Random Thoughts-21: "Swami Vivekananda's Birthday"

Swami Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863. The devotees of Swami Vivekananda world over celebrate it as "Swamiji Jayanthi". Swami Vivekananda's ideas have had a great influence on the Indian youth and still has a lot of relevance to them. Hence, the Govt of India has declared January 12, the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, to be National Youth Day. In schools and colleges all over India, Youth Day is being celebrated today.

"Swamiji" as Swami Vivekananda is fondly referred to by his devotees, was a great teacher of mankind. His address at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, USA, captivated not only the audience but the entire world and he became well known thenceforth. He restored a sense of pride in the hearts of the people of India. His teachings influenced the thinking of national and international leaders, politicians, men of science and philosophers, like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subash Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghosh, Tagore, Rajaji, Radhakrishnan, Nikola Tesla, Jamshedji Tata and many others.

He founded the Sri Ramakrishna Math and Mission on the principle, “for one's own salvation and for the welfare of the World”. He advised his followers to be holy, unselfish and have faith in themselves.

He is the maker of modern India and is widely considered to have inspired India's freedom struggle movement.

During my bachelor days, Dr Janakiraman would convene weekly meetings at his residence under the banner "Vivekananda Study Circle" and we used read a few pages from the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. After that we used to pray/meditate and Dr Janakiraman would distribute "kalkandu" as "prasad". He used to present me Sri Ramakrishna-Vivekananda literature at every opportunity and thus my acquaintance with Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda grew. He took me to the Ramakrishna Tapovan at Tirupparaithurai thrice, which was the nearest Math to us in those days. We used to worship in the shrine there and then seek the blessings of the monks there. Srimat Swami Chidbhavanandaji Maharaj, the founder of the Tapovan, was alive then. We would go and prostrate before him and he would enquire about us and bless us.

When the Madurai branch of the Ramakrishna Math came up, Dr Janakiraman used to frequent it. Once or twice I went there with him. He used to collect donations for the Madurai Math and when he left Karaikudi, he entrusted it to me. Then slowly I started visiting the Madurai Math. After a time, it became a regular monthly visit as the monks there were very kind to me and I caught got in their love, to borrow an adjective from The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, "unreasonable" love i.e. love without any reason.

I read all the nine volumes of The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, The Eternal Companion, Sri Ramakrishna, the Great Master and then everything published by the Ramakrishna Order that I could lay my hands on.

During my FASOHD days, we used to organize seminars to commemorate the National Youth Day at different colleges. We used to distribute a booklet containing the essence of the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda called “Swami Vivekananda: His Call to the Nation” to the students. This booklet was priced at less than Rupees Two.

I shall take up only one fascinating quote of his for this post: "Strength is Life, Weakness is Death; Expansion is Life, Contraction is Death; Love is Life; Hatred is Death." Though there are numerous wonderful and beautiful quotations of Swamiji, this quote has fascinates me. There are numerous quotations on Life and Death which you can find in Books of Quotations. But, to me, nobody has so precisely and comprehensively have described Life and Death like Swamiji. Its positive note, its universal relevance and enormity of its implications are incomparable.

For example, let us take a single word from the above quote, viz., "expansion" and proceed. I started as a dot; as I embrace my parents, the dot grows into a small circle. This circle goes on expanding as I include my brothers and sisters and later on other relatives and friends. Thus this circle should go on expanding, finally becoming all encompassing - encompassing the whole universe - breaking all barriers; ultimately I become one with the universe. That is the fulfillment of life. When I get stuck up in between somewhere, it is a pity. I should keep on striving and get moving. This is what I infer from that word “expansion”. I have taken just only one word from that quote; like this, one could take up every word and focus one's mind on it, try to visualize the great message contained in it.

I shall conclude this post with a quote on Swamiji by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose: “I cannot write about Vivekananda without going into raptures…. His personality was rich, profound and complex... Reckless in his sacrifice, unceasing in his activity, boundless in his love, profound and versatile in his wisdom, exuberant in his emotions, merciless in his attacks but yet simple as a child, he was a rare personality in this world of ours.”

Detailed Wikipedia article on "SWAMI VIVEKANANDA": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda