Facts about Swami Vivekananda you probably don’t know

Swami Vivekananda's birthday or National Youth Day is around the corner and it is time to remember him.

Among all young generation monks in the world, the name of Swami Vivekananda flashes bright and clear. He was one of the most influential monks of all times. One of the amazing gifts that he has given us is that he believed in us.

Swami Vivekananda should always be remembered for his inspiration to the mankind. Swami, without a doubt, is the greatest source of achievement, pride and inspiration.

Vivekananda spread the words of humanity and brotherhood among all men and women and called for global integrity through spiritual upliftment.

National Youth Day is celebrated on 12 January every year on the birthday of Swami Vivekananda.

On his 155th birth anniversary, we remember some inspiring things on Swami Vivekananda:

• Swami Vivekananda's pre-monastic name was Narendra Nath Datta. He was born with a temperament of yogis and used to meditate at a very early age.
• He was born in a financially well-off family. His father, Vishwanath Datta was an attorney who excelled in his career. His mother's name was Bhuvaneshwari Devi.
• When it came to academics, Narendra Nath Datta wasn't great at scoring marks. He took three university examinations - the entrance examination, the First Arts Standard (FA, which later became Intermediate Arts or IA) and the Bachelor of Arts (BA). His scores in the English language were 47 per cent at the entrance level, 46 per cent in FA and 56 per cent in BA.
  
• Swami Vivekananda's father died suddenly when he was young. This broke the financial backbone of his family and the whole family was pushed into poverty.
• At this time, Swamiji would often lie about having lunch invitations so that his family members get to eat a larger share. In his words, "On such days, I had very little to eat, sometimes nothing at all. I was too proud to tell anyone..."
• Before being initiated as a monk, Narendranath had sought divine influence from many sectors. He met Debendranath Tagore, founder of the Brahmo Samaj and father of Rabindranath Tagore, in 1880. When he asked Tagore if he had seen God, Tagore replied, " My boy, you have the Yogi's eyes"
• No one could help Narendranath with his question about God. Until he met Ramakrishna Paramahansa in 1881. When he asked the same question to Ramakrishna, the latter replied, " Yes, I see Him as I see you, only in an infinitely intenser sense." This was a far more satisfactory answer to Narendranath
• Vivekananda was the man who took the Vedanta philosophy to the West and reformed Hinduism drastically.
• Vivekananda had as many as 31 ailments. Liver and kidney damage, insomnia, migraine, asthma, diabetes are to name a few. He observed and inflicted immense pain on his human body and neglected it throughout his life. During his last few days, he said his disciples to learn from his experience. Always pay attention to the human body and to stay fit.
• He used to borrow books from the library in large volume and used to return them the next day.this trend continued for a number of days.The librarian doubted whether Swamiji really read them or not.
• Swamiji loved Khichdi and it was regularly served in his monastery.
• Swamiji had always said that he will not live until 40 years of age and died at 39.

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