Anecdotes from the Life of Swami Vivekananda

Narendra (Swami Vivekananda) was a master story-teller whose words were as magnetic as his personality. When he spoke everyone listened in rapt attention forgetting their work. One day while in school, Narendra was talking animatedly to his friends during a class recess. Meanwhile, the teacher had entered the classroom and had begun to teach his subject. But the students were too absorbed in Narendra's story to pay any attention to the lesson. After some time had passed, the teacher heard the wishpering and understood what was going on! Visibly annoyed, he now asked each student what he had been lecturing on. None could answer. But Narendra was remarkably talented; his mind could work simultaneously on two planes. While he had engaged one part of his mind in talking, he had kept the other half on the lesson. So when the teacher asked him that question, he answered correctly. Quite nonplussed, the teacher inquired who had been talking so long. Everybody pointed at Narendranath, but the teacher refused to believe them. He then asked all the students except Narendra to stand up on the bench. Narendra also joined his friends and stood up. The teacher asked him to sit down. But Narendra replied: 'No sir, I must also stand up because it was I who was talking to them.'

Swami Vivekananda was having a long trek in the Himalayas when he found an old man extremely exhausted standing hopelessly at the foot of an upward slope. The man said to Swamiji in frustration, 'Oh, Sir, how to cross it; I cannot walk any more; my chest will break.'

Swamiji listened to the old man patiently and then said, 'Look down at your feet. The road that is under your feet is the road that you have passed over and is the same road that you see before you; it will soon be under your feet.' These words emboldened the old man to resume his onward trek.

A sannyasin, in the strictest sense of the term, is always a free soul. Like a river, he is always on the move. Sometimes he spends the night at a burning ghat, sometimes he sleeps in the palace of the king, sometimes he rests at a railway station but he is always happy. Such a sannyasin was Swami Vivekananda whom we now find living at a railway station in Rajasthan. People kept coming to him all day long. They had many questions, mostly religious, and Swamiji was tireless in answering them. Three days and three nights passed in this manner. Swamiji was so engrossed in talking about spiritual matters that he did not even stop to eat. The people who flocked to him also did not think of asking him if he had any food to eat!

On the third night of his stay there, when the visitors had all left, a poor man came forward and said to him lovingly, `Swamiji, I have noticed that for three days you have been talking and talking. You have not taken even a drop of water! This has pained me very much.'

Swamiji felt that God had appeared before him in the form of this poor man. He looked at him and said, `Will you please give me something to eat?' The man was a cobbler by profession, so he said with some hesitation, `Swamiji, my heart yearns to give you some bread, but how can I? I have touched it. If you permit, I will bring you some coarse flour and dal and you can prepare them as you please!'

Swamiji said, `No, my child; give me the bread you have baked. I shall be happy to eat it.' The poor man was frightened at first. He feared the king might punish him if he came to know that he, a low caste person, had prepared food for a sannyasin. But the eagerness to serve a monk overpowered his fear. He hurriedly went back home and soon returned with bread freshly baked for Swamiji. The kindness and unselfish love of this penurious man brought tears to Swamiji's eyes. How many persons like this live in the huts of our country unnoticed, he thought. They are materially poor and of so-called humble origin, yet they are so noble and large-hearted.

In the meantime, some gentlemen found that Swamiji was eating food offered by a shoemaker and were annoyed. They came to Swamiji and told him that it was improper for him to accept food from a man of low birth. Swamiji patiently heard them and then said, `You people made me talk without respite for the past three days, but you did not even care to inquire if I had taken any food and rest. You claim you are gentlemen and boast of your high caste; what is more shameful, you condemn this man for being of a low caste. Can you overlook the humanity he has just shown and despise him without feeling ashamed?'

In Gazipur there was a saint living by the side of the Ganga. A dacoit broke into his house. He had some silver vessels. For many days the dacoit had been watching. A lot of devotees used to give offerings to the saint. The dacoit thought that there must be some treasure. In the first chamber the vessels were kept. When the thief broke in, there was a lot of utensils. He took them and filled his bag. It made noise. The saint who heard it said: “What is this? Some animal is coming.” So he just came out of his meditation and saw a big man. When the thief saw him, the former began to take to his heels. Immediately the saint took the bag of utensils and ran behind the thief asking him to stop. He overtook the thief and said: “Why are you afraid? These are yours. Some more I will give you.” And thus the thief was sent away with all the things he had in his house. Years later, when Swami Vivekananda was going on a pilgrimage to Kedar, Badri, etc., he saw a Sadhu lying on the icy region. In those days the conditions of travelling were quite different altogether. Then there was no proper route and no proper facilities. With great difficulty he was making his pilgrimage. It was on his way somewhere that he saw the Sadhu in the icy region, lying helpless. Vivekananda gave him his own blanket. At that time the Sadhu looked up, and finding that Vivekananda was a spiritual man, began to narrate something of his past life.

“Have you heard of saint Pavahari Baba?”, he asked Swami Vivekananda. Then he told him all about the incident that happened in the life of Pavahari Baba. He continued “I am the thief. From that day when the saint touched me a transformation came into my life. I repented my action bitterly. Since that time I am trying to atone for my sins.” That is the power of the saints. “God is everywhere”—this feeling is a wonderful method of progressing in your attempt to commune with God and ultimately become one with Him.

Once at Varanasi, as Swamiji was coming out of the temple of Mother Durga, he was surrounded by a large number of chattering monkeys. They seemed to be threatening him. Swamiji did not want them to catch hold of him, so he started to run away. But the monkeys chased him. An old sannyasin was there, watching those monkeys. He called out to Swamiji, 'Stop! Face the brutes!' Swamiji stopped. He turned round and faced the monkeys. At once, they ran away. Many years later, Swamiji said: 'If you ever feel afraid of anything, always turn round and face it. Never think of running away.'

