Parasmani Swami Vivekananda
Parasmani Swami
Vivekananda
The analogy of Parasmani (also
known as philosopher's stone) truly fits to the personality of Swami
Vivekananda. Similar to the said
capability of parasmani to convert iron into precious gold, the magnetic
personality of this young Hindu monk, who completed his innings at a young age
of merely 39, has transcended the lives of ordinary devotees as well as the
lives of the eminent people in his contact. Let's talk about some of such names,
whose personality is clearly refined by motivation from Swamiji's philosophy.
Coming to the famous personalities
outside India, one of them is - Nicola Tesla. Swami Vivekananda and
renowned scientist Nicola Tesla first met in a show by Sarah Bernhardt, a
French stage artist, which led to profound discussion between two giants of 19th
century. Tesla was greatly impressed by the Vedanta knowledge propounded by the
Swami on the relationship between force, matter and energy and underlined its
similarity with the ideas of modern science A letter from Swami Vivekananda
describes – "Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force
and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week
to get this new mathematical demonstration. In that case the Vedantic cosmology
will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon
the cosmology and eschatology of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect union
with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of
the other." (Complete Works, Vol. V, Fifth Edition, 1347, p. 77)”. Toby
Grotz, president of the International Tesla Society, explained the whole
incident in his article "Nikola Tesla and Swami Vivekananda”. This article
mentions the words Akash and Prana from Vedanta for matter and energy.
Swamiji-inspired Nicola Tesla presented books on Indian spirituality to his friend
Lord Kelvin, who was another great scientist. It was Albert Einstein who
combined the energy and matter through his theory of relativity confirming the
long held basic tenants of Vedanta.
In a speech during his
stay in London in 1895, Swami Vivekananda said, "I don't expect everyone,
I want selected 20 people who can devote their entire lives to the service of
the world". The very next morning,
a young woman meets Swamiji and says that yesterday you spoke about requirement
of 20 people. I don't know of the 19 but one is in front of you. And she was
Irish-born Margaret Elizabeth Nobel, who was so impressed by Swamiji's sublime
attitude and affection that she accepted India as her karma-bhoomi. Later on,
she became one of the leading carrier of the Indian Renaissance and was known
as sister Nivedita.
The famous French singer
Emma Calvé had suffered from deep depression after her only daughter
died in a fire accident in Chicago, which led to four suicides attempted by
her. After meeting Swami Vivekananda, she found a new direction of life,
started singing again and remained in the refuge of spirituality till her last
breath. Calvé wrote of Swami Vivekananda in her autobiography: "[He] truly
walked with God, a noble being, a saint, a philosopher and a true friend. His
influence upon my spiritual life was profound ... my soul will bear him eternal
gratitude". She also visited Belur Math and wrote: "The hours that I
spent with these gentle philosophers have remained in my memory as a time
apart. These beings – pure, beautiful and remote seemed to belong to another
universe, a better and wiser world".
When John Davison
Rockefeller, the one of the richest man in modern history and the world's
first billionaire, visited Swamiji with arrogance for the first time in Chicago
in 1893, Swamiji urged him to see this wealth as an opportunity to serve
humanity instead of boasting of his wealth. Angered by this unexpected advice,
Rockefeller went back. A week later, he returned, but this time there was a
newspaper in his hand in which news of Rockefeller's first big donation was
published. Such was swamiji's inspiration that later he started putting the
minimum tenth of his income for the interest of society and who wrote in his
diary before his death that "the happiness of giving is the happiness of
living".
Immediately following
the Chicago event of 1893, Swamiji met numerous leading personalities of west
leading a long lasting imprints of Hindu spirituality (kindly visit https://chicagovedanta.org/). In one of such event,
he was invited to the house of Ms. Elisha Gray. The guests at the vegetarian
dinner, given in Swamiji's honor, were some very illustrious scientists and
engineers. The British physicist Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Prof.
Hermann Von Helmholtz, Prof. Edourd Hospitalier were all there along with other
distinguished people.
