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Swami Vivekananda: An Inspiration to Youth, by Aman Sharma

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Swami Vivekananda was born on January 12th, 1863. Every year, this day is celebrated all over India and across the world as National Youth Day in reminiscence of Swami’s motivating message to the youth of India. Growing up as a young man, Narendranath Dutta (as he was known at birth), acquired many attributes of a strong leader and quickly commanded the respect of many of his peers. Curious about whether God could be known intimately, Narendranath found himself seeking the sage of Dakshineshwar, Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.

Many youths, including Narendranath were deeply inspired by Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings, and eventually when Sri Ramakrishna passed away, Narendranath was instructed to look after the group of youth who began following Sri Ramakrishna’s teachings of spirituality. As Narendranath’s group of youth began to grow in strength, a monastery was established and Narendranath under monastic vows took his name as Swami Vivekananda.

vivekananda-2.JPGWandering all over India, Swami Vivekananda touched the hearts of many people. He reached the Himalayas and from there travelled south until he reached the southernmost tip of India. There he meditated for three days straight on top of Kanya-Kumari.  Heartbroken, Swami Vivekananda met the poverty-stricken and illiterate as well, and saw the effects of Hinduism’s social caste system. However, Swami Vivekananda understood that religion was the backbone of mother India and that it must also be the foundation of modern India. What Swami Vivekananda meant by religion did not portend to the Brahminical customs of the day, but rather to the perpetual scriptures of the Vedas, which held the many Vedantic truths. Seeking to spread this message to the world, Swami Vivekananda travelled to the United States to represent Hinduism at the Parliament of Religions on September 11th, 1893. On this famous day, many say the West was finally connected to the East and many ideas such as Yoga, Zen, Meditation, and Eastern Studies began to spread to the United States.

Through Swami Vivekananda’s lectures and speeches, many youth were inspired to ideas of social-service and character-building. For the remainder of his life, Swami Vivekananda dedicated his life to teaching and guiding the youth the importance of social-service and laying the groundwork of character and leader attributes. Swamiji’s concept of service to the poor helped fire inspiration to many youth including many in Benares; these youth eventually formed the Sri Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission Home of Service, which exists even today. The Ramakrishna Mission came into existence in 1897 and since then continues to function and inspire youth all over India. Swami Vivekananda was a mighty inspiration to youth throughout his lifetime, and continues to inspire the youth of today.

Aman Sharma is an undergraduate student at SUNY Stonybrook. You can contact him at amanhss@yahoo.com.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am and is filed under Biographies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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