Vivekananda the wonder-warrior
Sri Ramakrishna's unstinted Grace and Naren's volcanic Will combined to create Vivekananda who, to all intents and purposes, created a commotion all the world over. The never-to-be-forgotten words of Sri Aurobindo run:But there is the amusing story that Vivekananda in his childhood in reply to his father's query said that his ambition in life was to become a coachman like the one who loved him much and whose love he reciprocated.
Another anecdote. Once in his adolescence he asked his father what he had done for the son. “Go and look into the mirror,” came the prompt reply. Naren obeyed. He looked at his own reflection in the mirror and walked away quietly. Evidently he became convinced that he owed his magnificent personality solely to his father.
Now let us move on to a more significant topic. Tagore was an adorer of beauty, while the dominant trait of Vivekananda was the expression of power. But Vivekananda too possessed a deep sense of appreciation of subtle beauty. “Beauty,” says he, "is not external, but already in the mind.“ Here we are reminded of what his spiritual daughter Nivedita wrote about her Master. "It was dark when we approached Sicily, and against the sunset sky, Etna was in slight eruption. As we entered the straits of Messina, the moon rose, and I walked up and down the deck beside the Swami, while he dwelt on the fact that beauty is not external, but already in the mind. On one side frowned the dark crags of the Italian coast, on the other, the island was touched with silver light.”
"Messina must thank me,” he said, “it is I who give her all her beauty.”
Truly, in the absence of appreciation, beauty is not beauty at all. And beauty is worthy of its name only when it has been appreciated. Further, they are not many in number who really have the power of appreciating it.
  — Victor Hugo
Vivekananda looked upon the world as his dear Motherland, and upon mankind as his true brothers and sisters and, come what may, to serve them was his cherished religion. Religion is a unique thirst for the One and the many. Assimilation and toleration are the true signs of the greatest religion. Let us not forget Colton. "Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; do anything but live it.” Religions are like the lines of a poem. As each line is helpful, rather responsible for the completion of the poem, even so every religion is responsible for the entire fulfilment of the others. And according to Vivekananda religion is never a mere creed, but an ever-living and enlightening experience. How beautifully he unites the two antagonists, the materialist and the spiritualist. "The materialist is right. There is but One. Only he calls that Matter and I call it God.”
It is an undeniable fact that the Western mind has a liking for making plans before it takes up anything. Is it at all advisable? Not in the least, in the opinion of Vivekananda. The Eternal Will is sure to carry out its work at its chosen hour. Once he had to reprove Nivedita. "Plans! Plans! That is why you Western people can never create a religion! If any of you ever did, it was only a few Catholic saints, who had no plans. Religion was never, never preached by planners."
Again, it was Vivekananda who spoke to his Indian brothers about the greatest achievement of the English.
God and men are as inseparable as one's head and hair. It is our blind stupidity that fails to find indivisibility between man and God. The gods who are not one of us, who ignore and look down upon us can never be our cherished gods.
His was a life of unimaginable sacrifice. And how can India, his Motherland, dare to forget his message of stupendous sacrifice? "For my own part I will be incarnated two hundred times, if that is necessary to do this amongst my people, that I have undertaken.“ At this Sri Ramakrishna, if he had heard his disciple, could have done nothing but clap and dance in supreme ecstasy. For it was this very Naren whose heart ached to remain always in samadhi and whom he had to scold fondly by saying, "I thought you had been born for something greater, my boy!"
  — Julius Caesar