Source: http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=327&page=27
INDIA, January 12, 2010: Every year, India celebrates Swami Vivekananda’s birthday, January 12, 1863, as Youth Day. Swami Vivekananda exhorted the people of Bharat to “be proud to call yourself a Hindu. Have muscles of iron and a heart of steel. Serve the poor, needy and ignorant like your brothers and sisters”.
When asked by youth for knowledge from the Gita, Swamiji asked them to play football to understand the holy Gita better. His idea was that only the brave and strong in every respect could understand the ¬†truth and meaning of the Gita — the fight to achieve victory over the unjust, even if they may be your own kith and kin. Swami Vivekananda took samahdi in 1902, at age 39. However, his immortal words have great significance, even today.
The influence, of course, of Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa on Swami Vivekananda can not be exaggerated. It was he who realized Vivekananda’s potential, bestowing spiritual powers upon him so that he may spread his realizations world-wide and guide other disciples.Swami Vivekananda travelled all over India, and saw the true condition of people’s suffering under British rule.
Vivekananda’s eloquent speeches, including his historical address at the Parliament of Religions in Chicago, moved the hearts and minds of people in America and England. Swamiji impressed upon his audience the greatness of the Vedanta and Hindu Dharma. It was as a result of his brilliant speeches, that the western Press named him “The Cyclonic Hindu”. Margaret Nobel, a young Irish women, later named Sister Nivedita by Swamiji, was so impressed by Hindu culture that she relocated to India and devoted her life to spreading Swamiji’s teachings. Swamiji also founded the Ramakrishna Mission.
He was full of compassion for the poor and needy. He exhorted his audience, if they felt the suffering of their brothers and sisters to be at once active and dedicated in their service. Swamiji was also strong in body, mind, intellect and spirit. He stood boldly in the face of his aggressors.
Swamiji always repeated the Upanishadic message, “Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached”.