Ascension Research Center does not guarantee the accuracy of any content on this site or on any external sites linked to us.
The Word of the Ascended Masters is the ultimate Authority in any question relating to Truth.

The Life of Swami Vivekananda

Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), became a well-known personality both in India and in America during the last decade of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th.

Fame came suddenly to him at the Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893, where his knowledge of Eastern and Western culture, as well as his handsome figure and striking personality, appealed to the many classes of Americans attending the Parliament.

Vivekananda, whose birth name was Narendranath Datta, was born into an upper-middle-class Kayastha family in Bengal, India. He was educated at a Western-style university where he was exposed to Western philosophy, Christianity, and science. Social reform occupied a prominent place in Vivekananda's thought, and he joined the Society of Brahma, which was dedicated to eliminating child marriage and illiteracy and to spreading education among women and the lower castes. He later became the most notable disciple of Ramakrishna, who taught the essential unity of all religions.

Stressing the universal and humanistic side of the Vedas and believing more in service than dogma, Vivekananda engaged in a missionary effort to spread Hindu thought and spirituality in the United States and England. In 1893 he appeared in Chicago as a spokesman for Hinduism at the World's Parliament of Religions and so captivated the assembly that a newspaper account described him as "an orator by divine right and undoubtedly the greatest figure at the Parliament." Thereafter he lectured throughout the United States and England, making converts to the Vedanta movement.

In America Vivekananda became India's spiritual ambassador and pleaded eloquently for better understanding between India and the New World in order to create a healthy synthesis of East and West, of religion and science. In India he was regarded as the patriot saint of modern India and an inspirer of her dormant national consciousness.

Many political leaders of India have publicly acknowledged their indebtedness to Vivekananda as a promoter of peace and human brotherhood. In the course of a short life of 39 years, ten of which were devoted to public activities, he succeeded in producing four classic treatises on Hindu philosophy. In addition, he delivered innumerable lectures, wrote inspired letters in his own hand to his many friends and disciples, composed numerous poems, and acted as spiritual guide to the many seekers, who came to him for instruction. He also organized the Ramakrishna Order of monks, which ranks among modern India's outstanding religious organizations.

William James, the Harvard philosopher, called him the "paragon of Vedantists," and Romain Rolland has written: "His words are great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the march of Handel choruses.''

	Search Ascension Research Center       powered by FreeFind    Ascension Research Center http://www.Ascension-Research.org Ascension Research Center is run and maintained by students of the Ascended Masters, and is not sponsored by any organization. Ascended Master Teachings on Facebook   Home Books Contact Us Current Messengers Index Search What's New?
Copyright © 2014 by Ascension Research Center - with the exception of credited quotations. Third party material used on this website is quoted for the purposes of scholarship and research from sources which are either in the public domain, or within the bounds of fair use. Disclaimer: This website has not been endorsed by any author or copyright holder of the works discussed. No connection is implied nor should be inferred.