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Today is Swami Vivekananda's (Swamiji's) birthday.
This year, because we follow the Vedic moon calendar, the auspicious date is the 25th of January. By the Gregorian Calendar the great hero was born on the 12th of January 1863.
He gave his first address to the West at the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago on the 11th of September 1893, opening with the prophetic words: "my sisters and brothers of America..."
We are all here together because of his work. He is the great Messenger of the Spiritual Heritage of India, the torch bearer and representative par excellence of the ancient tradition of Yoga, the forerunner of Vedanta here in the West.
And so with immense delight I offer to you now this lecture celebrating Vivekananda's life and legacy.
Of course,
One lecture is not enough to achieve even the faintest sketch of this cyclonic life lived according to the highest of spiritual ideals. In this lecture, we scratch the surface of Vivekananda's core message: work as worship. We analyse the highest ideal of Karma Yoga as an expression of the paths of Bhakti (devotion), Jnana (knowledge) and Raja (meditation).
The idea in this lecture, if God permits, is to convey a sense of how we may turn every action in our life into a spiritual practice, even the most mundane ones. How can we truly serve those around us?
"May I be born again and again, and suffer thousands of miseries, so that I may worship the only God that exists, the only God I believe in, the sum total of all souls. For my own part I will be incarnated two hundred times, if that is necessary to do what I have undertaken amongst my people.''
-Swamiji
May these words be as so many offerings of flowers at your feet.
May each and every breath of ours be given for the service of humanity!
Jai Swamiji Maharaj-ji Ki Jay!
00:00:00 Introduction: The Vedantic Humanism of Swami Vivekananda
00:05:31 Worldly Duties vs Spiritual Practice: Resolving the Dilemma
00:19:11 Perfection in Karma Yoga as defined by Swamiji
00:21:17 Paramahansa Ramakrishna, Avatar of the Modern Age
00:34:29 How Swamiji Learned This Profound Secret of Work as Worship
00:37:23 How Can The Absolute Be Both Transcendent AND Immanent?
00:54:00 Why Does This Realization Bring Joy? (Ananda)
00:59:40 You = The Absolute. But How? (Atma-Anatma Viveka)
01:09:19 The Insight of Buddha, Shankara and Vivekananda: A Call To Spirituality!
01:22:36 The Core Idea: Work as Worship
01:29:00 Harmonizing The Four Yogas: Bhakti, Raja, Jnana and Karma
01:3