Swami Vivekananda (The Master Builder of Our Nation)

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BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD

 

Swami Vivekananda was born as the sixth child of Sri Viswanath Datta, an

extremely popular, rich lawyer of Calcutta and his wife Bhuvaneswari. After a

short-lived infant son and four daughters, the anxious mother, who was a devotee

of Lord Shiva, took special vows and prayed with great sincerity for a son, and

when she was blessed with one, she truly believed it to be in direct answer to

her fervent prayers. In addition, she also had the beautiful dream before his

birth in which she saw Shiva getting up from his meditative pose and taking the

form of male child who was to be her son. Thus her Naren, as Swamiji was called

in his childhood, was, for her, Lord Shiva Himself.

 

 

Swamiji was born on the very auspicious day of Makarasankaranthi which the whole

country celebrates in a variety of ways. In Bengal, people rush to the Ganges to

worship her. In the South, it is the famous Pongal festival. According to the

English calendar, the day was 12th January, 1863 and in the Indian calendar it

was 29 Paush, 1269 B.S. The time was six minutes before sunrise and his star was

Hasta.

 

 

The child was called by his parents first as Vireshwar and later as

Narendranath, but to his family members he was always Biley and to his friends,

Naren. Like all great men destined to leave their imprints in the pages of

history, Naren's early life was also marked with incidents which were pointers

to his future greatness. He surpassed, a normal child in his intelligence,

courage, fearlessness, love and compassion. Yet his daring recklessness and

totally uncontrollable nature earned him the epithet of a naughty child, whom

even two nurses or his own mother could hardly control.

 

 

AS A NAUGHTY CHILD

 

His mother was put to severe strain on account of this. Surprisingly, there was

one treatment to which he was amenable. When his temper went totally out of

control his mother would pour cold water on his head muttering 'Shiva, Shiva' in

his ears. That would immediately quieten him. She would also admonish him saying

that if he did not behave properly, Lord Shiva would not accept him, nor take

him to Kalis. This also helped to calm him down. All this made his mother

jocularly remark that she asked of the Lord to be born as her son but instead He

sent her one of His demons to be her child.

 

 

However, Naren was assuredly the pride of the family. He was vigorous and

active. His sparkling, handsome face and winsome manners charmed everybody and

no wonder, like that legendary Krishna he was everybody's darling. His

mischiefs, pranks and practical jokes kept people at home in mirth and laughter.

He was extremely fond of his elder sisters but at the same time disliked their

bossing over him. He missed no opportunity to tease and bully them and saw to it

that they could never get anywhere near him to punish him. He would even go to

the extent of jumping into the open drains and splash the dirty water so that

none could catch him.

 

 

LOVE FOR PETS

 

Despite his apparent recklessness, exuberance and vogour, he was also capable of

being extremely kind hearted and considerate when the situation demanded. To the

pet which his father kept at home he was extra kind. Viswanath Datta had a

veritable collection of domestic pets which included cows, horses, goats,

peacocks, parrots and guinea pigs. Naren loved them dearly and these dumb

animals in their turn loved him too. A strange reciprocal love existed between

them. Cows were his favorites which he often garlanded and decorated with

vermilion.

 

 

This compassion towards the animals stayed with him throughout his life and in

later days it was not uncommon to see Swamiji lovingly attending to the cows,

goats and dogs at Belur Math. Even as a child, he seemed to have learned to see

the same self everywhere.

 

 

cont...