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Swami Vivekananda

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12th January - arrived and left – without much excitement. (We had excitement in our family because it is also my second daughter’s birthday). I wonder how many people know that it is the birthday of Swami Vivekananda. Interestingly, his birthday is celebrated as “Youth Day” in India. But the youths of Tamil Nadu would rather remember 12th December for it is the birthday of their “superstar”. Vivekananda is just not a star. He is the space. That is his contribution to Hinduism and India.

He was born in the year 1863. Though he did not live up to 40 (he died on 4th July 1902), he has made very significant contribution to the Hindu religion. He single-handedly highlighted the strength of this religion to the western world that till then thought Hinduism is casteism and has barbaric customs and beliefs. At the same time, he did not confine himself to Vedas and Upanishads. In fact he even said, “You can reach heaven by playing foot ball than by reading Bhagawad Gita”. By this, he wants people to act rather than just to read the holy texts. Most of us know his popular saying, “Arise, Awake and Stop not till the goal is reached”.

He had a focus on education. He was instrumental in establishing the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. He said, “Education is not collection of facts but concentration of mind”. How true? In our education system, we spend our time mugging up. We know the currency of Turkey or the Capital of Brazil. But we do not have practical knowledge. We often learn from the businessmen that even the so-called “professionally qualified” people lack “employment skills”. Whose fault is this? We just want to pass the examination and do not want to be knowledgeable.

Vivekananda heavily emphasized the importance of character in men. He said, “If you do not allow a person to become a lion, he would become a fox”. In the name of age and position, we exploit our younger generation and constantly intimidate them. We do not practice a value system. It has become more of a life of convenience. Where is character?

Vivekanada’s books are published by Ramakrishna Math. I strongly urge everyone to buy and read those books and benefit. I have had the privilege of studying in Vivekananda College, Chennai and I consider that as the corner stone of my life.

Mahatma Gandhi said, “My whole life is an effort to bring into actions the ideas of Vivekananda”. We can not be Mahatma in our daily life. But let us at least take the effort in this path.
Viveka_1.jpg
 
[FONT=&quot]yes we have forgotten the Great Swami Vivekanada I wish the members of this forum go throughthis site to hear this Great Man's voice - k srinivasan
>>Vivekananda[/FONT]
 
Dear Shri.Sarma-61,
I wish you go through the speeches of SWAMI VIVEKANANDA on various occasions about Hindu Religion and change your views about
Swami Vivekananda and RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA which you have recorded in Post No: 14 on the topic "Can Brahmin be Wealthy".
You will appreciate that both of them have been acknowledged by learned Scholars that both were NOBLE SOULS and have lakhs of
followers in the world.
 
Dear Shri.Sarma-61,
I wish you go through the speeches of SWAMI VIVEKANANDA on various occasions about Hindu Religion and change your views about
Swami Vivekananda and RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA which you have recorded in Post No: 14 on the topic "Can Brahmin be Wealthy".
You will appreciate that both of them have been acknowledged by learned Scholars that both were NOBLE SOULS and have lakhs of
followers in the world.

Shri Krishnamurthy Sir,

though i am younger to you, i think so, i have found generally people get sort of solidfied in their religious beliefs after they cross middle age, 40-50 or so. Any one saying against, or differing from their solidified views is then becoming unhearable. so they put fingers into ears and say "apachaaram, apachaaram". but these same people will have changed many practices, beliefs of their elders and thought they were superstitions.

here, you and many others think V and RK are very great people and cannot have any weakness or fault. i will request you and all our people to very kindly - and patiently see this blog - giving criticisms on many of the persons and all we tend to say are like "holy cows"-

RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA yb

Vivekananda YB

i happened to come across this site when searching for something in politics. but after reading almost all the posts there, i feel the man behind is sincere and truthful. he is quoting from published books of RKM only. but he is looking at it without coloured glasses looking at them as ordinary humans.

I can copy, paste some of the posts but it will only create hatred for me here, i feel. Kindly read and make your own judgement. i would ask in what way v or RKM influenced the course of the vast majority of indians, take dalits also. you will find Ambedkar doing more than V or Rkm in this, but we don't say ambedkar was Noble Soul.

