> Swami Vivekananda (1863 – 1902)

Swami Vivekananda is one of the most dynamic spiritual personalities of the modern age, bringing ancient spirituality into the modern secular world and inspiring Easterner and Westerner with the powerful, timeless philosophy of ancient India.

When Swami Vivekananda, whose name was formerly Naren, was a young skeptical college student studying Western philosophy, he began asking Hindu spiritual teachers if they had seen God directly, because he wanted proof. They all dodged the question until he met Sri Ramakrishna and asked him, "Sir, have you seen God?" Sri Ramakrishna replied, "Yes, I have seen God. I have seen Him more tangibly than I see you. I have talked to Him more intimately than I am talking to you. But, my child, who wants to see God? People shed jugs of tears for money, wife, and children. But if they would weep for God for only one day they would surely see Him."

Sri Ramakrishna was the only one who claimed first hand God experience, and was able to grant this vision to others. Through the miraculous touch of Sri Ramakrishna, the skeptical young man was transformed into one of the most powerful proponents of spirituality in the modern age. Sri Ramakrishna imparted his dynamic spiritual experiences to Swami Vivekananda, who then introduced Hindu spirituality to the West. He participated in the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893, and established the Ramakrishna Mission to spread the message of his Master. After Buddha and Shankara, Swami Vivekananda is considered to be the greatest spiritual leader of India, reinvoking the ancient spirituality of India to revive and invigorate his nation. By introducing Vedanta to the West, Swami Vivekananda enabled his own nation to realise the depth of the teachings of its ancient prophets which lay dormant and forgotten. He elevated every individual to the status of divinity and pronounced heartfelt ‘service to mankind’ as the most effective form of worship.

“Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within, by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work, or worship or psychic control, or philosophy by one or more, or all of these, and be free. This is the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas, rituals, books, temples or forms, are but secondary details.” - Swami Vivekananda

“We are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.” - Swami Vivekananda

Source: http://hinduacademy.org/

Here's the speech that catapulted Vivekananda to fame as he explains the gist of Hinduism at the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was asked to give this speech by J.H. Wright, a professor at Harvard University. He quotes a sloka from "Baghavad Gita," and he explains the concept of Universal acceptance of all religions. Vivekananda went on to give speeches across the United States in places such as New York, Memphis, Boston, San Francisco, St. Louis and Los Angeles.