T He T Hree G Urus
THE THREE GURUS
The Hindu Link
Swami Vivekananda, by far the most prominent and respected name in Vedic thought of recent vintage, was born in Shimla Pally, Calcutta, on January 12, 1863. His actual birth name was Narendranath Dutta. His father, Vishwanath Dutta, was an attorney in Calcutta and had a reputation for being a man with a generous spirit who was quite progressive and liberal in his religious views. His mother was known for her rigorous and disciplined piety and practice. She is supposed to have prayed to Shiva for a son, and according to the legend, saw, in a dream, Shiva rising in the middle of his own meditations to promise her that her prayer for a son would be answered.
There are numerous stories from his life of visions and dreams in which he would see the Buddha; he had a fascination with wandering ascetics and with the life of the meditating monk. He studied the sacred texts of Hinduism and was also well versed in Indian classical music, both vocal and instrumental. Vivekananda was quite eclectic in his interests and studied a wide range of subjects in philosophy, religion, history, the social sciences, arts, and literature.
Early in his youth, he questioned the validity of the superstitious customs he saw around him and discrimination based on caste. He refused to accept anything without first subjecting it to pragmatic tests for rational proof. When his father moved the family to Raipur in 1877, Vivekananda was more or less homeschooled, as there were no acceptable schools in Raipur, and he enjoyed long discussions on spiritual topics. Adding to his skill in Bengali, he learned Hindi in Raipur and for the first time in his own deliberations, the question of the actual existence of God surfaced. On one occasion, it is said, he went into an ecstatic trance, something that is not uncommon for revered teachers in that culture even today.
After two years in Raipur the family returned to Calcutta, but those two years in Raipur were the most formative for him spiritually, which is why Raipur is often referred to as the spiritual birthplace of Swami Vivekananda. It was in Raipur that Narendranath Dutta became Swami Vivekananda, a teacher to others.