Swami Vivekananda Biography:
Born Narendranath Datta, Swami Vivekananda (10 January 1863-4 July 1902)
was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, writer and religious teacher. He was
also Ramakrishna's most important pupil. Swami Vivekananda is credited with
promoting interfaith understanding and elevating Hidisim to the position of
a significant international religion. Swami Vivekananda was a vital player in the introduction of Vedanta and
yoga to the Western world.
After delivering his well-known address at the 1893 Parliament of Religions
in Chicago and introducing Hinduism to Americans with the words ''Sisters
and brother of America,'' Vivekananda gained popularity. Swami Vivekananda
made such an effect at the Parliament that he was called ''an orator by
divine right and unquestionably the greatest figure at the Parliament by an
American publication.
After having great success at the Parliament, Vivekananda continued to
spread the fundamental principles of Hindu philosophy by giving hindered of
lectures across the United States, England and Europe. Swami Vivekananda also founded the Vedanta Societies of New York and San
Francisco (now known as the Vedanta Society of Northern California), which
served as the cornerstones of Vedanta Societies in the West.
Swami Vivekananda Birth and Early Life:
. On January12, 1863, during the Makar Sankranti festival, Swami Vivekananda was born as Narendranath
Datta into a Bengali family in his ancestral house at
3 Gourmohan Mukherjee Street in Calcutta,
the capital of British India.
. Swami Vivekananda was one of nine siblings and came from a conventional
family.
. Vishwanath Datta, his father, worked as a lawyer at the Calcutta High
Court. Sanskrit
and Persian scholar Durgacharan Datta, Narendra's grandfather,
abandoned his
family at age 25 to become a monk.
. Bhubaneswari Devi, Swami Vivekananda's mother was a devoted housewife.
. Narendra's father had a progressive, logical outlook, while his mother had
a devout
temperament, both of which influenced his way of thinking and
personality.
From an early age, Swami Vivekananda was interested in spirituality and used to perform
meditations in front of pictures of gods like Shiva, Rama, Sia and Mahavir
Hanuman. Swami Vivekananda was enthralled by monks and ascetics who wandered. As a
young child, Narendra was naughty and restless, and his parents frequently
struggled to keep him under control.
Swami Vivekananda Education Life:
. At the age of eight, Swami Vivekananda joined at the Metropolitan Institution
of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, where he
attended school until his family relocated to Raipur in 1877.
. Swami Vivekananda was the sole student to achieve first-division marks on
the Presidency College admission exam in
1879, following the relocation of his family to Calcutta.
. At the General Assembly Institution, Swami Vivekananda studied Western logic, Western
philosophy, and European history (now known as the Scottish
Church
College).
. Swami Vivekananda passed the Fine Arts test in 1881, and in 1884 he earned
a Bachelor of Arts degree. David Hume,
Immanuel Kant, John Gottlieb Fichte, Baruch Spinoza, Georg W.F. Hegel, Arthur
Schopenhauer, Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill,
and Charles Darwin were among the authors Narendra
examined.
Herbert Spencer's theory of evolution captivated him, and through
correspondence, he translated his book Education (1861) into Bengali. Swami
Vivekananda studied Bengali literature and Sanskrit scriptures in addition
to Western philosophers.
Foundation of Ramakrishna Math by Swami Vivekananda:
Following Ramakrishna's passing, his followers and admirers ceased helping
them. Narendra and the other disciples were forced to move because of unpaid
rent. Many of them adopted a Grihastha (family-oriented) way of life when
they went back home. In order to accommodate the remaining disciples,
Narendra made the decision to renovate a run-down house in Barangar into a
new math (monastery). The Baranagar math rent was modest and was raised by
''holy begging''. The math was transformed into the Ramakrishna math first
structure, a monastery for the Ramakrishna monastic order. Every day Narendra and his followers would spend many hours engaging in religious
fasting and meditation. Later, Narendra reflected on the monastery's early years.
Swami Vivekananda Death and Later Life:
. On July 4,1902, Swami Vivekananda rose early, travelled to the monastery
at Belur Math, and engaged in a three-hour meditation
session.
. Swami Vivekananda elected students on the Shukla-Yajur-Veda, Sanskrit
grammar, and the yoga
philosophy before holding a meeting with colleagues to
propose a future Vedic college at the Ramakrishna Math.
. Swami Vivekananda went to his room at 7:00 p.m. and asked that no one
bother him; he passed away at 9:20 p.m. while meditating.
. Swami Vivekananda experienced mahasamadhi, according to his followers; a
blood vessel burst
in his brain was suggested as a potential cause of death.
. Swami Vivekananda's followers said the rupture was brought on by the
piercing of his brahmarandhra during mahasamadhi.
Swami Vivekananda's prediction that he wouldn't survive for forty years
came true. On the banks of the Ganga in Belur, directly across from where
Ramakrishna had been burnt sixteen years before, he was buried with a
sandalwood funeral pyre.