Swami Shivapadananda on the childhood of Swami Vivekananda
SWAMI SHIVAPADANANDA
DAILY READINGS
Selected from Mother Radha's recordings of Swamiji.
Day 470
The young Swami Vivekananda learned the Mahabharata and the Ramayana on his mother's lap. Is it any wonder that he grew to love the poor and the miserable at that young age? Above all he grew to love the sannyasis. His mother said that he was a very naughty child. She used to exclaim, "I prayed to Lord Shiva to give me a child but he sent one of his demons." He proved her right when one day, at her wits end, she put him under a tap and turned on the water. In desperation, whilst the boy was still screaming, she started repeating "Om Namah Shivaaya, Om Namah Shivaaya, Om Namah Shivaaya" – because that was her Deity – and found to her amazement that he stopped crying. The water was poured on his head, which was the linga personified and Om Namah Shivaaya completed it. That is how she learned the trick. Whenever he was naughty she put him under the tap and repeated Om Namah Shivaaya, Om Namah Shivaaya.
It is a joke to us but every time she repeated Om Namah Shivaaya, Lord Shiva's name penetrated him and awakened the good and divine samskaras in him. Lord Shiva's name manifest itself inside this little child. Even if a mother playfully takes God's name and whacks the child, the child is bound to be transformed, sooner or later. Some mothers say ungodly words when they hit their children; but this mother said Lord Shiva's name.
As the young Swami Vivekananda grew he would take all the best things in the house and give them to the poor people – especially to the sadhus and the sannyasis. Though his mother and father were very charitable, they eventually became fed up. Whenever they saw a sadhu coming along the street they would call the boy and say, "Come here Naren, come inside and see this." Then they would lock the door. It happened many times that when they opened the door they found that the father's new shoes, his hat or his jersey was gone. When they asked him where a particular thing was, he would say, "I put it down there for the sadhus to take home." Well, this was too much for his parents.
There are currently available, over 100 different CDs or DVDs with mp3 files, of Swamiji speaking. Please email timhoare@webmail.co.za to order. Click here for the second website on Swamiji's life and teachings.
Reference websites: Ramakrishna Math & Mission, Ramakrishna Centre of Southern Africa, Sri Ramakrishna Dham