Things to know about Swamy Vivekananda's Memorial
Swamy Vivekananda :
"Give me 100 energetic young men and I shall transform India". Do you know who said this?
Yes, Its Swamy Vivekananda. We all know about him as a spiritual leader but do you know he was also a freedom fighter. Of course, he was. Because after seeing the aggressiveness of the Britishers, Vivekananda got dejected. And along with spiritualism, he was preaching about the importance of the Indian nation and its tradition. If you hear his speech, it was one of the best motivations in our life. His quotes are always encouraging in every step of our life. Some of his quotes are,
- Arise, awake and do not stop until the goal is reached
- Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea and just leave other every idea alone. This is the way to success.
- Ignorance is the mother of all evil and all the misery we see.
- Believe in yourself and the world will be at your feet.
Like these, there are so many quotes he gave us. His quotes are inspired by most youngsters. Throughout his life was a very self-disciplined, self-confident, kindhearted, courageous and brave person. His speech is always thought-provoking to many people, especially youngsters. Youngsters are the future pillars of the nation. So the Indian government announced Swamy Viveknanda's birthday as a National Youth Day on 12th January 1984. The government want every youngster should follow his thoughts, philosophy and his lifestyle.
Swamy Vivekananda was a great devotee of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsar. And Ramakrishna also had a special concern for Swamy Vivekananda. He could do anything for him. Example incident: One day, another devotee of Ramakrishna asked him why he gave special concern to Vivekananda. Rmamkrishnar didn't tell anything, instead, he took saliva from his mouth and ask the devotee to take that saliva and keep it in the secret place. He was thinking, but before that, he was hesitant to touch that saliva. Ramakrishna also understood his thought. Next, he called, Vivekananda, and he said the same thing to him.
"Do you know what he did?"
The very next moment, he took that saliva and put it in his mouth. Everybody was shocked. Then everyone understood the devotion he had towards his guru.
We cannot imagine this, right?
In 1892, he went to the southern side of India and he was so depressed to see the poverty of the people and how they were crucially treated by the Britishers. He had so many unanswered questions arising in his mind so he was confused a lot. Finally, he reached Kanyakumari, the end of the southern part of India. He went to the Kanyakumari Bgavathi Amman temple and saw the sea. He mentioned in his letter to his guru that when he saw the rock, some power was pulling him. He wrote in that letter,
"Sitting on the last bit of Indian rock—I hit upon a plan …. Suppose some disinterested sannyasins, bent on doing good to others, go from village to village, disseminating education and seeking in various ways to better the condition of all … through oral teaching, and by means of maps, cameras, globes, and such other accessories – can’t that bring forth good in time? …. We, as a nation, have lost our individuality, and that is the cause of all mischief in India. We have to give back to the nation its lost individuality and raise the masses.”
He didn't have enough rupees to get the boat and reach the rock. So he swam and reached the rock successfully. Three days and nights he meditated on the rock (24th, 25th and 26th December 1892). At the end of the day, he got enlightenment from God and got every answer to the unanswered questions. After he got clearance, then only he decided to give a speech at the Chicago religious conference.
In 1893, in Chicago, the Western countries were conducting a religious conference. He went there and gave a speech about the culture and tradition of Hinduism. He introduced Hinduism to Western Countries. And also he spoke about the "Universal brotherhood". After his speech only, Western people started to understand the idealism of Hindu culture.
Vivekananda Rock:
During his 100th birth anniversary in 1963, the people from Kanyakumari wanted a memorial on the rock where Swamy Vivekananda was doing mediation for three days. They decided to build the memorial for him. But some people were against it. They declared that the rock belonged to St. Xaver's rock. While the quarrel was going on, someone put up the cross on the rock. So there was a huge protest that happened at that time. The state government declared that the rock did not belong to any religion. But Eknath Ramakrishna Ranade took that case to the Central government and ask for permission to build the memorial for Swamy Vivekananda. After the formalities, 323 MPs give an affirmative answer for the memorial.
Finally, in 1964, they started the construction on that rock. Daily there were 650 workers were involved in this project. There were three million volunteers were involved in this construction work. They planned two mandapams, one for Swamy Vivekananda and another for Kanyakumari Bagavathi Amman mandapam. When the workers saw the "padha beedam" they believed that it was goddess Bgavathi Amman's footprint. so they made a padha mandapam also. The fund was not enough for the project. So the volunteers were asking for donations from everywhere. 85 lakhs rupees were collected from one rupee note. The state government gave one lakh and the Central government gave 15 lakhs to this project. Within six years, they completed the project and inaugurated it in 1970. The Vivekananda Memorial was very similar to the Ramakrishna temple in Belur Math, West Bengal.
What is the type of the rock where Vivekananda's memorial build?
We all called that rock as Vivekananda's rock. Do you know what type of rock it is? What is the origin of the rock? If I say, the rock was the connecting junction between India and Antarctica? Do you believe that?
Yes, there was a connection between India and Antarctica.
Vivekananda Memorial was built in "Charnockite Rock". Austrian geologist Eduard Suess, after examining the rock and mentioned that this type of rock was not only available in India but also in South Africa, Madagascar, Antarctica, Australia and South America. So he mentioned that there was so much of a possibility that these countries might have joined at one point. And that landmass, he named it"Gondwanaland".
Another geologist, Pranay Lal, mentioned in his book "Indica: A Deep Natural History of the Indian Subcontinent", that India, Madagascar, East Antarctica, Sri Lanka and Australia were united. That is called "Gondwana". And he said that the rock where Vivekananda Memorial was made, is called "The Gondwana Junction"
The geological theory mentioned that millions of years ago, South America, Australia, Madagascar and Antarctica came into the unification of one Supercontinent called "Gondwanaland". 600 million ago, it started to get a break. Then 160 million years ago, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Australia and East Antarctica got separated. then 180-118 million ago, India got separated from Antarctica. That rock was an example of this. We could see, this type of rock in the above-mentioned countries. So the geologist said that while India and Antarctica got seperate, Vivekananda rock is the remaining parts which was placed in between the two countries. So it is called as the"Breaking Point" of India and Antarctica.
So, from this article, you can know about the Vivekananda's memorial, his speach in Chicago, conflict in the rock and the special features of the rock.
Good information...need more information like this..
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