swami vivekanand

In order to further the cause of India and to free himself from obligation to his friends, he accepted the offer of a lecture bureau for a lecture tour of America. He thought that would help him also in spreading his ideas. The tour took him round the large cities in the Eastern and Mid Western States. Everywhere, people flocked to hear him. His speeches, delivered extempore, were mostly devoted to the exposition of religion and philosophy as preached and practiced by the Hindus through the centuries. He also explained to the America audience the Hindus manners, customs, and religious practices, removing some of the misconceptions spread through the monstrous and fantastic stories told by the Christian missionaries. The Swami also spoke with great reverence on Christ and his teachings and the valuable contribution of the West to the culture and civilization of the world. He did not hide his admiration for the tremendous progress the West had made in the fields of industry and economics, as well as for the western democratic social systems with equal opportunity for everyone. While he was never sparing in his praise of the good side of western civilization, the hollowness of the western society the tears behind the peal of laughter became more and more apparent to him as he moved from city to city. He was mercilessly critical of the defects in European culture the signs of brutality, inhumanity, pettiness, arrogance, and ignorance of other cultures as he was severe in his criticism of the defects of Indian social customs like untouchability and other allied evils during his lectures from Colombo to Almora after his return from the West in 1897. Thus the Swamis western work took him gradually beyond his original plan, which was just to raise money for the uplift of the Indian masses. He realized that his services could not be confined within narrow limits. He wrote to his disciples who were urging him to return to India: I have helped you all as I could. You must now help yourselves. What country has any special claim on me? Am I a nations slave? I do not care whether they are Hindus, or Mohammedans, or Christians, but those that love the Lord will always command my service. He gave away most of his earnings through lectures to the charitable institutions there in American and asked his friends to do the same. He wholeheartedly devoted himself to the service of the West.

This attitude, however, was no mere volte face. It arose from the fact that he had become conscious of the full significance of his lifes work. His mission was to the whole world, not to India only. He realized that his task was to preach the fundamental universal principles of religion, and to preach them to all countries. Later he was to assure India that only if she clung to those universal principles, which were her birthright, would her poverty and other problems be solved. To these universal principles he gave the name Vedanta. As Miss Marie Burke writes in Swami Vivekananda in America: Never before had it been broadened into a philosophy and religion which included every faith of the world and every noble effort of man reconciling spirituality and material advancement, faith and reason, science and mysticism, work and contemplation, service to man and absorption in God. Never before had it been conceived as the one universal religion, by accepting the principles of which the follower of any or no creed could continue along his own path and at the same time be able to identify himself with every other creed and aspect of religion.The Herculean task of teaching Vedanta in a foreign land had completely worn him out; he needed rest badly.

hence he proceeded to Thousand Island Park on the St. Lawrence where, at the earnest request of a few students, who were ready to put aside all other interests to study Vedanta, he agreed to hold classes for them. There, under ideal surroundings, he taught those intimate students. The subjects discussed in that heavenly atmosphere surcharged with his spirituality were many. The Swami expounded to them such precious texts as the Bhagavad Gita and the Narada Bhakti Sutras, with his mind always absorbed in Brahman. He himself said later that he was at his best at Thousand Island Park. One of the students records: Of the wonderful weeks that followed, it is difficult to write. Only if ones mind were lifted to that high state of consciousness in which we lived for the time, could one hope to recapture the experience. We were filled with joy. . . . On the wings of inspiration, he carried us to the height which was his natural abode.

Though the Swami was completely absorbed in his work in the West, he never forgot about his original mission. He was constantly in correspondence with his disciples in Madras and elsewhere, guiding, instructing, and encouraging them to push on with the work in India. In his immortal letters, detailed instructions were given about organizing the work. To quote only a few of his inspiring words: Work hard, be steady, and have faith in the Lord. . . . Keep the motto before you Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion. . . the fate of a nation does not depend upon the number of husbands their widows get, but upon the condition of the masses. Can you raise them? Can you give them back their lost individuality? . . . This is to be done and we will do it. You are all born to do it. Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds. (Complete Works, 1963, V. 29 30). In the middle of November 1896, he suddenly decided that he must go back to India. So he asked Mrs. Servier, after a class talk, to book their berths for India from Naples by the earliest steamer available. On 16th December the Swami left London with the Serviers. At Naples, Mr. Goodwin joined the party, and they arrived in Colombo on 15th January 1897. The news of the swamis return had already reached India. He was no longer the unknown, wandering Sannyasin. The great work he had done for India in the west had become known throughout India. From Colombo to Madras, in all the important cities, committees consisting of all sections of the society had been formed to accord him a fitting reception.

