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are the names of God and infinite
are the forms through which He may be approached. In whatever name and
form you worship Him, through them you will realise Him.
by Sri
Ramakrishna
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SWAMI
VIVEKANANDA
(1863 - 1902)
Swami Vivekananda is just another name for the phenomenon that exploded
on the Indian scene towards the end of the nineteenth century and
restored the self-confidence and self-respect of a nation that had been
badly mauled for millennia. Born on the 12th January 1863, of an
intellectual but compassionate father and a deeply religious mother,
Narendranath – that was his original name – got a good education and
cultural training under them. An innate desire for spiritual perfection
brought him into contact with Sri Ramakrishna in the early part of
1882. The next four and a half years – until the Mahasamadhi for Sri
Ramakrishna – were marked by turbulence and turmoil, the direct result
of the perfect Master chiseling and shaping the prefect disciple, but
ending in total submission of the latter at the feet of the former. As
per the specific direction of the guru, Narendra along with the other
young men who were his co-disciples, took to monastic orders and
founded a monastery in his guru’s name at Baranagore (Calcutta) in
1886.
 Setting out on pilgrimage, mostly as a wandering
monk, he finally arrived at Kanyakumari, the southern most tip of the
Indian soil, sometime during 1892. There, while meditating on the rock
inside the sea, the mission of his life was revealed to him. Then,
things moved quickly. Setting sail for America on the 31st may 1893 he
created history at the World Parliament of Religions held at Chicago
during September of the same year. After whirlwind tours in America and
England, he triumphantly returned to India via Colombo on the 15th
January 1897.
During the next five years he literally shook the Indian nation to its
foundations, electrifying it to dynamic self-expression, through his
speeches and writings as also conversations. These have been compiled
and published in eight volumes, now well known as The Complete Works of
Swami Vivekananda. They contain, as he himself once remarked, enough
messages for a millennia. He formally established the Ramakrishna
Mission in 1897 and consecrated the newly built Belur Math, the
Headquarters of the Ramakrishna Monastery, in 1899. He visited the West
again during 1899-1900. He shuffled off the mortal coil on the 4th July
1902. His was a multifaceted personality – a prophet, a patriot, a
monk, a poet and a humanist – all rolled into one. His dynamic life and
message gave a new direction to the resurgent India. His work is being
continued even today by the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna
Mission, the twin organizations that he established with the motto: Atmano mokshartham
jagaddhitaya cha, For the sake of self-realization and the good of
mankind. The Math is unique in that it has charted new
avenues in Indian monasticism. The Mission is an ideal service
organization embodying the teachings of practical Vedanta.
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