215 ] SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. ‘CoSwami Vivekananda and his colleagues is due the revival of Vedantism in recent times in much its original form. Raja Rammohan Ray’s Brahrna Sarnaj was indeed a movement in the direction of a revived Vedantism, but under its subsequent leaders the movement soon became a thorough-going reform movement, leaving its old moorings and cutting off its connection with orthodoxy. Swami Vivekananda, though educated under the modern system, received his spiritual training under an orthodox Hindu devote, and was therefore imbued with a deep spirit of toleration and conservatism vhich all his foreign travels, education and experiences could not remove. The Swami was indeed, to some extent, a reformer. But his reform movement differs from the Brahma Sarnaj movement in retaining the monastic system for ministers of religion and a place for image-worship in popular devotions. It would not be too much to say that these conservative features of the movement have contributed as much to its popularity as the ardour and ability of its leaders. Vhether they do not also form its weak points and vi1i ultimately destroy its character as a reform movement, time alone can show. Before he became a monk, Swami Vivekananda’s name was Narendranath Datta. He belongs to a respectable Kay-astha family of Ca’cutta, and was born in 1863. He graduated in 1884 from the General Assembly’s Institution. For a period he was connectcd with the Brabmo Sarnaj. He attended its services, and as he was gifted with a sweet voice, he sometimes joined the Sarnaj choir. Gradually he came under the influence of Parambansa Ramkrishna of 1)akshinesvar, a devotee who was held iii universal esteem and whose influence over educated Bengalis was then on the ascendant.
