“Remembering Eknath Ranade, the Man without whom The Vivekananda Rock Memorial would not have been a reality”, Swarajyamag, May 29, 2024:
“Towards the end of the 2024 election campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the Vivekananda Rock Memorial, located off the shores of Kanyakumari. The Prime Minister will meditate for a few hours at the spot. He had done a similar meditation at Kedarnath in Uttarakhand in 2019.
The Memorial is today a very well known spot, with visitors coming from all over the world. But what is not widely known is the story behind how the memorial was built and how Eknath Ranade of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) skilfully obtained the necessary support and money for its construction. How The Memorial Was Built In 1962, around the time of Swami Vivekananda’s centenary, a committee was formed in Kanyakumari.
The committee sought to build a memorial at the rock where Swamiji had meditated for a few days. At the same time, the Ramakrishna Mission in Chennai was also contemplating a memorial. The rock is also significant for Hindus because of the presence of the footprints of Goddess Kumari. But there were objections to this plan by sections of the Christian community, who called it St Xavier’s rock. They also put up a cross on the rock, which was visible from the shore. Hindus protested against this…..”
Read the full article at Swarajyamag.com
