On Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary, actress Kangana Ranaut honoured one of the great philosophers in India in a really special way on social media. Kangana posted a photo of Swami Vivekananda on her Instagram story and quoted one of his teachings. She accompanied her post with a quote from Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the first Parliament of the World’s Religions on September 11, 1893, at the present-day Art Institute of Chicago. The part of Swami Ji’s speech that Kangana stated in her story is about accepting all religions: ‘I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true.’ The actress also added hashtags #NationalYouthDay and #SwamiVivekananda to her caption.
Swami Vivekananda attended the aforementioned conference to create a global dialogue of faiths with Jain preacher Virchand Gandhi, Buddhist preacher Anagarika Dharmapala, first American Ancestor of Zen Soyen Shaku, Japanese Pure Land master Kiyozawa Manshi and Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb.
Another excerpt from Swami Vivekananda’s speech at the first Parliament of the World’s Religions is: ‘I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth.’
Honouring Swami Vivekananda’s work as a true patriot, the Government of India declared Swami Vivekananda’s birthday – January 12 – as National Youth Day in 1985.
Kangana Ranaut has also been vocal about her views on patriotism and nationalism. The actress received her Padma Shri award in a ceremony in New Delhi last year. She also has four National Awards to her credit. National Award for Best Supporting Actress for Fashion (2008) and Best Actress awards for Queen (2014), Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015) and Manikarnika, the Queen of Jhansi (2019)-Panga (2020).
