Essay on swami vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda was born in Calcutta, on 12th January in 1863 during Makar Sankranti festival, in a traditional Bengali Kayastha family. The birth name of Swami Vivekananda was Narendranath Datta (also called as Narendra or Naren). He was one of the nine siblings of his parents (father Vishwanath Datta, an attorney in Calcutta High Court and mother Bhubaneswari Devi). He was developed into the most effective personality under the environment of rational attitude of his father and religious temperament of his mother.
He was a spiritual person from his young age and used to meditate before the statues of Hindu God (Lord Shiva, Hanuman, etc). He was inspired by the wandering ascetics and monks of his time. He was very naughty from his childhood and out of control of his parents. He was told ghost by his mother according to the statement, “I prayed to Shiva for a son and he has sent me one of his ghosts”. He enrolled to the Chandra Vidyasagar’s Metropolitan Institution for study in 1871 (when he was eight years old) and to the Presidency College in 1879. He was very bright student in the subjects like social science, philosophy, history, religion, art and literature. He studied Western logic, European history, Western philosophy, Sanskrit scriptures and Bengali literature.
He was very religious person interested in Hindu scriptures (Vedas, Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Mahabharata, Upanishads, Puranas, etc). He was also active in Indian classical music, sports, physical exercises, and other activities. He was told as, “Narendra is really a genius” by the William Hastie (principal of General Assembly’s Institution).
He was very enthusiastic towards Hinduism and became very successful in creating new understanding among people about Hinduism both within and outside the country. He became successful in promoting meditation, yoga, and other Indian spiritual way of self-improvement in the West. He was the nationalistic ideal for the people of India. He drew the attention of many Indian leaders through his nationalistic ideas. He was praised by the Sri Aurobindo for awakening India spiritually. He was also admired by the Mahatma Gandhi as one of the great Hindu reformers who promoted the Hindu religion.
Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (first governor-general of independent India) said that Swami Vivekananda was the person who had saved Hinduism and India. He was told as “the maker of modern India” by the Subhas Chandra Bose. His effective writings had inspired many Indian independence activists such as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Aurobindo Ghose, Bagha Jatin, etc. Before his death on 4th of July in 1902, he meditated for three hours at Belur Math.