A Short Life os Swami Vievakananda

A SHORT LIFE
OF
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
SWAMI TEJASANANDA
(Publication Department)
5 Dehi Entally Road
Kolkata 700 014

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Published by
Swami Mumukshananda
President, Advaita Ashrama
Mayavati, Pithoragarh, Himalayas
from its Publication Department, Calcutta
© All Rights Reserved
Fifteenth Impression, June 1995
16M3C
ISBN 81-7505-030-6
Printed in India at
Gipidi Box Co.
3B Chatu Babu Lane
Calcutta 700 014

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
3
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
TO THE SECOND EDITION
Since the first appearance of the book certain
new findings about the life of Swami Vivekananda
have been made. In the present edition the book
has therefore been slightly edited and corrected
accordingly. We are indebted to Amrita Salm of the
Vedanta Society of Southern California for her help
in this regard.
10 April 1995 PUBLISHER

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4
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
PREFACE
During his last illness, when Sri Ramakrishna
could not talk, he wrote on a piece of paper that
Swami Vivekananda (then known as Narendra
Nath) should have to work for the good of
humanity. But Swami Vivekananda did not relish
this idea, since he was yearning to remain absorbed
in meditation and enjoy perennial Bliss. Sri Rama-
krishna then remarked that if Swami Vivekananda
would not willingly plunge into work, the Divine
Mother would force him to do it. Afterwards, when
Swami Vivekananda was in the ceaseless turmoil
of work, moving like a meteor from the East to the
West, and the West to the East, he used to say, ‘Some-
thing has possessed me and is giving me no rest.’
The period of his active work was short, but
posterity will some day be able to assess at its true
value all that he has done for his motherland as
well as for the world.
Meantime, one is concerned with the fact that
the life and message of Swami Vivekananda are a
source of great inspiration to many in their indi-
vidual as well as collective life. His words give

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
5
courage to a drooping soul, his message brings new
hope for a sinking nation. Swami Vivekananda was
the embodiment of strength, and if all his teachings
were to be summed up in one word, that word
would be STRENGTH—a dynamic strength. It is for
the want of strength that individuals fail in life,
nations suffer, and the world is in torment. As such,
the number of persons who are eager to know about
Swami Vivekananda or are likely to be benefited
by his message is legion.
The present short biography is intended to
meet the needs of those who, with all their earnest-
ness, have neither the time nor the opportunity to
read longer works about the Swami. A versatile
genius as Swami Vivekananda was, and many-
sided as were his activities, it is idle to hope or to
expect that a complete picture of that mighty soul
could be given in such a small compass. The attempt
is here made only to give a glimpse, so that people
may become interested to know more about him.
In preparing this book, we have utilized the
materials found in the Advaita Ashrama publica-
tions about Swami Vivekananda. The present book
is a companion volume to A Short Life of Sri
Ramakrishna.
December 21, 1940
MAYAVATI PUBLISHER

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6
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
PAGE
I
Boy Narendra Nath
9
II
Meeting With Sri Ramakrishna
22
III
Transformation
34
IV
A Wandering Monk
42
V
From the Old World to the New
56
VI
In the Parliament of Religions
62
VII As a Teacher in America
70
VIII In England
77
IX
Beloved India
84
X
Message to his Countrymen
88
XI
In the Company of Western and
Eastern Disciples
101
XII Second Visit to the West
106
XIII Parting Glimpses
110
XIV The Passing
117
Some Utterances
120

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
7
A SHORT LIFE OF
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
BOY NARENDRA NATH
The future Swami Vivekananda was born in
the famous Datta family of Simla, in Calcutta. His
family name was Narendra Nath Datta. His
grandfather, Durga Charan Datta, was a gifted man,
well versed in Persian and Sanskrit and had a great
aptitude for law. But at the age of twenty-five, after
the birth of his son, Vishwanath, he renounced
worldly life and became a monk. Vishwanath Datta,
father of Swami Vivekananda, was also endowed
with many qualities of head and heart, for which
he commanded great respect from one and all. He
was proficient in English and Persian, and took
delight in the study of the Bible and the poems of
the Persian poet Hafiz. He took to law as a
profession and became a successful attorney-at-law
in the High Court of Calcutta. He was a man of

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8
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
deep compassion and great sympathy, and his
charity very often knew no discrimination.
Vishwanath was a great lover of music and had a
very good voice. He it was who insisted that his
son Narendra Nath should study music, for he
looked upon it as the source of much pleasure.
Vishwanath was blessed with a wife who was
his peer in all respects. She was exceptionally
intelligent and possessed royal dignity and fire of
one born, as it were, to regal estate. She won the
respect and veneration of all who came in contact
with her, and her judgement was followed in the
conduct of all affairs that mattered. Calm resignation
to the will of God in all circumstances, strength,
and reserve characterized this Hindu woman. The
poor and the helpless were the special objects of
her solicitude. She was noted for her unusual
memory and knew by heart long passages from the
great epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata,
which she read daily.
Of such parents was born, on Monday the
12th January 1863, Narendra Nath, who afterwards
as Swami Vivekananda shook the world, and
ushered in a new age of glory and splendour for
India.The influence of the mother in the formation
of the character and the development of the mind
of a child is always very great. Narendra Nath used

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SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
9
to tell later how his mother had taught him his first
English words; and he mastered the Bengali
alphabet under her tutorship. It was at her knee
that he first heard the tales of the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. His boyish imagination was
captivated by the life of Sri Rama, an incarnation of
God, and he purchased a clay image of Sita-Rama
and worshipped it with flowers. Sometimes Shiva
took the place of Rama as the object of worship by
Narendra Nath. But nevertheless the Ramayana had
the greatest fascination for him; and whenever the
Ramayana was to be read in the neighbourhood,
he was sure to be there. Sometimes he was so
enraptured by the thrilling episodes of Rama’s life
that he forgot all about home. Naren—as he was
now called—liked to play at meditation. Though
it was play, sometimes it awakened in him deep
spiritual emotions which made him unconscious
of the outer world. One day he lost himself so much
in this mimic meditation in a secluded corner of
the house that his relatives had to force open the
door and shake him to bring him back to normal
consciousness.
Naren had a fascination for wandering
monks. Whenever a sadhu came to the door, Naren
would be delighted and give him anything from
the house as an offering. Naren would also have a
peculiar experience when he would try to go to

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10
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA
sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes there appeared
between his eyebrows a wonderful spot of light of
changing colours, which would expand and burst
and bathe his whole body with a flood of white
radiance. As the mind became preoccupied with
this phenomenon, the body would fall asleep. It
was a regular occurrence with him, and Narendra
Nath thought this phenomenon was natural with
everybody. But it indicated his great spiritual
potentiality.
There was, however, another side of his
character. As a child Narendra Nath was very
naughty, and hard to manage. It needed two nurses
to take care of him. He was of extraordinary
restlessness and at times beyond control. Referring
to this, his mother used to say, ‘I prayed to Shiva for
a son and He has sent me one of His demons.’
He was also a great tease. He would annoy his
sisters and when chased would take refuge in the
open drain, grinning and making faces at them in
safety, for they would not follow him there. The
family cow was one of his playmates, and he had a
number of pet animals and birds, among which
were a monkey, a goat, a peacock, pigeons, and two
or three guinea-pigs. Of the servants the coachman
was his special friend, and one of the ambitions of
his childhood was to become a syce or groom. To
him the syce with his turban and his whip, which

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