How Great Influence of Jesus on Vibrant Life of Vivekananda?

” Day after day, O lord of my life, shall I stand before thee face to face. With folded hands, O lord of all worlds, shall I stand before thee face to face.

Under thy great sky in solitude and silence, with humble heart shall I stand before thee face to face.

In this laborious world of thine, tumultuous with toil and with struggle, among hurrying crowds shall I stand before thee face to face.

And when my work shall be done in this world , O kings , alone and speechless shall I stand before thee face to face. ” – Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore . 76 No Song .

INTRO: Tremendous Influence of Jesus on The Life of Vivekananda

We, Indians regard Jesus Christ as the son of God. So is Swami Vivekananda. Here I’m going to discuss ” Jesus Christ as seen by Swami Vivekananda”. Hindus worship Sri Krishna as God, not the son of God. There’s a similar sound when we pronounce both the words – Krishna and Khrista.

However, we know Jesus as a Prophet like Muhammad and Sree Ramkrishna. Jesus Christ and Swami Vivekananda both are divine. Christianity and Hinduism both religious paths are revived by Christ and Vivekananda.

Thakur Sree Ramkrishna used to listen to Bible. He has been practised all the rituals of different religions and he practised both Christianity and Islam- each for three days.

Even Swami Vivekananda’s life has to be seen as similar to Jesus Christ. Here I will discuss the divine and spiritual personalities of Jesus Christ as seen by Swami Vivekananda.”

MOTHER TERESA AND SWAMI VIVEKANANDA:Tremendous Influence of Jesus on The Life of Vivekananda

Mother Teresa served the downtrodden people of slums for a long time in Kolkata . As a result, she was awarded Nobel peace prize for her selfless service to mankind. That special evening she recited a line of a poem when she was asked,

“ What is your message in this joyful day?” 

She replied in Bengali with soft voice : 

” Jibe prem kare jei Jan , Sei jan sebiche iswar .( He/she who loves jiba , he/she serves to God).

Having heard it, we became surprised! Woh! This is the utterance of Swami Vivekananda. One Catholic Saint is uttering these very familiar lines in this joyous moment. Then it seemed that all the faces of the crowd are becoming blurred and a very known vibrant face is drifting before my eyes.

We notice a similarity between the two spiritual godfathers. And we find a deep connection between Swami Vivekananda’s life with Jesus and Christianity. 

Narendra Nath’s magnanimous father, Biswanath Dutta used to read the Bible. Narendra Nath was a vigorous reader from his childhood days. As a result, he has read Ramayana Mahabharata, Bhagabat and also Bible.

He listened to the stories of all these books from his mother and grandmother in his childhood days. Perhaps he might read the Bible also.

Narendra Nath was admitted to Presidency College in 1880. But he had to leave this college after one year because of malaria – attack.

However, having cured he took admission to General Assembly College( now Scottish Church College and in 1884 he became graduate from there. That time it’s a provision to read Bible as a compulsory subject.

So I think he reads it in between the two lines. Secondly, he was a student of philosophy. So it’s natural for a student of philosophy to read the life and religion of Jesus Christ.

Narendranath learnt about the state of trancefrom his college Principal Hesty Saheb. During his discussion of the state of trance in the poem” Excursion” he told that a priest of Dakhineshwar has experienced such a state of trance.

Therefore, Narendra Nath toured to Dakhineshwar to meet him. He visited several times before initiation of monkhood. He came to know about Sree Ramkrishna deeply.

Jesus Christ and Sri Ramkrishna:Jesus & Ramkrishna Still now The Light of the Universe

Guru Sree Ramkrishna says to his disciples that he is Chaitanya Abotar. And also says that how a divine light from Christ has been entered into his body.

To Swami Vivekananda (then Narendra Nath), Sri Ramakrishna is an Indian Christ or the younger brother of Christ.

Since 1881 – 1886, during this period Naren’s mind has been changed and he has become the Earnest devotee of His master, Sri Ramakrishna.

