January 20, 1929 Swami Yogananda attended a banquet in New York honoring the birth of the remarkable Swami Vivekananda. This brought to my mind the great God-man who preceded Master coming to America by 27 years. Swami Vivekananda was recognized as a prodigious soul by his own guru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa when he was yet a student at the age of 19. Ramakrishna later told some devotees that in one of his visions he had travelled to the Causal Realm where he met an amazing Being. He asked that Being if he would incarnate here on earth and help him with his mission. Years later when Vivekananda, then known by his birth name Narendranath walked through his door, Ramakrishna recognized him as the great soul he had earlier called to earth.
Vivekananda was born to a well-to-do family, but his father died when the son was in college and it fell to the young man to provide for his mother and eight siblings. Even in this time of stress he came to see his master, but it was far from a smooth journey. Vivekananda had a brilliant mind and was very independent. At first he doubted Ramakrishna’s state of realization, then he went through a time of intellectual doubt and atheism. When other devotees were distressed by Vivekananda’s outspoken views, including his doubts, Ramakrishna would comfort them by saying that Vivekananda would never succumb to the temptations of ‘women and gold,’ that he was one of a rare breed who would never be ensnared by ignorance.
By the time his master passed, Vivekananda was keen to become a monk. After some time living with his brother disciples he struck out on his own and walked the circumference of India. As he travelled south he had a deep question in his mind—How was he to serve humanity, what was his mission? At the very south point of India, on a rock where the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea meet, he determined to meditate until he had the answer. Without food or water he sat for days. Suddenly he had a magnificent vision of his guru and the history of India—he knew what he was here to do.
From there he travelled northward up the east coast, whereas before he had been fairly incognito, now masses of people responded to him. He felt he was to go to America, to the first Parliament of the World’s Religions which was to open on September 11, 1893. He came without knowing about, or having the kind of recommendations that were required to be a speaker at the Parliament—but through an amazing series of events he was invited to be a speaker. At the end of the first day he was to give a talk to over seven thousand participants. Several of the speakers before had been rather dull, the audience subdued. The end of a long day is an unenviable time to give a talk. Swamiji was nervous. He prayed before a statue of Saraswati, goddess of learning, he felt his master with him. He started his speech, “Sisters and brothers of America!” For two minutes there was a thunderous standing ovation!
From there speaking engagements were scheduled. A couple of incidents stand out in my memory of the master. One happened when Vivekananda was giving a talk at a church in a small community. A mentally deranged man entered the church and fired a gun at Swamiji. Those in the pews dove for cover as the bullets flew. Meanwhile, Vivekananda stood up front facing the man without moving. He calmly gazed at the man firing his gun until the gunman ran out of bullets!
Another interaction involved a famous man of the times. John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest men in the world. Friends told him he should meet “The extraordinary Indian monk.” Rockefeller was strong willed, independent and had no intention of doing so. One day he somehow decided to go see this man of God from India. He came to the house where Swamiji was staying. The butler asked Rockefeller to wait, but he charged past the butler and when he entered the study Swamiji was writing. Rockefeller waited. After some time Swamiji, without raising his eyes, started telling about Rockefeller’s life; things that even his closest friends did not know. Then Swamiji told the multi-millionaire that the money he had was not his own. God had given him these resources to help others, the poor and distressed—he finished by saying that he should spend his money for the benefit of society.
Rockefeller left as abruptly as he had come—he was not used to people speaking to him that way! About a week later he returned to the house, entered the study where once again Swamiji was busy writing. Rockefeller put a newspaper on the table that had headlines of a large amount of money he donated to a public institution and said, “There you are. You must be satisfied now. You can also thank me for this.” Swamiji, who did not lift his eyes, picked up the paper and read. Then he said, “Why should I thank you? Rather you should thank me for providing the suggestion.” Later this gift of money was followed by other large donations by the millionaire and eventually led to the establishment of the Rockefeller Foundation in 1913, which even now continues its charitable work.[i]
Each incident of a person’s life is like a puzzle piece that, when put together builds a picture of the whole person—however we will never have all the pieces to any one person, much less that of a such a highly God-realized Soul. The close of Swamiji’s life for this incarnation came on the 4th of July, 1902. He started the day by meditating for three hours, then he taught a class on the philosophy of yoga to young students, and later led a discussion for the planning of a Vedic College. When he went to his room he asked not to be disturbed. Swami Vivekananda left the body at 9:20 that night while meditating. Doctors said the cause of death was a burst blood vessel in his brain—devotees said the blood vessel burst when the master pierced his crown chakra, brahmarandhra, while entering mahasamadhi. He was 39 years old. His guru had said many years before that once his disciple tasted the full freedom of God, he would in that moment leave the body.
My Master is a transcript of Swami Vivekananda speaking about his great guru, Ramakrishna Paramhansa. This is PDF copy of the book available online:
http://www.vivekananda.net/PDFBooks/My_Master.pdf
Also, this is a voice recording by an actor replicating the speech by Swami at the Parliament of the World’s Religions:
[i] Interestingly, an East Indian-American, Dr. Rajiv Shah is the current president of the Rockefeller Foundation. At 43 he is the youngest president ever, and the first Indian-American.