MyLifeYoga

The story of the flow of eastern thoughts and ideas to the west is a remarkable one. We have covered the story of Sri Ramakrishna earlier. Previous week we took up the story of his most remarkable disciple: Swami Vivekanada who was known as Naren in the early part of his life. After Naren had met Sri Ramakrishna he felt drawn to him though he fought every inch of the way questioning and challenging him all the time.

The years rolled by and gradually Naren’s trust and faith in Sri Ramakrishna took hold. However one day an incident took place that threw everything off kilter. Naren’s father passed away and left the family in huge debt. Naren found his situation suddenly transform from that of carefree wealth to abject poverty. Even shoes became a luxury. His garments were now of the coarsest cloth, and he found that he had to occasionally skip meals and remain hungry as there was no food at home. By now he had graduated from college and was enrolled in a law college. He was on track to become a lawyer like his father. Naren now found himself being pulled in two directions. On one side was his career and responsibilities towards family. On the other side was a spiritual pull of Sri Ramakrishna that beckoned to give up all for the sake of God realization. How could he forsake his family for his own selfish needs? What should he do?

Naren tried to get a job but the only offers that came his way required him to compromise on his values. He would not go there and declined such job offers. Slowly the situation turned increasingly dire and his family continued to suffer. Even his normally God-devoted mother told him bitterly, “You have been crying yourself hoarse for God since your childhood. Tell me what has God done for you?” Naren had no answer and doubts about God’s existence began to creep in his mind too. Continue reading →

Rudyard Kipling famously predicted, “East is East and West is West, And never the twain shall meet.” In the late 1800’s a couple of extraordinary people set out to prove this prediction wrong. We covered the story of Sri Ramakrishna earlier. Now we take up the story of his foremost disciple Swami Vivekananda. In 1893 Swami Vivekananda visited the US. This was a momentous though unlikely journey. It was for the first time in modern history that a self realized master of the caliber of Swami Vivekananda was visiting the west.

But who was Swami Vivekananda and how did he come to be enlightened? The story of his spiritual quest and enlightenment was anything but straightforward and makes for fascinating reading. His story begins in the eastern Indian city of Calcutta with his birth on January 12 1863. The name his parents gave him was Narendranath but he was known as Naren. His father was a wealthy lawyer well versed in English and Persian. His grandfather gave up worldly life at a young age and became a monk. It was later said that Naren was in the mould of his grandfather.

Naren was a brilliant but restless child. He had the intellect of a genius and a photographic memory. All he had to do was glance at a page and he could grasp the key points that the author was trying to make. Enlightenment comes to people of all types from dullards to those with normal intellect. However it is indeed rare that somebody with the intellect as sharp as Naren’s achieves enlightenment. This was indeed fortunate as Naren was able to study all the major religious texts and philosophies of both the East and the West and provide a unifying framework that is unparalleled. This easily makes him the Einstein of the spiritual world.

Growing up Naren was so restless and mischievous that his mom one day remarked, “I prayed to Shiva for a son and he sent me one of his demons!” Naren was always up to some mischief in the classroom yet he was always able to follow along the class. Though he was mischievous, Naren had a strong spiritual bent and his pranks were always harmless with no evil intent. One day he began play-acting that he was a monk and sat in mock meditation. Somehow this put him in such a deep spiritual state that his relatives had to force open the door and shake him to bring him back to normal consciousness. Continue reading →