Study the picture and answer the following questions:

(a) Identify the person in the picture. Name the organisation established by him?

(b) What were the aims of the organisation formed by him?

(c) State any three ideals of the person in the picture. How did he spread his mission abroad?

(a) The person in the given picture is Swami Vivekananda. He established the Ramakrishna Mission.

(b) The aims of the Ramakrishna Mission were:

1. To manifest divinity inherent in man.
2. To strive for a synthesis and harmony among various faiths and cults.
3. To take up the service of mankind.

(c) Following were the three ideals of Swami Vivekananda:

1. He proclaimed the essential oneness of all religions and condemned narrowness in religious matters.
2. He condemned the caste system and the emphasis on rituals and superstitions, and urged the people to imbibe the spirit of liberty, equality and free thinking.
3. He was a great humanist who believed that service to mankind was service to God.

The Ramakrishna Mission opened its branches in Sri Lanka and Myanmar. Swami Vivekananda himself established many branches of the Mission in USA. Later on this network spread to other western countries and thousands of Americans and Europeans accepted the spiritual superiority of Indian culture and civilisation.