Youth Day Special: The fiery Swami Vivekananda

Wish you all a dynamic national youth day 2016. Here is a real life incident from the life of the ever youth icon of India, Swami Vivekananda recorded in the Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda by one of his disciples Nagendra Nath Gupta . Salutations to the great patriotic saint!

Swamiji's second unpleasant encounter with the police took place in Calcutta itself. Vivekananda with some of his fellow-disciples was living in a suburb of Calcutta quietly pursuing his studies and rendering such small social service as came his way. One day he met a police officer who was a friend of Vivekananda's family. He was a Superintendent of Police in the Criminal Investigation Department, and had received a title and decoration for his services. He greeted Vivekananda cordially and invited him to dinner for the same evening. There were some other visitors when Vivekananda arrived. At length they left, but there were no signs of dinner. Instead, the host spoke about other matters until suddenly lowering his voice and assuming a menacing look he said, "Come, now, you had better make a clean breast of it and tell me the truth. You know you cannot fool me with your stories for I know your game. You and your gang pretend to be religious men, but I have positive information that you are conspiring against the Government." "What do you mean?" asked Vivekananda, amazed and indignant, "What conspiracies are you speaking of, and what have we to do with them?" "That is what I want to know," coolly replied the police officer. "I am convinced it is some nefarious plot, and you are the ringleader. Out with the whole truth, and then I shall arrange that you are made an approver." "If you know everything, why don't you come and arrest us and search our house?" said Vivekananda, and rising he quietly closed the door. Now, Vivekananda was an athletic young man of a powerful build, while the police officer was a puny, wizened creature. Turning round upon him Vivekananda said, "You have called me to your house on a false pretext and have made a false accusation against me and my companions. That is your profession. I, on the other hand, have been taught not to resent an insult. If I had been a criminal and a conspirator, there would be nothing to prevent me from wringing your neck before you could call out for help. As it is, I leave you in peace." And Vivekananda opened the door and went out, leaving the redoubtable police officer speechless with ill-concealed fright. Neither Vivekananda nor his companions were ever again molested by this man.

6 Powerful Quotes by Guru Gobind Singh

“Power (Physical and intellectual) helps one gain dominance in any sphere. The weak are pushed to wall, humbled and humiliated.”

“Those who meditate on the Name of the Lord obtain all peace and comforts.”

“The greatest comforts and lasting peace are obtained, when one eradicates selfishness from within.”

“Day and night, meditate forever on the Lord.”

“By perfect good karma, you shall meet the True Guru, and then the Dear Lord, by His Sweet Will, shall bless you with His Mercy.”

“Serving the True Guru, one finds a lasting peace, the pains of birth and death are removed.”

“Serving the True Guru, one finds a lasting peace, the pains of birth and death are removed.”

“Day and night, meditate forever on the Lord.”

“Day and night, meditate forever on the Lord.”

SWAMIJI ON 'THE WAY TO SUCCESS'

To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.

Swami Vivekananda, Vedânta philosophy:  Lectures by the Swâmi Vivekânanda on Râja Yoga (1899), Ch. VI

Holy Mother: Work and Purity of Mind

One must do some work. Through work alone one can remove the bondage of work, not by avoiding work. Total detachment comes later on. One should not be without work even for a moment.  -Sri Sarada Devi 

Religion is expressed in action- Sri Ramakrishna

Common men talk bagfuls of religion but do not practise even a grain of it. The wise man speaks little, even though his whole life is religion expressed in action.

Swamiji on the essence of worship

This is the gist of all worship — to be pure and to do good to others. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva; and if he sees Shiva only in the image, his worship is but preliminary.
The prayees of those that are pure in mind and body will be answered by Shiva, and those that are impure and yet try to teach religion to others will fail in the end.

Song sung by Swamiji: Chant the sweet name of God

With a joyful face chant the sweet name of God,

Till, like a wind, it churns the nectar sea; Drink of that nectar ceaselessly.

If ever your heart goes dry, repeat God’s name.

Be watchful, that you may never forget to chant His mighty name: when danger stares in your face, Pray to your Father Compassionate. Snap sin’s bonds with a shout of joy.

