
One of India’s greatest spiritual leaders, Swami Vivekananda, is credited with bringing the glory of Hindu philosophy to the global platform.
Born Narendra Nath Datta in Calcutta on January 12, 1863, into an aristocratic Bengali Kayastha family, he became a disciple of the famous Dakshineshwar saint, Swami Ramkrishna Paramhansa. He gave up worldly pleasures and became a sanyasi not to wander aimlessly but to serve humanity. Swami Vivekananda was a key figure in introducing to the world the Hindu philosophies of Vedanta and yoga that placed India on the spiritual map of the world. His famous speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 forever changed how the world viewed India.
Vivekananda, founder of Ramakrishna Math and the Ramakrishna Mission, has revived our ancient legacy and enlightened and awakened the people’s religious consciousness and worked to uplift the oppressed. He is also credited with interfaith awareness, revitalising Hinduism, and contributing to nationalism in India in the 19th century.
In memory of the great Saint Swami Vivekananda, here are some of his timeless quotes that are still relevant today.
1) “The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature. Have faith in yourselves.”
2) “To worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Give your love unto to God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him through pray.”
3) “GOD is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and next life.”
4) “There is nothing beyond God, and the sense enjoyments are simply something through which we are passing now in the hope of getting better things.”
5) “When I asked god for peace, he showed me how to help others.”
6) “Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind on it. If you are shooting, your mind should be only on the target. Then you will never miss. If you are learning your lessons, think only of the lesson. In India boys and girls are taught to do this.”
7) “YOU know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind.”
8) “In one word, this ideal is that you are divine.”
9) “The goal of mankind is knowledge … Now this knowledge is inherent in man. No knowledge comes from outside: it is all inside. What we say a man ‘knows’, should, in strict psychological language, be what he ‘discovers’ or ‘unveils’; what man ‘learns’ is really what he discovers by taking the cover off his own soul, which is a mine of infinite knowledge.”
10) “It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world…”