Rabindranath Tagore, the famous poet was awarded the Nobel prize for literature in the year 1913. His work Gitanjali is a masterpiece. He was once asked how India could be easily understood.
He immediately said, “If you want to know India, study Vivekananda. There is nothing negative in him, everything is positive.”
Swami Vivekananda’s inspiring words have moved millions of Indians and continue to inspire people around the world at large.
He declared the Vedic call: Charaivethi; charaiveti; charaivethi meaning March forward; Walk on; Walk on;
Don’t stop until you reach the goal!
He defined manhood thus:
Only those who live for others live, the rest are more dead than alive!
Service to humanity was his life’s mission. He founded Ramakrishna mutt and led all the men and women who joined this movement to serve the poor in order to uplift them. He also declared that as we fight for our liberation we will pave the way for people to live happily on this earth.
He thus assured humanity:
“Work until death: I am with you, and when I am gone, my spirit will work with you. This life comes and goes: wealth, fame, pleasures are but a few days. It is better, much better, to die in the field of duty, preaching the truth, than to die like a worldly worm. Forward!”
Mahatma Gandhi visited Belur, Kolkata in 1923 during Swami Vivekananda’s birthday celebration and said:
“I have come here to pay my homage and respect to the revered memory of Swami Vivekananda, whose birthday is celebrated today. I have reviewed his works very carefully and after reviewing them, the love I had for my country became a thousandfold. I ask you, young people, not to go away empty-handed without soaking up the spirit of the place where Swami Vivekananda lived and died.”
Swami Vivekananda’s relationship with Americans is unique.
“Columbus had discovered the soil of America, but Vivekananda its soul,” said the famous Bankim writer Chandra Chatterjee.
Romain Rolland, the great scholar has said, “I cannot touch these sayings of Swami Vivekananda, scattered as they are across the pages of books thirty years away, without feeling a chill run through my body like an electric shock. shock, what transports must have taken place when in fiery words came from the lips of the hero”.
Men of the world, read Swami Vivekananda to understand India and the real YOU.