Swami Vivekananda- one great spiritual giant of India

Browsing thru the threads of this secn., I'm surprised tat so far there has been none abt Swami Vivekananda, possibly the greatest epitome of spiritual and cultural guidance India has ever seen. He expounded the religious and cultural aspects of India to the West at a time when the contact between them & us was very little, and all tat they knew abt India until then was wat had projected us in a negative light.
It was he who had revived the dormant glory and understanding of Hinduism and Indian culture (esp. the Vedanta philosophy), more to the West than to Indians, depsite his short life. He was looked upon as the guiding light not just for religion/spirituality but also for value-based and character-building education and even for the empowerment of women (without having them break down their idealistic image) in our country.
Born on 12th January 1863, in the Datta family of Calcutta and originally named Narendranath, he got a good education and cultural training under them, alongside embracing the agnostic philosophies of the Western mind along with the worship of science.
At the same time, vehement in his desire for spiritual perfection and to know the truth about God, he questioned people of holy reputation of the time, asking them if they had seen God. In 1882, he found such a person in Sri Ramakrishna, who became his master, allayed his doubts and gave him God vision. Thus the next four and a half years- until the mahasamadhi of Sri Ramakrishna- were marked b turbulence and turmoil, the direct result of the perfect Master transforming the perfect disciple into a sage, thus christening him as Vivekananda, ie., one who has 'Viveka', the power to discriminate between the good & bad/right & wrong, with authority to teach and reform.
After Sri Ramakrishna's death, Vivekananda renounced the world and with the help of his young co-disciples, founded a Math (monastery) in his guru's name at Barangore (Calcutta) in 1886. Setting out on a piligrimage, he criss-crossed India as a wandering monk, finally arriving at Kanyakumari, the southernmost tip of the Indian soil, during December 1892. There, while meditating on the last piece of Indian rock at sea, he thought of India, its glorious history and its current degeneration, alongwith ways of regenration. And the mission of his life was quickly revealed to him. His mounting compassion for India's people quickly drove him to seek their material help from the West.
Accepting an opportunity to represent Hinduism at Chicago's Parliament of Religions, Vivekananda set sail for America on 31st May 1893. Brushing aside all suspicion and contradiction from local sceptics as well as religious racists, apart from avoiding the illusion of materialism in the Western way of life, enthralled his audience beyond doubt and created history at the World Parliament of Religions in Sepetmber the same year, not only succeeding in expounding the greatness of India's philosophy/culture but also winning instant followers 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 via Colombo in January 1897.
Exhorting his nation to spiritual greatness, during the next five years, he wakened India to a new national consciousness. He had rightly proclaimed that India needs the Western science combined with our own philosophy to develop in the true sense. He formally established the Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Belur in 1899. He then visited the West again during 1899-1900
He died on 4the July 1902, after a second, much shorter sojourn in the West, although he had shortly before prophesised that even in the future, long after him, an equally distinguished saint would arise, reviving once again, the declining glory and power of the spirit by which India would rise, higher than before!
With Swami Vivekananda there could be no comparison with anyone. He was a class by himself, a radiant being who had descended from another world, from a higher spehere for a definite purpose.

A Nice Article by Swami Vivekananda...............


I once had a friend who grew to be very close to me.

Once when we were sitting at the edge of a swimming pool, she

filled the palm of her hand with some water and held it

before me, and said this:

"You see this water carefully contained on my hand? It

symbolizes Love."

This was how I saw it:

As long as you keep your hand caringly open and allow it to

remain there, it will always be there. However, if you

attempt to close your fingers round it and try to posses it,

it will spill through the first cracks it finds

This is the greatest mistake that people do when they meet

love...they try to posses it, they

demand, they expect... and just like the water spilling out

of your hand, love

will retrieve from you. For love is meant to be free, you

cannot change its nature. If there are people you love, allow

them to be free beings.

Give and don't expect.

Advise, but don't order.

Ask, but never demand.

