SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S inspiring
personality was well known both in India and in America during the last decade
of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth. The unknown
monk of India suddenly leapt into fame at the Parliament of Religions held in
Chicago in 1893, at which he represented Hinduism. His vast knowledge of
Eastern and Western culture as well as his deep spiritual insight, fervid
eloquence, brilliant conversation, broad human sympathy, colourful
personality, and handsome figure made an irresistible appeal to the many types
of Americans who came in contact with him. People who saw or heard Vivekananda
even once still cherish his memory after a lapse of more than half a century.
In America Vivekananda's
mission was the interpretation of India's spiritual culture, especially in its
Vedantic setting. He also tried to enrich the religious consciousness of the
Americans through the rational and humanistic teachings of the Vedanta
philosophy. In America he became India's spiritual ambassador and pleaded
eloquently for better understanding between India and the New World in order
to create a healthy synthesis of East and West, of religion and science.
In his own motherland
Vivekananda is regarded as the patriot saint of modern India and an inspirer
of her dormant national consciousness, To the Hindus he preached the ideal of
a strength-giving and man-making religion. Service to man as the visible
manifestation of the Godhead was the special form of worship he advocated for
the Indians, devoted as they were to the rituals and myths of their ancient
faith. Many political leaders of India have publicly acknowledged their
indebtedness to Swami Vivekananda.
The Swami's mission was both
national and international. A lover of mankind, be strove to promote peace and
human brotherhood on the spiritual foundation of the Vedantic Oneness of
existence. A mystic of the highest order, Vivekananda had a direct and
intuitive experience of Reality. He derived his ideas from that unfailing
source of wisdom and often presented them in the soulstirring language of
poetry.
The natural tendency of
Vivekananda's mind, like that of his Master, Ramakrishna, was to soar above
the world and forget itself in contemplation of the Absolute. But another part
of his personality bled at the sight of human suffering in East and West
alike. It might appear that his mind seldom found a point of rest in its
oscillation between contemplation of God and service to man. Be that as it
may, he chose, in obedience to a higher call, service to man as his mission on
earth; and this choice has endeared him to people in the West, Americans in
particular.
In the course of a short life
of thirty-nine years (1863-1902), of which only ten were devoted to public
activities-and those, too, in the midst of acute physical suffering-he left
for posterity his four classics: Jnana-Yoga, Bhakti-Yoga, Karma-Yoga, and
Raja-Yoga, all of which are outstanding treatises on Hindu philosophy. In
addition, he delivered innumerable lectures, wrote inspired letters in his own
hand to his many friends and disciples, composed numerous poems, and acted as
spiritual guide to the many seekers, who came to him for instruction. He also
organized the Ramakrishna Order of monks, which is the most outstanding
religious organization of modern India. It is devoted to the propagation of
the Hindu spiritual culture not only in the Swami's native land, but also in
America and in other parts of the world.
Swami Vivekananda once spoke
of himself as a "condensed India." His life and teachings are of inestimable
value to the West for an understanding of the mind of Asia. William James, the
Harvard philosopher, called the Swami the "paragon of Vedantists." Max Muller
and Paul Deussen, the famous Orientalists of the nineteenth century, held him
in genuine respect and affection. "His words," writes Romain Rolland, "are
great music, phrases in the style of Beethoven, stirring rhythms like the
march of Handel choruses. I cannot touch these sayings of his, scattered as
they are through the pages of books, at thirty years' distance, without
receiving a thrill through my body like an electric shock. And what shocks,
what transports, must have been produced when in burning words they issued
from the lips of the hero!''
Swami Nikhilananda
Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center of New York
January 5, 1953
