Swami Vivekananda’s original name is Narendranath Datta. He was born on 12 January 1863 in a Bengali family at Kolkata. He is not only an idol of entire Indian people but also a source of inspiration, motivation, and the ultimate power for the inner soul.

He was born in a non-Brahmin family and he reached at the Himalayan heights within a span of just 32 years of his life in this world.

On 12th January India is celebrating as a National Youth Day every year to honor the birth day of Swami Vivekananda. He was the one who took the Vedanta philosophy to the Western countries and reformed Hinduism in a drastic manner.

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Swami Vivekananda’s actual name was Vireshwara and he has changed his name from Vireshwara to Swamy Vivekananda after he became monk.

Swami Vivekananda used to worship women. At the same time he had a strict rule inside his monastery that no women including his mother were allowed inside his monastery.

Swami Vivekananda suffered from many aliments such as Liver, kidney damage, insomnia, migraine, asthma, diabetes, etc during his 39 years short life span.

While studying, Swamy Vivekananda was an Average Student and he scored only 47 percent at the University entrance level examination and he scored only 56 percent in his BA exam.

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Upon completion of his Bachelor or Arts Degree, Vivekanada tried his level best to get a job. Despite his higher intelligence, good manners and eloquence, nobody hired him for a job. That was the main reason, at one stage Vivekananda almost become atheist and he was loosing the belief of god.

On the one hand Swami Vivekananda used to worship women and on the other hand he had a strict rule inside his monastery that no women including his mother were allowed inside his monastery.

Swamy Vivekananda’s grandfather name was Durga Charan Dutta and he was a great sanskrit scholar. He became Sanyasi at the age of twenty five after birth of his son.

Vivekananda’s father’s name was Vishwanath Dutta and he was an agnostic by nature. He used to read bible, interacted with Muslims and he enjoyed secular and capitalistic life style.

Vivekananda’s mother Bhuwaneshwari Devi was a pragmatic woman and she tried her level best to stop Vivekananda to opt for the path of renunciation as his grand father was. Apart from the same his Spiritual Guru Rama Krishna Paramahamsa also tried his level best to stop Vivekananda to take path of renunciation. As he also could not be able to stop him, finally he blessed him with rare spiritual insight.

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Soon after his father’s death, Vivekananda family was reduced to poverty and many morning he used to tell his mother that he had lunch invitation to attend so that others would get a larger share.

Swamy Vivekananda was the one who gave the most modern interpretation of Hinduism by freeing Hindu doctrine from social practice. He contributed lot in awakening of Hindus from their deep sleep. His speeches and his writings about Hinduism were outstanding. He also contributed lot in freeing Hindu doctrine from social practice.

Swamy Vivekandanda tried his level best to bring Hinduism into a world religion by harmonizing the different Vedantic schools. During this period many western academics vehemently accused that Vivekananda of concocting Hinduism from scratch. As per their academics there was no Hinduism before Vivekananda.

He is the father of modern Hindu social service. The Ramakrishna Mission founded by Vivekananda in 1897 that runs more than 600 schools, many Colleges, Universities, Orphanages, Leper Rehabilitation Centers. Those days it was running many hospitals, mobile pharmacies, old age homes, maternity clinics etc and it also involves itself in disaster relief and also works during epidemics, floods, riots etc. Apart from the same it also works with the Government in providing services in tribal areas and in providing solar power to areas like the Sunderbans.

He was one of the most predominant and influential monks of all times and his life was not a smooth ride at all. Still he had to sail through tremendous difficulties in his life. He was a man of high intellect and an advanced spiritual soul.

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Swami Vivekananda was passing through a lot of struggles in his life to fulfill the dreams of his guru Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa. He visited many Western countries to spread the Vedanta’s message in every hook and corner of the world. He lived in this world but never belonged to it and his mind was always with his guru. He was very much focused and determined.

He was the first ambassadors of modern India, traveling many countries such as North America and Western Europe, meeting prominent people such as Nikola Tesla, propounding the harmony of science and religion, Introducing west to the concept of Vedanta and other aspects of Indian philosophy.

He was the person who taught us that all religions are true and should be seen merely as different paths towards the same goal. He was also the first person to recognize service as spiritual and to equate Art, Science, and Religion on the same pedestal as acts to seek truth.

Those days India was economically in a shattered position and Swamy Vivekananda has urged Western countries to help India for up-liftment of downtrodden people.

He was a modern Rishi and he was always helping people to realize the god.

He was a great social reformer, patriot and he has immensely helped in improving socio-economical condition of India.