Swami Vivekananda Birth Anniversary on 08-01-2018
Celebration in ColomboSong - Arise Awake - in Tamil
Ezhumin-vizhimin
Swami Vivekananda in Colombo Jan 1897.
Swami Vivekananda
12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902, born Narendranath Datta was an Indian Hindu monk, a chief disciple of
the 19th-century Indian mystic Ramakrishna.
On
October 5th 1893 Free Press (USA) - Our
Visitor from India
Is he a
Buddhist? Is he a Mohammedan? What is his mission? Such are the questions that
are heard on all sides about Mr. Vivekananda who speaks here Saturday evening.
Following is something from a Chicago source that bears on this question:
Vivekananda
is a representative from India to the World's Parliament of Religions. He,
more than any other of the eminent scholars, has attracted universal attention,
first, by his unique attire in Mandarin color; second, by his magnetic
presence; and last, but not least, by his brilliant oratory and wonderful
exposition of Hindu philosophy.
Vivekananda
is not a Brahmin, is not a Buddhist, is not a Parsee, is not a Mohammedan. He
may be said to represent the best in all of these. He speaks for universal
truth or the unification of all truth. At all times his appearance at the
Memorial Art Palace has been attended by the greatest enthusiasm. Indeed, his
stay in Chicago has been a continual ovation. He is a scholar among scholars,
yet simple in his life and earnest in conquering all limitations of the flesh,
all propensities born of the sense world.
The "Chicago source" hit the nail right on
the head when it said, among other things, that Swamiji represented the best
in all these religions. This only goes to show how deep an impression Swamiji
carved into his Chicago audience.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was Narayana and Swami Vivekananda was
nara in the ‘Nara Narayana’ pair. They just visited the earth to uplift the humanity and
rejuvenate Hinduism.
Gist of Vedanta in Two
Words
Vedanta
and Swami Vivekananda point to divinity in us in two levels. At the empirical level, the Will
is our divinity. It is our power to decide what to do and be
responsible for what we do, that puts us apart from inert things. At the
absolute level, the Consciousness is our divinity.
To Arise is
to claim ourselves as people with a will. To Awake is to claim ourselves as pure Consciousness.
About Swami Vivekananda
Swami
Atulananda reminiscences: 1899 - 1900 period
The
first non-Indian monk of the Ramakrishna Order, from Amsterdam, The
Netherlands.
Swamiji was
so simple in his behaviour, so like one of the crowd that he did not impress me
so much when I first saw him. There was nothing about his ways that would mark
him as the lion of New York society as so often he had been. Simple in dress
and behaviour he was just like one of us. He did not put himself aside on a
pedestal as is so often the case with lionised personages. He walked about the
room, sat on the floor, laughed, joked, chatted—nothing formal. Of course I had
noticed his magnificent, brilliant eyes, his beautiful features and majestic
bearing, for these were parts of him that no circumstances could hide. But when
I saw him for a few minutes standing on a platform surrounded by others, it
flashed into my mind:
"What
a giant, what strength, what manliness, what a personality! Every one near him
looks so insignificant compared with him/' It came to me almost as a shock, it
seemed to startle me. What was it that gave Swamiji this distinction ?Was it
his height? No, there were gentlemen there taller than he was. Was it his
build? No, there were near him some very fine specimens of American manhood. It
seemed to be more in the expression of the face than anything else.Was it his
purity? What was it? I could not analyse it. I remembered what had been said of
Lord Buddha,—"a lion amongst men' I felt that Swamiji had unlimited power,
that he could move heaven and earth if he willed it. This was my strongest and
lasting impression of him.
"I was listening to
Vivekananda this morning an hour. I believe him to be the reincarnation of some
great spirit, perhaps Buddha, perhaps Christ. He is so simple, so pure, so
unselfish..... His discourses this morning was most uplifting, his mere
presence is that."
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox
(A celebrated journalist & poetess of Chicago, America).
