";for Gandhi, Vivekananda's influence increased Gandhi's "love for his country a thousandfold". Vivekananda influenced India's independence movementhis writings inspired freedom fighters such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghose, Bal Gangadhar Tilakand Bagha Jatin and intellectuals such as Aldous Huxley, Christopher Isherwood, Romain Rolland.
- 31. INFLUENCE AND LEGACY Many years after Vivekananda's death Rabindranath Tagore told French Nobel laureate Romain Rolland, "If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative". Rolland wrote, "His words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Händel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks, what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued from the lips of the hero
- 32. INFLUENCE AND LEGACY Swami Vivekananda inspired Jamsetji Tata to establish IISc which is one of the premier science research institute in India. Scientist Nikola Tesla was influenced by the Vedic teachings of Swamiji. National Youth Day is observed in India on 12th January in memory of Swamiji’s speech at the parliament of world religions.
- 34. INFLUENCE AND LEGACY The 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda was celebrate with great gusto in India as well as abroad. Bengali director Utpal Sinha made a film The Light- Swami Vivekananda as a tribute to him. PM of India Narendra Modi regards Swami Vivekananda as his guru and constant source of inspiration. Swami Vivekananda’s teachings continue to inspire people and instill in them a new vigour. Swami Vivekananda has become immortal in world history as his message has spread far and wide.
- 35. THANKS FOR WATCHING PATIENTLY.