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Swami Vivekananda - Launching India's Renaissance! 150th Year Jan 12, 2013

Jan 10, 2013.
I am sure greater people than I will be extolling Swami Vivekananda on Jan 12, 2013, the day that marks the 150th birth Anniversary of this great man who brought about a Indian renaissance calling it a "man making religion". I first want to bring to your attention that the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda are available online here and at the Belurmath website. In my own mind, Lokamanya Tilak, although a contemporary, Mahatma Gandhi, and Param Pujya Gurudev all are on a continuum of this renaissance.

I first want to quote Swamiji's words to banish the academic nonsense that is out there regarding the dating of the ancient Hindu texts. Swami Vivekananda clearly says:
The origin of ancient Sanskrit is 5000 B.C.; the Upanishads [are at least] two thousand years before that. Nobody knows [exactly] how old they are. The Gita takes the ideas of the Upanishads and in [some] cases the very words. They are strung together with the idea of bringing out, in a compact, condensed, and systematic form, the whole subject the Upanishads deal with.
Like many a great master, Swami Vivekananda used stories to illustrate complex points. I loved the story of the Vyādha, the butcher, from the Mahābhārata to illustrate clearly the power of Karma Yoga. I will limit myself to quoting the end of the story.
Vyadha gave him a lecture which forms a part of the Mahâbhârata, called the Vyâdha-Gitâ. It contains one of the highest flights of the Vedanta. When the Vyadha finished his teaching, the Sannyasin felt astonished. He said, "Why are you in that body? With such knowledge as yours why are you in a Vyadha's body, and doing such filthy, ugly work?" "My son," replied the Vyadha, "no duty is ugly, no duty is impure. My birth placed me in these circumstances and environments. In my boyhood I learnt the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty well. I try to do my duty as a householder, and I try to do all I can to make my father and mother happy. I neither know your Yoga, nor have I become a Sannyasin, nor did I go out of the world into a forest; nevertheless, all that you have heard and seen has come to me through the unattached doing of the duty which belongs to my position."
I would prefer you to read the full story online (and get a chance to explore Swami Vivekanananda's complete works).

As a youngster, Swami Vivekananda's works have often been a kick on my backside to get up and immediately get involved in serving the country. Of course, listening to Param Pujya Gurudev simply felt like the Lord had sent Swami Vivekananda himself to lead me by the hand.

My humble namaskaar to the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Guru-Shishya parampara...

Hari Om and Namaskaar until the next post

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