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Dr. Hedgewar was a born patriot. The traits of patriotism

were manifest in him right from childhood, whether it pertained
to throwing of the sweets or bunking school after calling aloud
‘Vande Mataram’. Vivekananda, right from childhood, too was
ever ready to discover something, to do something for mankind.
Vivekananda, in the year 1878, when only fifteen years of age,
went to Keshavchandra Sen and initiated himself in the service
of the society through the Brahma Samaj.

Both Vivekananda and Doctor Saheb, right since childhood,
set themselves on the path to achieve the ultimate goal without
wavering. Vivekananda kept visiting the religious scholars,
teachers, social reformers and workers, saints and seers, in order
to discover the truth. Doctor Saheb too treaded different paths
in order to do something for the country’s independence – he
visited Tilakji at one time and revolutionaries at another,
Subhash at one time and Aurobindo at another. Doctor Saheb
was at his heels in order to discover the truth and arrive at the
outcome.

The family circumstances of both these personalities were
pitiable. Narendranath’s mother pushed him out to beg
something from Goddess Kali. She hoped that he would get
some employment. Despite his poor condition, Vivekananda
never felt any attraction for all this. Something of the sort was
the case with Doctor Saheb too. He was passing through a
situation when there was nothing in the house even to serve a
cup of tea to the guests or other great people visiting the house.
But such ordinary worldly obstacles could not waver both these
great people from their chosen paths.

Right from the beginning, Vivekananda possessed an
ardent desire to know the Supreme Being and the world in its
basic form. Therefore, he trained his attitude and aptitude in
that direction. However, in the final fifteen years of his life, his
purpose in life was transformed. The desire for individual
Moksha (emancipation) had been destroyed, now he was no
more bent upon meeting God. He perceived that the service to
the poor and the suffering was his goal of life, and he set himself
on that path. The initial period of Doctor Saheb’s life was filled
with the ardent desire to get the nation freed. He was inclined