Swami Vivekananda, born on January 12, 1863,
Calcutta [now Kolkata] was a Hindu spiritual
leader and reformer in India who attempted to combine Indian spiritualty with
Western material progress, maintaining that the two supplemented and
complemented one another. His Absolute was a person’s own higher self; to
labour for the benefit of humanity was the noblest endeavour.
Born into an upper-middle-class family of the
Kayastha (scribes) castes in Bengal, he was educated at a Western-style
university where he was exposed to Western philosophy, Christianity, and
science. Social reform became a prominent element of Vivekananda’s thought, and
he joined the Brahmo Samaj (Society of Brahma), dedicated to eliminating
child marriage and illiteracy and determined to spread education among
women and the lower castes. He later became the most-notable disciple of
Ramakrishna, who demonstrated the essential unity of all religions.
Always stressing the universal and humanistic side
of the Vedas, the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism, as well as belief
in service rather than dogma, Vivekananda attempted to infuse vigour into
Hindu thought, placing less emphasis on the prevailing pacifism and
presenting Hindu spirituality to the West. He was an activating force in the
movement to promote Vedanta philosophy (one of the six schools
of Indian Philosophy) 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.
On his return to India with a small group of Western disciples
in 1897, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Mission at the monastery of Belur
Math on the Ganges (Ganga) River near Calcutta (now
Kolkata). Self-perfection and service were his ideals, and the
order continued to stress them. He adapted and made relevant to the 20th
century the very highest ideals of the Vedantic religion, and, although he
lived only two years into that century, he left the mark of his personality on
East and West alike.
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