BIRTH
NAME : Narendra Nath Datta
BORN : 12 January 1863 Calcutta, India
DIED : 4 July 1902 (aged 39) Belur Math near Calcutta, India
Swami Vivekananda was the chief disciple of the 19th century saint Ramakrishna and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission. He is considered a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the "Western" world, mainly in America and Europe and is also credited with raising interfaith awareness, bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the end of the 19th century CE. Vivekananda is considered to be a major force in the revival of Hinduism in modern India. He is perhaps best known for his inspiring speech which began: "Sisters and Brothers of America," through which he introduced Hinduism at the Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago in 1893.
Swami Vivekananda was born in an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family of Calcutta
on 12 January 1863. Vivekananda's parents influenced his thinking—his
father by his rationality and his mother by her religious temperament.
From his childhood, he showed an inclination towards spirituality and God realisation. His guru, Ramakrishna, taught him Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism); that all religions are true and that service to man was the most effective worship of God. After the Mahasamadhi of his guru, Vivekananda became a wandering monk, touring the Indian subcontinent
and acquiring first-hand knowledge of conditions in India. He later
travelled to Chicago and represented India as a delegate in the 1893
Parliament of World Religions. He conducted hundreds of public and
private lectures and classes, disseminating Vedanta and Yoga in America,
England and Europe. He also established the Vedanta societies in America and England.
At the same time, vehement in his desire to know the truth about God, he questioned people of holy reputation, asking them if they had seen God. He found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts, gave him God vision, and transformed him into sage and prophet with authority to teach.
After Sri Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda renounced the world and criss-crossed India as a wandering monk. His mounting compassion for India's people drove him to seek their material help from the West. Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of Religions in 1893, Vivekananda won instant celebrity in America and a ready forum for his spiritual teaching.
For three years he spread the Vedanta philosophy and religion in America and England and then returned to India to found the Ramakrishna Math and Mission. Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness, he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He died July 4, 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West. His lectures and writings have been gathered into nine volumes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REFERRED LINKS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda
http://www.vivekananda.org/biography.asp
