Swami
Vivekananda was born as Narendranath Dutta in Kolkata (Calcutta) on
January 12, 1863. His father Viswanath Dutta, a man of liberal and
progressive outlook, was an attorney at Calcutta High Court. His mother
Bhuvaneshwari Devi was pious and had practiced austerities. It is
believed that she had prayed to Vireshwar Shiva of Varanasi for a son.
She reportedly had a dream in which Shiva rose from his meditation and
said that he would be born as her son.
Young
Narendranath's thinking and personality were highly influenced by his
parents—he had his father’s rational mind and his mother’s religious
inclination. From his mother he learnt the power of self-control and
truly believed and practiced her teaching - "Remain pure all your life;
guard your own honor and never transgress the honor of others. Be very
tranquil, but when necessary, harden your heart." He was very adept at
meditation and could enter the state of samadhi. It is alleged that he
would see a light while falling asleep and he would have a vision of
Buddha during his meditation.
Narendranath
had varied interests and a wide range of scholarship in philosophy,
religion, history, the social sciences, arts, literature, and other
subjects. He
was very interested in the Hindu scriptures like the Vedas, the
Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the
Puranas. He was also well versed in classical music, both vocal and
instrumental and is said to have undergone training under two Ustads,
Beni Gupta and Ahmad Khan. Since boyhood, he took an active interest in
physical exercise, sports, and other organizational activities. Even
when he was young, he questioned the validity of superstitious customs
and discrimination based on caste, and refused to accept anything
without rational proof and pragmatic test.
His
family moved to Raipur in 1877. At that time there were no good schools
in Raipur so he spent his time with his father and had discussions on
spiritual topics. He learned Hindi there and for the first time the
Question of existence of God came to his mind. The family returned to
Calcutta in 1879 but the two years in Raipur were the turning point in
his life. Raipur is sometimes termed as the "Spiritual Birthplace" of
Swami Vivekananda. In the same year, he passed the entrance examination
for Presidency College, Calcutta, entering it for a brief period and
subsequently shifting to General Assembly's Institution. During the
course of his study there, he studied western logic, western philosophy
and history of European nations. In 1881 he passed the Fine Arts
examination and in 1884 he passed the Bachelor of Arts.
Narendranath is said to have studied the writings of several Westerners like David
Hume, Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Auguste Comte, Herbert
Spencer, John Stuart Mill, and Charles Darwin. He became fascinated with
the Evolutionism of Herbert Spencer, and translated Spencer's book on
Education into Bengali. Simultaneously, he was thoroughly acquainted
with Indian Sanskrit scriptures and many Bengali works. According to his
professors, student Narendranath was a prodigy.
Narendranath’s
initial beliefs were shaped by Brahmo Samaj concepts, which include
belief in a formless God and deprecation of the worship of idols. Not
satisfied with his knowledge of Philosophy, he wondered if God and
religion could be made a part of one's growing experiences and deeply
internalized. He went about asking prominent residents of contemporary
Calcutta whether they had come "face to face with God", but could not
get answers which satisfied him. That was the point when he was first
introduced to Ramakrishna Paramhansa. The introduction occurred in a
literature class in General Assembly's Institution. Principal Reverend
W. Hastie was lecturing on William Wordsworth's poem The Excursion and
The Poet's nature-mysticism. In the course of explaining the word
‘trance’, Hastie told his students that if they wanted to know the real
meaning of it, they should go to Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar. This
prompted some of his students, including Narendranath to visit
Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
Narendranath
met Ramakrishna for the first time in November 1881. This proved to be a
turning point in his life. He asked Paramhansa the same questions that
he had been asking others - "Do you believe in God, Sir?" "Yes", he
replied. "Can you prove it, Sir?" "Yes". "How?"
"Because I see Him just as I see you here, only in a much intense way."
This impressed young Narendranath and from that day he began to visit
Ramakrishna Paramhansa regularly. Even though Narendra did not accept
Ramakrishna as his guru initially, he was attracted by his personality.