It might sound simple, but it is a lesson that may take a

lifetime to truly practice. It is the secret to true love. To

truly practice it, you must sincerely feel no expectations

from those who you love, and yet an unconditional caring."

Passing thought...

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take; but by

the moments that take our breath away.....

Life is beautiful!!!

Live it !!! :D :D

Just something I stumbled upon about the Great Saint! :D

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!''

You are correct Surya. Vivekananda, the prophet of modern India, is of course one of great inspiring personalities our land has produced. If you are aware he lived only for 39 years! Fortunantely we have his complete works in 9 volumes through which we are able to get an idea of the kind of subjects he was interested in.

He along with Valluvar (V & V) are my inspirers in theology and literature. Vivekananda's and Valluvar's rational mind and straight forward approach to day to day matters have attracted my attention. You may visit my site for insight into their teachings and efforts made to spread their wisdom.

http://www.geocities.com/nvkashraf/

Surya, Ashraf, tks for ur contribution! :D
Incidentally, u'll be aware tat its Swamiji's B'day & Nat'l Youth Day here on the 12th of this month......we're organising a youth rally around the centre of Vizag.
And now,

Sayings by Swami Vivekananda

On True Education:

-Education is not the amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there, undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making, character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any man who has got by heart a whole library.

-We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one’s own feet.

-To me, the very essence of education is concentration of mind, not the collecting of facts. If I had to do my education over again, and had any voice in the matter, I would not study facts at all. I would develop the power of concentration and detachment, and then with a perfect instrument I could collect facts at will.

-Bring light to the poor; and bring more light to the rich, for they require it more than the poor. Bring light to the ignorant, and more light to the educated, for the vanities of the education of our time are tremendous.

-Well, you consider a man as educated if only he can pass some examinations and deliver good lectures! The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out the strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion- is it worth the name?? Real education is that which enables one to stand on one's own legs. The education that you receive now in schools and colleges is only making you a race of dyspeptics; you are working like machines merely, and living a jell-fish existence!

More sayings on various issues by the great saint to follow :D

He is certainly of the man who enlighted West..

Swami Vivekananda teached Vedic science to Nikola Tesla, the greatest inventor !

Nikola Tesla used many vedic term to describe physic mecanic...

Swami Vivekananda is certainly one of the most important man of the last centuries...

His teachings enlighted the world..

Tribute to this great saint .

Tks Mr. Eelavar! :D
Incidentally, u'd be aware tat today happens to be his birthday & also National Youth Day.....we organised a youth rally around the centre of the city here (Vizag) in the morning.
While ur no doubt right tat his teachings enlightened the world (inc. the West) I must admit tat the present day society (even Indian) is woefully ignorant of the very essence of his teachings! :(
If only ppl. decided to follow even one of his ideas whole-heartedly, they'd know the true meaning of spirituality & culture, rather than merely practice it in a routine, almost mechanical way in the form of elaborate rituals, visiting piligrimages etc......! Not tat I'm against those but they, as Swamiji says, form only the periphery of religion......the real core is in following w/ ur heart!

Swami Vivekananda on Kerala

'I have wandered into a lunatic asylum!' Swami Vivekananda reputedly exclaimed after touring Kerala.

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Originally Posted by Sandeep

Swami Vivekananda on Kerala

'I have wandered into a lunatic asylum!' Swami Vivekananda reputedly exclaimed after touring Kerala.

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:shock: Ayyo da!!! :? :lol:

Sandeep,
Why? I'm sure there's a reason behind it! :)

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I must admit tat the present day society (even Indian) is woefully ignorant of the very essence of his teachings!

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Athuthaan nammaloda subhavam. Vellaikaaran-e othundaalum, namme namma kalatharathe pathi othukkamaatom, yenna namma ellam secular!

