Swami Vivekananda (12 January 1863 – 4 July 1902), His real name was Narendranath Dutta. He was a Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher and leading disciple of mystics. He was a key figure in introducing Vedanta and Yoga to the Western world; and is said to have awakened interreligious awareness and made Hinduism a major world religion. Vivekananda became a popular figure after the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he began his famous speech with the phrase. He was so influential in Congress that an American newspaper described him as follows:”an orator by divine right and arguably the greatest figure in Congress”.
Following his great success in Parliament, in the following years Vivekananda gave hundreds of lectures throughout the United States, Great Britain, and Europe, spreading the fundamentals of Hindu philosophy, and at the same time becoming successful. founded the Vedanta Society in New York and the Vedanta Society in San Francisco, both of which became the basis of Vedanta societies in the West. Born into a noble Bengali Kayastha family in Calcutta, Vivekananda from an early age had religious and spiritual inclinations. Then he found his guru, Ramakrishna, and became a monk.
After Ramakrishna’s death, Vivekananda traveled throughout the Indian subcontinent, gaining firsthand knowledge of the Indian living conditions in British India at the time. Touched by their fate, he resolved to help his countrymen and found a way to the United States, where he achieved great success. In India, Vivekananda founded the Ramakrishna Math, which provides spiritual training for monks and household devotees, and the Ramakrishna Delegation, to provide charity, social work and education. Vivekananda was also a major force in contemporary Hindu reform movements and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. He is considered a patriotic saint and his birthday in India is celebrated as National Youth Day.
Narendranath enrolled at the Metropolitan Academy in Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, where he attended until his family moved to Raipur. After his family returned to Calcutta, he was the only student to score first in the entrance exam to the President’s College. Narendra is known for his extraordinary memory and ability to read quickly. Some incidents have been cited as examples. In a lecture, he once quoted two or three pages verbatim from the Pickwick Papers.