In America, Swamiji was watching some boys. They were standing on the bridge trying to shoot at egg-shells that were floating on the river, but they always missed the target. Swamiji took the gun and aimed at the shells. He fired twelve times and every time he hit an egg-shell. The boys asked Swamiji: 'Well Mister, how did you do it?' Swamiji said ' Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind on it. If you are shooting, your mind should be only on the target. Then you will never miss. If you are learning your lessons, think only of the lesson. In my country boys are taught to do this.'

Swamiji became well-known in America. Once he was given a rousing reception at a railway station as he got down from the train. A Negro porter went forward to shake hands with him saying: `Congratualations! I am extremly delighted that a man of my race has attained such great honour! The entire Negro community in this country feels proud of you!' Swamiji eagerly shook hands with the porter and said warmly, `Thank you, brother!' He refused to deny he was a Negro.

Swamiji was insulted, humiliated and refused entry into many hotels in the South an suspicion that he was a Negro. But he never protested or explained that he was an Indian. A Western disciple once asked him why he did not tell them he was from India in such situations. `What!', Swamiji replied, `Rise at the expense of another! I did not come to earth for that!'

The Swami's appearance at the Parliament of Religions had without question made him irreversibly famous throughout the world. Never again was he to wander alone, unknown through his beloved country. His world mission in its public aspect had begun. But in the midst of all the immediate acclaim and popularity that his appearance at the Parliament had brought him, he had no thought for himself; his heart continued to bleed for India. Personally he had no more wants. The mansions of some of the wealthiest of Chicago society were open to him, and he was received as an honoured guest. On the very day of his triumph, he was invited by a man of great wealth and distinction to his home in one of the most fashionable parts of the city. Here he was entertained royally; a princely room fitted with a luxury beyond anything he could have conceived was assigned to him. But instead of feeling happy in this splendid environment, he was miserable. Name and fame and the approval of thousands had in no way affected him; though sumptuously cared for, he was the same sannyasi as of old, thinking of India's poor. As he retired the first night and lay upon his bed, the terrible contrast between poverty-stricken India and opulent America oppressed him. He could not sleep for pondering over India's plight. The bed of down seemed to be a bed of thorns. The pillow was wet with his tears. He went to the window and gazed out into the darkness until he was well-nigh faint with sorrow. At length, overcome with emotion, he fell to the floor, crying out, "O Mother, what do I care for name and fame when my motherland remains sunk in utmost poverty! To what a sad pass have we poor Indians come when millions of us die for want of a handful of rice, and here they spend millions of rupees upon their personal comforts! Who will raise the masses in India! Who will give them bread? Show me, O Mother, how I can help them."

Before he left London, one of his British friends put this question to him: `Swami, how do you like now your motherland after four years' experience of the luxurious, glorious, powerful West?' Swamiji said: `India I loved before I came away. Now the very dust of India has become holy to me, the very air is now to me holy; it is now the holy land, the place of pilgrimage, the Tirtha!'

“In my first speech in this country, in Chicago, I addressed that audience as ‘Sisters and Brothers of America’, and you know that they all rose to their feet. You may wonder what made them do this, you may wonder if I had some strange power.

Let me tell you that I did have a power and this is it — never once in my life did I allow myself to have even one sexual thought. I trained my mind, my thinking, and the powers that man usually uses along that line – I put into a higher channel, and it developed a force so strong that nothing could resist it.”

Meditation Pose

There is a photo of Swami Vivekananda popularly known as the meditation pose. It is believed to have been taken in London during a class on ‘Maya and Illusion’. The audience was so overwhelmed by the lecture that many began shedding tears. Then Swami Vivekananda had a vision of (his guru) Sri Ramakrishna, who said to him,”Naren it is too much for them.” Naren was Swami Vivekananda’s childhood name. Swami Vivekananda then went into deep meditation and the photograph was taken at that time.

The following incident took place in the late 1800's, when India was not a free democratic country; being divided into small princely states, which in turn came under the over-arching rule of the British crown. Hundreds of years of rule by profligate Maharajas, followed by ruthless colonial exploitation by the British, had pushed the Indian masses into the arms of mind-numbing poverty and frequent famines.

With their spirits crushed, the common man’s mentality had become one of extreme fear and deference towards their Indian and British rulers. In those trying circumstances Vivekananda dared to boldly speak the truth, as recounted in this story by Swami Nikhilananda, in his must read book “Vivekananda a Biography” (page 107) (World, India).

Once Swami Vivekananda was visiting the city of Bangalore, in the then princely State of Mysore. Greatly impressed by Vivekananda’s brilliance, charm and wide learning, the Maharaja invited him to be a guest at his palace.

One day, in front of his high officials, the Maharaja asked the Swami, “What do you think of my courtiers?”

“Well,” came the bold reply, “I think Your Highness has a very good heart, but you are unfortunately surrounded by courtiers who are generally flatterers. Courtiers are the same everywhere.”

“But,” the Maharaja protested, “my prime minster is not such. He is intelligent and trustworthy.”

“But, Your Highness, the prime minister is the one who robs the Maharaja and pays the political agent.”

The Maharaja changed the subject, and afterwards warned the Swami to be more discreet in expressing his opinion of the officials; otherwise those unscrupulous people might even poison him.

But the Swami burst out: “What! Do you think an honest sannyasin (sage) is afraid of speaking the truth, even though it may cost him his very life?”

“I can never tell a lie.”

When Swami Vivekananda [then Narendra] was studying in school he was punished for no fault of his own. The Geography teacher asked him a question which Narendra answered correctly. But the teacher thought Narendra he was wrong and punished him. But Naredra was undaunted even as a boy. He protested, ‘I committed no error, sir; I am sure what I said is right.’ This made the teacher furious and he caned Narendra mercilessly.

Narendra returned home, his eyes filled with tears and narrated every thing to his mother. But Bhuvaneshwari Devi consoled him saying, ‘My son, why do you care if you are in the right? Follow the truth always, whatever happens.’