As we all know, Swami Vivekanandha was a strong member of the Theosophical Society. His whole jouney into the exploration of Things pertaining to the Vedas started after he met the Great Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsar. Even after he met him, he just thought that SRKPH was a normal man, infact later on, he thought that he was an insane man! Then one day, SRKPH enlightens him. All he does is touch Swami Vivekanandha, and in one of his works, Swami Vivekanandha discribs the room to start spinning, then finally, he feels that he is standing in the middle of space. This terrifies him to the core! :D He starts yelling "Please! What are you going to do to me? I'm too young! I have parents! I have to go back to them!!" SRKPH realizes that Swami Vivekanandha is not ready, and lets go of his arm. Vivekanandha leaves the room, and goes back to his hometown. Due to Financial Situations, he takes a up a job, but his mind is with SRKPM this whole time. After about 6 months I think, he retuns to SRKPM, and that's when the process slowly starts. And Swami Vivekanandha's views start to shift from theosophical to vedanta! :D

When Swami Vivekanandha passed away, he was only 39. The day before he did, he called all of his Sishyas, and openly talked to them about various things, and asked them to always follow the teachings of SRKPM and so on, and that night he goes to sleep. The next day, another of his sishya in another mutt is meditating, and when he is in deep Dhayna, he gets a vision of Swami Vivekanandha, Swami says "My purpose has been fulfilled, I'm no longer need this shirt anymore. I'm leaving." The Sishya jolts out of his dhyana, and runs to the phone and calls the mutt where Swami was staying. Someone picks up on the other end, he asks to speak to the Swami. The other person replies, "Swami Passed Away in his sleep." Swami Vivekanandha had actually telepathically communicated with his sishya before he left which he knew was going to happen. Now THIS is a modern-day Yogi!

Tks for ur input Surya! :D Tat was very knowledgeable as well as intriguing.
And now continuing on

Sayings by Swami Vivekananda

On building character

-If you really want to judge the character of a man, look not at his great performances, for every fool may become a hero at one time or another! Watch a man do his most common actions; those are indeed the things which tell you the real character of a great man.

-If a man with an ideal makes a thousand mistakes, I am sure that the man without an ideal makes fifty thousand! Therefore, I would rather be a man with ideals.

-Neither money pays, nor name, nor fame, nor even learning; it is CHARACTER that can cleave through adamantine walls of difficulties.

-It is in the nature of things that many should fall, that troubles should come, that tremendous difficulties should arise, that selfishness and all other devils in the human heart should struggle hard, when they are about to be driven out by the fire of spirituality. The road to the good is the roughest and steepest in the universe. It is a wonder that so many succeed, no wonder that so many fall. Character has to be established through a thousand stumbles.

-We are to take care of ourselves- that much we can do- and give up attending to others for a time. Let us perfect the means; the end will take care of itself. For the world can be good and pure. It is an effect, and we are the means. Therefore, let us purify ourselves.

-The miseries of the world cannot be cured by physical help only. Until man’s character changes, these physical needs will always arise, and miseries will always be felt, and no amount of physical help will cure them completely! The only solution of the problem is to make mankind pure. Ignorance is the mother of all the evil and misery we see. Let men have light, let them be pure and spiritually strong and educated, then alone will misery cease in the world, not before. We may convert every house in the country into a charity asylum, we may fill the land with hospitals but the misery of man will still continue to exist until man’s character changes.

-All the strength and succour you want is within yourselves. Therefore make your own future. Let the dead past bury its dead. The infinite future is before you, and you must always remember that each word, thought and deed, lays up a store for you and that, as bad thoughts and bad works are ready to spring upon you like tigers, so also there is the inspiring hope that the good thoughts and good deeds are ready with the power of a hundred thousand angels to defend you always and forever.

-If a man continuously hears bad words, thinks bad thoughts, does bad actions, his mind will be full of bad impressions; and they will influence his thought and work without his being conscious of the fact. He will be like a machine in the hands of his impressions! They will force him to do evil, and that man will be a bad man; he cannot help it. Similarly, if a man thinks good thoughts and does good works, the sum total of these impressions will be good, and they, in a similar manner, will force him to do good, even in spite of himself. When such is the case, a man’s good character is said to be established.

