How Vivekananda continues to Inspire!

5 Minute Quick Read. 

["I only tell you this, that whoever reads this letter will imbibe my spirit! "
                                                                                                      - Swami Vivekananda" ]

Vivekananda is an inspiring personality. 

He enthralled the audience that listened to him at Chicago in 1893. He inspired hundreds after his return and these lectures are outlined in “Lectures from Colombo to Almora”. His contemporaries like Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, and even Industrialist Jamshetji Tata expressed how he was influential. Mahatma Gandhi in Feb, 1921 at Belur, even said that, 

 I ask you, young men, not to go away empty-handed without imbibing something  of the spirit of the place where Swami Vivekananda lived and died”. 

His inspiration continues even to this date. I have at least half-dozen close friends who were inspired by his words, writings and are living their life as Monks or are serving full time, the poor and needy. They are walking the path shown by him. There are enumerable examples of how he continues to inspire. For instance, a famous story about Anna Hazare, social activist goes, that he was about to commit suicide and then read the works of Swamiji. It inspired him to pick up rural development and continues to inspire to serve India. 

I am always amused by the inspirational power of Swamiji’s words and writings. One can understand the influence on his contemporaries due to direct contact, but how come he continues to inspire people even today? 

Recently I came across a behavioral study about the inspiring power of words. Researchers used Poetry as a channel for inspiration. A group wrote Poetry and tested for their level of inspiration. Another group read this poetry and commented on various parameters. Total 36, 020 data points were collected.  

Researchers concluded that inspired writers were able to inspire average readers. Readers found poems as more sublime, insightful when writers were more inspired. Surprisingly efforts put into writing or originality of writing weren’t having any effect on the reader. And the only connection between reader and writers were poem!  

This kind of explains how Vivekananda continues to inspire. He was highly inspired person. He spoke about his Guru Sri Ramkrishna as, 

 ” My teacher, my master, my hero, my ideal, my God in life “. 

He mentioned at one point, 

“It is true I believe Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to have been inspired. But then I am myself inspired also. And you are inspired. And your disciples will be; and theirs after them; and so on, to the end of time! “   

What he wrote was from the deep truth he experienced. His expressions were just an outcome of his inner pure, inspired state of being. And hence his writings are more than the words, they are medium, the vehicle that continues to inspire and will continue to inspire us. 

References: 

Image Source: https://istore.chennaimath.org/product/letters-of-swami-vivekananda/ 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influence_and_legacy_of_Swami_Vivekananda  

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fpspp0000094  

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/is-inspiration-contagious/  

https://advaitaashrama.org/cw/content.php  Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda.

How one Harvard Professor found his life purpose!

Finding purpose of life often requires deep introspection.

You have to struggle, face dilemma's for long period.

But it is worth it.

Find below the snippet from Clayton Christensen's "How will you measure your life?",

It not only tells his internal struggle, but also conveys invaluable returns.

For me, having a clear purpose in my life has been essential. But it was something I had to think long and hard about before I understood it. When I was a Rhodes scholar, I was in a very demanding academic program, trying to cram an extra yearʼs worth of work into my time at Oxford. I decided to spend an hour every night reading, thinking, and praying about why God put me on this earth. That was a very challenging commitment to keep, because every hour I spent doing that, I wasnʼt studying applied econometrics. I was conflicted about whether I could really afford to take that time away from my studies, but I stuck with it—and ultimately figured out the purpose of my life.

Had I instead spent that hour each day learning the latest techniques for mastering the problems of autocorrelation in regression analysis, I would have badly misspent my life. I apply the tools of econometrics a few times a year, but I apply my knowledge of the purpose of my life every day. Itʼs the single most useful thing Iʼve ever learned. I promise my students that if they take the time to figure out their life purpose, theyʼll look back on it as the most important thing they discovered at HBS. If they donʼt figure it out, they will just sail off without a rudder and get buffeted in the very rough seas of life. Clarity about their purpose will trump knowledge of activity-based costing, balanced scorecards, core competence, disruptive innovation, the four Ps, and the five forces.

Harvard business review has article of the same title.

His  TED talk is also available here.

(Image source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pictoquotes/22105827259 )

Smile - There are so many reasons ...

Interesting talk by Ron Gutman smile - A curve that straightens cranky things ...

(Speech is supported by strong research findings from range of publications, and worth watching . All the studies that he is referring are available here .).