Swami Vivekananda exhorted, ‘The abstract Advaita must become living—poetic—in everyday life; out of hopelessly intricate mythology must come concrete moral forms; and out of bewildering Yogi-ism must come the most scientific and practical psychology—and all this must be put in a form so that a child may grasp it.’
Deriving inspiration from Swamiji’s words, Swami Vimurtananda, had taken efforts to weave the eternal values into wonderful stories so that anyone would be able to imbibe them and enrich their personal and social lives.
The valuable teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, Holy Mother Sri Sarada Devi, and Swami Vivekananda which are most relevant to the modern age are embodied in these short stories endowed with literary grace, cultural enrichment and spiritual wisdom, inspiring our hearts and instructing our minds.
As a flute, my inherent nature is to transform the air that is blown through me into melodious music. With that, I would merge myself into the Divine! The Lord’s devotees, therefore, believe that it is this noble nature of mine, which has endeared Lord Krishna to me, His humble servant, and that is why He constantly adores me on His holy lips!
I have seen a great person who possessed my above-mentioned characteristics and now I have come to tell you about his life!
The world generally adores and endorses him as a wise man, a philosopher par excellence, an exceptional Vedantist, a sage, a yogi, a patriotic national leader, a protector of the Hindu Dharma, a universal mystic, a source of inspiration to the youth, and especially, an ideal monk.
But very few know that he was also an ardent devotee of my Lord Krishna!
From my vivid description, by now you would have guessed whom I am referring to. He is none other than the great Swami Vivekananda.
Wherever he went, the Gods adored him; would have their divine power flow through him.
He sat inside the caves of Amaranth, wearing only a loin cloth, contemplating on Lord Siva. At Kanyakumari, he sat in meditation on a rock surrounded by the raging waves of the sea contemplating on Mother India, with his prayers to the Divine Mother of the Universe. When he spoke about Jesus Christ, people felt that Jesus himself was sermonising and exhorting them through him!
One incident about his childhood appeals to me the most. For many days at a stretch, he was immersed in meditation on Lord Krishna. Then, with the blessings and grace of his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna, he had the vision of Sri Radha.
He tells us how soft Sri Radha was, in his own inimitable poetic style, ‘O Radhe, your fingers are so soft that they may get bruised when they come into contact with the foam which is formed on the milk when you milk the cows. But then, O Mother, your heart is softer than even those fingers!’
I came to know that Swami Vivekananda, who excelled in his devotion and erudition, was coming to Vrindavan. My Lord and constant Companion, the Eternal Flutist Himself, informed me of this!
My Lord Sri Krishna said, ‘O my dear flute, you might have seen millions and millions of devotees who shed tears for me. But you are soon going to see a man who not only sheds his tears but also his sweat for the progress and emancipation of the people of his motherland, who are all truly the pinnacle of my creations! Come and meet such a devotee, see him and show him to the world!’
Such a noble one was coming to Vrindavan as a pilgrim, and I was assigned the holy duty of proclaiming him to the world.
Some inhabitants here expected him to charm the people of Vrindavan with his erudition, wisdom and yogic practices. But he was seen wandering barefoot on the sacred earth of Vrindavan, apparently as a mere vagabond, chanting the Lord’s name, enjoying and relishing his sacred experiences as a simple devotee.
When Krishna was in Gokul, it seems He used to walk around barefoot, like the Gopalas and Gopikas who walked barefooted, unable to afford the footwear. As Krishna, the God ingrained in the heart of the inhabitants of Gokul, did then, perhaps Vivekananda, who was so dear to the heart of the poor and the deprived of India, too was doing the same that day.
Meditating, praying and singing devotional songs in the temples, circumambulating the sacred hills, accepting Bhiksha for his food, sleeping in the charity homes for the pilgrims, bathing in the gushing waters of the Yamuna river and doing his daily prayers on her banks, singing the songs of Saint Surdas and Saint Meera, with tears rolling down in his eyes, Vivekananda was seen enjoying immensely his stay at Vrindavan!
Was it the same Vivekananda who was going to mesmerise the whole world in a couple of years with his message of Divine wisdom wandering there? How true is the saying, ‘The great are always modest.’!