Good posting Lambretta, Swami Vivekananda is a great soul that makes every Indian proud irrespective of their regional affiliaciations. Every thing he said is so universal that it belongs to every religion or faith. Religion is man made but spritualism is product of detached intellect(such detached person should see man and sand the same ). He was a genius par excellence .(PERIOD). So bad that he had to die so young, may be it is a mistake of the gods to posit him ahead of the time dimension, a mistake that the god realized later and corrected by just eliminating his physical presence.

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Originally Posted by mahadevan

So bad that he had to die so young, may be it is a mistake of the gods to posit him ahead of the time dimension, a mistake that the god realized later and corrected by just eliminating his physical presence.

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Don't worry Great Devan,

-deleted-

But indeed, Swami Vivekananda was a great soul, also died young like Jesus.

Hello Mods,

pleas delete it after you read this. This is because I don't know who of you is currently active, otherwise I would have pmed you.

Is it wrong to say that I am young and dynamic and to say that religion is man made? I don't think so!

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Originally Posted by mahadevan

Good posting Lambretta, Swami Vivekananda is a great soul that makes every Indian proud irrespective of their regional affiliaciations. Every thing he said is so universal that it belongs to every religion or faith.

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Tks Mahadevan! Yes, but as I said, today's supposedly 'secular' society of ours cares little for his teachings, however universal appeal they may hav!

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Religion is man made but spritualism is product of detached intellect(such detached person should see man and sand the same ).

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Exactly! Religion is only the outer skin covering the fruit tat is spirituality! Wat many of us r doing today is preserving/maintaining the skin while throwing away the fruit!

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He was a genius par excellence .(PERIOD). So bad that he had to die so young, may be it is a mistake of the gods to posit him ahead of the time dimension, a mistake that the god realized later and corrected by just eliminating his physical presence.

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I feel twas indeed a mistake for the Gods to post him earlier than he wud've been REALLY needed for our society (ie. now!)......

Friends,

The Great speech of sri.Vivekanand is available for download in Tamil and English in www.chennainetwork.com
uppuma

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Exactly! Religion is only the outer skin covering the fruit tat is spirituality! Wat many of us r doing today is preserving/maintaining the skin while throwing away the fruit!

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Pinnre machi! :D

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I feel twas indeed a mistake for the Gods to post him earlier than he wud've been REALLY needed for our society.

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Hinduism would have had unimaginable reach in western society if he lived today. Then again, living in today's world as a spiritual/religious leader does have it's pricetag. :(

Uppuma,
Thanks a million for the link! :D Here is something I stumbled upon also: http://www.ourmedia.org/node/26340

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Originally Posted by Surya

Pinnre machi! :D

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Um...wats tat? :? :)

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Hinduism would have had unimaginable reach in western society if he lived today. Then again, living in today's world as a spiritual/religious leader does have it's pricetag. :(

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I do know wat u mean, but I reckon he wud've been much too gr8 to hav to pay tat pricetag neways! I can say tat had he been alive today, he wud def. above ne other spiritual leader in the world!

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Here is something I stumbled upon also: http://www.ourmedia.org/node/26340

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Tks for the link machi! Altho sorry, I cudn't open the page there....... :?

Sayings by Swami Vivekananda

On the Youth of India

-India wants the sacrifice of atleast a thousand of her young men- men, mind and not brutes!

-Brave, bold men, these are what we want. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas! Avoid all mystery. There is no mystery in religion. Mystery mongering and superstition are always signs of weakness.

-A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion’s courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help, the gospel of social raising up- the gospel of equality.

-So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!

-Arise, awake, for your country needs this tremendous sacrifice. It is the young men that will do it. ‘The young, the energetic, the strong, the well-built, the intellectual’- for them is the task.

-Do not be frightened. Awake, be up and doing. Do not stop until you have reached the goal.

-Lay down your comforts, your pleasures, your names, fame or position, nay, even your lives, and make a bridge of human chains over which millions will cross this ocean of life.

-My children must be ready to jump into fire, if needed, to accomplish their work. Now work, work, work! We will stop and compare notes later on.

