1) Swami was known for his intellect but he scored only 56% in Bachelor of Arts exam.
2) Swami's Sister Jogendra Bala had committed suicide.
3) Vivekananda was a connoisseur of tea. In those days, when the Hindu pandits were opposed to drinking tea, he introduced tea into his monastery.
4) Ramakrishna Paramahansa was the guru of Swami Vivekananda. During the initial days of learning with his teacher, Vivekananda never completely trusted him. He kept on testing Ramakrishna for everything that he said until he finally got all his answers.
5) According to the book ‘The Monk as Man' by renowned Bengali writer Shankar, Swami Vivekananda suffered from 31 ailments. The books lists insomnia, liver and kidney disease, malaria, migraine, diabetes and heart ailments as some of the 31 health problems that Vivekanand faced in the course of his life. He even suffered from asthma which got unbearable many times.
6) Though Vivekananda used to respect and worship women, entry for them was strictly prohibited in his monastery. Once when Swamiji was ill his disciples fetched his mother. Seeing his mother he shouted, “Why did you allow a woman to come in? I was the one who made the rule and it is for me that the rule is being broken.”
7) After his father’s death, his family had to struggle to get a meal a day. Swamiji often used to move out of the house so that other members had enough. After the death of his paternal uncle Taraknath, his wife Gyanadasundari ousted Vivekananda’s family from their ancestral house and filed a suit in the court. Vivekananda fought the litigation suits for 14 years and on the last Saturday of his life on 28 June 1902 he decided to put an end to the court case after paying some financial compensation.
8) Swamiji used to borrow books from library and return it the next day. The librarian doubted whether he really read the books or not. So the librarian tested him by asking questions from random page of the books. Swamiji answered them correctly and also quoted lines from the same page.
9) Vivekananda’s tireless service took a toll to his physical body. His words of wisdom to his disciples were “Learn from my experiences. Don’t be so hard on your body and ruin your health. I have harmed mine. I have tortured it severely, and what has been the result? My body has become ruined during the best years of my life! And I am still paying for it.”
10) Swami Vivekananda predicted that he would not live beyond 40 years. He died on July 4, 1902 at the age of 39 years.
