Interesting Incidents from the Life of Swami Vivekananda – Part 4

There is a famous Hindi proverb, "होनहार बिरवान के होत चीकने पात” meaning: Even the childhood of great personalities shows signs of their inherent greatness. This perfectly applies to the childhood of Swami Vivekananda. Swamiji was very brave and fearless even as a small child. Here is one interesting incident from his childhood that stands testimony to this claim:

When Swami Vivekananda was only 8 years old, he used to visit the home of one of his friends for playing. There was a Champaka tree in the compound of the friend’s home. The leaves of the Champaka tree are said to be liked by Lord Shiva; incidentally, young Narendra also liked these leaves. This tree in the friend’s courtyard was the favorite tree of Narendra for playing. He used to dangle upside down on this tree along with several friends and enjoy this activity very much. There was an old man in the family who didn’t like the children playing around the tree and dangling on it. His main concerns were that he would lose his beautiful Champaka flowers or worse that the children would get hurt if they fell from the tree. So, he fabricated a story of a Brahmdaitya (a Brahmin ghost). The old man said to the children that there lives a Brahmadaitya on the Champaka tree. He further said that the ghost is very frightening and dangerous, and if the children dangle from the tree, the ghost would become angry and break their neck. On listening to this horrific explanation about the ghost, the children became quite terrified and decided not to climb the tree or to play around it. Narendra also nodded and stood aside. The old man felt victorious and thought what a good storyteller he is. But to his dismay, as he went to some distance, agile Narendra jumped and climbed the tree again, and dangled from it upside down. Seeing this, Narendra’s friends shouted and urged him to dismount from the tree lest the Brahmadaitya would break his neck. Young Narendra just laughed heartily and said to his friends, silly fellows don’t you see that if the grandpa’s story were true, the Brahmadaitya would have broken my neck long ago!

Narendra further said that don’t believe anything just because someone has told it to you, you should apply your brain!

This incident from Swamiji’s life clearly shows how fearless he was even as a little child; it also reflects the keen intellect of Swamiji.

Interesting Incidents from the Life of Swami Vivekananda – Part 2

Swami Vivekananda used to see two contradictory ideals as soon as he went to bed at night; given below is the complete description in Swamiji’s words:

As soon as I went to bed, two ideals appeared before me every night ever since I had reached my youth. One vision presented me as a person of endless wealth and prosperity, innumerable servants and dependants, high rank and dignity, great pomp and power. I thought that I was seated at the head of those who were called big men in the world. I felt I certainly had the power to achieve this end. Again, the next moment, I felt as if I had given up everything of the world and was leading a life of renunciation, putting on a loincloth, eating whatever was available without effort, spending nights under trees, and depending solely on God’s will. I felt I could live the life of the Rishis and the Munis if I wanted. These two opposite pictures, according to which I could mould my life, thus arose in my mind. But the latter would grip the mind in the end. I thought that it was in this way alone that man could attain real bliss, and that I should follow this path and not the other. Brooding on the happiness of such a life, my mind would then merge in the contemplation of God and I would fall asleep. It is a matter of astonishment that this happened every night, for a long time.

Interesting Incidents from the Life of Swami Vivekananda – Part 1

Swamiji was not an ordinary person right from his childhood. Almost his whole life, starting from his childhood till his last day on earth, was full of many interesting and inspirational incidents, which not only teach us certain important lessons about life, but also inspire us. Here, I am presenting a series of unusual and interesting experiences of Swami Vivekananda and incidents from his life in his own words. I hope the readers will admire the series and learn from it.

Swamiji used to have a certain peculiar kind of experience when he went to sleep. Given under is the account in Swamiji’s own words:

Swami Vivekananda in Meditation

 

I used to see all my life a wonderful point of light between my eyebrows, as soon as I shut my eyes in order to go to sleep, and I used to observe attentively its various changes. So that it might be convenient to see it, I used to lie on my bed in the way people bow down touching the ground with their foreheads. The extraordinary point keep changing its colours and increasing in size, became gradually converted into the form of a ball, and bursting at last, covered my body from head to foot with white liquid light. As soon as that happened, I lost consciousness and fell asleep. I believed that all people went to sleep that way. I was long under that impression. When I grew up and began to practise meditation, that point of light used to come before me as soon as I closed my eyes, and then I concentrated my mind on it. In those days I daily practised meditation with a few friends according to the instructions of Maharishi Devendranath. We talked among ourselves about the nature of visions and experiences that each of us had. At that time I came to know from what they said that they never had the vision of such a light and that none of them went to sleep in that way.