Swami Vivekananda - The Divine

Existence of God: Swami Vivekananda was a follower and proponent of Vedanta which mentions one God — omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient. On 19 September 1893 Swami Vivekananda delivered a lecture at the Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago, where he talked about nature of God. He preached— "He is everywhere, the pure and formless One, the Almighty and the All-merciful. "Thou art our father, Thou art our mother, Thou art our beloved friend, Thou art the source of all strength; give us strength. Thou art He that beareth the burdens of the universe; help me bear the little burden of this life." Thus sang the Rishis of the Vedas. And how to worship Him? Through love. "He is to be worshipped as the one beloved, dearer than everything in this and the next life."

Realisation of God "Every man must develop according to his own nature. as every science has its methods, so has every religion. The methods of attaining the end of religions are called yoga by us, and the different forms of yoga we teach, are adapted to the different natures and temperaments of men. We classify them in the following way, under four heads:  Karma-Yoga— The manner in which a man realizes his own divinity through works and duty. Bhakti-Yoga— The realization of the divinity through works and duty. Raja-Yoga— The realization of the divinity through the control of the mind. Jnana-Yoga— The realization of a man;s own divinity through knowledge. There are all different roads leading to the same centre— God." - Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda "As the different streams having there sources in different places all mingle their water in the sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, ...

Who is a Brahmacharya? The Indian concept Brahmacharya and Western concept Celibacy are not exactly same. Celibacy means a state of being unmarried and sexually abstinent. but Brahmacharya is stricter, it not only includes one's physical activities, but also his/her thoughts and words. They say—     Karmana manasa vaca     Sarvavasthasu sarvada     Sarvatra maithuna-tyago     Brahmacaryam pracaksate (Karmana=work, manasa=mind, vaca=words, sarvatra= everywhere, maithuna-tyago= leave sexuality) Brahmacharya should be like  a burning fire within the veins! —Swami Vivekananda In Hinduism someone who is observing Brahmacharya must abstain from Ashtanga Maithuna (Sanskrit/Hindi: अष्टांग मैथुन, Bengali: অষ্টাঙ্গ মৈথুন)     Smaranam kirtanam kelih     Preksanam guhyabhasanam     Sankalpo ‘dhyavasayas ca     Kriya-nirvrttir eva ca A Brahmachari should not think about people of opposite sex, sp...