Swami Vivekananda – Source of Inspiration for Youth

TNI Bureau: India celebrates the 150th birth anniversary of the Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda today, but few people follow his teachings. This is mindset of modern human being to pay floral tribute to the great soul and to forget how to carry on the human values. Vivekananda was only key personality, who had inspired the youth through his teachings and speeches. He was a key figure in the introduction of Indian philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to the western world.

Vivekananda was the only monk, who had preached the values of Hinduism in true sense to the western people when Hindu religion was declining in the late 19th century due to the influence of western culture and Christianity. He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India and contributed to the notion of nationalism in colonial India. He was the chief disciple of Saint Ramakrishna Paramhansa and the founder of the Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission.

His inspiring speech beginning with “Sisters and Brothers of America,” had electrified the audiences and other spiritual leaders, who were sitting at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was blessed with such kind of quality that came into notice by his Guru Ramakrishna, who had elevated his life from common Narendra Nath Datta to Swami Vivekananda.

Today’s society, which is under turmoil and suffering from social evils, needs Swami Vivekananda and his teachings to grow in spiritualism. No doubt, there are many spiritual leaders exist in the society, but, Vivekanada could have motivated and influenced the younger generation in a better way. He is no more in the mortal world, but his teachings will always inspire the youths.

Veteran social activist Anna Hazare, who had created a storm in the country demanding a strong Jan Lokpal Bill to check corruption, considers Vivekananda as his ideal. He might be Gandhian, but one small book of Vivekananda had changed his life and his thought process.

It is difficult to say that Vivekananda was only a spiritual leader, as he had also contributed a lot in building a nation, which believes in humanity, universality, cosmopolitanism and compassion. He had emphasized that our everyday lives would become more meaningful only when our souls will be elevated through spiritualism. It roots out agony, stress and disappointment. He was focusing on the self-realisation, which make people realise their own potentialities that can be used in developing a strong nation.

In the Hinduism, detachment from the world had been widely criticised by western monks. But he was the first spiritual leader, who taught the idea of renunciation how it can be applied in daily life even being a married man or woman. He had taught the true meaning of the Sanyas.

The News Insight Team pays Tribute to the great saint and soul on his 150th birth anniversary.