He initially looked upon Ramakrishna's visions as mere figments of
imagination and hallucinations. And as a member of Brahmo Samaj, he
revolted against idol worship and polytheism, and Ramakrishna's worship
of Kali. He tested Ramakrishna, who never asked Narendra to abandon
reason, and faced all of Narendra's arguments and examinations with
patience—"Try to see the truth from all angles" was his reply. During
the course of five years of his training under Ramakrishna, Narendra was
transformed from a restless, puzzled, impatient youth to a mature man
who was ready to renounce everything for the sake of God realization. In
time, Narendra accepted Ramakrishna as his guru.
After
the death of their master, Ramakrishna’s disciples, under the
leadership of Vivekananda formed a fellowship at a half-ruined house at
Baranagar near the river Ganga. This became the first building of the
Ramakrishna Math. Vivekanada and other members of the Math often spent
their time in meditation and discussing different philosophies and
teachings of spiritual teachers including Ramakrishna, Adi Shankara,
Ramanuja, and Jesus Christ. In the early part of 1887, Narendra and
eight other disciples took formal monastic vows. Narendra took the name
of Swami Bibidishanand. In January 1899, the Baranagar Math was shifted
to a newly acquired plot of land at Belur in the district of Howrah, now
famous as the Belur Math.
In
1888, Vivekananda left the math as a Parivrâjaka—the Hindu religious
life of a wandering monk. His sole possessions were a kamandalu (water
pot), staff, and his two favorite books—Bhagavad Gita and The Imitation
of Christ. Narendranath travelled the length and breadth of India for
five years, visiting important centers of learning, acquainting himself
with the diverse religious traditions and different patterns of social
life. He developed a sympathy for the suffering and poverty of the
masses and resolved to uplift the nation. Living mainly on Bhiksha or
alms, Vivekananda traveled mostly on foot and railway tickets bought by
his admirers whom he met during the travels. During these travels he
gained acquaintance and stayed with scholars, Dewans, Rajas and people
from all walks of life—Hindus, Muslims, Christians, Pariahs (low caste
workers) and Government officials. In Madurai, he met the Raja of
Ramnad, Bhaskara Setupati. The Raja became the Swami's disciple and
urged him to go to the Parliament of Religions at Chicago. With the aid
of funds collected by his Madras disciples and Rajas of Mysore, Ramnad,
Khetri, Dewans and other followers, Vivekananda left for Chicago on May
31, 1893. At this time, he assumed the name Vivekananda as suggested by
Ajit Singh, the Maharaja of Khetri.
On
his way to Chicago, Vivekananda visited Japan. He called the Japanese
"one of the cleanest people on earth", and was impressed not only by
neatness of their streets and dwellings but also by their movements,
attitudes and gestures.
His
journey to America took him through China, Canada and he arrived at
Chicago in July 1893. But to his disappointment, he learnt that no one
without credentials from a bonafide organization would be accepted as a
delegate. He came in contact with Professor John Henry Wright of Harvard
University. After inviting him to speak at Harvard and on learning from
him of not having credentials to speak at the Parliament, Wright, "To
ask for your credentials is like asking the sun to state its right to
shine in the heavens." Wright then addressed a letter to the Chairman in
charge of delegates writing, "Here is a man who is more learned than
all of our learned professors put together." Parliament of Religions
opened on September 11, 1893 at the Art Institute of Chicago. On this
day Vivekananda gave his first brief address representing India and
Hinduism. He bowed to Saraswati, the goddess of learning and began his
speech with, "Sisters and brothers of America!" To these words he got a
standing ovation from a crowd of seven thousand, which lasted for two
minutes. When silence was restored, he began his address. He greeted the
youngest of the nations in the name of "the most ancient order of monks
in the world, the Vedic order of sannyasins, a religion which has
taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance." And quoted
two illustrative passages in this regard, from the Bhagavad Gita—"As the
different streams having their sources in different places all mingle
their water in the sea. So, O Lord, the different paths which men take,
through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or
straight, all lead to Thee!" and "Whosoever comes to Me, through
whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths that
in the end lead to Me." Despite
being a short speech, it voiced the spirit of the Parliament and its
sense of universality. He spoke several more times at the Parliament on
topics related to Hinduism and Buddhism. The parliament ended on
September 27, 1893.
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