Hello, friends! Swami Vivekanand had given a speech in America. Following this, the American newspaper
New York Herald had written "Vivekananda is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the Parliament of Religions. After hearing him we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation." What did Swami Vivekanand say? Why is he esteemed so highly? And what was his ideology? Let's find the answer to all these
in today's video. Let's look at his story from the very beginning. On 12th January 1863, he was born into a rich family. He was named Narendranath Datta. And he was affectionately known as Naren. His grandfather Durgacharan Datta was
a scholar in Sanskrit and Persian languages. He had studied law and left his home at the age of 25
to become a monk. That's why the concept of becoming a monk wasn't unfamiliar or unheard of for Naren. On the other hand, talking about his father
Vishwanath Datta, he was also a lawyer in Calcutta High Court. He was a well educated, liberal and progressive man. He knew many languages like Sanskrit, Persian, English, Hindi, Urdu and Arabic. He had studied the Hindu scriptures in Sanskrit. The Bible in English, And Deewan-e-Hafiz in Persian. The collection of poems of the Sufi poet Hafiz. And it was his favourite book. Daily he used to recite poems to Naren and other members of the family. Because of this, Naren had a liberal outlook towards life since his childhood. His brother, Bhupendranath Datta, had said that many people criticised their father Vishwanath because he respected the Bible and
Deewan-e-Hafiz. But if it is a sin to be liberal in religious matters if comparing and respecting all religions is a sin then yes, Vishwanath was guilty of this sin. Additionally, his father Vishwanath Datta was a very charitable person. He generously donated his money to the poor. Later someone had asked Swami Vivekananda about why he gives money to the beggars. That has a bad effect. So he replied with this. Swami Vivekananda had also said that he inherited intellect and compassion from his father. Also, his interest in Indian classical music was because of his father. On the other hand, his mother Bhubaneswari Devi was a religious woman. Along with being a religious woman, she had inculcated good principles in her children. She had said that if one stands with the truth then one may have to suffer injustice. There may be difficulties, but even then do not let go of the truth. She had also said something else related to this. "Naren, people will speak rubbish, so try to protect your dignity but while doing so, do not try to insult the other person." Let's fast forward to the year 1871. When Naren was 8 years old. He got admission to the Metropolitan Institution. The Head of this institution was Iswarchandra Vidyasagar. Exactly.
The same social reformer because of whom widow remarriage could be legalised. Today, this institution is named Vidyasagar College. He did his schooling from here. And he was good in both sports and studies
from his childhood. After this, he joined the Presidency College in 1879. It was the same Hindu College founded by
David Hare and others under the guidance of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. If you've seen my video on Raja Ram Mohan Roy, then you'll start to see several links between that video and this video. How the stories of Swami Vivekananda, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar are interlinked. If you haven't watched it, I'd definitely suggest that you watch it after this video. The link will be in the description below. This was the college where Henry Derozio had inculcated the spirit of free-thinking into his students. These students were known as Derozians or
Young Bengal. And he played an important role in
the Bengal Renaissance. So again, Naren studied at a place where students were encouraged to think freely and question everything. The spirit of Critical Thinking was
instilled into them. Along with the college education, he studied the Hindu scripture and Western philosophers in detail. Some famous names here include Immanuel Kant,
John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. In fact, Swami Vivekananda was so impressed by Herbert Spencer that he translated Spencer's book Education
into Bengali. In the previous episode, I talked about Raja Ram Mohan Roy and the Brahmo Samaj that was founded by him. And the values of the Samaj (society). Rationalism: Using one's mind. Opposing social evils like superstitions and casteism. Stopping idol worshipping. Monotheism: believing in the singularity of God. Toleration. And universal brotherhood. These were some of the values. By the time Swami Vivekananda came along,
this group of Brahmo Samaj was divided into several sects. Into various factions. After college, Naren joined one of these factions where he found people like himself. With similar interests. Like religion and spirituality. Several years before this, Adi Shankaracharya gave the principles of
Advaita Vedanta based on the Upnishads. 'Aham Brahmasmi Tvamcha' I am Brahm and so are You. And everything is made from the same Brahm. The soul and its creator aren't distinct. So why are there differences between people? Look at others how you look at yourself
and look at yourself how you look at others. Raja Ram Mohan Roy preached this principle from the Advaita Vedanta. And founded the Brahmo Samaj and
the Vedant College. Later on, Swami Vivekananda led it. He founded the Vedanta Society in New York. After which other centres opened up too. So obviously, you can now see that there is a deep link between Swami Vivekananda and
Raja Ram Mohan Roy. So it wasn't surprising when Swami Vivekananda said this about Raja Ram Mohan Roy in a lecture. Now friends if I talk about the different factions of the Brahmo Samaj, it will be a lot for one video. I don't want to go into this much detail in this video otherwise, it will be very long. But here I'd like to tell you a very interesting thing here that there seems to be a connection to Rabindranath Tagore too. To Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Swami Vivekananda. Among the members of the different factions,
