Swami Vivekananda's magnanimous heart

[Guest guest]

(extract from " Direct Disciples of Sri Ramakrishna " by Swami

Kasiswarananda in Vedanta Kesari Sep 2000.)

 

 

After I had been visiting the Belur Math for sometime, I learnt that

Kanai Maharaj (Swami Nirbhayananda, a disciple and attendant of

Swamiji) was the best person to speak anything about Swamiji.

Accordingly, Indu and I started looking for an opportunity to hear

about Swamiji from him. One afternoon, Kanai Maharaj was sitting on

the eastern cot in Jnan Maharaj's room, when we two requested him to

tell us something about Swamiji. He asked us, 'Are you really

interested in listening?' But he didn't say anything else. We

requested him on other occasions as well, but he was evasive. This

made us all the more persistent and we did not leave him. He relented

a little, after a while, and said, 'So you are bent on learning

something about Swamiji! I have heard so many things about Swamiji:

that he was a great monk, a world renowned personality, that he

conquered the world, so on and so forth. But who wants to listen to

all such things! (He became excited at these words and became

breathless due to asthma, and his face got flushed). Yes, what I saw

was the enormous magnanimity of his heart. What great sympathy and

deep love and compassion he had for all! That was what mesmerized me

and made me his slave. Once a foreigner came to stay with Swamiji. He

was a hard core alcoholic. Swamiji called me and said, " Do as I say.

Go to Chandannagar with him in a hackney carriage and buy a few

bottles of liquor of his own choice. " In those days, the best French

liquors were available at Chandannagar and samples were given free

for tasting.

 

'I was then a brahmachari and used to put on white clothes. But it

was Swamiji's order, so I went with that fellow and entered a wine

shop. We roamed around and entered many shops which offered some

samples to taste. And that fellow too went on tasting those samples,

with all sorts of appreciative expressions

like " fine " , " nice " , " good " , " excellent " , " grand " and so on, and was

almost drunk even while tasting. I bought five or six bottles of the

wine he liked most and returned to the Math quite late at night.

 

'Swamiji, on the other hand, became all the more worried as the night

advanced. He became restless and impatient and thought, " I have

committed a great mistake by sending this boy with that drunkard. "

The dinner was over, and Swamiji was too anxious to eat anything.

Actually, he kept most of his share for us. It was around 9:30 pm.

when I returned. He was greatly relieved when he saw me and

said, " You have done a lot for him, I know. Do a little more for him,

please. Take your food, and spend the night with him. He might vomit

and fall sick. See that he doesn't take the whole amount at a go.

Keep aside a few bottles which will be necessary for his recovery

later. Give him a little bit at that time. " This was your

Vivekananda. What a magnanimous heart! How kind he was even to a

drunkard!' He was overwhelmed with emotion and kept silent.