Remembering Swami Vivekananda

I don't remember the exact year but it was sometime in the 90's that my father brought home two books that he picked from a Railway station during his rare sojourn outside Jaipur. One was, 'Autobiography of a Yogi' and other was, 'Teachings of Swami Vivekananda'. I was a teenager at that time, may be 15 or 16 years and there was literally no non-academic book at our home though I used to read books borrowed from the school library. I vaguely remember my cheery surprise at spotting the books because in those tumultuous years of exodus from Kashmir, we were trained to be thrifty and spending on anything more than basic needs was a luxury.

'Autobiography of a Yogi' introduced me to the extraordinary Beings called Yogis and my young mind marveled at the events in the life of Paramhansa Yogananda. But it was teachings of Swami Vivekanada that I read over and over again, over many years. It was my first introduction to the Hindu thought and the Paramatma that I had ritually worshiped in Kashmir a few times in a year. His introduction to Advaita was no doubt succour to the mind but it was the charm of the young man that shone through the picture that made a deep impression.  I was supposedly born into a Brahmin family but looking back I realised that in Kashmir in the handful of Brahmins left, the Atman of the intellectual Brahmin had long died and only the outer shell of a few barely understood rituals remained.

With passing years, I bought more and more books of him and his talks and read stories from his life with great joy. In my heart, I fondly addressed him 'Dada', an elder brother that I did not have in the physical realm and sought his guidance to strengthen my will. In those growing up years, I had a mind that had a mind of its own and I was often torn between what I knew was the right thing to do and what my mind was programmed to do. Despite this dichotomy in me, the "soil" of my mind was "ploughed" by his words and readied for a "seed" that would come nearly two decades later in the form of Ramana Maharishi's teachings.

As India celebrates the 125th Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's pioneering Chicago speech, I just want to tell my 'Dada' that the 'seed' of Self is now a little sapling and just as he said..."Slowly the infinite giant is, as it were, waking up, becoming conscious of his power, and arousing himself and with his growing consciousness, more and more of his bonds are breaking, chains are bursting asunder....".

Thank you to the great spiritual giant who incarnated and suffered many an ordeal in his short life to show me and countless Indians and people around the world the path to our true "Self", our true "Home", a Home that you can never lose. _/\_

~ BlueLotus