One bright day in Vrindavan, Vivekananda asked himself, ‘Am I merely harbouring faith in Krishna, or am I deeply and completely dependent on Him with an attitude of total surrender?’
That was the hour of introspection for him! Then he took a vow and told himself, ‘I shall walk around the Govardhan hill today and would not seek any food from anyone. If at all I get any food to eat, that will be Krishna’s blessing and grace, and if I don’t, I will not eat.’
It was a test which he often inflicted upon himself!
Hearing this, my musical mood and melodious disposition were shattered. The naughty Krishna too began to ‘play’ with him. He never gave him any food for two long days! The vow which Swamiji had made in the afternoon of the first day continued till the evening of the second day.
The resolve of Swamiji was firm like steel! And there, the mischievous twinkle in the eyes of the eternal prankster Krishna was ringing warning-bells in me! I remained a mute witness to His eternal leela.
Outside it was raining heavily; inside was his intense hunger. Even in that incessant rain, Vivekananda was walking briskly, with his head held high, as though nothing would deter him!
It was then that I witnessed the miracle of my Krishna, who converted the rain from the heavens into a rain of His profuse ‘grace’ showering on Swamiji and immersing him.
Yes, there came a devotee with freshly cooked and hot food in a container. He chased behind Swamiji calling out to him to stop. But Vivekananda thought that his mind and the raging hunger in his stomach were playing tricks on him and did not stop his stride.
The man put his steps fast, calling ‘Maharaj, please stop…’ Finally catching hold of Swamiji, he said, ‘I have brought this food just for you. Please, graciously accept it and bless me!’
Swamiji stopped and heaved a sigh. He did not see the food or the man who brought the food, he saw only the hidden divine hands which were being stretched to embrace him! The only words that his lips uttered were, ‘Jai Radhe! Jai Radhe Krishna!’
When I heard those words of ‘Sharanaagata Sangeet’ emanating from the lips of Swamiji, I was thrilled to no end and was reminded of the ecstatic devotion of the Nayanmars and the Alwars of yore!
I followed him quietly, quite eager and fascinated, as I was keen not to miss any more of the ‘leelas’ which my ‘little naughty Master’ might have lined up for Swamiji!
Another day, Vivekananda went to take his bath at the Radhakund pond. There was no one else around. So he washed and spread his only loin cloth on the steps for drying. He went back to have his dip in the pond and felt refreshed and happy like a child on the lap of his mother! He wanted to get out of the water and looked for the loin-cloth which he had put up for drying. But it was nowhere to be seen! Where was it? He looked all around. Then he looked up the tree!
Every living being which lives in Vrindavan wishes to somehow associate itself with Krishna. A monkey which was sitting on a nearby tree had seen Swamiji getting into the water after spreading his loin-cloth. As a natural sequel, a thought came into the mind of the monkey, ‘Krishna and I are the same. As Krishna stole the dresses of the Gopikas when they were bathing in the Yamuna, let me also take away the loin-cloth of this holy man!’
Ruing upon his predicament, Swamiji entreated to Radha Rani, ‘O Mother, without clothes I cannot enter the city, let me go to the forest. Let hunger and starvation shatter this body.’
He stepped out of the pond and walked swiftly towards the forest, with only the four directions as his clothing.
Would my ‘Madhav’, who immediately came to save the honour of Draupadi who called out to Him for help when she was about to be disrobed, allow this wandering sannyasi to any dire fate? How could my Lord, who is an epitome of Kaarunya and Vaatsalya, leave Swamiji in the lurch?
A man ran towards him and said, ‘Swamiji, please wear these new ochre clothes.’
Swamiji was overwhelmed! Here too he did not see the messenger or the object which the messenger had brought, but realised that it was the ‘Bountiful Grace’ of the Lord which had manifested to protect him! His eyes became moist!
Were those tiny droplets of tears which gushed out from his eyes the pure and sacred water droplets of the perennial Yamuna? He did not know. His only feeling at that time was that he felt immersed in the limitless ‘Love’ of the Lord!
Later, when Swamiji passed by the Radhakunta pond, he found his loin cloth at the same place, where he had left it!
