A BRIEF LIFE OF SWAMI VIVEKANANDA - III

The Wandering Monk A remarkable change of outlook came over Narendrnath between the closing of 1888, when he first left on his temporary excursions, and 1890, when he parted finally from his brethren and traveled 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. 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 he was not the life of an ordinary recluse struggling for personal salvation. Under the influence of his burning desire to know India better and the 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, Vrindaban, Hathras and Rishikesh and then returned to Baranagore for a time. A Hathras, he met Sarat Chandra Gupta who became his firs...