Narendra found his Master, Sri Ramakrishna to be an embodiment of the ideal his mother had instilled in him. Sri Ramakrishna used to say: ‘Truth is to be cultivated by all means. If a man holds to truth in this Kaliyuga, he will certainly realize God.’ And Sri Ramakrishna himself practised what he preached.

This ideal of unwavering loyalty to truth which, Swami Vivekananda saw in his mother and later in his spiritual master Sri Ramakrishna found expression in all his actions. It was therefore only but natural that the world would later hear him proclaim: ‘Every thing can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot be sacrificed for anything.’

While in school one day Swami Vivekananda [then Narendra] was talking animatedly to his friends during a class recess. Meanwhile, the teacher had begun to teach his subject. But the students were too absorbed in Narendra’s story to pay any attention to the lesson. After some time had passed, the teacher heard the whispering and understood what was going on! Visibly annoyed, he now asked each student what he had been teaching on. None could answer. But Narendra was remarkably talented; his mind could work simultaneously on two planes. While he had engaged one part of his mind in talking, he had kept the other half on the lesson. So when the teacher asked him that question, he answered correctly. Quite nonplussed, the teacher inquired who had been talking so long. Everybody pointed at Narendra, but the teacher refused to believe them. He then asked all students except Narendra to stand upon the bench. Narendra also joined his friends and stood up. The teacher asked him to sit down. But Narendra replied: ‘No sir, I must also stand up because it was I who was talking to them.’

There used to come to Naren's house many of his father's clients. They would sit together chatting until their turn for consultation came. They were of various castes; there was even a Mohammedan, with whom Naren was particularly friendly, and each was provided with his own hookah. Caste was a mystery to the boy. Why should not a member of one caste eat with a member of another or smoke his hookah? What would happen if one did? Would the roof fall in on him? Would he suddenly die? He decided to see for himself. Boldly he went round the hookahs and took a whiff from each and every one. No, he was not dead! Just then his father entered. "What are you doing, my boy?" he questioned. "Oh, father! why, I was trying to see what would happen if I broke caste! Nothing has happened!" The father laughed heartily and with a knowing look on his face walked into his private study.

Even at an early age Naren evinced impatience with superstition and fear, no matter how hallowed by popular tradition. As he himself expressed it to a disciple in later years, "From my boyhood I have been a dare-devil; otherwise could I have attempted to make a tour round the world, almost without a penny in my pocket?" An incident that occurred around this time is illustrative of his "dare-devilry", which is to say, courage and independence of thought and action. To the house of a certain friend he would often have recourse as to a refuge from the monotonous moments that come even to boys. There was in their compound a favourite tree from which he loved to dangle head down. It was a Champaka (Michelia Champaca) tree, the flowers of which are said to be liked by Shiva, and which Hindu boys would go a long way to collect. It was the flowers of this tree that Naren also loved. One day as he was swinging from the tree, the old and nearly-blind grandfather of the house recognized his voice, which he knew and loved so well. The old man was afraid that the boy might fall, and that he himself might lose his Champaka flowers; he called Naren down and told him that he must not climb the tree again. Naren asked the reason. The old man answered, "Because a Brahmadaitya [a ghost of a Brahmin] lives in that tree, and at night he goes about dressed all in white, and he is terrible to look at." This was news to Naren, who wanted to know what else this ghost could do besides wander about. The old man rejoined, "And he breaks the necks of those who climb the tree."

Naren said nothing, and the old man went away smiling to himself in triumph. As soon as he had gone some distance Naren climbed the tree again just to spite the ghost of the Brahmin. His friend remonstrated, "The Brahmadaitya is sure to catch you and break your neck." Naren laughed heartily, and said, "What a silly fellow you are! Don't believe everything just because someone tells you! Why, my neck would have beenbroken long ago, if the old grandfather's story were true."

Only a boyish lark it was, true, but significant when viewed in the light of later developments: a forecast of the time when, as Swami Vivekananda, he was to say to large audiences, "Do not believe a thing because you read it in a book! Do not believe a thing because another has said it is so! Find out the truth for yourself! That is realization!"

There were many trying experiences in Naren's boyhood, but none more than that which he had one morning in the class-room. The incident shows the boy's innate fortitude and the difficulty of intimidating him. One of the teachers of the Institution was a man of very ugly temper and given to beating the boys severely when he thought that discipline was needed. One day, as he was severely castigating a boy, Naren began to laugh from sheer nervousness, so revolted was he by the exhibition of brutality. The teacher now turned his wrath on Naren, raining blows on him, and demanded that he promise never to laugh at him again. When Naren refused, the teacher not only resumed the beating, but seized him by the ears as well, even going as far as lifting the boy up from the bench by them and damaging one ear, so that it bled profusely. Still Naren refused to promise. Bursting into tears of rage, he cried out, "Do not pull my ears. Who are you to beat me? Take care not to touch me again."

Luckily, at this moment Pandit Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar came in. Naren, weeping bitterly, told him what had happened; then, taking his books, he declared that he was leaving the school for good. Vidyasagar took him to his office and consoled him. Later, an investigation was made of the disciplinary measures obtaining in the school and steps were taken to prevent any repetition of such incidents. When Naren's mother, in whom he always confided, heard of it, she was greatly incensed. She begged the boy not to return to the school; but he went the following day as though nothing had happened. For a long time his ear did not heal.

Even as a boy Naren was strong-minded and fearless. Once he had been assaulted by a teacher who thought he had made a mistake in geography. Naren insisted that he was in the right. Angered, the teacher ordered him to stretch out his hand. Naren did so and was struck on his palm time and again. He did not murmur. Shortly after, the teacher saw that it was he himself who had been in error. He apologized to the boy, and thenceforth held him in respect.

On this occasion as well Naren went to his mother, who consoled him and said, "If you are right, my boy, what does it matter? It may be unjust and unpleasant, but do what you think right, come what may." Many times he suffered, many times he was misunderstood even by those nearest and dearest to him when he adopted a course which to them seemed strange, but which to him was inevitable because, in his opinion, it was right. The maxim he had learned, and which he followed always in life was, "Stick to your guns, dead or alive!"

