John Milton was Swami Vivekananda’s favourite English poet and Michael Madhusudan Dutt his favourite poet in Bengali.

“Swamiji was influenced by Milton’s Paradise Lost and the theme of ‘immortal hate’ in it. He read the book as a boy and would say that ‘the only good man I had any respect for was Satan. The only saint is that soul that never weakens’,” said author Shubhamoy Mondal who was speaking at the FE Block community hall.

The block’s residents forum had organised an event to commemorate Swamiji’s birth anniversary on January 12 and Mondal was addressing the audience on the monk’s social and philosophical ideologies.

“Not only was Swamiji a philosopher and social reformer, but his prose style was remarkable too,” said Mondal. “In 1908, Tagore said that Swamiji was the only one who could unify the East and the West.”

Block resident and former finance minister Asim Dasgupta conveyed special thanks to the speaker.

Oindrila Banerjee, a singer from GD Block sang two Rabindrasangeets that were favourites with Swamiji and Swapna Das recited a self-composed poem in tribute to him.

Nripendra Krishna Bose, another block resident, spoke on Swamiji’s power of concentration and on how he never discriminated against anyone. “He even performed Kumari puja by worshipping a Muslim boatman’s daughter in Kashmir,” he said.

Block president Subir Bose welcomed the audience, secretary Basab Basak delivered the vote of thanks and the event was compered by Shubhra Sengupta.