On Swami Vivekananda's Birthday³

Swami Vivekananda was a supreme seeker and supreme lover of mankind. He was also the preserver of the universal vision. I am invoking his presence.

Was Swami Vivekananda a man? Yes, he was. Something else he also was: a lover-hero.

Did Swami Vivekananda really conquer America? Yes, he did. Truth to tell, it was a mutual conquest. Vivekananda conquered America's seeker-heart. America conquered Vivekananda's vision-eye.

What did Swami Vivekananda preach in the West? The Vedantic philosophy. Something he also did. In supreme secrecy, soulfully and lovingly on the vital plane, persistently and unconditionally on the mental plane and compassionately and unreservedly on the physical plane, he distributed Sri Ramakrishna's universal oneness-heart and blessingful joy.

Sri Ramakrishna loved at once Vivekananda's silence-heart and his sound-life. To his Naren what he gave was his own realisation-ocean. In his Naren what he found was his own vision-manifestation. Where? Here, there and all-where.

To the weak, Vivekananda had only one thing to say: "Fear not."

To the strong, he had only one thing to say: "Stop not."

To God, he had only one thing to say: "Delay not."

And to himself, he had only one thing to say: "Ask not."

From:Sri Chinmoy,Vivekananda: an ancient silence-heart and a modern dynamism-life, Agni Press, 1993
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/vvk