- Work unto death. This life comes and goes- wealth, fame and enjoyments are only of a few days. It is better, far better to die on the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm.

- Truth, purity and unselfishness- wherever these are present, there is no power below or above the sun to crush the possessor thereof. Equipped with these, one individual would be able to face the whole universe in opposition.[/font]

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I feel twas indeed a mistake for the Gods to post him earlier than he wud've been REALLY needed for our society (ie. now!)......

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I dont think so Lambretta. Because if he were born today he would be put even under goondas act for preaching Hinduism. So i think Swamy Vivekananda earned his reputation as he was born in the last century.

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Originally Posted by indian224080

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I feel twas indeed a mistake for the Gods to post him earlier than he wud've been REALLY needed for our society (ie. now!)......

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I dont think so Lambretta. Because if he were born today he would be put even under goondas act for preaching Hinduism. So i think Swamy Vivekananda earned his reputation as he was born in the last century.

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Well, I frankly doubt if sumone of his calibre wud've met tat condition.....or maybe he wud've.....? :( :huh:
Nevertheless, I cudn't trust today's society in ne case!

What is Ramakrishan Mission and Math upto these days. I rarely here about them.

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Originally Posted by Sandeep

What is Ramakrishan Mission and Math upto these days. I rarely here about them.

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They still r continuing......I go to RK mission here every Sunday for Yoga & many (even youth) come for religious discourses......they even hold bhajans etc. there on festive days (altho I havn't attended those so far) as I mentioned, they'd even conducted a Youth rally on 12th Jan, Swami V's Birthday. However, I agree tat its more of a struggle for them afa popularity is concerned in today's society, compared w/ their earlier days! :(

Tks to NOV for posting this originally in the Misc. secn.

Swami Vivekananda's 15 Laws of Life:

1. Love Is The Law Of Life:
All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction.
Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore, love for love's sake, because it is law of life, just as you breathe to live.

2. It's Your Outlook That Matters:
It is our own mental attitude, which makes the world what it is for us. Our thoughts make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light.

3. Life is Beautiful:
First, believe in this world - that there is meaning behind everything. Everything in the world is good, is holy and beautiful. If you see something evil, think that you do not understand it in the right light.
Throw the burden on yourselves!

4. It's The Way You Feel:
Feel like Christ and you will be a Christ; feel like Buddha and you will be a Buddha. It is feeling that is the life, the strength, the vitality, without which no amount of intellectual activity can reach God.

5. Set Yourself Free:
The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him - that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.

6. Don't Play The Blame Game:
Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.

7. Help Others:
If money helps a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.

8. Uphold Your Ideals:
Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.

9. Listen To Your Soul:
You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.

10. Be Yourself:
The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves!

11. Nothing Is Impossible:
Never think there is anything impossible for the soul.
It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin - to say that you are weak, or others are weak.

12. You Have The Power:
All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.

13. Learn Everyday:
The goal of mankind is knowledge... now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man 'knows', should, in strict psychological language, be what he 'discovers' or 'unveils'; what man 'learns' is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.

14. Be Truthful:
Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.


15. Think Different:
All differences in this world are of degree, and not of kind, because oneness is the secret of everything

If only we could try & adopt half (or even 1/4th!) of these 'laws', we would turn into better human beings for sure! :D

Sayings by Swami Vivekananda

On true religion

-Religion is not in books, nor in theories, nor in dogmas, nor in talking, not even in reasoning! It is being and becoming. The secret of true religion does not lie in theories but in practice. To be good and to do good- that is the whole of religion.

-In studying books, we are sometimes deluded into thinking that thereby we are being spiritually helped; but if we analyse ourselves, we will find that only our intellect has been helped, and not the spirit.

-I do not believe in a God or religion that cannot wipe the widow’s tears or bring a piece of bread to the orphan’s mouth.

-The Parliament of Religions has shown the world that holiness, purity and charity are not exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: ‘Help and not Fight’, ‘Assimilation and not Destruction’, ‘Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.’

-In life and in death, in happiness and in misery, the Lord is equally present. The whole world is full of God. Open your eyes and see Him.

