Swami Vivekananda was born on January
12th 1963 as Narendranath Dutta (pre-monastic name) in Shimla Pally,
Kolkata, West Bengal, India, as the son of Viswanath Dutta and Bhuvaneswari
Devi. Considered one of the most famous and influential spiritual leaders of
the Hindu religion, Narendranath (or Naren, as he was called by his close
ones) was the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, who later founded
Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. An icon to the young India, Swami
Vivekananda is known as the greatest philosopher and spiritual leader of
20th century for his fearless courage, his positive exhortations to the
youth, his broad outlook to social problems, and countless lectures and
discourses on Vedanta philosophy.
Early Life of Vivekananda
Vivekananda practiced meditation from a very early age. While at school, he
was good at studies, as well as games of various kinds - wrestling, fencing,
etc. He also studied instrumental and vocal music.
In 1879, Narendranath entered the Presidency College, Kolkata (then
Calcutta) for higher studies. After one year, he joined the Scottish Church
College, Calcutta and studied philosophy. During the course, he studied
western logic, western philosophy and history of European nations.
There started to arise questions about God and the presence of God in young
Narendra's mind. This made him associate with the Brahmo Samaj, an important
religious movement of the time, led by Keshab Chandra Sen. But the Samaj's
congregational prayers and devotional songs could not satisfy Narendra's
zeal to realise God. He would ask leaders of Brahma Samaj whether they have
seen God. He never got a satisfying answer. It was during this time that he
came to know about Sri Ramakrishna of Dakshineswar from Professor Hastie of
Scottish Church College, Kolkata.
Narendra met Ramakrishna for the first time in November 1881. He asked
Ramakrishna the same old question, whether he had seen God. The
instantaneous answer from Ramakrishna was, "Yes, I have seen God, just
as I see you here, only in a more clear sense." Narendra was astounded
and puzzled. He could feel the man's words were honest and uttered from
depths of experience. He started visiting Ramakrishna frequently.
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. Soon,
Ramakrishna's end came in the form of throat cancer in August 1886. After
this Narendra and a core group of Ramakrishna's disciples took vows to
become monks and renounce everything, and started living in a supposedly
haunted house in Baraganore. They took alms to satisfy their hunger and
their other needs were taken care of by Ramakrishna's richer householder
disciples.
His Great Achievements :
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Ramkrishna Mission : the Brain Child of Vivekananda
