A BREIF LIFE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA (part 3)

 

The wandering Monk

A remarkable change of outlook came over Narendranath between closing of 1888, when the first left on his temporary excursions, and 1890, when he parted finally form his brethren and travelled alone as an unknown mendicant. He began to assume various names in order to conceal his identity so that he might be swallowed up in the immensity of India.

''The monk who shaped India''
Swami Vivekananda

Now it was that the natural desire of an Indian monk for a life of solitude gave way to the prescience that he was to fulfill a great destiny; that his was not the life of an ordinary recluse struggling for personal salvation. Under the influence of his burning desire to know India better and mute appeal rising all around him from oppressed India, he went first to Varanasi, the holiest city of Hindus. After Varanasi, he visited Lucknow, Agra, Hathras and Rishikesh and the returned to Baranagore for a time. At Hathras, he met Sarat Chandra Gupta who became his first disciple (Swami Sadananda). He revealed to him the mission entrusted to him by his master, namely, the spiritual regeneration of India and the world. Sarat, who was on the staff of the railway station at Hathras, resigned his post and followed his guru to help him in his mission.

Pavhari Baba

An important event in the swami’s life at this time occurred in 1890, when he met Pavhari Baba of Gazipur, for whose saintliness he had the greatest admiration throughout his life. At this time, he was torn between the desire, on the one hand, to become absorbed in the eternal silence of the absolute and, on the outer, the desire to fulfill his master’s mission. He hoped that Pavhari Baba would appease the remorse gnawing at his heart, which was due to the fact that fervor for the highest absorption in the divine drew him away from the work entrusted to him by his master. For twenty-one days, Naren was on the point of yielding to this temptation, but the vision of Sri Ramakrishna always came to draw him back.

In July 1890, the Swami took leave of Sri Sarada Devi, the holy consort of Sri Ramakrishna, who was the spiritual guide of the young monks after the master’s passing away. He also tool leave of his brother monks, with the firm resolve to cut himself free from all ties and to go into the solitude of the Himalayas, for he felt it essential to be alone. In the words of Romain Rolland:’ this was the great departure. Like a diver, he plunged into the ocean of India and the ocean of India covered his tracks. Among its flotsam and jetsam, he was nothing more than one nameless sannyasin in saffron robe among a thousand others. But the fire not genius burned in his eyes. He was a prince despite all disguise’.

His wandering took him to various places of pilgrimage and historical interest in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mysore, Kerala, Madras, and Hyderabad. Everywhere the glory of ancient India vividly came before his eyes, whether political, cultural, or spiritual. In the midst of this Indian masses stood out before his mind. He moved from one princely state to another, everywhere to explore avenues of mitigating their lot. Thus he came to meet many leading personalities and rulers of the princely states. 

Maharaja Ajit Singh

Among, them Maharaja Ajit Singh of Khetri Alwar, he studied the Mahabhashya of Patanjali. At Poona, he stayed with BalGangadhar Tilak, the great national leader. At first, Tilak talked with the Swami somewhat ironically, but later his depth of learning and profoundly of thought impressed him, and he invited the Swami to stay with him. From there, after a stay at Belgaum, he went to Bangalore and Mysore. The Maharaja of Mysore gave him the assurance of financial support to enable him to go to the west to seek help for India and to preach the eternal religion. From Mysore He visited Trivandrum and Kanyakumari.

           Wherever he went, it was not the important places and people that impressed him most. It was the terrible poverty and misery of the masses that caused his soul to burn in agony. He had travelled through the whole of India, often on foot, for nearly three years, coming to know the country at first hand. Now he had reached the end of his journey, as it were. He prostrated himself with great feeling before the image of Mother Kumari at the Kanyakumari temple. Then he swam across the sea to a rock off the south coast, and sitting there for the whole night went into deep meditation. The vast panorama of his experiences during his travels passed before his mind’s eye. He meditated on the past, present, and the future of India, the causes of her downfall, and the means of her resurrection. He then took the momentous decision to go to the west to seek help for the poor of India and thus give shape to his life’s mission.

Swami Vivekananda memorial in Kanyakumari

    With the decision, he journeyed to Rameswaram and Madurai. He then went on to madras, where a group of young men, headed by Alasinga Perumal, were eagerly awaiting his arrival. To them, he revealed his intention of visiting America to attend the Parliament of Religions that was being convened to Chicago. His young disciples forth with raised a subscription for his passage. But the Swami was not yet certain that it was the Divine mother’s will that he should go, and so he asked them to give away the money to the poor. At this juncture, the swami had a symbolic dream in which Sri Ramakrishna walked out into sea and beckoned him to follow. This, coupled with the blessing and permission of Sri Sarada Devi, who also, in a dream, had received Sri Ramakrishna’s consent, settled the question for him, and his young friends again set about collecting the necessary funds.

          He next paid a short visit to Hyderabad. Then, while arrangements were being made for his journey to America. There came a sudden invitation from Maharaja of Khetri to attend celebrations in connection with the birth of his son. The Swami could not refuse this invitation from his disciple. The Maharaja received him cordially and promised to help him suggestion, that the Swami assumed the name “Vivekananda”. True to his word, the Maharaja sent his personal secretary with Swami to equip him for the journey and see him off at Bombay. His journey to America commenced on 31^st May 1893.