Swami Vivekananda at Kolkata - The Burning fire

On another occasion Sri Ramakrishna said of Swamiji: He is a burning, roaring fire consuming all impurities to ashes.2 ❊ ❊ ❊ Monday, January 4, 1886 Narendra: I went to my study at my grandmother’s. As I tried to read I was seized with a great fear, as if studying were a terrible thing. My heart struggled within me. I burst into tears: I never wept so bitterly in my life. I left my books and ran away. I ran along the streets. My shoes slipped from my feet—I didn’t know where. I ran past a haystack and got hay all over me. I kept on running along the road to Cossipore. Narendra remained silent a few minutes and then resumed. Narendra: Since reading the Vivekachudamani I have felt very much depressed. In it Sankaracharya says that only through great tapasya and good fortune does one acquire these three things: a human birth, the desire for liberation, and refuge with a great soul. I said to myself: “I have surely gained all these three. As a result of great tapasya I have been born a human being; through great tapasya, again, I have the desire for liberation; and through great tapasya I have secured the companionship of such a great soul.” M: Ah! Narendra: I have no more taste for the world. I do not relish the company of those who live in the world—of course, with the exception of one or two devotees. Narendra became silent again. A fire of intense renunciation was burning within him. His soul was restless for the vision of God. . . . M. said to himself: Sri Ramakrishna said that one must pant and pine for God; only then may one have the vision of him. (GSR, 936)