Swami Vivekananda on Akbar

• Akbar the Great became practically a Hindu; educated Mohammedans, the Sufis, are hardly to be distinguished from the Hindus; they do not eat beef, and in other ways conform to our usages. Their thought has become permeated by ours.^[Source]
• Akbar's, though more to the purpose, was only a parlour-meeting.(on Akbar's religious council and Din-e Ilahi)^[Source]
• Europe was born in the sixteenth century A.D. i.e. about the time when Akbar, Jehangir, Shahjahan, and other Moghul Emperors firmly established their mighty empire in India.^[Source]
• Even if the kings be of as godlike nature as that of Yudhishthira, Ramachandra, Dharmashoka, or Akbar under whose benign rule the people enjoyed safety and prosperity, and were looked after with paternal care by their rulers, the hand of him who is always fed by another gradually loses the power of taking the food to his mouth.^[Source]
• For three ruling generations from Akbar, learning, wisdom, and arts came to be much esteemed in India.^[Source]
• The great Akbar, the Mogul Emperor, was practically a Hindu.^[Source]
• The number of kings like Akbar, in whom the subjects find their life, is far less than that of kings like Aurangzeb who live on the blood of their people!^[Source]

Excerpts from Sister Nivedita's Book

Again it would be an eager rsum of the history of India or of the Moguls, whose greatness never wearied him. Every now and then throughout the summer he would break out into descriptions of Delhi and Agra. Once he described the Taj as "a dimness, and again a dimness, and there " a grave!"
Another time he spoke of Shah Jehan, and then, with a burst of enthusiasm: "Ah! He was the glory of his line! A feeling for and discrimination of beauty that are unparalleled in history. And an artist himself! I have seen a manuscript illuminated by him which is one of the art treasures of India. What a genius!"
Oftener still, it was Akbar of whom he would tell, almost with tears in his voice and a passion easier to understand, beside that undomed tomb, open to sun and wind " the grave of Secundra at Agra.

Today the Swami passed on to the talk of Akbar and sang us a song of Tnsen, the poet-laureate of the emperor:

Seated on the throne, a god amongst men,

Thou, the Emperor of Delhi.

Blessed was the hour, the minute, the second,

When thou ascendest the throne,

O God amongst men,

Thou, the Lord of Delhi.

Long live thy crown, thy sceptre, thy throne,

O God amongst men,

Thou, Emperor of Delhi.

Live long, and remain awakened always,

O son of Humayoon,

Joy of the sun, God amongst men,

Thou, the Emperor of Delhi!