Naren had special enthusiasm for lathi-play. In this sport he took lessons from a number of Mohammedan experts, and acquired considerable mastery. When ten years old and a student of the Metropolitan Institution, he was present at a display of gymnastics. After some time, when lathi-play was going on and interest was sagging, Naren suddenly challenged anyone to cross lathis with him. The strongest of the participants took up his challenge and soon the lathis of the two were clashing. Naren's opponent was an older and stronger person, and so the outcome of the bout seemed to be a foregone conclusion. Yet, such was Naren's skill and courage that he won the enthusiastic applause of the audience. Unmindful of it and deftly manoeuvring himself, Naren all on a sudden gave such a resounding blow that his opponent's staff broke in two and fell on the ground, signifying total defeat. Naren had graduated, so to say, in his training. He won the day, and there was no end to the rejoicing of the spectators.

Naren and his friends were members of the gymnasium of Shri Navagopal Mitra, who had practically left its management in their hands. One day while they were trying to set up a very heavy trapeze, a crowd gathered to watch. Amongst them was an English sailor, whom Naren asked to help. But as the obliging sailor was lifting the trapeze to help the boys, it fell and knocked him unconscious. Nearly everyone but Naren and one or two of his friends disappeared from the scene, thinking the sailor had been killed. Immediately Naren tore a piece off his dhoti, bandaged the wound, sprinkled the sailor's face with water, and fanned him gently. When the sailor regained consciousness, Naren and his friends lifted him up and took him to a neighbouring schoolhouse. A doctor was sent for, and Navagopal Mitra was informed. After a week's nursing the sailor recovered, and Naren presented him with a modest purse, which he had collected from his friends.

Once Someone told Swamiji that a monk should have no particular attachment to his country. Instead, he should view all countries as his own. At this, Swamiji replied: “He who fails to love and support his mother how can he provide sustenance for another’s mother?”What Swamiji meant was that even the sannyasins should love their motherland. How can he who cannot love his own country, embrace the world? Patriotism first, then universalism.

Swamiji was having a long trek in the Himalayas when he found an old man extremely exhausted standing hopelessly at the foot of an upward slope. The man said to Swamiji in utter frustration, “Oh, Sir, how to cross it; I cannot walk any more ; my chest will break.”

Swamiji listened to the old man patiently and then said, “Look down at your feet. The road that is under your feet is the road that you have passed over and is the same road that you see before you; it will soon be under your feet.” These words emboldened the old man to resume his onward trek.

Swami Vivekananda held Pavhari Baba of ghazipur in high esteem. He knew the yogi personally. While in Ghazipur, Swamiji heard that once a thief entered in to Baba’s hut to rob him of his few belongings. As the thief was about to leave the place with the stolen goods, the yogi woke up. This frightened the thief and he threw down everything and started running away. Pavhari Baba promptly picked up the things and followed the thief. Finally, after a hot chase, he caught the thief and begged him to accept the goods. “All these are yours, Narayana,” Baba told the thief, who stared at him in disbelief.

Years later during his wanderings in the Himalayas Swamiji one day noticed a sadhu of luminous appearance. After some conversation Swamiji became convinced that the sadhu was of a high order. But he was astonished when the latter said, “I was that thief who attempted to steal from the saint!” The monk continued his confession: “When Pavhari Baba handed me everything that belonged to him with a smile and addressed me as ‘Narayana’, I realized what a crime I had committed and how mean I was ! From that moment I gave up my eveil pursuit of material wealth and engaged myself in search of spiritual wealth.” His story deeply impressed Swamiji who later used to say: Sinners are potential saints.

Swamiji(Swami Vivekananda) lived the ideal of fearlessness even as a small child. When he was barely 8 years old.He used to visit a friend of his,whose family had a Champaka tree in their compound. The Champaka flowers are said to be liked by Shiva and were incidentally a favorite of Swamiji’s too. This was Swamiji favorite tree and he loved to dangle head down from it! One day as he was swinging from the tree, the old and nearly blind grandfather of the house recognized his voice and approached him. The old man was afraid that the boy might fall and hurt himself or worse that he might lose some of his precious Champaka flowers! He called Naren (which was Swamiji’s pre-monastic name) down and told him not to climb the tree again.Why? asked Naren. Because the old man answered a Brahmadaitya (a ghost of a Brahmin) lives in that tree and at night he goes about dressed all in white, and he is terrible to look at! This was news to Naren, who wanted to know what else this Ghost could do besides wander about. The old man replied And he breaks the necks of those who climb the tree!

Naren simply nodded and said nothing and the old man went away smiling to himself in triumph. As soon as he had gone some distance, Naren climbed the tree again and was dangling back in his former position. His friend who was there all along cried out Naren. The Brahmadaitya is sure to catch you and break your neck! Naren laughed heartily and said. What a silly fellow you are! Don't believe everything just because someone tells you! If the old grandfathers story were true then my neck would have been broken long ago!

And this was Swamiji as a young boy.Bold AND fearless with an exceptionally strong common sense!

In America, Swamiji was watching some boys. They were standing on the bridge trying to shoot at egg-shells that were floating on the river, but they always missed the target. Swamiji took the gun and aimed at the shells. He fired twelve times and every time he hit an egg-shell. The boys asked Swamiji: ‘Well Mister, how did you do it?’ Swamiji said ‘ Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind on it. If you are shooting, your mind should be only on the target. Then you will never miss. If you are learning your lessons, think only of the lesson. In my country boys are taught to do this.’

While Swamiji was travelling by train, in Rajasthan an interesting incident took place. He was resting in a second class compartment. Two Englishmen were profusely hurling abuses at him. They were under the impression that the Swami did not know English. When the train reached the station. Swamiji asked an official, in English, for a glass of water. The Englishmen were surprised; they asked Swamiji why he was silent though he could understand them. Swamiji snapped back, "This is not the first time I have met fools." The Englishmen were enraged, but Swamiji's formidable physique silenced them.

