Vivekananda (born Narendranath Datta) was an Indian Hindu monk who played an instrumental role in the introduction of the Indian philosophy of Vedanta to the Western world.  He is also credited with raising interfaith awareness, and bringing Hinduism to the status of a major world religion during the late 19th century.  He was a major force in the revival of Hinduism in India, and championed the concept of nationalism in colonial India, fervently desiring “to set in motion a machinery which will bring the noblest ideas to the doorstep of even the poorest and the basest” … Vivekananda ultimately founded the Ramakrishna Math (an interfaith monastic order that abstains from political interactions and that sees acts of social service as spiritual practice) and the Ramakrishna Mission (a Vedantic mission that aims to harmonize all religions and that promotes peace and equality for all humanity) … Vivekananda was influenced by his guru, Ramakrishna, from whom he learnt that all living beings were an embodiment of the divine self, and therefore that service to God could be rendered by service to mankind.

 

“Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being … We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act … The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them … Our duty is to encourage everyone in his struggle to live up to his own highest ideal, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.” ~ Vivekananda

Filed under: In LOVE with Humanity by Scaughdt