Swami Vivekananda was born on January 12, 1863 in Kolkata, India. His parents were Vishwanath Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi, and they named him as Narendra Nath Dutta.
Naren grew up to become the prime disciple of Ramakrishna Paramhamsa and the founder of Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission. Even today he is world famous for the inspiring talk that he gave representing Hinduism in the World’s Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. His birthday is celebrated as National Youth Day in India.
Vivekananda loved to interact with children and youth. He would tell them many stories to instill values in the youngsters. Here is one such story told by Swami Vivekananda.
Once upon a time in a small village, there lived a boy named Arun who had a very small nose. His father was no more and he had to take care of his mother. He was a hard worker.
But his friends were naughty and they made fun of his nose. Arun felt bad and would complain about them to elders but his friends did not stop.
Slowly, Arun grew up but his friends continued to tease him. His mother became old and passed away, which made Arun very lonely. At that time an old man from the same village asked Arun to get married and start a new life. Arun agreed to get married but felt that beautiful girls would tease him so he said, “I will only marry a girl with a small nose.”
Finally he got married to a girl from nearby village who also had a small nose like Arun. He was vey happy and felt that all his problems would come to an end.
But it became worse; his friends now teased both husband and wife. Arun was annoyed and felt that he should pray to the Lord sincerely as it was He who had given him a small nose.
Owing to his devotion God appeared before him and gave him three boons. Filled with excitement, he ran to his wife to share the message. His first desire was to ask for a beautiful nose but his wife wanted wealth, so she stopped him from asking. But Arun, in a rush, asked the first boon, “We want noses and nothing but beautiful noses”.
Immediately their bodies were covered with noses and both were shocked. Arun was upset and asked for the second boon, “Hey Lord! We do not want these noses, please take them away.“ Now even the small nose vanished, they became nose-less. Finally Arun was totally confused and asked for the third boon, “Please give us back our original noses.”
Learning: Opportunity once lost cannot be recovered. Use the opportunity wisely.
Shalini Kelappan, Doha, Qatar