Now, i want to know how we judge another "soul" as noble and ignoble when all sorts of acrobatics are prescribed to understand just our own soul - this usual "aham brahmasmi" mantram.
 
Shri Krishnamurthy Sir,

though i am younger to you, i think so, i have found generally people get sort of solidfied in their religious beliefs after they cross middle age, 40-50 or so. Any one saying against, or differing from their solidified views is then becoming unhearable. so they put fingers into ears and say "apachaaram, apachaaram". but these same people will have changed many practices, beliefs of their elders and thought they were superstitions.

here, you and many others think V and RK are very great people and cannot have any weakness or fault. i will request you and all our people to very kindly - and patiently see this blog - giving criticisms on many of the persons and all we tend to say are like "holy cows"-

RAMAKRISHNA PARAMAHAMSA yb

Vivekananda YB

i happened to come across this site when searching for something in politics. but after reading almost all the posts there, i feel the man behind is sincere and truthful. he is quoting from published books of RKM only. but he is looking at it without coloured glasses looking at them as ordinary humans.

I can copy, paste some of the posts but it will only create hatred for me here, i feel. Kindly read and make your own judgement. i would ask in what way v or RKM influenced the course of the vast majority of indians, take dalits also. you will find Ambedkar doing more than V or Rkm in this, but we don't say ambedkar was Noble Soul.

Now, i want to know how we judge another "soul" as noble and ignoble when all sorts of acrobatics are prescribed to understand just our own soul - this usual "aham brahmasmi" mantram.

I don't mean any offence to you but I do feel that you are a sort of rebellious in your approach to religion/caste. I am not commenting about your personality. I am only referring to your stance in this forum. (The thread 'Sandhyavandanam - some doubts is also an example). I still appreciate your knowledge and courage. Swami Vivekananda does not need any certificate of nobility from anyone. He suffered in his life - did not marry - did not seek material gain and so on. Even if someone could still mention something against him (even with evidence), we can still take only the good from Viveka instead of challenging him.
 
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I don't mean any offency to you but I do feel that you are a sort of rebellious in your approach to religion/caste. I am not commenting about your personality. I am only referring to your stance in this forum. (The thread 'Sandhyavandanam - some doubts is also an example). I still appreciate your knowledge and courage. Swami Vivekananda does not need any certificate of nobility from anyone. He suffered in his life - did not marry - did not seek material gain and so on. Even if someone could still mention something against him (even with evidence), we can still take only the good from Viveka instead of challenging him.

Shri Siva Sir,

I am not rebel. You have come very close to judging me correctly, but not quite. I am a sceptic. I want to remove all the trappings and junk contained in religion and i try to make people think originally, without fear.

you are kind enough to appreciate my knowledge (i am myself not sure) and courage (is it foolhardiness?) and I am very thankful for that.

You seem to be stuck to notions of caste and its greatness, infallibility of all religious books and all that. once these are strong, a person will find it difficult to even think freely, free from the restriction and fear built in by religion. once you are sure in mind that god -whatever it is - is not within control of any religion, then you will be able to start free thinking- this need not be atheism or against god. That is why I wrote yesterday in another thread to show me one religion which says god helps an ordinary man who has no religion, toils all day and helps others, does not harm.
 
Shri Siva Sir,

I am not rebel. You have come very close to judging me correctly, but not quite. I am a sceptic. I want to remove all the trappings and junk contained in religion and i try to make people think originally, without fear.

you are kind enough to appreciate my knowledge (i am myself not sure) and courage (is it foolhardiness?) and I am very thankful for that.

You seem to be stuck to notions of caste and its greatness, infallibility of all religious books and all that. once these are strong, a person will find it difficult to even think freely, free from the restriction and fear built in by religion. once you are sure in mind that god -whatever it is - is not within control of any religion, then you will be able to start free thinking- this need not be atheism or against god. That is why I wrote yesterday in another thread to show me one religion which says god helps an ordinary man who has no religion, toils all day and helps others, does not harm.