-God alone lives. The soul alone lives. Spirituality alone lives. Hold on to that.

-It is very good to be born in a church, but very bad to die in a church. It is very good to be born within the limits of certain forms that help the plant of spirituality, but if a man dies within the bounds of these forms, it shows that he has not grown, that there has been no development of the soul!

-Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity and natural strength already in man.

-Religion is the idea that is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.

-Religions of the world have all become lifeless mockeries! What the world wants and needs is character.

Sayings by Swami Vivekananda

The Secret of Work

-Any action that makes us go Godward is a good action, and is our duty; any action that makes us go downward is evil, and is not our duty!

-Pay as much attention to means as to the end.

-Whatever you do, think well on it. All your actions will be magnified, transformed, defied, by the very power of the thought.

-If in this hell of a world, one can bring a little joy and peace even for a day into the heart of a single person, that much alone is true; this I have learnt after suffering all my life; all else is mere moonshine!

-The reason that we find a lack of satisfaction with any work that we do, no matter how great it may be, is the lack of peace of mind, which stems from the fact that we do not apply our mind so much to the means as we do to the end result of our work.

-Take up one idea, make that one idea your life; think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave any other idea alone. This is the way to success, and this is the way great spiritual giants are produced. Others are mere talking machines!

-You should work like a master of your mind and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do a slave’s work.

-Competition rouses envy and kills the kindliness of the heart. To the grumbler all duties are distasteful; nothing will ever satisfy him, and his whole life is doomed to prove a failure.

-Three things are necessary to make every man great, every nation great:

1. Conviction of the powers of goodness.
2. Absence of jealousy and suspicion.
3. Helping all who are trying to be and do good.

-By means of constant effort to do good to others, we are trying to forget ourselves; this forgetfulness of self is the one great lesson we have to learn in life.

-Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are, you will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going into a single church or temple.

-Misery comes through attachment, not through work. As soon as we identify ourselves with the work we do, we feel miserable; but if we do not identify ourselves with it, we do not feel that misery.

-Do not fly away from the wheels of the world-machine, but stand inside it and learn the secret of work. Through proper work done inside, it is also possible to come out. Through this machinery itself is the way out.

-Ask nothing, want nothing in return. Give what you have to give; it will come back to you but do not think of that now, it will come back multiplied a thousand fold; but the attention must not be on that. Yet have the power to give: give, and there it ends. Ask nothing in return; but the more you give, the more will come back to you The quicker you can empty the air out of this room, the quicker it will be filled up by the external air.

-The tapas and other Yogas that were practices in other yugas do not work now. What is needed in this yuga is giving, helping others. And the highest of gifts is the giving of spiritual knowledge, the next is the giving of secular knowledge, and the next is saving of life, the last of giving food and drink. He who gives spiritual knowledge saves the soul from many many a birth.

-Everybody can show what evil is, but he is the friend of mankind who finds a way out of the difficulty. We have had lectures enough, societies enough, papers enough; where is the man who will lend us a hand to drag us out? Where is the man who really loves us? Where is the man who has sympathy for us? That man is wanted!

Sayings by Swami Vivekananda

Our motherland- India.

-Shall India die? Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct, all moral perfection will be extinct, all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct, all ideality will be extinct; and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities, with money as its priest, fraud, force and competition its ceremonies, and the human soul its sacrifice. Such a thing can never be!

-If there is any land on this earth that can lay claim to be the blessed Punya Bhumi, to be the land to which soul on this earth must come to account for Karma, the land to which every soul that is wending its way Godward must come to attain its last home, the land where humanity has attained its highest towards gentleness, generosity, purity, calmness, above all, the land of introspection and spirituality- it is in India.

-Here in India, it is religion that forms the very core of the national heart. It is the backbone, the bedrock, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built. In religion lies the vitality of India.