Let us now talk about some of the
great personalities of India whose lives are deeply influenced by Swamiji.
Swami Vivekananda met a Parsi
businessman Jamshedji Nusarwanji Tata on a 12-days ship trip to
Yakahoma-Vancouver on his way to Chicago. After a brief introduction, Tata
talked about the plan to import steel from Japan in India and then trade it.
Swamiji then suggested that instead of this, he should learn the technology
from Japan and should produce steel in India itself, the Indian people would
get employment and India would be self-reliant. When Japan and Britain refused
to transfer technology to Jamshedji, he went to the US and sighed technology
transfer contract with industrialists and this led to the foundation of first
factory of Tata Steal in Jamshedpur. This incident is available on Tata Steel's
website. Swamiji too wrote about this entire meeting to his brother Mahendra
Nath Dutta. Five years after this visit, Jamshedji wrote a letter to Swami
Vivekananda on November 23, 1898 “I am sure you remembered me as a fellow
passenger of the ship on the way from Japan to Chicago. You must have heard or
read about my plan to set up a Scientific Research Centre in India. I remember
your thoughts in this regard.” Swamiji's motivation stimulated the India's
industrial revolution through Tata Steel. At the same time, due to the great
efforts of Sister Nivedita, the Indian Institute of Science was established in
Bengaluru.
Renowned scientist Jagdish
Chandra Basu conducted research on radio waves but his research paper
disappeared abroad and after some time Marconi patented the similar kind of
research. Jagdish Chandra Basu was deeply depressed by the incident. Sister
Nivedita, who herself was a physicist and a good friend of Jagdish Chandra
Basu's wife Abla Basu arranged a meeting of Jagdish Chandra Basu with Swami
Vivekanandaji. Swamiji called upon him to prove the Indian Vedanta's formula,
"There is life in vegetation" on which Jagdish Chandra Basu worked
diligently and proved this truth to the world. Basu later became the first
Indian to receive an American patent and is also known as one of the finest
Indian Scientists.
When Gurudev
Rabindranath Tagore visited France, he was asked by world famous
litterateur Romarola (Romain Rolland) the way to know India. Gurudev
replied that if one wants to know India, then he/she would have to understand
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Swami Ramakrishna paramahamsa can be understood by
knowing only Swami Vivekananda. Due to Gurudev's reply, Romarola wrote three
books without even visiting India – on Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (Vie de
Ramakrishna or Life of Ramakrishna), on Vivekananda (Vie de Vivekananda or Life
of Vivekananda) and on Gandhiji.
Romarola's words are - "Blessed are those who live in country
where Ramakrishna lived. Double blessed are those who saw Ramakrishna and
triple blessed are those who are working on the path shown by Ramakrishna”.
About Vivekananda ji, Romarola says, "It is impossible to imagine him
being the second, wherever he went, he was the first. Everyone used to find
their leader in him. He was a representative of God and his uniqueness was to
dominate everyone”.
Swamiji also influenced
the life of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, the revolutionary man of the
Indian freedom struggle. When Swamiji was travelling all over India with
different names, he once visited to Puna during which he stayed with Tilak ji.
During his stay, these two scholars had extensive discussion on subjects like
Vedas, Vedanta and Gita. Seeing the prevailing of purdah in the women of
Maharashtra, Swamiji had hoped that it would be great if some of the elite
class women could dedicate their lives to propagate religion and spirituality
similar to that of Buddhist era. Tilak
ji took Swamiji along at a weekly seminar to be held at Deccan Club in Poona.
At that seminar organized in English, Kashiram Govind Natu gave a beautiful
lecture on a philosophical subject that day. Now, as per the prevailing
practice, some another Member had to express his views on the same subject, but
no one stood up because the subject of the lecture was a little esoteric.
