The Monk of Modern Bharat : Swami Vivekanand

Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 January 1863 in Calcutta.

- SHIVPRAKASH

By the grace of Lord Shiva, he was born into the family of the renowned advocate Vishwanath Dutta and his mother Bhuvaneshwari Devi. In childhood, he was named Narendra Nath Dutta. During his early years, he was also called Vile and Naren. After receiving initiation from Swami Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, he was initially known as Vividishananda, and later became famous worldwide as Swami Vivekananda.He was endowed with qualities such as sharp intellect, youthful leadership, promoter of education, social reformer, religious preacher, and an inspiration for harmony. He made a significant contribution to strengthening Bhartiya self pride among the youth. Inspired by his call, many young men staked their entire lives for freedom from British rule. Swami Vivekananda became world-famous because of his speech at the World Parliament of Religions on 11 September 1893.

The Government of Bharat decided in 1984 to celebrate Swami Vivekananda's birth anniversary as "National Youth Day."

On the occasion of the completion of 400 years of Christopher Columbus's arrival in America, the World Parliament of Religions was organised in Chicago (USA). Its objective was to display the material progress made over the past 400 years and to demonstrate the global expansion and superiority of Christianity. A grand and massive exhibition was also organised around Lake Michigan. This exhibition, spread over the lake which is about 494kilometres long, was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.