I did not come close to judging you. I made it clear that I was no talking about your personality and was only referring to your posts in this forum. The serious most error one could make in life is to judge another. I say again. You do have knoweledge (comment based on your posts, again) and courage.

You are correct. I am indeed stuck to notions of (brahmin) caste and its greatness. I am also a die-hard follower of Vivekananda. While it is important to challenge everything, understand and then to follow, our life should not go waste in challenging. Tarkkattaal vaadattai vellalaam; vaazhkaiyai vella mudiyuma? In any case, as you hv mentioned in the thread 'Sandhyavandanam - some doubts', our ancestors were more intelligent and what they have prescribed must be correct. What is the harm if we follow it (even blindly, sometimes)?
 
Surely you can guess from the word '5 star hotels'...!

***** Must be denoting a very popular thread-

with more views/ replies/ or both!


Remember you said you did not bother as to how many people read your

thread! Since you did not bother... it seems to be gathering momentum!


விரும்பிப் போனால் விலகிப் போகும்!:bolt:

விலகிப் போனால் விரும்பி வரும்! :bump2:

is true about many things we come across!
 
I did not come close to judging you. I made it clear that I was no talking about your personality and was only referring to your posts in this forum. The serious most error one could make in life is to judge another. I say again. You do have knoweledge (comment based on your posts, again) and courage.

Shri Siva Sir,

With due respects to you, i disagree. in life every one, you included, judge others. to judge means "estimate, evaluate, guess, etc." not necessarily pronouncing a verdict. without doing this life will become disaster sometimes. even in a routine thing like driving you judge the car coming behind, and how it is driven, etc., is it not? in our daily life we have to judge many people, like say someone who comes to repair something, sell something, ask for some charity, etc. again do you go to a doctor/hospital without 'judging' its ability? kindly ponder.


You are correct. I am indeed stuck to notions of (brahmin) caste and its greatness. I am also a die-hard follower of Vivekananda. While it is important to challenge everything, understand and then to follow, our life should not go waste in challenging. Tarkkattaal vaadattai vellalaam; vaazhkaiyai vella mudiyuma? In any case, as you hv mentioned in the thread 'Sandhyavandanam - some doubts', our ancestors were more intelligent and what they have prescribed must be correct. What is the harm if we follow it (even blindly, sometimes)?
you make an assumption that all who challenge have not done the next two stages indicated, understand and decide - not follow, i will say, and then, to follow or not follow. as for V and RK i have come to the decision to not follow them.

now to your statement that "vaazhkaiyai vella mudiyuma"? do you think life is some battle to be won? or, you mean to say, "vaazhkaiyil vetti pera mudiyuma?" meaning can you become successful in life? not clear. secondly i was not doing "tarkkam" or argument. here, in this forum, some one says one view some body else gives an entirely contrary view, a third member gives yet another angle and so on. only in some cases there is the urge to prove, challenge, establish one's pov. as for me i give my views and leave it unless someone challenges me to change my opinion.

lastly, i did not give a blanket certificate to our ancestors for their intelligence in everything under or beyond the sun. what i said in that post was

"
With all due respects to our ancients, i still feel they were intelligent enough to make the difference between insects flying around and making them as demons attacking sun. "


so, I am giving them credit only in so far as they could judge and find out if the insects were flying above the river surface or were attacking sun. actually, true brahmanas are required to complete snaanam well before sunrise so that they will be ready to give "arghyam" before seeing the sunrise. காணாமல் கோணாமல் கண்டு கொடு as the saying goes, is it not? then those ancestors should not have seen insects flying on the face of the rising sun, unless they themselves had been slow coaches, don't you think so?

I did not bring this point there because the other member did not seem to be basing his statement on orthodox brahmin beliefs, etc.
 
A to Z of Swami Vivekananda's words of wisdom.

A to Z of Swami Vivekananda's words of wisdom.

Arise, Awake and stop not until the goal is reached.


Bless men when they revile you.

Conquer yourself and the whole Universe is yours.

Do not meekly endure, be unattached.
 
