Swami Vivekananda and Champa tree


Swami Vivekananda, when he was about eight, used to visit a friend regularly. There was a Champa tree in the friend’s house. The young Naren, as Swamiji was called in his younger days, liked the Champa flowers. Whenever he visited his friend, he would make it a point to climb the tree and hang from it upside down. It was a regular routine and he loved to be on the tree. He was barely eight then. One day as he was swinging from the tree, the grandfather of the house saw him. He was afraid that the young boy would fall and hurt himself. Or the tree would be damaged. He asked Naren to come down and not to climb the tree again. The old man told Naren a ghost lived in the tree. But Naren was not the one to frightened by ghosts. It only aroused his curiosity. He wanted to know how a ghost looked like. So as soon the old man went back inside, Naren was up and about the tree, looking for the ghost. His friend, who had heard the exchange, told Naren to get down the tree. The ghost would harm you, he cried out. Naren laughted out: what a silly think to believe. You need not believe whatever you hear. If what the grandfather said was true, my neck would have been broken long ago. But see, I am fine and enjoying climbing the tree.

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