Swamiji then stood up and gave a glittering lecture on the other sides of the
same subject. Everyone present was mesmerized by such a beautiful
interpretation of the subject. It is assumed that that both Tilak and Swamiji
decided that Tilak would work towards national resurgence in the
"political" field, while Vivekananda would work for national
resurgence in the "religious" field. Paying homage to Swamiji on his
demise in his newspaper Kesari, Tilak ji wrote: “No Hindu, who has Hindu
interests in his heart, can help but to feel mourning at Vivekananda's Samadhi.
In short, Vivekananda had taken the task of furling the banner of Advaita
philosophy among all the countries of the world forever and made them realize
the real greatness of Hinduism and Hindus. He had hoped that he would achieve
the crown of his achievement with the fulfilment of this task on the basis of
his education, eloquence, enthusiasm and honesty, as he had laid a safe
foundation for that. But with swami's samadhi, these hopes went away. Thousands
of years ago, another saint, Shankaracharya, who showed the world the glory and
greatness of Hinduism. Vivekananda is the second Shankaracharya of the 19th
century to show the world the glory of Hinduism. Their work is yet to be
completed. We have lost our pride, our freedom, everything”.
The mathematics Professor of FC
College in Lahore Tirthram Goswami met Swamiji and was deeply impressed
by Swami Vivekananda's powerful views on Vedanta. When Tirthram presented
vivekananda ji a golden watch, Swamiji put the watch back in Tirthram's pocket
and said that he would continue to use this watch from his pocket only. Under
the influence of Swamiji's bright personality, Tirthram later became Swami
Ramtirtha.
In his autobiography, Mahatma
Gandhi writes - “At the Calcutta Congress session of 1901, I was so
eager to see Swamiji that I walked to the Balur Math, but unfortunately, due to
Swamiji's ill health, I could not meet him.” Speaking on the occasion of
Swamiji's birth anniversary at Belur Math in 1921, Gandhiji said that by reading
Swami Vivekananda, patriotism has increased a thousand times within him.
Speaking at another place, he said that he considered swamiji's gross criticism
of caste discrimination to be absolutely correct.
Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose,
who gave an effective mantra of "You give me blood, I will give you
freedom", was a dedicated devotee of Vivekananda ji since childhood and
considered him as his spiritual guru. Swamiji's literature acted as guide to
him in moments of dilemma. That is why even during the busy days of the
formation of the Azad Hind Fauj in Japan and Singapore, he had the book of
Vivekananda along with the Gita. On one such occasion, Netaji asked one of his
colleagues to buy a rosary from the Ashram of Ramakrishna Mission in Singapore.
Regarding Swamiji's powerful words, Subhash Babu used to say, "His words
have the ability to make the lying one to sit up and the one sitting up to
stand, and the one who stands up to move on.” In another place, he says,
"Swamiji coordinated the east and the west, religion and science, the past
and the present, and therefore he is great. Our countrymen have achieved
unprecedented self-esteem, self-confidence and self-expression through his
teachings.”.
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru wrote about Swamiji in
his book Discovery of India, 'He explained vedanta's advaitism, which was not
only spiritual but also rational and whose association was similar to
scientific research of nature.'
Swami Vivekananda was
also an inspiration for the revolutionaries who laid down their lives for the
country's independence. Swami Vivekananda's brother Bhupendra Nath Dutt,
who was the founder of revolutionary organizations like Yugantar and Anushilan
Samiti, himself wrote a book on Vivekananda titled "Swami Vivekananda
Patriot-Prophet". When Hemchandra Ghosh, the founder of the revolutionary
formation called Dhaka Mukti Sangha, who brought many revolutionaries on the
path of revolution, met Swami Vivekananda ji in Dhaka in 1901, Swamiji told him
that India's political freedom was the first necessity and no power in the
world could stop this truth. He also
urged to be characterful for the freedom of Mother India and be powerful and
fearless.
Thus we see how many big personalities, foreigners and indigenous people from different regions, have an imprint of swamiji's life, his speeches and that of his literature on their life. The selection of his birthday as National Youth Day to inspire the youth of the country having largest number of young people in world is indeed very relevant and accurate.
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