The unknown Monk who shook the world : Swami Vivekananda. January 12th 1863 - Forever.

On the 27th of January 2015, the American President Barack Obama delivered a stirring speech in the Indian Parliament which was very well received by most Indians. Amongst the great Indians he spoke about was a Man who had traveled alone and almost penniless more than a century ago to America..as an Unknown Monk at the World Parliament of Religions.. : The American President referred to that monk in this paragraph which is part of his speech at Siri Fort in New Delhi India..
 President Obama :"The strength of India—the very idea of India—is its embrace of all colors, castes and creeds. It’s the diversity represented in this chamber today. It’s the richness of faiths celebrated by a visitor to my hometown of Chicago more than a century ago—the renowned Swami Vivekananda. The Swami said that, “holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character.” 
Who was this Swami and how had he made his `debut' into the World that day in 1893? He was Swami Vivekananda..
He stood alone...Young and handsome..darker skinned than most of the audience, Yet with an aura ,grace and the strength of a Lion amongst men...His handsome face was calm and smiling..his eyes were large and lotus shaped...He wore what seemed to  be the most strange outfit they had ever seen..Saffron flowing robes and  a Turban on his head .. and then his eyes flashed with a brilliant light and he spoke..in a Voice and with words that woke up not just the audience and the people of America and the people of his far away India but to every open minded soul that has searched for Truth and honest spiritual understanding  anywhere in the world..

" Brothers and Sisters of America " were the first words that he said..The rest is History....Swami Vivekananda's Chicago Speeches -

He spoke of the  Truth. A Truth that is not Dogmatic , not limited to one Faith or one path or meant for the followers of any one Messiah....A truth meant as much as for the people of that day as it is today and now..and will be tomorrow..

That day was September 11  1893  Venue The World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago . His is a  message meant for those who have the courage to listen.  Almost prophetically he strongly spoke against and warned of the very fundamentalist mentality within world religions that would shake the world more than 100 years later to the day. Sept/11/2001
 No other man has had his works as plagiarized, his quotes as stolen and his thoughts as 'misappropriated' by writers and thinkers and self styled prophets and motivational speakers  especially many of whom are here  in the West . ( Any serious student of Swami Vivekananda's works who is also aware of what is being said  and written and claimed by Preachers and Teachers around the world will be able to see at once how Swami Vivekananda's teachings  and quotes  and even the stories of his very unique spiritual experiences and those of his Master Sri Ramakrishna have been misappropriated and plagiarized  by many " respected" teachers  both in the  East and in the West ).. 
Swami Vivek­a­nanda was born as Naren­dranath Datta on Jan­u­ary 12, 1863 in Cal­cutta India. In 1893, he trav­eled to the United States of Amer­ica to attend the first world’s Par­lia­ment of Reli­gions in Chicago to rep­re­sent the Most ancient Faith of the Vedas on September 11th..  When called upon by the pres­i­dent the Swami rose, and bow­ing men­tally to his spiritual ideal, he began: “Sis­ters and Broth­ers of Amer­ica.” Instantly, thou­sands among the audi­ence of seven thou­sand rose to their feet and clapped for full two minutes. Swami Vivekananda’s concluding remarks were as relevant in his day as it is today and even more so..His was a  message that would  openly point out the dangers of big­otry, fanati­cism, and sec­tar­i­an­ism. His mes­sage focused on the divin­ity of the soul, one­ness of exis­tence, unity in diver­sity, and har­mony of reli­gions, and not a sin­gle word of con­dem­na­tion of other reli­gions came from his lips. Overnight Vivek­a­nanda became a celebrity in America and  eventually through the Western world...as much as he would in India and the Eastern nations..
As a boy Naren­dranath prac­ticed med­i­ta­tion and would lose consciousnesses of his body. Dur­ing one of his expe­ri­ences, he saw a  Divine vision which he said was the Buddha incarnation... ( In time he also experienced all the great Truths and incarnations described by Sri Ramakrishna and even had a Christ experience on a Christmas eve before he became a Monk. )That is one of the reasons why Christmas eve and Christ are revered by Hindu Vedantists just as much as the ancient Hindu Gods are held as true and Divine.
Before falling asleep at nights, he used to see light between his eye­brows which would grow big­ger and big­ger until it engulfed his whole body. He was extremely intel­li­gent, and a very fast reader.

Despite his med­i­ta­tions and spiritual experiences, he was a rationalistic and agnostic. He never believed in the words of any­one unless it stood the test of ratio­nal inquiry or of his direct per­cep­tion. 

Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa

Oneday when he was  a young University student on a suggestion from his English professor Hastie  he went to meet a Living Saint named Sri Ramakrishna who many spoke highly about. Sri ramakrishna lived near a temple in the village of Dakshineshwar near Calcutta. Narendra asked Sri Rama­kri­shna dur­ing one of his early meet­ings, Sir, have you seen God? The lat­ter answered: “Yes, cer­tainly. I have seen God. I have seen Him more tan­gi­bly than I see you.” That state­ment com­ing from a per­son who seemed to have direct eexperience of God made him eager to know more...Then on the next meeting Sri Ramakrishna   came out of his room and gen­tly touched him. Spell­bound, Vivekananda imme­di­ately per­ceived that every­thing in the world was indeed God. He had an incredible spiritual experience that filled him with awe, wonder, pure happiness and powerfully Divine understanding..  Return­ing home in a dazed state, he found the food, the plate, and peo­ple around him were all part of God. When he walked in the street, he saw that the cabs, the horses, the streams of peo­ple were all God infused.. While walk­ing in Corn­wal­lis Square he struck his head against the iron rail­ings to see if they were real or just a dream. Such a state lasted for sev­eral days, and he soon real­ized that the words of the spiritual Mas­ter were indeed true.

From now on he never doubted the verac­ity of his spiritual Master’s words on God and Vedanta, the reli­gion of one­ness. In fact it is this, the crown jewel of Vedanta which is pure Hinduism which he preached in the West. He never failed to impress on all peo­ple the moral impli­ca­tions of strength, unselfish­ness, fear­less­ness, and love that flow from God. Swami Vivekananda often said ‘If I have said any­thing orig­i­nal, noble and good, I owe it to him. Sri Ramakrishna’

 It is documented that the Sri Ramakrishna who had spent his entire life in intense spiritual discipline and had attained extraordinary heights of Realisation had offered to transmit all the 8 + 10 known supernatural powers ( Siddhis) described in the Vedas To Swami Vivekananda..and Swami had asked him of what use were these spiritual gifts?  "None at all" said Sri Ramakrishna.."These powers could  charm many and make almost all the world your followers when you Preach but finally Supernatural Powers do not lead to spirituality and God realization but just destruction of the one who uses them for himself. "
Sri Ramakrishna was testing Swamiji and Swami wisely declined to accept the `Gift of the Powers'.This is one of the reasons that the followers Sri Ramakrishna/ Swami Vivekananda do not ever seek or glorify ' miracles' and 'Super natural powers' as signs of spirituality but truly believe that Love and Peace and Genuine goodness and unselfishness ..of  constantly watchfulness of ones self and ones action is what takes each of us towards the truth.
 Once back in India, Swami Vivekananda embarked on a lec­ture tour through­out India, which can be read in a book, Lec­tures From Colombo to Almora. These lec­tures pro­vide us the patri­otic side of Swami Vivek­a­nanda, his love for his coun­try, which had remained under for­eign dom­i­na­tion for cen­turies. Said the patriot-saint Swami more than 100 years ago "What our coun­try now wants is mus­cles of iron and nerves of steel, gigan­tic will, which noth­ing can resist, which will accom­plish their pur­pose in any fash­ion, … That is what we want, and that can only be cre­ated, estab­lished, and strength­ened by under­stand­ing and real­iz­ing the ideal of Advaita, which means the ideal of one­ness of all. … Our aris­to­cratic ances­tors went on tread­ing the com­mon masses of our coun­try under­foot till they became help­less, till they for­got that they were human beings. … Let them [peo­ple] hear of the Atman—( Soul power ) that even the low­est of the low have the Atman within, who never dies and never is born—Him whom the sword can­not pierce, nor the fire burn, nor the air dry, immor­tal with­out begin­ning or end, the all-pure, omnipo­tent, and omnipresent Atman ( Soul).

Some of his most famous quotes of Swami Vivekananda :( to be updated)

.."We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far."Swami Vivekananda

"You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself."Swami Vivekananda

"Arise! Awake! and stop not until the goal is reached."Swami Vivekananda"

You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. " Swami Vivekananda"

There is no other teacher but your own soul."Swami Vivekananda

"Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin; to say that you are weak, or others are weak."

Swami Vivekananda

"When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state."Swami Vivekananda

In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.

Swami Vivekananda

Swamiji said about knowledge "The Entire Library of the Universe is within ourselves.No knowledge is outside of us".

Acknowledgements " Wikipedia, Vedanta Society of N Carolina. Ramakrishna Math Belur and Google images