Swami Vivekananda

(1994)

Swami Vivekananda symbolises the spirit of India. He has been hailed as the Soul of India, since no other individual has so far made the kind of impact he has on the mind of Indians and foreigners alike with his own powerful and charismatic interpretation of all that India stands and lives for. His life and message have always been a source of great inspiration to many in their individual as well as collective life. His words give courage to a drooping soul, his message bring a new hope to a sinking nationa. . Born Narendranath in a Calcutta family in 1863, Swami Vivekananda (thus named by his spiritual Master and mentor, Ramakrishna Paramahansa) lived only for 40 years, but every minute of that short life was packed with a passion for knowledge and self-realisation. His Master ordained that he should work for the good of humanity, but much as he did not relish this idea, since his own yearning was to remain absorbed in meditation and enjoy perennial bliss, Swami Vivekananda found himself plunging in then ceaseless turnmoil of work, moving like a meteor from East to the West and West to the East. Posterity will some day be able to assess at its value all that he has done for his Motherland as well as for the world. . Swami Vivekananda, a versatile genius, literally sacrificed hia all for his mission. His name become synonymous with rasiance and magnetism. His electrifying address to the Parliament of Religious in Chicago, USA, in the evening of his life immortally remains the epitome of his mission, which was to present Hinduism to the world as the mother of all religions, a religion which had taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. He was proclaimed as a Prophet and a Seer. . But to the proud Indian, Swami Vivekananda defies all those description; he truly remains the soul of India.