SOME BODY GIVE US LIGHT - FOOLS; GOD MADE THE HEAVEN, AND MAN MADE THE HELL FOR HIMSELF

We put our hands before our eyes and cry: "Somebody give us light." Fools! Take your hands from your eyes! That is all there is to it.... We call upon the gods to save us and nobody blames himself. That is the pity of it. Why is there so much evil in society? What is it they say? Flesh and the devil and the woman. Why make these things [up]? Nobody asks you to make them [up]. "None, O Arjuna, can swerve from my path." We are fools, and our paths are foolish. We have to go through all this Mâyâ. God made the heaven, and man made the hell for himself.

- Swami Vivekananda
(Delivered in San Francisco, on May 29, 1900)
 The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/The Gita III

Introduction

When we stand under a big and wide-spread banyan tree, could we be able to even imagine that this apparently all encompassing tree was once hidden inside a small seed. Similarly, on Monday, January 12, 1863 (posh Krishna saptami tithi), the child which took birth in the Simla locality of Kolkata in the house of Shri Vishvanath Dutta and Smt. Bhuvneshwari Devi was like that seed. The child was born on the day of Makar Sankranti – a great Hindu festival, at 6:33 a.m. Who could have wondered by seeing that child at that time that in future, in his short lifetime of mere 39 years, such an extraordinary and surprising genius and such irresistible power will get evolved in him, that will transcend the limitations of place and time. And that genius and power of his will: forever evoke the eternal glory of human soul; be the live inspiration of truth, justice and brotherhood; and kindle the sacred fire of fearless and selfless service to the humanity, in the hearts and souls of innumerable men and women, born and bred in different times, different circumstances and different ways. When this divine child gradually grown into a vigorous, versatile, vivacious, and courageous young man, even at that time nobody had wondered that this Narendranath Dutta will become the eminent and highly venerable Swami Vivekananda. But, at seeing the eighteen year old youth Narendranath Dutta, Sri Ramakrishna had recognized him at once. Sri Ramakrishna had become aware about who Narendra is, and why he is born. He had seen the vivid picture of Narendra’s effulgent future life through his divine vision. Sri Ramakrishna had once told about Swami Vivekananda that he was the incarnation of one of the Saptrishis.