The Prime Minister visited the Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari to meditate for 48 hours and mark the culmination of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
- It was also the place where Swami Vivekananda is said to have meditated and was visited by the vision of “Bharat Mata”.
- The Vivekananda Rock is a tiny rocky islet located some 500 metres from Kanyakumari’s Vavathurai beach, the southern tip of mainland India, at the confluence of the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal.
- The construction of the Vivekananda Rock Memorial began in 1964 and was completed in 1970. The memorial on the rock was formally inaugurated by the President V V Giri in 1970.
- The structure is composed of two main sections: the Vivekananda Mandapam and the Shripada Mandapam.
- Kanyakumari is said to be the southernmost tip of the Indian mainland, where the three oceans — Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean meet, as well as having a place in Hindu mythology as the place where Goddess Parvati meditated on one foot for attaining Lord Shiva.
- Swami Vivekananda was instrumental in introducing the Indian philosophies of Vedanta to the western world.
- Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), whose original name was Narendra Nath Dutta, combined the simple teachings of Sri Ramakrishna with his well founded modern outlook and spread them all over the world.