All along the route of his tour, specially in Jaffna and Kumbakonam, he gave inspiring lectures, reminding the people of the glory of Indias past and exhorting them to apply themselves to the task of raising her to her ancient splendour. But it was in Madras that he gave full expression to his ideas. On the third day after his arrival, a public address of welcome was presented to him at the Victoria Hall, but it was too small to contain the large gathering. The Swami at the insistent demand of the enthusiastic public waiting outside, spoke to them in the open from the top of a coach in the Gita fashion, urging them to maintain their enthusiasm and utilize it for the service of India. During his stay in Madras the Swami gave five public lectures, the subjects selected being My Plan of Campaign, The Sages of India, Vedanta in Its Relation to Practical Life, The Work before Us, and The Future of India. In these, the Swami addressed the whole of India, and here one finds his message to India expressed in the most inspiring Languages. Let us listen to a few of his soul stirring words: I see that each nation, like each individual, has one theme in this life, which is its centre, the principal note round which every other note comes to form the harmony, in one nation political power is its vitality, as in England, artistic life in another, and so on. In India, religious life forms the centre, the keynote of the whole music of national life.

For the purpose of establishing his work on a firm basis, the Swami summoned all the monastic and lay disciples of Shri Ramakrishna to a meeting at Balaram Boses house on 1st May 1897. He told them that he has conclusion that without an organization nothing great and permanent could be achieved, and proposed that an association be formed in the name of the Master know as the Ramakrishna Mission. The aims and ideals of the Mission as propounded by the Swami were purely spiritual and humanitarian. The Mission had nothing to do with politics. Suitable resolutions were passed to this effects and the Ramakrishna Mission came into being. The Swami himself became the General President, Swami Yogananda the Vice President, and Swami Brahmananda the President of the Calcutta centre.

To fulfill the Swamis cherished dream of having a permanent monastery on the Ganga, plot of land was secured at Belur, near Calcutta, early in 1898, and the Math was removed to Nilambar Mukherjees garden house at Belur. His main concern, however, was the training of the young Sannyasins and Brahmacharins, who were to carry on his work in the future. He encouraged them to develop an all round personality, himself setting the example. He arranged study classes them: You will go to hell if you seek your own salvation. Seek the salvation of others if you want to reach the Highest. You must try to combine in your life immense idealism with immense practicality. You must be prepared to go into deep meditation now, and the next moment you must be ready to go and cultivate the fields. You must be prepared to explain the intricacies of the scriptures now, and the next moment to go and sell the produce of the fields in the market?? The true man is he who is strong as strength itself and yet possesses a womans heart.

