The Monk
At twenty-three he left home for good. For years he walked the length of India alone, with a staff, a water pot and two books.
It is renunciation, Tyāga, that is meant by religion, and nothing else.
12 January 1863 4 July 1902
Swami Vivekananda
उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्निबोधत
Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached.
Monk, teacher and the voice of an awakening India. Everything he said and wrote in thirty-nine years is here to read, with the story of his life and the tributes of those he moved.
Today, 11 November
A thought for the day, and where the day found him
Vivekavakya gives one saying of Swamiji for each day of the year. And because his travels are recorded almost day by day, we can say where he was on this date.
- HrishikeshUttarakhand, India
- On the way to Ajmer via JaipurRajputana presently Rajasthan, India
- MysoreMysore State presently Karnataka, India
- Chicago, IL
- New York, NY
- London, England80 Oakley St
- London, EnglandGreycoat Gardens (Rented apartment)
- New York, NY180 W 59th St
- En route
The man
One life, many lives
He lived thirty-nine years and seems to have lived several lives in them. Choose one to meet him there.
The Disciple
A sceptical college student asked Sri Ramakrishna whether he had seen God, and stayed. Everything he later taught, he traced back to those five years.
If there has ever been a word of truth, a word of spirituality, that I have spoken anywhere in the world, I owe it to my Master; only the mistakes are mine.
The Orator
Unknown and uninvited, he rose at the Parliament of Religions in 1893. Five words brought seven thousand people to their feet.
I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance.
The Patriot
He came home in 1897 to a nation that had forgotten its own strength, and from Colombo to Almora told it to stand up.
For the next fifty years this alone shall be our keynote—this, our great Mother India.
The Servant of the Poor
What he saw on the roads of India never left him. Worship, he said, begins with the hungry, and he founded an Order to do it.
So long as the millions live in hunger and ignorance, I hold every man a traitor who, having been educated at their expense, pays not the least heed to them!
The Teacher
In rented rooms in New York and London, and for seven weeks at Thousand Island Park, he taught a handful of students at a time.
Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man. Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
The Poet
He sang before he preached. His poems and hymns, in English, Bengali and Sanskrit, hold what the lectures could only point to.
Wake up the note! the song that had its birth Far off, where worldly taint could never reach, In mountain caves and glades of forest deep
The Seer
Behind the organiser and the orator was a man who could sit utterly still. Vedanta, for him, was something to be seen, not believed.
The Vedānta recognises no sin, it only recognises error. And the greatest error, says the Vedānta, is to say that you are weak.
The teaching
The whole of religion, in four sentences
Each soul is potentially divine.
The goal is to manifest this Divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal.
Do this either by work, or worship, or psychic control, or philosophy—by one, or more, or all of these—and be free.
This is the whole of religion. Doctrines, or dogmas, or rituals, or books, or temples, or forms, are but secondary details.
- By workKarma-YogaThe way of workWork without attachment, and the work itself sets you free.
- By worshipBhakti-YogaThe way of loveLove that asks for nothing, fears nothing and knows no rival.
- By psychic controlRaja-YogaThe way of meditationThe mind stilled and turned on itself, step by tested step.
- By philosophyJnana-YogaThe way of knowledgeReason followed to the end, until only the Self remains.
What he asked of us
- Strength
This is the great fact: strength is life, weakness is death.
Work and Its Secret, 1900 - Fearlessness
Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work. The moment you fear, you are nobody.
Reply to the Calcutta address, 1897 - Faith in yourself
Have faith in yourselves, great convictions are the mothers of great deeds.
Letter of 24 January 1894 - Service
They alone live who live for others, the rest are more dead than alive.
Our Duty to the Masses, 1894 - The power of thought
We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care of what you think.
Inspired Talks, 26 June 1895 - Harmony of religions
As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take… all lead to Thee.
A hymn he quoted at Chicago, 1893
The life
From Calcutta to the world, and home
Ten stations of a short life. Each opens onto the full account.
