wished to set up a heavy trapeze in the gymnasium, and so asked the help of some
people who were there. Among them was an English sailor. The trapeze fell and
knocked the sailor unconscious, and the crowd, thinking him dead, ran away for fear of
the police. But Naren tore a piece from his cloth, bandaged the sailor's wound, washed
his face with water, and gradually revived him. Then he moved the wounded man to a
neighbouring schoolhouse where he nursed him for a week. When the sailor had
recovered, Naren sent him away with a little purse collected from his friends.
All through this period of boyish play Narendra retained his admiration for the life of
the wandering monk. Pointing to a certain line on the palm of his hand, he would say to
his friends: 'I shall certainly become a sannyasin. A palmist has predicted it.'
As Narendra grew into adolescence, his temperament showed a marked change. He
became keen about intellectual matters, read serious books on history and literature,
devoured newspapers, and attended public meetings. Music was his favourite pastime.
He insisted that it should express a lofty idea and arouse the feelings of the musician.
At the age of fifteen he experienced his first spiritual ecstasy. The family was
journeying to Raipur in the Central Provinces, and part of the trip had to be made in a
bullock cart. On that particular day the air was crisp and clear; the trees and creepers
were covered with green leaves and many-coloured blossoms; birds of brilliant
plumage warbled in the woods. The cart was moving along a narrow pass where the
lofty peaks rising on the two sides almost touched each other. Narendra's eyes spied a
large bee-hive in the cleft of a giant cliff, and suddenly his mind was filled with awe
and reverence for the Divine Providence. He lost outer consciousness and lay thus in
the cart for a long time. Even after returning to the sense-perceived world he radiated
joy.
Another interesting mental phenomenon may be mentioned here; for it was one often
experienced by Narendranath. From boyhood, on first beholding certain people or
places, he would feel that he had known them before; but how long before he could
never remember. One day he and some of his companions were in a room in a friend's
house, where they were discussing various topics. Something was mentioned, and
Narendra felt at once that he had on a previous occasion talked about the same subject
with the selfsame friends in that very house. He even correctly described every nook
and corner of the building, which he had not seen before. He tried at first to explain
this singular phenomenon by the doctrine of reincarnation, thinking that perhaps he had
lived in that house in a previous life. But he dismissed the idea as improbable. Later he
concluded that before his birth he must have had previsions of the people, places, and
events that he was to experience in his present incarnation; that was why, he thought,
he could recognize them as soon as they presented themselves to him.
At Raipur Narendra was encouraged by his father to meet notable scholars and discuss
with them various intellectual topics usually considered too abstruse for boys of his
age. On such occasions he exhibited great mental power. From his father, Narendra
had learnt the art of grasping the essentials of things, seeing truth from the widest and
most comprehensive standpoints, and holding to the real issue under discussion.