Immediately after arrival in Bombay, he left for Calcutta, and reached Belur Math late in the evening of 9th December, 1900, without any previous intimation. The gates of the monastery were closed for the night. Hearing the dinner bell, in his eagerness to join the monks at their meal, he scaled the gate. There was great rejoining over the heros home coming. Now the Swami tried to lead a carefree life at the monastery, surrounded by his pets: the dog Bagha, the she goat Hansi, an antelope, a stork, several cows and sheep and ducks and geese, and a kid which he named Matru. He used to run and play with Matru on the grounds, sometimes clad in his loin cloth ; or he would supervise the cooking arrangement ; or be with the monks singing devotional songs. Sometimes he would be seen imparting spiritual instruction to the visitors, at other times engaged in serious study in his room or explaining to the members of the Math the intricate passages of the scriptures and unfolding to them his scheme of future work. He freed himself entirely from all formal duties by executing a deed of trust in favour of his brother disciples, investing in them all the properties, including the Belur Math so far held in his name. Brahmananda was elected President. Still he kept a careful watch on the life in the monastery, in spite of his physical suffering, and he was obeyed unquestioningly by all including the President. He looked to every detail cleanliness, meals, study, meditation, work. He drew up a weekly time table and saw to it that it was scrupulously followed. The classes on the Vedas and the Puranas were held daily, he himself conducting them when his health permitted. The bell sounded at fixed hours for meals, study, discussion, and meditation. About three months before his death, he made it a rule that at four oclock in the morning a handbell should be rung from room to room to awaken the monks. Within half an hour all were to gather in the chapel for meditation. He was always there before them. He got up at three and went to the chapel, where he meditated for more than two hours. As he got up, he used to chant softly Shiva! Shiva!. His presence in the chapel created an intense spiritual atmosphere. Swami Brahmananda used to say: Ah! one at once becomes absorbed if one sits for meditation in the company of Naren. I do not feel this when I sit alone.

After a few years two incidents distressed Narendra considerably. One was the sudden death of his father in 1884, leaving his family in miserable condition. Hence, Narendra had to bear the burden of supporting his mother, brothers and sisters. The second event was the illness of Shri Ramakrishna which was diagnosed as throat cancer. In September 1885, Shri Ramakrishna was taken to a house at Shyampukur, and a few months later to a rented villa at Cossipore. At these two places the young disciples nursed their Guru with utmost care. Though there was poverty at home, as he was unemployed, Narendra had lead his fellows.

After establishing the new monastic order, Vivekanand heard the voice of his soul for a greater mission in his life. While most of the disciples of Shri Ramakrishna thought about him in relation to their own personal lives, but Vivekanand thought of the Guru in relation to India and the rest of the world. As the prophet of the present era, what was Shri Ramakrishnas message to the modern world and to India in particular? This question and the awareness of his own intrinsic powers urged Vivekanand to explore the whole world. So, in the middle of 1890, he received the blessings of Shri Sarada Devi, the divine companion of Shri Ramakrishna, known to the world as Holy Mother, who was then staying in Kolkata and left Baranagar Math and set out for a long journey to explore and discover the real India.

Vivekanandji was very clear that to carry out his plans for the spread of education for the strengthening of the poor people, including women, an efficient organization of committed people was required. As he stated later on that he wanted to set in motion, a mechanism, which could bring the noblest of ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest. A few years later, Swamiji founded the Ramakrishna Mission to serve as a part of this mechanism.

Immediately after returning back to Kolkata, Swami Vivekanand accomplished one of the most important tasks of his mission. He established Ramakrishna Mission on 1st May 1897, a foundation to propagate Practical Vedanta and to carry out various forms of social service, like running hospitals, educational institutes, hostels, rural development centers etc. and conducting massive relief and rehabilitation work for victims of earthquakes, cyclones and other calamities in different parts of India and other countries, jointly by monks and lay people.

In early 1898, Swami Vivekanand acquired a big plot of land on the western bank of the Ganga, at a place known as Belur, to build a monastery as a permanent habitat for the monks, open to all men without any discrimination of religion, race or caste. He got it registered as Ramakrishna Math after two years. Here, Swamiji recognized a new, universal pattern of monastic life which adapts ancient monastic ideals to the conditions of modern life, giving equal importance to personal enlightenment and social service.

Shri Ramakrishna instilled the spirit of renunciation and brotherhood in these youngsters. One day he distributed ochre robes among them and sent them out to beg food. He specifically instructed Narendra about the formation of the new monastic Order. In the wee hours of 16th August 1886, Shri Ramakrishna left his mortal body. After the Gurus demise, all his fifteen young disciples began to live together in a decrepit building at Baranagar in North Kolkata. Under the leadership of Narendra, they formed a new monastic fraternity and in 1887 and took the formal vows of Sanyasa, consequently acquiring new names, Narendra now became Swami Vivekanand, although this name was actually assumed much later.