New Delhi: On Friday, India is celebrating National youth day in honour of 155 th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, the man who took the Vedanta philosophy to the West and reformed Hinduism immensely.
The iconic shloka “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached ” from the Upanishads popularized by him, is an inspiration to the youth of the country.
Here are five interesting facts about him:
World Parliament of Religions in Chicago
He had ignited a spiritual fire across the world. In 1893, he traveled to the USA to attend the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago where he delivered his historic speech which persuaded west to accept Hindu philosophy.
He was an average student
Swami Vivekananda was always an average student. He scored only 47 percent at the University entrance level examination, 46 percent in the FA (later this exam became Intermediate Arts or IA) and 56 percent in his BA exam. In spite of having a BA degree, Swami Vivekananda had to go from door to door in search of a job. During this period his faith in God almost shook, and he began to tell people that God does not exist.
His real name is Vireshwara
Originally, his name was Vireshwara, later he was renamed as Narendra Nath Dutt. He took up the name ‘Swami Vivekananda’ after becoming a monk.
Ramakrishna Paramahansa was his guru
Ramakrishna Paramahansa was the guru of Swami Vivekananda. Vivekananda often used to test his guru for almost everything which he said until he finally got all the answers.
Life in poverty
After the death of his father, Swamiji’s family lived in extreme poverty. It is said that The Maharaja of Khetri, Ajit Singh, used to send 100 rupees to Swamiji’s mother on a regular basis to help with the financial problems.
Twitter users also paid tributes to Swami Vivekananda
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