- 1863CalcuttaNarendranathBorn on 12 January to Vishwanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi: a restless, musical boy who would accept nothing without proof.Early years
- 1881DakshineswarThe MasterHe meets Sri Ramakrishna and asks his one question: “Sir, have you seen God?” The answer holds him for life.At the feet of Ramakrishna
- 1886BaranagarThe vowThe Master passes away. In a crumbling house his young disciples become a brotherhood of monks, with Narendra at their head.Training of the disciple
- 1888Across IndiaThe wandererFor nearly five years he walks the country unknown, a guest of princes and of sweepers, and sees India as she is.Follow the itinerant monk
- 1892KanyakumariThe rockAt the last stone of India he sits three days in meditation, and rises with the purpose of his life.Vivekananda Rock Memorial
- 1893ChicagoThe ParliamentOn 11 September he addresses the Parliament of Religions. By the next morning America knows his name.The Chicago lectures
- 1894America and EnglandThe teacher in the WestThree years of lectures and classes from New York to London; the Vedanta Society is founded, and Raja-Yoga is written.In the West, part one
- 1897Colombo to AlmoraThe returnIndia receives him as a conqueror. On 1 May, in Calcutta, he founds the Ramakrishna Mission.Lectures from Colombo to Almora
- 1899Belur and the WestThe builderBelur Math becomes the home of the Order. He sails west once more, to California, Paris and beyond.In the West, part two
- 1902Belur MathMahasamadhiOn the evening of 4 July, after a day of teaching and meditation, he leaves the body. He was thirty-nine.Towards the end
Chicago, 11 September 1893
“Sisters and Brothers of America”
It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world…
He wrote home that a deafening applause of two minutes followed. Six addresses over seventeen days made an unknown monk the best-known voice of the Parliament.
The works
The Complete Works, and a library around them
Nine volumes: 1,324 lectures, writings, letters and conversations, about 107 hours of reading, set as books and remembering your place.
Books to read here
- VivekanandaA BiographySwami Nikhilananda
- Inspired TalksSwami Vivekananda
- Swami Vivekananda on HimselfSwami Vivekananda
- The Master as I Saw HimSister Nivedita
- Reminiscences of Swami VivekanandaBy His Eastern and Western AdmirersHis Eastern and Western Admirers
- The Life of Swami VivekanandaBy His Eastern and Western DisciplesHis Eastern and Western Disciples
- ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ವಿವೇಕಾನಂದರ ಸಂಕ್ಷಿಪ್ತ ಜೀವನ
- VedantaLectures on Its Philosophy and PracticeSwami Vivekananda
- Lectures from Colombo to AlmoraSwami Vivekananda
- Swami Vivekananda in the West: New DiscoveriesMarie Louise Burke
The letters
657 letters to 87 people
In the lectures he is the teacher. In the letters he is everything else: tired, playful, furious, tender, and never once doubtful of the work. Read them by the person he was writing to.
My child, what I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made.
- Mrs. Bull66 letters
- Mrs. George W. Hale56 letters
- Miss Mary Hale51 letters
Alasinga Perumal45 letters
Swami Brahmananda38 letters
Miss Josephine MacLeod35 letters- Pramadādās Mitra33 letters
E. T. Sturdy32 letters
Sister Nivedita31 letters
Swami Ramakrishnananda20 letters
Maharājā of Khetri17 letters
Sister Christine15 letters
In the words of others
What the great saw in him
Purposeful, virile, strong, he stood out, a man among men, able to hold his own.
His circle
Those who made him, and those he made
Sri Ramakrishna ParamahamsaGuru
Holy Mother Sri Sarada DeviGuide
Bhuvaneshwari DeviMother- Vishwanath DattaFather
Brother disciples of Swami Vivekananda
Disciples of Swami Vivekananda
Where he is remembered
See and hear
His face, his songs, his story on film
Most read
Where other readers begin
It may be that I shall find it good to get outside my body—to cast it off like a worn-out garment. But I shall not cease to work! I shall inspire men everywhere, until the world shall know that it is one with God.