SWAMI VIVEKANANDA: A RELIGIOUS MONK (Pages 93-100) by Dr. Sukanya A. Jalihal in THE INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPECIALIST / ISSN: 2350-1499 (Online); 2350-0751 (Print)

Swami Vivekananda, a great religious leader is the spiritual emissary to the West illuminating the horizon of national and international life. He was the one who disclosed the meaning of Hinduism and thus the Sanatan Dharma to the whole world. Conventional approaches to the sacred pursuit generally imply going to the church, temple or mosque, regularly doing a little bit of charity etc. As distinguished from these approaches is the Vedantic one propounded by Swami Vivekananda that does not aim at outward conversion. Therefore Swami emphasizes in his religious philosophy the inner conversion or illumination. To his mind there could be no sect, no school, no sincere religious experience of Indian people that might rightly be excluded from the embrace of Hinduism. According to Vivekananda the distinctive doctrine is that of the Ista Devata, the right of each soul to choose its own path, and to seek God in its own way. This paper makes an attempt to show how Swami Vivekananda has been a religious ambassador to reveal to the whole world the very essence of Hiduism – the Vedantic philosophy. His sole mission was to preach unto mankind its divinity, and how to make it manifest in every moment of life. Each soul is potentially divine. Each path, his august mentor Shri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, had assured us, is a valid one, an affirmation which reminds of the vedic diction, ekam sat vipra bahuda vadanti ( the one Truth is called by various names by various learned men) The implication of the Vedas is that one should strive to perceive the spiritual unity underlying the plethora of diversity of the universe, including the diversity of faiths. Keywords: religious leader is the spiritual emissary, Sanatan Dharma, religious philosophy, Hinduism, Ista Devata, religious ambassador, Vedantic philosophy etc.