Memorable events from the life of Swami Vivekananda

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Hi, I get a series of mails from other mailing lists about interesting

events from the life of Swami Vivekananda. I will continue to post it

here as I get it.

 

Swami Vivekananda was known as Narendranath Dutta(Naren)

in his earlier days. He met his Guru in Sri Ramakrishna.

These are a series of events from the life of this son of India

whose words carry eternal wisdom.

 

Memorable events in the life of Swami Vivekananda - 1

 

Bhubaneshwari Devi, Narendranath's mother, was a noble lady.

In his later life Swami Vivekananda used to say time and

again: " I am indebted to her for my intellectual development " .

She taught Narendra in a unique way. The following event is

illustrative:

 

Once Narendra was punished at school for no fault of his

own. The geography teacher asked him a question which

Narendra answered correctly. But the teacher thought

he was wrong and punished him. But Narendra 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 everything to his mother. But Bhubaneshwari

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 realise God " . And Sri Ramakrishna himself

practiced what he preached.

 

This ideal of unwavering loyalty to truth which Swamiji

saw in his mother and later in his spiritual master

found expression in all his actions. It was therefore only

but natural that the world would later hear him proclaim,

" Everything can be sacrificed for truth, but truth cannot

be sacrificed for anything " .

 

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Taken from the book " My India The India Eternal " , published by the

Sri Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Calcutta.