His Birth
Swami Vivekananda or Narendra Nath Datta as he was known in his pre-monastic days, was born to Vishwanatha Datta and Bhuvaneshwari Devi in Calcutta on 12th January, 1863. The Datta family was rich, respectable and renowned for charity and learning. Narendranath’s grandfather, Durgacharan Datta, was a great scholar in Sanskrit as well as in Persian. After the birth of his son Vishwanath, he took to Sanyasa and left home.
Vishwanath was lawyer practicing at the Calcutta High Court. He was also a scholarly person. Bhuvaneshwari Devi was a deeply religious lady. She had only daughters; and therefore, asked a relation of hers at Varanasi to make religious offerings to Lord Visveswara praying for the birth of a son to her. Soon thereafter, Siva appeared in her dream and said that He Himself would take birth as her son.
In his early childhood, Naren was given to much fun and frolic and yet had great attraction and inclination for spiritual matters. He was fond of worshipping and meditating on the images of Rama, Sita and Siva etc. The stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata, which his mother told him, left an indelible impression on his young mind. He was a handsome child with leonine majesty and regal bearing; he was also extremely kind-hearted, and used to give away in charity anything that came to his hand whenever the poor and needy came for alms. There was also a spontaneous attraction and reverence in his mind for the wandering monks and holy people. But having a very inquiring mind, he always demanded rational and convincing arguments and answers for every proposition. Thus he showed great qualities of both the head and heart even from childhood.