Is Vivekananda still relevant today? (National Youth Day)

Vivekananda was a very lion among men. We perceive his influence still working gigantically. We know not well how, we know not where, in something not yet formed, something leonine, grand intuitive up hearing that has entered the soul of India and we say —- Behold! Vivekananda still lives, in the souls of the mother and the souls of the children.
(Sri Aurobindo)

NATIONAL YOUTH DAY

The government of India announced that 12 January be observed as the national youth day all over the country 12 January being the birthday of Swami Vivekananda.

In his own words, applied to his own Master, “He was contented simply to live that great life and to leave it to others to find the explanation.”

Is Vivekananda still relevant today?

I have tried to collect here the teachings of Vivekananda which are equally important today.

A leader leads by example:- Sam Manekshaw, The Hero of the 1971 India-Pakistan war, once said that “India’s biggest problem is not corruption, or political -weakness, but the absence of responsible leadership”.

Alexander said that “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep, I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion”.

These things show the importance of leadership. But to become a leader one needs to sacrifice. If a person is willing to die for doing some big, then only he can be a true leader.

Vivekananda has cited lack of true leadership as the main reason for the failure of the 1857 revolution, for this reason; perhaps, he awakened the people who provided true leadership in every field to the country.

Even the greatest people of his time could not live without being influenced by him. People like Nikola Tesla, Aldous Huxley, Tolstoy, J. D Salinger, Mahatma Gandhi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Arvind Ghosh, Nivedita, Jamshedji Tata, Vimal Mitra, Shachindranath Sanyal, Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rockefeller were influenced by his ideas.

“I do not know how many of the younger generation read the speeches and writings of Swami Vivekananda .

But I can tell you that many of my generations were very powerfully influenced by him, and I think that it would do a great deal of good to the present generation if they also went through Swami Vivekananda’s writings and speeches, and they would learn much from them. … If you read Swami Vivekananda’s writings and speeches, the curious thing you will find is that they are not old. … He gave us something which brings us, if I may use the word, a certain pride in our inheritance. … What Swami Ji has written and said is of interest and must interest us and is likely to influence us for a long time to come. … Directly or indirectly, he has powerfully influenced the India of today. And I think that our younger generation will take advantage of this fountain of wisdom, of spirit and fire, that flows through Swami Vivekananda.”
Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru

“Daridra Narayan” The service of the poor is the greatest religion, it is the service of the motherland, and the service of the motherland is the greatest work. “Even one person in the world is hungry as long as everyone is guilty.”

“I shall not return until I burst on society like a bombshell, and it will follow me like a dog”

When the rich people showed no enthusiasm in public welfare work, Vivekananda once said angrily between Pramadadas Mitra and the respected people of the city. After proving this to be true in 1893 in the Parliament of Religions Chicago, Vivekananda returned to his Shiva city in Varanasi in 1901.

The arrival of Vivekananda in 1902 had a different meaning, now that Swami Vivekananda was a world-renowned, philosopher and scholar, but extremely weak and sick. The famous author (Shankar in his book the monk as man in chapter 4 pages 175, 176 of his 31 diseases. )Swami Ji came to Banaras this time and stayed in the Gopal Lal Villa (raja Kali Krishna Thakur garden house) the locals also called this place as Sondha Bass, here Vivekananda stayed for almost a month. he described this place as health friendly. For more information about Gopal Lal villa and Swami Vivekananda ji please visit :-

THE UNKNOWN LIFE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

THE SWAMI VIVEKANANDA AND MOTHER –WORSHIP

Her curse is a blessing!
“One who does not worship his mother can never truly rise.”
In India, the mother is the Centre of the family and our highest ideal. To us, she is representative of God, as God himself is the mother of the universe.
(The Monk as Man the Unknown Life of Swami Vivekananda)

Hindu Goddess Kali

“Dancing mad with joy,
Come, O Mother, come!
For Terror is Thy name!
Death —is in Thy breath
And every shaking step
Destroys a world for e’er.”
“It all came true, every word of it, “he interrupted himself to say.
“Who dares misery love,
Dance in Destruction’s dance,
And hug the form of death—

Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Vivekananda had a relationship with Lord Shiva and his Kashi from his birth till death. For more information please visit :- http://nithinks.com/2019/09/19/bileybanarasvivekanandavaranasi/

“I am glad I was born, glad I suffered so, glad I did make big blunders, glad to enter peace. I leave none bound, I take no bonds. Whether this body will fall and release me or I enter into freedom in the body, the old man is gone, gone forever, never to come back again! The guide, the Guru, the leader, the teacher has passed away; the boy the student, the servant is left behind. Behind my work was ambition, behind my love was personality, behind my purity was fear, behind my guidance the thrust of power! Now they are vanishing, I drift. I come! Mother, I come!”

Fear and fearlessness

If there is one word that you find coming out like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bombshell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word “fearlessness.”

Be brave! Be strong! Be fearless! Once you have taken up the spiritual life, fight as long as there is any life in you. Even though you know you are going to be killed, fight till you “are killed.” don’t die of fright. die fighting. Don’t go down till you are knocked down.

I AM IN THE EVERY RELIGION AS THE THREAD THROUGH A STRING OF PEARLS. WHEREVER THOU SEEST EXTRAORDINARY HOLINESS AND EXTRAORDINARY POWER RAISING AND PURIFYING HUMANITY, KNOW THOU THAT I AM THERE.”

Each soul is potentially divine.

The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external, and internal.

do this either by work .or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy—by one or more or all of these —-and be free .

this is the whole of religion. doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.

1893 (PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS CHICAGO)

“I AM proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance.

We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.

I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation.

I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.”