Swami Vivekananda

Swami Vivekananda was born on 12 January 1863, at 3 Gourmohan Mukherjee Street in Calcutta, the capital of British India. He was an Indian Hindu monk, philosopher, author, religious teacher, and the chief disciple of the Indian mystic Ramakrishna.

At the age of eight, he enrolled at Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s Metropolitan Institution, where he went to school until his family moved to Raipur in 1877. He was the only student to receive first-division marks in the Presidency College entrance examination. He was an avid reader of a wide range of subjects, including philosophy, religion, history, social science, art, and literature.

In 1881, he passed the Fine Arts examination and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1884.

He was one of the most influential philosophers and social reformers in contemporary India, and the most successful missionaries of Vedanta to the Western world. He was also a major force in contemporary Hindu reform movements and contributed to the concept of nationalism in colonial India. His birthday in India is celebrated as National Youth Day.