Feeding an idler

During his travel, Swamiji could travel by train only if somebody bought him his ticket. Otherwise, he had to travel on foot. He had to starve most of the time for he had no money. Once it happened that a merchant travelling with him was helping himself to varieties of eatables. Swamiji was hungry and tired. But he did not beg for food. The merchant spoke to him tauntingly and said, "You are an idler. You wear the saffron clothes only because you do not want to work. Who will ever feed you? Who cares if you die?" Just then, a sweetmeat seller offered Swamiji some eatables and said, "I saw you in my dream this morning. The Lord Sri Rama himself introduced you to me." The haughty merchant was put to shame when he saw all this.

Swamiji reached Alwar in February 1891, met the Maharaja of the place, and discussed with him the various problems of India. This Maharaja was not a believer in image worship. One day the Swami asked some of his subordinates in the presence of the Maharaja, to spit upon the ruler's photograph, saying that it was, after all, only paper. This horrified the subordinates, and it brought home to the Maharaja the rationale of image worship.

Swami Vivekananda, late in the year l895 wrote in a letter to an English friend, "Mr. Tesla thinks he can demonstrate mathematically that force and matter are reducible to potential energy. I am to go and see him next week to get this new mathematical demonstration. In that case the Vedantic cosmoloqy will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology of the Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect union with modern science, and the elucidation of the one will be followed by that of the other."

Here Swamiji uses the terms force and matter for the Sanskrit terms Prana and Akasha. Tesla used the Sanskrit terms and apparently understood them as energy and mass. (In Swamiji's day, as in many dictionaries published in the first half of the present century, force and energy were not alwavys clearly differentiated. Energy is a more proper translation of the Sanskrit term Prana.)

Tesla apparently failed in his effort to show the identity of mass and energy. Apparently he understood that when speed increases, mass must decrease. He seems to have thought that mass might be "converted" to energy and vice versa, rather than that they were identical in some way, as is pointed out in Einstein's equations. At any rate, Swamiji seems to have sensed where the difficulty lay in joining the maps of European science and Advaita Vedanta and set Tesla to solve the problem. It is apparently in the hope that Tesla would succeed in this that Swamiji says "In that case the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on the surest of foundations." Unfortunately Tesla failed and the solution did not come till ten years later, in a paper by Albert Einstein. But by then Swamiji was gone and the connecting of the maps was delayed.

The influence of Sree Ramakrishna Paramahansa in moulding and guiding the character of Swami Vivekananda, is well known. Though Vivekananda, revered Ramakrishna, he never accepted his teachings at face value, he always questioned him, debated with him, and it was for this reason that he was the latter's favorite disciple. Once Ramakrishna claimed that he was so allergic to money, he could never really bear even it's touch. In order to test him, Swami Vivekananda placed a coin under his mattress. When Ramakrishna sat on it, he began to experience a stinging pain, grew restless and started to cry out. He raised the mattress and saw the coin, demanded to know who put it there. Vivekanands claimed he did it just to test Ramakrishna's claim, the latter was pleased "You are right Naren, never believe anything blindly, test it".

Before leaving for abroad for the first time to preach Hinduism, Vivekananda's mother wanted to know whether he is all perfect for this mission or not, she invited him for dinner. Vivekananda enjoyed the food that had the additional flavor of his mother's special love and affection. After the delicious dinner, Vivekananda's mother offered Vivekananda a dish of fruits and a knife. Vivekanand cut the fruit, ate it and after that his mother said, "Son, can you please give me the knife, I need it." Vivekananda immediately responded by giving the knife. Vivekananda's mother calmly said, "Son, you have passed my test and I heartily bless you for going abroad." Vivekananda surprisingly asked, "Mother, how did you test me? I did not understand."

Mother replied, "Son, when I asked for the knife, I saw how you handed it to me, you gave the knife by holding its sharp edge and kept the wooden handle of knife towards me. This way, I would not get hurt when I take it and this means you took care of me. And this was your test in which you passed. The person who thinks of others welfare rather than thinking about self has got the right of preaching the world and you have got that right. You have all my blessings."

This was the most important mark he left in the hearts of many he met in his lifetime - to think of others before thinking for self.

Once a British asked Swami Vivekananda -

" Why can't you wear proper clothes to look like a gentleman?"

Swami Vivekananda smiled and said-

" In your culture, a tailor makes a gentleman; but, in our culture, Character makes gentleman."

Few days after his arrival in Chicago, he went to information bureau of the Columbian Exposition to ask about the parliament of religions. There he came to know that the parliament of religions has been put off until 1st week of September. He was also told that he needed references from bonafide organization to be admitted to the parliament of religions. He was also told that it was too late to get registered as a delegate.

All of this was a shock to Swamiji. None of his friends, well-wishers, devotees who had lot of effort to raise funds to send him to America did not take trouble to find out the details. No one knew the conditions of admission to the parliament of religions. All of them had thought that swamiji would attend the meeting on that basis of his personality alone.

Having been in America for a few days, his expense was mounting and his funds depleted. Swamiji was somewhat depressed. He sent cable (no telephone calls that time) to his friends in madras for help. He did not have enough funds to maintain himself in Chicago until September. Finally, someone advised him to go to Boston where cost of living is less and swamiji boarded train to Boston.

Swamiji arrived in Boston and stayed at Quincy House. He sent a telegram to Ms Sanborn... She sent him a telegram and welcomed him to stay with her. Ms Sanborn was able to introduce Swamiji to many well-known people from in and around Boston. Swamiji was annoyed by their strange, sometimes awkward questions regarding Hinduism and India. Their knowledge regarding these things was from reading the reports by Christian missionaries. However, among the few serious minded people that came to meet swamiji were Ms Johnson, the superintendent of prison and J.H Wright Professor of Greek at Harvard University. Swamiji visited the prison on invitation from Ms Johnson and was impressed by the humanitarian treatment of prisoners.

