SWAMI VIVEKANAND Swami Vivekanand born as Narendranath Dutta(12 jan 1863-4 July 1902) is rightly a “GURU OF GURUS” and “MAKER OF MODERN INDIA “i.e. so many leaders of the world considered him as their mentor from Subhash Chandra Bose , Lal Bahadur Shastri, APJ Abdul Kalam to Nikola Tesla. Each one of them revered him to their core.
Since Childhood Vivekanand was a very bright child. From the young age he was inclined towards religion and spirituality.
He used to read extensively about the various philosophies,religion, history, social science, art and literature.
It was his parents who balanced his thinking regarding the religion and rationality. Later thing had a lasting impact on his life, where he advocated about the spirituality but opposed the evils of caste system.
Narendranath was intrigued since a young age from the wandering ascetics and monks. He decided at a very young age that he wanted to lead a life that of a monk.
This shows he had the COURAGE OF CONVINCTION since a young age as he was not afraid to choose the path of austerities and lead an unconventional life.
Contrary to the present age when youngsters live a very superficial life to show off on social media.
Narendranath always challenged himself to strive to be a better person. He used read extensively and was praised for his sharp memory and ability to remember facts verbatim.
He was indeed a PRODUCTIVE and HARDWORKING person.
This reminds me of one of his quotes which says ” ARISE, AWAKE AND STOP NOT TILL THE GOAL IS ACHIEVED”.
Importance of FOCUS , STRENGTH and DISCIPLINE had been propagated by him at multiple instances ,including one
During his time US once he observed some boys hitting the eggshell in a task and nobody was able to hit it. After observing the boys for sometime Swamiji approached them and he took multiple shots. He was successful to hit target at everytime. This mesmerized the boys and they asked for the trick. To which Swamiji replied “whatever you do , put your whole mind to it and you shall achieve your aim“.
This incident still holds importance as people are so much occupied with multi tasking that they miss out on every aspect.
One of the breakthrough event in life of Swamiji was the attending of “Parliament of religions” in Chicago.
Where he proudly greeted the crowd “brothers and sisters” in Indian way. He
took pride in the INDIAN CULTURE.
He propagated about the ideas of Indian Philosophies.
He preached there about FRATERNITY and concept of Vasudev Kutumbakam – belief in the world as a family has become necessary in the growing era of protectionism and de-globalisation.
He left a lasting mark on the people present at the assembly.
He was driven by the philosophies of TOLERANCE, MORALITY and UNIVERSALISM. Swami Vivekananda quoted his guru ‘Jiva hi Shiva hai’. Therefore, he suggested that god is in every living being and we must respect every individual irrespective of caste, class, gender, religion or ethnicity.
He lived a life and imparted lessons for the people that still remain invaluable till date. He died at a very young age of 39 but the knowledge he had was insurmountable.
India celebrates ” National Youth Day” on Jan. 12, to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand.
As he was one of the most influential Personalities of our country for his contribution to the field of education and empowerment of youth. Youth of the country should take inspiration from his life and learn the ethics to lead a meaningful life.