Swami Vivekananda- one great spiritual giant of India

[Surya]

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! 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!

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!

[Lambretta]

Tks for ur input Surya! 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.

[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. 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.

[Ronnie The Dutch]

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.

Don't worry Great Devan,

-deleted-

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

[Ronnie The Dutch]

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!

[Lambretta]

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.

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!

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

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!

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.

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!)......

[Uppuma]

Friends,

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

[Surya]

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!

Pinnre machi!

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

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

[Lambretta]

Pinnre machi!

Um...wats tat?

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.

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!

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

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

[Lambretta]

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]