##14 (Vivekananda) Tragedy At Home Poem by Rajaram Ramachandran

In 1884, Narendra’s preparation
Was on for his B.A. Examination,
By then Viswanath, his father died,
Throwing them financially bad.

Difficulties, one by one, came.
All creditors were after them.
For property, relatives fought,
Filing a lawsuit in the court.

His family had lost the case
And it made them penniless.
For days, he was left in lurch,
While for a job, he was in search.

To feed eight mouths at home,
He skipped his meals sometime.
He remained then in starvation
But it earned him self-satisfaction.

At times, he felt frustrated,
Saying, “Is there any God
To whom I’ve prayed
Daily from my childhood? ”

With his Guru also, he argued,
“Now I find, there’s no God,
Even if you say, He’s there,
He’ll answer our prayers never.”

“For fear of their going to hell,
Cowards only trust Him well.
For brave ones, He cares never,
Nor He truly exists anywhere.”

His friends were taken aback
With this kind of his talk
The most irreligious one,
That came out of frustration.

His Guru, however, said,
“His heart believes God.
This present testing period
By itself, one day, it’ll end.”

That one day came
At a crucial time,
When he was alone
With no food since morn.

Quite exhausted he sat
At the porch of a flat,
And began to sort out
The events of the past.

What all the glorious visions,
He saw during his meditations,
They flashed back in his mind,
In which peace again he found.

This gave him a conclusion,
He was born with a mission,
Not for enjoying worldly life,
But for following a spiritual life.

That was the day of importance,
When he decided to renounce
The material world once for all,
And go in the path more spiritual.