Arise, Awake...
Remembering The Monk Of Both Mind & Muscle.
Respectful Remembrance of a true Yogi - Vivekananda whom I personally consider in modern parlance to be the world’s first motivational author, speaker & life coach who urged individuals to focus on cultivating both outer (muscle) and inner ( mind ) strength to overcome life’s everyday adversities.
Vivekandanda is revered as one of the 2 most prolific & pragmatic out of the box thinkers & philosophers ( the other being Jiddu Krishnamurthi) of India who took the message of the inherent wisdom of Indian Philosophy (minus the religious & ritual connotation it is normally associated with) and its practical use to the entire worlds social landscape.
He was a true yogi in comparison to these days of self styled sadgurus, babas, sri sri panditjis, yogis, matas, etc who's speech, actions & lifestyle make us wonder have they even read & understood the true essence, let alone praticse all of the 5 Yama & Niyama of yoga philosophy.
Compared to these so called modern day enlightened gurus who are no more than spiritual charlatans living of other people's money Vivekananda was a real yogi who did not even have an extra coat to change when he went to USA to address the Chicago World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Vivekananda had taken a ship from Calcutta to Vancouver and then traveled by train to Chicago, arriving more than a month early for the Parliament. He quickly ran out of money. Fortunately, on the train from the west coast he had met a Boston woman, Kate Sanborn, who had graciously invited him to her house in the country outside Boston. It was at her estate, Breezy Meadows, that Swami Vivekananda was introduced to a number of Bostonians, including Harvard Classics professor J.H. Wright.
Now compared this to the crooks who call themselves as gurus, babas, etc who dress and travel lavishly in limousines , expensive bikes, charter plans.
Anyhow the less said the better about these charlatans.
Vivekandanda who orginated from West Bengal, India Is a person of commanding intellect, Vivekananda crammed immense labor and achievement in his short life of 39 years as a social reformer and practical philosopher who as Professor of Sociology Avijit Pathak says in his article linked below that i will quote here - " Vivekanada redifned the concept of religion by negating both the psychology of fear that the religious priestcraft generates and the bundle of rituals that attach more importance to the externalities of symbolism rather than the inner quest.
The religious principles he adhered to was qualitatively different. It was about strength, courage and fearlessness — the realisation of the power of our infinite inner self within the embodied existence.
No wonder, he could say that not to believe in oneself is to be an atheist and the celebration of this inner strength enabled him to inject the spirit of positive energy in the collective psyche of a defeated race, traumatised by colonial invasion, and broken by age-old inertia."
Vivekananda was born as Narendranath in a Bengali Kayastha family at his ancestral home in Gourmohan Mukherjee Street, in the current day Kolkata on 12 January 1863.
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Narendranath’s father, Vishwanath Datta, was an attorney at the Calcutta High Court and mother Bhubaneswari Devi, was a pious housewife.?Narendra’s grandfather Durgacharan, was a Sanskrit and Persian scholar?who left his family and became a monk when he was 25 years old.
The progressive and the rational attitude of his father and the religious temperament of his mother nurtured his thinking and personality.
If interested you can read more of it all at the links below-
https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/cerebral-minds/cid/1846868
https://www.thequint.com/lifestyle/books/swami-vivekananda-book-teachings-wisdom-handbook-everyday-living
https://pluralism.org/vivekananda-at-the-parliament
https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/views/news/swami-vivekanandas-universal-humanism-continues-be-relevant-today-3219141