Not only that, he was being enriched with the spiritual advice of Master who came very intimate to Him. Fortunately, he has been realised that Sri Ramakrishna is an incarnation of Rama, Krishna and also of Sri Chaitanya.

Here I will tell you two incidents that we see in the Gospel of Sri Ramkrishna. The first one took place on 1885, 31 October. Sri M depicted the picture in the book as he listened to and learnt that day from Sri Ramkrishna and His devotees.

It’s about 11 am in the morning. .. He was talking to Christian devotee named Mishra. Mishra was born of a Christian family in northwestern India…

He was thirty-five years old. Though clad in European dress he wore the ochre of a Sannyasi under his foreign clothes. And the two of his brothers had died on the day fixed for the marriage of one of them, and on that very day, Mishra had renounced the world.

Mishra: ” Jesus is not the son of Mary , Jesus is God himself. ( To the devotees) Now he ( pointing to Sri Ramakrishna) is as you see him again. He is God himself. You are not able to recognize him.

… I have seen him before, in vision, though I see him now directly with my eyes. I saw a garden where he was seated on a raised seat . Another person was seated on the ground, but he was not so far advanced.”

Master: ” Do you see visions ?

Mishra: ” Sir, even when I lived at home I used to see light. Thus, I had a vision of Jesus. How can I describe that beauty? How significant is the beauty of a woman compared with that beauty !”

After a while, Misra took off his trousers and showed the devotees the Gerua (saffron) loincloth that he wore underneath. …

As he uttered these words he went into samadhi. He stood facing the West. Regaining partial consciousness , he fixed his gaze on Misra and began to laugh.

Still in an ecstatic mood, he shook hand with him and laughed again. Taking him by the hands, he said, ” You will get what you are seeking .”

Misra: ( With folded hands) ” Since that day I have surrendered to you my mind , soul , and body .”

Sri Ramakrishna was laughing , still in an ecstatic mood.

Sri M thought: Is Sri Ramakrishna and Jesus the same!

Paul Brunton, in his book ‘ A search in Secret India ‘, writes about Sri M’s realization about Jesus in Sri Ramakrishna.

He asked Sri M : How do you come to know about Jesus Christ and Bible so profoundly and meteculously, when he has listened discussion of Bible from ‘M . Having heard it, ‘M replied with gentle voice:

We have been staying in a same room with Him. We see Christ in Him like other incarnations.

Brunton became astonished listening to it. Hence, Naren too realized the same about Jesus in Sri Ramakrishna.

Now I will give a pen picture of the second incident which took place in the very first Math ( monk centre) in Taki’s Munshi’s home. In reminiscences, we see that there is a picture of Jesus with other incarnations hanging on the wall of a room in this Math. It’s a picture of crucified Jesus.

Sri ‘M informed that there continued meditation, Japa ( counting secret spiritual mantra), Bhajan and Kirtana along with a discussion of spiritual scripts. Besides, they used to read and discuss the life of Ramakrishna, Acharya Shankara, Ramanuja and Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ as Seen by Vivekananda :

Finally, there’s another incident that took place after 2/3 months of inception of Math. Once Swamiji’s Gurubhai, Babulal mother’s Matangini Devi requested her son to return home and spend there in Autpur some days along with Naren.

So when this news exposed, then all of his guru–brothers wanted to become a companion and reached Autpur. There they took out that they would lead a life of renunciation have

So one evening they fumigated the incense – pot and sat around all the brothers in meditation. After the end of it, Naren began to discuss the life of Jesus Christ. Especially, it’s the incident of Jesus renunciation.

Moreover, he mentioned that they would spread in the world as an apostle the life of Sri Ramakrishna and His Gospel.

Read more : “How to Become free”- as advised by Swami Vivekananda # ‘The Gospel of Swami Vivekananda and Inspired Talks ‘ # Swami Vivekananda and Narada Sutra# Gita# Vivekananda and Narada Sutra#God Or Gold#Rules to walk in life

Kindly Read These Books ( available on kindle direct publishing )

1. The Light of the Universe or a Son of God 2. Combating to Fat 3. Kaali: Chasing to the Dark and so on.