It was the meeting with J.H. Wright that turned very providential. After several hours of conversation with Swamiji, learning the purpose of his trip to America, Professor Wright insisted that he should represent Hinduism in the Parliament. Swamiji explained his difficulties and said that he had no credentials. Professor Wright taken aback and exclaimed, “Swami ji, to ask you for credentials is like asking the sun about its right to shine”. He took upon himself to get swamiji introduced to many of influential people connected with parliament of religions. Dr Barrows, the Chairman of the committee responsible for selection of delegates happened to be his friend. He wrote a letter to him introducing the Swamiji and said, “Here is a man who is more learned than all our learned professors put together”.

Emma Calvé was a French opera singer who had met Swami Vivekananda in America. This is how she described that meeting in her autobiography titled “My Life” :

“An appointment was arranged for me, and when I arrived at his house, I was immediately ushered into his study. Before going I had been told not to speak until he addressed me. When I entered the room, therefore, I stood before him in silence for a moment. He was seated in a noble attitude of meditation, his robe of saffron yellow failing in straight lines to the floor, his head swathed in a turban bent forward, his eyes on the ground.

After a brief pause he spoke without looking up. “My child,” he said, “what a troubled atmosphere you have about you! Be calm! It is essential!” Then in quiet voice, untroubled and aloof, this man, who did not even know my name, talked to me of my secret problems and anxieties. He spoke of things that I thought were unknown even to my nearest friends. It seemed miraculous, supernatural! “How do you know all this?” I asked at last. “Who has talked of me to you?” He looked at me with his quiet smile as though I were a child who had asked a foolish question.” “No one has talked to me,” he answered gently. “Do you think that is necessary? I read you as an open book.”

Mr. Dickinson was dying drowning in a swimming pool as a 5 year old boy in Nebraska when he started to have a vision, where he saw a man with tranquil eyes and a reassuring smile; then suddenly he was pulled out of the pool, saved by his brother's companion.

years later, he saw Swami Vivekananda entering the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. HE is the man from my vision, he told her mother. They went and met Swamiji after his speech. HE met Dickinson with a smile like meeting and old friend and read his thoughts and spoke - 'No my son, I am not your guru'. Your teacher will come later and will give you a silver cup!

After years later, Paramhansa Yogananda gave a silver cup to Mr. Dickinson as a Christmas gift. He waited 43 years for this day to happen which Swami Vivekananda had told him.

Just before the Swamijí's departure for the West, the Maharaja of Khetri, who had already become his initiated disciple, accompanied the Swami as far as Jaipur. On this occasion the Maharaja was being entertained one evening with music by a nautch-girl.

The Swami was in his own tent when the music commenced. The Maharaja sent a message to the Swami asking him to come and join the party. The Swami sent word in return that as a Sannyasin he could not comply with such a request. The singer was deeply grieved when she heard this, and sang in reply, as it were, a song of the great Vaishnava saint, Surdas. Through the still evening air, to the accompaniment of music, the girlís melodious voice ascended to the ears of the Swami

O Lord, look not upon my evil qualities!

Thy name O Lord, is Same-sightedness.

One piece of iron is in the image in the temple,

And another is the knife in the hand of the butcher;

But when they touch the philosopher's stone,

Both alike turn to gold.

So, O Lord, look not upon my evil qualities!

One drop of water is in the sacred Jumna,

And another is foul in the ditch by the roadside;

But when they fall into the Ganga

Both alike become holy.

So, Lord, do not look upon my evil qualities!

Thy name, O Lord, is Same-sightedness

The Swami was completely overwhelmed. The woman and her meaningful song at once reminded him that the same Divinity dwells in the high and the low, the rich and the poor in the entire creation. The Swami could no longer resist the request, and took his seat in the hall of audience to meet the wishes of the Maharaja.

Speaking of this incident later, the Swami said, that incident removed the scales from my eyes. Seeing that all are indeed the manifestations of the One, I could no longer condemn anybody.

Once Swami Vivekananda was in Kashi with a few friends, devotees and disciples. One of them, who was clearly unimpressed with what he saw as mere philosophical talk, kept repeating that those ancient mystics of India who had access to supernatural powers and abilities known as siddhis are no where to be found these days. Vivekananda did not comment. The next day when the group arrived to meet him, they found Vivekananda with a pile of small, folded chits of paper.

He asked each of them pick one piece of paper from the pile and keep it with them. Then he told them to ask him any question about themselves whose answer he has no way of knowing. Once the questions were asked Vivekanada told them to open the chits they had picked and check what is written there. To their complete amazement each one of the individual pieces of paper contained the exact and correct answer to the question they had asked!

The RMS Empress of India started from Yokohama for Vancouver in 1893. On board were hundreds of men; among them were Swami Vivekananda and J. N. Tata. They got talking. Tata talked about his plans to import steel technology into India. Vivekananda blessed the endeavour and spoke of the duty of diverting the ascetic spirit in India into useful channels and also emphasized the development of fundamental science within India. Vivekananda took the train to Chicago, to attend the World Parliament of Religions, where he delivered his famous address.

Tata brought steel manufacturing technology to India.

Inspired by the conversation with Vivekananda, Tata began the process of establishing a quality scientific research institution in India. Five years after the voyage, Tata wrote to Vivekananda requesting him to lead the institution.

The Ramakrishna Mission effusively appreciated the efforts of Tata.

Tata passed away in 1904. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was established in 1909.

In November 1890, Narendranath (pre-monastic name of Swami Vivekananda) went to Meerut. At that time, some of Narendranath's brother-disciples were staying in Meerut. One of them was Swami Abhedananda.

Narendranath had been a "voracious reader" from his childhood and used to spend much time in reading. Now, during the stay in Meerut, Narendranath, through brother disciple Swami Abhedananda, used to borrow and read one book from local library every day and return it the following day.