two were very famous. Keshub Chandra Sen was one. And the other was Debendranath Tagore, Rabindranath Tagore's father. Debendranath Tagore connected the Brahmo Samaj with Western Esotericism. These are such ideas and ideologies that are not only different from science and rationalism but also much different from the religion Christianity. For example, Free Masonry. This is a system of morality
wherein symbols are used. Consider it as a religion or a cult. If you've watched the famous film Da Vinci Code or read the novel then you would've heard of Free Masonry. There are many conspiracy theories on Free Masonry. It is known friends, that Naren had also joined the Free Masonry Lodge in Calcutta. And within three months, he got the position of Master Mason. It is believed that when he was in Chicago, his Free Mason friends had helped him. What's shocking is that friends, Swami Vivekanand, or Naren, had achieved all this by the age of 20. Compare it with now. Today, what can a 20-year-old boy achieve in his 20 years? He plays PUB-G, shows off on social media, vulgar roast videos are watched on YouTube. Compare that with Naren. With the curiosity he had. He gained knowledge from so many different sources. He was open to all these experiences. Here, another interesting ideology to which Naren subscribed was Transcendentalism. This was a movement,
an ideology that emphasised respecting nature. It says that there is something like a personal spiritual experience. That always thinking rationally doesn't work. That we shouldn't look at the world only in a material sense. Here, one of Swami Vivekananda's quotes
comes to mind. He said something like this. So you can see friends how Swami Vivekananda's ideologies were. Think of them as a mesmerizing
painting on a canvas. Scriptures of Hindu religion. Bible, Hafiz's poems, Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Vedant. Western philosophy,
western esotericism, Freemasonry,
Transcendentalism. Mixing all these colours resulted in something so unique and beautiful that started to appeal to the masses instantly. His knowledge was so diverse that he went to America, England, Japan, Egypt but nowhere would he have felt that Let's talk about this. One day he had a class in his college. In which Professor William Hastie was teaching a poem named The Excursion. This was a poem written by William Wordsworth. There is a word in this poem 'trance'. The professor then tried to explain the meaning of this word to the students but Naren and the other students couldn't understand its meaning. So the teacher asked them to go and look at Ramkrishna. And then they would understand the meaning of the word. Ramkrishna was at his home in Calcutta for giving a spiritual lecture. So Naren and his friends went there. The Bhajan (devotional songs) singer who was supposed to sing didn't show up. So Naren started to sing. Ramkrishna liked the song so he told him to visit Dakhineshwar. When Naren went there, Ramakrishna asked him to sing again. After hearing Naren's song, Ramkrishna told him that he could see Narayan (God) in him. Naren had actually asked this question to many people. "Have you ever seen God?" People would either say no or would deflect from the question
while answering it. Then he asked the same question to Ramkrishna. "Have you seen God?" To which Ramkrishna replied,
"Yes, I have." "The way that I'm seeing you here I've seen God the same way." "More clearly than now." Time and again Naren would go to visit Ramkrishna. And one day he said that he wanted to test him. Ramkrishna wasn't angry at this. Rather, he said, "Yes sure, do test me." After that Naren accepted Ramkrishna as his spiritual teacher. In 1884, when Naren was 21 years old. He was about to complete his B.A. When he got the news of his father's death. His father had died. On top of it, it is discovered that there are several loans that need to be repaid. After that, his relatives file a court case regarding the ownership of the property. Naren starts looking for work. But he couldn't find any. For the first time in his life, he experiences poverty. He experiences how it feels to live in poverty. Even though he was already very compassionate towards the poor, but now he could feel the pain himself. The empathy that he had for the poor people increased manifold. Later, he said this while reminiscing about this time. During this period, there were times when Swami Vivekanand would get very frustrated. And started questioning the existence of God. During this time, his visits to Ramkrishna became more frequent. Ramkrishna helped calm him. Naren used to meditate since childhood. But learning with Ramkrishna helped increased his expertise in meditation. One day he asked his teacher to teach him Nirvikalpa Samadhi. The highest form of meditation. But Ramkrishna explains that it is only an inferior mind that wants to concentrate on meditating. Helping humanity is the most effective form of worshipping God. After this, we jump to the year 1888. Swami Vivekanand was then 25 years old. He left his Math (place for meditation)
to travel across India. He had only his water bottle, a walking stick, and two of his favourite books. The Bhagavad Gita and the Imitation of Christ. Somewhere he would ask for alms
at other places, he would give donations. During his travels, he went from Lahore to Kanyakumari. Sometimes on foot
sometimes by rail. He met many people and had many conversations. People of all race and religions. Hindus, Christians, Muslims. Kings and courtiers. Scholars and government employees. Like this, he saw India like never before. In the year 1893, he attends a religious conference in Chicago. And introduces the Vedanta philosophy to the rest of the world. As well as his ideologies and way of thinking. What were his views on patriotism,
meat-eating and cow worshipping? It is very interesting. Perhaps it is even more interesting to know why he tells the youth that instead of reading the Gita playing football will increase their chances of
being admitted to heaven. I will talk about it in the next video friends. In Part 2. Because there is so much to tell you about Swami Vivekanand that it is not possible to summarise it in one video. If you want me to make a Part 2 video on these topics, his actual ideologies then tell me in the comments below. I hope you liked this video. Let's meet in the next video then. Thank you very much!
