Swami Vivekananda
” Good motives, sincerity, and infinite love can conquer the world. One single soul possessed of these virtues can destroy the dark designs of millions of hypocrites and brutes. ”
– Swami Vivekananda
In his youth, Swami Vivekananda was everything else but a seeker. He was fond of atheist philosophies and western sciences and did not pay any attention to the religious tradition around him. But later he started his search for God and asked each teacher that he met if he had seen God. To his great astonishment, Sri Ramakrishna told him not only that he had seen God, but that he was seeing God more clearly in from of him than a human being. Swami Vivekananda became his disciple, but had again and again strong doubts about his master.
After the death of Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda became a monk, traveled around India and organised the Sri Ramakrishna Math. In 1893 he visited the congress of religions in Chicago, where he made a deep impression. He stayed in the West for three years before he returned to India.
Swami Vivekananda died very young with 39 years. He left several books with his lectures, writings about the Indian Yoga systems and poetry.
External Links
- VIvekananda.org The Vivekananda Vedanta Network is an online project sponsored by the Ramakrishna Vedanta Society, Boston. Our objective is to make Swami Vivekananda’s ideas and insights easily accessible online. As part of this objective, we also provide information for understanding Vedanta as a field for deep study as well as a method of personal practice
- Swami Vivekananda Poems Selection of Poetry by Swami Vivekananda
- Swami Vivekananda biography and stories at WriteSpirit
- Swami Vivekananda’s Speech at the World Parliament of Religions 1893
” It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.