In a fitting tribute to India’s greatest visionary, scholar and social reformist Swami Vivekananda on his 150th birth anniversary, Chief Minister Raman Singh has announced to convert the house in which the former stayed in Raipur, into a museum.
The pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda was Narendra Nath Datta, the chief disciple of Shri Ramakrishna Paramhansa.
It was known that in 1877, when Swami Vivekananda’s father moved to Raipur with this entire family with no significant schools in Raipur at that time to educate his son, Swamiji spent most of his time with his father discussing spiritual issues. This led to the birth of his spiritual quest on the issue of whether God exists or not. Raipur is also termed by many who knew Swami Vivekananda’s life closely as his ‘Spiritual Birthplace’ before his family returned to Kolkata in 1879. ‘It is a great privilege for the people of Chhattisgarh, that Swami Vivekananda as the boy ‘Naren’ spent around two years with his father Vishwanath Dutta around 1877 in Raipur,’ the Chief Minister said in his message while greeting people on the occasion of Vivekanand Jayanti on Sunday.
The year-long commemoration of 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda formally came to a grand close on Sunday in Chhattisgarh with a series of functions organised at all the 27 districts in which massive crowd attended the function with great enthusiasm.