The local librarian was not ready to accept that Narendranath was reading the books, he thought that he was not reading anything at all and it was only an attempt to impress others. One day he clearly expressed his doubt to Swami Abhedananda.

Narendranath, upon hearing this, went to the librarian and told him, politely— "Sir, I have read all the books very attentively. If you have any doubt, you may ask me any question you like from these books we had borrowed."

The librarian asked him a series of questions and Narendranath correctly answered each of them. The librarian was highly surprised.

Swami Vivekananda found Christ missing from Christianity. He wondered which Church, if any, represented Christ. All churches were equally intolerant, each threatening to kill those who did not believe as it did. The person of Christ rather than his teaching had become more important for Christianity.

He had been turned into the “only begotten son of God.”Christian baptism remained external and did not touch the inner man. It aimed at instilling some mental beliefs and not at transforming human behaviour.

Most men remained the same after baptism as they were before it. What was worse, the mere sprinkling of water over them and muttering of formulas by a priest made them believe that they were better than other people.

He quoted the Kenopanishad in this context : “Ever steeped in the darkness of ignorance, yet considering themselves wise and learned, the fools go round and round, staggering to and fro like the blind led by the blind.”

In the Chicago 1893 speech, Swami Vivekananda tried to explain the reason of disagreement between each other and different sects and religions. He told a story of a frog. In the story he told, a frog used to live in a well. It was born there and brought up there and it used to think his well was the biggest water land of the world. One day, a frog from a sea came to that well. When the frog from the sea told the frog of the well that sea is much bigger than that well, the frog of the well did not believe it and drove the frog of the sea away from his well. Vivekananda concluded– "That has been the difficulty all the while. I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well.

The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well.

The Muslim sits in his little well and thinks that is the whole world."

In this brief address Vivekananda made a "little criticism" and told, religion was not the most important need of Indians at that moment. He regretted for sending Christian missionaries and trying to save the souls of Indians although poverty had been a much more important issue at that time.

At Kanyakumari, Narendra had a "vision of one India" (the "Kanyakumari resolve of 1892").

He later wrote: "At Cape Camorin sitting in Mother Kumari's temple, sitting on the last bit of Indian rock—I hit upon a plan: We are so many sanyasis wandering about, and teaching the people metaphysics—it is all madness. Did not our Gurudeva use to say, 'An empty stomach is no good for religion?' We as a nation have lost our individuality and that is the cause of all mischief in India. We have to raise the masses."

To realize this, he needed collaborators and funds. The people were easily to find, but the funds were hard to acquire, and therefore Narendra decided to travel to America, "to earn money myself, and then return to my country and devote the rest of my days to the realisation of this one aim of my life."

An incident that happened during his second visit, which was later widely analysed, relates to Ajit Singh organizing a function where a courtesan was to sing. Ajit Singh invited Vivekananda to attend the performance but Vivekananda refused the request, explaining that he was a monk and thus could not attend such performances. The dancing girl heard about this comment and at the function she sang a famous song by Surdas—

O Lord, look not upon my evil qualities!

Thy name, O Lord, is Same-Sightedness.

Make us both the same Brahman!

The incident was an eye-opener for Vivekananda and he realized that everything is but the manifestation of God

This is an excerpt of a Lecture which Swamiji delivered at the Shakespeare Club of Pasadena, California, on January 27, 1900.

It shows one of the agonizing moments Swamiji went through to practice penance and self-less devotion towards countrymen and people around the world, while highlighting the hardships he went through to realize the dream of Ramkrishna Paramhansa of serving the people around.

“…Meanwhile, I have been asked by your president and some of the ladies and gentlemen here to tell them something about my work and what I have been doing. It may be interesting to some here, but not so much so to me. In fact, I do not quite know how to tell it to you, for this will have been the first time in my life that I have spoken on that subject.”

“… Then came a terrible time — for me personally and for all the other boys as well. But to me came such misfortune! On the one side was my mother, my brothers. My father died at that time, and we were left poor. Oh, very poor, almost starving all the time! I was the only hope of the family, the only one who could do anything to help them. I had to stand between my two worlds. On the one hand, I would have to see my mother and brothers starve unto death; on the other, I had believed that this man’s ideas (Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa) were for the good of India and the world, and had to be preached and worked out. And so the fight went on in my mind for days and months. Sometimes I would pray for five or six days and nights together without stopping. Oh, the agony of those days! I was living in hell! The natural affections of my boy’s heart drawing me to my family — I could not bear to see those who were the nearest and dearest to me suffering. On the other hand, there’s nobody to sympathise with me. Who would sympathise with the imaginations of a boy.”

“… Never mind! We plunged into the breach. I believed, as I was living, that these ideas were going to rationalise India and bring better days to many lands and foreign races. With that belief, came the realisation that it is better that a few persons suffer than that such ideas should die out of the world. What if a mother or two brothers die? It is a sacrifice. Let it be done. No great thing can be done without sacrifice. The heart must be plucked out and the bleeding heart placed upon the altar. Then great things are done. Is there any other way? None have found it. I appeal to each one of you, to those who have accomplished any great thing. Oh, how much it has cost! What agony! What torture! What terrible suffering is behind every deed of success in every life! You know that, all of you.”

“… So things went on and on for ten years without any light, but with my health breaking all the time. It tells on the body in the long run: sometimes one meal at nine in the evening, another time a meal at eight in the morning, another after two days, another after three days — and always the poorest and roughest thing. Who is going to give to the beggar the good things he has? And then, they have not much in India. And most of the time walking, climbing snow peaks, sometimes ten miles of hard mountain climbing, just to get a meal. They eat unleavened bread in India, and sometimes they have it stored away for twenty or thirty days, until it is harder than bricks; and then they will give a square of that. I would have to go from house to house to collect sufficient for one meal. And then the bread was so hard, it made my mouth bleed to eat it. Literally, you can break your teeth on that bread. Then I would put it in a pot and pour over it water from the river. For months and months I existed that way — of course it was telling on the health.”

