Guests at Manmatha Nath's House

Sometime in the middle of 1888 Swami Vivekananda left Calcutta to travel all over India (by foot) as an itinerant monk. But in May 1890 he was forced to return to the Baranagore monastery in Calcutta for various reasons.  After staying at the monastery for two months he started off on a pilgrimage to the Himalayas. This time he was accompanied by one of his brother disciples, Swami Akhandananda. Vivekananda’s intension was to settle down for a long meditation at some place in Garhwal on the banks of the Ganga (Garhwal Himalayas are mountain ranges located in the state of Uttarakhand, India). Before leaving he told his brother disciples, "I shall not return until I acquire such realisation that my very touch will transform a man." After leaving Calcutta, the first place Swami Vivekananda and Swami Akhandananda halted for some days, was Bhagalpur.

At Bhagalpur they were guests at the house of one Manmatha Nath Choudhury. At first Manmatha Nath was under the impression that Swami Vivekananda and Swami Akhandananda were two ordinary ignorant monks. So on the first day after they had their midday meal they were all sitting together but Manmatha Nath did not enter into any conversation with them. Instead he began to read an English translation of a work on Buddhism. After some time Swami Vivekananda asked him what he was reading. Manmatha Nath told him the title of the book and then asked Swami Vivekananda if he knew English. Vivekananda replied, “Yes, a little.” As Manmatha Nath continued conversing with Swami Vivekananda he quickly realized that Vivekananda was thousand times more knowledgeable than him. He also questioned Swami Vivekananda on many abstruse passages from the Upanishads. Vivekananda not only gave illumining replies but was also able to recite from memory long passages from the Upanishads in a very charming manner. Manmatha Nath was astonished at Vivekananda’s learning and his mastery not only of the English language but also of Sanskrit.

Once when Manmatha Nath heard Swami Vivekananda humming a tune to himself, he asked him if he could sing and Vivekananda replied, “very little”.  On being pressed he sang and Manmatha was amazed by Swami Vivekananda’s singing. So the next evening Manmatha invited some singers and expert musician’s to listen to Swami Vivekananda. Thinking that the event would be over latest by nine or ten p.m., Manmatha did not make any dinner arrangement for his guests. But once Swami Vivekananda started to sing he continued singing non stop till almost three o’clock in the morning. All the guests were so enthralled by Vivekananda’s singing that they did not even miss not having dinner. The next evening, all the guests of the previous night, and many others, presented themselves without any invitation. But Vivekananda did not sing that evening and so everyone was disappointed.      

After a brief stay at Bhagalpur, Swami Vivekananda headed towards the Himalayas.