Swami Vivekananda was a devotee of Hinduism and advocate for the Indians’ recognition of their own background. While a fierce defender of the Indian identity, he had a love and respect for the culture of the British and of other Western nations. His influence remains widespread, taking form in the Indian independence movement, the Western interest in Indian philosophy and yoga forms, and the ongoing desire to have spiritual understanding and respect for all cultures and people.
Swami Vivekananda was born Narendranath, or Narendra (in its more familiar form) Dutta, to aristocratic Hindu parents in Calcutta, India in 1863. His father was an attorney serving the High Court of Calcutta, and his mother a devout Hindu housewife and homemaker.
Spirituality was a primary interest from his youth, and he was a stellar student from a young age. By the time he received his Bachelor of Arts degree at age 21, he had read many Hindu sacred texts as well as Western philosophers and history. While focusing on ancient Vedic writings, he was also fascinated with the work of Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer. With a mind able to reconcile the theories of “evolutionist” scientists with the world of religious “mythology” he was set on a course that few could navigate.
First becoming a practitioner of “Brahmo Samaj” a sect espousing a “pure” Hinduism, Narendra came to find his spiritual guru in the person of Ramakrishna. With the death of his father in 1884, Narendra and his family were faced with near poverty. He accepted Ramakrishna as his guru, renouncing the material world and turning to the life of an ascetic. Ramakrishna passed away in 1886 and his ochre-robed disciples were left without the charity that had been bestowed before.
Narendra created the first “Ramakrishna Math,” a monastery, from a dilapidated building. Taking the vows of a monk, he traveled around the Indian subcontinent. Not only was he seeking to find other Hindus, he relished meeting those of all faiths and beliefs, and from all castes. After close to five years, it was time for the monk to go out into the wider world. Taking the name “Vivekananda” meaning “the bliss of discerning wisdom,” he set sail.
Traveling by sea, first visiting several cities in Japan and stopping in China and Canada, Vivekananda arrived in Chicago near the end of July 1893. There he took part in the “Parliament of Religions” that September. Nervous at the outset of his initial speech, Vivekananda bowed to the Hindu goddess Saraswati and gathered his thoughts. He began with the words, “Sisters and brothers of America!”. His talk focused on the the “different streams” that all flow into the same sea, as the different beliefs all flow to the same God. The reception was sensational, with the audience of thousands standing and applauding for two minutes. From that moment forward Vivekananda’s message of faith, devotion, and appreciation of the varied paths to reach these goals magnified in popularity. Making subsequent visits to the U.K. and the U.S. again, he devoted life in India to building Ramakrishna centers and remained in faithful adherence to the monastic life.
It is difficult to estimate Vivekananda’s influence. Since his death in 1902, the seeds he sowed have bloomed many times. Many of the very words and practices once from a mysterious Indian culture and now common to Americans probably spring from his visits. Maybe it is the words of the poet Rabindrath Tagore that best expresses what Swami Vivekananda brought to the rest of the world — “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. In him everything is positive and nothing negative.”