By Shivam Koushal

“…..we feel how foolish it is to send missionaries to this great nation. His culture has given us a new idea of the Hindu civilization…..“

On September 11, 1893; Swami Vivekananda delivered his lecture at the World’s Parliament of Religions in Chicago. The quoted text above were the lines of Herald a day after, leading daily of America then.

Prior to that date, western press used to image India as a land of snake charmers. Such was the impact of Vivekananda’s lecture that the entire western media could not dare writing a single piece denigrating India and the ‘Hindu Civilisation’ again.

On his birth anniversary, here are five learnings taken from the diaries of a man who made this shift possible.

After his father’s death in 1884, a young Narendra came to terms with the harsh realities of life. His relatives ousted his mother and brothers from the ancestral property. All of his father’s friends and colleagues from Calcutta High Court refused to give him a job owing to a rumour that had spread then over his relationship with Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

Vivekananda recalls those years as the most difficult ones of his life, especially financially. There were nights when he would fake going out for dinner on a friend’s invitation in front of his mother so that all of his family members could eat satisfactorily.

All these instances made him come to the conclusion that there is no place for the weak in this world. It is the weak who are exploited first and exploited by all. The only blasphemy one can commit is to voluntarily remain weak. One should devote all of his energy to gain physical, spiritual,........

© Kashmir Observer