BIOGRAPHY OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA

Divine Nectar!" And long after midnight he and his brother disciples would stillbe sitting on the roof of the monastery building, absorbed in religious songs. Theneighbours protested, but to no avail. Pandits came and argued. He was neverfor one moment idle, never dull.' Yet the brother complained that they could notrealize even a fraction of what Ramakrishna had taught.Some of the householder devotees of the Master, however, did not approve of theausterities of the young men, and one of them teasingly inquired if they hadrealized God by giving up the world. 'What do you mean?' Narendra saidfuriously. 'Suppose we have not realized God; must we then return to the life ofthe senses and deprave our higher nature?'Soon the youth of the Baranagore monastery became restless for the life of thewandering monk with no other possessions except staff and begging-bowl. Thusthey would learn self-surrender to God, detachment, and inner serenity. Theyremembered the Hindu proverb that the monk who constantly moves on,remains pure, like water that flows. They wanted to visit the holy places andthus give an impetus to their spiritual life.Narendra, too, wished to enjoy the peace of solitude. He wanted to test his owninner strength as well as teach others not to depend upon him always. Some ofthe brother disciples had already gone away from the monastery when he beganhis wanderings. The first were in the nature of temporary excursions; he had toreturn to Baranagore in response to the appeal of the inmates of the monastery.But finally in 1890, when he struck out again — without a name and with only astaff and begging-bowl — he was swallowed in the immensity of India and thedust of the vast subcontinent completely engulfed him. When rediscovered by hisbrother monks he was no longer the unknown Naren, but the SwamiVivekananda who had made history in Chicago in 1893.In order to satisfy his wanderlust, Narendra went to Varanasi, considered theholiest place in India — a city sanctified from time out of mind by the associationof monks and devotees. Here have come prophets like Buddha, Sankaracharya,and Chaitanya, to receive, as it were, the commandment of God to preach theirmessages. The Ganga charges the atmosphere with a rare holiness. Narendrafelt uplifted by the spirit of renunciation and devotion that pervades this sacredplace. He visited the temples and paid his respects to such holy men asTrailanga Swami, who lived on the bank of the Ganga constantly absorbed inmeditation, and Swami Bhaskarananda, who annoyed Naren by expressingdoubt as to the possibility of a man's total conquest of the temptation of 'woman'and 'gold.'* With his own eyes Naren had seen the life of Sri Ramakrishna, whohad completely subdued his lower nature.In Varanasi, one day, hotly pursued by a troop of monkeys, he was running away