Article Title: Swami Vivekananda
05-07-2023
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Why is in news? Prime Minister remembers Swami Vivekananda on his Punya Tithi
He was a true luminary, credited with enlightening the western world about Hinduism.
In 1984 the Government of India declared that 12th January, the birthday of Swami Vivekananda, will be celebrated as National Youth Day.
He was born in Kolkata on January 12, 1863 in Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda was known as Narendra Nath Datta in his pre-monastic life.
He introduced the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta.
He is known to have introduced the Hindu philosophies of Yoga and Vedanta to the West.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had called Vivekananda the “maker of modern India.”
In 1893, he took the name ‘Vivekananda’ after Maharaja Ajit Singh of the Khetri State requested him to do so.
He was an ardent disciple of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa and a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India.
He formed the Ramakrishna Mission in 1897 “to set in motion machinery which will bring noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the meanest.”
Ramakrishna Mission is an organization which works in the area of value-based education, culture, health, women's empowerment, youth and tribal welfare and relief and rehabilitation.
The Ramakrishna Mission undertook various forms of social service like establishing and running schools, collages and hospitals, propagation of practical tenets of Vedanta through conferences, seminars and workshops, and initiating relief and rehabilitation work across the country.
In 1899, he established the Belur Math, which became his permanent abode.
He was also founded Ramakrishna Math, Vedanta Society of New York.
He preached ‘neo-Vedanta’, an interpretation of Hinduism through a Western lens, and believed in combining spirituality with material progress.
Some of the books written by him includes Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga.
He pushed for national integration in colonial India, and his famous speech remains as the one that he gave in Chicago in 1893 (Parliament of the World Religions).
His message of universal brotherhood and self-awakening remains relevant especially in the current backdrop of widespread political turmoil around the world.
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