I was not just touched by this episode, but felt very hollow and humble within myself, as I always do! I have seen and heard that only Lord Vittal’s devotees of Maharashtra have exhibited such deep and uninhibited devotion. I have experienced this type of overflowing ‘Bhakti rasa’ on the streets leading to Pandharpur, where my dear ‘Panduranga Vittala’ resides in all His grandeur and glory!
More than nurturing devotion within oneself, is it not a greater accomplishment to be able to encourage devotion within others? Those who have progressed lineally in devotion somehow seem to falter and stumble when it came to depth. The idea that it was enough to show devotion only in the precincts of a temple and that it would suffice to perform a few religious rituals to appease the Lord once in a while, actually arrest the spiritual growth of a person. There seems to be no scope for any compromise here!
Even though I have witnessed all these and similar deviations in spiritual practice, for many centuries past, I generally ignore these and continue to sing on the glory of Sri Krishna according to my nature.
But how can Swami Vivekananda, ignore this and turn away? After all, had not this dearest disciple of the great Ramakrishna Paramahamsa come here to shatter all the pretensions and half-hearted practices of his brothers and sisters of his motherland?
Was he not the messiah who once exhorted, ‘Keep aside for the present the Vrindavan aspect of Sri Krishna and spread far and wide the worship of Sri Krishna teaching the Gita with the voice of a lion, and bring into daily practice the worship of Shakti, the Divine Mother.’ (Cf. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 5).
I am merely the voice of the divine flute, but Swamiji is the perennial voice of spirituality.
It is a common complaint and a popular opinion of the seekers of God that those who have sown the seed have not cooked, those who have cooked have not tasted and those who have tasted have not kept anything aside for the others! Swami Vivekananda is the only knower of God who has negated this grievance.
Swamiji went to Jaipur. The commander of the Army of that State was Hari Singh, who was a staunch Vedantin. He believed that God did not have a form. He used to often argue with Swamiji who advocated, as his master Sri Ramakrishna himself did, that God is both with attributes and without attributes.
At that time, a group of devotees were going on a procession, singing devotional songs and carrying the idol of the elusive ‘Krishna’ on a palanquin.
Swamiji looked at the devotion of those devotees. He looked at the image of the Lord. I realised that he was pleading and praying to the Lord in his mind, ‘O Bhagavan, may an iota of Your divine grace fall on this Hari Singh, who hesitates even to acknowledge Your existence.’
After praying thus, he patted the back of Hari Singh and said, ‘Look at that sight of Krishna, standing there in all his divine splendour....’
What Hari Singh felt was not merely a physical touch of Swamiji. He felt a divine presence....it was as though he received ‘Sparsha Diksha’ from him.
Hari Singh was bestowed with the vision of Krishna at that instant and he cried out, ‘Jai Radhe Krishna’, shedding tears of joy! What could not be imparted through intellectual discussion was achieved through devotion by Swamiji.
Thus he extolled the glory of Lord Krishna, like a Meera, like a Periyaalwar, and like an ardent companion of His, wherever he went. Although he left the Indian
sub-continent and went across to other continents in the West, his ‘Krishna Bhakti’ never left him!
Once in the Western world, Swami Vivekananda was delivering a lecture, with tearful eyes, on the glorious ‘leelas’ and exploits of Krishna and the soul stirring message of Gita, the universal scripture for mankind.
An American young lady, who was listening to the discourse, gave up all her worldly possessions and took up serious spiritual practices from that very instant! She renounced everything, went into seclusion, verily like a ‘Gopika’, and spent the rest of her life in meditation and divine contemplation!
She must have realised the truth behind the eternal words of Nammaalwar, the renowned Tamil saint, who proclaimed, ‘Minnin nilayila mannuyir aakkai’, meaning, ‘The physical attributes of a person and his possessions on the earth are as impermanent and ephemeral as the flash of a lightning in the sky.’
My dear devotees, the world knows only a very few such incidents about the ‘Krishna Bhakti’ of Swami Vivekananda. But there must be innumerable such incidents, unknown to us, but known to the all-knowing Lord of the Universe, who is reputed to be the antaryaami! As a humble and obedient ‘flute’ of the Lord, whatever my Krishna has ordained me to sing here, I have rendered meticulously, melodiously!
Sarvam Krishnarpanamastu!
Swami Vimurtananda
15 July, 2021
Ramakrishna Math, Thanjavur