-We must grow according to our nature. Vain is it to attempt the lines of action that foreign societies have engrafted upon us: it is impossible. Glory unto God, that it is impossible, that we cannot be twisted, moulded or tortured into the shape of other nations! I do not condemn the institutions of other races; they are good for them, but not for us. What is meat for them may be poison for us!

-On one side, New India is saying, “If we adopt Western ideas, Western mannerisms, Western culture, Western thoughts, we shall be as strong and powerful as the Western nations”; on the other, Old India is saying, “Fools! By imitation, other’s ideas never become one’s own- nothing, unless earned, is your own. Does the donkey in a lion’s skin become a lion?”
On one side, New India is saying, “What the Western nations do is surely good, otherwise how did they become so great?” On the other side, Old India is saying, “the flash of lightning may be intensely bright, but only for a moment; look out boys, don’t let it dazzle your eyes. Beware!”

-O India, this is your terrible, dangerous weakness! The spell of imitating the West is getting such a strong hold upon you that what is good or bad is no longer decided by reason, judgement, discrimination, or reference to the Shasthras. Whatever ideas, whatever manners the west praises of like, are good; whatever things they dislike or censure, are bad! Alas! What can be a more tangible proof of foolishness than this?

-O India! With this mere echoing of others, with this base imitation of others, with this dependance on others, this slavish weakness, this vile, detestable cruelty- would you, with these provisions only, scale the highest pinnacle of civilization and greatness? Would you attain, by means of your disgraceful cowardice, that freedom deserved only by the brave and the heroic?

-O India! Forget not that the ideal of your womanhood is Sita, Savitri, Damayanti; forget not that the God you worship is the great Ascetic of ascetics, the all-renouncing Shankara, the Lord of Uma; forget not that your marriage, your wealth, your life are not for sense-pleasure, are not for your individual personal happiness; forget not that you are born as a sacrifice to the Mother’s altar; forget not that the lower classes, the ignorant, the poor, the illiterate, the cobbler, the sweeper, are your flesh and blood, your brothers.

-Our life-blood is spirituality. If it flows clear, if it flows strong and pure and vigorous, everything is righrt; political, social, and other material defects, even the poverty of the land, will all be cured if that blood is pure.

-But mark you, if you give up that spirituality, leaving it aside to go after the materializing civilization of the West, the result will be that in three generations you will be an extinct race; because the backbone of the nation will be broken, the foundation upon which the national edifice has been built will be undermined, and the result will be annihilation all round!

-But one vision I see clear as life before me, that the ancient Mother has awakened once more, sitting on Her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever! Proclaim Her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction.

-India will be raised, not with the power of the flesh, but with the power of the spirit; not with the flag of destruction but with the flag of peace & love.

-What India wants a new electric fire to stir up a fresh vigour in the national veins.

-This national ship of ours, my countrymen, has been plying for ages, carrying civilizations and enriching the whole world with its inestimable treasures. For scores of shining centuries, this national ship of ours has been ferrying across the ocean of life, and has taken millions of souls to the other shore, beyond all misery. But today, it may have sprung a leak and got damaged, through your own fault or whatever cause it matters not. What would you, who have places yourselves in it, do now? Would you go about cursing it and quarelling among yourselves? Woulr you all not unite together and put your best efforts to stop the holes? Let us all gladly give our hearts’ blood to do this; and if we fail in the attempt, let us all sink and die together, with blessings and not curses on our lips.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Uppuma

Friends,

The Great speech of sri.Vivekanand is available for download in Tamil and English in www.chennainetwork.com
uppuma

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can't find the english version! and i can't bring myself to read the tamil version cos i'm really slow in reading tamil.

digr: i heard that the founder of the tata group of companies travelled on the same ship as swami vivekananda to america in 1893 in search of iron ore. and he founded the tata steel company in 1907. so could this (meaning travelling on the same ship) be correct? why would there have been such a long time b/w the time he went in search of iron ore and to when he founded his company? but it seems in the end he found iron ore in india, so is this period cos he didn't find iron ore til then?

end of digr

i've only read until the 15 laws of life. i'll read the remaining stuff later. i need to go search for the english version of the famous september speech!