Inaugural function of Vivekananda Rock Memorial on 2nd September, 1970 Welcome address by President, Shri D.N. Sinha

I shall however tell you in a very small compass, the story as to how Swamiji came to be associated with the rock, to enable you all the better to appreciate the gravity of the occasion and the grandness of the idea that lies behind this attempt to dedicate a memorial on the rock to Swamiji, to commemorate an unique spiritual experience of his, which has now become a part of history.

After the Maha Samadhi of Bhagawan Sri Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, and to carry out his last wishes, a group of his disciples, under the leadership of Swamiji took holy orders and the Swamiji started touring the length and breadth of India as a Parivrajaka.

It was during the Parivrajaka days of Swamiji, when he was touring southern India on foot, that he journeyed to Kanyakumari (Cape Comorin) the southernmost extremity of India. He had commenced his journey from the show clad Himalayas and he had arrived at the southernmost tip of Bharatvarsha (India) after having visited the holy temple of Rameshwaram. The Swamiji had journeyed the whole length and breadth of India and when he visited the shrine of mother at Kanyakumari he fell prostrate in ecstasy before heritage. Worship finished, he crossed to the Rock which is separate from the mainland. About him the ocean tossed and stormed, but in his mind there was even a greater tempest. And here, sitting on the last stone of India, he passed into a deep meditation or Samadhi, upon the present and future of his country. He sought for the root of her downfall and with the vision of a seer he understood why India had been thrown from the pinnacle of glory to the depths of degradation.