Come, let us be mad in the bliss of God, Fulfilling all our hearts’ desires,

And quench our thirst with the yoga of love.

Happy Now Here!

Prakritim Paramam: Hymn to Holy Mother

Salutations at the feet of the Holy Mother. 1st January 2016 is Sri Sri  Sarada Ma Jayanti. This is the English translation of the hymn- Prakritim Paramam dedicated to Sri Sarada Devi, the Holy Mother, writ­ten by Swami Abhedananda. It sung at many cen­ters of the Rama­kri­shna Order, as the fourth hymn of the evening prayer.

To the Divine Shakti embod­ied in human form, the giver of boons and dis­peller of fear, who quenches the fire of mis­ery and fills with joy the hearts of those who take refuge in Her; to Thee my salu­ta­tions, O Supreme Being, O Mother of the worlds!

Redeem Thy chil­dren, bestow­ing Thy mercy, full of faults, deluded, and with­out merit as we are! A ver­i­ta­ble ship fer­ry­ing us across the ocean of Sam­sara art Thou;
To Thee my salu­ta­tions, O Supreme Being, O Mother of the worlds!

Aban­don­ing the flow­ers of worldly enjoy­ment, always drink, O hon­ey­bee of my mind, the nec­tar of eter­nal peace at the lotus of Mother’s feet—the sure panacea for the dis­ease of world­li­ness. To Thee my salu­ta­tions, O Supreme Being, O Mother of the worlds!

Bestow Thy grace, O great Divin­ity, on us Thy chil­dren, bow­ing in pros­tra­tion before Thee, and grant us shel­ter at Thy feet, O Com­pas­sion­ate One. To Thee our salutations!

Though ever cov­ered with the veil of mod­esty, Thou, O Mother Sarada, art really the Power that bestows spir­i­tual illu­mi­na­tion on human beings. Pro­tect us from sins ever­more, O grace embod­ied! To Thee our salutations!

To Her whose life is fused into one with Ramakrishna’s, whose delight con­sists in absorp­tion in thought and talk of His glory, whose per­son­al­ity is soaked and suf­fused with His spirit; to Her our salutations!

To Her whose nature is sanc­tity, to Her whose life is sanc­tity, to Her who is the very embod­i­ment of sanc­tity; to Her I bow down, again and again!

To the gra­cious Mother Sarada, the embod­i­ment of mercy and the granter of devo­tion and knowl­edge, to Her who is wor­shipped by the chief of yogis, to Her who (with Sri Rama­kri­shna) has given a new rev­e­la­tion for the present age, and who assuages the mis­eries of devo­tees tak­ing refuge at Her feet; to her do I ever bow down in worship. 

Bind­ing our mind to Thee with the bonds of Thy love, Thou does trans­mute our very vices into virtues. Com­pas­sion­ate as Thou art with­out any con­sid­er­a­tion of merit, Thou dost, lo! Take even unwor­thy ones into Thy lap!

Mother, be pro­pi­tious and grant what I in humil­ity beseech. May Thou be ever affec­tion­ate to us, Thy chil­dren; and cast­ing even a drop of Thy love on our long-parched heart, ren­der it cool and peaceful.

Tak­ing shel­ter at the lotus feet of the Mother, Sarada Devi, and Rama­kri­shna, the teacher of the world, I salute them again and again.

Swami Vivekananda on the condition of poor in India

Yesterday Mrs. Johnson, the lady superintendent of the women's prison, was here. They don't call it prison but reformatory here. It is the grandest thing I have seen in America. How the inmates are benevolently treated, how they are reformed and sent back as useful members of society; how grand, how beautiful, You must see to believe! And, oh, how my heart ached to think of what we think of the poor, the low, in India. They have no chance, no escape, no way to climb up. The poor, the low, the sinner in India have no friends, no help — they cannot rise, try however they may. They sink lower and lower every day, they feel the blows showered upon them by a cruel society, and they do not know whence the blow comes. They have forgotten that they too are men. And the result is slavery. -Letter to Alasinga, CW Vol. V