The 'judging' I mentioned was to judge someone's quality and what you have mentioned is with reference to someone's action (like driving). I defenitely do not have the wisdom to judge anyone's quality. My judging someone as good or bad does not necessarily make that person so. He/she is what he/she is irrespective of my judgement. I fully understand that. I also understand that I can not comment on anyone's faith/belief nor can I force someone to follow a leader or a belief. I would remain a follower of Viveka and you are at your will to decide what you want to do. But neither my following nor your not following is going to alter the credibility of Viveka. Same thing applies to established beliefs or traditional practices. I do not want to waste my time challenging everything because I sincerely believe our elders were wise men.
 
Guess who wrote this-


"I, of course, will be very glad to see you in India, only you ought to know from the first that India is the dirtiest and unhealthiest hole in the world, with scarcely any European comforts except in the big capitals..."
 
A to Z of Swami Vivekananda's words of wisdom.

[FONT=comic sans ms,sans-serif]Eat to Him, Drink to Him, Sleep to Him and See Him in all.

First get rid of the delusion, "I am the body".

Give everything and look for no returns.

Homogeneity, Sameness is God.
[/FONT]
 
Another guess who said-

"I remember your place at Reading, where I was fed with boiled cabbage and potatoes and boiled rice and boiled lentils, three times a day, with your wife's curses for sauce all the time. I do not remember your giving me any cigar to smoke — shilling or penny ones. Nor do I remember myself as complaining of either the food or your wife's incessant curses, though I lived as a thief, shaking through fear all the time, and working every day for you."
 
One more nugget-

"Many thanks for your kind present. The cigars are indeed delicious and a hundred times so as coming from you."
 
Here-

"... What are you saying about difficulties there of keeping clean? Lack of water in the hills or lack of room!! Tirthas (places of pilgrimage) and Sannyasins of the Kali-Yuga — you know what they are. Spend money and the owners of temples will fling away the installed god to make room for you; so no anxiety about a resting-place! No trouble to face there, I say; the summer heat has set in there now, I believe, though not that degree of it as you find at Varanasi — so much the better. Always the nights are quite cool there, from which good sleep is almost a certainty.
Why do you get frightened so much? I stand guarantee that you shall return home safe and that you shall have no trouble anywhere. It is my experience that in this British realm no fakir or householder gets into any trouble. ..."
 
"... Poor fellows! Whatever the rascally and wily priests teach them — all sorts of mummery and tomfoolery as the very gist of the Vedas and Hinduism (mind you, neither these rascals of priests nor their forefathers have so much as seen a volume of the Vedas for the last 400 generations) — they follow and degrade themselves. Lord help them from the Raakshasas in the shape of the Brahmins of the Kaliyuga..." (emphasis mine)
 
"... On the whole, the Americans are a million times nobler than the Hindus, and I can work more good here than in the country of the ingrate and the heartless. ...". "... I have written to you about the phonograph. Now there is here an electric fan costing $20 and working beautifully. The battery works 100 hours and then can be replenished at any electric plant. Good-bye, I have had enough of the Hindus. ..."
 
" ... I have had two classes already — they will go on for four or five months and after that to India I go. But it is to Amerique — there where the heart is. I love the Yankee land. I like to see new things. I do not care a fig to loaf about old ruins and mope a life out about old histories and keep sighing about the ancients. I have too much vigour in my blood for that. In America is the place, the people, the opportunity for everything. I have become horribly radical. I am just going to India to see what I can do in that awful mass of conservative jelly-fish, ... "
 
"... I wish I had nobody to love, and I were an orphan in my childhood. The greatest misery in my life has been my own people — my brothers and sisters and mother etc. Relatives are like deadly clogs to one's progress, and is it not a wonder that people will still go on to find new ones by marriage!!! ... "
 
" ... Sir, granted that Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was a sham, granted that it has been a very serious mistake, indeed, to take refuge in him, but what is the way out now? What if one life is spent in vain, but shall a man eat his own words?..."
--Vivekananda
 
One more nugget-

"Many thanks for your kind present. The cigars are indeed delicious and a hundred times so as coming from you."
Are these really from the the lord of wisdom? Intriguing indeed, making me crave for more -- hope there is more ......
 
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