NEW YORK, USA, October 1, 2011 (nytimes.com, by Ann Louise Bardach): The big day is over 15 months away, but India is planning a major celebration on January 12, 2013 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Swami Vivekananda–the first missionary from the East to the West, the man who introduced “yoga” into the national conversation.
Born Narendranath Datta to an aristocratic Calcutta family, the Indian monk alighted in Chicago in 1893 in ochre robes and turban and made an electrifying appearance at the opening of the august Parliament of Religions that Sept. 11. For the remaining weeks of the conference, he held the 4,000 attendees spellbound in a series of showstopping improvised talks.
Vivekananda simplified Vedanta thought to a few teachings that were accessible and irresistible to Westerners, foremost being that “all souls are potentially divine.” His prescription for life was simple, and perfectly American: “work and worship.” By the end of his last Chicago lecture on Sept. 27, he was a star. And like the enterprising Americans he so admired, he went on the road to pitch his message — dazzling some of the great minds of his time.
He had no intention, though, of starting an exercise cult with expensive accessories. Uninterested in physical exertion, he informed Americans that “You are not your body.” What’s more, he told them, “You are not your mind.” Yoga, to him, meant realizing God. He abhorred channeling, seances and past-life hunts as diversionary. His popularity in America began to wane as the baby boomers commercialized yoga.
[HPI note: Despite the West’s simplistic emphasis on hatha yoga (physical postures), yoga is a Hindu system comprising a wealth of spiritual practices leading the soul toward union with God.]
Vivekananda died at the age of 39, exhausted from ceaseless work and untreated diabetes. He had returned to India and was living in the monastery he founded outside Calcutta. He excused himself for the evening and went into his room, meditated awhile, took two deep breaths and passed away. Earlier, he had remarked, “I have given enough for fifteen hundred years.” He was done.
The full article, at Source, includes quotes from many famous Americans honoring Swami Vivekananda.