On Swami Vivekananda’s 159th birth anniversary, Sankar’s book reminds us of his love for food

After Sharat Chandra’s initiation, Swamiji had taken a few litchis (a small, sweet, juicy white fruit with a thin, prickly red skin and a large, maroon egg-shaped seed) from him as guru-dakshina. There were some litchis lying in front of Swamiji after Sudhir’s initiation as well. He lovingly put them in his disciple’s hands and said, “Give me guru-dakshina”.

The chilli cannot be called a fruit, but throughout his childhood, Swami Vivekananda had a tremendous attraction for it. He endorsed it at various times and in various ways. While on his travels, he had told his friend Haripada Mitra, “A travelling monk receives all kinds of food from various people and water from all sorts of places. That can harm the health. To counter this unhealthy eating and drinking, many monks become addicted to hemp and other intoxicants. I eat chillies for the same reason.”