It is not just meditation and doing seva that makes one Swami Vivekananda but rigorous selfless hardships, followed by series of tough times to deal with fearlessly that carves Swamiji out of an ordinary man.

The turban that the swami always wore was worn at the suggestion of Ajit Singh [the Maharaja of Khetri].

Swami Vivekananda being a Bengali did not wear a turban, or any headgear, and in the first of his photographs, which was taken at Jaipur at the request of his Alwar friends in 1891, before he met the Maharaja of Khetri, we find him without his now inseparable turban.

It was after his meeting with the Maharaja and his visit to Khetri that we find him with his characteristic turban. When Swami Vivekananda visited Khetri as Vividishananda for the first time, it was summer and the loo, or hot winds of Rajasthan, during this period are well?known. Besides, from Swamiji’s letters, we find that he was mortally afraid of the loo.

When the Maharaja saw his discomfort, he advised him to wear a turban, just as he himself and all the people of the locality wore, to save himself from the loo, a suggestion which the swami readily accepted. The Maharaja in fact himself taught him how to wind the turban.”

One of the western disciples of Swami Vivekanandaji was very keen to show him beautiful sights.

But Vivekananda who always wanted people to develop themselves into great personalities curtly replied “No sightseeing… Do not show me sights… I’ve seen the Himalayas ! I will not go 10 steps to see a beautiful sight but I will go a 1000 miles to see a true human being!”

As told by Madame Emma Calve:

One day we lost our way in Cairo. We found ourselves in a squalid, ill smelling street, where half clad women lolled from the windows and sprawled on doorsteps.

The Swamiji noticed nothing until a particularly noisy group of women on a bench in the shadow of a dilapidated building began laughing and calling to him. One of the ladies of our party tried to hurry us along, but the Swamiji detached himself gently from our group and approached the women on the bench.

“Poor children!” he said.”Poor creatures! They have put their divinity in their beauty. Look at them now!” He began to weep.

The women were silenced and abashed.

One of them leaned forward and kissed the hem of his robe, murmuring brokenly in Spanish, “Humbre de Dios, Humbre de Dios (Man of God!).

Another, with sudden gesture of modesty and fear, threw her arm in front of her face as though she would screen her shrinking soul from those pure eyes.

This marvellous journey proved to be almost the last occasion on which I was to see the swami.

an Excerpt from the book Vivekananda – East meets West by Swami Chetanananda.

In Chicago, Swamiji told John D.Rockefeller much of his past that was not known to anyone but Rockfeller himself and made him understand that the money he had already accumulated was not his, that he was only a channel and his true duty was to do good to the world, God had given him all his wealth in order that he might have an opportunity to help and do good to the people.

Rockefeller was annoyed that anyone dared to talk to him that way and tell him what to do. He left the room in irritation, not even saying good-bye. But about a week after, again without being announced, he entered Swamiji’s study and threw on his desk a paper which told of his plans to donate an enormous sum of money toward the financing of a public institution.

“Well there you are”, he said. “You must be satisfied now and you can thank me for it.”

Swamiji didn’t even lift his eyes and did not move.

Then taking the paper, he quietly read it, saying, “It is for you to thank me.” That was all. Rest is history.

This was Rockefeller’s first ever largest donation to the public welfare.

Once Swamiji and one of his friends were travelling through Ship, they asked for a newspaper to read. Ship’s crew member provided newspaper to them.

Swamiji goes out for a while to another chamber of the Ship.

Due to heavy breeze and wind, while reading newspaper his friend slips the newspaper accidentally into sea. One of the Crew members came to know about this, he gets angry and scolds Swamiji’s friend in abusive manner.

After some time Swamiji returned, his friend informed him about the incident and how he was insulted. Swamiji asked for a pen and paper, he wrote down the entire newspaper very fast. The detailing was so correct that even comas and fullstops were placed as it were on newspaper.

Swamiji handed over the paper to the crew and said that this is what your newspaper contained if you doubt, you can check it there is not a single detail missing in it. The Crew was speechless.

After completion of his speech a lady asked, does really deep desire can let me achieve anything in the world.

Swamiji replied yes! She asked can I remove this mountain from my sight right now.

Swamiji said it is very simple job just close your eyes and say in your mind that “you are not here, you longer exist in my eyes……” to the mountain and the mountain will be gone.

She did exactly same hesitatingly and when she opened her eyes the mountain was still there. Just when she was opening her eyes she said “I know you were here”.

She saw the mountain again. She asked Swamiji why the mountain was still there, Swamiji replied whatever you had wished happened. May be you were saying to mountain that you no longer exist but internally you know that it will be here only and that’s what you said after opening your eyes. Your conviction of seeing mountain was higher than not seeing it. And that’s what happened; you saw the mountain – what you have deeply desired. Lady was speechless!

There the lady learnt about the power of belief!

Narendra’s father died. He was penniless, had no job, not able to feed his family. He saw mother and brothers remained hungry or sometimes ate once a day.

Narendra (Swamiji) was wandering into the jungles and was frustrated, annoyed with his life. He was so much distressed that when he saw a tiger, instead of protecting himself and running away, he wanted to get eaten by the tiger. He thought that at least his body might be of some use to the tiger to fill up latter’s hunger. But instead of eating Swamiji, the tiger went away quietly.

Later when swamiji was asked about the incident, he said that may be God did not want him to get eaten by tiger but serve the people.

On his return from US & Europe trip, Swamiji one day arranged a grand feast to the Santhal workers of the Belur Math. He fed them sumptu­ously. Never before had they tasted such delicious food. They were much pleased. Swamiji remarked at their rejoice, “I am blessed today to have served my God”.

God only is pleased when we please others by offering food or other service with the spirit of worship.

It is self-defeating to ask anything in return of service. Swamiji wrote, “Give and do not look back”. The love that only gives and does not expect anything in return grows day by day to become ultimately boundless.